1. THAT the Earth is not the solidest of the Planets, may well be inferred from its nearness to the Sun. And therefore we see Mars a less Planet by much, advanced above the Earth, upon the account of his solidity. And for the same reason, he may be of such a rutilant or • iery colour as he is; which Complexion (among the Hebrews) gives him the name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the red Planet. But though that degree of Proximity, which the Earth holds to the Sun, shows her to be of a looser substance, of a more porous, and less solid nature; yet it cannot presently be improved into an Argument, of her having a great quantity of Fire at her Center. This the Theorist admits of as a thing Page 64. very reasonable; that there is a Fire at the Center of the Earth, as there is a Yolk in the middle of an Egg. But how can it be so reasonable according to his Hypothesis? For, according to that, the Earth was formed out of a Chaos, as we have heard. And that Chaos was nothing but a fluid Mass consisting of earthly Principles, as is intimated in these words, By the Chaos I understand the matter of the Earth and Heavens, without form or order; reduced into a fluid Mass, wherein are the materials and ingredients of all Bodies.—Suppose then the Elements, Air, Water, and Earth, which are the principles of all terrestrial Bodies, mingled without any order, &c. Now when the Chaos was a confused Mass, in its principles so wholly terrestrial, and in its constitution so wholly fluid; it is so far from being very reasonble, to allow a Fire at the Center of it, (and if there were not a Fire at the Center of that, how could there be one at the Center of the Earth?) that it would rather be very absurd to do it.

For so, in the First place, very contrary and discordant natures, must have been tied to dwell together in the closest cohabitation, or a perfect contiguity. In which state of conjunction or immediate vicinity; how could they have subsisted, without preying upon, and destroying one another? Either the Fire would have dissipated the ambient fluid Bodies that were near it; or else those fluid humid Bodies, would have suffocated and extinguish'd the Fire they inclosed. Or if they could have dwelt together peaceably for a while, and not have invaded one another. Yet.

Secondly, When the Chaos began to separate, and the grossest parts of it to sink down, those that subsided first (it being a fluid Mass) must have met at the very Center of it, and the rest as they followed, would have gathered close about them; and so constituting a central Globe of Earth, solid throughout, would have left no hollow space within it, for a receptacle of Fire.

Or Lastly, If there had been room left for Fire at the Center of the chaos, yet how should Fire have conveyed it self into that place of reception, or by any means have come to dwell there?

2. To make this out, it was necessary that the Beginning of the Chaos, or the way of its entring into the World, should have been declared by the Theory. But it is not done: which seems to be a king of flaw in the Hypothesis. It takes no notice of the cause of its Origin, nor of the manner of its Production; whereby this difficulty might have been prevented or cleared up. And truly the way or manner of its rise or emergency into being, is necessary to be known for the explaining of other difficulties, as well as this. For upon it depends the solution of several Phaenomena's, and very material ones. I name but one, The Magnetism of the Earth, as to the influence it has upon the Index nauticus, or Needle of the Mariner's. Compass; the pointing or Direction of which, is not so curious and surprizing; but it is a useful in the affairs of human Life. But then if the Theorist, (by setting his Chaos, which came from we know not whence, in the room of an Earth of a Planetary Origin, sunk down from its lucid or Sidereous state) takes away the supposed causes of this notable effect; it will be incumbent on him to assign others, from whence it may be derived.

In case it be objected, that the Phaenom • non alledged is not satisfactorily accounted for in the Cartesian way neither; forasmuch as it stumbles in the formation of the Striate Particles, the main instrument of the work; and that Des-Cartes himself dares not trust his own Hypothesis, but professes the Earth to have been otherwise produced than that determines (as shall be noted by and by) then I answer: As this is really nothing to us, so it will not excuse the Theorist in the least, from clearing up the thing, according to those measures he hath taken by himself. It only shows, that the French Philosophy (of so great fame) is too short to fathom the deeps of Nature, and by no means quick-sighted enough to see to the bottom of her profound Mysteries. Though that Philosophy may grow up apace, to so happy a perfection, as to be able to make a more full discovery of such secrets; must needs be the desire of wife and good Men.

And so we return to the Enquiry we were upon, viz. How Fire should come to the Center of the Earth. Which is a Problem the more intricate and perplexed, in regard The Theory takes no notice of the beginning of the Chaos. It tells indeed that there was a Chaos, and what kind of one it was; but it gives no manner of account how it came into Being. As to that the Reader is left at a loss, and has nothing to guide him but his own Conjectures. I shall guess therefore as fairly at the thing as I can; And to me it seems probable, that this Chaos should be produced one of these Two ways; either by Creation, or by Des-Cartes his way for generating Planets. Thought it will not be over easie to make out, That it came into existence by either of them.

3. For first, to affirm that it dropt directly out of the hand of Omnipotence, in way of Creation; is more than we find warranted. Yea, we are taught something, and that from Heaven, which is very different from it; Namely, ThatGen. 1. 1. in the beginning GOD created the EARTH. And if it was and Earth that he created in the beginning, it could not be a Chaos; I mean Such a Chaos as the Theory makes it: for that was no Earth, nor had it any specific or distinct Earth in it, as beingTheor. pag. 44. without distinction of Elements. It is said indeed, Gen. 1. 2. That the Earth was, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 desolation and emptiness. Inanis & vacua, as the Vulgar, doubly void. That is, of its designed order and comeliness, which were to beautifie it: and of all those creatures which were to furnish it, and dwell in it. And therefore, says the Targum of Ierusalem, it was empty 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Children of Men; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and void of every brute. And the Prophet describing a most fearful destruction to come upon his People by Wars; through which their fruitful Land was to become a Wilderness, and Men and Birds were to be driven away: tells us in the very Words of Moses, That the Earth was,Jer. 4. 23. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 desolation and emptiness. And in this sense I confess, the Earth (in its original imperfection and nakedness) was a Chaos: an incultivate and uninhabited lump, rude and confused beyond all imagination, as having neither good from nor furniture in it. But then at the same time it was an Earth too; and so not such a Chaos as the Theory speaks it. I might also note (would that be of weight) that the Praefix, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Genesis 1. 1.) is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 notificationis, ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) scientific or demonstrative: and so it points at this Earth, and intimates it was this very same Earth at first, that it is now. The same as to substance and nature, though not as to condition and ornaments. And this Earth, in the state of its primitive disorder and destitution, being the true Mosaic Chaos, created in the beginning; we have no grounds to belive, that any other besides it was ever brought forth in way of creation. But we have good grounds to believe that no other was so produced; inasmuch as to assert it, would be to set up Phantasie against Moses's authority; and to bring presumptuous concei • , into competition with Scripture.

But grant the Chaos to have been such as it is supposed to be, and that it entred into the World at the door of Creation: Yet here will be nothing to make it reasonable, very reasonable to admit Fire at its Center. For if there was a central Fire in it, it must either be placed there supernaturally, by the immediate power of the ALMIGHTY; and we have no reason to admit it upon that score, because we are no where informed of it. Or else it must be generated there in a Natural way: and to admit that, would be against reason too. For how could a vast quantity of Flame, be bred in the Bowels of an Earthy Mass, consisting of the Principles of all terrestrial Bodies. And whoever shall peruse the first half of the Fifth Chapter of the English Theory, will soon be satisfied that the Chaos could consist of noThe Schemes of the Ch • os show it terrestrial throughout. Theor. pag. 54, 55, 56, 57. The E • rth also formed out of it, is represented without Fire at the Cen • er, pag. 58. other but terrestrial Principles. For there it appears that it was resolved into nothing but Earth, Air, Water, and an unctious substance; and so could be made up of nothing else. But Fire is quite another thing; and as different from those Elements, as motion is from rest; or the most Celestial, from the most Terrestrial Matter; and so in a course of Nature could not possibly issue from them, and settle it self in the midst of them.

4. We will pass therefore to the Second Conjecture; whither indeed the Notion of central Fire in the Earth, does most directly lead us: and that is Des-Cartes's Method, by which he supposeth Planets to be formed. And according to that the Earth was one of those fourteen, or fifteen Stars, which once shined gloriously in their respective Heavens hereabouts. But being all overgrown and incrusted with Maculaes, except one, and losing their native strength and light; were swallowed up by the Vortex of the surviving Luminary the Sun: and so move round about him as so many Satellites or Waiters of his, to this day. Though some of these Planets also, that is, Secundary ones, are at the same time carried about others of them. As the Moon, about the Earth; the four Medicean ones, about Iupiter; and Saturn's three Asseclae or Pages (according to Cassinus.) about him.

And here there may seem to be a plausible account given, of the declared Central constitution of the Earth, or of a Region of Fire at the heart of it. For it having been all Flame heretofore; till it was overspread with Maculaes (boiled out of it self, and gendred first into a kind of foam or scum; and afterwards into an harder substance) it could not but retain much fiery matter in its Central Parts. And thus this Fire would be sufficiently protected too, against dissipation and danger of Extinction, from the moist and lumpish Chaos which surrounded it, and at the time of its separation would have lain heavy upon it. For its Coat of Maculaes worn next it, being nealed by furious heat, and made into a strong arched Vault; there the inclosed Element might have been secure (as in a mighty Granado-shell) never to be annoyed by any manner of violence.

But neither by this way, as quaint as it is, could the Chaos step forth into being. For though it be a spruce and gay invention; a contrivance rerely ingenious, and prettily coherent; and withal so laudably instrumental to the trim solution of sundry difficulties, that some are ready to think 'tis pity but it should be real: yet the very first dash of Moses's Pen, gives the Philosophic Bubble such a shrewd prick, as flals it into Vanity and Romance. In the beginning GOD created the Heaven and the Earth. So that famous Man told an illiterate People, as a faithful Secretary of the MOST HIGH; with intention fully to instruct them as to the Origin of the World, so far as comported with his Majestick Office and brevity. And if GOD in the beginning, at the very first, created the Earth, and created it an Earth; how could it before that, be a Chaos, such a Chaos, as it is represented to have been? and how could it possibly rise into such a Chaos, out of a Sun or • ixt Star? And if GOD created the Heavens at the same time when he created the Earth (as Moses affirms) for both, he says, were created in the beginning) where could it have place to act the part of a fixed Luminary, before it became a Planet? But therefore to take off this, and the like Arguments, the Story of the Creation is supposed to relate to the Earthly World only. How truly we shall a little consider in the Close of this Chapter.

In the mean time, to go on with what we have in hand; the illustrious Des-Cartes is on our side. He openly professes (as was notedChap. 2. § 4. above) that he did not think the Earth was made of a Star, according to his Principles; but was brought forth by Creation. And he judged thus, for the same reason, I am now urging. Because,Princip. part. 3. Art. 45. hoc • ides Christians nos docet; the Christian Faith teacheth us as much. So that he who shall teach otherwise, must (in the opinion of that renowned Philosopher) broach a Doctrine against Divine Revelation. And therefore what has been said that way, I hope will relish the better, as falling in with the sentiments of so exceeding worthy and judicious a Person. And herein he acted like a true and noble Christian Philosopher indeed; in that he made his Hypothesis stoop to the Religion of Heaven, and would retrench his Principles, rather than they should run counter to the sacred Oracles. Yea, the great Man goes farther, and adds, hocque etiam ratio naturalis plane persuadet; and this also (that the World was created with all its perfection, so that there was in it a Sun, and an Earth, &c.) natural reason does plainly perswade. Attendendo enim ad immensam Dei potentiam, non possumus exisiimare illum unquam quicquam fecisse, quod non omnibus suis numeris fuerit absolutum. Ubi supra. For if we attend to the mighty power of GOD, we cannot think that he ever made any thing that was not compleat in all points. And therefore he said before;Ac etiam in terr • non tantum • uerint semina plantarum, sed ipse plantae; nec Adam & Eva nati sint infantes, sed facti sint homines adulti. Ibid. And likewise in the Earth there were not only the seeds of Plants, but Plants themselves; nor were Adam and Eve brought forth Infants, but made adult persons. And when it is a thing not only worthy of GOD, to make Creatures perfect at first, but natural reason perswades that he actually did so: we must either conclude that the Earth was made so (as Des-Cartes does) or else in our judging otherwise, vary from, or go against the dictate of common reason, as well as Scripture. So that if the Opinion, the professeed and openly avowed Opinion, of the most eminent Christian Philosopher; yea, of the admired Author of the new Philosophy (the fittest person amongst Philosophers to judge in the Case) will cast the Scales for us; we have it on our side, that the Earth was not produced in his way; or according to his Hypothesis.

5. But then the premisses considered, to admit there is a Fire at the Center of the Earth; is so far from being very reasonable, as the Theory holds; that according to the fairest measures or accounts of things, which Philosophy has given to the World as yet; it rather appears to be very unreasonable. For however Des-Cartes's Principles lean that way, and countenance the Phaenomenon; yet he himself, we see, not only doubts of his own Hypothesis as to the Earth's formation; but has publickly declared that they who sail by his Compass, must swim against the stream of Natural Reason.

6. And truly should the Theory allow this Central Fire in the Earth upon the account of its being produced in Des-Cartes's way; it would quite overthrow its own Hypothesis, by complying with his. For then the Earth could never have been of an Oval Figure. Nor could it have been without Mountains, and without a Sea. But its motion of inclination would have been from the first, because its Axis would have been perpendicular to the plain of the Ecliptic. And so its Equinoctial position (to name no more Essentials of the Theory) would have been impossible. And whereas (by the way) the present site of the Earth (which might seem more convenient, were it placed so, as that its Annual and Diurnal motions might be both performed on parallel Axes) is made byPrincip. part. 3. Art. 155. Des-Cartes, to depend upon the influence of the Striate Particles; and both the formation and motion of them are shewed by aDr. M • re Epist. ad V. C. learned Philosophic Pen, not to fall in with Mechanical Laws: this will be no check or difficulty upon us. For first, Des-Cartes might in that (as he has done in some other things) keep too strictly to the Laws of Matter and Motion; it being necessary in the works of Nature very often to acknowledge the hand of Providence. Or else secondly, if there should be no such particles in being, and nothing of their power to hold the Axis of the Earth, in a parallelism to that of the World's Aequator; this would be but an advantage on our side. For how can the Earth have a Fire at its Center as being produced in conformity to the Cartesian Principles, when, according to those Principles, it could not be produced at all? For put by the Formation of these Particles, and (according to that Philosophy) there could be no Planets, and so no Earth: the matter of the third Element being not to be made without those particles.

7. Were I dispos'd to follow the Rabbies, I might here go a little farther still. I might venture to lay hold of the Word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 he created; and make it do service upon their authority. For some of them bear us in hand, that it denotes, Creation, in a rigorous sense; that is, the making of a thing out of nothing. Agreeable to which is the holy Writer's notion of Creation where he says, Heb. 11. 3. that things which are seen, were not made of things that do appear. Meaning (as we read elsewhere) that they were made, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ,2 Ma • . 7. 28. out of nothing. Which apply to the making of the Earth (as we very well may, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , being the SPIRIT's word concerning it) and it could not possibly be made out of a Sun, or Star, as the new philosophy would have it. For then (say those Doctors) a more proper word should have express'd its production, viz, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which imports the making of a thing out of praeexistent matter. Some slight ground for this seems to be laid in Scripture; and that in Moses's Cosmopoeia too. For it is said, Gen. 2. 3. That GOD rested from all his work, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which he Created to make. Where unless we allow a distinct signification, to the two words implying that he made some things out of nothing, and others out of prepared matter: we must charge the HOLY GHOST with indecent Tautology. Though if we consider again that the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is used promiscuously to express GOD's making of things ex praejacente materia, out of extant matter, as well as out of nothing, and that in the very story of the Creation: we may well suspect that there was too much niceness in the Masters, rather than such respective significations; to be strictly and continually appropriated to the words. Only as many as did thus criticize, have thereby fairly given their suffrage, for that truth which we contend for. That when GOD created the Earth (according to Moses's narrative) he educ'd it directly out of nothing. And so it cannot have a fire at the Center of it, because it issu'd forth into being; in Des-Cartes's way.

8. Being unawares fallen upon that expression 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which he created to make: in reverence to the Seventy; I cannot but take one short step out of the way, to vindicate their translation of it. They render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which he began to make. As if the work of Creation had not then been consummate. But that could not be their meaning. For whereas we read in the beginning of the Chapter; the Heavens and the Earth, and all the Host of them were finished: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they rendred by, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and they were compleated. They could only mean therefore, that GOD rested from all his work, which at any time, in the six precedent days, He had BEGVN to make. And so their sense is sound and true, though they keep not close to the •• teral strictness of the Original. And that they thought the Creation was wholly perfected before the seventh day; is apparent from that liberty they took, in translating the beginning of the second verse of the same Chapter; which perhaps is more culpable. For whereas the Hebrew says, GOD had ended his work, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 on the seventh day: departing, quite from the proper signification of the word, they render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , on the sixth day. As if they feared they should offend (by stretching the work of Creation too far) in case they had turned it, GOD had ended his work on the seventh day. Here was more than abundans cautela, too much caution used. Especially if Aben Ezra's Maxime be authentic, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .Ad Exod. cap. 12. v. 16. The finishing of a work or consummation of it, is not the work it self. I have noted this the rather, as containing in it a full consent, with what has been said touching the Creation's being perfected in Six days. For it makes it evident that the LXX. Interpreters were throughly perswaded of this Truth. And not only so, but forward to assert, and resolved to maintain it, even to an over acted care and blameable Scrupulosity.

9. And here it will not be amiss, to reflect a little upon one notion of the Theory 's; which countenances the late production of the Earth, or its rising long after the World was made (perhaps out of a Sun or Star, as the Scheme in the English Theory, before the Title Page, plainly insinuates) And that is, The limiting of Moses's Story of the Creation, to this lower World: to the Earth, that is to say, and the Aereal Heavens, and such things as were formed out of the Chaos. Thus in one place it confines it. Illud prim • notandum est, no • id agere Mosen, ut primam materi • e productionem, atque Vniversi Mundi ortum describeret, sed mundi nostri, scilicet telluris nostrae, & Coeli nostri è suo chao sormationem. Theor. lib. 2. cap. 8. First that must be noted, that Moses did not describe the first production of matter, and the rise of the universal World, but the formation of our World, that is of our Earth, and our Heaven, out of their Chaos. And presently after; Subjectum autem Genese • s Mosaicae est Chaos, & con • usi •• imum & terres • re; & qu • e ex hoc Chao eductasunt, & ad illud tanquam centrum referuntur, • a propriè spectant ad mundum Mosaicum. ib. But the Subject of Moses's Genesis is the Chaos, and that most confus'd and Earthly; and the things made out of this Chaos, and related to it as a center; those properly belong to the Mosaic World. And by and by, Ne putemas itaque nobis nascentibus & mundo nostro, necesse esse ut tota natura eodem tempore nas •• retur. ib. We may not surmise therefore that when we and our World was made, entire nature must needs be made at the same time. And then again, Pro certo & explorato habeatur—Mundum Mosaicum non omnes V • iversi regiones, neque omnes rerum ordines complecti, s • d illas naturae partes quaeè Chao terrestri educi potuerunt. ib. Certain it is—that Moses's World does not comprehend all the Regions of the Vniverse, nor all the orders of things, but those parts of Nature which could be made of the Earthly Chaos.

But then (to say nothing of Light, or the Vehicle of it, neither of which were made out of the Chaos) let me ask; What did GOD mean, when he said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gen. 1. 14. LET THERE BE LIGHTS? I do not ask, what those Lights were, that's evident enough. Nor where they were placed: for they were far above the Aiery Heaven, and so in the sense of the Theory, could not belong to the Earthly World. But the question is, What ALMIGHTY GOD intended by, LET THERE BE LIGHTS. The Theory Di • i possunt tum nasci & oriri e • e partes coelestes Vniversi, cùm primum conspicue • rant, • tque diss • patâ caligine Ch • os & nigri aeris, eminusse ostentabant terris, paulatim emicantes è tenebris, quasi ab iisdem & eodem Chao, enatae • uissent. Neque aliter Cosmogoniam Mosaicam intelligendam esse, si opus esset, m • demonstrare posse existimo. lib. 2. cap 7. hints the meaning and effect thereof to be no more, than that those heavenly parts of the Universe, were then first made conspicuous, or began to illighten the Earth: and declares it demonstrable, That Moses is so to be understood, as he has limited him.

But then I must continue the enquiry, What does, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , LET THERE BE, signify in other places of the same Chapter where it occurrs so often? why, it infallibly implys the production. of those things, to which it does respectively relate. It imports God's commanding or willing their existence; and their immediate emergency into being, in obedience to his powerful Will or Mandate. This is obvious even to slightest notice. Thus, when GOD said, Let there be light: it follows immediately, and there was Light. When GOD said, Let there be a firmament: it follows, and GOD made a Firmament. When GOD said, Let the waters be gathered together into one place (that so there might be dry land, and Seas:) it follows, It was so. When GOD said, Let the Earth bring forth Grass, &c. it follows, and the Earth brought forth Grass, &c. When GOD said, Let the Waters bring forth abundantly: it follows, the Waters brought forth abundantly. When God said, Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his king, and Cattel, &c. it follows, And GOD made the Beast of the Earth after his kind, and Cattel, &c. And when the Divine and Omnipotent Fiat did all-along carry such energy with it, as thus to produce other things; as in the series of the Story: can it in reason be thought to do less, when GOD pronounced, LET THERE BE LIGHTS? To make this one Fiat, differ in sense from the rest; would be to depart from the Rules of a just Exposition. Yet unless we force such a difference into it, it must signify more than the bare appearance of lights upon the clearing up of the Chaos and the Sky: that is, it must signify those lights were just then created.

And this is farther evident thus; in that GOD takes notice, express notice of the use of these Luminaries, and therein particularly provides for the conspicuity and Radiancy of them.Gen. 1. 15. Let them be FOR lights in the firmament of the Heaven, to GIVE LIGHT VPON THE EARTH. So that when he said, LET THERE BE LIGHTS, if he did not mean more than their becoming conspic • ous and shining out upon the Earth; the two expressions must be perfectly tautological. And yet if he intended any thing else, what could it be but their Creation at that time? Especially when it follows hereupon, And GOD made two The Moon is really a great light to the Earth, though the light she transmits thither, be borrowed of the Sun. great lights, and the Stars also. And therefore that the work of Creation which Moses treats of, reaches farther than what belongs to the Earthly World, and resulted from the Chaos; is not to be doubted. For he does not only mention the making of the Lights in the Firmament (things as different from the terrestrial World, as they are distant from the same) but describes them as fully, in reation to their uses and ends; and so seems to handle them as profes • edly, as any piece of the lower Creation whatever.

In case it be objected, that the Stars give little light upon the Earth, which is a thing Moses ascribes to the Luminaries in Heaven; I answer, If they served not so eminently to that use, yet to the other he mentions, they were very serviceable and indispensibly necessary. For how could time have been measured out and divided into Years and Months, (as it was in the First World) without their help? especially if there were no Moon.

And so I demand in the Second place; What does Moses mean, by the Host of the Heavens being finished? Thus Gen 2. 1. THE HEAVENS were FINISHED, and all the HOST of them. If he meant only the Host of the Heavens belonging to the Earth; what was the Host of those Heavens? As for the Air, it helped to constitute them, to make the very Heavens themselves. As for Clouds, Rain, Hail, Snow, and the like Meteors; there could be none, says the Theory. As for the Moon, it might not then be in the Earth's Neighbourhood. As for that watry exhalation which abounded in the aereal Heaven, it was but one single thing; and so answers not the import of the Word, HOST, it being of a plural signification. And what other Host should belong to these Heavens, except the Fowls? but then though in Scripture they be called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; and in the Chaldee Dan. 2. 38. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and by the Septuagint and in the New Testament, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Fowls of Heaven: yet I do not remember that they are any where called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the HOST of Heaven That phrase in Holy Writ, does usually (I think) continually referr, either to the Angels, or else to the Lights of Heaven. And of the latter of those at least, it must here be understood. But then none of these Luminaries being formed out of the Chaos; and all of them but one, placed in remote or superiour Heavens: hence it is evident, that the Story of the Creation, is not to be restrained to the Terrestrial World. For that Moses did not only speak of them, but of their being created then; is manifest from the words before us. The HEAVENS and the EARTH were FINISHED, and all the HOST of THEM. where, if by the Earth and its Host, being FINISHED; We are to understand their being CREATED at that time, as we certainly must: then are we bound to understand, that the Heavens and their Host, were so too; because the same thing is equally predicated of both. It may be worth the while also to remark that Passage in the 148. Psalm. Where the inspired Man desiring that GOD might be glorified by means of the Celestial Luminaries; crys out, Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him all ye stars.—For he commanded, and they were created. Whence it is evident, that when GOD commanded, Let there be lights; this was not a command whereby they appeared only, but whereby they were created: and the Moon with the rest was then commanded into being.

I might also make a Third demand, What is meant by the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gen. 2. 7. breath of life, which GOD breathed into Man? No less than his very Soul. So saysLexic. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Buxtorf (andVsurpatur de homine tantùm, & animam h • jus ratione praeditam denotat. Schind. Lexic. Pentag. Pag. 1177. Dicitur propriè de anima hominis immortali, quam Deus in illum insufflavit. Prophet. in Psal. 18. v. 16. others) the Hebrews by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 understand the rational and immortal Soul, and therefore they swear by it. And when GOD created man did he not create this Soul of his? And so did not the work of Creation, which Moses writes of, comprehend more than those parts of Nature, which were made of the Earthly Chaos.

It may be not, will Platonists say; at least this instance is no good Proof of it. For GOD might not create the Souls of Adam and Eve just then, but send them down from a state of Preexistence. But then (not to ingage in a new Controversie) I reply in short; If the humane Souls came into their Bodies out of a state of Preexistence; then when they descended, they were either pure from sin; or they were not. If they were not pure, then how did GOD create Man in his own Image? Gen. 1. 27. Or how did he make Adam u • right? Eccles. 7. 29. Where the Rectitude spoken of, must be of a moral nature; because (as the Context shows) it is opposed to moral obliquity or perverseness. If they were pure, how could the infinitely gracious BEING (whose name (and so his nature) isExod. 34. 6. MERCIFUL; whoMic. 7. 18. delighteth in mercy, and whose Psal. 145. 9. mercy is over all his works) deal so unkindly with his own most dear and spotless creatures; as to thrust them down, or suffer them to fall, out of a state of Aethereal light and happiness, into a state of darkness and stupid silence, out of which (according to Platonism) they must come, to be incarnate, and so slide into a condition more forlorn still? Truly if the goodness and wisdom of Heaven, so decreed and ordered things, as that the Protoplast's (and so their Childern's) innocent and immaculate Spirits must be betrayed or precipitated into that state of inactivity (which might last for millions of years of ages) and then out of that squalid condition, sink into a worse; into one full of inexpressible imperfections, miseries, and dangers, where innumerable multitudes lie under almost an inevitable necessity of falling into the torments of everlasting destruction: if this, I say, be the result of Havens wise Councils and Decrees, Preexistence will give no satisfaction to understanding Men; and do as little honour to the Glorious GOD. It will rather be a Scandal, than a Key to Providence.

Now that the Souls of the first Pair of Mankind did preexist, it being improbable; and that they should be ex traduce, it being impossible: what remains, but that GOD created the Souls, when he made the Bodies of those Persons? And so the work of Creation, of which Moses treats, is so far from being limitable to the lower World, or indeed to the higher material one either; that it stretches out it self beyond them both, even to the Spiritual one. And the Host of the Heavens, just now done with, intimates as much, Expositors conclude, while they make it refer, not only to the Lights, but the Angels above.

And perhaps something of this Truth, That Angels and Humane Souls came into being at the same time that the Earth did; may be wrapt up in the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg. So Orpheus, that anci • nt and famous Divine amongst the Heathens, who, according toLeg at. pro Chris • ian. At henagoras, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is believed to Theologize more truly than the rest: tells how 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a superimmense Egg being brought forth by Hercules, that is, I think, by the Divine Power; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by attrition it brake into two parts: of the upper part of which, was made Heaven; and of the lower part, the Earth. And then affirms, that Heaven being mingled with Earth, it produced both Women, Men and Gods. By which he might shadow out that the Intellectual or Spiritual World, took its beginning, with the Terrestrial one. But if he meant that Souls or Spirits sprung up out of matter, this will make the ancient Philosophy so very mean and gross, as not to be at all regarded.

1. THE Ecclus. 29. 21. chief thing for Life is Water, said the Son of Sirach. It is necessary and useful upon numberless accounts. So that that Hypothesis which implies the Earth was without •• rings and Rivers for many hundreds of Years, ma • justly be rejected. And for this reason the supposed Form of the Earth cannot be maintained. For according to that, the Element of Water was fast shut up within the Exteriour Orb of the Earth; and how could it issue forth from thence, through so thick and solid a terrestrial Concretion? For that being made after the manner abovesaid, there could be no gaping chasms, nor indeed little clefts or chinks in it; whereat the imprison'd Waters might get out. Or if there had been never such plenty of lesser cracks or larger rists in it; yet the Water being settled in that place, which was proper to its Nature, there it would have staid by the innate Law or Principle of its Gravity. Unless by Elastie Power, Protrusion, Rarefaction, or the like, it were forced thence; there it would have made its perpetual aboad, had the Earth been never so open o • pervious, by reason of fissures or holes in the same.

2. But therefore Exhalation is here made use of, and as a proper Engin is set to do this mighty work, of fetching up Rivers from the inaccessible Pit. The operation, in short, was performed thus, The heat of the Sun raising plenty of Vapours, chiefly about the middle parts of the Earth, out of the subterraneous Deep; they finding most liberty and easiest progress, toward North and South, directed their motion towards the Poles of the Earth. Where, being condensed by the cold of those Regions into Rain, they descended in constant and exuberant distillations. And these Distillations were the Fountains that supplied the first World with Rivers, running continually from the Polar to the 〈◊〉 parts of the Earth. But according to this Hydrography, I shall endeavour, first, to make it out that there could be no Rivers in due time: and secondly, that there could be none at all. And as for Springs, the Hypothesis does not pretend to any.

First, It would have kept Rivers too long, out of being. For according to that Philosophy we have now to do with, the new made Earth was composed of nothing but Dust and an Oily liquor. And it being of such a Composition, and of a vast thickness; it must needs be a considerable time before the Sun could penetrate into the Abyis under it, and draw up vapours from thence; if it could do it at all in so copious a manner.

Secondly, The Air being at first quite empty of Vapours, it would take a great quantity of them to make the Atmosphere of the Earth, or to fill up that. To which add that every part of the Earth about its Aequator, being turned from the Sun, every four and twenty hours, as long as it was obverted to it; many of those Vapours which were lifted up by day, would fall down again by night in the same Latitude where they arose, without being dispersed to the Polar Regions. And thus the production of Rivers would have been something retarded again.

Thirdly, The surface of the Earth being endued with a wonderful feracity it must immediately put forth in an inconceiveable plenty of all sorts of Vegetables: which from luxuriant pullulations, would strangely advance by most speedy and prodigious growths. And this Superfetation of the virginal Soil, proceeding from that extraordinary fruitfulness wherewith it was originally impregnated; must farther hinder the early rise of Rivers. Not so much by consuming the matter of them, as another way. For the Earth being thick beset with the flourishing apparatus, or goodly Furniture of its own bringing forth (such perhaps for abundance and excellency, as never crowned the most fertil Country, or fruitful season since) though Dews or Rains fell without intermission; yet the Waters would have stuck or hung so much, amongst the rank and matted tufts of Grass, Herbs, Shrubs, &c. as not to have been able in a short space of time, to have gotten into Streams, and constituted Rivers of such a length, as they must have been of.

Fourthly, In case these Waters had met with no checks, but had fallen immediately into such Bodies, as would have forced their passage along in holding Currents: yet then they must • ave digged their own Chanels too, being sure to find none till they made them. But considering how slowly they must have crept, as having no kind of Precipices or steeper downfals to quicken them; and how glib they must have been, by gliding gently upon the fat and viscous Glebe; and what a thick and thrummy and close wrought Mantle the Earth then wore: for them to have furrowed out deep and winding passages in that Earth, must have been a good whiles work again, if fecible at all without the help of Art. For

Lastly, It seems improbable that any Rivers, without the help of that, should have been produced. The reason is this, The Rains descending at all times, and in all places alike, a round the Poles; and the whole surface of the Earth being more level and even, than any Plain in the World; the Waters instead of parting into streams, would have spread over all the Earth at once, in a general diffusion; as any one may find by pouring Water upon a Globe. By which overflow, the Primigenial Soil (which was a light and soft Mold) being suppled into a perfect Moor or Quagmire; must have continued drowned, till by reducing the Water into artificial Canels, it could have been laid dry. But when there would have been hands for this great work (GOD making Mankind but in one single Pair) let them that please consider. And they may think also, where Paradise could have been; and what shift poor Fowls, and Beasts, yea, Men themselves should have made; till the Earth, like a Fen, thus under Water, could have been cut and drained.

3. Now so slow and late a Production of Rivers, would have drawn two great inconveniences after it. It would have clashed with Scripture; and charged Providence with Preposterousness.

First, It would have clashed with Scripture. For no sooner was Man created and placed in Paradise, but presently we read, That a River went out of Eden to water the garden, Gen. 2. 10. But had all Rivers come into being, as the Theory teaches, one could never have been there so early. Nor did it go out of Eden, by running through it only, but it arose there, say some, and as much is signified, they would perswade us, by the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which denotes its going out (they tell us) as a Child goes out of the Womb: and so the River must be born in Eden, or spring up originally there. But the Word is too commonly used, in a larger sense, both in the Sacred and Rabbinical Writings, to have any such stress laid upon it. Though most certain it is, that a River there was in Eden; and in order of Divine Story (and so why not in order of time?) very early: even before the Fall of Adam, or the Formation of Eve. And which is farther remarkable, it was a large River too; for it was parted into several Heads, and able to feed most considerable streams. One of which, namely, Euphrates, is reckoned among the biggest Rivers in the World, to this day. But had it come by derivation from the Polar Fountains, it could never have been made so soon; much less could it have been so large. And then besides, we read at the Sixth Verse of the same Chapter, that GOD had not caused to rain upon the Earth as yet; and so that River could not possibly proceed from Rains, that fell about the ends or Poles of it.

Though (by the way) how that Expression should countenance an Impluvious state before the Flood, as Page 206. the Latin Theory would • ake it, is not so clear and easie to be understood. For, if we consider, there was no Water upon that Earth, but what fell in Rain. And in two Regions of that Earth, there were Rains continually descending: and they seem to have been of little other use, than for those Rains to come down in. And to say, That by the Earth there, was meant only Regiones cult • , or the inhabited Countries of the Earth; would be an unwarranted restriction of the Scriptures sense. For in the Story of the Creation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Earth, is still put (as we may observe) for the entire Globe of the Earth, or at least for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the whole face of the ground, as Gen. 2. 6. Nor may it be said to be spoken ad captum vulgi, as to the common peoples apprehension. For surely they were not such dull Souls, in the first World, but (had Nature stood in that order as the Theory sets it) they would have traced their Rivers to their heads, many hundreds of Years before the Deluge; and have been generally and throughly acquainted, with those Rains by which they were raised. They would then have known as well, that Rivers came from Rains at the ends of the Earth; as we do now, that Gold comes from Guinea, or the distant Indies. Yea, the want of room (they multiplying exceedingly) would have forced them to find out the rainy Regions, while they must have spread their Colonies to the Borders of them.

Secondly, It would tax the Providence of Heaven with Praeposterousness. That is, in reference to one sort of Animals, the Fishes. For then they must have been brought into being, before there were fit Receptacles for them. I confess, GOD said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, Gen. 1. 20. Which may seem to take off the objected inconvenience. For if so be that the Waters were to bring forth Fishes, before they existed, they could not lack agreeable Mansions upon their first emergency into being: inasmuch as the same Element was to afford them habitation, from whence they derived their production.

But grant that the Waters were to be productive of Fishes. Yet they might not be so prima vice, at the very first. Or if they did then help towards producing them; it could be only by yielding a rude kind of matter, out of which they might be formed: such as Adam's Rib was for the making of Eve. And therefore though GOD said, at the Twentieth Verse, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life; Yet in the next Verse it is said, That GOD CREATED every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly. Where, if, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , created, does not denote GOD's making them out of pure nothing, (according to the rigid School-notion of Creation) yet it signifies (which is the lowest sense of the word) that he made them ex materia prorsus inhabili, out of matter of it self (till the Creator chang'd and disposed it) altogether unfit for such an use. So that albeit the Waters brought forth Fishes, yet they did not do it, by any vis plastica, formative power of their own solely; but so far as they afforded general (and naturally inept) Materials for their composition.

And, in some sense, the Waters (we know) have brought forth Fishes ever since. That is, by cherishing their Spermata, or Spawn committed to them. For they receiving those young and tender rudiments of life (upon their first ejection or exclusion) into their liquid Wombs; do nurse up the naked and imperfect Seminals, through the several Stages of an incompleat 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or Birth; till they arrive at animation and maturity. But then this implys that the First Fishes came into being by an extraordinary way; and could not be produced as they are now; because there were none before them, none to propagate them, by casting forth such spermatic Principles. The aboriginal ones (as I may call them) for this very reason, must be made by GOD's immediate hand. Though whether he made them out of nothing, or out of watry Materials; is all one as to our purpose. For either way it was absolutely necessary, that Rivers should be extant as well as they; that so they might be in a readiness to receive them.

But now according to the Hypothesis under consideration, the Fishes of the two, must exist first, if the Creation (as I hope we have proved) were perfected in Six Days. For they were made upon the Fifth Day, says Moses, and how could there be Rivers so timely according to this new contrivance? The Sun it self was created but just the day before. And so what a work must here be done, to make Rivers coetaneous with the Fish we speak of? The beams of the Sun must have pierced into the Earth, and that so deep as to have reached the Abyss. And from thence plenty of Vapours must have been exhal'd into the Air. And these Vapours being upon the wing must have taken their flight as far as the Polar Regions. And there they must have been condensed into Rains. And these Rains must have made Bodies of Waters. And these Bodies of Waters must have been so great, as to have slowed along, through or against all obstacles. And these Floods must have been so violent, as to have hollow'd out Chan • ls for themselves all the way they went. And all this in one days space. Otherwise there must have been no Fishes made. Or they must not have been made, when GOD says they were. Or when they were made, there must have been no sutable Receptacles for them. For as for the Waters of the Abyss, they could by no means serve for this use, as will appear in the Sequel of our Discourse.

4. But we are to pursue this matter farther yet. There could be no Rivers in due time; that has been evidenced. It is next to be proved that there could be none at all before the Flood.

How Rivers were first made, we have been instructed, by Rains descending from above. But whereabouts were these to fall? In the Frigid Zones, or towards the Poles, we are told; andTheor. pa • . 227. the Scheme representing them, shows as much. But then, methinks, they should have been in great danger, yea, under inavoidable necessity of Freezing. For the Sun (according to this Hypothesis) moving always in the Aequinoctial, before the Flood; he would constantly have been as remote from those raining Regions, as he is now from us in the depth of Winter, when he runs through Capricorn; or which is all one, when the Earth traverseth the opposite Sign. And there being then, no such Clouds as now; nor yet any Seas, by their foggy Vapours to mitigate the keenness of the Air; nor any Hills or Valleys, to cause a warmth by confused and irregular reflections of the Sun-beams: the Frosts within the Polar Circles, must needs have been exceeding sharp and terrible. And so the Fountains that should have fed the whole World with Water, would have been fast sealed up.

And then if the Earth were of an Oval Figure (as this Hypothesis affirms) grant but its Diameter to have been the same at its Aequinoctial parts then, that it is now (as in reason it must be greater, because it is fallen in since, and so grown less) and this would have • et its Poles a great deal farther from the Aequator, and so from the Sun. For to inlarge a Circle, into an Oval Figure, its area must be made a quarter as big again at least one way of its Diameter, as it was before.

Thus, if the Circle c d e f be divided into Eight parts, by the parallel lines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: we shall find that the two Arches a and b, forming the Circle into a moderate Oval; will at the points a and b, include such spaces between themselves and the sides of the Circle c, and e, as shall be equal in breadth, to any two spaces betwixt the equidistant Parallels. According to which proportions allowing the Earth to be 7000. Miles in Diameter (though the true measure of it makes it more) and then adding a fourth part to it, to render it Oval, viz. 1750. Mile thickness: the Earth at each Pole, must bear above fourteen Degrees Latitude, or near nine hundred Miles extent, more than if it had been exactly round. And that Hypothesis which removes its Poles so much farther from the Sun; must also allow the cold thereabouts to be proportionably augmented. And though in the hundred and fourth Degree of Latitude (as we must call it) on each side of the Aequator; that is, at the very Poles, there might have been perpetual day; the beams of the Sun reaching a and b, the two Poles of the supposed Oval Earth; and illightning them continually: yet his heat in those places, must needs have been exceeding languid; forasmuch as his Orb would always have been half above, and half under the Horizon to them. This will be clear from the Scheme, if we do but conceive the line i d f to be the Aequator, and the Sun ever moving directly in it. For then it must divide him into two Semidiameters g and h, at all times conspicuous at the Poles respectively. That is to say, the Semidiameter g, at the Pole a; and the Semidiameter, h, at the Pole b. But then the Sun's being thus halved, must of necessity be a mighty diminution of his influence, especially at so extraordinary a distance. It would have rendred his warmth more faint, than it is with us in the Winter Solsti • e, when he is just a Setting, or half set.

But our business is rather to enquire what the temperature of the Air would have been, nearer to the polar Circles; where these Rains are conceived to have fallen. Now if these Regions were as remote from the Sun, as we are when he is farthest from us; the Air must have been every whit as freezing there, as it is with us in the very dead of Winter. And that they were some degrees farther from the Sun, I think we need not question. For when the Sun is gone farthest from us, he reaches but to twenty three degrees and an half of Southern Latitude: which added to our fifty two of Northern, the whole amounts but to seventy five and an half. But granting the Earth to have been stretcht out to that length, to which its oval fashion would have extended it; and the supposed dripping Countries in the first World, might easily have been farther from the Sun (and consequently colder) by several Degrees.

In case it be opposed, That nights with us, when the Sun is retired to his utmost point in Capricorn, are some hours longer, than they could be in the prediluvial State; and that this might so far strengthen the Cold, as to make it superior to what it could be in the wet Regions we speak of: I answer, though our Nights be somewhat longer; yet we now dwell among Clouds and Seas, which do very much bemist and thicken the Air; and so make it warmer than it could be in the primitive World, where neither of them were to be • ound at the rate we have them. And truly the perpetual absence of them, must needs have made the Air more severely nipping in the Frigid Zones then, than it is now. Especially they being shot out so far from the Sun, by virtue of the oblong figure of the first Earth. For even as the Earth is now of a Globular make; the Rains might have fallen in the Frigid Zones for ten Degrees latitude, or six hundred Miles together, and yet (on the one side have been five Degrees distant from the Poles themselves; and on the other side) have been seventy five Degrees distant from the Sun in the Aequinox; which is as far (to half a Degree) as he is ever remov'd from us. But then if we add better than fourteen Degrees more to each Pole, upon accompt of the Earth's O • iformity; the Rains must be removed a great way farther from the Sun still (perhaps the whole fourteen Degrees) into Climates most horridly cold and freezing. And though there would have been constant Day about the very Poles; yet in this Oval Earth, there would have been as much Night in the presumed rainy Regions; as in any other part of it whatever. For so we may observe, that those rays of the Sun, which fell upon that Earth, suppose at k and l (whereabouts according to the Hydrographic Page. 227. Scheme in the Theory, we may imagine the Rainy Regions were) could not illighten the opposite side of it at m and n, till such time as those points were turned to him, which they could not be sooner than the point f; where it must have been of the biggest circumference, measuring it in way of Longitude.

Indeed it must be owned that it is not the Sun's distance in Winter, which does only or chiefly make our Climate so cold; but the oblique falling of his beams on the Earth. So that instead of his retreating Southward forty seven Degrees (the whole space between the Tropics) were he at the time of his entring into Cancer (when he is nearest to us) but elevated directly as many Degrees, or removed only perpendicularly from us: our Winter (if any) would be very moderate, because his beams would be reflected in the same Angles as before. But his recession from us being in way of latitude or declination; • is Rays must fall the more obliquely upon the Earth. From which kind of incidence it comes to pass, that they rebound in obtuse Angles, and the heat which should be caused by more direct reverberations, is impaired. As also many of his beams are reflected by the Atmosphaere, another way, and come not at us at all. But then the Sun being farther distant from the rainy Regions in the praediluvian Earth; his beams must have fallen more obliquely upon them still; and so the cold must have been greater there, because his influence was less. And therefore what can be thought, but that the Dewy Rains (if any could have been in those parts) should either in falling have been turned into Hails; or if they fell in Water, have been frozen into Ice. And so instead of streaming along and refreshing the Earth, they must have stood congeled into Mountains. Especially if we consider that extremely cold hanging Mists must have always incircled those Regions above; and so have shut out that sorry kind of influence, which might have been derived from the so remote and feeble Sun.

It may a little inforce what has been said, that all who have held (with the Theorist) the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable by reason of heat; ever believed that the Frigid ones were so, through extremity of cold: as Aristotle, Cicero, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, and others.

To which add, That several Navigators, attempting to find out a nearer course to China, have been frozen to death. Yet they failed nothing so far Northward, as the rainy Regions in the Oval Earth, must have lain. Though without question they chose the most seasonable time for the Enterprize; I mean when the Sun was on this side of the Aequator: where now he may advance (though he could not do so (says the Theory) before the Flood) twenty three Degrees and an half; which on Earth we reckon about fourteen hundred Miles.

Nor is what Mercator remembers touching Nov • Zembla, impertinent to the Case. Here the Air is very sharp, and the Cold most vehement and intolerable. And again; their Tents are covered with Whales skins, the Cold being continually very sharp in these parts. Their drink (the Geographer goes on) is warm blood of wild Beasts, or else Ice water; there are no Rivers or Springs, because the violence of the Cold does so shut up the Earth, that Springs of waters cannot break forth. And where Rivers cannot flow out of the Earth for Forst; surely they cannot fall down from Heaven. Yet this Island is extended but form the Seventieth to the Seventy sixth Degree of Northern Latitude, or thereabouts. Speed also informs us, that the Isles of Shetland in the Deucalidonian Sea, are ever covered with Ice and Snow. Yet Ptolomy placeth them but in the Sixty third Degree of Latitude; which is a good way on this side of the Arctic Circle. Heylin also says of Island, that it is a damnable cold Country. And Blaeu reports of the Frigid Zones, Instit. Astron. de 〈◊〉 Glob. c. 4. § 2. Perpetuum istic horridumque est frigus, There is perpetual and horrid Cold. Lastly, the Theorist himself so far agrees with us, as to own that the Frigid Zones in the first Earth were uninhabitable; and that by reason ofPag. 242. Cold, as well as Moisture.

1. AMong the several Properties of the Prediluvian Earth, there was none more needful than its Oviformity. But as needful as it was, it seems a thing improbable. The necessity of it, is apparent from its Usefulness: and that was as great as can well be imagined: For it was to be as an Aqueduct to the first World; or a general Instrument of deriving Waters, into all the inhabited Quarters of it. So that without it, according to the Laws of this New Hypothesis, the Earth would have been outwardly but a lump of Sand, and as miserably barren as any piece of Wilderness the worst Arabia has. And yet if we attend to the first Earth's Origination, how could it be of an Oval Shape?

For a liquid Mass, having its Center in it self, and being of a Sub • tance equally yielding in all its parts, and likewise equally compressed by an ambient body: must of necessity be equally extended in all the lines of its circum • erence; that is, it must be exactly round or spherical. For why any piece thereof should thrust up higher, or shoot out farther from the common Center, than the rest; there can be no reason given; Unless, according to the Hylozoic Philosophy, we should suppose there is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a principle of Life or self-movency in matter; which indeed is to exalt it above its capacity, and to give it a property that destroys its nature.

And were not these the very circumstances of that Mass, whereon the Primitive Earth was founded? For,

First, It was self-centred; and by vertue of its proper Centre, so entirely coherent and united, that no parts of it had the least tendency towards jetting out, or flying off from the whole: but by the Laws of gravity, were all impregnated with the contrary determination, a nitency inward or downward towards the Central Point. And then,

Secondly, It was Liquid also; and so of a yielding temper or consistency. Ready to give way to the lightest pressures, and by a forward pliantness, to fall into that Figure, into which the circum • luent Air would fashion it. For that Element alone (or a thinner than that) but by moving and gently gliding upon it, might easily smooth it into perfect evenness; provided it did but encompass it around, and so was capable of slicking it by a general levigation. And therefore,

Thirdly, It swam in such a fluid Element, as did so environ it, grasping it on all sides with a soft compression. So that during its fluitation in that surrounding and gently constringent Medium, it could not but be of a truly Globular Form. Which admitted; the Primitive Earth must needs be so too, and not Oval; as being cast upon this Globous Mould.

But to this it is opposed, That the Liquid Mass whereon the first Earth was built, was not quiescent. So it might, yea, it must have been truly spherical: And the Theory it self owns as much. Nihil du • ito—massam aquae se naturaliter conformaturam in figuram sphaericam circa suum centrum; scilicet si ill • massa seu gl • b • s aqueus immobilis & qui • t • s hereat. P • g. 198. I nothing doubt—but amass of Water will naturally make it self into a spherical Figure, about its own centre; if so be it rests immovable and quiet. But then it adds; Si v • ro volvatur rapidé circa suum centrum, se oblongabit necessario ex agitatione illa, & defluet in sig • ram praeter-propter ovalem; ut cùm aquae in vase propelluntur, aut in aliquâ plagâ maris aut lacûs vento agit antur versùs littora, fl • ctus in longum se extendere videmus. Ibid. But in case it be turned swiftly about its Center, by that agitation it will necessarily make it self oblong, and become of a Figure somewhat Oval; just as when Waters are pusht forward in a Vessel; or in some part of a Sea or Lake, are driven by a Wind toward the Shores; we see the Waves stretch themselves out long-ways.

In answer to which, let it be confessed, That the Liquid Mass, on which the Earth was raised, was rolled about; and that very swiftly upon its own Centre. Yet that by vertue of its gyration it should be shaped into an Oval fashion; was not at all necessary; nor will the Instances brought in, prove it was so, there being no parity or just proportion betwixt the several Cases. For, for Waters to be forced an end by the external violence of Winds (where the impression propelling them is superficial, and their motion progressive;) is a different thing from their circumrotation in one entire Moles; where they turn only with a natural and most even Course, carrying the ambient body (whereby they are • ircumscribed and helpt to keep their Figure) round along with them. For thus we see, that notwithstanding the Earth turns so swiftly, that every point in its circumference under the Aequator, moves at the rate of fifteen Degrees (nine hundred Miles) an hour; yet the finest Sand upon the surface of the Earth, or the lightest Dust upon the tops of the Mountains, is never dissipated or disturbed in the least, by this whisking circumvolution. Whence we may gather (the case being much the same) that the whirling Globe of Water, was so far from a necessity of growing oblong, by its rotation; that that very thing might contribute to preserving it in a Globular For • .

But therefore let us hear what the Theory says further, and more distinctly yet, touching the Cause of the Oval Figure of that Mass of Water, which was the basis of the primitive Earth. It speaks it fully in these words,Nequ • ratio hujus • ig • r • e in Globo aqueo circulariter moto, obscura est: cum enim m • les aquae sub Aequat • re multo magis agitaretur, quàm aqua v • rsus polos, • bi minor • s circulos perageret; partes ill • e maximè agitat • e, à c • ntro sui mo • tis recedere co • antes, cùm prorsus exilire & avol • re non potu • ri • t propter incumbentem undique a • rem, neque multùm re • luere si • e ejusdem a •• is re • ixu & resistentia, non aliter se liber • re valerent, quàm deflut • do ad latera: Aqu • e enim impeditae quocunque reperiunt aditum & faciliorem motam, • o f •• unt; & ex illo 〈◊〉 aqu • rum ad l • tera▪ & exoneratione partium midiar • m circa Aequa • orem, globus • que • s deveniret aliqu •• • tul 〈◊〉 oblongus. Ibid. Nor is the reason of this Figure obscure, in a Globe of Water which is moved circularly; for the Mass of Water being much more agitated under the Aequator, than the Waters towards the Poles, where it passed through lesser circles; those parts which were most moved endeavouring to recede from the Centre of their motion, when they could not quite spring up and fly away, because of the Air which lay upon them on every side, nor yet could fall back again as being checked and resisted by that Air: they were unable so free themselves any other way than by flowing down to the sides: for Waters being pent, do flow that way where they find easiest passage; and from that flowing down of the Waters to the sides, and disburthening of the middle parts about the Aequator, the Globe of Water might become somewhat oblong. So that the Cause of the Oval Figure, in the Chaotic Waters, seems (in short) to be this. Their discharging themselves, defluendo ad latera, by flowing down to the sides or Poles of the Globe; upon their swelling or rising up (by means of their rapid circular motion) about the Aequator. But granting the Waters did swell and rise thereabouts (which yet would admit of dispute;) against this piece of the Theory's Hypothesis, it may be thus excepted; Either the Waters did flow down to the sides or Poles of the Globe, till it became Oval; or they did not. If they did not flow down so long, the Hypothesis fails, and the watry Mass could never be Oval. If they did flow down so long, then they must flow down, till they flowed down, upwards. (Pardon the absurdity of the Expression, the absurdity of the thing occasions it.) For the Polar parts of the watry Mass, as it became Oval, were the highest, being most distant from the Centre. And yet from the Aequator they did defluere ad latera, flow down to the Sides or Poles. Which that they might do, it was absolutely necessary that the parts about the Aequator should be highest: else the Waters in flowing to the Poles, would have been so far from flowing down, that contrary to their natures, they must have risen up above their Source. And yet as absolutely necessary again it was, that the Polar parts should be highest at last; otherwise the watry Mass could never have been made of an Oval Figure. And yet if it were made into that Figure, by the Waters flowing down (as the Theory says) from about the Aequator, to the sides, or Polar parts; then a third thing will be as necessary as either of the two mentioned; namely, That the Waters (as was said before) should flow down, upwards. So that it is as unlikely, that the Mass of Waters was ever of an Oval Form; as it is unlikely that a Contradiction should be true; or that the Element of Water should, of it self, perform a motion, which is beyond its power, by being above or against its nature. I say, of it self; for however there might be violence (that of the circular motion) in making it to swell about the Aequator; yet when once it was risen there, it was left to it self, as I may say; all farther force was taken off it, and it might follow the duct of its own Principles of Gravity and Fluidity. And accordingly it is said by the Theory, se liberare, to free it self (from that force which it suffered in receding from its Center, or rising up under the Aequator) defluendo, by falling off or flowing down; a proper expression of the true natural motion of Water. But then if the place it fell or flowed to, was higher than that it fell or flowed from (as in this case it must prove, before the watry Globe, by Defluxion of its Water, could be made Oval) it is evident that the Water by a natural motion, or of it self, did perform a course against its nature. For when it flowed down (or is said to do so) and according to its own nature ought to have done so; in reality, and according to the reason of the thing, it flowed up. Nor indeed could it possibly do otherwise, to produce the great effect pretended; unless it were possible for an Oval body to be highest in its middle parts. And then truly (but upon no other terms) the watry Globe might become oblong, ex illo defluxu aquarum ad latera, & exoneratione partium mediarum; from that flowing down of the Waters to the sides (which the Theory mentions) and the disburthening of the middle parts of it.

Now if the watry Mass, upon which the ingenious Theorist founds the first Earth; could not be made Oval, in the way he has invented: then neither could that Earth be of an Oval Figure, it being bound to put on the same shape which the Water had.

2. Very improbable it is also that the first Earth should be Oval, considering its Position or Direction in its Annual Motion. For that was such as could not well consist with its Oval Figure. In it, its Poles are said to have pointed always to the Poles of the Ecliptic: and so it would have been directed not unlike to Ships swimming side-ways. Now put a Ship, which is an Oval body, into the smoothest stream imaginable, and lay it cross that stream; and see how long it will keep in that Position. Will it always hold it? No, nor for any considerable while: but by degrees will quickly wind and fall in to swim long-ways with it; and continue mostly in that posture, as suiting best with its own shape and the course of the Waters. And truly that an Oviform Earth should lie crossways in the a • thereal Chanel, and be carried round the Sun for Sixteen hundred years together; and not change its site in compliance with the tendency or stream of it; seems very strange, if not impossible. Especially when that Earth was thin comparatively, and hollow like a Shell; and so more light, and ready to verge or be drawn aside from its supposed primitive situation.

The Present Earth, though generally allowed to be of a spherical Figure; and also of a solid composure throughout (unless at its Centre;) and likewise (according to the French Philosophy) to be held by a particular hand of Nature, in its inclining posture (which must be more easie to be kept by a round Earth, in the Medium which carries it; than a Right Position, by an oblong one:) is yet subject to wallowings in its Annual Motion. And how then can it be thought, that the First Earth, which was oblong, and had not that hand to hold it steady; could preserve its axis in a constant parallelism to the axis of the Ecliptic, till the time of the Flood? It would rather have turned end-ways in the Celestial Stream, and have stood for the most part in that direction; as best agreeing with its own Form, and the vehicular Current wherein it floated. And so (its axis, by force of the aethereal matter, being wrought into a coincidence with the Plain of the Ecliptic; and the Ecliptic like a Colure, passing through its Poles) while its Poles would have lookt East and West, and its Diurnal revolutions have gone North and South: it would have brought such a confusion into the Heavens and Earth at once, as is not easie to be expressed.

3. And that the First Earth was not Oval, methinks may, in some measure, be gathered from the Roundness or Sphericalness of the Present Earth. For this Terraqueous Body on which we dwell, is of a Spherical Fashion. So Anaximander thought, and also Pythagoras, Parmenides, and others of old, as well as all of later days. And as much is fairly inferrible from several things. As,

First, From its Conical Shadow. Which Figure, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Diog. Laert. in vit. Zeno (almost Two thousand Years since) noted the Shadow of the Earth to be of. And a common Argument for the Proof of it, is fetcht from the Moon. For in whatever place she has at any time entered into an Eclipse, or emerged out of the same; and whatever part of the Earth, during any of her Eclipses, has been turned to her, still it has been observed, that the Shadow cast by the Earth upon her Discus, was always Circular; which argues the Earth it self to be Globular. And that it is so, may be inferred,

Secondly, From the Place of the Waters. For were it Oval, they would not fail to retire out of the Seas near the Poles; and running down towards the Aequator of the Earth (which would be the lowest part of it) settle themselves around it, in the middle Regions thereof. But instead of this, we see the Waters are so far from drawing off from the Northern Seas about the Pole, that they abound most, and are deepest there; nor do we know of any thing but vast and deep Waters about the South-Pole neither. Whereas, I say, were the Earth Oval, and so the Poles of it highest, the Waters must necessarily have settled about the midst of the Earth, there being the lowest place, and so the properest for their Situation. And so the Sea in Figure would have resembled an Hoop; or as a liquid Zone would have encompassed the Earth, and divided it into two Hemispheres, in the same manner that some worthy Ancients conceived it did; for want of better Skill in Geography.

Thirdly, If the Earth were Oval, Navigation towards the Poles, beyond such a Latitude as bounds the Sphericity of the Earth, would be extreamly difficult, if not impossible. For then in such a course, Ships must steer up hill, and climb, as it were, all the way they swim, as sailing in a perfect ascent. But where would be Winds strong enough to heave them up such watry steepness? Or in case they had sufficient strength to do it; yet would not the Vessels rather pitch into, and run under the Waters that bear against them, than drive up upon their rising surface? And let but the blustring Gales which push them upward, cease; and would they not forthwith stop? Yea, immediately tack about, and (being left to themselves) settle down towards the Aequator again. But we hearing of no such difficult sailing up the Polar Seas; nor such retiring of Ships down to the Aequinoctial ones; have still more reason to believe, that the Earth and Water make a True Globe. And grant that these Arguments will not perfectly demonstrate the Earth to be Spherical; yet they being of more force to prove it is so, than any ever brought to prove it otherwise; we have reason to acquiesce in the received Opinion.

4. But to this it may be answered: In case the Earth be Round or Spherical now, this is no good evidence that it was so at first. It might then be Oval or oblong, and its present Roundness may be owing to its Disruption. I reply; Admit the Earth was oblong before the Disruption, and the falling in of its outward Orb, could hardly reduce it into a Spherical Form; but would rather have made it more oblong still. For the Orb we speak of must (in likelihood) break and fall in first, about the Aequator, or Middle parts of it. For there it was most heated; and there it was most cracked; and there it was most hollow underneath; the Waters of the Abyss being much exhaled. And these parts falling, those whereabouts the Tropics are now, might fall soon after them. Whereas the Poles of this Orb, being turned with a shorter or narrower Arch, were much the stronger. And then being remote from the Sun, and continually wet, were not disposed to break at all, through driness and brittleness, as the Regions about the Aequator were. So that the Poles might remain whole, and keep those very places almost which they held before. For as for their sinking lower, and coming much nearer together, than they were, it was not likely; because that huge Circle of Ground, which fell in about the Aequator and Tropics, would have intercepted and hindred them. For though the Poles were hollow, they could not slip over the Earth which fell in betwixt them, and clasp it in their cavities; in regard they were not wide enough. For the Orb being Oval, was narrowest towards the Poles. So that the falling in of the Earth, must have rendred it rather more, than less Oval; While the Poles of it would have continued at their usual distance almost, and the intermediate Regions, by dropping into the Abyss, would have been contracted into streighter Dimensions of Circumference.

5. Or say the Disruption of the Earth, would not have made it more Oval than it was; yet surely it would not have made it less. For as the Earth, in all probability, would have broke in first about the Aequator (for the reasons alledged) so those Fragments being nearer the inward Earth, than the Polar parts; would sooner have reached it in their fall, than these could have done. Especially considering these Polar parts (according to what was said before) must have fallen entire in two vast Caps as it were. For so they would have contained such abundance of Air, as must have rendred their descent very slow; much slower than that of the Aequinoctial, and Tropical Fragments. Which being of quite another fashion, that did not inclose the Air so much, would have descended a great deal faster. Insomuch that before the Polar Hemispheres (let me call them) could have got down to the interiour Earth; all the ground that fell in about the Aequator and Tropics, would have been settled there, and fit to receive those mighty Hemispheres, when they should have come and whelmed themselves whole upon it. Or grant they should have broke, by pitching upon that vast heap of Earth, which fell down betwixt them; yet there they must have laid in a confused posture where they flew in pieces, and so would have helped to make the Earth oblong. In a word, suppose they did sink down as far proportionably towards the common Centre, as the Aequinoctial and Tropical parts did; yet if they sank no farther (as indeed why should they, all circumstances considered?) the Earth in case it were Oval at first, must of necessity continue so.

1. HE that from the Clifts about it, or in sailing through it, beholds and contemplates the Watry Ocean: That views it (so far as eyes and thoughts can reach) in the stateliness of its Depth and wide Expansion: That considers what vast and numberless Rivers it continually drinks up, and yet is never the fuller for all these Accessions: How far it extends its ceruleous Arms, and how much it disgorges at Millions of Mouths, and yet is never the emptier for all its profusions: That sees its incessant and unwearied Motions, and how it ebbs and flows with haughty and incontrollable Reciprocations: That observes how it surges with every Wind, and surlily swells upon every Storm; and lifting up tumid scornful Waves, foams as angry at its Disturbance: That marks how it frets and rages in a Tempest, and rolls it self up into liquid Mountains, as if it thr • atned to mingle Floods with the Clouds, or in a pang of Indignation to qu • nch the Stars, or wash down those Lights hanged out by Heaven. He that gazeth on the spatious Seas, or revolves such thoughts as these of it in his mind, would be amazed to think that so immense an Element was once lockt up in a Vault under Ground, and wonder where the Earth should have Cellerage to hold it. He would scarce believe, that so proud, and strong, and furious a Monster, could be kept in Chains; or was ever so tame as to be coop'd up contentedly in a subterraneous Cave. He would hardly be perswaded, that it could be made to hide its head in an hole beneath; and to lie quiet and still in a nightsom Dungeon where for many Ages it never saw the Sun.

But how odd and unco • th soever it may seem, yet thus it was, says this Hypothesis. The same Primary Assertion of it, that says, The Exterior face of the first Earth, was smooth and uniform, without Mountains; says also, it was without a Sea. All that prodigious Mass of Waters, which Imagination (as comprehensive as it is) knows not well how to measure, was once shut up in an invisible Cell; and being clapt under Hatches, lay incognito as long as the first World stood. Not a Drop of it appeared all that while, but what strained forth by evaporation; or transpired through the Pores of the thick skin'd Earth, when by the heat of the Sun it was put into a sweat. As for the main Body of the Waters, they lurked and hid themselves in a secret Gro •• o; nor could they be brought to quit their latent Dwellings, or to look forth of their close and dark Retirements; till the Roof of their Lodgings f • ll in upon them, and justled them out of their Mansions, to make room for it self.

But against this, there lies the usual Exception; namely, That it fights with the Holy Scripture. For that informs us, That when GOD made Adam, he gave him Dominion over the fish of the Sea. But according to this Assertion of the Theory, Adam never saw the Sea, nor one Fish in it, all his life long, though it lasted well nigh a thousand Years: and so, impossible it was, that he should have or exercise such a Dominion.

And it is farther considerable, That Adam's Dominion over the Sea, was not only granted him by Patent from Heaven: but moreover was part of GOD's Image which was stamped on him. Whereinsoever the whole did consist, this, I say, seems to have been part of the Impress. For GOD said, Let us make Man in our Image, after our likeness, and let him have dominion • ver the fish of the sea, Gen. 1. 26. And so, to shut up the Sea within the Earth till the Flood, is to deny to Men a part of that Empire, wherewith their Maker was pleased to invest them; and to deprive them of a piece of his glorious Image which he put upon them. For none could share fully in the one or the other; but they who lived after the general Deluge.

If it be said, That Men at length were made Lords of the Seas (as soon, that is, as they were open) and had power over the Fish therein; and so the word spoken by their Creator, was sufficiently verified; and the Prerogative promised, amply conferred: I answer,

First, The Divine Word was never made good to Adam, nor was that high Prerogative bestowed on him. Yet he being the Head of Mankind, had reason to be instated in all the Privileges of Humane Nature, which GOD annexed to it, or settled upon it, as such.

Secondly, Adam's Off-spring (as many as lived and died before the • lood) did no more partake of this Priviledge, than he himself.

Thirdly, The Rule or Dominion over Seas and Fish, intended for Adam and his Posterity; was immediately conveyed to them. Even at the same time that Dominion was given to them, over Fowle, and Cattle, and Creeping things. And therefore we find it transferred by the same Act, and in the very same form of Donation. Only Dominion over the Sea was First mentioned; which is no sign that it was Last to be attained. The Royal Charter, by which they claim and hold the Prerogative, testifies as much: it runs as followeth, And GOD said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the Sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, Gen. 1. 26. And again ver. 28. have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. So that admit nothing of GOD's Similitude imprinted upon Man, did consist in this Dominion; yet let any judge, whether GOD did not intend hereby to pass unto Men, as full a Dominion over the Fish; as over other Creatures. As also whether they were presently to have and exercise this Dominion; or to be suspended from it for above sixteen hundred Years. That they had Dominion over the Fowl, and over the Cattle, and over the Creeping things; from the beginning; I dare say the Theorist himself will not deny. And how then can he bar them from it over the Fish till after the Flood? especially it being the first thing in order in the Sacred Grant. Which Clause, had they been kept from the benefit of it so long; would not only have been quite eluded, but miserably inverted. For then ins • ead of Mankind • s having Dominion over the Sea; that would have had Dominion, and a most Tyrannical one too, over them. Insomuch that the very first time they should have seen it, it would have drowned them all, even a whole World of them, save eight Persons.

2. And that there should be open Seas even from the Creation; seems very necessary upon the Fishes account. For when GOD gave them the Blessing of Multiplication (endued them, that is, with Appetite of Generation, and Power of Propagating their kinds respectively) he commanded them to fill (not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the great Deep, or Abyss, but) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Waters in the SEAS. And therefore Seas there must be in the beginning of things; else Fishes could not have replenish'd them with their Breed. And indeed some kind of Fishes there were, that could be no where conveniently, but in Seas; as being too big for Rivers. For on the same day that other Fishes were made, GOD created huge Whales also; passing the same Benediction upon them, as he did upon those. I confess, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , does signifie other Creatures, as well as Whales: but the word, denoting them amongst the rest, that will be enough for our purpose. For Animals they were of so vast Dimensions, that where could they harbour but in spacious Seas?

De Ani • al. l. 9. c. 49. Aelian reckons up several sorts of them: as the Leo, Libella, Pardalis, Physalus, Pristes, and Maltha. Which last he calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Creature hard to be conquered. To which he adds the Aries, most mischievous and dangerous to be seen. For when he appears a far off, he troubles the Sea, and makes it tempestuous. But then he notes withal, that these Fishes come not near to Shores or Shallows; but keep constantly in the Deeps. And the same Ibid. l. 17. c. 6. Author remembers, that Theocles speaks of Whales 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , bigger than Galleys of three banks of Oars on a side. And that Onesicritus and Orthagoras wrote of Whales about India, half a Furlong long, and of proportionable breadth; and so very strong, that oftentimes, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when they puffed with their Snouts, they would spout up the Water at such a rate; that the unexperienced would take the Seas to be tossed with Whirl-winds. Nor need we wonder at the excessive size of these Whales, when Pliny Nat. Hist, l. 32. c. 1. gives account, that King Iuba (in Books sent to Claudius Caesar, touching the History of Arabia) makes mention of some that were six hundred Feet long, and three hundred and sixty, broad. And the same Pliny speaks of Balaenae in the Indian Ocean, as long as four Acres of Ground. Mercator also in his Description of Island, besides other huge Fishes, tells of the Royder, and hundred and thirty Ells long. And of a great kind of Whale seldom seen, like an Island, for magnitude, rather than a Fish. As also of the Stantus Valur, which, when it shows it self, seems an Island, for bigness, and overturns Ships with its Fins.

Now where could Fishes of such prodigious greatness, move and multiply, but in vast and open Seas? Job 7. • 2. Am I a Sea, or a Whale? said Iob. He put them together, as having special Relation to one another. And truly if in the beginning, there were such monstrous Whales, there must be Seas answerable to them. And that the Whales at first created, were as large as any, we need not question. For as it became the ALMIGHTY to send forth them in their full perfection, as well as other Creatures: so to convince us that he did so, he bestowed the Epithet, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , upon them, calling them, GREAT Whales, Gen. 1. 21. So that could there have been Rivers, or Lakes in the first Earth sutable to other Fishes; yet these mighty ones would have been too big for them.

3. What remains therefore, but that the only place of aboad which (according to this new Hypothesis) can be allowed these Bulky Creatures (though it does not allot it to them) must be the subterraneous Abyss? And then the Waters in that Abyss (how improperly soever) must be the Waters in the Seas, wherein they were to live and multiply, according to the Divine Blessing and appointment.

But that Abyss (though of a meet capaciousness) could by no means have been a fit Dwelling for them, upon several accounts. For,

First, It would have been a place exceeding Dark, full of perpetual and blackest Midnight. Neither Sun, nor Moon, nor Stars, could ever have lookt into it; or darted so much as one bright Beam into the Pitchy Recesses of it. So that besides the loss they would have been at for P • ey, how could they have seen to direct their Motions? having no manner of Light at any time to guide them? So that upon occasion, they must have r • n at tilt upon one another; and being inclosed between two Earths, would have been in danger of stranding themselves both above and below.

Secondly, It would have been a place as close, as it was dark. And therefore what shift should they have made for Air? I think I may say for Breath. For as for Whales and other Fishes that have Lungs; Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 7. Pliny says, It is fully resolved by all Writers, that they breathe. And his Opinion it is, That all Water-creatures do the same, after their manner. In proof of which, he offers several Arguments not to be despised. As their Panting, Yawning, Hearing, Smelling, &c. To which add their Dying upon being frozen up for any time. Or if they be alive, their greedy flying to any little hole made in the Ice, whereat the Air enters. But in the Abyss they could have had neither Air nor Breath; and so for lack of the same, must all have been smothered.

Lastly, It would have been a place as Cold, as it was dark and close. For the same Cover of Earth (of unknown thickness) that would have hindred Light and Air from piercing into the Abyss; must have kept out the Suns cherishing and benign Warmth too. So that could they have struggled with, and overcome the two first Inconveniences; yet here they would have met with a Third, insuperable. Could they have lived without Light and Breath; yet they could not have multiplied without the Influence of Heaven. The want of that, would have chil'd and quench'd the desires of Procreation in them, and rendered them impotent that way. Thus, Winter, we see, is no season for Production of Fishes; as being destitute of that quickning power and encouragement, which the Presence of the Sun affords.

4. Farther yet. That there were Seas in the Beginning, even on the Third Day; we are taught, Gen. 1. 10. GOD called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, called he, Seas. And why should they not be such Seas as we have now? For we have no more grounds to think or say, That the Waters there mentioned, were an invisible, potential, or proleptic Sea; than we have to imagine or affirm, that the dry Land there spoken of, was an invisible, potential, or proleptic Earth.

And that there were open Seas then, may be argued from the Waters we read of under the firmament, Gen. 1. 6, 7. And GOD said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the Waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And GOD made the firmament, and divided THE WATERS WHICH WERE VNDER THE FIRMAMENT, from the waters which were above the Firmament. But had there been none but Riverwaters in the first World, and not such an open and huge Collection of Waters, as we now see: the Firmament could not so properly have been said, to divide the waters from the waters. For then it must rather have been in the midst betwixt the Earth and the Waters; and so must have divided the Earth from the Waters; the Earth which was under the Firmament, from the Waters above it. For as for the River-waters, they would have been too inconsiderable, to have had the Partition made by the Firmament, predicated of them in exclusion of the Earth, or in preference to it. It would have been as if the KING should have said, Let a Wall be built betwixt the Thames and the Conduits of London, to part them; without taking any notice at all of the City, which is infinitely more remarkable than the Conduits are.

But therefore the Theory presents us with a new Notion of the Firmament, and makes it to be quite another thing, than what it has always been said to be; namely, That Cortex or Outward Region of Earth, spread and founded upon the Abyss. And so the Waters of the Abyss under that Earth, must be the Waters under the Firmament. I cite but two Paragraphs to this purpose. Primo intuitu facilè quis suspicari posset, hanc compagem exteriorem, quam Deus stabilivit super faciem Abyssi, intelligendam esse per illud Firmamentum, quod Deus dicitur stabiliisse inter aquas inferiores & superiores, Gen. 1. 6. & 7. Theor. p. 124. Any one at the first view might be able to guess, that this exterior frame which GOD establisht upon the Abyss, is to be understood by that Firmament, which GOD is said to have establisht between the Waters below and above, Gen. 1. 6. & 7. And again, Et quoad Firmamentum interaqueum insigne erat Phaenomenon telluris primigeniae, ve • potius ipse orbis primus habitabilis, qui gyravit undique & conclusit—Abyssum; atque ita Aquas superiores ab inferioribus sejunxit. Ibid. pag. 254. As to the Firmament between the waters, it was a remarkable Phaenomenon of the first Earth, or rather the first habitable Orb it self, which every way encompassed and shut up the Abyss; and so divided the Waters above, from those below.

But this truly is so far from giving any satisfaction, that it will rather bring the whole Hypothesis to confusion: I mean, while thus it runs against Scripture again, and that most directly and shamefully. For the (Firmamentum interaqueum) Firmament that divided the Waters; was so far from being a Frame or an Orb of Earth, or the first habitable Earth, that (as the DIVINEST SPIRIT tells us) it was that wherein the Fowls were to fly, which yet were to fly above the Earth, Gen. 1. 20. Yea, in that very Verse it is said to be the Firmament of Heaven. And by GOD himself is stiled, Heaven; GOD called the Firmament, Heaven, ver. 8. Even that very Firmament which divided the Waters; as we learn from the two foregoing Verses. And therefore the waters under the Firmament, in the seventh Verse; are said in the ninth Verse, to be the waters, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , under the Heavens. I confess, the Theorist twits us for understanding by the Firmament what we commonly do; calling it an Ausim enim dicere quantum rerum Natura innotescit adhuc, Firmamentum Mosaicum prout Vulgo intelligitur esse prorsus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Ibid. Vnphilosophic thing. But I forbear to retort. It is enough to shew that the advantage lies so much on our side, and that the ingenious Philosopher is so utterly lost in his Notion.

And since to make the Earth before the Flood, to be this Firmament, is so impossible; as being manifestly repugnant to the Truth of GOD: what remains but that it should be that diaphanous Expansum stretched out betwixt us and the Clouds? which as it is constituted of Air chiefly; so it is the place wherein Fowls do fly, according as Providence was pleased to appoint. And to seal up this for a certain truth, it is known that the Hebrews have no other word whereby to express, Air, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Heaven, or Firmament. Only whereas this Aereous Expansion extends from hence to the cloudy Regions (where are the Wates above the Firmament; and therefore are calledPsal. 148. 4. Waters, above the Heavens) we must note that there is another Firmament mention'd by Moses. I mean that Expanse of indefinite vastness, wherein the Celestial Lights are fixed: for as we read, Gen. 1. 17. GOD set them in the Firmament of Heaven.

But then this Aereous space we speak of, being the true Firmament; this proves there were open Seas at first. Else (as was said before) this Firmament must have divided the Waters from the Earth; whose surface (bating a few Rivulets) would have been entire under it: but could not so properly have divided the Waters above the Firmament, from the Waters under it; because the Waters under the Firmament would have been in no united Body, and of no join'd or continuous Superficies; but (to grant what the Theory supposeth) dispersed in Rivers running on the Earth, which would have been one huge unbroken Continent. Yea, and in a considerable Tract of Ground around this Earth, there would not have been so much as one Rill of Water neither; even according to the Theory it self, allowing its Hydrography.

5. But here we meet with Opposition upon several Accounts. As first, if Open Seas were the Waters under the Firmament, in the primitive State of things; then the Clouds must be the Waters above the Firmament: But against this it is objected thus: Theor. pag. 234. If nothing be understood by the Celestial Waters, or Waters above the Firmament, but the Clouds and the middle Region of the Air as it is at present: methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing, as to deserve a particular Commemoration by Moses, in his six days work. To which I take leave to answer, That the Clouds, how contemptible soever they may seem, are no whit unworthy to be specified or remembred by that famous Writer in his Cosmopoeia, or Story of the Worlds Creation. And this will appear if we rightly consider but Two things concerning them; Their Dimensions, and their Vsefulness.

First, Look to their Dimensions. Who can tell what vast and mighty things they are? To what length and breadth do they stretch out themselves? and how do they cover whole Kingdoms at once with their shady Canopies? And then they are of answerable thickness too. So that interposing betwixt the Sun and us, they oftentimes turn day into night almost, by intercepting his light. Which in the Holy Philosophy, as an act of Providence, is thus ascribed to GOD. With clouds he covereth the light, and commandeth it by that which cometh betwixt, Iob 36. 32. Sometimes they mount up and fly aloft, as if they forgat or disdain'd the meanness of their Origin, and scorn'd to be thought of earthly extraction. Sometimes again they sink and stoop so low, as if they repented of their former proud aspirings, and did remorseful humble Penance for their high presumption. And though I may not say they weep to expiate their arrogance, or kiss the Earth with bedewed Cheeks in token of their Penitence; yet they often prostrate in the Dust, and sweep the very lowest grounds of all, with their misty foggy trains. One while they are spread thin and single over us; another while they are doubled, trebled, and strangely pil'd up or whelm'd one upon another: or else built with Stories as it were, and made into several Concamerations. And therefore they are said to be, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 His (that is GOD's) Chambers, Psal. 104. 3, 13. Now, they look like Ridges of Hills in our Horizon: anon, like a Row or Chain of Rocks: and by and by they hang like pendulous Mountains, or swim like floating Islands in the Aiery Ocean. Here, they pour down abundance of Rain; and there, as much Hail: in one place, they scatter Sleet; in another, deep Snow, and that for many hundreds of Leagues together. To say nothing of those glorious things the Rain-bow, Parelia's, Paraselenes, &c. Thunder also is from the Clouds. And yet it is a thing so very considerable, that GOD himself calls it his VOICE, in the Psalms; yea, his Mighty VOICE, and also his Glorious or Majestic VOICE. So much Power, and Glory, and Majesty is there in it, that it strikes awe and terror into the hearts of the best, as well as of the greatest. And certainly (the righteous being bold as a Lion) it was a greater sign of its Dreadfulness, that a good Man's Heart should tremble and be moved out of its place, at this VOICE of GOD's excellency, Iob 37. than that the Roman Emperor should run under his Bed.

Thus the Clouds appear to be strangely capacious Vessels, or Store-Houses rather of Meteor Provisions. And yet (which is admirable) when they are never so large, and never so thick; never so full, and never so heavy; and (as one would think) should load the Air with inconceivable gravitation: yet they do not fall down and crush us to pieces, or bury us alive under Mountains of Ice. No, they bear up as lightly, and drive on as swiftly through the yielding Sky, as if they had no kind of weightiness in them. And to whatsoever Philosophy may impute this (as to their being always in Motion; their being turgid with Vapours; to the thickconsistency of the Air under them, or the like) the thing is really and greatly to be wondered at. And therefore Pliny considering it, was struck with Admiration, and cry'd out as in a pang of rapture or surprize; Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 4. quid mirabilius aquis in coelo stantibus? What is more wonderful than the Waters standing in the Air? And well might he think it a marvellous Phaenomenon, when the Ballancings of the Clouds are said by the ALMIGHTY to be his own works; and not only so, but the wondrous works of him, as he is perfect in knowledge, Job 37. 16. In which regard, the Etymology of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Heavens, is not unfitly fetcht from, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to be astonish'd, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ Waters. Quòd stupendo modo aquae illic suspensae haereant: Because Waters hang there in an astonishing manner, says Buxtorf. But why then should they be thought so despicable by the Theorist, as to be unworthy of a particular commemoration by Moses?

They cannot be so, if, in the Second place, we consider their Vsefulness. They are so far from being wholly Superfluous, or purely Ornamental things; that they are highly beneficial or Vseful, Three ways. That is to say, For the Earth, For Mercy, and For Correction. The Distinction isChap. 3. 7. 13. Iob's; and therefore so authentic, that we need not scruple to go upon it.

First, They are Vseful for the Earth. As they contribute greatly to the Preservation of it; to preserving it in a good and verdant State. If the same Great GOD whose Powerful Goodness brought the World into being, and fixt it in a Regular and Curious Order; did not by a wise and gracious manutenency (exerted chiefly in a well contrived Disposition and Concatenation of things, linkt to one another by a continued Chain of just Connexion and dependence) hold them fast together; they would soon shatter and dissolve into saddest Confusion. For though the Machin of the Universe, be as august, as it is immense; yet were it not for the accurate Symmetry of its parts, so skilfully fitted and connected amongst themselves and for the mutual support which one piece derives and affords to another, by means of that necessary and elegant contexture, which runs through the whole habit or Compages thereof; it would immediately fall asunder, and rush into an heap of irreparable Ruines. Its Motions in some places would flag and faulter; and in others grown as much too fierce and violent: and so through unhappy deficiencies and redundancies of Motion (that commonly change and destroy Nature) post into innumerable Disorders and Intanglements; and so become a most lamentably hampered thing, eternally devoid of all beauty and harmony.

And the very same would happen to the Earth in its Proportion. It is now a very goodly piece, and incomparably furnisht and adorned. There are few places in it but afford taking Prospects, or present the eye with such pretty Objects; that if the Beholders be not too incurious, they may well be affected with them. Herbs, Flowers, Trees, Fruits, Springs, Brooks, Rivers, &c. with what variety, and in what abundance does it send forth? But yet let the Clouds we speak of, with-hold their moisture but a few years; and what a rueful change would then appear? The choicest Grounds which now swell with Plenty, and luxuriate with fatness and pleasing Gayeties; would be miserably exhausted, and their tempting amoenities turned into horridness. They would be quite devested of their florid attire, and of all their rich and gorgeous habiliments. Yea, not only their wanton gawdy Dresses, but even their coarsest and most ordinary Cloaths would be • indg'd off their Backs: and being stript of their decent necessary Garments, would have nothing le • t to cover their nakedness.

We live in an Island, where (according to St. Peter's phrase) the Earth stands in the Waters and out of the Waters, more than in other places. Yet, as much Water as we have about us, should the Clouds be unkind, and deny us their effusio • s; to what grievous straits should we soon be reduced? We may justly conclude so, from what has happen'd by some short Droughts amongst us; the effects of which are found upon Record in our English Chronicles. And if a little dry weather be intolerable to us, who dwell so near the Seas, and have Neptune's Territories round about us; how extreamly pernicious must lasting Droughts be, to higher or more In-land Situations?

But therefore the First Vse of the Clouds, is to keep the Earth in a Flourishing Condition. To temper the immoderate heat of the Sun, and to asswage his scorching fury. To moisten the Air, and keep it cool; and to cool the Earth by keeping it moist. That so once in a year at least it might put on its bravery, and be deckt and array'd in its prideless Gallantry; the Image of its native finery, and those higher glories, wherewith at first it was better beautified and imbellisht. And therefore when GOD brings the Clouds over it, to perform their work of natural Distillation; He is said to do it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for hiz Earth; in the quoted Text. Because the Earth is His, and because it might continue to be like his; that is, Comely and Graceful. Whereas if Clouds by their Waters should not refresh it, in a short time it would scarce be fit to be owned for GOD's Earth. It would be so fear and bare, and barren and desolate; that it would hardly look like a piece of His Workmanship. Yea, so parched would it be, and so dry would it grow, and such heats would it conceive from the inflaming Sun; that it would be forced to anticipate its final Destiny, by burning, in good measure, before the Conflagration.

Secondly, The Clouds are Vseful for Mercy. They do not keep the Earth from Desolation, and help to maintain it in a Condition good and flourishing, upon its own account only, but upon ours also. That so we may be fed, and cloathed, and furnished, with its valuable Products, and the fruits of its increase. The Psalmist (if we would read this in Holy Stile) expresses it thus: Psal. 65. 9, 11, 12, 13, 14. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it, Thou makest it very plenteous. Thou waterest her furrows, Thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof; Thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it. thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy clouds drop fatness. They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness, and the little hills shall rejoice on every side. The folds shall be full of sheep, the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing. And in another place. Psal. 104. 13, 14, 15. He watereth the hills from above, the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works. He bringeth forth grass for the cattle, and green herb for the service of man. That he may bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oyl to make him a chearful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart.

But this is not all the mercy which showrs down from the Clouds. They drop an higher mercy on us still. I mean as they are an Argument, and a mighty Argument, against the black and cursed sin of Atheism. For being notable Instruments of Divine Providence, they so bear witness in a powerful manner to the existence of a GOD. And therefore when as great a Disputant as ever entered the Christian Schools (except the adorable Master of them) would have reasoned Men into an acknowledgment of the True GOD; he argued from this very Topic, the Clouds; or (which is all one) from the Rain they afforded. Yea, he told them plainly, That GOD himself made use of it as an Evidence, to prove and attest his own being. He left not himself without witness, in that he gave us Rain, Acts 14. 17. And truly he that shall consider all the Phaenomena's of this Meteor, and trace it along from its Rise or Generation, to its fall and profitable effects upon the Earth; will find it of singular force to evince a DEITY.

As for the Causes, Nature, and Qualities of Rain; the way of its Production, the manner of its Distillation, &c. the Apostle urged them not: he knew those things were too high for the Men of Lystra. But then he pressed them with the thing another way, more suitable to their Capacity; namely, As Rain was a means of the Earth's being fruitful. He gave us Rains and fruitful seasons. Pursue it but on this part, and how powerful an Argument or Testimony will it be, of the Existence of a GOD? I mean, as it will appear to be a wonderful Instrument, exactly sitted for its appointed work; and as it manifests a strange Providential Contrivance, in adapting it, in point of congruity and ability, to be the excellent Cause of such signal Effects.

For suppose the most understanding Man, as to that concern, in the whole World; had Woods and Nurseries, and Orchards and Gardens, and Fields and Pastures, to be watered: how would he chuse to have it done, so as it might be most for their, and consequently for his own advantage? Why, in the same way we shall find it done by the Clouds, only better and indeed so much better, that it will be very hard, if not impossible, for Art to match it by any Invention. A certain Indication, that a more than ordinary or Humane Wisdom, is interessed in the Affair. That the Clouds were made, that is, and also are managed by a GOD; whose Infinite Wisdom indu'd them with that Nature, and placed them in that Order, and put them in that capacity of serving us as they do. So incomparably, that is, as no wit of Man can mend their Method. For let the skilfullest, I say, chuse at what rate he would have his Grounds to be watered; and then see if the Clouds commonly come not up to his Rules, and exceed them too in what is fit to be done.

First, We may be sure he would appoint the best kind of Water to be used. And what Water so fit for all sorts of Plants, as that which descends from the Clouds above? For considering how it is raised by the exhalative influence of the Sun, it can have nothing of saltness, acrimony, or deadness in it; nor yet of starving thinness nor coldness neither; but must be as light, and unctuous and spirituous, as that Element, when simple, can well be; and by vertue of its sutable qualities and consistency, be most proper for invigorating the Seminals of all things. And then being drawn up from all parts of the Earth almost; as simple as it seems to be, there must needs be very great mixture in it. I mean, though it be all Water, yet it must be a Compound of all Waters as it were; as being an extract of all sorts of moisture that the Earth affords in its several Regions. Whence it follows, that all sorts of Plants must find something in it (it being originally in part derived perhaps from the Countries in which they grow) highly agreeable to themselves; as consisting of Particles fit to enter them, and easie to be turned into their substance. Which being suckt up by them, and drained by exquisite percolation through their fine digestive Pores; immediately becomes Sap (which is the Plantal Chyle or Blood) for their nourishment and accretion.

Secondly, Without question he would have these Waterings seasonably performed. And here the Clouds are most kind to Vegetables again; and by a regular method answer their necessities. For they yield both former and latter Rains. Such as may cherish them while they are young and make them grow; and strengthen them as they grow, and carry them on to perfection. Whereas if all these Rains should fall at first, the tender Springals would come to nothing; as being surfeited with too much moisture, and the principle of their Life irrecoverably chill'd, if not extinguisht. And if all should pour down upon them at last, the Showres would be to no purpose. For coming too late, they would be in vain: especially as to all Frugiferous things; which being shrunk and stunted with immoderate exiccation, would be unable to yield their kindly Products.

Thirdly, We need not doubt but he would have his Grounds watered in a gentle manner. And this, I may say, the Clouds do unimitably. Sometimes with dewy Mists; sometimes with greater, sometimes with lesser, commonly with soft and moderate Showres. Whereas should they discharge themselves in extravagant quantities; they would wash up the weaker, and beat down the stronger Plants; and by their too free and impetuous Defluxions, be extreamly injurious, if not fatal to both.

And can we think that what we have noted already, should be done by meer accident? That the Regions above, which need them not, but are rather clogged and cumbred with them; should draw up such plenty of Waters for us, who cannot possibly subsist without them: and then send them down again of so elaborate a nature, at so seasonable times, and in so sutable measures: and all by casual Oeconomy, and the conduct of blind and incertain Chance?

Fourthly, We may ground upon it that he would have these Waterings to be constant. Not only for two or three Months, or some few years; but so long as he lives at least, to name no longer period. Nor are the Clouds deficient in this circumstance neither. For as they have watered the Earth through all ages past, so they will do the same indefatigably for the future, even till the final Consummation of all things. And though no one Sett of Clouds can ever be fixed or permanent, they being perpetually flitting and volant; yet as some fly from us, others arise; and so from new successions of them, we have supplys of fresh Rain. And therefore albeit they are passant things, they leave very good and lasting effects of their transient fugitive presence with us. And here the hand of Providence is visible again. For put case that things by a fortuitous hit, had fallen luckily at first into that convenient posture for Rain, in which now they stand (which would be most surprising to think;) yet that then they should persist of themselves, so long, and steddily, and inalterably in the same; is not to be imagined. No, where the Wheel of Order runs on in so even, and withal in so laudable and holding a Course; 'tis a plain case that its Motions were derived from the impulse of Heaven; and are maintained by the help of a Divine Influence, or Providential Direction and Concurrence.

Fifthly, We may reasonably conclude, that he would appoint things to be watered intermittingly. Lest too much driness together, should injure them on the one side; or too much moisture prejudice or bane them on the other. Nor are the Clouds faulty in this piece of service, but perform it as it were, with a great deal of care and seeming Officiousness. For when they have poured out their kindness liberally on the Earth, they usually stop up their Bottles again; and by suspending their effusions promote its fruitfulness; as well as by sending them down upon it. For as Rains that are new and fresh from above, are most nourishing to Vegetables; so their intermissive descents make them to be more nutritive still. For then having drunk up and digested those that are past; they become more receptive of them that succeed. And so sucking in what is fit for their aliment with the more greediness; they disperse and concoct it with the more ease and speed.

And truly in the alternate vicissitudes of wet and dry weather, there is something, at times, most remarkably Providential. For when we have had sore and tedious Rains, for that very reason they should hold and increase; because Nature is prepared and inabled thereunto by abundance of Vapours. And when we have had a long and excessive drought, for the same reason it should continue; because Nature is sitted to carry it on; the parched ground affording fewer Exhalations, and there being a scarcity of matter out of which Rains should be made. Yet (as experience proves) it happens not thus, but on the contrary. For when Nature's Disposition in the case, does sensibly stand one way; she is turned about, and as it were against her seeming and set Inclinations, led into another. Which whispers and suggests to the thinking Man, that she is certainly directed by an hand from above, and in these preterintentional and undesigned changes (as we may call them) is over-ruled by a power superior to her own; and also joined with such Wisdom, as orders her much better than she could do her self.

Lastly, We may presume that this Person would certainly have all his Grounds to be watered. That the one might be fruitful as well as the other, and all of them recompence the impartial care, with a general Fructification. And here the Clouds are not at all defective, but act their part in this necessary scene, most unexceptionably. For they spread out their melting dripping Wings even far and near; and oblige the whole Earth where it needs, (not to say where it has no want) with their most free and universal Disbursements. And truly were it not for their Waters so copiously shed down on the Earth, how miserable would the Condition of Mankind be? But then when things are so well and happily ordered; as that a blessing so needful, is made so general; and is every where so common and easie to be had: what a bright beam of Conviction, as to the Being of a DEITY, darts forth and shines down from the blackest Clouds? For who but the Great GOD could have stretcht out such Fountains in the Spatious Skies; and for the needs of Men throughout the World, have invented so adequate and incomparable Supplies?

Nor indeed are they Instruments of Common mercy only; but vehicles oft times of Special secular Blessing and Prosperity, to some Persons. So it appears by Eliphaz's Advertisement; who tells us, That GOD giveth rain upon the earth, and s • ndeth waters upon the fields; to set up on high those that be low, Iob 5. 10, 11.

Thus we have seen how beneficial Rain from the Clouds is, as to the Earth. In which respect when GOD pleases to send it, 'tis said to come, for HIS Earth; as above noted. We have also seen how beneficial it is to Men, in watering their Possessions: and that in so singular a way, as the wisest could never have projected a better. In which regard it is said to come, for mercy. And so it does most signally, not only as it fills Men with Temporal good things for the use of their Bodies: but moreover as it is, or may be, a means of Spiritual Mercy to their Souls; in ministring an Universal Argument to Mankind, of the greatest Truth, and most necessary to be believed, of any in the World.

But then in the Third place (to pursue and fill up the Holy Man's Distinction) it is Vseful, for Correction. As GOD is infinitely Good in Himself; so He alone is able to bring good out of evil. That's an Extract which none but the ALMIGHTY by a most Divine. Chymistry peculiar to his MAJESTY, is able to make. And this he frequently does for those, in whose pure Affections he dwells and rules. All things work together for good to them that love GOD, Rom. 8. 28. But then there is another piece of his Character as true; ThatIsai. 66. 6. He will render recompence to his enemies, andExod. 20. 5. visit iniquities upon them that hate him. And as he has numberless ways of doing this; so he often effects it by changing things that are of necessary use, into fatal influence. Whereby he makes what is na • urally good for Men; to be unto them judicially anPsal. 69. 23. occasion of falling. Most evident is this in the Instance of Rain. So needful is it, that we cannot subsist without it. Yet this very thing, GOD turns, when he pleases, into an heavy Rod; and by making it unseasonable or else excessive, chasteneth his People sorely with it. Yea, he imploys it not only as a Rod to chastise his Servants; but sometimes as a Sword to cut off his Adversaries; and an Instrument of Vengeance to sweep away the ungodly in whole sholes or multitudes. This was never so tragically apparent, as in Noah's Flood; when a great part of that generall destructive, but deserved Blow, which fell upon Mankind, was given by this Weapon. For by the Waters of Rain in conjunction with other Waters, a period was put to the first sinful World, by a very just, though lamentable Catastrophe.

And when the Clouds and their Rains, or the waters above the firmament, were so very considerable in themselves; and withal so very useful in way of Preservation to the Earth; and in way of Mercy and Iudgment, as reaching out GOD's favour and severity to the World: Why should they not be worthy, and highly worthy, of Moses's notice in his Divine Cosmology? The Holy Psalmist (who we are sure spake by the same Spirit that Moses did) looks upon the Clouds as mighty eminent and remarkable things. For as he makes them to be GOD's Chariot, Psal. 104. 3. So in another place, he makes them notable Evidences of his Magnificence and Power; Psal. 68. 34. His worship and strength is in the clouds.

6. But against the Existence of open Seas at first, it is farther objected, thus, Nec aquae congregantur omnes in eundem locum; nam praeter multos lacus salsos, & aliquos forsan sinus Maris olim impervios, Mare Caspium quod ejusdem est originis & antiquitatis cum magno Oceano, ab eodem longe disjunctum est. Theor. pag. 123. Nor are the Waters gathered all into the same place; for besides many salt Lakes, and some gulfs of the Sea perhaps heretofore impervious, the Caspian Sea, which is of the same origin and antiquity with the great Ocean, is far separate from it.

To take off which, I answer; That Moses does not say, Let ALL the Waters be gathered into one place. Though if he had, the word ALL, in Scripture, is usually taken in a restrained sense, to signifie but a Major part: and so here it might have meant but the greater quantity of Waters. To give Proof of this out of the Writings of Moses. He tells us,Gen. 50. 7. That ALL the servants of Pharaoh went up with Joseph to bury his Father. Yet we cannot think that the Court was quite empty at that time, and the King left wholly without Attendants. And therefore, ALL, there, must denote but a great many. So he delivered it as a Law to Israel; Deut. 16. 16. Three times in a year shall ALL thy males appear before the LORD thy GOD, in the place which he shall chuse. And yet we know that some of them at those times must be decrepit, and some sick, and some unclean; and so unable to take such a Journey, and unfit to make such an appearance. And therefore by, ALL, here, can be intended but, many, neither; even as many as were capable of the performance, or qualified for it. And thus indeed ALL the Waters were gathered into one place. That is, the great quantity or main Body of them was so: as they were incorporate and united in the Ocean. Which whereever it diffuseth and insinuateth it self about the Earth, is but one continued piece of Water, and so fills one continued space with its huge moles. I speak of a partial, and sometimes a secret continuity; for it is not always open, visible, and entire. And that the Caspian Sea is a part of the great Sea, and holds a secret commerce with it under ground (as the dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites, is presumed to do with the Mediterranean) is clear from hence; that it receives such an abundance of Waters into it self, and swells not with them. For though the Stream of Volga (which is thought to afford Waters enough in a Years time to drown the whole Earth) continually discharges it self into the Caspian Sea; it is never the fuller. And therefore the Theory need not have instanced in that Sea as a distinct and separate Sea by it self. Especially when it allows it to Per ductus subterraneos cum Ocea •• communic • ar 〈◊〉 . Pag. 62. have communication with the Ocean by Subterraneous passages; whereby it is really, though not visibly joined to it, and in some sense, but one with it. And then as for other Gulfs and Lakes, that are distinct as to themselves, and divided from the Ocean; how inconsiderable are they in proportion to it? But as so many Buckets-full to a large Pool. Yet should the Waters run out of some huge Pool, and settle together elsewhere; as it might truly be said of them then, that they are gathered together into one place, though many Bucketsfull should lodge in Plashes by the way: so the Waters in general, may rightly be affirmed by Mases, to be gathered together into one place; though a Multitude of small Receptacles, and the Caspian, larger than the rest, remain apart.

7. But a Third Objection is yet to be removed (for I am willing to encounter all that are Material) which is this. If the Earth had Open Seas at first, dividing it into Continents and Islands, and interlacing and environing them, as now they do; how could the several parts thereof, so separate, be peopled with Men and stockt with Beasts? Or to use the words of the Theory, Propagatio & traductio hominum & animalium, in tot mundos separatos, difficilis esset explicatu. Ibid. pag. 123. The propagating or conveying of Men and Animals into so many separate Worlds, would be difficult to explain. I answer,

First, It is as difficult to make out how the Earth should be peopled before the Flood, though the surface of it had been entire. I mean upon account of that Torrid Zone which the Theory supposeth to have been in it.

Secondly, Islands at first might be nothing so numerous as they are since. But as many of them were founded, as I may say, after the Earth; so many of them may be of later date than the Deluge. Which factitious or upstart Isles came into being Three ways.

Some were produced of an abundance of Filth, rolling down the Streams of Rivers, and running into the Sea and settling there. So were the Echinades, spoken of before. Concerning whose Production therefore, Ovid makes the River out of which they came, to speak thus, —Fluctus nosterque marisque Continuam deduxit humum, pariterque revellit In totidem mediis (quòd cernis) Echinadas, undis.

Others were thrust up in some Seas, and appeared on a sudden. Of this sort was Rhodos in the Carpathian Sea, an hundred and twenty Miles in compass; one of the ancient Academies of the Roman Monarchy. Delos, in the Archipelago, one of the Fifty three Cy • lades. Remarkable for the Temple of Apollo; for most excellent Brass; and for the Fountain Inopus, which (as Nat. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 103. Pliny affirms) rises and falls as the Nile does, and at the same times with it. Alone, hard by Cyzicum, and betwen Lebedus and Teon, Two Cities of Ionia. Anaphe, one of the Twelve Sporades (I think) or at least not far off them, as lying near to Melos, one of the chief of them. Thera, called also Calliste, where Callimachus the Poet was born, and whence they went who built Cyrene. It appeared first, in the fourth year of the hundred and thirty fifth Olympiad, asIbid. l. 2. cap. 87. l. 4. c. 12. Pliny relates; and from it was the Ilet Therasia broken off. Hiera, the same with Automate, which appeared about an hundred and thirty years after: even in our time (says the same Pliny) upon the Eighth day before the Ides of July, when M. Junius Syllanus, and Lucius Balbus were Consuls.

Other Islands again have been made by Disjunction from the Main-land. As some have been joined to Continents and become one with them; as Aethusa in the Lybian Sea, to Mundus; Zephyria, to Halicarnassus in Caria; Narthecusa, to Parthenius, a Promontory of Arcadla; Hybanda, to Ionia, and the like: so some on the contrary have been ravished or rent away from the firm Land. Thus Prochyta an Island in the Tuscan Sea, was raised not far from P ••• oli: While a great Mountain in Inarime, falling by an Earthquake, poured forth that abundance of Earth of which it was composed. And so it carries the account of its Original in its 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . name; asQuasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Delos also above mentioned does. Cyprus, a noted Island in the Mediterranean, was divided from Syria, says Pliny; whence it is now distant at least an hundred Miles. Sicily, from Italy. Euboea, from Boeotia. Besbycus, from Bithynia. And as some have thought, Britain, from France. And truly if Syria, and Cyprus, which are now so remote from one another, were once united; this makes it the more probable, that England and France might (time out of mind) have been joined by an Isthmus or neck of Land.

Thirdly, It may be answered, That as Islands at first were not so numerous; so the bigger of them might not lie so far off from Continents as now they do: the Earth being since much eaten away by Waters, and so the distance betwixt them made much wider. Or if they did lie so far from the Main-land, yet the Inhabitants of such Lands, might advance into the distant Isles, by the help of some rude kind of Boats made of hollow Trees, or the like. Or if any were such out-liers, as that they did not designedly make towards them, or accidentally hit upon them; we may without inconvenience, grant them never to have been inhabited. And so we read of that African Island, St. Thomas, in the A • lantic Ocean, under the Aequinoctial; that at its first discovery (though since the Flood) it was unpeopled, and had nothing in it but Woods.

Lastly, I answer, As to the grand Continents of the Earth; Europe, Africa, and Asia (which are three of them) have known Inlets by Lands, into one another. And for ought we can tell, there may be Inlets out of Asia into America, in the Northern parts of them. But however we are sure it is but a narrow Strait, that separates the Kingdom of Anian from Tartary. And who can say but that before the Flood (and perhaps for a good while after it) the •• might be some Neck of Land coupling both together, and affording an easie Passage out of the one into the other; which may be since washt down or swallowed up? For as the Earth does sometimes gain strangely upon the Water (witness the City of Antioch (to say nothing of Aegypt, the Bay of Ambrasia, the Flats of Teuthrania, and the now Meadowy level where Maeander runs, once belonging to Neptune's Empire) which at first, says Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 27. Pliny, stood upon the Sea coast, but even in his time became an hundred and twenty five Miles distant from it:) so the Sea otherwhiles prevailes as much against the Land. Thus, the Atlantis, a vast Continent, bigger than Libya and all Asia, (says In Timaeo. Plato) by a terrible Earthquake, lasting a day and a night, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sunk down into the Sea and disappeared. And he that would see what the Mediterranean has devoured, let him but read the short Ninetieth Chapter of the Second Book of Pliny's Natural History: where he gives a brief Account of what incroachments it has made in Acarnania, Achaia, in the Propontis, Pontus, &c. And when the Sea has been thus usurping upon the Land, and has made violent breaches in several places; why might it not make a passage for its Waters between Tartary and Anian, though there was none at first? or why might not the ground sink there by an Earthquake, or the like?

But grant the Streight we speak of, to have been ever the same that now it is: yet it will not be over difficult then neither, to conceive how America should come to be inhabited. As for Quivira, which lies right against China, and joines to Anian; • hat that was peopled out of Tartary, is not to be doubted. The course of Life which the Americans were found to lead thereabouts, does fairly show it; as being correspondent to that of the Tartarian Hordes, or Scythian Nomades. Only the Question will be, How the Tartars could swim over this Arm of the Sea▪ as having no shipping. For the resolving of which, we need but consider; that when the Spaniards grew acquainted with America, they found that the People upon the Coasts thereof, used little Boats made of the Trunks of Trees, hollowed (not by Iron Instruments, because they had none; but) by fire. Now grant but the Tartars (who dwelt upon the Coasts opposite to Anian) to have used the like; and how easily might they at times be accidentally hurried thither, in those sorry Sciphs, before they were aware? and so begin the Plantation of the American World. And then do but yeild that the Inhabitants of Tartary before the Flood, were but as ingenious at making these Canoes, and as addicted to the use of them; and it might then be peopled the same way. Though what better Conveniencies for Transportation, the Antediluvian Tartars (as I may call them) might have; we cannot say. Nor can we hope ever certainly to understand, who were the Aborigines, or first Planters of the Post-diluvian Americans; or how they came into that spatious Tract of Ground, that half of the World of unknown extent, called the West-Indies. For the Natives being Strangers to Learning, have no History amongst them, or Records of their own Antiquities, that can make any tollerable discovery of this nature. As for their coming to the place where they built Mexico, under the Conduct of Vitzliliputzli their GOD, who went before them in an Ark (which account we have in the Story of the Mexican Kingdom, related out of their Memorials and Traditions) it is so general and obscure; that no clear knowledge of their Beginning can be gathered out of it. I will only note therefore that as to the peopling of America, Torniellus is of our Opinion. For he says,America vel nostro orbi Contineus est, aut ab eo non valde disjuncta, ad quam scaphis aut parvis • avig •• s trajici possit. Anno Mund. 1931. n. 49. America is a Continent with our World, or not very much disjoined from it, to which there might be passages by Sciphs or little Boats.

1. I Should now have passed directly to the next vital or primary Assertion of the Theory. But there being no fitter place to do it in, I shall here bestow one short Chapter upon the Rain-bow. For that also is made use of collaterally, to support the Hypothesis we dispute against. Concerning it, GOD expresseth himself thus,Gen. 9. 13, 14. I do set my Bow in the Cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the Earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the Earth, that the Bow shall be seen in the cloud. And because we heard nothing of it till now, 'tis presumed that it never appeared before. But by the same reason we may as well conclude, That a Cloud was never seen before neither; because here we find the first mention made of one. Which must needs be false, inasmuch as the Flood proceeded in great measure from violent Rains. And to suppose Rains without a Cloud, is the same absurdity, as to suppose Children without a Mother. And therefore our hearing nothing of the Rainbow, till the Flood was past; is no good Argument that it was not, but that it was not significant, before. And it is most like that we had not heard of it at last in the Sacred Volume (no more than we do of Comets, Eclipses, &c.) i • it had not been turn'd into a Pledge of Mercy to us. And in this sense, as it was made a Symbol of the merciful Covenant; GOD might say emphatically, I do set my bow in the Cloud, when he struck this Covenant with Noah. It was in the Cloud indeed before, but then it was only of Nature's setting there; and so it was but a meer Cipher, or at least made no other Figure, but that of a bare Physical Meteor. But afterward when by Divine appointment, it became useful beyond its proper capacity, and never appeared without something in it more taking than its colours; as being cloathed with a rare additional excellency, the new imposition of a preternatural Signality: then, and ever since it might more justly and peculiarly be said, to be set in the Cloud by GOD. For though it stands there still in a natural and ordinary way; yet it serves to an extraordinary and supernatural end, and he it is that made it do so.

2. Nor would this significancy which the ALMIGHTY put upon it, be at all impeached by its existing from the Beginning. For though it had ap ••• red as commonly before the Deluge, as ever it did since; it would not for that have been the less authentick or assuring token of GOD's Covenant, or of his sidelity in keeping the same. For its force that way, depended not upon the Nature of the thing (applied to this symbolical use) but upon Heavens Institution. So that if GOD had appointed the Sun to that use, he would have signified the same thing that the Bow does; though as all must grant, the Bow is the most fit Emblem of the two; and therefore it was chosen. For that never shows it self but in a Cloud, and with a Rain; both which were instrumental to the great Inundation: and so serve most properly to mind us of it, and from thence to pass our thoughts to GOD's Promise, of securing the World from such another.

Were it yielded therefore, that there never was a Rainbow, till that Noah saw after the Flood; what considerable Point would be gained as to GOD's Design in exhibiting of it? What clearer Token would it have been of his Covenant? What stronger support of Mens confidence in it? the two principal Ends whereunto it was appointed. Why should we (for instance) that are now alive, be the more firmly perswaded of the Truth of GOD's Compact, or the more fully satisfied that he will surely stand to it? Indeed if it had been a New Apparition; by being so very fine and curious, it might have wrought prettily upon Noah's Phancy, and theirs who were with him. Especially it coming with such a Promise of Mercy, and finding them in the midst of such ga • tly ruines. But bating but this, that its Newness might sweetly affect its Beholders, making delightful and somewhat surprizing Impressions on their Minds, and raising in them little transports and wondrings; what great benefit could result from it? As to the Persons then in being, it would have been a most valid Ratification of the Divine Covenant, without its novity: as being turned into a Seal of an immutable Promise of Security against general Floods to come, made by that GOD who had justly delivered them, and that most miraculously, from one lately past. And as to after Generations, it must be all one to them, whether the Celestial bow was first exhibited since the Deluge, or before it. For as many as think aright concerning it, that it is an Effect of Natural Causes; and that the rorid Cloud, the opposite Sun, and the Eye of the Spectator, being rightly disposed, so as to make due Refractions and Reflections of the Sun-beams at requisite Angles, it must as necessarily appear as fire must burn: they cannot discern any shadow of reason, why it should not as well assure them the World should be drowned no more, had it been extant ever since the Creation; as if it had commenced its appearance at the drying up of the Flood. To be short; whenever it appears, it is because it cannot do otherwise: but when it does appear, it betokens the Earth's preservation from drowning, meerly upon the account of GOD's Ordinance, that so it should do. And therefore it might be as good a Prognostic or Token of the Worlds indemnity from a second Flood, though it had appeared in all Ages before; as if it had then shown it self first, when GOD was pleas'd to make it the Sign of his Covenant.

3. And indeed it is the way or method of Providence both in its Penal and Propitious Dispensations, to make known, and common, natural, and familiar things, Marks of his Displeasure, and Significations and Vehicles of its kindness and beneficence.

Thus, as to Punishment, it was a piece of the Serpet's Curse, that he should go upon his belly. Yet it does not appear that this Malediction deprived him of Legs, or that he and his Species ever went erect. So it was made part of the Womans Sentence, that her Husband should rule over her. Yet her Condition before, was a State of Subjection to him, as intimated to proceed from the order of her1 Tim. 2. 13. Creation. So that what stands clearly imputed to her sin, and seems to be the plain Consequent of her Guilt, and the effect of her Doom; was antecedent to the same, and the Lot of her Innocence. Only Circumstances were altered, and what was sweet and easie as Nature at first; was unhappily changed into trouble and penance, in the issue of things.

And the like is observable in the Oeconomy of Mercy. I mean, in the very conduct of Religion it self, and that in the sublimest Mysteries thereof. For the Evangelical Sacraments were instituted in Water, Bread, and Wine, for sealing and ratifying a far nobler Covenant, than that betwixt GOD and the Patriarch Noah, extending to his Posterity, and all living Creatures. And yet these were common Elements, and of ordinary use at all times. Only positive Commands and Divine Institution improved them into means of Christian Proselytism, and Communion with the DEITY.

And this makes it the more probable, that the Rainbow was an usual Meteor. Because then GOD in giving it to the World in Confirmation of his Promise or Pact; would have acted most consonantly to his other proceedings. Yea, even to his proceedings in the highest and holiest Solemnities of Religion; of nearest intercourse with His MAJESTY, and so of greatest importance to Mankind. For there he has made the most common things, to be Signs and Mystical Deferents of himself, and his Favours, to all worthy Partakers of them.

But all such instances, says the Theory, fall short, and do not reach the case before us. Pag. 237. Read also pag. 236. For a sign confirmatory of a Promise, when there is something affirmed de futuro—must indispensably be something New. Otherwise it cannot have the Nature, Vertue, and influence of a Sign. And a little before, Such Signs—must be some new appearance, and must thereby induce us to believe the effect— otherwise the pretended Sign is a meer Cypher and superfluity.

To which I answer, As to Signs given by GOD, to confirm his Promises; he has taken a Latitude to himself in chusing and appointing them. For,

Sometimes he has made things new and strange to be Signs of this nature. Thus, his own Deafness and Dumbness, was to be a Sign to Zachariah, of his Promised Son. The Retrogradation of the Shadow on Ahaz's Dial, was to be a Sign to Hezekiah, of his promised Recovery. And the Fleece expos'd to the Dew, first wet, and then dry, was to be a Sign to Gideon, of his promised Victory. But then,

Sometimes he has made things to be Signs, that on the other side are common and usual. Thus the Fruit of a Tree growing in Paradise, was made a Sign of Man's Immortality, if he continued Obedient: and therefore it was called The Tree of Life, say many of the Learned. And shooting with Bow and Arrows upon the ground (than which nothing could be more ordinary) was made a Sign to Ioash of his prevailing against the Syrians. And therefore when he shot, the Arrow was called The Arrow of the LORD's deliverance from Syria, 2 Kings 13. 17. Here wasPiscat. in loc. sagitta significans & promittens salutem; or, in the Theory's words, a sign confirmatory of a Promise, wherein there was something affirmed de futuro; but it had nothing new or extraordinary in it (the thing being most common and usual) save only that GOD by his Prophet, intimated its significancy that way. But had it not therefore the nature, vertue, and influence of a Sign, whereby to induce the King to believe the effect? Was it a pretended sign only, and a meer Cypher and Superfluity? The like may be said of the Rainbow. It was no new appearance, but a Common Meteor usually seen in the first World. But being stamped by GOD with a signality that way; it immediately put on the Nature, Virtue, and Influence of a confirmatory Sign; and became able to induce Noah and his Posterity, to believe that the Promise of the Earth's Preservation from future drowning, shall certainly be performed; according to the significancy wherewith it was marked, to ratifie that Promise.

And no wonder that things extant and common in the World, should be made confirmatory Signs of GOD's Promises; when things transient and actually past long before (and so not to be taken cog • oscence of but by remembrance) and things that never did or were to exist till long after his Promises should be accomplisht (and so as yet were no real things, and to be lookt at only with an eye of Faith) have been made such Signs. Of the first sort was • . Mat. 12. 39, 40. the Sign of the Prophet Jonas. Whose being vomited up of the Whale, after three days continuance in its Belly; was made a Sign of our SAVIOUR's rising from the dead, after his triduous abode in the Holy Sepulchre. Though Ionah was swallowed, and cast up by the Fish, near a thousand years before our LORD's interment and Resurrection. Of the latter sort was the miraculous Conception and Birth of the Messiah, which was made a Sign of safety promised to Isai. 7. 14. Ahaz, against Rezin and Pekah; but was not brought to pass till above seven hundred and forty years after. Other instances of the same kind occur, Exod. 3. 12. Isai. 37. 30.

4. But we have a farther proof yet of the existence of the Rainbow before the Flood. And though it be but indirect and consequential, yet it may not want its weight. It is the existence of Clouds then. For if they were before the Deluge, as they are now; there were all causes needful for the production of the Iris: which could not but frequently conspire or fall in with one another, so as to paint that beautiful thing in the Heavens. And that there were Clouds in the first World, has been proved already by the same Arguments that evince there was a Sea and Mountains: for they imply and necessarily infer the being of Clouds. The Flood also was made of Rains in a great measure; and those Rains must descend from Clouds. And if Nature could produce Clouds then, she must be supposed to have done it long before; as being in a better capacity to effect it. For the Earth and Air could never be more hot and dry, than when the Deluge came. Scripture also gives countenance to this, that Clouds were extant from the beginning. When he prepared the Heavens—When he established the Clouds above,—When he appointed the foundations of the Earth, Prov. 8. 27, 28, 29. Whence it appears, that GOD's establishing the Clouds, was contemporary with his preparing the Heavens, and appointing the foundations of the Earth. Indeed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , coming of, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a word of various significations. It may signifie Aether, or Air, or small Dust. But then the Heavens and the Earth being both mentioned besides; Aether, Air, and fine Dust, must be comprized in them: which determines the word here to that sense in which it is rendred. And very properly; for besides that Clouds are said to be the Dust of GOD's Feet, Nah. 1. 3. the word in many places of the Holy Volume, does denote, Clouds; and that so directly and inavoidably, as it can be applied to no other sense. Nor may we forget that clear intimation, or evidence rather of the early existence of Clouds, Gen. 1. 7. Where the Waters above the Firmament, must be Waters in the Clouds, as has been already shewed. Even the Theory it self allows them not to be Supercelestial Waters. For as they are inconsistent with that System of the World which it goes upon; so it expresly disputes against them and Pag. 16. rejects them. And so what Waters else could they be, save those in the Clouds? Which grant them to have been, and how peculiarly were those Clouds above established (according to Solomon's word) by GOD himself? when as yet there was no Sun to exhale them from the Earth.

Let this be cast in as an Overplus; the Rabbies believed there were Rains in Paradise. (Though for some little time there might be none, Gen. 2. 5.) For when the LORD GOD put Adam into the Garden to dress it; they understand a kind of spiritual Cultivation of it, as he occasioned it to flourish by his religious Performances. Particularly he presented, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Gifts or Oblations for obtaining Rain and a right Influence of the Heavens upon it. Yet if there were Clouds and Rain, how necessarily must the glorious Bow appear, when Showres fell in a just position to the Sun?

5. To conclude this Chapter. If any thing in it will prove there was a Rainbow, or Clouds from the beginning; the same will prove Mountains, and open Seas. And if any thing in the Two precedent Chapters, will prove there were Mountains from the beginning; the same will prove Seas and Clouds. And if any thing will prove open Seas from the beginning; the same will prove Clouds and Mountains. For these three do mutually imply and depend on one another. And there being no good account of their later emergency into Being, but much to the contrary; they must in reason be thought to coexist from the first. And I remember, the learned and ingenious Dr. More, setting down some odd conceits of Philosophical Enthusiasts, puts this amongst the rest; That there were no Rainbows before Noah's Flood. Discourse of Enthusiasm, §. 44.

1. THUS at length we come to Paradise. A place of greatest Fame, and of equal obscurity. For though touching it we hear very much, yet as to the site of it, we know but little. And to this Paradise the next Vital or primary Assertion of the Theory relates; which runs thus, The Doctrine thereof cannot be understood, but upon supposition of the aforesaid Primitive Earth and its Properties. But against this Assertion also we except; and do not doubt, but upon enquiry into the Doctrine of Paradise, to make it out, that it is Intelligible, without the help of the Theory. At least as intelligible without its Hypothesis, as it is with it; and that will be sufficient to our purpose.

2. Should any demand where the Doctrine of Paradise is best or most truly delivered; and what Writings contain the most authentic and credible account concerning it: whither could they be directed but to the Sacred Scriptures? For what there occurs in reference to the Paradisiacal State or Regions; may be firmly grounded upon as infallibly true. Whereas what we meet with in some other Books, may be incertain, as written by Persons of suspected Credit. Poets, for instance, are by no means to be regarded in this matter. They are Men of wit and licentious fiction; and when they are struck with their proper Oestrum or Rage, and grow warm in the vein of Romanceing; their Pens run on at a strange rate, rangeing as far as quaint Phancy can carry them. But as to them, let thus much only be noted: That whereas the Theorist applys what they write of the Golden Age, to the Paradisiacal State before the Flood; as if what they say, were some dark and imperfect Memoires of that: it might be disputed (were it worth the while) whether they set not that Age just after the Flood; making Noah to be Saturn, and the principal Characters of the Golden Age, to fall in with such things as happen'd in that Period. Several (of no contemptible learning) have been of that Opinion, and Bochart for one. As many as are dispos'd to read what he wrote of this nature, may find it in the first and second Chapters of his Phaleg. And if what Poets have delivered of the Golden Age, refers to times and things of a Postdiluvian Date; we have no manner of reason to regard them in the least, as giving any light either into the Doctrine or State of Paradise.

Nor truly are Fathers (those infinitely more excellent and solid Men) to be too much relied on in this case neither. I mean no farther than they are consonant to the Oracles of Heaven, and write fairly after that inspired Copy, which came down from thence. For though they be free from light and Poetic Figments, they are full of Allegories and high Rhetorications; and too Hyperbolical (erroneous some of them) to be followed in all things. Thus when Ephrem Syrus, Moses Bar Cephas, Bede, Strabus, Rabanus Maurus and others, place Paradise near the Circle or Orb of the Moon; and St. Basil makes it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a place above the whole Creation; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , obscur'd with no darkness by reason of height; and the Hebrew Masters in general, will have it made before the World: how can these things be tolerably reconciled to a Terrestrial Paradise? And while some again (supposing the Ocean to incircle the Earth) place Paradise on the other Hemisphere; and then to bring Men into this after Adam's Fall, will have the Ocean to be fordable, and People of that talness as to wade through it on foot: who can believe Paradise had such a Situation? Especially if we add, that other Doctors yet (of whom De Parad. cap. 14. Bar Cephas speaks) upon account of the Site of Paradise beyond the Ocean, held this Continent of ours was quite unpeopled and a kind of Desart till the Flood. And which still intangles things more and more, they generally concluded that the four Rivers of Paradise, were Tigris, Euphrates, Ganges, and Nilus; and that having their Spring-heads on the other side of the Sea, by a strange penetration or trajection, struck through the Earth, and brake out on this side of the same. To follow the Fathers here, can neither be safe nor easie. And better it would have been, if the Theorist had not gone so far after them; but instead of that, had kept to his word;Pag. 4. We will never assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients, which is not first proved by Reason, or warranted by Scripture.

And therefore while Poets pursue the Golden Age in golden Dreams, and set it off in fine and extravagant strains: and the Fathers expatiate in too large and lofty Encomiums of Paradise, describing such rare and unaccountable Excellencies and Phaenomena's of it, as it never had, but in their mistaken Idea's and Allusions: let us wisely attend to the Voice of GOD's SPIRIT in his unerring Word. So we shall learn what is fit and necessary concerning Paradise; and by keeping within the bounds of sober truth, shall never be cumbered with superfluous knowledge; nor be put to the trouble, first, of inventing humorous Notions, and then of defending them.

3. Now as to the Doctrine of Paradise, it is fully comprized (so far as we need to consider it) in the following Periods of Scripture. It will not be amiss to bestow a short Paraphrase on them. Gen. 2. 8. And the LORD GOD planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 8. No sooner had GOD the LORD of all, brought Man into being, but in special respect and kindness to him, he assigned him his Dwelling in the sweetest Country of the whole Earth. In a place so ordered by the great care and wise contrivance of his Providence, that it abounded with delights; and for its exceeding pleasantness, was as the Garden of the World: situate in that Tract of Ground which is called Eden, and liesWhere M • ses wrote t • e Description of it. Eastward from hence. Ver. 9. And out of the ground made the LORD GOD to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 9. And this Garden was most rarely furnisht. For besides Floriferous and Fruit-bearing Plants, the products of which respectively, were grateful to the Eye, and gustful to the palate, and useful for nourishment: there were two very extraordinary Trees. One, the tree of life. So called, because its Fruit (if eaten) would make a Man live very long upon Earth; and that without sickness, pain, or decay: or at least was a Symbol of Eternal Life, to be injoyed by him in a better State, upon condition of unsinning Obedience in this. The other, was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Called by that name, because GOD had ordained that if Adam tasted its Fruit, he should presently know what Evil was, by a quick and sad sense of it; and the better know what Good was, by the lamentable loss of it. Both these Trees grew within the Garden. Ver. 10. And a River went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 10. And to the end that this Garden thus flourishing and fruitful, might so continue; a River was made to spring up in it, or to flow through it. Which how far soever it might run in one single Stream, and then divide into two or three; at last it fell into four branches or chanels. Which before they terminated or disburthen'd themselves; as four several heads, were known by four distinct names,Recte igitur Lambertus Danaeus in Antiquitatibus ait, quatuor illa flumina fuisse unius & ejusdem aquae sive fluvii ex Edene nascentis divortia seu brachia. Et addit, fontem istum & fluvium ex eo emanantem in Edene regione, antequam se in divortia illa quatuor diducerct, hortum illum terrestrem irrigasse, & quidem totum adbuc & non divisum; postquam autem totum hortum irrigaver • t, tunc se infra hortum in ista quatuor flumina divisisse. Alsted, Encyclop. l. 20. Histor. c. 11. after they had passed the Garden in one Current. Ver. 11. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where is gold. Ver. 11. As for the first of these Heads (for its fruitfulness in Fish, or the abundance of its Waters) it is called Pison, and byPasitigrin incolae vocant. Curtius. them that dwell near it, Phasis, or Pasitigris. Which dividing it self from Tigris (whereof this is the most Southern branch) about Apamia, runs along by the Land of Havilah: and parting that Land from the Country of Susiana, it directs its course towards Teredon, and thereabouts empties it self into the Persian Gulph. Ver. 12. And the gold of that land is good: there is Bdellium, and the Onyx-stone. 12. Of which Land of Havilah (whither Saul chased the Amalekites, 1 Sam. 15. 7.) it is memorable that there is Gold in it, and that Gold of an excellent sort. It has also (the Tree, or, Gumm, or Pearl, called) Bdellium, and the Onyx-stone. Ver. 13. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Aethiopia. 13. The second River or Branch (from its falling off or turning another way) is denominated Gihon. The very same that passing bySee Mr. Carver's Discourse of the Terrest. Paradise. Adiabene, the most Northern Province of Assyria, compasseth the Land of Chush, or the Country of the As • atic Aethiopians; that is, it glides along by it. Ver. 14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria: and the fourth is Euphrates. 14. The third Arm or River (from the sharpness of its Waters, or the swiftness of its Current) is called Tigris; whose course lies to the East of Assyria. And as for Euphrates, the fourth Head or Stream; it is so well known, that it need but be named. Ver. 15. And the LORD GOD took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. 15. And GOD directed Adam into the Garden of Eden, and placed him there; appointing him (as a piece of his recreation) to cultivate and order it. Ver. 16. And the LORD GOD commanded the man, saying▪ Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. 16. And as to the choice Fruits growing upon the several Trees in the Garden; GOD grudged him none of them; but gave him free leave and full power, to take when, and where, and as much as he pleased, even of the best of them. Ver. 17. But of the tree of knowledg of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. 17. Only he charged him very strictly, that he should not eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: assuring him that if he did, it would cost him dear; for he should certainly lose his Life thereby.

This is the Doctrine of Paradise, so far as at present we are concerned to look into it. What occurs in the Divine Story besides, is rather of Personal, and Moral, than of Local Consideration. It relates to Adam himself, rather than to the Paradisiacal place of his residence. Only what we find in the Close of the Third Chapter, must be taken in; which runs as followeth: Ver. 22. And the LORD GOD said, Behold, the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 22. And now, my Angels, that Man has eaten of the forbidden Fruit, ye see how wise he is grown thereby. He has throughly tried the truth of that Promise the Serpent made him; and lo, how goodlily he has improved himself in GOD-like knowledge, which he aimed at, and thirsted after. Since he has been thus egregiously foolish, 'tis a thousand to one, if we let him alone, but he'll fall into another piece of unreasonable and undoing folly. And if he can but get to the Tree of Life, and taste the Fruit of that, will presently conclude that his Life on Earth shall last for ever; and so neglect Repentance and Preparation for a better. Ver. 23. Therefore the LORD GOD sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 23. To prevent this therefore, GOD immediately turned him out of the Garden, into that place whereabouts he was created. And whereas in his Paradisiacal condition, he might have subsisted deliciously of what Nature yielded of it self; Now he was to live in a more painful manner, spending his strength in Tilling the Ground, that so it might afford wholsome sustenance for his Body, which was formed out of it. Ver. 24. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 24. And being driven out of this pleasant Garden; to the intent he might never re-enter it more; GOD, by the ministery of Spirits, fired the Earth whereabouts his way of return lay into it. Which burning continually (as it does this day in many places, and as it did in Campus e • t in Babylonia interdiu flagrans. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 106. Babylon of old) was as effectual a means to keep Adam out; as if Providence had set a number of Cherubim to guard the passage leading thither, by brandishing flaming Swords.

4. Now what is there in all this so difficult or abstruse, as not to be intelligible? The Doctrine of Paradise indeed has been ill handled, as well as some others: and has received great injury from such as intended it nothing but kindness. Even eminent Writers, by exalting it too high, and inlargeing it too much; have unhappily obscured it, and brought a wild Confusion into it. Preposterously striving to imbellish and improve it, they have mightily eclipsed and disparaged it. Just as a true natural Beauty is spoiled by the addition of Artificial; and a lovely Visage, made worse by painting. But view it in its sacred Pourtraicture, as Scripture has drawn or represented it; and so we shall have a fair Description, a graphical or exact Delineation of it. So it will appear in its genuine Colours, and just Proportions; in its proper Features and due Complexion; and without all manner of disgraceful Blemishes, or monstrous Disfigurements. For,

First, Here is nothing that turns the whole Story into Mystery or Allegory. That makes Paradise it self, to be the Soul; Adam, the Mind; Eve, the Senses; the Serpent, Pleasures; the four Rivers, four Cardinal Virtues, &c. Which is the way that Origen, Philo, and St. Ambrose go. Nor,

Secondly, Is there any thing that intimates, the Garden of Paradise was the whole Earth. That the four Rivers mentioned in the Description of it, had the Ocean for their Fountain. And that two of them, viz. Pison and Gihon; were Ganges and Nil • s: the one, running through India; and the other, through Egypt: according to the Manichees, Becanus, and Noviomagus. Nor yet,

Thirdly, Does it mount Paradise up above the tops of the Hills, or assign it its Situation near the Moon, in an Earth different from ours: where Bar Cephas, Bede, and Rabanus set it.

These, we must confess, are things hard to be understood, and never to be made out. They contain in them unexplicable intricacies, and draw after them innumerable absurdities. Such as quite overthrow the truth of Moses's Narrative, and so the Veracity of GOD himself. But therefore, as we see, they are no parts of the Doctrine of Paradise. That's entire without them, as Scripture delivers it; which makes them neither Essentials, nor Appendages of it. They are but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Colos. 2. 22. the Doctrines of Men, according to the Apostle. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fine and noisy words, according to Epiphanius. And they that first spake them, being Persons of Fame, their Reputation gave credit to what they said; and their great Authority drawing others after them, they were followed by many, though themselves went not in the right way.

Lastly, Here is not the least touch, upon a perpetual Aequinox, or a perpetual Spring; or the Pullulation, or Growing of Animals out of the Earth; which the Theory makesPag. 176. Properties of Paradise. Nor is there a Syllable spoken, of Adam's being formed at first on the other side of the World (that is, in the Southern Hemisphere) and then of his being transplanted hither. Nor is there any intimation, that the Flaming Sword was the Torrid Zone (as the Theory Pag. 257. allows it to have been) but rather something that suggests the contrary. For Cherubim could no way be concerned in that; nor could it well be said to be placed at the East of the Garden of Eden, when it was placed round the Earth in way of Longitude. Nor do we hear a word, of Rivers springing up on one side of the Earth, and then shooting through it to the other side, by deep and unintelligible trajections or transmeations. Thus a multitude of Difficulties would be started; and such, as before we could run them down, would lead us a weary, yea, an endless Chase. But therefore these are no pieces of the true Doctrine of Paradise. That's clear, and obvious, and easie to be understood: at least as easie as the Theory's Doctrine concerning it is. For say that Two Branches of the Paradisiacal Stream, be somewhat obscure; yet we need not fear but they will as soon be set out to all Mens satisfaction; as the other two so well known, together with Assyria, &c. shall be found in the Southern Hemisphere of the World, where, according to the Theory, Paradise was situate. Especially when the upper Orb or Rim of the Earth fell into the Abyss; and Rivers and Countries were all jumbled together in unspeakable Confusion.

5. As for the Longaevity of the Antediluvians, that could be no Property of Adjunct of Paradise neither; inasmuch as the common Parents of Mankind, were soon thrown out of it: and so the length of their, or of their Childrens lives, could not be owing to that State or Place, because none of them lived and died therein. Indeed the Theory will have this Longaevity to be a Character of the First Earth, as Paradisiacal: andPag. 189. holds it was common to good and bad, and lasted till the Deluge, Mens houses of clay standing eight or nine hundred years and upwards. And though I will not positively deny this, That the People of the First World did generally live to so wonderful an age (it being a received opinion) yet give me leave to ask; upon what good authority does it stand? The sacred Historians will hardly support it. For though he tells ofGen. 5. ten Men in a lineal descent that were long livers; yet this will be no conclusive Argument that all were so. For they were excellent Persons, and admirably useful upon several accounts. Besides founding and improving of Learning and Sciences; they were to instruct the World in Vertue and Goodness; to govern both in the Civil (it may be) and Ecclesiastical capacity; To countenance and propagate, as well as to defend the True Religion; to take care of the Worship, and promote the Kingdom and Interest of GOD; and to shame the looseness, and reform or restrain the lewdness of Men. And they being thus highly useful and needful; no wonder they were continued so long upon Earth. And thus we find Noah (it being requisite still in some measure upon the same accounts) livingGen. 9. 28, 29. three hundred and fifty years after the Flood, and reaching to nine hundred and fifty in all. And alsoGen. 11. Shem, Arphaxad, Salah, and Eber, living (for the same reasons) much longer just after the Flood; than others did then, or have done since. Though we may say, of their long life, as Rabbi Levi (quoted by Genebrard in the first of his Chronology) did of the Longaevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs, that it was opus Providentiae, non Naturae; the work of Providence, not of Nature. Of such a miraculous providence as superintended the Hebrews in the Wilderness, and caused that their Cloaths by forty years wearing did not wax old. And then if we grant some of the prophane stock, (of the impious Race of Cain) to have lived as long (as the Ten Patriarchs before the Flood, and perhaps some few others not mentioned) by the same kind of Providence; for that they were exceding eminent in their ways, for very laudable and necessary things: (as Cain himself, for Husbandry and Architecture; Iabal, for Pasturage, and the ordering of Cattle; Iubal, for Musick; Tubal-Cain, for Mechanics, and the like:) Grant, I say, but some of the degenerate Seed, of the worser sort of Men, to have lived a great while for perfecting the lower and lesser Arts: as some of the Holy Seed and better sort did, for carrying on things of an higher nature, and bigger concern: and possibly the Prerogative of Longaevity, will be stretcht as far, as by the sacred Records, it can upon certain Grounds, be extended. And though the Theory makes the Longaevity we speak of, common to all the Antediluvians; yet in the Sequel of this Chapter it will appear, that even according to the Theory it self, it could not be a general thing.

But (in the mean time) if Divine Story proves not such Longaevity common to the Antediluvians; how shall other History do it? The Theorist cites Iosephus as to this, and he brings in several Authors. What he says of the long life of them before the Deluge, I shall set down more fully than the Theory does.Antiq. l. 1. c. 4. They being beloved of GOD, and newly created by him, using also a kind of nourishment agreeable to their nature, and proper to multiply their years; it is no absurd thing to suppose that their years were of that continuance: considering that GOD gave them long life, to the end they should teach Vertue, and should conveniently practise those things which they had invented in Astronomy, and by Geometry; the demonstrations whereof they never had attained, except they had lived at least six hundred years. For the great year is accomplished by that number of years: whereof all they bear me witness, who (either Greeks or Barbarians) have written ancient Histories. For both Manethon (who wrote the History of Egypt) and Berosus (who registred the Acts and Affairs of the Chaldeans) together with Molus, Hestiaeus, and Hierom of Egypt (who give an account of the Phoenician Antiquities) accord with me in that I have said. Hesiodus also, Heccataeus, Hellanicus, and Acusilaus, Ephorus and Nicholaus do declare, That they of the first World lived a thousand years. But let every Man judge of these things as he best liketh. Where (to let pass other circumstances) let it be noted, that Iosephus attributes long life, only to such as were beloved of GOD. and that to such ends as were now specified; that they might teach Vertue, and use and improve Astronomy and Geometry, wherein they could have attained to no considerable skill, without long life. And then as to the rest of those Authors he remembers; how could they understand the thing better than himself? For besides Scripture (which Iosephus was much better acquainted with than they) what else could give them information in the case? And therefore their account, we know, is utterly false: for none of the first Worlds Ancients could ever reckon a thousand years compleat▪ Only some of them (in the sacred Register) came pretty near it; though most fell short of it by such a Period of time, as very few Lives comparatively now reach to. And that Iosephus himself did not believe that all lived so long, as the Writers cited by him do mention; is plain from his shutting up the forequoted Chapter, with an expression showing diffidence in himself, by allowing it to others. Let every Man judge of these things as he thinks best. Which I desire may be noted the rather, because there are few that write for this Longaevity of the Prediluvians; but they still quote this place in Iosephus, and back what they say, with the Authorities he brings. Yet we see, he is so far from being positive, in the matter, that he leaves People wholly to their own judgments about it. And as for Scripture, I say, he read and understood it as well as others; and could he have found good proofs of the Point there, he would doubtless have spoken more definitively of it. And the truth is, Scripture says not one word of Cain's, or his Childrens living eight or nine hundred years. And therefore when we granted they might do so, it was no absolutely necessary Concession. But this is observable, that the Invention of Manual Arts, and such things as might be carried on to good degrees of Perfection in a less of space of time; fell to their care and management. Whereas (according to the Iewish Historian) Astronomy, and Geometry, which could not be learnt but in longer Periods, were studied by those Virtuoso's, who are upon Holy Record for long-livers. Which tacitly intimates that the reason of long life, and so long life it self, was not common to all. And though Moses remembers a few by name that lived so very long; yet this no more proves that all attained to the like age, before the Flood; than his sayingGen. 6. 4. there were Giants on the Earth in those days, does imply the whole Race of Mankind were such. Yea, as his telling the World, there were some Giants then, does import that the rest were otherwise: so his mentioning some • so very long livers, may insinuate that the rest were not so. Nor do we stand quite alone in this Opinion; For Rabbi Moses in his Book de directione perplexorum, as Burgensis cites him (Addit. 1. in Gen. 5. apud Lyr.) was of the same mind. And as he attributes length of life before the Flood, miraculo divino, to divine miracle; so he says, diuturnitas fuit solùm in illis qui in sacra Scriptura nominantur, scilicet Adam, Seth, Enos, &c. non autem in aliis contemporaneis, qui non tam diuturnè vivebant; sed sicut past diluvium. Length of life was only in those, who are named in the Holy Scripture; that is to say, Adam, Seth, Enos, &c. but not in others their contemporaries; who did not live so long; but as Men lived after the Deluge. Burgensis himself also (first, a most learned Iew of Spain, and then a famous Christian Doctor) seems to be of the same judgment with the Rabbi, in this matter.

But if at last it be urged, that the Authors aforesaid are too many and considerable, to have their Testimonies questioned or rejected; and that what they delivered of the Praediluvians Longaevity, must be true of them in general, they receiving the thing by authentic Tradition: let it be yielded. But then I must demand, and may be allowed to do so; How comes it to pass that Tradition is so partial, and not equally faithful as to other great concerns of the first World? Particularly, why does it not by the Pen of the same, or of other Writers, tell us explicitly of a constant Aequinox, and a perpetual Spring, as Causes of that Longaevity? and not leave it to be imputed to nourishment and higher things; whither Iosephus, we see, ascribes it. Why does it not tell us of a Sky without Clouds; and an Heaven without Rains; and an Earth without Seas, and Mountains, &c. Surely if Tradition spake so loud in one case; and was so dumb or deeply silent in the rest: this seems to evidence, that however there might be somewhat of truth in that one Phaenomenon; there was none in the other.

6. Though truly that all the Prediluvians were such long livers, cannot well be supposed for this reason. Because then their Multitudes would have everlaid the Earth, and they would have wanted room wherein to subsist. For grant them to have multiplied but as Mankind did just after the Flood, or as the Israelites did in the Land of Egypt, or even as People do now adays; and where would there have been place convenient for them? And yet that they did increase at such a rate, and faster too, is but reasonable to think; in regard humane Nature if ever it were stronger at any time than other, was so at first. To which add, that Digamy was in use before the Flood: and Lamech (one who was infamous for it) is said by Iosephus, to have had seventy seven Children by his two Wives. Yea, perhaps Men were not only for two, but many Wives, Genesis 6. 2. and Polygamy must contribute greatly to the encrease of Mankind.

But there needs no farther Prosecution of this. The Theory yields as much as we contend for, or can desire in the Case: Though no more than what may be true, and so inavoidable.Pag. 22. 'Tis likely they were more fruitful in the first Ages of the World, than after the Flood; and they lived six, seven, eight, nine hundred years apiece, getting Sons and Daughters. And again;Pag. 23. If we allow the first Couple at the end of one hundred years, or of the first Century, to have left ten pair of Breeders, which is an easie supposition, there would arise from these in fifteen hundred years, a greater number than the Earth was capable of; allowing every pair to multiply in the • same decuple proportion the first Pair did. So that if a Supposition (which (in the Theorist's own judgment) is easie, may be but admitted (as why should it not?) either the Longaevity of the Antediluvians must not be universal, or the Earth was incapable of the number of its Inhabitants. Nor could the Primitive Earth receive greater numbers of People than this. For grant it had no open Seas in it; yet the Middle Regions of it being uninhabitable in regard of heat; and the Polar ones upon account of Wet and Cold: both will be reduced to a pretty equal capaciousness. And should it be alleg'd, that the first Earth was bigger in Circumference, than this is; that will be made good, by casting in on the present Earth's side, the sinking hollownesses and declivities of Valleys; and the swelling protuberancies and gibbosities of Mountains; neither of which the first Earth had.

Farther, if People before the Flood, were generally so long-liv'd, and this their Longaevity proceeded from a perpetual Aequinox, and settled benign temperature of the Air, as the Theory holds; then surely there would not have been that difference as to length of days amongst them, as we find there was. Thus, Lamech's Age (as appears in theGen. 5. Catalogue of long livers) was short of Mathuselah's, near two hundred years. Whereas if the Cause of long life had been so uniform and steddy a thing, and so generally and equally influential upon all, as the supposed Aequinox; the Effect would have answered it: Longaevity it self would have been more regular, and not have admitted of so much disparity. Though the truth is, such an Aequinox, and such an Earth as we have heard of, would rather help to shorten life (we may think) than draw it out to such a length. For certain it is, that they must shut all Winds and Storms, and Clouds and Rains, and Thunders and Lightnings, out of the First World. And what are these but Crises of Nature, wherein those malignities and noxious qualities which are lodged in her, and would corrupt her; suffer a Solution and are discharged? just as morbific humors in the Body, first ferment, and then are thrown off by proper Evacuations. But when there could be no Storms or Thunders, to put the Air into Motion, and to purge and clarifie it, that so it might continue pure and wholsome: it being always calm and too quiescent (like stagnant Water) must needs putrifie, and contract such foulness as would make it unhealthy, and apt to cause grievous Diseases and Death. Egypt is almost in the pretended state of the Primitive Earth. Situate between the second and fifth Climates; its longest day not above thirteen hours and an half; has seldom any Rain, but is watered by a River. Yet how subject is Cairo to raging Plagues, and where are greater or oftener Mortalities than there?

I have only this to add here. If the Aequinox spoken of, were the cause of a general Longaevity in the Prediluvian World; then other Animals would have lived as long proportionably, as Men. That is to say Lions, Bears, Wolves, Dogs, &c. And these multiplying five or six times (to say no more) as fast as Men; might have soon overpowered and destroyed them. Also Rats, Mice, Fowls, &c. multiplying (in that World) all the year round, and in far greater numbers than the Creatures aforesaid; would have destroyed Mankind another way: not by devouring them, but the Fruits of the Earth which they were to live upon. Especially when Men lived wholly on such Fruits (without eating Flesh) and had no such ways and instruments at first, of killing those Vermin, as now they have.

Nor did the Earth yield such plenty of Corn of its own accord, as to satisfie all granivorous Creatures, without preying upon Mens Corps. For upon Man's sin,Gen. 3. 17. the ground was cursed. And upon that Malediction, it afforded not Corn without Tillage. For thence forward even Adam himself was to eat of it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in sorrow (or labour) all the days of his life; nor could he have Bread, but • at the price of hisGen. 3. 19. Sweat. And if the first Men had no Bread-Corn, but what their industry fetch'd out of the Earth; how could they defend it against the swarms of devouring Creatures, increasing always upon them by numerous Procreations? Even barely to name all the sorts of them, that would be hurtful upon the account we speak of, and would unspeakably abound in a World that knows no season but Spring; is so great a Task, that I am willing to decline it. Yet that other Creatures did live proportionably as long as Mankind, the Theory owns;Sup • rest tertium Paradisi, & primorum seculolorum Phaenomenon, Longaevitas hominum, &, ut par est credere, caterorum animalium. Pag. 160. where it makes the Longaevity of both at once, a Third Phaenomenon of Paradise and the first Ages.

And which is ve •• considerable also, it makes the first Earth the common Mother of all sorts of Animals, which naturally bred them and brought them forth. Whence it must follow, that those Terrigenous Creatures strangely increasing by spontaneous Births, would soon have filled the World, even this way alone (though they had not propagated their respective Kinds) with such inconceiveable multitudes; as would have easily spoiled the Earth, and ruin'd Mankind. Who as they were made in the beginning but in one Pair; so they were capable comparatively but of a slow Multiplication. And so Beasts, Fowls, Creeping Things, Insects, and all manner of deadly and pernicious Creatures, would have poured in upon them in vast numbers, and with incredible forces; while they were unable to defend themselves against them.