a vindication of the new theory of the earth from the exceptions of mr. keill and others with an historical preface of the occasions of the discoveries therein contain'd, and some corrections and additions. whiston, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a vindication of the new theory of the earth from the exceptions of mr. keill and others with an historical preface of the occasions of the discoveries therein contain'd, and some corrections and additions. whiston, william, - . [ ], p. printed for benj. tooke ..., london : . attributed to whiston by wing and nuc pre- imprints. errata: p. . reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. includes bibliographical references. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng keill, john, - . -- examination of dr. burnet's theory of the earth. creation -- early works to . religion and science. earth -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a vindication of the new the●ry of the earth from the exceptions of mr. keill and others . with an historical preface of the occasions of the discoveries therein contain'd : and some corrections and additions . london : printed for benj. tooke at the middle-temple-gate in fleetstreet . . preface . it may not perhaps , for some reasons , be improper in it self , or unacceptable to the reader , to have a short history of the occasions and methods of the discovery of the several particulars in the new theory ; and to see by what steps i proceeded in that matter : that at once i may claim to my self what interest or right i really had in the same ; and it may appear how far , and in what manner any other persons or opportunities were concern'd therein : and at the same time the reader may perceive how little affinity there is between a bare hypothesis , the product only of the wit and skill of the inventor , and the several branches of a theory in which the foregoing qualifications were not necessary , and so can or ought to be very little consider'd therein . to wave therefore any more words by way of introduction , i shall come to that account it self , which is the single subject of this preface . the reader is therefore to know , that ever since i saw the university , and began to rellish the new philosophy ; i mean particularly the cartesian , togegether with some other later discoveries of a more solid nature , i withal fell into an exceeding liking of the main part of dr. burnet's theory of the earth ; and thought my self never more pleas'd than in a repeated perusal of so ingenious and remarkable a book . insomuch that upon my being to perform the accustomed exercise in the schools for my first degree , one of my positions was in vindication of the same . this good liking continued with me a great while after ; till my deeper researches into mechanical philosophy , and the discoveries contain'd in mr. newton's wonderful book began to convince me of the indefensibleness of many of the particulars ; and that the whole scheme , as it then lay , could not be justify'd by the principles of sound philosophy ; nor did it , upon better consideration , agree with the accounts in the holy scriptures . yet still several of the particulars , especially the perpetual equinox before the flood ; and the situation of the earth upon a fluid abyss , seem'd very reasonable , and very agreeable to the accounts sacred and profane of those ancient ages of the world. and as i have never yet found reason to alter my opinion about the latter , when duly stated ; so i was in great perplexity how to believe the former ; since i found the way of changing the position of the earth's axis in dr. burnet , by the laws of mechanism plainly impossible ; on which yet ●he before mention'd opinion did in great measure depend . in this doubtfulness of mind , a thought came into my head ( since which i believe 't is now at the least five or six years . ) that from mr. newton's discoveries 't was certain that a comet might pass near the earth ; and that also in case it pass'd near enough and in a certain trajectory , it might alter the position of the earth's axis , as now the sun does , backward and forward every year : ( tho' this be a thing only known to those who have made some progress in mr. newton's book , and not here to be explain'd for every reader . ) i thought it therefore worth my while , after a long time , to try whether , by this means , if a comet , in the most advantagious manner possible came near the earth at the deluge , the earth's axis could be thereby chang'd from a parallelism to that of the ecliptick , to the obliquity of ½ degrees , which it has had ever since that time . this calculation i try'd about november or december . but could by no means perceive that the hundredth part of the present obliquity was by any such method to be accounted for . which occasion'd therefore my laying aside that hypothesis i had so long before been fond of , and desirous to establish ; and permitted my thoughts a greater freedom about the occasions of the deluge , than dr. burnet's notions had allow'd me before . not long after this , considering the nature of comets , and viewing sometimes mr. newton's scheme of the last famous one among us , which my self could easily remember , in and . a thought came into my mind , which in discourse i mention'd to a very learned friend , that 't was possible the tail of a comet might afford water at the deluge , and that the confused mass of air , and irregular steams from the comet 's atmosphere or tail might afford a fair solution of that phaenomenon i had been so desirous of the perpetual equinox to account for before : i mean the unhealthy state of our air and earth at present , and the effect thereof , the shortning of mens lives ever since the deluge . these were my first and crude thoughts of this matter ; which tho' the particulars were but ill adjusted , and uncertain ; yet gave me an eagerness of considering the matter farther , and occasion'd all the subsequent discoveries which are contain'd in the new theory . and truly , upon a little farther consideration , now the hint was once given , i soon found that a great many of the phaenomena of nature , and of the deluge , did of their own accord fall in with my notion ; and that if on its original formation , the inward constitution of the earth were suppos'd a fluid , ( as i had long done , tho' on no good consideration of the nature of that fluid ; ) and if withal the inequality of the earth's surface at first , which dr. burnet positively deny'd , could be mechanically accounted for , i then imagin'd i could go a great way in a new hypothesis of the mosaick creation , and the deluge . at which time , about easter , dr. woodward's essay was made publick ; and read by me with a great deal of eagerness and sollicitude , to see whether the history of the phaenomena of the inward parts of the earth would accord with , or contradict those notions i began to entertain about the points before-mention'd . and as a little before i had observ'd , that 't was highly reasonable to suppose a fluid nearer the center of the earth to be heavier than those upon its surface ; yea than that orb of earth which was above it ; so , as i was reading dr. woodward's essay , that axiom also in hydrostaticks , that bodies according to their different specifick gravities will sink into fluids in a different proportions , and so be extant in different degrees ; came into my thoughts ; upon what occasion i know not : and together , eas'd me , to my no small satisfaction , of the difficulties which before stopp'd my progress in that hypothesis my thoughts were so busy upon . having now got the main strokes of the new theory , so far as concern'd the particular phaenomena of the deluge at least , in my mind : and not finding the observations in dr. woodward's essay wholly disagreeable to the same , i began to write my thoughts , and digest 'em into as regular a method , as the warmth of my temper , still increas'd by the daily addition of new , and to me very surprizing discoveries , would permit . about which time i consider'd , that if the comet pass'd by the earth at the deluge , it must alter the annual motion and period , from the universality of the law of attraction , so fully demonstrated by mr. newton . whereupon i went to try whether , if the earth mov'd in a circle before the flood , the becoming eccentrical at that time would account for , and correspond to those ¼ odd days , which we now have in ours above , an ●ven and regular year , which i was willing to imagin the antediluvians had enjoy'd . but as this calculation fail'd my present hopes , so it discover'd a coincidence vastly more remarkable ; namely , that the ancient solar year , if the earth's orbit was circular , exactly corresponded with the present and ancient lunar , by reason of the accurate equality and agreement of the eccentricity of the earth with the lunar epact . which coincidence i must own did in the highest degree please and satisfy my thoughts ; and gave me some assurance of the truth , as well as probability of my main hypothesis . soon after this i discern'd another most remarkable way of trying the reality of the passing by of the comet ; namely , to see whether the place of the perihelion , at which i perceiv'd the deluge must , on my hypothesis , begin , would accord with the time of the year deliver'd by moses . this , with no small fear of a disappointment , i try'd : and having only i think tycho's tables of its motion then by me ( in mercator's astronomy , ) i consulted it accordingly , and to my still higher satisfaction and assurance found the astronomical tables , and the mosaick history , exactly to agree in the same time of the second month from the autumnal equinox . soon after this i found out another still more sure way of discovering the time , nay the very day of the beginning of the flood from astronomy , and so of trying whether the former coincidences were by chance , or occasion'd by the reality of that passage of the comet to which i ascribed the deluge . now in this case , tho' i saw the necessity of the day of the comets passing by being near the new or full moon , yet i was not then well enough vers'd in astronomical calculations readily to try this matter ; and besides did not know how many years ought to be accounted since the deluge , because of my own unacquaintedness with the point then , and of the variety of chronologers sentiments about it . however , since i look'd upon the most learned , the lord bishop of coventry and lichfield , ( whose most free , ready , and generous assistance in all my studies , i must own with the highest gratitude ) as by common consent , the most accurate chronologer of this age ; and did remember that in a bible which lay in his study i had formerly observ'd the year of the world , set in the beginning of st. matthew : i suppos'd his lordship's opinion to be that from the herbrew verity , the christian aera , began anno mundi . upon which supposition , tho' with great diffidence of mistake on every side , i try'd to find the time of the moon corresponding to the beginning of the deluge ; and found it to be as near the new as my hypothesis requir'd . which exceedingly pleas'd me at the present , but gave me a new sollicitude lest it should overturn all in case i had made any mistake in the chronology , since the deluge ; which then at best only depended on the memory of a number i had occasionally seen before ; tho' since i have received full satisfaction in the point . in great concern therefore i went down to his lordship's lodgings , and with no small fear , enquir'd of the truth of what i had remembred , and of his lordship's opinion touching the number of years according to the hebrew verity , till the christian aera ; and found i was exactly right in the whole , to my no small encouragement , and to my greater assurance of the certain truth of that hypothesis which by so many trials had , beyond expectation , approved it self to me . after all this i discover'd , as i thought , that the ocean was an effect and remains of the waters of the deluge ; and that the passing by of the comet would distinguish the earth into two continents , and interpose an ocean betwixt ' em . but here in my first thoughts i was stopt a little , and fear'd that this last hypothesis would overturn my other ; because the position of the centers of the two continents would determine the time of the year when the comet pass'd by ; and that , as my first thoughts represented to me , in a downright opposition to my other accounts of that matter . but it proved quite otherwise , for as all my former fears had come to nothing , but ended to my utmost satisfaction ; so on a more exact consideration i found this position of the centers of the two continents so exactly agreeable with the time of the beginning of the deluge stated by the other methods , that instead of contradicting , i perceiv'd , with pleasure enough , it highly confirm'd and secur'd the same . and then , as to the bigness of the comet , and the several other coincidences all along , they generally occur'd readily to my thoughts as i went on ; and so need not have any particular notice taken of them in this place . but i think somewhat before i had proceeded so far , i drew up a hasty imperfect draught of my notions , to communicate to some friends , and especially to dr. bentley immediately , and the mr. newton afterwards , whom i accordingly waited on , the first at london , and the other as i ( in attendance on my lord bishop of norwich ) pass'd by cambridge ; which was , i think , about whitsontide , the same year . and having now by the hints and directions i received from these learned persons , especially from the latter ; and by a more accurate review and reconsideration of the whole , much corrected , improved , and enlarged my hypothesis ; and took in several particulars more as they occurr'd to me ; especially that most remarkable one about the lowness of caucasus now , and its greater altitude at the deluge , on which i lay so much stress in my book , i found my self prepar'd to digest the whole into a systeme , and began to make it ready for mr. newton's review , and to think of putting it into the press . only i was still somewhat puzled about dr. woodward's observation of the time of the year in which all the plants buried at the deluge were lodg'd in their several places ; whence he had stated the commencing thereof half a year differently from that which all my ways of determining it assur'd me of . in this difficulty i wrote to the doctor for a resolution of some queries relating to those plants , and received such an answer , part of which is in my book , as gave me sufficient foundation , i thought , to clear the difficulty , and turn'd what was before a shrewd objection against , into a real attestation to that time of the year which my hypothesis assign'd in the case . being thus clear of my difficulties , i went on with my work with considerable application , and no small degree of pleasure and satisfaction ; till i brought it to an intire systeme , and sent it to cambridge for mr. newton's final review and correction . which being over , and communicated to me , i soon brought it into the present form , and only added that preliminary discourse , which partly on another occasion , i had in good measure finish'd before ; and which i found would be but a necessary preparation to some points of great moment in the following theory . this is a true and faithful account , as far as my memory can now recollect the particulars , of the progress of this matter , and of the occasions of the several discoveries contain'd in the new theory . 't is true , when i brought my manuscript to mr. newton the first time , he told me ( what i never heard syllable of before ; and of which i know nothing particularly to this hour : ) that he had heard , that mr. halley ( a person sufficiently , and deservedly eminent in the learned world ) had propos'd reasons at gresham-college why a comet could not cause the deluge . but when i ask'd him farther , whether he knew the nature of that hypothesis mr. halley set up , and oppos'd : he told me he did not , so far as to be able , to give me any manner of satisfaction ; but desir'd me to apply my self to mr. halley if i had a mind to be farther inform'd about it . which to this day i have not done , and so could not possibly make any use of any notions he either propos'd , or refuted in this matter , as i am told some persons have been willing to suggest , and which , if it had been so , i should as freely own as i do all the other hints and advantages i have had from any in this matter . and i am under less temptation than another in this case : for however remarkable i look upon several of the discoveries in the new theory ; yet i think the praise belonging to the discoverer not so great as l●sser points , requiring a deeper skill in the author , may justly deserve . the case seems to me to be this . tho' many wise men , with variety of keys , belonging to other places , should long puzzle themselves in vain in the opening of a door : and one of a worse character , who had the good fortune to find the true one , should with ease let them into the closet ; yet i think he , who upon this should value himself , and expect a great degree of commendation , would thereby only demonstrate that he deserv'd but a very little share of it . the application is easy ; and tho' i perhaps do believe that i have found a key , and have open'd and explain'd some points of consequence , in the new theory : yet as i heartily own and adore the divine providence in all the success of my enquiries , so i , with the before-mention'd thoughts , am under little temptation of envying any one their share in these discoveries . and i can safely say , that i have been more than ordinarily cautious not to mention any thing , which was the product even of my own thoughts , if i found that others had also took notice of it , without making such mention of them as the case did require : and whatever imputations i may otherwise deserve , i have long since resolved to give no occasion that any one should take me for a plagiary . lowestoft , suffolk . sept. . . an answer to mr. keill's remarks on the new theory of the earth . since i perceive the force of my reasoning has had so great an influence on mr. keill , as to obtain his allowance of the passing by of a comet at the beginning of the deluge , which is the main point i contend for ; and which once establish'd , the rest ( as i think i can still demonstrate ) must , when fully understood , be granted also ; 't is a little surprizing that he of all men should in publick appear against me . and truly i am ready to hope i have but few competent judges besides mr. keill , who , yielding me that main point of all , do yet reject my account of the phaenomena of the deluge ; which are , i think , but natural consequents of such a concession . but to let that pass ; this i am pretty secure of , that if mr. keill were not more deeply engag'd against my design by a peculiar fondness he seems to have for the introduction of unaccountable miracles on all occasions , than by any other decretory objections against me ; 't is probable he would rather privately have communicated his difficulties , and by letter desir'd the resolution of them , than have taken this publick method of writing remarks on the new theory , and leading it as it were in triumph after the conquest he had been gaining over the old one . but not to expostulate this procedure with mr. keill any farther ; i must , before i come to particulars , both openly take notice of his civility and fairness to me , in that he has been pleas'd , amidst his somewhat severe reflections on the mistakes of others , to deal with me kindly and candidly even whilst he looks upon me as guilty of not a few errors in my reasoning ; and at the same time faithfully promise him , that i will cautiously avoid those dis-ingenuous and studied evasions which , as he truly observes , are but too often made to pass for answers to the shrewdest objections . neither will i refuse at any time , on due conviction , to own my mistakes ; and as publickly to retract my errors , as i have publickly profess'd them . but to wave any farther preliminaries , and to come to the particular objections . ( . ) 't is alledg'd that my first hypothesis , viz. that a chaos is the atmosphere of a comet , can't be true , because the former is by all agreed to have had darkness on the face of its abyss ; whereas the latter is certainly a transparent fluid ; and so has the light , if not of its own central body from within , yet at least of the sun from without , freely admitted into it . for answer to which i affirm , that as to the central solid , since a comet is not capable of a change to a planet or earth till a long time after its perihelion , or indeed till 't is return'd from the vast and cold regions beyond saturn ; i wonder mr. keill should fear it would be not too warm only , but so vehemently hot as to be light also : iron and other solids will be sufficiently hot a long time after their light or visible fire is gone ; and i don't imagin that comets descending to the sun can be so much hotter and brighter than such a cooling ball of iron as to illuminate the regions about them for many hundred , if not thousand miles together . and then as to the sun , which is allow'd to shine through the atmospheres of comets while they remain such , if mr. keill can prove that the words of moses refer to the past ages , and not to the time of the commencing of the creation , to which principally if not solely all commentators i think refer them ; it will be to mr. keill's purpose : but if not , here is no valid objection against this part of the new theory . for as to the word abyss , which was once dark , and afterward enlightened , i see no reason to restrain it at this time to the dense fluid alone ; ( whither indeed the light could not penetrate after it was once intirely and distinctly collected together below the earth ; ) but by it is , i think , in this place meant all that heterogeneous and hitherto muddy fluid which was beneath the earth's future surface ; or peculiarly below that place where adam was to b●made , and where the spectator in this histori●●l journal of the creation is suppos'd to have 〈◊〉 . and i believe there can be no reason to refuse this interpretation , nor consequently to create hence any difficulty against my hypothesis relating to this matter , what comes to be next consider'd , is this : ( . ) if we proceed mechanically and gradually in the formation of a planet from a comet 's atmosphere , we must allow the whole subsidence to be as leisurely , and to proceed by the same steps , that the violence of its heat decreases ; which will then be compleated not in six days , or single years , but scarcely in as many centuries ; and the opake parts will take so much time in descending and composing the crust of earth , that the sun might always as freely almost penetrate the upper regions of the atmosphere at least , if not farther , as it does the whole atmospheres of comets while they are within our observation . now in answer to this ; which i own to be an argument of good force , and to deserve consideration ; i say , that if we found from the phaenomena of comets in their descent towards the sun , after their long periods to cool and settle in , since their last perihelia ; that they had no atmospheres , but that the masses which formerly compos'd 'em were subsided and become like the surface of planets , then indeed this reasoning were unavoidable : ( tho' even in that case this would only enforce a still larger interpretation of the days of creation than i allow , without any farther harm to the rest of the theory : ) but seeing the contrary is evident from astronomical observations , this cannot affect my hypothesis . it must indeed from hence , i think , follow , that all the same laws , properties , and operations of bodies which we find establish'd here on earth , do not so universally obtain in the atmospheres of comets : which i confess the consideration of their phaenomena has always oblig'd me to believe , and which any one who reads a page or two may easily see i was aware of when i wrote my theory . the introduction of the particular laws , powers , and properties of bodies with us , ( that of universal gravity ever excepted ; ) being in my opinion there explain'd the immediate effect of the spirit of god , who is said to have moved on the face of the waters at the very beginning of the mosaick creation . and so much i hope may suffice to shew the inconsequence of this argument ; and that my answer is no present evasion of an emergent difficulty , but my setled thoughts ever since i wrote the new theory . and the consideration of this matter will afford a like answer to what is with some shew of strength urg'd in the next place , ( . ) if the sand , stones , and gravel of our earth were formerly in the atmosphere of a comet , which is once in every revolution prodigiously scorch'd by the nearness of the sun , they must formerly have been melted , become transparent , and been turn'd into glass ; because such is now the natural effect of a violent degree of heat with us in the like case . i answer : but then , as we have just now observ'd , we can't universally reason from the state and phaenomena of a planet after its formation , to the chaotick condition it was in before . tho' in truth we do not need this answer in the present case : for neither is it certain , that because such gross and compounded bodies on liquefaction become glass , that therefore their first elementary atoms , or primary dust , scatter'd separately in the vastness of the atmosphere , would then have been subject to the same mutation . nor if that were granted , does mr. keill know that either our earth , or the comet that came by at the flood , was one of those which approach so near the sun , as that the effects he mentions must be unavoidable in them , tho' they should be so in others , whose perihelia expose them to the utmost degree of scorching imaginable . but to proceed . ( . ) 't is objected that there is no need of a central hot solid to solve the origin of springs , and such other phaenomena of nature , they being better accounted for by other means ; nor if there were a central hot solid , could its heat be here sensible , because the heat of a very vehement fire can't penetrate a stone wall of a few feet in thickness . now as to the reality of an internal heat , below the influence of the sun , in the bowels of the earth , 't is undeniable matter of fact , and must be accounted for , whatever become of the origin of springs , or the like phaenomena ; and so it may be needful to admit a hot central solid , even tho' such effects as i with dr. woodward am willing to ascribe to an heat , should be deducible from other causes . tho' truly i don't think that account mr. keill refers to here of the origin of fountains so universal , as to stand in no need of subterranean vapours : for which , tho' i believe i can give good reasons ; yet i don't think it at all necessary at present to engage in so long , and somewhat foreign a controversy . but then as to the confinement of heat by a wall of no great thickness , 't is a very different case from our earth : wh●re the heat ever ascending upwards , has first a fluid to heat ; which when hot in one place , will thereby be heated throughout ; and after that , has a crust of earth , somewhat loosely put together , and multitudes of perpendicular fissures quite through it , with other pores and horizontal fissures , to permit the passage of the warm steams to the upper regions . besides all which , the heat is not merely deriv'd anew from the central solid ; but has been , by its means , ever preserv'd since it self was deriv'd from the sun at the ancient perihelia . all which circumstances do so much alter the case , that if mr. keill had been aware of them , i hardly suppose he would have much insisted on this as a mighty difficulty in my book . we are now come to the principal doubt of all , which relates to my interpretation of this fourth day's work , so as to exclude the original creation of the heavenly bodies at that time . wherein mr. keill thinks i have not exactly observ'd my own first postulatum , but receded from the letter of the scripture , without sufficient reasons for so doing . as to which point , i must still own that i am by no means of mr. keill's mind ; and since he only delivers his opinion without producing his particular reasons , or enervating any of those i had so largely given for what i asserted , i see no occasion for a farther vindication at present ; and so shall still leave that matter to the consideration of the free and impartial reader . however , since here occur some particular difficulties , i shall take notice of such of them as have not already been consider'd . ( . ) t is objected , that because comets have no secondary ones moving about them , the moon , our secondary planet , must either have been really created , or at least brought into our neighbourhood on the fourth day ; which being therefore the importance of the word made with relation to one , ought to be taken in the same sense when referr'd to the other of the heavenly bodies : and so my interpretation of this day's work , which is built on other principles , must be a mistake . now , tho' i might ask why the moon might not as well have come into our neighbourhood before , as just upon this day , in case she had not of old been our companion ? yet to put this matter to another issue , i desire mr. keill to prove that no comets have any satellites revolving about them . for my part , i think the observations we have yet made about comets are not nice nor numerous enough to determin this point . nay rather , what the histories of many comets relate about the various shapes and figures they have sometimes appeared under , seems to me hardly accountable , unless we allow lesser comets to have been companions to the greater , and by their various positions and other circumstances to have occasion'd some at least of that variety and strangeness in many of their phaenom●n● , which not a few accounts confirm to us . ( . ) 't is alledg'd , that before the sun became visible , 't is not supposable that on the second day of the creation his heat could raise vapors enow to fi●l the seas , lakes , and rivers in the primitive earth ; on which yet my account of their original is entirely built . now not to examin the computation which mr. keill makes use of about the quantity of water rais'd and falling in a year , which i suppose may be accurate enough : nor to enquire how little the heat of the sun may be diminish'd on the earth by so few vapors collected together , as may yet be sufficient to hide his body from our fight ; i would ask mr. keill , what if the sun in half a year did not draw up vapors enow to make the thousandth part of the present ocean ? what is this to me ? who assert there was no ocean till the deluge , nor no other than small seas and lakes , perhaps not containing much more than a thousandth part of the water that is now upon the earth . and this is so visible in my book , that i prove there was before the flood no ocean , by this very reason , that the sun could not draw up vapors enow in half a years time to compose so vast a collection of waters . which if mr. keill had been pleas'd to observe , he might have spar'd me the pains of answering such an objection . having proceeded thus far in my own vindication , i must now , according to my promise , be so ingenuous as to own that much of mr. keill's reasoning against my third hypothesis of an only annual motion of the earth before the fall , and so of a half year of cold and darkness together , ( without a greater freedom of thought than i expect in most readers ) taken as 't is at present laid down in my book , is strong and forcible , and unless i fly to such evasions as i have resolv'd against , not easily to be avoided . but then i must desire mr. keill to do me so much justice , as to remember that i told the reader i had somewhat farther to say in the case ; which might therefore , by a private enquiry , have been first understood before this whole proposition , of so great importance , had been absolutely rejected . my words are these : this , when rightly consider'd may save me the labour of returning any other answer to the particular difficulty here mention'd ; and of enlarging upon several other things which might be said , to great satisfaction , on the present occasion . that upon this opportunity therefore i may fully clear my hypothesis from this obvious , popular , and not inconsiderable objection , i shall endeavour to set this matter in a new and clear light. and tho' i do not my self see any plain necessity of altering any thing i have said on this head ; yet because i have been long inclinable to think the following hypothesis very probable ( as 't is certainly very agreeable to the phaenomena of nature , and the main principles of my theory ) and very likely to satisfy the difficulties of abundance of readers , i shall more fully explain my thoughts in this case , and thereby shew that all the arguments that are levell'd against this branch of the new theory are unconcluding . notwithstanding therefore i have already , and do still assert that the original orbits of the planets , and particularly of the earth were perfect circles ; meaning by the original orbits , those in which they were to revolve immediately after they were intirely form'd , and were to be universally inhabited : yet i must now add , what i at first had some imperfect thoughts about , that this reduction of the very oblong and eccentrical orbit of our earth whilst it was a comet , into a uniform , concentrical and circular one , which i suppose it had before the deluge , may justly be allow'd to have been gradual , and not done at once : the greatest part at the commencing of the mosaick creation , and the rest at the commencing of the diurnal rotation afterwards . ( as indeed the diurnal rotation could not mechanically begin , i mean by the oblique collision of a comet , but that the annual orbit would thereby be alter'd also . ) which being suppos'd ; and that providence adjusted all circumstances so as should be most to the advantage of paradise ; we shall then have the earth revolving in a moderate ellipsis , without any diurnal rotation about the sun in the space of a year : ( tho' the exact length of that year will not now be determinable : ) a day and a year will be all one : we shall have that diameter of the earth which pass'd through paradise , parallel to the longer axis of that ellipsis it revolv'd in : and withal , we shall have the place of paradise , respecting the same fixt stars with the perthelion of the ellipsis . which being suppos'd , as the circular orbit is much the best for a globe inhabited all round , that providing equally for the convenience of both hemispheres ; so is this elliptick orbit the best for a globe inhabited but in one place , as the earth was in the primitive state ; this providing peculiarly for the happiness of that particular spot where alone the living part of the creation was to reside ; as on consideration will easily appear . thus , for instance , the heat of the day-time would gradually increase before , and decrease after noon : but yet would never be violent ; because almost all the increase of the heat by the sun 's rising above the horizon still higher and higher in the forenoon or spring , would be prevented by his real receding from the earth , and approaching nearer his apegseon during the same time ; & vice versâ , in the afternoon or summer : which would render the state of the air more equable and uniform , and less uneasy or inconvenient than any other method whatsoever . thus also not only the cold of the night , ( which by our then being nearest the sun would be inconsiderable ; ) but the duration and darkness thereof ( two very severe and frightful phaenomena in my former hypothesis would be entirely avoided . for the whole night would then bear no more proportion to the entire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , than in the ellipsis the area p b q bears to the whole area h b g f : suppose the proportion of to , which will amount to no more than two months . out of which night-time , we must deduct the two crepuscula , each of about half a month , which reduces now the darkness of the night to a single month : out of which another half month is to be still deducted for the moon 's being above the horizon , and enlightening the earth : so that at last , if the moon 's crepuscula be at all allow'd for , we shall scarce have a single week of pure darkness in the whole year . which hypothesis does at the first view so fully take off the popular objections made against me ; and affords so easy and natural a solution of the difficulties urg'd by mr. keill ; besides its peculiar fitness to render the primary animals , and particularly our first parents happy , and their state to the utmost degree paradisiacal ; that i shall add no more in confirmation of it , but leave it to mr. keill's and the intelligent readers own consideration . only before i pass on , i cannot but take notice of a great mistake of mr. keill's about the quantity of heat in the primitive earth from my hypothesis , which he reckons some hundred of times as great as in the present state : which i am sure must be a plain error , and all its consequences , which he from thence draws against me , without any foundation . the heat then , for the light half year , being but the same quantity of heat all at once ; which now at times , and with interruptions we are partakers of . which may deserve mr. keill's consideration and correction . we are now come to the principal part of my theory , the account of the deluge of noah : against which , 't is objected by mr. keill , ( . ) that the presence of a comet , tho' it would cause considerable tides in the seas above , yet it could not in the abyss below the earth : because this latter is pent in , and closely shut up within a thick and solid crust of earth , and has therefore no room to raise it self as the waters of the seas have . now in answer to this , i wonder how mr. keill comes to imagin the orb of earth to be so compact and solid a sphere , as to be able to overcome the great impulse , which on the comet 's approach the abyss would make upon it ? in my hypothesis , i am sure , it had only the consistence of adjoining columns sinking down together into the same fluid , and that extreamly broken , divided , and shatter'd at the commencing of the diurnal rotation ; when great numbers of clefts and fissures were every-where made through it , and the orb by consequence dispos'd to a division and separation of parts upon any considerable impulse whatsoever . one might almost as well assert , that a floor of disjoined planks laid cross the thames , without any fastness on either side could sustain the force of the tide , and prevent its ascent ; as that our crust of earth , so cleft and disjoined as it was , should be able to sustain the force of the tide in the abyss , and prevent its ascent , and those effects which would be consequent thereupon . ( . ) 't is objected , that the expanded vapors deriv'd from the comet , would , by passing through the air , and its resistence at their first descent , be all turn'd into water ; and so , tho' this may at once drown the world , yet it will not account for the long rains of forty days , to which the deluge of noah was principally owing . now in answer to this i say , that tho' much the greatest part of the vapors should have been at first turn'd into water , and so continued , yet 't is hard that mr. keill will not allow many of them to escape the same ; enow at least to make a constant rain for forty days together . i am sure 't is to me strange , that so thin a body as our air , lying in so small a compass about the earth , as the height of not very many miles ( for much higher 't is so very thin as to be perfectly inconsiderable ) should have the good luck to stop , arrest , and condense all and every part of so immense and swift a descending column of vapors as we have here to be consider'd . but besides , ( not to question whether mr. keill's method of reducing vapors into rain-water be universal or not : ) let it be granted that these hot vapors were at their first descent forc'd together ; yet till that quantity of heat which caus'd and continued their degree of expansion in the comet 's atmosphere or tail were mightily diminish'd , and they become as cool as vapors turning into water with us , till then i say , whatsoever their first violent motion might on the sudden produce , yet their own proper heat would immediately rarify 'em again , and so elevate 'em to a proportionable height in the air , and capacitate them to produce that continual forty days rain , which appears to have had so great a share in the universal deluge . ( . ) 't is objected , that tho' a persorated cylinder of stone or marble , pressing upon water in an exactly equal cylindrical vessel under it , would thereby force it , or any lighter fluid on its surface through the holes upwards ; yet the pressure of the additional waters upon the crust of earth could not cause the eruption of the dense fluid , or of any waters lying upon it in the bowels of the earth , on several accounts ; particularly because in the first ase the cylinder is specifically heavier than water , but in the second the orb of earth is lighter than the dense fluid under it : which mr. keill supposes does wholly alter the case . now in answer to this i say , if mr. keill desire it , i will put a cylinder of wood , which is lighter than water , instead of one of stone or marble which is heavier ; and i do not doubt of the truth of the experiment in this case , if that will afford him satisfaction . but indeed i perceive by all mr. keill's reasoning here , that he mistakes my notion ; and that 't is but setting him right in this , and all his difficulties will vanish of their own accord . i say then , and i am sure mr. keill can't contradict it , that a lighter solid will as truly press a fluid heavier than it self , till it is sunk so deep as the known law of hydrostaticks requires , as a solid that is specifically heavier : and if by its closeness of texture , and want of room about it , it be hindred from really descending so far , it will continually press the fluid , and force it upwards , or any way where there are any holes and fissures without an equal degree of pressure upon them . and this certainly is the present case . suppose the columns of earth at the beginning were miles in depth in the whole , and taken together but half so dense as the fluid on which they rely'd ; then at the mosaick creation , when the strata of the columns were not yet consolidated , but every where previous to the fluid , the several columns would , as mr. keill well knows , sink miles into the fluid , and the other miles would be extant above it . if now after the consolidation of the strata , when the orb can't sink freely as before , a new addition be made at the top of each column ( whether of lighter or heavier matter 't is all one ) equal in weight to two miles of the same column ; which is just the case of the deluge : in this state 't is evident that the pressure of two intire miles of each column , being so prodigiously great , must squeeze the fluid upward through the fissures ( which were just open'd , and fill'd with water to the height of perhaps or miles , from the neighbouring earth satur'd with the same ) and thereby throw out the incumbent water , and perhaps it self upon the face of the earth . and this the more easily , because the pressure was from the water , which would lie chiefly in the valleys , whilst the fissures were mostly in the mountains , and so above the surface of the cortex ; which otherwise by running into them , would a little stop the upward current , and retard the motion of the ascending waters . which things being , i think , undeniably true , and plainly express'd in my book , i must be a little surpriz'd that one so well vers'd in hydrostaticks as mr. keill , should be so perplex'd in this matter . all mr. keill's demonstrations suppose either that not the water on the earth , but in the fissures did contribute to raising the fluid through them ; which i could not be so childish as to imagine . or that the several columns of earth had free liberty , and could subside as far as occasion should be ; which i have in my book , as well as here , shew'd they could not . or that a pressure from a column specifically heavier than the fluid is necessary to raise it upward ; when 't is evidently all one , though it be lighter . so that upon the whole , i think mr. keill might have spar'd those peremptory words which he uses in this point . from all this it is demonstratively evident , that by no sort of pressure of the incumbent fluid , the abyss could be forced upwards to spread it self on the surface of the earth . which i hope on farther consideration he will think fit to retract . ( . ) 't is objected , that whereas i derive at least half the waters of the deluge from the bowels of the earth , this is impossible ; because there can be no sphere or collection of waters between the earth and the dense fluid , which is the only place besides , in mr. keill's opinion , the fissures themselves , capable of containing the same . in answer whereto i cannot but say 't is strange mr. keill should look for subterraneous waters every where else but where i always plac'd 'em ; in the pores and cavities of all the lower earth . and i imagine mr. keill himself will not deny that or miles together of the inward earth , satur'd and full with water , might afford much more than we have occasion for at the deluge ; and so might easily supply the fissures , in a constant drein for months together , with enough to go more than half way in the laying the surface of the whole earth under water . however , since we know not , nor did i ever directly assign , in what proportion the two several causes of the deluge contributed their shares thereto ; my theory is not concern'd , though no more water was thrown out upon the earth than fill'd the fissures , as high as the earth was satur'd with water at the mosaick creation : which quantity even mr. keill seems not unwilling to allow me . as to the dense fluid it self , and whether the force were great enough any where to cast any quantity thereof out upon the earth , i know not how to determine . though so far i am sure , that vast quantities of it might have been on the earth without any of its appearing now above ground ; which is mr. keill's objection in this case . for unless there was more than satur'd , and perhaps consolidated with , the sediment of the waters ( which now , as mr. keill will grant , composes at least two or three hundred feet thickness of our present earth : ) i am sure we are not , ( on account of their mighty gravity bearing 'em to the bottom of the whole fluid , ) to expect any remains of it in the seas or ocean , no nor in any pits , holes , or valleys upon the present earth . and here mr. keill is so kind as to afford me a breathing time , and to grant so many of my solutions to be right at once ; namely all those relating to dr. woodward's essay , and the sediment of the deluge ; that i cannot but own my real joy on this occasion : that the force of my reasoning should here prove so strong as to satisfy even mr. keill ( who seems so little to acquiesce in many other of my arguments ) in that intire point , of which i must grant my self , from any enquiries of my own , to be the least master , of all other in my book . and truly i must say that i think mr. keill , by confessing that i have convincingly enough prov'd that a comet pass'd by the earth at the deluge ; and that all dr. woodward's phaenomena are rightly accounted for by that easy hypothesis i took concerning them ; by these concessions , i say , i believe mr. keill has done more to establish my book , than all his objections will avail to reject it : and himself is therefore much more my friend and patron than he ever intended to have been by these remarks on my theory . but to leave this digression , and proceed to the. ( . ) and last objection ; which is this , that though i can easily fetch as much water as i have occasion for upon the earth to drown it ; yet i have no way to get handsomly rid of it again ; and consequently my solutions of the phaenomena of the universal deluge come to nothing , and all at last must be resolv'd into miracle . now how it has come to pass that this draining off the waters of the deluge has been so much stuck at , i cannot tell : the thing it self having , i think , no difficulty in it . certainly the pores and interstices of or . miles of dry earth are capable of receiving or miles of water into 'em : and certainly the same fissures which permitted the ascent of the fluids from beneath before , would after the ceasing of that force permit the descent of the waters of the deluge ; and by degrees in length of time draw them off , and so leave the earth as it now appears to us . for what is in the perpendicular fissures will sideways run into , and saturate , by the horizontal fissures and other passages , all the neighbouring earth : which if mr. keill doubts of , let him but make a hole in the earth , and fill it with water , and see whether he do not perceive the neighbouring parts to be moistened , and the hole to be soon empty enough to require a new supply ; notwithstanding there be no subterraneous cavern ready to receive it : which easy experiment may go a great way to convince mr. keill that the removing the waters of the deluge is no such insuperable problem , as he seems to suppose it . thus i have gone through the whole body of the reflections made by mr. keill on my new theory : and hope i have observ'd the rules which at his desire i at first set my self in this reply : and all that i , in my turn , shall claim of him , in case he think sit to make any rejoinder , is this , that he would be careful therein to observe the same rules himself , which he expected from me ; and be as ready to own any satisfaction i may have given him in any points , as to reinforce those objections he may perhaps not yet be satisfied about . and as i shall willingly correct any occasional mistakes whether in other points , or in the mathematicks of my book ( a few of which , tho' of no ill consequence to the theory it self , i am conscious of ) if it ever come to a second edition ; so in order thereto i shall heartily thank mr. keill , or any body else , who shall be so kind as by letter to inform me of any of them . i have now done with mr. keill's remarks on my theory , and before we part , i shall only desire him to answer plainly to a question or two relating to the matter now in debate between us , and shall then take my leave . ( i. ) since mr. keill grants that a comet pass'd by at the deluge , and yet contends that the flood is not to be solv'd therefrom , but is to be believ'd wholly miraculous ; to what purpose did the comet so providentially pass by just at that time if it had no relation to the deluge ? does mr. keill imagine , that the same miraculous power which caus'd the deluge could not also , without the attraction of a comet , make the earth's orbit elliptical ? a strange , unheard of , and most surprizing phaenomenon happens in the world ! a blazing star , which we but seldom discover at a vast distance in the heavens , descends hard by the body of our earth : which without the greatest exactness in the chain of providence does not happen in thousands , nay millions of years : and as soon as ever 't is pass'd by , a wonderful , and incredible deluge of waters overflows the whole earth , and drowns all its inhabitants without any other visible or imaginable occasion in the world : and yet , as it seems , the comet only accidentally pass'd by , and had no hand at all in the deluge ! — credat iudaeus apella . ( . ) how could those effects i have mention'd be avoided upon the passing by of the comet ? we are not now in a cartesian vortex , where fancy and contrivance can introduce or hinder any effect at pleasure : but we are in mechanical and experimental philosophy , which is an inflexible thing , and not at all subject to our inclinations . when the comet therefore was just pass'd by us , i desire to know how the earth could possibly avoid passing through its atmosphere and tail ? if it could not , pray what could prevent the acquiring that column of vapours i , by computation , find would fall on its surface ? and if such a column of vapours was left on the earth , what could hinder their becoming water , and drowning the earth ? i shall not , though i easily might , carry on the chain of queries any longer . but if mr. keill can fairly answer me these few leading questions , i shall then believe him alike able to answer the rest , and so i shall not pursue this particular any farther , but leave it and this whole matter to his and the reader 's leisure and consideration . apr. . . having thus finished what i had to return to mr. keill ; i shall upon this occasion consider such other material difficulties and objections relating to the new theory as have come to my knowledge any way , either in print , or in private letters ; concealing still the names of those who have been so kind as to content themselves with the latter method , tho' at the same time it will appear that in many cases the authors need have been no more ashamed of their arguments , than any of those who have chosen the more publick method , and appear'd from the press against me . and i fear not to appeal to the persons concern'd , for the fairness and justness of my proposal of their objections ; and that the returns i now make are generally for substance the same which my private answers contain'd upon the several occasions . to go on therefore with the numbers . ( . ) the next objection is , that i have omitted many insuperable difficulties which have been urg'd against the forming of our present upper earth from the sediment of the d●luge . in answer whereto ; for ( to say nothing that the non-appearance of any towns , cities , buildings , or other remains of the antediluvian world , is next to a demonstration on my side ; ) i must own that i was so incapable of overcoming those insuperable difficul●i●s , that i knew nothing of them : and i did not in the least think , that what i of my self suppos'd concerning the natural subsiding of that sediment , and without any prior dissolution of the old earth , its composing a new crust upon it , had been once hit upon by any one else before me . now whether there be such insuperable difficulties , as to the main strokes of that hypothesis , i ought not to pretend skill enough in the phaenomena of the inner earth positively to determin . dr. woodward's larger work ought to be publish'd before one can venture to pronounce too dogmatically in that point . as to my self , i see hitherto no reason to change my belief therein , notwithstanding the confidence of this author . whatever difficulties may appear at the first sight , ( arising , it may be , from a misunderstanding of several particulars relating thereto , and of several circumstances therein to be consider'd , ) yet those numerous shells , bones , trees , plants , and other bodies found in so many places in the bowels of our present earth , to say nothing of what was urg'd before , or might be from other arguments , are to me so convincing , that 't is not a few difficulties , nay scarce less than a demonstration will persuade me to the contrary . if the non-observation sometimes of the law of specifick gravity , and the consequent irregular position of the strata , be the main objection in the case , as it seems , by this author , to be , i had observ'd and accounted for the same already in the new theory . and certainly if the irregular disposition of bodies in such a chaotick sediment , with the as irregular tempests and commotions of the waters , and the consequent removal of several masses either setled or setling down from one place to another , by which the order , crassitude , and position of the strata must have been strangely diversified , together with all the other circumstances of the old earth , and of the deluge , be consider'd , 't will not be so strange , that the irregular position of the strata , subsiding all the while according to their several specifick gravities , was disturb'd and interrupted without being oblig'd to reject such an intire hypothesis on account hereof . it will however ( that i say something to what is here observ'd from the learned dr. lister ) deserve to be consider'd , whether some of those subterranean places , where such mighty sholes of shells are heap'd together , be as proper for their production as those cavities in animals where 't is said some have been found , ( to say nothing of knives , nails , and other things sometimes found in the bodies of animals , which nobody imagins to have grown there ; ) at least those trees , methinks , which are found buried so deep in the earth , will give some foundation for that hypothesis i here defend : there having been no instances of such productions , i suppose , in animals ; and this author himself , or rather his namesake , in a good humour being willing to allow them as reliques of the deluge , how much soever at another time he seems dissatisfied in that point . but however that matter shall be determin'd , the main and principal parts of the new theory , and those in which i look upon my self as most nearly concern'd , are not very much interested therein . those who , with this author here , suppose the subterranean shell-bones , and vegetables , to have grown originally there where they are now found , may suppose the waters of the deluge to have been indifferent pure , and that their sediment by consequence was less considerable ; and may then omit so many of the phaenomena and their solutions in the new theory as refer to the other opinion , and the rest will , i hope , afford them still all reasonable satisfaction . nay farther , altho' any , with dr. woodward , should see reason to insist upon the dissolution of the old earth , and the resettlement of the same again at the deluge , they will yet , i am pretty sure , be unable to account for the greatest number , and those the principal phaenomena of that deluge , without that passing by of the comet , which if i mistake not , i have next to demonstrated in the new theory ; and upon which the main reasonings of that book , with relation to the deluge , are founded . and tho' what arguments these may urge , should make it reasonable to add somewhat to , or alter somewhat in the particulars in the new theory relating to the sediments of the flood , yet i think they must be far from affecting the principal parts of that book . in case my calculations and deductions concerning the commencing of the earth's diurnal rotation at the fall , and the passage of the comet at the deluge , with their consequences , hold true , ( and i have met with nothing hitherto to he opposed to 'em , ) i shall go near to leave the other coincident point of the subterranean bodies to such as are more capable judges of those matters , and freely give them leave to believe what they shall have good evidence for in that case ; tho' at the same time i must needs profess , that the arguments for what i have asserted , even on that head , appear to me so cogent , that as hitherto i have not , so i do not hereafter much expect to meet with reasons sufficient to alter my opinion therein . but here , before i proceed , give me leave to vindicate my self from an aspersion thrown on me by the author of this last objection ; viz. the quoting dr. woodward's essay for several observations , which 't is said he was not the primary author of , and depriving thereby the first discoverers of their deserved commendations . now if this be so , and those things which i have cited out of that essay be owing to the pains of others , and not his own , ( tho' i am not satisfied how that matter stands , nor am ready to believe the doctor so great a plagiary as some would make us believe , ) i sincerely profess that i was wholly ignorant of it ; and if any thing of that nature have been done , the author of that essay , not of the new theory , is accountable for it . i neither am , nor pretend to be master of much skill in the history of learning , or the natural history of the earth : and this author very rightly takes notice , that i have not shewn a profound or clear knowledge in those matters ( which yet methinks might have been more easily excus'd in a young ( however thoughtful ) divine , as i am stil'd a little before . ) my own studies and inclinations , to say nothing of some other circumstances , have lain somewhat another way : and i do not know any obligation upon me , invitâ minervâ , to force my self into them . i did therefore , i think , what prudence dictated in the case ; where my own stock fail'd , i had recourse to the more skilful ; particularly to dr. burnet's enquiries as to the ancient traditions and doctrines of the philosophers ; and to dr. woodward's essay , just then made publick , as to the present phaenomena of the earth . both of them , in their several kinds , had methought extraordinarily perform'd their parts , so far as i had occasion to make use of them ; and both of them being extant before any of my own notions were known to others , or almost discover'd by myself , i thought , whatever partiality they could possibly be suspected of , with regard to their own several hypotheses ; yet with regard to mine their attestation could not but be deem'd valid and unprejudic'd , and so not unfit for me in those circumstances to rely upon . when therefore i observ'd that almost all which was matter of ancient tradition , or of fact ; almost all that agreed with scripture , and requir'd nothing immechanical or miraculous in 'em both , did easily fall in with my own notions , and calculations ; in particular , when i observ'd that the waters of the deluge , and their contained bodies , would naturally arrive at that very state without , which dr. woodward thought his phaenomena forc'd him to bring 'em to with his own strange hypothesis of the dissolution of the old earth : and that consequently what evidence he had for his own , would in all probability be stronger on the side of my hypothesis ; i made no farther delay or enquiry , but set down things from those authors ( whom i almost alone had opportunity to consult , and whom accordingly i every-where quote in the margin ) as they now stand in the new theory . this is a true and fair account of the matter , and such as i hope ( whatever it do as to the weakening the opinion of my abilities , which i shall not endeavour to raise beyond the truth ) will free me from any just imputation of design , or disrespect to any : of which i am not in the least conscious to my self , and of which i think i have not given any indications in the new theory . and truly , as to what this author in the last place is pleas'd to repeat again , notwithstanding his discovery of a noble genius in the formation of my system , and his unwillingness to accuse me of any ungenerous dealing concerning my ascribing the observations of other eminent philosophers to one of my own acquaintance , who may do as much for me another time ; i think he is not just and ●air to me . i have never had the honour of any acquaintance with the person he means ; neither have i , in my treating that persons hypothesis , shew'd any such favour or partiality as should induce any one to pass so severe a censure upon me . but i suppose he has receiv'd some wrong information , which has occasion'd this reflection ; which i have so much charity as heartily to forgive him , tho' i am certain i have not deserved it at his hands . ( . ) 't is alledg'd against me , that my mechanical account of the deluge implies it was no divine iudgment for the world's wickedness ; but from the necessity of the motion of the comet and earth , must have happen'd whether men had repented or not ; and so induces a rigid fatality : and withal 't is said , that tho' miracles , i. e. a violent perturbation of natural laws , be not usual ; yet a providential interposition in particular events is , and must be own'd to be so ; or else the foundation of devotion and religion is gone . now as to a rigid fatality . 't is strange my theory should be built on it , when i 'm sure i never imagin'd such a thing , nor in my opinion or practice at all differ from other christians in those things relating thereto . i believe the same as to the success of prayer , the interest of the divine providence , and the deluge's being a proper effect thereof , as any other christian does : and were not this objector so hot , and engag'd in the point , methinks all this is visible in my book . now the original of this man's mistake is the same , as is the original of their mistake in the arguing against the liberty of will , from the certainty of the divine prescience , and of prophecy depending thereon : and when you have rightly consider'd the latter , i imagin you will easily rectify your mistake in the former case . you say the flood would have happen'd whether men had been wicked or not , because the comet was approaching . let me argue in the other case : the flood would as certainly have happen'd however , from the certainty of the divine prescience which foresaw it . if you answer , the divine prescience foresaw the sins as well as the punishment : so say i , it foresaw the sins , and therefore originally dispos'd the comet 's course for the punishment : which if men had amended , would have been foreseen , and so the comet otherwise dispos'd of at first . and certainly the same answers every-where will serve in my case , which can be alledg'd in the other , on which mine wholly depends . and truly i was so fully sati●●●ed in dr. barnet's answer in this case formerly ( and observe mr. warren to have so little to say to it in his geologia , p. . ) that i usually thought those who could not clear this point to their own minds , not capable of philosophick theories . this objector does well distinguish the particular interposition of providence from a miracle , and says our prayers depend on the former . it may be so , for ought that i am sure of to the contrary ; and however , 't is best to suppose it in our devotions , as i always do , and the scripture always does . but seeing the other notion is equally suitable to religion , comes to the very same at last , and will be of vast use in case of the other parts of nature yet to be discover'd , be found reducible to as fixt laws as those we already know , certainly are ; as giving a clear account of the consistency of a setled course of nature , with the constant interposition of providence in the world. i confess i am pretty confident of the truth , as well as fully satisfied of the use of my account of these matters . my own reputation may be blasted among some w●●n persons ( tho' i find few competent judges slick at this point ) by my maintaining this opinion : but i fear religion among the deists will suffer more without it . those who are angry at me , believe the bible , and so will not be hurt , but only displeas'd at my notion . but those who finding nature constant , know not how to bring in , or believe a providence , will be really hurt without such an account as i have given ; and where only my own interest is on one side , and that of religion on the other , i think i can cheerfully submit to some degrees of popular odium , if it should be my hard fortune to incur it , without any reason : which yet the reception i have generally met with , gives me no reason to expect . ( . ) 't is alledg'd , that by turning the days of creation into years , i am too bold , and not very consistent with my own hypothesis ; that neither the sacred stile , where days are so often us'd for years , implies any thing ; because those words of time are in all languages us'd indifferently : nor the profane testimonies , because they seem no more to countenance my hypothesis than dr. burnet's ; and in truth were only unintelligible paradoxes coin'd , as usual , in those ages ; and of which many more might be brought to support other fancies ; or at best were but explications of the perpetual spring , which was a fancy of the poets for the golden ages . but sure this is too loose arguing to be oppos'd to all the positive evidence i have alledg'd in this case . i can demonstrate to none but such as grant all my postulata , the d of which is here set aside ; and if any think 'em precarious , they must look for better satisfaction in other authors . but however , i do not turn days into years ; but deny their distinction before the fall : and in truth the vulgar expositors ought as well to prove that their days then were of the present length ; as i that they were equal to years ; since there is no particular intimation in the words how long they were ; nay , whoever considers , what will i hope e're long be demonstrated , that days are only in two places of the scripture denominated by evening mornings , the one here , and the other in daniel ; and that 't is evident in the latter they signify years , will not be averse from believing the former to denote the same also . besides , i have already deny'd that all words of time are us'd wholly promiscuously in scripture ; and am confident the contrary is not to be prov'd therefrom . but as to the prophane testimonies ; those who can give a rational account of 'em , will never slight ' em . and whatever is here in the general said , i refer my self to the considering reader whether i have not demonstrated those ancient philosophers to agree better to mine than to dr. burnet's hypothesis . but instead of a farther answer here , i shall add another confirmation of the same nature , which since my book was publish'd was discover'd by a friend , and communicated to me : which i must own to be a much more remarkable testimony than any of those i formerly insisted on ; which therefore i shall recommend to the reader 's consideration ; and 't is this ; 't was the assertion of empedocles , that in the primitive constitution of things , the day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by reason of the slowness of the sun's course , was equal to ten months . which if we allow either to refer to the time when the civil year ( as the roman before numa pompilius ) had but months ; or to the day time alone , i mean the space of the sun 's being above the horizon , ( which is a common acceptation of the word day , ) accords so exactly with my hypothesis , as it stands at present , that nothing can do more so : and coming so late , so unexpected , and yet so intirely home to our point , is justly , i think , to be look'd on as decretory in the present case . ( . ) 't is said i have not ground enough to suppose a double course of rain at the deluge . this is a matter of small consequence ; for as i with others think the double course much the most agreeable to the sacred history , and have accordingly accounted for it ; so in case it were not so , no great harm would accrue to the rest of my theory : for as , if the comet 's orb was exactly in the plain of the ecliptick , the earth would fall a second time into it , unless its tail was very short ; so if either of those circumstances were otherwise , which we can only determine from the effects , there could be no second course of rain upon my hypothesis . all which is said more with regard to others notions than my own : for i confess i see no manner of reason to recede in this point from what i have said already in the new theory . ( . ) 't is said that by supposing seas without clouds before the flood i contradict the known phaenomena of nature : for when vapors and steams are rais'd , they must necessarily gather into clouds , as they do at present . but sure this is too hasty a conclusion : and if the moon has seas , as is generally allow'd , 't is contrary to the known appearances of that planet : to say nothing of any of the others . and certainly the long spaces at some times , and in some regions , which are without clouds , even in our present state of things , when yet vast quantities of vapors continue in the air , are sufficient answers to this argument . 't is , i think , the wind , and the irregular condensation and descent of the superior and inferior vapors which occasion those thick masses in the air we call clouds , and those showers consequent thereupon , and not any thing belonging to the antediluvian earth . ( . ) 't is objected , with great shew of accuracy , that in days or day , but a very small quantity of vapors times as rare as our air could descend ; within which spaces yet the rains at the deluge must be confin'd : for as vapors now condense and fall about a mile in six hours , when they compose the dew ; so vapours times rarer would be times as long before they would descend ; so that every mile of the comet 's vapor ( at least that of the tail ) must be days , or almost years in condensing into rain ; and so by consequence miles of this vapor must be almost three times years before it be all condens'd and fallen upon the earth . now in answer to this i say , here is a gross mistake , that every mile of the comet 's vapors must have a distinct time of condensing , and descending . as they all fell at once upon the earth at first , so those of the same degree of rareness would generally be condens'd and descend at once upon the earth in rain afterwards . and as the vapors , being of several degrees of rareness , and subject to various chances , would successively descend and cause continual rains ; so i think the spaces of and of days , sufficient to confine the last of 'em respectively . the altitude , and where the air is times as rare as with us , and whence , by consequence , the highest would descend from , is not so many miles as one would imagine , ( as the torricellian tube , by its different height , at the foot and top of mountains assures us ) nor indeed any other than very well agrees with the and days of descent , which are necessary in the present case , as on a fair calculation , will , i believe , easily appear ; tho' 't is so impossible to state all the points relating to this matter very nicely , that i think it hardly worth while to set about it , since the general consideration hereof does so wholly take off the force of the present objection . ( . ) 't is said that because the bodies of comets appear much less in their perihelia than before , 't is probable their tales are smoak , and not vapor ; and that the earth of the comets was by the sun's heat evaporated , and composed the tail. now truly this is to me news , that the central body of a comet grows much less at the perihelion . 't is true , the atmosphere becomes somewhat less at that time ; which is a natural effect of the rarefaction of part of it into the tail. but smoak is an earthly substance , not to be rarifi'd or elevated in any proportion with vapors ; and indeed when i see showers of dust or smoak as common as those of rain , i may be tempted to doubt of this point , but hardly before ; especially if we regard the tail in its descent from the cold regions , which must certainly be vapor , till the violence of the heat in the perihelion doth mix other earthly bodies therewith . tho' if much smoak were among the vapors , i see not what great harm would ensue to my hypothesis thereby . ( . ) 't is said noah and the ark must have been scorch'd or burnt by the heat of the comet and its atmosphere , if they came as near as my hypothesis requires . to omit here the place of noah and the ark , ( in that hemisphere of the earth which escap'd the primary descent of the vapors ; and so let 'em have been never so hot , would be cool'd e're they became rain : ) i pray what harm could a comet , tho' times as hot as the earth ( which yet is too great a heat in the descent to the sun ) at the distance of at least miles , do to it ? for tho' the comet which mr. newton mentions were heated prodigiously , and would not cool in a very long time ; yet this revolving in such an orbit as my figure supposes , sustaining but the th part of the heat , and revolving , if the trajectories were similar , not under times the period of the other , is not liable to the same computations ; or ought to occasion the same difficulties ; which if the other had come by in its room might justly have been alledg'd against me . ( . ) 't is objected , with great shew of strength , that the different attractions of the earth and moon must separate 'em farther than before , and thereby at once alter the species of the orbit of the moon , and its periodical time also ; on the continuance of which last so much depends ; for at the comets approach it would , before it came at either of 'em , draw 'em asunder and accelerate 'em differently , and after it was past 'em , it would do the same ; by reason of the different distances of the one and the other to the comet ; and by reason of the proportional attraction of the one commencing before that of the other . in answer to this difficulty , which deserves a careful consideration , i deny that any such eccentricity , or difference of periodical time in the moon would follow : for as the acceleration of the earth commenc'd before that of the moon , so also did its retardation ; and as while the comet was above or below 'em both , it would separate them ; so while it was between 'em it would draw 'em together . besides , in general i demonstrate the whole thing thus : the earth and the moon had equal velocity , and a right position before : and the velocity and position were equally increas'd , or affected alike by the comet , ( as from the like position of these two bodies in a system revolving about their common center of gravity , and from the equal approach and acceleration of the comet to 'em both is plain . ) and consequently their old position and common revolutions would still remain . so that when the moon 's eccentricity could be no other way caus'd by the comet than i conjectur'd , in which the period of the moon would still be preserv'd , all these fears may be at an end . tho' i heartily thank this objector for putting me upon clearing so substantial a point ; in which the main of the new theory was so deeply concern'd . ( . ) that our earth should have been once a comet seems not probable , because in all past history no other comet has been observ'd to stop and become a planet ; which one would imagine should now and then have happen'd since the mosaick creation . for answer to which i say , that as the earth is inconsiderable in comparison of the universe or the solar system ; so i believe is or years , ( the period i suppose of its duration ) [ much more about years the reach of our astronomical histories ] to the duration of the whole system . so that tho' we have no other example of an earth form'd from a comet , yet this is no great difficulty in the case . i believe worlds are not form'd every age , nor perhaps every thousandth age neither . ( . ) why should not the comet , to which i ascribe the deluge have been seen many days before it approach'd the earth , since 't was in opposition to the sun ? in answer to which i say , that if it were seen , as perhaps it was , and so the memory of the flood 's happening upon it preserv'd ; which one of my solutions will easily permit any one to suppose ; yet because its nearest approach was indiscernible to those who surviv'd , and because withal 't was not then imaginable , that a blazing star could drown the world ; or indeed could approach the earth at all , 't is not to be expected that any ancient history should ascribe the flood to it . ( . ) 't is objected , that whereas i assert that the point b. or place of the comet 's passing by the earth , by reason of the prevalence of the outward attraction over the inward , must have been five , six , or seven degrees after the place of the perihelion ; on the contrary , by the nearness of the inward attraction downward , immediately after the passing by of the comet , so far as to over-balance the longer time of the outward attraction , the point b. ought rather to be as far before the perihelion ; and that , by consequence , one of my greatest coincidences is gone , and my superstructure all precarious and false . in answer to which i must ingenuously own , that this is so far true as to take away the distance between the point b , and the perihelion ; which i before assign'd , upon a general view , and before any trial by computation . nay , i must farther own that the above-mention'd inward attraction , by reason of its nearness , does over-ballance the longer time of the outward ; and so the point b. must be rather on the other side of the perihelion . but then i must say 't is on calculation so small , as is wholly inconsiderable ; and the point b , and the perihelion coincident : which being thus granted , unless we can find the motion of the perihelion to have been slower than mr. flamstead's table , which i alone mention'd before , allows , this , will be a shrew'd difficulty in the present case , and destroy one of the best foundations of the new theory . now in this enquiry i find that mr. newton's computation à priori corrected , allows but ⅓ degrees to the motion of the perihelion since the deluge : that mr. street's tables are very nearly for the same number , viz. / nay , that tycho's tables allow only ½ , so that if we take a mean ½ this will bring the perihelion at the deluge to the very day the th degree of taurus , and the th day of the second month. which last computation of tycho's as it was that i first observ'd , so now i finding it so near the exactest computations of others i acquiesce in one very near it : and am not displeas●d that , by means of this coincidence , the very day of the beginning of the deluge may almost be assign'd already ; and when the perihelion's motion is better fix'd , may perhaps be perfectly so ; to the still greater confirmation of all those coincidences , which of themselves have appear'd so remarkable in the case . appendix . upon this occasion i think 't is proper to own and correct a mistake in the new theory : where the axis of a cone is affirmed to pass through the focus of the ellipsis , generated thereon : which mistake , as i am now satisfy'd it is , tho' it were an illustration only , and of no farther consequence , yet ought to be rectify'd : which therefore i hereby do , as far as i am able ; and hope this free confession will procure as free a pardon from every one who considers that himself is not wholly free from errors and mistakes . it may not perhaps be here , upon this occasion , improper also to improve as well as correct the new theory , and make some few additions to it , and where they ought to be inserted the margin will direct the reader . coroll . since the number of years from the deluge till the fixing the present period of human life in the days of moses , is according to the chronology of the septuagint , at least equal to that from the creation to the deluge , according to the hebrew ; ( from which latter the calculations of this d phaenomenon are made ) and since withal the lives of men at a medium were during that space from the conjoint testimonies of both the hebrew and septuagint about years ; 't is easy on the grounds proceeded on there to prove , that in case the septuagint's chronology be receiv'd , the world must have been much more populous in the days of moses , than it is at present ; and that by consequence mankind has not increas'd but decreas'd in number since those ancient days ; contrary to the most undoubted matter of fact in all the past and present ages of the world. so that 't is evident that not only some pretended vast numbers of years of the egyptian dynasties or chinese reigns , with any other extravagant computations of those kinds , enlarging the time since the deluge , but also the additional years introduced by the septuagint , nay , or the samaritan pentateuch are false , and contrary to the certain account of the increase of mankind in these latter ages of the world. upon the whole therefore no other accounts of the ancient times , whatever some have imagin'd , have rational evidence , and the phaenomena of nature on their sides ; but those which the hebrew verity delivers to us . corollary . it may here deserve our notice that tho' the present period of human life was generally sixt in the days of moses ; yet seeing such things are gradual , and sooner reduc'd to a standard in some families , countries , and situations than others ; it seems not necessary , nay not probable that the period was universally reduc'd to the lowest at the time assigned . so that if in the next period we find some instances of longevity which are hardly to be parallell'd now , it will be no more than may , nay , than ought in reason to be expected in such a case . thus there is no reason to be surpriz'd that moses himself reach'd , his brother aaron , and their sister miriam about years of age. and in like manner the cases of rahab , booz , obed , and iesse , the progenitors of king david ( where four generations reach'd about years ) which otherwise , notwithstanding what the history notes particularly of the great age of one or two of them , if compar'd with later times , would appear very strange , and next to incredible , are become hereby very easy , and very agreeable to the state of things in those ancient ages of the world. [ by way of corollary at the end of the postscript . ] corollary . the main body of the tribes , as well as of those two of iudah and benjamin , returned out of captivity , and resetled themselves in the reign of cyrus and his successors in their own land. this is , i confess , a new conjecture , and contrary to what iosephus really does , and the sacred history is suppos'd to deliver touching this matter . but when 't is better consider'd , i imagine both iosephus will be found to deliver somewhat which will assist us to rectify his assertion , and the sacred books will be found every where to establish what is directly contrary to the common opinion herein . it may be own'd that the catalogues of particular families mention'd by ezra and nehemiah do not concern the tribes ; nay , it may be own'd , that in the first of cyrus those carried into babylon , or the two tribes alone returned home ; ( and the catalogues belong expresly and singly to the first return of all in the first of cyrus , and that out of babylon only . ) but that the ten tribes did not return either presently after , or in the following reigns , particularly in the d of darius , or the th or th of artaxerxes is , i think , improbable in it self , and not agreeable to the scriptures , nor to that assertion of iosephus on which i ground this corollary , and which i now come to explain . the intire number of those who returned out of captivity is not set down in scripture , but is by iosephus ; and 't is thus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the total summ of those who returned , above the age of twelve years , was , without including the levites or their families . now if we suppose this summ taken out of the old iewish records , and that they , as in the scriptures , included only the males , as 't is reasonable to do , it will appear that so great a number must relate to the whole twelve tribes , not to those of iudah and benjamin alone , as iosephus asserts . for seeing the tribes of iudah and benjamin together , in the former numbering of 'em by david , were of males above twenty years old , or that drew the sword , about , and that after the allowance for their increase at the rate of doubling in years , consider'd with that mighty diminution of 'em by pekah , the king of israel's slaying of 'em in one battle , their number at this their return from babylon could not be much above one million ; as on calculation will appear . this mighty number in iosephus may justly seem much too large for the two tribes , nay to the full large enough for the twelve together : as any one , who from the intire number in david's time , and the proportion of increase till the return out of captivity , compar'd with the mighty diminution of 'em by abiah , the king of iudah's slaying five hundred thousand of 'em in one battel , reduces this matter to calculation , may easily perceive . which observation methinks is of considerable force to prove that the ten tribes are not lost , nor still scatter'd abroad about assyria alone , as is so commonly suppos'd , but return'd with their brethren the iews to their own land ; and were with them subject to all the accidents mention'd by iosephus under the persian and grecian empires , the asmonaean or maccabaean , and herodian races , till their common and utter excision , and ultimate dispersion by the romans under titus vespasian . this observation and corollary might easily be confirmed from other arguments . but that would be to digress too much from my point . he who doubts may see some confirmation in what archbishop usher takes notice of ( tho' without design to prove what i say ) at the year of the world . to which , together with his own observations hereafter , i refer the reader . 't is perhaps worth our enquiry , whether most mens notions of the time for the abating of the waters of the deluge be not very precarious , at least if not wholly mistaken . 't is the general opinion , taken from the mosaick history of the flood , that the waters were wholly subsided , and the earth laid as dry in a manner as 't is at present , by that time noah came out of the ark ; or in the space of about a year , from the beginning of the flood . 't is true , moses says , that on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the waters were abated , and the ark rested on the mountains of ararat : that on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen : that on the first day of the next year the waters were dried up from off the earth . and then lastly , that on the twenty-seventh day of the second month was the earth dried , and noah call'd out of the ark. but all this may be very true , and yet vast quantities of the waters of the deluge might at the same time remain on the face of the earth . and as the present ocean may be still part of the same , so the rest of them might require a hundred or two hundred years before they arriv'd at or near to their present subsidence and condition . and this , i think , is the truth of the case , and is so far from contradicting the sacred history , that it may be establish'd by an observation or two from thence , as well as by the present phaenomena of nature . as to the sacred history of moses , 't is first evident , that the mountainous regions about ararat or caucasus , especially since they were , from my hypothesis , particularly elevated above the rest , might be wholly clear of the waters in a year's time ; and yet the lower plains and valleys in a very different case , and still to a great depth under the water : and 't is as evident , ly , that we have no authentick account of the lower plains , being become dry and habitable , even in regions more elevated than many others , i mean about the middle parts of our continent , till the building of babel , the confusion of languages , and the dispersion of the nations over the earth ; none of which happen'd before the second century from the deluge , in the days of peleg . and then as to the present phaenomena of nature , i think they determin the question before us , and sufficiently demonstrate the longer abode of the waters of the deluge upon the earth than is commonly allow'd . for as many maritime countreys ( which i have already observ'd , and others have noted the same ) do by their remarkably even and smooth surface , shew they have been made so in length of time , by the motion of the sea , which now lays the sands in the same manner : so does the consideration of the nature and position of the strata of the earth in some places now fully confirm the same observation . near my habitation , at present , upon the sea-coast , there is a pretty high and remarkable cliff , at the least twenty foot above the surface of the ocean adjoining : and yet 't is to the very top stratum of all almost as evidently the product of the waters , laying heaps , strata , and beds of sand and chingle ; as that very shore on which we stand , and which is daily made and remov'd by the tides and waves of the present ocean . and as i do not doubt from the always equal height of the ocean every-where , that 't is frequently thus in other places also ; so this is , i think , a plain evidence that the ocean has been at least foot higher than 't is now : and that for a long time together , sufficient i mean to heap up such mighty beds of sand and chingle as the present observation does require . which of it self is at once a demonstration that all the lower regions near the sea have formerly been drown'd , and layn under water : and at the same time does fully confirm that length of time which i assert was taken up in the intire subsidence of the waters of the deluge . in this place i cannot but propose a conjecture i have for some time had in my mind about the peopling of china ; which i think may deserve to be consider'd ; and 't is this. that the chinese are the offspring of noah himself after the flood , and not deriv'd from any of his other posterity shem , ham , or iaphet , as the inhabitants of the rest of the world are . this conjecture depends on the following reasons . ( . ) the account of the posterity of shem , ham , and iaphet , and of their dispersion , gives no hint of any that went so far east as china , as i think is plain from the best expositions of the th of genesis , where that matter is chiefly treated of . ( . ) since the dispersion of the posterity of shem , ham , and iaphet appears to have begun about babylon , a countrey so remote as china could not be so soon reach'd and peopled as the prodigious numbers of its inhabitants at present shew it to have been . the nearest regions must have been first and most fully peopled ; and the remoter not till men were increas'd sufficiently to require new habitations ; and accordingly it has happen'd in the countries of europe , africa , and the western parts of asia ; to which i suppose the dispersion begun at babel is confin'd . but this is a sufficient proof that so very large and prodigiously populous a country as china could not be of so late an original , as it must be in case the chinese are deriv'd from this dispersion . ( . ) the sacred history soon after the flood confines it self within the then known world : ( which , i think , did not include china , no more than america , and which is stil'd the whole earth very often in scripture , ) and at the same time says not a word of the great father of the whole race of mankind , noah : ( excepting the number of years he liv'd . ) now this is , i think , a kind of intimation that noah had no share in the actions related in the sacred history : and so by a fair consequence was probably plac'd in china , a region out of the compass of the then known world. ( . ) 't is otherwise strange , that whereas caucasus , the resting-place of the ark , was so near the middle of our continent , no footsteps should remain of any colonies sent eastward ; but all mankind should take one course , and place themselves in the western regions alone : and this at the same time , that no reason can be given why the western countreys should be more inviting to them than the eastern , since the latter certainly have been as valuable and pleasant to the past and present ages , as the former . ( . ) the chinese language and writing are so intirely different from those with us which the confusion at babel introduc'd , and are at so vast a distance from them , that i think they cannot well be deriv'd from thence , nor from any of those patriarchs whose posterity was there divided into the several parts of the world. all our languages consist of words and syllables made by a few letters : which is wholly different from the way of expressing intire sounds , and of varying the sense by tones or accents among the chinese . all which persuade me , that their original is different from ours : and that as we are the off-spring of shem , ham , and iaphet , whose sons were scattered from babel , so are they of noah who was no way interested in that dispersion , or in those languages which are deriv'd therefrom . ( . ) the learned sciences seem to have been anciently much better known in china than in these parts of the world : their government and constitution much firmer , and more lasting than ours : their most ancient histories more authentick and certain than ours ; ( excepting those of more than humane original . ) all which things make one ready to imagin , that as 't is probable noah might be much wiser and learneder than any of his sons ; so all those settlements , laws , and traditions , which are deriv'd from him , are remarkable effects and testimonies of the same : and therefore that in china ( where these effects and testimonies chiefly appear ) all those prerogatives are owing to noah , their original founder , and to no other . ( . ) there are some reasons to believe that the chinese mean no other by their first monarch fohi , than noah himself : for as the beginning of their history , with the reign of fohi , will , if their old years were lunar , fall , even from the hebrew verity , about the second century of noah's life ; ( as if they were solar , they will fall about the time of his birth : ) so what their history of king fohi mentions about his sacrificing , and his name of sacrificer given him from thence , seems plainly to refer to the sacred history of noah , and of his sacrifice after the flood . from all which i think 't is evident , that we have good grounds to believe the chinese the off-spring of noah , by his children born after the deluge : and that from this difference of original proceeds all that difference in other things , which is so remarkable , if compar'd with the rest of the world , in that ancient numerous , and learned nation . let the testimony out of plutarch be thus inserted . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 't was the doctrine of empedocles , that when mankind sprang originally from the earth , the length of the day , by reason of the slowness of the sun's course , was equal to ten of our present months . finis . errata . pag. . line . read internal heat . . . read the. . . read pervious . . . read waters . . read to the raising . . , . read place , in mr. keill's opinion , besides . . . dele for . . . read shells . . . read this . . . dele of . . , . read into its tail , unless it were very short . . . dele and. . read tails . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e dr. bentley , coroll . , & . post solut. . notes for div a -e remarks , pag. ult . pag. , &c. gen. . . p. , &c. solut. . sect. . pag. , . p. , &c : p. . pag. , . p. , &c , solut. . corol. . p. , &c. p. . fig. . p. , &c. p. , &c. p , &c. remarks , p. . p. , &c. p. . p. , &c. notes for div a -e dr. t. robinson's additional remarks . phaenom . . pag. . n● . ● . phaenom . . dr. nichols d conference with a theist . dr. nichols . dan. . . . n. t. p. . vid. plut. de plac. philosoph . l. . c. . censorin . de die natali . c. . dr. nichols . dr. nichols . dr. nichols , dr. nichols . dr. nichols . mr. b. p. ●● . mr. b. mr. b. solut. . p. . fig. . mr. s. p. . notes for div a -e lem. p. . post. coroll . solut. . coroll . . solut. . ruth . . sam. . . ezra . . neh. . , . antiq. . . c. . vid. p. s. sam. . . chron. . . vid. p. s. chron. . . scholium post corol. solut. . gen. . , . ver . . ver . . v. , &c. gen. . . & , . corol. . post solut. . mr. ray's physico theolog . discourses , p. , . d edit . scholium post sect . hypoth . . gen. . . pag. . the divine history of the genesis of the world explicated & illustrated gott, samuel, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the divine history of the genesis of the world explicated & illustrated gott, samuel, - . [ ], p. printed by e.c. & a.c. for henry eversden, and are to be sold at his shop ..., london : . attributed to samuel gott. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). errata: p. [ ]. reproduction of original in dr. williams' library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - spi global rekeyed and resubmitted - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the divine history of the genesis of the world explicated & illustrated . juven . sat. . tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine moses . london , printed by e. c. & a. c. for henry eversden , and are to be sold at his shop under the crown in west-smithfield , next duck-lane , . premonition to the reader . he who included homer's ilias in a nutshell , made a very good kernell for it , if the brevity in writing was not compensated with as great obscurity , and difficulty in reading . wheras in this divine history , we have the genesis , and system of the whole world , in one leaf , yea one page , delineated as in a mapp ; not without sufficient clearnes , as i shall shew in my explications . and as god hath left farther inquiry into particulars to human ingeny and industry , i accordingly expatiate in my illustrations , still keeping as close to the text , as i may ; for , longius a verbo , longius a vero. wherin though i cannot be as brief as i would , yet i have studied as much clearnes as i could , without diagramm or sculpture ; and purposely repeat some more difficult conceptions , that others may better understand them : which yet i do not expect they should presently embrace , becaus i know that i could not so suddenly satisfy myself concerning them : and whosoever would so satisfy himself , must throughly read , and as throughly consyder the whole series . the manuscript hath suffered many expunctions and interlineations , which rendred it not so legible ; and my absence from the press permitted some fa●lts to escape in printing . however i expose it , such as it is , among my own countrimen , from whom i willingly expect many learned observations , and critical reflections , which shall help me to perfect , and prepare it for another language . the exquisite poets in the time of augustus ( as i find in ovid ) used first to recite privately one to another : and i remember mr. selden told me , that he and heinsius used to communicate notes toward some of their works . schola salerni , collegium conimbricense , and others , wrote in common : which certeinly is a very great advantage ; where many collect the materials , and one is the composer and architect of the work , and then all review and rectify it . but i , who live alone in the country farr from athens , must proceed otherwise , and as inferior animals , first excl●de an embryonical ovum , which may be afterward hatched into a more perfect foetus . in the mean time , becaus errata are not observed untill they be printed , nor usualy rectified untill the book be read ; and then it is too late ; i have heer prenoted such as are more material , that the reader may rectify them before-hand , by under-lining them , or by under-pointing , or pricking . besides which , there are many other literal faults , especialy in capital letters intended only for more emphatical words , tautographys , al 's interpunctions , and the lik● , which h● m●y easily correct , o●ulo currente ; and be pleased to pardon both my own , and the common infirmitys of printing — aliter non fi● , am●ce , liber . page . line . be . read be the. p. . l. . changing . ● . chanting . l. . affection . r. affectation . p. . l. ● . mercurius r. mercurys . p. . l. . praejudicate . r. predicate . p. . l. . triangle . r. triangle , or delta . p. . l. . all . r. also . p. . l. . of . r. a● . l. . parallogramm . r. parallelogramm . p. . l. . ●ever . r. never be . p. . l. . all ma●erial . r. elementary . p. . l. m●re . r. more or . p. . l. . one . r. own . p. . l. . at . dele . p. . l. . clear . r. clear-it . p. . l. . mid . r. mid be . p. . l. . notion . r. motion . p. . l. . b●dy . r. body be . p. . l. . such . r. such as . p. . l. . ex●● . r. exuct . l. . as . r. as to . p. . l. . w●atsoeve● . r. whatsoever , which . p. . l. . meditately . r. mediately . p. . l. . spirits . r. species . p. . l. . as we have . dele . l. . maturely . r. mutualy . p. . l. . introduction . r. introsuction p. . l. . were . r. were made . p. . l. . it . r. it being . p. ● . l. . night then by day . r. day then by night . p. . l. . barr. r. burr . l. . at . r. as . p. . l. . of . r. by . p. . l. . somwhat . r. so not . p. . l. . . somwhat . r. so not . p. . l. . see● . r. even . p. . l. . a● . r. a● . p. . l. . which . r. which is . p. . l. . various . r. variations . p. . l. . from . r. upon . l. . thither . r , hither . p. . l. . therefore . r. therefore called . p. . l. . amitt . r. emitt . p. . l. , , . vapid r. vappid . p. . l. . and. r. and as . p. . l. . or therabout . dele . p. . l. . n●t . r. not only . p. . l. . but dele . p. . l. . as . dele . p. . l. . not . r. not so . p. . l. . starrs . r. starrs more . l. . more ra●e . r. common . p. . l. . angels . r. angels or god. p. . l. . whereby . r. thereby . p. . l. . leap . r. s●irr . p. . l. . act. r. a●t . p. . l. . when . r. whence . p. . l. . wheras . dele . to the world . the title bespeaks the dedication of this discours of the world to the world ; which if it were animal , as plato fansied , would most freely acknowledg and subscribe to the divine history of its own creation : but i write to the animate and intelligent world of mankind , both present and future ; and more specially to the christian world , ( which is now almost the whole world of learning ) but most particularly to the british world , whose language i therefore speak . now though men in these latter ages of the world seem to forget the original creation therof so many thousand years past , certainly adam the first man , who was immediately created by god , was very conscious of his own creation ; nor could he by his fall lose this natural knowledg , more than of being a man : and most probably he delivered this great tradition to his posterity ; who also reteined it , while they could reckon themselves in succession , as enoch the seventh , and noah the tenth from adam . but afterward in or about the fourteenth generation ; when nimrod the mighty hunter and his impious faction began to build the tower of babel , ( whereupon ensued the confusion of languages ) this knowledg also began to be confounded ; and thenceforth remained with the primitive language only in the family of heber , the father of the hebrews ( in whose days the earth was divided when his eldest son peleg was born ) and in his sacred seed after him . and from the hebrews living in chaldaea the chaldaeans first derived their philosophy ; and so after them the egyptians , and phoenicians ; and from them the graecians ; mingling it with their several superstitions and idolatries . and as iosephus observeth , nimrod first taught his babylonians to contemn gods power and providence ; which he could not do without a denial of the creation . whence the chaldaeans began to worship the creature , or created nature , instead of god the creator : but principally the sun , and fire , as the supreme and most beneficial element . the egyptians who would also have their national deity , did idolise water rather than fire ; induced thereunto by a gratitude to their great benefactor the river nilus . the p●oenicians , graecians , romans , and generaly all the more western nations , have worshiped all the elements , under several names , and in the several forms and images wherewith they pleased to invest them ; deducing them all from coelum and terra , or heaven and earth , ( which the chineses still worship ) but pan and proteus , whereby they represented matter and motion , were by all esteemed dii minorum gentium . this antient theogony is also recorded and celebrated by the poets . which though afterward the athenian philosophers did more strictly examin , yet the tradition of a chaos and creation did very long continue among them : but they supposed the creation of the world by one chief god to have been eternal like himself , with certain revolu●ions of time , and transmigrations of spirits , eternally circulating and changing by perpetual generation and corruption ; believing the lying records of egyptian antiquity , from whom also pythagoras learned his philosophy , and fansied i know not what harmony of the spheres : with many such fictions , which he by his own ipse dixit pleased to affirm , and impose as credenda on his disciples . and plato , being partly a follower of his sect , and partly a master of another , generally reteined and refined this philosophy . but aristotle rejecting all matters of faith , both divine , and human , and examning all things only by reason , descended lower even to a first matter , affirming it , and the potentia thereof , to be common principle of all material things . upon which false foundation , and also his compliance with popular idolatry , almost all his other errors are grounded ; though otherwise i esteem him the greatest master of reason among all pagan philosophers : and his errors are not dangerous being now so well known to all . but as moses is the only divine and true philosopher ; so of them all i acknowledg aristotle to be his best commentator . epicurus departed from both these ways of knowledg , regarding sens more than either reason or faith. whereas these three , being all , and the only ways of human knowledg a philosopher should accordingly make use of them all : and therefore all heathen philosophy , wanting the divine light of faith , could never yet produce any complete system of the world , nor give any true and satisfactory account therof . and this universal dissatisfaction begat the last of sects which was scepticism , or a professed denying or doubting all things whatsoever : admitting no testimony or evidence either of faith , reason , or sens. but though doubting may be a good disciple , yet certainly it can be no master of philosophy ; and if it be affected and resolved is the very contradiction therof , and oppugner of all knowledg , both divine , and human , speculative , and practical : and however some may esteem it caution in philosophy , it is plainly libertinism in morality , and infidelity in theology : and any dogmatical error or inconvenience can hardly be greater than total scepticism , which is as utter darkness , and the state of desperation , the bottomless pit , and vorago of all knowledg and practice . now as this was formerly the progress of heathenish philosophy , so since christianity illuminated the world , yet through the natural darkness and corruption of human understanding , it hath again had the same revolutions . for so first platonical philosophy , which porphyrius , plotinus , iamblichus , and others very much rectified and refined by the spiritual light of christianity , was by them opposed against it . also philo iudaeus , and origen , and some of the christian fathers seem to have some savor therof . afterward the schoolmen generally referring matters of faith to scripture , and examining nature by reason , rather embraced the peripatetical philosophy , which hath long continued , untill in this last age , some others , though they can discover nothing which the athenian wits had not invented before them , yet reviving and renewing old errors , like fashions , relaps again to epicurism , in one kind or other , of atoms , or corpuscles , or the like , and when this humor hath lasted as long as it did formerly , we may expect scepticism to succeed : and indeed i suspect that we are already in the very confines therof . now though wanton wits think they may thus dally with opinions as they please ; yet , as it is most truly said , studia abeunt in mores : and so virgil very aptly introduceth drunken silenus changing the epicurean opinion , but grave anchises more soberly platonising . certainly their novell doctrine of matter and motion doth much embase the immaterial spirit of man , and render it more gross and sensual , and unfit for spiritual and divine contemplations . and though i believ some of the assertors therof to be as far from atheism as my self , yet i must freely profess that the assertion tendeth toward it , and was by heathens improved to the denial of a creation ; and i appeal to every reader whether it doth not induce some suspicion therof in himself ; yea i suppose this to be chiefly that which renders i● so acceptable and agreeable to the corrupt minds of men ; and the writers therof themselvs seem to be somewhat conscious herein , while they make their usual apologies , and need to tell the world they are no atheists . thus also by affirming accidents and qualities to be no real things , they make both virtue and piety to be only notions . o virtus colui te ut rem , at tu nomen inane es ! and if they could also prove the reward therof , and punishment of impiety and vice ( which all must accordingly perceiv and feel ) to be only notional , and not real ; they should thereby deliver up all mankind to a reprobate sens , or rather insensibility and indistinction of any good or evill . and their opinion of universal nature is like that of caesar : respublica inane nomen . besides how prejudicial such contempt of antiquity , and of all authority , and the affection of novelty and innovation , may be to church or state , i leav to wise politicians , certainly all christian academies and schools of literature should deeply resent such novell attempts , which professedly subvert all the antient foundations of learning ; 〈◊〉 formerly the barbarous world was taught both arts 〈…〉 and a ready way prepared for christian religio● 〈…〉 wherupon so fair a superstructure hath been raised ( 〈…〉 these novellists ow their education and instruction ) and a farther progress might still have been made , if it were not obstructed by themselvs ; and young wits led away into an inextricable labyrinth of matter and motion ; and the magnum inane of vacuity , and at last plunged into the abyss of perpetual scepticism . i have no petulant humor , yet it may exceed the meekness and patience of my great master moses , to hear some christians affirm the very essences and formalities of all elementary , vegetative , yea even sensitive natures , to be only matter and motion : as aaron said of his materials ; i cast them into the fire , and there came out this calf : and so to set up several figures of things , as the jews did the figures which they had made ; and heathenish idolaters their idols and images . wheras indeed it is rather the art of a statuary , than of a philosopher , thus to make mercurius ex quolibet ligno : or as he who having only an hercules of wax in his shop , when one came to buy of him a mercury , could presently turn his beard into a galerus , his club into a caduceus , and his buskins into talaria ; and so he might as well have made thereof a iupiter , iuno , venus , man , beast , or tree , or as we say quidlibet ex quolibet : which yet shou'd be only wax varied . thus our new philosophers , not acknowledging all those several primitive natures which god in his infinite wisedom pleased to create , like etymologists , can derive one thing from another so far as scarcely to leav any primitives . cartacean philosophy , which describes the world in paper otherwise then god hath made it to be in nature , beginning , cogito , ergo sum , and so proceeding , cogito , ergo est : as though becaus the operation doth indeed prove the essence of the cogitant , it did therefore also prove the real entity of any thing cogitated : and yet this is all the argument it can afford us to prove that first and fundamental truth , that there is a god , cogito esse deum , ergo est. whereas the most judicious and ingenious father , long before had invented the first argument , when disputing with a sceptike , he first proves that he is , because he doubts whether he is or not ; and because he is a creature , thereby also proves that there is a god the creatour : whom i shall rather chose to follow than any such neophytes ; who , when god saith in the beginning he made heaven and earth , say he made only matter and motion ; and professing that they had deliberated and tried to deduce all this spectable world from a chaos , or from matter only diversified by its own motion , figure , and the like ; have asserted it to be matter ; whereas god expresly declareth that he produced it out of a chaos in the six days works : and who make sol and the planets , and the starrs to be the centers and foundations of all the vortices of matter and corpuscles about them ; whereas the whole aether , air , water , earth , and vegetatives , were made in the three first days before them . whereupon i may very truly and safely pronounce ; aut haec non est scriptura , aut i●ta non est philosophia . for mine own part i must here profess , that having long since studied philosophy in the university , and read over several philosophers , both antient , and modern , i could never find a satisfaction in any of them : and if i had not reflected on this divine history , should have been tempted , as others , to invent some new philosophy suitable to mine own fansy : for now he is no philosopher who willnot attempt to make a new philosophical world , and produce his module therof ; shewing how it might be best made , and with least charges : but certainly it is most ridiculous and impious thus to presume that god must therefore have made the world according to our module , becaus we judge it best ; rather than acknowledge that to be best which he hath made , becaus he who made it is infinitely wiser than us . wherefore to find out how god made the world , i had recours to his word , reading over this first chapter of genesis again and again ; and also many commentators , in whom generaly ( besides the first article of our creed concerning god the maker of heaven and earth ) i found more of aristotle than of moses ; ( yea even translators seem to incline that way ) but the cabalistical rabbins , and scholastical philosophers , by their jewish , and heathenish interpretations , have so confounded and obnubilated this divine light , that almost all christians fear to approach it ; and seem rather to dread and adore it at a distance as some inscrutable mystery : and some think they greatly favor scripture by restraining it to theology and morality , and not intitling it to natural philosophy ; and so , as it were going backward , cover it with the mantle of their indulgence , that the philosophical nakedness thereof may not appear to themselves or others . whereas considering for what end this divine history of created nature was writ , and being sufficiently confident of the intrinsecal verity , and extrinsecal evidence thereof , i adventured to look into the naked simplicity of the text , and endeavored first to discover the plain and true system of the world , which god the creator hath described therin , and therby reveled unto us . which i have accordingly expressed in my explications ; being only a brief philosophical paraphrase upon the text : and yet while i thus explicate the text by my paraphrase , i still submit my paraphrase to be judged by the text : and i therefore set these explications , as a partition , or cancelli , between the divine word and my human illustrations therof : which i have also deduced from the created nature , as the counterpart of scripture ; and have hearkned to the voice therof , as to the echo of the creating voice of god. nor do i dissent from pagan philosophy animo contradicendi , or to flatter christianity ( which is far above it ) but shall also retein any thing of truth that i have found therin ; and all advantages therof , either platonical speculations , peripatetical ratiocinations , or epicurean sensations , yea even sceptical caution it self : and am dogmatical only in such theses which according to the law that i impose on my self , i shall first prove by the concurrence of divine authority , human argument , and sensible experiment : and if i knew any more ways of probation , should not decline , but most gladly embrace them . neither do i thus offer any thing to the world wherof i have not first satisfied my self after so long trial and strict examination ; wher in i could never yet find any thing considerable , either of reason , or sens , which i could not fairly reconcile to the divine authority of the text. also i have adventured to propound many hypotheses ; which though i dare not so confidently assert , yet i should not insert them , if i did not esteem them very probable : for indeed it is the most proper , and a sufficient task for any philosopher , to inquire only what god hath created : and i ever reputed it a great vanity in any who presume to go farther , and will also offer to shew what he might have created : not without some insinuation of what one most profanely expressed , that if he had stood at gods elbow when he made the world , he could have shewed him how to have made it better : as though whatsoever hypothetical natures , or poetical worlds , they please to fansy and describe , natura aut facit haec quae legis , aut faceret . possibility is indefinite , and to pursue it vain and endless . it is not absolutely impossible , that this , or any other book , might be printed by the casual concurrence of letters , ink , and paper , without any composer , or printer ; yet if any should therefore write a large discours therof , or of any other such like hypothesis , i think it might well deserv to be placed in rablais his library . but though i shall carefully exclude any such improbable trifles , yet i doubt not but that among so many supposed probabilities , i may run into some errors , and many errata in terms of art , and such other peccadillos , which may prove scandalous and offensive to weaker minds , who regard words more than things ; and may be matter enough of disgrace and disparagement to the captious , who though they can find no fault in venus her self , will carp at her sandal , or something about her . and i am conscious that i may be more liable hereunto , being no mathematician , astronomer , chymist , or other artist whatsoever ; but one among the laity of mankind , having only two books which i regard , scripture , and nature : and though any may easily bite through my human infirmity , yet he sha●l break his teeth at these bones , fragili quaerens illidere dentem offendet solido — however i am sufficiently secure , being already where i would be ; that is , below fame , and above infamy : and as i do not superscribe my name to gain the one , so neither do i conceal it to avoid the other : but either is as indifferent to my self as it is to my pen to write it , only it is somewhat less not to write it . nor will i presume to add any thing to divine authority , professing it to be my chief designe to exalt it as the only statera of truth , both natural , and supernatural ; and as we eminently call it scripture and bible , so it is indeed the writing of all writings , and book of all books ; whereby ●hey are to be judged ; and if they speak not according to this word , it is becaus there is no light in them . as a worthy friend , laying his hand on the bible , once truly said to me , if this book were not extant in the world , there were nothing certain and infallible left to mankind : wherof we have sufficient evidence , not only in scepticism , but even in all other philosophy , of which there are so many several sects and opinions , or indeed only hypotheses ; for i cannot conceiv that the authors therof were ever satisfied in themselvs , or could expect to satisfie others thereby ; but vented them as some things which they esteemed possible , or the best of them only as fair probabilitys . wheras this foundation laid in scripture is as sure as nature it self ; which both are the work and word of the same divine creator ; and every superstructure rightly built therupon shall stand . now though i may not presume to be any such master-builder ; yet i think it a very great work effected , if i may reduce others to this fundamental system , and provoke them to build upon it ; as i have begun , and offered this rude essay : and though they shall pleas to demolish my whole fabrike , and themselvs to erect any other , and lay upon it gold , silver , pretious stones , wood , hay , stubble , or what they list , i have my designe ; which is to assert this to be the only true foundation of natural philosophy , as well as of theology , and morality . and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is . and so i not only dedicate this my work unto the world ( as indeed every writer writes to all by making his writing publike ) but also i appeal unto it , and make every reader my judg : for i do not presume to teach the world ; nor shall i , as others , term it the people that knoweth not the law of nature ; for though it consist of many heads , and almost as many sentences , yet i do not find but that the last result , and that wherin they acquiesce , is truth : whose common fate in the world is first to be gazed on , and perhaps derided and oppugned , and at last after farther scrutiny to be enterteined and embraced ; and the fate of error contrary therunto , first to be applauded and admired , and so received withou● any pratike , and afterward when it is more strictly examined , to be rejected and exploded . thus truth is the daughter of time ; and as time is the best critike , so i esteem homer , virgil , and such others , to have been the best of poets , and plato , and aristotle , the best of philosophers ; becaus their works have so long survived ; wheras there are only some fragments of epicurus now remaining , as broken and minute as his corpuscles or atoms , certeinly scripture is both most antient , and also most intire . nor can i suppose that the discovery of any consyderable natural truth , or profitable good to mankind , hath been renounced , or will ever be lost by them . wherefore now o christian world ! who art a collection not only of men , but of christians , judg thou according to both capacitys , whether scripture be not the truest comment that ever was made upon nature : and that thou maist rightly discern between them , set the short system of the divine genesis therof by all or any other whatsoever . contuleris toto cum sparsa volumina mundo ; illa homines dicas , haec docuisse d●um . and now after so many christian ages , let it be once determined , whether this be a true history of the creation , or not ; and if it be , ( as most undoubtedly it is ) let us no longer be bereaved of so great a treasure , which hath hitherto i know not how been not only hid under ground , but trampled on by the feet of men . nor let any elude and enervate it by the imputation of popularity , whereby even popular understandings may learn divine philosophy ; as the psalmist professeth , that thereby he had acquired more understanding then all his teachers . nor let us resigne not only our faith , but also our own reason to others , becaus they pleas to abandon theirs , and scoffingly call it logical , or metaphysical , or the like ; which are the acquests of those noble arts and sciences , whereby we excell brutes , barbarians , and themselvs . nor may they justly term this a prejudice against them ; for how do they prejudg ? who appeal to the whole world , or the great university of mankind ; and as good scribes bring forth out of their treasure things new and old : doing herein like galenists , who willingly admit and add to their dispensatorys any chymical experiments which are sound and useful ( and to such physicians all wise patients commit their bodys rather then to empirikes ) or are they prejudiced ? who affirm nothing but what they prove by all the ways of probation , authority , argument , and experiment . for to what judg can we appeal but the world , or to what law but faith , reason , and sens ? and may we not rather suspect the prejudice to ly in novelty and party , and a new sect of men , who admit only sens , and yet will not be judged by that , unless it speak their sens ? but as i have not pawned the authority of mine own name , upon which i know i could borrow very little ; so i only beg of others ; that neither any passionate amours which they may have for any man or his opinions , nor the inebriating fansys of their own spirits , nor any pretended monarchy or monopoly of knowledg , may be by them opposed to truth ; for magna est veritas & praevaelebit : and i doubt not but that scriptum est , and probatum est , will by their own intrinsecal value , without any image or superscription , pass current through the whole christian world. but let us all rather consult together the advancement of true knowledg , and the real benefits of mankind ; both in speculation , and action : wherof the speculative part doth properly belong to scholes and academys , who , if they shall make this divine history of the creation to be their symbolum philosophicum , shall need no other fundamentals ; nor have they any better way to preserv their disciples from these new philosophical romances of mundus alter , & idem . and as it hath been much wished by wise men that scholars would season their studys with more of common life and civil conversation ( the want wherof hath been the scandal and scorn of learning ) so particularly academical philosophers should hearken more to experiments , which though it be not fit for themselvs to practice , yet they may inquire of chymists and mechanikes , and be informed therof by them , to whom the practical part doth properly belong . and mechanikes may be also much assisted and directed by philosophers , with many rules and regular proportions ; whereby they may be instructed , and also cautioned from attempting impossibilitys , or any thing impracticable ; as the philosophers stone , perpetual motion , or fire , and the like ; and also much advantaged in the attempts of possibilitys ; as if the doctrine of local motion of bodys were more fully cleared , and all the variations therof , not only according to distances from the center , multiplications of wheels , pulleys , leavers , and the like , and all the several situations and positions therof ; but also all the mysterys of increments and decrements of velocity , consistent strength , elasticity , pressure and nonpressure , preventions of vacuity , and the like , were ascerteined unto them , it might greatly help them in contriving their machins and engines . it hath been observed that though speculative philosophy hath not much advanced in these last ages of the world , yet there hath been a great improvement of mechanical arts : but i conceiv that thus both might grow up together . nor is a mechanike so mean a title in human society as is commonly reputed ; certeinly the end of all these speculations is practice , which doth most immediately promote the good of mankind . and if i should endeavor any such profitable inventions , i had rather be assisted therin by a corporation of mechanikes , then any college of philosophers : and i would kiss that mans hands , yea his feet , who should collect and publish an exact and faithful history of artificial experiments , not only chymical and curious , but mechanical , and of all trades and artifices : which together with the history of extraordinary natural phaenomena , are very great desiderata , and would be of very much use and improvement . but inventions , as i conceiv , are rather strange fates and felicitys ; and some magnalia therof have proved as great treasures to the world as the indian mines , which certeinly the d●scovery made by columbus did comprehend . yet as they are not of ordinary production , so neither only chances , as we term them ; but extraordinary providences of god in some ages , wherin he designeth thereby to accomplish some greater intendments : as when god purposed to revele the glorious light of the gospel through the whole world before the second coming of christ , he stirred up the spirit of columbus , by a strange dogmatical confidence of more earth then was before discovered , maugre all repulses , and delays , indefatigably , and undeniably , to endeavor and attempt the discovery therof : which yet he could never have effected if also the compass , or seamans card , wherof former ages were ignorant , had not been then lately invented ; and so likewise the gun , without which so few adventurers could never have kept possession against innumerable natives . and about the same time printing also was invented , to disseminate knowledg through both the worlds . but i do not esteem additions to be inventions ; as the telescope or microscope , which are only farther improvements of the perspective , ( that was first invented by a mechanike : ) or as the granado is of the gun , and the like . yet we might hope for more both inventions and additions , if philosophy were made more mechanical , and mechanike more philosophical . wherof we have now the greatest expectation from the happy institution of the roial society ; and that so many mercurial wits , interceding between both these regions of speculation and practice , will transmit philosophical instructions to mechanikes , and mechanical experiments to philosophers : and after all their curious disquisitions , and many vibrations , like the pendulum , setle at last in the most direct line of truth , proving all things , and holding fast that which is good , and shall be for the good of this nation , and of all mankind : which shall render their society a solomons hous , and this island a new atlantis . and as the lord veru●●m hath well observed , that the practical theology of scripture ●ath been by none better ventilated then by english divines ; so may this divine history of the genesis of the world be best elucidated by them , who though they superscribe nullius in verba in defiance of any human magistery , yet always except verbum dei , in submission to d●vine authority . and if the active spirits of this nation would freely clear and disengage themselvs from the humor of forein noveltys , they might exceed others in their happy endeavors ; though we tramontanes have been judged by them better for imitation then invention : but i desire them to produce any thing in this last age equal to those two noble inventions which were both of english extraction : that is , the inclinatory or dipping needle , whereby the latitude is discovered ; wherof , as i have received it by tradition , the inventor was robert norman our countryman , whose name deservs more heraldry ; as they will easily acknowledg who shall attempt to invent the like natural instrument , whereby to discover the longitude . the other is the first observation of the circulation of the bloud , wherof our learned doctor harvey is the well known and monumental author . and for philosophical discourses and discoverys of nature i may name two others ; who though parallel one to another , yet i suppose neither of them can be parallel'd by any other nation : that is , the great chancellor bacon whose natural history hath made his own name h●storical : and the truly honorable robert boyle ; of whom i may well say , that as hiero made a law in syracuse that every one should believ whatsoever archimedes affirmed that he could do ; so all ought to believ whatsoever this noble person declareth that he hath done , in all those manifold experiments wherewith he hath enriched the world. now let this be the conclusion and summ of the whole matter ; that as the end of all created nature is the divine glory of the creator , which the whole world as a mirror was made to represent to us naturaly ; so should all spiritualy render it unto him . and thus we christians being taught by god , the author both of scripture and nature , truly to know the creation and system of the world , which heathen philosophers groped to find out all their days , and have disputed in all ages , should with the primitive hebrews , and their divine doctors , moses , david , solomon , and the rest , glorify the infinite iehovah , creator of heaven and earth . and i have very much wondered that not only in spirituals , but also in naturals , seing we should not see , and hearing we should not hear , and understand with our hearts , the things which are writ in such large characters , and proclaimed to us with so loud a voice . wherefore i beseech the divine spirit so to illuminate us in the true knowledg of his word and works , that henceforth they may be no longer hid from our eys ; but that it may now be said of holy scripture , and of the nativity of the world therin , nota mathematicis genesis tua . the divine history of the genesis of the world . section i. in the begining , &c. explication . in the very first being of heaven and earth , or of any thing therin , or of any originals therof from absolute not being . and in the very first instant of their duration , or time it self , then also commencing from non-time or an absolute nullity therof . illustration . that the world is finite ; proved by the corporeal quantity therof . by successive quantity . by discrete quantity . rejection of impertinencys , and what postulations only are required . sensible demonstration of the first proof . of the second . of the third . the possibility of the worlds being ab aeterno disproved . the possibility of being in aeternum , or immortality , in what sens granted . the summ of the whole discours , that there was a begining of the world. i. that there was a begining of the world ( besides the divine authority of the text ) is as rationaly demonstrable , as it is sensibly evident , that there is a heaven and earth : for it is also evident , that they are bodys , extended by part beyond part , and therefore finite , or bounded with extremitys of that extension ( which we call first , or begining ; and last , or end ; becaus we may begin to measure at one , and end at the other ) for that very extension which renders them bodys by extending part beyond part , doth also terminate them , that is , extend them so far , and no farther . thus the whole body of the world hath two great parts ; heaven , and earth . and whatsoever hath parts is finite , becaus every part is finite or limited to a proportion not so great as the whole , otherwise it should not be a part of the whole . and as one part is finite , so are all the parts of the whole , becaus they are all parts . and so consequently is the whole ; becaus it is equal to all the parts ; otherwise it should not be the whole of all the parts therof . and thus heaven , which is one part of the whole body of the world , is a less whole in it self ; becaus it is the whole heaven . and so likewise earth , which is the other part of the whole body of the world , is also a less whole in it self ; becaus it is the whole earth . now either of these two less wholes is finite in it self ; becaus it is only a part of the whole body of the world : and becaus both these less wholes are finite , therefore the whole body of the world is also finite , though it be a greater whole : for there is no greater nor less in infinite , which is infinitely beyond any proportion , and without any parts whatsoever ; becaus a greater whole is that which hath greater parts , or more equal parts ; and a less whole is that which hath less parts , or fewer equal parts . and since whatsoever hath parts is finite , therfore whatsoever hath greater or more , or less , or fewer parts , is also finite , and cannot be infinite . again every part is such a certain proportion of the whole as it is , otherwise it should not be such a part therof ; and therefore hath such a certein measure of it self , whereby it is such a certein proportion as it is , and not greater nor less . and as all the proportions of all the parts , are the whole proportion of the whole ; so all the measures of all the parts , are the whole measure of the whole . and whatsoever is mensurable is finite ; becaus it is mensurable , and not immens . wherefore the whole body of the world is finite , as well as heaven , and earth , or any less part , or the least particle therof whatsoever ; wherof there is the same reason : otherwise the whole should be greater then all the parts , or the parts greater , or more , then they are , which is impossible . and the contrary therof so mathematicaly true , and evident according to common sentence , ( that every part is less then the whole , and the whole greater then any part , and equal to all the parts therof ) that it cannot be further proved by any thing more evident then it self . wherefore this conclusion is most true and evident ; omne sectile est finitum . ii. now as corporeal quantity , which is consistent , and hath part beyond part , is therefore finite ; so also time , which is successive and hath part after part , is also finite . and though part beyond part may be inverted , and the first become last , or the last first ; or circulated , and the begining united to the end ( and so every consistent quantity is finite , becaus it hath such parts ) yet part after part succeed and follow one another in a most direct line , and by such an immutable law and order , as can neither be inverted , nor circulated : otherwise there should not be part after part ; which must necessarily be in temporary succession : for past can never be present , nor present future , nor all together . wherefore time cannot possibly be circular : for in a circle all the parts must consist together ; as in circular motion all the parts must move together . though probably the opinion of the eternity of the world was grounded on some such imaginary circulation of time , and revolution of platonical years . whereas though all things measured by time might be supposed to return again into the same state in all other respects , yet time it self can never return to be the same ; becaus it is as impossible to recall past , as to anticipate future . so that where there is such a fixed priority and posteriority runing still forward in a most direct and immutable succession of part after part , which is finite , there must necessarily be a finite and fixed first , or begining ; and last , or end ; according to the fixed order and succession of the parts . and as certeinly as this present instant is now the last or end of all time past , or present , which hath hitherto actualy existed , or doth exist ; so certeinly there was some determinate instant , which was the first or begining therof . and so this conclusion also is most true and evident ; ubi prius & posterius , ibi primum et postremum . iii. lastly as bodys and time , so number or quantity discrete , which hath part discreted and severed from part , is also finite in it self ; and doth most discernibly manifest the finite nature , both of bodys , as in the scale ; and also of time , as in the dial : whereby their continuous parts being arithmeticaly divided into numerable proportions are rendred most apparently numerable and finite . and so also this conclusion is most true and evident nullum multiplex est innumerum . from all which conclusions drawn from every kind of quantity , corporeal , successive , and discrete , it most necessarily follows , that whatsoever is quantitative is finite ▪ for it must be granted under the highest pain of contradiction , that actualy mensurable cannot be actualy immense , nor temporary eternal , nor numerable innumerable . iiii. nor is this plain probation concerned in those more curious disquisitions , whether quantity be any real thing in it self , or only a mode , or relative respect ( or i know not what others pleas to term it ) since it is most evidently the geometrical , chronical , or arithmetical , measure of all quantitative things , which are within the virge therof , and measurable by it . nor of what parts it doth consist , or how it is divisible into them ; since it is most evident that it hath parts . nor yet whether any whole quantity hath physical parts ; since it is most evident that it hath mathematical parts , and is divisible into them . and though i shall heerafter inquire into all these , yet i will neither now prevent my self , nor intangle this probation ( which as it is most firm and solid in it self , so i desire to render it most clear and free from all impertinencys ) with any such curiositys . nor do i begg any therof before hand ; but only insist upon these most reasonable and undeniable postulations , that an inch is the twelfth part of a foot , not more nor less ; and a foot twelve inches , not more nor less . that an hour is the fower and twentieth part of a day , not more nor less ; and a day fower and twenty hours , not more nor less . that an unit is the hundredth part of a century , not more nor less ; and a century an hundred units , not more nor less . or yet more plainly , that an inch is an inch , a foot a foot , an hour an hour , a day a day , an unit an unit , and a century a century . and so any greater , or less , part , or whole whatsoever ; which are all identical propositions , and neither need , nor are indeed capable of probation . nor are these sections of continuitys only imaginations , or the institutions of reason ; but realitys in nature . and so god created the heaven and the earth distinct parts of the whole body of the world , and made the evening and morning a distinct day , and consequently the cardinal numerations therof . and he made the heaven to be above , or without , the earth ; and the earth to be beneath , or within , the heaven : and the first day to be before the second , and the second before the third ; and consequently the ordinal numerations therof . and heerin i suppose no human reason or sens will or can dissent from divine authority ; becaus these are things also rationaly , and sensibly , evident in themselvs : however some may doubt or dispute what i have evidently proved heerby , that there was a begining of the world. nor do i labor , or care to prove , when that determinate begining was ( which i leav to chronologists ) but only that there was such a begining whensoever it was , which sufficeth my present intention . v. for as in a great wast or common , though only the learned artist can give an exact account of all the acres , rodes , and perches therof ; yet every vulgar ey can discern that it is measurable and finite , and can estimate it more or less . and as every traveler , though he hath not an itinerary to instruct him in the just distances between one city , or country , and another , yet knows that there is a certein space between them , otherwise such , and so many paces , could never bring him from one to the other : so though it be the work of geometricians and astronomers to measure heaven and earth ; yet we all know that the earth on which we tread hath a surface , and a diameter , which are finite ; because the surface on which we tread doth end and terminate it self under our feet ; and that doth also determinate the diameter , which is proportionable unto it : and because the diameter is finite , therefore also the circumference which must be proportionable therunto is finite . and so is every sphere of the world , air , aether , and any higher heaven , or whatsoever we can imagine to be the utmost circumference of the whole world : for to whatsoever circumference our imagination can extend it self , it can only be proportionably greater then the circumference of the earth , which it encompasseth ; and must also have a diameter proportionable to it self : both which evidently prove it to be finite , as well as the earth ; becaus there is no greater nor less in infinite , as i have already proved . vi. and so though we may dispute the nativity , or certein begining of the world ; yet it is most evident and indisputable that it had a begining : for none can deny it to be this day , or hour , or the like , one day , or hour , or the like , elder then it was the last ; and so backward as far as he pleaseth : therefore he must also confess , that there was some first day , hour , and the like , and consequently some first instant , and begining therof : for the duration and age of every thing must necessarily be computed from a begining or nativity ; otherwise it should be incapable of any addition or succession ( which is apparently in all time ) becaus it already exceedeth all number : for precedency of part before part without any begining renders the precedent parts innumerable , and consequently incapable of any succession or addition . vii . so also in number there must necessarily be a first , and no number can precede an unit ; though you may still add to it , and possibly multiply it to any summ imaginable ; which yet being once stated will be found as numerable as a single unit ; becaus it is only the addition of so many units : for as a day , or hour , or any other part of time actualy past , is only a day , or hour , or such part of time as it is , and not greater , nor less ; so every day , or hour , or other part of time whatsoever , is only one day , or hour , or one such part of time as it is , and not more , nor fewer : and therefore so many days , or hours , or other parts of time as are actualy past , are only so many ones as they are , and not more , nor fewer ; which though never so many must necessarily be all numerable , by addition of so many ones as they are , and not more , nor fewer . and consequently all time actualy past , which may be numbred by them , is numerable and finite : and therefore had a begining ; becaus the number therof is ordinal or successive ; wherof there must be a first . thus if we should compute the whole age of the world according to the particular ages , or secula , of men or brutes ; or if you pleas according to the revolutions of platonical years ; yet there must necessarily have been a first , second , and third seculum , or revolution , or so many as we will suppose to have been actualy past and precedent , and not more , nor fewer , nor other then successive . all which summed up together will be found as finite as a single unit , and must have a first , and last , aswel as one and one ordinaly and successively . nor indeed can we rationaly imagin any time whatsoever actualy past and precedent , not to be actualy finite . and if it cannot be otherwise in imagination , much less in reality . viii . yet the world might possibly have existed before it did exist , or actualy was ; and as long before as you pleas to imagin ; and so it may still be continued perpetualy in possibility ; which yet will be alway possible , and can never be actual : for no such precedent , or subsequent perpetuity , ever was , or shall be , nor can reasonably be imagined to be actual . neither is it properly a possible perpetuity , but rather a perpetual possibili●y of such a supposed precedency , or subsequent futurity , which can never be actual ; otherwise it should not be perpetualy possible : for as possible , while it is possible , cannot be actual ; otherwise it should not be possible , but actual : so perpetualy possible can never be actual ; becaus then it should ceas to be perpetualy possible . as it is said of corporeal quantity , that it is alway divisible into alway divisibles ; ever possibly , but never actualy : becaus if it should once be actualy divided into all its divisibles , then it should ceas to be alway divisible ( which is a most true and evident ratiocination , supposing such a perpetual divisibility therof , wherof i shall heerafter discours ) but no possibility whatsoever , either precedent , or subsequent , doth militate against this present discours concerning the actual existence of the world. ix . this perpetual possibility in futurity is the duration of immortal spirits ; which though it may not seem to be the same with time in a restrained sens ( as time may be distinguished from duration ) yet is the same with it in a general sens . and so the soul of man , both in this mortal life , and also in his immortal life heerafter , shall continue to be under the same duration ; though his time may be restrained to this mortal life , which hath an end , and is computed according to the chronology of the hours , days , and years therof : and so we commonly distinguish between temporal , and eternal or everlasting . thus plato makes all time to be the measure of duration according to the motion of the heavenly bodys , which divide it into such parts or sections therof : and therupon , i suppose , grounded his opinion of the circular revolutions of time , like the circular motions of the heavens . but as duration was coetaneous with the first chaos ( for there was an evening before any morning , or illumination of the aether ; and three several days before the sun and stars ) so the same duration shall continue when they shall be dissolved , and when time , in that sens , shall be no more . and yet in all the perpetual possibility of this duration , so farr as it shall ever heerafter become actual , it shall likewise be actualy finite , as i have already proved . wheras proper eternity is neither in any precedent , nor subsequent possibility ; but always actual , and alway present , or one perpetual instant : which is divine , infinite , and incomprehensible , and of another nature , infinitely and incomprehensibly different from any finite duration , actual , or possible , whatsoever ; which it doth comprehend , but not in any maner confound , or cha●ge the temporary nature therof ; as i shall shew in the next section . x. wherfore i conclude upon the whole precedent matter , that every quantity , that hath existed or doth actualy exist , is actualy finite . and so is every quantitative thing measured thereby . and that no imagination , nor possibility it self , can make it to be otherwise . because all quantity and quantitative things have parts , and all parts are finite , and therefore whatsoever hath parts is finite , and whatsoever is finite , is terminated or bounded with extremitys , or first , or begining ; and last , or end ; respectively according to the parts : otherwise it should not be finite . and particularly , that time and duration ( which is successive ) and all temporary and durable things , had a realy precedent and fixed first or begining . now that the force of this most cogent argument may not be lost or spent in so large a dilatation , i will briefly summ it up in these few and short propositions , which i shall present to any man of reason most strictly to examin , and consider whether he can deny any one of them , or the consequence of them all , without forfeiture of his rationality . i. that every day is one day , and of no more nor greater number , nor duration . ii. that yesterday was one day , actualy past , and precedent to this day ; and so all the days actualy past and precedent one unto another . iii. that the whole number and duration of all the one days actualy past , and precedent , is as finite ( or bounded with first , or begining ; and last , or end ) as of any one day . iv. therefore there was a first or begining of the whole duration of all the one days , actualy past , and precedent , aswel as of the particular duration of any one day . wherefore i conclude according to that right and true sentence , vim inferunt humano intellectui qui mundum affirmant infinitum ex finitis partibus constantem . section ii. god , &c. explication . the infinite creator of heaven and earth . illustration . . that god is infinite . . of infinite . . that absolute nothing is not finite . . of proper and improper infinite . , of proper and improper not finite . i. we have proved that heaven and earth , and consequently the whole world , had a begining of being from absolute not being , or was created ; becaus it is finite . wherefore the creator of all finites must necessarily be infinite : for if he were finite , he must also be created by another , and so infinitely . but there can be no such process infinite , becaus it is successive from one to another , and therefore must be finite , as i have already proved . ii. but becaus our understanding also is finite , and not infinite ; therefore the proper object thereof must be finite , and not infinite : and all the knowledg we can have of infinite is only from and by finite . now we have discovered finite to be partial ; that is , either a part or a whole having parts . and so indeed not only all quantity , and quantitative things , wherof we have disc●ursed● , but also all qualitys , and qualitative things , are finite , becaus they have certein degrees of themselvs , which are their respective parts , or proportions . and also all substances or created entitys whatsoever either have parts , or are themselvs parts of the univers . and the univers it self is only the whole of all those parts whatsoever ; and consequently finite· wherefore infinite must neither be any part , or degree , nor any whole having parts , or degrees ; otherwise it should not be infinite , but finite . also infinite , becaus it hath no parts , or degrees , in it self , is not partialy , or gradualy , what it is ; but infinitely without any parts , or degrees , one , and all , in i● self , and infinitely comprehending all finites : for if it were more then one , or less then all , it should be partial , or gradual ; becaus more , or less , are partial , or gradual , and consequently finite . thus infinite doth transcend finite , not finitely , by any parts , or degrees whatsoever ; but infinitely , according to its own nature , which is infinite . wherefore also finite cannot be any the least part , or degree of infinite ; for then the whole also should be finite . and infinite doth not only infinitely transcend finite ; but is also infinitely different from it , without any part , or degree of difference . and so though it doth comprehend all finites ( as we say , infinite being doth comprehend all finite beings , infinite immensity all finite bodys , infinite eternity all finite time , and infinite unity all finite numbers ) yet it doth also comprehend them infinitely , according to its own infinite nature , that is , incomprehensibly as to our finite understanding ; and inconfusedly as to the finite nature of the things themselvs : and so god is the only true transcendent and eminent caus neither confounded , nor compounded with them ; nor such as doth contradict , alter , or interfere with them , in any kind or maner whatsoever . and wheras infinite and finite do thus consist together , and yet infinitely differ , we must alway reserv the notions therof under most different and distinct considerations , and not confound them one with another in our understandings , which are not confounded in themselves ; otherwise we shall thereby also confound our own understandings , and disturb any right apprehension , either of infinite , or finite . thus is infinite both the infinite affirmation of all being , and welbeing ; and the infinite negation of all notbeing , and ilbeing : which negation being double , is only the infinite affirmation of it self . iii. as infinite is infinitely affirmative , so absolute nothing is not-finitely negative , or the notfinite negation of all that is affirmative . and any affirmation of it self , as that nonentity is nonentity , and the like , is only the notfinite negation of it self . wherefore absolute nothing is so purely null , that as plato rightly saith , it is altogether ineffable , and incomprehensible , and not capable of any name or notion , but what is borrowed from thing , or being , wherof it is the notfinite negation : and therefore i rather chuse to term it notfinite , to restrain it to the negative signification of it self , which purely is not ; then infinite , which hath also an affirmative signification of what it is in it self infinitely , and wherof notfinite is the adequate negation , and ●s notfinitely notfinite as infinite is infinitely infinite . iv. but infinite is either proper , or improper . properly infinite is only god ; who as he is infinitely one admitts only ●n identical predication of himself , or that god is god , for quicquid est in deo est deus . and yet as he is infinitely all , and the transcendency of all finite perfections which are many and several ; so there is improperly infinite , which may improperly be predicated of him severally according to our finite understanding , and his infinite condescension thereunto . and such are all those partial and distinguishing notions which we frame of him . as that he is entity , immensity , eternity , unity , and the like : whereby we render that which is infinite , and infinitely one in himself , and with himself , partial , and several , and consequently improperly infinite ; but not properly finite : for though thereby we render that which is infinitely one in himself , many in our understanding ; yet we also acknowledg him to be infinite entity , infinite immensity , infinite eternity , and infinite unity , and not more , or less . again more improperly infinite is that which is properly finite in it self , but improperly infinite in respect of god who is infinite ; as sin ( which is committed against him ) is therefore by divines said to be infinite : and so indeed is every creature in respect of him , who is the infinite creating caus , and being of the being therof . but most improperly infinite are such things as are only indefinite unto us , or exceed our finite understanding . so we say that the globe of heaven and earth which is finite in it self , is immens , and the world eternal , and the dust of the earth innumerable , and the like : and so we term a circle figuratively and hieroglyphi●aly infinite , and the like . v. also notfinite is either proper or improper . properly notfinite is only absolute nothing , wherof there can be no other proper predication then that it is not ; or nothing is nothing . improperly notfinite is either that in it self , wherof we frame some partial and distinguishing notions ; as nonentity , vacuity , nontime , nullity , and the like ; which are only particular and respective negations of that wherof absolute nothing is the absolute negation . also there are other more improper notfinites , answerable to such improper infinites , which we have before specified . section iii. created , &c. explication . caused the finite being of heaven and earth by his infinite power to be from absolute notbeing . illustration . of infinite power . what creation is . of the possibility of creation by infinite power . of the impossibility therof by finite power . of annihilation . of proper and improper creation . of proper and improper annihilation . i. having proved that there was actualy such a begining of the being of heaven and earth , and of all things therin , from absolute not-being ; and consequently a creation ; i need not now to prove the possibility therof ; becaus it actualy was . yet farther to confirm it , i shall proceed to examin and refute the grand argument against the possibility therof , ex nihilo nihil fit . absolute impossibility is that which no power can possibly reduce into act or actual being ; wherefore whatsoever may be so reduced is possible to infinite power , which should not be infinite , if any affirmative act should be impossible unto it : for then it should be limited by somthing possible which it cannot act , and consequently be finite . thus infinite power must necessarily be omnipote●t or able to act all things , except contradictions , which are only the negations of it self , and consequently infer a notfinite impotence . and not to be able to act such negations is a double negation ; which as i have said , is only the affirmation of it self . so god cannot contradict himself ; either in essence , as not to be god , or not to be infinite , which is the same ; or in operation , as to make the same thing to be and not be absolutely ; for then he should undo what he doth . and so god cannot make absolute nothing or notbeing to be ; for then it should be and not be absolutely , which is an absolute contradiction . neither can he convert absolute nothing into somthing , or extract somthing out of absolute nothing ; for then it should not be absolute nothing , out of which there is nothing which may be so converted , extracted , or made , in any kind or maner whatsoever . ii. so that if to create were any of these operations , as the objection doth import , then it should be confessedly impossible . and i suppose some such misapprehension hath been the ground of that error . wheras creation rightly understood is only a causing finite being to be from absolute notbeing , as the negative term , from which it doth commence ; and not of which or out of which it is made in any kind or maner whatsoever . now becaus absolute nothing or notbeing is only a negative term or pure negation , it can neither resist creation , nor contribute any thing to , or toward it ; becaus it is absolute nothing . iii. and becaus absolute nothing cannot resist in the least , therefore creation is infinitely possible to infinite power ; because there is nothing to resist it . and also becaus whatsoever is possible to infinite power , is infinitely possible to it ; and not partialy , or gradualy ; becaus infinite hath no parts , or degrees . nor doth the creation of finite being contradict , or alter , augment , or diminish , infinite being , or notfinite not being . and so the present finite being which is created ( as we have already shewed ) doth not contradict , alter , augment or d●minish , either of them , which are eternaly the same in themselvs . iiii. but because absolute notbeing cannot contribute any thing to , or toward , creation , therefore it is impossible to any finite power : for absolute nothing doth afford no matter , principle preparation , inclination , capacity , or any somthing whatsoever ; wherupon , or whereby , finite power may begin to work ; and where there is no begining , there cannot possibly be any progress , or perfection therof by any finite power ; but only by infinite power , which can create being , and the very begining therof from absolute notbeing . also all finite power it self before it was created was absolutely null ; and so had no power in it self to create it self , or any other being , from absolute notbeing . nor could god himself delegate this infinite power to angels or daemons , or any rabbinical or platonical subcreators ; which must be either totaly , or partialy , not totaly ; for then god should ceas to have or be infinite power in himself , and consequently to be god ; which is an infinite contradiction , nor partialy ; for infinite hath no parts . certeinly no angel , nor man , the chief of natural operators , did ever arrogate unto himself a creating power . nor have we any instances of creation in the whole history of nature , among all those monstrous relations , which the writers therof have inserted . nor hath any poetical fansy ever invented or imagined a metamorphosis of being from notbeing . much less hath any philosophy ascribed this creating power to nature her self ; but rather denieth a creation ; and yet to solv it , is forced to substitute an impossible eternity of finite nature ; and certein fictitious powers , eminences , and equivocal causalitys , which i shall also examin heerafter . v. as creation is a causing to be from notbeing , so annihilation is a causing not to be from being ; which is most possible to the infinite creator ; becaus it is only the withdrawing his own infinite power , whereby he doth continualy caus the creature to be ; but impossible to any finite power ; becaus it cannot resist the infinite creating power , which doth so continualy cause the creature to be. and as there can be no annihilation by any finite power ; so we never read of any by infinite power : nor probably will god ever annihilate any thing which he hath immediately created ; for he doth nothing in vain , but continueth and reserveth all things , which he hath made by proper creation , for his own everlasting glory . vi. thus to caus to be or continue to be from absolute notbeing is proper creation . but there are also improper creations , which do not produce or preserv any being from absolute notbeing : but only alter the created being in such a supernatural maner as is beyond all natural generation , or any other natural power of the creature : which being finite , and no more then it is ; as it cannot create without infinite power , which it hath not ; so neither can it act any thing beyond that finite power which it hath . and thus , though it is the opinion of divines that god originaly created nothing after the begining , except souls of men ( or angels if they were not originaly created in and with their heaven ) by proper creation ; yet god is said to create in all the six days , and expressly in the fifth day to create great whales ( though it be also said that the waters produced them aswell as others ) by improper creation , which was his immediate ordination of the whole frame and cours of nature , and original generation of them all : which the several creatures in their first chaos ( before their active qualitys and mist forms were produced , and all other previous and requisite matters powers and instruments were prepared and adapted by god ) could not perform in or by themselvs , nor generate others , untill they were so fitted and instructed , and the divine blessing of multiplication added therunto , as i shall shew heerafter : and therefore all those works of the six days , which did succeed the original and proper creation in the begining , were improper creations . so also all positive miracles , which are preternatu●al , or beside the natural course and order , are improper creations . vii . proper annihilation is a causing any being not to be absolutely : and improper annihilation only a preternatural alteration therof . and as god in positive miracles doth work beyond natural power , so in other privative miracles he doth obstruct and suspend it . as in causing iron to swim by suspending the gravity therof ; or fire not to burn , by suspending the heat therof , and the like . section iiii. the heaven and the earth , &c. explication . the whole body of the world , consisting of several heterogeneous members , heaven , and earth ; which were created together in the begining . illustration . i. of heaven and earth . . of heaven . . of earth . . philosophical consyderations of entity , and the differences therof . . of substances and accidents . . of matter and forms . . of common and proper accidents . i. we have heer a brief description and map of the world , and of the whole globe of the matter therof , from the utmost circumference to the inmost center , which was all created in the begining : for neither do we read , nor can we reasonably suppose , that any new matter was created afterward . nor was it created in the very begining only matter , or one homogeneous mass therof ; but one body , expressly distinguished into several heterogeneous members , celestial , and terrestrial ; or heaven , and earth . nor was the heaven and earth thus only different in nature , in their first creation , but also distinct and separate in their situations , and not confounded together , but created such several members of the great body of the world. and as the heaven is named before the earth , so were the celestial bodys above or without the terrestrial , incompassing them as now they do : for neither do we read , nor can we reasonably suppose , that there was any other separation or disposition of the celestial bodys afterward ; as is expresly mentioned of the terrestrial , or terraqueous globe ▪ wherof ▪ and of all their several situations , i shall further discours heerafter . ii. the word heaven , hebra●caly is heavens , not only grammaticaly ( as the word god in this text ) but phisicaly , and in the nature of the thing it self . and so generaly the hebrews distribute heaven into three several heavens of three several natures . wherof the highest is also called the third heaven ; becaus it is utmost and the last above us , and encompasseth both the others ; and this i shall therefore call the superaether . the midst , or second , is the aether , or starry heaven . the lowest or first , is the air which immediately encompasseth the terraqueous globe . and these are all the celestial spheres wherof we read , and therefore i can acknowledg no more however astronomers have pleased to multiply them . these three heavens are thus built one upon another , and all upon the terraqueous globe , which is the habitation of all corporeal animals : as amos elegantly expresseth it , he that builded the storys of the heavens , and founded his troop on the earth . of all the three heavens the third , which is the supreme , is most properly heaven ; and therefore also is called the heaven of heavens , by way of excellency , and so is specialy called the temple of the most high god ; and is the native region and province of blessed angels , or caelum angelicum ; and shall be the everlasting habitation of the spirits of just men , or sedes beatorum . wherof we have no farther discover● , then only that it was created together with the other two heavens ; and so is comprehended u●der one common name with them : and probably because it was made perfect in the begining or first instant of the creation therof , and so must continue for ever , without any elementary mistion , generation , or corruption ; therefore we have no other account therof among all the works of the six days ; wherein the elements , and whole elementtary nature , and the cours of generation , and corrupti on therin , was set in order . and accordingly i observ , that wheras the other two elementary heavens , aether , and air , are called expansa and firmaments , this superaether is never so termed ; but only heaven , probably becaus it is not capable of expansion or compression . but as the divine wisedom hath conceled any farther notice therof , and also given us very little knowledg of the nature of angels , the proper inhabitants therof , as impertinent for us to know in this present state ; so i shall not presume farther to inquire therinto , or discours therof : and indeed if the hebraical word heavens be dualy rendred , it must be intended only of aether , and air. iii. as the aether and air are elementary , and both of them he●erogeneous from the superaether , and every of them one from another ; so are all of them from the earth , and terraqueous globe . and as heaven generaly comprehendeth all the three heavens , so heer also earth comprehendeth both earth , and water ; which were afterward formed into one terraqueous globe : and by that general name in this text is not only to be understood earth particularly ( which was not so termed untill the third day , and then also is called dry land ) nor the terraqueous globe such as it was made afterward ; but the orb of earth and the water above it , which is also mentioned afterward . thus we have a discovery of what was created in the begining ; that is , superaether , which is also superelementary and aether , air , water , earth , which are the fower elements ; as god the creator hath declared , and moses reveled them unto us , both in this text , and in the context , whom i shall believ before all athens , or any modern conceptions whatsoever ; and shall accordingly prove them heerafter . and now upon this subject matter proceed to discours ; and first enter upon such philosophical consyderations therof as may concern them all , and all creatures generaly ; and so according to the order of this history of the creation expatiate into more particular contemplations of their several natures afterward . the first and most universal consyderation of heaven and earth , and of all creatures whatsoever , is that they are entitys ; for since creation is of being from absolute nothing , whatsoever is created must necessarily be ; otherwise it should not be created . so that an entity is any thing that is , which i confess , is no more in effect , then that an entity is entity : whose subject and praejudicate , genu● and difference , is , and must necessarily be the same ; becaus it is the same genus generalissimum of all things without any specifical difference . and heer i must also premise that in every perfect and proper definition of any specifical , or more particular thing , the specifical or particular differences therof must be identical ; becaus the specifical or particular essence or entity is the only true specifical or particular difference of every thing . but becaus we cannot know essences as they are in themselvs , therefore we declare things by their propertys , which is rather description then definition . as in the common instance , homo est animal rationale , rationality is not the true specifical difference of humanity , though it be most proper to man ; becaus it is not his specifical essence ; and therefore doth not define the humanity it self . nor doth it indeed comprehend all the properties therof , as risibility , and the like ; but only describe it by one proper faculty . so that the most proper definitions are only vocabularys and nomenclatures , which yet are of good use to explain one term by another ; whereby we may avoid all needless caption and contention about terms , and when the thing intended thereby is clearly understood , it shall suffice me . and i have now made this digressive parenthesis , to save my self the whole labor of defining , and the expectation of any who otherwise perhaps might exact it of me : but i shall use as clear and pregnant declarations or descriptions as the thing will afford . thus i affirm created entity to be a creature , or whatsoever is created which is also convertible with it . again becaus the created world doth consist of several heterogeneous and different entitys and natures ( into which differences we must also inquire ) i affirm such a different entity to be whatsoever god hath created different in nature from another : for as whatsoever he hath created must necessarily be ; so whatsoever he hath created different must necessarily differ . now heer we must consyder a difference which scholemen have made of entity it self ; which is , that it is either entity real , or entity of reason : entity real is in the thing it self and nature therof ; as heaven , and earth , and all things therin ; entity of reason is in our reason or mind ; as the whole poetical world , and all things therin ; hircocervs , hippocentaurs , and the like ; which are therefore also called entitys ; becaus our very imaginations and fictions therof are creatures , and entitative , though the imaginary figments themselvs are as it were our creatures , and objectively nothings . and so also there are entitys of sens , as all deceptions of the senses : for though there be no such objects , yet there is realy and truly such a sensation , as well as when the objects are real and true , as i shall shew heerafter . now as entitys real and of reason are both entitative , so there is such a diversity of entity it self , respectively , and improperly : but as entitys of reason are objectively nonentitative , so also there is absolutely and properly no difference , but a plain contradiction between them , and real entity ; as a number , and a null or cyphar , do not properly differ , but contradict one another becaus one is , and the other is not . wherefore all real and true difference must be between things that are truly real ; and again whatsoever things are real may realy differ from others in the things themselvs and natures therof . so that real difference is not only corporeal , or of things wherof there is or may be a local separation , but also of any other thing or entity , though not separated or separable localy : for though entity it self be only generical , yet there are also specifical and particular essences , and differences . thus an angel in a body , and the body , are realy different specificaly in the things themselvs , and natures therof ; though not localy separated , yet as truly as when they are localy separated . so that their difference is not only from their several localitys , but from their several specifical natures . so also the soul , and body of man , are now different , though not yet separated , but only separable by death ; and shall be different after the resurrection , when they shall be inseparable , as well as after death and before the resurrection , when they shall be localy separated : and so heaven , and earth , also differ , not only becaus they are lo●aly separated , but also becaus they are heaven , and earth ; that is , several natures specificaly different . also there may be an individual difference where there is no specifical difference , as in a legion of angels , or men ; lastly there is a numerical difference where there is no individual difference ; as all the members of a body are so many as they are numericaly , but yet do not differ individualy : otherwise it should not be one body , or individual composition therof , but so many several individuals , as there are members . but whatsoever doth differ in any other kind , doth also differ numericaly ; becaus number , or quantity discrete , is comprehensive of all differences , diversitys , or discretions whatsoever . and now i shall conclude that whatsoever god hath created , and is in nature and not only in our reason or mind , realy is : and whatsoever god hath created different , and doth differ in nature , and not only in our reason or mind , is realy different : which i suppose none can deny , and according to these undeniable rules i shall proceed . vi , the first real difference of entity is that it is either substance , or accident . and now ( becaus i know i must fight out my way by inches against all sceptical disputers ) i shall proceed as clearly and firmly as i can . and first i shall explain my terms . by substance i intend an entity naturaly subsisting in it self , and from which other accidental entitys do naturaly flow , and subsist therin . by accident i intend an entity which doth naturaly flow from and subsist in a substance . so that substance is both the original fountain , and continual foundation of any accident , cujus esse est inesse , which some cavill against , becaus they do not understand it ; though it is very true , and rightly said of an accident , that it is the accident of a substance and in respect of the substance : as it may be also said of substance in respect of accidents , cujus esse est subesse . but as all particular substances , matter , and forms , have their own specifical essences or entitys , so also have all particular accidents extension , figure , density , gravity , motion , heat , light , and the rest . also though all accidents do originaly subsist in their substances ; yet derivatively one accident may subsist in another ; as figure in extension , gravity in density ; and 〈◊〉 im●mediately , and the others mediately , in matter . 〈◊〉 several accidents may subsist immediately in the 〈…〉 as extension and density in matter , which is one 〈…〉 substance . and one accident doth so subsist in 〈◊〉 if it be a particular product , property , or affection therof ; as figure is of extension , or gravity of density , and the like . now accidents are therefore so called ; becaus they are adventitious to the substance , wherof the specifical essence , as i have said , is in it self , and doth not consist in any , or all the accidents therof ; nor is , or can be altered , or made more or less , by the variations therof ; and also becaus accidents in themselvs do sometimes actualy exist , appear , and exert their operations ; and sometimes only subsist potentialy , and are latent and quiescent in their substances : as may evidently appear by all the several variations of accidents , the substance remaining the same ; becaus it doth alway subsist in it self ; and therfore always is actualy what it is in it self : for if it should be potential , then the potentiality therof not actualy subsisting in it self , should subsist in another ; and consequently be an accident , and not a substance . and thus every entity which is created , and cannot be annihilated , must necessarily alway subsist either in it self , or in another actualy , or potentialy ; but becaus accidents affect , and indeed perfect the substance , therefore they are also called affections ; now that there are substances , i suppose , none will deny who acknowledg any actual entitys : and that there are accidents , none can deny who hath the use of his senses ; wherof all sensible accidents are the proper objects : and objects of intellect are only understood by objects of sens. so that indeed all our conversation is immediately with and by accidents ; and we neither know essences of accidents , nor substances , otherwise then by their actual phaenomena , or appearances : nor can substances operate any thing without the actual operations , of accidents . wher efore that i may not fight as beating the air , nor contend for that which will and must be yielded , i shall more directly oppugn that wherin i conceiv the greatest strength of opposition to ly , and accordingly address my self to prove that accidents are realy different from their substances : whereby i shall also prove that both substances and accidents realy are ; becaus any real difference is only between real entitys . now as i have said before god in the begining created heaven and earth , and all other their primitive entitys therin , which yet did not then all actualy exist , appear , and operate : for it is said expresly , that there was yet no light in the heaven , but darkness was upon the face of the deep ; and of the earth that it was without form and void : and if they had been otherwise created in the begining , all the ensuing works of god in the six days had been needless and superfluous . wheras elementary substances and the essences of their accidents in their potentialitys being created together in the begining , the work of the three first days was to produce their accidents out of potentiality into act ; as i shall particularly shew heerafter . and though this was not properly creation of any new entity from nonentity ; yet as it was the production of the actualitys of the accidents , and not of the substance● of the elements , it plainly discovers a real difference between substances , and accidents . certeinly as it was the production of several actualitys therof in several days , it declares the accidents so severaly actuated to be several and different in themselvs ; and much more all of them to be different from the substances , from which they all differ more genericaly , and consequently more then one from another . again if substances and accidents did not realy differ , then no accidents of the same substance should realy differ one from another , but all should be one and the same with themselvs , as well as with their substance : for as the mathematical rule is most true , that if each of two lines be equal to a third , one of them must necessarily be equal to the other . so if each of two entitys , could be one and the same with a third , the one must necessarily be one and the same with the other : and so if extension , figure , density , gravity , motion , heat , light , and the rest , and all the several variations therof , were one and the same with the aethereal substance , then they must also be one and the same in themselvs : yea if they were only accidents of the matter , as some affirm all contrary qualitys , heat and cold , and the rest must be one and the same with the matter ; which is most absurd and irrational : for then heat should be cold , and cold heat , and the like . also if we consyder the continual sensible variations of accidents , and their productions out of potentiality into actuality , and reductions from actuality to potentiality , whereby they so often appear and disappear unto us , and their desultory and exile nature ( which to some scarcely seems to be real ) we may not imagin them to be realy the same with their substances , which subsist in themselvs , and are fixed , solid , and substantial entitys ; and therefore always are actual , and never potential , as i shall particularly shew heerafter in all the ensuing discourses . wherefore i conclude that since there are such substantial , and accidental entitys , and that they differ one from another , in nature , and not only in our mind and reason ; that they both realy are ; and that accidents realy differ from substances , and also one from another . vii . substance is either matter , or forms ; ( for i must use that common term untill i can substitute another ) and becaus , as i have said , we know substances only intelligibly , by their sensible accidents , i shall accordingly by them declare what i intend by matter , and what by forms , matter is known by corporeal quantity , which is the proper accident therof . and this quantity is either extension , and the products or propertys therof , figure , porosity , and the like ; or density and the products or propertys therof , gravity , corporeal motion , and the like . also matter hath a common receptivity of forms , and is passively apt to be consubstantiated with them , and is as the body therof , being in it self one homogeneous and uniform moles , or mass ; and is also the passive subject of all its own corporeal variations , which are superinduced in it by the various activitys of forms . whence it is rightly called materia , which the forms , as architects , do severaly mold and fashion into fit bodys for themselvs . and therefore i describe matter to be one passive substantial entity or common body of forms . again forms are known by their qualitys , which are generaly active , as heat , cold , moisture , drines , and the like ; and are not only various , and innumerable to us , but also many of them contrary one to another : whereby i know their substantial forms also to be several , heterogeneous , and difform : wherof some are apt to consubstantiate themselvs subordinately with the passive matter , which they as spirits , do actively inform or inspirit , as all inferior forms or spirits ; and some do not consubstantiate but only inform it ; as the human spirit ; and some neither consubstantiate nor inform it , as angels : and though all exist in it , yet none subsist in it , as accidents do in substances ; and so these forms are several active substantial entitys or spirits . and i shall henceforth generally call them spirits ; wherby i do not intend spirit grammaticaly , that is breath ; nor yet with physicians , and others , those igneous aereous , aqueous , and terreous , natural , vital , or animal spirits , which indeed are only such qualitys of the elementary spirits ; but substantial spirits distinct or different from the matter , as i have before discoursed them . and so there are not only angelical spirits which exist separate from the matter naturaly , though in it localy , and human spirits which are also immaterial , and such as may so exist separately , as well as angelical , and yet are apt to inform or inspirit the human body wherwith they are composited , but also material spirit● , which cannot so exist separately , or as separate substances without the matter , and therefore are called material , though they are in themselvs neither matter nor homogeneous with the matter as i shall shew heerafter . and so the wiseman mentioneth the spirit of a beast that goeth downward to the earth , as well as the spirit of man that goeth upward . and so also there are vegetative spirits , and the spirit of the heaven ( as the author of esdras saith of the firmament ) and of all the elements , ( which are more properly material becaus they immediately consubstantiate matter ) that is , such active substantial entitys , as i have before described . and there are also accidental spirits or spiritual activitys powers , and virtues mentioned in scripture . which yet are no substantial spirits , but subsist in them . and i suppose this general name spirit doth better express all simple substantial activitys ( which were immediately created by god , as well as matter , and can never be annihilated or altered as they are in themselvs , any more then matter it self ) then forms by which they are commonly exprest as well as form● mistorum . and therefore i do not term them forms , ( but i rather reserv form to express that which is otherwise called formae misti , or compositi , by which i intend only the generative complexion and compagination of those simple created spirits and matter which are ingenerable and incorruptible in themselvs ; and wherof generation and corruption are only the confabrication , or demolition ; as i shall shew heerafter : and consequently every form● misti , or compositi is generable and corruptible : and so these forms are as far different from the others ( which i therefore term spirits ) as they are from matter ; and are called substantial only becaus they are the complexions of the others , which are substances as also material spirits are so called only becaus they are so un●ted to the matter , as i said before . having thus explained my terms , i shall proceed ( as before concerning substances and accidents ) to prove that matter and these simple created spirits realy differ , whereby i shall also prove that there realy are both such matter and such spirits . and wheras it is now generaly granted that there are such angelical and human spirits realy different from matter ( for which , i suppose , we may thank christianity ) i shall accept i● ; and apply my self only to prove the same of the rest ; and then i presume no heathen can deny it of the others . now in our present history of the creation it is said that the water brought forth fishes after their kinds , and fowls after their kinds , and the earth beasts after their kinds , and creeping things after their kinds . whereby it appears that these creatures were of several kinds , and heterogeneous one from another , and consequently all of them from the matter ; which being one homogeneous substance in it self can never produce any heterogeneous substances ; and therefore all this heterogeneity must necessarily be from some other substantial principles ; that is , their spirits : which were created thus specificaly heterogeneous one from another , and all of them more genericaly heterogeneous from the common matter . and so it is also expresly said concerning vegetatives ; and must be reasonably understood of heaven , and earth , and all the elements : for the matter of them all being one and the same could not constitute and denominate them heaven , or earth , neither could they be so denominated from their own proper qualitys , which were not yet actualy produced , but afterward in the three first days . wherfore there were such several heterogeneous substantial principles ( which i call elementary spirits ) created in the begining and then actualy subsisting in and with the matter , which did so denominate the heaven and earth , and the rest . and if they together with the matter could not produce their own proper qualitys , without such a supernatural , though improper creation ; much less could the matter of it self produce any such substantial spirits , and activitys , farr more excellent then it self . again if accidents of the same substance being several must therefore realy differ from the substance , as i have before proved , then certeinly accidents of several substances , which are not only several , but also contrary , do necessarily prove that they can not proceed from one and the same substantial principle , such as matter is : for then the same nature should destroy it self by its own natural contrarietys . and though in mist bodys which are composed of all the elements there be the substantial principles of contrary qualitys , heat , cold , moisture , driness , and the like mist and contemperated together , or though the same thing may produce contrary effects in several subjects , as motion may excite heat in fire and cold in air , or the same faculty may exercise contrary actions toward contrary objects ; as the will or appetite doth affect that which is pleasant , and disaffect that which is displeasant ; yet matter , which is one and the same , cannot produce contrary activitys , and exercise contrary operations in it self , which destroy one another , and so consequently should corrupt it self by such contrary qualitys . wherefore all generation and corruption , and all menstrua , and the like , do plainly prove that there are several substantial principles of such contrary qualitys , not only realy different from the matter , but also difform one from another . and therefore , unless we affirm heat , cold , moisture , driness , and all other contrary qualitys , and consequently ae●her , air , water , earth , vegetatives and sensitives to be all one and the same and not different ; and thereby confound heaven and earth , and all things therin , and our own notions therof , we must necessarily grant that there are such several accidental qualitys , and also such substantial principles therof , different one from another , and consequently all from the matter . and this may appear most clearly by many sensible distinctions and differences between them , which i shall now only generaly mention , and heerafter more particularly discover in the ensuing discourses . as that matter hath pondus , and the products therof which spirits have not : but there are active potentiae of spirits and all the various operations and effects therof , which matter hath not : and the pondus of matter tendeth from the circumference to the center , but the potentia of spirits from the center to the circumference . and matter being only one homogeneous body hath only one center ; but spirits being many and several have every one of them in their composita a several center . also all matter is continuous ; becaus it is one homogeneous body ; but the contiguity of several bodys is only from the several spirits . also matter tendeth naturaly to rest , but spirits intend their acts and exercises to the utmost . also matter hath only different degrees of more or less ; but spirits have their actively contrary qualitys , and the like . now though i cannot sensibly produce and present such a genius of things or spirit , as it is in it self ; not only becaus it is a spirit , but also becaus it is a substance ; which as i have said that it is only intelligible ( as none can discover pure matter , or materia prima , as it is in it self , but both may be discerned by their sensible accidents , wherof the accidents of spirits , which are proper sensibles , are more sensible then of matter , which are only common sensibles and sensed by the others ) so i have proved matter and spirits by their different accidents to be several substantial principles , and realy different one from another . and though none can affirm that there is any matter separate from spirits ; yet it is granted that there are spirits separate from matter , as angels . nor may it seem strange that two such substances should be consubstantiated into one , since there is no matter without some spirit to diversify it ; and it is also granted that there is a spirit of man which doth inform or inspirit his body ; and not only possess it as an angel. wherefore certeinly material spirits which are connatural may also consubstantiate the matter . and we must understand that as all created entitys are creatures , or created by god ; so they are united into one genus of their common entity ; which though it be metaphysical , yet it is not only a notional , but a real universality of them all ; whereby they are so realy united and accordingly have some physical communion one with another , and all conspire together against nonentity . and so matter and spirits though very different entitys ; yet because they are all entitys , either consubstantiate one another , as all material spirits , which cannot be separate , nor exert or exercise their qualitys or operations without the instrumentality of their material bodys , or otherwise inform and inspirit them , as the immaterial spirit of man : which may be separate , or not separate from the body therof , and exert and exercise some qualitys and operations by the instrumentality therof , and some without it , as i shall shew heerafter ; or at least as angels , who though they be purely immaterial spirits , and have no such consubstantial nor compositive union with the matter , nor do inform or inspirit it , nor operate by any instrumentality therof ; but are in that respect wholy separate from it , yet have this communion with it , that they are localy in it , where they are and do move from one part or place therof to another , and more or less suddenly and easily , and can not move beyond the universal body therof ; for then they might wander in notfinite and endless inanity , which as i have said is pure nonentity . and though extension and local motion be properly of the matter , yet material spirits by their conjunct state and consubstantiation are coextended with it , and all others are conteined in it , and in this or that part therof , and move from this or that place therof , according to the several spheres of their own substantial activitys ; whether they be more united unto it by a conjunct consubstantiation , as material spirits ; which are in the matter like inherent light in the lucid body , and in so much therof as it doth inherently illuminate , or less and without any such conjunct consubstantiation , as the human spirit , which is in the matter as light in the diaphanous air which it requires to illuminate ; or otherwise as angels , which are in it as magnetical emanations in any medium . and accordingly material spirits are most powerful in their center , but immaterial intirely equal in their whole sphere . now wheras some affirm that substantial spirits , and all their spiritual qualitys , are only various motions of the matter ; i shall according to my maner first endeavour to understand , what is or may be intended by the motion of the matter ; which certeinly can not be any substantial activity in it self distinct from the matter ; for then we might agree in the thing , and should not differ about terms : wherefore motion of the matter must be only an accidental affection therof , ( like extension and the rest whereby matter extends it self ) and so in effect motion of the m●tter is only matter moving it self ; wheras it naturaly tends to rest , and moves only in order therunto , as i shall shew heerafter ; and this moving must be only local , becaus it is of the matter from one part or place therof to another . but as i have shewed , that there are other differences of things besides local separation ; so there are other motions , besides local motion ; as every mutation from one state to another , in generation , corruption , and the like ; and i● intellection , and volition , there may be such spiritual motions , without any local motion whatsoever , wheras local motion is only a transition or passing from one part or place of the matter to another , as i shall also shew heerafter : and now i may safely affirm that such local motion is only local motion , and neither more nor less , nor other : for as this identical proposition is most true , that local motion is local motion : so the predicate therof being adaequate to the subject , it can be neither more nor less , nor other then the subject . now that this local motion which properly belongeth to the matter is an instrument not only of matter , but also of all material spirits ( becaus they are material , or conjunct with the matter in their consubstantiation , and also in their operation , as well as extension , figure , and the rest ) i easily grant : but must wholy deny that aether , air , water , earth , or any other substantial spirits ; heat , cold , moisture , driness , vegetation , sensation , and innumerable other spiritual qualitys are only local motions , one way , or other , or any way whatsoever : for then local motion should not be only an instrumental causality or effect , of all those spirits and spiritual qualitys , but the very essence and formality , or formal caus therof ; which is most uncouth and inconceivable : for they are formaly every one of them such as they are in themselves ; as well as the matter is matter in it self , without any actual motion : and so also extension is formaly extension in it self , and may exist and be such , without any actual motion : and figure is formaly figure in it self , and may exist , and be such , without any actual motion : and so any other accidents of matter : much more spirits and spiritual qualitys : which i shall now very plainly prove . in the begining god created the heaven and the earth ; and not only matter and motion : nor could matter by motion diversify it self in the begining into heaven and earth ; that is , as i have before explained them , superaether , aether , air , water , and earth : for no local motion can be in an instant ; but the begining was only the first instant , otherwise it should not be the first or begining : wheras local motion being from place to place , which are several terms , must necessarily be in several instants : and most probably there was no local or any such natural motion in the first chaos , but only the spirit of god supernaturaly moved on the face of the waters . also if several local motions were the formalitys or formal beings of all spirits , and spiritual qualitys , then they should not be before nor after , nor any longer , then the local motion doth continue : for the formality of any thing is the very specifical being therof ; ( as wind which is indeed only aer motus continues no longer then the motion ) and nothing can be without the specifical being of it self ; otherwise it should not be what it is . wherefore i suppose i may set this down as another infallible canon ( according to which also i may safely proceed ) that whatsoever actualy exists without somthing which doth not then also actualy exist , must realy differ from it ; otherwise the same thing should actualy exist , and not exist at the same time , which is contradictory , and impossible . and thus as i have proved substances , which did actualy exist in the begining , to differ realy from accidents , which did not then actualy exist ; so particularly spiritual substances and their qualitys , which do or may actualy exist without any actual local motion , must necessarily be realy different from it . and this is most sensibly evident that they may so exist , and be , without any local motion ; and when they are in local motion , are commonly rather causes therof , then caused by it ; and so they caus motion in the very matter , which of it self would perpetualy rest in the center , and due position of it self , as i have said , and shall heerafter prove , and is disturbed and moved by the potentiae of spirits , which alter the natural position , figure , density , and gravity therof : and properly it hath no natural motion of it self , but only to restore it self unto rest. nor can the matter , and motion , and any or all the other accidents or variations therof , formaly caus the spirits , or spiritual qualitys : but are only instruments , and fit bodies therof , which they form for themselves . take wax , and move it this way , or that way ; or mold it into this , or that figure ; or discind it into any threads or corpuscles , or mechanicaly vary the matter therof how you will ; yet it will still be wax , as well as every part of water is water ; unless there be also some new generation , or corruption , therof by spirits , and spiritual qualitys , as i shall shew heerafter . wherefore that which some call texture , whether extrinsecal , as figure , porosity , or plain interweaving of threads or filaments , and the like ; or intrinsecal , as density and rarity , ( which indeed are the only true intrinsecal textures of bodys and yet are wholy denied by our textorian philosophers ) as well as local motion , is only instrumental , and no formal caus , or being , of any spirit or spiritual quality . and so take common water and spirit of wine , vitriol , or any stronger spirits ; and setting them in their several vessels one by another , inspect them with a microscope ; and see if you can discern any such proportionable and consyderable difference of their extension , figure , density , gravity , local motion , or any corporeal texture whatsoever , as there is of their spirits , and spiritual qualitys . or take any aethereous globules , or materia subtilis , emittent , transmittent , or remittent ( if you can tell where to find it ) or the most subtile and pure air , which may be had on the top of the highest mountain , and which is common matter as well as any other , and putting this matter into any windgun , airpump , or expansor , or any such torcular , or other rack of nature whatsoever , or applying to it any chymical fire , or heat , or salt and snow , or what you will , and vex it how you will ; and try if you can force it to confess it self to be any other thing then air , or extort from it all , or any of these spiritual diversifications , or such as may be effected by the like experiments made of vapor , water , or earth , or any parcel or part of the terraqueous globe , and cortex therof . which god having made to be the native countrey , and region of animals , hath also impregnated with such material spirits , and their spiritual qualitys , which he did first produce , and still may be produced ou● of them . wherefore since matter and spirits do thus differ , not only in our mind and reason , but in their own natures , i conclude them both realy to be , and realy to differ one from the other : and not to be only matter and the motions therof . viii . accidents are either common , or proper ; common accidents are such as were concreated , and actualy existed together with the substances in the begining , and without which no substances , or any created entity whatsoever , can actualy exist : as all quantitys ; whether discrete , as number : for every creature that is whatsoever it be , must also be numerable . or successive as duration : for every creature that is , whatsoever must also be durable , or temporary . or consistent , as extension ; which though is be in it self proper to matter , yet as the matter of the whole world is a common matter , so as i have shewed , it doth coextend or contein all spirits , and every creature that is in heaven or earth must necessarily be localy therin , that is , in the universal body of the matter , or vbi therof , and in some part or place therof ; that is , it must be there where it is , and no where els at the same time. proper accidents are such as originaly flow from , and subsist in their proper substances : as consistent quantity , extension , figure , density and the rest in matter ; and spiritual qualitys in spirits . again these simple accidents may be either compounded together , or several ; and yet mutualy relating one to another , and such relations may also be real ; as first and last in successive quantity , or time : for they realy are such in the successive nature therof ; which otherwise should not be successive ; and are not only notional , such as first or last in consistent quantity , or extension ; for they are not realy such in the consistent nature therof ; becaus it is consistent altogether ; and so the first may be last , or the last first , according to our notion and institution therof . also there are other more complex relations which may likewise be real ; either mathematical ; as a triangle and three several lines are different things , or physical , as beauty , which is a relative conformity of severall lineaments and colors to the physical law therof . or moral , as virtue ; which is a relative conformity of actions , modes and circumstances to the moral law therof . or theological , as piety ; which is a relative conformity of actions modes and circumstances to the theological law therof , and the like : which being more complex , are also more curious and excellent ; and the relative conformitys therof are not only real , but also the excellencys and perfections of those realitys wherin they relatively and realy subsist . and this relative reality , though i● doth subsist in the particular entitys wherof they are the relations , yet doth consist in the very relative conformity therof : for their particular entitys being inverted , will vary them , as a triangle may so be made a zeta or pi , or render that which was beautiful deformed , and that which was virtuous vitious , and that which was pious , impious . and heer i shall conclude with this general observation , that though substances excell in entity , becaus they subsist in themselvs ; yet accidents excell in bonity , becaus they perfect their substances . for such indeed was that great difference between the first chaos and the six days works perfected therin . section v. and the earth was without form and void . and darknes was upon the face of the deep . explication . the elementary globe of earth , water , air , and aether , was first created inform , and inane ; without any of those actual compositions , mistions , figures , and virtues , which were afterward produced in the six days . illustration . . of the fower elements . . of the chaos . . of quantity . . of number . . of time. . of extension . . of figure . . of porosity . . of density and rarity . . of gravity and levity . . of rest and motion . . of place space and vacuity . i. we have heer a farther explication in the text itself of the heaven and earth created in the begining . wherof it is again said , that there was an earth , comprehending also the water , as i have before shewed . and the water is heer called deep ; which generaly in the hebrew style signifys deep water , or sea ( and heer the element of water ) like altum and profundum in the latin. also the waters are expresly mentioned in the following sentence . but earth and water were not first created such a terraqueons globe as now they are , and were afterward so divided and disposed in the third day , and then first made to be such an ocean of waters and dry land both appearing together , and composing one surface and circumference of their common globe ; for that was the very work of the third day . wheras the psalmist saith of this first creation of the earth , thou covered'st it with the deep as with a garment . and the same is implied heer in these words , and darkness was upon the face of the deep ; that is , of the waters , which first covered the earth ; and not immediately upon the face of the earth , which was then covered with the waters . also the darkness , which was the antecedent privation of light , doth imply the informity and inanity , both of aether , which is the elementary fountain of light , and of air , which is the vehicle therof to the terraqueous globe ; and that as the water was created above the earth , so they above the waters : for it is said the darkness which was then in them was upon , or above the waters . and so god saith to iob concerning the sea , when i made the cloud ( that is the dark air ) the garment therof and thick darkness a swadling band for it . and so also was the aether , from which the light was afterward emitted through the air to the terraqueous globe , above the air. and this situation of the elements may plainly appear by the order of the succeeding creation : wherin the aether , which is highest and next to the superaether ( which as i have said probably was perfected in the begining ) was first furnished with light , and then the air with vapors , and lastly the terraqueous globe with vegetatives , in the three first days . and so again the aether with starrs , and then the air and water with fowls and fishes , and lastly the earth with beasts , in the three last days . also i collect from this original situation of the elements that their several bodys of matter were proportionable and conformable therunto ; that is , the matter of earth was most dens , and consequently most grave , and therefore lowest ; the matter of the water less dens , and consequently less grave , and therefore above the earth ; the matter of the air more rare , and consequently more light , and therefore above the water ; the matter of the aether more rare , and consequently more light , and therefore above all the other elements , and next to the superaether which is most rare , as a fit habitation for pure spirits . and that as every element had its proper body of matter , so also its proper elementary substantial spirit pure , and unmist in the first creation therof . and it was the work of the spirit of god moving upon the face of the waters to prepare and predispose them by fit mistion and temperature of them all ; and thereby to produce their proper qualitys out of their potentialitys into act , gradualy and successively . and that their potential qualitys , and also all other simple and primitive substantial spirits , not only elementary , but in and with them vegetative and sensitive , and all their potential qualitys , were created in the begining together with the matter : that is , vegetative spirits , and sensitive spirits of beasts in the earth and of fishes in the water : for so it is said , let the earth bring forth grass , &c. and again , let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind , &c. and so also , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life , &c. which plainly implys , that these spirits were in them before , otherwise they could not so bring them forth . and they were then latent in those elements respectively , which are predominant in their composita . ii. thus was the inferior globe of these fower elements first created , inform , and inane ; which is more emphaticaly exprest in the original language then can be rendred in any other . the author of the wisedom of solomon calleth it matter without form : that is , without any corporeal formosity , or any mistion or forma misti as they term it . both greeks and latines generaly call it chaos ; and have preserved the historical tradition therof , which they received from antiquity . but they seem also to comprehend in their chaos the superaether as well as all the elements , or otherwise to have had no knowledg therof . also they confound all together in one congeries : and thence have fansied that the fower elements had their actual qualitys existing therin in their highest degrees , and that there was extreme discord and enmity among them . and so empedocles and others make lis and amor original causes of all things ; which were afterward comtempered therin : and the poet accordingly ; aque chao densos divum numer abat amoros . but upon the review of our divine history , as i find no farther mention of the superaether in any of the works of the six days , and therefore conceiv it to have been perfected in the begining and first creation therof , ( for so it is said of it ; whose builder and maker is god , that is more immediately and only by a proper creation therof , without any mediate preparation predisposition and mistion , as of the elements and elementary natures , and so that it was no part of this elementary chaos which was afterward perfected in the six days ) so also i rather conceiv that there was only imperfection in the first chaos ; and that all the first elements were first created in their several situations in rest and peace without any such discordant confusion , which is reserved for the last dissolution and gehenna . and the hebraical words , inform , and inane , seem rather to infer such an emptiness and privation , then any positive contrariety of qualitys then actualy existing in it : and it is said expresly , that there was darkness , or purae tenebrae , therin , without any light ; and so probably no heat ; which if it had been actualy existing in such extremity therof might have prevailed over the rest , as it shall in the last conflagration ; or at least would have caused the vapors to ascend from the waters before the second day ; if the air had all been so prepared by mistion and the actual qualitys therof : but probably there were no such other qualitys then actualy existing : for if not heat , then consequently not cold , which is the contrary therof . and the earth is not denominated dry untill the third day ; and if there were before no driness , then consequently no moisture ; and so of the rest . and the author of esdras saith , there was silence on every side , without any sibilation or tumult of heat and cold or the like . and though not only matter , but the created substantial spirits of the fower elements and others , did then so actualy exist in the begining when they were first created , and the heavens or aether , and air , and earth , or water and earth , were thereby then so denominated ; as i have already shewed ; yet their first simple qualitys , heat , cold , moisture , drines , and others , which are accidents , and subsist in their substances and were then also created first in their potentiality ; did not actualy exist , but were afterward produced out of their potentiality into act in the six days . and the elements , though created pure and unmist severaly in themselvs , and separately in their own spheres , yet were miscible , and their natural perfection was to be mist ; and so it was accordingly performed afterward : and by that very m●stion and temperature their proper qualitys were produced out of potentiality into act , which otherwise could not actualy exist severaly by reason of their own vehemence and extremity . and certeinly there are such contrary qualitys , which are not only degrees or more or less of the same mist quality ( as there are degrees of corporeal quantity ) which very contrariety by a fit mistion and temperature doth mutualy qualify them , and so produce them by degrees out of their potentiality in generation ; and the excess of either of them doth again destroy the other in corruption ; and thereby also would destroy itself if it were not so tempered by the contrary . and i thus judg therof , becaus otherwise there could be no mistion or temperature of contrary qualitys in their actual extremitys , which would destroy one another : but they are not so actualy contrary in their potentialitys ( becaus then they are only potential ) whereby they are easily mist at first , and so proceed by degrees to be both actuated together in their mutual mistion and temperature . and this order of generation and corruption is the very cours of nature that was ordeined in the six days . and as in the begining none of these qualitys did actualy exist in their own vehemence and extremity , so never since can either of such contrary qualitys actualy exist without the other which should so temper and qualify it . also all secondary q●alitys which are compounded of such first simple qualitys cannot possibly exist without such composition and mistion , becaus their compound nature is to be mist of others . but though the first chaos was thus inform and inane , without any such particular figures of bodys , or spiritual qualitys , or any such substantial or accidental mistion or composition ; yet as the matter and several elementary spirits were severaly consubstantiated therin , whereby they were then actualy heaven and earth , though not such as afterward , and as now they are ; so also we may not conceiv them to have been without any actual accidents whatsoever ; for they must necessarily have those common accidents which were concreated with them , wherof i have formerly discoursed , actualy existing ; becaus no created substance whatsoever can exist or be without them , and the matter had the general accidents therof actualy existing in it . and of these and the products therof both common and proper to matter , as they were concreated with it , or wherof it was capable , i shall now proceed to discours . iii. and first i shall consyder quantity generaly : which though it be severaly and specificaly threefold , number , time , and extension ; yet all of them are genericaly one , or that which we by one common name call quantity : and they are so one , not only nominaly or notionaly , but realy and physicaly ; as shall appear by the real and physical analogy and confederacy that is between them ; which as it is most proportionable and regular in itself , so if it were rightly consydered in all statike machins or engines , any artist might thereby without the trouble and charge of experiment set down in his mind or paper before hand what the effect and execution will be : and all particular errors in that art proceed from the universal error or ignorance heerof . as one saith of their various essays of a perpetual motion ; that they have all proved vain and ineffectual , non rite observatis proportionibus : for what is gained by one quantity will be lost by others : as what is gained by distances from the center , multiplication of unequal wheels , and the like , is again lost in the total summ of the whole account of proportions , in time , number , longer , or more circumvolutions , a●d the like ; which at last cast up together will amount to no more then a balance , or aequipondium : and these several ways are only several variations of the quantitys ; which ●et may be very useful and advantagious , accordingly as we have more or less weight or power , or more or less time , and the rest , to imploy and lay out in the operation . such are the romana statera , or french beam , the leaver , the skrew , the p●lley , the snake wheel , cranes , and the like . and the common culinary jack may plainly discover the use and advantage therof , in diminishing the burden of the weight by multiplication of the distances and revolutions ; as if the weight were divided into so many several parts or less weights as it hath such proportions in the whole , and one of them only were to be moved at one distance and by one revolution . or the burden of the weight in a contrary way may be multiplied by diminishing the distances and revolutions . or there may be a delivery of all at once , as in catapults , balists , and the like . and of all these the whole account will ever be equal , as i have said ( allowing only for frictions and attritions , and the like ) and this wonderful analogy of quantity is not only thus useful in mechanical practice , but also in philosophical contemplation ; which i shall now accordingly improve . and becaus , as i have formerly observed , number is the discerner of both the other quantitys , and most discernible in it self , i shall heer begin with it ; and thereby endeavor to explicate the most indiscernible mysteries of time and extension : though i esteem no quantity mystical , or cabalistical , in virtue , or signification ; but only intend such natural mystery's therin as are incomprehensible to us and our reason . iiii. the first principle of number is an unit , which is unity in it self , and disunity from others ; wherof all number doth consist : but it is no number in it self , being only an imperfect principle therof : for all number is quantity discrete , and such discretion must necessarily be of more then one : yet all other numbers are only so many ones , but one is most intirely and individualy one in it self , having both the same root and square . and it is analogous to an instant , or point , but different from both , and each of them one from another . for an unit may either severaly exist , as in one instant ; or coexist , as in many points , but an instant can only exist severaly and successively ; for past , present , and future , cannot be otherwise then several and successive ; and a point can only coexist , for it cannot be otherwise then in a body which is consistent . also as all number is only so many ones , becaus it is discrete ; so it is only so many several ones discreted one from another : yet as it is so many ones discretely , so it may be also one many complexively , which yet is not properly one , or a unit ; for that cannot be divided or discreted , nor hath any halvs , quarters , or other fractions whatsoever , which are indeed so many ones in themselvs , wherof a proper unit is not capable , but any number is only one many complexively , which is an improper unit , and properly many ones ; and may therefore be so divided and discreted . so that indeed there is no fraction or surd in number rightly consydered in itself , but only in time , or extension , or other things numbred thereby : as weight , money , and the like ; wherof if any can give the intire proportions , he hath also the complete number , resulting from the thing itself . thus of all these three concreated surveiors of nature , which we call quantitys , number is the most perfect and regular , and therefore arithmetike is also most perfect and regular , wholy composed of rules , and not , like geometry , of innumerable problems and propositions , which are only as several accounts of so many particular sums . and indeed it is so regular and complete , that i know not what may be added to it farther , except perhaps some more special rules for greater facility and expedition , wherof i may heerafter occasionaly give some other instances , and shall now only mention for an example the common instance of the changes of any number used in bells , anagramms , or the like . wherof there is this special rule : multiply the product of the last number multiplied by the next simple number , as once one is one ; two ones are two ; three twos are six ; fower sixes are twenty fower ; five twenty fowers are one hundred and twenty ; six one hundred and twentys are seaven hundred and twenty ; and so indefinitely : and such alway will be the changes therof . the reason wherof is very plain and evident ; which is , that s●x will make six several fives by changing or setting aside one every time , and so consequently it conteins the six several products of five multiplied as aforesaid ; and so the rest one of another . certeinly arithmetike is not only most regular in it self ; but also most useful in other arts : becaus number is the measure of all finite things which god hath created to be measured thereby , even time and extension itself , ( and so is time of extension , but not contrarily ) and so there is great use therof in chronology and geometry : and it is indeed the most excellent mathematical science , though we have generaly appropriated the very name of mathesis to geometry ; becaus it doth more exercise human wit , which is better pleased with curious difficultys , then that which is more plain and facile , though no less true and evident . v. the first principle of time or duration is an instant , which is only the very present while it actualy is , and so excludes both past and future , which cannot possibly exist together with it ; and yet as it passeth away continualy maketh a succession of instants , and that succession is time or duration . but every instant doth severaly exist in itself , and is not successive , and consequently no time or duration ; as an unit is no number : for succession is of one after another , and therefore of more then one , but an instant is only one. and so the begining or first instant did necessarily exist severaly ; for there was none before it , otherwise it should not have been the begining ; and the next instant was after it , otherwise it should not have been the next : and there is the same reason of all the instants which have been since , or ever shall be . whereby we may apprehend the nature therof , though we can never comprehend it , being swifter then any thought which might comprehend it . and becaus instants are of so minute a nature , therefore they are not only incomprehensible , but also innumerable to us , and though in other respects analogous to units and points , yet therefore not so discernible as units ; and almost as incomprehensible as points , wherof i shall discours in the next paragraph . and yet certeinly there are such instants severaly existing as well as units , for all time or duration is composed of them , as well as number of units . and we may not deny any thing that realy is in nature , and which we can apprehend , though we cannot comprehend it . and indeed we may deny time and duration itself as well as instants , wherof it is apparently composed , becaus it is only the succession of several instants , which do and must necessarily exist severaly ; and therefore not only realy are , but are realy several in th●mselves ; becaus only the present instant now actualy is , as i have shewed , and yet what they are , or how time or duration is composed of them , doth f●rr exceed all human reason , and the utmost comprehension therof . vi. the first principle of extension is a point ; which is only an indivisible atom , and no extension in itself ; becaus extension is of part beyond part , but an indivisible hath no parts , otherwise it should be divisible into them . and becaus it is the principle of extension , which is quantity consistent , therefore it must also consist , or coexist , and cannot exist severaly . and so though it be analogous to units and instants in other respects , yet by reason therof it is more incomprehensible , not only then units , but also then instants ; becaus instants do exist severaly , and therefore may be truly apprehended as several , and by themselvs ; but points only coexist , and therefore may not be truly apprehended as several , or by the●selvs , but only as consistent with others in corporeal extension , and so are wholy indemonstrable . nor is a point the only indemonstrable thing in mathematical science , but the very caus and ground of the indemonstrability of all other asymmetra or incommensurabilitys . and to demonstrate this indemonstrability i shall offer this proposition , to reduce three square inches ( or any talia qualia ) to a square , or indeed any others wherof there is no square root ; which i suppose can never be squared by any division or subdivision whatsoever . yet i have a rule whereby to reduce the three square inches to a square wanting only one portion still less and less indefinitely , which is this ; first i consider the next square to three which is four inches , wherof two is the square roo● ; and then i place the three inches rectangularly , or in the form of a rectangular gnomon , so as to leav a vacant space which should be supplied by a fourth inch : and i consyder the proportion between this vacant space to be supplied , and the two lateral inches or complements on each side of it from which i must borrow to supply it , which is as one to two ; and then to make a medium between the suppliers and supplied i add two more to those former two , in all fower ; and i multiply fower by fower , which make sixteen : and accordingly i divide each of the two lateral inches or complements into sixteen portions ; that is , fower rows of fower such portions , in each lateral inch ; and then borrow one of these fower rows from each of them ; that is , two rows of fower such portions , in all eight such portions , to supply the vacant space or gnomon ; whereby there will remain now three rows , and therof only three such portions on either side of the lateral lines of the complements , and each of the whole rectangular latera will be one inch and three quarters in length ; according to which the vacant space or gnomon now remaining is to be supplied ; and therefore i multiply three by three , which make nine such portions to be supplied , and i have only , as i said , eight such portions to supply them ; and so there will now remain a vacant space or gnomon of one such portion , which , as i said , is the sixteenth part of an inch. again , i consyder the proportion between this second vacant space or gnomon , which is now to be supplied , and both the two upper lateral rows or complements therof , from which i must borrow to supply it , wherof each doth now contein six such portions ; that is , fower which were in it before , and two added to it , in supplying the first vacant space or gnomon , and wherof the second vacant space or gnomon was to be the third : so now i have six and six such portions , in all twelv ; to which , as before , i add two , in all fourteen ; and i multiply fourteen by fourteen , which make one hundred ninety six ; and so i divide each of these last portions into one hundred ninety six less portions ; that is , fourteen rows of fourteen such less portions of each of the former greater portions ; and then i borrow one whole row therof from each side ; that is , six and six , in all twelv fourteen such portions , which make one hundred sixty eight , to supply this second vacant space or gnomon , wherof there wil now remain thirteen such less portions on either side of the lateral lines of the complements ; and each of the whole rectangular latera will be one inch and three quarters , wanting a fourteenth part of a quarter in length , according to which this second vacant space or gnomon is now to be supplied : and therefore i multiply thirteen by thirteen , which make one hundred sixty nine such less portions ; and i have only , as i said , one hundred sixty eight such portions to supply it . and so there will now remain a third vacant space or gnomon of one such less portion , which , as i have said , is the one hundred ninety sixth part of of a sixteenth part of an inch , that is the three thousand one hundred thirty sixth part of an inch , wherof the square root is fifty six , which is fourteen fowers ; wheras the square root before was only one fower ; which is a very great decreas of the vacant space or gnomon . and according to this rule the vacant space shall still decreas proportionably , toties quoties , and yet a less vacant space still remain , and the square never be completed . and this rule is grounded upon another special rule in arithmetike ; which is , that if of any three successive numbers the greatest be multiplied by the least , it will produce one less then the midle number multiplied by itself . and heer it is made such by adding alway two to the complements according to this rule . as before in these examples , fower multiplied by two made eight , which was one less then three multiplied by three , which made nine . and so again fourteen multiplied by twelv made one hundred sixty eight , which was one less then thirteen multiplied by thirteen , which made one hundred sixty nine . and becaus some may suppose that though such squares can never be comple●ed by this rule , yet it may possibly be done some other way , ( which i am confident cannot be , and that none by any other can come neerer to it then by this rule ) yet for their farther satisfaction heerin i shall offer them several other confessed asymmetra . as the proportion between any diagonial line and the lateral line of the same square . and i have another rule whereby also such an asymmetry may be reduced to one portion still less and less indefinitely , and yet shall never be completed : which is this , first i consyder of what other square the diagonial line of the square given would be a lateral line . as for example ; if the square given be fower inches , wherof the square root is two , i add that which is the only square root before it , and that is one ; and then i say , one and two make three , which square root three being squared makes nine inches , and nine is doubly as much as fower , more one. now i know that the l●teral line of a square which conteins doubly as many inches as the square given is the diagonial line of the square given . and so i say , the diagonial line of the square of fower inches which was the square given is three inches in length , disquaring one from the square of nine inche● . again i add together both the numbers of each of the former square roots which were two and three in all five , which must be the next square root according to this rule : and then let the square therof be given which is twenty five . now to find the diagonial line therof i again add to five the first square root of the first square given , which was two , in all seaven ; which square root being squared makes fourty nine ; and fourty nine is doubly as much as twenty five , less one . and so of five and seaven , which make twelv ; and five and twelv which make seaventeen , and the rest according to the aforesaid rule indefinitely ; wherof the disproportion will be interchangably one more , and one less . and the reason of this rule is , that wheras the diagonial line of any square alway makes a lateral line of another square conteining doubly as much as the former , there is no such square root wherof the square doth contein doubly as much of the square of any other square root whatsoever . and so the proportion between any line of an equilateral triangle and the perpendicular line therof will ever be asymmetrous , becaus there is no square root of three fourths of any square , which is the proportion between them . but the most known and common instance of this kind is the quadrature of the circle , which though as the rest may still be reduced to a proportion less and less indefinitely , yet can never be completed : curtae n●scio quid semper abest rei . now it is most evident that though these proportions can never be thus completed mathematicaly , yet they are all physicaly complete in themselvs , as well as any others . and particularly that there is a complete and perfect proportion between any circle and such a square wherof the diameter of the circle is the lateral line , that is of the square excribed ; for apparently there is a certein proportion between the perimeter and diameter of the circle , and so consequently between the circle and such a diametrical square , as i may so call it ; becaus the diameter of the circle is the lateral line therof . which proportion though it can never be known nor expressed in rational number , yet we know according to common rule , that if you multiply half the perimeter by half the diameter of the same circle , that is , if you suppose a rectangular parallogramm so made that the length shall be equal to half the perimeter of the circle , and the breadth equal to half the diameter of the same circle , the product or rectangle so made will be equal to such a circle : and so if you multiply a quarter of the perimeter by the whole diameter , or a quarter of the diam●ter by the whole porimeter , which are tantamount . and thus you may measure the arch quadrant , or semiquadrant , or more or less part of the circle , as well as any triangle ; for so you measure only within the angles , and to the angles , and therefore the angles which make the excrescential superficies beyond the circularity can make no difference in the one more then in the other . and from all these consyderations of a circle i find the regular proportion or analogy between any circle and the square therof excribed to be this ; that as the perimeter of the circle is in proportion to the perimeter of the square , so are the square inches of the circle in proportion to the square inches of the square . now that all this very large and tedious discours may not seem impertinent , i shall make that improvement therof which i intended ; and from it draw these consectarys . first that mathematicaly , or according to our mathematical science , extension is and must necessarily be supposed to be divisible into alway divisibles ; becaus by such mathematical rules , as before , i can divide and subdivide it indefinitely . next that physicaly , and in its own nature , extension is not , nor cannot be possibly divided into alway divisibles ; becaus , if there could be any such physical division and subdivision therof perpetualy , then such proportions should never be physicaly completed . lastly , that since there is actualy such a physical completion , which , as i have shewed , can never be effected by divisibles or any extended parts of extension , therefore it must necessarily be by somwhat not divisible , but indivisible and not extended in itself . and heer i suppose we may a while make a stand , and gaze with admiration and amazement at these wonderful m●sterys , which have hitherto puzled , and will still puzle the greatest wits of the world : neither shall i presume to absolv them ; but only offer what seemeth to me most probable . certainly , vero nihil verius ; for all verity is one and the same in itself , and with itself , and cannot contradict itself . wherefore that which is mathematicaly true cannot be physicaly fals ; and that which is physicaly true cannot be mathematicaly fals ; but one or other of these ways of demonstration must be fallacious . and for mine own part i shall rather believ nature , which is the art and institution of god , then any mathematical art or instit●t●on of mankind . and i must suspect our own mathematical art to be fallacious heerin , and the fallacy to ly in this ; that becaus we can easily discern extension which is divisible , but cannot discern indivisible points , we indifferently apply our mathematical rules of division and subdivision both to divisible extension and also to indivisible points , not knowing where to stop , nor being able to discern between them ; and so go on perpetualy acco●ding to such mathematical supposition , though there be no such perpetual process in nature . which is as if we should so proceed beyond an unit , and divide it into halvs , quarters , and the like . or as if becaus i can divide fower angels into two twos , and again subdivide each two into two ones , which i may truly do ; i should also therefore proceed to divide each one angel into halvs , and q●arters , and the like perpetualy , which i may not likewise do ; becaus each angel is indivisible in himself , and in his own nature , and hath no such halvs , or quarters ; and yet arithmeticaly i might so go on to divide and number , if i did not know the angelical nature to be indivisible . and though we know a point to be indivisible , yet becaus it is so indiscernible that we know not where to find it out , we go on still so to divide and subdivide perpetualy according to our mathematical rules . and thus though it may be maintained by way of argument that quantitas est divisibilis in semper divisibilia , yet it is invincibly confuted by a contrary argument drawn from that very perpetual divisibility of the quantity , that is , the impossibility therof ; and on this i chiefly insist ; for if there were any such possibility of perpetual division therof physicaly and in nature , though i easily grant it might never be actualy future ( as many possibles shall never be actualy in any future time ) yet i can never admit that there can be any possibility of that which yet cannot possibly be actual , which they must affirm who hold the contrary position ; and so indeed they very freely acknowledg , that it is so alway potentialy or possibly , but can never actualy . but as futurity of that which never actualy shall be , is a plain contradiction ; so possibility of that which never actualy can be , is equaly contradictory : for as future , or shall be , and shall not be ; so possible , or can be , and can not be , are contradictory terms . and all possibility is the possibility of being actualy , and not of being possibly or possibility of possibility , which is childish and nugatory , and only a reduplication in terms of the same thing in itself . nor is it only contradictory in terms , but also in the thing itself : for we do not now discours of quantity successive , wherin there may be a perpetual possibility of succeeding futurity ; but of quantity consistent , wherof all the divisible parts , and indivisible points , do and must necessarily consist and coexist actualy together in the same present instant , and not in several future and successive instants . nor do we now discours mechanicaly , or of any such mechanical division of a body into less wholes , or of the possibility of such actual separation of the parts from the whole localy , but of the actual extension of part beyond part , according to the nature of corporeal quantity as it is in itself , and the mathematical division of the parts in the whole extensively : and so whatsoever , or howsoever many the parts of that extension given be , they are already and in the present instant actualy what and so many a● they are , and cannot be greater or more then they are . and i suppose no mathematician doth contemplate the local divisibility , which is possible , but only the extensive division of the parts , which is actual in the whole ; wherin only they are such mathematical parts ; wheras being localy divided from the whole they become less wholes in themselvs . and so such possibility is not at all to be regarded in this present discours , but only the actuality whatsoever it is ; and then the position thus rightly explained doth amount to this , that the extensive parts actualy in the whole are actualy innumerable ▪ not only to us , or by any our mathematical division or subdivision , which i have already granted ; but also physicaly , and in their own nature , which is impossible . for then the least extensive whole should be equal to the greatest ; because both have equaly innumerable parts in themselvs ; for innumerable can neither be more nor less then innumerable . nor will it be evaded by saying that the greater whole hath innumerable greater parts , and the less innumerable less parts ; for innumerable parts , though never so small will suffice to make any whole whatsoever , though never so great ; becaus innumerable is innumerable ; and doth not only afford whatsoever may be wanting , but can never be spent or exhausted . and becaus every least part hath some extension , and measure therof ; therefore the whole of such innumerable parts must also be immensurable which ( as archimedes hath demonstrated in his psammites ) is both rationaly impossible , and mathematicaly fals. but whatsoever notion mathematicians may have of such divisibility into less and less parts perpetualy , yet certeinly none can deny the gross whole of any corporeal extension given ( whatsoever the extent therof may be ) to be mensurable , and finite ; otherwise it could not be given , nor indeed actualy be , as i have formerly demonstrated . and i am very secure of that argument and of the clearnes and firmnes therof ; however men may determin concerning this other question , which i have also prosecuted for a farther discovery of truth . and i must heer observe that not only extension , but also time , and number , and whatsoever hath parts ; yea all qualitys , and whatsoever hath degrees ; and all that is in any kind susceptible of more and less , may as well be affirmed to be thus divisible into alway divisibles . and so wheras physicians make several degrees of the fower first qualitys , and musicians of musical notes , and the like , i can again divide and subdivide them indefinitely aswell as extension ; and demonstrate that there are the like imperceptible minims therin . and heer again we may stand and admire the divine wisedom and goodnes , which hath so plainly manifested unto us those wholes , and greater portions of wholes , that are of any use and concernment , and without which scales , dials , and all mathematical instruments , and all medicinal compositions , and gamu●hs , and the like ; and all symmetry , temperature , and harmony , had been unknown and unserviceable to mankind : and also accuse the vanity of our own human witt , which doth so ambitiously affect to know and curiously to pry into those very minute things , whose usefulnes is as little as their proportion ; and which god , to humble our mathematical pride , hath purposely conceled from us ; and yet because they are so indiscernible , therefore we more affect to discerne them . for mine own part , as i am satisfied in knowing that there is a circumference of the whole globe of the world , though i know not how large it may be ; so also in knowing that there are such physical points , though i know not their minute and most exile nature . yet i do also conceiv that as extension is terminated by po●nts , so the divisibility therof doth terminate in points , and that the●e are such physical points as well as physical instants , and p●ysical instants as well as physical units , though they be not equaly discernible by us ( and that points are points , and not only notes , or nothings , as some do affirm ) and there is no objection against the one , which may not also be armed and intended against the other , by such dividing and subdividing perpetualy , even beyond points , instants , and units themselvs , into halvs , quarters , and the like . and such indeed is the common objection , of how many points is the least corpuscle composed ? it may be as well demanded . of how many instants is the least minute of time composed ? which none can tell : though we can easily tell of how many units , two , which is the least number , is composed . and i demand of such curious objectors , of how many extensive parts or portions the least corpuscle is composed ? which themselvs affirm to be innumerable ; though i deny it of parts , and dare not affirm it of points ; because it is impossible : but only assert , that neither they can know of how many parts , nor i of how many points any corpuscle is composed . and this i suppose to be a sufficient answer to such a question ( for such it is rather then an objection ) but for farther satisfaction , i shall consyder a least corpuscle , which must be globular aswell as the great body of the whole world ; ( becaus all angles are protuberant and render the superficies unnecessarily greater ) and yet no mathematician ever did , or ever can , assigne the whole proportion in fact and consequently not all the particular portions of any globe or circle . also every corpuscle , though never so litle , yet is a body , having longitude , latitude , and profundity ; in all which the points must consist and coexist , and they also in the whole body , otherwise it should not be a body : wheras though we know that a body is composed of longitude , latitude , and profundity , yet we know not of how many long , late , or profund lines , it is composed ; becaus though they realy are , and are realy different in nature , yet they so corporealy consist and coexist that they can not be localy separated , but only in and with the corpuscles or body . and so though points realy are , and are realy different in nature , yet they also so corporealy consist and coexist , that they can not be localy separated , but only in and with the corpuscles or bodys : and so though mathematicaly we may consyder them in their several natures , yet we may not therefore consyder them in separate existences . whereas generaly all the objections are drawn from the supposition of points separate , or at least of points coexisting only in longitude , and the like , ( which are only imperfect principles of extension , as well as points . ) but i have shewed that entitys may realy differ , though they are not localy separate , or separable : and if they grant me points so coexisting , not only in longitude , but also in latitude and profundity , and the whole corporeity of a corpuscle or body ( as they must , becaus they do so realy coexist , and can not otherwise exist in nature ) i can by that one concession solv all their objections , which otherwise may seem as unanswerable , as points are incomprehensible ; being grounded upon the very incomprehensible nature therof . and if they will not grant me that which is physicaly and realy true in itself , but argue upon fals or feigned suppositions , i shall not much care to answer them ; otherwise then i should him who would argue upon a supposition of coexisting instants , past , present , and future ; by telling him plainly , that there is no such thing in nature : and yet there are physical instants existing severaly ; and so , though there is not any single point in nature existing severaly , yet there are points coexisting in a body . and i suppose that from this fundamental fallacy all the fallacity of their objections doth arise . but he who will rightly philosophise , or theologise , must be very careful that in the contemplation of such things as are incomprehensible , or infinite , though he may frame comprehensive or finite notions therof as scaffolds whereby to build , yet he may not build upon them ; but must again take them down , and reduce all such subsidiary notions or suppositions to the very nature of the thing it self , which is incomprehensible , or infinite . vii . thus though there be realy in nature points , lines , and superficies , yet the supposition of any such several existence therof , as we may mathematicaly feigne and frame to our selvs ( and as some have supposed the whole-body of the world to have been made by the casual concurrence of such atoms or points ) is only notional in our reason and mind , and not real or in the nature of extension itself , wherof the least minim is more then one single point , yea it conteins in it points innumerable to us . and as there is no such several point , so also no several line in nature : for the least hair of the least mite hath not onl● longitude , but also latitude ; becaus it hath several sides ; and one side therof is not the other , nor all one and the same with the longitude . and so there is no several superficies in nature , having both longitude and latitude without any profundity ; for the thinest plate of muscovy glass hath a double superficies above , and beneath , and also others in the very edges therof . wherefore not only points , but also longitude , latitude , and profundity do necessarily consist and coexist together ; and all these make a complete extension or consistence of any body . now every body , becaus it hath longitude latitude and profundity , must have some figure which is the particular shape or module of the extension therof , resulting from , and subsisting in that extension ( as a particular property therof ) immediately , and mediately in and by it in the substantial matter . yet figure realy differs from extension ; becaus there may be several figures of the same extension of the matter which ( as statuarys say of their materia , wood , stone , wax , and the like ) is capable of all figures , faces , or forms whatsoever . the first and most simple figure , and which indeed is most proper to the matter , is a globe . and therefore this is the universal figure , and all other particular figures , as i have said , are only the protuberances and enormitys therof , though never so symmetrical and conformable in themselvs . and the globular figure is such , becaus it is most intire and uniting , wherof all others are only some unnecessary excesses , or defects ; and therefore also it is most capacious ; as may plainly appear by varying the perimeter of any circle ( which hath nothing excrescential or excessive in itself ) from the circular regularity therof , into any angular figure whatsoever , for so if you inflect it into an isoperimetrical equilateral triangle , the area therof will be less then that of the circle , as six to almost ten : and if you i●flect i● into an isoperimetrical square ( as carpenters do in measuring t●m●er ) it will be as eleaven to almost fourteen ( which is their g●●t measure , and the true gain and advantage therof more then of such a a square . ) and so proportionably if you inflect it into any other equilateral polygon , though i doubt all will be found incommensurable as well as the former . but yet i observ a proportion or analogy between the circle and such a square made of the perimeter therof , or , as i may so call it , the isoperimetrical square therof , and the square excribed , which i have before termed the diametrical square therof ; that is , as the area of the isoperimetrical square of the circle is , as i have said , in proportion to the area of the circle as eleaven to almost fourteen , so the area of the circle is in proportion to the area of the diametrical square therof , as almost eleaven to fourteen . and though i conceiv that every regular figure is perfect in its own kind , and none other so perfect as it , in that respect , and therefore asymmetrous ; yet i also conceiv that the asymmetry or disproportion between a circle and a square is rather from the square , which is more imperfect comparatively , then from the circle , which is absolutely the most perfect figure in itself : and though we commonly , as carpenters , and other mechanical measurers , do rather measure by the square and cube , then by the circle and globe , yet god and nature work by them most perfectly and exactly ; and so have made the world to be of the most perfect figure , which is globular or circular in the whole superficies th●rof , not by molding , carving , or casting , or any such mechanical or violent formation therof , but by natural principles created in itself . for the whole body therof being one homogeneous and common matter doth naturaly incline and adhere to itself , having nothing corporeal besides itself to which it may otherwise incline or adhere , or which may hinder or divert it from uniting or flowing together into one most intire body in it self ; which , as i have said , must be globular , becaus a body can not possibly be in a less space or more united then in a globe . and this union doth best preserv and fortify its own internal entity in itself , and so against external nonentity . wherefore also all material spirits , which are heterogeneous substances , do thus unite and fortify their own specifical natures against ambient heterogeneous enemies , by casting themselvs , and thereby their bodys , which they consubstantiate and act , into particular globules as much as they can ; which may appear by bubbles in water , sparks of steel , shot of lead melted , mercurial globules , and many such instances . and if the universal body of the world be a globe ( as all men generaly suppose , and therefore call it orbis , or the globe ) then also probably it is a most perfect and exact globe ; and not like the terraqueous globe , which by the consistence of the earth and heterogeneity of earth and water is full of hills and vales , shores and seas : but as if the water did again cover all the earth , and there were no agitation therof ( as it was in the chaos , as i have shewed ) it would certeinly be a most smooth aequor , having a perfectly spherical superficies of its own body , becaus it is fluid ; so much more we ought to conceiv that the superaether , which is highest , and therefore most rare , and probably most fluid , is most perfectly spherical , and also becaus it must unite together , as i shall shew heerafter . and if there be such an exact circumference of the utmost body of the world , then there must also be as exact a center corresponding to that circumference , which must be a physical point ; for as the physical circumference must be in every part therof utmost , so the center must be answerably inmost , and therefore must be a single point , not extended , nor having any part beyond part , because any two cannot be inmost or midst ; for that must be something that is one , whatsoever it is : and i do not intend by this physical point any such least corpuscle , as is commonly supposed , for that also hath part beyond part , but a very point as it is in nature , not existing severaly , and according to mathematical consyderation therof , but coexisting in a body physicaly , as i have before declared : and such a point is also the copula of all consistent and coexistent extension , and doth terminate both the utmost superficies , and this inmost center . and as it doth thus terminate extension , so also motion of bodys ; so that naturaly they move not above the utmost circumference , or below the inmost center , as i shall shew heerafter . now a globe , as it is the figure of the least corpuscle , so it is potentialy conteined in every other figure , and as it is the figure of the great body of the world , doth contein in it actualy all other figures ; which like extension , from which they flow , are not only points , nor lines , which have many points , nor any superficies having many lines ( as a picture which hath only several symmetrical lineaments ) but the complete longitude , latitude , and profundity of bodys ; without which there can not be the figure of any body which must be long , late , and profund . viii . pores are only superficial concavitys in the figure of any body : wherefore there must be a body , otherwise there cannot be any co●cavitys therof ; and there must be some concavitys , otherwise there should be no pores . but whether there be any other body to fill these concavitys , or not ; yet the body itself which is porous is a body , as well as the body of the whole world is a body , having a superficial convexity of itself , though there be none other body without it . or if it be filled with another body , then that also which fills it is a body , and is not the same body , nor spiritualy homogeneous with it . wherefore there were no pores in the first created matter before the intermistion of heterogeneous elements ; for if the body filling were homogeneous with the body that is filled , then both should be continuous , and one intire body without any such concavitys , and consequently without any pores . as if an empty honycomb were all filled with bees wax , it should no longer be a comb , but an intire mass or cake of wax . also though pores be partial discontinuitys of the body porous , yet it must be partly continuous ; for if the honycomb be cut into little pieces , and they laid asunder , the spaces between them all are not properly pores of one body , but intervals betweeen several less bodys ; and so also the interstices of a sive , or silk , or the like , are no pores , becaus the parts or threads therof are only contiguous , and not continuous . and the porous body must be consistent , having such vascula in the concavitys therof as may contein the body that fills them , which must be fluid : as if an honycomb be filled with air it is porous , but if it were filled with tallow , or any thing equaly consistent , it should not properly be said to be porous , more then any inameld work , or the like : much less are fluid bodys said to be porous , though they have many consistent corpuscles in them ; as muddy water , and the like . and though the porous body be generaly more dens , becaus it must be consistent ; yet it sufficeth that it be consistent , though it be more rare ; as an honycomb filled with mercury . and this i suppose is that which is intended by porosity , and which i have more largely explained , becaus there is so much discours therof among philosophers , especialy such who when they can give no better account of nature , resort to pores as their latibula and subterfuges : wheras , as i have said , porosity is nothing but only particular superficial figure , or concavity of the body ; whether the pores be greater or less , vasa or vascula ; as cells of an honycomb , or the least holes in the wax ; and they do not in the least alter the nature of the porous body consydered in itself : as wax is not altered in its own nature by being molded into any shape or effigies whatsoever . and indeed unless we admit a vacuity ther● are no pores in matter consydered in itself ; becaus if they be filled with any other body , whatsoever that body is , yet being also matter there is an intire continuity of both , which are one homogeneous body of matter in itself . as the terraqueous globe is one intire globe , though it be partly earth and partly water , which are several bodys as they are earth and water , but only one body as they are matter : for all discontinuity , and consequently all porosity , is from heterogeneity ; which is not of the matter ( for that is one common substance ) but from the several spirits . and i suppose that all fluid bodys are also imporous , becaus their parts may flow together : and so some more consistent bodys may also be imporous ; as glass , gemms , marble , and the like . ix . i shall next consyder density and rarity : which , as i have said , do immediately flow from , and subsist in the substance of the matter , and not mediately in and by extension , like figure , or porosity : for the matter itself may be more dens , or more rare , though the extension be the same ; not only in extent , but also in the very figure , and porosity , as i shall shew herea●ter . but as all different extension is only more , or less , which are the degrees therof ; so is d●nsi●y also more , or less , becaus all matter hath some density , as well as extension : and more doth comparatively denominate a body dens , and less rare ; which yet are only degrees of the same positive density ; which plainly is an affection of the matter , and so density , rarity , gravity , and levity no qualitys of forms or spirits , as hath been supposed . wherefore as matter is only comparatively more or less dens , so all matter is in itself either more o● less dens within the same ex●ension ; otherwise there should be no such d●fference of the density or rarity therof : for porosity ( which some as i have said make to be a subterfuge and evasion heerof ) is altogether impertinent to density or rarity , bec●us the question is not concerning any complex density or rarity of several bodys joined together in one complex body ; that is , both the body porous , and the body filling the pores ; but of either of them singly and simply consydered in itself : and certeinly either of them hath m●tter , and all matter , as i have said , hath some density , otherwise it should not be matter ; and the only question is , whether there be any such matter which is comparatively more dens or more rare then any other matter simply in itself ? and wheras generaly porous bodys that are filled are more dens , and bodys which fill the pores more rare , as i have shewed , it plainly appears by porosity itself , whereby they seek to solv density and rarity , that they also are such in their several simple bodys so consydered in themselvs : otherwise becaus a brass or iron kettle set upright with the concavity therof above the water will swim in water ( the complex extension both of the vessel and of the air , which fills that one great pore of the cavity , being in the whole more rare , and consequently more light , then the same proportionable extension of water ) we might therefore affirm that the brass or iron in itself is not more dens , and consequently more heavy then the water , nor the air more rare , and consequently more l●ght then the brass or iron ; nor any of them more dens , or more rare , and consequently not more heavy , or more light , then another , simply considered in themselvs : which if they be , as certeinly they are , then there is also such density and rarity both of the matter of any porous body , and of that which fills the pores ▪ simply consydered in themselvs . and indeed if we should consyder density and rarity only complexively and not simply , there should be no density and rarity in the world ( which would take away the very subject of the question ) for the whole world being one complex body , though it consist of many particular bodys , more dens , and more rare simply in themselvs , yet is all equidens complexively ; becaus it is all one complex body . wherefore either there is no density or rarity in the world ; or if there be , the difference therof must be in the different simple bodys , and particular ma●ter itself . also to inquire farther into this porosity , which is assigned to be the formal caus of rarity ; we will again consyder the reason therof : which must be this , that a more porous body is therefore more rare becaus the pores are filled with more rare matter , unles we pleas to admitt a vacuity therin ( which is another subterfuge of this question ) but now we will consyder it as filled with some other matter ; which if it be equidens , will make the whole complex body equidens ; and therefore necessarily must be more rare , to make the porous body more rare : and then i demand , why is that matter more rare which so fills it ? and according to the same reason it must likewise be , becaus that matter is a body more porous and the pores therof filled with another matter more rare , then itself , and so infinitely ; which is both irrational , and impossible : for suppose the pores of any terreous body to be filled with water , and any pores of that with air , and any pores of that with aether , and any pores of that with superae●hereous matter ; yet we must at last stop somwhere , and confess , either that the last matter is more rare in itself , which will destroy the reason assigned , or otherwise , that the pores therof are not filled , but that the last porous body hath only interspersed vacuitys . and so indeed whosoever doth deny density and rarity of the matter in itself , if he be true to his own reason , must hold an absolute vacuum in nature ; wherof i shall discours heerafter , not esteeming this sufficient occasion , nor any present discours therof pertinent to the question ; which is , as i have said , concerning the density or rarity of the matter in itself , whether porous , or not porous , or whether the pores therof be filled , or not filled . now if there be such a different density and rarity of the matter itself , then there may be condensation and rarefaction of the matter itself . and becaus this is the greater question , and doth also contein the other , i shall solemnly argue it according to my maner . certeinly there is no such fixed standard of density in the matter itself , and in the nature therof , that it could not possibly be more or less dens , or that god could not have created the matter more or less dens , becaus there is no contradiction in it ; for it should be matter , whether more less dens ; and if god might as he pleased have created the whole matter more or less dens , then he could also create one part of the matter more dens , and another less dens : and so indeed he hath ; for he created both heaven and earth ; wherof the heaven and heavenly bodys are less dens , and more rare ; and the earth and earthly bodys more dens and less rare . and if he could create one body more dens , and another more rare , then he can also caus the dens body to become more rare , or the rare to become more dens : and so also he hath ; for he made the water which is more dens to ascend in vapors , which are more rare ; otherwise they could not so ascend into the air : and again the vapors which are more rare , to descend in mi●ts and rains , which are more dens , otherwise they could not so descend through the air. also i prove it by the products of density and rarity , which are gravity and levity , and their very motions of descent and ascent , according to the hydrostatical rule of archimedes , and all others since him , that more matter of less extension will sink through less matter of more extension if it be fluid . and this is the very formality of density that it is the affection of more matter being of less extension ; and of rarity , that it is of less matter being of more extension . and if there be density and rarity , then also condensation and rarefaction of bodys : as i have shewed ; and which may be confirmed by many sensible experiments , wherof i shall mention only two , one of condensation , and the other of rarefaction . the first is the impregnating of common water with salt. take a glass wine-bottle , and first put into it as much salt as the water may imbibe , and then fill it up with water , and stop it with a cork , so as no water may come forth ; and being so stop'd stir it up and down by moving the glass-bottle until the water be perfectly impregnated with the salt , and so made brine ; and when you let it rest again , you shall find that the brine , which now conteins both the water & the salt , will not fill the bottle as before , but subside in the neck almost to the belly : which doth plainly shew a consyderable condensation , or the same matter of less extension then it was before . the other shall be the common instance of gunpowder fired in a gun loaded with a bullet ; which will be violently discharged by the sudden and great rarefaction of so small a body of powder into so large a body of flame , or the same matter of more extension then it was before , which therefore requireth a larger place according to the inlarged extension therof , and explodeth the bullet , or breaketh the gun , to attein it ; though the flame be a very fluid and corporealy infirm body , and hath little or no consistence in itself ; and therefore also hath litle or no porosity in it self ; and if it were porous , would rather close the pores thereof , or return again into them by such a strong compression , then exclude such a solid body as the bullet , or break the gun. nor is it from any spiritual or active power of the fire , which sometimes doth not fire all the powder ; and a windgun by compression of air , without any fire , doth the like execution . much less is it from any imaginary aethereous matter penetrating the gun ; for unles we also fansy some imaginary valvs , that aethereous matter would be far more easily forced back again , then extrude the bullet , or sooner break the gun in the entry therof then in the retreat . also glass suddenly heated breaks by the sudden expansion ; and so cooled , by the contraction . by these , and many like experiments , it plainly appears that there is such condensation and rarefaction of matter itself , as i have before described ; which yet some obstinately deny , and either will not or cannot understand it through a preconceived error that matter and extension are one and the same thing ; which if it were true , i confess it impossible , that there should be any such condensation or rarefaction of the same matter in itself ; for then the extension also must be the same , and consequently there could be no such condensation or rarefaction , which are variations of the extension of the same matter : otherwise the extension therof should be the same and not the same , which is contradictory . wherefore such condensation and rarefaction do plainly prove it impossible that matter and extension should be one and the same thing . but , as i have before shewed , so heerby it most evidently appeareth , that matter is a substance , and extension an accident . and though no matter can be without some actual extension , yet that being an accident subsisting in the matter , there is a potentiality therof to be sometimes actualy more , and sometimes actualy less , the matter remain●ng the same . nor is there any penetration of several extensions , but only the extension is thereby varied , whether it be inlarged , or contracted . and so i do not affirm that there can be two extensions of one individual body when the same matter is contracted into itself by condens●tion , nor yet two several bodys having only one extension when it is inlarged in itself by rarefaction . nor yet do i conce●v ▪ that though there be such a potentiality of more or less extension in the same matter that it is boundless , or that therefore it can be always extended more or less , infinitely ( for more or less as i have said is finite , and can never be made infinite ) but as in all other things , so in this god hath set certein natural bounds and limits , unknown to us , which extension itself cannot transgress . and i shall heer farther observ , that these variations of extension are either condensation and rarefaction by natural generation , which do continue ; becaus they are so caused by the spirit superinducing them in the matter , and so continuing them ; as in the accension of gunpowder , and the like : or compression and dilatation by violent forcing of the requisite body of matter and spirit itself , which therefore do not continue longer then the force lasteth , that so conteineth the matter in that extension ; as in the windgun , and the like : and that which we call elasticity of the air , wherof i shall discours heerafter , is only a motion or nisus to restitution from such violent compression or dilatation : and such motion may be not only of the figure , as in bending a bow , or the like ; but of the extension itself , as in the former experiments . and so there may be a violent compression or dilatation of the extension of a body according to the particular nature therof , which yet may be a natural condensation or rarefaction according to universal nature , as when air doth expand itself ne detur vacuum , as i shall shew heerafter , and when it can expand itself no farther , it will also there stop and not break asunder , ne detur vacuum . x. gravity and levity are , as i have said , the products of density and rarity , in which they immediately subsist , and mediately in the matter ; as figure doth in extension , and by it in the matter . wherefore also , as rarity is only a less degree of density , so is levity of gravity ; and all matter whether more or less dens , yet becaus it hath necessarily some density , it hath also some gravity proportionable therunto . thus it is said , that there is the weight for the wind or air as well as the water , and not only air , but also aethereal and superaethereal matter hath weight in itself either actualy or potentialy ; for if more matter weigh more , becaus it is more matter , and less matter weigh less , becaus it is less matter , then all matter must weigh , becaus it is matter : and thus pondus is of the matter , and potentia of spirits , as i have said : and becaus more matter of less extension is more dens , therefore it is also more grave ; and becaus less matter of more extension is less dens , or rare , therefore it is also more light : which plainly appears by sinking or swimming , as i have shewed . and more grave sinketh downward rather then riseth upward through more light , becaus it is more dens , and light more rare : for all matter tendeth first to union with itself , and therefore it tends to the center of itself , which is the inmost point within itself . and this tendence we call downward , which is indeed rather inward . and as more matter of the same extension tendeth more swiftly to this center , and therefore also is alway most forward , becaus it is more dens , and consequently more strong in its kind , that is , more ponderous ; so for the same reason it tendeth most strongly , and therefore passeth through more light , which is more rare , and consequently more weak , unless it be also consistent , which is from a spiritual quality , as i shall shew heerafter . and globular bodys of matter though equidens and equiponderous , yet becaus , as i have said , that figure is most united in itself , do therefore move faster then angular , or any bodys equiponderous , but of more superficial figures , through the same medium . and now i shall discover the wonderful mystery of divine geometry in the proportionable locality of all particular bodys between the center and circumference of the universal body or globe of the world : for as the center or inmost point is the least , and the circumference or utmost superficies therof the largest ; so all the spheres between these two as they are neerer to the center , are less , and larger as they are neerer to the circumference . wherefore it is most proper , and geometricaly proportionable , that more matter of a less extension , which is more dens , should be in a less sphere , which doth best suffice to contein it ; and less matter of more extension , which is more rare , should be in a larger sphere which is more fitt to contein it . and thus the globe of earth and water , which is most dens , is seated in the inmost orb of the world , which is least ; and the air , which is more rare , in a sphere next above it , which is more large ; and the aether , which is yet more rare , in the next above that , which is still more large ; and the superaether , which is most rare , in the the uppermost , which is largest . and this most proper and connatural situation of the terraqueous globe , and of all the spheres doth rightly constitute both the circumfere●ce , and the center , of the whole world , and the most symmetrical chorus of all the bodys therof , as i shall shew heerafter . and certeinly as there is but one circumference of the whole body therof , so also but one center ; for those two do mutualy relate one to the other : as there can be but one circumference and one center in any one body . now that all this body is matter we all grant , and i suppose no materialist will , or can deny it . also it must be granted ( as i have shewed of density and rarity ) that gravity or pondus is the proper affection of the matter , and not of spirits , ( becaus it subsists in the density of the matter ) and that more dens and grave bodys naturaly do sink through more rare and light. and that sinking is to this universal center of all the matter , which is lowest , and inmost , as the circumference is highest , and utmost . wherefore if any particular body , which is and must be a part of this universal body of matter , be more dens , and consequently more grave , it must naturaly sink through any other bodys beneath it , which are more rare , and consequently more light , toward this universal center of the whole body of matter , which is the center of the whole body of the world , and consequently of all particular bodys , which are only parts therof ; and no parts of any such particular bodys , which are also matter as well as their whole bodys , can sink inwardly to any center of gravity in themselvs , as to any such particular center : for then they should ascend in departing from the universal center of extension which is exactly centrum gravium , to which all tend . and though more dens and heavy bodys may sometimes ascend to prevent vacuity , yet that is not as to any such particular center , but only to fill the universal globe when more rare cannot succeed , as i shall shew heerafter : or if they be supported by any consistent body , though more rare , that is only a fulciment , and tanquam a natural center unto them . wherefore as all pondus is of the matter , and matter only one homogeneous body in itself , so there can be but one center of the pondus therof ; though as potentiae are of the spirits , and they are several and heterogeneous , so there may be several spiritual centers therof , ( which are all of another nature , and very farr different from this one universal center of matter ) and though they be radicaly most dens and strong in those several centers , yet their motion tendeth outward , every way , from the center to the circumference of their particular sphere of activity , and not as the matter inward , or only downward , from the circumference to the center of rest : becaus spirits are active and energetical , but matter passive and torpid , as i have shewed . and now i shall proceed to prove this center of the universal body of the matter of the whole world , which as i have said , is also both the center of the extension & of the gravity therof , to which all tend , or the universal center , to be in the earth , which will also comprehend that other question concerning the center of the whole world. certeinly this is the constant language of scripture ; and so it is said , that the waters which covered the earth were beneath , and the vapors in the air , above : and the royal philosopher saith expresly , the heaven for high● , and the earth for depth : and i suppose none can shew any one expression in the whole bible , which may seem in the least to color or favor the contrary opinion . and the reason therof is as apparent ( which i have before sufficiently declared ) that earth being most dens , and conseque●tly most grave , and gravity being one and the same affection of all matter , and having but one principal motion , which is direct , must therefore tend to one and the same term , which cannot be outward , or upward ; for then grave bodys should ascend ; but must necessarily be inward , or downward , which therefore must be to one inmost point or center of that gravity . and i shall confirm this motion of descent by clearing a common mistake concerning the ascent of rare or light bodys : for as all dens and heavy bodys do descend , so also do rare proportionably ; becaus they are only less heavy , as i have said . as if a pound weight be put into one scale , and two pounds into the other , which will caus its one scale to descend , and thereby the other to ascend ; yet apparently the pound weight is also heavy , becaus it weighs one pound , though the two pounds be more heavy , and so caus that scale proportionably to descend , and the other to ascend . thus the motion of ascent of rare bodys is indeed rather a being moved , and their ascent only a violent elevation by more dens and heavy bodys , which crowding more strongly or swiftly to or toward the center do elevate and extrude the more rare and light from it . also earth only is consistent , and cannot be prevented in the descent therof by any other bodys which might be fulciments unto it , as it may be to others ; and all this doth sensibly appear by any terreous body descending through water , and through air , and so it would also through aether , if it were in it , not particularly as to its proper element , by any potentia of the elementary spirit therof , but generaly as to the universal center of all matter , by the greater density and pondus therof . for so if a hole were made in the earth from the surface therof to the center , water would descend thereby to it , as well as earth , & if there were neither earth , nor water therin , air would descend likewise ; and so if their were neither earth , water , nor air , ae●her or superaether would descend likewise : though some pleas to phansy otherwise , and would make all the planetary orbs so many worlds of themselvs having their own proper centers , not respecting this universal center of the whole world to which all tend , but only consyder it as the universal center of extension ( wheras , as i have said , the gravity or pondus of the matter is an universal affection of the matter subsisting in it , as well as extension ) which absurdity they have excogitated only to defend some others , which i shall also disprove heerafter . and though i might , if i pleas , believ a traveller who hath been in africa concerning any monster ; therin , yet certeinly i should not much believ him who had never been there himself . neither can i more believ any such assertors concerning aether ( which being so remote is commonly made ampliss●●us fingendi campus ) but shall proceed in the known and beaten road of scripture , reason , and sens , so far as they extend , and as we can know , or judg thereby ; and leaving these fansys of vain men to themselvs shall heer inquire into a more solid and true secret of nature , and such as deservs a more curious search : which is this , that as god hath placed all the spheres in their most proper and connatural situations by such directive principles in themselvs and symmetry of nature , so in that natural position the whole vast and indefinite body of the world , and all the inconceivable weight of the whole matter therof doth support itself thereby , withal facility and suavity , without any suspending funicles above , or under-propping columns beneath , and so without any force or pressure whatsoever . for though when any particular body or part of the universal body therof is dislocated and removed from its proper station and natural situation therin ( which is when any more dens bodys are above others more rare ) they then move or press toward their proper place by their own gravity and motion of descent , being thereby actuated to reduce them therunto ( as the magnetical virtue doth move the body therof being displaced towards the poles of the earth ) yet when they have atteined it , their motion , which was actuated before for that end , being now useles and needles is again reduced to potentiality , and they then neither move nor press actualy any more , or any farther , nor have any actual nisus therunto ; but having obteined their end are thenceforth in peace and rest ; and their very gravity is also suspended , and reduced to potentiality , as the magnetical needle doth rest in the north point : which plainly shews what i said before , that though gravity flow immediately from density , and subsist in it , and motion of descent in the gravity , yet they are realy different ; becaus though the body continue to be the same , and hath the same density actualy both when it is out , and when it is in its proper place , yet when it is our , it hath actual gravity and gravitation , and when it is in it , only potential . and thus neither the superaether doth press upon the aether , nor that upon the air , nor that upon the water , nor that upon the earth , nor the earth upon itself ; becaus they are already in their proper places ; and therefore tend no farther : for the more dens bodys are natural fulciments and so farr centers to the more rare . and so the proper place of any body is when being more rare it is above more dens , or being more dens beneath more rare , as i have said ; or also being among equidens , whether above , or beneath any other parts therof , yet it is in its proper place ; becaus it hath such a natural fulciment or center sufficient for it , and there are none more rare beneath it , through which it may or ought to move according to this statike law of nature ; but the other equidens parts whether above , or beneath it , are also in their proper sphere , which is the proper place of them all , and they can not otherwise be all in one and the same point . again i shall observ , that these spheres being all rotund , that spherical ro●undity must be filled , and so the sphere completed to render it the proper place of those bodys wherof it is the sphere , otherwise the bodys will flow or fall every way to fill the sphere , or any chasm therin ; becaus the lower parts of that chasm will be beneath , or neerer to the center of the world then the others ; wherefore being equidens , they will all contend for one equality or spherical community of situation , which must equaly relate to the center , and circumference of the world. also heerby it appears that these spherical greater bodys do not move to the center , nor respect it in regular cylinders , as less particular bodys , plummets , or bullets falling through the air , which seem to us to descend in a most directly perpendicular line , and serv for measures therof well enough , becaus any such requisite pyramidal confirmity therof to the center is not discernible by reason of their smalnes , ( as smooth water in a pond seems to us exactly plane , and that planities therof servs well enough to make a water level ) wheras any quadrant , or semiquadrant , or the like of those proportionable greater bodys respect the center as pyramids inverted with their cones downward , and bases upward , which is their exact conformity therunto , and the way of their gravitation and motion of descent ; as we may easily understand , if we duly consyder the relation of any circumference to the center . and therefore such quadrants , and semiquadrants , do not superpend , nor consequently superincumb , in such their pyramidal bases beyond their cones . yet i do not conceiv of such proper places and spheres that they are magical circles , or any such phantastical houses as astronomers fansy to be in heaven , but only , as i have said , proper localitys of the whole body of matter and extension of such several spherical bodys according to the more or less density and gravity therof . much less do i conceiv that the center hath any such magical virtue or attractive power , nor that it is any cavity , or the like , but only a term which is the midst , and inmost point , and consequently the lowest of the whole body of the matter of the world immovable and inalterable , and relating to the circumference therof , that is the utmost superficies of the superaether , which is ingenerable , incorruptible , and invariable , being the universal bound and limit of nature , and of all bodys , and of the whole matter and extension therof . having thus premised , i shall now examin the pressure of the atmosphere , which is so confidently asserted by some , though evidently there be no such thing , nor can there be any rational supposition therof , without a supposed dislocation of the body of the world , and offering violence to nature , as i shall now prove . god created the heaven and the earth , and nothing beyond or without them ; wherefore certeinly they press upon nothing , or do not press outwardly becaus there is no outward thing to support them , or on which rhey might press ; but only they tend to union inwardly . and as the several spherical bodys of the elements do not press upon the superaether , nor one upon another outwardly , so neither inwardly , as iob saith , he hangeth the earth upon nothing , that is , it doth not hang or press at all either outwardly , wherof he spake before , he stretcheth out the north which is the most terreous part of the globe over the empty place , that is , the air ( as a vessel is said to be comparatively empty when it is filled only with air ) no● yet inwardly , for it hangs upon nothing besides itself on which it might so press , and it doth not press upon itself , the whole body and all the parts therof being in their proper place , as i have said . and heer again , i must clear one vulgar and common error , which may be the caus of the contrary apprehension , that is , that the earth , and consequently the whole globe of the world doth press upon the center every way , as upon a foundation , that bears it up ; or as two bodys of equal spiritual strength or potentia pressing one against another with all their power , by such mutual encounter and resistance do forcible fix and setle each other immovably in some midle point between them : wheras though there be such particular combats between contrary qualitys , and the like opponents in nature , and so there are also particular dislocations of members in the body therof , yet generaly the whole structure of the body of the world ( and so of the atmosphere ) is so composed that there is no such pressure , which properly is not nature but violence , and the descent of heavy bodys every way to the center is only as to a point , or term , which they do not desire to pass , and therefore do not press beyond it ; and becaus violence doth not long continue , there is therefore an innate principle of motion in bodys to reduce them to their proper place , whereby they may obtein that rest which nature intendeth , and abhorreth all such pressure , pain , or burden . and heerin the pondus of matter and potentiae of spirits do manifestly differ ; for wheras generaly the powers of spirits act to the utmost , incessantly , and without any rest , becaus they are qualitys of active principles ( and so the heavenly bodys move indesinently ) the weight of matter which is a passive principle affecteth rest , and only tendeth unto it , and when and where it obteineth it , then and there it resteth , and the actual weight and motion therof is thereby again reduced to potentiality , as i have said . and i can not conceiv any reason nor frame any notion in mine own mind why , or how the body of the world should press rather or more inwardly then it doth outwardly , which is not at all . and if we could suppose any such pressure , it must be either every way ; which would accordingly press and squeez or only downward , and then every one of the terricolae should be pressed downward with a proportionable pyramid of the whole body of the world so inverted as i have shewed , and according to mathematical rule inlarging itself from his head or back or hand on which it doth so superpend as the cone , to the utmost circumference of the superaether as the basis : for it is all matter , and there is no consistent body intervening to prevent that pressure , and so if one part of that pyramid press , all must press : and if we compute the inestimable burden therof , it will be found insupportable , and at the atmosphere also to be so comprest in itself , as would render it no atmosphere , or fit place of breathing . but let us descend farther and consyder the midle point of the earth and center of the whole world ; certeinly no poet can imagin such an atlas , or hercules , as might so bear the whole burden of the whole body of the world being farr greater then of the heavens only , which they feigned them to bear up ( though indeed the imaginary pressure therof be the greater fiction . ) and i appeal to the common experience of all men , who with their own hands can feel no such pressure of the atmosphere ; ( wheras it should press the area of the hand proportionably as much as inches of mercury ) and of every diver , who can testifie the nonpressure of the deepest water lying upon him : and whosoever will not accept these for experiments , but seek to evade them i know not how , he doth plainly thereby invalidate the testimony of all experiment , and render it as sceptical as some would make both reason and faith , since none can be more sensible and notorious then this which is by feeling , the fundamental and least fallible sens : but i shall plainly clear by a whole galaxy of experiments , which i shall therefore collect into this one s●atike rule , that in any body internaly consistent in itself , or made externaly to consist together , the more rare parts therof , being duly placed above the more dens , do not actualy weigh or press the more dens parts below them , nor the equidens parts one another perpendicularly . whereby it shall plainly appear how a particular body so disposed is a module of the universal body of the world in this particular respect . thus in the highest column of timber , or stone , or coloss of brass , or pyramid of brick , perpendicularly erected , ( as they ought to be ) no one part therof doth press another , supposing them all to be equidens , ( or only so farr proportionably as they are not so equidens ) for otherwise all must press the very lowest and thinest physical area therof , and then let all the incumbent weight be computed and compared with that area , and the strength therof , and i suppose the impossibility of such a vast weight and pressure , to be born by by such a slender fulciment will easily be granted ; when we see a whole brick to be broken and battered only by a cart-wheel going over it . again let us consyder other bodys sometimes actualy fluid , and sometimes consistent ; as a firkin , or any larger cask of butter , tallow , or the like ; if it be uncased , and the upper and lateral parts of the cask taken off from the mass of butter , or tallow ; yet it shall stand as firm as it did before , though there is at least an half hundred weight incumbent upon the area therof . wheras if you lay an equal plate of lead or any more dens body , of the same weight upon a thicker area of the butter , or tallow , it will not be able to bear it , but be squeezed outward ; becaus the equidensity and equiconsistency of all the parts of its own body make them all to be at rest , but the greater density of the lead doth press them ; and so if the cylinder of butter or tallow were much higher , yet the upper parts would not press the neather until the weight therof did overcome the consistence , as the lead doth by its unequal density . and if the butter and tallow were melted and fluid in the cask , and then should be uncased , as before , they would press and flow every way ; but yet while they are conteined externaly within the cask , no part therof doth weigh or press another . so in a cistern of water , while it hath no vent , no one part of the water doth weigh or press another , nor would oil , or the like , upon the water , press it . but though the parts in these and the like cases do not weigh , or press one another , yet the whole body whether internaly or externaly consistent doth weigh and press the next body beneath it , not continuous and consistent with it , or not equidens . and so a man bearing the firkin or cask doth feel the whole weight therof , becaus the parts weigh according to the whole ; and so the whole doth press another body , though the parts of the same body in such cases do not press one another . as a pale of water upon a mans head doth weigh and press according to the whole , thougha fish in the bottom of the pale under the water doth not feel any weight or pressure therof ; becaus the fish is as a part therof , and within the pale , which is the external term of the consistence therof ; and the body of the fish equidens , or therabout , with the body of the water . but if a body naturaly consistent be not erected perpendicularly , as if a column of timber be held obliquely , then the upper parts therof do weigh and press obliquely , according to the obliquity therof ; and so if any of the upper parts do superpend , they also do superincumb-proportionably . as if a pyramid inverted ( and be greater then the pyramidal proportion which i before mentioned ) or a piece of timber laid transversly over the top of another . which i conceiv also to be the true reason of the proportionable overweight and advantage by distances from the center . but if a fluid body broader above then beneath , be in a vessel of that figure , yet the upper parts being equidens do not press the lower , becaus they all rest together upon the consistent vessel , and only press upon it . again , if the stopcock of a cistern , or gutt of a water-mill , be opened , whereby the water hath a vent , then the parts above that vent , being not supported by the consistence , and in motion do press one upon another proportionably , and issue forth with a force proportionable therunto . and any parts which move do accordingly press , though there may be a pressure without actual motion by an actual nisus or endeavour therof , as a burden upon a mans shoulders doth press upon them , though it doth not move or sink farther into them , and so a weight hanging and not moving downward doth press as well as when it doth move . xi . this is , as i conceiv , the state of the matter , which was created one universal body in the begining , extended in itself through its whole body , and having all its parts beyond parts , and so continuing universaly in the successive duration therof , that as the whole cannot be extended more or less , so no part therof can be divelled and separated from all the others , and thereby be made another several body , or less world in itself ; nor is any part therof annihilated , whereby it should be diminished , nor any new part created , whereby it should be augmented ; but as it remains the same universaly in the whole substance , so also in the universal affections therof , though they were first generaly , and still may be particularly varied , according to the several degrees therof which were potentialy in itself . and yet the whole body therof still is and must be the same , having the same orbicular figure , and the same total density and gravity ; becaus the whole matter therof is the same , neither more , nor less , then it was , being all bounded with the same circumference and center ; and so as one elementary part is made more dens , or grave , another is made more rare , or light. and all are bounded with the superaether , which is superelementary , and immutable . and as this universal state therof can not be varied so it hath universal rest in itself , which is indeed this universal status therof , and can not be varied by any such universal motus which might move the whole world. also there is a general status or rest , which is the station or position of the great and general bodys therof , as they were first created in the begining , and afterward ordered in six days ; that is , of the superaether , aether , air , water , and earth , which can not be varied generaly ; though particular elementary bodys are , or may be particularly varied , by generation or corruption : whereby the extension , figure , density , or gravity therof , are so altered . and yet in these particular variations therof the matter doth alway observ the universal and general law of itself , and of the locality of its own body , and of all the parts therof , by conteining all within the same circumference and center ; and if any elementary part become more , or less , dens in itself , by altering the particular station therof where it was before , and removing it to the general station , and so if it be violently remov'd out of it , restoring it by a natural motion or nisus of restitution and return therunto . thus there is a double state or rest of matter , that is , either universaly of union , or generaly of fit station and position therin ; and as the union is of extension , so both the rest and motion to union do , as i suppose , subsist in extension : and as the rest and motion to station is to the center of gravity , so they both subsist in density ; which is also analogous : for as matter tends to union with itself and hath thereby some density in itself ; so dens , or more matter of less extension tends to more close union or more inwardly within itself . and this union is the foundation of the universal rest or aquiescence therof in itself , which it first and most naturaly affecteth ; and of the other of station which is next unto it , as being convenient and conformable to the other . and both these rests when they are disturbed are recovered by that other subservient principle in itself , which is the natural motion therof . and this motion is not actively contrary to rest , as heat to cold ; and the like contrary active quality ; for rest is not active , but rather privative or a not moving in respect to motion , and only a positive acquiescence of the matter itself , subsisting in it ; as also motion doth move unto rest as another assistant or auxiliary affection therof , and subordinate unto rest : ( as verticity is not contrary , but subordinate to polarity , serving only to reduce magnetike bodys to that fixed position , which is the polar rest therof . ) which rest bodys do most naturaly affect , but being dislocated or disturbed , cannot attein it without motion . and therefore rest and motion seem to some to be contrary , becaus though motion be to rest , yet it is in itself motion , and not rest , and indeed it is analogous to that which moraly is termed invita voluntas . as when a man goeth a journey , not willingly in respect of the journey , and yet willingly in respect to rest at home : but as this rest of matter is acquiescence in the natural union and station therof , so disunion or dislocation are more contrary therunto , which yet are not contrary to the rest itself , and are rather privations of the union and station wherin rest doth acquiesce . nor are any different local motions , upward , and downward , and the like , properly contrary ; but only localy advers , or opposite ; for they may be both from the same principle of motion to prevent vacuity , and tend to the same union of the matter ; though they may vary the station therof ; becaus the station , which is of convenience , is also subordinate to the union , which is of necessity . but to affirm that bodys of matter are in themselvs indifferent to motion or rest , and so being once put into motion would move alway if there were no obex or impediment , is most contrary to the very nature of matter , which would never move itself if it were not first removed by others ; and of motion itself , which is only to reduce it to rest ; and to all sens : for we feel our own bodys ( and so do all other bodys ) as they are bodys to affect rest , and return unto it assoon as they may : though while they are moved by the active spirits they can not rest in themselvs ; but distinctly consydered in themselvs as bodys , they are only passive ; and so indeed naturaly apt to be moved by the spirits , but not to move themselvs ; and torpid , having no activity in themselvs , whereby to resist the spirits or potentiae therof , but only a dull pondus or heavines . and that natural affection of union or station which is in themselvs is not any such power or strength as the consistence of the earth , wherof i shall discours heerafter , but only a stupid acquiescence in itself . and that very motion , whereby they preserv their union , or recover their station , is only an infirmity , that is an inclination unto , and recumbence of one body upon another , for a mutual support ; or a succumbence or sinking and falling downward , for want of such support : which are all symptoms of weaknes , and not of any strength . and all the motion of matter is only local and not active or operative in itself , like the motions of spirits , but as an instrument of their spiritual qualitys , as i have said . nor is local motion strictly consydered as such in itself either the action of the mover , or passion of the moved , nor both the action and passion of any automatous mover and moved ; but the very moving , or transition from one place to another . and thus , eo , curro , fugio , volo , and the like words of local motion , are all of a neutral signification , neither active , nor passive . and though therupon doth ensue a variation of the distance of the body moving from or toward all other bodys in the world , yet it s own motion consydered in itself is only a variation of its own locality ; and that body itself only so moveth , and none other body is thereby moved besides itself , ( unles it be also impelled or attracted by it otherwise ) but resteth in its own former locality which it had in the great body of the world. otherwise when any one particular body moveth , all other particular bodys in the whole world , and all parts of bodys which are thereby distanced more or less from it , or toward it , or this way , or that way , according to the motion of that one body moved , should likewise be moved thereby . and so if matter and motion were the natural principles of generation and corruption , as some affirm , then by such motion of any particular body ( which is a part of the matter ) and of all the parts and particles therin , and consequently the generation and corruption therof by such motion , all other particular bodys , and all the parts and particles therof , should be conformably moved , and consequently so generated and corrupted ; which doth confound their own principles . oportet esse memorem . but i do acknowledg that as the body is the subject matter , so also that the local motion of the parts and particles therof is very instrumental in generation and corruption by spirits , which are the movers , operators , and architects therof , whereby they make fitt seat and officines for themselves ; wheras otherwise the body or matter hath in itself only that principle of local motion , which is to union and station , as i have shewed : and though spirits may vary the station , yet they can never vary the union of bodys , becaus they are also within the same vbi of the circumference of the universal body of the world , and the whole extension therof , which therefore they may not break ; or transgress ; and they inhabit in several stations therof , according to the nature of those bodys which they require ; or if they require no body , as angels , they may indeed pass through the whole globe , but can not go beyond it , as i have shewed . but rest and motion to this union and station are , as i have said , affections of the matter subsisting in it mediately , but immediately in the other proper affections therof ; that is , rest is the acquiescence of matter in that union and station , and motion the tendence of it therunto . now from this union or unition is the adhesion of matter which is more naturaly and necessarily effected thereby , then by or with any adamantine chains or ligaments whatsoever : for so nature alway worketh her own works by her own natural and internal principles , and needeth no such artificial or mechanical hooks and clasps , and i know not what intangling , rather then uniting figures , which some have vainly excogitated . wheras the very homogeneity of the matter inclineth it of itself to union with itself ; and discontinuity is only from heterogeneous spirits , as i have shewed , which make several heterogeneous composita , that are therefore spiritualy continuous only in themselvs , and contiguous one with another ; and yet even in them all , the matter is still continuous to and with itself , as it was before , and so continues to be one universal body of the whole world. nor is this motion to union so powerful in spirits as it is in matter , becaus it is not so necessary in them : yet any homogeneous composita are not so easily discontinued or severed , as heterogeneous ; and therefore have also their motions of restitution ; and some , as magnets , do not only incline , but notably attein this unition of their spiritual homogeneity , wherof i shall discours heerafter : and now will proceed farther to inquire into the degrees of the motion of matter , and of the velocity therof . i have said before , that more matter of less extension or any dens body moves more swiftly ; which is one internal cause of the velocity therof : and so also the more or longer it moves , it moves more swiftly ; which is another internal cause therof : and it is not only from the external motion of restitution in the air , above , or behind the bullet , or other body falling through it , which did impell and violently dimove it , and so when the bullet is past through that part of the air , which was so impelled and dimoved , it returns smartly again by that motion of restitution behind , and upon the bullet , which may give the bullet some small impuls , and so caus it to move somewhat faster ; and then the bullet moving faster , impells and dimoves the next part of the air more forcibly , which accordingly increaseth the motion of the restitution therof , and so causeth the increments of the velocity of the motion of the bullet . and the bullet in descending also impells and summoves that part of the air which is beneath , and before it , and that part the next ; and so prepares a way , or vortex , for itself , whereby it may more easily , and consequently more swiftly , descend . but , though it be true , that either addition of force , or subtraction of impediment , may accelerate motion , and heer perhaps both together do concurr , and may somewhat conduce therunto ; yet i am not so curious as others , to apprehend , either , or both of these , to be sufficient and the only causes of so consyderable an effect , as the notable increas of velocity of motion in such descending body● ; but rather ascribe it to the internal and proper nature of the motion itself ; which being capable of such degrees in itself ( as well as density in which it doth subsist ) and while the body was in rest was only in potentiality , and no actual motion , till it began to move ; and as it then begins to actuate itself , so the longer it continues , it doth still actuate itself more and more by degrees in the natural motion therof to the center . and there is no such increment of velocity in the weigh● of a clock moving sensim : nor is there any attractive virtue in the center itself , as i have said , becaus that is only a point wherin such virtue can not subsist , and only a term of locality downward which god hath immovably fixed and ordeined so to be , as the circumference is upward , and it doth no more attract downward then the other doth upward . and any equal weight in the same medium , whether it be placed in a higher , or a lower part therof , weighs and moves equaly , first ; and according to the continuance of the motion , so are the degrees of velocity . nor is it from the magnetike virtue of the earth , for such motions are proportionably equal , as i suppose throughout , and not per gradu● , but per saltum , as i shall shew heerafter : and i know no difference heerin , between a b●llet of lead , and a bullet of steel , or magnet , so descending . and the common observation that natural motions are swifter , and v●olent slower toward their end , is not generaly true of all , but only of the matter : for the planetary motions are natural , but equal . which instance may well prove what i said formerly , that spiritual motions are for motion and action ; but motion of the matter is only to rest ; and therefore slow when the body is first removed from its rest , any remotion from which it disaffecteth , and swifter as it draweth neerer to the next place of rest , which it affecteth . also this plainly sheweth that motion of desc●nt is realy different from all the former affections of the matter , becaus it so varieth itself , though they continue the same . now it is also observable that according to the increas of the swiftness of the motion , so is also the strength of percussion : for swiftnes is a conspissation , or as i may so say condensation of the motion , and all conde●sation being an union doth fortifie . again , as motion is an advantage of percussion , so it is also of penetration ; becaus penetration is by percussion ; and a swifter and stronger percussion maketh a swifter and stronger penetration : which is observable in bows , balists , catapults , and the like ; wherin the quick and smart delivery maketh the great percussion and penetration ; and time is very consyderable heerin ; for if the percussion be so strong and swift , that the body percussed hath not requisite time to resist , it pierceth through it , as if i● were only a medium ; as a bullet shot directly through a bord , or glass , maketh only a round hole in it ; wheras the same strength , not so swift , would make it first bend and cleav , or break , which shew a partial resistance . and so if the percussion be more swift then strong , whereby it hath not requisite time to penetrate , it will be more resisted ; as a bullet shot obliquely will reflect from water , or as they say graze ; as also oister-shells ( wherwith boys use to make ducks and drakes as they call them ) wheras in more time they would sink into the water . also all motions of percussion or penetration are violent as to the body percussed or penetrated , though the other may move naturaly , as a bullet falling through air , or water , naturaly downward , doth violently percuss and penetrate the air or water , which is thereby dislocated , and violently elevated , as i have said : and it seems to me that even that motion of the bullet is also as it were violent in respect of the place of rest from which the bullet first moveth , which maketh it to be so slow at first ; and only n●tural in respect to the next place of rest to which it moveth , which maketh it so swift at last , as i have said : but the bullet shot is first put into motion by the external impression , and that motion being wholy violent is swiftest at first , and slowest at last . and yet the motion continueth proportionably according to the impression , though that last no longer then the very contact , and is discontinued with it . nor can i conceiv that that there is any continuation therof , or magical line of motion , between such a mover and moved , as some have fansied : for the impression , being an accident , must necessarily subsist in its own substance , and can not migrate into another , nor is the potentia which maketh the impression emanant , but inherent . certeinly this is a mystery in nature , and i know no instance which doth more seemingly prove a migration of accidents , and i suppose the disproving heerof will very much confirm the contrary truth . now , as i have said before , the matter having naturaly in itself motion is putt into it , and the motion actuated by any violent impression ; as well as by natural tendence to union or station : and that which is most wonderful heerin is , that the external impression doth not only actuate the motion at first , but divert the natural tendence therof downward , and direct it another way . but as i have said , there is in matter not only a motion to station which is downward ; but also to union , which is generaly directed by the other downward , but may be any way ; as sometimes it is upward : and this motion which is most natural and principal , is also the universal motion of matter ; and being diverted , and directed violently , by the external impression , doth carry the body that way , yet so as it doth only divert , and not destroy it , or the other notion of descent , which more particylarly is to station , and that is particularly also natural , whereby the body hath still a nisus and inclination that way . and the diversion of the motion being violent is , as i have also said , strongest at first , and the natural weakest ; and so the violent diversion doth overcome the natural motion of descent , and proportionably divert it , as in flying or swimming ; and while it doth totaly prevail against the motion of descent , carrieth the body in a direct line and level any other way , though with some decrement of the force : so that a bullet shot out of a gun doth not move with an equal force so long as it flys levell , as may appear by the unequal execution that it doth at a neerer or farther distance within that levell , and so doth decreas by proportionable degrees : or if it be short perpendicularly upward it will decreas in swiftnes and strength till it return again downward , which is the very difference between such violent and natural motions heerin . and as rest and motion are seemingly contrary , and yet motion is indeed subordinate , and subservient to rest , so is the natural motion to this violent diversion so long as it is predominant over it . all which i shall manifestly approve by the common experiment of a ball rebounding from a paviment of stone . certeinly the ball first falls perpendicularly upon the paviment by its own natural motion of descent , which being greater then is sufficient to carry it to its next place of rest , and being stop'd by the stone , is reflected upward , and that is a motion diametricaly opposite to the former , and is by reason of that diversion and direction , which it receiveth from the paviment externaly , and yet not by any continued impression therof , but only from its own natural motion actuated in itself , and so diverted and directed thereby . for the paviment of stone , being consistent and quiescent , can add nothing to it , nor make any such impression upon the ball ; as an hand may by throwing or beating it back ; or a racket by the springines of the strings , first yielding , and then repercussing it ; nor is there any such springines in the ball which falleth upon the paviment , and there is the same motion of a marble , or the like most consistent , and not springy or yielding globules . but both the direct and reflex motion are from the ball or marble themselvs , and the motion therof , as the emanation of rays , which are naturaly reflexive , aswell as emanant . and as the bullet , ●o also the ball , or marble , by their own natural motion so d●verted , do by degrees prevail against that violent diversion , and at last attein their natural rest. and i suppose , that if an hole were made through the body and center of the earth , and a bullet drop'd in it , the bullet would pass beyond the center forward and backward , like a pendulum , or needle by its own motion actuated in itself , and so by degrees return to it . now if the ball or marble fall by a diagonial declivity , as from a penthous , roof , or hill , or the like ; then , becaus it half resteth , and half moveth , that motion acquireth only half the increments , or degrees of velocity , and may describe a quadrant of a proportionable cycloid in the descent afterward upon the paviment ; and as i suppose a granado shot from a mortarpiece diagonialy doth from the angle of inclination , or zenith , describe such a quadrant between the perpendicular and arch of the circle : which i leav to the curious more exactly to determin . and there is the like reason of the semicircular vibrations of the pendulum : wherof the center of extension is the point where the line hangs , and whereby the pendulum is produced to the extremity of the semidiametrical plane , where the arch therof begineth downward , and then is let go , but cannot descend perpendicularly downward , becaus the line which is suspended at the center doth stop it , and so divert and direct its own motion of descent accordingly to describe almost a semicircle half about that center , which it plainly doth , without any external impression or reflexion from any other body , but only by its own natural motion so diverted and directed ; and by proportionable decrements , as is aforesaid ; ( as the needle of the compass doth also so move horizontaly by a greater motion of verticity then is sufficient to reduce it to the pole ) and so at last the natural motion prevailing against the violent diversion , it resteth perpendicularly upon the nadir of the arch which it describeth , and is correspondent to the center of the perpendicular line . and probably such decrements of violently diverted motions are proportionable to the increments of natural motion ▪ and perhaps motions of restitution , which are spiritual and from the potentia of spirits , are heerin analogous to the natural motion of matter : and so a spring of steel beat one way seems to make one vibration almost as much the other way ; and the many v●brations in the torricellian experiment are from such causes . it may be also inquired , whether there are such increments of the natural motion to union upward aswell as to station downward , as whether a bullet which is suck'd up by a mans breath through a longer musket barrel doth ascend more swiftly and more strongly , then if it were shorter ; or per saltum , like the motion of magnets ? for it is by the sucking and expanding of the included air thereby , which when it is so far expanded , that the retractive potentia therof is more praepotent then the pondus of the bullet , and the air being still suck'd the bullet doth by the other motion of matter to union , as naturaly follow it to prevent vacuity ( which i shall shew heerafter ) as if it did descend by the motion to station , or at least equaly as swiftly at last as at first like aether . and i shall now observ one thing more in such diverted motions ( which i have before intimated ) that if the impetus or force therof , which is so actuated , be greater then can be spent in carrying the body moved forward by reason of the resistance of the medium , or otherwise ; then it not only so carry's it directly , but the excess therof doth also move the body circularly . thus a bullet or arrow discharged violently from a gun or bow , besides the direct motion therof , moves also circularly . and so in a whirlpitt which hath a vent at the bot●om , whereby all the parts of the water above it are putt in motion , as i have shewed , and yet can not all descend and issue out together , therefore they move round , as also water in a boiling pott : and so in the common experiment of water ascending from a basin , wherin a flaming candle or charcoal kindled at one end is perpendicularly fixed above the water , and then an urinal , or the like vessel inverted over it into the water in the basin , the water will move round in the basin when it begins to ascend into the urinal , as may appear by any motes swimming in the superficies of the water . and so i conceiv it to be a general rule , that if a body in actual motion , so farr as it can not , according to the actual motion therof move directly , the parts therof will move circularly . now becaus all circular motion of the same body , and in the same place hath to some seemed so very wonderful and inexplicable ; i shall heer endeavor to explain it , and grant that which is the very caus of their wonderment , that is , that all local motion is , and necessarily must be , progressive ; becaus it is from place to place : but we must also consyder , that such a circular motion is immediately of the parts , as of the aforesaid motes in the water , and accordingly of all the parts of the water , circularly , and consequently of the whole , mediately thereby : and so the parts move progressively , and successively , from their several positions and places in the whole , which they have in their own body , as well as their own body hath in the body of the whole world , east , west , north , and south , which is the very nature of place , as i shall shew heerafter : and consequently by them the whole moves circularly also in its place , wherin it was , and still is ; but only is localy varied or moved according to that variation and motion of the parts being itself in the who●e where it was before : and certeinly all the parts may aswell move so simultaneously in time , and successively and orderly in place , as the motes ; and the motion of the whole doth thereupon as naturaly and necessarily ensue : and so a planet moves about its own axis immediately by the parts therof , and it moves about the sun immediately by the whole as a part of that circle which it describes progressively , though in a line perpetualy curv , and in such motion of a fluid body any way , the parts therof do so farr forth weigh , press , or move , one another : as a diver shall find in any vortex or stream , if he oppose himself against the current therof , but not in any progressive motion of the whole as when he swims along with it , which is a sensible difference . and this may help also to salv another difficulty , which hath been esteemed incomprehensible . how a body moving circularly should move round in the circumferential parts therof in the same space of time as in the centrical ; since the circumferential describe larger circles , and move through a greater space or distance of place then the centrical , and yet both by the same pondus or potentia . wherin we must consyder that the pondus or potentia being equaly applied to the whole consistent body moved is distributed equaly to all the parts , but doth unequaly move them according to their unequal distances from the center , whereby the circumferential being proportionably more moved by their equal share therof , according to those distances , do move swifter , or through proportionably larger circumferences though simultaneously in the same space of t●me , which is an equality in inequality ; and both are proportionable to the nature of the consistent body so moved thereby , and the distance of the circumferences therof from the center . also there is a motion of the whole partly progressive , and partly circular , as when a coach or cartwheel in going forward moveth round . and hence hath arose another problem . how such a larger and a less wheel being both fixed upon the same axis should move upon lower and higher planes with equal circumvolutions . which needeth no such solution as the former , becaus it is a plain fallacy : for in such a position and motion the larger wheel moves round by perfect circumvolutions , and the less wheel partly slides along ( as well as moves round ) so farr as to equal the circumvolutions of the larger wheel : for indeed otherwise it were impossible that one circumvolution of a less wheel should equaly run over so much of the planes , being both of the same longitude , as of a larger , becaus their circumferences are not equal . and this fallacy may sensibly appear by not fixing , but putting both the wheels loos upon the same axis ; and then you may plainly perceiv the exact difference of the circumvolutions proportionably according to the difference of the circumferences . xii . local motion , as i have said , is transition from place to place ; and doth therefore import place ; which is relative , and not only the position of a body in its own extension otherwise then as the parts therof are in their respective places in the whole . and therefore no body is said to be localy in itself , or in its own whole positively , but only relatively : as we do not say england is in england . wherefore also the whole body of the world is not properly in a place , but in its own position and extension , which is not properly a place positively in itself , but only relatively to all the parts therof , and without it there is no other body , in respect wherof it may be said to be in such a place . nor is place the superficies of other bodys ambient ; for not only the whole body , but every part within the superficies of itself is also in a place , which , as i have said , it varieth in a circular motion of the whole , and yet the whole is in the same place and vicinity of bodys : and so is also every point therof in a place according to its own proper nature , that is , as it doth coexist with others , and so commove with them ; so it is also collocated with them , though not severaly by itself alone : wherefore also the superficies of its own body is not the place therof , nor indeed can it be so many several places : but as extension hath part beyond part , which therefore is not one and the same position of every one part severaly in itself , becaus every one hath a several position in itself ; so the place therof is the relation of one to the other in the whole , or as it is beyond , farther , or neerer , heer , there , and the like ; which is not only a notional relation , as first and last in extension , but real ; becaus extension hath realy part beyond part , as well as time hath realy part after part , as i have formerly shewed . and so circumference and center are real relations of extension , and there are real advantages of more or less distance of any parts from the center , as i have said . now according to this real relation , a body is said to be in such a place or part of the whole body of the world , and not in another : and if the whole globe of the world were a magnet , it should have a north and south pole in respect of its own parts , and so all the other points of the utmost , or any other inner circumference therof , though there be no body beyond it to which they may so point . and so england is said to be in such a part of the world , and not in another ; and london in such a part of england ; and not in another ; and so of any less bodys , as the parts therof are relatively distant more or less from the other parts of that body , or of the whole body of the world , or their situation any way varied . again , as there are such real places , so also certein real stages and posts , which god hath realy fixed in the world , as the circumference and center of the whole body of the world , according to which any part or particular body therof is said to be higher , or lower ; that is , more outward or inward , and two poles of the earth wherof the axis doth intersect the center by one determinate line ending in two certein points , and so directing it , and thereby determining north and south , and consequently all the points of the compass . and so there are also two opposite circumvolutions of aether and aethereous bodys , which denominate east , and west , in all such circumvolutions , one way , or other , as i shall shew heerafter . and according to these real differences i suppose all the several localitys and motions of any other bodys in the world , ( which may be as various as all mathematical figures ) may be determined and denominated . also becaus all spirits whether material or immaterial are within the whole body of the world which no one of them can possess , or fill , or be coextended with it all ; therefore they are in some definite place , or vbi therof , and not in another , according to that proper place of the matter which they possess ; though matter itself be only in such a proper place circumscriptively and extensively , becaus it only hath extension of itself ; and spirits and spiritual qualitys by being localy therin do acquire such a definitive coextension therwith and thereby ; which coextension is the commune vinculum of matter and of all spirits , whereby such are immaterial , and do not consubstantiate matter , nor inhere in it in staetu conjuncto , ●s angels , magnetical virtue emanant , and the like , yet are in it and in some certein vbi thereof ( though in statu separato ) , aswell as the others : and their coextension is the same , though there be not the same consubstantiation , or inhesion as i have shewed : and the other which we call material are indeed no more matter , nor material , then angelical spirits ; but only so termed by way of distinction from such their consubstantiation and inhesion being in themselvs truly spirits in bodys ( as i have therefore so called them all by one general name ) as well as angels out of bodys , ( as inherent magnetical virtue is a spiritual quality , as well as emanant ) and though they be indeed inferior and less spiritual kinds of spirits then immaterial in many other respects , and therefore so distinguished , as i have said ; yet they are all of the same universal kind , or genus of spirits ; and so as much contradistinguished from matter : & therefore are no more matter nor material in that sens one then another . which i shall again and again desire materialists to consyder , and remind ; and rightly to understand these terms of material and immaterial spirits , as i have explained them , and to judg therof according to ●he things themselvs , and not of things according to mistaken terms , or otherwise to waiv the terms wholy , and call matter body , and every such form or substantial activity spirit , whether conjunct , or separate ; and so to apprehend them rightly in our minds , as they are in their own nature . wheras some , who have not so cleared these terms and notions to themselvs , either affirm all spirits to be matter , or that there are only material spirits . and i begg of every christian philosopher , who believeth that there are angelical spirits , and spirits of men after death , thus separate from the matter , only as freely and fairly to contemplate them in his mind , as he doth the matter ; and spiritual qualitys , as he doth the corporeal quantity , and so prepare himself to be a fitt judg of what i shall prove unto him beyond any postulation ; and i hope that thereby every materialist may so purifie and spiritualise his own immaterial mind , which is now too farr immersed and ingaged in the matter , that he may also himself clearly discern spirits and spiritual qualitys by his own spiritual light beyond all my probations : wheras some , becaus they do not distinguish between extension and coextension , therefore confound bodys and spirits , and so , becaus they do not distinguish between extension and matter , therefore confound substances and accidents , and becaus they do not distinguish between extension and vacuity , therefore confound entity and nonentity . and though they will not allow spirits to be in the body of matter , and the coextension therof to be their ubi , yet they can suppose matter itself and the very extension therof to be in some other vbi , or somthing which they call space , and which must either be another extension without a body , or the same , or nothing : though , as position is only a particular consideration or notion of extension ( as the body or any part therof is in its own extension ) so space is only another particular consyderation or notion of extension , as the body or any part therof is in so much of that extension : and neither of them are realy any things in themselvs absolutely , as extension , or relatively , as place ; and though these are such particular notions of somthing real , that is of extension : yet vacuity consydered in itself as no extension of matter can not be so much as any notion whatsoever of any thing real : for then it should be space which realy is the same with extension of matter , wherof it is only such a particular notion : wherefore they must conceiv it to be another extension without matter ; or , as i may so say , another imaginary extension of extension , or that wherin both the matter and also extension therof is ; and so we may proceed infinitely : but all such process infinite is most contrary to finite nature and to all philosophy ; becaus , as i have said , it is only the vaine reduplication in terms of the same thing in itself . now if matter and extension were one and same , then matter needeth none other such imaginary extension , or vacuous space , wherin it may be extended , becaus it is extended in itself , otherwise it should not also be extension : or if matter be the substance , and extension the proper and inseparable accident and affection therof , then also it needeth none other such imaginary extension , or vacuous space wherin it may be extended ; becaus it is extended by its own extension . wherefore vacuity is neither matter , nor extension , nor any real relation , nor notion therof , nor indeed any thing , or entity whatsoever , but meerly nothing or nonentity , wherof it is only a particular consyderation or notion ; as nullity or a cyphar is of number , or nontime of time ; and the like improper notfinites , wherof i have formerly discoursed . nor is it any privative founded in positives , which thereby complexively may be consydered , and seem to be somthing , but a particular negative , and the very negation of that which is the respective affirmative being , that is , both of matter and extension : and so it is neither long , nor short ; broad , nor narrow ; high , nor low : having no longitude , latitude , or profundity ; otherwise it should be the same with extension ; which we all acknowledg , and should not differ about terms : but as consydered severaly from it , it is nothing , and notfinite , and so consydering it i need not disprove it , for it plainly proves itself not to be ; being only a negation , which is its own denial of what any would affirm or imagine it to be : and so vacuum est non ens , or vacuum non est , or non est vacuum , are tantamount . yet becaus some are so fond of it , that not only like lovers they feign it to be that which it is not , but i think would almost like paracelsians create it to be by their own imagination therof , i shall briefly argue against it . and certeinly there is no such vacuity , becaus god himself never created it , nor indeed can he ; becaus it is a nonentity , which is not creable , but , as i have before shewed , the very negative term from which creation doth commence , and which doth necessarily caus that to be which it creates ; becaus being is the other affirmative term of creation , which is from not being to being . and wheras it is commonly demanded , whether god could not possibly have created two or more worlds having such a space or distance one from another , or one part of this world having such a space or distance from another ? i answer , he might ; if he did also creute such a space or distance ( which as i have shewed , is realy extension ) without any body or matter , which i suppose they who ask the question , and any materialists themselvs will not so easily grant , and they who affirm the extension itself to be one and the same with the matter , wherof it is the extension , must by granting it , deny it , and so contradict themselvs : for then that extensive space or distance must also be matter . the philosophers reason against vacuity , that then two body● should not be together , and yet no other body , nor consequently any extension or extensive space therof , nor indeed any thing , which may disterminate them , be between them ; is so very true and cogent , that i profess to dispute no farther with him who shall deny it , until he can shew me the fallacy , or infirmity , therof . sensible experiments against it are manifold ; and there is such a constellation therof in the whole sphere of the universal nature , that i shall collect them all into one statike rule , that is , no weight nor power can wholy remove any body out of the present place therof ( though it may rarefy or expand it and so exue part therof ) unles another body may succeed : and if it do so remove any body , another doth naturaly and so must necessarily succeed . as let air be suck'd out of a bladder the sides therof will proportionably approach , and at last close together ; and if by an airpump or expansor the operation should be so strong as exceed the consistence and strength of the glass , such an exuction would also break the very receiver . now certeinly there is no other caus or reason of the adhesion of the air to the bladder , or glass ( which are heterogeneous , and therefore discontinuous spiritualy ) but only the continuity of matter and motion therof to union , as i have said : which is to prevent vacuity , or any discontinuity of the universal matter . so in a siphon , though the overweight of water in the longer leg be requisite , yet the motion of descent by the gravity doth not otherwise caus so great a weight of water in the shorter leg to ascend then only by its own natural decession whereby the other doth as naturaly succeed , as may appear if any ai● be lett in at the top of the siphon ▪ and it is not as when a preponderous weight or prepotent power at one end of a rope draws up a less weight tied to the other end therof : for as air is not so fastned to the bladder or glass which are heterogeneous , so neither water to water , though homogeneous , becaus water is a fluid body , and hath no such consistence as will endure any such drawing , but only such a small and weak consistence , as i shall shew heerafter . but one part therof in the siphon is so united to another by this natural and most indissoluble ligament of adhesion and union of matter to matter , so that for the necessary completion of the universal body therof , so great a weigh● of water doth succeed , otherwise water in the siphon might run at any hight if the over-weight were the only caus. and air rarefied by flame in a glass , though much lighter , draweth up water , which is heavier , by being again condensated in itself by cold after the extinction of the flame or fire , whereby it occupys a less space ; and the water doth succeed it , and ascend as naturaly to prevent the vacuity as it doth descend in a whirlpitt ; yea as i have shewed this motion to union is most natural and predominant , even over motion to station , and no body can move any way in the whole orb of matter by any private motion whatsoever , unles the universal body therof be first completed . and therefore the whole body of the world is , and must be , as i have said , orbicular ; not only becaus the superaether is most rare , and therefore i suppose most fluid : and all fluidity doth naturaly conglobate , as i have before shewed : but though we should suppose it most dens , and firm or consistent , yet it must be perfectly globous ; becaus that is the proper and only perfect figure of union , to which this most natural motion to union of the m●tter must reduce it : and as it would reduce the bladder or glass , or any other most consistent bodys to perfect union inwardly if the air could be wholy exucted , and no other body within it ; so it would also outwardly , to a most perfect globular figure , if there were no body without it ; becaus god hath created in it a principle of most perfect union which is globular . now as all sens doth militate against vacuity , so i know no sensible experiment which hath ever yet been offered to prove it , but such as when vacuists themselvs have farther consydered it , they have at last found therin some plenitude , which they did not discern at first : and i very much wonder how ever any man first fansied such a vacuity other then as a notion of such a part●cular notfinite , or negation of any extension , whenas mankind hath never yet so imagined any of the rest , as any such nullity in number ; or nontime ; either coacervate , which is as if an history should thus begin , in the th year before the begining of the world : or interspersed ; which is as if we should affirm some nontime or nonday between sunday and munday , or the like . having thus consydered matter as it is in itself , with the corporeal quantity or extension , and other accidents or affections therof , whereby only we can know it , as we may spirits by their spiritual qualitys ; let us now so review it simply as it is in itself , with all the accidents or affections therof , and severaly and distinctly from any spirit or spiritual quality whatsoever , wherof i shall discours heerafter , and see if we can make of itself alone , or with all its own apparatus , any such spirit or spiritual quality , as some would produce out of it , and the atoms or corpuscles therof : wheras it is in itself only one universal homogeneous and most intire body , which though it hath aggregate atoms and corpuscles in its own whole , mathematicaly , yet there are indeed no such segregate atoms or corpuscles therof physicaly as they do imagin , nor can any such possibly be without intervening vacuity , which we have sufficiently disproved . and therefore the antient atomists did also hold vacuity , and so their doctrine , though most fals , yet was more consistent in itself , then the other of our modern corpuscularians , who affirm segregate corpuscles of matter , and yet no vacuity , but other matter intervening , which is a plain contradiction or matter segregate , and not segregate : and that segregation therof which they pretend is only the discontinuity of the bodys of several composita by their individual spirits , which are heterogeneous , and not by the matter , which is one homogeneous and continuous body in itself , as i have said ; and even heterogeneous composita , which are spiritualy discontinuous , are yet materialy as continuous , as homogeneous : and so polished metall and marble , drops of water and glass , brick and mortar , cannot be divelled or discontinued , unles air or other matter may succeed to prevent vacuity , and supply the continuity of the whole body of matter and extension therof ; which is absolutely necessary : and the spiritual continuity of any compositum , which is generable and corruptible , is only respectively requisite for the preservation therof , and whereby it doth continue its own body , as much , and as long as it can , and defend itself from other ambient bodys , which do besiege and assalt the spiritual qualitys therof , with their heterogeneous spiritual qualitys ; and by the menstruous power therof enter and corrupt it if they can : wheras if there be any discontinuity in the matter of the bodily compositum , the next ambient bodys , whatsoever they be , do and must immediately succeed to complete the great body of matter , which can suffer no discontinuity , as i have shewed . and yet we will afford them such materials as they would have , that is , supposed segregate atoms or corpuscles , and then let them compose and confabricate them as they please into any body , having longitude , latitude , and profundity ; that is , corporeal extension ; yet certeinly this will be only matter so extended , and no other thing whatsoever , either aether , or air , or water , or earth , or tree , or brute , or man , or angel. and this extension of the matter itself will only , as i have said , be orbicular , for though all other figures be in extension potentialy , yet any variation from this most homogeneous figure of union is by the heterogeneity of spirits , and the plastike virtue therof , which as the architect or statuary doth superinduce them , by varying that one universal figure of the matter . and yet we will also allow them , without any spirits or spiritual q●alitys , to mold the matter into what figure they please ; which will be none other then matter so figured and effigiated , and only as so many statues of elements , vegetatives , sensitives , and intelligences , but not the things themselvs . also though all matter be equidens in itself , and consequently equigrave , and the variations therof only superinduced in it by the spirits , and are therefore by some termed qualitys , yet we will allow them to densify or rarify , gravitate , or levitate , those statues as they pleas ; which will be made thereby no other then they were before ; but only more dens , or rare , grave , or light. and lastly , though all matter doth naturaly affect rest , and all the natural motion therof is only to rest , as i have shewed , when it is at any time violently removed and dislocated by spirits or disturbed by their spiritual operations ; yet we will also allow them all the motions of matter , that is only local motions ; and then let them either move their whole statues or any parts , corpuscles , or atoms therof , this way , or that way , or every way , as they please ; and make them as automatous as they can suppose them to be moved by or with any such local motions : yet as the whole statues moving upward , or downward , progressively or circularly , and the like , will only be statues ; so every one of their parts , corpuscles , or atoms , so moving therin , will be only such parts , corpuscles , or atoms therof , as they were before ; and so consequently the whole also the same as it was before ; only with such variations of the local motion of the matter or parts therof , and of other affections of the matter , as of gravity levity density and rarity producing those various motions , or of figure and extension produced thereby , but still the statues will be only matter , having such or such extension , figure , density , rarity , gravity , motion , or rest , and the like affections of matter : which are formaly in themselvs and all together only such as they are , and render the matter only such or such a statue : but can induce no spirits and spiritual qualitys ; heat , cold , moisture , drines , vegetation , sensation , and intellection ; which , as i have said , are formaly in themselves other things farr different from matter , and any or all the affections therof : and so i shall more particularly prove them to be in my following discourses : though i have already acknowledged , that as matter is the body of spirits , so all the affections therof are the instruments of spiritual qualitys and their operations , and so as i have said before ( though now i have admitted it to be otherwise only by way of supposition ) they are superinduced in the matter by the spirit , to make it a fitt hous and work hous for itself , and then they both dwell and work therin ; and so spirits are instrumental to matter , and matter to spirits . but yet as when i see a ship sailing upon the sea , and steering her cours according to the art of navigation , with her sails spread , tackling , and rudder , and the rest of her furniture rightly instructed and gubernated , i may not therefore conceiv that she can thus perform the voiage of herself , and by all those instrumentalitys , but that as she was first thus rigged and fitted by men , so she hath still men abord who thus guide her , though i may not see them upon the deck ; so when i contemplate the active operations of the several composita , i know that the rude and common matter could never so ●ffigiate and diversify itself , but that the spirits did so prepare it for themselvs , and that they still do act it and operate in it . also i acknowledg , that therefore there is not only some correspondence and analogy between all created nature as it is one univers and republike ; but more or less between all the several creatures , as i have observed , to be between all quantitys : and so there is also between all the affections of matter among themselvs , and likewise between matter , and the affections therof , and spirits , and their spiritual qualitys , which are all conteined within the same extension of the whole body of matter , and the several figures therof are the hieroglyphical images of the various spirits , and may have some kind of signature therof : and so condensation is analogous to intension , and rarity to remission of qualitys , and pondus to potentia , and the rest ; but especialy motion is analogous to the very activity of spirits ; and yet as matter and spirit , so all material and spiritual accidents are genericaly different , and particularly local motion from the active and generative or corruptive motion of elementary spirits ; and much more from vegetation , sensation , and intellection , which are motions of a farr other nature , as i shall shew heerafter . again , as matter and material accidents are not , nor can not be formaly the very spirits , and spiritual qualitys , so neither are they potentialy as others have supposed , and so would educe them all out of i know not what potentia materiae , and some christian philosophers in compliance therwith have supposed the first chaos to be only such a materia prima ; though god saith expresly that in the very begining he created heaven and earth , comprehending superaether and all the fower elements , as i have said ; and that the matter had not only , as a materia prima , the first and common affections therof , that is , one extension , one orbicular figure , equidensity , and equigravity , and the like , but particular diversifications , and variations of spheres , of several figures , densitys , and gravitys , and the like : and the superaether then probably was created perfect , and adorned with all the furniture therof , whatsoever it is : and the elements were created in such a maner as did denominate them aethereal , and aereal heavens , earth , and water , ( yea the very heavens and the very earth , as some have criticaly observed ) though inform , and inane , and without motion , which is secondary and subordinate to rest , and wherof there was no need nor use before generation and corruption were ordeined afterward in the six days . of all which i shall now proceed to discours . section vi. and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters . explication . the spirit of god , moving in the chaos , by supernatural incubation did prepare and predispose it for the producing and perfecting all things , ( that were before created in it ) afterward in the six days . illustration . . of the incubation of the divine spirit . . of actuality and potentiality . . of generation and corruption . . of the process therof . . of the scale of nature . . of the oeconomy therof . i. god , who in the begining , or very first instant , created heaven and earth , could also have perfected them , and all creatures therin , in the very same instant ; as most probably he did so perfect the superaether , and angelical nature , which are the highest sphere , and highest nature , for the manifestation of his infinite power ; yet also to manifest his infinite liberty and absolute sovereignty over created being , and the subordination and subjection therof to himself ; and how the creatures , as they could not caus themselvs to be from notbeing , so also after they had a being , could not of themselvs perfect themselvs , nor attein any farther degree of welbeing without him and his creating causality , did first let this elementary world ly in the chaos therof , and afterward , in such a space of time as seemed fitt to his divine wisedom , that is , in six several days , proceed gradualy and orderly to perfect them . and though the first creation , which was from absolute notbeing to being , must therefore have been in an instant ; becaus there is only one affirmative term therof , that is , being ; which must necessarily be in the same instant assoon as it was ; yet all these works of the six days which were productions from potentiality to actuality , or original generations from not such a being to such a being ( which are several affirmative terms of being , and the first only negative of such a being , which yet implys being ) was gradualy in time , according to natural generation , and the process and cours therof , which was then instituted , as i shall shew heerafter . and this original generation was another improper creation , and p●rfective of the primitive and proper creation ; and such as could not be per●ormed by nature , until the natural cours therof was sett in order by the divine spirit : who , before it was so produced , and until it was perfected , did from the begining effectively move , or incubate in , or up●n , the created chaos ; ( as it were hatching the eg● , or embryo , therof ) in the midst of all the elements : that is , upon , or above , the face of the waters , and earth beneath them ; and under the aereal , and aehereal heavens : preparing and predisposing them for the production of all their apparatus , and inhabitants , out of their first created potent●alitys latent in the first chaos , into their actualitys in the six days : and all those productions were also the immediate works of the same divine power , as it is said , god said let there be light ; and so of the rest ; which were not t●e same creations with the first , for that had been vain and superfl●ous ; nor in the same maner , for that was in the begining , or first insta●t ; but these in six several days , gradualy , and orderly , according to the natural process of generation which was then fi●st instituted , as i have said : and wherin , as all their primitive en●itys were first created in the chaos , and then prepared and predisposed by the divine spirit ; so every production in every one of the six days was previous and preparatory in nature to and for the succeeding productions , as i a●so shall shew heerafter . a●d angels , probably being create● perfect in and with their superae her in the begining ( though they mig●t be spectators ) yet neither did operate , nor assist , in this improper creation ; which though improper in respect of the former , yet is only proper to god himself , who is expressly said so to create in all the six days , as well as in the begining . but i presume rather , that as god made all things for himself , and the manifestation of his own glory to his intellective creatures , angels , and men , so angels were created in the begining , in and with their native region of the highest heaven , that they , who can intuitively behold all things , and needed no created light to inspect the dark chaos ( and so i suppose , the whole world and frame of nature is transparent to them ) might contemplate all the works of god in the improper creations of the inferior elementary world ; which was to be the region of man , as he , who is the other intelligence , was made last , to review ( as god himself afterward did ) all the works which he had made , and to celebrate that sabbath of rest which god instituted , and as it is said , made for him . and as the divine spirit was the only creator , and angelical spirits no subcreators ; so much less was there , or is there , any such archaus faber , or plastes , demiurgus , or demogorgon , or i know not what fictitious operators , which some have substituted . and though there be , as i have said , one universal body of matter , or corpus mundi ; yet there is not therefore one universal spirit , or anima mundi , as others have fansied : for then all had been perfected in the begining , both the whole body , and spirit of the world ; and all natural generation and corruption had commenced from thence , and should so have continued ; and there had needed no such farther several creations in the six several days , for setting in order the several courses therof ; from which they did originaly commence , and so have continued : wheras though the matter be one homogeneous body , yet the spirits are many and several , and their spiritual qualitys contrary one unto another , which cannot proceed from one and the same principle ; but plainly discover several spiritual principles therof : as i have shewed . and though they are united together in one compositum , as in a beast , or the like ; yet they remain several spirits in their own natures , as they were before , elementary , vegetative , and sensitive spirits ; and were not , nor are not , made one universal spirit of that one compositum ; much less is there any such universal spirit of all the several composita in the whole body of the world. and more apparently in man , besides all these , there is also an intellective spirit , which is farr different from all , or any of these . so that physicaly there is no such universal spirit , which is only one in nature , as matter is one , whereby the whole body and spirit of the world should be one individuum , but only metaphysicaly , and genericaly , as there is one univers , and as spirit is another active principle , or substantial activity , and so common to all spirits , ( though specificaly heterogeneous in themselvs ) wherin they all agree , and which doth subsist in them all , as a real relation of all their substances so agreeing and relating , which yet are so heterogeneous and several in themselvs ; but not as any total substance in itself , like matter , and wherof they are all only so many parts , like the particular bodys of matter . neither is there any such potentia materiae which may be the universal principle of all spirits ; nor are they only diversifications of the matter , or of any , or all the affections therof , as i have shewed . and there are immaterial spirits of angels , and men , separate , or separable , from the matter ( otherwise , then as they are in the ubi of the universal body therof , which is only a locality , or local circumstance , and not the formality of their spiritual nature ) and so neither is consubstantiation of the matter the formality of spirits , which we therefore call material , ( as we call some animals corporeal ) and might as well for the same reason call their bodys of matter spiritual as it is said there is a spiritual body , and yet even these are spirits genericaly as well as angels , though they are farr inferior to them specificaly ; becaus spirits are specificaly heterogeneous , and may thus differ ; though matter be homogeneous , and only one and the same . nor indeed is there or can there be any such potentia , either of matter , or spirits , whereby they may produce any substance ; which is never potential , but always actual : because it alway subsisteth in itself , and therefore cannot be produced out of potentiality into actuality ; ( but only by mistion or union in a substantial compositum ) not like accidents , which may be potential ; becaus they can subsist in their substances , when they are not actualy in themselvs , nor are they like the s●bstantial composita , which are poten●ialy in their several substantial princ●ples , wherin they subsist , and actuated by their composition . and so in the consubstantiation of matter and spirit , the matter doth no more produce the spirit , then the spirit doth the matter ; as also in accidental composition of several accidents , one accident doth not produce the essence of another . thus the true potentia of the matter is only the power of producing its proper accidents , or affections , out of its own substance ; as spirits also do theirs out of their own substances : and yet though the general accidents , or affections , of matter be produced out of itself , the particular d●versifications therof instrumentaly are superinduced by the spirits , as i have shewed : whereas an immaterial spirit , as an angel , produceth his own accidents , or affections , not only out of his substance but by it alone , and without any matter ; and matter , which is otherwise more rightly said to be receptive of all spirits extrinsecaly , is not therefore productive of them intrinsecaly . nor indeed could both matter and spirits produce either themselvs , or one another , or their own accidents or affections , or any thing whatsoever , properly without a proper creation , nor improperly out of their chaos of potentiality , without out an improper creation ; nor do any substances now produce any accidents , or substantial or accidental composita naturaly , or by natural generation and corruption , otherwise then by the successive power and virtue of the first institution therof , and divine benediction by the spirit of god ; who so created them , both by a proper and improper creation , as i have shewed ; whereby the cours of nature , and of all natural generation and corruption , doth continue accordingly . but this original generation , which was a secondary and improper creation , did commence from the first and proper creation , by the supernatural preparation and predisposition of the chaos by the divine spirit : and as it was not immediately from nonentity , so neither from corruption ; becaus there was yet no such generated compositum which might be corrupted ; but there were only the simple essences of substances and accidents created in the begining in the chaos of their potentiality , and produced into actuality afterward , wheras natural generation doth alway commence from corruption of some former compositum ; which if it should still remain as it was before generated , there could not be any new generation of another ; and therefore it doth necessarily require and presuppose such a corruption therof . ii. thus the potentia of matter , or spirits , is only the power of educing somthing subsisting in themselvs , and apt to proceed and flow from them , out of potentiality into actuality ; as i have often said , and shall now prove , when i have first explained my terms . by actuality i suppose we easily understand the extrinsical existence of any essence ; wherefore there must also be an intrinsecal essence , or entity , wherof that is the existence , and wh●ch without that actual existence doth not actu●ly exist , and when it doth so actualy exist , is therefore said to be in actuality ; and when it doth not , in potentiality ; becaus it is an essence or entity in itself whether it doth also exist , or not exist : which essence , or entity , while it doth not actualy exist , doth alway subsi●t in some others ; and therefore alway is essentialy , though not existentialy . and when the essence is produced out of that potentiality into the actuality , then there is a generation therof ; and when again that actuality is reduced into the potentiality , then there is a corruption therof , but simple substances which subsist in themselvs , therefore always are actualy in themselvs ; and are ingenerable , and incorruptible : thus in the begining there was not only the matter , nor only the spirit of the superaether , actualy subsisting , but also of aether , air , water , and earth ; which did so denominate those first elementary composita of the matter and their several spirits , the heavens , and the earth , as i have shewed . and so there were also in them , and with them , all the substantial simple vegetative , and sensitive spirits , subsisting actualy in themselvs ; though there were yet no such mist composita of the elements themselvs as afterward which might denominate them stone , metall , and the like ; nor any composition of the elementary spirits with the vegetative , or of elementary and vegetative with sensitive , which might so denominate them trees , beasts , and the like ; untill such composita were produced in the six days afterward . and so also there were all the intrinsecal created essences , or entitys , of simple accidents , aswell as substances , which were also created together in the begining , in and with their substances , though only the universal accidents of matter , extension , orbicular figure , density , rest , and the like , did then actualy and extrinsecaly exist in the matter ; and there were yet none of those particular variations therof , which were afterward superinduced by the spiritual qualitys of spirits ; becaus those spiritual accidents did not yet exist themselvs : and so not only substantial composita , but also such simple accidents were in their chaos of potentiality . as there was no actual light , but darknes ; and so of the rest : but yet the intrinsecal essence or entity of light , and the rest , was in the chaos p●tentialy ; which is therefore termed inform , and ina●e , becaus they were not yet in it actualy and extrinsecaly , but were afterward so produced in the six days . and all the previous and requisite principles , substantial , or accidental , wherin any of their produced composita did subsist mediately , or imme●iately , were first produced themselves ; without which the other could not have been produced : as mist elements before vegetative composita , and vegetatives before sensitive composita . and so doth the natural generation and corruption , bot● su●stant●al , and accidental , still continue ; as doth plainly appear by all generative mistion and composition , and production thereby of the composita , which are so confabricated naturaly , aswell as artificialy . as a hous is potentialy in all the materials before it be built , and every particular figure in the extension of the materials before it is framed : and when it is so prepared and e●ected it may be said to be artificialy generated ; and when it is demolished to be corrupted ; the materials , like substances , still remaining the same , and the whole compositum , and every figure therof , being first potentialy and afterward actualy therin ; and so again reduced from actuality to potentiality by demolition : and there is no other difference heerin between them , but only that natural generation and corruption are intrinsecal consubstant●ations or compositions of proper principles of nature , which are both the materials and architect therof , and artificial generation and corruption are extrinsecal ; which only can be , by application and apposition of the intrinsecal principles of nature , so applied and conjoined by the architecture of art. and as all these mistions , compositions , figures , and virtues , which were afterward produced in the six days , were potentialy in this first general chaos ; so every thing now in the cours of any generation , or corruption , while it is in potentiality , is so farr forth in the particular chaos therof ; and when it is actuated , is produced out of it : and there is no other difference heerin between them , but that the first production was by the supernatural power of the divine spirit , and the others by the power of instituted nature , or application of art : so that this potentiality is not relative to essence , or entity ; as if it were only a possibility of something , which yet hath no essence , or entity , in any maner whatsoever ; but only to actuality of the essence , or entity , therof , which is not yet in such a maner as potentialy it may be , not only by divine power , which may create it properly , or improperly , but according to the ordinary cours of nature , or art , which may so generate it naturaly , or artificialy . and so the existence itself or this realy dif●erent maner of being is an entity , potentialy in the essence before it exists , and actualy when it doth actualy exist . and whatsoever is not so actualy existent must necessarily be before in the essence therof potentialy ; otherwise it could never be produced , or made actualy to exist by any power of nature , or art. and these essences , or entitys , which are yet in their chaos of potentiality , do then actualy exist , when , as i may so say , they come forth upon the stage of nature , and there appear , and act , or might so appear , and would so act , if there were no violent impediment ; as accidents , which are the emissarys and instruments of spirits , do exist , when they are actualy so emitted and instructed , and consequently actuated , whereby the spirits of sensible composita do immediately act or operate upon our senses , or sensitive facultys ; which are also accidents , and thereby mediately upon our substantial spirits : and yet there may be such a violent impediment whereby like substantial spirits which always exist , though sometimes latent , they may not so appear , and act , unto , or upon us , though they exist actualy in themselvs ; as a picture under a curtain , or the like . and so there may be also an erupturient endeavour , which we call nisus , when they can not appear , and act , as otherwise they might , and would , by reason of some more immediate obstruction ( like retention by any spontaneous power with some strife and difficulty ) which plainly shews them to be so far actual ; becaus there is no actual contention of or between any accidents , while they are in potentiality , though their essential natures be most contrary one to another . and i conceiv that all mistion , and contemperature , of contrary qualitys , is first begun , while they are in the chaos of their several potentialitys ; as they were so prepared and predisposed by the divine spirit in the universal chaos , as i have before shewed , and then there being no actual contrariety between them , they are easily mist at first , and so by degrees , are more and more actualy mist , as their contrary essences are more and more actuated and produced into existence by a mutual contemperation , and gradual process therof . thus i have more largely explained what i intend by actuality and potentiality ; becaus the right understanding therof is , as i conceiv , and shall shew heerafter , the fundamental knowledg of the whole doctrine of generation and corruption . and now i shall proceed to prove it accordingly : it is said of the first chaos , that it was inform , and and inane , without any of those actual mistions , compositions , figures , and virtues which were afterward produced in the six days ; wherof all the essence or entity was created in the begining ; and which to produce were the several works therof : but there were all the simple essences and entitys therof potentialy in that chaos , otherwise they had not been created in the begining , nor had it been such a chaos therof , inform , and inane , in respect of those essenses , which it had in itself potentialy , and ought to have actualy also existent , but yet had not , and which were afterward produced into their several actualitys , and existences , in the six days ; wherin there was no proper creation of any new essence or entity ( but only of the spirit of man as i shall shew afterward ) and the improper creations therin were only the productions of these potentialitys into their actualitys by the supernatural power of the divine spirit , which was the original institution of natural generation and corruption , as i have often inculcated , and shall now declare by a more particular enumeration . thus in the first day light was produced out of aether ( wherin it was potentialy before ) by the mistion therof , into actuality ; and there was no new creation of the essence or entity therof : and therfore it is said , sit , or exista● lux ; as it is also said elsewhere , god who commanded the light to shine out of darknes , or to be produced out of the dark aether , like fu●us accensus : and so probably heat , and other aethereal qualitys , were then produced . also i● the second day vapors , which were no new created substances , or essences , but only water rarified , did ascend out of the water into the air ; and the qualitys of the air , or expansum , were probably then produced by the mistion therof . and in the third day the waters and earth were distributed , and disposed , and drines , moisture , and probably the other qualitys therof produced by the mistions therof . and in the fourth day the sun and moon and starrs were made of the aethereal substance , and so probably all the qualitys therof produced . and in the fifth day the water is said to bring forth or produce fishes ; and so also fowls were produced accordingly . and in the sixth day the earth is said to produce beasts , which could not be so produced in their composita , unles they were there before in all their simple essences , or entitys , which were all created in the begining . and in these six days there were both compositions and mistions , or formae mistorum , and also simple substantial spirits which were before created in the begining were then produced , as is expressly interpreted afterward of them all , and their improper creation or making , that he rested from all his works which god created , and made ; or originaly , created to make , that is , created in the begining to make or perfect afterward in the six days . and the apostle like a divine philosopher doth also so interpret it , through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of god ; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear : that is , the secula or generations were so framed and ordered by god in the first institution therof , that in all successive generations nothing should be made of any former phaenomena , or things which do appear , by any transpeciation or conversion therof into other essences or entitys , but of their own essences or entitys , which he immediately created in the begining , and in their first chaos of potentiality , wherin they then were not any such actual phaenomena , or appearances , but were made to be such afterward , and so still continue to be generated out of their potentiality into actuality . which as every christian understandeth by faith , according to this divine history of the creation , and first chaos ; so also any heathen , who wisely consydereth the same cours of successive generation and corruption , must acknowledg to be according to natural reason , and sen● . and as the first universal chaos , so every particular successive chaos , is hebraicaly called gods treasury , or storehous , out of which he produceth or bringeth forth all things generable , or corruptible , expending and employing them in their appearances and operations , which is their actual use and office : and so we read of his treasures of rain , snow , hail , wind , and the like . and the author of esdras saith particularly of the light , which was first so produced : then commandedst thou a fair light to come forth of thy treasures , that thy work might appear ; that is , to exist actualy , which before was latent in the chaos of potentiality . and certeinly no successive generation in the present cours of nature can be a greater work then those primitive generations , which were the immediate works of god , and improper creations . wheras if natural generation should be any other then the production of created essences into their actual existences , or corruption then such reduction therof , they should be proper creation and annihilation : for if any new essence or entity whatsoever , which was not before , should be caused to be by generation , then it must be properly created ; and if that which was before be caused not to be by corruption , then it must be properly annihilated . nor doth it suffice to say , that generation or corruption are not of any simple substances , either matter , or spirits , but only of composita , and accidents , or modes , or whatsoever they pleas to call them ; for whatsoever they are , or howsoever exile , or desultory their nature may be , yet they are real , and entitative somthings , not only in our reason , but in nature , as i have shewed : and indeed otherwise generation and corruption should be no real alterations ; but the things generated or corrupted should be realy the same as they were before ; and so we should deny all generation and corruption : wheras they realy are , and do produce real alterations , or some new thing actualy , which was before only pontentialy ; as every compositum , whether substantial , as any elementary substance by mistion of the fower elements , or accidental , as green by mistion of blew and yellow , and the like . also this doth sensibly appear in and by all generations and corruptions whatsoever : as of all substantial composita , wherof there is only such a composition ; otherwise they should not be composita : and certeinly the simple substances were before actualy subsisting in themselvs , otherwise they should not be substances ; and so likewise were the simple essences of accidental composita ; as of green , wherof certeinly the blew and yellow were before actualy existent , and the green potentialy in both . and so of more simple accidents produced out of their potentiality into their actuality : whether of the matter , as this or that particular extension , figure , density , and the rest ; which are produced actualy , yet were before potentialy in universal extension , figure , density , and the rest ; otherwise they could not be so produced ; nor can they be produced into more actualy then they were before potentialy . or of the spirits ; as light , and heat , produced out of calx viva , thunderclowds , haystacks , firecanes , or any other inflammable bodys whatsoever , were before in the substantial fire therof potentialy ; otherwise they could not be so produced ; nor can they be produced into more actualy then they were before potentialy . and so we commonly say of spices , wines , and the like ; that they are cold actualy , but hott potentialy . and so vegetatives produce many qualitys actualy in summer , which were potentialy latent in them in winter : and sensitives such in their more adult state , which were potentialy in them while they were embryons . and this is the very natural cours of generation and corruption , and of all the mutual reciprocations therof ; whereby generatio unius est corruptio alterius , and corruptio unius est generatio alterius ; which is the rota , or figline wheel of nature , turning about in the perpetual revolutions and conversions therof by such production and reduction , as i have before declared . between which two doth always intercede privation ; as it was antecedent in the first chaos , which being inform , and inane , was the universal privation of all those actual existences which were afterward produced in the six days ; for so existence is capable of privation , but essence only of negation . but privation is not any such positive principle in generation or corruption as matter and spirit , which are the simple substances whereby the compositum is consubstantiated , becaus it is only privative : nor as the essences of accidents in their potentiality , which are positive entitys ; but only the very potentiality therof ; which as it relates to actuality , is called potentiality , and as it relates to existence , privation . thus both matter , and spirit , or form , and also privation , are all comprehended in the chaos . and from this dark chaos of potentiality by the revelation of the same divine spirit , ( which first moved in it , and brought forth light out of darknes ) we may discover the magnum arcanum , or grand secret , of natural generation and corruption ; and plainly perceiv how all the phaenomena were therin no such phaenomena as since they are , but first created potentialy , and then produced into their actualitys , and appearances , originaly in the six days , and since successively in all the secula therof . wheras all human philosophy , being ignorant heerof , hath groped in the darknes of several imaginary notions , which the several sects therof have invented to themselvs , and so in stead of this chaos and creation have supposed an eternity , and selfsufficiency of matter , and the potentia therof , or matter and motion , equivocal generations , transpeciations , and the like ; and though anaxagoras in his homoeomeria hath approached somwhat neerer to the truth , yet his conception therof is very gross and rude , and like the rest , supposeth that also to have been eternal . and now , though i have so largely explained and fully proved this doctrine of natural generation and corruption ; yet becaus i conceiv it to be so fundamental , and therefore very requisite that we should most clearly and familiarly understand it , and discern this divine light ; and that i may produce it out of the dark crepuscula and confused notions of the antient philosophers , who have partly acknowledged it in their potentialitys , eminences , and homoeomeria , and the like ; and again obscured it with the denial of a creation ; i shall now summ up together the effect of all i have said before . that god in the begining created all essences of any generable and corruptible things either in their actualitys , or potentialitys , and all the real modalitys therof whatsoever whereby they were made generable and corruptible , and indeed every thing of them or in them that is entitative in any kind or maner whatsoever ; that is , all the simple substances of matter and spirits ; elementary , vegetative , and sensitive , which subfist in themselves , in their own actualitys , which therefore in themselvs are ingenerable and incorruptible . but wheras they of the same classis may be mist together , when they are so mist , they all become one mistum , which is the thing generated , and realy is another somthing different from them ; but actualy subsisting in them , which therefore was before potentialy in them ; that is , in their power to produce it , and in its own potentiality to be produced out of them ; and the form therof is , that which i therefore call forma misti ; as of stones , metalls , mules , and the like : and if they be of several classes which cannot be mist , yet they may be composited together ; as indeed there is no mis●ion without some such composition ; for so the very elementary mista are composited with the matter , and vegetatives with them , and the like ; and therefore the form therof may be more rightly termed forma compositi . and as this forma misti , or compositi , is thus generable or corruptible , becaus it doth subsist in the simple substances , and so may be produced out of them wherin it was potentialy ; and then it is generated , and in its actuality ; or reduced again from it into its potentiality , and so corrupted : so also simple accidents , which clearly were created in and with their simple substances , as extension , figure , density , rest , and the like , in and with the matter ; becaus they also subsist not in themselvs , but in their substances , they may be so altered and varied by generation and corruption , as to be produced out of their potentiality into actuality , and reduced from their actuality to potentiality again : thus heat and cold , and the like , do sometimes actualy exist , and sometimes do not , but are in their potentialitys : and so also they may be mist or composited , as tepor , and the like : and all such accidental mist or composited forms subsist immediately in one another , and all of them mediately or immediately in their substances . and this is that which i intend ; wherin i can not conceiv how any , who doth not deny a creation , can differ in the thing , but only about terms ; concerning which i must assign one distinction , the want wherof i suppose hath much hindred the right understanding of the thing itself ; that is , between this potentiality , which we all mention generaly , but more strictly is to be restrained only to things generable and corruptible , whose simple essences were before created , as i have shewed , in their potentialitys ; and possibility , which may be also of any thing creable or annihilable : for though possibility is not nor can not be infinite , ( becaus there can be no other infinite besides god , who always actualy is ; nor notfinite , becaus there can be no other notfinite besides nonentity , which always actualy is not ) yet it is properly indefinite , and as boundless as infinite omnipotence , which only can not create another infinite ; and not such an improperly indefinite , as the dust of the earth , and the like , which i formerly mentioned . but it is to be distinguished from potentiality , as that which hath no maner of being in nature , neither actualy , nor yet potentialy ; for then it should not be only possible , or creable , which is yet in notfinite nonentity , and only may be caused to be by infinite entity or divine omnipotence ; wheras whatsoever is in natural potentiality was created in the begining , and may be produced into actuality by the finite power of natural generation . wherefore i conclude , that whatsoever is in natural potentiality is entitative , even while it is potential : becaus otherwise generation and corruption should either be creation and annihilation , which is impossible ; or no real alterations , which is most fals . but divine philosophy , which is only true and satisfactory , doth lead us back from the present cours of natural generation and corruption to the original institution therof in the six days , and from thence to this first chaos of potentialitys , and from thence to the creation , and so terminates in one infinite creator of all things actual or potential . iii. thus generation rightly understood is and must be always univocal ; that is , not only of the same name , but also unigenous , or of the very same nature . but we must distinguish between the generation itself , which i now intend , whereby any thing is formaly caused , or intrinsecaly generated in itself , and the generator , or extrinsecal efficient caus , which indeed may be either equivocal , as when an hors and ass beget a mule , and the like ; as well as it may also be univocal in that respect , as when horses beget an hors , and asses beget an ass , and the like : yet in both these the generation itself is univocal with itself ; becaus it is , as i have shewed , only the production of somthing out of its essence into its existence , which is most unigenous ; becaus the existence produced is only the existence of the essence therof , which was created by god with a potentiality of existence , and cannot be annihilated by generation , but is only altered thereby , being so produced into the actuality of that which it was before potentialy in itself ; and so it is only its own existence of its own essence ; then which nothing can be more univocal , or unigenous . but the generator , only as an extrinsecal agent or efficient , doth collect and concoct the seed , preparing and predisposing it for the generation , and then deciding and casting it forth from it self , or conteining it in itself , as some other thing besides itself , and its own individuality , as it is said of vegetatives , cujus semen seipsum seminet ; and so a beast doth contein the faetus in its womb , cherishing and fostering it as a fowl doth an egg excluded ; and a fowl doth hatch eggs by incubation and the heat of its own body ; as eggs of fishes are cherished and fostered by the heat of the sun in the water , or as seeds of vegetatives in the earth ; which are no more more then is performed by egyptian ovens , or italian capons : but the seeds by their own plastical virtue and power do effigiate , compose , and generate , themselvs intrinsecaly , according to their own species , and individual nature . and thus horses and asses generate mules equivocaly , no otherwise then horses begett horses , and asses univocaly , by an extrinsecal and instrumental causality , which is like the spear that wounded the pregnant sow in the spectaculum , whereby she brought forth pigs , and in some generations , as of sound , this instrumentality is necessary . only univocal generators are more proper , and more natural and efficacious , efficients then equivocal ; and even some equivocal generators as they are more homoeogeneous are also more instrumental then others ; but always the generation itself , or production of the essence into the existence of the thing generated , is most univocal ; and is not , nor can not be equivocal by transpeciation , or any transmutation , ór conversion of one essence into another , but only of the same essence into existence , for as it is most true , ex nihilo nihil fit , by any such conversion of nothing into somthing , which is impossible , as i have shewed ; so , nihil dat quod non habet , is also as true and tantamount . and yet they who deny the one can affirm the other , with the addition of fictitious eminences , and transcendent potentiae , or creations by the finite power of natural generation instead of the true chaos , and creation by the infinite power of a divine creator , who is indeed the only true eminent caus. nor do any of their instances prove any such equivocal generation in itself , but clearly disprove it . so when an hors and ass beget a mule , that generation is as conformable to the mist seeds of both parents , as when horses beget horses and asses beget asses . only that instance affordeth this farther discovery , that the seed of the female hors doth contribute to the generation , aswell as the seed of the male ass ; becaus the mule is of a species mist of both . and the burning glass proves the sun to be actualy hott ; which yet some deny , and so from one falsity would prove another . but their most common instance of conversion of water into air , and so reciprocaly , is very fond ; for the water is not converted into air , but only rarefied in itself , and then we call it vapor ; which differs as much from air , as air doth from aether or aethereal matter , as they term it , which i shall shew heerafter to be very different . iv. i shall now inquire generaly into the maner , method , or process of natural generation and corruption , and how they are performed . all generated substances , or substantial composita , are as i have said , composed of matter and spirits . wherefore in their substantial generation there must first be matter , and a requisite body therof , which though it may be rarefied , or densified , yet can not be augmented , or diminished , without a new creation , or annihilation ; which is beyond the finite power of natural generation and corruption . and as there must be such a body of matter , so also spirit , and such spirits subordinate or coordinate as are requisite according to the law of nature , and of the particular compositum . also the matter and the several material spirits must consubstantiate one another , that is , sensitive vegetative and vegetative elementary and they the matter being all imperfect in themselvs , which can not otherwise be generated ; but the human spirit being a perfect substance in itself , is only composited ; also coordinate spirits of the same classis may be mist together , as the elements must always be so mist ; which appears by the mistion of their qualitys as in tepor and the like : wheras gravity , heat , plastical virtue , and the like are not so mist in consubstantiation . and as in original , so also in successive generation the composition and mistion must be such as doth produce the requisite accidents both of matter , and spirits into their actualitys : without which their substances cannot act , nor appear to us , but are unto us , as if they were not , and as in their first chaos , us●les , and ineffectual . and this is carefully to be observed by chymis●s , and physicians , and all such operators ; that there be not only requisite matter , and spirits , ingredient in their compositions ; but also such a fitt mistion internaly , and such instrumental causalitys externaly , as may evoke and actuate the accidents or affections therof , without which they will not operate or appear ; and whereby their operations and appearances will be very strangely and suddenly altered , as i have said of wine , and spices , which are actualy cold to the touch , but hott to the tast ; and so some may be cold to the tast , which will afterward become hott by farther concoction in the stomack , and the like . now this union or local mistion of matter and spirits must not only be per minima corpuscula , but per omnia puncta , though maceration and comminution are indeed degrees therof , and preparatory to mistion , and every compositum being macerated and comminuted is thereby prepared for corruption , and so for a new generation ; according to that general maxim in nature , that union doth fortify , and disunion weaken ; not only proportionably , according to the respective parts , but in the whole . and so the more the maceration and comminution is into less and less particles , the more preparation is there for a new generation , which is by perfect mistion , or adunation , and not by aggregation only ; becaus without such adunation there is no generative composition , nor indeed any mistion , but a local separation , and consequently no compositum generated , either substantial , ( for so a mule must be perfectly mist and composed of an equine and asinine substance , otherwise it should consist of indefinite equine and asinine particles , which should not be a perfect mule , but a greater monster then any poetical hippocentaur , or hircocerv , ( which is only half of one kind , and half of another ) or accidental , as of contrary qualitys , heat , and cold , and the like , wherof there can be no contemperature without such a mistion ; for such qualitys are not like passive affections of matter having only degrees in themselvs , as density , and rarity , gravity , and levity , and the like , but being also active in their own nature would naturaly act to the utmost , and be most intens in themselvs , if they were not either violently obstructed by some contrarietys or impediments , which by their nisus they also endeavor to overcome and break through , or contemperated by a natural mistion of their contrary qualitys per omnia in and by the primitive generation therof out of their potentiality into actuality by degrees ; and which is their natural remission . for their temperature must be by a perfect union of both whereby neither hath any advantage over or against the other , by being in the least disunited , or having any private sphere of activity in itself , for then it fights against the other to the utmost , as fire and water , and the like : which if it were so in their composition there should never be any natural and continuing contemperature thereby , but the most temperate flesh should have only so many several pricks , or needles , of intens heat , and intense cold , which would be rather a double torture , then any gratefull temperature . and so lucretius his meadow of flowers , though at a distance , through the infirmity of sight , it may represent one confused color , yet sensibly hath so many several and distinct colors : and so dry powders of blew and yellow being very finely pulverisated and m●xt together by a close aggregation may appear confusedly greenish ; which is only the same infirmity of sight , and may be rectified by a microscope : wheras nature is certeinly natural , that is , most genuine , and real , in all her operations , and not , as such uncouth opinions would render her , only external violence , and imposture . and as there must be such a local union of spirits per omnia puncta of the body of matter to consubstantiate it and appropriate it as a particular body for itself , which otherwise could not be so consubstantiated per omnia ; so the proper union or mistion of spirits among themselvs though it be coextensively per omnia , yet if it be not also spiritual , that is spiritualy contemperated , and coadunated , the generation will be imperfect , and either momentany , or meteorical . as if cloth or paper be wetted with water , though there be a notable imbibition therof by the cloth or paper , yet they are not perfectly impregnated , and so there is no perfect generation ; but they seem still to remain cloth , or paper , and water , severaly and distinctly in their own natures ; and not to be mist , into one compositum : and yet that imbibition is an inception therof , so that when they are perfectly separated again by exiccation , and evaporation , the vapor which is a very subtle and intenerating menstruum , as i shall shew heerafter , doth evoke and carry away with it some of the spirit of the cloth , or paper , mist with it . but oiled paper seemeth to have a farther degree of imbibition , and is not so easily separable , and is like staining with colorate corpuscles , liqued that are so imbibed , which is of a midle kind between mingling of dry colors and dying in grain . and there is a perfect coextension or local union per omnia of emanant colors , which yet is not complete generation , becaus their substantial spirits are not localy united , though the emanant qualitys are localy mist per omnia ; as if rays of light be transmitted through a blew and through a yellow glass so as they intersect and are thereby localy mist per omnia , there will be a green generated by that intersection ; or if you hold the two glasses partly one over the other against the sun where they are single they will appear blew , and yellow , and where double a very orient and smaragdine green : and yet these being emanant rays , belonging to their several inherent q●alitys , must necessarily remain several ; and only make a local and temporary compositum of the several emanant qualitys , while they are so localy united per omnia . and this generation or corruption is instantaneous and without any gradual process ; for in the same instant when the blew and yellow rays are united , a green is thus generated thereby , and when they are disunited it is corrupted : and so some more perfect generations , which are not only material and local , but spiritual compositions ; as of sounds , magnetical virtue , life , and the like : but there are in some others inceptions , and several successions , from the primitive corruption to the ultimate and complete generation , which chymists therefore call a process : and again generaly according to the process of generation so is the process of corruption ; yet if the extrinsecal generator or corrupter be more prepotent , it may generate or corrupt more strongly and suddenly and also more , durably though some compositae do require more time and will not be generated , as such , in less time , or by more prepotent generators ; as fire doth strongly and suddenly generate and corrupt generaly any elementary composita , being the most active element , yet some will not be so generated by the torrid power therof , but in more time by a calefactive and gentle heat , in baths , hors-dung , hott sands , and the like . and in all generations , which are not momentany ( as that of emanant colors , and the like ) there are first inceptions , and embryons therof , and so more and more perfect composita by degrees , in every instant of the process therof , which if it be produced to the perfection of the species , is perfect , and otherwise more or less meteorical and imperfect . but though local union only doth not make a perfect generation of the compositum ; which therefore is as suddenly separable , as it is miscible , yet no perfect generation can be without such a local union per omnia , as well as spiritual unition , as i have said : and such a generated compositum as is by both is not easily separable , or corruptible . and i desire that trial may be farther made heerof , whether any substances so separable were ever so generated and spiritualy impregnated per omnia ; ( as metall corroded or dissolved by aqua fortis which will again return into its own body , and perhaps was only comminuted and made more fusile , but never impregnated by the aqua fortis ) which commonly appears by alteration of the density of the body . but flame which is a most momentany substantial compositum , as i shall shew heerafter , is a more perfect production of the actual fire out of the potentiality of the fiery vapour , and so seems continualy to be corrupted and pass away with every individual part of the fume . and i suppose brine to be a perfect compositum of water and salt , which can not be praecipitated , nor percolated , or the like . and it appears plainly that they are so mist per omnia by the former experiment of their condensation , which can not possibly be only by aggregation or allocation . nor can they be sever'd by any filtration , though never so subtle and powerfull , as may be tried by mint , willow , or the like sett in a glass of brine , which will draw up both the water and salt together ; and though by the vegetative power and plastical virtue therof it will afterward excern and expume the salt a while , yet it will be soon overcome and killd by it , as salt doth generaly kill all vegetatives ( except some seaweeds which require and retein a saltnes in themselves ) if it be too strong , though a little saltness , and such as the plastick virtue can overcome and subordinate to itself , may excite vegetation both in the earth and seeds . thus as matter is consubstantiated with elementary spirits , and they one with another , so also with vegetatives , and they with sensitives ; and so certeinly vegetatives ; might be mist one with another , as well as sensitives are in a mule and the like , which are more intire and indivisible in themselvs , and not so miscible as vegetative spirits , as i shall shew heerafter : though they are none of them properly indivisible like immaterial spirits , becaus they are material and do immediately or meditately consubstantiate the matter , which is divisible . but probably none of these spirits are necessarily ingaged in any particular body or part of matter nor confined unto it , but only conteined within the universal body therof , as i have said ; becaus no matter , which is equaly indifferent to all spirits , and receptive therof , is so mutualy ingaged to them . yet as elementary spirits do require a several density or rarity of their bodily composita ( which they form for themselvs according to requisite degrees of density and rarity , though generaly without any regular or symmetrical figures ) so vegetative spirits have a plastike virtue whereby they do also regularly and symmetricaly effigiate their own bodys , and the bodys of sensitives whereunto they are subordinate , and make them more organical , as fitt officines , and instruments for those more regular and oeconomical spirits ( which oeconomy is only potential , and not actual , untill generation . ) and then , becaus they are also very vehement and operative spirits , and like culinary fire would soon be extinguished , they require a constant fuel and nutriment ; yet that nutriment is not like the fomes of flame , which is only fumus accensus , and so the individuality of the flame is continualy changed with the individuality of the fume , but a subordinate nutriment of vegetative spirits by elementary , and of sensitive by vegetative ; which are so subordinate one unto another , as i shall shew heerafter . and the compositum , vegetative , or sensitive ( which , as i have said , is more intire and indivisible , as it is also more oeconomical ) remains the same in its oeconomical individuality till it be corrupted : otherwise a tree , as an oak , or the like , should be like theseus his ship , at last not the same which it was at first ; and so an old beast should not remember what he did when he was young , if he should not continue individualy the same . but though the more excremental parts as leavs , flowers , hairs , nails , and the like do often decay , and are as often renewed , and the more integral parts less , as pith , bark , flesh , and the like ; and the more noble and constituent parts least , as root wood , the skeleton , veins ; arterys , nervs , intestines , and organs ; yet certainly the individual predominant spirit vegetative or sensitive , which denominates the compositum , and renders it individual , doth remain untill the dissolution therof . the excess of nutriment is turned into augment of all those parts , and perhaps of the spirit itself , which as it may be mist with other heterogeneous spirits , as in a mule ; so may also unite with more of its own homogeneous spirit , and be augmented thereby , untill it attein its acme . nor is there properly any consistent state without any growth or decay , as in a square ; but when the growth ends the decay begins , though more like the ascent and descent of an arch , then of an isosceles ; that is , most at first and last , and least in the midst . the excess of nutriment and augment doth generate other individuals of the same species , and though generation be during nutrition , and nutrition during augmentation , if the nutriment be copious , and the actual virtue of the spirit vigorous , which can concoct to all those degrees , and accordingly decide what is requisite for those several uses ; yet if otherwise a beast or tree be penuriously nourished , it will be dwarfed , or very little augmented , and generate less ; becaus nutrition is first and most necessary for the individual compositum , augmentation next and less , and generation last and least . and indeed nutrition and augmentation , are , as other subordinate generations , for the preservation and growth of the individual compositum ; and for the other , which is therefore more specialy called generation , becaus it is coordinate and specifical , for the propagation of another like individual compositum ; which is by collecting and composing another specifical spirit and body into the epitome of the seed , which , as i have said , by its own intrinsecal virtue doth intrinsecaly generate itself , and so becomes another compositum in itself , effigiating its own body , and nourishing and augmenting it , and afterward also generating another by the plastike virtue therof , and other internal spiritual powers , which god first created in and with the spirits in the begining , and were afterward actuated and sett in order by the divine spirit , who was the supernatural and universal protoplastes of them all , as i have shewed . and so they still continue in their successive generations and corruptions ; wherin , though the spirits and spiritual qualitys be the chief operators and architects , yet the matter is the body , and all the accidents , and affections therof are accordingly instrumental therin : and so are also all common accidents ; as number , wherof the chief instrumentality is unity , which doth fortify and reduce several principles into one compositum oeconomy and individuality . nor indeed can i conceiv any other power to be in number , which is only so many units ; and the very multiplication therof or duality is rather instrumental in corruption then in generation . also time is very requisite in the process of generation , , as i have shewed . and so likewise extension ; for no body either elementary , or vegetative , or sensitive , can possibly be only a point ; which can not exist severaly , and though every part or particle of water be water , and the like , yet organical bodys must have several organs , or so many members or less corpuscles wherof the whole must be composed ; and that according to the species therof must be of some requisite magnitude ; for though oaks and less trees may be of several s●zes , yet none of them can be so small as some herbs , and grass ; and so though there be dogs of very different bignes , yet none can be so little as a mite , or some almost atomical animals . also figure is very instrumental heerin , as well as in mechanical tools , or in the body of an army ; where the globus , or orbicular figure , is for safety round about , the square phalanx for strength , the cuneus or wedg to make impressions , and the like . and so they and others are also requisite in nature and natural operations , especialy in organical composita which require bodys fitt for such operations , of various figures , and most symmetricaly composed . and no art of statuary , or painter , can so farr imitate them as to endure the criticism of a microscope . and the whole feature and beauty of organical bodys is only the symmetrical conformity of their various figures . porosity serveth for excerning , and thereby for preservation of the compositum , and also for corruption by more easie admission of any dissolvent or menstruum , being a partial comminution or dissolution of the body in itself , as perfect continuity doth fortify . and therefore also density doth preserv , not only in proportion to the parts , but in the whole , as it is more united in itself and in all the parts therof : and hath proportionably more of the spirit , and more united . and as maceration doth weaken , so also rarefaction . and every specifical spirit doth require a body of a proper density or rarity , wherof there are innumerable degrees , and it can hardly be supposed that any two bodys of spirits specificaly different are of the same degree of density exactly , but either more or less . and as the compositum is varied by a new predominating spirit , so the density or rarity of the body therof is varied likewise : as may appear by impregnating , and superimpregnating , and the like . and so likewise gravity and levity and the motion therof to station , but especialy the principal motion to union or contact , are very instrumental in generation and corruption , as appears by the local union of emanant rays . yet matter and all these various affections therof are no formal causalitys of spirits , or spiritual qualitys , or of the whole composita consubstantiated and fitted thereby , as i have shewed . but when the compositum is thus composed m●terialy and spiritualy , and invested and instructed with all the requisite accidents , both of the matter , and spirits , then is the generation therof perfected , and then it doth appear and operate , being thus produced out of potentiality into actuality with all the furniture therof , and so continues naturaly untill it be again corrupted . and so were the original composita produced by the divine spirit in the six days , and have ever since , and still do continue according to that instituted cours of nature ; from which when god himself doth vary , it is miraculous , and when nature doth aberr , it is monstrous : and yet even those particular monstrositys are generaly comprehended within this universal law of generation and corruption ; as all equivocal productions , and the like ; being otherwise generaly conformable therunto , as i have shewed . and as nature doth only work by those ingenerable and incorruptible principles , powers , and virtues , which god first created in the begining , and then sett in order in the six days ; so art can only work by application of these natural principles , powers , and virtues , which is also monstrous and disorderly in respect of the constant cours of nature that was produced in the six days , though it be according to the nature of intellectives , and sensitives , being external operators , so ingeniously and artificialy to apply them , by their natural wit and art , which is somthing more divine , and more like to the operation of the divine spirit , even thus by disordering to order and improve nature for their own use and service . but neither nature , nor art , can work miracles , much less create , or annihilate , any thing . nor hath god himself ever since created any new thing generable and corruptible , nor ever wrought any such miracles , or added any thing to the chaos , o● elementary world , which he first created in the begining , and made in the six days , as i have shewed , and then rested from all that work of such improper creation . nor probably will he ever annihilate any thing therof , more then of superaether , or the intelligences ; though the first chaos may afterward become an everlasting gehenna , and many present actualitys be for ever reduced into potentiality . however the created essences shall remain eternaly for the eternal manifestation of the same divine glory : as the wise man hath said , i know that whatso●ver god doth shall be for ever ; nothing can be putt unto it , nor any thing taken from it . v. now as the divine sp●rit did thus prepare and predispose the chaos , and out of it produce the whole frame and cours of na●ural generation and corruption , so i shall from the review therof deduce the whole scale and order of all generable and corruptible natures . wherof matter is the lowest , which is the common body of all such spirits as do consubstantiate it , immediately , or mediately , and mansion of others which do only inhabit it . and no matter can be without some spirit consubstantiating it , being only an imperfect substance in itself , and therefore in the begining had a superaethereal spirit to consubstantiate the superaethereal body of matter , whence it is denominated heaven , as well as aether and air , and therefore also superaether , though it be not elementary yet is of the same classis , becaus it doth immediately consubstantiate the matter , as well as elementary . but though the matter can not be without some material spirit so consubstantiating it , yet , as i said , they are not ingaged to any particular matter but may remove from one part of matter to another , as matter may from one place to another in the universal body therof ; and clearly immaterial spirits , which do not consubstantiate the matter , need no consubstantiation by it , and may be in this or that extension of the matter , but can not pass beyond it into any imaginary inanity , or nonentity ; becaus they also are entitys ; and within one and the same universal province and law therof . much less can any matter wander beyond the utmost limits of itself which is the circumferential superficies of the highest orb therof , beyond which it can not ascend , as it can not descend below the center . wherefore that fansy of lucretius is very futile and vain , that if an arrow were shott forth beyond that circumference it would fly forward perpetualy ; for then it must always ascend from the center of the world , and never attein any other center of rest ; which is most contrary to the law of motion to station ; and also might exist , localy beyond the universal extension of the whole body of the world , and be another less world or univers in itself , which is most contrary to the law of motion to union ; whereby , as i have said , the whole body of matter is naturaly constituted such an orbicular body , by such a perfect circumference and center , and is not protuberant in any part of itself or other then a most exact globe , becaus that is the most united figure , wherunto the most universal law of union doth oblige the whole matter therof : and even spirits themselvs do exist only within the universal coextension and locality ; becaus beyond it there is no place , or ubi , or entity , wherin they may possibly exist ; for as they have no extension of themselvs , so also no place , or vbi , whatsoever , but only in the extension and body of matter , wherof , and wherin , they are such active and operative substances and spirits . the next in this scale of nature are the fower elements ; aether , air , water , and earth ; which none can deny to be , and i shall now prove them to be elements , when i have first explained the term , which will plainly elucidate the thing : and i shall do it exemplarily by matter itself , which is indeed the most common element , or praeelement therof , and immediately consubstantiated by them , and the superaetheral spirit : and so matter is their first body , or element , which is the true notion of an element ; and so i intend it to be a natural substratum of some other superior and more active substance , and which may be so composited or united with it , as a body with a spirit but not that the spirit is produced out of any potentia , or equivocal causality therof , which i have already s●fficiently refuted ; or that it is generated thereby more then the body is generated by the spirit ; but that both are composited or united naturaly together in●o one compositum , which is the very generation therof . and these fower elements are commonly so called in respect of the superior spirits , wherof they , with the matter , become a second matter , or prepared body therof , as the matter was of them , for they only , and the superaethereal spirit , can immediately inform the matter , and the superior spirits only mediately by them , and so one by another , according to their classes and ranks in the scale of nature , as i shall now shew . and though any one elementary spirit might consubstantiate the matter in the first chaos , as well as the superaethereal spirit , yet until they were all prepared and predisposed by the divine spirit , and fitly mist together in the three first days , no vegetative or other superior spirit could be produced , or inform any one of them alone , and also the matter ; becaus not any one of them alone together with the matter is a fitt body of the superior spirits , more then the superaether , which is superelementary , and no such elementary body of any other spirit whatsoever . but these fower elements must be all mist together as they were in the three first days , and never since were , nor shall be , untill the dissolution of the world , wholy unmist and separate , as they were in the first chaos ; though that mistion is and must be varied by continual generation and corruption , to make them more particularly fitt bodys for the several superior spirits , wherof probably every species doth require a various mistion , aswell as some variation of the figure and density of the matter , which is so varied by the various mistion of these elementary spirits . now that they are fower such elements as i have described , doth plainly appear by their denominations in the first chaos , and their orderly preparation in the three first days , for the production of the superior spirits , vegetative , and sensitive ; which i shall more fully discover in my ensuing discourses therof . and as i have proved that they are not only matte● , nor any diversifications therof ; but do so diversify the matter , as their body for themselvs ; ( and much less are they produced out of any potentia of the matter ) so also are the superiour spirits no diversifications of them , but do so diversify them for themselvs in their various mistions . by all which precedent discourses i have sufficiently proved that there are such inferior substances and spirits which are the bodys or elements of the superior , otherwise all material spirits should only be matter , or they should be without their bodys , and consequently immaterial : wherefore if they have such bodys , and yet are not the same with those bodys , then plainly they are the spirits , or more active and operative substances which inform or inspirit those bodys , and reside , and operate therin , as their domicils , and officines ; which i therefore call their element or subordinate , and preparatory substance , or elementary principle , of the compositum , which together with the predominant spirit therof doth constitute it such a compositum as it is : by which composition and constitution it is generated , and so denominated by the predominant spirit therof to be of this or that classis in the scale of nature . and this is all that i intend by element generaly ; and whosoever frames any other notion therof , may thereby doubt and dispute it , and fight with his own shadow ; though more particularly we call these first and lowest spirits which immediately consubstantiate the matter elementary , and so the fower elements ; becaus they are the first and lowest of spirits , and the first elements therof . and sensibly in all dissolutions of any material composita , as we may still deprehend matter , which is the praeelement of all others , so also these fower elements , which can not now naturaly exist pure , as they did in the first chaos , though we call them this or that element , as any of them is more predominant . and so in the carcass of any beast , when it is dead , yet there may be still some other spirits remaining , but most apparently the elementary ; and so in the trunk of a dead tree , or timber , or the like : and there is not only one , but all fower , which also do always remain in all chymical separations whatsoever ; so that the caput mortuum is not only matter , or only one element , as in the first chao● , nor their spirits , as they term them , only spirits , but also corporeal matter , and all the fower elements , and having some various mistion therof , whereby any caput mortuum still differs notably from others , and any such chymical spirit from others ; which could not be if they were most simple substances in themselvs , or matter , and only one spirit , which would make only one compositum therof , not specificaly different from others . nor is it possible for any art , or any power of nature ( according to the present state therof which was first instituted by god ) to separate these fower elements one from another ; though they are and may be variously mist one with another , as also it is not possible to destroy their fower great elementary bodys , ae●her , air , water , an● earth , in the whole ; which though they are also mist one with another , ( and so denominated from the predomination of every one severaly in those general bodys ) yet that predomination of their elementary spirit is so notable , and their vast bodys so notorious , that they do ocularly declare to every ey their fower elementary natures , and also that they are the common elements , and prepared bodys of all superior spirits , within this elementary orb , which they wholy divide among themselvs , and are the great storehouses and stocks of nature , from which all elementary bodys were borrowed , and to which the inferior do return again . and accordingly they are as fower several provinces , variously inhabited and furnished with all the composita , starrs , vapors , and meteors , fishes , beasts , and the like , and situated according to the predominance of their proper elementary bodys , and requisite station therof in several spheres one above another , so as no planetical orbs are . and heer i must also observ from my text , that there are only fower such elements , and no more ( nor any such several kinds of them , or of any of them ; as is expressly said of vegetatives , and sensitives , as i shall shew heerafter . ) and therefore we have no mention of stones , metalls , and the like , in this history of the creation , as of several elementary kinds , becaus they are only several composita of these fower elements . wherefore we must also understand that there are not only fower first qualitys of these fower first elements , as some have supposed , which could never make so many and so very different sorts of elementary composita , as there are in nature ; nor yet may we assigne to any one element besides its own proper first quality some other social quality of another element in a more remiss degree , as to ae●her or fire besides heat intens , drines remiss : for no spirit whatsoever hath any proper spiritual quality of another spirit either intens or remiss ; of and in itself , becaus every such spiritual substance is a proper spirit in itself , and hath its own proper qualitys differing specificaly , ( besides such as are genericaly common to the same genus ) whereby only we know it to be what it is ; and thus , unles we should affirm aether , or fire , to be also earth , we can not assigne any drines to it , as any proper quality subsisting in it , and flowing from it ; and certeinly it is no affection of the matter , as extension , figure , density , gravity , motion , or the like , which may be common to spirits in respect of their bodys : also if it were a proper quality of any other spirit it should not be remiss , but most intens ; for every such spirit naturaly acts to the utmost , and there is nothing in itself to hinder it , becaus no nature doth obstruct or restrain its own operations , unles it be spontaneous ( for that indeed is an effect of spontaneity ) nor doth heat naturaly hinder drines , but should rather advance and assist it , as all qualitys of the same spirit are generaly assistant one to another ; and so indeed may the accidents of several substances , as of matter and spirits , be analogous , and of several spirits , homoeogeneous ; though they be not homogeneous , as i shall shew heerafter : and thus drines is more concordant with heat then with cold , which is contrary to heat ; though neither of them be any proper qualitys of the same spirit of aether , or fire , but of other elements : nor doth heat properly or directly dry more then moisten , but only consequentialy , as i shall also shew heerafter . but they who can affirm all the elementary spirits to be educed out of the potentia of matter , and that one element may be transpeciated or converted into another , may also affirm what they pleas of their qualitys , and transfer them from one to another : which suzugy of qualitys they have also invented , as they suppose to reconcile and mediate between contrary qualitys ; though they be not any degrees of either of them , but proper qualitys in themselvs , and accidents of other substantial spirits : nor doth that contrariety of qualitys need any such mediation , being produced by degrees out of their potentialitys , which are not contrary actualy , or otherwise mist by degrees into their actual contemperature . the ignorance of which doctrine of the chaos , and the potentialitys therof , and the imaginary supposition of such a potentia of the matter , out of which not only existences , but the very essences both of accidents , and also substances , may be educed , by equivocal causalitys , transpeciations , and such new kinds of creation , and annihilation , as men have pleased to invent , instead of the true creation , and chaos , which god hath made , and revealed to us , hath been the fundamental error , and root of all the consequential absurditys . but yet while they thus grope in the dark , they catch at some shadows of truth ; as plainly their potentia doth allude to the doctrine of potentialitys , and is substituted instead therof : and so this supposition of several different qualitys in the same substance doth partly intimate another great mystery in nature , which i shall now discover and unfold ; that is , that indeed there are several qualitys also created essentialy in one and the same substance , proper to itself , and so subsisting in it , and flowing from it , as i have already declared concerning matter and the affections therof ; not only mediately , as figure from extension , and gravity from density , and the like , ( which are only several and realy distinct products or propertys of the same qualitys ) but as others immediately subsisting in , and flowing from it ; as extension , and density , which are not such several propertys one of another , for so the same orbicular or cubical extension and figure may be either dens or rare , grave or ligh● , and the same density or rarity , gravity or levity , may be of any extension or figure whatsoever ; and they are not concerned otherwise one in another , but only as they are social qualitys of the same substance : so as every extension or figure must have some density , and all density some extension and figure indefinitely . and thus in the aether there is not only heat , but also light , and planetary or circular motion , and perhaps several other principles of influential virtues and qualitys not only proceeding one from another , as particular propertys , but immediately subsisting in , and flowing from the ae●hereal substance ; and so cold , and some active principle of sound , and others , in air ; moisture and some active principles of odor , and sapor , and others , in water ; drines , opacity , consistence , and magnetike polarity , and others , in earth : as certeinly we all know that there are such various virtues in vegetative and sensitive spirits . of all which i shall discours heerafter , and now only observ that of these , and the various mistures and temperatures therof , all the elementary composita , like so many arithmetical changes , are compounded , which therefore are not mentioned in this history of the creation ; becaus they are only compounded of such other simple essences before mentioned , and not of any new essence created in the begining , and not before mentioned , as vegetative , and sensitive spirits , and the particular sydereous spirits : wheras all sulphureous , mercurial , saline , sanguineous , bilious , phlegmatike , oleous , saxeous , vitreous , ligneous , carneous , coriaceous , osseous , corneous , and many other such elementary q●alitys , are not simple in themselvs , but compounded of others , which are such , and were the first created essences , and principles therof . and if we could investigate and find out all those simple qualitys ( wherof very many are still occult to us ) none of these compound qualitys could be any longer occult. and yet many curious and chymical wits , becaus they will not freely acknowledg their own , which yet indeed is human ignorance , and common to us all , will also substitute as simple principles , such compound qualitys of sal , sulphur , and mercury , though others among themselvs not satisfied heerwith do also assigne many more of the rest ; and yet none of them all are principles or simple essences , but only compounds , and decompounds of others , or one of another . and the last chymical separation that can be made , sensibly will be only a reduction to the fower first elements , that is , to somthing wher●n one of them is most predominant , as in their fower great elementary bodys ; though like them they can never be perfectly unmist and separated . thus sulphur is as fire , predominant in the composition therof , mercury as water , and sal as earth ; but becaus air is the most insensible of all elements , therefore they have not observed it among the rest in their separations , nor in this or any other of their distributions : so that if we should wholy trust to chymists , we might even lose one of the fower elements ; though they are to be commended heerin that they have not assigned or set up mercury volant , which is only a vapor , instead of it . also like air there are many other simple essences of elementary qualitys , which in their mistion with others do not sensibly so betray themselvs , as those which they call the fower first qualitys , and yet philosophers have found out the sent of some of them , as opacity , magnetical virtue , and the like ; which i shall endeavour to prosecute and promote as farr as i may in some previous essays , and so recommend the more curious search therof unto others , as one of the greatest desiderata in philosophy : and now proceed farther . as elements are the second matter , or prepared body of vegetatives , so are they also of sensitives , as a third matter , or prepared body therof ; and so sensitives do comprehend subordinately in their composition vegetatives immediately , and mediately the elementary spirits , and by them more mediately the matter , and vegetatives immediately the elementary spirits , and mediately the matter , and elementary spirits immediately the matter ; but not convertibly ; nor are any of the superior educed out of the potentia of the inferior , becaus they are superior , but only subordinate them unto themselves , as i haue said . and as elementary spirits require several diversifications of the matter to make fitt bodys therof for themselvs , and accordingly diversifie it by their own architecture , so do vegetative spirits both it and the elementary bodys , and so effigiate it , and temper them , for their own proper use , as i have said . and i suppose all plastike virtue to be from these inferior spirits ; that is , inorganical from elementary , and organical from vegetative : and though the sensitive spirits do predominate and may govern them , yet that is in another and higher maner by sponta●eous perception and appetite , as living souls ; and their plastike virtue is of a mechanike and another more vital kind , that is , artificial and i●genious : and so that they are not architects of their own bodys , as hath been supposed by others , but of their cells , nests , houses , and the like artificial habitations : for if a beast first live the life of a plant , then certeinly the sensitive spirit , which doth not yet live and operate doth not fabricate the curious structure of its own embryonical body . also all sensitive operations are with sensation , that is , perception and appetite ; but we do not so sens the daily concoction , nutrition , and a●gmentation of our own bodys , nor formation of seed therin ; and therefore it is not the proper work of the sensitive spirit , but of the vegetative , which is apparently plastical in itself , and forms its own body organicaly , as in trees , herbs , and grass , nor hath any one spirit in itself the proper qualitys of another . and though elementary spirits are definitely fower and no more , yet these vegetative and also sensitive spirits , are indefinite ; and it is so said of them , that they were brought forth after their kinds indefinitely , and so all these species of beasts and fowls were preserved in the ark , and can not be multiplied , nor shall be diminished . nor are there only such several spirits of trees , herbs , grass , and of every species of them , which by a proper plastical virtue created in and with them by god do severaly effigiate their proper bodys , and the organism therof , but also proper subordinate vegetative spirits of fishes , fowls , and beasts , and of every species of them , which doth so effig●ate their proper bodys , and the organism therof : yet as the vegetative spirits are not also elementary , nor do , nor indeed can , contein the contrary qualitys therof in themselvs , so neither do sensitive contein in themselvs vegetative and their facultys , though they are compounded with their several and proper vegetative spirits which organise their sensitive bodys , and which i suppose can not be so organised by the same plastike virtue of any t●ee , herb , or grass , which is proper to the spirit therof , and would only make it to be of that shape and substance . and co●seq●ently i conceiv that there is also a proper mi●tion and temperature of the elementary spirits and qualitys , which is so subordinate and sub●ervient to the sensitive spirit , and that they are all consubstantiated together in and with the matter in the sensitive compositum . and lastly , a proper sensitive body thus prepared is a fourth matter or body , of the intellective spirit of man ; and the body of adam , into which god first inspired his human spirit , was such , and more then a statue of clay , as is commonly supposed . and this spirit of man thus inspired is of another and farr different kind from all the former , which were not inspired into , but educed out of the inferior bodys therof ; nor is it so consubstantiated with them as material spirits , becaus it is immaterial , and a perfect substance in itself , which needeth no such consubstantiation , but like an angelical spirit can also live and operate separately . nor yet doth it only possess a body as an angel may ; but hath a natural union and composition with it , and doth naturaly inspirit or inform it , that is , live , and operate in it as in a fit● domicil and officine in this conjunct state ; and predominate and govern it , as a master in a ship. all which i shall more particularly declare heerafter , having now generaly treated therof only to discover and describe this scale of nature , as god did first erect it , a●d as it still stan●eth , whose basis is the matter , and whose acme the intellective spirit ; wherin man also is coordinate with the immaterial and separate spirits of angels . and so all created nature is not only localy but politicaly united , that is , all coordinate , except angelical and human spirits , may be properly mist , but subordinate , except angels , only composited together , but not confounded , either by transpeciation of one species into another , or production of one out of another , as some have supposed ; nor , by midle natures , or participles , as they call them , partaking of the natures of several classes , which is more monstrous and anomalous then the generation of mules , and the like , which are only of one and the same classis , though of two confused species therin ; but every one is in itself either spirit , or not spirit , as all elementary , and other material spirits ; vegetative , or not vegetative , as moss and the like ; sensitive , or not sensitive , as all plantanimals , intellective , or not intellective , as idiots , lunatiks , or other human monsters : though there be such compositions and subordinations classes and hosts of them all , and of one unto and with another , as i have declared ; and as moses hath concluded this history of the creation , thus the heavens and earth were finished , and all the hosts of them . vi. and yet some , who will not so understand it , seem to deny any such scale and order of nature , and any such oeconomy and polity therof ; becaus they also deny those very natural principles , powers , and virtues , which god hath immediately created , and imprinted therin ; since they can educe no such things from the rude matter , nor indeed doth any such wisdom or will appear to be actively in any inferior natures which are neither sensitive , or intellective ; nor yet doth it proceed from the sensitive , and intellective facultys in the superior natures , nor is it in the universal nature of them all , and therefore they laugh at all such expressions , as that nature intendeth the best , affecteth union , abhorreth vacuity , and the like : and i suppose no man so void of of sens and intellect as to conceiv it capable therof , but when we see and must acknowledg such analogous effects therin , we must ascribe them to some analogous causalitys , and express them by such analogous expressions , which is all that is intended thereby ; that is , that god hath so ordered , compaginated , and as the apostle saith , catartis●d , nature , that it doth naturaly caus the same effects , and indeed more powerful and political , then our intellective and all the sensitive spirits therin can caus and produce . and that god doth not so caus these wonderful effects immediately by himself as he doth supernaturaly conserv all things which he hath created , upholding them by the same word of his power ; but mediately by natural principles , powers and virtues , which he who is infinitely powerful and wise , so immediately first created and imprinted in nature , and thus sett it in order in the six days , whereby it doth and shall so continue in itself untill the last dissolution therof , to caus and produce such effects ; which certeinly as none can deny them realy to be such , so unles he ascribe them unto the immediate power and wisdom of god himself , and so only to such a continued creation without any other natural causation ( wheras he saith , he rested from all these works which he had thus made and set in order in the six days ) he must acknowledg them to be also natural and created causalitys then produced and actuated , ( which indeed were the very works of all the six days ) becaus ever since there are manifestly such effects , and therefore there must necessarily be some causes therof , either supernatural or natural ; for such order , oeconomy and polity can not be reasonably supposed to be casual , becaus it is , not only most regular , but also most constant ( which yet epicurus , who was more rational and true to his own principles , did affirm ) but must be either , as some others affirm , by such immediate divine causation , which doth render all philosophy ( which is the study of nature and natural causes and effects ) vain and impertinent : or otherwise it must be by such natural principles , powers , and virtues , as we have : as i have declared and proved to have been so created and instituted ; and this indeed is that which we call n●ture , subsisting in all the particular natures , which do particularly so concurr and cooperate therin ; not the●●●● any such active wisdom or will in themselvs , but by the●● 〈◊〉 natural principles , powers , and virtues , which god , who crea●●d and imprinted them severaly and particularly , did also so coordinate and direct relatively and maturely one toward another as that they should so concurr and cooperate to the universal good , safety , and beauty of one another , and of them all , and consequently of this universal nature . as an artist who makes a clock or watch , or the like , so frames the wheels and parts therof , and so setts them together , and so applys the weight or springe therunto , that they shall all cooperate and complete the engine , for that use , and the production of that effect , which he had designed : and as art , which is the nature of man , doth thus work by artificial and external application of natural and internal principles , powers , and virtues , so doth nature , which is the art of god , act and effect the like , and more curious engines , who● by them , naturaly and internaly : whereby not only the weight or springe , but also the very plastical figuration , gravity , motion , and mutual application , is so caused and produced , though without any such artificial wisedom , or will , in any automatous compositum , more then in the clock or watch itself , but by created impressions in the one naturaly and intrinsecaly as the others are so effected by violent and extrinsecal application of that which is natural in itself . and yet they who can affirm sensation , and perhaps intellection itself , to be only motions of the matter , might also , if they pleased , ascribe therunto sens and intellect , ( as some have affirmed elementary natures to be sensitive ) which would not only satisfy their doubt heerin , but also confirm their opinion of the other , though both be equaly fals , and most contrary to all sens , and intellect . and this acknowledged and agreed want of any such wisedom and will in nature , which yet doth produce such undeniable effects , doth most sensibly and intelligibly prove a most wise , and willing , first caus , that is , god , who , as i have already proved , that he created all things out of nothing in the begining by his infinite power , so he also both created them in their first chaos , and afterward ordered them in the six days , and so catartised the whole frame of nature with such polity and oeconomy , as doth invincibly prove his creating wisedom , and will , by these created effects therof , which are so naturaly produced by nature , as it is gods creature , artifice , and engine ; and yet itself hath neither wisedom , nor will actively , as intelligent creatures have in themselves . and thus the rude matter which of all others hath least therof , yet hath thus naturaly in itself motion to union , and also to station , and thereby doth naturaly cast the whole body therof into a perfect orb , which is the most united , uniform , and capacious figure ; which also every particular body therof doth affect and endeavor as farr as it can , and doth place all the particular bodys in their due position . and if matter may act thus politicaly without any policy in itself , why may not also material spirits , which are more spiritual and active , have their particular plastical vertues , whereby they may also effigiate their bodys in fitt and requisite figures for themselvs , inorganicaly , or organicaly , and oeconomicaly , though they have no oeconomical wisedom , or will , in themselvs . and even in sensitives the same effects are produced without their sentiment , and so ●et man , who comprehends all these inferior natures in himself , consyder his own body ; and whether he doth caus and order the introduction of his finger to union , or the falling down of his body through the air to station , or can hinder them with all his sens , and intellect , or whether therewith and thereby he doth plasticaly figurate and effigiate all his members , or can add a cubit to his stature , or doth so perform those most curious and chymical works of nutrition , augmentation , sanguification , seminification , and the like . and this polity and oeconomy is not proper to any one nature , but is particularly in every one , and universaly in all , which are not only subordinate , but do accordingly communicate one with another . thus every individual nature is a compositum of more or less principles or parts , and more or less oeconomicaly composed , and ordered , according to the particular nature and orb therof , which is heerin a module of the great orb of the univers . so also all specifical natures , which are homogeneous , do comply and consort together and open their bodys one to another , and so also generate one another , and there is some accord , though less among homaeogeneous , and as we say , par pari ; and there are certein analogys and confederacys between heterogeneous ; yea even advers and contrary natures do thus conspire together for the common good , as rest and motion to union , which may be upward , and to station which is downward , and so heat and cold , moisture and drines , do all make a fitt temperature for all elementary , as well as vegetative , and sensitive composita . and their own proper qualitys can not actualy exist without such temperature of and with the rest ; which is their political perfection , though the others be their own proper and private perfections . and therefore in the chaos , though the elementary spirits did then accordingly constitute the matter of their fower great bodys by requisite proportions of extension , spherical , and globular figures , density , rarity , and their several stations , and the like ; yet they could not actualy produce their own heat , cold , moisture , drines , and their other active qualitys , before they were prepared and predisposed by the divine spirit with fitt mistions and contemperations ; nor could they , or can they , yet exist in their utmost vehemence and intension , without such contemperation ( which as i have said is most wonderfully produced by degrees out of their potentialitys into such mist and contemperate actualitys , more naturaly then by their actual extremitys , which violently oppugn one another , and thereby endeavor to destroy one another ) and such actual concertation and oppugnation , which at last doth destroy one or both of them ; as flame , which is almost continualy incensed and extinguished , and the like : and yet these contrary qualitys of the elementary spirits are thus naturaly miscible , wheras the proper accidents or affections of any substances of different classes are not nor can not be so m●st in their consubstantiated composita . as in a sensitive compositum the extension , figure , density , gravity , motion , and the like affections of the m●tter are not so mist with any of the spiritual qualitys ; though they are united or composited in the whole compositum . nor the elementary qualitys with the vegetative , nor the vegetative with the sensitive , but as their substances are of several classes , which can not be so mist as they of the same classis , though composed together , so they continue several in themselvs , though they mutualy contribute and cooperate in the whole , becaus they subsist in their own several substances . and becaus individual and specifical natures do thus confederate , therefore there is also such a polity and oeconomy of the universal nature which doth subsist in them all ; and not only a scale of degrees , wherof i discoursed before , but a republike of all the cives and societys therof . and as beauty , virtue , piety , and their symmetrical and conformable excellencys , are the most excellent things in nature , so is this polity , and oeconomy , the strength , goodnes , and glory therof . wherefore as he is no very good anatomist , who though he may know all the several members , parts , and particles , of the body as they are in themselvs , yet knoweth nothing de usu partium , and the whole composition , cooperation , and benefits therof ; so he is no good philosopher , who though he could know all the atoms , and corpuscles of matter , and all spirits , and substances , and all their accidents , and affections , and the very essences both of substances , and accidents ; as well as their existences , severaly , as they are in themselvs , yet knoweth not , or rather will not know any thing of their mutual union , analogy , confederacy , cooperation , oeconomy , and polity , and all the benefits and advantages therof , which god hath created in and with this republike of entitys , which we call nature ; and so nature doth accordingly effect , not only for his own use and service , but also for his contemplation ; whereby he doth neither acknowledg god to be the god of nature , nor indeed nature to be nature , nor her mundus any mundus , and so renders his own philosophy no philosophy ; which are such absurditys , that i doubt he who only reads this discours , may esteem it idle and superfluous , but if he also read their discourses , he will find that they have made it necessary . and i rather fear that all this , and much more that may be said , will not be sufficient to convince them , whose delicate witts are grown so wanton , that they can not be pleased with any thing unles it be some curious novelty , and ingenious error , and so much delight to wander in the wild labyrinth therof ; that they care not to be brought out of it ; where i shall therefore leav them to themselvs , and proceed in the beaten path of common and solid truth , which god hath sett out and reve●led in this history of creation , wherin he hath shewed us how it was his very counsel and designe , thus to sett the whole frame of nature in order in the six days , whereby he did perfect it , and distinguish it from the first chaos ; and as he did proclaim the particular goodnes of his particular works in their several days , wherin they were so ordered , so when the whole system therof was finished , god saw every thing which he had made , and behold it was very good : which valde and the emphatical addition therof plainly shews another entity and bonity of universal nature , subsisting in all the particular natures besides their particular entitys and bonitys , which were before declared . and this is the law and order and oeconomy of the whole houshold and family of nature , which indeed is nature , and was thus setled and fixed in the whole series and cours therof , and so still continued by virtue of the divine benediction in all successive generation and corruption ; as the psalmist saith , he commanded and they were created , he hath stablished them for ever and ever , he hath made a decree which shall not pass : whereby all things are thus constituted and united into one great compositum of the univers , wherin they are all either coordinate , and inservient , or subordinate , and subservient one unto another . and particularly this whole visible world unto man , as i shall shew heerafter , and men and angels immediately unto god , the author , and end , of the whole creation . section vii . and god said , let there be light ; and there was light. and god saw the light that it was good. and god divided the light from the darknes . and god called the light day , and the darknes he called night . and the evening and the morning were the first day . explication . god produced out of the aether the proper qualitys therof , and particularly light , whereby it was perfected , and which was the goodnes therof , conformable to the divine wisdom and will of the creator , and law of cr●●tion . and he made diurnal light to be in one hemisphere of the aether , which was divided from nocturnal darknesin the other , and so made day and night artificial . and the evening which commenced from the begining , and the morning of diurnal light , were together the first day natural . illustration . . of aether . . of heat . . of light. . of color . . of day and night . . of the goodnes of the works of the first day . i. having before discovered and declared the general system of nature , i sh●ll now more particularly discours of the several kinds of creatu●es as they were in the six days ; wherof aether is the first ( being that firmament of heaven mentioned in the fourth day , and so made before ) which is supreme of all the elements , and next to superaether ( which is superelementary , as i have said , and probably was perfected when it was created in the begining ) and yet aether hath been esteemed to be the very highest and utmost sphere of the whole world by heathen , who made it to be their superaether , or caelum daemoniac●m , wherin they placed all their chief idols , which were the planets and starrs therof ; being indeed not only the highest , but also the the greatest , and most glorious , of all spectable creatures . and some of their philosophers induced therunto , or in compliance with the popular religion , did not only deny the aether to be elementary , and igneous ; but also seemed to doubt whether the very matter therof were common and homogeneous with elementary matter ; as certeinly it must be , if it be m●tter , ( which is one most common and homogeneous substance in itself , and only diversified according to the several accidents and affections therof , that are indeed common to all matter ) and it must be matter , otherwise it could not be a body . and so is also the very superaether , and all bodys whatsoever . but the matter and body of ae●her is most rare of all the elements , becaus the spirit therof doth so require it , and caus it to be ; and therefore , as i have said , it is highest of all elements , though not so rare as the superaether , which is therefore the highest of all bodys . and so rarity of matter , becaus it hath less matter in the same extension , hath therefore some fitnes and analogy to a more spiritual substance , and is as it were a more spiritual body , as more gross spirits are more material : and this chief elementary spirit of aether requireth a more rare matter then the rest , and so also doth culinary fire rarefy , as i shall shew heerafter ; but yet , as i have said , the most rare matter is matter , as well as the most dens , and not spirit , but of another different classis . and as the body therof is very rare , so also it is very fluid , though rarity and fluidity be not one and the same , more then density and consistence ; yet as density is analogous to consistence , so is rarity to inconsistence or fluidity . and therefore an adamantine , golden , brazen , or specular aether , or planets therin , are rather poetical , then philosophical . and wheras elihu saith , hast thou with him spread out the sky , which is strong , and as a molten looking glass , or speculum ? the word sky , also signifieth upper clouds in the original , and if it were to be rendred sky , might be aswell understood of the air , which is an expansum , and spread out , as well as aether ; and that very expansion seems to imply no consistence in either of them : and the comparison is not of a consistent , but a molten or fusile speculum , such as water or the like : now plainly the text intendeth the upper clouds , wherof the precedent discours is in the context , and which being anhydrous do so reflect the light , like such a molten looking glass . and yet translators render expansum ( as it is originaly ) firmament , in favor and compliance with graecian philosophy ; wheras certeinly the air , which is also termed expansum as well as aether , is not solid or firm. and the reason assigned why the aether should be solid and firm is more vain then the hypothesis ; which is , becaus it moves one way , and the planets therin another way , and therefore there must be seaven spheres of them , and an eighth of the fixed starrs , and to these is since added a ninth , and a tenth , which must be the primum mobile , to solv these phaenomena . wheras in the first day there was only one circumvolution of the whole aether , one and the same way , to make day and night , and so untill the fourth day ; and then we do not read of any such division therof into spheres , as of the disposition of the water and earth into a terraqueous globe , but only of the creation of the starrs . nor is this supposition of aethereal spheres any solution of the several advers motions ; for perhaps the slower motions of the fixed star●s ( as they are therefore so termed comparatively ) which are also advers to the motion of the aether may be as several , and then they must also allow as many several spheres for every one of them , and so for any of the planetary satellites about another planet . also the circumvolution of them by the primum mobile must be either by a corporeal and external impu●s , and then they must cohere to it like the circular spheres of an onion ( which is the usual comparison ) which cohesion will also make the circumvolution conjunct and one and the same way ; as if you turn an onion so about : otherwise if they do not so cohere , no motion of the inferior spheres will be caused by the circumvolution of the superior or primum mobile , as if you turn a wheel about an axis without any contact ; much less can it move all the others so many several ways ; or it must be by some spiritual potentia which must be either of another spirit , and so infinitely ; or of itself , as indeed it is , and then the several planets and starrs may also aswell have such several potentiae in themselvs , as the primum mobile , and so many several spheres moving themselvs and their several planets in them by such several and advers motions : also firmnes or consistence is a proper quality of earth , as i shall shew heerafter , and not of aether ; and though the aether be mist with all the other elements in some small proportion , yet the consistence which it ha●h thereby is very inconsyderable , and less then of air , and water ( which yet are denominated fluid bodys , and not consistent ) and is rather like the terrene opacity therof , which doth not fix any color in aether , nor reflect like earth , or water , though very much assisted by the vast profundity therof , which is somwhat analogous to opacity , as well as density ; as may appear by deep water which seems more black , and specular , then shallow . the spirit of aether is fire , as the very name therof doth import ; which also plainly declareth the common opinion of the antient graecians ( though they who deny the thing would also elude the etymology . ) and so the persia●s , who worshipped the sun , therefore consecrated fire , and used it in their mysterious ceremonys . and all language , both sacred , and profane , hath ever stiled the sun hott , which all sens doth likewise attest , ( though this also and any thing whatsoever will be evaded by a resolved error : ) and instead therof fire is placed in a new invented sphere or province , which it must have in conformity to the great b●dys of the other elements , and which is termed , concavum lunae , or caelum incognitum . all which absurditys were only philosophical inventions to preserv the idolatrous reverence and religion of h●aven , which is now together with them to be exploded by christianity . nor do i suppose ae●hereal and culinary fire to be several elements genericaly different , becaus they have the same proper qualitys , heat , light , and others ; though they may perhaps d●ffer more specificaly ; becaus aether hath other proper qualitys , as circular motion , and infl●ential virtues , which may not be in the other , or at least not actualy ; as the e●e●entary earth hath magnetical virtue , wh●ch is not actualy in all terrene bodys : and there is certeinly a grea●er mistion of the other elements in culinary fire , which renders it more impure then aethereal . but there is heat very notably in aether , which is instrumental in the rapid motion therof ; for heat being a most active quality is also very motive ; i know not whether any actual heat can ●e without actual motion ; though heat be not only motion , nor motion heat , as i shall shew heerafter . and this motion of aethereal heat must necessarily be circular , becaus , as i have shewed , if there be more motion then the body moving can exercise and expend directly , it will move it circularly ; and aether can not move any other way ; for being more rare then air , it will not move downward into it , and being more dens then superaether , which is also superelementary and most heterogeneous , it can not move upward into it ; but being already in its own proper sphere , and station , it moves only in it , which must be circularly ; and therefore also it move● perpetualy , becaus it is moved by its own proper potentia , which is alway actual in itself , and not corrupted or obstructed by any other ; and it therefore moves equaly , becaus there is none other causality to make any increments or decrements therof . and it is by a spiritual q●ality in itself which is not to rest as the motion of matter . nor is it invaded by the supe●ae●her ; and it is defended from the ambient air by that rapid motion , which affordeth no time requisite for the air to operate upon it : and therefore it is more ingenerable , and incorrupt●ble , then the inferior elements , and probably doth not emitt a●y of its own matter : and yet by its emissary rays is itself the greatest operator of them all , and doth generate and corrupt them ; and so generaly all superior elements do most operate upon the inferior , and the inferior less upon the superior . nor doth it need any fuel , becaus it is not continualy incensed , and extinguished , like flame , whose individuality is therefore varied as successively as the f●me , but ae●her hath its own spiritual potentia always actual in i●self , whic● is not corrupted nor o●structe● by any other● . but i conceiv that the regularity of the aet●ere●l circ●mvolution exactly in every day natural is from a special quality which was also actu●ted therin in this first day and so continu●th , and is a natural motion therof an●●ogous to the v●rricity of the m●●net , whereby it reduceth ●tself to the regularity of ●ts polar position . and this i colle●t from the text , wherin 〈◊〉 said , that god so made day and night the●in : and though the proper aethereal virtue according to that general power therof doth so carry it about with a perfect regularity , yet since it hath been accursed and blasted as well as earth for the sin of man there are many particular alterations , generations , and corruptions , appearing in it , such as maculae , comets , and the like ; as i shall shew heerafter , which plainly prove both that it was mist with the other elements , and was a generated compositum in the first perfection therof , and that now it is imperfect : and yet the diurnal motion therof is still as regular as before , as well as the constant and immovable position of the earth : and therefore most probably there is some other special quality which doth preserv it in that regularity , as verticity doth the earth and magnets in their polar positions . and as this element is most active and operative , so god , who doth nothing in vain , and is stiled the god of order , and not of confusion , did therefore first perfect it , and produce the active qualitys therof , as the chymical instruments of nature , whereby it was first sett on work ; and so at last when he shall dissolv this whole elementary world , it shall be by fire , both aethereal , and culinary , congregated and condensated ( as before the fountains of the great deep were broken up , and also the cataracts of heaven opened ) and shall thereby again melt down this whole inferior globe , if i may so speak , with a deluge of fire , as he did formerly overflow the terraqueous globe , with a deluge of water ; wherof he hath thus farr declared unto us the maner , but not the time ; for of that day and hour knoweth no man , no not the angels in heaven ; nor may we compute it by any motions of the heavenly bodys , or of any of them ; for this dissolution not being natural , but violent , doth therefore attend no natural causality , but may be at one time as well as another . ii. the spirit of aether being fire , the most proper qualitys therof are apparently heat , and light ; which are neither one and the same in themselvs , nor do immediately subsist or proceed in , or from one another , but both in and from the substantial spirit . for apparently one may be actualy without the other , as heat without light , in fume ; and if there be not also light without heat , as in the gloworm , and other such bodys , yet certeinly the actual heat is not proportionable to the actual light therof : and heer in the text light only is named , and not heat , though they are partly synonymous in their original etymology , and very congenerous and social qualitys in nature , proceeding from the same substantial spirit . but i can not conceiv drines , as i have said , to be any second quality proceeding from heat , nor indeed very symbolical or homaeogeneous with it , but rather another collateral quality of earth , and indifferent between heat , and cold ; for vapors , oils , and the like , which are very moist bodys , are more inflammable then salts , and ashes , which are very dry , and all heat doth melt or prepare for fusion , which doth actuate moisture ; wherefore all consistent bodys generaly are actualy cold , and actualy dry , or at least , indifferent to either heat , or cold , to be actuated in them . but the proper action of heat is to heat , or univocaly to generate or produce heat out of other inflammable bodys ; which thereby it doth also move , becaus as i have said , it requires a most rare body , and so when heat begins to be actuated , it begins to rarefy the body heated , which being an expansion therof , necessarily causeth some local motion : and so it melteth and prepareth for fusion by rarefaction , and even iron heated doth swell before it melt ; and in order therunto it doth convell and corrode the parts of the bodys , as may appear by the operation of aqua fortis in dissolution of metalls : and as it thus operateth in respect of corporeal rarefaction , or comminution , which is preparatory therunto , so it is spiritualy active in itself , and causeth motion , as a fitt and analogous instrument therof , aswell as in its own aether , as i have shewed ; though that be probably as rare as it can naturaly be , becaus it is the most rare element , and can not be more rarefied by any other elementary quality , and hath already produced the greatest rarity that it can in itself . but though motion be such a notable instrument of heat , as generaly it is also of all the operations of material spirits upon the matter , yet neither heat nor any others are only motion , as i have formerly shewed generaly , and shall now shew particularly concerning heat , which is not so much caused originaly by motion , as it is a caus therof , though the generator may generate heat , which was potentialy before in the body wherin it is actuated , by motion , as i have said , mediately , but more immediately by rarefaction ; and it s own aethereal motion is caused by its own natural heat , and not heat by motion : for so light and heat were created in it first , at least in order of nature , be●ore there was any such motion or circumvolut●on of the aether , which followed therupon , and whereby god d●vided the d●●rnal light from the nocturnal darknes ; and so made day and ni●●t artificial . also if motion be formaly heat , and heat motion , then cold which is the contrary therof m●st be rest , and rest col● ; which it is not ; for it doth both expand ice , and also compress water in the sealed weather glass ; and certeinly expansion and compression are not without m●tion , becaus they vary the extension , and consequently the locality of bodys so expanded or comprest . nor are motion and rest contrary actively , but only advers localy ; for rest is not active , and there●ore motion cannot be active●y contrary to rest ; a● i have shewed : but heat and cold are both active , and activ●●y contrary . and if any can suppose that heat is a motion one way , and cold another way , i desire them to assigne the different local motions of these , or any other spiritual qualitys , which they never yet have done , nor indeed can do , becaus they are no such motions naturaly . certeinly heat and cold , which are most contrary qualitys , require answerably contrary motions : but as there is no such contrariety between rest and motion , so neither is there in motion itself , wherof there is only a local opposition , as i have said : for motion is only one and the same principle , from which no such active contrariety can possibly proceed : though it may be an indifferent instrument of contrary agents , as of heat , and cold. again , heat and cold may be m●st together into one temperature , which we call tepor , and that is both hott and cold , though mist , and more remiss thereby ; wheras opposite motions can not be so mist , for if heat should be by local motion one way , and cold by it another way ( which though not properly contrary , yet must be diametricaly opposite and advers ) then one such motion must necessarily stay and stop the other , mutualy , whereby there should be no motion at all , and consequently neither heat nor cold : and this tepor is , as i have said , per omnia , and not only per minima , much less by any imaginary parallel , or meridional lines , or the like , which yet must intersect , and thereby also the moving parts must stay and stop one another : and i suppose if mathematical philosophers would pleas to reconsyder local motion according to mathematical rules , they would easily discover the vanity of any such hypotheses . but as heat doth thus caus motion by rarefaction , segregation , corrosion , and comminution , of some parts , so consequently by condensation , and congregation of others ; and so it is said to segregate heterogeneous , and congregate homogeneous parts ; becaus , when the whole body is rarefied and in fusion , the homogeneous parts naturaly congregate themselvs , and the heterogeneous are thereby segregated . and so in making of salt the vapors go one way and fly upward , and thereby the salt goeth together another way , and sinks downward . also thus though heat doth immediately rarefy , it may mediately condensate ; and as it doth immediately melt , so also mediately constipate ; as by rarefying the water , and melting it more into vapor , it condensates and constipates the salt , and more notably in syrups , tarr , and the like , which will be boiled into a gumm , or pitch , or into a consistence beyond them . and so it may have many other such collateral and consequential operations and effects . but there is not only heat inherent in the igneous body ; for plainly it heats at a very great distance , which must be by heat emanant , becaus all operation is by contact ; for as there is no vacuity between entitys , so neither in operations , between the operator and operated : and that there is such emanation both of heat and light i shall plainly shew heerafter , and also now observ , that there is another wonderfull property of emanant heat , which is attraction , and this is indeed the chief end of the emanation therof , by which it doth not only heat at a distance , but also draw other bodys to it , whereby it may more neerly and more strongly operate upon them by its inherent quality from which the emanant floweth forth , as i shall also plainly shew heerafter concerning electricity . and such an attractive heat is that which is called vital , whereby animals nourish themselvs , attracting their fomes , or materia nutritiva , by this heat , and then firmenting , concocting , congregating , segregating , and exercising all the other properties therof in order to their nutrition . also to this purpose there is a double power , or rather several degrees of heat , wherof one is calefactive , and more moderate , and temperate , which generates , nourishes and fosters , as the te●●● of the spring , incubation of fowls , and the like ; and the other caustike , and more intens and torrid ; which corrupts , destroys , and burns , as in all incendia . but certeinly heat itself is generated only by production out of potentiality into actuality , as i have said , either univocaly by fire alone ; as when wood burns in the fire , and the like ; or equivocaly , which may be by many other equivocal causes , whereby the potential heat may be freed and delivered out of its chaos , and prison of potentiality . and so it is generated by motion , as by collision of a flint and steel , or by rubbing of firecanes , wherin one may smell the fire before any such collision or rubbing , which was ready to break forth , and is freed by such commotion , and the fiery vapors or corpuscles thereby discharged ; and so by contrition , as coachwheels will sometimes be fired ; and generaly all terrene bodies rubbed do heat , becaus , as earth hath the greatest and grossest mistion with all the other elements , so it hath commonly a notable portion of fire in it . and it plainly appears that the motion is only instrumental heerin , becaus other things do thus also equivocaly generate heat ; as water cast upon quick-lime , and vapor in thunder-clouds , hay-stacks , and the like : and it likewise appears that they do only thus equivocaly and instrumentaly generate or produce it , because the flame therof afterward will be extinguished by water , or blown out by motion like any other fire . nor may we wonder much at the large quantity of fiery flame which is thus produced out of a little wood , or gunpowder , or the like , when we consyder ●he great rarefaction of water into vapor , and the vapor of fume , which incensed is flame , is yet more rarefied ; as may appear by the very quick and direct ascent therof , while it is in flame , through the ambient air ; wheras afterwards it ascends more slowly and in rowling volumes , or cincinni of smoak . and indeed we hardly perceiv or can conceiv how suddenly the individual flame passeth away , and is altered and re●novated . certeinly ignes fatui , stellae cadentes , and the like , continue much longer in their individualitys ; which is through their more temperate and generative heat , wheras the fire of flame is more caustike and corruptive , and both generates and corrupts so suddenly . but fire in iron candent ( which is not iron and fire individualy several , nor fire only in the pores of the iron , as hath been supposed any more then in fume ) for so glass which is imporous will also be candent ; but , as i have said , the fire wherewith the earth of the iron is mist , and which was before in it potentialy , being now actuated , doth appear and operate in it ; and becaus it doth emitt none or very little of the fiery vapor or fume , therefore doth not flame , or very little , and so reteineth the same individual fire actualy in itself much longer ; which may be so actuated in it again , and again ; becaus the fire therof is more fixed in the mistion , and less volatile : wheras if a very strong coal , as of the best oak , or birch , or the like , be incensed and inflamed very long in a furnace , ( which it will endure and yet come out whole and firm ) though it may be made candent again , yet it will not so kindle nor burn afterward , as it did before the fiery vapor therof was emitted and volatilised . and wheras some have projected to make fire perpetual , i esteem it possible if the same individual fire could alway be continued in a●tuality in the same body , as in iron , or gold , or the like ( as it is in the sun , and aethereal bodys ) but not practicable ( otherwise then as in our new iron harths , which do not only reflect , but also add the actual heat of the iron ; ) becaus the other elements , which are predominant in the mistion therof , and ambient about it , do always oppugn it , a●● though , while it is in act , it doth notably prevail against them all , yet at length they overcome and extinguish it by their density , or cold ; and if nature had not armed them all against it , there would be a present conflagration of them . and so perpetual fire would make a perpetual motion , which is possible , and not only actual in aether , but also in water , and yet not found to be practicable by art. also fire is corrupted by its own vehemence ; for by rarefying the body wherin it is , it dilates and weakens itself ; and lieth more open to the air , which thereby hath greater advantage , and power over it , nor indeed can any of these contrary qualitys exist in their utmost intension and extremity , which is contrary to the common law of nature , and their own particular nature is to be mist in contemperature , or at least to oppugn others ; and if either that mistion , or combat ceaseth , their activity also ceaseth ; and so they return into their potentiality , as i have before shewed . but fire as it is a hott spirit may be overcome with cold , as flame by the ambient air ; and as it requireth a rare body , so it is opprest or choaked by ●ore dens bodys , as water , which doth not extinguish fire by cold , ( though it hath some actual cold in it ) so much as by the fluid density therof , which insinuateth into , and invadeth all the fiery body ; and so water actualy heated will quench fire as well as actualy cold ; for that actual cold is very soon & easily overcome by the fire : and w●rm water is somwhat more rare vaporous and insinuative , and by the actual heat the fiery body is more opened unto it ( as univocal spirits do generaly open their bodys one unto another ) whereby it doth as well or better prevail against it then cold water . also warm liquors tinge or dy better then cold by their insinuation , but clammy , as milk , and the like do most notably suffocate fire , yet if the fire be not by such insinuation penetrated , but only covered with some continuous bodys it will not be suffocated , because its own body is the same , and not altered thereby ; and therefore iron candent in a box continues hott almost as long as it would out of it , wheras flame which is only a fiery vapor is soon putt out by an extinguisher ; which returns the vapor upon itself , and so stifles the flame : and if coals of fire be covered with some ashes , the fire in the body so covered doth long continue , though the flame emitted be presently extinguished thereby . and therefore it is to be observed , that as fume is a niggard , becaus it is not incensed , so flame which is so continualy emitted , is a great waster of fuel , and of the actual heat therof , which still passeth way ; and becaus it ascends , doth less diffuse the heat , but is therefore fitter for boiling ; for it being a fluid and subtile vapor , doth embrace other bodys with the inherent heat therof , which is much stronger then emanant proportionably , and by such insinuative penetration it doth better melt brass , and such other metalls , that are more penetrable by it , and more easily fusible in themselvs ; wheras iron is so robust contumacious and consistent in itself , that it doth not yield much to flame , but is to be melted by the contact of inherent fire of charcoal , and the like . again , if fire can overcome its enemy wholy , then it is more augmented by the potential fire therof , which it univocaly generateth and produceth also into the same actuality with itself ; as water cast in a small proportion upon a very ardent fire doth increas it , and assist it ( as smiths commonly find by such practice ) and i suppose fire may be made so intens , as to burn and spend the very fume and fuligo of the fuel . also there is apparently an antiperistasis between such contrary qualitys ( though some pleas to deny it by a greater antiperistasis of contradiction ) which doth excite them mutualy , but especialy the victor , which is commonly fire ; and this is the very nature of their contrariety , which , as i have said , marcet sine adversario , and the conqueror is both continued in his actual●ty , and increased in his activity , by the combat . and that i may not seem to speak metaphoricaly ; i shall plainly shew that there is realy such an intentional conflict in these inferior natures , though neither sensitive , nor intellective in themselvs . for thus is this combat between heat and cold managed , as it were , in a formed batell ; wherin first they draw out their forces to their frontires , not only their emanant , but also their inherent powers , and not circumferentialy after their ordinary maner , but purposely and directly , to that part , and toward that point , where the greatest opposition is ; and wheras otherwise their greatest power is generaly in their center , where it may best unite and fortify itself , ( for the same politike reason to preserv and defend itself ) it doth now issue forth to the very confines of its own body , and there encounter the contrary quality which would destroy it . as in a boiling pott the bottom therof which is next to the fire is most cold , so as you may safely feel it with your hand ; and so it is observed that the vital heat is internaly greater in winter then in summer : for contrary qualitys not mist but actuated in several substances do thus resist one another , as homogeneous qualitys do evoke and open their bodys one to another , and are more ready to unite and combine together . and where one contrary quality doth begin to prevail against the other , that retireth back again to its center where it is strongest , as heat to the stomack . and so in vesse●s of beer frozen , and , as some say of sack. but if one prevail so farr against the other as to rout and profligate it , then it flys away in vapor , or such fugitive corpuscles fitt to retein i● as in flames , and dissolutions , and the like . now wheras it is said that the motion of fire is upward toward its own element , though it be true that generaly it is so , yet i do not conceiv that to be the reason therof , becaus local motion upward , or downward , is immediately of the matter and body , and not of the spirit ; and therefore aether is uppermost , becaus it hath a most rare body , and so flame ascends upward , becaus it is vapor accensed , which by that accension is also more rarefied ; and wheras that is properly culinary fire ( wherin anyother element may be predominant in the mistion therof ) vapor or water rarefied is the most fitt body to retein it in its actuality ; for air , though as rare , yet hath a proper quality contrary to heat , that is cold , as i shall shew heerafter ; wheras the moisture of vapor is indifferent , as i have said , and therefore it exhibiteth a most lucid and subtile fire , and such as is most like to aethereal : but if the fire be actuated in a more aqueous or terrene body it doth , and necessarily must , descend ; and aurum fulminans incensed flys every way , with the severall bodys more rare , or more dens , that are segregated and dispelled by the explosion . iii. the other quality of aether is light ; which as it is most glorious in itself , and doth actuate the visibility of all this spectable world , so by the spiritual analogy therof , it doth not only discover the nature of other elementary qualitys , but also of vegetative and sensitive qualitys , and the very substances of spirits in some respects , symbolicaly and hieroglyphicaly ; so as i can not conceiv a fitter representation therof to sens then emanan● light , which is more , as i have said in statu separato then inherent , and more visible then magnetike virtue : and though light be not it self a substance , but an accident , yet accidents are real entitys aswell as substances , and have as real propertys , and real coextension ; which may be , according to their nature , analogous to the like propertys of substances . and as heat is the most chymical instrument in nature , ( and therefore some chymists have stiled themselvs philosophers by fire ) so light is a most philosophical instrument ; and a more exact study of optike , dioptrike , and catoptrike ( that is , of physical rather then mathematical ) might render us philosophers by light ; wherefore as i recommend the more curious and particular inquisition therof to others ; so i shall now generaly and occasionaly heerafter make some philosophical observations therupon in my ensuing discourses . but though light be such a conspicuous and consyderable quality , yet i do not therefore suppose it to be any substance , much less a body , or having any corporeity in itself ; and shall prove it to be no more a corporeal substance then heat ; and yet i do not remember that ever any hath affirmed heat to be any such substance , though heat and light be very homogeneous and analogous , and which is yet more strange , not inherent light , but only emanant is thus esteemed corporeal , though inherent be farr more like to such a substance then emanant : but becaus inherent is already in a body , we look upon it and the body in gross , and so take them both together ; wheras emanant is emitted out of the body , and is not inherent in any other body , and therefore some suppose it to be a bodily substance in itself ; becaus they do not distinguish between substances , and accidents , whose difference nothing can more discover unto us then this emanant quality , which is so far different from the substance that it is even localy separated from it , though originaly and continualy radicated and subsisting in it . i have already shewed that the whole work of the six days was no creation of any new elementary entitys , either substances , or accidents , but only a production of substantial composita , or of the actualitys of accidents out of their potentialitys ; and such , & none other , was this production of light in the first day , as i have also more particularly shewed in my former enumeration of all the six days works : wheras the substantial aether was one of the heavens expressly mentioned to have been created in the begining , and so the air was another , and both were then totaly dark , and afterward illuminated by this production of light out of darknes , as a lamp is now lighted by successive generation , or production of light , as an accident out of the potentiality therof into actuality ; which also declareth the original generation therof to have been none other ; though incension seem to be as like to a creation , and extinction to annihilation , as any other instances i know in n●ture . also the first light was only inherent in the aether , or emanant from that part therof wherin it was inherent into other parts of it , but not into the air which was not yet expanded or made diaphanous and fitt to transmitt it , still in the chaos of itself as well as water , and earth , untill the second day : for if the light , then also the heat of aether , should have been emanant into it , and that should have been transmitted to the water , and so caused the vapors to ascend in the first day ; which plainly was not , untill the second day . wherefore if this light were a substance in the air and water , and not only an emanant quality , flowing from the inherent light of aether , then either god must have created more parts of that luminous substance in the air and water in the second and third days , which is fals ; or produce it out of them as he did before out of aether : and so we must affirm the air and water to be inherently luminous in themselvs , which they are not ; otherwise there should be no day and night artificial in them , as there is ; or they must produce out of themselves a new substance , which was not in them before , that is , create it , which is impossible : wherefore it must necessarily be only such an emanan● quality of aether , as i have declared of the inherent aethereal light produced in the first day , and then flowing into other parts of the aether , which was prepared and perfected in the first day , and afterward into the air and water in the second and third day , when they were prepared and perfected , and thereby made diaphanous and the obstruction of their informity and inanity removed . and the very maner and way of emanation , being a transition localy from the inherent quality , which is localy in the substance , into the diaphanous body , which is localy distant from it , doth plainly prove it to be an accident , or accidental quality both realy and localy different from the inherent light , and also from the lucid substance ; becaus it is originaly and continualy radicated in the inherent light immediately , and mediately in the lucid substance , wherin it doth subsist and not in the diaphanous body , into which it is emanant ; nor is it any part therof , nor mist , or in any kind congenerous with it , which doth plainly shew emanant light , and all other such emanant things not only to be accidents , and of an inferior and different nature from substances , but also from inherent qualitys ; for though emanant qualitys do spiritualy according to their spiritual nature subsist in their lucid substance by the mediation of their inherent qualitys , yet coextensively and localy they exist in the diaphanous body ; wherin they do not so subsist , as in the lucid body , neither do they so subsist in themselvs , but are instantly removed with the lucid body ; wherefore they are neither substances in themselvs , nor mist with the diaphanous body wherin they localy are , but do not spiritualy subsist . and conformable heerunto are all the phaenomenae and sensible experiments of emanant light , for so it is moved and altered in the very locality therof according to any local alteration of the inherent light , and lucid substance , and not according to any local alteration of the diaphanous body ; though it be localy in it , as an ub● , only definitively , that is , where it is , and in so much therof as it is , and not elsewhere , nor in any more place then it is ; but not circumscriptively , and much less subsistentialy , as it is in the lucid body , to which nothing doth unite it , but such a spiritual subsistence therin . and this locality therof in another body coextensively doth sensibly represent the coextension of spirits in matter . and as it is never actualy in the inherent quality of light or substance of the lucid body , becaus it is emanant out of them both , so it is never potentialy in the diaphanous body , as it is such , becaus as such it is only diaphanous or fitt to receiv it into itself , as matter doth spirits ; ( which it may also represent unto us . ) and itself is sometimes actualy , and sometimes potentialy , produced and reduced by a most momentaneous generation , for if the lucid body be in a diaphanous body , the emanant light will be as actual as the inherent ; and if it be obnubilated with an opacous body , it is in the same moment reduced to potentiality , which also sensibly discovereth actuality and potentiality . and so in a moment it passeth from heaven to earth , though i do not affirm , or conceiv , that motion to be instantaneous which is through so vast a space , ( wheras no motion can be through any space or extension , which hath part beyond part , though it be never so little , properly in an instant ; becaus it is from one part or term to another ; as i have said ) yet it is so momentaneous , that to us it is as it were instantaneous , so as no mathematical science , or human wit whatsoever , can perceiv , and assigne any difference : and yet we must acknowledg that it is vastly different in itself , which is also another very wonderfull contemplation , if it be curiously consydered , and may well be reposited among the other mathematical mysterys which i have formerly mentioned . certeinly there is not , nor possibly can be , any physical discrimination or dissection therof ▪ as of a body or bodily substance ; for it is impossible by any other the quickest motion in nature of any opacous body interposed to cutt off any part of a ray , or to prevent the reflection therof ; which also sensibly proves it not only to be no corporeal substance , but of another nature farr different from it , and also different from inherent light , for it doth not thereby return or recoil into it , but reflect itsel● , and continue still in its actual emanation , though in another way ; to preserv itself in its own different actuality , as every thing naturaly doth ; and this also shews the specifical oeconomy of such different natures : and that accidents can not be annihilated more then substances , or matter itself : ( and consequently not created ) and therefore a ray of light can not possibly be dissected , for then it neither subsisting actualy , nor potentialy , in the diaphanous body , wheri● it doth localy exist ; but in the inherent light and lucid substance , as i have said , if it could be dissected and cutt off from them , it could neither subsist in itself , nor in the diaphanous or lucid body , nor in any other , actualy nor potentialy , nor in any maner whatsoever , and so should not only vanish or disappear to us , but totally perish , and not be any thing , either actualy , or potentialy , or in any maner whatsoever , and consequently be annihilated : wheras if the inherent light be obnubilated it returns into it , and into its potentiality therin , out of which it will as suddenly proceed and flow forth again into actuality , when the obstruction is removed : or if the inherent light be extinct , it also is reduced thereby into its potentiality , as well as emanant light , and so both into their potentialitys in the substantial spirit , wherin their accidental essences do originaly subsist ; nor doth either inherent or emanant light add ●ny material density or gravity to the lucid body , for no spiritual qualitys though never so much conspissated spiritualy ( and though as i have said such spiritual conspissation be analogous to material condensation ) do add any gravity to the body ; as an iron candent which is very fervid and lucid , yet is not heavier then when it is cold ; nor is the air , unles it be also condensated in the very body therof , more grave by night then by day , or in summer then in winter : and therefore planets do not fall through aether , though they have more inherent heat and light : much less is any body heavier when it hath more heat and light emanant in it : and the same may be curiously tried by any opacous body poised in water , which will not rise by any sudden admission of the greatest or most spiss light into the water , though it will afterward sink by heat , which is not becaus the heat doth levitate , or light gravitate , the water , by impregnating it with any more rare , or dens , matter in themselvs ; but heat doth spiritualy rarefy the water itself , and so consequentialy levitate it , wheras light doth neither levitate , nor gravitate it : and yet if it were matter impregnating the water , or penetrating the supposed pores of any diaphanous body , it should thereby gravitate ; but indeed there is no such penetration of pores by emanant light ; which certeinly is not a body , becaus though it be not mist with it , yet it penetrateth the very diaphanous body itself per omnia punctae , for turn an equaly diaphanous globule against the light which way you pleas , it will be equaly as diaphanous one way as another ; which could not be if the rays did pass only through pores , as some suppose ; unles we should also suppose it to be all pores , and consequently no such globulous body . also this is most apparently contrary to all the laws of refraction , which are always in direct lines from one point to another within the diaphanous body itself , and by most regular inflections , as i shall shew heerafter , and not through any such porous meanders and diverticles : and indeed diaphanous bodys , as aether itself , through which the sun doth eradiate , are of all others least porous ; and if the light did only penetrate through some more rare matter in these pores , then that being therefore diaphanous , it must penetrate through the very bodily matter therof , which no body can do , or through other pores of that porous matter , and so infinitely , as i have shewed , or through interspersed vacuitys , which is as impossible as the other ; and if it were possible , yet it should be no diaphaneity , but only a plain phaneity ; as when we look through a sive , or silk , we do not therefore say that the sive or silk is diaphanous , as the air ; and the air could not be so totaly diaphanous as it is , unles it were a diaphanous body throughout in the whole , and not only in the pores therof . and as several specifical qualitys may be in the same place per omnia , as heat , and light , so also several individual lights emanant , which must necessarily d●ffer individualy ; becaus they subsist in several lights inherent , to which they belong , and to their several lucid bodys , and which doth also appear by the several shadows that they cast , which being several privatives , do evidently prove the positives to be several . so if the fower walls of a room be painted with fower several colors , black , white , blew , and yellow , though the rays of light reflected from them penetrate one another per omnia , becaus they fill the whole room , whereby the several colors may be seen in every point therof , yet we see them several and distinct , and not mist or confounded . by all which it plainly appears that local union per omnia is no perfect generative m●stion , and much less aggregation . also when rays intersect one another in the same point , and are decussated and inverted , yet being afterward reflected , whereby they become objective to the sight , they represent their several colors inverted . but if they be colorate themselvs , being tinged by passing through several painted glasses , and be so reflected objectively in their local union , they represent a mist color , as i have formerly shewed ; though that be only a local , and no perfect union ; becaus they are still several individuals belonging to their individualy several inherent qualitys , and substances ; and therefore are not united into one proper or perfect compositum , but only become objectively such to the sight ; and when the rays of light are incolorous themselvs , becaus they are not objective , but vehicular , as in the whole room , though they be then also localy united , yet they do not represent any mist color , but their several colors , otherwise we could not see them distinctly : and the image therof will never be so confounded in the focus by such their intersection , but that being reflected they still appear several . and thus as light , and other spiritual qualitys , so also several spirits or spiritual substances may be together in the same place , and penetrate one another per omnia , as well as they do the matter in consubstantiation ; becaus , as i have said , they are only in such an ubi definitively , which is common to them all , and not proper to any of them , as circumscriptive extension is to the matter ; but therefore several bodys unmist , and of several extensions can not possibly be in the same place ; which , as i have before observed , is one of the grand differences between bodys and their extension ; and spirits and their spiritual qualitys , and the coextension therof , and doth plainly prove emanant light to be such a spiritual quality ; becaus apparently several l●ghts are in the same vli , wheras bodys can not so be therin . and so also the motion therof is not only different , but advers to that of the matter , which is from the circumference to the center , wheras this is most evidently from the center to the circumference , otherwise it should not be emanant . and now i shall farther discours of the emanation , transition , and retreat of light , which are all such spiritual motions , as shall plainly discover them to be farr different from the motions of matter , or any affections therof , and also most wonderfull in their own spiritual nature . and first , the emanation therof is very consyderable and admirable , as i have before described it , subsisting in one substance , and existing in another , and heerin more admirable then the very inherent light , which doth immediately subsist in the same substantial spirit therof , and doth exist alway localy with it in the same body : but becaus these most active and energetical qualitys of the first and most excellent element , heat , and light , are thus originaly inherent and confined to the body of their substantial spirit , and no operation can be at any distance , but only by immediate contact of substances , or qualitys ; therefore they are armed and instructed with these emissarys , which they send forth through all their sphere of activity , which perhaps may be as large as the whole elementary globe , but as the inherent qualitys are strongest in their own center , wherin they are most united ; so they are the centers of emanant , from which they proceed , and wherunto they return again ; and these emanant qualitys are proportionably stronger , or weaker , as they are neerer , or farther from the inherent qualitys : but in the very confines between them both , and from which they are first emanant , they are much weaker , then inherent , which subsist immediately in the spirit , and these in them . as suppose an iron candent equilateraly triangular , wherof the center is exactly that point which is also the center of a circle circumscribed about such a triangle , in a third part of the perpendicular line , above the basis ; yet if you touch the candent iron at any angle it shall burn more , then if you place your finger in any midle point of the cir●le , so circumscribed between the angles ; though all the points of a circle be equidistant from the center , becaus at the angles you feel the inherent qual●ty of the candent iron itself , and in the other points only the emanant quality therof . also i must observ that though we call these emanations , eradiations , and so describe them by rays or radii , or as the poets stile them spicula , or crines , as so many several darts , or as the spokes of a wheel , or hairs of an head , discontinued between themselvs more and more as they proceed farther from the nave , or skull , though originaly continued in the root of them all , that is , in the inherent quality ( and so i shall make use of this common term ) yet properly there are no such several rays therof , nor are they at all discontinued , but fill their whole sphere continuously and completely in every part and point therof , and we only metaphoricaly fansy and describe them by such an eradiation , as we mathematicaly in a continuous extension imagin lines passing from one and the same center to every point of the circumference , which are indefinite and innumerable , and therefore it can not realy be so in nature , unles an unit and number almost innumerable should be equal , which is contradictory , as i have shewed . but as they are only extension , so the true emanation is not any such eradiation , but one continuous flux from the inherent q●ality through the whole sphere unto the circumference therof . and i suppose it to be a perfect sphere alway , though not equaly , lucid , and that it is not any spheroid , although the lucid body may be of any other figure , as the triangular iron candent , and the like ; and so it seemeth that the halo of a candle in a mist or foggy vapor is orbicular , though the flame be pyramidal ; which therefore painters so represent ; as also the halo about the head of a divus . but this halo about a candle , and barr about the moon , and the like , are as it were midle spheres between the inherent light and utmost sphere of the emanant light , caused by the obstruction and partial repercussion from the mists and foggs about the luminary , whereby the rays are partly reflected which make the halo , and partly transmitted ( at in a comet ) which make the utmost sphere of the activity therof . yet these imaginary radii of emanant light are as direct lines , as the imaginary lines of a mathematical circle from the center to the circumference : and if they be interrupted or offended by any other body refracting or reflecting them , as often as they are so interrupted or offended , they are inflected and also pass from any such point of inflection to another in direct lines . and that which so interrupteth and offendeth their emanation is somthing contrary therunto , as cold is contrary to heat : and that can be no privative , as darknes which light alway overcomes ; for such contrariety is between positives ; nor any thing which is not active in itself , as density , or any other affection of the matter , which as they are not thus actively contrary to heat , so neither to light , or to any other spiritual qualitys whatsoever , though according to the universal polity and consociation of nature , they may be more or less symbolical , or asymbolical . and particularly density is thus a symbolical affection of the matter with that which is contrary to light , as rarity is with it , and other qualitys of aether ; which , as i have said , requireth a very rare body : and so density is a corporeal affection requisite and analogous to the one , and rarity to the other : but as there may be less inherent light in a more rare body then in a more dens ; as in the flame of spirit of wine , then of pitch , which certeinly is a more dens and fuliginous fume , then the other ; so more of emanant light in a more dens body ; as glass is more diaphanous then thick water through which it will sink , and yet is more opacous . wherefore there is somthing besides density that is contrary to light , which hath been well observed by others , and acquired a name whereby it may be known , and is called opacity , which is a quality of earth ; as i shall shew heerafter . and this is one of the other qualitys of the elements , besides those commonly called the fower first qualitys , which are to be consydered and regarded by philosophers , as well as them ; and as we may not invent any new fictitious qualitys , which god hath not created , so neither may we lose any of them which he hath made to be in nature , nor confound any simple qualitys with compound , nor compound with simple , which god created in the begining before there was any such composition : and though indeed entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necess●●ate , yet whatsoever god hath created necessarily is , becaus he hath created it , and therefore it is ; and whatsoever is , is necessarily while it is , and none can annihilate the entity therof , by any finite power of nature , and much less by opinion and fansy . for at it is said of the divine word , so we must also consyder and discours of the world as it is ; and none can add to it , or diminish from it . and god in his infinite wisedom did so create the heavens and the earth in the begining with all their various furniture of several simple essences , becaus as it is his infinite perfection to be one in himself , so it is also the perfection of finite nature to be many in one , whereby all the various perfections therof are variously expressed , which could not be only by one. wherefore i shall sett the same bound to my self , which god himself hath sett in nature , neither to go beyond the begining of the world , nor any thing which he created therin , nor to fall short therof , or fear to affirm these original entitys to be such , becaus god who is the first caus hath so created them , without seeking any farther caus or reason therof ; or to deny any natural mistions or compositions to be any such simple principles or original essences though he hath also joined them together , with others , so that we can not sett them asunder localy by any chymical separation . and such an original quality i find expressly light to have been , produced into actuality in the first day , which lay hid before in the dark chaos of potentiality ; and by the same reason i know that opacity was also produced together with light , and mist with it in the mistion of aether , with earth , as well as with the other elements : becaus there is neither pura lux , nor purae tene●rae actualy in nature , neither can i conceiv that any such actual qualitys can exist naturaly in their greatest intension and extremity ; and therefore probably might not so actualy exist in the chaos , before their mistion , and contemperation , which seems to be as necessary to their existence , as the present mistions of the fower elements , according to the first works of god in the six days , and original institution and law of generation , and so must continue as long as any successive generation and corruption , and present cours of nature . and this opacity is a terrene quality , wherunto the density therof is assistant ; and so earth itself is most opacous , and water less , yet having some opacity that causeth refraction , which is a partial reflection ; and so air , and aether , and all diaphanous bodys ; for there is no pure diaphaneity without any opacity . and this opacity doth not only reflect , and refract ; but is also mist with light in colors , and in light itself , which hath some desultory color , and is not simply visible of itself , as i shall shew heerafter : thus the more fixed q●alitys of earth do fix the more agile and volatile qualitys of the rest of the elements , being as an alloy to metall which makes it more malleable . and so particularly is terrene opacity to aethereal light ; for as owls can not see by daylight , so the strongest sight could not see the pure light , nor can it exist in its own simple vehemence without the m●sture of opacity . and these elementary mistions are the natural perfections of the simple substances , and accidents ; which do therefore require it , as well as matter and material spirits do consubstantiation , as i have shewed . now diaphaneity being only a less degree of opacity as rarity is of density , it is also partly opacous , and therefore , as i have said , doth refr●ct , which is a partial reflection , or rather inflection of the rays from their own natural direction ; and there is no diaphanous body which doth not refract more or less , and none that doth refract , but doth also reflect . but in all refraction and reflection the perpendicular rays pass through the diaphanous body perpendicularly , and all emanations immediately are perpendicular , and neither a perpendiculo , nor ad perpendiculum , as in refraction , or reflection ; which , as we commonly intend by those terms , are always oblique lines . wherefore i suppose that the rays of any lucid body are not so refracted in the immediate medium wherin it is , as of the sun in the aether , or of the flame of a candle in the air ; for , as i have said , the flux or eradiation of the rays therof issues forth immediately from the inherent light in most direct rays , and so they must circumferentialy every way penetrate their immediate medium with all their rays directly , and not obliquely , as well as the perpendicular ray doth any diaphanous body which doth refract the rest . but we must also observ , that as opacity doth caus refraction and reflexion of the rays , so the density of diaphanous bodys doth ampliate or distend the rays of expansion , whereby it also weakens them : so i conceiv that refraction and reflection are , when the rays having passed their immediate medium , do meet with another medium of a diaphanous body being of unequal opacity , as air is in respect of aether , and water of air , and the like ; and as often as the medium is so varied , there may be so many inflections of the rays from every point of the variation therof , as i have said ; and according to that unequal opacity so is the refraction , or reflection , greater , or less . and which is most wonderfull , and truly spiritual , the inherent light is not less lucid in itself by all the rays which it doth emitt ; becaus , as i have said , they are different entitys in themselvs , and when they are emitted actualy , are only produced ou● of their potentiality in the inherent light , wherin they subsist , and from which they flow forth into their actuality : nor is it more lucid when they return into it again ; becaus they only return from their own actuality into their own potentiality . and thus the inherent light , having such a potentia of producing the emanant rays therof , like an inexhaustible fountain , doth not only send them forth to complete the sphere of the activity therof , but if they be refracted , or reflected , or do converge , or diverge , or however they be disordered , yet still fills the sphere , as before , so farr as it is not hindered by any interposing opacity . also even these emanant rays have other secondary rays inherent in them , and which they do likewise emitt to fill the sphere , as well , and as farr as they can , where themselvs can not approach ; as the crepuscula are such secondary rays of the principal solar rays , when they decline by the suns setting and sinking beneath the horizon ; and so rays that pass into the foramen of a dark room make it more luminous by their secondary rays then otherwise it would be , and without which the principal rays themselvs could not be seen , though the secondary are much weaker , and less lucid ; whereby the others , which are notably more lucid , are seen objectively . but as i have said the emanant rays are never actual in the lucid body , becaus they are always emanant in their actuality , and all the light in the lucid body is inherent ; nor is it properly any actual nisus of the emamanant rays in the lucid body to produce themselvs , but of the inherent light to produce and bring them forth , as the lucid substance doth the inherent light : and therefore emanant rays never intersect , or penetrate , the lucid body in their ema●ations , refractions , or reflections ; becaus they never actualy exist in it , for then they should be inherent . and now i shall discover a farther mystery of light emanant ; whereby i shall shew not only how the motion therof is farr different from the motion of matter , but how it is a political and intentional motion , as i may so term it , effectively , for the preservation and orderly position of itself . thus emanant rays first pass into their immediate medium in direct lines or rays circumferentialy , as i have said ; and where they are first interrupted in that cours , and thereby offended , all the collateral rays , so farr as they may , without intersecting their own lucid body ( which would reduce them into potentiality in the inherent light ) do incline on either side to assist that perpendicular ray that is first interrupted : as if the superficies of any opacous speculum be convex , the first ray that is interrupted thereby is that which is most directly opposite to the vmbo , or summit therof ; becaus that is the neerest point of the speculum to the opposite lucid body , and the collateral rays on both sides do therefore incline thitherward as farr as they may to assist it ; which is the very reason why the image reflected from such a speculum appears proportionably less , becaus the rays by such inclination do converge more together ; and if many such specula be placed together in one table , as baby glasses , and the like , there will be as many images of the same face ; becaus , as i have said , the inherent light doth always emitt emanant rays , enough to fill the sphere , whether they converge , or diverge , or however they be disturbed or disordered in their emanation : and accordingly every one of these images will be proportionably less , if the convexity of the specula be the same , or greater , as they are more , or less convex . and the farther the face is drawn back from any such speculum , or the speculum from it , the less proportionably will the image appear , according to the mathematical proportion of such a pyramidal figure , wherof the face is the basis , and the speculum the cone : for though the violent motions of refraction or reflection do much vary from mathematical rules and the common motion of matter , yet the natural motion of emanation from the lucid body into the immediate medium , and after refraction , or reflection from point to point , is exactly mathematical , and the foundation of catoptrike , as the other is of dioptrike . but though the object and convex speculum be never so farr distanced , yet the image will never be contracted into a point , ( whereby it should become no image ) becaus the perpendicular ray which is midst , and hath also some latitude , will alway keep the collateral rays asunder ; so that though they intersect , and invert themselvs , ye● the perpendicular ray will alway be midst : for that is never refracted , but only distended . and if the speculum be concav● then becaus the first rays which are interrupted , are they 〈◊〉 are next to the limbus , or brim , therof ; therefore the col 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rays every way incline to assist them both without , a●d 〈◊〉 it : and so being reflected back again from the limbus i●to 〈◊〉 concavity of the fundus , or bottom , make the image to be inverted . and in a foramen , which is as a concave specu●um ●●●hout any fundus or bottom beyond it , therefore t●e rays no● being reflected from the sides , but only from the limbus , pass forward toward their own focus , where they intersect , and are also inverted by such decussation therof , and the farther the object is drawn back from the foramen , or the foramen from it , the focus is neerer to the foramen , and the image is less , then when the focus is farther , and the object and foramen neerer . but it is alway least next to the focus , wheresoever that is . and so also through a lens , or any open convex glass . now this motion thus interrupted and disturbed is not mathematical , but very divers from it : for if the base of any pyramid or isosceles made of wires inserted in a foramen be inlarged by any farther production therof according to the same figure , yet the cone will be where it was before , becaus the pyramid or isosceles is only produced from the same point contracted ; whereas if the base of the object be either way inlarged , the cone or focus shall still be neerer and neerer to the foramen ; and yet the foramen is still the same , and filled with rays , whether the base of the object be farther , or neerer , greater , or less ; but when it is farther there are more rays of the object inlarged proportionably , which converge more toward the limbus of the foramen , and they being more inflected thereby intersect sooner , and neerer to it proportionably according to the longinquity , and length of the rays ; as if the wires were so decussated through the foramen , and then were distended and farther separated at their other ends without the foramen , the more they are distended the sooner they converge and intersect within it : also where there is such interruption of bodys in their motion ; yet their inflection is not like that of emanant rays ; nor is it refracted the same way but farr otherwise ; as if a bullet be shott obliquely into water , which doth divert the motion therof , it doth i●flect outwardly a perpendiculo , more , or less , according to the forcible penetration therof , but never inwardly or within the same oblique line produced ; wheras such refraction is always inwardly ad perpendiculum , more , or less , as the diaphanous body doth refract more , or less ; which are opposite motions , and ocularly declare not only a difference , but also an opposition , between these two motions , and shew the different natures of matter , and spirits , and of all material , and spiritual accidents and affections ; and there are plainly as d●fferent reasons therof : for the bullet itself is a body , which tending to the center is diverted by the water , that is another body of matter below it , which it cannot penetrate , and will not be so suddenly removed , as i have shewed ; but doth therefore inflect it in the water proportionably , as it would make it to graze or reflect in the air , which is more rare : wheras emanant light being no body , but a spiritual and active quality , whose motion is circumferentialy from the center , and which can penetrate , and is not hindred by a diaphanous body , as it is a body , but only as it is partly opacous , ( which is another spiritual quality actively contrary to it ) doth not only pass through it , as it is diaphanous , but as farr as it can doth also decline from its own motion to assist any other rays interrupted by it , ( as in the former examples ) toward which accordingly the rest do converge and incline as farr as they may : and thus spiritual qualitys can vary their motion ( which otherwise also is mathematical ) either to encounter a contrary quality , or to assist one another : and this is from the same political principle in nature of preserving itself both in its universal entity , and in its specifical homogeneity , and also in its individuality ; whereby it plainly appears that there is such an universal nature , and also such specifical , and individual natures , becaus there are such real unions and confederacys , and such real effects therof . and thus emanant rays are refracted in diaphanous , or reflected by opacous bodys ; and do converge , both in convex , and concave , superficies , toward the vmbo or toward the limbus : and though the image in one be erected , and in the other inverted , yet in both it is proportionably less ; which doth plainly shew the convergence of the rays , in the image : and if the superficies be lenticular , and not so orbicular , whereby it is as it were semiconvex and semiconcave ( as one bank is also half of the vally ) there may be a double image reflected , wherof one shall be erect , and the other invers : yet they shall both be proportionably less , as before : and if the speculum be plane , it reflects almost equaly , unles the lucid body be orbicular ; as a full moon , which in a looking glass appears somwhat less ; becaus the lowest ray of her lucid orb is somwhat neerer to the speculum then the rest , and therefore first interrupted . and when the rays have penetrated the diaphanous body , though they are refracted according to their points of incidence , and inflection , and are so directed thereby , yet they pass through it in direct lines , as i have said , from point to point , untill they meet with somthing of different diaphaneity therin , which as another medium will again inflect them , and so when they go forth by the other opposite superficies convex , concave , or plane , into another medium , they have another point of excidence , as i may so call it , and another inflection thereby more , or less , as that other superficies is figured , or the medium is more , or less , diaphanous : and so they incline to the rays first interrupted , or last ingaged either in the lower vmbo of a convex , or limbus of a concave , or indifferently of a plane . but if they afterward intersect , yet the focus will never be a point ; becaus , as i said before of an image , the perpendicular ray doth alway caus some latitude therof . and this i conceiv to be the cours of emanation of rays of light , which naturaly is circumferential , and when it is interrupted , doth thus converge as farr as it may , though it be also said to diverge as in the concave speculum , becaus the rays which so converge to assist the interrupted rays one way , do indeed diverge from others the other way ; and the whole limbus so interrupting them they so converge to every point therof . and now as i have shewed the motion of emanant light to be very different from corporeal motion of matter , so i shall also shew that any light is not only motion , or puls of the diaphanum , or somthing of that kind , which others have affirmed it to be , whereby i suppose they intend also a corporeal motion , which i have already disproved ; but yet as i have particularly discoursed of the motion of heat , so i shall now also of light ; and certeinly if heat be a motion , and light also a motion , they may not be one and the same motion ; for then heat should be light , and light heat ; and so we should not need to argue any farther particularly concerning light , having argued it already against heat : but i do acknowledg them to be several and different qualitys of aether , and desire such who affirm them to be motions to assigne their several and different local motions , which if they be several and different , must impede and obstruct one another , as i have said ; for heat and light are localy united per omnia , and therefore their local motions must be also per omnia , as a sun-beam or flame are very lucid , and very hott per omnia . and now let any such satisfie themselvs how the same body , in the same place , and the same time , can possibly move by several motions per omnia puncta . again , if the motion of light consydered distinctly by itself be only a corporeal puls , then it must be so impelled by some other corporeal mover , and then they must also assigne some particular motions and impressions of the body moving , whereby it doth so impell the body moved , as to generate light ; otherwise any body that moves the diaphanum in any maner might , as well as the sun , thereby generate light ; and collision of icicles should generate it and heat , as well as of flint and steel . also let them shew what connatural analogy there is between these two very different motions of circulation , and collision , which yet do both generate light. but i suppose i may fully satisfy them with one consyderation , which is , that the motion of emanant light is so swift and momentaneous , that there is no corporeal mover in nature which may move the diaphanum so swiftly , certeinly the motion of the sun is comparatively , as rest and sloth in respect therof , and therefore can not generate light by his impulses ; becaus the pulses caused thereby can not be swifter then the first impressions . and though it be true that any consistent body , though never so long being moved in any part or point , is moved in the whole , almost instantaneously and simultaneously , becaus it is consistent ; yet air , which is the great diaphanum and vehicle of light , is not consistent , but fluid ; and so is aether ; as i have before shewed : and a ship sailing in water , which is more consistent then either of them , doth not move it many leuks ; as a stone thrown into a calm sea will not make circles therin many miles : much less can the circumgyration , or any other motion of the sun , caus such pulses in all the vast aether , air , and water , and wheresoever there is any aethereal light. nor doth every motion of one body in another make a commotion and puls therin : as a most smooth globe turning round in air or water doth not impell much , nor make any great friction or attrition , but only slideth by the ambient body ; and the more swiftly it so moveth , the less commotion it maketh in any other body ; or as an intire and solid bullet flying in the air maketh litle or no nois , which is only made by commotion , as i shall shew heerafter . wherefore if the sun thus move most swiftly in a fluid aether , both circularly , and progressively , he maketh litle or no commotion or impuls , ( as manifestly ●e maketh no sound or nois by such motion therin ) and certeinly none in the air or water , wherin yet manifestly there is light. again , though the emanation itself be a motion in itself , yet it causeth no continued commotion in the diaphanum ; as when it moveth through glass , which is a very consistent body , and would easily discover any such motion or tremor ; yet i suppose any such motion therin by the irradiation of light can never be discerned with any m●croscope ; however certeinly when the motion of emanation ceaseth , and the emanant light hath filled all the sphere therof , it moveth no more but atteineth its rest ; and so is neither moved itself , nor doth move the diaphanum , and yet it is light still , as it it was before ; and so the motion therof is only the very e●anation , which is instrumental in diffusing the light , and caused by the spiritual quality therof , and not the light by it , which is another thing , and of another nature very farr different from it . also light moveth through a more dens diaphanum as well as it doth through a more rare , & is not so resisted by density , or consistence as bodys are in their motion , but only by opacity which is contrary to it ; and that doth refract or reflect it as swiftly , and when it is perpendicularly reflected back into itself , there is another motion therof or reduplication of itself directly opposite to the emanation in the same perpendicular line , and at the same time per omnia , which could not be if it were any such corporeal motion ; and yet the light is not obstructed or stop'd , but very much augmented , as well as the heat , by such reduplication therof . iv. having discovered such a quality in nature as opacity , which is contrary to light , though it be not so conspicuous , and therefore is not so much regarded , but denied or neglected by others , as many such antiqualitys , as i may so call them , are , becaus they are not so agile and active as their contrary qualitys , but are for contemperation & fixation therof ; i shall now proceed to consyder this opacity in the mistion therof with light , whereby it doth so contemper , and fix it , and whereby also we may very plainly discover it . for as the mistion of the fower elements doth produce so many various quintessential composita by the production and actuation of perhaps more then fower several qualitys in every one of them , and variation of them , and their several degrees , according to that arithmetical rule of changes , which i formerly mentioned , so particularly the very mistion of light and opacity , and the various degrees therof , produce many notable variations . and so not only color generaly is produced by the general mistion therof , but all particular colors by the particular variations therof . and first as i have shewed light itself could not exist without some opacity , and much less be visible without it , any more then opacity without light ; and therefore light objective and visible doth always appear in some color or other , whether it be direct , as in the sun , which is a radiant yellow , and in the moon , which is white , and the aether , which is blew , or of some such colors ; or reflex , as in the rainbow , wherin all those simple and other mist colors do appear ; and though light which is not objective doth cast a brightnes , and darknes a shadow , and thereby may intend or remit● colors , yet they caus not any color , more then colors them , which yet cast some such proportionable brightnes , or sadnes , as rooms painted white , or black ; but the light of the sun reflected from water is yellow , and the moon white , and the aether blew , ( which also maketh seas and hills at a distance in sude weather to appear blewish ) though , as i have said , density and profundity are also in that aethereal blewnes analogous , and somwhat assistant , to terrene opacity , as rarity and tenuity are to the aethereal brightnes . but if the common light ( though that also have some small misture of opacity ) were visible in itself without opacity , we should see nothing besides it , as we can not well see through flame which is objective light ; wheras light doth render all things visible , and more visible by the greater illustration therof ; and so it is said to be actus diaphani , rendring it actualy perspicuous , which was potentialy such before in itself ; and so also it doth actuate the visibility of fixed colors , but not the colors themselvs which are fixed by mistion internaly in themselvs ; and doth externaly illustrate them exceedingly by any greater brightnes therof . but light passing through painted glass is by the union therewith , and direct species of the colors also passing through it , with the direct rays of light , imperfectly tinged ; as the yellow and blew of the two several painted glasses is by the local union therof ; and such tinged rays of light being reflected are visibly colorous ; becaus they were tinged before by their passage and penetration through the body of the diaphanous glass : and so being localy united with the inherent color of the glass , the emanant color or species and the light emanant afterward continues to be so united , whereby the light becomes colorous ; as when we look through a painted glass and inherent color therof against the light transmitted through it , we thereby see the color most plainly , becaus that being inherent is stro●ger then the emanant light ; but the rays of emanant light being somwhat stronger then the emamant color or species reflected on a wall after such transmission through a painted glass window , we do not perceiv the reflected colors to be altogether so deep or strong as in the glass when we look through it . and if the emanant light be not radiant it is not colorous , or if it be not first united with the inherent light in the colorate body then it is not colored at all , as in the reflection of light from a colored wall : and so also if it be only reflected from the outward superficies of the painted glass , and not transmitted through it , so that the wall or glass is the object of our sight , and the common light serveth only to actuate the visibility therof , and is not colorous and objective in itself , or in its own rays ; and yet if they be conspissated by passing through a foramen or lens , or by r●flection , or the like , they become more visible ; as aether also is by profundity : or if a glass be specular , whereby the emanant rays of light and species of colors penetrate into the profundity therof , and then are reflected , they become objective , becaus the superficies of the glass doth not terminate the sight ; and the emanant rays and species penetrating together into it , and being so reflected from the opacous fundus therof are thereby rendred objective , as if they were inherent in the speculum reflexively , as well as they appear directly visible when we look through an incolorous glass , and see any colored object beyond it : and so also in the superficies of any adiaphanous speculum , as steel or other polished metall ( that doth not suffocate the rays by any unequal porosity and scabrities , which doth confound the image ) they are as visible almost as the speculum itself ; and yet also we see the metall with the image reflected ; becaus it is localy united in the same superficies , which being only of one color ( as black marble , brass , and the like ) doth not confound the image , but only add a tincture therunto ; wheras if it were first picturated itself , it would prevail over the reflected image , which is only reflected and not directly emanant from the superficies therof , as its own colors are , which are therefore more strong and prevalent then it . and the object doth not appear beyond it , becaus the rays do not penetrate the profundity . and these local unions of light and opacity , or of light and colors , which are partly opacous , being spiritualy only external though localy internal unions per omnia , do not produce a perfect mistion or generation , as i have shewed , and therefore are momentany being lo●aly united in one moment , which is their imperfect generation , and disunited in another , which is their corruption . and such is the momentaneous generation and corruption of some colors which are therefore truly called desultory , but wheras they are called apparent , i can also admitt it in respect of the general nature of color which is to make objects to appear at distance , by the contact of their emanant species ; and so indeed all colors may be termed apparent ; but any such distinction as is by some made between colors themselvs , real , or apparent , as though some colors were not real , i can not admit ; and though some affirm only fixed colors to be real , and others deny even the reality of them , i must affirm both fixed and desultory to be real , according to my rule , which i have formerly sett down ; and so certeinly they are both realy in nature , and real objects of our sens , and not only in our mind and reason ; like the fantastical species of colors which melancholike and madmen do imaginate and contemplate , and which are the only apparent colors that i know ( becaus they are only species and images therof and no real colors in themselvs ) unles we also acknowledg all mankind to be as fantastical , as some such indeed are , and the assertors of this opinion make themselvs to be , and none to have any true and real sens and sight : for let these desultory colors in the same position , and with all the same circumstances , be inspected by a thousand sane men one after another , and they shall all give in the same verdict of them , which shews that they are realy such in their own nature , and there is not , nor can there be , in any man any other sensation therof : wheras any infirmity of sens may be rectified by a rectified sensation , as i shall shew heerafter ; and though they were only phantasms , as the others in imagination , yet they should be real phantasms , or entia sensationis , as i have said . thus let the yellow and blew glasses be always laid over one another and not removed , and you shall alway see a green through them against the sun , by that local union , as well as of any green produced by a spiritual union of both those colors , by dying , or the like : and though as their generation is momentany , so their corruption may also be , yet you may continue them as long time as you pleas to continue the local union . and so also more fixed colors made by several infusions of chymical spirits may be almost as momentaneously generated and corrupted , and yet if any chymist shall therefore deny such fixed colors to be real , i desire him to reconsyder flame , which is as momentaneously generated and corrupted in the successive individualitys therof every moment , and i suppose he will not deny flame to be real , ( which is the chief instrument of his art ) and sound certeinly is a real sensible , and yet never fixed but desultory . but the true difference between them is , as i have said , that desultory colors are generated only by local union extrinsecaly , and fixed colors by spiritual mistion intrinsecaly ; and therefore desultory colors , wherof external light is one principle , as in the prism , iris , pigeons neck , and the like , have not only their visibility , but also their very coloration actuated by the external light ; as in the yellow & blew glasses laid over one another , which yet are not made green without the transmission of the light through both : so that indeed all desultory colors are actuated by external light , but fixed colors are actualy in themselvs what they are , without any external light , which doth only actuate the visibility thereof whereby they appear to our sight by drawing forth the visible sp●cies which it doth actuate , as i shall shew heerafter ; but as a picture under a curtain , and many such other things may actualy be in themselvs , though they do not appear to our senses , so are fixed colors in the dark , by the internal mistion of their own lucidity and opacity , which seems to me to be very evident by reason , becaus they are realy such mistions of light and opacity in themselvs internaly , and so are colors in themselvs without any external light , though not visible to us without it : and also to sens , by the known experiment of white which in the same homogeneous body , cloth , paper , or the like , will not be so soon fired by the burning glass as if it be black , though there be no other imaginable difference but only of the colors , and that difference is intrinsecaly in themselvs , and though it is true that the sun beams transmitted through the burning glass do convey light as well as heat , yet i do not conceiv the light to be consyderable heerin , or if it be , it is one and the same in itself as it doth actuate the visibility of both the colors externaly , but i suppose that as it doth pass together in the same emanant rays with the heat , and so meet with the internal light of the white , the whitenes , which is more lucid in itself doth , as all homogeneous natures , univocaly conspire with it and dilate itself therewith , which is called a segregation of rays , whereby the heat in the same rays is also diffused , and so weakned , and therefore can not operate so intens●y upon it , as it doth upon black ; which hath most opacity in itself , that is contrary unto light , and doth congregate the rays therof , that oppugn it , and consequently the heat , which thereby doth operate more intensly upon it ; and so it is farr more easily incensed ; and accordingly as colors are more white and luminous , or black and opacous , so they do more or less segregate or congregate the rays of light , and consequently of heat : wherefore there is in all color such an internal light , which is in the mistion of the other elements , as well as heat in fume , which is a kind of culinary fire , and so i may call this , culinary light ; which if it be not perfectly fixed with opacity , as in flame , and the like , makes only imperfect and meteorical colors ; yet not such as are so desultory as the others that are only by local union , and if it be perfectly fixed , as in other colorate bodys , doth generate more fixed colors : and as there are these two principles of colors , that is the agile light , and opacity which doth fix it , so there are only those two original colors , white wherin light is predominant , and black wherin opacity is predominant ; concerning which last i have one observation , that as all desultory colors are , as i have said , caused by external light ; so among all those desultory colors , black , wherin opacity is predominant , was never seen in any prism , iris , or pigeons neck , or the like ; becaus opacity , which doth fix color , as i have said , is most contrary to their desultory nature ; and yet wheras diers say white is no color in their sens , becaus it will take any other color , others philosophicaly speaking , say , that black is no color , though it will not take any other color , and generaly that all colors are only apparitions and spectres , who , as though they could create and annihilate what they pleas , will add to and diminish from natures inventory as they list . and thus they make all colors to be only certein desultory variations of the external light upon the superficies of bodys , and the object of the most noble sens to be only a fictitious imposture , affirming black to be from the suffocation of the rays by an unequal and porous superficies , and white the contrary , and so all other intermediate colors only more or less such suffocations of the rays ; which is most sensibly fals , if we may believ our own eys ; for snow is most porous , and yet most white , jett polished least porous , and yet most black ; and so painted glass is either white or black , and yet the rays penetrate more through the white then the black , and both of them are apparently white and black in themselvs before , and without any such penetration ; and so bodys of a like surface are indifferently either white or black ; as polished marble , skins of europaeans , and ethiopians , and the like . all which may also chymicaly be demonstrated by the generation of colors in flame ; which though they are as momentaneous as the flame , yet are no otherwise desultory then the flame itself , as i have said ; wherin , when the fomes therof , as the wax , or tallow of a candle , is first incensed , there is before it be inflamed or below the flame a manifest black , and so in the fuligo , and assoon as it is inflamed a blew , and in the purest flame , a white , and in that which is in the cuspis , a yellow , and if it be very fuliginous , red , ( which is also very manifest in the robust fire of the wike ) whereby it plainly appears that black is from a terrene quality in the fomes , and fuligo ; and white from the aethereal quality of the flame : wherof i call the one opacity , and the other light ; though both of these be mist together , as all the elements and their contrary qualitys are ; but opacity is notably predominant in black , and light in white , and all other simple colors are only gradual predominations of either of them ; as blew of less opacity and more light then black ; and yellow of less light and more opacity then white ; and i suppose red to be a more intens and condensyellow , or perhaps of a midle degree between yellow and blew , as seems by local union of any fuligo with yellow which renders it more reddish ; but certeinly it is not mist of both , for that is a compound color , which is green , as gray is of black and white ; and so all other compounds , and decompounds , which painters , and diers , make of these simple colors . and as these meteorical colors , so also all other more perfect generations of fixed colors are by actuating the internal lucidity or opacity therof , more , or less : and their corruption by reducing it into potentiality . as the most white wood by actuating the fuliginous opacity therof in charking becomes a black coal ; and when that fuligo is emitted by burning , it becomes again a whitish ash , or grey , mist of both . v. the antecedent darknes , which was in the first chaos , was the pure evening therof , before any light , which was created after it ; and therefore light , rather then heat , is particularly mentioned in the work of this first day ; becaus thereby this , and all successive days , were made and divided into day and night artificial ; as it followeth therupon , and god divided the light from the darkness , &c. and so in this whole history of the creation ( which is as the decalog , and the like , very compendious , and comprehensive ) though only some more general or principal things be mentioned , yet all others that are coordinate and connatural must also be intended : and certeinly there never was any system of the world declared and described either more truly , or in a more short epitome . now wheras the antecedent darknes did continue for some time on the face of the deep , wherin the spirit of god moved upon it , it may be curiously inquired , how long that space of time was , wherin the antecedent darknes was and continued , before the first light was created ? but as divine wisedom doth not regard human curiosity , nor attend to satisfy it , so i esteem it impertinent , though i may discours it humanitus . however i must conceiv , as i have said , that the spirit of god did not only move or incubate on the first chaos to prepare and predispose it before and untill the light was created , but conformably untill all the other original creatures in all the six days were produced , and the whole creation and cours of nature finished : for they were all supernatural and the immediate works of god. and concerning the particular space of time between the general and proper creation or begining , and the first improper creation of light , i conceiv it probably to have been twelv hours , and somwhat more , and that there was neither any diurnal , nor any nocturnal light , during that time : for so the computation of all the six days is by evening and morning aswell as of the first ; and the evening and morning made the first proper day natural , which most probably was equinoctial , and was afterward divided into day and night artificial ; and the evening is alway sett before the morning , as it was before it in time , but the day before the night , as it is before it in nature ; becaus the day artificial was first so made by dividing the light from the darknes , that is , into a diurnal , and nocturnal light , and so god saith , i form the light and create darknes , as he did in the first day originaly ; wheras pure darknes is not creable , but the night which is called dark comparatively . wherefore as this improper creation in the six days was original generation , wherunto all successive is conformable , so i suppose that as the whole day , according to the diurnal cours of the aether then first putt into motion , and so still continuing is fower and twenty hours and somwhat more ; so the two halvs therof , or first evening and morning must be supposed to have been also of the same duration , and each of them equal , as well as the second and third , before the sun and moon were created . nor can i conceiv how there could be any such day and night artificial in the first day , as since ; becaus they were then first so created after the first evening was ended ; but could not possibly be before they were so created : and when light was created it was morning in all the aether in respect of the precedent evening , and so there was never since any such evening and morning , as made the first day natural : becaus there is no such pure darknes , but only comparative darknes , whereby night was made after the evening was ended , by the first creation of light , which was the first morning ; and god in that morning did afterward divide the light into a diurnal and nocturnal proportion therof , whereby he made day and night artificial . and thus , though time was created in the begining , from whence also the most proper natural day did commence , yet the artificial was created in that first natural day ; and the day natural according to the cours of the sun in the fourth day , and the two parts of that day which we commonly but more improperly call day natural , that is , night and day are not always equal with the parts of all other days : wheras the two parts of the proper day natural , that is , the evening and morning being computed from the begining are always equal and each of them twelv hours and somwhat more . and becaus the parts of the solar or improper day natural , except equinoctial , are unequal , therefore the whole may be sooner as in summer , or later as in winter ; but the proper natural day is never sooner or later , becaus it is the succession of fower and twenty hours daily from the first fower and twenty hours , and begining of the first day natural : and so all the six days both before and after the sun and moon were made to rule the day and night , and also the seaventh or sabbath are computed accordingly . wherefore becaus this day is most even exact and invariable according to time , god also appointed it , and not the improper day natural , to be the measure of time in sacris , and so it is said from even to even shall ye cele●rate your sabbath , and not from night to night , and though the later iews did not so observ it ; yet ab initio non fuit sic . but both the day and time of the christian sabbath which is appointed for us gentiles in all parts of the earth , is , and must be altered by the resurrection of christ , which if it should begin as the former at evening , as some would have it , then it should begin before the resurrection ; for unless that were also some time after the begining of the evening christ should not have laid in the grave three days synechdochicaly , as most certainly he did , and though it be expressly declared when the creation was finished and god first rested , that is , at the end of the sixth evening and morning or proper day natural ; yet it is not so expressed or ascerteined when christ rose again , but only that he rose very early in the morning of the third day , that is , the solar , or improperly natural . now as there was not only a proper natural day , but also a division therin of the light from the comparative darknes , and so day and night artificial made thereby in the first day originaly , and successively in the second and third day , before the sun or moon were made to rule them , more particularly , as i shall shew heerafter ; so certeinly there must have been some circumrotation of the aether , and of the light inherent therin in the precedent days ; for if the light were equaly in all the aether , then there should have been equaly all day in all the ae●her ; and there could not be such day in one hemisphere and night in the other without a circumrotation of the aether and of the light , wheras there was such a division of the light , as made day and night artificial therin , and this day and night were then originaly made , and were such as they have ever since been s●ccessively by the diurnal cours of the aether , ( except only the more special variations therof by the proper courses of the sun and moon which were ma●e thereby , and are annual and menstruous , but not diurnal ) which must necessarily be by the circumgyration of the whole aether , and of the light therof in one hemisphere , as the sun now is so carried about by the aether diurnaly . certeinly the earth , water , or air , or any of them could not so move in this first day , becaus they were not yet improperly created , or so made , as it is said of the air that god made or fitted the firmament therof , or expansum , in the second day , ( though they were properly created in the begining in their several bodys and spheres ) but were then all in rest , and only the spirit of god moved among them , and as the irregular winds , and the regular courses of the tides and of the sun , moon and starrs were not before , or untill those other elementary bodys were improperly created , so neither was there any motion of the earth ; wherof if we could suppose any such motion , yet we may not reasonably suppose it to have been before the third day , and improper creation of the earth therin ; concerning which i shall discours heerafter , and now only add one other observation ; that as the sun , though farr less then one hemisphere of the aether , yet maketh day therin by his emanant rays , so probably the diurnal light in this first day did not fill one whole hemisphere , but only some such part therof , as according to the vigor and extent of the emanant rays therof did make day artificial in one hemisphere , and perhaps with some such crepuscula , as the sun now doth make , for we may well conceiv , that first day and night to have been analogous to every day since in all the general circumstances therof ( besides only such as are more specialy superinduced in the variations of sooner , or later , more , or less , by the courses of the sun and moon ) wheras if that diurnal light inherent should have filled one whole hemisphere , the emanant rays therof would have extended much farther , and the inherent light should have been hemispherical , which is not conformable to the natural figure therof : and therefore i rather conceiv , that it was a particular globe glomus or confluvium collected from the light , which was first generaly and diffusively created in the whole aether , and that which was left in the common body therof is therefore comparatively called darknes ; and though it were not strictly such darknes , as was in the chaos , yet the expression is not therefore popular , so as some would make all the philosophical expressions in scripture to be but necessarily to be so understood , for there are no purae tenebrae in the whole elementary nature , and in the superaether there is either a superaethereal light , or neither light , nor darknes ; for where there is not , nor naturaly ought to be any positive , there is no privative , which is founded in the positive , & is only the privation therof ; as in a stone there is neither sight nor blindnes : wherefore after the first creation of light , that darknes must necessarily be understood of comparative darknes only ; and this is the natural darknes which god created , and is also sufficiently so explained in the ensuing words , and the darknes he called night , which hath its nocturnal light : whereby it is expressly and most exactly distinguished from a pure privation of light , such as was antecedently in the chaos , wherin there was neither day nor night . and heer again cavillation , which is endles , may proceed to term these expressions , god said , or called , and the like , popular ; though as the others , so these also are most necessary ; for indeed nothing can be properly spoken of god , either as he is in essence , or in operation , and there can be no expression more apposite , then that the creatures are verba mentis divinae . and heer i must affirm of this whole history of creation that it is not popular , as some would have it , and thereby render it insignificant unto all others , as well as to themselvs ; whereby they have lost the benefit of so great a treasure , which hath been a chaos to this day , and is still hid from the wise and prudent ; or rather they thus hide it from themselvs : though i am confident that neither themselvs , nor any other , can ever declare or describe such a system of the world in more brief or less popular expressions . wherefore i term it a history , that is , of matter of fact ; which hath only such apt expressions as serv to declare and describe the matter of fact , and therefore certeinly are not popular ; otherwise we may call all the sacred history of adam and eve , of noah , of abraham , isaac , and iacob , and of all the patriarchs , judges , and kings , and governors , and of christ and his apostles , popular ; and reject all the matters of fact recorded both in the old , and new testament , and our very creed ; which should be most irreligious and also irrational . thus when god saith , in the begining he created the heaven and the earth ; shall any say , he did not , and so of the rest ? and if any may be so irreligious as to deny the verity of the fact , yet he may not be so irrational as to deny the veracity of the expressions , or to affirm that the scripture doth not say , that in the begining god created the heaven and the earth , and so of the rest . but that we may not frame any popular notion of what we intend by a popular expression , and so confound our discours therof , as i have hitherto strictly examined other terms and expressions , so i shall also now examin this very expression of an expression . and i acknowledg generaly all language to be popular ; becaus words are no natural signatures , but only instituted tesserae , or symbola of things , coined by men , and so made to pass current among themselvs . and since the confusion of languages every national language is more particularly popular , or peculiar to the people of that nation ; and the same word may signify one thing in one tong , and another in another ; as nay in english hath a contrary signification in greek . wherefore i acknowledg also that there is such popularity in the hebrew tong , and also many idiotisms therof , as well as in others ; but i suppose this is not the popularity intended ; for then we should also invalidate all language as well as this , and all books as well as the bible . also there are certein general propertys and modifications of all human language , as well as several idiotisms of particular languages . as that which is spoken respectively of any thing , or in one respect , according to that which is the subject matter of the present discours , can not reasonably by any rational men in any language be interpreted absolutely , or in all respects whatsoever . and so again , as i have before noted , that which no human language can properly express may not reasonably by any rational men be interpreted properly , and the like ; which if we should not allow , we should destroy all human discours ; and otherwise then so , i know not one popular expression in this whole history of the creation ; and such popularity also is , and must be , in any other history of matter of fact : and therefore this can be no reason why any should regard it less then any other philosophical discourses whatsoever . wherefore they must rather intend by popular expressions such as are according to false apprehensions of common people , or deceptions of sens , and the like ; and i suppose , they can not shew any one such in all this narration , and indeed it is great impiety to conceiv that there should be any such in it , which doth so historicaly and intentionaly declare and describe the genesis of the world : though in other parts of the scripture , which are not so historical and intentional , i also acknowledg that there are all the varietys of human language , and so there are many expressions which are spoke , as we say rotunde , and so indeed popularly for common use , and such as are allowed in all arts and sciences , even mathematical ; and many figurative expressions , yea hyperbolical and ironical , in some more poetical and rhetorical parts therof ; which yet may as easily be discerned as in any ordinary discours : but certeinly the divine verity doth not any where offer any thing of falsity or deception , but expresseth most infallible truth in the common language of mankind , and particularly according to those tongs , wherin it is writ ; and most wisely ordereth and varieth the expressions according to the occasion and intention therof : and so heer concerning the genesis of the world it speak●th not only most truly , but also as narratively , and as philosophicaly as any philosopher whatsoever : and therefore none may justly neglect it upon any such pre●ension of popularity ; neither do i suppose that to be the very reason therof , as is pretended , but rather that it speaketh too expressly and exactly those things which are contrary to the private opinions of such pretenders , who , becaus they can not evade the divine authority therof , would elude it , by supposing that it neither doth , nor can , speak any thing against their own preconceived opinions : and therefore as they esteem all the world of mankind besides themselvs popular , and to be in a popular error ; so they most profanely and presumptuously interpret scripture itself rather according to common errors , as they suppose , then will endure it to contradict their own greater errors , which yet they will maintein as oraculous : and i find this humor to prevail not only with such who do wholy exclude scripture from all philosophical discourses ; but also in many commentators , who rather correct moses by heathenish philosophers , in any such points as are not articles of our creed ( as the creation , and the like ) then them by moses in their timid and partial explications : yea even translators , who should strictly embrace the very letter of the text , yet do thus warp and incline as farr as they may in their very expressions , as i have observed : and i know not how among them all this divine philosophy hath hitherto been rejected , neglected , or abused ; whereby mankind ha●h received litle more satisfaction from it then from any other human philosophy ; though it be the only standard of truth , and the first sentence therof , in the begining , &c. the very alpha of all divine letters , and the foundation of all that divinity , and morality , or our whole duty toward god and man that is conteined in the whole scripture : whereby it plainly appears how firm a connexion there is between theology , morality , and natural philosophy ; and of what consequence and concernment , according to divine wisdom , a right and sound knowledg therof is both in church , and state : and i dare affirm that there never was extant in the world any other writing that hath more firmly and plainly laid the foundations of these three most noble and profitable sciences : and as it is my designe to demonstrate it even in natural philosophy , ( which perhaps men may least expect , ) so i may suppose , if i shall perform and obtein this , they will easily grant it of the others : and i hope , though i may fall short of mine own intention and their satisfaction , yet i shall discover so much light therof , that others will begin to believ that more may be derived from this fountain , and so proceed to perfect what i have begun . certeinly whatsoever is in this sacred history , is truth , and all that truth is fundamental , wherupon human reason ( to which god hath left the rest for the exercitation and improvement therof ) may proceed to build ; but other foundation then this can no man lay . and though the divine spirit in inditing it did not intend to satisfy the more curious and impertinent , yet such things as no memory of man hath otherwise preserved and delivered , nor our reason and judgment could have retrived , are heer clearly reveled , and faithfully recorded . as not only that there was a creation and a begining , but how many thousand years since , and all the succeeding chronology of the world , and the whole order and process of created nature , how it was first ordained and instituted in six several days , and the like : and as all christian historians have rectified the fabulous chronology of pagans by the former , so should christian philosophers their contradictory and unsatisfactory philosophy by the latter . but again on the other hand we must carefully avoid all cabalistical and allegorical interpretations therof , and satisfy our selvs with the plain and simple sens of the text , according to the subject matter therof , and context of scripture . and thus wheras the rabbins from those former expressions , god said , and god called it , and the like , have asserted the hebrew language , wherin this history of the creation was writ by moses , and the names of day , night , heaven , sea , earth , and the like , which are said thus to be named by god , to be therefore the primitive language instituted by god , and original of all others , i dare not so affirm , though i otherwise grant it to be the most antient of all languages now extant , becaus that book is the most antient of all books now extant . but god is also said to call the starrs by their names , though all of them be not expressed : for their names to him who is the creator of all things are their created natures , by which he knows them immediately and essentialy , and so he speaks by real language , or by his works , which , as i have said , are the extrinsecal and artificial words of the divine mind , and his word is only a comment therupon , and so the heaven and earth were denominated by their created natures ; and when he made day and night , he so denominated them by making them to be such . and heerin divine language and human differ ; for wheras adam afterward gave names unto the creatures , he only verbaly called them by some instituted names , expressive of such natures as god had made them ; but did no● , nor could realy make them to be such . and the primitive language , whatsoever it was , may rather be referred to him ; for it is mans creature , and of human institution ; and possibly he might speak that language : and so it is said , adam called his wife chevah , and she her son sheth . however it is certein they both spake some language , which also declares the great perfection of their created witt , which could so soon frame such a common language whereby they understood one another , and that must be primitive , becaus they were the first man and woman . and if god afterward spake unto them vocaly and humanitus , he also spake their language , by which they might understand him : and it is expressly said that god brought the beasts and fowls to adam , to see what he would call them : and whatsoever adam called every living creature , that was the name therof . and adam gave names to all catell , and to the fouls of the air , and to every beast of the field : so that plainly all these names were instituted originaly by adam , and not by god himself immediately , who is said to bring them unto him , to see what he would call them ; that is , to exercise his human facultys both of speech and reason : and accordingly adam did give to every one his specifical name , and that was the name therof . therefore wheras they make the divine institution of the hebrew language to be the foundation of their cabal , that very foundation is too cabalistical , and remains to be proved : and perhaps though that language generaly were primitive , yet the dialect therof , as of all others , might be much altered before the confusion , but especialy after it , and most probably it was first spoken without the character , which they also make to be cabalistical . and there are some such criticks who accuse the hebrew language itself of many defects ; wherefore certe●nly it was not immediately from god , all whose immediate works are most perfect ; but from man ; and if from adam in paradise originaly , hath been since much altered and corrupted . therefore as , i conceiv , there is nothing mystical or cabalistical in numbers , so neither in letters or figures , or any other quantitys ; and as there is only a plain signature of the notion rather then of the thing in any such literal characters , so also in words which are only sounds . and so the names which adam gave , did signify only notionaly and intellectualy ; whereby also it appears , that he had a most perfect philosophical contemplation and inspection of their natures , according to his most perfect reason and natural understanding : which god , who had created his intellective spirit , and given him dominion thereby over all sensitive and inferior natures , brought these most curious and d●fficult pieces of nature , and in the very next classis therof to himself , purposely to exercise and discover to himself : and though some , who think themselvs wiser then adam , deny even this to him , and very presumptuously arrogate to themselvs more knowledg of nature by some artificial advantages , as of the telescope and microscope , and the like , then ever adam had in paradise ; i will not deny but that they may have more sensation thereby then he actualy had , but yet i suppose both his understanding to have been farr more telescopical , and also his witt more microscopical then ours ; and that potentialy he was able to have contrived all such artificial advantages whatsoever as well as language , if he had any such need therof , since they are only the applications of certein natural causalitys which were then most perfect , and wherof he had a most perfect intellection according to his perfect human nature in that conjunct state therof wherin he was created . but yet i do not conceiv that he did know , or could even then know such things as are naturaly in themselvs indemonstrable and incomprehensible to any human reason , as mathematical points , and other asymmetra , which yet are the very least and lowest of entitys ; becaus , as i have shewed , they are demonstrably indemonstrable , and were purposely so secreted by god for the humiliation of man in his most perfect state , and for the admiration of himself seen in his meanest workmanship : for as there is still left in nature veritas in profundo , for the exercise of human reason and study , and it is sloth and idlenes in us not to d●gg and search for it ; so there is also veritas in abysso , which is inscrutable , and it is folly in any to inquire farther into it . and so there are many things which we may apprehend , that they are , but can never comprehend , what they are : and when we once come to know that we can know no more of them , we have arrived to the utmost bound of human knowledg ; and there we must acquiesce , and not affect contradictions , to know omne scibile & non scibile ; which is a madnes beyond the tentation of adam , who knew that he could know no more then he did as man in his present state , and therefore aspired to be as the gods , knowing good and evill . and though some term such a prudent ignorance and sober acquiescence , ignorantiae asylum ; yet it is indeed rather scientiae adytum , wherin humble and pious minds adore and admire their creator , who is both infinite in his essence , and incomprehensible in his operations . vi. now let us prais the infinite iehovah ; immens , and incomprehensible ; eternal , and necessary ; one , and universal being , and welbeing in himself . who most f●eely overflowing in the creation of this finite world , as a transient effect of himself , first caused it to start forth from absolute notbeing into being , and afterward invested the naked being of the chaos with a perfect welbeing in six days . which thereby was made to be a finite somthing in itself , but as nothing in his infinity ; mensurable in itself , but as nothing in his immensity ; temporary in itself , but as nothing in his eternity ; numerable in itself , but as nothing in his unity ; who still comprehends all creatures in their essences , as he did before in their possibilitys . and as the world was created by him without itself , so it would again be annihilated of itself , without his continued creation . who hath built this great city of the univers for himself , and for the majesty of his kingdom ; and hath created all his subjects therin by his own immediate power , and doth govern them all , and all their subordinations for his own supreme glory . who hath made the utmost and highest sphere therof to be his holy temple ; ingenerable , and incorruptible : whose roof and cover is the superficies of the universal globe , circularly including all created entity within itself , and excluding all nonentity from itself . and the immovable foundations therof are arched over the whole elementary world ; wherof the vast aether , and highest convexity therof , is less then the lowest concavity of the superaether ; and the whole aethereal sphere is the great partition between it and the immortal inhabitants therof , and the mortal inhabitants of the inferior globe ; disterminating them not only by its immens superiority and profundity , but also by its most rapid motion ; and defending itself from all their assalts and encounters , while it predominateth over them all : whose heat as a true archaeus fab●r , or vulcan , from which nothing is hid , generateth and corrupteth them ; either like a phaebus , fostering and nourishing them in the more temperate zone ; or like a phaeton , burning and consuming them in the torrid zone therof . and therefore is farthest removed from them , and diverted by its own perpetual motion , and tempered by the mediation of the frigid air , or drowned with the clammy water , or imprisoned in the consistent earth , untill at last this firstborn and strength of nature shall destroy them all with an universal conflagration , and turn the very original chaos into an everlasting gehenn● . also light , the other of those aethereal gemini , is as amiable , at heat is powerfull ; actuating all the visible beautys of nature , and is farr more beautifull in itself ; discovering all that is between us in any of the other elements and its own profundity ; adorning culinary fire with a golden flammeum : so that infants newly born are ravished with the lustre , and fix their eys on the beauty therof , and all domestical and savage beasts both love and dread the majesty therof . which opening the shopwindows of the world setts forth all the wares therof with no fals lights ; inriching gold itself with its brightnes , and irradiating jewells with its rays . which maketh day by its desired presence , and night by its deplored absence . and is in itself the most excellent sensible of the most excellent sens , and the visible hieroglyphike of invisible spirits ; and of all other elementary natures affordeth most both of contemplation and conversation to sensitive and intellective animals . section viii . and god said , let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters ; and let it divide the waters from the waters . and god made the firmament : and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament . and it was so . and god called the firmament heaven , and the evening and the morning were the second day . explication . god having perfected the aether , did by the heat therof caus the vapors of water to ascend into the air ; when it also was fitly expanded between the aether and the waters , and thereby the vapors of water which were above were divided from the waters beneath . and this aereal expansum was another heaven , and so perfected in the second day . illustration . . of the air. . of the elasticity therof . . of cold. . of sounds . . of meteors therin . . the air is the next element to aether , and seemeth to be continuous with it , becaus it is also diaphanous , and do●h not terminate the sight . and so it is called firmament or expansum , as well as the aether , and also heaven , as well as the superaether . and becaus it is the next and immediate heaven to us , therefore the general name of heaven is according to hebraical etymology most proper and peculiar to it , though the superaether be the most stupendous excellent heaven in its own nature , as i have said . and as we generaly call all that is above us heaven , so in that respect this is the first heaven , aether the second , and superaether the third . but it is in itself very different from both them above it , and also from water , and earth below it ; and as different from all the other elements , as they are generaly one from another , becaus they are several elements ; though particularly as they are neerer in situation , so also in nature one to another . and air is of a midle nature between aether and water , as water is between air and earth ; and so consydered with the aethereal rays emanant into it may be called an aeriaethereous sphere , and with the vapors and the effluvia therof ascending into it an aquaereous sphere , as water and earth are a terraqueous globe . and though becaus it hath spiritualy less sensible qualitys then aether , and a less dens or gross body then water ( so that any vessel filled with it is comparat●vely said to be empty , and poeticaly it is called the inane , a●● chymists in their most curious separations can not well discern it ) yet god who created it hath discovered it to be a particular element , and one of the three heavens , and the fowls of that heaven feel and find it to be such in their flying therin ; and though it be in rarity next to ae●her , yet both of them have some density , and a proportionable weight , as i have said . also though it be farr more rare then water which is supposed to be about a thousand times more dens then the atmosphere according to the common temper therof , and may be many times more dens then air rarefied or expanded ; yet perhaps as water and earth do more agree in density , so also air and aether ( which are both called expansa ) in rarity . but as air is thus rare , so it is not only capable of compression more then water , but also of dilatation or expansion more then aether ; which expansion therof is now made famous by the name of elast●city , wherof i shall purposely treat afterward , and therefore not now prevent my self . as astronomers have devifed several spheres and regions in the aether , so have others also in the air ; wheras indeed they have both only their own proper regions , which are several , becaus they are both of several density and rarity , and of several elementary natures ; and so with the other two divide the whole elementary globe into their fower several provinces , as i have shewed ; and if any could shew us any such division corporeal , and spiritual , or either of them , in the aether or air themselvs , they should prove what they say , and not only say what they imagin . but though no colorable caus be offered to make such partitions in aether , except the various motions of the sydereous bodys , which move in the aether , and are moved with the aether , and need no such proper spheres , as i have shewed ; yet there is a more sensible pretension to prove three several regions in the air , which will be also found to be like them in the aether , only in notion , and not in nature : for wheras they assigne the first region to be and extend so farr as the emanant rays of aether are reflected from the earth , the midle to be where that reflection endeth , and wherin the meteors are , and the third above them , and so immediately contiguous to the aether ; i find no such partition therof , neither in the text , nor in nature . for themselvs do not apprehend the first region to be many miles high , ( nor indeed can it be of any great hight , if it be below all meteors , vapors , dews , and the like , which continualy ascend into it from the terraqueous globe , and are not very high ) but certeinly the rays are reflected much farther then any hath yet assigned the utmost hight of the whole air to be . it is reported that the pike of teneriff , and some such other eminences of the earth , may be seen at the distance of about three degrees from them , which can not be by the direct rays therof , being no lucid bodys , and therefore must be by the reflected rays of aether , which are reflected so farr through the air ; otherwise there could be no vision of the object at such a distance : though indeed reflection be farr shorter then direct emanation , ( and perhaps there may be some such proportions therof , as there are of the descent and reflected motion of any ball or stone from a paviment . ) and therefore we can not see so farr by the reflected rays of a candle in the night , as we may see the candle itself by the direct rays therof . now heat is a congenerous quality of light , and emanant with it in the same aethereal rays , as appears by the b●rning glass ; and though the heat of the sun beams doth penetrate farther into the earth , then the light therof , becaus it is not resisted by the opacity therof , which is not contrary therunto , but to light , and is only hindered by the density , and so may not be reflected altogether so much , becaus it penetrates more ( which also proves heat and light to be several qualitys ) yet certeinly heat can not so farr fall short of the light , but rather there is some degree of heat reflected with the light unto the very aether , though proportionably less ; and then , according to their own assignment , there is but one region of the air. again the vapors of water are said to ascend above the airy expansum indefinitely , which may be to the utmost hight therof , as well as all over it : and as there are bright and dry clouds above the moist , and stellae cadentes , and comets , and the like , above them , so probably other tenuious and invisible vapors above them ; and then also , according to their own assignment , there is but one region of the air ; and they who assigne must prove that there are not any meteors or vapors above their second region assigned , which they can never do . but the truth is , that though the aethereal rays be reflected from earth to aether , yet that reflection both of light and heat , as all others , is stronger and longer as it is neerer , and weaker and shorter as it is farther from the body reflecting ; as well as emanation is stronger as it is neerer , and weaker as it is farther from the body of the inherent quality which doth emitt it : and so the reflection of the aethereal rays from the terraqueous globe back again to the ae●her is gradual , and of different degrees ; and thereby doth produce different degrees of vapors , and several sorts of meteors in several parts of the air ; and accordingly they attein several situations therin ; and by the variation of many circumstantial causalitys the same meteors poised therin almost as glass bubbles in water are sometimes higher , and sometimes lower , and have no such planetary position in themselvs , as starrs in aether : nor is the air so invariable as it . the spirit of air is not exprest by any known name , and i know not therefore well how to express it , unles we should call it , aura : or the like . and indeed philosophers generaly have so much attended the gross matter , and so litle regarded subtile spirits , that they have not so much as found out any vocabu●a of the very elementary spirits , except only fire , which is most sensible both by the heat and light therof ; though all the other spirits be also substantial activitys , and have their sensible qualitys ; which yet hath not been determined concerning all the elements , what are their first proper qualitys , as i shall heerafter shew , and particularly prove cold to be the proper quality of air ▪ as heat is of aether . also air hath apparently another quality which is sound , and that is very sensible , almost as much as light ; but is not so much consydered , becaus it is not so permanent ; and indeed sound is farr more desultory then color , as i have said , for though desultory color is not , and can not be , fixed as an image can not be fixed on a speculum ( which if it could be , would excuse and exceed the art of any painter ) yet it may be continued in the same po●ition as long as you pleas : wheras sound is alway transient and fugitive , as i shall shew heerafter , and can not be continued one moment , but is still in succession , like flame , and almost like the very instants of time. and yet as all the other heavens are hebraicaly denominated from this first heaven , air , so also all spirits from the spirit therof , almost in all languages . air hath also a mistion with all the other elements as well as aether , and perhaps more , as water hath more then it , and earth most of them all : and so it hath more of the terrene qualitys then aether , and less then water , as it hath more refracting opacity then the one , and less then the other ; and so also more consistence , then the one , and less then the other ; and therefore is probably less fluid then aether , as it is apparently more fluid then water . ii. the aether , as i have said , is most rare , and probably can not be more rarefied then it is in its own element ; and so the earth most dens , and can not be more densified . and though i know not whether aether may be more densified , yet certeinly earth may be very much rarefied , as in soot , camphire , salts volatilised , and the like . but water is most notably capable of rarefaction into vapors , and they are as much condensated again into waters , though i suppose it can not be so much violently expanded or comprest , and that air can not be so much condensated or rarefied as it may be comprest or expanded . and of all other elements air is most capable of compression as in the windgun , and of expansion as in the airpump : ( which from thence may be rightly termed the expansor ) and from this compression and expansion therof there follows a natural motus or nisus ad restitutionem , or resilience , which is now superscribed with a new title of elasticity , though the term properly signify rather abaction or pulsion then any such return or restitution , as is or ought to be intended thereby , and in plain english is better termed springines , which is more proper to compression then expansion ; though as it is confusedly used for both , i am forced also so to use it , only for more clearnes and distinction i shall rather ascribe elasticity to fluid bodys , as air , and the like , and springines to consistent , as steel , and the like . but heer i must remind what i have formerly observed , that there is a very great difference between rarefaction and condensation which are spiritual , and by intrinsecal generation , and expansion and compression which are corporeal , & by extrinsecal violence : which difference doth most plainly appear by this very elasticity : for no elasticity and motion or nisus to restitution doth ensue from the former , becaus they are so intrinsecaly altered by natural generation ; whereby the predominant spirit having in the generation reduced the body to a fit rarity or density for itself , doth so continue it as long as it doth predominate ; but only from the latter , when only the body is by any external violence so expanded or comprest , and the predomination of the spirit not varied by corruption , and therefore it reteineth still such an actual nisus ; which , when the external violence is removed , becomes a motus ad restitutionem . and yet both the former and the latter are generaly confounded together , which hath so much confounded the right knowledg and understanding therof : but being thus clearly explained and distinguished , will very much facilitate and clear our discours therof . and this may evidently appear in all the experiments of rarefaction and condensation , or of expansion and compression . as first in the sealed weather-glass , which is the true thermometer without any communication with the external air , and accordingly with the variation of the density or rarity of the body therof ; from which it is defended by being so sealed , and is only varied in itself by heat or cold , which are spiritual qualitys , penetrating the glass , or operating upon it by their emanant contact , and consequently upon the water , or any other liquor within it ( which whatsoever it be , we will generaly call water ) and if cold have no emanant rays like heat , yet it may , as i have shewed , generate univocaly a potential cold in the glass , and so thereby also in the water by producing the potential cold therof into actuality ( as also sound which is another quality of air mist in the compositum therof may be so produced , as i shall shew heerafter . ) and therefore the water in the sealed weather-glass doth not fall in hotter weather , nor rise in colder , as in the open weather-glass , but contrarily rise in hotter , and fall in colder weather ; becaus the included water being intrinsecaly rarefied by the heat doth extrinsecaly compress the air , which also would itself be rarefied , and hath therefore an intrinsecal nisus therunto in itself ; but yet is comprest violently by the water , which is more dens and robust in itself , and the air more rare and tender in itself ; and so again the included water being intrinsecaly condensated by cold , doth extrinsecaly expand the air , which also would of itself be so condensated , and hath therefore an intrinsecal nisus therunto in itself ; but yet is expanded violently by the water which is condensated , and being more prepotent , as i have said , doth so expand and draw down the air to fill the space which it hath left , ne detur vacuum . also if the sealed weather-glass be carried up to the top of the highest steeple or hill , where the external air is much more rare then at the bottom , yet the water will not suddenly fall , as in an open weather-glass ; becaus the water and air in the sealed weather-glass have no such communication with the external air , and the corporeal rarity or density therof ; but is only rarefied or condensated by internal heat , or cold ; and that can not so suddenly be produced in it as to make any such variations : wheras in the open weather-glass ; becaus it is open , the external air doth corporealy communicate with the included air , and so by mingling with it doth suddenly vary the rarity or density therof , as vinegar mingled with thick ink , or the like : and therefore the included air is suddenly varied , and sooner by the rarity or density of the external air , then by the heat or cold therof , which require more time univocaly to generate heat or cold in the included air , whereby it may be rarefied or condensated in itself : wheras if the external air be actualy more rare , though more cold ( from other circumstantial causalitys , as in clear frosty weather , or the like ) the included air in the open weather-glass will also be more rare ; becaus , as i have shewed , it doth communicate and mingle with it ; and so if it be more dens , though more hott ; as in a minepitt , the included air will be also more dens , for the same reason ; and consequently the water will fall in the former , and rise in the latter experiment , so that the open weather-glass is indeed rather a pycnometer , as i may call it . also in the common experiment of drawing up water in an urinal or other vessel by flame , or heating the vessel , assoon as the actual flame , which did actualy rarefy it , is extinct , the air is again condensated , and the water will ascend suddenly , ( or more slowly if it be heated , ) and afterward so mingle with the external air , and participate of the rarity or density therof , like any other such pycnometer ; for so it stands at that hight wherunto it hath ascended , and will be varied afterward as in any open weather-glass by applying heat to the outside of the glass , which will make it to fall , and when that is abated to rise again , and not stand afterward as low as it fell , as it doth at that hight which it atteined by the calefaction before . and it is consyderable in this experiment , that the air is rarefied so notably in the glass by flame or fire within the glass , together with all the fume therof ; and yet the rarefaction of both , which is proportionably as much in extension as the water which ascendeth afterward , doth not depress it below the stagnum therof in the basin ; wherefore certeinly it must pass out of the glass , ( whose neck is filled and closed with the water therin equaly with the levell of the water in the basin , as the top of the torricellian tube is with the mercury that is in it ) by some such ways and passages , as i shall heerafter discover and declare concerning the torricellian experiment . and it doth not depress the water below the stagnum therof in the basin , as air rarefied within an open weatherglass doth the water therin below the standard therof ; becaus in this experiment the water not having yet ascended above the levell therof in the basin , doth not superpend , nor hath any such nisus to return downward or descend , as in the open weather-glass , or torricellian tube , wherin the cylinder of water , or mercury , doth so superpend upon and above the stagnum , and therefore hath such a nisus of returning again downward , as i shall also shew afterward . and so also in this experiment , after the water hath ascended in the glass , and hath thereby such a nisus of returning downward again , if the air above it within the glass be then rarefied again by heating , or the like , the water will fall as well as in any other open weather-glass , as i have shewed . and the true reason heerof is not from any natural springe of the air , or abaction or pulsion outwardly , as i before noted ; becaus the expansion is violent and beyond the natural density of the common air , and the restitution to it inwardly natural ; as of bent steel to its own natural figure : for that which is more constant and proper is natural , and the other violent . wherefore also the ●r●e reason why in this or any other open weather-glass , the water doth not return to its levell ( unles the air within the glass be rarefied so farr ) though it otherwise might , ( not being imprisoned , as in the sealed weather-glass ) is , becaus this elasticity of the air expanded by the weight of the descending water doth ●eep it from descending any farther then itself will be expanded by the weight therof : for so in the tube of water or mercury inverted , as they descend , they thereby expand the air more , and they weigh less ; and so at length they both come to an aequilibrium , between the potentia of this elasticity of the air and pondus of water or mercury ; and then they both stand at that hight ; which we therefore call the standard : and though the included air doth , as i have said , somwhat communicate with the external air ; yet not so freely , but that it is still farr more expanded by the weight : and as the included air will be partly rarefied or densified according to the proportion of the rarity or density of the external air ; so by the expansion therof it may be farther expanded , and by the compression therof comprest ; which produceth the like effects therof in the standard , but from a contrary reason : for though by expansion of the external air the included air and water or mercury will fall , and by the compression therof rise , yet that is not from any such intrinsecal potentia as of rarefaction and condensation , but from the extrinsecal v●olence of expansion and compression drawing the air and water outwardly toward that end wherunto it is applied , which is the stagnum , whereby they must necessarily follow that way , and so descend in expansion , by drawing it up more the same way outwardly or upwardly from the stagnum ; and it must as necessarily ascend by compression . and so in the air-pump or expansor the torricellian tube and stagnum being placed therin , by the operation therof ; which doth notably expand the air outwardly in the receiver wherin it is placed , the mercury in the stagnum is thereby drawn outwardly upward , and consequently it must descend inwardly downward in the tube ( as that engine is said to draw up a very great weight ) and yet it proportionably also draws the included air at the other end , though not so freely , and therefore not so strongly , nor can so communicate with it as the rarefaction of the external air doth not so freely communicate with the inte●nal air , as i have said . and this i conceiv to be the true reason of the torricellian experiment , and also of the paschalian experiment , which are the same proportionably according to the different weight of mercury and water , and both of them differ from the common open weather-glass only in this , that they are erected to the highest standard , which can be made of any such experiments , wheras the weather-glass is only a partial experiment ; as when the torricellian tube is shorter then the standard , yet the mercury will stand at that hight : but a pump doth correspond with the paschalian experiment , if it be as high ; for the water will not so stand therin above the standard , though by forcers and buckets below the standard , and the like , it may be raised higher , as the waterwork at london-bridg ; and i know a pump neer the place where i dwell , which servs an hous with water pumped up about fifty feet high , by making two pump posts , wherof the lower is about two inches bore , and the upper about five with poles , and a bucket in it , and two valvs at the bottom of the bucket and top of the lower post. also the siphon , as to this purpose , is only a double pump or double tube inverted . but the great wonderment concerning the torricellian experiment hath been , how the air should come into the tube , and ascend above the mercurial cylinder ; which first seemed so impossible , as that it was generaly proclaimed to be a sensible instance of vacuity ; though it doth as sensibly disprove it by the very s●andard of the mercury in the tube , which therefore doth not descend to its levell in the stagnum to prevent vacuity ; and also by expansion of bladder , and by the light which appears in the tube above the mercurial cylinder ; which some say is a body itself , but certeinly , though it be only an emanant quality , it can not possibly exist without a d●aphanous body , as inherent light can not subsist without a lucid body . others therefore suppose it to be materia subtilis , or aethereous corpuscles , or somthing they know not what , which yet they will affirm upon all such occasions to fill pores or vacuitys rather then acknowledg the truth and evidence of the most sensible experiments : but though aether doth send forth emanant rays every way , yet by its own rapid motion circularly it prevents any such excursions of its substantial corpuscles , or effluvia , as certeinly would long since have exhausted it , and made it no aether , unles they can also find a way to reciprocate and restore them again , like vapors to the sea. but plainly and simply all that is above the mercurial cylinder in the tube is only common air expanded , as i have said ; and may appear by all the phaenomena therof . as by the vibrations and subsiliences of the mercury in the tube when being stop'd with the finger it is inverted and set● in the stagnum , which are not like the undulations of the surface of the mercury in the stagnum when it is afterward moved , but farr different , and more busy and tumultuous , as you may easily perceiv , if after the mercury is setled at the standard , you so move it by jogging , which will caus a common undulation , but no such commotion as before ; and so if you fill a torricellian tube half full with water , and then stop it with your finger , and invert it ; you shall see the air heaving and striving in like manner to pass through the water , and bearing up part therof before it to the top of the tube ; till at last the air setleth above , and the water beneath : and so if you leave some air in the torricellian tube with themercury , or some watery bubbles ( which commonly remain lurking in it whether you will or no ) you shall see almost the same vibrations and subsiliences , and that is manifestly included air or water , becaus they were so left in it before . but for a farther evidence heerof , take another tube close at one end , and of such a convenient length and bore , as that the torricellian tube may freely move and play in it ( whence i shall call th●s other the extratorricellian tube ) and setting it with the close end downward , place the torricellian tube so likewise with some small supporter in the extratorricellian tube , that the open end of the torricellian tube may be almost as high as the open end of the extratorricellian tube , and then fill the torricellian tube so standing in the extratorricellian tube with mercury ; and afterward stop the open end of the extratorricellian tube carefully with a cork , or the like , and then suddenly invert both together , and the mercury will stand in the torricellian tube above the hight of the standard ; wheras if it were any thing but part of the air included in the extratorricellian tube , which by the descent and weight of the mercury in the stagnum comprest , it should in this extratorricellian experiment stand at the same hight as in the common torricellian experiment , which yet it doth not ; but above it , becaus a very litle of the air , so very much expanded , doth suffice to fill the small space above the mercurial cylinder in the torricellian tube , in this experiment , and to suspend the mercury , and therefore when so much of the mercury as before filled that space doth after the inversion re●tagnate in the extratorricellian tube , the rest of air which was included therin is thereby proportionably comprest , and by the elastical potentia of that compression bears up the mercury and cylinder therof somwhat higher then in the torricellian experiment ; which doth concurr with what i said before , concerning the drawing down of the mercurial cylinder by expansion of the included air in the receiver of the airpump or expansor ; for so contrarily the compression of the like included air in this experiment doth bear it upward ; ( and plainly appears to be stronger then any pretended pressure of the atmosphere ) . and this may further appear if you open the first close end of the extratorricellian tube , for then the included air therin so comprest will issue forth with a litle poppysm , which is a manifest sig●e of the compression of air ; and then the mercurial cylinder will fall down to the usual standard . and yet more visibly if you carefully close the first closed end of the extratorricellian tube with a litle piece of bladder , when both the tubes are inverted as before the bladder will apparently strutt , and stiffly rise up , and not be born down by the atmosphere , as hath been supposed ; and then the mercurial cylinder will not stand altogether so high as before , but proportionably lower , according to the more space gained by the strutting of the bladder . and if the torricellian tube be open at both ends , and you stop one with your finger beneath , and then it be filled with mercury , and so you invert it with your other hand , and place it in the stagnum , it will notably introsuct your finger ( which by the inversion will then be above it ) in stead of air , becaus it is next to the mercurial cylinder , and weight therof ; and yet it will also introsuct air below it to fill the space above it ; and all such introsuctions are manifest symptoms of air expanded , and not of any vacuity , which as it can not extrude , so neither can it introsuct any body , nor doth need any body to succeed , as plenitude doth ; but those forcible introsuctions are from that elastical potentia of a body expanded , which is to restore itself to its own natural density , and other successions of any body against the natural motion therof are , as i have shewed , only to prevent vacuity . nor is such introsuction any pressure of the atmosphere above the finger , but most sensibly only a torture beneath it . wherefore it is sufficiently evident that the space above the mercurial cylinder is filled only with expanded air , which they who deny , do thereby shutt their eyes against a very curious improvement which otherwise they might make therof by inquiring farther how very subtily and strangely the air doth pass into the torricellian tube so prepossessed with the mercury . which i shall now also consyder . and i can easily grant to others and my self , that it doth not nor , can it possibly pass and penetrate through the extensive body of the glass or mercury , becaus itself is also an extensive body , and two such severaly extensive bodys can not be in the same place ( which , as i have said , is only extension in relation to the substance of the body itself , which thereby is in such a position and place as it is , ( in respect of all other bodys in the univers ) nor can there be any such penetration of extensions , or two extensions in the same vbi , becaus it is the position of the extensions , and so there can not be two positions of one and the same extension , though by condensation and rarefaction , compression and expansion the extension itself may be varied , the matter being the same , as i have formerly shewed , and doth plainly appear by these and all other instances therof . also i conceiv that neither the glass which is a very imporous body , nor the mercury which is fluid hath any such pores in itself through which the air might pass without penetration ; but that the very great force and violence of the introsuction , which i have before discovered , doth make temporary pores , or rather some pervious passages , which are those very close and indiscernible strainers through which the air doth pass in the body of the mercury itself into the tube , and thereby is so very much expanded . as when boys blow through a q●ill , or cane , into water , wherin there are no pores before , yet the force and violence of that blast doth make such temporary passages , whereby their breath passeth through the body therof in manifest bubbles : so when a drawer fills his wine , out of a pott held very high into a glass below , some air between is by the fall dashed into the wine , and appears therin in very small corpuscles , ( which he therefore calls nitts ) and again ascend in small bubbles standing on the surface of the wine : and so in the common experiment of tobacco taken through a close vessell almost filled with water , whereby the fume of the tobacco shall pass from the pipe , through the water , to the mouth of him who so introsucts it , which is very like the introsuction of the air through the mercury by the weight therof ; and though the same body doth introsuct through itself in the torricellian experiment , which is also consyderable , wheras in all the others the operation is by another ; yet i do not apprehend this diversity to make any difference in the reason of the thing itself : for so as there be a sufficient force thus to introsuct , it is all one whether it be by the force of the same body , or of another , or whether it be by a potentia , or pondus , and the mercury , in the torricellian experiment , is putt into such a posture , as it can not descend with all the weight therof , unles it first make way for another body , that is , the air , so to pass through it , and to succeed it , ne detur vacuum ; which it doth , as i have said , by the very weight therof , and so the air passeth through it , though not without very much resistance and commotion , either by indiscernible bubbles , or some such passages . and being so introsucted by the overweight of the mercury , and to prevent vacuity the weight of the mercurial cylinder below it is as if there were an introsuctive potentia above it , which might be sufficient so to introsuct air through it , as the breath of a man is sufficient to introsuct it through a litle body of water , wheras the pondus of the mercurial cylinder is farr greater then the potentia of any mans breath . and the mercurial cylinder by the weight therof doth very hardly introduce the air through or between the body therof , and may be sett in such a quiet posture as it will not so operate , untill it be jogged , and begin to fall ; and when it doth operate the passages through the body therof are opened with great reluctance and commotion ; as water by the weight therof doth so open its own body to let out bubbles with an ebullition and undulation in itself ; and so the mercurial cylinder plainly discovereth a very notable commotion by the ebullition and undulation in the surface and top therof , which is to me a most plain evidence of air passing through it the same way , as it doth through water ; and so indeed it doth pass through water in the paschalian experiment : and if any may yet conceiv a difference between bubbles which are first forced into the water , and so must necessarily pass out again , or fume introsucted by another , and air introduced by the water or mercury itself , and the overweight therof , let him try and satisfy himself with the other experiment of filling a torricellian tube almost full with water or mercury , and then stopping it with his finger ( or if he pleas hermeticaly sealing it ) suddenly invert it , and he shall find that there will be both the same phaenomena proportionably of the commotions , and the same effect at last of the air ascending above the cylinder of water or mercury , and of that subsiding beneath it : and , as i have said before , that the space above the mercurial cylinder is and can be filled with nothing but the air , so included before in it ; so in all these or in any other such experiments , the air passeth into the glass as it doth out of it in the former experiment , and though the air be included in the same tube with the mercury in the torricellian experiment , yet in this last mentioned experiment , when the tube is inverted , it is thereby placed beneath , and without it ( though the air were before in the tube ) as well as any external air ; and must some way or other pass to ascend above and within the mercury , which plainly it doth by the weight and pressure of the mercurial cylinder itself ; and so the air included in the tube with the mercury when the tube is inverted is by the weight of the mercury first comprest beneath , and by litle and litle transmitted through the mercury into the space above it , whereby it is expanded above , and then again reduced to its former density , which fills the same space above , as it did beneath . and though i sometimes conceived that the external air might in the torricellian tube and experiment pass between the glass and the mercury , ( as generaly air will , if it can , pass that way ; becaus those two bodys are only contiguous and not continuous , as the water is in itself ; and so probably some air doth so pass in the torricellian experiment ) yet certainly it passeth also between or through the very body of the mercury by those secret passages which it so maketh , as may appear by the commotion in the whole cylinder , and more plainly by filling the extratorricellian tube with water or oil , so as when both the tubes are inverted , the water or oil shall stand above the torricellian tube , and every way encompass and drown both tube and mercury itself ; and then let the first closed end be opened at the top of the extratorricellian tube inverted , and the mercurial cylinder will subside to a proportionable standard ( accounting also for the overweight of water or oil ) as in the first experiment , wherin only air was left in the extratorricellian tube . wherefore i apprehend it so to pass through pervious passages of the water or oil , and also of the mercury , and that the proportionable weight of water in the paschalian experiment is equivalent to the weight of the mercurial cylinder , and doth expand the air percolated through it as much : and so the air which is so expanded , when it is above the cylinder by that elastical potentia therof doth suspend the like weight either of water , or mercury below it ; which after they come to an aequipotentia of the one , and aequipondium of the other , equaly and mutualy corresponding one with another there and then rest and setle in their standard , without any more commotions and vibrations . and though the mercurial tube be never so long , yet the over-weight of the cylinder will have the same operation and effect proportionably ; and so i suppose , that if the stagnum of the mercury were never so deep , and the torricellian tube were plunged in it with the orifice downward , and any air left in it , or not , and then drawn upward to any hight whatsoever , yet it shall never be raised above the standard , nor shall the air be ever the more expanded , though there may be several degrees of the expansion therof beneath the standard . and the torricellian experiment when it is finished , is also a weather-glass , and will rise and fall as well as a common pycnometer , ( but somwhat otherwise , and not so much in measure ) by communication of the external air with the internal in the torricellian tube , as well as any other open weather-glass ; and i therefore conceiv , that the pervious passages between the glass and mercury , and perhaps also in the body of the mercury still stand open to the subtile and imperceptible air therin , and which doth still intervene between the internal and external air , whereby they so communicate one with another ; and some have observed litle no●ches or inequalitys of the surface of the mercurial cylinder at the hight of the standard after the torricellian experiment is finished , which seemeth to be a perceptible symptom heerof . and thus i suppose that there is the same reason proportionably of the weather-glass , pumps , siphons , the paschalian , and torricellian experiments , and the like , from the expansion by the weight of water or mercury and elastical potentia of the air itself , by retraction and not by pulsion , or any pressure therof , which they do no more prove , then they did prove the preconceived opinion of vacuity ; and yet men are so fond of their own fansys that they would perswade not only other men , but also nature and experiments themselves , to be of their opinion , and thus have very confidently inscribed on the torricellian experiment the title of a barometer ; supposing the atmosphere to press down the stagnum , and so to raise the mercurial cylinder in the tube to the standard therof ; wheras in the extratorricellian experiment after the first closed end is opened and the atmosphere admitted the mercurial cylinder doth subside ; and so certeinly the whole pressure therof can not be so much as the potentia of the litle compression of air in the extratorricellian tube before mentioned . thus the torricellian experiment is grown famous only by certein errors affixed to it , rather then by any sensible truth gained thereby , more then formerly ; it being in itself , only the utmost extent of a weather-glass , and epitome of a pump . iii. the first or principal quality of air is cold , as heat is of aether , which being contrary do mutualy temper one another ; and thereby also preserve the body of water , that it should not be wholy resolved into vapors by the emanant heat of aether , nor congeled into ice by the contact of the cold air , and both of them do extend the benefits of that temperature to the earth , and all the vegetatives and animals therin . but becaus some deny air to be cold , before i proceed any farther , i shall prove it . i know not that ever any denied or doubted heat to be the proper quality of aether or fire , which also t●e text doth imply , becaus it is synonymous and connatural to light , and belongs to the same element , though light be only mentioned for all the other qualitys of aether from another special reason , which i have already declared . and expressly drines is the proper quality of earth , which is therefore in the text em●nently called the arida ; ( and so also our saviour calls it in the gospell ) that is , the primum aridum . wherefore either air , or water must be the primum frigidum ; but water is apparently most moist , and so is every where termed in scripture , and by all mankind ( except some philosophers ) and that air is most cold was the antient opinion of pythagora● , and afterward of the stoikes , and may be proved by that very argument whereby the peripatetikes would establish the contrary opinion , which is their syzygy of the elements , and their fower first qualitys ; for they say air is most moist , and therefore water is most cold , and so prove one error by another ; wheras by the very same induction i prove air to be most cold ; becaus that which themselvs assigne to be most moist , that is , vapor , is plainly water rarefied , and not air , nor like it in any thing , but only in corporeal rarity , which is very different from all spiritual qualitys ; and that vapor is water , and not air i shall evidently prove heerafter . also it doth very sensibly appear by wind or the motion of air , which cooleth , and if it be not vaporous , but pure and clear air , though most cold , it drieth rather then moistneth : though , as i have said before of heat , drines , or moisture , are not congenerous with either , but indifferent between both it and cold , and may accompany one or other , according to circumstantial causalytys . but when air is most vaporous , it is commonly most tepid ; as appears by south winds , and the surface of water , which is next to the air , and is soonest and most congeled ; wheras subterraneous springs are never congeled , like suba●reous rivers ; but are rather observed to be warmer in winter , and cooler in summer , though perhaps not positively , but comparatively ; and probably earth hath more misture of aether , and water of air , and so ice which is congeled , and actualy most cold , is actualy most aereous ; whereby , as they say , it is more expanded , but properly rarefied : yet water hath generaly some actual cold in it , as may appear by washing , and especialy by laving or waving the hand in it , which motion doth more actuate the cold of water , as winds do actuate the cold of air : though as heat in a burning glass doth not instantly burn , so cold which is less active , may not suddenly cool ; and being mingled with vapor in all the atmosphere , the air is thereby tempered , and doth cool less : and from many such circumstantial causalitys the activity therof may be much abated . and though it be generaly actuated by motion , yet it is not therefore motion , as i have said of heat , and therin also proved cold not to be either rest , or motion formaly in itself : and though heat generaly caus some motion , yet cold may be without any sensible motion ; as in ice , wherof the whole body , and all the parts therof per omnia , are consistent and immote . and there may be a very notable motion and commotion , without any notable variation of heat or cold , as if the torricellian tube be filled almost with mercury or water and some air left in it , and then stop'd with your finger , and suddenly inverted , as i before mentioned , you shall observ a very notable commotion in the ascent of the included air through the body of the water or mercury , almost like the commotion that appears in the dissolution of metalls by aqua fortis ; and yet no notable variation of heat , or cold ; which plainly shews that the notable heat in the other is not from the motion , but rather the motion from the heat , as heer it is from the weight : and so motion being a common instrument both of bodys and spirits , is caused by any of them , and sometimes doth caus them equivocaly ; but is not univocaly in itself any other thing then motion , as i have shewed before generaly , and shall still proceed to shew particularly in every thing which may colorably be suspected to be only motion . now though aether and air be the more active e●ements , and water and earth less active ; and consequently the proper qualitys of aether and air , which are heat and cold , more operative , and of water and earth , which are moisture and drines , less operative ; yet they also again differ among themselvs ; and so cold is less operative then heat , and drines then moisture . thus heat by contact , or otherwise so intens as to prevail against cold , doth sooner overcome it then cold heat ; as fire warms the ambient air almost instantly ; but the ambient air doth not so suddenly extinguish fire in iron candent : and though it prevail so farr against flame as to to destroy the individuality , yet it can not prevent the successive generation therof . nor did the english or dutch , who winter'd in groenland , or nova zembla , find their fires or lights to go out in the coldest seasons . and in their antiperist●sis and conflict , cold doth more excite and provoke the potential heat , then heat doth cold ; for so it makes flesh to burn and blister , and nive perustus is no such improper phrase : but when the cold overcomes the heat , it mortifys and causeth gangrenation ; which is sometimes prevented by applying a more moderate cold , as of snow , or the like ; which doth not profligate , but rather excite and recover the internal heat again . thus though the proper effects of heat be to heat , and of cold to cool , yet by antiperistasis they may produce contrary effects , which pilanly shews that there is such antiperistas●s in nature , and not only in notion . also from other circumstantial causalitys they may produce other collateral and consequential effects , as i have already observed of heat . but wheras heat first rarefieth and then condensateth , contrarily cold first condensateth , as water in the sealed vveather-glass by the frigefactive power therof , and so also in any open water ; and then rarefieth by the congelative power therof , as in ice . and as metalls swell and are dilated by heat in and before fusion , and contracted again by cold , so ice is dilated by conglaciation and contracted again by melting . and wheras cold doth not conglaciate bodys actualy cold which have much potential heat in them , as sack is hardly congeled , and so some very hott spirits , and oils , and the like ; it plainly proves generation to be only the production out of potentiality into actuality . also cold may thus not only congregate heterogeneo●s things by conglaciation , which doth constipate them in the consistence therof , but also segregate them , as saltwater frozen is more insipid , and i suppose that which is not frozen is thereby rendred more briny . and thus also it may segregate homogeneous things , as stone● , and the like ; which may crack and break with cold , as well as heat : but i esteem this to be rather a discontinuation , then a segregation . and so generaly it renders bodys more fragile ; as ice , or petrified bodys , glass , and most notably steel suddenly cooled ; and so any iron is more britle in frosty weather ; and physicians observ the like of bones of animals . thus also cold is a dissolvent as well as heat , and doth caus vitrification and crystallisation sometimes suddenly ; and i suppose might effect more by long and mature generation , if it were tried ; for though it is not so strong and quick a generator as heat , yet as a weaker magnetical virtue by long continuance doth produce magnetism in other bodys ; and violent tension of a springe of steel , if it be long continued will by degrees overcome the elastical potentia therof , and make the very spirit to conform to that figure of the body ; so there are many neglected operators in nature , which though more weak and dull may in longer time produce very notable effects . iv. as aether produceth color , so doth air sound ; which yet as the other seemeth to me to be no simple , but a mist quality . and though it hath been antiently observed that color is mist of light and opacity , yet no notice hath been taken of any such misture in sound , which is the great instrument of human speech and discours , and yet there is none of those other sensibles , whose intrinsecal nature is less known unto us . and i i find it very difficult farther to explain any thing therof , becaus i want even common terms , and words whereby to express my conceptions . i have already proposed generaly , that as earth hath some proper qualitys , as consistence , and magnetical virtue , whereby to fix itself ; so it hath also other connatural qualitys in itself , whereby it doth fix the more agile qualitys of the other three fluid elements , which also require their contrary qualitys , wherewith to be mist and contemperated , as well as the fower first qualitys . and thus we have discovered opacity to be a simple quality contrary to light , and that by the mistion therof color is produced . and that as light is an aethereal quality , so opacity is a terrene quality ; as plainly the earth is most opacous , and there are no fixed colors without some terreity , and the most fixed are in such bodys as are also consistent . but yet i fear to seem too curious and novell in asserting any such analogy in sound ; however , as i have promised , i shall adventure , and make a farther essay therof . and according to the best musical terms that i know , shall call the two simple contrary qualitys , which i conceiv to be the principles of sound acutum and grave , or shrill and flatt : wherof shrilnes is the aereal , and more agile quality ; and flatnes the terrene , and more fixative quality : or if we will accept of latin terms analogical to light and colors , we may call a sound or voice wherin shrilnes doth predominate , vox clara ; and wherin flatnes , vox fusca : but as pure light or pure opacity are not visible , so i suppose pure shrilnes , or pure flatnes , are not audible , nor indeed that they can actualy exist in their own simple extremitys . and as light is not the least degree of opacity , nor opacity of light , but different and contrary qualitys ; so that which i intend by acutum and grave , and their shrilnes and flatnes is no degree ; as tones or the several not es of the gamut , and the like , but contrary and different qualitys . yet i also observ one general difference of degrees between color and sound , that is , as all fixed colors have a notable degree of terreity , which fixeth them , and desultory colors less ; so sound , which is only desultory and momentaneous individualy , as i have said , requires a less share of terreity then desultory color , though it be commonly produced by collision of terrene bodys originaly . and as fire produced by collision originaly may fire a whole train of gunpowder successively , so doth the original collision produce sound , that is afterward continued by its own spiritual quality , which is alway potentialy in all the air , and actuated by such collision of the air , which hath also , as i have said , some earth in the mistion therof , as well as the other elements ( and as we may see terreous motes and corpuscles to float therin ) . and it is so produced instrumentaly and equivocaly by motion , or rather commotion ; for as the original instrument therof is collision , so the immediate caus of any sound is the tremor , which is only caused by commotion . wherefore aether and planets though most swift movers , yet becaus they move in fluid ambient bodys most equaly , and thereby make no commotion therof , therefore also they make no sound , or nois , or pythagorean musike : yea aqueous or terreous bodys so moving in air , make litle or no sound ; as a stella cadens , snow , rain , hail , in the fall before they come to the earth : so a round and smooth bullet , that is not hollow , shott from a gun makes no proportionable nois , becaus by the swift motion therof it preventeth the resistance of the air , as i have said , and so maketh litle or no commotion therin ; wheras a rod , or whip , by a smart percussion of the air resisting it , and thereby suffering a commotion , maketh a notable sound ; and especialy thunder , which suddenly breaking out of the cloudy meteor teareth it asunder , every way , and dasheth it upon the air , and by sudden expansion of the inflamed lightning maketh such a terrible report ( like the flame of gunpowder out of a gun ) and so fluid bodys by mutual resistance , and by the sudden impuls that will not suffer them to mingle peaceably , make a violent commotion , and produce sound ; as water suddenly dashed against water ; wheras in a gentle flux and mixture it makes litle or no commotion , or sound . but to continue the sound , there must be a continued tremor in the solid body , as bells , strings , and the like : and where there is no such tremor originaly by commotion , there is no sound , as i have said ; as in collition of wooll ; and if it be not continued the sound ceaseth ; as by stopping a bell. but any tremor of a body in the outward superficies therof , may so caus the sound to be heard without the body ; as is reported of the aetites , and of a bell of gold being closed round with a stone , or clapper , within it ; and so commotion under water , which makes a tremor also in the superficies therof , may caus a sound to be heard in the air ; though also water and ice , glass , and the like terraqueous composita have much air , as well as earth , in their mistions and so may be proportionably capable of sound , which is mist of the two simple qualitys , proper to air , and earth . and though this tremor is the most notable and immediate instrument of sound , yet the multiplication of the sound in the air is , as i have said , only of the spiritual quality itself so first actuated thereby without any more commotion . and indeed sound doth not caus any such undulation or waveing therof up and down , like circles in a pond , as hath been supposed . much less is sound or voice , though articulate , any figuration of the air , or carving therof into characters , like written letters ; for then we could not hear two several sounds together , as we may if they be very dissonant ; as of a voice and of a musical instrument ; or any one sound of one of the voices in consort by attending more to it then to others : and certeinly several auditors may so attend to , and hear several voices : for the figure of the one intersecting the other would thereby disfigure and deface one another . nor could an echo then return any articulate voice , when the figured air is dashed against a concave bank or wall , unless the bank or wall had also such organical parts , whereby to figurate it again , and so return it : but only the air as i have said , having the sound actuated in it , and being reverberated , doth return it with the sound in it ; which is by a stop therof , as it may also be diverted by wind. and in an echo we only hear the last word because it is last , for the precedent words by that stop being overtaken by the following are somwhat drowned , as the last is not . nor do great winds or wafts of the air caus proportionable sounds , unles they collide the air against trees or houses , or the like , whereby they caus such a tremor in it ; wheras the motion or undulation of the air in itself , causeth neither tremor , nor sound . and the sound or voice is continualy propagated in the air by the first sound or voice actuated in it : and so doth pass away continualy ; and as it i● said , nescit vox missa reverti ; nor can the same voice ( otherwise then by an echo ) be heard twice by one man , unles he could fly away faster then it , and hear it again , as another man doth at a farther distance , which is impossible : for it is very swift , though not like emanant light of lightning , which is seen before we hear the thunder-clap , and if we estimate the distance of the thunder cloud and different space of time , between the first sight of the flash , and hearing of the clap , we may partly judg of their different velocitys . also sound is very longinquous , though not so farr as light emanant : broad sides in a late naval batell have been heard an hundred miles from the place . nor is sound emanant , but always inherent , though never immanent , but transient , and therefore hath no refraction , nor reflection of itself ; but as the air ( in which it is inherent ) is only moved by the wind , which yet doth not wholy divert it ; becaus it is so suddenly propagated in the air , and penetrateth and passeth away more swiftly , then the body of the air can move in itself by any corporeal motion : and it is reflected in an echo only by the reverberation of the air itself ; otherwise it terminateth and abateth itself by less and less degrees . and yet while it continues , it is not spent , or exhausted by hearing , as odors , and sapors , which are more gross , and more immersed in the vapors , and liquors , therof ; but a whole army of soldiers may all hear the oration of their general : which also plainly sheweth it not to be any figurative , or corporeal thing , but a most wonderfull spiritual quality ; which successively and by innumerable propagated individualitys so conveys itself to the very organ of hearing , yet not corporealy striking upon the tympanum therof ; as anatomists generaly suppose , and so also call some internal parts of the ear by such significant names , incus and malleus ; for plainly in hearing we do not perceiv any the least commotion or tremor , but only the spiritual quality itself , which is the proper sensible and object of the sens ; and if we feel any commotion , as in discharging a gun neer to the ear , that is only the waft of air which the ear feels , as any other part of the body also may by the sens of feeling , but doth hear only the vehement sensible of sound by the sens of hearing . nor yet are there any rays of sound as of light , so to convey unto the sense the image therof , and so several images to several mens senses ; but only the same spiritual quality is so propagated per omnia ; which is very admirable and curious , and deserving more notice and consyderation then philosophy hath hitherto bestowed upon it . also several sounds do penetrate one another per omnia , so as to convey the whole sound in every point of the air , and to every ear within the sphere therof , and not confound any of them so being inherent in the air , which yet is not only directed by the breath of the speaker , and the like , but also diverted by winds , and reflected by echo's : and several sounds seem somwhat to hinder and interrupt one another , if that be not rather an infirmity of the sens , then any confusion of the sensible qualitys , as the ey can not so distinctly see several visibles , though certeinly the images therof do not confound one another . and as spiritual magnitude , or ampliation by multiplication of several parts into one total , doth , as i have observed , augment the whole beyond the proportions of the particulars ; so many sounds together are heard farther then any one of them singly ; as a whole broadside , or cry of hounds ; like a great mountain , which is farther visible in the whole then any part alone could be seen . and sound reflected at a great distance is heard better then directly , but best neer to the reflection ( like reflected rays of heat or light ) becaus though the reflection doth not make any new figuration of the sound or voice , yet it doth return and reduplicate it so generating itself successively in the air , as i have shewed . but the greatest mystery and incognitum is , how the air which plainly is not configurated or effigiated by sound or voice , but only putt into such or such a tremor by the first collision therof , whereby the sound or voice is first actuated and specificated equivocaly , should afterward univocaly generate it in itself successively without any more collision commotion or tremor in itself . for there seemeth to be none such afterward in the air ; as you may try by a flame of a candle or the least feather hung by a thread in an upper chamber , and let the greatest sound , or noise , be made under the chamber window in the open air , so as the chamber be not shaken , nor the waft of air come toward it , but go the other way from it ; which , as i have said , doth not at all concern the sound : and then observe whether there be any motion or tremor in the flame or feather , more then would be without any such sound or nois : certeinly it will not be in any maner proportionable to the greatnes of the sound or nois , as it should be if it were the very sound or nois . but i shall not penetrate any farther into this very curious secret of nature , nor pronounce what sound is particularly ; only affirming it generaly to be a spiritual quality , and not any corporeal motion , though it be alway first equivocaly generated by motion , which is therefore so concom●tant and instrumental in it , and perhaps more necessarily antecedent then in heat , or any other quality whatsoever . yet we must carefully distinguish , as i have said , between the very essence and formality of any thing , and any most necessary instrumentality therof whatsoever ; otherwise we should know no difference between our own bodys and spirits in this conjunct state therof . and whosoever will not so distinguish between the spiritual quality of sound ( which is a proper sensible and the first collision motion and tremor which is only the equivocal generator therof , though alway necessarily requisite as an instrument , and yet , in itself hardly so much as a common sensible , nor perceptible in and with the sound by the same sens of hearing ) seemeth to me to be like unto him who affirmed that he could play upon the organs , and upon farther examination it was found that he could only blow the bellows . wherefore that we may better consyder all together , and carry on this great question concerning motion throughout , we will recollect what we have said before , and now also add this unto the rest ; and so suppose , as we may very well , the same air to be per omnia tepid , that is hott , and cold , and also luminous , and now also sonorous , at the same time , yea to have many visible images and audible sounds penetrating one another , and all that body of air wherin they are in every point therof ; and if any human invention can find out and assigne so many several motions , as all these and some more , which i shall heerafter also add in one body per omnia puncta therof , and in the same instant , he may perhaps also move me from my present judgment and contrary opinion . v. the aery expansum , which was made to be the common passage between the aether and terraqueous globe transmitting ae●hereous rays downward , and aqueous vapors upward , hath no proper and fixed inhabitants in itself , but only vapors or waters above , and meteors , which move up and down , like birds flying in it ; wheras the aether hath starrs , and the terraqueous globe is the native country and region of various elementary composita , vegetatives , sensitives , and of man himself . nor can i conceive that all these unnecessary and deformed meteors , which now appear in the air , were so in it when it was first made , or before the fall of man ; for whose sake , not only earth , but all the elements were accursed ; and that curs hath produced many sensitive anomala ; and not only briars and thorns , but also inundations , meteors , comets , and all the imperfections monsters and anomala of nature , which was first made perfect and truly natural : and we only read of vapors then in the air which are the natural effluvia of water , ( as rays are the emanations of aether ) and most wonderfull m●nstrua , vehicles of spirits , and instruments of nature ; and it is said expressly that the excess therof , which is rain , and which otherwise may seem most needfull , and least noxious , was not then in the air , and that , god had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth , which was watered only with vapors and that , there went up a mist from the earth , and watered the whole face of the ground ; and so also supplied the fountains springs and rivers of fresh water . wherefore , as i have before ingaged , i shall now plainly prove vapor to be only water rarefied , and not air. it is expressly so termed in the text , waters above , in respect of the other elementary water or waters beneath . and it is demonstrable that it is so , becaus it hath all the propertys of water , and none of air , except only the corporeal and common affection of rarity ; but as air if it be never so much rarefied or expanded , yet doth not therefore ceas to be air , so neither water rarefied into vapor , to be water . also it is not , as i have said , so cold as air , but rather tepid ; nor so diaphanous , but refracts more ; nor so sonorous , for any voice is better and farther heard in sude and serene weather , then in mists and foggs ; and it is confessed by all that it moistens more then air , which is the true property of water . and we have most sensible experiment in t he ready return therof into water , as well as the efflux therof from water , which is only by condensation and rarefaction , and no transpeciation . certeinly we may as well affirm ice to be earth , as vapor air. nor are all those bubbles which appear in expansion of fluid bodys always air , as is supposed , but commonly vapor ; and therefore have a greater aptitude to be imbibed by dry bodys , and to insinuate themselves into them more then into pores , into which air doth more readily enter ; and they stick longer to glass , stone , metalls , and the like , then air ; and moisten more ; with many such symptoms , whereby they may be discerned , being in themselves of very different natures . and we must also distinguish between vapors themselves , which are either produced by the more gentle and calefactive power of heat , and were , as i have said , so made in this second day , and readily return again into water ; as in rain , or any distillation , and still continue actualy moist ; and these vapors are also more fluid , and only conglomerate together with litle consistence in more dark mi●ts and foggs in the air , such as we see to rise from rivers and vallys in a morning , or evening ; yet they are not common elementary water or waters beneath , but waters above ; which therefore are so easily trasmuted , neither are clouds any cisterns , membranes , or sponges , conteining rain ; for indeed rain-water is such a ponderous body as could not possibly be suspended in the air , but would fall down in cataracts , and destroy the terricolae ; wheras these vapors being suddenly rarefied by heat , and as suddenly condensated again by cold , or comprest by wind , do accordingly descend leasurely in greater or less drops , and the main body therof is in the mean time carried about to water a greater space of ground ; and so dews , which are vapors not drawn up so forcibly , nor so high , ( commonly by the nocturnal tepor , ) soon fall down again upon trees and herbs , and are there collected and hang in drops . and if the air be very cold , whereby these moist vapors are congelated , then accordingly they either fall in hail ( as icicles , and stiriae in some cold caverns of the earth ) and by their very stillicidation and agitation are formed into such corpuscular figures , which could not be , if they had ever been one intire body of ice in the air. and if the cold be not so intens , and the vapors much agitated before and in their congelation , then they are turned into snow , which is only frozen spume , and being a lighter body is therefore longer suspended in the air , and there congeled in whole lumps as appears plainly in the alps , but falling lower in our lower regions breaks into flakes . and dews which do not ascend higher are turned into frosts . or there is another kind of vapor produced by the more violent and caustike power of heat , and which is burnt and adust thereby , and therefore we call it , fume , or smoak ; which is more desiccated and consistent , and hath such terrene qualitys , wherwith water is mist , actuated in it ; and so will continue longer , and is rather actualy dry then moist . and there are some such dry mists lower in summer ; and they portend dry weather commonly ; and of these fumes are the bright clouds ( which indeed are more properly clouds , and have a particular name in hebrew ) composed ; and they are usualy higher in the air then the others , being so raised by the greater heat , and so the sky is also exprest by their name . and more moist thunderclouds which are of the other kind and usualy resolved into rain are lower then these bright clouds , and many times go one way while the others go another way . but i suppose that these bright clouds ( which are therefore so called becaus they do more equaly reflect the sun beams like a molten speculum as hath been said ) commonly are not resolved into rain , and therefore are termed clouds without water , but that according to the hebraical etymology by farther concoction and condensation or compression and the agitation of the air they are at length broken and comminuted into those litle bodys or pulviscles which we call motes , and are visibly seen in sun beams , and continue so in the air floating up and down longer then any dust of the earth ( or , as the poet calleth it , cloud of dust ) which almost as suddenly falleth as it riseth ; wheras these being more fuliginous and light do wander up and down much longer ; though at length they also descend and subside on the earth , otherwise they should clogg and choak the atmosphere ; which yet is usualy replenished with them , and we drink them in continualy as horses do mudd the water to thicken it ; and so fishes introsuct air , which contrarily doth temper their more dens drink and make it more thin , and which they suck in and through the water , as i have shewed in the torricellian experiment , and when they would suck it in more freely come toward the top of the water , whereby the air in the introsuction therof passeth through a less strainer , and they cannot long live without some introsuction of air ; as appears in ponds frozen , wherin we use to break holes in the ice for that purpose ; and accordingly the fishes come to them , even to the very top of the water , to refresh themselves with the fresh air , which they there introsuct , and are so greedy of it , or sick for want of it , that they are easily taken : though also several sorts of fishes require severaly more rare or more dens drink , as river fish will be stifled with mudding the water , and seafish grow faint in fresh water , and the like . and indeed our atmosphere is not nor may not be pure air , as is found by them who have been in the tops of the andes , and by the experiments of birds and beasts in the airpump or expansor , which are almost exanimated thereby ; and also by the tension and elastici●y of the air which is able to draw up mercury in the stagnum , and very consyderable weights : and breathing is not only spiration , but reciprocaly inspiration or drinking in of air ; and there is much more inspired then respired , which is the atmospherical drink , and perhaps some kind of aliment of the spirits , but very much vapor is excreted by perspiration . and there is very great difference of the atmosphere in several habitations , higher , or lower ; as may appear by the pycnometer . but i conceive generaly that such a temper of the atmosphere , as was in the first expansum , is most desirable and healthfull ; which , whatsoever it might be otherwise , was rather mingled with vapor or waters above then with fume ; and it is requisite in an healthfull air also that excrementitious vapors as well as fumes , which continualy ascend into the air , be purged and dispersed continualy by wind , or some agitation of open air , and therefore close rooms are very offensive , and almost stifle the breath , especialy if they be vaporous as newly plasterd , or with a charcoal fire in them , which strangely alters the air by a sudden and vehement rarefaction ; and because the water doth most evaporate , therefore there is a chief consyderation to be had therof , whether it be pure , or moorish or brackish ; for salt also will be volatilised , as i have said ; and because the earth doth also evaporate , and not only the vapors therin , but rarefied corpuscles of earth do also ascend with the vapors , consyderation is to be had therof ; as whether it be sandy or chalky , which emitt least or best corpuscles , or fenny or slimy , which are worst . so that in the situation of houses there is also regard to be had of the soil , and of the atmosphere , which is an aliment , or at least a great and continual instrument of life , and must be consydered as some part of houskeeping . the wind which purifys the atmosphere is rightly termed aer motus , ( as the same hebrew word signifys both ) and i easily grant it to be no special quality in itself , but only motion and agitation of the air which is a very fluid and mobile body , and is moved variously by the vapors variously ascending into it , and other meteors in it , and such circumstantial causalitys , more or less condensating or rarefying it , and which render the weather-cock as unstable as the weather-glass . and where the motion begins , it drives forward the parts of the mobile body of the air one upon another ; and where they find any vent or passage , they being in motion flow thither , like water ; whereby in some places there are more constant etesiae , and tradewinds , as they call them , like vento's or ventiducts made by art ; and this was one of columbus his arguments that there was more earth . and as the winds are thus caused by vapors , so the southern parts of the world being more watery , are therefore , as i have said , more tepid or warm , and rainy or misty ; and the northern parts being more terreous , and emitting more of the terreitys , therefore the northwind is contrarily more cold and dry. and the sun in the diurnal motion of the aether being carried from east to west , and so better concocting the vapors which he hath before raised and passed over in such his diurnal cours , therefore generaly eastern winds are also more cold and dry , and western warmer and moister ; and some winds are observed to rise and fall with the rising and setting of the sun. but if any wind or weather be so copious and durable as to be carried about the whole terraqueous globe , then the same wind may be of a contrary temper from the same caus ; and so many times rains come from the north and east ; and commonly they are very great , becaus they are so copious and durable ; and so in africa , and other hot climes , there are infrequent rains , but when they happen they are excessive , becaus the sun doth very copiously rais vapors , and if it happen by any circumstantial causality that he can not concremate and desiccate them as much , they all turn into rain . and so the hot meteor of a thunder-cloud draws very copious and dark vapors , which , when the heat breaks forth in lightning , are presently resolved into rain : though otherwise , when there are few other such vapors in the air neer to it , there are also dry lightnings without any great nois ; becaus they are not exploded out of such clouds as the others : and thunder-clouds may go against the wind , as we say ; becaus they are moved and impelled by their own heat , and by their great commotion after the explosion of the lightning they commonly turn the wind. and concurrent causes may move and impell the mobile air every way , and when it cannot move fast enough progressively , then , as i have said , it must move circularly ; whereby it becomes a turbo or whirlwind , which i conceive rather to be such , then all the winds blowing against one another . ignes fatui are inflamed exhalations , more lucid , and less fiery , having some fatt and viscous corpuscles of earth in their misture ; and arise generaly from such soils . and if they be more igneous , and more rarefied thereby , they are better concocted , and ascend higher , and become stellae cadentes , and the l●ke , which fall down again when that heat is extinct . but these fiery meteors which last longer , are not comparably igneous like fulgur or lightning , which having a most rare and subtile fomes , and being also pent in and condensated in the cloud , when it breaks forth , doth not only make a terrible nois by the sudden collision of the cloud every way against the air , but also by that sudden eruption , as well as by the spiritual power therof , doth wonderful execution , and is strangely influential ; and i suppose of all culinary fire is most like to aethereal ; but i cannot conceiv that it can so calcine any part of the cloud as to forge a fulm●n , thunderbolt , or stone ; though i acknowledg that there is much earth also in it ; wherof as well as of the water , some insects , as tadpols , and others are found to be produced after rain . all which violent and excessive meteors are , as i have said , general effects of the divine curs ; and so thunder is called the voice of god ; and ought to be regarded : but i do not apprehend these general effects to be any such special prodigys and portents , as some would have them to be . the iris , and the like , are properly no meteors , but only reflections of the sun-beams from a vaporous cloud like a prism , being also more opacous then the bright clouds . and i doubt not but that there were rainbows before the deluge , ( though not before the fall ) as well as lambs before the pass-over , water and bread and wine before baptism and the lords supper : for all such sacramental elements are in themselvs natural , and only supernaturaly instituted to be symbolical signes ; and so was the rainbow , which signifys sunshine after rain , and doth very fitly declare the covenant that god made with noah ; that as he and his family were then saved from the deluge , so it should never after come upon his posterity : and as god said , i will look upon it , that i may remember the everlasting covenant between god and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth , so should we , when we behold this his bow in the clouds , thankfully remember his wonderful deliverance ; both that which is past , wherin we all who were then in the loins of noah's sons were preserved , and also future ; concerning which god hath given us such an everlasting covenant , and this signe therof . section ix . and god said , let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place , and let the dry land appear . and it was so , and god called the dry land earth , and the gathering together of the waters called he seas . and god saw that it was good. and god said , let the earth bring forth grass , the herb yielding seed , and the fruit tree yielding seed after his kind , whose seed is in itself , upon the earth . and it was so , and the earth brought forth grass , and herb yielding seed after his kind , and the tree yielding fruit , whose seed was in itself after his kind . and god saw that it was good. and the evening and the morning were the third day . explication . god having before caused part of the water to ascend in vapors into the air , did afterward caus the rest to subside , and be derived into certein canales in the earth , which he had also prepared for it : and so made the surface of the earth , which before was covered with water , to appear together with it in one terraqueous globe ; wherof the dry land was earth , and the confluvia of waters seas . and this ordination of all these three elements was their goodness and perfection . and when god had thus prepared all the fower elements , he caused the earth , being pregnant with vegetative principles , accordingly to bring forth grass , herbs , and trees , above the surface therof , after their several kinds : and the herbs and trees had also their several seeds and seminal virtues in themselves , whereby to propagate and multiply afterward . and this was their goodness and perfection . and all these were the works of the third day . illustration . . of water . . of moisture . . of odors and sapors . . of the flux and reflux of waters . . of earth . . of drines . . of consistence . . of magnetical virtue and electricity . . of the immobility of the earth . . of vegetatives . . of the goodnes of the works of the second and third days . i. the water which is elementary and more properly such , and wherof vapor and ice are only various , is next to air above it , both in situation , and nature , as may appear by vapor , and to earth beneath it , as may appear by ice . and though earth and water were in this third day made , and still are , one terraqueous globe ; yet as they were created in the begining , so they still are several and different elements ; aswell as air and ae●her are several and d●fferent heavens . and though they are thus composed into one globe , yet they have their several provinces therin , as well as the others , though not in the same maner or figure . and so it is said not only that dry land did appear , which was before covered with the sphere of water , as that was with air , and air with aether , but also that there was a gathering together of the waters into one place , generaly , wherunto all rivers do run , though branched out into several canale● : and though standing ponds , lakes , and perhaps some gulphs or seas , as the caspian sea , may not communicate with the ocean , yet they are also confluvia , and seas , and so termed distributively afterward , and all of them distinguished from the waters which first covered the earth all over ; wheras now the main ocean covereth and compasseth it about only in one place . and as these waters beneath flow from the earth , so they are still above it ; as the waters above floating in the air , are also said to be above or upon it ( for so the word signifies upon or above , and so fowl are said to fly above , or upon the heavens ) and as they are thus distinguished from waters beneath , so are also those waters above the earth from waters beneath the earth , that is , subterraneous fountains , or depths of the seas : for neither are any waters under the whole earth , which is most dens , and consequently lowest ; nor above any of the whole heavens , superaether , aether , or air itself , which are more rare , and consequently higher , as i have shewed : but these expressions concerning the vapors and fountains are respective , according to the subject matter , and not to be understood absolutely ; and they do indicate several regions of the waters , wheras we have no such indication of any several regions in the air or aether , as i have observed . also though the evaporation of waters by heat be natural , and only supernaturaly produced by god in the second day , as his other works of improper creation were in other days ; yet this distribution of earth and waters in the terraq●eous globe therof , which was so composed in this third day , seems more extraordinary , and artificial , and such as doth most plainly declare the immediate operation of god in this , and all the other days : for by what natural power could the earth and isles be raised above the waters ? or the mountains and vallys be so ordered and indented ? or who could cast those great banks of the shores , and cut those vast chanells of the seas and rivers , or say unto them , thither shall ye go and no farther ? which therefore god is said originaly to do by line and levell ; as in waterworks , we so set them out that they may run to their levell this way or that way in the cutts prepared for them . and though men may make such less alterations therin , and some greater have been made by accidental breaches and inundations , yet as god saith , i brake up for it my decreed place ( or as it is originaly , established my decree upon it ) and sett barrs and d●ors , so generaly and in the main it continues the same : and since that great and universal deluge , yet cosmographers can still find out those seas , rivers , and isles , which moses declareth to have been before it . and thus the divine psalmist describeth both the proper and improper creation of waters and earth , thou coveredst it with the deep , as with a garment ; the waters stood above the mountains . at thy rebuke they fled , at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . they go up by the mountains , they go down by the vallys , unto the place that thou hast founded for them . thou hast sett a bound that they might not pass , that they turn not again to cover the earth , and so proceeds to shew the great usefulness therof , which thereby god prepared both for vegetatives and sensitives in the whole oecumene or habitable earth . but though the earth generaly is thus raised above the waters , not only in the mountains and summits therof , but in its whole campus , which lys above the levell of the waters ; yet the water , in its own province , is above the earth , on which it flows ; and so the earth is very elegantly expressed standing out of the water , and in the water . and wheras it is said that god founded it upon ( or above ) the seas , and established it upon ( or above ) the flouds ; it is very true and proper according to the subject matter , wherof the psalmist there speaks ; that is , of the oecumene or habitable earth , as it was so raised above the waters , which before were above it ; and thereby was made fru●tfull and habitable : which the precedent context doth plainly declare , the earth is the lords and the fulnes therof , the world and all that dwell therin : nor do i apprehend that the whole world of spheres , aereal , aethereal , and superaethereal , is there intended ; though the author of esdras saith also , that the heavens are founded upon the waters : but i rather conceiv that by world is there meant orbis terrae , as it is usually so taken hebraicaly , and in all other languages , because the earth is our present world ; and so more restrictively we say the christian world , and the like . but how farr the waters are beneath the levell or campus of the earth is not particularly expressed ; yet we read of a great deep or ocean , and of fountains therof or therin ; ( as we so say fons . blundusii , and the like ) not that there is , besides the ocean , any fountain therof beneath it , which feeds and supplys it ; for it is called the deep , becaus it is the deepest of all waters : and so fountains and depths of waters are used indifferently , as it is said , a land of brooks of water , of fountains , and depths , that spring out of vallys and hills : and both are said to be under the earth ; wherefore becaus rain and waters in those dry countrys were accounted great blessings , iacob blesseth ioseph with blessings of heaven above , and blessings of the deep that lieth under , which moses also repeateth : nor is it said that there is a deep , and also fountains therof , beneath , and besides it , but they are alway termed the fountains of the deep , not only in respect of itself , but also of all vapors , rain and rivers , wherof the deep or sea is the fountain ; to which that expression seems to refer , for so they are joined together , as it is said , that there were the fountains of the great deep broken up , and the windows of heaven were opened : and indeed they are so made to be fountains one unto another mutualy and reciprocaly , as i shall shew heerafter : and in the deluge , the conflux of all the waters was gathered together , to cover the whole earth , not as it did at first equaly cover the whole surface therof , but the canales , campus , and highest hills , as they then stood and continued : fifteen cubits did the waters prevail , and the mountains were covered . whereby we may partly estimate the quantity of the whole body of waters , which yet may be rarefied or condensated more or less : nor can we exactly tell what is the proportion of the surface of the waters to the surface of dry land in the whole terraqueous globe . the author of esdras saith , vpon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered in the seaventh part of the earth ; six parts h●st thou dried up ; which might probably also have encouraged columbus in his happy confidence of more earth then was discovered before him , and according to this account there should still be much terra incognita . the density of the body of air more then of water hath been observed to be as about a thousand to one , and yet waters beneath are rarefied into vapors or waters above , which are as rare as air itself ; for vapors and fumes do not ascend into the air by impulsion of one part after another , as water may be squirted upward out of a syringe , or as they are called pillars of smoak in respect of the figure therof ; but if a titi● or brand be held downward in the open air , yet the smoak therof will ascend upward , or remain suspended : and perhaps some vaporous meteors are indefinitely in the air or any region therof , even the highest surface , and so said to be upon it , as i have shewed . and i shall heer observ , that as vapors , or waters above , were so made by special creation in the second day , so they are of special use and consideration , being a very subtile and spirituous effluvium , and a notable instrument of nature , and also a menstruum carrying forth with it not only part of the body , but also much of the spirit : and this is indeed that which chymists commonly call , spirit , as it so carrieth forth the spiritual qualitys with itself ; being a very fitt vehicle therof : whence some have fansied a conversion and transpeciation in itself , which i have already refuted : but certeinly it causeth a very great alteration of the bodys out of which it is emitted , and translation of the spirits therof ; being not so dens or consistent as earth , nor as water out of which it is produced ; and almost as rare as air and aether : and so intercedeth and mediateth between all the elements , and doth evoke the spirits therof ; as is commonly observed of the firmest timber , that if it be often wett and dry again , it soon rotts ; which also takes away the state of hay , as husbandmen say , in their chymical expression therof . yea , i suppose , that what is intended by the famous chymical term of fermentation is only the operation of a hott spirit on a moist , intrinsecaly within the body therof , by vaporation ; which plainly discovers itself accordingly by some turgescence and ebullition ; and whereby the benigne and homogeneous spirits are better concocted and more equaly distributed , which doth exceedingly meliorate and maturate ; and the more maligne and heterogeneous do evaporate , or otherwise the spirits being in agitation , by any intemperate excess , or defect , become more corrupt and putrid . thus heat and moisture operating and fermenting within bodys produce all elementary generation and corruption , and are thereby also very subservient to vegetation , and vivification . now as i said before of air , so the very spirit of water is unknown to us , nor have we any apt vocabulum therof ; or if we had , yet we could not thereby know the substantial spirit itself , or the nature therof ; but only by those accidents or spiritual qualitys , wherof i shall now proceed to discours . ii. the first or principal quality of water is moisture , as i have already proved : and indeed , unless water be moist , i neither know what is water , nor what is moisture . and i suppose that elementary water is most moist , that is , it doth moisten most strongly , though vapor , being more rare and subtile , may sooner penetrate ; as fixed fire doth certeinly heat most , though volatile flame doth most penetrate : and yet when vapor hath thus penetrated , it doth most moisten by being condensated again into water : but vapor may be also adusted and turned into smoak , which is actualy dry , as i have shewed , and that cannot be supposed of water immediately , untill it be first turned into vapor . and oil seemeth to moisten more then elementary water , becaus it is more unctuous , and evaporateth less , whereby it reteins the moisture longer ; as a boiling pot of water being covered , doth retein the vapor and moisture more then uncovered , and therefore that water is longer in boiling away , and so is oil then water ; thus though pure water doth , as i said , moisten most , becaus moisture is the proper quality therof , and all others moisten only by participation of water ; yet it doth also evaporate most , whereby it becomes vapor and water above , which is also another proper quality therof , and thereby drys away soonest . also though it moisten most , yet in washing it may be advantaged by other bodys ; as pure water doth not rens or scowr so well , as if it be mingled with earthy particles of chalk , marl , bran , or the like , which render it more abstersive , and make it , as huswives say , bear soap better ; becaus those terreous corpuscles do imbibe unctuous bodys better then water , and thereby reconcile them together , yet not without heating , beating , laving , or the like : and so water and milk mingle together , the oleous parts of the butyrum being reconciled to the water by the serum ; wheras butter itself , oil , turpentine , mercury , and the like , will not so easily mingle with water ; becaus they are not so aqueous ; which appears by their less evaporation : nor will water easily mingle with vapor , while they continue such ; because god hath so vastly differenced them in their creation , that they shall be either waters beneath , or waters above ; whose different density is as a thousand to one , and they can hardly continue in any of those thousand degrees between them , though they pass from one to the other by them all ; as may appear by the motion of water boiling in a pott , which first is scarcely seen to move , and then simpers , as they say , and so boils up more and more , though they will continue in some degrees beyond that proportion , as meteors in any region of the air. and evaporation is such a notable property of water , and symptom of the aqueous nature , that i suppose all elementary water , if it be not frozen with cold , will evaporate always with any degree of heat , or tep●r ; as certeinly it will in a cold still ; though proportionably less with less , and more with more heat : and so even those winds , which we call cold from that predominant quality , do dry notably , by carrying away the vapors , which even then do arise , whereby others may more freely succeed , ( as i said concerning the boiling pott , and so it may be observed in saltworks , or the like . ) but though such more heterogene●u● and less aqueous bodys , as butter , oil , turpentine , and the like , will not easily mingle with water , or other such bodys ; nor become continuous with them : yet if they be fluid , they may be notably contiguous , becaus they can conjoin themselves to every part and pore therof ; and do notably cohere to and with consistent bodys by their own unctuous glutinosity : yea , even water itself , though neither unctuous , nor glutinous , so will cohere ; and so would mercury also , if the weight therof did not oversway it . and , i suppose , the experiment of the capillar tube to be from this cohesion and the homogeneity of water , and another conjunct reason ( which i shall assigne afterward ) for i know no such spiritual homogeneity between water and glass , which is rather terreous ( though poets call water vitreous ) but as i have shewed the whole body of matter is homogeneous in itself , and continuous with itself , though spirits may be heterogeneous , and by their heterogeneity discontinue their bodys of matter ; therefore , as when by reason of their consistence , or otherwise , they cannot perfectly close together , other bodys do and must intervene , to prevent vacuity ; so when themselvs can so close , they also in like maner prevent it themselvs , and so need no● , but rather exclude the intervention of any other bodys by their own praepossession ; whether such contiguous bodys be homogeneous , or heterogeneous ; becaus they are all bodys of matter , whatsoever their spirits may be : and so polished metalls will cohere to marble , aswell as metall to metall , or marble to marble : and thus water being naturaly as smooth , and of as equal a surface , as any glass can be made artificialy , and being contiguous to the capillar glass , doth notably cohere , as it will to any smooth glass , so that it can very hardly be shaken off by swinging , or the like ; though it will more easily slide by its own weight or pondus , as polished marbles will one from another being moved by any potentia , whereby air may succeed at the edges therof ; though otherwise they will not be pulled one from another parpendicularly with less power then if they were so farr imperfectly continuous : and so according to the proportionable weight of the water in the capillar tube , it doth descend and depart from its contiguity . and thus the inside of the tube of glass , ( which is therefore capillar , becaus the cavity therof is not much bigger then an hair ) being madefied , either by other water , or by the vapor of that water wherin it stands ( which as i have said doth always evaporate , if it be not obstructed ) madefying the glass by degrees , though very slowly , and in much longer time , and the glass being either way madefied with water in the inside therof , which , as i said , sticks so closely to the consistent body therof , and reaching down to the water wherin it stands , and which is homogeneous with it , both the waters do mingle , and would flow together , as all aqueous bodys naturaly do ; and becaus the water in which it stands being stagnant , and having no actual weight , cannot draw the other down to itself being so strongly coherent to the inside of the glass , as i have shewed that upper water according to the strength of the cohesion draws up th● lower water to itself , so long , and so high , untill ●he weight of the water so drawn up doth oversway it ; and accordingly it lifts up and keeps suspended a proportionable cylinder of water , higher , or lower , as the cavity of the tube is less , or greater ; and becaus that cylinder of water is supported , as i said , by the cohesion to the sides of the tube , which is therefore strongest at the sides , the water so supported is there highest , and so less , and less , and lowest in the midst ; whereby the surface of the cylinder becomes concave : wheras mercury will not so ascend by reason of its over-weight , which , as i have said , doth prevail against any such cohesion with glass ; and therefore also if the capillar tube be sett in it , the surface within the orifice therof will not be concave , but convex ; becaus by the orifice of the tube , the mercury , which is a farr more consistent body then water , is deprest most at the sides , and so thereby less , and less , and therefore is highest in the midst . also water hath some consistence in it from the terreity , that is in the mistion therof ; and this is the other concurrent reason which i before intimated ; for if it were wholy consistent , as earth ; or fluid , as aether , the experiment would not succeed ; but by the partial consistence therof , it doth also somwhat rope , as we say , or hang together , and so by the homogeneity of the water in the tube , and that wherin it stands , meeting and mingling together , and being apt to flow together one way or other , the water in the tube , having the advantage of cohesion , and prevalence therof above the weight of the water in which it stands , doth so farr draw it up , untill they both become equipollent , and then there they stand . and thus if you fill a glass cruet almost to the top with water , and then incline it toward the nose therof , so as the water may run farther into it then when it stood erected perpendicularly , and then very gently revers it , and erect it again perpendicularly as before ; the water will stand in the nose proportionably above the levell therof in the neck of the cruet , as it will in the capillar tube ; and both are from the same concurrent reasons , which i have declared . nor do we discover the symptoms of any other motions of the water afterward , or any farther advantage gained by such elevation therof , neither will it so run in a siphon higher , or more swiftly , then it would do otherwise . and though the subsilience of the water in the capillar tube be very quick , and per saltum , ( as generaly such motions are ) yet it is not very strong , as you may perceiv , if you stop the upper orifice of the tube with your finger , which will hinder the ascent therof , becaus it hath not sufficient strength to compress the included air. but this experiment plainly discovers the continuity of matter , and spiritual appetite of union , that is between homogeneous natures , especialy elementary , being next to matter , which can never be disunited from itself , as material spirits and their bodys may be ; which yet being actualy united , will flow together , if they may , and cannot be so easily divelled , as heterogeneous . and it shews that there is some earthy consistence , even in water ; which appears also in bubbles , that are as skins of water including air ; and as the heterogeneous air doth conglobate within , which makes the bubble spherical , so it doth thereby resist the air without . also not only thicker liquors , but even standing water hath some such skin upon it ; so that a needle very gently laid upon it will not sink so fast at first , as when it hath broken through that skin : and so we see such cobwebs on the ground , as husbandmen call them ; but this terreity most notably appears in vapor adust , or fume , which turns into a soot in chimnys not only as motes , but in larger pulviscles ; and so in conglaciation of ice , which discover plainly a misture of drines and consistence , that are earthy qualitys , with the moisture of water : also we may observ how in filtratio● water ascends , as in the capillar tube , but by many steps and degrees ; and then descends by the over-weight , as in the siphon ; and as it would in the capillar tube so made , and posited , and then madefied ; but not otherwise . iii. though i suppose there may be several other simple qualitys both of air , and water , besides the first , as they are called , that is , cold of air , and moisture of water , as well as light and others , besides heat , in aether ; and consistence and others , besides drines , in earth ; yet becaus they are not so obvious , i shall not now hunt after them farther then i meet with them in such sensibles , wherin i conceiv water and some simple quality therof to be predominant , as i have before observed of color , and sound . now these aqueous sensibles are odors , and sapors ; and as god divided the waters into water beneath , and above , or gross water , and subtile vapor ; so these two several sensibles are severaly inherent in them , that is , odor in the vapor and effluvium , and sapor in the grosser water . and yet odor is more gross then sound , as sound is then color , and neither transient as sound , nor emanant as color , but more fixed and inherent in the odorous effluvium ; and is accordingly varied and carried away with it : and as the vapor is more dens , or rare , so generaly is the odor more gross , or fine : and as the vapor , so the odor , is more dens and gross , as it is more neer to the aqueous body ; and more rare and fine as it is farther effluent from it , and more dispersed thereby : and yet there is a very longinquous efflux and waft of odors in such diffusion of vapors ; as is sensibly perceived by the sent of heaths of rosemary very far at sea , and by the convolation of ravens and vulturs to carcasses very farr distant . also as odors are of an aqueous nature , so there is a very quick and permanent adhesion therof to moist bodys ; for so the sent of an hares or deers foot continues long on the moist ground in every vestigium therof , though they run very swiftly over it ; which could not be so deteined without the subtile vapor , in which it is inherent , and which sticketh to the ground ; and is not so easily discharged as a cloud of breath from a d●sh of pewter , or silver , or such other bodys which are less moist : yet as the subtile effluvium of odorous vapors is emitted from the body which is the fountain ther●f , so that body itself also is odorous , having its own inherent odor , and may be sented by the odorous vapors as they pass out of it into the nostrills ; and though drines may predominate in it , yet if it be not so dry , or such a caput mortuum as doth amitt no vapors , which very few bodys do ; it may have a sent , and that very strong and vehement ; ●s spices , and the like ; becaus such vapors are also more strong , and there is a terreous quality , as well as aqueous , wherof odor is compounded , as i shall afterward shew : but commonly the odorous evaporation is more actuated and produced by moisture ; as flowers and herbs after rain smell more sweetly : and dry or unctuous perfumes , by infrication of the powder , or imbibition of the oil or butter , are more strong and durable ▪ becaus thereby there is an incorporation of the very odorous bodys , which are the fountains of the odors , as i said : and generaly all dissolutions , either by maceration externaly , or putrefaction internaly , whereby the vapors are more freely emitted , and the odors actuated , do caus greater sents : also long restraint of the actual vapors and odors , as in close vessels , or rooms , when they are first opened cause stronger smells , becaus they are so copious . now as odor is a proper sensible in itself , so it is also previous to sapor , and smelling , as it were , a pregustator of the sens of tast ; becaus odor and sapor , as i said , are connatural qualitys chiefly subsisting in the same element of water ; though they are very different in themselvs , as heat and light are in aether , and perhaps more , becaus they are not simple , but compounded with other terreous qualitys , and require such several bodys of their own element , as waters above , and beneath ; and certeinly they must so differ , becaus they are several sensibles of several senses , which also very sensibly proves heat and light to be realy d●fferent , becaus heat is an object of tact , and light of sight . thus there may be more odor , or more pleasing or displeasing , then sapor ; and so convertibly , in the same body ; but such as are of fetid sapors have also commonly fetid odors , and pleasing sapors no displeasing odors . and i suppose that vehement and strong odors or vapors in any body do indicate and declare it to be some notable pharmacum , especialy if they be such as are not very grateful to the senses , which declare it to be not of any dietical , or ordinary , but extraordinary use and virtue . now as it is evident , that actual odors are immediately inherent in vaporous effluvia , which the very organ of smelling , that is , the mammillary processes , do sufficiently attest , being situated above the nares , through which , as tonells , those vapors do pass ; so it is as apparent that sapors do inhere in the watery juice of the sapid body , becaus if that be expressed , it becomes insipid and the expressed juyce more sapid , as wine , cider , perry , gravy or juice of fleshmeat , and the like . and it also appears to me that odors or sapors are no simple qualitys of water only , ( as sound and color are not of air , or aether only ) but that they are all mist with some terreous simple qualitys , which are unknown to us , what they are , and yet we may also know , that they are not odorous or saporous in themselvs ; becaus elementary water , or earth , do not either smell , or tast much ; as lucidity and opacity are not much seen of themselvs , and indeed not without the advantage of conspissation or some small mistion , or the like : but , as i confess , i first derived this notion from the antient philosophers , who have discovered lucidum and opacum to be the principles of color , which i have thus farr improved and produced to the other three sensibles , sound , odor , and sapor , that is , all the proper sensibles , except the fower first qualitys ( which are also in themselvs simple , and mist to be made sensible , being too strong and vehement in their own elementary bodys ) and they are indeed social , and perhaps auxiliary qualitys , with all and every the simple qualitys of the other sensibles ; as their proper sens , which is tact , is the fundamental sens of all the other senses , as i shall shew heerafter : so i fear to seem too curious and novell heerin to others , and also doubt , lest by putting too much of this new wine into old bottles i should offend others ; having not any current vocabula whereby to express the very names of these principles , nor authority enough to coin them ; yet i shall generaly express my sentiment ; of the more active and aqueous principle both of odor , and sapor , which i call acidum or sharp , as also of the terreous principle therof , which i shall call fatuum or vapid ; and so leav it to others more particularly to distribute them . and so i conceiv , that accordingly in chymical separation the vaporous spirits or effluxes are more acid , and the caput mortuum more fatuous and stupid ; and in natural generation and the process therof , the succus of fruits , and the like , is first acid , or more acerb ; and afterward more sweet , then strong or rancid ; and at last vapid : wherin the more active quality first prevailing in the fermentation , doth actuate some such acid humor , which makes the fruit , or the like , more acid and poinant , and then by expens of the eagernes therof , by evaporation , and a more equal distribution in the concoction of both qualitys , it becomes more grateful to the sens , or sweet ; and as that temperature begins again to be dissolved , more rancid ; and at last when the active quality is wholy emitted in the effluvia , or consopited and overcome by the terreous , vapid . thus also the mouth , which tasteth meat , hath judged therof , infanti melimela dato fatuafque mariscas , at mihi quae novit pungere chia sapit . and therefore generaly elder men delight more in such acid and poinant sapors ; becaus their sens of tasting is more weak , and as i may so say , insipid in itself ; and children in sweet-meats , which are of a more equal temper , and consequently more suitable to their more exact sensation ▪ there is an old problem , whether odors do nourish ? which i suppose may easily be resolved , that they do not , nor cannot nourish , as odors ; for so sapors , as sapors , do not nourish ; becaus they are only spiritual qualitys , and no materia nutritiva ; nor can they migrate out of their bodys ; nor do they so much nourish in and with their bodys , as condite meats and d●inks , wherin they inhere ; and there are many other qualitys ; which are neither so odorous nor saporous , and yet more nutritive and assimilative . but as sapor doth most properly commend meats and drinks to the appetite ( which greatly conduceth to nourishment , and so there is sometimes a better concoction and nutrition of and by that which is more gratefull to the tast , though less wholesome in itself , then of that which is more wholesome , and less grateful according to the the consent and confederacy of nature , especialy if the delectation and aversation be extraordinary , as in longing or loathing ) so next to sapor , odor also , which is very homogeneous with it , as i have said , doth by a pleasing fragrancy excite the appetite ; and so , though more remotely , may musike at a feast , as siracides observeth ; and the color of wine when it looketh red , and sparkleth in the glass , as solomon observeth : but these are only sympathetical exhilarations and provocations of the sensitive imagination and appetite , ( which yet conduce to vegetative nutrition , and plainly shew the subordination therof and combination between them ) and so physicians generaly prescribe mirth at meals ; as he also adviseth , eat thy bread with ioy , and drink thy wine with a merry heart . but the greater question is , whether vapors as vapors , and particularly , odorous , may nourish ? and then they are to be consydered , either as they may pass into the brain , and so certeinly they may intoxicate , as some find by sents of winecellars , fumes of tobacco , and the like ; yea , sweet perfumes , if strong and vehement , may caus headach ; and it hath been credibly reported that some have been poisoned by venemous sents : wherefore i● will be very hard to conceiv , that the animal spirits may not as well be refreshed and cherished by benigne vapors , as by maligne thus distempered : or as they pass by introsuction or inspiration into the lungs , and so seem to be not only for refrigeration ; but since there is more inspired continualy then respired , it may deserv farther inquisition , whether the rest doth not pass out of the lungs by the heart into the arterys , and therebyserv both for purification and attenuation of the bloud , and also for nutrition ? for though i conceiv elementary fire or air alone not to be nutritive , yet i know not why vapors may not nourish as well as drink , since they are only water rarefied : and there is not only air , but also much vapor in the atmosphere wherin we breath , and which we continualy suck in by such inspiration : and if that be too pure an air , and not sufficiently vaporous , as in the andes ; or if the vapors be more adusted by fire of charcoal , or the like ; or corrupted by much breathing in a close room , or the like ; we feel great want of a more nutritive as well as refrigerative air : and plainly the birth or foetus while it it in the mothers womb , and is nourished by her , hath no use of the lungs , nor inspiration thereby ; but assoon as it is brought forth , it needeth this breath of life , as it is termed , as well as any other nourishment , and cannot live , as before , without it ; though there was before the same motion and heat of the heart , which did need as much refrigeration as afterward : and though it may seem very strange that vapor thus passing immediately from the lungs by the other passages through the heart into the arterys , and not like other meat and drink first into the stomack , should nourish , without any more process of concoction , yet it may be also consydered how much sooner drink in an empty stomack is concocted then meat ; and whether vapor , which is so much more rare and fusile then drink , need any such process , and may not by the heat and mot●on of the bloud be concocted and mist with it ; which is all that i intend by this kind of nutrition ; and so i refer it to the judgment of learned physicians ; who if they shall judg it to be so , will also judg the atmosphere to be of such consequence as i formerly intimated . iv. all the rivers run into the sea , yet the sea is not full . vnto the place from whence the rivers came , thither they return again , as the wise philosopher saith , most truly and philosophicaly , according to the divine history of the creation of waters beneath , and waters above , and the mutual reciprocation therof ; though perhaps not according to popular understanding : for indeed the popularity , which some weak and shallow wits impute to scripture , is rather in their own apprehensions , then in the expressions , wherin scripture is alway consonant , & the truth therof consistent with itself ; and so we are to interpret them accordingly , and to reduce them all to the system of the world , which is intentionaly reveled and declared unto us in this divine history of the genesis therof : and then we sh●ll neither , as some , place waters below the earth , becaus springs are termed subterraneous , or above the aether , yea the superaether , becaus the same word signifieth both air and heavens ; and so make them to possess both the center and circumference of the whole world : nor conceiv that rivers flow from the ocean only by subterraneous passages , and so flow thither again in their canales : whenas there is not any mention made of rivers in all the six days works ; but only of waters above and waters beneath , which were first gathered into seas : though i doubt not but that rivers were also made afterward in the third day ; yet first by waters above , or vapors , and in the same order of nature wherin they are still continued ; that is , by the descent of vapors first raised from the seas into the earth ; and therefore only vapors or waters above , and seas or waters beneath , are heer mentioned : and so afterward we read that there went up a mist from the earth , and watered the whole face of the ground , before we read of the fower rivers that encompassed eden about , and were also fed and continued by it : and the vapors thus descending into the spongy earth , where they meet with stones , or other such bodys less apt to imbibe them , do stand in drops , as they do on marble ( which poets call the tears of niobe ) and those drops gathering together in fluxes make at first litle rills , and they afterward rivulets and rivers , which run again into the sea , and so the rivers were made , and are still continued ; and this , and no other , is the cours of the waters , as the psalmist affirmeth , they go up by the mountains , they go down by the vallys , unto the place which thou hast founded for them , and so we read of windows of heaven , aswell as of fountains of the deep , and the author of esdras calleth them also , springs above the firmament : for so indeed they are mutualy and reciprocaly fountains each to other . and this plainly is proved by the freshnes of rivers , which may not be imputed to any such percolation through the earth , whereby it hath formerly been supposed that salt might be separated from water , but is now found to be otherwise : i have tried it by so strict a percolation , that only a drop or two of brine have been excerned in a whole days time , and yet they were so briny , that i could perceiv very little or no difference ; and all saltmen find evaporation to be the most easy and natural way of making salt , which therefore certeinly is the way of nature , in so great an evaporation , as apparently makes all rainwater fresh , and consequently all riverwater . nor are salt springs from the sea immediately , or mediately , but from salt mines in the earth , l●ke other n●trous , bitumineous , or iron springs ; and the like ; though i also acknowledg , that salt may be volatilised , as chymists say , and which doth very sensibly appear to us who dwell neer to the sea , where woods on that side toward the sea are blasted thereby , and iron nails and window barrs rotted ( as iron will swell and be corrupted by lying long in saltwater ) yet these vapors of the sea go not farr , nor are such experiments therof found at any great distance ; much less can they make salt springs in the inland , where also fresh springs ●low very neer to them : but they are both first from vapors , and then the salt springs are made salt by runing through salt mines . and lastly , i shall approve it by a plain experiment which i received from a very credible person , whose hous standing at the bottom of a declive hill , and wanting water , he caused a large trench to be digged down the side therof , and many other less trenches branching out of it both ways , and then filled them all with pebble stones , and again covered them over with the earth ; and found water to flow at the bottom of the main trench , through a pipe laid to receiv it : which is only by artificial application of the same natural causalitys . and when i had reported this to a noble lord , he confirmed it with another observation which himself had made , in certein quillets or litle quagmires , which have water springing and standing in them ; by causing them to be searched , and the ground to be digged under them , where he found beds of stone : ( which might also give occasion to the poets to feign rivers powring their waters out of stony urns ) nor indeed is it imaginable that rivers and springs should otherwise come from the sea , whose highest watermark is farr below the springs ; as is well known to such who live neer to the higher shores of the sea : and so also is attested by such who have gone up the pike of t●neriff , wherin they found a spring farr above the sea : wheras water , while it is such , cannot ascend above its levell ; for then it should rise above itself : becaus it is all one equidens and fluid body . and springs rise first out of the earth in very small sources , and not from any such subterraneous rivers , as some have supposed , flowing in great canales under the earth , and impelled by i know not what subterraneous vapors , like bloud in the veins . but though all water will run to its levell , yet if it be not also some way impelled , it will run very slowly , and so swell and mingle by degrees as it can hardly be perceived to run : wherefore it is observed in such cutts and aqueducts , that if about a foot fall be not allowed for every mile , there will be a very litle current of the water , wheras rivers run very swiftly , and some of them with a very rapid current ; which must be by a farr greater fall : and therefore the springs or sources of all great rivers must be farr within land , and also fall from much higher ground ; as the author of esdr●● saith , that the flowds might powr down from the rocks . having thus farr consydered the cours of waters from the sea into the air by evaporation , and from thence to the earth , and from the mountains or higher ground therof to the seas again , which is the first and great reciprocation therof , whereby they are such mutual fountains each to other , i shall now farther consyder that which we commonly call the floud and ebb , or tides of seas and rivers , which is also another mutual reciprocation of waters ; for so the floud of the seas is the ebb of the rivers , and the ebb of the rivers the floud of the seas , not circularly , as the other , but only describing a very small segment , or part of an arch , like a pendulum . now becaus so many several hypotheses therof have been offered by others , and scarcely any two agree together , i shall also present my hypothesis among the rest , not going out of my way , nor farr from the text to produce it ; which is this . as i suppose , that rivers run from the higher parts of the earth , so also that the main ocean into which they run is some lower part of the cortex therof , which is the fittest alveus to receiv it ; and therefore it is called the deep : and though i know not how deep the fundus therof is , yet certeinly it must be farr deeper then any of the narrow seas , which run into it , otherwise they could not so run into it ; and the narrow seas must also be deeper then the rivers which run into them : and they not only run one into another , but with such a force and current as doth plainly declare a proportionable fall. and while the rivers so run into the sea , yet the sea is not full ; and all these waters certeinly do not sink into the earth below the fundus , or into any vast barathrum therof , which would long since have been filled , but apparently they flow and reflow continualy : nor are they imbibed by the shores , or absorbed by evaporation , which is continualy according to that reciprocation of waters and vapors that i before described , and any inequality therof can make very litle or no difference in this case . also we know that water impelling water by fall or force , if it hath no vent or farther passage , will caus the water so impelled to rise before it ; becaus the impuls driving it forward , and consequently hindring it from flowing back , when and where it is stop'd , must caus it to rise and swell . thus the rivers runing forcibly with such an impuls into the narrow seas , and they into the ocean , beyond which they do not , nor cannot pass , do certeinly caus it to rise and swell toward the midle by such motive impuls and current of all the rivers and narrow seas on every side therof ; and then when it hath so raised the pondus of the water somwhat above the levell of the ocean , and so farr , as it can rais it no higher ; when that prevails against the impuls , and the water of the ocean begins to fall again , it will drive all the water between ( being a voluble and undulating body ) as fast and as farr back again ; becaus it was equivalent to the impuls which so raised it : whereby the water between the highest watermark of the ocean ( to which it did so rise and swell , and from which by reason of the greatest pondus therof it began to fall back ) and the highest watermark of the rivers , to which it can so fall back , reflows into the narrow seas and rivers accordingly : that is , above the levell in the rivers , as it before proportionably rose above the levell of the ocean : becaus , as i said , it is a rowling and fluctuating motion , which will ever be reciprocaly higher at each end , like the shorter vibrations of a pendulum : and it doth not rais it so high as the springs , from which the fall of the rivers first began ; becaus the fluctuation doth not reach so farr , forward , or backward ; and probably so much water as is beyond the highest watermark of the rivers in the canales therof , and from thence to the springs , is by evaporation continualy exhausted from the sea ; which returning to the earth doth serv continualy to supply the rivers , though more or less , according to the operation of the aether and planets , especialy the moon , which caus and regulate the evaporation ; but generaly so as the sea is never full , nor the rivers empty : and by this constant supply of the springs and rivers there is accordingly a constant fall of the waters one way , and an answerable return therof by the pondus of the water of the ocean so raised thereby , as i have shewed , the other way : as if we suppose a pendulum having a constant and almost equal impuls added to it one way , and so impelling it in every vibration , it will certeinly so return by its own pondus and thereby constantly and equaly vibrate . and this i conceiv to be the account of tides generaly ; though there are many particular variations therof , both ordinary , as the menstruous ; and extraordinary , as annual , and casual : and i suppose the menstruous , and indeed the diurnal variation of the tides therin , to be from the moon ; not that they do follow her cours , which is from west to east , for so plainly they do not , the flux and reflux being from all shores to the ocean , and back again : but as i conceiv , that as the sun raiseth those dry vapors or fumes , wherof i before discoursed , by his vehement heat ; and which caus no such increas of waters , as i before mentioned ; so the moon by her more moderate heat principaly raiseth those moist vapors , which so return into waters , and caus the increas therof : and this influence of the moon is sufficiently known in many other instances , but most eminently in tides , which accordingly observ her two apogaea ▪ when she is farthest from the earth , and her heat then most moderate ; and so the tides are then highest when she is new in her first apogaeum , and full in her second , every month , and so proportionably every day between them . thus i have briefly delivered my conception of this great arcanum ; which i shall leav to be farther examined by others , especialy the most expert navigators ; and desire them to try it by these criteria : whether the tides do not impell the main ocean from both the opposite shores at the same time ? as most probably they should ; becaus the impuls of the rivers and narrow seas will not last so farr , and so long , as to drive the water from one shore to another cross the whole ocean , nor perhaps very farr into it ; but rather by driving it from both the advers shores at the same time they make the ocean to rise and swell a litle toward the midle ; as if several men with brooms , or the like , at the two ends of some long chanell , should sweep the water therin forward both ways , following close after one another , it will thereby be impelled , rising and swelling toward the midle ; and when they ceas , by its own weight , fall and return both ways back again . again whether tides be not less , and less , toward the midle of the ocean , and about the midle , perhaps imperceptible , from which the rivers and narrow seas impelling it are farthest , and so their impuls more , and more , abated ; and the water driven before them still rising and swelling , the weight therof is increased ; which at length makes the return therof back again into the narrow seas and rivers ? also whether there be any perceptible tide in narrow seas and rivers between such tracts of land which are most longinquous and farthest from the ocean ? or whether they are not proportionably less , and less , as they are farther from it in any parallel of the earth ? becaus the pondus of the water rising and swelling therin , as i have shewed , and thereby returning the waters back again , doth abate by degrees , and may not reach so farr as such longinquous seas and rivers . lastly , i desire it may once be ascerteined by them , whether indeed there be any such circumterranean tide , or cours of the main ocean from east to west , as is commonly supposed ? which certeinly is contrary to the cours of the moon , nor do i find any ground or reason in my hypothesis , that might induce me to affirm it ; nor can the supposed motion of the earth solv all the tides every way . and this circumterranean sea is the main ocean that i intend , and which , as i conceiv , is chiefly intended by the congregation and gathering together of waters , mentioned in the creation therof , to and from which the rivers thus flow and reflow , and though it cannot return to cover the earth , as it did in the first chaos , or since in the deluge , yet as a fascia it still environeth it round about , and is the great province of elementary water . extraordinary tides are not so consyderable , being various and casual ; and as they proceed from no such constant and certein causes , so they have no such certein and constant courses . the annual tides are observed by us in our southern coast to be generaly greater about november , and february ; and accordingly we observ that about november , when the heat of the summer is past , and the earth is filled first with water , the springs begin to rise , as we say , in fountains , wells , and ponds , and apparently are seen to peez , as we term it , out of the banks into ditches ▪ ●nd to run more freely in rivers ; and so again about february , ( which is commonly said to fill the dike ) after the earth hath been bound with frosts , and is fully thawed , and the waters begin to run more freely , whereby they caus such an impuls therof ; which proceeds from such more general confluvia , and sudden fluxes ; and so sudden inundations may caus some temporary tides in some places , but the universal deluge was immediately by the divine power , and providence , as god saith therof , behold i , even i , do bring a floud of waters upon the earth : which whether it were by producing all the moisture in the pores of the spongy earth ( which certeinly if it were all gathered together would make another great sea ) and making it miraculously to flow upon the surface of the earth instead of being imbibed by it , as it is now a constant fountain to supply the rivers , and seas naturaly , ( and so may be conceived to be these fountains of the great deep which were broken up ) and by resolving all the vapors and fumes in the air into cataracts of rain , and so also opening those windows or floudgates of heaven , or otherwise , i will not presume to determin ; becaus it was miraculous , and preternatural . but there are some litle tides and euripi , so very strange and wonderful , as have puzled the greatest philosophers , and i know no colorable reason or account , which any have ever yet given therof ; nor am i such an oedipus , as to unfold these ridles of nature , which though they seem to be her ludicrous disports and galliards , yet certeinly are according to some harmonious measures , of answerable causalitys ; though we may not hear them or do not hearken to them . concerning which i shall only relate an experiment , of which i must freely say , — non inventa reperta est : for i confess i received it from another , who declared to me the matter of fact that he had done it , but was not pleased to revele the secret how it was done , which yet after i had found out he acknowledged unto me to be the same . the invention was to make a waterdial , wherin the water should rise and fall every twelv hours , in this maner . let there be a font or basin of the dial made with a hole at the bottom , and let there be a pipe open at each end , wherof one end must be applied to a subterraneous spring , or the like flux of water , and the other end closed to the hole in the bottom of the basin , so as the water may descend from the spring ( being as high as the top of the basin ) to the hole in the bottom , and through it reascend in the basin in twelv hours : and as it so ascends by degrees every hour describe lines in that side within the basin : and at the twelfth and last line make another hole in the other side of the basin , and let a siphon be inserted toward the top of the basin , and closed to it , so as the water in the basin may fill the shorter leg therof hanging down to the very bottom of the basin , and just turn over at the vertex of the siphon : and the cavity of this siphon must be doubly as capacious as the cavity of the former pipe , so as to convey away doubly as much water in the same time by the longer leg therof out of the basin , as ran into it through the pipe ; whereby though it continue still to run through the pipe from the spring , yet the cavity of the pipe being only half so capacious as the cavity of the siphon , it can run in only half so fast by the pipe as it runs out by the siphon ; which will be sett on runing by the water ascending into the shorter leg therof within the basin , when it rises to the line of the twelfth hour , and there turns over at the vertex into the longer leg without the basin , and that will carry it away doubly as fast , untill the siphon be emptied ; and consequently caus the water to descend in other like twelv hours : which must also be noted by lines described on the other side of the basin : and when the siphon is empty it will ceas runing ; and then the water runing through the pipe only will ascend into the basin in other twelv hours , as before , and so continualy . but becaus it is somwhat curious and difficult exactly to make the cavity of the siphon doubly as capacious as the cavity of the pipe , a stopcock may be inserted into one , or both of them , whereby the just proportion of water in them may be accordingly regulated . now , though i can neither affirm , nor do i know , that there are any such fonts , urns , or caverns , in the earth , so disposed as in this experiment , whereby the euripi are caused , yet i know that it may possibly be so ; and if not , yet i am assured that both this and any other regularitys in elementary nature , wherin there is neither plastes , nor artist , must be by some answerable causalitys ; which i leav to others more particularly to investigate . v. the earth which is last and lowest of all the elements hath a most dens body of matter , though the least active spirit ; and so every element hath a less de●s or gross body of matter accordingly as the spirit therof is more active ; and vegetative spirits are less immersed in the matter then elementary , and only by the mediation of them ; and sensitive less then vegetative , and only by the mediation of them , and elementary ; and intellective , which we therefore call immaterial , not at all , as i shall shew heerafter . now as ae●her is the most rare of all the elements , and so as i suppose the body therof cannot be made more rare by any other elementary spirit , becaus there is none other that is more active , and which may more rarefy it ; so earth is most dens , and as i suppose the body therof cannot be made more dens by any other elementary spirit , becaus there is none other less active which may more condensate it then it doth itself : for as these elementary spirits do require more or less rare or dens bodys , so they do naturaly and most effectualy caus them ; and thus the most rare ae●her , which is utmost , and the most dens earth , which is inmost , do contein and bound the two other more variable elements , air , and water , between them , as i have shewed . the rarity of aether is altogether unknown to us ; but if it be , as i suppose it , more rare then the most rarefied or expanded air , and the very common air be a thousand times more rare then water , and that fourteen times more rare then mercury , and the elementary earth ( wherof we know not the utmost density , as we know not the rarity of aether ) yet more dens then it or gold , ( which is said to be nineteen times heavier then water ) or any other cortical earths whatsoever , then certeinly there is a vast disproportion of density and rarity between the bodys of aether and earth : and yet though earth be most dens , aether is not most rare , nor do we know , or can assigne how much more rare superaether may be then it ; which will multiply the disproportion exceedingly more , wherof though we can give no just account ; yet heerby we plainly perceiv how strangely matter may be densefied , or rarefied ; and consequently what vast or innumerable pores , or spaces , they must assigne , who will still contend that rarity is only from porosity , or vacuity . as in water , so also in earth , there are two distinct regions , not only mathematicaly such , as some have made , both in aether , and air , where they are not ; but physicaly such ; and yet they have not found them out where they are : for as there are waters above , and beneath , so there is manifestly both a cortex of the earth , wherin there are not only many other composita , and many sorts of earths , metalls , minerals , stones , chalk , clay , marl , loam , sand , and several others , which thereby discover and declare it not to be the very elementary earth , but also water flowing in the canales therof and imbibed by all this spongy cortex , whence it is denominated terraqueous , and is almost as much elementary water , as earth : nor is any part therof in itself so purely elementary earth , as the ocean is elementary water ; wherefore there is most probably another elementary and subco●tical earth , ( or as it is said , foundations of the earth ) which though we know not where it begins , and the cortex ends , yet i presume it to be below any the lowest fundus of the water , or descent of rain or dew ; otherwise it should not be the elementary earth , which seems to be intimated by that expression of the psalmist , then the chanells of waters were seen , the foundations of the world were discovered . nor may we reasonably conceiv that there are below the cortex any such hid treasures of metalls , minerals , or the like , as there are in it ; since they can never be searched or digged out by any industry of men or beasts , wheras god and nature made nothing in vain . but that which doth most confirm me in this opinion , is the most ingenious invention of the inclinatory or dipping needle , as they call it ; for most evidently that varys its position respectively , as it is neerer to , or farther from , either of the poles of the earth , and not according to the poles of the world : which very sensibly discovers that there is such a subcortical earth ; and also that it is magnetical : for though there be rocks of magnets in the cortex , yet this inclinatory needle , as i shall call it , doth not so incline unto them , but generaly to the poles of the earth , as to one great magnet , and exactly so as a needle carried about a round magnet or terrella doth incline itself in all the points of the circumference , as i shall shew heerafter : and this also shews that the elementary and magnetike earth is globular , as well as the terrella ; otherwise any eminences therin would vary the inclination , as well as in the terrella . yet i do not conceiv that this elementary body of the subcortical earth , which i call magnetical , is of the same kind with any cortical magnets ; as they are not of the same kind with iron stone , or mine , though both have a magnetike quality : but rather that it is farr more dens then them , as i have said , as it is also farr more consistent then gold. nor is it vain or useless ( as other terreous composita below the cortex should be ) but very proper and requilite in every respect : for as by the most solid consistence therof it becomes the foundation , and basis of the cortex ( as they are therefore termed strong foundations and pillars of the earth ) and indeed of all the superior spheres , and of the whole body of the universal globe ; so by its magnetical polarity it doth continue its own body in one immovable position , as i shall shew heerafter : and most probably it hath no pores whereby it may be penetrated , convelled , or comminuted by any others , or one part therof severed from another ; and so many bodys in the cortex , marble , glass , gemms are imporous , as i have shewed , much more this most dens , compact , and adamantine body of the elementary earth . and though some planets and the starrs may be greater orbs then it ; yet they are not such foundations and pillars of the world , nor is there any other such centrical orb relating to the circumferential orb , or whole globe of the world , besides the earth ; which therefore also is called orbis , and the world , whereof it is an epitome ; and all the superior parts of the globe of the world are only concave spheres . thus though earth be most base and brute of all the elements , yet it hath also its proper excellency and glory , having the greatest bodily perfection of the density of the matter , to which it doth most approximate ; and the spirit therof hath the greatest stability and fix●tive strength , though the least activity : and as i have observed , it hath also such qualitys in itself , whereby in mistion it doth fix almost all the more agile qualitys of the other elements : and the cortex therof hath the greatest mistion with them all , and the greatest variety of composita , being the native country and region of all vegetatives , and of beasts , the best of sensitives ; yea the manor hous and demesnes of man , as it is said , the earth hath he given to the children of men : and becaus this whole spectable world , which moses describeth , was made for him , and all the other elements are as it were his roialties , therefore they all point to the earth , as the circumference doth to the center , and are inservient to it , as that is to man. vi. the first or principal quality of earth is drines ; as i have shewed , which is contrary to moisture , as cold is to heat . but as the earth is the most brute and dull element , so are also the qualitys therof like unto itself ; and it is heerin most analogous to the passive matter , though it be in itself a spiritual substance genericaly different from matter , as well as any others : for there are such analogys in nature , not only beeween spirits , but also between them and matter , as they are all entitys , and substantial parts of the univers , though several classical natures differ classicaly , and specifical specificaly , and individual individualy ; and these differences are their proper bonitys , whereby they excell all others , though otherwise generaly superior to them , as matter is better matter then any spirit , and so earth is better earth then aether ; though the spirit of aether otherwise be superior to the spirit of air , and of air to water , and of water to earth , according to the order of the elements which god hath declared , in the creation therof . and accordingly the spiritual qualitys of aether are more active and powerfull then of air , and of air then of water , and of water then of earth . yet ; as i said , drines is an active quality , and actively contrary to moisture , and not any less degree therof , and much less only a privation of moisture ; and though moisture doth more notably operate in and upon it , as heat doth upon cold ; and if it be weakned by comminution into dust , or ashes , and the like , it seems not much to resist , but rather to imbibe moisture , and almost to be receptive of it ; as matter is of spirits ; yet there is some mutual operation , as well as active contrariety between them ; and so earth itself is called dry land , and contradistinguished from water in the terraqueous globe of them both : and it is known accordingly to operate by drines , both to physicians in their desiccating emplastra , and to mechanikes in their cementations ; and that desiccation is not only by evaporation or exclusion of the moisture , but also by mistion of both , and predomination , and prevalence of the drines over moisture ; for so in the utmost adustion of ashes , or any terra damnata , there is water , and consequently moisture in the mistion therof , which yet is not actual , but reduced to potentiality by driness : and apparently in congelation of ice , glew , metalls , and the like , there is water , and so moisture potentialy , which is again actuated by fusion , but is not actual before they be melted . and , as i said , moisture , and so drines , are indifferent between the other two qualitys , heat , and cold , and they between moisture , and drines , and they are no secondary qualitys each of other , but operate only by themselvs univocaly and efficiently ; for as heat only doth heat , and cold cool , and moisture moisten , so drines , and no other quality but that , doth properly dry ; though equivocaly or instrumentaly either heat , or cold , may dry , as i have shewed . and as i have observed of heat , that being the most active and predominant of all the elementary qualitys , it hath also the most confinements , imprisonments , and restraints , and several ways of reducing it into potentiality , as i have formerly shewed , farr more then cold , which thereby hath such advantage against it ; so hath drines against moisture by the very cession therof ; for though drines cannot easily profligate it , yet is it naturaly so very fugitive of itself , that it is still flying away ; wheras drines is more fixed , and much assisted therin by its own connatural quality of consistence ; so that there is not any body dry , which is not consistent , nor moist that is not fluid : and yet consistence is a several and distinct quality , both from moisture , and drines ; becaus they are actively contrary one unto another ; but neither of them to consistence , nor consistence to them . vii . as drines and consistence are not one and the same quality of earth ; besides which there are also many other qualitys therof , as magnetike virtue , and the like ; and so heat , and light , of aether , besides many other qualitys therof , as planetary virtue , and the like ; so likewise are there several qualitys of air besides cold , and of water besides moisture , which though unknown to us what they are particularly , yet do generaly appear in the many various mistions of all the elementary bodys ; and that want of a more particular knowledg therof is a chief caus and reason why we know so litle of elementary mistions : wherefore i have begun to pry into them , and advanced some few steps toward them , to shew the way to others ; and though i may by some be judged to be too curious heerin , yet i am confident that there are such other qualitys of every element , besides those which are commonly called first , and that i have sufficiently made it to appear that they are such as do not , like second qualitys , subsist immediately in the first , and mediately by them in the substantial spirit , but every one of them immediately therin , as well as another : and so i conceiv consistence or firmnes and drines only to be connatural qualitys of the same element of earth , and that consistence doth immediately subsist in the elementary spirit therof , and not in drines ; as fluidity is not from the other q●alitys , but rather from the matter , for so indeed all the other elements are fluid ; and consistence is a proper and more particular property of earth alone ; which hath no contrary , as drines hath , nor doth contrarily oppose any one q●ality of the other elements ; but only is that whereby the elementary spirit of earth doth render its own body firm and solid , so as no other elementary spirit , not having any such q●ality , can confirm or consolidate its own body , which therefore remains fluid and weak , as the matter itself . and this terrene consistence as it is not only drines , nor any second q●ality therof ; so much less is it density ( for so mercury is dens but not consistent ) though that also be assistant to it , as well as drines ; for density , as i have shewed , is not any active or spiritual q●ality , but only an affection of matter itself , superinduced or varied by the densefaction of spirits , and spiritual qualitys ; as figure , which is plainly an affection of the matter , is superinduced and varied by the spiritual q●alitys : and therefore density and consistence are as different , as matter and spirits , wherin they do respectively subsist : and as i have thus distinguished consistence from other qualitys or affections of the spirit and matter of earth , that thereby we may more discern it , so i shall now shew that it is a spiritual quality , and particularly what it is ; becaus i do not find it to be sufficiently explained by others ; and becaus indeed it is a very noble quality of earth , and of great mechanical use : for it is not only a compaction and consolidation of all the parts of the earthy body , but , as it is also termed , a firmnes or stability of the whole body therof , both which i comprehend under the name of consistence ; whereby i also intend that strength and rigor of the consistent body , which though it be no such vigor or force whereby it can move other bodys , like the angelical powers , nor its own body , as material spirits , nor yet like the motion of matter to union or station , ( whereby indeed matter moves itself , but without any activity or strength , only by a recumbence or succumbence , as i have shewed ) and so fluidity is only an inconsistence therof , or falling every way , without any consistent strength , or stability holding it together ; whereby it doth plainly appear that such motion of the matter , as well as of fluid bodys , is not from any spiritual activity or vigor , but contrarily from infirmity and weaknes of the bodys themselvs : yet consistence doth spiritualy and actively unite and contein all the parts therof , and also arrect and fortify the whole body , having a proper center therin , as all spirits and spiritual qualitys have , without any respect to the center of matter ; which , as i have shewed , is the universal center of the whole body of the world : and so a timberlogg floating upon water , or suspended in the air farr enough from that universal center , yet hath in itself a center of its own consistence , where it is strongest , and is most hardly bent or broken , and from which it proportionably extendeth that strength or rigor through all the parts therof unto the extremitys , and so this consistence therof is mechanicaly useful to make it a boat , or beam of a balance , which though it be suspended in the more rare air only at the center , yet by this strength and rigor all the other parts therof being so consistent in the whole ( though otherwise hanging freely in the same air ) are arrected and upheld from falling or bending downward , as otherwise they would ; and though the parts therof weigh most toward the extremitys , becaus gravity is an affection of the matter , and therefore weighs most downward in the extremitys , which are farthest from the center of the consistent strength , which is a spiritual quality ; yet that is strongest in the center , which is most opposite , and farthest distant from the extremitys ; and plainly shews that consistence is not density , nor gravity , which subsisteth in density , and that any bowing downward in the extremitys is rather from the fluidity of the matter , whereby all the parts of that wooden balance would flow downward , like water , if they were not so upheld by terrene consistence . nor doth matter move from , but toward the center ; wheras consistence , as all other spiritual qualitys , issueth forth from the center to the extremitys , though it be stronger in the center then in the extremitys ; which matter is not , as it is matter ; for it is not more heavy , nor doth it move more strongly , or rather swiftly as it is neerer to the center , by reason of the center ; but by reason of the longinquity of the motion ; which would be the same , whether the body move in such a space , and through the same medium , farther from , or neerer to the center ; and so the weight of a clock doth not weigh more , or move faster when it is almost down , then at first . also consistence , which is a firm union of all the parts in the whole , may be such to the parts in their private whole , as station of matter is to itself in the publike whole therof : for so it keepeth the parts of any fluid body within a consistent vessel in rest , as i have formerly shewed ; becaus the consistence is a fulciment , which is quasi a center unto them , and wherupon they rest as well as in the n●tural station of a more rare above any more dens body , or as they would if they were immediately next to the center . again , consistence , which is a spiritual and active quality only for the fixation of its own body , hath , as i said , no contrary ; being heerin like to magnetical virtue , which is for the polar position of the body : for fluidity , as i said , is only an inconsistence and infirmity of the matter , which is not a contrary , but a negation of consistence : and though there be an universal union and coherence of the matter to and with itself in the whole , yet there is also such a mobility of the parts therof within that whole , that they will easily be removed , and flow any way , unles they be made to consist by this spiritual quality of earth ; and no other elementary body doth consist by any other quality of the spirit therof , but only by this spiritual quality of the earth that is in the mistion therof : and accordingly water , which hath more of earth in the mistion therof , doth consist more then air , and air then aether , as i have shewed : and so terrene bodys do more consist as they are less mist with the other elements . nor is the incoherence of many terreous corpuscles , fluidity , though it seem to be complexively such ; for every corpuscle therof simply is consistent in itself , ( as i have before observed of porosity ) and so though there be many sands in an heap , yet every one of them in itself is as consistent as a sandstone , and dusts of steel , or brass , as the steel or brass itself : and though by commotion therof there may be a motion every way like the motion of fluid bodys , yet that is not from the consistent corpuscles , or any of them in themselvs , but from ●he interspersed fluidity of air ; as if there be innumerable terreous motes in water , unles they be mist and made into a past , the water in itself is not thereby made more consistent . but bodys which have a consistence in themselvs , and have also other fluid bodys interspersed , are made more to consist in and with themselvs , by exclusion of the fluid bodys out of their pores ; as a cable being stretched very stiffly will be made to consist almost as much as wood , and so is used by funambuli ; for by stretching the air is excluded , and the pores are drawn together and contracted : and a wett cable will be farr more stiff of itself , and not so easily stretched as a dry ; becaus , as i said , water hath more consistence then air , and is not so easily excluded or squeezed out of the pores ; also it is more imbibed , and thereby more mist with the terreous body of the cable , then air , and therefore not so easily extruded . but heer i must observ , that as it is a general rule and canon of nature , that in all spiritual powers and operat●ons union doth fortify , so it is most sensibly evident in consistence ; which though it be the same in every corpuscle , as in any equal part of a greater body of the same nature ( as it is in a pindust as well as in such a small part of the greater body of brass from which the dust was decided , as i before shewed ) yet all the parts of the greate●● 〈◊〉 being united together do proportionably more fortify themselvs , and the whole body is thereby made more strong in every equal part therof , then the corpuscle decided from it : and it were more then a curiosity , and of great mechanical use , to find out the increment of the strength of consistence according to the majoration of consistent bodys : for certeinly the total of the strength of the greater will be found to be more then the addition of so many units , as there are parts in it equal to the corpuscle decided from it . as a barr of wood one inch square will bear about eight times so much weight , as if it be equaly divided into fower quarters , any one of those fower quarters will bear ; though that hath a fourth part of the whole magnitude of the other : whereby it appears that the increment of the consistent strength therof is about doubly as much as the proportion of the magnitude ; though i do not conceiv that it alway so doubles , but that where the disproportion is greater of the magnitude , it will be greater also of the increment , and where less , less . as suppose the barr of wood an inch square and a yard long , and being equaly supported by fulciments at the extremitys to bear two hundred pounds weight hanging at the center therof , and a barr of a fourth part of the magnitude therof to bear a quarter of one hundred pounds weight , so that the greater barr bears eight times as much as the less barr , which yet hath a fourth part of the magnitude therof ; then also suppose another barr two inches square , which hath fower times the magnitude of the barr an inch square , the increment of the strength therof must proportionably be doubled in respect of that , as the increment of the strength of that was in respect of the other , and consequently , if the barr of an inch square did bear two hundred , as i supposed , the barr two inches square must be supposed to bear sixteen hundred pounds weight ; that is , fower two hundreds doubled , as the barr an inch square did bear two hundred ; that is , fower quarters of one hundred doubled : now the proportions of magnitudes between these three barrs are , as i said , of the least to the midst as one to fower , and to the greatest as one to sixteen ; and the increment of the midst in respect of the least is as eight to one , which is doubly fower ; and of the greatest in respect of the least , as sixty fower to one , which is fower times sixteen . also it may be tried in barrs of other figures ; as of round barrs of an inch diameter , and ●●●angular barrs of an inch perpendicular , and any other regular , or irregular polygons : as a barr half square and half flatt , or an inch one way , and half an inch the other way , and how much it will bear one way , and how much the other way , and the like : and i shall propound it to be examined by mathematicians and mechanikes , whether in all cases the increment of the strength of the greater consistent bodys be not proportionably according to the increment of the superficies of the less bodys ? as the midle barr being an inch square , the fower lateral superficies therof made only fower inches ; wheras every one of the fower least barrs being half an inch square , the fower lateral superficies therof made two inches ; and so of all the fower least barrs , whose whole magnitude is equal to the midle barr of an inch square , eight inches ; wheras the fower lateral superficies of the midle barr made on 〈…〉 inches , as i said , and so of the other ; wherin the decrement of the superficies therof is double , and also the increment of the strength of the consistence therof double : now though there be , as i have shewed , an increment of the velocity of motion , and accordingly of the gravitation or descent , and percussion of a scale or other body , by the pondus of the matter ( whereby the increment of velocity may be tried ) yet that is by several degrees successively actuated , wheras the increment of consistent strength is present and simultaneous . and heerin may plainly appear another difference between matter and the affections therof , and spirits and their spiritual qualitys : for though matter by union doth fortify and defend itself in the whole against any nonentity , as i have said ; becaus the extension therof , being quantity consistent ( which is the only consistence of matter ) must consist together through the whole quantity of the universal body therof , as the extension of any particular body must consist and be continued through all the parts therof ; otherwise it should not be the same extension as it is : and therefore though one part may be removed from one place in the whole body of the world to another , yet another part must necessarily succeed , to continue the whole extension therof , and thereby to render the same whole body complete and intire , and the whole extension therof consistent : ye● the union of part to part , though never so many , doth not make any increment of the whole extension above the total of all the proportions of all the parts ; and so an hundred several weights of one pound of lead , being melted or otherwise united together , will not weigh in all more then one hundred pounds ; or if the same matter in a greater extension be condensated into a less extension , it weighs only according to the mass of the whole matter , and not according to the extension ; and therefore is the same , whether the extension be greater , or less ; though as it is so much matter in a less extension , it will penetrate and sink through an equal portion of matter in a greater extension , as i have shewed : but yet doth not by such condensation acquire any greater gravity in itself , then proportionable to the whole body of the matter ; as we say , that a pound of feathers is as heavy as a pound of lead ; though the lead will press down the feathers , and not the feathers 〈…〉 , in respect to one another and their due station and 〈…〉 the universal body of matter , as i have declared : whereas this terreous consistence being a spiritual quality gaineth an increment of strength in itself by such physical union above the proportions of all the parts united or added together arithmeticaly ; and so fire of so many equal parts united together physicaly into one body will heat and burn more then so many several sparks equal to those parts , as being united or added together arithmeticaly will amount to an equal total . also a wire of iron may be made so small and so long as that it will not bear its own weight at the extremitys , and glass so capillar , as may be wound about the finger , though glass be very fragile . and though i conceiv hardnes and softnes to be only different sensibilitys of consistence or the degrees therof , as more consistent doth more resist the touch , and less less ; yet fragility and ductility are different kinds of consistence itself : for consistence hath both a strength and rigor of the whole body , which fragility also hath , and ductility hath not ; and likewise a spiritual cohesion and tenacity of all the parts therof , which ductility hath , and fragility hath not so perfectly as proper consistence : and therefore fragile bodys , as glass , are easily broken , but will not so easily bend ; and ductile bodys , as wax , will easily bend , but are not so easily broken : nor indeed do i conceiv any body to be properly consistent , and such as will neither break nor bend , except only the subcortical earth , which is elementary , and hath the proper qualitys therof in their greatest actuality ; as aether hath heat , and light : wheras other cortical bodys , though most rigid , as iron , and the like , may be broken , or bent ; yea by fusion become ductile and fluid : so that ductility is partly from moisture ; and is only an imperfect consistence , which though it be not the same with drines , is very much assisted by it , as i have shewed . also fragile bodys of less crassitude may bend more , as i said before of very slender glass ; becaus there is less distortion , that is , less expansion in the outward convexity , and compression in the inward concavity of the arch , or angle , that it makes in bending : and the very bending before it breaks shews that there is some ductility in it , which is an imperfection of consistence : and this doth plainly appear in glass heated , which is farr more ductile , and molten , which is fusile : whence also it hath that other imperfection therof , that is , fragility , which it betrays when it is cooled : but i conceiv that fragility is a less imperfection of consistence then ductility ; becaus that appears in actual drines , and this in actual moisture . and fragile bodys , though somwhat flexile , yet , if they be not over-bent , will return again very smartly to their position , which we call springines , and will not stand bent , as we say , as ductile , unles the rigor ( which is properly every way , as it were , by so many radii from the center to the circumference ) be overcome by long continuance . and this springines is only a return to the position of the consistent body ; ( and not as elastical potentia , which is to the density or rarity of more fluid bodys ) according to that natural rigor , or temper of bodys , which the spirits require , and caus to be in them , and from which they are violently diverted , and therefore so suddenly and forcibly return unto it again , if the violence do not continue so long as to caus the very spirit to conform unto that figure , as i have shewed , though it will hardly conform to that temper , in elastical bodys : as also vegetative and sensitive spirits will hardly conform to inorganical figures . now consistence being not a compound , but simple quality of earth , therefore it doth contein earthy bodys together , if they be continuous , though very various and different composita ; for so it conteins both the subcortical , and cortical earth , and all the rocks , mountains , and eminences therof , as one compages : and so brick , and mortar when it is dried , do not only adhere , as water and glass , but cohere and consist together ; becaus though they be several composita or mista of all the elements , yet their consistence is common to them all , as they are earthy bodys : as matter doth therefore so unite itself in all the bodys of various composita in the world : i have seen an old brick chimny undermined and pulled down to fall like a pillar of timber without any breaking ; which consequently had one center of consistence , that did contein all the earthy parts therof together , as a needle hath , which is half silver and half steel ; and as the whole body of matter hath one center , to which it all tendeth , though varied into the several bodys of innumerable composita . viii . as siccity and consistence are not one and the same quality of earth , so much less consistence and magnetical virtue , though that require a consistence , as consistence doth siccity : but , as i have said , consistence doth only contein and arrect the parts in the whole body generaly and indifferently every way ; wheras magnetical virtue doth direct it particularly in one relative place or position , ( which we call polar ) unto north and south ; whereby the difference between positive extension in its own vbi and relative place may plainly appear : for a magnet is in its own ubi as any other body , but besides it hath such a relative position , which is polar , whereby the polar points therof , north , and south , are so directed as that they will not be placed otherwise , and so thereby consequently all the other points and parts therof in the whole , though the whole be only in its own vbi , as any other body . also consistence is without any motion , for it is the same whether the body move , or not ; but magnetical virtue hath a verticity to reduce it to its polar position . again consistence is orbicular , as the strength of a wooden wheel is equal at the extremity of every radius , being equidistant from the center ; but magnetical virtue is much stronger at the poles then at the extremitys of the aequator , as i shall shew heerafter ; and indeed otherwise it should not be so polar , or north , and south , more then east , and west . also consistence hath no emanation like magnetical virtue ; and there are many such other differences . but yet , as i said , consistence is an auxiliary quality therof , being both connatural qualitys of the same element . and so the elementary earth probably is most consistent , and most magnetical : and the magnet-stone is also very consistent , and so is iron mine , and especialy iron , and steel , which are the extractions therof : and i know not whether there might not be some such extraction of the magnet stone more magnetical then the stone or mine therof : but certeinly the elementary earth is farr more magnetical then any other magnet , becaus it is elementary ; and also becaus it is so vastly great , whereby there is a proportionable increment of the virtue : and this is proved by the very strong emanations therof which penetrate the whole cortex of the earth ; as appears by the inclinatory needle ; for magnetical virtue , like consistence , hath no contrary ; becaus it is only for direction and position of its own body : though density , as well as longinquity , may hinder , or abate it , as they do any other spiritual powers whatsoever , but not repell , and reflect it . also the magnetike earth by the emanations therof doth excite and actuate the potential polarity which is in some cortical bodys ; as iron barrs , which have stood long in a polar position , or iron , and as some say brick-earth , heated and laid to cool north and south ; which is not by any communication of the magnetical virtue of the earth , ( for no accident can so migrate out of its own substance , wherin it doth subsist , into another ) but , according to the doctrine of potentiality , which i have formerly delivered , by univocal generation or production of the magnetical virtue potentialy being and subsisting in those less and weaker magnets into their actuality . also if the virtue of them or the magnet stone be actual , and they laid in a position not polar , as suppose east and west , yet if they ly so long , the magnetike virtue of the earth will predominate , and vary that polarity to its own north and south , which is very observable ; and as it sheweth that the earth is the great magnet , which in time can so over-rule all these less magnets ; so also that these less magnets , or terrellae , are such individualy in themselvs , becaus while they are laid in that position east and west , which is not polar , yet they retein their own individual polarity , in such a position as is opposite to the polarity of the earth ; and though the earth will at last over-rule them , or if they were freely suspended in the air they would naturaly conform themselvs to the poles of the earth , yet while they are so violently laid in an opposite position , they still retein their own individual center , axis , poles , and aequator , apparently distinct , and opposite to those of the earth ; and in that position will turn another less magnet freely suspended within the orb therof from the pol●● of the earth to their own poles . now tha● the earth itself doth never vary its own polarity , we may sensibly perceiv by these terrellae , and their natural polarity , and verticity ; as by the directory , but especialy by the inclinatory needle , which being carried about the earth always inclines the southern pole therof more toward the northern , as it is neerer to it , and the northern pole therof toward the southern pole of the earth , as it is neerer to it , and so accordingly changes its poles and perpendicularity ( whence i suppose it is also called the dipping needle ) and which plainly proveth that the polar virtue is not from any north starr , as some have fansied ; for the southern polarity is not only a consequence of the northern , nor that of it , but both are equaly polar in themselvs ; and the needle accordingly changeth the inclination of both its poles ; which also the directory needle doth , as farr as it can , by a litle bowing down of its poles toward one of the poles of the earth . nor is the polarity from both northern and southern effluvia , as others affirm , which cannot penetrate glass , as magnetical virtue doth ; for neither is there any penetration of several bodys , nor is glass porous , nor yet fluid , as water , or air , or the like , wherin we may suppose a cession to any such imperceptible corpuscles ; which are only the spawn of epicurus his atoms , and can never be perceived by sens in any greater or less bodys so to pass ; nor are any phaenomena themselvs , and yet are introduced to solv the phaenomena : and though they be supposed to be so imperceptibly minute , yet must not only move litle needles , but also contein the vast magnetike earth in its constant polar position , against all the furious assalts of air and water , and the conjoined force of their storms and tempests , being such as could easily divert these corporeal effluvia , and so prevent their i●pet●● ; which yet must be supposed to be the same in a calm or in a storm , becaus the magnetike operations are the same . wherefore plainly it is a spiritual quality subsisting in the substantial spirit of the magnet , and both inherent in it , and emanant from it , like light , though in another maner , as i shall shew heerafter , and it doth only require consistence and drines as social qualitys of the same element , as light doth heat ; and also density of the matter , as they do rarity ; and by the want therof may be corrupted , as well as they ; and so magnets by rust , contusion , and the like , may lose their act●al virtue , not becaus they are contrary unto it , but becaus they disorder the body therof , as wounds do vegetative and sensitive bodys . certeinly the magnetical virtue in a needle is not from any northern and southern atoms or corpuscles , for plainly it is excited by another magnet actualy , being what it is potentialy before in itself : which evidently appears by the very quick and sudden actuation therof , almost like heat , and light , or sound , and the like ; though it will last longer in the state of actuality then they , becaus it hath no contrary to oppugn and corrupt it , like them : and yet rubbing it with another magnet the contrary way doth assoon reduce it to potentiality , by drawing it from its polar longitude , and destroying the axis thereof ; ( and nothing doth more approve the doctrine of potentiality then such experiments ) the magnetical virtue and motions therof are most evidently discovered by the magnetical needle carried about a round terrella ; for at the aequator it doth apply itself lateraly to the magnetical terrella and parallel to the axis , becaus the aequator of the magnet , or terrella , doth equaly attract the aequator of the needle , as also the poles of the magnet do the poles of the needle , when it is so applied to either of them . and when it hath passed the aequator , the correspondent pole of the needle begins to incline , and to point to the correspo●dent pole of the magnet , and so more and more , untill it be perpendicularly erected at the very pole ; and it is half erected , and makes a right angle with the midle of the axis of the magnet , though i suppose not exactly in the midst therof , unless we estimate it according to the oval arch of the magnetike virtue : yet becaus after it hath passed the very aequator of the magnet , it doth no longer apply itself lateraly , having both its poles equidistant from the magnet , but presently begins to touch the magnet obliquely with one pole pointing to the correspondent pole of the magnet , i also suppose , that either pole of the magnet doth not attract beyond its own hemisphere , northern , or southern ; ( but the magnet beng polar doth attract circumferentialy from the center ) for otherwise it should still caus the needle to apply itself to the magnet with some part of the side therof , though less , and less , and not touch it immediately with the pole , untill it be erected perpendicularly at the correspondent pole of the magnet ; as if two chords were fastned to the two poles or ends of the needle , and drawn through hooks or staples fixed at each pole of the magnet , and so the needle by them drawn beyond the aequator therof , by pulling in one chord , and letting out the other ; yet it should still apply part of the side therof to the magnet , though less , and less , as i shewed : but i refer this hypothesis to more curious trial and examination . also it may be tried , how much less the attractive power of the aequator is then of the poles : for certeinly the magnetical virtue is not equaly orbicular , but rather oval , ( and that perhaps may discover it , as i before intimated ) though we call it an orb , and it may be so ; as there is an orb of the emanation of light from an elliptical , or other inorbicular lucid body , and yet the power therof is not equaly orbicular , as i have shewed : for though the circumferential extension from the center be equal , yet the circumferential power in that extension may be unequal : however it is evident in magnets that though they be orbicular , yet their virtue is oval ; and so in their orbs of magnetical emanations , the virtue is greater at the poles , and neerer to them proportionably , and less at the aequator , and neerer to it proprotionably . and not only the center , but also the poles are very points ; as may appear by two needles placed at one of the poles , which will thrust one against another to attein the very polar point , which doth most strongly attract them ; and therefore divaricate at their other ends : as they must according to statike law ; for there can be no angular point of two several lines concurring in it , without a divergence of the two lines from it . now in this circular cours of the needle about the round magnet it is very observable , that if it be moved about it at a distance , it doth observ the poles and aequator of the orb of the emanant , and not the inherent virtue therof , in the magnet it self , though the emanant virtue be not c●rporeal ( nor indeed the inherent ) as the magnetike body is : which i have already proved in discoursing of emanant light , and may appear more manifestly by magnetike emanations , which penetrate not only imporous glass , but any other bodys whatsoever . now wheras it is a general magnetike rule , that the correspondent pole of one magnet to another is of a contrary denomination , as of north to south , and south to north , the magnets are accordingly found to conform themselvs , and the less magnet will turn about itself so to apply its correspondent pole unto the other : which is no flight of each others poles , as some have supposed , but a concordance , and conformity according to the magnetike law of their nature : and it doth so , not only by contact of the greater magnet , but at any distance within the emanant orb therof ; becaus as the inherent and emanant virtue of the same magnet make one intire orb of the magnetical virtue therof , though of several and unequal powers ; so also doth the less magnet endeavour thus to conform itself within the orb of the greater magnet . and it may be tried , whether , as two several lights in the same place do colluminate , so these two magnetike virtues being so placed together do cooperate by their emanant virtues . also if one and the same magnet be divided into several magnets , the individual polarity of the whole will be doubled ; and accordingly as they are made by the dissection two less wholes , so they will also have two individualy less magnetike virtues ; and according to the dissection so will the polarity of each of them be : for if the magnet be dissected by a line cutting the axis and parallel to the aequator , then the poles , center , axis and aequator , are only doubled ; that is , the former northern pole in the one , and southern pole in the other , still remain , and where the dissection is , there is a new southern pole opposite to the former northern pole , and a new northern pole opposite to the former southern pole , and the axis is divided into two , and the former center and aequator are also changed into two new centers and aequators conformable to the position of these double poles : but if the magnet be dissected by a line cutting the aequator and parallel to the axis , then the continuity remaining untill the dissection be finished , ( which doth end toward one of the poles ) it is as if wax were so divided by a dissection almost throughout , but did stick together only at one end ; and then the two branches therof produced and erected one above another , and after the upper part wholy severed from the neather , whereby that last dissection doth not cutt the aequator , as the first did , but the axis , by a line parallel to the aequator , as in the former instance : and if we could suppose the magnet to be so produced and erected corporealy , and then wholy severed , there would be one pole at the end of the greater part of the magnet , which we will suppose to continue in the same position as it was before ; and the other part , which is first divided , and then supposed to be so produced and erected above it , must necessarily have another pole opposite therunto , and consequently to that which itself had before when it was conjoined to the other ; and so when it is wholy severed , that part seems to acquire two new poles of contrary denominations to the other , though indeed the reason therof be only the same , as of the former experiment ; and they are all only correspondences , according to the magnetike law ; whereby , as i said , north doth correspond to south , and south to north : and so every point of th● axis between the north pole and the center is southern in respect of it , though it be within the northern hemisphere of the whole magnet ; as england is southern in respect of the north pole , or gr●enland , though northern in respect of the aequator , or aethiopia , and so likewise every point between the south pole and center is southern ; and thus if the magnet be divided by a line cutting the axis in any point , the correspondence of the poles still remains , and if it cut the aequator , yet in effect it is the same at last , as i have shewed by the instance of wax so dissected , and then produced and erected , and afterward severed : and though this be not so effected corporealy in the dissection of a magnet , yet the spiritual virtue therof being dissected at one end , and continued at the other , doth so produce itself , and run through the whole body , that the part dissected will correspond magneticaly with that part from which it is last severed , whether , according to the dissection , it be requisite that it be of the same , or of a contrary denomination . and heerby we may plainly perceiv the real individuality of any elementary compositum , while it is continuous in itself and discontinued from others , and the individual oeconomy therof in itself ; for so the magnet , while it is one , hath but one center , axis , poles , and aequator ; and assoon as it is discontinued , the two parts have each of them all the same apparatus which is doubled , and so even elementary spirits have their oeconomy , and are conforted by majoration and consociation , as i have shewed . and these two elements , aether , and earth , have not only their inherent qualitys , but also emanant ; becaus they are most remote , and therefore their emanations are their emissarys , whereby to operate at distance ; wheras water , and air , have their effluvia : but i know not whether they also have any such emanant qualitys ( which deservs farther inquisition ) for water , and air may otherwise operate at distance ; that is , water by vapors , and air by its own body , which enters into any pores of other bodys , or may be introsucted through them by their cession , if they be fluid , as bubbles are through water . these two emanant qualitys of aether , and earth , are analogous in some respects : for both subsist in their inherent qualitys , and bodys , and from them pass localy into other bodys ; and perhaps they may both cooperate within the same orb , though only loc●ly united , and not spiritualy mist together ; but the polarity of the less magnet is not varied presently by being placed within the orb of a greater , or by the earth itself , nor can cooperate , if it do not conform unto the greater magnet , at the aequator , or either of the poles therof , as the needle to the round terrella , but ly in another position , east and west , or the like ; for then i rather suppose that they hinder one another , and attract severaly , more or less , according to their several virtues , untill the greater magnet can alter the inherent polarity of the less ; and consequently the emanation therof . also they differ in many other things , as in that which i have mentioned , that the emanant orb of a round magnets body is not of equal circumferential power , like the luminous orb of a starr , or other such orbicular lucid body ; which plainly proves magnetical virtue and planetary to be very different ; and that magnetical virtue having no contrary , like light , or heat , is not refracted , or reflected ; and so the radii therof cannot be conspissated and intended , as the sunbeams by a burning glass . and though they do both attract , yet their attraction is also very different : for magnets do only attract such other bodys that are either actualy or potentialy magnetical , and wherof the potentiality is first actuated by them : so that it is indeed rather a concours or mutual embrace of both , then attraction of one by the other , like the attraction of heat ; and heat may attract cold bodys as well as hott ; for though cold be contrary to heat , yet it is not contrary to the attractive virtue therof , which doth attract a cold body , as it is a body generaly , whether hott or cold ; and is hindred only by the gravity therof , which is also some remora to magnetike attraction , though both that , and heat , if they can once overcome the gravity of the body attracted , do attract with a very quick and smart motion by their emanant rays ; and the magnet very notably , so that an iron wheel , or steel pendulum , will either be wholy staid by a magnet , and suspended like the inclinatory needle ; or otherwise move as freely , as if it were out of the orb therof by its own gravity : for though motion of matter is per gradum , yet spiritual motions are per saltum ; and so are motions by elastical potentia , as a bullet sucked up in the barrell of a musket by a mans breath staieth so long as the gravity therof can resist the elasticity of the air expanded by the exuction , and then being overcome , leaps up very suddenly and violently ; and , as i suppose , equaly , like the planetary motion of the ae●her . the attraction of heat is either by the inherent quality therof , which though our new philosophers deride , yet it is most evident , not only by the attractive power of the vital heat in sensitive bodys internaly , but also externaly of the heat of wooll , raw silk , hott spices , tobacco , and many medicaments , which do notably draw ; and it may be also very strong , yea stronger then the draught of hors , or ox , as all workmen in furnaces and saltworks can attest . and this attraction of inherent heat may be not only immediately by contact , but also mediately by the emanation therof , as in the former instances : but if the inherent heat be not constant , and fixed , as if it be excited by a litle rubbing , or otherwise , so as it is ready to return again suddenly into its potentiality , then it attracteth not constantly , but suddenly in a special maner , which is called electricity , and appears by such rubbing of electrum or amber , jett , hard wax , and some stones : and is somwhat like to elasticity , but from another reason ; for that is only by violent expansion of a body , which the spirit therof again reducing to its former density , doth thereby draw other bodys after it to avoid vacuity , as i have said : wheras electricity is by the sudden generation of heat , which accordingly emitteth its emanant rays , and then this sudden calefaction as suddenly ceasing , and the inherent heat returning into its potentiality , the emanant rays , which do subsist in it , must also return into it , and in their retreat or resilience , which , as i have shewed , is very sudden and momentaneous , bring back with them small bodys within the orb therof , whose gravity doth not hinder and prevail against the spiritual potentia therof : wheras a more constant and fixed heat , though it may otherwise draw more strongly and durably , yet doth not attract so electricaly ; as may appear by hard wax melted , which will not attract so electricaly , as if it be only rubbed , and not melted : nor doth the heat of flame attract electricaly , though it be very sudden and momentaneous ; becaus it as suddenly passeth away in the fume and body therof ; but yet the successive fire therof in the candle or wood doth attract , like inherent heat ; and heerby it plainly appears that emanant rays do subsist in , and flow from the inherent quality in the substance , becaus they do thus return to it again ; and that even emanant accidents , though they flow forth out of their substances , yet do not migrate into others , becaus they do thus return to them again . and now upon this occasion , and more fully to explain this very strange electrical motion , as i have before discoursed of the motion of matter to union , or station , recumbence , or succumbence , ( which though local motions , are only such as leaning to , or falling on , without any active power or strength ) so i shall now discours of the motions of spirits , which are properly active and vigorous , and truly spiritual : and such are the motions of elementary spirits , which are the very lowest classis of all substantial activitys . thus heat and moisture rarefy their own bodys of matter , as may appear in fusion ; and cold and drines condensate them again , when they return to their consistence : and in all these variations of the density or rarity of their bodys , there is a local motion of the matter itself intrinsecaly in the body therof , otherwise there should be no such rarefaction and condensation ; and the motion of the matter therin is only passive , but the motive potentia of the spirit , which by its qualitys doth so intrinsecaly distend and contract its own body , is properly active , as well as when it doth extrinsecaly expand or compress another body ; which it may do consequentialy by rarefying or condensating its own body : for so fire by rarefying the powder into flame and fume doth explode a bullet ; and though when it densefieth its own body the next commonly succeeds by motion of the matter to prevent vacuity , yet this notable instance of electricity and all other attractions by heat shew also how it may attract another body , not only by concursion , as two magnets mutualy meet one another , but by plain drawing without any corporeal instruments , and imm●diately by its own spiritual power , which spirits have in themselvs , as plainly appears by the motive power of angels , who are purely immaterial , and yet most swiftly move themselvs , and most strongly other bodys ; as our saviors body was so carried up to the pinnacle of the temple : and ye● according to that universal oeconomy of nature and combination of all the scale therof , as angels cannot move so soon through a greater space as a less , so i suppose also that they cannot move so easily through a more dens body as a more rare ( as i have also observed of the magnetike virtue ) nor move a more heavy body as easily as a more l●ght : and though they are the most excellent and potent spirits , and so among other titles called powers , yet their motive power plainly declares how a spirit may immediately move a body of matter , and that materialists strangely err , who suppose that matter can only be moved by matter , or bodys by bodys : for indeed spirits , which are substantial activitys , are made purposely to act and move the matter : and so all other inferior spirits , though less potent , may move it less powerfully , according to their several natures and orders ; that is , material spirits move it more materialy , and one by another ; as sensitive by the mediation of vegetative , and vegetative by the mediation of elementary , according to the scale of nature , as i shall shew heerafter ; but elementary , which immediately consubstantiate the matter , may immediately move it , as i have before shewed , both intrinsecaly , and extrinsecaly , with very forcible and violent motions : as in thunder , shooting in a gun , and rarefaction of water into vapors ; whereby very great execution may be done , yea , as great as by firing of gunpowder , which indeed is only rarefaction by incension ; and yet without incension , if the rarefaction be as much and as sudden , it hath the same effect , becaus there is one and the same caus of both ; that is , the rarefaction itself , whether it be one way , or other : and yet it is very consyderable , wherefore since the vaporous body is also capable of compression as well as rarefaction , the bullet in the gun should not again compress the flame into its former extension , rather then be itself exploded by the rarefaction , or , if it cannot be clearly expelled , why the very gun itself should rather be broken ; since air is strangely comprest in a wind-gun by less strength : but i conceiv the reason therof to be both the greatness of the dilatation , which certeinly is more proportionably then the compression ; for the air is never comprest so much in the windgun as to break it , and also the suddennes , whereby the force therof coming all at once ( like the delivery of weighty stones , arrows , or the like out of catapults , and balists ) doth all together prevail over the resistance , which in longer time and by degrees might prevail against it : and thus if the rarefaction of vapor be very great and very sudden , the execution will be very forcible and quick , and if less , less proportionably : nor can i conceiv any other caus of those vast eruptions , and ejaculations of whole torrents of such massy matter from mount aetna to so great a distance , but only the great , sudden , and continual rarefaction of vapors happening in some fitt caverns therof . also the planetary motions of those vast orbs in such rapid and perpetual courses is very wonderful : which yet are only elementary . thus magnetical , electrical , and planetary motions are indeed by such natural magike as i have described ; and though i also acknowledg that emanations may be at the greatest distances , and effluvia may pass very farr , yet i cannot conceiv how any sympathetical operations can naturaly have an equal effect at the farthest distance as at the neerest , since no emanations , effluvia , nor angels themselvs , do , or can so operate . now effluvia , as i have said , are of inherent qualitys , as odorous , or others , in and with their vaporous bodys , and not like emanations , which are only of emanant qualitys , and which , though weaker then inherent , yet are more spiritual and separate from the matter ; and may be easily distinguished from the others ; for they penetrate the very bodys , wheras effluvia only pierce and enter into the pores therof ; also emanant qualitys are never exhausted , but always ( while they are in act and not obstructed ) fill their whole sphere ; nor do they weigh , or by their emanation make their substantial bodys to be lighter ; wheras effluvia , though they may be very rare and subtile , yet do proportionably diminish their bodys , and accordingly make them to weigh somwhat less , unless they be also continualy renewed . there is also a great cohesion and continuation of homogeneous bodys , which i have formerly observed , though few of them do so attract or concurr as magnets . it is said , that gold doth attract the fume of mercury , and workmen use to hold a piece of gold in their mouths to receiv it , which will be notably silver'd thereby ; but that may be only by so much of the fume as doth happen to fall upon the gold , as dew upon leavs of trees or herbs ; yet certeinly when the mercury doth so fall upon the gold , it doth notably retein it , being , as i suppose , very homogeneous with it , and that there is much mercury in the composition of gold , and so fixed in it , as that no fume therof will again be emitted by any operation of the most intens fire , though never so long continued : but there is also some other predominant principle in the composition therof , which apparently renders it heavier then mercury ; though probably mercury be one principle in the composition of all metalls ( except perhaps of iron which is magnetical , and will not be corroded by it . ) there is also a fume emitted in melting lead somwhat like that of mercury , very hurtfull to workmen , and which doth strangely allure cats , as a sweet poison , and thereby kill them . but i shall not proceed to discours of metalls , and minerals , and the like , which i conceiv to be composita , and the spirits therof no simple substances , created in the begining , but that they are mist of such several simple and created principles ; and therefore not mentioned in all the six days works , though they and all other perfect mista were then also improperly created ; and so we read of gold , bdellium , and onyx : but this general system mentioneth only such grand mista , as elements , and planets , which in the whole are ingenerable , and incorruptible , and therefore are particularly mentioned , as they were so specialy created . ix . the earth , being such as i have described , doth plainly declate itself to be immovable , that is , not apt to move itself , ( if possible to be moved by any others ) yet there are some , who not by any natural power , nor by faith , but fansy , can remove , not only mountains , but the whole earth ; not by heaping and raising it up to heaven , as the poets report of the giants ; but , as if they had obtained the victory for it , can place it among those idol gods , saturn , iupiter , mars , and others ; which i shall now disprove , having already shewed how the earth is one whole element in itself naturaly , and only localy united with water in the surface therof , and so made one terraqueous globe in this third day ; but not with the aery expansum , which was made in the second day ; and how in the first day the aether was made to move about the earth with the light therin , diurnaly , which made day and night ; and that the earth was not made to move about it , but remained in its chaos , untill this third day . wherunto i shall add one text more as a comment upon the other , being part of that divine hymn of creation , who laid the foundations of the earth ( or founded the earth upon its basis ) that it cannot be moved . and so where it is said , the world also is stablished that it cannot be moved , it is to be understood of this orbis terrae particularly , as i have shewed ; or if any may conceiv otherwise , then it shews that the circumferential superaether , as well as the centrical earth , is immovable ; like the roof , and foundation , of an hous , which are both immovable ; though other bodys move and are moved therin between them : and though the roof also may be supposed to be mobile ( as some very great amphitheaters have been turned about ) yet the foundation must be immobile ; otherwise it should not be such a foundation : and so it is expressly said , that the earth is so founded upon her bases , that it may not be moved . now as the earth hath no heat , planetary virt●e , or the like active , and motive qualitys , which might move it , as aether ; so it hath such as serv to found and fix it , which are therefore called the bases therof , and pillars of the earth ; whence it is also by others rightly termed bruta tellus . thus , as i have shewed , it is the most dens of all bodys , and consequently most grave ; and therefore possesseth the center of the world , to which it is united , as to another thing , by its own gravity ; wherefore as the universal center is immobile , otherwise it should not be such a center , so the gravity of the earth doth indissolubly unite it thereunto , unless there can be assigned any other body in nature more grave then it , which might extrude it . again , as by its own gravity it is thus united to the center , so by its own consistence it doth unite all its parts together , whereby they will not , nor cannot , move in the whole , as motes in water : and though it should be supposed to have more consistent parts one way then another , yet becaus they are all consistent , they do not flow every way to fill the sphere , but all weigh perpendicularly downward upon the same center , without any fluctuation , trepidation , or inclination any other way . and to keep it from being moved in the whole about the center any way , it hath magnetical virtue to fix it in one determinate polar position , north and south ; so that it can neither be moved out of its place , nor in its place , but is wholy immobile . and becaus this magnetical virtue of the earth is the only colorable caus offered to prove it motive , ( and so the planets are also said to be magnets , and both confounded together , which are most different in nature ) i shall now more largely disprove that assertion , and thereby plainly prove the earth not to move . i have granted the earth to be magnetical , and i do also grant the aether to be planetary ; and shall observ a wonderfull analogy between them ; that is , that the poles of the earth do so correspond with the poles of the aether , that if the magnetical axis of the earth were produced , it would intersect the poles of the ae●her , so as it should seem to move round upon , and about them ; for so the poles of the earth are north and south , and the motion of the aether east and west ; but though both earth and aether have their axis , poles , aequator , and meridian , and the rest , not only mathematicaly , but physicaly , as i shall shew heerafter , yet they are not univocal , as some suppose , becaus they have the same names , but equivocal in nature , and physicaly different ; for the earth hath them all for fixation and rest , and the aether to direct the motion therof , as i shall now shew . i suppose , we all agree , that the verticity of a magnet is a motion from pole to pole , that is , from north to south , or from south to north , meridionaly according to the magnetike axis therof , and not from east to west , or from west to east , about the axis , and according to the aequator therof ; and also , that if the earth did move diurnaly , it must move from east to west , or west to east , becaus it is so illuminated . now i say , that no magnet doth , or can so move , but only from north to south , or from south to north , as may be tried by any magnet , or terrella , which hath verticity : wherefore they greatly err who affirm any such motion of the earth , or of any magnet about its axis ; for indeed , if it should so move about its axis , according to the aequator , it could not also move from pole to pole , according to the meridian , as i shall also shew heerafter . nor did the antients so express the earth to move about its axis , but circa medium , or about its center ; which yet , as i have shewed , it cannot do diurnaly , becaus that motion is according to the aequator . again , verticity which is the only motion of one and the same magnet by itself is not circular , but only from pole to pole semicircularly ; and concursion of one magnet to another is not circular , but directly progressive ; and therefore it may not be imagined , that the earth , or planets , do so magneticaly move one about another , as i shall shew heerafter . and though the verticity of the earth be potentialy in it , yet it never is , nor shall be actual ; for unless it could be moved from its polar position , there is no need nor use therof : and such potentialitys , though they be never reduced into act ▪ are not vain , becaus they are hypothetical , and first suppose a violence , which nature abhorreth : and so superaether , as it is matter , hath motion as well as all other bodys potentialy , but never actualy : and so the whole earth hath also gravity , and the like . and as i have now disproved this pretended motion of the earth , by the magnetical virtue therof , so i know no other caus assigned of such a rapid motion therof as must be supposed , that is , about fifteen miles every minute diurnaly , and almost fifty annualy ; and the d●stance between our accesses , and recesses to , or from the fixed starrs , should be about eight millions of miles ( which is a large stride ) and yet we perceiv no difference therof , as we do of mars , who is placed in the fifth sphere . nor is there any difference of a bullet shott from a gun east , or west , as there should be very consyderably according to this common calculation , and so of a bullet drop'd from a a steeple : but they say , the bullet also is a terrella , and moves with the motion of the earth ; and would prove it by the fallacious experiment of an arrow shot upright from a ship sailing , and falling down again in the same place : but then if the steeple also were removed , as much as the ship saileth , the bullet dropped from it should follow it , which certeinly is not according to the motion of the earth , or terrella : and therefore to defend this they have invented another wors absurdity : that there is , i know not what , magical line of motion still continuing and interceding between the mover and moved , after the impression past , and contact discontinued : but neither doth the arrow flying spin any such corporeal thread or line , like a spider ; nor the archer shooting emitt any such spiritual radius , like emanant heat , which may so direct the motion . certeinly a parthian , who shoots flying , or a ship sailing , do not draw back the arrow or bullet after them ; nor will stones so fall into the hand of a boy playing at checkstone , without any answerable motion therof , whereby to catch them . neither is there any such magnetical stake reaching from the subcortical earth , through the cortex , water , and air , and , as some say , to the moon ; for magnetical virtue hath no such long or strong orb , like light , or heat ; as no particular magnet , or terrella , doth eradiate like a candle , or spark of fire . or if it should , yet it could not move magneticaly any other body , that is not magnetical , or indeed that is not consistent ; as a stake in a pond cannot direct the motion of the water in it , or air above it ; becaus they are fluid and not consistent . certeinly birds in the air , though more consistent , are not magnetical ; and though a bullet of iron be consistent , and magnetical , potentialy , yet if it be not so actualy , the former experiments will be the same , as if it were ; and if it have the magnetical virtue therof actualy excited in itself , then it is a terrella in itself , and consequently , if the earth , which is the great magnet , move round , so should every such terrella , which it doth not , as may be tried by any such round bullet , or magnet , placed upon its axis in the most exact aequilibrium : wheras every part of water , severed from the element therof , is water , having all the propertys therof ; and so should every such magnet be a terrella , as indeed they call it , having all the magnetical propertys therof : and some magnetical doctors do therefore affirm , very falsly , that a terrella so placed will move round like the earth ; who thereby , very truly , acknowledg this consequence ; that if the earth so move , the terrella must also so move ; wherefore since the terrella doth not so move , neither doth the earth so move : and though a bullet flying when it is shot from a gun , by that violent motion , doth also move round , as i have formerly shewed from another reason ; yet that may be any other way as well as the same way with the supposed motion of the earth ; and the bullet drop'd from a steeple , and so falling downward , by a natural motion , doth not , as i suppose , move round , or not the same way with the supposed motion of the earth . thus every less magnet , not being one and the same with the earth , but individualy such in itself , and having its own poles , axis , center , and aequator , as well as the earth , ( as may appear if it be laid east and west , in which position it will a long time retein its own polarity , not only different , but advers to the polarity of the earth , which is north and south ) by its own immobility doth also sensibly prove the immobility of the earth . and yet we must believ all the motions therof , which some philosophers very confidently suppose , and vehemently impose upon us , maugre all our own faith , reason , and sens ; becaus they tell us scripture is popular , reason ancipitous , and sens fallacious ; and so all other men must be governed only by the magistery of their fansys , which , whatsoever it may be to themselvs , is certeinly no more to others then they can prove by scripture , reason , and sens ; in which there is no fallacy , but only in our apprehensions , which are indeed our infirmitys , and ought to be rectified and corrected by other right ratiocinations and sensations , and not by other imaginations . thus wheras i have granted that supposing the earth to move constantly and equaly , though never so swiftly , if we were also carried on it , we should not feel it to move ; becaus we our selvs do not move , and yet i say , that our bodys , being also in the air , should feel themselvs moved against the air , though never so calm , but especialy when the wind bloweth the other way against the pretended motion of the earth , which certeinly could not be insensible ; but , as i rather suppose , intolerable ; if their imagination did not also summove the air for us , by supposing both water and air to be parts of the great magnet , the earth ; which is as contrary to all sens as the other : this insensibility or deception of sens ought to be rectified by other right sensations , and not by such other imaginations and insensibilitys . again , according to the very analogy of deception , as the sens senseth falsly in one case , so it doth likewise in all like cases , becaus there is the same reason therof : and now also i will examin the supposed motion of the earth according to this analogy of that deception , which they so strongly urge for it , and i shall only change that vers ( which is their usual tex ) accordingly provehimur terra , coelum stellaque recedunt : and so as a man in a ship sailing by the shore seems to see the earth and towns to move , which do not , and doth not feel himself to be moved , as indeed he is , if he were so moved by the motion of the earth , which must be two hundred times more swiftly then any ship doth sail , he should seem to see the moon and planets to move visibly , which he doth not : and though against this is objected the greater distance of the moon and starrs● yet that is recompensed by their greater magnitude , which renders them visible proportionably according to the distance ; and by the farr greater and swifter motion : and so let the man in the ship sailing with full sail , though against the pretended motion of the earth , behold the moon and starrs transversly , and observ whether they do not seem to move , otherwise then when he standeth on the earth , or when the ship , wherin he is , doth not sail . there is one who saith that both the earth and also the aether do move ; becaus , as he supposeth , while one moveth from the other , the other also moveth from it ; and so that it is all one and the same , whether we affirm the earth or aether to move ; whereby he can solv this very phaenomenon of their motion either way , which i have already re●uted ; and i know none besides himself that did ever maintein it ; but generaly others affirm the earth to move , and aether not to move ; becaus they suppose all the consequent phaenomena may be solved either way : who if they can find out any error , which they think is tenible , though it be not truth , they affect and embrace it rather then truth , and can pleas themselvs in amusing the world therewith , which is a very falsarious and disingenuous humor , and more proper to juglers and impost●rs then philosophers . and becaus i scarcely know any opinion wherin they more exercise this art , then this of the motion of the earth , as i have already disproved it , so i shall also heerafter prove the motion of the aether and sun , and therin shew how all the phaenomena can only be solved thereby ; and shall now proceed to refute that other grand error , which is indeed more fundamental and universal , that is , their doctrine of matter and motion . wherefore having discoursed of the terraqueous globe , i shall review it , and consyder whether only matter and motion could produce the spirits and spiritual qualitys therof ; certeinly not moisture , which is the same whether the water be stagnant , or fluent ; nor drines which is generaly consistent , and so of the rest ( which to prosecute particularly were supervacaneous ) but i will now only alter the scene , and transfer it from air and aether to water ; and suppose it to be tepid , that is , partly hott , and partly cold , and also luminous , as it is diaphanous , and we will admitt it sonorous and saporous , and if you pleas , odorous ; besides moisture , and the other simple qualitys therof ; all which may be in the same instant per omnia puncta of the water : and if all these which are so specificaly different in their own nature , could be only so many several motions of the same matter , and we might microscopicaly behold them , we should see a most strange moorish dance , not only of every dancing corpuscle , but , even in every joint and point therof , so many several different and advers ways as must be assigned to make all their several natures specifical , and individual , simple , and compound , which is indeed impossible , and so ridiculous , as needeth no farther refutation . again , once more we will alter the scene from water to earth ; which becaus i have affirmed to be immovable in the whole body of the matter therof , and also the spirits and spiritual qualitys therof to be least active , i will likewise inquire into one thing more , which i doubt our new philosophers had forgott , and that is , whether as motion in others , so also rest in the matter of earth may not produce the spirit and spiritual qualitys therof , as drines , and others ? which though they be indeed less active then others , yet they are active and motive in themselvs : and so consistence though it be most like the rest of matter , yet hath a strength and center therof , very different from that of the matter , which also of itself is fluid , as i have shewed : and magnetike virtue , though it affect polar rest , yet hath also an intrinsecal motion of verticity in itself to restore it unto it . nor can all the terreous qualitys be only less active motions of the matter , becaus they are all in the same instant per omnia puncta in the same matter , and cannot be so made severaly by one and the same motion of the matter , nor can there be so many several motions therof together , whether more or less active ; wheras all the terreous qualitys may be actualy together in the same matter , as i have before sufficiently declared of all the other elements , and their spirits and spiritual qualitys ; and i now shall conclude , that even elementary spirits and q●alitys are somwhat more , and other , then either mater and motion , or matter and rest. x. as matter is subordinate to the elementary spirits , which do immediately consubstantiate it , so are they with the matter to vegetative spirits , as i have shewed in the scale of nature : and so vegetatives were not produced untill the elements were all perfected , becaus vegetatives require an elementary mistion of them all , and indeed , a proper mistion therof , which every spirit ordereth and governeth , both as subordinate and subservient to itself ; but they are not governed by the special influence of any planet or starr , as the rabbins say , there is not a starr in heaven which doth not point to an herb on earth , and bid it grow ; for as the globe of light in the first day sufficed to make day and night , so also the heat therof was sufficient for vegetation ; as may plainly appear , in that vegetatives were produced before the sun , moon , or starrs , ( and so also metalls , though others ascribe the production therof to planets ) which yet are more particularly inservient and beneficial to them ; as they do also more particularly vary days and nights , and all the seasons of the year . but vegetatives were , and still are produced out of the earth , or terraqueous globe , as it is moistned with water ; for the earth is the region both of vegetatives , and sensitives , and also of man : and so it is said , the earth brought forth grass , &c. and it is observed that the first produxit is of vegetatives ; for the elements which immediately consubstantiate the matter were not produced , but so created in , and with it , in the begining , whereby they were then denominated heavens and earth , and so are inseparably united unto it , though they were afterward perfected in their mistions , and production of their qualitys thereby , as i have shewed ; and so there is no produxit of planets , becaus they also are elementary : wheras , though vegetative spirits were created in the begining , as it is said , god made every plant of the field before it was in the earth , and every herb before it grew ; yet they were only latent in their elements , and not produced , before the elements were perfected in their mistions and qualitys ; which was previous and requisite to their production , as they also were to the production of sensitives , as i shall shew heerafter : and though vegetatives are of a farr higher and more excellent nature then elements , yet they were created in this same third day , wherin earth and water were perfected , and were pregnant and parturient of them , and they ready to be produced , to shew the continuation of the work of creation by god , who never rested untill the last instant of the sixth day , as i shall shew heerafter , and also the combination of the superior natures with the inferior ; as man also was created in the same last day with beasts : yet neither could the elements so perfected , ( and much less matter ) so produce them , nor they produce themselvs , as the earth now brings them forth , and they generate others , untill god said , let the earth bring forth grass , &c. or as it is originaly , germinet germen ; which imports another way of special production , then the mistion of elements , that is , by germination or growing out of the earth , so as no elementary mista are brought forth , and therefore plainly stones , metalls , minerals , and the like , do not vegetate ; for they are neither grass , herbs , nor trees , nor of any such kind , but only elementary composita , and classicaly inferior to vegetatives ( and so also are the planets and starrs , as i shall shew heerafter ) nor are they of any midle nature between elementary and vegetative , becaus there are no such participia in the scale of nature ; and though elementary spirits are so farr forth plastical , as to superinduce a requisite density or rarity in their bodys of matter , and some regular figuration , as orbicular , and sometimes perhaps angular ; yet they do not organise them , and make such members , and joints , and the whole compages therof , as the bodys of vegetatives certeinly ; they have no vegetative nutrition , augmentation , and generation , though they may seem to grow by accretion , as fire doth generate fire univocaly in bodys pregnant therwith ; nor do they grow or sprout of the earth ; or as it is said , upon the earth , as germens ; but abide in their element . also vegetatives commonly grow out of them , as well as out of earth , and not only moss , and ivy , and the like , but great trees are seen to grow out of stones , rooting into them , and as i suppose , cleaving them asunder , if perhaps the seeds did not first fall into such clefts ; otherwise it is a noble instance of the predominant potentia of vegetative spirits over elementary : for the root of the tree is a farr softer body then the stone , and therefore cannot cleav it by any corporeal , but only by a spiritual power : wheras i have seen a birch grow out of an oak , and not cleav it ; which , as i suppose , was produced first by a seed falling into the crown of the oak , where was some earth , wherin it first rooted itself , and so grew to be another individual and intire tree in itself ; and not like a branch ingraffed into another tree , having one and the same common root : and wheras all vegetatives have roots , certeinly no metalls , or starrs , or the like , have any ; and stones are only poeticaly termed vive , when they are in their proper beds , but neither live , nor vegetate , any more then when they are out of them . and indeed though vegetatives do vegetate , yet they do not properly live , as i shall shew heerafter , but all their operations , though farr above elementary , are as farr below sensitive ; and are as subordinate to sensitive spirits , as elementary are to them : but as elementary are mist one with another , and composited only with the matter , so vegetatives are composited with them , and are the first kind of spirits that are composited with other spirits ; and therefore are first said to be produced , as i have shewed . and as elementary composita are variously mist among themselvs , and by their various qualitys , ( which are many more then only one first with a second quality of another element attending it , as some have very falsly supposed , in every one of them ) and by all the changes therof , in their compositions , and decompositions , as i have observed , whereby glass , stones , metalls , minerals , and such like only elementary things , are generated ; so , as i said , there are ligneous , and other elementary mista , properly subordinate unto vegetatives , and most probably some proper mistion to every species therof , as there is a proper vegetative spirit subordinate to every sensitive species : for certeinly the proper plastical virtue of any grass , herb , or tree , which doth accordingly organise and effigiate it , cannot organise and effigiate another specificaly different from it , and much less any sensitive body , which yet is so organised and effigiated by a vegetative spirit , as i shall shew heerafter : nor indeed can the proper q●alitys of one spirit subsist in another ; which to affirm , as some do , is more absurd then migration of accidents , as it is more to produce any thing originaly out of itself , then being first produced by another to receiv and entertein it into itself : nor yet hath any superior spirit eminently , as they say , in itself the proper qualitys of any inferior spirit , becaus they are proper to the other ; which though inferior , yet hath also its own proper excellencys , whereby it is known to be , and indeed is what it is ; and so vegetative spirits only do vegetate , as well as sensitive only sens , and intellective only understand . thus though there are fower elements , and no more , of which all the various elementary mista are made , yet vegetative spirits are indefinite , and so it is indefinitely said of them , that they were brought forth after their kinds ; and perhaps vegetative spirits are more various then any others , becaus they are also subordinate to every sensitive species , wheras there is only one sensitive spirit so subordinate to intellective , that is , to the spirit of man. but though the species of vegetatives are not enumerated , yet there are three genera therof mentioned , grass , herbs , and trees , if the same word germen may also signify gramen , and be not only a general name of all vegetatives , which then must be subdivided only into herbs , and trees , ( as they only are mentioned afterward to be for food of man ) but as it is often rendred grass , so i rather conceiv it in the largest sens : certeinly it is not only a tender blade , for they were all made perfect and mature ; and wheras herbs are said to have seed , and trees fruit , if there is grass also , which hath neither fruit , nor seed , i conceiv it ought so to be intended therof . yet i do not suppose mold , or the like , to be any perfect vegetatives , immediately created by god , but rather meteorical vegetative composita , and only imperfect rudiments of vegetation ; and so likewise the excrescences of vegetatives , as jews ear , sponk , agarike , and the like , which are somwhat like wens in sensitives ; as there are such anomala of any material spirits , which are generable and corruptible , though neither of matter , nor immaterial spirits , which are ingenerable and incorruptible . and thus i suppose vegetatives growing in water , as duckweed , and the like , to be anomalous ; for it is said of perfect vegetatives in their creation , let the earth bring them forth ; and so they were said to be upon the earth , and not upon the water : and as all grass hath a root , so i conceiv any vegetative which hath no root , to be anomalous . also moss , and sponge , which is a kind of seamoss , are imperfect grass ; but that which we commonly call grass , having a root , leaf , and spire of grass , is , as i suppose , the first perfect vegetative . and i shall consyder first the root , which is a bulbous substance , and hath generaly more of the vegetative virtue in it then the blade of grass , or calamus of herbs , or solid trunk of a tree , being also esculent and medicinal ; and is in itself the mouth of vegetatives sett downward in the earth , wheras the mouths of sensitives are upward , and not fixed to their element , but more discontinued , becaus sensitive spirits are not so united to the matter as vegetative , nor vegetative as elementary . also though the root be the mouth , and partly as the stomach of vegetatives , yet the upper parts of plants above the earth do likewise perform the concoction , as may appear by a cion , which doth over-rule the stock heerin ; and the concoction in the root is for nourishment of itself , and perhaps preparatory for the upper parts , as that of the oak is for ivy , or mistleto ; for properly plants have no stomach , or such a common coquine , as sensitives ; though as they have a more special and proper elementary mistion which they order and govern for themselves , as i said , so consequently a radical heat , moisture , and those other q●alitys , with a certein proportion and acme therof , to which they grow up , and then decay again , as well as sensitives ▪ but these seem not to be so powerfull and operative in themselvs , as the vital heat , and the like , in sensitives , and are much assisted by external heat , and the like , and therefore grow most in hotter and moister weather : and this woodmen observ in their situation to the sun and winds , and notably in cutting wood in the spring , that as the air is more hott , or cold , and the wind changeth from south to north , the sap will rise and fall again , as water in a weatherglass : but it riseth in hotter , and falleth in colder weather , and not contrarily , as it doth in the weatherglass , becaus it is not ruled by any such expansion , and elastical potentia , as i have shewed of the open weatherglass , but only by rarefaction of the juyce itself , which plainly causeth it to ascend through the pores or cavitys of the plant , like vapor in the air : nor are the inward parts of vegetatives so actualy hott , as of sensitives , whose concoction is generaly best performed , when the ambient air is more cold , and not as of vegetatives , when it is more hott . yet the upper parts of plants seem also to attract by their heat , though not so much as sensitives . it is a curiosity much affected to make equivocal plants and fruits , which cannot be so well effected as in sensitives , whose seeds are fluid , and more easily mist ; though i conceiv the most probable way to be by some unition of their seeds , and especialy such as are homogeneous , or more homoeogeneous , as mules are commonly generated by the mistion of equine and asinine seeds : also it may be tried by unition of their roots , but then care must be had in slitting and dividing them ; for gardiners say there is a centrical part of the root , which if it be pricked through with a pin , it will never grow ; as there is an apex or gemma which ants bite off in seeds . the leaf or blade of grass , which is only an ornament of other plants , is the body therof above ground , and is more esculent then leavs of trees ; but both blades and leavs are generaly green , which is a most equaly mist , and therefore most gratefull and inoffensive color , and so most fitt for their common covering ; and they plainly shew , how green is mist of blew and yellow , for when the blew , which is more opacous , and subsists in the stronger juice , decays , together with it the leavs turn yellow , and fall . the next rank is of herbs , which besides leavs have a stalk to exalt and support them , interceding between the root and the leavs ; and that is generaly an hollow calamus , not so strong and ligneous as the trunks of trees , but more stramineous , and first only a blade of grass , and not any surculus , and it is commonly strengthned by joints and knotts , which also serv , as val●s , to retein the vaporous sap ascending in them ; and besides leavs they have commonly flowers ▪ and are so denominated flores . and of this kind the lowest is such grass as hath seeds and a flower , or efflorescence , as corn , before it be perfect seed ; and the seed is commonly in the flower , which is a more delicate kind of leaf , and composed of more refined and concocted sap , having also generaly more color or odor , or both ; but very rarely is green , to distinguish it from common leavs ; and hardly ever black of itself , though leavs and flowers are often made so by adustion , as when dews falling on them are adusted by a torrid heat , they turn blackish , wheras ordinary vegetation is by a more moderate tepor : and yet there are blackberrys , and such like fruits , which are first of some other color , and by an high concoction are made blackish to the sight ; but their juice doth hardly denigrate , or dy black , like perfect adustion ; as mossy wood charked will be throughly black , both in the wood , bark , and moss : the seed is of an higher nature then the flower , not only more esculent and medicinal generaly , but also conteining another individual spirit of the same species in itself , whereby the plant doth univocaly generate after its kind , as i have shewed . the third sort is of all other perfect vegetatives , which are neither of the others ; and they are described to be ligneous , as the original word imports , that is , arboreous ; and though some of them , as vines , brambles , and the like , be less ligneous , and need other trees to support them , yet themselvs also are trees , according to this general distribution of plants , and we do not call them herbs ; as terrene reptiles are beasts , and not fishes . and all trees grow up first from softer sur●uli , which af●erward may become so firm , that they are not only ligneous , but seem almost to be saxeous , as lignum vita , ebony , brasile wood , and the like trees of a more strong and terreous juice . i have seen oaken wood digged out of the sea beach ( where formerly the tree had grown , and was overthrown and overwhelmed by inundations , after long lying in the salt juice therof ) as hard and firm as the beforementioned . corall also , which is a frutex of the rocks , is very hard , when it is out of the water ; and perhaps not so very tender under it as is commonly reported ; though when the thick juice therof is desiccated , it is most lapideous . and i suppose some such cold and gross juice is the caus of petrification ; not so much by conglaciation , as by reduction of a fitt juice in the body therof to such a consistence ; and plainly stones of fruits are so denominated from their almost saxeous hardnes . whereby they become such caskets for seeds , which are natures gemms ; and yet we cannot conceiv their induration to be any conglaciation , but rather desiccation ; for earth and water are most congenerous elements , and as they are composed into one terraqueous globe , so they have a greater intermistion : and as metalls may become fluid by fusion , so may these succi be indurated and fixed by drines and consistence ; though as heat is assistant in the one , so may cold be in the other . but trunks of trees , though not hollow as stalks of herbs , have their porous passages through which the sap doth ascend , and commonly by the most spongy part therof , that is , the pith , which is formed by the bubbling and spumeous vapor ascending in it , and is fixed by degrees ; as may be seen by birds quills , which have litle bladders left in the cavitys therof , though their pith is more constipated in the feather . and there is observed to be some such hollownes in hairs ; and both feathers and hairs are vegetatives , though subordinate parts of sensitive bodys ; and yet they have neither seed , nor root properly , becaus they are not properly individuals in themselvs , but parts of others ; and so they are analogous to leavs and flowers , and of as beautifull and more strong colors , and many of them perfectly black. also the sap doth not only ascend through the pith , but notably between the wood and the bark ; and in the ascent is concocted into wood every year , as may appear by the circles therof very visibly in more sappy trees , as willow , ash , birch , and the like , whereby , knowing the several years growth therof , you may compute the gain or loss , according to the proportion of the majority of the latter circles , and interest of the yearly rents precedent : and the sap may also rise between these circles , and through the very pores of the wood , as bloud in sensitive bodys may transudat● through the flesh ; for the tree will sprout , and shoot forth , every where ; and hollow trees without any pith may bear fruit : and indeed the bark or skin , which is outward , is more requisite to the vegetation of the tree , then the pith or medulla , which is inward : and as it will hardly live , as they term it , without a bark , so if that be bound , it will not thrive , which therefore is cured by cutting : for , as i said , vegetative spirits in plants being much assisted by the temperature of external qualitys ( as also by internal in animals ) are as easily hurt by the distemperature therof , from which the bark servs to defend it ; and as it so defends the body of the tree , it thereby suffers much weather-beating and adustion in itself , which makes it so rugous and harsh . and becaus the external heat draws the sap outward , as well as upward , therefore the pith is commonly insipid , but the bark very strong and stiptike , as may appear by tan ; and so is the wood itself more then pith , as appears by the salivous oil of oaken wood which issueth out at the ends in burning , and is very astringent and desiccating : so also the rinds of some fruits , as orenges , lemons , citrons , and the like , are very spirituous and sapid ; but then that pith , which is next to them , is very insipid . there is another character of trees , which is their fruit ; not particularly of every kind of them , for all are not frugiferous , but generaly , becaus most of them are such , and others which are not so , yet being ligneous , and otherwise like unto them ( and so not to be accounted herbs , or grass ) are therefore also trees : and they are generaly thus described , becaus this was the chief end of vegetatives , to be food for sensitives ; and the fruits are most esculent , wherin also , as in flowers of herbs , the seeds of trees are conteined more immediately , as it is so said , whose seed is in it . all plants grow out of the earth perpendicularly , and so the earth doth nourish them : and thus all grounds bear only according to the plane or levell therof , and not according to any convex or concave superficies : as a park may be impaled with as few pales , though the ground be rising and indented , as if it were plain and poll ; becaus all the pales stand perpendicularly , though it require more rail proportionably , becaus the rail runs horizontaly according to the superficies , and yet we thus measure and purchase lands , which bring forth the other way . and heer i shall observ , that wheras it is said , the earth brought forth grass , and herb yielding seed after his kind , and the tree yielding fruit , whose seed was in itself , god in these six days made them and all other things in their acme of perfection , as well as adam in his adult state , and so every way good ; for thus vegetatives were made not only complete in themselves , but pregnant with their seeds , and ready to propagate others ; and to this individual perfection of vegetatives and sensitives was added the divine benediction , increas and multiply ; according to the kind specificaly : and so god having sett in order original generation by improper creation , as i have shewed , transmitted it to the successive generations of nature . and wheras it is a common problem whether any poisonous vegetatives , or otherwise noxious , as briars , and thorns , were before the fall and curs ? i suppose by analogy of nature , that as then , though there could be no elementary qualitys actualy existing in their extremitys , yet they were very intens and predominant in their own elementary bodys ; as the q●alitys of fire in aether , and of water in the sea , which might destroy sensitive animals , if they should be localy in them ; wheras they were so ordered , that they were very gratefull and usefull to them ; so also that ●here were vegetatives in the same excessive degrees of qualitys , as now , which we therefore call poisons in respect to animals , though they be indeed eminences of nature in themselvs ; and so also briars , and thorns , and such others , as are no anomalous but perfect plants : but i suppose that animals were preserved from poisons by a natural abhorrence , and discretion , having all their most exact senses , and bodily temperaments , which would not accept of any other food then what was suitable therunto ; and so they might also avoid briars , and thorns , and the like , as they pleased ; whose berrys are also food for fowls : but i also suppose that there was no such excessive quantity therof , as since ; and that this was the import of that curs of the earth , thorns and thistles it shall bring forth : that is , wheras before of itself it brought forth abundantly all sorts of vegetative food for man and beasts , and such poisonous herbs , and noxious plants , as rarely as it doth now good fruits ; so then vice versa it should bring forth abundantly weeds , thorns , and thistles , and the like . thus i have briefly and generaly discoursed of vegetatives , as before of the fower elements , according to this divine history , which is an universal system of the world , both in the proper and improper creation therof : nor do i intend any particular historys of them , as solomon spake of them all , from the ceder of lebanon to the hysop that is on the wall . but heer , before i conclude , i shall again desire any who will rightly consyder the nature of vegetatives , to try whether they also may be made only by matter and motion , without their own proper plastical spirits , which the earth did bring forth ; and as i have observed the fower elements were before perfected and prepared in order therunto , without which the matter alone , as so consydered in itself ( though indeed it can never be without the consubstantiation of elementary or the superaethereal spirit ) hath no automatous motion of itself , nor , when it is dislocated , any other then to union and station , as i have shewed , which is only to recover its due rest and position ; and therefore certeinly it cannot also move from rest , which is naturaly contrary therunto , ( as verticity is to polar position , and therefore cannot be from it ) nor hath it any such plastical virtue of itself which may guide the motions therof , but would be only equidens and orbicular ; wheras plastical formation of all vegetative bodys , and much more of the bodys of sensitives , is constantly so symmetrical organical and curious according to every kind , and species , and the successive propagation therof , and they so very various and different , that he who will not believ divine authority , nor natural reason heerin , may satisfy himself by his own sensation , and making use of his microscope inspect the most admirable structure and mechanism of the least vegetative , or sensitive , which is composed farr otherwise , and beyond the most admired workmanship of any bezaleel , daedalus , apelles , or ar●hytas , and all the mechanical borcherys of art ( which yet is all that some will allow to nature itself ) and when he shall have consydered the most exact and mathematical conformitys of the one , and enormitys of the other ( which also shews that mathematical exactnes is not , nor cannot be , of common use ) he may easily judg with himself , that since the intellective spirit of the most ingenious man cannot effect the like , certeinly it must either still be immediately digitus dei , and so deny this whole history of creation in the six days , and all the works of god therin , whereby he did sett in order the cours of nature , and consequently deny all created nature ; or otherwise acknowledg it to be the continual succession of the same natural causalitys , which also lead us back again to the acknowledgment and adoration of the supernatural creator , who is the only author and institutor therof . xi . wherefore let us prais the great creator of heaven and earth , as for the aethereal , so also for the aereal heaven , and for the water , and the earth . and heer we must sing his praises in consort for them all together , as it is once said of them all , that they were good ; though they be in themselvs several elements , and were perfected in two several days . nor is the goodnes of vegetatives , which is another classis of creatures , though also perfected in the last of these two days , pronounced of them , which were before declared good ; but becaus these three inferior elements , air , water , and earth , being separated from the aether by the rapid motion , and circumvolution therof about them , and more conjunct among themselvs , were not perfected one without the other ; and the water ( which is the midle element , and contributed to the perfection both of the air , and of the earth , by ascending in vapors into the air , and descending itself into the canales and p●res of the earth ) was no● perfected untill this last day ; nor in that alone , but in both these two days ; therefore this proclamation of their goodnes and perfection was reserved for the consummation of the whole work of both the days , and then relatively to be distributed to all the three elements , which were so perfected therin : and so they now continue to be severaly , and also mutualy good. and the aether , which was before made good in itself , yet had not been . good to others without the goodnes of the air ; whose refrigerating cold doth temper the vehement heat , and refracting pellucidity the lucidity of all the aethereal luminarys ; whereby not only as a common thorough-fare , but also as a cooperator therin , it both adapts and conveys the aethereal blessings of rays above , and also the spirituous vapors of the waters beneath ( which as an al●mbic , it distills and refunds ) to the terraqueous globe . nor is it only thus concurrent with aether , and water , and the influences therof , but hath in itself the ventos of winds , both to cool and purify the atmosphere , and all the organs of those admirable sounds , which it doth propagate continualy and successively , and which as so many cursores or swift messengers make their reports through the whole sphere therof , and all the surface of the earth : and so is made to be the cymbal of nature , which with its inchanting musike ravisheth or affrighteth , all sensitive spirits ; and whereby men discours and convers one with another , and in sacred hymns render their gratefull praises of the whole creation to the divine creator : also the atmosphere therof is the very breath and life of animals . neither doth the more dens water intercept all the benefits of aether , and air , but partly transmitt them to the earth , which it contempers with its own moisture , and is as the bloud circulating through the veins and arterys therof by constant reciprocations ; conveying nutriment to all the cortical body therof , being both the inexhaustible fountain of drink to all sensitives , and also conditing their meats with most gratefull sapors , and perfuming them with varietys of most delicate odors . and though both these elements of air , and water , seem very weak and infirm , in comparison of the rapid aether , and robust earth ; yet being provoked and armed to execute divine revenge , they so mutualy assist and fortify one another , with unusual and unexpected rage , that conflagrations , and earthquakes , do not much exceed their furious herricans , and violent inundations . the earth , though last and lowest of all the elements , is not only their most dens and consistent fulciment , and center of their situation , but also of all their offices and services circumferentialy tending unto it ; being the foundation of the whole univers , and another orb in itself , and epitome of the great globe ; wherof all the rest are only concave spheres , having only some particular orbs in themselvs ; and on which all those luminous orbs cast their smiling aspects , and the sun illustrateth all the other luminarys , that so they together with himself may give light unto it : which the nimble air fanneth and refrigerateth with the wings of wind , and watereth the great garden therof with d●ws and rains : and the officious water runeth up and down to wash the face of the dusty cortex , and to bath and supple all the limbs therof ; and also floweth forward and backward to carry and recarry the greatest burdens from shore to shore . thus all the other more active elements , as so many circumsistent servitors , in their several courses and orders , minister unto earth ; which sitting still and resting in itself receiveth all their homages and tributes , not moving , nor being moved with all their disorders and confusions ; but founded on the solid base of its own density and gravity , and strengthned by its own consistence , and fixed by its own polarity doth also by its other q●alitys fix all the more subtile and volatile elementary spirits . which covereth its own nakednes with the daedalous embroidery of leavs and flowers , and enricheth itself , not only with the stock of all the hid treasures of jewells , metalls , and minerals ; but also with all the rents and revenues of annual fruits and profits both producing and mainteining all vegetatives , and the chief of sensitive animals , yea , man himself , whose body is also formed of the congenerous dust ; and so the earth , which is given to the children of men , is the stage of this great amphitheater of the world , wherin all the present affairs therof are transacted ; and as all the other elements are now subservient therunto , so heerafter also the superaether , or heaven of heavens , shall be the everlasting mansion of blessed souls . and now again let us tune our praises to an higher note , and bless god for the creation of vegetatives , grass , herbs , and trees : and let us contemplate their several kinds , and virtues , which yet are innumerable and unknown to us ; their curious formations , and oeconomical administrations ; the careless comlines of their leavs , and beautys of their flowers ; the general conformity of their greennes to our sight , and the delightfull varietys of all their other colors : how wonderfully they compose , nourish , and augment their own bodys , and generate others ; and having neither sens , nor intellect in themselvs , yet by their own innate plastical virtues perform such works , as no sens , or intellect , can imitate , or sufficiently admire . the microscopical perfection wherof doth exactly correspond with the most critical sens , and organical usefulnes with the most political intellect . and as god in the begining immediately created the heavens and the eart● , and the great building of the whole world , so they mediately build all the domicils , and officines , of their own , and all superior bodys , as the architects therof , and vulcans of all their organs and instruments : and are themselvs , together with the subordinate elements and matter , the immediate bodys of all sensitive spirits , wherin they reside , and operate : and both dress and digest for them all their nutriment , wherof a great part is of the same vegetative nature , which affordeth not only salads for delight , but solid food for strongest animals , horses , bulls , and the great behemoth ; furnishing also mans table with wine , that maketh glad the heart of man , and oil to make his face to shine , and bread which strengthneth mans heart . renewing the annual fruits of the earth as fast as all the animals can devour them ; which in mans better state were his sole diet , and since he tasted of their only forbidden fruit , are his physick , or natures tree of life for healing of the nations . section x. and god said , let there be lights in the firmament of heaven , to divide the day from the night . and let them be for signes , and for seasons , and for days , and for years . and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth . and it was so . and god made two great lights , the greater light to rule the day , and the lesser light to rule the night . he made the starrs also . and god sett them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth , and to rule ober the day , and over the night , and to divide the light from the darknes . and god saw that it was good. and the evening and the morning were the fourth day . explication . god having in the first day made the light , and by it one hemisphere of the aether more luminous then the other , and thereby day and night artificial in that first day natural , which did accordingly succeed in the two following days ; now in this fourth day did more particularly distinguish them by the several luminarys , which he made therin for that purpose , and also for signfications of times , and seasons , months , and years , and all the variations therof . and he made two chief lights , the sun to rule the day , and the moon to rule the night . also he severaly made all the starrs according to their several natures ; and so sett all these heavenly luminarys in their several positions in the aether , to run their several courses therin , and thereby to illuminate the earth , and to make all the said divisions and distinctions of time , which was their goodnes and perfection . and these were the works of the fourth day . illustration . . of the aethereal lumina●ys . . of the sun. . of the moon . . of the starrs . . of comets . . of the goodnes of the works of the fourth day . i. we now proceed to discours of the second part of creation ; wherin , when god had before perfected and prepared all the ●ower elements , and planted the earth , which was the last , with vegetatives , which he produced out of it , he began now to introduce into them all their more locomotive inhabitants : and to shew the connexion of both these two parts of creation , it is again said of the first created light , sit , or fiat luminaria , wherunto , as i suppose , the singular number doth referr , and that it must be so understood , lux fiat luminaria , for it is afterward sint or fiant pluraly . and i also observ , that wheras it is said of all the other days works , when they were finished and perfected , generaly , god saw that it was good ; it is said of that first created light more particularly , god saw the light that it was good ; though also afterward in the same day he divided the light from the darkness : but as i have before observed of the three inferior elements , air , water , and earth , that it is not said , god saw that it was good , untill they were all perfected , and the whole work finished ; so though day and night artificial were made generaly by the division of the light from the darknes in the first day natural , yet becaus they were also to be more particularly distinguished by the luminarys , and to be so ruled by the two great lights expressly made for that purpose , that is , the sun to rule the day , and the moon to rule the night , therefore the goodnes is not pronounced of day and night in the first day , but in this fourth day , wherin the whole perfection therof was consummated : so accurately exact is god the author of nature , and scripture , both in his operation , and expressions . and though the common light , and day and night thereby , in aether , and the ascent of vapors in air , and eduction of earth above the waters , and madefaction therof by them , was sufficient for the product●on of vegetatives , which therupon were immediately produced , as i have shewed ; yet before the introduction of fishes and fowls into the water , and air ; and beasts and man into earth ; it was requisite that the aether , which sensitive animals only can behold , and by the ligh● therof all other spectable things , should be made perfect and complete , and adorned with all the various luminarys , 〈◊〉 in their various positions , and runing their several courses , and so ordered and disposed as might best serv both for the sensation of sensitive animals , and contemplation of intellective man. and though these luminarys were made after vegetatives , yet they are not therefore vegetative , or of a superior nature above vegetatives , as vegetatives are above all that were made before them , and as man the chief of all was made last ; for though indeed this order is observed in each of the parts of the creation ; and so the creatures made in the last were respectively more excell ent , then they which were made in the first part therof ; yet the luminarys , which were made in the first of the last three days , are much inferior to vegetatives , which were made in the last of the three first days ; for they are elementary , and of the elementary classis , though chief composita of the chief element , aether : but all elements and elementary things are classicaly below vegetatives ; and though planets have locomotion out of their places , which vegetatives have not , but only in their places , being all rooted in the earth ; yet locomotion is also in the matter , when it is dislocated , and indeed no material spirit can so elevate their bodys and caus them to ascend , as matter doth necessarily to union , and to prevent v●cu●ty , as i have shewed : and much less are the planets sensitive , or intellective in themselv● , or any such deitys or daemons , as the idolatry of heathens made them ▪ and their philosophy durst not contradict ; nor yet moved by intelligences or angels , as the rabbins and scholemen suppose : for they can be only external movers therof , wheras planets move by their own natural power , and intrinsecal virtue , like the verticity of magnets , and are not moved like studds fixed in solid spheres , as i have proved , and as the eccentrical motions of the planets therin do thereby plainly disprove ; and therefore others affirm them to be magnets , and the earth , which is the great magnet , to be a planet ; but certeinly aether and earth are two different elements , having different elementary spirits , wherin the same qualitys cannot subsist , as i have shewed ; and so the aether cannot be magnetical , nor the earth planetary , unles we can also make the aether to be terrestrial , and the earth aethereal ; wheras heaven and earth are generaly contradistinguished in the begining , and particularly aether and earth were made two several elements in two several days : and aether being , as i have shewed , fluid , cannot possibly be magnetical , which requires a very solid consistence ; certeinly the whole aether , which is a concave sphere , cannot be so magnetical as earth , which is an orbicular globe ; for it cannot have an axis , and consequently magnetical poles ; as if a ring of iron be touched with a loadstone , it will have only one pole : and though the aethereal planets be orbs , yet they also are fluid : and sensibly all aethereal motions are circular and perpetual ; wheras magnetical verticity is only polar , or to a pole , and not round about the center , nor about an axis , like motion of planets , but to the poles therof , when by trepidation it passeth beyond them ; and so moving its own axis the same way , that is , meridionaly , and not according to the aequator of its own body , as i have shewed : wheras if earth , and water , and air , as they say , and also aether , and the planets , were all magnetical , they should make one magnetical orb , and all move one and the same way ; which plainly they do not : or if otherwise one be moved about another , as they say the moon is about the earth , it should observ the magnetike law , which it doth not , as i shall heerafter demonstrate of the moon . thus the magnetical planetary motions are very different , and indeed opposite in their very natures , and ends ; for planetary virtue makes the planets to abhorr all rest , and magnetical verticity is to reduce magnets to their polar rest. wherefore we may not confound them , though they are both elementary motions , and not only motions of the matter , or only by the pondus therof , as the flux and reflux of water ; nor by impuls , like winds in the air , wherof i have formerly discoursed ; nor yet any vegetative , sensitive , or intellective motions , wherof i shall discours heerafter : as indeed all things are motive or mobile one way or other within the whole globe of the world , and the circumferential superaether , and centrical earth are only immobile : and as we are sensibly satisfied concerning magnetical verticity , so thereby we may conceiv of these other planetary virtues , which god produced in this fourth day in the planets , as he did before the magnetical virtue in the earth and magnets . whereby also it plainly appears that motion is not only of the matter , but also that elementary spirits may have a motive and directive power in themselvs , as well as any other superior spirits ; and from their different kinds and ways of motion we may collect the very different motive powers and virtues of the several movers : wherof matter is most general , and only tending unto a state of rest in the whole body therof , and center of itself ; wheras magnets have a more particular position of their bodys , which is polar rest , north and south , and a verticity particularly to reduce them to it ; and planets have their several and various positions , and courses , and an answerable planetary virtue , which so setts them , and moves them , and makes them to abhorr all rest , and vegetative spirits are more plastical , but involuntary , and sensitive spontaneous or voluntary movers , and more indifferent either to motion or rest. and thus as magnetical bodys may move from pole to pole semicircularly by their magnetical verticity , so we may very well conceiv how also planets may move circularly , which is only a continuation of motion through the whole circle , whereby also they may so move perpetualy ; and as the needle doth leap to the loadstone by the magnetical virtue actuated in itself , which motion is progressively locomotive , so may also planets by their planetary virtue , which is always actual in them , move progressively in the circles which they describe ; but though the magnetical virtue which setts the magnetical body in one determinate polar position may be removed , as i have shewed , and pass from that part of the magnet wherin it now seats itself , and which thereby becomes polar , unto any other part therof , and so render that polar , as may be sensibly seen in any terrella , ( whereby it is plainly proved that the magnetical virtue is a spiritual quality , which can so remove itself from any part of the body of the matter to another , and not any fixed affection of the matter itself ) yet planetary virtue , being seated in the whole orbicular body of the planet , doth not , nor can it , so remove itself ; becaus it always possesseth the whole body , not polarly , or ovaly , but orbicularly ; or at least it is therefore not to be discerned so to vary its own situation in the planetary body . now , as god in the first day did actuate that proper aethereal virtue , which also may be termed planetary , causing it thereby to move about the inferior globe from east to west in fower and twenty hours or therabout , whereby he made day and night , which could not otherwise be , without such a circumgyration of the aether , and of the globe of light therin , as now the aether doth still move with all the planets and starrs in it , ( whose planetary virtue is diversified into several other motions , which yet are all only planetary motion genericaly ; as if , wheras the polar position of the magnetike earth is only north and south , god should have diversified it in other magnets or terrellae , and made some east and west , and so to any other points ) so it is also said that in this fourth day he made lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night ; that is , to caus more particular variations therof , longer , or shorter , sooner , or later , and the like ; which must be by their planetary virtues actuated in them , whereby they move respectively in the aether , as the aether doth about the inferior globe ; and so they were not only for days , but also for years , months , and the like , which , though more or less then the solar year , are the respective years of their particular planets , lunar , jovial , or the like , as we commonly call them . and so god made not only the two great lights to rule the day and the night , ( that is , the sun and moon as both scripture and nature do declare ) but it is said , he made the starrs also . and god sett them in the firmament of heaven , so as to perform these several offices by all their various courses . thus i conceiv that the aether having the planetary virtue therof actuated in it in the first day , when god said , let there be light , a great part of that aethereal light was divided from the common light of aether , which was left and still is in the whole body therof , though not so visible to us ; and that globe of light , as it was generaly connatural with the aethereal light , being in one hemispere of aether , was carried about diurnaly by it and with it , and not any other way by any special planetary virtue in itself , which was not actuated before this fourth day ; but that this common globe of light so divided , and wherof we have no other account , was the chaos of the potentialitys of all the planetary virtues , which were afterward educed out of it ; and that then they were not only moved in and with the common aether diurnaly , but by their own special planetary virtues predominant in them , and directing every one of them to move according to their several courses ; for though locomotive virtue be common to aether , and all aethereal bodys , yet the motion of aether from east to west diurnaly was by a proper planetary virtue , as i have said , actuated in it , when god so divided it from that globe of light ( which is eminently called light and made day ; and so mutualy that globe of light ) from the rest of the aether , and aethereal light , ( which is comparatively called darknes , becaus it made only night , as i have shewed ) and so this particular chaos of all the planetary potentiality● being so divided from the common aether , and not having any planetary virtue actuated therin , was carried about in and with the common aether in the three first days ; and then it was again divided into all the particular planets , and all their particular planetary virtues were respectively actuated therin , and by those special planetary virtues they perform all their several planetary motions and courses . nor is it less wonderfull , if we rightly consyder it , how they move in their several zodiaks ; being indeed no such gemmeous studds , or bullae , fixed in the aether , as some have imagined ; for both the aether , and they also , being aethereal bodys , are fluid ; nor do they fly , or swim therin , by any spontaneous power , like fowls in the air , and fishes in the sea , becaus they are not spontaneous : but they are all aetheruli , as i may so term them ; and so their original globe of light was only such a particular portion of the common body of aether , not differing from the rest , but only as it was more lucid ; for so it is said of the formation therof , that god divided the light from the darknes , in the aether , but not any part of the aether from the light ; or the light from it : nor is the body of the sun , or any planet , more condensated , as i have shewed ; though they shall heerafter sink through the fluid aether to the air and earth at the last day , when they shall be discomposed and disordered , wheras now they are connaturaly adapted to the aethereal heaven : and so it is said of the light ; fiat luminaria in expanso , and they are all equaly expanded in it ; but their light is farr more conspissated , as it was in their original globus : and yet such conspissation of a spiritual quality doth not make the lucid body to be more dens or grave , which also proves light not to be corporeal , but a spiritual quality , as i have said : and indeed , as all heat doth naturaly rarefy , so should they be rather made more rare and light thereby , but that aethereal bodys are already as rare as any elementary power can make them to be ; and yet though we may easily conceiv them , being equirare with the common body of aether , to be poised therin , as glass bubbles in water : it is also to be consydered , why , or how , they should still move in their regular circularitys , and not to be diverted or removed , as such glass bubbles may very easily be : and we have the true account heerof in the text , posuit , he sett them so at first , and so they are still continued , not by an immediate manutenence ; as he doth not move them by an immediate manuduction , but by the same planetary virtue actuated in them , and causing them naturaly so to move in their own zodiaks . now becaus , as i have observed , there is no produxit of any of these planets , as there was before of vegetatives , and afterward of sensitives ; and indeed , becaus there was such a globe of light decided before from the aether , which was the common chaos of them all , and wherof they were so many particular decisions , i conceiv that they were so many several composita made therof , whereby they are all thus different , and several one from another , as they are all from the planetary aether , ( as it is said god divided between their light and the other aethereal light ) and that every one of them is a specificaly different compositum in itself : and that every individual planet is such a phoenix in its kind , that it is also a whole species in itself : wherefore it is said that god particularly made , not only the two great lights , but the starrs also , and so it is said , there is one glory of the sun , and another of the moon , and another glory of the starrs ; for one starr differeth from another starr in glory . and therefore their creation is thus specialy mentioned , and was the whole work of this fourth day , and so i conceiv , there are no such aethereal compositae , as stones , metalls , minerals , are terrestrial composita , and wherof no such special creation is mentioned , as i have observed ; but neither that there is a simple spirit of every one of them , created in the begining by a proper creation . and i conceiv that these vast individua , which are also so many species in themselvs , made immediately by god , as i said , can neither be naturaly diminished , nor multiplied , as comets , which are anomalous , may be : for so the starrs are said to be for ever , and it is said of god their creator and preserver , he telleth the number of the starrs , he calleth them all by their names , though supernaturaly and miraculously he may compose a new starr , as probably that which appeared at our saviours birth was such an extraordinary starr , and so is specialy called , his starr ; which yet did not continue , but , after it had performed the end for which it was made , was again dissolved : for otherwise the ordinances of heaven , which are said to be unchangeable , should be changed , and the constellations therof disordered . and though the starrs be every one such a several species , yet there is also a combination of them all generaly , as they are all one host , and of some more specialy , which are called constellations , and are not only such in name , but also described to be such in nature : so wheras it is heer said , that god made the greater light , that is , the sun , to rule the day , and the less , that is , the moon , to rule the night , the psalmist saith , to him that made great lights , &c. the sun to rule by day , &c. the moon and starrs to rule by night , &c. where he divideth the moon and all the starrs , as a separate constellation from the sun alone , and attributeth unto them their several offices to rule by day , and by night ; for though all the starrs do not attend the moon every night , yet they do by turns ; and therefore she alone is said to rule the night , becaus she doth so every night , more or less : and though , as i said , the common aethereal light divided from the whole globe of light , ( which was the stellant light , and wherof the planets and starrs were all made afterward ) did make the first night , as that globe of light did the first day ; and that nocturnal light is therefore called darknes comparatively , which had neither moon nor starr in it , yet in order to sensitives , who need more nocturnal light , the moon and starrs , or a great part of them , were added in this fourth day , to rule the night ; whereof therefore there is also such an additional expression , to rule over the day , and over the night , and to divide the light from the darknes . thus also more specialy there are said to be courses of the starrs , and many of their constellations particularly named , and their cooperations denoted , canst thou bind the sweet influences of pleiades , or loos the bonds of orion ? canst thou bring forth mazzaroth in his season ? or , canst thou guide arcturus with his sons ? now wheras some have curiously inquired in what time of the year the world was created ; which the poets fansy to have been in the spring , becaus that indeed is the time of renovation ; and the rabbins in the autumn , becaus then all fruits , and the like , are in their perfection , as they were first created ; certeinly neither of their computations can be true of the very first creation in the begining , for then there was no year , nor any commencement therof ; but only day and night generaly in the three first days ; and in the fourth day , the planets were made for days , and for years ; and then they must also calculate their computation for the meridian of paradise ; otherwise , when it was spring in one part of the earth , it was autumn in the other ; as it is now to us and our antipodes . but such is our human vanity , that we will curiously pry into those things , which god hath thought fitt to concele , and yet not acquiesce in those things , which he hath pleased to revele . ii. in the history of the creation of the planets and starrs it is farther said of them , that god sett them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth . wherefore certeinly they are all lucid , not only as all aether is in itself , but so as to give light upon the earth , otherwise they could not so give light upon it ; and so certeinly the earth is not lucid in itself , otherwise it should not need to be illuminated by these heavenly luminarys . thus as the apostle saith , there are bodys celestial , and bodys terrestrial ; but the glory of the celestial is one , and the glory of the terrestrial is another ; and so neither are the planets any magnets , nor the earth a planet , but , as several elementary natures , they differ genericaly , and have their several generical glorys , that is , their different goodness described and expressed in the history of their creation , severaly in several days : and which also evidently appeareth in nature , as may satisfy any , except such who being confounded in their own understandings can also confound heaven and earth , which differ farr more and otherwise then the aether and planets differ one from another ; for they are bodys terrestrial , and bodys celestial , wheras these are all genericaly bodys celestial , though they also specificaly differ one from another in glory : and of all these celestial bodys the sun is incomparably most glorious ; who , as i observed , alone is opposed to the moon and all the starrs , and also preferred before them all ; for they with his solar illustrations and secundary light only make night in the backside of the earth , which is but as the shadow of his diurnal presence , and therefore is still called , darknes : and so he is said to rule by day , and they to rule by night . whose darting rays penetrate through all the spectable world , and are bounded only by the two common bounds of nature , superaether , and earth ; and in all the elementary world there is nihil simile , aut secundum . wherefore heathen generaly worshiped him as a god , who yet in the scale of nature is farr inferior to the vegetative deitys of egypt : but they who place him in the center of the world , and fasten him to it , though otherwise they almost idolise him , yet heerby they even deprive him of that true glory which god and scripture ascribe unto him : and therefore , as i promised , and becaus it is so pertinacious a controversy , i shall now again prove the earth not to move about the sun , but the sun and aether about the earth ; and that the glory of the celestial bodys is to move about the terrestrial , and to bestow their influences upon them , and of the terrestrial to rest , and receiv all their benefits . thus the text saith expressly , god made the luminarys to give light upon the earth , whereby they rule day and night , and all the seasons ; and therefore they are called ordinances of heaven , and not of the earth ; as god saith , knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? canst thou sett the dominion therof on the earth ? now where the rule and dominion is , there is also the motion and action , whereby it is exercised ; and so thereby the planets are said to divide the light from the darknes , which the earth should rather do , if it did move about the sun , and the sun should only minister , and as it were hold a candle to the earth moving about it : and it is also said in the first day , that god himself so divided the light from the darknes before sun or moon were made , and thereby made day and night : and as the sun doth now divide the diurnal light from the nocturnal darknes by his light , so doth the moon divide the nocturnal darknes from the diurnal light by her light , and so she was made to rule the night , as well as the sun to rule the day ; which certeinly she doth by her motion about the earth , and therefore so doth also the sun by his motion about the earth : wherefore ioshua , who was the disciple and next successor of our divine philosopher moses , saith sun stand thou still upon gibeon , and thou moon in the vally of ajalon . which conjunction of sun and moon had been very incongruous , if the sun did not move as well as the moon diurnaly , as he doth also annualy , and she menstrualy ; but ioshua should rather have said , earth and moon stand still , or only sun stand thou still ; for so he had spoke either properly and truly , or popularly , as they term it , that is , falsly : wheras it is most absurd to conceiv him to speak both properly and popularly , truly and falsly , at the same time , and in the same words . and wheras they say this was only popular speaking , they thereby do acknowledg that mankind was antiently of this opinion before pythagoras , leucippus , and other graecian wits fansied the contrary , and therefore propounded it as their novell invention ; though i am not satisfied that they affirmed any more then the diurnal motion of the earth about its own center , to save , as they supposed , the vast aether so great a labor ; but i conceiv that they allowed the sun also to move annualy , aswell as the moon menstrualy : wheras our new philosophers ( whose inventions are only additions , and their additions some greater absurditys ) will move the earth , not only diurnaly , but also annualy ; which is both contrary to reason and sens , as i shall shew heerafter , and also most contradictory to scripture , the authority wherof no christian should contemn , much less oppose ; and that saith expressly , the sun stood still , and the moon staid : and though it is true , that the sun doth not move diurnaly by his own planetary virtue , as he doth about his axis , and annualy ; but is carried about by the diurnal motion of the aether , which so moves by its own planetary virtue , as i have shewed ; yet even so the sun moves together with the aether diurnaly ; for motion being , as i said , only a transition from place to place , though the sun doth not so change his place in the aether by the diurnal motion therof , yet he doth in and with the aether thereby change his place in the whole body of the world , and consequently move ; as rare bodys do move localy in ascending upward , though they are moved virtualy by the elevation of more dens bodys , as i have shewed : and so also the sun , and moon , and starrs , and aether itself , staid in all their motions , according to the context . so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven , and hasted not to go down about a whole day ; whereby , as siracides interpreteth it , one day was as long as two : and afterward the whole chorus of heaven proceeded to move again according to all the several motions therof , as it did before : and certeinly the other is maledicta expositio quae corrumpit textum , and destroieth the very literal meaning of such an historical and memorable matter of fact : and though i hope such interpreters of scripture may be true believers of matters of faith , yet the wild liberty of such interpretations doth so farr render scripture no scripture , by an acknowledgment only of the letter , which they dare not deny , and yet by denying the sens , which they will not admitt . wherefore plainly i will proceed to deal with them as i would with heathen , or any others , that is , by reason and sens : now , wheras they affirm three motions of the earth , i will accordingly examin them , and first clearly explain them , becaus i doubt they are not sufficiently understood ; nor indeed the very doctrine of motion generaly ; which some make only to be remotion or distancing of one body from another , and so confound the motion of one body with the rest of others , as i formerly observed ; and others confound opposite motions from east to west , and from west to east ; and generaly all confound locomotive action and passion , which are very different , that is , one a moving , and the other a being moved , as i said , the sun moveth actively in his annual motion , and passively in his diurnal motion ; and though both these be only motions or transitions in themselvs , yet clearly one is an active motion , and the other a passive motion ; which though they may not differ as motions , yet do so differ as they are active or passive ; and as they confound motions , so also the terms of barocenter and center , and poles , axis , and aequator , and the like , as i have shewed , which are aequivocal names according to the several natures of the things wherof they are expressed ; for so they may be either only mathematical , as all these may be painted and described on any globe of wood , or stone , or the like , indifferently , becaus there are no such things physicaly in the bodys therof ; or also physical , either in terrestrial bodys , as magnets , wherin the magnetical virtue doth caus them all to be physicaly to fix the magnetical body accordingly in one determinate polar position ; or in celestial bodys , as planets , wherin the planetary virtue doth caus them also to be physicaly to move the planetary body accordingly in such a determinate cours , as i have formerly shewed , and shall now upon this occasion clearly discover ; whereby we may no longer confound ourselvs with such confused notions concerning things which are so different and distinct in their own natures , and whereby the truth itself shall evidently appear . and i shall make the body of any man himself to be the diagramm , and suppose him to throw a bowl from him , certeinly while the bowl moveth from him he doth not move from the bowl , becaus he standeth still in the same place and at the same distance from the jack or mark , toward which the bowl runeth , and which doth not stay in the same place where it was , and so certeinly if the sun move about the earth , the earth doth not move about it . again , i will suppose his right hand to be east , and his left west , and his face before , and his back behind ; and so let him throw the bowl with his right hand forward , or before his face , toward his left hand ; this , as i have supposed , is as a motion from east to west : but if he be an ehud , or scaevola , let him throw the bowl with his left hand forward , or before his face , toward his right hand , and then this , as i have supposed , will be motion from west to east , which certeinly is an opposite motion to the other ; for so if two several bowls were thrown at the same time by two several men , as before , in the same line , they would meet and oppose one another : but if the first right-handed man , after he had thrown the bowl from his right hand before his face to his left hand , should with his left hand proceed to throw it behind his back to his right hand again ; though this be from left to right , yet it is still from east to west , and not opposite to the former motion ; becaus that was before the face , and this is behind the back , and so only a continuation of the former motion , and the circle that it describes : and if two several men should in the same line so throw one bowl before his face to his left hand , and another behind his back to his right hand , yet they should never meet , nor oppose , but follow one another : and so the sun moveth about the earth from east to west , and not from west to east , but diurnaly . b●t now we will also suppose the earth moving about the sun to be as the bowl , or a globe , and to have correspondent points described on it , wherof the east shall be india , the west spain , the forepart aethiopia , and the backpart guiana , according to such their position and illumination by the sun , which as we supposed before , to be as the bowl , so now we will suppose to be as the body ; and we all know , and agree , that the earth is daily illuminated in india before it is illuminated in aethiopia , and in aethiopia before spain , and in spain before guiana , and so from east to west : wherefore india , or the east part of the earth , being next to the sun , whereby it m●y be illuminated , we must also suppose the sun illuminating it to be west , becaus it is opposite to it ; and then the earth being in the same position in itself ( as certeinly it must be , whether it move about the sun , or the sun about it ) that is , having aethiopia as its forepart , and gu●ana its backpart , as before , and without any inversion of the poles , or making aethiopia , which was the forepart , to be the back-part , and guiana , which was the backpart , to be the forepart , it must move itself diurnaly from west to east , that is from a west point of the vbi of the sun toward an east point therof , whereby aethiopia being the forepart must be next illuminated , as before , and not guiana . thus also in the annual motion of the sun about the earth , it moves in the zodiak from aries to cancer ▪ and from cancer to libra , and from libra to capricorn ; or from west to east , that is , from spain , or the west point of the earth , toward the east , by aethiopia ; and not by guiana , which is from east to west , as i have shewed : now , if we suppose the earth , as the bowl , to move about the sun , as the body annualy , and the sun to be in the center , and the earth in the z●d●ak , keeping the same position as before , that is , having aethiopia as the forepart , and guiana as the backpart , we must suppose an east point in the vbi of the sun , opposite to spain , or the west point in the earth , and then the earth must move from that east point to the west , whereby aethiopia may be next opposite to the sun , and not guiana ; for as east is relatively opposite to west , and west to east , so the correspondent points of the sun and earth must be relatively east and west , and opposite one to another ; and so consequently must their motions be relatively opposite : and however we may call east west , or west east , or that which is relatively east in respect of one body , may be west in respect of another , yet in the same respect it cannot be both east and west ; nor the same motion in the same respect both from east to west , and from west to east ; but as such , they must necessarily be different and opposite . thus by fixing fower such correspondent points in the body or ubi of a globe or circle , we may fix our apprehensions of the position , or motion therof . and though thus farr i acknowledg that the phaenomena generaly may be solved , if either we should suppose the sun to move about the earth from west to east , or the earth about the sun from east to west diurnaly , supposing also aethiopia to be the backpart , and guiana to be forepart , which are as different and opposite positions one way , as east and west are the other way ; yet certeinly the particular phaenomenon of that position cannot be solved both ways , becaus it is only one way , and not the other : for though we may call the forepart the backpart , or the backpart the forepart , or they may be so in other relative respects , ( which plainly proves place to be such a relative position , as i have shewed ) yet they cannot be so in one and the same respect : wheras certeinly the real position of each of the bodys of the sun and earth , whatsoever it be , is one and the same , and not different and opposite to itself ; but the position of one is relatively different and opposite to the position of the other : and so consequently are there motions . thus also i grant , that though the sun , which , i say , moves from west to east annualy about the earth , should realy move about it from east to west without any supposed variation of the position therof , whereby the sun , proceeding from libra to cancer , should first illuminate india , or the east , and next aethiopia , or the forepart , and not guiana , or the backpart , yet the phaenomena generaly might be thereby solved , and there should be the like aequinoxes , solstices , and all other intermediate illuminations , throughout the year , in all the earth ; but this particular phaenomenon can not be solved thereby ; for since we know that india is first illuminated , and guiana next annualy , by the sun passing from spain to aethiopia , and so to india and guiana , india cannot be first illuminated , and aethiopia next ; becaus such different and opposite ways of illumination cannot be without different and opposite motions of the illuminator , that is , of the sun about the earth ; and such different and opposite motions cannot be at the same time in the same bo●y of the sun , and in the same relative respect to the body of the earth . and so it may be , though we suppose the earth to move annualy about the sun one way or other . thus wheras it is said , that whether the sun move about the earth , or the earth about the sun one way or other , the phaenomena will be the same , it is true generaly of such as are relatively the same one way or other , ( as it is so in all such relations ) but not of such particular phaenomena in themselvs positively , which must be only such as they are , and cannot be otherwise . but this i only premise , and do not insist upon either of these two motions diurnal , or annual ; becaus , as we do affirm two active motions in the sun , that is , one about his own axis , and the other in his zodiak or circle which he describes , and which is his annual motion ; and though indeed the other be not his own diurnal motion actively , but the motion of the aether , yet we cannot deny , that it may be supposed that there are two such motions in the earth , which therin may be annual and diurnal actively ; and both these motions must be supposed , becaus though the sun cannot illuminate the globe of the earth standing still , and only by turning about his own axis , but must be moved about by the aether diurnaly ; nor otherwise then by describing a circle about it annualy ; yet the globe of the earth may be illuminated by the motion of the earth itself about its own center toward the sun standing still ; but the great criterion , as i conceiv , is , that wheras only two motions are ascribed to the sun , and a third to the aether , which is another body moving also the sun in and with itself , whether the earth alone can have all these three motions in itself , as it must have to solv the phaenomenon of the very motion therof . and now i shall first prove this third motion to be necessary , and afterward to be both absurd , and impossible ; lest having shewed the absurdity and impossibility any may afterward deny or doubt the necessity therof . and heer again i shall make himself that denieth or doubteth it to be the diagramm ; and let him place a terrestrial globe , how he pleaseth , on one of his hands , supposing it to turn round also of itself about , according to its own aequator , like the supposed diurnal motion therof with either pole toward his body , as if the earth were in cancer , or capricorn , and suppose his body to be the sun , and so let him turn his hand with the globe on it from the right part of his body toward the left , or from east to west , like the supposed annual motion of the earth in the zodiak therof , without any third motion to incline the poles one way or other ; and then the same pole therof , which was inward or next to the body , or s●n , will still be so , and it will not be varied by either of the other two motions ; and so only that hemisphere , whether arctike , or antarctike , should be illuminated , both diurnaly , and annualy , and not the other at any time , which is manifestly fals : wherefore to solv this there must necessarily be a third motion supposed to incline it , which i shall therefore call inclinatory ; and which he may also add to the other two , by turning the pole that is toward his body with his other hand , ( while he turneth the globe , as before , from right to left , or from east to west , ) equaly the other way , that is , from left to right , or from west to east , according to the meridian of the globe ; which though the same way from west to east , is another motion , annualy , and not diurnaly ; nor according to the aequator therof , like the supposed diurnal motion , and opposite to the annual motion ; and by this third inclinatory motion the other pole will also be turned toward the body or sun , and consequently the other hemisphere also illuminated , but without such inclination the phaenomena cannot be solved . and now i shall shew the absurdity of such a supposed third motion of the earth , if it were possible in nature . we all agree that the earth is magnetical , or that like every magnet , or terrella it hath two poles or polar points , exactly north and south , without any the least inclination or variation in themselvs , either toward east , or west ; and nothing els can make the earth , which is the great magnet so to incline or vary from the polarity therof , which is according to its own natural position ; though less magnets may be inclined or varied by greater , or by being fixed in a contrary position . now as these two polar points must be correspondent to two such points in the body of the superaether , if that be immovable , as we suppose , or in the vbi therof , in the position of the whole , though the parts may move round therin ; so also to two like points in the aether , which , if the axis of the earth were produced beyond the poles therof through the aether to the utmost circumference of the globe of the world , it must intersect , and so terminate in two such points in the utmost superficies of the superaether : though these two points or poles of the superaether may be only mathematical ; and however some deny that there are two such physical points or poles of aether to direct the motion therof , as i have shewed , yet generaly it is conceived that there is some physical correspondence between them , and the poles of the earth ; and therefore some assigne the influence therof , or of some northstarr about the north pole , to be the caus of the polarity of the earth ; and others ascribe it to some northern and southern atoms , flowing and reflowing thence forward and backward , i know not how ; and every astronomer tells us that there are such poles , axis , and aequator of the aether . all which opinions , whether true or fals , presuppose such poles or points in the aether , and that they some way or other correspond with the poles of the earth , which this hypothesis of the inclinatory motion of the earth doth deny , and suppose only a northern and southern hemisphere of the aether , to which the respective poles in the earth may point and correspond in every part and point therof , according to such an inclinatory motion ; whereby if an axis were produced beyond the poles of the earth to the aethereal hemispheres , each pole so produced would vary through all the sixteen points or more of each hemisphere ; as a directory needle doth , when it is moved violently from north to south , vary each of the poles therof through the sixteen points or more of each side of the compass : but as the terrella or needle doth not naturaly so vary in the least maner from the north and south points , wherin only it resteth , so it is most absurd to affirm that the whole magnetical earth doth so vary , or hath any other position then exactly north and south : for , as i have before shewed , though the body of a magnet may indeed be so varied , and that part which was northern become southern , by the magnetical virtue removing in it ; yet the magnetical virtue itself is alway and only polar , that is , exactly north and south , and cannot be otherwise , for then it should ceas to be magnetical , which must also be polar naturaly : and the magnetical virtue of the great magnet the earth is inalterable by any greater power in nature , which might remove it , as appears by the inclinatory needle , which alway conformably inclines to the same two points of the body of the earth , which are also the two poles of the magnetical virtue therof . but now i shall prove this inclinatory motion of the earth to be inconsistent with the diurnal motion therof , and therefore impossible : for it is about its own center according to the meridian of its own body , as the other is also about its own center according to the aequator of its own body ; which two motions of the same body at the same time are inconsistent , and consequently impossible . i have already shewed how a body at the same time may move about its own . axis according to the parts , and also progressively according to the whole ; as a cart-wheel moveth runing down a hill ; or any planet moving about its own axis , and also progressively in the circle that it describes : and so also the motion therof about its axis may be one way , as from east to west , and the progressive motion the other way , as from west to east ; as suppose an undershot wheel runing down a declive chanel of water , which shall also carry it about its own axis one way , while it runs down the other way : and so the handle of a q●ern may be moved progressively one way , and yet directed or inclined about its own axis the other way , or a turbo , or top , sett up by the right hand drawing back the scutica , or slash , wound about it , is turned about its own axis back again from the left hand to the right hand ; and yet it may be also whip'd progressively from the right hand to the left hand : and the satellites about a principal planet do describe hemitrochoids , as i may so term them , whereby it most evidently appears , that they are not , nor can they possibly be so moved by the spheres , for it is not only by a circular , but a progressive motion ; so as if while by the axis a quernstone were drawn forward circularly , by the handle it should be also moved round about the axis ; the handle would describe such an hemitrochoid about the axis . also i grant that three , or more , several motions may be in the same body at the same time , by several movers : as suppose a ship sailing round , and describing a circle zodiacaly , like the annual motion of the earth ; and a globe moving in the ship about its own axis according to the aequator therof , like the diurnal motion of the earth ; and a fly moving upon the globe according to the meridian therof , like the inclinatory motion therof ; the fly doth not only so move upon the globe , but is also moved by the globe according to the motion therof , and the globe , and consequently the fly , by the ship according to the motion therof : and so there may be in the same body at the same time as many several motions as you pleas ; for the body doth not move itself actively according to all these motions , but is also moved passively by others ; which is as great a difference , as there is between action and passion , as i have shewed . now , though i grant , that there may be an active motion of the body itself according to the parts about its own axis , and according to the whole progressively , either in a direct , or circular progression , yet i deny that the same body at the same time can actively move itself any more then these two several ways ; as that while it moves about its center one way , it can also move about its center any other way , or that while it moves progressively , according to any line , direct , or circular , one way , it can move progressively according to any other line another way : which plainly is as impossible , as that the same body at the same time should be in several places ; for so indeed it must be , either according to the parts , if it could so move about its center , for then the same part must be in or upon several points at the same time ; or according to the whole , if it could so move progressively ; for then the whole must be in or upon several lines at the same time : and it may be tried by a round bullet of iron or lead marked with the two poles , and an aequator , and meridian , and then place it on a declive bord on either of the poles , and it will run round according to the meridian , from pole to pole , by the gravity therof ; but if by the prepotence of your hand you sett it up like a top according to the aequator , with one pole on the bord , as before , yet it will not run round , as before , according to the meridian from pole to pole , but slide down turning round according to the aequator only upon that one pole , becaus it cannot move both ways at the same time , though it doth move about its axis according to the aequator by the impressed motion , and progressively downward by the gravity at the same time ; but as it cannot then possibly move progressively any other way then downward , or in or upon any other line at the same time then as it doth then move : so neither can it move about its axis any other then one and the same way that it doth move at the same time . and so , as i have shewed , though there may be supposed a diurnal motion of the earth about its own center according to the aequator , and an annual motion progressively in the zodiak or circle that it describes , yet there cannot also be a third inclinatory motion about the center according to the meridian ; becaus there cannot be two motions about several axes therof according to the meridian and aequator , or about the center of itself , as i said : especialy since the diurnal motion of the earth must be about the axis according to the aequator , and the inclinatory about the center according to the meridian , not only thus severaly , but one diurnaly , and the other annualy , as i have said ; ( whereby it should move both slower and faster about its own cen●er at the same time , which is impossible , otherwise then by an epicyclicous motion , as i shewed in a quern ) and that this is an amechanon , i appeal to any mechanike , or to any who shall mechanicaly try , to make a terrestrial globe so to move the three several supposed ways , or indeed any two several ways about any two several axes of its own body at the same time ( as certeinly none can move by two several progressive motions at the same time ) without several movers , as is aforesaid : so that though all the relative phaenomena of aether or earth may be solved by the motion of either of them , yet the three supposed motions of the earth itself cannot be solved : wheras the motion of the sun about his axis , and also progressively in the zodiak annualy , and his being moved and carried about diurnaly by the aether , which is another mover ; and so of venus and mercury moving about him , as any other satellites about other planets , progressively , and being also moved and carried about diurnaly with him by the aether , are easily solved primo intuitu , and according to the plainnes and facility of nature , without such inconceivable , and impossible , inclining , and distorting of the earth or their brains , as others have vainly done , and can never approve , unless they also find out some other mover to carry about the earth , as the aether doth the sun ; which certeinly may not be the aether , becaus they affirm it to be immovable ; nor the air , nor water , which have no such diurnal motions themselvs . wherefore though scripture , and the verdict of all mankind generaly besides themselvs , were sufficient to turn the balance and determin against such an hypothesis , wherof they can never be satisfied , that it is so , but only suppose that it may be so ; yet consydering that i have to deal with such empirical philosophers , who make sens alone to be both their text and topikes , i have doubly and thus largely proved it against them that it is not , nor cannot be so ; and though this last ratiocination be also a sensation , or a mathematical and mechanical demonstration , yet i shall add one sensible experiment more , which is agreed by all , and that is the motion of the sun about its own axis by his own planetary power ; whereby it plainly appears to be actively motive in itself , and as a wheel that may be moved round by another passively , may by the same passive motion be also moved progressively , ( and so all coaches and carts are moved or drawn by beasts ) so the sun may , and doth , by the same planetary virtue , whereby he moveth himself about his axis , move also progressively in the zodiak ( though not in like maner , or by such proportionable circumvolutions ) by his own motive power , which apparently he hath in himself : and so the moon also moveth about the earth , and the satellites about a principal planet , and other planets about the sun ; which plainly shews that these aetheruli are motive , and so indeed are all the rest , and aether itself ; wheras magnets , or terrellae , as i have shewed , though they have verticity , yet cannot thereby move once round about their center , nor at all about their magnetical axes ; and though they have a magnetical concursion , yet one of them cannot thereby move once round about the other , by the magnetical virtue of one or both of them . wherefore the earth is only a magne● , which cannot move round by its own magnetical virtue , and the aether , and aetheruli , planets , which do so move round by such several motions perpetualy : and therefore we ought to ascribe these motions to aether , and not to earth ; becaus the motion of either may solv the phaenomen● ; and most sensibly and confessedly the aetheruli are so motive , and the terrellae are not ; and so the motion of the aether and aetheruli doth sufficiently solv them without any motion of the earth : and wheras others would therefore ascribe motion to the earth , becaus the motion of that alone may suffice without the several motions of all the aether , and so many aetheruli , they plainly contradict the text ( which saith , god sett them in the firmanent of heaven to give light upon the earth , ( that is , that both the firmament of heaven , and all the luminarys therin , thus by moving about this one terraqueous globe , might give light upon it by their rays passing through the diaphanous air unto it , as so many lines from the circumference to the center ) and also the reason of their very nature , which is most motive of all the elementary bodys , and likewise sens itself , which discovers them to be mobile . others suppose the earth should be more mobile , becaus it is less then most of the luminarys , ( which i believ was the first occasion of this error ) but they consyder not also , that it hath the least motive virtue , which in the aethereal bodys is more proportionable to their bulk ; and so the sun is fitly compared to a strong man , or giant , runing his race , which he can do more swiftly then the dull and dwarfish earth . but their grand argument , and that which they esteem their most beautifull helena , ( though it be as fals and adulterine ) is the orderly and circumferential situation of the planets in their spheres about the sun as the center ; wherof they make the earth to be one : but heer again the moon doth break the chorus ; becaus she moves about the earth , and not about the sun , as the rest , and so the sun with them also about the earth ; and therefore it is said , that god made these two great lights , to rule the day and night upon the earth ( as they principaly so move about the earth , and all others about the sun ) and they ; and all the others , were sett by him in such posit●ons , and to run such courses , whereby they might be most serviceable to the earth : nor are there any such several spheres in the aether , as i have shewed ; but the true spheres of the elementary globe are most orderly and circumferentialy situated about the terraqueous globe ▪ as the center of them all ; without any eccentricitys , epicyclicitys , hemitrochoids , or the like : and so the air doth encompass it , and the aether the air , and the superaether the aether : and thus spheres properly and most conformably relate to their inmost orb , and not all , or any one orb in the aether to the orb of the earth : for so one orb doth not relate unto another , nor can convex orbs so comply , as concave spheres , with any orb ; nor can they otherwise be centers either of gravity , or extension , one to another ; becaus there can be but one center to which all gravia do tend , as i have shewed ; and orbs applied one to another make the greatest chasms between them in their extension . and thus there is the greatest conformity both of the situation of the elementary bodys , according to their more or less density , downward ; and of the elementary spirits therin , according to their more or less activity , upward ; wheras if the sun should be supposed to be , or have , the center of the world in himself , he must also be supposed to be the most dens and dull of all elementary bodys , who is the most glorious and active of all elementary operators : and as he , and the moon , so also all the starrs , were made to divide the day from the night , and to be for signs , and for seasons , and for days , and for years , which is accordingly performed by their due and determinate situations ; which however they may appear unto us , yet by their very various positions , yea their eccentricitys , and the like , they do so produce those varietys of seasons , and their annos saturni , iovis , and others ; and observ such orderly courses , as if we did rightly understand them , we should easily conceiv , and confess , that it would be a great monstrosity in any of them to be placed otherwise . thus the sun , who doth chiefly excell , and exceed , all the others in the two principal aethereal qualitys , heat , and light , is seated at such a distance , as doth best afford to the terraqueous globe a fi●t temperature therof , and doth move and is moved in such courses , whereby , though he be but one luminary , yet his heat is so distributed and communicated to all the globe , that there is no zone inhabitable , as was antiently supposed ; and so also his light in all the parallels therof , that in the whole year , though not every day , one hath as much of his principal light as another ; and they which are farthest from the aequator , and neerer to the pole , are also recompensed with more of his secondary light , and have longer crepusculae . iii. god made two great lights , the greater light to rule the day , and the lesser light to rule the night : that is , the sun to rule the day , and the moon to rule the night : and wheras they are said to be great lights , that is no such popular expression as some would have it ; for as it is said , so indeed they are great positively , though not greater comparatively then all the others , or so as the sun is said to be greater then the moon , nor are they termed great starrs , but great lights , or luminarys ; and so indeed they are greater then any others : and this is the very sens and meaning of the expression , according to the subject matter , which is immediately subjoined , the greater light to rule the day , and the lesser light to rule the night : and as they were all made to give light upon the earth , so certeinly these two give most light upon it , the sun by day , and the moon by night ; and to stop the mouths of all such cavillers , it is o●iginaly , not the greater and lesser lights , but the great light and the litle light ; and so indeed they are : and as they are specialy named , so their special differences from the rest are very consyderable ; not only of the sun , which are sufficiently noted and acknowledged , but also of the moon ; as her not moving about her axis , her epicyclicitys , apogaea , and the like : and though the sun is the illuminator of them all , yet he ruleth day alone by his own diurnal light ; wheras the starrs attend and assist the moon in their courses and orders while she ruleth the night by the conjunction of their nocturnal light : but that which is most notable , is her moving so often immediately and only about the earth , and never about the sun also , like others ; and it being the very end of the creation of all the luminarys to give light upon the earth , this shews her to be another principal planet in that respect , which is the chief end of them all , as well as the sun ; and so indeed the sun and moon do caus more variations , and greater effects in the earth , then all the planets and starrs besides ; yet as i deny the earth to be a planet , so i do not conceiv that the moon is any more a satelles , or appendix , of the earth ▪ then the sun ; though she doth move about it , as the satellites seem to do about their principal planets ; which is not by any magnetical emanations of the principal planets so carrying them abou● , but by their own planetary virtues so moving themselvs ; nor do they realy move about them circularly as they should , if they were so moved by them , but by such hemitrochoids which they describe , as i have shewed , while the principal planet moves in a line cutting the perpendicular therof in the midst between the basis and the zenith ; whereby they are sometimes below them , and sometimes above them , and sometimes on the one side , and sometimes on the other , and so may seem to move circularly : which is no magnetical motion , as i shall now shew ; and yet they who can solv the phaenomena by affirming whatsoever they pleas , will join not only three elements , which are the very true and real dividers and sharers of the whole elementary globe , according to their very different natures , spirits , and spiritual qualitys , and also more or less densitys of their several bodys , ( which are farr more evident and consyderable distinctions and heterogeneitys then any greater or less quantity of matter , which as such is always homogeneous ) but also the moon itself , which is a consydera●le part of the fourth element , aether , into one magnetical correspondence and combination : wherefore , as i have proved that the earth is no planet , or moon ; so i will now also prove that the moon is no magnet , or earth : and this i hope may also serv to disprove any such supposition of any of the other planets , which are of the same aethereal nature with the moon , and as different from the earth . certeinly we thus read that the earth and all the elements were made and perfected before any planets or s●arrs ; which afterward in this fourth day were made to give light upon the earth , and not the earth upon them , or any of them ; and god placed them all in their several positions about their centrical orb , the earth , and the other elementary spheres about it , before there were any positions or motions of the planets ; and he made dry land and seas in the terraqueous globe , but not in the moon , or any of them ; and so the earth , and waters , and not they , brought forth grass , herbs , and f●shes , and fowls , and beasts . and though superaether , and angels , be farther removed from us then the aether , and aetheruli ; yet we have some conusance of them , and some communion with them , declared in scripture ; but not of any inhabitants , or s●ch other things in the moon , or any other planets : so that if we will yet oppose ipse dixit to deus creavit , we must say , that not god , but man , made this world in the moon : and they who can so create in it earth , and seas , ought also to make therin vegetatives , yea sensitive , and intellective inhabitants : for since we heer on earth , where god hath founded his troop , and made his plantation both of vegetatives , and animals , have no use nor inspection therof , it must conformably have its own proper inhabitants to use and enjoy it , otherwise it should be so made in vain . again , the moon cannot be any such magnet as the earth , which appears plainly by her motions so often about the earth , without moving once about her own axis , for such are not magnetical , nor in any respect like unto ●he motion of any terrella about the earth , or needle about a terrella , which maketh two revolutions about its own axis , while it moveth once round about the other , ( like one wheel with teeth so moving about another ) whereby also the south pole therof doth alway comply with the noth pole of the other , and the north pole with the south pole of the other , and so all the other intermediate points : and if we say that the moon hath any other magnetical virtue different from that of the earth , which doth so regulate her own motions , i grant that both the moon and all the others , have such proper specifical virtues , as i have shewed , and which i genericaly call planetary ; and though others may more genericaly call them all magnetical , yet i must affirm them subalternately to differ , as i have said , and shewed that the poles , axis , and aequator , of aether do from them in the earth , though they be both so denominated equivocaly . also it is sensibly evident that the moon is not an earth , nor the earth a moon ; becaus the moon is luminous , but the earth opacous , though very much illustrated by the sun ; which becaus it is denied , and will also concern all the other starrs , therefore i more willingly undertake to prove it ; though it be only a superfoetation of the former error . it is expressly said , that god made two great lights , that is , the sun , and the moon : wherefore the moon is a light or luminary as well as the sun ; and greater or less light doth not deny , but affirm , the less to be a light as well as the greater : and so they are both termed synonymously and univocaly luminaria ; and not the sun luminare , and the moon speculare , as some men would make her to be : and so it is said generaly of them and of all the other planets , and starrs , let there be lights in the firmament of heaven ; and so indeed is the whole aether both calid and luminous , though yet less then the moon or starrs , becaus heat and light are the common aethereal qualitys , though there may be farr more in one aethereal body then another , becaus their composita are specificaly different ; but as they are all more genericaly aethereal , so they must all have their generical qualitys , without which they should not be genericaly what they are ; as well as all vegetatives , and sensitives , though they differ specificaly one from another in their s●mple substances , and so have their specificaly different spirits , and spiritual qualitys , yet must also have such as are genericaly vegetative and sensitive ; otherwise they should not be what they are , vegetatives , or sensitives : and thus indeed they make the moon to be a terrella , and not aethereal ; which they may as well affirm of the sun , and all the aetheruli , and aether itself , and so make it to be no aether . and wheras we sensibly see the moon to shine , the question is , whether she sh●ne by her own light , or only by the solar rays reflected from the earth , whereby the earth should give light upon her ? which i have before refuted : nor can it be so according to optike law , if we consyder the very great distance between the earth and moon : for though direct rays pass from the center circumferentialy to the utmost sphere of their activity , as the solar rays so illuminate the earth , and the whole opposite hemisphere ; yet reflex rays are much shorter , though very vivid and quick , becaus they are so reduplicated and conspissated , like the horns of a snail when they are touched ; and they are proportionably stronger as they are neerer to the reflecting angle or point ; as we see a candle much farther by the direct rays then any object illuminated thereby by the reflex rays therof , and the neerer we are to the object , we see it better . and so , though it is said , that the pike of teneriff may be seen at the distance of two or three degrees ( as any eminences of the earth may be seen so farr as a line drawn from the summit therof will be tangent upon the globe of the earth , and perhaps somwhat farther by the advantage of refraction , which may suffice to render an object visible about such a distance as three degrees ) ; yet at the first degree it will be seen very dull and obtuse ; and much more at the second ; and he that can see it at the third , aut videt , aut vidisse putat , — though he look upon it at sunrising or setting , when the rays are most directly reflected , or with a telescope , ( which doth magnify rather then prolong the reflected rays ) ; or though the object be of the greatest magnitude , as the alps , or apennine , or rock of lisbon , and the like ; which yet will never be seen very lucid or colorate , but confused like a cloud , or fume ; ( yea , though it be specular ) at so great a distance : wheras plainly we see the moon walking in brightnes , as it is said of her , with our naked ey , yea , her very f●gure and spotts . nor is it only by reflection of the solar rays from the moon herself , though that be neerer to the truth , being only by a single reflection , wheras the other must be double , first from the earth to the moon , and then from the moon back again to us on the earth ; wherefore to find out the mystery of so clear a phaenomenon , we must consyder the moon in her own native light , which is so great in herself , that thereby she is also visible unto us , in an eclips , in her whole disk , and that part of her disk , which is not illustrated by the sun , is visible sometimes , or with some advantages : and wheras this visibility is imputed to the secondary light of the sun , i have shewed that an object cannot be so farr seen by his principal light reflected , and much less by any secondary light. wherefore certeinly she hath some light in herself , and such as is farr greater then the common light of aether ; becaus she may be so seen thereby in the aether ; and yet this light is farr less lucid or visible then when and where she is illustrated by the principal solar light : which to explain , we must consyder , that she also is aethereal and connatural with the sun ; and so was made one of those luminarys , which were created in the firmament of heaven , and sett there to give light upon the earth , not only generaly , as all the rest of the vulgar starrs , but more specia●y and principaly , as she is so called the queen of heaven : and so we must conceiv that they all had not only their own native light produced in themselvs , but also adapted so as to colluminate together , and give light upon the earth , as it is so said of them all together , as well as particularly of the sun , to rule the day , and of the moon to rule the night : and thus they were made one general constellation , or host of heaven , wherof the sun , who was made to rule the day ( which is called light , and in respect wherof the night and all the nocturnal l●ght is comparatively termed d●rknes , not only as they were so divided and denominated in the first day , before there were any moon or starrs to rule the night , but now also again in this fourth day , wherin the luminarys were made to rule over the day , and over the night , and to divide the light from the darknes ) was made also to be fountain of light , generaly as the ocean , and the rest as rivers or streams of light ; and as all the luminarys , and constellations , have their influences , so every other planet , and starr , and the whole aether , had their own native light more or less actualy produced in themselvs ; and likewise an aptitude or potentiality of production of a greater lucidity and emanation therof , as well as of their influences , by the sun , whereby they also might give light upon the earth . and thus , as i have observed , univocal generators do most effectualy generate and produce , as heat is so said to draw forth heat ; and particularly colors , which are composed , as i said , of lucidity and opacity , though they be inherent in the colorate bodys , wherin they are so mist , and do subsist ; yet being so mist with opacity , their lucidity is thereby also so imprisoned or fixed and confined to the colorate body , that it is only actualy inherent therin , and cannot issue forth in emanan● rays , whereby it becomes visible unto us , until it be evoked , excited , and assisted , by the external light : and the more lucid the color is , as white , and the like , the more it is so produced ; as whites are best marks at a distance , and a white horse a better mark or guide in a dark night then a black ; and the more light or rays therof are cast upon any colorate object , the more are the visible species therof produced ; wheras culinary lucid bodys , which of themselvs do emitt their own rays , are not assisted , but rather have their visibility obscured by external light ; especialy if it be greater ; as a candle in the sun , and so the starrs and moon itself above the horizon before sun rising , or setting , are not so visible as afterward , as water doth quench the flame of an haystack , which it before incensed . wherefore i thus conceiv , that the native light of the moon , being not a culinary , but an aethereal light , inherent in the moon itself , is like color , yet farr more lucid , and so farr more evoked , excited , and assisted , by the solar light ; as a white color is thereby rendred more visible then black : and that the inherent light of the moon , and external light of the sun so concurring by their more connatural homogeneitys , do produce and draw forth themselvs together to so great a distance , and with so great a splendor ; and though the sun doth so produce the inherent light of the moon positively by his principal rays , when they are both above the horizon , yet the moon doth not then appear so visible and splendid , becaus comparatively she is thereby made farr less visible and splendid then he is in himself : for certeinly this lucidity cannot be only from reflection of the solar rays , whether we suppose the moon to be cortical , having earth and seas , like the terraqueous globe , which sensibly doth not reflect very farr ; or specular , which may reflect farther , becaus the rays penetrate less and more splendidly , in a fitt position to the ey , being reflected thereby more equaly ; but it must be also by some inherent light which is in the moon itself , that is so collustrated by the solar light , and by the connatural quality therof : nor is it to be imagined that the highest planets , and starrs which are at the farthest distance , and yet emitt such a splendid and vivid light , should so shine only by the reflection of the solar light. now , though there are spotts in the midle , and seeming gibbi in the circumference of the moon , ( which i rather conceiv so to appear by such intervenient spotts therin ) yet this may not be from any concavitys in the body of the moon , and the unequal reflection of the solar light thereby ; for there are spotts also in the sun , whereby his conversion about his axis is noted , and yet he shines by his own light : but i suppose them to be only less luminous parts , and such defects of their native and inherent light , as i doubt much , whether they were so created in this fourth day : and though earth which is a consistent body may have such constant eminences , and water some temporary waves , yet it hath been observed that as flame of a candle , which is somwhat more rare , is rendred pyramidal by compression of the ambient air , so if it be defended by another intermediate flame , as of spirit of wine inflamed , or the like , it will conglobate within that flame . and wheras saturn is commonly represented oval , it is said by a very curious inspector , that indeed he appears so if you behold him through a less telescope , but if through a larger , you may discern two litle aetheruli on each side of him , and very neerly distant from him , which make him so to appear when they are beheld together with him confusedly and indistinctly . though i shall not determine this , or how they might be composed and constituted by the divine creator : certeinly all the planets do not move in exact circles , but some of them describe circles indented with such hemitrochoids , as i have shewed : but it shall suffice to have proved that the moon , and consequently the starrs have their own inherent light as well as the sun , though perhaps not emanant without his coll●●tration ; and so plainly they have their several influences , and every one it s own planetary v●rtue inherent in themselvs , which moves their own bodys , becaus there are such various and several motions therof , which therefore must be caused by various and several motive virtues . the moon , as i have said , doth not move about her own axis , but she doth move very notably and rapidly in her zodiak progressively ; and , if we compute that motion according to all her revolutions , perhaps as fast as the sun ; which are the two swiftest movers progressively . and the moon , as she is neerest to us , so probably she is least calid and lucid ; wherefore her chief influence is observed to be over moisture ; not that she is moist in herself , which is a quality of water ; but as the sun doth by his heat draw up vapors , and also desiccate or concremate them , whereby they do not presently return again into water , but turn into dry exhalations , clouds , and motes , wheras more moist vapors and mists commonly rise when the sun is sett , and in the colder night ; so the moon by a more moderate and insensible tepor doth draw up more gross vapors , which presently return into dews and water , and chiefly when she is in her apogaea , ( as i have said formerly of tides which are then highest ) whereby the vapors are not drawn up so high , but the water ( which , as i have observed , doth naturaly evaporate , and again return to water ) by her less heat is less desiccated and suspended ; and so the vapors are lower , and sooner return into water again : for though internal heat in the water itself , by rarefying it , doth help evaporation , yet any greater external heat doth reduce the moisture of the vapors which it raiseth to potentiality in fume , which is prevented by the less heat of the moon ; and ●y this , or some other way unknown to us , the moon doth very notably predominate over moisture ; and thus , as heat and moisture are the chief instruments in elementary generations , wherin cold serveth to temper heat , and drines to fix moisture , so these two chief luminarys do most notably predominate over them , that is , the sun over heat , and the moon over moisture , as well as the sun doth rule the day , and the moon the night . iv. besides these two there are five other principal planets , as they are termed , to distinguish them from the other starrs , which are contrarily termed fixed ; though heer they are all comprehended under the common name of starrs , and so indeed they are in nature ; though men taking more notice of the planets , as neerest to us , and most sensible by us , have formerly deified them , and still dote upon them , and so have assigned them their several spheres , and only one eighth sphere for all the rest , which are innumerably more ; and yet among the planets themselvs there are found out some satellites , and perhaps more may be found out heerafter , though we know them not yet , as others before us did not know these : and wheras men also have fansied such several regions of aethereal spheres as are not to be found in nature , so also such an orderly and uniform position of the aetheruli therin , as is indeed contrary to the very end and intention of these luminarys , which , as i have shewed , was for the greatest variety of seasons and influences , and that could not be without their various positions and motions ; which i do rather suppose to be so very various and difform , that like the motions of f●sh , fowl , and beasts , not any one of them is like to any other , but every one most regular in its kind , as i have observed of mathematical figures , that is , the circle , and all regular polygons , which therefore are asymmetrous ; and so are the aetheruli , becaus they are all several specifical natures , purposely created to express such varietys , and conform in their very difformitys . certeinly their positions are all very different and distant , the next to them is the menstrual motion of the moon , which maketh months , and that also is incommensurable with either of them ; according to which , besides the sabbath day ( which was made for man , or mankind generaly ; and so instituted first in parad●se , and is still kept and observed by virtue of that first command , and only the circumstance of time varied , whereby it is exalted from a rest of creation to a rest of redemption ) and also the annual feasts , and jubiles , according to the motion of the sun , there were also monthly feasts in the new moons , and the like , according to the cours of the moon , appointed by god for the iews . and becaus , as we cannot work according to mathematical exactnes , so also we cannot know astronomical scrupulosity ; therefore the priests were to blow with the trumpets , as it is said , in the day of your gladnes , and in your solemn days , and in the beginings of your months , to call the assemblys , and give notice to the people when they should begin them . and so also there were weights and measures of the sanctuary , or there reposited as sacred things ; as it is said , a just weight and balance are the lords : and therefore the standards therof were kept by the priests : but certeinly these measures could not commensurate that which is naturaly incommensurable : and so it is supposed , that wheras it is said of the lavacre or brasen sea , that it was ten cubits from brim to brim , or from lip to lip , round in compass , and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about , that it was so not exactly , but rotunde , according to the common mechanical account : which becaus more curious mathematicians will not accept ; and therupon insult over scripture ; and from this one expression would prove all others therin to be popular , and themselvs to be the only exact men ; i shall heer farther examin it ; and desire them to reconsyder how it was a vessel having brims , or lips ; and so is said to be ten cubits from lip to lip inclusively , as a capite ad calcem is also so rendred inclusively , — talos a vertice pulcher ad imos : and the compass of the body of the vessel itself was under the lips exclusively ; as it followeth , and under the brim of it round about knops compassing it , ten in a cubit , compassing the sea round about : whereby also we may understand what was the particular breadth of the brim or lip ; that is , almost a quarter of a cubit ( but never according to mathematical exactnes ) and therefore the measure therof is not otherwise particularly mentioned ; as it is of the body , that the thicknes of it was an hands breadth . but i shall leav these disquisitions to more learned criticks , who , if they pleas to understand scripture , not according to such maligne , but benigne interpretations , shall find therin not only verity , but the greatest curiositys couched in the most mysterious expressions : and so i profess , and hope to shew through this whole d●scours , that when scripture and nature are throughly examined and sifted to the utmost , they will be found to be most concordant , one with another ; and all scripture , as well as nature , with itself . v. though , as i have shewed , there are no new starrs created , nor any annihilated , as some affirm of the pleiades , or seaven starrs , as they are commonly called ; but as ovid observed of them in his time , quae septem dici , sex tamen esse solent ; so long before him in scripture they are called only by the name of their constellation , and no where numericaly seaven , as translators render them ; yet since the heavens as well as the earth were cursed for mans sake , there are also some anomala and meteors in aether ; and such as are not like the starr of our savior , which was made by a miraculous production ; but monstrous and prodigious ; wherof the antients make mention , as that which appeared at the death of iulius caesar , to celebrate his exit , as the other did our saviors intrat ; which was some extraordinary comet in the aether , where they denied any comets to be , and affirmed it ingenerable and incorrptible , both in the whole , and in every part therof ; wheras now plainly there are found to be in it both maculae , and comets : and the maculae are such luminous flocci as are either aethereal effluvia of the luminarys , or perhaps sometimes confluvia of the aethereal matter , and of which , as i suppose , the comets are composed , as aereal meteors are of vapors : but there is no mention of any such in the six days works , which were all good and perfect ; though , as i have shewed , there was in the first day a confluvim of the aethereal light , which was afterward in this fourth day divided and formed into the several luminarys , and which was the goodnes and perfection therof . but as all aether is motive and planetary , and every luminary therin hath a proper specifical compositum and qualitys , as well as it is genericaly aethereal ; so i suppose these redundances and excrescences therof , being composed of several parts of them , have accordingly mist bodys , and planetary qualitys , whereby they perform their odd motions , and courses ; and when this meteorical composition is dissolved , then they disappear and ceas . and there are not only such maculae contiualy in aether , which do not alway conglobate into comets , but very often less comets not so much observed by us , or not on land , as seamen say they see them at sea : but such as are greater , and perhaps more concocted , are by us commonly called blazing starrs ; which indeed are no true starrs , but only stellae fatuae , ( as i may call them , alluding to the like meteors in the air , which we call ignes fatui ) and yet differing from stellae cadentes therin , which are so called from their falling again to the earth ; being composed of culinary flame ; wheras comets being composed of aethereal substance , when they are corrupted , are resolved into it again ; and they differ from the true starrs , in that they are so composed and dissolved only by meteorical generation and corruption , and not by any improper creation , as the others : and though they also be illustrated by the sun , and thereby have a notable eman●nt light , yet they are farr more dull and obtuse ; so that as the sun is the universal illustrator of all this spectable world , he doth more or less illustrate every spectable thing , as it hath more or less of the connatural lucidity in it ; and thus the terreous opacity , which is contrary to light , doth reflect , refract , and distend it , as i have formerly shewed ; and black , which hath most opacity in it , doth ingage the light in the encounter , and more detein it thereby ; also though the solar rays be not ingaged , as i said before , in the opacous body , nor partly deteined , as in reflection from the opacous fundus of a diaphanous body , as of a jewell , looking-glass , or the like ; but may be otherwise reflected from any polite body , as a steel speculum , or the like ; yet they are thereby retunded , and their reflection much abated : and the strongest and farthest reflection , or rather collustration is , as i said before , when the solar rays meet with such lucidity , as is more aethereal and connatural unto themselvs : for indeed that is not so properly a reflection or repuls , as an influxion and concurrence , like a great stream that falls into the chanell of a less , and so both flow together . now the inherent light of comets being not only aethereal , but meteorical , and more heterogeneous , the solar rays do not so collustrate and colluminate with it , as with the perfect luminarys : and this also proves to me that there is such an inherent light in all the other aetheruli themselvs , becaus the sun doth accordingly collustrate and colluminate with them proportionably to their own light in several maners and degrees ; as in the fixed starrs , in the other planets less , and in the comets yet less ; but least with the inherent light of aether itself . and perhaps the solar rays are tinged and varied , by being so mist with the stellant in their emanations , which he causeth thereby , and whereby they appear so very different : certeinly the inherent light of starrs is much greater and stronger then of comets , which the sun partly penetrateth , as he doth a globule of glass ; for a stronger light inherent doth terminate and not transmitt the solar rays , as we cannot see through a greater flame of light , as we may partly through a less , as through the flame of spirit of wine , or the like ; though any other such light makes objects to appear very strange and ghastly , as the efflammation of furnaces , and the like . now the solar rays which are thus transmitted , but not so freely , through the comet , as through the aether , by that offence and interruption do , as i have shewed , converge , and so go out at the farther vmbo more sharp and comprest , and then again dilate themselvs , which is their cauda , in the more rare medium of the aether , like comprest vapors which so issue out of an aeolipile ; and they are always in that part which is avers from the sun : wheras the moon , though she hath spotts , which are less luminous then her other parts , yet doth not transmitt the solar rays through them ; which shews even those spotts to have more inherent light in them then comets , though they may not seem to us so lucid compaparatively , in respect of her other more luminous parts . also comets are globular as well as any other luminarys , and they are not only carried about by the aether as well as starrs , but have their own altitudes , and proper courses , as they happen to be placed in the aether in their generative composition , according to which they also move by their mist planetary virtue ; as god first sett the starrs in their stations and orders , according to which they perform their courses by their several planetary virtues . and thus indeed according to statike law , if any body move in another by any stronger spiritual potentia then the pondus of its body would caus it to sink or swim in the other , it will neither sink nor swim , but move progressively according to the moving potentia : as a man so swims in water by fitly moving his body with a stronger potentia then the pondus of his body in that medium would caus it to sink ; and so also a bird flys in the air : and though i conceiv the starrs to be fluid as well as the aether , and aether as well as the other expansum of air , yet i also acknowledg , that if they were dens and terreous bodys , yet some of them , as the sun and moon , and others , might notwithstanding so move in the rare aether , by their very rapid motions , according to their own several courses , and so perhaps , not sink in it : though otherwise , i say , that no body whatsoever , magnetical , planetary , or sensitive , can move itself without a fulciment to keep it from sinking ; which invincibly proves that the earth cannot so move , unless , it being most consistent , dens , and heavy , could by any planetary virtue in itself be so supposed to move in the most rare and fluid aether , as that it should not sink therin , by supposing also such a rapid motion therof annualy , as must be admitted according to the zodiak , and circle , which it is said to describe , and which according to the phaenomena one way or other , must be the same with that wherin the sun doth realy move ; whereby that motion will be found to be , as i said , almost fifty miles in a minute ; and then unless we can also suppose that the earth would sink and fall so fast through the aether in the very first degree of the velocity of the motion of descent , which must be swifter then the aforesaid motion , it will not so fall or sink : which to estimate more exactly i leav to the curious . but wheras judicial astrologers pretend to foretell by the starrs , and especialy by comets the fates and fortunes of men , yea , their very imaginations , affections , and inclinations , and , which is yet more , divine counsels and intentions , it is certeinly most unchristian and intolerable : for originaly god made the starrs to be for signes , and for seasons , and for days , and for years , which is therefore so emphaticaly repeated ; not as ostents or portents , wherof there could be no use in that state of perfection , but for signification and indication , as well as causation , of seasons , days , and years , which were certein , constant , and orderly , when there were yet no meteors in earth , or air , and much less any changes , confusions , and disorders , in the superior natures ; nor did they then portend that greatest change , and most dire event that ever was , or shall be in the world , which was the fall of angels and men ; otherwise themselvs might easily have forseen it : wherefore certeinly they were not first created to signify any such contingencys , but only natural futuritys : and now wheras they affirm , that the starrs do by their influences govern the bodily humors , and by them the minds and spirits of men , let them shew us the experiment of that , which they make to be the foundation of their art , and ( as it is said of thales ) foretell what will be dear next year : wheras their prognostications of any such contingent things in their yearly almanaks are generaly as fals as true ; though i grant , as our savior saith , that such who are weatherwise may probably foretell what shall so ensue the next day , or some such short time after : in the evening ye say it will be fair weather , for the sky is red ; and in the morning it will be foul weather to day , for the sky is red and lowring . thus also they represent eclipses as very prodigious things , which yet they know are most natural , otherwise they could not so foretell them ; and if man had still continued in paradise , they must naturaly have been ; yea , it were the greater monster and prodigy , if they should not so constantly happen . and though comets , which are extraordinary , may produce extraordinary effects , as other meteors , thunders , earthquakes , and the like , and are sure signes of what is past , tha● is , the fall of man , which hath been the caus and occasion therof , and so are to be regarded ; and may be also extraordinary ostents of gods future judgments ; yet it is also as true , that we cannot read this hand-writing on the wall of heaven without a supernatural revelation or indigitation ; as the magi were directed by angels , ( of whom it is also said they were warned in a dream ) otherwise by all their art they could never have found out the very town , yea the very hous in the town , yea the very place in the hous where the child lay , and over which the starr is said to have stood : so neither could the most curious or cabalistical judgment of any man have foretold the retrocession of hezekiah's sicknes by the retrogradation of the sun ten degrees on the dial of ahaz : and the signes in heaven and earth at our saviors death probably were as miraculous as the starr at his birth ; and that darknes no common eclips of any luminary , but an obtenebration of the aether itself over all that land , as the earthquake was also therin ; and all the signification therof was plainly declared by his present suffering , which made the centurion cry out , truly this was the son of god! wherefore , though i honor natural astronomy , and only wish that it were rectified according to this d●vine rule of scripture , ( as i would also gladly be corrected by it in any mistakes of the natural phaenomena , or any expressions therof ) so with the scripture and all christianity i must conclude against all such judicial astrology , as an heathenish artifice , wherof we are expressly forewarned , that we should not be dismaied at the signes of heaven , for the heathen are dismaied at them : and let now the astrologers , the starrgazers , the monthly prognosticators stand up , and shew how they can maintein the veracity of their art against the divine verity . and now i shall return again to such materialists , who though they cannot affirm , that becaus a whole body is moved up or down , this way or that way , therefore it ceaseth to be the same , yet can suppose , that if the parts in the body be moved in such a maner , as neither they nor we can discern them , there being a new corporeal texture , schematism , and mechanism therof , it shall therfore acquire a new individual spirit and spiritual qualitys , by such local motion , as it doth by physical generation and corruption ; which may be best experimented in the vast body of aether , wherin there are also so many orbs continualy moving so many several ways , and yet they do not therefore ceas to be the same aether , and the same orbs , that they were before : and so will any other compositum be the same , though the parts in it move this way , or that way , or any way whatsoever , unless there be a new generation to alter it ; otherwise only the figure and situation of the parts in the whole will be altered , but not the physical nature of the whole , or parts : and so though their hypothesis be of less corpuscles , and not of such great bodys , ( which , as they propound the others , becaus they are indiscernible , so i propound these , becaus they are more discernible ) for the reason will be the same in these elementary natures , though the parts be never so minute ; as every part of water is water , though it be never so small , and though it be moved any way whatsoever : and so suppose the parts of any one orb to move in the orb , as all the orbs do in the aether , they will no more alter the orb , then the orbs do the aether : and if matter and motion cannot thus make or alter elementary natures , which are inferior , much less any others that are superior : and i suppose , that the superaether is altogether immovable , both in the whole , and in all the parts therof . wherefore , since this and all the other heavens are so stupendous , ( that as some suppose , they are therefore so named ) let us not conceiv , that we , or any angel , could mechanicaly form those glorious bodys by any the most curious artifice , and much less by our own imaginations : but acknowledg the divine creation , and original institution of aether , and all the luminarys therin , which have been from this begining therof , and so shall continue and persevere untill the dissolution of this present elementary world , ingenerable and incorruptible in the whole , though not in all the parts therof . vi. now let us prais the father of lights for all the luminarys of heaven , the sun , and moon , and starrs ; which the heathen world formerly adored , and which we ought all to admire , and to adore him who is the creator therof ; whose g●ory the heavens declare , and the firmament his handiwork : which , though we behold them according to their seeming aspects , yet we perceiv not their real magnitudes , and altitudes ; and much less their wonderfull motions , and i●fluences : and though they are but small portions of one element , yet are many of them greater then any other , and some of them then all the rest : whose positions are higher above us then the center of the univers is beneath us ; and whose motions are without any rest , and yet swifter then of any other bodys , and stronger then of spontaneous spirits . and they are all such locomotive automata in themselvs , and every one moved by his own proper power , going on in his own path , both distant and different from another , but never from itself either in space , or time : which are the grand horologes of nature , without any weight , springe , or pendulum , and yet farr more constant and certein , not only marking and dividing by lines and numbers , but making day and night , and all the seasons in the year , and such long secula and revolutions , as probably shall never attein any natural period , but be violently prevented by the final conflagration ; which shall be effected by their own aether and element of fire , and all these firebrands therof , who as they were supernaturaly generated , so shall also be supernaturaly corrupted . and yet while this elementary globe doth stand , it is preserved and governed by their progresses and circuits about the inferior orb ; who as they pass along scatter the missilia of their various influences . and though they being a very great multitude , to us seem to be in a continual rout , yet every one of them marcheth in his own rank and file , and they are all severaly distributed into troops and partys of constellations , and the whole host of them formeth one most orderly and powerfull militia , wherof sol is the great general and imperator ; who himself alone is able to conquer all the inferior world , not only by encountring it with his victorious presence , which would burn up all before him , but by his very flight and absence , which would otherwise destroy them , through their own indigence and want of his vital heat : who as the true adonis brings along with him in his accesses all the fruits of the year , and foetus of animals , and again carrieth away all that is annual in his recesses : who is sponsus naturae , as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber , and rejoicing as a strong man to run his race . his going forth is from the end of the heaven , and his circuit to the ends therof . and there is nothing hid from the heat therof . section xi . and god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life , and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven . and god created great whales , and every living creature that moveth , which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind ; and every winged fowl after his kind . and god saw that it was good. and god blessed them , saying , be fruitfull , and multiply , and fill the waters of the sea ; and let the fowl multiply on the earth . and the evening and the morning were the fifth day . explication . god having prepared the elements , vegetatives , and aethereal luminarys , in order to the production , and for the use and service of sensitives , did then caus the waters to bring forth fishes , whose spirits were before latent in them , according to their several kinds ; and particularly whales , the greatest of all animals : and so also caused flying fowls , according to their several kinds , to be produced . and this was their specifical goodnes and perfection . and after god had thus made them good and perfect in themselvs , he added the blessing of procreation , whereby fishes should multiply in the waters , and fowls on the earth , according to their kinds . and these were the works of the fifth day . illustration . . of fishes and fowls . . of sensation . . of the five senses . . of imagination . . of appetite . . of the goodnes of the works of the fifth day . i. we now ascend into the region of life , which is not only above all elementary and vegetative nature , but also so farr different from them as the same living animal is from its own dead carcass : and though i have termed them all generaly spirits , whereby i intend only substantial activitys , though they do not breath and live , as sensitives , and the soul of man , which ●herefore , to distinguish from others , i shall only call souls or psych● , and so hebraicaly they only are termed living spirits or souls : though as the poets termed water , stone , turf , and the like vive , so both they and philosophers conceived that vegetatives did indeed live ; as appears by their fabulous transmigrations of animals into flowers , and trees , and their anima vegetativa ; wheras scripture thus speaketh only metaphoricaly , when it mentioneth living water , stone , bread , and the like ; or that trees and corn dy : and i shall never differ about terms , but only contend , that elementary or vegetative spirits are also substantial spirits , ( which expression they , who also call them vive , may very well allow ) but i also affirm , that they do not live as these living spirits ; nor have any perception or appe●ite ( which is properly and truly life , as i shall shew heerafter ) to defend my self and all my expressions from the opinion of them , who either affirm both vegetatives and elements , yea , matter itself , to be sensitive ; becaus they have such affections , inclinations , and principles created together with their substances , and imprinted in them by god , according to which they act and operate , and produce such effects naturaly , as sensitives do ingeniously , spontaneously , and artificialy , with perception and appetite , knowing , affecting , and intending , what they do , which those inferior natures do not , nor cannot , becaus they have no such perception , nor appetite properly and truly , though metaphoricaly they are also ascribed unto them in respect to such effects : and also of ot hers who , becaus these inferior natures have not any such perception or appetite , therefore deny them to have any such natural principles so created or imprinted in them , whereby , according to their several natures thus originaly instituted and set● in order , they proceed to act ; and conceiv that only the spirit of god immediately doth still move on them all , as on the first chaos ; and so by matter and motion only doth generate and corrupt all such inferior things ; which he did first institute and set● in order in the fower first days , and all their original generations and corruptions , as well as the others in the two last days : otherwise all the works of those former days , which were also in preparation to the latter , had been vain and supervacaneous ; which i have sufficiently refuted ; and shall now proceed to discours of sensitives , which indeed are farr more noble natures , and as i said , so much superior to the other , that heer god is said again to create , in giving life , or causing that , which though it was the same spirit in itself latent in the chaos , and had potentialy life in itself , yet did not before live. now to live actualy ; and thus to rais from death to life is a most miraculous work , and most like to a proper creation , not only in the suddennes therof , as incension , ( for certeinly nothing can live , and not live in the same instant ) but in the excellency therof , whereby the animal is as it were raised up from the grave , and out of that dead sleep , wherin the body or carcass of all the inferior natures , wherof it is constituted , did before ly . and this is eminently spoken of whales the greatest of all such animals , though of the lowest kind therof , that is , of fishes : for as in the same vegetative classis there are three general kinds mentioned , grass , herbs , and trees ; so also in this classis of sensitives , fishes , fowls , and beasts . and as the elementary bodys of sensitives are farr more organical then of vegetatives , as fitt instruments of their more operative spirits , so also their very vegetative spirits , which in their compositions are subordinate unto them , are more excellent , and have a more curious nutrition and augmentation , and most notably another maner of generation : for wheras it is said of vegetatives , cujus semen seipsum seminet , heer is added a special blessing of procreation to sensitives ; and perfect animals , such as god created , do not grow out of the water , nor out of the earth , as some vegetatives ; nor only by putrefaction , and the like , as many anomalous sensitives ; but are generated by conjunct procreation : and they are made of two several sexes ; as is expressed of all such as entred into noah's ark , that they were male and female ; and therefore a phoenix , which is only of one sex , is such as was not to be found there , and indeed only a poetical creature ; and the male and female piony made such only by the gardiners fansy : for certeinly they do not propagate by any conjunct procreation . but the sensitive spirit itself , and the living powers therof , are farr above any vegetative spirit , or the facultys therof . for as the matter is so divisible , that it is as it were alway divisible , and every part and particle therof will still be the same homogeneous-matter in all respects ; so elementary spirits , which do immediately consubstantiate it ; are therefore most material , or united to it , and coextended with it , and if they be so divided with it , yet , as i have said , every part and particle of earth will be earth , and of water water , and so of the rest generaly ; though in some respects , as i observed of terreous consistence , there may be a difference between majority and minority of their bodys : and vegetatives , though every least part or particle of their organical bodys be not a sufficient domicil and officine for their spirits , becaus they are organical ; yet the branch or twig of many trees being sett , will radicate and grow , reteining therin a sufficient portion of their divisible spirit to erect a new oeconomy , and form itself into another individual tree , as well as the root and stem : but if sensitives be so divided , whereby the principal parts therof , as the head , heart , or the like , have their organism destroied , they cannot live ; and any other part divided from them will not live long ; as an eel cut in pieces : and yet as fishes are of the lowest kind of sensitives , so generaly after such dissection they live longest : i have seen a tench slitt and exenterated to leap in the pan where it was fried ; and fowls will not live so long as they , nor beasts as fowls , as a chicken after the head is wrung off moves itself both longer and stronger then a beast decollated , which shews the more indivisibility of their spirits . but , as i said , the grand difference between sensitive and any inferior spirits is their perception and appetite : for so , though elementary and vegetative spirits also move their bodys , yet only sensitives move them with apprehension and spontaneity , this way , and that way , and every way , as they pleas ; and so , though their motive powers may not be so strong , yet they are living , and more spiritual : and thus they feed , and generate , and act all their sensitive operations sensitively ; otherwise they should not be sensitives . yet according to the degrees of sensitives in their own classis , so also is their locomotion : and thus fishes , which are the very lowest kind therof , are originaly termed reptiles ; as their swiming is indeed a kind of creeping , or sliding : and so an eel swims in water as a snake creeps on land ; and though other fishes in swiming shoot forth directly , and make no curv lines , yet they only slide in a more direct maner ; and their bodys are of a direct and oblong figure for that purpose , being born up , and partly carried , upon an equidens fulciment of water : but there are also testaceous fishes , which are gradient , having claws and legs for that purpose , like beasts ; and if they swim , it is also like the swiming of beasts : yet that motion is another kind of creeping ; and they are more tardigradous , and multipedous , as generaly more infirm bodys are , which need so many fulciments : and shelfishes which have no claws nor legs , as oisters , muscles , and the like , are most infirm , and , as i suppose , imperfect animals : but they are no plantanimals , as others term them ; for plainly they are sensitive ; and therefore of the sensitive classis , and so to be denominated ; which appears by their flesh , and by opening and shutting their shells accordingly as they sensitively affect or disaffect any thing , and many other such indications of sens : and though they continue in their places , yet they are not rooted in them , nor do cohere therunto , like vegetatives ; becaus all sensitives , as i said , are less united to the elementary matter , both internaly , and externaly , then vegetatives : and that which is called the sensitive plant , is not properly and truly sensitive , but only fansied to be such , as i said of the piony : and so the oatbeard , marigold , heliotropium , and the like , may as well be said to be sensitive : wheras clearly their motions are without any perception or appetite , and only by elementary rarefaction and condensation of their bodys , or by some kind of vegetative expansion and compression , as i shall shew afterward . as fishes are expressly said to be produced out of the waters wherin their spirits were before latent , so they require a body aqueous , wherin they reside and operate ; and they were accordingly formed of the water , as it was then mist with the other elements , and thereby prepared for such productions and formations : and though some may wonder , as i have formerly , at this strange formation of the bodys of fishes , how their flesh , and bones , which are firm and consistent , ( though not so much as of fowls , and beasts , ) should be made of fluid water , which could not be transmuted into earth , since there is no such transpeciation , as i have before proved ; yet heer also we may see how these mysterys of scripture and nature do consist and correspond together : for so it is found by experiment , that some trees , and fruits , as willows , pumpions , and the like , may be as much augmented thereby : and so the whole sensitive body is still formed of bloud : for every mistum conteineth all the elements , and their virtues ; and there is in water , or bloud , also sufficient matter ( and so drink , if not so nutritive , yet may be as augmentative as meat ; as appears in such who drink much , and eat litle ) and sensitive bodys , as of tadpols , may be formed of water , and if we consyder the mistion of all the fower elements , and the doctrine of potentialitys ( which i have before deduced from the chaos of all these potentialitys ) and already approved by many other instances , ( as also it may be clearly confirmed heerby ) we may understand how , as i have said , it is indeed the clavis of all generation and corruption : for thus all the terraqueous composita are terraqueous , having also some misture , though less , of air , and aether , in them ; and so in their generation or corruption , if the terreous qualitys be actuated , they appear to be , and so indeed actualy are , terreous bodys , and have a proportionable firmnes or consistence , which , as i said , is a terreous quality ; as smoak is turned into soot , and the like : and if the aqueous qualitys be actuated , and the terreous reduced to their potentiality , then the same bodys will be no longer firm and consistent actualy , but fluid ; as in fusion and corrosion of metalls , whereby it is said , that even gold itself may be reduced to an oil , or to some such aqueous body , and others affirm the like of any terreous bodys whatsoever : and so though aereous qualitys , according to the less misture of that element in terraqueous bodys , are not so easily and commonly actuated , yet thereby , or by vapor , or both , camphire , and salts , may be volatilised ; ( as meteors may be in the air , like amurca , o● mudder , standing in the top of water ) : yea , by actuating the aethereous qualitys therin , the terraqueous body may seem to be all fire ; as iron candent , pitch , wax , tallow , oil , spirit of wine , and the like , inflamed . but the bodys of fishes are not so terreous as to sink to the bottom , nor so aereous as to swim and float above the water , being most fitly poised , and prepared for their moving in their native element , water . as the spirits of fishes are sensitive , so the more perfect have all senses , except hearing , which some deny , and also that they have any auditory nervs : certeinly they do not hear themselvs , becaus they are generaly m●te ; and yet i rather conceiv that they have also the sens of hearing , becaus they have the more excellent sens of seing , though perhaps their hearing may be very dull , as their element of water is no very fitt medium of sound . yet oisters , and such imperfect fishes , have neither of these scientifical senses , seing , or hearing ; but only feeling , and tasting , and perhaps smelling , which , as i have said , is concomitant and assistant to tast ; though the distinct organs of any sens are not discernible in them , nor any brain or heart , but they seem to be one lump , with something like a bloud in it , which all sensitives have , and also , as i suppose , something analogous to the organs in more perfect animals , of such senses as they have ; and so of imagination , and appetite , which are the common sensitive fountains of all the senses , and wherin they subsist , ( though they have no imaginative ingeny ) as i shall shew afterward , and therefore no sensitive can be without them , and consequently not without some apt organs therof . and heer i must observ , that as every specifical nature is most excellent in its own specifical difference , becaus it is the very specifical difference therof ; so in the same classis the lower species may have some inferior qualitys more excellent , or at least more vehement and notorious then the superior . thus fishes are generaly more voracious , and less valetudinary , then other sensitives , and augment vastly , and procreate abundantly , especialy such as generate by ejection and superinjection of their seeds , and not by copulation , as is reported of whales ; and their fecundity is expressly mentioned in the text , that the waters brought them forth abundantly , and so again emphaticaly repeated : and therefore i do not conceiv , as some , that this difference happened by the deluge , which indeed did not concern fishes , becaus it is so intimated in their very creation . but in all these and many other piscine qualitys and facultys the whale , and such other grand animals of the sea , do excell ; and such thynni , balaenae , and immania cete , are therefore called sea-monsters , not becaus they are anomalous , but from their vast and terrible greatnes ; and the chief of them , which is supposed to be the whale , is termed leviathan , whom god himself hath largely described elsewhere , and saith of him , vpon all the earth there is not his like , he is king over all the children of pride , i suppose , in respect of his great bulk and strength generaly ; though his strength in proportion to his bulk be not so great as of many terrestrial animals , especialy the elephant , which is also termed behemoth , and who in that respect is said to be chief of the ways of god. but fowls are of the least bodily magnitude , though their spirits be of an higher kind then fishes , and yet more allied to them then to beasts , and therefore made in the same day with them ; and so it is also observed that their brains are more conformable to the brains of fishes , and the brains of beasts to the brain of man. the bodys of fowls are less , becaus the air in which they were made to fly , is a more rare and weaker fulciment then water , though otherwise their flying is analogous to swiming , and such a kind of sliding or creeping , and their wings and the motion therof to fins and the motion therof : and as they were not produced out of the air , nor their bodys formed of it , ( for , as i said , all animals as well as vegetatives are terraqueous ) so neither of the water , as fishes ; for it is not so said of them , but as it is originaly , let fowls fly in the firmament of heaven : and the other words following , and every winged fowl after his kind seem rather to refer to gods creation of them both in that day , then particularly to their creation out of the waters : and it is said afterward of them , as well as of beasts , and out of the ground god formed every beast of the earth , and every fowl of the air : but wheras plainly it is said that fishes were produced out of water , and beasts out of the earth , and neither is so before particularly expressed of fowls ; i suppose they were made of some more equaly mist terraqueous substance , wherin neither water did so much predominate , as in the bodys of fishes , nor earth , as in the bodys of beasts : and accordingly the bodys of fowls are of a midle substance , not so tender as of fishes , nor yet so fi m and solid as of beasts . but fowls , though they be generaly oviparous as well as fishes , yet also procreate by copulation , and not by exclusion of the seed immediately , as vegetatives , and as fishes generaly are procreated ; nor yet by gestation in the womb untill there be a formation of the foetus , as beasts ; which is a more perfect birth , and proper to superior animals . certeinly they excell fishes in their spiritual facultys of sens , and imagination , as in their singing , nidification , and the like ; as they are inferior to beasts in imaginative ingeny , and act generaly . and wheras there are some flying fishes , as they are commonly called , so indeed they are not fowls , but fishes , which generaly live in the water , as others , and only fly above it so long as their wings are wett , which maketh them to be more stiff and strong , as sails are stifned by wetting : and so water-fowls are not fishes , but fowls , that generaly fly in the air , though they can also dive in the water , and continue there so long as their breath lasteth , as we say ; and so otters , and the like amphibia , are beasts , and no fishes : and though there be aquatical insects , which afterward prove flys , yet this is no transpeciation , but the worm , both in earth , and water , is only the embryo , or inception , of such flying insects , as the vegetative embryo is of a sensitive animal . ii. having thus farr discoursed of these two kinds of sensitives , fishes , and fowls , generaly , according to my intention , which is only to elucidate the general system of the world , as god himself hath declared it unto us in this divine history of creation , and to conferr scripture and nature together , i shall now proceed to discours of sensation in the same general maner , having already declared what i intend thereby ; that is , a life with imaginative perception , and spontaneous appetite , whereby the animal doth not only act and ope●ate , as all other inferior natures , but perceivs what it doth , and consents to do it ; and so also contemplates , and accordingly affects , or disaffects the object , about which it is conversant , and exerciseth its operations : which is a double operation , and not such a simple , imperceptive , and involuntary , or non spontaneous kind of operation , as there is in other inferior agents ; but also with a sensitive enjoyment therof , and of itself , and its own operations , in a living maner by perception and appetite , as i said , which are the proper facultys of the sensitive spirit , and that denominateth the animal sensitive ; becaus sensitive spirits wherof perception and appetite are the proper facultys are of an higher classis , and farr other nature then the other subordinate spirits vegetative and elementary , and the matter , which they so subordinate to themselvs , according to that scale of nature , as i have formerly shewed : and as according to that scale , sensitive spirits are sensitive in themselvs , and subordinate the others immediately , or mediately , according to the several degrees therof , to themselvs ; so also their operations are either such as they can act and exercise of themselvs , and by their own intrinsecal power , or such as they only command and govern , but are executed and performed by the inferior spirits , vegetative , and elementary ; but how the sensitive spirit doth thus command and govern the vegetative spirit , and that the elementary , and the like , is not so easily intelligible , becaus these several natures are classicaly different ; and therefore also though the sensitive spirit perceiveth what it doth , as i said , generaly ; becaus it is sensitive , yet it perceiveth not how any vegetative or elementary operations are done and performed by those subordinate spirits in its own compositum ; becaus they are not sensitive , nor can they , or the sensitive spirit by them , perceiv what they do , or how the work is done , farther then as it may have some sensation therof in itself ; which is a manifest evidence to me , that there are such several spirits classicaly distinct , and which , as i have said , are never mist together in the same sensitive , or intellective , compositum , becaus there are evidently in it such distinct and different operations ; wherof some are sensible and perceptible , and others are not : concerning which i shall discours heerafter , and now inquire into these mysterys of sensation , which though they be performed within us , yet are less obvious then other things without us : as any may better see how a chick is formed in the egg , then how augmentation is performed within his own body . also the higher any nature is , the more excellent , and curious , and difficult it is to be understood ; and being now entred into this region of life , i am very conscious in what a dark adytum i am , and how litle light others do afford me ; but — dabi● deus his quoque finem . wherefore grounding my self upon his word , i shall proceed . it is said , the life of all flesh is the bloud therof , or as it is in the precedent words , the bloud of it is for the life therof . and heer we shall see again how scripture and nature do mutualy interpret one another . and i shall first collect from these words , that all flesh , that is , all sensitive and living bodys , have a bloud , or something analogous of whatsoever color or crassitude it may be ; and that this bloud is not only the aliment or nutriment , but the very rudiment of the life therof , and indeed of the flesh itself , and all other parts of the body potentialy ; as every thing is nourished by that wherof it is constituted : and thus it is well observed , that in the formation of the foetus , there is a bubble of vital liquor , which first moves , and so forms itself and its own coat or canale , by a vital heat operating upon it ; whereby , in the fermentation therof , the more pure and subtile parts are congregated in and toward the midle , and the more gross and viscid are seg●egated and amandated to the outsides ; and there , as milk heated , when it begins to cool , hath a litle skin in the superficies , so this congenerous liquor , which is the rudiment of bloud , and also of milk , doth begin thereby to form a tender tunicle , or vein , for itself , wherin , as in a canale , it also begins to flow : and afterward the heart and all the sensitive body is formed thereby : and as it doth thus constitute the body , so also it doth nourish it ; and for that purpose passeth through the heart into the arterys , into which it is impelled by the systole or contraction of the muscular heart , and puls therof , ( which is continued , though less and less , in and through all the arterys ) and through them passeth into the flesh , and veins , and so into the heart circularly : which , most true and very curious observation was not understood by the antients , nor easily admitted by moderns ; becaus the passage therof , without the help of anastomases , is so hard to be conceived ; but as all truth which is founded in nature , and not only in notion , though never so difficult and inexplicable , when it is once offered to mankind , will work out its own way ( wheras error , though never so plausible , will soon be confuted by it , when they are committed and set● together ) so hath this truth prevailed , and must prevail , becaus it is truth : and i thus explicate it to my self . i suppose the veins and a●tery ▪ to be several canales , not runing one into another at one end , but at the other meeting at the heart , as at a watermill , which receiveth the bloud out of the vina cava , as one of the canales , and dischargeth it at last into the aorta , as into the other canale ; and the flesh to be as a very spongy ground , between these two canales : i say the water discharged from the mill will flow in one canale with a puls , less and less , according to the strokes of the wheel ; which we will also suppose to be so distinctly and equaly caused by every spoke therof ; and becaus it cannot freely pass in that canale where it hath no farther passage and vent , and may soak into the spongy earth between it and the other canale , it will so soak into them ; and also supposing it , being in that canale , to be raised higher ( by any engine or otherwise ) it will then flow in that canale to the mill back again , where it hath a passage and vent ; as , though water will not easily flow of itself , but be deteined in a sponge full of it , unles it be prest , or more water come to the sponge ; yet it will flow together freely in any ca●ale where it hath a fall , or any other impuls ; which though in this scheme must be supposed , yet is so realy effected by the natural power of the living body , as i shall shew ▪ ●●●rafter . again , as the bloud by this circulation and 〈◊〉 therof doth pass into and nourish all the parts of the body continualy , ( which are potentialy in the bloud ) and is the nutriment of the life therof ; so also it is the instrument of all its living or sensitive operations : for from the heart it passeth not only into the aorta , but also into the carotides , and so to the brain , wherin it is again purified and rectified , and from the brain discharged into the nervs , wherin , as well as in the brain itself , it is the instrument of all sensation , both perceptive , and motive : and this nerval succus is also that , which i call bloud , according to scripture , which doth not distinguish it into venal , arterial , and nerval bloud , but comprehends all under one common name , bloud ; becaus it is indeed one continuous flux , as the ocean is one , though where it flows into several seas it acquireth several names . having thus premised and stated the phaenomena , i come now unto the grand difficulty , how all sensitive operations are , or can be , so curiously and wonderfully effected by the spirits elementary , vegetative , and sensitive . and first , as i formerly said , i conceiv that there is a proper elementary mistion , which is subordinate to every vegetative spirit , as well as a proper vegetative spirit , which is subordinate to every sensitive spirit ; and in this mistion we commonly take notice of two elementary qualitys , which are indeed most notable , that is heat , and moisture , and which we do therefore eminently call innate , vital , and radical ; but certeinly we cannot conceiv that the heat is without any allay of cold , or the moisture of drines ; for then they should be so vehement and excessive , that they should not be vital and radical , but mortal and final : wherefore there must be such a temperament of all these fower qualitys , and consequently a mistion of the fower elements , and elementary spirits , wherin they do subsist ; and as these fower qualitys are susceptible of more and less , and thereby of many various degrees , so according to the arithmetical rule of changes the various mistions therof , besides other simple elementary qualitys , may be innumerable unto us . now the vegetative spirit ▪ to which t●e elementary are immediately subordinate , doth collect and contemper for itself a proper mistion , and fitt temperament therof , such as naturaly it requireth ; that is , such as god himself , when he had first prepared the elements , and after them vegetatives ▪ ●n making of sensitives in this fifth day , did then collect and contemper for the vegetative , and so prepared and instructed the vegetative for the sensitive spirit , according to every kind and species therof ; which was , as i have shewed , the original generation or production therof , and first institution of all generation and corruption , according to which all successive generation doth and ever shall continue unto the end and corruption of this whole elementary world. and this proper mistion is not only the crasis , but also the crisis of the life of the animal : for as it is subordinate to the vegetative spirit , it is oeconomical , and such as doth according to the original rectitude and temper therof naturaly increas to an acme , and from thence decreas again to a period ; unless it be violently disturbed or altered ; which is the true caus of all diseases ( which we therefore call distempers ) but if there be no such violence offered unto it , then the sensitive animal doth continue from the birth untill the death , or dissolution therof , ( like a lamp which goes out only for want of oil ) in sound and perfect health , yet with such degrees and variations from one stage therof unto another , as i have formerly shewed : and though according to the state of this original temperament the thread of one animals life , as we call it , may be stronger or longer then of another , yet i conceiv it is always according to this first vital or radical mistion or temperament , in which the constitution of every sensitive body is founded ; and though augment and decrement , as well as nutrition , be of the vegetative spirit , yet it is also by this elementary mistion , which that doth subordinate to itself , but cannot alter any primigeneous error therin , which is naturaly in it , though both nature and art may cure violent accidents ; and though nature doth of herself always intend the best , as she did obtein it in this first creation , when all things were made good and perfect , yet being now blasted , there is alway some error , more or less , appearing therin ; and especialy since the floud , wherin the secula were abbreviated extraordinarily by a farther curs and punishment of sin : and yet also before , there were natural bounds sett by god in the very principles of generation itself , as well as he hath sett bounds to the matter and body of the world. now , wheras i say , that in generation this proper elementary mistion and the temperament therof is governed by the vegetative spirit , i do not intend therefore that the vegetative spirit is first produced ; for as in the first creation , so still the elementary spirits are before the vegetative ; but i say that the vegetative spirit , which then begins to be produced , doth by and with the proper mistion of the elementary spirits so begin to operate and contemper them ; and is , as i conceiv , that operator or motor therin , which is called punctus saliens , and the architect of the body , and which being also oeconomical and periodical in itself , doth accordingly govern the proper mistion as subordinate to itself . and wheras not only elementary , but also in and with them vegetative , and sensitive spirits , are confounded and coagulated in their chaos , without any actual oeconomy , or individual compositum , all the potential principles therof are collected in the seed , and prepared by the generator ; not only in herbs , and trees , which is sensibly evident , and acknowledged by all , but also in all sensitive generation of fishes , fowls , and beasts , which is denied or doubted by some ; wheras almost every where in scripture , not only the foetus of beasts , but also children are termed the seed of the man , as well as of the woman ; and so were said to have been in the loins of the man , as well as to be in the womb of the woman : nor can the woman naturaly generate without the man , any more then the man without the woman : and wheras it is curiously observed , that no seed appears in the womb after copulation , this indeed shews the way of impregnation not to be , as hath been supposed , by the gross matter of the seed , appearing there as in the cold air , but that it is more colliquated attracted and imbibed , whereby the womb is imbued therwith , and so also with the womans own seed , and thereby she is fecundated ; and so is the egg or seed of the hen by the seed of the cock ; which , i conceiv , appears sensibly by the procreation of fishes , wherin the seed of the female being ejected is imbued by the milky seed of the male superinjected ( and so is the seed of man said to be powred out as milk ) and also by the wombs of other sensitives , which thereby become more replete , moist , and lubricous ; ( as the womb of the earth is by rain ) and so the female is said to conceiv the seed of the male : and as the bloud is the life , or for the life of the generator , as i said , so the seed is a decision and farther concoction therof in the testicles ; that is , not only of the venal , and arterial , but also of the nerval bloud ; as sensibly appears by evacuation therof , which very much affects the brain ; when pythagoras called it stilla cerebri ; and castration doth effeminate and strangely alter the habit of the whole body . nor is it more difficult to conceiv how the seed should so imbue the substance of the womb internaly , and impregnate it , and thereby the egg , then how the bloud venal , arterial , and perhaps also the nerval , ( as it seemeth by the seed ) should penetrate and invigorate the flesh , and other parenchymes , and the whole body . and heerby we may understand how fallacious sens and experiment is , and not to be trusted alone , without the harmonious concurrence of faith and reason , even in sensible things ; for thus if we go never so litle beyond the very sensation itself we may soon be deceived , and unless we be very accurate , our sens may deceiv itself in the very sensible phaenomenon . the sensitive spirit , as i suppose , is not produced assoon as the vegetative , to which the elementary are immediately subordinate , and therefore untill that be produced in some embryonical inception , there will be only an elementary mass : but the vegetative spirit begining to come forth out of its chaos , in and with the fitt mistion which it requires and governs , there appears something like a life , which yet is only vegetative ; and though the sensitive spirit be also then latent in the same chaos , and be ready to issue forth assoon as the organical body is completed in all the constituent parts therof , though at first more rudely and embryonicaly ; yet untill then , it doth not truly live , nor operate sensitively with perception and appetite ; which is therefore called , the time of life ; and accordingly , as is supposed , was the judgment of life or death , for striking a woman with child , whereby she miscarried : but , as i said before , there is first an operation of the vegetative spirit and organisation of the body ; and so not only the vital heat doth move the liquor , by rarefying and impelling it , but there is also the punctus saliens , regulating that motion , and the body moved , by its plastical virtue ; as when the glass is heated in the furnace , and thereby in fusion and motion , the glass-man by blowing doth effigiate it as he pleaseth , whereby he doth also move it this way , and that way , according to his art : and so doth the vegetative spirit move that rudimental liquor naturaly by its own plastical virtue , whereby it doth effigiate the whole body , which cannot be without motion : and so the systole and diastole of the heart indeed are not elementary motions , but vegetative ; for heat , the chief elementary mover , doth not contract , which is the motion of the systole of the heart , but expand , which is needles therin , for the diastole is the natural expansion of the heart itself . also it is regular and reciprocal , such as scarcely any elementary motion is of itself : for so though the motion of tides be elementary , and also partly of the matter , and pondus therof , in the fall of the water , first one way , and then another , as i have shewed ; yet it is regulated by the cours of the moon , which itself also ( as all motions of aethereal bodys ) is indeed regular , but not reciprocal ; and i suppose these , and such like are critical symptoms of vegetative motions ; and so , as i have said , elementary motion of itself is of rarefaction and condensation , and not of expansion and contraction , wheras there is a contraction of the heart in the systole ; though , as before , i conceiv the heat of the bloud and elementary motion therof by rarefaction and impuls to be subordinate and subservient therunto , and that thereby the puls is more vehement , and the bloud in the veins impelled ; otherwise without any such natural instrument to rais it , ( like water by an engine ) as i have shewed , i do not well see how it can ascend in the veins , but rather that both concurrent motions are needfull and requisite to caus the whole bloud in a mans body to circulate about twelv times in an hour , as it doth continualy ; and plainly in exercise and contention , whereby the body and bloud is heated , the puls is more quick , and less when it is chilled with cold : ( and so moisture applied to the heart taken out makes it to move again ) . and clearly these are no sensitive motions , becaus we do not sens them , as we do expulsion and retention , which are vegetative by expansion and compression , as well as sensitive , and spontaneous or voluntary , and so farr we may perceiv the operation , but we know not how the vegetative spirit doth expand or contract by its own specifike power : and so the sensitive , yea the intellective spirit of man , though it doth perceiv whatsoever it doth itself , and how it commandeth the inferior spirits , yet doth not perceiv how they do obey and perform ; as , though i do very well perceiv that i do see , hear , move , or the like , yet i know not how these operations are performed in me by vegetative , and elementary instrumentalitys , wherof the first and most common is bloud , but immediately and principaly the nerval bloud , or succus . now wheras physicians say , that there are three sorts of spirits , natural , vital , and animal , ( which i confess i do not so well understand , or that there are any such spirituous corpuscles in the bloud which do invigorate it ) i conceiv rather that it hath itself , and in its own substance , all those qualitys which they attribute unto such corpuscles ; and which i shall so call animal spirits , or spiritual qualitys , very pure and powerfull , and the most refined of any thing that is elementary ; and i suppose that they are so prepared by the vegetative spirit , and are the most immediate instruments of the sensitive soul in all its sensations ; and so , as the stoiks say , vincula animae & corporis , whereby there is such mutual conversation between them : for certeinly by their instrumentality we see , hear , imagin , affect , and move the body sensitively with perception and appetite : and so we find that the brain , wherin they chiefly reside , works , and grows hott , and that they are exhausted , and must be at least every night recruited by sleep ; wherefore since plainly there are such animal spirits , or spiritual qualitys , subsisting in the nerval bloud , or succus , i will adventure to inquire farther into them . and , as i said , this nerval bloud , which hath passed through the heart , and was there once before refined and subtilised , doth ascend into the brain , and there is again refined and purified by the concoctive faculty of the vegetative spirit in another maner , and for other uses and purposes : wherefore the brain is not so calid , nor motive , but more cool , moist , and moderate , wherin the vegetative spirit doth temper this arterial bloud , percolating it through the maeandrous passages therof , and so qualifying , and concocting it , and producing the animal spirits , or qualitys therin , for the service of the sensitive soul ; as it doth temper and digest the other bloud , for nutrition , and augmentation of the sensitive body , and for generation , and other such inferior and subordinate uses : and from the brain , as the fountain , this nerval succus is diffused into the spina , and nervs , as the streams : being indeed of a wonderfull purity , and vigor , whereby it hath not only potentialy the species of sensibles ( as extension hath all figures in itself potentialy ) which the sensitive spirit can call forth and elicit ; but also a very great strength , which the sensitive spirit likewise governs , like a well managed hors , how and when it pleaseth . and certeinly these are the most spiritual extractions , powers , and virtues , of elementary spirits , and the most subtile and sudden artifices of vegetative spirits , and most like to sensitive and intellective notions and motions : and therefore the immediate and most apt instruments of those higher spirits , and of their operations ; and which plainly discover the combination between superior and inferior spirits , as i shall shew heerafter . and though i doubt , that heerin i may seem novell and curious , yet i shall shew how farr i satisfy my self concerning them , wherof i do thus conceiv ; that this nerval bloud , or succus , is , as i said , a most refined elementary substance , prepared by the vegetative spirit for these uses and services of the sensitive spirit ; and that as in the fower elements , and their mistion , there are potentialy all sensible qualitys , which are variously actuated therin , and many of them very momentaneously , as light , colors , sounds , and the like , and so also magnetike virtue , and such other more subtile and pure q●alitys ; and also their irradiations and species abstracted thereby as colorate species by light , and the like : so the vegetative spirit , at the command of the sensitive , doth by another more spiritual and plastical virtue actuate these spiritual qualitys , as it doth corporeal figure , and the like affections of the matter , and more gross elementary qualitys , in effigiating the body , and producing that proper mistion of the elements , which it requires and subordinates to itself ; and also doth extract some other internal emanations and species therof , more subtile and pure then the external emanations and species of colors , and the like , though not so vivid and permanent , but like spectres and ghosts of the deceased ; both which the sensitive spirit doth also irradiate , and thereby the imagination internaly contemplates them , when the sensible object is present , and also when the external species depart and are absent . like unto a man , who beholding his natural face in a glass , for he beholdeth himself , and goeth his way , and streightway forgetteth what maner of man he was : where are expressed or intimated , all the several degrees of purification and sublimation of the species ; that is , both the immediate species emanant from the colorate face to the speculum , and the reflection of the image or picture therof to the ey of the man beholding himself thereby , which i call external , and which when he goeth his way and departeth from them , do also depart from him ; and so he forgetteth them , but still he hath some internal vision therof in his imagination , which is by another internal species , as the type of the former , or an vmbra , and as it were an apparition , which very suddenly appeareth and disappeareth , so that a man comparatively is said to forgett what he before beheld . now certeinly the external species , either direct , or reflex , which are emanant from the face , and reflected from the glass , when the man goeth his way and departeth from the speculum , do no longer continue in his ey , or optike nervs ; for it was the species of the colorate superfi●ies of his face , which is emanant directly outward , and was reflected toward the ey only by the glass ; and when he removes his ey from the glass , that reflection to the ey ceaseth , and then it is as if any other directly visible object were removed from the ey , whereby also the species emanant from it , and subsisting in it , are removed , and so the vision ceaseth : and yet there is such another internal vision by the imagination , as i have shewed , and every man may sensibly perceiv in himself ; though , as the scripture very curiously intimateth , he hath a weaker and shorter representation of his own face , wherof he beholdeth only the reflected image in a glass , then of the face of his wife or child , which he beholdeth directly and more immediately . now certeinly the imagination cannot so behold internaly without some internal species , as the ey cannot see external objects without such an such an external species : and this internal species is not any such image of the external , as that which appears in the speculum by reflection is of the direct species , but another thing separate from it , when the object , and all the emanant and reflected species therof subsisting in it , are absent and wholy removed ; and of another nature farr different from the former ; and more spiritual and phanstatical , and transient as thought ; nor can it subsist in the imagination itself , which is a sensitive spirit ; becaus this is the species of some sensible quality , which is elementary ; and so are all the species therof , whether external , or internal ; nor is it so actuated and produced as they , by any such external irradiation , as color , or by any such motion as sound , and the like ; but only at the command of the imagination , which being a faculty of the sensitive spirit , and such contemplation of external sensibles by these internal species not being performed without them , nor by any intrinsecal and specifike power of the imagination alone : therefore it must be , as i conceiv , by the mediation of the vegetative spirit , which first prepares this elementary substance , or succus , wherin they subsist potentialy , and when the imagination calls for them , doth actuate and produce them ; and so when the imagination doth animadvert , it doth irradiate them by its own light , as i may so term it , which is yet more spiritual , and sensitive ; and thereby doth so contemplate all sensibles in such litle types and images ( wherin they are pictured in small ) and so very subtile and spiritual , which is indeed very admirable : and so also is sensation by the external species , which in the ey and optike nervs are very strangely contracted and subtilised , as i shall shew heerafter . and now proceed from these spiritual species , which are the instruments of imagination or speculation , to consyder those spiritual potestates , which are the instruments of appetite , and spontaneous motions ; and these also may be in the same nervs , and nervous succus , together with the others , for so all the nervs are generaly tactive as well as motive ; and this sufficiently convinceth me that they are neither of them any such litle corporeitys , as is supposed , which cannot probably be together in such litle cavitys without disturbing and disordering one another ; wheras clearly such spiritual qualitys may so subsist together in the same place and not to be confounded , or mist ( as two lights ) and so though they be heterogeneous and of different natures ; as light and heat ( which heerin are somwhat analogous to these two spiritual qualitys in the nervs ; that is , the perceptive are as light , and the motive as hea● ) yet they may well consist together . and as the species , which are the instruments of perception are , as i said , of an elementary nature , so more manifestly are the motive spirits , which are sensibly excited by heat , and dejected by cold , though they be both in themselvs farr more spiritual and aethereal then these common culinary qualitys of light and heat ; for , as i have said , these motive spirits are such and so prepared , that they move not at all ; but are in their potentiality as the others , untill the appetitive faculty of the sensitive spirit command them ; and then the vegetative spirit , which by its plastical virtue did prepare them for this purpose , doth immediately actuate and produce them ; and so they , like gunpowder incensed , suddenly and strongly move the body ; and yet no more or any other parts therof , nor in any other maner , then according to the imperium of the sensitive spirit , and the specifike power therof ; which is the first mover itself ; and doth so move them , as the imagination doth contemplate the species actuated and produced by the vegetative spirit ; though the motion of the body be immediately by the vegetative spirit , and motive animal spirits themselvs ; as the immediate representation is by the species : and so i conceiv that the sensitive appetite also moveth these motive spirits , not as a coachman doth exhort his horses only with his voice , but as he governeth them with the reins , whereby he guideth the coach , and causeth it to go this way , or that way as he pleaseth , though it be immediately drawn and moved by the horses , as the body is by the vegetative and animal spirits : and this is the gubernation that i intend , whereby the superior spirits thus govern the inferior , that is , not only by a bare imperium or command , but a spiritual and superior motion , which i call , gubernatio , or guiding , respectively according to the several natures of the motions ; but alway according to its own nature , and the specifike powers therof , that is , spiritualy , and sensitively with perception and appetite , and not without them . thus when the sensitive spirit would imagin , it commandeth that such internal species be actuated and produced , which it also , as it were , dictateth and calleth for what it would have , and itself also irradiateth and contemplateth them ; and though , as i have shewed , they are indeed of an elementary nature , prepared , actuated , and produced , by the vegetative spirit , yet the performance is so consentaneous , that we are apt to think , that our imagination doth create all its phantasms in itself , and of itself ; ( as poets are so poeticaly termed makers ) . and so when it would move the body it not only commandeth that the motive spirits be actuated and produced , or that , as i said , the horses be made ready , but it also by a superior motive power guideth and governeth them so spontaneously , that we are apt to think that our very soul doth move the body immediately by its own impuls of the appetite and will , and without any such instrumentality of our vegetative , or elementary , motive spirits ; which yet we must acknowledg , since we plainly perceiv , that if there be any defect in them , the operations of the soul are also defective ; yea many other very curious artifices and motions of these inferior spirits in our own bodys , ( that is , such as be not so immediately subservient to the sensitive operations of the imagination and appetite ) are performed without the imagination or appetite ; as nutrition , the motion of the heart , and the like ; which we therefore call involuntary , becaus therin the vegetative and elementary spirits do not ordinarily attend the command of the sensitive spirit , nor are governed thereby . yet also , as they are such proper inferior spirits subordinate unto it , and conjunct with it in the same compositum , so there is , as i said , and shall now shew , a very notable combination between them ; which may plainly appear by many extraordinary effects , and such as may strangely vary and alter them : thus , as i have formerly observed , mirth helps digestion , and is as it were the nurs of nutrition , wheras the sorrow of the world worketh death : and these sensitive affections not only caus several motions of the bloud , and alterations therin , but also in the very systole and diastole , and palpitations of the heart ; and , which is yet more notable , in the very generation of another individuum : and not only the motive power of the appetite , but also the imagination itself doth strangely operate heerin ; as we commonly say , conceit may do much ; that is , concerning any thing which is internal , either in our mind , or body , yea in the very foetus , while it is in the womb , and nourished by the parent , and is yet as it were some part of the compositum therof ; especialy while it is more young and tender , and more capable of such impressions ; but chiefly in the very act of generation ( which iacob knew , or was supernaturaly taught and assisted by the angel , who appeared to him ) for as it grows more perfect in itself , and is neerer to exclusion , it becomes more separate from the parent , and another compositum in itself , and more firm and strong , and so less capable of impressions by another : and thus i conceiv , that the imagination or appetite of the father doth not operate upon the foetus in the womb of the mother , nor of an hen upon an egg excluded , whiles she incubates , and is hatching it . but the most wonderfull thing is , how the proper vegetative spirit of any sensitive animal , by the command or intimation , of the sensitive imagination and appetite , so fansying and affecting some other vegetative thing , should actuate and produce in the foetus , not only signatures therof , but also somewhat of the same vegetative nature : as i have been very credibly informed of a person , whom i well knew , and have often seen the mole on his chin , which was said to have been caused by a cherry thrown at his mother , while she was pregnant of him , in a frolike among ladys who were then eating cherries ; that every year in the season when cherry trees begin to budd , the mole began to budd , as i may say , and so ripen more , and at last putt forth some little tufts , and be very angry and troublesome ; and then again , as the season of cher●ys departed , to decreas likewise , and be less sensible ; whereby it did plainly discover something of the cerasine nature , inoculated as it were into the body of a man. wherof i know no other account to be given , but only this combination and cooperation of the sensitive and vegetative spirit : and though , as i have shewed , there is no universal spirit , or anima mundi , from which such particular spirits may be derived and produced in any bodys whatsoever ; yet it is truly enough said , omnia animarum sunt plena , if it be rightly understood ; that is , as in the first chaos the spirits were latent in their proper elements , out of which they were produced in the six days , so still there are aethereal , and aereal , spirits in aether , and air , out of which comets , and the like aethereal , or aereal , meteors may be produced ; and so the terraqueous globe , or the cortex therof , is pregnant not only with the elementary spirits of water , and earth , but also of vegetative and sensitive spirits , which while they are therin , as in their chaos , are dispersed and diffused , and so confounded as in a coagulum , inane , and inform , that is , without any oeconomy , or inviduality , which is afterward actuated and acquired by successive generation still producing them according to the archetypes or protoplasta of original generation instituted in their first improper creations , as i have often mentioned : and though they cannot always attein their regular perfections according to the law of nature , yet there may be several degrees therof to which they may arrive , and so their productions be more or less anomalous or monstrous , by reason of many obstructions and defects : wherof the greatest is the general curs of nature for the sin of man ; so that now indeed , both he , and all this spectable world , which was given unto him , and all things therin , have some monstrosity in them ; and there is now none of them exactly perfect according to the first instituted law of nature , but all are heterocliticaly redundant , or deficient : and though we take less notice of others , yet some are so mishapen , that we eminently term them monsters ; and others such imperfect inceptions , that we hardly discern any thing of the specifike nature therin : and such i conceiv this cerasine meteor , as i may so term it , in the body of man to be ; whos 's cerasine spirit , though the compositum therof was corrupted by eating and conversion into the nutriment of the mother , and consequently of the child in the womb , yet was latent in the new compositum generated by that corruption ; and that by the imperium and impression of the mothers imagination and appetite working on her proper vegetative spirit , and that on its own nutriment , the cerasine spirit was equivocaly , and very rudely and imperfectly produced ; for thus , as i have said , the vegetative spirit doth actuate and produce elementary mistion , qualitys , and species , as subordinate and subservient to itself , though classicaly different ; and so it may also imperfectly produce another vegetative spirit , which is of the same classis with itself , as well as one spirit of the same classis may , be mist with another ; and thus i conceiv , that as there apparently is an individual oeconomy in every particular compositum , so also a specifical and classical polity , subordination , and combination of several natures , especialy in the same compositum : and that thus the sensitive spirit by its own specifike facultys doth command and govern its own proper vegetative spirit , which also by its own specifike powers doth serv and obey it ; and likewise order and govern the proper elementary mistion that it requireth , which accordingly doth serv and obey it naturaly , with all suavity and facility : and thus as the imagination doth more spiritualy and sensitively irradiate the species , whereby it doth perceptively contemplate them ; so the appetite doth also sensitively enliven the spirits , whereby it doth spontaneously guide and govern them without any violence or reluctance ; unless their happen some d●stemper and disorder among them : and i suppose , that as there are these confederacys and combinations between spirits , according to the scale of nature and oeconomy therof , so also there is a subordinate approximation , though no participation , communication , or confusion , of their different natures ; and that the proper vegetative spirit of any sensitive animal is farr more excellent and spiritual then of any grass , herb , or tree ; and of superior sensitives more then of inferior ; as of fowls more then of fishes , and of beasts then fowls , and of man then any others : and so also that the proper elementary mistion which is subordinate to vegetatives , is more excellent and spiritual then any other elementary mistum ; and of superior vegetatives more then of inferior , and so of the vegetative bloud which is the instrument of sensitive life , as i have shewed , then any others whatsoever . iii. having thus largely discoursed of this very curious and mysterious way of sensation generaly , whereby to make way for the explication of the several kinds of particular sensations , i shall now also proceed to discours therof , and thereby to confirm this general doctrine of sensation . the senses are particularly five ; though they all subsist in the imagination , which is seated in the brain , as i shall shew heerafter , but they are rightly thus di●●inguished , becaus they are realy several in themselvs ; for oisters , and some such imperfect sensitives , have some of them , and not others , which they want not only actualy , but also potentialy ; so that an oister may be no more termed blind , or deaf , then a stone : and thus , though in every classis all the several species of that classis have such generical spirits and qualitys , as denominate and make them to be of that classis ; as oisters have sensation generaly , and therefore are sensitive animals genericaly as well as beasts , or any most excellent sensitive ; yet their proper sensation is specifical , and specificaly different ; as every grass , herb , and tree , is vegetative , and yet every one of them , and every kind therof , hath a proper specifical spirit , and qualitys ; as apparently they have their specifical plastical virtues , which do so severaly effigiate them , and the like : and so also have sensitives , so farr as they are specificaly different , their several ways or maners of sensation , as may also appear by the several formation , quantity , and quality , or temper of their brains , and organs ; as the eys of some insects are not movable , and then they are multocular , as well as many of them multipedous ; and biocular animals have also their eys of several figures , and coats , and temperatures ; and thus there are some such generical differences which vary the classis ; and they are greatest and widest , as intellective , sensitive , vegetative , and elementary ; and some that vary the species more or less subalternately , as fishes , fowls , and beasts ; and of fishes , oisters , and whales : and accordingly their specifical differences are more or less , but all less then classicaly generical ; and some that only vary the individuality , as the particular individuality and oeconomy of every compositum ; among which also there may be more or less of the same specifical qualitys , but such as doth not vary the species , and therefore is least of all ; as myopes do not see in such maner as others of the same species , and yet their sight is specificaly the same with other mens sight . and thus , as i have said , nothing of any one classis doth , or can , partake of that which makes a classical difference in others ; for then they should not classicaly differ , nor any of one species of the proper specifical difference of another , nor any one individuum of the individuality of another , otherwise they should not so differ ; nor of the differences of their spirits and qualitys , whereby only we can know them , otherwise we could not so know them , nor affirm them to differ : but contrarily every individuum doth partake of the specifical difference , and every species of the classical difference therof ; otherwise they should not be of the same species , or classis . and thus the senses are more genericaly five , and may be more specificaly as many as there are several species of sensitives , as well as they are individualy as many as there are several sensitive individua . and wheras they are so said to be fivefold according to their fivefold several organs , that is , their external organs , eys , ears , and the like , which also the scripture doth often mention as such , generaly and comprehensively ( as it doth deliver almost all things of natural philosophy in that general maner , according to the first system therof , and leav particulars to our farther search and study ) ; yet if we farther inquire into them , we shall find that the nervs , and brain , and elementary qualitys , or animal spirits therin , and the proper vegetative spirit , and virtues therof , are also internal organs , that is , instruments of sensation , as well as eys , and ears , and the like corporeal organs , which are external : and indeed the several organs do not make the senses several , but rather the several senses do require such several organs : for the corporeal organ of tact is the whole body , or all the nervs , which are tactive , and every organ of the fower other senses must have tact or feeling , which is the sens of all senses , as the organ therof is the organ of all their organs ; and so is the object therof , which we therefore call the fower first qualitys ( though otherwise they are not first more then others , as i have shewed ) ; and wheras the objects of all the other senses are compounded of some such other first qualitys , and probably cannot exist without some fitt mistion of these fower first qualitys also , as subordinately and fundamentaly requisite in their composition , though they are not immediately compounded therof : so likewise the object of this sens , as it is in itself , is not all , or any of these fower first qualitys severaly , but a mistion or composition of them , as well as the objects of all the other senses are mist and compounded of their several principles : for indeed any of these fower first and simple qualitys are too vehement sensibles , in themselvs which would destroy the senses , yea and all sensible things , and one another ; and therefore , as i have said , never exist actualy without such a mistion , as their elementary spirits were so mist in the three first days , before which no vegetative or sensitive nature could be produced , and so must continue as long as this present nature , and from the original generation unto the final corruption therof . also all the organs , both external , and internal , do require the vegetative spirit , and virtues therof , plasticaly to form them , and temper their elementary qualitys , and also to actuate and produce their animal spirits , as i have shewed : and this i conceiv to be the very organism of all the organs of sensation , and instrumentalitys of the sensitive spirit , wherin as tact or feeling is ingredient , as i said , so it is in itself the fundamental , and lest fallible , and as it were corporeal sens ; yet contact of bodys , ( as it is said , that nothing can touch or be touched but only bodys , and so indeed there must be a contact of all bodys without any discontinuity or vacuity , as i have shewed ) which is corporeal , and tact which is spiritual , do very much differ : for so heat by its emanant rays may be felt at a very great distance without corporeal contact , as well as light , or color , may be so seen ; and yet it is also true , that as no other operation , so also no sensation can be without contact corporeal or spiritual . now wheras all sensation is performed in the brain , it is somwhat strange to conceiv how any sensible object , yea the most pure and spiritual , should arrive thither through all the body , and the nerval succus , and all the maeandrous passages therof ; which certeinly is not by the bodys therof , that can not so penetrate and pass , and if they should , would rather disturb and confound the brain ; nor by any effluvia therof , which are also bodys , though more rare and subtile ; nor only by their emanations , for not only sapors , and o●ors , which are effluent , and light , and heat , which are emanant , but cold , and drines , which are not effluent , nor yet discovered to be emanant , or very litle , are sensed ; and so also sound , which certeinly is neither effluent , nor emanant , but transient : but the sensible objects caus sensation by actuating their like qualitys in the body , or some fit● and immediate standard therin , as i shall now shew , and not by motion and puls of the brain , as i shall shew heerafter ; nor by any such gross and corporeal contact , or less spiritual way , but such as is the most pure and spiritual , wherof any elementary nature is capable , that is , by those very wonderfull animal spirits in the nervs , as most similar and fitt instruments of the sensitive spirit , and which , as i conceiv , are severaly prepared in the several nervs by the vegetative spirit , that doth so effigiate and qualify the external organs , and also these internal instrumentalitys , whereby all the nervs are furnished and instructed with their proper spirits ; and then the external object or species therof operating upon the standard by univocal generation of like qualitys , and they touching upon the nervs , do irradiate , excite , and actuate them ; whereby they having the types therof alway potentialy in themselvs , like a needle touched with a magnet , are suddenly , but not instantaneously as is supposed , quickned , and enlivened as it were , from that very contact to the brain . and this is evidently seen in juglers feats of activity , as they are called , being so very quick and nimble , that they will throw a small black ball out of one hand into another before your eys , and yet you shall not see it : and so in the common experiment of a firestick moved swiftly round , which seems to make a firewheel or whole circle therof , though certeinly the stick be only in one and the same point in the same instant : wherefore as the emanation of light and color , though it be most swift and momentaneous , yet is not instantaneous ; so much less the sensation of sight , which requires some time , for the species not only to pass from the contact to the nerv , but also to irradiate and excite the animal spirits therin ; which plainly are so excited and actuated thereby in the nervs , becaus when the firestick passeth away from one point to another , yet the ey seeth it in that point from which it hath passed , untill it return thither again through the whole circle ; wheras the emanant ray of the light of the fire always is , and passeth away simultaneously , with the inherent light in the body of the firestick : and therefore the species in the nervs , while it is newly irradiated and actuated , is more strong and vivid then afterward : but the ray being past and gone , the vision cannot be immediately by that , but must be by something more immediate , which , as i suppose , can be none other then what i have assigned ; that is , the irradiating actuacting and evoking of the vi●ive animal spirit , and the like species therin by the sensible species ; as the sun by illustrating the moon doth actuate and evoke the native light which is potentialy in the moon itself , as i have shewed : and this sensation of the senses , which is by the instrumentality of the sensorious nervs , is that first sensation , wherof i discoursed before , whereby a man seeth another man directly , or his own face in a glass reflexively ; and which is therefore so bright and vivid , becaus the irradiation , and actuation is immediately by the contact of the real sensible itself ; wheras the other , that is by imagination or contemplation of phantasms in the animal spirits in the brain , is but as a spectre or apparition in respect therof , becaus it hath no such irradiation by the object itself , but is only actuated by the vegetative spirit , and then irradiated by the imagination , as i conceiv ; becaus as the sensitive spirit cannot immediately consubstantiate the elements without the mediation of the vegetative spirit , so neither can it operate without the mediation therof : for as things are in being , so they are in operation ; as plainly the intellective spirit of man in this conjunct state cannot operate without the mediation of the sensitive spirit ; and so of the rest , according to the scale of nature . also i conceiv that wheras this operation of the senses , which is by elementary upon elementary , that is , of sensibles upon the animal spirits , is by immediate contact of the sensibles ; and so light enters into the ey , and sound into the tympanum of the ear , and odors into the nares , and sapors into the substance of the spongy tong , and the flesh and whole temper of the body ▪ is the standard of feeling : for unless we do admitt emanations of cold , moisture , and drines also as well as of heat , i cannot conceiv how the object itself and the tactive nervs can come together , whereby there may be any contact between them , without which certeinly there can be no operation ; for when i touch a cold s●one with my fingers ends , or other part of my body , there are some cuticles , if not flesh , between it and the tactive nervs ; so that there cannot possibly be any contact : nor can the inherent cold in the stone pass through the pores unto the nervs any more then the stone itself , in which it is inherent : and though it is true , that if a very fine linen cloth be girt hard and smooth about a polished agat haft of a knife , and a live coal laid upon the linen cloath , it will not easily burn it , being defended by the cold agat ; and so there may be some such short emanations of those qualitys , which are therefore less noted , then of heat , and light , and the like , which are so longinquous , and thereby more notable ; yet i conceiv that the immediate contact is between the flesh and nervs . and it is to be observed , and well examined , what others affirm , that there may be motive animal spirits , and yet no tactive spirits in the same nervs ; and there are historical instances of some such men who could work with their hands as well as ever , and yet not feel , though they were pinched , pricked , or cutt ; which i cannot deny , according to my former hypothesis : for so i suppose , that several animal spirits being only spiritual qualitys , may be in the same nerval succus , and substance , per omnia ; and therefore also one kind therof may actualy be without the other , ( as actual heat without light ) ; but then i suppose , that the sens of feeling being fundamental , there cannot be any other sensorious organ and nervs in the body of any such man , without it , as the eys , ears , nares , tong , and the like . and it is also to be inquired , whether in such a body the flesh , which is the standard , be not mortified or benummed ? and then there can be no sensation , though the tactive , as well as the motive spirits , be sound and perfect in the nervs : and the constant temperament of the flesh , though it be also a misture of the fower first qualitys , is not felt , becaus it is so equal , and natural , that it is also suitable to the crasis of the body , and likewise of the nervs , and tactive spirits therin , and so doth not offend , or any way affect them , whereby there should be any such feeling therof , as when it is any way distempered ; and as we feel any excess of heat , cold , moisture , or drines , in the flesh itself , so if any other tactible object , which is external , be unequal and excessive in any of those qualitys , or otherwise not in every respect of all other sensibility such as is in the flesh itself , it doth more or less offend or affect it whereby it is felt ; and so the temperament of the flesh is the standard , which is varied by the univocal generation of any such sensible qualitys therin , which immediately touch upon the nervs , and from that contact , and irradiation of the animal spirits in the nervs , the sensibility passeth to the brain , where the sensation is performed . thus sens , which is itself a spiritual and living faculty , requireth its own more immediate standard , and most refined spiritual● qualitys , or animal spirits , and the spiritualy plastical virtue of the vegetative spirit , in the spiritual operation of any sensation ; as i have shewed in this sens of feeling ( which is most gross , and more corporeal then others ) and shall farther shew in all the other senses , and their sensations . the next sens to feeling is tasting ; which therefore some have supposed to be only another maner of feeling ; and it is indeed by immediate contact between the sapid juice and the tong , which hath also a saliva , that is , the standard therof , being in itself indifferent to any sapor , but when it is infected by the sapid liquor doth convey it to the gustative nervs , whereby the sensation is performed , as i have shewed : yet certeinly , as sapor is a different sensible from all or any of the fower first qualitys ( though there be some mistion therof in the juice , that may be felt by the organ of tasting , which is also tactive , by another sensation ) so is tast a different sens from tact : and though all the body doth feel , yet it doth not therefore tast , but only the tong , or palat , and this sensation is most sensitively and exactly performed by the cuspis of the tong , where the gustative nervs meet together ; as the tactive do in the fingers ends of a man , or tail of an eel : and in the whole tong there is as it were a source of moisture , keeping it alway moist , and ready to issue forth , to temper any dry , and convey any actualy moist sapors to the nervs : and if the sapid meat or drink be not in the mouth , but distant from it , yet the appetite doth stirr up salivation , which is prepared to receiv it : whereby we may observ that combination and confederacy between several natures which i have often mentioned , and which is indeed the true sympathy , and the contrary therof the true antipathy in nature . the next sens is smelling ; which also is as like to tasting , as odor , which is the object therof , is like to sapor , which is the object of tasting ; and as sapor is in the grosser liquor , and odor in the vapor , so i suppose , that there is some inodorous vapor in the nares , or mammillary processes , which is the standard of this sens of smelling , as the saliva is of tasting ; though it is more subtile , and not so discernible : and though perhaps the very body of vapor may pass into the brain , and though also sensation be , as i said , in the brain , yet i do not conceiv that there is any smelling thereby , and more then when odorous vapors descend into the stomach , but that this sensation also is performed like all the rest ; that is , the odorous vapor entring into the tonell of the nares , and passing thereby to the mammillary processes , is there mett and received by some such mammillary vapor or exudation , and so conveyed to the olfactive nervs therin , and thereby to the brain , where the sensation is performed , by this way only , and not by the other without it . nor are the nares the immediate organ of smelling , but only the tonell , as i said , to convey the odorous vapor to the m●mmillary processes , which are the very organ therof ; as all the senses , except feeling , ( wherof the organ is the whole body ) have , besides their several external organs , such atria or avenues to conduct the sensible unto the sensorious nervs . so the mouth is a cavern , and the nares , as i said , are a tonell , and the ears . anfractuous passages , and the vvea hath a foramen , beside the spherical figure of the ey , which causeth the rays to converge toward it . also it is observed , that as vegetative nutrition is performed in the lower coquine of the stomach , so sensation is in the capitol of the brain ; and the organs of the superior and more excellent senses are higher and neerer to it . th●s feeling is principaly by the fingers , and the tong is higher then them , and the mammillary processes above that , and the ears above them ; and the eys above them all . also the ears are double ; not only as the nares , which are bipartite ( having a bridg to strengthen them being such a prominent part , and chief ornament of the face , and both their for amina meet again above it ) but standing asunder on each side of the head , to receiv sound , which is circumferentialy diffused ▪ and so there are two eys , to receiv light and colors : and this double provision is made for these two scientifical senses , so as their sensations may be performed by one alone without the other , though not so completely ; for as by shutting one ey , and contracting the vvea of the other , we see more distinctly , so we see less of the object in latitude ; and common sight is by both eys together ; so that if an object be placed at the tip of the nose , you cannot well see it with both eys at the same time ; becaus both of them moving together , as one turns toward it , the other turns from it ; wheras , if the object be more remote the rays come more equaly , and less transversly , to both the eys . yet though hearing and seing be such high and noble senses , they are not performed in the brain only , like imagination , and appetition , but have their more external organs , and standards : for so hearing needeth ears ; and there is also an aura in the tympana , which is a pure , calm , and silent air , included in them , wherunto the external sound approaching , doth propagate an internal sound in it , as in the s●andard ( wherin all sounds were before potentialy , as well as in the open air ) and the sound is spiritualy propagated in it , as in the open air , as i have shewed ; and not by any new collision or beating on the tympana , as hath been supposed . and so sight hath not only its external organs , the eys , ( which have a very quick and tender feeling , and are very curiously composed ) but also a standard therin , as i shall now shew . certeinly sight is not by any such intentional species emitted , as the antients supposed ; for the eys , as well as the organs of all the fower other senses , are made more fitt for reception then emission ; and the light , which doth irradiate the colorate object , doth manifestly with its reflected rays bring back the actuated species therof to the eys , and so intromitt them ; and therefore there is no need of any such extramission ; though indeed in seing we seem to see the object outwardly , where it realy is , rather then inwardly , where it is not : which , i suppose , was the ground of that error : wheras it is the sens within , which doth behold the object without , by conjunction of both the internal and external lights , as i shall shew afterward . wherefore others consydering that the external ligh● doth penetrate the whole ey , even to the retina , and fundus , have perswaded themselvs that the vision is there performed : but then we should see visu inverso , backwardly , and not forwardly , as indeed we do : and becaus the rays do intersect in the ey above the fundus , wherin they are inverted , we should see the image of the object situ inverso , as indeed we do not . but i conceiv the true maner of vision to be both by intromission of the external light , and extramission of an internal light , meeting therewith in the ey , though not passing out of it ; whereby the species of the object is doubly refined , that is , first by the external light irradiating it , and abstracting from it the colorous species ( which are not emanant of themselvs , nor sensible , as emanant heat , but must be thus first purified and abstracted by the external light ) and then again the internal light in the ey meeting it , and being irradiated and affected thereby , as the standard of sight , hath its own potential species , which are yet more pure and spiritual , actuated in itself ; as well as in the standards of all the other senses , as i have before shewed . and this meeting or conjunction of both these lights , is , as i suppose , in or about the crystalline humor , which physicians rightly term , speculum oculi ; though we do not see the image therin reflected from the retina , and fundus , where it is inverted ; for then again we should see it inverted : but we see it foreright and direct , according to the refracted rays of the external light intromitted , and extramission of the internal light , there meeting with it , as i have said ; as when we look through perspicills or spectacles : and though indeed in a speculum which is plane or convex , as the crystalline humor is , we see the reflected image foreright and direct , according to the natural maner of vision ; yet we see it as the object itself is , and not inverted , as we should by such double reflection , as i have shewed : and such double reflection would too much weaken the species , and hinder vision . now that there is such an internal light , which being incolorous in itself , is the standard of sight , as i have said , is acknowledged by physicians , who call it the bright spirit of the ey , which though in a dead ey it be extinct , and doth not appear , yet is manifest by the great difference heerin between a living and a dead ey : and you may easily deprehend it in your own living ey , by depressing and distorting the vitreous humor in the hinder part therof ▪ whereby you shall perceiv a golden ring of light , with a dark meditullium in the midst therof ; which will not so appear by depressing and distorting the aqueous humor in the forepart of the ey , wherin this internal light is not , but in the vitreous humor ; which is next to the optike nervs : and by such depression and distortion , as also by any great blow upon the ey , it is conspissa●ed , and rendred visible ; yea the sun , or any vehement lucidity , if you behold it long , will so irradiate and actuate the internal light , that it will not soon be extinguished afterward : which also plainly shews , how external species of sensible objects may irradiate and actuate the internal , as i have said , so as they shall continue some time after the objects themselvs , and their species , are removed . and the dark meditullium is the crystalline lens , which by such depression and distortion of the ey is rendred v●sible , though otherwise it be only the diaphanum of the external light , and as it were a speculum to the internal sight . having premised this hypothesis of the most natural and direct way of vision , i recommend it , as i do all others , to more exact and farther examination : and as i have formerly presented optike , as a very scientifical study , or philosophical light , i shall heer transgress the bounds of a general system , in some more particular observations , and physical conceptions therof ; becaus indeed i find optike so much mistaken by others , and made a particular mathematical science ; though it be no more mathematical , then astronomy ; which certeinly is distinct and very different from geometry , or uranometry , which is only assistant and subservient unto it . so though actinometry be assistant and subservient to optike , becaus the rays from point to point pass , as i have said , in most direct mathematical lines , yet the inflection therof at the points , either by refraction , or reflection , which is properly optical , is purely physical and spiritual ; and not so well understood , and therefore commonly pretermitted : but though the spiritual nature therof be very various and may seem to be contrary ; yet that is from contrary reasons , which , if rightly understood , will be found most regular and proportionable in that very variety , and contrariety ▪ the light , which is not corporeal , but spiritual , as i have shewed , is actus visibilis , & diaphani ; and is naturaly of itself emanant from the center of inherent light to the circumference of the sphere of emanation , which is the sphere of its activity ; but by some contrary opacity in the more or less opacum , or diaphanum , is more or less reflected , or refracted : yet the air , which is the natural diaphanum , and medium of sight , causeth very litle refraction , and no visible intersection of the rays ; as i have observed of fower several colors from fower several walls of a rome , crossing one another , which yet are seen in any point of the room severaly and distinctly , without any visible intersection , and inversion , or confusion thereby ; such as appears in it afterward through water or glass , and the like , which are no natural , but artificial media of sight ; and in both we see not by any intersecting rays which pass over the ey . and though air be much more dens , yet perhaps not much more opacou● then aether , but is as a medium , neither lucid , nor very opacous ; and i suppose the opacity that is in it , is more from the waters above , or vapors , then from itself , which is an expansum as well as aether : and it is opacity that refracts , and reflects , more then density , as ink doth more then other water , or glass , though as dens and heavy . thus i conceiv the reason , why the sun , or full moon , rising , or setting , seem so much greater , to be from the vapors in the airy atmosphere ( as a small vessel at sea , in misty weather , will seem as bigg as a greater ship , in sude weather , at the same distance ) and the prospect of them horizontaly through the vapors may be as farr as a line of vision from them to the ey may be tangent on the globe of the earth : and this also makes them seem more red , by local union of their rays of light with the more opacous and dens vapors : as if you hold leaf gold against the sun , and so look through it , you shall see it green , by the union of its yellow with its own opacity and density : but the sun at mid-day , and moon at m●dnight , are seen less , and more bright ; becaus the prospect of them then is through a less space of the vaporous atmosphere , which is not so great , as the sensible horizon of the earth ; and as the vapors ascend higher , they are less opacous and dens ; as appears by an open weather-glass , at the bottom , or top , of a steeple : and a man , standing on the top of a steeple , seems less , then at the same distance on the ground ; which is partly from the same , and partly from another reason ; becaus we see him perpendicularly on the top of the steeple , and more hemisphericaly on the ground ; as if we look from the bottom of a steeple perpendicularly to the top therof , it will seem shorter , and neerer , then if we stand at a like distance from the bottom , and behold it more hemisphericaly ; which is the natural maner of vision , as i shall shew heerafter . again , as the sun at midday may be wholy obnubilated by a thick cloud , and not seen at all , so he may be so partly veiled by a more thin cloud , that we may see his disk , but less then when we see him in a clear sky , with the halo and lustre of his rays about him . and thus venus , or mercury , or other starrs , rising , or setting , may appear less ; becaus their less lights are partly so veiled , though not wholy obnubilated , by the very vaporous atmosphere : for according to the several degrees of the opacity and density of the media , and more or less lucidity of the objects , so they are seen greater , or less , respectively and proportionably . and thus not only external , but also internal vapors , as in drunken men , may magnify objects . but there is a very great refraction in the organ of the ey , which is therefore so composed , to temper the vehement lucidity of the rays ; and also by that refraction , the rays converge , and are contracted , in and by the spherical figure of the ey , whereby the greatest objects may be seen in small . and as there is no visible intersection and inversion in the air ( as babys in the cornea , which are erect images , and not inverted , do plainly shew ) so neither in the ey itself , after the point of incidence in the cornea , where the rays are so reflected ; and also pass through it and the foramen vveae , into the crystalline humor , whereby they are refracted , and converge , untill after and beyond the point of exidence ; from and out of which they intersect , and are inverted , as i suppose , in the vitreous humor : for the aqueous humor is as a convexoconcave glass in itself , whose convexity doth caus to converge , and concavity to diverge ; and being contiguous with the crystalline lens , they are opticaly both as it were one continuous glass , or the like , with some small difference between them ; that is , the crystalline is somewhat more opacous and dens , and so may refract , and caus to converge somewhat more , and to intersect somewhat sooner : and we may best conceiv of them both , as of a globule , or rather cylinder , of a glass vessel , whose upper part is filled with water , and lower part is solid glass , and having the upper extremity more convex then the neather : and i conceiv , that rays transmitted through such a short cylinder will not intersect , and be inverted , within the body therof , but beneath , and after the point of excidence , in the neather extremity therof ; ( and in the cylinder itself are only proportionably inflected and distended ) as if you look through a round glass vessell filled with water ( and , if you pleas , also let down a lens into it hanging by a string ) and place the flame of a candle before it , and then apply your ey behind it , you shall see the image of the flame erect , and not inverted ; though it is true , that if you look behind the dead oxes ey , in the foramen of a dark room , you shall see the image of the object inverted ; becaus you look behind the vitreous humor therof , wherin i suppose the intersection and inversion to be ; and probably in or about the center of the ey , which may be below the superficies of such a sphere , wherof the gibbus in the cornea is a portion or segment ; and i conceiv , that the irradiation and actuation of the species in the internal light , by the external , and conjunction therwith , is before the first intersection and inversion of the rays therof in the ey ; becaus we thereby see the image of the object erect , and not inverted ; and the internal light , being so irradiated , and having its species already actuated in itself , by the conjunction with the external light , is no farther concerned therin , nor in the intersection and inversion therof afterward in the retina , then in the babys in the cornea ; and that it seeth nothing behind it , or backward , but only forward ; which is the very natural way of vision ; and the immediate vision is by its own species so actuated in the internal light , as the standard ; as in all other sensations , as i have shewed : and as the aqueous humor is the organical and immediate medium , for the transmission of the external light , so is the vitreous humor of the internal light : and as we see nothing in the air , which is the most natural and common medium , so neither in these organical media , ordinarily , and according to nature ; unless they be violently distorted , or infected . wherefore we do not see the image of the object inverted , and reflected from the retina , as i have said : for if we did so , we should also see the retina itself , and concavity of the vitreous humor ; as when we see an image in a speculum , we also see the speculum ; or on the white paper in a dark room , we also see the paper , and that part of the room . having thus farr consydered the natural way of vision , i shall now proceed to consyder refraction , and reflection , also in order to vision : which to explicate visibly and ocularly , let experiment , therof be made by lights of candles set one neer to another ; and first place a convex lens against the midst of the candles , at such a distance as we usualy read ; and apply your ey to the lens , as nigh as we do spectacles to the eys ; and you shall see all the candles standing asunder , as wide as a line of the page of a book , and somwhat greater , but not altogether so clear and bright as with the open ey , as we do thus see by reading with spectacles . of which invention this is the use and benefit , that though they make the letters to appear somwhat more dim , yet in reading small prints , it is recompensed with the advantage of making them them to appear conveniently great ; wheras they are not so usefull in beholding greater objects , or at a farther distance : and probably presbytae , or old men , who need spectacles , have their eys , or crystalline lentes , too much deprest , or otherwise so figured , whereby the intersection , and focus of the rays , is to farr below in the vitreous humor ▪ for the best vision is neither too neer to the focus , or concours , where the confusion is ; nor too farr from it , where the species are less , as i shall shew heerafter . then if you draw back your ey from the lens , being held at a convenient distance between the candles and your ey , you shall see only one candle , and the flame therof greater and greater , and more and more dim , untill you come to the focus ; becaus the rays , being refracted through the convex lens , do converge to the focus , and the rays of the collateral candles first intersect , and pass over the ey and crystalline humor ; and so , not meeting with the internal light , are not seen ; but the rays of that candle , which is seen , being more perpendicular , pass into the ey and crystalline humor , whereby it is seen ; and they alone so passing into it , and being distended by the refraction , are diluted and weakned , and become more dim ; and also by their distention , their objective base is enlarged , and the sight of them is under a larger or greater angle of vision , whereby they seem greater , as i shall shew heerafter . and at , and about the focus , where the visible intersection is in a very odd maner , as i shall also shew heerafter , there is a confusion of the rays , and no distinct image of the flame , but only a glaring light. and as you draw your ey farther back from it , you shall begin to see the image inverted , and proportionably as great behind the focus , as before it , and so less and less , and more and more distinct , untill it begin to be rotundated into the spherical light of the rays , and so disappear and vanish away into them . again , if laying aside the convex lens , you place a concave lens instead therof , as you did first before , and so look through it , you shall see all the candles , but much less , and more clear and bright ; becaus the rays , passing through it , do diverge ; and therefore myopes use such concave spectacles becaus their eys , or crystalline lentes , are too spherical , or otherwise so figured , as that the intersection in the ey is too high in the vitreous humor , whereby the internal light meeting with the external , in confusion of the rays , or too neer unto it , the concave spectacles do prolong the intersection , and make it to be lower , whereby they see more distinctly . and the more you draw back your ey from the concave lens , you shall see all the candles still less and less , from the contrary reason of divergence ; and very clearly , becaus so many rays of them all come together into the ey , and so illustrate and fortify one another . but there is no intersection or inversion seen by looking through any concave lentes ; becaus there is no such convergence , as by convex lentes . thus you may also try by a covex lens before a concave , or concave before a convex , or with a convexoconcave , planoconvex , or planoconcave lens , or with globules , or prisms , or the like , as you pleas ; whereby you shall better satisfy your self , then can be expressed in any diagramms . and particularly , you may try with the perspective tube , or telescope , which was the happy invention of all the advantages of seing at a great distance , and whereby all the disadvantages are mutualy remedied ; that is , the convergence of the rays doth magnify , and enlarge the objective base , according to the proportion of those few rays , which arrive to , and meet with the internal light ; and the divergence therof again , before the intersection , doth also widen the angle of vision , and render them more parallel , and direct ; and as the perpendicular ray itself , or axis of vision , so all collateral rays , as they are more pependicular , and less oblique , are more visible , strong , and clear . again , let the planoconvex , or planoconcave lentes , be lined , behind on the plane side , with black paper , or the like ; and first place the other side of the planoconvex lens toward one candle , and you shall see the principal image of the flame , which penetrates the glass , less ; and , as you draw back the lens , still less and less reflected from the fundus , or black paper , and erect ; though there may be also ( especialy if you hold the lens somwhat obliquely ) another image therof , reflected only from the superficies , and dancing about it ; which will be inverted , as i have shewed : and the erect image in this , or any plane speculum , though the profundity therof be very litle , seems to penetrate it as much forward , as the object is backward , or behind the ey ; for the natural way of vision being , as i said , foreright , we seem to see the reflected images of objects behind , as if they were before , and as farr before as they are behind , or proportionably according to the position of the ey between the speculum and the object : for we immediately see the image , and the object mediately by it : and yet as it penetrates the diaphanous speculum , and is reflected from the fundus , we see it according to the longitude of the ray reflected from the object to the speculum , if the ey be neer to it , becaus we also see the object mediately by it . also the penetration of the speculum by the ray is consyderable ; for if it be too profund , it doth not only diminish the visible longitude , but drown the brightnes and color of the image ; as if you look into a deep water , you shall see only a dark shadow of your self ; wheras in a more shallow water , you may see more bright colors of the reflected image ; but i suppose the dark shadow which appears in more deep water is , becaus the brightnes is extinguished thereby , and the rays which penetrate it , are drowned in it : but if the object be lucid , as the flame of a candle , or sun , moon , or starr , they may appear otherwise ; becaus by their great lucidity they overcome the opacity and density of the deep water . also it is to be observed , that the object at the bank or limbus of a river or speculum is seen inverted , according to longitude ; becaus the feet , which are next to it , are seen upper , and the head , that is farther , is seen neather ; and as your ey draweth neerer to the object , or that to your ey , so it will appear more and more erect : but it is never seen inverted , according to latitude , as in a concave speculum , whereby the right side shall be seen left , and the left right . but if you take away the planoconvex lens , and instead therof place the planoconcave lens , so as before , you shall see the object , if you look very neer , much magnified , by the divergence of the rays therof ; and , as you draw it farther back , less and less . also as before , in the very fundus of the concavity to which the rays pass more directly , and where they so penetrate the speculum , as well as if it were convex , or plane , you may see one erect image ; wheras , if the concave speculum be not diaphanous , but opacous , and only polite , as of steel , or the like , you shall see no such erect image therin ; but only inverted , so as you shall see others reflected only from , and dancing about the superficies of the concave speculum ; becaus they do not penetrate the diaphanum therof , but being reflected first from the limbus , and back again from the sides to the ey , are thereby inverted , as i have shewed . and if you behold the inverted image in the concave speculum obliquely , it may seem to come toward the ey ; becaus it doth not penetrate , and pass forward , as the erect image ; but you shall alway see it before , and never behind , though the object be behind you . thus as there are primary and secondary rays of light , as i have formerly shewed , so also species of colors , or images ; that is , the primary species are of fixed colors , which are seen objectively , as they are , and where they are , ( if there be no other impediment ) ; and the secondary species are of desultory colors , or images , whereby the objects are seen as they are not , and where they are not , according to the variation of the rays , as i have shewed . but as we see no images in the natural medium , as spectres in the air ; so neither in the natural organ of the ey , unles it be violently distorted , as i have shewed , or be infected , as with the jaundise , or the like , or have motes and suffusions in it , wherof the erect images do appear foreright without the ey , becaus they penetrate the apex of the concave cornea , like the erect image in the fundus of a concave speculum , as i have shewed . and now i shall proceed farther to shew the differences between refraction and reflection ; and how vision is immediately by refraction , and only mediately by reflection of rays , or images : for refraction is more instrumentaly visive , according to which we see through the organ and medium foreright , but reflection is more objective , according to which we see the object by the reflected image therof forwardly , but never backwardly , as i have said . refraction , as is commonly observed , if it be through a more opacous and dens medium , is ad perpendiculum , according to the point of incidence ; and through a less opacous and dens medium , it is a perpendiculo , that is , it s own perpendicular line , according to the point of excidence ; and so the rays , though they diverge from their own perpendicula according to the points of excidence , yet converge to the common perpendiculum according to their points of incidence ; whereby after they have passed through the more opacous and dens medium into the other , which is l●ss opacous and dens , they intersect and are decussated forward , as reflected rays do intersect and are decussated backward : for so the several lines of incidence intersect , and are decussated through their several lines of reflection ; but then the first reflected is intersected by the second incident ray , and so in order one after another ( as we may conceiv therof , though in truth it is the continuous flux of light , as i have said , which is reflected after such a maner ; otherwise we should see the reflected image only as so many several points , such as children prick out to make faces in paper , and not as one continuous picture ) wheras in refraction , whereby the rays are not terminated and reverberated , as by reflection , but only converge , and so pass forward , the two utmost oblique rays first intersect one another , and so the next , and the next , in an odd maner ; and somwhat like to lines of contingence , or such as are tangent upon the several points of a sphere . and now again , for more sensible explanation , let a convex lens be placed against the flame of one candle , as before , ( whereby the intersection may be seen on a white paper ) and let the paper be so placed as to receiv and reflect it ( which may discover all these optical experiments , as well as if they were made in the dark room , for the reason is the same , and though the room be not so dark , yet the flame being so very lucid doth sufficiently manifest them ) thus if the lens be somwhat neer to the candle , and ●he paper to the lens , you shall see first a glaring light , and confusion , by that odd intersection of the refracted rays , converging , and passing through the lens , and then reflected on the paper : and as you draw the paper farther back from the lens , you shall begin to see a greater image of the flame inverted , and so less and less , untill you see it least ; and then it is most bright and vivid , by conspissation of the rays : wheras if you look through the lens with your ey a● such distances , you shall first see the flame erect , and greater and greater , untill you come to that distance where it was least on the paper ; and there looking through the lens , you shall see the glaring light and confusion ; whereby it plainly appears , that sight , which is by such looking through the ey , forward , and not backward , is not by intuition of the reflected image in the retina , but by the direct species of the object refracted through the crystalline lens ; otherwise we should see the object least , where we see it greatest : and though the image be inverted in the retina after the intersection , yet the species is erect in the crystalline humor , before it ; whereby we see the object erect , as i have shewed . and as i have formerly observed , so it may appear by the image reflected on the white paper , that the farther the object is from the lens before it , the neerer is the intersection behind it , and the neerer the farther ; and the more convex the lens is , like the crystalline humor , the difference is the less ; and it is greatest at first , and less afterward ; so that there appears no great difference in the distances of the focus of the sun , and moon , through the same lens , reflected on a white paper , though the distances of the sun , and moon , themselvs , be vastly different ; and though their several diameters also be as different , yet there appears litle difference therof in their foci ; whence some usefull observations may be collected , which i leav to astronomers ; and shall only opticaly observ , that where the object , and consequently the intersection in the ey , are at the fittest distance , there is the meta of sight , and most distinct and clear vision ; which also varys according to the several figures of several eys , and neerer or farther to or from that meta , we see less distinctly and clearly , as i shall shew afterward . again , if you take away the convex , and instead therof place a concave lens , as before , between the candle and the paper , you shall begin to see an image of the flame inverted , but less then through the convex lens , and not erect , as through the planoconcave lens , becaus the refracted rays diverge both ways through this ambiconcave lens , and penetrate through no such planities , nor are reflected from the fundus , as in the other : and as this inverted image appears less and less , so where it is least , you may plainly see it environed with a halo about it , which is by the divergence of the collateral rays : and i conceiv that vision through a concave glass is according to those rays which so diverge thereby , and not according to the litle image reflected on the paper ; but i suppose , that it being inverted and intersecting farr neerer then that through the convex glass , the rays therof , which are doubly reflected to and from the limbus , as i have shewed , and so penetrate the fundus , which is inmost , and pass unto the paper , where the second reflection is , do in the ey pass over the crystalline lens ; and therefore we do not see thereby , and these are much weaker then the other , in their focus , where they burn farr less through a concave , then through a convex lens : and so are the inverted images , which dance about the superficies more feint and weak , then the erect , which penetrate the profundity ; becaus such inversion is caused by double reflection , which doth weaken , as i have said : wheras single reflection through the lens doth more strengthen , by conspissation of the rays , and that also doth make the inverted image in the focus reflected on the paper very vivid , and more bright then such as dance about the superficies of the glass . but it is plain , that we do see through the concave lens only according to the diverging rays , becaus we do not see only the image of one object , as through a convex lens , but very many , and all erect , and never inverted : for divergence doth not caus intersection , nor inversion . but generaly after the most bright and least image reflected on the paper , either through the concave or convex lens , it begins again to be dispersed and disappear , by drawing back the paper farther beyond the focus , and so to rotundate itself , by returning to fill the natural sphere of light , though the flame of the candle be pyramidal . also it is generaly true , that all refraction , by passing through that contrary opacity and density of the diaphanous body , though it doth penetrate , and partly overcome it , yet doth also so farr thereby distend and dilate and weaken the refracted rays ; and by that union with the opacity and density , the diaphanum , with the light in it , is rendred partly objective and visible , and quas● colorous : but reflection of rays , which do not penetrate the superficies , or not very farr , but are terminated thereby , and made to converge , or reduplicated , doth illustrate and fortify them ; and therefore no convex burning glass can be made to burn so strongly , as a parabolicaly concave steel polite ; wherin , as there is no such disadvantage by refraction , so there are the advantages both of reduplication , and also of concursion of the rays to a point . now i shall consyder latitude , and longitude of vision ; which though they are also optical , and not only mathematical , yet they are opticaly proportionable one unto another , and both with magnitude . and i suppose that as the light is naturaly spherical , and that part of the ey , whereby we see forward , hemispherical ; so also that sight is according to an hemisphere , or some segment therof ; and that , as a lens , which is the segment of a larger circle , though it be therefore greater mathematicaly , yet is opticaly no more then a proportionable segment of a less circle ; so the objective base of the pyramis radiosa , whereby we see , being , as i said , an hemispherical segment , though it be of a greater circle , and proportionably greater , or more late , yet conteins no more objects , then of a less circle ; becaus both are proportionably circular , whether they be quadrants , or semiquadrants , or the like , of either circle : and as the optical segment is greater or more late , so the same objects conteined within it are seen greater proportionably , then if they be continued within the segment of a less circle ; but heerin the optical differs from the mathematical segment of a circle ; for the objects are seen greater through a more circular lens , if it be held neer to the ey , as in a common microscope , and proportionably according to the distance , and circumference of the lens , which must be greater and more late , if it be held farther , as in the telescope ; becaus they are seen fewer , when fewer rays therof pass into the ey , and more pass over ; and fewer rays passing into the ey always make a greater or more late optical segment , and are seen as great , as more objects together within that segment , when more rays pass into the ey . also the angle of vision , as they term it , is proportionable to the objective base ; for indeed it is not , nor can it be an angle of contingence , nor any perfect cone ( as an image can never be a point ) but a conoid , and somwhat late , proportionably according to the base of the pyramis radiosa : and so we are said to see more objects , under a wider mathematical angle ; but we see the same object greater or more late , under a more late optical angle , or conoid ; according to which we see more immediately in the ey itself , which is the standard of vision , both of the color , and also of the latitude , and longitude . also the longitude is proportionable to the latitude opticaly , rather then mathematicaly ; for though a larger circle hath always a longer diameter , yet as the optical segment and conoid are greater and more late , so the axis or diameter is shorter ; like a lens , which as it hath a more late superficies , hath a less profundity : and thus always , when we see the same object greater , we see it neerer , and less , farther . and becaus the natural way of vision is hemispherical , therefore if we see perpendicularly , as i said , that is , according to half the hemispere ; as if we lay our ey on a long plane table ; or standing on the shore , behold the sea ; or looking on the side of a brickwall , behold the white lines therof ; our vision is disturbed thereby : becaus the other rays , which do not come to the ey hemisphericaly , but rise toward and press upon the perpendicular axis of vision , do oppress and disturb it ; and so the object seems to rise higher , as the sea doth to the sight one way ; and the rays converging together toward the axis the other way , seem at length to meet , and terminate the sight , as the white lines of the brickwall . again in natural vision itself , there is an optical proportion to be consydered , according to the several figures of several eys , as i have said ; and so the meta of the most distinct vision is such , as that some read best farther , and some neerer , as myopes , who hold a book as neer to their ey as they may ; becaus the object being neerer , the intersection in the ey is somwhat farther and lower , as i have said before : and they are thus helped by concave glasses , as i suppose , rather then by the litle image which doth penetrate the fundus therof ; though i conceiv that presbytae are helped by the like image penetrating the convex glasses , which they use : but as the convergence by the convex glasses doth help them , whereby certeinly the intersection is neerer and higherin their eys ; so the divergence by the concave glasses doth help the other , whereby the intersection in their eys should be farther and lower ; as certeinly their common vision is very much neerer : and as in convex glasses , the utmost rays , which converge most , and so first intersect , do therefore pass over the ey , and only the rays of the image pass into it ; so also in concave glasses , the inmost rays of the image , which only converge , and intersect so soon , do therefore pass over it : but i referr this to the consyderation of myopes themselvs , who can better declare the experiment therof unto us , then we unto ourselvs , who have not their eys . yet i may very well suppose that according to the meta of vision , which is different in several men , according to the different figures of their eys , so the latitude and longitude of objects seen at the meta is proportionable opticaly , but not mathematicaly : for probably he that sees at the neerest meta , seeth as many objects within the latitude therof , and them visibly as farr in longitude , as he that seeth at the farthest , and so proportionably : and so as we all look beyond this meta of the most distinct vision , we see less distinctly ; becaus the intersection in the ey is somwhat varied thereby ; though not consyderably at any greater distance , as i have said : but i conceiv also , that becaus the rays which come into the ey being weaker as they are more distant do less affect the sight by its own internal light in the standard , therefore we see the objects less clearly and distinctly ; and if they be very remote , and not very lucid , we see them very confusedly ; and at last not at all ; that is , as farr as the v●sible lucidity of their rays doth pass , and no farther : thus as there is that , which i call the meta of the most distinct vision , so also a limes , or boundary of the utmost v●sion ; which if the o●jects be only colorate , as the earth , and earthy bodys , is not many miles distant from the ey , and as i suppose proportionable to the meta : but if the objects be more , or less lucid , as the sun , moon , and starrs , they may be seen proportionably farther : and yet as the intersection , so the latitude , and longitude , is not consyderable at any greater distance : for so if we look on the surface of the sea , we see the aether , and aethereal bodys therin , not much greater , nor farther proportionably ; but only see the aether beyond the sea , as we see ships at sea at a great distance , one beyond another , but very neer one to another , though they be farr distant one from another . also as the vigor of the rays is finite , and therefore less as they pass farther , so is the strength of vision itself ; and therefore if we look through an open tube with o●e ey , we see the same object , being but one , more clearly and distinctly , then if we see many objects with both our open eys ; though we see the one o●ject neither greater , nor neerer , so as we do through the telescope . and so though art may help nature in one respect , yet it hinders it in another ; and therefore also when we see objects greater , and neerer , through the telescope , we see them more dim then when we see as great , and as neer , with our open eys : for nature is universaly best in herself , and hath best consulted all those benefits together which she intendeth ; as i have observed of the three quantitys ; that what is gained by one is lost in another ; and so madmen are stronger then others , by a sudden and greater expens of spirits , but weaker afterward . and such artificial advantages of sight are only to be made use of upon particular occasions , and not constantly ; for they who use to read with spectacles cannot well read without them ; nor is it good to dilate the sight in reading by more light then is needfull , or to strain it in reading by less , or in too small prints , and the like : and of all others this most noble sens doth soonest decay , and while we enjoy it , is most liable to deception , as we term it ( though it be rather a natural infirmity ) becaus color , which is the object of sight , is not immediately visible in itself , but by light , wherof there may be so many several refractions , and reflections : and sensation is immediately by that which is immediately produced in the standard therof , as i have shewed : and so in feeling itself , which is least subject to deception , yet he that is nive perustus doth not feel the cold of the snow , becaus by the antiperistasis , the flesh of his body , which is the standard , is made hott : and so the ey seing according to the rays which enter into it , and not the object itself without it , though it see that which is the immediate object to itself truly , yet it seeth the object itself falsly ; and so if either the optical axes , or planes , be varied , we see accordingly ; as if we look upon the same object through several dioptrae , or distort one of our eys , whereby there are double images therof in the brain , we see it double , though it be single in itself : so if we turn our bodys round , the object seems to turn round ; or the object may seem to be round when only the several axes make a circle , as in the firewheel : and so also the round earth seemeth plane to us , becaus our ey cannot comprehend the vast globosity therof while we stand upon it : wheras all these infirmities may be easily rectified not only by faith , and reason , but by right sensations : and right sens is true as well as right reason , or faith ; and what is true to one of them is true to them all : nor is there any falshood in them , or fallacity in nature , but only infirmity , or such a finite perfection as it is in itself , which we may otherwise rectify or correct , our selvs , by the right exercise of all those facultys , wherof god and nature hath made us partakers , to instruct us , and not to deceiv us . now as these five senses have their proper objects , and several sensibles , as i have shewed ; so there are many common sensibles , which by them , and together with them , may be sensed ; and they are such common sensibles , not only becaus they are so sensible by and with others , but also becaus many of them may be sensed by several senses : as all quantity , and affections of the matter , and the like ; and there is indeed nothing in this spectable or sensible world which is not sensible one way or other : for so all other things , which cannot enjoy themselvs , were made to be enjoyed by sensitives , who thus enjoy themselvs , and all other sensible things ; whereby also intellective man understandeth intelligible things in this conjunct state with his sensitive body , as i shall shew heerafter . iv. having thus farr passed through the insensible and almost inextricable labyrinth of the sensorys , i now arrive at the brain ; where , as i said , the sensation is performed ; and which may evidently appear by what i have said , for so this is the reason why sight by the two eys , or hearing by the two ears , is not double , though the organs be double , becaus the sensible species mee● in the brain , where the sensation is performed : where also , if they do not so meet , the sensation will be double , as in distorting one of the eys , as i said ; and so if we putt one hand into cold water , and the other into ●ott , and the like : and it is well known , that if a nerv be bound in any part of the body , there is no sensation by it below , but only above , that is , between the ligature and the brain : so also the gutta serena , which is in the optike nervs , causeth blindnes , though the ey , which is the organ of sight , be sound and perfect : and in seing we seem not to see any thing intermediate between the object and the brain , but as it were by a continued visive line , or radius opticus , reaching from one to the other , both through the medium , and organ . and most certeinly all the nervs are rooted in the brain , and medulla ; and from thence , all the nerval succus , both in the spina , and in all the nervs , doth flow forth . wherefore indeed it was an inexcusable error in them who would derive the nervs from the heart ; though that , as i have shewed , by its motion be the first operator and refiner of the sanguineous liquor ; which is afterward concocted in and by the more moderate temper of the brain , and there first made a nerval succus , and from thence diffused into the nervs , and spinalis medulla . and so the scripture , which , as i said , speaks comprehensively , doth only mention the heart , as the original of all sensation and intellection : as it doth only mention bloud generaly , which so passeth through the heart , and is afterward distinguished into arterial , and nerval : and though some , ( who will , as we say , correct magnificat ) may cavill and be offended , or judg this expression to be popular , yet they ought to consyder , that such comprehensive expressions are not popular , but exactly true in their comprehensive sens : and thus heart in scripture is never contradistinguished from brain , nor to be understood so as to exclude , but include it , as bloud doth all kinds of bloud : nor is there therefore any mention particularly of any nerval succus , or of any brain , or any such thing in scripture ; becaus according to the language therof , such general names , as bloud , and heart , do comprehend all the rest : wheras we read of liver , kidneys , gall , and such other instruments of vegetative nutrition , rather then of sensation , and so of seed and milk , which are for generation and nutrition of others . now that the fivefold sensations of the five several senses are performed in the brain , as well as the sensation of the very imagination itself , i shall farther most plainly prove , becaus the sensitive facultys do all subsist in the imagination ; as may sensibly appear by the maner of their sensation , which is not , nor can it be , without animadversion , as we rightly term it , becaus it is the adverting or applying of the imagination to contemplate the sensible species , and also the irradiation therof by its own animal and sensitive light , which makes the sensation otherwise ; though the object , organ , sensorys , and all the apparatus therof , be ready , and never so well instructed : seeing we see not , and hearing we hear not ; or we see and hear not , or hear and see not ; or see or hear this , or that , visible , or audible object , and not another ; or one more then another , accordingly as we intend it , or apply our imagination to it , as i have shewed : and i have heard of one , who being to shoot at a mark for a wager , professed that he thought he neither saw heaven , nor earth , nor any thing besides the mark ; which most vehement intention did very much conduce to his hitting of the mark , and wining the wager : and this contemplation of the imagination is that , as i conceiv , which we commonly call common sens ; whereby the imagination , which is one and the same faculty in itself , doth thus contemplate all the several sensibles ; as also one and the same appetite doth affect or disaffect them ; and one and the same understanding understand them , and will will , or nill them . for it is not the variety of objects , but the several maner of sensation , that doth distinguish the facultys , and make them realy to differ ; and thus the senses according to their fivefold organs , and sensorys , whereby their several sensible objects , or species therof , are received severaly , and in a several maner , are several ; but though their objects , that is , their proper and common sensibles , may be several , yet as they both are so received in the same maner they do not distinguish the sens , nor make it several in itself . also we may heer observ the very spiritual nature of the sensitive soul , and imaginative faculty therof , that though the gross sensible objects be not only different , but contrary one unto another , and such as will themselvs be mist one with another , as heat and cold will be contemperated into a tepor ; or otherwise there will be a great conflict between them , when they meet together ; yet the same imaginative faculty doth apprehend them both together ( as when one hand is in cold water , and the other in hott ) distinctly , and inconfusedly . also this sheweth the reason of that sympathy and consent that is between some parts more specialy , and the whole body generaly , in feeling , wherof the whole body is capable , as i said ; that is , becaus the imaginative faculty is one and the same , which resideth in the brain , from whence all the nervs are dispersed through the body , and therefore the whole body is so affected ; yet so as a wound in the toe doth not corporealy affect the brain , or imagination therin , but spiritualy ; and though the feeling in the toe that is wounded being in the standard , doth caus a principal sensation therof in that part , and so in the brain , and from thence in the rest of the body ; yet that is only a secondary sensation , as i may so call it : wherof it is said , if one member suffer all the members suffer with it ; that is only by the imaginative faculty of the sensitive spirit therof , which is one and the same ; though no other part be corporealy affected . and wheras i have often mentioned two such several kinds of sensation , that is , one by the outward organs and sensory , and by the corporeal or elementary mutation made in the standard within the body , and irradiation of the elementary animal spirits in the nervs , which is primary ; and the other by species , actuated only by the vegetative spirit in the elementary animal spirits in the brain itself , as i have formerly shewed , which is secondary : wherof we call one sens , and the other imagination , i shall now shew the sensible difference therof in sleep , when all the senses are bound up and obstructed ; and yet then the imagination doth thus operate in dreaming ; and the senses are so bound up and obstructed by the vaporous bloud , which ascendeth from the heart , through the carotides , ( whence they are so called the sleepy arterys ) to the brain : and it is said , that if they be stopped , sleep will presently ensue , though i rather conceiv that to be an apoplectical , then soporous effect : for it is not the obstructing of them , and thereby hindring the sanguineous vapors to ascend , which causeth sleep , but rather the contrary ; that is , an ascent therof more copiously , which doth obnubilate the basis of the brain , and reacheth as farr as the roots of the nervs ; and the animal spirits therin , which are most pure and spiritual , and the fitt instruments of the sensitive spirit , are clouded by such gross and unconcocted vapors , and thereby rendred unfitt ; and so the imagination cannot operate by them ; wherupon that kind of sensation ceaseth , untill those vapors be again rectified and refined in the brain , and so pass into the nervs , and then sleep ceaseth , and that sensation begineth to operate thereby again . but the imagination , being seated in the very brain , itself , and probably in the upper region therof , and fore-brain , ( which we accordingly feel to grow most hott by the working therof ) the cloud of those ascending vapors , being there weaker ; ( as the vapors are , which ascend higher in the atmosphere ) and the concoctive power of the brain , there being greater , the imagination may contemplate the species in the animal spirits , which are in the brain itself , and there actuated by the vegetative spirit , which doth concoct and prepare them , as i have shewed , and which is sufficient for this secondary operation by the imagination , and needeth no such irradiation by the species of external objects , as is required in the primary sensation . and so this secondary operation by by the imagination , in dreaming , is also much weaker , then it is when we are waking ; or at least farr more wild , and irregular : either becaus those ascending vapors are not yet so purely defecated in the upper region of the brain ; or otherwise , becaus the imagination then wants the archetypes of the primary sensation , whereby to rectify its own contemplations . and it is evident that in sleep , even the animal spirits of the nervs are not so consopited , or , as we say , in a dead sleep , ordinarily , but that any vehement sensible doth soon awake them ; and the spirits by degrees are rowsed up , and the vaporous cloud dispersed ; yea while we are asleep , as the cloud is more or less gross in ascending , or sooner or longer in being purified in the brain , so is our sleep greater , or less , or shorter , or longer , and sometimes the soporous cloud is so small , and very rare , that we are , as we say , between sleeping and waking . now that it is so , may plainly appear by the causes of sleep ; which are either expens of spirits , that induceth a lassitude , wherupon sleep naturaly ensueth , becaus nature requireth a recruit therof , and the bloud then ascendeth more copiously to the brain , which is the part affected , and indigent therof ; or satiety and a full stomach , whereby the vapors so ascend of themselvs ; and drinking commonly causeth sleep more then eating , becaus drinks are more vaporous and spirituous then meats ; or dejection of the spirits by stupidity , and sorrow , and the like , and so narcotike medicines by their stupifying quality induce sleep ; or idlenes , and cessation from exercise of body , or mind , may be another caus therof , as it removeth the impediment of sleep , or indeed the very contrary therof , for so all exercise is a waking ; and therfore a man cannot well sleep if he do but stand upright ▪ and sleep , as i may so say , unbendeth the bow , and relaxeth not only the perceptive , but also the motive spirits ; and thus as exercise and lassitude , so waking and sleeping , do follow , and indeed mutualy caus , one another , by expens and recruit of the animal spirits , both perceptive and motive ; which heerby appear to be very connatural : for as much study is a wearines to the flesh , as the wise man saith , so wearines of the flesh is also an impediment to the study of the mind . now as i have shewed , that all perceptive sensation , both primary and secondary , is in the imagination , so if any require that i should also shew what is that specifike imaginative power , whereby the sensitive spirit so operateth ( wherof i have thus farr traced the operations , or maner of working , from the sensible object to this sensitive faculty ) as i have shewed , that the sensitive spirit itself is an active spiritual substance created by god in the begining , and first produced with this and all other the innate qualitys therof , so actuated by god in this fifth day ; so i can only affirm tha● this imaginative power is such , becaus god so created it ; as matter is matter , and spirit spirit , heaven heaven , and earth earth , extension extension , heat heat , and the like , becaus god so created them in the begining ; and as no man can go beyond that begining , so neither beyond that creating causality ; but must necessarily at last terminate in the wisdom and will of the creator therof , when he knoweth that he hath arrived at any simple substance , or accident , which is not composited , or mist with others ; and this , as i have said , is the non ultra , or utmost bound , not only of human , but angelical knowledg ; and they who will inquire farther into the caus of every caus , and so infinitely , like children , shall not , nor can they , ever be satisfied . wherefore i say , that the sensitive spirit of any animal such , as it was created and produced in this fifth day , or afterward , and not being mist with others ( as the sensitive spirit of a mule , which is both equine and asinine ) is such a simple substance immediately created by god , though the whole compositum be compounded of that and a vegetative spirit , and elements , and matter , as i have shewed : and this is , as i conceiv , the proper work of a philosopher , thus , to inquire into the works of improper creation , that is the mistion of elements , actuation of qualitys , composition of matter , elementary , vegetative , and sensitive natures , and the like ; and so like a speculative chymist , to separate those things in their several natures by his intellect , which they can never do in fact by all their instruments , and that it is a very improper work for him to inquire farther then the work of proper creation , which he ought wholy to resolv into the first caus of all causes , that is , god , who hath made all things for himself , and according to the good pleasure of his will. and so also i say , that as god made the sensitive soul to be a living perceptive spirit , accordingly he imprinted in it certein simple innate notions , whereby it might so perceiv in a living maner , by , and with the instrumentality of the vegetative and elementary animal spirits and species and a conjunction between them and the sensitive animal irradiation . thus generical imagination , feeling , and the like sensitive notions , wherwith all sensitive spirits are instructed ( and not vegetatives , elements , or matter ) , are the innate facultys , whereby sensitive spirits do imagin , feel , and the like ; and not the others : and this is , as i said , a double or reflex operation , wherof no inferior nature doth partake : for sensitives being perceptive animals do not only imagin , feel , and the like , but also perceiv , that they do so : wheras others only do what they do , without any such reflection upon their operations . again , there are other less simple sensitive notions common to all perfect sensitives , as that the whole , while it is whole , is greater then any part therof divided from it : and so that two are more then one , and the like . also i suppose that they have some generical sentiment of symmetry , harmony , and the like ; becaus these also are common sensibles , which they may , and do perceiv , as well as proper sensibles . besides these there are also proper powers ; as ingeny , or artifice , wherof all sensitives , as oisters , and the like do not partake , and so are said to wan● imagination : wheras they also have that common perception , which i call imagination , otherwise they should not be sensitive : and there are proper notions , which belong properly to one species , and not to another , as to a bird to sing and nidificate , to a spider to spin , to a bee to make honey , and the like ; which , though they are very ingenious and artificial in the external performance , yet they are so wrought by them according to the specifical notions or sentiments of their kind : as an infant so sucks ; a lamb flys a wolf , which he never saw before ; and a yong hound hunts an hare before he seeth it . also by these innate and more immediate notions the imagination is able farther to acquire , and collect any other sensitive notions , of whatsoever it perceiveth by any of the external senses ; which it doth likewise add and ingraff into the others , and retein in itself , and gain experience , and so may thereby be more instructed to live the sensitive life therof . and the imaginative faculty , being thus furnished with sensitive notions , can compound , and divide them ; and so discours of singulars , or by particulars , which are sensible ; as an hound can distinguish one hare from another , and an hunted from a fresh hare , and therefore doth accordingly follow one , and not another : and so likewise the sent of an hare from the sent of a deer , or fox , or otter , or the like ; and therefore doth accordingly follow it : for singulars are only as so many pictures of individual hares , and particulars as the signe of any hare , which are both sensible : and none of these operations may be denied to brutes , which are otherwise distinguishible from intellective operations , as i shall shew heerafter . but though there be these common notions , or prenotions , which are otherwise called instincts , in brutes , whereby they are apt to perceiv potentialy , yet they cannot perceiv actualy , without the instrumentality of the animal spirits , and species therin ( as well as their own sensitive irradiations ) as i have shewed : which to prepare for themselvs , they have also a specifike power , whereby they can , as i said , command and move the vegetative spirit and power therof , so to actuate and produce them accordingly as they call for them ; and without all these , both sensitive principles , and vegetative , and inferior instrumentalitys , the sensation cannot be performed . all which , as i suppose , doth plainly appear by memory ; whereby , when we have acquired any new notions , and would remember them , we thus , as it were , dictate to the inferior facultys , and then they produce a new image or species therof , which we do contemplate : wheras if it were any former image or species therof , as hath been supposed , certeinly such should pass away with the substance of the nerval succus , wherin it doth subsist ; and if that doth not circulate as swiftly as the bloud , yet it passeth away more or less continualy , and is recruited every night by sleep : wherefore it is impossible that the images or species should remain therin , which we have acquired so many years since ; but the acquired notions therof must necessarily remain in the imaginative faculty , which continues to be one and the same according to the individual oeconomy of the sensitive spirit , and wherof the animal spirits have the images potentialy in themselvs . i have been informed by a physician concerning a knight his patient , and my well known friend , that sometime before his death he could not remember things done the same day , and yet could very well remember things done many years before ; which was from the same reason , that the notions which he had acquired in his youth , did remain in his imaginative faculty ; which was now grown so weak , that he could hardly acquire any new notions ; and so youth doth best retein any such acquired notions , becaus they are then recent and fresh : and there are not many others before acquired , which might oppress the memory : for though imagination be a very spiritual faculty , yet it is finite , as well as sens , and cannot remember all , nor any more , or better , then according to the strength therof ; and these acquired notions are fixed by often repeating , meditation , and the like : and as the sensitive spirit is very oeconomical , and therefore much delighted with symmetry , and harmony , so the memory therof is helped by order ; and it will strangely piece its notions together by any litle similitudes or allusions ; and sometimes when it cannot suddenly retrive and dictate them , or if the animal spirits be not ready to actuate and produce the images therof , we say it is a● our tongs end ; as when we are ready to utter a word and are some way hindred . but as there are deceptions of sens , as i have shewed , so much more of the imagination , as it is more remote from the sensible object , which is realy true in itself ; not only as imagination is a judicative faculty , and so may also err , in dividing , compounding , and discoursing thereby ; but in its most simple perceptions ; for it is very mimical , and can imitate any thing , by its own types , and images of things which it did before contemplate in the more sensible prototypes , by the primary sensation therof , as i have shewed : and though these secondary species , which are not irradiated by the real sensibles , are meer phantasms , and farr more weak and momentany then the others , yet i know not how , a vehement imagination can so intend them , that they shall appear as though they were real ; which certeinly is by some such extraordinary power of the vegetative spirit , whereby it causeth external and corporeal signatures in the foetus ; and therefore may well caus such species and images in the nerval succus , by such extraordinary animation of the animal spirits : which yet is also first caused by some very strong acquired notions in the imagination , through love , pride , covetousnes , fear , or some such vehement lusts and affections , and a proportionable sensitive irradiation thereby ; and this is indeed laesa phantasia : but if those passions be sudden and temporary , then the imaginations are such also , as in sudden frights , and the like ; which are only vno impetu : or they may be only particular distractions , according to such particular objects about which the imagination hath been so intensly exercised ; wherof we have a notable example in him who was in vacuo laetus sessor plaus●rque theatro , caetera qui vitae servaret munia rectè : and there are many known instances of such persons , who are thus habitualy distracted as to one object , which whensoever it is mentioned unto them , that strong and vehement notion therof , which they have acquired , is thereby excited , and the phantasm so sensibly actuated , that it doth so predominate , as to over-rule and over-turn all their other notions , and the ordinary regularity therof : and i suppose , that most men have some tincture of this madnes , more or less ; who though otherwise very prudent and sober , yet if mention be made of any thing wherin they affect to excell , or which they vehemently love ; as their wit , valor , gentility , estates , children , and the like ; they will run out into such extravagant discours therof , as if they were not the same men therin , as they are in other things : ( which we call their infirmitys ) , also there is a general and total distraction , either temporary , as in drunkenes , or anger , ( which is rightly termed furor brevis ) and the like ; or continual ; as when any such particular fansy is so prepotent that it works upon the very substance of the brain , or qualitys of the animal spirits ; or they are so hurt by sicknes , or any bodily distemper , which is properly cerebrum laesum . now becaus it is confessed that there are such infirmitys and deceptions of the sens and imagination , therefore sceptikes say , we are always in a dream , or frenzy : but then how do they know it ? if they also are like the rest of mankind , who are all in a dream , or mad : for they who are so , think all their phantasms to be real objects ; and so they disprove what they affirm : for certeinly if all men were so distempered and deluded , we should all conceiv those delusions to be real , becaus none could disprove them by any more right cogitations ; as if any man should only dream all the days of his life , he could never refute any of his dreams , but his whole life should be only one continued dream : wherefore since we can distinguish between dreaming and waking , cer●einly we are not always in a dream ; and becaus we can distinguish between some errors and some truths certeinly we are not always in an error : though some who cannot , or rather will not , understand any thing of truth , becaus they will not be obliged to the obedience and practice therof , would thus drown all others with themselvs in the same bottomles pitt of perdition . there are also others , that think these entia sensationis to be some such imaginary things as are neither entitys , nor not-entitys , but they know not what ; wheras , as i have said , imagination is certeinly a real act ; and the phantasm a real species ; which the imagination doth behold , and whereby such real effects are produced , though there be no such real thing , wherof the imagination imagineth it to be the image or picture ; as a picture of a man at large is no less a picture , though there be realy no such person in rerum natura as well as the picture of any individual person . but the imagined object , as imaginary space , and the like , are pure nonentitys in themselvs , though we frame some real imaginations therof . nor is it possible that there should be any medium between entity and non-entity , becaus they are contradictory terms , and whatsoever any may imagin therof , yet , if they will effari , they must say , either est , or non est , whereby they shall either affirm or deny it to be : and in all logike , no proposition can be otherwise formed , either categoricaly , or hypotheticaly ; nor is there any stronger or more undeniable dilemma , then this , either it is , or it is not metaphysicaly , and simply , which admitts no division , or distinction ; for though there may be many subalternate differences of entity , yet ens , as i said , is genus generalissimum , without any specifical difference whatsoever ; and as whatsoever is , is , which is a most identical and infallible proposition , so whatsoever is in any mode or respect whatsoever , or with any subalternate difference whatsoever , is : and if it is , it is a creature of god , which is convertible , becaus it is created from not-being to being ; and therefore is an entity in nature , and not a non-entity , though the notion therof be only an imaginative figment : and if it be no creature it is no thing in nature , but only an imaginary figment ; wherof the fiction is somthing , but that which is so feigned is meerly nothing , as i have shewed . v. sensation , or sensitive life , is , as i have said , always with perception and appetite ; otherwise it should not be life : and therefore , as these two do immediately subsist in the sensitive spirit , so they do also always cooperate to produce any vital act : for thus the imagination doth perceiv spontaneously ; and the appetite affect or disaffect perceptively : and these are the most intrinsecal and immanent acts of both the facultys , which they do so act between themselvs , but yet their own operations in themselvs , are as different and several as the facultys ; for to perceiv , and to affect any thing , do very much and very plainly differ : and so their maner of working is very different ; for first the imagination perceivs , and judges the object to be sensitively good , or evill ; and so presents it to the appetite , which accordingly affects or disaffects it ; wherefore since several cells have been by some found out in the brain , for the imaginative , judicative , and memorative powers , ( which are only such several powers of one and the same imagination , wherin they do all immediately subsist ) i wonder that never any such cell hath been appointed by them for the appetite , which is certeinly a distinct faculty from the imagination , and subsisting immediately in the sensitive spirit , as well as it . and as there are such several powers in the imagination , so also in the appetite ; but as first the external sensible object by making an alteration in the standard of sens , which is within the body , doth by it irradiate the animal spirits , whereby the sensible species are produced , which the imagination doth afterward also irradiate , and perceiv by a primary sensation , and accordingly after the object is removed , irradiate only by itself , and so contemplate the phantasms therof , by a secondary sensation ; so contrarily the appetite , which followeth the imagination , doth first internaly affect , or disaffect , in itself , by its own power which is its primary sensation ; and then exerts its appetitive and motive power by a secondary sensation , either in those affections which we call the passions of the soul , or in the motion of the body or any part therof ; and though the more immediate instruments of the appetite be also the motive animal spirits in the nervs , yet it likewise causeth fluxes and refluxes of the other blouds accordingly ; which discovers a great union and consent between them ; and as the object of this faculty generaly is sensible good or evill , so , according to all the diversifications therof , the appetite doth exert itself in those several passions , which we call affections , and are , as it were , the fluxes and refluxes of the very sensitive soul , answerable to those of the bloud and spirits , whereby it so expresseth itself : for this spiritual faculty is not an idle and ineffectual affection or disaffection of the object , but also armed with a power to effect all the sensitive operations therof in the body . and so also the very motive power , whereby the vegetative spirit is guided in producing and actuating the phantasms for the use and service of the imagination , is not only from the imaginative , perceptively , but also from the appetitive faculty spontaneously . and thus in the same sensitive compositum , there is not only local motion of the matter to union , as in the instance of introsuction of the finger , and the like ; and to station , as when the body falls down by its own weight , and the like : and elementary motion by rarefaction and condensation , as i have formerly shewed , and also vegetative motion , as in contraction of the muscles ; which certeinly cannot be motions of the matter , becaus they are violent and contrary unto the rest therof , and as i have shewed , in the systole , the heart lifts itself upward by this vegetative motion , but in the diastole falls downward again by its own pondus of matter ; which for the same reason can be no elementary motion ; for in the systole it is contracted , and in the diastole returns again to its own elementary laxity by its own elastical potentia , which was spiritualy contrary to the contraction . and as the basis of the heart being united to the body , the muscular contraction therof doth thereby draw it upward , which otherwise it could not , so all such muscular motions are by such traction to , or trusion from another body , as a fulciment ; for so an heart taken out moves in the hand ; and a man bowing forward can lift up no more then according to the weight of his body , to which the traction is ; but standing perpendicularly upright , he may lift up any greater weight according to his muscular strength , by trusion from the ground , as a fulciment ; and so he bears up any burden on his shoulders : wheras i● there be not such a fulciment , he can bear nothing , but all will sink together ; as if he stand on the water , or in a descending scale , or the like : and so a man in a scale holding at the beam , cannot lift himself up ; becaus it descends toward him , and he cannot also ascend toward it ; as he may , if there be such an over-weight in the other scale as will hinder the descent : nor can he make that scale , wherin he is , to weigh more then the weight of his body , by pulling it down ; becaus he hath no hold below him , to which being fastned himself , he might so draw it down . also besides these muscular motions in the flesh , and the constant puls caused thereby , ( which plainly is vegetative , or by a pulsifike power of the vegetative spirit , ) there seems to me to be such a sudden and occasional motion in all these fluxes and refluxes of the bloud , caused by the passions , as is not only sensitive , but vegetative : for i suppose that the sensitive appetite in all such local motions therof doth thus move the body , not immediately by itself , but by the mediation of such vegetative motions ; and so guides and governs them , directively and spontaneously , as i have shewed : as when i write , the motion of my hand and pen generaly , is from the elementary motive spirits in the nervs , which the vegetative spirit actuates and produces , and itself moves by and with them , as it doth by and with the muscles ; or as my hand writes by and with the pen , only as a ●●tt instrument of the mover ; for certeinly my writing is no kind of elementary motion , such as is by rarefaction or densefaction , magnetical or planetary virtue , or the like , but a vegetative motion , as that is an higher and fitter instrument of a sensitive mover , and also as a motive instrument itself ; and the moving of my hand in writing generaly is no sensitive motion , nor doth my pen , hand , nervs , animal spirits , or vegetative spirit , se●s or perceiv what i do : but only my sensitive spirit , which therefore in causing this or that letter or word to be writ guides and governs the vegetative mover , as if another should guide my hand with his ; that is , the sensitive spirit doth not only command , as i have said , becaus the inferior spirits have no such perception or appetite , whereby to know what is commanded , and to obey , but also the sensitive moves or causes the vegetative spirit , which is motive in itself ( so and in such a maner , whereby this or that letter or word shall be writ ) to move the elementary spirits , which are its immediate instruments , and not otherwise : for as the vegetative spirit doth certeinly of itself perform all those motions , which we call involuntary , that is , which are not spontaneous , and such as are not immediately subservient to the sensitive spirit , nor at the command therof ; so also i suppose , that it doth as well perform all those other motions which we therefore call voluntary , or spontaneous , becaus they are only guided and governed by the sensitive spirit . and so that all such motions in the sensitive body , which are not of the matter , nor only elementary ; that is , by rarefaction or condensation , but of an higher nature ; that is , either by expansion or compression , or more regular , as all involuntary motions , or more various and indifferent , as all voluntary motions , are vegetative ; but the voluntary are also guided and governed by a sensitive motion : and that all such motions , whereby we perceiv that we do so guide and govern them , are sensitive . and such are all the moving imperia or commands of the sensitive spirit , whereby it doth spontaneously move and guide the vegetative spirit , in producing and actuating the animal spirits , both perceptive , and motive , arrecting the muscles , and the like ; and so priapismus and others may be both involuntary and voluntary : and such sensitive motions though never so swift and sudden , yet are not involuntary , but voluntary , if they be with any perception and appetite ; for in all these motions the vegetative spirit is alway ready to execute the spontaneous commands of the sensitive spirit , and is a very quick and active mover in itself , as appears by its own involuntary motions ; but especialy in these wherin it is subservient to the sensitive spirit , which is more active , and requireth such fitt instruments : and as the sensitive spirit moveth in itself , as quick as thought or wish , so where no deliberation is requisite or to be admitted , or there is an acquired use and custom it presently commandeth , perceptively and spontaneously , and is as presently obeyed by the vegetative spirit , though without any perception or spontaneity therof . and thus i conceiv , that these two sensitive facultys , imagination , and appetite , do govern the whole sensitive compositum , residing together in the brain , as they do mutualy cooperate , and that they or any of their several powers are not seated in several cells therof , as hath been supposed ; but that the several parts of the brain are for refining , percolating , and preparing the animal spirits therin , by the natural chymistry of the vegetative spirit ; and wheresoever these two facultys have their centrical seat , which probably is in the forebrain , or cerebrum , as it is eminently so called , they are both together , furnished with all their sensitive powers : for the brain is not divided into several organs , as an ey , an ear , and the like , but is all one organ of these two facultys , as the three humors in the ey , with their coat● , and appurtenances are one organ of sight : yet it is also true that they have their nervs dispersed from the brain through the whole body , both for the intromission of external species by the animal perceptive spirits to the imagination , and also for the exerting of the motive spirits and operating of the appetite by them in all the body : and yet as the facultys themselvs are conjunctly in the brain , so also these animal spirits , which are their instruments , are conjoined therin , and in the same nervs : and there may be operation by the one , and not by the other at the same time ; as in sleep , when the senses are obstructed by vapors , which hinder the intromission of the species of external objects , yet the appetite then working in the brain , as well as the imagination , may exert the motive spirits , so as to caus us not only to talk , but also to walk : and as they are thus conjunct in themselvs , and in their instruments , so also in their operations , whereby they do not only spontaneously perceiv , and perceptively affect or disaffect immanently , in such actions as are performed between themselvs , as i before shewed ; but also in all others , as the appetite doth move the vegetative spirit to produce and actuate phantasms , as well as the imagination doth direct it what phantasms it shall so produce and actuate ; and the imagination doth also direct the vegetative motions , as well as the appetite doth move and guide them , but they are distinctly called imaginative , or appetitive actions , accordingly as one or other doth predominate therin . and as they are both thus conjunct spiritualy , in themselvs , so are they also with the sensitive body , thus subordinating the vegetative spirit therin immediately , and by it the elementary mistion , and matter to their sensitive spirit , by such natural aptitude and combination , that as the elementary animal spirits are refined and sublimated to the highest purity wherof they are capable , and their vegetative spirit indued with a greater activity , then appears in any grass , herbs , or trees ; whereby they may ascend toward this sensitive oeconomy , and be the instruments of a sensitive life ; so the sensitive spirit also is made , as it were , to condescend to them by a conjunct irradiation of the imagination , and eradiation of the appetite , and cannot live , nor act , without them , nor by or with any other elementary or vegetative instrumentality whatsoever ; and therefore it hath its own standards in its own body ; whereby only it doth immediately perceiv and feel , as it doth the temperament of its own flesh , and the alterations therin ; and not any of the external qualitys , as the heat of the fire , or cold of the air , without the body , which only caus the alterations without , whereby they caus the like within the body , and so mediately become sensible ; as the weather is by a weatherglass ; and not otherwise . and these internal , and indeed most proper sensibles only and none others do irradiate the animal spirits in the nervs , which are propagated to the brain , where the sensation is performed ; and the sensitive soul also doth only move its own body , wherin it is confined , by its own powers and organs , and others thereby : as the hand is therefore called the instrument of all instruments . and yet it is in itself a living and truly spiritual substance , and so are all its own proper and immanent actions spiritual , whereby it doth abstract from more coporeal objects sensitively , and also from more gross and inferior spirits , or spiritual qualitys ; for so though by its senses it doth sensibly perceiv heat , cold , pain , burden , and the like , yet it can immanently contemplate , affect , or disaffect , the speculative phantasms therof , without any more feeling or sens , then it doth the artificial pictures therof : and indeed the very sensible species , irradiated by the sensible qualitys , are not such as the sensible qualitys themselvs , nor do they so affect the brain as they do the standard ; as i have shewed , becaus the species are only irradiated thereby : for so sensible heat and cold do not burn or chill the brain , as they do the flesh , which is the standard . having thus farr absolved this hypothesis of sensation , i shall now referr it to the judgment of learned physicians , whom i have ever esteemed a prudent and sober nation ; and very deservedly ; their profession being a continual practice , and their practice concerning the life of man. but i suppose i need not consult them , whether the sensitive soul be centricaly seated in the brain , or in the diaphragm or midriff ; becaus it is also termed phrenes , nor whether the septum lucidum , becaus it is termed lucidum be the chief organ therof ; or as some say the pinealis glandula , becaus it only is one and solitary ; a very fit organ indeed for such an excrementitious opinion , which none would ever have affirmed , nor can believ , who hath any purer part of brain in him : and i very much wonder how such , who require of others a mathematical exactnes , and demonstration , can with so much confidence and impudence impose upon all others such a gratis dictum , and lay this , as the foundation of their whole doctrine of passions ; making all sensation to be only local motion , which is a common sensible itself : wheras sensation , as i have shewed , is a perceptive and spontaneous action ; and though a body be never so mechanicaly and artificialy composed , like daedalus or myron's cow ; or be made never so automatous , as the clock at strasburg , archytas his dove , regiomontanus his fly , or eagle , or albertus his man , with all imaginable members , and local motions ; not only a philosopher , but every vulgar spectator , will say deest aliquid intus : as though a parret hath perception and appetite , which they have not , and can imitate human speech , yet we all know that it hath no human understanding : and even vegetative spirits , which have plastical , and many other notable motions , and so elementary , as the planets , and magnet ( which thales therefore termed animal ) have many wonderfull local motions , yet they have no perception or appetite ; which are living motions or actions , wherof all others are only counterfeits and outward expressions , like the motions of the dead sultan , to deceiv the people ; wheras any living man himself cannot be so deceived , but plainly may perceiv the difference in himself : for local motion , which , as i have said , is only local motion , is no spiritual action , which is not only local , but also spiritual , and not only motion , but action , or an active operation , and superoperation , as the spirit is a substantial activity ; especialy sensitive spirits , ( wherof the very lowest are not only termed creeping or moving , but also living creatures ) have such living motions or actions : and such motions or remotions from one state to another , as from death to life , or from not such an operation to such an operation , are certeinly motions , as well as from one place to another : as they themselvs , who affirm them to be only local motions , do confess , in affirming them to be motions , as they are indeed , but more or other then local , that is , also active motions ; and many of them such as may be performed without any local motion , as though the appetite in moving the body , or any part therof , doth effect and exercise also a local motion , yet the very appetition , and imagination in itself , and many operations therof are without any local motion ; which doth rather disturb sensation ; as in seing , hearing , and the like , if either the body be moved , or the object removed , the sensation is disturbed : and though sensible objects moving without , or humors within , may spiritualy move sensation by tempting and solliciting the sensitive spirit , humbly and inferiorly , as that doth move them by commanding and guiding them , superiorly ; yet they do not therefore localy move the sensitive spirit , or the intrinsecal and immanent operations therof , as that doth move them transiently . and i suppose the next attempt of them , who can thus affirm sensation to be only local motion , will be to reduce intellection and volition , and our very human spirit , to this common debasement of all spiritual natures , ( which they generaly restrain to matter and local motion ) nor indeed is there any thing left , or any such clear difference assigned by them , which may priviledg us from it , but only the favor and indulgence of these great masters , who can say and unsay , make and unmake , what they pleas , and how they pleas ; and if all others were like to such , who have no higher notions then matter and motion , it might with some probability be suspected that the human spirit is proportionably only matter and motion , which would perfectly gratify any who therefore affect to be epicureans in opinion , becaus they are such in practice . but , as scipio said , it is now more fitt for us to return praises to god for all these his various and wonderfull works , which can never be confined only to matter and motion , then to attend such triflers any farther . vi. therefore let us prais the father of the spirits of all flesh , and advance our praises by a song of degrees , as he doth thus exalt his creatures by several degrees in the scale of nature . who is himself a spirit , and spiritual life , infinitely contemplating and enjoying himself , and all other things in himself ; and hath given life to all living animals , even the lowest sensitive , which he hath placed in the same animal region with intellective man ; though all sensitives be classicaly different from him , and both subordinate and subservient unto him , as he is to god ; who hath made them the images of his intellective spirit , as he is of the divine spirit . whereby also they can contemplate and enjoy themselvs , and all other sensible natures ; which though perfect in themselvs , and in their own classes , yet without these sensitive and intellective spirits , who only can contemplate and enjoy them , had been made in vain , as a spectable world of many wonderfull and usefull objects , without any spectator , or enjoyer therof ; all whose goodnes and perfection , though good in itself , is farr inferior to the least insect ; whose body though more minute then the smallest watch , or other engine is more curiously and exactly composed then the greatest machins ; and whose inimitable spirit possesseth the whole sensible world , in the potential species and images therof , within the litle module of itself : wheras all inferior natures , whatsoever they are in themselvs , are unto themselvs , as if they were not ; and howsoever they may differ one from another , yet bury all their specifical differences in the common grave of their own imperception , as if they did still continue in their original chaos , or the eternal abyss of nonentity . wherefore sensitives were presently introduced , when they were before prepared for these , as for their next and immediate ends of intention , to perfect all their perfections ; which are not only farr more excellent in themselvs , but thus also derive into themselvs all their inferior excellencies ; living upon their inanimate natures , while themselvs thus live in their own animate natures ; and are as farr above them ; as themselvs are inferior to man ; with whom , though they are not coordinate , as sensitives , yet they do convers , as living creatures : and their sensitive life , though farr inferior to his intellective life , yet is not only an image therof , but also in his own human compositum , the embryonical inception , and constant companion therof : and his sensitive body the immediate mansion and officine of his intellective spirit , and of all the operations therof , in this conjunct state ; and the imaginative artifices of sensitive animals are not only the umbrages of his intellective act , but also in himself subordinate operators therunto . also many of them have language , that is either the expression of their notions by signes , or of their passions by interjections , which is not only a rudiment of his more articulate language but also some rude discours , and essay of his ratiocinations . and yet all these vive images of man , and his next and immediate convivae , are not only subjugated to his tyranny by his superior power and policy , but also by god and nature subordinated to his rightfull roialty and dominion ; being all born his slaves and vassals , who while they live , serv him in all offices , either of labor , or pleasure , yea hawk and hunt , and destroy one another for him ; or are otherwise subdued and destroied by himself . and so he feedeth and preserveth his own individual life with innumerable lives of their successive individualitys ; which are in natures account the most costly and princely diet , though two sparrous be sold for a farthing in the market of man. section xii . and god said , let the earth bring forth every living creature after his kind , catell , and creeping things . and it was so . and god made the beast of the earth after his kind , and catell after their kind . and god saw that it was good. and god said , let us make man in our own image , and after our own likenes . and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over the catell , and over all the earth . so god created man in his own image ; in the image of god created he him ; male and female created he them . and god said unto them , be fruitful , and multiply , and replenish the earth ; and subdue it , and have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth . and god said , behold , i have given you every herb bearing seed , which is upon the face of all the earth , and every tree in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat , and to every beast of the earth , and to every fowl of the air ; and to every thing that creepeth on the earth , wherin there is life , i have given every green herb for meat . and it was so . and god saw every thing , that he had made , and behold it was very good. and the evening and the morning were the sixth day . explication . god caused the earth also to bring forth beasts after their several kinds , which was their specifical goodnes and perfection . and when he had thus prepared and furnished the elementary world with vegetatives , luminarys , and with all kinds of sensitives , fishes , fowls , and beasts , he immediately created the intellective spirit of man , and so made him to have dominion over them all , for whom he had before made and prepared them . and he made both man , and woman , who might accordingly procreate ; and blessed them with the blessing of prolification , for the increas of mankind . and he made them and all their posterity lords over all the other inferior creatures in the earth ; and appointed herbs and fruits to be meat for them ; and for beasts and fowls also the green herb and grass ; whereby they should be nourished , and augmented , and so preserved in their own individualitys . and then god reviewed all his works , and the whole frame and order therof , pronouncing and declaring it to be very good , and conformable to his divine wisdom and will , and to the law of creation . and these were the works of the sixth day , and of all the six days . illustration . . of beasts . . of man. . of the human body . . of the human spirit . . of the image of god in man. . of the immortality of the soul of man. . the conclusion of all the works of creation . . of the goodnes therof . i. i h●ve already discoursed of fishes and fowls , and therupon very largely of sensation ; and therefore shall now only need to discours of beasts , not as they are also sensitives , but as they differ from the others , and are superior unto them ; a● may appear by their bodys , that were made of the earth , and are more terrene , firm , and consistent , and of a more quadrate , and cubical proportion , and more like to the body of man : and though some of them be also termed reptiles , as fishes ge●eraly are , yet i conceiv , that as there are , as i said , gradient fishes , which have feet , and so fowls , that creep going upon all fower , are called such from their very flow motions ; so also there are some more tradigradous beasts , which are therefore called reptant , and not that they were anomalous , or less perfect in their kinds , then other ; for they are also mentioned to have been made among other perfect animals , and they were afterward specialy preserved , and so are also mentioned among them that entred into the ark , wherin no anomala ▪ were preserved , or such as are by putrefaction , for so they might be restored again : and indeed if such other sensitives could be made only of matter and motion , it had not been necessary that god should so extraordinarily have preserved any of them ; for so also he might have restored them , and he doth nothing in vain : wherefore since it is mentioned expressly , not only that god did preserv them generaly according to their species , but according to their sexes , male , and female , to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth , it is very evident that they were neither originaly made only of matter and motion , nor could be so naturaly restored . also wheras it is said , that god made the beast of the earth which is conceived to be fera agrestis , or wild beast , i suppose it may be so understood in a moderate sens , that is , less philanthropous and tame , though not ravenous , or rebellious so as certeinly none were created before the fall and curs . and there is still the same difference of more or less philanthropy remaining in their very natures ; so that some , though otherwise as fierce and couragious as others , are easily tamed ; as elephants , bulls , boars , horses , dogs , and the like : wheras others will very hardly be so civilised ; as lions , tigers , bears , wolvs , foxes , and the like : and this natural difference in themselvs is the ground and reason of their more or less cicuration or mansuefaction . and that there is such a difference in their very natures , may appear by this , that they are not only so different toward man , but also among themselvs ; and so it is a common observation , that the more mansuete do flock and heard together , and live in consort ; wheras wild beasts live more solitary , and are more strange even to one another . yet certeinly none of them were carnivorous at first , nor did devour one another ; for both they and man had then another diet appointed for them by god , that is , vegetative ; which which also comprehends the elements , and matter , as subordinate unto it ; and as the elements and matter are its subordinate body , so it is also nourished by the same , wherof it is constituted ; and so the vegetative spirit may be augmented by mistion of more of the homogeneous vegetative spirit latent in the nutriment : and so the matter , elements , and a vegetative spirit , make the body of sensitives , whereby it is also nourished , and may be augmented by mistion of more of the homogeneous sensitive spirit latent in the nutriment ; and now when we and some beasts do feed on the carcasses of other sensitives , yet we do not , nor can we , feed on their sensitive spirits , or lives ; becaus they are dead , and there is no conversion of one sensitive nature into another , nor any such mistion by augmentation , as of equine and asinine spirits in a mule , or by generation ; nor yet is the anima therof , or anima mundi , as some say , so subordinate , either to constitute , or nourish the sensitive , as vegetatives and the rest are , and were so ordeined to be both for the original formation , and nutrition of sensitives ; and thus they are not only subordinate , as a constituent body , and n●triment of sensitives ; but also subservient , as instruments of the sensitive spirit , as i have shewed , both in all those motions , which we call involuntary , and are properly vegetative , and also in their instrumental preparation and motion of all the sensorious organs , according to the imperium and gubernation of the sensitive spirit , in all those voluntary motions therof , which are performed thereby transiently , and not immanently in itself alone . also though god did not so expressly appoint vegetatives , which are terrestrial , to be food for fishes that live in the water , yet probably they had the same food growing on the shores and banks ; and such , as some report , may still be found in the bellys of sea morses , and such like fishes , almost as great as whales . and though it be not expressly mentioned either heer , or after the deluge , whether fishes did not then also prey one upon another ; as now they do , yet possibly they might , being made to bring forth abundantly , whereby they might both maintein their own species , and be food for others , or perhaps they might be nourished by their , own element , water . however i doubt not , but that some beasts were created farr more strong then others , as they still are ; and that some were venaturient , as now they are , and had the same specifike sagacity , as well as noses ; and so might hunt others with a great natural delight , as i suppose they now do with more then any huntsman that followeth them ; which appears , not only by their indefatigable industry , but also by their very great exultation , and cry ; yet i conceiv , that then they had no cruentous or murdrous appetite ; as now a lion doth not usualy prey when he is full ; and cats first play with a mous , and then kill it ; but then they did only play , and not kill , when they could not eat therof ; which is the chief end of killing . and so a yong leverer , when it first sees a dog , sh●ns him , and hath a natural sagacity of avoiding , and escaping the dog , as well as the dog hath such a natural sagacity in hunting the hare . and heerby also the ingeny of sensitives did appear , aswell as in avoiding poisons , and hurtfull vegetatives , which as they are in themselvs certein excellencys and eminencys in the vegetative nature , so are these also in the sensitive nature ; as of courage , fear , and the like sensitive affections . but of all sensitives beasts are supreme , that is , in their whole bestial kind generaly , and so particularly according to their several ranks and degrees , which is the true rule of comparison ; though the meanest and lowest of of beasts be : not more excellent then the chief fowl or fish , and so of fowls and fishes . and beasts do not only excell the rest in their bodily constitution , as i have shewed , but much more in their spiritual qualitys , which are their very sensitive excellencys ; though they may not have greater or more admirable instincts then fowls or fishes ; which are some special endowments , wherwith nature doth help out many inferior animals , yea insects , as bees , spiders , silkworms , ants , and the like ; and of all others , man himself , though he hath generaly the most excellent sensitive spirit subordinate and subservient to his intellective spirit , yet he hath least and fewest instincts ; and indeed i know none , except sucking , which is most common and necessary ; yet as he doth excell them all in the general sensitive powers and virtues , whereby he can more curiously contrive and effect things even by his sensitive imagination and ingeny , and hath such a most fitt organ therof , as the hand ; so do beasts heerin generaly excell fowls and fishes ; and accordingly have more fitt organs then they , and their brains are more conformable to the brain of man ; and he hath not only most service from them , but also most conversation with them : and thus they were made in the same day with him , and next and immediately before him ; and as both he and they have their sensitive spirits produced , and their bodys formed of the earth , so they both live together in the same floor of this great hous of the elementary world ; as god saith to iob of behemoth , which i made with thee , he eateth grass as an ox. yet we may no● therefore , with some credulous admirers of brutes to the disparagement of our-selves and of all human nature , adopt them into the family of mankind , and claim kindred of apes , baboons , marmosets , drills , and i know not what bestial fauns and satyrs , as but one degree removed from ourselvs : for though they may thus approch unto us in our body and sensitive spirit , yet we classicaly differ , and vastly excell them , in our intellective spirit ; wherof i shall now proceed to discours . ii. we now ascend into the highest degree of the scale of nature , that is , of intellective spirits , human , and angelical ; wherof the human spirit doth , as i said , classicaly differ from sensitives , and only specificaly from angels : but as the human spirit of man is united into one compositum with all the inferior spirits , and matter , as they are subordinate one unto another ; so man is the whole scale in himself , which angels are not : comprehending both intellective and sensitive and all other inferior natures , as sensitive composita do sensitive and vegetative and the rest , and vegetative vegetative and elementary and matter , and elementary elementary and the matter , which are the true approximations and combinations or syzygys of nature ( though no participations mistions or confusions of classical differences , as i have shewed ) but man only is the epitome of all , or as the antients rightly stiled him a microcosm , or litle world : for as angels , who are the other species of intellectives , are pure spirits , and no composita ; so sensitive , and all inferior composita , are not intellective ; but only man is all in one ; that is , potentialy , or classicaly ; though not actualy , and specificaly : as the body of man hath not actualy the rarity of superaether , nor the density of subcortical earth , nor all the degrees of the elementary qualitys ; though he hath them also potentialy in himself , becaus he hath in his compositum both matter , and all the fower elements , which are potentialy capable therof , having the real potentialitys therof in themselves ; and so he is not specificaly grass , herb , or tree , nor fowl , fish , or beast ; yet classicaly he hath a vegetative and a sensitive spirit in his compositum , and such as is specificaly proper to himself , as well as they have their proper vegetative , and sensitive spirits . wherefore plainly he is such a microcosm in himself , as i have described ; and the last valde bona is pronounced of him , as he is such a microcosm , as well as of the great world. and now i shall first discours of man generaly , according to the whole compositum , which every man hath in himself , and which is indeed that which we call , man. and as a traveller , who first by his mapp setts forth and travells over the world , wherof he hath yet only a notional module or image in his mind , when he returns back again , he reviews his mapp with those real apprehensions which he hath acquired , and comparing both together , finds them to agree , and so being fully satisfied , as he did before contemplate the world itself only as notional , he now looks upon the very mapp therof , as almost real ; thus having gone forth out of my self as it were into this philosophical world , i seem now to return home again to my self , and in my own human compositum can behold the abstract of all that i found abroad : and thus i shall likewise desire any other , who shall have travelled through these discourses of the world , now to make himself and his whole compositum the sensible experiment of the whole system therof , as god hath described it in this divine history , which is also an intellectual epitome therof . and so let him consyder whether he hath no● a body of matter , which he may discover by the extension and density therof ; and therin all the fower elements , which he may discover by the fower first qualitys therof ; and also a vegetative spirit , which he may discover by the involuntary motions therof , in the plastical formation of his body , nutrition , and the like ; and also a sensitive spirit , which he may discover by all his sensations ; and lastly an intellective spirit , whereby he understands all the others , and itself , and consciously knows , that it is not only rude matter , or any affection or variation therof , but that it can abstract from the matter , and that there are in it its own immaterial ideae , notions and facultys , which must subsist in an immaterial substance , which is his very intellective spirit : and as this is an intellective spirit , so is his sensitive a sensitive , and his vegetative a vegetative , and elementary elementary spirits , classicaly distinct and different from the matter , as well as from one another : for thus he knoweth and feeleth in himself , that there is in his compositum a sensitive spirit , which sometimes rebelleth against his intellective spirit , and a vegetative spirit , whose involuntary motions the sensitive spirit doth no● alway perceiv nor govern , and therefore they are called involuntary ; and a mistion of elementary spirits , which sometimes , as in a feaver , or the like , are distempered and disordered , and will not be governed by the vegetative spirit , and matter which will move to union and station , as i have shewed , maugre all or any elementary spirit : wherefore such different operations do plainly prove them to be such different substantial principles . and as they thus classicaly differ , so plainly they are subordinate one unto another , according to the scale of nature : for so the intellective spirit generaly commands and governs the sensitive spirit , as the rider doth his hors ; and the sensitive the vegetative , and the vegetative the elementary , and the elementary the matter , as i have shewed at large , and any may experiment in himself ; for as this is the scale of nature , which god erected , and the true oeconomy therof , which he hath ordered and setled in the world , so every man hath , and if he attentively and duly consyder it , may evidently perceiv the same in his own compositum . and , which is yet more admirable , as man is this centrical orb of the whole world , not only localy as he is in or upon the earth , which is his mansion , but physicaly , as he is such a compendium therof ; so he is also politicaly , according to the divine intention of the creator , that one nature , which all other natures do circumferentialy respect , and relate to him one way or other , as so many lines to the center : wherefore as angels probably were created first , being the supreme of all natures ; so man was made last , as the summ and completion of them all , and the political end therof , which was first in the divine intention , and last in the execution . and man was so made in order to the assumption of his nature by iesus christ , the son of god , who is therefore called the begining of the creation of god , both principium , and principatus ; alpha , and omega , the first and the last ; and i suppose tha● consultation about the creation of man , let us make man &c. ( wheras it is said of the rest , only by a word of command , let there be light , and the like ) did refer specialy to christ , who was to unite and espous the human nature , ( which as i said is the epitome of the whole creation ) to the divine nature , in one person . and yet some forgetting that they are christians , and indeed men , and seeming to trample on this supposed pride of man with a real and greater pride and self-conceit , can be so ungratefull toward god their creator , and iesus christ their redeemer , and so fals to themselvs , as to deny or disparage this originaly natural , though now depraved , excellence of their own nature . wherefore to retund their perversity , and to assert the native dignity of mankind , i shall evidently prove it by the letter of the text ; which declares this to be the very intention of the creation of man , let us make man after our image , and in our own likeness . and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over the catell , and over all the earth ; and accordingly it is repeated again by god himself unto man , after he was made , that he might know and acknowledg it ; replenish the earth , and subdue it , and have dominion over the fish of the sea &c. and so after the deluge , god again renewed this great charter to mankind , when also he added a farther priviledg of feeding on sensitives . and it is still evidently so according to natural reason ; for thus , as the intellective spirit of man in his own human compositum subordinateth all the inferior natures to itself , so also doth man in his whole compositum subordinate them all to himself ; not as angels , who by their greater power can overrule all or any of them , yea man himself , externaly and violently , but by an intrinsecal right and power of sovereignty and dominion , whereunto man was born , and hath it in himself according to the law of nature : for so also , though angels are more excellently intelligent of all these inferior natures then man himself ; yet he is more sentient therof , becaus he is sensitive , and they are not : and thus man as one of them , and being more excellent then them all was made to be their natural and lawfull prince , yet as in his own compositum he hath not actualy and specificaly all the differences of inferior natures , but only classicaly , so he doth not possess nor hath the use of all other things particularly , but generaly : and as a paterfamilias or master of the hous , though he hath not the whole vsus , but the fructus of all in the family , and hous ; yet he may have the very vsus of what he pleaseth therof ; for quic quid acquiritur servo acquiritur domino , so man doth most lawfully use the service ; yea the very lives of sensitives : and they have no right or propriety in any thing that they have , no , not in themselvs , against man , whom god , the supreme lord of all , hath thus made lord over the works of his hands , and putt all things under his feet ; that is , all these inferior natures , beasts of the field , and fowls of the air , and fish of the sea , which are next and immediate unto himself , and in the same region of life with himself ; and consequently all other things which are below them ; but as he is naturaly of the same intellective classis with angels , whose native province is the superaether , which is also superelementary , so he hath only a coordinate communion with them heer , and shall have eternaly heerafter , in such a way and maner as we do not now understand ( nor will i presume to inquire : ) and yet even now they are termed ministring spirits sent forth to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation . but most sensibly the whole elementary globe , and all things therin , were made thus subordinate and subservient to man , and since our rebellion against god , and theirs against us , yet , as god declared to noah and his sons , we still hold the reins of this sovereignty and empire over them in our hands , and so shall untill the last dissolution : thus it is said , every kind of beasts , and of birds , and of serpents , and things in the sea , is tamed , and hath been tamed of mankind : and none of them could ever yet make warr with men , but in all ages , and all places of the habitable earth , are enslaved , or ejected , by us . also as the tapistry , and pictures , and all the ornatus of the hous , is for the use of the master ; so hath the intellective spirit of man the intellectual contemplation and enjoyment of all the spectable world : and thus we have hitherto discoursed therof ; and though we cannot comprehend all things , nor all the secrets and mysterys of nature , which we therefore must admire ; yet that very admiration is another kind of enjoyment of them : as all wonderfull spectacles are very delightfull , and we willingly bestow our pains in travelling to see them , and also very great cost to purchase them . but the most satisfactory and sensible evidence of this great truth is the universal curs and blast that is upon all this inferior globe for the sin of man ; which could not be for any other reason , but only becaus it , and all that is therin , is his : and such derivative punishment is also used in the civil laws of men. — immeritis frangun●ur crura caballis . iii. i shall now consyder man more distinctly ▪ as he is composited of soul and body ; and first his human body , and the successive generation therof , according to his original creation . i have shewed , how , according to the scale of nature , the matter is the first body ▪ and the inferior spirits , together with the matter , are the bodys of the superior ; and so that , and all the inferior spirits , elementary , vegetative , and sensitive , are the body of the intellective spirit of man ; which as it is a sensitive body may be termed his beast , ( as beasts are next unto him in the order of nature ) though indeed his sensitive spirit be neither such as the spirit of fish , fowl , or beast , specificaly , bu● only classicaly sensitive , as they also are ; wheras it is in itself specificaly a more excellent and proper spirit , as i have shewed : which was also produced out of the earth as well as the spirits of beasts as they are all of the same classical nature : for so , as it is said , out of the ground the lord formed every beast , &c. it is also said , god formed man out of the dust of the gr●und ; wherefore his human body was not only a lute● imag● , or statue , as is commonly supposed , and that so god inspired into it the b●eath of life , both sensitive , and intellective ; for it was first made a sensitive body , having the sensitive spirit then laten● in it , and ready to be produced ; as the sensitive spirit in the foetus of any other animal is so produced , when the vegetative spirit hath first formed and organised the sensitive body , as i have shewed , and may now evidently appear in the creation and generation of man ; for so god is said to breath into his nostrills the breath of life , ( or lives , as it is hebraicaly ) that is , in the same instant when god so produced by improper creation the sensitive spirit , or life , ( which is also called breath of life ) by forming man of the dust of the ground , as well as any beast as i said , he also introduced into his body the intellective spirit , and life ; for so he is said to breath into his nostrills , that is , into such an organical part of his sensitive body , as any beast also hath ; and not only into a figure or similitude therof , which a statue may have ; but plainly they were carneae , and not luteae nares ; and so was all his body carneum corpus , and not lutea imago corporis : and so adam , after he was thus immediately created , that is , by improper creation of the sensitive body , and proper creation , of his intellective spirit , saith of eve , who was also so immediately created by god , this is bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh : and certeinly the body of eve was made of such a sensitive part of the body of adam , and so indeed they were both created by god ; as it is said , male and female created he them ; and neither was the soul of man made superior to that of the woman , as the iewish rabbins most fondly affirm ; nor yet the body of woman superior to that of the man , as some fond amorists are apt to fansy . and wheras god is said to build or aedificate woman , so also it is said that he formed man and beasts . and this special aedification of woman out of the rib or side of man , and not immediately out of the earth , was somwhat like generation by seed ; which is a decision from the body of the parents , whereby the child is as it were a part therof ; and as that makes the natural union and storge between them , so likewise this first creation of woman in such an extraordinary maner , otherwise then of any other feminine animal , ( which is not so made , nor any woman since of the rib or side of man ) was not only the original institution but natural law of matrimony between man and woman in paradise , more then between any other sensitive male and female : and is so interpreted in the following words , therefore shall a man leav his father and his mother , and shall cleav unto his wife ; and they two shall be one flesh. and indeed this is the foundation of all civil society , and polity of mankind , wherin he being naturaly animal sociabile excelleth all other sensitives ; for so husband and wife were not only before father and mother , but , as i may so say , the very parents of parentality itself ; and without lawfull , that is , such human conjugation , there is no lawfull , or human filiation . thus matrimony doth unite not only man and woman between themselvs , but also their children , as the pignora of their matrimonial covenant , and conjugation , during life ; wheras the bond of bestial copulation and procreation is not constant , but even parental is soon forgott and vanisheth away . and this also in mankind maketh fornication to be naturaly and moraly unlawfull , becaus he that is joined to an harlot is one body , for two ( saith he ) shall be one flesh. and matrimony is mystical , and typical of christ and his church ; between whom there is a spiritual , as this is a carnal union ; and christ hath married it to himself with an everlasting covenant , as this is mortal and temporary : and thus the apostle citeth the aforesaid text , and subjoineth , this is a great mystery , but i speak concerning christ and his church . now wheras it is said , that god formed the body of man of the dust , or as it is literaly , dust of the ground , and not , as it is said of beasts , out of the ground , it may import a more delicacy , or tendernes , of the human body , proportionable to the more excellent sensitive spirit , as dust is a ●iner and purer part of earth ; but i rather conceiv , that it is so expressed to humble man , the most excellent of all sensible animals ; in that sens wherin it is so afterward applied , dust thou art , and unto dust shalt thou return . thus it appears plainly by authority of scripture , that man hath not only an intellective , but also a sensitive spirit , in his compositum ; becaus it is so said that god breathed into his nostrills the breath singularly of lives dualy , that is , though his intellective soul only was inspired , yet the other was produced . and so also according to reason ; for these two spirits are classicaly different in the same human compositum , as well as in a brute and an angel ; for one is material and united mediately by the inferior spirits to the matter , and the other immaterial ; and so the one can only be and operate conjunctly in and with the matter and body therof , but the other may be and operate seperately without them : nor can these be two spirits mist together , any more then matter and spirit , ( wherof , when they are consubstantiated , the matter is no less matter , nor the spirit spirit ; though they do consubstantiate one another mutualy and conjunctly , whereby they are and operate as one perfect substance ) and much less the intellective and sensitive spirit of man , which are not consubstantiateed . neither hath the intellective spirit eminently ( as it is commonly termed , though none can understand what it should signify ) the facultys , powers , and qualitys , of the sensitive spirit , or the sensitive of the vegetative spirit , or the vegetative of the elementary spirits , any more then a spirit hath of the matter , or the matter of spirits ; nor can any one species have the proper qualitys of another , for then they should not be such proper qualitys of its own species ; and whatsoever scholastical notions any others may frame in their minds , they who search into nature itself , and consyder things as they find them therin , must confess that as they can know nothing of matter what it is , but by the extension , density , and like affections therof , so neither of spirits what they are but by their proper powers , and qualitys ; as it is truly said , that if a stone could be made to have truly and realy all the proper qualitys of gold , it must be gold , and have such an actual composition of the elementary spirits , wherin those qualitys of gold do subsist : and however philosophers might distinguish notionaly , all mankind besides would esteem it ; and accept it , as true gold. wherefore if the intellective spirit of man had , as they say , all the true and real propertys of a sensitive spirit , and also of a vegetative it must be both an intellective and sensitive and vegetative spirit , which is a confusion , not only of species , but of classes : and so man should be a greater monster then a mule , or the like mist animals : for so indeed there may be a mistion not only of homogeneous substantial spirits , as in all augmentation , whereby more of the same specifical spirit latent in the nutriment is taken into the individuality and oeconomy of the substantial spirit of the principal compositum , and mist with the very substance therof ; but also homoeogeneous spirits of the same clussis may be so mist , in primitive generation , as in a mule , and the like ; and yet becaus it is confusion of the species , it may not continue and propagate others : for nature doth abhorr all such rape and violence offered unto her , in her specifical oeconomys , and will not endure any successive multiplication of a new species ( as it is therefore proverbialy said , cum mula pepererit ) as well as she doth also abhorr the abolition of any of her regular species , which are as so many members of her great body , and therefore god did so extraordinarily preserv them in the deluge . and though it is true that even sensitive spirits becaus they also do live have perception and appetite , which are analogous to intellective understanding and will ; and so also all analogous affections of love , hate , joy , grief , hope , fear , and the like living facultys ; as there are many such analogys in nature between several classical spirits and spiritual qualitys , yea between them and matter and the affections therof , as i have observed ; yet they are still classicaly different , as well as there are the like specificaly different analogys between the like intellective facultys and powers in men and angels . and by these analogys and correspondences in her several members , nature doth confederate and combine and unite all her composita , and her whole body , and make it one conjunct univers in the whole ; and so doth the human compositum or nature of man , ( which is , as i said , the epitome of the univers ) thus confederate and combine and unite all the classicaly different natures in itself . thus there is both such a combination and compositum of the whole , and also a classical difference of the several natures in themselvs , as so many parts and members therof , which yet are not mist or confounded one with another any more in the litle compositum of man , then in the great body of the univers ; wherin certeinly they are so different , otherwise there should be no such d●fferences in nature ; but either materia prima , or anima mundi , or both might be eminently all things ; which i have before sufficiently refuted . and it may sensibly appear that there are such several spirits in man , by their several operations , which are not only naturaly different , but actively contrary , as i have shewed , and caus a conflict in him , as it were between two several animals ; for so it is confessed by all philosophy , that the sensitive spirit doth rebell against the intellective , for the sensitive imagination and appetite , or the intellective understanding and will , do never so resist and oppose one another ; but what the imagination determineth , and so representeth to the appetite , as sensual good , or evill , the appetite accordingly affecteth , or disaffecteth it , without any renitence or regret ; and so it is also between the understanding and the will : but the only dispute in the same spirit , sensitive , or intellective , is in the deliberation concerning several sensual or intellectual object● , or circumstances therof , and the like , before the imagination , or understanding , can judg and determin that this , or that object , so circumstantiated , is sensualy , or intellectualy , good , or evill , or better , or wors : wheras after the determination is once past , the appetite doth follow the vltimum dictamen of the imagination , and the will of the understanding without any the least renitence and regret , most spontaneously , and voluntarily . wherefore such opposite operations as are commonly between the sensitive imagination and intellective understanding , and sensitive appetite and intellective will , plainly declare that the intellective and sensitive spirit in the same man are realy different , as well as they are so in brutes and angels ; yea and more evidently , becaus there is no such conflict in either of them , who are wholy sensitive , or wholy intellective ; and though the sensitive spirit in man did perfectly submitt to his intellective spirit in his first creation , yet they did then also as realy differ in their own natures , which are not altered by the fall , and as they now do as much naturaly differ when they agree , as when they disagree ; though the actual disagreement doth more sensibly manifest the natural difference : as actual heat and cold , moisture and drines declare the elementary spirits to be different substantial principles ; and though they being all of the same classis , may be united into one mistum , and their qualitys into one equal and agreing temperament , yet the sensitive and intellective spirits in man being classicaly different , neither themselvs , nor their facultys , nor operations , can be so mist ; and so any man may feel in himself , that when in such a conflict , the will , which is intellective , doth prevail and over-rule the operation , the sensitive appetite doth not mingle itself with it , but as it were also by itself reluct and repine , and assoon as it can return to its own sensual cours : and when the appetite doth prevail and overrule , the will doth in like maner mourn , and bewail itself , and assoon as it can return to its own rational cours : which sensibly satisfieth me , that they are and remain such different spirits , or substantial principles , facultys , and operations , though they be all in the same human compositum . and wheras it is said , that the human embryo first lives the life of a vegetative plant , then of a sensitive brute , and lastly , of an intellective man , though i have shewed how it indeed begins to live the sensitive and intellective life together in one and the same instant , and so it is said man became a living soul , or person , becaus they are both truly and properly lives , and the intellective denominates the whole person , man : and assoon as the sensitive life dieth , and the breath , which is the instrument therof , ceaseth , and expireth , the intellective also departs ; and as long as the sensitive life remains , though in any deliquium , or the like , the intellective continues ; and so the wise-man saith of men , as one dieth so dieth the other , yea , they have all one breath : yet it is very true , that the vegetative life , as they call it , is before the sensitive , as may appear by the punctus saliens , in the formation of the foetus ; and wheras they say , that this is only the operation of the sensitive soul in a brute , and of the intellective in a man , so operating eminently by those inferior powers which it hath in itself , before it can exert its own proper superior powers , it seemeth to me very absurd and improbable , that it should putt forth any such eminent powers which must subsist in the proper powers , before those proper powers be actuated , wherin it must subsist ; as emanant light , or heat , are potentialy , that is formaly , and not only eminently , in inherent , but certeinly cannot be actualy exerted before the inherent be actuated , and doth operate actualy : though indeed , as i have said , no proper quality of one specifical spirit can be , actualy , or potentialy , in another , either immediately , or mediately , as the proper qualitys of the same specifical spirit may be : and so as emanant light , or heat , doth immediately subsist in inherent , and mediately in aether or fire . wherefore there are three such distinct spirits , intellective , sensitive , and vegetative , in the human compositum ; and also the fower elementary spirits ( and they only mist together in one ) nor hath ever any yet affirmed that they also were eminently in all or any of the others , as that the intellective , sensitive , or vegetative spirit , is eminently hott , cold , moist , or dry , or the like : and yet they might and must affirm this as well as the other , becaus they also are spirits , and not the bodily matter . and thus there are indeed , speaking plainly , seaven different spirits in every human compositum ; not possessing it or the body of matter , ( as the seaven evill spirits did , which our savior cast out of mary magdalen ) but informing , that is , inspiriting it naturaly , and according to the whole scale of nature , wherof they are all the classical spirits : and if they were not all in the human compositum , man should not be truly the epitome of nature , or any such microcosm in himself : but as certeinly as he is composited of matter and spirit , which yet remain distinct and different natures in one and the same compositum , so he hath also all the inferior several spirits in him as well as the matter , and the matter as well as them ; all which together are his human body , and not only the matter , and elementary mistion . and now , becaus i know that this affirmation of so many several spirits in every one man will seem very strange to any , who doth not attend , and rightly consyder , the true system of nature , as it is described in this history of creation , both proper , and improper ; and becaus many christian philosophers , who strongly maintein and affirm the proper creation of the world against all atheism and heathenism , yet do not heerin also , as they ought , oppose the improper creation by god against human philosophy and inventions of men from which they have derived some preconceived notions , which are their only objections against this doctrine ; i shall recapitulate briefly what i have formerly more fully declared , whereby they shall plainly understand that the objections are only notions , and that it is not , nor can it be , realy so in created nature . thus , as i have said , god the creator is the only true eminence , or eminent causality ; who comprehending all possibilitys , not formaly , but eminently , in his own infinite omnipotence , could , and did create , what he pleased from absolute nonentity , and so still doth comprehend all created entitys , not formaly , but eminently in his own infinite entity in an infinite and incomprehensible maner : but as it is impossible that any thing should be generated actualy , wherof there is only a nonentitative possibility , and no entitative potentiality ( as i have distinguished them ) becaus generation is no creation ; so it is also impossible that any natural agent should act or operate by any power , which it hath not formaly in itself , but only eminently , as they say : for if it can so act and operate , then it hath formaly that power whereby it doth so act or operate ; otherwise it should act or operate without the formal and univocal power ; or it should have ● , and not have it , both which are equaly impossible ; and so they say , that the soul of man doth sens , and vegetate , and the like , and yet hath no sensitive , or vegetative powers , and the like , or that it hath them eminently , and not formaly ; that is , it hath them , and it hath them not . but since it is most certein that the human compositum doth sens , and vegetate , and is hott , cold , moist , dry , realy and formaly , as well as any beast , or tree , or stone , or the like , it is most evident that it hath formaly the sensitive and vegetative and elementary powers , and qualitys , as well as they : and then by their own argument , becaus the intellective soul cannot have them formaly , there must be also in man a sensitive , vegetative , and all the fower elementary spirits , wherin they do formaly subsist . again , becaus god is infinitely one most simple essence , therefore he doth also act and operate by his essence ; but all created substances ( even angels themselvs , as i shall shew heerafter ) are not simple as god , but have their substances and accidents , and act and operate by their accidental powers and qualitys , and so their nature is composed of substances and accidents . and the mutual conversation of one substance with another is by their accidents that are their emissarys and agencys , and which meeting and joining together , ( as light with color ) by their conjunction , and mutual action and passion , the operation is produced , ( which , as i have said , cannot be in vacuity , or without some contact corporeal , or spiritual ) and as we thus act and operate immediately by accidents , and upon accidents , so by them mediately we know substances of other things , and not otherwise . thus the intellective soul doth act and operate by understanding and will , and by their proper irradiations and eradiations , as i shall shew heerafter ; and so the sensitive soul by its imagination and appetite , and their proper irradiations and eradiations , as i have shewed before : whereby we know them to be what they are , and therefore since man doth thus sens , as well as understand , and the like , he hath also substantialy in his compositum a sensitive , as well as an intellective soul , and the like ; otherwise we must affirm his intellective soul to be also a sensitive soul , which is to confound natures classicaly different ; and we may as well affirm it to be vegetative , and elementary spirits , and matter itself , which all make the human compositum . again , as matter , being an imperfect substance , must be composited with spirits to perfect it ; so every spirit that is inferior is more composited with it and others ; and the more superior less , as i have shewed : and this compositum doth not produce any new substance which is forma compositi , nor is any such introduced into it aliunde , but it is only the result of the composition itself , and the real relation therof , not abstractly and metaphysicaly ; as entity , genera , species , and the like , but concretely and homophysicaly , as i may term it ; as the univers , all animals , all men , and the like , which are also so many physical individua : and so is the human compositum or man , so many physical spirits and matter composited together . ( and this is only a natural corporation , wherin the intellective spirit predominates , and so denominates the compositum ) and the forma compositi , which is one , is only the result therof , and according to the scale and oeconomy of nature the composita are thus naturaly united together : for so the elementary spirits do immediately consubstantiate the matter of the body of man , and are all fower mist together , and have their fower first , and such other elementary qualitys , ( which are yet occult and unknown to us ) actuated therin , as well as in any other elementary compositum , stone , wood , or the like , that is , in the primigenious mi●tion and temper of the bloud , whereby , and wherof , the flesh , bones , and all the parts of his body are constituted severaly and respectively , by the operation and distribution of the vegetative spirit , which doth so plasticaly govern and vary the elementary mistion and qualitys therof , as it doth the matter and extension therof so qualified ; and so form and frame the whole compages of the body organised and erected thereby : and the vegetative spirit , which doth so govern and vary the elementary spirits , doth immediately consubstantiate them , as they do the matter ; for as they cannot be and operate without the matter , nor the matter become the body of elementary spirits without them ; so the vegetative spirit cannot be produced , nor operate without the matter , and elementary spirits , nor they become the body of a vegetative spirit without it ; nor can the sensitive spirit be produced and operate without the vegetative and elementary spirits and matter , nor they become the body of the sensitive spirit without it ; and thus also the intellective spirit is not before inspired , nor can now operate without the sensitive , vegetative , and elementary spirits , and matter , nor they become the body of an intellective spirit without it , and wherof not one , nor some , but all together are the body : but contrarily there may be an elementary compositum of the body of matter and elementary spirits without a vegetative spirit , as stones , metalls , minerals , and the like ; or a vegetative compositum without ●t a sensitive spirit , as grass , herbs , trees● ; or a sensitive compositum without an intellective spirit , as fishes , fowls , beasts ; according to the oeconomy of nature ; as i have formerly shewed , and now more fully approved by the human compositum , which so comprehends them all , and in the same order . also , as i have supposed , that there is a proper elementary mistion subordinate to the vegetative spirit , and a proper vegetative spirit to the sensitive spirit , and a proper sensitive spirit to the intellective spirit of man , so this likewise may appear in the human compositum ; for so it is said , all flesh is not the same ; for there is one kind of flesh of men , another flesh of beasts , another of fishes , and another of birds ; and yet all flesh is elementary ; and therefore the difference must be from the various mistion of the human , bestial , and other fleshes ; and so that there is in man a proper vegetative spirit , is evinced by the plastical vir●ue therof so effigiating his body , and specialy his hands , which are instead of fore-feet , and all the natural arms of other sensitive animals , horns , tusks , beaks , claws , teeth , and tails , and the like ; and also his erect posture , whereby he differs from all others : and that there is in him a proper sensitive spirit , is evinced by his imaginative apprehension , and appetitive delight of and in beauty , harmony ; and the like , which he can also effect farr more curiously and artificialy then any brute ; nor are those the works of his intellect , but of his imagination properly , though that may be much assisted therin by his understanding : for many that are otherwise in understanding almost idiots , or lunatikes , have most ingenious fansys ( which yet are not instincts as in brutes ) and wherin they farr excell the most wise and prudent men , as in singing , musike , dancing , painting , carving , and mechanike : but most evidently that which they call risibility not only in the act , but in the power , is only proper to mankind , and to no other sensitive : and though i know that philosophy hath entailed this also upon reason , and i will not deny them such a rational risibility as they would have , yet certeinly they cannot deny a sensitive risibility , such as happens by tickling , as well as flebility by beating , wherin reason hath not any share ; but sometimes we laugh or weep against our will ; and it is only a sensible titillation , or verberation of the flesh , and a sensual delectation , or pain thereby , which causeth laughter or weeping in such cases : though there be a great analogy between the sensitive and intellective risibility , as well as between other sensitive and intellective affections , which i mentioned before . and now i shall proceed to consyder another greater question , and of greater concernment ; whether the intellective spirit , or soul , as well as the body of man , be ex traduce , as they term it , that is , only generated by the parents , as the decision of the seed of any other sensitive animals , or immediately created by god ? wherin first i do acknowledg , as before , that the sensi●ive , vegetative , and elementary spirits of man , as well as the matter of his body , are so generated by the parents , becaus all these are only the human body , as i have shewed , according to the scale of nature : and thus god did at first produce the sensitive spirit of man by improper creation immediately , as he did all other sensitive spirits , latent in the first chaos ; wherin also the proper sensitive spirit of man was so latent , as well as his inferior spirits , both vegetative , and elementary ; all which were created in the beginning by a proper creation : and so farr i grant a praeexistence of these spirits , which are in all men , as well as of the spirits of brutes , and plants ; which as they were afterward produced by an improper creation by god , and now are generated by their parents successively , so god and nature , who do nothing in vain , did then so produce them , and they do still so generate them in man , as well as in plants and brutes . but i deny that the intellective spirit of man is latent in the seed , becaus it was not so latent in the chaos ; nor generated by the parents , becaus it was not so produced by an improper creation , but immediately created by a proper creation ; and infused by god as it were aliunde , and so inspired , as it is very fitly expressed , in respect of the maner of infusion therof ; for though god cannot be said properly to breath , yet as it is a substantial activity and life , so it is termed spiritus , or breath ; and though itself be not properly a breath , yet as it was infused in the same instant , when god also by improper creation produced the sensitive spirit , which is the other life ( and so is termed , the breath of life , which distinguisheth it from any vegetative spirit , as i have shewed ) , so god is said to breath into the nostrills of man this breath of life ; and as by inspiration , the breath assoon as it is out of the inspirer , is in the inspired , so this intellective soul of man was infused into him , assoon as it was created by god ; and thus according to the sentence of the scholeman , creando infunditur , & infundendo creatur , and was not praeexistent , as the sensitive , or any other inferior spirit , or the matter , ( as some jewish rabbins and rabbinical christians have imagined ) nor latent in any chaos of potentiality , but only in divina potentia , which can create any possible nonentity , and produce it into entity ; wheras natural generation is only the production of potential entity , or essence , into actual entity , or existence , as i have shewed . and god is said to breath it into the nostrills , rather then any other part of the body , becaus thereby is the passage for vapors into the brain , which is the centrical seat of the soul , as is heerby also intimated . wherefore as all successive generation is conformable to the original , and all other spirits which were then only produced , and not properly created , are still generated by the parents ; so the intellective soul of man , which was then not produced , nor improperly , but properly created ( both in adam and eve , whom he called flesh of his flesh , but not soul of his soul ) is still created by god , and not generated by the parents as god himself testifieth , all souls are mine ; as the soul of the father , so also the soul of the son is mine , and elihu acknowledgeth the same of himself , the spirit of god hath made me , and the breath of the almighty hath given me life . and it is so rational , that unless we also acknowledge it , we must affirm that our very intellective and rational souls were partly in the seed of our father , and partly in the seed of our mother , and so by their mingling together , mist into one ; as the fower elementary spirits , or the muline spirits , and the like ; and so that half an human soul was lost by the sin of onan . and if the soul of man be thus miscible , then it may be also unmist again , and is divisible , and consequently corruptible , as well as generable ; with many other such absurditys , which do necessarily follow this erroneous opinion . wheras we may sensibly perceiv , that though , as i have said , the sensitive body of man , that is , the matter , and elementary , vegetative , and sensitive spirit be so generated by the parents , and accordingly are conformable more or less to their bodily part , as an aethiopian , or negro , begets a n●gro , a moor a moor , and an european an european , according to the several shapes , and colors of the parents bodys , not only in their native climes of aethiopia , mauritania , europe , and the like , but also in any others , so long and untill the habits of the parents bodys be afterward altered by degrees , and several successive generations : and so hereditary diseases happen commonly in familys : yet there can be no such certein observation made of any intellectual or moral endowments of the soul , descending from the parents to their children ; ( notwithstanding the inclinations from all those bodily humors , which may so be derived unto them , and the great advantages of education , and conversation , with them , and the like ) which virgil had very wisely consydered , and so affirmed to augustus , that therefore he could not judg of the race of men , as of horses , and dogs ; and it is a common observation of historians , that in hereditary kingdoms seldom two princes of like disposition succeed one another . but it is most observable in the foetus of sodomitical copula●ion , that though i● may in the bodily part retein and represent something of either parent , human , and belluine , yet the predominant spirit , or soul , is not so mist , as in a m●le , which is both equine , and asinine ; but is either human , or belluine , that is intellective , or not intellective , and having , or not having rational discours , and the like : though i rather suppose , that it is never human , but alway belluine ; and that though god doth generaly create and infuse an human soul into a foetus begott by adulterous or m●retricious copulation , which are only against the law of matrimony between two individua , yet he doth not so assist in sodomy , which is against the generical law of nature , and the classical difference therof . and as sensitive animals of the same classis that are very heterogeneous will not so copulate , as beast and bird , nor hors and kine , and the like , as an hors and ass will , which are more homogeneous ; so though man ( whose very sensitive spirit is more heterogeneous from all beasts , then any of them is from another ) , may through his most unnatural and abominable lust perpetrate such infand villany , ( which cried to heaven and to the god of nature for vengeance against the first denominators therof ) yet commonly the foetus is strangely biform , and monstrous , and no fitt receptacle for an human spirit ; and so it is said , it is confusion . now though human parents do not , nor can they , as i have shewed , so generate or produce the intellective spirit of the child , as they do the sensitive spirit , and others , yet homo genera● hominem , or the human compositum , which is the man that is generated , aswell as any other sensitive animal doth generate its like sensitive compositum ; which may evidently appear if we remind what generation truly and rightly is , that is , no creation of any possible non-entity , nor transpeciation , or conversion of one entity into another , or production from not such an entity , actual , or potential , and only possible ; which is tantamount to a creation ; but only a composition aedification or confabrication of simple essences before created into one compositum , whereby there is generated a forma compositi , which was not before actualy , but only potentialy in all the simple essences , wherof it is composited ; and which also have their own simple formalitys , whereby they are such as they are , and were so created by god , in themselvs ; otherwise they should not be such as they are , and indeed absolutely not be , in themselvs : and when they are so composited , there is no new creation or conversion of them or any of their own simple essences or formalitys , as they are every one in themselvs , into any other ; but only the composition of them all together in such or such a maner ( which was potentialy before in them all , otherwise they could not be so composited ) is now made actualy to be such a compositum as it was not before ; as any accident potentialy subsisting in the substance is so afterward actuated ( as well as an hous is so built as i have shewed ) and this is the generation , that is , generatio compositi , by such composition and confabrication of simple entitys , for there can be no composition of non-entitys . and thus as the original generation of adam , or the whole man , by god , was such a composition and confabrication , as he is so said to be the son of god ; and of the woman , by such aedification , as it is termed ; so is every man still generated by his parents in all successive generation , and the only difference between the generation of man , and any other animal , is in the creation of the principles or simple essences , wherof they are composited : that is , whereas the matter , elementary , vegetative , and sensitive spirits of brutes , which are their principles , were all before created by god ; and are afterward composited by the parents , ( which is their generation ) so only the matter , elementary , vegetative , and sensitive spirit of man were so before created , and his intellective spirit which is one principle is created by god immediately , in and with the composition and generation by the parents , according to the law of nature : which different creation of the principles by god , doth not at all concern the generation by the parents ; that is , the composition or confabrication therof , which according to the law of his nature is the same in man as in any other animal ( and therefore there is one and the same blessing of procreation to man and beasts ) wheras indeed if generation were any such conversion or transpeciation as is supposed , then man should not generate man , as he doth ; and so this human generation doth most evidently prove , that all generation is none other then ▪ such a composition and confabrication , as i have declared : and thus adam begatt a son in his own likenes , and after his own image , and his son seth was his seed , as well as eves , in whose womb the generation was afterward consummated , when there was an infusion of the intellective soul of seth by god ; wherof the instrumental union , composition , and confabrication , was by both parents , as it is in any other animals by the male and female : for so the generation of man by man is according to the law of his original generation , as well as of any brute by brute , according to the law of their original generation ; and whatsoever difference there may seem to be between them in their successive generations , it is none other then was in their original generations ; according to which a man doth generate a man , as well as a brute a brute . and so according to this natural law , and the instituted compact or covenant of works , which god made with adam for himself and all his posterity , original sin and corruption is derived unto us all , and every mans soul ; though as it is the immediate work of god the creator , it is perfect and incorrupt , ( as all his immediate works are most perfect ) yet by this very union and composition , which is the generation , it is corrupted ; as it is rightly said , non corrupta infunditur , sed infusa corrumpitur : wherefore iesus christ was not so born according to this law of natural generation ; and yet he is also called the seed of the woman ( though his soul was certeinly so immediately created by god ) becaus the union therof with the sensitive body was by his mother : and as adam was created by god , both by a proper creation of his intellective soul , and improper creation of his sensitive body , so was christs soul properly , and his body improperly created by god ; as it is also said , a body hast thou prepared me : and thus as the first adam was the epitome of all creation both proper and improper , so also was christ the last adam , as the apostle fitly stileth him , and all that was extraordinary in this first man , was to typify him who is therefore also stiled the second man. iv. i shall now discours farther of the intellective spirit of man , which is his angel , or daemon , as it is in this conjunct state in his body , and as it operates therin . and heer again we must review the scale of nature , and of the composita therof ; wherin all such as are imperfect substances in themselvs , and cannot exert themselvs in their oeconomys , nor operate without a conjunction with others , do therefore accordingly affect that union , naturaly and necessarily , and disaffect to be disunited ; which i call their composition , and consubstantiation , whereby they are mutualy conjoined , and perfected ; as matter , which is such an imperfect substance , cannot be pure or alone , but doth so affect an union with spirits , whereby it is inspirited , activated , and perfected , or as they term it informed , and so made , as it were , a spiritual matter : and the elementary spirits which are lowest and next unto it , becaus they cannot so oeconomicaly exert themselvs , nor operate without a body of matter , as their vehicle , domicil , and officine , do therefore mutualy affect an union with it , whereby they are embodied , and so are said to be material spirits : and though any body and spirit make a complete compositum , yet as elementary spirits , which are the lowest , may be more highly exalted and purified by vegetative spirits , so they also affect an union with them , whereby they are so much sublimated , as i have before shewed concerning the bloud , and animal spirits ; and the vegetative spirits , becaus they cannot so oeconomicaly exert themselvs , nor operate without an elementary body , as their vehicle , domicil , and officine , do therefore mutualy affect an union therewith , whereby they are also embodied in them , immediately , and , mediately in and by them , in the matter , and so are also termed material spirits : and the proper vegetative spirit of sensitives , as it may be more advanced toward the sensitive nature by the sensitive spirits , so also it doth affect an union therwith , whereby it is so much spiritualised , as i have shewed in the involuntary motions , and other sensitive offices and services therof : and the sensitive spirits , becaus they cannot so oeconomicaly exert themselvs , nor operate without their proper vegetative bodys , as their vehicles , domicils , and officines , do therefore mutualy affect an union therwith , whereby they are also embodied in their proper vegetative spirits immediately , and so in and with them mediately in the elementary spirits and matter , and so are also termed material spirits . thus they all consubstantiate one another being localy and oeconomicaly in the matter of their bodys per omnia puncta , and so coextended thereby , and more or less divisible therwith , as i have shewed ; also they penetrate one another without any penetration of extensions , becaus they have no extension of themselvs , but only are coextended , as i said , in and by the matter , that is , they are in their own vehicle , domicil , or officine , which they inspirit and inform , as their body and seat , from which , or any part therof , they abhorr to to be removed , or that it should be in any maner discontinued ; but though they be thus localy united , and naturaly composited and consubstantiated , yet their consubstantiated natures are still classicaly different , and they are still distinct matter and spirits , or one spirit , and another , as before , both in their essences , affections , and operations , and do not participate of one another ; for the extension of matter is neither hot● nor cold , nor heat and cold nutritive , nor nutrition sensitive , but only they are subordinate and subservient one unto another , as i have shewed ; wheras spirits of the same classis may be not only localy united , but spiritualy so mist in their essences , qualitys , and operations , as to participate one of another , and be confounded one with another , as heat and cold are in tepor , and the equine and asinine spirits in a mule , which are no longer a distinct heat and cold , hors and ass , nor only a compositum , but a mistum of both , like the mistion of more of the same specifical spirit in the seeds of both parents , wherof one is not prolifike without the other , and in the augmentation of vegetatives , or sensitives , indistinctly and confusedly . now the intellective spirit of man being a perfect substance in itself , and such as may individualy exert itself , and operate separately , and doth not inhere , as light in a lucid body , but is as light in the diaphanum , is therefore neither consubstantiated with the sensitive , or any other inferior spirits , or the matter any more then an angel , who possesseth an human body ; nor can it be mist with the angelical nature , or any angelical spirit , or with more of any human spirit ; becaus it is immediately created by god , a perfect substance in itself , ingenerable , incorruptible , immis●●ble , and indivisible , as well as any angelical spirit . and yet as there is some mutual indigence and opitulation in and among all created natures , as so many parts and members of the universal body therof , so even angels , who are most immaterial , ( not only as other spirits , wherof none is any matter , as i have shewed ) but have least need therof , either by consubstantiation , as they , or inhabitation of a body , as the human spirit , yet becaus they also have no extension of themselvs , whereby they may be in their own vbi , or place , therefore must be in the universal body of the world , and in some part or vbi therof , as magnetical virtue is in any medium indifferently , and when they are in one place , they are not , nor can they be in another , nor can instantaneously pass from one to another , nor can annihilate or evacuate the nature of extension , or the density , or gravity of matter , nor do any thing contrary to the law therof , nor infinitely overcome it , but finitely , and according to some certein proportions : and therefore move not so swiftly through more dens , as through more rare matter , nor can so easily lift more grave as more light , as i have shewed : and i grant that there is also such coordination between the highest and lowest nature , angels and matter ; becaus they are both natures , and created entitys , conteined within this univers as parts and members therof , and within the universal genus of all created entity ; but they have otherwise no communion with any particular body of matter , nor have any such vehicles , syderous , igneous , aereous , aqueous , terreous , as some suppose , whose souls are so farr immersed in the gross matter , as that they cannot conceiv angels , or any thing to be immaterial , or without a proper body of matter , nor god himself , without an vbi ; though his immensity be infinite , and infinitely different from all that is finite , and therefore infinitely free from all extension , place , space , or vbi , or any notion , or imagination therof , becaus it is incomprehensible , and such as must be acknowledged and adored , but can never be comprehended . wheras man , though he be more concerned in the matter , and material spirits , then angels , and so may be said himself to be more material then they , yet as he is litle lower then the angels , and much higher then the other inferior natures , ( wherof also all , except the matter , are spirits ) should more contemplate spirits , and their spiritual nature , and not wholy bury himself in matter , who hath no such union with it immediately , or mediately , but that he may exist in his own intellective spirit , and operate separately without it in his separate state ; though as he is the epitome of all classical natures , so he doth subordinate all the others unto himself , as they do one unto another in this conjunct state ; and though his proper sensitive spirit , as well as others , doth also naturaly and necessarily affect this union , yet he doth not so mutualy affect it , as that he cannot be , and continue in his own individuality and the private oeconomy of his own spirit , and operate separately without it in his separate state as well as angels : and yet being also capable of this conjunction or composition as well as other spirits , though in another maner , as i have shewed , he doth naturaly indeed , but not necessarily , affect it , as they do : and so is the great amphibium between both , apt to live conjunctly and separately in both worlds , and in the lowest earth , and highest superaether . and thus the human spirit in this conjunct state is in the body , not inherently , as i have shewed , nor yet so in its element , as a fish in the water , which cannot live out of it , or as a plant that is rooted in the earth ; but as a master in a ship , who can also live out of it ; or , as the scripture more aptly expresseth it , as in a tabernacle , wherin he shall not abide long ; and so the rabbins call the body vagina animae . but wheras the schoolmen say , that it is tota in toto & tota in qualibet parte corporis ; i cannot understand it of the very substance of the soul , nor do i conceiv it to be intelligible : for though i acknowledg it to be not only as a master in one part of a ship , as in the heart , or head ; but like hercules in vrceo ; possessing and filling all the vessel ; and also that it hath all its facultys and powers every where in the whole substance of itself , either actualy or potentialy ; becaus it is indivisible , and hath no extensive , but only coextensive parts , and them not so coextensively united to the matter , as inferior spirits are ; yet it doth operate actualy in one part rather then another , ( which the scripture comprehensively calleth the heart , and sometimes more particularly the head ) and so indeed it must , becaus it now operates by the instrumentality of the sensitive spirit , which is centricaly seated in the head and brain , and not so in the whole body , ( though it opera e communicatively and diffusively through the whole body ) but in other parts , where it is also , it doth not so operate , actualy : and as it cannot so operate , and not so opera●e in the same place , any more then in the same time , so becaus itself is diffused in and through the whole body , therefore it is not all in any part therof ; otherwise it should not be so diffused ; and it cannot be diffused and not diffused in the same place : and as it is all within the body , and therefore cannot be without it , in this conjunct state , so , if it were all in any one part of the body , then it could not be in any other ; wherefore since it is tota in toto , it cannot be tota in qualibet parte ; for both cannot be true of any extension , or coextension whatsoever . nor doth the spiritual intirety and indivisibility of the human soul alter the nature of the extension of the body , or coextension of itself ; nor do they , or either of them , destroy the intirety and indivisibility therof , which is not local , as is supposed , but only spiritual ; as a ray , or orb of emanant light is spiritualy intire and indivisible in the lustre , or image therin , but not localy , ( for it may be measured by so many inches , feet , and the like , coextensively , according to the extension of the diaphanous body wherin it localy is ) but spiritualy , so as you cannot clip off an inch , or an hairs breadth , of the ray ; and wheresoever that is , there is also the lustre and image : and so you may measure a man , both body , and soul , according to his bodily extension . yet if a leg , or arm , or half the body , by a turkish torture , be cut off , the soul , or any part therof , is not divided ; but as the light retires into itself , when you divide the diaphanous body , so doth the soul , which is yet spiritualy more intire and indivisible then the light ; for that by reflection is reduplicated , and fortified more in and by that reduplication ; wheras a man , who hath lost a limb , is not more or less intellective then before , becaus the intellective spirit is perfectly intire and indivisible in the spiritual substance , and all the facultys therof within the body , and more then any emanant quality is out of the body ; and so is one perfectly intire and indivisible individuality and oeconomy in itself , farr otherwise , and more then any tree , or eel , or other vegetative , or sensitive , as i have shewed . and i shall now endeavor to shew how the intellective spirit doth operate in this conjunct state , both in the understanding , and in the will : for though it be , as i said , most perfectly intire and indivisible in its substance , and in its facultys , and operations therin , yet as a finite creature , it hath its substance , facultys , and operations , of several distinct natures ; and is not only essence , and so doth operate only by its essence , as god the creator , but as other spirits , or substantial activitys , it also hath its substance , powers , and acts ; and as the sensitive spirit is a life , as well as the intellective , so it is the neerest and best resemblance therof ; having , as i said , sensitive imagination , and appetite , and the rest of the other vital facultys , respectively subsisting therin ; for so hath the intellective spirit an analogous understanding , and will , and the rest of the other vital facultys , respectively subsisting therin . also as there is imprinted and implanted by god the creator in the imagination a general perception , or notion , so there is such a general intellection or notion in the understanding , which i shall better explain by what i have said before of sensation : for so as i said , this notion is not only a simple operation , as all inferior operations are , but besides the very operation there is a perception therof in any brute , whereby it is perceptive , that it doth see , or the like , ( as well as it doth perceptively affect , as i have said ) conjunctly in and with the operation itself , though not reflexively afterward , or by a farther consyderation what seing is , as in man. and this conjunct operation is , as i said , living , and sensitive , and is first by the power of the imagination , whereby it so operateth , that is , seeth , or the like : wherin , as i have shewed , first the external light , doth irradiate the colorate object , and by the reflected rays therof convey the species wherwith they are tinged to the ey , and there the internal light doth again irradiate them , and by the reflected rays therof convey them to the animal spirits in the optike nervs , and brain , so prepared by the vegetative spirit to be fitt instruments of the sensitive soul , and which actuateth the potential images therin , so 〈◊〉 they are made fitt to be irradiated and illustrated by the external species ; and the imagination , when it doth animadvert them , doth , as i conceiv , again itself irradiate them by a farr more pure , spiritual , and sensitive light , as i may so term it , whereby the object , which is gross in itself , is thus purified , spiritualised , and sublimated , first in the species , then in the images therof , and lastly in these phantasms , which are , as it were , the species of those images , and the immediate objects of imagination , as being most refined and so approaching neerest to the spiritual nature therof , and thereby most prepared and made fitt for it : and by that irradiation of the imagination reflected and retiring into itself , the sensitive soul doth sens or perceiv them , and withal it doth sens or perceiv , that it doth so perceiv ; which is the other operation that i intend , and indeed the very vital act therof ; and in that , and the spontaneous appetition , ( which doth not only eradiate and emitt a motive power , or a very pure , spiritual , and sensitive hear , as i may so term it , but also doth it spontaneously , by such another conjunct operation ) doth sensitive life consist . and though i express them as sensibly as i can , by light , and heat , as we usualy call such spiritual qualitys lumina , and igniculos animi ; yet i do not intend thereby any such elementary qualitys , but farr more spiritual , vital , and sensitive ; and only symbolical , and analogous to the other , as there are such analogys in nature , and as the species of the object are so refined , as i have shewed , to render them as spiritual and analogous as they can be made : and though i mention only seing , becaus it is a most spiritual , and most conspicuous sens , and wherin the species are more refined by the external and internal light , which is the standard therof , then perhaps the sensible species of any other sens , in and by the standard therof ; yet i conceiv that their sensible species are in like maner irradiated respectively ( though i want other respective terms to express it ) by the imagination : thus in hearing there is a sensible sound conveyed to the aura in the tympanum , though i know not , that there is any emanation therof , nor farther purification thereby , or in the aura , ( as is in seing , which is the most spiritual sens ) but only that it is a standard between the sensible sound , and the auditive animal spirits in the nervs and brain ; and that all the images therof being potentialy in them ( as all parts and members of the body are in the bloud , and all sensible sounds , as i said , in the air ) they are irradiated , as i must so again term it , by them , and so pass through the auditive nervs to the brain , as any sound from the first collision , at one end of a string stretched and held by the teeth at the other end , doth pass from one to the other ; and so they are again irradiated by the imagination , whereby the sensation is performed : and the imagination doth both hear , and perceiv that it hears , and so of the rest . and thus also , as i conceiv , when the imagination doth fansy , as we call it , that is , contemplate phantasms actuated only by the vegetative spirit , at the command , and by the government therof , without any such irradiation by the sensible object or species , yet itself doth irradiate them more or less ; that is animadvert , though commonly so feintly and transiently , that they are , as i said , only as spectres of the species , and pass away , as we say , as quick as thought ; becaus the imagination , being a very active spirit , doth so pass from one to another ; and it is not requisite that they should continue longer ; but give place to others : and yet sometimes the imagination is so vehement , and doth so intensly irradiate them , that they are as apparent , as if they were illustrated by the very sensible object , or species ; as in the instance of the firestick , and the like , after the object , and species therof are removed , as i have shewed ; and sometimes also more permanently and steadily , even as if the phantasm were a real object , as in the instance of him , qui se credebat miros audire tragoedos : and in very great and sudden fears and frights , and the like , in others . now the understanding and will of man , though they be classicaly of an higher nature then imagination , and appetite , yet they are all in the region of life , as i have said , and very analogous in their living operations ; and conjunct in the human compositum , wherin the intellective spirit of man doth predominate , and as his sensitive spirit is immediately subordinate , so it is also subservient unto it ; and as the vegetative spirit doth actuate the species , and phantasms , in the animal spirits , which are elementary , for the imagination , which doth so irradiate them immediately for itself , and thereby sens and perceiv them ; so the imagination doth also actualy irradiate it s own phantasms for the use and service of the understanding , whereby they become the most spiritual and fitt objects therof : and then when the understanding would animadvert them , it doth farther irradiate them by its own most pure and mental light , as i may so term it , and thereby understand them intellectively , and with all perceiv that it doth so understand ; and as it doth thus behold sensible objects , so also becaus itself is an intelligence , it hath intellectual notions , and idea's therof , and much more of itself and other intelligible things , and can reflect upon itself and its own operations , and understand what they are , by another and higher act : and so likewise abstract from all singulars , and particulars , and contemplate them in their universal natures ; as from album and all or any alba concretely it can abstract albedo , and so from species their genera , and from all genera the genus generalissimum , which is ens , or more abstractedly entity ( wherof there can be no sensible species , images , or phantasms , but only intellectual ideae ) and therefore it hath a special art , whereby it can command and caus the imagination in another way to represent such signatures therof sensibly , and which shall represent them intelligibly to the understanding ; and that is per verba mentis , as we call them ; for as in writing i make such visible letters , in long-hand , or characters in short-hand , that are the signatures of such intelligible sens and meaning , which we call words ; or as we so discours by audible voice and articulate sounds ; so by these two doctrinal senses , or either of them , and by the visible , or audible signatures therof in the imagination , which the understanding doth irradiate , and thereby read or receiv them , it doth understand its own intelligible sens and meaning , which it cannot so do without them ; and therefore , if the brain be hurt or distempered , not only the imagination , but the understanding also is accordingly hindred in its operations , and cannot operate immanently in itself , nor contemplate any of its own innate or acquired notions without such inst●umentality , in this conjunct state : and the brain of man is therefore larger , and hath more of these animal spirits in it , then the brain of any beast or brute proportionably ; becaus they are such instruments , not only of the sensitive imagination , but also of the intellective understanding in man ; and so if the imagination be hurt or distempered by any such particular or general delirium , as i formerly shewed , the understanding is accordingly disordered : and commonly such as the imagination naturaly is , such also is the understanding ; but where there is a prepotent fansy , which will not be so subservient to the understanding , there is in such men an extravagant understanding ; and they , as i have said , may excell in any works of the imagination , and yet be almost idiots in understanding : which yet certeinly is an irregularity of their compositum , and not according to the natural conformity of both these facultys in their composition : and so is a dull and stupid imagination a great impediment to the understanding ; but where there is an equal excellence of both ( which is very rare ) there is a most accomplished temperament of wit and judgment . nor are either sensitive or intellective souls all equal , but they have their individual , and not only numerical , differences , as well as specifical ; as there is no species wherof all the indidual bodys are of one and the same size exactly , ( which might make an universal standard ) becaus god and nature do in all things intend variety , as i have shewed . much less is there any common understanding , or intellectus agens , which doth illuminate or irradiate all particular understandings , but there is only ( as i said of anima mundi ) intelligence genericaly and metaphysicaly , which comprehends both human and angelical ; wheras every individual angel , and man , understands by his own individual understanding ; and as god breathed the intellective spirit into adam , so he created in it and with it his intellective faculty whereby he did understand . nor is there any other account to be given of sensitive , or intellective notion , perception , or knowledg generaly , but that god hath so created them , and made them to be such as they are , as i have already shewed ; becaus their substantial spirits in themselvs are simple essences immediately created by god , that is , sensitive spirits in the begining , and afterward produced in the fifth , and sixth days , and the intellective spirit of man last of all , together with the production of his sensitive spirit , which is the most excellent of all sensitives , as i have shewed : and so their sensitive , and intellective facultys , also created in and with them are simple accidents and essences in themselvs , though their operations are produced afterward by other instrumentalitys in their compositum ; into which we may , and have thus farr inquired : and this operation by species , and phantasms seemeth to differ from the created notions in the facultys themselvs , as nebuchadnesar's dream , when he had forgott it , did from the revelation therof unto him by daniel afterward ; for so he had a notion therof in himself before it was reveled , otherwise he could not have known it again when it was reveled ; and yet he could not so revele it to himself : as the understanding cannot understand any such notion , which it hath immanently in itself , without the signatures therof in and by the imagination : yet the innate notions therof are not like his , which was acquired before , nor in any strict sens such as they are called , reminiscentiae ; but immediately created and imprinted in the understanding by god and nature , without which it should not have been any natural understanding : nor is it only an intellectus patiens , but such as can actively of itself , and by the instrumentality of the imagination , operate , and exert them , as i have shewed : and so they are more rightly termed anticipations , or p●aenotions ; which are the most simple apprehensions of the soul , neither by ratiocination , or deduction from them naturaly , nor by faith or divine illumination of god supernaturaly : and therefore to distinguish them from reason , and faith , i shall call them , praenotions , and their operations , intuitions , such as the sensation of seing is , when the ey beholds itself in a glass ; and the first and fundamental of all , or any , of these praenotions , is , that i am , or scio quod sum , whereby the intellective soul is conscious of its own being immanently in itself , or so as the understanding understands willingly , and the will wills understandingly , and therefore the most innate and first o●ject therof is its own self ; and though it is true , that it needeth the instrumentality of imagination to produce this , as well as any other notion , and that it cannot know that it is , but by an intellection , which is an operation ; yet it so knows that it is , conjunctly , in and with that very intellection , as well as it knows that it operates , as i have shewed ▪ and as in order of nature esse is before operari , so the intellective spirit must also in nature first know that it is before it can know that it operates , though it so knows both , in and with the same operation in time : nor is this the knowledg of what it is reflexively , which it consyders afterward by another operation , but only the conscience of its own being , or that it is generaly , which needeth no argument or ergo to itself ; as cogitas , or dubitas ergo es , is used by the father , to convince another who was an obstinate sceptike , and would deny his own conscience , which none could manifest to himself , but only himself . but as this is the first notion , so the second is the knowledg of the operation , or scio quod scio , or that i am an intelligent being , and so are more remotely and consequentialy the other operations of the intellective soul , and facultys or powers therof , such as are comprehended in one word , rationality ; which yet doth not properly express them all , as these praenotions , and faith , and the rest , and which it ought to include as well as reason ; and though it might be so conceived inclusive of them all , yet it is only of such proper facultys , which are accidents , and not of the very specifical difference of the soul , which is substantial , and such as we know not , and therefore cannot know the substance therof any more then we do the substance of any other spirits , or of matter itself , that is , only by their proper accidents . now as i thus know that i am , and that i am a knowing being , by a most simple apprehension , which is only of this simple enunciation , ego scio , ( for so by the egoity , as they term it , i know that i am , and that i am my self and none other ; and by the scio i know , that i am knowing ) so becaus i know , that i am not the first caus of my self , but a finite creature , who had a begining of my being , i know rationaly by immediate deduction from it , that there is an infinite first caus of my being , that is , god ; and becaus i know that i am such an intelligence , whereby i can thus know god my creator , ( whom therefore i know to be also my preserver , and governor ) i know my soul to be an immortal being , made for god himself and his own glory , who is eternal , and will eternaly recompence me according to my prepared capacity of mercy or misery : and though these be indeed ratiocinations by way of argument , and not such simple enunciations , as the other ; yet becaus they are such intimate , immediate , and cogent consequences , we also call them common notions , as they both indeed appear to be such , in all nations , and all ages of the world , and by the vote of all mankind , and all civil societys therof ; and are both of them so complicated , that he who denys one , will also de●y the other ; and he who denys either , must presume himself to be wiser then solomon , yea , then all men besides himself : and from these and the like notions we may consequentialy deduce others , and so one from another , syllogisticaly ; which we call , reason : but we call only the first and immediate deductions , or ratiocinations , common notions ; becaus they are so obvious and evident to any man who hath common reason ; wheras others , which are not so immediate , and therefore not so readily to be apprehended by every m●n , whose reason is not so subtile and firm as to pursue a whole chain of inductions , and ratiocinations , we do not therefore call common notions ; becaus they are not so commonly known or apprehended by all ; though all right retiocinations be indeed particularly as true in themselvs , as right reason is generaly . and this i conceiv to be reason ; and thus god , as it is said , having sett the world in the heart of man , that is , an intellectual world of knowledg of all things intelligible , and of their natural causalitys , and effects , analogys , combinations , not only singulars and particulars , but also universals , both abstracted or metaphysical , and concrete or homophysical , which is that general notion or knowledg , that i before mentioned to be implanted in his intellective faculty , he is thereby thus instructed to reason and discours from causes to effects , or from effects to causes , and according to natural analogy , and the like ; and to make propositions of singulars and particulars by some universal propositions , to which they are to be reduced , and the like . again , as the understanding of man is an intelligent faculty , so created by god in and with his soul , and hath such first and common notions imprinted in it by him originaly and generaly , so god can more specialy by d●vine revelation and illumination write in it , as i may so say , any other notions , which the soul accordingly apprehending as true and evident as well as any others wherof it hath any such innate knowledg , it doth therefore believ them , without any ratiocination ; and this kind of knowledg is called faith , wherof there is also a natural capacity in the soul ; for god doth not so make a stone , tree , or brute , to believ , but only men , or angels . and though these be several ways of knowledg , yet it is all one and the same knowledg , which is acquired thereby generaly , though of several kinds ; and the same object may be known by all or any of these ways of knowledg ; as i know intuitively , that i am , by a most immediate conscience of mine own being , and yet i can also prove it to my self by my operations , or any of them : and so i have proved that the world had a begining , and yet as the apostle saith , by faith also we understand it . but sensitives have only a module of the sensible world in their souls , which they being perceptive and living animals may also know in a sensible maner , as i have shewed ; and so it is possible by such signatures , as i have said , to make them understand sensible things ▪ as horses , dogs , baboons , elephants , are taught by signs , to do many strange feats , which seem very wonderfull , as indeed they are the hights of all bestial docility ; but yet as they are not intelligences themselvs , so neither can they apprehend any intelligible things ; as you cannot by any such signes make them to apprehend god , or any intelligence , angelical , or human ; nor any universal species or genus , and the like ; nor any universal propositions , connexions , or conclusions , and the like ; but only sensible things , and of them only singulars , or particulars : neither do they understand any thing , that is , apprehend any sensible in an intellective , but only in a sensitive maner ; for they cannot intellectively irradiate their phantasms , so as the understanding doth , whereby farther to purifie and sublimate them , and so behold them intellectively with a mental light , as i have shewed : and i suppose these two differences in the understanding , and the like proportionably in the will , to be sufficient to discriminate us from beasts ; and that we need not to deny them any perception , which they may have , that is , of any sensibles , or in any sensitive maner , lest they should seem too like unto men , and come too neer us , who are thus classicaly removed from them . the will of man is most connatural with his understanding , and hath its instincts , as i may so term them , as that hath its praenotions ; not only general , but special ; and thus as the intellective soul first knoweth itself , so it also first and most naturally willeth itself , and all that belongs unto itself : and as it may naturaly apprehend god by deduction from itself , so it may love him in order to itself , and also all other intelligences and moral creatures : and so man is animal sociabile , and hath a natural affection in himself more or less toward all other men in order to himself , and therefore first and principaly to such as are neerest to himself , as wife , children , kindred , countrymen , and the like : which natural affections are all founded in that original institution of matrimony , as i have shewed , and which is indeed the fountain of all familys , nations , and the like . and upon the foundations of these first notions and instincts , and the immediate consequences therof , are all arts and sciences as so many superstructures built ; which therefore are laid down as principia , and postula●a , that none may deny who is man , or a rational creature ; or if he shall , there is no farther entercours of reason , or society to be held with him , but he is to be rejected as an irrational brute . also the way of volition is analogous to the way of intellection , no● only in these praenotions and instincts , and rational deductions , and volitions , and any natural assent or consent , but in the supernatural inclinations therof , according to divine illumination , or faith : for as that is not only a light , or revelation of the thing to be believed , but it is an irradiation also of the understanding , that is , of the very sight therof , which is thereby farther illuminated , purified , and sublimated in its own nature , so as to see or believ it , not by adding any new faculty to the soul ; for faith is a natural faculty therof , or way of knowledg , as well as reason , or intuition , but by such illumination , which is according to the natural capacity therof , and not contrary unto it ; though the illumination , that is , both the light reveled , and also the sight of the understanding purified and sublimated , be so farr supernatural ; so divine inclinations of the will are not only as moral perswasions or tentations , which may prevail , or not , but such purifications and sublimations of the will , whereby it is also enabled to will , or actuate its own willingnes accordingly ; which is also according to the natural capacity therof , and not contrary unto it , though the inclinations be so farr supernatural . again , as the understanding cannot operate without the instrumentality of the imagination , so neither can the will ; for it follows the dictamen of the understanding , and therefore operates only with it and by it ; and as the imagination doth spontaneously perceiv , and the appetite perceptively affect , so the understanding doth voluntarily understand , and the will understandingly will : and though the appetite and will , after they are illustrated by the imagination and understanding , can executively move their own instruments ; yet as the appetite can only move its own motive spirits , and thereby the body , and so thereby other bodys ; so the will of man in this conjunct state , using the instrumentality of the appetite , as the understanding doth the instrumentality of the imagination , can only so move by and with the appetite . and as there are several other facultys of the imagination , as judgment , ingeny , memory , and the like , and of the appetite , as all the affections , and the like ; so there are such analogous qualitys , not only in human , but also in angelical understanding , and will ; becaus , as i said , they are all within the region of life ; and these are living facultys , and such without which life should not be life generaly , that is , a knowledg of what they do , with a delight in suitable objects and operations , and abhorrence of the contrary ; which indeed is life , and is by this double operation , or super-operation of the living animal upon its own operations , as i have often said , wherof no inferior nature is capable ; and therefore , as i said , vegetatives do not thus live , and much less elements , or matter : for though they also operate more or less , and by those principles , which the most wise and powerfull creator hath imprinted in their natures , can produce such constant , regular , and oeconomical effects , in their simple operations accordingly , yet they cannot perceiv or review their own operations , nor have any sentiment , or enjoiment therof , as sensitives , and intellectives , which are living animals ; but are as the dead carcass of the world , wherof these only are the living spirits : and thus sensitives live a sensitive , and intellectives an intellective life . now though we do not know , nor will i presume particularly to declare , the way and maner of angelical operations ; yet generaly , as i know that they are intelligences , or such intellective lives , so i know they have understanding , and will , and all the analogy of life , which the scripture most plainly declareth unto us ; and much more that they are creatures or created natures as well as others ; and that they are no such dii minores , as platonists , and some platonical christians , would make them : and though they be immaterial , and most spiritual of any spirits , yet they are only spirits genericaly , as others , and are no such phantasms and spectres , as scholemen would make them ; nor so wholy unconcerned in the matter , and the univers of all common nature , and entity , and finite bounds therof , which god hath sett to all substantial beings , and to all quantitys , and qualitys therof ; wherefore they can no more ascend above the circumference , then descend below the center of the wstole globe of the world ; becaus there is no vbi , or locality , beyond it ; and locality is a common accident , or affection of all created beings , as well as time , and number ( and certeinly no angel is elder then he is , or more then one ) nor can they nullify or evacuate the nature of extension , density , or gravity , so as they should not be more or less such to them , as they are in themselvs , and as well as they are unto all others , as i have shewed . but as we may conceiv by all other spirits what they are , that is , substantial activitys ; so we must also acknowledge angels to be the most spiritual of all spirits ; and though , according to the oeconomy of universal nature , they are concerned in the matter , or body of the world , as well as others ; yet neither are they so immersed as elementary , nor rooted as vegetative , nor united as sensitive , nor confined therin as human spirits are ; which can neither understand , will , nor move themselvs , otherwise then by the instrumentalitys of their bodily part in this conjunct state , as i have shewed : for though angels also are parts of the universal oeconomy of the world , as i said , yet they have their own private and individual oeconomy wholy in themselvs , and need none other instrumentalitys , whereby to perform their own operations immanently , and they can also transiently operate upon all others in a most powerfull and wonderfull maner : but as they are spiritual substances , so they have their accidental facultys and operations , and do not operate by their essences , as god , who is a pure act ; wheras all created operation is between accidents ▪ which were created for that very end and purpose , that substances might operate by them , and that they might mutualy operate upon them by their own accidents , as i have shewed . and though angels operate by their own inherent facultys and qualitys immanently in themselvs , and may produce their own contemplative ideas in themselvs , and move their own spiritual substances , yet certeinly they cannot contemplate any external objects without some emanant irradiation therof whereby they bring back to themselvs the most pure and refined species of the object , and probably more pure then the human understanding doth contemplate in the phantasms , which it doth irradiate , by its own inherent light : and so they can move corporeal things , not only by their inherent qualitys , as they may bodys , which they possess , but probably by an eradiation of their motive power : for if inferior natures can so move at a distance , as emanant heat can attract ( and so some can suppose that the sun by its rays may move the earth about him , though , as i said , that motion of heat is only attractive , and not circumlative , nor hath it any imaginable strength at such a distance so to move the vast body of the earth about it ) certeinly angelical power is farr more both intensive , and extensive ; which , whatsoever it be , i shall not presume to determin ; but rather inquire into that which doth more concern us , that is , what knowledg they may have of our cogitations , or how they tempt us ? and as i conceiv , that our understanding doth read in the book of our imagination and phantasms therof , which it doth irradiate , as the external light doth a book wherin we read ; so angels also may read therin the same verba mentis , or signatures , though they cannot know how we irradiate them , or animadvert , or what apprehensions we have of what we so read , nor what are the immanent actions , motions , ●nd inclinations of our understanding or will , otherwise then by the execution and effects therof , ( for so only god is cardiognostes . ) and as they may thus read in our book , so they may also write therin ; as first they may actuate any sensible species in any of the standards , and thereby irradiate the animal spirits , and so present them to the imagination ; which yet may animadvert , or not , as it pleaseth , becaus it is spontaneous ; also they may actuate the species immediately in the animal spirits , and present them to the imagination so strongly and vehemently , that they may seem thereby to appear unto us in any visible shape , or to utter any audible voice , or the like : and they may stirr up bodily humors within us , and the motive spirits , and fluxes or refluxes therof , to temp● , but cannot force the will : and if they appear outwardly , it must certeinly be by assuming some superficial bodys ; for they have no such sensible qualitys , or species , or phantasms , in themselvs , and therefore must borrow some bodys that have them . now though they cannot force us to animadvert their tentations , and much less incline our wills , yet this is a very large and wide entrance , which they may thus have into our souls ; but though i suppose that they have so now generaly , yet i also conceiv , that they could not invade man in his first creation ; ( as adam was restrained from eating of the forbidden fruit , ) and also that they cannot now invade us , or our lives and estates , ( as otherwise generaly they might ) being restrained by the divine power , as before by the divine command , as satan himself told god , that he had made an hedg about iob , and his hous , and all that he had , on every side ; and he could not infest him , untill , nor any farther , then he afterward obteined licens from god : and i conceiv , that ordinarily god doth suffer him to tempt great sinners , who give themselvs up unto him and his government ; and so god suffred a lying spirit to seduce ahab , and his fals prophets , and the divel entred into iudas , and the like : and thus witches by their invocations , and others by their execratio●s , and the like , may themselvs open the door unto him ; and he doth more or less make his approaches unto us , in a spiritual or corporeal maner , as we give him access by our own invitation , admission , and enterteinment of him ; and when he appears to men , yet commonly he doth not speak untill he be first spoken to by them . thus the angels excell in knowledg and strength ; and the hight of all the excellency of the best of angels , is their knowledg and love of god , the infinite creator , whose menial servants they are in heaven , and are said always to behold the face of god ; not , as some conceiv , that they can possibly have any adequate idea of infinite ; becaus they are finite ; and so they are also said to cover their faces , as being dazled and amazed with the apprehension of incomprehensible infinity : and i suppose , there is no such presumptuous man who doth , or can conceiv , that he knows more of god heer , then an angel in heaven realy knoweth , that he doth not , nor can he know of him there . yet their beholding the face of god , is , as i conceiv , not by deduction or argumentation , as we now know him darkly , as in a glass ; but by a divine irradiation upon their intellects , according to the utmost capacity of intuition or vision , whereby they see god by his own light , as we see the sun : and as they see him as he is , who is infinite , so they do also most humbly and sensibly acknowledg that there is infinitely more in him then they do , or can see , or knew of him : wheras we ascend to the knowledg of gods infinity naturaly by steps and degrees ; and as we abstract universals from all singulars and particulars , whereby we come to the knowledg of metaphysical entity , and bonity , so we also abstract from him all that is finite ; and thus know him to be infinite , the incomprehensible , necessary , and universal iehovah ; not only adequate to our utmost apprehensions , but vastly exceeding them ; and not only exceeding them , but infinitely different from all that is , or can be , conceived of him , god blessed for ever . and this knowledg of god , who is the highest and greatest object , according to the utmost capacity of a finite understanding , and the love of him , who is the chief and only true good , is naturaly in all men explicitely , or implicitely ; becaus every human soul is capable therof , and must acknowledg it , as i have shewed ; which doth so enlarge it , that all this world , and a world of worlds , which are all infinitely less then god , can never satisfy it , so that neither the understanding nor will of man can terminate in any other thing , but only in god ; and heerby it plainly appears , that though the soul of man be not infinite , as god only is , yet it is most strangely and wonderfully indefinite , becaus nothing less then infinite god can satisfie it , yet i suppose also , that it is not properly indefinite , as possibility is , which is adequate to divine omnipotence , and wherof we cannot , either in our understanding or will , go to the utmost extent affirmatively , yet certeinly negatively nothing less then absolute possibility , and divine omnipotence wherin it is founded , can terminate the soul of man which can invent other and more worlds , like anaxagoras , and wish to conquer and enjoy them , like alexander . v. i may not omitt to speak of the image of god in man , which is so expresly mentioned , and emphaticaly repeated in the text : though , as i said , god being infinite , and infinitely different from all finite nature , there is not , nor can there be , any thing like unto him , in any intuitive or representative maner whatsoever ; as the prophet saith , to whom will ye liken god , or what likenes will ye compare unto him ? but only demonstratively , and doctrinaly ; whereby an intellective spirit may know , that there is such an infinite being , as i have shewed : and so the whole world , and every created being therin doth prove him unto us argumentatively , though nothing can declare him representatively : and therefore god doth justly abhorr all such representative idolatry , and is to be conceived only by an intellectual idea , which is the highest , and purest , and only lawful idolum of a deity . and thus as the great world , so man , as he is a microcosm , is such a demonstrative image of the creator , becaus he is a collective and representative image of the whole creation ; and he is so not only in his intellective spirit , but also in his whole compositum ; and therefore god pronounced murder , which is a violent d●ssolution therof , to be capital ; for in the image of god created he man. and though man in himself , by his intellective spirit , doth govern and rule over his sensitive part , and can rectify the errors therof , or restrain the inordinate motions therof ( whereby i have plainly proved it to be another spirit in itself , and distinct from the sensitive spirit in man ) , yet by his whole compositum he doth govern and rule over all inferior creatures , and therin he is the image of god , as it followeth in the text , and let them have dominion ; and so ovid well expresseth it , finxit ad effigiem moderantûm cuncta deorum . and thus , as i said , man was constituted lord over the works of his hands , and made gods viceroy heer on earth , by a most lawfull and natural sovereignty ; and accordingly god hath crowned him with glory and honor , and invested him with roial power ; both in his mind , which is more politike and prudent , and more ingenious and mechanical , then any brutes , and also in his body , which is of an erect and sublime stature , and of a more excellent temper and organism , especialy his hands , whereby he can use and manage any other instruments farr otherwise , and to more advantage , then they : and as man is animal politicum , so mankind by conjunct wisedom and power doth subdue all wild beasts , and nations of brutes . but the intellective spirit of man is a more special image of god in itself , as it is an intelligence , and hath in itself an idea of divinity , and a capacity of loving and enjoying god , wherof all inferior natures are incapable ; and indeed we may justly admire how a finite intellect should be in any maner capable of apprehending infinite , or of having any communion or conversation with god , who is infinite : and this our very subordination unto him is farr higher then our sovereignty over all inferior creatures ; which , as they were made to serv us , so also to demonstrate and declare his glory , shining in them , unto us , who as gods stewards should gather in all the revenues therof from them , and immediately return it unto himself : wheras their immediate goodness and perfection is thus to be subordinate unto man , who by his more divine contemplations , and lawfull use of them , and his glorifyng of god the creator thereby , doth sanctify them ; and by his own immediate knowledg , love , and enjoyment of god his creator , is himself as it were deified ; and indeed this is the true spiritual image of god in the soul , which is the highest exaltation therof , and such a sublime mystery , as well deserveth a more particular explication . and first we must know , that the knowledge , and love of god , as god , must be above the knowledge , or love of our very self ; becaus god is infinitely above us ; not only in himself , but in relation unto us , as he is our creator , and we his creatures ; whereby we are made wholy subordinate unto him , and not he unto us : wherefore to know or love him in order to our self , is no true knowledg or love of god , as god , but blasphemy , and impiety : and yet , as i have shewed , self is naturaly the begining of all our knowledg , and end of all our love , and no man naturaly can know , or love god , otherwise then in order to himself ; which is to make self his god , or his chief and supreme , and god only to be subordinate therunto : nor can any nature whatsoever naturaly of itself ascend above itself ( as water cannot ascend above its levell ) otherwise self should be more then self , which is impossible . now wheras the law of god commandeth us to exalt him above ourselvs , and to love him with all our valde , in such a transcendent and supernatural maner , we must also conceiv , that he doth not command impossibilitys ; but that there is a natural capacity in our soul of being thus exalted above our natural self , which must be by a supernatural power so exalting us ; and becaus it is the exaltation of our intellective understanding , and will , therefore it must not be only a passive or receptive capacity , but with a most conscious knowledg , and freedom of will ; by a revelation of the light of the object , and also by an illumination of the sight of the understanding ; and not only by a moral perswasion , but also by a divine exaltation of the will. and thus man , being made such an intelligent creature , had a natural capacity of being so exalted toward god ; and becaus it was most congruous that this capacity should be filled and completed , in , and with the very creation of his soul , which was made for this very end , and which , if it had not atteined , god had made it in vain , and so it had been made , though not sinfull , yet monstrous , and not perfect and good , therefore it is said expresly , that he thus created man in his own image , that is , this image of holines , as well as in other respects ; and as i have shewed , how every other nature is exalted by a melior natura , which is superior unto it , in the scale of nature ; as matter by elementary spirits , and they by vegetative , and they by sensitive , and the sensitive spirit of man by his intellective ; so is his intellective spirit also exalted by the divine spirit of god his creator ; and as the animal spirits in his body are so many times refined and sublimated to that hight as to be fitt instruments of his intellective spirit , by the irradiation therof ; so is the understanding , and will of man , thus sublimated by the irradiation of the divine spirit : and as the understanding , and will of man , when he was first created , did perfectly command and rule his imagination and appetite , and they did also perfectly obey , with their own natural perception , and spontaneity ; so was the soul of man first created thus obedient and conformable to the divine spirit , most knowingly and willingly , with its own natural intellection and volition : and thus , as it is said , god made man vpright , and in his own image , which was that aliquid divinum in him , whereby he was so made , deiformis , or as scripture more fully expresseth it , partaker of the divine nature , by resolving himself into his creator , intellectively knowing , and willingly loving god , as god , or as he is in himself , and as he loveth himself above all . but i do not conceiv that this life of grace ( as it is also called the life of god ) is so expressed by spiraculum vitarum : for this history of creation intendeth not accidental , but rather substantial lives , as the poet termeth them , inde ho●inum , pecudumque genus , vitaeque volantûm . also as naturaly the imagination , and appeti●e , being in themselvs perceptive , and spontaneous facultys , might rebell against the intellective , and they did actualy so rebell in the fall of man ; so also , ( though this original grace was so farr supernatural ) there was still a natural capacity in his intellective understanding and will , ( which are in themselvs naturaly knowing and willing facultys ) to rebell against the divine spirit , ( who also if he pleaseth is irresistible , becaus he is god ) and they did actualy so rebell in his fall ; whereby his soul did sink down into self , and now hath not , nor can it naturaly , have , any knowledg or love of god above itself , as i have shewed . and this is that which the scripture commonly calls flesh , as it is opposed to the divine spirit , and the supernatural work therof in the soul ; and so those two are said to be contrary one unto another ; and not only different ( so as the corporeal flesh of a sensitive body is distinguished from the sensitive spirit , and so is termed the flesh of beasts , birds , or fishes ; nor as the whole sensitive compositum is sometimes distinguished from intelligences , as it is said , that horses are flesh , and not spirit ) , but as the whole human compositum , both in the sensitive , and intellective part therof , is now naturaly opposed to the divine spirit , as i have shewed : and so , the apostle saith , the natural man ( or the animal man naturaly ) receiveth not the things that are of god , for they are foolishnes unto him ; neither can he know them , ( or conceiv and receiv them ) becaus they are spiritualy discerned . and all this may most plainly appear by the renovation of this divine image by the spirit of god , which is called the new creature , and new man , which is renewed in knowledg after the image of him that created him : though i do not suppose it to be by any proper creation of any new faculty , or power in the soul , but by improper creation , that is , by supernatural irradiation of the divine spirit , such as the production of any accidental qualitys out of the first chaos in the six days was by the divine power , and wherof , though there was an entitative potentiality before , created in and with the substance , and subsisting and latent therin , yet it could not be produced into actuality , without the immediate power of the divine spirit , as i have shewed , and that therefore it is termed a creation , and is not , as natural generation , which is only production out of a second chaos of potentiality , as i so term it , by a natural power transmitted and delegated to the specifical creatures afterward by the divine benediction , whereby they can so generate others ; and so the apostle also saith with an express reference to the very first of those works of improper creation , god who commanded the light to shine out of darknes hath shined in our hearts , to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of god : wherefore as that light , which first shined out of eternal darknes , was so produced not by a proper , but improper creation , as i have shewed , and by such improper creation , and not only by a natural generation , as the light of fire , or candle , is now generated ; so is regeneration the immediate work of the divine spirit , not by proper , but improper creation , and by such a creation , and not by natural generation ; as our savior saith , that which is born of the flesh is flesh , and that which is born of the spirit is spirit . and this work of the divine spirit in the hearts of men regenerate is the divine life of the soul : thus being indued with this divine grace , and so exalted far above , not only the sensitive , but also the naturaly intellective , and the whole animal life therof ; and so is termed , the life of god : and this regeneration of the soul a translation from death to life , which is indeed a most miraculous work , and though not any proper creation of any substance or faculty from absolute nonentity , yet is an improper creation of the most excellent of all created qualitys , as i have shewed . and in this respect it is somwhat more , that it requires a conjunct irradiation of the divine spirit continualy ( as the diaphanous air doth of the light and heat of the sun ) which is wholy supernatural . and in a spiritual life , or the union and communion of the soul with god , even the wisest of philosophers have rightly placed the true happiness of man ; though they were ignorant of such supernatural irradiation by the divine spirit , and of iesus christ the redeemer , through whom only it is to be obteined . who is indeed the brightnes of his fathers glory , and expr●ss image of his person , infinitely , and incomprehensibly , as he is the essential , natural , and most univocal , and unigenous son of the father , or the very i●trinsecal verbum mentis divinae , who also hath invested himself with the human nature , as the epitome of the univers , and which was therefore made such in order to him , as i have shewed ; and so the apostle stileth him both together , the image of the invisible god , and firstborn of every creature . and as i said , this very consultation of the trinity about the creation of man was in order unto christ ; as there was afterward another consultation of god about the creation of woman in order unto man : and it is also said , let us make man in our image , after our likenes ; as it is said of adam , that he begatt a son in his likenes , after his image : both which expressions are not supervacaneously impertinent ; but as there is a mutual resemblance between any two similar things , so it is heer doubly exprest , and sometimes only singly , and indifferently , by image , or likenes . now as there are combinations between all created natures , even angels and matter , as i have shewed ; so the image of holines is the combination , or communion between the most spiritual nature , that is , the intellective , and god the creator . but the most admirable and incomprehensible combination is the personal union of iesus christ god man both creator and creature in one person . also adam only was first created sole , before eve , or any o●her , as he alone was generaly , like any other man , a microcosm , and as he was specialy and personaly the prototype of christ , who was to be a man himself , though he was the seed of the woman : and though woman also , as well as man , being partaker of the same human nature , was generaly made in the image of god , and so it is commonly interpreted , god created adam , or man according to his kind , in his own image , yet it is afterward repeated again more specialy and personaly concerning adam , in the image of god created he him , and then , male and female created he them : and thus christ is called ▪ both the second man generaly , and the second adam personaly , and so the apostle also expresly distinguisheth , saying of man , that he is the image and glory of god , but the woman is the glory of the man : and christ the head over all things to his church ; even as the man is of the woman . and thus all that was in the first creation of adam did prelude to christ , as i have said ; who is the only true , uncreated , and created image of god both in his essence , and in his operations . vi. that there is a god , and that the soul of man is immortal , are two fundamental points of religion , as i have shewed ; and as in my first discours i proved the first , so i shall now in this last prove the other ; and between these two comprehend all the rest , the knowledge wherof is only in order to these great ends of man , that is , the glory of god , and his own eternal beatitude . but though i have mathematicaly proved a begining and creation of the world , and consequently a creator ; becaus the univers , which conteins all in one , doth afford a mathematical medium , whereby i might so prove it ( as i could also prove it physicaly or moraly ) and i rather chose that way of probation , becaus the divine wisedom , which lays natural philosophy as a foundation of divinity , doth thus offer the begining as an evidence of both ; and becaus some men , who pretend most to evidence , require such mathematical demonstration , which yet may not be exacted , nor expected in the probation of any thing that is not mathematical , as the soul is not ; and which , though it be immortal ; yet is not indeed such in present actuality , but only in perpetual futurity . and as i have proved other physical theses physicaly , so i shall now prove this , which concerns a moral creature , moraly , according to the nature of the subject matter ; when i have first explained , what i intend by this term , immortality ; the very explication wherof , as of any other terms , whereby truth is presented in her own naked simplicity , doth , by the aspect and eradiation therof , carry with it a very great evidence of the thing . now according to all my former discourses , it is not , nor can it be any question , whether all spirits whatsoever , elementary , vegetative , or sensitive , as well as matter , be immortal in their own simple essences , substances , and specifical natures ; for they , as such , are ingenerable , and were properly created ; and therefore cannot be corrupted , and shall not be annihilated : but as their composita were first improperly created , or originaly generated , and so are successively generable , they are also corruptible ; and so undeniably the intellective spirit , as it is one substantial principle of the human compositum , is also incorruptible , or immortal . again , as it is no q●estion whether all generable composita be not also corruptible , so it cannot be denied but the human compositum of body and soul , as it is generated , may also be corrupted , and so the sensitive vegetative and elementary spirits therof return into their chaos , which we call the birth , and death of men : and so as the human spirit is created , it may also be annihilated , and the like : but the true and clear state of the question is , whether the intellective spirit of man consydered in itself , and without any conjunction or composition with his sensitive , vegetative , elementary spirits , and matter of his body , or any of them , be immortal , or mortal ? that is , whether it can , and doth , as an angelical spirit , continue separate in its own personal individuality and oeconomy after death , or the dissolution of the human compositam ? which plainly is the immortality of the soul ; or like other inferior spirits , when the compositum is dissolved , doth thereby and therwith also ceas to be such as it was before in itself , individualy and oeconomicaly ; and so having no such individuality or oeconomy in itself separately , and without the compositum but only in and with the whole compositum , is disolved together with it , and the substance therof return into the dust , as its own element , and chaos , wherin it was first latent and there is confounded and coagulated with others ? ( out of which again , not the same individual and oeconomical spirit , but another in a new compositum may be generated ) which is the corruption or mortality therof ; and such new production another generation . now that the intellective soul of man is not so mortal or corruptible , but immortal and incorruptible , is the purport of the whole scripture ; becaus , as i said , it is a fundamental point of religion ; and whosoever believs scripture to be the word of god , may not , nor can he deny it ; but he who will deny the one , must first deny the other ; that is , that the scripture is the word of god. yet i shall more specialy produce one text , becaus it doth include with the divine author●ty also some natural reason of the thing . the wiseman , speaking of the death of men , saith , then shall the dust return to the earth , as it was ; and the spirit shall return to god that gave it : wherin he plainly declareth that the body , and all the bodily part , ( which he termeth , d●st , as god so called it at the first , becaus he made it of the dust of the earth and such generaly as the body of man is in the very instant when his intellective soul departeth out of it , and that certeinly is a body of flesh , and not only a lutea imago , as i said ) doth assoon as the instrumental life of the sensitive soul ceaseth , fall to the ground , and is more and more by degrees corrupted and putrefied , untill it be resolved again into dust , and the sensitive spirit is also confounded in the chaos therof and coagulated with others , ( as it is also said , who knoweth the spirit of a man , that goeth upward , and the spirit of the beast , that goeth downward to the earth ? and indeed we cannot know spirits as they are in themselvs , nor pure matter as it is in itself , otherwise then by their accidents , as i have shewed ) that is , the intellective soul returns to god , who gave it by immediate inspiration , and proper creation ; and as he gave it , so he receivs it ; for as it was not produced out of the earth , like the sensitive and vegetative spirits , so neither doth it return thither again ; that is , as it was not generated , so neither is it corrupted : and the very same probation , whereby i have proved it ingenerable , doth also prove it incorruptible : as angels , who are ingenerable , are also incorruptible , becaus they have no substantial composition , and therefore nothing to be dissolved or corrupted ; but every one is a complete individuum , and person in himself ; and so though the human compositum , which was composited of body and soul , may be dissolved , as i have said , yet the human soul , which is also an intelligence and life in itself , was immediately created such by god , and therefore cannot be dissolved ; and was not produced out of the earth , and therefore may not return unto i● , but to god that gave it . thus as every compositum is as i● were an aggregate corporation , so made according to natural polity , as an hous is by art ; and when the members or parts of the corporation , or hous , decay or are dissipated , the very corporation , or hous , ceaseth to be such , and the members or parts therof are confounded or scattered among others ; and as an angel is as a sole corporation , which cannot be so dissolved ; so man is both an aggregate corporation , like others , in a common capacity with them , in his conjunct state , and also a sole corporation , like an angel , in his own private capacity by himself , and in his separate state : and as the others could not be individuated , or made such natural corporations , or composita , without an improper creation , which was their original generation ; so neither can these sole corporations of angels or men , which were made such in themselvs immediately by god , be dissolved without a divine and supernatural power , which only can annihilate them . but , as i said , i shall rather prove the immortality of our souls moraly , by that argument of plato , which is very rational and philosophical , and may be farther improved by christianity . certeinly god the creator and first caus of all things is also the utmost end therof ; and he is immediately served only by angels and men , becaus they are immediately subordinate to him , and the only intelligences in nature , which only have any conscience or conusance of him ; and therefore can only perform that immediate and spiritual service , which he requireth , and which is fitt and proper for him who is a spirit , and will be so worshiped : and so , as i said , they were created and appointed to gather in all the revenues of his glory , and to render it to himself , as well as to glorify him by their other personal services : wherefore if these intelligences should perish or ceas to be in their personal individualitys , though their substantial principles might not ceas to be , but be confounded or coagulated as others , yet becaus they should not so any longer continue to be the same persons ( as no compositum , when it is once dissolved , doth naturaly return again to be the same ) but their personalitys should so be destroied ; then it should be all one , in respect to this great and utmost end of creation , as if they had never been created : for as if god had rested from all his works after the fourth day , and before any sensitives were produced , and neither they , nor angels or men had been created , all the other creation had been void and vain in respect to itself , as i have shewed ; becaus there had been no spectators to perceiv or enjoy it , so if sensitives also had been produced , they could only behold and enjoy the creation , but not render any glory therof unto god the creator , of whom they are wholy ignorant ; and so all of them had been made in vain , becaus none of them could attein the very end of creation , which is the glory of the creator : and though they had so continued to be for ever , yet the very end of their being had been nullified ; yea though they were made perfect and good in themselvs , yet they had not been sanctified or sublimated to any divine use or service , nor could god have so pronounced of them all , that they were very good ; nor would he have so rested untill he had so reduced them all to himself , and his own glory ; nor instituted such a sabbath of spiritual rest , wherin he did review and rejoice in all the works which he had wrought , and from which he received the emanant reflections of his own inherent glory , according to the utmost capacity of finite nature : thus also if the intelligent natures of angels , or men , should be mortal , then all the manifestations of his glory to them , or by them , should with themselvs ceas and vanish away ; and wheras they also do personaly manifest his divine honor , or otherwise dishonor him , so he , who is the great king , according to his roial greatnes and goodnes will recompens them with reward , or punishment , wherunto piety and impiety , virtue and vice , do moraly relate ; and in the distribution of his mercy and justice accordingly his everlasting kingdom of glory doth consist : and therefore also all his subjects therof must be immortal ; otherwise after they had thus served or disserved him , they should escape him , and lose their rewards or punishments , and he the glory therof : for so the same man or angel should ceas to be , and the name of his person , as it stands in gods book , be o●literated , and so all those eternal monuments of his mercy and justice be defaced . though it is true , that all men , and all the angels in heaven , or divels in hell , can add nothing to , or diminish from gods uncreated glory , which he eternaly enjoieth in himself , and which is immutable as himself ; nor was the world made for any such end , but for the created manifestation therof , which accordingly as they do advance , or eclips , by serving him , or sining against him , so he also according to his created or reveled law of justice will most certeinly retribute unto them . and this moral and political argument is very much inforced by the consyderation of gods present providence and administration , which is as the political chaos of the world future , and seemeth to be as inane and inform ; and yet out of it will he produce all the beauty and glory of the other world. thus no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them ; all things come alike to all ; there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked . but also , it is appointed for all men once to dy , and after death the iudgment ; so that death shall not prevent , but prep●re for judgment ; as the prison is not to concele , but to secure the malefactor . and i am so confident of the moral conviction of this argument ( which as i said is a common notion , deduced from the immediate knowledg of the nature of our intellective soul , and of god our creator , preserver , and governor , collated together ) that no mans conscience can outface it , but only his , who doth not , or will not regard it : and unless such who can deny all polity of nature , and the subordination of all inferior na ures to man , can also be so impious as to deny the immediate subordination of men and angels to god their creator , i do not see how they can evade it ; which if they can , they do also thereby elude all religion and worship of god. nor are sensible experiments wanting , though i will not offer any direct testimony therof to such who can deny divine authority , and from whom therefore i may not reasonably expect , that they should believ any human reports or records of the survivorship of the souls of men after death : and if they will not hear moses and the prophets , neither will they be perswaded , though one rose from the dead : and should tell them this very thing , that he hath rose from the dead : but i shall therefore rather offer another common experiment among the living , from which i shall deduce a collateral evidence of this truth : and that is self-murder in man , and in none other inferior animals , who will not so destroy themselvs , perceptively , and spontaneously , and being in no delirium , but in sound health , and strength of body , as man very often doth most wittingly and willingly , and with the greatest and most sedate deliberation . now as i have before shewed , self is such a first principle and fundamental interest in nature , that as nature generaly , so all particular natures , do intend and endeavor to the utmost the preservation therof ; nor can it by any natural power of compulsion , or perswasion , be removed from this most innate principle and instinct , ( except only for preservation of the universal nature , which is also natural in order to the necessary preservation of its own particular nature , as a fox will bite off his leg to preserv his life ) for if any thing could be ousted of this most natural principle , then it should be ousted of itself : wheras self is the foundation of all other concernments . thus a lion , mastiff , bear , boar , hors , or any other most stout and couragious brute , will ly whining and pining to the last , rather then destroy itself , or suffer itself to be destroied by others , untill death necessarily dissolv it ; becaus it is conscious to itself , and hath this common notion in itself , that the individuality therof , which truly and realy is the very self therof , shall perish for ever : wheras man , having this common notion of the immortality of his soul imprinted in his soul ( which principaly is himself , as hebraicaly the human person is called a soul , and as it is said animus cujusque est quisque ) though generaly , according to his whole human compositum , he affecteth life and dreadeth death , yet judging it better for him to be in the separate state of his soul , then in the conjunct state of his compositum , he can and doth accordingly both determin and execute his own death and dissolution : though i do not conceiv that every self-murderer ( like cato , who before-hand read over plato's discours of the immortality of the soul ) doth so consyder it explicitely ; nor as spira , who in despair would dy , that he might know the worst after death ; but rather most of them , not regarding any better or wors state after death , however are willing to dy , to eas themselvs of their present miserable life , and so desperately venture upon a future , whatsoever it may be : or perhaps , according to the vast and most licentious liberty of human understanding and will , may thus explicitely not only deny , but act contrarily to any common notions or instincts whatsoever , and so destroy themselvs : which yet they could never effect wit●out such an implicit notion of the immortality of the soul radicated in itself . and so none but an immortal being can wish a notbeing , which yet is only an imaginary and illusory wish ; as we commonly imagin vacuity to be somthing , we know not what ; and so we may wish notbeing , as somthing which we conceiv to be a vacation from ill-being , we know not how : for certeinly we can naturaly desire nothing but only in order to self , which must always presuppose self , by which , and for which , we so desire it : but however we m●y conceiv heerof in respect to present ill-being , certeinly none can affirm , that any brute hath any fore-knowledg or expectation of any better being heerafter , or of any transmigration , or translation , or that it can thereby be perswaded out of its present being , whatsoever it is , nor can he deny that there is such a foreknowledg and expectation in man , or that he may naturaly and realy desire , and very truly say , cupio dissolvi ; as i believ not only many christians , but also some philosophers have thus welcomed death ; not through any necessity , or in a higher strain of gallantry ; but with a clear and conscious expectation of another life after death , and breathing after it , in and with the willing expiration of their present life ; which , whether it be al●o jo●ned with any assurance of a better state therin , or not , yet plainly proveth that the soul of man generaly is immortal , becaus it can so affect another separate state , which no brute can so affect , becaus it is mortal ; and that it shall be either in a wors state of eternal m sery , becaus some men can so imaginarily wish to prevent it ; or in a better state of eternal happines , becaus others can so realy wish to enjoy it . and though i believ this opinion of the immortality of the soul ( as also the other , that there is a god ) to be explicitely exerted and exercised by few , yet certeinly they are both implicitely radicated in the minds of all men , which renders their lives and conversations such , as if sometimes , and in some respects , they did seem so to believ , and at other times , and in other respects as if they did not ; and it may appear so to be in themselvs , and to themselvs , in that they have such a continual strife and endeavor to cast and keep these opinion out of their minds , which is commonly done either by not regarding , or resolving against them , wherof the very fear or doubtfull apprehension , which no brute can have , doth approve to the soul itself what it may expect ; and which , if men begin at any time to think therof , will return upon them ; though some more learned , study to confute themselvs by contrary opinions , and that they may make way for the denial of the immortality of the soul , therefore also deny all separate spirits both of men , and angels good , and bad ; as the sadduces , and others , with epicurus , deny all inferior spirits whatsoever ; hudling all things and themselvs together in the common matter ; which is such a physical libertinism , as though it may gratifie us at present , yet is indeed no less then the eternal self-murder of the soul. and so likewise others , though they will not reduce all spiritual substances to the gross matter , yet affirm their soul to be only pars animae mundi , as they term it ; into which , when it dieth , it returns again , as into another spiritual chaos : and so though the substance remain therin , confounded and coagulated with others , yet the personality and individuality therof is thereby corrupted and destroyed , like the sensitive spirits of brutes ; which is only another more subtle denial of the immortality therof , that is , of the very individuality and personality of every human spirit , as i have shewed . wherefore becaus they cannot deny the immortality of the soul absolutely , they thus deny the same personal future condition therof , and any such intensive , or extensive rewards , or punishments , in heaven , or hell ; which to mitigate and moderate , they have invented and appointed a transmigration for all souls into better or wors bodys after death , accordingly as they have behaved themselves while they lived in the former : whereas they must also affirm , that they are still human spirits , which are so detruded into brutes , or vegetative bodys ; as the poets plainly do acknowledg , and so the man in the buck would have said to his hounds and huntsmen , actaeon ego sum — as the tree did to aeneas , nam polydorus ego — which yet certeinly is contrary to all philosophy and nature : for every specifical spirit must have its own proper organical body ; and if any of the more noble and necessary parts of its own body , while it lives in it , be discontinued , dissocated , or disordered , it will live no longer in it ; much less could the human spirit of actaeon live in a buck , or of polydorus in a tree ; for bodys are nor only vehicles of the spirits , but domicils , and officines , as i have shewed ; and as sensitive spirits cannot live in any other besides their own element , so much less can they , or the intellective spirit of man , live in any other then their own proper bodys , which are therefore so effigiated and formed for them by their proper vegetative spirits , as i have also shewed . or if they could be transpeciated into other sensitive or vegetative spirits , then their substances being so specificaly changed , their faculties , and qualities , and all their ideae , and notions subsisting therin , must also be changed , and al●ered ; whereby they should no longer remember , who they were , nor what they did formerly ; and so they should suffer for they know not what , after such an act of oblivion , not only of him that so forgiveth and forgetteth the crime , but also in him who forgetteth the fact. and though others say , we be all born with some reminiscentiae , as they term them , yet certei●ly they are no such acquired notions of any matter of fact , or thing good or evil , that we formerly did or learned , but only such common i●nate notions which god and nature have imprinted in us , and so taught us to know them , which are only natural , and not sinful : and there are also certein special innate notions of specifical spirits , which are only proper to that species , and to none others , as i have shewed ; all which should be lost by such transmigration , or transpeciation ; which therefore is not , nor can there be , any such metempsychosis , as philosophers would have it ; nor yet any such metamorphosis , as the poets more rightly term i● : and as both of them are contrary to all reason or sens , so we have no other authority but only ipse dixit for such assertions . and yet this opinion being apprehended as a midle way between the mortality and immortality of the soul ( though not according to the excellent and spiritual nature of an intelligence ) and also between no reward or punishment heerafter , and the true heaven and hell , and all the glorious transactions therof ( though not worthy the majesty and perfection of the divine creator ) hath very much prevailed antien●ly among the more learned heathen , and generaly with the common people ; and is still reteined by the banians , and some others . but the most difficult point that i know among christians , concerning the immortality of the soul , is ●ha● , whi●h is called by some , the sleep therof , and by others more rightly psych●pannychia , or the pernoctation of the soul , between death and the resurrection ; for in sleep there is some op●ration both of the sensitive and intellective spirit of man , though wild and irregular , as i have shewed ; and i● is no● intended that in this state there is any operation whatsoever , but a total vacat●on , and cessation therof , like rest of the body , or bestial part of man , which is said to sleep in the grave , and that is the●efore called a coemeterium , or dormitory . but certeinly the soul , when it depar●eth f●om ●he body , carrieth along with it all its own innate and acquired notions ( though as the m●n himself , so al● his thoughts perish ●s to this world ) and i doubt not but that also it hath others , and farr higher , and better in that state ; and blessed souls are s●id to be in paradise , which import pleasure and delight , and that cannot be wi●hout contemplation and enjoiment ▪ also they are now stiled spirits of iust men mad● perfect , which cannot be without perfect operation ; and since they are separate from the body , and all i●strumentality therof , we must consyder how and in what maner they may probably operate . and heer i must explicate what i intend by terming the intellective spirit of man an intelligence , and affirming that and angels to be in the same intellective classis , whereby i conceiv , that as fishes , fowls , and beasts , are all in the same sensitive classis , and yet very farr different one from another , not only in their whole composita , but also in their very sensitive spirits , which specificaly differ ; and the piscine spirits are much inferior to the bestial ; so also are angelical and human spirits in the same intellective classis , ( and not only spirits genericaly as they are distinguished from matter , and as all elementary , vegetative , and sensitive , are spirits as well as angels , as i have shewed ) but classicaly coordinate one with another : and though the spirits of men be inferior to angelical , as it is said , thou hast made him little lower then the angels , yet certeinly they are not subordinate unto them , as fishes , though inferior to beasts , are not subordinate unto them ( so as all the sensitive classis is unto man , and the vegetative to the sensitive , and the elementary to the vegetative , and matter to the elementary ; ) becaus they are not of an inferior classis , but of the same classis , wherin all are coordidinate , as i have shewed : and so are the intellective spirits of men with angels ; and as our savior saith , in this future state they shall be isangeli , not only like , but equal to them ; and indeed if we should not be in the same intellective classis with them , man should not be a microcosm as he is , and christ in our human nature should not have assumed all the several classes of nature , as he did : and becaus we are so coordinate with them , therefore we need not their mediation and intercession , but only his , who is the mediator god-man : and as the highest excellence of their nature is to know , love , and enjoy god , so we are capable heerof as well as they : and as we and they are moral creatures , so we are mutualy obliged one to another , but neither of us to brutes ; and so the angel said to iohn , i am thy fellow-servant , and we are yet more united in christ , who shall also make us partakers of their superaether , and in whom all things are recapitulated , as the apostle saith , both which are in heaven , and which are in earth , even in him : whereby , as it is also said , we come unto mount sion , and unto the city of the living god , the heavenly ierusalem ; and to an innumerable company of angels ; to the general assembly , and church of the first-born , which are written in heaven . now wheras i have shewed , that in this present conjunct state we cannot operate without or beyond the body ; that is , we cannot understand without phantasms , which we irradiate with the spiritual light of our understanding , nor localy move the body without the motive spirits , which we move by the spiritual power of our will , whereby we command and govern the sensitive imagination and appetite immediately , and so the whole body mediately ; and that angels need no such instrumentalitys , but may intuitively contemplate all things by the irradiation of their own mental light , and move them by the eradiation of their own spiritual heat , as i may so term them ; thus our human spirit , as well as they , shall also then have the same intuitive and motive qualitys actuated therin , which a●e now in it potentialy ; for so intelligences , as well as all other natures , have their proper potentialitys and actualitys , otherwise they should not be mutable , ( for alteration is by production of potentiality into actuality , and reduction of actuality into potentiality , as i have said ) and though they are not generable or corruptible in their substances , which are simple , and without any mistion , or composition ; and such as always subsist in themselvs , and are neither generable , nor corruptible , as i have also shewed ; yet they have their accidental qualitys , by which they operate , and not by their essences or substances immediately , more then other natures ; and all such accidents do subsist in their substances , and thereby , and therin , have their actualitys and potentialitys , and are therefore generable and corruptible in themselvs , and so mutable . also all simple substances of the same species have all the same specifical qualitys therof , either actualy , or potentialy ; becaus they are of the same species , as they are such simple substances , though their mista , or composita , may otherwise differ specificaly as such ; for so though the cortical stones , metalls , minerals , and subcortical magnet differ specifically , as mista , yet as all of them are of the same predominant element , earth , so that being a simple substance in it self , hath all the terrene qualitys in it self , actualy , or potentialy ; and thus the magnetical virtue , which is a terrene quality , is actuated in iron ; and so , as is said , may be in brick-earth , and the like : and so though aethereal and culinary fire may differ specificaly , as mista , yet the elementary fire which is predominant in both is specificaly one and the same simple substance , and hath all the aethereal qualitys in it self , either actualy , or potentialy , and so planetary virtue might be actuated in culinary fire , as well as in comets ; and so also all simple substances of the same classis have the same classical or generical qualitys , as every grass , herb , and tree , hath vegetation , and the like , though in their own several specifical maners ; and every fish , fowl , beast , hath sensation , and the like , though in their own several specifical maners : and thus the human spirit , and the angelical spirit , being both intelligences , which may live and operate separately , have also such generical q●alitys , both intuitive , and motive , whereby they may so live , and operate separately , in themselvs , though in their own several specifical maner , either actualy , as the angels , or potentialy , as we also now have them : and as an embryon in the womb hath many facultys potentialy , which yet are not actuated untill it be born and brought forth into the light , so have also our souls , while they are as embryons in the egg , as it were , of our bodys ; and as we have now many actual qualitys which shall in that separate state be reduced to eternal potentiality , as nutrition , tasting , and the like ; so shall we then have others actuated in us , which we never had actualy before . and certeinly , in the palingenesy of the body , there shall be such a great and wonderfull change of q●alitys , that the apostle calleth it a spiritual body , as i have shewed ; which shall not be only a platonical vehicle of the soul , but organical , and most glorious ; as the apostle saith , the lord iesus christ shall change our vile body , that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body ; according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself : whereby also we may understand that separate spirits are not so vastly diffusive or atomicaly retractive as some fansy , but have their bounds , as other finite natures ; for so certeinly our separate soul , after the resurrection , shall be confined within the body , as well as in this conjunct state. and that the separate state of the soul is such , may somewhat sensibly appear in our selvs , who seem to have some common notion therof imprinted in our very souls ; which made the heathen philosophers so much complain of the prison of their body , and bondage of this conjunct state , as expecting a better afterward . and christian divines have a problem , whether if adam had stood , he should not have been at length translated to a better , that is , this other state ? and if we seriously consyder it , there must probably have been some such ground of that wonderfull , and otherwise inconceivable tentation of adam in paradise ; which was not to any thing he then had , nor to any thing which he was not capable to have , especialy if it were absolutely impossible , as to be a god , or so to be like to god ; for though now the corrupt mind of man may , as i have said , apprehend , or affect nonentity , as entitative and impossibility as possible ; yet we may not suppose any such thing of him in that state of perfect understanding and will ; but it was a most obvious and prevalent tentation , that he having this common notion ( which we have now only implicitely and confusedly ) in his perfect mind most explicitely and distinctly , and thereby knowing that he had such angelical facultys potentialy in himself , might covet to have them actuated , that so he might be like the gods knowing good and evil. and though this be a farther and higher perfection of the human spirit , yet adam was not therefore made imperfect , but good and perfect according to that conjunct state , wherin he was created ; which was his original perfection , and whereby he was so made a most perfect microcosm , or epitome of the prese●t world ; as he shall be also in his future state of the other world ; when not only these angelical perfections shall be actuated in his soul , but his very body shall be more spiritualised , as the apostle termeth it , or made fi●t for that more spiritual state of an immortal life : which yet shall still be a body , having all corporeal propertys and affections ; such as the body of our savior was after his resurrection ; which though not sensible , as before , to present sens ; for so he was not visible , or tangible , otherwise then as he so pleased to appear sometimes unto some ; yet heerafter , when our sensitive bodys shall be also refined and sublimated , and made like unto his glorious body , every ey shall see him ; as iob saith , i shall see for my self , and my eys shall behold him , that is , iesus christ his redeemer , who shall eternaly be the visible deity , and image of the invisible god. nor could christs spiritual body penetrate any other body , as some have supposed from that text , wherin it is said , that he entred when the doors were shutt ( or the doors being shutt ) which yet it doth neither express nor import , but only that he did not enter into the hous , so as our gross bodys now do , by doors open , which is their usual avenue ; wheras his more spiritual body might enter in by a window , or other aperture of the hous , without any penetration . and this renovation both of soul and body shall be generaly conformable unto his , and so made by his divine power , as it is said , the first man adam was made a living soul , the last adam is made a quickning spirit : and as we have born the image of the earthly , we shall also bear the image of the heavenly . vii . thus the heavens and earth were finished , and all the host of them ; which consummation plainly refers to the first inception , in the begining god created the heaven and the earth , or , as it is originaly , these heavens and this earth , which were the same that were afterward so finished in the several works of the six days ; and which , as it is also said , god created to make ; and particularly it is so expressed , not only of elements , but also of vegetatives . these are the generations of the heavens and the earth , in the day that the lord made the earth and the heavens , and every herb of the field , before it grew , as i have formerly observed ; and now observ again , how this doctrine of creation of all generable and corruptible things first in the chaos of their potentialitys , and of their several generations afterward in the six days , is so plainly and cumulatively expressed and repeated , that none may doubt of the truth therof . again as not only heavens and earth heer are mentioned , but also an host therof or orderly militia ( and thus god is called the lord of hosts or of the armys of all the creatures ) so , as i have observed , there is both a scale of nature , and also an oeconomy of the composita , and polity of the whole univers , and that therefore it is declared of them all , that they were valde bona , ( or as it is originaly valde bonum , singularly , as of one ) and an epitome heerof is every man in himself , as i have shewed ; and becaus , as i have said , he is such a microcosm , now in respect of this world , and so shall be of the world future , therefore god doth still continue to create the souls of men , from the end of the first created world , ( which was thus consummated in man , as the summ of all the rest ) untill the begining of the other world. and if we rightly estimate the many millions of men living together on the earth , probably he doth create human souls every minute , and so though he rested from making the great world , yet he maketh many such litle worlds continualy : for though it is said , he had rested from all his works which god had created to make , that is , to be generated or to make by generation , first originaly , which was supernatural , and their improper creation , and since successively , by natural generation , as i have shewed ; yet he rested not from proper creation of human spirits in their several individualitys , according to the same specifike kind , which he had originaly instituted and expressed in the protoplast , or first m●n , and so to be composited with human bodys , according to that very institution and first law of human generation , as i have also shewed . nor doth he so immediately generate or improperly create the human compositum of any other man , as he did the first adam , except only iesus christ ; who was thereby declared to be the theanthropus , as it is said , the lord himself· will give you a signe , behold a virgin shall conceiv● and bear a son , and call his name immanuel , which being interpreted is , god with us . and when god had thus originaly made man ( that is both man and woman , as it is said , male and female created he them ) and probably woman of whom christ was to be born , and so is called the seed of the woman being made after man , was also the last of all these works of god ) then he pronounced of them all universaly , that they were very good , not only in respect of the univers , but also of man , as the compendium of all , and consummation of his whole work of creation , in order to his ensuing work of redemption . wherupon he instituted and made for man his first sabbath of rest ; and on the seaventh day god ended his work which he had made , that is , as he began in the very first instant , so he continued to work untill and in the very last instant of the six days ; and therefore ; he rested not before , but proceeding continualy to work in all the six days ( as it is said at first , that the spirit of god moved on the face of the deep ) he ended , or hebraicaly , had ended , on the very first instant of the seaventh day , or sabbath of rest ; wheras it could not be rightly said , that he ended , or had ended , before ; for in the very last instant of the six days he still continued to work : so exact and proper is divine language ; and though men cannot discern between instants of time , or points of extension ( which therefore are so indiscernible , that the fluxes and augments of created nature may appear intire and continuous to us ) yet known unto god are all his works , even instants and points as well as numbers ; and accordingly he doth declare them in his word , as exactly and properly as human understanding can apprehend . again though it be said , that he rested on the seaventh day from all his work which he had made ; yet it is not said , that he rested in it , but this work of creation was corrupted very soon after it was finished : wherefore as there remaineth a rest to the people of god by the redemption of the world through iesus christ , so that is called also the rest of god himself , and shall be the everlasting sabbath , and consummation of all his works , both of creation , and redemption , wherin he will rest for ever . thus i have delineated the true system of the world , which god himself , who made it , hath declared and reveled unto us in this divine history of the creation of the heavens and the earth ; that is , the superaether , and utmost circumference therof ; and within that concave sphere , the aether , and within that , the air , and within them all , the orb of the terraqueous globe , and inmost center therof : which certeinly is the most symmetrical and uniform chorography of the whole body of matter , and of these several members therof ▪ most exactly according to the greater or less density of their matter , and more or less activity of their spirits . and therin i have also described the scale of nature , and all the classes therof subordinate and subservient one unto another ; that is , matter to elementary spirits , and elements to vegetatives , and vegetatives to sensitives , and sensitives to intellective man , and man to iesus christ , the head of all things : and other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid by god himself . monendus est misellus philosophus ut desinat esse conditor mundi : and i confidently suppose , that if plato and aristotle had enjoied the benefit of this divine light , they had farr more improved philosophy by building upon this foundation , then christian philosophers have done by building upon theirs : and that we may enjoy the benefit of their great learning , and yet di●engage our selves wholy from their errors , we must reduce all their opinions , and human inventions to this most infallible rule ; which , if we rightly consider it , will not only rectifie their errors , but also instead therof present such divine truths , as they did never conceiv or apprehend : as may particularly appear by a short recapitulation of what we have formerly discoursed . thus first we have proved a begining , and consequently a creation of the world ; which no heathen philosophy so understood , as it is declared by god in his word ; but either imagined an eternal creation without a begining in any certein time , removing it perpetualy backward by supposition of many deluges , conflagrations , and general devastations , and indefinite revolutions : or though they may sometimes seem to acknowledg an improper creation from some precedent principles of matter , atoms , mens , anima mundi , ideae , and the like ; yet they do not express any proper creation from absolute nonentity , to which heathen philosophy never did subscribe ; nor do i know any word in any other human language , but only hebraical , which doth import such a proper creation . though if any conceiv otherwise , and can collect any such acknowledgment from their doubtful , and confused , and sometimes contrary , sentences , i shall not hinder him from subjoining their human testimony to divine authority . but certeinly moses doth most plainly and clearly affirm a creation of the world , in a certein begining , and so proceeds to declare the first age of the world as particularly and expresly , as if himself had been contemporary , and lived in the same time and places ; and the affairs therof , ( which all heathen historiographers esteemed fabulous , and termed ogygia ) more exactly and truly then they do relate the transactions of later ages . and thus wheras other nations dated their writings so many years ab urbe condita , or in such an olympiad , or the like ; the jews , both antient and modern , date them , ab orbe condito . nor is the whole age of the world so very large or vast , but that every man may according to divine chronology easily comprehend it : and indeed there are not probably above generations between us and adam , who was the common ancestor of all mankind : for the scripture doth exactly enumerate them all from the first adam to the second ; that is to iesus christ ▪ generations inclusively , ( as enoch is so reckoned from adam , and the brazen lavacre so to be measured , as i have shewed ) for so luke declares his seculum , as matthew doth his proper linage : and if we allow fower generations to every century , since the nativity of our savior , yet the total will not exceed that number . nor is the whole world and system therof so indefinite but that the mind of man may comprehend it , and by the light of the divine word look through it as a transparent globe : for so it is said , he hath set the world in their heart ; and his word plainly sheweth us how all generable and corruptible things were first educed out of a chaos of potentialitys , wherin all their primitive and simple essences were then latent ; and brought forth most orderly and successively in six days , by god who created them before by a proper creation from absolute nothing , in a supernatural maner by improper creation ; which was their original generation then instituted by god himself , and by his divine benediction so continuing successively : and this is a short , plain , and evident account therof ; wheras others , instead of such proper and improper creation , have imagined a potentia materiae , or power in the matter of producing out of itself other active substances farr more excellent then itself ; which yet were not before realy in it ; or that the matter is transpeciated and converted into them : though an angel , who is the chief being in the scale of nature , cannot so produce out of himself any other then his own proper qualitys and accidents , nor can he realy transmute himself , or be converted into any other inferior nature whatsoever ; and much less can matter , which is the lowest and basest of all others , convert itself , or be coverted into any superior nature . certeinly that which they so affirm to be in potentia , must be either ens , or non-ens , while it is so in potentia ; and if it be nonens , then non est in potentia ( as i have shewed of vacuity ) and if it be ens , then as i have said it is also an entity created by god in its potentiality , or chaos , and so produced by natural generation into actuality ; as if vacuity could be any ens , then it must also be created by god , or concreated with the world , and should not be before , nor beyond , nor any where out of the created world , and body of the matter therof , as others have vainly supposed of such an imaginary space , nor is their forma misti , or compositi , any other thing then the result of the very mistion and composition of those primitive and simple entities , according to their own natural coordinations and subordinations in the scale of nature , which god hath so erected and ordered , that they have in themselvs all the natural principles therof , and an aptitude and appetite to be so mist and composited in all successive generation , according to that law of original generation : and therefore forms are no such things as are formed or ordered by i know not what cholchodea or come i know not whence , aliunde & extrinsecus , into the prepared bodys ; but , as i have shewed , there are also other substances , or substantial activitys , besides the body of matter , created by god , in and with the matter , that do consubstantiate , inform , or inspirit it ; and fabricate , and fit it for themselves ; and also mingle and compose themselvs in and with it into one mistum , or compositum , according to the order and oeconomy of nature , by their own internal principles and powers , which god hath also created in them . which substantial activitys , or active substances , i therefore call spirits ( as the scripture also doth so call not only substantial , put also accidental a●tivitys ; as the spirit of wisedom , jealousie , meekness , and the like ) and they may well admit it , who say , omnia animarum sunt plena , and particularly that there is a vegetative soul ; which yet , as the scripture doth not so express , i can not admitt ; for soul is more special and proper to living animals , but spirit , though eminently it signifies the chief of spirits that is the intellective , and so soul and spirit are sometimes distinguished , yet more generaly it signifies any substantial or accidental activity whatsoever , and is so commonly used by chymists , physicians , and others , as i also use it in a more spiritual sens . and though i dispute not about terms , yet certeinly such a proper and improper creation of the primitive and simple entitys , both of matter , which is a passive and receptive substance , and of the accidents and affections therof , and of all those other substantial activitys or active substances , which i call spirits , and of all their accidents and affections , created in the first general chaos , and the original generation or production of them , by mistions , compositions , actuations , and perfections , in the six several days ; and accordingly all successive generation , by production out of any particular chaos of the same entitys or essences , which are so generated or produced , are such real veritys , that i am perswaded no philosopher whatsoever can realy satisfie himself , or others , concerning the first principles and origines of all things , and all the alterations by generation and corruption , by any such supposed potentia materiae , eminenc●s , and equivocal causations , transpeciations , and conversions , or the like ; which are only terms and notions , and no realitys in nature : nor can ever confute or disprove this divine history of creation , either in the general system therof , or in any of the particulars , which moses proceedeth afterward to declare ; and thus wheras the antients generaly conceived the aether and aethereal bodys to be superelementary , and sacred , he sheweth us plainly , how aether is one of the fower elements , and so was first prepared in the first day , wherin light , ( which is a principal quality therof ) is said to be so produced ; for the substantial spirit of fire , or ae●her , was created before , whereby it is denominated one of the heavens , and afterward termed expansum , as well as the air : nor doth he affirm it to be solid or firm , but such a fluid expansum as a●r also is ; and plainly implieth that it was moved with the light in it about the inferior orb , whereby god made day and night , before the earth , or water , or air were so made or fitted , or that there was any motion therof , or therin . and the air , which is naturaly an expansum , cannot be naturaly a compressum , whereby in its own element , or atmosphere , it should naturaly seek to expand itself more , and thereby elasticaly press , as some would have it : also both aether and air are called heavens , as one is the fountain and immediate medium of aethereal light , and the other the vehicle , and immediate medium of sight ; and so i suppose , that air doth refract , or reflect , very little , nor are either objects in the air , nor starrs in the aether , thereby seen intersected and inverted , as through a convex lens in the air , nor so much magnified and distended , as divers see objects in the fundus of water . again in this second days work , moses declareth vapors in the air to be only waters above ; and thereby intimateth the special instrumentality therof in nature ; for so indeed vapor is almost as chymical an instrument , as fire . nor yet doth he affirm these waters to be above all the three heavens , or any of them , as some suppose ; but only in , or upon , or all over , that heaven wherof he treateth in this second days work ; or more criticaly , as it is originaly , from above ; and certeinly we cannot suppose any water to descend from above , but only that whi●h first ascended from beneath . nor is this ascent of vapors the necessary and only caus of winds , wherof we have no mention in the creation ; and if any wind then were , it was probably some very tender and gentle breath , but greater winds and storms , which are effects of the curs , are also caused by grosser vapors ; which whether moist , or dry , are not formaly the very wind ; for that , as such , is only aer motus ; but may be the efficient causes therof , as any other impuls , or ventilation , of blasts or ventiducts : and generaly moist vapors caus more rain , and dry more wind , as appears by herricans in more hot countrys . and in the third days works , he shews , how wonderfully god formed and prepared the o●cumene , or h●bitable globe , by causing the waters to subside , in all the chanells of seas and rivers , which he cut out for them ; and by raising the mighty mountains , which may be therefore rightly termed , the mountains of god , and by iacob are called the everlasting hills , wherof others give us no account . nor doth he affirm vegetatives to live ; but , as i have observed , plainly distinguisheth between vegetative and sensitive spirits , which he afterward calleth living souls . and in the description of the works of the fourth day , we find none of those monsters and figments , which both poetry and philosophy have introduced in the starry heaven : for neither doth he divide it into spheres , having plainly shewed before how the whole aether was only one sphere , as well as the other heavens ; nor indeed can such several imaginary spheres solv the phaenomena of the motions of ae●her●al comets , and of all the planetary motions ; as of the satellites , which , as i have observed , move not in perfect circles in the aether , but only about their principal planet , whereby their motion in the aether describes an hemi●rochoid , as i said ; as if a q●ernstone were set upright , like a cartwheel , on a declive hill , and a man with his hand on the handle should thereby move it round about the axis down the hill. nor doth he assigne any intelligences , or daemons , and a metratton , or president over them all , to move the several spheres . certeinly the scripture calleth 〈◊〉 daemons , princes of the air , and not of the ae●her , though they were originaly of the same nature , and office with good angels ; but as they were since ejected out of the superaether , so now probably they are confined within the subae●hereal orb , between which there is such a great chasm . nor doth he distingu●sh the luminarys into planetary and fixed , but calleth them by one common appellation , lights , originaly derived both in name and nature from the primigenious light , wherof they were all composed . and he particularly nameth only the two principal luminarys , which so give light upon the earth , and according to which , besides the common and diurnal motion of the aether , all the sacred feasts of the jews were instituted . and as the sun is first named , so probably he was first made of that primigenious light , whereby he illustrateth all the rest : and therefore is sometimes called by th● same name , or the light. and as he hath light , so also heat , which is another ae●hereal quality , in himself formaly , and not o●ly eminently or equivocaly , as some would suppose ; and as indeed i conceiv that the moon causeth moisture , which is no aet●ereal quality , over which she doth yet manifestly predominate ; as may appear most notably in tides , whether she then causeth more gross u●pors , when she is in her apogaea , because she is farthest from the earth ; or generaly more vapors , because she is then more strong and praepoent , as the sun in his apogaeum ; or from some unknown influence or power . but however those vapors which she causeth do not make that whole body of water which floweth and refloweth in tides ; nor doth every part of that whole body of water pass to the extremitys of the floud and ebb ; but only the rivers in their fall above the floud of the sea are supplied by the vapors , which causeth the impuls of the whole undulating body of water , as farr as the ebb ; like the two handles of a saw , in sawing forward and backward , not very farr , though the saw be never so long : for plainly the waters in the floud toward the rivers are not much more salt , nor in the ebb toward the ocean much more fresh , but in the middle , where they meet , and where a proportionable overplus of the river water so caused by the vapors doth mingle with the seawater . also he plainly intimateth , that as some of the luminarys are manifestly motive , so they are all , in that he doth not distinguish between them : and it is elswhere expressly said of the starrs generaly , that they militate in their courses , or originaly , paths : and if the fixed starrs do move uniformly together ( which is the last residuum of the antient error and opinion of their fixation ) yet however , according to their various positions in the aether , they must move difformly in time , in that very uniformity in position ; and either in position or motion , or both , they are all asymmetrous : certeinly no known motion of any of them is commensurable with the motion of the whole aether , according to which we assigne the prope● day natural to be , as i have said , fower and twenty hours neither more nor less , otherwise they should not be for signes , and for seasons , and for days , and for years , and all the variations therof . and though many of them be farr greater then the earth , yet they all move about it , becaus they were made to give light upon it , which they could not do at such a distance , unless they were so great . and their number is innumerable unto us , and perhaps not fewer then of the host of israel in the wildernes ; nor of that which ioab gave up to the king rotunde before he had comp●eted it ; or of that which he still proceeded to complete , untill he was hindred by the plague . nor doth moses lay any foundation of judicial astrology , which is expressly condemned by scripture . again in the works of the fifth and sixth day he describeth the original generations of fishes , fowls , and beasts , and most truly termeth them living , and afterward calleth their bloud the bloud of life , which our learned doctor hath lately discovered to be a most proper expression , and citeth that text in confirmation of his discovery ; wheras formerly the heart was termed primum vivens , & ultimum moriens : i have been informed by a physician my neighbor , that having dissected an old toad so farr as that he had taken out the heart , and afterward stepping aside , before he returned again , the toad had crept away into his garden , where he found it a●ive , and that it so lived some consyderable time . in the last of all the works of creation , that is , of the little world , man , he discovereth a new world of mysterys not only as man is the whole scale of nature , and as there was another proper creation of his intellective sp●rit , but also how he was made in the image of god , in order unto iesus christ , god-man , who , by the assumption of the human nature into the divinity , did also superadd and unite to this scale of created nature the creating nature , god himself ; which is the anacephaleosis , or reduction of the finite creation to the infinite creator . and i shall desire any naturalist seriously to consyder this natural representation of the messiah , as he is thus the infinite completion and consummation of nature itself , and perfection of the univers , and so the mediator both of creation , and redemption ; that thereby god the creator might gather together in one all things in christ , both which are in heaven , and which are in earth , even in him : for so indeed christ hath united in himself not only the intellective spirit of man , but also his body , yea the very matter therof ; as it is said , in him dwelleth all the fulnes of the godhead bodily . wherefore all men should confes and acknowledg without controversy great is the mystery of godlines , god was manifest in the flesh. and these are two most admirable and amazing contemplations , which every man may have of himself , that he is a microcosin or module of the whole created world , and a nature which in iesus christ is also immediately united to the creator , and divine nature . and now i desire any to reflect on this whole history of the creation of the world , which moses hath described ; and consyder with himself from whom he could derive all this philosophical and theological learning , ( or as it was said , whence hath this man this wisedom ? ) but only from god the author of all entity and verity : for though indeed he was learned in all the wised●m of the egyptians , yet probably that was only such improvement of some human arts and sciences , as they , and the chaldeans , and graecians , and other heathens , have made therof , and not that knowledg of these fundamental and more profound veritys , which he delivereth . certeinly thales , pythagoras , plato , and others , who purposely travelled into egypt to be instructed in their learning , brought back none such into greece : and i suppose , that whatsoever the antient egytian wisedom or learning was , they received it first from ioseph and the hebrews , as other nations since from moses and the iews ; though indeed they seem only to have received or reteined some scattered notions , fragments , or cento's therof , mingling them with their own fansys and errors ; which doth also plainly appear in all pagan theology . but as our savior said , even untill his time ; salvation is of the iews ; so also was their philosophy derived from this fountain of divine truth , either by scripture , or tradition : for language and letters are the vehicles of all that human science , which we therefore call literature ; and undoubtedly the hebrew language was the first and original , and it is said expressly , that before the confusion , the whole earth was of one language , which was hebraical , as is proved by the hebrew names of adam , chevah , sheth , and the rest ; and so also it is said , tha● unto eber or heber were born two sons , the name of the one peleg , becaus in his days the earth was divided , and his brothers name was jock●an : whereby it also appears that the hebrew language continued after the confusion in the family of heber , from whom it is so denominated ; and as shem is called the father of all the children of eber , that is , of his sacred linage , so also from him , the iews who were of that linage , were called hebrews , as abraham their father is therefore called an hebrew . thus as noah , and his family only , were preserved from the common deluge , so heber , and his family only , were preserved from the common confusion of languages : and with the original language , the original knowledg which was delivered from their ancestors , did continue in that family ; and probably the rest of mankind , with the language , lost also all those acquired notions and terms , or at least could make no common use therof for want of a common language ; and so in scripture we read of no great actions performed by those mighty builders in many years after : and they are said to have been thereby scattered over all the earth ; wherof such who were neerest to heber , in chaldaea , and syria , began to learn again both language and knowledg from him ; as may appear by their very litle different d●alects . whence afterward the chaldaeans by their conquests , and the syrians , or phaenicians , ( or syrophaenicians , as they are sometimes called ) by their navigations , conveied learning , both by land , and sea , to other more remote nations . and that which doth most confirm me heerin , is that in america ( wherof the inhabitants were farthest removed from the hebrews ) when it was first discovered , no such literature was found , though otherwise they were naturaly as ingenious as other men , and so might have invented human arts and sciences themselvs , as well as others , if they had not been so derived from this one fountain . and as the books of moses are the most antient of any now extant , so i chalenge all mankind to convince this history of creation of any falsity or popularity otherwise then as i have declared , in any sentence , or syllable therof , which he hath so truly and accurately expressed , that comparing it with all the discoverys of nature which have been since made by any others , i may term his sentences , antient noveltys , and all their discoverys novell antiquitys : and i must acknowledg my self to have been as much instructed by a more critical inspection of scripture , as by any curious inspection of nature itself ; though i esteem both very needfull , as they are mutual explanations one of the other . thus by the card and compass of the divine word i have adventured to sail round about the philosophical world , and if any therefore shall call me a scripturist , or ecclesiastes , i should willingly accept it , if the wisest of men had not assumed that title , wherof i am not worthy to partake . however from this specu●a of truth , and by the light therof , we may discern the errors of any others , who have wandred from this right way . as first the iews themselvs , after the captivity , being mingled among the heathen , learned their works , and the very corruptions and prevarications of that d●vine truth , which the gentiles , as i have shewed , before borrowed from the hebrews , in respect of whom all other nations might be rightly termed barbarous . and from this colluvies flowed all their sects of sadduces , pharisees , and others , and that rabbinical philosophy , which hath perverted the simplicity of the text by cabbalistical and allegorical interpretations : and as they make all scripture such , becaus some parts therof , as the visions of prophets are indeed allegorical , so others would interpret them also literaly as in the vision of the new ierusalem , becaus it is described quadrate or square hieroglyphicaly to express the immobility therof , some have fansied the superaether not to be spherical ; though they might as well affirm it to be metalline or gemmeous , and of no larger extent then according to the measure of so many furlongs . but philosophers have subverted the very foundation , and laid several others instead therof : and yet most christians will build upon them , rather then acquiesce in the only true and divine philosophy : though i also acknowledg , that if others be reduced to this fundamental system of the world , very much natural knowledg may be gained from them , and that they may help to make a fair superstructure . nor have i laid down any theses which i do not prove not only by authority of scripture , but also by philosophical reason , and sensible experiment ; and if any dissent from me , i shall also desire him to oppugn me with all the same weapons , and as solid and firm ; for if they be feint and feeble , they will bend and recoil on him that useth them . as in that famous controversy concerning the motion of the earth , if any should urge against me that text , which shaketh the earth out of her place , and the pillars therof tremble , i should answer him , that if i wanted a text to prove the contrary truth , this alone might suffice : for both by it , and the context , it plainly appears , that it is spoken of a violent commotion of the earth by god in his anger , and evidently imports that otherwise the earth naturaly resteth , and hath a place of rest. and so their chief reason to prove the earth mobile becaus it is magnetical ( which i have grant●d ) doth as plainly prove the immobility therof , as i have shewed . and the sensible experiment of an arrow shot upright in a ship sailing , is a meer fallacy ; though the motion of the ship , and of the archer in it , while he dischargeth it , may indeed caus some little impuls that way , in the very discharge , which so directeth it . but certeinly no man can believ that a fly removing from an horses head in travelling doth follow him with any less nisus or labor , by reason of any such conjunct motion , then another fly which freshly pursues the hors ; for let an hors that hath been washed in a river run swiftly on the land , certeinly the drops that fall from him will not follow him . there are many such fond opinions and foolish probations , which serv only to render philosophy ridiculous . i am more confident of my theses , and hope i have offered no such hypotheses ; but whatsoever they are , i submit them to the several masters in the respective arts and sciences ; and generaly all to learned divines , whose complete province it is also to inspect this divine philosophy , which god himself hath laid as the foundation of theology : and as he doth delight to intitle himself the maker of heaven and earth , so ieremy taught the captive jews that chaldaike sentence , the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth , even they shall perish from the earth , and from under these heavens , to discriminate the only true god from all idols : nor do i remember that any heathenish religion did ever ascribe the creation of the world to any of them , nor indeed acknowledg any proper creation . wherefore since errors in philosophy are so dangerous in divinity , theologists should affect the genesis of creation , as well as the exodus of redemption : as all the sects of graecian philosophers did joyn natural with moral philosophy . certeinly theology only can teach us the right use and improvement of natural knowledg , that is , to glorifie god , and benefit mankind : and doth specialy admonish us that we should not so highly prize curious and costly perierga , or any vain philosophy or knowledg which only puffeth , and edifieth not : for indeed whosoever doth terminate in a speculative contemplation of the world , is as much a worldling , as any ambitious , covetous , or voluptuous men , who seek a satisfaction therin . viii . let all men therefore prais and glorify their creator , who hath made this whole world , and all things therin , in order , measure , and weight ; not only in all their own particular natures , but in the univers , and polity therof , since every man is himself a created module , and idea both of the creation , and of god the creator ; who as a melior natura , was made to represent god to all inferior creatures in his dominion over them , and them unto god in his immediate subordination unto him : wherefore as all the works of god do prais him with the echo of his own goodnes , and the whole globe as a cymbal doth sound forth his praises , so should we sing and chant them out with oral voice , and mental understanding , and thus as blessed angels , who in heaven behold the face of god , continualy cry unto him , holy , holy , holy , is the lord of hosts ; so we beholding the reflections therof in the speculum of created nature , should subjoin in consort , the whole earth is full of his glory . and more specialy we should prais him for our own human nature , which is the summ of all the rest , and completion of both the sensible , and intelligible worlds , quartering all the familys of nature in the ●scutcheon of our humanity : whereby we of all others are most obliged to this divine service , which is the very end of creation , and divine goodnes therof . and every particular man should thus personaly re●lect on himself , becaus he is also an abstract of humanity , ; singing the doxology of the divine psalmist . i will praise thee , for i am fearfully and wonderfully made , and that my soul knoweth right well ; my substance was not hid from thee , when i was made in se●ret , and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth . thine eys did see my substance , yet being imperfect , and in thy book were all my members written ; which in continuance of time were fashioned , when as yet there was none of them . thus i was created through the most free grace of my creator , and was not what i now am long since the world was made , and which might still have continued without me ; who am a very inconsyderable and insignificant portion of mankind , among all the innumerable millions of men , who have been before me , are now with me , and shall be after me , and yet as much concerned in my creator , and he as particularly regarding me , as if there were none other man in the world , and as i , before i was , so my parents , or any others , could not designe or desire any such being for me , nor foretell or imagin what i should be ; but only my divine father , who did set down and prescribe in his book of eternity the idea of my personality , and whole compositum , and accordingly formed me in my mothers womb , molding my body , the tabernacle of my soul , by a vegetative plastical virtue , and producing my sensitive spirit out of the common clay , and lowest part of the earth , inspired into it my intellective spirit , as a light incensed that shall never be extinguished , an intelligence ingenerable , and incorruptible for ever . and now i am my self , and not another , nor ever shall be any other then my self , and so am put into the present possession of my own everlasting being ; though my soul living and dwelling in this mortal body , for this short space of a temporary life , hath this small segment of its eternity set out and appointed to be the sole opportunity of gaining my everlasting welbeing : and the intellectual and spiritual welbeing of my soul is only the union and communion therof with my infinite creator , which is the true apotheosis of intellective spirits . in which original state of divine perfection human nature was first created , but , by the apostacy and defection of our first parents , did again sink down into the mortality of the body , and the self-confounded chaos of the soul. and now , o mankind ! admire and adore for ever the infinite and incomprehensible glory of god , and mystery of his spiritual kingdom of redemption farr exceeding all the glory of his natural kingdom of creation , which was only the foundation or scene of the other , being so made in order therunto , and wisely con●●der , how god , infinite in himself , look'd through this finite world , as a bubble of diaphanous air ; computing all creatures therin , only as so many cyphars , which though more or fewer , greater or less , before or after , in or among themselvs , yet all signify the same nothing in divine account ; neither adding to , nor diminishing from the infinity of their creator . and therefore from all eternity , before the foundations of the world were laid , he designed and decreed to invest his own son , the uncreated , essential , and intrinsecal image of himself , with the created , artificial , and extrinsecal image of our humanity ; and therin with the universal nature of the created world. by whom finite is thus united to infinity , and mutable to immutability , and in whom god infinitely and immutably enjoieth himself , in the full embraces both of his essence , and operations . and this is that new and better creation , which shall endure for ever : wherof it is also said , as of the first creation . in the begining was the word , and the word was with god , and the word was god. the same was in the begining with god. all things were made by him , and without him nothing was made that was made . and now i prais thee , i bless thee , i adore thee , lord , god , creator of heaven and earth ! for thine own uncreated glory , eternaly immanent in thy self , and for the transient manifestations therof in and to thy creatures . and as i admire thine own infinite incomprehensibility , so also all those finite incomprehensibles in nature , and all the comprehensibles therof , which may be known by us ; for whatsoever we do or can truly know of thee , or thy works , is most excellent ; and so is all that we cannot know . and i thank thee for the discovery of the initial creation , and original confabrication of the world , by thy word ; and the retrospective revelation therof to thy servant moses : and for any revelation of that primitive apocalyps to me thy most unworthy and unable servant , by the illumination of thy divine spirit . and now i beseech thee to revele it more and more to the whole world , that we may all know and acknowledg the only true genesis of the world , and thee the creator , who art both the author , and end therof . and wherin i am ignorant , still teach thou me , or wherin i have erred , discover it to others : that neither thy divine truth may be dishonored by my human infirmity , nor any honor therof ascribed to my infirm humanity : but that we all , may always , and in all things , laud and glorify the most holy name of thee , the infinite iehovah , and creator , through iesus christ , the messiah , our redeemer ; whom to know is life eternal , amen . finis . new observations on the natural history of this world of matter, and this world of life in two parts : being a philosophical discourse, grounded upon the mosaick system of the creation and the flood : to which are added some thoughts concerning paradise, the conflagration by tho. robinson ... robinson, thomas, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) new observations on the natural history of this world of matter, and this world of life in two parts : being a philosophical discourse, grounded upon the mosaick system of the creation and the flood : to which are added some thoughts concerning paradise, the conflagration by tho. robinson ... robinson, thomas, d. . [ ], , [ ] p., folded leaves of plates : ill. printed for john newton ..., london : . errata: p. [ ]. advertisements: p. [ ]-[ ] at end. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . meteorology -- early works to . natural history -- pre-linnean works. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion new observations on the natural history of this world of matter , and this world of life : in two parts . being a philosophical discourse , grounded upon the mosaick system of the creation , and the flood . to which are added some thoughts concerning paradise , the conflagration of the world , and a treatise of meteorology : with occasional remarks upon some late theories , conferences , and essays . by tho. robinson rector of ousby in cumberland . london : printed , for iohn newton at the three pigeons over against the inner-temple-gate in fleet-street , . to the reverend mr. william nicholson arch-deacon of carlisle . reverend sir , i have read over the books you were pleased to lend me , ( viz. ) dr. burnet's theory of the earth , and dr. woodward's essay toward a natural history of it : both which entertain'd me with a great many new and very notable hypotheses , managed with a great deal of art , ingenuity and learning ; but in my opinion very ill grounded ; many of their notions being inconsistent with common sense and experience , with scripture and reason ; especially the mosaick account of the creation , paradise , and the universal deluge ; and in some particulars , dr. woodward seems inconsistent with himself . these following chapters , ( which i make bold to present to your hand , and to give you the trouble of perusing ) will shew you wherein i cannot concur with these great virtuoso's , and why i endeavour to establish a quite different notion of things ; and do ground it upon such philosophical theses , as moses , that great philosopher , has laid down as so many postulata in his short , but most comprehensive system of the creation ; the whole being a short and compendious description of this world of matter , and this world of life wherein we live . sir ; i am so far from being big with a fond concei● of any of these notions , that i dare not trust them in any hands but yours ; for i am unwilling that these papers ( without your approbation and encouragement , ) should go further abroad than your study , lest some ill-natur'd and peevish critick should take occasion to expose the ignorance and disingenuity of their author . i know ( sir ) that the experience you have lately gain'd by searching into those occult regions of matter , being now added to your former speculations about it ; has made you the most capable of determining all differences , and solving the most difficult phaenomena of this kind . if you will be pleas'd therefore to correct with your pen the mistakes you meet with in any of these notions , and let me have your honest and impartial opinion of them , you will further oblige , sir , your most affectionate and humble servant , tho. robinson . to the gentlemen miners . gentlemen , if his observation be true , that no man can lose by the world ; but what he loseth in purse , he gains in experience : you will have no reason to complain , if sometimes your subterranean projects miscarry upon your hand : since that loss may easily be repaired by your experimental knowledge , of those occult regions of matter ; concerning which , the most profound philosopher can give no account , but by way of hypothesis and conjecture . solomon , that great master of experimental knowledge , tells us that wisdom is better than rubies ; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it . and tho' that by wisdom he may mean that divine philosophy which the new testament calls religion ; yet certainly there is nothing contributes more towards making one morally or physically wise , than experience , as he intimates in the following verse , where he brings in wisdom thus speaking : prov. . . i wisdom dwell with prudence , and find out the knowledge of witty inventions . i confess that the theorick part of philosophy ( being the first-born , ) is more noble ; and therefore deservedly sits regent in the superior faculties of the soul : attended with sublime notions and speculations ; and sometimes figments and chimaera's are also her maids of honour . and altho' the practick or experimental part , sits below in humble garb , attended only with mechanick artificers , and manual operators : yet she oftentimes entertains the world with more of certainty , and demonstration than the former . gentlemen , i shall not complement you into a good opinion of these no●ions which i am willing should abide the test of an impartial iudgment ; only i think it may be convenient to let you know that they are the product of years experience and observation ; for so long i have been concerned in the inspection of under-ground works of several kinds . besides the place of my habitation being under crosfell , ( one of the highest mountains in england ) whose lofty top gives a large prospect both of the east and west seas ; i have from thence observed , not only the different classes of matter , the eruption of rapid springs ; but also the rising and falling as well as the rarefaction and condensation of vapours . gentlemen , if the publication of this short treatise ( which i presume to present to your hand , as the most proper patrons of subterranean philosophy ) put you to the charge of an easie purchase , you will certainly have it much cheaper than the author , who shall always remain , gentlemen , d●●●ys , april the . ( . ) your most humble servant and well-wisher , tho. robinson . the preface . if the learned authors of the new theories and essays had but taken the pains to have consider'd better of those great advantages of learning and education which moses ( the greatest philosopher that ever was in the world , and the first describer of its creation ) had beyond any of those learned philosophers of later date , who have writ upon the same subject ; they would have entertain'd a greater veneration and esteem for his short , but most comprehensive system ; than for the larger volumes of those common philosophers and historians whose writings are only the product of their own natural reason ; though set off with the greatest artifice of words , and advantages of human learning . the first progress which this great philosopher made in human learning and wisdom was in pharoah's court , where he had his education , under the tuition of his own daughter , who having no child of her own , design'd to adopt him her son , and make him heir apparent to that crown : to which end he was by her care instructed in all the learning , wisdom , and philosophy of the egyptians : and no doubt but some of the most learned amongst the hierophanthae , who were the most skilled in the knowledge of mystical as well as natural philosophy , were his tutors . he being thus qualified with the best learning egypt could then afford , the second improvement he made was in the family of his kinsman iethro , who being as well a priest as prince of midian , did not only discipline him in all the rules of policy , conduct , and government ; by which he was fitted and prepar'd for being captain general of that mighty host of the hebrews , which god design'd to deliver from the egyptian yoak , and under his conduct to settle in canaan ; but also he was instructed by him in the religion of his ancestors , the patriarchal traditions concerning the creation of the world , the beginnings of things , and the genealogies of men ▪ which being best known to adam , who coming immediately out of god's hand , did undoubtedly deliver it to his son seth , seth to enos , and so from father to son , to abraham , from whom iethro descended by a second marriage . during his time of residence in midian , which was forty years , and most of that time being spent in contemplation : it s generally believed he wrote this system of the creation , with the rest of his book called genesis , by the assistance and direction of his father-in-law , who could not be ignorant of the patriarchal traditions ; himself being descended from a patriarch of special note . after these gradations and improvements in all kinds of humane learning , wisdom and philosophy , god took him into his own service , and was pleased by a sort of per●onal communication to impart to him as well the manner how all things began to exist , as how the manners of mankind were to be exercised ; so that he may be reasonably supposed to found the authority of his writings , as well as of his government over god's people , upon divine revelation . in this most excellen● system , philosophy , divinity and mystery seem to be so closely interwoven that it wou'd be a matter of great difficulty ( if not impossibility ) for any , unless such as are well skill'd in the cabalistical traditions and mythology , to unravel the contexture and distinguish its parts . and some of the most learned rabbies are of opinion that god directed moses , and the rest of the holy pen-men , frequently to make use of metaphors , allegories , and other sche matical forms , which must needs be attended with some darkness and obscurity ( these being as it were a veil drawn over the face of divine truth ) and this might occasion solomon to joyn the words of the wise , and their dark sayings together . and this was not only the practice of the sacred writers ; but of the learned heathens , especially their priests and philosophers ; who undoubtedly did imitate moses herein : but for different ends and purposes ; for it did highly concern the pagan priests to hide and conceal their mysteries from the light ; which like bastard eagles would not endure the tryal of it . but the holy spirit might direct the holy pen-men to observe their style for reasons of greater and more weighty moment . for the divine wisdom might see it fit in the infancy of the world , to discover his will and mind in some things very suitable to the capacities of the men of that age : and to reserve other things of great moment veil'd under allegories , and mystical expressions until the minds of men were more opened and enlarged ; for discovering of those brighter beams of divine truth . yet that the glories that were after to appear might not be wholly clouded ; he order'd it so , that such a thin veil shou'd be drawn over the matter , as shou'd not more set off the beauty , than stir men up to a diligent search after those divine truths . if then a modest attempt be made to ground a philosophical discourse upon some of these veiled mysteries , with submission to men of greater learning , and better skill'd in mystical philosophy : i presume that it will not be judg'd an effect either of pride or vain-glory. preliminary postulata . i know that it 's much out of fashion to beg principles in this philosophizing age ; yet considering that this schematical account which moses has given of the creation is as well philosophical and mystical , as historical and ad hominem , i presume that these following postulata , being grounded upon such reason , as cannot be denyed , will easily be granted me ; as first — that this natural world was created in a natural way , by the agency of second causes ; god almighty concurring with them by his direction and approbation in these words ( he saw that it was good . ) that the work of the creation cou'd not , in a natural way , be compleated in so short a time as six days ; for as it cannot be easily imagined that all the solid strata and beds of iron cou'd be digested into such good order , as we find them in ; and receive their several degrees of consolidation in that time : neither can it be suppos'd that all these different natures in the vegetative and animal sphere of life shou'd grow up to such a degree of perfection , that adam cou'd eat ripe fruit in paradise of six days production : and that all the beasts of later birth cou'd in that time get strength to appear before him . it may then be taken for a granted principle , that by the six days work is meant the six distinct productions ; and by the evening , and the morning , is meant the principles of activity and passivity , which were the instrumental causes of these productions . that paradise in a literal sense may signify a local place or garden of pleasure , in a philosophical sense all those rational and sensual pleasures our natures are capable of in this material world : in a mystical sense it signifies heaven , or those intellectual pleasures our natures shall be capable of when they are spiritualiz'd and exalted . that adam and eve in a literal sense signify the first individual persons that were of that species . in a philosophical sense , they signify a generation of men , and w●men ; in a mystical sense , they signify reason and sense , or the superior , and inferior faculties of the soul. that by the serpent in a literal sense is signified a subtile insinuating brute , whose speckled skin ( being beautified with all the variety of natural paint ) made it a fit object to work upon the visive f●culty ; in a philosophical sense , it may signifie natural concupiscence : and , in a mystical sense , it may signifie the devil . by the tree of life , in a literal sense , may be signified an individual tree producing fruit , and preserving life . by the tree of knowledg in a literal sense , may be understood a tree bearing fruit of a poisonous quality , and destructive of life ; in a philosophical sense they may signifie the whole species of vegetables , both of a wholesome and poisonous nature ; in a mystical sense they may denote eternal life and eternal death . adam's giving of names to the beasts signifies the exercise of his natural reason , by distinguishing of their natures . lastly , by eve's eating of the forbidden fruit , may be understood the desire of natural concupiscence ; to gratifie her senses with their beloved objects . advertisement with additional remarks . since the writing of the following discourse , a new theory of the earth hath been publish'd by a thoughtful young divine , who agrees in some notions with me ; this therefore is to assure the reader , that my manuscript laid all the last winter in london , and was printed off before i had a sight of the aforesaid book , which several of my friends can testifie ( if there should be occasion ) thro' whose hands these papers have passed . another thing ought to be taken notice of , and that is my referring several hypotheses and observations to a late writer ( a fault which mr. whiston hath committed up and down his book ) who it seems hath taken them from others ; which i accidentally discover'd by falling upon the monthly miscellany letters , vol. . numb . . pag. , . vol. . numb . . pag. . to . as also the philosophical transactions of the royal society . numb . . from p. . to . of which 't is but just to give some instances ; for a tender regard ought to be had for the o●iginal inventors of things , who ought not to be robb'd of the fruits of their labours and studies by pyratical rovers , who set up for stupendous and miraculous discoverers . turn to this essay , pag. . the origine of mountains from the disruptions and changes of the strata of the earth was steno's opinion . see his prodrom to a dissertation concerning the changes of the earth . pag. . , , . the same steno , in his prod. places about the central fire of the earth , a huge sphere or abyss of waters ; which , according to him , supplies the earth with springs , the air with vapo●rs , and was sufficient for the general deluge , when by the force of the subterraneous fires , it was thrust and forc●d up , whereby the globe was broken to pieces , and dissolv'd in the vast ●luid . pag. . . the perpendicular and horizontal fissures of the earth , dividing the strata or beds of sediments , are with great care and accuracy delineated and described by dr. steno in his prodrom , and many other phenomen● relating to the history of the earth , are explain'd at the end of his anatom . canis carchar . in his specim . myolog . pag , , , . the resetling or subsiding of bodies , as well terrestrial as marine ( dissolv'd or mix'd with the waters of the deluge ) according to the laws of specifick gravity in their several strata or beds of stone , sand , clay , ma●le , slate , lime , chalk , &c. was publish'd above years ago , by nicholas steno , and agostino scilla ; if the ●oremention'd accounts in the monthly miscellan . letters , and the philosophical tra●●●●●●ons ar● to be rely'd upon ; the books thems●lves being not to be come at in a remote province . this stenoni●n hypothesis of the formation of the * present earth out of the several beds or sediments of matter mix'd with , and sinking down from the waters of the general flood according to the affinity and weight of parts is much oppos'd by a late author of two essays from oxford , who cannot believe the deluge to have been universal , nor the whole earth planted with animals from noah's ark , whose arguments i do not approve of , being inconsistent with true philosophy , and divinity : neither is dr. nichol's second creation of animals after the flood to be allow'd of , being contrary to the design of noah's ark , and to the whole mosaick narration . as to my opinion concerning the origine of fossil shell● , of form'd stones , and subterraneous plants ; scilla himself , tho he with s●eno has taken great pains to prove them to be the exuviae or spoils of animals and vegetables ( from the similitudes of their parts in every particular ) and to be the remains of the deluge subsided and lodg'd in several beds , layers , or sediments ; yet i find by dr. lister , that scilla own'd some sorts of them to be of another original , and the learned dr. himself proves beyond all contradiction , that real perfect shells are ●requently found in the bladder , kidneys , imposthumes , and other cells of animal bodies ; and if so , why need we force them into the midst of quarries and rocks by dissolving the whole frame of nature for their sakes ? if true shells can be form'd within stones of the bladder , and in many other parts of the bodies of creatures ; then by the same argument a million may be form'd in the bowels of the greater world , every ways resembling those of the sea , in striae , lamellae , fasciae , tendons , threds , &c. so that they might perswade steno , dr. hook , boccone , scilla , columna , and mr. ray , that they were really the very same , owing their original to the flood , or chaos , or earthquakes . my hypothesis concerning the generations of several animals is much confirm'd by the learned and experienced father buonani in his late observations circa viventia in non viventibus rep●rta ; who maintains equivocal generation from many clear and undoubted proofs . for , pag. . to pag. . compare huetius and bochart de paradiso . pag. , . some great natural philosophers will have the ignes fatui to be flying gloworms , or some other shining insects . pag. . see more of the figures and phenomena of snow and hail in barthol . de nive , hook's micrography , boyle of cold , marten's greenland voyage , lewenho●ck's letters . as for mr. whiston's new theory , i am afraid it will be found altogether inconsistént with the mosaick history , being adapted only to the formation of our little globe , without taking in the heavens ( which moses is particular in ) and depending too much upon mechanical & necessary laws ( as several other late theorys and hypotheses do ) whereby the flood and conflagration might be brought to pass without any relation to the fall of man or sin. for comets and eruptions of boyling abysses may frequently destroy our globe , by such chains of natural causes ; comets by the laws of trajection may dash and drown us with their tails , and the central fire may drive up the vast abyss upon us , whether we sin or no ; these phenomena may befall the moon and all the planets , without any respect to inhabitants , and may happen frequently by such concourses and links of mechanism , and by the ordinary laws of motion . therefore we ought to be cautious of making such grand revolutions to rowl upon machines , as well as on the other hand of coining new miracles and second creations without any warrant from scripture ; of the first i am afraid the ingenious mr. whiston is too guilty ; and of the latter the learned dr. nichols . but considering we are in a country of liberty , and in an age of thought and observation , i can easily pardon the freedom they are pleas'd to take in their studies and enquiries . having lately met with an accurate discourse of bernardini ramazzini , printed years ago in quarto , concerning the subterraneous waters , the several layers or beds of earth upon deep diggings , the fossil shells , bones , vegetables , pavements , &c. as also upon inundations , and deluges , with their effects , i thought fit here to acknowledg the many obligations we owe to that inquisitive physician for his various observations on the changes of the earth about the territory of modena , which are equally commendable with those of columna upon apulia ; dr. hooke , mr. ray , dr. plot , and dr. lister upon england ▪ steno upon tuscany ; scilla and boccone upon sicily and malta ; to whose discoveries little hath been added as yet , notwithstanding the high and mighty pretences of a late author ; who , in an essay toward a natural history of the earth , pag. . throws dirt upon those very gentlemen , from whose writings he hath made bold to borrow the best part of the observations in his work : 't is also remarkable , how , pag. , , , , , . he falls foul upon a very famous and reverend divine for taking the same philosophick liberty , which he himself assumes in many places of his essay . as for his darling notion ( though none of his own ) of specifick gravity , 't is notoriously false in fact and nature , for the strata , layers , or bed● of sediments ( out of which steno , scill● , grandius , ramazzini , and others , will have the earth made up ) do not lie according to their different weights , or according to the statick laws of descent of solids in fluids ; for the strata of marble , and other stone , of lead , and other metals , lye often near the top or superficies , having many lighter strata under them ; and if all the strata thro the whole globe could possibly be viewed and examined , i am confident the respective order of specifick gravity would not hold in any two together ; and who can fancy , that the parts of ferns , mosses , and other plants , of shells , teeth , and other bones , should equiponderate with those of metallick fossils ; nay , oftentimes subside below them ; and whoever views the dimensions , weight , figure , and place of those vast natural columns , call'd the devil 's causy in ireland , will be soon convinced of the weakness of this hypothesis . their origine therefore must be accounted for some other way than what colu●na , steno , scilla , boccone , grandius , and others copying after them , have deliver'd concerning the deluge and inundations , strata , crusts or sediments according to the laws of specifick gravity ; neither are the many phenomena relating to their situation , explicable by any theories of the earth as yet publish'd ; i know not what dr. hooke may do when he comes to print his lectures upon this subject , which the virtuosi expect , and very earnestly crave of him : much also may be perform'd by the learned mr. edward lhwyd , keeper of the oxford museum , who hath been very diligent and accurate in his observations on these bodies , and whose candor and modesty , joyned with his exquisite judgment , render him capable of such an undertaking . as to the origine of subterraneous plants , either digg'd out of earthen beds , or lodged within stony substances , or else impress'd upon them , which steno in his prodroms ( translated by mr. oldenburgh ) pag. , , . will needs derive the same way with those of shells , teeth , bones , and other parts of animals , buried in the like strata or sediments of the deluge ; mr. lhwy'd of oxford has rais'd many invincible objections against this stenonian hypothesis in the last edition of camden's britannia , p●g . , . and mr. ray in his second preface to the synopsis of british plants ▪ argues very philosophically against this opinion , reviv'd of late with great assurance , and in a positive manner ; but mr. whiston hath done very wisely in taking no notice of the many insuperable difficulties which have been u●g'd against the bringing in of these bodi●s , and the forming our present crusts and layers of earth , out of a general deluge . he hath saved himself much swea● and pains in having recourse only to two or three late books , and in consulting copies instead of originals , which would have given more strength and beauty to his work , and would have look't more masterly ; however the gentleman hath perform●d very well in the main , and hath shewn a profound and clear knowledge in physical science , though not in the history of learning , nor in that of nature . hi● conjectures are admirable , but his quotations and references are not co●mendable , being injurious to those eminent philosophers who were the first i●ventors , and yet passed over in silence , as though there had been no such writers ; many of their observations being attributed by the author of the new theory to one of his own acquaintance , who may do as much for him another time ; but i would not willingly accuse mr. whiston of any ungenerous dealing , having discover'd a noble genius in the formation of his system ; and therefore i conclude with respect to him , and with charity to all mankind . the contents of the first part. chap. . the philosophical meaning of these words ( in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth , ) and what may be concluded from them . chap. . of god the supream and effici●nt cause ; and why moses proves not the being of a god expresly by way o● argument ; ●ut implicitly by describing of the several degrees of perfection , and the subordinations of life . chap. . of the creation of second causes , and the manner of their production , and ways of working . chap. . of light and darkness , the common principles of mix'd bodies , what they were in mass ; and how their division made the first production . chap. . of light the formal cause of all mix'd productions ; what it was whilst in mass. chap. . of darkness , the material cause of all mix'd productions ; what it was in mass , how it was redu●'d into form : of the power of matter and motion : of sympathy and antipathy . chap. . of the spirit of god moving upon the face of the waters , what is philosophically meant by it : of the ●irst division of the waters , and the clearing of the sublunary firmament . chap. . the division of the lower waters into subterranean , superterr●nean , and nubiferous , and by what gradations the dry land appear'd . chap. . of the primeval or antediluvian figure o● the earth . chap. . of the constituent p●rts o● the earth ; and ●irst of the volatile part of it , or the central fire , its natural vses . chap. . of the sixt part of the earth : and first of the inequality of its surface ; their natural causes and vses . chap. . of mountains , their original cause , consistences , and natural vses ; being the first dry land that appear'd . chap. . of mountain heaths , &c. chap. . o● the plains and valleys , &c. chap. . of the channel of the sea , &c. chap. . of the ●luid part of this terraqueous globe ; and ●irst of the sea , &c. chap. . of those preternatural accident● that disturb and interrupt the course of nature in this material world , &c. chap. . of the central damps : their causes , natures , and dreadful effects upon this globe . c●ap . . of terrene damps , and their dreadful effects upon this globe , &c. chap. . of noah's flood , its causes , the season of the year when it happen'd , the effects and alterations it made upon the earth . chap. . of the season of the year when the deluge happen'd . chap. . of the alterations which noah's flood made in , and upon the earth . the contents of the second part. chap. . of the plastick spirit in matter , and its natural products . chap. . of the grand cover of the earth , the sympathetical vnion of the plastick and vivisick spirit ; and the production of vegetables , the first and lowest degree of life . chap. . of reducing the confus'd mass of light or the etherial flame into a body , which made the sun ; of reducing those lighter fogs and wa●erish mists into a body , which made the moon ; how by clearing of the superlunary firmament , or the planetary spheres , the stars appear'd , and what the sun , moon , and stars contribute towards the production of sensitive or locomotive animals , and why the creation of these second causes made the fourth production . chap. . of the production of the second degree of life , and first of oviparous animals , as fish and waterish insects . chap. . of the second genus o● oviparous animals , viz. the aerial : and first of fly-insects , secondly of serpents , thirdly of birds , and why moses makes the waterish and aerial animals congenial . chap. . of the terrene , or viviparous animals . chap. . of the creation of man , the sixth production . the conclusion : wherein is shewn the meaning and signisicancy of these words . and god saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good . a discourse concerning the terrestrial paradise , shewing how adam was introduced into it : the time he continued in it , and how he and eve employed that time. a discourse concerning the conflagration of this material world ; the local hell ; its outmost boundaries , or abraham's gulph . a short treatise of meteorology , with some observations concerning the changes and alterations of the weather . chap. . of vapour●●nd exhalations , &c. chap. . of the efficient causes o● all meteors , and first of heat . chap. . of cold , the other efficient cause of meteors . chap. . of the air , or medium wherein all meteors are generated . chap. . of fiery meteors , &c. chap. . of comets , &c. chap. . of thunder , its causes and effects . chap. . of vaporous meteors , and first of dews and hoar frosts . chap. . of rain , hail , and snow . chap. . o● hail and snow , with observations . chap. . of frost and thaw . chap. . o● the sphere of rarefaction . chap. . of wind , helms , and arches . chap. . prognostications of the change and alteration of weather , from the setting and rising of the sun. the author living at a great distance from the press , desires the reader ●o p●●don those following mistake● . page . line . read further , p. . l. . r. philosophically , p. . l. . r. anteperistatical , p. . l. . r. nutritius , p. . l. . r. fluidity , p. l. . r. nature , p. . l. . r. sublunary , p. . l. . r. litoral●s , p. ● . l. . r. assimilation , p. . l. . r. learned , p. . l. . r. zodiack ▪ a scheme wherein the several phaenomena of this terraqueous globe are explained . abcdefg a the central fire disseminating a vital heat , through the whole cortex or shel of the globe . b the mountains ●rom the centre to the surface . c heaths . d plains . e the channel of the sea. the flatt strata or beds of matter , with their acclivities to the ●ountains and declivities to the seas together with their elevations and depressions : thus described the winding and turnings of the greater veins , dividing the several classes of matter described thus through which the whole mass of s●●terranean water circulates . their lesser fibres , or rami factions ▪ filling all the flat strata with feeders of water , which breaking out upon the surface of the earth cause spring &c. described thus ▪ f the seas with the rivers flowing into them from the tops of the mountains swelling them into a ci●bosity ; and causing in them a continual fermentation . g vapors arising from the seas , which being attracted by the coldness of the mountains , fixeth there : forming an atmosphere round the whole globe . part . i. chap. i. ●he philosophical meaning of these words [ in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth , ] and what may be concluded from them . moses in his philosophical description of the creation , lays it down as a granted principle or a grand thesis , ●●at the heavens and the earth , with 〈◊〉 their parts , furniture and variety 〈◊〉 natures contained in them , were ●●eated [ de novo ] and that god the ●●pream being un-created , and inde●endent , almighty in power , and in●●nite in wisdom and all perfections , ●as the efficient cause : that the time when the world was created , was in the beginning of time ; or when time first began to have a being ; for before the world was created there was duration , or stabilis aeternitas [ as the schoolmen express it ] but time being an equal mensuration of motion , it and motion began together . from this grand thesis we may conclude , first against aristotle , who endeavour'd by many arguments to prove that the world , as it now stands in matter and form , was eternal ; which hypothesis advanceth the world into an equality with god ; makes it its own efficient cause , uncreated and independent . in the second place this mosaick thesis concludes against plato and his followers ; who , tho' he did positively assert , that god made the world ; yet he did conceive that the matter on which it did consist was eternal and pre-existent : by which hypothesis he concludes god to be an impotent cause , not able to create the world without matter and stuff to work upon . these mistaken principles in philososophy were occasion'd from the observation of the regular course of nature ; not considering that there might be other causes which might produce effects in an other way than cou'd ever come within the compass of their narrow observation ; for how spiritual causes produce their effects , its impossible for us whilst we continu● in this dark state of matter ; wherein we have but a very short and narrow prospect to understand . in the third place it concludes against democritus and his followers , who did not only conceit that matter was eternal and pre-existent ; but that the world had no efficient cause , but what was from chance , or the casual motion of matter ; which consisting of infinite numbers of atoms or little corpuscles of different figures , natures and qualities , which rainged about in a vast and infinite space ; until at the last by divisions , separations and mixtures occasioned by their contrary and mixt qualities , and the innate power of sympathy and antipathy , they at last setled into the form and figure of this world , which it can no more alter or vary from , than the active fire be taught to change its nature , and descend and gravation to ascend and fly upward . no doubt but this hypothesis wa● grounded upon an experimental observation of the several kinds of matter of different natures , which being mixt together in a glass , or any transparent vessel , will separate and divide themselves proprio m●tu ; tho never so jumbled and mix'd together . i shall not in this place sh●w you the absurdity of this hypoth●sis ; but rather chuse in the following chapters to give some account what feats , matter and motion will produce by vertue of their contrary qualities , and the power of sympathy and antipathy ; and how far god almighty might make u●e of th●se towards the forming the materrial part of this world. we may hence farther conclude , that although neither the world as it stands , nor the matter on which it consists did pre-exis● ; yet it was an immediate consequent of eternity , and the natural product of the divine essence , and attributes ( viz. ) power , wisdom , and goodness , according to that model and idea pre-conceiv'd in the divine understanding : for it cannot be imagin'd that th● divine essence wou'd for some time sit still , and wrap up it's self in sloth and idleness ; but did always display its self in a vigorous activity . besides the natural tendency of infinite power , is action ; of infinite wisdom is counsel ; of infinite goodness is beneficence : we cannot therefore but conclude from these natural arguments , that god would from all eternity follow the inclinations of his own divine perfections . from this grand thesis we may yet futher conclude , that this universal fabrick of the world was not created at one stroke , by an imperious f●at ; for tho this might have been consistent with infinite power ; yet it would not have been agreeable with infinite wisdom , which consists in deliberation , counsel and contrivance . moses therefore tells us that god first created the heavens , and then the earth : like as some mighty monarch designing to build a spacious and most glorious palace , first forms the model of it in his mind ; and having prepar'd his materials , sets on work his under-agents , who first of all lay the foundations , and compleat his own royal apartments , then the apartments of his chief ministers of state , after that chambers for his domesticks , and last of all lodgings for his out servants ; and the work being finish'd , according to the model which he gave his architects to work by , he gives it his approbation . in like manner , the great and almighty monarch of the universe may be supposed , first to have laid the foundations of those super-coelestial regions of unaccessable light , the royal chambers of his own most glorious presence ; where he sits in great majesty attended with an innumerable retinue of the most noble angels his courtiers : after these he creates the highest of the coelestial spheres , in which he placed thousands of royal mansions , where the arch-angels and brighter cherubins , the chief ministers of state in that coelestial kingdom keep their residence : and these are the morning stars which iob tells us [ by way of synecdoche ] that met together , and the sons of god that did shout for joy . after these god created the inner or lower spheres , in which he placed innumerable numbers of bright , lucid and aetherial globes ; wherein the inferior angels and domestick officers do inhabit , and these the scripture stiles ministring spirits . and these differ in office , power and light , as they are placed in spheres nearer , or at a distance from the regions of light : for as one star differeth from another star in glory , light , purity and magnitude ; so do their heavenly inhabitants : and so shall it be in the resurrection from the dead ; for as men improve here in vertue , goodness and the divine life and light , so shall they be placed nearer , or at a distance from god , the fountain of life and light. after the finishing of these inner courts of this royal palace , last of all god created this material globe or outer court ; and made it the center of the universe : and it 's built of the rubbidge , dross and sediment of the whole creation , and inhabited with the meanest of creatures , and lowest degree of life and perfection , which may most properly be called god's out servants ; over which he has placed man deputy lord governour . this material globe , tho it appears in its own dimensions to be o● great magnitude to us ( who bear not so much proportion to it , as a mole-hill does to the greatest mountain ) yet being compared to the whole universe [ if the computation of the best philosophers be true ] it will scarce bear proportion to the ninety six thousand part of it . it cannot therefore be imagined that the wise creator [ who never made any thing in vain , but to the best end● and wisest purposes● ] should be so fond of a piece of dull stupid matter , as to create all those innumerable numbers of bright , lucid , aetherial globe● ( the least of which exceeding this mole-hill in magnitude by several diameters ) for no other end or purpose than distinguishing of days , months , seasons and years ; and for casting a dark glimmering light to us poor mortals . as god almighty finished any part of the creation , he gave it a motion , and this motion it performs naturally and insensibly , without labour or difficulty ; as our blood circulates through our veins and our vital spirits glide in the nerves through the whole body . the almighty having now finished the creation which made up but one royal palace , containing in it innumerable mansions , fit for the subjects of so great a monarch to live in : he sits at the helm of this floating universe , and steers all its motion● with a steddy and unerring hand . and it can be no more labour to god to govern and actuate this world ; who as an universal soul is diffu●'d in it , and is vitally present in every part of it , than for a man 's rational soul by will and cogitation , to move a finger or a toe , or any other part of his body ; tho at the greatest distance from its seat. chap. ii. of god the supream and efficient cause ; and why moses proves not the being of a god expresly by way of argument ; but implicitly by describing of the several degrees of perfection , and the subordination● of life . when moses writ this excellent system of the creation , politheism and idolatry had prevailed over the generality of mankind , and abraham's posterity were become worshippers of egyptian gods , as appears by their making of a molten calf at horeb. yet notwithstanding this multitude of inferior deities which the world had set up for divine worship ; the generality of mankind did universally believe , that there was one supreme god , who was the efficient cause and almighty creator of this world , consisting of the heavens and the earth : and that this god was the father and governour of all the rest . the philosopher might therefore justly conclude it superfluous to prove by strength of argument a tenet , or rather an article of faith ; to which the common suffrage of mankind did so universally consent and agree : and if it be suppos'd that moses writ this system of the creation , with the rest of his book , which gives an account of the patriarchal genealogies , on purpose for the benefit and instruction of the israelites ; who in all probability could not but be ignorant of the traditions and religion of their ancestors : [ the ●pse dixit ] of so great a philosopher ; a man so eminent for these mighty and unparallel'd miracles and wonders , which th' almighty wrought by his hand upon egypt before their eyes ; were sufficient to convince them , not only of a bare credibility ; but of the truth and certainty of this divine thesus , that there was a god , and that he created the heavens and the earth . but as god did not limit and consine his favours wholly to abraham's posterity ; but extends them to the universal body of mankind : so notwithstanding that moses wri● these books for the instruction of that people in the first place , he undoubtedly de●●gn'd them for the information of others living in a state of ignorance : and therefore although he does no● expresly by way of argument prove the being of a god , and that he wa● the supreme cause of the world's creation [ atheism being not then heard of in the world ] yet he does it implicitly by describing of those several degrees and subordinations of life in the world ; and by shewing how eve●y inferior rank of creatures is subservient to its superior ; and how every inferior species is concatenated and link'd to its superior by intermediates , all which is so visible and obvious in the frame of the world , that an easie philosopher without any great difficulty , or hard study may ascend gradatim , first from those common minerals of salt , sulphur and mercury , to the several degrees and kinds of oars and metals ; from these to the fertile soil : from it to the several degrees of life and perfection in vegetables , as grass , herbs , plants , shrubs , trees , &c. and from these to the zoophyta or plant-animals , which concatenates the highest degree of vegetation to the lowest degree of sensation ; from the several degrees of sensation in brutal animals , to man which is an intermediate animal , that links and couples heaven and eearth together ; from man to t●e several degrees of light , life and perfection in the angelick nature ; and from the intellectual nature , to god the fountain of light , life and perfection ; who , as an universal soul , actuates the whole world , by giving of the several degrees of life and perfection to all the creatures in the animal world , as they are plac'd in orbs or spheres nearer or at a greater distanc● from his divine essen●e . thus in god all creatures live , move , and have their beings , and by these gradations we may either ascend up to heaven , where god almighty resides in infinite glory and perfectio● , or from thence descend to the hidden and dark regions of matter . chap. iii. of the creation of second causes , and the manner of their producton ; and ways of working . the grand reason why plato and aristotle , and ●he rest of the natural philosophers did assume it as a granted principle , that nothing wa● made out of nothing ; and that every thing produced , had necessarily some pre-existent matter out of which it was so formed ; was [ as i have already hinted ] because they cou'd not observe in the ordinary course of nature any thing produced de novo ; therefore ●hey concluded it impossible that any such production cou'd ever be , or ●appen in nature : but from particular experiments or observations to establish a general conclusion ; especially concerning the impossibility of any thing 's existence , is no regular and warrantable way of argumentation ; for there may be agents of another sort , and powers which can produce effects in another way , than cou'd ever come within the compass of our observation ; for we see , and cannot but make it an observation , that one sensitive animal by the power of sensation can do more , and produce greater effects , than all the vegetables can produce by the power and strength of vegetation . and one man by the power of his natural reason can produce more noble effects , than all the brute animals by the strength of sensation ; so one angel by the power and vigour of his spiritual and intellectual natures , can produce effects more great and wonderful , than all the men in the world can by the power of reason , tho' never so exalted and sublimated ; for we read in kings . chap. and . verse that an angel in one night went out and smote in the camp of th' assyrians one hundred and fourscore and five thous●nd ; but how or by what means this angelick , power was exercised it is not within the compass of shallow reason to conceive : yet we may reasonably conclude from it , that if an angel , by the power of his intellectual nature , can do more than a●l the men in the world ; so god almighty by his divine essence can produce greater and far more wonderful effects than the whole angelick nature ; even such as is impossible either for us , or them to understand . but moses having , to hi● great improvements in natural philosophy , the advan●ages of the patriarchal tradition● , and a divine revelation ; and being best acquainted with god almighty's power in producing effects ; doth not only positively asser● , that god was the maker and builder o● this world ; but that he created i● and the matter on which it doth consist , out o● nothing , and that by uttering of tha● almighty word [ s●at ] not audibly , for then there was no sensible auditor in being ; but mentally , that is , by an act of volition ; sic volo sic ●ubeo being o●ly a prerogative of almigh●y power . the second causes which this almigh●y power created out of nothing , and which he made use of as instrumental i● all productions of a mixt constitution , may be considered either as they are essential or accidental . the essential causes were light and darkness ; the external and accidental causes were motion , time , and place ; without which all natural productions are physically impossible . god having created these second causes by another imperious vvord , set them on working ; and he gave them also a rule or model to work by , which is most commonly called the course of nature ; and when these new agents had produced any effect , he view'd it , and gave it his divine approbation , in these words ; god saw that it was good ( i.e. ) that it was agreeable with that rule and model he had given them to work by ; which words , tho' they be spoken ad hominem , yet undoubtedly moses intended by them to instruct and inform mankind , that the world was not made by chance , or the casual motion of blind atoms , as some since have atheistically asserted ; but by wisdom , councel and deliberation . and this establish'd course of nature , or these laws and rules which the divine wisdom gave to the second causes to work by , he never interrupts or varies from ; but upon great and extraordinary occasions , when he is pleas'd to give some demonstrations , of his almighty power and universal providence by which he governs the world at his will and pleasure ; then he can either divert the natural causes from their usual course , or by them produce supernatural effects ; as the destruction of sodom and gomorrah by extraordinary thunder and lightning ▪ the destruction of all living creatures upon the face of the earth by an universal deluge ; or he can stop them in their natural course , as when he caus'd the sea to divide and stand still , and the sun to move backwards . chap. iv. of light and darkness , the common principles of mix'd bodies , what they were in mass ; and how thei● division made the first production . all the natural philosophers wanting the assistance of a divine revelation , did agree in this ; that there cou'd be no production of a mixt constitution , without a sympathetical union of an active and passive principle ; but what these principles of activity and passivity were , they could not easily determine . these our great philosopher expresseth by the names of light and darkness ; which when they came immediately out of gods hand , were bound up and hamper'd in one confus'd mass ; which might fitly be compar'd to a dark and palpable mist , like the aegyptian darkness which was to be felt , in which vast fog or mist were bound ●p , and smother'd those bright , lucid and active particles of pure and volatile aether , as we see light inclos'd within the walls of a dark lan●horn ; or the active particles of fire when smother'd in ashes , or imprison'd within the dark body of matter . thus darkness was upon the face of this thick mist or fog of matter , until god by another almighty fiat created motion ; which being infus'd into the stagnating mist of matter , the whole mass of it was put into a fermentation and motion ; and whilst the contrary q●alities were acting their antipathies one upon another , these nimble and active particles of lucid aether [ being the most volatile ] broke through this dark mass of matter , and uniting themselves , caus'd a bright shining light , which moses calls day : and this division of light from darkness , occasion'd by the putting of the whole mass of matter into a fermentation and motion , made the first production . chap. v. of light , the formal cause of all mixt productions , what it was whilst in mass. by light is to be understood that vast aetherial flame , which whilst ●t was in mass diffus'd its bright shining rays , not only through the material regions , but the planetary and coelestial spheres : this aetherial flame was the anima mundi , the vehicle of life , wherein was contain'd the seminal and specifick forms of all sublunary creatures , [ man o●ly ●xcepted ] and then da●c'd about the passive matter , like a●oms in the morning sun beams ; until its prolifick slime , by vertue of its plastick power was modifi'd and pr●par'd for receiving of life . and this seems to be the sense and philosophical meaning of moses in the second chapter of genesis , verse the fifth ; god made every plant of the field before it was in the earth , and every herb of the field before it grew ; meaning only their seminal and specifick forms which were contain'd in a vehicle of light , before they were united to their material vehicles . thus light according to the mosaick principles of natural philosophy , became the formal cause or the male parent of all mixt productions . chap. vi. of darkness , the material cause of all mixt productions ; what it was in mass , how it was reduc'd into form : of the power of matter and motion : of sympathy and antiphathy . by darkness , the other principle , or material cause of generation , is not meant a bare p●ivation of light ; but that vast mist , or dark fog of matter consisting of infinite numbers of particles or little corpuscles of different figures , and contrary qualities , which by reason of a principle of motion infus'd into it , run a reel in a dark confusion until these contrary q●alities of heat and cold , siccity and humidity , gravitation and levity , falling out among 'em selves begun to act their antipa●hies upon one another ; which causing them to separate and divide , those of the same kindred and affini●y , by the power of a s●cret and innate sympathy drew together and united . and first of all , these particle● of matter , which were of a hot and volatile nature , being most active and vigorous , plac'd themselves in the centre or middle , as we observe 'em always to do in s●acks of hay , corn or other composi●ions of mixt matters , wherein there is a strife or contest between those contrary qualities of heat and cold , siccity and humidity . and these hot and siery pa●ticles having by their natural tendency taken possession of the centre , began immediately to ●ct their antipathy upon those particles of matter that were of a cold and waterish substance ; forcing them to fly to the circumfe●●nce , and to range about in thick fogs and waterish mists ; filling up not only that vast expansion between the superficies of the ea●th and the moons vortex ; but all ●he planetary spheres . during which contest between heat and cold , fi●e and water , the intermediate matter of a mixt nature , neither ●imply hot nor cold ; but participa●ing of both natures ( viz. ) such as were of an unctious , pinguid , bituminous and terrene quality , se●led themselves in a midle sphere . and every class of matter of the same kind and species , the better to secure it ●elf from intermixing with the matter of a different nature , did inclose it self with great dykes or partitions , consisting of excrementitious , confu●'d and undigested matter ; and the natural position of these being rake-wise from the surface towards the centre , they most properly may be esteem'd the greater joynts of the earth . and as these divide the several kinds of matter , so they preserve the several feeders and mineral waters from intermixing , as will be more largely shewn ; when we shall have occasion to discourse of dykes , rakes , veins , strings , riders , &c. the confus'd m●ss of mixt matter being thus red●c'd to several classes and a regular ●orm ; every class leading to some proper mine or mineral , which is the siner and better digested part of that class ; as coal , rudle , iron and the several kinds of ore ; and these all lay in lax and ●luid strat● or beds , like the loose leaves in an unpres●'d volume or book , or like the weak joynts in a newly conceiv'd embrio , enclos'd in a bag of water in the womb of its pregnant mother . chap. vii . of the spirit of god moving upon the face of the waters , what is pholosophically meant by it : of the first division of the waters , and the clearing of the sublunary firmament . the whole mass of terren● matter being thus far reduc'd into form and order ; [ not according to the laws of gravity , the heaviest subsiding first in order and falling lowest , as dr. woodward conceives , which mistake in observation will be made apparent in its proper place ] [ but by motion of consent , suitability of natures , and an agreeable juxta-position of parts . ] the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters , which words , if we consider 'em under a philoso●●ical notion , may be understood o● the aetherial flame , which moving upon those waterish fogs and mists , rarifi'd the more subtile and t●nuious parts or fumes of it into a brisk gale of cold condensing wind ; which did not only clear up the sublunary firmament by dividing of those fogs into sublunary and superlunary waters ; but by condensing the sublunary fogs and mists into a vast body of water , it cover'd and surrounded the whole body of terrene matter ; and as the waters sank down towards the centre , they press'd together the several strata or layers of stones , mines , minerals and other subterrene earths , as we press together the leaves of a large volume ; and in our sinking and digging into the body of the earth , we find them lying upon fla●s with a dibb and rise , the rise towards the tops of mountains , and the dibb towards the main ocean ; as the waters left them and forc'd them up , when they drew down into their proper channel . the whole mass of terrene matter being thus compact and cemented together by the pressures of the circumambient ambient waters , as we press brick and tyle in their several moulds ; the central ●ire did by its heat bake and consolidate those stones , metals , mines and minerals that were of a fiery nature , as well as those of an unctuous and pinguid quality , into their several degrees of consolidation and induration ; whilst the anteperistical cold , together with those petrifying juices of salt and nitre which then did abound in all the lax and undigested strata , did petrify those strata of a terrene nature into their several degr●es of induration and lapidifaction . by these natural gradations the earth became fixt upon its center , and ●he waters a fluid body moving and circulating about it ; and they both made one terraqueous globe of a spherical and mathematical rotundity ; all the lines from the superficies to the centre being of an equal length . thus the space between the surface of the waters and the moon 's vortex was clear'd of all those fogs and mists which ranged about in it : and being fill'd with their air , moses calls it the firmament of heaven , which made the second production ( viz. ) of space , wherein the under-agents or second causes had room to work , and produce effects of a higher and more noble nature and quality . chap. viii . the division of the lower waters into subterranean , superterranean , and nubiferous ; and by what gradations the dry land appeared . tho' this great embrio was ready for birth and to breath in fresh air ; yet it could not be deliver'd from this great bag of water , wherein it was enclos'd , by any innate power it had in it self , without a supernatural assistance : the almighty was pleas'd therefore to play the midwife , and to deliver it by breaking of this great body of water ; and by dividing of the sweet from those of a saline and brakish nature . for as soon as the intermediate matter which made the shell of the earth , was redn●'d into form and order ; and the several strata or layers of stones , metals , minerals , and subterrene earths with their cross-cutting and dividing dykes , rakes , ryders , veins and strings or side-branches had receiv'd from the heat of the central fire and the petrefying juices of salt and nitre , their several degrees of incrustation , induration and lapidifaction ; the thirsty matter gradually suckt in the thin sweet water , until all its veins , dykes , cavities and pores were fill'd and saturated with it . the salt water being the sedement of the whole mass , and likewise being too thick to penetrate and pass through the stra●t pores and strainers of the solid and condensed matter , did gradually draw down to its channel : and all the veins and pores of the earth being now saturated with sweet water ; the subterranean lympheducts , or underground water-works began first to bubble up and play from the tops of the highest mountains ; from whence th● rivers took their first rise , and began to form their courses to the sea ; and by their rapidity and weight continually pressing in upon her from all sides , swell'd her up into a gibbosity , and for●'d her into a constant flux and reflux , which reciprocation of motion causing in her a boyling fermentation , the sweet water does disentangle it self from the salt ; and being lighter , riseth up in fumes and vapours , which fly abroad until they be condens'd into clouds , which falling down in showers of sweet water upon the earth become● the succus nutritivus of the fleshy pa●t of it ; giving not only a vital nourishment to the several kinds of animals living on the outer coat or skin of it ; but repairing the subterranean waters by preserving them from wasting . the waters being now divided into superterranean , subterranean and nubiferous , the dry land appear'd , and was gradually prepar'd for being an habitable world. chap. ix . of the primeval or antidiluvian figure of the earth . dr . burnet , in his theory of the earth , conceits and endeavours to perswade the world , that the primeval earth was spherically or mathematically round , without seas , mountains or any inequalities upon its surface . which hypothesis ( or rather ingenious conceit ) seems in the first place to be inconsistent with the original state of this materi●l globe ; which being design'd for a plac● of habition for several kinds of animals of ● mixt and compounded constitution , whose vital ●lame is nourish'd and maintain'd by a continual respiration of a soft and vaporous air ; which must not only be frequently fann'd with the brisk gales and blasts of a cleansing wind , but also moistned and sweetned with showers frequently falling through it : all which have their original cause from the constant flux and reflux of the sea , and those inequalities upon the surface of the earth : without which there would neither have been an atmosphere , wind , rain , or air ; but the superficies of the earth would have been [ by the sun's beams continually beating upon it ] baked and incrusted into the hardness of brick and tyle . this hypothesis seems also inconsistent with the different natures of those animals with which the almighty creator has been pleas'd to stock it ; some of which being only produc'd in a warm and fertile soil , others only in a cold and sterile : so some animals delight only to breath a warm and soft air , others a more bleak and piercing : thus strawberries and gilliflowers will not thrive upon the tops of cold and barren mountains ; nor mountain vegetables in the most fertile soil , or best prepar'd warm beds . this will be made more clear and evident when we shall give account of the natural uses of the flux and reflux of the sea , and those inequalities and irregularities of the earth's surface . once more to suppose the earth to have been of an even and spherical supersicies seems inconsistent with the different kinds and natures of that matter of which it consists ; some of which being hard , others soft , some fix'd others ●luid , it cann't be imagin'd that all this variety of matter would settle in a figure spherically and mathematically round . from these arguments we may without being guilty of any great presumption , conclude against dr. burnet's hypothesis , that as the antediluvian earth consisted of the same matter with this present earth , and produc'd the same species of animals , of the same natures and qualities , it was of the same figure that now we find it in , a terraqueous globe of a physical rotundity , with seas , mountains , &c. and th●t these irregularities and inequalities of this terrestrial globe did not date their original from that disruption which was occasion'd by the deluge as dr. woodward positively asserts , part d page . is evid●nt from part . page . where he undertakes to prove that the face of the earth before the deluge was not smooth , even and uniform ; but unequal , and distinguish'd with mountains , valleys ; as also with seas , lakes and rivers . chap. x. of the constituent parts of the earth : and first of the volatile part of it , or the central fire ; its natural uses . the constituent parts of this terraqueous globe are reducible to three different classes of matter , ( viz. ) volatile , fix'd and fluid ; and these bear equal proportion one to another , and in the structure of the earth do occupy the same proportion of place . the volatile matter , consisting of sublimated sulphur , nitre and bitumen keeps possession of the central part ; and as all matter of the same kind and affinity , which having an appetite to union , naturally affects a round and globular figure , so the central fire may be suppos'd to be of the same form. that figure wherein the excentral fire appears , is only accidental , occasion'd by the compressures of the circumambient air. that vast subterranean vault wherein this volatile globe of central fire is contain'd [ which the miners call th● belly of the earth ] may be suppos'd to be either of a round or circular ; or of an aequilateral , multangular figure ; occasion'd by the solid strata of stones spreading and vaulting themselves about it . the natural uses of this central fire seem to be analogous to that vital flame which is seated in the he●rt or center of all animals ; for as that by its vital heat ●nlivens the whole body ; so this central ●ire by that vital warmth it disseminates through the whole mass of matter , enlivens it ▪ and gives as well to the several strata of stones , metals , minerals and other subterranean earths , their degrees of consolidation ; as to the several kinds of ores , their different degrees of purity and perfection . as the vital flame does not only cause the ebullition and pulsisick faculty in the exterior pa●ts of the body ; but also the circulation of the whole mass of blood through all the greater and lesser veins of it ; so the central fire is as well the cause of the ebullition of springs , thermae and mineral feeders which break out upon the tops of mountains and the exterior parts of the earth ; as of the constant circulation of the whole mass of subterranean water through those dykes , rakes and fissures , which from the mountains do divide and spread themselves through the whole body of the earth , and are the greater and lesser veins of it . again , as the vital flame gives the tincture and colour to the blood , flesh and all the heterogeneous parts of the body ; so the central fire , by the different degrees of concoction and boyling up of matter , gave to the several kinds of it their different tinctures and colours ; this might be illustrated by several analogous experiments and observations , as in the boiling of quinc●s and other fruits ; so likewise in b●king of bread ▪ &c. the central fire , by running a perpetual round within the boundaries of its own infernal vault , carries the shell of the earth about with it , and is the cause of its diurnal motion . lastly , it is the earth's aequilibrium that keeps it fix'd upon its center . chap. xi . of the fixt part of the earth : and first of the inequalities of its surface ; their natural causes and uses . the fixt part of this terraqueous globe which we call the earth , may be describ'd either as to its exterior parts , or interior consistences of it . the exterior parts consist of mountains , heaths , dales , plains , valleys , with the channel of the sea. the interior consistences of it are the strata or beds of stones , metals , mines , minerals and subterranean earths , all lying upon flats with a dibb and rise . or they are dikes , rakes , riders , veins and strings either cross-cutting and dividing the several kinds of stones , metals , mines , minerals , &c. of a different kind ; or cross-cutting and dividing those of the same species ▪ as all metallick rakes , &c. of the inequalities of the earths surface . these irregularities and inequalities upon the superficies of the earth , are occasion'd by the elevations and depressions of the solid strata ; and these are cau'd either by the greater dikes , which divide one species of stones , &c. from those of a different kind ; and these greater dikes make channels and water-courses for the greater rivers , which following their windings and turnings till they empty themselves into the sea , cause all those pleasant dales , which at last , when the mountains wear out , dilate themselves into spacious plains and valleys , the lesser dikes and joynts which divide the stones , &c. of the same kind , by throwing them up and down , cause all those lesser hills , which as well delight the eye with a grateful variety of objects , as refrigerate and cherish the whole body with a more cool , clear and wholsome air. there is not any thing in this natural world , that contributes more towards the making of it habitable , then these inaequalities upon its surface . for , first they occasion all these different kinds and natures of soil , which produce the several species of vegetables suitable to the several natures of those animals that feed upon them : the earth's surface being god's storehouse , wherein is provided food and nourishment agreeable to the nature of every animal , and every living creature by a natural instinct knows its proper food and nourishment , and when and where to find it . they occasion all those different qualities of the air , as warm , cold , thick , thin , moist and dry ; for as god has provided food suitable to the several natures to feed on , so he has provided air suitable to their natures to breath in . those inequalities upon the earth occasion all those springs , mineral feeders and medicinal waters , which break out in rapid streams from the tops of mountains , and the skirts of lesser hills ; so that as god has provided convenient food for every animal to feed upon , and agreeable air to breath in ; he has likewise [ by causing of springs to break forth and bubble up at the foot almost of every hill ] provided convenient water for every animal to quench its thirst with . whereas if the earth had been of an even and spherical supersicies , cover'd with one solid strata , or incrusted cover of earth ; i doubt we should have been forc'd to have digg'd as deep as dr. burnet and dr. woodward's abyss , before we sho●'d have met with water sufficient to have quench'd our thirst ; and it s also doubtful that when we had found it , it wou'd not have been sweet and wholsome . these inequalities also cause the s●veral strata of stones , mines and o●es , &c. [ having a natural rise ] to br●ak ●o●th at day , so that the inge●●ou●●●d industrious miner may meet with , not only stone for building of houses , coals for his fires ; but the several kinds of ore to enrich his coffers with . these inequalities also produce all those pleasant and most profitable copises and thickets of all kinds of trees , which delight most to grow where the solid beds of stone are weak and broken and lye near day , and where they may easily thrust their roots into their broken joints and suck in the mineral spirits , &c. chap. xii . of mountains , their original cause , consistences and natural uses ; being the first dry land that appear'd . the mountains are the ebullition o● matter , occasion'd by the central fire when it was in its ●ull strength and vigour . they consist of such strata of stones , metals , raggs , chivers , cills , &c. as are of a hot quality ; and these are like so many hot-beds wherein the several kinds of ore receiv'd their conceptions , as well as their different degrees of concoction and perfection ; as hereafter will be more fully shewn . the mountains consisting of such matter as is of a hot quality , and being bound with strong cills , which having a quicker rise than those upon the plains , do lift up their heads above the rest of the earth ; and became not only the great pillars and supporters of the whole fabrick ; but the first sea-banks that broke the circulation of the waters , and were the first dry land that appear'd . the tops of the mountains reaching a● high as the cold regions of the air ; and having but the advantage of a single r●flection of the sun 's globuli , have always a cold and condensing air upon them , and striking a level with the gibbosity of the sea , do by the sympathy between cold and cold attr●ct the vapours to them , which either fall down in showers of rain , being condens'd by the rising of the ground cold ; or are rarifi'd into wind by the falling of the sphere of rarefaction , which term will be hereafter explain'd when we describe the nature of winds . all the greatest dikes and divis●ons of the earth [ as i have already observ'd ] do contract themselves and meet in the mountains , as the veins do in the necks of animals ; and these being the greater veins of the earth , by dividing into lesser veins and branches , maintain and preserve a constan● communication or circulation of water through the whole body . and this is the only reason why the heads of all the greatest rivers in the world have their rise from the tops or sides of the highest mountains ; which by following of the windings and turnings of these greater dikes or veins , and by receiving into them the lesser dike-feeders , are increas'd from small rivulets into large and navigable rivers , which at the last empty themselves into the main ocean . the declivity of the mountains gives rapidity of motion to the rivers , which does not only preserve their sweetness for the benefit of men and beasts ; but also by pressing upon the sea from all sides , swells her up into a gibbosity , and is the only cause of her flux and reflux , which the following chapters will give account of . as the declivity of the mountains gives rapidity of motion to the rivers ; so it gives motion to the winds and air : for as the condensation of vapours causeth an inundation in the waters ; so the rarefaction of the vapours and exhalations causeth an inundation and overflowing in the air : and those lateral blasts of wind that come so strong upon us , are only waves of the air ; and the roaring noise we oftentimes hear upon the mountains , is only the breaking forth of the winds upon the still body of the air , and there putting of it into a rapid motion , which is increas'd by the descent of the mountains ; for air and water are the same in specie , differing only in degrees of thinness and fludity , as the mountains are the great pillars and supporters of the earth , their foundations all meeting in the center , and forming that vast subterranean vault , which keeps the central fire from breaking forth ; so they are the greatest ornament of its superficies ; giving not only a most pleasant prospect over the plains and valleys , but terminating the visive faculty with a grateful variety of objects . the mountains have their natural position either in ridges or clusters ; those we see in clusters intermixt with great dales , gills and valleys , were [ at the first settling of matter ] all of an even superficies ; but their joynts and divisions consisting of raff , ragg , chiver and such confus'd matter , without strong cills or strata of stones to bind them together , were by great storms and tempests of rain , &c. but especially by noah's flood , broken and driven down into the valleys ; and from thence into the next adjacent sea. and this is the reason why some mountains have a perpendicular rise , why their ribs and sides lye naked and frightful , threatning to fall upon us ; and these great dikes and joynts are either fill'd with ponds of water , which afford great plenty of fish ; or they are become pleasant valleys gills and dales ; having a f●uitful soil and the warmest sun , by reason of its beams being reflected from all sides of the mountains . chap. xiii . of mountain heaths , &c. the mountain heaths lye upon the skirts of mountains towards the sea , their consistences and several strata are rather of a pinguid , bitumious and nitrous , than of a hot and sulphureous quality ; and they generally lead to mines of coals , which are the pneumatick parts of such strata of stones and metals as are their uppercovers ; the principal and more pneumatical ingredients whereof are bitumen , sulphur and nitre ; bitumen gives the flame ▪ nitre blows it up , and sulphur gives the heat . th●ir cros●-cutting and dividing dike● consist of tough clay and a mixture of confus'd matters ▪ these mountain heaths were the second dry land that appear'd ; for as the sea did gradually draw down into its channel ; its unruly waves drove up these lesser hills we see upon the skirts of the mountains , and forc'd their strata of stones , metals , &c. to have a rise towards them , thereby making a channel so spacious as might contain so vast a body of water , and keep its proud waves within their proper limits . their stones , metals , &c. had their degrees of incrustation and lapidifaction from the central fire . chap. xiv . of the plains and valley , &c. the last dry land that appear'd , was the plains and valleys , which by the depression of their strata sank down into the channel of the sea ; the consistences of these are rather of a terrene and nitrous , than ● pinguid quality . they afford us the best free-stone as white , grey , red and yellow ▪ these tinctures and colours they receiv'd from those different degrees of concoction they had from the central fire ; and the degrees of lapidifaction and induration they receiv'd from the anteperistical cold , and petrefying juices : their strata have an easie dibb towards the sea , sometimes not a yard at fifty ; for as the waters divided , their strength abated , and the flat strata laid more level . chap. xv. of the channel of the sea , &c. as the valleys sink down gradually into the channel of the sea ; so the channel is only a spacious valley as far depress'd before the surface of the earth , as the mountains and mountainous heaths are advanc'd above it . its consistences are of a terrene , nitrous , mercurial and saline quality , which is the reason the sea-sand will by a violent heat run into a glassy substance . and why the most precious pearls are found in that part . chap. xvi . of the fluid part of this terraqueous globe ; and first of the sea , &c. the sea is that vast body of salt wa●er contain'd in its proper channel : it s the sediment of the whole mass of water , and therefore is thicker and heavier than either the subterranean or aerial waters ; which is the reason why it can neither penetrate the straight pores of solid matter , and so intermix with its sweet feeders ; nor be elevated in vapours by the sun's in●luence and fall down in brackish showers , which would be destructive as well of plants and herbs as men and beasts . the seas are in a continual flux and reflux : the cause of which is the rapidity and weight of the rivers continually pressing in upon it from all sides ; and the sea-waters being not only thicker , but of a different nature from the thin and sweet river-water , and having a natural appetite to union , will not easily suffer the rivers to incorporate with them , which is the true reason why the rivers swells her up on both sides of the shoar , unt●l the weight of the salt-water over-balancing the weight of the sweet-waters causeth the sea to break in the middle , and by the greater weight and strength of her wa●es forceth the invaders to retreat and ●all back until the salt-water has lost its weight and strength ; and this is the cause of its flux . the salt-water having thus lost i●s weight and strength , the rivers redouble their force , and by the rapidity of their motion and weight of their waves forceth the salt-waters to a gradual and orderly retreat ▪ and to swell up into such a height of gibbosity that its weight again over-balanceth the weight and strength of the rivers ; and this is the cause of its reflux . thus the flux and reflux of the sea is occasion'd by the continual strife between the fresh-water and the salt ▪ and the spring-tides and dead-tides are occasion'd by the gradual increase and decrease of the reciprocation of their motion ; as we observ'd in the spring or balance of a clock in giving her back stroaks at every tenth . this continual strife between the fresh-water and the salt causeth a conconstant heat and fermentation in the sea ; and this boiling fermentation causeth the sweet river-water to fly up in mists and vapours , which causeth an atmosphere to be round the whole terraqueous globe ; and when these mists and vapours are condensed into clouds they fall down in showers of sweet rain upon the surface of the earth . thus tho' the sea affords no sweet-water , yet it is the only medium which preserves and maintains a constant communication and circulation between the subterranean and aerial waters . the saline quality of the sea is occasion'd by her being boiled up into a sediment by the central fire ; as well as those rocks of mineral salt that abound in her channel . this saltish quality of the sea does not only preserve that vast body of water from corrupting ; but by causing her water to be thicker and heavier than those in the fresh rivers , it makes them more able to bear burthens of much greater weight , and fitter to maintain a correspondence and communication of trade between land and land , tho' at the greatest distance . tho' the sea and main ocean seems to contain a vast quantity of water ; yet it being compar'd to the subterranean waters which circulate through the veins of that great body , and are contain'd in the strata and pores of dens'd matter ; it will scarce bear the same proportion to them that one does to seventy-two ; for if the computation of those learned men be true who give account that the sea and main ocean cover but one half of the globe , and that the channel of the sea is but one german mile deep [ the shallows being compar'd to the deeps ] then it would necessarily follow that if the earth were mathematically round , it would cover the whole globe only half a german mile , which bears but proportion to the circumference of the earth , as half a mile does to twenty one thousand six hundred miles . again , the diameter of twenty-one thousand six hundred miles being seven thousand two hundred , of which if we allow a semidiameter to the center or belly of the earth there will remain three thousand six hundred miles for the shell or body of it , to which three thousand six hundred the fluid part or superterranean water can bear no less proportion than one to an hundred ; which computations being granted ( and indeed they cannot ●easonably be deny'd ) in the whole body of the earth , there will be found thirty-six german miles of fluid matter , which bears proportion to the seventy-two superterranean seas or oceans . to strengthen this hypothesis we may further add that in sinking of pits , the deeper we sink , we raise the more water ; and that stone or mine of coal which at three fathom deep runs six tubs of water in one hour , containing thirty gallons a-piece , at six fathom it will double the number ; and so on till the water be invincible ; as in hogsheads full of water the highest tap runs slowly , because there is little weight of water upon it ; but the middle or lowest tap will run double and treble the quantity in the same time , there being double and treble the weight of water upon it . again , if we do further add that besides the water that circulates in the veins of the earth , there is so much of water intermix'd and incorporated with the fixt and solid matter , that if stone , metal , or coal [ when it s digg'd out of its living strata or beds ] be immediately expos'd to the sun or fire , it will in a short time want of weight above an hundredth part , the fluid part being exhal'd . the greater dikes or veins in the earth , are principally four : the first divides and changes the mountain-strata from the mountain-heaths : the second divides those several strata of stone , &c. of which the mountain-heaths consist , from those of the plains and valleys : the third divides those beds and layers of matter on which the plains and valleys consist , from the channel of the sea : the fourth runs under the channel of the sea , whose side-branches causeth all those submarine quick-sands which are the warm beds wherein the sea-fish scatter their eggs for the propagation of their several kinds : as this , so all the rest of the greater dikes and veins have their side-branches filling all the strata of stones , metals , minerals and subterranean earths with water ; so that where-ever we sink into the body of the earth , as soon as we prick [ with our digging instruments those kells of clay &c. which divide the several strata ] we presently raise their feeders . and if any [ who being prompt'd either to gratifie his natural curiosity , or gain some considerable advantage to himself ] would raise a new river upon dry ground , let him go to the foot of some hill or rising ground and begin a level-drift , which by cross-cutting of the several strata of that rising earth , he will tap and fet at liberty all the feeders ; and if he drive on till he shall cross-cut with the drift one branch of those greater dikes , he will raise a considerable river , which may turn to his great advantage . chap. xvii . of those preternatural . accidents that disturb and interrupt the course of nature in this material world &c. having in the former chapters given an account of the originals , causes , consistences and natural uses of the several parts of this natural globe , as well fix'd as fluid : it will not be improper to subjoin an account of such preternatural accidents as sometimes have disturb'd , and may for the future interrupt the regular course of nature ; and at the last so far destroy the frame and fabrick of this material part of it , as to render it uncapable of being an habitable world. and these are earthquakes , hurricanes , volcano's , violent eruptions of the subterranean waters , as at noah's flood ; stagnations of the subterranean air , causing the springs and mineral feeders to sink down into the interior ●arts of the earth ; interruption of the circulation of vapours , and rains upon the earth ( as in the days of elisha the prophet ) ; violent and preternatural thunders , such as destroy'd sodom and gomorrah . these and the like , are the accidental distempers that have happen'd in the body of the earth , and they seem analagous to those fevers , agues , convulsions , &c. which interrupt the healthful constitutions of our own bodies , and are sometimes destructive of 'em : and as all the diseases and distempers our bodies are subject to , have their original from accidental heats or colds , which either sublimates and exalts our animal spirits into a feverish degree of volatility ; or by cold and aguish damps depresseth them into a degree of stagnation . so all those accidental and preternatural disturbances that happen in the course of nature , have their original cause , from the several kinds and natures of damps , which are , either central , subterrene , or aerial ; and are of quality either hot , cold , sweet , or foul. chap. xviii . of the central damps : their causes , natures , and dreadful effects upon this globe . the subterranean vault being filled with a confus'd mass of undigested matter , consisting of sublimat'd sulphur , bitumen and nitre , whenever it happens that there ariseth a war between these angry volatiles , and their fluid neighbours ( viz. ) the subterranean water and air , which circulates through those greater veins that environ this large vault ; and do not only feed and nourish that infernal smother , but keep and confine it within its own boundaries , that it break not forth in violent eruptions upon the fixt body of the earth , as soon as this intestine war commenceth , these active volatiles of sublimated sulphur , bitumen and nitre , collect and aggregate into great bodies . and when these discharge in the central part of the vault , the nitre which is the principal cause of the grand effort or flatus , dilates and expands its self on all sides , upwards and downwards indifferently : and this violent effort or flatus causeth an universal concussion of the whole globe . when the damp gathers towards the circumference of the vault , and there dischargeth it self , the grand flatus hath its tendency upwards ▪ and sometimes causeth a concussion of one half of the globe , without any eruption of fire . when the damp fires upon some class of the superincumbent strata , it either splits them , making cracks and chasms in the exterior parts of the earth for some miles in length , which at the instant of the shock openeth , and in the interval between the shocks closeth again : [ of this kind was that ●rack or chasm which open'd and ●●allow'd up the tents of korah , dathan and abiram ; and no doubt , but the shock struck a terror into the whole camp ] or if the grand flatus be very strong and vehement , it either elevates the whole class above the superficies of the earth , forming a new mountain ; or else it sinks down into the vault , and the vacant place is immediately fill'd with water [ not from dr. woodward's abyss ] but from the veins of the earth which break into it . when the damp fires near or upon some of the great joints or clifts of the earth , the flatus pursues all the windings and turnings of these joints and clifts until it break forth in dreadful hurricanes ; either under the sea , occasioning most horrible disorders and perturbations , raising its surface into prodigious waves , tossing and rowling them about in most strange whirlpools , overturning and swallowing up ships in an instant : and upon the dry land overturning cities , towns , blowing up mountains , &c. tho' these effects of the subterranean nitre when rarified and dilated by the central flame be very dreadful ; yet if these fissures and spiracles through which they get a vent and break out upon the earth had been perpendicular [ as dr. woodward conceits ] they wou'd have destroy'd the whole surface of it . for then every one of these lesser damps or squibs which daily take fire in the subterranean vault , wou'd have broken out upon us . and the greater damps being fired wou'd have blown up not only the inhabitants of the earth ; but their houses with its superficies into the air ; for the deeper the fissure or spiracle is , if it be perpendicular in a streight line , the more strength and impetuosity it gives to the flatus , as we observe in guns and fuzees . again , the very sulphurous exhalations which wou'd have ascended through these perpendicular fissures without interruption , wou'd [ with their noisome smell ] have suf●ocated and stifled those animals that live by respiration , and wou'd have afforded matter for continual thunder in the air. it was then most agreeable with the state of this habitable globe that these fissures or joints of the earth shou'd have their position from the surface to the c●nter in crooked lines with various windings and turnings , openings and closings ; not only for securing us from those dangerous effects of the central and terrene damps ; but also for the better and more commodious communication of the subterranean waters through the flat strata of matter . and lastly , that the subterranean waters by following of the windings and ●urnings of these greater fissures might have a longer journey to the sea , and thereby supply the inhabitants of the earth with sweet waters at a more commodious and convenient distance . these phenomena of central damps , and that they are the only cause of all those universal earth-quakes that have happen'd in this natural world , being wholly new , and the world not yet accquainted with them , may at first sight seem only the products of fancy , or meer conjecture ; yet if seriously and impartially enquir'd into , will be fou●d grounded upon such reason , as cannot without a prejudic'd opinion be easily deny'd . for it cannot be imagin'd by any who have made it their business to understand the structure of the earth ▪ those ●everal classes of solid and dense matter on which it consists , the windings and turnings of those dikes and partitions which divide them and are the subterranean water courses , that there shou'd be magazines of subterranean gunpowder lodg'd in infernal cavities round the whole globe , and that there shou'd be trains laid from one collection to another , and that all these trains shou'd take fire through all the subterranean rivers in one instant of time. neither can it reasonably be suppos'd that there shou'd be a concussion of the whole or half , or any considerable part of the globe , by one subterranean flatus ; but what is from the central vault . again , the consistences of the greatest part of the earth being rather of a gold , terrene and mercurial , than of a bituminous nitrous and sulphureous quality , it cannot be suppos'd that those parts of the earth which afford no quantities of this natural gunpowder shou'd suffer a concussion or earthquake , but from these central damps . besides those miners who have sunk deepest into these occult regions , do from their own experience assure us , that there are no grotto's or cavities above an hundred fathoms deep , unless in those mountainous countries where the consistences are of a sulphurous and nitrous quality , affording plenty of natural gun-powder , which being fir'd cause all those vulcano's we read of in history . chap. xix . of terrene damps , and their dreadful effects upon this globe &c. terrene damps have their original either from heat or cold , and are either fiery or waterish : those which have their original from fire , are of the same nature with those central damps we have given account of . as all local earth-quakes do more frequently happen in the mountainous countries , than in the plains and valleys ; because all the greater dikes , joints and veins of the earth contract and meet there : and the flatus which is the occasion of the shock makes its way by what passage soever it can get vent . but these mountainous cou●tries especially , which yield great store of sulphur , bitumen , and chiefly nitre [ these minerals affording the greatest plenty of natural gun-powder ] are most injur'd by those dreadful shocks , because those mountains whose natural consistences are of so hot and fiery a quality are commonly very cavernous ; and their greater joints and fissures , as well as strong strata having by frequent concussions and earthquakes lost their natural feeders , are become the most proper receptacles for those fiery stores to be lodg'd in until either the central fire , or their own natural heat being contracted into a point , discharge first the lowest damp , and the rest by trains like so many subalterns discharge in course , and sometimes for several months together , till the subterranean gun-powder be all spent . and these burning mountains such as aetna , vesuvius , hecla , and others , are only so many spiracles or vulcano's serving for the discharge of these subterranean damps , which disgorgeth flames of fire , and stones of great weight and substance , showers of sand and rivers of melted minerals ; and yet these mountains by those vulcano's lose nothing of their height or mag●itude , all these eruptions being recruited out of the great magazine of natural gun-powder contain'd in the infernal vault . besides these damps of a fiery natore contain'd in the interior parts of the earth , there are others which sometimes happens in the exterior parts of it ; such as those fiery damps in colleries are only the perspirations of sulphur and nitre out of the cole , wall or mine , collected into a body ; and these either take fire at a candle , or like so many dry exhalations receiv'd into the body of a cloud , and discharge like thunder shakes the earth about the collery , kills the miners , and have other dreadful ●ffects . to these we may add those preter-natural ebullitions and eruptions of subterranean waters , which moses calls the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep : and these whenever they happen upon the earth [ as at noah's flood ] are occasion'd by an universal fermentation and dilation of the central fire , which gaining ground upon their fluid neighbours , force them into a most rapid motion through all the subterranean veins , and consequently causeth those v●olent eruptions of water in all the springs , rivers , joints and fissures of the earth . sometimes the circulation of the subterranean waters stagnates and sinks down into the interior parts of the earth ; the springs and rivers dry up , as in the days of elisha : and this is occasion'd by the stifling and damping of the central heat , the circumambient waters prevailing upon it . sometimes the circumbient air which circulates in the exterior parts of the earth , especially the caverns , joints and concavities of rocky stones and other metals [ and is the only cause of the eruption and motion of springs , rivers , &c. ] damps and stagnates , which forceth the springs and eruptions of waters to stand back , and fill those caverns and joints , from whence they flow until the weight of the waters break the damp , or rather damm of stagnated air ; and then follows eruptions and overflowings of springs , rivers , &c. this kind of damps i have met with sometimes in colleries , where the water made way for it self in such joints and open closers , as it met with in the under cills ; especially lime-stone , which is of all stone the most jointy and open. and when the air in these open joints and cavities was dampt , the waters stood back in the working , and forc'd the mines out of the pit , until the weight broke the damp , and then the waters drain'd this damp most frequently happens in the summer months , when the ambient air is thick with hot and piery exhalations , and the effluvia of sweet blossoms , especially of peas and beans . and this the miners call the sweet damp. this stagnation and damping of the subterranean air is [ in all probability ] the cause of the annual over-flowing of the river nilus , the horary overflowing of the spring at gigleswick in york-shire , the drumming in the well at bautry , &c. and these being by men of learning reckon'd among the magnalia naturae , we shall enquire more particularly into the causes of them : and first of the over-flowing of nilus . nilus is one of the noblest rivers in the world , and is famous not only for the long course it takes through ethiopia and egypt , which is suppos'd to be three thousand miles before it empty's it self into the miditerranean sea ; but also for its over ●lowing and fertilizing that low and level country , supplying in it the want of rain . 't is believ'd by men of great learning that this yearly over-flowing of that country is oc●●s●on'd by the great quantities of snow dissolv'd upon the mountains , from whence it takes its rise ; and these [ as geographers give account ] are that vast ridge of mountains , which for their height bear the name of montes lunae , as i● their lofty tops wash'd their head● in the moon 's waterish vortex . others are of opinion that the yearly over-flowing of that river is caus'd by those great rains which fall every spring in the higher ethiopia : but if either the dissolution of snow , or inundations caus'd by the falling of those spring-rains , were the true reason , &c. they wou'd also cause the othe● rivers in those countries to overflow their banks at the same time ; which is so far from being observable , that when nilus over-flows , the othe● rivers are at a very low ebb. the cause then of this yearly overflowing of nilus , which begins about the th of iune and continues until the th of october , seems to be a subterranean damp , which yearly stagnates the circulation of air in these vast rocks and open strata , from whence those rapid springs and feeders slow , which are the heads of that famous river . the subterranean air being dampt , the springs and mineral fe●ders are forc'd to stand back and fill all those vast concavities and hollows for several miles upon ●he side-rise , and some miles upon the top-rise of those rocks and metals ; until the weight of so vast a quantity of water [ which may be compar'd to a l●sser sea ] breaks the damp or damm of stagnated air , and then the river begins to over-flow , an● continues until the waters be spent , and the damp gathers again . it s observ'd that when the river nilus begins to over-flow its banks , that great plagues break out in cairo , which seems to be occasion'd by those gross vapours and mineral exhalations that arise from so vast a quantity of stagnated water , which [ whilst by its motion , its purging of it self and recovering of its sweetness ] fly about , corrupt the air , and cause infections . this subterranean damp is likewise the cause of the horary over-●lowing of the spring at gigleswick in yorkshire ; for this spring b●ing the feeder of a lime-stone rock near thirty yards perpendicular in height , which breaks out at the foot of it ; so oft●n as the circulation of the air in the rock is dampt , the spring runs very slowly , and when the weight of the water has broken the damp , it over-flows , and this flux and reflux is once in every hour . i observ'd my self , that before the waters began to flow there was a knocking in the rock , and this was caused by the pressing of the water upon the damp before it broke . the same is the cause of that drumming in the well at bautry , which the inhabitants of the town told me never happ●n'd but against the change of government : this well is observ'd to be ●or the most part dry , which is occasion'd by the feeders standing back ; the drumming noise is occasion'd by the waters pressing upon the damp , and the hollows of the well ; for as soon as the damp is broken , the well fills wi●h water and the drumming is over . this occasions the report of under-ground spirits , which miners call mineral spirits ; and they observe that these spirits give notice by knocking or groaning before the mineral vein be discover'd : i have observ'd my self that in a new collerie , when the workmen were near the coal ( and only the kell which kept the feeder of it unbrok●n ] there wou'd have been a sort of knocking , sighing or groaning , heard in the vein , which was only occasion'd by the weight of the water lying in the coal , and pressing forward for more room and liberty ; for as soon as the coal was prick'd , the water rose in the pit , the knocking was over and the mineral spirit conjur'd . of this kind also is that damp which the miners sometimes meet with in their sinking of deep pits and new works ; where a cloud of breath or sweat perspiring from the bodies of the workmen , will sti●le the circulation of the air , and not suffer the candles to burn. this damp will steal 〈◊〉 breath insensibly from the workm●● and sti●le ' em . there is yet another kind of damp the miners complain of , which they call the foul or stinking damp ; and this is caused by the breaking out of corrupted air from old crusted works . this , if not prevented , will kill and stifle the workmen . the aerial damps will be treated upon in meteorologie . having given an account of the causes , natures and effects of damps , and such preter-natural accidents as have and may disturb and interrupt the regular course of nature ; we cannot but make an enquiry into the causes of noah's flood , the season of the year when it happen'd , and the alterations and devastations it made upon the earth , chap. xx. of noah's flood , its causes , the season of the year when it happen'd , the effects and alterations it made upon the earth . if these two learn'd men ( viz. dr. burnet and dr. woodward had understood better the structure of the terraqueous globe , the natural consistences of it , the causes , natures and effects of damps , and that those subterranean waters which circulate through the veins of the earth bears proportion to seventy two oceans , they wo●'d have discover'd such a quantity of water as wou'd have caus'd an universal deluge without the conceit of a central or subterranean abyss . which hypothesis [ tho' manag'd with the greatest artisice of invention and oratory ] when seriously enquir'd into , will be found to have very little of truth in the bottom of it ; for it seems not only inconsistent with the original settlement of matter , as we have observ'd already ; but also with dr. woodward's hypothesis concerning the re-settling of the fluid matter dissolv'd by the deluge which he positively asserts to have been according to the rules of specifick gravity ; the heaviest subsiding the lowest . this hypothesis if taken for granted , we must necess●rily conclude from it , that all those kinds of ponderous ore , and heaviest rocks of iron , stone , marble , &c. would have sunk down into the central vault and fill'd it up . that the rest of the fix'd matter being by some degree lighter would have spread their solid strata uppermost : and that the fluid waters being by several degrees lighter than the fix'd matter , would have cover'd the whole terre●e globe , and consequently wou'd have caus'd an universal and perpetual deluge upon the earth . but suppose it possible to improve the strength of imagination to such a height , as to fancy that there was originally , and is still , a vast abyss of hot water contain'd in the center of the earth ; it cannot be so easily apprehended by what power or means this vast substance of water shou'd be put into so high a degree of fert●entation and commotion , as to cause an universal disruption and dissolution of the earth , as dr. woodward conceits ; for although that fire placed under a pot sill'd with water , will by emitting of its fiery globuli , and mingling them with the water , cause so violent an ebullition and commotion in it , as to raise the cover and overturn it ; yet it cannot be suppos'd that either that uniform and constant fire or heat , disseminated through the body of the earth ; or the external heat of the sun 's warm influence can produce any such effects ; because fire and nitre do naturally exert their power upwards and side-way , but never downward , but when it is so pent up that it can get no other vent : and when even gun-powder is forc'd to make its effort upon the waters , the strength of its flatus does little execution , being presently sti●l'd . we shall therefore suspend further enquiry about this matter , until dr. woodward's larger volume be made publick , and endeavour to find out some other causes by which that universal deluge which happen'd in noah's time might be effected in an other way , and grounded upon fair probabilities of reason and certainty . first then , no doubt but god almighty was the principal cause , the sins of mankind the provoking cause , and the subterranean superterranean and nubiferous waters were the immediate instruments of it . but how all these divided waters shou'd be re-united and gather'd into such a body as was sufficient to cover all the tops of the mountains fifteen cubits high , as moses gives account , is the only matter of difficulty to be ●ncounter'd . in order to which , i shall not entertain you with a long story of the opinions of learn'd men about it , not undertake to shew you upon what improbable grounds and inconsistences the theorist and dr. woodward have establish'd their hypothesis of it ; but having discover'd a vast and por●entous body of water circulating in the veins of the earth , bearing proportion [ as i have observ'd ] to seventy-two oceans , and several oceans of water more floating in the clouds and rarisied into thin air [ tha● it might be a sit medium for respiration , &c. ] my adventure , shall be ●irst to shew how , and by what cause , the subterranean vvater was rais'd above ground , and the thin air was condens'd into vvater ; how both join'd with the sea , and caus'd the deluge . and then secondly , i shall give account how the waters again divided ; how all things return'd to their natural course ; and by what gradations the dry land appear'd : and more than this is not necessary to make and establish a clear hypothesis of the universal deluge . first then , we may conclude , from arguments of the greatest probability imaginable , that the collection and reuniting of such a quantity of water as was sufficient to drown the world , was caus'd by an universal damp that happen'd at that time in the whole course of nature . for , first , all the central fire by a preternatural fermentation and dilation of those angry volatiles on which it consists , gain'd ground upon its fluid neighbours , those subterranean waters which circulate in the body of the earth , and forcing them into a most rapid ebullition and commotion , caus'd most violent eruptions in all the veins , joints , fissures and hyatus's as well under the channel of the sea , as in all the parts of the earth's surface . these violent eruptions of the submarine and subterranean waters , which moses calls the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep , swell'd up the sea into such a height of gibbosity that it forc'd the rivers to stand back , and rise as high as their fountain heads , which covering all the dry land , excepting the tops of the highest mountains ; the aerial damp caus'd by the moon 's waterish vertex pressing down the vortex or atmosphere of this terraqueous globe , did not only interrupt the communication of the subterranean and aerial waters , by causing the raising and circulation of vapours to cease ; but also by condensing the moist air into waterish clouds , which falling down in continual spouts for forty days and nights together [ the air being without motion , consequently neither able to break nor support them ] the tops of the highest mountains were cover'd fifteen cubits , as moses gives account , gen. . . and these portentous rains which fell in spouts , moses expresseth by the opening of the windows of heaven , gen. . . thus the divided waters being reuni●●d as they were in the creation , and the circulation of vapours broken by the stagnation and damping of the aerial regions , the whole surface of the earth was cover'd , until god caus'd a wind to pass over the earth , which breaking the aerial damp , the rain ceased ▪ the subterranean waters sunk down into their veins ▪ recover'd the ground which the central fire had gain'd from them : the rivers forc'd the sea to retreat back to her own channel , and returning to her regular flux and reflux , the vapours arose and repair'd the air again wi●h clouds and moisture , and all things return'd to their natural course . i● cannot be imagin'd how the heart of noah and his family was reviv'd when the sun began to shew its face again , and the rain-bow appear'd in a broken cloud . for noah being undoubtedly as well a natural philosopher as a priest in his family , the appearance of a rain-bow [ which after a long storm is an infallible sign of fair-weather ] cou'd not but encourage him with hopes that the damp was broken and the storm over . god therefore made a covenant with noah and his posterity that there shou'd never be an universal deluge upon the earth , gen. . . and to establish this covenant with●him , he made the rain-bow [ being a waterish meteor , and after a storm a sign of fair-weather ] a most proper and significant sign and seal of that covenant [ viz. ] a sign commemorative of the past deluge , and a seal confirmative that there shou'd never be any more flood to destroy the earth . and no more than this seems to be meant by the appearance of the rain-bow in the cloud ▪ chap. xxi . of the season of the year when the deluge happen'd . dr . woodward declares his opinion , that the deluge com●enc'd in the spring season in the month we call may ; but upon what reason he grounds this conceit i cannot easily apprehend . for the fruits of the earth being then but growing ; and the former autu●n seeds being destroy'd by the by past winter , nature wou'd have been forc'd to a spontaneous production of the several kinds of vegetables as had lost their seeds . and whe● the several species of animals which were preserv'd from the flood , had liberty to go abroad and seek food , they wou'd not easily have found it in november and december , which months according to his hypothesis were the season when the waters ab●ted , and the beasts orde●'d to leave the ark , and seek their own food where ●hey cou'd find it . it seems then most probable that the universal deluge commenc'd in that month we call august , when the seeds of all vegetables were full ripe , and ready to sow themselves in the fertile soil , that when the deluge was over , and the dry land had for some time appear'd , and had receiv'd heat and incrustation from the warm influence of an approaching sun : these seeds being mingl'd with a warm and waterish soil , might be ready to spring up and supply the animals with pleasant food . we likewise observe that when the dove was sent forth out of the ark the second time , she brought with her a leaf pluck'd from an olive-tree : when she was sent forth a third time , she return'd no more , having found food upon the earth , which cou'd be no other than corn floating upon the surface of the waterish earth . again , moses gives us an account that in the first month , which probably answers our ianuary , the waters were dry'd up from the face of the earth ; and upon the th day of the second month , which seems to be our february or march , god order'd all the beasts in the ark , to be tur●'d out to grass , and shift for themselves . again , we find daily not only great trees of several kinds [ as oak , birch , &c. ] rooted up by the roots , and lying upon heaps bury'd and entomb'd in great mosses wher● they never had grown ; but had been brought thi●her by that general d●vastation made by the deluge : but hazel-nuts ▪ whose kernels are as fresh ●s if they had now been growing upon the trees . these nuts having been scatter'd there by the deluge , and having layn there bury'd and ●mbalm'd in those bituminous mosses to this day ; and in all probability might have been continu'd as long as the earth . from these observations , we may reasonably infer , that the flood commenc'd when the seeds of all vegetables were ripe for the propagation of their kinds . we may yet farther add , that all damps as well subterranean as aerial ▪ most frequently happen in the autumn season . chap. xxii . of the alterations which noah's flood made in , and upon the earth . i cannot agree with dr. woodward's hypothesis , wherein he asserts that during the time of the deluge , whilst the water was out upon , and cover'd the terrestrial globe , all the stone and marble with the metals and mineral concretions , &c. of the antediluvian earth , were totally dissolv'd ; and their constituent corpuscles all disjoin'd , their cohaesion perfectly ceasing , &c. this hypothesis seem inconsistent with sense and experience , as well as na●ural reason and scripture [ especially the mosaick account of the deluge . ] for first , experience tells us , that there is no such dissolving power or quality ei●her in the subterranean or aerial waters as to effect such a dissolution as he describes , and these were the immediate instruments of the deluge . it cannot reasonably be suppos'd [ without a miracle ] that all the solid consistences of the earth shou'd be dissolv'd into a fluid substance ; and again resettle and receive their several degrees of consolida●ion in so short a time as the flood continued upon the earth . if the earth suffer'd by the deluge a total and universal dissolution , then all those form'd stones and shells which the dr. conceives to be marine bodies born forth of the sea , by the universal deluge , and left behind at land when the waters return'd , wou'd have lost their forms and shapes , these being not only found upon the surface of the earth ; but in the interior parts of it , incorporated with several solid strata of stone , as well upon the mountains as plains . if not only the solid fossils ; but also sand , earth , animate bodies , parts of animals , bones and teeth , shells , vegetables and parts of vegetables , made one common and confus'd mass , dissolv'd into a fluid substance : then the whole species of vegetables , root and branch , stock and seed , wou'd have been lost , and nature forc'd to a s●ontaneous production , as at the creation . the re-settling of the confus'd fluid ma●s ac●ording to the r●l●s of spe●ifick gravity , the ●e●viest subsiding lowest , is a grand mistake in observation ▪ and by the same rule , the earth wou'd have been cov●r'd with a perpe●ual as well as universal deluge , as w● have already obs●rv'd . as this hypothesis is inconsistent with sense , reason and experience , so is it with the account moses gives of the universal deluge ; for he tells us that there were mountains during the prevalency of the waters , and that the flood cover'd the tops of them fifteen cubi●s . he tells us likewise , that the first dry land that appear'd , was the tops of the mountains , and that the ark rested upon the mountains of ararat . if this account be t●ue , as undoubtedly it is , the alterations which the deluge made were only in the surface and exterior parts of the ear●h : and those places of scripture which speak of destroying the earth , are to be understood , only the outward coat or superficies , and no● the mineral part of it . and neither was the surface of the earth altogethe● destroy'd , as appears by the dove 's b●inging of an olive leaf in her mouth pluck'd off ; and by all living creatures in the ark , being turn'd to grass and to shi●t for themselves in the seventh month after the deluge commenc'd , which might be in the beginni●● of our march. the alterations , which the deluge made upon the earth , being only in the exterior part of it , i shall take notice of such as are most remarkable and obvious . as first , the uppermost strata upon the tops of mountains ▪ were broken up and tumbl'd down to the skirts of them , and these we ●ind lying upon their inland sides in great confusion , with false and counter dibs and rises , like those flags and boards of ice , thrown out of the water upon the breach of a storm . the joints of the mountains consisting of rag raff and chiver , and not being bound together with strong cills of stone , were broken , as we have observ'd already . the courses and channels of rivers were enlarg'd , which caus'd all these pleasant gills and dales with their rapid river running through the midst of them . the whirling about of the water , caus'd all those hills or lesser mountains , whose consistences are only sand , gravel , or broken strata of stone &c. the deluge rooted up all the greater trees , some of which we find bury'd and emb●lm'd in great mosses , as well upon the mountains as in the valleys . the surface of the plains and valleys was fertiliz'd by the deluge , by it● leaving a prolifick slime and faeculent mud upon it . these alterations were not caus'd by the rising , but the decreasing waters ; for whilst the waters were arising , the aerial as well as the subterranean damp continu'd , and the subluniary course of nature was stagnated ; but as soon as god caus'd a wind to pass over the earth , the damp broke , and the waters were put into a most violent perturbation and commotion ; which was the only cause of all those alterations and devastations . the end of the first part . a scheme wherein the several degrees & concatenations of life are explained animalia intermedia zoophi●a insects apes idiots heroes genii boni a angels god the centre of the world. the mineral sphere the vegetative sphere of life the sensitive sphere of life the rational sphere of life the intellectual sphere of life the divine essence or fountain of life as the highest degree of vegetation in the zooph●●a makes a near approach to the lowest degree o● s●nsation in the insects . so the highest degree of sensation in apes &c. makes a near approach to the lowest degree of rationalit● in idiots &c. as the highest degree of rationality in the heros ▪ and speritualizd rationals makes a near approach to the boni genii or lowest order of angels : so the highest degree of intellectuallity in the angelick nature makes a near approach to the divine essence . part ii. chap. i. of the plastick spirit in matter , and its natural products . the plastick and vivifick . powers being the first principles of life in this natural world , which forms the first lines , and kindles the first sparks of the vital flame : it will be necessary in order to our present design , [ which is to give a short account of the originals , degrees and propagations of life in this natural world ] to describe the natural operations and products of these two first principles , and to shew how they act severally , as well as in consort . the plastick spirit in this world of matter , is a subtle saline volatile , which [ whilst matter was in a fluid substance ] diffus'd it self through all the lax strata and consistences of it . and ●s that acid a●● s●line humour in the stomachs of animals , together with the vital flame , by several degrees of concoction and depuration , separates the more pure and spirituous parts of the nourishment from the cras●er and more excrementitious parts of it , or as that acid and saline rennet separates and coagulates the more pure , spirituous and oyly parts of the milk from the waterish and more terre●e ; so this subtle and acid volatile , together with that subterranean flame [ which desseminates its warm and enlive●ing influence , not only through all the greater veins branches and ramifactions of the earth , but also pervades the smallest pores of the densest matter ] did separa●e , collect and coagulate the more simple , pure and homogeneous parts of ma●●er , from the crasser parts of it . and as the mass of fluid and waterish matter , receiv'd its degrees of consolidation , these purer and pneumatical coagulations were concreted in those solid as well as laxer strata wherein we find them , and the magnitude and figure of these concreted coagulations , corr●sponds with those moulds of crasser matter from whence they were extracted , and wherein they are enclos'd and compress'd . these we find lodg'd either in the exterior or interior parts of the earth , those concreted coagulations which we meet with in the outer coat , or grand cover of the earth , are of an irregular figure ; and they are lodg'd in that part in disorder and confusion . and these are either the common pebles , which are of a terrene saline or pinguid quality : or , they are common flints , pyritae and marchasites of a pneumatical and fiery quality : or , they are agates , onyxes , jaspers , cornelians , &c. of a mercurial and waterish quality , which are more or less transparent . this outer coat or surface of the earth consisting of sand , gravel , clay , bituminous peat-earth , and other kinds of matter of an heterogeneous nature , affords the greatest variety of these homogeneous concretions . and these are all of the same nature and quality with that courser and crasser matter from which they were extracted and coagulated . those more simple and homogeneous concretions which we meet with lodged in the interior strata of solid matter , which are of an irregular figure , are either of a liquifiable or calcinable quality . those that are not of a liquifiable nature , are those which the miners call the kernels of stones . for as the spirit of nature [ at the first setling of matter ] reduc'd all the constituent parts of the earth to several classes ; and every class of matter leading to some mine or mineral ; so every bed or layer of stone or metal has its proper kernels , by which the ingenious miner may be directed what mine or mineral ●●ey lead to ; whether to coal , rudle , iron . stone , lead or other metallick ores ; and these coagulated concretions , are commonly lodg'd in the midle of such solid strata those homogeneous and more pneumatical concretions of an irregular figure , which are of a liquifiable quality , are the several kinds of metallick ores , and these are lodg'd in those rakes , veins , riders , and strings which cross-cut and divide those solid strata of a hot quality , and the highest degree of concoction . the male parent of all these is sulphur , which being either white or yellow gives the tincture or colour , to all metals . the female parent is quick-silver , which is the cause of their liquifaction , flexibility , and ductility . all solid bodies consist of two several natures , tangible and pneumatical ; the pneumatical substance , is the native spirit of the body , which distinguisheth the several kinds of them : i define therefore all metallick ores to be the more simple homogeneous corpuscles of such stones and cills as are of a hot quality , and the highest degree of concoction , coagulated and concreted in those rakes , veins , &c. which cross-cut and divide those cills . the more homogeneous that metals are , the less of dross they have in them : the more of this native spirit they have in the tangible parts , they are the more liquifiable , flexible and ductile ; for the cause of liquifaction is the detention of the spirits which play within the body and open it ; so that the greater plenty of spirits any tangible matter has in it , it 's the more flexible , and therefore when the tangible parts are jejune of spirits , or easily emit them , they are fragile , and will not easily liqui●ie . when the tangible parts of matter are ductile or tensile , it 's occasion'd by the appetite which the native spirits have to union , and aversness to discontinue . secondly , that the metallick ores are the homogeneous and pneumatical corpuscles of stones and cills of a hot q●ality , and the like , coagulated and concreted by the plastick spirit of m●tter , is evident from the experience of mineralists , who find the greatest plenty of ore , in the veins of such cills as are of the highest degree of induration and concoction ; for where the cills are weak and soft , and have not receiv'd a right degree of heat and temper , their veins are only fill'd with sparr , soyl , clay or vein-stone , like unripe nuts whos● soft and weak shells are only fill'd with a milky pabulum , having little of kernel in them . again , in the third place , that ores are the pneumatical corpuscles of sulphur and quick● silver coagulated and concreted into clods and nodes , and lodg'd in the veins , will be apparent to those who will take the pains to observe , th●t the more rich any v●in is of ore , the less spangled with sulphur , and quick-silver are those cills and m●tals they cross-cut and divide ; and so on the contrary , the more spangl'd the stones are , the less ore in the vein . and the reason why those metallick spangles are collected , coagulated and concreted in those rakes and veins , is because they lay most open and ready to receive them ; and this is the reason too , why we meet with float ore lying in flat beds in those upper cills which lye open : these being ebullitions or overflowings of vein ore. as that hypothesis of the theorist wherein he conceits ▪ that there was no metallick ores or minerals in the antediluian earth , contradicts the account which moses gives of tubal-cain , who was , as he tells us , an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron : this tubal-cain living before the deluge . so dr. woodward's hypothesis , that the metallick and mineral matter , which is now found in the perpendicular intervals of the strata , was all of it originally , and at the time of the deluge lodg'd in the bodies of the strata , being interspers'd or scatter'd in single corpuscles in the sand or other matter , whereof the strata mainly consisted ; seems inconsistent with reason and his own notions of specifick gravity . for , first , it cannot be easily imagin'd by what art or chymistry the metallick or mineral matter , which interspers'd and scatter'd in single corpuscles in the strata of solid stone , [ especially the corpuscles being smaller than those of the smallest sand ] cou'd be separated and made fit for use . again , if the mass of fluid matter , after the deluge was over , did resettle according to the rules of specifick gravity , the heaviest subsiding the lowest [ as the dr. asserts ] why did not these small grains of ponderous ore subside the lowest , being heavier than the corpuscles of those strata wherein they were lodg'd ? and to assert that they were born up by the waters of the abyss rising up towards the surface [ as the dr. supposeth ] is as inconsistent with gravitation and levity , as for feathers t● sink and lead to swim . these hypotheses being inconsistent both with scripture and reason ; we shall take it for granted , that all these coagulated concretions of metallick ores , were by the plastick spirit in matter lodg'd in the veins of the several strata , lying most open , and being most ready to receive them : and that the state of the antediluvian earth did not differ as to its constituent parts from this postdiluvian earth . having given an account of the originals , natures , and causes of such concreted coagulations , as are of an irregular figure ; i proceed to describe the natures and causes of those of a more regular form. and these are the kernels or catheads which we meet with in coal metals or stone metals , which being either of a saline or pinguid quality , and consisting of the smallest grit , gave way to the plastick spirit to form them into more regular shapes and figures ; and these are either globular , oval , triangular , quadrangular , &c. as the matter coagulated had a natural tendency to such a form or figure ; and they lie in these beds of metals , either in layers , or in disorder and confusion besides these irregular and regular concretions ; there are others of a more uniform shape and figure ; and these may most properly bear the name of form'd ston●s . they are found lodg'd either in beds of pinguid and luxuriant soil , or in such b●ds of stone , chalk , sand , gravel and e●rths as are of a s●line quality . those we meet with lodg'd in beds of pinguid and luxuriant soil , have the forms and shapes of worms , serpents , snails and other t●rrene ins●cts , which perhaps cou'd never come within the compass of our observation . those we meet with in the solid strata of stones , chalk , sand , gravel and earth of a saline quality , have the forms of cockels , muss●ls , oyst●rs , and other marine insects , which probably mankind h●s never yet been acquainted with ; and not withs●anding that these shells have the fo●ms of those marine insects they repres●nt , yet th●y never were the spoil● of marine b●dies ; but form'd in those stones and e●rths , where we find them lodg'd : and it seems most probable that they receiv'd these forms and shapes at the creation of this material globe , wh●n m●tter was in a fluid and wate●ish mass ; and wh●n there was a commixture of light and darkness , of the plastick and vivisick powers ; for then the vivifick spirit of nature disseminated the specifick forms of those animals of the lowest degree of life in those waterish funds and promptuaries of matter in which they were form'd , and increas'd into that shape and figure we now find them in . and if god almighty had not [ by dividing the light from darkness , the vivisick from the plastick power , and by consolidating the exterior strata of matter ] cursed the earth , these terrene and marine insects which we find petrefi'd and entomb'd in marble , limestone and chalk , or bury'd in beds of sand , gravel or earth , might have increas'd to higher degres of perfection , as well as those subterranean toads , frogs , asks and clocks , which we meet with in the cavities and joints of such stones as have lost their natural feeders . but of these the following chapters will give a more full account . chap. ii. of the grand cover of the earth ; the sympathetical union of the plastick and vivifick spirit ; and the production of vegetables , the first and lowest degree of life . the outer cover of the more solid parts of the earth , which we call the surface and fertile soil , being [ as we have observ'd ] the universal fund or promptuary , or the common matrix , wherein was desseminated the specifick forms of the lowest degree of life and vegetation , whilst others of a higher degree danc'd about it , like atoms in a morning sun 's beam. it will be necessary in the first place to give a fuller description of the natures and qualities of it , and to shew by what degrees of heat and vital incubations it was modified and prepar'd to answer that imperious word ▪ let the earth bring forth . when the waters were divided and the sea drawn down to its proper channel , they left behind them a feculent mud and sedement , which being like to a universal q●ag , of a lax and waterish substance , consisting of the several kinds of matter of an heterogeneous nature , and saturated with great plenty of mineral spirits of all qualities : these mineral spirits , by a natural motion and tendency rising up to the surface , as we observe cream riseth up to the top of milk , or as oyl sloateth above water ; the warm influence of the aetherial flame moving upon it , thickn●d these mineral spirits into a liquid gelly , or a pinguid and unctious slime . and this we call the naked skin of the earth or fertile soil . this skin or fertile soil , before it got any coat or cover upon it , was not only tinctur'd and colour'd with all those wate●ish colours of green , red , yellow , &c. but also was spotted and speckl'd with great variety of other colours , occasion'd by a commixture of these mineral spirits . and these gave not only the tinctures and colours to the common and waterish herbs , as grass , plants and flowers , but gave also the different complexions to birds , beasts and men. and as the several colours and complexions were occasion'd by the mixture and temperament of the mineral spirits , so were their different natures and qualities ; for a cunning chymist will extract out of herbs and plants the several kinds of mineral spirits , as well as out of the mineral it self . the virgin matter being thus modifi'd and prepar'd by the warm influence and enlivening vegetations of the aetherial flame , and its naked skin adorn'd and beautifi'd with her great variety of natural paints : those seminal forms or plastick ▪ souls which were disseminated in her warm and moist womb , and sympathetically united to their belov'd matter , began to exert their plastick powers , and put forth spungy strings and roots ; not only to fasten them to the earth , but to suck in such juices as were most proper for their food and nourishment , which by their seminal vertues being digested into the substance of a plant , herb or tree , of such an order , figure and temperament , it became an individual of that numerous species of vegetables ; which began first to peep out of the earth , as corn out of the furrows ; and afterwards gradually increas'd to the highest degree of perfection and maturity its nature was capable of . thus the naked skin of the earth was cover'd with a coat or green livery , beautifi'd and adorn'd with flowers of several kinds of colours ; and as the passive matter increas'd in degrees of heat and modification , it produc'd vegetables of higher degrees of life and perfection , as all kinds of trees , from the lowest shrub to the tallest cedar or most robust oak . that these productions were not brought forth all at once ; but gradually as the passive matter receiv'd higher degrees of heat and modification , is apparent from our observing of those annual productions which every season bringeth forth . for there are some vegetables of a cold and waterish quality , whose natural spirits are more fine , light and active , which require only a smaller degree of heat to raise them , and these are the productions of those early months , ianuary , february and march : and these come to their perfection and maturity before april and may , which present us with an other crop and order of vegetables : and for this same reason , iune , iuly and august go further , and presents us still with different shows of plants , herbs and flowers : and thus as the sun increaseth in heat , and the passive matter in degrees of modification , we are presented with higher and more noble productions . the seminal forms of vegetables , being now united to their material vehicles , and being grown up to their several degrees of perfection and maturity , they retain'd seed in themselves , and did propagate their several kinds by scattering of their ripe seed upon the fertile soil , which like the warm and moist womb of a fruitful mother , dissolves them first into a liquid jelly , and then divides their parts into their several uses . that the seminal forms of vegetables were originally disseminated in the earth as in an universal fund or promptuary , will be yet further evident by those ocular observations which has been frequently made of productions without seed ; for take some quantity of earth digg'd several fathoms under ground , and expose it to the sun and rain , and it will spontaneously without any seed bring forth common grass and several herbs and plants again , we observe that particular soils will produce , without propagation by seed , herbs and plants peculiar to that kind of soil and earth , as pavements do naturally produce knot-grass , &c. if it be object'd , that the smaller seeds are disseminated over all by the winds , and the greater seeds scatter'd by birds that feed upon them . i answer that its commonly observ'd , when earth is brought out of the indies or other remote countries for ballast to ships , and cast forth upon some ground in italy or other countries at a great distance , it will put forth foreign herbs to us unknown : and it cannot be imagin'd that the winds shou'd blow the seeds of these plants from the indies , or that the birds shou'd cross the seas and scatter them at so great a distance . to these i might farther add those try'd experiments of transmutation ▪ transmigration , and degeneration of herbs and plants . having describ'd the original of vegetables the first and lowest degree of life , and shewn that tho' the manne● of their propagation be now by seed ; yet when seed is wanting , the fertile soil will bring forth common grass and other plants in the natural way by a spontaneou● generation : thus the evening and the morning , or the sympathetical union of the active form and passive matter produc'd the first and lowest degree of life , which made the third production . chap. iii. of reducing the confus'd mass or light of the aetherial flame into a body , which made the sun ; of reducing those higher fogs and waterish mists into a body , which made the moon ; how by clearing of the superlunary firmament or the planetary spheres , the stars appear'd : and what the sun , moon and stars contribute towards the production of sensitive or locomotive animals , and why the creation of these second causes made the fourth production . tho' the earth was now gay and trim with a new green livery of grass , adorn'd with painted flowers , and pleasant copices or thickets of young trees ; the passive matter was yet too cold and waterish to draw down out of the second degree of life any of the sensitive forms to actuate and inform it . the almighty power did therefore contract this dilated aetherial flame of light into a body , which moses calls the sun , that those enlivening heats and vital incubations which flow from it , might be more strong and vigorous , and penetrate deeper into the cold matter . and god plac'd this coelestial fire at such a convenient distance from the earth , that it might neither be too much scorch'd by being too near it ; nor frozen , by being at too great a distance from it ; but that it might receive such a temperate heat from it , as to excite its seminal vertues , and draw up its juices into them , and thereby ripen its natural fruits . god gave to the earth also a diurnal motion , that by a just and regular turning about upon its own cen●re , it might have the benefit of day and night every four and twenty hours , so that no part of the earth might be too much heated by thesun's presence upon it , or too long benighted by his absence from it ; because as one side is warm'd and cherish'd by its rays , it withdraws and turns to it its other side ; and so by this just and regular turning about of the earth , and an equal distribution of day and night , the active animals get leave to rest , the over-heated air to cool , and the gasping earth to recover its fainting vertues , which a continu'd day wou'd soon exhaust and extinguish . god gave also the sun an annual motion , and has directed it into such a commodious course , that it sheds forth its enlivening light , heat and influence over all the parts of the earth , and by turns , gives all countries their yearly seasons . and this gradual increase and decrease of heat , answers all the ends of nature , both in the vegetive and animal world much better than the constant temperature and equality of heat , which the theorist supposeth to have been in the an●ediluvian earth . after the creation of the sun , god reduc'd all those vast fogs and waterish mists that rang'd about in the planetary spheres into a body , which moses calls the moon , and he design'd it [ as a reverend and learn'd divine of our own has observ'd ] to be for a vicarious light to the sun , to supply his absence , and perform his office in the lower world. he plac'd the moon in the lowest of the coelestial spheres , at such a conv●nient distance from the earth , that the warm influence of the sun being reflected from it , might carry down with it some of its coelestial moisture . he gave also to the moon so commodious a motion , which it performs in every or days , that when the sun is southward it moves northward , and when the sun moves northward it's motion is southward , by which motion the cold and darkness of the long winter nights are moderated , and these remote regions under the poles comforted with the sun's influence at second-hand , when they want it at the first . thus by reducing of those waterish fogs into the body of the moon , the upper firmament or the planetary spheres were clear'd , and the plan●ts , with the rest of the stars created in the morning of the world , began to appear ; and to send down their aetherial and invisible influences upon this globe , which were obstructed and interrupted by the interposition of these waterish mists . and the creation of the sun and moon and the clearing of the planet●ry spheres god made use of as 〈…〉 , or necessary second causes tow●rd ●he production of the second d●●ree of life , and therefore these made the fourth production . chap. iv. of the production of the second degree of life , and first of oviparous animals , as fish and waterish insects . having already observ'd , that whilst the earth was a fluid and waterish mass , and there was a commix●ure of light and darkness , the plastick and vivifick spirits ; the specifick forms of vegetation , and the lowest forms of animals were disseminate● in the exterior strata of this waterish mass ; and if god had not curs'd the earth , by dividing light from darkness , the material and formal principles of life , the luxuriant matter wou'd have teem'd fo●th such numbers of animal productions , that the surface of the earth and waters wou'd not have maintain'd them . this hypothesis is grounded not only upon the form'd stones we meet with lodg'd in the interior strata of the earth [ which having the shapes and representations of terrene and marine insects ] cou'd proceed from no other original than a plastick spirit ; but also upon those subterranean animals , as toads , frogs , asks and clocks , which we sometimes meet with inclos'd in the cavities and hollows of stone , as well as in their dry joints . i have found a large toad six yards under ground , inclos'd in the very middle of a hard stone , where the joint that led to it was so straight , that it wou'd not receive the thinnest knife ; so likewise great numbers of asks , clocks and beetles in the dry joints of stones , which cou'd have no other generation , but what was from a plastick spirit modifying a subterranean vapour collected into that cavity or dry joint , the vivifick flame kindl'd a spark of life in them , which [ by sucking in such subterranean vapours , as abounded in the joints of these dry stones , which had lost their natural feeders ] were increa●'d to that bulk we found them in ; no doubt but the stamina vitae of these subterrene animals are preserv'd by continual sleeping , and the air they breath is purely subterranean , like embrios in the womb , which live by the respiration of their mothers : and it may seem very probable that these under-ground animals have liv'd in these joints and cavities ever since the deluge , and perhaps long before ; for as nothing preserves the vital flame more than sleep ; so nothing wastes and spends it more than action . to these i might add the production of eels , worms , marine and waterish insects , as the vrtica marina , &c. which being zoophyta or plant animals , and not locomotive , cou'd have no other production , than what was meerly aequivocal or spontaneous , and from matter modifi'd and prepar'd for rec●iving of the vital spark . besides these invisible productions , i shall add one more , visible and apparent . take a strong horse-hair , and put it into the water warm'd by the influence of the sun [ especially in may o● iune ] and within some few hours it will take life , move at both ends , and in a short time , its probable that it might become one of those several kinds of eels we meet with in the waters . notwithstanding that all these productions had their first original from such matter as was most proper and capable to be modisied by the plastick spirit of nature ; yet being produc'd , they sometimes propagate their several kinds by univocal generation , these marine insects which are not locomotive , being only excepted . from these praeliminary instances , and a great many more ocular observations which might easily be produc'd , i conclude , that as the several forms of vegetables , were disseminated in the upper covers of the earth ; so were the specifick forms of several kinds of fish [ as well those which the natu●alists call pelagiae , as those they call l●turales ] desseminated in the wa●●r● , or submarine and fresh-water quicksands ; and as the water receiv'd higher d●grees of modific●tion , they produc'd fish of a higher degree of life , in obedience to that command laid upon them , let the waters bring forth abundantly . the second causes which concurr'd in the production of these waterish animals , were , first , the coelestial influences . secondly , the water which being modified by the plastick spirit and the coelestial influences , became waterish vehicles , or bodies for their specifick forms to act in . thirdly , the submarine and waterish quick-sands in which their eggs were generated . fourthly , the subterranean heat , which abounding most in these submarine quick-sands or waterish nests , did hatch these eggs into life . fifthly , an innate power in the plastick form , which discriminated their kinds . the original production of all kinds of fish , being from their invisibe and vital forms disseminated in waterish quick-sands , as soon as they came to perfection and maturity , they retain'd seed in themselves , by which they propagated their own kinds . the time of their propagation is with us about september ; for then being grown strong and lusty with their summers feeding , and the influence of the moon and the rest of the aetherial bodies , being then more strong and powerful upon the waters . again , about that time the subterranean heat rises towards the surface of the earth , and breaks out in springs and quick sands , which is the reason , why about that time the fresh-water fish draw up to the spring-heads , and the sea fish to the submarine q●ick-sands , wherein they scatter their eggs. the manner how they propagate , is , first by digging up the sand where they intend to make their nests , and then [ not by copulation or penetration of parts , but playing cheek for chole , and by sympathetical touches ] the female whones her eggs , and the male his spawn , which mixing together falls down into these prepar'd nests which they cover up with sand , thereby securing it from the winter floods . after this they return to their winter holds , leaving their eggs to be hatch'd by the subterranean heat , which continues in the springs and quick-sands until the april following ; and then the young frie , being hatch'd creep out of their warm nests and swim down the waters in numerous swarms or shoals . after the production of all the subordinate kinds of fish , god last of all created great whales , by which words moses intimates to us , that all the rest of the waterish animals were produc'd by the ordinary concurrence of second causes ; but god to shew his great power in the deep waters as well as upon the dry land , did seem to give a preter-natural assistance to the production of an animal of so great a body ; which in the atlantick ocean , when they appear to mariners upon the waters , appear like little islands or mountains ; and these are the leviathans that god made to take their pastime in the deep : he made them lords also over all the fish , which he gave to them for meat . for as every superior rank or species of terrene animals feed upon their inferior , and man upon all ; so every superior species of fish live upon their inferior , and so the whale , being lord over all the rest , lives upon its underlings . chap. v. of the second genus of oviparous animals , ( viz ) the aerial : and first , of fly insects , secondly , of serpents , thirdly , of birds , and why moses makes the waterish and aerial animals congenial . as it seems preposterous to create any species of animals , before meat suitable to their natures to live upon was provided for them ; so it seems most probable and agreeable with the ends of nature , that grass , plants , herbs , and the whole set of vegetables shou'd be the first spring and summers product . that the replenishing of the waters with all kinds of fish , the production of the following winter ; and that the next spring shou'd begin with the production of aerial animals ; these ●iving and feeding upon the first products of the earth and waters . again , since the several degrees of modification of matter , and the animal life increaseth , as the enlivening influence of the sun grows hotter and more powerful ; it necessarily follows , that the several kinds of flying insects , [ being the lowest degree of life under this genus ] shou'd be the first product ; for as soon as the fertile soil had receiv'd a degree of heat from the approaching sun , the earth began to revive , the young plants began to peep out of their winter beds , and the tender leaves of trees began to break their autumn buds . the east wind blowing then dry , by it's soft and easie blasts did condense the morning and evening dews into viscous and clammy strings , which like cobwebs hang upon every thorn and spread themselves upon the young grass , till the sun advancing towards the meridian , sent down a warm reflection upon the earth , and caus'd all these fine and tender threads to draw together , and fashion themselves into little nests , in which by a higher degree of heat were form'd little eggs ; which by another degree of heat took life , and did fly about in the open air , some feeding upon dews , others upon leaves ; others upon corruption in the air ; others were blood-suckers . besides these generated of dews , there are infinite numbers of other kinds of insects which are generated of slime and corruption ; and these are either daily or weekly productions , some of which transmute from one species to another , as those insects which we call caterpillars the first summer , the next summer will become butterflies : so cod-bates in april and iune will transmute into those kind of flies we call clegs , which are blood-suckers . to shew particularly the kinds , natures and numbers of all these transmutable insects , wou'd be a task invincible . thus were the several kinds of flying insects produc'd , having their colours , natures and qualities from flowers , plants , herbs , trees , or corrupted water and slime , and their shapes and figures from their plastick forms , these being the lowest degree of life , a small degree of heat produc'd ' em . of the production of serpents . after the production of these flying insects , the east wind still blowing warm and dry , those standing puddles of stagnated and corrupted water being drain'd , and leaving behind a poisonous slime , on which by the sun's influence were form'd poisonous eggs ; which by higher degrees of heat were hatch'd into life , and by sucking in and feeding upon such poisonous matter as they cou'd meet with ●uitable to their natures , they got strength , feet and wings , and became serpents of several kinds , some creepers , as adders and snakes , some with feet , as the asp and viper , some with horns , as the cerafles ; some with wings , as the basilisk and dragon , and the like . altho that these have all of them head , heart , blood , nerves , senses and other parts agreeable with the most perfect animals ; and tho' that some of them be the most subtile amongst the irrationals ; yet by reason of their disparity with quadrupedes , they are accounted amongst the imperfect animals and of a lower degree of life . of the several kinds of birds . after this the cold and waterish earth , being drain'd and warm'd by the increasing influence of the sun , the mountains , heaths , dales , valleys , water-sands and the sea-shore , were cover'd with a luxuriant , plastick and prolifick slime , which drew down [ by way of sympathy ] out of the warm regions of the air , the specifick forms of birds or aerial animals , which being united to this luxuriant and plastick slime , there were form'd innumerable numbers of eggs upon the mountains , heaths , valleys , and all parts of the earths surface ; and no sooner were these eggs form'd , but the warm influence of the sun , sat on brood upon them until they were hatch'd into little chickens . those hatch'd upon the sea-shore became sea-birds , those by the sides of rivers , feeding upon fresh-water fish , and those hatch'd hy the sides of lakes and ponds , became amphibious birds , feeding both upon fish and herbs , as geese , swans , ducks , &c. those hatch'd upon mountains and heaths feeding upon mountain vegetables , heath birds ; those upon the plains and valleys became domesticks , feeding both upon grass and corn ; and those in the woods , singing birds and birds of prey , as the eagle , and the rest of those tyrants of the air. after this manner were the aerial animals produc'd , and the reason why moses makes the aerial and waterish animals congenial , is , first , the parity of their production , being both from eggs. secondly , the affinity of that matter on which they were produc'd , the air and water being transmutable elements . thirdly , from the likeness of their actions and qualities , the one kind having fins by which they swim in the water , the other having wings by which they fly or swim in the air. as these were the productions of the first spring months ( viz. ) ianuary , february and march ; so in these months they do always propagate their kinds by laying of eggs , every species according to its kind ; some on mountains , others in valleys ; some by water-sides , others in the woods , &c. the warm wing of the dam , now supplying the want of a warm sun-beam . for as the wing hatcheth them out of their shells , so it strengthens and nourishes them by vital incubations , till their pinions be able to bear them up to seek their own food : thus the wing is both the midwife that brings them out , and the nurse that brings them up . chap. vi. of the terrene , or viviparous animals . after the production of these animals of a lower degree of life , and perfection , and the sun was advanc'd higher in his annual motion , which darting down his warm beams upon the earth in a more direct line , they did penetrate deeper into the cold matter ; and by drawing forth its fertile spirits towards the skin or surface of it , they set the plastick power on working , and modifying the passive matter into more noble forms ; which by their sympathetical charms drew down the specifick forms of the most perfect animals within the second sphere of life . for in every little pit or hollow of the earth , which being fill'd with luxuriant and prolifick slime was kindl'd by the vivifick vertue of the seminal form , a little bubble of life , which the plastick power began to shape into the form or figure of an animal . and thus was the numerous brood of quadrupedes , [ being animals of the most perfect kind ] first conceiv'd in the warm and moist womb of modified matter , nourish'd by sucking in the luxuriant and prolifick slime ; which by their vital heat they digested and distributed into the several parts and members of their bodies increasing of them by an equal assimulation of parts ; and as soon as these young embrio's had got strength , they crawl'd out of their warm nests of matter , and began to suck in those honey dews , and lick up that sweet manna which laid upon the grass and herbs , and this supply'd to them the want of maternal milk and nourishment . for during the time of these productions , god neither suffer'd it to rain upon the earth , nor the winds to blow , lest this infant brood of young animals shou'd have been destroy'd , before the birds got wing , or ●he beasts foot and strength to defend themselves against a storm ; but there went up only a mist from the earth , which water'd the whole face of the ground . and this mist was only a warm and moist smother , which arose from the earth , as we observe it to rise from the furrows in the spring , months occasion'd by the morning sun-beams , and these clouds which did swim in the air , only serv'd for umbrello's and parasoli to screen those infant animals from being scorch'd by the heat of the sun , and from drying up their food and nourishment . the earth being now stock'd with the several kinds of animals , contain'd under the sensitive genus , they did propagate their kinds by univocal generation . for which end nature and providence hath form'd several vessels of slime-pits in every female , for preserving something analogous to that original slime , which was then the passive principle of generation , and likewise in every male such vessels as are most fit and commodious for preserving a beam or spark of the aetherial flame [ which being the material vehicle , wherein the specifick form is preserv'd ] kindles the first buble of life in the passive matter . and we observe that as soon as age and maturity hath fill'd these seminal vessels with this prolifick slime , and digest'd it into a right degree of heat and temperature , the females of every kind or species of animals , begin to prune , dress and trim themselves , by which modest way of courtship , the male is drawn and charm'd to within their sympathetical spheres : thus the evening and the morning , or the sympathetical union of the active form and passive matter , made the fifth production . chap. vii . of the creation of man , the sixth production . the earth being now cover'd with the great variety of species , contain'd under the genus of vegetation , the waters replenish'd with all kinds of fish , the mountains , plains and valleys stock'd with herds and flocks of all kinds of cattle : god did once more modifie the passive matter into a more noble and excellent form , not only capacitated to receiv● the lower degrees of the animal life : but also fitted with organs to entertain an intellectual soul , which moses ●ells us god breath'd into it : it being impossible for matter , tho' never so curiously modifi'd by the plastick spirit of nature and the joint concurrence of the coelestial influences to draw down by the power of any material sympathy a soul out of the immaterial and intellectual spheres of life to animate and enform it . and this noble creature god call'd man , being made not only after his own image , spiritual and immortal ; but also after his similitude ( viz ) endow'd with all the affections and communicable attributes of the divine nature , by which he became capable not only of disclosing the secret mysteries of nature , and of diving into its deep philosophy ; but also of knowing and adoring his creator ; by which perogatives of his birth , and noble extraction , he became qualifi'd for being his creator's vicegerent upon earth . the conclusion . wherein is shewn the meaning and significancy of these words . and god saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good . that god , who is infinite in goodness and all perfections , cannot be the author or producer of any thing , but what is good and perfect in its kind , hath been always assum'd as a granted principle , not only by the best of divines , but even the generality of pagan philosophers : yet moses , notwithstanding this , foreseeing that this excellent frame of the world , which was design'd on purpose to bring all reasonable creatures to the knowledge and veneration of their creator , wou'd be perverted to contrary ends and effects ; and that the production of all the creatures might be ascrib'd wholly to second causes , or to no cause at all ; but to chance and to the casual motion of matt●r , for the prevention of which , he here brings in the almighty more humano taking an exact view and survey of the whole creation , both as to its structure and furniture , and giving it his divine approbation in these words , and he saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good . the goodness of the creatures do principally consist in these four particulars . in their correspondency and agreement with those patterns and ideas preconceiv'd in the divine understanding . in their fitness and suitableness for those misplaid ends and purposes for which they were created . in their being good and perfect in their several kinds . in the regular keeping and observing those rules given them at their creation . th●t this infinite variety of orders , shapes and figures , by which the several species of creatures are charact●riz'd and distinguish'd , are not the effects of blind chance or casual motion , but t●e products of infinite power , wisdom and counsel , will be clear and evident , if we carefully observe , that not only their numbers , shapes and figures ; but also their whole contextures and contemperation of parts , with their natures and qualities , have all of them a manifest relation to those several uses and operations they perform ; and this is so fairly illustrated and prov'd by the ing●nious and leaned mr. ray , in his treatise concerning the wisdom and providence of g●d in the creation of the world ; that a ●urther enlargement upon this argument , wou'd be wholly superfluous . that all creatures are good and perfect in their kind , will appear , if we consider that it was most agreeable with the divine wisdom , that the whole scheme and system of nature , shou'd consist in different degrees of perfection and subordination of life : and that every inferior spe●ies shou'd be concatenated to its superior by animals of an intermediate nature , and yet notwithstanding this difference amongst the creatures in degrees of life and perfection , we cannot but observe , that every creature even of the lowest degree of life is good and perfect in its kind ( viz ) without any blemish , defect or flaw ; for the meanest insect , is as perfect an animal , as the elephant and whale , and god's wisdom and power is as well to be admir'd in the paint upon the butterflie's wing , as in the glorious body of the sun. again , there is nothing more agreeable with the divine wisdom , than that there shou'd be in so great a variety of creatures , degrees of subordination and perfection , will yet further appear if we consider that these creatures of a lower degree of perfection do by comparison illustrate and commend those of a higher degree . that those regular subserviencies and harmonies might make up a vital cement whereby the whole frame and structure shou'd be united . it was nec●ssary that there shou'd be variety of natures , and different degrees of life , that the wisdom of the creator might be the more display'd , acknowledg'd and celebrated , and that his infinite and universal goodness might be more visible in the supplying and providing for the wants of so vast a number of creatures of so different natures . lastly , that man being pla●'d at so great a distance from the beatisick vision [ which whilst he continues in this compounded state , wou'd either have dazl'd or confounded his sight , or affright'd and ravish'd his soul out of his body ] it pleas'd therefore the divine wisdom to create all this great variety of creatures that he might behold his creator at second-hand , when his bodily eyes cou'd not bear the sight of him at the first . and secondly , that he might exercise and improve his rational faculties , and entertain his heaven-born soul with natural as well as divine speculations , which in some measure compensates for the want of a clearer sight of the divine vision . again , altho' it must be granted that in those different degrees of perfection all are not alike amiable , lovely and beneficial to man ; yet those that are the less beautiful and lovely sets off the beauty of the rest , as shadows set off the more lively colours . thirdly , that the goodness of the creature , does consist in its fitness for those ends and purposes for which it was created will appear , if we consider that it cannot be easily imagin'd , that god who is infinite in wisdom and goodness , shou'd create any thing in vain ; but to good ends , and the best of purposes . we therefore in the nature of things can discover infinite agreeableness of this to that , and of one thing to another . and though we cannot throughly penetrate and discover the relation use and end , of every thing in nature , by reason of our incapacity , occasion'd by the darkness of that state we live in ; yet we have reason from what we can discover , to conclude , that every thing was created for good ends and particular uses : for , first of all , we do observe that every inferior creature was subservient to its superior : and all the creatures subservient to man ; altho our ignoranc● in this dark and degenerate state , has made us uncapable of understanding their natures and uses . secondly , we observe that every element is fitt'd for its animal , and every animal for its proper element . we observe that every object is fitted for its sense , and every sense to its proper object . we observe that food and nourishment is provided in nature's s●ore-house for every animal , and every animal for its proper food and nourishment . these being trite and common topicks , i refer the reader to those authors who have made it their business to enlarge upon them : i shall proceed therefore to shew how in the last place , the goodness of the creatures consist in observing and keeping of those laws given them at their creation . when the almighty had created the world , and stock'd it with several ranks and degrees o● creatures , he gave them laws to keep , and rules to walk by : and these we call the regular course of nature , from which they never vary unless at their creator's command . these laws which all the creatures are govern'd by , are , . a divine impression ; or , . natural instinct , . external senses . . the laws and rules of natural reason . . the inanimate creatures , are govern'd by a divine impression ; for if we look up to heaven , we observe how the sun , moon and all the aetherial globes do perform their natural motions , from which they have not vary'd higher or lower , faster or slower , since their first creation ; and how they shed forth their coelestial influences on all things here below . . if we look downward , we may observe , how this terraqueous globe consisting of dull and stupid matter , turnes about its own centre , and naturally , constantly and regularly performs its diurnal motion , its cold sides ●her●by receiving th● warm influence of the co●l●stial bodies . . we may obse●ve , that those ●●eak a●d groveling plants ( viz. ) the hop , vi●e and ivy , are by nature 〈◊〉 with ●endrils or pliant strings , and how by a natural kind of instinct they seek about for supporters , and having found them , they clasp about them ; for all the plants of this kind , as 〈◊〉 they were sensibe of their being , adjective , are always in busie quest for their substan●ive . fourthly , we may observe how the insects , those animals of the lowest degree of life , propagate and preserve their kind by natural instinct , which in them supplies the want of higher degrees of sense ; for with what curiosity do the bees make their waxen cells , lay in their winter provision , and how obedient they are to their master bees or governors ? with what wonderful art does the spider spin his web out of his own bowels ? with what care and industry does the little ant first make her store house in some dry hill , then seeks about for winter provisions , and that the corn and seed she gathers may not grow nor sprout in her store-house , she eats off that end where the seminal form is lodg'd . fifthly , we may observe how all those winter sleepers , who when their summers provisions are spent , and by their natural instinct they foresee the winter's frost approaching , do withdraw into some warm winter-quarters , where they live by sleeping , till the approaching sun invite them out into the fields . sixthly , we may observe with what wonderful art and curiosity the smallest birds build their nests of several form● suitable to their weakness or strength ▪ how when their nests are built , they lay their eggs , hatch them with their wings , and then feed them till they get strength to fly abroad , and seek their own meat ; we may further observe , that all those creatures that are govern'd by the laws of natural instinct , never varies in their operations ; but walk in the same roads and pursue the same methods . seventhly , we may observe how those animals that are govern'd both by sense and instinct do prepagate their kinds , and how they are all provided with natural armour for self-preservation : we may also observe amongst those animals of a higher degree of sense such instances of love and hatred , as are seldom practis'd by the most passionate lovers , or the most malicious haters . i have known and heard of dogs and other ●re●tures , that have pin'd away ●nd dy'd for want of their masters ▪ and others also that have born such an impl●cable antipathy against some particular persons , as was never to be reconcil'd . eighthly , and lastly , i might instance in those excell●nt laws of prudence and reason , as well as those of the divine life , which god imprinted upon the nature of man , before they were obliterat'd and defac'd by sense . thus all the creatures , m●n only excepted , continue still under the government of those laws given them at their first creation . this may seem sufficient to convince the most profess'd atheist , who is not resolv'd to offer violence to his natural sense as well as reason , that there is a god , and that the world with all its furniture , was the product of the divine power , wisdom and counsel . the end of the second part. a discourse concerning the terrestrial paradise , shewing how adam was introduced into it : the time he continued in it ; and how he and eve employed that time. a discourse concerning the terrestrial paradise , shewing how adam was introduced into it . several men of great learning ▪ as well ancient as modern , have made most industrious enquities , after the place and situation of this terrestrial paradise ; of which moses has given us so particular a description in his second ●hapter of genesis . and their opinions about it , being as different and wide , as east and wes● , heaven and earth ▪ we shall therefore only undertake , to present the reader with some conclusions , drawn , as well from the fairest arguments of probability , as from the mosaick account of the place . and first we conclude from the literal sense of the text , that there was such a place upon earth , as a local paradise ; and that this place , did as far exceed the rest of the earth , in fertility of soil , and all the products of nature , as gardens of the best cultivation , exceed the common fields . we collect from the literal sense , that this terrestrial paradise , in respect of iudea or midian [ where we suppose moses writ this system of the creation ] was eastward . that in respect of the surface of the earth , its particular situation was misplaced in a middle between the tops of the highest mountains , and the lower plains and valleys . that in respect of the heavens , its situation was under the aequinoctial line . these two last hypothesis's having no authority from the sacred scripture , we shall endeavour to ground them ; not only upon the bare account which tranellus has given of the fertility of those aequinoctial regions , but also upon such natural arguments as cannot [ without offering violence to reason if self ] be easily deny'd . for notwithstanding , that several of the ancient writers , were of opinion that those countries , under the torrid zone , were uninhabitable , by reason of the sun 's darting down its fiery globuli upon them in down-right lines : and because they wanted those plentiful and pleasant showers of rain , which fertiliz'd the rest of the habitable world ; yet the experience of later travallers hath discover'd to us , first that the want of rain is repair'd by those great and rich dews , which the morning-cold condenseth , and which lying upon the ground until ten a clock , the sun's influence upon it , having then exhal'd the more nitrons and airy part of it ; the sphere of rarefaction [ which in those regions falls low , and is always open ] rarifies it into such cool gales , and briezes of wind [ which always blowing from ten a clock in the morning until three in the afternoon ] so cools and abates the extremity of the heat ; that no inconvenience or distemp●eture is found there . again , the nights [ as sir walter raleigh has observ'd in his trav●ls ] are so cool , fresh and equal , by re●son of the intire interposition of the earth , that there is not to be found i● any part of the habitable world a better , more wholsome , or equal temper of air. and although there be some tracts , which lye under the perpendicular mountains where the air stagnates , the fresh gales and briezes of wind over-blowing them , and some other places sandy , barren and less inhabited , yet the greatest part of those regions [ especially the dales , which lying above the plains and lower valleys , have always their air brush'd and swee●n'd with these fresh briezes of wind ; and are plentifully water'd , with rapid rivolets arising from the tops and sides of their neighbou●ing mountains . and these as well as ●he plains and valleys , are beautify'd with abundance of stately cedars , and other trees , casting a pleasant shade , and delightful fragrancy . they are enrich'd too with all ●orts of most delicate fruit-trees , always green , and bearing the choi●est fruit in their highest degree of perfection . their boughs and branches are never uncloath'd and left naked ; for their sap never creeps under ground fearing the winter frosts . to these accounts which we have from travellers of the greatest truth ●nd fidelity ; we further add , that as all the flat strata or layers of stones , metals , and sub●erranean earths , have a natural rise toward this middle girdle of the earth , and a gradual declivity towards the two poles ( which all mineralists , who understand the structure of the earth , and the position of the solid strata willingly agree to ) we may thence most reasonably collect , that these aequinoctial regions were the ●irst dry land that appear'd after the waters began to divide and decrease . we yet further subjoin , that as this middle girdle upon the earth , lies parallel to that middle circle in t●e heavens [ we call the sodiack ] through which the sun performs its annual course , we collect that it , with th● adjoining regions , received the first and largest influence of the sun's enlivening vegetation , and consequently were stored with the first products of nature ; as well animals , as vegetables . so that in all probability , there might be ripe fruit in paradise , before those other regions towards the tropicks and poles were drain'd from the waters , or receiv'd the sun's vegetation according to their natural seasons . again , as these aequinoctial regions produced all kinds of vegetables and animals in the highest degree of perfection their natures were capable of : so they did , and do to this day afford us not only the greatest plenty of the most precious stones , but also the most valuable and useful metals , as gold , silver , brass , iron , &c. and this is not only evident from the mosaick account of the rivers of paradise ; but the experience of those merchants , who being tempted by their value , trade thither . once more , as it is most probable , that these aequinoctial regions were the first dry land , that they receiv'd the first enlivening vegetation of the sun , and were honour'd with the first products of nature ; so it is most agreeable with reason , that all the regions upon earth are more or less paradisaical , as their situations are nearer or at a distance from this middle zone , and that from paradise they were first stock'd with the several products of nature , and the several genera of animals ; which began to propagate their kinds there , until the earth was replenish'd . altho' its most probable , that they did degenerate from their original perfection as their propagations were at a distance from paradise . as from these arguments we collect and conclude , that the terrestrial paradise was in respect of the heavens situated under the aequinoctial line ; so in the last place , we conclude that its particular situation was in a middle between the tops of the highest mountains and the lowest valleys . and we ground this hypothesis upon the account which moses gives of the course and motion of that river which water'd paradise : for this river undoubtedly had its rise from the top or side of some of the eastern mountains , and took its course first in one rapid stream , through the midst of that most pleasant dale , and then by dividing it self into four lesser streams , they became the heads of four of the greatest and most noble rivers in the world ▪ which sliding down through the lower dales , plains and valleys , of a great part of asia and africa ; at last empty'd themselves into the main ocean at great distances . the hight of its situation gave it a most wholesome , delightful and cherishing air , together with the most advantageous and grateful prospect over the rest of the rising and growing world. this paradisaical dale , had all the advantages of a natural situation . for first of all , it must be necessarily suppos'd , that it had its situation under the skirts of the highest mountain in those eastern countries , which defended it from the cold blasts of the northern wind , from whose lofty top did flow that rapid mineral feeder which took its course through the midst of it . it may be supposed also , that it was encompassed with lesser hills on all sides excepting the south-e●st , which let into it the warm enlivening beams of the rising sun , and which was the onl● passage that gives liberty of entrance into it . that these hills were beautify'd and adorn'd with all kinds of trees , which might gratifie the senses with their fresh and beautiful colours , always green , and casting a most pleasant shade and delightsome fragrancy ; in which the active and chearful birds sung their morning and evening anthems . that these hills encompassed a large and spacious plain , wherein did spring up and grow to perfection all the species of herbs . plants and flowers that are to be found in the large volume of natures inventory . in the middle of which nature had planted a most curious grove or orchard , wherein did grow all kinds of fruit-trees bearing the choise●t of all fruit , that might either gratifie the eye or please the palate . the most remarkable trees in this most pleasant garden , were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge , which [ being taken in a literal and natural sense ] had their names from the nature and quality of the fruit they bore . the former ( viz. ) the tree of life bore a wholsome fruit , preserving both the growing sensitive and rational life ; and that so long as a body compounded of matter , consisting of contrary qualities could last . the other ( viz. ) the tree of knowledge , bore an unwholesome fruit of a poysonous nature , which destroying the excellent frame and temperament of the body , made it subject to diseases and pains , and last of all to death and mortality . as the former gave us the experience of health , life and vigour , which men are seldom sensible of , whilst that happy state continues . so the fruit of the other gave us the knowledge and sad experience of an unhealthy and sickly constitution of body , and lastly of death and mortality ; hence it had its name of the tree of knowledge from the dear bought experience of its fruit. this i con●ess is but a rude draught of the terrestrial paradise ; yet i presume to offer it as a probable hypothe●is , and i doubt not , [ but with men of better judgment ] it may pass for such , and serve to illustrate their notions of a more elevated and exalted nature , having given a short and compendious description of the terrestrial paradise according to the literal and natural notion of it , we shall proceed to give a probable account how ad●m was introduc'd into it , how long he might continue in it , and how he and his confort eve employ'd that time . adam the royal patriarch of mankind , being form'd as to his body and organical part of the same matter with the rest of the terrene animals , and having a rational and intellectual soul infus'd into him ; as soon as his weak members got strength to walk abroad from the place of his nativity , and to take a view of those large dominions his bountiful creator design'd to put under his goverment ; the first place he had i● prospect was this terr●strial paradise , toward which his curiosity led him ; but not finding an entrance into it , god sent an angel to be his guide , and to introduce him in●o its possession , as an earnest of all th● felicities of this world ▪ and an emblematical assuranc● of the glories of ●he ●oelestial paradise . and no sooner had this royal patriarch enter'd this pleasant and delightful ●arden , but all the birds and bea●●s in paradise [ being surpriz'd at the sight of a creature of a shape and form quite different from any of them , and of so divine and majestick a countenance , ] came towards his presence to gaze and wonder at him . and a panick fear having seiz'd them , they be●ame all his vassals . ● will not undertake to determine the time that adam might spend in walking round the woods and plains of paradise , whilst he took a view of all the creatures , distinguish'd their tribes , and gave names and offices to them , according to their several natures and quali●ies i presume that it can hardly be imagin'd that one day could be sufficient for so great ●●ask . as adam's ambition was to exercise and improve his rational faculties , by enquiring into the natures and quali●ies of the sensitive animals ; no doubt but eve [ being no less desirous to improve her wisdom and knowledge , than her master ad●m ] did spend that time during his absence , not only in gratifying her external se●ses , with the fragrant smell of the fair flowers of paradise , and tasting its sweet fruit ; but in making enquiries into the natures and kinds of fruits and simples , in distinguishing their several sorts , and giving names to them according to their natures . and certainly it was not her ambition to be like god in so divine a perfection as wisdom and knowledge , made her forfeit not only the fair fields and pleasant w●lks of paradise , but life and immortality ; but her taking a course and method to that end , contrary to the express command of her creator . and although it be most probable that a natural serpent , having a speckled skin , beautify'd and adorn'd with all the variety of natural paint , in the most fresh and lively colours , was her officious favorite , and presented to her royal hand this beautiful and lovely fruit ; yet doubtless it was her own natural serpent , or concupisence , did frame and suggest to her a discourse to this effect . hath not our bountiful creator made this world , with all this great variety of creatures in it , on purpose for the entertainment of your external senses with the satisfaction of enjoying their beloved objects , as well as the int●rnal faculties of the rational soul with the entertainments of wisdom and philosophy ? if you taste not then this lovely fruit , you evacuate god's design in creating of it : again , if god did not design that you should eat of this fruit , he would not have made it so beautiful and desireable ; it 's inconsistent with the natural goodness of your creator , to lead you into the fire and oblige you not to burn , to inflame your affection with a strong desire , and not to gratifie it . further , you cannot but observe that god has made all poysonous and hurtful creatures of a less comely , if not of a frightful aspect , and you have a strong antipathy against them ; but this charming complexion tempts you to taste of it . to which the considerative or rational faculty reply'd , our bountiful creator has given us liberty to eat of all the tr●es in the garden , but this is forbidden upon pain of death . this is a grand mistake of the divine intention , saith concupiscence , which was by your eating of this fruit to improve your knowledge , and ●herefore he gave it the name of the tree of knowledge . for as you have discover'd the natural differences amongst the sensi●ive animals , and have given names to them , your creator certainly expects that you should understand the natures and differences amongst fruits and vegetables ; o●herwise you will never be compleatly skill'd in your natural philosophy . this proud thought of being wife , and a natural philosopher , so tickl'd adam , or reason , that he condescended that his bride eve , or concupiscence ▪ sh●u'd take a taste to cure her longing . and she finding it a fruit as w●ll grateful to the taste as pleasant to the eye , perswades adam to a further condescention , until a second considera●ion made him feel the miserable efects of it , as well in his conscience as in the constitution of his body ; which his reason being asham'd of , he fled ●rom the presence of god , who usually , as it 's believ'd by some learn'd authors , came down in the evening to discourse with the young philosopher , who finding himself naked , or at a loss for arguments to defend his guilt and shame , endeavou●'d to cover it with the thin figg-leaves of excuses . a discourse concerning the conflagration of this material world ; the local hell : it s outmost boundaries , or abrahams gulph . a discourse concerning the conflagration of this material world. having in the former part of the history of matter , give● an account of such preternatural accidents as have disturbed , and sometimes in all ages interrupted the regular course of nature ; and having demonstrated that these preternatural disturbances , were occasion'd by that natural strife , that happens between the contrary qualities of heat and cold , fire and water : and having also shewn how water ▪ by uniting her forces in the time of noah , chang'd this terraqueous globe for some time into a waterish planet , by effecting an universal deluge which covered the tops of the highest mountains fifteen cubits ; and how the central fire has ●requently threatned , not only by universal concussions , and earthquakes , to unhinge its foundations , but also by extraordinary and most violent eruptions of fire and vulcano's to break the structure and temperament of it , and turn it into a globe of fire , or fiery planet ; now as a great many learned men in all ages , have been inquisitive into the natural causes of this universal deluge , and the difficulty they met with , being to find water sufficient to effect it , without a miracle ; so a great many le●rned undertakers , have been no less industrious to find fire sufficient to dry up the seas and rivers , and then to effect an universal con●lagration of this material world : these two difficulties [ in my opinion ] might have been ●asily remov'd , if they had understood better the structure of the earth , and the nature and quality of that matter which makes up the constituent parts of it . it will be necessary therefore , in order to our establishing a well-grounded hypothesis concerning the universal con●lagration in a natural way , to resume what we have formerly observed concerning matter in general ; which we have divided into three classes [ viz. ] volatile , fixt , and fluid ; and to shew that these three different class's of matter , bear equal proportions one to an other , and in the structure of the earth occupie the same proportion of place . the volatile class [ which we call the central fire consisting of aethereal , nitrous , sulphurous , and bituminous particles ] bears proportion to one third part of the diameter ; and this class makes the earths equilibrium ; and by running a perpetual round within the circle of its own infernal vault , carries about with it this crust or shell of fixt and fluid matter whereupon we live , once in every twent● four hours , and this we call the diur●al motion of the earth . the fixt and fluid matter being intermixt , like the flesh , blood , and bones , or heterogeneous parts of a compounded body , bears propo●tion to the other two parts of the diameter . the fixt class of matter consists of parts , combustible , calcinable , liquifiable , and inflammable . the fluid class consists of water ; which is either subterranean , or superterranean . the subterranean water , either circulates through the larger veins of the earth , or pervades the strait pores of the densest matter . that which circulates through the larger veins , does not only [ by being transmuted into air ] feed and nourish the central flame , but also hampers it and keeps it within the limits and boundaries of its own infernal kingdom . that which pervades the strait pores of dense matter , does as well feed and nourish the pneumatical and native spirits of that matter , as shackles them , by keeping of them within their little cells , which otherwise would break out , and set on fire the more combustible part of it . the superterraneous waters do by maintaining a constant communication between the subterranean and air●al waters , and by the falling of plentiful showers of rain upon the earths surface , preserve it from being either over-crufted , or set on fire by the external heat of the suns influence upon it . by these divisions and computations it is apparent , that one third part of this globe is volatile , another third part combustible and inflammable , and only a third part fluid . which third part preserves the harmony and conspiracy of its parts , which makes the cement and temperament of the whole body , and if this should once be broken , and the volatile and fluid suffered to act their antipathies upon each other , the whole frame and structure would presently be dissolved , and all things shusled into th●ir original chaos and confusion . now as in all compounded bodies , which have any degree of li●e or vital cement in them , the vital flame is fed and nourished by the radical moisture ; which , as it wasts and consumes , the exterior parts of the body become dry , withered , and more combustible ; and at the last the whole body is thrown into a feverish burning , which continues until the vital flame be extinguish'd , and the native spirits fly out : so in this great body of the earth , the central fire , which is the vital flame of it , by continual feeding upon the fluid matter , does gradually wast and consume it . and this is not only observable in our sinking of pits , where we generally meet with the upper strata or beds of stone and cole drained from their waterish feeders , their native spirits exhal'd ; but also several ancient springs sunk down in their veins ; large rivers decre●s'd in their water courses ; and the seas in s●veral countries to have lost ground , as in aegypt and holland ▪ which undoubtedly [ in former ages ] have been in the possession of the main ocean . from these general desiccations of the fluid part of the globe we conclude that [ according to the natural course of things in this world ] the volatile matter , as the central fire , will in process of time so far gain ground upon the fluid part of it , as to bre●k out upon the combustible and inflammable part , and by setting them first on fire , the whole globe will be turn'd into a fiery planet ; from whose scorching and fiery atmosphere , the fluid matter shall be forc'd to fly and range about it thick ●ogs and waterish mists , until they fix and settle in a waterish vortex , ●ividing the coelestial regions from the smoaky and flaming atmosphere of this burning globe ; and it s most probable that by that vast gulph which father abraham told dives was placed between heaven and hell , is only meant these fogs and waterish mists , which shall divide the outmost boundaries of them ; through which the damned souls may probaly see , hear , and have some interlocution with thos● in the coelestial regions ; tho' all this shall only inflame and aggravate their torments , wh●n they shall see abraham , isaac and iacob , in the kingdom of heaven , and themselves shut out , by this unpassable gulph . having already m●de it apparent , th●t when the confus'd chaos of matter settled into the form of this habitable globe , the volatile part of it by a natural tendency of motion , settled in the central parts ; and that the central vault , wherein this volatile and fiery matter is contain'd , bears proportion to a third part of the whole , seems to be most probable , as well from scripture as natural reason ; for the scripture represents hell as a lake of fire , mat. . rev. . , . and this lake of fire or local hell is commonly called infernus , which signifies a place infra nos , i. e. below the cortex or outer coat of the fix'd matter whereon we live ; it s also call'd ta●tarus , which signifies the pit of hell , or that infernal dungeon fill●d with fire and brimstone , that burns and scorcheth , but casts no light ; and that this infernal lake of fire was in the central part of the earth , was not only the opinion of the roman church , which had undertaken to give the dimensions of it ; but agrees with the opinions of most of the ancient fathers and doctors of christianity ; it is also agreable with the opinions of our own doctors , who assert , that at the day of judgment , when the sentence against the wicked shall be pronounced in these words , depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire , the central fire shall break out , and cause an universal conflagration of this material world ; for then the central hell shall be enlarged , and the aerial regions which are now the devils territories shall be fill'd with smoak and fire , and the damned confin'd to that everlasting smother , where the worm shall never die , and the fire shall never be quenched ; by which words its more than probable that this terraqueous globe shall be changed into a fiery planet , that the aerial heavens shall become a flaming atmosphere , and that this shall be the eternal state of this world. he that would desire further satisfaction in this particular , may consult dr. hackwel and mr. ray's discourses concerning the conflagration of this world ; my intention being only to shew , that it is most probable that there is a central vault of large dimensions , filled with volatile matter , consisting of nitre , bitumen , and sulphur ; and that it is as probable that this may break out , and set the earth on fire , as its possible for a man to die of a burning fever . a short treatise of meteorology , with some observations concerning the changes and alterations of the weather . a short treatise of meteorology , chap. i. of vapours , and exhalations , &c. vapours and exhalations are the perspirations of this terraqueous globe , and are caus'd as well by the internal heat and fermentation of it , as the external influence of the sun , which by opening of its pores , sucketh them out , and raiseth them up into the regions of the air. these vapours and exhalations are the material cause of the several kinds of meteors that are generated within the compass of the atmosphere ; which extends as high as the fiery globuli of the sun make their rebound from the solid surface of the earth , and fluid superficies of the waters , and no higher . the higher the sun ascends in the meridian , it strikes down these fiery globuli with greater force upon the earth and waters ; and consequently they rise higher , and èlevate the vapours with them . so that the atmosphere is higher or lower in several parts of the earth , as the sun riseth higher or lower in the meridian , and its beams are darted down in a more direct or oblique line . and as the lowness of our northern atmosphere , causeth the sterility and barrenness of the northern mountains ; so the height of the southern atmosphere , causeth those mountains in the aequinoctial and southern regions to be more fertile and productive . chap. ii. of the ●fficient causes of all metors ; and first of heat . by heat is not to be understood the element of fire , which aristotle and his followers conceited to be under the concave of the moon , [ there being no such element there ] but by heat is meant that internal heat and fermentation which is in the body of the earth , and that natural fire which is originally and essentially in the body of the sun , the vehicle of external heat , which streams out from every part of that fiery globe , giving heat , light , and enlivening vegetations to the whole material world , being within the compass of its fiery and luminous atmosphere . these streams of heat and light [ which is only the shadow of heat ] being darted through the regions of the air in strait lines , and single rayes , are not perceivably hot or cold , no more than the light of a candle without the sphere of its heat ; but being doubled by multiplyed reflections , and reboundings from the solid surface of the earth , does increase its heat , as the reflections are multiplyed and rebounded ; which makes it hotter against a wall , than upon the plane ground , and in the vallies , than upon the mountains . we must therefore distinguish between those single rayes of heat , which dart through the air in instants , which are neither perceivably hot or cold , and the heat upon the superficies of the earth , which being contracted by an artificial glass , is r●al fire . the essential qualities of heat are calefaction , elevation , rarefaction , liquefaction , and consolidation , as it meets with matter predisposed to receive its effects . chap. iii. of cold , the other efficient cause of meteors . by cold is not meant a bare privation of heat , as former philosophers did conceit ; but a real body , of a subtile sublimated and homogenous nature , and of a cold and frigid quality . it s proper place of existence is between this earths atmosphere , and the atmosphere of the moon , which is our next neighbouring globe ; and by the rising and falling of this main body of cold , are caused the several changes and alterations of the weather with us . the cause of its rising and falling , is the pressures of these two atmospheres between which it is plac'd : when the waterish atmosphere of the moon presseth it down , it causeth storms and tempests here upon this globe ; and when it rises , it causes the same in the moon . the rising and falling of this main body of cold , is sometimes also occasion'd by its dilating and contracting of it self . now as the suns beams are hotter in their reflections upon the earth , than in the sun it self , so these cold rays which are darted from this main body of cold , being increas'd and multiply'd by reflection from the mountains and rivers , are much colder than the main body of cold in its own sphere . these reflected globuli of cold may be term'd the lower or ground-cold ; because in summer it penetrates the earth , and in winter it seldom rises higher than the tops of the highest mountains , unless when it joins with the main body , and then it causeth great storms of frost and snow , &c. this lower or ground-cold , is commonly the rear-guard and van-guard of the sun , always going before and following it ; and it s most perceivable in the evening and morning twilights ; especially , by birds and aerial animals , whose bodies do so sympathize with the air , that they can more quickly perceive the change of weather ( especially the rising of a storm or rain or snow ) than any of the terrene animals ; and this they commonly discover by their flying high or low , or flocking together ; or sometimes by different notes or voices . this occasion'd the ancient augurs to conceit them prophets , &c. the essential qualities and effects of cold in general , are frigefaction , congelation , and sometimes petre●action ; and when the lower cold is contracted , either by art , or proprio motu , it starves and freezes , as the fire burns and scorcheth . this lower cold contracts and dilates it self , as it meets with opposition from the contrary quality of heat and fire . the effects of the lower cold when it enters the earth . by antiperistasis it fires damps in collieries , mines , burning mountains , and vulcano's . when it lyes upon the earth , it causeth dews and hoar frosts , it sucks out damps and corrupted air out of under-ground works , &c. chap. iv. of the air , or medium wherein all meteors are generated . the air is a vast medium or expansion , fill'd with rarify'd vapours and exhalations ; which like water would stagnate , unless by a daily addition of rarify'd vapours or wind , it were put into a flux and reflux , as the sea is the addition of rivers continually flowing into it from all sides . when the air is calm , then are the meteors generated ; when by the wind the air is put into a violent flux and reflux , they are broken and dispapear . chap. v. of fiery meteors , &c. the lower cold which follows the sun in the evening twilight , continues its operation for some hours after its beams are out of sight , and no longer ; [ the middle of the night being for the most part a calm as well in winter as summer ] during which time of its operation , it causeth all those fiery meteors which the former philosophers gave several names to , as falling stars , rods , beams , ignes fatui or will with wisp , &c. according as they differ'd in matter , magnitude , and manner of appearance ; some consisting of a hot and dry exhalation , others of an exhalation mix'd with a viscous and unctious matter , a third of a simple and unmix'd exhalation : all these are generated in the lower regions of the air , the matter of them being drawn up out of the earth , waters , and bituminous boggs and mosses , by the sun's influence upon them , especially in the spring months . for then the sub●erranean heat draws out to communicate with its main body ; for as at this time all animals renew their hair , clear their blood from gross humours , so doth this great animal the earth purge her self of gross humours , by mushrooms , and other pinguid evaporations ; for then the sub●erranean heat drawing out to communicate with the external heat , brings forth of the earth these mineral spirits and pinguid perspirations , in so plentiful a measure , [ which being taken up into the air are condens'd into clouds , and fall down again upon the earth in such fertilizing showers ] that the psalmist tells us the clouds at this season drop down fatness . these hot and fiery exhalations which are flying about , scatter'd and dispers'd in the lower re●ion of the air , being seiz'd on by the evening cold , are forc'd in defence of ●hemselves to unite their forces , and being united do fire upon their grand enemy ( viz. ) cold. some fire in a round figure like a fireball , which the meteorologists call a falling star ; some in a long train , either strait or crooked , and these they call'd by the name of rods or beams ; others being simple and unmix'd exhalations , flash out in lightning , like gun-powder upon a table ; others being mix'd with a viscous and unctious kind of matter fire near the earth , are mov'd by the motion of the air , or an easie and soft wind , or are drawn down in pursuit of their enemy cold , to waters , mosses , boggs , and heaths , still burning like a candle in a lanthorn , till their unctious matter be exhaust'd , and then they leave a liquid jelly upon the earth . this meteor they call will with wisp , or ignis fatuus , or fool 's fire , because ignorant people conceiting it to be a spirit , keep their eyes upon it , until they lose their way , and then are apt to give a dreadful account of a spirit they met with , which misled them . if any of these fiery exhalations escape the evening cold , the morning cold about break of day , before it be drawn down to the waters , fires them , by causing them to pursue the same method of self-defence they took in the evening . chap. vi. of comets , &c. amongst the fiery meteors , all the former philosophers reckon'd comets to be the most remarkable : and they gave such dismal accounts of the dreadful effects of them , that their very appearance put the world under a great consternation . but in my opinion , the world [ according to the old proverb ] was more affraid than hurt by them . for that comets are fiery meteors , and have such dreadful effects following their appearance , is a mistake in meteorology so palpable , that it needs no confutation : that which we call a comet , being no more than a star of a fiery and luminous body , in conjunction with an other star of an opake and waterish substance , or a vast coelestial cloud , which by receiving into its body the bright rays of the luminous star , becomes translucent , and appears to us in the form and figure of a luminous or fiery globe ; and by emitting beams or streams of light , it appears to be a fiery and burning meteor , which by the meteorologists is call'd a comet . if this conjunction and interposition be centrical , it sends forth its beams of light on every side ; and this we call a bearded comet . if the interposition be not centrical ▪ but the luminous star be higher or lower , or on one side , it sends forth a beam or stream of light upward or downward , or to one side ; and this beam or stream of light , is call'd the tail of the comet . the appearance of this comet continues until their different motions have separated them . a demonstration of this you may have several evenings , when a black waterish cloud interposeth between us and the body of the sun ; if the interposition be centrical , the sun's beams stream out every way ; if the sun be higher , it sends forth its beams of light downward ; if lower , upward , or to one side , according to the interposition of the cloud . against this hypothesis , it may be objected , that there is no such thing in nature as an opake waterish coelestial body . to which i answer , that th● moon is an opake globe of a waterish substance ; and if its natural course and motion was not within the compass of the suns atmosphere , it would be to us invisible : so there may be [ for any thing that we know ] thousands of opake globes , within the vast expansion of the coelestial spheres , which are never visible to us , but when they fall into conjunction , or oppositon , with a luminous star : and when these opake globes are of a round and waterish substance , they appear to us in the form of comets . again , it is most probable that all these new stars , which have appear'd for some time , and then disappear'd , [ which astronomers have given such remarkable accounts of , ] are only opake globes , made visible for sometime , by their being in conjunction or opposition to a luminous star , and when their different motions have separated them the opake star hath disappear'd . chap. vii . of thunder , its causes and effects . of all fiery meteors , there are none so dreadful as thunder , which being an aerial fire damp , the nature and notion of it will be best illustrated by comparing it to an aerial battle between these two powerful and irreconcilable enemies , fire and water . the army of fire consists of hot and fiery exhalations , raised out of the earth and bituminous bogs by the influence and heat of the sun ; especially out of the south-east , full east , and north-east parts of this globe : those vast and spacious continents affording most of those hot and fiery soldiers . the general that commands in chief , and which leads them forth into the field , is a sulphurous and east wind. the army of water consists of cold and moist vapours , raised out of the southern and western ocean . their general that leads them forth to batt●e , is a cold moist west wind : for it s to be observ'd , that for some time befor● the thunder begins , and whilst it continues , the blasts of wind always blow from contrary points , and the clouds gather and march up in the full face of the wind , which always blows from an east quarter . these two armies being form'd into two wings , and two main bodies ; first fire , being the more active and volatile , sends forth a detachment of fiery chariots , from the south-east wing ; which being met with by an other detachment of vaporous clouds from the south-west wing , the battle begins : and those hot and fiery exhalations that we see riding in chariots of fiery clouds , like pillars of translucent smoke , being inclos'd and surrounded with this vaporous cloud , are forc'd to unite all their forces together , that , vis vnita being fortior , they may the better be able to defend themselves , and destroy the enemy . no sooner then the forces on both sides are united , but the fiery exhalations discharge upon the waterish 〈◊〉 ▪ in fire and lightning . the thundring noise we hear is occasion'd by the opposition they met with , and the breach of the cloud ; which falls down in great and dreadful showers of rain upon the earth ; the dr●ps of water being greater or less a● the breach of the cloud is at a higher or lower distance from the earth . after the thundering battel is thus begun , the other wings engage , and we hear the thundering sound of the battel both south-east and north-west . the b●ttel by this time growing very hot , the main bodies engage ; and then nothing is to be heard but a thundering no●se , with continual flashes of lightning , and dreadful showers of rain , falling down from the broken clouds . and sometimes random shots flie about , kill both men and beasts , fire and throw down houses , split great trees and rocks , and tear the ve●y earth . for it is no more impossible for the more earthy part of an exhalation to be on a sudden petresied into stone [ which we call the thunder-bol● ] in the body of a cloud ; than that lax● matter should be petrefied into a stone in the body of the earth ; the antiperistatical cause being the same in both . ●●ese t●o irreconcil●ble enemies still keep the field , until one of them be utterly destroy'd . if the fiery exhalations keep the field , the east wind blows still hot and sulphurous . if the vapours get the victory , the west wind blows cold and moist , the sky is clear , the air is cold , the battel is over , and the earth bu●ies the dead and gets the spoil . if any should think this account of thunder to be rather figment and romance , than true natural philosophy , i advise him [ when ever he sees the thunder packs rising white and translucent in a south-east point , when he feels the air hot ●nd sulphurous , with some contrary blasts of wind coming whistling from the west ] that he haste make on to the top of crossfelt , or some other high mountain , that gives a prospect to both east and west , and he may be inform'd both as to the truth and manner of this aerial battle . chap. viii . of vaporous meteors ; and first of dews , and hoar frosts . dews are vapours condens'd upon the surface of the earth , by the evening and morning cold , these being the times of the dews falling . i have observ'd that sometimes about mid afternoon , the under-ground cold being impatient of a long summers days confinement , has broke out , and condens'd the vapours into a d●w , which by the first reflection of the sun was taken up into the air , and a viscous matter left upon the grass , like cobwebs or fine threds , which we call tela beatae mariae ; and these vapours being condens'd into a cloud , will fall down again in a shower of rain about sun-setting . but the usual time wh●n the evening dews fall , is immediately after the sun is set ; for then the lower cold lyeth upon the ground , and as the sun goes down it riseth . the morning dews begin to fall about break of day : for about that time the waters being colder than the mountains , draw down the lower cold from the mountains to them . and it bringing the vapours along with it , sits regent upon the waters , in thick foggs and waterish mists , until the influence of the sun , by warming of the waters , either scattereth and disperseth the vapours , or forceth them to rise up to the mountains , or the cool regions of the air , leaving only dews upon the ground behind them . these dews , when the cold is contracted and freezing , become hoar fro●ts ; for a dilated cold causeth dews , and a contracted cold frosts . in the spring months , when the subterranean heat draws out from its winter quarters to join with the external heat of the atmosphere , it brings out of the earth with it some of the finer mineral spirits ; and the sun-beams being then powerful and attractive , do suck up these mineral spirits , with the sweet efluvia and perspirations of herbs and flowers ; which the evening and morning cold condenseth into honey-dews , or manna . in these months , the sun's beams are so strong and vigorous , that they will draw up frog-spawn ; which being receiv'd into the body of a warm ●loud , will presently be form'd into little frogs , which will fall down upon the earth in these fertilizing spring showers : sometimes they will suck up blood , which will fall down in showers of rain , especially after bloody battels fought at great distances : so corn , &c. will fall down in rain . but these are magnalia naturae . chap. ix . of rain , hail , and snow . rain , hail , and snow , are the same as to their matter . the difference among them is only accidental ; hail being only drops of rain frozen in their falling down from a broken cloud , by a contract'd body of the lower cold ; snow being vapours frozen before they be condens'd into a cloud . of rain . rain is either general or particular , higher or lower . observations concerning rain . when the evening dew falls before sun-set , and the sun draws it up again , the evening cold condenseth it into a cloud , and it falls down in a shower of rain in the evening twilight . when the evening cold condenseth not the vapours into dews , but draws them up to the tops of the mountains , and thence into the cold regions of the air , they fall down in rain about break of day . when the morning cold condenseth not the dews , but draws up the vapours to the tops of the mountains , and thence into the cold regions of the air , they fall down in rain about ten a clock or sooner , and so continues a general rain for some hours together , the evening and morning vapours being join'd . when the air is calm , and the waters colder than the mountains , the vapours draw down to the waters , and there they lie in a thick fogg or mist , until the sun by warming of the waters , causeth them to rise about nine or ten a clock : if the morning cold dilate it self , it raiseth the vapours to the middle of the mountains , where they continue in a thick fogg , the mountain tops being clear , until the vapours be all spent in a mizling kind of rain . when the morning cold divides it self into many little contracted bodies , these lesser bodies of contracted cold condense the vapours , and they fall down in particular showers , some not mountain height ; so that one may sometimes go through a shower of rain [ if he please ] which will fall upon the skirts of the mountains , when at the same time 't is clear both above and below the shower . thus a man may be above the clouds and the rain . when the morning cold draws the mists and the foggs ●rom the waters , gradatim [ or in sops , as we call it ] to the tops of the mountains , and they trall there too and fro , sometimes rising , and then falling again , the dispute being between the water-cold and the mountain cold , whether should get the prize , if at the last these tralling mists or vapours be lifted up into the cold regions of the air , and be there condens'd by some of those lesser bodies of cold which are flying about , they fall down in particular showers within an hour or less after they be taken up ; so qui●k is the return of vapours into showers of rain . chap. x. of hail and snow . observations . when these lesser bodies of contracted cold , are so placed one above another , having distances of warm air betwixt them , [ as oftentimes it happens in very hot weather , for the greater the heat is , the more narrowly do these lesser bodies of cold contract themselves ] if any of the higher bodies of cold condense the vapours into a cloud , and it break , and fall down in drops of rain through a body of more contracted cold , it freezeth these drops of rain into hail-stones . i have observ'd a shower of rain upon the mountains , the same a shower of hail upon the skirts of the mountains , the same dissolved again into a shower of rain in the vallies . i have observ'd also a shower of hail at one end of the town , the same a shower of rain at the other end ; the contracted body of cold that caused the hail , being not a quarter of a mile in circumference . of snow . when the lower cold riseth , and the upper cold falleth , and so straitens the sphere of rarefaction that the wind blows thin , as out of a contracted mouth , the vapours are frozen in-snow before they be condensed into a cloud , and the shower of snow only at first covers the tops of the mountains ; but as soon as the lower cold riseth mountain height , and joyns with the upper cold , the snow falls down into the vallies and covers the earth . observations . when the wind has blown for some time s. e. or full s. or s. w. we must expect a great and general rain ; for these winds blowing from such regions where the atmosphere rises high , bring over with them the greatest quantity of vapours ; which our mountanous country condenseth into clouds , which fall down in great and general rains. and this is the reason why those countries where most of the vapours rise , have the least of rain ; which want is supplied by great dews , which the evening and morning cold condenseth upon the ground . for where the atmosphere riseth high , the lower and higher cold never meet , which is the cause of their want of rain . when the wind blows n. or n. e. or full e. we have seldom rain , but great flights of snow . for the atmosphere in those parts being very low [ especially in winter ] and the mouth of the sphere of rarefaction very strait , the wind that blows from these quarters is so very thin and freezing , that those few vapours which are brought from those places for the most part fall down in snow . chap. xi . of frost , and thaw , &c. frost and thaw are the effects of quite di●ferent causes ; the one being occasion'd by the influence of heat , the other of cold ; and these two contrary qualities do not give ground one to another without great struggle and contest . the first beginning of freezing is at the waters , and this we call a water frost ; it s the effect or operation of the morning cold ; which drawing down to the waters in the morning twilight , and carrying the vapours along with it , leaves a waterish hoar frost upon the ground behind it . these vapours lie upon the waters until nine a clock ; for by that time the influence of heat having warm'd the waters , forceth them to remove their quarters , first to the cold tops of the mountains , and thence to the cooler regions of the air , from whence they fall down in showers of rain about twelve a clock , this frost only gains the waters , vallies , and plains . the second morning , the cold doubles its force , and glaceates the waters , congeals the earth , and riseth to the middle of the mountains ; [ their tops still continuing in the possession of heat ] this degree of cold is over-powered by the influence of heat about two a clock , and falls down in rain in the evening twilight . the third morning , the cold trebles its force , and gains the tops of the mountains . and the influence of heat commonly recovers this lost ground a little before the sun set ; and in the morning twilight it falls down in a shower of snow , covering only the tops of the highest mountains . the upper and lower cold being now united , the frost keeps its possession of the earth and waters sometimes for a month or more together ; and in some countries [ lying at a distance from the sea ] the whole winter quarter ; the wind all the time blowing cold and thin , the mouth of the sphere of rarefaction being straitned by the joyning of the higher and lower cold. during the time that the earth and waters continue in the possession of frost and snow , the subterranean heat breaks out of the springs and mineral feeders , and joyning with the heart of the sun rege●es the spring-heads , and part of the rivers , gaining them intirely into its possession : but the general frost continues until the vapours rising from the southern or western ocean , recover the wind into some of the solar quarters ; which opening the sphere of rarefaction , the wind blows warm and moist . for as the same breath from an open mouth warms ones fingers , so from a contracted mouth it will cool his porridge . the general frost in the northern countries near the pole , and in countries at a distance from the sea , seldom regeles , until the subterranean heat break forth , and joyn with the heat of the approaching sun , and then the frost and snow is dissolved in a very short time ; and the spring comes on much sooner than in those countries where the regelation is more gradual . thus as a constant intercourse of day and night gives the active animals liberty , by rest and sleep , to recover their wasted strength and spirits ▪ so an annual return of frost and snow , recovers and repairs the strength and spirits of the earth , which had been spent in the preceeding summers productions . for in this natural world all things are repair'd by corrupting , preserv'd by perishing , and reviv'd by dying . as the operation of cold did gradually gain ground upon the influence of heat ; so by the same methods and degrees heat recovers its lost ground , the fresh or thaw beginning first at the waters , and from thence riseth up to the plains and vallies ; and last of all the tops of the mountains [ which are for sometime kept in the possession of frost and cold , after the lower parts of the earth be regeled ] are gained . chap. xii . of the sphere of rarefaction . the sphere of rarefaction is a sphere of heat , wherein the suns reflections meet , and unite themselves in their own defence against the upper and lower cold. and being placed in a middle between them , it riseth or falleth , openeth or closeth as it prevails upon them , or as they open or close , rise or fall . this sphere of heat , by rarefying of vapours and exhalations , causeth wind. that heat is the cause of wind , is apparent from the experience of such people , who , to cause wind , usually set chaff , seeds , or straw on fire . and when houses or towns are accidentally thus set on fire , the heat of the flame , by rarefying of the vapours and exhalations round about , will raise the wind to so great a height , as will make it a matter of great difficulty to quench the flame . chap. xiii . of wind , helms , and arches . wind is the nitrous part of vapour and exhalation , rarified and dilated by the sphere of rarefaction . the winds are either higher or lower , as the sphere of rarefaction riseth or falleth ; they are thicker or thinner , as it openeth or closeth ; they are moist , hot , or dry , as they have more or less of vapour or exhalation in them . the pabulum of winds , is commonly called a helm , from the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies spiro ▪ to breath ; and they are either visible or invisible . the visible helms , are either opake , mixt , or translucent . these wind helms fix upon the coldest parts of the globe , as the gibbosity of the sea , the tops of the highest mountains , mountain-heaths , waters , and rivers . the matter on which these helms consist , is a vaporous mist , which as it endeavours to rise up , is pressed down by the sphere of rarefaction ; and by rarifying the nitrous part of it [ which is always uppermost ] into wind , the still body of the air is put into a violent flux , every blast of wind being only a wave of air ; the rapidity of its motions is occasion'd by the declivity of the mountains . wherever the grand helm fixeth , from that quarter the wind blows , untill the stock of vapours be spent : for instance , if the grand helm fix upon the mountains of germany , the second helm fixeth upon the gibbosity of the eastern seas ; [ by the gibbosity of the sea , i understand that middle ridge where the flux and reflux breaketh ; ] the third helm fixeth upon crossfelt , and that ridge of mountains ; the fourth helm fixeth upon skidday , and that ridge of mountains ; and so forward until the grand pabulum be spent , and then the wind ceaseth , and the air is calm . that distance between helm and helm we call an arch ▪ over which [ as the vapours rise ] the wind blows them from helm to helm , one feeding and repairing another , until the grand stock be spent . and so on the contrary , if the grand helm fix upon the mountains in irela●d , the wind blows west , forming helms and arches till that stock be spent . the grand helm is always opake ▪ consisting of all vapour . the first wind is wet and ●ainy , the arch over-clouded ; for as the nitrous part of the 〈◊〉 ●iseth , and is ●arify'd into wind , it driveth before it the rain , as the sal● 〈◊〉 [ being fir'd ] drives before it hail shot . the second helm is mix'd , being part exhalation , and part vapour ; the upper part of the helm being exhalation , is translucent ; this wind is showry ▪ and the arch cloudy . the third helm is translucent , being all exhalation , the wind dry , the air clear. the invisible helms are all exhalation , and they seldom rise as high as the tops of mountains ▪ but fix upon waters , rivers , the tops and sides of h●lls , and high buildings ; these winds are the lowest that blow ▪ one may go through them , and find a calm upon the tops of mountains . this is a common observation made by those who live under the mountains . the p●●ulum of these winds being soon spent , they change often . observations concerning winds , helms , and arches . when the vapours and e●halations rise from the waters to the skirts of the mountains , and 〈◊〉 roll and trail to and fro , the sphere of rarefaction is 〈◊〉 , and these vapours and exhalations being rarefy'd into wind , it blows till the stock be spent . these are spring winds , and summer winds ▪ they continue only from ten a clock till three in the afternoon , and are sometimes ●arri●d about 〈◊〉 the sun they seldom rise as high as the tops of the mountain● . when the vapours rise to the tops of the mountains , and fix there in a black and opake ledge , expect a rai●y wind. when they are opake at the bottom , and white at the top , expect a showery rain . when the helm is white and translucent , expect a dry wind. when the helms are even ballanc'd with vapours and exhalations ▪ the wind will blow sometimes from both helms , and sometimes a third blast of wind will come from a middle point or quarter ; and sometimes also a blast of wind will come whirling down from above our heads with great violence . when the whole horizon is helm'd about , expect contrary blasts , whirlwinds , or hurricanes . when the helms rise and close up the arch with black clouds , expect great rains. where the clouds begin to open and brighten mountain height , the wind will blow from that quarter ; for there a new helm is fix'd , and the sphere of rarefaction is faln a working . in large continents at great distance from the sea , where there are not many mountains , wherever the wind-helm fixeth , and the pabulum is gathered , the wind will blow from that point or h●lm for some months together ; these we call trade winds . chap. iv. prognostications of the change and alteration of weather , from the setting and rising of the sun. prognostications of rain , from the setting of the sun. when the sun setteth in ● black waterish cloud , the vapours are condens'd by the evening cold , and the morning cold raiseth them up into the cold regions of the air , where they swim until nine or ten a clock next morning , and then their own weight causeth them to sink and break into rain . when the sun goes down wading , or forcing , [ as they call it ] the vapours are drawing down with the evening cold , and the next morning cold condenseth them into clouds , which the next day fall down in showers of r●●n about twelve a clock . when the sun sets broad and glimmering , it sets in thin vapours , which the next day will fall down in a misling rain . signs of fair weather . when the sun sets clear , and appears little and fiery , the vapours are all spent , and you may expect a fair and hot day to follow . when the sun sets through thin clouds , sharp edged like swords , these are little wind-helms , and you must expect a fair and windy day to follow . when after the sun is set , its beams strike the air with a crimson-red , you may expect that the next day will be fair and windy . signs of rain from the rising sun. if before the sun appears , its rising beams strike the air with a crimson-red , expect wind and rain about ten a clock ; for the air is full of vapours and exhalations . when the sun riseth broad ▪ and glimmering , and is presently receiv'd into a black cloud , the morning cold rise●h , and takes up with it the vapours , which fall down in great rains. when the sun riseth clear , and several little black clouds are ready to receive it , expect a showery day . signs of a fair day , from the rising sun. if the sun rise little and fiery , and the vapours draw down to the waters , leaving a dew upon the ground , these vapours about ten a clock are rarify'd into wind , which continues blowing only till three in the afternoon , and prognosticate a fair season . if the sun rise in thick clouds , and appear not till until ten a clock , expect a clear afte●noon . if the sun appear not till twelve a clock , expect not only a clear afternoon , but a dry season ; for the morning cold riseth not . the rising of the morning cold , and its lif●ing up the vapours with it , is the cause of all the rain we have . finis books printed for iohn newton , at the three pigeons over against the inner-temple-gate in fleet-street . a charge given at the general quarter sessions of the peace for the county of surrey , holden at darking , on tuesday the fifth day of april , and in the fourth year of their majesties reign . by the honourable hugh hare , esq one of their majesties justices of the peace for that county . the second edition corrected . an historical relation of the conspiracy of iohn lowis count deffieschi against the city of genoua in the year . written in italian , by augustin mascardi , gentleman of the bed chamber to pope urban the eighth . done into english by the honourable hugh hare , esq an account of the isle of iersey , the g●eatest of the islands that are now , the only remainder of the english do●inions in france , with a new and accurate mapp of the said island . by ph. falle , m. a. rector of st. saviour , in the said island , and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . mr ▪ falle's sermon before the english g●●●ison in iersey , april the th . — one sermon at whitehall , decemb. the th , . — one sermon before the lord mayor april the th , . a discourse of natural and reveal'd religion in several essays , by mr. t. nourse . the anatomy of 〈◊〉 earth , dedicated to all miners , by tho. robinson rector of outby in cumberland . the history of the campagne in flanders for the years , , , and . all written by edward ● auergne m. a. rector of st. brelade in the isle of iersey , and chaplain to his majesties regiment of scots guards . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * note , that steno proves the earth to have been twice fluid , twice plain and dry , twice scabrous and craggy ; the first was at the original chaos , the second at the flood ; this ( says he ) is manifest from some beds of the higher hills , containing no heterogeneous bodies , because form'd before there w●re any animals or plants , or other mix'd solids ; and so pres●rv'd in their simple antediluvian st●●e by the heighth of their si●uation , which might secure them against the load of many adventitious or factitious b●ds , falling for the most part on the vallies and low places , where they make up all the compound strata , which in●rust t●● pres●nt earth , and separate it from the primitive o●e , whose beds are more simple , not stuffed up with such di●●●●ent bodies as make up the postdiluvian strata , or sediments . this agrees with what mr. whiston delivers in m●ny places of his new theory . to which we may add that the simple antediluvian beds on the high mountains , destitute of heterogeneous solids , may be l●id open by the washings away of the incumbent diluvian sediments or compound beds , by the torrents of rains , which carry down those c●usts and bodies along with them . notes for div a -e dr. ●urnet● inconsistences . the cause of this globes atmosphere . dr. woodard's contradiction of himself . ● . vse . . vse . . vse . . vse . . vse . . vse . . vse . the cause of hills . . the cause of different soils and natures of vegetables . . the different qualities of the air. . the occasion of spring● , &c. . of the breaking out of m●nes , &c. . of the product●on of trees , &c. the cause of mountain● . . vse . their consistences . . vse . their natural uses . . vse . . vse . . vse . . vse . . vse . the position of mountains . the cause of gills , dales and vallie● . the ingred●ents of coal . lesser mountains . the cause of the chanel of the sea. the nature and quality o● the sea. 〈…〉 〈…〉 the cause of the seas gibbosity . the cause of the flux . the cause of its reflux . the cause of spring-tides and dead-tides . the cause of the seas fermen●ation . the effect● and uses of the seas fermentation . the cause of the saltness of the sea. it● uses . the proportion which the subterranean water bears to the sea. of the greater veins of the earth , &c. to raise new river● upon dry ground . a subterranean contest between fire and water . a concussion of the whole globe . a concussion of half the globe . a local earthquake . new mountains and pond● . of hurricains and their effects . dr. woodwards notion of perpendicular fissures is a mistake in observation . of burning mountains . vulcano's . her damps in colleries . their effects . violent eruptions of water . of water damps . an air damp. a sweet da●● . the over-flowing of nilus . the over-flowing of the gigleswick spring . the drumming w●ll a● baut●y mineral spirits . foul. air. the meaning of these words , the fountains of the great deep were broken up . the cause of the aerial damp and its effects . what is meant by the opening of the windows of heaven . the meaning of the wind which god caused to pass over the earth , and its effects . what the rain-bows appearing in the clouds did signifie . a refutation of dr. woodward's hypothesis , &c. the time when the deluge commenced . dr. woodwa●d'● hypothesi● concerning the effects of the d●l●ge refuted . the alterations which th● deluge made upon the ea●●h . the time when these alterations were made . gen. . verse . part the th . page . fabius columna , dr. hook , steno , scylla , bocc●●e , ra● , and many others . gen. . first . secondly first . secondly thirdly . secondly thirdly secondly thirdly . fourthly fourthly the laws of divine impression . the laws of natural instinct . the laws of external sense . a postscript to a book published last year entituled considerations on dr. burnet's theory of the earth beaumont, john, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a postscript to a book published last year entituled considerations on dr. burnet's theory of the earth beaumont, john, d. . burnet, thomas, ?- . telluris theoria sacra. beaumont, john, d. . considerations on dr. burnet's theory of the earth. p. printed and are to be sold by randal taylor, london : . caption title. page signed: john beaumont, jun. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation. earth -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a postscript to a book published the last year , entituled considerations on dr. burnet's theory of the earth . many persons , since the publishing my considerations on dr. burnet's theory of the earth , having used cavillations against some parts of them , viz. where i seem to leave some things in mystery , which they will needs have to proceed from enthusiasm : some having done this in my presence , and others where i have not been present , as i have been inform'd by many friends : i have thought fit , by printing this paper , to bring the matter above board , and to see what may be said in the case ; and try whether we cannot sound the depths of these mens thoughts as they take upon them to judge others . to disswade a man from leaving any thing he writes , or discourses on , in mystery , i remembred to have read an ingenious writer of politick essays , who says , that a man renders himself as lyable to censure , by offering to maintain a mysterious truth , as an open falsehood ; and therefore he disswades men , by all means , from meddling in mysteries . i remembred also that ecclesiastical maxim of melancthon ; solent homines aut odisse aut superlè contemnere quae non intelligunt . i called to mind the old tricks , both of aesop's fox , which cried out , that the grapes were sour , which were out of his reach ; and of his ill natur'd curr in the manger , which would not permit the horse to ear oats , when he cared not to eat them himself . i remembred likewise those wretches mentioned in the scriptures , who damm'd up isaac's wells , and would not permit him to draw waters for his use , though themselves made no use of them . moses does not say , if the paschal lamb cannot be eaten by your self , it must presently be burnt ; but first call in your neighbour , and if he cannot eat it , then let it be committed to the fire . and as for some things which may seem obscurely intimated in my work , i well know there are many men in the world who will fully apprehend what they import ; but if all do not , i cannot help it . are there not tacenda on many accounts , in the common practice of life ? and why may there not be in some parts of learning ? it 's known that the greatest writers among mankind have left a great part of what they have writ , wrapt up in enigma's ; or however they have otherwise exprest themselves , it 's intelligible only to a few . are roger bacon , picus mirandula , joannes trithemius , cornelius agrippa , joannes reuchlin , our dr. dee , any of the whole tribe of hermetick philosophers , or any masters of a contemplative life among the jews , gentiles , or christians , i say , are any of these open in all things they write , so that every man acquainted in common school learning , or any man , acquainted in no more , understands them ? or have the writers of the scriptures , or christ himself thought fit , still to be open to every man's capacity ? because in the first chapter of my considerations , i mention a promethean arcanum astrologicum , and a seven reed pipe of pan. without a farther explanation , some will needs have this to be enthusiasm : now as for the promethean arcanum astrologicum , prometheus is known to have been famous for some notable skill he had in astrology , as a school-boy may read in any mythologist : and the assyrians are known to have been the most famous of any men in the world , for astrology , and their most ancient astronomical observations , which sciences they are said to have first learnt of prometheus . and there are many men living in the world , who know themselves to have been touch'd by the rod of prometheus , or of some priest of apollo touch before at the chariot of the sun ; whereby they are become animated with a lively and penetrating aetherial spirit ; whereas before they were as lumps of clay , conversant only with the outside barks of things : and in réference to this , men may remember the epitaph of the antient poet colophonius phoenix on ninus , where reflecting on him for his giving himself wholly over to the vanities and pleasures of this life ; among other things he says thus of him ; astra nunquam vidit , nec forsitan id optavit ignem apud magos sacrum non excitavit ; deum nec virgis attigit , &c. it 's of this fire of the magi that zoroaster speaks in the oracles . quando videris ignem sacrum , forma sine collucentem , totius per profundum mundi , audi ignis vocem . and i know men in our nation , who have seen this fire , and hearkned with dread to the voice of it . and even in the temple of jerusalem , as in the holy place , on the north side stood , on a table , the twelve loaves of shewbread , denoting , as josephus tells us , the twelve signs of the zodiack , and having a crown of gold about them , said by the jews , to denote the crown of the kingdom . so on the south side of it , there stood the candlestick with seven lamps , denoting the seven planets , six of which were turned bending towards the lamp in the middle , and that towards the sanctum sanctorum , where the mystery lay . and how far this may relate to some astrological arcanum , i shall leave it to men acquainted in an apt dispensation of types , and to those masters of a contemplative life , who have pass'd proficients in the most sublime science of mystical divinity . as to the seven reed pipe of pan , a man that knows any thing of hieroglyphical philosophy , knows that pan is always drawn with a pipe of seven reeds , and that those seven reeds denote the seven planets . and certainly virgil had heard this pipe , and could play upon it himself ; when , in the person of corydon , he said to alexis , est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis fistula , — having said before to him , mecum unà in sylvis imitabere pana canendo . and why must it be expected that i should be more explanatory concerning this pipe than virgil ? indeed , i make no doubt , but there have been , and are still many men in the world , who through an affected sublimity in writing , or a vanity of seeming knowing in what others are not , have often been sinking themselves in mystery , where , in truth , there is no bottom . and again , on the other hand , i am as well satisfied , that there have been , and are still many men in the world , who being deeply sick of a philautian arrogancy , to keep up their repute for learning among the vulgar , have gone about to perswade them , that there is nothing valuable in learning , forsooth , but what is known to their learned selves , though , in truth , there are parts of learning of far greater excellency than any they ever came acquainted withal . if a meer grammarian , having his boys about him , should hear one logician say to another , that a syllogism contains a majus extremum , a minus extremum , and a medium ; to make himself seem somebody among his boys , he may say , that this is but cant , ostentation , and enthusiasm . for there are men , who knowing nothing of some sciences , and thinking it shame to confess their ignorance of any thing , or seeking a subterfuge , or solacing themselves in their want of knowledge , make their boast , that those things they know not , are but trifles , of little or no use. but , as terence says , it 's no wonder if a whore acts impudently . and are there not many realities in nature , which cannot be brought under every man's apprehension ? a man may talk long enough to a person , born blind , of light , colours , and a sun ; but he shall never make him frame a conception of them . you will say , we are not blind , we have more learning than your self , and therefore you must not obtrude this on us . be it so , you are more learned many ways ; yet if a child tells a blind man that there is a sun , light , and colours , and the blind man will not believe him , the child cannot but smile at him for it , though the blind man may have a sound sense otherways , and the child is but a child . and i say , there are many truths in nature , which cannot be known but by experience ( as all masters of a contemplative life testifie ) and that the greatest man of parts in the world cannot apprehend them , without having had a peculiar and practical initiation for taking knowledge of them ; according to what zoroaster says in the oracles , est quoddam intelligibile , quod oportet te intelligere mentis flore , ( by an esflorescent excess of mind . ) the lord bacon tells us , that the magia naturalis is a setting of forms a work. now i would fain have any man , who has not seen an operation in that kind , to tell me ( if he can ) the meaning of that ; but i know it impossible . we read of socrates , that having perused the works of heraclitus , he said , what he understood of them was excellent , and therefore he believed that what he did not understand of them was so too . and though i pretend not to any excellency of writing , i hope , what i have openly offered in my considerations , may be thought tolerably plausible by indifferent judges ; and if i leave a few things veil'd , i think there may be no great reason for censure . some may object that if we give way to obscure writing , all enthusiasm breaks in upon us , and we know not how to distinguish betwixt the one and the other . to this i can only say , that if , when a man reasons openly , he reasons soundly , and writes in a free and unaffected manner , i think it may be a rational inducement for us to believe , that though sometimes , for reasons known to himself , he leaves some few things in mystery , there may be some worthy learning contained under them , which he conceives not fit to be openly explained . so let any man of judgment read the tract of joannes reuchlin , de verbo mirifico , or his other works ; and though in many places he finds him involv'd in mystery , that he is not understood by him ; yet i believe , by what he has writ openly , and his way of delivery , the reader will be convinc'd , that he is no muddy-brain'd enthusiast , using an affected obscurity , to beget admiration in his readers , for his seeming deep reach into mysteries to others unknown . and so i may say of a multitude of others , of the like kind ; men whom a great insight in the low circumstances of human life , had made truly humble , so that they could be no ways guilty of so poor a vanity . having been thus far explanatory in this matter , i shall little value any man's censure in such cases : nay , i shall be so far from dealing precariously with him for his favourable opinion , that i shall freely come wi●h him to this unexceptionable accommodation , viz. that we laugh at each other by consent , and let him pass for the idiot , who laughs without just cause . and i shall conclude with bede , who was clamour'd , and supercili●usly censured by some men of his time , for his searching into and writing on some parts of learning vulgarly not understood . nihil de multitudine , sed de paucorum prolitate gloriantes , soli veritati insudamus . john beaumont jun. i recommend the following particulars to be inserted in their proper places , in my considerations on the theory of the earth . book . chap. . pag. . lin. . after times read , and hence , as the preceding age was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , obscure , so this age was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fabulous . ib. p. . in the last line , after mind read , and from hence sprung their multiplicity of gods , according to the diversified powers of nature . at the end of the said chapter add the following paragraph . i shall conclude this point concerning the learning of the antients , with the testimony of averrhoes ; who ( as the learned fabricius tells ●s in h●s zoroaster ) says in some part of his works , that philosophy was in as great perfection among the antient chaldeans , as it was in the times of aristotle . now the testinony of this man is the more to be valued , because he was indisputably the soundest reasoner , and the most learned among all the arabians , and a great favourer as well as folower of aristotle , he having writ commentaries on his works ; so that had he not been thoroughly convinc'd of the height of philosophy among the antient chaldeans , he would not have brought it in competition with that in the times of aristotle . so again the learned pierius , concerning the learning of the antient egyptians ; constantissimâ famâ celebratum est , sacerdotes aegyptios omnem naturae obscuritatem adeo manifestè sibi cognitam professos , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traditam disciplinam haereditariam possiderent . chap. . p. . l. . after conceiving , add . and as for any other meaning in it , they would say with trismegistus , in his minerva mundi ; minime posteris credenda fabula putetur esse chaos . i have thought on many other additions and amendments , but i want room to insert them here . finis . london : printed , and are to be sold by randal taylor near stationers hall. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e de elem. philos. . . in proaem . in ep. comment , hierog . praemissâ . order and disorder, or, the world made and undone being meditations upon the creation and the fall : as it is recorded in the beginning of genesis. apsley, allen, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) order and disorder, or, the world made and undone being meditations upon the creation and the fall : as it is recorded in the beginning of genesis. apsley, allen, sir, - . [ ], p. printed by margaret white for henry mortlock ..., london : . in verse. attributed to apsley by wing and nuc pre- imprints. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . religious poetry, english -- early modern, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion licensed , march . / . rog . l'estrange . order and disorder : or , the world made and undone . being meditations upon the creation and the fall ; as it is recorded in the beginning of genesis . london , printed by margaret white for henry mortlock at the phoenix in st. paul's church-yard , and at the white hart in westminster hall. . the preface . these meditations were not at first design'd for publick view , but fix'd upon to reclaim a busie roving thought from wandring in the pernicious and perplexed maze of humane inventions ; whereinto the vain curiosity of youth had drawn me to consider and translate the account some old poets and philosophers give of the original of things : which though i found it , blasphemously against god , and bruitishly below the reason of a man , set forth by some , erroniously , imperfectly , and uncertainly , by the best ; yet had it fill'd my brain with such foolish fancies , that i found it necessary to have recourse to the fountain of truth , to wash out all ugly wild impressions , and fortifie my mind with a strong antidote against all the poyson of humane wit and wisdome that i had been dabling withal . and this effect i found ; for comparing that revelation , god gives of himself and his operations , in his word , with what the wisest of mankind , who only walk'd in the dim light of corrupted nature and defective traditions , could with all their industry trace out , or invent ; i found it so transcendently excelling all that was humane , so much above our narrow reason , and yet so agreeable to it being rectified , that i disdained the wisdome fools so much admire themselves for ; and as i found icould know nothing but what god taught me , so i resolv'd never to search after any knowledge of him and his productions , but what he himself hath given forth . those that will be wise above what is written , may hug their philosophical clouds , but let them take heed they find not themselves without god in the world , adoring figments of their own brains , instead of the living and true god. lest that arrive by misadventure , which never shall by my consent , that any of the pudled water , my wanton youth drew from the prophane helicon of ancient poets , should be sprinkled about the world , i have for prevention sent forth this essay ; with a profession that i disclaim all doctrines of god and his works , but what i learn out of his own word , and have experienc'd it to be a very unsafe and unprofitable thing for those that are young , before their faith be fixed , to exercise themselves in the study of vain , foolish , atheistical poesie . it is a miracle of grace and mercy , if such be not depriv'd of the light of truth , who having shut their eyes against that sun , have , instead of looking up to it , hunted gloworms in the ditch bottoms . it is a misery i cannot but bewail , that when we are young , whereas the lovely characters of truth should be imprest upon the tender mind and memory , they are so fill'd up with ridiculous lies , that 't is the greatest business of our lives , assoon as ever we come to be serious , to cleanse out all the rubbish , our grave tutors laid in when they taught us to study and admire their inspired poets and divine philosophers . but when i have thus taken occasion , to vindicate my self from those heathenish authors i have been conversant in , i cannot expect my work should find acceptance in the world , declaring the more full and various delight i have found in following truth by its own conduct ; nor am i much concern'd how it be entertain'd , seeking no glory by it , but what is render'd to him to whom it is only due . if any one of no higher a pitch than my self , be as much affected and stirr'd up in the reading , as i have been in the writing , to admire the glories and excellencies of our great creator , to fall low before him , in the sense of our own vileness , and to adore his power , his wisdome , and his grace , in all his dealings with the children of men , it will be a success above my hopes ; though my charity makes me wish every one that hath need of it the same mercy i have found . i know i am obnoxious to the censures of two sorts of people : first , those that understand and love the elegancies of poems , they will find nothing of fancy in it ; no elevations of stile , no charms of language , which i confess are gifts i have not , nor desire not in this occasion ; for i would rather breath forth grace cordially than words artificially . i have not studied to utter any thing that i have not really taken in . and i acknowledge all the language i have , is much too narrow to express the least of those wonders my soul hath been ravisht with in the contemplation of god and his works . had i had a fancy , i durst not have exercis'd it here ; for i tremble to think of turning scripture into a romance ; and shall not be troubled at their dislike who dislike on that account ; and profess they think no poem can be good that shuts out drunkenness , and lasciviousness , and libelling satyr , the theams of all their celebrated songs . these , ( though i will not much defend my ownweakness ) dislike not the poem so much as the subject of it . but there are a second sort of people , whose genius not lying that way , and seeing the common and vile abuse of poesie , think scripture prophan'd by being descanted on in numbers ; but such will pardon me when they remember a great part of the scripture was originally written in verse ; and we are commanded to exercise our spiritual mirth in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs ; which if i have weakly compos'd , yet 't is a consenting testimony with the whole church , to the mighty and glorious truths of god which ir not altogether impertinent , in this atheistical age ; and how imperfect soever the hand be , that copies it out , truth loses not its perfection , and the plainest as well as the elegant , the elegant as well as the plain , make up a harmony in confession and celebration of that all-creating , all-sustaining god , to whom be all honour and glory for ever and ever . meditations on the creation , as recorded in the first chapter of genesis . my ravisht soul , a pious ardour fires , to sing those mystick wonders it admires , contemplating the rise of every thing that , with times birth , flow'd from th' eternal spring : and the no less stupendious providence by which discording natures ever since have kept up universal harmonie ; while in one joynt obedience all agree , performing that to which they were design'd with ready inclination ; but mankind alone rebels against his makers will , which tho' opposing he must yet fulfill . and so that wise power , who each crooked stream most rightly guides , becomes the glorious theam of endless admiration , while we see , whatever mortals vain endeavours be , they must be broken who with power contend , and cannot frustrate their creators end , whose wisdom , goodness , might and glory shines in guiding mens unto his own designs . in these outgoings would i sing his praise , but my weak sense with the too glorious rays is struck with such confusion , that i find only the worlds first chaos in my mind , where light and beauty lie wrapt up in seed , and cannot be from the dark prison freed , except that power , by whom the world was made , my soul in her imperfect strugglings aid , her rude conceptions into forms dispose , and words impart , which may those forms disclose . o thou eternal spring of glory , whence all other streams derive their excellence , from whose love issues every good desire , quicken my dull earth with celestial fire , and let the sacred theam that is my choice , give utterance and musick to my voice , singing the works by which thou art reveal'd . what dark eternity hath kept conceal'd from mortals apprehensions , what hath been before the race of time did first begin , it were presumptuous folly to enquire . let not my thoughts beyond their bound aspire , time limits mortals , and time had its birth , in whose beginning god made heaven and earth . god , the great elohim , to say no more , whose sacred name we rather must adore than venture to explain ; for he alone dwells in himself , and to himself is known . and so , even that by which we have our sight , his covering is , he clothes himself with light . easier we may the winds in prison shut , the whole vast ocean in a nut-shell put , the mountains in a little ballance weigh , and with a bullrush plumm the deepest sea , than stretch frail humane thought unto the height of the great god , immense , and infinite , containing all things in himself alone , being at once in all , contain'd in none . yet as a hidden spring appears in streams , the sun is seen in its reflected beams , whose high embodied glory is too bright , too strong an object for weak mortal sight ; so in gods visible productions , we what is invisible , in some sort see ; while we considering each created thing , are led up to an uncreated spring , and by gradations of successive time , at last unto eternity do climb , as we in tracks of second causes tread unto the first uncaused cause are led ; and know , while we perpetual motion see there must a first self-moving power be , to whom all the inferiour motions tend , in whom they are begun , and where they end . this first eternal cause , th' original of being , life , and motion , god we call ; in whom all wisdome , goodness , glory , might , whatever can himself or us delight unite , centring in his perfection , whose nature can admit but only one : divided soveraignty makes neither great , wanting what 's shar'd to make the summ compleat . and yet this soveraign sacred unitie is not alone , for in this one are three , distinguisht , not divided , so that what one person is , the other is not that ; yet all the three , are but one god most high , one uncompounded , pure divinity , wherein subsist so , the mysterious three , that they in power and glory equal be ; each doth himself , and all the rest possess in undisturbed joy and blessedness . there 's no inferiour , nor no later there , all coeternal , all coequal , are . and yet this parity order admits . the father first , eternally begets , within himself , his son , substantial word and wisdom , as his second , and their third the ever blessed spirit is , which doth alike eternally proceed from both . these three , distinctly thus , in one divine , pure , perfect , self-supplying essence shine : and all cooperate in all works done exteriourly , yet so , as every one , in a peculiar manner suited to his person , doth the common action do . herein the father is the principal , whose sacred counsels are th' original of every act ; produced by the son , by'the spirit wrought up to perfection . i' the creation thus , by'the fathers wise decree , such things should in such time , and order be , the first foundation of the world was laid . the fabrique , by th' eternal word , was made not as th' instrument , but joynt actor , who joy'd to fulfill the counsels which he knew . by the concurrent spirit all parts were fitly dispos'd , distinguisht , rendred fair , in such harmonious and wise order set , as universal beauty did compleat . this most mysterious triple unitie , in essence one , and in subsistence three , was that great elohim , who first design'd , then made the worlds , that angels and mankind him in his rich out-goings might adore , and celebrate his praise for evermore ; who from eternity himself supplied , and had no need of any thing beside , nor any other cause that did him move to make a world , but his extensive love , it self delighting to communicate ; its glory in the creatures to dilate , while they are led by their own excellence t' admire the first , pure , high intelligence , by all the powers and vertues which they have , to that omnipotence who those powers gave ; by all their glories and their joys to his , who is the fountain of all joy and bliss ; by all their wants and imbecillities , to the full magazine of rich supplies , where power , love , justice , and mercy shine in their still fixed heights , and ne're decline . no streams can shrink the self-supplying spring , no retributions can more fulness bring to the eternal fountain , which doth run in sacred circles , ends where it begun , and thence with inexhausted life and force begins again a new , yet the same course it instituted in times infant birth , when the creator first made heaven and earth . time though it all things into motion bring is not it self any substantial thing , but only motions measure ; as a twin born with it ; and they both at once begin with the existence of the rolling sphere , before which neither time nor motion were . time being a still continued number , made by the vicissitude of light and shade , by the moons growth , and by her waxing old , by the successive reign of heat and cold , thus leading back all ages to the womb of vast eternity from whence they come , and bringing new successions forth , until heaven its last revolutions shall fulfil , and all things unto their first state restore , when motion ceasing , time shall be no more ; but with the visible heavens shall expire while they consume in the worlds funeral fire ; th' invisible heavens being still the same , shall not be toucht by the devouring flame . treating of which , let 's wave platonick dreams of worlds made in idea , fitter theams for poets fancies , than the reverent view of contemplation , fixt on what is true and only certain , kept upon record in the creators own revealed word , which when it taught us how our world was made , wrapt up th' invisible in mystique shade . yet through those clouds we see , god did create a place his presence doth irradiate . where he doth in his brightest lustre shine ; yet doth not his own heaven , him confine : although the paradise of the fair world above , each where perfum'd with sweet respiring love , refresht with pleasures never shrinking streams , illustrated with lights unclouded beams , the happy land of peace and endless rest which doth both soul and sense with full joys feast , feasts that extinguish not the appetite which is renew'd to heighten the delight . here stands the tree of life , deckt with fair fruit , whose leaves health to the nations contribute . the spreading , true celestial vine where fruitful grafts and noble clusters shine . here majesty and grace together meet ; the grace is glorious , and the glory sweet . here is the throne of th' universal king to which the suppliant world addresses bring . here next him doth his son in triumph sit , waiting till all his foes lie at his feet . here is the temple of his holiness , the sanctuary for all sad distress . here is the saints most sure inheritance to which they all their thoughts and hopes advance . here their rich recompence and safe rest lies , for this they all th' inferiour world despise ; yet not for this alone , though this excel , but for that deity who here doth dwell ; for heaven it self to saints no heaven were did not their god afford his presence there ; but now , as he inhabits it , it is the treasure-house of everlasting bliss , the fathers house , the pilgrims home , the port of happiness , th' illustrious regal court , the city that on the worlds summit stands , united in it self , not made with hands ; whose citizens , walls , pavements are so bright they need no sun in gods more radiant light. the pure air being not thickned with dark clouds , no sable night the constant glory shrowds ; nor needs there night , when no dull lassitude doth into the unwearied soul intrude ; new vigour flowing in with that dear joy whose contemplation doth their lives employ . this heaven , the third to us within , the first , if from the outside we begin , is incorruptible , and still the same , confirm'd by him who did its substance frame : no time its strong foundations can decay , it s renew'd glory fadeth not away . the other heavens which it doth enfold , in tract of time as garments shall wax old , and all their outworn glory shall expire in the worlds dreadful last devouring fire ; but this shall still unchangeable remain , while all the rolling spheres which it contains shall be again into their chaos whirl'd at the last dissolution of the world . for god , who made this blessed place to be the habitation of his sanctitie , admitting nothing into it that 's vile , nothing that can corrupt , or can defile , never withdraws his gracious presence thence but is on all the glory a defence . nor are his gates ere shut by night or day , his only dread keeps all foes far away . he not for need , but for majestick state , innumerable hosts of angels did create to be his outguards , in respect of whom he doth his name el-tzeboim assume . these perfect , pure intelligences be , excel in might , and in celeritie , whose sublime natures , and whose agile powers , are vastly so superiour unto ours , our narrow thoughts cannot to them extend , and things so far above us comprehend , as in themselves , although in part we know , some scantlings by appearances below , and sacred writ , wherein we find there be distinguisht orders in their hierarchie ; arch-angels , cherubims , and seraphims , who celebrate their god with holy hymns . ten thousand thousand vulgar angels stand all in their ranks , waiting the lords command , which with prompt inclination of their will , and chearful , swift obedience they fulfil ; whether he them to save poor men employ , or send them arm'd , proud rebels to destroy ; whether he them to mighty monarchs send , or bid them on poor pilgrim saints attend , whether they must in heavenly lustre go , or walk in mortal mean disguise below : so kind , so humble are they , though so high , they do it with the same alacrity . why blush we not at our vain pride , when we such condescension in heavens courtiers see , that they who sit on heavenly thrones above , scorn not to serve poor worms with fervent love ? and joyful praises to th' almighty sing , when they a mortal to their own home bring ? how gracious is the lord of all , that he should thus consider poor mortalitie , such powers for us , into those powers diffuse , such glorious servants , in our service , use ? who whether they , with light , or heaven , had creation , were within the six days made . but leave we looking through the vail , nor pry too long on things wrapt up in mystery , reserv'd to be our wonder at that time , when we shall up to their high mountain climb . besides th' empyrean heaven we are told of divers other heavens which we behold only by reasons eye , yet were not they if made at least distinguisht the first day . then from the height we cannot comprehend , let us to our inferiour world descend . the earth at first was a vast empty place , a rude congestion without form or grace , a confus'd mass of undistinguisht feed , darkness the deep , the deep the solid hid : where things did in unperfect causes sleep , until gods spirit mov'd the quiet deep , brooding the creatures under wings of love , as tender birds hatcht by a turtle dove . light first of all its radiant wings display'd , god call'd forth light : that word the creature made . whether it were the natures more divine , or the bright mansion where just souls must shine , or the first matter of those tapers which the since-made firmament do still enrich , it is not yet agreed among the wise : but thus the day did out of chaos rise , and casts its bright beams on the floating world , o're which soon envious night her black mists hurl'd , damping the new born splendour for a space , till the next morning did her shadows chace : with restor'd beauty and triumphant force , returning to begin another course , an emblem of that everlasting feud 'twixt sons of light , and darkness still pursued ; and of that frail imperfect state wherein the wasting lights of mortal men begin ; whose comforts , honours , lives , soon as they shine must all to sorrows , changes , death resign ; even their wisdomes and their vertues light are hid by envies interposing night . but though these splendors all in graves are thrown , whereever the true feed of light is sown , the powers of darkness may contend in vain , it shall a conquerour rise and ever reign . for when god the victorious morning view'd , approving his own work he said 't was good : and of inanimate creatures sure the best , as that which shews and beautifies the rest , those melancholy thoughts which night creates and seeds in mortal bosomes , dissipates : in its own nature subtile , swift and pure , which no polluted mirrour can endure . by it th' almighty maker doth dispence to earthy creatures , heavenly influence ; by it with angels swiftness are our eyes , exalted to the glory of the skies . in whose bright character the light divine , which flesh cannot behold , doth dimly shine . thus was the first day made ; god so call'd light , sever'd from darkness , darkness was the night . canto ii. again spoke god ; the trembling waters move , part flie up in thick mists , made clouds above , part closer shrink about the earth below , but did not yet the mountains dry heads show . th' allforming word stretcht out the firmament , like azure curtains round his glorious tent , and in its hidden chambers did dispose the magazines of hail , and rain , and snows , amongst those thicker clouds , from whose dark womb th' imprison'd winds , in flame and thunder come . those clouds which over all the wondrous arch like hosts of various formed creatures march , and change the scenes in our admiring eyes ; who sometimes see them like vast mountains rise . sometimes like pleasant seas with clear waves glide , sometimes like ships on foaming billows ride , sometimes like mounted warriours they advance , and seem to fire the smoaking ordinance . sometimes like shady forests they appear , here monsters walking , castles rising there . scorn princes your embroider'd canopies , and painted roofs , the poor whom you despise with far more ravishing delight are fed , while various clouds sayl o're th' unhoused head , and their heav'd eyes with nobler scenes present than your poetick courtiers can invent . thus the exalted waters were dispos'd , and liquid skies the solid world enclos'd , to magnifie the most almighty hand , that makes thin floods like rocks of crystal stand , not quenching , nor drunk up by that bright wall of fire , which neighbouring them , encircles all . the new built firmament god heaven nam'd , and over all the arch his windows fram'd . from whence his liberal hand at due time pours upon the thirsty earth refreshing showers ; and clothes her bosome with descending snow to cherish the young seeds when cold winds blow : hence every night his fatning dews he sheds , and scatters pearls amidst th' enamel'd beds . but when presumptuous sins the bright arch scale , he beats them back with terrifying hail : which like small shot amidst his foes he sends , till flaming thunder , his great ordnance , rends the clouds , which , big with horror , ready stand to pour their burthens forth at his command . but th' unpolluted air as yet had not from mortals impious breath infection got , enlightned then by a superiour ray a serene lustre deckt the second day . th' inferiour globe was fashion'd on the third , when waters at the all-commanding word did hastily into their channels glide , and the uncover'd hills as soon were dried . in the same body thus , distinct , and joyn'd , water and earth , as flesh and blood , we find . the late collected waters god call'd seas . springs , lakes , streams , and broad rivers are from these brancht , like life-feeding veins , in every land , yet wheresoe're they seem to flow or stand , as all in the vast oceans bosome bred , they daily reassemble in their head , which thorough secret conduits back conveys to every spring , the tribute that it pays . so ages from th' eternal bosome creep , so lose them selves again in that vast deep . so empires , so all other humane things , with winding streams run to their native springs . so all the goodness mortals exercise flows back to god out of his own supplies . now the great fabrick in all parts compleat , beauty was call'd forth to adorn the seat ; where earth , fixt in the centre , was the ground , a mantle of light air compast it round ; then first the watrie , then the fiery wall , and glittering heaven last involving all . earth's fair green robe vi'd with the azure skies , her proud woods near the flaming towers did rife . the valleys trees , though less in breadth and height , yet hung with various fruit , as much delight . beneath these little shrubs and bushes sprung with fair flowers cloth'd , and with rich berries hung , whos 's more delightful fruits seem'd to upbraid the tall trees yielding only barren shade . then sprouted grass and herbs and plants prepar'd to feed the earth's inhabitants , to glad their nostrils , and delight their eyes , revive their spirits , cure their maladies . nor by these are the senses only fed , but th' understanding too , while we may read in every leaf , lectures of providence , eternal wisdom , love , omnipotence . which th' eye that sees not , with hells mists is blind , that which regards not , is of bruitish kind . the various colours , figures , powers of these are their creators growing witnesses , their glories emblems are , wherein we see how frail our humane lives and beauties be . even like those flowers which at the sun-rise spread their gawdy leaves , and are at evening dead . yet while they in their native lustre shine , the eastern monarchs are not half so fine in richer robes god clothes the dirty soyl than men can purchase by their sin and toyl . then rather fields than painted courts admire , yet seeing both , think both must feed the fire : only gods works have roots and seeds , from whence they spring again in grace and excellence , but mens have none , like hasty lightning , they flash out , and so for ever pass away . this fair creation finisht the third day , in whose end , god did the whole work survey , the seas , the skies , the trees , and less plants view'd , and by his approbation made them good ; in all the plants did living seeds enclose , whence their successive generations rose ; gave them those powers which in them still remain , whereby they man and beast with food sustain . thrice had the day to gloomy night resign'd , and thrice victorious o're the darkness shin'd , before the mediate cause of it , the sun or any star had their creation , for with th' omnipotent it is all one to cause the day without , or by the sun. god in the world by second causes reigns , but is not tied to those means he ordains . let no heart faint then that on him depends , when the means fail , that lead to their wisht ends . for god the thing , if good , will bring about with instruments we see not , or without . the fourth light having now expell'd the shade god on that day the luminaries made , and plac'd them all in their peculiar sphears to measure out our days , and months , and years , which by their various motions are renew'd , and heat and cold have their vicissitude : so springs and autumns still successive be , till ages lose them in eternity . the sun whom th' hebrews gods great servant call , plac'd in the middle orb , as lord of all , is in a radiant flaming chariot whirl'd , and dayly carried round abut the world by the first movers force , who in that race scatters his light and heat in every place , yet not at once . now in the east he shines , and then again to'the western deep declines , seeming to quench his blazing taper there while it enlightens the other hemisphere . thus he their share of day and night divides unto each world in their alternate tides . but then its orb by its own motion roll'd , varies the seasons , brings in heat and cold , as it projects its rays in a straight line , or more obliquely on the earth doth shine . and thus doth he to the low world dispense life-feeding and engendring influence . this lord of day with his reflected light guilds the pale moon the empress of the night , whose dim orb monthly wastes and grows , doth at the first sharp pointed horns disclose , then half , then her full shining globe reveals , which waining she by like degrees conceals . the other glittering planets now appear each as a king enthron'd in his own sphear ; then the eighth heaven in fuller lustre shines thick set with stars . all these were made for signs that mortals by observing them might know due times to cultivate the earth below , to gather fruits , plant trees , and sow their seed , to cure their herds , and let their fair flocks breed , into safe harbours to retire their ships , again to launch out into the calm deeps , their wandring vessels in broad seas to guide , when the lost shores no longer are descried ; physicians to direct in their great art , and other useful knowledge to impart . nor were they only made for signs to shew fit opportunities for things we do , but in their various aspects too we read various events which shall in time succeed , droughts , inundations , famines , plagues and wars , by several conjunctions of the stars , at least shewn , if not caus'd , through the strong powers and workings astral bodies have on ours , which as above they variously are joyn'd , so are their subjects here below , enclin'd to sadness , mirth , dread , quiet , love or hate , all that may calm , or trouble any state . yet are they but a second cause , which god shakes over sinners as a flaming rod , and further manages in his own hands , to scourge the pride of all rebellious lands ; falsely and vainly do blind mortals then , to them impute the fates and ills of men , when their sinister operations be only th' effects of mens iniquitie , which makes the lord his glittering hosts thus send to execute the just threats they portend . nor are they characters of wrath alone , they sometimes have gods grace to mankind shown , such was that new star which did heaven adorn , when the great king of the whole word was born . such were those stars that fought for israel when jabins vanquisht host , by gods host fell . even those stars which threaten misery and woe to wicked men , to saints deliverance show : for when god cuts the bloody tyrant down , he will their lives with peace and blessings crown . thus the fourth evening did the fourth day close , and where the sun went down , the stars arose . new triumph now the fifth day celebrates , the perfum'd morning opes her purple gates , through which the suns pavilion doth appear and he array'd in all his lustre there , like a fresh bridegroom with majestique grace , and joy diffusing vigour in his face , comes gladly forth , to greet his virgin bride , trick'd up in all her ornaments and pride ; her lovely maids at his approach unfold their gaudie vests , on which he scatters gold , both chearing and enriching every place , through which he passes in his glorious race . but though he found a noble threatre , as yet in it no living creatures were ; though flowry carpets spread the whole earths face , and rich embroideries the upper arch did grace , and standards on the mountains stood between bearing festoones like pillars wreath'd with green , the velvet couches and the mossy seats , the open walks and the more close retreats were all prepar'd ; yet no foot trod the woods , nor no mouth yet had toucht the pleasant floods ; no weary creature had repos'd its head among the sweet perfumes of the low bed ; the air was not respir'd in living breath , throughout a general stilness reign'd , like death . the king of day came forth , but unadmir'd , like unprais'd gallants blushingly retir'd ; as an uncourted beauty , nights pale queen , grew sick to shine where she could not be seen . when the creator first for mute herds calls , and bade the waters bring forth animals : then was all shell-fish and each scaly race at once produc'd , in their assigned place , the crooked dolphins , great leviathan , and all the monsters of the ocean , like wanton kids among the billows play'd , nor was there after on the dry land made any one beast of less or greater kind whose like we do not in the waters find ; where every greater fish devours the less , as mighty lords poor commoners oppress . next the almighty by his forming word made the whole plumie race , and every bird it s proper place assign'd , while with light wings all mounted heaven , some o're the lakes and springs , some over the vast fens and seas did flie , some near the ground , some in the cloudy skie , some in high trees their proud nests built , some chose the humble shrubs for their more safe repose , some did the marshes , some the rivers love , some the corn-fields , and some the shady grove . that silence which reign'd every where before , it s universal empire held no more , even night and darkness its own dear retreat could not preserve it in their reign compleat : the nightingales with their complaining notes , ravens and owls with their ill-boding throats , and all the birds of night , shrill crowing cocks whose due kept times , made them the worlds first clocks , all interrupted it , even in the night , but at the first appearance of the light a thousand voyces , the green woods whole quire with their loud musick do the day admire ; the lark doth with her single carol rise , to welcome the fair morning in the skies ; the amorous and still complaining dove , courts not the day , but woes her own fair love ; the jays and crows against each other rayl , and chattering pies begin their gossips tale : thus life was carri'd on , which first begun in growth of plants , in fishes motion , and next declar'd it self in living sound , whilst various noise the yielding air did wound . various instincts the birds by nature have , which god to them in their creation gave , that unto their observers do declare the storms and calms approaching in the air , that teach them how to build their nests at spring , and hatch their young under their nursing wing , to lead abroad and guard their tender brood , to know their hurtful and their healing food , to feed them till their strength be perfect grown , and after teach them how to feed alone . could we the lessons they hold forth improve , we might from some learn chaste and constant love , conjugal kindness of the paired swans , paternal bounty of the pelicans , while they are prodigal of their own blood to feed their chickens with that precious food . wisdome of those who when storms threat the skie , in thick assemblies to their shelter flie , and those who seeing devourers in the air , to the safe covert of the wing repair . the gall-less doves would teach us innocence , and the whole race to hang on providence ; since not the least bird that divides the air exempted is from the almighties care , whose bounty in due seasons , feeds them all , prepares them berries when the thick snows fall , cloaths them in many colour'd plumes , which vain men borrow , yet the peacocks gawdy train more beautifully is by nature drest , than art can make it on the gallants crest . this priviledge these creatures had to raise their voices first in their great makers praise , which when the morning opes her rosie gate they with consenting musick celebrate ; again with hunger pincht to god they cry , and from his liberal hand receive supply , who them and all his watry creatures view'd , and saw that they in all their kinds were good . then blest them that for due successions they might multiply . so clos'd he the fifth day . and now the sun the third time rais'd his head and rose the sixth day from his watry bed , when god commands the teeming earth to bring forth great and lesser beasts , each reptile thing that on her bosome creeps , the word obey'd , immediately were all the creatures made . like hermits some made hollow rocks their cell , and did in their prepared mansions dwell . the vermine , weazils , fulmots and blind moles , lay hid in clefts of trees , in crannies and in holes . the serpents lodg'd in marishes and fens , the savage beasts sought thickets , caves and dens . tame herds and flocks in open pastures stay'd , and wanton kids upon the mountains play'd . here life almost to its perfection grew while god these various creatures did indue with various properties , and various sense , but little short of humane excellence , save what we in the brutes dispersed find , is all collected in mans nobler mind , who to the high perfection of his sense , hath added a more high intelligence . yet several brutes have noble faculties , some apprehensive are , some subtile , wise , some have invention and docility , some wonderful in imitation be , some with high generous courage are endued , with kindness some , and some with gratitude , with memory some , and some with providence , with natural love , and with meek innocence : some watchful are , and some laborious be , some have obedience , some true loyalty . among them too we all the passions find , some more to love , some more to hate enclin'd . the musing hare and the lightfooted deer are under the predominance of fear ; goats and hot monkeys are with lust possest , rage governs in the savage tygres brest ; jealousie doth the hearts of fierce bulls move impatient of all rivals in their love . some sportive , and some melancholy be , some proner to revenge and crueltie . the kingly lion in his bosome hath the fiery seed of self-provoking wrath , joy is no stranger to the savage brest , as oft with love , hate and desire possest , through the aversion and the appetite which all these passions in their hearts excite . god cloth'd them all in several woells and hair , whereof some meaner , some more precious are , which men now into garments weave and spin , nor only weare their fleeces , but their skin ; besides employ their teeth , bones , claws , and horn , some medicines be , and some the house adorn . a thousand other various ways we find , wherein alive and dead they serve mankind , who from th' obedience they to him afford might learn his duty to his soveraign lord. canto iii. now was the glorious universe compleat and every thing in beauteous order set , when god , about to make the king of all , did in himself a sacred council call ; not that he needed to deliberate , but pleas'd t' allow solemnity and state , to wait upon that noble creatures birth for whom he had design'd both heaven and earth : let us , said god , with soveraign power indued : make man after our own similitude , let him our sacred imprest image bear ruling o're all in earth , and sea , and air . then made the lord a curious mold of clay , which lifeless on the earths cold bosome lay , when god did it with living breath inspire , a soul in all , and every part entire , where life ris ' above motion , sound and sense to higher reason and intelligence ; and this is truly termed life alone , which makes lifes fountain to the living known . this life into it self doth gather all the rest maintain'd by its original , which gives it being , motion , sense , warmth , breath , and those chief powers that are not lost in death . thus was the noblest creature the last made , as he in whom the rest perfection had , in whom both parts of the great world were joyn'd , earth in his members , heaven in his mind ; whose vast reach the whole universe compriz'd , and saw it in himself epitomiz'd , yet not the centre nor circumference can fill the more comprehensive soul of man , whose life is but a progress of desire , which still enjoy'd , doth something else require , unsatisfied with all it hath pursued until it rest in god , the soveraign good. the earthly mansion of this heavenly guest peculiar priviledges too possest . whereas all other creatures clothed were in shells , scales , gaudy plumes , or woolls , or hair , only a fair smooth skin o're man was drawn , like damask roses blushing through pure lawn . the azure veins , where blood and spirits flow , like violets in a field of lillies show . as others have a down bent counténance , he only doth his head to heaven advance , resembling thus a tree whose noble root in heaven grows , whence all his graces shoot . he only on two upright columns stands , he only hath , and knows the use of hands , which gods rich bounties for the rest receive , and aid to all the other members give . he only hath a voice articulate , varied by joy , grief , anger , love and hate , and every other motion of the mind which hereby doth an apt expression find . hereby glad mirth in laughter is alone by man exprest ; in a peculiar groan , his grief comes forth , accompanied with tears , peculiar shrieks utter his suddain fears . herein is musick too , which sweetly charms the sense , and the most savage heart disarms . the gate of this god in the head did place , the head which is the bodies chiefest grace , the noble palace of the royal guest within by fancy and invention drest , with many pleasant useful ornaments which new imagination still presents , adorn'd without , by majesty and grace , o who can tell the wonders of a face ! in none of all his fabriques more than here doth the creators glorious power appear , that of so many thousands which we see all humane creatures like , all different be ; if the front be the glory of mans frame , those lamps which in its upper windows flame , illustrate it , and as days radiant star , in the clear heaven of a bright face are . here love takes stand , and here ardent desire enters the soul , as fire drawn in by fire , at two ports , on each side , the hearing sense still waits to take in fresh intelligence , but the false spies both at the ears and eyes , conspire with strangers for the souls surprize , and let all life-perturbing passions in , which with tears , sighs and groans issue again . nor do those labyrinths which like brest-works are , about those secret ports , serve for a bar to the false sorcerers conducted by mans own imprudent curiosity . there is an arch i' the middle of the face of equal necessary use and grace , for there men suck up the life-feeding air , and panting bosomes are discharged there ; beneath it is the chief and beauteous gate , about which various pleasant graces wait , when smiles the rubie doors a little way unfold , or laughter doth them quite display , and opening the vermillion curtains shows the ivory piles set in two even rows , before the portal , as a double guard , by which the busie tongue is helpt and barr'd ; whose sweet sounds charm , when love doth it inspire , and when hate moves it , set the world on fire . within this portals inner vault is plac't the palate where sense meets its joys in tast ; on rising cheeks , beauty in white and red strives with it self , white on the forehead spread its undisputed glory there maintains , and is illustrated with azure veins . the brows , loves bow , and beauties shadow are , a thick set grove of soft and shining hair adorns the head , and shews like crowning rays , while th'airs soft breath among the loose curls plays . besides the colours and the features , we admire their just and perfect symmetrie , whose ravishing resultance is that air that graces all , and is not any where ; whereof we cannot well say what it is , yet beauties chiefest excellence lies in this ; which mocks the painters in their best designs , and is not held by their exactest lines . but while we gaze upon our own fair frame let us remember too from whence it came , and that by sin corrupted now , it must return to its originary dust . how undecently doth pride then lift that head on which the meanest feet must shortly tread ? yet at the first it was with glory crown'd , till satans fraud gave it the mortal wound . this excellent creature god did adam call to mind him of his low original , whom he had form'd out of the common ground which then with various pleasures did abound . the whole earth was one large delightful field , that till man sin'd no hurtful briars did yield , but god enclosing one part from the rest , a paradise in the rich spicie east had stor'd with natures wealthy magazine , where every plant did in its lustre shine , but did not grow promiscously there , they all dispos'd in such rich order were as did augment their single native grace , and perfected the pleasure of the place , to such a height that th' apelike art of man , licentious pens , or pencils never can with all th' essays of all presuming wit , or form or feign ought that approaches it . whether it were a fruitful hill or vale , whether high rocks , or trees did it impale , or rivers with their clear and kind embrace into a pleasant island form'd the place , whether its noble scituation were on earth , in the bright moon , or in the air , in what forms stood the various trees and flowers , the disposition of the walks and bowers , whereof no certain word , nor sign remains , we dare not take from mens inventive brains . we know there was pleasant and noble shade which the tall growing pines and cedars made , and thicker coverts , which the light and heat ev'n at noon day could scarcely penetrate , a crystal river on whose verdant banks the crowned fruit-trees stood in lovely ranks , his gentle wave thorough the garden led , and all the spreading roots with moysture fed . but past th' enclosure , thence the single stream parted in four , four noble floods became ; pison whose large arms havilah enfold ; a wealthy land enricht with finest gold , where also many precious stones are found ; the second river gihon , doth surround all that fair land where chus inhabited , where tyranny first rais'd up her proud head , and led her blood-hounds all along the shore , polluting the pure stream with crimson gore . edens third river hiddekell they call , whose waters eastward in assiria fall . the fourth euphrates whose swift stream did run about the stately walls of babylon ; and in the revolution of some years swell'd high , fed with the captiv'd hebrews tears . god in the midst of paradise did place two trees , that stood up drest in all the grace , the verdure , beauty , sweetness , excellence , with which all else could tempt or feast the sense : on one apples of knowledge did abound , and life-confirming fruit the other crown'd . and now did god the new created king into the pleasures of his earthly palace bring : the air , spice , balm , and amber did respire , his ears were feasted by the sylvan quire , like country girls , grass flowers did dispute their humble beauties with the high born fruit ; both high and low their gawdy colours vied , as courtiers do in their contentious pride , striving which of them should yield most delight , and stand the finest in their soveraigns sight . the shrubs with berries crown'd like precious gems , offer'd their supreme lord their diadems which did no single sense alone invite , courting alike the eyes and appetite . among all these the eye-refreshing green , sometimes alone , sometimes in mixture seen , o're all the banks and all the flat ground spread , seem'd an embroider'd , or plain velvet bed . and that each sense might its refreshment have , the gentle air soft pleasant touches gave unto his panting limbs , whenever they upon the sweet and mossie couches lay . a shady eminence there was , whereon the noble creature sate , as on his throne , when god brought every fowl , and every brute , that he might names unto their natures suit , whose comprehensive understanding knew how to distinguish them , at their first view ; and they retaining those names ever since , are monuments of his first excellence , and the creators providential grace , who in those names , left us some prints to trace ; nature , mysterious grown , since we grew blind , whose labyrinths we should less easily find if those first appellations , as a clue , did not in some sort serve to lead us through , and rectifie that frequent gross mistake , which our weak judgements and sick senses make , since man ambitious to know more , that sin brought dulness , ignorance and error in . though god himself to man did condescend , though his knowlege to all natures did extend ; though heaven and earth thus centred in his mind , yet being the only one of his whole kind , he found himself without an equal mate , to whom he might his joys communicate , and by communication multiply . too far out of his reach was god on high , too much below him bruitish creatures were , god could at first have made a humane pair , but that it was his will to let man see the need and sweetness of societie ; who , though he were his makers favourite , feasted in paradise with all delight , though all the creatures paid him homage , yet was not his unimparted joy compleat , while there was not a second of his kind , indued with such a form and such a mind , as might alike his soul and senses feast : he saw that every bird and every beast it s own resemblance in its female viewed , and only union with its like pursued . hence birds with birds , and fish with fish abide , nor those with beasts , nor beasts with these reside : according to their several species too , as several housholds in one city do , so they with their own kinds associate : the kingly eagle hath no buzzard mate ; the ravens , more their own black feather love , than painted pheasants , or the fair-neck'd dove . so bears to rough bears rather do encline than to majestick lions , or fair kine . if it be thus with brutes , much less then can the bruitish conversation suit with man. 't is only like desires like things unite : in union likeness only feeds delight . where unlike natures in conjunction are , there is no product but perpetual war , such as there was in natures troubled womb , until the sever'd births from thence did come , for the whole world nor order had , nor grace till sever'd elements each their own place assigned were , and while in them they keep , heaven still smiles above , th' untroubled deep with kind salutes embraces the dry land , firm doth the earth on its foundation stand ; a chearful light streams from th'aetherial fire , and all in universal joy conspire . but if with their unlike they attempt to mix , their rude congressions every thing unfix ; darkness again invades the troubled skies , earth trembling , under angry heaven lies ; the sea , swoln high with rage , comes to the shore and swallows that , which it but kist before ; th' unbounded fire breaks forth with dreadful light , and horrid cracks which dying nature fright , till that high power , which all powers regulates , the disagreeing natures separates , the like to like rejoyning as before , so the worlds peace , joy , safety doth restore . yet if man could not find in bird or brute that conversation which might aptly suit his higher nature , was it not sublime enough , above the lower world to climb , and in angelick converse to delight , although it could not reach the supreme height ? no ; for though man partake intelligence , yet that being joyn'd to an inferiour sense , dull'd by corporeal vapours , cannot be refin'd enough for angels company : as strings screw'd up too high , as bows still bent or break themselves , or crack the instrument ; so drops neglected flesh into the grave , if it no share in the souls pleasures have . man like himself needs an associate , who doth both soul and sense participate . not the swift horse , the eager hawk , or hound , dogs , parrots , monkies 'mongst whom adam found no meet companion , thinking them too base for the society of humane race , though his degenerate offspring chuse that now which his sound reason could not then allow , but found himself amongst them all alone . whether he beg'd a mate it is not known , likely his want might send him to the spring ; for god who freely gives us every thing , mercy endears by instilling the desire , and granting that which humbly we require : howe're it was , god saw his solitude and gave his sentence that it was not good . yet not a natural , nor a moral ill , because his solitude was not his will opposing his creators end , as they who into caves and desarts run away , seeking perfection in that state , wherein a good was wanting when man had no sin . for without help to propagate mankind gods glory had been to one brest confin'd , which multiplied saints , do now conspire throughout their generations to admire . mans nature had not been the sacred shrine , partner and bride of that which is divine ; the church , fruit of this union , had not come to light , but perisht , stifled in the womb . again 't is not particularly good for man to waste his life in solitude , whose nature for society design'd can no full joy without a second find , to whom he may communicate his heart , and pay back all the pleasures they impart ; for all the joys that we enjoy alone , and all our unseen lustre , is as none . if thus want of a partner did abate mans happiness in mans most perfect state , much more hath humane nature , now decay'd , need of a suitable and a kind aid : it is not good , vertue should lie obscure , that barren rocks , rich treasures should immure , which our kind lord to some , for all men gave , that all might share of all his bounties have . not good , dark lanthorns should shut up the light of fair example , made for the dark night . not good , experience should her candle hide , when weak ones perish , wanting her bright guide . not good , to let unactive graces chill , no lively warmth receive , no good instil by quickning converse . thus nor are the great , the wise , and firm , permitted to retreat , betraying so deserted innocence , to which god made them conduct and defence . nor may the simple and the weak expose themselves alone , to strong and subtile foes ; men for each others mutual help were made , the meanest may afford the highest aid . the highest to necessity must yield , even princes are beholding to the field . he that from mortal converse steals away injures himself , and others doth betray , whom providence committed to his trust , and in that act , nor prudent is nor just . for sweet friends both in pleasure and distress , augment the joy , and make the torment less . equal delight it is to learn and teach , to be held up to that we cannot reach , and others from the abject earth to raise to merit , and to give deserved praise . wisdom imparted like th' encreasing bread , wherewith the lord so many thousands fed , by distribution adds to its own store , and still the more it gives it hath the more . extended power reaches it self a crown , gathering up those whom misery casts down . love raiseth us , it self to heaven doth rise , by vertues varied mutual exercise . sweet love , the life of life , which cannot shine , but lies like gold concealed in the mine , till it through much exchange a brightness take and conversation doth it current make . god having shew'd his creature thus the need of humane helps , a help for man decreed : i will , said he , the mans meet aid provide . but that he from his waking view might hide such a mysterious work , the lord did keep all adam's senses fast lock'd up in sleep . then from his open'd side took without pain a cloathed rib , and clos'd the flesh again , and of the bone did a fair virgin frame who , by her maker brought , to adam came and was in matrimonial union joyn'd , by love and nature happily combin'd . adam's clear understanding at first view his wives original and nature knew ; his will , as pure , did thankfully embrace , his fathers bounty , and admir'd his grace . and as her sweet charms did his heart surprise he spoke his joy in these glad ecstacies , thou art my better self , my flesh , my bone , we late of one made two , again in one shall reunite , and with the frequent birth of our joynt issue , people the vast earth . to shew that thou wert taken out of me isha shall be thy name ; as unto thee ravisht with love and joy my soul doth cleave , so men hereafter shall their fathers leave , and all relations else , which are most dear , that they may only to their wives adhere ; when marriage male and female doth combine children in one flesh shall two parents joyn . lastly , god , who the sacred knot had tied , with blessing his own ordinance sanctified , encrease , said he , and multiply your race , fill th' earth allotted for your dwelling place , i give you right to all her fruits and plants , dominion over her inhabitants ; the fish that in the floods deep bosome lie , all fowls that in the airy region flie , whatever lives and feeds on the dry land , are all made subject under your command . the grass and green herbs let your cattle eat , and let the richer fruits be your own meat , except the tree of knowing good and ill , that by the precept of my soveraign will you must not eat , for in the day you do , inevitable death shall seize on you . thus god did the first marriage celebrate while man was in his unpolluted state , and th' undefiled bed with honour deckt , though perversemen the ordinance reject , and pulling all its sacred ensigns down to the white virgin only give the crown . nor yet is marriage grown less sacred since man fell from his created excellence , necessity now raises its esteem , which doth mankind from deaths vast jaws redeem , who even in their graves are yet alive , while they in their posterity survive . in it they find a comfort and an aid , in all the ills which humane life invade . this curbs and cures wild passions that arise , repairs times daily wasts , with new supplies ; when the declining mothers youthful grace lies dead and buried in her wrinkled face , in her fair daughters it revives and grows , and her dead cinder in their new flames glows . and though this state may sometimes prove accurst , for of best things , still the corruption's worst , sin so destroys an institution good , provided against death and solitude . eve out of sleeping adam formed thus a sweet instructive emblem is to us , how waking providence is active still to do us good , and to avert our ill , when we lock'd up in stupefaction lie , not dreaming that our blessings are so nigh . blessings wrought out by providence alone without the least assistance of our own . mans help produc'd in death-like sleep doth show , our choicest mercies out of dead wombs flow . so from the second adams bleeding side god form'd the gospel church , his mystique bride , whose strength was only of his firmness made , his blood , quick spirits into ours convey'd : his wasted flesh our wasted flesh supplied , and we were then revived when he died . who wak'd from that short sleep with joy did view the virgin fair that out of his wounds grew , presented by th' eternal fathers grace unto his everlasting kind embrace : my spouse , my sister , said he , thou art mine ; i and my death , i and my life are thine ; for thee i did my heavenly father quit that thou with me on my high throne mayst sit , my mothers humane flesh in death did leave for thee , that i to thee might only cleave , redeem thee from the confines of dark hell , and evermore in thy dear bosome dwell : from heaven i did descend to fetch up thee , rose from the grave that thou mightst reign with me . henceforth no longer two but one we are , thou dost my merit , life , grace , glory share : as my victorious triumphs are all thine , so are thy injuries and sufferings mine , which i for thee will vanquish as my own , and give thee rest in the celestial throne : the bride with these caresses entertain'd in naked beauty doth before him stand , and knows no shame purg'd from all foul desire whose secret guilt kindles the blushing fire . her glorious lord is naked too , no more conceal'd in types and shadows as before . so our first parents innocently did behold that nakedness which since is hid , that lust may not catch fire from beauties flame engendring thoughts which die the cheeks with shame , thus heaven and earth their full perfection had , thus all their hosts and ornaments were made , armies of angels had the highest place , bright starry hosts the lower heaven did grace , the mutes encamped in the waters were , the winged troops were quartered in the air , the walking animals , as th' infantry of th' universal host , at large did lie spread over all the earths most ample face , each regiment in its assigned place . paradise the head quarter was , and there the emperour to his viceroy did appear , him in his regal office did install , a general muster of his hosts did call , resigning up into his sole command the numerous tribes , that fill doth sea and land . as each kind severally had before blessing and approbation , so once more , when all together god his works review'd , the blessing was confirmed and renew'd . and with the sixth day the creation ceast . the seventh day the lord himself did rest , and made it a perpetual ordinance then to be observ'd by every age of men , that after six days honest labour they his precept and example should obey , as he did his , their works surcease , and spend that day in sacred rest , till that day end , and in its number back again return , still consecrated , till it have outworn all other time , and that alone remain , when neither toyl , nor burthen , shall again the weary lives of mortal men infest , nor intermit their holy , happy rest . nor is this rest sacred to idleness , god , a perpetual act , sloth cannot bless . he ceast not from his own celestial joy , which doth himself perpetually employ in contemplation of himself , and those most excellent works , wherein himself he shows ; he only ceast from making lower things , by which , as steps , the mounting soul he brings to th' upmost height , and having finisht these himself did in his own productions please , full satisfied in their perfection , rested from what he had compleatly done ; and made his pattern our instruction , that we , as far as finite creatures may trace him that 's infinite , should in our way rest as our father did , work as he wrought , nor cease till we have to perfection brought whatever to his glory we intend , still making ours , the same which was his end : as his works in commands begin , and have conclusion in the blessings which he gave , so must his word give being to all ours ; and since th' events are not in our own powers , we must his blessing beg , his great name bless , and make our thanks the crown of our success . as god first heaven did for man prepare , men last for heaven created were , so should we all our actions regulate , which heaven , both first and last , should terminate , and in whatever circle else they run , there should they end , there should they be begun , there seek their pattern , and derive from thence their whole direction and their influence . as when th' almighty this low world did frame , life by degrees to its perfection came , in vegetation first sprung up , to sense ascended next , and climb'd to reason thence , so we , pursuing our attainments , should press forward from what 's positively good , still climbing higher , until we reach the best , and that acquir'd for ever fix our rest . our souls so ravisht with the joys divine that they no more to creatures can decline . as gods rest was but a more high retreat from the delights of this inferiour seat , so must our souls upon our sabbaths climb , above the world , sequestred for that time , from those legitimate delights , which may rejoyce us here upon a common day . as god , his works compleated , did retire to be ador'd by the angelick quire , so when on us the seventh days light doth shine , should we our selves to gods assemblies joyn , thither all hearts , as one pure offring , bring and all with one accord adore our king. this seventh day the lord to mankind gave , nor is it the least priviledge we have . and ours peculiarly . the orbs above aswell the seventh as the sixth day move , the rain descends and the fierce tempest blows , on it the restless ocean ebbs and flows : bees that day fill the hive , and on that day ants their provisions in their store-house lay , all creatures plie their works , no beast but those which mankind use , share in that rest : which god indulg'd only to humane race , that they in it might come before his face to celebrate his worship and his praise , and gain a blessing upon all their days . o wretched souls of perverse men , who slight so great a grace , refuse such rich delight , which the inferiour creatures cannot share , to which alone their natures fitted are , and whereby favour'd men admitted be into the angels blest societle . yet is this rest but a far distant view of that celestial life which we pursue , by satan oft so interrupted here , that little of its glory doth appear , nor can our souls sick , languid appetite feast upon such substantial , strong delight . as musick pains the grieved aking head , with which the healthful sense is sweetly fed ; so duties wherein sound hearts full joys find , fetters and sad loads are to a sick mind , till it thereto by force it self mure , and from a loathing fall to love its cure . god for his worship kept one day of seven , the other six to man for mans use given ; adam , although so highly dignified , was not to spend in idle ease and pride nor supine sleep , drunk with his sensual pleasures , profusely wasting th' empires sacred treasures , as now his faln sons do , that arrogate his forfeited dominion , and high state ; but god his dayly business did ordain that kings , hence taught , might in their realms maintain fair order , serving those whom they command , as guardians , not as owners of the land , not being set there , to pluck up and destroy those plants , whose culture should their cares employ . nor doth this precept only kings comprize , the meanest must his little paradise with no less vigilance and care attend than princes on their vast enclosures spend . all hence must learn their duty , to suppress th' intrusions of a sordid idleness . who form'd , could have preserv'd the garden fair without th' employment of mans busie care , but that he will'd that our delight should be the wages of our constant industrie , that we his ever bounteous hand might bless crowning our honest labours with success , and tast the joy men reap in their own fruit , loving that more to which they contribute either the labour of their hands or brains , than better things produc'd by others pains . led by desire , fed with fair hope , the fruit oft-times delights not more than the pursuit . for man a nature hath to action prone , that languishes , and sickens finding none . as standing pools corrupt , water that flows , more pure , by its continual current , grows , so humane kind by active exercise , do to the heights of their perfection rise , while their stock'd glory comes to no ripe growth , whose lives corrupt in idleness and sloth which is not natural , but a disease , that doth upon the flesh-cloy'd spirit seize . where health untainted is , then the sound mind in its employment doth its pleasure find . but when death , or its representer sleep upon the mortals tired members creep , this during its dull reign doth life suspend , that ceasing action , puts it to an end . lastly since god himself did man employ to dress up paradise , that moderate joy which from this fair creation we derive , is not our sin but our prerogative , if bounded so , as we fix not our rest in creatures which but transient are at best , yet 't is sin to neglect , not use , or prize , as well as 't is to wast and idolize . canto iv. good were all natures as god made them all , good was his will permitting some to fall , that th' rest renouncing their frail strength might stand humble and firm in his supporting hand , his wisdome and omnipotence might own , when his foes power and craft is overthrown , seeing his hate of sin , might thence confess his pure innate and perfect holiness , and that the glory of his justice might in the rebels torturing flames seem bright . that th' ever bless'd redeemer might take place to illustrate his rich mercy and free grace whereby he fallen sinners doth restore to fuller bliss than they enjoy'd before ; that vertue might in its clear brightness shine which like rich ore concealed in the mine had not been known , but that opposing vice illustrates it by frequent exercise . if all were good , whence then arose the ill ? 't was not in gods , but in the creatures will , averting from that good , which is supream , corrupted so , as a declining stream that breaks off its communion with its head , by whom its life and sweetness late were fed , turns to a noisome , dead , and poysonous lake , infecting all who the foul waters take : or as a branch cut from the living tree , passes into contempt immediately , and dies divided from its glorious stock ; so strength disjoyned from the living rock , turns to contemned imbecillity , and doth to all its grace and glory die . some new-made angels thus , not more sublime in nature , than transcending in their crime , quitting th' eternal fountain of their light , became the first-born sons of woe and night , princes of darkness , and the sad abysse , which now their cursed place and portion is , where they no more must fee gods glorious face nor ever taste of his refreshing grace , but in the fire of his fierce anger dwell , which though it burns , enlightens not their hell. but circumstances that we cannot know of their rebellion and their overthrow we will not dare t' invent , nor will we take guesses from the reports themselves did make to their old priests , to whom they did devise to inspire some truths , wrapt up in many lies ; such as their gross poetick fables are , saturn's extrusion , the bold giants war , division of the universal realm , to gods that in high heaven steer the helm , others who all things in the ocean guide , and those who in th' infernal court preside , who there a vast and gloomy empire sway , whom all the furies and the ghosts obey . but not to name these foolish impious tales , which stifle truth in her pretended veils , let us in its own blazing conduct go , and look no further than that light doth show ; wherein we see the present powers of hell , before they under gods displeasure fell , were once endued with grace and excellence , beyond the comprehension of our sense , pure holy lights in the bright heaven were blazing about the throne , but not fixt there ; where , by the apostasie of their own will , precipitating them into all ill , and gods just wrath , whose eyes are far too pure stain'd and polluted objects to endure , they fell like lightning , hurl'd in his fierce ire , and falling , set the lower world on fire : which their loose prison is where they remain , and walk as criminals under gods chain ; until the last and great assizes come , when execution shall seal up their doom . thus are they now to their created light , unto all truth , and goodness opposite , hating the peace and joy that reigns above , vainly contending to extinguish love , ruine gods sacred empire , and destroy that blessedness they never can enjoy . a chief they have , whose soveraign power and place but adds to'his sin , his torture , and disgrace . an order too there is in their dire state , though they all orders else disturb and hate . ten thousand thousand wicked spirits stand , attending their black prince , at his command , to all imaginable evils prest , that may promote their common interest . nor are they linked thus by faith and love , but hate of god and goodness , which doth move the same endeavours and desires in all , lest civil wars should make their empire fall . an empire which the almighty doth permit , yet so as he controlls and limits it . suffering their rage sometimes to take effect , only to be the more severely checkt ; when he produces a contrary end , from what they did malitiously intend , befools their wisdome , crosses their designs , and blows them up in their own crafty mines , allows them play in the entangling net , so to be faster in damnation set , submits them to each others tyrannies , who did gods softer sacred bonds despise , le ts them still fight , who never can prevail , more curs'd if they succeed , than if they fail , since every soul the rebels gain from god , adds but another scorpion to that rod , bound up , that they may mutual torturers be , tormented and tormenting equally . as a wise general that doth design to keep his army still in discipline , suffers the embodying of some slighter foes , which he at his own pleasure can enclose , and vanquish , that he justly may chastise their folly , and his own troops exercise , their vigilance , their faith and valour prove ; endearing them thereby to his own love , as he alike endears himself to theirs , by his continual succours and kind cares : so the almighty gives the devils scope , who though they are excluded from all hope of e're escaping , no reluctance have , but like the desperate villain they make brave , to death pursue their bold attempts , that all o're whom they cannot reign , with them may fall . and tho' gods watchful guards besiege them round that none can pass their strict prescribed bound , yet make they daily sallies in their pride , which still repulst the holy host deride . their malice in it self and its event , being equally a crime and punishment . thus though sin in it self be ill , 't is good that sin should be , for thereby rectitude thorough oppos'd iniquity , as light by shades , is more conspicuous and more bright . the wonderful creation of mankind , for lasting glory and rich grace design'd , the blessed angels look'd on with delight , gladded to see us climb so near their height ; above all other works , next in degree , and capable of their societie . but 't was far otherwise with those that fell mans destin'd heaven , encreas'd their hell , while they burnt with a proud malitious spite to see a new-made , earth-born favourite , for their high seats and empty thrones design'd ; therefore both against god and man combin'd , to hinder gods decree from taking place , and to devest man of his makers grace ; which while he in a pure obedience stood , they knew , not all their force nor cunning cou'd , but if they could with any false pretence inveigle him to quit his innocence , they hop'd death would prevent the dreaded womb from whence their happier successors must come . wherefore th' accursed soveraign of hell thinking no other devil could so well act this ill part , whose consequence was high enough to engage his hateful majesty , himself exposes for the common cause , and with his hellish kingdomes full applause , goes forth , putting himself into disguise , and so within a bright scal'd serpent lies , folded about the fair forbidden tree , watching a wish'd for opportunitie , which eve soon gave him , coming there alone so to be first and easier overthrown ; on whose weak side , th' assault had not been made had she not from her firm protection stray'd ; but so the devil then , so leud men now prevail , when women privacies allow , and to those flatt'ring whispers lend an ear which even impudence it self would fear to utter in the presence of a friend , whose vertuous awe our frailty might defend . though unexperience might excuse eves fault , yet those who now give way to an assault , by suffring it alone , none can exempt from the just blame that they their tempters tempt , and by vain confidence themselves betray , fondly secure in a known desperate way . as eve stood near the tree , the subtile beast , by satan mov'd , his speech to her addrest hath god , said he , forbid that you should tast these pleasant fruits , which in your eyes are plac't , why are the tempting boughs expos'd , if you may not delight your palates with your view ? god , said the woman , gives us libertie to eat without restraint of every tree which in the garden grows , but only one ; restrain'd by such a prohibition , we dare not touch it , for when e're we do a certain death will our offence ensue . then did the wicked subtile beast replie , ah simple wretch , you shall not surely die , god enviously to you this fruit denies , he knows that eating it , will make you wise , of good and ill give you discerning sense , and raise you to a god-like excellence . eve quickly caught in the foul hunters net , believ'd that death was only a vain threat , her unbelief quenching religious dread infectious counsel in her bosome bred , dissatisfaction with her present state and fond ambition of a godlike height . who now applies herself to its pursuit , with longing eyes looks on the lovely fruit , first nicely plucks , then eats with full delight , and gratifies her murderous appetite ; poyson'd with the sweet relish of her sin , before her inward torturing pangs begin , the pleasure to her husband she commends , and he by her persuasion too offends , as by the serpents she before had done . hence learn pernicious councellors to shun . within the snake the crafty tempter smil'd to see mankind so easily beguil'd , but laugh not satan , god shall thee deride , the son of god and man shall scourge thy pride , and in the time of vengeance shall exact a punishment on thee , for this accursed fact . now wrought the poyson on the guilty pair , who with confusion on each , other stare , while death possession takes , and enters in at the wide breach , laid open by their sin . sound health and joy before th' intruder fled , sickness and sorrow coming in their stead . their late sweet calm did now for ever cease , storms in all quarters drove away their peace ; dread , guilt , remorse in the benighted soul , like raging billows on each other rowl ; deaths harbingers waste in each province make , while thundring terrours mans whole island shake . within , without , disorder'd in the storm , the colour fades , and tremblings change the form , heat melts their substance , cold their joynts benumbs , dull languishment their vigour overcomes . grief conquer'd beauty lays down all her arms , and mightier woe dissolves her late strong charms , shame doth their looks deject , no chearful grace , no pleasant smiles , appear in their sad face , they see themselves fool'd , cheated , and betray'd , and naked in the view of heaven made ; no glory compasses the drooping head , the sight of their own ugliness they dread , and curtains of broad , thin fig-leaves devise to hide themselves from their own weeping eyes ; but , ah , these coverings were too slight and thin to ward their shame off , or to keep out sin , or the keen airs quick piercing shafts , which through both leaves and pores into the bowels flew . while they remain'd in their pure innocence it was their robe of glory and defence : but when sin tore that mantle off , they found their members were all naked , all uncrown'd ; their purity in every place defil'd , their vest of righteousness all torn and spoyl'd . wherefore , through guilt , the late lov'd light they shun , and into the obscurest shadow run ; but in no darkness can their quiet find , carrying within them a disturbed mind , which doth their cureless folly represent , and makes them curse their late experiment ; wishing they had been pure and ignorant still , nor coveted the knowledge of their ill . ah thus it is that yet we learn our good , till it be lost , but seldome understood , rich blessings , while we have them , little prize . until their want their value magnifies , and equally doth our remorse encrease for having cast away such happiness . o wretched man ! who at so dear a rate purchas'd the knowledge of his own frail state , knowledge of small advantage to the wise , which only their affliction multiplies , while they in painful study vex their brain , pursuing what they never can attain ; and what would not avail them if acquir'd , till at the length with fruitless labour tir'd , all that the learned and the wise can find is but a vain disturbance of the mind , a sense of mans inevitable woes , which he but little feels , who little knows ; while mortals , holding on their error , still pursue the knowledge both of good and ill , they neither of them perfectly attain , but in a dark tumultuous state remain ; till sense of ill , encreasing like nights shade , or hath a blot of good impressions made , or good , victorious as the morning light , triumph over the vanquisht opposite . for both at once abide not in one place , good knowledge flies from them who ill embrace . so were our parents fill'd with guilt and fear , when in the groves they gods approaches hear , and from the terrour of his presence fled ; whether their own convictions caus'd their dread , for inward guilt of conscience might suffice to chace vile sinners from his purer eyes ; or nature felt an angry gods descent , which shook the earth , and tore the firmament , we are not told , nor will too far enquire . lightnings and tempests might speak forth his ire . for at the day of universal doom the great judge shall in flaming vengeance come ; an all-consuming fire shall go before , whirlwinds and thunder shall about him roar , horror shall darken the whole troubled skies , and bloody veils shall hide the worlds bright eyes , while stars from the dissolving heaven drop down , and funeral blazes every turret crown . the clouds shall be confounded with the waves , the yawning earth shall open all her graves , loud fragors shall firm rocks in sunder rend , cleft mountains shall hells fiery jaws distend , vomiting cinders , sulphur , pitch , and flame , which shall consume the worlds unjoynted frame , and turn the paradises we admire into an ever-boyling lake of fire . but god then , in his rich grace , did delay these dismalterrors , till the last great day . yet even his first approach created dread , and the poor mortals from his anger fled ; until a calmer voice their sense did greet . love even when it chides is kind and sweet . the sense of wrath far from the fear'd power drives , the sense of love brings home the fugitives . souls flying god into despair next fall , thence into hate , till black hell close up all . but if sweet mercy meet them on the way , that milder voyce , first doth their mad flight stay , and their ill-quitted hope again restore , then love that was forsaking them before returns with a more flaming strong desire of those sweet joys from which it did retire , and in their absence woe and terror found , and all those plagues that can a poor soul wound . while thus this love with holy ardour burns , the bleeding sinner to his god returns , and prostrate at his throne of grace doth lie , if death he cannot shun , yet there to die . where mercy still doth fainting souls revive , and in its kind embraces keep alive a gentler fire , than what it lately felt under the sense of wrath . the soul doth melt , like precious ore , which when men would refine doth in its liquefaction brightly shine ; in cleansing penitential meltings so foul sinners once again illustrious grow , when christs all-heating softning spirit , hath their furnance been , and his pure blood their bath . now though gods wrath bring not the sinner home , who only by sweet love attracted come , yet is it necessary that the sense of it , should make us know the excellence , and taste the pleasantness of pardoning grace , that we may it with fuller joy embrace ; which when it brings a frighted wretch from hell makes it love more , than those who never fell : but mankinds love to god grows by degrees , as he more clearly gods sweet mercy sees , and god at first reveals not all his grace , that men more ardently may seek his face , averted by their folly and their pride , which makes them their confounded faces hide . as still the sun 's the same behind the clouds , such is gods love , which his kind anger shrouds , which doth not all at once it self reveal , but first in the thick shadows that conceal its glory , doth attenuation cause ; then the black , dismal curtain softly draws , and lets some glimmering light of hope appear , which rather is a lessening of our fear , than an assurance of our joy and peace , a truce with misery , rather than release . thus had not god come in mankind had died without repair , yet came he first to chide , to urge their sin , with its sad consequence , and make them feel the weight of their offence . to ' examine and arraign them at his bar , and shew them what vile criminals they were : but ah ! our utterance here is choak'd with woe , with tardy steps from paradise we go . then let us pause on our lost joys a while before we enter on our sad exile . canto v. sad natures sighs gave the alarms , and all her frighted hosts stood to their arms , waiting whom the great soveraign would employ his all deserted rebels to destroy : when god descended out of heaven above his disobedient viceroy to remove . yet though himself had seen the forfeiture , which distance could not from his eyes obscure , to teach his future substitutes how they should judgements execute in a right way , he would not unexamin'd facts condemn , nor punish sinners without hearing them . therefore cites to his bar the criminals , and adam first out of his covert calls , where art thou adam ? the almighty said , here lord , the trembling sinner answer made , amongst the trees i in the garden heard thy voice , and being naked was afeard , nor durst i so thy purer sight abide , therefore my self did in this shelter hide . hast thou ( said god ) eat the forbidden tree , or who declar'd thy nakedness to thee ? she , answer'd adam , whom thou didst create to be my helper and associate , gave me the fatal fruit , and i did eat ; then eve was also call'd from her retreat , woman what hast thou done ? th' almighty said ; lord , answer'd she , the serpent me betray'd , and i did eat . thus did they both confess their guilt , and vainly sought to make it less , by such extenuations , as well weigh'd , the sin , so circumstanc'd , more sinful made : a course which still half softned sinners use , transferring blame their own faults to excuse , they care not how , nor where , and oftentimes on god himself obliquely charge their crimes , expostulating in their discontent , as if he caus'd what he did not prevent ; which adam wickedly implies , when he cries , 't was the woman that thou gavest me ; oft-times make that the devils guilt alone , which was as well and equally their own . his lies could never have prevail'd on eve but that she wisht them truth , and did believe a forgery that suited her desire , whose haughty heart was prone enough to ' aspire . the tempting and the urging was his ill , but the compliance was in her own will. and herein truly lies the difference of natural and gracious penitence , the first transferreth and extenuates the guilt , which the other owns and aggravates . while sin is but regarded slight and small , it makes the value of rich mercy fall , but as our crimes seem greater in our eyes , so doth our grateful sense of pardon rise . poor mankind at gods righteous bar was cast and set for judgement by , when at the last satan within the serpent had his doom , whose execrable malice left no room for plea or pardon , but was sentenc'd first ; thou ( said the lord ) above all beasts accurst , shalt on thy belly creep , on dust shalt feed , between thee and the woman , and her seed and thine , i will put lasting enmity ; thou in this war his heel shalt bruise , but he thy head shall break . more various mystery ne're did within so short a sentence lie . here is irrevocable vengeance , here love as immutable . here doth appear infinite wisdome plotting with free grace , even by mans fall , th' advance of humane race . severity here utterly confounds , here mercy cures by kind and gentle wounds , the father here , the gospel first reveals , here fleshly veils th' eternal son conceals . the law of life and spirit here takes place , given with the promise of assisting grace : here is an oracle fore-telling all , which shall the two opposed seeds befall . the great war hath its first beginning here , carried along more than five thousand year , with various success on either side , and each age with new combatants suppli'd : two soveraign champions here we find , satan and christ contending for mankind . two empires here , two opposite cities rise , dividing all in two societies . the little church and the worlds larger state pursuing it with ceaseless spite and hate . each party here erecting their own walls , as one advances , so the other falls . hope in the promise the weak church confirms , hell and the world fight upon desperate terms , by this most certain oracle they know , their war must end in final overthrow . some little present mischief they may do , and this with eager malice they pursue . the angels whom gods justice did divide , engage their mighty powers on either side , hells gloomy princes the worlds rulers made , heavens unseen host the churches guard and aid . till the frail womans conquering son shall tread beneath his feet the serpents broken head ; though god the speech to mans false foe address , the words rich grace to fallen man express , which god will not to him himself declare , till he implore it by submissive prayer ; sufficient 't is to know a latitude for hope , which doth no penitent exclude . had deaths sad sentence past on man , before the promise of that seed which should restore his fallen state , destroying death and sin , cureless as satans had his misery been . but though free grace did future help provide , yet must he present loss and woe abide ; and feel the bitter curse , that he may so the sweet release of saving mercy know . prepar'd with late indulged hope , on eve th' almighty next did gentler sentence give . i will , said he , greatly augment thy woes , and thy conceptions , which with painful throes thou shalt bring forth , yet shall they be to thee but a successive crop of misery . thy husband shall thy ruler be , whose sway thou shalt with passionate desires obey . alas ! how sadly to this day we find th' effect of this dire curse on womankind ; eve sin'd in fruit forbid , and god requires her pennance in the fruit of her desires . when first to men their inclinations move , how are they tortur'd with distracting love ! what disappointments find they in the end ; constant uneasinesses which attend the best condition of the wedded state , giving all wives sense of the curses weight , which makes them ease and liberty refuse , and with strong passion their own shackles chuse : now though they easier under wise rule prove , and every burthen is made light by love , yet golden fetters , soft lin'd yoaks still be , though gentler ourbs , but curbs of liberty , as well as the harsh tyrants iron yoak , more sorely galling them whom they provoke , to loath their bondage , and despise the rule of an unmanly , fickle , froward fool . whate're the husbands be , they covet fruit , and their own wishes to their sorrows contribute . how painfully the fruit within them grows , what tortures do their ripened births disclose , how great , how various , how uneasie are the breeding sicknesses , pangs that prepare the violent openings of lifes narrow door , whose fatal issues we as oft deplore ! what weaknesses , what languishments ensue , scattering dead lillies where fresh roses grew . what broken rest afflicts the careful nurse , extending to the breasts the mothers curse ; which ceases not when there her milk she dries , the froward child draws new streams from her eyes . how much more bitter anguish do we find labouring to raise up vertue in the mind , then when the members in our bowels grew , what sad abortions , what cross births ensue ? what monsters , what unnatural vipers come eating their passage through their parents womb ; how are the tortures of their births renew'd , unrecompenc'd with love and gratitude : even the good , who would our cares requite , would be our crowns , joys , pillars , and delight , affect us yet with other griefs and fears , opening the sluces of our ne're dried tears . death , danger , sickness , losses , all the ill that on the children falls , the mothers feel , repeating with worse pangs , the pangs that bore them into life , and though some may have more of sweet and gentle mixture , some of worse , yet every mothers cup tasts of the curse . and when the heavy load her faint heart tires , makes her too oft repent her fond desires , now last of all , as adam last had been drawn into the prevaricating sin , his sentence came : because that thou didst yield , ( said god ) to thy enticing wife , the field producing briars and fruitless thorns to thee , accursed for thy sake and sins shall be . thy careful brows in constant toyls shall sweat , thus thou thy bread shalt all thy whole life eat , till thou return into the earths vast womb ; whence , taken first , thou didst a man become ; for dust thou art , and dust again shalt be when lifes declining spark goes out in thee . in all these sentences we strangely find gods admirable love to lost mankind ; who though he never will his word recal , or let his threats like shafts at randome fall , yet can his wisdome order curses so that blessings may out of their bowels flow . thus death the door of lasting life became , dissolving nature , to rebuild her frame , on such a sure foundation , as shall break all the attempts hells cursed empire make . thus god reveng'd mans quarrel on his foe , to whom th' almighty would no mercy show , making his reign , his respite , and success , all augmentations of his cursedness . thus gave he us a powerful chief and head , by whom we shall be out of bondage led . and made the penalties of our offence , precepts and rules of new obedience , fitted in all things to our fallen state , under sweet promises , that ease their weight . our first injunction is to hate and flie the flatteries of our first grand enemy ; to have no friendship with his cursed race , the int'rest of the opposite seed t' embrace , where though we toyl in fights , tho' bruis'd we be , yet shall our combate end in victory : eternal glory , healing our slight wound , when all our labours are with triumph crown'd . the next command is , mothers should maintain posterity , not frighted with the pain , which tho' it make us mourn under the sense of the first mothers disobedience , yet hath a promise that thereby she shall recover all the hurt of her first fall , when , in mysterious manner , from her womb her father , brother , husband , son shall come . subjection to the husband's rule enjoyn'd , in the next place , that yoak with love is lin'd , love too a precept made , where god requires we should perform our duties with desires ; and promises t' encline our averse will , whose satisfaction takes away the ill of every toyl , and every suffering that can from unenforc'd submission spring ; the last command , god with mans curse did give , was that men should in honest callings live , eating their own bread , fruit of their own sweat ; nor feed like drones on that which others get : and this command a promise doth implie , that bread should recompence our industry . one mercy more his sentence did include , that mortal toyls , faintings and lassitude , should not beyond deaths fixed bound extend , but there in everlasting quiet end ; when men out of the troubled air depart , and to their first material dust revert , the utmost power that death or woe can have is but to shut us pris'ners in the grave , bruising the flesh , that heel whereon we tread , but we shall trample on the serpents head . our scatter'd atoms shall again condense , and be again inspir'd with living sense ; captivity shall then a captive be , death shall be swallow'd up in victory , and god shall man to paradise restore , where the foul tempter shall seduce no more how far our parents , whose sad eyes were fixt on woe and terror , saw the mercy mixt , we can but make a wild uncertain guess , as we are now affected in distress , who less regard the mitigation still than the slight smart of our afflicting ill ; and while we groan under the hated yoak , our gratitude for its soft lining choak . but god having th' amazed sinners doom'd , put off the judges frown and reassum'd a tender fathers kind and melting face opening his gracious arms for new embrace , taught them to expiate their heinous guilt by spotless sacrifice and pure blood spilt , which done in faith did their faint hearts sustain , till the intended lamb of god was slain , whose death , whose merit , and whose innocence , the forfeit paid and blotted out th' offence . the skins of the slain beasts , god vestures made , wherein the naked sinners were array'd , not without mystery , which typifi'd that righteousness that doth our foul shame hide . as when a rotting patient must endure painful excisions to effect his cure , his spirits we with cordials fortifie , lest , unsupported , he should faint and die : so with our parents the almighty dealt , before their necessary woes they felt , their feeble souls rich promises upheld , and their deliverance was in types reveal'd , even their bodies god himself did arm with clothes that kept them from the weathers harm , but after all , they must be driven away , nor in their forfeit paradise must stay . then , said the lord , with holy ironie , whence man the folly of his pride might see , the earthy man like one of us is grown , to whom , as god , both good and ill is known , now lest he also eat of th' other tree whose fruit gives life , and an immortal be , let us by just and timely banishment his further sinful arrogance prevent . then did he them out of the garden chace , and set a cherubim to guard the place ; who wav'd a flaming sword before the door , through which the wretches must return no more : may we not liken to this sword of flame the threatning law which from mount sinai came , with such thick flashes of prodigious fire as made the mountains shake and men retire : forbidding them all forward hope , that they could enter into life that dreadful way . whate're it was , whate're it signifies , it kept our parents out of paradise , who now returning to their place of birth found themselves strangers in their native earth . their fatal breach of gods most strict command had there dissolv'd all concord , the sweet band of universal loveliness and peace . and now the calm in every part did cease ; love , tho' immutable , its smiles did shrowd under the dark veil of an angry cloud . and while he seem'd withdrawn , whose grace upheld the order of all things , confusion fill'd the universe . the air became impure , and frequent dreadful conflicts did endure with every other angry element ; the whirling fires its tender body rent . from earth and seas gross vapours did arise , turn'd to prodigious meteors in the skies ; the blustring winds let loose their furious rage , and in their battels did the floods engage . the sun confounded was with natures shame , and the pale moon shrunk in her sickly flame ; the rude congressions of the angry stars in heaven , begun the universal wars , while their malicious influence from above , on earth did various perturbations move , droughts , inundations , blastings , kill'd the plants ; worse influence wrought on th' inhabitants , inspiring lust , rage , ravenous appetite , which made the creatures in all regions fight . the little insects in great clouds did rise , and in battalia's spread , obscur'd the skies ; armies of birds encountred in the air , with hideous cries deciding battles there ; the birds of prey to gorge their appetite , seiz'd harmless fowl in their unwary flight . when the dim evening had shut in the day , troops of wild beasts , all marching out for prey , to the restless flocks would go , and there oft-times by other troops assailed were , who snatcht out of their jaws the new slain food , and made them purchase it again with blood . thus sin the whole creation did divide into th' oppressing and the suffering side ; those still employing craft and violence to ' ensnare and murther simple innocence , true emblems were of satans craft and power in daily ambuscado to devour . nor only emblems were , but organs too , in and by whom he did his mischiefs do , while persecuting cruelty and rage them in his cursed party did engage . love , meekness , patience , gentleness , combin'd the tamer brood with those of their own kind . wherefore god chose them for his sacrifice , when he the proud and mighty did despise , and his most certain oracles declare , they mans restored peace at last shall share : but to our parents , then , sad was the change which them from peace and safety did estrange , brought universal woe and discord in , the never failing consequents of sin ; nor only made all things without them jar , but in their breasts rais'd up a civil war , reason and sense maintain'd continual fight , urging th' aversion and the appetite , which led two different troops of passions out , confounding all , in their tumultuous rout . the less world with the great proportion held : as winds the caverns , sighs the bosomes fill'd ; so flowing tears did beauties fair fields drown , as inndations kept within no bound . fear earth-quakes made , lust in the fancy whirl'd , turn'd into flame , and bursting fir'd the world : spite , hate , revenge , ambition , avarice made innocence a prey to monstrous vice . the cold and hot diseases represent the perturbations of the element . thus woe and danger had beset them round , distrest without , within no comfort found . even as a monarchs favourite in disgrace suffers contempt both from the high and base , and the most abject most insult o're them , whom the offended soveraigns condemn ; so after man th' almighty disobey'd , each little fly durst his late king invade , aswell as the woods monsters , wolves and bears , and all things else that exercise his fears . methinks i hear sad eve in some dark vale her woful state , with such sad plaints , bewail : ah! why doth death its latest stroke delay , if we must leave the light , why do we stay by slow degrees more painfully to die , and languish in a long calamity ? have we not lost by one false cheating sin all peace without , all sweet repose within ? is there a pleasure vet that life can show , doth not each moment multiplie our woe : and while we live thus in perpetual dread , our hope and comfort long before us dead ? why should we not our angry maker pray at once to take our wretched lives away ? hath not our sin all natures pure leagues rent and arm'd against us every element ? have not our subjects their allegiance broke , doth not each worm scorn our unworthy yoak ? are we not half with griping hunger pin'd , before we bread amongst the brambles find ? all pale diseases in our members reign , anguish and grief no less our sick souls pain , whereever i my eyes , or thoughts convert , each object adds new tortures to my heart . if i look up , i dread heavens threatning frown , thorns prick my eyes , when shame hath cast them down , dangers i see , looking on either hand , before me all in fighting posture stand . if i cast back my sorrow-drowned eyes , i see our ne're to be recover'd paradise , the flaming sword which doth us thence exclude , by sad remorse and ugly guilt pursued . if i on thee a private glance reflect , confusion doth my shameful eyes deject , seeing the man i love by me betray'd , by me , who for his mutual help was made , who to preserve thy life ought to have died , and i have kill'd thee by my foolish pride ; defil'd thy glory , and pull'd down thy throne . o that i had but sin'd , and died alone ! then had my torture and my woe been less , i yet had flourisht in thy happiness . if these words adams melting soul did move , he might reply with kind rebuking love . cease , cease , o foolish woman , to dispute , gods soveraign will and power are absolute . if he will have us soon , or slow to die , frail worms must yield , but must not question why . when his great hand appears , we must conclude all that he doth is wife , and just , and good ; though our poor , sin-benighted fouls , are blind , nor can the mysteries of his wisdome find , yet in our present case we must confess his justice and our own unrighteousness . he warn'd us of this fatal consequence , that death must wait on disobedience ; yet we despis'd his threat , and broke his law , so did destruction on our own heads draw ; now under his afflicting hand we lie , reaping the fruit of our iniquity . which , had not he prevented , when we fell , at once had plung'd us in the lowest hell ; but by his mercy yet we have reprieve , and yet are shew'd how we in death may live , if we improve our short indulged space to understand , prize , and accept his grace . did all of us at once like brutes expire , and cease to be , we might quick death desire : but since our chief and immaterial part , not fram'd of dust , doth not to dust revert : its death not an annihilation is , but to be cut off from its supream bliss : whatever here to mortals can befal , compar'd to future miseries is small , the saddest , sharpest , and the longest have their final consummations in the grave , these have their intermissions and allays , though black and gloomy ones , these nights have days , the worst calamities we here endure admit a possibility of cure ; our miseries here are varied in their kind , and in that change the wretched some ease find . sleep here our pained senses stupifies , and cheating dreams in our sick fancies rise , but in our future sufferings 't is not so , there is no end , no intermitted woe , no more return from the accursed place , no hope , no possibility of grace , no sleepy intervals , no pleasant dreams , no mitigations of those sad extreams , no gentle mixtures , no soft changes there , perpetual tortures , heightned with despair , eternal horror , and eternal night , eternal burnings , with no glance of light , eternal pain . o 't is a thought too great , too terrible , for any to repeat , who have not scap'd the dread . let 's not to shun heavens scorching rays , into hells furnace run : but having slain our selves , let 's flie to him who only can our souls from death redeem , to undo what 's done is not within our power , no more than to call back the last fled hour . to think we can our fallen state restore , or without hope , our ruine to deplore , are equal aggravating crimes ; the first repeats that sin for which we were accurst , while we with foolish arrogating pride , more in our selves than in our god confide ; the last is both ungrateful and unjust , that doth his goodness , or his power distrust . which wheresoe're we look , without , within , above , beneath , in every place is seen , doth heaven frown ? above the sullen shrouds god sits , and sees through all the blackest clouds sin casts about us , like the misty night , which hide his pleasing glances from our sight , nor only sees , but darts on us his beams ministring comfort in our worst extreams . when lightnings flie , dire storm and thunder roars , he guides the shafts , the serene calm restores . when shadows occupie days vacant room , he makes new glory spring from night dark womb . when the black prince of air le ts loose the winds , the furious warriours he in prison binds . if burning stars do conflagrations threat , he gives cool breezes to allay the heat . when cold doth in its rigid season reign , he melts the snows , and thaws the air again ; restoring the vicissitude of things , he still new good from every evil brings . he holds together the worlds shaken frame , ordaining every change , is still the same . if he permit the elements to fight , the rage of storms , the blackness of the night ; 't is that his power , love and wisdome may more glory have , restoring calm and day ; that we may more the pleasant blessings prize , laid in the ballance with their contraries . though dangers then , like gaping monsters stand ready to swallow us on either hand ; let us despise them , firm in this faith still , if god will save , they can nor hurt nor kill ; if by his just permission we are slain , his power can heal and quicken us again . if briers and thorns , which from our sins arise looking on earth , pierce through our guilty eyes , let 's yet give thanks they have not choak'd the seed which should with better fruit our sad lives feed . if discord set the inward world on fire , with hast let 's to the living spring retire , there quench , and quiet the disturbed soul , there on loves sweet refreshing green banks rowl , where ecstasied with joy , we shall not feel the serpents little nibblings at our heel . if we look back on paradise , late lost , joys vanisht like swift dreams , thaw'd like a frost , converting pleasant walks to dirt and mire , would we such frail delights again desire , which at their best , however excellent , had this defect , they were not permanent ? if sin , remorse , and guilt give us the chace , let us lie close in mercies sweet embrace , which when it us asham'd , and naked found in the soft arms of melting pity bound ; eternal glorious triumphs did prepare , arm'd us with clothes against the wounding air , by expiating sacrifices taught , how new life shall by death to light be brought . if we before us look , although we see all things in present fighting posture be : yet in the promise we a prospect have of victory swallowing up the empty grave ; our foes all vanquisht , death it self lies dead , and we shall trample on the monsters head . entring into a new and perfect joy , which neither sin nor sorrow can destroy : a lasting and refin'd felicity , for which even we our selves refin'd must be . then shall we laugh at our now childish woes , and hug the birth that issues from these throes . let not my share of grief afflict thy mind , but let me comfort in thy courage find ; 't was not thy malice , but thy ignorance that lately my destruction did advance ; nor can i my own self excuse ; 't was i undid my self by my facility . let 's not in vain each other now upbraid , but rather strive to afford each other aid : and our most gracious lord with due thanks bless , who hath not left us single in distress . when fear chills thee , my hope shall make thee warm , when i grow faint , thou shalt my courage arm ; when both our spirits at a low ebb are , we both will joyn in mutual fervent prayer to him whose gracious succour never fails , when sin and death poor feeble man assails , he that our final triumph hath decreed , and promis'd thee salvation in thy seed . ah! can i this in adams person say , while fruitless tears melt my poor life away ? of all the ills to mortals incident , none more pernicious is than discontent , that brat of unbellef , and stubborn pride , and sensual lust , with no joy satisfied , that doth ing ratitude and murmur nurse , and is a sin which carries its own curse ; this is the only smart of every ill ; but can we without it sad tortures feel ? yes ; if our souls above our sense remain , and take not in th' afflicted bodies pain , when they descend and mix with the disease , then doth the anguish live , reign , and encrease which when the soul is not in it , grows saint , and wastes its strength , not nourisht with complaint , submissive , humble , happy , sweet content a thousand deaths by one death doth prevent ; when our rebellious wills subdued thereby into th' eternal will and wisdome , die ; nor is that will harsh or irrational , but sweet in that which we most bitter call , who err in judging what is ill or good , only by studying that will , understood . what we admire in a low paradise , if they our souls from heavenly thoughts entice , here terminating our most strong desire , which should to perfect permanence aspire , from being good to us they are so far , that they our fetters , yoaks and poysons are , the obstacles of our felicity , the ruine of our souls most firm healths be , quenching that life-maintaining appetite , which makes substantial fruit our sound delight . the evils , so miscall'd , that we endure are wholsome medicines tending to our cure , only disease to these aversion breeds , the healthy soul on them with due thanks feeds . if for a prince , a mistress , or a friend , many do joy their bloods and lives to spend , wealth , honour , ease , dangers and wounds despise , should we not more to gods will sacrifice ? and by free gift prevent that else-sure loss ? whate're our will is , we must bear the cross , which freely taken up , the weight is less , and hurts not , carried on with chearfulness ; besides , what we can lose , are gliding streams , light airy shadows , unsubstantial dreams , wherein we no propriety could have but that which our own cheating fancy gave ; the right of them was due to god alone , and when with thanks we render him his own , either he gives us back our offerings , or our submission pays with better things : were ills as real as our fancies make , they soon must us , or we must them forsake ; we cannot miss ease and vicissitude , till our last rest our labours shall conclude . natural tears there are , which in due bound do not the soul with sinful sorrow drown , repentant tears too are no fretting brine , but loves soft meltings , which the soul refine , like gentle showers , that usher in the spring , these make the soul more fair and flourishing . no murmuring winds of passions here prevail , but the life-breathing spirits sweet fresh gale , which by those fruitful drops all graces feeds , and draws rich extracts from the soaked seeds , but worldly sorrow , like rough winters storms , all graces kills , all loveliness deforms , augments the evils of our present state , and doth eternal woes anticipate . vain is that grief which can no ill redress , but adds affliction to uneasiness ; unnerving the souls powers , then , when they shou'd most exercise their constant fortitude . with these most certain truths let 's wind up all , whatever doth to mortal men befall not casual is , like shafts at randome shot , but providence distributes every lot , in which th' obedient and the meek rejoyce , above their own preferring gods wise choice : nor is his providence less good than wise , tho' our gross sense pierce not its mysteries . as there 's but one most true substantial good , and god himself is that beatitude : so can we suffer but one real ill , divorce from him by our repugnant will , which when to just submission it returns , the reunited soul no longer mourns , his serene rays dry up its former tears , dispel the tempest of its carnal fears , which dread what either never may arrive , or not as seen in their false perspective ; for in the crystal mirror of gods grace all things appear with a new lovely face . when that doth heavens more glorious palace show we cease to ' admire a paradise below , rejoyce in that which lately was our loss , and see a crown made up of every cross. return , return , my soul to thy true rest , as young benighted birds unto their nest , there hide thy self under the wings of love till the bright morning all thy clouds remove . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e es. . , , , &c. eccl. . . es. . . gen. . , . act. . . gen. . . jam. . . rom. . . deut. . . gen. . . job . . tim. . . & . . ps. . . es. . . job . rom. . heb. . . esai . . . rom. . . act. . , , . eph. . . the trinity . joh. . . mat. . . mat. . , . joh. . . prov. . , . jo. . . phil. . . joh. . . joh. . . cor. . . joh. . , . joh. . . joh. . . heb. . . es. . . joh. . . cor. . . joh. . . eph. . . tim. . . jo. . . heb. . . joh. . , &c. gen. . . job . . rev. . . psal. , & . act. . . job . . psal. . . rev. . . ps. . . gen. . . job . ● . psal. . . rev. . . esa. . . gen. . . time. be resheth in capite , principio . rev. . . pet. . . heb. . , . heaven . heb. . . es. . . mat. . . king. . . luk. . . cor. . . joh. . . psal. . . rev. . . heb. . . rev. . . rev. . . joh. . . rev. . , . ps. ex. . , . rev. . . pet. . . col. . , , . heb. . . psal. . . tim. . . joh. . heb. . psal. . . & . . heb. . . cor. . . rev. . . cor. . . pet. . . joel . . esa. . . ps. . . pet. . , . rev. . . es. . . angels . esa. . . mat. . . sam. . . thes. . . dan. . . es. . . col. . . rom. . . thes. . . ps. . , . gen. . . dan. . . mat. . . psal. . , . king. . . gen. . . luk. . , . gen. . , . gen. . . psa. . . lu. . . mat. . . heb. . . earth's chaos . gen. . . gen. . , , . joh. . , , . col. . , . pet. . . psa. . . notes for div a -e gen. . . the firmament . psal. . , . job . , . pet. . . job . . ps. . , , . job . to the end . ps. . , , , , , , . job . , &c. ex. . . gen. . , &c. psa. . , , , , . eccl. . . eccl. . . rom. . . eph. . . ps. . . job . . gen. . . ps. . . ps. . , . job . . es. . , , . mat. . , , . jam. . , . job . , . cor. . . gen. . . the fourth day . hab. . , . gen. . . &c. sun. psal. . , , . moon . stars . act. . . judg. . mat. . lu. . . psal. . gen. , &c. job . mat. . . mat. . . & . . gen. . es. . . notes for div a -e psal. . . gen. . , &c. eph. . . psal. . eccl. . . mat. . . ps. . . prov . . joh. . . mat. . . pet. . . jam. . . pro. . , , . pro. . . eccl. . . jam. . . job . . eccl. . . gen. . . gen. . . gen. . . gen. . . ver . . ver . . gen. . . ver . , &c. society . ez. . . gen. . . heb. . . eccl. . , &c. cor. . , , , , , , , . mat. . . . eccl. . . mat. . . rom. . , . cor. . gen. . , . ver . , . eph. . . mat. . . gen. . , &c. gen. . . heb. . prov. . . psa. . , , . psa. . , , . job . , , , &c. deut. . . rom. . joh. . . joh. . . tir. . . phil. . . cor. . . joh. . . eph. . , , , &c. tim. . . es. . . act. . . eph. . , , , &c. rev. . . joh. . , . psal. . . cant. . . & . . cor. . , . joh. . , . rev. . , . phil. . . joh . . col. . , , . cor. . , , , . joh. . , . & . . eph. . , , &c. rom. . , . tim. . . col. . eph. . joh. . . act. . . mat. . . and forward . heb. . . & . , . pet. . . heb. . . pet. . , , . eph. . , . heb. . . pet. . . mat. . . gen. . . ver . . ver . . gen. . . gen. . , . ex. . . pro. . , , . mat. . . joh. . , , . jer. . . psal. . & . & . eccl. . . heb. . . phil. . . cor. . . joh . . ps. . . mat. . . col. . . heb. . , , . es. . . job . . heb. . . mat. . . ez. . . heb. . . & . . am. . . rom. . , . thes. . . tim. . pro. . . & . . tim. . , . joh. . . cor. . , . notes for div a -e gen. . . rom. . , , . rom. . rom. . . gen. . . rom. . . cor. . . rom. . . psal. . jos. . . psal. . , , . & . . &c. & . , . pet. . . eph. . , . joh. . . eph. . . rom. . , , , , . rom. . , &c. pet. . , , . eccl. . . jude . joh. . . jer. . devils . eph. . . act. . . mat. . . rev. . . lu. . . jude . pet. . . hab. . . lu. . . jam. . . joh. . . jud. . cor. . . mat. . . gen. . . pet. . . job . , &c. rev. . . mark . , , , . rev. . . luk. . . mat. . , . rev. . , , . job . . col. . , . heb. . , . luk. . . tim. . , . eph. . , , &c. pet. . . rev. . . lu. . . rev. . , . mat. . . luk. . , . joh. . . mat. . heb. . . & . . & . . rom. . . rev. . , . mat. . . jude . lu. . . & . . heb. . . joh. . . pet. . . gen. . , &c. tim. . . pro. . , &c. joh. . . joh. . . rom. . . esa. . . psa. . . ps. . . eccl. . . prov. . . psal. ● . . cor. . , . & . . jam. . , , . ps. . , . es. . . & . , . thes. . . pet. . . rev. . . joel . , . mat. . . rev. . . heb. . . psal. . , , . gen. . . act. . psal. . , . lam. . , &c. mat. . . job . . hos. . , , . mal. . , . rev. . . rom . . joh. . , . mat. . . luk. . . joh. . . lam. . , . lam. . , , &c. hos. . . notes for div a -e gen. . . sam. . . gen. . , , , . ver . . rom. . . ez. . . jam. . , , . psal. . , , . & . . joh. . , , . pet. . . mat. . . jude . mal. . . zac. . . cor. . . rom. . . esa. . . rom. . , , . act. . . mat. . . psal. . . jer. . . eph. . . joh. . . jude . gen. . , , . heb. . . act. . . eph. . . joh. . , . lu. . . ps. . , , , . esa. . , . rev. . . joh. . . joh. . . mat. . . psal. . . rev. . , . dan. . , . psa. . . rom. . . psa. . . es. . . psa. . . luk. . . gal. . , . cor. . , . cor. . . gal. . . gen. . , &c. gen. . . cor. . , , . pet. . . gen. . . sam. , . gen. . . & . . mat. . . joh. . . prov. . . pro. . . luk. . , . mat. . . gen. . . gen. . . ps. . . & . . cor. . . tim. . . lu. . , . zac. . , , . mat. . , . joh. . . prov. . , &c. eph. . . tim. . . jude . rev. . . mic. . , . tim. . . es. . . heb. . , . eph. . , &c. luk. . . pet. . , . thes. . , . thes. . . rev. . . mat. . . job . , , . eccl. . . thes. . . es. . . job . , . cor. . , , , , , , . act. . . psa. . . esa. . , &c. pet. . , . jer. . , &c. mic. . , . es. . . jer. . . psal. . . pet. . . heb. . . dan. . , . joh. . . ps. . , . joh. . . rev. . . & . , . rom. . , . col. . . ps. . , . rev. . . rom. . . & . . gal. . . zac. . , . deut. . . mat. . . psa. . , , . gen. . . heb. . , , , , , . pet. . . heb. . . psa. . . rev. . . psal. . . psal. . , , . jud. . . psa. . , , , . psal. . , , . pet. . . rev. . , . rom. . , . es. . . & . . es. . , . eph. . , , . job . jonah . . psa. . . rom. . , , , . ps. . . rom. . . psal. . . gen. . . rom. . ult . gen. . . pet. . . joh. . . mat. . , . luk. . , . mat. . . psa. . . psal. . esa. . . lu. . . rom. . , . jude . mat. . . lu. . . mat. . . & . . rev. . . hos. . . rom. . . psa. . . eph. . , , , , , . rom. . . psal. . , . esa. . . lam. . , , , . job . , , . esa. . , . & . , . joh. . . esa. . . psal. . , . psal. . . luk. . , . esa. . . esa. . . cant. . , . gen. . . psal. . , . esa. . , , . psal. . . jam. . . psal. . , . mal. . . esa. . . jer. . , . cor. . . esa. . , , , , . psal. . , . esa. . , , , , . esa. . , &c. gen. . . sam. . . esther . . & . . & . . ezek. . , &c. esa. . . jer. . . act. . . joh. . , . psal. . , . . . col. . , . psal. . , , , . . cor. . . eccles. . . cor. . . psal. . , . rev. . , . psa. . , . joh. . . cor. . , , . hos. . . rom. . . mat. . . rev. . . mal. . , . col. . . joh. . . . gal. . . mat. . luk. . , . psal. . , , . & . , , , . lu. . . job . & . , , . cor. . . psa. . . the history of the creation as it is written by moses in the first and second chapters of genesis : plainly opened and expounded in severall sermons preached in london : whereunto is added a short treatise of gods actuall providence in ruling, ordering, and governing the world and all things therein / by g.w. walker, george, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the history of the creation as it is written by moses in the first and second chapters of genesis : plainly opened and expounded in severall sermons preached in london : whereunto is added a short treatise of gods actuall providence in ruling, ordering, and governing the world and all things therein / by g.w. walker, george, ?- . [ ], , p. printed for john barlet, london : . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- biblical teaching -- sermons. providence and government of god. sermons, english -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the history of the creation , as it is written by moses in the first and second chapters of genesis , plainly opened and expounded in severall sermons preached in london . whereunto is added a short treatise of gods actuall providence , in ruling , ordering , and governing the world and all things therein . by g. w. batchelour of divinity and pastour of st. iohn evangelist . london , printed for john bartlet at the signe of the gilt cup , neare st. austins-gate in pauls church-yard , . to the right honovrable and noble lords francis earle of bedford , robert earle of warwick , william viscount say and seale , edward viscount mandevilc , robert lord brooke , john lord roberts , and the rest of the honourable lords committees in the upper nou●e of the high court of parliament , grace and peace with multiplicity of all blessings temporall and eternall . most noble lords , that which the learned doctours of the jews doe say of their masorah , to wit , that it is an hedge or defence to the law. we christians may more truly say of our weekly sabbath , the lords day , that it is the hedge of defence to true christian religion . for as their masorah ( which was their annotations upon all the scriptures of the old testament , shewing the genuine reading and signification of every word in the hebrew text , with what pricks , vowels and accents it ought to be , and was anciently written and read by moses and the prophets , and by tradition from ezra , and other succeeding fathers in all ages delivered over unto them ) did serve as an hedge and fence to keep the scriptures of the old testament pure from all corruption and alteration , so that if any scribe did in writing any copy of them , omit or adde one word or letter ; or alter and change any vowell , point or accent , his errour might easily by the notes and rules of their masorah be discerned and amended : so the lords holy weekly sabbath being rightly observed according to the law of god , and the first institution and sanctification of it , that is , first , by cessation and rest from all worldly cares , and all secular affairs ( in respect wherof it is called in scripture , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sabbath , that is , rest and cessation . ) secondly , by devoting it only to the worship and service of god , and by sanctifying it with preaching , reading and hearing of the word , prayer , meditation , and other works of piety and exercises of true religion ( in which respect it is called the lords day , that is , the day of the lord christ , consecrated to his honor , and to the service and wor●hip of god in his name ) it is most certainly ( as we find by experience ) a strong hedge and fence to true christian religion , by which true piety , and the true knowledge and worship of god , and true faith in christ , are upheld , maintained , increased and continued among all christian nations from generation to generation . without observation of this weekly sabbath , and keeping this day of the lord christ holy , by holy assemblies , the publik and private worship of god , the knowledge of christ , the memory of our redemption by him , and of his finishing and perfecting that great work , and resting from it in his resurrection , the publike preaching , reading and hearing of the word , and all other exercises of christian religion , which are the most effectuall ordinary meanes of grace and furtherances to eternall life and blessednesse would undoubtedly grow out of use , and at length utterly decay and vanish . this consideration did move me to insist more largely upon this subject , and to make many sermons upon that text , gen. . , . which briefly relates the first institution of the sabbath on the seventh day in the first weeke of the world ; and gods blessing and sanctifying of every seventh day in every week to be an holy sabbath to his people . out of which sermons first publikly preached to mine owne peculiar flocke , i did afterwards compose this treatise at the importunity of some of my best affected hearers , and imparted severall written copies of it unto divers of them , having at that time no hope to get it licensed for the presse . for by gods speciall providence i having handled the doctrine of the creation , out of the . chap. of genesis , was by my order of preaching and expounding of that scripture , led along and brought to this text , concerning gods sanctifying of the seventh day , at that very time when a book of liberty for sports on the lords day , was by the bishops in every diocesse sent to every parish church , and commanded to be publickly read by every minister in time of divine service in the audience of all the people : and because i proceeded to handle this subject , as the order of my text did lead me ; and durst not balk that part of gods word ; i was three severall times convented before my ordinary , and admonished under paine of suspension , to proceed no further in this doctrine , not for any errour which could be objected against any part or passage in it ; but only because the times would not beare it ; and because i did not hold it fit nor safe for me to obey man rather then god by concealing from my flock any part of gods truth , and shunning to declare unto them the whole counsell of god ; i have undergone the high displeasure of that primate to whose jurisdiction my church doth belong , who upon divers false informations of catchers , which have bin imployed to entrap me in my words that they might have something wherof to accuse me , hath caused me to be convented before the kings majesty , and the lords of his honourable privy counsell , and hath charged and accused me to be a preacher of factious and seditious doctrine , and for many years the great troubler of the city of london : wherupon i was committed close prisoner for two and twenty weeks , and through close custody was by sicknesse brought neare unto death , and could not obtain so much liberty as to be confined to the limits of my brothers house for the safety of my life , upon bayle of a pound given , untill by the testimony of fifty five neighbour ministers of best report in and about the city , i was declared to be innocent and free from all the crimes of which i was accused . now blessed be god for your happy assembly in this most hopefull parliament , by which i have been eased of my strait bonds , and the times are so changed , that this treatise , and divers others of my labours are licensed to passe by the presse into the publik view of the world . i should not have dared to commend it to the sight , and grave judgement of your honours ; if your godly zeale for the sanctifying of the lords day , and for the honouring of the name of the sabbath ( which appeared most evidently to us all , who of late were present at the time when that scandalous libell , intituled , sunday no sabbath , was most accurately and judiciously sifted and examined by your honours , and justly censured and condemned to the fire ) had not encouraged me to this bold attempt . although i have in this treatise propounded and assayed to proove out of the text and other places of holy scripture such a ground of the weekly sabbath , as the learned in their writings have not heretofore observed : yet because the end , use and scope of this discovery is most pious and godly , and it tends altogether to heape more honour on christ , to advance redemption above creation ; grace above nature , the state of regeneration above the state of innocency ; and to shew a necessity of the change of the sabbath from the seventh and last , to the first day of the week , after christs performing and finishing of that great work of our redemption in his resurrection ; for which he was promised on the seventh day next after the ending of the creation : i hope it will give no offence , nor receive censure of novelty ; but rather find grace and acceptation in the eyes of your noble persons . that great god ( who hath ( as i beleeve and here professe ) magnified his holy weekly sabbath by grounding it in the first institution on christ promised ; and hath made it more honourable by removing and carrying it along together with christ the redeemer from the day of the promise to the day of the full performance of the great work of redemption ) magnifie your honours , and make your persons still more and more honourable , by noble acts undertaken and performed for the honour of his holy name , the advancement of true religion ; and the peace and prosperity of this church and kingdome under our most gracious soveraigne lord and king. to whom next under god and the lord jesus christ , i most humbly devote my self , and vow to remain ever a most loyall subject ; and next under him to your honours a most dutifull servant and daily suppliant to god for your everlasting blessednesse , geo. walker . of the externall vvorks of god in generall , psalm . . . whatsoever the lord pleased that did he in heaven and in earth , in the sea and all deepe places . the externall outward workes of god which follow in the next pla 〈…〉 after his internall workes , are indeed nothing but his actuall execution of his eternall counsell , purpose and decree . for the unfolding of which workes in generall , and laying open of the nature , use and severall kindes of them , i have made choise of this text. from the wordes and circumstances whereof , we may easily gather all points of instruction necessary to be knowne concerning the generall nature , use and kindes of them . first , here the words of the psalmist shew that he speakes of gods outward workes , because he limits them to places and times , to heaven , earth , sea and all deep places . secondly , he speakes of them all in generall none excepted , so the hebrew word ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) which signifies all in generall whatsoever , doth plainly shew , and also the perfect enumeration of all places which are in the world , and wherin any outward sensible and visible work can be done , to wit : the heaven , the earth , the seas and all deepe places . thirdly , he sheweth that god is the author of these works , as he is jehovah , that one eternall god in whom there are three persons , father , son and holy ghost , for he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jehovah the lord doth or hath done . fourthly , he sheweth that the lord doth all these workes of himselfe according to his owne will and pleasure , and none of them all by compulsion , unwittingly and unwillingly , but even as hee pleased , and after the counsell of his will and pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever the lord pleased . fifthly , he intimates that all these workes of god come necessarily , infallibly , inevitably and irresistably to passe , and that none of them all can faile which god hath beene pleased to doe , but so come to passe as he pleaseth in every respect , even in the same time and place . this hee intimates in that he saith every thing whatsoever the lord pleased , he hath done . sixtly , he sheweth that these outward workes tend to make god knowne , and are of use to bring us to the knowledge of the true god , and in and by them god is knowne aright and his greatnesse also . this is manifest by the dependance of this ver . on the former . for having said , i know that the lord is great and that our lord is above all gods , he brings in this text as an argument and proofe saying , whatsoever the lord pleased that he hath done , which is in effect all one as if he had said , i know this by his doing of all his outward works , for whatsoever the lord pleased that he hath done . seventhly and lastly , he shewes the severall kinds of gods outward workes that they are not only creation but also actuall providence which concludes in it the government of the world , the fall of man , and the restauration of man-kind by the redemption of the world . workes of creation he expresseth , vers . . and workes of his actuall providence , as ordering , governing and saving of his people by christ , which was signified in the deliverance from egypt , he reckons up in the rest of the psalme both before and after my text , so then it is manifest that this text considered with the circumstances thereof , serves abundantly for the opening of the nature , use and kind of gods outward works . in the unfolding whereof , ●irst let us note the order , coherence and scope of it . secondly , let us take a view of the wordes and sift out the true sence of them . thirdly let us observe out of them by way of doctrine , a perfect description of gods outward workes in generall , and lastly apply for some use the doctrine to our selves . the order and coherence is this , first the prophet in the . first verses , exhorts all to praise the lord and to laud his name , more specially the lords servants who are continuall professors in his church . secondly in the , , . verses he gives some reasons drawne from the attributes of god and the consideration of his nature , to wit , because the lord is good and his name pleasant , and because of his owne free grace he hath chosen israel , that is , his elect and faithfull church to be his owne peculiar people , and because the lord is great and is a god above all gods . in testifying and affirming the lords goodnesse and being above all gods , he brings for proofe his owne knowledge and experience . i know ( saith he ) that the lord is great , vers . . thirdly he doth proove god to be such a one , even so good , gracious and great by his outward workes , and sheweth that by them he knowes god to be so , ●or he saith here in this text , whatsoever the lord pleased that he hath done , in heaven and in earth , in the sea and all deepe places . so that it is plaine by the order , dependence and scope of the text , that here david extolls gods outward workes in generall , as things proceeding from his owne good pleasure , and serving to proove him to be good and gracious , and to make us know him so great and glorious a god as he is . in the second place , for the wordes themselves , they are plaine and easie to be understood at the first hearing without any laborious interpretation . they run thus in the hebrew , all which the lord pleaseth he hath done , in heaven , earth , sea and all deepe places . this word ( all ) shewes that he speakes not of some particular workes , but of all in that kind . the word jehovah is the proper name of god considered in the unity of his essence with all his essentiall attributes , and every one of the . persons is called by this name , as they are of the same essence and all one god. the enumeration of all the notable places in the world wherein these workes are done discovers the workes which he here speakes off , to be outward workes which doe not abide in gods essence and there onely subsist as his eternall counsell , decrees and inward operations do , but are done in time and place and have their subsistance in and among the creatures , such as are creating , ruling , ordering , upholding of all things , and also redeeming and restoring of all man-kinde . the word [ pleaseth ] limits the generall note or particle ( all ) unto all workes which in themselves are good , or else serve for good use , and so are pleasing to the lord for the use sake . hee doth not say that the lord doth all things which are done , but all things which he pleaseth , that is , he doth not make men sinnefull and wicked , neither doth he worke rebellion in men , which is displeasing unto him , but he doth whatsoever is pleasing , that is , all things which are agreeable to his nature . and whatsoever is according to his will and good pleasure , that he doth , none can hinder it . this is the true sense and meaning of the wordes . now from the text thus opened and the circumstances observed , wee may gather a perfect description of them in generall shewing the nature and use of them . the description of gods outward workes . the outward workes of god in generall , are all things whatsoever the lord god jehovah , that one infinite and eternall god , . persons , father , son and holy ghost doth according to his eternall purpose , and after the counsell and good pleasure of his will , work , and bring to passe , not within , but without himselfe in all the world and upon all creatures therein , and that certainely and irresistably in due time and place to the communicating and making of himself known to men and angels in his infinite and eternall nature and in his goodnesse , grace , glory , power and all other essentiall properties , for the salvation and eternall blessednes of his elect in christ. this description truely gathered from this text , and the scope and order of it and discovering plainely the nature and use of gods outward workes in generall , i will proove in every part and branch orderly and will conclude with some application . the first thing in it is the generall matter of gods externall workes , they are things done ; that is , not onely actions working and operations , such as creation , redemption and the like ; but also things or works made , eff●cted and done by those actions , as heaven , earth , angels and other things created . for all these are things done and wrought by god. this branch is plainly expressed in this word of my text , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( hath done ) or doth or hath made , for the hebrew word signifies all these . and that gods outward worl●s consist in doing and are things not spoken or promised but done and wrought , divers testimonies of scripture doe shew , psal. . . david cals them workes which he hath done : and isa. . . the prophet saith , that the lord doth his worke , his strange worke . and not to stand in repeating many scriptures in a point so plaine ; this is one word is sufficient that the two hebrew words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are used in the scriptures to signifie gods outward works are both derived of verbs which signifie doing . the second branch in this description comprehends in it the author of these works , to wit , the lord god jehovah , that one infinite , eternall god and three persons , father , sonne and holy ghost : this branch doth distinguish these workes . first , from the workes of creatures which are proper to them . secondly , from the personall operations of god as the eternall begetting of the sonne which is proper to the father and is his worke onely . that god considered in the unity of his essence as he comprehends all the three persons , is the authour of these workes , and that they are common to the father , son and holy ghost , and every one of them hath an hand in every work of this kind ; though one more immediately than another : the word jehovah here used in the text doth plainly shew , where it is said , whatsoever jehovah pleased or was willing to do , that he hath done : which word is so proper to god , and signifies one god , that it also agrees to every person in that one god. and this is also confirmed by divers other testimonies of gods word , which shew that in divers of these outward actions or workes , the father workes by the sonne and the sonne by the father with and by the spirit . the first great work of this kind , even the work of creation , which sometimes is attributed to the father as more peculiar to him , because terminatur in patr● , as the schoolemen speak , that is , it is bounded and termined in the father , and he is principium & summus terminus creationis , the first beginning and utmost bound of creation , from whom it first proceeded , even this is attributed to the sonne and spirit also , as being common to all the persons , as psal. . . by the word of the lord ( that is the sonne ) were the heavens made and all the host of them by the spirit of his mouth . 'to which adde , job . . the spirit of god made me , & john . , . & colos. . . where it is said , that by the eternall word the sonne all things were made both in heaven and earth , visible and invisible , and without him was made nothing of all that was made . so likewise in that outward worke of judgement executed on sodome and gomorrah , gen. . . jehovah is said to raine downe from jehovah out of heaven fire and brimstone , that is jehovah the son from jehovah the father , who are both one and the same god jehovah ; yea that these externall workes of god are not divided some to one person and some to another in the trinity , but are common to all the persons and proceed from that one common essence , according to that saying of the school-men , opera trinitatis ad extra suns indivisa . our saviour sheweth most plainly , ioh. . , . where he saith , that as the sonne cannot worke of himselfe alone without the father , but he must have and see the father working with him , so the father doth not judge any , that is by his owne proper act of judgement , but hath committed all judgement to the sonne , that he may have a hand in all judgements together with himselfe , and iohn . , . speaking of that speciall illumination of mens hearts and inward teaching which seemes most proper to the spirit , he saith it is not of himselfe alone , but it is what he hath heard and received from the father and the sonne , and therefore the second branch is manifest that the doer of the outward workes of god is jehovah our god , and all the three persons in god. the third branch comprehends in it the outward moving cause of all these outward workes : namely , gods owne will and pleasure , for he is said to do them according to his eternall purpose , and after the counsell of his owne will. this is expressed in the description and in the words of the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever the lord pleased , that is , whatsoever is according to the lords will and pleasure that he hath done , and this is testified in other scriptures , as psal. . . where it is said , that the lord doth whatsoever pleaseth him , and isa. . . where the lo 〈…〉 saith i will do all my pleasure , and ionah . . all which places shew that first the lord hath a mind and pleasure to doe such things , and therupon he doth them . also , ephes. . . it is said he doth worke all things after the counsell of his will. and acts . . & . . the worke of our redemption by christ , and all that he did and suffered is said to be done by the determinate counsell of god. therfore this branch is manifest , namely , that gods will and pleasure is the only inward mooving cause of all his outward works , and that they are nothing but the execution of his eternall will and decree . the fourth branch by which these outward works are specially distinguished from his inward operation , comprehends in it the subject wherein these workes do subsist and the circumstance of time and place wherein they are done . for these workes are not done within god himselfe , neither doe they subsist in his essence , as his inward operations do , but they are , extra dei essentiam , without gods essence , they are done in all the world , and upon the creatures , some in heaven and some in earth , others in the sea and all deepe places ( as my text saith ) and they have their circumstances of time and place , as god hath appointed from all eternity . the creation was in the first beginning of time in the first six dayes of the world , gen. . the redemption wrought by christ in the midst of yeares betweene the law and the gospell , hab. . . and upon the mountaine where hierusalem stood , isa. . , . the great execution shall be at the end of the world in the last day of judgement , and the works of gods governement and actuall providence as they are divers , so they are done at divers times , and in divers places of the world , as experience teacheth , on the very day which the lord appointed did the flood come upon the old world , gen. . . in the same day which god had fore-told was israel delivered out of aegypt , exod. . . and howsoever the words of the apostle , act. . . intimate that in god ( and not without him ) we live , moove and have our being , yet we are not thus to understand that these things are , and that we subsist in gods essence , and that we are so in god as his inward operations and eternall decrees are : but that we all are compassed about with gods presence and essentiall power , which are every where , and by him as by the chiefe efficient cause and authour of life , motion and being are sustained and upheld in life , being and motion continually . for to be in god , that is , to subsist in his essence , doth necessarily imply coeternity and consubstantiality with god. quicquid est in deo deus est , nothing can be within his essence , but it must be coeternall with god and of the same substance with him . hee who denies this must needes deny god to be immutable and most simple , free from all composition . therfore this branch also is most manifest and doth containe in it nothing but solid truth . the fifth branch containes in it the manner of gods outward works , to wit ; that in respect of god himselfe , they are done with such power as cannot be resisted , and in respect of the event , they are certaine , infallible and cannot faile . this is truely collected from the text : for it is said that all whatsoever the lord pleaseth hee doth , or hath done , which shewes that not one jot of his will and pleasure failes but comes to passe . if his will or pleasure could be resisted or any thing prevented which he willeth to worke , surely the divell who is so cunning , watchfull and malitious would in some things have defeated god , or this either by himselfe or some of his instruments : but this text affirmes the contrary , that whatsoever the lord pleased he hath done in all the world . therfore in respect of god they are all unresistable , and in respect of the event infallible . and this david testifieth , psal. . . saying , the lord doth whatsoever pleaseth him . and isa. . . my counsell shall stand , and i will performe all my pleasure , yea because these are voluntary workes of god and are willed and decreed in his secret counsell from all eternity ( as i have noted before ) therefore they must needs be unresistable , for who can resist his will , rom. . . the sixth branch containes the principall use and effects of gods outward workes ; namely , the making of himselfe knowne in his nature and essentiall attributes and so communicating himselfe to his elect . that gods externall workes doe all serve for this use and doe worke this effect we may gather from the dependance and inference of this text. for the psalmist having professed that he knows the lord to be great and that he is the onely true god above all gods , that is , who hath all the essentiall properties of the true god , he proves it by and from his workes , and sheweth that by meanes of them he knoweth it . and other scriptures and experience confirme the same , psal. . . it is said , that the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy worke , day unto day uttereth speech , and night unto night sheweth knowledge , and rom. . . the visible things of god are seene from the creation of the world , clearly being understood by the things which were made : even his divine power and god-head . so the works of gods actual providence in governing and upholding the world , and in mooving the heavens and the starres in order , doe shew his infinite wisdome and supercelestia'l glory , psal. . . his overthrowing of his enemies and the persecutors of his church , as in the stood of noah , and in the drowning of pharaoh and his host do shew his power . his giving of christ his son for a redeemer aboundantly testifieth his infinite goodnesse and bounty ; his punishing our sins in christ to the full , shews his infinite justice , and his pardoning of beleevers by christs satisfaction , freely given and communicated to them , shewes his infinite mercy and free grace , as the scriptures often testifie , and our own consciences within us do witnesse and our daily sense and experience do proove . and in our redemption and application of it we see discovered the trinity of persons in one god. and while wee in these things , as in a glasse behold the glory of god with open face ( the vaile of ignorance being remooved ) we are changed into the same image from glory to glory , and so come to have communion with god , and the fruition of him , cor. . . the seventh and last branch sets before us the utmost end of all gods outward works , to wit the eternall blessednesse of the elect , by the communion , vision and fruition of god in all his glorious attributes , as wisedome , power , goodnesse , mercy , justice , and the rest . the text it selfe intimates this truth to us ; saying , that all these workes of god proceed from his good will and pleasure . for the good pleasure and will of god consists chiefly and principally in willing that his elect shall be brought to perfect communion of himselfe and of his glory for their eternall happinesse . and what god willeth according to his owne good pleasure , and doth because he is pleased so to do , it must needs aime at the blessednesse of his elect by the sight and fruition of him and his glory . now therfore all gods outward workes proceeding fiem gods pleasure must needs tend to this end , and this is confirmed , rom. . . & cor. . , , . where we read that all things worke together for good to them that love god and are the called according to his purpose , and that all things are the elects , the world , life and death , things present , and things to come , and they are christs and christ is gods , also col. . . all things visible and invisible were created as by christ so for him , that they might serve him for the salvation of his elect , and for this end and purpose angells , principalities and powers are said to be made subject to christ , pet. . . and their office and ministery and the great wonders which god doth by them are said to be for them , who shall be heires of salvation , heb. . . to these testimonies many reasons might be added , i will onely call to mind that which i have else where abundantly declared and prooved , to wit , that for this end the world is upheld by christ , and for his sake and through his mediation ever since mans fall , and for this end the wicked live , even the barbarous and savage nations , either that they may serve for some use to gods people , or for the elects sake whom god will raise up out of them , or that god may shew his justice and power on them being sitted for destruction , to the greater glory of his elect , even the judgements of god on the wicked , and their damnation serve for this end , to increase the blessednesse of the saints . the doctrine of this description serves for to stirre us up in imitation of god our creator , not to content our selves with saying , purposing and promising , or with making a shew of doing good workes , but to be reall , true , constant and faithfull in performance of them . i or so doth god , whatsoever he promiseth or purposeth or is pleased to doc , that he doth in heaven and earth . sluggards who delight in idlenesse doing nothing , and hypocrites who say and promise and make great shew of doing , but are barren of the fruites of good workes , as they are most unlike to god and contrary to him , so they are hatefull and abhominable in the sight of god , and they onely are accepted of god who are active christians , alwayes doing good and abounding in the worke of the lord , their labour shall not be in vaine , but every one shall receive reward according to his workes which are evidences of his communion with christ , and of his faith , justification and sanctification ; wherefore seeing god is alwayes reaching forth his mighty hand to worke in heaven , in earth , in the sea and all deep places for our profit : let us be alwayes doing and studying to do good for his glory . secondly it serves to move and direct us in and through the outward workes of god to see and behold the infinite , eternall and omnipotent god , and his divine power and godhead , and in the unity of gods essence , the sacred trinity of persons , because all the persons have a hand in every worke , and that one god who is three persons is the author and worker of every divine outward worke , as this doctrine teacheth . it is a common custome among men when they see and behold the handy worke of any person , to remember the person , to bee put in minde of him by the worke , especially if he have knowne the person before , and beare the love and affection to him of a friend and a beloved one . so let it be with us , so often as we see and behold the visible outward workes of god , let us in them behold the face of god , and remember his glorious attributes . let us in the great workes of creation behold the wisedome and power of god the creator , in the worke of redemption the mercy , bounty and love of god , in our sanctification , the love and the holinesse of god , and in them all let us behold the three glorious persons in that one god who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne will. the father by his eternall word and spirit creating all things . the sonne sent forth by the father in our nature , and sanctified by the spirit , redeeming us and paying our ransome . the holy ghost shed on us by god the father through the sonne christ in our regeneration . and all three conspiring together to purge , sanctifie and justifie us , and to make us eternally blessed in our communion with them , and in our fruition of god in grace and glory . and let us take heed and beware of idle and vaine speculation of gods great workes which shew his glory and proclaime his glorious attributes , wisdome , power and goodnesse , lest by such idle negligence wee become guilty of taking the name of the lord our god in vaine . thirdly from this description we may easily gather and conclude , that sinnefull actions as they are evill and sinnefull are not gods workes ; for god is pleased with those things which he doth , and his workes are according to his pleasure , but god is not pleased with sinnefull actions and evill workes , he hath no pleasure in iniquity , psal. . . if any aske , how then can it be done if he will not and be not pleased ? i answer , that in them there is to be considered , . a naturall motion or action proceeding from some created power , and so from god the creator , and this is good and of god and according to his will as it willeth things properly . . there is a corruption , perversenesse and crookednesse of the action , this is of the divell and mans corruption : this god hateth ; but because actions thus corrupted and stayned make way for god and give him occasion to shew his wisedome and power in ouer-ruling them and disposing them by his hand to a good end and his justice in punishing them ; therefore god is pleased to continue that naturall power to the wicked which they pervert and abuse , and to over-rule such wicked workes and to raise light out of that darkenesse . and therefore let us not impute any evill and sinfull workes to god , as they are evill and sinfull , nor wickedly imagine that he is the author of sin . his hand is never in any sinfull work , otherwise then to over-rule , order and dispose the sinfulnesse and evill thereof to some good end and purpose . fourthly we are hereby admonished not to impute any worke done in the world to fortune or chance , as worldly epicures do , but to escribe all workes and every thing which comes to passe to the certaine will , purpose and determinate counsell of god. it is true that in respect of second causes and purposes of men , many things come to passe accidentally and by chance , no man purposing or intending any such thing , but in respect of god they are certaine and infallible , they all happen according to his will , and without it not an haire can fall from our heads nor a sparrow fall to the earth , all power and motion is of him , and the abuse of the power and motion which is from the divell and mans corruption he willingly permitted , and doth over-rule and dispose by his wisedome and providence to a good end . and therefore in all casualties and accidents let us comfort our selves and rest content and bee patient knowing that they come not but by his will and pleasure . lastly let us rejoyce in all the great workes which we see done in the world , and honour them as meanes tending to our salvation , if we be gods faithfull people , and with care and conscience walke before him according to his word , and let the sight of them put us in mind for our comfort , that our god in whom we trust doth not lie idle , nor slumber or sleep , but by a mighty band and stretched out arme hath done all these great things , and is continually doing and working for us , to bring us at length out of all troubles and dangers , and to set us and establish us for ever in eternall rest , glory and blessednesse . the next thing which in order followeth after the description of gods outward workes in generall , is the unfolding and distinct handling of the severall sorts and kindes of them . and because the right dividing of them into heads , and the reducing of all the particulars unto their proper and naturall heads , is a maine ground of light , and a sure way to the distinct handling and understanding of them , i will therefore ( before i proceed any further ) labour to divide them aright into their naturall heads according to the rules of reason and truth , and so will proceed to that which is the first in time , and by the course and order of nature , namely the creation of the world and all things in it . the learned though they all acknowledge every kind of gods outward workes , and doe not differ in the kindes and numbers of them : yet they are at variance about the true division of them into their first and principall heads . some divide the works of god into the works of creation and the works of redemption . but this is no perfect division , the two members of it do not containe all the outward works of god , for over and besides them there are works of preservation and of judgement and revenge . others divide all gods outward workes into the works of nature and the workes of grace . the workes of nature they divide into two sortes , . the workes which concerne the first beginning of nature , that is , the workes of creation , . the workes , which concerne the preservation , which they call the works of gods providence . the works of grace they hold to be the works of redemption and restauration of man-kind , by which god brings supernaturall blessings to men : but this division failes in divers respects . first , it makes a difference betweene works of nature and works of grace , wheras indeed creation and preservation , which they account works of nature , are in some sense , works of grace . for god of his owne free grace created man in his own image : and now and ever since the first sm of adam , which brought death and destruction into the world , all works of preservation by which god preserveth men in being and life , are works of free grace , and the preserving of his elect unto his heavenly kingdome is a worke of supernaturall grace in christ. secondly , they erre in distinguishing between the works of gods providence , and the works of redemption and restauration , wheras redemption and restauration are principall works of gods providence , by which god provides for his elect in christ , such things as neither eye hath seen , nor eare heard , neither have entred into the heart of man , cor. . . a third sort there are who divide all gods outward works into these two heads only ; namely , the works of creation , and the works of actuall providence . this i take to be the best and most perfect division . first , because under these heads are all gods outward works contained , and there is not any one which may not be reduced under one of these two . for whatsoever god doth , or hath done , or can doe for the giving of the first being to all things may be reduced to creation . and whatsoever god doth , or can do for the ordering , preserving and disposing of things created , and of their being and wel-being , may be brought under the works of his actuall providence . secondly , there is a perfect distinction and difference between the works of creation and the works of actuall providence : so far as mans substance differs from mans misery and mans felicity , so farre doth every proper worke of creation differ from the works of gods actuall providence in their objects . and although god in the creating of things in order did shew his providence for man , in that he first made a place of habitation for him , and all things which may serve for his use , as plants , trees , fruits , light and other necessaries before he created him , yet this breeds no confusion between the works of creation and the works of preservation , for two things may go together in time and place , and may be in the same subject ( as we see , sense and understanding , hearing and seeing in one man at the same time , and heat and light in fire ) and yet they may be different in themselvs . this order therfore i do purpose to follow hereafter by gods assistance in prosecuting the body of divinity . first , i will begin with the creation , and will labour to unfold the nature of it in generall . and then i will proceed to the handling of all the speciall works therof , every one distinctly by it self in particular . secondly , i will passe from thence to the works of gods actuall providence , under which comes the government and preservation of the world , and of al things created , and the ordering and disposing of every thing to the proper end of it . more especially , the fall of man into sin , misery , and guilt of damnation . and the redemption of man from misery and his restauration to grace and glory by the application and fruition of redemption , and by true spirituall union and communion with christ the redeemer , and with god the father in him by the inhabitation of the holy ghost . thus much for the generall doctrin of gods outward works laid down in this text , and for the division of them in their severall heads and kinds , unto which all the particular outward works may be reduced . finis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . of the creation of the vvorld . gen. . . in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . in this chapter the historle of the creation is most plainely and succinctly written by moses , and the workes of the six dayes are distinctly laid downe according to the order wherein god created and made all creatures in heaven and earth . in the second chapter , some things which were but more briefely and generally laid downe in the first chapter , to wit the creation of plants , herbes , and trees , and of birds and beasts , and especially of man and woman , and the creation of the garden of eden , with other circumstances ; are more plainely and fully related . and therefore i have made choice of those two chapters , the words whereof doe give us ground and occasion to handle the doctrine of the creation , and to discusse of all points therein needfull to be knowne for the glory of god , and our own profit and comforts . in the whole history , comprehended in these two chapters , the spirit of god offers to our consideration two things . first the creation as it is a worke of god , together with the severall parts and degrees of it . secondly , the creatures produced by that work , even the whole world , and all things therein contained ; that is , the heavens and the earth , all the host of them . creation is here described : first , generally according to the common nature of it , as it concernes all creatures , and is the making of them all . secondly , it is distinguished and described particularly according to the severall parts and branches thereof , as it concernes severall kindes of things created . first , creation is described generally by the name , the author or cause , and by the time and forme of it , throughout this whole chapter . secondly , it is distinguished into two branches or degrees . the first is simple or absolute and immediate creation , which is a making of something out of nothing . the other is secondary creation , that is , a making of perfect things out of an imperfect matter which was before created of nothing , and was of it selfe most unfit for any such substantiáll forme and being as was raised out of it . simple or absolute creation , which is a making of things out of nothing , is laid downe in the first verse : and that is here distinguished into two particular branches , according to the number of the things created ; the heaven and the earth . the first is , the creation of the highest heavens , and all the host of them , as the spirit of god by moses expounds himselfe more plainely , chap. . . this was a most perfect creating and making of things perfect in nature , forme , and being , out of nothing , and that in an instant . the second is , the creating of the earth , that is , a rude imperfect masse , and confused chaos or deep , which was without forme and void , and fit for no substantiall forme or perfect being as yet ; neither could subsist , but by the spirit supernaturally susteining it . for so the word , earth , is expounded in the next verse , even to be that rude masse and deep , which he made of nothing , that it might be the common matter of all the inferiour visible world , and of the creatures therein conteined . the second maine branch of creation , which i call secondary , or mediate creation , and which is a making of things perfect out of an imperfect matter created of nothing , is laid downe historically throughout these two chapters , where the creation of the severall kindes of creatures in the six dayes is described particularly and this hath also two particular branches . the first is the creating of things out of the first rude confused matter , which was without forme and void , and full of darknesse ; such was the creating of the foure elements : . fire , called light . . the aire , called the firmament . . the waters , or the seas . . the earth or drye land . the second is , the creating of things perfect out of the second matter which was beforehand formed , and disposed into the forme and substance of elements ; such was the creation of the sunne , moone , and starres in the heavens ; and of the foules in the aire , and fishes in the sea , and beasts on earth , which were all created of the second matter , that is , of the matter of the elements brought into forme . there is besides these branches of creation , another particular creation , mixt of simple and secondary creation , namely , the creation of man ; who , in respect of his body , was made of the dust of the earth by secondary or mediate creation ; and in respect of his soule was created by god , as the angels were , immediatly of nothing , by a simple , absolute and immediate creation . this is also described , first generally in this chapter , verse , . and also distinctly , and particularly , cap. . . and as this history doth describe the act or worke of creation , both generally , and particularly in all the b●anches thereof : so also all the creatures or kindes of things created . the creatures are here distinguished according to the time and order of their creation . some of them were created in the first beginning of time , in the first moment wherein time first began , to wit , the highest heaven with the inhabitants thereof , the angels ; and the earth , that is , the rude masse or first common matter of the inferiour world , and all the creatures therein . some of them were created in the progresse of time , or in times distinct , even in six severall , dayes , to wit , all the rest of the creatures : and they are distinguished by the time and order of their creation . some were created the first day , some the second , and the rest severally in the rest of the six dayes , and they are described by their severall names and natures , as shall appeare hereafter , when they come to be handled distinctly . chap. i. of the creation in generall . what the hebrew word signifieth . of the author , time , object , and forme of the creation . a description of it : demonstrated in all the parts . the manner of creation , in foure things . angels had no hand in the creation . foure uses of the point . the first thing now to be stood upon , is the creation in generall , as it is described in the generall nature of it , by the name , the author or causes , and the time when it first began , and when it was done , and that chiefely in this first verse . first , creation is here set forth by the name of it in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , created . secondly , by the author or sole efficient cause of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , god. thirdly , by the time when god began the creation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the beginning ; and wherein he perfected that worke , in six dayes . fourthly , by the forme and manner of it , vers . : god said , and it was done . first , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , created , if it bee rightly understood according to the true and proper signification of it in this place , may give great light to the matter in hand . i will therefore first distinguish it according to the severall significations in which it is used in the scriptures , and will shew in what sense it is here to be taken , and then will come neere to the matter . first , it signifies properly , that extraordinary miraculous worke of god by which he gives a substance , and substantiall being to things which before were not , and doth make them either of nothing , or of some matter which hath in it selfe no naturall fitnesse or disposition to receive such a forme , or to be turned into such a substance : thus it is used , deut. . . in these words , from the day that god created man. and psal. . . he commanded , and they were created . secondly , by a metaphore , this word signifies the extraordinary works of god , which are very like unto the creation , because they are done by a supernaturall power , and suddenly brought forth as it were out of nothing , when there was no meanes , or naturall disposition going before . thus the 〈◊〉 of regeneration ( in which the wicked corrupt heart of man , 〈◊〉 by nature is unfit for any holinesse , and most prone to wickednesse , is changed in a moment by the spirit of god , and becomes a cleane creature and a new man ) is called creating , psal. . . thus are all great and miraculous works of god called creating : when hee raiseth up wonderfull strength out of weakenesse , and by them who are as nothing , doth overthrow mighty gyants and strong armies ; this is called creating , exod . . when god of a stubborne , stiff-necked nation , and of a people scattered , despised , and counted worse than nothing , raiseth up and maketh a most holy people and glorious church , as he will doe in the last conversion of the jewes , this is called commonly in the prophets by the name of creation , as psal. . . and isa. . . and . . and when the lord in his just wrath doth raise up evill , and destruction to the wicked out of good things , which naturally turne to good ; this is called creating , isa. . . and 〈◊〉 ●●ery raysing up of things without meanes , as psal. . ● when god suddenly beyond meanes or expectation , by the supernatur●ll power of his spirit reneweth the face of the earth , it is called creating . but in this place the word is to be taken in the proper sense , for making thing● either of nothing , or of matter made of nothing , and of it selfe unfit and without naturall disposition for receiving any such forme as that which god doth give unto it . the word thus expounded sheweth what creation is , even a making of things out of nothing , or of rude matter undisposed for such a forme and being , as god in an instant frameth one of it . and so it differs from all other kindes of making and producing things ; as from naturall generation of living cr●atures , and of clowds , raine , thunder , and the rest , which are made by an ordinary power out of matter fitted for the forme of things produced : and from all artificall making of thing● , as house , and other things made by art of matter fitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the second thing by which creat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the author and cause of it , expressed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word is not here used metaphorically , to signifie angels , false gods , and men who are ministers and vicegerents under god , as it is sometimes used in scripture ; but it is here taken in the sense , which is most common and frequent in the originall , that is for the true god , and is one of his sacred names . and it is a word of the plurall number , and in many places is joyned with verbes of the plurall number ; and that for this end , to teach us , that though god , whose name this is , bee but one in nature and essence ; yet in that unity of essence , and in that one eternall jehovah , there is a pluralitie , that is , a trinity of persons . this word therefore doth here plainely intimate unto us , that creation is an action of the whole trinity , and that it is the joint worke of all the three persons , even of god the father , god the sonne , and god the holy ghost ; and this shewes , that neither angels , nor false gods , but jehovah the true god , is the author of the creation , as appeares , cap. . . the third thing by which the creation is described , is the time of it , both the first time in which god began to create , and did create the highest heaven , and the rude masse , the earth ; and also the progresse of time in which god created all visible things in order , and finished the whole frame of the visible world : this is expressed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the beginning , and in other parts of the chapter which mention the particular dayes in which every thing was made . for this word though sometimes it signifies eternity , and intimates unto us the eternall being of the son of god , together with the father from all eternity , and before all worlds , as prov. . . where eternall wisdome saith , the lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old : and john . . in the beginning was the word : yet most commonly and frequently in the scriptures , being laid downe absolutely , as in this place , it signifies either the first moment , and beginning of all time , as in this verse , or else the first six dayes of the creation , or any one of them , in which dayes god made & finished the whole frame of heaven and earth , and all the host of them , as isa. . . where god is said to declare and foretell the end of all things from the beginning , that is , from the six dayes of the creation , in which god began to speake to man and foretell 〈◊〉 end ; and joh. . . where the divell is called a ●urtherer from the beginning that is , from the last day of the creatiō in which god made , & the divell marred man , and brought him under death . the time of the creation , as here i take it in generall , is not onely the first moment of time , as in this verse it signifies , but also the six dayes mentioned distinctly in the rest of the chapter . for the highest heaven , and the rude matter , the earth , were created in the first moment of time , and all other things in the space of six dayes , as the historie most plainely teacheth . some , besides that which i have observed from this word , doe gather also , that the time and moneth of the yeare in which god created the world , was the seventh moneth , which wee call september . the ground of their conjecture is a cabalisticall conceit of some jewish rabbins : to wit , because the letters of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth in september , are the same with the letters of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies here in the beginning ; and therefore , as the letters of the one word , if they be transposed make up the other word , so both words agree in one time ; and this beginning was in the moneth september . but their ground is deceitfull : first , because september , which is the seventh moneth , is called in the pure scripture hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , king. . . and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of the corrupt rabbinicall hebrew tongue , and therefore gods spirit alluded not to it . secondly , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the letter ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) in it more than the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and so they doe not perfectly agree . thirdly , the rabbins and cabalists doe not agree among themselves in this conceit : for some of them have another conceit , that the letters of this word are the same with the two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the first or chiefe house , that is , the sanctuary . others that it hath the same letters which make up the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the covenant of fire , to shew the purity of the burnt offerings made by fire ; and many other such conceits they have concerning this word ; which to repeat were losse of time . i am not ignorant that some learned men , and judicious divines doe hold this opinion of the worlds creation in autumne and september , but for other reasons ; especially because autumne is the time when all fruits come to perfection , and therefore gods creating of all things perfect was in that time of the yeare . but this is no good reason ; for many creatures have their perfection and glory in the spring-time , as hearbs , flowers , and such like . and birds and beasts , doe chiefely breed in the spring , and the spring revives the things of the earth , and makes them fresh and greene . and the cause why many fruits come not to perfection till autumne , is the corruption of the earth , and the curse laid on it for mans sinne . in the creation things when they first began were perfect , and so would they be in the spring and all the yeare , if man had not brought a curse upon them . therefore i leave such curious points , as not needfull to be determined ; or if i incline to any opinion concerning the time of the yeare , it is that the world was created in the spring , when the day and night are equall and both of one length in all the world , that is , in the moneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abib ; which is part of march , and part of aprill . for this . god seemes to teach , exod. . . where hee injoines the israelites to account that for the first moneth of the yeare , contrary to the custome and account of the egyptians , which they had before followed . the fourth thing by which the creation is described , is the object or effects , that is , the things created , even the heavens and the earth and all things in them : for it is said , god created the heaven and the earth . the fifth thing is the forme and manner of the creation , to wit , by saying , let it be done , and it was done ; this appeares , vers . , , . which implies also the matter and the end . now here a question may bee moved concerning this word of god ; whether it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a word spoken and uttered with a sound , like that which god spake from mount sinah in giving the law ; or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the inbred facultie of reason and understanding ; or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an inward thought of god , caused by outward objects ; or whether it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the substantiall and eternall word , the sonne of god. first , it cannot be a word spoken and uttered with a sound ; for that requires aire as the medium of it , and there was none when god said , let there be light ; there was no eare to heare , nor any use of such words . secondly , it cannot be any inward thought of god , now beginning to thinke of the creation and being of things ; for this purpose was in god , as all thoughts are , from all eternity . neither is this word , the son of god , now spoken that is begotten , and not till now , as some hereticks dreamed ; and this saying of god the begetting of the son. for , the son is god , the creatour coequall and coeternallo the father ; and that god which said , let there be light ; and , let there be a firmament , &c. wherefore the true meaning of that speech , is this : that , as god the father , son and holy ghost , had decreed and purposed , from all eternity , to create all things out of nothing ; so in the beginning , in the first moment of time , the father , by his eternall word the son and by his spirit , not as instruments , but chiefe agents with himselfe , did actually put his decree in execution , and that so quickly as a word can bee spoken with the tongue , which hath before been conceived in the heart ; and that all was done at gods beck and command , most easily , without any toi●e or labour ; and that , as the word spoken is the revealing of mans will , so the creation was the declaring of gods eternall will and purpose , by the open execution of it ; and , in a word , that god by his wisedome , will , goodnesse , and power , which are his attributes , by which , as by a speaking word , hee is made knowne to men , did create and make all things , and , for an end , not in vaine , for his word is never in vaine . now from these things laid down plainly in the words of this first verse ; and in the verses following , wee may gather this description of creation in generall , viz. that it is , the first outward act or worke , of god almighty , the father , sonne and holy ghost , performed in the first beginning of time , by which , hee immediatly brought all things out of nothing , according to his eternall purpose , and gave the first being to the world , and every creature therein , when as they were not ; and that by his owne infinite goodnesse , wisedome , power , and will , actually working , and like a powerfull word and commandement , bringing all things to passe out of meere nothing , or that which was as nothing made of nothing , without any instruments , toile , labour , alteration or delay , for the revelation of himselfe and for the communion of his goodnesse and glory . this description truely gathered from this text and this historie , is in whole , and in every part confirmed by other testimonies of gods holy infallible word . first creation is an outward act or work , because it is not within god himselfe , but his making of things , and giving to them a being , different from his own essence . secondly , it is gods first outward act , because it was the giving of the first being to all kindes of creatures ; in which , and upon which , hee exerciseth all other outward works : these two points are manifest and need no further proofe . but as for the third point , the author or first cause , god the father , sonne and holy ghost : wee have manifest proofe of it in scripture , able to satisfie any reasonable mind . first , that the lord jehovah the only true god ( not angels ) is alone the creatour of all things . holy job testifieth , saying , that hee alone spreadeth out the heavens , and treadeth upon the waves of the sea , job . . and isa. . . i , saith jehovah , am the lord that maketh all things , that stretcheth forth the heavens alone , that spreadeth abroad the earth by my selfe . secondly , that all the three persons are equall in this worke ; and as they all are one god , so are one creatour of all things ; it is manifest , job . . where the creatour of all things , is called in the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , my makers , that is , more persons than one , even three persons in one god : and psal. . . let israel rejoyce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in them that made him : and eccles. . . remember thy creators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and isa. . . the lord thy makers is thine husbands , the lord of hostes is his name . for the father in particular , there is no doubt , all confesse him to be the creatour , and so the scriptures testifie , prov. . , . and heb. . , . for the son also we have plaine texts , that by him all things were made , and nothing without him : john . . and joh. . , . cor. . . col. . . heb. . . and as the spirit is one god with the father , and the sonne , so his hand wrought with them in the creation , as appeares , gen. . . where it is said , the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters , that is , cherished the rude masse , as the hen doth her egges by sitting on them , and so gave forming vertue to them ; so the hebrew word signifieth : and job . . god is said by his spirit , to have garnished the heavens : and job . . the spirit of god hath made me , saith elihu : and psal. . . by the word of the lord , ( that is , the sonne ) were the heavens made , and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth , that is , his spirit . fourthly , for the time of the creation , we need not stand much upon proofe of it . this text sheweth , that it began in the beginning or first moment of time : and in six dayes , it was perfected and fully finished , as the rest of the chapter sheweth : it was of old that god founded the earth , and made the heavens , as the psalmist testifieth , psal. . . that is , in the first beginning of times . and reason tells us , that time being a circumstance , and inseparable companion of creatures visible , must of necessity begin together with their being . yet one thing is worthy to be noted in the time ; namely , that , whereas god was able in the first moment , to create all things as he did the highest heavens , and the rude masse , which is called the earth in my text , and which was the common matter of all the visible world : yet he did distribute and divide the creation into divers acts , which are distinguished one from another by the effects , that is , the creatures made ; and by the severall times and dayes also wherein they were performed . which point wee will insist upon , as it well deserves , when we come to the several acts , performed particularly in severall dayes of the creation . the fifth point in the description , is the generall object , and effect of creation , to wit , all things and the first being of them : for , here the object , and effect , concurre and are altogether the same . the world and all things therein , and the first matter of which they were made , as they are the onely things about which the act of creation is exercised ; so they are the object of creation : and as they are things made by the creation , so they are effects of it . now this generall object and effect , as it is truly gathered from the enumeration of all the kindes of things created , which are numbred in this chapter and the next , and is plainely expressed in the description : so it is abundantly testified in all the scriptures ; as isa. . . and coloss. . . and exod. . . where all things in heaven and earth , visible and invisible , are said to bee made , created and formed by god : yea , the first rude matter it selfe , out of which the inferior world was made , is here in my text said , to be created by god. and this is confirmed by reason , drawn from the nature of god , and his name jehovah . for god , as this name signifieth , is an absolute essence of himselfe , and the first being of all , and the author of all being : therefore , every thing which is , or hath being , must needs be of him , and be his creature . the sixth point in the description , is the matter out of which , god created all things : under which , we comprehend two things : first , the matter improperly so called , or terminum à quo , from whence god brought the first being of all things immediately : and that was either negative , even nothing , or their not being at all ; or positive , their being in gods eternall purpose onely . this was the first matter which god had to worke upon in the first immediate act of creation . secondly , the matter properly so called , that is either the rude masse made of nothing , which was without forme , and void ; or the foure elements , which had in them no forme or being of the things created , and so were as nothing in respect of that being which god gave to every particular thing which he made of them . for proofe of this , we have a plain testimonie , heb. . . where the apostle saith . by faith we underst and that the worlds were framed by the word of god : so that the things which are seen , were not made of things which doe appeare . here it is plaine that hee speakes , . of creation in generall , in that hee saith , the worlds were framed . . in that he denies the visible world to be made of any naturall things , which doe appeare to any sense ; hereby hee shewes , that their first matter was made of nothing ; and if they had no matter before the creation , much lesse had invisible spirits any matter . . in that hee makes this a matter of faith to bee beleeved , not to bee knowne by reason ; hereby hee sheweth , that there was a creation of their first being out of nothing : for reason without faith , can apprehend a making of things of matter fitted and prepared . . in that hee doth not say simply , that they were not made of any thing ; but saith , rather , they were not made of things which doe appeare ; hereby hee intimates , that they had a being in gods purpose and secret counsell before . reason also gathered from the present text doth prove , that no creature in the world was made of matter uncreated , or of matter co-eternall with god : for here it is said , that god first made the rude matter , which was without forme , which he needed not to have done , if there had been any eternall matter uncreated . secondly , this matter could not subsist but by the spirit of god , exercising his creating power upon it , as the second verse sheweth : therefore all things were made of nothing ; some immediately , as the highest heavens , and the first matter , called earth , and the forme of every thing ; and some of a matter , either that first without forme , or else unfit for such a being , as god made out of it . the seventh thing in the description is the forme and manner of the creation in generall , and that consists in foure particulars . . first , that god in the creation had no moving causes to move him thereunto , but his owne will , goodnesse , wisedome , and power ; and by them , and according to them hee created every thing . first , that god created all things by the free liberty of his owne will , and according to his owne good pleasure ; and was not by any necessity compelled thereunto , it appeares plainly , psal. . . and . . where it is said , that god hath done all things whatsoever pleased him : and whatsoever pleased him he hath done in heaven , earth , sea , and all deep places : and revel . . . it is said , that god hath created all things , and through his will and pleasure they are created . secondly , that god created all things by his goodnesse , and according to his good pleasure , as the places last cited doe shew ; so also the goodnesse , which at the first creation did appeare in every thing created , proves it most sensibly : for as it is said of light , that it was good , verse . and so likewise of every otherthing , that it was good ; so of all in generall , which god had made , that they were very good . now all goodnesse in the creature comes from the goodnesse of the creatour , and is an image and shadow of it : therefore certainly god by , and according to his goodnesse created all things . thirdly , that god created all things by his wisedome , and according to it , the scriptures aboundantly testifie , psal. . . where david saith , lord , how manifold are thy workes , in wisedome hast thou made them all ! and psal. . . the lord by his excellent wisedome made the heavens : and prov. . . the lord by wisedome founded the earth . and this is implied , prov. . . where wisedome saith , when god prepared the heavens , i was there . fourthly , that god created all things by his mighty power and strength , the prophet jeremy testifieth , jerem. . . saying , o lord god , behold thou hast made the heavens , and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arme . and saint paul affirmes , that gods eternall power is seen from the creation of the world in the things which are made . therefore the first particular concerning the inward moving causes concurring with god , is manifest , to wit , that god by his will , goodnesse , wisedome , and power created all things . . the second particular , by which the forme and manner is set forth , is this , that god created all things himselfe , without any instruments at all , by his powerfull word and commandement . this is expressed in the text , which saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , god , the three persons did but say of every th●ng , let it be , and it was so . and in the second chapter moses makes this manifest , ver. , , . where he professeth , that god used no subordinate means , no not so much as raine , or moistening vapour , or the hand of man in the creating of plants in the earth . and isa. . , . the prophet ascribes to god alone the framing and stretching out of the heavens and the earth , without the counsell , direction , or ministery of any other therein . for howsoever the creation was according to gods eternall counsell , and in the creation of man , god is brought in to say , come , let us make man , as if hee did consult with others besides himselfe ; yet this is not to be understood of gods consulting with any other , but of the consulting of god with himselfe , even the father with the son and the spirit , who were persons of the same essence with himselfe , and were the same god , after whose image man was made , and had the same hand in the creating of him . for so the words ( let us make man in our owne image ) doe necessarily imply . yea , as they all are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the son , as well as the father , and the spirit as well as the son , and all are included in that name ; so it was the joynt and equall counsell , and the purpose and saying of them all , come , let us make man : so that the son and the spirit are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joynt creators and workers with the father , not his instruments ; and the powerfull word of the creation comes equally from all three . but as for angels , or other inferiour creatures , it is against all reason , yea against all piety and gods glory to imagine or dreame , that they are instruments used by god in the creation . first , all being is of him , who is jehovah , the author of all being : now creation is the giving of being , and god onely is jehovah ; therefore creation is onely of him . secondly , in every thing which was created , there was something made of nothing , even the substantiall form ; and the matter was disposed in an instant or moment . now this cannot be but by an infinite power , and is an action of infinite vertue ; therefore no created instrument could concurre in any act of creation . thirdly , if god could create angels , the first and chiefest of his creatures , of nothing , when there was none but himselfe , nor any to be his instrument , much more could he without instruments create inferiour creatures . lastly , god proves himselfe to be the true god , and none besides him , by the act of creation , isa. . which proofe were defective , if any creature had wrought with him in any part of the creation . thus the second particular is manifest . . the third particular , wherein the forme and manner doth consist , is this , that god created all things without any toile , labour , change , or alteration in himselfe at all . hee was not changed from rest to labour and motion , nor from idlenesse to businesse , nor from strength to faintnesse or wearinesse , nor from perfect to more perfect , neither was any good added to him by the creation . for ( as saint james saith ) though every good and perfect gift is from above , and cometh downe from god the father of lights , yet with him there is no variablenesse , or shadow of change , jam. . . and isa. . . hast thou not knowne ( saith the prophet ) hast thou not heard , that the everlasting god , the lord , the creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not , neither is weary ? there is no searching of his wisdome , he giveth power to the faint , &c. yea , it were against all reason to thinke , that god could be weary or faint in the creation , in which he gave not onely all strength , but also being to all things . and seeing in the creation god did nothing but what hee willed and purposed so to doe , and then to doe when he purposed , and as he had willed to doe ; and seeing hee was infinite , and all sufficient , and most blessed in himselfe from all eternity , if creation could not adde any perfection to him , or any glory ; it onely revealed his glory upon others , and communicated his goodnesse to them , without change in himselfe , or addition to his essence . if any object and say , that god by creation became lord and possessour of all creatures , which , being good , were pleasant to him ; and therefore something was added to him , even lordship , dominion , and delight : i answer , that god in himselfe , and before his owne eyes , had all things actually present to him from all eternity , and as sole lord did possesse them , before they had any being in themselves ; and therefore the addition in the creation was not to him , but to the things created , to which hee gave being : and when hee created things in time , according to his eternall purpose , he received nothing to himselfe , but gave to all things their being and their goodnesse . . the fourth particular , wherein the forme and manner of creation doth consist , is this , that things were created , and brought into perfect being without any delay at all , even in a moment of time ; and that creation is not a successive forming of things by alteration and change , which requires some tract of time , but a making of them perfect in a moment , and bringing of them at once into perfect being . this is intimated in this chapter , where wee reade , that gods creating was but this , hee said , let things be , and they were , that is , hee made them in a moment , as it were by a word , and so quickly and readily as a word is spoken . to which adde the testimony of david , psal. . . god spake , and the e●rth was made : he commanded , and it stood fast . and psal. . . where hee saith of the heavens , and of the heaven of heavens , and the sun , moon , and starres , that god commanded , and they were created . and indeed this is manifest by reason drawne from the nature of creation , which is a making of things out of nothing , and giving a forme and being which was not , even in things which were made of matter before created ; as wee see in the foure elements , and in things brought out of them , there was something , even the substantiall forme of them , made immediately of nothing : now between the being of something and nothing , there is no medium , or intermiddle state ; therefore every thing created , was created in an instant , though many in a day , and divers kinds , one after another , and not altogether in the same moment . the eight and last thing in the description is the end of the creation , to wit , gods revealing himselfe , and communicating his glory throughout all ages of the world , and for ever . this is confirmed divers waies in holy scripture : first , by testimonies , which affirme , that for god and his glory all things were made , that is , for the revelation and communion of god and his glory , pro. . . god hath made all things for himselfe , even the wicked for the day of wrath . and isa. . . i have called him for my glory . and ver . this people have i formed for my selfe , they shall shew forth my praise . and rom. . . for of him , and by him , and to him are all things . secondly , by testimonies , which shew , that in the event creation doth turne to gods glory , for the revealing of him to the comfort of his saints , as psal. . . and . , . where it is said , that the beholding of the creation makes gods name excellent . and the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy-worke . for certainly , that which in time proves to bee the end , that god propounded as an end before all times : for hee is infinite in wisdome and providence . thirdly , the holy men of god , moved by gods spirit , exhort all people to praise god for his workes of creation ; and pray that they may apply them to that end , as psal. . . let all thy workes praise thee , o lord. and , psal. . . let them praise the name of the lord : for hee commanded , and they were created . thus much for the confirmation of the description , and every point of doctrine therein contained : i come to the use . first , this doctrine serves for direction and instruction divers waies ; in that it shewes god to bee the author of creation , and creation to be his outward worke , and all things to be made by him : hereby first it leads us in a ready way to come to the knowledge of gods wisdome , power , goodnesse , and such like excellent attributes , even by directing us to behold god in them , and to discerne his eternall power and godhead ; that hee is not like the idols , and false gods of the heathen , but a god of eternity , before all things , and all times ; because hee is the creatour of them all : and that whatsoever excellency is in any creature , it is in god above all measure . and therefore when wee see the mighty masse of the world , let us thinke how great is hee which made this of nothing . when we see the glory of the sun , moon , and starres , and of the whole heavens , let us thinke how glorious is hee who made this glory . when wee discerne the goodnesse , sweetnesse , power , and vertue which is in things created ; let us conceive , that all these are without measure in god , and in all excellency . secondly , by this consideration it teacheth us , that god onely is the true lord and possessour of heaven and earth , worthy to be honoured , served , and worshipped of all , and to be sought unto by praier ; and that all thankes are to bee given to him for all good things ; that hee hath right and power to dispose all things at his pleasure , to whom hee will , and that wee ought not to murmure at his disposing ; neither hath any man right to any thing but by his gift , and his permission . secondly , this doctrine serves for confutation , . of philosophers , who held that the world was not created in time , but was from eternity ; or that it was created of a matter which was uncreated , and had a being before the creation , even without beginning . . of those doting jewes and others , who held that the inferiour visible world was created by the ministerie of angels . . of heretikes , who denied god the father of christ , preached in the gospel , to be the creatour of the world , and feigned another god creatour , inferiour to him . . of the papists , who teach that there be other creatours besides god , even that every masse-priest can create of bread and wine the true bodie and bloud of the lord christ our creatour and redeemer : yea , that same body , which is already , which was made of a woman borne , ●nd crucified , and is glorified at gods right hand in heaven : a strange contradiction , and horrible blasphemy , which god ab●orres as a thing impossible : for nothing can be made that which it is already , nor receive that being which it hath before-hand . . of atheists and mockers , who deny god , and scoffe at the last resurrection , and at the ending of this world in the last day , all which are manifestly proved by the creation . lastly , of all idolaters , who esteem and worship that for god their creatour , which is but the image of a creature , and in nature and forme far inferiour to the least creature formed by god. thirdly , it serves for reprehension and just reproofe , first of them , who thinke that god can be worshipped and pleased by mens giving of outward things to him immediately for his owne use ; as gold , silver , meat , drinke , clothes , and curious ornaments : all which god rejecteth as things unusefull for him ; upon this very ground , and for this reason , because hee created the whole world , and all things therein are his owne already , psal. . and act. . . secondly , of them , who fret and grudge , and too much repine and grieve for the overthrow and destruction of kingdomes , countries , nations , cities , men , or beasts , which god at his pleasure , and in his justice doth destroy for mens sins , and over-turne withall their glory and being . who is he , that in such a case dare mutter against god ? for hee may doe with his owne what he pleaseth : if they offend him , he may destroy them , and magnifie his justice , and glorifie his power in their destruction ; and he can repaire them at his pleasure . lastly , here is for all that trust in god , love and serve him , plentifull matter of comfort against poverty , and all calamities , and persecuting enemies . no poverty ought to pinch or vexe them ; for god their portion is more worth then all the world : all riches , and other things are but the worke of his hands , and he can give them when hee will , and will give what hee in his wisedome knowes to be necessary and profitable . all strength is of him , and he can weaken all enemies in a moment ; so that if he be for us , none can stand against us : hee can raise sweet out of bitternesse . thus much for creation in generall . chap. ii. of the creature in generall . names of the creature expounded , to shew their nature . instructions concerning the creatures . five uses made thereof . before i passe to the speciall acts or branches of creation , i hold it fit to insist upon the creature in generall , which comprehends under it every speciall kind of thing created by any act of creation . this history of the creation , though not in any one word , yet in one sentence doth expresse the creature in generall , that is , the whole frame and collection of all things created , chapt. . . in these words , thus were the heavens and the earth finished , and all the host of them , or all their furniture , that is , whatsoever is in them rightly ordered and disposed , like an army well marshalled ; so the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie . and other scriptures , both in the old and new testament , doe oftentimes in one word propound to us the generall consideration of all joyntly together . i will therefore first speake of the creature in generall , as it comprehends in it the heavens , and the earth , and all things in them , and that in such words and phrases , as gods spirit in this and other scriptures is pleased to use for our instruction , and for the help and illumination of our weake understandings . and in this generall description , i will first consider the words and phrases , by which the creature in generall is called , and will shew what they doe import in their signification . secondly , i will from thence and other scriptures note such instructions , as may direct us to the knowledge of the creature in generall . and lastly , will make some use and application fit and convenient . the first name , by which the creature in generall is called in the old testament , is the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies an universality , or perfect comprehension of all things : by this name , the whole universality of things created , is called , pro. . . where it is said , that the lord hath made all things for himselfe ; not so much as the wicked man is excepted , who is made for the day of evill . also , isa. . . the lord saith , i am jehovah that maketh all things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : answerable to this are the greeke words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , used by the greeke philosophers , to signifie the whole universall world , or the universality of all things ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is commonly used in the new testament , where there is mention made of the creation , and the creature in generall , as john . . by him were all things made . and rom. . ult . of him , and by him , and for him are all things . and colos. . . and revel . . . but yet , as the apostle , cor. . . speaking of gods putting all things in subjection under christ , saith , that hee must be excepted , who hath put all things under him : so here , though the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe signifie an universality , and comprehension of all things ; yet it is manifest by the word joyned with them , that god the creatour , who is said to make and create them , is excepted , and all other things besides him are included . another name , by which the spirit calls the universality of creatures , is the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which answers to the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and is alwaies used by septuagints , in their translation of the old testament , to expresse it . by this name the creature in generall is called , heb. . . and . . where it is said , that god by his son made the worlds , and that the worlds were framed by the word of god. and in the syriack and hebrew translations , the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and according to their originall and true notation , they all doe signifie not onely an eternall duration and continuance from the first moment and beginning of time , to the last end thereof throughout all ages , and the eternall duration of things in the world to come ; but also all the things which are measured by this protraction and duration of times , and of time beyond all times , even all things under heaven , and all things above the heavens , as angels and blessed spirits , and all things which shall be upheld and kept in being after the end of the world : for the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies times or things , the beginning and end whereof are hid and unknown to mortall men of short time , by reason of the long continuance of them ; and the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies a perpetuall being , and duration , or whatsoever is alwaies , and in all times ; and it is used in gospel to signifie , not only this world , wherein we live in this mortall life ; but also the world to come , both● the kingdome of glory , and also the state of all things after death ; as appeares , mat. . . and heb. . . the third name , by which the creature in generall is called , is the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is commonly translated the world ; and doth fitly signifie that well ordered , decent , beautifull , and comely frame of heaven and earth , with all the goodly furniture , and well ordered host of creatures therein contained . for it is a word , which in greeke doth properly signifie beauty , decency , and comely ornament ; and by it the greeks commonly doe call the whole frame of the world , because of the beauty , and comely order of the creatures therein : and by this name the creature in generall , and the universality of things created is called , matth. . . rom. . . and ephes. . . where the spirit of god speaks of the creation and foundation of the world : and lest we should thinke , that by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is meant onely the inferiour and visible world , the holy apostles , when they speake of it , adde the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as appeares , corin. . . and ephes. . . to shew that there is another world , even the invisible , called also by this name : and john . . the evangelist having affirmed , that all things were made by the eternall word , doth in the . verse shew , that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all things , was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the world . i am not ignorant that this word is used also in a more strict sense , and that it signifies sometimes the habitable world , or circle of the earth inhabited by men , as matth. . . and john . . sometimes men inhabiting the earth , as rom. . . by one man sin entred into the world . sometimes the elect , who are the chiefe ones of the world , and of mankind , as john . . and cor. . . and john . . sometimes for the carnall , unregenerate , and reprobate multitude of mankind , as john . . whom the world cannot receive : and . . i pray not for the world . sometimes earthly things , as gal. . . opposed to spirituall ; and sometimes sinfull and corrupt things opposed to holy and heavenly , as galat. . . but the most full and proper sense is that which i have first named , and in that sense it is used in all places , which speake of the creating and founding of the world ; and signifies the whole frame of heaven and earth , with the furniture of them . the fourth name , by which the creature in generall is called , is the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which properly signifies that which is created , and made of nothing , by the act of creation ; by this name the creature in generall is called , as it comprehends every thing created either in heaven , or earth , or in the sea , or under the earth , revel . . . and by this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the whole world is called , mar. . . where our saviour saith , there shall be such affliction as was not from the beginning of the creature which god created , that is , of the world , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the word is rendered by the evangelist matthew , chap. . . now from these severall names used by the spirit of god in scripture , to set forth the creatures in generall , that is , the universality of things created , we may observe divers things for our instruction . . first , that whatsoever hath any being in heaven , or in earth , either in this world , or in the world to come , even all things which can be conceived to have a true being , besides god himselfe , are created of god , have a beginning , and were made out of nothing at the first : this , as it is laid downe in my text , so it appeares plainly by all the foure names before cited ; and is confirmed by the scriptures produced , to shew the true sense of them , to wit , isa. . . john . . col. . . and revel . . . and besides these , wee have many other , as exod. . . psal. . . and psal. . in which places the heavens , and the heaven of heavens the angels , and all the hosts of god , the sun , moon , stars , the aire , and the meteors , the earth , the sea , and all things in them are said to be made , and created by god : to which we may adde , act. . . and . . heb. . . . the second thing which i observe from these names of the creature in generall is , that the world was made in perfect beauty , fit to flourish perpetually ; and every creature , as it was created of god , was good , perfect , and beautifull in his kind free from all discord , disorder , and corruption . this is gathered from the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the world is called ; the one of which signifies beauty , ornament , and decencie , free from all deformity , discord , and disorder ; and the other a perpetuall being , or a perpetuall flourishing in being and perfection . and the last words of this chapter confirme this fully , to wit , god beheld all things which he had made , and so they were exceeding good . the words also of god himselfe , job . from the . verse , where he sets forth his manner of creating all things in a most excellent order , by laying the foundations of the earth sure , by measuring it as it were by line , by shutting in the deeps within bounds , by bringing forth the lights of heaven rejoycing , and the angels singing joyfully , and by making all things to flourish . reason also grounded on the word of god doth prove this plainly : for that which was made in perfect wisedome , and in the framing whereof gods eternall wisedome had an hand , must needs bee most beautifull , decent , and flourishing : for if gods wisdome in bezaleel and aholiab , made them so excellent in working curious and glorious workes for the tabernacle , much more excellent is it in god himselfe . now the scriptures plainly testifie , that god founded the world in wisdome , prov. . . that in wisdome hee hath made all things , psal. . . and that wisdome had an hand in ordering all things , prov. . therefore the creation of the world was in perfect beauty and comelinesse . . the third thing which we learne from these names is , that the deformity of the world , the enmity of creatures , the corruption of man , and the confusion of things created , were not in the world , nor in the creatures thereof at the first ; neither are they gods handy-worke , nor things by him created : for the world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a beautifull frame : and the scriptures call the worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , things of being , and continuance , not things deformed , corrupt , and perishing . this also the scriptures shew , gen. . that the earth was cursed for mans sake , and mans sinne came from himselfe , and the serpent : and deut. . . and levit. . god himselfe in the law professeth , that for disobedience and sin of rebellious people hee doth make their heaven over them as brasse , and their earth as iron : and eccl. . . it is said , that god made man upright , but they have sought out many inventions . i might here also observe from the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the world was also made in a beautifull and pleasant season , even the pleasant time of the spring in all probability ; but i love not to build opinions on such weake foundations . and from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies long lasting ages , i might observe the ages of the world , and discusse the question about the ages and years from the creation ; but they may more seasonably be touched hereafter , when we come to speake of the particular branches of the creation . now i come to the use of these considerations : first , they serve to make the thoughts and conceits of atheists and carnall philosophers hatefull to us ; to wit , that the world is eternall , and had no beginning , neither shall have end . for here wee see , that all things universally were created of nothing , and are creatures formed by god. it is a point of faith above all naturall reason to understand , that the worlds were made of nothing , as the apostle shewes , heb. . . and that was it which made aristotle , and other witty and learned philosophers , led by reason , doubt of the creation of the world . beside , when they observed the stability of the heavens , and heavenly host , and their beautifull order and incorruptible being , this did further them in this conceipt , and made them thinke there should be no end of it . but gods word teacheth the contrary , and sheweth , that all things were created and made out of nothing , except only god himselfe ; and though they were made perfect and good , fit to flourish for ever , and some of them have still a great remnant of that glory and perfection , as the heavens , which change little in many ages ; yet by mans sin they are corrupted and made changeable , and so much more , by how much more neere they come to man : and this the philosophers felt and perceived , insomuch that many of them did acknowledge the creation , and the end of the world ; and even aristotle himselfe , though he could not conceive that the world should be made of nothing by the course of nature , yet hee did acknowledge god the father maker and preserver of it ; and so likewise shall all be confounded , who are not settled in this truth : therefore let us looke up to god , and beleeve his word , and hate all blind conceipts of worldly wise men ; and see and behold in the most rationall and wise naturall men , denying this truth of the worlds creation , that the wisdome of the world is foolishnesse , and the imaginations of the flesh enmity against god. secondly , this consideration of creation and beginning of all the world , serves to make us more admire gods eternity , and to ravish us with the consideration of it . if there could be a man found on earth , who had lived ever since the time of christ , or since the daies of adam or noah , wee would highly esteem him , and seeke to him from the uttermost parts of the earth , as the queen of sheba did to solomon . but behold , all this world is but of short continuance , created of god not many thousands of yeares ago . god is before it , even from all eternity . and this world shall perish , but he endureth for ever , psal. . and therefore if wee wonder at the long lasting heavens , and the surely founded earth ; how much more ought we to admire the eternitie of god , the ancient of daies , before all daies and times , and without beginning or end ! thirdly , though this world be beautifull by reason of some reliques of perfection and beauty remaining from the creation ; yet seeing it had a beginning , and is corrupted by sin , and hastens towards an end , let us not set our hearts on it , or any worldly thing ; but looke up to god , and have our hope and our affections firmly set on him , whose beauties of holinesse shall not fade as the fashion of this world doth ; but his glory endureth for ever . fourthly , we may here see , that the world was created for us , & for our use , not for any need which god had of it ; for god was infinitely blessed in himselfe without it , from all eternity : and certainly , in that god did not create it , and time with it , many thousands of yeares before he did , this is a strong evidence , that god is all-sufficient in himselfe , and hath for himselfe no need of any creature . lastly , it serves to make us hate sin , as the divels poyson , and turne from it , and be affraid to communicate with it , as wee doe with things created by god ; because it is not of gods forming , but is the corruption of mans nature poysoned and defaced : and all enmity , which is among the creatures , vexing and destroying one another , came in by sin ; and all the pleasure which men take therein , is corrupt , sinfull , and against pure nature : wherefore let us ascribe all deformity , disorder , and discord in the world to mans sin , as the proper cause thereof . chap. iii. of creation immediate , and mediate . the hebrew words expounded . sundry doctrines proposed , and made usefull . some questions discussed : . of the time of the yeare , wherein the world was created . . of the number of the yeares since this was . of the highest heavens : . points proposed . the creation and creature in generall being described out of these words , and the rest of the history of the creation in this and the next chapter , i proceed to the severall parts and speciall branches of the creation , which i will unfold in that order in which they are here laid downe , and will describe the severall kinds of creatures , which god created together with the state and condition wherein god created them . the worke of creation considered in generall , comprehends in it two speciall branches , as i have noted before . the first is simple , absolute , and immediate creation , which is a giving of the first being to things simply and absolutely out of nothing , when there is no matter at all to worke upon . the second is a mediate and secondary creation , which is a giving of the first being to things out of a rude , unfit , and undisposed matter ; and that instantly , without any precedent altering , or disposing of the matter of which they are made . each of these consists of two subordinate branches : first , absolute creation is either a making of things perfect out of nothing , or a making of things imperfect out of nothing . both these parts or branches are here laid downe in this first verse : of them therefore i purpose to speake out of these words ; and for the better performance thereof , i will sift the words particularly in the first place , and so will come to the doctrines . and for the generall meaning of the words , i have thus far laid it open , that the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bereshith , signifies the time of the creation . the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bara , signifies properly creating of things out of nothing , or out of a rude matter fit for nothing , and uncapable of any essentiall forme . the word elohim , intimates the trinity of persons in the unity of essence . the word heaven , is to be taken for the heaven of heavens , or the highest heavens . and by the earth , is meant the rude matter , out of which god framed the whole inferiour visible world . i now come to sift the words more particularly , so as that they may give light to this first speciall branch of creation , and to the two particular parts thereof . the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bereshith , which is here translated in the beginning , may admit a threefold exposition : first , if we take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as sometimes it signifies in scripture , for the chiefe or principall ; or for the first fruits , which were the first and chiefest of every thing ; then this word may signifie either as the hebrew rabbins expound it , bereshith , in or for the chiefe , that is , for israels sake , who were the chiefe of the nations , and choice people of god , god created the heavens and the earth , and in them god laid the foundation of all things created : or else bereshith , in the first fruits , that is , in christ , who is the chiefe and the first fruits of all ; and for the elects sake in him , god created the heavens and the earth , as some christians have expounded it . but if we take the word reshith , as it is commonly taken in the scripture , for the first beginning of a thing ; or the first part of the being of it ; or the first part and moment of time , wherein a thing comes to have being ; then may this word ( bereshith ) signifie the first part of time , wherein things created came to have being ; or the first part of creation : and this may bee the meaning , that in the first part of time , or in the first part of the creation , god created the heavens and the earth ; and the creation of them was the first act of creation . this , as it is the exposition most commonly held , and generally received ; so i take it to be the best and fittest , and that which the spirit of god chiefly intended in this place : for though it is true , that god created all things in christ , and for his sake , and his elects sake especially : yet here it stands with more reason , and is more agreeable to the scope of the place , to thinke , that the first part of time , or of the creation is meant : for first , it is manifest ( as shall appeare hereafter ) that here moses doth not speake generally of the creation of all particulars , which are after named in the chapter : neither doth he by the heaven & the earth understand the whole world , & all the particulars therein contained ; but by heaven , is here meant the highest heaven ; and by earth , is meant the rude masse , out of which god framed the inferiour visible world . now they onely were not created for christs sake , but all other things also ; and they onely were created in the first part or moment of time , and in the first beginning of the creation : therefore it stands with better reason to expound these words ( in the beginning ) for the first beginning of time , or the first part of the creation , which is the subject of this holy history ; then to understand it of christ , that in him , and for him , the heavens and rude earth was created , and for his elects sake , for whose use all other creatures also were created . secondly , the scriptures themselves doe in other places , which handle the same matter , expound this word for the first beginning of time , or the first part and moment of creation , as psal. . . where david , speaking of the first foundation of the heavens , and the earth , saith , they were founded of old , that is , in the first time ; for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth , which hee there useth in stead of this word bereshith ; and which is translated by the apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the beginning , heb. . . and therefore it is manifest , that here this word notes unto us the time when this first act of creation was performed , namely , the beginning or first part of time . some , who held that the highest heavens and the first rude masse of the earth were created from all eternity , and had their being long before the first beginning of time ; doe here take this word bereshith to signifie from all eternity , and doe thinke that so it may be translated ; from eternity god created the heavens and earth . and to this purpose they bring an example , where the words ( in the beginning ) signifie from all eternity , to wit , joh. . . where it is said , in the beginning was the word , that is , from all eternity . but this exposition may easily be confuted by other scriptures ; for exod. . . god himselfe affirmeth , that in six daies he made heaven and earth , and all other creatures : and therefore the heavens were not created from all eternity , but in the beginning , in the first day of the creation . as for the words of the evangelist , they may easily be answered ; for indeed they doe not properly signifie eternity , but the first moment of time , in which god began to give being to his creatures . and yet take these words ( in the beginning ) joyntly together with other words , which immediately follow in the same sentence , and they necessarily imply and prove that the word was eternall , and from all eternity , coeternall with god the father : for hee who was already , and had a being with god , and was god , and made all things in the beginning , must needs be from all eternity , and before the first moment of time , in which he was not made nor created ; but was , that is , had a being already , yea was coeternall to the father : therefore these words ( in the beginning ) as the evangelist useth them , doe signifie eternity ; but in that he saith , the word was , that is , had already a being with god in the beginning , when hee began to give being to all other things , this proves by necessary consequence , that the word was eternall : and therefore the common exposition stands sure , that here the word ( bereshith ) signifies the beginning , or first part of time . the second word of this text , that is , bara , created , signifies the giving of first being to all things , either simply out of nothing , or out of matter undisposed for the forme introduced ( as i have noted before . ) and by a metaphor , it signifies great and mighty workes , which resemble the creation ; but here it signifies absolute creation , or giving the first being to the highest heavens , and to the rude masse or matter of the visible world , out of meere nothing ; for they were created of no matter before existing ( as all doe hold ) and of their creation onely this verse speakes . that the third word ( elohim ) being of the plurall number , signifies three persons in one god the creatour ; and that the creation was the worke of all the three persons in the trinity , i have before shewed . here let mee adde further a cabalisticall proofe , gathered from the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies the act of creation , and consists of three hebrew letters , which are the first letters of the three hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifie the father , the son , and the spirit : and therefore if the caballisticall art be of any credit , this act of creating is the work of all the three persons , the father , the son , and the holy spirit , one and the same god. the two last words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the heaven and the earth , do here signifie ( as i have noted before ) the highest heaven , and the earth which was without forme and void , that is , the rude masse and common matter of the visible world . some learned men do by heaven and earth understand the whole world , in the same sense as the words are , chapt. . . by heaven , they conceive the highest heaven , the visible starry heaven , and the whole firmament of the aire to be meant : by earth , the lowest globe of the earth , which hath the sea intermingled with it ; and by creating , they understand the whole worke of creation in generall , and not that first speciall act , by which god made the highest heavens , and the rude masse and matter of the visible world onely . the main reason which they have to prove this , is drawn from the hebrew articles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is prefixed before the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , earth . the first of which articles consists of the first and last letter of the hebrew alphabet , and so implies an universall comprehension of all things , which were created both the first and the last . the other , to wit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is of plaine demonstration , and sheweth that this heaven and earth , as they now stand , are said to be created here in these words . but this exposition is plainly overthrown by the text it selfe , and the reason answered without any difficulty : first , the act of creation spoken of and intended in this verse , is that which was performed in the beginning , that is , in the first moment of time , so the text affirmes : but the whole world , and all creatures in heaven and earth were not made in the first moment of time , nor in the first day , but in sixe daies ; therefore the whole world is not meant in these words , nor all creatures in heaven and earth . secondly , if the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be of generall comprehension , then each of these words should signifie the whole world ; for it is added to each of them , and so the other word should be superfluous in this place . thirdly , we may safely grant , that these words are of generall comprehension , and yet we need not expound them of any other heaven then the highest heaven , nor of any other earth then the first rude masse , out of which the whole visible world was made , which was without forme , and void , as it is testified in the next words , verse . for this heaven did comprehend in it the highest heaven , and all the host and inhabitants of it , the angels , actually . and this earth or rude masse did potentially comprehend in it the whole visible world , which afterwards in the sixe daies was actually formed out of it : and therefore i take this to be the best exposition , to understand by the heaven , the highest heaven onely where the angels and blessed saints have their dwelling , together with the host thereof : and by the earth to understand ( as the next verse sheweth ) the rude masse , out of which god after formed the whole visible and mutable world , consisting of the starry heavens , and of the aire , water , and earth with all things in them . as for them who here by heaven and earth understand the whole world , actually formed and made ; and them , who understand the common seed and rude matter of the heavens , both highest and invisible , and also the visible heavens , and the inferiour world ; they exclude out of this history of the creation , the distinct and speciall narration of the creation of the highest heavens , and of the glorious host thereof , the angels and super-celestiall spirits , contrary to that which moses himselfe plainly teacheth , chapt. . . where repeating summarily the whole creation in generall , which he had before distinctly related , and in all the parts thereof described in the first chapter , he saith , thus were the heavens and the earth finished , and all the host of them , that is , the angels among the rest ; for they are called the heavenly host , luke . . from the words thus expounded , we may gather an excellent description of the first speciall act of creation , which is called simple and absolute creation , and of the two particular branches thereof , to wit , that it is that act of creation , whereby god in the first beginning did create , and give the first being out of nothing to the highest heavens , and to the earth , that is , the first rude masse and matter of the visible world . the parts of this act are two : the first is that act of simple creation , by which god created out of nothing , and gave a most perfect glorious being to the highest heaven , and to all things therein contained . the second is that act of simple creation , by which god gave the first imperfect being to that rude earth , the masse , which was the common matter , out of which hee formed the whole inferiour , visible , and mutable world . in this description of the first act of simple creation , and of each branch thereof , wee may observe foure things : the first is the matter both generall and speciall , laid downe in the word bara , created . secondly , the author of it , god the father , sonne , and holy ghost , elohim , three persons in one god. thirdly , the time and order of it , in the beginning , bereshith ; it was the first act , performed in the first moment of time . the fourth is the object or effect , to wit , the things created , the heaven and the earth : the heaven is the object and effect of the first particular branch ; the earth is the effect of the second . these foure things considered both joyntly together , and severally by themselves , doe afford unto us divers profitable instructions , and divers questions to be discussed , worthy of our consideration . first , the matter and substance of this act , is a simple and absolute producing of reall and substantiall things out of nothing ; yea creatures , which of all others were most perfect and glorious , to wit , the highest heavens , and the glorious angels the eternall spirits , which were made and placed there , to stand in the sight and presence of god. now this offers to our consideration an excellent meditation of gods infinite power and omnipotencie , shewing it selfe most cleerly in this first act of creation ; for in that god , contrary to the course of all other the most cunning artificers , did immediately and absolutely of himselfe , and by himselfe alone create , and make out of nothing in the first beginning , the most perfect creatures of all , even the highest heavens , and the glorious angels and eternall spirits ; and so the first act of creation was the most perfect and complete act of all . this teacheth us , that god is of himselfe infinite , omnipotent , and all sufficient in power and in wisdome , able to doe all things , and to performe and bring to passe by his owne mighty hand , instantly , without any help , counsell , or advice of any other , the greatest , and most perfect , and glorious workes which can be done , named , or imagined in heaven and earth . wee find by experience and reason , that all artificers , before they have in and of themselves skill and power sufficient to bring to passe the workes which belong to their art , doe first practise by the direction of others in smaller matters ; and by use and practice grow more skilfull , and so proceed to greater and more perfect workes : and because the most cunning and exquisite workmen in the world are limited in their power and skill to one thing at once , neither can their minds intend , nor their understandings conceive , nor their hands performe all things at once , which are required for the performance of a perfect worke ; therefore in every such worke they proceed by time , leasure , and degrees : first , laying a foundation of matter ; secondly , forming and framing of every severall part ; thirdly , fitly composing of all parts together in one , and so bringing the worke to consummation and perfection . and so god must have done in the creation , if hee had not been infinite in power , and all-sufficient : if his wisdome and power had been limited , he must have begun with smaller workes , and ascended by degrees ; and in every worke hee must first have either borrowed matter from others , or made it himselfe for to worke upon . secondly , he must have fitted the matter , to receive a fit forme . thirdly , he must have introduced the forme into every part , and have composed all together into one perfect creature : but we see all was contrary ; he performed the greatest and most perfect worke at the first , even the most glorious heavens , and the eternall spirits , which are durable , and abide for ever ; therein he set up his glorious throne , and made an habitation for his blessed saints and angels . he shewed that he was all-sufficient in himselfe for the greatest worke , because he did performe it of himselfe , before there was any but himselfe , and no creature made to help him . he did not by degrees get his skill , but at the first shewed the best worke , and performed it in an instant : and therefore in this first act of creation , we may see , as in a cleere glasse , the infinite wisdome and omnipotencie of god. this truth is also strongly confirmed by firme proofes from other scriptures , as job . . elihu , that wise unreproved friend of god , full of the spirit , doth from this very ground , namely , the wonderfull creation of the heavens and other things , conclude the omnipotencie and infinite wisdome of god , that he is shaddai , the almighty , all-sufficient , that he is excellent in power and judgement , and that we cannot find him out by reason of his incomprehensible wisdome and power . so also job . . and . . god himselfe doth from the creation of the heavens , and the angels full of glory , and shouting for joy , and from his making and ordering of all things most wisely prove , that hee himselfe the creatour is almighty , one who cannot be instructed nor reproved , and against whom none can contend . and job himselfe , job . . upon the same ground and consideration is moved to confesse , that he knowes god to be able to doe every thing , and that he is infinite in wisdome and knowledge ; that no thought can be withholden from him , and that the things of god are too wonderfull for him to know . the prophet david also , psal. . , . from the consideration of gods glory , which he hath set above the visible heavens , in the highest heavens ; and from the excellent nature of the angels , weighed with himselfe , doth break out into an admiration of gods excellent greatnesse , thereby made knowne ; and wonders that hee , so mighty a one , should regard poore man at all ; who , though the chiefe of visible creatures , is but a worme , and as nothing before god : lord , saith he , how excellent is thy name in all the world , who hast set thy glory above the heavens ! when i consider the heavens , the worke of thy fingers , i say , lord , what is man , that thou art mindfull of him , or the son of man that thou visitest him ? and psal. . . the heavens ( saith he ) declare the glory of god , that is , the glorious attributes of his omnipotencie and infinite wisdome . and most fully and plainly doth the apostle paul speak to this purpose in a few words , rom. . . saying , that the invisible things of god , even his eternall power and godhead from the creation are cleerly seen , being understood by the things which are made . the consideration of which truth serves first to incite us , and also direct us , to make a right and profitable use of gods first act of creation , by putting us in mind , that it is not enough for us in reading the history of it , to think of it only as of some great work , and to content our selves with the bare and naked understanding and remembrance of the glorious heavens and angels , thereby created and made ; but that we all ought , by meditating upon the excellency and absolute perfection of that first worke above the rest which followed , to be lifted up unto that further meditation of the omnipotencie and infinite wisdome of god , and of his power and ability to doe all things , and to bring into perfect being any most excellent worke at his pleasure , whensoever he will ; and hereby to be stirred up and encouraged to rejoyce mo 〈…〉 aboundantly in the lord our creatour , to rest more confidently on him , when we have committed our selves to his protection , and he hath received us under the shadow of his wings , and to hope for all blessings which he hath promised ; and for the performance of all his promises in due time and season , without hinderance or resistance of any power . as all created things were made for some end , and whatsoever is not fit to serve for some speciall end is a meer vanity ; so the knowledge of things , without the knowledge of the end and use of them , is a vaine notion swimming in the braine : and therefore the maine thing which we ought to drive at in seeking the profitable knowledge of things , is to know and understand the speciall use of them . now gods creating of the highest heavens , and the host of them in glorious perfection by himselfe alone , in the first act of creation in the beginning , doth serve most properly , naturally , and necessarily to shew the infinite wisdome and omnipotencie of god the creatour ( as is before proved ) that we seeing therein these divine attributes of god as in a glasse , may rejoyce in him , and rest securely on his promises , knowing that he will performe and fulfill his word , and none can resist him : wherefore let us study to make this right use , that our knowledge may be sound and saving , and may bring us on to salvation . secondly , this may justly smite our hearts , and make us ashamed of our owne dulnesse and negligence in this point , in that we all , or the most part of us have so often read , heard , remembred , and understood in reading and hearing the word of god , this great worke of creating the heavens and heavenly host , and have beleeved it , and spoken of it , and so have passed it over , without seeing , beholding , and considering in it the wisdome , power , and glory of god. alas , there be few amongst us , who have taken care to look so farre into the end and use of these things of god ; and that is the cause , that science abounds without conscience , and much knowledge goeth alone without any sound or sincere practise . o let us be throughly ashamed of our negligence in the times past , which is too much indeed ; and let us labour to redeem the time hereafter by double diligence , studying to see gods glory in those great workes ; and seeing , to admire his wisdome , and to adore his heavenly majesty . thirdly , gods truth in this doctrine beleeved and embraced , is a strong antidote against all atheisticall thoughts , which possesse the hearts of divers dull and carnall people , who cannot conceive thoroughly , nor fully beleeve , but often doubt of gods omnipotencie and ability , to create in a moment out of meere nothing most perfect and glorious creatures , such as are angels and blessed spirits , and the heaven of heavens . such doubts are the cause that they cannot beleeve in god , rest on his power , and be confident in him in cases of extremity , when the whole world seems to be against them , and all outward helps faile . if they did but discerne the power of god , by the first simple act of creation , they might know and beleeve , that hee out of nothing can raise more help then they can desire or stand in need of in their greatest extremities . secondly , in that here in the first act of creation , performed in the first beginning of all things , and in the first moment of time , god the creatour is described by the name elohim , which signifies a plurality of persons in the unity of essence ( as i have before proved ) and this act is ascribed to all the three persons equally in one and the same word : hence we may gather a necessary doctrine concerning the consubstantiality , equality , and eternity of all the three persons in the sacred trinity , to wit , that the three persons , the father , the son , and the holy ghost are all co-eternall , and without beginning , all equall among themselves , and consubstantiall , of the same undivided nature and substance , three persons distinct in one infinite eternall jehovah . for plaine reason tells us , that whatsoever had no being given to it , in or after the first beginning of creatures , but was , and had a being already in the first beginning , and before any thing was made , yea , was the authour and maker of the first worke of all ; that must needs be of absolute eternity , every way eternall , without any beginning or end at all . now such are all the three persons in the blessed trinity , they all by this word ( elohim ) are shewed to be equall in the first act of creation ; and so to be before the first beginning of all things , as the authour and cause before the worke and effect , they all are declared to be one and the same singular god and undivided essence : and therefore this doctrine doth hence truly arise . i need not here againe stand upon further proofe of it ; for that i have done aboundantly already , in expounding the doctrine of the trinity . onely the consideration of this truth may serve first to convince all heretickes of horrible errour and blasphemy , who deny either the creatour of the world to be the true god ; or the son , and the spirit to be equall , co-eternall , and of the same substance with the father ; as the arians and others did . behold here the blasphemous fictions of these men cut off before they shoot forth , and rooted up before they were sowne , by this first act of creation , as it is here described by the spirit of god : and therefore let us hate and abhorre all such dreames and fictions , as most monstrous and unnaturall , damned in gods booke , from the first words of the history of the first creation . secondly , let us even from this furthest ground fetch the all-sufficiencie of our mediatour and redeemer christ , and the efficacie and perfection of his full satisfaction , that we may rest on him confidently without scruple , feare , or doubting . as also the infinite power of the spirit , that we may rest in his strength for perseverance . if the son christ , or the spirit were inferiour gods , and of an inferiour nature , not infinite nor co-eternall with the father , men might have some colour of diffidence , and some cause to doubt of sufficient satisfaction , redemption , and stedfast perseverance . but here we see the contrary , that the son if the word , by whom all things were made ; and the son and spirit one , the same god and creatour with the father ; and the spirit as he is in the regenerate , is greater every way then he that is in the world , john . therefore let us comfort our selves in the all-sufficiencie of christ for full redemption , and of the spirit for sanctification and perseverance . thirdly , in that here the first act of creation , even the creation of the highest heavens with the host of them , and of the common matter of the visible world out of nothing , is said to be performed in the beginning , that is , in the first part or moment of time . hence some profitable doctrines arise , and here some questions offer themselves to be discussed . first , we here are taught , that the whole world , and all things therein , even the highest and most durable heavens , and the first matter of the visible world had a beginning , and were not from all eternity , as some heathen philosophers imagined . this doctrine , as it is plainly affirmed in this text , which alone is proofe sufficient ; so other scriptures doe aboundantly prove and confirme it : john . . our saviour saith , that god the father loved him before the foundation of the world . ephes. . . the apostle saith , that god hath chosen us in christ before the foundation of the world : and pet. . . it is said , that christ was ordained before the foundation of the world : and prov. . . the wisdome of god saith , i was set up from everlasting , before the earth was , or ever the heavens were prepared . these and such other scriptures , which mention things before the first beginning and foundation of the world , doe most evidently shew , that neither the world , nor any part thereof was from eternity ; but with time , and in time began . and if this be not sufficient to satisfie atheists , who refuse to beleeve god or his word , naturall reason it selfe is able to prove it against them , by their owne principles which they grant . first , they acknowledge , that whatsoever is corruptible or mutable by nature , must needs have a beginning , and cannot be eternall : now it is manifest , that the whole world , and all things therein , are by nature corruptible , and changeable ; and whatsoever therein is constant , unchangeable and incorruptible , it is so , not by any naturall power in it selfe , but of the free grace of god in christ. the angels , the most glorious creatures , and the spirits and soules of men , which are created of nothing , they are changeable by nature , as appeares by the fall of the divell , and mans fall and corruption : and therefore it is said , that hee charged his angels with folly , to wit , them that did fall ; and to the rest which stand he added light , even supernaturall light of his sanctifying spirit , job . and although the wisest of the heathen philosophers did gather from the constant course of the visible heavens and the starres , that the heavens were incorruptible and unchangeable ; yet experience hath taught the contrary , and it is found by long observation of astronomers , that there are many fixed starres , and strange comets or blazing starres , generated in the heavens farre above the moon , which appeare for a time , and after doe vanish away , as the late blazing starre , in anno . was found to be by certaine demonstration . but for the inferiour elements under heaven , and the creatures therein ; every eye sees them to be in daily change and alteration , and to have no constancie in them : therefore the world is not from all eternity . secondly , that which is eternall , hath no cause subsisting before it ; nor any superiour to over-rule , order , and dispose it , but is absolute of it selfe : and that which hath such a preceding and superiour cause , authour , and disposer , must needs have and receive a beginning from another . now such is the world , and all things therein ; the world , and the whole course of it is over-ruled and disposed by god , as every eye may see : for whereas it is the nature of summer to be hot , when the sunne , which is the fountain and cause of light and heat , is most present with us ; god , at his pleasure , for the sins of men , doth turne our summers heats into cold winter stormes , and doth drown our harvests with immoderate raine , in the midst of the dry scorching dog-daies , as we have found of late yeares : so hee makes fruitfull lands barren , when they are best tilled ; and the barren wildernesse hee turnes into a fruitfull field , and the desart into springs of water . also daily experience doth teach us , that things which naturally serve for health , are sometimes turned to poyson ; that which enricheth one , doth impoverish another : and that which hurteth one , doth help another . all which shew , that god over-rules the world , and that all things are under his hand , and he is the supreme cause and disposer of all : yea , if we observe all parts of the world , we shall see , that the earth and the sea are ruled much by the heavens , and the heavens are moved by some superiour power : therefore the world is not eternall , without cause or beginning . these and such arguments and experiments convinced the heathen philosophers and poets , and forced them to confesse , that the world was not eternall ; but made in the beginning of time , as appeares in hermes , trismegistos , pythagoras , plato , orpheus , sophocles , homer , and others . and even aristotle himselfe , though he affirmed stiffely the worlds eternity , and did oppose the fictions of plato and others , concerning the making of the world of a matter which was before existing , and without beginning ; yet at length he was forced to confesse , and doth in divers of his bookes , that god is the authour and preserver of the whole universall world , as appeares lib. de mundo , & lib. . de gener . & corr . this admonisheth us , not to set our hearts on the world , nor content our soules with such things as are therein ; but to looke up higher to a better portion , if we desire full satisfaction , and true contentment and felicity indeed . he that builds on a foundation , which of it selfe may faile , and needs a supporter it selfe , he can never dwell safely and securely , but in continuall feare , that his house will fall on his head ; neither can he sleep in peace , till he hath laid a deeper and surer foundation under that . now here we see the world is a moveable foundation , it was not from eternity , but had a beginning ; and the being of it hangs on an higher cause , even god : and therefore let us not set our hearts on the world , nor make it our portion ; but looke up to god , and set our affections on him , and seeke to him to be our portion : for he onely can fill our soules , and he is , and hath been , and shall be for ever the same ; and in him is no variablenesse , nor shadow of turning . secondly , this truth serves to arme us against all temptations of sathan , and all cunning sophistications of atheists , which tend to shake our faith in this point of the worlds beginning ; and to make us thinke , that the world hath been from all eternity , we have here a sure foundation from gods infallible word , and strong reasons also to confirme our hearts in this doctrine : and therefore let no cavills of opposers trouble our hearts : yea , that we may more cleerly see , and more firmly beleeve this truth without doubting , i will briefly shew the weaknesse of the best arguments , which are brought to the contrary ; and so will remove those clouds and mists out of the way , which seem to eclipse the truth . the most weighty objections are gathered from scripture termes and phrases : as for example , from the name which the scripture giveth to the world , and the ages thereof , to wit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and signifies a being alwaies : for so the world is called , heb. . . also tim. . . and tit. . . the times of the world are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , everlasting times , as the greek words signifie . the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , everlasting , is two waies taken in scripture , and in humane writings also : first , it signifies an eternall being , without beginning or end , even a being before and after all times ; and so god onely is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , everlasting , tim. . . and the spirit is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eternall , heb. . . secondly , this word signifies a being in all times , from the first beginning to the last end of time , but no more , not before nor after ; and thus the world , and the ages thereof are called everlasting , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the places objected prove this sense ; because in them the apostle sheweth , that these everlasting times had something going before them , and were but times which have a beginning and end : and therefore these objected places make much for this doctrine , and not against it . the objections of aristotle are drawne , . from incorruptibility , which he imagined to be in the heavens : . from this , that the world was not generated nor made of any pre-existent matter , neither , could be brought into being , by any naturall generation : . from the eternity of motion , which he thought to prove by this , that no motion can be found in nature , but hath another motion going before it . all these may easily be answered : for first , the heavens are corruptible by nature , and the visible heavens shall perish : and that the highest heavens are incorruptible , it is not by power of their nature , but of the will of god , preserving them . secondly , though the world was not made of matter pre-existent , nor by naturall generation ; yet it may have a beginning supernaturall , being created miraculously of nothing by gods omnipotent hand , as all miraculous things are done , which neverthelesse are not eternall , nor endure for ever . thirdly , though in naturall things we find no motion , which hath not another motion going before it ; yet it is not so in the creation , which was a worke farre above the course of nature : so that these objections are of no force to disprove this doctrine . all that aristotle with his subtle wit could devise , was nothing but this , that the world was not made by the course of nature , neither did come into being by naturall generation , nor was framed out of an eternall masse of matter , as plato and other philosophers dreamed . also that there was no time before the world , neither shall there be any time , wherein the world shall not be ; and that the world is as durable , and lasteth as long as all times ; all which we grant without feare ; and yet it doth not follow that the world is eternall : for that is properly eternall , which never had beginning , neither in time , nor with time , nor before time ; but as for time it selfe , it hath a beginning and an end , as i shall shew in the next place : therefore let us hate and abhorre all atheisticall dreames of the worlds eternity . the second thing which i observe from this word bereshith , in the beginning ( which signifieth in this place the first being or moment of time ) is this , that time it selfe is but an adjunct , or circumstance of things created , and had a beginning , and shall have an end with the mutable and moveable world . for proofe of this we need seek no further but to the fifth verse , where it is said , the evening and the morning were the first day , that is , time was produced by the word of god , even the first day together with the things therein created ; and so it followes of all the daies of the first weeke , they are said to be made with the workes created in them . and indeed in reason it must needs be so ; because time is nothing else but the continuance of things created and the measure of the motions which are in the created world , a day is the measure of the suns course from east to west , and round about to the east againe : an houre is the time in which the sun runs the foure and twentieth part of his dayes motion : a weeke is the space of seven daies , and a yeare the time whi●e the sun goeth his course through the twelve signes of the zodiack ; and the whole time of the world consists of yeares moneths and daies . now all these had a beginning , and have an end ; yea , there was no day till light and darknesse were made and distinguished ; no moneth nor yeare till the sunne and the moon were set in their course : therefore time had a beginning , and is not eternall . there were some things before all times and ages of the world , tim. . . tit. . . first , this serves to admonish us , to cast off all vaine thoughts and imaginations of time going before the creation of the world . it is the folly of many , when they reade of the worlds creation but so many thousand yeares ago , to dreame of time before creation , and to question what god did in that time ? a witty old man did once answer this question ( as saint austin saith ) rather tauntingly then solidly , viz. that god in those times was making an hell for such curious inquisitors : but the true answer is , there was no time nor any thing to be done in time ; but god was only in himselfe most blessed by contemplation of himselfe in absolute eternity , in which there is , neither before nor after , no beginning nor end : for where there was no day nor night , nor haven to move , nor any thing to be measured by time , there could be no time at all . secondly , this truth serves to make us see our owne vanity , and the weaknesse of our owne reason and understanding . let a man of the strongest braine and wit , and the deepest reach in the world , doe what he can , and strive and straine to the utmost , he shall not by hum●ne reason and capacity conceive , how any thing can be without time . how god could be before the world , when there was no time ; or what eternity should be , but a long time without beginning or end . and yet this is gods truth , as my text saith , which cannot lye , that time was not till the creation : let us therefore here learne to see our owne weaknesse , and the short reach of our reason . let us acknowledge , that while wee have our soules imprisoned in our mortall bodies , looking onely through the narrow grates of our outward senses , we shall never be able to see , or to comprehend things spirituall and eternall so as they are . and let this put us in mind to be humble here , and to rest in hope , that the eternity , and the eternall joyes of heaven are such , as neither eye hath seen , nor eare heard , nor mans heart conceived : and let us labour to walke by faith , and not by sight , as the apostle saith ; cor. . . so much for the doctrines . there be also two questions which here offer themselves to be discussed : the first is , what time of the yeare the world was created , and which day & moneth were the first of the world ; without the knowledge of this we cannot exactly tell how long it is since the world was created . the second is , how long it is since that first beginning , wherein god created the heavens and the earth : for moses doth carefully set them downe untill his time ; and so also doe the succeeding prophets , which sheweth , that this knowledge is not to be neglected . for the first question : some hold , that the world was created in september , in the time of the autumnall equinoctiall . others , that it was created in the spring time , and in march , when the day and night are equall , and of one length in all the world . both these opinions are maintained by reasons and arguments produced out of gods word ; but the reasons which are brought to prove the latter opinion , i conceive to be more strong and solide : and therefore i doe incline to beleeve , that the world was created in the spring time , and not in autumne ; and that others may be better confirmed in this truth , i will propound the reasons on both sides , and will answer the one , and confirme the other . the maine arguments which tend to prove , that the world was created in september , are foure especially : the first , because september was from the beginning observed and accounted for the first moneth of the yeare , both by the israelites and forefathers , and also by the egyptians and other nations : for exod. . . it appeares , that march for a speciall reason was made the first moneth to the israelites ; because in that moneth they came out of egypt . and that till then both they and the egyptians accounted september the first moneth . i answer , that the egyptians did erroneously begin their yeare in autumne ; and the israelites living with them , did for civill respects follow their account : and therefore , when they were to depart out of egypt , god did both reach and command them the right observation in abib , or march , exod. . . and called them to the true ancient and originall forme of beginning the yeare in the vernall equinoctiall , which is in abib , that is , march : yea , the caldeans and persians , who were of better credit then the egyptians , did alwaies from the beginning account march the first moneth of the yeare : therefore this argument is of no force . secondly , they argue , that september was the moneth , wherein the yeare of rest , and the yeare of jubile did begin by gods appointment , as appeares , levit. . . for on the tenth day of that moneth , god commanded the israelites to sound the trumpet of jubile in all the land , and so to begin their yeare of jubile and release : therefore that is the true beginning from the creation . i answer to this two waies : first , that as the yeare of rest was not the first , but the seventh , and the last of the seven ; and the yeare of jubile was the next year after seven sabbaths of years : so the lord did still follow the number of seven , and would have it begin in september ; because it was the seventh moneth , and not the first by the order of creation . secondly , the moneth of september , when all the fruit is taken from the ground , and men begin to sow and plant for the next yeare , is the fittest time for to begin the yeare of rest , and of jubile , wherein every man was to re-enter into his land which he had sold , as appeares , vers. , . and this was the cause of beginning in september ; not because it was the first moneth of the world , and of the yeare , reckoned from the creation : but because it was the fittest for men to give up the land empty to the owners , when they had gathered in the corne and fruit , and cleared the ground : and so this argument is of no force . thirdly , they argue , that the time wherein all things naturally come to prefection , is most likely to be the time , wherein god created the world , and all things therein perfect in their kind , and that is autumne and september , as experience teacheth : therefore it is most likely to be the first moneth from the creation . this argument is divers waies defective : first , the state of the world in the creation , was far different from that state of things which now is ever since mans fall and corruption : then all times were both spring and harvest , and trees did both blossome and beare perfect fruit at all times of the yeare : therefore no certaine argument can arise from this ground . secondly , if any time be more perfect then another , and retaine perfection from the creation , it is most likely to be the spring time ; for in the spring all things begin to revive , and shoot forth of the earth , as they did in the creation : then are the fields most fresh and green , and full of beautifull flowers , as in the state of innocency . and as for summer and harvest , they doe but ripen things which the spring hath quickened and nourished , and hasten them to corruption , and not to perfection , causing them to die and wither : yea verily , if the earth had not been cursed for mans sin , it would now bring forth in the spring not onely flowers , and blossomes , and spring fruits ; but also all other kinds of fruit : therefore this is a weak argument . as for their fourth argument , which is cabalisticall , drawne from the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth , in september ; agreeing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth , in the beginning , in the same letters , i have answered it before , and shewed that they differ in one letter , to wit ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) and therefore it is but a fallacie . but now for the beginning of the yeare naturally in the moneth of march , which is called by the hebrewes abib and nisan , as being the moneth in which the world was created , and that the world was created in the vernall equinoctiall , when day and night were equall in all the world , divers of the ancients affirme and hold , as athanasius , ambrose , theodoret , cyril , damascene , beda , and others ; and with them many judicious and learned divines of later times doe concurre , as junius , polanus , and others : their reasons are very strong , forcible , and convincing , which cannot be gain-said . first , they prove it out of the scriptures , gen. . . where that moneth is called the first of the yeare , by account from the creation , wherein the waters were dried up from the earth ; and it began to bring forth fruit for noah , and the creatures with him : so that in the next moneth there was food for him & the creatures , and birds and beasts began to breed and multiply in the earth . now that could not be in september and october , when the fruits and herbes begin to decay and wither . certainly , noah turned not out the creatures against winter to seek food from the earth ; that was no time to breed aboundantly . it is march , wherein the earth begins to bring forth ; and april , the second moneth , is that wherein the creatures , comming out of the arke , might find grasse , herbes , and other food ; and noah might sow and plant against summer and harvest : therefore undoubtedly march is the first moneth from the creation . secondly , they prove it from exod. . . where god recalls the israelites from the egyptian observation , to the old beginning of the yeare from the creation ; and to account abib , or march , the first moneth , as the text sheweth . thirdly , the spring time is every way fittest for the beginning of the world , and of the naturall yeare : then things begin to flourish in all the earth , as they did in the creation ; then is the aire most temperate and healthfull for the bodies of men , as it was in the creation ; then day and night are equall in all the world , and the daies begin to grow longer then the night in the country of eden and babylonia , which was the place of paradise , where adam was created . but in september , daies begin to shorten , and all herbes to wither , and fruits to fall from the trees : therefore march is the fittest moneth for the time of the creation . fourthly , the caldeans , persians , and all cunning astronomers did by their art and skill discerne , and by tradition from the first fathers were taught , that march was the first moneth of the year , and that in the spring time the world was created . to these let me adde one argument more , drawne from the incarnation and passion of christ : for it is most likely , that the moneth , in which god appointed christ to be incarnate by conception in the wombe of the virgin , and also to suffer for the worlds redemption , was the moneth and season of the yeare , in which the world was created : for so the time , in which god sent forth his son , made of a woman , and made under the law , and to redeem them that were under the law , comes to be the fulnesse of time , as the apostle calls it , galat. . . now this was the moneth of march : for christ being borne on the shortest day of the yeare ( as saint austen and the ancients , who lived within a few ages after christ , by tradition had learned , and did teach ) must needs be conceived in march , nine moneths before , in the vernall equinoctiall . and in the same moneth hee suffered for our redemption ; and rising from death , triumphed over death , the divell , and all the powers of darknesse ; even at the time of the passover ( as the gospel testifieth ) which feast was kept in the first moneth abib , exod. . . and . . that is , in march , as all confesse . and so we see gods performing of his promise in the fulnesse of time , was his keeping of his word to a day , giving christ to be conceived in the very day of the yeare , wherein he was promised to our first parents , and to suffer for adams sinne in the same day of the weeke , and of the moneth , in which adam was made , and marr'd by sin ( as some of the learned fathers have observed . ) even as he delivered israel out of egypt , at the end of . yeares , on the selfe same day , when the terme of yeares was accomplished , exod. . . therefore i conceive that the time of the creation , and of the fall of our first parents , and of the first promise of christ , was in the same first moneth , in which he was conceived , and also perfected mans redemption , that is , in abib , the moneth of march ; and so he was sent forth in fulnesse of time , as the apostle saith . the second question which ariseth from the word beginning , is about the number of yeares , which have been since the creation : for if there was a beginning of things , in which the world was created , as the text here sheweth ; then there must be a certaine number of yeares since that beginning which number if we can find out , and prove from scripture , it will much confirme us in the truth of the creation , and of the whole history of gods word . now about this number of years there is much difference among the learned : but the best computation is that which is grounded on those testimonies of scripture , which doe most excellently chaine together the holy chronicle ; and by that computation the world was created . yeares before the death of christ ; and the day of adams fall being upon the sixth day of the weeke , even towards the evening of the same day , wherein he was created , was that day . yeares before the day of christs death , which also was on the sixth day of the weeke , in the same moneth of the yeare . to confirme us in this truth , wee have most excellent testimonies of scripture : first , the age of adam , when he begat seth , counted together with the ages of the succeeding fathers , before the birth of their succeeding sons , make up in all unto the birth of noah from adams creation , . years , gen. . and from noahs birth to the floud , is . yeares , that is in all , . yeares , from the creation to the floud . arphaxad the son of shem , borne two yeares after the floud , gen. . . his birth ( as the ages of the fathers from him to terah there reckoned doe shew ) was before terah's death . yeares . now the two yeares between his birth and the floud , together with the said number of . being added to the yeares before the floud , make up from the creation to the death of terah , . yeares . immediately after terah's death god called abraham , and removed him out of charan , into the land of canaan ; but gave him no inheritance therein , but onely promised to give it to him , and his seed for a possession , act. . , . and that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed , gen. . , , . and this promise was . yeares before the law was given by moses , galat. . . which was immediately after the departure of israel out of egypt , that is , the fiftieth day after ; when they and their fathers , from abrahams first peregrination in canaan , had sojourned . years , exod. . . and from israels coming out of egypt , to the building of the temple , in the fourth yeare of solomons reigne , is . yeares , kin : . . from thence , to the death of solomon , is . yeares . then israel departed from judah , and continued . yeares in their iniquities , ezech. . , . to the destruction of jerusalem , and burning of the temple , . yeares after the beginning of the . yeares captivity ; from the end of which captivity , to christs death , is seventy sevens of yeares , daniel . that is , . yeares , all which make . yeares , from the creation . now from christs death , which was in the . yeare of his age , or . after his birth , it is in this present yeare . the full number of . yeares , which being added to . before christs death , make from the creation . yeares . now this computation of yeares , together with the clearing of the former question , may serve first , to discover unto us divers waies the admirable providence of god , in that he doth so order all things , that the time of the incarnation of christ , the second adam , should fall in the same moneth with the creation of the first adam : and the day of redemption from sinne and death , should be the same day of the week , and of the moneth , with the day of adams falling into sin , and bringing all mankind into bondage to hell and death . and that in the holy scriptures , which were written by holy men of god in severall ages , the true computation of times and yeares should be put upon record , and reserved and kept safe through all ages untill this day , in the midst of so many dangers , and among so many alterations and changes which have happened in the world . surely , he who is so provident in ordering the circumstance of times , and preserving the records of them , even his holy oracles , when the nation of jewes , to whom they were committed in trust , is cast off , and scattered over all the earth , will much more keep his promises , and fulfill all prophecies and predictions , every one in the set time and season which he hath appointed . secondly , this exact record of times , and of the very moneth of the creation and of the redemption , serves to confirme us in the verity and truth of those things which are written concerning the beginning and creation of the world , and the redemption of mankind by jesus christ , comming in the exact fulnesse of time to redeem the world , according to gods promises ; when severall witnesses or writers , who never conferred nor consulted one with another , doe agree in their relations , not only in the maine matters , but in the circumstances of time also ; no man can have any least pretence or colour of doubting . and thus doe the writers of the holy scriptures , who lived in severall ages ; they exactly agree in the histories of creation and redemption , even to the circumstances of times , the very daies and moneths wherein they were performed . and therefore let us firmly beleeve them , and rest on the truth of them : for we have sure grounds of beleeving , but not any pretence or colour of doubting . thirdly , hereby it is made manifest ; that the world being created in time , and onely so long ago as is before shewed , was made onely for us , and for our benefit , who live under time , and not for the eternall god , to adde any good , or any blessednesse to him , who was all-sufficient and most blessed in himselfe from all eternity ; and both could , and would have made the world millions of yeares before , if it might have been profitable to himselfe : wherefore let us hereby be stirred up to use the world as a gift , and as talents given to us by god , to be well imployed , and study to honour him by all worldly things created . fourthly , hereby we may justly be moved to admire the eternity of god , when we see the whole time of the world to be but . yeares , which are before him but as . daies and an halfe ( for a thousand yeares with him are but as one day , pet. . . ) wherefore , as holy david , when hee compared gods eternity with the temporary being of the heavens and the earth , and their inclining to decay and changes , like a vesture and wearing garment , did admire gods infinite and eternall majesty : so let us all be after the same manner affected with reverence of god , and admiration of his eternity , when we compare the ages of the world , even the longest of them , the thousands of yeares since the creation , to be but as so many daies with the lord , who liveth and abideth the same for ever . the fourth thing in this text is the object and effect of gods first worke of creation , to wit , the heavens and the earth . first , the heavens come to be considered , together with the creatures here comprehended under that name ; and that these things may more plainly appeare to our understanding , we must first search and sift out the true sense and signification of the word ( heaven ) in this text , and then come to the instructions which doe thence naturally arise . the name ; by which it hath pleased the spirit of god in this place to call the heavens , is in the originall hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , shamajim ; concerning the signification and etymologie whereof , the learned much differ among themselves . some make it a compound of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth there , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth waters ; because above in the aire ( which is the lowest and nearest heaven ) and in the clouds , water is engendered , and in showres distills from thence . some compound it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is fire , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , waters ; because the heavens seem to be made of both : the sun , moon , and starres resemble fire , and the rest of the heavens resemble calme and still waters . some derive this name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies astonishment ; because if a man doe stedfastly behold and consider either the glory or the wonderfull height and compasse of the heavens , they are things which will dazle his eyes , and make his heart astonished . but the best derivation of the word , which is grounded upon the best reasons , is that which some late writers have observed , to wit , that it is derived of the simple hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth there , and is never used , but when we speake of being in a place which is remote and distant from us : for as the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , here , signifies the place present ; so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there , signifies a place remote and distant from us , and the being of things there , in that place . now the heavens are the utmost and most remote place from the earth , which is set in the middle , and about the center of the round world , and upon which men doe live in this world : therefore this derivation doth agree very aptly to the heavens . secondly , of a place which is most excellent , wee are wont to say , there , there is the best being , and in a kind of vehement and affectionate speech , we use to double the word . and heaven is the most excellent place ; and therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is of the duall number , and signifies as much as there , there , or there double , is most fitly derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there . thirdly , the heavens are divided most properly into two heavens , the highest heavens , which is invisible ; and the visible or lower heaven , which also consists of two parts ; the starry and the airie heavens : and all these are divided into two equall parts to all men living on earth . the one is that which wee see in our hemisphere , and within our horizon from east to west , and from north to south , above the earth . the other halfe is that which is hid from us by the earth , and is seen by the antipodes , that is , them who dwell on the other side of the earth , directly opposite to us ; and both these parts of the heavens are equally remote and distant from the earth . moreover , the heavens doe move about two poles , the north and south pole : and therefore in many respects the name of the heavens , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is most fitly derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , brought into the forme of the duall number . fourthly , this derivation of the name , and the signification of it , doth fitly agree to all things which are called by the name heaven ; and is verified in them all , even the highest heaven , the starry heaven , and the superiour regions of the aire ; for they are all remote and distant from the earth , and are divided every one into two equall hemispheres , equally distant from the earth : but in the highest heaven there is neither fire , nor water , nor any mutable element : and therefore the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cannot agree to it at all . and as for the superiour regions of the aire , they are not so glorious , nor so high as to astonish us : and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cannot agree to them : wherefore the last is the best derivation . the next thing after the derivation of the word , is the diversitie of significations , which we are to note in the next place ; and withall , to shew in what sense it is here used in the text. first , this word is used , in a large sense , for that whole space from the upper face of the earth and the sea , to the utmost height of the highest heavens , which comprehends in it the highest , the starry , and the airie heavens ; thus the word heaven is to be understood , gen. . . and in all other places , where the spirit of god comprehends the whole world under these two words , the heavens and the earth . secondly , it is used to signifie more specially either the highest heaven , as deut. . . looke downe from heaven , the habitation of thy holinesse , which saint paul calls the third heaven , corin. . . or the starry heaven , as gen. . i will multiply thy seed as the starres of heaven : and psal. . . or the airie regions . wherein birds flie , as gen. . . where mention is made of the foules of heaven . thirdly , the word heavens , by a metonymie of the cause for the effect , and of the subject , is used in scripture to signifie foure things : first , god the possessour of the heavens , whose glorious majestie doth dwell in the highest heaven , as dan. . . where the heavens are said to reigne , that is , the god of heaven : and luk. . . i have sinned against heaven : and matth. . . was the baptisme of john from heaven , or of men ? secondly , the angels and blessed spirits , which dwell in the highest heaven , as job . . the heavens are not cleane in his sight : and psal. . . and . . where the heavens are said to praise god , that is , the angels and saints . thirdly , the church militant , which is a congregation of people written in heaven , begotten from above of heavenly seed , and whose hope , reward , and triumph is in heaven , as dan. . . the armies of the faithfull are called the host of heaven : and so in the prophets and the revelation , heaven signifies the true holy church ; and the earth signifies earthly men of the world . fourthly , the clouds in the aire , and in the face of heaven , as levit. . . i will make your heaven as iron , that is , the clouds ; insomuch that they shall yeeld no raine . now here in this text is meant ( as i have before touched ) the highest heaven , as it is distinct from the rude masse , without forme , which is here called earth , which was the common matter of the starry and airie heavens , and of all the visible world , as appeares in the next verses . and under this name here the angels , who were the host and inhabitants of the highest heavens , are comprehended : for as the word jerusalem is often used in the prophets , to signifie the people and inhabitants , together with the citie and place ; so here the word heaven , signifies not the bare place and body of the highest heaven , but the place , with all the host and inhabitants of it , the angels . as for the visible starry heavens , which are the light of the inferiour world and the airie heaven called the firmament , they can in no case be here understood : for they were made out of the rude masse , without forme , called earth , and opposed to heaven in my text. from the word thus expounded , i come to the instructions : for whereas some doubt , whether there be any heaven besides the visible starry heaven ; where those heavens are , and whether they were created , this text doth cleare the doubt ; and sheweth , that there is an heaven which farre exceeds the heavens which are seen , in all glory and excellency : for here moses speakes of an heaven created in the beginning , with or before the common masse , out of which the sunne , moone , and starres , and all the vis●ble heavens and world were made : yea , in that this heaven was created out of nothing , and had not a being given it out of the rude masse , without forme , out of which god made all the visible world ( as the text here saith ) this doth imply , that they have a more excellent being , of another kind , farre better then all that is seen , and above and without the compasse of the visible heavens ; so that hence these doctrines arise : . that there are such heavens : . that this heaven is not god , but a place created by god : . that it is above the visible heavens : . that it is most large and ample ; and yet not infinite , nor every where , as god is : . that it is a place most excellent and glorious , free from corruption , excelling and exceeding the naturall knowledge , reach , and apprehension of men . first , we here learne , that , besides the visible starry heavens , which were made out of the first rude deformed earth , there are heavens created out of nothing , in the first beginning of the creation : and this is confirmed by those scriptures , which speak expresly of the heaven of heavens , that is , an heaven besides these visible heavens ▪ as deut. . . kings . . psal. . . and . . also by those scriptures , which mention an heaven , in which gods glorious majesty is said to dwell ; and the holy angels , which cannot be the starry visible heavens , as deut. . . kings . . and mat. . . yea , the ho●y apostle puts all out of doubt , cor. . . where he calls this the third heaven . that this highest heaven is not god , but a place created by god ; for here it is said , that god created this heaven : some thought that there was no place above the spheres of heaven ; but that there god is all in all , and that there all things are in god , and subsist in him . their ground is that speech of the apostle , corinth . . that god shall be all in all but that shewes the contrarie , that god is in all , not that all things are or shal be , and subsist in god , as in a place . againe this shewes not the place , but the state of the blessed , that they shall immediately injoy god without a mediatour . now , that the highest heaven is not god , divers reasons shew : first , it is gods throne , isa. . deut. . . therefore not god himselfe . secondly , it cannot containe god ; but he is infinite , and farre without the compasse of it , kings . . thi●dly , god is every where ; but this heaven is not so , it is onely above , not in the visible world . fourthly , it is such a bodily substance , as can containe glorified bodies , as the body of christ , enoch , and eliah . it comprehends the visible heavens within the compasse of it : but god is a spirit . that it is not god , but his creature , and his workmanship ; and that he hath the disposing of it , as his creature , appeares , gen. . . heb. . . psal. . . that this heaven is above the visible heavens , divers scriptures testifie : for it is called heaven above , where jehovah is , deut. . . jos. . . that is , above all the visible world . into this heaven our saviour is said to be taken up on high , when he ascended , luke . . yea , he is said to ascend up farre above all the visible heavens , ephes. . . fourthly , that this heaven is a most ample and large place , may easily be gathered and proved from this , that it was made distinct from the earth , which was the matter of the whole visible world ; and doth subsist above , and without the compasse both of the masse , and of all things which were made of it ; and so comprehends them within the large compasse of it . and our saviour intimates so much , where he affirmes , that in it are many mansions , john . , . also the psalmist , psal. . . where hee calls this heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies faire , and large spacious plaines : and yet it is not infinite , nor every where ; for god fills it and the earth also , and it is not able to containe him , kings . . the fifth instruction is , that the highest heaven is a place most glorious and excellent , free from all corruption , and full of glorious light , farre surpassing our fraile imagination , and the reach of mans naturall understanding . the very signification of the name shewes that it is farre remote from our sight , conceipt , and apprehension . and that rule in philosophy proves , that it is free from alteration and corruption , to wit , that those things onely are changeable , and may be corrupted , and turned into their first matter , which are made of a common matter , capable of divers formes . but things which have no part of any such matter in them , are incorruptible , and unchangeable , free from alterations incident to inferiour things . now such are these heavens discovered to be in my text : for they were made absolutely of nothing , with , or before the first common matter of the visible world : yea , in the next words the spirit of god doth distinguish the rude masse from these heavens , by this , that it was full of darknesse , and without forme , and void ; which implies , that these heavens were farre different , that is , full of beauty , forme , and light . and other scriptures fully confirme this : first , by the names , by which this heaven is called , and by the excellent things which are spoken of it ; for it is called the heaven of heavens , that is , the heaven farre above all heavens in glory and excellency , deut. . . and kings . . and psal. . . the heaven of heavens everlasting , so much the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doth intimate . and saint paul , who was rapt up into this heaven , was so astonished with the glory of it , that he knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body : there he heard words , which it was not lawfull to utter ; and the sight thereof was such a cause of glorying , that he was afterwards in danger thereby to be too much exalted , and had need to be buffetted by the angell of sathan for his humiliation , to keep him from excessive boasting , cor. . and the same apostle calls the inheritance therein reserved for the elect , the inheritance of the saints in light , colos. . . and he saith of god , who dwels there by his glory , that he dwels in light , which none can approach unto , tim. . . which testimonies , with many other which might be cited , fully prove the glory and excellency of this heaven . besides , we have many arguments to this purpose . the first is drawne from the proper efficient cause of this heaven : for it is most certaine , that the place and city which hath god only for the builder & maker of it ; & in the building whereof god hath shewed such admirable divine wisdome , that it more specially is called his worke and building , must needs be most excellent and glorious . now such is the highest heaven , it is called the citie , whose builder and maker is god , heb. . . that is , the city which god builded alone as his master-piece , for his owne purpose , to shew therein his glorious wisdome and art , as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used doth signifie . yea , it is said to have foundations , that is , to be so firmly built , that it can never faile , but stand stedfast for ever , world without end : therefore it is a most glorious place . a second argument is drawne from the proper inhabitants of these heavens : for in all reason , and by the course of nature , that is the best place which falls to the share , and is allotted to the best inhabitants , by the will and appointment of him , who is the wisest of all , and doth order all things in wisdome and equity . now the highest heavens are allotted by god to the best inhabitants : first , he hath chosen them to be his owne habitation , wherein he delighteth to dwell , not onely by his essentiall presence and power , as he is in all other places , but also by his visible glory , holinesse , and unspeakable majesty . so the scriptures testifie , deut. . . where these heavens are called , the habitation of his holinesse . and psal. . . the high dwelling , in which god is so high above all . and isa. . . and . . the high and holy place , the habitation of gods holinesse and glory ; and even eternity , which shall never decay . secondly , god hath appointed this place to be the habitation of his holy angels , which kept their standing , in which he will have them to dwell , and to behold his glorious face continually , as our saviour saith , matth. . . and so much is intimated luke . . where angels are called the heavenly host . the third sort of inhabitants , to whom god hath allotted these heavens , is the glorified company of his saints , with christ their head , in whom they are chosen , and brought to salvation . though adam was made after gods image , yet , by creation , and in the state of naturall uprightnesse , he was not capable , nor worthy of heavenly glory ; that is the proper purchase of christ for his elect , and it is the gift of god in jesus christ , which he gives only to them who are made in christ the first fruits of his creatures , sons and heires of god. our saviour testifies so much , joh. . . where he saith , that he prepares a place for his faithfull in that house of god : and the holy apostle , heb. . where he saith , that christ onely opened the way into this holy of holies ; and that none can enter thereinto but by him the way , and the doore . and ephes. . . he saith , that god blesseth us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in christ. and pet. . , . we are said to be begotten to a lively hope , by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead , to the inheritance incorruptable , and undesiled , that never fadeth , reserved in heaven for us : wherefore it is manifest by the excellency of the inhabitants , being none but god himselfe , and the elect angels and saints , which are most neare and deare to god , that this heaven is a place most glorious and excellent . a third argument may be drawne from the situation of it : for the highest place is ever the best by the law and course of nature , as our senses doe teach , and we see manifestly in all knowne parts of the world ; and by faith we ought to beleeve , that it is so in places beyond our sight , especially because the spirit of god in the scriptures extolls the highest places , psal. . . and isaiah . . now the highest of all places is the third heaven in situation : for christ ascending up thither , there to remaine , and to make intercession for us , act. . . and heb. . . is said to ascend farre above all other heavens , and those heavens are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the high places , psal. . . and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the highest places , ephes. . . and heb. . . therefore they are the most excellent and glorious places . the fourth reason is drawne from the excellent things , which are there laid up in store for the saints : for the wisdome of god requires , that he should store up the best treasures and things in the best place ; and undoubtedly that place is the best , where god layes up in store such treasures . now in the highest heaven are the best treasures , which neither rust nor moth can corrupt , nor theeves touch with unjust hands , matth. . . there is the inheritance of the saints in light , colos. . . and the incorruptible and undefiled , pet. . there god hath prepared for them that love him such things as neither eye hath seen , nor eare heard , nor mans heart conceived , corin. . that is the place of gods right hand , and of his presence , where is fulnesse of joy , and pleasures for evermore , psal. . therefore it is the best place of all . fifthly , that place from whence every supernaturall good and perfect gift doth come , must necessarily bee the most excellent : and such a place is the highest heaven . christ , the second adam , the fountaine of all blessings , is said to be from heaven , heavenly , corinth . . and to be the bread of life , which came downe from heaven , to give life to the world , john . the calling of men to the participation of all excellent graces , is called the heavenly calling , hebr. . . the gift of supernaturall grace is called the heavenly gift , heb. . . the substantiall things shadowed out under legall types , are called heavenly things , heb. . . and the new jerusalem , the most glorious church , is called the heavenly jerusalem , hebr. . . and is said to come downe from heaven , revel . . in a word , every good and perfect gift is said to come downe from above , from the father of lights , that is , from heaven , jam. . . therefore this heaven must needs be a most excellent place . sixthly , the spirit of god in the scriptures doth describe and set forth this heaven , by all the things which are , or have been most excellent in this world , and doth make th●m but types and shadowes of it : as first , by the earthly paradise , in which god put adam in the state of innocency , which was the sweetest and most excellent place that ever was knowne in the world , cor. . . by the hill of zion , which was most beautiful for situation , and the joy of the whole earth , heb. . . by jerusalem , the most glorious citie of all the world , the place which god chose to put his name there , gal. . . and by the temple of jerusalem , the most glorious sanctuary of god ; and the holy of holies , psal. . . and . . habak . . . heb. . . and . . therefore this heaven is most excellent . lastly , that this heaven is a place of wonderfull light and glory , and a worke of god , which shall never be changed or perish , but stand and endure for ever ; it appeares by the light which hath shined from thence , and by the eternity of the things which god hath annexed to it . the light which shined from thence on saint paul at mid-day , did surpasse the brightnesse of the sun , act. . . and the house which the faithfull have there prepared for them , is said to be eternall in the heavens , corin. . . and the inheritance there reserved is said to be immortall , pet. . . and the life which the elect shall live there , is called life eternall : therefore it is a most blessed place . now , though some scriptures seem to speak to the contrary , that the heavens shall perish , as psal. . . and that heaven , as well as earth , shall passe away , matth. . . and the heavens shall passe away with a noise , pet. . . and be burnt with fire : yet the truth is , they speak not of the highest heaven , which was with the angels created immediately out of nothing ; but of the visible fiery and starry heavens , which were created out of the same rude masse , the common matter of the aire , water , and earth : they may be burnt , and set on fire , and passe away ; but the highest heaven , being not of the same common matter , no fire can take hold of it . now these instructions concerning this first worke of god , the highest heavens , serve for excellent use : first , to discover the madnesse and folly of all them , who either deny the creation of these heavens , as cajetan , augustinus , steuchus , and other great popish writers have done ; or doe hold this heaven to be nothing else but god , or his glorious majesty , and light shining forth to his creatures . these doctrines prove the contrary , and declare all such profane conceits to be doting dreames , ever to be abhorred . secondly , they shew the admirable free bounty and love of god towards his elect , and his eternall fatherly providence , in that he hath not onely provided such an excellent habitation for them , wherein they may live most happy and blessed for ever ; but also made it the first of all his creatures and workes . if the lord had first made us , and tryed our obedience how we would serve him , before he had made and furnished the highest heaven , the house of glory ; men might have imagined , that by their own doings they had procured it : but lo , god hath cut off all such vaine conceits , in that he made this first , and by so doing , sheweth that it is his love and free bounty , not our merit ; it was his providence , not our purchase or care for our selves : let us therefore give him the glory and praise of a god wonderfull in goodnesse , free grace , and providence ; even from the first foundation of the world , creating a place of rest and glory for us . thirdly , in that the highest heaven is here discovered to be so high & excellent a place , so full of glory and light , and the proper country of the saints chosen in christ ; this ought , as to reprove us , & make us ashamed of our immoderate love & affection to worldly things , and of our groveling on the ground , like brute beasts , and cleaving to the earth , like moles and earth-wormes , and of our negligence in inquiring after heaven , and meditating on this heavenly country : so also to stirre us up to the contrary , and to direct us how to prepare our selves for it , by looking and minding high things , and casting off all earthly clogges , and workes of darknesse , and all uncleannesse and filthinesse , and by putting on all holinesse , and the armour of light . if we were to goe into another country , there to spend all our daies , we would be carefull to enquire after , and learne the nature , qualities , fashions , and language of the country : and so let us doe concerning our heavenly country and city , which is above . let us enquire after heavenly things , fashion our selves to it ; and because there is our inheritance and our treasures , let there our hearts be also . fourthly , seeing heaven is so high , and so excellent and glorious a place and habitation , that man in innocency was neither capable , nor worthy of it , this serves to magnifie in our eyes the infinite goodnesse and admirable bounty of god , who hath given christ to purchase for us , being corrupted , and become sinners by adams fall , a more excellent place , state , and condition , then did belong to us in our best naturall being in the state of pure nature . this also magnifies the vertue and power of the grace of christ , which hath lifted us up from the valley of darknesse , and of the shadow of death ; and hath advanced us to be heires of a better inheritance then the earthly paradise , even to live and reigne with god in his heavenly kingdome . fifthly , here is matter of singular comfort , and of patience , and hope in all the afflictions , which can befall us here on earth in this vale of misery ; when men labour , and strive , and fight for an earthly crowne , and in hope of a glorious victory and triumph , no danger of death doth daunt or dismay them , no pain and griefe of wounds doth discourage them ; but the crowne of glory , which we wrestle for , it is incorruptible , and never fadeth : and the kingdome for which we suffer , is an heavenly kingdome , and an inheritance reserved in the highest heavens , which is a place more glorious and excellent then any tongue can expresse , or heart of man conceive : and therefore let us be stedfast and unmoveable , never daunted with any danger , nor dismayed with any feare , but comfort our selves , and possesse our soules in patience , knowing and counting , that all the sufferings of this life are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed , and our momentany passions shall bring a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory in heaven , where a durable substance is stored up for us . let us hence learne to loath and hate also that erroneous opinion which some hold , to wit , that the highest heaven is not ordained to be the habitation of the saints after the last judgment ; but that christ shall reigne with them here on earth in his bodily presence : a fond conceit , contrary to the expresse word of god , utterly razed by the former doctrine . chap. iv. of the creation of angels . their names . they had a beginning : reasons and uses . they were all created by the one true god : with uses . they were made in the beginning of the world . they are gods first and best creatures : with the use. they were made in heaven , and to inhabit heaven : reasons and uses . seven corollaries or conclusions concerning the angels . i proceed in the next place to the inhabitants or host of the highest heavens , the angels , which were by the same word of god in the beginning created together with them ; as appeares , chapt. . . and howbeit they are not here expresly named by moses ; yet they are necessarily included in this word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the heavens , as may easily be proved , and made manifest by three reasons : first , the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is demonstrative , and shewes that there is an emphasis in this word ; and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , consisting of the first , and last letter of the alphabet , is of generall comprehension , and shewes , that by these speciall and most glorious heavens , he means all whatsoever was created with them , and whatsoever was in the creation contained in them , even all the glorious angels . secondly , it is a common and usuall thing in the scriptures , for the spirit of god , to signifie by the name of the place , both the place and the inhabitants : as for example , psal. . . and jerem. . . o jerusalem , wash thine heart . and matth. . . jerusalem , jerusalem , that killest the prophets . in these places , by jerusalem is meant not the city only , but also the inhabitants . and so the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the heavens , is used to signifie the angels which were the created inhabitants of heaven , job . . where it is said , the heavens are not pure in his sight , that is , the angels , because many of them rebelled , and lost their habitation , and were stained with sinne . and psal. . . and the heavens shall declare thy wonders , o lord , that is , the heavenly host : therefore by analogy of scripture , the angels may here be understood . thirdly , what is here meant by the heavens , moses himselfe sheweth , chapt. . . namely , the heavens and the host of them , that is , the angels , for they are the host of the highest heaven , and so are called , luke . . therefore undoubtedly the angels are included in the word heavens . so then the creation of the angels coming now the next in order to be handled , i will seeke no further for a text ( though there be some more plain and expresse ) but will ground all my doctrines , concerning the creation and nature of angels , on this word , taken in that sense which i have here proved ; which offers to our consideration five maine and principall points of instruction , unto which all other doctrines may be reduced , which concerne their nature and creation , and may be as branches comprehended under them . first , we here learne , that angels had a beginning , and were not from all eternity . secondly , that god created them , and that they were made by that one god and three persons , here called elohim . thirdly , that they were created in the beginning , as the word bereshith , taken in the most strict sense , signifieth , the first moment of time . fourthly , that they were created by the first simple act of absolute creation , that is , they were made out of nothing , most perfect and glorious creatures , in an instant . fifthly , that they were made in and with the highest heavens , and by the law of creation made to inhabit them , as the proper place of their naturall habitation . these are the maine and principall points of doctrine , which immediately flow from the words . and these , especially the last of them , doth offer to our consideration divers other particular questions , and points of instruction to be handled . as first , seeing they were created in and with the highest heavens , to be the proper inhabitants of them ; therefore they are of an heavenly nature , even pure , excellent , and glorious spirits , such as the nature of the place requires , to be suteable inhabitants . and here an occasion is offered to seeke out a true description of angels , and to enquire after their wisdome , power , and such like properties , wherein they excell , and are like unto god the creatour , bearing his image . secondly , hereby are offered to us these points to be handled , and these questions to be discussed , viz. that the angels are of a finite nature , limitted to their places : also , whether they are circumscribed , and measured by the place in which they are , or rather definitively in it . and whether , and how they move from place to place , and such like . thirdly , the most high and large heavens , compassing about the whole visible world , in and with which they were created , to be the host of them ; doe import , that the angels were created many in number , according to the largenesse of the place , and that they are innumerable , more then mans fraile reason can comprehend . fourthly , the highest heaven , being their naturall place , in which they were created , hence a question ariseth , concerning a being in other places ; how they come to be out of heaven , their naturall place , and some of them quite banished out of heaven for ever . and here their mutability and fall comes to be handled ; and the distinction of them into good and evill angels . thus we see in briefe into what a broad field this short text doth lead us , and what large scope it gives us to speake of the angelicall nature , and the heavenly spirits , the first and chiefest of the creatures of god. that we may better understand these doctrines , i will first consider the name of angels , what it signifies , and how we are to take it in this place . the name , angell , comes of the greek name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies a messenger , sent forth from some superiour person , or state , to deliver a message , and to declare the mind of him or them that sent him . the hebrew name , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is the name of an angell in the old testament , signifies also a messenger ; but yet in a more full and large sense : for it signifies such a messenger , as doth not only deliver and declare a message by word of mouth , but also doth act and execute indeed the will of him that sent him , and doth performe his worke injoyned , as a faithfull minister and servant . and hence it is , that the hebrew word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is derived of it , and is used for the office and worke of an angell , signifies in generall any thing which serves for the use and ministery of man. and as the signification , according to the etymology , is generall and large ; so the word is used in the scriptures , to signifie any messenger or minister sent forth upon a message , or some employment , either from god or men . jacobs messengers which he sent unto esau , genes . . . to worke his peace are called by the name . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , angels . and num. . . the messengers which moses sent from kadesh unto the king of edom , are so called , and in greeke translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but when gods messengers are thereby signified , it hath the name jehovah , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , most commonly added to it . as for the first signification , we let it passe , as a stranger in this place , where we are to discourse of heavenly angels ; and doe take it in the second signification , for the angels of the lord. and being so taken , it is still doubtfull , till it be more particularly distinguished : for in this sense it signifies three sorts of angels , as the learned have well observed . first of all it signifies , that chiefe and principall messenger and ambassadour of god , his son jesus christ , who was sent forth as god , in the forme and shape of an angell and messenger to the fathers before his incarnation : and as man , in ●u●nesse of time by incarnation , and assuming of mans nature into his person : for , gen. . . by the angell which delivered jacob , and which he prayeth , may blesse the sons of joseph , is meant the lord christ. and in all places , where the angell which appeared , is called jehovah , or was worshipped , god the son is meant , as exod. . and zach. . there by the angell christ is meant , appearing either like an angell , or in the shape of a man , to fore-shew his incarnation . so likewise , where we reade of the angell of gods presence or face , as isa. . . or of the angell of the covenant , as malac. . . or of the archangell , as thes. . . jud. . christ is meant . secondly , this word is used to signifie men , by divine inspiration called , and sent from god upon some speciall message , especially the message of salvation , as job . . judg. . . malac. . . and . . and revel . . & . thirdly , this word is most frequently and commonly used , to signifie the heavenly spirits created by god , to stand about his throne in heaven , to behold his face continually ; because they are , as by nature fit , so by office ready to be sent on his message , and to doe his will , as gen. . . psal. . . matth. . . in this sense we are to take the word in this discourse of the creation of angels : for though christ be the angell of god , and the great messenger of salvation ; and gods ministers , as they are gods embassadours , sent by him , are angels of the lord : yet they are not angelicall spirits , created in the first beginning ; they are onely angels by office and calling , not by nature in the creation . onely the heavenly spirits , whom god hath made at the first fit to minister , and hath since in christ appointed to be ministring spirits for the good of them , who are chosen to be heires of salvation in christ ; they are angels both by nature and office . and they are the proper subject of our present discourse . i proceed to the doctrines , which i will prosecute in order , as they arise out of this text. first , seeing the angels are included in this word , the heaven ; hence we may learne , that as the heavens , so the angels , the host of heaven , had their beginning with the highest heaven , and were not in being from all eternity ; which point is farther confirmed by all such scriptures , as attribute a beginning to all things , and tell us that they are , and subsist not of themselves , but from god , as rom. . . where the apostle saith , that of god , and through him , and to him are all things : and cor. . . but to us there is but one god the father , of whom are all things , and we for him ; and one lord jesus christ , by whom are all things . and revel . . . and . . thou lord hast created all things , and for thy pleasure they are and were created . and that god , who liveth for ever , created heaven , and the things that therein are . and that in this universality of things created , the angels are comprehended , the apostle sheweth most plainly , colos. . . where hee affirmes , that all kinds of things visible and invisible , whether they be thrones , or dominions , or principalities , or powers , all were created by him , and for him . but if any shall cavill and say , that though they are of god , and he is the cause and creatour of them ; yet it doth not necessarily follow , that they were created in the beginning with the heavens , but from eternity , and as co-eternall effects have their being from god. the next words which follow will cut off this objection , which affirme , that christ is before all things , and by him all things consist , verse . and therefore they had a beginning after christ , and were not co-eternall with him . reason also confirmes this , drawne from the fall of a great multitude of the angels : for things eternall , which were , and had their being from eternity , without beginning , and before all times , they cannot fall in time , nor be changed , but abide the same for ever : but a great multitude of the angels did fall . and the divell was once one of the most glorious among them , and he with many others , who left their habitation , are reserved in chaines to the last judgement , pet. . . and jud. . therefore they are but creatures , made in the beginning . secondly , though angels are not circumscribed , and measured by a bodily space or dimension ; yet they are definitively in place : and where there is no place , there can be no angell , as i shall shew hereafter . now before the creation of the heavens , there was no place at all wherein angels might be , abide and subsist : therefore before the heavens they were not , but were created with them . but angels are called jehovah , as that angell which spake to agar , and promised to multiply her seed , genes . . . and the angell , which appeared to moses in the bush , exod. . . and the angell which rebuked satan , zach. . . and jehovah is without beginning . the angell mentioned in those places was christ the sonne of god , the angell of the covenant , and so was jehovah , indeed , the creatour of angels ; the words of the severall texts shew so much : for that angell saith , i will multiply thy seed : and i am the god of abraham : therefore this objection is of no force . angels are called the sons of god job . . and . . therefore they are of gods nature and substance , begotten from all eternity ; not created with the heavens . every son of god is not a naturall son , begotten from all eternity ; for men are also called sons of god by creation , regeneration , and adoption ; and yet are not naturall , and co-eternall sons of god. and so angels are sons : first by creation , in respect of the speciall image of god , in which they were made , and to which they are conformable . also the good angels are sons by adoption unto god in christ their head . but none of them all is the son of god by nature , as the apostle testifieth , heb. . , . that is proper to christ alone ; he onely is the brightnesse of his fathers glory , and the expresse image of his person : and he onely is called the first-borne and the onely begotten son of god , john . , . therefore this objection is of as little force as the other . this point serves to shew , that absolute eternity , without beginning , is the proper attribute of god ; and to communicate it to any other , by holding , that any other besides the one onely true god is eternall , is no lesse then a sacrilegious robbery , and taking from god the honour due to him : for seeing angels are all created in the beginning , when the heavens were made , and are not from all eternity ; much lesse may eternity be attributed to any other , besides the true god. secondly , here we see the grosse errour of papists , who worship angels , and pray unto them . as also their foule mistaking and wresting of some scriptures , & some examples of the patriarchs , as abraham , jacob , and moses , who did worship the angels which appeared to them , and spake unto them . for these were not divers angels , but the great angell of the covenant , christ the son of god appearing in the forme of an angell , who , as he is jehovah , the true god ; so he is called by them who prayed to him , and is worthy to be worshipped and prayed to : but not any of the angels , which are but creatures , and not jehovah , can be worthy of this honour which god requires as proper to himselfe . the second doctrine hence flowing is , that all the angels were created by that one god , and three persons , here called elohim ; and that the son , together with the father and the spirit , is the lord the creatour of them : which truth is confirmed also by divers scriptures , as john . . where by the word , the eternall son , all things are said to be made , and nothing without him . and colos. . . all things in heaven and in earth , whether they be thrones , or dominions , principalities , or powers , all are said to be created by him . to which we may adde those places , psal. . . revelat. . . and . . where all things in heaven and earth , and by name , the angels are said to be made by god. which point may comfort us with assurance , that christ is absolute lord of the angels : and as he hath a love to us , and a will to help , and assist us ; so he hath the angels , which excell in strength , at his command , alwaies ready prest to doe his will , and to execute his word for our good . the best ground of lordship and dominion , which any can have over any things , is the creating and making of them : for it is good reason , that none should have more power over a thing , then he who made and formed it by his owne hand and skill , and gave the whole being to it . and this the scriptures shew , where they attribute great power and lordship to the potter over the clay , which he formeth , and the vessell which he makes of it , isa. . . jerem . . rom. . now this the lord christ our saviour hath over the angels , as he is their creatour , in an high measure ; for he made them out of nothing by his owne power : and therefore just it is , that all angels , principalities , & powers should ever be subject to him ; and that they should not only worship him , heb. . . but also should be his ministring spirits , sent forth to minister for the good of them , who are heires of salvation in christ. in this assurance let us solace our selves , and be of comfort , knowing that the angels in heaven are ministers for us , when we are christs little ones , and they behold the face of our heavenly father . and let us in this hope harden our faces , and stand with courage before all wicked violent enemies and persecutours . and as we are here assured , that the angels being created by the lord christ , and having him for their head , adding light and holinesse unto them ; must needs love us as fellow-creatures and members under the same head , and be ready and willing to help us when god sends them : so we are here admonished to love them as our fellow-servants , under one & the same lord , and as creatures made in the same image , but more excellent , and by one and the same hand , rejoycing in heaven at our conversion , and turning unto god by repentance . here also we are admonished , that we are not to dream or imagine , that christ tooke the nature of angels on him , though he be called the angell of the covenant , and of gods presence , and the archangell , that is , the prince of angels ; for an angell he is called in respect of his office , but by nature he is no angell , but as different from angels , as the creatour and lord differs from the creature , who is by him created of nothing , and the servant ministring to him . the third point of instruction is , that the angels were created in the beginning of the world , in the first moment of time , by gods first act of creation . this is confirmed , job . . where angels are called the sons of god , to shew , that he is their father by creation ; and also the starres of the morning , to shew , that they were created in the first moment or morning of the creation , with the first light , the highest heavens ; and are said to sing together , and to lift up their voice , when god laid the first corner-stone and foundation of the earth ; which necessarily implies , that then they were already made , and had a being given before , even with the heavens . also psal. . . where god is first said to make his angels spirits , and his ministers a flaming fire ; and then to lay the foundations of the earth , that is , of the inferiour visible world . this serves to shew , that angels and their actions are not so properly measured by time , as the actions of men , and other inferiour creatures : but as they were created in the first beginning , with the first moment of time ; so they can remove their presence into places far distant in a moment , without time , and doe things quickly in an instant , and are swift messengers . fourthly , in that the angels are here included in the word heavens , and are said to be created with them in the beginning ; hence we may learne , that the angels are gods first creatures , made perfect out of nothing , by the first act of simple and absolute creation . for proofe of this we need no further argument but those scriptures which affirme , that god made his angels spirits , that is , spirituall substances , which are the most perfect of creatures , and come nearest in nature to god , who is a spirit , as psal. . . and hebr. . . if they had been created out of any matter made before , then they must have been made out of the rude masse , without forme , called earth : for all things which were created not by absolute and simple creation , but out of some thing made before , were created out of the rude masse , the earth ; but angels were not made out of it : for it is the common matter of the visible and inferiour world ; but angels are invisible , and were created to bee inhabitants of the highest invisible heavens : therefore they must needs be the first of gods creatures made perfect , as the invisible heavens were , of nothing , by the first act of simple and absolute creation . this discovers to us the excellency of the angelicall nature , that the angels are gods master-piece , his first and most perfect worke in all the creation . the rude masse , without forme , called earth , was made out of nothing , imperfect , void , and full of darknesse , and was no perfect creature ; but the matter of the visible inferiour mutable world , and all the creatures therein . the highest heavens were also made perfect out of nothing , to be the place of the angels , the heavenly spirits ; but yet the angels must be more excellent then they by nature , because they were made to serve for the use of angels , even to be the place of their habitation . and yet the angels , those excellent and chiefest of all creatures , are in christ become our brethren and fellow-servants ; yea , they are after a sort made our servants and ministring spirits , sent forth to minister for them , who shall be heires of salvation : wherefore , as we are by this doctrine stirred up to contemplate with admiration upon the excellency of the angelicall nature ; and to wonder at gods bounty to us fraile men , inferiour earthly creatures , in honouring us so farre , as give his glorious angels to minister for us : so also we are provoked to magnifie , and extoll the infinite excellency of the merits and mediation of the lord christ our redeemer and saviour , who procured and purchased this honour and dignity for us , that the blessed angels should minister for our good , who of our selves , and by our sinnes , deserved to be slaves of the divell , and evill angels : wherefore , as angels grudge not to minister for us ; so let not us grudge , but rejoyce to minister for the poorest of the saints , and the little ones of christs flocke , our brethren . the fifth point of doctrine is , that the angels were created in and with the highest heavens ; and by creation were made to inhabit those heavens , as the naturall and proper place of their being and habitation . this doctrine is confirmed , first by the expresse words of moses himselfe , in the first words of the next chapter , viz. gen. . . thus the heavens and the earth were finished , and all the host of them . in which words he plainly affirmes , that not onely the heavens and the earth , but also all the host of them were thus created and perfectly finished , that is , in that order and maner as he hath before related in my text , & the rest of this first chapter . now in this chapter we have not one word which can be understood of the creation of the host of the highest heaven , that is , the angels , but onely these words of my text , which affirme , that in the beginning , that is , in the first moment , when god began to give being to his first creatures , he created the heavens ; that is , the highest heavens distinct from the earth , which was the common matter of all the visible world ; and with those heavens the host of them , that is , the angels , which are the host and inhabitants of them . for it is an usuall thing in the scriptures , to signifie by the name of a place the proper inhabitants of the place , together with the place it selfe , as i have before shewed by divers examples . yea , the word heavens is used to signifie the angels , as i have shewed from job . . therfore it is a thing most clear & manifest , that the angels were created together with the highest heavens , as the host & naturall inhabitants of them ; and those heavens , by the law of creation , are the naturall and proper place of their being and habitation . secondly , the scriptures fully prove this point , which call the angels , the angels of heaven ; as matthew . . and galat. . . and the heavenly host , as luke . . and name the angels among the hosts of the lord , which from the heavens , and in the heights sing halleluiah and praise to him , as psal. . , . thirdly , this doctrine is confirmed by divers reasons , grounded on the word of god. the first is builded upon the doctrines before proved by plaine testimonies of holy scripture , to wit , that the angels were not from all eternity , but were created by elohim , that is , the true god , who is one god and three persons , as is plainly restified . psal. . . and . . and colos. . . upon this infallible ground i thus argue , that angels being creatures , created and made by god , must of necessity be created either before the heavens , or in and with the highest heavens ; or else together with the elements , and the creatures of the inferiour visible world , which were all made out of that rude masse called earth , which was without forme , and void . but they were not made before the heavens : for the heavens were made in the beginning , that is , in the first moment , when god began first to make and to give being to creatures , before which beginning there could be no creation of angels , or any other things . neither indeed was there any place , wherein angels could subsist , before the heavens were made . certainly , no finite creature can subsist in it selfe , without a place in meer nothing ; it is proper to god onely to subsist in and of himselfe . neither were they created together with the earth , and other elements and creatures of the visible world : for it is plainly testified , job . . that when god laid the foundations of the earth , and stretched the lines upon it , and laid the corner-stone thereof , then the sons of god shouted for joy , that is , the angels ; for they are called the sons of god , job . . and there were no other living creatures then made : therefore the angels were undoubtedly created before the earth , or else they could not have shouted and sung together , when the earth was made . david also testifieth , that the angels were made spirits first , psal. . . and after them god laid the foundation of the earth , verse . therefore it followeth necessarily , that the angels were created in and with the highest heaven , and are the host and proper inhabitants thereof . secondly , that place from which the evill angels were cast downe , and did fall , when they sinned , and left their first estate and habitation , is their naturall proper place in which god created them ; and they by creation are the proper inhabitants thereof . now that is the highest heaven : for when some of the angels , to wit , proud lucifer , the divell and his angels sinned , and left their habitation , as saint jude speakes , jude . then they were cast downe to hell , pet. . . even from heaven , as the prophet isaiah testifieth , isa. . . saying , how art thou fallen from heaven , o lucifer ? therefore undoubtedly the angels in their creation were made in and with the highest heavens , and had them given for their proper and naturall habitation . the third reason is drawne from the order which god observed in the creation : for as soone as god had fitted any part or place of the world for the creatures which were to dwell , and to have their being in it ; he made those creatures , and replenished the place with them : so soon as the airie heavens were made , and the waters separated from the earth , and place made for the sun , moone , and starres , and for their beames to be stretched out from heaven to earth ; then the host of the visible heavens , the sunne , moon , and starres were created and placed in them : and so soon as the sea was fitted for living and moving creatures , god created them out of it ; and so likewise when the earth was made to stand out of the waters , and furnished with herbs , plants , and trees , for the use of living creatures , god created birds and beasts ; and when it was furnished with all creatures fit for mans use , then he created man , and the woman also an help meet for him : therefore undoubtedly so soon as he created the highest heavens , the proper and naturall place of the angels , then and together with those heavens he did create the angels , which are the heavenly host , and suffered them not to remaine one houre empty , without their furniture and inhabitants . this doctrine thus laid downe and proved , besides some speciall use which we may make of it for affection and practice , is a ground and foundation of many other doctrines concerning angels , which flow as conclusions and corollaries from it , and an occasion of questions to be discussed : first , let me make some briefe application of it , and then proceed to the doctrines and questions . first , in that angels were created in and with the highest heaven by gods powerfull word , and by his simple and absolute act of creation ; this shewes the infinite power and omnipotency of god , that he can make the most excellent , immortall , and glorious creatures , greatest in power and strength , meerly out of nothing by his owne hand immediately . the wisest , and most able and skilfull artificers and master-workmen in all the world , and among all the sons of men , doe stand in need of divers helps and instruments for the effecting and perfecting of any good worke , and without them he can doe little or nothing . he must have servants and inferiour workmen under him ; he must have good tooles and instruments fitted for his hand , and he must have also good materials to worke upon ; for he can frame and make no good worke out of course stuffe , and base metalls : but lo here an admirable artificer and work-master , before whom all the art and skill of all creatures is as vanity and nothing . the lord god , the creatour and former of all things , he alone hath made all the world ; and he hath not onely made his owne materials , out of which he framed this great fabrick of the visible world , and all this without any instruments or working-tooles ; but also hee hath made in a moment , in the first beginning , together with the glorious highest heavens , the palace and throne of his glorious and infinite majesty , the most glorious and excellent of all his creatures , the angels , and that out of nothing , which are great in power , wonderfull in strength , and admirable in swiftnesse , immortall spirits , able to destroy a whole army of men in a night , and to overturne kingdomes and cities in one day ; at whose sight and presence valiant gideon , a mighty man of warre , and the great captaine of israel , was so affraid and astonished , that he cried , aha , lord god , i shall die . zachary , an holy priest , was stricken dumbe for a time : and the hardy roman souldiers , which watched christs sepulchre , were astonished , and became as dead men . who therefore can sufficiently admire this mighty creatour ? what heart is able to conceive , or tongue to expresse his wisdome , power , and omnipotency ? let us in silence adore him , and tremble and feare before him ; not with servile and slavish horrour , but with holy feare and reverence . let us flee to him for all help , succour , and strength in all distresses ; for supply of all our wants , for guidance and direction in all our waies . if we be assured of his favour , and that he is with us , and on our side , and that we stand for his cause ; let us not care who be against us , nor feare what men and divels can doe unto us . if we want meanes and instruments , let vs not be dismayed ; for he can worke without them . if we want necessary matter , he can make it , or worke without it , and bring things most excellent out of nothing . for this very end , the lord hath shewed himselfe and his divine power in the creation , and by the creatures , that we might know and acknowledge , love and honour , serve and worship him , and upon all occasions give him the glory due to his name , and tell the people what great and wonderfull things he hath done , and how by his owne arme and power he hath brought great and strange things to passe . secondly , this doctrine serves to discover the errour and falshood of divers opinions , published and maintained by men of learning : as first , that of origen , basil , and other greek fathers , who dreamed , that the angels were created many ages before the corporeall and visible world . . and that held by some others , that they were created after the creation of adam . . that the creation of angels is not mentioned by moses in the history of the creation ; but the time thereof is altogether concealed , which is the opinion of pererius , and of some fathers and schoolmen . . that opinion of some ancients , who held , that god by the ministery of angels created this visible world . this doctrine proves them all to be vaine dreames and fictions , in that it shewes plainly , by plaine testimonies and solid arguments out of gods holy word , that the angels were created in and with the highest heavens , neither before nor after them ; and are the inhabitants and host of those heavens mentioned , gen. . . and that expresly by moses . . also for that opinion of the popish schoolmen , and of their master aristotle , who hold , that angels move the spheres of the visible heavens , and guide the severall motions of the sun. moon , and starres ; it is in no case to be allowed . for as the scriptures doe expresly ascribe the creation of all things to god alone , and to his eternall word and spirit , and never mention angels as creators working with god in the creation ; but as creatures first made in and with the highest heavens , and rejoycing at gods founding of the earth : so they affirme , that in god all things move , and have their being ; and he gives the law and rule of motion to the sun , moon , and starres , guides them by his hand , causeth them to rise and set , and brings forth all their host by number , isa. . . and . . and this doctrine , which teacheth us , that the angels were made to dwell in the highest heavens , and there they have their residence , not in the spheres of the visible heavens , it overthrowes all such conceipts , makes them vanish like smoak , and drives them away like chaffe before the wind : wherefore let us all acknowledge , that as god created angels of nothing by himselfe alone , and did give motion to the heavens ; so without help of angels he doth continue the same motion , and did create all other inferiour things . let us take heed that we give not gods glory to any other ; but let us confesse , that all thankes for all blessings are due to him ; in him things live , move , and have their being ; and he turneth about the spheres of heaven by his counsels , that they may doe whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth , job . . from the use of this doctrine , i proceed to the conclusions , which necessarily flow from it . . corollary , or conclusion . the first is , that angels by creation , and in their nature and substance are the first and chiefest of all gods creatures , far more excellent then man in his best naturall being in the state of innocency ; this doctrine floweth necessarily from the former : for first , god in wisdome hath made all things , the best and chiefest of creatures for the best places ; and inferiour creatures , for inferiour p●aces , as we see by experience in all things visible : and therefore undoubtedly the angels , which were created to be the naturall inhabitants of the highest and best place , must needs be the chiefest creatures , and the most excellent in nature and substance . secondly , those creatures , which god framed in the creation , to dwell nearest to his glorious presence , even with his heavenly majesty , and to stand before his throne in the heaven of heavens , must needs be in their nature and substance most excellent , and farre above man in innocency , whose best dwelling was but an earthly paradise , or garden furnished with fruits , which might be eaten up and consumed ; and such were the angels , as the former doctrine hath plainly proved : therefore this conclusion necessarily flowes from that doctrine , and is proved and confirmed by it . but we have for further confirmation both plaine testimonies and arguments in the holy scriptures : the royall prophet david , being ravished with the contemplation of the supercelestiall glory appearing in the secondary beames thereof , which shine in the visible heavens , and in the sun , moon , and starres , cries out in admiration and wonders that god , dwelling in such admirable glory , and having such excellent and glorious company and attendants about him , should vouchsafe to look upon man , or have any regard of him : what is man ( saith he ) that thou art mindfull of him , or the sonne of man , that thou visitest him ? psal. . . but in the next words he goeth further , and speaks fully to the point , and shewes , that christ himselfe , according to his humanity , though conceived and borne most pure and holy , was made lower then the angels ; thou hast made him ( saith he ) a little , or for a little while lower then the angels , that is , christ in the nature of man , which he took upon him ; for so the apostle expounds these words of david , hebr. . . and psal. . . yee angels ( saith he ) which excell in power . our saviour also in the gospel sheweth plainly , that the angels in heaven are so excellent in nature and substance , as the elect saints glorified shall be after the last resurrection ; and their most glorious and blessed condition , which farre excels adam in innocency , shall be like unto the ange's , matth. . . saint peter in plaine words saith , that angels are farre greater then men in power and might , pet. . . saint paul calls them angels of light , corinth . . , and the angels of gods power , thes. . . he numbers them with principalities and powers , which farre excell the nature of man , rom. . . whensoever he sets forth the greatest excellency of things created , greater then in men , he doth instance in angels . as cor. . . though i speak with tongues of men and angels . and galat. . . if i , or an angell from heaven , and . . ye received me as an angell of god , yea as christ jesus . in a word , whereas man is an earthly creature , framed out of dust , in respect of his visible part his body ; angels are pure heavenly spirituall substances , framed immediately out of nothing , by the simple and absolute act of creation . and whereas mans better part , the soule , though it be a spirit ; yet was not created a perfect compleat creature , but made to subsist in the body , and cannot be in full perfection without it : angels are spirits complete and perfect in themselves , without subsistence in any other creature , as shall appeare hereafter . and therefore angels are by creation , and in nature and substance farre above man in his best naturall estate , even in the state of innocency . first , this shewes most clearly , that all the love and favour which god extends to man in christ , and in giving christ to be mans saviour and redeemer , by taking mans nature upon him , and making full satisfaction therein to justice for him , and in saving man from hell and damnation , and exalting him to heavenly glory , is on gods part most free and voluntary , arising meerly and wholly from the good pleasure of his owne will , and not from any merit , worth , and excellency , which he at first created , or since found in mans nature . if the naturall excellency of any creature could procure gods speciall favour , or deserve his bountie , or move him to shew mercy to any creature which hath sinned , and by sin is fallen into misery ; surely , the angelicall nature should have been more respected of god , then the nature of man : and angels , being fallen , should more easily have found mercy at his hand . for ( as this doctrine hath proved ) angels are by creation , and in nature and substance the chiefest and most excellent of all gods creatures , far excelling man in power , might , purity , and being ; and yet , when angels and man were both fallen , and found guilty , charged with folly , and involved in misery , god passed by the angels , and shewed no mercy to them ; neither gave his son , to take upon him the nature of angels , and to be their saviour and redeemer ; but so many of them as sinned , and kept not their first estate , but left their habitation , he hath reserved in everlasting chaines of darknesse , unto the judgement of the great day , pet. . jud. . but for man , who is of lesse worth , and farre inferiour by nature , he hath given his sonne , to take mans nature upon him , to be incarnate and made flesh , and hath sent him forth in the forme of fraile and sinfull flesh , made of a woman , and made under the law , and hath delivered him up to a cursed death , and to hellish agonies , pangs , and sorrowes , that he might redeem this fraile worme of the earth , miserable and sinfull man , from hell and damnation , unto which the angels which sinned are reserved under darknesse ; and to exalt him far above the state of innocency , in which he was created , and his best naturall estate in paradise , unto the high estate of heavenly glory , with the elect holy , and blessed angels , which is farre above that mutable state of glory , in which the angels were first created , and from which so many of them did fali : wherefore let us admire this free grace of god , and stand amazed at his wonderfull and supertranscendent bounty to mankind . and whatsoever mercy we receive from him in our deliverance from any evill or whatsoever blessing and benefit of bounty and goodnesse in advancing us to this state of grace or glory , let us wholly ascribe it to the good pleasure of his owne free will , and not to any merit in our selves , or any excellency created in our nature . and let no man glory in his naturall wit or wisdome , and knowledge gotten by learning and study , nor boast in his owne strength ; but , as it is written , let him that glorieth , glory in the lord , and triumph in this , that he knoweth gods free grace and aboundant mercy in jesus christ , and hath the sweet taste and experience of it in his owne soule . secondly , this serves to magnifie in our eyes both the large measure of gods bounty to his elect in christ , and also the infinite power and excellency of christ his mediation , and the dignity and worth of his person , in which hee hath so dignified our fraile nature , by assuming it upon himselfe and uniting it personally to his godhead ; that hee hath exalted it farre above the most glorious and excellent state of the angels in heaven . that angels are the best and chiefest of all gods creatures by creation , and in nature and substance farre more excellent then man in his best naturall estate of innocency , i have proved in this doctrine . and yet christ taking upon him our nature , which was far inferiour to the angels , and uniting it personally to himselfe , as he is the eternall sonne of god , hath dignified , and exalted , and crowned it with glory and excellency farre above all angels , principalities , thrones , and dominions , hebr. . . so that the holy , elect and blessed angels exalted above their best naturall estate , to the immutable estate of supernaturall life , immortality and glory , doe adore and worship him , as david fore-told , psal. . . and the apostle affirmes , heb. . . he is the head of all , and they all are made subject to him , pet. . . and so wonderfull is gods bounty to man in christ and so powerfull and excellent is christs mediation for the elect of mankind , that by christs mediation concurring and working together with gods bounty , according to wisdome , and for the satisfaction of gods justice , a ready way is made for them into the holy of holies , the heaven of heavens : and they are not onely exalted and elevated farre above their best naturall being , unto the blessed state of the glorious angels ; but also the holy angels , with whom they shine in heavenly glory hereafter in the life to come , are made of god ministring spirits , whom christ hath procured to minister for their good here in this world in the state of grace ; so that upon him , as upon the ladder in jacobs dreame , the angels of god descend from heaven to earth , and ascend from earth to heaven , and doe encamp round about them , to save and deliver them , as david saith , psal. . . yea , and when the evill angels shall be judged at the last day , they shall through gods infinite bounty , and for the merit and worthinesse of christ , be advanced to sit upon thrones with him , and to judge and give sentence against the divell , and all his angels , as wee reade , corinth . . . and therefore if wee had the tongues of men and angels , we are never able to utter or expresse the infinite excellency , worth , and dignity of the person and mediation of christ , nor sufficiently to extoll , laud , and magnifie the bounty of god to poore mankind in christ. and here we see that truly verified , which the prophet fore-told , isa. . . and the apostle proclaimed , cor. . . that since the beginning of the world , the eye of man hath not seen , nor his eare heard , neither hath it ever entered into the heart of man , what good things god hath prepared for them that love him . thirdly , this doctrine serves to worke in us a true love , and reverent respect of the angels of god , as being the chiefest of gods creatures , and by nature more excellent then man in his best naturall estate , and great in power , able to help us more then all other creatures , when god offers occasion and opportunity , and gives them charge over us . every man is bound to thinke better , and more reverently of other men , who are in any gifts more excellent then himselfe , though they be all of one nature and kind , and of the same flesh and bloud . and god hath put upon the beasts of the field by nature a feare and respect of man , because he is a more excellent creature . now the angels are by nature and creation more excellent then man in his best naturall estate ; and man in the supernaturall estate of glory , shall be but equall to the elect and holy angels : and therefore , as we must ever labour to decline that servile superstition , and base will-worship of angels , which is condemned , colos. . . and must beware of giving divine and religious worship to them , which they themselves reject and refuse , being our fellow-servants , and have utterly detested and forbidden , when it hath been offered , as appeares , revel . . . and . . so we must take heed , that we doe not thinke meanly of them , as if they were but our servants , because they minister for our good : for in guarding us , and encamping about us , and in ministring for us , they are not our servants which owe us service ; neither have we power to command them , nor ability to requite them for the least service : but they are the servants of god , and of our lord christ , and fellow-servants with all kings , prophets , and holy men of god ; and as gods embassadors , and princely courtiers & ministers , we ought to esteem and respect them , with all love and hearty affection . and , as in all places where there are embassadors and noble princes and courtiers of great emperours and monarchs , men will have a care to beare themselves orderly , and to doe all things decently , and will be affraid and ashamed to commit any absurdity , or beare themselves immodestly : so let us in the publick assemblies of the saints , and in holy congregations of gods-church , where angels are supposed sometimes to guard us , and to over-look us ( as the words of the preacher seem to import , eccles. . . and of the apostle also , cor. . . ) beare our selves reverently , and beware of all vaine words , filthy behaviour , and beastly drowzinesse and sleepinesse , as if we came to the church like uncleane dogges for company only , or to lye snorting and sleeping , which is the evill custome and practice of many carnall people . fourthly , this doctrine is matter of comfort to gods poore despised servants , in that it doth assure them , that the angels which love them , and as friends rejoyce in their conversion ; and as guardians protect and watch over them , are great , excellent , and glorious above all earthly men : and therefore , though the great men of the world scorne and despise them , and among such they can find no favour , help , or defence ; yet let them comfort themselves , and rejoyce in this , that he , who is higher then the highest , hath a guard , to whose care and charge he hath committed them ; and that not of mighty men , in whom there is no help , but of angels , which in power , strength , and glory far exceed the most excellent among the sons of men . . corollary . secondly , in that angels were created in and with the highest heaven , to be the naturall inhabitants sutable to the place ; hence we may gather a definition of angels , to wit , that angels are heavenly spirits , or pure and entire spirituall substances , created in the beginning by god after his owne image , every one of which is distinct from another by a speciall existence , or proper particular being of his owne , which god hath given to have in himselfe for ever . first , in that angels were not made and created out of the rude masse , without forme , and void , which is called earth , and the deep , nor of any other matter before made by god ; but in the first beginning of all things were created perfect creatures in and with the highest heavens , the lively and proper inhabitants of them : hence it necessarily followes , that they are pure heavenly spirits , and intire spirituall substances , not parts of any body or person , not compounded of any matter first made , and of a forme thereto added afterwards ; and therefore have a proper existence and being , every one in himselfe , which cannot be dissolved , but in respect of second causes remaines immortall : so that this definition , and every branch thereof flowes from the former doctrine , as a naturall corollary , or necessary conclusion . and it doth excellently set forth the nature , and naturall being and properties of angels , by which they are distinguished from all other things . first , in that they are called spirits , or pure spirituall substances , this shewes their nature and being , wherein they resemble god , and beare his image , who is the one onely true jehovah , who hath his essence and being in and of himselfe , and gives essence and being to all things , and by whom all things subsist , as that name jehovah signifies , which he assumes as proper to himselfe , exod. . , . and isa. . . and who is a spirit , as our saviour restifieth , john . . and by this name spirits , they are distinguished from all bodily creatures . secondly , in that they are called pure , intire , spirituall substances , and perfect creatures , which have every one a proper existence and particular being ; hereby they are distinguished from the spirits , that is , the soules of men , which are not intire , complete , and perfect creatures of themselves by creation ; but are made to be , and to subsist in an humane body , and together with the body to make up a perfect man. hereby also they are distinguished from the breath of life , and the vitall and animall spirits , which are in living bodies of men , and other living creatures : for they are not pure , perfect , intire creatures , which subsist by themselves , but fraile vanishing parts of creatures , which continually increase and decrease , fade and perish . thirdly , in that they are called heavenly spirits , hereby they are distinguished not onely from the spirits created here below on earth in this inferiour world , even soules of men , and all bodily spirits ; but also from god , who is a spirit , but not contained in any place , no not in the heaven , of heavens : but is essentially present in all places , as well in earth as in heaven , as the scriptures testifie , kin. . . and psal. . . fourthly , in that they are said to be created in the beginning by god , hereby they are distinguished from the absolute essence of god , and from every one of the three persons in one god : for they are not created , but are absolutely eternall , without beginning of being . fifthly , in that they are said to be created in the image and similitude of god , this shewes the excellent naturall properties of angels , that they are living , spirituall , and immortall creatures , indued with knowledge , wisdome , understanding liberty of will , power , strength , and activity to doe and performe great things wisely , justly , and freely , and so to resemble god in his glorious attributes and workes . sixthly , in that they are said to be distinguished one from another by a proper and particular subsistence and being , which every one hath by himselfe ; this shewes that angels are not one common spirit , breathed into the highest heavens , and every one a part of that one spirit ; but they are every one a whole substance or person by himselfe , as augustine saith , enchirid. . lastly , in that every one is said to have a proper existence and particular being , which god hath given him to have in himselfe , by which he differs from the rest ; this necessarily implies , that angels are finite , and limited both in their substance and number , and are mutable , not infinite and unchangeable , as god is . this is the definition , which in the severall parts and branches thereof doth fully set forth the nature and naturall properties of angels . i proceed to the confirmation of the severall parts in order . first , that angels are spirits , or spirituall substances , the holy scriptures affirme most clearly , psal. . . and heb. . . where it is said , that he maketh his angels spirits . and hebr. . . where they are called ministring spirits . and lest any should thinke or imagine , that angels are not spirits by nature and creation , but by grace and communion of the holy ghost , which is given to the elect angels in and by christ , and by which they become holy , and are settled in the immutable state of eternall blessednesse , we have most cleare testimonies in those scriptures , which call not onely the good and elect angels spirits , as act. . . and the places before cited ; but also the evill angels of satan , even the divell himselfe and his angels , which in respect of their substance which they still retaine , though they have lost their goodnesse and uprightnesse , are still called spirits , as levit. . . sam. . kin. . matth. . . act. . . ephes. . . where the divell speaking in false prophets , and his spirit of fury in saul , and of lying in ahabs prophets , and his evill angels possessing divers persons , and cast out by christ and his apostles , are called evill and unclean spirits . secondly , that angels are entire and complete spirituall substances , and perfect creatures , which have every one a proper existence and being in himselfe , the holy scriptures prove most clearly by divers reasons : first , by naming some of them by proper and distinct names , as the angell which was sent to daniel , dan. . . and to salute the virgin mary , luke . is called gabriel . secondly , by giving them such titles , and ascribing and assigning to them such offices as belong to none but complete substances and persons , which have a proper and personall existence : as for example , they are called the sons of god , job . . and . . they are called gods messengers and ministers , as appeares by their hebrew and greek names , and by scriptures , matth. . . and heb. . . they have the office of watchers and guardians , which have charge given over the elect , and encamp about the righteous , to guard and defend them , and observe and behold the face of god , ready to be at his beck for the defence of his little ones , as appeares , num. . . psal. . . and . . dan. . . and matth. . . thirdly , the scriptures doe plainly shew , that angels doe willingly and readily , and by themselves performe perfect and complete actions and workes , which none can doe but perfect creatures , which have a proper subsistence by themselves : as for example , that in the first creation as soon as they were created , they did sing together , and lift up their voice , job . . that they praise god , hearken to the voice of his word , and keep his commandements , psal. . . and . . that they have appeared and spoken to men , as to gideon , judg. . to the father of sampson , judg. . and to eliah , kin. . that they have comforted christ in his agony , luke . rolled the stone from his sepulchre , matth. . opened the prison doores , and set the apostles at liberty , act. . and . and have smitten and destroyed thousands of men in a night , as kin. . and rejoyce over sinners which repent . fourthly , the scriptures reckon up angels not among those inspirations , motions , or affections , which proceed from gods spirit , or any other person or substance ; but among perfect creatures , and spirituall substances , which live , and move , and subsist by themselves , and not in another substance ; and so the spirit of god speakes of them , psal. . . and in all the places , where they are said to come from heaven to earth , and to be sent from god unto men . the third point in the definition is , that angels are heavenly spirits , that is , neither made of any bodily substance , nor compounded of any elements , or creatures of the visible world , but of a pure and heavenly nature , made to dwell in the highest heaven , as in their proper and naturall place of habitation , and there have their continuall residence . this is manifestly proved by the former doctrine , and also by those scriptures which testifie , that they alwaies , and continually in heaven behold the face of god , as matth. . . and that they are the heavenly host , luke . . and spirits of heaven , zach. . . and there they encamping , are in a moment as ready to defend the righteous , and to guard the church militant on earth , and avenge all wrongs done to gods little ones , as if they were here present on earth : for in the twinckling of an eye , they can descend from heaven to earth , and deliver the godly , and stay the hand of their enemies , and smite them with death , as we see by the army of angels coming from heaven , and guarding elisha , so soon as he called upon god , kin. . and by the angell of god , which , at the praier of hezekiah , destroyed all the army of the assyrians in one night : and at our saviours praier in his agony , appearing presently from heaven , and comforting him . in a word , our saviour affirmes , that spirits have not flesh and bones , luke . . they cannot be seen with bodily eies , nor felt by bodily hands , as corporall things may be : therefore angels , being spirits , are not corporall , nor compounded of bodily elements , but are pure , and invisible , as the apostle cals them , colos. . . the fourth point to wit , that angels were created by god in the beginning , and god hath given to them their being , is aboundantly proved in divers doctrines before : i need not say any more of it . the fifth point is , that angels were created in the image of god , and doe in many respects resemble god more then any other creatures : first , in their very substance and naturall being ; for as god is a spirit , so they are spirits , yea pure spirits , and in that respect resemble god more then any other creatures . secondly , as god is absolutely pure and simple ; so they are more pure and simple then any other creatures , and have no corporall or visible substance in them . thirdly , as god is the living god , and even life it selfe ; and as he is infinite in wisdome , knowledge , goodnesse , and power , and doth all things freely of himselfe , according to the good pleasure of his owne will ; also is in and of himselfe most glorious and blessed for ever , and with him is no variablenesse , or shadow of turning : so angels are most quick , active , and lively spirits , the most excellent of all gods creatures in wisdome , knowledge , and liberty of will , and in all goodnesse , and good will towards men : they are also great in power , and excell in strength , psal. . . and are called the blessed and glorious angels of light ; heaven , the place of blisse , is their habitation : and as they are incorporeall spirits , which cannot be dissolved and die , as men doe , when their soules are separated from their bodies , and the whole person is dissolved : so , and in that respect , they are immortall , & do more resemble god , who only hath immortality , then any other creatures doe by nature : all these things , to wit , the lively strength , activity , knowledge , wisdome , free-will , glory , power , and blessed estate of angels , wherein they were created , the scriptures doe most clearly testifie and declare , where they affirme , that the angels doe see gods face , who is all in all , and that they look into all the mysteries , know the manifold wisdome of god concerning the salvation of the church , pet. . . and ephes. . . and have great joy in heaven over sinners which repent ; and doe relate great and mighty workes done by angels , most readily and speedily without delay . the sixth point is , that angels are distinct and different among themselves , and one from another , by a proper and particular existence , and being : this i have fully proved in the second branch . the last is , that angels are finite in their nature and number , and have their bounds and limits ; and also are by nature mutable , such as might fall from the first estate , wherein they were created . that angels are in nature finite , and cannot be in divers places , or in all places at once , is most plaine , both by this , that they are said to be gods heavenly host , and angels in heaven , that is , who are confined to heaven for the proper place of their dwelling ; and when they are here on earth , are said to be descended from heaven , matth. . . and to be here , and not there . that though they are many , and more then man can number , and in that respect are called innumerable ; yet that their number is limited , and that god knowes the number of them , cals them by their names , and brings them out by number , the prophet testifieth , isa. . . that angels are mutable by nature , subject to fall from the state wherein they were created , the scriptures doe testifie , where they make this gods property , that hee onely changeth not , malach. . . and with him is no variablenesse , iam. . . and where it is testified that god hath charged the angels with folly , iob . and many of the angels did not keep their first estate , but left their habitation , and by sinning did fall from heaven and are cast downe to hell , and delivered into chaines of darknesse , pet. . . and iude . and that onely the elect angels are made holy and immutably blessed by the light which god hath added to them , iob . . thus much for the definition of angels . . corollary . the third corollary is , that the bodily shapes of men , and other creatures , in which angels have appeared , were no parts of their nature and substance , neither were essentially united unto them , but were onely assumed for the present time and occasion , that thereby they might make fraile men see more evidently , and acknowledge their presence and their actions . for the heaven of heavens is not the place of grosse earthly bodies ; and therefore angels , being naturall inhabitants of heaven , have no such bodies personally united ; they onely did for a time assume the bodies in which they appeared and performed some actions on earth . the wordes of our saviour , luk. . . shew that spirits have not flesh and bones . therefore angels being spirits have no such bodies united to them as those wherein they appeared . . corollary . that angels are confined to the places in which they are , and are in places definitively , though not circumscribed and measured by them as bodily things are ; angels being pure spirits , doe not consist of parts as bodily things doe ; neither have they any bodily quantity or dimension , as length , breadth , height , and thicknesse ; and so they cannot bee compassed about , nor measured , nor limited by any bodily space ; but yet they are definitively in their places , that is , there and no where else ; and their substance together with bodily substances may be in the same place ; as the whole soule of man is in the whole body , and is wholly in every part of it and no where else , so it is with angels . . corollary . seeing angels are by creation the proper and naturall inhabitants of the highest heavens , which is a most spacious place , compassing about the whole visible world , and more large and capacious then all other places ; as solomon doth intimate , kin. . . hence it followeth that the angels are many in number , more then can be numbred by man , and so in respect of man innumerable . for we must not thinke that god , who in the creation replenished the sea with fishes , the aire with birds , and the visible heavens with innumerable starres , and the earth with beasts and creeping things ; and commanded man to multiply and replenish the earth , wouldleave the bestand most glorious place of all not fully replenished with inhabitants , glorious angels , who were created at the first in their full number : undoubtedly therefore there must be many , farre more then man can number . and this the prophet daniel saw in a vision and testified , dan. . . where hee saith that a thousand thousand ministred to the lord christ , and ten thousand thousand stood before him . also in the gospell wee read that there was a legion ; that is , six thousand divels in one man , mark. . . and if there be so many divels , that is , evill angels in one man ; then surely the whole company or multitude of those evill angels must be many . and the whole company of angels , in the first creation of which some onely did fall and become divels , must needs much more bee innumerable . and if that conjecture and opinion of learned men be true , to wit , that the angels which sinned and were cast downe from heaven , are as many in number as all the elect of mankind which have beene , are , or shal be to the end of the world ; and that they shall fill up the glorious mansions , and supply the roomes and places of the lost angels ; then surely the multitude of all the angels which god created must needs , bee great and innumerable , farre exceeding our capacity . . corollary . sixthly the highest heavens , being the place of rest , and not of motion which is proper to visible and corporeall things , and being the place where god hath appointed that the eternall rest or sabbath shal be kept ; therefore the angels , which were created to bee the naturall inhabitants of those glorious heavens , were not made to move with bodily motion , as bodily creatures doe : their coming from heaven to earth is not a passage through the whole space between heaven and earth . which would require a long time ; but , as it is with the mindes and thoughts of men , they are now here exercised about things present , and in a moment of time , in the twinckling of an eye , they are in the remotest parts of the world , or in the highest heavens , and yet passe not through the space betweene : so it may well be , and we may with good reason conceive , that the angels , which are of a purer and more heavenly substance then our soules , and more nimble and active then the mindes or thoughts of men are by nature ; can in a moment bee present here on earth , and in the next moment bee againe in heaven . but howsoever , or by what way soever , they descend and ascend , it is most certaine , that they are the swiftest of all things created ; and so much the scriptures shew clearly in many places , where they describe angels with wings , and call them cherubins and seraphins ; yea some one of them with many wings , which are instruments of flying and of swiftest motion , as gen. . . ezech. . . . and . . and isa. . . also we read that on a suddaine , even in an instant , a whole multitude of the heavenly host have descended from heaven and beene present on earth , luk. . . and the angell of the lord is said to encampe with an heavenly host round about them that feare god , psalm . . not by being here resident and abiding on earth , out of their proper place of abode ; but by standing before god in heaven , and beholding his face ; that they may bee ready in a moment when hee gives the watch word to present themselves on earth , there to deliver his elect , and to destroy their enemies , as our saviour doth intimate , matth. . . . corollary . seventhly , seeing the highest heaven is the proper place of angels , and this is the order which god did set in the creation , that all creatures should keep their station , and not leave their dwelling ; hence it followes , that it is against nature , and contrary to the order of creation , that many angels are excluded and shut out of heaven , even all the evill angels : and it is a thing above nature , even the supernaturall grace and gift of god , and a thing purchased and procured by the infinite power , excellency , and dignity of christs merit and mediation , that the elect and holy angels should bee made ministering spirits , and sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation , as the apostle saith , hebr. . . and here now occasion is offered to discourse about the sin and fall of the divell and evill angels ; how contrary it was to the law of nature , that they should forsake their station , sin against god , and not stand in the truth , and to the order which god set in the creation ; that they should leave their dwelling , and exclude themselves out of heaven , and be cast downe into hell. also here is occasion given to shew , that the elect angels come to minister for the elect through the supernaturall power and efficacy of christs mediation ; & that christ , by supernaturall grace and benefits given to the heavenly angels , hath obliged and bound them to himselfe , to obey him as their head , and to minister for the good of his little ones . but these things come more fittly to bee handled after the creation , when wee come to discourse of the confusion of the world by the divels apostasie and mans fall ; and of the restoring of mankind , and the renuing and perfecting of the world by christ. now these doctrines thus opened and proved , are of great use for comfort and confidence to all the elect and faithfull people of god , in the midst of all troubles which befall them in this life ; and when dangers and worldly enemies beset them round about ; also for confirmation and strengthening of them against all the assaults , and temptations of the divell . for if the glorious angels which are ministering spirits for their good , which also love them , rejoyce at their conversion , watch for their safety , and are their fellow servants under one lord christ , be such heavenly , powerfull , and active spirits even by creation ; so excellent in strength , so lively , quick , and ready at hand to help in a moment when god gives the watch-word ; what need we feare or faint so long as wee cleave to god and sticke to his truth ? hee is a tender and loving father ; and christ our high priest hath a feeling of our infirmities and doth pity us ; he will be ready to help ; and he hath mighty instruments and ministers , even thousands and ten thousand thousands ready to save and deliver us from all enemies , as he did daniel from the lyons , and his three fellowes from the fiery furnace . or , if hee doth not send them to deliver us out of the troubles of this life ; yet hee will at our death send his angels to carry our soules with triumph to heaven , as eliah was carried up in a fiery chariot , and the soule of lazarus is said to bee carried up by them into abrahams bosome . wherefore let us not feare either multitude , malice , or might of enemies ; but carefully serve god , and confidently rest on the lord christ our redeemer and saviour . secondly , these doctrines serve to discover divers errours concerning the nature and substance of angels ; as that grosse opinion of peter lombard , who held that the angels are corporeall substances , because the divell and evill angels shall suffer the torment , and feele the paines of hell fire , which hath no power but over bodily creatures : also that opinion of the gentiles , and cardanus who held that the angels were mortall and corruptible creatures ; both these are here discovered to be erroneous . for the first is builded on a grosse conceipt , that the fire of hell is elementall and corporcall fire ; which , as it burneth and consumeth bodily substances , over which it hath power ; so it in time wasteth it selfe , and goeth out : but indeed the fire of hell is the fire of gods wrath , which burneth and tormenteth worse then elementarie fire ; but consumeth not , neither shall ever be quenched , as our saviour testifieth . the second opinion is also confuted by these doctrines , which have proved angels to be spirits or spirituall substances ; which , though they may bee stained with sin ; yet they cannot bee dissolved , as men are in death by the separation of soule and body ; not corrupted , as mens bodies are in the grave ; but the evill angells shall live in eternall torment , and their substance shall never be corrupted and consumed , and the holy and blessed angels are immortall and shall live in glory for ever , and there shall be no end of their blessednesse . chap. v. of the creation of the earth . the names whereby it is called . properties of it . all creatures have being of god : with vses . the world is all mutable , and appointed so to be : vses . the creation and redemption of the world , wherein they resemble one another : vses . the holy ghost is of one and the same nature with the father and the sonne . the second thing created next after the highest heaven , with the inhabitants thereof the angels , is the earth , as my text here faith in these wordes , and the earth . but wee must not here understand by earth , this earth or drie land upon which men and beasts doe live , and move , and have their being ; and which is beautified and adorned with trees , plants , greene herbes and flowers ; and replenished with stones and metals of all sorts : for that was created together with the waters of the sea , and brought into forme and replenished in the third day , as appeares in the , . . . verses of this chapter . but here by earth , wee are to understand a certaine rude matter and masse without forme and void , out of which god made all the inferiour visible world , and all things therein contained ; so the wordes following in the second verse plainely shew : the earth was without forme and void , and darknesse was upon the face of the deep . now that wee may know what creature this earth was , wee are to consider these things ; first , the severall names by which it is called . secondly , the properties by which it is described . thirdly , the meanes by which it was upheld in being , and disposed to bee the common matter of all othervisible things created afterwards . first , the names by which it is called are three , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the earth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the deep . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , waters . first it is called the earth because of the grossenesse , unmoveablenesse , and impurity of it . for the earth is of all elements most grosse , heavy , impure , and confused , not fit to move out of the place wherein it is ; most untractable and not ready to apply it selfe to any other thing , and hard to bee turned into the forme of other things without labour and working of it . this first rude and informed masse which god created out of nothing , is here declared by this name , earth , to have beene , like the earth , very impure and confused , dull and unfit for motion , resembling , at the first , the earth rather then any purer element . secondly , it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the deep , here also in the text , which word signifies a great deep or devouring gulfe , as it were of troubled waters , also troubled and confounded with mixture of mud and myre ; which , though in respect of the troubled mixture and confusion it hath a resemblance of earth , yet it is bottomlesse , there is no solidity in it , no ground or stay to bee found at all : thus much the hebrew word signifies according to the notation and common use of it . thirdly , it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , waters , also in this text , because of the waterish fluxibility which was in it ; by meanes of which it was unstable and unsettled , and also because it was an huge deep like the great waters of the sea. now it may seeme strange , that this one and the same rude masse should bee like earth , and like a bottomlesse depth of myre or quick-sand , and like waters , all at once ; which are things different and unlike one to another , especially the thinne flowing element of water , and the grosse , dull , unmoveable earth . and therefore the learned expositors labour thus to qualifie the meaning of the words ; they say it was a confused masse , even the matter of all the elements mingled together ; and because the earth and water are the most grosse and impure , and did most of all appeare in it , therefore it is called earth and water , and the deep , which is a mixture of both . but in viewing , reviewing , and sifting the words thoroughly , i have observed something over & above that which by reading i could observe in others ; to wit , that this rude masse was not suffered to lye idle one moment from the first creation , and bringing of it into being out of nothing ; but being a meere unformed masse or chaos , it had at the first a resemblance of earth , because the grosse matter of the earth was so mingled and confounded in it , that it chiefely appeared in the upper face of it , and so it seemed grosse and earthy , and is first called earth . secondly , by the operation of the spirit of god cherishing and moving it , the grosse thicke matter settling downward toward the center , it became immediatly in the upper face of it like a deep mire or quick-sand , which more inclines to water then earth , and hath no ground , stay or bottome in it ; and therefore in the second place it is called the deep . thirdly , god making the earthy matter to sinke and settle downward still more and more , all the upper face of it became more thinne and fluid , like unto impure water ; and thereupon in the third place it is called the waters : though indeed , there was neither perfect water , nor earth , but a confused matter without forme and void , out of which all visible things were formed . thus much the names shew unto us concerning this masse , which i propounded as the first thing . the second thing is the consideration of the properties by which it is described ; for it is said to be tohu and bohu , and that darknesse was upon the upper face of it . first , it is said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tohu , that is , without forme , even a thing imperfect , which had neither the nature , nor substance , nor naturall shape or property of any perfect creature . secondly , it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bohu , void ; it had in it no formed creature of any kinde to fill and replenish it ; for this word is used to signifie the emptinesse and utter desolation of a land wholly depopulated & laid waste , and of a citie brought to ruine having nothing left but heap●s of ruined walls , isa. . . and ier. . . thirdly , it is said to bee all darknesse in the upper face of it ; darknesse was upon the face of the deep . by darknesse we are not here to understand any darke body , as aire or thick clouds of darknesse compassing it round , and over-spreading of it , as the dark aire and thick mist did the land of egypt when god plagued it with darknesse ; but this is the meaning , that in this rude matter there was no light , neither did any appeare in the out-side or upper face of it . now these properties , by which it is described , do comprehend in them that which in naturall philosophy is called privation , & is held to be a principle or beginning of natural things . for unto the making & generating of any bodily , creature or natural body there are three things required as first principles . . a matter capable of some forme , that is expressed in the names of earth , deep , and waters . . privation , which is an absence or want of the forme which ought to be or might bee in that matter , for to give it that naturall being of which it is capable , and unto which it is inclined . this privation of forme , and this emptinesse of all naturall powers and properties which are required in creatures , and this darkenesse which is the privation of light , they are the second principle . the third is the naturall and substantiall forme , which is that which distinguisheth one creature from another , and gives being to every creature ; that is , makes it to bee that which it is in the kind of it . this forme god by his word gave to the severall parts of this matter , when hee said , let it be , & it was so . but when a matter rude , undigested and unformed is inclining to some forme , and wants it , there must be a disposing of the matter to receive the forme which it ought to have to make it a perfect creature in his kind , and which it yet wants and requires ; and that working , preparing and disposing of the matter , that it may bee fit to receive the forme which must perfect it . and this disposing of the common and rude matter of all the visible world is here expressed in these words of the text ; and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters . some doe here by the spirit of god understand some angelicall spirit , which god used and imployed to fit and prepare this matter to his hand : thus cajetan a romish cardinall and schooleman held . tertullian . lib. . contra hermog . saith , that this spirit of god was a winde , by which god prepared and disposed it . theoderet saith it was the aire , which moved on the upper part of it , quaest. . in genes . but i conceive all these to bee unsound opinions first , they are confuted by the very words of the text , and by all other scriptures which ascribe the whole worke of the creation , and the making of the world , and all things therein wholly and onely to god the father , the word ; and the spirit , three persons in one undivided essence . secondly , it is against all reason , to thinke that god , who created the chiefest and most excellent of all his workes the highest heavens , and the angels , the heavenly spirits , immediately of nothing in a moment , and also the common matter of all the visible world in an instant ; would use , or did imploy any creature to dispose the matter and to fit it to his hand : wherefore tho best exposition of these words is that which is held generally by the best learned ; to wit , that this spirit of god , here mentioned , is the eternall spirit , one and the same god with the father and the son , by whom all things were made ; and hee is said here to move upon the face of the waters . the hebrew word here used doth properly signifie the eagles gentle fluttering with her wings over her young ones , thereby to cherish them ; as appeares , deut. . . and here it signifies the worke of gods spirit extending his power upon this rude , confused , unformed and empty masse , and gently shaking it , and causing the grosser parts to settle downewards , and the more subtle parts to gather into the upper place , and so to prepare and dispose every part for the substantiall forme which god at length gave unto it . thus you have the text opened . from whence we learne , first , that man and all other creatures which live , and move , and have any being in the whole visible world , howsoever they are engendered and propagated one by another , yet they have their whole substance and being from god , and he is the sole creatour and maker of them . that he made the first common matter out of which they were framed , the text here sheweth plainely . also that the spirit of god did prepare and dispose that whole matter and every part of it , to receive that forme which god gave to the whole world , and every creature therein . and by his word he gave a speciall forme and being to every creature after his kind , as afterwards appeares throughout the whole chapter . and hee gave the gift of generation and propagation to every kind of creature which is propagated and begotten ; and power to multiply ; and without his power assisting and working together , no creature is formed at all : so that this doctrine is most necessarily gathered from hence : and other scriptures fully confirme it , as act. . , . where it is said , that in him we live , move , and have our being ; and hee gives life , breath , and being to all : hee hath not onely made the heavens , and the earth , and all the host of them , and every thing which hath being , even all the changable elements , and vanishing meteors , in the first creation , as fire , water , aite , earth , haile , snow , thunder , lightening , clouds , vapours , and the like , as wee read , job . psalm . . . and psalm . . . and isa. . . but he also frames every man in the womb of his mother ; as the psalmist testifieth , psalm . . , , . and all children and the fruite of the womb are a gift , and blessing which cometh of the lord , psalm . . . and reason drawne from the proper name of god , jehovah , proves this , that hee gives all being to every thing ; and that as he is absolute of himselfe , so the being of every creature depends wholy on him ; for so much that name signifieth , as i have elsewhere proved . first , this serves to admonish us , that as wee our selves are the creatures of god , and he is our lord to whom wee owe our whole substance , being , power , strength , life , breath , and motion , and are bound to imploy all to his glory : so all other things in the world which serve for our use , or can come within our reach and power , are gods workmanship ; he is the lord and owner of them , and no man ought to use or imploy them , but by his permission , and in his service , and to his glory . therefore let us devote our selves to god , and serve him by all his creatures , and for our life , breath , being , and all things , render due thankes to his heavenly majesty , confessing that the whole world is his , and the fulnesse thereof . secondly , this doctrine sheweth , that no man hath right or interest before god in any creature , or in his owne life , limbs , and members of his body , but by the free gift of god : yea , since mans fall and forfeiture of his life and all things by sin , no man hath right to any good thing in the world , but in christ who is heire of all things , and hath by his merit and mediation procured the preservation and continuance of being to man , and to all other things made for mans use . although wicked , carnall , unregenerate men , have a common right and interest civilly before men in their lives , goods , lands and possessions ; yet before god ( while they abuse their power , riches , and all abilities , to sin and to pride , and oppression in the service of their owne lusts ) they are no better then theeves and usurpers : and let all such looke to it , for certainely god will call them to account , judge and condemne them , as for unjust possessing , so much more for their profane abuse of his creatures , and all worldly blessings . secondly , in that god , who by his infinite power can make perfect in a moment , and that immediatly out of nothing , the most excellent creatures of all , even the highest heaven and the angels ; did of his owne will , and according to his counsell , make a rude , confused , imperfect and unstable matter first without forme , that out of it he might frame , and indeed did frame this whole visible world , and all creatures therein : hence wee may learne , that as all this world is mutable and inconstant ; so the mutability and inconstancy of all visible and naturall things in this world , is a thing which god purposed and foreshewed in the creation of them ; and all alterations and changes which are found in them , are according to the counsell of his will , and hee alone doth over-rule , order and dispose them . many scriptures prove this fully in all parts . wise solomon sheweth at large that all worldly things are subject to continuall changes , eccles. . . . and david , psalm . . testifieth of the visible heavens , which are the most durable parts of the inferiour world , that they shall perish , and shall waxe old as doth a garment , and as a vesture god shall change them , and they shall be changed , and isa. . . all flesh is said to bee as grasse which withereth , and the glory thereof as the flower of the field which fadeth ; and pet. . . . the apostle affirmes , that the heavens shall passe away with a noyse , and the elements shall melt with heat , and the earth with all things therein shall bee burnt : and that it is god who over-ruleth , ordereth , and disposeth all mutations , and changes in the world. david also sheweth , psalm . . . that when god hideth his face , all living creatures are troubled , when hee taketh away , their breath they dye , and are turned into their dust : and psalm . . hee saith , that , when god uttereth his voice , the earth melteth , and vers. . come and behold the workes of the lord , how hee disposeth desolutions in the earth : and isa. . . the prophet saith , behold the lord will empty the earth , and lay it waste ; hee will ov●rturne the face of it , and disperse them that dwell therein . it is god who pulleth downe the mighty , and exalteth the humble and meeke , . sam. . hee restraines the waters , and rivers are dried up . hee sendeth them out , and they overturne the earth ; hee breaketh downe , and it cannot bee built againe ; he leadeth counsellors away spoiled , and maketh judges fooles ; hee removeth away the speech of the trustie , and taketh away the understanding of the aged ; hee powreth out contempt upon princes , and weakeneth the strength of the mighty , iob . . . . , . this doctrine serves to admonish us not to put trust or confidence in any worldly thing ; not in the earth , nor any creatures in it ; not in the face of the heavens , nor in the sun , moone , and starres , because all are so mutable and changable . a faire sun-shine morning may bee turned into a tempestuous day of haile and raine . when the sun is risen up most gloriously in the morning upon sodome , and the countries of the plaine ; before noone they may bee destroyed by a shower of fire and brimstone , and fruitfull lands may quickly bee turned into desarts , and barren wildernesse . the sun it selfe may stand in the midst of ●●s course , and may bee turned backe when hee is going downe . wherefore let us not trust in deceiptfull vanities , but still remember that of the holy psalmist , o put not your trust in princes , nor in any child of man , for there is no helpe in them , psalme . . and that of the prophet ieremie , cursed is the man that trusteth in man , and maketh flesh his arme , ier. . . secondly , though there happen many changes and great confusion in the world , yet let us here take notice , that they come not by chance ; and allwayes acknowledge , that they are in the will and power of god , and are ordered and disposed by his over-ruling wisedome . if to the wicked enemies and persecutors of gods church changes come for worse , to their confusion , and overturning of their power ; let us see gods hand therein , and let us give him the praise for working our deliverance , and avenging our cause on our enemies . if changes come to our selves , and our peace bee turned into trouble and danger ; let us humble our selves , as under gods hand . if our adversity bee turned into prosperity , let god have all the thankes . if wee see just cause to feare great changes in church or state , let us flie to god for helpe , strength , courage , and patience , and betake our selves to his protection , that wee may rest safely under the shadowes of his wings . the third point of doctrine , which wee may observe from the spirit of god moving upon the waters , cherishing and fitting the unformed masse to receive a perfect being and perfect formes of visible creatures , doth shew the concord and perfect similitude which is between the worke of creation , by which god formed all things by his word and spirit ; and the worke of restauration and redemption of mankind , by which he reformes them by christ and by his spirit , and brings them to supernaturall perfection and blessednesse . as in the creation , god by his spirit cherishing the rude masse did prepare , and fit every part thereof to receive a perfect forme and naturall being : so in the restoring of man kind , being deprived of his image and deformed , god doth by his word , and by his spirit shed on us through christ , regenerate , renue , reforme and prepare us for the fruition of himselfe , and doth fit , and prepare us for supernaturall perfection and blessednesse . as in ezechiels vision , the wind from god did move and shake the drie bones scattered upon the face of the earth , and fitted them by flesh and skinne to receive life , and to stand up living men in perfect strength and stature : so , by the word and spirit of god , men dead and rotten in sinnes and sinfull corruption , are , by the spirit of god breathed through christ , renued after his image , and fitted by the life of grace , for the eternall life of glory , ezech. . the spirit of god ( as our saviour testifieth ) is like the wind , which bloweth where it listeth : it is hee , which doth frame us after gods image in our new birth , ioh. . , . and fits us for the kingdome of glory . wee are as farre from god , and from christ , and as void of his image and of all spirituall life , as the rude masse was of all forme in the first creation ; untill the spirit of god bee given to us in christ to dwell in us , and renue us , as the apostle sheweth , rom. . . . ephes. . . . and tit. . . . wherefore , as wee desire to be made like unto christ in the image of glory , and to see , and enjoy god in his heavenly kingdom , where all fulnesse of perfection and blessednesse is to bee found ; so let us by the consideration of this doctrine bee stirred up to thirst after the river of the water of life , even the gifts and graces of the holy ghost , and never rest satisfied , till wee feele within us the testimony of the spirit of christ witnessing with our spirits that wee are the children of god , and till wee feele our selves sanctified throughout both in soule and body , and holinesse engraven upon our hearts without which none can see god. secondly , seeing the spirit of god is he who prepares men for supernaturall perfection , and there is no communion to be had with christ , nor participation of his merits and saving benefits to salvation , except men have the spirit of god dwelling in them , and of profane and carnall sons of adam , making them holy , and spirituall sons of god ; let us not count it any shame or reproach to us , that profane mockers of these last times doe , in mockery and derision , call us spirituall men , who ascribe all good motions which are in us to the spirit of god dwelling in us , & directing us in all our wayes . we doe not deny , but that all enthusiasts , and other men of fanaticall spirit , doe most profanely , and sacrilegiously father their owne fansies , and lustfull motions on the spirit of god , and therein deserve reproach and derision : but let men take heed , that they doe not , by loathing their hypocrisie and arrogancy , runne into atheisme and blasphemous impiety , by rejecting and denying the spirits dwelling in all gods regenerate children , working in them all saving graces , and moving them to walke in the holy wayes of god which lead unto supernaturall perfection and eternall blessednesse . for , most certaine it is that as the first rude matter of the visible world was sustained and cherished by the spirit of god moving upon the face of it , and was not otherwise able to subsist , or to bee formed into divers creatures , every one made perfect in their kind with naturall perfection : so the perfect stabilitie of man , in an happie unchangable estate ; yea the perfection of the visible world made for mans use , is the work of the holy ghost uniting man to to god in christ , and gathering and reconciling all things unto god in him , who is the head over all . although man and all creatures ( as appeares in the last verse of this chapter ) were created every one good and perfect in his kind , with naturall perfection : yet man the chiefe , and the lord of them all , having not as yet the holy ghost shed on him through christ , as all the regenerate and faithfull have , was mutable , and in that honourable estate of innocency hee did not stand and abide , but did full from it very quickly after that the woman was created and given to him , as wee read chap. . yea hee did not lodge one night therein , psalme . . and by mans sinfull fall and corruption , the whole frame of the visible world was made subject to vanity , and groaneth under it as under an intolerable burden , and with earnest longing waiteth for deliverance and restitution to an higher estate in the glorious libertie of the sons of god , rom. . . . and although the eternall word , the son of god , had undertaken for man in the eternall counsell of the blessed trinitie , and did step in to mediate for man , and in the first promise made upon mans fall was proclaimed to bee the onely and all-sufficient redeemer , and was fully exhibited in the flesh , and became a perfect redeemer in his death and resurrection ; so that in him is plenteous redemption , and matter sufficient to merit more then man lost by sin , even heavenly glory and immortality : yet all this profits nothing without the work of the spirit . christ with all his sufferings , and obedience unto death , and all his righteousnesse , and fullfilling of the law ; are as a fountaine sealed up , and treasures hid , and locked up in darknesse ; so that none can partake of him or them for redemption and salvation without communion of the holy ghost ; which god in our regeneration doth shed on us aboundantly through christ. this spirit dwelling in christ and the faithfull , makes them one mysticall body with christ , sons and heires of god ; makes his satisfaction their ransome for actuall redemption and reconciliation , and his righteousnes their righteousnes for justification . this spirit also doth renue them after the image of god , and transformes them into the image of christ in all holinesse , that they may bee fit to see and enjoy god ; and thus hee brings them to the fruition of perfect blessednesse , and to the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , which never fadeth : and gods blessings are through christs mediation poured out upon all creatures for their sakes : and hereupon it is , that all gifts and graces , which tend to make men perfect and unchangably blessed , are ascribed to the spirit , as wisedome , knowledge , faith , hope , love , meekenesse , patience , courage , strength , prayer , and in a word all holinesse and perfection : and whensoever god is said to give any of these gifts to men in an effectuall and saving manner and measure , hee is said to give them the spirit of grace , wisedome , zeale and supplication , as appeares isa. . . zach. . . yea common illumination and all extraordinary supernaturall gifts , which are given to unregenerate reprobates for the revealing of christ , as the gift of prophecie to balaam and saul , and the change of heart in saul from cowardly pusillanimity , to fortitude and magnanimity ; the gift of miracles to iudas ; also illumination , tast of the heavenly gift , joy in the holy word of god , given to backsliders , heb. . are the worke of the holy ghost , assisting them and inspiring them from without , for the churches good ; not inwardly dwelling and working in them for their owne salvation . wherefore let us count it no reproach that wee have no hope of being in an happy and blessed estate , no assurance that wee are in the way to perfection , till wee feele the spirit of god dwelling and working in us , moving our hearts , and conforming us to the image of christ ; and that wee rejoyce in this , and this is our glorying that wee are not carnall but spirituall . they , who think it enough , for the obtaining of perfection and salvation , to know , beleeve , and professe , that in christ there is as sufficient matter of satisfaction for the redeeming of all mankind ; as there was in the rude masse without forme , matter enough for the whole visible world and all creatures therein , doe much deceive themselves : for many who know and beleeve all this doe perish ; and none are saved or perfected by christ , but onely they who are by the spirit dwelling in them united to christ , and regenerated and renued after his image . this spirit is the earnest of our inheritance , and witnesseth to us our adoption ; hee makes us new creatures and a free willing people , hee sanctifieth us to bee an holy temple for himselfe to dwell in , purgeth out sinfull corruption , mortifieth the deeds of the flesh , so that sin cannot reigne in our mortall bodies . there is one thing more , which i may not passe over here in silence , to wit , that this text doth prove plainely , that the spirit of god , the third person in the trinity , is one and the same god with the father and the son , of the same uncreated nature and substance , the almighty creatour , and preserver of all things in heaven and in earth , visible and invisible . to sustaine a rude matter without forme and void , and to make it subsist , is a worke of power , farre above the power of any thing created ; and to compasse and comprehend the whole matter and masse of the visible world ; and to assist and cherish by present vertue every part thereof at once , is a strong argument and plaine proofe of divine and infinite power and omnipotency , proper to iehovah the one onely true god : and all this is here testified of the spirit of god in these words , and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters , that is ( as the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , merachepheth , and here used in the originall signifieth ) did sit upon and cherish that mightie masse , as an hen doth sit upon and cherish her egges , that they may bee formed into chickens . therefore the spirit of god is here proved to bee one and the same god with the father and the son , and the almighty creatour , former and preserver of the whole world , and all things therein . to which purpose the scriptures also speake fully in other places , where the heavens and the host of them are said to bee made by the word and spirit of god , as psalme . . and that when god sends out his spirit , things are created , as psalme . . and that god by his spirit garnished the heavens , iob . . and that hee is present by his preserving and sustaining power in all places , psalme . . which places prove the spirit of god to bee iehovah the creatour and former of all things , and the true god , in whom wee all live , move , and have our being . this point , which i have proved and confirmed by many other strong arguments already , in my discourse of the trinitie ; as it discovers the desperate malice , impudency , and atheisme of the remonstrants , the disciples of socinus , and arminius , who call into question the deitie of the holy ghost and his unitie , with the father and the son , and his right to bee prayed unto and worshipped with divine worship : so it is of singular comfort to the faithfull , whose bodies are temples of the holy ghost , in that it assures them that god is their portion , and dwells in them , and they are begotten of his seed in regeneration , and are partakers of the divine nature , and heaven is their inheritance . chap. vi. of the first dayes worke . what the light was . what it is , god said , let there be light . how be called the light , day , and the darkenesse night . of a day naturall and civill . that the night was before the day . how a day was before the sunne was . prerogatives of the first day . vers . , , . and god said , let there be light , and there was light ; and god saw the light that it was good . and god divided the light from the darknesse . and god called the light day , and the darknesse hee called night , and the evening and the morning were the first day . after that darknesse had continued upon the face of the deep , and the whole matter of this inferiour world had remained full of darknesse for the space of one night , god by his powerfull word created light , the first perfect creature and element of the visible world , and commanded it to shine out of darknesse ; and this was the morning of the first day . in the words wee may observe these foure things : first , the creation of light in the . vers . secondly , gods approbation of it in these words , god saw the light that it was good . thirdly , gods separation of it from the darknesse , vers . . fourthly , gods nomination or naming of the light , day , and the darknesse night , and so compounding these two , light and darknesse , into the first whole day of the world , vers . . in the first thing , which is the creation of light , the first of all perfect creatures in this visible world , two things come to bee sifted and examined for our right understanding thereof . first , the thing created , light , what is thereby here meant . secondly , the manner of creating it , god said , let light bee , and it was so . concerning the first , i find divers and severall opinions of the learned . saint augustine lib. . in genes . ad literam cap. . and rupertus lib. . de trinit . cap. . doe by this light understand the highest heavens , and the angels , which are not a corporeall but a spirituall light ; but this cannot bee the truth , for this light is said to bee , that which is called the day , and is opposed to the darknesse of the night here in this mutable and visible world ; the shining whereof doth distinguish day from the night , which cannot bee said of the angels and the highest heavens , which were not made out of darknesse , nor out of the rude unformed masse as this light was , which god commanded to shine out of darknesse as the apostle saith , . cor. . . secondly , others , as beda , lyra , and lombard , doe by this light understand a bright cloud carried about , and making a difference of day and night . nazianzene and theadoret doe think , that it was the same light , which now is in the sun , moone , and starres , subsisting at the first in one bodie , and afterwards divided into severall parts when god made the sun , moone , and starres out of it . basil thought that it was light without a subject . aquinas , that it was the light of the sun made imperfect at the first ; and of this opinion is pererius also . catharinus held , that it was the sun it selfe , made first of all ; which is directly contrary to the expresse words of the . vers . which affirme , that the sun was made the fourth day . iunius , by light , here understands the element of fire . in this variety of opinions , i hold it the best , and surest way of finding out the truth , to seeke it out of the word used in the originall text . the hebrewword ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or ) which is here translated light , ( besides the tropicall and spirituall senses , in which it is used in those scriptures which call god the light in whom is no darknesse , and the light and salvation of his people ; and doe call gods regenerate people light in the lord ) doth more properly signifie two things : first , that naturall bodie or substance , which among all the parts and creatures of the visible world is most bright and shining in it selfe , and gives light to others ; as for example , the sun , moone , and starres , are called lights , psalme . . and the element of fire , is called by this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , light , ezech. . . secondly , it signifies , and that most frequently in the scripture , the light , that is , the shining brightnesse of the heavens , and of the sun , moone , and starres , and of the element of fire burning in a lamp or torch , or other combustible matter . here i doe not take the word in this latter sense , onely for a shining brightnesse ; for then god had created an accident or quality without a subject , which is a thing against nature of things created ; for common reason and experience shew , that never did any qualitie subsist of it selfe without a substance ; by course of nature no light can be but in some created body , as in the heavens , fire , or aire . but hereby light wee are to understand , of necessity , some notable part of this great frame of the visible world , which god first framed out of the rude masse , which was without forme and void , before mentioned ; yea that part , which is most bright , shining and resplendent ; and doth by light and brightnesse , which is naturall in it , shine forth and enlighten other things . now that cannot bee any of these lower elements , the water and the earth , for they have no such light in them ; and besides , it is manifest , that they were formed out of the grossest and most dark part of the common masse , on the third day , vers . . neither can it bee the spacious region of the aire , which is extended and spread abroad farre and wide , over all the round globe of the earth and the waters , and reacheth up to the etheriall region of the visible heavens , even to the sphaere of the moone , and is called the lowest heaven , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the broad expansion or firmament in the midst of the waters : for that was formed the second day , as appeares in . . . vers . it must needs therefore bee the firmament of the visible heavens , which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the large and farre stretched firmament of the midle heaven , even the fiery or etheriall region , wherein god , on the fourth day , formed and set the great lights of the sun , moone , and starres , vers . . . for , first those heavens were framed and made of the most pure , and refined part of the masse , which is the common matter of the visible world , and are most bright and shining , full of light and brightnesse ; and undoubtedly as in place and order , they are the next to the highest heavens , so they were created next after them in the first day , and are here called by the name of light , because all the light of this visible world is in them , and from them shineth into the aire and giveth light upon the earth . secondly , there is no particular mention made by moses in this chapter of the framing of these heavens , among all the works of the six dayes , except it bee in this word light ; and it is most incredible that hee would omit the creation of them which are the most excellent and glorious part of the visible frame of the world , especially seeing hee doth exactly and particularly name , and relate the creation of all other parts , and the day wherein they were created . i am not ignorant , that aristotle , and the most learned naturall philosophers of his sect , did hold , that the visible heavens are eternall and unchangable , and of a matter and substance different from the foure elements , fire , aire , water , and earth ; and were not made of the same common matter . also divers learned christians and schoolemen doe thinke , that these heavens were created together with the highest heavens immediatly of nothing , in the beginning when time first began to bee , and are mentioned in the first verse ; and that light , which is here said to bee made , is the element of fire ; the naturall place and region whereof , the philosophers held to bee next under the visible heavens , and above the aire : their reasons are two especially ; the first , because there is no other mention of the creation of the firie element in all this chapter . the second is , because the fire is the most pure element , and full of light : but these things are not of strength to overthrow our exposition . first , for the opinion of the philosophers , that the visible heavens are immutable and cannot bee dissolved , it is contradicted by the expresse words of holy scripture , psalme . . and pet. . . also wee finde by experience many changes in those heavens ; as new starres & comets appearing for a time & after vanishing . the sun and moone stood still for the space of a whole day , iosh. . and the sun went back ten degrees , king. . secondly , the vertue and influence which is in the visible heavens , and is from them naturally communicated to the lower elements , sheweth plainely that they all are of one common matter . thirdly , that they were not made at once of nothing with the highest heavens , appeares by this , that the sun , moone , and stars , which are the chiefest parts and ornaments in them were created after the first rude matter , and secondarily formed out of it on the fourth day . fourthly , that the visible heavens are indeed the pure element of fire , which is here called light , and that the creation of the light is the creation of them , and of the firie element all in one , may easily bee proved by divers reasons . first , by the light and servent heat , which flowes from them into things below , by meanes whereof they doe beget firie meteors and lightenings in the aire , and scorching sumes , and burning flames in the earth , as dayly experience teacheth . secondly , by the burning and consuming fires , which descended from those heavens in the destruction of sodom , and when the lord came downe on mount sinah to give the law , and when eliah consumed the captaines and their fifties , king. , and was answered by fire , which consumed his sacrifice , king. . thirdly , that these heavens are of a fierie substance , and indeed the pure element of fire , and that in the dissolution of them , when the lord by his mighty voice shall rend them and dissolve them at the last day , and mingle them with the inferiour elements ; they shall bee all on fire , and in flames and flashes shall passe away with a noyse , and melt the elements with servent heat , and burne the earth with all the works that are therein ; the apostle doth affirme in plaine words , pet. . . . if they were not of a firie substance made out of the rude masse , but of an higher and super-elementary nature created immediatly out of nothing , together with the highest heavens , they could not bee dissolved and set on fire . thus you see the first thing opened , viz. what is here meant by light. the next thing is the manner of creation ; expressed in these words , god said , let there bee light , and there was light . i will not here trouble my discourse with needlesse questions , which are moved by divers ancient writers , and not cleared concerning the manner of gods speech when he said , let there bee light ; as whether it were a bodily and audible voice , or a spirituall , and the like . certainly it was no sound of voice , nor any forme of words or speech by which god formed the light : it was the act of his almighty power , by which he formed , and brought into actuall being the light and every other thing , even so as hee had decreed from all eternitie . now the spirit of god doth here expresse this powerfull act by the name of saying or speaking , for . reasons . first , because as the speech and word of a wise man sheweth his minde and declareth his will , so by this act of power , by which the light and every other thing was formed , god did shew and declare his eternall counsell , purpose and decree concerning the nature and being of them . secondly , because god the father by his eternall word , the son , who is one god with himselfe , did forme and make the light and all other things created , as appeares , ioh. . . and colos. . . and hebr. . . thirdly , to shew , that the creation of the world , and all things therein , was a worke as easie to god , as it is for a man to speake a word and to command a thing to bee done ; and that god by his power omnipotent , and powerfull and mighty word and command , can as quickly bring into being the greatest things , and performe whatsoever he willeth and purposeth with more case , then man can speake and say , let this thing be . this is the true sense of the words , wherein the manner of creation is expressed . the second thing after the creation of light is gods approbation of it , in these words , and god saw the light that it was good : that is , such as god purposed to make the light , such it was when hee had made it ; there was no defect in the making , or in the thing made ; but god did see and know it perfect in the kind thereof , and did approve it to bee good , profitable and usefull , every way , for the purposes which hee intended . the third thing is gods dividing between the light and the darknesse which did over-spread the face of the deep , and possessed all the rude masse which yet remained without forme and void . this dividing between them , was nothing else but gods setting and placing of the firie and shining visible heaven in the superiour place above the confused matter which was full of darknesse , and settled downe in the inferiour place where now the inferiour elements are the fourth thing is gods nomination of the light and darknesse , and composing the first day of the evening , that is , the space wherein the darknesse remained over all the deep before light was created out of it ; and of the morning , that is , the space wherein light appeared before god set upon the second dayes worke , and made the firmament . this is expressed vers . . god called the light day , and the darknesse he called night , & the evening and morning were the first day . here for our right understanding of this point , divers doubts and questions come to bee touched and briefely answered . the first is , how and in what sense god is said to call the light day , and the darknesse night . the true and full answer is this , that god did not onely call the light day , and darknesse night : but also did ordaine and appoint , that the time of light should bee the day , and the time of darknesse should bee the night , and that they should bee so accounted and called . the second is , why god called onely the light day , and moses calls both the evening and the morning , that is , the time of light and darknesse one day , or the first day . i answere , that gods day , which is most truly and properly so called , is the time of light , and in it their is no night or darknesse . for god speakes of a naturall day distinct from the night : but moses speakes of a civill day which comprehends in it the space of . houres , in which the sun runnes round about the world with the heavens ; which day includes in it a day and a night : and here observe that gods day is all light , and mans day is mixt of light and darknesse . thirdly , it may asked whether the night , or the day went before in the first day of the creation . the answer is , that the night or time of darknesse was first ; and it is likely that darknesse did over-spread the face of the deep the space of a night , that is . houres , before god formed the light , and setled the visible heavens in their place ; and that after the light was created , it did shine forth for the space of . houres more before god went about to make the firmament , which was the second dayes work ; and so the first day of the world was of the same length with all other civill or astronomicall dayes , that is , houres , divided equally between light and darknesse . the words of the text shew that darknesse overspread all the masse of the inferiour world for a time , before the light was formed . also in naming the six dayes of the creation , the evening , that is , the time of darknesse , is rehearsed first before the morning , which is the 〈◊〉 of light . also gods people began their dayes of the weeke and of the yeare with the night , and reckoned the sabbath and other solemne dayes from evening to evening , as appeares , levit. . . fourthly it may bee asked , how the firie or visible heavens could by their light make a day before the sun was created , seeing the light of the same heavens , together with the light of the moone , and the starres added thereto , cannot make a day , but it is night where the sun is absent , and the light of it not seene , not withstanding the light of the heavens , and of the moone and starres . i answere , that the light of the heavens without sun , moone , and starres is sufficient to make a bright day in the place where they are , and there it is alwayes day , though by reason of the spacious regions of the aire , and the great distance betweene them and the earth , their light doth not shine to us to make a day of light without the beames of the sun , but it is dark night in that part of the earth where their light onely appeares . now in the first day before the firmament was made , that is the region of the aire purged and refined out of the masse by the sinking and settling of the earthy and waterish matter towards the center , there was no need of light further then the body of the heavens reached , that is to the upper face of the rude masse , not yet formed , but remaining rude and full of darknesse ; and therefore so farre as the visible world was brought into forme , they did give most clear day light : and as all had before bin overspread with darknesse for the space of a night ; so all was now overspread with light for a dayes space , and so the first day of the creation was one halfe all night , and another halfe all day in all the visible world , even in all parts thereof which were then created and brought into perfect forme and being . from this text thus opened wee may observe divers points of instruction . first we learne , that as there are three persons in that one god which created the world by his own infinite power ; so every person is a creatour ; and god the father by his eternall word , the son , did extend and shew forth his power to the framing of every creature , and by his spirit did give all forme and perfection to them . as the word elohim , used in the first verse , notes more persons ; so here , and in the verse before , wee see the persons distinguished , and all three working in the framing of the world and all the creatures therein . first , god the father is brought in creating . secondly , by his word , that is , not by a sound of the voice , or a word uttered ; for there was then no aire to receive such a sound ; but by his eternall word bringing things into being according to his eternall counsell and decree . thirdly , by his spirit moving upon the face of the waters , and cherishing the rude and common matter of the whole visible world , yet void and unformed , and preparing it for the receiving of the severall formes of all creatures in the severall parts of it . which point excellently confirmes our faith in the true doctrine of the blessed trinitie , and confutes sabellius , servetus , the socinians and arminians , who denied the eternall deity of the son and the holy ghost , and overthrowes their severall heresies and damnable errours . secondly wee hence learne , that all things are possible to god ; he can as easily and quickly by his eternall word and power bring greatest things to passe , even bring light out of darknesse , and the glorious , pure , spacious , visible heavens out of the rude , impure and confused masse , which was without forme and void ; as a man of nimble tongue and ready speech can speake a word . which doctrine other scriptures doe aboundantly confirme , which ascribe to god omnipotency , and proclaime him to bee wonderfull in counsell , and excellent in working ; and that nothing is too hard or wonderfull for him to doe , as genes . . . isa . . iob . . and . . which serves to stirre us up to feare , admire , and reverence god , to seek his favour and protection above all things , and to rest confidently on him for defence against all enemies and dangers when wee are reconciled to him , and have him for our god and our portion . thirdly , we may here observe , that god is wonderful in wisedome and providence , in that the first thing created in this visible world was light , even the bright and shining heavens ; which , as above all visible creatures they shew the glory and super-celestial excellency of god in their naturall frame and substance , so also give bodily light to the eyes of all bodily living creatures , which were to bee made to see , and discerne the glorious beauty and admirable frame of his visible works : for hereby it came to passe , that none of gods visible & perfect works of wisedome , were for an houre smoothered in darknesse ; but were all manifest , and gods glory was clearly seene in them , so soone as there was a seeing creature able to discerne them . this sheweth , that god hath done his part to reveale himselfe ; and man who takes not notice of god in his works , to worship him aright , is without all excuse . and this should stirre us up to labour to see god , and to discerne him in his works , and to place all our perfection and happinesse in the sight and knowledge of him . fourthly , we may hence observe divers singular prerogatives of the first day , which is now , by the resurrection of christ , the lords holy day , and the sabbath of all true christians . that by many speciall prerogatives , god did in the creation foreshew his eternall counsell and purpose to make this day his holy day in the dayes of christ , and in the time of the gospell under the kingdome of grace . . this is the first fruits of all time . . in it was created the glorious frame of the heavens , and the first light of the visible world. . in this day god first shewed by his eternall word , the son , his eternall counsell and purpose , and by his word and spirit , began to bring his purposes to passe , and produce things into being . . in this day darknesse and light were so separated and divided , that , while the night lasted , there was no day in all the inferiour world ; and while it was day , there was no night over all the face of the earth & the deep , but light in all the world , which was then created and brought into forme and perfect being . . in this day god first shewed his approbation and his pleasure , that he approved for good the things which by his eternall word , the son , he did forme and bring into being . therefore without doubt most fit to bee the day of the lord christ , and sanctified and kept holy to the honour and glory of him , who is the first borne of god , and the first fruits of them that sleep , and the light of the world , and in whom god sheweth his counsell , and is in him well pleased , and by him turnes night into day , and brings light out of darknesse , and brings us to eternall rest in the highest heavens , which were created in the beginning of the first day . chap. vii . the second dayes worke . of the skie and things now created . all made by the power of god in christ. the use of the firmament . how called heaven . all was created wisely and orderly : vse . and god said , let there bee a firmament in the midst of the waters , and let it divide the waters from the waters . . and god made the firmament , and divided the waters which were under the firmament , from the waters which were above the firmament ; and it was so . . and god called the firmament heaven : and the evening and the morning were the second day . in these words wee have abriefe historie of the second dayes worke in the creation of the world : wherein wee are to consider these five things : . the thing created . . the creation and bringing of it into being . . the use of it . . the name which god gave unto it . . how by this worke there came in an evening and a morning , which where the second day first , for the thing created , it is in the originall text called by a generall name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which may signifie any thing which is spread abroad , or stretched farre and wide , according to the etymologie of it . for the hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of which it is derived , in all scriptures wheresoever it is used , doth signifie the act of spreading any thing abroad , & stretching it out , and laying it wide-open to view , as exod. . . numb . . and ier. . , it signifies beating out of gold , silver , or brasse into thinne broad plates , that is , spreading them broad by violent beating , exod. . it is used to signifie the spreading abroad of the tent over the tabernacle , psalme . . and isa. . . and . . it is used to signifie the stretching out of the earth above the waters farre and wide , iob . . it signifies the spreading out of the skie and of the thinne cloudes ; and sam. . . it is used to signifie spreading abroad as a man spreads clay by stamping it with his feet ; and , by a metonymic of the effect , it is used to signifie stamping with the feet as men stamp clay and spread it abroad , ezech. . . and . . these are the places of scriptures , in which onely that word is used . so then this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being derived of it , must needs signifie a thing which is stretched out like a tent or canopie , or spread abroad as plates of gold and silver are by beating , and clay by stamping . the greeke septuagints transiate this word every where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , a thing which though it bee farre stretched out , yet it is so surely established , that it abides still in the place which god hath appointed for it . and the vulgar latine , with divers later translaters , following the greeke septuagints , translate it firmamentum , the firmament , that is , a thing firmely set and established in a place , which cannot from thence bee driven out , and leave the place empty . and although this word may , according to the notation of it , signifie any thing stretched out or spread abroad , or laid wide open , and is once onely used to signifie broad plates of brasse beaten out for a covering , and that in the plurall number , num. . . yet in all other places of scripture it is used in the singular number for the skie , which god hath from the beginning stretched out over the globe of the earth and the sea , as here in this chapter , and psalme . . and . . and dan. . . and ezech. . . and . . now what this skie or firmament is , that is a great question among the learned . divers of the ancients , as basil , ambrose , beda , and others , doe by this firmament understand the starry heavens . first , because it is said in the . verse that god called this firmament heaven . secondly , because it is said that , when god made the sun , moone , & starres , hee set them in the firmament of heaven , vers . . thirdly , because they doe imagine that there is a watery heaven above the starry heaven , which consists of water congealed like to cristall , and doth temper the heat of the sun , moone , and stars ; and out of this heaven they conceive that god poured the waters which drowned the old world , because it is said , gen. . . that the windowes of heaven were opened , and god rained on the earth . but others doe hold , that by the firmament here is meant the whole heavens ; that is , both the first heavens , the spacious regions of the aire ; and also the middle , that is , the firie and starry heavens ; and the third , that is , the highest heavens . first , because it is said that god called the firmament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , heaven ; and this word is used in the scriptures to signifie all these three heavens . and as the highest heaven is called by this name , psalme . . the lords throne is in heaven , and psalme . where it is said , praise him , o heaven of heavens : so the middle and starry heavens , as gen. . . where wee read of the starres of heaven , and also the airy or lowest heaven is thus called , verse . and . where it is said , let the fowles flie in the open firmament of heaven , and psalme . . and hos. . . and many other places , where wee read of the fowles of heaven . but the best learned of later times have for the most part held , that by the firmament is here meant that vast and spacious element and region of the aire , which is extended and stretched out , not onely round about all the earth and the sea ; but also reacheth from this globe of the earth and the sea , to the starry heavens even to the spheare of the moone : and this is without doubt the true sense and meaning of the word in this place , as appears by divers reasons . first , the hebrew name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( by which god called this firmament or large region , being compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies there , or in that place , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies waters ) notes out unto us , that this firmament is the place where waters are engendered in the clouds , and which from thence descend and water the earth , and that is the fluid and waterish element the aire . secondly , there is no other firmament besides the aire stretched out between the waters of the sea , which are below and the undermost , and the waters above in the clouds heaven-ward , and from thence distill and water the earth , and did descend in great aboundance , and drowned the old world , when god dissolved the clouds , & so opened the floud-gates and windowes of heaven : the aire is the onely element which divides between these two waters of the clouds above , and of the sea and rivers below , thirdly , the airy region is that in which the sun , moone , and starres doe shine and give light to the earth , and in which their beames and light appeare to us on earth . the light of the starry heavens , and of the sun , which alwayes shines in them , even at midnight as well as at noone day , is not seene of us as it is in the heavens , but as it is in the aire ; for , by multiplying their beames in the aire , the sun , moone , and starres are seen of us , and give light upon the earth . and therefore it is not said , that god made the sun , moone , and starres in the firmament , or set them to have their place and being in it ; but gave them to bee lights in it , that is , set them above to shine through it , and , by multiplying their beames in this firmament the aire , to give light to the earth , verse . fourthly , the fowles which flie in the open face of the aire , are said to flie in the firmament , which god called heaven , verse . fifthly , the highest heaven was created in the beginning in the first moment of time together with the angels . and the starry heaven is the light created in the first day ; therefore this heaven here called firmament is the airie region or lowest heaven . sixthly , in all places of scripture wherein wee finde this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is here translated firmament , wee may very well and with good reason understand by firmament , the large extended region of the aire ; and it cannot be proved by any one place that the word signifies any other then the airie heaven enlightned with the beames of the sun and the starry heavens . seventhly , they who here by firmament do understand the starry heavens , are forced by the words of the text ( which say , that the firmament is in the midst of the waters , and divides the waters above from the waters below ) to imagine that there are waters above the starry heavens , there placed to mitigate the heat of the sun , and the starres , and that these waters drowned the old world ; which is a ridiculous conceipt , grounded on palpable mistaking of divers scriptures , and contrary to all reason . for the places of scripture which speake of waters above the heavens , intend no other waters but such as are in the clouds in the middle region of the aire , and above the lowest region of the firmament or airy heaven . first , the hebrew phrase ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) that is , above the firmament , or above the heavens ; signifies no more but waters that are above , heavenward . secondly , the scriptures doe plainely expound this phrase , and in many places shew , that by waters above the heavens , they doe not meane either the multitude of heavenly angels , as origen dreamed ; or any crystall orbe or naturall waters above the starry heavens , as basil , ambrose , beda , and others imagined ; or the matter of spirituall and supercelestiall substances different from the matter of earthly creatures , as austen thought ; but that these waters above , are the waters in the clouds above in the middle region of the aire , even raine , and haile , and snow , and such waters as flow from thence in great aboundance when it pleaseth god to open the bottles , windowes , fountaines , and floodgates of heaven , that is , the clouds ; for the clouds are called the bottles of heaven , iob . . and the fountaines of the deep , prov. . . and the watery roofe of gods chambers , psalme . . and god is said to bind up his waters in the thick clouds , and the cloud is not rent under them , iob . . and when god openeth the clouds and sends downe raine to water the earth , & to give to it the blessing of fruitfulnesse , hee is said to open the windowes and flood-gates of heaven , gen. . . and mal. . . and the lowest region of the aire , in which the dew is engendered of vapours and mists dissolved into small drops , is called heaven ; and the dew from thence distilling is called the dew of heaven , gen. . . psalme . . and zach. . . so then wee see that the firmament here called heaven , is the wide and broad spread aire reaching from earth to the starry heaven , and compassing the globe of sea and land round about ; and by the waters above the firmament , the waters in the clouds are meant , which are above the lowest region of the airy heaven or firmament . and thus much for the opening of the first thing in my text , to wit , the thing created . the second thing is the creation of this firmament , and the manner of it . it is said , god made the firmament , that is , framed it , as hee had done the light the starry heavens , out of the rude matter before named , which was without forme and void , verse . and this hee did by the same power and after the same manner , as he did the light , saying , let there be a firmament , that is , by his eternall word the son , by whom he doth exercise all his power , and performe all his works according to his eternall counsell , and by whom hee sheweth outwardly his eternall purpose and will , as a man by his word doth openly professe and declare his mind and purpose . and thus wee see the son● still worketh with the father and the spirit in the creation of every thing in the world , and without him nothing is made and created . the third thing is a maine use for which this firmament was made to serve ; namely to divide the waters from the waters , that is , the waters which are below in the sea , and rivers , and are mingled with the earth , from the waters which are above in the clouds ; for wee finde by experience , that there is no other thing , which divides between those waters , but onely the lowest heaven , the airie firmament . there is also another use hereafter mentioned , verse . that is to convey the light from the sun , moone , and starry heavens to the earth . the fourth thing is the name by which god called the firmament , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , heaven . indeed , according to the common etymologie and notation approved of all the learned , this name most properly expresseth the nature of the aire , the place of waters and waterish clouds ; and the starry and highest heavens are so called by reason that they appeare to us , in our fight , to be one , and the same common body ; or else by a metaphore , because there is a great similitude between them and the aire , in respect of their purity and brightnesse ; or ( as i have formerly noted ) this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when it is the proper name of the highst heaven , may have another derivation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth there doubled , or made in the forme of the duall number ; and so it is as much as if one should say there , there , that is , there is the place of all places , there is the best being in the heaven of heavens : and here wee may observe , what manifold and wonderfull wisedome there is in the names which god hath given to creatures which hee himselfe named . the fifth and last thing to bee considered in this text , which is a point of greatest difficultie , is , how by the framing and continuance of this worke , there came in an evening and a morning , which are the second day . the sun was not yet created to shine and to give clear day light , such as wee now have , and therefore how could there bee a day or a morning ? and the light , that is , the bright frame of the firie heavens being extended over all the inferiour masse of the inferiour elements , not yet formed , how could there bee an evening or night , and so a whole civill day , as the text here speakes ? all that the learned have devised and written for the removing of these doubts , is this : some hold , that the light which god created subsisting without a subject , did , for the space of . houres , shine and send forth beames , and make the morning ; and againe , for the space of . houres , was contracted and withdrew it selfe , and so made the night or evening . this is the opinion of basil , and damascene . others think that light created the first day , being a bright cloud which moved about as the sun doth , did shine like fire one while , and so made the day ; and was like a thick cloud of darknesse for another while , and so made the night ; as the pillar of cloud which lead israel ; so beda holds . others thinke it was the light of the sun created imperfect at the first , and moving about with the heavens , did make a difference between day and night equally . but certainly the light which god created being good , that is , a perfect creature in his kind , and so approved of god , as the words of the text shew ; cannot with any reason bee held to bee any imperfect thing , which afterwards was altered , or any such mutable and corruptible light as was kindled and quenched ; for god , seeing , and approving it for good , would not so quickly alter it . wherefore i take the evening or night time of the second day , to bee the time wherein god by his word and power was separating the aire and purging it , by causing the thick waterish and earthy part to descend and settle downewards towards the center . for all that time , the vast and spacious wide region of the aire , being not purified , remained dark and duskish , because the light of the firie heaven did not shine thorough it , and that was the evening or night of the second day : but the aire being made pure & perfect , and settled in his naturall place , received the light of the heavens into it for the space of . houres , before god began to create the other elements , which were the first works of the third day . and this was a day of light cleare enough for the creatures then made , though not so light as when the sun was made ; and this evening and morning made the second day , as the text saith . and thus we see the true sense and meaning of the text , and what is the second day and the work thereof : from whence wee may observe some points of doctrine . first wee hence learne , that god proceeds most wisely and orderly in the creation of the world , declaring manifestly that hee doth nothing in vaine , nor makes any thing before it is usefull and necessarily for the communicating of his goodnesse to his creatures ; but doth all for the benefit of others , and addes nothing to himselfe , neither hath need to receive glory from any creature . if god had made the sun and starres before hee made the aire or the earth , men might have imagined that hee had made the sun and lights of heaven not for the use of men and other earthly creatures ; but either because hee had need of them in the heavens to adde glory to himselfe ; or else to remaine for a time without use and in vaine . but in that hee made not the glorious lights at the first before the aire , through which they might shine and give light to the earth , hereby hee sheweth that hee created , all things wisely and orderly ; the most needfull things in the first place ; and nothing before there was use of it ; nothing which remained unprofitable for one houre ; and that in creating the world , hee neither sought nor needed any addition of glory to himselfe ; but made the glorious sun and lights for to shew and to impart his glory to men , and his goodnesse to other creatures . let us all see gods wisedome and goodnesse , and labour to imitate him in them ; and as he doth all for our use , not his owne profit , so let us not seek any thing in the world for our owne vaine ends : but make the setting forth of his glory , the end of all our labours ; and strive to doe his will and pleasure , not our owne ; nor the will and commandement of any man , when wee perceive it to bee contrary and not according to the will and word of god. secondly , in that the light of the second day which shined onely in the aire , and through it to the earth and deep , was not a cleare but obscure light in comparison of the first day , and the dayes after the sun , moone , and starres were made , not much brighter then the night of the three last dayes ; hereby god did foreshew , that the aire and this lowest world is the place of satans kingdome , wherein hee doth rage and tyrannize with great power after his fall , untill hee be cast into hell at the last day ; which also other scripture● shew , as eph. . where satan is called the prince of the aire , and revel . . . the kingdome of satan is called the aire , and ioh. . . our saviour calls him the prince of this world. wherefore let us not place our felicity here in the things of this world , nor hope for peace and rest in this lowest airy heaven where satan ruleth and rageth . hee who preacheth for things here , hee speakes into the aire , cor. . . hee who wrastleth for a prize here , hee beateth the aire , and strives for uncertainties , cor. . . let us looke up higher to the heaven of heavens , to the country and city , which is above , and where christ is , there let our heart bee , verse . chap. viii . the third dayes worke . of water and earth , distinct elements . of the names of earth and sea. of herbes , plants , and trees . all earthly things , nothing to god. wee are pilgrimes on earth : vses . god ruleth the most tumultuous creatures : vse . and god said , let the waters under the heaven bee gathered together unto one place , and let the drie land appeare ; and it was so , verse . and god called the drie land earth , and the gathering together of the waters called hee seas , and god saw that it was good , verse . and god said , let the earth bring forth grasse , herbe yeelding seed ; and the fruit tree yeelding fruit after his kind , whose seed is in it selfe upon the earth ; and it was so , verse . and the earth brought forth grasse , and herbe yeelding seed after his kind , and the tree yeelding fruit , whose seed was in it selfe after his kind ; and god saw that it was good , verse . and the evening and the morning , were the third day . the third dayes worke , is the creation of the earth and the seas , and the separating of them one from another in place , and the calling of them by their names ; also the creation of the herbes , plants , and trees out of the earth , all which made up a third dayes worke . in the . verse , wee have the creation of the two grossest and lowest elements , the water and the earth , laid downe very briefely , and withall the separation of the water from the earth into one place , and the appearance of the earth above the waters . the first words , ( and god said , ) shew , that god by his eternall word the son , created these inferiour elements , and all thing in them ; and still the son works with the father in all the works of creation . these next words , ( let the waters under the heaeen bee gathered together unto one place , and let the drie land appeare ) seeme not to speake at all of the creation of the waters or of the earth ; but onely of the separation of the waters into one place , and causing the dry land to appeare by it selfe . some expositors gather from these words , that the earth , and the waters were created before , and that the earth being made perfectly round in the lowest place , and framed of the heaviest and grossest part of the rude matter , which settled about the center , was all covered with the waters which were made of the purer part of that rude masse , which remained after the creation of the spacious firmament the airie heaven , and the naturall place of the waters was above the earth , betweene it and the aire . i easily beleeve and acknowledge , that the earth , being made of the heaviest part of the rude matter , doth occupie and possesse the lowest place about the middle center of the round world ; and that the naturall place of the water which is a purer and lighter element , in which place god first created it , and gave it being , is the place next above the earth compassing it round on every side ; and if the element of water were in quantity more then the hollow places of the earth could conteine , it would overflow all the upper face of the earth : or if god should bring the earth into a perfect round globe without risings up of hils , or hollow valleyes ; the waters of the sea would stand in the upper place next above it , between the aire and the earth . for wee see and find by daily experience , that as heavier elements do descend downwards when they are in lighter elements , and doe by naturall motion tend to the lower place ; as for example drops of raine-water , being ingendered in the aire , descend downward , and the earth and every part of it , whether a stone , or lump of clay or clod of earth , will sinke downe & move towards the bottom in a lake of standing water , and in a vessell full of water . so also the lighter and thinner elements doe naturally ascend above the heavier , and seeke the higher place , and cannot but by violence bee kept under them , or in the same place with them ; for wee see , that sparks and flames of fire being in the aire , will continually ascend upward till they come to the place above it ; and if aire be closed up in a bladder , and by some weight held downe in the bottom of a pond or some great vessell of water ; if it bee let loose by opening or bursting the bladder , it will presently flie up and make speedy way in bubbles to the top of the waters ; and if waters bee either ingendered in the earth under the ground , or , by secret conveyances , bee driven from the sea into the earth , it will continually spring up till it cometh to the top of the earth ; and hence it is , that wee have so many springs of water rising out of the earth . but i cannot beleeve , that the earth and the waters of the sea were created distinct elements before the third day ; because no words in this historie of the creation , doe , before this day , mention any creation of water and earth as they are elements perfectly formed and distinct one from another . indeed the rude masse , which was without forme and void , is called earth , and the deep , and the waters , not because it had the forme of these , or was any one of them ; but was onely the matter , of which they were made ; and because it was like earth , for the grossnesse of it ; and like water or a deep quagge or muddy lake , for the instability of it . and although it is said , before that god made the airie heaven , to divide between the waters above in the clouds , and the waters below under the aire in the sea and the rivers ; yet it doth not follow that these waters were created before , or that then immediatly it did divide betweene them , but that it was made to divide between them afterwards when they were created . yea itis plaine , that therewas no raine in the aire , nor clouds , nor mists , nor vapours ascending up from the earth , till after the earth was furnished with herbes , plants , and trees , chap. . verse , . wherefore ( omitting to mention divers needlesse questions , and unprofitable opinions raised and held by former writers and expositors of this text ) i will in briefe shew what i conceive , and what i gather out of these words . first , i conceive that these words , and god said , let waters from under heaven bee gathered together , ( for so they run in the originall ) doe implie two things : first , that god by his creating word brought the waters and the earth into being , and made them perfect and distinct elements one from another ; and the water being the lighter did at the first stand above the earth , and compasse it round , & that is the naturall place of it . secondly , that god immediatly after , when the waters had covered the earth almost for the space of a night , and had kept it in darknesse from the sight and light of heaven , then i say , god did bring the earth into that forme and shape which it now hath : in the round globe of it he made hollow valleyes , deeper in one place then another ; and hee raised up the hils and mountains so much in height above as those valleyes are deep and hollow below ; and the earth being a firme and drie element and standing fast in this fashion ; and the waters being of a liquid and flowing substance , and more heavy then the aire , did ( for the avoiding of vacuity , which nature abhorreth , and to fill up those hollow places , which otherwise would have remained empty , unlesse the aire could have descended through the water ) descend downe from the hils , and through the valleyes of the earth , untill they came into and filled the great hollow valleyes , where the waters of the sea remaine , and which is the place of the sea to this day ; and so there is as much water in the sea , as there is drie land appearing above the waters ; and the depth of the sea is equall to the rising of the earth , and the mountaines above the banks of it , as some learned men have observed . and for proofe hereof wee have the plaine word of god. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , used in the originall text , signifies gathering together into one hollow place , and psalme . , , , . david speaking of the first foundation of the earth , saith , that god covered it with the deep as with a garment , and the waters stood above the hils : at his rebuke they fled , at his thundering voice they hasted away : the hils did rise up to their height , and the waters went downe the vallies , unto the place which god founded for them ; and there hee set them a bound which they cannot passe , nor returne to cover the earth . and the earth was first under the water ; and after by gods making of the great hollow vallies , and raising up the earth and drie land , caused it to stand out of the water , and so to appeare above the water as if it did stand in the water , and were founded upon the sea , and established upon the flouds , the words of saint peter shew , pet. . . compared with this text , and the words of david , psalme . . thus much for the opening of the first words , wherein the creation and situation of the earth and the waters are laid downe in the . verse . the next thing is the naming of the waters and the drie land . it is said , that god called the drie land earth , and the gathering together of the waters called he the seas , and god saw that it was good , verse . the names , which god gave to the things here created , are full of wisedome ; the drie land now appearing firme above the waters god called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eretz , of which our english name earth is derived , and hath the sound of it . in the hebrew , the word may bee derived of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth running speedily , or running a race ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is a negative particle & signifieth not ; for the earth is made to stand firme and neither to move from the naturall place of it , nor to run about in the place . the common opinion of the best learned is , that god called the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth where , being an adverb of place , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth running , because the heaven and the aire move and run round about it ; and because it stands firme and is a sure footing for men and other creatures to run upon , and neither sinke , as in waters ; nor fall and stick fast , as in waterish bogges , myres , and quicksands ; to which i may adde another and more divine reason , to wit , because god made the earth and drie land , that man and other creatures , which are made for mans use might live and move upon it , and that it might bee the place wherein man should run his race towards heaven and happinesse ; in which hee would not have us to settle our rest , as if wee were to live here for ever , but to run towards the better countrie , which is above . the gathering together of the waters , god called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the seas . first this name is of the plurall number ; because , though there is but one maine ocean sea , through which men may saile to all parts of the earth ; yet there are many inlets , creeks , corners , gulfes , and breakings in , between severall countries of the earth ; as the mediterranean sea , the red sea , the persian gulfe , the gulfe of venice , the black sea , the south sea , and divers others . secondly , this word is derived either of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to rage and to make a noise and tumult , or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to shake , and to cast downe and lay prostrate all things before it . and indeed wee finde by experience , that the waters of the sea , being gathered together , and detained in the hollow place of the earth , doe , partly by a naturall disposition and inclination to ascend to their naturall place above the earth , and partly by windes and tempests lying violently upon them , rage , roare , swell , and make the mountaines as it were to shake with their rage and noyse . and when they breake through their bankes into the drieland ( as sometimes it happens ) they beare downe all before them ; as the flood in noah's dayes did over-run , and destroyed the earth , when god brake up the fountaines of the great deep . but howsoever the earth is made to bee a place of running , and of toile , and travell , and the gathering together of the waters into the seas makes a great noyse and tumult , and rageth terribly : yet god saw that this his worke was good ; and that both the earth and the sea should bee of great use and profit to man both for necessaries of life , and also for magnifying of gods dreadfull power , wisedome and goodnesse in mans eyes , and therefore moses here saith , god saw that it was good . another maine thing followeth in this third dayes worke , that is , the creation of grasse , herbes , plants , and trees : where note onely these two things : first , what were these things created . secondly , how they were created and brought into being . the first is grasse , or greene herbe , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is that which of it selfe springs up without setting , or sowing . the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , herbe , bearing seed , that is , all herbes which are set or sowne , and increase by mans industry . the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , trees and plants , which are of a woodie substance , which beare fruit and have their seed , which turns to fruit in themselves ; they are not multiplied onely by sowing of seed , but live all the year , and many yeares without sowing , and multiply by rootes , slips , graffes , and the like . these were the things , which god is here said , by his creating word and power , to bring out of the earth , every one perfect in their kind . secondly , for the manner of creating them ; they were not created immediatly of nothing , nor of any other element besides the earth , and then put into the earth there to grow : but god by his powerfull word , without any help of mans tillage , raine , or sun , did make them immediatly out of the earth , and every one perfect in their kind ; grasse and heroes with flowers and seeds ; and trees with large bodies , branches , leaves , and fruits , growing up suddenly , as it were in a moment , by gods word and power . and thus much i gather not onely from the words of the text , which run thus , god said ; let the earth bring forth grasse , herbes , and trees : but also from the words , chap. . , . where it is said , that god formed every plant when yet it was not in the earth ; and every herb , when as yet it grew not up ; that is , before they had any seed , or roote hidden or sowne in the earth from whence they might spring and grow up ; and also without help of raine or dew , or any culture or tillage . now all these things being thus formed by the word of god , were approved by god for good and perfect in their kind . and so the evening , that is , the time of darknesse over the earth ( while the waters covered it , and before the drie land appeared above the waters , which was about twelve houres , a nights space ) and the morning ( that is , the time of light after the drie land appeared , and the light of the firie heavens shined upon it through the aire , which as yet was most pure and cleare without clouds , mists or vapours , which time of light was other twelve houres ) made up a third day . thus we see , that in the three first daies before the creation of the sun , moon , and starres , the night was a time of darknes , and the day a time of light in all that part of the world where night and day are said to have been , and in respect of which part of the world they are called evening , and morning ; as for example , after that the light , the firie heavens were created , and made out of the rude masse , full of darknesse , there was no more night or darknesse but all light in the heavens ever since ( for they are a day and light to themselves ) and that which is night and day , with us , is all alike with them , even cleare day light . so likewise after the creation of the light , all was darknesse in the rest of the rude masse which was not yet formed ; and the time that it lay in darknesse before the airy heaven was perfectly purified and made , is called the evening or night : but after that the firmament , that is , the spacious element of the aire , was created and brought into perfect being and puritie , it received into it the light of the firie heavens which shined through it , and the time of that shining into the aire is called the morning or day light ; and this day light shines still in the highest region of the aire , above the ascent of the clouds ; and there is no more night of darknesse in that region , but as cleare light as that of the second and third day ; onely in the rest of the rude masse there did remaine darknesse , untill god created out of it at once the two lowest elements , the waters and the earth ; and the time while the waters covered the earth ; and kept the light of heaven from it , is called the evening or night of the third day ; but when the drie land , and the hils and mountaines of the earth were raised up above the waters , and the great vast hollow valley , which is the place of the sea and receptacle of the waters , was made in it , then the light of the heavens did shine through the aire unto the upper face of the earth and of the waters , and so continued untill the herbes , plants , and trees were made : no clouds , or mists , or vapours made the lower region of the aire darke ; and this was the time of morning or day light on earth the third day . thus much for the opening of the third dayes work of creation , and how the times of light and darknesse , that is the evening and morning , did make up the third day . from this dayes work , and from the things created , and the manner of creation , divers things may bee observed for our instruction . first , wee see that the two lowest elements , earth and sea , though they appeare to bee great and huge vast things , yet to god , working by his eternall word , the making and separating of them was but a peece of a dayes work , and all the grasse , herbes , plants , and trees , which are innumerable and full of all admirable variety , they were but another peece of a dayes worke ; they were not onely made and brought into being , but also to their perfect growth , full of flowers , seed and fruite in a little time , as it were in a moment : hence we may learne , that all this world here below , wherein the sonnes of men live together , with all creatures which se●ve for their use ; it is as nothing in the hand of god , and of small moment . all the herbes , plants , and trees , which solomon with all his wisedome could scarcely come to know , were with the earth , sea , and all waters , made perfect in one day . this is that which the lord proclaimes by the prophet , isa. . , . where it is said , that all nations are as a drop of a bucket , and are counted as the small dust of the balance before him ; all nations are before him as nothing , and they are counted to him lesse then nothing and vanity . which doctrine serves to admonish us to despise all earthly riches and possessions in comparison of god , who is the portion of the godly and faithfull ; also it serves to confound and put to shame all proud carnall worldlings , who glory and boast in a little nothing ; and to make glad , and fill with joy gods people , who have a true right and interest in god by their spirituall union and communion , which they have with christ by one spirit , even the holy ghost , dwelling in him as the head , and in them as members of the same mysticall body . secondly , from the name of the earth , we learne , that this world is a race and pilgrimage , and a place of travell , and warfare , and here is not the rest of man , neither is here his abiding place . this the scriptures proclaime every where . iacob the father of israel , who had the land of canaan promised to him and his seed for an inheritance for ever ; hee counted his life as a pilgrimage on earth , and saith in his old age , few and evill have my dayes been , gen. . . and david saith , psalme . . i am a stranger upon earth , and psalme . . i am a stranger and sojourner with thee , as all my fathers were . iob calls mans life a few dayes and full of trouble , which fleet as a shadow , and continueth not , iob . , . saint paul cals it a restelesse race , like that of men who runne for a prize , cor. . . . and heb. . . wee are here like noah's dove , which being sent out of the arke found no rest for the soale of her foote till shee returned thither againe . here wee have no continuing citie , hebr. . neither is here our rest , mich. . . till our soules returne to god who gave them wee shall alwayes be in a pilgrimage and never find quiet rest . this doctrine is of good use to keep and restraine us from dreaming of setled rest here on earth , and from seeking to build our nests sure in the tops of earthly rocks for many generations , and to stirre us up to put on resolution and courage to labour , and travell , and strive , and run as men doe in a race , and for masteries , while wee live on earth : for our life is short and fleeth away as a shadow , and the art and divine skill of gaining heaven , and getting the crowne of glory , doth require much studie , sweating , toile , and industrie ; and wee cannot attaine to it , but by hearing , reading , studying , and meditating in gods word day and night . secondly , it discovers worldlings to bee dreaming and doating fooles , who put trust and confidence in things of this world , and build great houses , purchase lands , and large revenues , and think that their houses shall continue for ever : the prophet justly compareth such men to a dreamer , who being hungrie doth dreame that hee eateth , but when hee awaketh his soule is empty ; & in his thirst he dreameth that he is drinking , but when he awaketh hee is faint , and his soule hath appetite , isa. . . this is the case of foolish and brutish worldings , who see how the forme and fashion of the world passeth away , and yet seeing will not see ; but still dreame of setled rest and dwelling on earth . thirdly , though the seas are such as the name signifieth which god gave to them , that is , troubelous and tumultuous , and doe dreadfully rage and roar ; yet seeing , god is above them as their lord and creatour , and when hee made them such saw that they were good and usefull and profitable for man , this teacheth , that god ruleth over the most tumultuous creatures of the world , and maketh the most outrageous roarers work for the good of his people . first , hee makes them serve to shew the power , dread and terrour of him their creatour , that all may feare and stand in awe of him : for if the creatures be so dreadfull and terrible , much more god the creatour , who gave them their being . and as god makes them worke feare , so also admiration in men ; so david sheweth , psalme . and psalme . . secondly , hee makes them worke for the good of his people , and for the safety of his church ; by destroying and devouring their wicked enemies , persecutors , and oppressors ; as wee see in the red sea drowning pharaoh and his host ; and as wee have seene in the year . when the sea , wind and stromes scattered and devoured the armado of our bloudy enemies , who came enraged with furie , and furnished with all weapons of cruelty , and instruments of death , to destroy our land and the church of god in it . the consideration whereof serves to make us east our selves upon god in all times of trouble , and to comfort our selves in him , knowing that as hee is the lord mighty above all , and a terrour to the most terrible , and hath in his hand power to save us from all troubles : so hee is gracious and willing to save us ; and though hee sometimes suffers the swelling waves to rise , and the tempestuous stormes and seas to threaten , and put us in feare and danger , yet it is not in wrath but in wisedome , because for the present hee sees them to bee good for us . chap. ix . the fourth dayes worke . of the lights , substantiall bodies : the place of them : their vse ; for signes , seasons , dayes , and yeares . of the sun , moone , and starres . no instruments used in the creation . note the great wisedome of god in the order of creation . this world not made to bee the place of our immutable perfection . vses of each of these . and god said , let there bee lights in the firmament of the heaven , to divide the day from the night : and let them bee for signes , and for seasons , and for dayes , and for yeares . . and lot them bee for lights in the firmament of heaven , to give light upon the earth ; and it was so . . and god made two great lights , the greater light to rule the day , and the lesse light to rule the night ; he made also the starres . . and god set them in the firmament of heaven , to give light upon the earth . . and to rule over the day and the night , and to divide the light from the darknesse ; and god saw that it was good . . and the evening and the morning were the fourth day . these words containe a briefe historie of the fourth dayes worke in the creation : in which wee may observe ; first , gods powerfull commanding the worke to bee done by his eternall word , in the . and . verses . secondly , his bringing of the worke to passe by that eternall word , in the , , . verses . thirdly , gods approbation of the worke , and so perfecting that day . first , wee see god still proceeds in the worke of creation by his powerfull word , and saith , let there be lights . the things which hee commands to bee done are two . first , that there shall bee lights in the firmament of heaven , that is , the sun , moone , and starres , which are the lights created out of the first element , even that light which was made the first day , that is , the body of the visible firie heavens . the second , that they shall bee for speciall use : . to divide the day from the night . . to bee for signes , seasons , dayes , and yeares . . to bee for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth . that these lights are not bare lights without a subject , but bright shining substantiall bodies , which have light in themselves , and send forth beames of light into other pure elements and cleare transparent bodies , no man can deny ; for the hebrew word here in my text is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies lamps , torches , or other things which shine forth and give light ; and the words following , verse . shew plainely , that these lights are the sun , moone , and starres , which rule the day and the night by the light which they give to the earth . the greatest doubt here is about the place where god commanded them to bee , to wit , the firmament of heaven . for if wee take the word firmament of heaven for the spacious region of the aire , as wee have expounded it before , verse , , . then men will conceive that the sun , moone , and starres , have their place in the airie region , and not in the firie region of the visible heavens ; which is a thing contrary to reason and experience , and to the common judgement of all the learned , and to the holy scriptures . for clearing of this doubt wee have two answers ready at hand , either of which may satisfie . the first , that as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , heaven , signifies not onely the airy region , wherein the fowles doe flie , verse . and above which there are waters in the clouds , as appeares verse . but also the highest heaven , verse . and the firie heavens , which are called the starry heaven . gen. . . and the garnished heaven , iob . . and which are the heavens next unto the highest , and in comparison of which the highest is called the heaven of heavens , kings . . and the third heaven , cor. . . so also the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is here translated firmament , and signifies a broad spreading , or a thing which is broad spread and stretched out farre and wide may very well here in this place bee used to signifie the firie region of the starry heaven , spread abroad farré more large and wide , then the airy region , and then this is the meaning , that god commanded lights to bee , and made lights , and set them in the firie region or firmament which is above the airy firmament ; in which sense the word firmament is used , psalme . . and dan. . . secondly , if any should not bee satisfied with this first answere , which is cleare and sufficient , but should still hold , that the word firmament is here used to signifie the airy heaven , as in the . and . verses : then this may serve for a second answere , that god commanded lights to be , that is , the sun , moone , and starres , to have a being , and created them out of the firie heavens , in which they have their place of being : but hee gave them bright light for this end and purpose , that they might shine through the region of the aire , and might multiplie their beames in it , and so bee therein for lights to the earth . the words of the text in the originall doe not expressely affirme , that god made them of the matter of the airy region the firmament , or that hee there placed them : but onely that he gave them to be lights , and to shine through the aire upon the earth : & though the bodie & substance of sun , moone , and stars be set and placed in the starry heaven or firmament ; yet they are lights in the airy firmament , and through it give light to the earth . and this i prove by a demonstration gathered from the text it selfe : for where the sun , and moone , and starres , are given to divide betweene day and night , and to bee for seasons , dayes and yeares , and to rule over the day and over the night ; there god gave them to bee for lights . this is most certaine and manifest ; for the sun doth no other way rule the day , nor the moone the night , but onely by their light & by appearing one while & not another in the severall hemisphaeres of heaven to the earth below : now they divide the day from the night , and make difference of seasons , dayes and yeares onely in the lowest heavens and in the earth : for above , in the starry heaven , the sun , moone , and starres doe shine all alike continually : there is one perpetuall day of light and no night or darkenesse from the beginning to the end of the world : it is the suns appearing to one side of the earth for a time , once in . houres , which makes the day ; and the absence and not appearing of it for the rest of the . houres to that side of the earth , which makes the night there ; and both day and night make a civill day , and seven such dayes a week , and four weekes a moneth , had moneths a year , and the seasons of summer , winter , spring , and autumne , have place onely on earth , and in the lowest airie heaven , not in the starry heaven . therefore god gave them ; and set them to be lights , that is , to give light in the aire and to the earth . and thus the doubt is fully cleared ; and the first thing opened , to wit , gods commanding lights to bee in the firmament of heaven . the second thing commanded is the use of those lights . the first use is , to divide the day from the night , that is , the time of light from the time of darknesse . for clearing or which point wee are to consider , first , what is here properly meant by day and night , and how the lights divide them one from another . secondly , how there could be a division betweene day and night , before these lights , the sun , moone , and starres were made . first by day we are here to understand not the space of the sun , moone , and starres , compassing the earth , which is the space of . houres ; for that day consists of an evening and a morning , and comprehends in it one night ; and some call it a naturall , and some a civill , and some an astronomicall day : but here by day wee are to understand the time while the sun , the greatest light , shines and gives light upon the face of the earth : and by night the time while the moone and starres doe onely appeare and give their dimme light upon the earth , which some call an artificiall and civill day and night , but others doe more proper●● call it a naturall day , and a naturall night . the day in this sense hath no night in it , and the night in this sense is no part of the day ; but these two , being the one the time of darknesse or dimme light , & the other the time of cleare light , are so opposite , that they cannot both bee at once in one and the same part of the world. now as the visible world consists of divers maine parts or elements ; and the motions of the sun , moone , and starres are most variable among themselves ; so the day and night taken in this proper sense are most variable . first , the day , as it is a time of light , doth in respect of some parts of the world comprehend in it the whole time from the first creation of the sun and of the starry heavens , the making of which brought in the first morning or day-light ; as for example , ever since the firie heavens were made and created a bright shining substance , they have retained their light continually , and so there hath beene a continuall day in them , and no night nor darknesse ; although the light of them , by reason of the vast distance , doth not make day here on earth . also ever since the sun was created , it shineth most cleare in the firie or starry heaven from east to west , and from the north to the south-pole ; when the sun sets in the west from our sight , it shineth bright in the face of the full moone , which is then rising in the east part of heaven , or else the moone would bee darke and enclypsed : all the shadow which the earth makes in the heavens , by comming betweene the sun and that part of the heaven which is most opposite , is very little , neare about the compasse of the body of the moone , as in every great eclypse of the moone may easily bee seene and discerned . likewise that light which was the day light of the second day , continueth still in the superiour region of the aire , and in the lowest regions also when there are no clouds , mists , or vapours : and the light of the sun also appeares continually in the most part of the highest regions of the aire , even under our hemisphare , and in our horizon , when the sun is furthest from our sight . and as there is alwayes day light in the middle heavens , so there is alwayes night and darknesse in the midst of the earth , and through all the body of it from the upper face to the center , which is the very middle and heart of it . secondly , in those places of the world which are directly under the north and south poles , the day , that is , the time of the sons being in theirsight , is just halfe a year ; and the night also , that is , the time of the suns absence from their sight , is another halfe year . thirdly , under the equinoctiall line , which cuts the heavens equally in the middle betweene the north and south poles , the day and night are alwayes equall each one . houres , because the sun , and moone , and starres doe appeare so long , and are hid just so long againe . and thus dayes and nights varie according to the severall parts of the world , and divers climats of the earth . and ever since that god did make the lights in heaven , the sun , moone , and starres ; they have made the division betweene the darknesse which wee call night , and the light which wee call day , as god here appointed . for the time while the sun shines and rules , by giving greatest light in any part of the world , that is called the day light ; and the time while the sun is out of sight , and the moone and starres onely shine and rule , that is called the night , because it is a time of dimme light , which is darknesse in comparison of the sun light , as appeares in the words of the . verse . the second thing , which comes to bee considered in the first use of these lights , is the division and distinction betweene day and night before this fourth dayes worke , when these lights were made for this use . for clearing of this point , wee are to call to minde somethings which i have opened before , and withall adde some few things more , which will make the truth manifest . first we are to know and perswade our selves , that there is no difference or division betweene day and night , but onely in this inferiour visible world , which wee see with bodily eyes : for in the heaven of heavens , which is above the visible world , there is no darknesse , neither can bee at any time ; but there is the inheritance of the saints in light , and the light thereof is spirituall and to us supernaturall . and in hell , wheresoever that is , there is nothing but blacknesse of darknesse for ever , pet. . . iude . secondly , the time of day-light , which is called the morning , and the time of night and of darknesse , which is called the evening , in the three first dayes did much differ from the evening and morning , that is , the time of darknesse and light , in the rest of the dayes after that the sun , moone , and starres were made . for the evening , that is , the time of darknesse or night , in the first day was onely the time while all this inferiour world remained in that rude informed masse , without forme and void , which was all over-spread with darknesse , and had no light in it : and the morning , that is , the time of light and of day , was the time after that god formed the light , that is the firie or starry heavens ; for they were in themselves full of light , and had cleare day in them without the sun , before the light of them was united in the sun , moone , and starres : i say from the forming of them , untill god began to create the spacious airie firmament , it was cleare day in so much of the visible world as was perfectly formed , that is , in the firie heavens , which are called light ; and that was twelve houres at the least . but when god began to create out of the rude masse full of darknesse the lowest heavens , the aire , which is a spacious region , while the earthy and waterish parts were setling downward , and the aire was a purging and growing into purity ; untill it became pure and cleare , there was a time of darknesse and dimnesse in it ; which i conceive to bee the space of a night about twelve houres : and the time after that it was made pure and received into it the light of the heavens shining clearly in it , was the morning or time of day-light sufficient for so much of the world as was then created , which was twelve houres more , and made up the second day . then god began to create the water , and the drie land , and while the earth was setling downward to the center , and the waters , being made of the thinner and lighter part of the masse which remained , did cover the face of the earth which was created round in the middle of them , this was the space of twelve houres , and it was a time of darknesse upon the earth which lay hid and covered with all the waters which are now in the seas and rivers , and this was the night of the third day upon earth . but after that god made the great and hollow vallies , which are now the receptacles of the waters , and made the hils and drie land stand up and appeare above the waters , being gathered into that hollow place ; there was a time of day-light for the light of the heavens , which then had in them all that light which is now gathered and united in the bodies of the sun , moone , and starres , did shine upon the face of the earth for the space of twelve houres ; in which god made the grasse , and the herbes bearing seced , and the trees of all kinds bearing fruits ; and this was the third day . now after this day ended , god created clouds , and mists , and vapours ; which , ascending up into the middle region of the aire , did make a time of darknesse , and a night upon the face of the earth and the sea ; and this was the evening or night of the fourth day . but when after twelve houres god had made the lights in the firmament , the sun , moone , and starres , then came in the morning , that is , the time of light ; in which the sun shining bright upon the earth made the fourth day ; and ever since that fourth day , the division betweene the day and night is by means of the sun , moone , and starres . for all the while that the sun appeares and shines upon the upper face of the earth , that is the day-time in that place ; and while the sun is absent , and the light thereof is not seen , and there is no light except of the moone and the starres , that is the time of darknesse and of the night . this is the first use of these lights expressed in my text , even to divide betweene the day and betweene the night . the second use for which god made these lights and appointed them , is to bee for signes , and for seasons , and for dayes , and for yeares . first , they are for signes to men , both of things supernaturall , that is , to shew the glory , the wisedome and the power of god and his admirable love to man , in making such great , and glorious shining lights for his use ; and also they are signes of things naturall , as of faire , foule , and seasonable weather , and such like ; for the pleindes arising , are signes of sweet showers , which make the earth to spring , iob . . the dogge-starre arising , is a signe of scorching heat ; the moone also by her change , and full , and middle quarters , is a signe of high and low tydes , and flowings of the sea ; and the divers colours of it , shew divers changes of weather . secondly , they are for seasons . for the suns declining to the south line , makes the shortest dayes to them who live northward from the equinoctiall , and the autumne and winter season ; but when it cometh back to the equinoctiall , it makes the spring season ; and when it cometh to the northerne tropick , it brings in the hot summer , and declining againe to the equinoctiall , it brings in autumne and the harvest season . thirdly , they serve for dayes and yeares . for the motion of the sun , moone , and starres , round about the heavens in . houres , maketh a day in the large sense , that is , a civill day ; and the appearance and shining of the sun upon the face of the earth , makes a day of light , that is , a naturall day ; and the setting and absence of the sun make the night . the motion of the moone in her proper course thorough the twelve signes of the zodiak , from change to change , and from full to full , makes a moneth of foure weeks ; and the proper motion of the sun thorough the same twelve signes , makes a yeare of twelve distinct solary moneths ; and the moone by her foure quarters , makes four weeks every one of seven dayes : and the concurrence of the sun , moone , and starres , returning to their severall places , make set times for civill and ecclesiasticall use , as for feasts of easter , pentecost , and the like , which are appointed by god and his church to bee observed yearly for gods honour and for remembrances of some great works of mercy performed by god and by christ , for mans deliverance and salvation . the last and maine use of all is , to give light upon earth ; for , by giving of light and shining in , and thorough the aire , they cause heat , and moysture , and drienesse ; and by their severall degrees , aspects , and reflexions of beames and light , they yeeld their influence and cherish and worke upon things below ; they also make all things visible to men and other creatures , and by their light wee come to see and discerne all things here visible ; without which sight and visibility , no man can performe the works for which god created and placed him on earth . and so much for opening the first maine thing in my text , to wit , gods commanding lights to bee in the firmament of heaven for the speciall uses here named , laid downe in the . and . verses . the second maine thing , is his bringing of the worke to ●●●se by his powerfull word , and making it to bee in all respects according to his counsell , will and word . this is laid downe , first summarily , in the last clause of the . verse , in these words , audit was so ; that is , as god said and commanded , so it was done presently . secondly , it is more largely described in the next words , verse , , . and god made two great lights , the greater to rule the day , the lesse to rule the night ; hee made also the starres . and god set them in the firmament to give light upon the earth , and to divide light and darknesse . first , of whatsoever god sad , let it be , it was made , & for the same use as here we read : for as he said , let there be lights , and let them be to divide the day from the night ; so he made lights , and gave them in the firmament of heaven to divide day from night and to serve for the uses which hee appointed . secondly , it is here said , that god himselfe made those lights ; no angels , or others besides himselfe were commanded to make them , nor had any hand in creating them . thirdly , the lights , which were before generally mentioned , are here more specially and particularly rehearsed and expressed , and the severall offices of them all . two of them are said to bee great lights , one greater , that is , the sun to rule the day ; the other lesser , that is , the moone to have dominion in the night ; the rest of the lights are said to bee the starres : first , for the sun , that is called the greatest light , and that most truly and properly ; both for the body and substance of it ; and also for the brightnesse and aboundance of the light which is in it : for the most skilfull mathematicians have observed and demonstrated , that the very body of the sun doth exceed the whole earth in bignesse . times ; and our owne eyes are witnesses of the greatnesse of the light in it , farre exceeding all bodily lights , and dazling our weake sight . secondly , the moone is also called a great light ( though lesser then the sun ; ) not for the bignesse of the bodie of it , but because it is the lowest of all the planets , and nearest unto the earth , and therefore appeares biggest of all next unto the sun , and gives to the earth a greater light then any of the starres , which are farre greater in substance , and brighter in light . for the most skilfull mathematicians have found by their art , that it is . times lesser then the earth , and the least of all the starres except mercury , which is the planet next above it : and those starres which are said to bee of the first magnitude , are some of them observed to bee . times bigger then the earth . and although the moone , being the lowest and nearest of all the heavenly lights unto the earth , and therefore more dimme in it selfe , and of a more impure bodie and substance , as appeares by the cloudy specks in it , shining very little of it selfe , may in that respect bee called one of the least lights : yet because it borrowes light from the sun , shining in the face of it as in a looking glasse , and because it is . times lower then the sun , and nearer to us then the earth is ; lower then it , as mathematicians have observed , and so it is nearer to the earth then the sun almost . hundred thousand miles ; therefore in our eyes it appeares the greatest of all the lights next to the sun : and moses here speaking according to the capacity of the vulgar , and our outward senses , and the sensible effects of light which the moone gives to the earth , cals it one of the two great lights . and as hee gives to the sun the office and prerogative of ruling the day , because the sight and presence of the sun makes the day light , and smoothers and obscures all other lights in the day time : so hee gives to the moone the office of ruling the night ; because when it appeares in the night , it giveth more light to us here on earth then all the other starres . thus wee see , that as god said , so every thing which was made in the fourth day came to passe ; god himselfe made every thing by his eternall word , according to his owne eternall counsell , minde , and will. and therefore no marvell though hee gives approbation to this dayes worke also , which is the third maine thing in the text , expressed in these words , and god saw that it was good . and so the sun , having shined for the space of twelve houres , till it had passed through one hemisphaere or halfe of heaven ; that time or morning of light , together with the evening or time of darknesse going before it , and caused by clouds , mists and vapours over-shadowing the earth , is called the fourth day . now this history of the fourth dayes worke , as i have expounded it , affords us some points of instruction . first , in that herbes , grasse , plants , and trees , were made perfect in their kinde before any raine , or dew , or sun , moone , and starres were created ; hence wee may learne , that god used no instruments , nor helpe of any creatures in the creation of any thing ; but made and formed every creature himselfe by his eternall word and spirit , who are with him one and the same iehovah , infinite , almighty and omnipotent . for further proofe whereof , there are many testimonies in the holy scriptures , as isa. . . . and . . where the lord appropriateth to himselfe , and to his owne hand , the creating and making of heaven and earth , and ioh. . . and colos. . . where all things are said to bee created by the eternall word the son ; and also by the spirit , psalme . . this doctrine admonisheth us to give all the glory of the wisedome , power , and goodnesse , shewed in the creation , to god alone ; and to acknowledge that all things created , even the whole world and all things therein , are the lords ; also to make us admire his rich bountie , & to render all thanks to his holy majesty for all the profit , benefit , and comforts , which wee receive from any of gods creatures . secondly , wee may hence learne and observe , the wisedome and wise providence of god , in making every thing in due season , and nothing before there was need of it for the creatures , which were next in order to bee made ; for hee did not create the lights of sun , moone , and starres , together with the starry heavens , which is the place of them , untill hee was about to create living things which could not well bee , nor move according to their kinde , without such lights shining in the earth and in the waters . which wise providence of god , is a patterne and direction to us to doe all things in order : in the first place , things necessarie and usefull for the well-being , and bringing to passe of things which are afterwards to bee done ; and nothing which may bee and remaine without use and profit . as god would not make the sun , moone , and starres , together with the first light , the firie heavens , on the first day , because then there was no use nor necessitie of them ; but deferred the creation of them untill the fourth day , when there was use and necessity to make a cleare day-light ; and living creatures endued with life , sense , and sight were to bee made in the two next dayes following , whose life without such cleare day light would have beene but like the shadow of death ; so let us bee carefull then to provide things necessary and usefull , when wee see and perceive that wee shall have present use of them , and not bee like foolish prodigall and fantasticall builders , who build stately houses like palaces with large barnes , stables , and stals , when neither they nor theirs are in any way or possibility to furnish them with corne , horses or cattell , or to make use of them for fit and necessary habitation . thirdly , though the glory of god doth more appeare in light of day then , in darknesse of night ; and it was and is in gods power , to make more great lights and divers sunnes in severall places of the heaven , to shine in all the world at once , and to make a perpetuall day on earth : yet hee made them so , that on the earth , in this lower and inferiour world , there should bee as much night as day , and darknesse as light ; whereby hee teacheth us even from the creation , that this earthly world was not made to bee the place of mans immutable perfection and blessednesse ; but a place of changes and alterations ; wherein , by reason of darknesse , the prince of darknesse may rule , rage and tyrannise by himselfe and his wicked instruments ; and drive us to seeke a better rest , and an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance reserved in heaven , in the place of perpetuall light . the whole booke of the wise preacher is an ample testimony of this truth , and a large commentary upon this doctrine ; for it wholy tends to make men loath this inferiour world under the sun , wherein there is nothing but changes , and vanity of vanities , and all is vanitie . wherefore let us not seeke for immutability nor unchangable peace and prosperity here on earth , lest wee bee found as foolish as those builders who build and set up goodly houses on a sandy foundation , which may easily bee beaten downe , and ruined with every wind , wave , and tempest . they who settle their rest on earth , and here seeke perfect felicity and immutable blessednesse ; they trust under the shadow and shelter of a gourd , which may grow up in one night , and in the next night wither away , and perish , and bring much griefe and sorrow to them , which will vex them , and drive them like ionah to impatiency and anger against god their creatour . let us looke up to heaven where is light without darknesse , and an everlasting day without any night ; and bend all our course to that countrie above , and long for everlasting light and glory , which the blessed saints and angels there enjoy in the presence of god , and at his right hand , where are pleasures for evermore . chap. x. the fifth dayes worke . of fishes and fowles . all made in perfect wisedome : vses . two notable properties of fishes : their sensitive soule , and matter . the matter of birds . of other flying things . of whales . of the fruitfulnesse of fishes . gods infinite power jioyned with infinite wisedome : vses . all is made by christ , and likewise bestowed on us : vse . gods great providence for mankinde : vse . and god said , let the waters bring for aboundantly the moving creature which hath life : and let the fowle flie above the earth in the open firmament of heaven . . and god created great whales , & every living creature that moveth , which the waters brought forth aboundantly after their kinde , and every winged fowle after his kinds , and god saw that it was good . . and godblessed them , saying , bee fruitfull and multiply , and fill the waters in the sea , and let fowle multiplie in the earth . . and the evening and the morning were the fifth day . in these words wee have the history of the fifth dayes worke , which was the creation of all living creatures which live and move in the two moist elements , the water and the aire , to wit , fishes and moving creatures which live and move in the waters ; and all kinds of fowles which flie in the open region of the aire , which is here called the open firmament of heaven . first , wee have gods powerfull word and commandement given for the bringing of them into being , in the . verse . secondly , wee have gods creation of them and bringing them into being by his mighty word ; together with his approbation of them in the . verse . thirdly , gods blessing of them with the blessing of fruitfulnesse and increase , verse . lastly , the time wherein all things were done , to wit , in the space and compasse of the fifth day , verse . first , as in all other works god said , let them bee ; so here hee still proceeds to create every thing by his eternall word : so much this phrase signifieth , as i have before shewed . it also intimates thus much unto us , that god did not suddenly and unadvisedly create any of these things , but according to his eternall counsell , as hee in his infinite wisedome had purposed and determined in himselfe from all eternity . for wee finde by experience among men , that when any workman doth say before hand of the worke which hee goeth about ; thus i will make it , and thus let it bee , it is a cleare evidence that hee doth it with advice , as hee hath framed it in his mind , and determined it by his will ; and therefore moses here used this forme of speech , that god said first , let things bee , and then hee created them ; to teach us , that god had from all eternity framed them in his decree , and determined them in his counsell and will to bee such as hee made them in the creation . whence wee may gather this doctrine : that god hath created all things in wisedome , and never doth any worke rashly , without counsell or consideration ; but orders and brings to passe every thing , so as he hath purposed , with perfect knowledge and understanding . this is that which the prophet david doth preach and proclaime with admiration , psalme . . saying , o how manifold are thy works ! in wisedome and hast thou made them all . and his wise son solomon , proverb . . , . saith , the lord by wisedome hath founded the earth , by understanding hath hee established the heavens , by his knowledge the depths are broken up , and the clouds drop downe dew . and ier. . . and . . the prophet affirmes , that god hath made the earth by his power , and hath established the world by his wisedome , and stretched out the heavens by this discretion . yea the actions of revenge upon enemies , which men doe for the most part rashly , and run in to them head-long without discretion , god doth in wisedome , and understanding , and according to his wise counsell , as holy iob testifieth , iob . . saying , he divideth the sea with his power , and by his understanding smiteth through the proud . and , in a word , that god hath made all things wisely and wi●h good understanding , so that in every creature his wisedome and counsell appeares , wee may plainely see by dayly experience , and by that which iob saith , chap. . , , . to wit , that if wee aske the beasts , they will teach ; and the fowles of the aire , they shall tell us : or if wee speake to the earth , it shall instruct us ; or to the fishes of the sea , they shall declare unto us ; who knoweth not in all these things that the hand of the lord hath wrought this ? that is , wee may see , and read gods wisedome in all his works ; for , as it followes , verse . with him is wisedome and strength , he hath counsell and understanding : and these hee sheweth manifestly in all his works and doings . first , this doctrine serves for direction to all men in all their works and doings , how to doe all things according to the perfect paterne and true rule of all well-doing . the rule of all mans actions ought to bee the will of god , who created him and gave him his whole being ; and the perfect paterne whom the sons of god ought to follow in all their works , is , god who formed them after his owne image ; so that the perfection of man consists in his conformity to god ; and the more or lesse hee resembles god in all his wayes , the more or lesse perfect hee is , and the nearer or further from perfection and true happinesse . now here this doctrine teacheth , that god hath created all things in wisedome , and doth all his workes according to his determinate counsell , and with perfect understanding , and nothing rashly without consideration . wherefore , as wee desire to order our wayes aright , and wallie in the right and ready pathes which lead unto perfection ; and as wee have a minde to doe all our works so as that they may bee profitable and comfortable to our selves and others : so let us imitate god in all our wayes and works , and never doe any thing rashly without consulting with his word ; want of this marres all : when men follow their owne lusts and head-strong will and affections , and consult not with gods word ; then they follow their owne wayes , and forsake the wayes of god ; then they doe their owne works , not the works of god ; and those wayes and works of their owne will , procure all evils and mischiefes unto them , according to that of the prophet , ier. . thy wayes and doings have procured these things unto thee ; this is thy wickednesse because it is bitter , because it reacheth unto thine heart . whereas , on the contrary , they that walke after gods wayes , and take his counsell along with them in all their doings , and doe nothing rashly , but so as god by his word puts into their heart ; they shall bee holy and wise in their degree , as god is wise and holy ; and by holinesse shall come to see god , and the reward and end of their doings shall bee glory , honour , immortality , and eternall life , rom. . . secondly , seeing god hath made all things in wisedome , and according to his eternall counsell ; this serves to stirre us up so to behold and consider all things created by god , as that wee may see and discerne his wisedome in their very frame ; and if wee doe not see and discerne the image of gods wisedome and goodnesse in them all , and a good use of them all ; let us blame our owne blindnesse and ignorance , and not vilifie , or dis-esteeme any worke or any creature of god : but if wee finde any creature which seemes unprofitable , or hurtfull altogether , and serving for no good use ; let us know , that it is mans sin which hath made the creatures subject to vanity , and hatefull and hurtfull to men ; and yet in the meane time gods wisedome appeares in ordering and disposing to a good use , even by the enmity , hurtfulnesse , loathsome poison and filthinesse which is in them , to chastise and correct his owne people , and to put them in remembrance of their sinfulnesse and corruption , that they may forsake and mortifie it by repentance , or to punish the impenitent , and execute just vengance on the wicked in the day and time of his visitation . and upon these considerations , let us all , so often as wee see or remember the unprofitablenesse , loathsomnesse and poison which is in some creatures , bee stirred up to repent of our sinnes which have brought them under this corruption for a scourge of our dis-obedience ; and let us firmely beleeve , that god in wisedome useth them to punish the wicked and to correct his people , and hee will make us see in all his wisedome shining clearly at the last . but now , from the word of god , i proceed to that which hee set himselfe to doe by his eternall word , according to his will and purpose ; this is in these words , let the waters bring forth aboundantly every moving creature that hath life , and let the fowle she above the earth . the things which here god sets himselfe to create are of two sorts : first , all creatures which live and have their being in the element of water , all fishes and other creatures , which live in the sea , rivers , lakes , and all other waters . secondly , all fowles , birds , and flying things which flie above the earth in the open region of the aire . the first sort are all called by this generall name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is here translated , the moving creature , and in the hebrew signifieth a creature which is most notable for these two properties : first , that it is a living creature , which moves , not by going upon feet onely , or by flying with wings ; but by creeping or sliding , and moving forwards , as wee see fishes doe in the water , and creeping things doe in and upon the earth . secondly , that it breeds and brings forth young in great aboundance , more then any other creatures doe ; as wee see the fishes , which by the multitude of spawne would increase beyond all measure and number , if by one meanes or other the spawne were not devoured and consumed . for the hebrew verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is here translated the moving creature , is derived ; is used as in my text , so in other scriptures frequently , first to signifie creeping , or moving forward without feet , as gen. . . and levit. . . and secondly also to bring forth aboundantly as here , and also , of the creation which god wrought , and by which hee made the whole frame of the world perfect and complete , and every way fully furnished . this last worke is described by moses , first generally , briefely and summarily , in the . verse , and from thence to the end of this first chapter : and secondly , the creation of the woman is more particularly related , chap. . from the . verse to the end of that chapter . verse . and god said , let us make man in our owne image , and after our likenesse , &c. . so god created man in his owne image , &c. . and god blessed them and said , be fruitfull and multiplie , and replenish the earth , &c. in this history of the creation of mankinde , wee may observe these speciall things , which are most notable and worthy to bee opened . first , gods consultation about the creation of mankind in the . verse ; and god said , let us make man in our image . secondly , gods creating of mankind according to his owne eternall counsell ; which is laid downe summarily and more generally , that god made them , in his owne image , male and female , verse . this creation of mankind is more plainely and particularly laid downe in the next chapter ; where moses relates , first , how god made the man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nosthrils the breath of life , and man became a living soule , verse . secondly , how god made the female , the woman , to bee an helpe meet for man , and that of a rib taken out of the mans side in a deep sleep , verse . . &c. thirdly that they were both naked , and were not ashamed , verse . these things are to bee noted in the creation of mankind . the third thing is the blessing , wherewith god blessed them joyntly together , the man and the woman ; and it comprehends in it two things : first , the blessing of fruitfulnesse , that they should multiply and replenish the earth with mankind . secondly , the honour , dominion and prerogative which god gave to them to subdue the earth , and to have dominion over all other living creatures ; this is expressed , chap. . . the fourth is the meat and bodily food which god assigned to man in the creation , verse . but with limitation & restraint from the fruit of one tree , chap. . , . as for other creatures , which live on the earth , hee assigned the greene herbe or grasse to them for food , verse . the fifth thing , is the place of mans habitation , the garden of eden , the earthly paradise , which is described , chap. . , , &c. the last thing is gods viewing of all things , which hee had made , after the creation of the man and the woman , and his placing of them in paradise , which was the accomplishment of the creation and the last worke ; and his approbation of every creature for very good and perfect in his kind ; this is expressed in the . verse . the first thing is gods consultation concerning the creation of mankind , wherein wee are to consider these particulars ; . who it is that saith , let us make . . with whom hee doth thus consult and conferre . . what is the thing consulted about , even the making of man in their owns image , and after their likenesse , to bee lord over all other creatures , the fishes of the sea , the fowles of the aire , and all living things on earth . in the creation of all other things god said onely , let them bee , and so they were made : but in the creation of mankind hee calls a councell as being now about a greater worke , and saith , let us make man ; which is a speciall point not lightly to bee passed over without due consideration : first , hee who thus enters into consultation is said to bee elohim , that is , god the creatour , who is more persons then one or two , even three persons in one essence ( as the hebrew word , being plurall doth imply ) . and hee who here saith , let us make man , and in the next verse is said to create man in his owne image , hee is the same god which created the heavens , and the earth , verse . and the light , and the firmament , and all other things mentioned before in this chapter . they with whom hee conferres , are not the angels as some have vainely imagined ; nor the foure elements which god here calls together , that hee may frame mans body of them being compounded and tempered together , as others have dreamed . for the text shewes plainely divers strong reasons to the contrary : first , it is said , that god created man not by the ministery of angels or the elements , but by his owne selfe , as it followes in the next verse , and chap. . . secondly , god created man in his owne image , not in the image of angels or elements ; and therefore it is most ridiculous to imagine that god spake to them , or of making man in their image . thirdly , it is shewed that man was made to rule over the earth , and the fowles of the aire , and the fishes of the sea ; and therefore it is absurd to thinkethat the earth , or any elements were fellow-makers of man together with god. and lastly , it is both foolish and impious to thinke that god who made heaven , earth , & the heavenly host , the angels , of nothing , should call upon others to helpe him , and to share with him in the honour of mans creation , seeing hee doth so often in scripture challenge this honour of creating all things to himselfe , and professeth that hee will not give this glory to another : here therefore god the creatour is brought in by moses , as it were consulting within himselfe , even the eternall father with the eternall word the son ( who is called the brightnesse of his glory , and the expresse image of his person , by whom hee made the world , of which , man is a part , hebr. . . ) and with the eternall spirit . and here hee brings in god consulting about mans creation to bee lord over other creatures , for . speciall reasons , and to teach us three things , which are reasons of consultations among men , when they are about a worke . the first is to shew , not that god needed any advice or helpe , but that the worke which hee was about was a speciall worke , even the making of man , the chiefest of all visible creatures ; one that should bee lord over all the rest , being made in gods owne image , indued with reason , understanding , wisedome , and liberty of will. the second , to shew that man was to bee made a creature in whom god should have occasion given to shew himselfe a mighty and wise creatour and governour , a just iudge and revenger of wickednesse and sin , which doe provoke him to wrath and revenge ; a mercifull redeemer and saviour of sinners seduced ; and an holy sanctifier of them by his spirit . if wee consider man as a creature which might fall , and have gods image defaced in him , and by his many provoking sins might give god cause to repent that hee had made him , as is said , gen. . then there appeares some reason why god should as it were consult whether hee should make him , or no. also , if wee consider that man being fallen , and brought under the bondage and slavery of death and the divell , and under eternall condemnation , could not possibly bee redeemed but by the son of god undertaking to become man , and to suffer and satisfie in mans nature ; and that man cannot bee made partaker of christs benefits for redemption , without the holy ghost , the eternall spirit of god infused into man , and descending to dwell in man as in an earthly tabernacle : there will appeare to us great cause of consultation , that god the father should consult with the son , and the spirit ; and this consulting about mans creation doth intimate all these things : but in that this consultation is with a resolution ( all things considered ) to make man with a joynt consent ; this shewes that god foresaw how mans fall and corruption , and all the evils which by it were to come into the world ( howsoever , to our understanding and in our reason , they may seeme just impediments to hinder god from creating mankind ) yet might by his wisedome bee turned to the greater advancement of his glory , and might give him occasion to shew all his goodnesse , wisedome , power , perfect purity and holinesse in hating sin ; his infinite justice in the destruction and damnation of wicked reprobates , and in exacting a full satisfaction for the sins of them that are saved ; his infinite mercy , love , and free grace in giving his son to redeeme and save his elect from sin , death , and hell ; and his unspeakeable bounty in giving his spirit to sanctifie them , to unite them to christ , and to conforme them to his image , and so to bring them to the full fruition of himselfe in glory . god in consulting within himselfe , and thereupon resolving to create mankind , and saying , let us make man , and then immediatly creating him ( as the text sheweth ) did in the creation of man shew before-hand , that in mankind hee would manifest and make knowne all his goodnesse , more then in all other creatures . the third reason of gods consultation , is , to manifest more plainely in mans creation then in any other creature , the mystery of the blessed trinity , that in the one infinite eternall god the creatour there are more , even three persons of one and the same undivided nature and substance . for such consultations and resolutions , as are expressed in this forme of words , let us make man in our image , and after our likenesse , doe necessarily imply that there are more persons then one consenting , and concurring in the worke . and that these three persons are all but one and the same god , it is●manifest by the words following , which speake of these persons as of one god ; for it is said , that god created man in his owne image , and not they created man in their image . thus much for the intent and meaning of the spirit of god in these words , let us make man in our image , and after our liknesse . from which words thus expounded , wee learne , first , that the creation of mankind was a speciall worke of god , and that man is by nature the chiefest and most excellent of all creatures , which god made in all the visible world ; which point the holy psalmist openly proclaimed ; saying , i am fearefully and wonderfully made , marvellous are they works , psalme . . secondly , gods consultation sheweth , that in the creation hee considered mans fall , and did foresee not onely that man in his nature and kind is a creature subject to such evils as might make it a matter questionable , whether it were fit for god to create him or not : but also the great good which comes by his creation and fall , and that man is a fit object , wherein god may make manifest his wisedome , power , and all his goodnesse more then in any other creature , and in that respect most worthy to bee made by the counsell , joynt consent , and concurrence of all the three persons in the trinity . thirdly , here we may observe , that in one god the almighty creatour , there are more persons then one manifested by moses in the history of the creation . and therefore the doctrine of the trinity is no new and lately devised opinion since christ , but a most ancient truth revealed from the first foundation of the world. these doctrines i here onely name , which will come to be handled more fitly in the next thing which followes , to wit , gods creating of mankind according to this his counsell and resolution : which act of creation is laid downe first more generally and confusedly in the . verse . and more distinctly and particularly by way of recapitulation in the next chapter . first , it is here said , that as god upon consultation resolved , so hee created man in his owne image , and male and female created hee them : wherein wee may observe two things generally laid downe ; first , that god created man in his owne image . secondly , that hee created them male and female . i will not here enter into a discourse concerning the imag● of god , and the speciall things wherein it doth consist ; that shall have a more fit place hereafter , when i shall come to describe the excellent state of man in his innocency before his fall . the thing which here comes specially to bee considered is the true meaning of the hebrew word adam , which is translated man in this present text . this word is in the scriptures used two wayes : first , as a proper name of the first man , even our first father adam ; thus wee must understand the word chap. . where it is said , that god did cast adam into a deep sleepe , and verse . brought the woman to adam when hee had made her of his rib ; and chap. . . and many other places , where adam is distinguished from evah his wife , and is called the man. secondly , it is used as a common name of mankinde , and includes in it both male and female , man and woman , as psalm● . . man is like to vanity , and gen. . . where it is said , that god called the man and woman , and all mankind in them , both male and female by this name adam . here in this text , this word adam is used in this latter sense as the common name of mankinde , comprehending in it both male and female ; as appeares by the words following , male and female created hee them ; that is , this adam whom god created in his owne image was male and female , of both sexes , man and woman , who are both but one kind of creature . whereby it is manifest , that here is laid downe in generall the creation of all mankind in our first parents adam and his wife evah ; and that they both were created in the image of god ; and that the difference of their sexes , and the creation of the woman after the man , of a rib taken out of mans side , doe not make any difference of their nature , and kind ; but both are of one kind , and both made in the image of god and after his likenesse : and women as well as men are capable of the same grace , and fit to bee heires of the same glory in heaven , where there is no difference of male and female , but all shall bee like to the angels , not marrying nor given in marriage : as all members of the same christ , and partakers of the same spirituall grace here ; so all fellow-citizens of the heavenly citie there , raigning with christ in glory , as our saviour himselfe affirmeth in the gospell . hence then wee learne , that the woman as well as the man was made in the image of god , and is by nature as fit a subject , and as capable as man of grace and glory . which point is confirmed by divers scriptures ; as by the words of our saviour , matth . . where hee saith , that women and men in the resurrection are as the angels of god in the last resurrection , not marrying nor given in m●rriage ; and cor. . . i will bee a father unto you , and the shall yee my sons and daughters saith the lord almighty ; and gal. . . male and female are all one in christ ; and tim. . . the apostle affirmes , that woman may bee , and shall be saved by continuing in faith , charitie , and holinesse with sobriety ; and pet. . . mention is made of holy women , and wives are said to be heires together with their husbands of the grace of life . to which testimonies the examples of many holy , godly and faithfull women , mentioned in the scriptures , may be added ; as our first mother evah , who , through faith in the promise , obtained the title of the mother of life , gen. . and the virgin marie the mother of the blessed seed is called blessed in all nations : sarah , rebecca , hannah , deborah , ruth , dorcas , marie magdalene , and many others . but , cor. . . man is called the image and glory of god , the woman the glory of the man. the apostle doth not here speake of the image of god as it consists in perfect uprightnesse and indowments of nature ; or in holinesse and supernaturall gifts of grace ; for so the image of god is one and the same in both , and common to the woman with the man , and they both have equall dominion and lordship over the creatures given in the creation : but here hee speakes of man as hee was first created before the woman , and the woman as shee was made to bee a meet helpe for man , and as it were his second selfe here on earth , and of a rib , which is a part of mans substance , and in all things like man of the same nature and kinde ; and in these respects man hath a priority , and a kinde of power and authority over the woman in outward things , which concerne ecclesiasticall and civill order ; and mans glory even the image of his authority appeares in the womans subjection to him ever since the fall , upon which god made her desire subject to man ; and tooke from her power over man , and the exercise of publike offices in the church and common wealth : and this subjection doth not exclude her from faith , charity , and holinesse with sobriety , or any other part of gods image needfull to salvation , as the apostle testifieth , tim. . . in a word , common sense and reason teach us , that , if the woman be made in the image of the man , and the man is made in gods image , then women must needs beare gods image and likenesse : but the truth is , god being still the same , both in the creation of the man and of the woman , and creating both by the same wisedome and power ; hee needed not to take adam for his paterne whereby to make the woman , but made her in his owne image as hee did man , and so in all things like to man , the different sexe onely excepted . this serves to admonish and stirre up women to bee carefull , diligent and industrious so to beare themselves as they that are made after gods image , & so to order their lives & conversation as they who expect the glory of heaven , and must , by passing through the state of grace here , and by conforming themselves to christ both in his death by mortification , and in his life by sanctification , come to the fulnesse of glory in heaven , and bee made conformable and like to christ in his glorious body , and coheires of god with him . secondly , it serves to reprove the wicked and profane men of the world , whose wickednesse is transcendent , and their profanenesse most horrible and impious , in that base esteeme which they have of the female sexe , and the vile account which they make of woman-kind , who thinke and speake of women that they have no soules , nor any part in gods image , and are utterly uncapable either of grace in this world , or glory in the world to come . like and equall unto which , in their profane impiety , are common strumpets and whorish women , the shame and staine of woman-kind , who prostitute themselves to all filthinesse , and so live as if they were made onely to serve the lusts of unreasonable men of bruitish lust . i proceed to the more speciall things , which are more distinctly laid downe concerning the creation of mankind ; where i will first insist upon the creation of the male and female , and the matter of which they were made , and of the manner and order in which god formed them : which that wee may distinctly understand , wee must looke forward to the . verse of the . chapter , where the creation of mankind is more particularly rehearsed in these words , and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nosthrils the breath of life , and man became a living soule . in the hebrew text , the man is here called adam , not as by his proper name , but as it is the common name of all mankind ; for , so much the article which is prefixed before it doth shew ; and therefore as the greeke , so also our english translators , doe translate this word not adam , but man ; god formed man of the dust ; for in the first creation , the man comprehended in him all mankind , even the woman who then was a rib in his side , and afterward was taken out and formed into a woman . the matter of which god formed adam is said to bee the dust of the ground ; and here he useth another word not used before in the creation of other things , that is , the word formed ; for hee doth not say , that god made or created , but formed man ; and true it is , that whole man was not made of dust , but onely the substance of his bodie ; and therefore it is said , that god formed man ( to wit , in respect of his body , ) of the dust of the ground , that is , hee framed and fashioned it of dust , as a potter formes a pot of clay , and brought it into that forme and shape which all perfect bodies of mankind doe beare untill this day : and this is the first beginning of the being both of the man and also of the woman , who was created here a rib at the first in mans side , and afterwards taken out , and made into a woman . first , in that iehovah elohim , the lord god , is here said to forme man , that is , to frame his body of dust , and to bring it into the forme and shape which it beares in all mankind : hereby wee are taught , that god did neither consult with angels about mans creation , nor assume them , or any other creatures into the fellowship of this worke ; but god himselfe alone who is iehovah , one god in essence and substance , and yet elohim , that is more persons , even three persons , in that one undivided essence , did forme the very body of man , and brought it into that forme and temper , that it might bee a fit subject of the soule , which is a spirituall substance . and this all other scriptures confirme , which attribute the creation of mankind to god alone ; as deut. . . and isa. . . with many other places , where the creation of man upon earth is ascribed unto god onely , and where holy and faithfull men , speaking as they were moved by the holy ghost , confesse themselves the worke of gods hands , as iob . . and god their maker and former , iob . . and malac. . . and god the potter and themselves his formed worke , isa. . . this doctrine well weighed is of excellent use : first to make us ascribe all our excellency and all our well being to god , that wee may give him the glory of them , and that wee may beare our selves before god as before our creatour , and may ever remember , that whatsoever service wee are able to performe either with our soules or bodies , it is wholy due to god , and none other but onely in him and by commandement and warrant from his holy and infallible word . seeing god alone hath created us and given us all our being , even the forme and shape of our bodies , wee must not thinke it enough to keepe our selves to god , and to serve him in spirit onely , but wee must serve and worship him with our bodies also , and with all parts and members of our bodies . although god many times makes men instruments and meanes to convey health , life , being , and well being to us ; as naturall parents , to bring us into being and life , and to nourish and bring us up ; and as kings , and rulers , and wise magistrates to bee saviours of our bodily lives from death and other dangers , and to procure safety , peace and well being to us ; and in this respect and for these causes wee doe owe love , honour , and service to them in , and under god : yet in no case may wee in things which tend not to the honour , but dishonour of god , and are contrary to his word and will , and offensive to his majesty , obey , serve and honour them . in such cases , let us say as the apostles did to the high-priests and rulers of the iewes , we ought to obey god rather then men ; and whether it be right and lawfull to obey you more then god judge yee , act. . . and . . all potentates , kings and rulers , because they are men and have no power but from god , must not looke that any should serve and obey them rather then god , or in things which they command contrary to gods commandements ; yea they must remember that they are gods creatures and handi-worke , and ought to employ all their power and authority to the honour of god. if otherwise they abuse the talents , which god hath lent them ; let them know , that god will one day call them to a reckoning , and give them the reward of evill , unfaithfull , and unprofitable servants , even eternall destruction and torment in hell , where shall be howling , and wayling , and gnashing of teeth . secondly , this serves to shew , that whosoever offers wrong and injury to any of mankind by cutting , mangling , or any way defacing their 〈…〉 age , and deforming their bodies ; by afflicting or some way corrupting their soules ; or by taking away their lives and naturall being , without speciall warrant and cōmmandement from god ; they are notoriously injurious to god himselfe ; they scorne , despise , mis-use and deface gods workmanship ; they provoke god to wrath and jealousie , and hee surely will bee avenged on such doings . and here wee have matter , as of dread and terrour to all cruell tyrants and unmercifull men ; so of hope and comfort to all who suffer injury and wrong at their hands : as the first sort have just cause to feare and tremble so often as they thinke on god the avenger of such wrong ; so the other have cause to hope that god will not wholy forsake them , being the worke of his owne hands , nor leave them to the will and lust of the wicked , his enemies ; but will in his good time save them , and send them deliverance . thirdly , this discovers the abomination and filthinesse of all idolaters , who being the workmanship of god , the lord and wise creator of all things , doe most basely bow downe to images , and altars ; and debase themselves to worship humane inventions , and the worke of mens hands , which are dumbe idols of wood , and stone , and lying vanities . it is just with god to cast out and expose all such people to ignominy , shame , and confusion in this world , and , in the world to come , into that place of darknesse , where the divell and all such as forsake god , and rebell against the light which from the creation shines to them , shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the face and presence of god , and from the glory of his power . secondly , in that god is here said to forme man of the dust of the ground , not of clay well tempered and wrought , but of dust , which of it selfe is most unfit to be compacted and made into a stedfast shape ; and which is counted so base , and so light , that every blast of wind drives it away ; and in scripture the basest things are resembled to it : hence wee may learne two things : first , that god in the creation , even of mans body , shewed his infinite power and wisedome in bringing dust of the earth , which is the basest thing of all , into the forme and shape of mans body , which is the most excellent of all visible bodies , and a fit house and temple not onely of a reasonable living soule , but also of gods holy spirit ; ( as other scriptures plainly affirme . ) this point appeares so plainly in the text , that i need not spend time in further confirmation of it ; the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , formed , here first used , implies an excellent forme , and the upright face of man : here therefore i will adde , for illustration sake , the words of david , which are very pertinent to this purpose , psal. . , , . where , speaking of gods forming and fashioning him in the wombe of the living substance , even the seed , blood , and flesh of his parents , saith he , i will prayse thee , for i am fearefully and wonderfully made . marvelous are thy workes , and that my soule knoweth right well : my substance was not hid from thee , when i was made in secret , and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth : thine eyes did see my substance , yet being imperfect , and in thy booke were all my members written , which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there was none of them . here we see with what feare , admiration and astonishment david considers mans frame , and the curious workmanship of his body , when god forms it in the mothers womb by lively instruments , and of a lively matter and substance : how much more may we conclude , that gods creating of adams body , which was the most curious naturall body that ever was made , is most admirable , and deserves more reverence , feare , and astonishment at our hands , being made without instruments out of the basest matter and substance even dust of the earth ! surely in this god shewed wisedome and power beyond all admiration . the vse of this doctrine is to stirre us up , so often as we thinke of our creation in adam , to laud and praise gods wisedome and power , to feare and reverence god , and to admire his curious workmanship . and although the matter of which god framed mans body was the basest of all , even dust of the ground ; yet let us not thinke ever a whit more meanly of our creation ; but so much more admire gods workmanship in our bodies . for , to make a curious worke in gold , silver , or of some beautifull , precious , and plyable mettall , is not rare , nor so excellent : but to frame of the basest matter , the dust of the ground ; the chiefest worke , and even the master-piece of all works in the visible world , that is , the body of adam in the state of innocency ; this is worthy of all admiration , and is a just motive and provocation to stirre us up to praise , and to extoll with admiration the wisedome and power of god ; especially , if wee consider the most excellent forme of mans body and upright stature , together with the head , comely face , hands , and other members every way fitted and composed to bee instruments of a reasonable soule , and to rule and keepe in order and subjection all living creatures . secondly , in that the dust of the ground , the basest part of the earth , is the matter out of which mans body , the beautifull palace and temple of his soul , was formed in the excellent state of innocency ; hence wee learne , that man is by nature , and in his best naturall being given to him in the creation , but a dusty , earthy substance in respect of his body ; and , in respect of his soul , an inhabitant of an house of clay , the foundation whereof is in the dust . but some perhaps , will object against the collection of this doctrine , from the base and fraile matter of which mans body was formed ; and will thus argue , that the state and condition of creatures is not to bee esteemed by the matter of which they were made , but by the forme and being which god gave to them ; as for example , the angels , together with the highest heaven , were created immediatly of nothing , as well as the rude unformed masse which is called earth , and yet they are most glorious spirits , and the rude masse is not to bee compared to them ; yea man was created according to his inferiour part the body , of dust , which is a created substance better then nothing , of which the angels were made ; and yet the angels in nature far excell man : therefore mans creation of dust doth not prove him to bee so fraile a creature , seeing god gave him such an excellent forme . to this i answer , that to bee created immediatly of nothing is in it selfe a more excellent worke , and shewes greater power , then to bee made of a meane inferiour matter : for when things are said to bee created of nothing , the meaning is not , that they are made of nothing as of a matter ; but that they are made of no matter at all , but have their whole being from god , and his infinite power , and so may bee , if god will , most excellent : but when man is said to be formed of dust , the meaning is , that dust is a part of his substance even the matter of which hee consists , and that his body according to the matter is a dusty , earthy substance ; and his soul , though a spirituall substance created of nothing , yet , dwelling in that body , is an inhabitant of an earthly tabernacle and house of clay founded in the dust . secondly , though the frame of mans body is in it selfe most excellent , and surpasseth all bodily formes , and his soul is a spirituall substance endowed with reason ; yet all these were of mutable excellency in the best naturall estate of innocency , and could not continue in that excellency but by dependance upon god , and cleaving fast to him ; and by his hand and power sustaining them continually , which by promise hee was not bound to doe in that estate . and therefore wee may truly gather from the matter of which god formed mans body , that hee was in his best naturall being , in respect of his body , but a dusty substance , such as might returne to dust , by falling off from god by sin , and disobedience ; yea undoubtedly as god in framing man his chiefest visible creature of dust , intended to shew his wisedome and power , and to glorifie his goodnesse : so also hee teacheth man thereby his owne naturall frailty and mutability , how unable hee is of himselfe to abide in honour and excellency . and this hee shewes most plainely , gen. . . where hee saith to man , alluding to his creation , dust thou art , and to dust thou shalt returne : wee have also an excellent argument to this purpose , iob . , . and . . where the lord is said to charge his angels with folly , and to lay no trust in his servants , and the heavens are not cleare in his sight ; how much lesse can hee find steadfastnesse in men , who dwell in houses of clay , which have their foundation in the dust ? that is , seeing the heavenly spirits are not immutably pure in gods sight , but some of the angels hath god charged with folly , to wit , such as did fall , and to the rest hee hath added supernaturall light of his spirit , and so hath made them saints immutably holy , much lesse is man immutably pure and steadfast by nature , whose better part the soul is by creation made to dwell in an house of clay , a body made of dust . to this purpose serve those scriptures of the prophets and apostles , which compare man in his first creation to clay in the hand of the potter , ier. . . & rom. . & which affirme that the first adam was of the earth earthy ; cor. , . that is , in his first creation hee was of an earthy and dusty substance . first , this serves by discovering unto man his frailty and mutability in his best naturall being , to humble every man in his owne eyes , and to make him lowly , and to withdraw his heart from pride and all high conceipts of any worth in himselfe , and to teach us all to ascribe all the unchangable purity which wee finde in ourselves , and all our steadfastnesse to the free grace of god in christ , and not to any power of our owne free will , or to the excellency of our naturall frame and being . if man in his first creation and best naturall being was but of earth and dust , an earthy and dusty creature ; and , before that death entered into the world , while hee had yet power of free will to obey god , and to depend on him , was mutable and might fall into sin , and disobedience , and by sin might bring and did bring death upon himselfe and all his posterity : how much more now in the state of nature corrupted is every son of man , a very masse of corruption and frailty , yea vanity and abominable filthinesse , who drinketh iniquity like water as it is written , iob . . wherefore , let no man glory in any naturall power or prerogative , nor hope to stand by his owne strength , much lesse to merit or purchase by any works of nature or power of free will , the least grace supernaturall , which tends to bring him to heavenly happinesse and glory unchangeable : for man , as hee is flesh and blood , that is , an earthly creature , cannot possibly come to inherite the kingdome of god , cor. . . secondly , this discovers the madnesse and desperate blindnesse of pelagians and papists , who teach , that a man by the right use of his naturall power and free-will may procure spirituall grace from god , and even the spirit of regeneration , and faith working by love , by which hee may merit and purchase to himselfe eternall life , and heavenly glory and felicity , as a just and condigne reward of his works . if angels cannot bee made steadfast and trusty without supernaturall light added to them ; much lesse can earthy man , who by sin is become filthy and abominable , worke out his owne salvation by meriting and purchasing the heavenly reward . oh let us all hate and abhorre all such conceipts , which wholly tend to the frustrating and evacuating of christs merits and satisfaction , and to make them seeme vaine and needlesse . be not deceived , god is not mocked ; they who sow such tares , and feed like swine on the huskes of their owne works , and on things which nature teacheth , they are enemies to the grace of god , which is given onely in iesus christ , and together with him by communion of his spirit . after the creation of mans body of dust , immediatly followes the creation of his soule ; which is to bee understood in these words : and breathed into his nosthrils the breath of life , and man was a living soule ; for no sooner was mans body brought into frame , but god breathed into him the breath of life ; that is , caused him to breathe with the breath of life , even those vitall spirits which are the band of union by which the soule is united to the body ; and in the first instant wherein he created the vitall spirits , he also created the spiritual substance of his soule in his body immediatly of nothing by his omnipotent hand . some are opinion , that mans soule was first created a spirit , subsisting by it selfe before his body was formed ; and when the body was formed a fit subject for it , then instantly god infused it into the body , and by it did give life and breath to the body . some thinke , that the body was formed , and the soule in the same instant created together with it , as damascene lib. . de fide , cap. . aquinas , and others : and cyrill thinks , that gods breathing into mans face the breath of life , was the infusion of the holy ghost into man ; and that man in the creation had the holy spirit given to dwell in him , and was sanctified and endowed with supernaturall grace and holinesse . some thinke , that gods breathing into mans nosthrils was his inspiring into man a reasonable soule , as a part of himselfe : so rabby moses maymonides . but by breathing into mans face , i doe not understand any materiall breathing or blast , but that god , in causing breath of life to breathe through mans nosthrils , did withall create the soule in the body , and by meanes of this reasonable soule created in the body , and united to the body by vitall spirits and breath , man became a living soule , that is , a living reasonable creature , living onely a perfect naturall , not an holy spirituall life . the apostle expounds these words in this sense , cor. . and doth make this a maine difference betweene the first man adam , and christ the second adam , that the first adam was onely a naturall man endowed with a naturall living soule ; but to be a quickning spirit , that is , to bee sanctified by the holy ghost , and endowed with spirituall life , is proper to christ in his creation , for in him the spirit dwelt from his first conception . hence wee learne , that the image of god in which mans was created , was onely naturall and did consist in naturall gifts , which naturally flow from his reasonable soule , and not in any supernaturall gifts of the holy ghost ; as true holinesse , and the like : the words of saint paul last before named doe fully prove this . i will here onely adde one strong reason and invincible argument to prove it fully . and that is drawne from the mutability of man in the creation , and from his fall , by which gods image was defaced in him . for it is most certaine , that hee who hath in him that image of god which consists in true holinesse , and in spirituall and supernaturall gifts , hee is not mutable nor subject to fall away , because hee hath the holy ghost dwelling in him , who is greater then he that dwels in the world , ioh. . that is , then the divell who worketh powerfully in the children of disobedience . for all true holinesse , and all spirituall graces are the proper worke of the holy ghost dwelling in man , as all the scriptures testifie . but adam in innocency and honour lodged not therein one night , psalme . . the divell at the first onset gave him the foile in his greatest strength of nature and best estate ; which divell with all his temptations and all the powers of darknesse and spirituall wickednesses , the little ones of christs flocke doe overcome by the power of the holy ghost and his graces , which they have in their fraile earthen vessels . therefore the image of god in which man was created , was naturall onely . this discovers gods goodnesse , free grace , and bounty beyond all measure , and all conceipt and comprehension of humane reason , in that it shewes how god , by mans fall , malice and corruption which made him a slave of hell and death , did take occasion to bee more kind and bountifull to man , and to shew more love and goodnesse to him , by repairing the ruines of his fall , and renuing him after a better image then that which hee gave him in the creation , and making him better after his sin and fall , then hee was before in the state of innocency , when hee had of himselfe no inclination to any sin or evill , and bringing him to grace spirituall in christ , and to an image which cannot bee defaced and to a state firme and unchangable : when wee rightly consider these things , wee have no cause to murmur at gods voluntary suffering of man to fall from his estate , which was perfect and pure naturall ; but rather to rejoyce in god , and to blesse his name , and to magnifie his goodnesse , for turning his fall to our higher rising and exaltation , and lifting us up by christ from hell and misery , to heavenly glory which never fadeth , and to a state spirituall and supernaturall not subject to change and alteration . secondly , this doctrine overthrowes the foundation and false ground , upon which papists and pelagians doe build , and seeke to establish their false and erroneous opinion concerning the apostasie of the saints regenerate , and their falling from supernaturall grace and iosing the spirit of regeneration ; which errour they seeke to establish by this argument , because adam in innocency had the holy ghost shed on him , and was endued with spirituall and supernaturall gifts of holinesse , from which hee did fall by sin and transgression . but here wee see there is no such matter ; adams image was onely naturall uprightnesse ; not spirituall , supernaturall , and true holinesse . hee was but a perfect naturall man , and a living soule ; christ , the second adam , onely is called the quickning spirit , because through him onely god sheds the holy ghost on men ; and hence it is , that though adam did fall away from his estate , which was onely naturall ; yet the saints regenerate and called to the state of grace in christ , can never fall away totally nor finally into apostacy , because they have the seed of god , even the holy ghost dwelling and abiding in them . chap. xiii . of the womans creation in particular . how without her all was not good . woman not made to be a servant . of giving names to the creatures . no creature but woman a meet companion for man , vses . of the rib whereof woman was made . of adams deepe sleepe : five points thence collected . of gods bringing eve to adam ; and two points thence . of adams accepting eve for his wife ; and calling her bone , &c. w 〈…〉 h divers points thence . of their nakednesse : demonstrating the perfection of the creation . gen. . , , , . and the lord said , it is not good that the man should be alone , i will make an helpe meet for him . and every beast , and every fowle god brought to adam , to see what hee would call them , &c. and adam gave names to them all : but for adam there was not found an helpe meet for him . and the lord god caused a deepe sleep to fall upon adam , and he slept ; and he tooke one of his ribs and made it a woman , and brought her to the man , &c. these words , and the rest which follow in this chapter , containe a particular description of the creation of the woman , which before was touched generally and summarily , chap. . . in these words , male and female created hee them . in this history of the womans creation , wee may observe three speciall things : first , the preparation to it , or the antecedents immediatly going before it . secondly , the creation it selfe . thirdly , the consequents which followed upon it . in the preparation , wee may observe three distinct things : first , gods counsell and resolution for mans well being , verse : secondly , gods setting of the man a worke to view the creatures , and to exercise his reason and naturall wisedome in naming them , verse . thirdly , the inequality which adam found in the creatures and the unfitnesse of them for his conversation , verse . first , moses brings in the lord god consulting with himselfe , and according to his eternall counsell concluding that it was not good for man to bee alone , and resolving that hee will make an helpe meet for him : for these words , and god said , are not to be understood of any sound of words uttered by god ; but of gods eternall counsell , purpose , and fore-knowledge now beginning to manifest it selfe by outward action and execution , as a mans mind is manifested by his speech . the things , which god foreknew in his counsell , and purposed , are two : first , that it was not good for man to bee alone . secondly , that hee would make an helpe meet for him . hence it may seeme strange which god saith , that any thing which he had made should not be good : for did not hee make man alone and single at the first ? and did not hee make every thing good , especially man created in his owne image ? was not the image of god , in which hee created man , fully and perfectly good ? to this doubt i answer , that the man was created good and perfect after the likenesse of god , and there was no defect in his being and substance : but yet , as all other creatures , though they were made good , and there was no evill in them ; yet they were not so good as man ; so man , though as hee was created in the image of god , was good , yea in goodnesse farre excelled other earthly creatures ; yet hee was not so good , but that hee might bee made more good , and created in an image of god more excellent then that wherein hee was first made , even in the holy image of the heavenly adam christ , which farre excels and is immutable : yea , wee finde by experience that many things which are good in themselves , are not good for all purposes ; fire is good in it selfe , and for many uses ; but not to bee eaten ; and so many other creatures are good , as the flesh of beasts for mans meat , but not without bread and salt , nor raw : so man was created good and fit to rule all other living creatures , even considered alone in himselfe ; but it was not good for the bringing of all gods purposes to passe that man should bee alone ; it was farre better that a woman should bee created meet for him , for the procreation of mankind , for the increase of gods church , and for the incarnation of christ , and the bringing forth of him the blessed seed of the woman , in whom god reveales all his goodnesse and good pleasure . here then wee may learne two points of instruction . first , that as god from all eternity in his eternall councell immutably purposed , so in the first creation of man hee shewed , that hee intended all things which hee hath brought to passe in and by the incarnation of christ , and in the gathering together of his elect church by christ , and that hee had in his purpose the exaltation of man to an higher and better estate then that in which hee first created him . for it is most cleare and manifest , that adam , being created in the image of god , in all uprightnesse and perfection of nature ; and having all the visible world to view , and to contemplate upon gods wisedome and workmanship therein , and all the creatures to rule over , and all things necessary for worldly delight , needed no more for naturall and earthly felicity : but yet for all this god said , it was not good that man should bee alone ; that is , it was not good for that which god intended , that is , for the obtaining of eternall felicity in and by christ , and for the full manifestation of gods goodnesse and glory in and upon mankind . this is that truth , which is so often testified by our saviour and his apostles , where they tell us , that god prepared a kingdome for his elect from the beginning of the world ; and that as an elect number was chosen in christ before the foundation of the world ; so christs incarnation ' death , satisfaction and mediation were ordained before all worlds , as matth. . . and eph. . . first , this sheweth against all atheists , pagans , and hereticks that nothing comes to passe by chance , nothing without the foresight and foreknowledge of god : but hee saw before hee created the world what should befall every creature , and without his will permitting , no evill comes to passe , & without his wil ordaining , and his hand working , no good can come to any creature ; all things are according to his foreknowledge , and there is no place for idle suppositions of vainemen . secondly , as the wicked may here for their terrour take notice , that all their evil deeds are foreseene and foreknowne of god , and hee hath just vengance laid up in store for them : so the godly may comfort themselves against all calumnies , slanders , and false witnesses ; all are knowne to god , and hee will in the end make the truth knowne , and bring their cause to light . thirdly , wee are hereby stirred up to all diligence in gods service , and that betimes , seeing god hath so long before hand ordained and prepared all good things for us : all our time spent in praise and thanks before him , is nothing to the time wherein hee hath shewed love to us , in preparing good for us before and from the beginning of the world. secondly , in that it is said , of man created in gods image in full perfection of nature , that it was not good , that hee should bee alone : hence wee learne , that the image of god , and the state wherein man was first created , is not absolutely the best which man can have ; but that in christ there is a better image , and a more excellent state and condition provided for him , which is best of all . this is fully proved , cor. . where the apostle shewes , that the image of the heavenly adam is farre above the image of the earthly , and that the kingdome which is prepared in christ for the elect , is such as flesh and bloud , that is , naturall man cannot inherite . this shewes , that wee gaine more by christ , then wee lost in adam ; and god by mans fall , is become more bountifull to mankind : and wee who in christ have our hope , have no cause to repine at gods decreeing , willing and suffering of mans fall , nor to bee impatient under the afflictions which thereby come upon us ; seeing the end of all is glory and blisse , and a crowne too high and precious for adam in the state of innocency . the second thing in gods councell and purpose is , that hee will make an helpe meet for man. here againe it may seeme strange , that adam should need an helpe in the state of innocency ; for helpe is required when a man is in need , and wants necessaries for avoiding evill or gaining some good ; which adam , being created in gods image and having all the world at will , seemed not to want . but to this i answere , that by an helpe here , wee are to understand not an helpe to resist any evill , or to gaine some naturall good which hee wanted ; but an helpe for obtaining an higher and more blessed estate , even the supernaturall and heavenly estate of grace and glory in christ , the seed of the women : whence wee may learne , that the woman was created not to bee a servant to man , to serve his naturall necessity ; for hee needed no such helpe or service in that estate , being made good and perfect with naturall perfection : but to bee an helpe and furtherance to heavenly happinesse , and in things which tend thereunto . and albeit the woman by being first in the transgression , and a meanes of mans fall is made in her desire subject to man , and to his rule and dominion over her ; yet by christ the promised seed of the woman , shee is restored to her first honourable estate , to bee an helpe to man in heavenly things , and a meanes to winne man , and to bring him to god in christ by her chast and holy conversation , and by shewing a lively example of piety , and of the true feare of god , and giving due reverence to her husband , as saint peter testifieth , pet. . . this doctrine is of good use : first , to teach men how to use and esteeeme their wives , and wherein especially to seeke their helpe even in heavenly things , and in earthly and temporall , so farre as they serve to further them in spirituall . if men could bee brought to understand and beleeve this , they would bee carefull to marrie in the lord , and to match themselves with wives of the true religion , godly and vertuous , well approved for piety , faith and knowledge , and truly fearing god. secondly , to direct women , how they ought to frame , beare , and behave themselves towards their husbands ; and wherein they ought to strive , study , and endeavour to bee helps to them , even in the way to heaven ; let the daughters of the cursed idolatrous canaanites beare this just brand , that , like iezabel , they are snares , and stirre up their husbands to wickednesse , and to idolatry and cruelty . to reprove men and women , who onely or chiefely seeke fleshly , carnall and worldly helpe , content , profit , and pleasure one from another , and in their mutuall society and conjugall communion ; and so quite swerve and stray from the rule of this doctrine : where wee have much matter of reproofe ministred to us , both of men who take wives according to their lust , and greedy desire of wealth and riches , not for religion and the feare of god ; or who make drudges and slaves of their wives whom god made to bee helps meet for them ; and also of women who give themselves to bee no helps to their husbands except it bee for the world , no furtherers at all but rather pul-backs and hinderers in the way to heaven , and in heavenly and spirituall things . the second thing , in the preparation to the womans creation , is , gods setting of adam a worke to view all living creatures , and to employ his reason and wisedome in giving names to them . where wee are to note and observe , first , that here is no mention made of the living creatures in the sea , but onely of those which god formed out of the ground , that is , beasts , and cattell , and fowles of the aire all which were ready at hand , and god might quickly present , and make to passe before adam all kinds of them , that hee might view and name them . secondly , wee here may observe the intent and purpose of god in bringing them to adam ; to wit , the exercise and triall of adams naturall reason , wisedome , and knowledge ; which were made manifest by his giving to every kind fit names , which god approved and confirmed . thirdly , the manifestation of adams wisedome , and gods confirming of his judgement , which hee shewed in naming every kind of earthly creature with a name agreeable to the nature of it . for whatsoever adam called every living creature , that was the name of it , that is , that name was ratified by god. yea also , because there was no use of names , whereby the creatures might bee knowne to any other or revealed , ( there being as yet no man besides adam himselfe , nor the woman yet made to whom hee might shew them by their names ) i am induced to thinke , that adam gave such a fit and proper name agreeable to the nature and qualities of every creature , that the creature , being called by that name , would come to adam whensoever hee called upon it ; such was the obedience of the creatures to man , and such was mans wisedome to rule them , and so excellent was his knowledge of their severall natures and qualities . from which observations thus opened wee may learne : that , in the state of innocency in the first creation , man had perfect naturall knowledge of all naturall things , arising and springing immediatly from his naturall soule , and the powers and faculties thereof , which were naturall principles created in him ; he had no need to bee taught by any instructor , in any art or knowledge fit for his state and condition , nor to learne by experience as now we doe since the fall . now , seeing adam was thus perfect in naturall knowledge of all things which concerned his naturall state and condition , and yet was seduced by the woman , & the serpent : this serves to teach us , that no naturall knowledge , gifts , and abilities can uphold and sustaine a man against spirituall enemies , and temptations ; that power is proper to supernaturall grace , neither can naturall reason dive into the depth of heavenly and supernaturall things . if naturall wit and reason could have conceived the spirituall meaning of the tree of life , and of the tree of knowledge of good and evill ; surely adam would first have eaten of the tree of life , and not by any meanes have beene tempted and drawn to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evill : for he who was created good , could in no case wittingly have neglected the tree of life , and desired the other upon any false suggestion . wherefore let us not build upon nature , but wholly upon grace , in things which concerne eternall life and heavenly happinesse . he that followeth naturall reason for his guide in the way to heaven , may easily bee carried aside , and fall into the crooked wayes of errour , which lead unto hell , and speedily fall into the pit of destruction . the third thing to be noted in the preparation to the womans creation is , the inequalitie which adam found in all the creatures to be his mates and companions , and their unfitnesse for his conversation to be an helpe meet for him : this is in these words , but for adam there was not found an helpe meet for him . the words seeme to sound , as if god had brought the creatures before adam , to see if either he himselfe , or adam could find one among them all fit to bee a consort for adam and a meet help . but the purpose and intent of god was to imploy adams wit , and to take an experiment of it , as is before noted : and as for god , hee knew well enough what was to bee found among all the creatures , hee needed not either to seeke for adam , or to set adam to seeke a meet helpe among them : yea , hee had said before , i will make an helpe meet for him . the meaning is , that when adam had viewed and named all kinds of earthly creatures , hee found them all so farre inferiour to himselfe , and so unlike in nature , that they could not all yeeld him an help meet for him . the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is here translated , meet for him , some would have it to signifie against him , which is most absurd ; for the woman was not made a perverse creature to thwart man ; then shee had beene a crosse and an hell , not an help . tostatus would have this word to signifie contrary to him , because the woman in her naturall members or parts is contrary to man ; which is also absurd . neither doth this word signifie as one before him , that is , as kimchi expounds it , as one to stand before him , and to attend him as a servant ; for then god would not have made her of his owne substance ; but of a meaner and inferiour matter : but the word signifies , as one which is his second selfe , made in the same forme like him , as a picture is drawne in a table set just before a mans face , and over against him , that it may in all parts answer to his shape and feature . such an help adam could not finde among all earthly creatures ; but such a one god purposed , and resolved to make for him , even one who should be his second selfe , made of his owne substance , and in the same image of god , and consisting of a living reasonable soule ( as hee did ) and of a body in all parts and members , and in forme and shape fully like to his body , ( onely the difference of sex excepted . ) this common sense and experience doth shew and teach , and therefore , this is the true sense and meaning of this phrase , i will make an help meet for him . and hence wee learne : that man created in the image of god doth so farre in nature , former and substance excell all living creatures , birds , beasts and living things on earth , that none of them all is a meet consort or companion for him to converse with . some delight hee may take in ruling over them , and in their service and obedience ; but no true or solid content in their society and conversation . as adam found this in the state of innocency , and in his pure uncorrupt nature ; so all adams sons of the best temper ever abhorred to bee excluded from humane society , and to converse with birds and beasts . david counted it worse then death to live among wild beasts in the desarts , and complained bitterly of it ; psalme . and could not bee satisfied till hee had drawne to him all discontented persons , and them who durst not shew their heads for debt , sam. . . so did austere eliah , when iezabel made him flee for his life into the wildernesse , king. . and never any of gods saints delighted to live in the wildernesse onely , among beasts and birds without humane society , except in times of cruell persecution , as appeares , hebr. . or for some speciall triall and temptation , as our saviour , mark. . . and his forerunner iohn the baptist , luk. . last verse , to harden him and make him austere , and a second eliah . this admonisheth us to esteeme the society of men as a great blessing of god ; and not to set our delight on dogs , horses , hawkes , and hounds , more then in the company of men , as many doe , which is an argument that they are degenerate from the nature of men . secondly , this discovers the beastly dotage of many romish saints , and of the monkes , and anachorites of the church of rome , who count it an high point of perfection to live in caves , and dennes , and cottages in the wildernesse remote from all humane society , and to converse onely whith beasts , yea and to preach unto them , as their saint francis is by them recorded to have done , and have called ravenous wolves his bretheren . god made man a sociable creature , to delight in humane society , and hath given him a mouth and tongue to speake his minde to others , who can with reason hear and understand him . hee who will follow christ must not looke on his owne things , but on the things of others ; and must impart all his holy meditations to as many as hee can , if hee hath any in him : otherwise hee hides his talent , and covers his candle under a bushell , which favours of satanicall envy , hath no relish of christian kindnesse and charity . i might here observe the conformity of woman in her nature and frame unto man , and the sweet harmony and concord which , by the law of nature and creation , ought to betweene man and woman ; but i have in part touched it before , and shall have more occasion hereafter . i proceed to the creation it selfe , laid downe in the . and . verses : wherein i observe , first , the matter of which the woman was made , to wit , a rib of the man , verse . secondly , the manner , verse : in the matter ; first , it is shewed , that god caused a deep sleepe to fall upon adam , such as makes a man senselesse of any thing which is done to him ; so the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies . this sleepe was not naturall , but an extraordinarie sleepe which god made to fall on him ; a sleepe which came not from any violence done to nature but by the powerfull hand of god making man to sleepe quietly , so that hee did not feele what god did to him . secondly , it is said , that in this deep sleepe god did take one of adams ribs , and closed up the flesh in stead of it . here divers questions are moved by divers interpreters : . whether it was one rib , or a paire of ribs . . whether it was one of adams necessary ribs , one of the twelve , which every man hath naturally in his side ; or whether an extraordinary rib , made in adam for the purpose . . whether adam was cast into stupidity to take away paine and feare , or whether for some other cause . some thinke , that if it was a rib created in adam above the ordinary number , then adam was made a monster . others say , that if it was an ordinary rib ; then adam was afterwards a maymed man , and wanted a necessary naturall part . but i conceive this to bee the truth : first , that it was but one rib , or at least one paire of ribs ; so the text affirmes . secondly , it was not one of adams necessary ribs , required to make him a perfect man ; but a rib above the ordinary number , which god created in adam of purpose , and yet adam was no monster , neither was it a superfluous part : for as adam was created the common stock and root of all mankind ; so it was requisite that hee should have one rib extraordinary created in him above other men , whereof the woman was to bee made , and he neverthelesse remaine perfect and complete as any other man afterwards . thirdly , adams deep sleepe was not to take away sense of paine ; but a mystery of building the church out of christs death , under which hee slept to the third day . and it is said , that god closed up the flesh in stead thereof , or in the place thereof ; not that god left a scarre or hollow place , or that god created flesh to fill up the place of the rib ; but onely closed up the flesh in the place where hee tooke out the rib , so that no scar or print did there appeare , but man appeared most perfect , and without mayme or signe of any wound . in the second place , for the manner of the womans creation , it is said , that god made this rib a woman or builded it up to bee a woman , as the words run in the hebrew ; which word implies , that as children are derived of their parents to build up their familie ; so the woman was derived from adam to build up his great family , mankind , of his owne nature and substance ; and that his posterity might spring wholly from him , both in respect of himselfe , and of his wife their common mother , which was taken out of him . i omit needlesse questions , and ridiculous collections which some have here made : as , that the woman being made of a bone is hard hearted , and such like . the profitable points which i observe from hence , are these following : first , wee are here taught by mans falling into a deep sleepe , senselesse like death , that the woman might bee taken and formed out of him , that god in the creation foreshewed , that the spouse of the second adam christ , even the true church should be purchased by the death of christ , and the blood drawne out of his side ; and christ , by his sleepe in death , should make way to raise and build up his church . that the first adam and his wife in her creation were the types and figures of christ and his spouse the church , i need not stand to prove ; the apostle hath done it sufficiently , ephes. . , , . this serves for much heavenly instruction ; as first , to put us in minde of the unity which is betweene christ and his church ; and to make us , as wee desire , to bee a true and chaste spouse of christ ; also to labour to be spiritually united to him , & never rest till wee feele and perceive that wee are borne of gods immortall seed , even of his spirit . secondly , to make us ascribe our being wholly to christ , as wee are the true , holy , and regenerate church and people of god , and of the heavenly family . thirdly , to make us love christ , and to meditate on his death with all holy reverence and tender affection , as the thing by which wee are purchased ; yea to make us ready to conforme our selves to christ in his death , by suffering for the good of his church . fourthly , to make us see , that the creation was as it were a shadow of gods restauration of the world by christ , and that the restauration is the substance by which the creation is perfected . secondly , god made the woman of a rib , which was a part of the mans body ; which teacheth us , that woman must by the course of nature yeeld to man the preheminence , as being made out of him ; this the apostle also teacheth cor. . , . and this admonisheth women to give due respect to their husbands , as is meet , in the lord , and not to usurpe rule and authority over men . thirdly , god made woman of mans substance ; which teacheth , that woman is neare and ought to bee deare to man , as a part of himselfe ; which the apostle confirmes , ephes. . and here all harsh and tyrannicall husbands are justly noted ; and their doings reproved . fourthly , the making of the woman of a bone , a solid part , teacheth us , that shee is made to bee a solid helpe and stay to man , and ought so to be in his family . and hereby husbands are directed to esteeme their wives , as the stay of their family . and wives to strive to bee helps . fifthly , in that god made the woman not out of mans head nor feet ; but out of his side , hereby hee hath taught us , that women must not bee too high and proud as the head , nor too low vassals as the feet , but consorts and companions of their husbands in the whole course of their life , partakers of the same grace , and of the same honours and dignities ; yoke-fellowes in the same labours and cares in this world , and coheires of the same glory in the world to come . the wise-man confirmes this fully by the description of a vertuous woman , which is reformed after the true image , in which shee was created , prov. . for hee describes her to bee one who consorts with her husband in labour and provident care , and drawes equally with him in the same yoke , and partakes of the same honour , and respect both in publike and private . the holy prophets also and apostles shew , that the woman is made to bee mans inseparable companion , mal. . . even the desire of his eye , and the joy of his glory , on whom especially hee sets his mind , ezech. . and that mans delight must bee to have her continually at his side , and her delight must bee to present her selfe to his eyes as a looking-glasse , in which hee may behold his owne glory , even the image of god , in which hee was formed first , and shee after him , cor. . , . where the apostle forbids the wife to depart from her husband , and the husband to put away his wife , and their defrauding one another of mutuall comfort by separating and living apart . for as man is the image and glory of god ; so the woman is the glory of the man , cor. . . in whom man may behold , as in a glasse , the image of god in which hee was created . and therefore the holy apostles who were married , as peter , and the bretheren of the lord , in their travelling to preach the gospell , did lead about their wives , as saint paul testifieth , cor. . . also saint peter speakes plainely to this purpose , pet. . . where hee injoynes husbands to dwell with their wives according to knowledge , giving honour to the wife as to the weaker vessell , and as being coheires of the grace of life ; that is , as a man is indued with more knowledge , so it is his duty to dwell and converse with his wife wisely as a man of knowledge : and as wee tender those necessary vessells which are usefull for us , and the more weake and brittle they are , the more wee take care for them , and have a continuall eye over them ; so men ought to bee more carefull over their wives , because they are the weaker sex ; and to give them more respect , honour and shield , and more to esteeme of them by having a constant eye towards them , and keeping them in their sight and presence , as much as may bee ; and so much more , because they are coheires of the grace of life , and must draw joyntly together as under the same yoke in the way to heavenly happinesse . this doctrine of truth , written in our hearts in the creation , should bee a guide and direction unto us all in the whole course of our lives : it directs men how to esteeme their wives , and to beare themselves towards them ; and women how to behave themselves before their husbands , that the one ought not cast the other behind as an unfit and unworthy mate and companion : the man must not run too farre before , and leave his wife behind , either in worldly estate , or in grace and in the way to heaven ; nor the wife draw back and lagge behind , either through careleseness , or mean conceipt of her owne frame , nature and sex ; but both must draw cheeke by cheeke , and side by side , and by joynt strength and endeavour draw on , & pull , and put forward one another , as a couple that are by the yoke which god imposed on them in the creation fast tied together . this is the will and law of god , and they that walke by this true rule , peace , prosperity and blessing shall bee on them all their dayes , and the end of their labour shall bee an eternall sabbath in heaven . secondly , it serves to reprove the great corruption which is daily seene among men and women in this miserable world , by meanes of which the world appeares to bee very much out of frame . some men , like turkes and italians , make no account of their wives , but as of slaves to serve their lust , and as footestooles to tread upon , and trample at their pleasure . some , like savage indians , make them drudges to toile and labour for them as oxen and horses , and to serve them as servants and slaves . some account them weake creatures , not capable of any great knowledge or wisedome , and thereupon neglect the care and pains of instructing them , and teaching them , and imparting their knowledge to them , & drawing and pulling them on in the same way , and causing them to go on with themselves in an equal pace . and so again , some women esteeme their husbands as men that are bound to serve , please , humour and flatter them in all things which they desire ; and that the maine care of the man should bee to deck , adorne , and set forth his wife as his idoll in all costly apparell , and toyish painting , and vanities , as if shee were made to feed his eyes with her ornaments , and vanishing beauty . and on the other side , some out of a base mind and slothfulnesse thinke it belongs not to them to bee fellow builders of the family , equall to their husband in honest care , labour and industry for the common good of the family , or in grace and spirituall gifts ; in all which they must bee partakers in their measure and proportion . let such transgressors of the law of nature bee assured , that as they come short of common humanity , so much more of the grace and glory of god. the third thing in the history of womans creation , is the consequents of it . the first , that god brought her to the man , vers . . the second , that adam accepted her , as an help meet for him , that is , as his second selfe , a most pleasing and delightsome companion of his life , and most helpfull to build up mankind , ver . . upon which moses by inspiration of gods spirit , inferres by way of necessary conclusion an excellent doctrine , which hath both a morall and propheticall meaning . first a naturall morall sense , to wit , first , that a mans wife is nearer to him , and ought to be esteemed dearer than his naturall parents , and to her he must cleave , though it be with leaving them . secondly that in creating the woman , and joyning her to man in marriage , god did prefigure and fore-shew the infinite love of christ to his church , and the love of the church to christ , and the spirituall and mysticall union which is between them ; as is noted eph. . . the third consequent is , the nakednesse of the man and woman , which was without shame or any inconvenience in their first creation before their fall , ver . . first , it is said that god brought her to the man , that is , so soone as god had made and formed her of mans rib , he presented her to him to be his wife , and so an help meet for him ; we must not thinke that this bringing of her to him was onely a setting of her before his eyes , and shewing her to his sight ; but that god withall declared to the man how , and whereof he had made her , even of a rib taken out of him , and did offer her to him for a wife and equall consort ; so much the phrase of bringing her to him doth import . from whence we learne , that the marriage of man and wife is the ordinance of god in the state of innocency , and god is the first author of it , and the first match-maker between man and woman in the first creation . our saviour also testifieth this in the gospell , mat. . . saying that by vertue of gods first ordaining of marriage , man and woman married together are no more twaine , but one flesh . and whatsoever god hath thus joyned together , no man ought to put asunder . and there is good reason why god should be the first author of marriage ; because it is the onely lawfull meanes of bringing forth people to god , and of propagation of mankind ; and it is such a ground and foundation of the church , that without it god cannot have an holy seed , as the prophet intimates mal. . . which point serves . first , to shew that marriage is honourable in it selfe , in the nature of it , among all men and women of all sorts , orders and degrees , as the apostle teacheth , heb. . . and the popes and church of rome , in counting marriage a kind of fleshly uncleanenesse , and defilement , discover themselves to be opposers of gods ordinance , and violaters of the law of nature . secondly , to shew that the best celebration of marriage is , when it is solemnly celebrated , and man and woman joyned together by gods publike ministers , who stand in the place of god , as ambassadours , and are his mouth to blesse his people : for then god is after a secondarie manner the author and match-maker ; and his ordinance being thus observed , and the marriage blessed by his ministers , there may be more hope of blessing upon it , and upon the parties joyned together . thirdly this , in going about marriage men and women ought chiefly & first of all to consult with god , to looke up to him , & to seeke his direction and assistance by humble , fervent and faithfull prayers and supplication . it is onely he who knoweth fittest matches and consorts for every one , and can give to man an help meet for him . fourthly it discovers to us the abomination , and unnaturall filthinesse of whoredome and fornication , wherein men and women do joyne and mingle themselves together without god , the divell and fleshly lust leading them . no marvell that adulterers , whoremongers , and fornicators , are so often in the scriptures excluded out of the kingdome of god. secondly , wee hence learne . that pure marriage , which is gods ordinance , is of one man with one woman , for god had an excellency and over-plus of spirit in the creation ; and yet hee made but one woman for adam who was but one man ; & why ? but that he might seeke a godly seed , as the prophet saith , mal. . . our saviour also teacheth in the gospell that a man ought to have but one wife while he and shee liveth ; and god from the beginning , even from the creation , shewed that he did not allow polygamie . and in old time god tolerated it in some of the patriarchs and prophets , not as a thing naturally good and allowable ; but as a type and figure of christ and his severall churches , which , as severall spouses , he gathers to himselfe out of iewes and gentiles , cant. . . this , being so , teacheth every man to bee carefull , circumspect and inquisitive in choosing to himselfe a wife who is to bee his perpetuall consort and companion of his life . it is good councell of a wise-man , which he gives to all ; that there ought much deliberation to bee used in doing a thing which is to bee done once for all , and if it bee done amisse , can never bee amended ; and such is a mans taking of a woman to bee his wife , shee is once taken for all , and during her life , hee may not seeke a better , nor can bee eased of his burden if shee proveth froward , perverse and contentious : hee who finds a good wife , gets a meet helpe and continuall comfort to himselfe ; but hee who takes a brawling wife , puls upon himselfe a perpetuall crosse and clogge . the second consequent , is adams free and willing acceptation of the woman to bee his wife , and so an helpe meet for him , in these words , and adam said , this is now bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh ; shee shall bee called woman , because shee was taken out of man , verse . wherein wee may note three things worthy to bee considered . first , that god having made a wife fit for adam , doth not by c●active or commanding power and authority put her upon him ; but having shewed her to him , what one , and whence shee was , suffers him to accept and choose her freely of his owne accord , and makes not up the marriage till adam doth cheerefully , upon certaine knowledge of her nature and disposition , accept her for his wife and second selfe . whence wee learne , that marriage , according to gods ordinance , is a free voluntary contract made betweene a man and his wife , made with the well liking and mutuall consent of both parties . though fathers are said to take wives to their sons , and to give their daughters to bee wives , exod. . . and some sons are said to desire their fathers to give them such , or such wives , as gen. . . and iud. . . yet they ought not to impose wives on their sons without good liking and free consent , nor give their daughters in marriage against their wils , as appeares in the example of rebecca , whose consent was first asked before shee was promised to isaac , gen. . . and there is good reason of this : because , where mindes , hearts , & affections are not united in two parties , they cannot delight to draw cheerefully under the same yoke , nor bee an helpe or stay one to another . now a wife is ordained of god to bee an helpe to her husband , and the desire of his eyes , and to draw with him in the same yoke ; and hee is to bee a shelter to cover , and a stay to uphold her all his life . therefore reason requires that marriage should bee a free and voluntary contract made with the well liking and mutuall consent of both parties . this doctrine serves to reprove divers sorts of people , and to condemne divers marriages . first , marriages of persons under age , before the parties have knowledge and discretion either to make a fit choice , or to order their affections . secondly , marriages of wards , who have wives imposed on them under great penalties . thirdly , forced marriages , unto which children are compelled by violent and tyrannicall parents , or cruell unjust guardians , against their mind and liking ; on such marriages there can bee no blessing hoped for nor expected , but much mischiefe and many inconveniencies , adulteries , and whoredomes , and many discontentments of life , as experience teacheth . the second thing here to bee noted is adams speech ; this is now bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh ; &c. by which it is manifest , that god , in presenting the woman to him , did declare whereof hee had made her , and of what nature and kind shee was . some ancient and moderne writers doe gather from hence , that adam was divinely inspired with the spirit of prophecie , and had understanding of hidden mysteries , which hee had never seene , heard , nor learned from any ; because so soone as god brought the woman , hee could presently tell whence shee was , and whereof shee was made , without any information . but this is a vaine and false surmise ; for no prophet could at any time know and declare secret things beyond sense and reason , without revelation either in a dreame , or vision , or word speaken to him by god. to know mens secret thoughts or doings without revelation or word from god , is proper to god , and to christ , and to the spirit , which searcheth all things ; undoubtedly therefore , when god brought the woman to adam and presented and offered her to him , hee did withall declare how and whereof hee had made her , of the same nature , and framed her in the same image , as i have before touched : for , in marriage-making , there are such declarations going before to draw affection and free consent , and externall informations by outward meanes ; and this was a true platforme of marriage . hence wee learne , that men and women must not bee lead unto marriage by secret inspirations , and divine revelations : but by knowledge gotten by experience , inquiry and information . lust and fleshly desire are blind guides to marriage ; as wee see in the sons of god , the seed of seth , who by beauty were drawne to take to wives the daughters of men , who were of cain's carnall and profane posterity , gen. . . and in esau , gen. . a wife was chosen for isaac upon knowledge and experience of her vertue , modesty , and hospitality , and therefore god blessed the match . and boaz tooke ruth to wife , not for riches or kinred , but because shee was knowne a vertuous woman , ruth . . as this doctrine serves for direction and exhortation to men and women , to ground their conjugall affections aright upon knowledge , experience , and good information ; which is a course most commendable and agreeing to gods ordinance : so also for reproofe and conviction of anabaptists , enthusiasts , and antinomians ; such as iohn of leiden , and they of his sect ; the anabaptists of the family of love , who challenged women to bee their wives upon pretence of inspiration and divine revelation ; and , when they had satisfied their lust on them , and were ●●●aged with lust of others , did upon the same pretence either murder , or cast them off , and take others ; gods wrath for this horrible sin and disorder pursuing them , and giving them up to monstrous and unnaturall lusts , and at length to miserable destruction . there are some who too much resemble these miscreants , and hereby also are reproved ; i mean them who , like lustfull shechem , upon the first sight are set on fire of lust , and are so strongly carried by it with violence , that they must have one another , or else they will dye or bee distracted . such matches and marriages for the most part prove unhappy and uncomfortable ; if any doe not , it is a great mercy of god , and a favour which ought to bee acknowledged with all thankfulnesse . the third thing here to bee noted is the manifest sense of adams words , which is , that the woman was not onely bone of his bones , but also flesh of his flesh ; that is , shee had both of his flesh and of his bones in her concurring to her substance . whence wee may probably gather , that the rib of which the woman was made , was not one bone , that is , an halfe rib taken out of one side ; but bones , that is , a paire of ribs , or whole rib taken out of both sides . the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , my bones , intimates so much ; and that this rib was not a bare naked bone , but had some flesh cleaving to it , because hee cals her flesh of his flesh , as being made of his flesh as well as of his bones . this is a matter of no great moment ; but , being a truth necessarily implied in the words of the text , it may serve for speciall use . first , to put us in minde , that adam , the first man , was the common stock and root of all mankind ; and not onely all adams posterity were wholly contained in adam alone ; but also the first woman , the mother of us all , had her first vitall life in adam , and was a part of his living flesh and bones . and , as in the first adam all mankind had their naturall being : so in christ all the elect and faithfull have their spirituall being and whole life , and even the church , christs spouse , the mother of all true beleevers , hath her being wholly from christ ; and therefore to christ wee must ascribe our whole spirituall being and new birth . the father , by his spirit shed on us through christ , begets us to himselfe of his immortall seed , his spirit , to the lively hope , to the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , that fadeth not away , reserved for us in heaven . secondly , it serves to worke constant love betweene man and his wife , and to stirre up man to love his wife as his owne flesh ; and every woman to love her husband as every part of the body loves the body whereof it is a part ; and also to provoke men to love one another , as being a most naturall affection of one member to another in the same body . as for them who are envious , and men-haters , and cruell persecuters ; they are here discovered to bee children of the great man-murtherer the divell , and with him they shall have their portion . secondly , in that adam gives this as a reason of his free accepting of his wife , because shee is of the same nature and substance , bone of his bones , and fit to bee named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , woman , or as one would say a she-man : hence wee learne , that the best ground of marriage and band of love is similitude of natures and dispositions , and unity of heart and spirit , by which they are both alike affected . this is that which the apostle teacheth , were hee saith , bee not unequally yoked ; for what concord can there bee betweene light and darknesse , righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse ? that is , contrary natures and dispositions ? cor. . . this rule abrahams faithfull servant followed in chusing a wife for isaae : as hee knew isaac to bee charitable and kind to strangers and given to hospitality , so hee made his prayer to god to direct him to find a wife for him of the same disposition ; and when hee found rebecca to bee such a one by the entertainment which shee gave to him being a stranger , hee would not rest till hee had gotten the consent of her , and her parents , and friends ; gen. . the neglect of this rule god forbids in his law , and threatens with a curse , deut. . . it was that which made wise solomon , prove a doating foole in his old age , because wives of a contrary religion turned away his heart , and made him build high places for idols , kings . ahabs matching with iezabel an idolatrous worshipper of baal , made him an idolater and a slave , who sold himselfe to all wickednesse when his wife iezabel stirred him up , king. . . and iehoram the son of iehosaphat king of iudah by taking to wife the daughter of ahab of a contrary religion , brought miserable destruction upon himselfe and his whole family , cron. . . this doctrine serves for admonition to all men , to bee wary and circumspect in the choice of their wives ; and if they bee vertuously and piously affected , and have a desire to live in the feare of god , and to build up a godly family , to have a speciall eye and respect of true religion , as well as of a good naturall disposition , and good education and behaviour . a godly man must seeke a godly wife , a kind and liberall man a free hearted wife ; and a courageous man a woman of courage , that they may both draw one way . it is true , that sometimes in case of notable infirmities bearing sway in men , women of contrary disposition may bee usefull and fit wives to correct , amend , or moderate their corruptions ; a woman of a meeke and patient disposition may asswage the heat of her husband being hasty and cholericke , and so bee an helpe meet for him . a wise abigail may prove a necessary & helpful wife to a foolish nabal , and by her wisedome may overcome his folly , and by her liberall hand may make amends and prevent the mischiefe of his churlishnesse but it is no wisedome either in man or woman to runne such a desperate hazzard , in confidence of their owne wisedome , vertue or abilities . for wee find by experience , and it is a thing commonly seene , that men and women , by reason of humane frailty and naturall corruption which remaine in the best , are more subject of the froward to learne perversenesse , then by the wife , meeke and liberall consorts to be drawne from their folly , fury and churlishnesse : and therefore though in case when an hard lot befals men or women , they must make the best they can of that which is too bad , in hope that god will blesse their vertuous and godly endeavours ; yet the best rule which godly christians can observe in the choice of wives i● , to choose such as are like affected and vertuously disposed as they themselves are , to regard chiefely the unity of spirit , and the similitude of nature and disposition ; which is a thing here taught by god in the creation and first marriage betweene adam and evah , the first father and mother of all mankind . secondly , we may gather from this doctrine , that there can bee no hope or expectation of good from unequall marriages . and when men for carnall , worldly and politike respects , yoke themselves with wives of a contrary disposition and religion , daughters of a strange god , and vassals of antichrist , there seldome or never followes a blessing . for just it is with god , that when men and women wall ▪ contrary to god , and reject his right rule in their marriages , and in laying the foundation of their families ; god should walke contrary to them in their whole course of life , and should crosse them in their endeavours , and bring their families to confusion . the third and last consequent of the womans creation , is , that they were both naked , ●he man and his wife , and they were not ashamed , ver . . in which words , wee are not in any case to understand by nakednesse , either want of necessary apparell , ( for in the state of innocency there was no need thereof , and therefore no want of any ) nor any want of naturall abilities or vertues , need full for beauty , comlinesse , and ornament , or for naturall perfection ; all such nakednesse , and want came in by sin , and after their fall : but here they are said to be naked , because they neither had nor needed any cloathes , or covering of their bodies , which were in all parts most comely and beautifull : their skin was not rough , over-growne with haire like beasts , nor with feathers like birds , nor with hard scales like fishes ; but their skin , faire , white , and ruddie , was comely in it selfe , and beautifull to their owne eyes , more then all ornaments of silke , fine linnen , and all jewels of gold and silver , set with the most glorious and precious stones , of most resplendent colour and brightnesse . and their bodies were of that excellent temper and constitution , that they neither felt nor feared any distemper of heat or cold . the aire and all the elements were tempered according to the temper of their bodies ; and all things were pleasing , wholesome , and delightsome unto them ; and to all living creatures they appeared lovely , and full of beauty , and majestie . it was the creatures delight to see them , and to looke on them ; and it was their joy to see the creatures admiring them , and rejoycing in their sight and presence . and therefore there was no cause or occasion of any shame , or of any feare to shew their simple naked bodies , and to have every part and member openly seene ; no uncomlinesse which needed a covering , but all parts and members were beautifull in themselves , and composed together in a comely order and frame . this is the true sense and meaning of the words ; wherein we have this plaine doctrine , that the worke of god in the creation of our first parents was perfect without errour ; the image of god appeared in their bodies , and bodily for me and shape ; they were full of all naturall grace , beauty , and comlinesse , in all parts and members from the crowne of their heads to the sole of their feete ; the glory and wisedome of gods workmanship shined in them most clearely to their owne eyes , and the eyes of all creatures . the truth of this appeares most manifestly in the words ; for , certainly , if there had beene any least blemish or unseemely member in their naked bodies , they would have beene ashamed to goe and appeare openly bare and naked without covering ; therefore i need not stand to prove it with many arguments : this one is sufficient , that all the forme , beauty and comelinesse of the most goodly men and fairest women that ever were , or are in the world , gathered together , and composed in the body of one man or woman ; the goodly personage of ioseph or adonijah , the beauty of absalom and abishag , and the glory and comlinesse of solomon , and all other formes and beauties named in histories , are but the ruines , reliques , di 〈…〉 shadowes and defaced scraps of that beauty and comelinesse which was in the naked bodies of our first parents , and in every part of them in the creation . and therefore our reason and senses may judge what comlinesse was in them . this point considered is of great force to provoke and stirre up men to acknowledge with all thankfulnesse gods bounty to mankind in the first creation ; and how exceedingly they are bound to love , and honour , and serve god for the naturall gifts & abilities with which god at the first did fully furnish man ; not onely for necessity and welbeing , but also for glory , beauty , ornament and comelinesse in the eyes of all creatures . and although our first parents forfeited these blessings by their disobedience , and have defaced by sin this excellent beauty : yet wee see gods goodnesse abounding to us in this , that hee imprints in many of us some stamps and foot-steps of the image , in which wee were created , that wee may by the ruines which remaine , judge of the building of mans body , and of the beautifull frame wherein god at the first created us . secondly , wee may hence gather comfortable assurance , that as god did create man in admirable beauty at the first in the creation , and made him comely in the eyes of all creatures , in all parts of his body , so that it was no shame but a glory to walke naked without cloathes or covering : so , much more , in the work of redemption and restauration by christ , god both can and will repaire our vile bodies , and restore unto them their first beauty and glory with great advantage , and make them like the glorious body of christ , and reforme them after his heavenly image of holinesse , which so farre exceeds the first image , as heavenly excels earthly , spirituall and supernaturall excels naturall , and incorruptible and immutable surpasseth that which is fading and vanishing . for , the worke of redemption and restauration is a worke of greater goodnesse to men , then the worke of creation ; and as it excels , so the effect of it must bee more excellent . in this worke god stretcheth forth his omnipotent hand , and all his goodnesse further then in the creation ; there hee created all things by his eternall word the son , and by his spirit working with him ; but here hee gave his son to bee incarnate , and the eternall word to bee made flesh , and to suffer and dye , and bee made the price and ransome of our redemption ; and , for the perfecting of this worke , hee doth in , and by , and through his son give and communicate his holy and eternall spirit to dwell in their earthly tabernacles , to unite them to christ in one body , to bring them to communion of all his benefits , and to renue them after his glorious image of true holinesse . here therefore is ground of hope , and matter of rejoycing to all the elect and faithfull , and great incouragement against all feare and shame of wounds , stripes , and all deformities which cruell persecutors , and mangling tyrants can inflict on their bodies . for the future beauty and glory which is purchased for them by christ and prepared for them at last , shall cover , wash away , and utterly abolish all , when hee shall appeare in glory . thirdly , wee are hereby admonished , that the distempers , deformities , and all defects and infirmities , which appeare in our bodies , whereof wee may bee ashamed , are not of god the creatour , but proceed wholly from our sin and fall in adam , and from our owne surfeting and intemperance . for god made mankind most perfect in soule and body , even with full perfection of beauty in the first creation , as this doctrine teacheth . and therefore so often as wee are ashamed of our deformities and our nakednesse ; let us with griefe remember our fall , and bee much more ashamed of our sins , and lay the blame on our selves and not on the lord god our creatour . chap. xiv . of the estate and condition of our first parents : in five things . . the blessing of fruitfulnesse ; a speciall blessing : vses . marriage free for all men . colonies . . dominion over all living creatures . foure requisites thereto . degrees of it : absolute , and dependent : vnlimited , and limited . restored in christ. . food for man. not the living creatures : in innocency . . mans habitation . eden : what. of the rivers . twelve opinions about paradise . of the two trees in paradise : why the tree of life . how of the knowledge of good and evill . . of gods image . and god blessed them , and said unto them , be fruitfull and multiply , and replenish the earth , and subdue it , and have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowles of the aire , and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth . vers. . and god said behold , i have given you every herbe bearing seed which is upon all the face of the earth ; and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yeelding seed , to you it shall be for meat . vers. . and to every beast and foule and creeping thing wherein there is life , i have given greene herbe for meat ; and it was so . after the history of the particular creation of the woman with the immediate antecedents and consequents thereof ; the next thing in order is the historicall description of the state and condition of our first parents in the creation , in their integrity and innocency before their fall and corruption , while gods image imprinted on them remained perfect , both in their soules and bodies ; so that they had no least blemish or infirmity in their naked bodies , whereof they might bee ashamed . in this their first state of innocency there are divers things mentioned by moses , and historically laid downe in this history of the creation , which are to bee unfolded in order . the first is the blessing of fruitfulnesse , wherewith god blessed them so soone , as hee had created them male and female : this is laid downe in these words , and god blessed them and said unto them , bee fruitfull and multiply , and replenish the earth , verse . the second is the power and dominion which god gave them over the earth , and over all living creatures in the water , aire , and earth : this is in the last words of the verse ; and subdue it , and have dominion over the fishes , fowles , and beasts . the third thing is the bountifull gift of all herbes bearing seed , and of all fruits growing upon trees ; which god gave to mankind for bodily food , verse . and his free gift of green herbe or grasse for meat to the birds , beasts , and creeping things , verse . the fourth thing is the place of their habitation , the garden which god planted in eden ; this is described , chap. . . and so a-long to the . verse . the fifth thing , which is the chiefest of all , and which is first of all mentioned in the creation of man and woman , is the image of god in which they were both created : this requires a more large discourse for the understanding of it ; and for that cause i have deferred the handling of it to the last place next before the conclusion of the whole creation , even his viewing and approbation of every thing which hee had made for very good , laid downe , verse . the first is the blessing of fruitfulnesse for the multiplication and increase of mankind , even to the filling and replenishing of the earth , and the subduing of it . in describing this blessing moses doth her first lay downe the blessing in a generall word , saying , god blessed them . secondly , hee sheweth more particularly wherein this blessing doth consist , to wit , in bodily fruitfulnesse for the increase of mankind , in these words , be fruitfull and multiply . thirdly , the aboundance of the blessing and large extent of fruitfulnesse , even to the replenishing of the earth , and subduing of it . first , whereas god is said to blesse them , the meaning is , that god gave them the gift of fruitfulnesse , so soone as hee had made them in his owne image male and female : for the hebrew word which is here used , signifieth first and primarily to bow the knee , or to kneele downe , as appeares , gen. . . . chron. . . psalme . . dan. . . and because bowing of the knee is a kind of submitting and applying of the body in kindnesse to some person , to doe him some kind and pleasing service , hereupon this word is translated and used in the scriptures to signifie , first gods applying of himselfe to men , and as it were bowing downe from the high throne of his majesty to shew himselfe kind unto them , by giving them many both earthly and spirituall blessings in this life ; yea , and himselfe with all his goodnesse to bee their portion , and to make them fully blessed in glory . secondly , it is used to signifie mans applying of himselfe to god , by bending his knees and his speech to praise god , and to laud and extoll his name , and to render pleasing thanks to his majesty , and also one mans applying of his speech to another ; and with bowed knees to salute him , as gen. . . and king. . . also the action of parents , publike ministers , and superiour persons whom god hath set over others bowing downe towards them , and applying themselves to them to wish all blessings unto them , and to pronounce them blessed of god , as melchisedeck blessed abraham , gen. . and isaac blessed iacob , gen. . and iacob blessed his sons , gen. . and moses blessed israel , deut. . in this place god is said to blesse them : that is , to apply himselfe to them , and as it were bowing downe kindly to give them a blessing . but because there are many blessings which god bestowes on men ; some are naturall , earthly and bodily blessings ; some heavenly and spirituall ; and god blesseth men with bodily blessings two wayes , and in a two-fold respect ; either by giving them gifts and abilities , as naturall wisedome and knowledge in their mindes ; and strength and ability of body to doe some naturall and morall worke ; or else by assisting them in the exercise of those gifts and abilities , and giving good issue and successe unto them ; as for example , making their wisedome and knowledge effectuall , and giving good successe to the actions of them ; and making the strength of their bodies , and their appetite , and actions of generation successefull to the bringing forth and increase of children . now here wee are not to understand any heavenly or spirituall grace or gifts , but onely a naturall , bodily , even ability and strength of body and of nature for procreation of children and posterity without any defect or infirmity , or any failing of their endeavours , or frustrating of the action of generation : thus much is here meant in these words . and this appeares plainely in the next words , which shew in particular what this blessing is even the blessing of fruitfulnesse in procreation of children : and god said u●●o them , bee fruitfull and multiply ; which in effect , and in true sense and meaning is all one as if moses had said . and god almighty by the eternall word , his son did give unto them the blessing of fruitfulnesse , even mutuall affection for procreation , and strength and ability of body to procreate and bring forth the fruite of the body , that is , children in that image of god , in which they themselves were made , and that according to their owne will and desire without failing , defect , or infirmity . here then wee see this blessing was a perfect naturall blessing , even the perfect gift of procreation , for the multiplication and increase of mankind . and thirdly , that it was a blessing of great measure and aboundance , even fruitfulnesse and ability to multiply mankind to the replenishing of the earth , and subduing of it , the next words shew : and replenish the earth , and subdue it . the first words , replenish the earth , doe plainely shew , that god gave them the blessing of fruitfulnesse , and ability to multiply mankind untill the earth were filled with inhabitants of the children of men . and the other word , subdue it , signifies not taking of the earth into possession by violence and strong hand ; as the word is used , num. . . ios. . . sam. . . where countries are said to bee subdued by force of armes . neither doth it signifie subduing of the earth by forcing it to bring forth corne , herbes , and fruit trees by hard labour , manuring , and tillage : for , in the creation , the earth was made fruitfull of it selfe , and brought forth aboundance of all herbes , plants , and trees , freely , without culture or labour of man forcing it ; and there was no creature to resist mankind , and to keepe them out of possession ; but the whole earth was free for all men , and sufficient to satisfie them with all things needfull . but here it signifies mens inhabiting , occupying , and possessing of the earth , and that in such numbers and multitudes , as were then able to eat up the fruite of it , if man had stood in innocency ; and now are able since mans fall , to till it , and bring it into subjection being cursed and made barren ; so that no region or country may lye desolate and barren without tillage and habitation of men . this is the true sense and meaning of the words . from whence wee learne . points of doctrine : the first , that procreation of children in lawfull marriage , is a speciall blessing and gift of god , given in the creation for the multiplication and increase of mankind . my text here declares it to bee a blessing , and other scriptures confirme the same . psalme . the prophet david proclaimes children to bee an heritage which cometh of the lord , and the fruite of the womb to bee his reward , and the man to bee happy who hath his quiver full of such arrowes , which are like arrowes in the hand of the mighty man. and psalme . . hee saith , that this is a blessing and happinesse of the man which feareth god , and walketh in his wayes , that his wife is as a fruitfull vine by the sides of his house , and his children like olive plants round about his table . and as abraham the father of the faithfull counted it a great defect , and want of a speciall and principall outward blessing , that hee did goe childlesse , and god had given him no seed , gen. . so all gods faithfull servants did pray to god for issue to themselves ; and did wish it as a great blessing to others whom they loved ; as wee see in the example of isaac , gen. . . who prayed to god for his wife that shee might bee fruitfull : of moses , deut. . . who prayed that israel might bee multiplied a thousand times more : of the elders and people of bethlehem , who prayed that god would give issue to boaz of ruth , and encrease his family like the family of pharez ; ruth . . of hanah the mother of samuel sam. . of zacharie and elizabeth luk . and all the godly matrones , the wives of the patriarches , counted it their reproach among women to bee barren , and a great blessing to have children as wee see in iacobs wives , gen. . . and by hannah's teares , sam. . this serves first to teach and admonish all men and women to seeke it as a blessing from god , and so to esteeme it , and to render unto god thanks accordingly , as hannah and zacharie , and the blessed virgins , as in their holy songs most evidently appeareth . if men and women could have grace thus to doe , it would bee a speciall meanes to make them respect their children , as great blessings , and pledges of gods favour ; and to make them strive to devote and consecrate their children to god and his worship , and to traine them up to bee fit instruments of gods glory , and pledges of their thankfulnesse to god. secondly , it serves to discover the grosse errour and heresy of the manichaeans ; who held that marriage and procreation of children was a worke of the divell , as also of some popes of rome , who held marriage which is honourable among all , and the bed undefiled , as the apostle affirmeth , heb. . . to bee a worke of the flesh , which makes men unpleasing to god. the lord despiseth not his owne ordinance ; and marriage is ordained by him for increase of mankind , as this doctrine teacheth ; and therefore the opinion of these hereticks and popes is erroneous and abominable . secondly wee hence learne , that as the blessing of fruitfulnesse was given to all mankind in the creation : so marriage , which god appointed for the increase of men on earth , is by the law of god , which is written in mans heart , and engraven in mans nature , free for all men and women , to whom god hath given ability and strength of body for procreation and fruitfulnesse , for increase of mankind . as the text here openly expresseth so much , so in all the scriptures wee have examples of holy men of all sorts , even of priests and prophets , not onely allowed , but also commanded by god to take wives and beget children , as isaiah cap. . . ezechiel chap. . hosea chap. . and the apostle commends it as honourable in all , hebr. . . and the apostles who were most devoted to christ , and to his worke , did lead about wives with them , cor. . . and although in times of great trouble and persecution raised up against christianity , wives are a great burden , and breed much care and griefe to preachers of the gospell , especially who must bee ready to run and flee whithersoever god cals them ; and therefore in such cases the apostle , by reason of the urgent and pressing necessity , holdeth it better for continent and chaste men and women to remaine unmarried , cor. . . and our saviour doth approve , and well like it , in case when a mans heart and affection is so extraordinarily taken up with the love of the kingdome of heaven , that hee is like an eunuch without any desire of affection of marriage , matth. . . yet , wee have no word or precept in all the scripture to restraine any persons of any order or calling from liberty of marriage . saint paul affirmes that he and barnabas had power and liberty in this kind , though they used it not , cor. . . the consideration whereof serves : first , to teach men and women of all sorts to maintaine and retaine that liberty which god had given them from their first creation , and to admonish them to beware , that neither satan by his suggestions , nor any of his wicked instruments by their cunningly devised fables , nor any misconceipt of their owne hearts , doe lay a needlesse snare upon their consciences , and possesse them with a false opinion , concerning that liberty which god hath written in mans heart in the state of innocency , which cannot bee taken away without violence offered to nature . they who are thus instructed and fully perswaded , if they doe marrie , they may have comfort in this assurance , that they are not out of gods high-way , neither in this have swerved from his perfect law , and rule of liberty . if they find many crosses in the married life , yet let them know , that they are not curses laid on marriage for an unlawfulnesse of it . if they doe live single to avoid worldly cares , and to devote themselves wholly to heavenly thoughts and spirituall cares for the kingdome of heaven , they have more cause to rejoyce and glory in the aboundance of gods speciall grace to them , in that hee hath given them an heart to forsake lesser blessings for the gaining of greater , and bringing of more glory to god. secondly , this sheweth , that the popes prohibitions of priests marriage , and the absolute vowes of virginity and single life , taught and imposed by the church of rome , are cursed and corrupt inventions of men , and diabolicall devices , yea damnable haeresies , as the apostle calleth them , tim. . . and pet. . . for , though divers holy men of god , to whom god gave power over their owne wils , and the gift of continency to stand steadfast in their owne hearts have strongly resolved to keepe their virginity and to live single , that they might apply themselves to the service of god and his church with greater freedome from worldly eares , and have steadfastly held their resolution , proving themselves such as our saviour and his apostle doe commend , matth. . . and cor. . yet wee never read in scripture , that they were commanded by god , or that they did bind themselves voluntarily by an unchangable vow , or under any execration to abstaine from marriage , and from procreation of children therein : but alwayes , without any absolute necessity imposed on them , remained at liberty to marry if just occasion were offered . if our adversaries object , that the law of nature must give place to the evangelicall law , which hath greater promises , and tends to lead men to supernaturall and heavenly happinesse ; and that for christs sake and his churches good wee must renounce liberty of nature : i answere , that the evangelicall law doth not offer violence to the law of nature ; neither doth it abolish any part thereof ; but rather doth perfect it , by giving men grace willingly to neglect naturall liberty for the gaining of a better estate : as for example , the law of nature requires that men love fathers , mothers , wives , children , and their owne lives ; and gives them liberty to hold lands and houses : but yet when the case so stands , by reason of tyrannie and presecution raging , that a man must either forsake all these , or deny christ and renounce christian religion ; here a man ought to forgoe all for christ , as the gospell teacheth : and yet the gospell never commandeth us to renounce father , or mother , or houses , or land , and the like , and to expose our selves to death , when we may , together with parents , wives , children , and life , still cleave to christ and enjoy him for salvation ; yea it were frensie and fury for any church to impose lawes on men for the hating of parents , wives , and children , forsaking houses and lands , and giving themselves to death voluntarily when there is no inevitable necessity laid on them , but they may live good and faithfull christians , and yet love parents , wives , and children , possesse lands and houses , and live in safety . wherefore , though wee highly commend them who more zealously follow christ , and forsake the world , and make small account of naturall blessings in comparison of spirituall , but doe as saint paul did who made the gospell free , and did not use lawfull liberty , and power : yet wee cannot but count them execrable who tyrannize and lay cruell snares upon mens consciences , and impose lawes , and vowes upon themselves , or others , to forsake , and renounce utterly their lawfull liberty , and to bind them by that law and vow which either they must breake , or else fall into many wofull inconveniencies and abominable evils and mischiefes , as wee see in the popes lawes and vowes ; which have proved causes and occasions of secret whoredomes , publike stewes , many rapes and murders of innocents , to the staining and defiling of the whole land. thirdly , we hence learne , that our first parents , in the state of innocency , had in them both the affection and naturall desire to bring forth children , and to increase mankind with all convenient speed , god so commanding them ; also they had all strength and ability of body to beget and bring forth , and there was in them no defect to hinder procreation for a moment . the words of the text do plainely shew this : and reason grounded on other scriptures proves it fully . first our first parents were created perfect in their kind , and god gave them the blessing of fruitfulnesse . now where there are all naturall perfections and abilities accompanied with gods blessing , there can be no hinderance of procreation , or any failing in any naturall action ; therefore this doctrine is manifest . secondly , all barrenesse and all multiplying and frustrating of conceptions came in as a curse for sin , and upon the fall of our first parents , as the lord himselfe sheweth , gen. . . therefore there was no place for it in the state of innocency . this serves to admonish us all so often as we see barrennesse in men and women , and miscarrying wombes , and dry breasts ; to remember our sin and fall in our first parents , and to grieve for our corruptions derived from them , and to humble our selves under gods hand . secondly , to perswade us , and to make us see and beleeve , that our first parents did not stand long in their integrity and state of pure nature ; yea , that they did not lodge therein one night as the psalmist speakes , psal. . . for reason and common experience do teach us , that man doth readily and without any delay follow his will , and the affections which are most naturall in him ; so soone as reason permits ; now the affection and desire of procreation is most naturall , as all people of understanding do know , and the learned do grant ; and his will must needs be acknowledged strongly bent and inclined to it , because god had commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth ; and there was no reason moving man to restraine his will and affection , but onely till he had viewed the garden wherein god had placed him , considered the trees and fruites of it , and received gods commandement of abstaining from the forbidden tree , all which must needs be done before the end of the sixth day . and if man in the state of innocency had knowne his wife , sheehad without faile conceived a seed pure without sin , and had brought forth children in gods image perfect and upright ; wherefore they did without doubt fall in the end of the sixth day , as i shall more fully prove hereafter . fourthly , wee hence learne : that it is gods will revealed from the beginning , and his ordinance and law given in the creation , that the earth and every part of it should bee free for any man to possesse and inhabit it , untill it bee fully replenished with so many men as are able to subdue it by eating up the fruit thereof . this text teacheth plainely this point , by shewing that one end for which god blessed man and woman with fruitfulnesse , was , that they might replenish the earth . and to the same purpose , the psalmist speaketh fully psalme . . the heaven and heaven of heavens is the lords , but the earth hath hee given to the children of men : and deut. . . it is said , that god hath divided the earth to bee the inheritance of the sons of adam . this truth the cursed canaanites acknowledged by the light of nature , and therefore they suffered abraham , isaac , and iacob to sojourne in their land , and there to live with all their families , to feed their cattell , to digge wels , and to sow corne , and were so farre from driving them out , while there was roome enough , and they lived peaceably among them , that they entered into league with them , gen. . . and . . and . . first , this serves to cleare that doubt , and to decide that question and case of conscience which is much controverted among godly and learned divines , and agitated in these dayes , to wit , whether it bee lawfull , to send people , and to plant colonies in the vast countries of the west-indies , which are not replenished with men able to subdue the earth , and to till it : if wee bee sons of adam the whole earth is free for us , so long as it is not replenished with men and subdued . the ancient straggling inhabitants or any other , who have taken possession before , they have right to so much as they are able to replenish and subdue , and bring under culture and tillage ; and no other people have right to dispossesse and expell them , or to disquiet them in their possession , or any way to doe injury and offer violence to them , except they have such a commission and warrant as god gave to the israelites to expell the canaanites ; but it is lawfull for any sons of adam by the law , which god gave in the creation ( as this doctrine shewes ) to possesse and inhabite the vast places , and to subdue the barren untilled parts . and much more may true christians , who bring the gospell of salvation and word of life among them , by a second right in christ , settle themselves there , and maintaine their possession of these lands which they have replenished and subdued by culture and tillage ; and so long as they doe their endeavour to convert them to christ by the preaching of the gospell , and to make them partakers of the blessing in him the promised seed ; they deserve to bee received with all honour of those savages who come by this meanes to owe themselves to them . wherefore , let no man bee scrupulous in this kind ; but proceed with courage in such plantations , and with confidence of good successe , and blessing from god. secondly , it discovers great iniquity and injustice in divers sorts of men . first , in them who having gotten the first possession in some corner of some great continent and large region , do challenge the whole to , themselves as their proper right being no way able to replenish and subdue it ; and by force seeke to keepe out all other people who come to live as neighbours peaceably in places neare unto them , for whom there is roome enough , and more land then they can subdue and replenish . secondly , in them who think it lawfull for themselves to invade countries replenished with men and subdued , and by force to expell or bring in subjection the old inhabitants without expresse warrant from god ; as the spanyards did depopulate many great countries in america , and root out and destroy the naturall inhabitants . thirdly , in them who take possession of lands to the straitning of the natives ; which the naturall inhabitants without their helpe can sufficiently replenish , and subdue , and bring under tillage . in these cases there is great injustice , and wrong offered to gods law , which requires that as we would , that men should doe to us , so we should doe to them , and use no other dealing : and they who thus transgresse the bounds which god hath set in dividing the earth to all nations and people , cannot justly hope for gods blessing upon them . the next thing after the blessing of fruitfulnesse , is the lordship , rule , and dominion , which god gave to man over all living creatures ; and that is in these words , verse . and have dominion over the fish of the sea , and the fowles of the aire , and the beasts of the earth , &c. for our full understanding whereof wee are to inquire , and search out : first , what things are necessarily required in perfect dominion and lordship over the creatures . secondly , the divers degrees of it . thirdly , in what degree dominion over the creatures was given to man. concerning the first , there are foure things required to perfect dominion and lordship over the creatures ; two in the lord and ruler , and two in the creature ruled and made subject . in the lord and ruler there is required , first , power and ability to order , rule , and dispose according to his owne minde , will and pleasure , in all things , the creatures ruled by him . secondly , a true right to use and dispose them according to his owne will and pleasure . in the creature there is also required : first , a disposition fitnesse , and inclination to serve his lord and ruler , and to yeeld to him in all things whatsoever hee shall thinke fit . secondly , a bond of duty , by which hee is bound to obey his lord , and serve for his use , and necessarily to yeeld to him in all things . all these things are necessarily required in perfect lordship and dominion : and wheresoever all these are found to concurre in the highest degree , there is most perfect dominion ; and where they are in a lesser degree , there is a lesser an inferiour dominion ; and where any of these faileth or is wanting , there the lordship and dominion faileth and is imperfect : as for example ; the lord god , as hee is almighty and omnipotent , so hee hath absolute power in and of himselfe , and all ability to order , and dispose , and rule every creature as hee himselfe will : and as he is iehovah , the author of all being , who hath his being , and is that which hee is absolutely of himselfe without beginning , and doth create and give being to all other things ; so hee hath absolute right to use and dispose all creatures according to his owne mind and will ; and in these respects hee is absolutely called the lord ; and is absolute lord even in this confusion of the world and all things therein ; as over all other creatures , so over the rebellious divell and all his wicked instruments ; and hath absolute power to destroy them , or to make of them , even contrary to their disposition , what use he will. and because in the creation god made all things good and perfect in their kind and nature , according to his owne will and wisedome , and every creature as it was good in the nature and kind of it ; so was it most fit & inclinable to serve for the use unto which the lord appointed it in the creation : and as it was the worke of the lords owne hand by him brought into being out of nothing ; so there was a bond of duty laid upon it to obey the lords word , and to yeeld to his will without any resistance or reluctation . and in these respects gods dominion and lordship was not onely most absolute over all creatures , but also most sweet and lovely unto them ; even a most loving and fatherly rule of god over them , and a most free and voluntary subjection and obedience of them to him , and to his will in all things . but now , ever since the fall and rebellion of the divell against the light , and the fall and corruption of man , and the confusion which thereby came into the world ; though gods power and right stand most absolute and unchangeable like himselfe , and hee both can and doth most justly over-rule the divell and all creatures which are most corrupt and malicious , and makes even their enmity serve for his glory , and for the communion of his goodnesse more fully to his elect : yet this power and right he exerciseth not in that loving and fatherly manner over the rebellious and disobedient creatures ; but by just violence and coaction ; by necessity and strong hand forcing and compelling them to doe and worke , and to suffer and yeeld unto , and serve for that use , which they would not and from which they are most averse . and because no other lords have any such power or right over any creature , but all their power , and right is given them by god , and is but an image and shadow of his right and power ; therefore their dominion is not absolute and most perfect ; but secondary and inferiour , depending upon gods will , power , and pleasure . these things proposed as grounds and foundations , wee may from them easily observe divers degrees of lordship and dominion . the first and highest lordship and dominion , which is most absolute over all creatures is that of god , which , in respect of gods power and right cannot bee increased or diminished at all : for , as hee hath right , to doe with all creatures what hee will , because they are his owne , and hee gives them all their being ; so he hath power as he is omnipotent , either to incline or to inforce them to doe his pleasure and to serve for what use hee will. the angels in heaven and saints glorified and made perfect , and all creatures in the state of innocency , as in duty they are bound to serve and obey god ; so they have in them a fitnesse and inclination to serve and obey his will in all things to the vtmost of their power ; and therefore this dominion over them is lovely and amiable , and is paternum imperium , a fatherly rulo and dominion over them . but the divels , and wicked men , and all creatures corrupted are froward and rebellious ; and his rule and dominion over them is , in respect of them , violent and compulsive ; and as a king he forceth them to doe what hee will , and compels them to serve for what use hee will , and justice requires it should bee so . the second degree of dominion is , when a lord hath both power and right to rule over creatures , and they have an inclination and fitnesse to serve and obey ; but all these are from a superiour lord , giving this power and right to the one to rule , and disposing and binding the other to serve and obey . this delegated lordship and dominion , is either unlimited , or limited . vnlimited is that which is not confined to some creatures , but is extended over all things in heaven and in earth ; and it is a power and right to make them all serve and obey him in all things , whatsoever hee will. this unlimited dominion is given onely to christ as mediatour ; who as hee is man personally united to god , and in his humane nature hath perfectly fulfilled the will of god , overcome all powers of darknesse , satisfied gods justice , and redeemed the world , is exalted to gods right hand , as david foretold , psalme . . and hath all power in heaven and in earth given unto him , matth. . . and hath a name given him above all names , even the name and title of the lord christ , so that in and at his name all knees must bow , both of things in heaven , and things in earth and things under the earth , that is all must either voluntarily as they are bound in duty , give all obedience and honour to him , and pray humbly in his name to god ; or by his power bee forced and compelled to bow under him as a iudge and yeeld to his will , philip. . . . limited dominion is not over all creatures , but onely over creatures of the inferiour world fish , fowles , and beasts ; neither is it a right and power given to that lord and ruler to doe with the creatures what hee will , and to use them as hee listeth ; but onely to make them obey and serve him so farre as the superiour lord doth thinke them fit and convenient for his use , & for his present state & condition . this limited lordship & delegated dominion doth vary and alter together with the state and condition of him to whom it is given ; and it is sometimes , and in some persons greater , and in some lesser ; according to their severall states and conditions , and their severall dispositions and behaviour towards the supreme lord , to whom all power and dominion doth absolutely belong over all creatures . this indeed is the dominion which god in this text gave to our first , and in them to their posterity . this dominion is limited to fishes , fowles , beasts , creatures living on earth , as the words of the text plainely shew . secondly , while man continued in his innocency and integrity , as he had power & ability given , and continued to him to rule , order and dispose all those creatures aright in all things : so hee had a true right and interest in them given and continued by god. thirdly , as there was a bond of duty laid by god on these creatures to obey man and to yeeld to his upright will : so there was a disposition , inclination and fitnesse in them to obey man in all things which hee in his wisedome thought fit : and therefore this rule and dominion it may bee called dominium paternum , a fatherly , loving and sweet dominion and rule of man over them . but this rule and dominion being forfeited by man , and lost by mans sin and fall , together with his owne life and welbeing , is no more to bee challenged or usurped by man , or by any of his posterity , but onely so farre as it is restored by christ who is the haire of all things , and the onely begotten son , by whom the father made all things , and by whom , as by the lord creatour with himselfe , hee gave this dominion to man created in his image . now this dominion , christ hath restored to men in divers and severall degrees , as they differ in state and condition . first , to the elect and faithfull christ hath purchased and procured , that they , as they are his members united to him , and adopted to bee children of god in him , should have a right and interest in all things , not onely on earth but also in heaven ; so that they may make use of all things so farre as they serve to helpe and further them in the way to heaven , and to the fruition of god ; so much is testified , cor. . , . where the apostle saith , all things are yours : whether paul , or apollos , or cephas , or the world , or life , or death , or things present , or things to come , all are yours , and yee are christs , and christ is gods. over the creatures on earth they have that rule and dominion given which is mentioned in my text ; but with some difference , as may appeare in divers particulars . first , adam had rule over them onely to order them , and make use of them for contemplation and delight . secondly , adam had rule and dominion over them all in his owne person ; but the elect have now a generall right to all , but not a speciall right , every man in his owne person , to every living creature : they may make use of all living creatures which come within their sight and knowledge , to contemplate on them ; but they may not take into their possession , nor kill , eat , and take spoile of any but such as are wholly loose from other men , and which god by lawfull meanes gives and puts into their hands . thirdly , as adam had power and ability to call and command all living creatures ; so they had an inclination and disposition to obey him . but the elect have not that naturall power and ability , nor the creatures that inclination ; because of the vanity and corruption , which still remaines untill the full redemption come , and all things bee restored , and all creatures delivered from bondage of corruption , and restored to the glorious liberty of the sons of god , rom. . . so much as god in his wisedome findes fit for man in this estate of grace , so much power over the creatures hee gives to him ; and so much inclination and fitnesse to the creatures . secondly , to men unregenerate , christ hath purchased and procured a kind of common and secondary right and dominion over the creatures ; that is , both power and liberty to use them , so farre as they serve for the common weale and order of the world , and the benefit of the elect . some have possession given them , and power over the creatures , that they may live , and grow , and continue in being till the time of their conversion and regeneration , when they shall have a true interest in christ , and to all things in and through him . some wicked men , not elect , have them lent of god ; and christ hath procured that they should have the use and possession of them , either for the good of the elect who live among them , or the benefit of their elect successors and chosen posterity which naturally shall come of them , and to whom they shall bee instruments of naturall being . so long as unregenerate men have possession of creatures either given by men , or gotten by industry , labour and other meanes which are not civilly and naturally unlawfull , so long they have dominion over them , and power to use them joyned with civill right , which gods law allowes by the procurement of christ and for his sake . i have a little digressed , and gone beyond my bounds in speaking of this rule and dominion as it is restored by christ , for that is proper to the state of grace , and not to bee handled under the creation . it is dominium regium , regall dominion , or rather in part tyrannicall and violent , in respect of the creatures which are naturally so averse from it , and their native inclination is quite against it , in some measure and degree . the third thing next in order after dominion , is the foode which god allotted both to man and to other living creatures on earth in the state of innocency , expressed verse . . i have given you every herbe , bearing seed , which is upon earth , and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yeelding seed ; to you it shall bee for meat . . and to every beast , fowle , and creature living on earth , i have given greene herbe for meat , and it was so . now here wee cannot understand the creating of herbes , trees , and grasse , fit for the use of man and other living things ; that is rehearsed , verse . nor gods bare direction of men and beasts to eat of these ; nor a naturall appetite and inclination given to man , and other creatures to affect and desire these things : but the words doe expresse thus much , that god the creatour is the onely lord , and all power and right is in him to dispose and give them , and the use of them ; and man and beasts had no right to the herbes , trees , fruits , and grasse , but of the free gift of god. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i give , or have given , doth fully expresse a free gift . in that hee saith , that herbes , bearing seed , and trees yeelding fruit , shall bee to mankind for meat , and greene herbe or grasse shall bee meat to the beasts , and fowles , and creeping things which live on earth ; this shewes , that man in innocency was to feed onely on such things , and as yet hee had no other meat allowed , and other living creatures did all feed on grasse . hereby also it is manifest , that all herbes , bearing seed , and all fruits of trees were wholsome food for man , and all green grasse for all other living creatures which move on the face of the earth : otherwise god would not have given them to man and other creatures for meat . from the words thus opened , wee may observe some profitable instructions . from all the words joyntly together , which shew the dominion which god gave to man , and the food which he allowed both to man and other creatures ; wee may learne , that god is the onely absolute and supreme lord of all creatures , and no creature hath right to rule over others , or to meddle one with another ; but , by gods free gift , our meat , our drink , and whatsoever wee have in this world , god gives it freely to us ; and wee have no right to any thing but from him . if mans wisedome , power , knowledge , and ability to rule the creatures , and their fitnesse and inclination to obey him , had intituled him sufficiently , and given him a true right , there had beene no need of gods giving this dominion ; and so if his appetite to herbes and fruits , and their fitnesse to feed and delight him , and the concord . betweene the appetite of living creatures , and the greene grasse had given them a true right to it , what need had there beene of this gift , and that god should say , behold i give to you every herbe and fruit for meat ? &c. in that therefore these two are here recorded as free gifts of god , this doctrine flowes naturally from hence . and this is aboundantly confirmed by other scriptures , as gen. . . where melchisedeck , gods high and royall priest , in blessing abraham , cals god the possessour of heaven and earth ; that is , such a lord as holds in his hand and possession by an absolute right , heaven and earth , and all that is in them , so that none hath any right to any thing in them , but of his free gift ; and deut. . . it is said , that the heaven , and the heaven of heavens is the lords , the earth also with all that therein is . also psalme . . the earth is said to bee the lords , and the fulnesse thereof ; the round world and they that dwell therein ; and psalme . . the beasts of the fi●ld , yea , and the whole world is mine saith the lord , the same also is testified psalme . . and iob . . and iob confesseth that all that hee had was gods to give and take away at his pleasure , iob . . we have also a strong argument to prove this from the quit-rent which god requires , and men are bound to pay to god , and to whom hee assignes it in testimony of their homage , and that they possesse nothing , but of his gift as tenants at will , that is , the tythes of the fruite of the land , and of the cattell , and of all increase , all are the lords quit-rent , and were paid to god by all the faithfull , even to his priests and ministers who minister before him , and have him for their portion , levit. . . gen. . . and . . and num. . . this shewes , that god may lawfully take away from wicked men , and appoint others to take from them whatsoever they have , if he be so pleased at any time ; and it is no injustice , neither have they cause to complaine , because they doe not acknowledge him their lord , nor pay due rent , nor doe homage to him by honouring him with their wealth and substance . it is held to bee no wrong , but just and lawfull for earthly land-lords to seaze into their owne hands , and take away from their tenants the houses , lands and farmes for which they wilfully refuse to pay the due rent , and wilfully deteine it ; much more is it justice in god , the chiefe and absolute lord of all the earth and the creatures therein , to cast men out of those houses and lands , and to deprive them of all their increase and revenues , for which they refuse to pay their due homage tythe and quit-rent to him , and to his ministers and servants , whom hee hath assigned to receive them for his use and service . secondly , this admonisheth us to acknowledge , that all wee have is gods , and all our houses , lands , goods , and riches , are but his talents lent to us to bee employed , as for our owne benefit ; so for his glory chiefely , and the good of his church . also it justly serves to incite and stirre us up to render thanks , praise , and due service to him for all , and to pray to him daily for a blessing on our meat , drinke and all necessaries , and to begge at his hand the free use of his creatures , and a true right unto them . thirdly , it serves to shew gods great mercy , bounty and fatherly indulgence to us , in suffering us to have and enjoy so many blessings and good creatures , which wee have forfeited by our sinnes and doe daily forfeit by not using them aright , but abusing them , and neglecting to pay a tenth at least for our quit-rent to god ; yea , and all or the most part , if hee requires it at our hands for the necessity of his church and the maintainance of his truth . i feare , and justly suspect , that if we examine our selves , few will bee found among us not deeply guilty in this kind ; as many other wayes , so especially for sacrilegious detaining of tythes and due maintenance , which god hath separated to himselfe for the upholding of his publike worship , and the preaching of his word , and continuing of a learned and faithfull laborious ministery in his church . secondly , wee hence learne , that in the state of innocency man had no power over living creatures to kill , and eat them ; neither did one beast devoure another and feed on his flesh ; but the food of man was onely herbes and fruits of trees ; and the food of beasts and birds was the greene herbe and grasse of the field , the words of the text shew this plainely . and other scriptures intimate so much , that in the state of innocency lyons and other ravenous beasts did live on grasse , and no creatures did hurt one another , as isa. . , . and . . where the prophet describing the aboundance of peace which shall bee in the church in the most flourishing and happy times of the gospell , and setting it forth by the state of innocency faith , that the wolfe and the lambe , the leopard and the kid , the young lyon , calfe and fatling , and the cow and the reare shall dwell and feed , and lye downe together ; and the lyon shall eat grasse or str●w like an oxe or bullocke , and they shall not hurt , nor destroy in all gods holy mountaine ; that is , men shall not kill and eat up beasts , nor beasts one another . and indeed it is most manifest , that death eutered into the world by sin and mans fall , gen. . . and death came upon all by mans sin , rom. . . and that the corruption , vanity and confusion , which is among the creatures , did proceed and issue from the same roote , rom. . . and they had never groaned under the killing knife and slaughter , if man had not sinned and brought them into that subjection to vanity . this shewes , that mans estate , wherein god created him was a most sweet and happy estate , full of ioy , peace , delight and contentment ; and man had no want , nor any thing which hee could dislike ; but all meanes to make him thankfull to god , and joyfull before him . the meat and food of man , and of all living creatures was such as the earth brought forth in aboundance by gods blessing without labour ; they needed not to seeke it by toile and travell ; it was plentifull every where , and they had variety of all things which might give them content ; there was no death , not so much as of a creeping thing ; no hurt , nor killing , no crying nor groaning under vexation ; no coveting , snatching and ravening , every creature had enough . and yet man by satans temptation aspired higher , and so did fall into want misery and bondage to death . his fall was of the divell and his owne selfe , god gave no just occasion . and therefore wee cannot now under this corruption expect any steadfast satisfaction and contentment in this world , now over-runne with confusion , nor in any worldly thing . let us abhorre our owne unsatiable desires , and watch over our wandring lusts , and strive to keepe them under , lest they make us further stray from the right wayes of god , and plunge us deepe into perdition . secondly , this serves to shew , that with gods favour and blessing , and to man sober , temperate , and of a good constitution , the herbes , corne , and fruits of the earth , and trees , are a satisfying nourishment for this present life . it is not fish nor flesh , nor all the dainties and forced dishes of the world , which can so nourish and strengthen a man , as herbes and fruit could have nourished our first parents in innocency . it is not therefore by bread or any strong meat , that any man can live or doth live , but by the word which cometh from the mouth of god , by that mans meat is blessed to him and made a refreshing nourishing and living food unto him . thirdly , in that all herbes , bearing seed , and all trees yeelding fruite , are here said to bee given by god as fit meat to nourish man , and all greene herbe or grasse to other creatures ; hence wee learne , that all fruits of all trees , and all herbes bearing seed , were wholesome meat for man , and all greene grasse to beasts in the state of innocency . all poison and unwholesome quality , taste and smell in herbes , plants , trees , and grasse , which hurt man , or beast ; came into the world by sin , and are bitter fruits of mans fall and transgression , and of the curse which his disobedience brought upon the earth . for all whatsoever god made , was good in it selfe and evill and hurtfull to none ; and if all herbes , trees , and grasse had not beene good , wholesome and pleasant , god would not have given them for meat to man , or any living creature . the consideration of this point is of good use to keepe us from murmuring and grudging against god , as if hee had created the poison of herbes , and unwholesomnesse of fruits , upon which men and other creatures surfeit even unto death and destruction . so osten as wee see any such thing happen and come to passe , or discerne any ill quality , taste and smell in herbes , and unsufficiency in fruits and herbes to nourish , and see living creatures killed , and their flesh eaten for necessity of mans nourishment , let it put us in minde and remembrance of our sin and fall in our first parents , from that integrity wherein wee and all other things were created . let us bee ashamed of our disobedience which makes the ground cursed unto us . let the groanes of beasts slaine for us , and their bloud shed and poured out with strugling , and with cryes and sighes : let the sowrenesse of wilde grapes , the loathsome smell and bitternesse of some herbes , and fruits , and the poison of some plants , all and every one smite us with the sight of our naturall corruption , and make us loath our sinnes , and sigh and groane under the burden of them , and labour to subdue corruptions , and put away our sinnes by repentance . the fourth thing , which i have propounded to bee considered after the creation of man , is the place of his habitation in the state of integrity , that is described by moses in the second chapter from the seventh verse to the sixteenth . and the lord , god planted a garden eastward in eden , and there hee put the mankind which hee had formed . . and out of the ground the lord god made to grow every tree pleasant to sight and good for food , the tree of life in the midst of the garden , and the tree of knowledge of good and evill . . and a river went out of eden to water the garden , and from thence it was parted , and became into fower heads , &c. in the description , as it is here laid downe by moses , wee may observe two maine things . the first , that god beforehand provided a place of pleasant habitation , and of exercise for mankind ; and so soone as the male and female were formed , he placed them therein . this is plainely affirmed , verse . where it is said , god planted a garden ; and verse . god put man into it to dresse and keepit . the second is a plaine description of the place in the . verse , and so along to the . verse . in the description it selfe , wee may observe divers notable things . first , that the place of mans habitation was most pleasant ; a garden , that is a plot of ground chosen out for pleasure and fruitfulnesse , planted and beautified with all both goodly and fruitfull trees and plants . secondly , that it was chosen and planted by god himselfe , and prepared and made ready for man , that so soone as they were formed , hee and the woman might bee put into it . thirdly , that this garden was scituate in eden , that is , a region and country most pleasant ; for in the hebrew text the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies pleasure and delight . fourthly , it is said to bee eastward in eden , and that in a twofold respect : first , because being in eden it was eastward from canaan the land of the israelites , for whom moses wrote this history , and gave it to them , when they were come into the borders of the land , and had taken possession of bashan and gilead . secondly , because it was planted in the east-side of eden towards the sun-rising , which is commonly the most pleasant place for scituation . that eden was eastward from cannan in the land of mesopotamin towards babylon , it is manifest by this , because euphrates was the river which went out of eden , and watered the garden : and euphrates r●●s through the country of mesopotamia close by babylon , which country when iacob journed unto from canaan , hee is said to come into the hand of the people of the east , gen. . . that the garden was on the east-side of eden ; it appeares evidently by this , that the river which watered the garden , did run through eden eastward towards assyriah and babylon in one streame or great river , and when it came to the garden it was parted and became foure streames or chanels ; one of which , to wit , that which runs by babylon retaines the name of the maine river , and is called euphrates , as appeares verse . fifthly , this garden is described by the commodities of it● first , it had in it overy kind of tree both pleasant to the sight ; both the goodly cedar which is said to have beene in the garden of the lord , ezech. . ● and also good for food , that is , all trees yeelding fruit . secondly , it had in it two speciall fruit-trees , which were of singular use ; the tree of life , and the tree of knowledge of good and evill . thirdly , it was watered with a river which went out of edon , that is , proceeded out of the west part of eden , and 〈◊〉 it by dividing it selfe into foure severall streames which did run through severall parts of the garden , to moisten the ground , and to cherish the roots of the trees ; after which parting of the streames and running through severall parts of the garden , not by any labour or art of man , but by gods appointment so ordering and disposing them , they did not meet againe nor gather themselves into one chanell ; but ran apart from thence , and were parted , and became foure heads or streames running in foure chanels into severall parts of the country , and into severall lands called by severall names . the first here mentioned is pishon , which takes a compasse to the land of havilah , which is a countrie bordering upon the upper part of the persian gulfe : it was first inhabited by havilah the son of cush , and by his posterity ; it borders on that part of arabia which ishmaels posterity inhabited , which wee call arabia deserta . for wee read , gen. . . that they dwelt from havilah to shur , that is , in arabia deserta ; and when saul was sent to slay the amalekites , hee smote them from havilah as thou goest to shur , sam. . . that is , along the coasts of the ishmaelites . in this land of havilah , the text saith there is good gold , and bdelium , that is , a tree which yeelds a whitish gum , and also there is onyx-stone . the second river , in moses dayes , was called gihon ; and it takes a compasse toward the land of cush , that is , not ethiopia which is also called cush , but that part of arabia which borders upon chaldaea . for all arabia and ethiopia are in hebrew called by the name of cush , because all these lands were inhabited at the first by seba , sabtah , raamah , sabtecha , sheba , and dedam , which were the sons of cush , as appeares , gen. . . and that part of arabia which the midianites inhabited , is called cush ; for moses his wife , being a midianitish-woman as wee read , exod. . is called a woman of cush , num. . that is of arabia , not of ethiopia as our translaters doe render the word . third river is called hiddekell , & it is the streame which goeth eastward towards assyriah , and runs into the great river tigris , which parts assyriah from mesopotamia . and the fourth river is that which retaines the name of the maine river euphrates , which in hebrew is called perah , because it makes the land watered by it fruitfull above others . this is the description of mans habitation in the state of innocency as it is here laid downe , and expounded by the helpe of other scriptures , and not according to the vaine conceipts of men which have no certainty nor truth in them . before i come to observe from hence any speciall point of instruction , i hold it necessary , first , to shew the variety and multiplicity of vaine , uncertaine , and erroneous opinions of divers ancient fathers and other later writers concerning this garden , and the particulars thereof before mentioned ; all which are by certaine ground laid downe in this exposition , and by cleare evidence of scripture and strong reasons easily confuted . first , saint hierome , being missed by the translation of aquila , which runs thus , god had planted a garden from the beginning , doth hereupon conclude , that paradise was planted before the heaven and earth were created : which opinion is most ridiculous , and contrary to common sense and reason : for where there are trees growing out of the ground , and rivers and streames watering them , there must needs bee ground and earth . it was impossible for trees to bee planted and to grow out of the ground before any earth was created . wee here may see , how wise men may sometimes build castles in the aire , and that the most learned of the ancients have their errours ; and hee who was counted the most learned of all the fathers in the hebrew tongue , doth here miserably mistake the hebrew phrase : for though the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mikedem , which is here translated eastward , or on the east-side , when it is spoken of god or of christ , doth signifie in the prophets from everlasting , or from eternity , as mich. . . hab. . . and psalme . . and when other things are said to bee mikedem , the word signifies either from old time , or from the dayes of old , as psalme . . and . . where david saith , i will remember the dayes of old ; and nehem. . . from the dayes of old , even from david and asaph they were chiefe of singers : yet sometimes it signifies eastward , or on the east-side , or from the east , as appeares most plainely , gen. . . where it is used to signifie the east-side of the garden where god placed the cherubins ; and gen. . . where it is said , that abraham came to a mountaine which was eastward of bethel , and had ai on the east-side , and so undoubtedly it is used in this text for eastward , as our translators truely render it . origen and phile iudaeus lib. de mund . opific. did conceive paradise to bee no earthly or bodily place , but to bee spiritually understood , which opinion epiphanius proves to bee against reason : because trees growing out of the ground , and rivers , shew that it was a garden planted on the earth , and earthly not spirituall . some have held , that the whole world was paradise , and that this garden did extend it selfe over all the earth , which then was wholly a place of pleasure and delight ; which is also very absurd , for then adam had beene cast out of the whole earth when god cast him out of the garden , and the land of cush , and of havilah , and assyria , towards which the rivers did run after they were gone out of the garden , had beene out of the world. besides , wee read in the scriptures , that eden , in which the garden was planted , was a speciall country in mesopotamia , neare haran and goz●n , and the people thereof did trade with tirus , king. . . and ezech. . . ephrem held it to bee a remote place beyond the vast ocean sea , and unknowne tous . damascene in his book de fide , chap. . held it to bee a place higher then all the earth . beda and rupertus held it to bee a place next unto heaven , reaching up to the sphaere of the moone . alexander hales and tostatus thought it to bee a place in the aire farre below the moone . others who held it to bee a speciall place in the earth doe much vary and differ among themselves . luther conceived , that it contained in it all mesopotamia , syria , and egypt . others thought , that it comprehended all asia and africa . others , that it was that part of syria , which is called the region of damaseus , because there was the kings forrest of goodly cedars , which is called paradise , nehem. . . and there is a towne called by the name of eden and paradise , which is mentioned as some thinke , amos . . the opinion of bonaventure is , that the place of it is under the aequinoctiall . bellarmine in his booke de gratia primi hominis , chap. . confesseth , that it must needs bee an earthly and bodily place planted with trees ; but farre remote from knowledge of men , and that no man can define where it is ; that it was not destroyed in the generall deluge and flood of noah , but remaines to this day ; and that enoch and eliah were translated thither , and there are kept to fight with antichrist in the end of the world. this opinion is contrary to truth , and contradicts it selfe . first , the scriptures testifie , that eliah was not translated into an unknowne place on earth , but went up to heaven in a firie chariot . secondly , that the waters of noah's flood did prevaile . cubits above the highest mountaines . and therefore if paradise was an earthly place as bellarmine holds , it must needs bee destroyed in the generall deluge , gen. . . yea , if paradise had beene preserved safe from the flood , it had beene needlesse and vaine labour for noah to build such an huge arke . god might have saved him and all the creatures with him in the garden of paradise . thirdly , moses doth here plainely define where this garden was , and whosoever with understanding reads this history , may easily define where it was . but where it is now , none can define ; for it is destroyed , and onely the place of it remaines still . but , not to trouble my discourse with particular confutations of these severall opinions ; the very text it selfe , and that exposition which i have made of it by the helpe of other scriptures , doth as it were with one blast blow them all away like chaffe , and with one stroke dash them all in pieces . for this text tels us , that this garden was planted in the earth ; and god made the trees in it to grow out of the ground ; that the speciall place of the earth , in which god planted it was eden , that is , a place in mesopotamia and babylonia , knowne by that name , and mentioned by rabshekeh among the countries which the assyrian kings had conquered , scituate betweene iudea and assyria , and neare unto assyriah , king. . . and by ezekiel , cap. . . mentioned among the countries and cities , which from mesopotamia did trade with tyrus . the text also tels us , that it was in eden eastward , or on the east-side , watered with a river which came out of eden from the other part thereof ; which river having divided it selfe into foure streames , that it might run through severall parts of the garden and water it , did no more meet in one , but from thence , that is , from the garden was parted , and became foure speciall rivers , taking their course and compasse towards severall lands ; to wit , pishon to the land of havilah , gihon to the land of cush , hiddekel , to the land of assyriah , and euphrates through babylonia and chaldaea : all which are to iewes and naturall israelites ( who ever since the captivity of israel to assyriah , and of iuda to babylon doe live a dispersed and scattered people in those countries ) knowne by those old names to these dayes , as appeares in the itinerarie of benjamin tudalensis the iew , and divers other histories . now these things being plainely laid downe in the text , explained by other scriptures ; the places and rivers being often mentioned in histories , and knowne to the iewes who dwell in those parts untill this day ; there is now no least colour or show of reason left for the divers opinions before rehearsed ; they all appeare to be vaine & erroneous ; the manifest truth of this text overthrowes them all at once . and now from hence wee may learne a profitable point of instruction , viz. that nothing is more vaine and uncertaine then the opinion of witty and learned men , both ancient fathers and later writers and schoolemen , while they follow their owne reason , & their owne witty conceipts without warrant from the word of god. there is no sure or certaine ground which a man may safely rest upon for the right understanding of the scriptures , but onely the word of god it selfe , either speaking plainely in the very text it selfe , or by other places and testimonies which are more full and plaine , compared with the obscurer texts . by this meanes onely the spirit of god doth enlighten our hearts and understanding to know infallibly the true sense and meaning of them . besides , many other proofes which serve to confirme this , which i omit as not necessary at this present ; wee have a firme argument from our saviours owne words , iohn . ver . , . where hee saith , that now under the gospell the spirit speakes not of himselfe ( by simple and immediate inspiration without any word , as in the prophets of old ) but whatsoever hee shall heare , that shall hee speake , and hee shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you ; that is , hee shall inspire and enlighten men , onely by my word which i have spoken with mine owne mouth , and by the prophets and holy men of god who have preached and written . also our saviour and his apostles , by their constant practise did shew , that the sure ground of expounding and understanding the scriptures in any obscure places , is the plainer text and word of scripture in other places . for they proved the truth which they preached and wrote in the gospell by the scriptures of the law and the prophets . wherefore let us not build upon the wisedome of men , nor upon the smooth words of mans reason ; but on the word of god proved by it selfe , and made plaine one place by another ; let us hearken to such preachers , and follow them as the surest guides , who make the scriptures by themselves plaine and manifest to our understanding . as for them who can give no better reason for doctrines of faith , but testimonies of fathers and schoolemen , nor follow any surer guide for expounding of scripture but expositions of fathers framed by their owne conceipts , not proved by plaine texts ; let us not build too much upon them . and , above all , let us hate and abhorre the pestilent doctrine of the romish doctors , and all the popish faction , who make the canons of councels , the opinions of fathers , and the popes determination , the onely sure grounds whereon men ought to build their understanding of the scriptures and their beliefe of the word of god. another , and a second thing which comes here to bee more fully opened over and besides the diversity of opinions , is the tree of life , and the tree of knowledge of good and evill , which are said to bee in the midst of the garden . these two trees are here in the history marked out and distinguished from the rest of the trees , as being set apart by god for another use more then meere naturall . concerning these trees , there are divers and severall opinions of ancient and moderne divines . first , concerning the tree of life , some thinke it had a naturall power and vertue in it to make mans body lively , and to keepe it from all weaknesse , decay and mortality , till hee should bee removed to heaven : this is the opinion of scotus and aquinas , with others . some thinke , it had power and vertue in it to make man immortall , and to preserve him from death for ever , as tostatus : and that , if a man had once eaten of it , hee would not have dyed , but should have enjoyed such immortality , as wee have by christ after the last resurrection . bonaventures opinion is , that it had such vertue and power in it not naturall , but supernaturall . but these opinions are meere humane conceipts contrary to reason . for first , the fruit of a tree , which is pulled off , eaten , digested , and so changed from that which it was in a bodily nutriment by the operation of mans fleshly stomack , cannot in any reason bee conceived to have naturall power in it to give that to man which it selfe had not , to wit , immortality & immurability . it is a true rule , that no naturall thing can worke beyond the naturall strength of it , neither can it give to another that which it selfe hath not at all ; and this tree had no immortality , for it was destroyed with the garden in which god planted it . secondly , supernaturall power and vertue to give life is the proper vertue and power of christ and of his spirit which works in men , and derives life from christ to them : but there was no such communion of the spirit , not any such operation of the spirit in any earthly creature before christ was promised ; such assistance and operation of the spirit is proper to the elect of mankind , and came onely into the world by christ , as the scriptures testifie . there are divers learned men of better judgement , and they hold that this tree of life is so called , not for any vertue in it , either naturall or supernaturall ; but because it was given of god a sacrament and seale of life to man , and man was to eate of it , not for bodily food onely , but that by eating of it hee might bee , as by a pledge from god , assured that he should by god bee upheld in life ; and also might bee admonished , that his life is upheld not by any power in himselfe , but by covenant from god confirmed by this seale . but these differ among themselves , concerning the life whereof it was a seale and pledge . some thinke , it was a seale of that present life which adam had , which in it selfe was mutable . some thinke , it was a seale of a better life , even of immortality and life immutable , which adam should have obtained by continuing in obedience for a certaine time . others thinke , that it was a sacrament , that is , an holy signe and seale of christ who is our life , and of that spirituall life which wee have in him : thus junius , and others of our late writers . now , to declare in few words what i conceive to bee the truth : first , i cannot conceive , that there were any sacraments given to man before the promise of christ , and the revealing of gods purpose and counsell in him : for a sacrament is an outward element or visible thing consecrated by god , to signifie and seale heavenly and supernaturall things , and grace spirituall and invisible : but heavenly and supernaturall things , which belong to eternall life in christ , and spirituall grace , were not revealed to man in the state of innocency , before the promise of christ , which was made upon mans fall ; therefore there was then no use of any holy signe , or pledge of supernaturall grace , or of any thing which wee obtaine from above in , and by christ. the tree of life could not bee any sacrament , signe or symbole of christ , or supernaturall life in him . all that i can conceive or affirme with any warrant from the scriptures is this , that the tree of life had greater and more excellent naturall vertue and strength in it then other trees , and the fruit thereof was more sweet , lively and nourishing ; and by this meanes it was more fit then other trees to bee not onely a signe , symbole , and pledge to man , whereby hee was to bee admonished that his life was to bee upheld by his obedience to god , and dependance upon him ; and also to bee assured and confirmed , that god would uphold him in life : but also a seale of the covenant of works , whereby hee was to bee setled in that state of life , wherein hee was created . i confesse , that the wisedome of god ( that is christ as hee is made unto us of god wisedome ) is called a tree of life to such as lay hold on him , prov. . . and the fruite of the righteous , ( that is eternall life , and all saving blessings , which are the fruite which the righteous , justified and sanctified in christ , doe enjoy ) is called also the tree of life , prov. . . revel . . . and a wholesome tongue , that is , the healing and saving word of the gospell , and other powerfull meanes of salvation are called a tree of life , prov. . . and revel . . , . but all this is by way of allusion , and tends to teach us ; not that the tree of life in paradise was a sacrament of christ , and of saving grace and eternall life in him ; but , that as that tree was a pledge and meanes to confirme man in his naturall life : so christ and his graces , and his holy and healing word , are the pledges and meanes of heavenly and supernaturall life . and this is all that i can learne out of the scriptures , concerning this tree of life . the other speciall tree is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill ; which i conceive to bee so called , not because it did beget reason and understanding in man , or did sharpen his wit by any vertue or power in it , as iosephus and divers hebrewes imagined ; for then it had beene good for man to eat of it , and hee should have gained thereby : nor because satan by the lying serpent perswaded the woman that being eaten of , it would make them as god , in knowing good and evill ; for it was so called of god before , when hee forbad them to eat of it : but the true reason why it is so called is , because god having forbidden man to eat of it , man could not eat of it but by disobeying god and transgressing his commandement , and so bring sin , and the bitter knowledge , and the wofull experience and sense of evill upon himselfe , which taste and knowledge of evill makes the sweetnesse of good better relished , and the profit thereof better knowne and acknowledged . againe , because the eating of this tree was mans sin and full ; and gave occasion to god to promise christ ; and to the son of god to undertake as mans surety to make satisfaction for him , and to redeeme him ; and out of his evill to raise up a new kind of good , greater and better then that which man knew before , even to bring him to the knowledge of spiritual & supernatural good : in this respect , god might well call it the tree of knowledge of good and evill , upon his owne foreknowledge of that event , which hee in himselfe purposed to bring about upon that occasion . as for searching and inquiring what kind of tree it was ; whether a vine , as some hold ; or a figge tree , as theodoret thought ; or an aple tree , as others ; i hold it vaine curiosity , because the text cals it by another name , by which none of those trees were ever called . certainly the fruite of it in it selfe was naturally good , and had no evill quality in it , which could corrupt or staine mans nature , or infuse malice into him ; as i shall hereafter shew , when i come to gods commandement by which hee forbad man to eat of it . and thus much for the opening and expounding of this part of the history , concerning paradise , the place of mans habitation in the state of innocency . the doctrines which hence arise , i will but as it were point at and name unto you . first , wee here are taught , that gods bounty to man , in the creation was great and wonderfull , in that hee made him not onely a reasonable creature endowed with wisedome , knowledge , and ability , to choose out and make an habitation for himselfe above all other living creatures on earth : but also did provide and prepare for him before hand , and did plant for him a garden to his hand , a place of singular pleasure and delight , stored with all delicacy for his dwelling and habitation . wee count it a great bounty , that god gives us large places wherein to dwell , and gives us wisedome and art to build houses and cities ; and materialls necessary for building . and if god blesse us with sheepe , oxen , and other profitable cattell , wee rejoyce to build stals , and folds , and enclosures for them ; and houses and cities for our selves , and acknowledge our selves bound to bee thankfull . but god in the creation was so kind to man , that though hee left other living creatures to the wide world , yet hee provided a paradise of pleasure for man to dwell in , and to delight himselfe ; so that this point is manifest . whence wee may gather steadfast hope , and comfortable perswasion , that seeing god was of himselfe so kind to man , being then but a meere naturall creature , as to prepare for him so pleasant an habitation ; now when wee are made spirituall , and by one spirit united to him in christ , and made sons by regeneration and adoption , he will much more provide an excellent habitation for us , even an heavenly , which shal so farre exceed the earthly paradise , as the state of a son exceeds the state of a servant , and spirituall exceeds naturall . secondly , here wee see , how unnaturall and monstrous mans ingratitude was , and is declared to bee , in that hee would bee drawne by the subtility of the divell , perswading him by the woman , and the woman by the serpent , to yeeld upon any promise or hope of an higher estate , to transgresse any commandement of god , and disobey his word and revealed will , who had so highly magnified his kindnesse , and made his singular care and providence for him most cleare and manifest . but most of all may wee all bee ashamed and confounded for this , that our first parents , and wee in them , would beleeve satans lyes in the mouth of a serpent , and would give more credit to them , then to the word of the lord our creatour ; as if all his goodnesse and bounty were nothing in our eyes , which hee shewed in our creation , and in providing so pleasant and well furnished an habitation for us . secondly , gods putting of adam , into the garden that hee might dresse it and keep it , doth teach us , that man in the creation was made , and is by pure nature , most averse and abhorring from idlenesse ; and his true content and pleasure in this world is to bee in exercise of his wit , reason , and bodily activity . the earth before mans fall was all fruitfull , and brought forth for mans use all necessary and delightfull things without art , toile or labour ; so that man might have spent all his time in contemplating upon his creation , and all things created : but yet god would not , that man should live , neither did hee see or thinke fit for man to live idle , and therefore put him to dresse and keep the garden , in which hee had occasion to exercise his minde and body without toile or labour , onely for pleasure and contentment . and therefore this doctrine is naturally gathered from hence , and all those scriptures confirme it , which condemne sloth and idlenesse , and send the sluggard , as a creature degenerate from his kind , to learne of the ant and meanest creatures , as prov. . . and tell us , that idlenesse and slothfulnesse bring hunger , and want , and ruine , and decay to the houses of the idle and sluggish , prov. . . eccles. . . and aboundance of idlenesse was the roote of all the evils , which came upon sodom , ezech. . . but the diligent hand maketh rich , and brings plenty of all blessings , prov. . . and brings men to promotion , rule and honour , prov. . . and makes their substance precious , verse . and their soules fat , prov. . . and causeth even women to bee praised in the gates , prov. . and that man is by nature , active and cannot brooke idlenesse , it appeares plainely by the stirring nature of children , who are never quiet nor content , unlesse they bee busied one way or other ; and by the restlessenesse which is in wicked men , who devise mischiefe on their beds , and have working heads , and cannot cease from doing something , rather evill exercises then bee idle . now this being a manifest truth , may justly provoke and stirre us up to loath and abhorre idlenesse , sloth , and lazinesse , as speciall marks and igominious brands of naughty persons , miserably degenerated from humane nature , and from the frame and disposition , wherein they were at the first created by god. it was not good for adam in innocency to live idly , and without exercise , but hee must bee busied as in mind by contemplation on gods works ; so in body by ruling the creatures , dressing and keeping the garden , when aboundance of all things flowed to him without toile or labour ; much more will it be hurtfull dangerous and pernicious to us , who are a people corrupted , and in our whole frame out of order , perverse , and froward . if wee give way to sloth and idlenesse , for if wee labour not , wee cannot have what to eat : but poverty will come upon us , like an armed man ; if wee bee idle and negligent in honest and good labour , our perverse , rebellious and restlesse nature will lead us into evill exercises and wicked works . as standing lakes of water grow corrupt , stinking and unwholesome ; and ground not laboured , stirred up and tilled , will bring forth corrupt , stinking weeds , bryars , thornes , and thistles : so our corrupt , nature if it bee not exercised and busied about vertuous actions , and profitable labours , will grow more corrupt , noysome and filthy ; and will carry us away into frowardnesse , vanity and sinfull practises , which will make us loathsome to god and men , and will speedily plunge us into misery and eternall perdition . thirdly , wee here see and are plainely taught , that man in innocency had aboundance of all good things , needfull for profit , pleasure , and full contentment ; and wanted nothing which could bee required for earthly happinesse , to make him blessed in this world , and fully content with his estate and condition . first , his reason and understanding could not conceive , neither did hee know any good , which hee wanted and did not possesse , whereof hee was by nature capable : all wordly goods hee had at will ; and of heavenly and spirituall good which was supernaturall , hee had no knowledge nor understanding . secondly , hee had all provocations to move him to serve god , and all bonds to tye , and knit his heart in love to god , and to make him wholly obedient to god , and dutifull and serviceable to him in his whole heart and soule , body , mind , and strength . hee had food at will , most sweet , wholesome and delicate , in all variety and aboundance , without any care toile or labour ; the earth brought it forth of her owne accord ; the wholesome and pure aire did cherish it , and the sun and heavens by their warme influence did ripen , perfect , and prepare it to his hand . hee had a most pleasant dwelling , a garden beautified with all earthly ornaments , and a paradise of pleasure and delight . hee was high in honour , dignity and promotion above all living creatures both by sea and land , and had rule and dominion over them all . his exercise was without toile , labour or paine , sweet and pleasant . hee had for the exercise of his minde all gods works , the contemplation whereof might , fill his soule with delight and joy in god his creatour ; and for the exercise of his bodily strength and activity , hee had the dressing and keeping of the garden which was a worke of pleasure and delight , not of paines and labour , for it needed no digging , planting , culture or tillage : his businesse also was without care and feare ; for there were no theeves to annoy him , no evill beasts to hurt and spoile his garden , and to trouble & waste his habitation ; so that without further proofe , this doctrine is most cleare in , and from the text . the consideration whereof is of excellent use to confirme us in this assurance , perswasion and beliefe , that god in no respect any cause or author of mans sin and fall , neither did give him the least occasion of discontent with his present estate , that by seeking to soare up higher , hee should catch a fearefull downefall into sin , and bring himselfe in bondage to death , hell , and the divell . for wee see , god gave him all occasions and aboundance of blessings as strong provocations to provoke him to love his heavenly majesty , and as firme bands to bind , and tye him to obedience . it was the divell who first breathed pride into man , to aspire and soare above his estate , and suggested into his heart evill surmises and thoughts of god , that god did seeke to keepe him from a better estate by restraining him from the tree of knowledge , which by eating of the fruit thereof hee might obtaine , and become like to god. wherefore let no man charge god with giving the least occasion of discontent to man to provoke him to sin ; but let us bee humbled with the sight of our owne mutability , frailty and vanity , who in our first parents and best estate were so fragile and mutable , and much more now , being corrupted and made subject to vanity , and slaves of corruption . chap. xv. of the image of god on man in innocency . sundry opinions of it . what the word signifieth : zelem and demuth . image of god naturall , and supernaturall . differences betweene the image of the first and second adam . images essentiall , and accidentall . particulars of gods image on adam : in soule and body . vses of all . and god said , let us make man in our image after our likenesse . verse . so god created man in his owne image , in the image of god created hee him ; male and female created hee them . the generall doctrine of the creation of our first parents in the image of god , i have heretofore laid open out of these words . it now remaines , that i proceed to the doctrine and description of that image of god in the speciall and particular points , thereof ; which i reserved to the last place , because it is the maine thing which discovers to us the excellent state of man in innocency . as for the blessing of fruitefulnesse for the increase of mankind , and mans dominion over the creatures , plenty and variety of bodily food , and a pleasant habitation , the earthly paradise , they are but externabona , outward benefits : but the image of god containes in it internall blessings of the soule , & of the whole man , as well as externall & outward benefits ; & therefore i have first dispatched them , & now come to that image of god , in which did consist the highest pitch of mans naturall perfection & felicity . in the handling of this point , if i should rehearse the severall opinions of the ancients ; how they make a difference betweene the image & likenesse of god ; how some make the image of god to be onely in the soule ; some in the whole man ; some holdthe reasonable soule , as it is endowed with understanding , will and memory , to be the image , and holinesse and righteousnesse to be the likenesse of god ; others hold that gods image consists in mans dominion , & lordship over the creatures ; others , that gods image consists in mans immortality ; others in this , that man is a spirituall substance in respect of his soule , others that the image of god , after which god formed man , is god the son as hee is the image and character of the fathers person , and the similitude is the holy ghost ; others that the image of god is the humane nature , which the son was ordained to assume , and did in fulnesse of time take upon him : if i should rehearse all these , and lay them open , and confute so much in them as in unsound , i should spend time and weary my selfe to small purpose . likewise , it would take up exercises of many houres , if i should rehearse the divers opinions , questions , and disputations of the schoolemen ; all which would trouble mens braines , and leave them in a maze or labyrinth , uncertaine what to hold or beleeve ; as also the many disputations , absurdities , and contradictions of the iesuits , by which they contradict one another ; and some of them themselves , in many things which they teach and affirme concerning the image of god. as for the grosse opinions of old hereticks , as of the manichaans , who utterly denyed the image of god in man ; and of the audians and anthropomorphites , who held that the outward forme and shape of mans body was gods imagc ; and of the pelagians , who held that the image of god , in which man was created , was no other but that in which every man is now borne ; they are not worthy to bee named , it were losse of time to confute them , and to discover the absurdities of them . the maine ground which i will wholly build upon , shall bee the word of god , written in the sacred scriptures ; and what i find in the fathers and best moderne writers agreeable to the scriptures , that i will commend unto you ; and where i find them differing from gods word , i will be bold to professe open dissert , and shew my dislike ; that none may bee mislead by them , or by any who build upon humane authority . but , that wee may understand this point plainely and fully , i will first of all sift the words of the text , and shew what is the image and likenesse of god , and how we are to understand the phrase of making man in his owne image , and after his likenesse . and secondly , i will shew the particulars wherein man was made like unto god , and what is that image in which hee was made . first , the image of a person or thing is that , which though it differs in nature and substance , yet is formed by that person and according to that thing , and in all things made like unto that whereof it is the image ; in so much that hee who knoweth the person or thing it selfe , when hee seeth the image , can discerne that it is the image of such a thing or person , and that it is very like him ; and by seeing the true image hee knowes and discernes what a one the person or thing is , whereofit is the image : this is the first & the most proper sense of the word image , and thus it is used where statues of gold , silver , wood , stone , or other metall , made in the shape of a man to represent him , or in some other shape to represent a feined god , are called images , as num. . . where god commands the israelites to destroy the idols of the canaanites , and cals them molten images ; and a king. . . the idols or statues made to represent baal the god of the zidonians , are called the images of baal . and man being made a fit creature to represent god , and to shew his glory , is in this sense called the image and glory of god , cor. . . secondly , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , zelem , image , is used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , abusively , to signifie a vaine shadow or bare forme and shape of a thing without a substance ; such as is the shadow of a man or other creature ; or a shape formed in the fansie , having no being but in mans imagination , as psalme . . where every man is said , to walke in a vaine shadow , the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , zelem , image , and psalme . . the vaine fansie and dreame of the wicked , that is , the vaine felicity , which they frame to themselves , is called by the same name zelem , image . here in this text the word is used in the first sense , for such a thing , or such a creature as differing in nature and substance from god , yet in that nature and substance is so like unto god , and doth shew forth the glory , wisedome , power and other attributes of god ; that they may bee seene and represented in some good measure in the things , and by the things which are proper to that creature . and an image according to this sense hath in it two things to bee considered , to wit the matter and the forme . the matter is the nature and substance of the creature , differing from the substance of the thing , whereof that creature is the image , and yet a very fit subject to receive such a forme , and such qualities as may make it very like the thing whereof it is the image ; as for example gold , silver , wood , and stone , differ in nature and substance from man ; and yet they are fit to receive the whole outward shape of a mans body , and to bee like unto it in all parts . if things bee both of one kind and nature , though the similitude bee never so great , yet the one is not called the image of the other , except it bee made by , and according to it : as for example , one egge is not the image of another , nor one apple , nut , or figge anothers image ; nor water , nor wine of the same kind in severall cups , though they bee very like , because they are both of one nature and of the same kinde , and one is not made and formed by another . secondly , the forme of the image is the likenesse and similitude , which is in all the parts & properties of a thing , by meanes whereof it resembles that whereof it is the image , & is like unto it , & so becomes the image of it ; as for example , the forme , & shape , & resemblance , which is in the image of gold , silver , or stone , by which it resembleth and expresseth all parts of a mans body , and the colour of it , by which it resembles a mans haire , face , hands , and cloathes , that is the likenesse by which it becomes the image of a man , even of this or that particular man , and is knowne and discerned to bee his image , and in it his shape is plainely seene . both these are here to bee understood in this word image , and gods image containes in it both the similitude or resemblance , by which man is said to bee like unto god in all his naturall properties , gifts , and endowments ; and also his nature , and substance , which though it differs from gods nature and substance : yet is a fit subject of such properties , gifts , and endowments , which resemble gods attributes and properties . secondly , the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demuth , which is here translated likenesse , is used in a twofold sense : first , it signifies the similitude and likenesse , by which one thing resembles another in all the speciall properties of it ; thus it is used psalme . . where the poison , rancour , and malice of the wicked is said to have the likenesse of the poison of aspes ; and ezech. . . the likenesse of the faces of the foure living creatures , in ezechiels vision is said to bee like the face of a man , and of a lyon , and of an oxe , and of an eagle ; and dan. . . one is said to touch daniel , who had the likenesse of the sons of men . secondly , it signifieth the same that the word image doth , that is a thing which is made like to another , and is the very patterne which resembleth it in all parts , and properties , as king. . . where the patterne of the altar of damascus which ahaz sent to vriah the priest , is called the image of it . and chron. . . the images of oxen which solomon made under the brasen sea , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demuth , the likenesse of oxen , and isa. . . an image made to represent god , according to that conceipt of him , which men frame in their mindes , is thus called . here in this text the word is used in the latter sense , and signifies the same , that the word image doth in effect , but in a diver and manner . for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 image , signifies first a creature , and then the likenesse by which that creature so resembles god the creatour , in all the speciall properties of it , that it becomes his image . and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , likenesse , signifies first the similitude , and then the creature ; that is , such a similitude and resemblance of god stamped upon the nature and being of a creature , as makes it the very image of god , and so these two words , zelem , image , and demuth , likenesse , are ( as the best learned and most judicious expositors of this text doe affirme ) the one the exposition of the other ; the word image sheweth , that the creature barely considered is not gods image ; but by the naturall properties , and gifts by which it resembles god. and the word likenesse sheweth , that the similitude alone is not the image , but as it subsists in a fit subject , and flowes from the nature and properties , which god gave it in the creation . vpon these grounds wee may easily understand , that the phrase of creating man in gods owne image and likenesse , signifies gods creating man of such a nature , and endowed with such naturall properties , gifts , and endowments ; that hee doth in them all resemble himselfe , and is his lively image very like to him ; shewing forth his divine properties and attributes of goodnesse , wisedome , power , knowledge , and in all things conformable to his just will. thus much for the opening of the words . the next thing to bee considered , is the image it selfe , and the speciall things wherein it doth consist . and here i hold it necessary , first to distinguish the image of god , and his likenesse into two kinds . the first is naturall , formed in the creation . the second is supernaturall and spirituall , formed in man by the holy ghost dwelling in him . this distinction , though divers people ( lead by custome and humane authority more then the word of god ) doe reject as a meere device of mine owne : yet i finde it plainely laid downe in the word of god. for the holy apostle saint paul , cor. . . doth in expresse words affirme , that as there is both a first adam made of the earth , earthy , who by gods breathing into him the breath of life became a living soule in the first creation ; and also a second adam made a quickening spirit , even the lord christ from heaven heavenly . so there is a twofold image of god in man ; the first : the image of the earthy adam , in which hee was created ; which though hee forfeited , and lost by the law of justice : yet by gods common and generall indulgence in christ , hee did so farre retaine and communicate it though , grievously mangled & defaced , that we are said to have borne it , who are adams naturall progenie , and were created upright in his loynes . the other is the image of the heavenly adam , the lord christ , who being in the forme of god , equall with god , did humble himselfe to descend from heaven by taking our nature upon him , and framing to himselfe out of the seed of the woman by the operation of the holy ghost a most pure and holy manhood , which did beare ( over and above the image of the first adam deformed with many frailties and all our infirmities , sin onely excepted , rom. . . philip. . . ) an holy and heavenly image created and framed in his humane nature by the working of the holy ghost , which is given to him not by measure , ioh. . . even from his first conception , luk. . . and this image as the elect , regenerate and faithfull doe beare in part , in the state of grace , while they are by the inward worke of the spirit conformed to the image of christ , rom. . . and christ is formed in them , gal. . . so they shall fully and perfectly beare it in heaven after the last resurrection , cor. . . and as the holy apostle doth distinguish these two images , and doth oppose the one to the other , making the one the image of the first adam , who was of the earth earthy ; the other proper to christ the second adam , who is the lord from heaven heavenly ; so hee doth shew divers differences betweene them in his divine epistles , which are confirmed also by other scriptures . first , the image of god in the first adam was naturall , it was that which was given him in the creation ; so my text here saith , god created man in his owne image : but the image of god in the second adam was supernaturall and spirituall ; for hee was conceived , and formed in the wombe by the holy ghost , luk. . . and his image is communicated to men , and they are changed into it by the spirit of god , cor. . . secondly , the image of god in the first adam was mutable , and adam did forfeit it , together with his life and naturall being , by his sin and disobedience : and although god , out of his common favour and indulgence in christ , doth still continue it in some degree to adams posterity ; yet it is much defaced and deformed in all parts , and in some parts quite abolished , and is now stiled the likenesse of corruptible man , rom. . . and the likenesse of sinfull flesh , rom . . and the forme of a servant , and likenesse of fraile men even as it was in christ , phil. . . but the image of god in christ is immutable ; neither our sins which hee bare , nor all our infirmities , nor the divell , nor the world , nor all the powers of darknesse , nor the curse of the law , which hee was made in his death , nor the wrath of god and the agonies with which hee wrastled in his agony , both in the time of his bloody sweat , and on the crosse when hee cryed out , my god why hast thou forsaken me ? could deface or impaire that spirituall and supernaturall image of true righteousnesse and holinesse , which was stamped on his humanity , and in which it was framed by the holy ghost ; but over all those enemies and powers hee triumphed , even upon the crosse , colos. . . and in his cursed death hee offered up himselfe a sacrifice most pure , holy and without spot , heb. . . so that his holinesse was no whit stained , nor gods spirituall image in him defaced , or diminished . and as this spirituall image could not bee diminished in christ the second adam , our head : so it is indeleble and cannot bee defaced in any of his members truely regenerate and united to him by the same spirit ; but it dayly increaseth in them , and they are transformed into it , from glory to glory , by his spirit in them , which is stronger and greater then the divell , the spirit of malice which is in the world , and rules in the children of disobedience ; for the spirit seales them up , unto the day of redemption , ephes. . . and they cannot sin by apo●acy , and fall into infidelity and impenitency , ioh. . . because the seed of god abideth in them . thirdly , the image of god in the first adam was most perfect at the first , for hee was created perfect with naturall perfection ; and the naturall image of god was never so perfect in any of his naturall sons , as it was in him at the first . and as it decayed and was defaced in him by his fall : so in all of his posterity who are gods elect , it gives place to the better image of christ ; and in his sons who are reprobates , it shall bee utterly abolished at last , and changed into the image of the divell , when they shall bee punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of god , and from the glory of his power , thess. . . but the image of god in the second adam , is at the first in the least measure like a graine of mustard seed , and still it increaseth , till at last it commeth to fulnesse and perfection in glory . in christ our head it was not so cleare , nor so full at the first , being ecclipsed with our infirmities ; but that hee , did grow up in wisedome , and stature , and favour with god and men , luk . . and so this image increased in him , and hee was more and more full of the holy ghost , till at length hee was perfected with glory . and so likewise in the state of grace , it daily increaseth in all the true members of christ , till they come to glory , and beare the heavenly image of christ , and attaine to the fulnesse of him , as appeares rom. . . cor. . . and . , ephes. . , . coloss. . . pet. . . 〈◊〉 fourthly , the image of god in adam consisted onely in such gifts and endowments as made him a perfect naturall man , capable of an earthly felicity : it did not enable him to search into the heavenly things of god , nor make him partaker of heavenly glory : but the image of god in christ consists of spirituall gifts and supernaturall graces , which doe enable a man to search into the deepe things of god , which never entered into the heart of adam in innocency , cor. . , . or of any meere naturall man ; and which doe make him fit to see god and to inherite the kingdome of heaven , cor. . . and hebr. . . the image of god in which adam was created , did consist chiefely of originall righteousnesse , which was but a perfect naturall uprightnesse , and conformity of his reason , understanding , will and affections to the will and law of god , made knowne to him in the creation , and also in the perfect frame and disposition of his body , and of all parts thereof , by which they were most apt and ready to follow his upright reason , will and affections in all things , and to move and worke accordingly ; and the scriptures attribute no more to man , while hee bare that image in the creation , but onely that god made man upright , eccles. . verse last , this was the height and perfection of that image . but the image of god in christ , the second adam containes in it the righteousnesse and holinesse of truth , ephes. . . that is , a righteousnesse wrought in us , by the holy ghost , and a true holinesse and holy conformity to god , which cannot faile and deceive , and which doth elevate and lift us up to heavenly felicity , and the eternall fruition of god. the image of god in which adam was made , was but the uprightnesse of servants , and conformity to the will of god ; commanding as lord and creatour under paine of death , gen. . . but the image of god in christ is the image of sons and children , not onely adopted to god in christ ; but also begotten and borne of gods immortall seed , even his spirit , and made partakers of the divine nature , ioh. . . gal. . . pet. . . and pet. . . ioh. . . lastly , the image of god in which adam was made , did not in the greatest perfection of it give that fulnesse and sufficiency of contentment , which might settle his resolution never to desire more ; for hee , out of a desire to know more , and to bee like god in knowing good and evill , was easily tempted and drawne by the serpent to eat of the forbidden fruite : but the image of god in christ , the second adam gives such solid content to gods people , even here in this fraile life in the state of grace , where they have it but in part , that neither life , nor death , nor angels , nor principalities , nor powers , nor anguish , persecution , perill or sword , can make them willing to forgoe it for any other hope : and in the full perfection of it after the last resurrection , it brings fulnesse of joy , contentment and satisfaction , and fils men up with the fulnesse of god , psalme . . and . . rom . . ephes. . . now these things which i have here laid downe by way of plaine doctrine , concerning the true meaning of the words image and likenesse , and the difference betweene the image of god , in which the first adam was created , and the image of god in the second adam christ , in which hee was formed by the holy ghost , and into which all the elect are changed and renued , when they are regenerate and made new creatures in him may serve for excellent use : as i shall shew , when i have described the image of god , wherein our first parents were created , and have laid downe , by way of doctrine , the particulars wherein it doth consist . but before i can distinctly describe the image of which my text here speakes , i must yet a little more distinctly shew the severall sorts of images which , are images of god , and of other things . there are images which are essentiall and perfect , to wit , every person begotten by another of his owne nature ; and images which are accidentall and imperfect . an essentiall image , is either absolute and most perfect ; or lesse perfect . the essentiall image which is most perfect and absolute , is one person begotten by another of the same undivided substance and being , in all essentiall properties equall and alike , distinct onely by personall properties and subsistence . thus the eternall son of god is the image of the father of whom he is begotten from all eternity , of the same nature and individuall substance . for the second person the son , considered according to his divinity simply as god , before his assuming of our fraile nature ; is said to bee in the forme of god , that is , his person is of the same essence , glory , and majesty with the father , and hee thought it no robbery to bee equall with god , that is to have all essentiall properties of god equall which the father , as the apostle testifieth , philip. . . and in this respect , hee is called the image of the invisible god , coloss. . . and the brightnesse of his glory , and the expresse image of his person , hebr. . . which words though they have respect to christ , as hee is the word made flesh , and god incarnate , revealing god in his goodnesse , wisedome , justice , mercy , power , and the like : yet they must not bee limited to his incarnation ; but are extended to his deity as hee is the eternall word the son the second person , by whom the father created all things , and who with the father doth uphold and sustaine all things as the words immediatly following doe shew . for indeed the eternall word the son , is in the forme of god , one and the same god , of the same substance , glory , and majesty with the father , and onely distinguished in personall properties , relatiom , and subsistence : and therefore hee alone can truely bee called the image of god in this sense , which is most perfect and absolute . the essentiall or substantiall image which is lesse perfect then the other , is either naturall or supernaturall . a naturall essentiall image is one person begotten by another of the same nature and kind of substance , and equall and alike in the same kind of naturall properties , but not of the same singular substance and individuall properties ; thus every son of man is the image of the father which begets him ; for though hee hath a severall soule and body , and severall properties which are of the same kind , but not the same singular with those of his father : yet because his body and soule , and all the faculties of it , are of the same kind , and in the outward forme resembles his father , and his father may bee seene as it were in him , therefore hee is his fathers image and made in his likenesse . a supernaturall essentiall image is a nature or person , who is so begotten of god by the holy ghost , given to bee and abide in him , as the immortall seed of god , that hee is made partaker of the divine nature ; that is , hath not onely supernaturall , and spirituall gifts wrought in him , by which hee is made fit to see and enjoy god : but also is united to god , and god becomes his portion for ever . this image is either primary or secondary . the primary image of this kind is onely christ as hee is man , or the humane nature of christ , which god formed and made in the womb of the virgin so pure and holy by the holy ghost from the first conception , in which the holy ghost came upon her , and the power of the almighty over-shadowed her , luk. . that it was not onely most pure and holy , and full of the holy ghost from the first being of it ; but also was personally assumed and united to the eternall son of god , the second person in the blessed trinity , and so became the first borne of every creature , coloss. . . and the first fruits which doe sanctifie the whole masse of the elect , cor. . . and hee head from whom the spirit is derived unto all the elect , ephes. . , so that they become a kind of first fruits of gods creatures , iam. . . the secondary supernaturall image is every elect , regenerate child of god , begotten and borne of his spirit , shed on them through christ , tit. . . and so created a new man after god , in righteousnesse and holinesse of truth , and made partakers of the divine nature , one with god in christ and by christ , ioh. . . i call this a secondary image , because the elect become this image not immediatly , but after a secondary manner , by deriving the spirit from christ , and by union with god in him . i call it a supernaturall image , because it is above mans nature , and belongs not to him in the creation , nor consists in any naturall properties or resemblance . and i call it an essentiall image , because every regenerate man , hath in him the holy ghost dwelling as the soule of his soule , quickning the whole man ; which spirit is of the same essence with the father and the son. and in respect of this spirit , and his gifts dwelling in his tabernacles their bodies , and furnishing them throughout ; they are truely called , and are indeed , a new image of god , and new creatures . all these sorts of images are to bee excluded out of this text , for our first parents are not here said to bee created after god essentially or supernaturally , but onely in the accidentall and naturall image of god ; as i have in part shewed before , and shall also hereafter more fully shew in all the particulars . the accidentall or imperfect image of a thing or of a person , is a thing or person so framed and made by another , as by a paterne , and after the likenesse of that paterne , that it doth very much resemble it in likenesse and similitude , but yet is not every way equall , nor in all things fully alike , nor of the same nature and substance with it . in an image of this kind , there are required two things necessarily : first , that the thing which is the image bee very like , that whereof it is the image ; yea so like , that it must resemble and represent either the nature and essentiall forme of it , or the outward forme and figure , or some speciall properties and proper qualities of it ; or all these together , and yet in a different substance . secondly , that it bee formed and made by that whereof it is the image , and according to the paterne of it : where any of these two is wanting , there can bee no image at all ; as for example , one egge is like another in nature , substance , and all naturall properties ; yet that egge is not the image of the other , because the one is not made by the other , as the paterne of it : so wee may say of an apple , or a figge , and of many other things ; but the forme of an egge or apple made in chalke , or paste , or wax , is the image of an egge or apple , though not so like it as another egge or apple , and farre different in nature and substance , because it is formed by it as by a paterne . and againe , though an egge bee formed in the body , and of the naturall substance of a bird , and sometimes wormes are bred in the bodies of men and beasts ; and the egge resembles the bird in whitenesse or in variety of other colours , and the wormes seeme like mans flesh , in whom they are bred , both in colour and substance , and in life , sense , and motion : yet they cannot bee called images , because they are not like in shape nor outward forme , nor in any property , but onely in some qualities , and small resemblance . but the picture or statue , made after a man , and in many things like him , though more like another man then him , yet it is his image , and not the image and picture of another : so the figure of a man appearing in a glasse when hee stands before it ; though it differs in nature and substance , and is but a vanishing shadow : yet because in outward shape , forme and colour it is very like , and is expressed in the glasse by him looking in it , therefore is his image . and the impression of a stamp or seale made in wax or well tempered clay is the image of that stampe or seale , though it bee not perfectly like , by reason of some small defects in the wax , clay or stamping ; and the impression of another seale engraven with the same figure or letters may bee in all points more like , and yet not the image of it , because it was not made after it , but by another seale engraven with the same figure . now then , that wee may plainely see that man was created , and how hee was created in the image of god , and made after his likenesse , and that hee is a true accidentall image of god his creatour , wee are to observe and take notice of these two things : first , that god did frame mans nature , even his whole soule and body after himselfe , with intent that both his substance , and naturall properties and endowments might take their patterne from him his creatour ; that is , in a word , god himselfe was the originall and chiefe patterne by which alone man was made and formed . secondly , that though divers other creatures had in divers things more resemblance of god , then man had ; as the heavens in large comprehension of the visible world ; the sun in glorious brightnesse , beauty and majesty ; the highest heaven in glory and immutability ; and all creatures , as they have essence and being , and were made good and perfect in their kind , have , some more , some fewer impressions and resemblance of god in his essence and attributes : yet none can bee called the image of god among all visible creatures but onely man ; because , though god formed all things after his owne will , wisedome , and goodnesse ; yet hee made no visible creature living or without life , so farre resembling himselfe in his nature and essentiall properties , that it might justly or with good reason bee called his image , but onely man. as man alone of all creatures under heaven was made in the image of god ; so man alone doth so plainely resemble god , is so stamped with the impression of gods properties , and in his whole nature and frame is made so fit a subject for god to dwell in , and to bee conformed to god ; and wherein god may shew his wisedome , power , goodnesse , liberty of will , justice , mercy and other attributes , that hee onely of all visible creatures can truely bee called the image of god. let us now therefore , in the next place , come to the things wherein this image of god did consist , and in respect of which things man is said to bee created in the image of god , and to bee the image of god his creatour . first , it is a most certaine truth that the image of god , in which man was created , is nothing else but the conformity of man unto god ; and man is truly called the image of god in respect of all those things wherein hee doth , more then any other visible creatures , resemble god in his divine essence and properties . now this conformity of man unto god is twofold , primary , or secondary . primarie conformity , is seated in the soule of man , or in man according to his soule the chiefe part of his substance . secondary conformitie is that which is in man according to his bodie , and consists in the body and in things which belong to his body . conformitie of man to god in his soule , is either in the nature of substance of his soule , or in the naturall faculties , properties , and endowments of it . first , conformity to god in the substance of his soule , is the similitude which mans soule hath unto the nature and substance of god , in that mans soule is not a corporeall substance , as all visible creatures are , nor a materiall body created of any former matter , but it is a pure spirit , even a spirituall , incorporeall , invisible and living substance , and so it is called . cor. , . & heb. . . and both here in my text ; and cor . . a living soule which lives and gives life to the body ; and in these things it is like unto god who in his nature and being is a spirit , or a spirituall substance , as our saviour affirmes , joh. . . & is called the invisible god coloss. . . & tim. . . and the living god psal. . . & ier. . . & ioh. . . and his eternall power and godhead are called invisible things , rom . . yea as god saith of himselfe , isa . . so wee may truely say of mans soule , that it cannot truely be likened to any visible thing , neither can any bodily substance resemble it . conformity to god in the naturall faculties , properties and indowments of his soule is the likenesse , and similitude which man in respect of his reason , understanding , liberty of will desires and affections , all upright and perfect , had unto gods wisedome , knowledge , goodnesse , libertie , justice , mercy , and the like . first , man in his perfect understanding , naturall light , wisedome and knowledge , did resemble gods wisedome , and knowledge of all things . for man in his creation , and naturall integritie did rightly know god and himselfe , and did perfectly understand all the workes , and the nature of all the creatures of god , and what was good both for himself and them , so far as was needfull in his kind , and in that naturall estate , and what was just for him to do : and how to beare himself uprightly towards god and all his creatures . that he had the knowledge and understanding of all these things sufficiently to make him perfect and happie in that estate ; and that there was no errour or ignorance in him of any thing which was meet for him to know , appears most plainely by divers things . first , by gods giving to man dominion and rule over all living creatures , and puting him in the garden to dresse it , and puting all the earth in subjection to him ; which god would never have done , being infinitly wise and just , except he had knowne man to be one who understood and knew the nature of the earth , and all herbes , plants , and trees in it ; and by his reason , wisdome and knowledge was able to rule all creatures with discretion , and to order them according to their severall natures , and to dresse the garden , and subdue the earth . secondly , by adams naming of all the creatures , every one by such a name as did shew the nature of it ; so that god did approve and confirme the names , gen. . and every creature did in all likelyhood come to adam being called by that name . thirdly , by the understanding which he had of the nature of the woman ( when god shewed her to be formed of his rib ) and presently giving her the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , woman , or shee man , gen. . . fourthly , by adams free conversing with god , and hearing of his voice without fear or dread ; which was a strong evidence of an upright heart and pure conscience , and that he knew god , and his goodnesse ; and that though god was greater then he could comprehend , yet god would not hurt him , but uphold him so long as he did obey gods will revealed to him . secondly , man did resemble god in the perfect liberty and freedome of his will , and in the perfect conformity of it to the revealed and knowne will of god , and in the readinesse and naturall forwardnesse of it to will whatsoever good was within his power , and of himself to will nothing which was unjust and evill : by these things he resembled the free will and liberty of god , and his justice and equitie in all his doings . that mans will was most free to good , and that he had power of will to obey god appeares , first by this , that the law of god was written in his heart as the rule of his life and actions ; and that so deeply , that it remaines in the heart of his corrupt seed in some measure , & cannot be quite blotted out . as he knew by his understanding and in his minde , so he was willing in his heart , to will and to do all accordingly ; & of himself would never have fallen , if the devill , that spirituall wickednesse , had not by the serpent seduced and deceived him . secondly , by the power and dominion which god gave to him over all creatures visible ; which he would not have done , if man had not been as ready in will , as perfect in knowledge to rule them aright . it is not knowledge alone , but uprightnesse of heart , and will , and power , and freedome to will just things justly , which god requires to make an able and sufficient ruler , as david testifieth in his last words . thirdly , it is manifest by the commaundement which god gave to man to be obeyed under paine of death , which he being a good god would never have imposed on man , if mans will had not been free and upright ; for then he had laid a snare which man could not have avoided ; and had required more of man , then man by his naturall power was able to performe . thirdly , man was also conformable to god , and to his just will , goodnesse , purity and happinesse , in all the desires and affections of his heart and soule . he of himself desired no more but that which god gave him and allowed him ; hee loved god as his creatour , and the author of all his good ; he did rejoice in gods favour , love , and bountie ; he delighted himself in all the naturall gifts which god had given him , and in the good creatures of god ; there was perfect harmonie and sweet consent between his reason , understanding , will , and his desires and affections : whatsoever he knew to be good and just , that he freely willed , desired and affected : there was no disorder , discord or repugnancy and dissention in any power or faculty of soule , or body ; no least cause of griefe , but all joy and content . and of himself he never would have desired more then god had given , nor coveted an higher estate , if satan had not suggested such desire , and seduced him . this , and indeed all the whole perfect uprightnesse of man in all the powers and faculties of his soule , in his understanding , will , desires and affections is most clearly confirmed by plaine testimonies of holy scripture . first , by the last verse of this chapter , where it is said that when god had created man male and female , and finished the creation , he saw every thing which he had made , and behold it was very good . if man was very good ; then was he upright in all the faculties of the soule , in his understanding , will , desires and affections , and there could be no discord among them ; for that is evill and miserable . secondly , we have the testimony of the wise preacher eccles. . . that god made man upright , that is , in originall righteousnesse , conformable in his upright reason , understanding , will and affections to the just revealed will of god. thirdly , experience teacheth that the things which make man ashamed , are ignorance and errour in mind and understanding , perversnesse of will , disorderly lusts and affections , and deformity and distemper either in soule or body . now man and woman had no cause of shame in them , neither were they ashamed when they were naked and went uncovered in all parts , as wee reade chap. . . and therefore in the state of innocencie all these causes of shame were far from him , and he most free from them . the secondary conformity of man to god , which is in man according to his body , consists in things which belong to the body and to the outward visible man. first , wee must not conceive , that god is any kind of body or bodily substance ( as blasphemous vorstius and other arminians have written ) neither that god hath a forme and shape like a mans body , as the anthromorphites of old dreamed : for it is manifest , that in him , who is infinit , and so present in all places , that he is in his whole essence in every place ; should have any difference , or limitation or dimension , or measure of severall parts , which is necessarily required in the forme , shape and substance of mans body and every bodily thing . but yet , because in the most wise , and artificiall frame , and naturall temper of mans body ; and the most fit disposition , and order of all parts , by which it is a fit subiect for a reasonable soule , and the principall parts of it fit instruments for the severall faculties of the soule , whereby to performe their many and severall workes and operations the wisedome , power , and goodnesse of god did shine forth of mans body , more then in all visible creatures ; and the image of god appeared in it . mans eyes , sight , and all outward senses did represent gods omniscience and knowledge of all things ; his hands did shew and represent gods power to do and worke whatsoever he will ; his armes did represent gods strength and power to save his people , and to destroy his enemies ; the beauty , comelinesse , & naturall majesty which appeared in mans body & upright stature , by which he did overlooke all creatures , as one most fit to rule them , did shew forth and represent the glory and majestie of god and his lordship , dominion , providence and power , by which he governs all things . in a word , though mans body was mutable in the creation and state of innocency , and might fall from that state : yet so long as man did continue in that state , and did not sin , he had that lively vigour , & perfect temper of body , which did free him from death , and all evills which tend to hurt and destruction ; which also was able to uphold him in life and strength for ever , if sin had not entred , and so in some sort he was immortall and impassible , not subject to death or any passion and suffering of hurt and evill in his body , and so there was in his body some likenesse of gods immortalitie . for proofe of this wee have good arguments in scripture : first , god himself sheweth that murther , and shedding of mans bloud is a defacing of his image in which he created man ; and for that cause he threatens revenge of murther , and of violence offered to mans bloud , gen. . , . now murther and shedding of mans bloud ●s a defacing of mans body ; therefore the body also is a secondarie image of god. secondly , the scriptures which set forth gods attributes and workings by severall parts of mans body ; as his omniscience and providence by eyes , psal. . . . cron. . . his activity and working by hands , as exod. . . psal. . . isa. . . his love , and mercy by bowells , as isa. . . jer. . . his punishing and revenging iustice by breath of mouth and nostrills psal. . . and isa. . . his secret thoughts , counsells and purposes by heart , psal. . . his utterance of his mind and will by mouth , jer. . . these metaphors do shew that the body of man and chiefe parts of it have some similitude of gods attributes and workes , and so mans body is secondarily the image and likenesse of god. thirdly , the scriptures shew that death is the wages of sin , and all mortality and subjection to evills and passions , which tend to hurt and corruption came in by mans disobedience and fall , as appears , rom. . . and . . and by gods , commination , gen. . . but in the creation and state of innocencie man had in him no sin , nor any inclination of himself to any evill or sin ; therefore he was after a sort ●mmortall and incorruptible in his body , and had even in it a similitude of gods immortality . fourthly , the body was in all things conformable to the soule , fit and ready in all things to follow the motions of the soule , to be directed and moved by the upright reason will and affections , and to doe all workes unto which they move it ; and therefore as the soule was made in the primary image and likenesse ; so the body in the secondary image and likenesse of god. lastly , to conclude this doctrine of gods image in which man was created , wee may not unfitly affirme , and with good reason hold ; that though man in the state of innocency , before the promise of christ , had no supernaturall gifts , nor any part of the spirituall image of the second adam ; but was onely a perfect naturall man , and not immediatly , & proximâ potentiâ capable of supernaturall grace , nor of the divine nature : yet because his nature and whole frame was such as had a possibility , or remote power , to be made partaker of the holy ghost ; united to god in christ , and made pattaker of the divine nature , and a new creature , or new man framed after god ; therefore he in this respect may be said to be created in the image of god ; that is in such a forme , and of such a nature , as had a possibility to become like unto christ , and a new creature made in the spirituall image of god. now this doctrine of gods image briefly and compendiously proved in all parts , is of excellent use . first this discovers the infinite riches of the bounty of god passing all bounds ; and declares his goodnesse to be like a great deep which can never be sounded , in that he hath overcome all our evill and malice towards him with his great goodnesse to us , and and when wee had forfeited our being , and his image in which he created us good and perfect with all naturall perfections , and did justly deserve to degenerate and be turned into the image of the divell , and to become in the likenesse of his malice , and and misery ; he out of his owne meere mercy and free grace and bounty , did give his sonne , and the sonne did freely undertake to humble himself , to become a second adam , made in a better image , even an heavenly and spirituall , that he might not onely suspend the execution of gods just sentence upon mankind , and procure to the first adam and all his posterity the continuance of their naturall being for a time , and of some reliques of the image which they had wholly forfeited : but also might renue a great number chosen out of mankind , and restore them to a better , even an heavenly image ; by transforming and changing them into his spirituall and supernaturall image , and making them conformable to it , and partakers of the divine nature , by the mysticail dwelling and powerfull operation of his spirit in them . here is that which may dazle the eyes of men , and the sight of angells , when they looke into it ; and which may astonish all hearts of men , and confound all humane reason , when they thinke of it , and heare it preached ; that god infinitely just and holy , to hate and punish sin , should , by our evill , and sin committed against him and his just will and law , take occasion to be more good , and to shew greater goodnesse to us ; and when wee deserved , to have no being but in hell and eternall misery ; hath raised us up to the spirituall state of grace , from which we cannot be hurled and cast downe by all the powers of darkenesse , and by which wee shall ascend to the blessed state of heavenly and eternall glory . here is love surpassing all knowledge , the depth whereof wee may admire , and adore in silence ; but neither can our hearts conceive , nor our tongues expresse the fulnesse thereof . secondly , this former discourse shewes , what a vaine and foolish thing it is for christian people , to be so wedded to the opinions of godly learned men in all points , which have beene formerly received and commonly beleeved ; or to be so strongly conceipted and perswaded of their full understanding and perfect knowledge of all the scriptures , and of all truth taught in the written word of god ; that whatsoever they have taught , and commonly held , they will cleave too till death ; and they will receive and embrace no truth , nor any exposition of any scripture , which hath not beene before observed , taught and published in the sermons and writings of the godly learned ancient fathers , and the soundest orthodox moderne divines . i confesse the scriptures alone , dayly read and heard by men of ordinary capacity and learning , are able to make them wise to salvation ; for the way to life may easily be discerned by their guidance , and direction . but there are degrees of knowledge , and divers measures of gifts ; and when a man knoweth enough to bring him on in an ordinarie way to life , yet there is still more knowledge to be learned , and a greater depth of knowledge to be found in the scriptures which are doubtfull , obscure , and more hard to be understood ; and many new expositions of divers places , which more plainly and fully confirme solid truthes formerly beleeved ; which he that searcheth out and discovereth , doth thereby get more strength in faith , and growth in grace , and more spirituall joy and comfort , and runs on faster and more speedily and steadfastly in the way to salvation . wee see here for example , the common opinion of ancient and moderne writers to goe currant ; that there is but one kind of image of god in man ; and that the image unto which christ restores us , is the very same in which adam was created ; that adam had power by that image to obtaine heavenly glory , and to grow up to that estate , which the elect saints come to in christ ; that christ restores no more but that which adam lost , and unto which he should have attained after some time of continuance in innocency ; that he was created in holinesse as well as christ , and true christians are , and so partaker of the holy ghost . and when any thing is taught out of the scriptures to the contrary , many mouthes , even of more learned men , are opened to gainsay and oppose : and yet you see the scriptures more narrowly sifted do teach most plainely to the contrary , and have not any plaine speech tending to prove these common opinions : yea the scriptures which are alledged for them , & are so applied & expounded , do prove the contrary , if they be well weighed and considered with a cleare judgement , not forestalled with prejudice and partialitie : wherefore let us wholly depend on gods word , and not on mens reason or jugdement to subject either the scriptures or the sense of them thereunto ; and let us still more and more thirst after increase of knowledge and understanding of divine truths hid in the harder places of gods written word , knowing that these are the last times wherein knowledge shall be increased , as wee read , dan. . . let us not consider the person which preacheth and teacheth , but what is by him taught . if new expositions and doctrines , not formerly taught , yea crossing the common opinions , be proved by better grounds and clearer evidence of scripture , and tend more to advance other saving truthes , to beate downe errours , and to increase piety , and godly affection in men ; let men take heed , and beware of rash opposition and gainesaying , lest they be found to fight against god , while they stand too much for the authority of men , though such as have beene holy and godly servants of christ , and famous in their generations . thirdly , this doctrine of gods image in adam doth both discover and also minister strong arguments whereby to confute divers erroneous opinions much dissenting , and dissonant from the solid truth and word of god , to wit , not onely those mentioned before , but others also ; as , that gods image was onely originall righteousnesse or justice , and that the naturall faculties of soule and body did not concurre to it ; that the whole image of god in adam was utterly lost by his fall , and is quite abolished till it be repaired and restored by christ , with divers others of the same stampe ; concerning which i finde many hot disputations among the learned ; all which appeare superfluous , if this doctrine were well weighed , and made a rule whereby to measure them ; for it will , like a just measure , shew which of them come short , and which goe too farre beyond the truth and true line of holy scriptures . lastly , in this wee see as in a cleare glasse the dignity and excellency of humane nature , above the nature of all other visible creatures ; in that he was made completely in gods image , and conformable to god , and like to him in his whole frame , and in all faculties of soule , and parts and members of body : and let this stirre us up to walke worthy , and beseeming such a nature and frame , and labour to keep both our whole soule and spirit , and all members of our bodies unspotted and unstained with sinne , which is the defacing of gods image : and let us reverence gods image in other men , especially seeing it is repaired and made of a better kind by christ , and above all take heed of cruelty and of defacing gods image in any part , by cuting of members and mangling the bodies of men , especially of gods saintes whose bodies are temples and tabernacles of god by his spirit . thus much concerning the first externall worke of god , the creation and the state wherein god created man , and wherein the state of innocency did consist . chap. xvi . of the actuall providence of god. the obiect of it . what the word signifieth : in . things . proofe that there is a providence : by texts , and arguments . description , shewing what it is : demonstrated in the parts , and branches of it . providence generall and speciall : acts of it . speciall providence in saving the elect by christ , what : and in what parts . uses . the next great externall worke of god after the creation , is his actuall providence , by which hee doth rule and dispose all things created , and doth order all actions which are done , and all events which come to passe in the world , to the manifestation of his glorious goodnesse . this great worke of god doth reach through all other externall works , which are done either by god himselfe or any other ; and doth comprehend with in the compasse of it all gods works which hee doth in the world , whether they bee works of wisedome and power in ruling and preserving his creatures , or workes of iustice in punishing and destroying , or workes of mercy and grace in redeeming repairing and saving the world ; and in bringing his chosen to eternall blessednesse . yea there is no worke done , nor any event which comes to passe at any time , or in any age of the world ; which god doth not over-rule and order by his providence . for , as hee is infinite in wisedome and power , able to decree and ordaine from all eternity all things most wisely , and to create and bring to passe all things according to the counsell of his will by a mighty hand of power , which cannot bee resisted . so also hee is wonderfull in goodnesse and bounty , to provide , most carefully all things needfull in aboundance , for the being and welbeing of his creatures , and to order governe and dispose all things good and evill , most wisely to the good of his elect , the iust punishment and destruction of the wicked , and to his owne glory . wherefore that wee may better understand this point , and proceed profitably in the handling of it . we are first to consider the signification of the name , and the true sense of the word ; and after to insist upon the thing it selfe , and to define and describe this actuall providence of god. the word providence is sometimes taken in a large sense , and signifies gods care and respect of all creatures ; both in decreeing , and ordaining their being and all things which befall them , and in executing his eternall decree according to the counsell of his owne will ; for in all these things god did shew a provident care and respect . sometimes the word is used more strictly and that three wayes . first , for the provident care and respect of god in decreeing things for the best , that they should so come to passe as they have done , or shall doe at any time hereafter , of this providence the apostle speakes hebr. . . where hee saith , god having provided some better thing for us , that they without us should not bee made perfect , this may bee called gods providence in willing and decreeing . secondly , it signifies gods provident care , which hee shewed in the creation of the world , and all things therein . for hee first created things above which could subsist , and bee perfect by themselves without the inferiour elements and the creatures in them , as the highest heavens , and their inhabitants the angels ; then hee created the visible heavens , which might bee ready by their light to bee of use for other th●ngs below in such measure as was needfull ; then hee created the spacious regions of the aire , through which that light might shine to other elements , and all creatures which hee was about to create in them ; and before hee created any living creatures , which could not well subsist nor move themselves without greater light then that of the naked heavens , hee created the sun , moone , and starres , which might both give light sufficient to those creatures , and also might cherish and comfort them and all other things , which were made to serve for their use . and before hee created mankind male and female in his owne image , fit to rule under him in the inferiour world , hee prepared and made ready for them all creatures , which they might rule over ; all kinds of delicate food in great variety and aboundance , and a lordly palace and place of pleasure wherein to dwell , in which he put them so soone as they were created . as god in all this shewed his provident care for man and all creatures , to make them every one perfect in their kind with naturall perfection in the creation : so i have noted this his actuall providence in the severall passages of the creation and have unfolded it so farre as for the present was necessary . thirdly , this word is frequently used to signifie gods provident care in ordering and governing the whole created world , and preserving all creatures therein , and in disposing every thing which doth befall them and come to passe in the world , to some good end , according to the counsell of his owne will. this is the actuall providence which now comes to bee distinctly handled , and unfolded in the next place after the creation . but before i come to describe this providence of god , and to lay open the nature , object , severall parts and kinds of it , i hold it necessary to prove clearly out of the holy scriptures , that there is in god such a providence and provident care , which hee doth shew and exercise in the ruling and governing of the whole world , and ordering , and disposing all things to their severall ends ; and that god is not a carelesse , sleepie and slumbering one , who doth neglect , and not see , regard , and care for any things here below , as some blind fooles , desperate atheists , and wicked men have imagined and spoken , as the psalmist sheweth , psalme . . . and . . who say , that the lord doth not see , god hath forgotten , ●ee hideth his face , hee will never see , nor regard , nor require what is done among men in the world. for the manifest proofe of gods providence , i will first rehearse some notable testimonies , even plaine texts of holy scripture , which being laid together may minister to us sufficient matter , and occasion , to describe and set forth the actuall providence of god , and all things wherein it doth consist , and which thereto belong . psalme . . the lord looketh downe from heaven upon the children of men to see if there bee any that doe understand and seeke after god. psalme . , , . the lord loooketh from heaven , hee beholdeth all the sons of men , from the place of his habitation , hee looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth . hee fashioneth all their hearts alike , hee considereth all their works . psalme . , . the eyes of the lord are upon the righteous , and his eares are open unto their cry . the face of the lord is against them , that doe evill to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth . psalme . . thy iudgments o lord are a great deepe ▪ thou preservest man and beasts . psalme . , , , . all living things wait upon the lord , that hee may give them their meat in due season . hee giveth to them , and they gather it ; hee openeth his hand , and they are filled with good , when he hideth his face they are troubled , when hee taketh away their breath they dye and returne to their dust ; when hee sendeth forth his spirit they are created , and hee renueth the face of the earth . psalme . . who is like unto the lord our god , who dwelleth on high . . who humbleth himselfe to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth . . he raiseth the poore out of the dust , and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill , that he may set him with princes . psalme . . though the lord b● high : yet he hath respect to the lowly . job . . but aske now the beasts , and they shall teach ; and the fowles of the aire , and they shall tell thee . . or speake to the earth , and it shall teach thee ; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee . . who knoweth not in all these , that the hand of the lord hath wrought this . in whose hand is the soule of every living thing and the breath of all mankind . chron , . . the eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the earth , to shew himselfe strong for them whose heart is perfect . isa. . . and ● . , . the lord proveth himselfe to bee the onely true god by his provident care over all things , and his foresight and prediction of things which afterwards hee bringeth to passe ; and that idols are no gods , because they cannot do any such things . matth. . . behold the fowles of the aire , they sow not , neither doe they reap , nor gather into barnes ; yet your heavenly father feedeth them . matth. . , . are not two sparrowes sold for a farthing , and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your father ; but the very haires of your head are all numbred . hebr. . . all things are naked , and opened to his eyes , neither is there any creature , which is not manifest in his sight . pet. . . cast your care upon him for hee careth for you . these texts laid together doe aboundantly shew gods actuall providence , and the extent of it to all things created , and doe minister to us every doctrine which concernes the object , parts , and kinds of it . and besides these scriptures , wee have strong arguments to prove the actuall providence of god. first , hee who is the omnipotent creatour , lord , and possessor of heaven and earth , and all things therein , infinite in wisedome , knowledge , goodnesse , mercy , justice , must needs have a provident care to order , rule , dispose , and preserve all things which belong to him : now such a one is god , as i have aboundantly proved before in unfolding his attributes ; hee is infinite in power , wisedome , knowledge , goodnesse , and the like ; the creatour and supreme lord of all things . the whole world is his , and all things therein belong to him ; psalme . . therefore , undoubtedly , hee hath a provident care of all , and an eye and hand in ordering all things . secondly , the workes which god doth , and the things which hee brings to passe in the world , doe shew his wi●e care and providence . hee giveth raine in due season for a blessing to his obedient people ; & he withholdeth it from the wicked for a iust punishment , & makes their heaven as brasse , & their earth as iron ; he blesseth men in their basket and store , & in the increase of their cattell and the fruite of their ground ; and he againe for sin maketh fruitfull lands barren , and destroyes their cattell with murraine and with thunderbolts , levit. . deut. . iob . . psalm , . . by him kings are set up to rule , and princes and iudges to execute iustice , and to judge , not for themselves but for him , prov. . . chron. . . he breaketh downe and shutteth up , and none can resist him , hee leadeth counsellors away spoiled , and maketh iudges fooles ; hee looseth the band of kings , and poureth contempt upon princes ; hee increaseth he nations and destroyeth them , hee enlargeth the nations and straiteneth them , job . , and all kingdomes are disposed by him , dan. . . thirdly , the miracles which god worketh by them who call upon his name , and the extraordinary things which come to passe , whereof there is no naturall cause , nor any cause at all but his owne will , and pleasure , and provident hand do prove the same . the miracles and wonders which hee shewed in egypt and the wildernesse , so often as moses called and prayed unto him : his staying of the sun for a whole day at iosh●ah's prayer , iosh. . his thundering on the philistines at the prayer of samuel , sam. . . his raising of the dead at the prayer of his prophets and apostles , king. . king. . and act. . his giving of heroicall gifts , strength , and courage beyond all humane reason to some men for the deliverance of his oppressed people , as to samson , david , and his worthies , and divers others . all these shew gods watchfull care over the world , and his actuall providence , ordering and disposing all things . this point thus , proved , as it serves to discover the impiety , profanenesse and desperate blindnesse of epicures , who utterly reiect and deny the whole providence of god ; and those desperate atheists , such as caligula , nere , and others , who scoffed and derided all them who taught and beleeved it ; and those heathen philosophers , who held that god had no care or respect of things u●der heaven , but blind fortune ruled here below ; and all things here are casuall and come by chance : so it admonisheth us & all men to beware of giving way to such doubts and feares of infirmity which their owne corrupt flesh , or satan by mears thereof doth suggest into their hearts to weaken & destroy their faith in gods providence : let no man admit such a thought into his heart , that god hath forgotten to be gracious , and that it is in vaine to serve god : there is no profit in walking humbly before him , in keeping his ordinance , in mens purging their hearts , and washing their hands in innocency ; because they that worke wickednesse and tempt god doe prosper , and they who deale trecherously are set up , and exalted . but above all , let us abhorre all presuming conceipts , that all things come to passe by blind chance , and god doth not see nor regard our wicked thoughts , purposes , and practises ; neither will hee call us to account for them . for what is this , but to deny the lord to be god ? it is even the way to pull speedy wrath , and vengeance on our owne heads . gods providence being proved , that it is : i proceed to shew by way of plaine description what it is ; and wherein it doth consist . the summe of which description is this . the actuall providence of god is gods exercise of his wisedome , power , goodnesse , iustice , and mercy in ruling , ordering , and governing the whole world , in watching over all his creatures with a carefull eye , in doing all good , and permitting all evill which are done in the world ; and in disposing all things , good and evill , to the manifestation of his glory , and the eternall salvation of his elect in christ , according to his owne eternall purpose and the counsell of his will. this description consists of two maine and principall parts . the first sheweth , what gods actuall providence is in generall , in these words , gods exercise of his wisedome , power , goodnesse , iustice and mercy . the second sheweth the speciall nature of it , and the speciall things wherein it doth consist , and whereby it is distinguished from all gods other outward actions , and exercises of his wisedome , power , and goodnesse . this is comprised in the rest of the words . first , it is gods exercise of his wisedome , power , goodnesse , mercy and iustice and in this it agreeth with the creation , and all other outward actions of god , for every such action is either an exercise of his wisedome , or of his power , or of his goodnesse , or of his mercy , or of his justice , or of all , or the most part of them all together . and indeed gods actuall providence beareth sway in all his outward actions , which hee doth either immediatly by himselfe , or mediatly by the ministery of his subordinate instruments ; and it also over-ruleth and disposeth things which are evill , which are not done by god himselfe moving the doers of them ; but come to passe by the permission and sufferance of him , wittingly , and willingly suffering his creatures to abuse the power which they have from him . this point is manifest by the lords owne words , isa. . . where hee saith , i forme the light and create darknesse ; i make peace , and create evill ; i the lord do all these things : and by that speech of the prophet amos. chap. . . shall there be evill in a city , and the lord hath not done it . the true sense and meaning of which words saint augustine doth notably expresse ; where he saith , nothing is done , unlesse god omnipotent doth will that it be done , either by doing it himselfe , or suffering it to be done ; for it could not be done if he did not suffer it ; neither verily doth he unwillingly without or against his will : but willingly and with his will suffer every thing to be . to which purpose hee hath divers other speeches ; as that god being good would not suffer any evill to be done , unlesse as he is omnipotent he could bring good out of them ; neither is that done without gods will which is done against his will , that is , his word and approbation . in the second maine part there are divers speciall branches shewing the speciall things whereby gods actuall providence is distinguished from his other outward actions . the first is , that it consists in gods ruling ordering and governing the whole world , and watching over his creatures with a carefull eye . the second , that it comprehends in it gods doing of all good , and his permission , and suffering of all evill . the third , that by it god disposeth all things , which are done in the world to the manifestation of his glory , and the eternall salvation of his elect in christ. the fourth and last is , that it is no other exercise of wisedome , power , goodnesse , mercy , and justice , but in executing things which hee hath decreed from all eternity , even ruling , ordering , and disposing all things wisely after the counsell of his owne will. for the first point to wit , that god exerciseth his actuall providence in ruling , ordering , and disposing , the whole world and all therein as supreme lord , king. iudge , and ruler thereof ; the scriptures aboundantly testifie , as gen. . . and psalm . . . psalm . . . and . chron. . . where god is said to bee the iudge of all the earth ; yea the iudge both in heaven and earth , who sitteth chiefe among all iudges and is with them in the iudgement . also in those places where the kingdome , dominion , and rule over all is said to belong to god , and hee is said to bee the king which reigneth and ruleth all to the utmost ends of the earth , yea to be a great king above all gods ; and the onely potentate king of kings and lord of lords , as i chron. . . . psalm . . . and . . and . . and . . and his kingdome is said to rule over all , psalm . , , and that not for a time , but from generation to generation , psalm , . . it is he who setteth bounds to the tumultuous seas beyond which they cannot passe , iob . . psalm . . . and ruleth over the raging waves , psalm . . . and stilleth th●● when they arise . and that hee hath a watchfull eye over all creatures , even to preserve man and beast , it appeares psalm . . . and that as his eyes are upon them that feare him , and hope in his mercy to deliver their soule from death , and to keep● them alive in famine , psalm . . . so his face is against them that do evill , to cut off the remembrance of them , psalm . . . the second point is , that gods providence is exercised both in the doing of all good , and in permitting , and suffering wittingly and willingly all evill , which commeth to passe in the world , and so it consists of two parts , action , and permission . this also is fully proved and confirmed , isa. . . and . . where the lord proves himselfe to bee the onely true god by disposing all things , both forming the light , and making peace by his active hand and power ; and also creating evill and darknesse , by permitting and giving up the divell and his wicked instruments to abuse his power , which hee hath given them to doe evill and to worke wickednesse as wee see in pharaoh whose heart hee is said to harden , yea and to raise him up , by giving him up to his owne lusts , and into the hand of satan who hardened him and made his heart obdurate ; so that the more god plagued him with great plagues , which naturally tend to breake a stout heart , and to pull downe pride ; the more did his corruption rise up and rebell , and the more did satan stirre him up against god , and his people ; and made him run desperatly into the devouring gulfe of destruction . wee see this also in gods permitting satan to afflict iob , and to tempt him to blasphemy by stripping him naked of all that hee had ; tormenting his body , and battering his soule with sore temptations of his wife and friends , and with skaring dreames and terrible visions as wee read , iob . and . and . . also the apostle in expresse words affirmeth , that god being provoked by mens wilfull sins , doth in just wrath give them to uncleanesse through the lusts of their owne hearts , and to vile affections and a reprobate minde to worke all iniquity with greedinesse , rom. . , , . and doth give them the spirit of slumber , eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare . rom. . . not by putting such a spirit into them , so as hee sheddeth his spirit on men through christ , but by suffering satan , the spirit of lying , and of all blindnesse and wickednesse to enter into them ( which hee would doe into all men , if god did not restraine him ) ; and by casting them out of his protection ; as wee see in the evill spirit which vexed saul , and in the lying spirit which deceived ahab by entering into his prophets and speaking lyes by their mouths , sam. . . and king. . . and thus wee see , that in all evils of sin gods providence is exercised by way of voluntary permission . but as for all good things which come to passe , god hath in them an approving will , and a working hand , and worketh in men both to will and to doe ; yea every thought and purpose of good , cor. . . philip. . . and without him we can doe nothing , ioh. . . so that in all morall duties , and in all good and godly workes , god worketh in men by his spirit immediatly , and giveth them , hearts will and power to doe them , and they are but his instruments to performe these good things , as ioseph professeth ascribing all his piety and charity which hee shewed in nourishing his bretheren and their families to god. and all naturall good things , god worketh either immediatly by his owne hand alone , as in the creation , wherein hee gave being to all things without any meanes at all : or by instruments and meanes which hee himselfe hath first created , hee giveth light by the sun , moone , and starres , and by them , and the whole heavens which are turned about by his counsels , and by their influ●nce hee refresheth and nourisheth all creatures on earth ; and also doth by them both use correction and shew mercy , iob . , . and matth. . . there are besides these other things , which are good and profitable , not simply in their owne nature , but by accident and in some respect , as for example , for men to abstaine from marriage and from begetting children for the increase of mankind is not a thing naturally or morally good in it selfe , being a refraining from the use of gods ordinance ; but yet in case of urgent necessity , when gods ministers and servants doe live in times and places of persecution , and are driven to flee and wander from place to place naked , and destitute of meanes , whereby to maintaine wives , and children ; saint paul tells us , it is good for a man to live single , and not to touch a woman , cor. . , . for by this meanes he shall avoid much distraction , and more freely attend the service of god. also for men to fast , and afflict their bodies by abstaining from comfortable nourishment , and necessary food for a time is not simply good in it selfe : but yet it is profitable for taming the proud and rebellious flesh , and for furthering of our humiliation in times of private and publike calamities , when gods hand is heavy upon us , or upon our land , and the feare of his threatning judgments which hang over our heads doe terrifie us , these and such like are called good things , that is , profitable , expedient , and by accident , and in some respect and condition good . other things there bee which in their owne nature are evill and hurtfull , and evils of affliction and punishment , as crosses of gods people , and plagues which though they hurt and destroy the outward man and the flesh , yet by god grac● they worke to the saving of their soules , and the amendment of their lives as wee read psalme . , . and cor. . . and . . and in that respect are called good . and the plagues and destructions which befall the wicked , which to them are dreadfull and wofull evils and curses ; but as they tend to the deliverance of gods church from their 〈…〉 rsecutions and oppressions ; to the purging of his land ; and the magnifying of gods justice and power ; so they are good in the issue and event , and in respect of gods purpose intending good by them . now in all these , god hath an active and working band , as well as a permitting will ; and his actuall providence ruleth in them . hee gives men the gift of continency , and power over their owne wils to live single , and to make themselves eunuches for his kingdomes sake as our saviours words shew , matth. . , . and the words of the apostle , cor. . . hee cals upon men in his word , and by his grace stirres them up to fasting , weeping , mourning , and afflicting of their bodies for the greater humiliation of their soules . joel . . . and . . and zach. . . hee doth sometimes by his owne hand afflict his people when hee sends among them sore diseases which are the stroke of his hand . job . . and psalme . . and by his owne immediate hand hee strikes and consumes the wicked . iob . , . as wee see in the drowning of the old world , in the destruction of pharaoh , ananias , and saphyra , and divers others . sometimes hee doth by good instruments afflict and punish his people , and plague and consume the wicked ; as by his angell hee punished israels sin and davids pride . sam. . . and destroyed the host of senacherib , king. . and smotte herod , act. . and by joshua , moses , david , destroyed the canaanites and the philistines , and other enemies of his church . sometimes by evill instruments hee afflicteth and punisheth his owne people , and plagueth and destroyeth the wicked ; by absalom and shimei hee punished david , and by wicked jehu hee destroyed the wicked family of ahab ; by satan and the wicked sabaeans and chald●ans hee afflicted and tryed job ; and by the proud king of ashur hee punished israel and judah , and destroyed the idolatrous nations as appeares isa. . where hee is called the rod of gods wrath , and proud nebuchadnezar is called his servant in punishing his people the iewes , and destroying the obstinate among them , and in crushing the wicked nations , ier. . . for he in whom all doe live , move , and have all being , act. . . gave to those wicked kings power and might ; and though their owne lusts , and unsatiable desire and ambition stirred them up , and so ●he act was in the wicked themselves , yet hee over-ruled and disposed their malice to performe his purpose , and to execute his most just judgements . and thus wee see , that gods actions are most wise and just in those evils which hee executeth by wicked instruments , and that which they doe with a wicked mind and for an evill end ; god doth justly give them power to doe , and permits them to abuse his power , to their owne ends , when hee purposeth to direct all to a good end , and so doth . and therefore though no evill is done in the world , but by his providence ; yet is hee no author or efficient cause of sin : the sinfulnesse of the action is of the evill instruments and the power of it , and the disposing of it to good , that onely is gods. and although men who are limited by gods law , may doe no least sin or evill for a good end , that greatest good may come thereof , and if they doe , it is sin in them ; yet god , who is supreme lord of all , and whose will is the rule of all righteousnesse , and who by his omnipotency can raise out of the greatest evill a farre greater good , and can make the divels malice and mans fall , the occasion of bringing christ into the world , and a way to shew his infinite goodnesse and mercy in saving and redeeming his elect , and to magnifie his glorious power and justice in their eyes , by destroying the wicked with eternall destruction , the sight whereof brings them to a more full fruition of his glory , and makes them farre more sensible of his goodnesse to them , and of their owne eternall blessednesse ; hee may doe what seemes good to his heavenly wisedome : and evill so farre as he willeth it , and hath an hand in the ordering of it , is no sin , but doth more shew his goodnesse , and unspotted purity , and holinesse . the third thing is , that god by his actuall providence disposeth all things which are done in the world , to the manifestation of his glory , and the eternall salvation of his elect in christ. the glory of god is two wayes made manifest by his actuall providence . first , in a more generall way , by a more generall providence . secondly , by a more speciall way , which is called his speciall providence . first , by the generall , th● whole world is ruled by an universall motion , and all things in the world , every one according to the proper nature and naturall disposition and inclination of it . for , as the apostle saith , hee giveth to all life , and breath , and all things ; and in him wee all live , move and have our being , act. . , . hee by his mighty word sustaineth all things , hebr. . . his name is excellent in all the world , in which he sheweth his glory , psalme . . the heavens declare his glory , and the firmament sheweth his handy-worke : day unto day uttereth speech , and night unto night sheweth knowledge ; and that by the suns going round about the world , and discovering by his light all things from one end of heaven and earth to another , psalme . , . this generall providence appeares , first , by his consecration of things . secondly , by his destruction of so many as hee in his just will and judgement thinks fit . thirdly , by his governing of all things according to his eternall counsell , and just will. first , hee doth universally conserve and uphold all things in the world , by the light , motion and influence which hee hath given to the heavens in the creation ; which are continually turned about by his counsels , that they may doe whatsoever hee commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth , iob . . hee maketh his sun to shine on the evill and on the good , and sendeth raine on the iust and uniust , matth. . . hee giveth food to all flesh , psalme . . h●● giveth meat to the beasts , and feedeth the young ravens which crie , psalme . . he provideth for the fowles of the aire their food , though they neither sow , nor reape ; and cloatheth the grasse of the field , matth. . , . this conservation is , first , by succession . for when any creatures passe away , hee maketh others of their race and kind to succeed by a continuall generation and propagation , as it were by a continued creation . the forming and fashioning of men in the wombe is ascribed to him , iob . . , . and . . and psalme . . so that as men and other living creatures dye ; their off spring and progeny succeed in their place , and by this meanes , he doth renue the face of the earth , psalme . . and not onely one generation of living creatures passeth away , and another commeth in the place , so that the earth is alwayes replenished ; but day and night succeed continually by the going and returning of the sun ; and the winde whorleth about continually going and returning according to his circuits ; the waters doe all run into the sea , and yet the rivers are supplied by springs which come from the sea , by secret passages under the earth , as the wise-man sheweth , eccles. . , , , . secondly , hee preserveth all things universally by changing mutable things from an evill to a good , and from a lesse good to a better condition . hee girdeth the weake with strength , job . . sam . . hee maketh the barren wombe fruitfull , psalme . . hee turneth the wildernesse into standing pooles of water , and dry ground into water springs , and maketh the barren desert a fruitfull field , psalme . . isa. . . and . . hee raiseth the needy out of the dust , and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill , sam. . . and psalme . . and because the universality of creatures cannot bee preserved without gods carefull keeping and preserving every particular ; therefore god hath an eye to every singular thing , and his provident hand is reached forth to every one of them , in so much that our haires are numbred ; and not one small sparrow can fall on the ground without him , matth. . , . hee cloathed the grasse of the field , even every lillie , matth. . . hee reckons up our teares , psalme . . and is with every one in his going out and comming in ; in his downe sitting and uprising , psalme . . . isa. . . secondly , his generall providence appeareth , and is exercised in the destruction which hee himselfe according to his just will bringeth upon the whole earth , or upon whole nations and cities , or upon some notable persons . the destruction of the whole world in the dayes of noah came by his hand and providence , for hee said , behold i will bring a flood of waters and will destroy all flesh , gen. . . and hee foretold his purpose so to doe an hundred yeares before . and the destruction of sodome and gomorrha was by fire which hee rained upon them , gen. . hee smotte egypt with plagues and destroyed the first borne , and also pharaoh and his host , exod. . and . psalme . . and the cana●nites by joshua and israel , josh. . and . and senacheribs host . king. . and the murmuring israelites together with corah , dathan , and abiram , num. . vzzah , . sam. . . herod . act. . and many others . by this destroying , and abolishing of men and other creatures , and by his consuming and wasting of them ; by smitting the earth with barrennesse , and sending pestilence , and warre , hee makes men know , that hee is jehovah the righteous iudge , and the nations to see and feele that they are , but mortall men as the psalmist testifieth , psalme . and . . thirdly this generall providence is seene in his government of all things , according to his owne just will and good pleasure ; hee doth after a generall manner rule inferiour things by the light and influence of the heavens , and of the sun , moone , and starres ; by the sun hee rules the day , and by the moone and starres hee governes the night , psalme . . . and as his eyes are upon all things , and upon all the wayes and workes of men ; so hee fashioneth their hearts , psalme . . hee keepeth the waters of the sea within their bounds beyond which they doe not passe , psalme . . hee hath a set time and season for every thing , and for every purpose under heaven , eccles. . . and this government hee exerciseth by motion and direction of motions ; and by cohibition . first , by motion , for hee moveth all things , not onely the mindes & wils of men by turning their hearts at his pleasure , ier. . . act. . . psalme . . and prov. . . but also things without life by a naturall inclination , which hee giveth to every thing in his kind as the psalmist sheweth in the sun , moone , and starres , the windes and the waters , psalme . . . and as hee moveth every creature , so hee directeth all their motions as appeares , psalme . . prov. . . ier. . . in so much , that what men do with a wicked mind , & for an evill end , god turns it to the contrary , & brings good out of it . iosephs bretheren intended his hurt & destruction in selling him for a slave ; god turned it to his honour , and to the saving of them and much people alive , gen. . . pharoh rose to magnifie himselfe against god , and his people : god so ruled and directed his rage and furie , that hee shewed his power in him , and magnified his name in all the earth ; by turning pharaoh's fiercenesse to his owne praise and glory , and to pharaoh's destruction , exod. . . the iewes out of malice and envie crucified and murdered christ : god out of his death raised life , and made his death , which they devised for his shame and ignominy , a glorious triumph over the divell and all the powers of darknesse , and a way to exaltation , act. . . they hardened their hearts to persecute the apostles , and to drive the preachers of the gospell out of their land , and to quench the light thereof : god turned this their hardnesse and fall to the salvation of the gentiles ; for by this meanes the gospell came to bee preached in all nations , rom. . . wicked heretiques raise up heresies to corrupt gods church , and god so orders their doings , that they who are approved , are thereby made manifest , and come to shine as lights in the midst of a perverse generation , cor. . . pauls troubles and persecutions were intended for the overthrow of the gospell : god made them fall out to the furtherance of it , phil. . . the philistines invaded the land of israel , with purpose to doe mischiefe to israel , and to wast their land : but god directed this motion of their hearts , and by his providence appointed it as a meanes to recall saul from pursuing david , when hee had inclosed him on every side ; and so saved him to bee a saviour of israel , and a destroyer of the philistines , sam. . , . secondly , god governs the world and all things therein by cohibition , that is , restraining , and hindering the actions and motions of creatures , in his wisedome and by his power , when hee thinks it fit hee with-held abimelech from touching sarah abrahams wife , that hee might not sin , and staine himselfe ignorantly , gen. . . hee suffered not the destroyer of the first borne in egypt to enter into the house of any of the israelites , exod. . . hee kept back the waters of jordan from running downward , so that it was dryed for israel to passe over on foote , iosh. . hee restraineth the influences of heaven , and the clouds from raine , and makes the heavens as brasse , and the earth as iron , for the punishment of wicked transgressors , and rebellious people , deut. . . iob . . and . . hee bringeth the counsell of the heathen to nought , and maketh the devices of the people of none effect , psalme . . hee withheld laban from his evill purpose of hurting iacob , gen. . . and his terrour restrained the cities round about , so that they pursued not after iacobi sons to take revenge on them , for the slaying of the shechemites , gen. . . and by his spirit he forbad paul and his companions to preach the gospell in asia , act. . . in a word , as hee doth by a generall governing order all things universally and all events , even the heavens , the earth , the seas , winter , summer , and all seasons of the yeare , men and beasts , and makes an harmony and concord among things which are contrarie , tempering , moderating and keeping them in their proper places , and doth set up and pull downe kingdomes & states . dan. . . and . . so hee rules every singular creature and every singular event , turning harvest dayes into a tempestuous time of thunder and raine ; as when hee terrified israel to shew them their sin in asking a king , sam. . . so that wee need no further proofe of this point . let that which is before said and proved , suffice to shew how god by a generall way of providence actually disposeth all things to the manifestation of his glory . the speciall way by which god manifesteth his glory is by working things , and by ordering , ruling and disposing them to the revealing of his glory , more specially in the salvation of his elect in christ , which divines doe call his speciall providence . this providence god exerciseth by his son christ , as hee is the mediatour , redeemer , saviour , king , and head of the church universall ; and by his spirit sent forth in the name of christ , and shed on the elect aboundantly through him in their regeneration . this consists and sheweth it selfe in all the gracious benefits and blessings which god bestoweth upon men for salvation ; and in the judgements which hee executeth on his enemies , the wicked , by which hee delivereth his church out of their cruell , bloody persecuting and oppressing hands ; and doth magnifie and declare his justice and power , and more fully reveale and communicate himselfe to them for their greater blessednesse . the briefe description of this speciall providence which i conceive to bee most plaine is . that it is gods exercise of his wisedome , power , iustice , mercy , and all his goodnesse in executing his speciall decree of predestination , by which hee ordained all the elect both angels and men to eternall blessednesse ; and all the rest to eternall distruction , and withall did decree all the meanes which serve and tend to bring every one of them to their sevreall ends ; and by which in the time appointed they are all brought to their decreed end according to his eternall purpose , and the counsell of his will. in the large prosecution of this point of gods speciall providence , wee have just occasion offered to lay open all the rest of the great works of god , which fall within the compasse of the divine art of sacred divinity . for they all are contained under these two maine heads , to wit : the meanes which serve for the effecting , and obtaining of the utmost end of reasonable creatures unto which god hath ordained them . . the end it selfe the manifestation of his glory more specially in the eternall blessednesse of his elect , which blessednesse doth consist in the eternall fruition of god in all his glory ; and the sense thereof is exceedingly increased by their beholding of the eternall misery and destruction of the ungodly , their escape and deliverance , from which whole they consider and remember their joy and rejoycing shall bee doubled . for in all wise providence there is a good end purposed , intended and decreed , and a provident ordaining , ordering and actuall disposing of the meanes which are necessary for the obtaining and effecting of that end , and therefore the speciall providence of god who is most wise and provident , infinite in goodnesse and power , must needs bee exercised in doing the most excellent workes , and in ordering and disposing them according to his eternall counsell and decree , to the best , and most excellent end of all , which is the fourth and last point in the description of gods actuall providence . now the meanes which god hath ordained for the manifestation of the glory of his grace and goodnesse in the eternall blessednesse of his elect they goe before in execution ; though the end is first in gods intention . and therefore they come to bee handled in the first place . and they all may be reduced to two maine heads . the first is mans fall ; the second is mans restauration . in the fall of man , sive things come to bee considered● first , the commandement of god at which man stumbled and which the divell made the occasion of mans fall . the second is the fall it selfe , what it was , and wherein it did consist . the third is the state of rebellion , into which man did fall . the fourth is the multitude of evils , which did accompany and follow mans sin and fall . the fifth is the small reliques of good , which remained in mans nature after his fall . the commandement of god is plainely laid downe , gen. . , . and therefore i will first insist upon that portion of scripture , and after will proceed to the description of the fall , as it is laid downe in the third chapter . but before i proceed further , let me conclude this doctrine of gods actuall providence with some use and application . first , it is matter of admirable comfort to all true christians and faithfull people of god , in that the lord whom they have chosen for their god , their rocke and confidence , is so wise and provident above all ; ordering and disposing all things which come to passe in the world in wonderfull wisedome and by an omnipotent hand to his owne glory and the salvation of his elect in christ. whatsoever good commeth at any time , it is the gift of god ; and all good blessings and benefits which they receive and enjoy from any hand or by any meanes , they are so many tokens and pledges of his love and fatherly care , and of his eye of providence watching over them for good . and whatsoever evils of any kind breake into the world by the malice of the divell , and the outrage of wicked men ; they are no other , nor no more , but such as god in his wisedome and goodnesse is pleased willingly to permit and suffer for a far greater good to his own people ; and as he over-rules them all : and hath set them their bounds beyond which they cannot passe ; so he disposeth and turneth them all to his owne glory , and the manifestation of his justice and power in saving of his church and people , and in confounding and destroying all his and their enemies , wherefore in times of peace , plenty and prosperity , when all good things and blessings of all sorts abound ; let us rejoyce and glory in the lord and give him the praise of all , and offer up daily and continuall sacrifices of thankfulnesse with cheerefull hearts and willing minds ; studying and striving with all our might , and to the utmost of our power ; to use and employ all his blessings to the best advantage for his glory , the good of his church , and the profit of our owne soules ; being well assured , that these are his talents committed to our trust , which if wee by our faithfulnesse doe increase , wee shall in the day of account and reckoning , receive the reward of good stewards and faithfull servants , and bee received into the joy of our lord. but on the contrary , in evill and perillous time ; when iniquity aboundeth sinnes of all sorts are increased ; piety and charity are waxen cold , religion is skorned , the godly persecuted and oppressed , justice judgement and truth troden downe and trampled : let us not faint nor feare nor bee dejected as men without hope ; for the lord our god , and our keeper is a provident god , his eyes neither slumber nor sleep ; hee seeth and observeth all these things , and without his will and knowledge no evill can come to passe . as the scripture saith of pharaoh , to may wee say in this case ; that even for this same purpose god hath raised up these wicked persecutors and outrageous sinners ; that is in his just wrath hath given them up to satan and their owne lusts to multiply sin and oppression , that he may shew his power in them , and make his justice glorious , and name famous throughout all the earth : when the nations rage , and the kingdomes are moved , god can give his voice , and the earth shall melt and all the works of the wicked shall bee dissolved . secondly , here is matter of terrour to the wicked , both them who commit sins in secret , and presume to goe on in their lewd courses with a conceipt , that none seeth nor taketh notice of their abominations ; and also them who multiply their sins openly , and without feare increase their persecutions and oppressions , and vex and afflict the meeke of the earth , and breake gods people in pieces ; thinking that they shall never bee called to account , and putting farre from them the day of reckoning : behold here , the lord who is the judge all the earth , is a most provident god ; all their doings are naked and opened to his eyes , and he observes all their wayes and wicked workes ; their power strength and greatnesse is from him , and he wittingly and willingly suffers them to abuse them to sin , and to oppression and wrong , and onely so long as he pleaseth , that when they have filled up their measure , hee may bring them to judgement , and may make them a skorne , derision , and footestole to the righteous whom they have skorned , hated and oppressed . thus much for the actuall providence of god. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 masoreth sepes legi . notes for div a -e use . use . use . use . use . notes for div a -e creation . creatures to create , what . . . author of creation . time. object . forme . what word it was . a large description of creation . taken into parts , and proved . . opus ad extra . heb. . . opened . . manner of creation in foure things . rom. . . none but god wrought in the creation . arguments . . . . use . by creatures ascend to know god. and his soveraignty over all . use . confutation of six sorts of men . use . rep●oofe to ●vo sorts . use . comfort for the godly . names of the creatures . . . instructions concerning the creatures . use . the world not eternall . use . admire gods eternity . use . overlove not the world , now degenerate . use . not god , but we need the world . use . hare sin : motives . the words expounded . i. the beginning of time here meant . argum. . ii. iii. iv. v. doct. . by the creation god is seen to be infinitely wise , and powerfull . use . look up to the omnipotencie of the creatour . to rejoyce and ●est in him . use . bewaile the contrary negligence . use . checks all atheisticall thoughts of gods power . doct. . the three persons● are equal use . against antitrinitaries . use . trust in christ , & the holy spirit . john . the time , in the beginning . doctr. the world , and all in it , had a beginning . reas. . reas. . psal. . use . love not the world , being so movable . use . arme against atheisme . as in some objections answered . object . . answ. object . . answ. doctr. . t 〈…〉 had 〈◊〉 b●ginning . use . use . see thy own wea●nesse . cor. . . quest. . the world began in the spring argum. . answ. argum. . answ. argum. . answ. argum. . answ. argum. . argum. . argum. . argum. . argum. . august . in serm . de natal . dom. quest. . use . gods providence to be noted and admired . use . truth of creation and redemption hereby demonstrated . use . all made for us , and to be used for god. use . note and admire gods eternity . psal. . , . . derivation of the word signifying heavens . . . . . diversity of its significations . . . foure things signified by heavens . . . doctr. . doctr. . doctr. . doctr. . doctr. . excellencie of heaven . reason . reason . reason . reason . reason . reason . object . answ. use . to confute the otherwise minded . use . admire the bounty of god to his chosen . use . be ashamed of thy earthly mindednesse . and prepare for heaven . use . be thankfull for this good provision . use . comfort in all afflictions . rom. . . cor. , . use . against the chiliasts . angels comprehended in the name , heavens . . . . points concerning them . of their names . doctr. . angels had a beginning . reason . reason . obj●ct . . ansir . object . . answ. use . use . angels not to be worshipped . doctr. . angels all created by god. use . christ is lord of the angels . mat. . use . mal. . . doctr. . angels made in the beginning of the creation . use. doctr. . angels are first and best creatures . use. excellencie of the angels . doctr. . angels made in heaven , & to inhabit heaven . reason . reason . reason . use . gods infinite power hereby demonstrated . use . confutation of contrary errours . job . . & . . angels the chiefest of the creatures . . . use . the love of god to man hereby commended . use . and the love of christ , not taking the nature of angels , but mans . use . love and reverence the angels . use . comfort hereby to the godly . angels are heavenly spirits . . . . . . . enchirid. ad laur. cap. . . . they are spirits . . entire , & complete spirits . . heavenly spirits . . . they are like to god. . . . . . they are finite in nature . heb. . of the assumed bodies of angels . how angels are in a place . the number of them very great . their motion wondrous quick . of the fal● and standing of angels . vse . comfort by the ministery of angels . vse . . confutation of contrary errors . gen. . . what the earth here is . the names of it . . . . properties of it . . . . what the spirit moving is . 〈◊〉 . ioh. . . . . doctr. all creatures have being of god. vse . he is the● lord of all . vse . all our right is from god. . doctr. the world is all mutable , and appointed so to be . vse . trust not in any earthly thing . vse . thinke not changes in the world to come by chance . similitude of the creation and redemp tion . vse . vse . all whom christ saves , renewed by the spirit . . doctr. vse . gen. . cor. . . what the light was of gods saying , lee light be . 〈◊〉 . . . . quest. ans. . quest. ans. . quest. ans. . quest. ans. . doctr. three persons in the godhead . vse . . doctr. all things possible to god. vse . . doctr. god wonderfull in wisedome and providence . vse . doctr. prerogatives of the first day . . . . . . verse , , . of the things now created . the skie meant by the firmament , reas. . . . . . . . how a day without the sun. doctr. . all created wisely & orderly . vse . doctr. . vse . verse . of water and earth , distinct elements . . . of the name of the earth . and of the sea. . . of herbes , plants , and trees . doctr. . all earthly things nothing to god. vse . doctr. . wee strangers here , & in a pilgrimage . vse . vse . doctr. . god ruleth the most tumultuous creatures . . . vse . verse . of these lights , that they are substantial bodies . quest. the place of them . answ. . arsw. . the use of them . . . . of the sun. of the moone . doctr. 〈◊〉 . no instruments used in the creation . vse doctr. . great wisedome of god in the creation . vse . doctr. . pet. . . vse . jon. . verse . god do 〈…〉 all on good advice . doctr. vse . bee followers of god as deare children . vse 〈◊〉 . how to view the crea● 〈◊〉 . rom 〈◊〉 . . of fishes . their two notable properties . . . creation of mankind male & female . . . . . . . of the consultation in making man. who consults . with whom . it was for . reasons . . . . doctr. . man the chiefest of creatures . doctr. . doctr. . of the name adam , used two wayes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . doctr. woman as capable of grace and glory 〈◊〉 man. object . answ. vse . vse . doctor . man was made by god alone . vse . vse . danger of them that wrong man. vse . the sin of idolaters . doctr. . mans body being of dust , was wondrously made . vse . doctr. . man at best a dusty substance . object . answ. . . vse 〈◊〉 . for humility and thankfulnesse . vse . against pelagians and papists . the creation of mans soule . opinions . . . . . doctrine . no supernaturall gifts in the soule of adam . reason . vse . our estate better by regeneration , then by creation . vse . no apostasie of saints . all good , and adam good , yet not to bee alone : how . doctr. in christ a better thing intended then the creation . vse . vse . vse . doctr. . vse . more gained in christ , then lost in adam . doctrine . woman not made to bee a servant . vse . vse . vse . of giving names to the creatures . doctrine . adam perfect in natural knowledge . vse . the best naturall knowledge cannot uphold . doctr. none but woman a meet companion for . man. vse . vse . of the rib , where of woman was made . of adams deep sleep . doctr. . out of christ dying the church is raised . vse . vse . . . doctr. . vse . doctr. . doctr. . doctr. . wives are continuall companions of our lives . vse . . gal. . . vse . . consequents . . . . . of gods bringing eve to adam . doctr. . marriage the ordinance of god. reas. . vse . vse . vse . vse . doctr. . marriage is of one man with one woman . mal. . . vse . . 〈◊〉 . doctrine . marriage must bee free and voluntary . reas. vse . a reproofe to many . . doctrine . what guides must lead to marriage . vse . . doctr. . vse . vse . doctr. . similitude of manners the best ground of love . vse . a rule for ●husing . vse . . consequent . of the nakadnesse of adam and eve. doctr. . the creation perfect . vse . acknowledge gods bounty . vse . in christ the glory of out bodies shall be restored . vse . gen. . . the condition of our first parents ; in five particulars . . . . . . of the blessing of fruitfulnesse . what the word signifieth , . . bodily blessings of two so●●s . . . the earth , how subdued by adam . . . . doctr. 〈◊〉 . procreation of children a speciall blessing . vse . vse . syri 〈…〉 s. doctr. . marriage free for all men . v●● . vse . against popish virginity and vowes . ob. answ. . doct. reas. . reas. . vse . . vse . . doctr. . the whole earth given to man. vse . of leading colonies into other parts . vse . against three sorts of men . . . ii. dominion over all living creatures . requisites to it . . . . . degrees of it . . . dominion unlimited . and limited . here meant . restored in christ . . iii. the food of man in the creation . doctr. . god the onely absolute lord of all . vse . vse . doctr. . vse . vse . doctr. . vse . iv. mans habitation in the state of innocency . gen. . . 〈◊〉 . . . eden , what . . 〈◊〉 . the rivers in it . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . . opinion . comment . in genes . cap. . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . opinion . doctrine . best mens opinion is uncertaine . vse . of the tree of life , and the tree of knowledge of good and evill . why the tree of life . . . . . of what life . . . . how of the knowledge of good and evill . doctr. . gods great bounty to man. vse . vse . doctr. . no idlenesse allowed . vse . detest it therefore . doctr. . a contentfull estate in innocency . . . vse . god no way the cause of mans sin . gen. , . opinion of the image and likenesse of god. what the word mage signifies . 〈◊〉 . . zelem . two things in an image . . . demuth . . . image of god naturall , and supernaturall . phil. . differences betweene the image of the first and second adam . . . rom. . . ioh. . . and . . cor. . . ioh. . . cor. . . . . . . . images essentiall , and accidentall . . . naturall . and supernaturall . 〈◊〉 . . man made after gods image , how . . . particulars wherein the image of god stood . conformity of adam to god. in soule . . in the substan●e o 〈…〉 t. . in the naturall faculties of it . . 〈◊〉 . rom. . sam. . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in body . . . vse . riches of gods bountie to man. . vse not to stick in received opinions , as unerring . act. . vse . of confutation of erroneous opinions . vse . excellency of man to be hence noted . object of providence . what the word signifieth . . . . proofe that providence is . texts of scripture which set forth gods actuall providence . arg. . arg. . arg. . vse of confutation and ●eproofe . description of gods actuall providence . parts . enchirid. ad laur. c. . . branches in particular . . . rom. . . . gods actuall providence is generall or speciall . . gods conservation of his creatures . . by succession . . by mutation . . gods destroying of creatures . gods governing of his creatures . . by motion . and by direction of all motions . by cohibition . gods speciall providence . described . vse . comfo● to the faithfull . who learne also to bee thankfull . vse . terrour to the wicked . the mysterie of god, concerning the whole creation, mankinde to be made known to every man and vvoman, after seaven dispensations and seasons of time are passed over. according to the councell of god, revealed to his servants. by gerrard winstanley. winstanley, gerrard, b. . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing w ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing w estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the mysterie of god, concerning the whole creation, mankinde to be made known to every man and vvoman, after seaven dispensations and seasons of time are passed over. according to the councell of god, revealed to his servants. by gerrard winstanley. winstanley, gerrard, b. . [ ], p. printed by i.c. for giles calvert, at the black-spread-eagle, at the west end of pauls, london : . reproduction of the original in the union theological seminary library, new york. eng creation -- early works to . judgement of god -- early works to . salvation -- early works to . a r (wing w ). civilwar no the mysterie of god, concerning the whole creation, mankinde. to be made known to every man and vvoman, after seaven dispensations and seaso winstanley, gerrard b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the mysterie of god , concerning the whole creation , mankinde . to be made known to every man and vvoman , after seaven dispensations and seasons of time are passed over , according to the councell of god , revealed to his servants . by gerrard winstanley , psal. . . thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom , and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations . rom. . . and so all israel shall be saved , as it is written , there shall come out of sion the deliverer , that shall turn away ungodlines from iacob . london , printed by i. c. for giles calvert , at the black-spread-eagle , at the west end of pauls , . to my beloved countrey-men of the county of lancaster . dear country men , when some of you see my name subscribed to this ensuing discourse , you may wonder at it , and it may be despise me in your heart , as davids brethren despised him , and told him it was the pride of his heart to come into the battell , &c. but know , that gods works are not like mens , he doth not alwaies take the wise , the learned , the rich of the world to manifest himself in , and through them to others , but he chuseth the despised , the unlearned , the poor , the nothings of the world , and fills them with the good things of himself , when as he sends the empty away . i have writ nothing but what was given me of my father ; and at the first beholding of this mystery , it appeared to be so high above my reach , that i was confounded and lost in my spirit ; but god , ( whom i believe , is my teacher , for i have joy and rest in him ) left me not in bondage , but set me at liberty , and caused me to see much glory in these following truths ; and when god works none can hinder . it may be some things herein may seeme very strange at the first reading and you may crie out , an error ; an error ; for this is usuall , when the flesh cannot apprehend and be are a truth of god , it brands it for an error , and rejects it as a wicked thing ; as the jewes , because they could not behold god in christ , did breake out in bitternesse of spirit against christ , calling him a deceiver , and that he preached blasphemy , and error , & never rested till they had killed him ; & our lord christ told his disciples , that he had many things to speak to them , but they were not able to bear them as yet . and this i speak in experience , that many truths of god , wherein i now see beauty , my heart at the first hearing rose against them , and could not beare them ; and therefore , if what i have writ meet with such hard entertainment in any of your hearts , it is no wonder , for i know that the flesh that is in you , lusts after envy , but it is part of your bondage which god will deliver you from in due time : you shall finde that i call the whole power of darknesse by the name serpent , which dwells in , and hath taken every man and woman captive , and that god through his sonne christ will redeeme his own workmanship , mankinde , from it , and destroy the serpent onely ; but do not count this a slight thing ; for when god lets you see into the mystery of this iniquity , in the least degree of it , it will prove too hard for you , and you will be nothing but death , curse , and misery . therefore , as you desire that god would manifest love to you , and make you free , be not offended to hear , that god , who is love it self , hath a season to manifest his love to others that are lost , and quicken them that were killed , while you were made alive , and that fell further under death , when you that were lost are redeemed an houre or two before them . iesus christ shed his bloud wilingly for them that did put him to death ; and the saints of god rejoyced , that paul their bitter persecutor , was received to mercy with themselves : why then should you be offended , and thinke you are miserable , if your persecutors and enemies should in gods time be delivered from under the curse , and partake of the glory of the city , together with you . it is much for the glory of god for him to redeeme , not part onely , but all mankinde from death , which his own hands made , it is his revealed will so to do , therefore let it be your joy that the will of your father is , and shall be fulfilled ; and do not thinke the saints are made unhappy , and god dishonored , if he heale them that were lost , and that did not enter into the city , in the beginning of the great day of judgment , for as he is honored in saving you of the citie that were lost : so he will be honored in redeeming these that lye under the power of the second death . and that entred not into the city , seeing there was no difference between you and them , till the will of god made the difference , in taking you at the first and leaving them till the last houre ; for christ gave himself a ransome for all , to be revealed in due time . god doth not reveale his love to all at one time but when he will ; and god hath some thing to do after the resurrection , as he hath , and will yet do much before that day . well , i leave , not questioning , but if any of you be unsatisfied with what i have writ , that you will speak to me , and i hope god will be my wisdom and strength to confirme it ; since i had writ it , i met with more scriptures to confirme it , so that it is not a spirit of private fancie , but it is agreeable to the written word . farwell . your country-man , that loves the life of your soule , gerrard winstanley . these particulars , and such like are contained in this discourse . vvhat mankinde was , is , and shall be . what the serpent is , that caused adams fall , and whence he sprang . the serpent is not gods creature . what the bondage of death is , that adam or all mankind lies under . what the good , and what the bad angels are . god hath cast the twofold murderer out of heaven , and what that is . god will subdue the serpent , not under part , but under the whole creation , mankinde . when all creatures , except man , are to be dissolved into nothing . seven dispensations which god will have mankind to passe through before he subdue the serpent under the feet thereof , and what they are . the citie sion , or the elect , are in gathering up to god in six of those dispensations , in every season of time ; and in the seventh the mystery of god shall be finished , and not till then . the citie sion , or the elect , shall first be taken up to god , afterwards they that were cast into everlasting fire , while the elect were in gathering , shall be redeemed , and partake of the glory of the citie . what is meant by everlasting fire , and the word , for ever and ever , so often used in scripture . god is honoured in the salvation of beleevers , and in the losse and shame of unbeleevers . gods judging the serpent , is mankinds redemption what the day of judgement is . though lost man drink the top , yet the serpent shall drink the dregs of gods judgment , before the son can deliver up the kingdom to the father . what the first and second death is , or the first resurrection , and second death . what the bookes are that must be opened at the great day of judgement . god hath been judging the serpent since adams fall , and will still sit upon the throne till the last day be finished , & yet all but one day of judgment god hates none but the serpent and his seed ; hee loves every branch of mankinde , and in his owne seasons wil manifest his love to every one , though to some at the ninth , some at the tenth , and some at the last houre . god hath given a time , times , and halfe time to the serpent now in the latter dayes to reigne in these . how the serpent under the names of beast , whore and false prophet , makes use of that time god hath given him . the bitternesse that is in mens spirits in these dayes , is the smoak of the serpents torment , the restlesnesse of that wicked one day and night , and beginning of his sorrowes . three scruples against this mystery of god answered a seasonable advice in the close . the mystery of god , concerning the whole creation , mankinde . what mankinde is , was , ana shall be . when god had made adam , there was then two beings , distinct the one from the other , that is , god himselfe , that was an uncreated being , and the humane nature , that was a created being : and though adam was pure and spotlesse , yet he had no other wisdome , beauty , and power , but what god had created . god himself , who is the infinite & endless being , did not dwell bodily in adam , as he did dwell bodily in the humane nature , jesus christ , the second adam , in after-times ; but a pure created wisdome , beauty , and power , did rule , dwell , and act in that created humanity . and after god had made adam , he put him into a garden , called eden , which was full of trees , hearbs , creatures , for pleasure and delight , that he should dresse it , and live contentedly in the use of all things therein ; which indeed is the history to the creatures capacity . yet thereby god declares , that adam himselfe , or that living flesh , mankinde , is a garden which god hath made for his own delight , to dwell , and walk in , wherein he had planted variety of hearbs , & pleasant plants , as love , joy , peace , humility , knowledge , obedience , delight , and purity of life . but all these being created qualities , and a being distinct from the being of god ; god knew and saw , that there would spring up as a weed , and the first fruits of it likewise , an inclinable principle , or spirit of self-love aspiring up in the midst of this created , living garden , and in the midst of every plant therein , which is indeed , aspiring to be as god , or to be a being of it selfe , equall to , and yet distinct from god ; as we see by visible experience in every creature , as horses , cowes , beares , and the like , there appeares an inclinable disposition to promote it selfe , or its own being : but this is but the fruit or invention of the creature after he was made , god did not make it . now as the purest water being let stand , does in time putrifie , so i say , god knew that the first fruit that this created being would bring forth , would be an aspiring desire to be equall , or like to god himselfe , which if the creature delighted in , and so ate , or satisfied himselfe in his own fruit , he should die ; but if he forsook his own invention , and stuck close to god , acknowledgeing his being to be his life , and all in all , then he should live . therefore god made it under a law , that the creature might know himselfe to be a creature , and acknowledge god his maker to be above , to whose command he was to subject himselfe ; for when god had made him a pure living creature , very good , and a being distinct from the being of god , yet in the image of god , like two trees from whence fruit should grow , for adam would bring forth fruit to maintain his created being equall with god ; and god would bring forth fruit to maintain his uncreated being , and to swallow up all other beings into himself , and he to become all in all to every creature that he made . now saith god , i have made thee the lord of all my creatures , and for thy use i made them ; and thou mayest make use of any that pleases thine eyes , and eat of the fruit of any tree that delights thy taste , excepting the tree of knowledge of good and evill that stands in the middle of the garden , and of that thou shalt not eat ; for in that day that thou eatest thereof , thou shall die the death . and this is the law or covenant that i have made between me , that am a being of my selfe ; and thee , that art a being created by me . now when adam had taken of the tree of knowledge of good and evill , that was in the garden of eden , the history , and did eat of it : it declares , that he did eat likewise , and especially of the forbidden fruit that aspired up in himself the living garden of eden the mystery , and gave way with content and delight to that aspiring selfishnesse within himselfe , to be as god , knowing good and evill ; for eating implies delight and satisfaction : for adam did not onely eat of the tree in edens garden , but he had a secret tickling delight arising in him , to be a more knowing man then god made him , and thereby began to reject god ; and not being content with the being god made him in , which if hee had been content with , he had acknowledged god all in all , and the onely infinite and one being , that shall stand unmoveable . but he eats , delights in that aspiring weed , ( or mystery of iniquity ) for himselfe to have a being above , equall to , or distinct from god : so that the ground of adams fall , arises up first in adams heart , as fruit growing up from a created being ; for in that it was in his heart to doe evill , god imputes it to him for evill . well , this selfishnesse in the midle of the living garden , adam , is the forbidden fruit , and this is called the serpent , because it windes it selfe into every creature , and into every created faculty , and twists it self round about the tree , mankind . and when adam put forth his hand to take , and eat of the fruit of the tree , in the history , his hand was guided thereunto by this serpent , whose secret whisperings he delighted in : and truly this delight in selfe , was the eating , and it was the chiefe forbidden fruit that grew up in the middle of the living garden , adam , which god forbad him to eat of , or delight in : but adam did begin to delight in that inward fruit of wickednesse ; and then by the motion thereof , took the fruit of the tree in the middle of eden , and delighted his outward senses therewith , and so brake the law and covenant of god , fell from his purity , and died , according to the word of his maker , that in the day thou eatest , thou shalt dye . and all the faculties and powers of that living created being , adam , are now become absolute rebellions , and enmity it selfe against the being of godl●… and that garden of pleasant plants , adam , is become a stinking dunghill of weeds , and brings forth nothing but pride , envy , discontent , disobedience , and the whole actings of the spirit , and power of darknes . and if the creature should bee honoured in this condition , then god would be dishonoured , because his command is broke , and yet the creature remains glorious , therefore he died . and if so be the creature be utterly lost and perish , and this garden should never be so dressed , as to bring forth fruit to gods delight , then likewise god would suffer dishonour , because his work is spoyled in his hand , and there is no hopes of recovery . but the work of god shall be restored from this lost , dead , weedy , & enslaved condition , and the fruit of the created being shall utterly perish and be ashamed . and things being thus considered , god is pleased to lead us to see a little into these two mysteries : first , the mystery of iniquity , or work of the serpent , which was the aspiring fruit of pride , and selfe-love , that sprung up in the created being , to be as god , and so to be an absolute being of himself , as god is an absolute being of himselfe ; and so this selfe-honouring would sit in gods temple , that is , the humane nature , which god made a garden for himselfe to walk in ; and if that spirit of self-love could not be destroyed , and the humane nature recovered from that bondage , god would suffer much dishonour ; because he being glorious and happy in himselfe , hath made a creature to be a vexation and scourge to him , and cannot subdue it . and this mystery of iniquity , or power of darknesse , hath , does , and will fight against the being of god , till it be taken out of the way , and quite subdued ; as the father hath promised he will subdue it under the feet of his sonne , the humane nature . then secondly , god leads us to the mystery of himselfe , and makes us able to see into the knowledge of that great work that hee is in working : and that is , to destroy this serpent out of the flesh , and all beings , that is enmity against him , and to swallow up his creature man into himselfe , that so there may bee but one onely pure , endlesse , and infinite being , even god himselfe all in all , dwelling and walking in this garden , mankinde , in which he will plant pleasant fruit trees , and pluck up all weeds . cant. . . since adam fell , to this present day , wee see the wisdome , power , and affection that dwels and rules in man , leads him any way , either to just or unjust actions , so that selfe may be preferred , not caring whether god be honoured , yea , or no . now the mystery of god is this , hee will destroy and subdue this power of darknesse , under the feet of the whole creation , mankinde , and every particular branch , man and woman , deliver him from this bondage and prison , and dwel in his own house and garden himselfe ; so that the wisdome , power , love , life , beauty , and spirit of truth that dwels and rules in man , may be god himselfe , even the lord our righteousnesse , and no other being or power , but himselfe . and as god did dwell bodily in the humane nature , jesus christ , who was the first manifestation of this great mystery of god , so when his work is compleated , he will dwell in the whole creation , that is , every man and woman without exception , as he did dwell in that one branch , jesus christ , who is the pledge , or first fruits . and therefore you shall finde , that when adam had broke the covenant , and died by the law , god did not denounce an utter destruction , without recovery to the creation , mankinde , which was his own work , which his own wisdome and power did produce and bring forth . but he pronounces the finall curse against the serpent , or mans work , which was the fruit that sprung up in , and was acted both inwardly and outwardly by the creation , or created being , in rebellion against the being of god : therefore sinne is properly mans owne act . the words of the father run thus , speaking to the serpent : i will put enmity between thee and the woman , and between thy seed and her seed , it shall bruise thy head , and thou shalt bruise his heele : so that the serpent must be killed ; for bruise his head , and he dies . now the curse that was declared to adam , was temporary : that he should undergoe sorrows , and suffer a bruising in his out-member ; but not a killing , though adam had killed himselfe : so that he hath brought himselfe under the bondage ; god will not strike him now he is downe , and make his death without recovery , but god will destroy death , and quicken adam , or mankinde againe , that we may all see our salvation is from god , though our misery was from our selves , that so whosoever glories , may glory onely in the lord . and now by the way mind one thing , that when this serpent rules , and causes the creature to act , such actings become the creatures losse & shame ; but when god acts in the creatures life , glory , and redemption ; to advance selfe , and deny god , is the creatures death . but to deny self , and to acknowledge god , is the creatures life ; before adam acted rebellion , this aspiring spirit of pride , to be as god , led the humane nature , to disobey god ; and ever since the fall , the same selfish spirit , leads every man and woman captive at his will , and inslaves them in that prison , and bondage , and darkness , to walk in wayes directly contrary to the god of light : and yet many times perswades them , that they do god good service ; let a man read , hear , study , preach , pray , perform actions of justice ; yet if god be not mercifull to the man , this power of darkness will deceive him ; making him to conceit or think he pleases god , when the truth is , he serves but selfe all the time , it is so full of secret strong delusions . therefore i say , the mystery of god is this , god will bruise this serpents head , and cast that murderer out of heaven , the humane nature , wherein it dwels in part , as in the man christ jesus : and he will dwell in the whole creation in time , and so deliver whole mankind out of that bondage . this i see to be a truth , both in my own experience , and by testimony of scripture , as god is pleased to teach me . as first , by experience , i shall instance in my self , who am a branch of adam ; or part of the humane creation : and i lay under the bondage of the serpent , my own invention , as the whole creation does from adams fall , and i saw not any bondage ; but since god was pleased to manifest his love to me , he hath caused me to see that i lay dead in sin , weltring in blood and death , was a prisoner to my lusts , for though through his grace , i saw pride , covetousness , envy , uncleanness , ignorance , injustice , and the whole body of unbelief , working and ruling in me ; yet i was ashamed men should know it , this selfish spirit sought to hide himself so close ; and still made provision to have the will of these lusts satisfied in me . and before god manifested his love to me , i delighted in the favour of these weeds , but since god revealed his son in me , he lets mee see , that those things wherein i did take pleasure , were my death , my shame , and the very power of darkness , wherein i was held , as in a prison ; so that although i felt this deadly body , or wicked one act within me , and although i have been troubled at it , sighed and mourned , strove against it , and prayed against it ; yet i could not deny self , and the more i used meanes to beat him down , as i thought , the more did this power of darkness appear in me , like an overflowing wave of wickedness , drowning me in slavery , and i saw i was a wretched man , wrapped in misery , i mourned that i was so rebellious against god , and i mourned to see i had no power to get out of that bondage of selfishness . and so i continued till god was pleased to pul me out of selfish striving & selfish actings , & made all meanes lie dead before me , and made me dead to such means as i made use of , and thought that deliverance must come that way : and so made me to lie down at his feete , & to waite upon him , & to acknowledg , that unless god did swallow me up into his own being , i should never be delivered , for i saw that the power within me strived to maintain its being , against the being of god ; and all that while i was a stranger to god , though among men , i was a professor , as i thought , of god . but now god hath set me free from that bondage , so that it rules not , though sometime it seemes to face me , like a daring corquered enemy , that cannot hurt . and likewise god causes me to see with much joy and peace of heart , into this mystery of himself , that his eternall councel , which was grounded upon the law of love , himself , was not to destroy me , nor any of his own creation ; but only the serpent , which is my work , or the first fruit that sprung up out of the creation ; which is our bondage , and that he himself will become my self , and liberty , and the life and liberty of his whole creation . and in these two things he hath caused me greatly to rejoyce . first , i see and feele , that god hath set me free from the dominion and over-ruling power of that body of sin . it raines not as a king , though sometimes it appeares creeping in like a slave , that is easily whipped out of doores by strength of god . secondly , i rejoyce in perfect hope and assurance in god , that although this serpent , or murtherer do begin , by reason of any temptation , or outward troubles , to arise , and endeavour to act in rash anger , in pride , in discontent , or the like , as sometimes it does , yet every appearance of this wicked one in me becomes his further ruine , and shall never rise to rule and enslave me as formerly ; for god thereby takes the occasion to call me up higher into himself , and so makes me to see and possess freedom , in my own experience from him , every day more and more ; i am not still a captive , in a being of darkness distinct from god , but god hath freed me therefrom , and taken me up into his own being ; so that now his wisdom , his love , his life , his power , his joy and peace , is mine , i glory here , i can glory no where else . and here i wait upon god with a sweet peace , under reproaches , under losses , under troubles of the world , being that dispensation of his patience which god will have me wait upon him under , till i partake of the full enjoyment of this inheritance , which i have fully , in hope and assurance , but in possession , but in part . and as god is pleased thus to deal with me , or with any branch of adam , in the same kind ; so he hath caused me to see , and to rejoyce in the sight , that he will not lose any of his work , but he will redeem his own whole creation , to himself , and dwell , and rule in it himself , and subdue the serpent under his feet , and take up all his creation , mankind , into himself , and will become , the only , endless , pure , absolute , and infinite being , even infinitely for ever all in all , in every one , and in the whole , that no flesh may glory in it self , but in the lord only . but this mystery of god is not to be done all at once , but in severall dispensations , some whereof are past , some are in being , and some are yet to come ; but when the mystery of god is absolutely finished , or , as the scriptures say , the son hath delivered up the kingdom to the father , this will be the upshot or conclusion , that gods work shall be redeemed , and live in god , and god in it ; but the creatures work without god , shall be lost and perish , man , adam , or whole creation of mankind , which is gods work , shall be delivered from corruption , bondage , death , and pain , and the serpent that caused the fall , shall only perish , and be cast into the lake ; and god will be the same in the latter end , accomplishing what in the beginning he promised , that is , to bruise the serpents head , and subdue him under the feet of his son , the humane nature , wherein he will walk , as a garden of pleasure , and dwell himself for ever . i shall now in the next place mention some scriptures as a testimony that does countenance this truth , that god will not lose any part of his creation , mankind , but will redeem and preserve it , both in particular , & in whole , and will destroy nothing but the serpent , that wicked one , that would be a being equall to , or above god ; but gods work shall stand , and the creatures work shall perish and suffer losse . the first scripture i shall mention , is , cor. . . every mans work shall be made manifest , for the day shall declare it , because it shall be revealed by fire : and the fire shall try every mans work , of what sort it is . that is , whether it be of god , or of the serpent . if any mans work abide , he shall receive a reward , that is , he shall live in god , and god in him , because god in the man , was the strength of his work , if any mans work shall be burned , he shall suffer losse , but he himself shall be saved , ( mark this ) yet so , as by fire ; not by materiall fire of purgatory , but by the bright , and clear coming of god into this man , whose indwelling presence , like fire , burnes up the stubble of mens own inventions , and purges the drosse from the gold , & divides between the marrow and the bone , that is , makes a separation between his own work and mans work . so likewise rev. . . and the devill , or murderer , that deceived the nations , was east into the lake of fire and brimstone , and v. . and death and hel were cast into the lake of fire : the nations were not cast in at this time , for this scripture i believe points out the great day of judgment , when nations shall be delivered out of that fire , and there shall be no more curse , death , sorrow , nor pain lie upon any part of the creation , but all teares shall be wiped from its eyes , and the serpent only shall perish in the lake ; for after that the city-work is finished , and the number of the elect gathered in , and established in glory ; then the dispensations of god , who is the tree of life , send forth a healing vertue to the nations , and then the nations likewise that are saved , or those that were lost , while the city or elect was in gathering , do now bring their glory into the city likewise ; for every man shall be saved , saith god through paul , without exception , though some at the ninth houre , some at the tenth houre , and some at the last houre ; and this salvation of every man , or the making of the whole creation , a pure river of the water of life , cleer as cristall , proceeds from the throne of god and the lamb , that is , from the judgment seat of god , judging , condemning , and killing the serpent , and so restoring his own creation to purity and life . so likewise cor. . . for we in this tabernacle do groane , being burdened , not for that we would be uncloathed , but cloathed upon : that mortality might be swallowed up of life . by mortality here , is not meant the laying of the body in , or raising of it out of the dust or grave , but it is the very death which adam , by disobeying , fell under , and that is the death of his purity , or pure being , which is a falling from god into a being directly opposite to the being of god ; as rottonness of flesh , is death to soundness of flesh , darkness is the death to light ; for whereas before the fall , adam knew god , loved and acknowledged god , and was in every part so pure , as god said , behold , it is all very good , but after the fall he became envious , proud , disobedient , full of all lusts and concupiscence of evill , even as we find by experience our bondage ; and so from a friend , he fell to be enmity against god , of a pure creature , he became unclean , and of a child of gods delight , he fell to be a child of wrath ; and of a pure garden , he became a stinking dunghill ; and this is the death or mortality , which not only adam in particular , but all the branches of adam , men and women , lie under . even under a corrupt being . now this rottennesse , or death , under which the whole creation is fallen , and lies in bondage too , it is that serpent , or power of darknesse which paul desires might be swallowed up of life ; that is , that god , who is life , would be pleased to come and dwell in him , and in his creation , and so cast out that mortality , or strong man that is so strongly armed : and this is the serpent that god hath pronounced the dreadfull curse against ; for this is mans work , and it must bee destroyed . i conceive god calls it mans own invention , because it was the first fruit that the creature brought forth ; after he was made , and left to himselfe , even this aspired and sprung up in him , to which he gave consent to promote selfe , and become as god . i shall onely mention one scripture more , though i beleeve i could bring above a hundred scriptures that doe countenance this truth . and if you seriously minde what you read , you shall finde that this is the royall blood that runs through the golden veines of the writings of the prophets and apostles : it is rom. . from vers. . to . but for shortnesse sake i shall mention onely the . and . verses , beeause the creation it self also shall be delivered ( as well as we that are members of the elected citie ) from the bondage of corruption , into the glorious liberty of the children of god : for we know ( by our experience ) that the whole creation ( of which we are branches ) groaneth and travelleth in pain together untill now . by creature , or whole creation , i see it to be a cleare and soul-comforting truth , to be only mankinde , for whose use , or for the time that god hath determined to finish this great designe , to make his garden man , a garden of pleasure to himselfe , when he hath plucked up all the weeds , and so husbanded the ground , that weeds shall never grow again . i say , all the time , god hath made all other creatures for mans use , or rather to serve his own providence , while he is in working this great mystery about man , and when the work is finished , then all other creatures shall bee dissolved into nothing as at first ; for as god is a spirit , he delights in spirituall things , but these outward creatures were made for the pleasure , profit , and use of man , while he is carnall , and stands in a being distinct from god : and when man is made spirituall , and swallowed up in life , or taken up into the being of god , there will then be no more use or need of these outward creatures , as cattell , corn , meat , drink , and the like ; nor of sunne , moon , nor starre , nor of creature-light , either literall or mysticall ; for god and the lamb shall dwell in the citie , and in the whole creation , and be the light thereof , as the lord christ said , in that day you shall know , that i am in my father , and you in me , and i in you . and , labour not for the meat that perisheth , but for that which endures to eternall life . some may say , if this be true , that god will save every one , then i will live , and take my pleasure in sin , and eat , drink , and be merry , and take all delights while i live , for i am gods workmanship , and he will not lose his own work , i shall be saved . but if he will not lose his work , yet thy work shall perish , think upon that ; and truly i beleeve that the serpent in thee , will make such a merry conclusion , and cry down this truth of god for an errour presently in others , because it beares testimony of his destruction , as the jewes called christ a deceiver , or a man of errors , and killed him , because he bore witnesse that their deeds were evill . well , make that conclusion and take liberty to sin , yet for all that know , thou enslaved creature , that thou shalt be brought to judgement , and thou shalt not escape punishment ; for though sinne be sweet in thy mouth , as it was in judas , to take the pieces of silver , and to act treachery against his master , it wil be bitternesse in the belly , as it was to him ; for the jealousie of the lord shall burn hot against thee , so that thou shalt cal upon the mountains to cover thee from his presence , and wish that thou hadst never been born ; and all the sorrowes spoke of in scripture , shall overtake thee , and such presumptuous sinners as thou art ; and thy joy shall be turned into mourning , and thou shalt be cast into the everlasting fire , which god hath prepared and appointed for the serpent and his seed , or for the devil and his angels : and while thou art in it , the worm of thy gnawing conscience shall never die , nor the fire of gods wrath , or the sense of his anger upon thee , shall never goe out , and shall be a pain more intollerable , then the plucking out of the right eye , or the cutting off the right hand . but now lest scruples should arise in others , as though i writ contradictions , or as though i made god changeable . first , to bid a sinner depart into everlasting fire , and yet afterwards take him out again . now to give answer hereunto . first know , that this was and is the great mystery , worke , and counsell of god , after he had made a visible creature , in a pure being , distinct from himselfe , his purpose being to destroy all the inventions and actings of this creature , that did spring up and arise from the creatures being , as a creature , and not from gods acting in the creature : and god foresaw that the first buddings of this creature would be a desire to maintain it selfe , or creature-being , and so cast god off ; therefore god made him under a law , that if his creature did consent to that selfish desire , he should die ; if not , he should have lived a pure being still , though distinct from god , yet under his protection , as a creator . now every thing that is in , or about the creature , that is of god , shall stand ; but every thing that is in , or from the creature , that is not of god , shall fall and perish . therefore to proceed a little further , that this truth may shine in its own beauty , god does teach me to see , that every action , or dispensation of god , is called a spirit , or an angel , and every action , or aspiring principle that rise up in adam , which led him to disobedience , it pleased god that it should have a being , and likewise be called a spirit , but it is a dead being , and a spirit of darknesse , quite opposite to the god of light and life , and god gives it the name of serpent , dragon , murtherer , wicked one , and unclean spirit , because it twisted it selfe into the middle of the creation , and was an aspiring to be like god , but god did not make the nature of it ; for it was the first fruits of a created being , without god . now god is pleased to make known himself in divers dispensations in the carrying on of this great work of his . as first , he declares himselfe by way of a law , in the day thou eatest , thou shalt die ; now this law , though it was holy , just , and good , yet it was a killing word , or the killing letter , for it took hold of adams disobedience , and flew him ; so that word , thou shalt dye , because flesh , for all flesh broke the covenant in adam , and all flesh died , and all humane flesh was cast under that dispensation of death , and the more we stirre to climb up to god by the workes of the law , the more we intangle our selves in death ; for by the workes of the law no flesh shall be saved . and here is two murtherers which mankind is to be delivered from , before it can live again ; first , this word of the law , which is holy , just , and good , which ties the creature onely to acknowledge the being of god , and no other : when the creature began to minde another being , this righteous law killed him ; for it is not the king , but the kings law that hangs an offender ; and if the rigorous law stands still in force , no flesh can be saved , because every man and woman are selfish , and minds a sinfull being , opposite to god , therefore the condemning power of the law is to be taken away . the second murtherer is the creatures own invention , or aspiring spirit to be as god , knowing good and evill , or to maintain selfe , and this killed the creature , and threw him under the curse of the righteous law , because this would be a being equall with god , and acknowledge another being besides god , whereas there is no other righteous being to be acknowledged , but onely god , or what is in god , or god in it . now in the first discovery of gods counsell and purpose to the creature , if he be redeemed , this compound murtherer must be cast out of heaven by a strong hand , and out-stretched arm of god , so that the being of god might be preserved , the law of god kept pure , and yet fallen man redeemed . as first , this dispensation of death , do this , and live ; do not this , and die , must be cast out of heaven , that is , out of gods hand , and god must not , in the redeeming of him , appeare to the creature under that dispensation : for if he doe , it will still hold the lost creature under death and bondage : and if the creature were made pure again , and left still to deale with the law by his created strength onely , as adam was , truly he would fall again ; for a meere created strength , being distinct from god the creator , would fall again ; for no being can stand pure , but such a created being as god is pleased to dwell bodily in ; for every opposite being will seek to advance it selfe . therefore if god redeem his creature from death , he must appeare absolutely a god of love , under no other dispensation but the law of love , doing all in , and for the creature , and thus in the gospel he does ; for this is the spirit that quickens and saves the creature : and when this word of love was made flesh , it was the first discovery from god , to assure the creature of his redemption from death ; and this was when jesus christ , or god was manifested in flesh , working , doing , suffering all things for the creature , pardoning , accepting , and taking the creature freely into communion with god , by gods own power , and for his own name sake , promising never to remember disobediences any more , but would blot out that hand-writing , the law , of doe and live , not doe and die . and now the killing letter , or murderer is cast out of heaven , out of gods hand , god will never have that to stand between him and his creature any more ; but hee himselfe , who is the law of love , even love it selfe , will dwell and rule a king of righteousnesse in the creature , and be the creatures wisdome , strength , life , joy , and comfort , and his all in all . but secondly , the other murderer , which is worse then this , must be cast out of heaven too , or else the creature cannot live , and that is the serpent , or this aspiring spirit in him to promote selfe : for so long as the creature acknowledges any other being but gods , he is lost ; and truly i think none can be ignorant of this , that the spirit of selfishnesse is in himself , and in every man and woman , therfore it must be cast out of this heaven , mankinde , before it can live again to god . when jesus christ , or god in man appeared , then the word of love was made flesh , that the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head . and when jesus christ fought the great battell , or rather god and the serpent did fight in heaven , that is in the creation , the man christ jesus , and god , or the anoynting , prevailed , he cast the serpent out of heaven , out of that humane flesh which he took up as a part for the whole , or as an earnest of the fathers love to all the rest ; for i beleeve that all temptations that jesus christ met withall , ( for in all things he was tempted like unto us ) they were but the strivings of the serpent , as he did strive in adam that fell , to maintain its being opposite to god ; but jesus christ , or the anoynting in flesh , being not a created power , but the power of god in that created humanity , did not consent as the first adam did , for he with strong hand resisted the whispering of the serpent , and would acknowledge no other being but god , and so prevailed , and cast the serpent out of flesh , and hath obtained a legall power to quicken whom he will , or to cast the serpent out of what man or woman he will : so that it is this anoynting that sets us at liberty from the bondage of sin and the serpent , and he himselfe becomes our life and strength , and the lord our righteousnesse . and when michael our prince had prevailed over the dragon , then there were voyces and songs heard in heaven , that is , in the creation , mankind ; now is come salvation and strength , and the kingdome of our god , and the power of his christ ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down , which accused them before god day and night . this song , i conceive , was sung by the elect , the citie sion , or saints of god , who are first enlightned , and they sing glory to god in the name of the rest that shall be redeemed ; for the serpent that accused the creation before god , is cast out in part for the whole , or a part for an earnest peny to the whole . so that now mark , the law of god that did accuse and condemne the offending creature , this is cast out of gods hand , and hereafter he will be a god of love , in an intire dispensation of love ; i speak as god doth manifest himself now under the gospel and as he ever will be when the creature is perfectly redeemed . and the serpent , which is the sting , or worme to the creatures conscience , because it was still acting a self-being , opposite to god , and then accusing the creature before god day and night , by the force of a condemning law , for disobediences , which is the creatures bondage and misery ; for the spirit of sin within , this enslaves him , and the condemning law , this casts him from god , and so throwes the sinner under utter darknesse and sorrow . i , but for the creatures comfort , this serpent is cast out of heaven , the creation likewise , and though for the present many poore creatures lie under the bondage , yet the time is drawing neer that they shal be delivered , and the wicked one himselfe , the serpent , shall be cast into the lake , and perish for ever . indeed the serpent would have gods created work to die with him , for he knowes he must dye irrecoverably , but god will redeem his creature , and the serpents head only shall be bruised , which will be his death . well , this two-fold murderer is cast out of heaven , that is , the condemning law is cast out of gods hand by jesus christ , the law of grace and love ; and the serpent is cast out of the creation in part , and shall be cast out of the whole when the mystery of god is finished by the power of the same anointng , jesus christ ; for god the father is reconciled , and he hath taken the creature into fellowship with himselfe : for god was in the man christ jesus , reconciling the world , that is , mankind , to himself , not imputing their sins to them . now this mystery , or work of god is finished fully and compleatly in a two-fold sense , but not in a third , as yet ; and when this third term is finished , then the whole work is finished , and not till then . first , in gods everlasting counsell and purpose , this worke was done from all eternity , before the foundation of the world was laid , and god declared so much , when he uttered this word , i will put enmity between thee and the woman , & between thy seed & her seed , he shall break thy head , and thou shalt bruise his heele . here the curse and death is sealed up to the serpent , but here is mercy and redemption sealed up to the creature ; the creature shall bee redeemed , but he shall goe through bruisings , or pain : secondly , it is compleatly done in action , in the pledge and earnest-penny . when god was manifested in flesh , in the man christ jesus , who was born of a woman . and this is the first fruit of the fathers love manifested and sealed up to the whole creation , mankinde , that as he dwels bodily in that part of humane nature , jesus christ , so in time , according to his own counsell and pleasure , hee will dwell bodily in the whole creation likewise ; therefore saith christ , i goe to my father and your father , to my god and your god ; and he doth not onely speak to his twelve disciples , but to all others that shall beleeve through their word . and when the kings of the earth , and the nations are healed by the leaves of the tree of life , and so bring in their glory into the city sion , as it shall be in the latter end ; i beleeve there will not be a man that partakes of humane nature , nor woman neither , that shall not partake of faith & so beleeve in god through christ the anointing , that fils all , and is all in all . but now in the third sense , the worke is not yet compleated in the whole creation ; for god is pleased to doe this worke in length of time , by degrees , calling some at one houre , and some at another , out of the serpents bondage , and the times and seasons god hath reserved to himself . therefore in the further clearing of this truth , god is pleased to shew forth six dispensations or discoveries of himselfe more , which he will have the creature to passe through before he finish his work , to cast the serpent , death , and hell , into the lake , and before he himselfe appeare to be the tree of life on each side , and in the middle of the pure river of the water of life : which i conceive is the whole creation , man , perfectly redeemed ; which river proceeded out of the throne of god , and of the lamb ; take notice of that . the second dispensation , for there are seven dispensations in the whole ▪ the first i have spoken of already , which was , when god gave the law to adam , as soon as hee had made him : and now the second lies in that first promise , or manifestation of love to the creature , and curse to the serpent , in these words , the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head , and this continued from adam till abraham . then the third dispensation or discovery of god is more cleare then the former , for to abraham he speakes more particularly ; he doth not still say in generall termes , the seed of the woman , &c. but in thy seed , abraham , all nations of the earth shall be blessed , and so points-out more directly in what linage and generation of mankind , god would first appeare in to bruise the serpents head ; and this dispensation continued from abraham till moses time , and our fathers embraced these promises , and rejoyced in them . the fourth dispensation is from moses , till god manifested himself in flesh , or till jesus christ was born of mary , that was one of the house of david , of the linage of abraham ; and this dispensation is more then the former , for god , by types , figures , ceremonies , and shadowes , did more manifestly set forth his love to his creature , and his wrath to the serpent ; when the sacrifice was slain and offered , god received an attonement , it being a type of gods in-dwelling in flesh , or a shadow of christ , the lamb , the substance of all those sacrifices . and when achan that troubled israel was put to death in the valley of achor , the fiercenesse of gods wrath was turned away . and i believe god doth teach us by the prophet hosea . . where he saith , i will give the valley of achor for a doore of hope , which was the place of achans death ; so when the serpent , who is our trouble , is subdued and killed in the valley , humane flesh , then the dispensation of gods anger is turned away from us . the fifth dispensation is from the time that god was manifested in flesh , in the person jesus christ , to the time that he appeared in the flesh and person of his saints likewise ; and this is more cleare then the former , for jesus the anointed , was the substance of all those types and shadowes of the mosaicall law , for now god doth manifestly appear to dwell in flesh , in his creature , and he hath broke the serpents head , and cast him out of heaven ( his creation ) and now this jesus christ is the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world , that is , destroyes the serpent , who is the sin that dwells in mankind , for now the life of god doth visibly appear to swallow up the death of the creature , and a manifest beginning to set the creature free from bondage ; and this dispensation of god was spoke of by the prophets very often before it appeared , that a child should be borne , a virgin should have a son , which should be called emmanuel , god with us ; and god would bring forth his branch , and the redeemer should come out of sion , that is the anointing that is in sion the church , shall in gods time go forth to heal the nations likewise ; now god throws down the shadowes of the law and drawes his creature to eye jesus , the anointed , or god manifested in flesh , and this is the appearance of visible gospel , or of god himself , bringing glad tydings to men , and so worthily deserving everlasting honour and praise from all creatures . the sixth dispensation is , from the time that god appeared in the flesh of saints , till the perfect gathering up of the elect , which is called the resurrection day , or the great day of judgement . and this is still more cleare then the former , for though god appeared in the person jesus christ , who was a branch of mankind , yet we might still be in doubt , and lie under death still , if he there remain ; but god did not appeare in the man christ jesus only , but in the saints likewise , according to his promise by joel , in the latter dayes , i will power out my spirit upon all flesh , upon my sons and daughters , and young men shall see visions , and old men shall dreame dreames , and this was fulfilled in the apostles , for the same spirit of christ was sent down upon them , acts . and i know , saith paul , that i have the spirit of christ ; and know ye not that the anointing dwells in you , except ye be reprobates . and again , we , saith paul , that have received the first fruits of the spirit , we groane within our selves , waiting for the adoption , to wit , the redemption of our bodies . now the apostles in their first preaching , they preached jesus , the anointed , or the lamb , or god manifested in flesh , and this they saw and heard , and they could not but speak in the name of jesus , and god commanded them so to do . but when god had fully declared himself in that dispensation , he sent forth his apostles then to preach more spiritually ; and now , saith paul , though formerly we have known christ after the flesh , that is , god only manifested in that one man jesus , the anointed , yet henceforth know we him no more , ( in such a restraint ) for now the mystery of god , which hath been hid from ages and generations past , is now revealed to his saints in these last dayes , which is christ , or the anointing in you , the hope of glory ; not only god manifested in the man christ jesus , but the same anointing , or tree of life in you likewise , according to that of the prophet , a king shall reigne in the earth , that is , in mankind , and his name shall be called the lord our righteousnesse : and again , the anointing which ye have received abideth in you , and ye need not that any teach you , for the same anointing teacheth you of all things . and truly i believe , that whosoever preaches from his book , and not from the anointing , and so speaking in experience what he hath seen and heard from god , is no minister sent of god , but an hireling , that runs before he be sent , only to get a temporall living ; therefore o england , mind what thou dost , leave off to imbrace hirelings , that come in their own name , and receive such in love whom christ hath sent in his name , and his fathers . and in this dispensation we are to note two things ; first , when as john the baptist prophesied , it was neither light nor dark , for it was between the legall worship that was falling , and gospel truths that were rising , upon the very parting of time between the shadowes of the law of moses , and the appearance of christ the lamb , who was the substance thereof ; and troubles and vexations began to arise in and among the strict professors of the law , so that they could not be satisfyed till they had killed christ , whom they called the man full of errors , that deceived the people . so now the church is at a stand , and the worship is partly light , and partly dark ; some resting upon the bare letter , according to the example of christ , and the apostles only , which is a worship after the flesh , and was true , and was of god in the time of its dispensation . and others do acknowledg god , not exemplarily , but by the faith , the name , and anointing of jesus christ , ruling , teaching , acting , and dwelling in them ; therefore think it not strange , though some old professors , and the book-hirelings especially , be offended hereat , and brand the saints for men full of errors , and seeke to suppresse their testimony ; it was so then , it will be so now , for the same spirit of the world , the serpent , does still persecute the same anointing of god in this , as in the former dispensation ; but you saints of god , be patient , waite upon god , this troubled sea , the serpent , shall not over-whelm you , for stronger is he that is in you , then he that is in the world ; rejoyce , the time of your redemption drawes neere . and againe , think it not strange to see many of the saints of god at a stand , in a wildernes , & at a losse , and so waiting upon god to discover himself to them ; many are like the tide at full sea , which stands a little before the water runs either way ; and assure your selves , i know what i speak , you must be dead to your customes before you can run in the sea of truth , or the river of the water of life ; some walk still according to example , and have either seene nothing , or very little of the anointing in them ; and some walk more in spirit and truth , as the same anointing of the father , which dwells bodily in christ , teacheth them , and leadeth them into all truth . the same anointing unites christ and the saints , and makes them but one mysticall body : i pray not for these alone , saith christ , but for all that shall believe through their word , that they all may be one , as thou father art in me , and i in thee , that they also may be one in us , i in them , and thou in me , that they may be made perfect in one , that is in thee , who art the only pure and holy being . secondly , not , that under this dispensation is the time that the elect , which is so much spoken of in the scriptures , are to be gathered into one city , and perfected , and this anointing is the angell which god hath sent forth in these last dayes , to gather together his elect , from one end of heaven to the other , or out of every nation , kindred , tongue & people , in the earth . and where it is said , that god will send forth not his angel , but his angels , to gather his elect together , it points out the severall measures , or dispensations of the anointing , to every saint , as god will , according to the measure of the guift of christ . now sometime god calls his elect by the name of one , in the singular number , and hereby god declares his first born , jesus christ , who is the head in the name of the whole body . as the prophet writes , behold my servant whom i have chosen , mine elect , in whom my soule delighteth : god hath not chosen the serpent , or creature-invention to dwel in flesh , for this he hath rejected , and takes no delight in . but he hath chosen the anointing , or his own power and name to dwell in flesh , and this he delights in , therefore jesus the anointed , is called the son of god , in whom he is well pleased . and sometimes god calls his elect in the plurall number , as many , and then he declares the mysticall body , or the city , sion , or those that he hath given to christ , and whose names are written in the lambs book . and in this . generall dispensation , these only shall be gathered into the city , and whosoever is not writ in the lambs book of life , shall not enter in at this time and season of the father , though there is a time and season known to the father , when they shall be healed likewise , and enter in ; and eat of the heavenly manna , the tree of life , that is in the middle of the city . now this city sion , which consists of head and members ; jesus christ and his saints , who are all baptized into , and knit together by one spirit of god , the anointing . and this city god will redeeme first , or he will subdue the serpent under the feet of this his son first : all that do his commandements , that is , have faith and love , these shall enter into the city , but the fearfull and unbeleevers , murderers , idolaters , and every one that loveth , and maketh a lie , are without , and are cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death , or the death of the serpent , and the serpent ruling in man is the first death which god redeemes us from . all those that were not found writ in the lambs book of life , were cast into the lake of fire . or as mathew calls it , into everlasting fire . or as matthew calls it , into everlasting fire , and shall lie under that dispensation of wrath for ever , that is , all the time of this dispensation , or till the day of judgement be ended , that the serpent , death , and hell , are cast into the lake of fire , and that there shall no more curse lie upon the creature , but from the judgement seat , or throne of god ; the whole creation being redeemed , shall flow forth a pure river of the water of life ; for every dispensation is called a full period , or tearme of time , and an everlasting season . all this time that god is gathering together his elect , he hath given a time , times , and halfe time to the serpent . which in those threefold shapes and a halfe , or in those three dayes and halfe , he is called the beast , or the whore , and this time is given him to make warre , and to fight against the prince of princes , and his saints , and to overcome them , and to waste and destroy the holy people mightily . and this appointed time is the yeare wherein the beast lives , and god gives all advantages to the beast , as riches , outward liberty , worldly power , and generally humane authority into his hand . and puts no weapons into the hands of his saints ; but faith , or the anointing , to fight against the reproaches , slanders , oppressions , poverties , weaknesse , prisons , and the multitude of temptations which the beast , through her wit , malice , and power , casts upon the saints , like a flood of water to drowne them . and to overthrow the work of god by great hand , if it were possible . likewise the serpent stirs up some , whom she deceives , to be seeming professors , outwardly religious , having a form of godlinesse , but through hypocrisie , pride , and selfishnesse , might dishonour god , discourage the tender lambs of christ , and bring an ill report upon the wayes of god . and hence it is that israel of old were trampled upon by the gentiles that were not in covenant . and hence it is , that the beast must tread the holy city under foot moneths . that in the day of judgement it may be said , that the serpent had faire play given him , hee had all advantages , he had a long time given him to ingage warre . i , but god did beat him with his own weapons , and encounters with all the temptations , malice and hypocrisie of the serpent , by the faith and patience of his saints , and thereby fairly destroyes him , himselfe may be judge . but in the latter dayes , when the time , times , and halfe drawes to an end , then god sends forth severall dispensations , or angels , as assistances to this sixth and great dispensation , to poure out vials of wrath upon all the glory of the beast , and curses all his glory by seven degrees , and sounds forth seven trumpets of glory to god , one after another ; which implies perfection of ruine upon every particular , blasting , cursing , or downfall of the beast . and when these dayes appeare , then the rage of the serpent increases , because his time growes short , and his violence , wrath , reproach , oppression , provocations and murders against the saints are multiplied , and times grow very bad : for now iniquiry abounds , and the love of many in whom the serpent dwels , waxes cold , and extreamly bitter , and mad against the saints , in whom the anointing dwells , so that they gnash their tongues with vexation of spirit , and the smoak of their torment ascends upwards ( towards god and his saints , that are above , not so much downward to such like themselves ) and that for ever and ever . by the doubling of this word , ever and ever , he declares that this misery continues untill the sixth dispensation be ended , that is , the one for ever ; and all the time of the great day of judgement , that is the second for ever , and so they have no rest , day nor night , who worship the beast and his image , and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name ; here is the patience of the saints , here are they that keep the commandments of god , and the faith of jesus : for truly the faith and patience of the saints are tried to some purpose , while the beast thus rages , and swels with malice against them . and i beleeve it will appeare more generally visible in time , to me it appears very plain , that the great bitternesse , envy , reproachfull languages , and expressions of malicious wrath , in and among men and women in these dayes , against others whom they brand sectaries , by severall names , will prove part of the smoak of her torment , and part of the restlesnesse of her spirit day and night , which is the beginning of her sorrowes ; for this is the raging sea that casts out its own shame : and men in whom the serpent dwels , speak evill of that they know not . now all the time of this sixth dispensation , god is declaring his great power , in pulling what fire-brands he will out of the serpents hand , and he will take here one , and there one , as he pleases himself . and let the serpent put forth all his wit and power , he shall not hinder the salvation of one man or woman , whom god hath chosen , and purposes to deliver from his bondage ; but he will save under every dispensation whom he will , and bring them into sion , neither shall the serpent , nor any of his seed , ever attain communion with god by all his wit , learning , study , actings and power , but he shall perish , and all creatures in whom the serpent reignes and acts , shall be lost and ashamed in their work , yet every man shall be saved in the end , yet so , as by fire . and here mind two things , first god is honoured in the salvation of beleevers , because he hath undertaken to pull them out of the serpents hand , and to bind that strong man , and to bring in the citie to himselfe , and to appeare in them first ; therefore it is said , that judgement begins at the house of god first , that is , god judges , condemnes , and casts the serpent out of his elect , and saves the whole , and every member of that citie , before he judge , condemne , and cast the serpent out of them , that did not enter into the city , but were without , because their names were not written in that lambs book of life . now for god to save some at one houre , and some at another , both when he will , and whom he will , and those scattered sheep of the house of israel whom god hath chosen , these shall enter into the citie , though all the wit and power of the serpent strive to hinder them from entring , and those whom god hath not chosen , shall not enter into the citie , though all the learning , study , and selfish and meritorious actings of the serpent , strive to enter in never so much : it makes much for the honour of his wisdome , power , and name . secondly , god is honoured in the losse , death , or as the word is interpreted , damnation of unbeleevers ; for faith , or the anointing , which is born of god , and whereby the saints overcome the world , is the power of god dwelling and ruling in man : and unbeliefe is the serpent , which is born of the flesh , and persecutes christ till the time of the gentiles be fulfilled ; and this power of darknesse is that which dwels and rules in the children of disobedience . now both these are grinding at the mill , and are at work for life in humane flesh ; and it advances the glory of god , that they shall live in whom his divine power dwels , though they be full of weaknesse in themselves , and though they be compassed about with divers temptations , being despised of all , and regarded of none , but are the weak , the poore , the foolish things of the world . and it makes for the glory of god , that unbeleevers , in whom the power of the serpent dwels , shall die , though they have all advantages , and means outward , as may be , and though they strive much by learning , study , & actings , as israel of old did , who attained not to righteousnesse , though he sought after it greatly , because he sought for it as it were by the workes of the law , and not by faith , that is , he sought for it in the strength of the serpent , or selfishnesse , but not in the strength of god . well , this sixth dispensation is the gathering time , wherein god summes up the whole number of his elect ; and as every beleever hath fought his fight , kept the faith , and finished his course , they return to dust ; and the unbeleever he returns to dust , for as the one dies , so dies the other ; and as in this world all things come alike to all , we cannot tell either love or hatred by any thing that happens in this life ; and both return to dust alike , as if there were no other reckoning to be made of either . and so from adams time , til the whole number of the elect be taken up to god , out of every nation , kindred , tongue , and people , out of which god in all ages of the world is pleased to choose some to be members of his son , or citizens of sion , and hath appointed in his councel , that mankind shall increase in the world , and act a while , and then return to dust , and one generation passe away , and another come in the place ; but when the elect are gathered as wheat into gods store-house , and the city made compleat , and the chaffe burned in the fire , and none enters into the city , but such whose names are written in the lambs book of life ; and none enters into the lake of fire , but such as are not writ in the lambs book ; so that gods will under this dispensation is done ; then followes immediately the great day of judgment ▪ or the resurrection of mens bodies out of the graves . and this day of judgment is the . dispensation of god , and this day windes up the whole mystery of god , and makes the eternal councel of god compleatly manifest and true ; that the serpents head is bruised , and the whole creation , adam , redeemed from the bondage of death , and in this dispensation we are to mind two things . first , in this great day of the lord he raises up the bodies of believers , and unbelievers out of the dust again , wherein he hath reserved them all the time of the battel , between the anointing and the serpent , as a man would keep his jewels in a box for an appointed time . secondly , god brings every man to judgement , and rewards every man according to his work , some rises to the resurrection of life , and others to the resurrection of losse and death : and the bookes were opened , as john writes ; that is , first the book of the mystery of iniquity , or the nature of the serpent in flesh laid open , and made manifest to be a power and spirit of darkness , that strived to be a being equal with god , nay , above god ; but being weighed in the ballance , it is found too light . and then the book of the mystery of god , or the anointing of god in flesh , this is made manifest , and laid open to be the great power of god , and the spirit of truth , which hath advanced god to be the only one infinite being ; even god , all in all , and that besides him there is none . and then another book was opened , that is , the book of life and death , or the book of the law , and of judgment , which gives the sentence , come ye blessed , inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : and to unbeleevers , go ye cursed into everlasting fire : and now every man is judged according to his works ; the anointing , or the righteous one , is rewarded with life , and all they in whom the anointing did dwell , who are the elect city , and spouse of christ , are called blessed , and taken up into gods kingdome , that is , into love never to fall again . but the serpent , the wicked one , is rewarded with death , and all those disobedient ones , in whom the serpent dwelt , are cast into the everlasting fire , prepared for the devill and his angels ; this is a second part in the day of judgment , which is a trying of every mans work , and the establishing the city , which is the lambs wife , in perfect glory , and in justly condemning the rest : and here god is glorified in the salvation of believers , and in the damnation , or losse of unbelievers ; for his work stands , and abides triall ; but mans work suffers losse , and is ashamed : but this is not the end , for as yet the son hath not delivered up the kingdom to the father , for he must raign till all enemies be subdued , but death , curse , and sorrow is not yet quite subdued ; for it raignes over part of the creation still , even over those poor creatures that were lost , or that did not enter into the city , but were cast into the lake of fire . the serpent as yet holds a power , for there is part of gods work not yet delivered from his bondage : and the serpent would be glad , and it would be some ease to his torment , if any of gods work might die and perish with him . as i have heard some say , that they would be content to suffer the misery of a new war in england , so that such as they mentioned , might suffer as well as they ; this is the spirit of the serpent . i , but the serpent only shall perish , and god will not loose a hair that he made , he will redeeme his whole creation from death . the spirit of darknesse cannot beare this speech , therefore reader observe thy heart , as thou readest , it will either close with a tender spirit of pitty and love herewith , or else swell and fret against it . therefore in the third part of this great day of judgment , after the city work is finished , and the triall over , then does the tree of life , god himself that dwells in the city , and is the light , and life , and glory of it , send forth dispensations , or angels , bringing love to heale the nations , and to bring their glory into the city ; likewise that for the present lies under the dispensation of wrath , and throws the serpent that deceived them , death , and hell , into the lake , but there is no mention that the nations are cast therein , in this last casting in , for they are redeemed from it ; as the tree of life brought forth fruit every change of time , and age of the world , to heale the elect , the lost sheep , or city ; so in this last and great day it brings forth leaves to heale the nations , or such as were not of the city ; their turne to receive mercy comes , though it be at the last houre ; and then all israel , or whole creation , that groaned under the bondage of death , shal partake of the glorious manifestation of the sons of god , for now the deliverer comes out of sion , and shall turne away ungodlinesse from jacob . therefore saith john , i saw a pure river of the water of life , cleare as cristall , proceeded out of the throne of god , and the lamb . now i conceive clearly that this pure river , is the whole creation , mankind , fully and compleatly delivered from death , and curse , as in that . verse . and this pure redemption proceedes from the throne of god and the lamb , that is , from the judgment seat of god , judging , condemning , and bruising the serpents head , and so setting his own work , mankind , free from that death and bondage . i shall mention one scripture more that countenances this truth : and i looked , and behold a white cloud , and upon the cloud one sate like the son of man ; having on his head a crown of gold , and in his hand a sharpe sickle : and another angel came out of the temple , crying with a loud voice to him that sate on the cloud , saying , thrust in thy sickle and reape , for the harvest of the earth is ripe ; and he that sate on the cloud , thrust in his sickle on the earth , and the earth was reaped . and then another angel came out of the altar , and cryed in the same manner , to him that had the sickle , as you may read . by a white cloud , i conceive is meant the city sion , or spouse of christ , that is arayed in pure and white , in whom there is no spot , for she is perfectly redeemed ; by him that sate upō this white cloud , is ment the whole anointing , or the great manifestation of god in one person , jesus christ ; and the severall angels that cryed one after another , are severall dispensations , or discoveries of god , that proceed from christ at several times , and seasons . therefore the city being made white , now the manifestations of gods love begin to appeare towards the earth , or nations , which entred not into the city ; now the time and season requires , that the sickle of christ should be thrust into the earth , that is , that the brightness of jesus christ , the lamb , might appear and shine forth upon the nations also , as it did shine upon the city , and we see the conclusion in the . verse , and the wine-presse was troden without the city , ( mind that ) and blood came out of the wine-presse , even unto the horse bridles , &c. this phrase i conceive points out the utter ruine and destruction of the serpent , that held the earth or nations which were without the city , in bondage . but now the anointing , or the great dispensation of the love of god , hath reaped the earth as well as the city , and destroyed the serpent there , as well as in the city ; the wine-presse , or the bruising of the serpents head , and shedding his blood , was without the city ; and so both city and country , city and whole earth of mankind , is made a pure river of the water of life , which proceeds from the throne of god and the lamb . but here arise . scruples : first , is not god changeable saith one , in saying , go ye cursed into everlasting fire ; and yet afterwards takes them out againe ? i answer , this fire is the dispensation of gods wrath ; and it is everlasting , without end to the serpent ; it was prepared for him and his angels ; and though god bid the unbeleevers depart into it ; yet he did not say , you shall lie there , and never be redeemed . but the scruple lies in the word everlasting , which i as well as you have taken it to be a misery without end to the creature . but i answer , that in scripture phrase , every dispensation of god was called an everlasting time ; as in the day of moses , every service in the temple that aaron was to perform , god said it should be a statute and a law for ever , which notwithstanding ended to be a law in the beginning of the next dispensation , or the appearance of christ in the flesh ; and so , though god send unbelievers to lie under the dispensation of his wrath , and call it everlasting fire , it is but for the time of his dispensation , while he is finishing city work , and judging and rewarding every man , that is , the serpent , and the anointing , according to their works : and after this , comes in their healing time and season , and these times and seasons the father hath reserved to himself , the son knowes them not . a second scruple is this ; shall a man be ever delivered out of hell ? out of hell , saith some , there is no redemption . i answer , first , that there is no scripture , as saith , out of hell there is no redemption , therefore the scruple is raised upon it without ground ; indeed the prophet speaking , how that the living praise god , and the dead cannot , hath these words in preferring life before death : the grave cannot praise thee , death cannot celebrate thee , they that go down into the pit , cannot hope for thy truth . but secondly , to answer more directly , let us consider what hell is , and then whether any shall be delivered out that is there : hell is called death , or a condition below life ; and this is twofold , either a death of purity , far below the nature of god , or a death of sorrows , which is a condition far below the comfort and joyes of god . now every man and woman , as they are branches of adam , have no purity in them , and therefore are in a hell far below the life and nature of god ; and likewise they are unavoidably subject to the sorrowes of that death , as an effect following the cause , therefore unavoidably subject to a condition far below the comfort and joyes of god . this is the condition of every man and woman , and they have no power for to deliver themselves , for god only is our redeemer . and then it followes , that a man may be in hell , and yet may be delivered out ; for as in all this discourse past , it appeares , that as we spring from adam , we do all lie under the bondage , and death , and power of the serpent , which is one part of hell , and yet god delivers his elect from out of it ; and therefore it followes cleare , that if men are capable of so much mercy , being gods creatures , as to be delivered from sin and death , which is one part of hell ; or of a condition below god , they are capable to be delivered through the mercy of the same god , from the sorrowes and paines that follow sin , both which are but the bondage of the serpent , which god will deliver his creature from : this twofold death is the serpents head , which god will bruise . a third scruple is , concerning the day of judgement : some think it is but one single day , of twenty foure houres long ; nay , some make it lesse , but the length of the twinkling of an eye , because the interpretation of scripture runs thus , that in the twinkling of an eye , at the sound of the last trumpet , the dead shall be raised up to judgement . but to answer this phrase , twinkling of an eye , it onely shewes that the day of judgement is very short in comparison of the dayes by-past ; like that in rev. . . and there was silence in heaven for the space of half an houre , which is not a direct halfe houre , according as men account , but it declares a very short time . therefore i conceive , this is not a single day , of . houres , but a longer time ; while the judge sits upon the judgement seat , judgeing the serpent , so long time it is called a day of judgement , because that is the work of this day , or tearm of time , or the full length of that dispensation ; as formerly it was called the day of moses , which was the time while that dispensation of the law continued in force , whereof moses was the mediator ; and so abraham desired to see my day , saith christ , and saw it , that is , the day and time that christ reignes as king in the power and law of love , in and over the saints , and this paul calls the day of christs rest . and this in the truth of it , is that which we call the sabbath day , or day of a christians rest ; and it is not one day in seaven , still typicall , as the jewish sabbath was , but it is the constant reign of christ in and over the saints , which is their rest , and which indeed is the substance of the jewish typicall sabbath ; as david saith , let the earth rejoyce , the lord reignes . and , a king shall reigne in the earth , saith jeremy , and his name shall bee called , the lord our righteousnesse . now christ , or the anointing , doth not reigne one single day in the seaven in his saints , but every day constantly , which is the substance of the jewish single sabbath ; therefore i wish that the gentile-christians could understand , that what the jewes did in the type , these are to perform in the substance , and it is not for the gentiles to worship in types , as did the jewes . again , the time of the indignation , or while god suffers the beast to reigne , is called , the day of the beast ; and god hath given her three dayes and a halfe to tread the holy citie under foot , or the space of moneths , which is three shapes , three discoveries of the reigne of the beast , or three degrees and half of the serpents reformation from bad to worse , from open prophanenesse to close hypocrisie ; and not the single dayes of a week . and so here it is called the day of judgement , from the work and businesse of the day , or full length of that dispensation , so that the great and generall day of judgment , from the time that the bodies of beleevers and unbelievers are raised out of the grave , till the son deliver up the kingdome to the father , i beleeve is a long time , of divers yeares ; the full length or shortnesse of it , god onely knowes , and reserves the time and season of that secret to himselfe ; but it is called the day of judgement , while the worke of judgement lasts ; as in our language it is called the day of assizes , though the sessions or businesse continue divers dayes . now all this day the condemned creatures lie under the dispensation of wrath , under the curse , and under weeping , wailing , and gnashing of teeth for anguish , and this hell , sorrow , or punishment , or death , is everlasting , because it continues the full time of the dispensation , & the worm never dies all the time , the fire and sense of wrath shall never goe out all the time , the fire of lust shall still be burning , and the smoak of blasphemy shall ascend upward , and they shal have no rest day nor night , and the fire of gods wrath shal still be scorching and consuming , which shall be an intollerable pain to the creature . therefore if any man or woman take liberty to sin , let them know this is a truth , they shall be condemned and die , and depart into everlasting fire , and punished in that hell , lie under the dispensation of wrath , and lie at gods mercy for delivery , so that those that will not now wait upon god in his time of long-suffering , or in the dispensation of his patience ; they shal wait upon god whether they will or no in the dispensation of wrath , in sorrow , which is intollerable , which is the second death . the first death i conceive , and i clearly see a truth in it , is adams death , or adams bondage to the serpent ; the second death is the serpents death , after god hath judged him , which is to lie under the wrath of god without end . now he that hath part in the first resurrection , that is , to be delivered from the bondage of the serpent , and raised up from the death of sin , and so made alive to god through the anointing ; over such a man , the second death , or the endlesse dispensation of wrath , which is prepared for the serpent , shall have no power . but if a man have not part in the first resurrection , and so enter not into the city new jerusalem , he shall then tast of the second death , which is the everlasting fire , prepared for the serpent & his seed , and it shal have power over him , and he shall lie under it for ever , that is , till the dispensation change , or till the mystery of god be finished , that the serpent , death , and hell is subdued , and cast into the lake , and the whole creation be set free , and the son deliuer up the kingdome to the father , and god become all in all , as at the beginning he was , before any opposite power appeared against him . but doth not god sit upon the throne of judgement before this great day of judgement appear ? yes , god & the lamb have sate upon the judgement seat , or throne , ever since adam delighted in his own fruit , or consented to the serpent , and god hath been judging the serpent , and bruising his head in every dispensation of his , ever since that time , and casting the serpent , that strong man , out of his elect. and by the powring out of the seven vials , and the sounding of the seven trumpets , declares how god hath been subduing the beast , the whore , and the false prophet , which hath been the severall appearances of the serpent under those names , by which he hath made warre with christ and his saints , so that god hath been about this work of judging the serpent long before this day of judgment came . then it seemes god hath two judgement dayes : no , it is all one ; for from adams time till the son deliver up the kingdome to the father , god hath sate upon the throne , judging the serpent ; but it pleased god so to establish his counsell , that he would not finish this mystery in a short time , but in severall degrees of times and seasons , which he hath reserued in his own power : and this great and last day , is the conclusion of this work , that the serpent shall be subdued under the feet of the whole creation , and be destroyed everlastingly , as it is written , judgement begins at the house of god ; and if it begin at us , saith peter , who are his temple , his little flock , his royall nation , his peculiar people , what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel ? why truly they must come to judgement too , but in the last day , or in the end of time ; so that it is not two judgement dayes , but all one day . and so to wind up all , i shall desire men to mind one thing , that though god hath in scripture declared seven great dispensations , or discoveries of his counsel , and each one clearer then the other ; yet in every one of these god sends forth severall other dispensations , or angels , for the carrying on of the work of that time , or season , which are discoveries of his glory ; for whatsoever comes from god is a spirituall power , not a dead work , but a living . as whatsoever came first from adam , it was a spiritual power , as pride , discontent , envie , and the whole body of unbeliefe , which slighted the being of god , and seekes to preferre a creature-being before him . this discovery of adam was a spiritual power , which is the very bondage which all creatures lie under , and it is an unclean and dead power , but not a living power . but whatsoever comes from god , is a particular angel , or lesser dispensation , as an assistant to the greater . as for example , when god took flesh , and appeared in the man christ jesus , it was the fifth great dispensation , and the angel of gods presence , and michael our prince , that stands before god for us . yet his sufferings in that day , or season of time , was called the dispensation of gods patience , wisdome and love , &c. the strength of patience is an angel of god . i mention this , because i know in my own experience , that if god set it home to others , as i find , it quiets the heart under what condition soever . if thou lie under sorrowes for sins , now know , that it is gods dispensation to thee , wait patiently upon him , hee will work a good issue in his time , but not in thy time . if thou lie under the temptations of men , of losses , of poverty , of reproaches , it is gods dispensation to thee , wait with an humble quiet spirit upon him , till he give deliverance . if thou lie under darknesse , emptinesse , and in a lost and wildernes-condition wait patiently ( it is his dispensation to thee ) till god speak ; for he will speak peace when thou thinkest least of it . if thou be filled with joy and peace through beleeving , wait with an humble thankfull heart still upon god , it is his dispensation to thee , and assure thy selfe , that now god begins to dispense out love to thee , he will still be feeding thee in dispensations , or discoveries of his love ; and he will never let thee lie under the sense of anger any more , for his freedome is a freedome indeed , to a full satisfaction ; the peace that he gives , none can , nor shall take away : and be sure he will never take it again , for the gifts and callings of god are without repentanct . and this is all i have to say concerning this truth . and i have done . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- gen. . . col. . . gen. . , . cant. . . . isaî. . . gen. . . ecces . . . genes . . . gal. . . cor. . . john . . kings . . rom. . gen. . . jer. . . col. . . isai. . . thes. . , . cor. . heb. . . cor. . . . isai. . ● . luke . . jer. . prov. . , . gen. . heb. . . luke . . tim. . . rom. . . cor. . . cor. . john . . cor. . . thes. . . rev. . . rev. . . . ephes : . . rom. . . rev. . . heb. . , . rev. . . john . . john . . rev. . , . mat. . . cor. . . rom. . . isai. . . cor. . . joh. . . john . . . rev. . , . john . . rev. . . mat. . &c. cor. . . joh. . rev. . . cor. . , . col. . . john . . rev. . , . rev. . . acts . rev. . . rev. . . gen. . . gen. . . luke . . heb. . . josh. . . hos. . . rev. . . rom. . . acts . cor. . . col. . jer. . john . . john . . john . mat. . isa. . . &c. john . . cor. . . john . . ephes. . . esa. . . mat. . . . rev. . . &c. rev. . . rev. . . rev. . . &c. rev. . . . rev. . . rev. . . rev. . . dan. . , . rev. . . rev. . . rev. . , . rev. . , . rev. . rev. . , . jude . cor. . . rev. . . luk. . . cor. . . rom. . . rev. . . john . . rev. . . mat. . . rev. . . rev. . . rom. . . rev. . . . rev. . . &c. thes. . . . rev. . . levit. . . num. . . acts . . isai. . . heb. . dan. . . rev. . . . acts . rev. . cor. . . dan. . . rev. . . pet. . . luk. , . a new theory of the earth, from its original to the consummation of all things wherein the creation of the world in six days, the universal deluge, and the general conflagration, as laid down in the holy scriptures, are shewn to be perfectly agreeable to reason and philosophy : with a large introductory discourse concerning the genuine nature, stile, and extent of the mosaick history of the creation / by william whiston ... whiston, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a new theory of the earth, from its original to the consummation of all things wherein the creation of the world in six days, the universal deluge, and the general conflagration, as laid down in the holy scriptures, are shewn to be perfectly agreeable to reason and philosophy : with a large introductory discourse concerning the genuine nature, stile, and extent of the mosaick history of the creation / by william whiston ... whiston, william, - . [ ], , , [ ] p., [ ] leaves of plates ( folded) : ill. printed by r. roberts for benj. tooke ..., london : . first ed. cf. dnb. advertisements: p. [ ]-[ ] at end. errata: p. [ ] at end. marginal notes. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . creation -- biblical teaching. bible and science. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion systema solare . a new theory of the earth , from its original , to the consummation of all things . wherein the creation of the world in six days , the universal deluge , and the general conflagration , as laid down in the holy scriptures , are shewn to be perfectly agreeable to reason and philosophy . with a large introductory discourse concerning the genuine nature , stile , and extent of the mosaick history of the creation . by william whiston , m. a. chaplain to the right reverend father in god , john lord bishop of norwich , and fellow of clare-hall in cambridge . london : printed by r. roberts , for benj. tooke at the middle-temple-gate in fleet-street . mdcxcvi . summo viro isaaco newton , apud londinenses societatis regalis , apud cantabrigienses suos collegij s. s. trinitatis socio dignissimo ; mathesews professori lucasrano longè celeberrimo ; necnon regio nummorum cusorum praefecto ; reipublicae , quoquò patet , literariae ornamento ; seculi , gentis , academiae egregio decori ; orbis philosophici delicijs . quirem praesertim mathematicam eousque excoluit , adauxit , dilatavit , ut ipsam physicam intra pomoeria sua complecti , & mundi systema , conatu inaudito , ditioni suae subjicere tandem aliquando audeat . quem morum candor & modestia ; quem sagax animus & penetrans ; quem assidui labores , indefessae vigiliae , industria incredibilis promovendis verae ac solidae sapientiae studijs unicè dicata ; quem rerum divinarum humanarumque hoc est universae philosophiae , peritia planè singularis ; quem demum philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica , auro contrà aestimanda , & mortalibus vix aut ne vix propalanda temerè , ultimae posteritati aeternùm commendabunt . exiguum hocce tentaminis philosophici spicilegium , è messe newtoniana primitùs sublectum ; subsidijs , consilijs , auspicijs potissimùm newtonianis acceptum , uti par est , referendum ratus , totum hoc , qualecunque sit , newtoni nomini , in omne aevum perennaturo , nuncupandum ; & , in grati animi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrandum censuit gulielmus whiston . . kal. jun. a. d. . a discourse concerning the nature , stile , and extent of the mosaick history of the creation . it being no inconsiderable part of the ensuing theory , to account for the creation of the world , agreeable to the description thereof in the book of genesis , it cannot but be very necessaryin this place , to discourse of the nature of that sacred history , the stile in which it is writ , and how far it is to be extended . the misunderstanding of which points has been , i think , the principal occasion of those perplexities and contrarieties into which men have run with relation to it ; while some have adher'd to the common and vulgar , tho' less rational exposition , without any consideration of nature , reason , philosophy , or just decorum in the several parts of it : and others , on the contrary , have been so sensible of the wildness and unreasonableness of that , that they have ventur'd to exclude it from any just sense at all ; asserting it to be a meer popular , parabolick , or mythological relation ; in which the plain letter is no more to be accounted for or believ'd , than the fabulous representations of aesop , or at best than the mystical parables of our saviour . of what mischievous consequence this latter is commonly esteem'd , i need not say ; a late excellent author , who thought it absolutely necessary to be introducd , having felt reflections sufficiently severe , and seen effects sufficiently mischievous of such an interpretation . and how unworthy of god , how incoherent and absurd the former exposition is in it self , and must be esteem'd by free and inquisitive thinkers , 't is not difficult to make appear to any impartial man , and shall in this discourse be particularly attempted . indeed i cannot but imagine that , as those who plead for the mythological sense , do it only because they suppose it impossible to give a commodious and rational scheme of it on any other hypothesis ; and therefore will easily and readily embrace any more literal interpretation which shall agree to the divine attributes , the reason of their own minds , and the true system of the world ; so i think those who , notwithstanding its apparent incongruities , adhere to the vulgar exposition , will have great reason to encourage , and rest satisfy'd in such an account , as shall at once keep sufficiently close to the letter of moses , and yet be far from allowing what contradicts the divine wisdom , common reason , or philosophick deductions : to both which therefore , i persuade my self this new attempt ought not to be unacceptable . but because the principal difficulty is likely to arise from the prejudices and prepossessions of the latter , and from the vulgar and common notions already fix'd in the minds of most men , relating to this mosaick creation ; i shall in this place chiefly have a respect to them , and endeavour to evince , that the notions they have entertain'd of the nature , stile , and extent of the creation of the world in six days , are false , precarious , and no less contrary to the holy scriptures themselves , than to sound reason and true philosophy . the proposition therefore which shall be the subject of this dissertation , and includes the whole point before us , shall be this : the mosaick creation is not a nice and philosophical account of the origin of all things ; but an historical and true representation of the formation of our single earth out of a confused chaos , and of the successive and visible changes thereof each day , till it became the habitation of mankind . that this proposition is exactly agreeable to that account , which in the following theory is given of this creation , will be evident upon the perusal thereof ; and that the same proposition is alike agreeable to the design and stile of the sacred penman in the first chapter of genesis , is what i am now to make appear ; and that i shall endeavour to do by the following arguments ; which tho' they might have been distinguish'd , and suited to the several branches of this assertion , yet for ease i shall wave that niceness , and set them down indifferently in that order they were put into by my own thoughts , before i intended to adapt them to the just form of the foregoing proposition ; strength of reasoning , more than exactness of composure , being the aim of the author in this whole theory : and if he be found to go upon solid grounds , he hopes the reader will never the less embrace the conclusions , because of the inaccuracy of the stile , or harshness of the periods ; which wholly to have avoided , he freely owns , would to him have been more tedious and operose than the work it self ; and so he hopes 't will not be expected from him by the inquisitive reader : which apology once for all he desires may be accepted , and call'd to mind whenever ( as too frequently it will ) there shall be occasion in the following pages . . the very first words of moses plainly imply , that the production of all the world out of nothing , which we usually stile creation , was precedaneous to the six days works , given an account of in the same chapter . in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth , says the scripture ; which is , as i take it , a preface or introduction to the following account , and may be thus paraphras'd : altho' that history of the origin of the world which shall now be given you , do not extend any farther , as will appear presently , than that earth we live upon , with those bodies which peculiarly belong to it ; and so the rest of the universe be not at all directly concern'd therein ; and altho ' the same history will not reach to the creation of the matter , but only production of the form , and disposition of the earth it self : yet , to prevent any misunderstanding , and obviate any ill effects of a perfect silence touching these things , i am oblig'd , by the divine command , to assure you , that the original of all beings whatsoever , was primarily owing to that same god of israel , whose works i am going to relate ; and that not only this earth , and all its bodies , but the vast frame of universal nature , was by him at first created out of nothing , and dispos'd into those several systems which now are extant , and make up what in the largest sense is stil'd heaven and earth , or the whole word . this sense of the words is allow'd by our late excellent commentatour , the right reverend the lord bishop of ely ; ( whose sentiments cannot but be justly valued by all who are conversant in his expositions of the holy scriptures ) and is i think clearly confirm'd by the following words ; and the earth was without form and void , and darkness was upon the face of the deep , and the spirit of god moved on the face of the waters . where 't is clear , that as soon as the holy writer descends to the description of the chaos , and the commencing of the six days creation , he mentions not a word of any production out of nothing ( before suppos'd and asserted to have been past and done , in the beginning ) he omits , and thereby evidently excludes that heaven , or those superior systems of the world already spoken of , from any place therein , and by the whole coherence plainly confines the narration following to the earth alone with its dependencies . moses does not say , as the common expositors do , that just at the commencing of the six days work , the earth , and all the rest of the world was originally produc'd ; but that , when god had ( formerly ) created all the world , which is usually distinguish'd into the heaven and the earth , the latter of these , ( the consideration whereof was alone pertinent to the present design ) at the time preceding the six days work , was in a wild , irregular , and dark condition ; or such a perfect chaos , as nothing but the power of god , and his spirit 's moving on , and influencing the same , could ever have reduc'd into a habitable world. this is a very easie and natural account of this matter , and i think the most obvious and genuine signification of the words themselves : and were not mens minds too much prejudic'd with other apprehensions , this alone might be sufficient to limit their thoughts , and prevent their enquiries after any creation of bodies out of nothing in the six days work ; and their stretching the same beyond the earth , either to the whole system of things , as the most do ; or indeed to the solar system , with which others are more modestly contented in the case . which two things once granted me , the propoposition we are now upon would soon be establish'd , and little farther labour become necessary . but that i may give all possible satisfaction , and lay this foundation firm , on which my account of the mosaick creation is intirely superstructed ; i shall more at large prove the same truths , craving the pardon of those readers who are already satisfy'd in these matters , if i shall seem to them to insist too long on a plain case ; as perhaps they may ( and that i think very justly ) esteem this to be . and indeed , the prejudices of men are here so great ; their fears of a philosophical hypothesis so rooted ; the attempts hitherto made have been so unsuccessful ; and besides , the honour of god in his holy word is so much concern'd ; and the usual expositions of this history of the origin of things is so poor , so jejune , so unbecoming the penman , much more the primary author of the same ; that a large and full discourse is but necessary ; and tho' it should prove somewhat prolix , will be , 't is hop'd , not improper ; but as well serviceable to religion as to philosophy , by rescuing this ancient , venerable , and sacred account of the origin of things , from such false and unwary glosses as have been , and still are put upon it ; as have rendred it , in the opinion of too many , an uncouth and incredible system , nay somewhat below some of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the imperfect traditions of the heathen world enabled them to describe . to proceed therefore in the arguments before us , i affirm , ii. that the words here us'd of creating , making , or framing of things , on which the main stress is laid ; in the stile of scripture are frequently of no larger importance than the proposition we are upon does allow ; and signifie no more than the ordering , disposing , changing , or new modelling those creatures which existed already , into a different , and sometimes perhaps a better , and more useful state than they were in before . i do not say this is the utmost , or only importance of these words ; i have already allow'd , that creating , in the first words of genesis , includes producing out of nothing ; and i add , that in our common creed , wherein we profess our faith in god the father almighty , maker of heaven and earth ; the words are , agreeably to the extent of the divine power , and the nature of that profession , to be taken in the same large and comprehensive sense : and the like is to be said of many other places of the holy scripture . but then i observe withal , that the other more narrow and limited sense is very common and familiar in the holy writings ; and therefore , where the subject matter and coherence requires it , as i think 't will be evident it does in the present case , these words both may and ought to be taken in the same acceptation . this signification of the two latter words make and frame , will , i suppose , be granted me by all ; and that the same is as true of the other create , the following texts will sufficiently evince ; and from the promiscuous use of them all , and others of a like importance , might however be very fairly suppos'd . if , says moses , the lord make a new thing , or create a creature , and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up . where none can imagine any thing produc'd out of nothing , but only such an unusual and miraculous disposal of things as would at once demonstrate god's vengeance against the wicked , and his absolute command over all creatures . thus god himself says , i form the light and create darkness ; i make peace and create evil ; i the lord do all these things : where the objects of the divine creation being not real and substantial beings , could not be capable of a proper production out of nothing : which also is the case in the verse immediately following , let righteousness spring up together ; i the lord have created it . thus also , says god by the same prophet , i create new heavens and a new earth : which , tho' the very case before us , yet would odly enough be expounded of an annihilation of the world , and a reproduction of it again . but what comes still more home to our purpose is , that in the very history of the creation it self , the word create , as well as make , is us'd in the sense we contend for ; the very same things being ascrib'd to the creating and making power of god , which are also describ'd as the regular offspring of the earth and seas : god created great whales , and every living creature that moveth ; which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind . and god said , let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind , cattel and creeping thing , and beast of the earth after his kind ; and it was so : and god made the beast of the earth after his kind , and cattel after their kind , and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind ; and god saw that it was good . so that when the words made use of in the history of the creation are there , and every where taken promiscuously ; when some of them are , by the confession of all , of no larger importance than the proposition before us will admit ; and when , lastly , that word , of which the greatest doubt can arise , has been prov'd not only in other texts of scripture , but in the very history of which we are treating , to be of no more determinate signification than the rest , and alike capable of the sense we here put upon it ; i think 't is a clear case , that if no argument can be drawn from such words for , yet neither can there justly be any against , that proposition we are now upon . iii. those synonymous phrases , the world ; or the heavens , and the earth , under which the object of the six days creation is comprehended every where in scripture , do not always denote the whole system of beings ; no nor any great and general portion of them ; but are in the sacred stile frequently , if not mostly , to be restrained to the terraqueous globe with its dependances ; and consequently both may , and if the subject matter require it , ought to be understood in such a restrained sense , and no other : that by these phrases the mosaick creation , or six days work is usually understood , is evident every where in scripture , as the following texts will easily evince : god who made the world , and all things therein . the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the world , and the world was made by him , and the world knew him not . hence those frequent expressions , from the foundation of the world , from the beginning of the world , from the creation of the world , and before the world was ; which , tho' capable of including more , must yet be allow'd to have generally a peculiar , nay sometimes a sole regard to the six days work , particularly stil'd by st. mark , the beginning of the creation which god created . in the same manner , and with the like frequency , the other phrase heaven and earth , denote the same six days work also : thus the heavens and the earth were finished , and all the host of them . these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created , in the day that the lord god made the earth and the heavens . in six days the lord made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that in them is , and rested the seventh day ; which being so express , i shall not need to look out for any other parallel places . and that both the world ; and heaven , and earth , signify the terraqueous globe alone , with its air or atmosphere and other appurtenances , without including the whole universe , nay , or solar system , also , ( which yet i do not deny sometimes to be comprehended therein ) the following texts will sufficiently shew . our lord says of the woman who poured the oyntment on him , wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world , there shall also this which this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her . his charge and commission to his apostles was , go ye into all the world , and preach the gospel to every creature . the tempter came to jesus , and shew'd him all the kingdoms of the world , and the glory of them . in all which places , no other than the habitable earth can be understood : and 't is still so frequent and natural for men to use this manner of speech in the same restrained sense to this very day , that one may the less wonder at the sacred stile in this case . but this word , the world , having not so much difficulty in it , nor being so much stood upon , as those which follow , the heavens and the earth , i shall no longer insist upon it , but proceed . and here , when the world , as a totum integrale , is divided into its two contradistinct parts , the heavens and the earth , it will be said , that by such a phrase or enumeration of the parts of the universe , no less can be meant than the whole world in the largest acceptation ; or however , more must be intended than the bare earth , which is but one member or branch , and so certainly less than that whole of which it is a part . in answer whereto , i freely confess , that the heavens and the earth do not seldom denote the intire universe , an instance of which the first words of genesis have already afforded us ; but that they always do so , i have reason to deny . as the signification of the earth is known , and capable of no ambiguity , so 't is quite otherwise in the word heaven , which in common use , and the sacred authors , sometimes refers to the seat of the blessed , or the third heaven ; sometimes to the place of the sun , moon , and stars ; and otherwhiles is no farther to be extended than the clouds , or the open expansum about the earth , where the air , atmosphere , meteors , clouds , and volatils , have their abode . instances of the two former significations , were it pertinent to my present purpose , might easily be produc'd ; but that not being so , i shall wave the same , and only prove the third and last signification , namely , that by the heavens is frequently understood nothing more than the atmosphere of the earth , with its appendant or contained bodies . thus , god made the firmament , and divided the waters which were under the firmament , from the waters which were above the firmament ; and it was so . and god called the firmament , heaven . which place is so express ; and in the very history it self , which we are now about also , that it ought to be of peculiar force in the present case . thus also the builders of babel said , go to , let us build us a city , and a tower , whose top may reach unto heaven . so mention is made of cities great and fenced up to heaven . the clouds pass by the name of the clouds of heaven ; nay , they are by the psalmist , ( agreeably to the interposition of the expansum , firmament or heaven on the second day of the creation between the superior and inferior waters ) made as it were its farthest boundaries and limits ; the waters contain'd in them being call'd , waters which are above the heavens . the very fowls , which still reside nearer to the earth , are stil'd the fowls of heaven ; and were originally appointed to fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven . by all which places 't is evident , that the word heaven is commonly so far from including the sun or planetary chorus , ( much less the fix'd stars , with all their immense systems ) that the moon , our attending and neighbour planet is not taken in : the utmost bounds of our atmosphere , being so of this our heaven also ; which was the only point which remain'd to be clear'd . but here , before i proceed farther , i must take notice of a considerable objection , which threatens to wrest this argument out of my hands , and indeed to subvert the intire foundation of the proposition before us ; and is , i freely own , the main difficulty in this whole matter ; and 't is this , that such a sense of the words , world , and heaven , and earth , as has been pleaded for , whatever may be said in other cases , will yet by no means fit here , nor take in all the extent of the mosaick creation ; because 't is certain , that neither the light , by whose revolution night and day are distinguish'd , nor the sun , moon , and stars , which are set in our firmament , belong to our atmosphere , or are contain'd within those boundaries , within which we confine the present history ; and 't is equally certain that both of them belong to the mosaick creation , and are the first and fourth days works therein ; and by consequence it may be said , the subject of the six days creation must be the whole system of the heavenly bodies , or at least that particular one in which the earth is , and is stil'd the solar system . now this objection is in part already taken off by the sense , in which the production and creation of things has been shewn to be frequently taken in the holy scriptures ; whereby there appears to be no necessity of believing these bodies to have been then brought into being , when they are first mention'd in the mosaick creation . but because this is not meerly the chief , but only considerable objection against the proposition we are upon ; because it seems to have been the principal occasion of men's mistakes and prejudices about this whole history ; and because 't is the single instance wherein this intire theory , as far as i know , seems to recede from the obvious letter of scripture ; 't will be but proper to give it a particular review , and clear withal , not only this , but several other like expressions and passages in the holy scripture . now , in order to the giving what satisfaction i can in this point ; let it be consider'd , that the light being not said to be created by moses , its original were without difficulty to be accounted for , if the other point , the making of the heavenly bodies were once setled , which therefore is the sole remaining difficulty in the case before us . and that would be no harder , if the translation of the words of moses were but amended , and the verses hereto relating , read thus , and god said , let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven , to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs , and for seasons , and for days and years ; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven , to give light upon the earth , and it was so . and god having ( before ) made two great lights , the greater light to rule the day , and the lesser light to rule the night ; and having ( before ) made the stars also , god set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth , &c. or which is all one , and god had ( before ) made two great lights , the greater light to rule the day , and the lesser light to rule the night ; he had ( before ) made the stars also , and god set them in the firmament , &c. in which rendring , 't is only changing the perfectum for the plusquam perfectum , and every thing is clear and easy , and the objection vanishes of its own accord ; the creation of the heavenly bodies being hereby assigned to a former time , and the work of the fourth day no other than the placing them in our firmament , according as the account hereafter to be given does require . now to prove this a fair and just interpretation ( to omit the creation of the heavens and heavenly bodies already related before the six days work ) 't is only necessary to observe that the hebrew tongue having no plusquam perfectum , must and does express the sense of it by the perfectum ; and that accordingly , the particular circumstances of each place must alone determine when thereby the time present , and when that already past and gone , is to be understood . how many knots in the scripture the omission of this observation has left unsolv'd , and which being observ'd would be immediately untied , i shall not go about to enumerate , there being so many in the very history before us , of the origin of the world , that i shall not go one jot farther for instances to confirm the before-mention'd translation ; and which , on the account of their agreement in place , will more forcibly plead for a like agreement in sense also . on the seventh day god had ended his work which he had made , and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made . — he had rested from all his work which god had created and made . — the lord god had not caused it to rain on the earth , and there had not been a man to till the ground ; but there had gone up a mist from the earth , and had water'd the whole face of the ground ; and the lord god had formed man of the dust of the ground , and had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life . — and the lord god had planted a garden eastward in eden . — and out of the ground had the lord god made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight , and good for food . — and out of the ground the lord god had formed every beast of the field , and every fowl of the air . — in all which places the whole context is so clear'd by this rendring , and so many strange absurdities avoided , that there is , i think , all imaginable reason to acquiesce in it . and tho' the fourth days work is among those other , where no such alteration need be made , in which therefore it may seem hard to allow of a single instance against the use in the precedent and subsequent context in the first chapter , yet the circumstances of that day being peculiar ; the like mixture of the persectum and plusquam perfectum being in the second chapter , and in other places of scripture to be observed ; and a distinct work being still hereby preserv'd to that day , the placing the sun , moon , and stars , in our firmament , which otherwise is after a sort double ; do all in good measure , take away the force of such reasoning , and conspire to allow us that interpretation before given , and thereby to secure the proposition before us from that grand objection which seemed capable of causing so great an obstruction in our course . but if any should be dissatisfied with this answer , i shall , for their sakes , enter deeper into this matter ; and , without any assistance from what has been already said , endeavour to establish the proposition before us , and take away the foundation of the present difficulty . and here i observe , that the scripture all along accommodates its self to the vulgar apprehensions of men , with relation to such points of natural philosophy as they were not able to comprehend ; and in particular , with relation to the site , distance , magnitude , use , and motions of the heavenly bodies . tho' these be really very distinct , as well as distant from the earth , with all its dependances ; yet are they rarely , if ever , so consider'd in the holy scriptures . they are all along there represented as fiery luminaries plac'd in our atmosphere , and as much belonging to , and depending on the earth as the clouds , meteors , or other aerial phaenomena : and so 't is no wonder that in the history before us , they are included among the rest of their fellows , and come within the verge of the mosaick creation , notwithstanding its limits be no larger than we here assign thereto . in order to the accounting for which things , i shall , ( . ) shew the truth of the observation , in several instances from the holy scriptures . ( . ) shew the rational original and occasion of such ways of speaking . ( . ) explain what , according to my notion , must be meant by the creation or production of these heavenly bodies in the mosaick history before us , and demonstrate such a construction to be agreeable to the sacred stile in other places . ( . ) assign some reasons , why , in a history of the origin of our earth , these remote and distant bodies come to be taken notice of , tho' their own proper formation did not at all belong to it . ( . ) i shall shew the truth of the observation , in several instances from the holy scriptures ; namely , that the heavenly bodies are no otherwise there described than with relation to our earth , and as members and appurtenances of our atmosphere . and this observation is confirm'd by the first mention that is made of them in this very history we are upon ; all the circumstances whereof fully attest the truth of what is here affirm'd of them . when the light first display'd it self , notwithstanding those numberless advantages accruing to the whole world therefrom , none are taken notice of but such as respect our sublunary world. 't was intirely with regard to our light and darkness , our day and night , that all was done , as far as can be collected from the words of moses . thus , as soon as the heavenly bodies are made , tho' they be universally useful , they are plac'd in the firmament of heaven , ( a phrase us'd in this history for our air only ) to divide our day from night , to be to us for signs and seasons , for days and years ; to be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth ; to rule over our day and night , to divide our light from darkness , and as to the order of their introduction , 't is not that of their proper greatness or dignity , but that of their respective appearance and uses here below . all which is far from a full account of the real original , universal intentions , and true places of these glorious bodies ; but on the supposition here made use of , exactly easy and natural . agreeably whereto when our air is clogg'd with gross vapours , so as to hide or disfigure their faces to us , the sun is said to be turn'd into darkness , the moon into blood ; and when some aerial meteors , call'd by their names , and for a moment resembling them , shoot and drop down in the air ; the stars are said to fall from heaven . the sun and moon , as if they were two globes of fire and light pendulous in our air , and hanging over certain places , are order'd to stand still , the one upon gibeon , the other in the valley of aijalon . the sun is represented as set in a tabernacle , rejoycing as a gyant to run his race . his going forth , is said to be from the end of heaven , or the horizon , and his circuit unto the ends of it . all which expressions , with many others through the whole bible , plainly shew , that the scripture did not intend to teach men philosophy , or accommodate it self to the true and pythagorick system of the world. the holy writers did not consider the heavenly bodies absolutely , as they are great and noble in themselves , main and glorious parts of the universe , very distinct from our earth , plac'd at various and immense distances from it , and from one another ; design'd for , and subservient to many , wise , and comprehensive ends and methods of the divine providence ; dispos'd in a regular order , in proportionate and harmonious periods and revolutions , and finally endued with mighty powers and influences with respect to numerous and vast systems of beings . under such a consideration we might have expected another sort of representation of the heavenly bodies , their original , designs , courses , and circumstances , than the foregoing texts , or their parallels every where afford us . but if we look on them under the notion of neighbour-luminaries , which are situate at the utmost bounds of our atmosphere , and belong , as well as the clouds , to our earth ; which are appointed to be our peculiar attendants , and a part of our retinue ; serve our single necessities , and every day rise and set on purpose to provide for our advantage and convenience : if i say , we thus look upon them , ( as all men not otherwise taught by philosophy do and must ) the texts above-cited , and the whole current of the holy books will easily accord and correspond to such a system . and i dare appeal to any impartial and competent judge , to which of the foremention'd schemes the most obvious and easy sense of the expressions of scripture hereto relating are adapted ; and whether it does not usually speak as an honest and inquisitive countryman , who no more doubted of the heavenly bodies , than of the clouds appertaining to the earth ; rather than as a new astronomer , who knew them to be vastly distant from , and to have nothing in a peculiar manner to do with the same . which will be less wondred at when we consider in the next place , ( . ) the reason and occasion of such ways of speaking . and here i shall not content my self in general to observe , that the design of divine revelation was of quite another nature , than requir'd a nice adjustment and philosophick explication of the natural world ; that the capacities of the people could not bear any such things ; that the prophets and holy penmen themselves , unless over-rul'd by that spirit which spake by them , being seldom or never philosophers , were not capable of representing these things otherwise than they , with the vulgar , understood them : that even , still , those who believe the true system of the world , are forc'd among the vulgar , and in common conversation to speak as they do , and accommodate their expressions to the notions and apprehensions of the generality of mankind . i shall not , i say , content my self with such observations , most of which are usually , and with good reason , insisted on in the present case ; but rather attempt to find out the true origin and source of such notions and expressions , made use of , as by most other writers , so especially by the sacred ones in the holy bible . god has so fram'd the eyes of men , that when the distance of bodies , and their proper magnitude is very great , they shall both be imperceptible to us . there is every way from our eye a spherical distance or superficies which terminates our distinct perception of objects , and beyond which , all distances and magnitudes , absolutely considered , are not by us distinguishable . the clouds , tho' , lying parallel to the horizon , they are ( so far as comes at once within our view ) almost in the same plain , yet to us they seem bent into a concave figure , or kind of hemispherical superficies , equidistant almost on every side from its center , the eye of the spectator , and so seem every way to touch the ground at a mile or two's distance from him . and this happens by reason of the imperfection of our sight , which distinguishing remote objects but to a certain distance , beyond which the clouds are , can have no other idea of their situation than small and like objects at that spherical superficies would excite . on which principle 't is certain , that till geometrick and philosophick principles rectify mens notions , all bodies whatsoever beyond the clouds , such as the coelestial are , must needs be esteem'd at the same equidistant superficies with the clouds , and appear among them ; and by consequence 't would be on this account , as possible for the vulgar to be persuaded that the clouds were vastly remote from , and bear no relation to this earth , as that the sun , moon , and stars were so ; and to them as strange to have found no account of the formation of them with that of the other visible world , as the omission of the clouds would have been . it being impossible that the sun , for instance , tho' so many thousands of miles distant , should to us appear above one or two from us ; and alike impossible that his bigness , tho' so many thousand miles in diameter , should appear to be as many feet to us on earth : as all who have any skill in opticks very well know . so that when these heavenly bodies are and must needs be to our sight and imagination at the same distance with the clouds , and consequently , as to us , are with them plac'd in our own air ; when their visible magnitude , situation , motion , and habitudes , are all one with respect to us , as if they really were light and fiery balls rowling upon or among the clouds ; when their apparent changes , figures , colour , countenance , effects , and influences would be ( as far as sense and vulgar observation could determine ) on this earth , and to its inhabitants , the very same as were to be expected from such light and fiery balls , revolving at the presumed distance ; when all wise men , especially the sacred penmen , in their writings design'd for the advantage and instruction of all , condescend still to the apprehensions and capacities of men , and speak of the being of things as they constantly appear ; of which the bible is full of instances : all these things consider'd , 't is not to be wonder'd at , that the heavenly bodies are accounted appendages of our earth , and agreeably thereto made mention of in the mosaick creation . ( . ) i shall explain what , according to my notion , must be meant by the creation or production of these heavenly bodies in the history before us ; and demonstrate such a construction to be agreeable to the sacred stile in other places . now 't is easy to tell what is meant by their creation in the case before us , when it has appear'd that their production out of nothing was precedaneous to the six days work , and that they are wholly consider'd as belonging to our earth , and plac'd in our air ; viz. their primary being so plac'd ; their first becoming visible to men on earth , or in other words , their original appearing to be there . i mean in plain english , light is said then first to be , ( for it being an effect of the heavenly bodies , not a distinct thing from them , is not by moses said to be made or created ) when the superior regions of the chaos were become so far clear and defecate , that the rays of the sun in some degree could penetrate the same , enough to render a sensible distinction between night and day , or that space the sun was above , and that it was beneath the horizon . and agreeably , the sun , moon , and stars , are then said first to be , or to be made , when afterwards the air was rendred so very clear and transparent , that those luminaries became conspicuous , and their bodies distinctly visible , as in a clear day or night they now appear to us . that this exposition is agreeable to the scripture stile , is evident by this observation ; that several things are there assirm'd to be , in any certain manner , when only those effects we feel are such as they would be were they so indeed ; and 't is not unusual to assert the being of any cause , when all those consequences are no otherwise in the world , and with regard to men than they must and would be upon its real existence , without any exacter niceness as to the truth of the same . thus god is said several times to repent of somewhat he has before done , when his future actions are the very same as would in humane , as well as divine affairs , be the certain consequents of a proper repentance : thus also god is said to be pleas'd or angry with men , and that in a very passionate and sensible manner , when he confers such great mercies , or inflicts such great judgments , as , were he really so , he must naturally do . thus also eyes and ears are frequently suppos'd of god , because he as certainly is conscious of all the actions and speeches of men , as if he really saw and heard the same . in a different instance , the sun is said to stand still or move , tho' in propriety of speech , as is now well known , those affections ought to be ascrib'd to the earth , because every thing , as to sensible appearance , is in the same condition as from the annual and diurnal motions of the sun , were they real , must , and would obtain . the sun is said to be turned into darkness , and the moon into blood , when without any alteration in themselves , they appear of a dark or bloody countenance to the inhabitants of the earth . nay , which is most of all to our present purpose , god is then said to make all things new , and to create a new heaven , and a new earth , when he so changes the constitution and state of our earth , as to render thereby this whole sublunary world very different from , and much excelling that which formerly appear'd . in all which , and innumerable other instances , 't is plain and evident , that the holy writers do not consider merely how things are in themselves , but how they are to us ; not what is their proper nature , but visible appearance in the world. but here , lest this doctrine should be abus'd , i must interpose this necessary caution , that such a liberty is neither by other authors , nor the sacred penmen taken on all occasions , or in every case ; but peculiarly when the sublimity of the matter , the capacities of the people , the more easie instilling useful principles into men , or some other weighty reason , requires such an accommodation . 't is chiefly with regard to the spiritual nature , and sublime way of operation in god ; or such physical and philosophick truths , as relate to distant , invisible , or inaccessible bodies ; the absolute essence or affections whereof , were not explicable to the vulgar in a plain and natural manner . in which cases this liberty in the interpretation of scripture is , with the greatest justice to be allow'd . but 't were thence very unreasonable to extend it to all others , or indeed to any , where the same , or as good , reasons were not assignable . he who should argue , that because the literal sense of scripture about the corporeal members , and humane passions of the divine nature , is not to be strictly urg'd , that therefore when he is call'd a spirit , and represented as the rewarder of good , and the punisher of bad men , those expressions are no more to be depended on ; or he who should infer , that because the first and fourth days works , the origin of light , and the making of the heavenly bodies , must not be strictly literal , that therefore neither in the mosaick creation , ought the other four to be any more esteemed so ; he , i say , that should thus argue or infer , would be very unfair and unreasonable ; because he would assert that in one case , without ground , which on peculiar and weighty ones alone was allow'd in another . thus those things that are ascrib'd to god , which evidently agree to his nature , and idea , are surely to be literally understood ; tho' the other which are repugnant thereto be not : and in like manner , 't is but just to believe , that so much of the mosaick creation , as related directly to the earth and its appurtenances , and so came at once within the comprehension of the history , and of the capacities of the readers , ought literally to be interpreted ; tho' some things extraneous to the formation of the earth , and beyond the notice of the people , be to be taken in a different acceptation . tho' the common use of tropes and figures make our speech very often not to be literal , yet generally we can understand one another very well without danger of deception , or of turning plain sentences into allegorical discourses , in our conversation one with another . and 't is evident that the holy books ought not to be tormented or eluded , as to their obvious sense , on every occasion , under pretence that some particular texts are to be construed another way . that sacred rule ought for ever religiously to be observed , that we never forsake the plain , obvious , easie and natural sense , unless where the nature of the thing it self , parallel places , or evident reason , afford a solid and sufficient ground for so doing . now this being presuppos'd ; i shall leave it to the impartial reader to judge , after the perusal of this whole discourse , whether i have not substantial reasons for the present exposition ; and whether therefore , any one ought to blame my receding from the letter in this single case , or imagine that i give a just handle thereby to others , to allegorize this history of the creation , or any other parts of scripture . and i must here own and profess , that tho' i think , in case the common translation be receiv'd , there is an absolute necessity of receding from the letter in the point before us , and that this venerable and sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or history of the creation , is otherwise in the highest degree , strange and unaccountable to the free reason of mankind ; yet i am fully of opinion , that generally the difficulties occurring in the sacred books are to be clear'd , not by a greater receding from , but a closer adhering to the obvious and most natural interpretation of the periods therein contain'd : and that the general nature of the scripture stile every where duely observ'd and consider'd , several great scruples with relation to the actions and providence of god , and other things contain'd in those books , would be taken away , if we might be allow'd to recede a little from the receiv'd opinions of men , and placits of systematical authors ; on no other condition than that , for a recompence , we keep so much the closer to the oracles of god , and the obvious and literal interpretation of them ; and explain the bible no otherwise than the plain words themselves would appear most naturally to intend to any disinterested and unconcern'd person : of which many instances might easily be given , were this a proper place for it . but i must leave this digression , and return to what i before propos'd in the ( . ) last place , viz. to assign some reasons why in a history of the origin of our earth , these remote and distant bodies come to be taken notice of , tho' their own proper formation did not at all belong to it . now tho' many might easily be alledg'd for this procedure , yet i shall include the main i intend here to insist on in the two following : ( . ) the advantage of the jews , or securing them from the adoration of the host of heaven , could not otherwise have been provided for . now as the foundation of such idolatry is taken away by their being included in this history , which imply'd them to be such dependent and created beings , as could have no influence of their own , but what were deriv'd from god ; and consequently were subject to his disposal and government ; which affirm'd them to be by him plac'd in the firmament , and there subjected to such motions , rules and laws , by which they became advantageous and serviceable to the world : so had they been taken no notice of , they would have seem'd exempted bodies , and when all worship of terrestrial things was demonstrated , by this account of their original , to be foolish and absurd ; that of the celestial bodies would seem thereby to be permitted at least , if not patroniz'd and recommended to ' em . for when , as we have before observ'd , 't was impossible for the jews to know the real state of the case , and to apprehend that they were vastly remote from , and so no way belonging to this earth , or its formation ; there was no other way to apply a fitting remedy , to that prevailing custom of worshiping the host of heaven , ( so particularly caution'd by moses ) but to condescend to the capacities of the people , and supposing them light and fiery globes pendulous in the air , and revolving just beyond or among the clouds , to recount their respective , as well as the real formation of the other parts of the visible world , and assign them their proper place , and distinct period in the six days work , as well as any other more directly concern'd therein . the sun , moon , and stars were such noble and glorious bodies , and so visible , so remarkable , so useful parts of the world ; and the heathen nations so generally doted on the worship of them ; that had they been intirely omitted in this particular account of the origin of things , there would have been the most eminent danger of this kind of idolatry among the jews ; and the seeming approbation of that practice , to which they were so prone before , from the silence of their great lawgiver in his creation of the world , might probably have defy'd all dissuasions , and been the most fatal encouragement to them , to so vile a worship that were easie to be imagin'd . any particular declaration of the reasons of such omission , from the real distance , magnitude , motions , and designs of the said bodies , and how improperly they could be reduc'd within the said narration , ( the only precaution supposable in the case ) being more likely to discredit the whole book , than overcome their prejudices , than give them a true and just idea of the matter it self , and so obviate their false reasonings and practices thereupon in the foremention'd idolatry . so that 't was absolutely necessary to include the heavenly bodies in the mosaick creation , in order to prevent idolatry among the jews : which seems to have been a principal aim not only of recording this whole narration , but of the intire mosaick dispensation : and therefore was in the first place by all means to be consider'd . ( . ) the peculiar nature and circumstances of this history of the creation , necessarily require the mention of the heavenly bodies , as well as of any other parts of the visible world. and 't is this mistake that has hitherto hindred any rational account thereof ; that men have either suppos'd it a real and philosophical relation of the proper creation of all things ; or a meer mythological and mysterious reduction of the visible parts of it to six periods or divisions , under which mighty mysteries were suppos'd to be hid , and by which the foundation of a seventh-day sabbath was to be laid among the jews . now tho' somewhat of truth i believe be contained in each of these different notions ; yet i think 't is undeniable that they are neither of them to be acquiesced in , and by no means give a satisfactory account of the compleat nature and kind of this history . that alone to which all its particulars exactly answer , and which is as literal and philosophical as the capacities of the jews could expect or reach , and did require , is , an historical journalor diary of the mutations of the chaos , and of the visible works of each day , such an one as an honest and observing spectator on the earth would have made , and recorded , nay and believ'd to be in all cases the truth and reality of the things themselves . now that this idea alone fits this sacred history , might easily be made out by the consideration of the particulars related , and of those omitted , with all the other circumstances thereof , by no means corresponding to any other hypothesis ; but most exactly to this before us ; without the least force offer'd to the nature and system of the world , to the divine perfections , or the free reason of mankind ; and exactly suitable to the stile of the holy books , in the mention of the phaenomena of the natural world in other places . which being suppos'd ( and by that time this dissertation is consider'd throughout , i hope 't will appear no precarious supposition , ) 't is evident that both the appearance of light , and of the bodies themselves , the sun , moon and stars , ( the things we are now enquiring about , ) must as certainly come within such a journal , and make as remarkable turns and changes in the world , as far as this spectator could judge , as any other within the intire six days could possibly do . the appearance of light to him who never before is suppos'd to have seen such a thing , and was till then incompass'd with the thickest darkness ; and the plain view of the heavenly bodies themselves to him who before had no manner of notion of 'em , especially when he had no possible means of distinguishing them from light and fiery balls , situate with , and pertaining to the clouds ; must as certainly have inferr'd a new creation , and under such a notion have been recorded in their due place in the journal before-mention'd , as any other whatsoever ; and their order , position , and uses would naturally be recounted no otherwise than we now find them in the mosaick creation . from which consideration i think 't is not at all surprizing , that these parts of the visible world , how remote and seperate soever they be from our earth in themselves , are yet included in this history before us ; and have their distinct periods in the six days work ; tho' at the same time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self do properly relate to the formation of the sublunary world only . iv. i prove that the history before us , extends not beyond the earth and its appendages , because that confused mass , or rude heap of heterogeneous matter , which we call the chaos , whence all the several parts were deriv'd , extended no farther . it will here i suppose be allow'd me , that the ancient chaos , so famous among the old philosophers , and so evidently refer'd to by moses , was the intire and single source or promptuary of the six days productions ; and that consequently nothing ought to be esteem'd a part of that creation , but what in its rudiments and principles was so of the chaos also ; and this postulatum is so agreeable to moses , as well as all the antient accounts of the chaos , and i think so suitable to the sentiments of most men , that i shall , without farther proof , suppose it granted , and betake my self immediately to the other branch of the argument , and endeavour to evince , that the chaos was so far from comprehending the intire matter of the universe , nay or of the solar system , that it reach'd not so far as the moon , nor indeed any farther than that terraqueous globe we now inhabit , with such bodies as are immediately contiguous and appertaining thereto . which i think the following arguments will sufficiently demonstrate . ( . ) if we appeal to external nature , and enquire what confused masses or chaos's either at present are , or ever , within the annals of time , were extant in the visible world , we shall discover no footsteps of any such thing , excepting what the atmosphere of a comet affords us . if therefore , without the allowance of precarious and fanciful hypotheses , relying on no known phaenomena of nature ; a comet 's atmosphere be the sole pretender , if moreover the same atmosphere gives a just , adequate , primitive , and scriptural idea of that ancient chaos ; if it answers its particular phnooemena , recounted by sacred or prophane history ; if it prove a peculiarly fit foundation of such an earth as ours is , and is extraordinarily adapted to suit , and account for its present and past phaenomena ; all which shall be prov'd hereafter ; i think we may cease our farther enquiries , and with the highest reason and justice conclude , that a comet , or more peculiarly the atmosphere thereof , was that very chaos , from whence that world arose , whose original is related in the mosaick history : and with equal reason and justice be satisfi'd , ( which is but a certain consequent thereof ) that not the innumerable systems of the fixt stars , not the narrower system of the sun , nay nor the moon her self , but our earth alone , was the proper subject of the mosaick creation . which conclusion will be farther establish'd by the coincidence of the several days works recounted by moses , with those natural and orderly mutations which , in the digestion and formation of a planet from a comet 's atmosphere , would mechanically proceed , as hereafter will appear . ( . ) the chaos mention'd by moses is by him expresly call'd the earth , in contradistinction to the heavens , or the other systems of the universe ; and all its parts taken notice of in the sacred history , appear , by the following series of the scriptures , to belong to our earth and no other . the words of moses are , in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth ; and the earth was without form and void , and darkness was upon the face of the deep ; and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters . where i think 't is plain , as has been already observ'd , that when the author comes to the chaos or foundation of the six days work , he excludes the heavens from any share therein , and calls the chaos it self an earth , without form and void , with darkness upon the face of its abyss ; and this all ought to grant , these being the very words from which 't is concluded that the heathen chaos was no other than what moses deriv'd the world from . and that the chaos is here confin'd to the earth , will be sure put past doubt by the latter part of this argument , which observes no other parts to be mention'd belonging thereto , than such as the succeeding series of the holy scriptures shews to have afterward belong'd to our earth and no other , viz. an abyss or deep , and waters : both of them frequently mention'd in the holy books , and now actual parts of the present globe , as will appear hereafter . so that when moses calls his chaos expresly the earth ; when by the coherence of his discourse he excludes the heavens , taken in a large and proper sense , from the same ; when , lastly , he mentions no other parts of this chaos than such as afterward , and at this day , are parts of our earth ; 't is somewhat unaccountable , and like a kind of fate upon commentators , that they should unanimously resolve to make this chaos of so extravagant a compass as they too incongruously do ; and that they should agree in it so universally , tho' without any warrant from , nay contrary to , the obvious sense of the text it self , and the plain drift , coherence and description of moses therein . i know it will be said the first and fourth days works , ( the origin of light , and of the sun , moon and stars ) necessitated such a supposition , and gave just cause for the common exposition . which as i believe to have been the true occasions of all such mistaken glosses , so i think them far from just and necessary ones ; and if what has been already said has clear'd those difficulties , there can be no reason to reject the cogency of the present argument , but a great deal to rest satisfi'd in it ; and to confess it no less unscriptural than 't is absurd , to expect from this single chaos , a sun , moon , and systems of fix'd stars , as hitherto the world has commonly done . ( . ) the mosaick and ancient chaos could not include the sun or fix'd stars , because just before the extraction of light from it , as 't is usually explain'd , it was dark and caliginous ; which on such a supposition is not conceivable . a strange darkness this ! where more than ninety nine parts of an hundred ( whether we take in the intire system of the world , or the solar system only ) appear to be fiery corpuscles , and the very same from whence all the fix'd stars , or at least the sun , were constituted ; and are now the fountain of all that light and heat which the world has ever since enjoy'd . let every unbiass'd person judge , how dark that chaos could be , where the opake and obscure parts were so perfectly inconsiderable in comparison of the light , the active , and the fiery ones . so that on this hypothesis , the state of the chaos must have been exceeding light , hot , and fiery , before the first days work ; when it was on the contrary , according to all antiquity , sacred and profane , dark and caliginous . 't is true , upon the separation of the particles of light ( the business , in this hypothesis , of the first day ) the chaos would become obscure and dark enough , at the same time that the sun , or fix'd stars , were collecting their masses so lately extracted , and were growing splendid and glorious . but this is to contradict the history , according to which the light , on the first day , is consider'd with relation to the chaos , and its distinguishing night and day there , not as it was collecting into bodies of light without it ( which rather must belong to the fourth days work ) ; when by this account 't is evident , that this day is the peculiar time for the most pitchy darkness possible . for when all the light was just separated from the chaos , the most caliginous night must certainly ensue . so that unless we can change the order in moses , and prove that the chaos before the first days work was all over light , and on the first day cover'd with the thickest darkness , we in vain pretend to justifie the vulgar opinion , and include the sun or fix'd stars among the other matter of the chaos . besides , when heat is the main instrument of nature in all its separations of parts , and productions of bodies , 't is sure a very improper season just then to extract the light and fiery corpuscles out of the chaos , when the formation of things began , and there was the principal occasion for their presence and efficacy , that ever was or could possibly be . a strange method of generation ! to take away the cause at the very instant when it was to produce its effects , and to recount the effects not before , but as soon as ever the cause is taken away ! but to proceed . ( . ) the now undoubted property of the universal gravitation of matter , contradicts and overthrows this fancy of the heavenly bodies having been originally included in , and at the creation extracted from the chaos of which we are speaking . for on this hypothesis when once they were mingled with the parts of the earth , and are since at immense distances from it , they must have fled off every way from their former place , and in a small space of time have thrown themselves to those vastly remote seats which they have ever since possess'd . now if instead of the vis centripeta , a vis centrifuga ; instead of mutual attraction , a mutual repulse or avoidance were found to be the standing unchang'd law of nature , and property of matter , this might have look'd like a possible , at least , if not a probable hypothesis ; and the whole order of nature ever since need not have been contradicted in this primary formation of things . but when the contrary force , that i mean of mutual tendency , attraction , or gravitation obtains , and that , as far as we have any means of knowing , universally , which mr. newton has demonstrated , there is no room or foundation in nature for such an imagination . 't is by no means impossible that all the bodies in the universe should approach to one another , and at last unite in the common center of gravity of the intire system : nay from the universality of the law of gravitation , and the finiteness of the world , in length of time , without a miraculous power interpose and prevent it , it must really happen . but by what law of nature , or property of bodies , they , when once conjoin'd , ( as those i now oppose must affirm ) should be separated , 't is hard to conceive . which difficulty is increas'd by the prodigious velocity of their motions ; when , according to the vulgar hypothesis , but a few hours can be allow'd the heavenly bodies to waft them to those immensly , yet variously distant seats , which they were immediately and for ever after to possess . all which harsh and ungrounded fictions are intirely avoided , and all things represented according to the known laws of matter and motion , in that natural and easie hypothesis we take , and which therefore is as consonant to , as the other is averse from , the make and constitution of the natural world. ( . ) this fancy , that the heavenly bodies proceeded originally from the terrestrial chaos , and cast themselves off from it every way , supposes the earth to be the center of the world , or of all that system of bodies , and they plac'd in a kind of circumference every way about it . how well soever such a notion would agree with the vulgar or ptolomaick system of the world , i fear the pythagorean , which has forc'd its reception , and is universally receiv'd by astronomers , will not at all square therewith . in that account which would only include the planetary or solar system within the six days creation , the sun , it s known and undoubted center , seems the only proper place for such a chaos as were to be the common source and promptuary of the whole : but in the vulgar account , where all the stars and planets of the universe are to be suppos'd at a center together , we , who know not the bounds and circumference of the world , cannot be suppos'd able to pitch upon a center proper for so immense and strange a chaos . only one may venture to say , that the earth , a small moveable planet , revolving about the sun , is an ill-chosen one however . and now upon a recollection and view of this whole argument , i do not question but an unprejudic'd person , who knew nothing of the sentiments of commentators , or of the opinions of the vulgar , and who had only been conversant in the works , and word of god , the book of external nature , and the book of scripture , would easily find the bounds of the mosaick creation ; and on a little consideration and comparison of the sacred and profane accounts of the primitive chaos , with the present nature and situation of the heavenly bodies , would quickly be convinc'd that our earth alone were therein concern'd ; he could scarce be suppos'd once to dream that the origin of the sun and planets , much less of innumerable suns and planets , and of the intire universe , was there accounted for . such notions , how general soever , are not the result of nature and scripture carefully consider'd and compar'd one with another , but the effects of ignorance of the frame of the world , and of the stile of scripture ; of an unacquaintedness with the works , and thence an inability of judging concerning the word of god relating to them ; or indeed commonly of a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or narrowness of soul , which temper , education , conversation , application to some particular studies and authors , with a strangeness to free and generous enquiries , some or all have been the unhappy occasions of . in short , 't is because men are not able to give themselves or others a satisfactory account of such things , that they are forced to fall into a beaten path , and content themselves with those poor and jejune schemes , which , when carefully examin'd , prove neither rational nor scriptural , but as perfectly contradictory to sound philosophy , as the genuine sense of those very texts on which they build their conclusions . every unbyass'd mind would easily allow , that like effects had like causes ; and that bodies of the same general nature , uses , and motions , were to be deriv'd from the same originals ; and consequently , that the sun and the fixed stars had one , as the earth , and the other planets another sort of formation . if therefore any free considerer found that one of the latter sort , that planet which we inhabit , was deriv'd from a chaos ; by a parity of reason he would suppose , every one of the other to be so deriv'd also ; i mean each from its peculiar chaos . nay truly i might carry this matter still higher , and if one planet must be made parent to another , justly claim the principal place for jupiter , about sixty times as big as our earth , and the largest and most considerable of all the sun's chorus ; and so with greater shew of probability assert , that from its chaos any of the other planets were deriv'd , than himself from theirs . particularly the earth is so small a globe , that in point of dignity or origination , very many of the celestial bodies may most fairly claim the precedence of her , and curb her aspiring pretensions to any such mighty prerogatives above her fellows . there is in reality no occasion for any such childish reasoning on either side ; and every one of the planets ( especially the moon , so exactly resembling her sister earth ) ought to be deduc'd from a distinct chaos of its own , as well as that particular one which providence has allotted for the seat of mankind . and 't is not to be question'd , were we as well acquainted with the nature , constitution , and uses of the other planets , with their various inhabitants , and the several methods of divine providence relating to 'em all ; we should not be backward to allow 'em every one a proportionable share in the care of heaven , and a like conduct in their origins and periods , as the earth , on which we dwell , can boast of . we should , 't is probable , soon understand , that , ( bating the stupendious and miraculous dispensation of the gospel by the messias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) as well the moral , as the natural histories of these worlds ; those of their first rise out of chao's , of their several changes , revolutions , and catastrophes , with regard to the inanimate , the animate , and reasonable beings , both as to the dignity of the things themselves , and their newness to us , would equally deserve the view and consideration of inquisitive minds , with any like accounts relating to our own earth ; and we should easily satisfy our selves , that the single chaos , the seminary of our present earth , was so far from extending it self to the sun , or fixt stars , that not the least secondary planet in the solar system could be contain'd therein . v. the mosaick creation is confin'd to our earth , with its appurtenances , because otherwise the time of the creation of each body was so extreamly disproportionate to the work it self , as is perfectly irreconcileable to the divine wisdom of its creator , and the accounts of the works themselves as they are set down by moses . in order to the reader 's perceiving and admitting the force of this , and some following arguments , i must premise some things touching the nature of such reasonings , and how far they may be made use of without any just imputation of boldness , irreverence , or an audacious stinting and determining the divine actions . and here i freely confess , that 't is not necessary in all cases that we should comprehend the reasons of the divine actions or providence before we can be under an obligation to believe them . they may be hid from us on several accounts , tho' the things themselves be plain in scripture . under which circumstances , i heartily own the strictest obligation to yield our unfeigned assent to what god has clearly reveal'd , notwithstanding we cannot see the intire accountableness thereof to our imperfect understandings . but then , 't is one thing to be above , and another to be repugnant to our reason ; 't is one thing to be beyond the comprehension of , and another directly contradictory to our humane faculties . besides , the clearness or obscurity of the revelation is here very considerable ; the former case resolves our assent into the divine veracity ; but the latter may only be the mistakes of humane deductions , and by consequence , tho' our fallible reasonings be superseded by the first , yet there is room for them in the second . i believe , for instance , and am oblig'd so to do , that our saviour christ is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 god and man , because i find it every where plain and evident that the stile , titles , attributes , actions , and incommunicable name of the eternal deity , the god of israel , are at least as frequently ascrib'd to him the son , as to the father himself , through the whole bible ; notwithstanding any inability of comprehending the nature of god , and thence of judging of the unity or plurality of persons in the divine essence . but i do not think my self equally oblig'd to believe the doctrine of absolute and uncondition'd reprobation , because the proofs alledg'd for it are far from being clear , and because 't is not so properly above , as contradictory to the most evident reason . and this comes nearest to the present case ; in which , neither can any one justly assert the plainness of the revelation on the side of the common scheme ; nor alledge the sublimity of the subject , on account whereof it might be fairly suppos'd above the reach of our finite capacities . the scripture , as i take it , is evidently for , at least must be own'd not evidently against this restrained sense of the mosaick history before us ; and the subject it self is finite and limited , and so within our ken , and capable of our comprehension : on which accounts such arguments as follow , ought to have their place , and if considerable , their force and influence on our faith also , and go a great way to determine such a dispute as we are now upon . and 't is sure not impossible , within certain bounds , for a considering man to determine what is rational , wise and prudent ; what is consonant to the nature of things ; what is suitable to forecast and contrivance ; what is in most cases proper , decent and becoming , even with relation to the divine operations in the world. we naturally , in the reflecting on the system of external nature , observe many marks and tokens of the wisdom and art , the skill and artifice of the great creator ; which supposes that we are competent judges in such matters . and indeed , 't is but changing the scene , and considering what we naturally pronounce to be rational and orderly , fit and proportionable among men ; what will become a wise general or statesman , a skilful builder and architect , nay an ordinary workman or artificer , in usual and obvious cases : what on the one hand are the tokens of foresight and prudence ; and on the other , of heedlesness and folly , in the common affairs of life ; and we shall not wholly be to seek what to think of several analogous actions relating to god himself : due allowance being every where made for that infinite distance , and different state and management of the supream governour of the world , from those of all finite beings , depending on , and subject to him . thus we collect our idea's of the divine attributes , by considering what is good , great , valued , and esteemed lovely and venerable among men , and ascribing every such thing to the divine nature ; who being the origin of them all , must contain 'em within himself in a higher and more eminent manner . by accumulating all things that appear perfections in men , or other creatures , and removing all imperfections necessarily adhering to them , we arrive at the notion of an infinitely perfect being ; which is but another name for god ; and whom , on that account , we justly think the proper object of our worship and adoration . when therefore our very idea's of the divine properties are owing to , and depend on , our consideration of those lesser degrees of the same which we observe in men ; and when the reason why the contrary properties are not by us ascribed to him , is , because we find that in men they argue imperfection ; what is a sign or effect of some degree of perfection in men , must also be acknowledg'd sign or effect of a like perfection in god. and what is a sign or effect of imperfection in men , must also be own'd , if it were supposable , a sign or effect of a like imperfection in god. thus for instance we certainly gather , that god cannot be properly pleas'd or delighted in the misery and torment of his creatures , where yet the justice and wisdom of his government require him severely to punish 'em ; because we cannot but esteem it an odious vice , and base imperfection in a judge on earth , in like cases , to be so affected ; and whether we will or no , we look upon it as an instance of cruelty and barbarity of disposition to rellish and taste a sweetness , in the cries and groans of condemned and dying malefactors . in like manner we justly conclude , god cannot impose on innocent creatures , no not by such wiles , stratagems , or other methods of collusion , wherein yet direct and downright falsehood were avoided ; because we find a spontaneous aversion and indignation arises in our minds when such tricks and shams are discovered among men. and by the same way , and equal force of reasoning may we collect , that god cannot , in the formation or disposition of things , no more than in other cases , act absurdly or disagreeably to reason ; disproportionately or unsuitably to the nature of things ; immethodically without rule and order , or foolishly without drift and design , according as an impartial and considering man , who were duly acquainted with the system of nature , would judge and determine in the case . and consequently , 't is a dishonourable reflection on god , to ascribe to him those things which to the free faculties of mankind would amongst us be look'd on as marks of unskilfulness , imprudence , or folly , in parallel cases ; and for which meer men could not escape the most severe and indecorous imputations . put the case that i should chance to observe a certain master-builder in his parcelling out the several distinct tasks of the under-workmen , and apportioning the time he would allow to the finishing of the whole ; and that i perceiv'd parts of were to be done in one day , but the other single part had a month's space assigned to it ; and yet parts of of the intire number of workmen were to club together for that work to be done in the month , while only every tenth man were permitted to assist at the days task : were it possible to suppose such a case on earth , i need not inform you what opinion the spectator would have of the abilities or prudence of the architect . or , put the case that an ordinary husbandman , who had two plots of ground , the one of a score feet in circumference , not very promising or capable of cultivation above others , the other of a thousand acres of good land , and very fit for tillage or improvement ; should spend four or five days every week about his little spot of indifferent ground , and allot no more than the remaining one or two for the care and management of the other spacious field : 't is easie to imagine under what notion and character the plowman would pass in the world. or lastly , suppose one should light upon an historian , who undertook to give a compleat and full account of some large and spacious country , with the many noble kingdoms , principalities , lordships , and governments therein contain'd ; and upon perusal nothing was to be found mention'd in any particular manner , but a certain little and remote island ( so inconsiderable that the generality of the inhabitants of the main land never heard so much as its name ) which indeed was describ'd carefully , and its several circumstances diligently accounted for : but as to the rest , there appear'd no more than at the conclusion of a chapter two or three names of its principal divisions , and some advantages which one or two of their maritime towns afforded this small island , and then all was concluded . now he that should take this for a just and adequate history of the whole , and earnestly contend for the compleatness and perfection of the work , would be certainly taken for a strange person ; or rather would be thought in jest , and to design the real exposing of the folly and ridiculousness of the publisher thereof . these familiar instances amongst men shew what unbrib'd and untainted nature instantaneously pronounces in such cases ; and thereby directs us what we ought to judge in parallel ones in which god himself is directly interested . where the change of the person is so far from altering , that it exceedingly confirms these dictates of right reason , and makes those suppositions which were harsh and incredible with regard to men , to become intolerable and impious when apply'd to the deity . whatsoever bears the characters of truth , justice , order , wisdom , and contrivance , which i cannot but expect from good and skilful men ; i undoubtedly require and believe of the divine majesty without the least hesitation , in the highest degree and supreamest measure imaginable . but whatsoever looks like falseness , injustice , confusion , folly , and a wild disproportion or precipitancy among men , and which i am difficultly induc'd to imagine of a frail and imperfect creature like my self , i am much more hardly persuaded , or rather find it impossible to believe of god. those very faculties by which i am enabled to distinguish and pass a sentence in these matters , are deriv'd from god , and a part of the divine image on the soul of man ; and shall i so odly make use of them , that what i could not be brought to credit of any one of my neighbours , it were so uncouth , absurd , and preposterous , i freely admit and contend for when ascrib'd to my creator ? the mind of man , if it have leave to reflect freely , can no more acquiesce in any scheme of the works of god , where nothing of forecast , order , decorum , and wisdom is conspicuous ; where every period appears puzling , immethodical , disproportionate , and ill dispos'd , ( such is that of the vulgar idea of the mosaick creation , as will be prov'd presently ) than it can believe contradictions , or that god is an infinitely wise and perfect being indeed , but yet at the same time acting what , in the common sense of mankind , argues the greatest folly and imperfection ; which intirely and with plenary satisfaction to do , is certainly impossible . there is somewhat in the humane soul that has too quick a sense of the decency and fitness of things , and withal too deep a veneration for the adorable majesty of god , to be easie under , tho' it may be overborn with such notions . it cannot be willing to believe that of its wise and glorious creator , which for another to believe of it self would be esteem'd as an high indignity . 't is true , there is so great a difference between the compass of the divine , and the streightness of humane knowledge ; between the state of creatures and of the creator , blessed for evermore ; there may be such an incapacity in us to reach , or unfathomable , yet wise , reasons for god to hide some things from us ; not to insist on the divine prerogative , which frees him from the obligation of giving an account of every thing to any of those beings he has made ; that we ought to be very wary of arguing from man to god , without due allowance for these considerations ; and consequently mighty cautious of affirming or denying whatever is ascrib'd to him from such a comparison . in particular , wherever a clear revelation interposes , we are bound to quit our fallible reasonings , and fully to acquiesce in such a decision : it being impossible for god to lye , but by no means so , that we may be mistaken . but then this necessary prudence and wariness is chiefly , if not only , concern'd in sublime and mysterious points ; concerning the incomprehensible nature , or unsearchable providences of god ; which doctrines sometimes are so much above the present scene of things ; so remote from the notions and affairs of this world ; relate to and depend on such other systems of beings or circumstances of the invisible world ; that we ought not rashly to pass our judgment of them ; but wait till our souls become so improv'd , and our understandings enlightened in a future state ; till our means of information , and opportunities of looking through the whole chain and system , be so many more than now they are , that we may justly be suppos'd more competent judges , and equal arbitrators , than at present the imperfection of our condition will permit us in reason to pretend to . but this being again precaution'd , to prevent any misconstruction or abuse of this reasoning , i cannot but say , that since 't will be hard to prove the case before us to be of so exalted a nature as to transcend our faculties ; and perhaps still harder to prove the plainness of the revelation on the side of the common exposition , i am fully persuaded that while the perfections of god are , as to our assent , deduc'd from their effects , they may in good measure , within certain bounds , as was before discours'd , be judg'd of by what is observable among men. and as whatsoever is worthy , good , and valuable among our selves , is rightly own'd as an efflux and gift of god ; so whatsoever is preposterous , absurd , or disorderly , whatsoever is unworthy , base , or despicable in humane affairs , cannot without great indignity be believed of him ; and where we have no other ways of determining , such reasonings ought to be persuasive and decretory . now therefore , all this being said by way of introduction to this and some following arguments , let us apply it to the case before us ; and supposing , ( which yet i need not allow ) that the matter were indifferent on all other considerations , let us speak freely whether such a method , such time , and such proportion of the several parts as the ordinary scheme of the creation sets before us , be in any degree so well contriv'd , and suitably dispos'd , as , i say not a divine , but a meer humane architect may be suppos'd the author of . i need not here give a particular account of the vulgar exposition of the first chapter of genesis : 't is sufficiently known as to the main parts of it . but the disproportions i would take notice of in it under this head are these three ; ( . ) the length of the day usually assign'd , is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it . ( . ) when the works of each of the other days are single , distinct , and of a sort , the third day has two quite different , nay incompatible works assigned to it . ( . ) and principally the earth with its furniture , how inconsiderable a body soever it is , takes up four intire days , at least , of those six which were allotted to the whole creation , when the sun , moon and stars , those vastly greater and more considerable bodies , are crowded into one single day together . ( . ) the length of the day usually assign'd of twenty four hours is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it . this plainly appears by the history it self , where , to omit other instances , the whole train in the generation or first production of animals , has no longer a space afforded to it ; when yet all experience shews , that a much longer is necessarily requir'd , and has obtain'd in all the subsequent ages . now i do not question but it will be confess'd by all , that according to the constant process of nature , this time is utterly insufficient for this purpose : but what will be said is , that a divine power immediately interpos'd , and either form'd every thing in its grown and mature state ; or at least accelerated and hasten'd the course of nature , so as to enable her to perfect each creature in so short a space ; and that consequently no straitness of time ought to be alledg'd on this account . in answer whereto i freely grant , that god can produce all things in their most perfect state , in a moment ; and if that could be prov'd to have been the method here , this exception were of no validity . but as on such a supposition 't is strange that six intire and successive days should be requisite to , or pitch'd upon by an infinite and unlimited agent ; when the instantaneous creation of the whole appears more agreeable to the dignity and power of the creator ; so i am pretty secure that this hypothesis , how common soever , is repugnant to the mosaick history . the sacred penman does there ascribe indeed the origin of every thing to the divine power ; yet no otherwise than the like would be , and is done by the holy writers afterwards , nay by every body at this day ; when yet the constant method of generation is exactly observ'd . if any of us were ask'd who made us ? we should soon answer , god ; without the least imagination that we were excused from that nine months abode , and gradual growth in our mothers womb ; which every one by the general rule and method of nature is oblig'd to undergo . which appears in the present case to be the intention of the holy writer , because he makes these very animals productions of the water and earth , as well as the proper effects of the divine power ; as has been observ'd already on another occasion . and those who deny this gradual generation according to the course of nature , must without reason recede from the letter of moses , and that when by so doing they render this sacred history more difficult and unintelligible than it really is . but if instead of immediate creation it be said that 't was only a supernatural acceleration of natural causes , without any other alteration of the process ; which is i think the only probable evasion , and the fairest supposition of all other ; i reply , that this is gratis dictum , without any foundation in the scripture , and so as easily denied as asserted ; it is introduc'd only to salve the shortness of time mention'd in the history , which will be prov'd hereafter to stand in no need of it ; and it overthrows all attempts of accounting for this six days creation in a rational and natural way ; for if a miraculous power be allow'd in a needless case , we shall be ever at a loss how far to extend it , and where mechanical causes ought to take place . on which considerations i take this extraordinary acceleration of natural causes to be , tho' not impossible , nor ( were there any intimation or necessity of its interposition from the sacred history ) very improbable neither , yet in the present case , groundless , unnecessary , perplexing of the cause , and by no means a sufficient solution in the present affair . which being therefore thus answer'd , the argument remains in full force , and the length of the days assign'd by the vulgar hypothesis appears wholly disproportionate to the works done therein ; of which farther notice will be taken hereafter . ( . ) when the works of each of the other days are single , distinct , and of a sort , the third day has two quite different , nay incompatible ones assigned to it . this is plain from the history , where the division of the waters from the earth , or the distinction of the terraqueous globe into seas and dry land , the first work on this day , is succeeded by that of the production of the intire vegetable kingdom ; contrary to the perpetual tenor of the other periods of the creation . how this comes about , or is accountable in the vulgar scheme , i know not ; and i believe the reason thereof is very little enquir'd into , and less understood . but because this whole difficulty will be urg'd against the shortness of days in the vulgar hypothesis , and clear'd in ours , at their proper places hereafter , i shall wave the farther insisting upon it here , and proceed . ( . ) but principally , the earth with its furniture , how inconsiderable a body soever it is , takes up four intire days , at least , of those six which were allotted to the whole creation ; when the sun , moon and stars , those vastly greater and more considerable bodies , are crowded into one single day together . now in order to our passing a rational judgment in this matter , i shall take leave to represent to the reader 's view a short comparison or parallel between the earth on one side , and the rest of the world on the other ; and see what resemblance , correspondence and proportion there is between the former and the latter , either in its several parts , or the whole taken together ; and this shall be done on such certain and undoubted grounds and principles as the late vast advancement of natural knowledge has afforded us ; and will be more at large explain'd in the following pages . this earth then , on which we live , though it be in diameter more than miles , and so a vast globe , if compar'd with those bodies we daily see , imagine , and converse withal , is yet one of the lesser of the primary planets , and with jupiter , mars , and the other her fellows , revolves round the great center of our system the sun , in a years time . 't is an opake and dark body , as they all are , and in common with them borrows its light and heat from that glorious body which we just now observ'd to obtain the center of their orbits ; without which it , as well as the intire chorus of the other planets , must be soon reduc'd all to one dark heap of matter , far beyond the description of the old caliginous and unprofitable chaos , and in no capacity of ever emerging out of that horrid and frightful state . in dignity , i four earth expect not to come the last , yet is she so exceeded , in all things that might seem characters thereof , by several of the rest , that there can be no manner of claim to the first place . if she have a secondary planet , the moon , for her attendant ( tho in truth she is at least as serviceable to that planet , as that planet is to her ) ; jupiter has certainly four ; and some good glasses have discover'd five about saturn ; who however is not wholly destitute , as all astronomers confess . the density and place of the earth is pretty near the middle of the planets , and as she exceeds , and is higher than some , so is she exceeded by , and lower than others in those respects . her own secondary planet , the moon , has an air much more homogeneous , pure , and transparent , than she at present enjoys ; and in all probability free from winds , clouds , storms , tempests , thunder , lightning , and such other irregular and pernicious effects , which render our atmosphere so contagious and pestilent to the inhabitants of the earth . in which circumstances the generality of the other planets imitate the moon , and render our miserable condition the more remarkable and sensible ; as appearing thereby almost singular . our days and nights are longer than those of some , and shorter than those of others of the planets . the figure of the earth is nearly sphaerical , as is that also of the other heavenly bodies ; its surface unequal , with mountains and valleys , as well as that of the rest , especially the moon 's , appears to be . only 't is observable that the last , though much less in bigness , has her mountains higher than we on earth . the sea and land , mountains and valleys , and other such corresponding phaenomena of the moon , shew , that that small planet is not nearer our earth in place , than in quality and disposition also . if we compute the true magnitude or quantity of matter in the earth , it will appear that she is not the th part so big as jupiter , nor the th as saturn , nor the th as the sun. so that she is very inconsiderable , if compar'd with the rest of the solar vortex only ; but if with the intire universe or systems of the fixt stars , in the elegancy of the prophetick expressions , as a drop of a bucket , as the small dust of the balance , yea less than nothing , and vanity . insomuch , that to all those remote systems of the heavenly bodies , this earth , with all its fellow planets , are no more visible than those which , 't is probable , revolve about any of them , are to us in these our planetary regions . and as we usually little think of those invisible globes , so any of their inhabitants never once imagine that there is such a planet as ours ( about which we make such a mighty stir ) in the whole world. as to the main use of this earth , 't is to afford habitation to a sinful and lapsed race of creatures , of small abilities or capacities at present , but of great vices and wickedness ; and is esteemed , as far as appears , in its present constitution so peculiarly and solely sit for them , that when they are gone , or their dispositions and faculties reform'd and improv'd , a better scence of nature , ( a new heaven , and a new earth , ) is to be introduc'd , for such better and more noble creatures . the old one , which now obtains , being , it seems , only a sort of prison or confinement , which is to be our lot whilst we are sinful and miserable , but no longer . and is this the only darling of nature , the prime object of the creation and providence of god ? can such a globe's original , nay , of the external and visible parts of it only , claim four parts of six of that entire space , which the wisdom of god allotted for the formation of all things in the whole world , while the origin of the sun , moon , and numberless systems of stars has only a poor single part allotted to it ? must the expanding the air between the earth and the clouds , be thought to equal the disposal of all those coelestial bodies into their several regions ? and the producing a few fish and fowl , be a weightier concern , and require more time than the replenishing all the other habitable worlds with beings suitable to their several constitutions ? will a wise builder bestow twice as much time in decking and adorning of one bycloset of inferior use , and that only to some of the meanest servants too ; as of the royal palace , with all its stately rooms and apartments , intended for the king himself , and his courtiers ? should we hear of such strange actions , and disproportionate procedure among men , we should not be able to induce our selves to give credit thereto . but it seems suppositions ten thousand times more disproportionate and unaccountable , when ascrib'd to god almighty , are easily believ'd . so far can ignorance , prejudice , and a misunderstanding of the sacred volumes carry the faith , nay , the zeal of men ! and to such a mean opinion of the most glorious and perfect of beings are we thereby reduc'd , that as if we were not content to think him such a one as our selves , but intended to depress him below the very meanest of us , we venture with confidence and eagerness to ascribe to him that disproportionate , unequal , and unaccountable disposal of the works of creation , which the simplest artificer could not bear the imputation of ! it must here be confess'd , that such notions of the mosaick creation , as i now oppose , having begun , or at least been chiefly establish'd and propagated when the aristotelean philosophy , and ptolomaick astronomy were believ'd ; those who have embrac'd them till this age were less absurd , and nearer to some tolerable degree of probability . for so long as the earth with its adjoyning elements was suppos'd the center and basis of all the world ; while the distance of the heavenly bodies was believ'd to be , comparatively to what we now find , very small and inconsiderable ; and all their motions perform'd about us their proper and immovable center ; while the whole series of spheres above ( tho' the several distinct ones mov'd the contrary way by their own peculiar motions ) was in twenty four hours constantly hurried from east to west by the primum mobile , on purpose to cause day and night to us below ; while comets were esteem'd exhalations from the stars , and sent only at certain seasons to affright mankind with their fiery tails , and then to be dissipated and vanish into vapours again ; while the sun and stars , in the opinion of the philosophers themselves , were nourish'd by the steams from our earth ; and while the last named were either stuck in one spherical superficies as the fix'd stars , or fastned in their solid orbs , like a nail in a cartwheel , as the planets , and no other use imagin'd but to twinkle to us in winter evenings , and by their aspects to forebode what little changes of weather , or other accidents were to be expected below ; while no other habitable world was dream'd of than this globe of earth ; no other animals once conjectur'd at , besides those on the face thereof ; while mankind was look'd on as the sole lord of the creation , and him for whose sake all other creatures in the world were made ; and while 't was commonly granted that , as all things , the visible heavens and earth , with their intire furniture began with him ; so at the conclusion of his succession , or the period of humane generations here , must they for ever cease and be annihilated ; while all this , i say , was the current philosophy , 't is not very surprizing that the mosaick history we are now upon was understood in the vulgar sense , and seem'd not wholly disagreeable to the presumed frame of nature ; and 't was not hard to believe , that this earth and its inhabitants , in the opinion of the world , the main and principal concern of all , and that to whose uses every thing else intirely serv'd , had the principal care bestow'd upon it , both in its original creation , and its subsequent changes and revolutions . but tho' such a scheme , and such an apprehension were passable enough in the days of our forefathers ; 't is by no means so now . those greater degrees of knowledge which the providence of god has in this age afforded us , make such opinions intolerable in the present , which were not so in the past centuries . 't is now evident , that every one of the planets , as well as that on which we live , must have a right in its proportion to share in the care of heaven , and had therefore in all probability a suitable space or number of days allow'd to its proper formation ; much what the same separations of parts , digestions , and collections , being no doubt to be suppos'd in the original formation of any other , as in that particular planet , with which moses was concern'd . and if one or two on account of their smallness , might be finish'd in less ; the rest on account of their bigness , from a parity of reason , would take up much more than that six days time which was spent in our earth's formation . and let the reader judge , if it be so impossible to reduce the planets alone within the fourth days work , how much more so it will be ( in case we allow degrees of impossibilities ) to reduce thither that vast noble and useful body the fountain of our light and heat , the sun ; and still in a prodigious degree more so , to include the immense and numberless systems of the fixt stars ; among whom when the sun is but one , and perhaps no bigger than the rest ; ( and consequently to have in reason but an equal portion of time with them allotted for its origination ; ) it must , tho' above sixty thousand times as big as the earth , while the earth takes up four intire ones , be thrust into the corner of a single day ; corner , did i say ? rather minute , nay , moment of a day ; and 't is uncertain whether even that pittance of time can fairly and separately be allow'd to it . so that one need not fear to assert , that he who should affirm the divine power to have spent four entire days in the formation of a fly or worm , nay , of a single plant or herb ; and but one in the formation of the terraqueous globe with all its parts , regions , and furniture , would be less unreasonable than some expositors now are , and more observe decorum , fitness , agreement , and proportion , than they do in the vulgar interpretations of the mosaick creation . and i need not be afraid to call all that astronomy and philosophy are masters of , to attest the fairness of such a comparison . and can any one who is sensible of this , and entertains no other than great and worthy thoughts of his alwise creator , embrace so fond and so strange an opinion ? and if the reader will pardon a short digression , and give me leave to speak a great truth on this occasion , i cannot but observe , that 't is not the genuine contents of the holy books themselves , but such unwary interpretations of them as these , which have mainly contributed to their contempt , and been but too instrumental to make 'em appear absurd and irrational to the free reason of mankind . for when men found that the scriptures , according to the universal sense of expositors , ascribed such things to god , as their plainest reason could not think compatible to a wise man , much less to the all-wise god ; they were under a shrewd temptation of thinking very meanly of the bible it self , and by degrees of rejecting it , and therewith all divine revelation to the sons of men. how fatally this malady hath spread , of late especially , i need not say ; and tho' i fully believe the main stroke or step , as to the generality , be vicious dispositions and a debauched temper , yet how far such ill-contriv'd , unskilful , and unphilosophical interpretations , or rather misrepresentations of scripture , particularly relating to the material world of which we are now speaking , may have contributed to so fatal and pernicious an effect , deserves the most serious and sober consideration . this mischief is not to be remedied , nor the veneration due to the sacred volumes retriev'd by an obstinate maintaining such strange opinions as those here refer'd to , by patronizing the same with divine authority , and then making vehement invectives against such ( as many unskilful , yet good men , are ready to do ) whose only fault is this that they can no more be induc'd to believe what is plainly unworthy of , and unsuitable to the divine perfections , than what is evidently contradictory to divine revelation . wise men would rather set themselves carefully to compare nature with scripture , and make a free enquiry into the certain phaenomena of the one , and the genuin sense of the other ; which if expositors would do , 't were not hard to demonstrate in several such cases , that the latter is so far from opposing the truths deducible from the former , or the common notions of mankind , that 't is in the greatest harmony therewith ; and in those cases ( where the thing mention'd is within the sphere of human knowledge ) no less accountable to the reason , than enforc'd on the belief of mankind . and i persuade my self if there were a careful collection made of the ancient knots and difficulties in the several parts of the bible , with relation to such points as we are upon , or any others of a different nature ; and how very many of them , as preludes and pledges of the rest , are now intirely clear'd , or might easily be so ; it would more contribute to the recovery of the ancient honour , and due esteem of the sacred scriptures , than all the most zealous and general harangues from some popular topicks , either for them , or against their contemners , the loose deists and pretended socinians of this age. for my own part i cannot but profess , that tho' i be very nice and tender in the reasonableness of my faith , and desirous to admit nothing but what agrees to the divine attributes , the common notions of our souls , and the phaenomena of nature ; yet upon an impartial enquiry into some of the most perplexing difficulties occurring there , i have obtain'd so great a measure of satisfaction about them , that my scruples now intirely cease , and i cannot doubt either of the truth or divine authority of the scriptures . i do not mean , that all the difficulties are in particular vanish'd and perfectly clear'd to me : that is what is scarce to be hop'd for in this world : but i have so frequently met with fewer difficulties in the consideration of the books themselves , than in the common interpretations , and those very comments which ought to assoil 'em : and in so many , and those most remarkable points of all , have met with such clear and plenary , tho' unexpected satisfaction , that i have all imaginable reason to believe the rest equally capable of the same , and to remain constant in this assurance , that 't is the ignorant or foolish expositions of men , not the natural and genuine sense of the words themselves , that makes us imagine scripture , reason , and the nature of things irreconcileable or contradictory to one another . and i hope the instances he will meet with in the following theory , will go a great way to persuade the unbyass'd reader of the same truth ; and to convince him , that greater satisfaction is to be look'd for from the view of god's own books of nature and scripture , than those of any men whatsoever . whatever incompetent judges may say , nothing will so much tend to the vindication and honour of reveal'd religion , as free enquiries into , and a solid acquaintance with , ( not ingenious and precarious hypotheses , but ) true and demonstrable principles of philosophy , with the history of nature , and with such ancient traditions as in all probability were deriv'd from noab , and by him from the more ancient fathers of the world. from which mediums , what surprizing and unhop'd for light may be given to some famous portions of the holy scriptures , the following pages will , 't is hop'd , afford some convincing instances , and prove sufficient to take away mens ungrounded fears and apprehensions in such matters : and , by the divine blessing , appear a seasonable attestation to the certainty and authority of those lively oracles on which our happiness in this , and the next world does so vastly depend . but i must leave this digression , and proceed , vi. the vulgar scheme of the mosaick creation , besides the disproportion as to time , represents all things from first to last so disorderly , confusedly , and unphilosophically , that 't is intirely disagreeable to the wisdom and perfection of god. and here i might justly appeal to the conscience of every careful reader , even tho' his knowledge of the true system of the world were not great , whether the vulgar account has not ever seem'd strange and surprizing to him ? but if he were one philosophically dispos'd , and allow'd himself a free consideration of it ; whether it has not ever been the most perplexing thing to his thoughts that could be imagin'd ? 't is well known how far this matter has been carried by wise and good men ; even to the taking away the literal , and the resolving the whole into a popular moral or parabolick sense : and under what notion this history on the same account has appear'd to others , of no less free , but less religious dispositions and thoughts , i need not say : what is indeed matter of doubt and perplexity to pious men , being unquestionably to the loose and profane , the subject of mirth and drollery , and the sure encouragement to atheism and impiety . but i shall not content my self with this general reflection ; but instead of prosecuting such a discourse any father , shall assign such particular instances of the irregular and unbecoming procedure in the vulgar scheme of the creation , as are plainly disagreeable to the divine wisdom , and unsuitable to the nature of things . ( . ) bodies alike in nature have here an unlike original . ( . ) bodies unlike in nature have a like original . ( . ) bodies most considerable in themselves , have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them . ( . ) no bodies but the earth have either time for , or particulars of , the formation of the several parts assign'd . ( . ) the light appears before its cause and fountain the sun was made . ( . ) the excavation of the channel of the ocean , and the elevation of the mountains is unnatural and indecent . of each of which i shall say but a word or two , and then as briefly argue from them . ( . ) bodies alike in nature , have an unlike original . our earth is one of the planets , and in all reason belonging to their formation ; yet is she the subject of the second , third , fifth , and sixth days works , while the rest are included in the fourth day . ( . ) bodies unlike in nature have a like original . the sun , a glorious body of light , with his fellows the fixt stars , are join'd in the fourth day with the opake and dark globes of the planets . ( . ) bodies most considerable in themselves , have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them . this is very obvious in that mighty adoe about our poor earth , while the vastly greater and nobler bodies of the sun and stars are scarce taken any notice of . and how disproportionate such a procedure is , the comparison already made of the earth on one side , with the rest of the world on the other , does more than sufficiently demonstrate . ( . ) no bodies but the earth have either time for , or particulars of , the formation of the several parts assign'd . for when four days are wholly taken up with the particulars relating to our earth ; the division of its aerial from its earthly waters ; the distinguishing the latter from the dry land , and draining 'em into the channels of the seas ; the growth of plants ; generation of fish , fowl , and terrestrial animals ; and at last the creation of man , with several circumstances relating to him , and the other creatures ; not a syllable as to the particulars of the rest of the world. light is only commanded to shine on the first day ; and the heavenly bodies made on the fourth , and there 's all , as to themselves , which occurs here . ( . ) the light appears before the creation of the sun , from whence it is deriv'd : that being the work of the first , this of the fourth day . which how philosophical and accountable 't is , let the reader judge . ( . ) the excavation of the channel of the ocean , and the elevation of the mountains , is unnatural and indecent . for when the earth was at first even , and cover'd with waters , expositors imagine , that god , as it were , digg'd a vast channel for the ocean , and heav'd away the earth , and plac'd it on all parts of the globe , to make the mountains . which how indecent it is , i had rather leave to the judgment of the reader , than stand here to exaggerate ; especially where the naked representation of the thing it self is a sufficient exposing thereof to free thinkers . these obvious remarks on the vulgar scheme of the mosaick creation ( to omit the passing by of the intire invisible world , whether within or without the surface of the earth , whether corporeal or spiritual ) are , i think , sufficient demonstrations that 't is a very distant one from the true nature of things ; and such as is both unworthy of the writer and author of the sacred history . whoever will take the pains carefully to consider the system of nature , and compare it with these remarks , and the common opinion of the proper creation of all things in the six days works , will not , i believe , be at a loss for arguments to over-turn the old , and to prove that a new theory is to be enquir'd after , and a narrower world to be expected in the first chapter of genesis , than has generally been . but before i conclude this head , i must here observe , that the consideration of these matters has had so great influence on our late most excellent commentator on genesis , that tho' he keep more strictly to the letter of moses than others , yet he finds occasion and room for these four great concessions , no less contrary to the vulgar , than approaching to the present account of the history of the creation . ( . ) he is willing to allow that moses meddles not with the intire universe , but with the planetary system only . ( . ) he allows the creation of the world to have been over before the six days work begins . ( . ) he grants the same six days works to be the regular and orderly reduction of a confused chaos into a habitable world , without any strange miracles in every part . ( . ) he supposes , that for a considerable time before the six days work began , there were such preparatory agitations , fermentations and separations or conjunctions of parts , as disposed the whole to fall ino the succeeding method , and introduce the six days productions following . which concessions of so great a man and excellent a commentator , as they argue his sense of the necessity of receding from the vulgar hypothesis , so they , i confess , lessen and diminish the difficulties in this history . lessen , i say , and diminish ; not take them away . for besides the want of any foundation in scripture , as far as i see , for the distinction between the fixt stars and planets ; the arguments i have all along urged , reach , and are fram'd with regard to this limited hypothesis also ; and , with those yet to come , are i think more than sufficient to my purpose still , and will demonstrate the unaccountableness of the history of the creation even on this , tho' much more on the common interpretation . vii . the mosaick creation does not extend beyond this earth , because the alone final cause of all therein contained , is the advantage of mankind the inhabitant thereof . now that the final cause of all the particulars mention'd in the history before us , is here rightly assign'd , is not only visible in almost every verse of it , and in the places of scripture afterwards referring to the same thing ; but commonly acknowledg'd , nay contended for , by the patrons of the vulgar account : so that i shall here take it for granted . but then as to the consequence , that therefore the creation is no farther to be extended , or at least not so far as here it must otherwise be , to the sun and planets ; nay with the most , to the innumerable systems of the fix'd stars ; 't is to me so natural and necessary , that methinks 't is perfectly needless to go about the proof of it . that so vast and noble a system , consisting of so many , so remote , so different , and so glorious bodies , should be made only for the use of man , is so wild a fancy , that it deserves any other treatment sooner than a serious confutation : and one may better think silently with ones self , than with due deference and decency speak , what naturally arises in ones mind on this occasion . if 't is an instance of , or consistent with the divine wisdom , to make thousands of glorious bodies for the sole use of a few fallen and rebellious creatures , which were to live for a little while upon one of the most inconsiderable of them ! to create an innumerable multitude of suns and planets , and place them at prodigious distances from us and from one another , ( the greatest part of which were never seen till the late invention of the telescope ; and of such as are visible , the sun excepted , the single moon , as despicable a body as it is in comparison to the most of the others , is much more beneficial to us than they all put together ) for the meer convenience of one little earth ! if 't is wise and rational to make the sun more than sixty thousand times as big as that globe it was to serve , only that it might be plac'd above fifty millions of miles off : ( for in a nearer position it would have scorch'd and burnt , instead of warm'd and invigorated the earth ) when a small fiery ball plac'd near us would have done as well ! to make a vast number of planets , ( every way as capable of creatures of their own ) only for the sake of us on earth ; that we might in the night time view and calculate their positions and motions ! to place five secondary planets about saturn , and four about jupiter , that after for more than five thousand years no one had dream'd of their existence ' , a few astronomers might , with their glasses , peep at them , and observe their periods ! to appoint the orbit of one of the primary planets ( mercury ) so near the sun , that not one in a hundred ever gets a distinct view of him all his life ! to move the comets in orbits so extremely large and elliptical or oblong , that by their distance from the planetary regions most part of each revolution , they should be so little observable , that the world were just ending before they could be known to be other than masses of vapours soon conjoin'd , and as soon dissipated again , and now not visible the hundredth or perhaps thousandth part of their periods ! to make all this immense frame of the heavenly systems ; so glorious , august , and magnificent , and so deserving of our contemplation ; and yet withal to frame our eyes and sensations in that manner , as to be uncapable to discern or imagine any thing thereof in comparison ! so that had not astronomical observation rectify'd our mistakes , we must have thought the whole world not near so big as one of its least bodies really is ; and all this without any farther prospect , or nobler design than the single use and advantage of mankind ! if , i say , all this be the effect of ineffable wisdom and contrivance , and worthy to be believed of the all-wise god ; 't is scarce possible to suppose , in the material world at least , what will not be equally so . and such strange and astonishing incongruities , which among poor mortals would unquestionably argue the most extravagant degree of folly , in the deity , blessed for evermore , must be arguments of unbounded perfection , and effluxes of infinite reason , wisdom , and prudence . certainly one ought to be very well ascertain'd of the sense of scripture , before from thence one venture to assert such unreasonable opinions . nay even tho' the sense of scripture seem'd exceeding favourable to any scheme of this nature , yet in that case , a considering person would chuse rather honestly to own his ignorance , and confess he did not understand the matter , than be positive in that which is so plainly repugnant to the divine perfections . and this ( to digress a little ) is methinks the only safe and rational way of procedure in those cases , where we cannot reconcile the divine attributes , the phaenomena of the world , or the reason of our own minds , to the revealed word of god , viz. in the first place carefully to consider the texts concern'd , and whether they are not misapply'd ; if on such a consideration we cannot find them to be so , and that without a forc'd , unnatural and violent sense be put upon plain words , the difficulties still appear insuperable ; 't is then our duty and our wisdom to imitate the jews in that admirable and pious proverb in these cases , cùm elias venerit , solvet nodos . to sit down and rest satisfied with this expectation , that when the divine wisdom sees it a fit time , all will be assoil'd ; and every one of the knots of scripture and of providence unty'd . to stay with patience for those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculiar seasons , which with regard both to the improvement of knowledge , and unvailing of mysteries , no less than the fulfilling decrees , the father has put in his own power . and as the old jews should in vain have attempted the intire understanding of their own ceremonial law till the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the coming of christ ; so i believe we must not expect the clearing of every text of scripture . and of every secret of providence , till the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the time appointed of the father . till then we ought not , where insuperable difficulties occur , by a bold determination to run counter to god , either in his word , whether engraven on our minds , or written in the bible , or his works visible in the world. 't is hard to say whether those dishonour god most who embrace doctrines , suppos'd deducible from scripture , tho' plainly absurd and unreasonable in themselves ; or those who venture to deny or at least wrest and prevaricate with the obvious meaning of such texts whence those doctrines us'd to be infer'd . both these methods of procedure are bold and dangerous ; effects of our own pride , and too high an opinion of our proper apprehensions and abilities , and of sad consequence to our selves , to others , and to divine revelation . there is a third or middle way , which , tho' an instance of real self-denial , we both may and ought to take . let god be true , but every man a liar . our understandings are finite , our capacities small , our sphere of knowledge not great . we depend on god almighty as to what we know , as well as what we have , or what we are . 't is possible it may not yet be the proper season for unravelling the mystery , and so the requisite helps not yet afforded ; our own unskilfulness or prejudices ; some false notions or precarious hypotheses we have embrac'd ; our misunderstanding the nature of the scripture stile ; a mistake of a copy ; the ignorance of the various stages and periods of the world to which the particulars belong ; with many other such circumstances , may justly be supposed the occasions of our difficulties , without calling in question either the truth of our humane faculties , the attributes of god , the phoenomena of nature , or the genuine sense of the holy scriptures . and truly were i asked in such a case how i could satisfie my self , or resolve the point ; i could not more properly answer than by alluding to the jewish proverb before-mention'd ; and alledging that , cùm messias venerit , solvet nodum ; till which time i might desire leave to defer my farther answer . and here from a general view of what has been said on these three last arguments , we cannot but observe , into what erroneous extremes good men have been betray'd , with relation to several main difficulties occurring in the sacred writings : while , from a profound respect to the revealed word of god , the most were willing to lay aside the use of their own reason ; and others from a no less veneration for the divine attributes , and regard to those common notions which god had implanted in their souls , were willing to indulge too great a liberty in the interpretation of scripture . the former , being generally pious and devout souls , but little vers'd in contemplation , or the improvements of natural knowledge , were dispos'd to receive all that a vulgar and religious , tho' less wary and prudent exposition , should recommend to their assent . the latter having added to their piety and vertue , a careful enquiry into nature , and a freer exercise of their humane faculties , and observing how heavy imputations some common interpretations laid on the divine majesty , how disagreeable they were to external nature , as well as the reason of mankind ; were carried too far on the other hand ; and when the latter were secur'd , were not proportionably solicitous about the former : i mean , so that nothing but what reason , the attributes of god , and the system of the world allow'd , were admitted , these did not take a proportionable care that the natural sense of scripture were equally provided for . what i would here further observe , is , the equal condition and deserts , but the unequal reputation and fate these two sorts of men have generally met with in the christian world. their characters to me seem so correspondent , and their contrary mistakes so equally wide from truth , equally derogatory to the honour of god , and yet equally proceeding from a religious principle , a desire to secure the interest of divine revelation ; that to me they seem to deserve the same respect and commendation for their sincere endeavours , and pious intentions ; the same pity and pardon for their errors and mistakes . but it has happen'd much otherwise ; for by reason of the little leisure and abilities of the generality of teachers to cultivate their own reason , or make any successful enquiries into the natural world ; the former sort being in themselves most numerous , and as must needs happen , having the most part of christian people on their side , did with zeal and earnestness decry the latter ; and tho' themselves on one side did as highly dishonour the sacred oracles , as the other on the opposite , yet they vehemently laid that imputation on the latter , and decry'd them as secret underminers of that word of god they pretended more rationally to explain . 't were easy to give examples in this case , but i shall content my self with one concerning those very histories of the creation and deluge , which i am to explain in the following theory . 't is well known what great , and hitherto insuperable difficulties these histories have involv'd in them , to the general view of mankind ; and how much still greater , and still more insuperable those difficulties appear'd to philosophick enquirer's , who came more nicely to consider them , and compare what was asserted in the holy scriptures , with the true frame and system of external nature . the consideration of these things so affected a great and good man , that he resolv'd on a noble attempt , and undertook to clear those points , and shew that the temporary origin of the world from a chaos , and a universal deluge , were rational and accountable theorems , and thereby take away that blot and obstacle , which the seeming impossibility of these things laid in the way of ill-disposed persons . in which matters , he employ'd his utmost skill in the best system of philosophy then known in the world ; his most diligent researches into the sacred and prophane accounts relating to those anciently more known phaenomena of nature , together with such other helps as his own excellent abilities could afford him ; and that as to several main and principal strokes , to very great satisfaction , and to the very remarkable illustration of the holy scriptures . but in the prosecution of this scheme , being so vast , so noble , so uniform , so coherent , and withal so new and surprizing , it at last appear'd that such his theory would not in several particulars accord with the letter of scripture . this unhappy dissonancy the theorist was soon sensible of , and no doubt not a little concern'd about . in which streight , seeing no possible way of securing the main points without so unpleasing a concession ; instead of resolving to rest satisfied in the natural sense of scripture , and acquiescing in the divine revelation , till farther means of clearing the whole should offer themselves , which i think is a good man's duty in such cases , he ventur'd to suppose that the sacred books were not always to be so literally and naturally understood , as was generally believ'd hitherto . he alledg'd , that considering the mean capacities of the jews , which were not capable of such points of philosophick truths , considering the most ancient way of conveying ( or rather of concealing ) sublime theorems , by parables , fables , and hieroglyphicks ; considering the scripture stile in some other cases , very much different from the present plain and explicit way of discourse , and nearer a-kin to that most ancient method ; considering the main end of the holy writings , the benefit of the moral world , seem'd not to require a strict adherence to truth in every circumstance relating to the natural ; nay , rather enforc'd a receeding from it in some cases ; considering , lastly , that all ages had in vain endeavoured to clear these points according to the strictness of the most obvious sense , and that the greater improvements in philosophy seem'd but to render them still more unaccountable ; considering , i say , all these things , he suppos'd that the holy writers only secur'd the fundamental and general verities , involving the rest under , and explaining the whole by a way of speaking , which was mystical and mythological ; rather popular than true , and fitted more to the needs of men , than to the reality of things . this is , i think , a fair and full account of the opinion , and a genuine explication of the occasion of this unhappy slip of our late excellent theorist ; and such an one i acknowledge 't is , as in it self , has no solid or necessary foundation , is of ill consequence to the authority of the holy scriptures , and dishonourable both to their penmen , and chiefly to their principal inditer , the blessed spirit of god. in which censure , if the learned author think me too free , or too severe , he will , i hope , see reason to excuse , and not to be displeas'd with me , when i have own'd , as i must ingenuously do , that in accusing him , i condemn my self , for i my self , in great measure , have thought the same things . for i cannot but with the theorist confess , that the difficulties in the vulgar expositions were so great ; such absurd incongruities ascrib'd to god by them ; the true system of the world did so disagree , and increase the scruples ; the main histories themselves appear'd so impossible to be any other way secur'd ; several of the accounts given by the theorist were in the main so ingenious , so probable , and so agreeable to ancient tradition , upon a cursory consideration ; and the arguments before-mention'd seem'd to me so considerable , that 't was not easy for me to deny all assent to that very conclusion , which yet on farther enquiries and discoveries , i think not unworthy of the foregoing censure . and i should esteem it a very signal happiness , if , as that theory was so instrumental in drawing me into the foremention'd mistake ; so this might be fortunate enough to perswade the author of that , of the opposite verity , in which the discoveries it contains have fully settled my own mind , and are , i think , sufficient in themselves to settle the minds of others . but to wave these too ambitious expectations , i cannot but say so much in behalf of that learned theorist , that as he justly deserves the highest commendations for so generous and worthy an attempt ; for the great illustration he has given those histories from the most ancient traditionary learning ; and the light afforded to the holy scriptures in several , and those very considerable points : so he has , i think , reason to expect an easy pardon where he was not able to do the same ; especially , when not only pardon , but the freest praises are bestowed on those , who as i before observ'd , equally have expos'd the honour of god , and equally derogated from the reputation of the sacred writings by their unwary and unskilful interpretations . a good man , who to the highest veneration for the perfections of the divine nature , has joyn'd a careful enquiry into the frame of the world , and a free , but modest use of those faculties god has given him ; and has withal exactly consider'd the undoubted evidence for the divine authority of the scripture ; ought to be , and will be as tender of believing a sense which is contrary to his innate notions , to the perfections of god , and the certain observations of nature , as of that which puts a force upon the words themselves , and renders them meerly popular and mythological . and by consequence either those who so frequently and zealously do the former , are to be condemn'd , which yet the christian world has been far from doing ; or those who have been forc'd upon the latter , ought to escape any greater severity . for my own part , as in such difficult cases , i easily pass over the mistakes , and value the truths discover'd by any well-dispos'd persons ; which is but a due debt owing from one fallible creature to another : so i humbly bless god , the author and giver of all good things , for that light he has afforded me ( and which , by the divine blessing , i hope the following pages will afford the reader ) in these matters ; by which i am convinc'd of the no-necessity of opposing the literal to the true ; the obvious and natural , to the rational and philosophick interpretations of the holy scriptures ; and shall chearfully wait for that happy time , when all doubts being remov'd , and all objections prevented by the improvement of our knowledge , and the conduct of the divine providence , reason and revelation , shall reciprocally bear witness to , and embrace each other ; when no one shall be able to pretend to the one , but he who is equally acquainted and satisfied with the other ; and the whole reasonable creation shall unite their hearts and tongues in hymns to god. all thy commandments are faithful . thy statutes are right rejoicing the heart . thy judgments , o lord , are true and righteous altogether . righteous art thou , o lord , and just are thy judgments . great and marvellous are thy works , o lord god almighty ! just and true are thy ways , o king of saints ! but to return from this digression , and to proceed . viii . i prove the mosaick creation extends no farther then our earth , and is of no other nature than is assign'd here ; because neither the intentions of the author require , nor the capacities of the people could bear either a strictly philosophical , or a truly universal account of the origin of things . the designs of moses , the inspired penman , or rather of that blessed spirit which inspir'd him , in this history of the creation , were not the gratifying the curiosity , or satisfying the philosophick enquiries of a few elevated minds , but of a more general and useful nature ; namely , to inform the jews , and the rest of the world , that all the visible frame of heaven and earth was neither existent from all eternity , nor the result of blind chance , fatal necessity , nor unaccountable accidents , but the workmanship of god almighty . to make them sensible that every being they had any knowledge of , was deriv'd from , and subject to that jehovah whom they worshipp'd , and that in him themselves with all their fellow creatures in the open air , on the wide earth , or in the deep seas , liv'd , mov'd , and had their being ; who therefore must needs be the governor and ruler of them all . to affect their minds , by this means , with the awfullest , veneration for the god of israel , and inspire them with a just gratitude to him for all their enjoyments , who had not only created this earth for mankind , and furnish'd it with various creatures for their use , but beside these terrestrial , had made the very celestial bodies subservient to their necessities . to demonstrate the original goodness and perfection of things , and that therefore whatever was evil must have been the consequent of man's fall , and not of god's primary introduction ; and thereby to teach men humility , and raise their abhorrence of sin , the cause of all their miseries . to shew them the unreasonableness of all sorts of idolatry , or of the worship of any visible beings , tho' never so useful or glorious , by assuring them they were all in common the creatures of god , and all their influences , of what kind soever , intirely deriv'd from him , and under his disposal . in short , the main design was to secure obedience to those laws he was about to deliver from god to them , by giving them the greatest and justest idea's of their legislator , the almighty maker of heaven and earth . these were , i suppose , the principal reasons of thus recording the creation of the world , and these reasons made a particular account of the visible parts of this earth , with all its furniture , that was observable and expos'd to their daily view , necessary and expedient ; nay , they enforc'd some kind of mention of the heavenly bodies , so far as they were concern'd with us below , and so far as to shew , that god originally created them , as well as the more ordinary bodies on the face of the earth . all this was but proper and necessary in order to the foremention'd purposes . but why a natural and philosophical account of the primary formation of such remote and different systems of bodies , whose real bigness , distances , natures , and uses , abstractedly consider'd , never came into mens thoughts , nor were once imagin'd by them , i cannot so easily tell . especially , if it be consider'd , that the capacities of the jews , to whom moses peculiarly wrote , were very low and mean , and their improvements very small , or rather none at all in philosophick matters . 't is not to be imagin'd that an intire account of the origine of the whole frame of nature ( the noblest and most sublime theory the highest philosopher could exercise his thoughts upon ) should be within the reach of the jewish apprehensions . we do not find in our learned and inquisitive age , such a ready comprehension and reception of truths in philosophy among the generality of men ; and 't is so lately , that an easy proposition of the earth's motions , diurnal and annual , rais'd a mighty dust , and was very difficultly embrac'd by even those who call'd themselves philosophers , that from such an instance we may easily imagine how any natural notions relating to the constitution and original of all the bodies in the universe must have been entertain'd among the rude and illiterate jews , newly come from the egyptian bondage , and destitute of the very first elements of natural knowledge . every one in the history of the bible may with ease observe , that the abilities and studies of the israelites ( as indeed 't is true of most of them to this day ) were of another nature and size , than must here be suppos'd , if we bring in all the world into the mosaick creation . if an indifferent stander by , who had never read the first of genesis , were to judge what a sort of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be given to so ignorant and unskilful a nation ; he could not with common prudence suppose either that it ought to be perfectly philosophical , or include any more than the senses and capacities of the jews could arrive at , the earth with its appurtenances , and the heavens so far as they were plainly therewith concern'd . indeed , not only the jews , but the generality of mankind's apprehensions always were , and still are much too narrow for any noble discoveries relating to universal nature ; and a chapter about algebra might almost as suitably to reason be recommended to them , as an account of the true origination of all the world. nay , de facto , it appears , that moses was so far from deeming his people capable of understanding the intire system of bodies remote and distant ; that 't is clear , he esteem'd it improper to say a word about the internal constitution and parts of our own earth , contenting himself with what the surface afforded , and what unavoidably came under the notice of their senses , as is too plain to be deni'd in the history before us . and shall we after all this believe or imagine that 't was fit and proper , nay , or barely possible , for moses to give a full account of the beginning of all the world ? and impress a just , true , and adequate idea thereof on the minds of the people ! i believe 't was so far from it , that still after all the accommodation to the senses and capacities of men , which he and the other holy writers use on such occasions ; yet the meer observation of the truth of things forc'd them sometimes to speak what the others were not able rightly to comprehend ; and they seem rather , in natural truths , to have gone too high , than descended too low , considering the gross ignorance of their readers , in those matters . those expressions of scripture concerning the roundness of the world ; the earth's being founded on the seas , and established on the floods ; a compass or orb being set on the face of the deep ; the stretching out the earth above the waters , and its consisting out of the water and in the water ; of most of which we shall take notice hereafter . those expressions , i say , are exactly accommodate to the real constitution of the earth , as will appear in due place ; but were , 't is plain , very much mistaken afterward . men generally took the earth to be round , not as a sphere , but a circle ; and suppos'd the abyss , on which 't was founded to be the ocean , or great sea ; on whose surface , in their opinion , it swam , and which on every side encompass'd it as far as the very firmament gave leave , and the ends of the heaven would permit . that continent we inhabit , was taken for the whole world , and its middle or center , imagin'd by most to be near the place where himself dwelt . the horizon or sea , and the firmament , were believ'd to bound and terminate each other . the sun , moon , and stars , were suppos'd at their descending below the horizon , to be immers'd in the sea ; and at their ascending above it , to emerge out of it again . how ridiculous these conceits are , every one will easily judge , who has but a small insight into the system of the world ; and how little they are countenanc'd by the texts before referr'd to , 't were easy to shew ; but 't is plain , they were so apply'd , and the particulars pretty handsomely adjusted to mens own fancies , on these hypotheses . when therefore we observe the expressions of scripture about the constitution of our own earth , to have been so miserably misunderstood and misapply'd , we may easily collect what fate any notions of a sublimer nature , concerning the heavens , and the whole system of beings , must have undergone amongst them . if the apostles in a more learned age had began their preaching with the requiring mens belief to the motion of the earth , the being of antipodes , or any other such paradox in philosophy , nay , or given them a true and rational scheme of the origin of the universe in all its parts , we may soon guess at the reception they would have met with , and at the success of their ministry . this procedure could contribute nothing to their design , neither could the people be made to understand and believe such strange notions . and as in this case , every one will allow the absurdity of such a method , and never imagine it probable that the apostles could make use of it ; so ought we , by only changing the scene , to conclude , à priori , that 't is highly unlikely that moses would take such a course ; and that , unless the words of the history were too express and plain to be deny'd , 't is extremely improbable so great a lawgiver ( to go no farther ) would extend his cosmogony beyond the ends of his writing it , and the abilities of those who should read it ; or in other words , 't is extreamly improbable that the mosaick creation is of any other nature or extent than the proposition we are upon does assert . ix . lastly , i prove the mosaick creation extends no farther than this earth and its appendages , because the deluge and conflagration , whose boundaries are the same with that of the mosaick creation extend no farther . i shall here take it for granted , that the limits here assign'd to the deluge and conflagration are just ; it being certain as to the former , and i think more than probable as to the latter ; and only quote a place , or two to prove the six days work to be of the very same , and no larger extent than those are , and leave the whole to the judgment of the reader . there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts , and saying , where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . for this they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of god the heavens were of old , and the earth standing out of the water and in the water , whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water , perished : but the heavens and the earth which are now , by the same word are kept in store , reserved unto fire against the day of judgment , and perdition of ungodly men . the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night , in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also , and the works that are therein , shall be burnt up . in the day of god the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . nevertheless we , according to his promise , look for a new heaven , and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . thou , lord , in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth , and the heavens are the works of thine hands : they shall perish , but thou remainest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment ; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up , and they shall be changed . i have now finish'd all those arguments which to me are fully satisfactory , and i think prove beyond rational contradiction , that not the vast universe , but the earth alone , with its dependencies , are the proper subject of the six days creation : and that the mosaick history is not a nice , exact and philosophick account of the several steps and operations of the whole ; but such an historical relation of each mutation of the chaos , each successive day , as the journal of a person on the face of the earth all that while would naturally have contained . the sum of all is this : ( . ) the very words and coherence of moses himself require such a construction . ( . ) the words of creating , making or framing things here us'd , are commonly of no larger importance than this proposition allows . ( . ) the world , or heaven and earth , the objects of this creation , are alike frequently restrain'd to the sublunary world , the air and earth . ( . ) the chaos , that known fund and seminary of the six days creation , extended no farther . ( . ) on the contrary supposition , the time of the creation of each body is extremely disproportionate to the work it self . ( . ) on the same supposition there is an intolerable disorder , disproportion , and confusion in the works themselves . ( . ) the sinal cause of the six days creation is the advantage of mankind , the inhabitant of the earth . ( . ) neither the intention of the author , nor the capacity of the readers require or could bear any other account of the origin of things . ( . ) lastly , neither the deluge nor conflagration , whose extent appears commensurate to that of this creation , are of any larger compass than is here assign'd . upon this view of the whole matter give me leave to say , that to make the universal frame of nature concern'd in the particular fates and revolutions of our earth , is at this time of day , to demonstrate either very mean thoughts of the ends of the divine workmanship , and of the essects thereof in the world ; or else very proud and extravagant conceits of our own worth and dignity ; and at best argues a narrow , ignoble , and unphilosophical soul. 't is much such another wise and rational notion , as it would be to suppose that the whole terraqueous globe , with all its parts and dependencies , all its furniture and productions , was alike concern'd in the fates and revolutions ( pardon the expressions ) of one single fly or worm belonging to it . and we may e'en as fairly allow the intire dependence of this sublunary world on the fortune of such a single animalculum ; that on its peeping into the world , the whole earth must arise out of nothing to afford it a resting place ; while it was growing , and continued in its prime , all things below must spring and flourish , rejoyce and look gay ; on its decay , all things must put on a mournful countenance ; and on its destruction , universal nature here beneath must expire together , and return to its primitive nothing . this representation will , i imagine , seem bold and extravagant . but 't will be hard to prove it so . and i may appeal to astronomy whether the earth can be shewn to bear as considerable a proportion to the universe , as such a poor animalculum does certainly bear to it . i would not by this , or any thing else i have heretofore said in this discourse , be so far mistaken , as to be believ'd prone to depretiate and and debase mankind ; or to put a slight on all those works of nature and providence which are subservient to it . neither do i deny that in some sense all the visible world , heaven and earth , are ordain'd for our use and advantage ; i fully believe that we are the creatures of god , of whom he has a tender regard , and over whom he exercises a constant , a special care and providence . as i look upon the souls of men , in their proper and primitive perfection , when they came out of their maker's hands , to be noble , to be glorious , to be exalted beings , and perhaps in capacities or faculties , in dignity or happiness , not inferior to some of the angelick orders ; so i also most undoubtedly believe what our saviour affirms of good mens state hereafter , that they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the angels ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of god himself . while i am perswaded that the creation of man was not effected without the concurrence and joint consultation of the blessed trinity ; nor his redemption without the acceptance of the father , the sacrifice and death of the son in his humane nature ; and the sanctification and operation of the holy spirit . while i am perswaded that the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has ever since the fall of adam been sollicitous about our reconciliation to god , and made it his constant business , even before as well as since his incarnation , to mediate for us , and take care of our eternal happiness . while i believe that by the new covenant good men , even in this imperfect state , are esteem'd heirs of god , joint-heirs with christ , and denominated the brethren and friends of their glorious redeemer . while i do not doubt but our humane nature is now , in the person of our blessed saviour , in heaven , and there on account of the hypostatical union with the eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a reward of that obedience and suffering , it underwent for us on earth , advanc'd above the most exalted intellectual orders , at the right hand of the majesty on high. while i expect the same person in the glory of the father , coming to judge the world in righteousness ; and mankind , after that final doom , to be partaker of everlasting joy or misery according to their behaviour here on earth . while , i say , i believe all this , as i most sincerely do , i can be under no temptation of looking with contempt upon , or of entertaining a mean opinion of mankind , or of those systems of nature and providence relating to it . yet all this notwithstanding , i think that opinion i am now exposing , deserves no other character than i have before given of it . tho' i look upon mankind as one species of very noble and glorious creatures , yet i suppose it but one , and that there may be millions of others at the least not inferior to him . tho' i believe humane nature , when innocent and perfect , at that height of purity and felicity which it once had , and by the christian dispensation may be again advanc'd to , as so considerable and exalted a species of beings ; yet withal i look upon it at present as under a very different character . we are all now in a deprav'd , a sinful , and so in a low , a miserable state . we have by our own wilful rebellion and disobedience , made it necessary for god to place us in a short , a vicious , in an uneasie and vexatious world ; where at present we are under a sort of confinement in a place of trial and probation ; and through a doleful wilderness must make our way to the land of canaan . quisque suos patimur manes . we here feel the sad effects and punishments of former sins . we are left to struggle with great difficulties , abide many assaults , and undergo severe agonies , e're we must expect to recover our native dignity , to retrieve our ancient felicity again , exinde per amplum mittimur elysium , & reduces laeta arva tenemus . as flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god , so that kingdom is not of this world. i see no reason to esteem the present condition of mortality as at all considerable in it self , ( tho' in its consequences it extremely be so ) in comparison of the past and future periods of our beings ; and therefore without believing the earth one of the greatest or noblest globes in the world , i can suppose it a very proper and suitable habitation for us at present : most wisely contriv'd , ( as it certainly is ) and its funiture peculiarly and wonderfully adapted to our needs , capacities and operations . i acknowledge that providence has so constituted our earth that we receive some advantages from all , and very great ones from some other parts of the external and visible world. all which were in the original creation of things both foreseen and foredesign'd by god , and so may not improperly be so far said to have been made for our use , and appointed to serve our necessities . i do not think that those systems of the universe we here speak of , are ever a whit the less useful to us , or the benefits we reap from them ever the less in themselves , or less worthy of our notice and observation , our admiration and gratitude to god , because they also are subservient to other noble purposes , and are by divine providence made use of in several great designs over and above those advantages we are able to take notice of , or can our selves enjoy from them . i cannot imagine that god is peculiarly fond of any particular parts of the material creation , or any more a respecter of some inanimate bodies , than of persons . he no doubt equally makes use of them all , according to their several kinds and capacities , in the service of the various species of intelligent creatures , and in the bringing about the great periods of nature , and the decrees of heaven ; which as they are in great measure unknown to us , so may they regard rational beings very different and remote from us and our concerns . if we duly reflect on the infinite nature , and unlimited perfections of the divine being , the creator and original of all things , as well as on the number , vastness , and glory of those his works which are within our view , we shall see reason to confess , there may be millions of nobler intellectual beings interposed between man and god : and the whole world might be more reasonably suppos'd made at the creation , and for the sole use of any one species of those , than of mankind . if therefore we be unwilling to be our selves excluded from a share in the intentions and designs of heaven , let us not exclude any other rational creatures from the same ; but be willing to suppose as this earth was form'd in six days for the sake of man ; so were the rest of the heavenly bodies , form'd at other proper times , for the sake of other of god's creatures ; for whom providence ought to be allow'd to have taken a proportionable care , and made a suitable provision , as we our selves find has been done with regard to us and our affairs . let us learn humble and modest sentiments of our selves , from the contemplation of the immensity of the works of god in the world. which useful lesson the holy psalmist would by his own example teach us . with whose natural and pious reflection in this very case i shall conclude this whole discourse . when i consider thy heavens , the work of thy fingers , the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; lord ! what is man that thou art mindful of him ! and the son of man that thou visitest him ! o lord our lord ! how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! postulata . . the obvious or literal sense of scripture is the true and real one , where no evident reason can be given to the contrary . ii. that which is clearly accountable in a natural way , is not without reason to be ascrib'd to a miraculous power . iii. what ancient tradition asserts of the constitution of nature , or of the origin and primitive states of the world , is to be allow'd for true , where 't is fully agreeable to scripture , reason , and philosophy . a new theory of the earth . book i. lemmata . i. all bodies will persevere for ever in that state , whether of rest or motion , in which they once are , if no other force or impediment act upon them , or suffer by them . ii. all motion is of it self rectilinear , and with the same constant uniform celerity , if no other external cause disturb it . corollary . 't is evident from these two propositions , that matter is intirely a passive substance . coroll . . no spontaneous motion or action can be the effect of meer matter . coroll . . the soul of man , whose least power seems to be that of spontaneous motion , is incorporeal : which is also a necessary consequence of the first corollary ; for if matter be perfectly a passive thing , the soul , which is so active a being , cannot be material . coroll . . the bruit creatures giving all possible demonstrations of spontaneous motion , and of a principle of action , cannot reasonably be suppos'd meerly corporeal machines . iii. all those single corpuscles of which bodies are compos'd , do attract all other single corpuscles of which other bodies are compos'd , and are alike mutually attracted by them . if this affection of the parts of bodies be consider'd with respect to those towards which the motion is , 't is call'd attraction , and they are said to draw all others . but if it be consider'd with respect to those which are mov'd , 't is call'd gravitation , or a tendency in them towards others . thus in magnetism we imagine a power of attraction belonging to the loadstone ; and in the iron a tendency , or ( as i may call it , tho' somewhat improperly ) gravitation towards it . tho'indeed , by the way , the force or affection being found to be mutual and equal on both sides , the terms might justly be so too ; and a loadstone might as properly be said to tend or gravitate towards the iron , or iron to attract the loadstone , as the contrary ; just as 't is in the point before us . this however will serve for an illustration , and explain our meaning in the present case , where all the parts of bodies are endew'd with such a mutual gravitation and attraction with respect to all others . scholium . that no prejudice nor misunderstanding may arise , 't is to be observ'd , that when we use the terms of attraction or gravitation , we do not thereby determine the physical cause or seat of any effects , as if some innate power or occult quality were to be suppos'd in bodies ( as will appear presently ) ; but only use such familiar terms whereby our meaning may be easily understood , and the effects of nature explain'd , even where the last and proper efficient cause is not mechanically assignable . thus we do and may say , as before , that the loadstone attracts the iron , or the iron tends or gravitates to the loadstone , not ascribing thereby any proper and positive quality or power to these bodies , but for ease of expression , and for supplying what we cannot otherwise readily explain relating to them . thus also we commonly say , that stones are heavy , or tend towards the center of the earth ; and the expressions , rightly understood , are true and natural : tho' perhaps in both cases the real cause of those effects which we ascribe to such an attraction , tendency , or gravitation , is external , and some continual impulse from without , not any inherent power really existent within , is the original of all . but in such cases , where the true agent is invisible or unknown , we must have leave to use those terms which the matter will bear , or custom has rendred familiar ; without which , uneasy and troublesome circumlocutions will be unavoidable ; especially , seeing that no error can hereby creep into our reasonings , because 't is evident , that all the effects of nature are exactly the very same in the world , and not otherwise , which they certainly would and must be if bodies did really and properly , by their own inherent virtue or quality , attract , and were attracted by all others . iv. this affection of mutual attraction or gravitation is universal in extent ; all bodies in the whole world , as far as we have any means of knowing wherefoever they are plac'd , being in common subject thereto , and concern'd therein . v. this affection is also universal as to the kinds of its objects ; it belonging equally to all the parts of matter , of what sort or form , in what figure or condition soever they are : the difference of bodies as to texture and composition , fluidity and firmness , motion and rest , bigness and subtily , or any other such mutable qualities , not in the least diminishing the influence thereof . vi. this affection is also universal and equable as to time , without all manner of intermission ; without any increase or diminution in different ages . vii . the quantity of the force of attraction at equal distances is exactly proportionable to the quantity of matter in the attracting body , being in reality nothing but the result or summe of the united forces of all those single particles of which 't is compos'd . thus if a be double to , i. e. has twice as much matter as b ; a will have a double force of attraction also , at equal distances from their centers respectively . if a represent the earth , b the moon ; if b contain but the twenty sixth part of the matter in a , ( as it really does contain no more ) and a globe or ball were plac'd at the same distance from the center of b , at which another equal to it were from that of a , it would be but the twenty sixth part so heavy towards b , as the other were towards a. viii . this mutual tendency of bodies is greater or less , according as the bodies themselves are nearer to , or farther from each other . the same body more forcibly attracting those which are near , than those which are farther off . so that stone or pillar which is with us very heavy , would be comparatively very light , if it were as far distant from us as the moon . ix . the proportion of the increase and decrease of this gravity of bodies in their approach to , or recess from each other , is neither that of similar lines nor solids , but of superficies or plains : the force of attraction in several distances being reciprocally in a duplicate proportion thereof . thus when the same body , without the surface of the earth , is twice as near its center , as it was before , 't is four times as heavy ; when thrice as near , 't is nine times as heavy ; when four times as near , 't is sixteen times as heavy as before . in like manner , the same strength which were able to sustain a body of one hundred weight here , would at twice our distance from the earth's center , be equally able to sustain four hundred weight ; at three times our distance , nine hundred weight ; at four times our distance , sixteen hundred weight , and so , in infinitum , at all other distances . for as the squares of the distances increase , so does the power of attraction decrease ; and as the squares of the distances decrease , so does the power of attraction at the same time increase proportionably ; as will be prov'd presently from the known phaenomena of astronomy . corollary . from the comparison of the two first propositions with the seven last , 't is evident , that this universal force of mutual attraction or gravitation of bodies is not a result from the nature of matter ; which being circumscrib'd within its own bounds , being incapable of acting at a distance , and besides being intirely passive in its very essence , cannot possibly draw others , or tend towards them of it self . coroll . . this universal force of gravitation being so plainly above , besides , and contrary to the nature of matter ; on the formention'd accounts must be the effect of a divine power and efficacy which governs the whole world , and which is absolutely necessary to its preservation . coroll . . when the divine power is inseparable from the essence of god , 't is evident , the latter is omnipresent as well as the former , and every where equally diffus'd through the universe ; and that therefore in god we properly live , move , and have our being . coroll . . the divine nature is incorporeal and spiritual , as being equally present , and equally powerful in the midst of the material world , as in those immense spaces which every where distinguish the parts , and surround the limits of it . coroll . . the providence of god in the natural world is not meerly a conservation of its being , or a non-annihilation thereof ; but a constant , uniform , active influence or energy in all the operations done in it ; the very same which was exerted in the original impression of those laws of motion on which it depends . the two first propositions , 't is true , seem to require only a continuation of existence , without any new or continual action ; but the seven last plainly require more ; and no less than i am here pleading for . so that if we should suppose god almighty to withdraw or suspend this his actual efficacy and influence on all the bodies in the world , tho' he preserv'd their being ; the whole would immediately be dissolv'd , and each of the heavenly bodies be crumbled into dust ; the single atoms commencing their several motions in such several straight lines , according to which the projectile motion chanc'd to be at the instant when the divine influence ( the cause of gravitation , and all such other affections of matter ) was suspended or withdrawn . coroll . . mechanical philosophy , which relies chiefly on the power of gravity , is , if rightly understood , so far from leading to atheism , that it solely depends on , supposes , and demonstrates the being and providence of god ; and its study by consequence is the most serviceable to religion of all other . coroll . . the epicureans , who endeavour'd to cast the belief of a providence at least , if not of a deity out of the world by their atomical or mechanical philosophy , very foolishly misunderstood and abus'd their own principles ; which in reality , when rightly comprehended , do with the greatest evidence and conviction establish them both , beyond all other whatsoever . coroll . . there is no such ethereal substance , or subtile matter , pervading the pores of bodies , which being it self free from the law of gravity , or endu'd with a less proportion thereof , might be imagin'd to be the cause of it in other bodies , or the means of any other effects in the world. coroll . . a vacuum , or space distinct from matter , is necessary to be admitted . for were the world equally full every where , when all matter is equally heavy in proportion to its quantity , there could not possibly be any difference in the specifick gravity of bodies ; it being on the hypothesis of a plenum impossible that a cube of gold should be heavier than an equal cube of air , and it s contained subtile matter together ; and by consequence equally impossible that the former should over-ballance or descend in the latter , which yet all experience shews it really does . so that a plenum is so far from accounting for the phaenomenon of gravity , as some would have it , that it utterly subverts the possibility of it ; and while the last is evident , the first must needs be indefenfible . x. from the uniform projectile motion of bodies in straight lines , and the universal power of attraction or gravitation , the curvilinear motion of all the heavenly bodies does arise . if a body , as b , be moving uniformly along the line dc , from d to c ; and another body a be present , this latter body a must draw the former b from its straight line dc , and by doing so continually , while at the same time the body b retains its projectile force along a straight line in every point of its course , must make the line of its real motion a bent one , and change its rectilinear into a curvilinear trajectory . coroll . hence we may learn what is that conatus recedendi à centro motûs in revolving bodies , and in what sense 't is to be understood . for when , as we have already seen , all bodies have a vis centripeta , or propension towards one another ; 't is impossible they should of themselves , in as proper a manner , have a contrary propension , or vis centrifuga ; an endeavour of avoiding one another , ( if these improper terms will be allow'd me . ) the true meaning therefore of this attempt or endeavour to get farther off the center of motion is only this , that all bodies being purely passive , and so incapable of altering their uniform motion along those straight lines , or tangents to their curves , in which they are every moment , still tend onwards in the same lines , and retain their propension or effort towards that rectilinear motion all the time they are obliged to move in curves ; and consequently at every point of their course , endeavour to fly off by their tangents . now the parts of the tangent to which this endeavour is , being farther from the center than those of the curves to which the bodies are actually forc'd , an attempt to go on in the tangent may be , and is stil'd an attempt to go farther off or recede from that center ; tho' from no other affection than that of inactivity , or of persevering in a rectilinear motion . so that tho' the vis centripeta , or power of gravitation be an active and positive force , continually renew'd and impress'd on bodies ; the vis centrifuga , or conatus recedendi à centro motûs is not so , but the mere consequent and result from their inactivity . this is evident in bodies revolving in ellipses about one of the foci , in their descent towards it ; where the tangent being oblique to the radius , or line , from the point of contact to the focus , this very conatus recedendi à centro motûs , by urging it along the tangent , will for some time make it approach nearer to the focus ; ( tho' not so much nearer as by its revolving in the ellipsis it self ) as may be seen in the scheme , if a body at b. were moving towards l. about the focus h. and this explication is confirm'd by all experience . for let a stone be let loose from the sling , or any revolving body be disengag'd from the force which retain'd it in its curve , and it will not go from the center , but only pass along the tangent in which it was moving as if there were no such center near it at all . xi . a rectilinear or projectile motion of the planets along the tangents to their orbits , ( which when once begun , always uniformly continues ) join'd or compounded with their gravitation to the sun , in the common center or rather focus of our system , is the original of all the planetary revolutions about him . thus if jupiter , for instance , represented by b , were moving uniformly along the line dc , from d towards c ; if the sun a were absent , the planet would pass on straight from b to c , with the same velocity with which it had come from d to b. but if upon its arrival at the point b , the sun in the center or focus a begin to affect it , the planet , by the sun's attraction , must be drawn from a rectilinear to a curvilinear course ; and be oblig'd , if the sun's power be great enough compar'd with the planets velocity , to revolve about him , and that , the attractive force always continuing , for ever after . the case is just the same as if b were a stone in a sling , a the hand of the slinger , ( by the help of the strings united together , and represented by the line a b ) whirling it round continually . for as the stone at its coming to the point b , were it let loose and left to it self , would fly off in the straight line or tangent b c , yet by force is still retain'd at an equal distance from the hand of the slinger , and compell'd to revolve in a kind of circle ; so 't is here . the attraction of the sun in the common center or focus compels all the planets , which of themselves would pass along their several tangents , to revolve about it self , and describe their several curvilinear orbits . and the case is the same in the secondary planets with respect to their primary ones , about which they revolve in the same manner as they all both primary and secondary revolve about the sun , in the common center or focus of the intire system . coroll . . hence 't is manifest , that the law of universal attraction once established , unless the divine power had put the planets into a suitable motion in right lines , they must soon have been drawn downwards , and fall'n into the sun : and still , if their motions should be intirely stop'd and cease , the same must happen , and they must not only be uncapable of those noble uses to which they are now subservient , but utterly perish in the violence of the sun's scorching heat . the preventing of which therefore ought justly to be attributed to the wisdom and power of god in the constitution of the world. coroll . . if the world be limited and finite in its extent , 't is so in its time also ; and so vice versâ if eternal in its time , 't is infinite also in its extent . for when all matter ( as far as we have any means of knowing , and so in reason all matter whatsoever ) is endu'd alike with a power of attraction ; and must all thereby , without proper motions along straight lines , at last meet in the common center of gravity of the whole ; and when withal the other systems of fixt stars , suppos'd here finite , retain their site and distance from each other , and thence appear not to have any projectile motion along straight lines to prevent the same ; had the frame of the world been eternal , the effect abovemention'd must have innumerable ages ago , really come to pass ; and all the matter of the intire universe compos'd one single dull and unmoveable heap or mass in the common center of gravity of the whole : which not having happen'd , demonstrates the impossibility of the eternity of the world , and the necessity of admitting its production in time by the power of god. when therefore 't is unreasonable to suppose the material world truly unlimited in extent , 't is necessary to suppose it no more unlimited in duration also . and this reasoning is unavoidable , unless we allow the most invariable and constant property of matter in our system to be peculiar to it , and so to be a voluntary constitution of god almighty ; or at least that a miraculous providence does hinder the foremention'd effect continually . so that upon the whole , as the very learned mr. bentley has observ'd , either the divine power in creating , or peculiar providence in governing the frame of nature , is on these undoubted principles for ever establish'd . xii . when the projectile motion of the planets is in its direction , perpendicular to a line from the sun , and in its degree of velocity , so nicely adapted and contemper'd to the quantity of the sun's attraction there , that neither can overcome the other , ( the force of gravitation towards the sun , and the celerity of the planets proper motions being perfectly in aequilibrio ) the orbits of such revolving planets will be compleat circles , themselves neither approaching to , nor receding from the sun the center of their motions . and the case is the same in the secondary planets about their primary ones . thus 't is supposable , that the velocity of all the planets about the sun , was exactly accommodate originally to his power of attraction , and that their primitive orbits were perfect circles ; from which at this day they do not mightily differ . thus however jupiter's four satellits or little moons have their motions so exactly proportion'd to their gravitation to him , that their orbits , as far as the most nice observations can judge , are perfect circles , they keeping at an equal distance from his center in all the points of their courses about him . xiii . when the projectile motion is not adapted to , but is either too swift or too slow for the attraction towards the central body , the orbits describ'd will be ellipses ; and in the former case , when the projectile motion is too swift , the orbit will be bigger than the circle before-mentioned ; and the nearer focus of the ellipsis will be coincident with the central body ; and in the latter case the orbit will be less than the circle , and the farther focus of the ellipsis will be coincident with that central body . thus if the celerity of b , be exactly correspondent to the attractive force of the central body a , neither will prevail , and the body , preserving an equal distance from the center , will describe the circle be eb. if the celerity be greater , it will overcome the attraction , and cast it self farther off the center for some time , and so revolve about it in the larger ellipsis bhfg ; the central body , possessing that focus a , which is nearest the point b , where the attraction began . but if the celerity be smaller , the attraction of the central body a , will be too hard for it , will force it for sometime to come nearer , and to describe the lesser ellipsis bkli ; the central body possessing that focus a which is farthest from the point b , where the attraction began : as will be very plain from the consideration of the figure relating hereto . scholium . 't is indeed possible that the celerity of bodies may be so great , compar'd with the force of attraction to the central body , as to cast them off with such violence , that the attraction will never be able to bring them round , or make them revolve about it : in which case the orbits describ'd will be one of the other conick sections , either parabola's or hyperbola's ; according to the less or greater violence with which the bodies are thrown ; and the central body will possess the focus of such a figure . but no phaenomena of nature persuading us that de facto any of the heavenly bodies do describe either of those lines , ( tho' comets ellipses come near to parabola's ; of which hereafter ) i shall not farther insist upon them here . for if what has been said of ellipses has been well understood , the rest can have no great difficulty in it . xiv . several bodies moving about the same central one , tho' their primitive velocity were equal , and direction alike , yet if they be at different distances from it , they will describe figures of different species about it . for when that determinate degree of velocity , which at one distance were just commensurate to the central bodies attraction , and so would produce a circular orbit , must at a farther distance be too hard for it , by reason of the diminution of the attraction there ; an elliptical orbit must be describ'd ; whose nearer focus would be coincident with the central body . in like manner , when the same determinate degree of velocity were at a nearer distance , where the central attraction is augmented , it would be too little for the same ; and an elliptical orbit must be describ'd , whose farther focus would be coincident with the central body . this cannot be difficult if what has been hitherto said have been rightly apprehended . for when the species of the planetary orbits depend solely on the proportion between the attraction towards the central body , and the velocity of the projectile motion ; as that proportion remaining at any distance whatsoever , the bigness of the orbits will be various , but the species the same ; so when that proportion is chang'd , the species of the figures must be chang'd also : which being done , the velocity given , by the various force of attraction in several distances from the center , as well as by the various velocity , at a given distance , of which before ; 't is evident the species of the orbits will be different in this , as well as in the former case . coroll . the greater disproportion there is between the quantity of attraction , and the velocity of the revolving bodies , in the circumstances mention'd in the two last propositions , the farther from a circular , and the more oblong and eccentrical will the orbits describ'd be . and the greater approach to correspondence there is , the nearer to circular , and the less oblong and eccentrical will the same orbits be . xv. the circular orbits of planets depend not only on the exact adjustment of the projectile velocity to the attractive power of the sun , but upon the direction of the same projectile motion , at the original commencing of the attraction . thus where the planet is in its own tangent neither ascending nor descending , and the angle preceding cba is a right one , which we have hitherto suppos'd ; from the correspondence of the velocity to the attraction , the orbits will be perfect circles . otherwise , when the direction of the motion is oblique , in any measure ascending from , or descending to the central body , and the preceding angle cba obtuse or acute , the planet , tho' its velocity were exactly adapted to the attraction of the central body , would revolve in an ellipsis ; and the point b , where the attraction began , would be the end of the lesser axis thereof . all which will become easier by what we shall presently come to explain of that figure . coroll . from these four last propositions , compar'd with the present system of the planetary world , 't is obvious to take notice of the wise and careful providence of god , and his most accurate contrivance in the disposal and regulation of the whole : whereby the primary velocity of the planets , their several distances from the central bodies , and the original direction of their motions , have been each so nicely adjusted and adapted to the force of attraction every where , that all the orbits of the planets became thereby either truly circular , or not very much different from the same . which remark will appear the more just , and considerable , if we reflect on the infinitely different degrees of velocity , and oblique direction ; with the immensly various distances from the central bodies , equally possible with those which were so fitly pitch'd upon ; and observe , to what noble and valuable uses these bodies are now subservient , which , without the foremention'd exactness of contrivance in each particular , could not have been provided for . all which demonstrate the great necessity of interesting the divine providence ; and the worthiness of its so careful interposition in such cases . scholium . in order to the easier apprehension of the motions of the celestial bodies , and of those things already said , or to be said hereafter , relating to them , 't will not be improper in this place to give some account of the generation , nature , and easie properties of ellipses ; in which , ( including the circle , as is commonly done ) all the heavenly bodies ( as far as we have hitherto reason to believe ) revolve perpetually ; so far at least as will be directly subservient to our present purpose , and give any light to the following theory . take therefore , from the great des cartes , this natural and obvious description or delineation of an oval or ellipsis ; which tho' familiar to the gardener and joyner , is a very good one , and gives as just and compleat an idea of it as any other whatsoever . take a small cord or packthread , which is very pliable , and yet not easily stretch'd beyond its natural length ; tye the two ends together , by which means it will be a sort of round or circular circumference mutable into all figures . let two pins or nails , h and i , be driven into a plain board or table ; put the cord or packthread round the two pins or nails h and i , and with a pencil or any such thing , ( which , as it is drawn along , will make a small stroke ) in your hand , turn it round about the two pins or nails , as about a double center , till you return to the point from whence you began . thus if b be the point where you begin the delineation , continue it either way , by ofmknepd , or dpenkmfo , till you return to b again . by which means the point of your pencil will describe such a curve as is here represented , and is call'd an ellipsis . the nature and properties whereof , as far as at present we shall consider the same , are as follow . ( . ) the species of the ellipsis depends on the proportion there is between the length of the cord , and the distance of the two centers h and i : and consequently , wherever that determinate proportion is given , the species is given also , tho' the bigness and capacity be chang'd : but where that proportion is not given ; as , the length of the cord remaining , where the distance of the centers is chang'd ; or , that distance remaining , the length of the cord is chang'd ; or both are chang'd , but not in the same proportion ; in all these cases the species of the ellipsis is different . thus in particular where the distance of the centers , or the line h i , is greater in proportion to the length of the cord , there the ellipsis is farther from , and where 't is less the ellipsis is nearer to a circle . all which is so obvious on a very little consideration of the delineation , and figure , as 't is represented in the two different schemes , that no more words need be us'd about it . ( . ) if in a considerably large figure the two points h and i be very near together , it will be scarce distinguishable from a circle ; and in any figure if they be suppos'd to unite , and be coincident , the eccentrical curve will become concentrical ; and the ellipsis degenerate into a circle ; as perfect a one , as any drawn with a pair of compasses . whence we see why a circle is reckon'd among the ellipses ; and how it may be generated by a way very like that made use of in their delineation . ( . ) as when the points h and i are coincident , the ellipsis loses its eccentricity , and denomination , and commences a circle ; so , on the other hand , if the distance h i be indefinitely lengthened , while the difference between that distance and the length of the cord , ( equal to d h and i k or double to one d h ; as the pencil at d is easily perceiv'd ) remains the same , the ellipsis will go through all species , and at last become indefinitely oblong and eccentrical , and one half of it , as f d e , will degenerate into the very same figure we call a parabola . for as all degrees of eccentricity make ellipses of all species ; so no degree of eccentricity makes a circle ; and an indefinite or infinite degree of it makes a parabola : which , tho' we have no necessity to consider it so distinctly in this place ( none of the heavenly bodies , as far as we yet know , describing truly such a line , as has been already observ'd ; ) yet on account of the comets orbits , which are nearly parabolical , at least deserv'd our notice ; and the first figure will shew an example of it . ( . ) an ellipsis being describ'd about two points , as a circle about one , or those two united ; hence may appear in some measure the nature of these points . they are indeed called the foci or umbilici of the figure , but might not unfitly be nam'd the centers thereof . and how naturally each of them bears much the same respect to the elliptick periphery , that the center does to the circular one , is partly obvious from the foregoing delineation ; and of which those who are acquainted with the conick sections cannot be ignorant . to whom the matter will be still plainer , if they consider the generation of an ellipsis from the section of a conick superficies , by a plain intersecting the opposite sides of the cone , and yet not parallel to the basis ; as the geometricians usually do . for there the axis of the cone , or line which passes from its vertex through the center of the circle its basis , does not pass through the middle or center of the ellipsis ; but one of those points we are speaking of . and accordingly , if the name center had not by custom in the ellipsis been borrowed from the circle on account of its position , rather than some other properties of it , and thence appli'd to the middle point in the ellipsis ; it might very fitly , as has been before said , have been given to the two points h and i , now stil'd the foci or umbilici thereof . and by the same reason the corresponding single points , going under the same names in the parabola and hyperbola , would deserve and challenge the same denomination . and this is so agreeable to the true system of the planetary world , that in the new astronomy ( and thence in these papers ) the stile is sometimes continued ; and 't is not unusual , i may add , nor very improper , to say , that the sun , the common focus or umbilicus of all the celestial elliptick orbits , is in the center of our system , or possesses the center of the planetary world. ( . ) tho' all the lines passing through the center in a circle , being equal , are equally considerable ; yet 't is otherwise in the conick sections ; where that line through the focus alone which cuts the principal axis at right angles , is remarkable above all the rest ; and in very many cases peculiarly considerable . this line is stil'd the latus rectum , and in the ellipsis is , after the longer and shorter axis , the third proportional . thus in the figure before us , as dk is to ef , so is the same ef to op or mn , the latus rectum thereof , so famous with the writers on the conick sections . ( ) . the subtense of the angle of contact bd , parallel to the distance from the focus bh , at an equal distance from the point of contact b , if that distance be suppos'd infinitely small , is in all parts of the same ellipsis , or other conick section equal to it self . the truth and use of which property is not yet sufficiently known . ( . ) if from any point in the circumference of an ellipsis as b , lines be drawn to each focus , bh , bi ; these two lines taken together are always equal to themselves , and to the longer axis kd : as the delineation of the figure does plainly manifest . ( . ) if the angle made by the lines to the foci from any certain point , hbi be divided in the midst by the line ba ; the said line ba will be perpendicular to the tangent , or curve at the point of contact ; and so the angles abl abg will be right ones , and equal to each other , as consequently will equal parts of them lbh : ibg . ( . ) a line drawn from either focus to the end of the lesser axis , he or ie , is equal to half the longer axis cd or ck : as is evident by the last particular but one . and the same line is arithmetically the middle proportional between the greatest and least distance from the said focus . thus he , for instance , is just so much longer than hd , as 't is shorter than hk ; the difference in both cases being the eccentricity hc or ci. ( . ) the tangent of an ellipsis lg is never perpendicular to a line drawn from the focus , excepting the two points which terminate the longer axis d and k. and if you imagine the point of contact b , with the radius bh , and the tangent lg , to move round the ellipsis together , from b towards d ; the preceding angle , hbl , will , in the descent from k by f to d , be an acute one ; ( its acuteness increasing from k to f , and as much decreasing from f to d ) and in the ascent from d by e to k an obtuse one ; ( its obtuseness increasing from d to e ; and as much decreasing from e to k : ) in both semirevolutions arriving at rightness at the points d and k , the ends of the longer axis alone ; as was here to be observ'd . ( . ) the area of an ellipsis is to that of a circumscrib'd circle , ( whose diameter is equal to the others longer axis ) as the shorter axis of the ellipsis is to the same longer axis or diameter . ( . ) if the circumferences of a circle , and of an ellipsis , be equal ; the area of the circle is the greater . it being known , that of all figures , whose perimeters are equal , the circle is the most capacious . ( . ) if an ellipsis , by becoming infinitely eccentrical , degenerate into a parabola ; the latus rectum will be four times as long as the nearest distance to the focus thereof . thus r s is four times as long as h t. xvi . all bodies which , together with a projectile or uniform motion along right lines , are continually attracted or impell'd towards one certain point or center , let the attraction or impulse be of what nature or quantity soever , will always ( no other force interposing ) by a line drawn from that center to themselves , describe equal area's in equal times , and so proportionable area's in proportionable times , through all parts of their courses . thus if the area describ'd the first minute were equal to a thousand square feet ; whether the bodies came nearer or went farther off , it would always in a minute be equal to the same thousand square feet ; in two minutes double , or two thousand ; in three minutes treble , or three thousand ; in four minutes quadruple , or four thousand ; and so for ever proportionably . the demonstration of this noble and exceeding useful theorem is both easie and pleasant : but that not being my present business , i shall , as in the rest , refer the reader to the great author himself for satisfaction . xvii . all bodies , vice versâ , which revolve in curves ; and by a line drawn from themselves to a certain point or center , describe area's proportionable to the times of description ; are attracted or impell'd continually towards that point or center . corollary . when therefore lines drawn : from every one of the planets to the sun , describe perpetually area's proportionable to the times of description ; as is own'd by all astronomers ; 't is certain that , besides their several projectile motions , they are every one continually attracted or impell'd towards the sun ; and from such compounded forces revolve about him . and the case being the same in the moon about the earth ; the circumjovials about jupiter ; and the circumsaturnals about saturn ; this corollary equally belongs to them also . xviii . if bodies from a projectile motion , and an attraction or impulse to a point or center move about the same in a spiral line , which intersects every radius in the same angle ; the force of the attraction or impulse , at different distances from that center is reciprocally as the cubes of such distances : and vice versâ , if the force of attraction or impulse to any center be as the cubes of the distances reciprocally ; bodies revolving about the same must describe spiral lines , intersecting the radij in the same angle . xix . if bodies from a projectile motion and an attraction or impulse to a point , move about it , being the center of an ellipsis , in the periphery of the same ellipsis ; the force of attraction is directly as the distance from such a center : and vice versâ , if the force of attraction or impulse to any point be as the distance from the same directly , bodies revolving about it must describe an elliptick figure ; with whose center the fore-mention'd point will be coincident . xx. if bodies from a projectile motion , and an attraction or impulse to a point , describe an ellipsis about that point , coincident with one of its foci ; the force of attraction towards that focus is reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the same . and vice versâ , if the force or attraction to any point be in a duplicate proportion of the distances from the same reciprocally ; bodies revolving about the same must describe ellipses about it , coincident with one of the foci thereof . corollary . where bodies revolve about any point or central body , from the figure describ'd , and the situation of the point or central body , the law of attraction or impulse tending towards the same is discovered . and vice versâ , where the law of attraction or impulse is known , the figure to be describ'd by revolving bodies , and the situation of the point or central body , towards which the attraction or impulse is , with respect to such figures , is à priori discover'd also . coroll . . none of the heavenly bodies describing either spiral lines , or ellipses about their centers , 't is certain no law of gravitation in a triplicate reciprocal , or direct simple proportion of the distance from the central body , obtains in the planetary world. coroll . . * all the planets revolutions arising from the composition of their projectile motion and gravitation towards the sun ; and they all describing ellipses about him , in the common focus of all their orbits , as is evident from astronomy ; 't is hence certain that the force of their attraction or impulse towards the sun is in a duplicate proportion of their distances reciprocally . coroll . . the case being the same as to the moon about the earth , and the circumsaturnals about saturn ; this last corollary belongs equally to them also . but jupiters satellits revolving in compleat circles are incapable of affording evidence in his case . xxi . if several bodies revolve about the same central attractive body at several distances ; and the periodical times in which they revolve be to each other , as the squares of their distances from the same ; the force of attraction or impulse to that central body is in a triplicate proportion of such distances reciprocally ; and vice versâ , if the force of attraction or impulse be as the cubes of their distances reciprocally , the periodical times of revolution will be to each other , as the squares of their distances from the same central body . xxii . if several bodies revolve about the same central attractive body , at several distances in circular or elliptick orbits , and the periodical times of revolving be all equal ; the force of attraction or impulse towards the central body is directly , as the distances from the same . xxiii . if several bodies revolve about the same central body , in circular or elliptick orbits , at several distances ; and the squares of the periodical times of revolving are to each other as the cubes of the middle distances from the same central body ; the force of attraction or impulse towards the same is in a duplicate proportion of the distances from the same reciprocally . corollary . where several bodies , from a projectile motion , compounded with a gravitation towards a central body , revolve about the same at several distances ; from the proportion there is between the periodical times of revolving , compar'd with the distances from the central body , the law of gravitation tending towards the same is discovered ; and vice versâ , where the law of gravitation is known , the proportion between the periodical times compar'd with the distances from the central body is , à priori , discover'd also . coroll . . none of the heavenly bodies periodical times of revolving being to each other as the squares of their distances from the central body , nor equal to one another ; 't is certain , as before , that no law of gravitation in a triplicate reciprocal , or direct simple proportion of the distances from the central body , obtains in the planetary world. coroll . . * all the planets revolutions arising from the composition of their projectile motion and gravitation towards the sun , and the squares of their periodical times of revolving being to each other as the cubes of their middle distances from him ; 't is hence certain , that , as before , the force of their attraction or impulse towards the sun , is in a duplicate proportion of their distances reciprocally . coroll . . the case being the same as to the circumjovials about jupiter , and the circumsaturnals about saturn ; this last corollary belongs equally to them also . but the moon being a single planet revolving about the earth , is incapable of giving evidence in her case . coroll . . as before , the law of gravitation being demonstrated from the planets revolving in ellipses about the central bodies in one of the foci ; the proportion between the periodical times , compar'd with the distances from the central bodies , was deducible à priori ; so vice versâ , the periodical times compar'd with the distances demonstrating the law of gravitation , thence the necessily of the planets revolution in ellipses , about the central bodies in one of the foci , is à priori demonstrated also . coroll . . 't is certain , that the annual motion belongs to the earth about the sun , not to the sun about the earth . for when from the moon 's orbit , and the planet's orbits and periodical times , 't is certain , that the law of gravitation towards the earth , and towards the sun is the same ; and by consequence , all the periodical times of bodies revolving about each of them in the same proportion to one another , compar'd with their several distances from each of them : on which hypothesis , this proportion suits the phaenomena of nature , the same must be the true one , and to be fully acquiesc'd in . now 't is known , that on the hypothesis of the earth's annual motion , her periodical time exactly suits , and is so between that of venus and mars , as the proportion observ'd through the whole system , and demonstrable à priori , withal , exactly requires ; but on the other hypothesis 't is enormously different . for when the moon undoubtedly , and on this hypothesis the sun also , revolves about our earth ; and when the distance of the sun is to that of the moon as about to ; and the moon 's periodical time less than days ; the periodical time of the sun is by the rule of three discoverable thus : as the cube of the moon 's distance , equal to ; to the cube of the sun 's equal to . ( or almost as to ) so must the square of the moon 's periodical time days equal to . be to the square of the sun 's periodical time , ; whose square root , , are days also , equal to years . so that on the hypothesis of the sun's revolution about the earth , its periodical time must undoubtedly be years , which all experience attests to be but a single one . so that at length the controversy between the ptolemaick and pythagorean systems of the world is to a demonstration determin'd , and the earth's annual motion for ever unquestionably establish'd . coroll . . 't is certain those opake masses which sometimes appear at the sun , are not planets revolving at any the least distance from him , but spots or maculae adhering to him : for whereas they revolve but once in about twenty six days ; on calculation it will appear , that a planet near the sun's surface as these must be , cannot have three hours allow'd for its periodical revolution , which being so different from the foremention'd space of twenty six days , quite decides that controversy , and demonstrates those masses to be real maculae adhering to the body of the sun , as is here asserted . xxiv . if a planet describe an ellipsis about its central body in the focus thereof , it will move fastest when 't is nearest to , and slowest when 't is farthest from the said central body or focus ; and agreeably in the intermediate places . for seeing wheresoever the revolving body is , the area is still proportionable to the time , as was before shew'd ; and so in equal times always equal ; 't is evident by how much the distance is less , and the line from the focus is shorter ; by so much must the bodies motion be the swifter to compensate the same : and vice versâ , by how much the former is longer , by so much must the latter be slower to allow for it . xxv . if the planet b describe an ellipsis about the central body in the focus h ; as the area describ'd by the line b h , will be exactly uniform and proportional to the time of description ; so the angular motion , or velocity of the line from the other focus b i , will be proportional to the time , and uniform also ; tho' not so exactly and geometrically . xxvi . the law of gravitation already explain'd being suppos'd ; if one planet describe an ellipsis about the central body in the focus h , and another describe a circle about the same in its center : if the semidiameter of the circle be equal to h e , the middle distance in the ellipsis from the same center or focus , their periodical times of revolving will be the same ; and when the distances are equal , their velocity will be so too . corollary , tho' therefore the planets revolve in ellipses of several species , yet their periodical times may be as well compar'd with one another , and with their distances from the central bodies , as if they all revolv'd in compleat circles ; as was above done . xxvii . if a body revolve about a central body , as about a in a circle , as b e e b ; and another revolve about the same in the focus of its ellipsis b h f g , so that the semediameter of the circle were equal to the nearest distance in the ellipsis , ab ; the velocity of the body at the nearest point of the ellipsis will be greater than the velocity of the body in the circle ; and will be to it in half the proportion of the latus rectum of the ellipsis pq , to the diameter of the circle eb ; or as that line p q , to a middle proportional between it self and e b. xxviii . if one body revolve round a central body in a circle , and another about the same in its focus describe so very eccentrical an ellipsis that it may pass for a parabola ; the velocity of the body moving along the ellipsis , will be to that of the body moving in the circle ( the point in the ellipsis being as far from the central body as the circumference of the circle ) very nearly as ten to seven . xxix . if a central body have many bodies revolving about it ; 't is perfectly indifferent in it self , and with regard to the central body , in what plains soever , or which way in those plains soever , they all or any of them move . corollary hence arises a convincing argument of the interposition of council and providence in the constitution of our system ; in which all the planets revolve the same way , from west to east ; and that in plains almost coincident with one another , and with that of the ecliptick , as mr. bentley hath also observ'd . xxx . the order of the heavenly bodies in the solar system is as follows : first of all , the vast and glorious body of the sun is plac'd in the middle , very near the center of gravity of the intire system , in the common focus of every one of the planetary orbits . next to him mercury describes his ellipsis , and that so near , that we on earth rarely obtain a distinct view of him . next to mercury is the elliptick orbit of venus , our glorious morning and evening star. next to venus our earth , with its attendant the moon , perform a joint course , and measure out the annual period . next to the earth the fiery star mars alone , without any visible guard accompanying him , revolves about the same center . next to mars , tho' at a mighty distance from him , the largest of the planets , jupiter , with his four remarkable satellits ; and lastly saturn with his five little moons about him , describe the farthest and most remote orbits , and compleat the intire planetary chorus , as the frontispiece of the book represents them to the contemplation of the reader . scholium . besides the planets , whose orbits are not very different from circles , there are another species of bodies revolving about the sun in such ellipses , as may pass for parabola's , they are so exceeding eccentrical ; but as regularly retaining their several periods and orbits , as the planets now mention'd . but because these bodies will be more distinctly consider'd hereafter , i shall wave their farther consideration at present , and proceed . xxxi . the periodical times of each planet's revolution about the sun , are as follow .     y. d. h. mercury revolves about the sun in the space of — — venus — — the earth — — mars — — jupiter — — saturn — — xxxii . the middle distances of the planets from the sun , are as follow . mercury is distant from the sun statute miles , each paris feet . venus the earth mars jupiter saturn scholium . the proportions of these numbers are unquestionable : but the numbers themselves only within about a fourth part under or over . the reason of such uncertainty is , that the sun's parallax or angle which the diameter of the earth would subtend to an eye at the sun , on which the whole depends , is not yet accurately determined by astronomers ; so that between and seconds , no number can be certainly pitch'd upon , till farther observations put an end to our doubts . on which account i have endeavour'd to come as near to probability as possible , and have suppos'd the sun's parallax " in a middle between the two foremention'd extreams ; and from this hypothesis made these and the following calculations ; which therefore cannot well be above a fourth part under or over the truth , but very probably are much nearer it . xxxiii . the quantity of matter in such of the heavenly bodies as afford us means of determining the same , is in the proportions following . the sun 's . jupiter's / . saturn's / . the earth's . the moon 's / . scholium . because the solidity or quantity of matter in bodies is in a triplicate proportion of their diameters ; that small uncertainty in the sun's parallax beforemention'd , imports a great deal in the present calculation . i shall therefore give the reader the proportions of the quantity of matter in the heavenly bodies on the two extream hypotheses , as well as i have done on the middle one ; only informing him , that the hypothesis of " seems nearer the truth than the opposite extream of " , as being nearest the accurate observations of our great astronomer mr. flamsteed . the quantities of matter therefore , are as follow , the sun's — if the sun's parallax be " . the sun's — if the sun's parallax be " . jupiter's — / jupiter's — / saturn 's — / saturn 's — / the earth's — the earth's — the moon 's — / the moon 's — / corollary . the weight of bodies at equal distances from the sun and planets , being in the same proportion with the quantity of their matter , as has been lem. , already said ; the same numbers assign'd in the last priùs . lemma , which explain the latter , serve equally to explain the former also . xxxiv . the diameters of the sun and planets , are as follows . the sun's — statute miles , each paris feet . saturn's — jupiter's — mar's — the earth's — the moon 's — venus's — mercury's — xxxv . the weight of bodies on the surface of the sun , and those planets mention'd in the d lemma before , is as follows . on the surface of the sun . the earth / jupiter / . the moon . saturn . xxxvi . the densities of the same , ( whatever be the sun's parallax ) is as follows . the moon 's . the earth's . the sun 's . jupiter's . saturn's . xxxvii . as the weight of bodies without the superficies of the heavenly bodies increases in a duplicate proportion of their nearness to their centers ; so within the same superficies , does it decrease in a simple proportion thereof ; and is consequently greatest upon the superficies themselves . thus a body at miles distance from the earth's center , is four times so heavy as it would be at . but within the earth , if a body were twice as near its center as 't is on the surface , it would be but half so heavy as 't is here ; if thrice as near , it would be but a third part so heavy ; if four times as near , it would be but a quarter so heavy ; and so for ever proportionably . gravity therefore is most considerable on the surface , decreasing both ways , upward in a duplicate proportion of the reciprocal distance ; and downward in a simple direct proportion thereof . xxxviii . if the central regions of a globe contain a sphaerical cavity within the same ; bodies plac'd therein , from the equality of attraction on every side , will not tend any way , or gravitate at all , but be as perfectly at liberty , as if they were not affected by any such law of attraction or gravitation . xxxix . the moon revolves about the earth from west to east in days , hours , minutes ; and in the very same space of time , by a strange correspondence and harmony of the two motions , revolves the same way about its own axis ; whereby ( one motion as much converting it to , as the other turns it from the earth ) the same side is always expos'd to our sight . xl. the librations of the moon 's body , which cause not exactly the same hemisphere thereof to be perpetually expos'd to our sight , arise from the eccentricity of the moon 's orbit , from the perturbations by the sun's attraction , and from the obliquity of the axis of the diurnal rotation to the moon 's own orbit , without the knowledge of which circumstances her phoenomena were inexplicable , but by the consideration of them are very demonstrable . xli . in the th year of the julian period , the autumnal equinox was on the th day of october . 't is evident from the astronomical tables of the anticipation of the equinox , that in years ( the time since the beforemention'd year ) the equinoxes have anticipated days hours . 't is also evident , that this year . the vernal equinox is on the th of march , and the autumnal on the th of september ; 't is farther evident , that whereas now the space from the vernal to the autumnal equinox is eight or nine days longer than from the autumnal to the vernal , by reason of the position of the perihelion of the earth's orbit near the winter solstice ; at the time beforemention'd it was not above five or six days so . by the anticipation therefore of the equinoxes alone , if the position of the perihelion had been always the same , the equinoxes at the time assigned had been on the th of april in the morning , and on the th of october in the evening ; and the equaller division of the year allow'd for , the vernal equinox was on the th of april , and the autumnal on the th of october , as was to be prov'd . xlii . comets are a species of planets , or bodies revolving about the sun in elliptical orbits , whose periodical times and motions are as constant , certain , and regular as those of the planets , tho' till very lately wholly unknown to the world. xliii . these elliptical orbits of comets are so very oblong and eccentrical , that while they come within our observation , they are but little different from parabola's , and may accordingly be consider'd as such . xliv . the plains in which various comets move , are themselves exceeding various , and at all imaginable angles of inclination with one another , and with that of the ecliptick . xlv . the course of comets in their orbits is not determin'd one way , ( as is that of the planets from west to east ) but indifferently some of them move one way , and some another . corollary . from these two last lemmata , 't is evident , that comets move sometimes from east to west , other times from west to east ; sometimes from north to south , other times from south to north ; or obliquely between any of these ways , according as the situation of the plains of their orbits , and the directions of their courses together determine them . coroll . . hence 't is certain , that the heavenly motions are not perform'd in corporeal vortices ; when the comets exactly observe the same laws and velocity of motion , whether they revolve with or against , or cross to the planets , and the suppos'd stuid matter of the vortices . xlvi . comets in their descent to , and ascent from the sun , pass quite through the planetary system ; as may be seen in the frontispiece . corollary . hence we may observe a new possible cause of vast changes in the planetary world , by the access and approach of these vast and hitherto little known bodies to any of the planets . xlvii . if a comet in its descent to , or ascent from the sun , approach near to a planet as it passes by , and its plain be different from that in which the planets move ; by its attractive power it will , agreeably to the universal law of gravitation of bodies , draw it from the plain in which it before mov'd , and so cause it afterward to move in a new one , inclin'd to the former , but passing through the sun , as the former did . corollary . hence 't is supposable , that tho' the planets originally revolv'd in the same common plain , yet by the subsequent attraction of comets , their plains may now be inclin'd to one another , and different ; as 't is certain de facto they now are . scholium . when the law of gravitation is universal and mutual , 't is evident , the planet would draw the comet from its plain , as well as the comet would draw the planet ; and so generally , what effects soever the comets could have on the planets , the latter would have correspondent ones on the former . but as this indication once given for all , there is no necessity of taking notice of the changes in the comets ; so accordingly , in what follows , i shall wholly omit the same ; and confine my self to such things as will be immediately useful in the following theory . xlviii . if a comet revolving in the same plain with a planet , whose orbit is a perfect circle , as it passes by , approach near it , by accelerating or retarding the velocity of the planet , it would render its orbit elliptical . thus if b were a planet revolving about the sun at the center a , in the circular orbit be eb ; and a comet either in its descent towards , or ascent from the sun should pass near it , it would agreeably to the universal law of gravitation of bodies , accelerate it , if concurring with , or retard ing it , if contradicting the planet's own annual motion along the periphery of its circle . whereupon the concentrical orbit would become excentrical , and the planet would afterward revolve in an ellipsis , which on an acceleration would be bigger , and on a retardation less than the circle which it had till then describ'd ; the former represented by bhfg , the latter by bkli . for when the original velocity of b was exactly adjusted to the sun's power of attraction , and its orbit thereupon a perfect circle , this new acceleration or retardation must render it afterward incommensurate , and too great , or too little for the same ; and accordingly the orbit to be afterward agreeably to what has been formerly explain'd , describ'd by the planet , must be an ellipsis ; and bigger or less than the former circle , as the force was directed for , or against , the planet's own motion . corollary . in this case the sun would no longer be in the center of the figure , but in one of the foci , viz. in the nearer focus of the larger , and the farther of the smaller ellipsis . coroll . . if b were the earth moving circularly about the sun from west to east , i. e. from b by e , eb to b again ; and a comet h in its descent towards the sun should pass by before it , or on the eastside ; the annual motion of the earth would be accelerated , and its circular orbit degenerate into the larger ellipsis bhfg , about the sun in its nearer focus a. xlix . if a comet in passing by as before , accelerate the planets motion , and so enlarge the orbit , the planets periodical time of revolving will be enlarg'd , and become longer thereby . in like manner , if the comet retard the planets motion , and so diminish the orbit , the periodical time of revolving will be lessen'd , and become shorter . and still the more considerable the acceleration or retardation is , compar'd with the original velocity of the planet , the greater will be the eccentricity , and the greater difference between the former and latter orbits , and the former and latter periodical times of revolving also . corollary . if in the foregoing case the semidiater of the ancient circle , with the middle distance in the ellipsis afterward describ'd be given , as also the periodical time of revolving in the latter , the periodical time of revolving in the former is at the same time determin'd . for as the cube of the middle distance in the ellipsis , to the cube of the semidiameter of the circle , so is the square of the periodical time in the ellipsis , to the square of the periodical time in the circle . so that three of those terms being known , which is here suppos'd ; the fourth , by the golden rule , is known also , whose square root answers the demand of this corollary . coroll . . when therefore the three postulata's now mention'd are given in the case of the earth , ( supposing that it anciently revolv'd in a circular orbit ) as will hereafter appear ; the time of its annual revolution in that original and circular orbit may easily be at this day discover'd . l. if a planet moving in a circular orbit were accelerated by an attraction directly along its tangent or periphery ; the preceding angle made by the tangent and radius cba would still remain a right one , and the point b , where the acceleration happen'd , would afterward be the nearest to the focus , or the perihelion in the ellipsis afterward to be describ'd . so if it were alike directly retarded along its tangent or periphery , the angle would still be a right one ; and the point b where the retardation happen'd , would be the farthest from the focus , or the aphelion in the ellipsis to be afterward describ'd . li. if therefore such acceleration or retardation were caus'd by a body moving uniformly along its trajectory on each side of the planets circular periphery , the oblique acceleration above , would take off the nearly equal oblique retardation below , or the contrary ; and thereby the effect afterward remaining would be all one , as if the prevailing force , whether of acceleration or retardation were only along the tangent or periphery ; all one , as if the whole attraction were caus'd while the attracting body was at or near that tangent or periphery it self ; and by consequence the point b would be , as above , the perihelion or aphelion of the ellipsis afterward describ'd . lii . but by reason that bodies revolving about the sun , move still swifter when nearer , and slower when farther off ; the motion of a comet is swifter within than without the periphery of the fore-mention'd circle . if therefore ( to omit here and hereafter cases not to our purpose ) a comet in its descent towards its perihelion pass just before the body of a planet , and accelerate it ; because the time of acceleration without the periphery of the circle is longer than the time of the retardation within it , the effects of the outward oblique attraction must be somewhat more than of the inward ; and the preceding angle become somewhat obtuse . thus if a comet in its descent from x by h to w accelerate the planet b ; by reason of the prevalence of the outward oblique attraction , the planet will be not only accelerated , but drawn outward in some measure also , and the preceding angle , which before was constantly a right one , and represented by cba will be a little obtuse , and be represented by tba ; and by consequence the point b will be a few degrees past the succeeding perihelion , just so many as in the said ellipsis are necessary to render the angle made by the radius , or line from the focus , and the tangent , obtuse in the same proportion with that above-mention'd . so that on such an acceleration the perihelion will be some degrees more backward than the point b , at which the acceleration happen'd . coroll . if therefore in a given year , a comet , in its descent towards the sun , accelerated the earth's annual motion , and chang'd its orbit from a circle to an ellipsis ; the degree of the ecliptick , and day of the year , when the same attraction happen'd , may be pretty nearly determined by the place of the perihelion at the same time , from the astronomical tables of its place and motion . liii . if the nearest distance of a comet to a planet be given , the time of attraction to be consider'd is from thence determinable . thus if a comet in its descent towards the sun , as from e to h , pass'd by a planet moving in the circumference of its circular orbitfrom a to d , and so accelerated the same : let cg be the line describ'd by the comet while the planet passes along from b to c , at which last point c the comet is suppos'd to have been at its nearest distance , when the planet is at b ; and let cf be equal to cg . in this case the acceleration by the comet between e and f , being nearly taken off by the retardation between g and h ; ( and the like is to be suppos'd of the acceleration beyond e , and the retardation beyond h , not to be contain'd in the figure ) 't is evident that all the attraction which is to be consider'd , is that accelerating the planet while the comet passes from f to g , and the planet from q to c : as the sole view and consideration of the figure it self will give sufficient evidence . which from the velocity of the motion of comets and planets easily calculated , might be soon determined ; if the nearest distance cb were once ascertain'd . coroll . . if therefore the nearest distance cb were known , and the bigness or quantity of matter in the comet it self ; seeing the time of acceleration is withal known ; the quantity of acceleration , the increas'd velocity of the planet ; and by consequence the magnitude of the elliptick orbit to be afterwards discrib'd ; and the periodical time of revolving answerably thereto , might all be à priori determined . coroll . . vice versâ , if the nearest distance bc , with the eccentricity of the subsequent elliptick orbit , or its periodical time be given ; the bigness of the comet may , on the same grounds , be determin'd also . liv. if a comet descending towards the sun pass'd near a planet which had a secondary one revolving about it ; unless their situation were so accurately and nicely adjusted that it approach'd equally near to them both , these two planets would no longer revolve together , but being for ever separated must describe different orbits about the sun. this is easily demonstrable ; since any diversity of attraction must change each of their annual orbits and periodical times in proportionably different degrees : the least of which were more than sufficient to such a purpose as we here are speaking of . coroll . if therefore the planetary orbits were all or any of them originally circles ; and by the attraction of comets passing by , were chang'd into ellipses ; the position of their several satellits , which they still retain , must have been most wisely and wonderfully adjusted , by the divine providence , with their fellows ; with their primary planets ; and with the orbits and periods of the comets ; without which correspondence the present system of the world must have been vastly alter'd ; and the primary planets have lost their attendants for ever . lv. when therefore the earth still retains its secondary planet the moon , which at its original formation belong'd to it ; if its present elliptick orbit be the effect of the passing by of a comet , the time of such passing by must have been about three days after the new or full moon . let og represent a section of the eccliptick periphery ; in which the earth a is performing its annual course , from west to east , or from o towards g : let c be the moon , performing in like manner , ( besides her menstrual revolution the same way , from t by c towards s , about the earth , ) her annual course , with the same velocity as the earth , from u towards w , along her periphery u w , equidistant from the eccliptick o g : let n m represent the trajectory of the comet , intersecting the line passing through the sun i i , in the angle m b i of , , or degrees more or less : let b be the comet descending from n towards m in its approach towards it perihelion : from the earth's center , from d and x , ( the line a x being drawn parallel to the comets trajectory n m , ) let fall perpendiculars to the trajectory a f , d e , x y. now if while the comet were passing from f to y , the moon stood still , and did not proceed in her annual course along her periphery u w , she must have been at that point x , or not above one day past the new at t ; and so the nearest distances a f x y being equal , the attractions of the earth by the comet at f , and of the moon by the comet at y , would have been equal also ; and by consequence this position would have secur'd the future agreement and company of these two planets , and the time of the passing by of the comet fix'd to a single day after the new moon . but by reason of the moons progressive annual motion along her periphery u w , while the comet descends from t towards y ; she must have been in that point of her menstrual orbit c , where c d is to cq or d a , as her velocity to the comets , or as to ; that so the comet descending from its nearest distance to the earth at f , to its nearest distance to the moon at e ; and the moon arriving at the same time , by her annual motion , at the point d , the nearest distances a f ; d e may still be equal ; and the acceleration of the earth and the moon may still be the same . now this being the case ; the place of the moon c must be about , , or degrees more or less past the point t , in its menstrual orbit , or the conjunction with the sun or three days past the new moon . and the like will be demonstrated of three days past the full moon , by the same figure and reasoning ; if we do but shift the scene , and let c represent the earth , and u w the ecliptick periphery ; a the moon , and o g its periphery . for all the rest remaining as above ; the angle δ c a which the moon a must have pass'd after the full at ζ , being equal to the alternate c a t , would require equal time to be describ'd ; and so the time proper for the situation of the earth and moon , ( which is equally necessary in this as in the former case ) as the figure represents it , will be three days after the full ; as this corollary asserts . coroll . if therefore in a given year a comet in its descent towards the sun accelerated the earth and moon 's annual motions , and thereby chang'd their orbit from a circle to an ellipsis ; when the day of the year , from the place of the perihelion , were pretty nearly determined ; by this last lemma , the very day is determined also from the astronomical tables of the conjunctions of the sun and moon . lvi . if our earth once revolv'd about the sun in a circular orbit , whose semidiameter were equal to the earth's original distance from the sun six degrees past its perihelion , the annual period was exactly equal to synodical or periodical months . 't is evident that synodical or periodical months . ( equal to each other in the present case , ) are days hours minutes . 't is also evident that the eccentricity of the earth's or the distance between the focus and center of its ellipsis , was , according to the ancient astronomers , hipparchus and ptolomy , / of the intire middle distance . by the moderns 't is found somewhat less , ( and those who know mr. newton's philosophy will easily allow of some diversity in different ages ; ) by tycho 't was determin'd to be near / ; by cassini since / ; and last of all by our most accurate observer mr. flamsteed , ( as he was pleas'd by letter with great freedom to assure me , ) / or near / as cassini had before determin'd . all which consider'd , we may very justly take the middle between the ancient and the modern eccentricity / for the true original one ; and about / or more nicely / for the difference between the ancient semidiameter of the circular orbit , and the middle distance in the present elliptick one ; ( the point of acceleration being about degrees past the perihelion , not just at it , as is before prov'd . ) then by the golden rule , as the cube of , ( the middle distance in the ellipsis , ) to the cube of , ( the semidiameter of the ancient circle ) so is the square of , ( the number of minutes in our present solar year , ) to the square of the number of minutes in the ancient solar year , whose root being minutes , or days hours minutes , appears to be exactly and surprizingly equal to the lunar year before mention'd . coroll . upon this hypothesis the ancient solar and lunar year were exactly commensurate and equal ; and days , hour , minutes , shorter than the present solar year . which last number tho' it be not equal to the lunar epact at present ; is yet rightly assign'd ; each synodical moth being ( by the quicker angular revolution of the earth then ) so much longer , as upon the whole adjusted , the periods as is above stated : which on calculation will easily appear . lvii . as comets agree with planets in a regular motion about the sun , the common center or focus of our system , so do they as to their bulk and magnitude ; being , generally speaking , about the bigness of planets , as the observations of astronomers demonstrate . lviii . besides the bodies of the comets themselves , which are solid , compact , and durable ; there is round about the same a vastly large , thin , pellucid fluid ; containing withal great quantities of opake or earthy particles ; constituting together a confused , irregular , unequally dispos'd , and uncertainly agitated mass of bodies ; whose diameter is if not times as long as that of the body it self , and this mass is call'd the atmosphere thereof . lix . by reason of the mutual access , and recess of the comets to , and from the sun , their atmospheres are uncapable of attaining , or at least least of long retaining any regular and orderly situation and disposition of parts according to the law of specifick gravity . in short , while they are mov'd in so exceeding eccentrical orbits , they can neither acquire , or at least not long preserve , such a permanent constitution as the planets have , and as the conservation of plants and animals do necessarily require , and are therefore to be look'd upon in their present state as uninhabitable . lx. but in case the orbit of a comet were chang'd into that of a planet , i. e. if its eccentrical ellipsis were turn'd into a concentrical circle , or an ellipsis not much deffering therefrom ; at a suitable and convenient distance from the sun ; there is no reason to doubt but the parts of that confused atmosphere which now encompass it to such a prodigious distance , would subside and settle downwards according to their several specifick gravities ; and both obtain and preserve as setled , fixt , and orderly a constitution as a planet has : which constitution , if the atmosphere of a comet were as well predispos'd for the same as the original chaos of a planet , would produce a planet as fit for the growth of vegetables and the habitation of animals as that on which we live , or any other in the solar system . lxi . besides the central solid , or body of the comet , and its vast atmosphere encompassing it , there is also a long lucid train , which in the approach to the sun is by it acquir'd ; and appears to be nothing else but the lightest and rarest parts of its atmosphere rarified by the sun's heat ; which becoming thereby lighter than the sun 's own atmosphere , rise in a mist or steam of vapours towards the parts opposite to the sun ; and are call'd the tail of it . lxii . this immense cylindrical column of rarifi'd vapour , tho' its crassitude or diameter be usually more than miles , is so very much expanded , and in so exceeding rare a condition , that the fix'd stars may be discern'd quite through the same . lxiii . this so rare , fine , expanded vapour moves regularly with , and accompanies the comet it self in its intire course , any way whatsoever ; even through the system of the planets , and that without any disturbance . coroll . the vast spaces between , and beyond the planets are not full of subtile or ethereal matter ; but either perfectly , or at least sensibly a real vacuum or void . lxiv . the phaenomena of comets motions suppose and depend on the annual motion of the earth , without which they are insoluble . thus they sometimes seem to move with greater , sometimes with lesser velocity , than the rules of their own , or indeed any other regular motion require or permit : nay sometimes they appear to us stationary and retrograde : all which , as in the planets , will naturally arise from the motion of the earth , and of the spectators eye therewith , and is thence exactly deducible ; but without that hypothesis , cannot be accounted for . thus also towards the end of their appearances they seem to deflect from that great circle in which they before were seen to move ; the motion of the earth then being more considerable compar'd with that of the comets ; and so causing a more sensible parallax or diversity of appearance than before , while their own motion was so much swifter : and the same is observable in their other phaenomena . corollary . hence arises a convincing argument for the annual motion of the earth : which , as 't was known to be necessary to account for the phaenomena of planets before ; so now appears no less so in relation to those of the comets . all the heavenly motions at last attesting the truth , and establishing the certainty of the same . lxv . some comets approach in their perihelia so very near to the sun , that they must be prodigiously heated and scorch'd thereby ; and this to such a degree that they may not be intirely cool'd in very many thousands of years . thus the last famous comet , . at its perihelion on the th of december , sustain'd a degree of heat times as great as that we feel with us in summer ; or about times as intense as is that of a red hot iron . so that , by mr. newton's calculation , if that comet were as big as our earth ; as dense and solid as iron ; and were throughout equally heated to the fore-mention'd degree , 't would scarce in our air be fully cool'd in years . and by consequence in the vastly rarer atmosphere of the sun , in which the heavenly bodies revolve , not under a vastly longer time . corollary . comets do not wholly consist of vapours , exhalations , or such other dissipable matter , as was formerly suppos'd : otherwise they must have been utterly uncapable of sustaining any part of so violent a heat , ( which yet we see they sometimes do ) without an intire dissipation and dissolution . coroll . . when the atmosphere of a comet is chiefly a fluid , and yet but a small part thereof by the utmost heat capable of rarefaction ( which appears from the but small diminution of the atmosphere when the tail is largest , and the heat most intense ) 't is evident that its fluid is a very different one from those we are here acquainted withal . for when the main bulk thereof retains its constitution and situation quite through the action of the most violent heat imaginable ; which would dissipate and rarifie all the watery , and perhaps earthy parts visible with us ; it must , by its mighty density , gravity , compactness , or some other property not belonging to fluids here on earth , be uncapable of greater expansion than it has of it self ; and be a compact , dense , or heavy fluid , or mass of fluids , of which we have no obvious example ; and for which we have no proper epithet or name amongst us . coroll . . tho' vapour , or the small parts of water , be the soonest subject to rarefaction ; and the tail of à comet , before its approach to the sun , be therefore perhaps nothing but a mist or steam of such vapours ; yet may the same tail after the perihelion be in part composed of more gross heavy and opake corpuscles . for when the intenseness of the heat in the perihelion is sufficient to dissolve and rarifie not vapour alone , but sulphur , niter , coal or other gross and earthy steams and exhalations ; whatsoever of such a nature the atmosphere of the comet contains , will sure be in some sort affected , and elevated with the vapour into the tail , upon such an approach of the comet to the sun as we are speaking of . tho' therefore the tail should be suppos'd in its descent towards the sun to be pure unmixed vapour , or watery particles , ( as withal the outmost regions of the atmosphere it self in probability are ) yet the same tail after the perihelion , ought to be esteem'd a more heterogeneous and impure mixture ; especially in the lowest spaces of it , and those parts which are nearest to that atmosphere it self , from whence the whole does proceed . lxvi . the diurnal motion of planets is in it self perfectly distinct from , and wholly independent on the annual . this i hope will be universally granted without any necessity of a demonstration . lxvii . if a chaos , i. e. a confused fluid mass or congeries of heterogeneous bodies , ( suppose it were a comets atmosphere , or any other such like irregular compositum of mingled corpuscles ) in its formation were subject only to an annual motion about the sun , without any diurnal rotation about an axis of its own ; the figure thereof would be that of a perfect sphere ; as from the uniform force of gravity , and consequent equilibration of parts on all sides , is easily demonstrable . but if during its formation it had a diurnal rotation about an axis of its own , the figure thereof , ( by reason of the great velocity and consequent conatus recedendi à centro motus , diminishing the force of gravity at the equatorial parts ) would be that of an oblate sphaeroid , such as an ellipsis revolving about its lesser axis would generate . lxviii . if a planet consisted in great measure of an abyss or dense internal fluid , and a crust or shell of earth plac'd on its surface ; tho' the diurnal rotation were not begun at the formation thereof from a chaos , and so its original figure were sphaerical ; yet upon the commencing of the said diurnal rotation , it would degenerate immediately into that of an oblate sphaeroid , and retain it afterward , as well as if it had put on the same at its primary formation . corollary . when therefore the greater quickness of the vibrations of the same pendulum , and the greater gravitation of bodies near the poles than the equator , consequent thereupon , demonstrate the former regions of the earth to be nearer its center than the latter ; and that consequently the figure is that of an oblate sphaeroid ; 't is evident , that either the diurnal motion commenc'd before the orginal of its present constitution ; or that its internal parts are in some degree fluid , and so were pliable and alterable on the after commencing of such diurnal rotation . and this corollary extends equally , if not more to jupiter ; whose diurnal rotation is quicker than our earth's , and by consequence its figure farther from sphaerical . thus by mr. newton's calculation the diameter of the equator of the earth is to the axis thereof only as to . but in jupiter , according to the same mr. newton's calculation corrected , as about to . which is very considerable and sensible ; and accordingly attested to by the concurrent observstions of cassini , and mr. flamsteed . lxix . if such an upper crust or shell of earth on the face of the abyss , were fix'd and consolidated before the diurnal rotation thereof commenc'd , it would remain intire , continued , and united all the time of its sphaerical figure , or all the time it had no other than an annual revolution . but by the beginning of the diurnal rotation ; which would make the surface of the abyss and its sustained orb of earth put on the figure of the oblate sphaeroid before-mention'd ; that upper orb must be stretch'd , chap'd , and crack'd ; and its parts divided by perpendicular fissures . for the periphery of an ellipsis being larger than that of a circle where the area is equal ; and the superficies of a sphaeroid generated by its circumvolution , consequently , larger than that of a sphere generated by the like circumvolution of the circle , which is the present case ; that orb of earth , 't is plain , which exactly fitted , and every way enclos'd the abyss while it was a sphere , would be too little and straight for it , when it after became a sphaeroid ; and must therefore suffer such breaches and fissures as are here express'd . lxx . the state of nature in a planet , constituted as above , while it had only an annual revolution , would be as follows . ( . ) by reason of the same face of the planet's respecting continually the same plaga of the heavens , or the same fixt stars ; and its continual parallellism to it self ; all the apparent revolution of the sun must depend on the annual motion ; and a day and a year be all one . this is evident , because , as a year is truly that space in which the sun seemingly , and the earth really performs a single revolution round the ecliptick ; so a day is truly that space in which the sun passes or appears to pass from any certain semi-meridian to the same again once : which spaces of time are here the very same , and so the appellations themselves year and day , may indifferently and promiscuously be appli'd thereto . ( . ) the course of the sun and planets , ( for the fixt stars were then fixt indeed ; having neither a real nor seeming motion ) must be contrary to what it has appear'd since : their rising being then in the west , and their setting in the east : which , from the way of the present diurnal rotation , has since , as all know , been quite different . ( . ) there must be a perpetual equinox , or equality of day and night , through the whole planet ; by reason of the sun 's describing each revolution a great circle about the same , on which alone such an equality depends . ( . ) the ecliptick must supply the place of an equator also ; and the torrid , temperate , and frigid zones be almost alike dispos'd with regard to that circle , as with us they are with regard to the real equator . ( . ) to such as liv'd under or near the said ecliptick , the poles of the world or ecliptick , the only ones then in being , would be at the horizon ; and so not elevated or depress'd to the inhabitants there . but upon the commencing of a quicker diurnal rotation the same way with the annual . the case would be in all these particulars quite different . for , ( . ) by reason of the quickness of the new diurnal , in comparison of the ancient and continued annual revolution , days and years would be intirely distinct spaces of time : the sun returning to the same semi-meridian very often , while ( from one tropick to another , and so to the same again ) he appear'd to have compleated his longer annual period . ( . ) by the diurnal rotation of the planet from west to east , the revolution of the sun , of the other planets , and of all the heavenly bodies , would be from east to west ; and they would all rise at the former , and set at the latter part of the horizon . ( . ) the perpetual equinox would be confin'd to the equatorial parts of the planet ; and all other countries would have longer days in summer , and shorter in winter , as now obtains in the world : when only march and september have day and night equal to each other through the whole earth . ( . ) the ecliptick and equator would be intirely different ; the latter a real circle , or line , on the planet ; equally distant from its own proper poles : the former , confin'd to the heavens , and not with respect to the planet , easily to be taken notice of . the torrid , temperate , and frigid zones would regard the new equator , and be from it distinguish'd and dispos'd almost in the same manner as before they were from the ecliptick , and that with greater niceness , and more exact boundaries . ( . ) the poles of the world which before were to the inhabitants at or near the ancient ecliptick , neither elevated nor depress'd , but situate at the horizon , would seem intirely chang'd , and particularly at the intersection of such ancient ecliptick , and the succeeding northern tropick , the northern pole would appear to be elevated above , the southern depress'd below the horizon ; and the sun and planets , whose motions were before over the vertex , and at right angles with the horizon , would appear inclin'd or bent towards the southern parts ; and that way become oblique , and at unequal angles with the horizon for ever after . corollary . to the inhabitants of that place last mention'd , the beginning of the night , and of the autumn ; or sun-set , and the autumnal equinox , would in such a primitive state of a planet , be exactly coincident : and vice versa , the place to which they were so coincident , was that intersection just now assign'd , or at least under the same meridian therewith . coroll . . such a planet would be more equally habitable in the second than in the first state. for from the sphaerical figure of the planet at first , the central hot body , ( of which hereafter ) would equally reach all the regions ; and the sun chiefly affect the torrid zone ; and still less the temperate , but least of all the frigid ones ; as he does at present . so that if any one of these climates , by reason of the due proportion of heat afforded it from the sun , were habitable , neither of the other could with any sort of equality be so too . but when the figure of the planet became an oblate sphaeroid , ( as on the commencing of the diurnal rotation we have shew'd it would ) the proportion of heat would be upon the whole more equable through the several climates of the planet ; the greater vicinity of the central hot body to the frigid zones , in some measure compensating the greater directness of the sun's position to the torrid one ; and rendring the compleat surface of the planet pretty universally habitable on account thereof . coroll . . where the states of external nature are so very different ( as on the same planet before and after its diurnal rotation begin , they appear to be ) 't is reasonable to suppose , that the natures , constitutions , and circumstances of creatures , which were the inhabitants in such different states , must be suitably and proportionably different from one another . coroll . . 't is therefore , without due allowance for every thing , very unsafe arguing from one state or its circumstances to another ; and very unjust to conclude things unaccountable or absurd in one , only because they are strange and unknown to the other state. the like is to be said of phrases , descriptions , or relations concerning one , which may easily be misunderstood in the other , without an exact consideration and allowance for the diversity of things belonging thereto . lxxi . if the atmosphere of a comet , or any other such a fluid confused chaos , were by a regular and orderly digestion and subsidence brought into a consistent and durable state , the universal law of specifick gravity must prevail , and each mass take its place , generally speaking , according to it ( whether 't were fluid or solid ) from the center to the circumference of the whole . lxxii . fluids are capable of all degrees of density and specifick gravity , as well as solids . thus the proportion of the heaviest and lightest fluids , quicksilver , and oyl , are nearly as fifteen and one ; when yet the proportion of the heaviest solid , gold , and the lightest earth or mold which we find here , is not quite as ten to one . on which account 't is highly reasonable to allow that possibly there may be as much variety and diversity in the fluids belonging to a planet , as we see there is in the solids thereof . corollary . from these two last lemmata , it appears as reasonable to suppose a great part of the internal constitution of a planet to be a fluid , or system of fluids , as to be a solid or system of firm and earthly strata , which yet is usually suppos'd ; and which of these hypotheses best suits the constitution of the original chaos , and the phaenomena of nature afterward , is in reason to be embrac'd . lxxiii . in the formation of a planet from a chaos , it must be much more rare and unusual to lodge very heavy fluids near the superficiary regions , among bodies of a lighter and rarer texture , than solids equally so . for the corpuscles of very dense and heavy solids , when they are once entangled among , and mixed with others , tho' of very different density and specifick gravity , must afterward , let the place proper for bodies of their weight be never so much nearer the center , lye according to their first casual situation . thus if you take dust of gold , silver , or brass , with sand , gravel or saw-dust , and mix them , or let them subside indifferently together , as they place themselves at first , so , notwithstanding their different weight , will they be situate ever after . but in fluids the case is quite otherwise , for they will obtain their due place , not only when mixed with fluids , but with any solid corpuscles whatsoever . nay , besides that , they will penetrate the interstices of heavier bodies than themselves ; and unless where they are firmly consolidated or conjoin'd together , will settle into , and fill up the same , without any regard to the situation according to specisick gravity . fluids are compos'd of moveable , separable parts , diffusing , subsiding , and flowing every where , and thereby will be so far from resting at regions too high and remote from the center , considering their specifick gravity , that how light soever they are , unless the earthy parts under them be either fixt and consolidated , or their interstices already intirely fill'd and satur'd , they will insinuate themselves , and by degrees approach as near as possible to the center of that planet to which they belong . corollary . tho' our earth should contain vast quantities of dense and heavy fluids within , as well as like dense and heavy solids ; yet 't is more strange that we have near the surface one specimen of the former , ( viz. quicksilver ) than that we have so many sorts , and so much larger quantities of the latter ( the mineral and metallick bodies ) much denser and heavier than that common earth among which they are found . coroll . . no argument can be drawn from the variety of dense and heavy solids , and the single instance of a dense and heavy fluid , to prove the improbability of a vast subterraneous dense and heavy fluid , or system of fluids , on whose surface our orb of earth may be suppos'd to rely ; if the other phoenomena of nature require such an hypothesis . lxxiv . if a chaos were chiefly compos'd of a dense fluid , of greater specifick gravity than its solid dry or earthy parts , the place of such a dense fluid upon a regular formation , would be nearest the center , and the solid or earthy mass would encompass it round , enclose it within it self , and rest upon its surface ; and vice versâ , if an orb of earth be situate on the surface of a fluid , that fluid is denser and heavier than the intire columns of such an orb of earth consider'd together . lxxv . if a solid be either contain'd in , or fall upon a fluid of greater specifick gravity than it self , it will neither sink to the bottom , subside intirely within , nor emerge quite out of the same ; but part of it remaining immers'd , the other part will be extant above the surface of the fluid ; and that in a different degree proportionably to the different specifick gravity of the solid , compar'd with that of the fluid . lxxvi . such a solid will continue to that certain depth immers'd in the fluid before-mention'd , that if the space taken up thereby were fill'd with the fluid , that portion of the fluid were exactly equal in weight to the whole solid . thus , if a cube of wood or brass were immers'd in a fluid of twice its specifick gravity , it would one half subside within , and the other half be extant above the surface of the fluid . if it were immers'd in a fluid of thrice its specifick gravity , two thirds of it would be extant , and but a third part inclos'd within the said surface , and suitably hereto in all other proportions whatsoever . these two propositions are demonstrated by archimedes , and are the known foundations of hydrostaticks . lxxvii . if therefore solid bodies , equal in visible bulk , or taking up equal spaces , but of unequal density and specifick gravity , rest upon the surface of a fluid denser and heavier than themselves , they must remain immers'd in the same in different degrees ; the heaviest sinking deepest , and the lightest being the most extant above the fluid . thus , if six several cubes of equal apparent magnitude , made of gold , lead , silver , brass , iron , and stone , were laid upon the same fluid , denser and heavier than any of them , every one severally would sink so much deeper as it was heavier , and thereby the upper surface arising from them all , become very unequal . lxxviii . if upon the first general digestion and separation of parts in a chaos , the upper regions are for the most part compos'd of liquid or fluid bodies , with only a few dry , solid , or earthy parts intermixt ; the outward surface , after the formation is intirely over , will be smooth and even , as the surface of liqours constantly of it self is . but if , on the contrary , the quantity of dry , solid , or earthy parts be vastly greater than of the liquid or fluid ones , the surface will be rugged and uneven , by the different degree of the immersion of the different columns thereof , in that dense fluid or abyss upon which the orb is plac'd . corollary . in the former case all the corpuscles will obtain their proper place , ( the fluidity freely permitting their passage ) according to their respective specifick gravity . but in the latter they must take their places rather according as they chanc'd to be before situate , than according as their specifick gravity would of it self determine them . the case of that part of the lemma , and of this corollary , being almost the same with that before mention'd ; where the dust of gold , silver , or brass , with sand , gravel , or saw-dust , are suppos'd to be let fall uncertainly upon a fluid heavier than the whole mixed mass taken together ; for those columns where the gold , and other metallick dust were predominant sinking farthest , and those where sand or the other lighter particles were so , not so far into the fluid ; the upper surface must be uneven , and withal the several species of corpuscles retain that place where they chanc'd to be at first dispos'd , without any possibility of recovering any other which by the law of specifick gravity were due to them . coroll . . if therefore the upper regions of a chaos , whose quantity of liquid is very small in comparison of its solid corpuscles , do subside into a fluid of greater specifick gravity than its own columns taken together are ; an orb of earth will be compos'd on the surface of the fluid , and its different columns being made up of bodies of very different natures and specifick gravities , ( as must happen in such a confused heterogeneous mass , as we call a chaos , particularly the atmosphere of a comet ) that orb will sink into the fluid in different degrees , and thereby render its surface unequal , or distinguished into mountains , plains , and vallies . so that by how much any column was compos'd of rarer , more porous , and lighter bodies , by so much would it produce a higher mountain ; and in like manner , by how much a column was compos'd of more close , fix'd , dense and solid bodies , by so much would it produce a lower valley ; and so vice versâ , the higher any mountain , the more rare , porous , and light its column ; and the lower any valley , the more fix'd , close , dense , and solid its column must needs be suppos'd . coroll . . if therefore any planet be immediately on its first formation of an unequal surface , compos'd of mountains , plains , and valleys ; and the order of its internal strata be disagreeable to the law of specifick gravity ; it has exactly proper indications to prove , that the quantity of fluids in the upper regions was originally small in comparison of its earthy parts , and that such an uneven orb is situate on a fluid denser and heavier than it self . [ which case how exactly it corresponds to the known circumstances of our earth , is left to the consideration of the reader . ] lxxix . if any of the heavenly bodies be plac'd near a planet , by the inequality of its attraction of the parts at unequal distances from it , a double tide , or elevation of the fluids thereto belonging , whether they be inclos'd within an orb of earth , or whether they be on its surface above , must certainly arise , and the diurnal rotation of such a planet being suppos'd , must cause such a successive flux and reflux of the said fluids , as our ocean is now agitated by . thus , if adbc be the earth , and bidh be a comet , or any one of the heavenly bodies plac'd near the same , and the upper orb of earth be situate above a vastly large fluid abyss , the comet or heavenly body will considerably more attract the nearer parts about b , than it does those about the line dc , or the middle parts of the earth ; by which attraction whereever the particles attracted are not solid , fixed , and unmoveable , they will be elevated or raised into a protuberance dbc . in like manner , the comet or heavenly body will considerably more attract the middle parts near the line dc , than those more remote about a , and thereby occasion their slower motion towards it self , than that of the foresaid middle parts ; and consequently permit them to remain farther off the center ; or which is all one , to elevate themselves into the opposite protuberance dac . and this effect not depending on the situation of the fluid under the orb of earth , is equally evident with respect to the atmosphere and ocean upon , as any abyss beneath the same , and so must cause a double tide or elevation of the fluids of the globe . and this double tide , by the diurnal rotation of the earth from west to east , will shift continually from east to west , and cause that elevation and depression of the ocean twice each revolution , which we so wonder at , and take so much notice of amongst us . corollary . when therefore the vicinity of the moon , and the vastness of the sun's body , make their force considerable with regard to the fluids of our earth , their several attractions must produce two several double protuberances , tides , or elevations of the ocean and atmosphere thereof ; whence must arise very remarkable phaenomena relating thereto ; of which in the following corollaries . coroll . . the sensible elevation or tide would be only double , as if it arose from one of the luminaries , but such as from the composition of their attractive power were to be expected . coroll . . when therefore the sun and moon 's forces unite , or when they are situate in or near the same line through the center of the earth , which happens only at the new and full moon , the tides must be the greatest ; and when their forces contradict each other , or when they are situate in the middle between the new and full , at the quadratures , the tides must be the least . in the former case , the visible flux and reflux arises from the summe ; and in the latter , from the difference of their attractions ; and so the spring-tides , after the new and full , are the result of the elevation and depression of both the sun and moon conjoyntly ; but the nepe-tides , after the quadratures , the result only of the prevailing elevation and depression of the moon above those of the sun ; and by consequence , exactly agreeable to experience , much less than the other . coroll . . as if the luminaries were situate in the axis of the earth , the diurnal revolution would not more expose any places to their force one time than another , and no reciprocation of flux and reflux would arise ; so the nearer they are to such a position , the less must such a reciprocation be , and the farther from such a position , the greater . on which account , the elevation or tide must be greater after the equinoxial new and full moon , than after the solstitial ; and the highest spring-tides be those about march . and september . as all experience atlests them to be ; and the situation of the luminaries near the equator of the earth , and farthest from the poles , does require . coroll . . when by the vicinity of the moon , the visible tides follow her influence ; and when withal our earth in about / hours , recovers the same situation with regard to her ; 't is evident , that in the said space , each part of the ocean must have twice been elevated , and twice depress'd , or had a double flux , and double reflux of its waters , as all observation assures us it really has . lxxx . the elevations or tides caused by two different bodies at the same distance , are always proportionable to the quantity of matter in the same attractive bodies ; as from the force of gravitation in general , proportionable to the attracting body , will easily be understood . thus if a comet or planet , whose quantity of matter were ten or twelve times as much as the moon 's , were at an equal distance with her from the center of the earth , the tides , whether of the internal abyss , if such there be , or external air and water , would be ten or twelve times as high as those she is the cause of with us . lxxxi . the elevations or tides caused by the same , or an equal body at various distances , are reciprocally in a triplicate proportion of such distances . thus if the moon should approach as near again to the earth's center , as now she is , the tides would be eight times as high ; if thrice as near , twenty seven times as high ; if four times as near , sixty four times as high as those she at her present distance produces . corollary . hence appears ( which mr. bentley has in part also observ'd ) a signal instance of the divine providence respecting the constitution of the world , in placing the heavenly bodies at so vast a distance from each other , and the greatest at the greatest distance , that when we consider it , we cannot but be amazed at it . for had they been situate any whit near to one another , they would have caus'd prodigious disorders ; and in particular , such destructive tides , whenever there was vast quantities of fluids , or a great ocean , that neither plant nor animal could have avoided its force , or sustain'd its fury , which by the wise placing the heavenly bodies at so vast a distance is intirely prevented . coroll . . the same careful providence is alike , and on the like accounts , conspicuous in the smallness of the secondary planets ; whose nearness otherwise being so great , must have been attended by the foremention'd inconveniences , but is now perfectly secure from them . thus for instance , our secondary planet , the moon , which is so near to us , is withal so small , ( but the th part so big as the earth , not the th part so big as saturn , nor the th as jupiter , nor near the millioneth as the sun ) that the tides so caused are but of some few feet in height , very moderate , not at all incommodicus , nay in truth very advantagious to us , which in the other secondary planets is also no less true , and no less remarkable . lxxxii . of the two protuberances produc'd by the presence of a comet , or other coelestial body , that which is directly towards that body , as dbc , is larger and higher than the opposite one , dac . this is à priori demonstrable , and found agreeable to experience also . lxxxiii . if such a double tide were very great , and should on a sudden be produc'd in a subterraneous abyss , on whose surface an orb of earth , fix'd and consolidated together , were situate , it would raise or depress the regions of that orb , as it self was rais'd or depress'd ; and by putting on the figure of an oblong sphaeroid , ( such as an ellipsis revolving about its longer axis would generate ) and thereby increasing its surface so much , that the orb of earth could not fit and enclose it uniformly as before , would strain and stretch the said orb of earth , would crack and chap it , and cause fissures and breaches quite through the same . all which is easily understood from what has been already said of a case very agreeable to this we are now upon , and so can stand in need of no farther explication here . book ii. hypotheses . i. the ancient chaos , the origin of our earth , was the atmosphere of a comet . this proposition , however new and surprizing , will , i hope , appear not improbable , when i shall have shewn , that the atmosphere of a comet has those several properties which are recorded of the ancient chaos : that it has such peculiar properties besides , as lay a rational foundation for some of those phaenomena of our earth , which can scarce otherwise be philosophically explain'd ; and that no other body , or mass of bodies now known , or ever heard of in the world , can stand in competition , or so much as pretend to the same character , which it so agreeably corresponds to : which will be the design of , and shall be compriz'd under the following arguments . ( . ) the names of these two bodies , or systems of bodies , are exactly the same , and equally agreeable to the nature of each of them . the original chaos , by the ancient tradition of the phaenicians , was stil'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in english , a dark and stormy atmosphere . which appellation , ( the constant character of that mass encompassing the body of a comet , and at the same time of the old chaos ) if we suppose it to have been as fitly by antiquity appli'd to the latter , as certainly , observation being judge , it is to the former ; is as proper a one for our present purpose , as could possibly be desir'd . ( . ) the main bulk of the ancient chaos , and of the atmosphere of a comet , is a fluid , or system of fluids . as to the former , 't is both necessary to be presuppos'd in order to the succeeding separation , and regular disposition of the parts ; and is confirm'd by all the accounts of it . but moses himself being express , i shall content my self with his single testimony ; who not only calls it an abyss , but gives it the stile of waters . darkness was upon the face of the deep , and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters . now , that the main part of a comet 's atmosphere is also a fluid , appears both by its pellucidness , ( a thing unusual in bodies , but such as are , or once were in a fluid condition ) and by those perpetual changes and agitation of parts within the regions of it , which in any other than a fluid are plainly impossible ; and which indeed , withal , have hitherto seem'd so visible and remarkable , that thence men were ready to imagine the whole mass to be nothing else but a congeries of vapours or clouds , uncertainly jumbled together , and as uncertainly dissipated again . ( . ) the chaos is describ'd to have been very stormy and tempestuous ; of which some of the ancient writers take particular notice . to which those frequent and violent agitations and changes , those strange , uncertain hurries of opake masses hither and thither , which the phaenomena of comets atmospheres present us with , most exactly agree . ( . ) the chaos was a mixed compound of all sorts of corpuscles , in a most uncertain confus'd and disorderly state ; heavy and light , dense and rare , fluid and solid particles were in a great measure , as it were at a venture , mingled and jumbled together . the atoms , or small constituent parts of air , water , and earth , ( to which , together with fire , the name of element has been peculiarly appli'd ) every one were in every place , and all in a wild and disturbed confasion . this is the very essence , and enters the definition of a chaos ; in which therefore all both do , and must agree . and if any one carefully consider the perpetually various visage of a comet 's atmosphere , its vast extent , the no manner of order or method of its several appearances , and remember that in some comets it has in its near approach to the sun , been scorch'd and burn'd by a degree of heat many hundred times as intense as the sun 's is with us in the midst of summer , he will not wonder that i assert the parts of this atmosphere to be in a perfectly confus'd and chaotick condition . one might indeed as well , and as reasonably , expect order and method in the ruinous reliques of a city burnt to ashes , or in the smoke proceeding from the same , as in several , at least , of those atmospheres we are speaking of . ( . ) the ancient chaos , just before the beginning of the six days creation , was very dark and caliginous . darkness was upon the face of the deep , says the sacred , and the very same say the prophane writers . now , when we every year see how far that small company of collected vapours , of which a cloud consists , can go towards causing darkness on the face of the earth ; we may easily guess how thick the darkness of the comet 's atmosphere must needs be , when all those earthy and watery corpuscles , which flying up and down in the vast regions thereof do now so often , and so much obscure the comet 's central body , and are here so very sensible ; when all these , i say , shall rise up , and make a confus'd cloudy orb on the more confin'd surface of the atmosphere of some scores , if not hundreds of miles thick , as must happen in the beginning of its formation . if this be not sufficient to account for this thick darkness on the face of the abyss , 't will , i imagine , be difficult to solve it better . ( . ) our upper earth , the product of the ancient chaos , being in all probability founded on a dense fluid or abyss , as will appear in the sequel , the main part of the fluid of that ancient chaos , by consequence must have been such a dense and heavy one as is here mention'd . and indeed , 't is in it self but very reasonable , if not necessary , to allow the inferior parts of a fluid chaos , to have been compos'd of much denser and heavier masses than the superior , or than water , the main visible fluid of our globe . for , if we consider the matter in any sort according to the law of specifick gravity ; all heavy fluids must , at least , as certainly be near the center , as like heavy solids ; and 't is but mechanical to allow that in a confused fluid in some measure , as well as exactly in a digested one , the fluids contain'd in the inner regions must be much heavier than those at or near the outer surface thereof . but besides , 't will be hard to account for the confus'd moving state of the earthy parts , or , which is much the same , the fluidity of the intire chaos , without allowing a much greater quantity of fluids in it , than what we now see with us , the waters of our present earth ; and those of a density and gravity fit to retain their posts , as well nearer the central , as the superficiary parts . and that on this account , ( of the comet 's atmosphere's fixed and dense fluid ) 't is peculiarly adapted to the foresaid description of the chaos , is evident by what has been already observ'd of the same ; to which i refer the reader for satisfaction . ( . ) whereas very many , and very considerable phaenomena of nature , ( which dr. woodward has excellenty observ'd ) as well as ancient tradition , require and suppose a central fire , or internal heat diffusing warm and vigorous steams every way from the center to the circumference of the earth ; and whereas 't is very difficult on the common hypotheses , or indeed on any hitherto taken notice of , to give a mechanical and philosophical soultion of the same : if we will but allow the proposition we are now upon , and that the earth , in its chaotick state , was a comet , a most easy and mechanical account thereof is hereby given , and the phaenomena of nature rendred plain and intelligible . for a comet , besides its thinner fluid atmosphere , consisting of a large , dense , solid , central body ; and sometimes approaching so near the sun that the immense heat acquir'd then , tho' sooner failing in the thinner and expos'd atmosphere , will not do so in the central solid , under very many thousands of years ; nothing can better suit the case of our present earth , than to allow a comet 's atmosphere to have been her chaos ; and the central body of the comet , the source and origin of that central heat , which our earth appears still to inclose within it . ( . ) the bigness of comets and their atmospheres agrees exactly with the supposition we are now upon . for tho' the atmospheres are or perhaps times in diameter as big as the central bodies , ( which yet have been formerly observ'd to be near the magnitude of the planets ) and thereby of a much larger capacity than this argument supposes ; yet if , from that thin , rare , expanded state in which they now are , they were suppos'd to subside or settle close together , and immediately rest upon the central body ; as on a formation they must do ; the intire mass would make much such bodies in magnitude , as the planets are : as astronomers , from the observations made about them , must freely confess . so that when to all the other inducements to believe these atmospheres to be the same masses of bodies we call chao's , ( from one of which all antiquity sacred and prophane derive the origin of our earth ) it appears that the magnitude is also exactly correspondent ; i know not what can be alledg'd to take off or weaken the force of them . which general conclusion might be confirm'd by some other similitudes between them and the planets , observable in the succeeding theory , or probably deduc'd from their phaenomena ; which i shall not at present insist particularly upon . so that on the whole matter , upon the credit of the foregoing arguments united together and conspiring to the same conclusion ; i may , i think , venture to affirm , that as far as hitherto present nature and ancient traditions are known , 't is very reasonable to believe , that a planet is a comet form'd into a regular and lasting constitution , and plac'd at a proper distance from the sun in a circular orbit , or one very little eccentrical ; and a comet is a chaos , i. e. a planet unform'd , or in its primaeval state , plac'd in a very eccentrical one : and i think i may fairly appeal to all that the most ancient history , or solid philosophy can produce hereto relating , in attestation to such an assertion . especially considering withal , ( . ) lastly , that there is no other pretender , no other mass of bodies now known , or ever related to have been known in the whole system of nature , which can stand in competition , or so much as seem to agree to the description of the ancient chaos , but that which is here assign'd and pleaded for . now this i am secure of , and all will and must grant : they cannot but be forc'd to confess , that , ( the atmosphere of a comet set aside ) they have no other idea of the nature and properties of that mass of bodies call'd a chaos , but what profane tradition , with the concurrence of the holy books , afford them ; without any visible instance or pattern in nature . which acknowledgement , join'd to the remarkable correspondence of the particulars before-mention'd ; and the no objection of any moment , as far as i see , to be produc'd to the contrary ; is , i think , a mighty advantage in the present case . all that can reasonably be requir'd farther is , that the phaenomena of the earth , to be superstructed on this foundation , and deriv'd successively through the several periods , to the consummation of all things , prove coincidents to this hypothesis , and confirm the same : which being the attempt of the following theory , must be by no means here pretended to before-hand ; but left to the impartial judgment of the reader , when he is arriv'd at the end of his journey , and digested the whole scheme . from the intire and conjoint view whereof , and not from any particulars by the way occasionally reflected on , a prudent and well-grounded sentence is to be pass'd upon it , and upon several of the prior conclusions themselves also . however , when here is a known and visible foundation to depend on ; and the reader is refer'd to no other chaos than what himself has seen , or , 't is probable , may in a few years have opportunity of seeing ; it must be at the least allow'd a fair and natural procedure , and of the consequences whereof every thinking and inquisitive person will be a proper judge . the reasonings proceeding , without begging any precarious hypothesis at first , of the nature of that old fund and promptuary whence all was to be deriv'd , or sending the reader to the utmost antiquity for his notion thereof ; to which yet , in the most authentick accounts of the primitive chaos now extant , i fear not to appeal , and submit my self . ii. the mountainous columns of the earth are not so dense or heavy as the other columns . this proposition will also i imagine , be new and unexpected to very many ; but i hope the following arguments , which i shall very briefly propose , will demonstrate it to be no unreasonable or precarious one . ( . ) mountains are usually stony and rocky , and by consequence lighter than the main body of the earth . for tho' stone be somewhat heavier than the uppermost stratum or garden mold , as some stile it ; yet 't is considerably lighter than that beneath the same . for if we compare its weight with that in the bottom of our mines , which is alone considerable to our purpose , ( our upper strata , as will hereafter appear , being generally factitious , or acquir'd at the universal deluge ) we shall be forc'd to own the necessity of the consequence of the present argument . the specifick gravity of stone , is to that of water , as to / . but the specifick gravity of the earth at the bottom of our mines , is to that of water , as to , sometimes as to , nay sometimes almost as to , and therefore to be sure considerably denser and heavier than stone . so that were the mountainous columns of the earth intirely made up of stone , they would , ( without the consideration of those empty caverns they inclose ) be plainly the lightest parts of the whole earth . ( . ) those very dense and heavy corpuscles of gold , lead , silver , and other such like metals and minerals , are mostly , if not only , found in the bowels of mountains . now , when the gravity of these bodies is so great , that in a regular formation they ought to have seated themselves , one would think , much nearer the center , than they now are ; to account for such their position , it must be suppos'd , that the columns under them , and the earth among them , were lighter and rarer than the neighbouring columns did afford ; that upon the whole , the intire compositum or mass taken together , may be allow'd to be , if not lighter , yet , at least , not heavier than others at the same distance from the center . so that by a just , tho' a little surprizing way of reasoning , from the greater weight of some parts of the mountainous columns , the less weight of the whole is infer'd . ( . ) mountains are the principal source and origin of springs and fountains . now dr. woodward , from his own observations , asserts , that these are neither deriv'd from vapours condens'd in the air at the tops of mountains , nor from meer rains , or fall of moisture , as several have differently asserted ; but from the waters in the bowels of the earth ; and that 't is a steam or vapour rais'd by the subterraneous heat which affords the main part of their waters to them . on which hypothesis , which i take to be the truest , and most rational of all others , the vapours appear to have a more free and open vent or current up the mountainous columns , than the neighbouring ones ; and consequently , they are more rare , laxe and porous , or less dense and weighty than the others . ( . ) all volcano's , or subterraneous fires , are in the bowels of some mountain , to which a plain or a valley was never known to be liable . which observation affords a double argument for such a levity and rareness as we are now contending for : the one , from the temper of an inflammable earth , sulphureous and bituminous ; which being in part made up of oily particles , the lightest fluid we have , must in likelihood be the lightest of all strata whatsoever . the other , from the free admission of air into the bowels of these mountains ; without which no fire or flame can be preserv'd : which also infers such a porosity and laxeness as we are now concern'd to prove . ( . ) mountainous countries are chiefly subject to earthquakes , and consequently are as well sulphreous and inflammable , as hollow and cavernous , loose and spungy in their inward parts ; without which properties the phaenomena of earthquakes were difficultly accountable : especially according to dr. woodward's hypothesis of them ; who deriving them from steams of subterraneous heat ascending from the central parts , and collected in great quantities together , must by consequence own that the bowels of mountains , so commonly subject to earthquakes , are most pervious , porous , and cavernous of all other . all which arguments , especially taken together with some other coincidences hereafter observable , will , i hope , be esteem'd no inconsiderable evidence of the truth of the proposition we are now upon . iii. tho' the annual motion of the earth commenc'd at the beginning of the mosaick creation ; yet it s diurnal rotation did not till after the fall of man. tho' i cannot but expect that this will appear the greatest paradox , and most extravagant assertion of all other , to not a few readers ; yet i hope to give so great evidence for the same from sacred as well as prophane authority , that competent and impartial judges shall see reason to say , that if it be not sufficient to force their assent , yet 't is such as they did not expect in so surprizing , remote , and difficult a case ; the records relating to which ( the sacred ones excepted ) are so few , so dubious , and so ancient ; and the constant opinion of the world , within the memory of history , so fixt and setled on the contrary side . let it only be , by way of preparation , remark'd , that the annual and diurnal motions are in themselves wholly independent on each other , as was before taken notice ; and consequently , that 't is as rational to suppose the former without the latter , if there be evidence for the same , in the original state of nature , as 't is to believe them capable of being conjoin'd , from the known phaenomena of the world , in the present state . let it also be observ'd , that there is yet no evidence that either the central bodies of any of the comets , or that even several of the planets , who undoubtedly have an annual motion about the sun , have yet any diurnal rotation about axes of their own : and let it , lastly , be consider'd , that when the diurnal rotation must have an original , a time when it began ; that time may as rationally and naturally be suppos'd after the fall , as before the creation , or six days work ; and which was the true and real one , must be determin'd by the testimonies of antiquity , or other collateral arguments to be from thence , or from the phaenomena of nature ancient or modern , deriv'd and infer'd . which things beings suppos'd , i thus attempt to prove the present assertion ; if the primitive state of nature before the fall , had those peculiar phaenomena or characters which certainly belong to a planet before its diurnal rotation began ; and are as certainly impossible in the present state of the earth revolving about its own axis ; 't is plain the assertion before us is true and real : but that those peculiar phaenomena or characters did belong to that primitive state , the testimonies of sacred and profane antiquity , to be presently produc'd , do make appear ; and by consequence the assertion before us is true and real . the phaenomena or peculiar distinguishing characters here intended have been already mention'd , and are these five . ( . ) a day and a year are all one . ( . ) the sun and planets rose in the west and set in the east . ( . ) there was through the whole earth a perpetual equinox . ( . ) the ecliptick and equator were all one ; or rather the latter was not in being , but all the heavenly motions were perform'd about the same invariable axis , that of the former . ( . ) to such as liv'd under the ecliptick , the poles of the same ( or of the world , they being then not different , ) were neither elevated nor deprest , but at the horizon . these are the certain and undeniable characters of such a state : and that they belong'd to the primitive state of our earth , before the fall , i am now to prove . ( . ) in the primitive state of the world days and years were all one . which assertion i endeavour to evince by the following arguments . ( . ) on this hypothesis the letter of moses is as exactly followed as in the contrary one . 't is agreed that moses calls the several revolutions of the sun , in which the creation was perfected , days , every where in that history . now as a year is properly the succession of the four several seasons , spring , summer , autumn and winter , arising from one single revolution of the earth about the sun ; so a day is the succession of light and darkness once ; or the space of one single apparent revolution of the sun from any certain semimeridian , above or below the horizon , till its return thither again . now in the case before us , both these periods are exactly coincident ; and both are perform'd in the same space of time : which space therefore in equal propriety of speech belongs to either or both those names indifferently ; and by consequence , may with the exactest truth and propriety be stil'd a day or a year . which thing duly consider'd , if i had no positive evidence for the proposition before us , yet , setting aside prepossession , i had an equal right and pretence to truth with the common expositors ; i keeping equally close to the letter of the sacred history . ( . ) this hypothesis gives a rational account of the scripture stile , wherein a day , even in after ages , very frequently denotes a year ; as is commonly taken notice of by expositors . thus by moses himself the word day is not only , in the very recapitulation of the creation , us'd for the intire six ; ( these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created , in the day that the lord god made the earth and the heavens , and every plant of the field before it was in the earth , and every herb of the field before it grew . ) but , in other places , as it seems , for the just space of a year . and at the end of days , or after some years , it came to pass , that cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the lord. the days of adam after he had begotten seth were eight hundred years . and all the days that adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years , and he died . and so of the rest of the genealogies in that chapter . thus in others of the holy writers , i will give thee ten shekels of silver by the days , i. e. per ann●s , by the years , or every year . thus what in one place is , joshuah waxed old , and came into days ; is in another , joshuah was old , and stricken in years . the like phrases we have of david ; the number of days that david was king in hebron , over the house of judah , was seven years and six months . the days that david reigned over israel were forty years . so , what was in the law , bring your tyths after three years ; is in the prophet , bring your tyths after three days . which ways of speaking , with others that follow , may seem alluded to , and explain'd by these two , tho' themselves somewhat of a different nature . your children , says god to the israelites , shall wander in the wilderness forty years ; after the number of the days in which ye searched the land , even forty days , each day for a year , shall you bear your iniquities , even forty years . lye thou , says god to the prophet ezekiel , on thy left side , and lay the iniquity of the house of israel upon it ; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lye upon it , thou shalt bear their iniquity : for i have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity , according to the number of the days , three hundred and ninety days ; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of israel . and when thou hast accomplish'd 'em , lye again on thy right side ; and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of judah forty days ; i have appointed thee a day for a year . but what i mainly and principally intend here is , that known , frequent and solemn way in the prophetick writings of determining years by days ; the instances of which are very obvious , some whereof i shall here barely quote for the reader 's satisfaction ; ( and more in a case so notorious and remarkable need not be done . ) how long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice , and the transgression of desolation , to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot ? and he said unto me , unto two thousand three hundred days ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed . from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away , and the abomination that maketh desolate be set up , there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days . blessed is he that waiteth , and cometh to the one thousand three hundred five and thirty days . but go thou thy way till the end be ; for thou shalt rest , and stand in thy lot at the end of the days . i will give power unto my two witnesses , and they shall prophecy one thousand two hundred and sixty days , cloathed in sack-cloth . the woman fled into the wilderness , where she hath a place prepared her of god , that they should feed her there , one thousand two hundred and sixty days . agreeably whereto a week consisting of seven days , denotes seven years ; and a month , consisting of thirty days , denotes thirty years , in the same prophetick writings . thus in that most famous of all prophecies , concerning the death of the messias . seventy weeks are determin'd upon the people , and upon thy holy city ; to finish the transgression , and to make an end of sins , and to make reconciliation for iniquity , and to bring in everlasting rightcousness , and to seal up the vision and prophecy , and to anoint the most holy. know therefore and understand , that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build jerusalem , unto the messiah the prince , shall be seven weeks , and sixty and two weeks ; the street shall be built again , and the wall , even in a straight of times . and after the sixty and two weeks shall messiah be cut off : but not for himself . the holy city shall they tread undersoot forty and two months . power was given to the beast to continue forty and two months . all which expressions , with others of the same nature , are not accountable ; i mean there is no satisfactory reason can be given why a day should so frequently denote a year in the sacred writings , on any other hypothesis . we usually indeed content our selves in these cases with the bare knowing the meaning of scripture expressions , as if they were chosen at a venture ; and so , for instance , finding a day to represent a year in the same books , we rest satisfi'd , without enquiring why a day rather than an hour , a week , or month , ( the two latter of which terms are yet us'd by these authors ) were pitch'd upon to signifie the before-mention d space to us ; or why if the word day must be made use of , it must mean a determinate just year , rather than a week , a month or a thousand years , ( for which last it yet seems sometimes to be taken ) so frequently in the sacred , especially the prophetick writings . but 't is very supposable , that 't is our ignorance or unskilfulness in the stile of scripture , and those things therein deliver'd ( not the inaccuracy of the writers themselves ) which occasions our so laxe and general interpretations . it will sure at least be allow'd me , that wherever not only the meaning of phrases , but the original and foundation of such their meaning is naturally and easily assignable , an account thereof is readily to be embrac'd . and certainly the primitive years of the world being once suppos'd to have been days also ; and call'd by that name in the history of the creation ; this matter will be very easie ; the succeeding stile of scripture will appear only a continuation of the primitive , and fitted to hint to us a time wherein a day and a year were really the same : and this without any diminution of the true designs of the prophetick numbers ; i mean the involving their predictions in so much , and no more obscurity , as might conceal their meaning till their completion , or till such time at least as the divine wisdom thought most proper for their manifestation in succeeding ages . so that this argument demonstrates the present exposition to afford a natural foundation of accounting for such ways of speaking in 〈◊〉 holy scriptures , which otherwise are , as t 〈…〉 casion and original , unaccountable ; and consequently , proves it to be as truly agreeable to the stile , as the former did to the letter thereof . ( . ) the six days of creation , and the seventh of rest , were , by divine command , to be in after ages commemorated by years as well as by days ; and so in reason answered alike to both those denominations . 't is evident , that the works of the creation were compleated in six evenings and mornings , or six revolutions of the sun , call'd days ; and that the seventh was immediately set apart and sanctified as a day of rest , and memorial of the creation just before compleated ; and 't is evident that this sanctification of the seventh , as well as the operations of the six foregoing , belong'd to the primitive state of the world , before the fall. now that we may know what sort of days these were , 't will be proper to enquire into the ensuing times ; and observe , after the distinction of days and years undoubtedly obtain'd , what constant revolutions of six for work , and a seventh for rest there appear ; or in what manner , and by what spaces these original ones were commemorated ; which will go a great way to clear the point we are upon . and here , 't is evident , that when god gave laws to the israelites , he allow'd them six ordinary days of work , and ordain'd the seventh for a day of rest or sabbath , in imitation and memory of his working the first six , and resting or keeping a sabbath on the seventh day , at the creation of the world. this the fourth commandment so expresly asserts , that 't is past possibility of question . 't is moreover , evident that god , upon the children of israels coming into the land of canaan , ordained ( with reference , as 't is reasonable to suppose , to the same primitive state of the world , the six days of creation and the sabbath ) that six years they should sow their fields , and six years they should prune their vineyard , and gather in the fruits thereof ; but in the seventh year should be a sabbath of rest unto the land , a sabbath for the lord : they were neither to sow their field , nor prune their vineyard : then was the land to keep a sabbath unto the lord. so that if we can justly presume that the primary spaces of the world , here refer'd to , were proper evenings and mornings , or natural days , because they were represented and commemorated by six proper and natural days of work , and the seventh of rest : i think 't is not unreasonable to conclude they were proper and natural years also ; considering they appear to have been among the same people , by the same divine appointment , represented and commemorated by these six proper and natural years of work , and the seventh of rest also . nay , if there be any advantage on the side of natural days , from the expressness of the reference they had to the primitive ones ( which the fourth commandment forces us to acknowledge ) there will appear in what follows somewhat that may justly be esteem'd favourable on the side of years . besides the six days for work , and the seventh for rest , the jews were commanded ( on the same account , as we may justly suppose ) to number from the passover seven times seven days , or seven weeks of days , and at the conclusion of them to observe a solemn feast , call'd the feast of weeks or of sabbaths , once every year . in like manner besides the yearly sabbath as i may call it , or the seventh year of rest and release after the six years of work , the jews were commanded ( on the same account , as we may justly suppose ) to number seven sabbaths of years , seven times seven years ; and at the conclusion thereof to celebrate the great sabbatical year , the year of jubilee : they were neither to sow , nor reap , nor gather in the grapes , but esteem it holy , and suffer every one to return to his possession again . where that which is remarkable is this , that when the sabbatical days , and sabbatical years equally return'd by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another ; yet the case was not the same as to the feast of weeks at the end of seven times seven days ; that following the passover , and not returning till the next passover again , and so was but once a year : whereas its corresponding solemnities , the jubilees , or great sabbatical years , at the end of seven times seven years , did , as the former , return by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another for all future generations . all which duely consider'd , i think upon the whole , 't is but reasonable to conclude , that seeing the primitive spaces , or periods of work and rest , appear , by divine appointment , to have been commemorated among the jews by years as well as by days ; the same primitive spaces or periods were equally days and years also . ( . ) the works of the creation , by the sacred history , concurring with ancient tradition , appear to have been leisurely , regular , and gradual , without any precipitancy or acceleration by a miraculous hand on every occasion : which is impossible to be suppos'd in those days of twenty four short hours only ; but if they were as long as the present hypothesis supposes , they were truly agreeable and proportionable to the same productions . which consequence will be so easily allow'd me , that i may venture to say , that as certain as is the regular and gentle , the natural and leisurely procedure of the works of the creation ( of which i know no good reason from any warrant sacred or prophane to make any question ) so certain is the proposition we are now upon , or so certainly the primitive days and years were all one . ( . ) two such works are by moses ascrib'd to the third day , which ( if that were not longer than one of ours now ) are inconceiveable and incompatible . on the former part of this day the waters of the globe were to be drain'd off all the dry lands into the seas ; and on the same day afterward , all the plants and vegetables were to spring out of the earth . now the velocity of running waters is not so great , as in a part of one of our short days , to descend from the middle regions of the dry land into the seas adjoyning to them ; nor if it were , could the land be dry enough in an instant for the production of all those plants and vegetables , which yet we are assur'd appear'd the same day upon the face of it ; which difficulties vanish , if we allow the primitive days to have been years also , as will more fully be made appear in due place . ( . ) whatever might possibly be said of the other days works , by recurring to the divine miraculous power ; ( which yet is here not only unnecessarily , and without warrant from the sacred history it self , but sometimes very indecently done ) yet the numerous works ascrib'd to the sixth day plainly shew , that a space much longer than we now call a day , must have been referr'd to in the sacred history . the business of the sixth day includes evidently these following particulars . ( . ) the production of all the bruit dry-land animals . ( . ) the consultation about , and the actual creation of the body , and infusion of the soul of adam . ( . ) the charter or donation of dominion over all creatures bestow'd on adam . ( . ) the exercise of part of that dominion , or the giving names to all the dry-land animals ; which sure suppos'd some acquir'd knowledge in adam , some consideration of the nature of each species , some skill in language , and the use of words ; andwithal , some proportionable time for the gathering so great a number of creatures together , and for the distinct naming of every one . ( . ) when on this review it appear'd , that among all these creatures there was not a meet-help , or suitable companion for him ; god then cast him into a deep sleep , ( which 't is probable lasted more than a few minutes to deserve that appellation ) took out one of his ribs , closed up the flesh instead thereof , and out of that rib made the woman . ( . ) after this god brings this woman to adam , he owns her original , gives her an agreeable name , takes her to wife , and they together receive that benediction , increase and multiply . ( . ) god appoints them and their fellow-animals , the vegetables for food and sustenance . all which ( to omit the jews tradition of the fall of man this sixth day , and such things presuppos'd thereto which must belong to it , even by the mosaick history it self ) put together , is vastly more than is conceivable in the short space of one single day in the vulgar sense of it . 't is true , god almighty can do all things in what portions of time he pleases . but 't is also true , ( as bishop patrick well observes in a like case ) that man cannot . he must have time allotted him , in proportion to the business to be done , or else 't is not to be expected of him . and 't is plain , that adam and eve were mainly concern'd in the latter actions of this day : so that by a just and necessary consequence , that day in which they went through so many and different scenes , and perform'd so many actions , requiring at least no small part of a year ; and that after themselves and all the dry-land animals had been on the same day produc'd , was certainly such a day as might be proportionate to such operations , and not shorter than a year , which the present hypothesis allows in the case . ( . ) if the history of the fall of man be either included in the sixth day , according to the ancient tradition of the jews , which i confess to be very improbable ; or belong to the seventh , as might , by coming as near as possible to such old tradition , more probably be allow'd : on either of these suppositions , there is the greatest necessity imaginable of supposing such a day much longer than is commonly done . which i think is of it self so plain , that i need not aggravate the matter , but leave it to the free consideration of the reader . all which arguments to me appear very satisfactory , and evince , that the first distinguishing and peculiar character of such a primitive state of nature as was before-mention'd did really belong to our earth before the fall , and that then a day and a year were exactly one and the same space of time. ( . ) in the primitive state of the world the sun and planets rose in the west , and set in the east , contrary to what they have done ever since . this may seem to have been the foundation of that story in herodotus , who tells us , that the sun , in the space of years , four times inverted his course , and rose in the west . but what i mainly depend on , is that discourse in plato , who relating some very ancient traditions about the primitive state of things , and , what a mighty and remarkable change was effected by a certain mighty and remarkable alteration in the heavenly motions , ( which alteration in general deserves also to be taken notice of , as agreeing so well with the present hypothesis ) the most surprizing , and of the greatest consequence of all others , and the cause of suitably surprizing and considerable effects in the present state of nature , makes it to be this change of the way or course of the heavenly bodies , which is the consequence of the present assertion . for this grand thing of which he had spoken so highly , is this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the motion of the universe sometimes revolves the same way that it does now , and sometimes the contrary way . which testimony is very plain , and full to our present purpose . ( . ) in the primitive state of nature there was a perpetual equinox , or equality of day and night through the world. this phaenomenon , or such effects as in part suppose it , is usually by the christian fathers applied to the paradisiacal state ; and by the ancient heathens to the golden age , or the reign of saturn : ( coincident , 't is probable , at least in part , thereto ) for they all with one consent deny that the sun's course was oblique from one tropick to another , or that the difference and inequality of seasons , which must have followed therefrom , did belong to that first and most happy state of the world , as may at large be seen the places quoted in the margin , too long here to transcribe ; to which therefore i refer the reader , and proceed . ( . ) in the primitive state of the world , there was no equator distinct from the ecliptick ; all motions were perform'd about one invariable axis , that of the latter ; ( for the plains of the planet's orbits , i consider as nearly coincident with that of the ecliptick ) without the obliquity of one circle or motion to another . tho' this be somewhat related to the former particular , yet i shall distinctly quote a testimony or two directly belonging hereto , and not so properly reducible to the other . the first is that of anaxagoras , who says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the stars in their primitive state revolv'd in a tholiform manner , insomuch , that the pole appear'd perpetually at the vertex of the earth . whose meaning , tho' somewhat obscure , seems to be , that the motion of the heavens was originally about one center or axis , that of the ecliptick , whose pole was continually over against the same point of the earth ; which on the hypothesis before us is true , but in the present frame of nature impossible . the next author , whom i shall produce , is plato , who in the foremention'd discourse about the ancient and modern states of the world , says , that in the former of them the motion of the heavens was uniform , which thing was the cause and original of the golden age , and of all that happiness which therein mankind enjoy'd , or external nature partook of ; which , how well it suits the present hpothesis , i need not say . all that exceeding happy state of nature , which innocent man enjoy'd , beyond what he does since the fall , being therein owing to such a constitution of the world as this author intimates , and i am now proving . which in the last place , shall be confirm'd from baptista mantuanus , who says , ( relating the opinion of the old astonomers ) all the coelestial spheres were in the beginning of the world concentrical and uniform in their motion ; and the zodiack of the primum mobile , and that of the planets ( the equator and ecliptick ) were united and coincident , by which means all sublunary bodies were more vivid and vigorous at that time than in the present ages of the world ; as the theorist sums up the force of his testimony , very agreeably to the hypothesis before us , of the astronomy in the primitive state of the heavens . ( . ) to the first inhabitants of the earth , ( dwelling at the intersection of the ancient ecliptick with the present northern tropick ; of which hereafter ) the poles of the world were neither elevated nor depress'd , but at the horizon . but sometime after the formation of things , they suddenly chang'd their situation ; the northern pole appear'd to be elevated above , and the southern depress'd below the horizon ; and the course of the heavens seem'd bent or inclin'd to the southern parts of the world ; or in plain words , there was a new diurnal rotation began about the present axis of the earth ; which i take to be the true and easy exposition of the same phaenomena . this matter is much insisted on by the ancients , and being so , will fully confirm our assertion , and give light and strength to some of the former testimonies . plutarch has a chapter entituled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the inclination of the earth ; in which he thus recites the opinion of leucippus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the earth fell , or was enclin'd towards the southern regions , by reason of the rareness of those parts ; the northern regions being grown rigid and compact , while the southern were scorch'd or on fire . whose opinion is also recited by laertius in almost the same words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the failure in the sun and moon , the earth was bent or inclin'd towards the south . but the northern regions grew rigid and inflexible by the snowy and cold weather which ensued thereon . to the same purpose is the opinion of democritus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by reason of the southern ambient air 's imbecillity , or smaller pressure , the earth in those parts increas'd in bulk , and so sunk and bent that way . for the northern regions were ill temper'd , but the southern very well ; whereby the latter becoming fruitful , waxed greater , and by an over-weight preponderated and inclin'd the whole that way . as express to the full is the testimony of empedocles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the north , by reason of the air 's yielding to the sun's force , was bent from its former position ; whereupon the northern regions were elevated , and the southern depress'd , as together with them , was the whole world. to which agrees anaxagoras in these words , which immediately follow those just before quoted , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but afterward the pole receiv'd a turn or inclination . these so many , and so pregnant testimonies of antiquity , as to the matters of fact foregoing , ( for as to the several reasons assign'd by them , they being , i suppose , but the single conjectures of the authors , must be uncertain , and need not be farther consider'd or insisted on in the present case ) seem to me so weighty , that i cannot but build and rely very much upon them . how should such strange and surprizing paradoxes run so universally through the eldest antiquity , if there were not some ground or foundation in earnest for them ? 't would be hard wholly to reject what were so unanimously vouched by the old sages of learning and philosophy , even tho' there were no other evidence or reason for our belief . but when all these authors , the only competent witnesses in the case , do but confirm what on other accounts , as we have seen , and shall farther see , there is so good reason to believe ; and when so great light is thereby afforded to the primitive constitution of nature , and the sacred history of the state of innocency ; their attestations are the more credible , and the more valuable , and in the highest degree worthy of our serious consideration . what i can foresee of objection , deserving our notice , against what has been advanc'd from the testimonies of the old philosophers , is this , that they seem to favour the perpetual equinox before the flood , by the right position of the present axis of the earth , parallel to that of the ecliptick , ( as the theorist imagines ) and its inclination or oblique position acquir'd at the deluge , ( as the same author supposes ) rather than the original absence , and subsequent commencing of the diurnal rotation after the fall of man , as i here apply them . i answer , ( i. ) the parallelism of the axis of a diurnal , to that of an annual revolution , is as far as i find , a perfect stranger to the system of the world ; there being , i think , not one of the heavenly bodies , sun or planet , but has its own axis oblique to the orbit in which it moves . ( . ) it will be farther evinc'd hereafter , that , de facto , before the flood , the axis of the earth was oblique to its annual orbit , the plain of the ecliptick ; and the year distinguish'd into the present seasons , spring , summer , autumn , and winter . ( . ) that equable and healthful temper of the air , which the theorist chiefly relied upon , as necessary to the longevity of the antediluvians , and fully prov'd by antiquity , shall be accounted for without such an hypothesis . ( . ) the testimonies before alledg'd do not , if rightly consider'd , suit this hypothesis ; nay , in truth , they fully confute it . of the five characters before-mention'd , under which we have reduc'd the main testimonies , there are two which are common to this , and to the theorist's hypothesis , viz. ( . ) the perpetual and universal equinox . ( . ) the coincidence of the equator and ecliptick ( tho' in somewhat a different manner ) . so that the testimonies for these two can neither establish the one , nor the other , as equally suiting them both . the other three are peculiar to that hypothesis we have been proving , and by consequence at the same time establish that , and confute the theorist's hypothesis . and these three are , ( . ) the equality of a day and a year . ( . ) the sun and planet's rising in the west , and setting in the east . ( . ) the position of the poles at the horizon , with the after elevation of the northern , the depression of the southern pole , and the inclination or bending of the heavenly bodies courses towards the south . 't is evident at first view , that the two former of these three last mention'd phaenomena , are inconsistent with the theorist's hypothesis , and on a little consideration 't will be so of the last also . for while the poles of the earth or world remain in being the same , as depending on the same proper axis of the earth's own diurnal revolution ; 't is plain , the latitude of places on the earth , or the elevation of the pole equal thereto , remains invariable ; and so that pole which to the inhabitants of paradise was elevated at the least / degrees , could not be at the horizon , whatever right position the axis of the earth might have with respect to the ecliptick . on the same account there could , even in the theorist's own hypothesis , be no new elevation of the one , or depression of the other pole at the deluge , nor inclination of the courses of the sun and planets towards the south . all that could on the theorist's principles be effected , ( besides the earth's equator and poles pointing to different fix'd stars , and its consequences ) was only this ; that whereas before the sun was always in the equator , or middle distance from any climate , it afterwards by turns came nearer to them ( as we commonly , tho' carelessly express it ) in summer , and went farther from them in winter , than before ; which upon the whole , was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the heavens than to the other ; and so of the planets also . and the case is the same as to the poles of the ecliptick ; the northern one being as much elevated above that of the world at one hour of the day , as depress'd beneath it at another . all which is , i think , sufficient to shew , that the testimonies of antiquity alledg'd by the theorist for the peopetual equinox , or the right position of the earth's axis till the deluge , and the oblique position , and different seasons then acquir'd , are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his , and establish the present hypothesis . ( . ) all things consider'd , such a position as the theorist contends for , was more likely to incommode , than be useful to mankind . taking the matter wholly as the theorist puts it , it would prevent the peopling of the southern hemisphere , by the scorching heat just under the equator , without the least intermission at any time of the year . it would render the earth utterly unserviceable , both under the equator and poles , and in the climates adjoyning , and so streighten the capacity of the earth in maintaining its numerous inhabitants ; which , were the whole inhabitable , will appear but just sufficient to contain them . it would by the perpetuation of one and the same season continually , hinder the variety of fruits and vegetables of every country ; and many other ways spoil the setled course of nature , and be pernicious to mankind . ( . ) no mechanical and rational cause of the mutation of the earth's axis either has been , or , i believe , can be afsign'd on the theorist's hypothesis , or any others which should embrace the same conclusion . ( . ) lastly , to name no more arguments , the testimonies of diogenes and anaxagoras , are as express almost to the time , as to this change it self . the words being exceeding remarkable , are these , as plutarch himself relates them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't was the doctrine both of diogenes and anaxagoras , that after the creation or primary constitution of the world , and the production of animals out of the earth , the world , as it were of its own accord , was bent or inclin'd towards the south . and truly 't is probable this inclination was the effect of providence , on purpose that some parts of the world might become habitable , and others uninhabitable , by reason of the difference of the frigid , torrid , and temperate climates thereof . which observable and most valuable fragment of antiquity ought to have been before mention'd , but was on purpose reserv'd for this place ; where it not only fully attests the matter of fact , the inclination of the heavens towards the south ; not only assigns the final cause truly enough , ( considering the uninhabitableness of the torrid , as well as of the frigid zones , in the opinion of those ages ) the distribution of the earth into certain and fix'd zones , torrid , temperate , and frigid ; but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also , that succeeding the creation , agreeably to the present hypothesis ; that were i to wish or chuse for a testimony fully to my mind , i could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better . to these five foregoing arguments , for the proof of my main conclusion , i shall , by way of supernumerary ones , or appendages , add one or two more , and so leave the whole to the consideration of the impartial reader . ( . ) the state of mankind without question , and perhaps that of other animals , was before the fall vastly different from the present ; and consequently requir'd a proportionably different state of external nature ; of which , without the hypothesis before us , no account can be given , or at least has not yet by any been attempted . the world , as to other things , seems to have been at first , in great measure , put into the same condition which we still enjoy ; and yet reason , as well as scripture , assures us , that so different a condition of things in the animal , rational and moral , must be suited with an agreeably different one in the natural and corporeal world. which being consider'd , and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been , or perhaps can be assign'd , but what the hypothesis before us , and its consequences afford us ; and that withal a satisfactory account of the several particulars is deducible from the same , as i hope to make appear hereafter ; upon the whole , i think this a very considerable attestation to what has been before insisted on . 't is indeed possible , that what i look on as an advantage to , others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present hypothesis ; as inferring , among other things , a half year of night , as well as a half year of day , which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the state and condition of mankind ; and especially , too inconvenient for so happy and easy a life , as that of mankind in paradise undoubtedly was , without any consideration of the other creatures . but it ought to be consider'd , as has been already remark'd , that our judging of one scheme or system of nature by another , is very fallacious , and very unreasonable . almighty god adapts each particular state to such rational and animal beings as are on purpose design'd for the same ; but by no means thereby confines his power and providence , which can with the same ease adapt other beings , or the same in other circumstances , to a very different and clean contrary condition . the days in jupiter are not ten hours long ; those in the moon near seventy two times as long as they , or a month ; yet any one who should thence conclude , that either jupiter or the moon , if not both , were uncapable of inhabitants , he would , i think , be very rash , not to say presumptuous , in so doing . 't is true , he might justly conclude , that such creatures as dwell on this earth in their present circumstances could not , or at least could not with conveniency , inhabit either of them . but the necessary consequence of that is only this , that as the state of external nature appears to be in jupiter and the moon , very different from ours on earth now ; so most probably are the state and circumstances , the capacitities and operations of their several inhabitants equally different from those of mankind at present upon it ; which is what i fully allow , and plead for , in the case before us ; and which , when rightly consider'd , may save me the labour of returning any other answer to the particular difficulty here mention'd , and of enlarging upon several other things which might be said to great satisfaction on the present occasion ; which in prospect thereof , shall therefore be no further prosecuted in this place . ( . ) lastly , the present hypothesis gives an easy account of the vast change in the natural , on the change in the moral world ; and of the sad effects of the divine malediction upon the earth after the fall of man ; which till now has not , that i know of , been so much as attempted by any . several have been endeavouring to account for that change which the deluge made in the world : but they are silent as to the natural causes or occasions of a change , which ( antiquity , sacred or prophane , being judge ) was in all respects vastly more remarkable : the state of innocency , and that of sin , being sure on all accounts more different from , and contradictory to each other , than the antediluvian and postdiluvian , either in reason can be suppos'd , or in fact be prov'd to be . now as to the particulars of this change , and the causes of them ; and how well , on the hypothesis we are upon , they correspond to one another , i must leave that to the judgment of the reader , when i come to treat of 'em in their own place hereafter . in the mean time this may fairly be said , that this being the first attempt at an intire theory , or such an one as takes in all the great mutations of the earth ; as it will on that account claim the candor of the reader , and his unbiass'd resolution of embracing the truth ( however new or unusual the assertions may seem ) when sufficiently evidenc'd to him ; so the coincidence of things from first to last , through so many stages and periods of nature , and the solution of all the main phaenomena of every such different stage and period from the creation to the consummation of all things ; if they be found just , mechanical , and natural , will it self deserve to be esteemed one of the most convincing and satisfactory arguments for any single particular of this theory that were to be desir'd ; and shew , that not any great labour or study of the author , but the happy advantage of falling into true and real causes and principles is , under the divine providence , to be own'd the occasion of the discoveries therein contain'd . in all which , may these my poor endeavours prove as satisfactory to the minds of others , as they have been to my own , and give them the same assurance of the verity and divine authority of those holy books , where the several periods are recorded , and the phaenomena chiefly preserv'd , which the discovery of these things has afforded my self , and i am sure that my labours will not be in vain . iv. the ancient paradise or garden of eden , the seat of our first parents in the state of innocence , was at the joynt course of the rivers tigris and euphrates ; either before they fall into the persian gulf , where they now unite together , and separate again ; or rather where they anciently divided themselves below the island ormus , where the persian gulf , under the tropick of cancer , falls into the persian sea. that somewhere hereabouts , on the southern regions of mesopotamia , between arabia and persia , was the place of the ancient paradise , 't is past reasonable doubt from two of its rivers , tigris and euphrates , occuring in the description of its situation by moses . and when the following theory is understood , perhaps there will appear reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place , where more nicely it may be suppos●d to have been , to that other here conjectur'd . i say , when the following theory is understood ; for tho' the particular place assign'd be now under water , and a branch or bay of the great ocean ; yet in probability it might not be so then , as will hereafter appear . my reasons for this situation of paradise , are these , ( . ) the ancient tradition of the jews and arabians was , that paradise was seated under the primitive equinoctial ; which is impossible , unless it were as far south as the tropick of cancer : under which therefore it ought to be , and accordingly is by this hypothesis plac'd and determin'd . ( . ) 't will be easie on this hypothesis for every one to suppose that the other two rivers , or branches of these , pison and gihon , which have been in vain hitherto sought for , must be now lost in the persian sea ; and therefore not to be discover'd , nor their discovery to be expected , since the deluge . ( . ) the countries encompass'd by , and bordering on , these four streams or rivers , being alike , in part , under water ; the difficulties arising from the common mistaken suppositions relating thereto will cease , and light be afforded to the mosaick description on the particular consideration thereof . ( . ) the most literal and obvious sense of the words of the sacred historian concerning the situation of eden , and its garden or paradise , will be accountable , and exactly suitable to the state of these countries , according to the present geography . the words of moses are , and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden ; and there he put the man whom he had formed . and a river went out of eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted and became into four heads . to which the present hypothesis is correspondent to the greatest niceness , if we suppose that tigris and euphrates being united , as they are now , in babylonia , ran in one stream quite through that valley , which is now cover'd with water , and call'd the gulf of persia ( i suppose the country of eden then ) upon the exit of which , beyond ormus , the said united streams divided themselves ( as nile into seven ) into four separate branches ; and by them , as by four mouths , discharged it self into the persian sea : two of which streams retain'd the names of the original ones , tigris and euphrates ; and the other two acquir'd new ones , and were call'd pison and gihon ; just before or about which division , that country stil'd paradise , or the garden of eden was , i imagine , accordingly situate . this i take to be the most probable account of this point ; and such an one as takes away the perplexities of this matter ; agrees to the letter of moses , and the geography of the country ; and is suitable withal both to what the jewish and arabian tradition before-mention'd assert , and what the next hypothesis requires . v. the primitive ecliptick , or its correspondent circle on the earth , intersected the present tropick of cancer at paradise ; or at least at its meridian . when from the last hypothesis but one , it appears that the primitive ecliptick was a fixed circle on the earth , as well as in the heavens ; and must both equally divide the present equator , and touch the present tropicks ; 't is proper to fix , if possible , the point of intersection with the northern tropick ; whereby the intire circle may be still describ'd , and its original situation determin'd . which is the attempt of this hypothesis we are now upon ; and which i thus prove . ( . ) without this hypothesis the before-mention'd jewish and arabian tradition , of the situation of paradise under the primitive equinoctial , is unaccountable and impossible to be true . for paradise being , at the most southern position supposable , but just under the tropick of cancer , it could no where be under the ancient equinoctial or ecliptick , but at their mutual intersection ; which must therefore have been as this proposition asserts . ( . ) the production of animals out of the earth and waters , at or near paradise , seems to have requir'd all the heat possible in any part of the earth ; which being to be found only under the equinoctial , confirms the last mention'd argument , and pleads for that situation of paradise which is here assigned to it . ( . ) and principally , this situation is determin'd by the coincidence of the autumnal equinox , and the beginning of the night or sun-set , at the meridian of paradise . 't is known that at paradise , or the place of the creation of man , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural day , commenc'd with the sun-setting , six a clock , or coming on of the night . 't is granted also , that the beginning of the most ancient year , ( which shall presently be prov'd to have been at the autumnal equinox ) was coincident with the beginning of the world , or of the mosaick creation . which things compar'd together , do determine the question we are upon . it being impossible , on the grounds here suppos'd , that sun-set and the autumnal equinox should be coincident to any but those in the northern hemisphere , at the point of intersection of the ancient ecliptick , and the present tropick of cancer ; or such as were under the same meridian with them ; as any ordinary astronomer will soon confess : which argument is decretory , and fixes the place of paradise to the greatest exactness and satisfaction . corollary . hence a plain reason is given , of the days of creation commencing at evening ; which otherwise is a little strange : it being but a necessary result of the time of the year , and region of the earth , when , and where the creation began . coroll . . as also why the jewish days , especially their sabbath-days , began at the same time ever since : the memory of the days of creation being thereby exactly preserv'd . coroll . . as also why their civil years , but especially their sabbatical years , and years of jubilee , ( even after their months were reckon'd from the vernal , ) began at the autumnal equinox : the memory of the years of the creation being thereby alike exactly preserv'd . vi. the patriarchal , or most ancient year mention'd in the scripture , began at the autumnal equinox . the reasons of this assertion are these ensuing . ( . ) the principal head or beginning of the jewish year in all ages was the first day of their autumnal month ti●ri ; and was accordingly honour'd with an extraordinary festival , the feast of trumpets : when the head or beginning of their sacred year , the first of nisan , had no such solemnity annex'd to it : as is known and confess'd by all . ( . ) when god commanded the jews on their coming out of egypt , to esteem the month nisan , the first in their year ; it seems plainly to imply , that till then it had not been so esteemed by them . the words are these . the lord spake unto moses and aaron in the land of egypt , saying , this month ( shall be ) unto you the beginning of months ; it ( shall be ) the first month of the year to you . and this is strengthened by considering , that tho' we here find an original of the sacred year in the spring ; yet we no where do of the civil in autumn : which therefore , 't is very probable , was the immemorial beginning of the ancient year long before the times of moses . ( . ) whatever beginning of the jewish year there might be on other accounts ; 't is confess'd by all , that the beginning of the sabbatical years , and years of jubilee , ( by which in all probability the primary years of the world were commemorated and preserv'd ) was at the autumnal equinox : which is a very good argument that those ancient years , so commemorated and preserv'd , began at the same time also . ( . ) the feast of ingathering , or of tabernacles , which was soon after the autumnal equinox , is said to be in the end , or after the revolution of the year : which is a peculiar confirmation of the assertion we are now upon . ( . ) unless that year at the deluge commenc'd at the autumnal equinox , we must ( says the learned lightfoot in his scheme thereof ) suppose one miracle more than either scripture or reason give us ground to think of ; and that is , that the waters should increase , and lie at their height all the heat of summer , and abate and decrease all the cold of winter . which , without reason , he supposes is not to be allow'd . ( . ) what was alledg'd under the last proposition is here to be consider'd , that on this hypothesis a clear reason is given of the nights preceding the day in the history of the creation , and ever since among the jews ; which otherwise is not so easily to be accounted for . ( . ) the testimony of the chaldee paraphrast , ( to which josephus does fully agree ) is as express as possible , upon kings . . where the words are , in the month ethanim , which is the seventh month ; ( viz. as all confess , from the vernal equinox ) upon which the paraphrase is , they call'd it of old the first month ; but now it is the seventh month : which may well counterpoise all that from some later authors can be produc'd to the contrary . so that upon the whole i may fairly conclude , notwithstanding some small objections , ( which either lose their force on such principles as are here laid down , or will on other occasions be taken off ) that the most ancient or patriarchal year began at the autumnal equinox . vii . the original orbits of the planets , and particularly of the earth , before the deluge , were perfect circles . this is in it self so easie and natural an hypothesis , that i might very justly take it for granted , and make it a postulatum : and in case i could prove every thing to agree to , and receive light from the same , and withal account for the present eccentricity , no man could fairly charge it with being a precarious or unreasonable one . but although the main reasons for such a proposition are , i confess , to be taken from the consequences thence to be deriv'd ; and the admirable correspondence of them all to ancient tradition , to the phaenomena of the deluge , and to the scripture accounts thereto relating , as will be visible hereafter ; yet there being some arguments of a different nature which may render it probable , and prepare the reader for admitting the same , before the consequences thereof come to be fully understood , i chuse to place this assertion here , among my hypotheses ; tho' i do not pretend that the arguments here to be made use of , ought to put the same so near to certainty , as its fellows have , i think , reason to expect with unprejudic'd readers . but to come to the matter it self : the reasons i would offer are these following . ( . ) the designs and uses of planets seem most properly to require circular orbits . now in order to give a rational guess at the same designs and uses of planets , i know no other way than that from comparison with the earth . and here , when we find one of the planets , and that plac'd in the middle among the rest , to agree with the others in every thing of which we have any means of enquiry ; 't is but reasonable to suppose , that it does so also in those , which 't is impossible for us , by any other certain way , to be assured of . if we observe a certain engin in one country , and see to what use 't is put , and to what end it serves ; and if afterward we see another , tho' in a different country , agreeing to the former in all things , as far as we are able to discover : tho' we are not informed of its design and use , we yet very naturally , and very probably , believe that it serves to the same purpose , and was intended for the same end with the former . thus it ought sure to be in the case before us ; and by the same way of reasoning we may fairly conclude to what uses all the planets serve , and on what general designs providence makes use of them , viz. to be the seat or habitation of animals , and the seminary of such plants and vegetables as are necessary or convenient for their support and sustenance . which being therefore probably suppos'd of the rest , and certainly known of the earth , i argue , that a circular orbit being the most fit and proper for such purposes , may justly be presum'd the original situation of the planets , and the primary work of providence in ordering their courses . such creatures , rational , sensitive , or vegetative , as are fit and dispos'd for a certain degree of the sun's heat , are very much incommoded by one much greater , or much less ; and by consequence are peculiarly accommodate to a circular , but by no means to an eccentrical orbit . and tho' the inequality of the earth's distance from the sun , in the different points of its orbit , be so inconsiderable , that we observe little effect of it ; yet in some of the other orbits , which are much more eccentrical , it must be very sensible , and have a mighty influence on the productions of nature , and the constitution of animals in planets revolving therein . and what reason can we imagine why the southern hemisphere , for instance , of a planet , by the situation of the perihelion near its summers solstice , should be so different from the northern , in the primary contrivance of the divine providence ? this seems not so agreeable to the original regularity and uniformity of nature ; nor does it look like the immediate effect of the divine power and wisdom in the first frame of the world , when all things just coming out of the creator's hands , must be allow'd to have been perfect in their kind , and exceeding good ; when the rational creatures being pure and innocent , the natural state of things was to be suited to them ; and dispos'd agreeably to reason , proportion , and the convenience of the same unspotted and sinless creatures . ( . ) the opposite position and use of the opposite species of bodies the comets , seem , by the rule of contraries , to suppose what we have been contending for . if indeed we had found a mixture of planets and comets in the same regions of the solar system , and a confusion of the orbits and order of both : if we had discover'd all species of ellipses , with all degrees of eccentricity from the circle to the parabola ; the proposition i am upon would be more than precarious , and but too disagreeable to the frame of nature . but when we find no such thing , but the clean contrary ; namely , that all the comets revolve in orbits so extremely eccentrical , that such segments of them as come within our observation are almost parabolical , or of an infinite degree of eccentricity ; 't is not unreasonable to conclude , that likely enough the contradistinct species of bodies the planets originally revolv'd in orbits of no degree of eccentricity , that is , in perfect circles : the eccentrical or elliptick orbits of the one , among other things , probably distinguishing them from the other ; which originally moved in concentrical or circular ones . ( . ) this hypothesis is favour'd by the ancient astronomy ; which so pertinaciously adher'd to the circular hypothesis , notwithstanding all its eccentricks , epicycles , and strange wheel-work ; that it may seem the effect of ancient tradition , that once the heavenly motions were really circular . and this is the more remarkable , because , not only the true system of the world , but the conick sections , and among them the elliptick figure was very anciently known and consider'd . by the introduction of which , all the fanciful and uncouth figments they were forc'd upon , might have been wholly spar'd , and an easie and natural idea of the planetary motions obtain'd . which if ever it had been started , by its exact agreement to the phaenomena , could scarce ever have been lost ; and which yet , as far as i know , never came into the minds of astronomers till the great kepler's time ; who first prov'd the orbits to be elliptick too plainly to be denied , or almost doubted any longer . ( . ) the quantity of the several orbits eccentricity , and the position of their aphelia , are so various , different , and without any visible design , order or method , as far as is hitherto discover'd , that the whole looks more like the result of second causes , in succeeding times , than the primary contrivance and workmanship of the creator himself . 't is indeed possible that there may be design and contrivance in these things , tho' we cannot discern them ; yet seeing we have , on the common grounds , no reason to affirm such a thing ; seeing the equidistant situation from the sun would more clearly shew such design and contrivance ; seeing also , the original circular motion of the earth granted , the position of the earth's aphelion , and the quantity of its orbit's eccentricity , do so remarkably infer the divine wisdom and artifice therein , and are wonderfully subservient to the highest purposes ; ( by the one , the day of the year when the flood began ; by the other , the length of the antediluvian year , being nearly determinable ; of which hereafter ) 't is i think , but fair reasoning to conclude , that that hypothesis which does so certainly argue art and contrivance , order and providence , is to be prefer'd to another , which seems to infer the clean contrary , or at best only leaves room for a possibility thereof ; as 't is in the present case . i do by no means question but these uncertain eccentricities and various position of the aphelia of the planets , with all other such seemingly anomalous phaenomena of nature , happen'd by a particular providence , and were all one way or other fitted to the state of each species of creatures inhabiting the several planets , according as their respective behaviours or circumstances , in their several generations requir'd : ( of which the succeeding theory will be a pregnant instance ) but my meaning is this ; that before any good or bad actions of creatures , when every thing was just as the wisdom of god was pleas'd to appoint ; when each creature was compleat and perfect in its kind , and so suited to the most compleat and perfect state of external nature ; 't is highly probable that the outward world , or every such state of external nature was even , uniform , and regular , as was the temper and disposition of each creature that was to be plac'd therein : and as properly suited to all their necessities , and conveniences , as was possible and reasonable to be expected such a state , 't is natural to believe , obtain'd through the universe till succeeding changes in the living and rational , requir'd proportionable ones in the inanimate and corporeal world. 't is most philosophical , as well as most pious , to ascribe only what appears wise , regular , uniform , and harmonious , to the first cause ; ( as the main phaenomena of the heavenly bodies , their places , and motions , do , to the degree of wonder and surprize ) but as to such things as may seem of another nature , to attribute them intirely to subsequent changes , which the mutual actions of bodies one upon another , fore-ordain'd and adjusted by the divine providence , in various periods , agreeably to the various exigencies of creatures , might bring to pass . ( . ) it being evident , that multitudes of comets have pass'd through the planetary system ; that in such their passage they were sometimes capable of causing , nay , in very long periods must certainly , without a miracle , have caused great alterations in the same ; and that the nature and quantities of the present eccentricities or anomalies are no other than what must be expected from such causes ; 't is very reasonable to allow these effects to have really happen'd , and that consequently all might be , as i here contend it was originally , orderly , uniform , and regular ; and particularly the planetary orbits uniform , concentrical , and circular , as i am here concern'd to prove . if any one of us should observe that a curious clock , made and kept in order by an excellent artist , was very notably different from the true time of the day , and took notice withal of a certain rub or stoppage , which was very capable of causing that error in its motion ; he would easily and undoubtedly conclude that such an error was truly occasion'd by that visible impediment ; and never design'd at first , or procur'd by the artist . the application of which resemblance , is too obvious to need a comment , and naturally enforces what i am now contending for . ( . ) 't is evident that all the little planets about jupiter move in orbits truly circular , without the least sensible degree of eccentricity : on which account the present hypothesis appears to be far from contrary to the frame of nature ; nay to be no other with regard to the primary , than is de facto , true in this secondary system : and from that so remarkable a parallel , may the more easily be believ'd to have once been the case of this also . ( . ) 't is evident , that in case the comets attractions were the cause of the eccentricity of the planets , they would usually draw them also from the plains of their former orbits , and make them inclin'd or oblique to one another : so that where the orbits are eccentrical , 't is probable , according to the present hypothesis , the plains must be different , and oblique to each other ; and where the orbits are circular , the plains of the several orbits must be as they were at first , or , in probability , coincident . now this is really observable in the two systems last mention'd : the plains of the circular orbits about jupiter being nearly , if not exactly coincident , and those of the eccentrical ones about the sun being oblique to each other . which observation is no inconsiderable argument , that originally the planetary orbits were exactly circular ; as well as that at the same time they were every one in the same common plain , or in plains coincident to one another . which last mention'd hypothesis , ( to speak a word or two of that by the way ) tho' i look upon it as not unlikely , and such an one as several of the foregoing arguments might be apply'd to , and do plead for ; yet i shall not insist farther upon it here : both because the following theory does not directly depend upon it in any part ; and because the moving in different plains does not cause any ill effects , or notable inconveniences , in the system of nature , as we have shewn the eccentricity does ; and so cannot with the same clearness and force be urg'd against its being the original workmanship of god , as i have above discours'd in the other case . only this i may say , that seeing the planetary orbits are still almost in the same plain ; seeing the comets passages are capable of causing such little obliquity ; nay were they originally in the same plain , in length of time , by the fore-mention'd attraction , they must without a miracle , have been drawn from their common plains , and been obliged to revolve in those different from each other , as they now do ; and seeing withal that eccentricity and obliquity , as uniformity of distance from the center , and coincidence of the plains , go together in the world , as has been just before noted ; this hypothesis of the original coincidence of the planetary plains , is an opinion neither improbable , nor unphilosophical ; and only a little less evident than what this proposition was to prove , viz. that the primary orbits of the planets were perfect circles ; but otherwise very much a-kin , and exceeding correspondent thereto ; they at once receiving light from , and affording light to one another mutually . viii . the ark did not rest , as is commonly suppos'd , in armenia ; but on the mountain caucasus , or paropamisus , on the confines of tartary , persia , and india . this proposition is proved by these following arguments . ( . ) this mountain agrees to the place where the first fathers after the deluge inhabited ; which any part of armenia does not . 't is evident from scripture , that the first removal of the fathers after the flood there mention'd , was from the parts on the east of babylon : it came to pass as they journeyed from the east , that they found a plain in the land of shinar , and they dwelt there ; and accordingly there they built the tower of babel , as you find in the following history . now armenia , on one of whose mountains the ark is commonly suppos'd to have rested , is so far from the eastern point from babylon , that 't is somewhat towards the west , as any map of those countries will easily shew . but the mountain here pitch'd upon , caucasus , or paropamisus , being situate near to the east point from babylon , is on that account peculiarly agreeable to the history of moses , of the habitation of the first fathers after the flood , and so to the seat of the ark thence to be determin'd . ( . ) notwithstanding we meet with few or no colonies sent eastward , after the confusion of tongues , as we do into other quarters ; yet the eastern nations appear , in the most ancient prophane histories of the world , to have been then the most numerous of all others . on which account those countries must have been first peopled before the descent of the sons of men to babylon , which the remoteness of armenia is uncapable of ; but the neighbourhood of caucasus permits , and naturally supposes . it being probable that if the sons of noah , for the first century after the flood , dwelt upon or near that mountain , they would first send colonies , or leave a company thereabouts , which should stock those eastern countries adjoining , before they spred themselves into the remoter parts of asia , europe , and africa ; and vice versâ , seeing they appear to have first peopled those regions , 't is equally probable that they originally were situate at or near the same regions , i. e. at or near the mountain here determin'd . ( . ) the testimony of porcius cato is express in the point , who affirms , that two hundred and fifty years before ninus , the earth was overflown with waters ; and that in scythiâ sagâ renatum mortale genus : mankind was renew'd or restor'd in that part of scythia which is call'd saga , which country , says sir walter raleigh , is undoubtedly under the mountain paropamisus . ( . ) the same assertion is confirm'd by the tradition of the inhabitants , who , says dr. heylin , aver , that a large vineyard in margiana , near the foot of mount caucasus , was of noah's plantation , which may justly be set against any pretended reliques or tradition for armenia ; and agreeing with the place determin'd by the other arguments , deserves justly to be preferr'd before them . these are the arguments , which from goropius becanus , sir walter raleigh , and dr. heylin make use of in the case , and which i think are very satisfactory . but i shall add one more , which they take no notice of , but which i esteem so clear , that it might almost alter the denomination of the proposition , and give it a claim to a place among the foregoing lemmata , which i propose as certain ; not these propositions , which whatever degree of evidence they or any of them may have , i yet chuse to propose under a softer name , and call them hypotheses . and the argument is this ; ( . ) the ark rested upon the highest hill in all asia , nay , at that time the highest hill in the world ; but paropamisus ( the true and most famous caucasus , in the old authors ) is the highest hill in all asia , nay , was then of the whole world ; and is by consequence , the very same on which the ark rested . now , in this argument , i suppose it will be allow'd me , that caucasus is the highest mountain in asia ( sir walter raleigh says 't is undoubtedly so ) ; that it was the highest in the world also at that time , will from the same assertion be hereafter prov'd , whatever pretence the pike of teneriff , or any other may at present make : all that therefore i am here to make out , is , that the ark must have rested on the highest mountain in the world , which is easily done : for the waters covering the tops of all the highest hills on the face of the earth , fifteen cubits ; and yet the ark resting the very first day of the abatement of the waters , above two months before the tops of other mountains were seen ( as will be proved hereafter : ) 't is evident , that not only the lower hills of armenia , but all other in the world , besides caucasus , were uncapable of receiving the ark at the time assigned for its resting in the sacred history ; and by consequence , that and that only was the mountain on which it rested . if it be here objected , that ararat , where the ark rested , is in scripture taken for armenia ; and by consequence it must be an armenian mountain which we are enquiring for . in answer , i grant that ararat is in scripture taken for armenia ; but i deny , that all the mountains of ararat are included in that country . 't is possible the alps or pyrenees , might give or receive their names to , or from some small country at which they rose , or through which they passed ; but it would not from thence follow , that all the alps or pyrenees belong'd to , and were contain'd in such a country . 't is usual for vast and long ridges of mountains to be call'd by one name , tho' they pass through , and thereby belong to many and distant regions , which i take to be the present case ; and that the intire ridge of mountains running west and east from armenia to the fountains of the rivers oxus and indus , call'd since by the general name of mount taurus , were anciently stil'd ararat , or the mountains of ararat . to which the mosaick history does well agree , by using the plural number , the ark rested on the mountains of ararat , i. e. on one of those mountains , or of that ridge or aggregate of mountains going by the general name it has at its western rise , and stil'd ararat . this is , i think , a fair and satisfactory interpretation of the mountains of ararat ; and such an one as bishop patrick embraces , tho' he be by no means partial to that opinion i here defend thereby . but if any be not yet satisfied of the truth of the proposition we are upon , they may consult the authors abovemention'd , who have more at large insisted on it , and alledg'd other arguments on the same account , to which i shall therefore refer the reader . ix . the deluge began on the th day of the second month from the autumnal equinox , ( or on the th day of november in the julian stile extended backward ) in the th year of the julian period , and in the th year before the christian aera . in this account of the number of years from the deluge , i follow the most reverend and learned archbishop usher's chronology , deriv'd from the hebrew verity , without taking notice of what years the samaritan and septuagint have added thereto ; they being , as will hereafter appear , added without reason , and not at all to be consider'd . now , that the number of years assign'd by archbishop usher is rightly deduc'd from the hebrew , is , i think , notwithstanding the wide and manifold mistakes of the former , pretty well agreed upon among the latest chronologers ; and capable of a much more satisfactory proof , than from so great differences before thereto relating one would be ready to imagine , as upon a little enquiry i easily found . indeed , the archbishop has made the matter so plain , that one cannot but wonder how former chronologers came so strangely to be mistaken ; and 't is perhaps one of the most difficult things to give a good account of , that is readily to be pitch'd upon . i once intended to have here not only given the canon of the several periods , but confirm'd the same from the scripture , and answer'd the principal objections made against any parts thereof ; as well from the said archbishop's incomparable , tho' imperfect chronologia sacra , as from such other observations as having been since made , ( especially by the very learned sir john marsham , who has intirely and evidently clear'd what the archbishop principally labour'd at without success , the chronology in the book of judges ) give farther light and strength to the same accounts . but this would perhaps be too much like a digression , and somewhat foreign to my main design , so i forbear , and only set down the chronological canon , according to which i reckon from the creation to the present time , as follows . i. from the beginning of the mosaick creation , till the creation of adam , / ( days to a month , till the deluge . ) — y. m. d. — — ii. from the creation of adam , till the day when the earth began to be clear of the waters , or the autumnal equinox , in the year of the deluge . — — — iii. from the autumnal equinox in the year of the deluge , till the departure of abraham out of haran , ( / days to a month since the deluge . ) — — — iv. from abraham's departure out of haran , till the exodus of the children of israel out of egypt . — — — v. from the exodus of the children of israel out of egypt , till the foundation of solomon's temple . — — — vi. from the foundation of solomon's temple , till its conflagration . — — — vii . from the conflagration of solomon's temple , till the kalends of january , which began the christian aera . — — — viii . from the beginning of the christian aera , till this autumnal equinox , anno domini , . — — — sum of all . — — — from the first day of the deluge , till the th of october in this same year , . — — — this canon agrees with the archbishop's in every thing , but that , for exactness , i make use of tropical , or natural solar years , instead of julian ones ; to which accordingly i proportion the months and days ; i add those five months fourteen days which his hypothesis forc'd him , without ground , to omit between the creation and the deluge ; and i give the primitive years of the creation their place , which having been taken for short days of twenty four hours long , were not hitherto suppos'd to deserve the same . all which being observ'd , i refer the reader , who desires farther satisfaction , to the archbishop himself , where he may find the particulars of the several periods clear'd to him . x. a comet , descending , in the plain of the ecliptick , towards its perihelion ; on the first day of the deluge past just before the body of our earth . that such a position of a comet 's orbit , and such a passing by as is here suppos'd , are in themselves possible , and agreeable to the phaenomena of nature , all competent judges , who are acquainted with the new and wonderful discoveries in astronomy , according to the lemmata hereto relating , must freely grant . but that it really did so at the time here specified , is what i am now to prove . 't is true , when upon a meer supposition of such a passing by of a comet , i had in my own mind observ'd the phaenomena relating to the deluge to answer to admiration , i was not a little surpriz'd , and pleas'd at such a discovery . it gave me no small satisfaction to see , that upon a possible and easy hypothesis , i could give so clear an account of those things , which had hitherto prov'd so hard , not to say inexplicable , and could shew the exact coincidence of the particulars with the sacred history , and the phaenomena of nature . i thought to be able to proceed so far , was not only more than had been yet done , more than was generally expected ever would be done ; but abundantly sufficient to the best of purposes , to clear the holy scriptures from the imputations of ill-disposed men , and demonstrate the account of the deluge to be in every part neither impossible nor unphilosophical . but proceeding in some farther thoughts and calculations on the said hypothesis , i , to my exceeding great content and admiration , found all things to correspond so strangely , and the time of the year by several concurring ways so exactly fix'd , agreeably to the sacred history thereby ; that , as i saw abundant reason my self to rest satisfi'd of the reality , as well as probability of what i before barely suppos'd ; so i thought the producing the particulars i had discover'd might afford evidence to the minds of others , and go a great way to the intire establishing the certainty of that , of whose great probability the correspondence of the several phaenomena of the deluge had before afforded sufficient satisfaction . but before i come to the arguments to be here made use of themselves , give me leave by way of preparation , to shew what sort of evidence such assertions as this before us , when good and valid , are capable of ; and how great or satisfactory it may be in any other , and so may be expected to be in the present case . 't is evident , that all truths are not capable of the same degree of evidence , or manner of probation . first notions are known by intuition , or so quick and clear a perception , that we scarce observe any deduction or ratiocination at all in our assent to them . some principal metaphysical truths have so near a connexion with these , that the manner of reasoning or inferring is scarce to be trac'd or describ'd ; a few obvious and quick reflections enforcing our hearty acquiescence : among which , the best of metaphysicians mr. lock , in his essay of humane understanding , very rightly placesthe being of god. purely mathematical propositions are demonstrated by a chain of deductions , each of which is certain and unquestionable . so that on a clear view of the truth and connexion of each link , or member of the intire argumentation , the evidence may still be look'd on as infallible . propositions in mixt mathematicks , as in opticks , geography , and astronomy , depending partly on abstract mathematick demonstrations , and partly on the observations of the phaenomena of nature ; tho' not arriving to the strict infallibility of the evidence with the former sort , are yet justly in most cases allow'd to be truly certain and indubitable . history is all that we commonly can have for matters of fact past and gone ; and where 't is agreed upon by all , and uncontroulable , 't is esteemed fully satisfactory , tho' not absolutely certain in common cases . and lastly , to come closer to the point , the knowledge of causes is deduc'd from their effects . thus all natural philosophy , i. e. the knowledge of the causes of the several visible phaenomena of the world , is solely deriv'd from those effects , or phaenomena themselves , their accurate correspondence to , and necessary dependance on certain supposed causes , and their insolubility on any other hypotheses , with the coincidence of the particular calculations of the quantities of motion , velocity , periods , and species of figures to be every where accounted for . on the universal conspiration and correspondence of which , with the impossibility of producing an instance to the contrary , depends what may be truly stil'd a physical demonstration . i mean , then , and only then is a physical cause to be esteem'd demonstrated , when all the phaenomena of the world may be certainly shewn to be just so , and no otherwise , as they necessarily would , and must be on supposition thereof . this last method is that which our best of philosophers has taken in his demonstration of the universal affection or property of bodies , which he calls mutual attraction or gravitation , and which accordingly he has establish'd beyond possibility of contradiction ; and this is the sole way of bringing natural knowledge to perfection , and extricating it from the little hypotheses , which in defect of true science , the world has till lately been forc'd to be contented with . in the point before us , there are only three possible ways of proving the truth of the assertion here laid down . the first , that of propositions in mixt mathematicks , by calculation of the motion of some comet , as we do of planets from the astronomical tables , and thence demonstrating the certainty thereof . but besides the improbability of this comet 's having ever return'd since the deluge ; 't is plain , the defect of old observations , and the so late discovery of the laws and orbits of their motions , do render such a way of probation , at least at present , impossible . the second way of probation , is that of historical relation , that at the deluge a comet did so pass by ; of which there is directly none in the present case . nor seeing the possibility of the same was not known , nor the thing visible to the inhabitants that out-liv'd the flood , as will hereafter appear ; is this kind of evidence to be at all expected ? but the third and last way , possible , is the being of such plain and sensible effects , as must be undoubted consequents of such an assertion , and without the supposal thereof were perfectly unaccountable ; which is the very method of probation i shall here use , and do wholly depend upon . there are several degrees of evidence , and kinds of proofs , very different from those made use of in the mathematicks , which yet are little less satisfactory to the minds of wise men , and leave little more room for doubting than they . several sorts of propositions must be evinc'd by several sorts of arguments ; and whatever possible and easy assertion has all the proofs which its nature requires , or could justly be expected upon supposal of its real existence , ought to be admitted for true and evident . thus in that sort of things we are now upon ; if a certain cause be assign'd , which being suppos'd would necessarily infer several plain and visible effects , and occasion several sensible phaenomena ; 't is plain , if those effects and phaenomena be upon examination found to be correspondent , and as they must and would be on the real being of such a cause , the existence of that cause is prov'd . and as where the effects are few , ordinary , otherwise accountable and incapable of reduction to calculation , or accuracy of correspondence in the just quantity and proportion necessary ; the proof is weak and only probable ; and as where several of the consequents of that cause agree well enough , yet some others disagree , the disagreement of one or two , is a stronger objection against , than the coincidence of the rest an evidence for the same , and the proof none at all : so on the other side , where a cause is assigned , whose certain consequent effects must be very many , very surprizing , otherwise unaccountable , correspondent on the greatest niceness of calculation in the particular quantity and proportion of every effect , and where withal no disagreeing phaenomenon can be urg'd to the contrary ; the evidence hence deriv'd of the reality of the assigned cause , tho' of a different nature , and , if you will , degree too , from demonstration , is yet little less satisfactory to the minds of wise and considering men , than what is esteem'd more strictly so . thus , for instance , astronomers at this day find little more inclination or reason to doubt of the annual and diurnal motions of the earth , than of any strictly demonstrated proposition ; and as much , in a manner , take it for granted in all their reasonings , as they do the propositions in euclid , tho' the evidence for the same be in its kind different from , and inferior to the other . and thus , as i have before observ'd , mr. newton has given sufficient evidence of the universal law of mutual attraction and gravitation of bodies , which accordingly there is no more occasion to doubt of , than of those common matters of fact or history , of which no wise man ever made any question . and thus it is , that i hope to evince the truth and reality of that cause assigned in this proposition , viz. by proving that those visible effects or phaenomena relating to the universal deluge , which are very many , very surprizing hitherto unaccountable , several of which are capable of calculation as to the particular time , quantity , and proportion of the respective particulars , are every one so , and no otherwise , as on supposal of the assigned cause they either certainly must , or at least probably would have been . and as upon a demonstration of the disagreement of any one phaenomenon , which were a necessary consequence of the same , i must own the falseness of the proposition before us ; so i hope , if the universality of correspondence , even to the exactness of calculation in proper cases be establish'd , and no contradictory instance can be produc'd ; it will be allow'd , that i have sufficiently evinc'd the reality , and , in a proper sense , certainty of the same assertion . this then being premis'd , 't is plain , that every one of the particular phaenomena of the deluge afterward accounted for , is a proper argument of this proposition , and might justly claim a place here on that account . but because such an enumeration of them before-hand would prevent their own more peculiar place hereafter , and disturb the propos'd method of the ensuing theory , i shall leave them to their proper places , tho' with this premonition , that several of them do singly so exactly sit the otherwise unaccountable phaenomena of nature , and of the deluge , and determine the time and circumstances of the latter so nicely , that their separate evidence is considerable ; but when taken conjointly with the rest , as satisfactory as i think the nature of the thing is capable of . but besides these particular correspondent phaenomena of the deluge , and after the discovery of the most of them , i found proofs of somewhat another nature ; which not only confirmed all that i had before observ'd , but enabled me to determine the time when the flood began , to the greatest exactness possible ; which therefore i shall alone produce here , reserving those other for their own places hereafter . now on the hypothesis , that a comet pass'd by the earth , till then revolving circularly about the sun at the time , and in the manner assign'd by the proposition , the necessary effects or consequents of it are these five . ( . ) the circular orbit of the earth would be chang'd into that of an ellipsis ; and the sun , which was before in the center of the circle , would be afterward in that focus of the ellipsis , which were nearest the place at which the attraction of the comet happen'd . ( . ) the year , after such a passing by of the comet , would be increased ten days , one hour , thirty minutes . ( . ) the time of the passing by of the comet , or the beginning of the deluge to be determin'd by the place of the perihelion , must be coincident with that assigned in the mosaick history . ( . ) the very day of the comet 's passing by , or of the beginning of the deluge , to be determin'd from the astronomical tables of the conjunctions of the sun and moon , must be conincident with the time determin'd by the said place of the perihelion , and with the very day assign'd in the mosaick history . ( . ) the quantity of acceleration , to be determin'd à priori , from the force of the comet 's attraction , must correspond with that which the present elliptick orbit does require . all which that they are , de facto , true and real , i shall now prove . ( . ) the orbit of the earth is now elliptical , and the sun is in that focus thereof , which was nearest the place of the earth , when the deluge began . this proposition is sufficiently known to astronomers , as to the former part of it : and if it be consider'd , that the earth when the deluge began , was but just past that degree of the ecliptick , where the perihelion was afterward , as will presently appear ; the latter part will be equally evident with the former . ( . ) the year before the flood was ten days ; or more nicely , ten days one hour and thirty minutes , shorter than the present . in order to the proof of which i shall shew first in general , that the antediluvian year was different from , nay shorter than the present year ; and afterwards determine the particular length thereof more exactly ; and shall comprise what reasons i have for these assertions in the following arguments . ( . ) the true length of the solar year was so long unknown after the deluge , that there must have happen'd some mighty change and lengthening thereof at the deluge , or else no rational account can be assign'd of such gross and so lasting an ignorance . 't is not to be question'd but the antediluvian patriarchs were perfectly acquainted with the antediluvian year ; every one of those mention'd in scripture having seen so many summers and winters , or natural solar years , that himself were able to ascertain their length , and correct any mistake about them . 't is also not to be doubted but the postdiluvians would have retain'd the same year , and determin'd it by the same number of days , as their fore-fathers , had they found it to agree with the course of the sun then , as it did formerly . but 't is evident from the ancientest authors , that 't was many hundreds of years after the deluge e're the most learned nations rectifi'd their year to the sun's course , or arriv'd at more than three hundred and sixty days in their accounts . which number accordingly was the standard of a year for many ages , ( the full proof of which , and the clearing thereby of several prophetick periods , that famous one of daniel's seventy weeks especially , is what we impatiently expect from a most learned prelate of our church ) till astronomical observations forc'd men to correct the same . now all this on the present hypothesis is easie and natural ; that when the antediluvian year was but a few hours above three hundred and fifty five days ; and at the deluge was insensibly become some odd hours above three hundred and sixty five days , without the least knowledge or suspicion of any change therein ; 't is , i say , very easie and natural in this case to suppose , that upon their observing the seasons to be protracted , and return still later every year than other ; ( as on the retaining the antediluvian year must needs happen , ) and consequently their ancient standard of three hundred and fifty five days , to be too short for the sun's revolution ; that they should lengthen their accounts to thirty days in every month , and the even number three hundred and sixty days in the whole year . which convenient and remarkable number three hundred and sixty , being probably fixt at the time when astronomy began to be improv'd , or at least reviv'd after the deluge , and so become the division of the ecliptick , and of every circle of the sphere ; was not quickly chang'd , but measur'd the ancient year among not a few nations , and that not a few ages together : as being also less observably different from the sun's course , and correspondent both to the degrees of a circle , and twelve even months of thirty days a-piece . and indeed this adjustment of the year and months , with the degrees of a circle , and of each sign in the ecliptick , was found so easie , ready , and useful on all accounts , that even when the odd five days were added afterward , they were not inserted into the months , nor perhaps esteem'd part of the year , but look'd upon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adventitious or odd days , of a quite different denomination and character from all the rest . however 't is still agreeable to the present hypothesis , that on the farther observation of the protraction of the seasons , and on the improvement of astronomy still higher , as the year had been increas'd before from three hundred and fifty five to three hundred and sixty , so afterward it should be increas'd from three hundred and sixty to three hundred and sixty five days ; and at last , ( the observations of the more learned astronomers enforcing it , ) from three hundred sixty five to / or the julian year , which with us is retain'd to this very day . all this is i think easie and natural in the present case , upon that hypothesis which is here defended ; but without it 't is very strange and unaccountable . 't is , i say , very strange and unaccountable either how the antediluvian patriarchs should not know the length of their own year ; or that none of their posterity , who were destitute of divine revelation , should retain the same afterwards , but be forc'd to make use of one that was so far from corresponding to those seasons , and that revolution of the sun which a year was on purpose design'd to be commensurate to . which conclusion is farther confirm'd , ( . ) by the essential difference of the ancient years among several nations since the deluge : some of which made use of solar , and others of lunar ones , or endeavour'd to adjust their periods to those of each of these luminaries . this difference of years , is known in antiquity , has been the occasion of great disputes ; and is not yet a stranger to the world. nay , as far as i find , some of those nations who agreed with the most general standard of three hundred and sixty days , suppos'd that number agreeable in some measure to the lunar , as well as to the solar course , as consisting nearly of twelve synodical or monthly revolutions of the former , as well as of a single annual one of the latter ; and embrac'd it as much , if not more on the account of its imagin'd correspondence with the moon , as of a like imagin'd correspondence with the sun. now this essential difference of solar and lunar years in the eldest antiquity after the flood , is on no other grounds so accountable as that the antediluvian year having been delivered down from their fore-fathers to have agreed with the courses both of the sun and moon , ( as on the present hypothesis it really did ) some nations followed one branch , and others another of the same tradition : and when they no longer were commensurate , accommodated their accounts to the one or the other , according as the one or the other was most prevalent , and universal among them . this is an easie and rational account of this essential difference of solar and lunar years , so variously followed by so many nations since the deluge : which otherwise , if the year was of the same length with the present , and fixt before the flood , 't is hard to assign the original of . but that it were , as in this hypothesis , both a solar and lunar year , all is very easie , and what must naturally happen upon an imperceptible change at the deluge . which will be still farther confirm'd if we consider , ( . ) that the moon 's other motions , diurnal and menstrual , are still so accurately adjusted and commensurate to each other , that 't is very probable the annual was alike adjusted and commensurate to those in the primitive constitution of nature . 't is certain the moon accompanies our earth , and has her annual revolution exactly equal to the others . 't is also certain , as has been before observ'd , that her menstrual periodical revolution about the earth , is exactly equal to her diurnal about her own axis : which wonderful and remarkable coincidence or correspondence of two such intirely distinct motions , renders it highly probable that the third or annual revolution was not by providence originally design'd to be so incommensurate to those others , as since the deluge it most evidently has been ; and that to the greatest trouble and perplexity of many ages , and the intire disturbance of the ancient chronology . where we cannot but in one case acknowledge , the most exact interposition of providence in the equality of the menstrual and diurnal revolutions ; and the notable effect thereof , the exposition of the same hemisphere of the moon to the earth continually : we cannot sure be unwilling to own a like interposition in the other , in the commensurability and correspondency of the same menstrual and diurnal revolutions to the annual one of it self , and of its companion the earth : especially where the reason and advantage of such an adjustment , ( the easie and regular accounts of time through the world thence arising ) is much more plain and evident than in that other case , of which yet there can be no possibility of doubt or hesitation : which therefore considerably enforces the fore-mention'd hypothesis , according to which the wise and careful interposition of providence in the original constitution of the world , appears to have been as accurately sollicitous , and engag'd in the adjustment of the annual motion to the menstrual , as 't is unquestionably true in the like correspondence of the menstrual to the diurnal , so worthy the present consideration and admiration of astronomers : which will be most of all confirm'd by the exact agreement of the several periods , to be taken notice of in the next place . ( . ) the eccentricity of the sun is so exactly coincident with the epact of the moon ; or the annual motion in the circular orbit before the deluge , so nicely equal to thirteen periodical , and twelve synodical revolutions of the moon ; that 't is very improbable it should be wholly by chance , or without any relation of one to another . the eccentricities of planets are various , uncertain , and boundless ; and 't will be next to impossible in such cases to observe accurate coincidences where nothing but chance is concern'd , and there is no analogy or connexion in nature for ' em . if there were a certain watch-word out of pitch'd upon among certain conspirators , and a person was taken on suspicion , and prov'd to have nam'd that very word to his supposed partner ; it were in reason , and the opinion of the world . to one he before knew of it , and did not by chance only hit upon it . if any ancient historian should assert , that a certain remarkable accident happen'd on such a day , and such an hour , of a given year , and a way was afterward discover'd of determining the time on which , if it really did happen , it must have done so ; tho' the authority of the author were not considerable otherwise , no boubt would be any more made of his veracity in that point , if the coincidence was so exact as to determine the same hour mention'd by the historian . thus if on other intimations it be conjectur'd , that the earth mov'd circularly before the deluge , and the year was both a solar and lunar one ; and if afterward the eccentricity of the earth's orbit , and the lunar epact , or difference between the solar and lunar year , be reduc'd to calculation , and found accurately coincident , when the eccentricity of no other of the planetary orbits , is at all correspondent ; there is , i think , very great probability to believe that coincidence founded in nature , and that the alteration of the year just so much as those agreeing-quantities require , was the true occasion thereof . the eccentricity requisite to correspond to the lunar epact , must be / of the intire middle distance : that of saturn is / that of jupiter / that of mars / that of venus / that of mercury / that of the moon / which all widely differ from the quantity here necessary . but when we consider the eccentricity of the magnus orbis , or orbit of the earth's and moon 's annual course , it exactly accords , and is / of the intire middle distance ; as we have before particularly observ'd , and as the moon 's epact most nicely requires . 't is , i confess , not impossible that calculations and numbers , in which there is all imaginable room for diversity under or over , may be coincident , without any natural dependance or analogy one to another . 't is possible , that i may several times by guess , or at a venture , hit upon any number which another person has in his mind . 't is possible , a gamester may , without any foul dealing , throw all sizes or aces , be the dice never so many , a hundred times together . these things it must be own'd are possible , and so no compact or collusion can be demonstrated by such coincidences ; neither , consequently , do i pretend that this , or any of the like coincidences in the present theory do absolutely demonstrate that assertion they are brought to prove . but as in the former cases , the observation of the mention'd coincidences would afford evidence fully satisfactory of some mystery , cunning , or artifice us'd therein ; so i think it ought to be in the present case ; i mean where all things else are rightly correspondent , and no contradictory instances to be alledg'd , the nice and accurate coincidences of calculations in this , and the other proper cases through this theory , ought to satisfy the minds of considering men of the real truth and evidence of the proposition on which they all depend , and from which they are deriv'd ; and particularly , that the lunar epact and sun's eccentricity which are so nicely equal to each other , must have a natural relation , and a common occasion ; the alteration of the year at the deluge : which being so far establish'd by these chronological and astronomical arguments , shall be now confirm'd from the holy scripture . ( . ) this hypothesis of the ten days addition to the year , is very agreeable to the history of the deluge in the hebrew it self ; and absolutely necessary to reconcile the text as we have it from the same hebrew verity , with that translation which the septuagint , and from them josephus , give us thereof . 't is commonly , and probably suppos'd , that the space in which noah was in the ark was a just solar year : 't is expresly so in the septuagint and josephus ; the entrance and exit being on the same day of the same month ; when yet 't is in the hebrew , and our bibles , a year and ten days ; the entrance on the th , and the exit on the th of the second month , as is evident in the texts quoted in the margin . which seeming repugnances have not hitherro met with any satisfactory conciliation , and are generally allow'd to be inconsistent with one another . some great men are willing to suppose the year referr'd to at the deluge , to have been a lunar one , such as was in after-ages made use of ; which in the common years having eleven days less than the solar , will nearly account for this matter , and pretty well accommodate the whole . but this , i think , will not satisfy , because the jewish lunar year began at the vernal , but this at the autumnal equinox : because five , at least , of these months had thirty days a-piece , whereas the lunar had generally thirty , and twenty nine , by turns throughout the year : because withal this brings the matter only nearer , but does not reconcile it , there still wanting a day to that purpose : for when the moon 's epact is eleven days , the hebrew affords only ten ; so that noah must both prevent the solar year one day , and the septuagint be still irreconcilable with the hebrew , though this conjecture were admitted . all which rightly consider'd , 't is , i think , evident that this hypothesis of the lunar year is not only wholly precarious , but indeed indefensible ; and were it otherwise , would not be at all advantagious in the case before us ; to which therefore somewhat else must be answer'd , and somewhat farther advanced , or the knot must remain still unsolved at least , if not insoluble . i affirm then , that the allowance of those days , which we have before endeavoured to shew were wanting in the year before the flood , will take off the difficulty , and reconcile the hebrew with the septuagint to the greatest exactness : and 't is not a little observable , that the number of days requisite to this reconciliation , are the very same that we have already , from the eccentricity of the sun , and the lunar epact conspiring together , determined to have been the difference between the antediluvian and the post-diluvian year . let us but therefore suppose the hebrew to make use of that year which was in use at that time to which the history belongs , and which noah in a journal of the deluge must be allowed to reckon by ; and the translators , after observation had forc'd men to increase the year ten days , to allow for the same , and express the duration of the deluge , or the space of noah's remaining in the ark , according to that just year then only current among them , and there is no difficulty left . now this procedure of receding from the very words or numbers of an author , in order the more easily and justly to express his meaning , and give a truer idea to the present age , of what was represented at first in a way suitable to that of any history or occurrence , but afterwards forgotten , is a very rational one ; and if applied to other authors and cases , is neither unusual nor inconvenient . thus if in an history of the ancient state of egypt , the egyptian years were made use of ; a translator who should , upon the introduction and sole use the julian year afterwards , reduce them all to that , and reckon all the months and days according to that only , he would do at once the greatest justice to the author , and deserve the thanks of the reader , for so much easier and more familiar an idea of each period , than a rigid and scrupulous keeping to the author 's own words and numbers could ever have given him . the case is the same as to weights and measures us'd by former ages , or foreign nations ; which when reduc'd to others equivalent to them in terms familiar and known , are much more useful than when word answers to word , and number to number in every thing . and if we allow but this to have been the case between moses himself who wrote the hebrew text , and the septuagint who many ages after translated it , we shall find , according to our foregoing calculations , that the year us'd by noah was but three hundred fifty five days ; and that by the septuagint , three hundred sixty five ; and so that space , which with the first author is certainly a year and ten days , from the th to the th of the second month ; and is alike evidently a just year from the th to the th of the same second month with the translators , are coincident , or the same entire solar year . whereby our hypothesis is at once confirmed , and the difficulty arising from the hebrew text it self , but chiefly as compared with the septuagint's translation , does entirely vanish and disappear : which argument join'd to the foregoing , will , i hope , be thought not inconsiderable . ( . ) the time of the passing by of the comet , or of the beginning of the flood , determin'd by the place of the perihelion , is exactly agreeable to that mention'd in the mosaick history . 't is certain , that the place of the perihelion of the earth's orbit is now in the beginning of the eighth degree of cancer : and by mr. flamsteed's astronomical table of its motion , it goes forward in years full degrees : so that by going back to the time following the deluge , the perihelion must then have been at the beginning of the th degree of taurus . it has also been before proved , that the place of the comets passing by must have been a few degrees , as five , six or seven , past the perihelion , that is , on or near the th degree of taurus : which in the ancient year , beginning at the autumnal equinox , will fall upon or near the th day of the second month : on which very day , by the express testimony of the sacred historian ( agreeing within a day or two with the corrected testimonies of abidenus and berosus ) the deluge began . which exactness of coincidence i look upon as so remarkable and surprizing , that nothing can be more so ; and i need not fear to appeal to the considering reader , if this be not the most peculiar and convincing attestation to our hypothesis , which could easily be desir'd , or in the least wish'd for : that from it not only the several phaenomena of the deluge , but the time of its commencing is so precisely determin'd also ; and that in the greatest correspondence and harmony with the sacred history of the same thing imaginable . ( . ) the very day of the comets passing by , or of the beginning of the deluge determin'd from the astronomical tables of the conjunctions of the sun and moon , is exactly coincident with that before nearly determin'd by the place of the perihelion , and exactly by the mosaick history . it has been before prov'd , that seeing the moon still accompanies the earth , it must needs have been three days past the new or full , at the passing by of the comet . it has also been before prov'd , that the flood began in the year of the julian period , or the th before the christian aera . now it appears by the astronomical tables of the conjunctions of the sun and moon , that the mean new moon happen'd at the meridian of babylon just before eleven a clock in the forenoon , on the th day of november , ( in the julian year ) and so at eleven a clock on the th of november , 't was three days after the new. which being the th day of the second month , from the autumnal equinox , is the very same pitched upon from the place of the perihelion , and expresly mention'd in the sacred history : and by so wonderfully corresponding therewith , gives the highest attestation to our hypothesis that could , for the completion and consummation of the foregoing evidence , be reasonably desir'd . ( . ) the quantity of acceleration determin'd à priori from the force of the comets attraction , does very well correspond with that which the present elliptick orbit does require . upon calculation according to the lemma quoted in the margin , the velocity acquir'd by the earth on its first change , from a circular to an elliptick orbit appears to have been about / of the intire velocity ; or such as would carry it in three hours and a half 's time miles . 't is also upon calculation evident , from what has been already observ'd , that in case the comets nearest distance were a quarter of the moons , or sixty thousand miles , and it self of much the same bigness with the earth ; ( two very probable and easie hypotheses ; ) the time of the comets attraction to be solely consider'd is three hours and a half , and the quantity of velocity therein produc'd is the requisite quantity / of the intire velocity , or so much as carries a body miles in the fore-mention'd space of three hours and a half . and in case the comets nearest distance were less , if the comet withal be supposed in the same proportion less also ; the effect will be the same , and the fore-mention'd velocity equal to what the former calculation assign'd , and the elliptick orbit of the earth does exactly require . which accuracy of correspondence , in the due quantity of velocity , added to the former arguments , cannot but be esteem'd a mighty evidence for the reality of our hypotheses : all whose consequents are so surprizingly true , and so fully bear witness to one another . corollary . from what has been said under this proposition , we may pretty nearly determine the constitution of the antediluvian year . for when it consisted of three hundred and fifty five days , four hours , and nineteen minutes , and had for at least five months together , from the second to the sixth , thirty days to a month , or one hundred and fifty to five months , as we have seen , it must in all probability have consisted of twelve months ; the first seven whereof had thirty , and the last five only twenty nine days apiece . or rather the first eleven months had thirty , and the twelfth only twenty five days . that as in the famous egyptian year , or that of nabonassar after the deluge , every month had thirty days a piece , and the supernumerary five were added by themselves , and stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so before the deluge all the months , as near as possible , had thirty days apiece also ; and the five deficient ones were taken from the last , and might be denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and possibly might give occasion to that method of the before-mention'd year in the following ages . how often the odd hours and minutes were intercalated , and came to just even days before the deluge , 't is not , for a certain reason not here to be mention'd , easie , very exactly to determine ; nor perhaps of consequence that it should be so determined . only in general every sixth year at least , one with another , must be leap-year , and have three hundred and fifty six days ; as every fourth is leap-year , and has three hundred and sixty six days now among us . coroll . every antediluvian year and season , spring , summer , autumn , and winter , began at sunset following the solar ingress into a cardinal point , and the full moon . it appears , as has been before prov'd , that the autumnal equinox preceding the deluge , happen'd on the th day of october . it also appears , by the astronomical tables of the conjunctions of the sun and moon , that 't was full moon the same day : the night succeeding which day , began the first day of autumn , and the first day of the year also . which being suppos'd , and that , as we have prov'd , the solar year was exactly coincident with twelve synodical months , or the lunar year , it must necessarily have been ever so . and not only the other particular seasons , but the year it self began at the most remarkable time possible . the astronomers had a double coincidence to observe , at the conclusion of one , and the commencing another year , viz. the autumnal equinox , and the full moon : which must for ever fix and establish the constancy of their annual space . and even the countryman had somewhat easily observable to fix his account , and characterize his year , the full moon rising when the sun set , as the same common period of the old , and introducer of the new year . so that in so regular and truly natural solar and lunar years as then obtain'd , no observations of astronomers were necessary to adjust or calculate their measures of time ; nature , or rather divine providence , having so fitted the heavenly revolutions , that nothing more than the easie observation of a full moon was necessary to determine their seasons , and their years , and to retain them at a constant setting out , with the equinoctial and solstitial points in the heavens . than which disposition , nothing of such a nature could more clearly demonstate the wise provision of the great creator ; or more usefully be subservient to mankind . coroll . . hence we easily understand the primary occasion of the confusions in astronomy and chronclogy after the flood , notwithstanding they might have been well understood before it . while the solar and lunar years were equal , and every one of them began both at the equinox , and at the full moon ; ( this latter , observable by all , fixing the former , observable but by a few , ) 't were next to impossible to suppose any difference in years , or in the accounts of time depending thereon . but upon an imperceptible change of the year at the deluge , and the consequent incommensurate duration of the solar and lunar periods , 't is natural to suppose great diversity of years , and perplexity of accounts . some might long retain their ancient year , and suffer its head to wander through all seasons : others might retain their ancient year , as far as it agreed with the twelve lunations or months afterward , and make use of a lunar-year : whose head they might either , as the former , suffer to wander through all seasons , or fix as well as they could by the intercalation of a month , as oft as they found so much deficiency from the solar year . and as the former sort , having a regular cycle , or constant method for the finding the head of their months and years , needed no other observations , so the latter must always remark the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the moon , and begin their months , or years , or both at some observable point of an entire lunation , as at the full or new moon , or so soon as any decrease or increase of its light became sensible . some might strive to find cut the number of days necessary to be added to their old year , and so to reduce the same to the true solar revolution ; and accordingly might first make every month thirty days , and the year three hundred and sixty , till that appearing too little , five more days , and at last the odd six hours were by degrees added , and the civil become almost equal to the natural year . while others were intent upon the adjustment of the solar and lunar periods , and inventing cycles for the correspondence of those several accounts , which were respectively followed by several nations . all which variety of reckoning , with its natural consequences , must cause strange confusion in the accounts of time , and create mightly difficulties in the ancient chronology ; very agreeably to what every one knows to have been really the case , who searches into such matters , to what our hypothesis lays a rational occasion and foundation for , and to what , without such a supposed change at the deluge , is by no means accountable . coroll . . when the number three hundred and sixty is not only a middle proportional between the days in an antediluvian and post diluvian year , and nearly between the present solar and lunar year , is not only the number of degrees in the ecliptick , and in every circle or orbit ; but was the just number of days in a year among so many nations , for so many ages . the reason of that prophetick stile , in which a day , or year thereby meant , does plainly signify three hundred and sixty days , and no more , is clear and evident . what difficulties the want of this observation , that daniel's prophetick year consisted of three hundred and sixty days , has left unsolv'd , and what light may be afforded to some places of the highest importance thereby , i had rather the reader should be left to his own observations , and that work so impatiently expected , of which i made mention before , than prepossess him with any more particular instances thereof in this place . coroll . . when the very day of the beginning of the deluge , nearly determin'd by the place of the perihelion , and exactly by the astronomical tables of the conjunctions of the sun and moon , is the very same individual day with that mention'd by the sacred writer ; hence arises a very surprizing and unexpected confirmation of the verity of the scripture history . here is a great and signal instance of the wonderful providence of god indeed , and of his care for the credit and establishment of the holy books ; that he has left us means sufficient , after above four thousand years , of examining and ascertaining the veracity of the most ancient of its writers , and in one of the most scrupled and exceptionable points of his narration , that of the universal deluge ; and that from unexceptionable principles , the astronomical tables of the coelestial motions . to how great a degree this thing will deserve the most serious consideration of every one , especially in this our sceptical age , i need not determine . the importance of the concern , and the greatness of the evidence hence afforded , sufficiently enforcing this point , without any farther application . coroll . . the years added in the samaritan pentateuch and septuagint to the accounts of time , from the hebrew verity , since the deluge , are added without reason , and are contrary to the truth , and to the sacred writings together . for whereas , by the hebrew verity , and the astronomical tables of the place of the perihelion , and of the conjunctions of the sun and moon ; ( not to mention the testimonies of abidenus and berosus here ) the deluge's biginning is fix'd to the seventeenth day of the second month from the autumnal equinox , or to the th of november in the year of the julian period , and the th before the christian aera ; ( by reason of the just number of years since past and elapsed ; ) in case those eight hundred or nine hundred years which the samaritan and septuagint have added , are to be allowed for , all is put thereby into confusion . the situation of the moon necessary to this matter is lost , and no reasonable account to be given of her still accompanying the earth . the place of the perihelion , and day of the beginning of the deluge thence nearly determin'd , must have been about twelve degrees , and as many days socner ; and the day which noah entred into the ark must have been not the twenty seventh of the second month , as even the septuagint by their way of reckoning were oblig'd to express it ; nor the seventeenth day of the same month , as the hebrew verity and samaritan pentateuch do rightly determine it ; but rather the fifth of the same month , contrary to the faith and agreement of all copies and translations in the world. so that upon the whole , the intire force of this reasoning , and the conjoint influence of the several ways by which this hypothesis fixes the day of the deluge so nicely , conspires to confirm and give undoubted attestation to the hebrew verity ; and consequently to destroy the authority of the samaritan and septuagint , so far as they contradict the same , in the matters herein concern'd . coroll . . hence the chronology of the bible is establish'd , and all the pretended immense numbers of years , which the annals of some nations recount , are confuted . for as the year of the deluge , from the hebrew chronology given , the day of the beginning of the deluge therein assign'd is fully attested to , and determin'd on our hypothesis , from astronomy ; so , vice versâ , the day of the beginning of the deluge from the same sacred history given , ( and within a day or two confirm'd from abydenus and berosus corrected ) the number of years thereby assign'd , is at the same time establish'd also . the methods before-mention'd of fixing that day , not permitting the addition or subtraction of a few hundreds , much less many thousands of years , to or from those four thousand and forty four , which the holy scriptures require us to account since that time : which therefore ought to be fully acquiesced in ; and all other wild and extravagant numbers be utterly rejected . coroll . . hence , upon supposition that the comet was of any given magnitude , the height of the tide , or elevation of the abyss , with its incumbent orb , may be reduc'd to calculation , and its quantity consider'd and compar'd with the phaenomena depending on it . thus for instance , if the comet were half as big as the earth , which will hereafter appear not far from truth , and consequently approach'd eight times as near as the moon , or thirty thousand miles off us ; at its nearest distance , the elevation of the abyss , or the height of the tide above its former position must have been near eight miles . for the moon elevates the ocean about six feet above its moderate state ; a comet at the same distance , ( half as big as the earth , which is ) thirteen times as big as the moon , would elevate the same thirteen times as high , or seventy eight feet ; and at an eighth part of its distance five hundred and twelve times as high as the last , or thirty nine thousand nine hundred and thirty six feet , which is very near the before-mentioned height of eight miles . which elevation of the abyss seems very agreeable to the phaenomena afterwards to be observ'd , and so within a due latitude establishes the foregoing hypotheses of the nearness of the comets approach , and the consequent bigness of the comet it self before-mention'd . scholium . having thus establish'd this main proposition , 't will here be proper to describe as near as the phaenomena of comets , and of the deluge , afford us any guidance , the particular trajectory of the comet , or that part of it which could be concern'd with us , and our lower planetary regions , which accordingly , in a mean between such as approach exceeding near to , and such as remain at somewhat remoter distances from the sun in their perihelia , and agreeably to that historical trajectory of the last famous comet delineated by mr. newton , i shall here attempt . for tho' 't were folly to think of delineating the very same in which the comet revolv'd , yet we may easily come pretty near it ; we may give the reader a clear and distinct idea of the whole matter , and enable him to judge of any particular consequences occasionally to be drawn therefrom . now verbal descriptions in such cases being of small advantage , compar'd to schemes and graphical delineations , i shall wave more words about it , and exhibit an intire figure of the whole to the view and consideration of the reader . from the careful observation whereof the following inferences may be easily drawn . corollary . the earth would twice pass quite through the tail of the comet ; the first time at the beginning of the deluge , and the second about fifty three or fifty four days after : their several motions , then bringing them to the situation describ'd in the figure . coroll . . at the second passing by of the comet , before its cutting the ecliptick in its ascent from the sun , about sixty two days after the former passage , the moon , which at the first was three days past the new , at this last time must have been within a day or two of its quadrature , past the like conjunction . coroll . . if at the first passing by of the comet , the moon was a small matter nearer the comet than the earth had been just before ; she would be accelerated somewhat more than the earth , and by her position at the second passage she would be a little more retarded than the earth ; and upon the whole might afterward retain an equal velocity with it , as 't is certain she still does . coroll . . that former superabundant velocity would in the intermediate space cast the moon farther off the sun , and thereby make it approach nearer the earth at the conjunction or new ; and recede farther from it at the opposition or full than it did before . which things being so , it may deserve consideration , whether the present eccentricity of the moon 's orbit about the earth , might not , without any change in its periodical revolution , be hence deriv'd ? and so , whether the menstrual course were not as truly circular before the deluge , as we have already shew'd the annual to have been ? especially , when the situation of the moon 's apogaeon was , from the present astronomical tables , somewhat near that place which according to such an hypothesis , and such a trajectory of the comet , it ought to have been , i mean the latter degrees of cancer , or the former of leo. coroll . . 't was almost the new moon when the comet 's tail involv'd the earth and the moon the second time ; as the position of the earth in the figure , with the consideration of the place of the moon then , will easily shew . book iii. phaenomena . chap. . phaenomena relating to the mosaick creation , and the original constitution of the earth . i. all those particular small bodies of which our habitable earth is now compos'd , were originally in a mixed , confused , fluid , and uncertain condition ; without any order or regularity . it was an earth without form , and void ; had darkness spread over the face of its abyss ; and in reality was , what it has been ever stil'd , a perfect chaos . the testimonies for this are so numerous , and the consent of all authors , sacred and prophane , so unanimous , that i need only refer the reader to them for the undoubted attestation of it . ii. the formation of this earth , or the change of that chaos into an habitable world , was not a meer result from any necessary laws of mechanism independently on the divine power ; but was the proper effect of the influence and interposition , and all along under the peculiar care and providence of god. the testimonies for this are so numerous , and so express , both in the mosaick history it self , in the other parts of scripture relating thereto , and in all antiquity , that i may refer the reader to almost every place where this matter is spoken of , without quoting here any particulars . he who is at all acquainted with the primitive histories of this rising world , whether sacred or prophane , can have no reason to make any doubt of it . iii. the days of the creation , and that of rest , had their beginning in the evening . the evening and the morning were the first day . and so of the rest afterward . iv. at the time immediately preceding the six days creation , the face of the abyss , or superior regions of the chaos , were involv'd in a thick darkness . darkness was upon the face of the deep . to which testimony the prophane traditions do fully agree ; as may be seen in the authors before refer'd to . v. the visible part of the first days work , was the production of light , or its successive appearance to all the parts of the earth ; with the consequent distinction of darkness and light , night and day upon the face of it . god said , let there be light ; and there was light : and god saw the light that it was good , and god divided the light from the darkness : and god called the light , day , and the darkness he called night : and the evening and the morning was the first day . vi. the visible part of the second days work was the elevation of the air , with all it s contained vapours ; the spreading it for an expansum above the earth ; and the distinction thence arising of superior and inferior waters : the former consisting of those vapours , rais'd and sustain'd by the air ; the latter of such as either were enclosed in the pores , interstices and bowels of the earth , or lay upon the surface thereof . god said , let there be a firmament , or expansum , in the midst of the waters , and let it divide the waters from the waters . and god made the firmament , and divided the waters which were under the firmament , from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was so ; and god called the firmament heaven . and the evening and the morning were the second day . vii . the visible parts of the third day 's works were two , the former the collection of the inferior waters , or such as were now under the heaven into the seas , with the consequent appearance of the dry land ; the latter the production of vegetables out of that ground so lately become dry . god said , let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place , and let the dry land appear ; and it was so . and god called the dry land earth ; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas : and god saw that it was good . and god said , let the earth bring forth grass , the herb yielding seed , and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind , whose seed is in it self upon the earth ; and it was so . and the earth brought forth grass , and herb yielding seed after his kind , and the tree yielding fruit , whose seed was in it self after his kind ; and god saw that it was good . and the evening and the morning were the third day . viii . the fourth day 's work was the placing the heavenly bodies , sun , moon and stars , in the expansum or firmament , i. e. the rendring them visible and conspicuous on the face of the earth : together with their several assignations to their respective offices there . god said , let there be lights in the expansum , or , firmament of heaven , to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs and for seasons , and for days and years ; and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven , to give light upon the earth ; and it was so . and god made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day , and the lesser light to rule the night ; he made the stars also . and god set them in the firmament of the heaven , to give light upon the earth ; and to rule over the day , and over the night , and to divide the light from the darkness ; and god saw that it was good . and the evening and the morning were the fourth day . ix . the fifth day 's work was the production of the fish and fowl out of the waters ; with the benediction bestow'd on them in order to their propagation . god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life , and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven . and god created great whales , and every living creature that moveth , which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind ; and every winged fowl after his kind ; and god saw that it was good . and god blessed them , saying , be fruitful and multiply , and fill the waters in the seas ; and let fowl multiply in the earth . and the evening and the morning were the fifth day . x. the sixth day 's work was the production of all the terrestrial or dry-land animals ; and that in a different manner . for the bruit beasts were produc'd out of the earth , as the fish and fowl had been before out of the waters : but after that the body of adam was form'd of the dust of the ground ; who by the breath of life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner , became a living soul. some time after which , on the same day , he was cast into a deep sleep , and eve was form'd of a rib taken from his side . together with several other things , of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion . god said , let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind , cattel and creeping thing , and beast of the earth after his kind ; and it was so . and god made the beast of the earth after his kind , and cattel after their kind , and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind ; and god saw that it was good . and god said , let us make man in our image , after our likeness , and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over the cattel , and over all the earth , and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth . so god created man in his own image , in the image of god created he him ; male and female created he them , &c. vid. ver . , , , . and cap. . , , &c. xi . god having thus finish'd the works of creation , rested on the seventh day from the same ; and sanctified or set that day apart for a sabbath , or day of rest , to be then and afterward observ'd as a memorial of his creation of the world in the six foregoing , and his resting or keeping a sabbath on this seventh day . which sabbath was reviv'd , or at least its observation anew enforc'd on the jews , by the fourth commandment . thus the heavens and the earth were finished , and all the host of them , and on the seventh day god had ended his work which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made . and god blessed the seventh day , and sanctifyed it , because that in it he had rested from all his work which god created and made . remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day . six days shalt thou labour , and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god ; in it thou shalt do no manner of work , thou , nor thy son , nor thy daughter , nor thy man-servant , nor thy maid-servant , nor thy cattel , nor the stranger which is within thy gates : for in six days the lord made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that in them is , and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the lord blessed the seventh day , and hallowed it . xii . there is a constant and vigorous heat diffused from the central towards the superficiary parts of our earth . tho' i might bring several arguments from ancient tradition , the opinion of great philosophers , and the present observations of nature for this assertion ; yet i shall chuse here , for brevities sake , to depend wholly on the last evidence , and refer the inquisitive reader to what the learned dr. woodward says in the present case ; which i take to be very satisfactory . xiii . the habitable earth is founded or situate on the surface of the waters ; or of a deep and vast subterraneous fluid . this constitution of the earth is a natural result from such a chaos , as we have already assign'd ; affords foundation for an easie account of the origin of mountains ; renders the histories of the several states of the earth , and of the universal deluge very intelligible ; is as philosophical , and as agreeable to the common phaenomena of nature as any other ; without this supposition 't will be , i believe , impossible to explain what antiquity , sacred and prophane , assures us of relating to the earth , and its great catastrophes ; but this being allow'd , 't will not be difficult to account for the same to the greatest degree of satisfaction , as will appear in the progress of the present theory : and lastly , the same assertion is most exactly consonant to , and confirm'd by the holy scriptures ; as the following texts will fairly evince . when the lord prepared the heavens i was there : when he set a compass ( circle or orb ) on the face of the deep : when he established the clouds above , when he strengthened the fountains of the deep : when he gave to the sea his decree , that the waters should not pass his commandment ; when be appointed the foundations of the earth . he hath founded the earth upon the seas , and establish'd it upon the floods . to him that stretched out the earth above the waters ; for his mercy endureth for ever . this they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of god the heavens were of old , and the earth , standing out of the water , and in the water ; whereby the world that then was , being overflowed with waters , perished . the fountains of the great deep were broken up . the fountains of the deep were stopped . xiv . the interior or intire constitution of the earth is correspondent to that of an egg. 't is very well known that an egg was the solemn and remarkable symbol or representation of the world among the most venerable antiquity ; and that nothing was more celebrated than the original , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most early anthors ; which if extended beyond the earth to the system of the heavens , is groundless and idle ; if referr'd to the figure of the earth , is directly false , and so is most reasonably to be understood of the intire and internal constitution thereof . xv. the primi ive earth had seas and dry-land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present ; and those situate in the same places generally as they still are . this is put past doubt by part of the third , the intire fifth , and part of the sixth day 's works . one half of the third being spent in distinguishing the seas from the dry-land ; the intire fifth in the production of fish and fowl out of the waters , and in the assigning the air to the latter sort , and the seas to the former for their respective elements ; and on the sixth , god bestows on mankind the dominion of the inhabitants , as well of the seas as of the dry-land . all which can leave no doubt of the truth of the former part of this assertion . and that their disposition was originally much what as it is at present , appears both by the rivers , tigris and euphrates , running then into the same persian sea that now they do : and by the observations of dr. woodward fully confirming the same . xvi . the primitive earth had springs , fountains , streams , and rivers , in the same manner as the present , and usually in or near the same places also . this is but a proper consequence of the distinction of the earth into seas and dry-land ; the latter being uninhabitable without them ; and such vapours as are any way condensed into water on the higher parts of the dry-land , naturally descending and hollowing themselves channels , till they fall into the seas . however , the other direct proofs for both parts of the assertion are sufficiently evident . i was set up from everlasting , from the beginning , or ever the earth was . when there were no depths , i was brought forth ; when there were no fountains abounding with water . a river went out of eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted , and became into four heads , pison , gihon , tigris , and euphrates : the two latter of which are well-known rivers to this very day . and the same thing is confirm'd by dr. woodward's observations . xvii . the primitive earth was distinguish'd into mountains , plains , and vallies , in the same manner , generally speaking , and in the same places as the present . this is a natural consequent of the two former : the caverns of the seas , with the extant parts of the dry-land , being in effect great vallies and mountains ; and the origin and course of rivers necessarily supposing the same . ( for tho' the earth , in the theorist's way , were oval , which it is not , 't is demonstrable there could be no such descent as the course of rivers requires . ) however the direct proofs are evident . the lord possessed me in the beginning of his way , before his works of old . i was set up from everlasting , from the beginning , or ever the earth was . before the mountains were setled : before the hills was i brought forth : while as yet he had not made the earth , nor the fields , nor the highest part of the dust of the world . art thou the first man that was born ? or wast thou made before the hills ? lord , thou hast been our dwelling place from one generation to another . before the mountains were brought forth , or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world , even from everlasting to everlasting , thou art god. and indeed these three last phaenomena are in their own natures so linked together , they so depend on , and infer one another mutually , that the proofs of each of them singly may justly be esteemed under the same character to both the other ; and all of them are thereby establish'd past all rational contradiction . of which whole matter , dr. woodward's observations are a sufficient attestation also . xviii . the waters of the seas in the primitive earth were salt , and those of the rivers fresh , as they are at present , and each , as now , were then stor'd with great plenty of fish. this appears from the difference of the species and natures of fishes , some being produc'd and nourish'd by salt water , others by fresh ; and yet all created on the fifth day . and this in all its parts is confirm'd by dr. woodward's observations . xix . the seas were agitated with a like tide , or flux and reflux , as they are at present . there is in it self no reason to doubt of this ; and 't is moreover attested by dr. woodward's observations . xx. the productions of the primitive earth , as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the deluge , differ'd little or nothing from those of the present , either in figure , magnitude , texture of parts , or any other correspondent respect . this is prov'd by dr. woodward's observations . xxi . the primitive earth had such metals and minerals in it , as the present has . in the land of havilah there was gold ; and the gold of that land was good , there was bdellium and the onyx-stone . tubal-cain , was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron . which is withal attested by dr. woodward's observation . xxii . arts and sciences were invented and improv'd in the first ages of the world , as well as they since have been . abel was a keeper of sheep , but cain was a tiller of the ground . cain builded a city , and called it after the name of his son enoch . jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents , and of such as have cattel . jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ . tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron . see also the right reverend bishop patrick , on gen. iv . , , , . and v. . chap. ii. phaenomena relating to the primitive state of the earth . xxiii . the primitive state of the earth admitted of the primary production of animals out of the waters and dry ground , which the subsequent states , otherwise than in the ordinary method of generation have been incapable of . this appears from the history of the creation , compar'd with that of nature ever since . by the former of which , ( agreeing with the oldest traditions ) 't is evident , that the fishes and fowls were the immediate productions or off-spring of the waters , and the terrestrial animals of the dry-land in the primitive state of the earth : and by the latter 't is equally so , that neither of those elements have assorded the like ever since . xxiv . the constitution of man in his primitive state was very different from that ever since the fall , not only as to the temper and perfections of his soul , but as to the nature and disposition of his body also . this the whole drift and series of the sacred history of this primitive state supposes ; in which these two particulars may here be taken notice of : ( . ) nakedness was no shame , and so no sense of any need to cover it does appear . those inclinations which provide for the propagation of mankind were , it seems , so regular , and so intirely under the command of reason , that not so much as an apron was esteem'd necessary to hide those parts , which all the world have since thought proper to do . ( . ) the temper of the humane body was more soft , pliable , and alterable than now it is : some sorts of fruits and food were capable of causing a mighty change therein , either to fix and adapt it to its present condition , or discompose and disorder it ; i. e. in other words , either to render it permanent and immortal on the one hand ; or to devolve upon it diseases , corruption , and mortality on the other . what concerns the soul , or its moral perfections , is without the compass of this theory , and not here to be consider'd . xxv . the female was then very different from what she is now ; particularly she was in a state of greater equality with the male , and little more subject to sorrow in the propagation of posterity than he . ( . ) her names were as much as possible the very same with his . the husband was call'd adam , the wife adamah ; the husband issch , the wife isschah . god called their name adam in the day that they were created . she shall be called isschah , because she was taken out of issch. ( . ) we find little to infer any inequality or subjection till after the fall. adam said , this is now bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh : therefore shall a man leave his father , and his mother , and shall cleave unto his wife , and they shall be one flesh . unto the woman god said , ( after the fall ) thy desire shall be ( subject to ) thine husband , and he shall rule over thee . ( . ) her pains in conception and childbirth were inconsiderable in comparison of what they since have been . unto the woman god said , ( after the fall ) i will greatly multiply thy sorrow , and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children . xxvi . the other terrestrial animals were in a state of greater capacities and operations ; nearer approaching to reason and discourse , and partakers of higher degrees of perfection and happiness , than they have been ever since . this appears , ( . ) from the necessity or occasion of a particular view and distinct consideration of each species of animals before adam was satisfied that none of them were a help meet for him , or suitable to his faculties and condition . ( . ) from the serpent's discourse with the woman : in which , tho' the old serpent , the devil , was also concern'd , yet the particular subtilty of the serpent is taken notice of as a means of her deception , and a curse denounced and inflicted on the same beast upon account thereof . now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field , which the lord god had made , &c. i fear lest by any means , as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtilty . the lord god said unto the serpent , because thou hast done this , thou art cursed above all cattel , and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go , and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life . ( . ) from st. paul's discourse in the eighth chapter to the romans , for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of god. for the creature was made subject to vanity , not willingly , but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope : because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption , into the glorious liberty of the children of god. for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together , until now . xxvii . the temper of the air , where our first parents liv'd , was warmer , and the heat greater before the fall than since . this appears , ( . ) from the heat requisite to the production of animals , which must have been greater than we are since sensible of . of which the hot wombs in which the foetus in viviparous animals do lye , and the warm brooding of the oviparous , with the hatching of eggs in ovens , are good evidence . ( . ) from the nakedness of our first parents . ( . ) from that peculiarly warm cloathing they immediately stood in need of afterwards , the skins of animals . unto adam also , ( after the fall ) and to his wife , did the lord god make coats of skins , and cloathed them . xxviii . those regions of the earth where our first parents were plac'd , were productive of better and more useful vegetables , with less labour and tillage than since they have been . the lord god took the man , and put him into the garden of eden to dress it , and to keep it ; ( before the fall ) . the lord god said unto adam , ( after the fall ) cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life . thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee , and thou shalt eat the herb of the field . in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread , till thou return unto the ground , for out of it wast thou made . xxix . the primitive earth was not equally paradisiacal all over . the garden of eden or paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil , and particularly furnish'd with the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life , above the other regions of the earth . the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden , and there he put the man whom he had formed : and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight , and good for food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden , and the tree of knowledge of good and evil . the lord god sent the man forth from the garden of eden to till the ground from whence he was taken : so he drove out the man. xxx . the place of paradise was where the united rivers tigris and euphrates divided themselves into four streams , pison , gibon , tigris and euphrates . of this see the fourth hypothesis before laid down . xxxi . the earth in its primitive state had only an annual motion about the sun : but since it has a diurnal rotation upon its own axis also : whereby a vast difference arises in the several states of the world. of this with all its consequents see the third hypothesis before laid down . xxxii . upon the first commencing of this diurnal rotation after the fall , its axis was oblique to the plain of the ecliptick as it still is : or in other words , the present vicissitudes of seasons , spring , summer , autumn and winter , arising from the sun's access to , and recess from the tropicks , have been ever since the fall of man. god said , on the fourth day , let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven , to divide the day from the night ; which was their proper office till the fall. and let them be , ever after , for signs , and for seasons , and for days , and years . after the flood , while the earth remaineth , seed-time and harvest , and cold and heat , and summer and winter , and day and night shall not cease . implying , that tho' the seasons , as well as night and day , had been , during the deluge , scarcely distinguishable from one another ; yet the former as well as the latter distinction had been in nature before : and surely the spring , summer , autumn and winter , with their varieties of cold and heat , seed-time and harvest , were no more originally begun after the deluge , than the succession of day and night mention'd here together with them is by any suppos'd to have been . but of this we have at large discours'd under the third hypothesis foregoing already ; to which the reader is farther referr'd for satisfaction . chap. iii. phaenomena relating to the antediluvian state of the earth . xxxiii . the inhabitants of the earth were before the flood vastly more numerous than the present earth either actually does , or perhaps is capable to contain and supply . in order to the proof of this assertion , i observe , ( . ) that the posterity of every one of the antediluvians , is to be suppos'd so much more numerous than of any since , as their lives were longer : this is but agreeable to the sacred history , in which we find two at sixty five , and one at seventy years of age to have begotten children : while the three sons of noah were not begotten till after their father's five hundredth year : when yet at the same time the several children of the same father appear to have succeeded as quickly one after another as they usually do at this day . for as to cain and abel , they appear to have been pretty near of an age , the world being at the death of the latter , not without considerable numbers of people , tho' their father adam was not then an hundred and thirty years old ; and so in probability contain'd many of the posterity of both of them . ( which by the way fully establishes the early begetting of children just now observ'd in the antediluvian patriarchs , and if rightly consider'd , overturns a main argument for the septuagint's addition of so many centenaries in the generations before and after the deluge . ) and as to the three sons of noah , born after the five hundredth year of their father's life , 't is evident that two of them at the least , japhet and sem , were born within two years one after another . all which makes it highly reasonable to suppose , that in the same proportion that the lives of the antediluvians were longer , was their posterity more numerous than that of the postdiluvians . ( . ) the lives of the antediluvians being pretty evenly prolong'd , without that mighty inequality in the periods of humane life , which we now experience , the proportion between the lives of the antediluvians and those of the postdiluvians , is to be taken as about nine hundred the middle period of their lives ; to twenty two , the middle period of ours : which is full forty to one . and accordingly in any long space , the antediluvians must have forty times as numerous a posterity , as we usually allow with us for the same space , on account thereof . ( . ) on account of the coexistence of so many of such generations as are but successive with us , we must allow the antediluvian number of present inhabitants to have been in half an arithmetical proportion of such their longer lives after the duration of the first fathers is expir'd , and a gradual decrease of the ancient stock going off , as well as a gradual increase of the new stock coming on , to be allow'd for : till which time the proportion is not to be diminish'd . so that on this account for the first nine hundred years of the world the number of inhabitants on the face of the earth , must be esteem'd forty times as great as in so long time are now derivable from a single couple ; and afterwards twenty times so ; which postulata suppos'd , i shall propose a calculation ( built upon certain matter of fact ) first how many they might have been by the deluge ; and afterward another or two , relying alike on matter of fact , how many 't is probable they really were , and must have been at the same time . ( . ) 't is evident from the sacred history , and not to be denied by those who forsake the hebrew chronology themselves , or who would lessen the numbers of the antediluvians ; that in the space of about two hundred sixty six years , the posterity of jacob alone , by his sons , ( without the consideration of dinah his daughter ) amounted to six hundred thousand males , above the age of twenty , all able to go forth to war. now by mr. graunts observations on the bills of mortality it appears that about / are between the ages of sixteen and fifty six : which may be near the proportion of the males numbred , to the intire number of them all . so that as thirty four to an hundred , by the golden rule , must six hundred thousand be to the intire number of the males of israel at that time : which was therefore one million seven hundred sixty four thousand and seven hundred . to which add females , near / fewer , as suppose , to make the sum even , one million six hundred thirty five thousand , three hundred , the total is , three millions , and three hundred thousand ; add forty three thousand for the levites , ( not included in the former accounts , ) the intire sum will at last amount to three millions , and three hundred forty three thousand souls . now if we suppose the increase of the children of israel to have been gradual , and equal through the whole two hundred sixty six years , it will appear that they doubled themselves every fourteen years at least ; which proportion , if we should continue it through the entire hundred and fourteen periods , ( which the space from the creation to the deluge admits ) the product or number of people on the face of the earth at the deluge would be the hundredth and fourteenth place in a geometrick double proportion , or series of numbers , two , four , eight , sixteen , &c. where every succeeding one were double to that before it : which to how immense a sum it would arise , those who know any thing of the nature of geometrick progressions will easily pronounce , and may be soon tried by any ordinary arithmetician . so that without allowing for the longaevity , and that coexistence , and more numerous off-spring thereon depending , without taking as advantagious an hypothesis as one might precariously , tho' possibly , do in such a case ; if the antediluvians had only multiplied as fast before , as 't is certain the israelites did since the flood for the assigned term ; the numbers of mankind actually alive and coexisting at the deluge , must have been , not only more than the earth now does or possibly could maintain , but prodigiously more than the whole number of mankind can be justly suppos'd ever since the deluge , nay indeed , with any degree of likelihood , ever since the creation of the world. on which account this calculation must not be at all esteem'd a real one , or to exhibit in any measure the just number of the posterity of adam alive at the universal deluge . but it serves to shew how vastly numerous , according to the regular method of humane propagation , the off-spring of a single person may certainly be ; and this on a calculation from undoubted matter of fact , not from a meer possible hypothesis , ( according to which numbers prodigiously greater would still arise . ) it demonstrates the probability , if not certainty , of mankind's original from a common head as well before as since the deluge , and that within a few millenaries of years . it , lastly , is more than sufficient to demonstrate the proposition we are upon , that the whole earth must have been peopled long before the flood , and at its approach have contain'd vastly more in number than the present does or can do . so that altho' i do not pretend to give a particular guess at the number of the antediluvians thereby , yet i thought it not improper to be here inserted . which first computation being thus dispatch'd i come to the ( . ) which i take to be very probable , and very rational ; and perhaps , within certain limits , to be admitted in the present case : namely , that the primary increase of mankind after the creation , ( that the world might not be destitute of inhabitants for many ages ) was not , at least considering their greater longaevity , less than that of the israelites in egypt before-mention'd : but that afterwards , ( which was the case of the israelites also ) a much less proportion obtain'd . upon which fair and modest postulata i shall demonstrate the truth of that proposition we are now upon . in order to which i observe , from mr. graunt , that at this day the number of people does so increase , that in two hundred and eighty years , the country doubles its people , and the city of london much sooner . let us therefore suppose that after the first two hundred and sixty six years of the world , the former of those proportions were observed ( and that must by all be own'd sufficiently fair : ) and compute how many the number of people must on such a calculation arise to before the deluge . when therefore after the first two hundred and sixty six years , there was near five periods , each of two hundred and eighty years , ( if the longaevity of the antediluvians , and the consequent coexistence and more numerous posterity were excluded ) the number of the inhabitants by the deluge would amount to about thirty times the former sum of three millions three hundred forty three thousand , or one hundred millions two hundred and ninety thousand of souls . but if we withal allow , as we ought , that this number is on account of coexistence to be twenty times as great ; and on account of more numerous posterity forty times so ( which is on both accounts eight hundred times as great as the last mention'd ) ; the number of people at the deluge will amount to eighty thousand two hundred and thirty two millions ; which number , since the present inhabitants of the earth , as some conjecture , scarcely exceed three hundred and fifty millions , is above two hundred and twenty nine times as great as the earth now actually contains upon it , and by consequence many more than at present it could contain and supply . and this hypothesis and calculation are confirm'd by what i shall propose in the ( . ) place , and which must by all be allow'd very fair and reasonable , namely , that tho' mankind , caeteris paribus , increas'd but in the same proportion before , as they have done since the deluge ; we shall find , upon a due allowance for the two things before-mention'd , coexistence and more numerous posterity , that the number last assign'd is rather too small than too great , and the numbers of the inhabitants of the earth were more than the present earth does or can maintain , many years before the approach of the deluge . for if the number of years before had been the same as that since the flood , the inhabitants , tho' they had been no longer livers than we now are , would have been as numerous as the present . but because the number of years before the deluge wanted about two thousand four hundred of that since ; we must allow or abate the increase , which has arisen in the last two thousand and four hundred years : which , since in these latter ages it has been double in two hundred and eighty years , and so in two thousand and four hundred years about three hundred times as great as before ; the antediluvians , if their lives had been no longer than ours since , must have been but the three hundredth part so many as the earth now contains upon it . but when on the two foremention'd accounts , the number is to be eight hundred times as great , and on this only three hundred times as small ; the excess is on the side of the antediluvians , and their number five hundred times as great as that of the present inhabitants of the earth . so that on this last hypothesis , which i suppose none can justly except against , tho' the present earth be allow'd capable of maintaining five times as many people as are now by computation upon it ; yet will it appear that the antediluvian earth maintain'd an hundred times as many . which i imagin not to be wide from probability ; and , being so near the calculation before , may be allow'd as reasonable in the present case . xxxiv . the bruit animals whether belonging to the water or land , were proportionably at least , more in number before the flood than they are since . this is i think generally look'd upon as no other than a reasonable deduction from the last proposition ; and is very fully attested by dr. woodward's observations , as far as the remains of those ages afford any means of knowing the same : and so ought in reason to be universally allow'd . xxxv . the antediluvian earth was much more fruitful than the present ; and the multitude of its vegetable productions much greater . this is both necessary to be allow'd by reason of the multitude of its inhabitants , rational and irrational , maintained by them ; of which before : and abundantly confirm'd also by dr. woodward's observations . xxxvi . the temperature of the antediluvian air was more equable as to its different climates , and its different seasons ; without such excessive , and sudden heat and cold ; without the scorching of a torrid zone , and of burning summers ; or the freezing of the frigid zones , and of piercing winters ; and without such sudden and violent changes in the climates or seasons from one extreme to another , as the present air , to our sorrow , is subject to . these characters are extremely agreeable to , and attested by , the ancient accounts of the golden age. the gentleness of the torrid and frigid zones is necessary to be suppos'd in order to the easie peopling of the world , with the dispertion and maintenance of those numerous inhabitants we before prov'd it to have contain'd : which if they were as now they are , would be very difficultly accountable . the gentleness of summer and winter , with the easie and gradual coming on , and going off of the same seasons , are but necessary in order to the very long lives of the antediluvians ; which else 't were not so easie to account for . and indeed the most of those testimonies which have been suppos'd favourable to a perpetual equinox before the deluge , are resolv'd into this proposition ; and if it can be separately establish'd , need not be extended any farther . xxxvii . the constitution of the antediluvian air was thin , pure , subtile and homogeneous , without such gross steams , exhalations , nitrosulphureous , or other heterogeneous mixtures , as occasion coruscations , meteors , thunder , lightening , contagions , and pestilential infections , in our present air ; and have so very pernicious and fatal ( tho' almost insensible ) effects in the world since the deluge . this is the natural consequent , or rather original , of the before-mention'd equability and uniformity of the antediluvian air : this must be suppos'd on the account of the longaevity of the inhabitants : and this is very agreeable to the last cited descriptions of the golden age. the contrary heterogeneous and gross atmosphere , which now encompasses the earth , is disagreeable to a regular state , ( which an original formation from the chaos supposes ) as containing such dense and bulky exhalations , and masses , which at first must have obtain'd a lower situation , and were not to be sustain'd by the primitive thin and subtile air or aether . such mixtures as this proposition takes notice of , or those effects of them therein mention'd , have no footsteps in sacred or prophane antiquity , relating to the first ages of the world ; there is no appearance of them in the serene and pellucid air of the moon , or of the generality of the heavenly bodies , and so there can be no manner of reason to ascribe them to the antediluvian state . xxxviii . the antediluvian air had no large , gross masses of vapours , or clouds , hanging for long seasons in the same . it had no great round drops of rain , descending in multitudes together , which we call showers : but the ground was watered by gentle mists or vapours ascending in the day , and descending , in great measure , again in the succeeding night . this assertion is but a proper consequent of such a pure , thin , rare aether as originally encompass'd the earth . 't is very agreeable to the descriptions of the golden age , and to the present phaenomena of most of the planets ( especially of the moon , whose face , tho' so near us , is never obscur'd or clouded from us . ) 't is necessary to be suppos'd in an air without a rainbow , as the antediluvian was ; ( of which presently ) and is indeed no other than the words of the sacred history inform us of . the lord god had not caused it to rain upon the earth , — but there went up a mist from the earth , and watered the whole face of the ground . xxxix . the antediluvian air was free from violent winds , storms , and agitations , with all their effects on the earth or seas , which we cannot now but be sufficiently sensible of . this the foregoing phaenomena enforce : so homogeneous , pure , and unmix'd a fluid , as that air has been describ'd to have been , by no means seeming capable of exciting in it self , or undergoing any such disorderly commotions or fermentations . where no vapours were collected into clouds , there must have been no winds to collect them ; where the climates preserv'd their own proper temperature , no storms must have hurried the air from colder to hotter , or from hotter to colder regions ; where was no rainbow , there must have been no driving together the separate vapours into larger globules , or round drops of rain , the immediate requisite thereto . this is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the air for the first five intire months of the deluge , ( as will be prov'd anon ) which is scarce supposable if storms and tempests were usual before . xl. the antediluvian air had no rainbow ; as the present so frequently has . god said , ( after the deluge ) this is the token of the covenant which i make between me and you , and every living creature that is with you , for perpetual generations . i do set my bow in the cloud ; and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth . and it shall come to pass when i bring a cloud over the earth , that the bow shall be seen in the cloud . and i will remember my covenant , which is between me and you , and every living creature of all flesh ; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh . and the bow shall be in the cloud , and i will look upon it , that i may remember the everlasting covenant between god and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth . and god said unto noah , this is the token of the covenant which i have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth . xli . the antediluvians might only eat vegetables ; but the use of flesh after the flood was freely allow'd also . god said , ( to our first parents in paradise ) behold i have given you every herb , bearing seed , which is upon the face of all the earth ; and every tree , in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed , to you it shall be for meat ; and to every beast of the earth , and to every fowl of the air , and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life ; i have given every green herb for meat : and it was so . god blessed noah and his sons , ( after the flood ) and said unto them , be fruitful and multiply , and replenish the earth . and the fear of you , and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth , and upon every fowl of the air , upon all that moveth upon the earth , and upon all the fishes of the sea ; into your hand are they delivered . every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you ; even as the green herb have i given you all things . to which when the prince of latin poets so exactly agrees , let us for once hear him in the present case . ante etiam sceptrum dictaei regis , & antè impia quàm caesis gens est epulata juvencis , aureus in terris hanc vitam saturnus agebat . xlii . the lives of the antediluvians were more universally equal , and vastly longer than ours now are : men before the flood frequently approaching near to a thousand , which almost none now do to a hundred years of age. this is both fully attested by the most ancient remainders of prophane antiquity , and will be put past doubt hereafter by a table of the ages of the antediluvians , out of the fifth chapter of genesis . semotique priùs tarda necessitas leti corripuit gradum . xliii . tho' the antediluvian earth was not destitute of lesser seas and lakes , every where disper'd on the surface thereof ; yet had it no ocean , or large receptacle of waters , separating one continent from another , and covering so large a portion of it , as the present earth has . this is evident , because ( . ) the number of the antediluvians before assign'd , must have been too numerous for the continents alone to maintain . ( . ) the ark appears to have been the first pattern and instance for navigation ( which had there been an ocean , must have been very perfect long before ) ; and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning navigation in the golden age , from the common opinion of all authors ; and from the necessity of the most minute and particular directions from god himself to the fabrick of it in the mosaick history . ( . ) that famous tradition among the ancients of the drowning a certain vast continent , call'd atlantis , bigger than africa and asia , seems to be a plain relique of the generation of the ocean at the deluge , and consequently of that antediluvian state , where the greatest part of what the ocean now possesses was dry-land , and inhabited as well as the rest of the globe . ( . ) the generation of the ocean , with the situation of the present great continents of the earth , will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the deluge , that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other conclusions , small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us . ( . ) the testimony of josephus ( if the theorist hit upon his true sense ) is agreeable , who says , at the deluge god 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the continent into sea. chap. iv. phaenomena relating to the universal deluge , and its effects upon the earth . xliv . in the seventeenth century from the creation , there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious deluge of waters upon the earth . this general assertion is not only attested by a large and special account of it in the sacred writings , but by the universal consent of the most ancient records of all nations besides , as may be seen in the authors quoted in the margin ; and is put moreover past doubt by dr. woodward's natural observations * xlv . this prodigious deluge of waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent rain , for the space of forty days , and as many nights , without intermission . yet seven days , and i will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights . the windows of heaven were opened , and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights . and the flood was forty days upon the earth . xlvi . this vast quantity of waters was not deriv'd from the earth or seas , as rains constantly now are ; but from some other superior and coelestial original . this is evident , because ( . ) the antediluvian air ( as was before prov'd ) never retain'd great quantities of vapours , or sustained any clouds capable of producing such considerable , and so lasting rains , as this most certainly was . ( . ) the quantity of waters on the antediluvian earth , where there was no ocean , ( as we saw just now ) was very small in comparison of that at present , and so could contribute very little towards the deluge . ( . ) if the quantity of waters on the face of the earth had then been as great as now , and had all been elevated into vapours , and descended on the dry-land alone , it were much too small to cause such a deluge as this was . ( . ) but because , if the waters were all rais'd into vapours , and descended in rain , they must either fall upon , or run down into the ocean , the seas , and those declivities they were in before , they could only take up and possess their old places ; and so could not contribute a jot to that standing and permanent mass of waters which cover'd the earth at the deluge . ( . ) the expression us'd by the sacred historian , that the windows , flood-gates , or cataracts of heaven were open'd at the fall , and shut at the ceasing of these waters , very naturally agrees to this superior and coelestial original . xlvii . this vast fall of waters , or forty days rain , began on the fifth day of the week , or thursday the twenty seventh day of november , being the seventeenth day of the second month from the autumnal equinox ; ( corresponding this year . to the twenty eighth day of october . ) in the six hundredth year of noah's life , in the second month , the seventeenth day of the month , the windows of heaven were opened , and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights . thus abydenus and berosus say it began on the fifteenth day of daesius , the second month from the vernal equinox ; which , if the mistake , arising 't is probable from the ignorance of the change in the beginning of the year at the exodus out of egypt , be but corrected , is within a day or two agreeable to the narration of moses , and so exceedingly confirms the same . xlviii . the other main cause of the deluge , was the breaking up the fountains of the great abyss , or the causing such chaps and fissures in the upper earth , as might permit the waters contain'd in the bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend , and so add to the quantity of those which the rains produced . all the fountains of the great deep were broken up . the sea brake forth , as if it had issued out of the womb . xlix . all these fountains of the great deep were broken up on the very first day of the deluge , or the very first day when the rains began . in the six hundredth year of noah's life , in the second month , the seventeenth day of the month , the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up , and the windows of heaven were opened . l. yet the very same day , noah , his family , and all the animals entred into the ark. in the self-same day , last mention'd , entred noah , and shem , and ham , and japheth , the sons of noah , and noah's wife , and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark : they , and every beast after his kind , and all the cattel after their kind , and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind , and every fowl after his kind , every bird of every sort . li. tho' the first and most violent rains continued without intermission but forty days , yet after some time the rains began again , and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh month , or a hundred and fifty days after the deluge began . this is very probably gather'd from the mighty increase of the waters , even after the first forty days rain were over ; and from the express fixing of the stoppage of the rains to the last day here assigned . the waters prevailed , and were increased greatly . and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth . the waters prevailed ( or were increased ) upon the earth an hundred and fifty days . and god remembred noah , and every living thing , and all the cattel that was him in the ark : and god made a wind to pass over the earth , and the waters asswaged . the fountains also of the deep , and the windows of heaven were stopped ; and the rain from heaven was restrained . lii . this second , and less remarkable rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was . this proposition is ( . ) very fair and probable in it self . ( . ) gives an account of the augmentation of the waters by their fall , when had they been only exhaled and let fall again , as our rains now are , they would have added nothing thereto . ( . ) is exactly agreeable to the expressions in moses ; who says the windows of heaven which were open'd at the beginning of the first , were not shut or stopped till the end of this second rain ; thereby plainly deriving this latter , as well as the former , from a superiour and celestial original . the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped , and the rain from heaven was restrained . liii . tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up , and the forty days rain began at the same time , yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth , or distinct augmentation of the waters ; as if it were on three several accounts , and at three several times . the flood was forty days upon the earth , and the waters increased , and bare up the ark , and it was lift up above the earth . and the waters prevailed , and were increased greatly , and the ark went upon the face of the waters . and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth , and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were cover'd . liv. the waters of the deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height ; and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth . this is evident from the intire series and course of the mosaick history , in the seventh and eighth chapters of genesis . lv. the waters of the deluge were still , calm , free from commotions , storms , winds , and tempests of all sorts , during the whole time in which the ark was afloat upon them . this is evident from the impossibility of the ark's abiding a stormy sea , considering the vast bulk , and particular figure of it . for since it was three hundred cubits long , fifty cubits broad , and thirty cubits high : which is , according to the most accurate determination of the cubits length , by the right reverend the lord bishop of peterborough , above five hundred and forty seven english feet long , above ninety one feet broad , and near fifty five feet high : and since withal it appears to have been of the figure of a chest , without such a peculiar bottom , and proportion of parts , as our great ships are contrived with : 't is evident , and will be allow'd by persons skill'd in navigation , that 't was not capable of enduring a stormy sea. it must , whenever either the ridges or hollows of vast waves were so situate , that it lay over-cross the one or the other , have had its back broken , and it self must have been shatter'd to pieces ; which having not happen'd , 't is a certain evidence of a calm sea during the whole time it was afloat . lvi . yet during the deluge there were both winds and storms of all sorts in a very violent manner . god made a wind to pass over the earth , and the waters asswaged . thou coveredst the earth with the deep , as with a garment ; the waters stood above the mountains . at thy rebuke they fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . they go up by the mountains ; they go down by the vallies unto the place which thou hast appointed for them . lvii . this deluge of waters was universal in its extent and effect ; reaching to all the parts of the earth , and destroying all the land-animals on the intire surface thereof ; those only excepted which were with noah in the ark. the following texts , especially if compar'd with the thirty third foregoing phaenomenon , and added to dr. woodward's observations attesting the same thing , will put this assertion beyond rational exception . god looked upon the earth , and behold it was corrupt ; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth and god said unto noah , the end of all flesh is come before me . behold , i , even i do bring a flood of waters upon the earth , to destory all flesh , wherein is the breath of life from under heaven : and every thing that is in the earth shall dye . every living substance that i have made , will i destroy from off the face of the earth . all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered . — and all flesh died that moved upon the earth , both of fowl , and of cattel , and of beast , and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth , and every man. all in whose nostrils was the breath of life ; all that was in the dry land died . and every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground , both man , and cattel , and the creeping thing , and the fowl of the heaven , and they were destroyed from the earth ; and noah only remain'd alive , and they that were with him in the ark. lviii . the waters at their utmost height were fifteen cubits above the highest mountains , or three miles at the least perpendicular above the common surface of the plains and seas . all the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd . fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail , and the mountains were cover'd . lix . whatever be the height of the mountain caucasus , whereon the ark rested now ; it was at that time the highest in the whole world. this is evident from what has been already observ'd , that tho' the utmost height of the waters were fifteen cubits above the highest mountains , and so many hundreds , nay , thousands above the most of them ; yet , did the ark rest on the very first day on which the waters began to diminish , more than two months before the emerging of the tops of the other mountains ; as is evident from the texts following . the waters prevailed upon the earth ( from the seventeenth day of the second , to the seventeenth day of the seventh month ) an hundred and fifty days . and god remembred noah , and all the cattel that was with him in the ark ; and god made a wind to pass over the earth , and the waters asswaged . the fountains also of the deep , and the windows of heaven were stopped , and the rain from heaven was restrained . and the waters returned from off the earth continually , and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated . and the ark rested in the seventh month , on the seventeenth day of the month , upon the mountains of ararat . and the waters decreased continually until the tenth month : in the tenth month , on the first day of the month , were the tops of the mountains seen . lx. as the fountains of the great deep were broken up at the very same time that the first rains began , so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last rains ended ; on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. the fountains also of the deep , and the windows of heaven were stopped , and the rain from heaven was restrained . lxi . the abatement and decrease of the waters of the deluge was first by a wind which dried up some . and secondly , by their descent through those fissures , chaps , and breaches , ( at which part of them had before ascended ) into the bowels of the earth , which received the rest . to which latter also the wind , by hurrying the waters up and down , and so promoting their lighting into the beforemention'd fissures , was very much subservient . god made a wind to pass over the earth , and the waters asswaged . the waters returned from off the earth continually , or going and returning . who shut up the sea with doors , when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb ? — when i brake up for it my decreed place , and set bars and doors , and said , hitherto shalt thou come , but no further ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed . thou coveredst the earth with the deep , as with a garment : the waters stood above the mountains . at thy rebuke they fled : at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . they went up by the mountains : they went down by the vallies unto the place which thow hadst appointed for them . thou hast set a bound that they may not pass , that they turn not again to cover the earth . lxii . the dry land , or habitable part of the globe , is since the deluge divided into two vast continents , almost opposite to one another , and separated by a great ocean interpos'd between them . this every map of the earth is a sufficient proof of . lxiii . one of these continents is considerably larger than the other . this is evident the same way with the former . lxiv . the larger continent lies most part on the north-side of the equator , and the smaller most part on the south . this ( if we take south-america , the most considerable and intire branch of the whole , for the continent here referr'd to , as 't is reasonable to do ) is also evident the same way with the former . lxv . the middle or center of the north-continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of northern latitude ; and that of the south about sixteen or eighteen degrees of southern latitude . this may soon be found by measuring the boundaries of the several continents on a globe or map , and observing the position of their centers . lxvi . the distance between the continents , measuring from the larger or northern south-eastward , is greater than that the contrary way , or south-westward . this is evident by the like means with the former : it being farther from china , or the east-indies to america going forward south-east , than from europe or africa going thither south-west . lxvii . neither of the continents is terminated by a round or even circular circumference , but mighty creeks , bays , and seas running into them ; and as mighty peninsula's , promontories , and rocks jetting out from them , render the whole very unequal and irregular . this none who ever saw a globe or map of the world can be ignorant of . lxviii . the depth of that ocean which separates these two continents is usually greatest farthest from , and least nearest to either of the same continents ; there being a gradual descent from the continents to the middle of the ocean , which is the deepest of all . this is a proposition very well-known in navigation ; and in several sea - charts relating thereto , may easily be observ'd . lxix . the greatest part of the islands of the globe are situate at small distances from the edges of the great continents ; very few appearing near the middle of the main ocean . this the bare inspection into a map or globe of the world will soon give satisfaction in . lxx . the ages of men decreas'd about one half presently after the deluge ; and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since . this the following tables will easily evince . ages of the antediluvians in their years . ages of the postdiluvians in the present years . adam — noah — seth — sem — enos — arphaxad — cainan — salah — mahalaleel — heber — jared — phaleg — enoch ( translated ) — reu — methuselah — serug — lamech — nahor — noah — terah — sem — abraham —     isaac —     jacob —     joseph — the days of our years are threescore years and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years , yet is their strength labour and sorrow : for it is soon cut off , and we fly away . in the days of moses . lxxi . our upper earth , for a considerable depth , even as far as we commonly penetrate into it , is factitious , or newly acquir'd at the deluge : the ancient one having been covered by fresh strata or layers of earth at that time , and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of mankind . i will destroy them with the earth . neither shall there any more be a flood , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy , corrupt , or spoil the earth . this is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the shells of fish , bones of animals , intire or partial vegetables , buried at the deluge , and inclosed in the bowels of the present earth , and of its most solid and compacted bodies , to be commonly seen at this day . whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others , but more especially by the careful and numerous observations of an eye-witness , the learned dr. woodward . 't is true , this excellent author was forc'd to imagine , and accordingly to assert , that the ancient earth was dissolv'd at the deluge , and all its parts separated from one another ; and so the whole , thus dissolv'd and separate , taken up into the waters which then cover'd the earth ; till at last they together setled downward , and with the fore-mentioned shells , bones , and vegetables , inclosed among the rest of the mass , compos'd again that earth on which we now live . but this hypothesis is so strange , and so miraculous in all its parts ; 't is so wholly different from the natural series of the mosaick history of the deluge ; takes so little notice of the forty days rain , the principal cause thereof ; is so contrary to the universal law of mutual attraction , and the specifick gravities of bodies ; accounts for so few of the before-mention'd phaenomena of the deluge ; fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth ; implies such a sort of new formation or creation of the earth at the deluge , without warrant for the same ; is in some things so little consistent with the mosaick relation , and the phaenomena of nature ; and upon the whole is so much more than his observations require , that i cannot but dissent from this particular hypothesis , tho' i so justly honour the author , and so highly esteem , and frequently refer to the work it self . all that i shall say farther is this , that the phaenomena of the interior earth , by this author so exactly observ'd , are on the common grounds or notions of the deluge , ( which suppose the waters to . have been pure , without any other mixtures ) so unaccountable , and yet so remarkable and evident , that if no other rational solution could be offer'd , 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this author , rather than deny the reality of those phaenomena , or ascribe the plainest remains of the animal and vegetable kingdom to the sportings of nature , or any such odd and chimaerical occasions , as some persons are inclinable to do . but withal , i must be allow'd to say , and the author himself will not disagree , that his hypothesis includes things so strange , wonderful , and surprizing , that nothing but the utmost necessity , and the perfect unaccountableness of the phaenomena without it , ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it . which straits that account of the deluge we are now upon , not forcing me into , as will appear hereafter ; i have , i think , but just reasons for my disbelief thereof , and as just , or rather the same reason to embrace that assertion we are now upon , that this upper earth , as far as any shells , bones , or vegetables are found therein , was adventitious , and newly acquir'd at the deluge , and not only the old one dissolv'd , and resetled in its ancient place again . lxxii . this factitious crust is universal , upon the tops of the generality of mountains , as well as in the plains and valleys ; and that in all the known climates and regions of the world. this is fully attested by the observations of the same author , and those which he procur'd from all parts of the world conspiring together . lxxiii . the parts of the present upper strata were , at the time of the waters covering the earth , loose , separate , divided , and floated in the waters among one another uncertainly . this is proved by the same author's observations . lxxiv . all this heterogeneous mass , thus floating in the waters , by degrees descended downwards , and subsided to the bottom , pretty nearly , according to the law of specifick gravity ; and there compos'd those several strata or layers , of which our present upper earth does consist . this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxv . vast multitudes of fishes , belonging both to the seas and rivers , perish'd at the deluge ; and their shells were buried among the other bodies or masses which subsided down , and compos'd the layers of our upper earth . this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxvi . the same law of specifick gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the mass , was also observ'd in the subsidence of the shells of fishes ; they then sinking together with , and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those strata or bodies which are nearly of their own several specifick gravities : the heavier shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier strata , and the lighter shells among the lighter strata , in the bowels of our present earth . this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxvii . the strata of marble , of stone , and of all other solid bodies , attained their solidity as soon as the sand , or other matter whereof they consist , was arriv'd at the bottom , and well setled there . and all those strata which are solid at this day , have been so ever since that time . this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxviii . these strata of stone , of chalk , of cole , of earth , or whatever matter they consisted of , lying thus each upon other , appear now as if they had at first been parallel , continued , and not interrupted : but as if , after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the globe , had been elevated in some , and depress'd in other places ; from whence the fissures and breaches , the caverns and grotto's , with many other irregularities within and upon our present earth , seem to be deriv'd . this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxix . great numbers of trees , and of other vegetables were also , at this subsidence of the mass aforesaid , buried in the bowels of the earth : and such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd : many of which are pretty intire and perfect , and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day . this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxx . it appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them , that all these vegetables were torn away from their ancient seats in the spring time , in or about the month of may. this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxxi . all the metals and minerals among the strata of our upper earth owe their present frame and order to the deluge ; being reposed therein during the time of the waters covering the earth , or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd mass. this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxxii . these metals and minerals appear differently in the earth , according to the different manner of their first lodgment : for sometimes they are in loose and small particles , uncertainly inclos'd among such masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal : at other times some of their corpuscles happening to occur and meet together , affix'd to each other ; and several convening , uniting , and combining into one mass , form'd those metallick and mineral balls or nodules which are now found in the earth : and according as the corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise , so the masses were more or less simple , pure , and homogeneous . and according as other bodies , bones , teeth , shells of fish , or the like happen'd to come in their way , these metallick and mineral corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them ; either within , where it was possible , in their hollows and interstices ; or without , on their surface and outsides , filling the one , or covering the other : and all this in different degrees and proportions , according to the different circumstances of each individual case . all this is prov'd by the same observations . lxxxiii . the inward parts of the present earth are very irregular and confused . one region is chiefly stony , another sandy , a third gravelly . one country contains some certain kinds of metals or minerals , another quite different ones . nay the same lump or mass of earth not seldom contains the corpuscles of several metals or minerals , confusedly intermix'd with one another , and with its own earthy parts . all which irregularities , with several others that might be observ'd , even contrary to the law of specifick gravity in the placing of the different strata of the earth , demonstrate the original fund or promptuary of all this upper factitious earth to have been in a very wild , confus'd and chaotick condition . all this the fore-mention'd , and all other observations of the like nature fully prove . lxxxiv . the uppermost and lightest stratum of soil or garden mold , as 't is call'd ; which is the proper seminary of the vegetable kingdom ; is since the deluge very thick spread usually in the valleys and plains , but very thin on the ridges or tops of mountains : which last for want thereof are frequently stony , rocky , bare and barren . this , easie observations of the surface of the earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of . lxxxv . of the four ancient rivers of paradise two still remain , in some measure : but the other two do not ; or at least are so chang'd , that the mosaick description does not agree to them at present . this the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these rivers , and their courses ; with an impartial comparison of the sacred history with the best geographical descriptions of the regions about babylon , will easily convince an unbyass'd person of . lxxxvi . those metals and minerals which the mosaick description of paradise , and its bordering regions takes such particular notice of , and the prophets so emphatically refer to , are not now met with so plentifully therein . this must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former . lxxxvii . this deluge of waters was a signal instance of the divine vengeance on a wicked world ; and was the effect of the peculiar and extraordinary providence of god. god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth , and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . and it repented the lord that he had made man on the earth , and it grieved him at his heart . and the lord said , i will destroy man whom i have created from the face of the earth ; both man , and beast , and the creeping thing , and the fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me that i have made them . the earth was corrupt before god , and the earth was filled with violence , and god looked upon the earth , and behold it was corrupt ; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth . and god said unto noah , the end of all flesh is come before me , for the earth is filled with violence through them ; and behold i will destroy them , with the earth . behold i , even i ; do bring a flood of waters upon the earth , to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven ; and every thing that is in the earth shall dye . god spared not the old world , but saved noah , the eighth person , a preacher of righteousness ; bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly . lxxxviii . tho' the moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the deluge as the earth did , yet that face or hemisphere which is towards the earth , and which is alone expos'd to our view , has not acquir'd any such gross atmosphere , or clouds , as our earth has now about it , and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the deluge . this the present figure , and large divisions of sea and land visible in the moon , with her continued and uninterrupted brightness , and the appearance of the same spots , ( without the interposition of clouds or exhalations ) perpetually , do sufficiently evince . lxxxix . since the deluge there neither has been , nor will be , any great and general changes in the state of the world , till that time when a period is to be put to the present course of nature . the lord smelled a sweet savour , and the lord said in his heart , i will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake ; for ( or altho' ) the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth : neither will i again smite any more every thing living as i have done . while the earth remaineth , seed-time and harvest , and cold and heat , and summer and winter , and day and night shall not cease . and this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the ancient history and geography compar'd with the modern ; as is in several particulars well observ'd by dr. woodward , against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary . chap. v. phaenomena relating to the general conflagration . with conjectures pertaining to the same , and to the succeeding period till the consummation of all things . xc . as the world once perished by water , so it must by fire at the conclusion of its present state. the heavens and the earth which are now , by the word of god , are kept in store , reserved unto fire , against the day of judgment , and perdition of ungodly men . the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also , and the works that are therein , shall be burnt up . in the day of god the heavens , being on fire , shall be dissolved , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . but this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of sacred and prophane authority , that i shall omit other particular quotations ; and only refer the reader where he may have more ample satisfaction . scholium . having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds , and generally allow'd testimonies , as to the most of the foregoing phaenomena ; i might here break off , and leave the following conjectures to the same state of uncertainty they have hitherto been in . but being willing to comply with the title , and take in all the great and general changes from first to last ; from the primigenial chaos , to the consummation of all things : being also loth to desert my postulatum , and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the obvious and literal sense of scripture , and fully consonant to reason and philosophy : being , lastly , willing however to demonstrate , that tho' these most remote and difficult texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the letter , yet do they contain nothing but what is possible , credible , and rationally accountable from the most undoubted principles of philosophy : on all these accounts i shall venture to enumerate , and afterward to account for the following conjectures . in which i do not pretend to be dogmatical and positive ; nay , nor to declare any firm belief of the same , but shall only propose them as conjectures , and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the reader . xci . the same causes which will set the world on fire , will also cause great and dreadful tides in the seas , and in the ocean ; with no less agitations , concussions , and earthquakes in the air and earth . the powers of heaven shall be shaken . the lord shall roar out of sion , and utter his voice from jerusalem , and the heavens and the earth shall shake . the sea and the waves roaring : mens hearts failing them for fear , and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken . xcii . the mtmosphere of the earth , before the conflagration begin , will be oppress'd with meteors , exhalations , and steams ; and these in so dreadful a manner , in such prodigious quantities , and with such wild confused motions and agitations , that the sun and moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances , and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd ; the stars will seem to fall from heaven ; and all manner of horrid representations will terrifie the inhabitants of the earth . i will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth ; blood , and fire , and pillars of smoke . the sun shall be turned into darkness , and the moon into blood , before the great and terrible day of the lord come . the sun shall be darkened , and the moon shall not give her light , and the stars shall fall from heaven , and the powers of heaven shall be shaken . there shall be signs in the sun , and in the moon , and in the stars , and upon the earth distress of nations , with perplexity : — mens hearts failing them for fear , and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth . xciii . the deluge and constagration are referr'd , by ancient tradition , to great conjunctions of the heavenly bodies ; as both depending on , and happening at the same . thus seneca expresly : berosus ( says he ) who was an expositor of belus , affirms , that these revolutions depend on the course of the stars ; insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a conflagration , and a deluge : that first mention'd when all the stars , which have now so different courses , shall be in conjunction in cancer : all of them being so directly situate with respect to one another , that the same right line will pass through them all together : that last mention'd when the same company of stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign capricorn . xciv . the space between the deluge and the conflagration , or between the ancient state of the earth , and its purgation by fire , renovation , and restitution again , is , from ancient tradition , defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year , or annual revolution of some of the heavenly bodies : and is in probability what the ancients so often refer'd to , pretended particularly to determine , and stil'd the great . or platonick year . this year is exceeding famous in old authors ; and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the theorist : which it will better suit in this than it did in that hypothesis . xcv . this general conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the earth , but only to the alteration , melioration , and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state , proper to receive those saints and martyrs for its inhabitants , who are at the first resurrection to enter , and to live and reign a thousand years upon it , till the second resurrection , the general judgment , and the final consummation of all things . the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . nevertheless we , according to his promise , look for new heavens , and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . behold , i create new heavens , and a new earth , and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind . verily i say unto you , that ye which followed me , in the regeneration , when the son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory , ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of israel . and every one that hath forsaken houses , or brethren , or sisters , or father , or mother , or wife , or children , or lands for my names sake , shall receive an hundred fold , now in this time , houses , and brethren , and sisters , and mothers , and children , and lands , with ( his present ) persecutions , and in the world to come eternal life . of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hand : they shall perish , but thou shalt endure ; yea all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed . i saw thrones , and they sat upon them ; and judgment was given unto them : and i saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of jesus , and for the word of god , and which had not worshipped the beast , neither his image , neither had received his mark upon their foreheads , or in their hands , and they lived and reigned with christ a thousand years . but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished : this is the first resurrection . blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection ; on such the second death hath no power : but they shall be priests of god , and of christ ; and shall reign with him a thousand years , &c. but so much has been said on this head , to omit others , by the theorist , that i shall refer the reader thither , for the other testimonies of the holy scriptures , and the unanimous consent of the most primitive fathers : both which he at large , and to excellent purpose , ( some particulars excepted ) has insisted on . xcvi . the state of nature during the millennium will be very different from that at present , and more agreeable to the antediluvian , primitive and paradisiacal ones . whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things , which god hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began . see more in the theory . book . chap. . and in the proofs of the former proposition . xcvii . the earth in the millennium will be without a sea , or any large receptacle fill'd with mighty collections and quantities of waters . i saw a new heaven , and a new earth ; for the first heaven , and the first earth were passed away , and there was no more sea . xcviii . the earth in the millennium will have no succession of light and darkness , day and night ; but a perpetual day . the gates of the new jerusalem shall not be shut at all by day ; for there shall be no night there . and there shall be no night there . xcix . the state of the millennium will not stand in need of , and so probably will be without , the light and presence of the sun and moon . and the city had no need of the sun , neither of the moon to shine in it . and they need no candle , neither light of the sun . c. at the conclusion of the millennium , the final judgment and consummation of all things , the earth will desert its present seat and station in the world , and be no longer found among the planetary chrous . i saw a great white throne , and him that sat on it ; from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away , and there was found no place for them . book iv. solutions : or , an account of the foregoing phaenomena from the principles of philosophy already laid down . chap. . a solution of the phaenomena relating to the mosaick creation , and the original constitution of the earth . i. all those particular small bodies of which our habitable earth is now compos'd , were originally in a mixed , confused , fluid , and uncertain condition ; without any order or regularilty . it was an earth without form , and void ; had darkness spread over the face of its abyss ; and in reality was , what it has been ever stil'd , a perfect chaos . i. this has been already sufficiently accounted for , and need not be here again insisted on . ii. the formation of this earth , or the change of that chaos into an habitable world , was not a meer result from any necessary laws of mechanism independently on the divine power ; but was the proper effect of the influence and interposition , and all along under the peculiar care and providence of god. ii. 't is not very easy , i confess , in such mighty turns and changes of the world , exactly to determine how far , and in what particulars , a supernatural or miraculous interposition of the divine power is concern'd ; and how far the laws of nature , or mechanical powers ought to be extended . nay , indeed , 't is difficult enough , in several instances , to determine what is the effect of a natural and ordinary , and what of a supernatural and extraordinary providence . 't is now evident , that gravity , the most mechanical affection of bodies , and which seems most natural , depends entirely on the constant and efficacious , and , if you will , the supernatural and miraculous influence of almighty god. and i do not know whether the falling of a stone to the earth ought not more truly to be esteem'd a supernatural effect , or a miracle , than what we with the greatest surprize should so stile , its remaining pendulous in the open air ; since the former requires an active influence in the first cause , while the latter supposes non-annihilation only . but besides this , tho' we were able exactly to distinguish in general the ordinary concurrence of god from his extraordinary , yet would the task before us be still sufciently difficult . for those events or actions are in holy scripture attributed immediately to the power and providence of god , which yet were to all outward appearance according to the constant course of things , and would , abstractedly from such affirmations of the holy books , have been esteem'd no more miraculous than the other common effects of nature , or usual accidents of humane affairs ; as those who have carefully consider'd these matters , especially the historical and prophetical parts of the old testament must be oblig'd to confess . neither is it unreasonable that all things should in that manner be ascribed to the supream being on several accounts . 't is from him every thing is ultimately deriv'd : he conserves the natures , and continues the powers of every creature : he not only at first produc'd , but perpetually disposes and makes use of the whole creation , and every part thereof , as the instruments of his providence : he foresaw and foreadapted the intire frame : he determin'd his co-operation or permission to every action : he so order'd and appointed the whole system with every individual branch of it , as to time , place , proportion , and all other circumstances , that nothing should happen unseasonably , unfitly , disproportionately , or otherwise than the junctures of affairs , the demerits of his reasonable creatures , and the wise intentions of his providence did require . in fine , he so previously adjusted and contemper'd the moral and natural world to one another , that the marks and tokens of his providence should be in all ages legible and conspicuous , whatsoever the visible secondary causes or occasions might be . seeing then this is the true state of the case ; and that consequently , almighty god has so constituted the world that no body can tell wherein it differs from one , where all were solely brought to pass by a miraculous power ; 't is by no means untrue or improper in the holy books to refer all those things which bare humane authors would derive from second causes , the constant course of nature , and the circumstances of humane affairs to the first cause , the ultimate spring and original of all ; and to call mens thoughts ( which are too apt to terminate there ) from the apparent occasions , to the invisible god the creator , governor , and disposer of the whole , and the sole object of their regard and adoration . this is , i say , a very proper and reasonable procedure ; this is usually observ'd by the sacred penmen , ( who are thereby peculiarly distinguish'd from prophane authors ) and this is of the highest advantage in morality . but then it must be withal acknowledg'd , that this creates great difficulties in the present case , and makes it very hard in a philosophick attempt of this nature , to distinguish between those parts of the mosaick creation , which are mechanically to be accounted for , and those in which the miraculous energy of god almighty interpos'd it self ; which yet , if ever , is certainly to be allow'd in this case , where a new world was to be form'd , and a wild chaos reduc'd into a regular , beautiful , and permanent system . this being said in general , to bespeak the reader 's candor in the present case , and to forewarn him not to fear the most mechanical and philosophick account of this creation , as if thereby the holy scriptures were superseded , or the divine power and providence excluded ; i come directly to the point before us , and shall endeavour to determine what are the instances of the extraordinary power and interposition of god in this whole affair . that as we shall presently see how orderly , methodical , and regular this formation was , so we may before-hand be duly sensible how supernatural , providential , and divine it was also ; and so as well , like christians , contemplate and adore the omnipotent creator in his miraculous , as we , like philosophers , shall attempt to consider and remark his vicegerent nature in her mechanical operations therein . for , notwithstanding what has been above insisted on touching the frequency and propriety of ascribing the effects of nature to the divine power ( the former being indeed nothing , but the latter acting according to fixt and certain laws ) ; yet , because more has been commonly , and may justly be suppos'd the importance of the texts of scripture hereto relating ; because the finger of god , or his supernatural efficiency , is if ever to be reasonably expected in the origin of things , and that in a peculiar and remarkable manner ; because some things done in this creation are beyond the power of philosophy and mechanism , and no otherwise accountable but by the infinite power of god himself ; because the days of creation are signally distinguish'd from those following , in which god is said to have rested ( when yet his ordinary concurrence , and the course of nature was continued without interruption ) , and must therefore be reckon'd such , on which he truly exerted a power different from the other . on all these accounts , i freely , and in earnest allow and believe , that there was a peculiar power , and extraordinary providence exercis'd by the great creator of all , in this primitive origin of the sublunary world , or formation of the earth which we are going to account for . the particular instances i shall give of the same , without presuming to exclude all others , are these following , . the creation of the matter of the universe , and particularly of that of the earth , out of nothing , was without doubt originally the alone and immediate work of god almighty . nature ( let what will be meant by that name ) could have no hand in this , from whence at the utmost she can but date her own birth . the production of a real being out of nothing , or to speak more properly , the primary bringing any real thing into being , is in the opinion of all men , the effect of no less than an infinite and omnipotent deity . i have already owned this to be the import of the first words of this creation we are now upon , in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . and i think 't is here no improper place to declare my opinion , that considering the idea and nature of god includes active power , infinite perfection , with necessity and so eternity of existence ; when the idea and nature of matter supposes intire inactivity , no positive perfection , and a bare possibility or capacity of existence ; 't is as absurd and unreasonable to attribute eternity and necessity of existence to the latter , as 't is rational and natural to ascribe those perfections , with a power of creation , to the former . the very being and nature , as well as the properties and powers of matter being most justly and most philosophically to be referr'd to the author of all , the almighty creator . and altho' our imagination ( a poor , finite , limited , and imperfect faculty ) be unable to have a positive idea of the manner of the production of a real being at first ( as indeed 't were sufficiently strange , if so confin'd a power of so imperfect a creature should adequately reach the highest point of omnipotence it self ) ; yet seeing the absurdities following the eternity , and self-subsistence of matter on the other side are so enormous ; and the certainty of the proper creation of spiritual beings nobler than matter , such as the souls of men are , as great , as 't is utterly incredible they should have been ab aeterno too ( for i take it to be demonstrable that souls are immaterial : ) i think 't is far more reasonable to rest satisfied with our former assertion , that god did truly bring matter into being at first , than its eternity suppos'd , to make only the modification and management thereof the province of the almighty : and consequently the first instance of a divine efficiency with relation to the subject we are now upon , and the highest of all other , was the original production of the matter of which the earth was to consist , or the proper creation of those inferior heavens , and of that earth which were to be the sole object of the divine operations in the six days work. this particular , i confess , does not so properly belong to our present business , the formation of the chaos into a habitable world ; but could not well be omitted , either consider'd in it self , as it bears so peculiar a relation to our present purpose ; or with respect to that misconstruction i might with some readers have otherwise been liable to . but i proceed ; . the changing of the course and orbit of the chaos into that of a planet ( to omit the former annual , and subsequent diurnal revolutions , which tho' equally from god , yet do not so fully belong to this place ) , or the placing of the earth in its primitive circular orbit at its proper distance , therein to revolve about the sun , was either an instance of the immediate power , or at least of the peculiar providence of god. for if we should suppose , as 't is possible to do , that god did not by a miraculous operation remove the chaos or comet from its very eccentrick ellipsis to that circle in which it now began to revolve ; but that he made use of the attraction or impulse of some other body ; yet in this case , ( without considering that one of those powers at least is nothing but a divine energy , ) the lines of each bodies motion , the quantity of force , the proper distance from the sun where , and the exact time when it happen'd ( to name no other particulars here ) must have been so precisely and nicely adjusted before-hand by the prescience and providence of the almighty , that here will be not a much less remarkable demonstration of the wisdom , contrivance , care , and goodness , than the other immediate operation would have been of the power of god in the world. ( . ) the formation of the seeds of all animals and vegetables was originally , i suppose the immediate workmanship of god. as far as our micrometers can help us to discern the make and constitution of seeds ; those of plants evidently , and by what hitherto appears of animals too , are no other than the intire bodies themselves in parvo , and contain every one of the same parts and members with the compleat bodies themselves when grown to maturity . when therefore , consequently , all generation is with us nothing , as far as we can find , but nutrition or augmentation of parts ; and that agreeably thereto no seed has been by any creature produc'd since the beginning of things : 't is very just , and very philosophical to conclude them to have been originally every one created by god , either out of nothing in the primary existence of things ; or out of praeexisting matter , at the mosaick creation . and indeed since the origin of seeds appears to be hitherto unaccountable by the mechanical laws of matter and motion , 't is but reasonable to suppose them the immediate work of the author of nature : which therefore i think the wariest philosopher may well do in the present case . ( . ) the natures , conditions , rules and quantities , of those several motions and powers according to which all bodies ( of the same general nature in themselves ) are specifi'd , distinguish'd , and fitted for their several uses , were no otherwise determin'd than by the immediate fiat , command , power , and efficiency of almighty god. 't is to be here consider'd , that tho' the power of mutual attraction or gravitation of bodies appears to be constant , and universal ; nay almost essential to matter in the present constitution of the world ; ( the intire frame of that system in which we are , if not of all the other systems , so strictly depending thereon ) yet the other laws of nature , on which the particular qualities of bodies depend , seems not to be so ; but mutable in themselves , and actually chang'd according to the changes in the figure , bigness , texture , or other conditions of the bodies or corpuscles with which they are concern'd . thus the cohaesion of the parts of matter , and that in some with less , but in others with the greatest and most surprizing firmness ; the fermentation of several heterogeneous particles , when mixt together ; the magnetism of the loadstone , with the various and very strange phaenomena of that wonderful fossil ; the elasticity of certain fluids and solids ; the contrary obstinate inflexibility and resistance of others ; the different density of several collections or masses of fluids , ( while yet the greatest part of their contained space is vacuity ) not to be considerably increas'd or diminish'd , without the destruction of the speoies : all these , and many other phaenomena shew , that there are various rules and laws of matter and motion not belonging to all , as that of gravitation does , but peculiar to some particular conditions thereof ; which therefore may be chang'd , without any damage to the law of gravity . in the impressing and ordering of which there is room for , if not a necessity of , introducing the particular and immediate efficacy of the spirit of god at first , as well as of his continual concurrence and conservation ever since ; when therefore , in a full agreement with the ancient traditions , 't is said by moses , that the spirit of god moved on the face of the waters . we may justly understand thereby his impressing , exciting , or producing such motions , agitations , and fermentations of the several parts ; such particular powers of attraction or avoidance ( besides the general one of gravity ) of concord or enmity , of union or separation ; and all these in such certain quantities , on such certain conditions of bodies , and in such certain distinct parts and regions of the chaos , as were proper and necessary for that particular course and disposition of nature which it seem'd good to the divine spirit to introduce , and on which this future frame of things here below was ever after to depend . ( . ) the ordering of all things so that in the space of six successive solar revolutions the whole creation should be finish'd , and each distinct day 's work should be confin'd to , and compleated in its own distinct and proper period , is also to be ascrib'd to the particular providence and interposition of god. that every thing followed in its own order and place : as that the seeds of vegetables on the third , those of fish and fowl on the fifth , and those of the terrestrial animals on the sixth day , should be every one plac'd in their proper soil , and fitly dispos'd at their proper time to accompany and correspond with the suitable disposition of external nature , and just then to germinate and fructify , when the order and process of the other parts of the creation were ready for , and required the same . every thing here does so suit together , that the plain footsteps of particular art and contrivance are visible in the whole conduct and management of this matter : which therefore is not to be deriv'd from meer mechanical laws of brute matter , but from a supernatural and divine providence . ( . ) but principally , the creation of our first parents is to be esteem'd the peculiar operation of the almighty ; and that whether we regard the formation of their bodies , or the forepast creation and after-infusion of their souls . 't is evident from the mosaick history of the creation , that our first parents were on the very same day in which they were made , in a state of maturity and perfection , and capable of all humane actions , both of mind and body . now if they , like the other animals , had been produc'd in the usual time and process of generation , and come to ripeness of age and faculties by degrees afterwards ; that were plainly impossible . this creation therefore must have been peculiar , and the immediate effect of a divine power . and this is noless agreeable to philosophy , than suitable to the dignity of the subject , and for the honour of mankind . it has been already observ'd that the seeds of plants and animals must be all ow'd to have been all the immediate workmanship of god ; and that they contain every individual part or member of the intire bodies , in parvo ; and that by consequence generation is nothing else but nutrition or augmentation . since therefore god by his immediate power , created the intire bodies of all plants and animals , 't is by no means hard to conceive that he might create them in what degree of maturity and perfection he pleas'd , without any manner of infringement of the order of nature then to be establish'd : and if we have reason to believe , that the bodies of bruit creatures were created in parvo , in a small state , such as we now call seeds , and so requir'd a proper generation , i. e. nutrition and augmentation of parts ( as the mosaick history plainly describes them ; and had it not done so , we could not with any certainty have asserted it ) ; we have sure equal reason to believe , from the description of the same author in this other case , that the bodies of our first parents were originally created in their mature bulk , and state of manhood , so as immediately to be capable of the same operations which at any time afterward they might be thought to be . this miraculous origination of the bodies of our first parents is therefore very rationally ascribed to the finger of god by moses : and we may justly believe that the blessed trinity , as 't is represented in the sacred history , was peculiarly concern'd in the production of that being which was to bear the image of god , and be made capable of some degree of his immortality . and then as to the soul of man , 't is certainly a very distinct being from , and one very much advanced above the body ; and therefore if we were forc'd to introduce a divine power in the formation of the latter , we can do no less than that in the creation and infusion of the former . and indeed the dignity and faculties of the human soul are so vastly exalted above all the material , or merely animal creation , that its original must be deriv'd from the immediate finger of god in a manner still more peculiar and divine than all the rest . that nearer resemblance of the spiritual nature , immortal condition , active powers , and free , rational , and moral operations of the divine being it self , which the souls of men were to bear about them , did but require some peculiar and extraordinary conduct in their first existence , after-union with matter , and introduction into the corporeal world. agreeably whereto we may easily observe a signal distinction in the sacred history , between the formation of all other animals , and the creation of man. in the former case 't is only said , let the waters bring forth the moving creature that hath life . let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind . but of the latter the entire trinity consult : and god said , let us make man in our image , after our likeness . and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life , and man became a living soul. as therefore the several parts of the mosaick creation before-mention'd are not to be mechanically attempted , but look'd upon as the effects of the extraordinary and miraculous power and providence of god , so more especially the formation of the body of man in its mature state , and most of all the primary creation and after-infusion of the rational human soul , is to be wholly ascrib'd to the same wonderful interposition and efficiency of the supreme being , the creator of all things , god blessed for evermore . all which taken together and duly considered , is , i think , a sufficient and satisfactory account of the proposition before us , and attributes as much to the miraculous and immediate hand of god , as either tradition , reason , or scripture , require in the present case . iii. the days of creation , and that of rest , had their beginning in the evening . iii. this has been already accounted for , and need not here be repeated . corollary . this phaenomenon in some measure confirms our hypothesis , that the primitive days of the world were years also . for otherwise the space of one single short night seems too inconsiderable to have been taken such notice of in this history ; and then , and ever after , made the first half of the natural day . but if it were equal to half a year , it was too considerable to be omitted , and its memory was very justly preserv'd in succeeding ages . corollary . we may here begin to take notice of the regularity and methodicalness of this history of the creation : which , tho' it principally intends the giving an account of the visible parts of the world , and how the state of nature in each period appeared in the day time ; yet omits not the foregoing night : which is very mechanical and natural . for in the preceding night all things were so prepar'd and dispos'd , that the work of each day might , upon its appearance , display it self ; might be exhibited , not in its unseen beginnings , or secret workings , not in its praevious causes , and gradual procedure , ( which was not the design of this history ) but in that more distinct and perfect condition in which things would in the day time appear to the view of a spectator , and under which chiefly they were to be discribed and recorded in this history . iv. at the time immediately preceding the six days creation , the face of the abyss , or superior regions of the chaos , were involv'd in a thick darkness . iv. if we consider what has been already said of the nature of a comet , or peculiarly of that atmosphere which has been before shewn to have been the ancient chaos , we ought to represent it to our selves as containing a central , solid , hot body , of about or miles in diameter ; and besides that , a vastly large , fluid , heterogeneous mass , or congeries of bodies , in a very rare , seperate , and expanded condition , whose diameter were twelve , or perhaps fifteen times as long as that of the central solid , or about miles ; which is the atmosphere or chaos now to be consider'd : in which we must remember was contain'd both a smaller quantity of dry , solid , or earthy parts , ( with a still much smaller of aery and watery ) and a much larger quantity of dense and heavy fluids , of which the main bulk of the atmosphere was compos'd , all confusedly mix'd , blended , and jumbled together . in which state the theorist's first figure , excepting the omission of the central solid , will well enough represent it ; and in which state we accordingly delineate it in the following figure : but upon the change of the comet 's orbit from elliptical to circular , the commencing of the mosaick creation , and the influence of the divine spirit , all things would begin to take their own places , and each species of bodies rank themselves into that order , which , according to the law of specifick gravity , were due to them . by which method the mass of dense fluids , which compos'd the main bulk of the intire chaos , being heavier than the masses of earth , water , and air , would sink downwards with the greatest force and velocity , and elevate those masses inclosed among them upwards . which procedure must therefore distinguish the chaos or atmosphere into two very different and distinct regions : the lower and larger whereof would be a collection or system of dense and heavy fluids , or a vast abyss immediately encompassing the central solid body : the higher and lesser would be a collection , or system of earthy , watery , and aery parts , confusedly mix'd together , and encompassing the said abyss , in the same manner as that did the central solid . and this i take to be the state of darkness , which the proposition we are upon mentions : and that the chaos , particularly , the face or upper regions of it , were at this time in such a dark and caliginous condition , will easily appear . for all those opake or earthy corpuscles which before rov'd about the immense regions of the atmosphere , and frequently even then obscur'd the central solid to any external spectator , were now crouded nearer together ; and instead of flying up and down in , or possessing an orb of or miles in thickness , were reduced to a narrower sphere , and confin'd within a space not perhaps in diameter above the thousandth part of the former ; and must by consequence exclude the rays of the sun in anotherguess manner than before . we cannot but observe in our present air , that the very same vapours which , when dissipated and scatter'd through the atmosphere , ( whose extent yet is not great ) freely admit the rays of the sun , and afford us clear and lightsome days ; when they are collected into clouds , become opake masses , and are capable of obscuring the sky , and rendring it considerably dark to us . in the same manner 't is easy to suppose , that those opake and earthy masses , which in those vaster regions would but in a less degree , and in some places , exclude the beams of the sun , must , when collected and crowded closer together on the surface of the abyss , exclude them in a degree vastly surpassing the former ; must occasion an entire darkness in all its regions , and particularly in those upper ones , over which they were immediately collected . and if from the former comparison we estimate how few vapours collected into a cloud with us will cause no inconsiderable degree of darkness ; and allow , as is but reasonable , a proportionably greater degree of darkness to a proportionably greater number of earthy and opake corpuscles crowded to gether ; we shall not doubt but all manner of communication with the heavenly bodies , and the external world , must be intirely interrupted ; and the least imaginable ray or beam of light from the sun excluded , not only from the lowest , but even all , excepting the very highest regions of this superior chaos . which state of nature , belonging to this time , immediately preceding the hexameron , is not amiss represented by the theorist's second figure , which is accordingly here delineated . v. the visible part of the first day 's work was the production of light , or its successive appearance to all the parts of the earth ; with the consequent distinction of darkness and light , night and day upon the face of it . v. if we remember in what state we left the chaos in the last proposition , and suffer our thoughts to run naturally along with its succeeding mutations , we shall find that the next thing to be here consider'd , ( for the subterraneous system of dense fluids , or the great abyss , not coming directly within the design of moses , is not here to be particularly prosecuted any farther ) is the separation of this upper and elementary chaos , or congeries of earthy , watery and aery corpusoles , into two somewhat different regions ; the one a solid orb of earth , with great quantities of water in its pores ; the other an atmosphere in a peculiar sense , or mass of the lightest earthy , with the rest of the watery and the aery particles , still somewhat confusedly mixt together . for since this upper chaos , ( tho' in general much lighter than the abyss beneath ) consisted of parts very heterogeneous , and of different specifick gravities ( the earthy being heavier than the watery , and those yet heavier than the aery particles ; ) 't is evident , that in the same manner as this whole mixed mass was separated from the heavier abyss beneath , must it again separate and divide it self into two such general orbs as were just now mention'd . the former consisting of the denser and solider parts , such as the earthy , claiy , sandy , gravelly , stony strata of the present earth , with so many of the watery particles as either being already in those regions must be inclosed therein , or could descend from above , and have admittance into the pores thereof : the latter of the less solid , lighter , and earthy , with the rest of the watery , and the aery particles , not yet sufficiently distinguish'd from each other . this process will i suppose easily be allow'd , excepting what relates to the enclosing of the watery parts within the earth ; with relation to which , 't is commonly suppos'd that because water is specifically lighter than earth , it must in the regular digestions of a chaos , take the upper situation , and cover that highest orb , as that would others of greater gravity than it self . 't is also commonly imagin'd that the mosaick cosmogony favours such an hypothesis , and supposes the waters to have encompass'd the globe , and cover'd its surface , till on the third day they were deriv'd into the seas . now , as i by no means apprehend any necessity of understanding the mosaick creation in this sense ; so i am very sure 't is contrary to a philosophick account of the formation of the chaos ; unless one of these two things were certain , either that the quantity of water were so much greater than that of earth , that all the pores and interstices of the latter could not contain it ; or else that it was generally elevated into the air in the form of vapour , and sustained there while the earth setled and consolidated together , and did not till then descend and take its own proper place . the former of which is neither reconcilable to the mosaick creation , nor will be asserted by any who knows , even since the deluge , how small the quantity of fluids in comparison to that of the solids is in the earth on which we live . and the latter is too much to be granted in the present case by any considering person , who knows that a comet 's vapours constitute the main part of that tail or mist , which is sometimes equal to a cylinder , whose basis is miles in diameter , and its altitude as far as from the sun to the earth , or miles ; ( as it was in the last famous comet in . represented in mr. newton's own scheme ) let the rarity of the same be suppos'd as great as any phaenomena shall require . for to clear this matter by a familiar instance or experiment ; take sand or dust , and let them fall gently into a vessel , till it be near full : take afterwards some water , and pour it alike gently into the same vessel : and it will soon appear , that , notwithstanding the greater specifick gravity of the dry and earthy , than of the moist and watery parts , ( whence one might imagine that the sand or dust would be the lowest , and the water swim uppermost on the surface of the other , without mingling therewith ) yet will the latter immediately sink downwards , and so throughly drench and satiate the said mass before any will remain on the top , that its proportion to that of the solid parts will be very considerable . which being apply'd to the point before us , will take away all imaginable difficulty in the case : it being evident , without this comparison , that such watery particles as were already intermix'd with the others would remain where they were ; and with this , equally so , that the rest , which were above the same , upon the first subsidence of the earthy strata would penetrate , pervade and saturate the same . so that on this first day or year of the creation , the earthy and denser parts would take their places lowest , on the surface of the great abyss ; would settle in part into the same , and compose an orb of earth ; and in its interstices and little cavities all such watery particles as were already in this region , or descended upon it before its consolidation , would be enclos'd ; and that as far above the surface of the abyss , to which they would be contiguous , as their quantity could enable them to reach . on this first day or year also the upper regions of the chaos , being now in some measure freed from those earthy and opake masses which before excluded the same , and caused the before-mention'd thick darkness ; would in some degree admit the rays of the sun. now therefore that glorious emanation , light , the visible part of this days work , would begin to appear on the face of the earth : now would it , by the annual motion , successively illuminate the several parts of it : and now would it consequently cause that natural distinction between darkness and light , night and day round the whole globe , which was to be accounted for in this proposition . which progress of the chaos , and state of nature is well enough exhibited by the theorist's third figure ; which therefore is here delineated . corollary , hence we may observe the justness of the mosaick creation , and how fitly it begins at the production of light ; without taking notice of such prior conditions , and such preparations of the chaos which have been before explain'd , and were in order of nature previous to this days work. for this account reaching only to the visible world , and the visible effects in it ; and keeping still within the bounds of sense , and of common observation , could not better be accommodated to the truth of things , and the capacities of all , than by such a procedure . the ancient condition of the chaos in former ages was no way here concern'd , and so was intirely to be omitted . the state of darkness which immediately preceded the six days work , and which , with relation thereto , was necessary to be mention'd , made a very proper introduction , and so very fitly was to be hinted at by way of preface thereto . both which cases are accordingly by moses taken care of . and so the first period was the production of light , the admission of the rays of the sun , and the origin of day and night depending thereon ; as the method and decorum of things , with the apprehensions of the people , did both very naturally require . for since in this sacred history of the origin of things , not only the visible world , and the visible parts of it were singly concern'd ; but principally the effects to be enumerated were such as requir'd the light and heat of the sun , the one to be view'd , the other to be produced by ; and without the latter could no more have been at all , than been conspicuous without the former ; 't was very suitable , and very natural in the first place to introduce the cause or instrument , and afterwards in the succeeding periods , to recount the effects thereof in the world : first to acquaint us that the light and heat of the sun were in some measure admitted into the upper regions of the chaos , and then to relate those remarkable consequences thereof which the succeeding periods of the creation exhibited on the face of the earth . which order of nature , and succession of things , is accordingly very prudently and fitly observ'd , and kept pace with , in this sacred history . vi. the visible part of the second day 's work was the elevation of the air , with all it s contained vapours ; the spreading it for an expansum above the earth , and the distinction thence arising of superior and inferior waters : the formet consisting of those vapours , rais'd and sustain'd by the air ; the latter of such as either were inclos'd in the pores , interstices and bowels of the earth , or lay upon the surface thereof . vi. when at the conclusion of the former day the heat of the sun began considerably to penetrate the superior regions of the chaos , and the two different orbs , the solider earthy , and the fluider aery masses , began to be pretty well distinguished , the same things would proceed still on this succeeding day . the lower earthy strata would be settling somewhat closer together ; the watery parts would subside , and saturate their inward pores and vacuities , and the atmosphere would free it self more and more from the heaviest and most opake corpuscles , and thereby become in a greater degree tenuious , pure , and clear than before . whereupon by that time the night or first half of this second day or year was over , and the sun arose , the light and heat of that luminary , would more freely and deeply penetrate the atmosphere , and become very sensible in these upper or aery regions . which being suppos'd , the proper effect which were to be next expected must be , that vast quantities of vapours would be elevated into , and there sustained by the now better purified air ; while in the mean time all the earthy corpuscles which were uncapable of rarefaction , and with them all such watery particles as were so near the earth that the sun's power could not sufficiently reach them , were still sinking downwards and increasing the crassitude and bulk of the solid earth , and of its included waters . from all which 't is easie to account for the particulars of this day 's work. the expansum or firmament which was this day spread out above the earth was plainly the air , now truly so called , as being freed from most of its earthy mixtures . the superior waters , all those which in the form of vapour a half years heat of the sun , with the continual assistance of the central heat , could elevate , and the air sustain . the inferior waters , those which were not elevated , but remain'd below , all that fell down with , were enclosed in , sunk into , and , if you will , lay upon the orb of earth beneath . and when it is particularly said by moses that 't was this expansum or firmament which was to divide the superior from the inferior waters , that is exactly agreeable to the nature of things , and suitable to this account : it being the air which truly and properly sustain'd all those vapours , as now it does the clouds , above the earth ; and was thereby the means of separating them from their fellows in the bowels , or on the surface thereof . which state of the chaos , or progress of the creation , is well represented in the theorist's fourth figure ; which here follows . corollary i. hence appears a sufficient reason why in this six days creation one intire day is allow'd to the formation of the air , and the distinguishing the vapours in the same , from those beneath ; which has hitherto seem'd somewhat strange and disproportionate . 't is certain this work requir'd as long a time , and was of as great importance as any other whatsoever : all that water which the earth was to have in its air , or upon its surface , till the deluge , being , 't is probable , intirely owing to this day's elevation of them . for had they not been thus buoy'd up and sustain'd on high , they must have sunk downward , and so been inclosed in the bowels of the earth , without possibility of redemption ; and have rendred the antediluvian world more like to a dry and barren wilderness , than , what it was to exceed , a juicy fruitful and habitable canaan . coroll . . hence arises a new confirmation that the days of the creation were years also . for seeing the quantity of water which was preserv'd above ground , and fill'd all the seas before the deluge , was no greater than was this second day elevated into vapour ; had this day been no longer than one of ours at present , the foremention'd quantity would have been so far from saturing the earth , supplying the rivers , and filling all the seas , that every day it would be wholly exhal'd afterwards , and suffer the intire vegetable and animal kingdoms to perish for want of moisture . all which , in the hypothesis we here take , is wholly avoided , and a very fit and suitable proportion of waters preserv'd above for all the necessities of the earth , with its productions and inhabitants . and this consideration affords one very good reason why the commencing of the diurnal rotation was defer'd till after the formation of the earth was over ; there being an evident necessity thereof in order to the providing water sufficient for the needs of those creatures for whose sake the whole creation was ordain'd and perform'd . in which procedure plain tokens of the divine wisdom cannot but be very conspicuous and observable to us . vii . the visible parts of the third day 's works were two ; the former , the collection of the inferior waters , or such as were now under the heaven , into the seas , with the consequent appearance of the dry land ; the latter , the production of vegetables out of that ground so lately become dry . vii . in order to the apprehending of the double operation of this day , we must call to mind what state the orb of earth was in by this time . we have seen already that it had been setling together , and fixing it self on the surface of the abyss from the very beginning of the creation ; and we ought to suppose that in the space of two years it was not only become wholly distinct from the abyss below , and the atmosphere above it , but that it was settled and consolidated together , and its strata grown firm and compacted . we must farther observe , that by reason of its columns , different density , and specifick gravity , ( attested to , à priori from the chaos's , and à posteriori from the internal earth's phaenomena , ) it was setled into the abyss in different degrees , and thereby became of an unequal surface distinguish'd into mountains , plains and valleys . which things being suppos'd and consider'd , the two works of this day or year of the creation , which are of themselves very different , will be easily understood and reconcil'd . for when at sun-set , or the conclusion of the last day , we left the air by half a years power of the sun crowded with vapours to a prodigious degree ; upon the coming on of this third day , and in its night or former half , the said vast quantities of vapours must needs descend , and so by degrees must leave the air pretty free , and take their places on the surface of the earth ; altering thereby their own denomination , and becoming of upper or coelestial , lower or terrestrial waters . indeed if we do but allow the effect to be in any measure answerable to the time , we shall grant that in the half year of night , which is the former part of this third period of the creation , the main body of the vapours must have not only descended down upon the earth , but , by reason of the inequality of its surface , and the solidity withal , have run down from the higher and more extant parts , by the declivities and hollows , into the lowest valleys , and most depressed regions of all ; must in these places have compos'd seas and lakes every where throughout the surface of the earth ; and so by that time the light appear'd and the sun 's rising began the latter part of this day , the intire face of the globe , which was just before cover'd as it were with the descending waters , must be distinguish'd into overflow'd valleys , and extant continents , into seas and dry-land , that very work of this day we were in the first place to enquire about . the waters under the heavens were now gathered together into their respective and distinct places , and the dry land appear'd and became fit for the production of the vegetable kingdom . which therefore most naturally leads us to the second branch of this day 's work. for when this part hitherto was compleated on the night or former half of this day ( which the absence of the sun so long together rendred peculiarly and solely fit to permit and procure the descent of the vapours ) ; and when at the same time the dry land was now distinguish'd from the seas , and just become ( in the utmost degree ) moist and juicy ; upon the sun rising , or coming on of the day-time , 't was of all other the most fit and convenient season for the germination of the seeds of vegetables , and the growth of trees , shrubs , plants and herbs out of the earth . the soil , satur'd and fatned by the foregoing half year's descent of vapours , was now like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fruitful seminary of the vegetable and animal productions of primitive nature , so much celebrated by all antiquity . an intire half year of the sun's presence together , was a time as proper and as natural for such a purpose as could possibly be desir'd . and when there was this half year of day to spare in this period of the creation , after one work was compleated ; and the same was so very fitly prepar'd and dispos'd for the production of vegetables ; 't is no wonder that this above all the other divisions has a double task , and that the seas and dry land were distinguish'd , and the vegetables produc'd on the same day or year of the creation ; according as from the mosaick history the present proposition asserts . and if we allow for the defect of the inequalities of the outward surface , too small to be therein consider'd ; and suppose the atmosphere somewhat clearer than before ; the former figure will still serve well enough , and represent the progress and state of the earth at the conclusion of this third day . corollary . when according to our present accounts of these matters , this is the only day of the creation to which a double work , and that the one quite different from the other , ought to be ascrib'd , and is ascrib'd by moses ; the night being peculiarly fit for the former , and the day for the latter operation ; which could happen on none of the other periods ; this exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an evidence of the literal sense of the writer , and of his accommodation to the nature of things ; and a very considerable confirmation of those hypotheses on which it so naturally depends . coroll . . hence arises a confirmation of what was before asserted that the antediluvian earth had only lesser lakes and seas , not a vast ocean . for when the quantity of waters belonging to the earth and air at first , was no more than was elevated in one half year , and at once sust ain'd by the air ; no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire ocean alone , if there had been neither lesser seas , nor rivers to be supply'd therewith . and so , vice versa , it having been prov'd by other arguments , that there was no ocean , but only lesser seas , before the flood , this account which affords sufficient quantity of water for the latter , but not for the former , is thereby not a little confirm'd . coroll . . tho' the heat and influence of the sun was on this third day very great , yet was his body not yet visible . for since at his rising the earth and lowest regions of the air were very full of moisture , while the higher regions were very clear and bright ; the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of vapours on a sudden , and thereby ( e're the lowest air had deposited its vapours , and rendred it self transparent ) the sun would anew hide himself in a thick mist , and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous , which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this day have been . viii . the fourth day 's work was the placing the heavenly bodies , sun , moon , and stars , in the expansam or firmament , i. e. the rendring them visible and conspicuous on the face of the earth : together with their several assignations to their respective offices there . viii . altho' the light of the sun penetrated the atmosphere in some sort the first day , and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it ; yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his body was visible all that while . tho' we every day enjoy much more light and heat from the sun than the primitive earth could , for a considerable space , be suppos'd to have done , yet 't is but sometimes that the air is so clear as to render his body discernible by us . a very few clouds or vapours gather'd together in our air are able , we see , to hinder such a prospect for weeks , if not months together ; while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his force and influence in the constant productions of nature . which things being duly consider'd , and the vastness and density of the upper chaos allow'd for , 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space , even after the first penetration of light , for the intire clearing of the atmosphere , and the distinct view of the sun's body by a spectator on the surface of the earth . i suppose no one will think the two first days or years of the' creation too long for such a work ; or if any one does , the particular work and state of the atmosphere on the second day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise , and shew the impossibility of the sun's appearance at that time . and the same reason will in a sufficient , tho a less degree , prevent any just expectations on the third day , as was observ'd in the last corollary . but now upon the coming on of this fourth day , and the sun's descent and abode below the horizon for an intire half year , those vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards , and so before the approach of the morning leave the air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable , and permit the moon first , then the stars , and afterward , upon the coming on of the day , the sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the face of the earth . this fourth day is therefore the very time when , acording to this account , and the sacred history both , these heavenly bodies , which were in being before , but so as to be wholly strangers to a spectator on earth , were rendred visible , and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time . they now were in the sacred stile , placed in the firmament of heaven , gave light upon the earth ; began to rule plainly and visibly over the day , and over the night , and to divide the light from the darkness ; as ever since they have continued to do . and now the inanimate world , or the earth , air , seas , and all their vegetable productions are compleat ; and the tradition of those chineses who inhabit formosa , and other islands , appears well-grounded , and exactly true , who hold , that the world , when first created , was without form or shape ; but by one of their deities was brought to its full perfection in four years . which progress of the creation , and state of nature is exactly represented by the theorist's fifth and last figure ; which therefore here follows , ix . the fifth day 's work was the production of the fish and fowl out of the waters ; with the benediction bestow'd on them in order to their propagation . ix . the terraqueous globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil animals ; and the air clear , and so penetrable by that compleat heat of the sun , which was requisite to the generation of such creatures ; 't is a very proper time for their introduction . which was accordingly done upon this fifth day or year of the creation . those seeds , or little bodies of fish and fowl which were contain'd in the water , ( or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it ) were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the sun , and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal heat from beneath ; they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the temperature of the air from the violence of winds , or by the agitations of the tide ( which was both very small , in these small seas ; and by reason of the absence of the diurnal rotation , imperceptibly easy , gentle , and gradual ; ) these seeds , i say , when invigorated with the divine benediction , became now prolifick ; and in this fifth day 's time a numerous off-spring of the swimming and volatil kinds arose , whereby the two fluid elements , water and air became replenish'd with those first pairs , which by the benediction they straightway receiv'd , were enabled to become the original of all of the same kinds , which ever were to be the inhabitants of those regions afterwards . which time and procedure is no less agreeable to the state of the world in our hypothesis , than 't is to the express affirmations of moses , who makes fish and fowl the sole product of the fifth day or year of the creation . x. the sixth day 's work was the production of all the terrestrial or dry-land animals ; and that in a different manner . for the brute beasts were produc'd out of the earth , as the fish and fowl had been before out of the waters ; but after that the body of adam was form'd of the dust of the ground ; who by the breath of life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner , became a living soul. some time after which , on the same day , he was cast into a deep sleep , and eve was form'd out of a rib taken from his side . together with several other things , of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion . x. the earth being now grown more solid , compact , and dry , its surface distinguish'd into sea and dry-land , each of which were stor'd in some sort with inhabitants and vegetables , the air being fully clear , and fit for respiration , and the other dispositions of external nature being equally subservient to this , as well as it had been before to the last day's productions ; 't was a proper season for the generation of the dry-land animals , and the introduction of the noblest of them , man ; which accordingly were the first works , on this sixth day or year of the creation . any more particular account of which , or of the following works is not so directly the design of this theory , and so shall not be here farther insisted on . we may only take notice of two things ; the one is the peculiar manner ; the other the peculiar time for the creation of man. as to the former , tho' 't is granted that all the other day 's works mention'd by moses were brought to pass in a natural way by proper and suitable instruments , and a mechanical process , as we have seen through the whole series of the foregoing creation ; yet 't is evident , as has been already observ'd , that an immediate and miraculous power was exercis'd in the formation of the body , and infusion of the soul of man , as well as in some other particular cases belonging to this origin of things . in plain terms , i take it to be evident , that that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our blessed mediator , who was afterward very frequently conversant on earth , appear'd in a humane form to the patriarchs , gave the law in a visible glory , and with an audible voice on mount sinai , guided the israelites personally in a pillar of fire , and of a cloud through the wilderness , inhabited between the cherubins in the holy of holies , and took the peculiar stile , titles , attributes , adoration , and incommunicable name of the god of israel , and at last was incarnate , liv'd a true man amongst us , died for us , and ascended into heaven , makes still intercession for us with the father , and will come to judge the world in righteousness at the last day : that this very same divine person was actually and visibly , in a humane shape , conversant on earth , and was truly and really employ'd in this creation of the world ( and particularly in this peculiar formation of man ) so frequently ascribed to him in the holy scriptures . it being both unfit and impossible for the divine nature it self , or at least that of the father , to be so much , and in such a manner concern'd with the corporeal world , and the sinful race of mankind , as we find here and every where this divine person , our blessed mediator , to have been ; as the texts quoted a little above compar'd together do i think fully prove . seeing therefore our saviour christ , god-man , was personally present , and actually employ'd in this primitive creation of the world : seeing man was to be a creature intirely different from all the rest , a being compounded of a spiritual and immortal soul , and of a material and corruptible body : seeing in both these he was to be made in the likeness of that divine person , who created him , and be constituted his deputy and vicegerent among the creatures here below ; 't was but reasonable there should be as great a distinction in his original , as was to be in his nature and faculties , his office and dignity , his capacities and happiness from the other parts of the visible creation ; and by consequence , that peculiar interposition of god himself in the formation of the body , and infusion of the soul of our first parents , so particularly observable in the mosaick history , is both very agreeable to the nature of things , very suitable to the wisdom of god , and very reconcilable to the most philosophick accounts of this origin of the world ; and withal a remarkable token of the dignity of human nature , of the distinction between his soul and body , and of the great condescension and love of god towards us , and so the most highly worthy of our consideration . neither is the other circumstance the peculiar time of the creation of man to be pass'd over without a proper reflection on it . 't were easy to shew , that none of the preceding days were in any degree so fit for ; nay , most of them not capable of this creation and introduction of man. but upon this sixth period , when every thing which could be subservient to him , and advance his felicity , was compleated ; he who was to be the lord of all , and for whose sake the whole was fram'd , was brought into the world. when the light had been penetrating into , and clarifying this dark and thick atmosphere for more than five compleat years together ; when the air was freed from its numberless vapours , and become pure , clear , and fit for his respiration ; when the waters , as well superior as interior , were so dispos'd as to minister to his necessities by mists and dews from the heavens , and by springs and rivers from the earth ; when the surface of the earth was become dry and solid for his support , and was cover'd over with trees , shrubs , plants , herbs , grass , and flowers for his sustenance and delight ; when the glorious firmament of heaven , and the beautiful system of the sun , moon , and stars were visible and conspicuous to him , the objects of his contemplation , the distinguishers of his seasons ; by whose powerful influences the earth was invigorated , and the world rendred a fruitful and useful , a lightsome and pleasant habitation to him ; when , lastly , all sorts of animals in the seas , in the air , or on the earth , were so dispos'd as to attend , benefit , and please him one way or other ; when , i say , all these things were by the care , beneficence , and providence of god prepar'd for the entertainment of this principal guest , then , and not till then , was man created and introduc'd into the world : then , and not before was he constituted the lord and governor of the whole , and all things put in subjection under his feet . in which intire procedure the wisdom and goodness of the creator , and the dignity and honour of his principal creature here below , are equally consulted ; and the greatest occasion imaginable given to our first parents , and all their posterity of adoring and celebrating the divine bounty to them in the present and succeeding ages . which naturally leads us to the next proposition . xi . god having thus finish'd the works of creation , rested on the seventh day from the same ; and sanctified or set that day apart for a sabbath , or day of rest , to be then and afterward obsrev'd as a memorial of his creation of the world in the six foregoing , and his resting or keeping a sabbath on this seventh day . which sabbath was reviv'd , or at least its observation anew enforc'd on the jews , by the fourth commandment . xi . nothing sure could be more sit and proper at this time than the praising and worshipping of that powerful and munificent creator , who in the foregoing six days productions had so operously and so liberally provided for the well-being and happiness of mankind . and seeing this intire fabrick was design'd for the use and advantage of all succeeding generations as well as the present , it could not but be reasonable to perpetuate the memory of this creation , and devote one period in seven to the peculiar worship and service of that god who was both the author of the works themselves , and of this institution of the sabbath , to perpetuate the memory of such his six days of work , and of this seventh of rest , to all future generations . what relates to the fall of adam , and the intire moral state of the world , comes not within the compass of this physical theory , and so ( notwithstanding it naturally enough belongs to this day , and might , i imagine , be shewn not to be so difficult , as for want of a right understanding thereof , 't is usually imagin'd to be , and that without receding from the literal , obvious , and usual sense of scripture ) must be wholly omitted in this place . xii . there is a constant and vigorous heat diffused from the central towards the superficiary parts of our earth . xii . this has been already accounted for , and need not here be resum'd . corollary . from the consideration of the very long time that the heat of a comet 's central solid may endure , 't is easy to account for that otherwise strange phaenomenon of some of those bodies , viz. that tho' the tails of the comets appear to be no other than steams of vapours rarified by the prodigious heat acquir'd in their approaches to the sun ; yet some at least of these comets have no inconsiderable ones as they are descending towards the sun , long before they approach near enough to acquire new ones by a fresh rarefaction of their vapours in his vicinity . for since the prodigious heat acquir'd at the last perihelion must remain for so many thousands of years , tho' the tail which the sun 's own heat rais'd at that time must have been either dispersed through the ether , or by its gravitation return'd to its old place in the atmosphere ; yet will there still remain a tail , and its position will be no other than if the sun 's own heat had elevated the same . for by what heat soever the vapours in a comet 's atmosphere become rarer than the parts of the solar atmosphere in which they are , or subject to the power and velocity of the sun's rays elevating the same , a tail must be as certainly produc'd as if the sun 's own heat were the occasion of it . which observation rightly consider'd , will afford light to the foremention'd phaenomenon , and will deserve the consideration of astronomers , to whom it is submitted . xiii . the habitable earth is founded or situate on the surface of the waters ; or of a deep and vast subterraneous fluid . xiii . this has been sufficiently explain'd already , and is observable in the foregoing figures of the four latter periods of the mosaick creation . xiv . the interior or intire constitution of the earth is correspoudent to that of an egg. xiv . this is also very easily observable in the same figures : where ( . ) the central solid is answerable to the yolk ; which by its fiery colour , great quantity , and innermost situation , exactly represents the same : where ( . ) the great abyss is analogous to the white ; whose density , viscosity , moderate fluidity , and middle positition , excellently express the like qualities of the other : where ( . ) the upper orb or habitable earth corresponds to the shell , whose lightness , tenuity , solidity , little inequalities of surface , and uppermost situation admirably agree to the same . 't is indeed possible to suppose that the quantities , specifick gravities , and crassitudes of each orb ( to instance in nothing else here ) may be in the earth proportionable to their analogous ones in an egg ; but because the similitude is so very obvious and full in the foregoing more certain respects , and more than sufficient on those accounts to solve the present phaenomenon ; and because a bare possibility , or fancied probability cannot deserve any more nice consideration ; i forbear ; and look upon the coincidences already observ'd , not a little surprizing and remarkable . xv. the primitive earth had seas and dry land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present ; and those situate in the same places generally as they still are . xv. the former part of this has been already sufficiently explain'd ; and of the latter part there can then be no reason to make any question ; since the same earth that was made at first , does still , as to its main parts , remain as it was to this day . xvi . the primitive earth had springs , fountains , streams , and rivers , in the same manner as the present , and usually in or near the same places also . xvi . the origin of fountains and rivers is undoubtedly either from vapours descending from without the surface of the earth , or from steams elevated by the heat within . and which way soever we chuse to solve the present , 't will also serve to solve the primitive phaenomena here mention'd . 't is only to be observ'd , that before the upper earth was chap'd and broken at the commencing of the diurnal rotation ; and indeed before the strata became so firmly consolidated as they afterward were , the subterraneous steams would arise , and pass through the same more uniformly , and more easily , and so more equally dispense their waters over every part and region of the earth , than afterward . corollary . if therefore dr. woodward be right in asserting , that the cracks and fissures , which he calls perpendicular ones , since the intire consolidation of the strata of the earth , are necessary to the origin of springs , ( and i believe he may have good grounds for his opinion ) from the being of such springs and fountains after the consolidation of the strata , and before the flood , 't is evident , that the diurnal motion did not commence till after the annual ; nay , till after the formation and consolidation of the earth : and so what on other grounds was before rendred highly probable , will appear nearer to certainty on this : for 't is plain , if the present diurnal motion commenc'd either with the annual , or indeed any time before the formation of the earth , the figure of the chaos , and so of the abyss and upper earth , would originally be that of an oblate sphaeroid , as it is now ; the strata would be all coherent , united , and continued , without any cracks or perpendicular fissures at all ; and the origin of springs , on the doctor 's grounds , must in a natural way be plainly impossible . since therefore the diurnal rotations commencing after the consolidation of the strata gives a mechanical and natural account of the chaps and perpendicular fissures ; since without the same in the present case no natural cause of them is by any assigned ; since withal 't is unquestionable that there were springs and rivers before the flood ; and since , lastly , it appears that such fissures were necessary to the being of those springs and rivers , 't is very reasonable , nay , necessary to suppose , that the diurnal rotation did not commence till after the formation and consolidation of the earth was over ; or , which is almost all one , till the fall of man , as we formerly asserted . xvii . the primitive earth was distinguish'd into mountains , plains , and vallies , in the same manner , generally speaking , and in the same places as the present . xvii . this has been sufficiently explain'd already , and need not here be reassum'd . and that each of these seas , springs with their rivers , and mountains , were generally the same , and in the same places as the present , there is no reason to doubt ; they being usually the very same individuals then and now , and so unquestionably cannot have chang'd their primary situations . xviii . the waters of the seas in the primitive earth were salt , and those of the rivers fresh , as they are at present , and each , as now , were then stor'd with great plenty of fish. xviii . this has no difficulty in it , seeing our present seas and rivers are the very same , or of the same nature ; and their several inhabitants the spawn or off-spring of those primitive ones . xix . the seas were agitated with a like tide , or flux and reflux , as they are at present . xix . the presence of the moon and sun being the cause of the tides , and those bodies by consequence being equally dispos'd before , as since the deluge , to produce them ; this proposition can have no manner of difficulty . only we may take notice of these two things , ( . ) that in the state of innocence , before the diurnal revolution began , the frequency of the tide must depend on the lunar period , and happen but twice in each month , as now it does in somewhat above a days time with us : on which account the increase and decrease of the waters would be extreamly gentle , leisurely , and gradual , without any imaginable violence or precipitation . ( . ) that in the whole antediluvian state the tides were lesser than since , by reason of the smallness of the seas then in comparison of the great ocean , from whence now the most considerable ones are deriv'd . all which yet hinders not , but they might be sensible enough in some creeks , bays , and mouths of rivers : the peculiar circumstances of those places in that as well as in the present state , rendring the tides , the elevations and depressions of the waters there , most considerable and violent of all others . xx. the productions of the primitive earth , as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the deluge , differ'd little or nothing from those of the present , either in figure , magnitude , texture of parts , or any other correspondent respect . xx. these things seem to depend on two particulars ; viz. partly on the primary bigness , figure , and constitution of the constituent , insensible parts or elements of bodies ; and partly on the quantity of heat made use of in their production or coalition . which being suppos'd , the proposition will easily be establish'd . for , as to the first , i suppose they remain invariably the same in all ages , and are by any natural power unalterable . and as to the last , whatever be to be said of the state of innocence , or the first ages succeeding , on some peculiar accounts , which i believe might be warmer than at present ; yet as to the times here referr'd to , there is no need to suppose any great difference of heat , either from the sun , or the central body : and indeed , all the difference on any accounts to be suppos'd between the heat before and since the deluge , must be too inconsiderable to be taken notice of in any such sensible effects as this proposition does refer to . for the sun's heat was not above a twenty fifth part greater than 't is now , and the space of four or five thousand years makes but a small difference in that of the central solid , if at first it were heated any whit near the degree mention'd in the calculation referr'd to in the margin . and tho' its real heat were decreas'd , yet in case its facility of penetration were increas'd in the same proportion , the heat on the face of the earth would still be equal and invariable . and so by these accounts , the productions of nature in all ages must be pretty equal and agreeable , as this proposition requires . corollary . tho' the lives of the antediluvians were so much longer than ours at present , yet were they not generally of a more gygantick stature than the past or present generations since have been . in all which ages , notwithstanding , there have been some of an extraordinary bigness and stature , and will be still no doubt in the future ages to the end of the world. xxi . the primitive earth had such metals and minerals in it , as the present has . xxi . this is easily accounted for . for since the antidiluvian , and the present earth , are either the very same , as the lower regions ; or at least of the same nature , the off-spring of a comets atmosphere ( as even that acquir'd crust at the deluge was ) 't is no wonder if each of them contain the same species of bodies within it . xxii . arts and sciences were invented and improved in the first ages of the world , as well as they since have been . xxii . there is little need of giving particular reasons for this . all i shall observe , is , that seeing the ignorance and barbarity of the ages after the deluge , is the greatest objection against this proposition ; 't is avoided in our hypothesis . the insensible , tho' prodigious change of the state of nature , and the perishing of all the monuments of the old learning or arts at the flood , with the want of correspondence in the latter years to the former tradition , reducing the few remainders of the former state wholly to seek for their learning , notwithstanding it might have been cultivated and improv'd to great degree before the deluge ; as therefore in all probability it was . chap. ii. a solution of the phaenomena relating to the primitive state of the earth . xxiii . the primitive state of the earth admitted of the primary production of animals out of the waters and dry ground , which the subsequent states , otherwise than in the ordinary method of generation , have been uncapable of . xxiii . 't is not to be expected that i should here be able to give a full and methodical account of the growth of the primitive pairs of animals , and of the several dispositions of the primigenial state of nature subservient or contributary thereto . the method of the generation of animals is it self in gèneral so little known , and the history of this first stage of the world , as well so short in the sacred writings , as so difficult to be , in all its circumstances , now otherwise understood , that such an attempt might justly be look'd upon as too rash a presumption . all that ought to be expected , and all that i shall endeavour is this ; to shew , that as far as is known of that original earth , its properties were as peculiarly fit for , as those opposite ones of the succeeding are incapable of , such a production of animals at first , as this proposition takes notice of . which the five following particulars shall include . ( . ) the long and continued spaces of day and night in the primitive state did capacitate it for such productions ; which the quick returns of the same afterward prohibited . 't will be easily granted , that in the generation of animals there must be a pretty constant and continual warmth , without the frequent interposition of cold during the most part of the process . now this the long days of half a year afforded these primary embrio's ; which the short ones of only twelve small hours , and the sudden and frequent returns of equal nights , has utterly deni'd to any such ever since . ( . ) the primitive earth was moist and juicy enough to supply nourishment all the time of the generation of the foetus ; which after it was once become perfectly dry and solid was not again to be expected . it was before observ'd , that upon the descent of the vast quantities of vapours on the third day , the ground was so tender , soft , and full of juices , as very naturally answered to what all antiquity made the fund and promptuary of the rising plants and animals , the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as that was but a necessary qualification of a soil which was to produce animals , so the want of it ever since takes away all hopes of a like propagation . ( . ) the primitive state of the earth and air , where the animals were produc'd , had heat sufficient for that purpose ; which the subsequent has not . 't is evident that a greater heat than the present earth or ambient air can afford , is requisite to , and made use of in the present generation of animals ( which the incubation in the oviparous , and the still warmer position of the faetus in the viviparous animals assure us of : ) on which account the present earth must needs be incapable of their production . but that the heat in the primitive earth , and particularly where the animals were produc'd , was much greater , will thus appear . as to the heat from the central body ; while the earth was somewhat loose , and pretty freely admitted the ascending steams , that , would be considerably greater than after its more intire consolidation , when these steams were thereby so much confin'd within , or diverted to some particular conceptacles . besides , the production of animals was near paradise , and i suppose no where else . now those middle regions , ( of which eden , the country of paradise , was one ) being situate under the ancient ecliptick , and present tropick , ( of which before ) enjoy'd also a greater heat from the same central body by reason of their greater nearness thereto , than since they or the corresponding parts of the torrid zone do or can partake of . for when the earth was then perfectly sphaerical , the middle , and their neighbouring parts were about miles nearer the central solid than the same regions now are : ( they being in that proportion elevated , and the circumpolar depress'd at the commencing of the diurnal rotation : ) which greater vieinity of the central heat must certainly have a suitable effect , and cause somewhat warmer regions thereabouts than they have been ever since . moreover , if the real proper heat of the central solid be in any considerable proportion diminish'd in near years time , ( as in some proportion it must be ) that degree of heat which it had at first , was still the most powerful of all other ever since . but then as to the solar heat , ( to take no notice of the greater nearness of the sun's body before the deluge than since , as not directly reaching the present case : ) 't is evident that paradise , situate under or near the very ecliptick it self , must receive the utmost power of the same heat which any part of the globe were capable of , which by lying under the tropick afterward it would not do . on all which accounts joyn'd together , 't is evident that the heat in the primitive state was much more considerable , and so much more adapted to the generation of animals than that in the subsequent ever was or can possibly be . ( . ) the primitive state was perfectly still and calm ; free from all such winds , storms , violent tides , or any the like hurries and disorders as at present wholly render the production of animals impossible : which quiet condition , if in some respects it endur'd till the deluge , yet , as even in those the paradisiacal state might have the preheminence ; so in others , particularly the gentleness of the tides , it had still the most peculiar advantage ; as was before observed . ( . ) the equability of seasons , and the greater uniformity of the air 's temperature , which in part remain'd till the deluge , but might be more signal in the paradisiacal state , rendred that earth as proper , as the contrary sudden , uncertain , and violent extreams of heat and cold , drought and moisture , sultry and frosty weather now , wholly indispose it , for such a production of animals . which prerogatives of the primitive earth and air will certainly demonstrate , if not its intire fitness , yet sure it s less unfitness for such an original generation as was here to be accounted for , and is all , as was before observ'd , that can justly be requir'd and expected in the present case . corollary . when it has been before allow'd , that all generation is but nutrition ; and that all seeds , as well of animals , as of plants , are the immediate workmanship of god ; 't is evident that this supposition of the original production of animals out of the waters and earth ; according to the plainest letter of the mosaick history , does by no means derogate from the divine efficiency , and the wonderful art and skill in the structure of their bodies ; nor in the least favour that ungrounded and pernicious opinion of the equivocal or spontaneous generation of any of them . xxiv . the constitution of man in his primitive state was very different from that ever since the fall ; not only as to the temper and perfections of his soul , but as to the nature and disposition of his body also . xxiv . the book of genesis affords us so short a history of this primitive stage of the world , and of the constitution of man therein ; and all other accounts are so inconsiderable in this respect , that a particular account of all things relating to this proposition is by no means to be expected . 't is in general sufficient , that we have , from sacred and prophane authority , evinc'd the state of external nature to have been mighty different from the present ; and that consequently the state of man , even on philosophical considerations , ought to be suppos'd equally different from the present also . and 't is so highly unreasonable from meer observations made now , to pass a censure on what was done then ; and from the frail , imperfect , sinful , and miserable condition of humane nature in our days , to judge of the same in its state of innocence , perfection and felicity ; or from the circumstances it is in at present , to determine those it must at that time have been in ; that nothing can be more so . we might almost as well argue that angels eat and drink , sleep and wake , work and rest , because we do so ; or that the infant in the womb sees and hears , talks and discourses , reads and writes , because afterward he commonly does the same things , as that because we have need of cloathing to cover our shame , and have inflexible , robust , and in a certain time corruptible temperaments of body , therefore so had our primitive parents in the state of innocency . but to speak somewhat more distinctly to those two particulars included under this proposition , ( . ) that in the actions relating to the propagation of the species , there should be no sense of shame , and consequently no occasion for covering such parts as were therein concern'd , is by no means strange , in a state of innocence ; where there was no inclination to any sinful kind or degree of application , and where all such inferior appetites were in compleat subjection to the superior , the reason and conscience of man. 't is rather an evident token of our guilt , a demonstration of the disorder and pollution of our nature and faculties now , that what in permitted circumstances is innocent and natural in it self , nay necessary for the propagation of the species , and the preservation of mankind , should make us blush : 't is a plain note of the vileness of our present state , a mark of the baseness of our condition now , that what god and nature have ordain'd for the continuation of the world , should yet inevitably seem to have something of indecency and turpitude adhering to it : so far , that meer bashfulness and modesty oblige us to conceal and pass over in silence all that belongs thereto . it indeed might more reasonably be made a query , why the covering our nakedness has been so general , and is so necessary now , ( as it has justly by all ages and nations been esteem'd ) than why it was otherwise in this primitive state of the world. ( . ) that the use of one sort of food ( that of the tree of life ) might be capable of fixing and setling the temper of a humane body , of rendring it so lasting , that , while its earthly condition was to continue , it might never be dissolv'd ; and that the use of a contrary sort of food , ( that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ) might be capable of so far corrupting and disordering the same , that it would become subject to sickness , misery , and dissolution in a shorter space , is , i think , even by what we at present see , by no means incredible . we cannot but observe how great a change a course of diet , moderate , wholesome , and agreeable , will make in our present temperament for the better ; and on the contrary , how far an intemperate , and immoderate indulgence of our appetites , either as to the kinds or quantities of our meats and drinks , tho' but for a few weeks or months , will do the same for the worse ; even to the spoiling and destroying of a very good habit of body , to the depriving men of their healths ; nay frequently of their lives too by a violent disease . if we therefore , to take the narrowest supposition , imagine the eating of that pernicious and forbidden fruit to have been confin'd to one day or year of this primitive state ( which yet there is no necessity of doing ) ; 't will be no harsh or incredible supposal ; especially , if we consider what has been said of the present state of things , and how much more the temper of our first parents bodies , and the particular food on which they fed , might be peculiarly fitted for the same purposes ; that the intemperate indulgence of a very pestilent course of diet for so many months together might break and pervert the well temper'd constitutions of our first parents , might render their bodies liable to such distempers as in length of time would dissolve and entirely overthrow them ; or , in other words , would render mankind sickly , miserable , and mortal creatures for ever after . which is , i think , enough to clear the proposition before us , so far as a bare physical theory is concern'd therein . xxv . the female was then very different from what she is now ; particularly she was in a state of greater equality with the male , and little more subject to sorrow in the propagation of posterity than he . xxv . that the original state and circumstances of the female , should be as they are here represented , is so far from being strange , that the contrary ones of that sex at present , were not the occasion thereof known , might much more justly appear so . for granting the equality of humane souls in themselves , 't is not very easy to give a good reason , why that part which one half of mankind was to bear in the propagation of it , should subject it to such a low condition , great weakness of nature , and those severe pains and agonies which did not at all affect the other ; as god and nature have at present made unavoidable . and as to the change of her name after the fall , from adamah and isschah to eve ( which latter seems to denote her capacity then attain'd of becoming the mother of all those generations of mankind which were afterward to live on the face of the earth ) it may probably intimate ( to omit any other observations that might be made on it ) some change in the method or circumstances concerning humane generation . and if we consider , that adam and his wife were no inconsiderable time in paradise together , even after the blessing of increase and multiply , before their fall ; and carefully consider the texts quoted in the margin , we shall perhaps believe 't is no improbable conjecture . xxvi . the other terrestrial animals were in a state of greater capacities and operations ; nearer approaching to reason and discourse ; and partakers of higher degrees of perfection and happiness , than they have been ever since . xxvi . since the primitive state of external nature was so exceeding different from the present , as has been already prov'd ; the other terrestrial animals , as well as man , ought to be suppos'd of a somewhat proportionably different temper , abilities and actions . besides , the divine providence is concern'd to suit one being to another ; and to accommodate still the subordinate , to the superior rank of creatures in the world : on which account 't is not strange , that the bruit animals were in their primitive constitution very much distinguish'd from , and advanc'd above such as are now upon the earth ; the diversity with relation to mankind , to whom in each period they were to be subservient , being so very remarkable . for since mankind upon the fall degenerated into a sensual and bruitish way of living , the bruit creatures themselves would very unwillingly have paid their due homage and submission , had not they in some degree degenerated from their primitive dignity at the same time . which degeneracy suppos'd , a former greater degree of abilities , operations , and happiness is at the same time suppos'd also . and to strengthen this conjecture , i may venture to appeal to anatomy , whether the present bodies of bruits do not appear capable , as far as can be discover'd , of nobler operations than we ever now observe from them . the advantage of even mankind in this respect seeming not very considerable over the bruits that perish . xxvii . the temper of the air , where our first parents liv'd , was warmer , and the heat greater before the fall than since . xxvii . this has been already accounted for in the twenty third proposition before . xxviii . those regions of the earth where our first parents were plac'd , were productive of better and more useful vegetables with less labour and tillage than since they have been . xxviii . that we may account for this proposition , and that curse which was inflicted on the ground at the fall , in good measure included therein ; we must observe , that the growth of plants and vegetables depends on a degree of heat proportionate to the peculiar temper and exigence of each species ; and by consequence that , let the number of seeds in any soil be never so many , or their kinds never so diverse , yet the surface of the earth must remain bare and barren , until the peculiar heat of the season and climate be adapted to them : now seeing different kinds of seeds require different degrees of heat , 't is only such certain kinds of the same that will at once shew themselves , or spring out of the earth ; the rest , to which the heat is not adjusted , lying all the while as dormant and dead as if they did not really exist in nature . thus we have several distinct crops of vegetables in the several seasons of the year . those seeds which the small heat of february and march is not able to raise , lye still in the earth till the greater force of the sun in april and may excite them . in like manner several others , which are too crass and unpliable for the moderate warmth of the spring , are by the yet greater intenseness of the heat in june , july , and august , rais'd from their seats , and oblig'd to shoot forth and display themselves . nay , when in the months of september and october the sun's power is diminish'd , and its heat but about equivalent to that of march and april , it again suits the plants which were then in season ; so that they many of them spring up afresh in these months , and flourish over anew , as before they did in those ; as dr. woodward very well discourses upon this occasion . in like manner we may also consider this matter with relation to the different climates and zones of the earth , and their quite different crops of plants , according to those different degrees of heat made use of in their vegetation . when therefore we observe in the same country a various crop and order of vegetables every year , according to the various power of heat in each season ; ( a different face of the earth being gradually visible from february till july , in proportion to the gradual increase of heat all that space ; ) we cannot tell , in case the heat increas'd still to a greater intenseness afterward , but a new and unseen face of things might appear ; and many unheard-of kinds of vegetables might put forth , and expose themselves to our observation , even in the present state and age of the world. but as to the primitive world , wherein all the seeds of those vegetables which god originally created were fresh and vegetous , and wherein there was a much greater heat than since has been to invigorate and produce them ; 't is very reasonable , and very agreeable to nature to suppose , that many sorts of trees , plants , herbs , and flowers , which the colder temper of the subsequent earth were unable to excite and produce , were then every year rais'd , and became the principal recreation and sustenance of our first parents in the state of innocency . 't is very probable they might never see such a poor , jejune , and degenerate state of the vegetable kingdom as we since have done , till their unhappy fall occasion'd the introduction of that miserable condition of all things which has ever since continued among us . thus as one country or climate , because of its greater coldness , is now the seminary of several vegetables which the warmer regions are either perfect strangers to , or advance to a greater degree of perfection ; so upon the degeneracy of the primeval state into the present , and the mighty abatement of the ancient heat ( taken together with the worse juices and other effects of that abatement contributary perhaps to the same thing ) 't is natural to allow that several such vegetables ( suppose thorns and thistles ) which were before either perfect strangers to , or had been advanc'd to a greater degree of perfection by the juices and warmth of paradise , became the constant and troublesome heir-looms there ; to the no little regret of our first parents ; who till then had only seen and enjoy'd the better set of the primigenial vegetables . and if we consider withal , that a main intention of the toil , tillage and manure of the husbandman , seems to be design'd to enspirit and envigorate the too cold and unactive soil with warm and active particles , we shall not be unwilling to grant , that those labours of the husbandman , on this , as well as on several other accounts which might be mention'd , must have been in the primitive state very facile and easie , in comparison of those which are necessary in the present state . scholium . 't will be here , i imagin , not improper to remind the reader once for all of the nature and effects of that extraordinary change , which the fall of man , and the consequent curse of god brought upon the earth : that he may with the greater ease , of his own accord , view and compare the states of external nature before and after the fall one with another , and with those things which the propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them . 't is evident then , from what has been before laid down hereto relating , that the primitive state of things before the fall was thus . the earth , being newly form'd , was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated , and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm steams ascending from beneath . it s figure was perfectly sphaerical , and its strata or layers by consequence were even , continued , and join'd ; and so the central heat , being equally distant from all the parts of the earth's surface , did very equally diffuse it self , and equally affect all the climates of the globe . the soil or uppermost stratum of the earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the waters , before they compos'd the seas on the third day of the creation , and by the plenty of moisture which it still receiv'd every night . the air was perfectly clear , homogeneous , transparent , and susceptive of the utmost power of the solar heat . the seasons were equable , or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another , by the rising , setting , descending and ascending sun , without any quick interpositions of day and night to disturb them . the torrid zone of the earth , as i may call those regions near the solar course , was very much expos'd to the sun , and very much warm'd withal by its vicinage to the central solid . the moon in twelve revolutions equally measur'd out the year , and caus'd the most gentle , easie , and gradual tides imaginable . this , with all its natural consequents , was the state of the primitive world. but as soon as man had sinn'd and render'd that happy state too good for him , or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof : and as soon as god almighty had pronounced a curse on the ground , and its productions , presently the earth began a new and strange motion , and revolv'd from west to east on its own axis : a single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or revolution of night and day , either immediately or by degrees , ( according as the present velocity of the diurnal rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd ) returned frequently , and became no longer than short hours ; while the annual motion , perform'd on a different axis , distinguish'd the seasons , and in conjunction with the diurnal , describ'd the equator , and the tropicks ; and by the access and recess of the sun from the last named circles , caus'd it to visit the several regions enclos'd thereby . the face of the earth was really distinguish'd into zones , by the tropicks and polar circles , truly divided from one another ; with respect whereto the particular regions of the earth chang'd their situation ; the equator being that circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd , as they had been before with regard to the ecliptick ; and so that paradise which was before at the middle , became the northern boundary of the torrid zone . the figure of the earth , which was before truly sphaerical , degenerated into an oblate sphaeroid ; the torrid zone rising about miles upward , and the frigid one subsiding as much downwards . the compages of the upper earth , and of its strata , became thereby chap'd , broken and divided , and so carried up the warm steams from beneath , to particular conceptacles and volcano's , which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire earth , and its productons . the tides , lastly , became frequenter , and so more sudden and violent than before . which short summary or scheme of the states of nature in our hypothesis before and after the fall , ought to be all along born in mind , and reflected on , in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those phaenomena , in the solution whereof we are now engag'd : and which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the reader . which being thus dispatch'd , i proceed : xxix . the primitive earth was not equally paradisiacal all over . the garden of eden or paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil , and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life , above the other regions of the earth . xxix . that all the primitive earth could not be equally paradisiacal , and enjoy the same priviledges and conveniences beyond the present , is easily prov'd . for seeing one of its principal causes of fertility , and other prerogatives , was the greater degree of heat at the paradisiacal regions ; the climates near the solar course being alone capable of such greater heat , must be alone capable of its effects also ; and consequently , we are to confine our enquiries for the garden of eden to the countries not very remote from the ancient ecliptick . now that some peculiar spot or region thereabouts might , beyond all the rest , be fertile , pleasant and paradisiacal , 't is not difficult to suppose . at the present there is a mighty variety in countries in the very same hemisphere , climate , and parallel . the particular prerogatives of one region beyond another do not intirely depend on the sun , or the vicinage of the central heat : but partly on the nature and temper of the soil ; the kinds of vegetables and fossils thereto belonging ; the number , qualities , and conflux of rivers ; he firmness or looseness of the inferior strata , hindring , or freelier permitting the ascent of the subterraneous steams , juices , and effluvia : from the coincidence of which , and of other such things , in a peculiar and advantagious manner , order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the divine providence at the mosaick creation , the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this earthly paradise , or garden of pleasure , is i suppose to be deduc'd ; and which being consider'd , will , i believe , be sufficient to give satisfaction in the proposition before us . xxx . the place of paradise was where the united rivers tigris and euphrates divided themselves into four streams , pison , gihon , tigris , and euphrates . xxx . this situation of paradise has been already consider'd , and need not here be reassum'd . only we may observe , that no scruples would ever have been rais'd about this matter , in case the foremention'd rivers had still been visible , their course still agreeable to the mosaick description , and the metals and minerals mention'd of the adjoyning countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours , as they appear to have been in those primitive times . seeing therefore the following theory will so clearly assign the cause of such diversity , that every reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the phaenomena of paradise , consistently with the other phaenomena of nature , if all things were now as they were at first , than almost any other of the antediluvian world : i may justly hope that this so disputed a question of the situation of the garden of eden , or primitive paradise , to those who embrace the other parts of the theory , will remain no longer so , but be as fix'd and undoubted , within at least the limits of that hypothesis here referr'd to , as any other country or region with the same exactness determin'd by geography . xxxi . the earth in its primitive state had only an annual motion about the sun : but since it has a diurnal rotation upon its own axis also : whereby a vast difference arises in the several states of the world. xxxi . this has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady . xxxii . upon the first commencing of this diurnal rotation after the fall , its axis was oblique to the plain of the ecliptick as it still is : or in other words , the present vicissitudes of seasons , spring , summer , autumm , and winter , arising from the sun's access to , and recess from the tropicks , have been ever since the fall of man. xxxii . this has in some measure been insisted on already in the hypothesis last mention'd , and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present obliquity of the earth's axis : it being evident , that without a miraculous power , the same situation or inclination which it had originally , would and must invariably remain for all succeeding ages . chap. iii. a solution of the phaenomena relating to the antediluvian state of the earth . xxxiii . the inhabitants of the earth were before the flood vastly more numerous than the present earth either actually does , or perhaps is capable to maintain and supply . xxxiii . this proposition will not appear strange , if we consider , ( . ) the much greater fertility of the antediluvian earth , to be presently accounted for ; whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of inhabitants than the present , even on the same space of ground . ( . ) the earth was more equally habitable all over before , than since the deluge . for before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures , which the deluge occasion'd , and which i take to be the causes of all our violent and pernicious heat and cold in the torrid and frigid zones of our earth ; 't is probable the earth was pretty equally habitable all over , by reason of the vicinage of the central heat to the polar regions , and the more direct exposition of the middle regions to that of the sun. i do not mean that the frigid zones were equally hot with the torrid ; but that the heat in the one , and the cold in the other , were more kindly ; and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present , since the introduction of the before-mention'd mixtures , and particularly of such sulphureous and nitrous effluvia , as are now , i believe , become calorifick and frigorifick particles in our air , the main occasions of the violence and pernicious qualities of the heat and cold thereof , and the most affecting to our senses of all other . so that 't is probable , before the acquisition of these advensitious masses , the antediluvian air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable habitation of mankind on all parts of the globe ; and the antediluvian earth was by consequence capable of many more inhabitants than the present is , or can be ; as every one will readily grant , who considers how few inhabitants , in comparison , three of the five zones of our present earth do maintain . ( . ) the dry land or habitable earth it self was , by reason of the absence of the intire ocean , full as large and capacious again as the present : for the ocean , i think , takes up now at the least one half of the intire globe ; but then afforded as large , spacious , and habitable countries , as the other parts of the earth . ( . ) the mountains which are now generally bare and barren , were before the deluge , so far as they were suppli'd with water , as fruitful as the plains or vallies ; and by reason of a larger surface , were capable of maintaining rather more animals than the plains , on which they stand , would otherwise have been : the present defect of a fruitful soil being owing to the deluge ; and there being no good reason , that i know of , to be assign'd why , on a primary formation , and in a calm and still state of the air , the higher parts of the earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful soil or mold , as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them . all which accounts taken together , will , i think , give reasonable foundation for such vast numbers of inhabitants , as according to the computation of this proposition , the antediluvian world was replenish'd withal . corollary . since by very reasonable computations of the numbers of the inhabitants of the earth at the deluge , according to the hebrew chronology , they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire globe , and as many as in reason the same could sustain ; the septuagints addition of near six hundred years in this period of the world to the hebrew accounts , is so far from clearing difficulties thereto relating , that it rather increases the same , and enforces the allowance of more inhabitants at the deluge , than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd . coroll . . since according to the hebrew chronology from the deluge till the time of abraham's going into canaan , was the intire space of years , and the lives of men during that interval were in a mean three hundred years long ; 't is easy on the grounds proceeded upon in this phaenomenon's calculations , to prove , that there is no need to recede from that account , or introduce the additional years of the septuagint in this period , to produce the greatest numbers of men which in that , or the immediately succeeding ages , any authentick histories of those ancient times do require us to suppose . coroll . . the deluge which destroy'd the whole race of mankind ( those only in the ark excepted ) could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain regions of the earth , but was , without question , truly universal . coroll . . seeing it appears , that mankind has a gradual increase , and that in somewhat more than four thousand years , our continent of europe , asia , and africa , has been so entirely peopled from the sons of noah ; and seeing withal america is much less in extent , and , i suppose , generally speaking , was never so full of people : in case we suppose that famines , wars , pestilences , and all such sad destroyers of mankind have equally afflicted the several continents of the earth , some light might be afforded to the peopling of america , and about what age since the deluge , the american's past first from this continent thither ; which a more nice enquiry into the particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in . xxxiv . the bruit animals , whether belonging to the water or land , were proportionably at least , more in number before the flood than they are since . xxxiv . that part of this proposition which concerns the dry-land animals , is sufficiently accounted for , by what has been discours'd under the last head , which equally belongs to them as to mankind : and if we extend the other part concerning the fishes , to the seas then in being , and their comparative plenitude , there will need no additional solution . it being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of fish before the deluge , should be greater than at present , as the case was of the dry-land animals ; because the latter being universally destroy'd , ( those in the ark alone excepted ) were to begin their propagation anew ; but the former not being so , did but increase their still numerous individuals , and must thereby soon recover and surpass their former multitude , as will easily be allow'd on a little consideration of this matter . corollary . hence arises a strong confirmation of what is on other grounds already asserted , that there were only smaller lakes and seas , but no great ocean before the deluge . for since it appears by this phaenomenon , that the waters of the antediluvian earth were much more replenish'd , nay , crouded with fish than now they are ; and since there was no general destruction of them , as there was of dry-land animals at the deluge ; had there been as great a compass , or as vast an ocean for their reception then , as at present there is , the numbers now in every part of the ocean or seas , ought to be vastly greater than they then were , an being all the off-spring of those which every where surviv'd the deluge , and which have propagated themselves for more than four thousand years since the same ; which being disagreeable to the observations referr'd to in this phaenomenon , is little less than a demonstration of the falshood of that hypothesis on which 't is built , or a full attestation to our assertion , that there were only smaller lakes and seas , but no great ocean before the deluge . xxxv . the antediluvian earth was much more fruitful than the present ; and the multitude of its vegetable productions much greater . xxxv . before i come directly to solve this and the following propositions , i must premise , that 't is usually unreasonable to ask , why such phaenomena belong'd to the antediluvian world : they being commonly but the natural and regular properties of an original earth , newly form'd out of a chaos ; such as one should rationally expect in a world newly come out of the hands of its creator , and fitted for the convenience and fruition of noble creatures ; such as the generality of our fellow planets , ( especially our next neighbour , the moon ) as far as we can observe , appear to have had at first , and hitherto retain'd . all that can in reason be desir'd , is this , to give a plain and intelligible account of those opposite phaenomena of the earth , which we now are sensible of , and by what means the deluge could occasion the same . which therefore shall be frequently the business of the succeeding solutions . and as to the present case , the decrease of the fertility of the earth at the deluge , these causes are assignable , ( . ) the decrease of the sun's heat by the greater distance of the earth from him since , than before the deluge . it has been before prov'd , that till the deluge , the earth's orbit was circular , and the radius of that circle very little longer than the nearest distance at the perihelion now : so , that when the heat of the sun is as the density of his rays , or reciprocally as the squares of the earth's distance from him : if instead of the present ellipsis we take , for calculations sake , as we ought , a circle in the middle between the nearest and farthest distance , we shall find that the sun's heat on the earth in general before the deluge , was to its present heat , as almost a hundred to ninety six , or a twenty fifth part of his intire heat greater before than since the same , which is by no means inconsiderable in the case before us . ( . ) the heat of the central body was considerably damp'd and obstructed , both by the waters of the deluge themselves , acquir'd from abroad , and now contain'd in the pores and caverns of the earth under us ; and by that sediment of them which now composes that upper crust of earth we dwell upon , and which being setled and consolidated on the superficies of the ancient earth would prove a great hindrance to the ascending steams , not to be overcome but by degrees , and in length of time afterwards . from both which causes very a notable damp would be put to the influence of the central heat , on which as well as on the sun 's , the fertility of every soil does in part depend . ( . ) the upper earth , or fruitful soil it self , the main fund and promptuary of the vegetable kingdom , is now very inconsiderable in quantity , if compar'd with that of the primitive or antediluvian earth . for when this last mention'd was the intire product of the ancient chaos at the original formation of the earth , and the first , what only was afforded from a small part of such a chaos , the comet 's atmosphere , and by the storms born off the tops of mountains at the deluge , while the old soil lies buried under the sediment or crust on which we live ; 't is no wonder that our fertile stratum is now thinner spread , and so the productions less copious in the present , than they were in the antediluvian state of things . and this , tho' we suppose the soil from the comet , or from the tops of the mountains , to be as good in it self , and to have remain'd as pure and unmix'd with any heterogeneous matter in this confusion of things at the deluge , as it would at the regular formation of the earth at first ; which yet is by no means supposable ; and the contrary to which being allow'd for , will still farther afford us a reason of the present assertion . so that since the present soil is both much worse in quality , and much less in quantity than the old one ; and since the heat , whether of the sun or central solid is so much lessen'd at the deluge , which things include the main causes of fertility ; 't is no wonder that the present earth is nothing near so fruitful and luxuriant in her productions , as the autediluvian was . xxxvi . the temperature of the antediluvian air was more equable as to its different climates , and its different seasons ; without such excessive and sudden heat and cold ; without the scorching of a torrid zone , and of burning summers ; or the freezing of the frigid zones , and of piercing winters ; and without such sudden and violent changes in the climates or seasons from one extreme to another , as the present air , to our sorrow , is subject to . xxxvi . seeing the primary state here mention'd , is but a proper result from the first formation of the earth ; all that need be accounted for , is the alteration at the deluge . ( . ) the mighty difference of climates , especially of the torrid and frigid zones , is , i suppose , owing not wholly to the sun's heat , or the nature of the air it self , but partly to those calorifick and frigorifick mixtures , which are uncertainly contain'd therein . meer heat and cold are very different things from that pothery and sultry , that frosty and congealing weather , which alternately in summer and winter , at the line and the poles we usually now feel . these effects seem plainly deriv'd from nitrous or sulphureous , or other the like steams exhaled into , mixed with , and sustained by that thick and gross atmosphere which now encompasses the earth . all which , i mean as well the gross atmosphere it self , as those its heterogeneous mixtures , are a very natural off-spring of the deluge , according to the present account thereof . for seeing we at that time pass'd clear through the chaotick atmosphere of a comet , and through the tail deriv'd from it , we must needs bear off , and acquire vast quantities of such heterogeneous and indigested masses , as our air now contains in it ; whence those effects here mention'd would naturally proceed . 't is probable the original air was too pure , rare , and thin , to sustain any gross and earthy particles , tho' they had been left in it at the first ; and so its heat both for kind and degree , was no other than the proper place and influence of the sun could require : and 't was then sure more uniform through the several climates of the earth than now it is ; when our air in the torrid zone , being full of sulphureous and sultry , and in the frigid ones of nitrous and freezing effluvia or exhalations , the violence of an unkindly in heat the one , and of the like unkindly cold in the other , are so sensible , and so pernicious , as all experience attests them now to be . ( . ) the uncertainty of our seasons , with the sudden and unexpected changes in the temper of our air , are on the same accounts equally visible with the former . for the temper of the air since the deluge , especially with regard to our sensations , not resulting from the external heat only , but from the kinds and quantities of its heterogeneous and adventitious mixtures , will not now depend on the season of the year alone , but on the veering of the wind , and its uncertain removal of the air and its steams from one region to another . thus if in summer the north wind chance to blow any long time together , 't will bring along with the air so great quantities of the cold , freezing , nitrous steams , as may quite overcome the sun's heat , and cause a very cold season of a sudden ; if the south wind do the like in the winter , the contrary effect will follow , and we shall have a warm season when frost and snow were more naturally to be expected . thus , accordingly , frequent experience shews the sun to be so little master of the seasons of the year , that sometimes january and july for several days are hardly distinguishable . it sometimes happens , that we have this day a frost , the next proves so warm , that the former cold is forgotten , till perhaps the succeeding night puts us more affectingly in mind of it again . nay , in a very few hours space a sultry and a freezing air not seldom do succeed each other , to the great harm and misery of mankind , and of all their fellow animals in our present state ; from which therefore we have good reason to believe our happier progenitors before the deluge were intirely free . ( . ) that our seasons are so extream in their several kinds , is easy to be hence accounted for also . for were there no sulphureous or calorifick steams in the air , all pothery and sultry weather , and such sort of heat as chiefly affects our bodies , would be quite avoided , and the great increase thereof after the summer solstice , which arises , 't is probable , in part from the airs retention of one days heat , till the next augments it again , would in good measure cease among us . and the like is to be said of the cold in winter , in all the respects before-mention'd . the original of all which effects being so easily deducible from the present account of the deluge , 't is no question but the antediluvians might , to their comfort , be wholly strangers to them . their climates were not of so very different temper ; their seasons leisurely and gradual , intirely following the solar course ; and their summers and winters not so mighty different ; at the most in the single proportion of the sun's presence or absence , direct or oblique situation . in this equable state the polar inhabitants might with little danger cut the line , and the ethiopians visit the frigid zones . in this condition of the world , the peculiar air of every country went not far from home , to disturb that of others : a few days never made any sensible alteration in the temperature of the air ; and all that an intire spring or autumn could do , would still leave the same pretty equable , to be sure very tolerable . on all which , and several other consequential accounts , we have but too much reason to envy the ancient happiness of our forefathers , and to be sensible of that fatal and destructive catastrophe , which the wickedness of mankind brought upon themselves , and all their posterity to this very day , at the deluge we are now speaking of . xxxvii . the constitution of the antediluvian air was thin , pure , subtile and homogeneous , without such gross steams , exhalations , nitrosulphureous , or other heterogeneous mixtures , as occasion coruscations , meteors , thunder , lightning , with contagious and pestilential infections in our present air ; and have so very pernicious and fatal ( tho' almost insensible ) effects in the world since the deluge . xxxvii . the consideration of the foregoing solution is sufficient to clear the present phaenomenon also ; to which therefore the reader is referr'd . xxxviii . the antediluvian air had no large , gross masses of vapours or clouds , hanging for long seasons in the same . it had no great round drops of rain , descending in multitudes together , which we call showers : but the ground was watered by gentle mists or vapours ascending in the day , and descending , in great measure , again in the succeeding night . xxxviii . this is also easily understood from what has been already said . so rare , thin , pure , and subtile an air as the antediluvian was , would scarce sustain such gross and heavy masses , as the clouds are : it would not precipitate the superior vapours upon the inferior in such quantities , and with such violence , as is necessary to the production of great round sensible drops of rain : it had no gross steams to retain heat after the cause of it was gone , and the sun set ; and so the vapours which were rais'd in the day , would descend again in the night , with the greatest regularity and gentleness . in all which respects the different nature , crassitude , and irregular composition of our present gross atmosphere , acquir'd at the deluge from the comet 's , in which such opake masses , as the clouds , are frequently to be observ'd , must naturally admit and require those contrary effects , which the present proposition takes notice of , and were to be here accounted for . xxxix . the antediluvian air was free from violent winds , storms , and agitations , with all their effects on the earth and seas , which we cannot but now be sufficiently sensible of . xxxix . these phaenomena are such proper consequents of a primitive formation , and the original of those opposite ones ever since the deluge so naturally thence to be deriv'd , that there is no reason to imagine them to have been before . a comet 's atmosphere is a very stormy fluid , wherein masses of opake matter are continually hurried about , all manner of ways , in a very uncertain and violent manner . seeing therefore we acquir'd at the deluge so great a quantity of the same atmosphere , of which ours is now in part compos'd , 't is impossible to expect any other state of things than such as this phaenomenon mentions , and was to be here accounted for . corollary . hence it appears , that the wind of the day , of which moses makes mention at the fall of man , was not a constant phaenomenon of the earth , but peculiar to that time . and this is very agreeable to the hypothesis before laid down of the commencement of the diurnal rotation at the very day here mention'd ; according to which , a wind must necessarily arise at that point of time , tho' there were none before or after , till the deluge . on that beginning of the diurnal rotation . ( . ) the equatorial regions would be elevated , the polar depress'd , the orb of earth would be chap'd and broken , and warm steams burst out at the fissures thereby produc'd ; all which could scarce happen without some agitation of the air. but , ( . ) what is more certain and more considerable , when the terraqueous globe began on a sudden to revolve from west to east , the air could not presently accompany it , and so must cause a wind from east to west ; till receiving by degrees the impression , it kept at last equal pace therewith , and resting respectively , caused a constant calm afterwards . which wind being therefore ( from the earth's velocity there ) greatest towards the equator and tropicks , near the latter of which was the place of paradise , would be considerable enough , especially in a state otherwise still and calm , to be taken notice of by the sacred history ; and be a kind of relick or footstep of the then commencement of that diurnal rotation , which is so necessary to account for it , and has been from other arguments already prov'd in its proper place . xl. the autediluvian air had no rain-bow ; as the present so frequently has . xl. this is easily accountable from what has been already said . for , ( . ) the descent of the vapours necessary to it was usually , if not only in the night when the absence of the sun rendred its appearance impossible . ( . ) the descending vapours compos'd only a gentle mist , not sensible round drops of rain , as we have before seen , on which yet the rain-bow entirely depends ; as those who understand the nature and generation thereof will easily confess . so that tho' the sun were above the horizon at the fall of the vapours , the appearance of the rainbow was not to be expected . ( . ) were the vapours that fell compos'd of sensible round drops , and fell in the day-time , and this in sufficient quantities , yet for want of a wind which might drive them together on one side , and thereby clear the air on the other , for the free admission of the rays of light , a rain-bow were seldom or never to be suppos'd before the deluge ; all which circumstances being now quite otherwise , give us clear reasons for the present frequent appearance of that beautiful and remarkable phaenomenon , tho' till the deluge , it was a perfect stranger to the world. xli . the antediluvians might only eat vegetables ; but the use of flesh after the flood was freely allow'd also . xli . that a state of nature as to the air , earth , fruits , and other circumstances so very different from ours at present , should require a suitable difference in the food and sustenance of mankind , is very reasonable to believe . but besides , ( . ) when the lives of animals were naturally so long , ( as in correspondence to mankind is fairly to be suppos'd ) before the deluge ; 't is not improbable that god almighty would not permit them to be taken away on any other occasion than that of sacrifice or oblation to himself . ( . ) perhaps in the tender and even condition of the antediluvians , the eating of flesh would have spoil'd their tempers , and shortened their lives ; such food being , i suppose , fitter for our gross and short-liv'd state since the flood , than that refin'd and lasting one before it . ( . ) perhaps the antediluvian vegetables were more juicy , nourishing , and wholsome , not only than flesh , but than themselves have since been ; which the better and more fertile soil out of which they grew then , gives some reason to conjecture . and whether they had not then some vegetables which we have not now , may deserve the consideration of such as search after their remains in the bowels of the earth : the same care of the vegetable , as of the animal-kingdom not appearing in the sacred history relating to the deluge . however , ( . ) if we observe that even at this day , the warm seasons and countries are less dispos'd to the eating of flesh than the cold ones ; and remember that the antediluvian air was in some degree warmer than the present , we shall not be wholly to seek for a particular reason of this phoenomenon . xlii . the lives of the antediluvians were more universally equal , and vastly longer than ours now are : men before the flood frequently approaching near to a thousand , which almost none now do to a hundred years of age. xlii . tho' several other things might here deserve to be consider'd , yet i shall only insist upon the difference between the antediluvian air , and that since the flood , to give an account of this proposition . the consideration of the pure , unmixed , equable , and gentle constitution of the former ; compar'd with the gross , thick , hetorogeneous , mutable , and violent condition of the latter , of it self affording a sufficient solution of this difficulty . that air which is drawn in every breath ; whose included particles , 't is probable , insinuate themselves continually into our blood , and the other fluids of our bodies ; and on which all experience shews humane life and health exceedingly to depend ; being at the deluge chang'd from a rare and thin , to a thick and gross consistence ; from an equability or gradual and gentle warmth and coolness of temperature , to extremity of heat and cold ; and that with the most sudden and irregular steps from one to another ; from true and pure air , or an homogeneous elastical fluid , to a mix'd and confused compositum or atmosphere , wherein all sorts of effluvia , sulphureous , nitrous , mineral and metallick , &c. are contain'd . which circumstances , if there were no other , will , i imagine , give a satisfactory account of the mighty difference as to the point of longaevity between the antediluvians and those which ever since have dwelt on the face of the earth . we may obtain some small and partial resemblance of it in a person who had liv'd many years upon the top of a high mountain , above the clouds and steams of our earth , and whose temperament of body was peculiarly dispos'd for so pure , thin , and undisturb'd an aether as there he enjoy'd ; and afterward were confin'd to the most foggy , marshy , and stinking part of the hundreds in essex , or of the boggs in ireland . what effect in point of life and health such a change must have on the person before-mention'd , 't is not difficult to imagine : and as easie , on a like comparison of the antediluvian aether , and the present atmosphere to account for the proposition before us ; and shew as well why men dye at all uncertain periods of years , and have while they live a precarious state of health , with frequent sicknesses ; as why none reach any whit near the long ages of those that before the deluge continued in health and security for near a thousand years . xliii . tho' the antediluvian earth was not destitute of lesser seas and lakes , every where dispers'd on the surface thereof ; yet had it no ocean , or large receptacle of waters , separating one continent from another , and covering so large a portion of it , as the present earth has . xliii . from the original formation of the earth above describ'd , and its unequal subsidence into the abyss beneath , while in the mean time vast quantities of vapours were sustain'd above , and afterwards let fall upon the earth , its surface would be unequal ; its lowest valleys fill'd with water ; and a truly terraqueous globe would arise . but these two plain reasons may be assigned why any great ocean were not to be expected at the same time . ( . ) so vast and deep a valley as the ocean implies , is not in reason to be deriv'd from such a regular formation of the earth from a chaos , as we have above describ'd . no good reason being assignable , why in such a confused mixture as we call a chaos , the parts should be so strangely dispos'd , that on one side , all the upper orb for some scores of degrees , and some thousands of miles together , should be denser and heavier than the rest , and by its sinking deepest into the abyss , produce the vast channel of the ocean ; while on another side the same orb , for as many degrees and miles , should be universally rare and light enough to be very much extant , and compose a mighty continent , as the case is in our present earth . tho' the atmosphere of a comet , be so truly heterogeneous , and it s opake or earthy masses so unequally scatter'd abroad on the different sides thereof , as even , setting aside the inequality of the density and specifick gravity of the several columns , might compose an orb of different thickness or crassitude , and so cause an unequal orb on the face of the abyss , like that we before suppos'd it originally to have been ; yet so mighty an inequality , as the present division of the earth into an ocean and continents must suppose , is by no means to be allow'd in the primitive chaos ; nor would i suppose by any be asserted , if the generation of those grand divisions of our globe were otherwise accountable : which on our principles being so easily done , as will soon appear , no reason can plead here for their primitive introduction . and sure those agitation and motions of parts visible in some sort now in comets atmospheres , and to be however granted in the digestion of its parts at first , must sure mix and jumble the parts together to a degree sufficient to prevent so strange an inequality , as the original existence of the ocean and continents must needs imply . however ( . ) the quantity of water preserv'd above ground was little or nothing more , as we have shew'd , than the heat of the sun and central solid was able to elevate , and the air at once to sustain , during half a years space ; the day time of the second period of the creation : which how insufficient it must have been to the filling of the great ocean , is easily understood . which things consider'd , the absence of the ocean , as well as the existence of seas , is very easily accountable in the antediluvian world. chap. iv. a solution of the phaenomena relating to the universal deluge , and its effects upon the earth . xliv . in the seventeenth century from the creation , there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious deluge of waters upon the earth . xliv . whatever difficulties may hitherto have rendred this most noted catastrophe of the old world , that it was destroy'd by waters , very hard , if not wholly inexplicable without an omnipotent power , and miraculous interposition ; since the theory of comets , with their atmospheres and tails is discover'd , they must vanish of their own accord . for if we consider that a comet is no other than a chaos ; including the very same bodies , and parts , of which our own earth is compos'd ; that the outward regions of its atmosphere are plain vapours , or such a sort of mist as we frequently see with us ; and the tail a column of the same vapours , rarified and expanded to a greater degree , as the vapours which in the clearest days or nights our air contains at present , are ; and that withal such a comet is capable of passing so close by the body of the earth as to involve it in its atmosphere and tail a considerable time , and leave prodigious quantities of the same condensed and expanded vapours upon its surface ; we shall easily see that a deluge of waters is by no means an impossible thing ; and in particular that such an individual deluge as to the time , quantity , and circumstances which moses describes , is no more so , but fully accountable , that it might be , nay almost demonstrable that it really was . all which the solutions following will i think give an easie and mechanical account of . xlv . this prodigious deluge of waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent rain , for the space of forty days , and as many nights , without intermission . xlv . when the earth passed clear through the atmosphere and tail of the comet , in which it would remain for about or hours ( as from the velocity of the earth , and the crassitude of the said tail on calculation does appear ) it must acquire , from the violence of the column of vapours descend towards the sun , impeded by the earth's interposition and reception of the same ; and from the attractive power of the earth it self withal , enforcing more to descend ; it must , i say , acquire upon its surface immense quantities of the vapours before mention'd . a great part of which being in a very rare and expanded condition , after their primary fall , would be immediately mounted upward into the air , and afterward descend in violent and outragious rains upon the face of the earth . all those vapours which were rarer and lighter than that air which is immediately contiguous to the earth , must certainly ascend to such a height therein , where its density and specifick gravity were correspondent ( as far as that croud of their fellow vapours , with which the air was oppress'd would give leave ; ) and so afterwards , as they cool'd , thicken'd , and collected together , like our present vapours must descend in most prodigious showers of rain for a long time afterwards , and very naturally occasion that forty days and forty nights rain mention'd in the proposition before us . xlvi . this vast quantity of waters was not deriv'd from the earth or seas , as rains constantly now are ; but from some other superior and coelestial original . xlvi . this is already evident from what has been just now said : the source of all these rains being one of those superior or coelestial bodies which we call comets ; or more peculiarly the atmosphere and tail thereof . xlvii . this vast fall of waters , or forty days rain , began on the fifth day of the week , or thursday the twenty seventh day of november , being the seventeenth day of the second month from the autumnal equinox ; ( corresponding this year . to the twenty eighth day of october ) xlvii . this has been already explain'd in effect , in the hypothesis hereto relating ; where it was prov'd that a comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the earth ; and by consequence began those rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any interruption . xlviii . the other main cause of the deluge , was the breaking up the fountains of the great abyss , or causing such chaps and fissures in the upper earth , as might permit the waters contain'd in the bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards , to ascend , and so add to the quantity of those which the rains produced . xlviii . this has in part been explain'd in the lemmata hereto relating ; and will be more fully understood from the figure there also refer'd to . for let adbc represent the earth , moving along the ecliptick gh , from g towards h. 't is evident that the figure of the earth before the approach of the comet , as far as 't is here concern'd , was sphaerical . but now , let us suppose the comet bi dh ( as it was descending towards its perihelion , along its trajectory ef , from e towards f ) to approach very near , and arrive at the nearest position , represented in the figure . 't is evident that this presence of the comet would cause a double tide , as well in the seas above , as in the abyss below ; the former of which being less considerable in it self , and not to our present purpose , need not be taken any farther notice of : but the latter would be vastly great , ( suppose seven or eight miles high above its former position ) would produce mighty effects on the orb above it , and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place . as soon therefore as the comet came pretty near , ( as suppose within the moon 's distance ) this double tide would begin to rise , and increase all the time of its approach , till the comet was nearest of all , as in the figure . and then these tides , or double protuberances of the abyss , would be at their utmost height . so that the surface of the abyss , and of its incumbent orb of earth , would put on that elliptick , or rather truly and exactly oval figure , under which 't is here represented . now , 't is certain , that this sphoeroid surface of the abyss is larger than its former sphoerical one ; 't is also certain , that the orb of earth which rested on this abyss , must be oblig'd to follow its figure , and accommodate it self to this large oval ; which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd solid , continued , and conjoyn'd , it must of necessity enlarge it self , and by the violent force of the encreasing surface of the abyss be stretch'd , crack'd , broken , and have innumerable fissures made quite through it , from the upper to the under surface thereof , nearly perpendicular to the same surfaces . so that this orb of earth which originally , in its primary formation , was sphaerical ; its inward compages or strata even , conjoin'd , and continual ; which had afterward , at the commencing of the diurnal rotation , been chang'd into an oblate sphoeroid , and at the same time been thereby broken , chap'd , and disjointed ; by that time its wounds had been well healed , and it was in some measure setled , and fix'd in such a condition , receiv'd this new disruption at the deluge . it s old fissures were open'd , and the fountains of the abyss ( most naturally and emphatically so stil'd , according to dr. woodward's , account of the origin of fountains ) broken up ; and sufficient gaps made for a communication between the abyss below , and the surface of the earth above the same , if any occasion should be given for the ascent of the former , or descent of any thing from the latter . and here 't is to be noted , that these chaps and fissures , tho' they were never so many or so open , could not of themselves raise any subterraneous waters , nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the earth . the upper orb was long ago setled , and sunk as far into the abyss as the law of hydrostaticks requir'd ; and whether 't were intire or broken , would cause no new pressure ; and no more than maintain its prior situation on the face of the deep . these fissures had been at least as open and extended in their original generation , when the diurnal rotation began , as at this time , and yet was there no danger of a deluge . so that tho' this breaking up of the fountains of the deep was a prerequisite condition , and absolutely necessary to the ascent of the subterraneous waters , yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof : that is to be deriv'd from another original , and is as follows . as soon as the presence of the comet had produc'd those vast tides , or double elevation and depression of the abyss , and thereby disjointed the earth , and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the body of it , the fall of waters began , and quickly cover'd the earth , and crouded the air with vast quantities there of : which waters being adventitious or additional ones , and of a prodigious weight withal , must press downward with a mighty force , and endeavour to sink the orb of earth deeper into the abyss , according as the intire weight of each column of earth , and its incumbent waters together , agreeably to the law of hydrostaticks , did now require . and had the earth , as it was in its first subsiding into the abyss , been loose , separate , and unfix'd , so as to admit the abyss between its parts , and suffer a gentle subsidence of the columns of earth in the requisite proportion , we could scarce have expected any elevation of the subterraneous waters . but the strata of the earth were long ago setled , fastened , and consolidated together , and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid . on which account the new and vast pressure of the orb of earth upon the abyss would certainly force it upward , or any way , wheresoever there were a passage for it : to which therefore the breaches , holes , and fissures so newly generated , or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the tides in the abyss beneath , would be very ready and natural outlets ; through which it would ascend with a mighty force , and carry up before it whatever was in its way , whether fluid or solid , whether 't were earth or water . and seeing , as we before saw , the lower regions of the earth were full of water , pervading and replenishing the pores and interstices thereof ; which waters on the opening of the fissures would from all sides ouze into , and fill up the inferiour parts of the same , and rest upon the face of the abyss ; the dense fluid of the abyss , in its violent ascent through the fissures , would carry before it , and throw out at the tops of the said fissures great quantities of the same ; and if its force were any where sufficient , would cast it self also out at the same passages ; and by both or either ways would mightily add to the quantity of the waters already on the face of the earth , and become a fresh and a prodigious augmentation of that deluge , which began already to overwhelm and destroy the inhabitants thereof . for the better apprehension of this matter , let us imagine the following experiment were made . suppose a cylinder of stone or marble fitted so exactly to a hollow cylindrical vessel , that it may just ascend or descend freely within it : let the cylinder of stone or marble have small holes bored quite through it , parallel to the axis thereof : let the vessel be fill'd half full of water ; and the cylinder , as gently as you please , be put into the vessel , till it touch the water : let then each of the holes through the cylinder be fill'd in part with oyl , or any other fluid lighter than the water , to swim upon the surface thereof : things being thus provided , you have the very case of the deluge before you ; and what effects you here , in a lesser degree , will observe , are but the representations of those great and remarkable ones of which we are now speaking . for as the weight of the cylinder pressing upon the surface of the water would squeeze the oyl upon its surface through the holes , and cast it out thereat with some violence , and cast it self too out at the same passages if the holes were not too high , in comparison to the quantity of the intire pressure upon the surface of the water ; just so the weight of the columns of earth , augmented by the additional waters of the comet , would squeeze and press upon the surface of the abyss ; which being a fluid mass , and incapable of sustaining a pressure in one part , without equally communicating it to all the rest , any way whatsoever ; must burst out wherever such pressure was wanting , and throw it self up the fissures ; carrying up before it , and throwing out upon the earth those waters which ( like oyl on the water in the experiment ) lay upon its surface , and for the altitude perhaps of some miles cover'd the same ; and thereby mightily increasing the greatness of the deluge , and having a main stroke in that destruction which it brought upon the earth . all which , i think , gives us a clear , easie , and mechanical account of this ( hitherto inexplicable ) secondary cause of the deluge , the breaking up the fountains of the great deep , and thereat the elevating the subterraneous waters , and bringing them out upon the face of the earth . corollary . these chaps or fissures at the deluge would commonly be the same with those at the commencing of the diurnal rotation . it being easier to break the compages of the earth where it had once been broken already , and was never united well again , than in other places where it was intire and continued : and those parts which sustain'd the rather greater force at the former convulsion , would at least as well sustain this , of which we are now speaking , and preserve their former continuity still , as they did before the flood . coroll . . hence if these fissures are the occasion and source of fountains , as dr. woodward very probably asserts , the antediluvian and postdiluvian springs must be generally the very same ; as arising from the same originals ; so far as the mutations at the earth's surface to be afterward explain'd would permit and allow in the case . coroll . . since we have before shew'd , that the mountainous columns of the earth are the loosest , the least compacted , and least solid of all others , the earth would be the most subject to the fissures and breaches in those parts , and the generality of springs and rivers would now proceed from thence : unless the peculiar stony , or other firm compages of the same prevented the effects here mention'd , as sometimes perhaps might happen in the present case . coroll . . hence 't is evident , that there was no great ocean , but only smaller lakes and seas , before the flood . for otherwise the tule or flux of the ocean would have been so great and violent , as to have superseded almost all the designs of the ensuing deluge , and have withal extremely endanger'd , if not certainly destroy'd , the ark , and all those creatures which were entring into it : which the small tides in the small lakes and seas would not at all affect , or disturb . xlix . all these fountains of the great deep were broken up on the very first day of the deluge , or the very first day when the rains began . xlix . this is very easily understood from the space of time that the comet was near the earth . for the duration of this disruption , or breaking of the orb of earth , occasion'd by the nearness of the comet , must be commensurate thereto ; which , tho' we should take in all the space it was nearer than the moon , could not possibly , as is easie to calculate , amount to nine hours ; which is indeed much more than need be allow'd ; and is yet sufficiently within that days space which this phaenomenon , if occasion were , could allow us to suppose ; and so fully satisfies the same . l. yet the very same day , noah , his family , and all the animals entred into the ark. l. tho' 't is otherwise not a little strange that the entry into the ark should be defer'd till this day ; yet 't is clear and easie on the present hypothesis . for as to the fountains of the great deep , which were broken up this day , thereby the earth and its contents were only gradually and insensibly elevated ; but no other disturbance given to noah in his entry into the ark at the same time . the fissures indeed were now made , but till the weight of the waters from the comet could operate , no water would from thence arise to disturb him . and tho' they had , yet unless there were some of the great fissures or spouts just where he was , no interruption could this day be given him therefrom . as to the rains themselves , tho' they all fell first upon the earth nearly within the compass of this day , and so must cause a most prodigious destruction and confusion upon the earth where they so fell ; yet the peculiar situation of mount caucasus , on or near which the ark was , did secure it ; this day , tho' so outragious and destructive a one to the inhabitants of the other parts of the globe , was yet here fair and calm , as at other times : which is thus demonstrated . 't is evident that mount caucasus is ficuate pretty near the center of our northern continent ; or indeed some or degrees northeast from the same ; that is , as will hereafter appear , pretty near the point b , or somewhat below it towards c : which mountain caucasus was directly expos'd therefore to the comet at its nearest distance , represented in the figure . when the comet therefore was moving from e to f , so soon as the earth came within its atmosphere and tail , a cylindrical column of vapours would be intercepted , and bore off by the earth in its passage , whose basis were somewhat larger than a great circle on the earth , and whose direction or axis , from the compound motion of the comet and of the earth , were at about degrees of inclination with the ecliptick or parallel to cd , the lesser axis of the earth . that is , the first fall of the vapours would affect one hemisphere of the earth at a time , that , namely , which were properly expos'd to their descent ; and the other would be not at all affected therewith , till the earth's diurnal rotation by degrees expos'd the other parts in like manner , and brought every one at last within the verge of that hemisphere on which was the first and most violent descent of the vapours . now this hemisphere would be represented in the figure by a d b ; and the opposite one , which intirely escap'd at the same time by a c b. so that seeing the ark , or mount caucasus , was below the point b ; and by the diurnal rotation quickly got farther within the fair hemisphere ; it would remain in the same during all the time of this first violent fall of the waters , and have a calm and quiet day for the entry into the ark ; while the other regions of the globe were subject to so violent a storm , and such fury of descending vapours as no age past or future had been , or were to be exposed to . this place could only be capable of some falling vapours three or four hours after sun-set , in case the earth were not at that time got clear of the tail of the comet , in which it had been all the preceding day : and consequently , noah had as fair and calm a time of entring into the ark , with all his family , and the other animals , as could be desir'd ; when no other parts of the globe , but those agreeing in such a peculiar situation with him , could have permitted the same . which is , i think , not a meer satisfactory , but a very surprizing account of the present proposition . corollary . hence the time of the breaking open of the fountains of the deep , and of the beginning of the rains , very nearly coincident therewith , is determin'd ; and that , agreeably to the mosaick history , much nearer than to a day ; ( with which exactness we have hitherto contented our selves in the case ) and indeed almost to an hour . for seeing all the fountains of the great deep were broken up on this day ; seeing the forty days rain began on the same day ; seeing noah , with all his family , and all the other creatures entred on this self-same day into the ark ; all which certainly require very near an intire day ; and yet seem very incompatible ; there is no other way but to assert , that tho' the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep , and the fall of the waters , were coincident , and upon the same day with the entry into the ark , as the text most expresly asserts ; yet the place where the ark was , escap'd the effects of the same till the evening ; and while the rest of the earth was abiding the fury of the same , enjoy'd so calm , fair , and undisturb'd a day , as permitted their regular and orderly going into the ark before the waters overtook them . so that the deluge must , according to the sacred history , have commenc'd in the morning , and yet not reach'd the particular place where noah was till the evening , or the coming on of the ensuing night : which how exactly the present hypothesis is correspondent to , i shall leave the reader to judge from what has been said under this last proposition ; according to which 't is plain , that the comet pass'd by the earth , broke up the fountains of the deep , and began the forty days rains after sun-rising , about eight or nine a clock in the morning ; from which time till eight or nine a clock at night , and long after sun-set , tho' the waters fell with the greatest violence on the earth , yet they affected a single hemisphere at a time only , into which the diurnal rotation did not all that while convert the regions near the ark ; and this most nicely and wonderfully corresponds to the greatest accuracy of the present case , and of the mosaick history . so that now we may , agreeably both to the sacred history , and the calculations from the present hypothesis , assert , that the deluge began at the meridian of mount caucasus on thursday the twenty seventh day of november , in the year of the julian period , , between eight and nine a clock in the morning . which exactness of solution , wherein not only the day , but almost hour assign'd from the mosaick history is correspondent to the present hypothesis , how remarkable an attestation it is to the same , and how full a confirmation of the most accurate verity of the mosaick history , i need not remark : such reflections when just , being very natural with every careful reader . corollary . here is an instance of the peculiar providence of god in the preservation of the ark , by ordering the situation so as to escape the violence of the thick vapours in their first precipitate fall , which otherwise must probably have dash'd it to pieces . for considering their velocity of motion , which indeed was incredible , no less than eight hundred miles in the space of a minute ; 't is not easy to suppose , that any building could sustain and preserve it self under the violence thereof ; which we see the ark , by the peculiar place of its situation , twenty or twenty five degrees north-east from the center of our northern continent , was wonderfully secured from , while the other regions of the earth were exposed thereto , and in great measure , 't is probable , destroy'd thereby . coroll . . hence 't is evident , that the place of the ark before assign'd , at mount caucasus , was its true one , and not any mountain in or near armenia . for had it been there seated , it had been expos'd to the violence of the falling vapours , and instead of a quiet entry into the ark on this first day of the deluge , the ark it self , with all the creatures that were to be preserv'd in it , would have utterly perish'd in the very beginning thereof . coroll . . hence the reason may easily be given , why the history of the deluge takes no notice of this passing by of the comet ; viz. because none of those who surviv'd the deluge , could see or perceive the same . for at the time of the approach of the comet at first , both the latter end of the night-season , when all were asleep ; and the mists , which according to the nature of the antediluvian air , were probably then upon the earth , and obscur'd the face of the heavens , hindred any prospect of this dreadful body . and soon after the morning came , they were actually involv'd in the atmosphere of the comet , and so in its tail presently after , which would only appear a strange and unusual mist or cloud at a distance , wholly depriving them of the distinct view of the comet it self , and leaving them utterly ignorant of the true occasion of the following catastrophe , unless any intimation should have been given them thereof by a divine revelation . li. tho' the first and most violent rains continued without intermission but forty days , yet after some time the rains began again , and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh month , or a hundred and fifty days after the deluge began . li. it has been already abserv'd , that the comet would involve the earth in its tail a second time , about fifty four or fifty five days after its first passing by , as well as it did before ; as 't is also represented in the figure . which being suppos'd , the earth must receive a new stock of vapours as before ; and the rains which had intermitted for fourteen or fifteen days , must begin again . the differences between the former and latter rains would be , ( . ) these latter vapours proceeding from the tail , whereas the former did principally from the much denser atmosphere of the comet , would be less copious , and less violent than the other , and cause a gentler rain . ( . ) these vapours being newly rarified by the prodigious heat at the perihelion , and rais'd thereby to a mighty height in the tail , from their greater rarity and lightness , higher ascent in our air consequent thereupon , and longer time thence necessary to their cooling and descent in rains upon the earth , would be much longer in falling , and produce a continual rain of many more days than the former did . both which are exactly agreeable to the mosaick history ; whence it appears , that the first rains had the principal stroke in the deluge ; and that if this secondary rain commenc'd at the time here assign'd , it must have continued or days ; which is considerably more than double the number of those , within which the former rains were confin'd . lii . this second , and less remarkable rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was . lii . this is sufficiently evident already , since the same comet afforded the matter for both rains equally . liii . tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up , and the forty days rain began at the same time ; yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth , or distinct augmentation of the waters , as if it were on three several accounts , and at three several times . liii . this is particularly correspondent to the present hypothesis ; wherein ( . ) the principal rain of days ; ( . ) the eruption and ascent of the subterraneous waters , occasion'd by their weight and pressure ; ( . ) the lesser rain of or days , were both different in themselves , and in their time of commencing , and caus'd a distinct augmentation of the waters , agreeably to the greatest nicety of this proposition . liv. the waters of the deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height ; and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth . liv. this is evident as to the increase of the deluge , by what has been already said ; and will equally be so of its decrease , when we come to it hereafter . lv. the waters of the deluge were still , calm , free from commotions , storms , winds , and tempests , of all sorts , during the whole time in which the ark was afloat upon them . lv. it has already appear'd , that there were no storms , tempests , or other violent commotions in the antediluvian air till the deluge ; and that during the space here referr'd to , none would arise , 't is but reasonable to allow . for as to the first and principal rain , it was so constant , so downright , and so uninterrupted , that no little commotion in the air could have place ; or if it had , could disturb it ; which is commonly the case of long and setled rains with us at this day . as to the subterraneous waters , ascending with some violence , they were confin'd to several particular places , and not universal ; and though they might cause some commotions at the bottom of the waters , yet might the surface of the same , and the air , be sufficiently calm and undisturb'd . but as to the third cause of the deluge , it must be granted , agreeably to what has been before observ'd , that the descending vapours would not be merely such , but mix'd with many heterogenerous particles of all sorts , sulphur , brimstone , niter , coal , mineral effluvia , metallick steams , and the like , which the prodigious heat at the perihelion had dissolv'd and elevated into the tail of the comet : from the confused mixture , irregular fermentations , and disagreeing motions of all which , 't is probable the preternatural and violent commotions in the atmosphere then , and since , are mainly to be deduc'd . so that assoon as the latter or days rains were almost over ; assoon as these rarified corpuscles were descended into the lower and narrower regions of the air ; and being crouded closer , were , by the greater heat there predominant , put into such irregular fermentations as they were already disposed for ; 't is natural to suppose that winds , and storms of all sorts , and those in a very extraordinary manner , would arise , and cause the most sensible and extream perturbations of the waters ( now covering to a vast depth the face of the whole earth ) that could easily be conceiv'd : of which the following proposition will give farther occasion to discourse . lvi . yet during the deluge there were both winds and storms of all sorts in a very violent manner . lvi . seeing , as we just now saw , that at the end of the latter rains the greatest storms possible were to be expected ; and seeing yet the ark , which had been afloat so long , and was so still ( the waters being now at the very highest ) was incapable of abiding a stormy sea , as we prov'd under the former phaenomenon ; there at first view appears the greatest danger imaginable , of its perishing in the future immoderate and extraordinary commotions . and this danger is increased by this reflection ; that as probably it had been afloat during the most part of the days , while the waters were gradually and gently augmenting ; so one would imagine ought it to be , for at least as many days , during the at least as gentle and gradual decrease of the same afterwards : i. e. the ark ought to have been as long afloat in the stormy , as it had been in the calm part of the deluge . but this difficulty , which is to appearance so entirely insoluble , will soon vanish , if we consider that the ark rested upon caucasus , the then highest mountain in the world . for seeing the waters prevailed above the same mountain cubits only , a great part of which depth of water would be drawn by the ark it self ; upon the very first ceasing of the rains from above , and of the waters from the abyss beneath , which permitted the least subsiding and diminution of the deluge , the ark must immediately rest upon the ground , and thereby secure it self from the impending storms . and that accordingly it did so , at the time assign'd , on the conclusion of the days , or the very same individual day when the wind began , is particularly and expresly observ'd and affirm'd by moses : which being a very remarkable coincidence , exactly agreeable to the present hypothesis , as well as to the sacred history , and of very considerable importance , i shall set down the words at large , as follows : the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days ( viz. from the seventeenth of thesecond , to the seventeenth of the seventh month ) . and god remembred noah , and every living thing , and all the cattel that was with him in the ark : and god made a wind to pass over the earth , and the waters asswaged . the fountains also of the deep , and the windows of heaven were stopped , and the rain from heaven was restrained . and the waters returned from off the earth continually : and after the end of the hundred and fifty days , the waters were abated . and the ark rested in the seventh month , on the seventeenth day of the month , upon the mountains of ararat . corollary . hence 't is obvious to remark the wonderful providence of god for the preservation of the ark , and the sole remains of the old world therein contain'd , in ordering all circumstances , so , that it was afloat just all the calm season of the deluge , but as soon as ever any tempestuous weather arose , was safe landed on the top of caucasus . lvii . this deluge of waters was universal in its extent and effect ; reaching to all the parts of the earth , and destroying all the land-animals on the intire surface thereof ; those only excepted which were with noah in the ark. lvii . this might justly have been made a corollary of the next proposition , ( for if the waters in any one region , much more a compleat hemisphere , exceeded the tops of the highest mountains , it would certainly diffuse it self and overflow the other also ) : but being capable in the present hypothesis of a separate proof , deserves a distinct consideration . now of the several causes of the deluge , those vapours which were deriv'd from the comet 's tail , both at the first and second passage of the earth through the entire column thereof , by reason of the earth's mora , or abiding therein about hours , or a semi-revolution , and the fall of the vapours on an entire hemisphere at the same time , would affect the whole earth , and though not exactly equally , yet pretty universally make a deluge in all the regions of the globe . the subterraneous waters , being the proper effect of the weight of the other , would also be as universal as they , and that every where , generally speaking , in the same proportion . 't is true , the waters which were derived from the atmosphere of the comet ( the principal source of the days rain ) were not wholly so universal as the former at first , by reason of the shorter mora or abiding of the earth therein ( though even much above half of the earth's entire surface would hence be immediately affected ) : but if we consider the velocity of the earth's diurnal rotation , and that the mass of newly acquir'd vapours was not at first partaker of the same , but by degrees to receive the impression thereof , we shall with ease apprehend , that a few of the first rotations would wind or wrap these , as well as the other vapours , quite round the earth , and thereby cause a very equal distribution of them all in the atmosphere , and at last render the rains very evenly universal . to which uniform distribution the nature of the air it self , as at present it i suppose does , might contribute : such an elastical fluid as the air scarce suffering a lasting density or croud of vapours in one region , without communicating some part to the others adjoining ; that so a kind of equilibrium in the weight , crassitude , and density of its several columns may be preserv'd through the whole . so that at last , the deluge must have been universal , because every one of the causes thereof appear to have been truly so . lviii . the waters at their utmost height were fifteen cubits above the highest mountains , or three miles at the least perpendicular above the common surface of the plains and seas . lviii . in order to make some estimate of the quantity of water which this hypothesis affords us , let us suppose that the one half came from the comet , or the rains ; and the other half from the subterraneous water : ( tho' 't is not impossible that much the greater part might arise from the latter : ) let us also suppose , that the tenth part of the rest arose from the tail of the comet , at both the times of its enclosing the earth ; and the other nine from its atmosphere ; ( tho' 't is possible that a much less proportion ought to be deriv'd from the former ) 't is evident from the velocity of comets , at the distance from the sun here to be consider'd , and the usual crassitude or diameter of the tails thereof , that the earth would be near half a day , or hours each time within the limits thereof ; and by consequence that it would intercept and receive upon it self a cylindrical column of vapour , whose basis were equal to that of a great circle on the earth , and whose altitude were about miles . if we therefore did but know the proper density of the vapour compesing the tail of the comet , or what proportion it bears to that of water , 't were easie to reduce this matter to calculation , and very nearly to determine the quantity enquired after . that the tail of a comet , especially at any considerable distance from the comet it self , is exceeding rare , is evident , by the vastness of its extent , and the distinct appearance of the sixt stars quite through the immense crassitude of its entire column . let us , for computation's sake , suppose that the density of water to that of this expanded column of vapour is as to one ; or , which is all one , ( since water is to our air in density as to one ) that the density of our air , is to the density of this coulmn of vapour , as to one , ( which degree of rareness if it be not enough at a great distance from the comet , as at the second passage ; yet i suppose may be more than sufficient at the very region adjoining thereto , as at the first passage ; and so upon the whole no unreasonable hypothesis : ) so that if we divide the altitude of this cylindrical column of ( miles , or ) feet by ( by ) we shall have a column of water equal thereto . by which calculation the quantity of water acquir'd at each time of the passage through the tail , would equal a cylinder , whose basis were a great circle on the earth , as above ; and whose altitude were feet : which quantity being twice acquir'd , must be doubled ; and then will amount to a cylinder whose basis were the same as above , and whose altitude were double the others , or feet . now archimedes has demonstrated , that the intire superficies of a sphere or globe is four times as large as the area of one of its great circles . and by consequence the column of vapour before-mention'd , when converted into rain water , and spread upon the face of the earth , would cover the globe intirely round ( had there been no dryland or mountains extant above the surface of the plains and seas ) a quarter of the height last assign'd , or / feet every way : which being suppos'd , and what was at the first postulated of the atmosphere's quota , the whole water afforded by the comet-will cover the earth intirely to the perpendicular height of the c / feet . to which add , by the original postulatum , the equal quantity ascending from the bowels of the earth , the total amounts to feet ; or above two miles perpendicular altitude : which , when allowance is made for those large spaces taken up by the extant dry land and mountains , will approach very near that three miles perpendicular height requir'd by the present phaenomenon . corollary . if the several particulars requisite to the nice adjustment of these computations were more exactly enquir'd into , some light on the present hypothesis , might be afforded to the density of the atmospheres and tails of comets , which is hitherto undetermin'd ; the consideration of which matter must be refer'd to astronomers . lix . whatever be the height of the mountain caucasus , whereon the ark rested , now ; it was at that time the highest in the whole world. lix . if we consult the figure here refer'd to , we shall easily apprehend the reason of this , otherwise , strange phicnomenon . for seeing this mountain was the highest in asia , or the middle regions of our continent ; and seeing withal that intire continent , and chiefly the middle regions thereof , were elevated by the greatest protuberance of the abyss dbc above any other correspondent parts of the whole globe , the absolute or intire height of this mountain arises not only from its proper altitude above the neighbouring plains , but also from the elevation of the whole continent , or peculiarly of its middle regions above the ancient surface of the seas ; so that by this advantage of situation , it was at the time here concern'd higher not only than its neighbours , which its own elevation was sufficient for , but than any other on the face of the whole earth : some of which otherwise it could , i believe , by no means have pretended to match , much less to out-do in altitude . now altho' the presence of the comet which produc'd these tides in the abyss , and elevated the intire continents above their ancient level , did not remain after the disruption of the fountains of the deep on the first day of the deluge ; yet the effect thereof , the elevation of the continents above their ancient level , would not so soon , nay would scarce ever intirely cease . we know by common observation , that if a solid or setled mass of bodies be torn or pull'd in pieces , 't is not easie to put every thing into its place , and reduce the whole to the same fixed position , and within the same fixed limits , it had before . if a solid compacted mound of earth were once shatter'd and divided , were levell'd and remov'd , tho' afterward every individual dust of the former earth were laid together again upon the very same plot and compass , yet would individual dust of the former earth were laid together again upon the very same plot and compass , yet would it not be immediately confin'd within its ancient dimensions ; its height would be at first considerably greater than before ; and tho' that in length of time would be by degrees diminish'd , by the gradual setling and crouding together of the parts , and so some approaches would be made thereby towards its ancient density , and lesser elevation ; yet neither would be intirely attain'd ; in any moderate space of time at least . and this is the very case before us . that oval figure which the orb of earth was stretch'd to at the deluge , would remain for a considerable time , and be many years in setling so close together , that it might afterward remain fixt and firm for the following generations ; before which time 't is evident , that the regions near the center of our northern or larger continent , were the highest , and those at degrees distance every where the lowest ; and by consequence at the time of the arks resting , the mountain caucasus , near the center of the northern continent , was elevated above the rest , and particularly above the pike of teneriff , which seems to be at present the highest of all others . and thus that terrible phaenomenon is solv'd , which the reverend mr. warren was so puzzled with , that even on the allowance of so much miracle as the creation of the waters of the deluge , and annihilation of the same afterward , yet could he not account for the letter of moses without a forc'd and ungrounded supposition , to the same purpose with the proposition before us : as you will find him , and not without reason , very emphatically expressing himself on this occasion . corollary . here is a visible instance of the divine providence for the preservation of the remains of the old world , by ordering the building of the ark near that which would be the highest mountain in the world ; that so upon the very first ceasing of the rains , and the beginning of the winds and storms , it might immediately be safe on the top thereof . coroll . . the same careful and wise providence is conspicuous in the so accurately adjusting all the circumstances of the deluge ; that tho' it should be high enough to destroy the whole stock of the dry-land animals ; and yet but just so much above the mountain caucasus , as permitted the ark to rest at the very first decrease of the waters , and the commencing perturbations of the air , and the waves necessarily ensuing ; which otherwise must still have destroy'd it , notwithstanding the advantage of its situation before observ'd . coroll . . supposing the truth of our first postulatum , of the verity of the letter of the mosaick history ; as certain as is the greater height of the pike of teneriff , or of any other mountain in the world , above that of caucasus now ; ( of which i suppose no body makes any question ) so certain is it ( bating unknown causes , and a miraculous power , as is always in such cases to be suppos'd ) that a comet was the cause of the mosaick deluge . for 't is certain , by the plainest deduction from the express words of scripture , that the mountain on which the ark rested was at that time the highest in the world. 't is therefore certain , that the continent or basis on which mount caucasus stand , was elevated higher at the deluge than 't is at present : and 't is also certain , that no body or mass of bodies in the whole world can elevate or depress a continent of the earth , but such as are capable of approaching the same ; or in other words , but comets ; and consequently a comet did approach near the earth at the time assigned , and was the cause of the deluge . which chain or connexion . i take to be so strong , that i believe 't will not be possible to evade its force ; and so what on other arguments has been already establish'd , is fully confirm'd by this . coroll . . 't is equally dcmonstrable , that the upper orb or habitable earth is founded on a subterraneous fluid , denser and heavier than it self : this circumstance being absolutely necessary to account for the phaenomenon we are now upon . for if the internal regions of the globe were firm and solid ( as is commonly suppos'd ; tho' wholly gratis , and without ground : ) tho' the comet had pass'd by , yet there could have been no elevation of any continent , and the proposition before us must still have remain'd insoluble . lx. as the fountains of the great deep were broken up at the very same time that the first rains began , so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last rains ended ; on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. lx. tho' i cannot say that the account of the deluge , now given , can determine to a day the time of the subterraneous waters ceasing to spout forth ( this stoppage of the fountains of the deep in moses ) yet 't is evident , that the time defin'd by the history is very agreeable to that which from the consideration of the thing it self one should naturally pitch upon . for since the ascent of the subterraneous waters depended on the waters produc'd by the rains , as on the beginning of those rains it began to ascend , on the continuance thereof continued to do the like , so at the ceasing , probably enough might it cease also ; as this proposition assures us it really did . lxi . the abatement and decrease of the waters of the deluge was first by a wind which dried up some . and secondly , by their descent through those fissures , chaps , and breaches , at which part of them had before ascended into the bowels of the earth , which received the rest . to which latter also the wind , by hurrying the waters up and down , and so promoting their lighting into the before-mention'd fissures , was very much subservient . lxi . in order to the giving a satisfactory account of this proposition , and of the draining the waters of the deluge off the surface of the earth ( which to some has seem'd almost as difficult to solve as their first introduction ) ; it must first be granted that the air could receive and sustain but very inconsiderable quantities , in comparison of the intire mass which lay upon the earth ; yet some it might , and would naturally do ; which accordingly both the wind here mentioned , and the sun also took away , and turn'd into vapour immediately after the ceasing of the latter rains. but as to all the rest , there is no imaginable place for their reception , or whither their natural gravity oblig'd them to retreat to , excepting the bowels of the earth ; which must therefore be distinctly consider'd in this place . now we may remember , from what has been formerly said , that the quantity of solids , or earthy parts in the upper orbs primary formation , was very much greater than that of fluids , or watery parts ; and consequently , that the inward regions of the earth being generally dry and porous , were capable of receiving mighty quantities of waters without any swelling , without any alteration of the external figure , or visible bulk . and indeed , if we allow , as we ought , any considerable crassitude to this upper orb , its interior regions might easily contain a much greater quantity of waters than what was upon the earth at the deluge ; especially when so great a part of them was before there , and would only fill up their old places again . so that all the difficulty is now reduc'd to this , by what pipes , canals , or passages , these waters could be convey'd into the bowels of the earth ? which in truth can admit of no dispute , nothing sure being to be conceiv'd more natural inlets to these waters , than those very perpendicular fissures which were the outlets to so great a part of them before . as soon therefore as the waters ceas'd to ascend upwards through those breaches , they must to be sure descend downward's by the same ; and this descent is more natural than the prior ascent could be esteem'd to be ; which was a force upon them , compelling them against their natures to arise upwards , when this retreat into the same interstices is no other than their own proper gravity requir'd , and inclin'd them to . the case here is in part like that of a sive , first by force press'd down into a vessel of water , till it were fill'd therewith , and then suffer'd to emerge again ; where through the very same holes at which the waters ascended into , they afterward descended out of the sive again , and retreated into their own element as before . all that in particular deserves here to be farther noted , is , the interest of the wind , or of the agitations of the waters ( goings and returnings in the hebrew phrase ) made mention of in this proposition . and these commotions are in truth very useful , and very necessary assistants to the draining of the waters from off the earth . for when the most part of the fissures were in the mountains , 't would have been a difficult thing to clear the vallies and lower grounds , had there been a perfect calm , and every collection of waters remain'd quietly in its own place . but when the waters were so violently agitated and hurried from one place to another , they would thereby very frequently light into the fissures , and breaches , and so descend as well as the rest into the heart of the earth ; very agreeable to the assertion of this proposition . corollary . seeing the most of the fissures were in the mountains , the decrease and going off of the waters would be greatest at first , while the generality of the mountains were under water , and less and gentler afterwards . coroll . . several low countries now bordering on the seas , might for many years after the deluge be under water , which by the descent of more of the waters into the bowels of the earth , might become dry-land afterward ; and by their smoothness and equability shew their once having lain under , and been made so plain by the waters . instances of which are now very observable in the world : in particular , those parts of cambridgeshire and lincolnshire which border on the german ocean , appear very evidently to have originally been in the same case , as any careful observer will easily pronounce . lxii . the dry land , or habitable part of the globe , is since the deluge divided into two vast continents , almost opposite to one another , and separated by a great ocean interpos'd between them . lxii . the figure in which the comet left the earth , and which it would in some measure retain ever after , was , as may be seen in the figure , an oval or oblong sphaeroid , whose longer axis ab would determine the highest extant parts of the earth ; and whose shorter axis , cd , by a revolution about the center perpendicularly to the longer axis , would alike determine the lowest or most depress'd parts thereof . when therefore as many waters were run down into the earth as the apertures could receive ; all that remain'd ( excepting the ancient lesser seas somewhat augmented every where ) must be found in the lowest vallies , or near the shorter axis's revolution , all round the globe , composing a mighty ocean ; while the two elevated regions , near the two ends of the longer axis , were extant above the waters , and compos'd those two opposite continents of the earth , made mention of in this proposition . corollary . 't is probable that america is intirely separated from our continent by the interpos'd ocean , without any neck of land , by which it has been by many imagin'd to communicate with tartary . coroll . . america was peopled from this continent some ages after the deluge by navigation . for seeing there is no communication between us and them by land ; seeing also the ancient inhabitants of it perish'd intirely at the deluge ( as the testimony of the sacred scriptures , the consideration of their lesser numbers , and the impossibility of any preservation of men by an ark any where but at the mountain caucasus , the highest hill near the center of the highest continent in the world , appearing from what has been said , do conspire to demonstrate ) . 't is evident they must have been repeopled by sea , from this continent . coroll . . navigation , tho' it was not before the flood , or till then very inconsiderable ; yet is not so wholly new and late in the world , as some imagine . which observation is very agreeable with the sacred records , which intimate no less than three years voyages in the days of solomon ; and with herodotus , who mentions a voyage through the red-sea round africa , and so through the straights of gibraltar into the mediterranean in the days of neco . lxiii . one of these continents is considerably larger than the other . lxiii . since in all tides , and so in those protuberances which occasion'd the present continents , that which respects the body producing the same , is larger than its opposite one ; 't is evident , so it ought to be here , and the continent situate about the point b , considerably larger than the opposite one about a , agreeably to this proposition . corollary . in this posture of the abyss , and its incumbent orb , the earth is correspondent to the egg , its ancient symbol and representative , not only in its inward and intire constitution , but in some measure in its external figure also ; the resemblance between them becoming by this means in a manner universal . lxiv . the larger continent lies most part on the north-side of the equator ; and the smaller , most part on the south . lxiv . the position of the continents depended mainly on the time of the year when the comet passed by . for since the comet descended in the plain of the ecliptick from the regions almost opposite to the sun , and came to its nearest distance about degrees onward from the point in the ecliptick opposite to the sun , before which , and yet scarce till after the comet were past degrees , or the periphery of the ecliptick , would the tides be great enough to burst the orb of earth , and fix the centers of the continents ; by considering the place of the earth in the ecliptick , and counting about degrees onward , one may determine the latitude of the point on the earth directly expos'd to the comet 's body , and by consequence of its opposite point also ; about which points the two continents lay . now the earth being about the middle of taurus to an eye at the sun ( which i always in such cases suppose ) , at the time of the passing by of the comet , about the middle of the second month from the autumnal equinox , the latter part of leo ( being degrees onward from the point opposite to the sun ) will nearly determine the latitude of the larger continent d b c , as by consequence will the latter part of aquarius that of the smaller d a c : on which accounts 'tis evident , that the larger must be mostly on the north , and the smaller mostly on the south-side of the equator . lxv . the middle or center of the north continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of northern latitude ; and that of the south about sixteen or eighteen degrees of southern latitude . lxv . this proposition ( which more nicely determines that position of the continents which the last more generally asserted ) is thus demonstrated . each continent must retain that position which it had when its compages was burst by the elevation of the abyss . now the bursting of the orb is to be suppos'd before the comets nearest distance ; and by consequence the centers of the two continents a and b ought to have the latitude of the points about , or rather nearer an degrees onward beyond that opposite to the sun , or beyond the sun it self . so that the center of the northern continent , near the south-east point of arabia , and of the southern , near the source of the vast river de la plata , ought to be about the same latitude with the th degree of leo , and of aquarius , or near degrees , the former of northern , the latter of southern latitude , as this proposition asserts them really to be . corollary . if therefore we were to determine the time of the year of the comet 's passing by the earth , or the commencing of the deluge , from the position of the centers of our two opposite continents , which depend thereon , we ought to assign it near the middle of the second month , from the autumnal equinox , agreeably to the time already fixt both from the sacred history , and the calculations of astronomy at the tenth hypothesis foregoing . coroll . . hence all those corollaries to the third and fourth argument of the said tenth hypothesis are mightily confirm'd : to which i refer the reader for their second perusal ; the importance of their subject well-deserving the same at his hands . coroll . . hence perhaps we may derive the occasion of that ancient , current , and much insisted-on tradition concerning the high or elevated situation of paradise ; which is so very much attested to by antiquity , and yet so very strange and obscure in it self . for since paradise , as has been already prov'd , was very near that point where the center of our continent is , the east or southeast border of arabia : and since withal , as we have shewn , the same regions were by the comet at the deluge elevated more than any others on the intire globe ; and since , lastly , it would for a long time retain in good measure such its most rais'd situation , and continue higher than any other correspondent parts of the earth ; this appears a rational occasion or foundation of that celebrated tradition here refer'd to : which otherwise how to give any tolerable account of , upon any solid principles , i confess i am , and have always been wholly to seek . lxvi . the distance between the continents , measuring from the larger or northern south-eastward , is greater than that the contrary way , or south-westward . lxvi . seeing the motion of the comet about its nearest position was much more considerable than the diurnal one of the earth ; and seeing withal the greater and higher protuberance would arrive at a sufficient force to burst its incumbent orb or continent somewhat sooner than the lesser and lower ; it will follow that the point b would not be just opposite to the point a , but nearer the place q in the figure . by which means the distance from q by c to a would be greater than from the same q by d to a ; or from the center of the greater continent to that of the lesser south-eastward , than south-westward : exactly as this proposition requires . lxvii . neither of the continents is terminated by a round or even circular circumference : but mighty creeks , bays , and seas running into them ; and as mighty peninsula's , promontories , and rocks jetting out from them , render the whole very unequal and irregular . lxvii . if the surface of the earth before the deluge had been even and smooth , without mountains and valleys , and their consequents , seas and dry land , the passing by of the comet must indeed , as before , have certainly caus'd a distinction of the two continents , and must have interpos'd an ocean between them ; but then these two circumstances would have obtain'd also , first , that all the waters of the intire globe would have left the continents , and solely compos'd an ocean ; and secondly , that the termination or boundaries of the ocean and the continents would have been circular , round , and even on every side . but since the surface of the earth was uneven , irregular , and distinguish'd every where into mountains , plains and valleys , into seas and dry land , the present terraqueous globe , with those inequalities of the termination of each continent mention'd in this proposition , is a most easie and natural , nay plainly necessary result of this great mutation at the deluge . coroll . . hence 't is farther evident , that the surface of the antediluvian earth was not plain and even , but had those distinctions of mountains and valleys , seas and dry land , which from other arguments has been before establish'd . coroll . . hence therefore it appears ( what should have been before observ'd ) that all the earth might be planted and peopled before the deluge , tho' navigation were then either not at all , or not considerably known : there being no ocean or separate continents ; and scarce any such thing as an island , or country but what with ease might be gone to by land. lxviii . the depth of that ocean which separates these two continents , is usually greatest farthest from , and least nearest to either of the same continents ; there being a gradual descent from the continents to the middle of the ocean , which is the deepest of all . lxviii . the reason of this gradual declivity towards the middle of the ocean , is very plain from the figure hereto belonging . for since the earth's surface became in some degree an oval , or oblong sphaeroid , 't is necessary that there should be ( as far as the other irregularities of the globe would permit ) a descent from the ends of the longer axis b and a , to those of the shorter c and d in their intire circumvolution , which gives a most obvious account of the present phaenomenon . lxix . the greatest part of the islands of the globe are situate at small distances from the edges of the great continents ; very few appearing near the middle of the main ocean . lxix . since islands are only such high regions as would be extant above the surface of the waters , tho' they cover'd the neighbouring parts ; and since the ocean , as we have now shewn , was deepest in the middle between the two continents ; 't is plain that , caeteris paribus , the higher regions would more frequently be extant near the continents , than about the middle of the said ocean ; as this proposition asserts . lxx . the ages of men decreas'd about one half presently after the deluge ; and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred years , were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since . lxx . the first part of this is already sufficiently accounted for in that proposition , where the causes of the change in the duration of mens lives at the flood were in general enquir'd into . but the reasons of the gradual decay in the succeeding ages are here to be assign d. now here 't is not impossible that the considerably long lives of the first postdiluvian patriarchs might in part depend on the vigorous constitution of their fathers , not to be immediately impair'd to the utmost , or destroy'd in their posterity , till by degrees , and in length of time it was effected . but besides , 't is to be consider'd , which i take to be the principal thing , that seeing the corrupted atmosphere , with the pernicious steams arising from the newly acquir'd chaotick crust , or sediment of the waters , and their unhappy effects on the fruits , as well as living creatures upon the earth , must be allow'd the occasion and cause of the shortning of humane life ; such regions as were freest from , or most elevated above the said sediment , or chaotick atmosphere , must have chiefly continued as they were before , and so the ancient longevity would chiefly be preserv'd therein . which being suppos'd , and what has been already advanc'd withal consider'd , this proposition will be easy , plain , and natural ; and a peculiar attestation of the present hypothesis . for seeing noah and the ark were landed on caucasus , the most elevated region of the earth , and freest from the sediment of the waters , as well as the grossness of the chaotick atmosphere below , that place would scarce differ for a good while from the antediluvian state of things , and the lives of animals would retain very near their ancient duration ; which accordingly we find was really done . noah survived the deluge no less than years , and compleated in the whole ( somewhat beyond the moderate proportion of the antediluvians themselves , as the table will easily shew ) . but then by reason both of the descent of his posterity into the plains , and lower grounds , and principally by the gradual subsidence of those regions themselves into the gross atmosphere below , they became gradually liable to those diseases , and that shortness of life , which we before shew'd to have been the sad effects thereof , and to which all mankind has since been subject . corollary . mankind increased vastly more soon after the deluge than in these latter ages of the world. for whereas a country is years now in doubling its inhabitants , had the same rate held ever since the deluge , mankind at this day would not have reach'd the number of two hundred thousand souls ; which yet is esteem'd to be between three and four hundred millions , or near two thousand times as many as the said number , deducible from the present rate of the increase of mankind . so that 't is evident , that the antediluvian fruitfulness , and numerous stock of inhabitants ( which are also themselves hereby fully establish'd ) must have prevail'd , servata proportione , among the primitive postdiluvians for some centuries , or else no account were to be given of the present numbers of men upon the face of the earth ; whereby the verity of this proposition , the veracity of moses therein , the great importance thereof , and the necessity of the present solution , and of that theory on which it is built , are mightily confirm'd . coroll . . hence we may nearly determine the ages of men for the first eight or nine hundred years after the deluge , from the length of their lives given . thus job , who appears to have liv'd at the least between two and three hundred years , must have been contemporary with some of the patriarchs between heber and abraham , to whom that duration of humane life belong'd ; and thus we may examine and determine the ages of the most ancient king 's mention'd in prophane histories , from the like duration of their lives or reigns , as the following corollary will more particularly observe . coroll . . neither the egyptian dynasties , nor the assyrian monarchy , could be coeval with the first seven or eight hundred years after the deluge , none of their kings reigns set down by chronologers reaching that number of years which the length of humane life at that time requir'd ; nay , nor any other than kings now may , and do arrive at in these latter ages of the world. coroll . . the antediluvian and postdiluvian years mention'd in scripture were true years of twelve , not fictitious ones of one month apiece , as some , that they might reduce the age of the first patriarchs to the short term of life since usually attain'd to , have been willing to surmise . this fancy is strangely absurd , and contrary to the sacred history , and in particular irreconcilable with this proposition . for had the ancient years been lunar , of one month , and the latter solar of a twelve , by which the same duration of humane life had been differently measur'd ; the numbers of years which men liv'd , must have alter'd in the proportion of twelve to one of a sudden , at such a change in the year referr'd to , and not gradually and gently , as 't is here evident they did . lxxi . our upper earth for a considerable depth , even as far as we commonly penetrate into it , is factitious , or newly acquir'd at the deluge : the ancient one being covered by fresh strata or layers of earth at that time , and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as tothe use and advantage of mankind . lxxi . 't is not to be suppos'd , that the waters of the deluge were merely the pure element of water , sincere and unmix'd . what came from the comet 's atmosphere , must partake of its earthly heterogeneous mixtures ; and what was squeez'd up from beneath , must carry up much dirt and earthy matter along with it . besides which , as soon as the stormy weather began , the soak'd and loosen'd tops of mountains would easily , by the winds and waves together , be wash'd off , or carried away into the mass of waters , and increase the impurity and earthy mixtures thereof . on all which accounts the waters of the deluge would be a very impure , thick , and muddy fluid , and afford such a quantity of earthy matter as would bear some considerable proportion to that of the water it self . now this earthy matter being heavier than the water , would by degrees settle downwards , and compose first a mighty thick , dirty , muddy fluid in the lower regions of the waters , and at last a plain earthy sediment at the bottom of them ; which would at once spoil and bury the old surface of the ground , and become a new cruft or cover on the face thereof . now , that we may see whether this sediment or crust could be so thick and considerable as this phoenomenon requires , lot us suppose , as before , the perpendicular height of the waters of the deluge to have been three miles above the common surface of the plains and seas , and the thirtieth part only of the intire fluid on the face of the earth to have been earthy parts sit to compose the sediment or crust beforemention'd . let us also remember what has been already-observ'd from mr. newton , that earth is at least three times as dense and heavy as water ; so that the thirtieth part in quantity of matter , would only take up the ninetieth part of the whole space , either in the waters , or when 't was setled down by it self , and became a new crust or orb upon the earth . if we then divide , the number of feet in the whole height of the waters , ( not here to allow for the spaces posses'd by the extant parts of the earth ) by , ( by ) the quotient will shew the the crassitude or thickness of this sediment or crust covering the face of the earth , viz. / feet , one place taken with another indifferently . which quantity fully accounts for the proposition we are upon , and agrees with the observations made in the bowels of our present earth to as great accuracy as one could desire or expect . corollary . hence it appears , that the earth was generally uninhabitable for several years after the flood : this new factitious sediment of the waters requiring no little space of time ere it would be fully setled , its strata consolidated , its surface become hard and dry , and its vegetables sprung out of it ; before which time 't were uninhabitable by man , and the other dry-land animals . coroll . . hence we may see the care and wisdom of divine providence for the preservation and maintenance of noah , and of all the creatures in the ark , after their coming out of the same again ; by ordering all things so , that the ark should rest on the highest mountain in the world , and that the waters should so little surpass the same , that the sediment thereof could neither spoil the fruits of the ground , nor render the surface uninhabitable , as it did on the other regions of the earth . for since the quantity of the sediment would generally be proportionable every where to the perpendicular height of the waters over the surface of the ground below ; tho' it would cover all the other regions of the whole earth , yet on this highest of all mountains , ( cover'd but a few days , or perhaps hours , with any waters , and they never above fifteen cubits perpendicular height ) the quantity of the sediment would here be perfectly inconsiderable , and the earth would not be at all alter'd from what it was before , nor its vegetables hurt by this universal deluge . so that this , and this only was the spot of ground capable of receiving the ark , and of sustaining the creatures therein , till afterwards the rest of the earth became fit for their descent and habitation . to this spot therefore , by such a wonderful adjustment of all the requisite circumstances of the deluge , preserv'd and distinguish'd from all the rest of the world , the divine providence did conduct the ark ; and on this was laid the foundation of the present race of mankind , and of all those terrestrial animals , which are now on the face of the whole earth ; which otherwise had perish'd at their exit out of the ark , notwithstanding their wonderful preservation therein during the rage of the deluge . coroll . . hence we may easily understand whence the olive-branch was brought by the dove to noah . for when the trees adjoyning to the ark , or on the neighbouring tops of the hills had suffer'd small damage by the flood , and had since the clearing of the waters enjoy'd almost the whole spring , and half the summer ; they must be as flourishing , and full of as many new and tender sprouts as ever ; one of which might therefore be easily broken off by the dove , and brought to noah in her mouth ; which new , dry , and frim sprout or branch , being a clear evidence , that the waters were not only gone , and the ground dry a great while before , but that the earth was still , as formerly , fit for the production of its wonted trees and fruits , must exceedingly tend to the satisfaction of noah , and the confirmation of his faith and hope in an entire deliverance , and in the future renovation of the world. lxxii . this factitious crust is universal , upon the tops of the generality of the mountains , as well as in the plains and vallies ; and that in all the known climates and regions of the world. lxxii . this is a necessary consequent from the universality of the deluge already accounted for . and tho' the generality of the mountains would usully have a thinner sediment or crust than the plains or vallies , in proportion to the lesser height of the waters over each of them respectively ; yet they being at the deluge much inferior to the height of caucasus , must be generally cover'd with the same crust ( unless the storms and waves wash'd it down again after its first setling upon any of them ) as the observations shew they really now are . corollary . 't is hence evident , even abstractedly from the sacred history , that there has formerly been an universal deluge , much higher than the generality of the mountains . so that hereafter , since the so useful observations of naturalists , and principally of dr. woodward hereto relating , we need not endeavour to secure the credit and veracity of the mosaick history of the deluge by ancient records , and the universal attestation of antiquity ; ( which testimonies yet are too evident and numerous to be denied ) but may from our own eyes , at the neighbouring mines and coal-pits , satisfy our selves of the exact truth of this part of the sacred volume , which has been so much excepted against by ill-disposed persons . so wonderful is the method of the divine wisdom in its seasonable attestations afforded to the sacred scriptures ! that not only the very day , as we have seen , when the flood began , assign'd by moses may still , after more than four thousand years , be prov'd from astronomy to have been the true one ; which the learned are chiefly capable of judging of , and being primarily influenc'd by : but the reality and universality of the deluge it self is demonstrable from such common and easie observations , in all parts of the world , at the neighbouring mines or coal-pits , that the vulgar and most illiterate may be eye-witnesses of the certain effects of it , and so fully convinc'd of the fidelity of the sacred historian therein . coroll . . 't is no wonder that none of the antediluvian cities , towns , buildings , or other remains are any where to be met with since the deluge : they being all generally buried perhaps above two hundred foot deep in the earth , by the sediment of the waters . lxxiii . the parts of the present upper strata were , at the time of the waters covering the earth , loose , separate , divided , and floated in the waters among one another uncertainly . lxxiii . this proposition needs no farther explication ; being already plain in what has been already said . lxxiv . all this heterogenous mass , thus floating in the waters , by degrees descended downwards , and subsided to the bottom ; pretty nearly according to the law of specifick gravity ; and there compos'd those several strata or layers , of which our present upper earth does consist . lxxiv . this proposition is as easie as the former ; and included in what has been already said . lxxv . vast multitudes of fishes , belonging both to the seas and rivers , perish'd at the deluge ; and their shells were buried among the other bodies or masses which subsided down , and compos'd the layers of our upper earth . lxxv . where so heterogeneous a mass of corpuscles were dispers'd every where through the waters , and towards the bottom , especially at the latter end of their subsidence , render'd the same very thick and muddy , 't is natural to suppose , that multitudes of fishes , partly stisled with the spissitude and grossness of the fluid , ( scarce there deserving that name ; ) and partly poison'd with the kinds of some of those corpuscles which they took in together with their nourishment therein , would be destroy'd and perish in the waters : which being granted , the rest so easily follows as not to need any farther explication . lxxvi . the same law of specifick gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the mass , was also observ'd in the subsidence of the shells of fishes ; they then sinking together with , and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those strata or bodies which are nearly of their own specifick gravities : the heavier shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier strata , and the lighter shells among the lighter strata , in the bowels of our present earth . lxxvi . this phaeuomenon is so natural and necessary , considering the gradual increase of the thickness of the gross sediment downward , and the equal subjection of shells to the law of specifick gravity with all other bodies , that i shall not insist any farther upon it . corollary . this single phaenomenon of the shells of fish inclos'd in the most solid bodies , as stone and marble , and that all over the world , according to their several specifick gravities , at great depths within the bowels of the earth ; which is so strange in it self , so surprizing to the spectators , and so unaccountable without the most unusual and precarious miracles be introduc'd , on any other principles ; and yet so easily and naturally solv'd in the hypothesis before us ; is a strong , i had almost said an invincible argument for the verity thereof ; and as undeniable as a physical assertion is capable of : that is , 't is ( as far as we can in reason pronounce ) without a miracle , certainly true . lxxvii . the strata of marble , of stone , and of all other solid bodies , attained their solidity as soon as the sand , or other matter whereof they consist , was arriv'd at the bottom , and well setled there . and all those strata which are solid at this day , have been so ever since that time . lxxvii . seeing this upper crust or sediment was compos'd in great part of the earthy corpuscles or masses of a chaos , as well as the primitive earth was at the mosaick creation : the very same reasons assignable for the coalescence and consolidation of the former , are equally to be suppos'd in the present case , and render it equally reasonable with the other . and if the dense fluid , or any parts or steams from that were instrumental to the original union of parts at the primary formation of the earth , 't is probable there was no want of it at the deluge ; the atmosphere of the comet , and the fountains of the deep , being both capable of supplying sufficient quantities , among the larger plenty of their watery and earthy masses ; as is plain from what has been already said . neither in case some of it were acquir'd by the means aforemention'd , is it to be expected that we ought to see it still on the face of the earth , as we do the ocean . for seeing this dense fluid is much heavier than water or earth , it would be at the very bottom of all , and so either be inclosed in the pores and caverns at the bottom of the sediment , or transform'd into a different body by its composition with the earthy parts it was enclos'd withal , and did consolidate . lxxviii . these strata of stone , of chalk , of cole , of earth , or whatever matter they consisted of , lying thus each upon other , appear now as if they had at first been parallel , continued , and not interrupted : but as if , after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the globe , had been elevated in some , and depress'd in other places ; from whence the fissures and breaches , the caverns and grotto's , with many other irregularities within and upon our present earth , seem to be deriv'd . lxxviii . when the sediment setled down gradually upon the surface of the ancient earth , it would compose strata or layers as even , continued , and parallel as one could desire , and as the said surface did permit . and had the said surface been fix'd and unalterable , this evenness and parallellism , this uniformity and continuity of the strata would have remain'd unalterable also to this day . but since , as we have formerly shewn , the intire orb of earth was at the beginning of the deluge crack'd , chap'd , and broken ; and for many years afterwards would by degrees settle and compose it self towards its former figure and rotundity again ; tho' the series and connexion of the strata might before they were consolidated , be as regular as you can imagine , yet when the basis or foundation on which they rested , and the surface on which they were spread fail'd by degrees , in several places , and proportions , by the rising of some columns upwards , and the setling of others downwards , this upper orb or crust , where the strata were not become intirely solid , like stone and marble , must follow in great part the fate of the other , and be dislocated , elevated , or depress'd in correspondence to that whereon it rested : and have thereby a set of chaps and fissures directly over-against those which were before in the ancient earth . but as for such places where the new strata were become stony or solid , and incapable of a compliance with the under earth , by the settling downward or elevation of its immediate basis the primitive earth , those caverns and grotto's , those caves and hollows which appear within the earth , or its mountains , would naturally arise ; while the solid strata , like beams or arches , sustain'd the impending columns , notwithstanding the sinking and failure of their immediate foundations ; by which causes the surface and upper regions of the earth would become very uneven , and full of small irregularities , such as the present phaenomenon assures us of . corollary . hence we see a plain reason why mountainous and stony countries are only or principally hollow and cavernous : some lesser mountains being perhaps occasion'd by the subsidence of the neighbouring columns , and the caverns they enclose thereby produc'd ; and the solidity of the strata being the proper cause of such caverns in other cases : of which the softer , more loose , and pliable earth was accordingly incapable . corollary . tho' the ancient earth were setled , and become uneven in the same degree , and in the same places as the present is ; and that before the consolidation of the new sediment ; yet the series of the several strata one under another on each side of any fissure , would in some measure correspond to one another , as if the consimilar strata had once been united , and had afterwards been broken and sunk down unequally ; as is manifest from the consimilar situation and subsidence of the consimular corpuscles ; whereby the like order and crassitude of each stratum might be still preserv'd , tho' not so exactly , as if the sustaining surface had been even and smooth when the sediment compos'd those strata , and the fissures had afterward been made through both orbs at once , and caus'd such inequality . coroll . . hence would arise mighty and numerous receptacles of water within the earth , especially in the mountainous parts thereof . for usually where a solid stratum sustain'd the earth above , while the parts beneath sunk lower , and thereby produc'd a cavern , the waters would ouze and flow into it from all quarters , and cause a conflux or inclosed sea of waters in the bowels of the earth : which cavities might sometimes communicate with one another , or with the ocean ; and sometimes contain restagnant waters , without any outlet : all which are very agreeable to the present phaenomena of the earth . coroll . . hence appears the reason of the raging of earthquakes in mountainous countreys , and of the bursting forth and continuation of volcano's there . for these caverns , which we have observ'd the mountainous countreys to be mainly liable to , are fit to receive and contain together nitrous and explosive , sulphureous and inflammable steams , in great quantities ; and withal to admit the air to fan , and assist that explosion or inflammation , which seems to be the occasion of those dreadful phaenomena in our present earth . coroll . . if therefore there be no other caverns than these accounted for just now , and taking date from the deluge ; 't is very probable there were few or no volcano's or earthquakes , so much depending on them , before the flood . coroll . . in case what has been , or might farther be said , be not found sufficient to account for some observations made , concerning the inward parts of our earth ; but dr. woodward's hypothesis of the disruption of the before united strata , by a general earthquake , or the explosive force of the steams of heat ascending from the central parts , be found necessary ; such a supposition will by no means disagree with the present theory . for when the subterraneous ascending steams were every way stop'd , and their ordinary course from the central to the superficiary parts obstructed , by the new sediment or crust growing fast and setled , and in some places stony and impenetrable ; they would be every where preternaturally assembled , especially in the cracks , breaches and fissures of the ancient earth , in greater quantities than usual , and so might by a violent rarefaction , or explosion , burst through the upper crust , and cause all those fissures , little hills , caverns , grotto's , and inequalities which dr. woodwards observations require , and this proposition takes notice of . in this case therefore the particular and distinct consideration of the phaenomena , must determine and arbitrate between the former more natural and gentle , and this latter more violent and extraordinary method of accounting for the present face of nature upon and within the earth . lxxix . great numbers of trees , and other vegetables , were also , at this subsidence of the mass aforesaid , buried in the bowels of the earth : and such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd : many of which are pretty intire and perfect . and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day . lxxix . seeing the latter part of the deluge , after the seventeenth day of the seventh month , or the twenty seventh day of march with us at present , was very windy , stormy , and tempestuous ; the most extant and mountainous parts of the earth would be mightily expos'd to the fury both of the winds and waves : which consequently would tear up , or wash away the loose and unsolid upper earth , with all its furniture of trees and plants ; and not seldom carry them great distances from their former seats . now these vegetables , if no earthy metallick or mineral masses adher'd to them , being , bulk for bulk , lighter than the earthy sediment , would settle down last of all , and would lye upon the surface of the earth , and there rot away and disappear . but if considerable quantities of the heaviest strata , or of metallick or mineral matter , as would sometimes happen , adher'd to them , they would sink lower , and be inclosed in the bowels of the earth , either near to , or far from the place of their own growth , according as the billows and storms happen'd to dispose of them . all which changes and dislocations of the soil and surface , with their fruits and plants , might leave once fertile countries bare and barren ; and lodge such vegetables in others , which of themselves , before the new sediment , much more since the same , were wholly incapable of such productions ; according to the exigency of the proposition before us . lxxx . it appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them , that all these vegetables were torn away from their ancient seats in the spring time , in or about the month of may. lxxx . when we have already prov'd , that the windy and stormy weather which tore up these vegetables , did not begin till the seventeenth day of the seventh month from the autumnal equinox ; answering to our march the twenty seventh now ; and when it appears that the higher any mountain or continent was , the less while , and in a less degree would the waters prevail upon it ; and so little sometimes as not wholly to destroy the growing vegetables , at this due time of the year ; 't is evident that whether the sediment were newly setled , and had enclos'd them or not , so many as were torn up from these highest parts of the earth must be in that forwardness as the months succeeding the beginning of the storms ( april , may and june ) usually bring them to , very agreeably to the proposition before us . and that we have rightly suppos'd these fossil plants to have been such as grew on the elevated parts of the earth only , ( how far distant soever the fury of the waves and storms may have lodg'd them ) and so to have been torn up by the storms in the assigned manner , appears both by the heaps in which they are frequently found crouded together , and by the kinds of plants thus buried in the earth : of which latter , ( tho' his opinion , according to his own hypothesis be , that all sorts were originally lodg'd in the earth , tho' some be since perish'd ) dr. woodward's words are ( in his kind and free letter , in answer to my queries about them ) the fossil plants are very numerous and various , and some of them intire , and well preserv'd . i have met with many of the same species with those , now growing on our hills , woods , meadows , heaths , &c. but none of the water-plants ; i mean such as are peculiar to lakes , rivers , and the sea. which testimony is a peculiar confirmation of the present hypothesis . corollary . hence the ancient years beginning at the autumnal equinox , and the consequent commencing of the deluge , the seventeenth day of the second month from thence , and from the spring , is evidenc'd by this very observation which dr. woodward , the author thereof , supposes wou'd prove the contrary . so that the time of the deluge's commencing assign'd by our hypothesis , appears at last to be confirm'd both by the scriptures , by the ancients , by astronomy , by geography , and by natural observation ; and is consequently by so very remarkable a concurrence and correspondence of 'em all , put beyond any reasonable doubt or scruple . lxxxi . all the metals and minerals among the strata of our upper earth , owe their present frame and order to the deluge ; being repos'd therein during the time of the waters covering the earth , or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd mass. lxxxi . this can have no difficulty in it , seeing our upper earth is factitious , and compos'd of the foresaid sediment of the waters of the deluge ; which including the corpuscles of metals and minerals , as well as others , wou'd alike afford every one those places which they have ever since possess'd . lxxxii . these metals and minerals appear differently in the earth , according to the different manners of their first lodgment : for sometimes they are in loose and small particles , uncertainly inclos'd among such masses as they chanc'd to fall down withall : at other times , some of their corpuscles happening to occur and meet together , affix'd to each other ; and several convening , aniting , and combining into one mass , form'd those metallick and mineral balls or nodules which are now found in the earth . and according as the corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind , or otherwise , so the masses were more or less simple , pure , and homogeneous : and according as other bodies , bones , teeth , shells of fish , or the like , happen'd to come in their way , these metallick and mineral corpuscles assix'd to , and became conjoyn'd with 'em ; either within , where it was possible , in their hollows and interstices ; or without , on their surface and outsides ; filling the one , or covering the other . and all this in different degrees and proportions , according to the different circumstances of each individual case . lxxxii . all these things are but proper effects of such a common subsidence of all these masses and corpuscles together in the chaotick sediment as is above-mention'd : and no longer or more particular account is necessary , or can be satisfactory , till dr. woodwards larger work ( which we in time hope for ) affords us the observations more nicely and particularly than we yet have them . to which , therefore , the inquisitive reader must be refer'd in this and the like cases . lxxxiii . the inward parts of the present earth are very irregular and confus'd : one region is chiefly stony , another sandy , a third gravelly : one country contains some certain kinds of metals and minerals ; another contains quite different ones : nay the same lump or mass of earth not seldom contains the corpuscles of several metals or minerals confusedly intermixt one with another , and with its own earthy parts . all which irregularities , with several others that might be observ'd , even contrary to the law of specifick gravity , in the placing of the different strata of the earth , demonstrates the original fund or promptuary of all this upper factitious earth , to have been in a very wild , confus'd , and chaotick condition . lxxxiii . seeing the sediment of the waters was compos'd of what earthy matter was uncertainly brought up out of the inner earth , and of what a true and proper chaos afforded , these phaenomena are as natural and accountable therefrom , as on any other mechanical hypothesis , they must appear strange , perplexing , and inexplicable to philosophick minds . lxxxiv . the uppermost and lightest stratum of soil or garden-mold , as 't is call'd , which is the proper seminary of the vegetable kingdom , is since the deluge very thick spread usually in the valleys and plains , but very thin on the ridges and tops of mountains : which last for want thereof are frequently stony , rocky , bare , and barren . lxxxiv . two plain reasons are to be given for this phaenomenon ; ( . ) the quantity of water , and its sediment ; and by consequence of soil or fertile earth was less over the mountains than over the plains and valleys . ( . ) after the subsidence of the sediment , and before its entire consolidation , the tops of mountains were most expos'd to the fury of the winds and storms ; which wou'd therefore more easily bear away that lightest and least united stratum which lay uppermost in those bleak places , than in the more retir'd and skreen'd plains and valleys ; and by diminishing the soil in the former , and thereby augmenting it in the latter places , most easily make all things correspond in this proposition . lxxxv . of the four ancient rivers of paradise , two still remain in some measure ; but the other two do not ; or at the least are so chang'd that the masaick description does not agree to them at present . lxxxv . that the great rivers wou'd still retain in great measure their old courses , has been observ'd already ; and seeing the fountains , and the general inequalities of the earth , on which their origin and channels depend , were the same generally before as since the deluge , there can be no doubt thereof . as to the change , with reference to the other two rivers , if the gulph of persia were anciently free from waters , and were no other than the very country of eden ; and if the very entrance of that gulph into the persian sea were the garden of eden , or paradise , as has been before asserted , there can be no difficulty in the case : the channels of these rivers , and indeed of their fellow-branches too after their last partition , being now under water , and not to be enquir'd after . but tho' we shou'd allow that paradise was where 't is generally placed , near babylon , and upon the continent , yet will there be no wonder at the disappearance of these two rivers , which , with their fellows , are bury'd to a sufficient depth under the sediment we have been speaking so much of before ; and so no more to be enquir'd after in this than in the former case . lxxxvi . those metals and minerals which the mosaick description of paradise , and of its bordering regions , takes such particular notice of , and the prophets so emphatically refer to , are not now met with so plentifully therein . lxxxvi . the present upper earth being , as we have seen , factitious , and a new crust since the flood covering over the ancient surface thereof , those primitive treasures must lie too deep in the bowels of the present earth , to be easily approach'd by us , and so are entirely lost as to the use or enjoyment of mankind . lxxxvii . this deluge of waters was a sign alinstance of the divine vengoance on a wicked world , and was the effect of the peculiar and extraordinary providence of god. lxxxvii . tho' the passing by of a comet , and all those effects of it in the drowning of the world , of which we have so largely discours'd hitherto , be not to be stil'd in the common use of the word miraculous ; ( tho' in no very improper sense , all such events may have that appellation , of which before ) yet is there the greatest reason in the world to attribute this mighty turn and catastrophe of nature , to the divine providence , and the immediate , voluntary , actual , interposition of god ; and that in these ensuing particulars , and on these following accounts ; which i shall be the shorter upon , as having in the place fore-mention'd explain'd my mind somewhat largely about things of this nature . ( . ) the bodies made use of in this and the like changes of nature , are originally the creatures of god , and continually preserv'd by him ; and so what they are instrumental in , ought most justly to be ascrib'd to the principal cause , the great creator and conservator of 'em all . ( . ) all those powers of attraction or gravitation , &c. and those laws of motion by which these bodies are capable of producing such effects , are alike owing to the divine operation , appointment , and efficacy , both in their primitive impression , and continual energy ; and so still the effects themselves are to be ascrib'd to a divine original . ( . ) that particular constitution of the earth on the face of the fluid abyss , and other such dispositions , whereby it became subject to a universal deluge , were also the consequents of the divine power and providence in the formation of the earth . ( . ) that peculiar situation or constitution of the orbits and motions of comets , whereby they , by reason of their passing thro' the planetary system each revolution are fit to cause such great mutations in it , was the effect of the particualr order and disposition of god , in the primary frame of the universe . ( . ) the coincidence of the plain of a comet 's orbit with that of the ecliptick , can have no other foundation in nature , than a like design'd and contriv'd appointment of god. ( . ) the way of the comet 's motion from east to west , contrary to that of the planets , by which the particulars of the deluge were in good measure provided for , cou'd also be nothing but the effect of the same design and providence of god. ( . ) the so nice and exact adjustment of the motions of both the comet and the earth ; that the former shou'd pass just so near , and impart such a certain quantity of waters , and not more or less than wou'd drown the world , and just cover the highest mountain , and yet reach no farther ; in short , as wou'd secure the ark for future generations , and yet not leave one dry-land animal besides alive ; this exactness is a most peculiar and strange effect of the most wise and sagacious providence of god in this mighty revolution . but ( . ) lastly , ( to omit repeating some things before observ'd as we pass'd along ) the precise time of the passing by of the comet , and thereby of destroying the world , is , in the most peculiar manner , and highest degree , the result of the divine providence . that exactly at a time which was fit and proper , and in an age that justly deserv'd so great a judgment , the comet shou'd come by , and over-whelm the world , is very remarkably and extraordinarily the finger of god himself . that omnilscient being , who foresaw when the degeneracy of human nature wou'd be arriv'd at an unsufferable degree of wickedness , the iniquities of the world wou'd be compleatly full ; and when consequently his vengeance ought to fall upon them , praedisposed and praeadapted the orbits and motions of both the comet and the earth , so that at that very time , and only at that time , the former shou'd pass close by the latter , and bring that dreadful punishment upon them . had not god almighty on purpose thus adjusted the moments and courses of each , 't were infinite odds that such a conjunction or coincidence of a comet and a planet , wou'd never have happen'd during the whole space , between the creation and conflagration of this world ; much more at such a critical point of time when mankind , by their unparallell'd wickedness were deserving of , and only dispos'd for this unparallell'd vengeance , no less than almost an utter excision . and this i take to be the secret of the divine providence in the government of the world , and that whereby the rewards and punishments of god's mercy and justice are distributed to his rational creatures , without any disturbance of the setled course of nature , or a miraculous interposition on every occasion . our imperfection is such , that we can only act pro re natâ , can never know before-hand the behavious or actions of men ; neither can we foresee what circumstances and conjunctures will happen at any certain time hereafter ; and so we cannot provide for future events , nor praedispose things in such a manner that every one shall be dealt with , or every thing done no otherwise than if we were then alive and present , we shou'd think proper and reasonable , and shou'd actually do . but in the divine operation 't is quite otherwise : god's praescience enables him to act after a more sublime manner ; and by a constant course of nature , and chain of mechanical causes , to do every thing so as it shall not be distinguishable from a particular interposition of his power , nor be otherwise than on such a particular interposition wou'd have been brought to pass . he who has created all things , and given them their several powers and faculties , foresees the effects of 'em all : at once looks through the intire train of future causes , actions , and events , and sees at what periods , and in what manner t will be necessary and expedient to bring about any changes , bestow any mercies , or inflict any punishments on the world : which being unquestionably true , 't is evident he can as well provide and praedispose natural causes for those mutations , mercies , or judgments before-hand ; he can as easily put the machin into such motions as shall , without a necessity of his mending or correcting it , correspond to all these foreseen events or action , as make way for such alterations afterward by giving a random force to the whole : and when these two ways are equally possible , i need not say which is most agreeable to the divine perfections , and most worthy of god. so that when the universal course of nature , with all the powers and effects thereof , were at first deriv'd from , and are continually upheld by god ; and when nothing falls out any otherwise , or at any other time , than was determin'd by divine appointment in the primitive formation of the universe : to assign physical and mechanical causes for the deluge , or such mighty judgments of god upon the wicked , is so far from taking away the divine providence therein , that it supposes and demonstrates its interest in a more noble , wise , and divine manner than the bringing in a miraculous power wou'd do . let us suppose a fulmen or thunderbolt originally , and on purpose , put into such a motion , as without any farther interposition of providence , wou'd direct it to the head of a blasphemer ; and whilst he was cursing his maker , strike him dead upon the spot ; which the praescience and power of god shew to be equally possible with a present miracle : i think such a violent death wou'd be as properly extraordinary , and a divine judgment , as any other whatsoever : which i take to have been the very case of the deluge , which i am here peculiarly concern'd about . nature is god's constitution , and ever subservient to him ; and the state of the natural is always accommodated to that of the moral world. what is done by nature , and second causes , is most properly done by god at last , who is ultimately and really almost all we can mean by those names . corollary . what has been here said upon this occasion , if rightly understood and apply'd to all other cases , would clear our minds from many of those perplexities about the divine providence which are ready to disturb ' em . for instance : we pray to god for fruitful seasons , for health , for peace , for the success of our endeavours , for a blessing on our food and physick , and deprecate the contrary miseries from us . yet at the same time we see the seasons depend on the settled course of the sun , or other natural and necessary causes ; we find our health or sickness to be the proper effects of our diet and regiment ; we observe peace and war subject to the intrigues of princes , and the plain results of visible conjunctures in humane affairs ; we know that worldly prudence and cunning has a main stroke in the success of mens labours ; we feel the advantagious effects of some food and physick , and have reason to believe the same does very much result from the goodness of the druggs , the fitness of the proportion , the disposition of the body , and the skill of the physician , and can frequently give a plain and mechanical reason of the different operations of all those things ; neither do we hope for the exercise of a miraculous power in these or the like cases . the consideration and comparison of all these things together frequently puzzles the minds of good men , especially those that are more contemplative and philosophical , and makes 'em wonder what interest our devotions , or what advantage our prayers can have . second causes will work according to their natures , let mens supplications be never so importunate : and to expect a miracle in answer to every petition , is more than the most religious dare pretend to . this dilemma has had a contrary effect upon the minds of men , while the philosopher was in danger of doubting of the success , and so ready to grow cold in his devotions and the more unthinking , yet not less religious man rejected the consideration of the manner , or the operation of second causes , and more wisely look'd up only to god , and imagin'd him immediately concern'd in every occurrence , and on that principle doubted not the effect of his prayers . but 't is , methinks , evident that neither of these were exactly in the right ; and equally so , that the due consideration of what has been above-said , would prevent the dilemma , and take away all reasonable scruple . 't is true that natural causes will operate as usual : 't is also true that miracles are not ordinarily to be expected : but withal 't is as true that the same all-wise creator , who appointed that constant course of nature , foresaw at the same time all those dispositions of men , and in particular those devotions of his worshippers , to which suitable rewards were to be provided , and suitable answers returned ; and therefore so order'd the series of natural causes , as to make that very provision for the same which otherwise he would have done by the miraculous interposition of his providence ; and which therefore is equally to be asscrib'd to him with the greatest wonders . 't is true , the frame of nature is now constant and settled : but 't is true also that it was so settled on the prospect of the moral behaviour , and in correspondence to the good or bad actions of mankind , foreseen and praesupposed in the primitive constitution of all ; and by consequence whataever benefits or afflictions the constant course of nature and second causes bring to us , are equally capable to be the matter of our prayers or deprecations of our humiliation or gratitude before god , as the immediate effects of a miraculous power ; and the divine providence no less to be acknowledg'd and address'd to in the former than in the latter case : but because our imperfection is so great that the consideration of the priority of the future actions , men to the praescience of god in the order of nature ; and the dependence of the latter on the former , is too high for our comprehension , and tho' demonstrable by , yet inscrutable to the reason of mankind ; and because we are therefore still ready to conceive what is foreknown by god to be necessary and inevitable ; let the moral behaviour of men be as it will : because i say this praescience of god is too divine a thing to be easily penetrated and aply'd by us to all occasions . i confess 't is the most obvious and the most prudent , as well as the most scriptural way to keep within our faculties , and alway to suppose an immediate exerting of a new power in every new turn in the world , and without the troublesome inquisition into the nature and design of the primitive constitution of the material world , to refer all things to an immediate providence : into which every one must ultimately and originally be resolv'd , and which has as well and as congruously taken care of all events , as if such a miraculous efficiency were really concern'd on every individual occasion . which whole matter thus explain'd may be of use to those who through the not understanding the method of the divine providence , and its consistency with an uninterrupted course of nature , have perplex'd their own minds , and endanger'd their religion : which pernicious scruples true philosophy , when rightly understood , is the only means of dispelling and preventing . nothing being more true or momentous than this , that 't is as ever our ignorance or mistakes only , that fully the providence of god , or diminish our religious affections to him . lxxxviii . tho' the moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the deluge as the earth ; yet that face or hemisphere which is towards the earth , and which is alone expos'd to our view , has not acquir'd any such gross atmosphere or clouds , as our earth has now about it , and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the deluge . lxxxviii . seing the moon appears to be of a constitution so like that of the earth , and seeing she is so near a neighbour and constant companion thereof , she seems at first sight liable to the same catastrophe with the earth at the deluge . but that we may consider how far the comet could affect her , we must remember that at the first passage of the comet , her situation seems almost dipos'd to convey her just after the earth along that large void cylindrical space , whose vapours the earth had intercepted , and born away before it , as by comparing the d and th figures is easie to understand . besides , tho' she caught her share of the vapours from the atmosphere and tail of the comet , yet her mountains are so much higher , compar'd with those on earth , that at the most only an inconsiderable inundation of waters on one hemisphere , not an universal deluge were to be suppos'd : for , lastly , by reason of the slowness of her diurnal revolution those vapours which were caught by one hemisphere ( and indeed by very little more than one at the utmost ) would fall near the same places in rain , which they at first fell upon when vapour ; and still affect little more than a single hemisphere thereof . so that the most that can be suppos'd of the moon 's deluge , is , that the lower grounds on one hemisphere should be overflow'd ; especially if we except the second passage through the tail of the comet after its perihelium : for it must be confess'd that those secondary and less principal rains of about days continuance , which we before observ'd the earth to have been liable to , must needs be allow'd to have affected the moon also ; and seeing from them the impurities and commotions of our atmosphere appear to have been deriv'd , it seems at first view necessary that the moon should have acquir'd such a gross atmosphere , such clouds and meteors as we saw the earth did at the same time ; which looks very unlike to her phaenomena , or the latter part of this proposition we are now upon . but this difficulty which at first sight seems so formidable , will intirely vanish if we observe the then position of the moon , and thence consider which hemisphere would be affected therewith . for ( as we before in part observ'd ) the moon wanted but two or three days of the new , when she with the earth pass'd the second time thro' the tail of the comet ; and by consequence the vapours ascending from the sun fell pretty exactly upon that hemisphere of the moon , which is never expos'd to the earth ; without affecting that which we can observe , and with which we are alone concern'd . in a word , in this second passage , the moon ought to have acquir'd a gross atmosphere on the opposite hemisphere and its bordering parts , the limb of her body , while the visible hemisphere retained its ancient purity and clearness : the latter part of which is known to be true ; and if the reader consults the right reverend and learned author quoted in the margent , he may see reason to esteem the other very probable also ; which is , i think , abundantly sufficient to clear this matter . lxxxix . since the deluge there neither has been , nor will be any great and general changes in the state of the world , till the time when a period is to be put to the present course of nature . lxxxix . seeing we know no other natural causes that can produce any great and general changes in our sublunary world , but such bodies as can approach to the earth , or , in other words , but comets ; and seeing withal , the next approach of the comet , will , in probability , bring the present state of things to a conclusion , and burn the world ; of which presently : 't is evident the earth is secure enough all the intermediate space : and as hitherto we accordingly find it has been , so we need not fear but it will be , preserv'd till the foremention'd conflagration . chap. v. phaenomena relating to the general conflagration : with conjectures pertaining to the same ; and to the succeeding period , till the consummation of all things . xc . as the world once perish'd by water , so it must by fire at the conclusion of its present state. xc . as we have given an account of the universal deluge from the approach of a comet in its descent towards the sun ; so will it not be difficult to account for the general conflagration from the like approach of a comet in its ascent from the sun. for 't is evident from what has been already explain'd , that in case a comet pass'd behind the earth , tho' it were in its descent , yet if it came near enough , and were it self big enough , it wou'd so much retard the earth's annual motion , and oblige it to revolve in an ellipsis so near to the sun in its perihelion , that the sun it self wou'd scorch and burn , dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree ; and this combustion being renew'd every revolution , wou'd render the earth a perfect chaos again , and change it from a planet to a comet for ever after . 't is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general conflagration with a witness ; and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the make of the present , and the possibility of a future world. on which last account , if we allow the following phaenomena , we must not introduce this , at this period however ; but see whether a conflagration of a less destructive , and more refining nature , be not to be expected , and may not be accounted for . and here let it be observ'd , that the central heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up , and dissolve the upper earth , ( as those who , with dr. woodward , know the power and vehemence of the same now , and its astonishing force , and terrible effects in earthquakes , eruptions of volcano's , and other phaenomena of present nature , ought to allow ) if these two things were by any means remov'd ; i mean the waters of the seas and ocean , and the coldness of the air : for 't is the vast quantity of waters of the earth , and the coldness of the middle region of the air every where , and of the whole air in the frigid zones , returning the vapours cold down again , which were sent up into 'em never so hot , which seems still to prevent the effects of the subterraneous heat , and to hinder the conflagration of the earth . if therefore the passing by of a comet be capable of emptying the seas and ocean , and of rendring the air , and its contiguous upper surface of the earth extreamly hot and inflam'd , no more , i suppose , will be necessary to a general conflagration : or if any more assistance be afforded by the presence of the comet , it will be ex abundanti , and only contribute still the more certainly , and the more suddenly , to kindle such a fatal fire , and so dreadful a combustion . now that both those requisite conditions for a general conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this passage of the ascending comet , is plain and evident : for ( . ) on the approach of the comet , a vast tide wou'd arise in the great abyss ; and by the new , more considerable , and more violent elevations thereof into the protuberances , and the sphaeroid surface of the whole , the old fissures and breaches wou'd be open'd again , and not a few new ones generated ; not only , as at the deluge , in the mountainous or more loose columns , extant above the surface of the waters of the globe ; but in all parts , and under the seas and ocean , as well as in other places ; which fissures must immediately swallow up the main mass or bulk of the waters upon the face of the ground , and send 'em to their fellow-waters in the bowels of the earth ; which was the first and principal step towards a general conflagration . and then ( . ) the vapours acquir'd from the comet 's atmosphere , which at the deluge were , by reason of their long absence from the sun in the remote regions beyond saturn , pretty cool ; at this time must be suppos'd , by reason of their so late and near approach to the sun about the perihelion , exceeding hot and burning ; and that to so extraordinary a degree , that nothing but the idea of the mouth of a volcano , just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning streams , or torrents of fiery matter , can in any measure be suitable to the violence thereof . imagine , therefore , the earth to pass through the very middle of this atmosphere , for or miles together , and to bear off with it a cylindrical column thereof , whose basis were somewhat larger than a great circle on the earth , and whose altitude were the number of miles just now mention'd ; and then tell me whether the air , and its adjoining uppermost region of the earth , will not be sufficiently hot and scorching ; which was the other step to the general conflagration . besides all which , what quantities of this fiery exhalation , or torrent of melted liquid matter wou'd run down the fissures into the bowels of the earth , and by joining with the central hot steams already there , invigorate them , and accelerate the direful inflammation ; and what piercing and scorching fiery corpuscles the central body it self during its vicinity , wou'd also send out ; and what an additional power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing heat , i need not say . upon the whole , i may appeal to the reader , if the concurrence of all these external causes , to say nothing here of any internal dispositions in the earth it self thereto , do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the world on fire , and bring on that terrible conflagration which both sacred and profane testimonies conspire to forewarn us of ; and so whether the theory of comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an account of the last burning , as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the earth . xci . the same causes which will set the world on fire , will also cause great and dreadful tides in the seas and ocean ; with no less agitations , concussions , and earthquakes in the air and earth . xci . seeing the eruption of the central heat , ( the cause , 't is probable , of all our earthquakes ) the presence of a comet , ( the cause once already of the most prodigious tides that ever were ) and the enflam'd chaos , or scorch'd atmosphere of the comet , ( a smaller part of which occasion'd all our tempests , our meteors , our thunder and lightning ever since the deluge ) will all concur at once , and with joint forces conspire together ; nothing in the world can be suppos'd more terrible , nor more exactly correspondent to the phaenomenon before us . xcii . the atmosphere of the earth , before the conflagration begin , will be oppress'd with meteors , exhalations , and steams ; and these in so dreadful a manner , in such prodigious quantities , and with such wild confus'd motions and agitations , that the sun and moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances , and their ancient splendor will be intirely obscur'd : the stars will seem to fall from heaven ; and all manner of horrid representations will terrifie the inhabitants of the earth . xcii . those who consider how a comet 's atmosphere appears to us after its perihelion , and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd masses our air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal , will expect no other effects than those here mention'd ; and will easily believe that all such horrible appearances wou'd ensue , and that in the most amazing degree , and extravagant instances possible . the theorist's representation of this matter will be , generally speaking , but a fair and just idea thereof . xciii . the deluge and conflagration are referr'd by ancient tradition to great conjunctions of the heavenly bodies , as both depending on , and happening at the same . xciii . in our accounts of the deluge and conflagration , there is a notable conjunction of the heavenly bodies indeed ; not such an imaginary one as the astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about ; the bare position of two or more of the celestial bodies in or near the same streight line , from the eye of the spectator , while they are at the most remote distances from one another ; which is a poor jejune thing indeed : but a real one with a witness ; when three of the heavenly bodies , the earth , the moon , and the comet , not only are in an astrological heliocentrick conjunction , or only seem to an eye in the sun to be conjoyn'd together , but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and influences on one another possible ; which we have sufficiently shewn in the present theory , and which does peculiarly correspond to the phenomenon before us . corollary . 't is not improbable but the ancient tradition , that the deluge and conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable conjunctions of the heavenly bodies , mis-understood , and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd , might give occasion and rise to astrology ; or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all ages have made about the conjunctions , oppositions , and aspects of the heavenly bodies , and the judiciary fredictions therefrom ; which even the improvements of solid philosophy in our age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us ; the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable . xciv . the space between the deluge and the conflagration ; or between the ancient state of the earth and its purgation by fire , renovation , and restitution again , is from ancient tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year , or annual revolution of some of the heavenly bodies ; and is in probability what the ancients so often referr'd to , pretended particularly to determine , and stil'd the great or platonick year . xciv . if we allow , as we ought , that in all probability the same comet that brought on the deluge will bring on the conflagration ; and that the same comet has not return'd , nor is to return , till the conflagration ; this matter is easie , and the correspondence accurate and remarkable : for this single revolution is truly an annual one , and as proper a year with regard to the comet , as that of our earth is with respect to us ; and so may most fitly and naturally suit the great or platonick year , taken notice of in the proposition before us . xcv . this general conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the earth : but only to the alteration , melioration , and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state , proper to receive those saints and martyrs for its inhabitants , who are at the first resurrection to enter , and to live and reign a thousand years upon it , till the second resurrection , the general judgment , and the final consummation of all things . xcv . seeing the abyss consists of a dense and compact fluid , not capable of any rarefaction or dissolution by the most violent heat imaginable , 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper orb , or habitable earth , without any farther progress . so that the effect of this conflagration will be the reduction of this upper earth , and its atmosphere , into a confus'd , mixt , and chaotick state ; much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the original formation of it . so that as the heat decreases , 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of reiteration of the mosaick six days creation , or a renovation of the primitive state of the earth ; to the description of which therefore i must refer the reader . xcvi . the state of nature during this millennium will be very different from that at present , and more agreeable to the antediluvian , primitive , and paradisiacal ones . xcvi . this is apparent from the conclusion of the former solution . xcvii . the earth in the millennium will be without a sea , or any large receptacle fill'd with mighty collections and quantities of water . xcvii . the primitive seas depended on two things ; the former , the concurrence of the central and solar heat for an intire half year together , in the elevation of sufficient quantities of vapours : the latter , the earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same vapours which were to compose the seas , of which we are speaking : so that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated formation of the earth , t is evident the effect must fail , and the globe be no longer a terraqueous one after the conflagration . now the next proposition but one , asserting the probability of the intire absence of the sun , must infer an equal probability of the entire absence of seas also , according as this proposition asserts . xcviii . the earth in the millennium will have no succession of light and darkness , day and night ; but a perpetual day . xcviii . in case the earth's diurnal rotation , upon which these vicissitudes depend , was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its annual motion , ( as the case in the moon 's diurnal and menstrual revolutions is at present , as we have before observ'd ) the earth wou'd constantly expose the same hemisphere to the sun , ( as the moon does now to the earth ) and all succession of day and night for ever cease ; the one half of the globe enjoying a perpetual day , while the other was involv'd in darkness , or excluded all advantages from him , and thereby enduring a continual night , so far as natural causes are here to be consider'd . and that this retardation of the earth's diurnal rotation ( even without a recurring to the miraculous power of its first author ) is accountable from that passing by of a comet , which we assign for the occasision of the conflagration , is very easie and obvious : for in case its ascent and passage by be on the east side , or before the earth ; and in case it approach so near as to rub against it , 't is evident such an impulse is contrary to the course of the diurnal rotation , and is therefore capable ( the proportions of every thing being adjusted by-divine providence ) of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present phaenomenon , and so may put a period to that constant succession of light and darkness , day and night , which has obtain'd ever since the fall of man ; and withal distinguish the surface of the earth into two quite different and contrary hemispheres ; near the vertex of one of which the sun it self , and near that of the other , its opposite point in the heavens , will be always situate . corollary . seeing such a rub of the comet wou'd affect the annual motion of the earth as well as the diurnal , 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter , and reduce the elliptical course and orbit of the earth , to its ancient circular one again . xcix . the state of the millennium will not stand in need of , and so probably will be without , the light and presence of the sun and moon . xcix . seeing the earth wou'd be on the foregoing supposition distinguish'd into two quite different hemispheres , the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the light and presence of the sun , and , as far as appears by st. john , supply'd by a supernatural light , fixt and permanent above its horizon , 't is clear that the first branch of this proposition is accountable thereby , as far as this physical theory is concern'd therein . and as to the moon , seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar providence that caus'd her equal acceleration , and consequent accompanying the earth at the former passing by of the comet ; and that no such providence is again to be expected ; 't is evident that that rub or stoppage of the earth's annual motion , which retards the same , and does not retard the moon 's also , will separate these planets , and procure their orbits , courses , and periods to be quite different from one another's ever after ; according to the greatest rigour of the present proposition . c. at the conclusion of the millennium , the final judgment , and the consummation of all things , the earth will desert its present seat and station in the world , and be no longer found among the planetary chorus . c. if any comet instead of passing by , or gently rubbing the earth , hit directly against it , in its course either towards or from the sun , it must desert its ancient station , and move in a quite different elliptick orbit ; and so of a planet become again a comet , for the future ages of the world. corollaries from the whole . i. seing the new and solid improvements of philosophy do all along give so rational accounts of those ancient theorems , which have been propagated down from the eldest ages , without being then either understood , or intelligible to their propagators ; 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such ancient traditions , not only sacred , but prophane also , in these or any other paralled cases ; they being in all probability the most valuable remains , and most venerable truths which the primitive parents of the world deliver'd down to their posterity in succeeding generations . ii. seeing most of these ancient theorems are very much beyond the distinct knowledge of those who deliver them ; contrary to the common opinion of mankind , judging usually by sensible appearances ; and in themselves , considering the low state of natural knowledge at the same times , were highly improbable , if not utterly incredible to inquisitive minds : and indeed several of them relating to the chaos , the creation , the primary constitution and state of the world , and the deluge it self , impossible to be discover'd without supernatural revelation ; and yet seeing , after all , they do now appear as agreeable to reason , and the most solid mechanical philosophy , as any new discoveries , built on the exactest observations of present nature whatsoever ; 't is apparent that these ancient accounts , especially those contain'd in the holy scriptures , were not originally deriv'd from the natural skill and observation of the first authors , or any other meerly humane means , but from the immediate and supernatural revelation of god almighty ; who was therefore much more conversant with mankind in the first , than he has been in these last ages of the world ; as the old testament-history assures us . iii. the measure of our present knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or test of truth ; or to be oppos'd to the accounts receiv'd from profane antiquity , much less to the inspir'd writings . for notwithstanding that several particulars relating to the eldest condition of the world , and its great catastrophe's , examin'd and compar'd with so much philosophy as was till lately known , were plainly unaccountable , and , naturally speaking , impossible ; yet we see , now nature is more fully , more certainly , and more substantially understood , that the same things approve themselves to be plain , easie , and rational . iv. 't is therefore folly in the highest degree , to reject the truth , or divine authority of the holy scriptures , because we cannot give our minds particular satisfaction as to the manner , nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted . since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole bible , and gave the greatest scruple and scandal to philosophick minds , so fully and particularly attested , and next to demonstrated from certain principles of astronomy and natural knowledge ; 't is but reasonable to expect , in due time , a like solution of the other difficulties . 't is but just sure to depend upon the veracity of those holy writers in other assertions , whose fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones . v. the obvious , plain , or literal sense of the sacred scriptures , ought not , without great reason , to be eluded or laid aside : several of those very places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto , appearing now to the minutest circumstances , true and rational , according to the strictest and most literal interpretations of them . vi. we may be under an obligation to believe such things on the authority of the holy scriptures , as are properly mysteries ; that is , though not really contradictory , yet plainly unaccountable to our ( present degree of ) knowledge and reason . thus the sacred histories of the original constitution , and great catastrophe's of the world have been in the past ages the objects of the faith of jews and christians , though the divine providence had not afforded so much light as that they cou'd ootherwise satisfie themselves in the credibility of them , till the new improvements in philosophy . and this is but just and reasonable ; for sure the ignorance or incapacity of the creature does by no means afford sufficient ground for incredulity , or justifie men in their rejecting divine revelation , and impeaching the veracity or providence of the creator . vii . seeing the natural and the moral world are alike subject to the divine providence , and that the same author has indited those writings which relate to both ; the discovery of the verity of the holy scriptures in the most difficult points relating to the one , ought to make us entirely secure of the like verity of the same scriptures relating to the other , notwithstanding any difficulties still remaining about 'em : as the wise , proportionate , and harmonious order and regularity of the natural world , where no freedom of the creature interposes , and gives any occasion for disorder , justly obliges us to believe the most wise and equal methods of providence to be equally exercis'd about the moral one also ; although the intricacies arising from the abuse of the liberty of will in rational creatures , render them hitherto more obscure to us in the latter case than in the former : so certainly the establishment of the verity of the scriptures in the most harsh and difficult assertions touching the natural world , ( the proper case in which the improvement of philosophy was likely to afford means for our determination ) ought to assure us of the like verity of the same scriptures in the other points , more peculiarly the subjects of divine revelation , less capable of affording any other means of satisfaction , and yet more directly the design , scope , and drift of the sacred writers , and the concern of divine providence than the other . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amhn. a postscript . since the finishing of the fore-going theory , i met , a few days since , with a very good book just publish'd , call'd , a conference with a theist ; by the reverend and learned dr. nichols ; wherein i found him making considerable use of an essay of sir william petty's , concerning the multiplication of mankind , and the growth of the city of london ; and perceiving thence that learned gentleman to have there made use of years , as the mean or equal standard for the doubling of mankind in the present age ; when i had , by mistake , pitch'd upon , from a book which 't is suppos'd the same author was concern'd in before , i hereupon procur'd this latter book it self , and set my self to the consideration thereof , and particularly as to what more immediately concern'd my self , and those calculations i had superstructed upon a somewhat different hypothesis . by which means i found that this last , and therefore more authentick essay had not only on very good grounds fixt years for the ordinary middle late of the doubling mankind with us atpresent , but had withal remark'd such very different extreams on either hand sometimes observ'd , and still more different ones very possible to be observ'd in the world , as gave great light to several things contain'd in the holy scriptures , and particularly to some , insisted on in the foregoing theory , and so was very well worthy of a careful consideration . thus it has seem'd very strange to some , that in years , the persons descended of jacob shou'd amount to so many as by the calculation above has been made appear they really did . but now if we consider what sir william petty proves , that the increase of mankind has been actually from to years in doubling ; and may fairly be from to , according to the present observations ; and withal consider that the lives of men then , generally speaking , were more than six times as long as the middle duration of ours now ; and so on account of more numerous posterity , and coexistence , there is to be about eighteen times as many as the same number , at the same rate of propagation , wou'd produce with us : if , i say , we consider these things , we shall be soon satisfy'd with the sacred history in this otherwise surprizing narration , and not at all think it strange that the children of israel doubl'd themselves in fourteen years , till the exodus out of aegypt , or the after-reduction of the period of human life , to the present standard , before their entrance into the land of canaan , seeing 't is not so incredible as the doubling of any family or nation in twenty years now with us wou'd appear to be ; which no one can say to be otherwise than very reasonable , and what does not unfrequently happen in these latter ages of the world , for many generations together . but what is more to my present purpose , and the main occasion of this postscript ( besides the rectifying my own mistakes , and that small difference which it has occasion'd in my calculations , which the candid reader will easily pardon and amend ) is an observation i have made on occasion of my lighting upon this last essay of sir william petty , whereby at once this matter , of the multiplication of mankind in the past ages , may be in good measure determin'd ; and sir william's mistake touching the different proportions thereof in the different periods of the world since moses's time , may be corrected , to the great illustration of the sacred , as well as prophane accounts of the ancient ages of the world. and the observation is this , that mankind , as far as we have means of enquiry , have generally speaking increased in one and the same given proportion , and doubled themselves in years in all the past ages of the world , since the fixing of the present period of humane life . the truth of which observation i thus prove . 't is evident that the most ancient age of the world , capable of being compar'd with the present , was that of moses , when the lives of men were reduc'd to seventy or eighty years , their present standard ; and that therefore the succeding period of four hundred and seventy nine years , from the exodus out of egypt , till the building of solomon's temple , was the first considerable enough for our present purpose . 't is also evident , that the history of the jews , or the sacred history , is the only one ancient enough , and certain enough to be introduc'd , and depended on in the present case . nay , indeed , 't is evident that the jews from their union together , and their distinction from the neighbour nations , as well as the accuracy of their genealogies and numbers frequently recorded in scripture , are alone capable of affording any full and uncontested instances of this matter . 't is , lastly , evident in particular , that the numbers of the children of israel were exactly taken , and are as exactly recorded at the beginning , and a little before the end of the foremention'd period , as we shall see presently . so that we have here the fairest opportunity possible of clearing this matter , and of comparing the most ancient , with the latest increase of mankind ; the doing of which will establish the truth of that observation i am now upon , beyond reasonable contradiction ; which i thus attempt . at the exodus of the children of israel out of egypt , the number of the men on foot , besides children , was about six hundred thousand . more exactly , a little above a year afterwards , the number of the males of israel above twenty years old , all that were able to go forth to war , were ( besides the levites ) six hundred and three thousand , five hundred and fifty . now the number of the years between these accounts of the people , and that towards the conclusion of the reign of david , was about or , as chronologers very well know . say then , by the golden rule , if years double the people , or produce , how many , by a proportionable increase , will years produce ? the product whereof is ; which therefore , according to the foremention'd rate , ought to be the number of the israelites at the time when david numbred them years afterwards . now the number of the israelites taken by joab was expresly eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword. besides which , there were twelve companies of men a-piece , already numbred and enroll'd , to wait by turns on the king in the twelve months of the year : which are . so that the total of the men of all isreal was , or , in a round number , men , as 't is expresly in the book of chronicles . to which add the men of judah . or , including , as usual , the small tribe of benjamin , ( which , besides levi , came not into the former sum : ) about . according to the express words of the book of samuel . and so at last the total sum is , or more nicely , which is wonderfully near the former sum of produc'd by the arithmetical calculation above , and highly worthy of our regard and admiration . 't is true , the israelites rather decreas'd in the wilderness ; and at the end of the first thirty eight or thirty nine years , ( by reason of the cutting off the intire murmuring generation e're the youngest of them were fifty nine years old ) were not quite so many as at the time of their first numbring when they came out of egypt . but then as this will be an excepted case , and the remaining years within a small matter will still answer the assigned proportion ; so indeed this destruction was not greater than ought to be suppos'd oft-times to happen , and such as both has formerly , and does at this day frequently happen in the world ; on the allowance of which , the period of years was determined : and therefore ought not to be distinctly consider'd in the present case . we may therefore , upon the whole matter , very reasonably determine , that , excepting what disturbance extraordinary and uncommon wars , famines , plagues , and such other merciless destroyers of mankind have given thereto , mankind have generally increas'd in the same determinate proportion , and doubled themselves in three hunderd and sixty years , for more than three thousand years , from the time of moses , till the present age ; as was to be prov'd . which observation thus establish'd , what light it might afford ancient history , and the holy scriptures , as well as the present theory , 't is not my business here to enquire : but i shall refer the same to the careful consideration of the reader . finis . books printed for benj. tooke . cursus mathematicus : mathematical sciences in nine books : comprehending arithmetick , geometry , cosmography , astronomy , navigation , trigonometry , with the description , construction and use of geometrical and nautical instruments , and the doctrine of triangles applied to practice in mensurations of all kinds . by william leybourn , philomath . fol. fables of aesop , and other eminent mythologists , with morals and reflections . by sir roger l'estrange . fol. a catalogue of books printed in england since the dreadful fire of london in . to the end of michaelmas term . with an abstract of the general bills of mortality since . and the titles of all the classick authors , cum notis variorum , and those for the use of the dauphin . fol. dioptrica nova : a treatise of dioptricks . in two parts . wherein the various effects and appearances of spherick-glasses , both convex and concave , single and combined in telescopes and microscopes . together with their usefulness in many concerns of humane life , are explained . by william molyneux of dublin , esq fellow of the royal society . quarto . two sermons preach'd before the condemn'd criminals at newgate , . by b. crooke , m. a. rector of st. michael woodstreet , london . quarto . a collection of some papers , writ upon several occasions , concerning clipt and counterfeit money , and trade , so far as it relates to the exportation of bullion . by dr. hugh chamberlain . quarto . praelectiones academicae in schola historices camdeniana . auctore henrico dodwello . octavo . two letters written to a gentleman of note , guilty of common swearing . to which is added a third letter to another gentleman in the commission of the peace , exciting him to the performance of his part in executing the late act against prophane cursing and swearing . twelves . errata . pag. . lin . . read agreeably . p. . l. . r. world. p. . l. . r. are . p. . l. . r denotes . p. . l. . r. had . p. . l . r. phaenomena . p. . l. . r direct . p. . l. . r. scarce . p. . l. . r. receding . p. . l. . dele and. p. . l. . r. year days l. . years or more nicely days . l. . years more nicely days . p. . l. . r. are . p. . l. . at the end add [ will be i suppose ] p. . l. . r. hypothesis . p. . l. . must have been . p. . l. . r. but if that were as . p. . l. . r. months [ immediately succeeding one another . ] p. . l. . r. demonstrate . p. . l. . r. were . p. . tit. r. phaenomena . p. . l. penult . marg . r. . p. . l. . r. atmosphere . p. . l. . r. with the course , &c. p. . l. . r. seem . p. . l. . after [ and ] add [ that account ] . p. . marg . r. hypoth . . p. . l. . r. hexaemeron . p. . l. . r. and lighter earthy . p. , & . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. . l. . r. nor . p. . l. . r. heat in p. . l. . r. agitations . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e gen. i. . gen. i. . num. xvi . . isa. xlv . . ver . . cap. lxv . . gen. i. . ver . , . acts xvii . . john i . mat. xiii . . & xxiv . . & xxv . . luk. xi . . joh. xvii . , . rom. i. . eph. i. . heb. iv . . & ix . . pet. i. . apoc xiii . . & xvii . . mark xiii . . gen. ii . . ver . . command . . mat. xxvi . . mark xvi . . mat. iv . . gen. i. , . cap. xi . . deut ix . . mat. xxiv . . & xxvi . . ps. cxlviii . . mat. viii . . & xiii . . gen. i. . gen. i. , , , . gen ii . . ver . . ver . , . ver . . ver . . ver . . ver . . gen. i. , , . verse , , , . acts ii . . mat. xxiv . . joshua x. . psalm xix , , , . vide psal. civ . , &c. isaiah xl . . gen. i. . ver● , . apoc. xxi . . isaiah lxv . . deut. iv . & xvii . . vid. hypoth . . gen. i. , . vid. lem. . infrà . vid. coroll . . & lem. . infrà . isa. xxxix . , . bishop of ely. rom. iii. . psal. cxix . . psal. xix . , . apoc. xv . . acts xvii , . vid. phaen. . infrà . pet. iii. , &c. verse . verse , . heb. i. , , . luke xx . . cor. xv . . joh. xviii . . psal. viii . , . ver . ult . notes for div a -e lem. . infrà . vid. bentley , serm. . p. , &c. fig. . schem . . fig. . fig. . serm. . p. , . fig. . fig. . vid. bentley , serm. . cartes . d●optr . cap. . &c. fig. . fig. . schem . i. fig. . fig. . scheme . fig. . * coroll . lem. . prius . * coroll . lem. . priùs . fig. . fig. . fig. . serm. . p. . fig. . lem. , , . priùs . fig. . fig. . fig. . fig. . vid. arg. hypoth . . infra . fig. . vid. lem. . priùs . serm. . p. . lem . prius . fig. . see the testimonies about the chaos cited at the first phaenomenon afterward . gen. i. . gen. i. . coroll . . lem. . . priùs . essay , part . sect. . vid lem. . prius . lem. . . priùs . vid. new. p. . & coroll . . solut. . infrà . newt . p. . essay . part . essay . p. , &c. lem. . priùs . lem. o priùs . gen ii . , . cap. iv . . cap. v. , . jud. xvii . . josh. xiii . . cap. xxiii . . sam. ii . . king. ii . . deut. xiv . . amos iv . . num. xiv . , . ezek. iv . , , . dan. viii . , . cap. xii . , , . apoc. xi . . cap. xii . . dan. ix . , , . apoc. xi . . cap. xiii . . ps. xc . . pet. iii. . gen. ii . . gen. ii . , , . lev. xxv . , . ver . . vid. deut. xv . lev. xxiii . — . cap. xxv . — . gen. i. — . gen. i. & ii . vid. bishop patrick on gen. in initio . gen. ii . , &c. on gen. . init . lib. . cap. . archaeol . p. , , . theor. lib. . cap. . & . archaeol . lib. . cap. . & . theor. lib. . cap. . p. . archaeol . p. . ibid. p. . hypoth . . infrà . theor. lib. . cap. . phaenom . . infrà . vid. phanem . . infrà . vid. bentley , serm. . p. , &c. and dr. woodward's essay , p. . &c. theor. lib. . cap. . coroll . , & . lem. . prius . gen. ii . . archaeol . p. . gen. ii . , . gen. i. , , , , , . lev. xxiii . . vid. 〈◊〉 . prolegom . de tempore mundi condit● cap. . lev. xxiii . , . numb . xxix . ... . exod. xii . , . with xiii . . exo. xxiii . . & xxxiv . . vid. arg. . hypoth . . infrà . gen. xi . . sir walter raleigh's hist. lib. . cap. . sect . . and heylin's cosmog . p. , . lib. . cap. . sect . . subj . . solut. . infrà . phaen. . infrà . gen. viii . . kings xix . . isa. xxxvii . . in loc. coroll . . hyposh . . infrà . lem. , &c. priùs . lib. . cap. . coroll . . solut. . infrà . hypoth . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . arg. . hypoth hujus , infrà . vid. phaenom . . infrà . lem. . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . gen. vii . , . & viii . , , , . vid. bishop patrick in loc. gen. vii . . & viii . with viii . . gen. vii . . vid. verba ipsa apud langium de annis christi . p. . lem. . priùs . gen. vii . . lem. . priùs . lem. . cum coroll . priùs . lem. . priùs . vid. solut. . infiâ . lem. , . prius . fig. . gen. i. . grot ver. rel. christ. l. . sect. . burn. theor. l. . c . and l. . c. , . arch. l. . c. . gen. . , , , , , . gen. i. . gen. i. , , . ver . , , . ver . , , , , . ver . , , , , , . ver . , , , . hypoth . , p , &c. priùs . ver . , , , . gen. ii . , , . exod. . , , , . essay , part . sect. , vid. theor. l. . cap. & . & , . ca l. & . p. , p●●o● . viii . , , . ps. xxiv . . & cxxxvi . . pet iii. , . gen. vii . & viii . . vid. theor. l. . c. . & l. . c. . lem. , & . cum coroll . priùs . gen. i , . verse , , , . verse . . essay , pag. , . prov. viii . , . gen. ii . , &c. essay , p. . prov. viii . , , , . job xv . . psalm xc . , . essay , p. — . and — . essay , p. , , . essay , p. . essay , p. , , . gen. ii . , . gen. iv . . essay . part . vid. p. , . gen. iv . . verse . verse . verse . verse . vid. grot. verit. rel. christ. l. . sect . . theor. l. . c. . l. . c. . gen ii . . and iii. , , . cap. ii . , , . and iii. , &c. gen. v. . and ii . , . chap. iii. . ibid. gen. ii . . gen. iii. cor. xi . . gen. iii. . rom. viii . , , , . gen. ii . . chap. iii. . gen. ii . . chap. iii. , , . gen. ii . , . chap. iii. , . gen. i. . cap. viii . ult . gen. v. , . ver . . ver . . gen. iv . , . with . vid. cap. vii . . with v. . gen. v. . & vii . . & viii . . with xi . . vid. graunt on bills of mortal . p. . exod. xii . . numb . i. , . pag . pag. . numb . iii. . cap. i. . , . pa. . , . essay , pa. , . essay , pa. , &c. & , . theor. l. . c. . & . a●chael . . c. , & . theor. l. . c. . gen. ii . , . vid. phaenom . . infrà . gen. ix . , , , , , . vid theo. l. . c . gen. i. , . cap. ix . , , . vir. george lib. . sub calce . grot. ubi suprà . theor. l. . c. . hor. ode . vid. etiam coroll . . solut. . infià . gen. vi . , , . archaeol . p. . theor. l. . c. . theor. l. . c. . p. . grot. ubi suprà . bish. stillingsteet's orig. l. . c. . edward's authority of script . p. , &c. and commentators on gen. . and . * essay , pref. and part . sect. . gen. vii . . verse , . verse . vid. th. l. . c. . gen. vii . . and viii . . gen. vii . . langius de annis christi , p. . gen. vii . . job xxxviii . . gen. vii . . gen. vii . , . gen. vii . . verse . verse . cap. viii . , . gen. viii . . gen. vii . . verse . verse . gen. vi . . bishop cumberland's weights and measures , p. . gen. viii . . psalm civ . , , . vid. philonis descriptionem diluvii apud burnetium , archaeol . p . essay , pref. and part . sect. , vid. th. l. . c. , gen. vi , , verse ●● chap. vii . . verse , , , , . vid. varen . geog. p. . gen. vii . , . vid. hypoth . . priùs . gen. vii . ult . ( with verse . ) chap. viii . , , , , . gen. viii . . gen. viii . . verse . job xxxviii . , , . psalm civ . , , , . gen. v. . and xxv . . and xxxv . . and xlvii . . and l. . psalm xc . . gen. vi . . and ix . . essay . passim . essay , p. . essay , p , , . pref. and p. . p. . p. , , . p. , , . p. . p. , , . p. , . . p. , . p. , . p. , &c. essay , passim & p. , &c. varen . geog. l. . c. . prop. . gen. ii , , , , . gen ii . , , , , . ezek. xxviii . . apoc. xxi . , , . with xxii . . gen. vi . , , . ver. , , . ver. . pet. ii . . gen. viii . , . essay , par . , & . a pet. iii. . verse . verse . dr. hackwell's apology of the power and providence of god. l. . c. . theor. l. . c. . mat. xxiv . . joel . iii. . luk. xxi . , . vid. theor. l. . c. . joelii . , . mat xxiv . . luk. xxi . , . nat. quaest. l. . c. . theor. l. . c. . pet. iii. , . isa. lxv . . mat. xix . , . mar. x . . luke xviii , . ps. cii . , . apoc xx . , &c. theor. l. . c. , , , , . acts iii. . apoc. xxi . . apoc. xxi . . cap. xxii . . apoc. xxi . . cap. xxii . . apoc. xx . . theor. l . c. . hypoth . . priùs . vid. lem. . cum coroll . priùs . and bentley , serm. . p. , &c. discourse , p. , , . gen. i. . vid. bentley , serm. . vid. bentley , serm. . utinam caetera naturae phaenomena ex principiis mechanicis eodem argumentandi genere derivare licerst . nam multa me movent ut nonnihil suspicer ea omnia ex viribus quibusdam pendere posse , quibus corporum particulae , per causas nondum cognitas , vel in se mutud impelluntur , & secundum figuras regulares cohaerent , vel ab invicem fugantur , & recedunt : quibus viribus ignotis , philosophi hactenus naturam frustrà tentarunt . newt . praef. ad lector . gen. i. . vid. loca de chao priùs laudata . gen. i. . verse . verse . chap. ii . . coroll . . lem. . & hypoth . . cum coroll . . priùs . lem. . &c. and , &c. & hypath . priùs . theor. p. . theor. p. . theor. p. . theor. p. . vid. lem. . cum coroll . & hypoth . . priùs . theor. l. . p . & l. . c. . theor. p. . & suprà . phaenom . . priùs . atlas chin. part . p. . apud war. geolog . p. . theor. p. . solut. . prius . vid. john i . and v and vi . , . matth xi . . john iv . . rom i. . col. i. . tim. i. . and . , . with exod . and . and . and . , . and . , , , , . numb . xii . , &c. and . . gen. . and . and . and . and . , &c. deut. . and . vid. prov. viii . , — . heb. i. , . with . . col. . , , , . john i. , , . heb. . , , . psalm viii . . vid. lem. . & hypoth . . arg. . priùs . vid. fig. comet . a. d. . apud newt . & nostram . fig. . lem. , &c. and solut. , , . priùs . solut. . priùs . essay , p. , &c. and p. . vid. lem. , , . priùs . hypoth . . priùs . lem. , &c. and solut. . priùs . lem. . cùm corol . prius . phaenom . . & . priùs . lem. . priùs . hypoth . . priùs . solut. . priùs . hypoth . priùs . lem. , . cum coroll . priù . phaenom . . priùs . solut. . priùs . phaenom . . priùs . solut. . priùs . vid. bentley , serm. . lem. . cum coroll . & hypoth . . priùs . gen. v. . & ii . , . with iii. . gen. ii . , & iii. , , . & iv . . essay , p. , &c. lem. . &c. & hypoth . . priùs . hypoth . . priùs . lem. , & hypoth . . priùs . newt . p. . gen. iii. . margin . solut. . priùs . vid. fig. , & , & . hypoth . . priùs . lem. , . priùs . fig. . vid. schol. post hypoth . . priùs . lem. . priùs . vid essay pa. , &c and pa. ● . lem. , . priùs . solut. priùs . newt . p. , &c. solut . infrà fig. . ccroll . . schol. post hypoth . . priùs . fig. . phaenom . phaenom . . priùs . coroll . . lem. . priùs . vid. solu . . infrà . gen. vii . . gen. vii . ult . & viii . , , , . fig. . geolog . p. , . and defence , p. , . lem. . cum coroll . & solut . . priùs . fig. kings x. . chron. ix . . l. . c. , . theor. l. . c. . gen. xi , . graunt . p. , , . job . . hypoth . . priùs . gen. viii . . vid. bentley's serm. . p. , . solut. . priùs . solut. . priùs . hypoth . . priùs . vid. solut . . priùs . lem. . priùs . coral . . schol. post hypoth . . priùs . bp. wilk . new world. lib. . prop. . vid. theor. l. . c. . &c. theor. l. . c. . lem. . cum corol . priùs . solut. . & . priùs . lem. . priùs . notes for div a -e phaenom . . priùs . ibid. phaenom . . cum priùs . vid phaenom . . cum . priùs . exod. xii . numb . i. , , , , , , , . sam. xxiv . . chron. xxvii . . chron. xxi . . ibid. ibid. sam. xxiv . . numb . xxvi . , , . geologia, or, a discourse concerning the earth before the deluge wherein the form and properties ascribed to it, in a book intitlued the theory of the earth, are excepted against ... / by erasmus warren ... warren, erasmus. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w _variant estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) geologia, or, a discourse concerning the earth before the deluge wherein the form and properties ascribed to it, in a book intitlued the theory of the earth, are excepted against ... / by erasmus warren ... warren, erasmus. [ ], p. : ill. printed for r. chiswell ..., london : mdcxc [ ] imperfect: pages stained. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . earth -- origin. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion geologia : or , a discourse concerning the earth before the deluge . wherein the form and properties ascribed to it , in a book intituled the theory of the earth , are excepted against : and it is made appear , that the dissolution of that earth was not the cause of the universal flood . also a new explication of that flood is attempted . by erasmvs warren , rector of worlington , in suffolk . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ecclesiast . iii. . et mundum tradidit disputationi eorum . london , printed for r. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . m dc xc . to the reader . having perused the book called the theory of the earth : considering it simply and abstractedly in it self , as a philosophic scheme or representation of things ; i found it a treatise , not unworthy of the ingenious author of it . though so it was not without its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or defects . but then taking it as it relates to the doctrine of the bible , and so bears the title , * sacred ; i thought it liable to several exceptions . some of these i determin●d to set down forthwith , and in a letter transmit them to the learned theorist . but my pen growing warm , quite our-run the bounds of my first intentions ; and forcing me to alter the method i had begun , carry'd things on to this length , and drew them up in this form. my design is only an humble proposal of some few exceptions against the essentials of the theory . and i as humbly beg , that they may not be mistaken , as to their rise ; nor misconst●ued , as to their end. they ●low but from affection to truth ; and are directed to her vindication . let none therefore think them off-springs of a narrow mind , or issues of a captious disputatious spirit ; much less of a stingy ●icque against philosophy , to which , as i owe all becoming veneration , so i shall ever duly pay it . nor have i ingaged with the theory at all because it is new ; but because it is false . for all that is true , must needs be ancient : only the discovery of some truth may be new. but then every such discovery of important truth , is highly to be valued and applauded : to be welcom'd into the world with thanks and joy ; and entertain'd with reverence and a sweet reception . yea as every such discovery of weighty truth , ought to be receiv'd with great kindness and respect ; so that happy person , who makes the discovery , ought to be exceedingly honoured too , and lookt upon as deserving a coronet and a monument . and for my own part , i had much rather assist with my hands in ●itting up both ; than write one word or syllable with my pen , to hinder him of either . again therefore i heartily profess my scope , to be nothing else but a vindication of truth ; unless i ●hall add , and of religion also . for though i am far from that temper , of being * alarm'd at the proposal of every new theory , as if all religion were falling about our ears : yet i am sensible the theorist has assaulted religion , and that in the very foundation of it . and therefore he must not blame me , if i have taken the alarm ( to use his own word ) when he was pleased in such a manner to give it . and truly should not some of us have been awakened by it , considering how loud he rings it in our ears ; he might well have concluded , we were too fast asleep . when the fourteen † books of numa pompilius , that ancient and famous king of rome , were found in the earth in a chest of stone ; and being taken out were perused by several : at last , upon the praetor p●tilius's report , that they contained pleraque dissolvendarum religionum , many things tending to the undoing of religion ( at least in some ceremonies or appendages of it ) they were condemned by the senate — an argument of their tenderness and due concern for the religion they had , though but a mean one . now allowing our regard for religion , to exceed that of the romans ( as in reason it should ) but as much as our religion exceedeth theirs : and how deeply must we res●nt ( especially those of us in holy orders ) even the smallest injuries done unto it ? but then when books come forth too like to numa's , the contents whereof strike at religion ; the least we can do , is to complain of the abuse , and endeavour meekly to confute them . and that the theory of the earth does strike at religion , and assault it ( as i said ) in the very foundation of it ; is but too evident . for in several things ( as will appear in our discourse ) it contradicts scripture ; and by * too positive asserting the truth of its own theorems , makes that to be false ; upon which our religion is founded . and to assert such things positively , as imply scripture to be false in any periods of it ; must be of very pernicious consequence . for if it fails in some instances , it may do so in many : and that which renders it suspected in part , will impeach the credit of the whole . let it be noted therefore that the dispute here , is not meerly whether the world we live in , be the same now , as it was of old before the flood : or whether there be not as much difference betwixt its primaeval , and its present state ; as betwixt a goodly structure , when standing in its glory , and groveling in its ruines : but ( which is far more material ) whether some sacred and revealed truths ; or gay , but groundless philosophic phancies ; shall be preferred . the book has lain by in manus●ript a great while . why it did so , is well known to some good men ; and i need not trouble all with the reasons of it . but when none ( as i could learn ) were dispos'd to write better ; i let it come abroad . in it , i have not ( to speak in the theorist 's language ) * made iudgment or consure of his hypothesis , upon general presumptions and prejudices , nor according to the temper and model of my own spirit ; but ( i think ) according to reason . and that i might not impose upon my self or others , have laid aside that lazy and fallacious method of censuring by the lump , and endeavoured to bring things close to the test of true and false , to explicit proof and evidence . and whosoever , says he , makes such objections against an hypothesis , hath a right to be heard . this right therefore , so far as it is mine , and i may lawfully do it ; i now challenge . to conclude . whereas i have endeavoured to explain the universal deluge , in a new and unusual way ; i would by no means be thought to ground upon it , as certainly true : but only to show that another way of opening and unfolding that intricate phaenomenon , may be found out , as plausible or approvable as that which the theory goes in . and truly for my own part , i am much of the opinion of a very learned friend of mine ( a great ornament both to the university and the faculty he is of ) who upon perusal of this book in manuscript , wrote this to me among other things : though we have moses , yet i believe we must stay for elias , to make out to us , the true philosophical modus of the creation , and deluge . the contents . chap. i. . the great usefulness of natural philosophy . . in proving there is a god. . in acquainting us with his nature . . in asserting a providence . . in excluding idolatry . . in vindicating the gospel in several points . . as the immortality of the soul. . the resurrection of the body . . the conflagration of the world. . and the endless fiery torments of the damned . . philosophy is useful also as to divinity . . and like to flourish . . caution against abusing it . . which is done , either by speaking , or thinking slightly of it . . or by setting it too low in its operati●ns . . or else by raising it too high . . which is the fault of the theory of the earth . . a character of it . . the occasion of this discourse against it . . together with its method . . this chapter , an introduction to the discourse , page , chap. ii. . the hypothesis of the earth's formation stated . . the first exception against it , it would have taken up too much time . . the world being made in six days . . how there might be light and days , before there was a sun. . a proof that the creation was perfected in six days time . . numeral cabbalism cannot overthrow it . . the jews in cabbalizing , still allowed a literal meaning to scripture ; only they superadded a mystical one , never contrary to it . . though were there a cabbala , destructive to the letter of moses's story of the creation , that would not invalidate the argument alledged . . moses's account of the creation , runs not upon bare numbers , but upon time. . what account the christian church has made of the cabbala . . how it discovers its own vanity . . the literal sense to be kept to , in the story of the creation . . where scripture speaks so as not to be understood literally , it is sometimes for plainness sake . p. chap. iii. . a second exception against the formation of the earth , viz. the fluctuation of the waters of the chaos , whereon it was to be raised . . that fluctuation caused by the moon . . the theorist's doubt , whether she were then in our neighbourhood , considered . . the precariousness of his hypothesis in several things relating to the chaos : which ought to have been better cleared and confirmed , according to his own declared iudgment . . the descent of the earthly particles out of the air , not only precarious , but vnphilosophical . . and also anti-scriptural . p. chap. iv. . a third exception against the formation of the earth , the fire at the center of it . . the theory faulty in not setting ●orth the beginning of the chaos , which was necessary to be done . . such a chaos was not created . . nor yet produced in des-cartes his way . . and therefore that central fire seems a thing unreasonable . . that the chaos was produced in the cartesian way , not to be allowed by the theory . . the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , also insinuates the contrary . . the septuagint cleared in one passage . . the story of the creation not to be restrained to the terrestrial world. p. chap. v. . the form of the earth excepted against from the want of rivers . . notwithstanding the way devised to raise them , there would have been none in due time . . whereupon two great inconveniences must have ensued . . no rivers could have been before the flood . p. chap. vi. . another exception against the hypothesis ; it would have drowned the world , though man had not sinned : . or though mankind had been never so penitent . . which would have reflected upon providence : and imboldened the atheist . p. chap. vii . . saint peter's words alledged in favour of the hypothesis ; inapplicable to that purpose . . wherein the stress of them seems to lie . . seven other allegations out of scripture , of no force . . as being figurative , and so not argumentative . . which tycho brahe not minding , it gave occasion to his systeme . p. ● chap. viii . . a continual aequinox before the flood , by vertue of the earth's position , improbable . . for then that position would have remained still , or the change thereof would have been more fully upon record . . scripture does not favour this aequinox , but rather discountenance it . . it would have kept one half of the earth unpeopled . . and have hindred the rains at the time of the flood . . the doctrine of the aequinox is against the judgment of the learned . . the authorities alledged for the right situation of the earth , upon which the aequinox depends , insufficient to prove it . . two queries propounded relating to the aequinox . p. chap. ix . . the oval figure of the primitive earth excepted against , from the nature of that mass upon which it was founded . . and from its position in its annual motion . . as also from the roundness of the present earth . . which roundness could not accrue to the earth from its disruption , in regard that would have rendred it more oval still , in case it had been oval from the beginning . . or at least would not have made it less oval than it was . p. chap. x. . that there were mountains before the flood , proved in way of exception to the theory , out of scripture . . and that they could not be made by the falling in of the first earth , argued from the mountains in the moon . . and from the opinion of the talmudists , and others . . how mountains might arise in the very beginning . . there must be mountains in the first world , because there were metals in it . p. chap. xi . . that there were open seas before the flood , made evident from scripture . . such seas necessary then as receptacles for great fishes . . the abyss being no fit place for them . . a farther confirmation of open seas . . an objection against them , answered . . another objection answered . . a third answered . p. chap. xii . . the scripture's silence touching the rainbow , before the flood , does not argue its non-appearance till after it . . it s appearance from the beginning , no hindrance or diminution of its federal significancy . . but matter of congruence to god's method of proceeding in other cases . . clouds were ext●nt before the flood , and therefore the rainbow was so . . the conclusion of this chapter , relating to the two foregoing ones also . p. chap. xiii . . the doctrine of paradise , intelligible without the theory . . where that doctrine is best taught . . what it is , with a brief paraphrase upon it . . it is clear in it self , though obscured by writers . . longaevity before the flood , no property of paradise ; and might be the priviledge but of few . . it could not be common to all , according to the theory . p. chap. xiv . . the flood could not be caused by the dissolution of the earth , and its falling into the abyss . . for it would have been inconsistent with the description of paradise . . it would have destroy'd the ark. . and have made the earth of a form different from what now it is of . . it would also have reduced it to a miserable barrennels . . and have overturned the buildings which outstood the deluge . . and have rendred the covenant which god made with noah , vain and insignificant . p. chap. xv. . the flood explicable , another way , as well as by that in which the theory goes . . what the height of its waters might be , viz. fifteen cubits upon the surface of the earth . . the probability of the hypothesis argued from scripture . . what the fountains of the great deep were . . a second argument for the hypothesis , from the easie and sufficient supply of waters to raise the flood to such an height . . a third , from its agreeableness with st. peter's account of the deluge . . a fourth , from the habitableness of the earth , at the flood 's going off . . a fifth , from its consistency with geography . p. chap. xvi . . objections must be answered . . our exposition of scripture not to be made an objection by the theorist , or any that hold with him . . the first objection from the hills being covered , answered . . the second , from the arks resting upon the mountains of ararat , answered . . the third , from the appearing of the tops of the mountains , upon the decrease of the waters , answered . . the fourth , from the possibility of mens being saved from the flood without the ark , answered . . the fifth , from the likelihood of other creatures escaping , answered . . the sixth , from the imaginary excess of water , answered . . the seventh , from the raven which noah sent out of the ark , answered . . the eighth , from danger of shipwrack which the ark would have been in , answered . . a general answer to farther objections . p chap. xvii . . the positiveness of the theory . . noted in the english edition of it . . it s author's intentions laudable . the conclusion . p. licens'd , ian. . / . rob. midgley . errata . page . line . read incorruption . p. . l. . after that , insert were in it . p. . l. . r. host of . p. . l. . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. . l. . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . l. . r. and. p. . l. . r. professed . p. . l. . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . l. . r. canales . p. . l. . r. miles . p. . l. . r. brahe . p. . l. . r. descry . p. . l. . r. inartificial . p. . l. . r. grow . l. . blot out so . p. . l. . r. just . l. . r. it s . p. . l. . r. crops . p. . l. . after land , insert , excepting the red sea. p. . in the last line of the m●●gent , r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. . l. . blot out a. p. . l. . r. two hundred . p. . l. . after in , r. answered . p. . l. . r. about . p. . l. . r. hideous . the parentheses , p. . l. , , , . and p. . l. , . should have been left out . some mispointings also must be noted . geologia : or , a discourse concerning the earth before the flood . chap. . . the great usefulness of natural philosophy . . in proving there is a god. . in acquainting us with his nature . . in asserting a providence . . in excluding idolatry . . in vindicating the gospel in several points . . as the immortality of the soul. . the resurrection of the body . . the conflagration of the world. . and the endless fiery torments of the damned . . philosophy is useful also as to divinity . . and like to flourish . . caution against abusing it . . which is done , either by speaking , or thinking slightly of it . . or by setting it too low in its operations . . or else by raising it too high . . which is the fault of the theory of the earth . . a character of it . . the occasion of this discourse against it . . together with its method . . this chapter , an introduction to the discourse . . it is a memorable and worthy saying ( for a heathen ) of † simplicius ; philosophy is the greatest gift that ever god bestowed upon men. and were it restrained to natural philosophy alone , there would be much truth in that assertion of his . for it serves our interests with a mighty efficacy , and is highly conducive to our benefit ; not only many , but innumerable ways . thus it exalts our minds , and inlarges our understanding , and fills them with rich and invaluable notions . it elevates our flat and groveling souls , and make them at once to look up , and look high . it disinthralls our judgments , inslav'd to sense , and weak speculations ; and swells our shrivel'd narrow thoughts , into wide , and generous , and comprehensive theories . it wipes the dust of ignorance , and dimness of prejudice out of our eyes ; and inables us not only to see nature's beauty , but duely to admire it . yea , in a short time , it turns our admiration into studious industry ; and of passionate lovers of nature's perfections , makes us curious and painful searchers into her mysteries . and here new discoveries bring fresh * delights ; and our intellectual satisfactions , do more than compensate our most tiresom disquitions . for the mind being weighed down with the luggage of the body , and bound fast , as with chains , in the straitnesses of it ; philosophy relieves it ( says a great a man ) by giving it a fair prospect of the things of nature , and lifting it up from earthly , to divine concerns . to take cognoscence of which , while it sallies out , it recovers a kind of liberty ; and breaking loose , in some sense , from the uneasie pressure and confinement it suffers , is refreshed with the survey and study of the heavens . the learned b father flies higher still , though not in the least above the mark. for he makes philosophy profitable for godliness , to such as fetch faith from demonstration . and says , that if it does not comprehend the vastness of truth , nor is able to perform the commandments of the lord ; yet it makes way for the most royal doctrine . and therefore he would have all ( not excusing very c women ) to mind philosophy . and argues , that none who are d young should defer it ; and that none who are old should be weary of it ; because no man is too young , nor yet too old , to get a found mind . and then adds . he that says 't is too soon , or too late , to study philosophy ; is just like him who says , it is too soon , or too late , to be blessed . and that philosophy should contribute towards mens blessedness , we need not wonder ; when ( as he says in a another place ) it does before-hand purge and prepare the soul to receive the faith , upon which the truth builds knowledge . and albeit in these expressions , he might not mean natural philosophy only ; yet speaking all along of the greek philosophy in general , he cannot be supposed to exclude that neither . which indeed does very much qualifie and dispose us for true religion ; and is rarely instrumental to improve and advance it . to make out this fully , how useful and serviceable philosophy is , to promote religion ; would require a whole volume . let me only touch upon a few particulars . . first , it is useful , to prove , there is a god. of all the fundamentals of religion , this is the chief . yet if philosophy did not lend us some topicks , from whence we might fetch arguments , to evince and confirm the existence of a deity ; all that we could say , would be too cold and languid to confute the atheist . but when that discovers an absolute necessity of a first cause , and of a first mover ; and of an infinitely wife and powerful creator of the universe , and of as infinitely wise and powerful a governour of the same : or else on the other hand , shews a necessity of deifying the world itself , by bestowing godlike attributes upon it ; and of granting self-movency , life and vnderstanding to matter ; with other most notorious and numberless absurdities : then he must either openly confess there is a god , or with silence submit to a belief of his being . and what a considerable stroke philosophy has in proving there is a god , plutarch fairly gives us to understand ; where he declares , b that the first notion men had of him , they took from the beauty of the aspectable things . and a little after , a they had the knowledge of a god , from the stars which appeared , while they beheld the great harmony they caused , and how orderly they made day and night , and winter and summer . to which agrees what we read , wisd. . , . . secondly , to acquaint us with the nature of the deity . for what to make of his immatorial or spiritual essence ; of his necessary and self-existence ; of his ubiquity or omnipresence ; of a trinity in unity ; or three distinct persons , in one and the same undivided nature , and common essential substance , &c. we should be utterly at a loss , were it not for philosophy . not that philosophy can enable us to look to the centre of god's perfections neither , and throughly to understand him ; that 's impossible . for he is nothing else but glory and greatness . and such is the brightness of the one , and the immenseness of the other , yea , the infiniteness of both , that no created capacities , with all the helps they can possibly get , shall attain to a clear and full knowledge of him . yea , much of the felicity of the eternal state , seems to lye in this ; that as we shall always see more and more of god , so we shall never be able to discern all : but shall incessantly be entertained with fresh perceptions of new delights , arising from fresh apprehensions , and new discoveries of the incomprehensible goodness and beauties of the divinity . which apprehensions will be so very clear , and the oblectations issuing from them so high and strong , in reiterated rapturous vibrations in the soul , that we shall be strangely overflowed , and as it were quite swallowed up of endless and most beatifying satisfactions . and o amazing bliss and happiness indeed , where we shall ever be sinking deeper and deeper still in an abyss of intellectual joy and sweetness ! this will make our condition a boundless ocean of transporting pleasures ; as god's nature is a like ocean of divinest excellencies . but then if god be too glorious and great to be perfectly understood by us in the mansions above ( where the dormant powers and faculties of our souls ( which perhaps are many ) shall be all awakened into lively actings ) how much less can philosophy help us to understand him compleatly , here in these lower regions ? yet as men may see more with a good perspective , than they can do without it ; so we may better acquaint our selves with the nature of god , being assisted by philosophy , than if we had it not . and the truth is , even the very word and works of god , the two most informing things we have , the most apt and able to lead us into competent knowledge of his majesty , without philosophy , are neither of them to be rightly or tolerably understood in innumerable instances . . thirdly , to assert a providence , and the free use of our faculties . astra regunt homines , stars govern men , has taken great place in the world : insomuch that a mans stars , and his destiny , have been terms equivalent . as free agents as we are , they have been thought to controll us ; to be disposers of our lot , and dispensers of our portion , and the masters of our fortune . to incline our minds , and to sway our wills ; to determin our motions , and over-rule our actions ; staking us down as it were in all our proceedings by irresistible force , or tying us up to fatal necessity . a persuasion most strange , and also as false . it might come from hence . the stars were observed to be very numerous , and for their largeness , most considerable bodies . and therefore for them only to shine in the night-time , and that with so pitiful a light , as every little fog or cloud can obscure , might well be thought too mean a work for them , at least for their whole employment . whereupon to intitle them to another task , more noble and suitable , they were fancied to have mankind committed to their charge , to be ruled by them with an absolute regency . but whence sprang this mistake , of the stars superintendency and sovereign dominion , save merely from the want of sound philosophy ? for as many as are tolerably vers'd in that , know they can have no such influence or empire ; but are wholly incapable of exercising a regiment of that nature over us . and do know as well likewise to what other great ends or uses they may serve , most worthy of themselves ; much better than to such an impossible jurisdiction , as has been wildly and unreasonably attributed to them . . fourthly , to exclude idolatry . the most general and constant idol among men , has been the sun. and how came he to be so ? why , from his motion , he might probably be reputed an animal : and from his regular motion , he might as well be thought to have understanding . and then from these notions or persuasions concerning him , men might easily ascend to an higher yet , and fancy him a being of divine perfections ; as cardan and vaninus did . and so it would be natural to honour him as a god , by paying divine worship to him . yea , a long and prevailing doctrine it has been , that the sun ( though he was not a rational and understanding creature himself ) was actuated and directed by a spirit or intelligence . and this seems an opinion , but one remove from the other ; and might give too just occasion and encouragement to superstitious adoration of the sun ; if not open a wide door whereat it might enter . but then true philosophy interposing here , makes so full a discovery of his nature , as may throughly abolish and for ever destroy all grounds and reasons of idolatrous practices in reference to him . though through want of such philosophy at athens , anaxagoras fell under a double misfortune ; being at once both fin'd and banish'd , for calling the sun a meer globe of fire . the like also is applicable to the stars , the moon , and the rest of the planets ; which too often , and with too many , have been reputed deities , and treated accordingly . and therefore philo says , they were a of old , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reputed blessed host of sensible gods . . fifthly , to vindicate the gospel . in illustrating , that is , and clearing it up , in some of its most considerable points or articles . in it are delivered the most high and important things that can be ; and they seem to be as difficult in their proof , as they are lofty and momentous in their nature and accomplishment . but from philosophy they receive good light and confirmation . . of this kind , in the first place , is , the immortality of the soul. the certain truth or reality of which , is abundantly evidencd by plenty of arguments from the several places of philosophy . thus , it teaches ( for instance ) that the soul is a spiritual or immaterial substance : and so , distinct from the body , and independent upon it . which proposition alone , throughly confirmed , is sufficient to establish her immortality ; and that strongly and impregnably , against all the cavils and perverse objections , that wanton wits of captious somatists can raise in contempt , or ( as they imagine ) in confutation of it . and that the soul is a purely spiritual being , and so , quite different from , and exalted above the nature of body ; even then when she animates it , and lives in closest conjunction with it : philosophy gives us clearly to understand , from her powers or faculties , and from her operations . i mean while it inables us to apprehend and judge , that they are too lofty and excellent , too regular and active ( as being vital and intellectual ) to be in any measure compatible to meer corporeity ; though of never so sublimate and refin'd a consistency . thus , we know , the soul can move and perceive , and understand and consider , and reason and conclude , and deliberate and determine , and choose and refuse . that she is capable of framing universal propositions , and of apprehending spiritual and abstracted essences , and the numbers , and notions , and ideaes of things . that she is able to correct the seeming representations of sense and fantasie ; and when objects appear in such distance , or figure , or colour , or magnitude : to think and infer that they must be otherwise . that she has power to strive with the bodily appetites ; and after many , and long , and vehement colluctations , to master and subdue them . she going one way , by vertue of that free and innate rule , which is founded and deeply radicated in her self : while fly propensities and inclinations flowing from inferiour ignoble passions ; do dispose her to , and would impetuously hurry her on in another . where though compliance with the motions she feels , would be far more pleasing to her at present , than stout resistance ; yet she bravely stands out , because that in her prospect of future consequents , she is sensible , yielding would turn to her prejudice . yea , she cannot only encounter and fight against the body , and maintain both stiff and lasting conflicts with its brutish affections ; but moreover delight in the combates while they hold , and when they are past , rejoice in the victory . now all these powers and workings of the soul , in the accounts of philosophy , are arguments and indications of her incorporealness , or distinctness from the body . and if we look upon them , as supervening to , or falling in with the evangelical doctrine of her immortality ; the article will thereby be eternally settled , never to be shaken , much less to be ruined , by the most powerful assaults and furious batteries , that atheistical sophistry can make against it . we are all mortal , and he that lives longest , must die at last . but when he does so , some are apt to surmise , quòd totus moritur , that he dies wholly and finally , without or beyond all hope and remedy . and truly were the soul no more than what many would make her ; namely , crasis , harmonia , vel modus corporis ; a temperament , harmony , or modification of the body ; his fate might well be supposed such , because indeed it could be no other . but sound philosophy , i say , makes it very evident , that the soul is a substance distinct from the body . that there is as real , and as great a difference between them , as there is between the prisoner and his chains ; or the house and its inhabitant . and therefore several philosophers ( and socrates for one ) have taught us to call this body , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the habitation of the soul ; yea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her moveable prison , and her living sepulchre . and the essenes ( followers of pythagoras ) reckoned , as iosephus informs us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. that to go out of the body , was like an inlargement from fetters . and this distinctness of the soul from the body , does aloud proclaim her independence upon it ; and shows her to have a vital power in her self , inabling her to subsist when separated from it . yet ( to shut up the point ) none need marvel that the excellent philosopher now mentioned , i mean socrates , should leave the world with a seeming mistrust of this great truth , the immortality of the soul , ( with an , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if so be the things spoken be true . ) for the wise man's condition , at the present , was exceeding black and dark ; and the gloomy lowring circumstances he was in , might well cloud his mind , and dull his thoughts , and so depress and sink his spirit ; as to hinder his quick apprehension of things . and though he was a very considerable philosopher in his time , yet the gospel which brought life and * immortality to light , had not then visited the world : nor did philosophy it self , then shine so bright by much , as now it does . all which rightly weighed , instead of wondring at his diffidence , we may rather be amazed at his courage and gallantry . for they who shall read , what plato relates ( in his apology ) concerning him , may well be surprized , not to say , astonished at his exemplary fortitude ; and the generous and incomparable greatness of his spirit , at his dying hour . . a second grand doctrine that philosophy vindicates , by contributing towards the elucidation of it , is , the resurrection of the body , which was never explicitly recommended to the world , till the gospel was promulgated . and therefore is fitly called by tertullian , fiducia christianorum , the proper or peculiar confidence of christians . this the atheist can seldom either read , or hear of , but he is ready to smile , if not to insult . he huggs it as a dear and most useful notion ; as a notion which he thinks he can form unto an engin , and that of such mighty and irresistible force , as shall be able to batter down the whole fabrick of the christian religion . that mens bodies should die , and be buried , and rot in their graves , and grow up into grass ; and this grass be eaten by beasts , and those beasts be eaten by men , and those men be eaten by canibals , and those canibals devoured by worms , and those worms turned to dust , and that dust quite dissipated and lost ; and yet those bodies rise again , hundreds or thousands of years after : how strange and impossible must this be ? how vain and foolish the religion that teaches it ? how fond and silly the people that believe it ? but philosophy helps to make out the mystery . for that teaches , that no matter does perish ; that none of it is annihilated or utterly lost . whereupon it follows , that when our bodies are interred , and reduced to earth , or else burned , and for the most part evaporate into the air , or the like : they suffer but a dissolution and dispersion at worst . and therefore they may still be capable of being gathered up in their widest dissipations , and of being made into living bodies again . provided there be but ( as there is ) a power in the world , that can work them to re-unions , by consigning and adjusting their numberless particles , into their respective integral masses . philosophy teaches also , that all matter in being was once the same and that it is so still , only it is diversified into several kinds , by various modifications . ; whence it follows , that ( according to the account we have of the resurrection ) a terrestrial body , may become a celestial one ; and a natural body , may become a spiritual one ; this corruptible , may put on incorruptible ; and this mortal , put on immortality ; and yet be the very identical body that it formerly was ; the same in substance , only different in qualities . as gold , is the same gold , when tried and refined ; only more pure than it was before . farther , the same philosophy instructs us , that the most of that food , which men take , does not come to assimilation , or absolute conversion into the substance of their bodies : yea , that very little of it does so . whence it follows again , that the body of a man by being eaten of cannibals ( though it should be eaten over and over ) needs not for that , be hindred from rising again . for , excepting some slender portions of it , it slips through the eaters ; and however by concoction it be turned into chyle , yet it is not carried on to a full transmutation , and converted into flesh. so that the greatest part of the devoured carkass , is only altered in it self , by passing through the vessels of them that eat it ; but no way appropriate to another individual . and the remains of this macerated changed carcass ( that never ran into the composition of others ) after all its mutations , being turned at last ( to use tertullian's word ) into the substance of eternity ; shall thereby be fitted to re-imbody that soul , which formerly wore it . yet still it will be the same body ( in a very good ( let me say ) in a gospel sense ) that it was when it died ; forasmuch as it must consist of the same matter which did then constitute it . i , and we may still call it flesh too , because it really is so . only instead of corruptible flesh ( which not only shall not , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * cannot inherit the kingdom of god ; we must allow it to be glorious ( let it not seem absurd , if i add ) spiritual flesh. in a word , it shall be such flesh , as our blessed redeemer's is now in heaven . and therefore we may remember , he has promised , by a famous apostle ; when he shall appear again , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to transform the body of our humiliation ; and to make it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , conform to the body of his glory . where , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . does plainly signifie , that the bodies of holy men , at the resurrection , are not to be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in substance ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in form only . the matter of them is still to be the same ; only the modes of them are to be altered , and they must put on new , and better accidents . the variation the suffer , shall be in the scheme or habit ; not in the essence of their bodies . two lively specimens , or pledges of this admirable change , which at last shall happen to the bodies of the righteous , to their great improvement in circumstantials ; are given us in the inspired writings . which , if duly considered , may serve to strengthen our faith , and make us firm and steady in our belief of the thing . the first of them occurs , exod. . in the person of renowned moses . his face shined while he was upon earth ; and at the same time that it was corruptible flesh , did glitter with so bright a lustre , that his fellow mortals were not able to behold it . and therefore whenever he talked with them , he was fain to wear a vail , over the dazeling splendours of his radiant countenance . the other st. mat. . in the most adorable jesus , at his transfiguration . for then his blessed face did not only shine , but shine as the sun. and yet at the same time that it was so glorious and wonderful refulgent ; it was but the flesh that it us'd to be . and therefore , says the evangelist , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was changed in form only . and saint luke giving account of the same thing , does it in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the fashion of his countenance was altered ; but nothing else . and if the body of man , in this state of mortality and imperfection , could put on a shining , yea , a sun-like glory ; by a change of its form or fashion , its modes or qualities : then how easie will it be for a throughly changing modification , to superinduce such an alteration in all its properties , at the resurrection ; as is necessary to make it glorious in its full capacity . though when all is done , it shall still be but ( * as the father calls it ) caro angelificata , angelified flesh . flesh as pure , that is , and as spiritual , as those bodies which the angels wear . and truly if chymists by the force of fire , can reproduce flowers ( as we are told they can ) out of their own ashes : and the herbs that beasts have eaten , out of their excrements , by the architectonic parts latent in the same : then well may the philosopher argue and infer ; what may not the last and dreadful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , burning of the world ( which will easily resolve things into their first seminals ) be able to do , towards the restoration of the dead bodies of men , or their happy reflorescence out of their dust and ruines ? especially if he be a christian , and thinks the deity will strike in with this melting flame , and strengthen and conduct it , in its mighty energy , to that very strange and wonderful effect . i say , if he considers , that the deity will strike in , and ingage in the case . for i would be loth to have a sinister misconstruction made , of what has been spoken . i mean , by being thought to impute the great and miraculous work of the resurrection , to the force of nature only ; or the perfect explication of the manner of its accomplishment , to the light of philosophy . all that i have said , amounts but to thus much , that philosophy helps us somewhat better to conceive of the fecibleness of the thing : as nature helps much to illustrate its futurity , and also in some measure to exemplifie or represent it . that nature does thus , is clear , in the judgment of minutius felix , an author of equal elegance and solidity , in what he wrote ; only pity it is that he wrote no more . his words , to this purpose , are these , * see how entire nature for our comfort studies ( to exhibit or typifie ) a resurrection to come . the sun sets , and rises again ; the stars go down , and return again ; the flowers fade , and revive again ; shrubs , after the fall , have leaves again ; seeds , unless they rot , spring not up again ; so the body in the grave conceals a greenness , as trees in the winter , under counterfeit driness . why art thou so hasty , as if it could revive and return , while rawtish winter lasts ? we must also wait for the spring time of the body . thus far he . and in the same way of setting forth the resurrection , by ordinary revolutions and renovations in nature , do the pious and learned fathers go . as tertullian , epiphanius , ruffinus , st. chrysostom , st. ambrose , st. austin , theodoret , damascen , and others . now just as nature shews the futurity of the resurrection , while it prettily adumbrates and prefigures it to us , by various and lively symbols and resemblances ; so philosophy , another way , leads us into quick and clear apprehensions of its possibility . i mean , while it makes it evident , to such as consider , that a body dissolved , must still exist in the minutes or little particles of it . and that the coarsest matter ( even that of a cadaverous body it self ) by a meer physical change of its modes or qualities , may be made into a substance most fine and glorious , and yet be really and essentially the very same it was . but still i say , as before , that this mighty work , as to the main of it , is to be done by the hand of god. and if any will maintain , that it cannot be ; it behoves them , as the christian a philosopher has said , to shew that it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either above god's power , or against his pleasure , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to gather together the fragments and scattered materials of dead bodies , and to reunite them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the constitution or instauration of men. to him it solely belongs , to give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to every one his own body , cor. . . and without his special directing and distinguishing providence , impossible it must be , that particular souls should all recover the proper ingredients of their respective bodies , out of that unspeakable blend and confusion into which they will be run , before the end of the world. but since god will be pleas'd ( to help nature in the case ) to put his omnipotent hand to the work , we need not doubt but it shall be effected . why should it be thought a thing incredible with you , that god should raise the dead ? said st. paul , act. . . if any one else were to raise them , the doing of it might well be thought , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a thing incredible . but since god will undertake it , why should it be thought incredible ? yea , even , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with you ; that is , king agrippa , and festus ; to whom the apostle was making his defence , in open court , at caesarea . nor truly will the question seem improper , albeit they were heathens . for though the expression , above remembred , be true ; the resurrection of the dead , is the confidence of christians ; none ever believed it so fully and firmly as they : yet that the very ethnicks had a dim knowledge of it ; and yielded a faint kind of assent or credit to it ; we have grounds upon which to conclude . for first , a epiphanius tells us , that certain nations had a custom , to bring meat and drink to the graves of the dead , and in token that they expected they should one day rise , to invite them to it thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ho , rise again , eat , and drink and be glad . and then athenagoras informs us , that it was not only the persuasion of christians , that the dead shall rise again , but also of b many philosophers . and if they believed it , no wonder that nations should do the same ; as being apt to be led by them , and to receive their instructions : as they again surely would not fail to recommend a doctrine of so high a nature , and excellent a use unto those about them , let me mention but a few of those philosophers , whose commendation it is , that they inclined to a belief of the proposition , that the dead shall rise at last . democritus was of this mind , as we learn from pliny's checking him for it ( nat. hist. lib. . cap. . ) where he calls democritus's opinion of the body's rising again , a vanity ; and argues not only against that , but also against the soul's existing in a state of separation . zoroaster is said to have taught , that there shall be a general resurrection of the dead . and clemens would make him a kind of earnest of it . for where c plato relates of one herus armenius , that he was slain in war , and lay ten days among the other dead bodies ; and being taken away , and carried home to be buried , on the twelfth day , when he was laid upon the funeral pile , he rose to life again : d clemens will have this herus to be zoroaster . plato , in his phaedo , concerning departed souls , pronounceth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they come higher again , and are made alive from the dead . and the same thing he affirms in the very next words he writes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and a little after he inforceth what he had said , by a more confident assertion yet ; e these things we acknowledge , not because we are deceived , but because there is indeed a returning to life , and a reviving from the dead . whereupon marsilius ficinus declares , videtur mortuorum resurrectionem vaticinari . he seems to foretel the resurrection of the dead . and by and by adds , tandem ingenii quadam fiduciâ resurrectionem asserit . at length he asserts the resurrection with a kind of ingenious boldness . seneca does not tell lucilius in plain terms , that the dead shall rise : yet he does very little less , when he writes to him in these words ; f death , which we are so much afraid of , and so loth to submit to , does but intercept life , not take it way . the day will come , that shall bring us to light again . — he that shall return to the body , ought to go out of it with an even mind . the stoicks ( how rudely soever some of them disputed against the resurrection , when st. paul preached it at athens , and huff●d and scorn'd both the teacher and his doctrine ) did ever implicitly assent to and maintain it . for they held , that the fire of the general conflagration , which is to happen , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , at the time appointed ; will be , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a lustrative or purifying fire : and that the effect or consequent of the purgation it shall make , will be , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a new modelling of the world , a restitution of the universe to its pristine order , and of all persons to their quondam conditions . so that herein , as origen truly notes , g though they use not the name of the resurrection , they declare the thing , and allow it . nor do the peripateticks , in this matter , come behind those of the porch , if we may judge of the sect , by one of their school ; i mean theopompus . concerning whom , h diogenes laertius has recorded , that he said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that men shall return to life , and be immortal . and he farther gives us to understand that one eudemus rhodius was of the same mind . and that theopompus his opinion in this , was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , agreeable to the wise men. and that any of the sect we are now speaking of , should assert the resurrection , may seem less strange , if clemens of alexandria his report be true ; who tells the world , i that the peripatetick philosophy depends upon the law of moses , and the rest of the prophets . now when philosophy bids thus very fair for the body's resurrection , is it not great pity that famous divines should perplex the article , by insisting upon niceties ? yet so some may seem to do ( i mention not their names in reverence to them ) who will have the cuttings of the hair , and the parings of the nails , &c. to return to those bodies ( when they shall rise ) from which they were once separated . but one would be ready to think , that so great abundance of excrementitious parts would be enough to make even a glorified body deformed . it cannot be deny'd indeed , but that the apostle , discoursing of the resurrection of the body , does positively affirm , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this corruptible must put on incorruption ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and this mortal must put on immortality , cor. . . but that does not argue , that every little thing , which at any time was an appurtenance of the body , is to be restored to it when it riseth . if the rising body does but wholly spring up out of considerable parts of the former body ( out of such parts as perhaps for their driness , solidity , &c. could never go to compound any other humane or carnous body ) this may come up sufficiently to the apostle's meaning . for so the raised body may fairly be said , to be this mortal , cloathed with immortality ; and this corruptible , indued with incorruption ; because it will be the same with that body which was put off at death . the same , i mean , in a lax and evangelical sense ; and as much the same ( i may venture to say ) as our great redeemer's was . for truly concerning his holy body , who can make it appear , that some part ( and a good part ) of its most precious blood , was not left on the whips , and on the pavement ; on the nails , and on the cross ; on the soldier 's spear , and especially on calvary : after his most sacred majesty was risen ? and yet if it were so , would it not strongly evince , that the body raised , need not be the same with the body dissolved , in a strict and nice , but only in a moderate or looser acception of identity ? which if it might be allowed , whether it would not rescue the doctrine of the resurrection from some seemingly harsh intanglements and amusing difficulties , i leave to better judgments to determin , being resolved my self not to be definitive . the schools ( as is well known ) are very strict here ; contending that the same numerical body , in the rigidest sense , shall rise again . that the hairs , nails , blood and humours , must all return to the body , and rise with it . but then let it be noted , in check to this opinion , that it can ill be reconcil'd to another common one of theirs : that is to say , that the bodies of saints shall all arise , a in juvenili aetate , as in youthful age , and be ejusdem staturae , of the same stature or proportion . so that infants and children shall have their bodies as large , as if they had died , in termino augmenti ( to use their word ) in the acme or full pitch of their perfect growth . now if the self same , or very numerical body , shall rise at last ; how is it possible , that bodies so different in dimensions and quantity at their dissolution , should ever put on an equality of stature at their resurrection ? to affirm it , is as much as to say , that the raised body shall be exactly the same for bulk and quantity that it was ; and yet be bigger than it was , as to size ; and have more in it than it had , as to substance . else how can infant bodies be improv'd into a parity with those of adult persons ? the orthodox iews did of old believe there should be a resurrection . though some heretical ones denied and rejected it . and others were short and erroneous in the faith of it , as not extending it to the latitude we do , while they appropriated it to the iust. and others again were phansiful or whimsical about it ; possess'd with that vain and odd conceit of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the volutation of caverns . ( whereby they fondly imagin'd , that those of them who were buried out of the land of isreal , shall be rolled through subterraneous hollownesses , to rise in canaan , or else could not rise at all . ) though some , yea , many of them might be thus carried away ; yet the sound and orthodox iews , i say , did steadily believe a general resurrection of the dead . and therefore in serious persuasion and expectancy of the thing , they us'd to call the grave , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the living . to which ( by the way ) our lord might allude , when he would prove the resurrection against the sadducees , by that passage out of moses's writings ( which they allowed , though they cast off the rest of the old testament ) i am the god of abraham , and the god of isaac , and the god of iacob ; god is not the god of the dead , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but of the living . where he could not mean only , that the souls of those patriarchs were then alive ( for that would have been no just proof of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the resurrection of the dead . ) but he meant , that the bodies of those famous men ( considerable pieces of the individuals ) without which they could never recover the intire personality they once had , were to be reckoned among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or living ; as being potentially alive , alive in god's purpose or decree ; and most certainly to be raised up , being actually revived at last . but that which i mentioned the iews belief of the resurrection for chiefly , is this : it was an opinion among them , that the body which riseth at the resurrection , shall commence and spring up from a bone ( in the back ) called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . which bone the rabbies will have to be incorruptible ; and alledge the psalmist's words for it ; he keepeth all his bones , unum ex iis non conteretur , one of them shall not be broken , psal. . . now though this be nothing but an empty conceit , yet it gives us the measure of the iews thoughts in the case ; and plainly hints , that they were not curious , or much concern'd about the same numerical body's rising again ; but deemed it sufficient to have the rising body , made out of that body which is laid down at death , or out of any part of it . . another article of extraordinary consequence , is , the conflagration of the earth . of this the gospel speaks expresly , the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up , pet. . . a positive prediction , say the atheistical and incredulous : but how shall it be verified ? where is there fire enough to do it ? here philosophy assists again , by giving in most satisfactory information . for it well assures us , that there are vast stores of fire about the earth , as well as treasuries of fire in it : yea , that the little pores of almost every body , have abundance of this element lurking in them . so that we may wonder that the fiery principle does not forthwith break out , and set all on a flame ; rather than that it should take place at last , and seizing upon the world ( i mean this terrestrial one ) burn it up by a furious and inextinguishable combustion ; it being ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as epiphanius speaks it ) delug'd with fire . . in the fifth place : the gospel gives account of a fiery punishment prepared for reprobates , and of the eternity of that fire which is to plague and torment them . so we read in the final sentence , depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire , prepared , &c. an impossible thing , says the prophane objector . no fire can burn for ever ; for where should be a supply of fuel to continue it ? indeed a great pile may make a great fire ; and durable fuel may make a lasting one . but that any fire should be everlasting , is not to be thought ; it would want fit pabulum , or matter to cherish it , and inable it to subsist . were all combustibles amassed together , and made into one heap ; were the whole earth ( as large as it is ) turned into a fomes or aliment for it , it could not hold always . no , it must spend apace , and waste and burn out into cinders or ashes ; and so the fire that dwelt in it , and preyed upon it , must be starved and die . this is a knot that philosophy unties with the greatest ease ; and no only allows what our saviour has said , to be probable and true ; but adds confirmation to what he has authenticated , by casting in the overplus of its own authority . for it tells us there is a certain matter in the world , that burns of it self , and will burn for ever . it is a natural and essential flame ; independent and vital ( i may say ) as being able to support and maintain it self alive , without any kind of fuel to preserve and feed it : so sixt and permanent , that where it is got together in any good quantities , it may very well challenge the epithet of vnquenchable ; which is at once the dreadful title and property , whereby the gospel describes that infernal fire that is to be the instrument of the damneds torture . which must needs have strange force and vehemence in it to excruciate them ; as being of a most subtil and active , and so of a most piercing and raging nature . . once more let us reflect upon the vsefulness of philosophy . it is very great in reference to divinity ; that is , as it attends it in an humble subordination and service of its interests . chiefly in helping to clear up its difficulties , and to keep absurdities from mingling with its doctrines . for thô ( as the learned father truly says ) a the doctrine of our saviovr ( which is the marrow of all divinity ) be perfect , and stands in need of nothing ( to improve it ) as being the power and wisdom of god : yet philosophy coming over to it , though it makes not the truth the stronger , it makes sophistical argumentation against it weak ; and by driving away decitful wiles against truth , may be called a necessary fence or fortification of the vineyard . but not to be tedious : philosophy , we know , has ever been reputed the handmaid of divinity ; and its honour it is , as well as its excellency , that it really is so . and indeed where true and substantial philosophy does interest it self in the affairs of theology , and serve it with a decent and respectful ministry , it becomes of singular advantage to it . for the most perplext and intricate problems it has ( provided they be explicable ) are no where made so clear and intelligible , as where philosophy is permitted or employed to intepret them , or call'd in to assist in the exposition of them . whereas on the contrary , where that is shut out , there is too much cloudiness and darkness within . even familiar things are made confus'd and abstruse , and wrapt up in a nightsom and remediless obscurity . this is obvious to any slight notice . for in those theological systems or tractates , where philosophy has no place ( as the mahometan , for instance ) people are miserably gull'd , and shamefully imposed upon , by monstrous assertions ; and that in common and easie matters . yea , in many things , the grossest extravagances pass with them for sublime and solid notions ; and the fulsomest non-sense , for venerable mysteries ; they wanting wherewith to distinguish betwixt them . and all because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , destitute of philosophy ; which would afford them such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rules of judgment , as would inable them to discern what is true , and what is false ; and to take exact measures of a just discrimination . that the virgin mary conceived by smelling to a rose , and was afterwards delivered of christ at her breast . that the moon once slipt into mahomet's sleeve . that in the end of the world all things shall die at the winding of an horn , even angels themselves . that the accursed then following cain as a leader , shall carry their sins in satchels at their backs ; the weight of which breaking down the bridge of iustice as they go over it , the delinquents , for their punishment , shall fall into a river of fire that runs under it . what prodigiously dull and heavy figments are these ? yet by the zealous proselytes of the epileptick impostor , they are embraced not only as rational and consistent , but even as divine and miraculous truths . but were the light of philosophy let into the alcoran , it would soon chase away these , and all such egregious and nauseous fooleries . and together with them , it would send blindness and ignorance packing too ( which are their parents and their nurses ) making them flee before it , as chaff before the wind , or as the shades of the night before the morning sun. and here if it might not be thought too unseemly a transition , to pass from the turkish to the christian divinity ; it would not be impertinent to remark its defectiveness in philosophy likewise in one particular . how much better might , hoc est corpus meum , this is my body , have been understood ; both as to the credit of the proposition , and its influence upon christians , if philosophy had paraphras'd or expounded it ? for then the true notion of an humane body , should have shut out that numerous train of absurdities ( besides many , and great , and intolerable inconveniences ) which have followed the literal acceptation of the words . . these are a few slight touches upon the usefulness of philosophy . they might have been greatly both multiplied and enlarged . but being intent upon brevity , i say no more of that nature . only as i go along , give me leave to drop this note by the way ; what an auspicious providence is it , that has made some persons for several years past , so indefatigably studious in philosophy , and has crown'd their studies with such happy success ! it looks as if god had strange kindness for us , and designed to enrich and honour this age with a very choice blessing ; even with a clearer understanding , not only of nature , but in divinity it self , than the world has yet had . nor need we wonder that philosophy should advance and flourish even among our selves ; considering what encouragement it has lately met with . for whereas it is recorded by a aelian , as a signal respect to philosophers , that caesar us'd to call at aristo's door ; and pompey , at cratippus's : we have seen a renowned monarch of our own , shew higher favour , and give better countenance , to that honourable and useful sort of men. for besides that he erected them into a famous and well-contriv'd society ; that they might be a royal one too , he was pleased to make himself their patron and their head . . now we being in these hopeful thriving circumstances , it behoves us to be careful , that it may not be with us in this case , as it frequently and unfortunately falls out in others , that we abuse not philosophy , which grows so fast and high in noble improvements . for such is our loose and unruly temper , that from fulness we commonly run into wantonness , turning our rich plenty into riot and excess . it will be wisdom to restrain or suppress this humour , and to keep our selves free from its evil predominance : else our very remedy may become our disease ; and we may surfeit and be sick of that wholsom medicine which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or great physician of our minds , has given us to help their pitiable infirmities . . and upon this account of abusing philosophy , they are mightily to blame that slight it : i mean , by speaking or thinking little and unhandsom things concerning it . too many there are of the first stamp , that speak unbecomingly of philosophy . they cry it down as needless , and condemn it as superfluous ; and tell us , there 's no cause to trouble our selves about it , we having an higher and better doctrine among us , which came down from heaven . these are crooked reflections , and garishly made , upon no grounds , and without reason . the language ( at best ) but of prejudice or ignorance , mistake or inadvertency . for though the word from heaven be infinitely preferible to humane learning ; yet the one is most necessary in conjunction with the other : else we may believe the wise god would not have given us both : but since he has done so , it concerns us to take heed of slighting either . to reject philosophy upon the account of scripture , is just as discreet , as to resolve all industry into providence ; and to take no thought in the least for our selves , because god careth for us . just as rational as it would be for a man to throw away all candles , because there is a sun ; or to put one of his eyes out , because he has two . clemens of alexandria , upon strict examination , will scarce be found clear of this oversight . not that he was for banishing or casting out philosophy ( he used as much of it as any father ) but he spake disparaging words concerning it : he diminisht it greatly , and detracted from it , by making it of a base and diabolical extraction . for he fetches its origin directly from daemons , and talks as if lewd and lascivious spirits were the authors of it ; while they imparted it to women , and these to men ( as sampson's paramour did his riddle to the philistines . ) thus says he in one place ; a philosophy was not sent from the lord ; but came into the world , stoln and delivered by a thief . whether therefore some power or angel having learned somewhat of the truth , and abiding not in it , inspired these things , &c. and in another place ; a the angels , whose lot was above , being fallen down into pleasures , decl●red secrets , and such things as they knew , to women ; while other angels would rather have conceal'd them , and reserv'd them till the coming of the lord . and from thence did the doctrine of providence slow , together with the discovery of high things . i would fain believe that he relates the fanciful conceits of others , rather than his own opinion or judgment . and i meet with a certain passage , in the b first book of his stromata , that hints as much . for speaking there of the greek philosophy , and saying , all philosophy was inspired by certain inferiour powers , he brings it in with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some have thought so . and saying , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was set a foot by the devil ; he makes way for it , with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as others will have it . but whether this learned person spake his own sense , or other mens , or both at once , we have another as learned as himself , who pronounceth much better , and more truly in the case ; namely , c whatever philosophers have spoken well , god manifested to them . by the light and use of their reason ; that is , not by immediate supernatural inspiration : it was the product of study , not of revelation . according to which high derivation of philosophy from god himself , we are obliged at least to speak fairly and honourably of it . which that we may do , we must so inwardly esteem and value it , as by no means to slight it in our thoughts . for mean and unworthy thoughts will soon break out into low and disparaging speeches . let none therefore depretiate or vilifie philosophy , so much as in thought . he that does so , deserves to be branded for a wretch . and accordingly indeed● he is stigmatized by d plato : markt out for a pitiful sneaking soul , that is sunk below the dignity of his raised species ; and in token of his degeneracy should write , man , no longer . and most justly . for he that is so silly as to despise philosophy , does thereby condemn the improvement of reason ; and consequently sets his mind against reason it self , the specifick perfection , as well as the crown and glory of humanity . and why should he wear the title of that nature for an ornament , who is an enemy to its excellency ? . but besides such mental and verbal wrongs that are done to philosophy , which amount to a considerable undervaluing of it : there are also real and actual abuses put upon it , to the unreasonable prejudice of our selves , and that , while we make it minister to vanity and extravagance . and this is done two ways chiefly . the first is , when we set it too low , and depress it beneath its generous worth. when we inslave it to phansies and ridiculous whimsies . when we put it upon the investigation of things that are not ; or if they be , are but smoke and shadows ; not worth the thinking of , much less the searching after . and here the schools are more than a little to blame . for they sometimes contend de lanâ caprinâ , about great and loud nothings : and debate and wrangle with heat and fierceness , upon the most empty and frothy questions . thus ( to instance in the matter of angels ) they dispute whether an angel can be moved locally or no. and yet at the same time , their philosophy will not admit an angel to be in a place . and yet they still go on to argue , whether it be moved from place to place , pertranseundo media , by passing through the intermediate places . and then they farther query , whether ( if an angel moves through intermediate places ) it be done , in tempore , vel in instanti , in time , or in an instant : and so whether he cannot as soon move from one pole of the world to the other ; as cross a room not ten foot wide . this is to trifle with philosophy , to put tricks upon it , or to tantalize it . to starve it under the pretence of treating it : or to make it a chamelion , and to feed it with air. it is perfectly to ridicule its gravity : and to turn its glory into scorn and contempt . to pull it down from its glittering and stately throne of reason , and to place it amongst the vassals or lacqueys to humor ; by tying it to wait upon empty impertinencies , with uneasie servility . people that do thus affront and abuse philosophy , by ingaging it ( as i may say ) in lamentable drudgery ; in spinning out thin and cobweb notions , in cutting up lean and aiery niceties , and in searching into such jejune and sorry questions ; as afford little or nothing worth its regard ; do thereby lessen and degrade themselves , as well as that . and that so far , that i know not how to call them , nor what sufficient names of diminution to bestow upon them . they are sons of sophistry , pragmatical speculators , promoters of subtilties , metaphysical brokers , dissectors of ideas , factors for levity , and problematical coiners . they are fanaticks in philosophy , and conspirators against it , and persecutors of it , and worms and moths to it ; and if they chance but to get into its rich wardrobe , are for eating and spoiling all that is good in it . they are men that seek for knots in bulrushes ; and if they cannot find them there , will be sure to make them . that will beat solid learning , as thin as a super●icies ; mince it as small as mathematical points ; grind it into finest powder of atomes ; turn it first into shadows , and then into nothing . in a word , whatever they seem to be , they are but meer skeletons or ghosts of philosophers ; which commonly haunt wise notions , till they fright them out of their wits . and whatever they seem to do , they make but a noise and a great pother ; and in the dust that they raise , many times lose what they pursue . so that at best they are but cyphers , or insignificant persons ; idle when they are most active ; and useless when they are most studious ; and that i may borrow their full character from * plato in short , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they only tittle tattle in philosophizing . . the second way of abusing philosophy actually , is by forcing it upon the contrary extreme . by straining it too much , and stretching it too far , and s●rewing it too high . by ascribing such a mighty influence to it , as ( is conceited ) may help nature over all kind of difficulties : or put her into a way of solving every phaenomenon almost , by her own intrinsick force and vertue , by her own establisht laws and conducts ; without recourse to any other principle or oeconomy . as if because it does many things , it must therefore do all ; and nothing could be wrought without its efficiency . by which means , it is not only arm'd with an energy , far above what it can rightfully claim ; and presumed efficacious beyond all its proper ability can extend to : but moreover is set up in opposition to providence , and made to derogate from a power , that is infinitely superior to its own ; by challenging to its self , what that alone is able to effect . or if it be not made to arrogate so much to it self , as downright to claim the power of miracles ; yet th●n it is supposed to intermeddle too far in the working of them : and so to intrench upon omnipotence , where it does not exclude it . and therefore that cavilling or captious objection against the philosopher , which plato complains of , applied to him that runs philosophy too high , and attributes too great a virtue to it ; may pass for an allowable censure , in some measure at least . * that he searches into things above and below , and minds not the gods . to which reproof too many are obnoxious ( though it be frequently thrown out at random also , and in its wild projection sometimes hits such as do not deserve it . ) they are so intent upon inferior causes , as to overlook the supreme . and that where his hand is not only immediately ingaged , but also in a manner even visibly operative , by way of divine or supernatural agency . but they that impute too much to philosophy , however they may think they befriend and honour it ; they thereby do it very great disservice . for while they cry it up more than they ought ; they make others slight it , and give it less than its due . a curious statue that is delicately wrought ; finely proportioned , that is , admirably featured , rarely and exquisitely graven or carved : how many does it take , and how mightily does it please them ! but let this pretty artificial piece be converted to an idol , and dress'd out , and set up to be worshipped ; let more be said of it than is really true , and more ascribed to it than it possibly can do : and this turns the value they had for it before , into scorn and hatred ; making nothing more vile and detestable than it . even so the easiest and readiest way to depress philosophy beneath its true worth , and to bring it down into disesteem , not to say , into lowest contempt with men ; is for them to idolize it ( as it were ) and adore it , by applauding it extravagantly , and elevating it beyond its proper merit and capacity . for so they who before had a meet respect and veneration for it , will quickly despise it , and even swell with antipathy and indignation against it . let all that are too great admirers of it , consider if thus they be not enemies to it , and preter-intentional detractors from it . thus some devotoes and overweening magnifiers of it , do solve the overthrow of sodom philosophically . they will have nothing at all of miracle in it ; but hold , it was consumed by tempest . accidental lightnings , that is , from thunder-clouds above , kindled subterraneous fires about it ; the ground whereon that city was built , being of a very bituminous substance . but they who shall peruse the sad story of the calamity , and well observe the special hand that god is noted to have in it : and also seriously consider the solemn dialogue betwixt him and abraham about it ; and the wonderful deliverance of righteous lot from it ; must certainly be of another judgment , than to think it proceeded from nothing but lightnings in the air , and sulphureousness in the earth ; and that it was the simple effect of a meer natural causality . and truly that one expression , * the lord rained upon sodom brimstone and fire from the lord out of heaven , does plainly intimate , that it was . miraculous . others bear us in hand , that there was nothing extraordinary in the destruction of pharaoh and his mighty army : but that they were drowned by pure oversight , and the common course of those famed waters . entring the bay , that is , when the flood was withdrawn , and the waters at an ebb ; they marched too far , and carelessly continued too long therein : even till the retired sea , returning upon them in an impetuous tide , swallowed up the king and his host in an instant . a likely supposition ! when we are told expressly from the mouth of god , that he divided the red sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into parts , or segments , psal. . . where the iewish tradition is , that the sea was divided into twelve cuts , according to the number of the twelve tribes ; and so every tribe passed through the channel in a lane by it self . but however that be nice and humorous ( as is their other conceit , that seventy two angels just , assisted in the miracle ; because the nineteenth , twentieth , and one and twentieth verses of the fourteenth of exodus , do each of them contain so many letters ) yet that the red sea was actually parted asunder , is clear from god's command to moses , at the sixteenth verse of that chapter ; lift thou up thy rod , and st●etch out thine hand ▪ over the sea , and divide it . and accordingly it is said at the one and twentieth verse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the waters were divided . so divided , that as we read in the following verse , they were a wall to them on their right hand , and on their left . which expression , to them that consider the situation of the red sea , and the course of journeying the israelites were then in ; does plainly discover , that the waters at their passing through them , were perfectly divided . else they could not have had them on both hands of them at once , at lea●t not as a wall to them . and that the waters of that sea , were as much divided as waters could be ; is farther manifest from what occurs in the story of israels passage over iordan . where it is said , that the waters ( of that river ) which came down from above , stood and rose up upon an heap : and those that came down towards the sea of the plain , failed , and were cut off , josh. . . so that if the waters of the red sea were but ●erved thus , they could not possibly be more really divided . and that they were thus served , is plain from the testimony of the holy ghost , iosh. . . the lord your god dried up the waters of jordan from before you , until ye were passed over , as the lord your god did to the red sea. nor is it improbable ( by the way ) that proud chen●res ( that egyptian monarch , who at last was overwhelmed with the waters of this sea ) might derive his obstinacy ( the occasion of his ruine ) from what we are now speaking of : i mean from his setting philosophy too high . he might be strongly opinion'd , that moses's works were no wonders at all ; no more than what nature her self could do , if manag'd by philosophers . and then iannes , and iambres , and the magical crew , ( pharaoh's philosophers ) pretending imitation of the man of god , by their juggling tricks , might confirm the tyrant in his mistaken thoughts : and convince him that he made a right judgment of things , when he believed them to be of an ordinary strain , and placed them to the accounts of nature and philosophy . or if moses , in some matters , out-did the philosophers of the haughty king ; yet this he might conclude the result of his breeding . for knowing he was brought up in his royal court , he could not but be sensible he had singular advantages ; and in case he improved them ( as he had reason to think he did ) might well outstrip his notablest antagonists , upon the score of his education . and truly as philo informs us , that he * attain'd to the top of philosophy : so † scripture assures us , that he was learned in all the wisdom of the egyptians . which wisdom , the same philo gives a particular account of , in his life of moses . and therefore pharaoh might justly take him to be mor● skilful than any of his philosophers ; and yet presume , that the works wherein he excell'd all his artful men , were not owing to divine power ; but to some knack he had of ordering nature more dexterously , than they could do . and thus the prejudice once sprung up , might be deeply rooted in the prince's mind . and therefore , though he felt as well as saw , the mighty prodigies ( for they were sorely afflictive , as well as stupendious ) yet he stouted it out a long time against them . nor would he at last have buckled to release the hebrews , had not frightful death shown it self on the tragical stage ; and also come up so near him , as to strike his first-born and heir apparent to the crown . and the same thing is attested by origen of the egyptians in general thus far , that they did not look upon moses as doing the strange things he did , by power from above . a thô ( says he ) they do not absolutely deny the wonders wrought by moses , yet they declare they were done by delusion , and not by divine strength . and the sorcerers or magi taught them as much ; says the learned iew that wrote moses his life . and therefore when his rod was turned into a serpent , and the multitude of spectators ( among whom was the king himself and his princes ) were struck at once with amazement ●nd fear , insomuch that they fled : the same writer brings in the b sophisters and magicians , speaking thus , why are you affrighted ? we are not ignorant of such things , but use the like art our selves in publick . intimating , they thought moses wrought the miracle by pure legerdemain , or magical craft , wherein they were versed . which is also farther insinuated by that proverbial taunt , wherewith they flouted the renowned heroe ( as we find it in the talmud ) thou bringest straw into afra : that being a place in egypt where straw abounded . meaning , it was vain for him to play hocus-pocus tricks , or to practise inchantment , in a land so stockt with the same already . nor can i pass by those sawcy reflections , that lewd celsus makes ( in favour of philosophy ) upon our saviour's miracles ; though it carries me a little farther still out of my way , to take notice of his baseness . they were much superiour to the wonders of moses . yet that rude epicurean would fain argue them down into the hateful rank of prestigious impostures , and make the holy jesus no better than a conjurer . yea , having gotten the sacred story by the end , of our lord's flight into egypt , he perverts it most shamefully , to make it countenance that black and hellish reproa●h which he would have fastned on his glorious majesty . for he blasphemously affirms , that he was a brought up in an obscure manner , and being lett for a servant thither , grew skilful in the strange feats of that nation ; and then returning from thence , by the feats he could do , gain'd himself the name and repute of a god. and yet still ( says the wretch in another place ) he was but a b iuggler , and as such a one , went up and down dishonourably begging , and getting his livelihood by what he could do by sleight-of-hand . now whither tends this ? why , as it is all but a cast of celsus's profound philosophy ; so the drift of it was but to advance philosophy , and set it too high : to exalt it , that is , above the christian doctrine , and to maintain it in way of opposition to that . and thus , ( to come home to our purpose at last ) some have set philosophy too high , in reference to the flood : i mean that great and general flood , which put a disastrous period to the first world. for they held it proceeded from second causes , in such a manner as reflects upon the first : in such a manner , that when , to do the greater honour to philosophy , they attempt , by the help of it , to explain how ; the explication grievously impeaches scripture , and charges it very boldly and unhandsomly ; a thing by no means to be endured . for though philosophy ( as has been said ) be eminently serviceable to divinity ; and that in its noblest and most important articles : unless they be such as are absolute mysteries ( and so naturally as unintelligible to mee● reason , as finest speculations are imperceptible to sense ) yet it must not be allow'd to clash or interfere with it in the least ; especially in its holy foundations or principles , the inspired oracles . for so the hand-maid would pertly usurp over her mistress ; and forgetting her duty , proudly domineer in her station of obedience . . and this is too much the fault of the theory of the earth . it pends too hard against the sacred scriptures , and advances to an intrenchment upon divine revelation . which will evidently appear , in several particulars , in the sequel of our discourse . . it abounds with philosophy indeed ; and the philosophy it contains is well delivered . but it is not justly regulated , and kept within due limits . for it runs so fast , and is driven so far , that it treads unseemly , and unsufferably too , upon the heels of truth ; even of that most divine and infallible truth which was spoken by god ; and therefore to be infinitely reverenc'd of men. . now this irregularity i apprehended so great , that the reverence i bear to that holy volume , whose cont●nts are no other than the doctrines of heaven , ingaged me in drawing up the ensuing exceptions , and then in publishing them . though i must own too , that i was much encouraged in the undertaking , by the theorist's ingenuous and frank invitation : a whosoever , by solid reasons , will shew me in an error , and undeceive me , i shall be very much obliged to him . this i shall endeavour to do , with all sincerity ; and that only as a friend and servant to truth . and therefore with such candour , meekness and modesty , as becomes one who assumes and glories in so fair a character : and also with such respect to the virtuosoe who wrote the theory ; as may testifie to the world , that i esteem his learning , while i question his opinion . . and that our work may be done with the more ease and order , it shall be prosecuted in a method cut out to our hands ; and shaped according to that recapitulation of the theory , which we find set down in the second book , and the ninth chapter , in these words : that there was a primitive earth , of another form from the present , and inhabited by mankind till the deluge : that it had those properties and conditions that we have ascribed to it , namely , a perpetual equinox and spring , by reason of its right situation to the sun ; was of an oval figure , and the exterior face of it smooth and uniform , without mountains , or a sea : that in this earth stood paradise , the doctrine whereof cannot be understood , but upon supposition of this primitive earth and its properties . then , that the disruption and fall of the earth into the abyss which lay under it , was that which made the vniversal deluge , and the destruction of the old world : and , that neither noah's flood , nor the present form of the earth , can be explained in any other method that is rational , nor by any other causes that are intelligible . these are the vitals of the theory , and the primary assertions , whereof i do freely profess my full belief . against these assertions , my exceptions shall be levelled ; and in the same order in which they stand . . so much for the first chapter ; which may be reckoned as an introduction to the following discourse . which if any shall look upon as a collection of notes somewhat confusedly put together , rather than a formal , well digested treatise , they will entertain the best or truest idea of it . chap. ii. . the hypothesis of the earth's formation stated . . the first exception against it , it would have taken up too much time . . the world being made in six days . . how there might be light and days , before there was a sun. . a proof that the creation was perfected in six days time ▪ . numeral cabbalism cannot overthrow it . . the jews in cabbalizing , still allowed a literal meaning to scripture ; only they superadded a mystical one , never contrary to it . . though were there a cabbala , destructive to the letter of moses's story of the creation , that would not invalidate the argument alledged . . moses's account of the creation , runs not upon bare numbers , but upon time. . what account the christian church has made of the cabbala . . how it discovers its own vanity . . the literal sense to be kept to , in the story of the creation . . where scripture speaks so as not to be understood literally , it is sometimes for plainness sake . . as every thing had a beginning except one ; i mean , that most perfect and glorious essence , who gave being to all ; so the earth , among the rest , had its origin likewise . this , none but infidels , or anti-scripturists , can doubt ; the article being founded upon no less than divine , which is the most firm and unquestionable evidence . could any doubt of this matter offer to form it self in our minds , and to settle there , the very first verse in the holy bibl● would not fail to drive it out from thence . but then as to the way of the earth's formation , we are more at a loss , as being not so satisfactorily instructed concerning it . here providence seems to have left us to our selves ; and for the improvement of both , remits us to the conduct of philosophick learning , in some measure , and to our own judgments . only we must be careful that the idea's we frame , be congruous to the truths that came down from above ; and are , or should be the touchstone of all hypotheses among christians . which , because the way of the earth's formation , according to the theory , is not ; it overthrows the first vital assertion ; which is this , there was a primitive earth of another form from the present , and inhabited by mankind till the deluge . the latter clause of it , touching the earth's being inhabited till the deluge , we do not question . the former part of it cannot stand , by reason the manner of the earth's rise , which the theory ascribes to it , overturns it . it is supposed to have proceeded thus . fig : pag : where denotes the fiery centre of the earth . . the interior orb of the earth , composed of the grossest particles of the chaos . . the element of water , or the abyss . . the oyly liquor upon the surface of the water . . the mass or body of the air. but this body of the air being at first very muddy and impure , through abundance of terrestrial particles that , as fast as they could free themselves from the air with which they were mingled , and in which they were intangled , they sunk downward : and meeting , in their descent , with the oyly liquor on the face of the deep , there they stuck ; and incorporating with that unctious substance , made a certain slime ; or a fat , soft , light earth , spread upon the waters : which growing thicker and thicker , by a continual accession of more terrestrial particles , sliding down still out of the air , as it purify'd it self ; at last it came to its just dimensions . and then waxing more dry and stiff , and firm and solid , in fine it attained to its due consistency , and so became the first habitable earth . thus have i briefly , but , i hope , truly represented the manner of the primitive earth's formation . if there be any thing of mistake in the description , it is altogether involuntary . but i think i have spoken the very mind of the hypothesis , as it is more * largely set down by the theorist . . but if the primitive earth's being of another form , does depend upon its rising in such a method as this , as indeed it does ; then it could not be of another form from the present earth , because it could not rise in such a manner , for several reasons . as first , because it would have taken too long time in doing it . a longer time by much , than that divine account we have of its origination , does mention , or will allow . for to say nothing how long the inferior earth would have been in forming , by the subsiding of the grossest parts of the chaos to the centre of it ; till which were sunk , the other sedimentals could not so well have separated : and to say nothing how considerable a space of time it would have required , for the aereal matter to have clarify'd it self , and to have setled in its proper region : and to say nothing of the lastingness of that other purgation , whereby the liquid part of the chaos would have sent forth its oyliness to invest the waters , to receive those dregs that fell out of the air : to say nothing of these ; how much time must have been spent , in producing the exterior orb of the earth , which was to be made up of those terrestrial particles which fell from above , and rested upon the oyly out-side of the deep ? should these fine particles have showred down , as fast as ever we saw small rain or snow do ; yet how many days and weeks must have passed , before they could have swell'd into so huge a body as the earth was at first ? i say , as the earth was at first . for according to the hypothesis now before us , the primitive earth was bigger than this : so much bigger , as to take all that space into its ambit , which reacheth up to the tops of the highest mountains at least . yea , if the first earth did not fill a much bigger space than that ( as it might do ; for according to this hypothesis , we know not how far its circumference might extend ) yet a space somewhat bigger it must needs occupy , in regard the mountains are now worn a lower than they were . and for such inconceivable quantities of little particles , to descend out of the air , as would be sufficient to make such a bulky globe as the primitive earth , must necessarily be a good whiles work . and so it is expresly acknowledged to be ( theor. p. , . ) and then if as fast as they showred down into the oyly substance , they did immediately mix and incorporate with it ; yet then it would take up some time again , to dry and harden this new made earth , and to reduce it to an habitable consistency . and therefore its formation this way , could by no means fall in with the real time of its production . nay , it could not be compleated in that space of time , in which god declares that he began and finisht the whole creation . . for that glorious work is expresly limited to six days . and every day has its respective task particularly specified and appropriated to it . and however more might be created on some days , than is mentioned , as angels , hell , &c. yet we may be sure there was no less . not but that god could have done all in one day , if he had so pleased , or in one hour , or minute : as he could also have given being to the world , many millions of ages before he did . but it was not his will that it should exist sooner ; and his will it was , that the creation of it should be protracted to an hexaemeron , or six days work , and therefore he drew it out to that length . but then when philo iudaeus , st. austin , and others , teach that the world was created in an instant ; we have no reason , jurare in verba , to give up our selves to a belief of their doctrine . nor is the saying of the son of syrach ( sometimes alleged in proof of the opinion ) to be at all regarded ; b he that liveth for ever , creavit omnia simul , created all things together : as if he created them together in the same moment . whereas ( besides that the book is apocryphal ) the greek copy reads it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he created all things in common , as well one as other ; in which sense it relates to no time . and accordingly our english is most proper , he created all things in general . yet this apocryphal text seems to be the chief ground upon which st. austin built his opinion of the world 's being made in an instant . but by that account which moses gives in , the earth brought forth grass , and herbs , and trees , on the c third day , even before there was a sun. which as it proves that god's special hand was in the work ( and might serve as a bridle to curb people in their forwardness to idolize the sun ; while it is made plain to them , that he did not , as a deity , give being to these thing by any plastick influence of his , they existing before himself ) so it argues withal , that the earth was then grown into a competent solidity . yea , the same moses goes on , and tells the world , that by the end of three days more the earth was made a dwelling-place for mankind , and in part of it , a paradisiacal one too . and this farther bespeaks it to have arrived at such a temperament , as it could never have done so soon , in case it had been formed as is above supposed . for besides that the theory allows it to have become dry by degrees , after it had done growing ; it declares , that the body or new concretion of it was encreased daily , being fed and supplied both from above and below ( pag. . ) at which rate , six days might easily pass , and six times six after them ; and the earth not be fitted for habitation . . and though the sun was not made as yet ( the fourth day being the first of his existence ) yet this does not invalidate moses's narrative in the least , by rendring it absurd , or inconsistent with it self , when it tells us that the earth was brought to such maturity on the third day . for though there was no sun then , yet we are assured there was light : and providence might so order this light , as to have it supply the place of the sun , in measuring out time , and making days , though not so distinctly as he does . and that there should be light , before there was a perfect sun , seems highly agreeable to the explication of light by the cartesian principles . for according to them , light consists in pressione materiae coelestis , in a pressure of the celestial matter ; or , in conatu ejus ad motum , in its tendency or nitency to motion . and therefore if our vortex , or heaven ( made up of this matter ) were by the first mover put into such a circumgyration at the beginning , as it now has ; by virtue of this gyration , the subtile matter would have been impregnated with a strong conatus or propensity to recede from the centre of the vortex , according to the laws of motion well known in that case . and so a faint light would have been cast through the vortex , at least through the ecliptick parts thereof , though there had been no sun in the middle of the same . and so while the matter for the body of the sun had been in preparing ( that is , grinding off from the particles of the matter of the second element ; which being made to turn upon their own axes , by mutual collision , and incessant attrition , rounded one another into spherical figures ) and gathering towards the middle point of the vortex , and setling there ; a feeble kind of light must have shat from those central parts of the vortex , till the sun thus a making could have been finisht . which is it might have been in the space of three days ( by a great quantity of the purest matter retiring into the heart of the vortex , which still grew bigger , as the particles of the second element had their angulosities worn off , and so grew less ) then on the fourth day , the sun might shine out in his full strength . while by a new protrusion , and brisker propulsion of the globular matter , he put a stronger conatus into it than it had before . and if there could thus have been light antecedently to the sun ; then how there should be days and nights at the same time , is easie to conceive , admitting the diurnal motion of the earth . this i have said , not that i belive the sun was thus produced ( any more than the great a philosopher did ) but to make it appear , that the holy text might be literally true ; and that to hold there were days before there was a sun , is so far from being vulgar and ridiculous ( as some would make it ) that it is greatly consonant to that which is counted the best philosophy . the noble des cartes , so justly admired , speaks the same sense , though in different words ; b and which peradventure will seem a paradox to many , all these things ( the properties of light ) would be just thus with the celestial matter , though there were no manner of force in the sun , or in any star about which it is wheeled . so that if the body of the sun were nothing else but an empty space , though his light indeed might not be so strong , yet in other respects we should see it no otherwise than now we do , at least where the matter of the heaven circulates . as many as are not pleased with this , have liberty to imagine , that by the three first ( anticipative ) days , more early than the sun , was only meant such certain spaces of time , as were commensurate or equivalent to three days ; though they were not divided into diurnal periods , nor otherwise distinguish't , than by those acts of creation which god exerted , or the several creatures which he formed upon each of them . so about the pole , where the sun is in the horison by months together , and then out of it as long ; men may reckon the time by days , though they have them not , without any solecism in their way of compute . but not to dwell upon this point ; they who believe and consider , that there was once an universal darkness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a over all the earth , for the space of three hours , a long time after the sun was made ; may , i think , be persuaded to believe also , that by some means or other there might be three real and distinct days in the world , before he was created . . but that the whole creation , and consequently the whole earth , was consummated in six days may he proved by one very good argument , the fourth precept in the most sacred decalogue : remember that thou keep holy the sabbath-day . six days shalt thou labour , and do all that thou hast to do ; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god. in it thou shalt do no manner of work , thou , and thy son , and thy daughter , thy man-servant , and thy maid-servant , thy cattel , and the stranger that is within thy gates . for in six days the lord made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that in them is , and rested the seventh day . wherefore the lord blessed the seventh day , and hallowed it . now the seventh day , which by divine benediction , and special consecration , was set apart for the iewish sabbath , was no other than a natural day , consisting of twenty four hours . and the six days in which god allowed men to work , were of the same quality or duration . but then he permitting labour six days in the week , because in six days he made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that in them is ; and enjoyning a cessation from all manner of work , and a sanctification of the seventh day , because on it he rested from his work of creation ; from hence it will follow by undeniable consequence , that the seventh day on which god rested , and the six days on which he wrought , must be of the same nature that the iewish sabbath and week-days were of ; and that in six such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or natural days , consisting of twenty four hours apiece , the heaven , the earth , the sea , and all that in them is , were made . and indeed unless the holy ghost had said expresly that they were natural days , each of them made up of twenty four hours , he could hardly have spoken them to be such , more plainly and properly than he has done . for he tells us seven times over ( in the first of genesis ) that is , concerning every one of the seven days , that they had evening and morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas if he had made use of the single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that might have been taken for time indefinitely or at large . but as if he designed to prevent this , or at least to give no occasion for it ; as often as he mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was still pleased to tack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it ; to evidence that he meant no other than a natural day , to which evening and morning do belong . and that which makes it farther evident , that he has tied up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 day , to signifie a natural day , in the story of the creation , is , that this fourth commandment is partly entred in that story ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh day , which he blessed and sanctified for the sabbath , is said to be the seventh day on which he rested from his works . and so both were natural days alike , the one as much as the other . and therefore the seventh day separated for a sabbath , and kept so by the iews ( from the promulgation of the law , to the dissolution of their polity , yea , to this very hour , in their dispersion ) being a true natural day , the seventh day whereon god rested from his works must be the same . and truly once to pretend that there is any thing of cloudiness or ambiguity in the recited precept ; or that god by the days mentioned therein , did not mean ordinary natural days ; would be to raise a mist to darken the truth ; to offer to tye a knot , where there really is none ; and to put plain words by their common sense , meerly to force a difficulty into them . suppose a man should command his servants or children to work six days , because he himself in six days had done such and such things ; and to rest on the seventh day , because on that day he ceased from his labours : could it ever enter into the thoughts of any , but that the days in which he wrought , and they are to work ; and the day in which he rested , and they are to rest , must be of the same nature ? why , such is the case here , if we put but the great god into the place of that man , and allow his precept to be of a plain import and signification , as we have reason to do . for this great god was now publishing a law to his people : a law whereby they were to live , or die for ever : a law by which he really intended , and heartily desired , that they should not die , but live to eternity . and he being in hand with a law of such consequence to their pretious souls , who can question but it was worded plainly ? for without doubt he would deliver it in such familiar terms , as might be most intelligible to the meanest capacities amongst that people , to whom he recommended it as a standing rule . so that the fourth commandment being a piece of that rule , a branch of that law , we cannot suppose it to be cloathed with obscurity , either in the substance or reason of it . and truly if so plain a paragraph as that be not to be taken in its grammatical sense , 't is impossible we should know the mind of scripture , and vain it will be to pretend to understand any period in it . but then , if where god speaks plainly in his word , we must understand it literally ; surely we must do it most of all , in that part of his word which is the body of his law , and so the specifick rule of our practice . and if the moral law in general was of a literal signification ; then so was the fourth word of it to the iews . and if that were literally to be interpreted , as undoubtedly it was , the world must be created in the time there specified , in just six days , that is , neither more nor fewer . and moses methinks seems to be mightily concern'd to ground men in this . for though he had noted already in the first of genesis , that the work of creation was compleated in six days ; and had fairly accounted for each of them in particular : yet reviewing things in the second chapter , he there inculcates the same afresh , that so they might take farther notice of it . thus the heavens and the earth were finished , and all the host of them . that is , in the days , and according to the order before remembred . but had the earth been formed after the tenor of this new hypothesis , it could never have been finisht in six days , and brought into a condition sit to entertain its host creatures , in that compass of time . unless at the rate of the mahometan miracle , we should yield that the showers of earthly particles , were hardened by instantaneous induration . for so it is storied of a certain dervich , or monkish musselman , that strowing sand upon the waves , as fast as he sprinkled it , it turn'd to a causey before him , whereon he might walk to a mosque , the usual place of his devotions . though far more agreeable to this hypothsis ( as it makes the formation of the earth so slow ) is the phantasie of the chineses , inhabiting formosa and other islands . who hold that the world , when first created , was without form or shape : but by * pankun , one of their demi-gods , ( the sixty second of their seventy two deities ) was brought to its full perfection in four years . . the only considerable way of eluding this doctrine of the worlds being made in six days ; is the introducing of cabbalism into the story of the creation . for by that , numbers , which show the order of time are made types or emblems , or secret notes of the natures of things . but the force of the holy argument alleged , is not to be shifted off by this means . the iews , without question , had a cabbala amongst them ; and upon this cabbala they set an exceeding high value . for they put it in the scales ( as some christians now a-days do tradition ) even against the written word it self . so that known saying witnesseth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words of the cabbala , and the words of the law , are alike . which how well soever it might agree with that true and ancient cabbala , which they had from moses , and in part from adam , as † some think ; it suits not their present cabbala at all . upon that , * cunaeus bestows a mean and disgraceful , though ( i suppose ) a most sitting character ; where he declares it to be full of trifles , &c. though mirandula on the other side , crys it up as much ( if the same ) in his apology : where he avers it to have been first committed to writing by esdras . but that which i would note is this , that the genuine cabbala of the iews , cannot overthrow that strength of argument , in the fourth commandment , for the worlds being made in the space of six days . the reason follows . . the cabbalizing iews , even after the purity of oral tradition was lost amongst them , were still hugely careful to deliver nothing , but what was consistent with the literal sense of scripture . so that it treating of any period of it , they did but orderly proceed from one sense to another : and their traditional sense was to be so far from being repugnant or destructive to the verbal one ; that it was to comply with it , and to be subordinate to it . thus , though ( as aben-ezra says ) the law , besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the literal way ; hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seventy faces , or ways of interpretation ; and be capable ( in places ) of tropological , allegorical , anagogical , and c●●balistical meanings and applications : yet it is a known rabbinical rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the style of the scripture falls not in with the midrash , or allegorical exposition . which is seconded with another of the like import , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the scripture departs not from its simple and literal meaning . it was delivered by that eminent man for learning , r. solomon iarchi ( praefat in cantic . ) not that he meant sripture is always to be kept to a literal sense only ; the very words wherewith he ushers in that rule , sufficiently declare the contrary ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one scripture may be drawn out into many senses . and therefore he only meant , that the literal sense of scripture is not to be thrown off , or taken away , by , or for any other . and r. moses bar nachman lays down the same rule . to which several other rabbies also do consent ; particularly menasseh ben israel , who in his first book concerning the resurrection of the dead , says , that scripture is always to be understood and explained according to the letter , unless where such an explication implies a contradiction . according to which axioms of the learned , what ever sense might be superinduc'd to the text , they were still to adhere ( so far as reason would suffer ) to the literal one . yet where they were reconcilable , and could fairly be coincident , they were both allowed . and therefore when in controversie , some have been high for the letter ; and others hot for the allegory or cabbala ; the difference betwixt them has been frequently accommodated , by pronouncing that talmudic sentence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . by which concession of a complicated sense in the word or clause , that ministred occasion of fierce dispute , the contending parties have both been quickly and fully satisfied . and well they might ; for by the easie umpirage of that soft and moderative saying , they were immediately brought to equal terms , and set , as i may say , upon even ground . for each of them had warranty to maintain their own opinion , and liberty to acquiesce therein respectively . though how much , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common lection or sense , was preferred before , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the traditional one ( when they came in competition ) is clear from a passage in the learned buxtors's treatise de punct . antiq. pag. . where speaking of the talmudic axiom now cited , he says , quando hoc priori contrariatur , & illud evertit , nulla ejus habetur ratio , sed fundamentum manet in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the cabbalistic exposition is contrary to the literal or received sense , no account is made of it , but the foundation rests in the common sense or reading . quando verò ei subordinatur , &c. but when it is subordinate to it , and consistent with it , and both may be reconciled ; they admit both . and such a mixt or compound sense of letter and cabbala , well consistent with one another , they believed to be in the mosaic cosmology , or the story of the world's creation . besides its common , humble , obvious sense , which lies bare to view , and offers it self freely at first sight ; they moreover conceived it big with another more occult and remote , and also more sublime than that ; where the kernel of mystery lay close shut up , sub cortice verborum , under the husk of plain and ordinary words . and for this reason they used to restrain men from reading it , till they came to maturity both of years and judgment , as st. ierom testifies , in the preface to his commentaries on ezeki●l ; * vnless one has attained to the age of priests when they enter on their ministry , that is , to thirty years , he is not suffered , with them , to read the beginning of genesis , &c. but then if the iews , together with their mysterious , always held a literal sense in scripture ( where it can take place ) and also kept this mysterious sense of theirs from breaking in upon the literal , and doing violence to it ; according to their own recited rules : from hence it is manifest , that the world might be created in just six days , for all their cabbala , or the numbers in it . and when they kept the cabbala within such bounds , christians have no reason to stretch it farther ; for they have it but from them , or rather ( as to the numeral part of it ) from one that had it ( or is presumed to have had it ) from them , i mean , pythagoras . . but grant ( what by no means is to be granted ) that there were a cabbalistic sense in the story of the creation , so venerable and excellent , as to be allowed to supersede the literal one quite , or to swallow up the same ; and that the mosaic number 's there , were not at all intended to distinguish time , but only to shadow out the natures of things ; and so no satisfactory proof could be fetcht from thence , of the world 's being compleated in six days : yet still the holy argument produced , would hold good ; because in that divine precept there can be no cabbalism exclusive of its literal meaning . and that for these three reasons . first , because god must then have put dark mystery into the heart of his law. into that part of it which ( that it might be sure to be most plain , as well as authentick ) he was pleased to write with his own finger . into that part of it which every poor israelite newly come out of egyptian bondage , was to practise . and therefore it was necessary he should understand it , and consequently that there should not be obscurity in it : a thing ever held incongruous to laws ( as very unsuitable to their use and end ) and always declined by wise legislators . for they have still been careful that the statutes drawn up and enacted by them , should carry a clear sense along with them both in their injunctions , and the reasons of them . secondly , because then something of duty expressed in the commandment , would have been very improperly and incompetently urged . that men should work six days in the week , because in six days god created the world , upon each of them bringing some considerable pieces of it into being , is most fit and reasonable : even as fit and reasonable as it is for mean persons to imitate their superior ; for creatures to follow the great example of their maker . but that men should labour six days in the week , because the number six is the character of the nature of any creatures , would be altogether empty , trifling and impertinent , as admitting no manner of dependance or connection betwixt the reason and the thing . thirdly , because it would shuffle and jumble the natures of things together , or else bring a strange confusion into the numbers of the cabbala . it would shuffle the natures of things together , in an intolerable manner . for thus the heavens and the earth ( as the commandment runs ) the sea , and all that in them is ( which according to the physical cabbala of moses , are thought to have their orders , and various natures , distinctly characterized by several numbers ) must be here referred to one single number six . and that , according to other numbers ( for why should it be of a more dilated my stick significancy than the rest ? ) mysteriously pointing out but one single nature ; to refer all things to that one number ( as we must do , if we put cabbalism into the fourth commandment ) would be to reduce them to one single nature : i mean , to the animal one ; to signifying of which the number , six , is both naturally inclin'd and also determin'd by its denominations . first , it is naturally inclined that way . for it is said by cabbalists , to be made by drawing a the masculine , three , into the first feminine number , two. for three times two is six : and then six into six , is thirty six . one way it points out male and female , and the other way procreation , and both ways it clearly relates to animals . secondly , it is determin'd the same way , by its titles or denominations . they tye it close and fast to such meanings , as all-along restrain it to the properties or operations of the animal nature or condition . thus it has the names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because animals of the same species have a sort of love or friendship for one another . or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they yoke or joyn themselves together in pairs , &c. it is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of their venereal copulations ; and their continual productions , by a never-failing constancy of propagation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' because their bodies are full of articulations or joynts . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of that comely structure , true symmetry , and admirably curious and useful contexture of their several parts and members . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of that sound constitution which providence endu'd them with , and power sufficient to keep up their respective kinds in the world. the like may be said of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. and when the senary , by its nature and appellatives , is thus particularly appropriate to the denotation of the animal part of the world ; if in the fourth commandment we take it in a cabbalistic sense , we must suppose the things there referred to it ; that is to say , the heaven , and farth , and sea , and all that in them is , to be living creatur●s ; which would intollerably confound the natures of beings . or else , which would bring strange confusion into the numbers of the cabala ; this one , the senary , must in power be equal to all the rest . that is , it must denote what the vnite , binary , ternary , &c. are supposed to do ; and so signifie spiritual , and material beings ; terrestrial , and aquatick animals ; animate , and inanimate things , all at once . but to stretch it out to such a comprehensive symbolicalness , as to make it an hieroglyphick of the universe , and of all things in it : might seem to be a violent straining it , beyond its just latitude . especially if we consider , that the rest of the numbers before it , are all conceived to be fitted and restrained , to the shadowing out such and such single natures : and none of them allowed to be of so wide a significancy , as to have a mystical reference to all the creatures . though truly if any witty busie calbalists , should either out of the nature or names of this number ; extort such meanings , as might make it seem an emblem of the whole creation , as to its production , compleatment , or the like : we need not be much surprized at it . for no wonder that they should so vex ( as i may say ) and wire-draw numbers , as to force and wind them even to what they please ; when they have power to put any commune word upon the rack , and to torment it at such a rate , as to make it say what they list . mirandula proves this by a pregnant instance . for in his exposition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( at the end of his heptaplus ) which signifies no more than , in the beginning : he does so toss and transpose the several letters and syllables of it ; and so ransack , and squeeze , and torture it ; as to make it speak all this long sentence : pater in filio & per filium principium & finem sive quietem creavit caput ignem & fundamentum magni hominis foedere bono . they that would know the sense of it , let them consult the author . by it he designs , gustum dare mosaicae profunditatis , to give a taste of moses 's profoundness . but should any attempt ( in imitation of him ) to interpret moses's whole story of the creation ; as he has done the first word of it : they would certainly find moses to be profound indeed ; and themselves to have lanched out into such a deep as would prove to have neither bottom nor bounds in it . and yet the noble picus's way , is but one of the three ways of cabbalizing by permutation : and permutation it self , or the transposing of words , is but one sort of the speculative cabbala neither . for beside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are other two kinds of it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so that according as cabbalists have been , either for laudable phantasie and ingenuity ; or else for humor and extravagance : they have had as large fields to expatiate in , as they could desire . but i must not digress too far . by what has been said , i hope it is evident , that in the fourth commandment , there can be no cabbalistick meaning , at least none destructive to the literal one . whence it will follow , that the whole creation was begun , carried on , and consummated , in six days : the thing i was to prove . so that if the theorist's conceit to●ching the earths formation be true ; moses's account of the creation must be false . and the history he wrote of it , as the unerring pen-man of the holy ghost ; instead of being of unsuspected credit and authority , we may justly call ( as celsus did of old ) * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an old womans fable . . it is manifest also that moses in that sacred story , did not make use of meer numbers , but of time : yea , of time divided into know and common periods ; namely , into days . and those days ( which is especially to be noted ) are expressed ( as was said before , and must always be remembred ) by evenings and mornings ; just as the hebrews speak natural days . and therefore not to allow the first , second , and third day , &c. there mentioned ; to be such vesperomatutina , natural days having evenings and mornings : but to turn them into pure numbers , one , two , three , &c. is highly unwarrantable ; as being a double injury to scripture , upon no necessary account . for it is a depriving it of its direct and genuine sense ; and a forcing it upon another quite beyond and beside that , only to gratifie the humour of cabbalists . which humour or phantasie of theirs , many times is vain and trivi●l , and grounded upon nothing perhaps , but ignorance or mistake . to evince as much , let me give in one instance of this nature , most pertinent to the matter we have in hand . philo ( that mighty man among the iews for allegorizing the story of the creation , and to whom later cabbalists are greatly beholden ) positively and aloud pronounceth thus , a it is a silly thing , to think that the world was made in six days , or in any certain time . and why so ? his reason in short is , because it was made before there was a sun , and so there could be neither time , nor days . but there might be days , before there was a sun ( as we have shewed ) and so where 's the strength of that objection ? in like manner when it is said , in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth : he will not allow that , beginning , should signifie time ; for a like reason . a because time was not before the world , but was made either with , or after it . strangely argued , for so learned a man. as if the world could not have been made in the beginning of time , because time was made with it . whereas if it had not been made with it , if it had not began just then ; the world could not have been made in the beginning of it indeed . nor does he back this reason at a better rate , where he adds ; for b seeing that time is a space of motion of the heavens , motion cannot be before the thing moved . yet let us but suppose , that the world was made , and the heavens put into motion at once ; and then the world would be created , when time began : as being created together with that motion in which consists the nature or measure of it . and yet he concludes for himself , as if he had argued most cogently ; but c if so be , beginning , be not taken now according to time ; 't is fit it should be taken according to number . and so ( in part ) we have an account , how numeral cabbalism crept into the divine text of moses . even because men had not philosophy enough to make out , how time and days might be before the sun. but is not natural philosophy then an useful thing , and of great use , according to its character , in the first chapter ? . were enquiry made how the church of christ hath resented cabbalism ; or what respect she hath shown to such as used it : and answer might partly be shaped out thereunto , from her carriage towards origen . that father had a peculiar talent ( above others ) at allegorizing scripture , and in delivering doctrines of the cabbalistic strain . but how did holy church receive his notions of that stamp , and how did she deal with him for their sakes ? this we may learn from * photius , who tells us , that the fifth universal synod , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , condemned origen , and anathematiz'd him . and for what cause ? why , for that he attempted to introduce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the greek mythology , or pagan fables , into the church of god. and particularly for that piece of dotage ( it is the patriarch's word ) in teaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that humane souls were preexistent to their bodies . and as all know , preexistence was a principal branch of the cabbala . . and truly the cabbala , which makes numbers emblematize the natures of things , may well be rejected . for indeed it proclaims its own vannity , in one notable instance : i mean , in the coincidence of its numbers , as to their symbolical significancy . in the whole story of the creation , there are but seven numbers made use of . now if god , or moses , had designed these numbers for a mysterious use ; we need not question but care would have been taken , that two of them should not be symbols of the same thing , when one would have served every whit as well . for so one of the two numbers would be superfluous : yet supposing that there is such a cabbala as some contend for , in the story of the creation ; there must be this vanity or superfluity in it . for then the number five , and the number six , in their mystical property , must refer to one and the same thing , viz. the animal nature . how the senary is an emblem of that , both by its nature and its names , we have seen already . and truly the quinary is made a ●ymbol of the same , and that both those ways . first by its nature . it consists of the masculine number , three ; and of the feminine , number , two : and so it mystically signifies male and female . five , also drawn into five , brings about five again ; five times ●ive , is twenty five : so it betokens generation . and male and female , and generation by them , we know , relate directly to animals . and then for names , it has cytherea , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are names of the senary ; and so it must be of the same mystick signification with that still . nor can it be pretended ( to diversi●ie the mystick significancy of the numbers ) that the quinary refers to water animals only . for not only fishes were made on the fifth day ; but fowls too : and that out of the ground every one of them , gen. . . and as no fowls live altogether in the water ; so very few kinds of them live upon it , in comparison of those that do not . in all respects therefore the quinary seems to be a meer supernumerary . it signifies nothing , but what the senary could have signified as well . whence we may conclude , that either moses was guilty of a notorious bungling oversight , in inserting an useless number into the cabbala ; which in so rare a philosopher as he was , must not be admitted ; especially he being divinely inspired , and studiously contriving so profound and admirable a piece of mystery , as the cabbala is reputed : or else ( which is the truth ) that this very thing does betray the vanity of the cabbala , and shows it to be but an ingenious phantasie . . now the cabbala being a thing so improbable ; and the literal sense of scripture so very authentick , as not to be thrown off , or put by for any other , where it can be held to : it remains that the story of the creation is to be understood according to that sense . and so where the theory of the earth is contrary to that sense , or not agreeing with it ; it is to be look't upon all the way , as contrary to scripture , and disagreeing with that . not that i deny there is mystery in the story of the creation ; for undoubtedly there is a great deal , and that so deep , that it is hard to see to the bottom of it . but once again i say , ( to prevent my being mistaken ) that no mystical or cabbalistic sense is to be approved of , that overthrows or nulls the literal one . and the reason is plain ; because if the literal sense should be taken away , it would cease to be an history : and also could have nothing of fixed or certain meaning in it ; but might be moulded any way , and changed into every thing , according to the various apprehensions of men and their working phantasies . . let me here cast in this as an overplus . where scripture delivers it self so as not to be literally interpreted ; it is sometimes done out of greater plainness that it affects , and the better to accommodate it self to our capacity . thus when it expresseth god's power , or his doing any thing ; by hands . his knowledge , or observation of any thing ; by eyes , &c. it is meerly in way of condescention to us , and to render what it speaks of , more easie and familiar to our apprehension . here therefore that axiome of the talmudists , remembred by great maimonides , takes place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * the law speaks according to the language of the children of men. and for this reason ( i think ) the book of canticles is so parabolical and allusive . not to veil and darken the sense , but the better to illustrate its divine argument : and the more fully and fairly to set forth that passionate affection and dearness , which is betwixt the most glorious jesus , that great lover of souls ; and all zealously religious and devout persons . chap. iii. . a second exception against the formation of the earth , viz. the fluctuation of the waters of the chaos , whereon it was to be raised . . that fluctuation caused by the moon . . the theorist's doubt , whether she were then in our neighbourhood , considered . . the precariousness of his hypothesis in several things relating to the chaos : which ought to have been better cleared and confirmed , according to his own declared iudgment . . the descent of the earthly particles out of the air , not only precarious , but vnphilosophical . . and also anti-scriptural . . as every building must have a sutable foundation , so fit it is that the earth should have such a one ; it being not only a stately fabrick in it self , but moreover designed , at the formation of it , to be the mansion or dwelling of a world of creatures . and it being destined to so great and noble an use , what pity had it been that it should have miscarried in the making , and have sunk into ruines , while it was setting up , for want of a sufficient foundation to support it ? yet had it been built after the manner aforesaid , perhaps there would have been no less defect in the architecture of it , than the want of a meet foundation . for it was to be reared upon the waters risen out of the chaos ; and were they fit to bear such a mighty pile ? i mean in regard of their unsteadiness and constant fluctuation . that the earth might be spread , and by degrees raised upon them ; was it not requisite that they should be of a quiet and even surface ? otherwise it may be the unctious substance could not have gathered upon them , nor the earthly particles hav● settled upon that . but the incontinuity of the one ( i● being broken by the motion of the waters ) leaving many open spaces to the other ; through those spaces they would have sunk right down to the bottom of the deep , and no earth would have been produced . . yet that those waters were quiescent and even , upon due examination will hardly be found . for the chaos in the beginning was turned about upon its own center ; else how comes the earth to be so now ? and if it was carried about by such a gyration , how could the face of its waters be still and equable ? not that i mean they were disturbed by the meer rotation of the chaos neither ; but by something else in conjunction with that , namely , the bulky presence of the moon . for if she was then placed , where now she is , what hindred but she might have the same motion which now she has ? and if she moved then in an eliptic circle about the chaos , as now she does about the earth ( as in all reason she should ; the chaos being then situate , where the earth is now , betwixt the heavens of venus and mars ; from which situation that eliptic circle results ) would not the waters have been too much discomposed thereby , to have been a fit foundation for the primitive earth . indeed they being in all places of an equal depth , and flowing freely without resistance ; it is very probable that the tides then were less fierce and rough , than they are now . and yet they all making but one sea , and that being open and exposed to the moon ; it is as probable again , that they swelled extreamly , and went mighty high . now the moon squeezing them her self ( by streightning the heavens ) on one side of the chaos , whereever she was ( as at her zenith suppose ) and occasioning a like compression of them on the opposite side ( or at her nadir : ) and the chaos still turning round upon its own axis every four and twenty hours : from hence it follows that these waters felt the force of two tides , in every such space of time . now where they ebbed end flowed so frequently and incessantly ; must not their aestuation have been so turbulent , as to have hindred the gathering , or dissolved the continuity of the oily matter ; and so have prevented the earth's superstruction upon it ? in case it be urged , that the unctious matter upon the face of the waters , was so very thick , as that they might heave and sink under it , as there was occasion , and never break it : i answer , when this oily substance did first arise , it must needs be thin , and so apt to be broken and divided ; and that being disjoined , the earthly particles falling in at the void spaces , would have sunk directly ( as was said even now ) through the waters , having nothing to support them . and then ( which is farther considerable ) the heaviest particles of earth , descending at the same time , in far great●st plenty ( the air being then fullest of impurity , and purging it self most freely ) they would have come down so fast , and in so great abundance , as easily to have overpowered the thin oily scum on which they fell ; and being a little soaked in it , and incorporate with it , have weighed it down in flakes to the bottom of the waters ; upon the top of which it could no longer float , as being overloaded with the heaviness of the imbodied earth . and truly the flowing of the waters with a strong head now this way ; and their returning by and by with as much force the contrary way : must needs put them into such restless agitations and cross commotions , as would have much promoted the diving of the flakes aforesaid . nor are we to measure the motion of the chaotic waters , from the present great seas . for however they may be less discomposed by tides , yet nature then , was in other circumstances ( according to the theory ) than it is now ; and those waters might be moved at another rate , than these are . for our present earth was at that time all dispersed in the air. and the thicker and fuller the air was , the stronger pressure would the moon make upon that ; and that again upon the superficies of the waters : and consequently the higher must the tides rise , and the more violent must they be . and then the theory makes another motion in the chaotick waters necessary , namely , a defluxion of them from the aequator towards the sides or poles of the liquid globe ; in order to the forming it ( and consequently the earth to be raised on it ) into an oval figure . and this motion might create a new disturbance in that element . yea , not only so , but it might moreover be fatal to the rise of the earth . for a the watry globe was to grow oblong , by the slowing down of the waters to the sides ( they are the words of the theory ) and the disburthening the middle parts about the aequator . but then when these waters did thus recede or discharge themselves from about the aequator or middle of the globe , and flow down to the sides of it ; how easily might the oily matter have followed their course ? yea , perhaps how necessary was it for it to do so ? while the uppermost waters thereabouts being most hurried , and most at liberty ; would have fallen back , and carried that away with them . but then if the upper waters thus drew off , and the oily substance slid away upon them , what foundation could the earth have had in those middle parts we speak of ? especially if these waters continued their course for any time ; as it was needful they should to bring about the effect mentioned . for so vast a body of waters , as that of the abyss , could not by this means , of a perfectly round , be made into an oval or oblong figure , on a sudden . . but in reference to this matter , there is a dou●t made by the theorist , which must be considered and removed . otherwise most of what has been said , touching the instability and fluctuation of these waters , will be vain and groundless . the doubt is , a whether the moon were then in our neighbourhood . and truly i had almost said , he might next have questioned , whether the sun were then in our heaven : there being in the story of the creation , no better evidence for the one , than for the other . i confess the suggestion ( as wild as it is ) would have done the arcadians a great kindness . for they used to boast of ( what was always a riddle and nonsense to the wife ) their being more ancient than iupiter and the moon . so says ovid : ante jovem genitum terras habuisse feruntur arcades ; & lunâ gens prior illa fuit . but the service it might have done them , as to this arrogant brag , will by no means countervail that dammage which it does to the person who raises the doubt . for it involves him in the guilt of unhappy temerity towards the holy writings : yet the theorist does not only start this scruple , but argues for it thus , b her presence seems to have been less needful ; when there were no long winter-nights , nor the great pool of the sea to move or govern . too bold an affront to scripture . that says expresly , that god made two great lights ; and both upon the fourth day , gen. . . the theorist suspects he made but one. and truly let him but allow two to be made , and the moon of necessity must be come into our neighbourhood ; because she alone could be a great light in the neighbouring heaven , to make up the sun , two. there is no bringing any star into the number . for though the smallest of them be a truer and greater light than the moon ; yet no one of them , was ever a great light in this lower world : and god created more than two such . besides , scripture says , that when god made two great lights , he set them ( both of them , both of them then on the same day ) in the firmament of the heaven , to give light upon the earth . and must not both of them then be in our neighbourhood at that time ? and lastly , it says , that as god made the greater of these lights to rule the day ; so he made the lesser to rule the night . and when did the lesser begin to rule the night ? why , just when the greater began to rule the day . for as to the dates of those their respective offices , we find no difference : yet the theorist declares , that the presence of the moon , and consequently her rule then , was not so needful , because there were no long winter-nights . whereas the moon was no more made to shine only in long winter-nights , than the sun was to shine only in long summer-days . and which is more , as there were no long winter-nights then , so there were no short summer ones neither . so that set but the one against the other , and the presence of the moon may seem to have been as needful then , in regard of the length of nights , as it is now . upon the whole matter therefore there are no good grounds for this piece of scepticism . and to what has been said concerning it , we need add but this , whereas it is argued , that there might be no moon , upon the account that there were no long winter-nights , nor great pool of the sea to move or govern : we being assured that there was a moon , may much better invert the reason , and retorting the force of the argument , conclude that there must be long winter-nights , and the great pool of the sea ; because that planet was present to rule the one , and also to move or govern the other . though possibly the shutting her out of our neighbourhood , might be warily done , and with prospect of her malignant influence in the case before us , namely , that she might not incommode or hinder the rearing of the earth , upon the waters of the chaos . for truly had she been so near a neighbour at first , as she is now ; she might have been an injurious one as to that affair . she might have kept those waters in such motions , as would have dissipated their oily covering ; and so have put by the primitive earth , by marring the basis whereon it should have stood . yet when all is said , i would have this exception lookt upon as propounded in way of quaery , whether the unsettledness of the chaotic waters , would not have hindred the production of the first earth ? rather than as a positively assertory objection , as if it must necessarily have done it . . and here i cannot but remark the exceeding precariousness of the theorist's hypothesis , in reference to the chaos , and the formation of the earth out of it . for that that mass , which consisted of , and was then first dissolved into the simplest elementary bodies in the world ; should cast forth one body ( i mean liquor ) which in its purest na-natural state , could contain so much oiliness in it . that this oily matter should rise just when it did , so as to be sit to receive the earthly particles in their fall out of the air ; whereas had they come down sooner , they had been drowned in the water . that this oiliness should be of just such a quantity as was sufficient for use ; just enough , that is , to mix with those particles , and to make them into a good soil : whereas if it had been more , it would have overflowed them , and made the earth useless as a greazy clod ; if less , it would not have imbib'd them , but they must have lien loose above , in a fine and dry powder , that would have rendred the earth barren as an heap of dust. that the waters also should be of a due proportion ; just sufficient , that is , to make a temporary deluge ; and then to retire into the deep , and make a durable sea : whereas had there been much less , the earth upon its disruption , could not have been drowned ; and had there been much more , it must have been quite swallowed up for ever . that all these things should be thus , is altogether precarious , and not to be admitted but upon better evidence , than on their behalf is given in . for here any one will be of the theorist's judgment , as he has declared it . a that things of moment ( such as he treats of ) are not to stand upon weak and tottering , dubious and conjectural grounds ; but to be founded upon some clear and invincible evidence . but then he who talks at this rate , ought , when he writes of such momentous things ; to make them out very clearly and evidently . else ( by what he says more in the same paragraph ) he proclaims himself guilty of a rash attempt ; even of tampering where he ought not to meddle ; and of striving to enter at that door , where god and nature have both agreed to shut him out . for did they think good to let him in , it should be by such a way as is certain ( he tells us ) and wherein he should walk with the aforesaid evidence on his side . now this , i say , being his declared judgment ; the phaenomena's above-mentioned , should have been more fully explained and made out ; and also more throughly confirmed and made good . . but besides those , there is another behind , which if lookt into , will not only be found as precarious as any of the rest ; but also vnphilosophical . and that is , the descent of the terrestrial particles out of the air , which constituted the praediluvian earth . for of those particles the theory will have that earth to be made . which were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or kind of excrementitious sediment , that the body of the air threw out , when it purified it self . but that such a prodigious quantity of gross and feculent substance , should then lodge in that part of the chaos ; which was so light and volatile at the same time , as to * mount above other bodies , and also keep it self upon the wing , and play in open places ; might justly be questioned . for if such a vast deal of drossy stuff , were mixed with the aereal matter ; then whatever natural disposition ( through levity ) it might have , to mount up ; that , one would think , should have so pinioned its wings , as to have kept it down , at least from rising very high ; and have been so heavy a clog upon it , as to have spoiled its playing in open places ; at least its playing up so far as the moon . yet that the theory allows it to have done so , is evident . for it supposeth them to † have showred down not only from the middle regions , but from the whole capacity or extent of those vast spaces betwixt the moon and us . a supposition that is not only precarious , but also seems ( i say ) to be somewhat vnphilosophical . for though upon the theory's account , it was necessary these particles should fill such vast spaces ; that so the air might be able to contain enough of them , and also have room enough wherein to move , and by motion to purge it self , and cast them out : yet how will the phaenomenon fall in with a smooth philosophic explication ? for in short , either the bounds of the chaos , and the sphaere of its gravity ( as i may call it ) did extend as high as the moon , or they did not . if they did not , how came these particles there ? especially in such plenty , as to descend from thence in showers ? yea , how could they come down at all ? let philosophy make it out . in case the bounds of the chaos and the sphere of its gravity , did reach so high as the moon ; then why did not she come tumbling down with those particles ? or rather sooner than they , as being much heavier ? let philosophy give an account of that . for i think we have proved she was then in our neighbourhood : though it seems there might be more reason for that doubt , than we were at first aware of . . and as this assertion is not very consistent with philosophy , in it self ; so in the consequence of it , it is against scripture . that assures us , that light was the product of the first day . and as it was made then , so it was made visible in these inferiour regions . but this could not be , in case the earth were formed according to the theory ; the air would have been so full of terrestrial dregs . for it then contained enough of such dregs , to compose an earthly orb , of above one and twenty thousand miles in perimeter ; and of a depth or thickness we know not how great . and such unspeakable measures of earth in the air , must needs fill it with darkness ; yea , with such a spissitude and opacity , as would utterly have spoiled the pellucidness of it , for a considerable height above the chaos at least . for the coarsest and heaviest of the floating particles , setling continually towards the chaos ; and the nearer they approached it , drawing still into a narrower compass ( by reason the spaces out of which they descended , were much larger than those into which they gathered ) the mighty throng of them ( they being crowded together as close as their gravity could squeez them in their fall ) would have made a ring of such darkness about the chaos , as would have been like to that which once plagued egypt . it would have been palpable , that is , as containing a kind of tangible thickness and clamminess in it . yet in the first day , upon god's most powerful ●iat given , there was light , gen. . . which plainly argues , that the body of the air , could not then be of so foul a constitution . if it had , though god , when he pronounced , let there be light , had made the sun ( which he did not ) and made him much brighter than he is ; he could not have illightned these lower regions , as being not only clouded and covered , but even stuffed ( as it were ) with an impenetrable density , or kind of material darkness , so far as the aforesaid ring of circle about the chaos reached . but then how much less could that light have done it , which was pre-existent to the sun , and was no more than a faint glimmering , in compare with his glory . yet on the first day , i say , there was light in the chaotic world , even on the very waters of the chaos . for when god said , let there be light ; where can that light be thought to have shined more especially , than where he said before there was darkness ? and where was darkness said to be before , but upon the face of the deep ? gen. . . and therefore light must be shot down thither , in obedience to the divine command . but then here again this hypothesis seems to be unwarrantable , as grating too much upon holy scripture . for whereas that certifies , that there was light on the first day , and upon the superficies of the abyss ( as the context intimates ) this hypothesis puts nature into such a condition , as made it impossible it should be so , and positively avers , that it was quite contrary . for it tells us , * the air was as yet thick , gross , and dark . and when was it thus ? why , most certainly after the first day was past . for it was after that the immense aereal mass had had time to purifie it self in a great measure ; as appears by what follows : there being abundance of little particles swimming in it still , after the grossest were sunk down . and if the air were thick and dark then , after the grossest particles were sunk down : what was it before , when they were but sinking ? and therefore as the first darkness , at the world's formation , is acknowledged to proceed , † ex ipsius aeris impuritate & perturbatione ; from the impurity and roil of the air : so the theory calls it by the name of , tenebrae diuturnae ; lasting darkness . chap. iv. . a third exception against the formation of the earth , the fire at the center of it . . the theory faulty in not setting forth the beginning of the chaos , which was necessary to be done . . such a chaos was not created . . nor yet produced in des-cartes his way . . and therefore that central fire seems a thing unreasonable . . that the chaos was produced in the cartesian way , not to be allowed by the theory . . the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also insinuates the contrary . . the septuagint cleared in one passage . . the story of the creation not to be restrained to the terrestrial world. . that the earth is not the solidest of the planets , may well be inferred from its nearness to the sun. and therefore we see mars a less planet by much , advanced above the earth , upon the account of his solidity . and for the same reason , he may be of such a rutilant or ●iery colour as he is ; which complexion ( among the hebrews ) gives him the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the red planet . but though that degree of proximity , which the earth holds to the sun , shows her to be of a looser substance , of a more porous , and less solid nature ; yet it cannot presently be improved into an argument , of her having a great quantity of fire at her center . this the theorist admits of as a thing ‖ very reasonable ; that there is a fire at the center of the earth , as there is a yolk in the middle of an egg. but how can it be so reasonable according to his hypothesis ? for , according to that , the earth was formed out of a chaos , as we have heard . and that chaos was nothing but a fluid mass consisting of earthly principles , as is intimated in these words , by the chaos i understand the matter of the earth and heavens , without form or order ; reduced into a fluid mass , wherein are the materials and ingredients of all bodies . — suppose then the elements , air , water , and earth , which are the principles of all terrestrial bodies , mingled without any order , &c. now when the chaos was a confused mass , in its principles so wholly terrestrial , and in its constitution so wholly fluid ; it is so far from being very reasonble , to allow a fire at the center of it , ( and if there were not a fire at the center of that , how could there be one at the center of the earth ? ) that it would rather be very absurd to do it . for so , in the first place , very contrary and discordant natures , must have been tied to dwell together in the closest cohabitation , or a perfect contiguity . in which state of conjunction or immediate vicinity ; how could they have subsisted , without preying upon , and destroying one another ? either the fire would have dissipated the ambient fluid bodies that were near it ; or else those fluid humid bodies , would have suffocated and extinguish'd the fire they inclosed . or if they could have dwelt together peaceably for a while , and not have invaded one another . yet . secondly , when the chaos began to separate , and the grossest parts of it to sink down , those that subsided first ( it being a fluid mass ) must have met at the very center of it , and the rest as they followed , would have gathered close about them ; and so constituting a central globe of earth , solid throughout , would have left no hollow space within it , for a receptacle of fire . or lastly , if there had been room left for fire at the center of the chaos , yet how should fire have conveyed it self into that place of reception , or by any means have come to dwell there ? . to make this out , it was necessary that the beginning of the chaos , or the way of its entring into the world , should have been declared by the theory . but it is not done : which seems to be a king of flaw in the hypothesis . it takes no notice of the cause of its origin , nor of the manner of its production ; whereby this difficulty might have been prevented or cleared up . and truly the way or manner of its rise or emergency into being , is necessary to be known for the explaining of other difficulties , as well as this . for upon it depends the solution of several phaenomena's , and very material ones . i name but one , the magnetism of the earth , as to the influence it has upon the index nauticus , or needle of the mariner's . compass ; the pointing or direction of which , is not so curious and surprizing ; but it is a useful in the affairs of human life . but then if the theorist , ( by setting his chaos , which came from we know not whence , in the room of an earth of a planetary origin , sunk down from its lucid or sidereous state ) takes away the supposed causes of this notable effect ; it will be incumbent on him to assign others , from whence it may be derived . in case it be objected , that the phaenom●non alledged is not satisfactorily accounted for in the cartesian way neither ; forasmuch as it stumbles in the formation of the striate particles , the main instrument of the work ; and that des-cartes himself dares not trust his own hypothesis , but professes the earth to have been otherwise produced than that determines ( as shall be noted by and by ) then i answer : as this is really nothing to us , so it will not excuse the theorist in the least , from clearing up the thing , according to those measures he hath taken by himself . it only shows , that the french philosophy ( of so great fame ) is too short to fathom the deeps of nature , and by no means quick-sighted enough to see to the bottom of her profound mysteries . though that philosophy may grow up apace , to so happy a perfection , as to be able to make a more full discovery of such secrets ; must needs be the desire of wife and good men. and so we return to the enquiry we were upon , viz. how fire should come to the center of the earth . which is a problem the more intricate and perplexed , in regard the theory takes no notice of the beginning of the chaos . it tells indeed that there was a chaos , and what kind of one it was ; but it gives no manner of account how it came into being . as to that the reader is left at a loss , and has nothing to guide him but his own conjectures . i shall guess therefore as fairly at the thing as i can ; and to me it seems probable , that this chaos should be produced one of these two ways ; either by creation , or by des-cartes his way for generating planets . thought it will not be over easie to make out , that it came into existence by either of them . . for first , to affirm that it dropt directly out of the hand of omnipotence , in way of creation ; is more than we find warranted . yea , we are taught something , and that from heaven , which is very different from it ; namely , that * in the beginning god created the earth . and if it was and earth that he created in the beginning , it could not be a chaos ; i mean such a chaos as the theory makes it : for that was no earth , nor had it any specific or distinct earth in it , as being † without distinction of elements . it is said indeed , gen. . . that the earth was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolation and emptiness . inanis & vacua , as the vulgar , doubly void . that is , of its designed order and comeliness , which were to beautifie it : and of all those creatures which were to furnish it , and dwell in it . and therefore , says the targum of ierusalem , it was empty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the children of men ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and void of every brute . and the prophet describing a most fearful destruction to come upon his people by wars ; through which their fruitful land was to become a wilderness , and men and birds were to be driven away : tells us in the very words of moses , that the earth was , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desolation and emptiness . and in this sense i confess , the earth ( in its original imperfection and nakedness ) was a chaos : an incultivate and uninhabited lump , rude and confused beyond all imagination , as having neither good from nor furniture in it . but then at the same time it was an earth too ; and so not such a chaos as the theory speaks it . i might also note ( would that be of weight ) that the praefix , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( genesis . . ) is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notificationis , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) scientific or demonstrative : and so it points at this earth , and intimates it was this very same earth at first , that it is now . the same as to substance and nature , though not as to condition and ornaments . and this earth , in the state of its primitive disorder and destitution , being the true mosaic chaos , created in the beginning ; we have no grounds to belive , that any other besides it was ever brought forth in way of creation . but we have good grounds to believe that no other was so produced ; inasmuch as to assert it , would be to set up phantasie against moses's authority ; and to bring presumptuous concei● , into competition with scripture . but grant the chaos to have been such as it is supposed to be , and that it entred into the world at the door of creation : yet here will be nothing to make it reasonable , very reasonable to admit fire at its center . for if there was a central fire in it , it must either be placed there supernaturally , by the immediate power of the almighty ; and we have no reason to admit it upon that score , because we are no where informed of it . or else it must be generated there in a natural way : and to admit that , would be against reason too . for how could a vast quantity of flame , be bred in the bowels of an earthy mass , consisting of the principles of all terrestrial bodies . and whoever shall peruse the first half of the fifth chapter of the english theory , will soon be satisfied that the chaos could consist of no a other but terrestrial principles . for there it appears that it was resolved into nothing but earth , air , water , and an unctious substance ; and so could be made up of nothing else . but fire is quite another thing ; and as different from those elements , as motion is from rest ; or the most celestial , from the most terrestrial matter ; and so in a course of nature could not possibly issue from them , and settle it self in the midst of them . . we will pass therefore to the second conjecture ; whither indeed the notion of central fire in the earth , does most directly lead us : and that is des-cartes's method , by which he supposeth planets to be formed . and according to that the earth was one of those fourteen , or fifteen stars , which once shined gloriously in their respective heavens hereabouts . but being all overgrown and incrusted with maculaes , except one , and losing their native strength and light ; were swallowed up by the vortex of the surviving luminary the sun : and so move round about him as so many satellites or waiters of his , to this day . though some of these planets also , that is , secundary ones , are at the same time carried about others of them . as the moon , about the earth ; the four medicean ones , about iupiter ; and saturn's three asseclae or pages ( according to cassinus . ) about him . and here there may seem to be a plausible account given , of the declared central constitution of the earth , or of a region of fire at the heart of it . for it having been all flame heretofore ; till it was overspread with maculaes ( boiled out of it self , and gendred first into a kind of foam or scum ; and afterwards into an harder substance ) it could not but retain much fiery matter in its central parts . and thus this fire would be sufficiently protected too , against dissipation and danger of extinction , from the moist and lumpish chaos which surrounded it , and at the time of its separation would have lain heavy upon it . for its coat of maculaes worn next it , being nealed by furious heat , and made into a strong arched vault ; there the inclosed element might have been secure ( as in a mighty granado-shell ) never to be annoyed by any manner of violence . but neither by this way , as quaint as it is , could the chaos step forth into being . for though it be a spruce and gay invention ; a contrivance rerely ingenious , and prettily coherent ; and withal so laudably instrumental to the trim solution of sundry difficulties , that some are ready to think 't is pity but it should be real : yet the very first dash of moses's pen , gives the philosophic bubble such a shrewd prick , as flals it into vanity and romance . in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . so that famous man told an illiterate people , as a faithful secretary of the most high ; with intention fully to instruct them as to the origin of the world , so far as comported with his majestick office and brevity . and if god in the beginning , at the very first , created the earth , and created it an earth ; how could it before that , be a chaos , such a chaos , as it is represented to have been ? and how could it possibly rise into such a chaos , out of a sun or ●ixt star ? and if god created the heavens at the same time when he created the earth ( as moses affirms ) for both , he says , were created in the beginning ) where could it have place to act the part of a fixed luminary , before it became a planet ? but therefore to take off this , and the like arguments , the story of the creation is supposed to relate to the earthly world only . how truly we shall a little consider in the close of this chapter . in the mean time , to go on with what we have in hand ; the illustrious des-cartes is on our side . he openly professes ( as was noted * above ) that he did not think the earth was made of a star , according to his principles ; but was brought forth by creation . and he judged thus , for the same reason , i am now urging . because , † hoc ●ides christians nos docet ; the christian faith teacheth us as much . so that he who shall teach otherwise , must ( in the opinion of that renowned philosopher ) broach a doctrine against divine revelation . and therefore what has been said that way , i hope will relish the better , as falling in with the sentiments of so exceeding worthy and judicious a person . and herein he acted like a true and noble christian philosopher indeed ; in that he made his hypothesis stoop to the religion of heaven , and would retrench his principles , rather than they should run counter to the sacred oracles . yea , the great man goes farther , and adds , hocque etiam ratio naturalis plane persuadet ; and this also ( that the world was created with all its perfection , so that there was in it a sun , and an earth , &c. ) natural reason does plainly perswade . a for if we attend to the mighty power of god , we cannot think that he ever made any thing that was not compleat in all points . and therefore he said before ; b and likewise in the earth there were not only the seeds of plants , but plants themselves ; nor were adam and eve brought forth infants , but made adult persons . and when it is a thing not only worthy of god , to make creatures perfect at first , but natural reason perswades that he actually did so : we must either conclude that the earth was made so ( as des-cartes does ) or else in our judging otherwise , vary from , or go against the dictate of common reason , as well as scripture . so that if the opinion , the professeed and openly avowed opinion , of the most eminent christian philosopher ; yea , of the admired author of the new philosophy ( the fittest person amongst philosophers to judge in the case ) will cast the scales for us ; we have it on our side , that the earth was not produced in his way ; or according to his hypothesis . . but then the premisses considered , to admit there is a fire at the center of the earth ; is so far from being very reasonable , as the theory holds ; that according to the fairest measures or accounts of things , which philosophy has given to the world as yet ; it rather appears to be very unreasonable . for however des-cartes's principles lean that way , and countenance the phaenomenon ; yet he himself , we see , not only doubts of his own hypothesis as to the earth's formation ; but has publickly declared that they who sail by his compass , must swim against the stream of natural reason . . and truly should the theory allow this central fire in the earth upon the account of its being produced in des-cartes's way ; it would quite overthrow its own hypothesis , by complying with his . for then the earth could never have been of an oval figure . nor could it have been without mountains , and without a sea. but its motion of inclination would have been from the first , because its axis would have been perpendicular to the plain of the ecliptic . and so its equinoctial position ( to name no more essentials of the theory ) would have been impossible . and whereas ( by the way ) the present site of the earth ( which might seem more convenient , were it placed so , as that its annual and diurnal motions might be both performed on parallel axes ) is made by * des-cartes , to depend upon the influence of the striate particles ; and both the formation and motion of them are shewed by a † learned philosophic pen , not to fall in with mechanical laws : this will be no check or difficulty upon us . for first , des-cartes might in that ( as he has done in some other things ) keep too strictly to the laws of matter and motion ; it being necessary in the works of nature very often to acknowledge the hand of providence . or else secondly , if there should be no such particles in being , and nothing of their power to hold the axis of the earth , in a parallelism to that of the world's aequator ; this would be but an advantage on our side . for how can the earth have a fire at its center as being produced in conformity to the cartesian principles , when , according to those principles , it could not be produced at all ? for put by the formation of these particles , and ( according to that philosophy ) there could be no planets , and so no earth : the matter of the third element being not to be made without those particles . . were i dispos'd to follow the rabbies , i might here go a little farther still . i might venture to lay hold of the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he created ; and make it do service upon their authority . for some of them bear us in hand , that it denotes , creation , in a rigorous sense ; that is , the making of a thing out of nothing . agreeable to which is the holy writer's notion of creation where he says , * that things which are seen , were not made of things that do appear . meaning ( as we read elsewhere ) that they were made , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , † out of nothing . which apply to the making of the earth ( as we very well may , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being the spirit 's word concerning it ) and it could not possibly be made out of a sun , or star , as the new philosophy would have it . for then ( say those doctors ) a more proper word should have express'd its production , viz , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which imports the making of a thing out of praeexistent matter . some slight ground for this seems to be laid in scripture ; and that in moses's cosmopoeia too . for it is said , gen. . . that god rested from all his work , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he created to make . where unless we allow a distinct signification , to the two words implying that he made some things out of nothing , and others out of prepared matter : we must charge the holy ghost with indecent tautology . though if we consider again that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is used promiscuously to express god's making of things ex praejacente materia , out of extant matter , as well as out of nothing , and that in the very story of the creation : we may well suspect that there was too much niceness in the masters , rather than such respective significations ; to be strictly and continually appropriated to the words . only as many as did thus criticize , have thereby fairly given their suffrage , for that truth which we contend for . that when god created the earth ( according to moses's narrative ) he educ'd it directly out of nothing . and so it cannot have a fire at the center of it , because it issu'd forth into being ; in des-cartes's way . . being unawares fallen upon that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he created to make : in reverence to the seventy ; i cannot but take one short step out of the way , to vindicate their translation of it . they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which he began to make . as if the work of creation had not then been consummate . but that could not be their meaning . for whereas we read in the beginning of the chapter ; the heavens and the earth , and all the host of them were finished : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they rendred by , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and they were compleated . they could only mean therefore , that god rested from all his work , which at any time , in the six precedent days , he had begvn to make . and so their sense is sound and true , though they keep not close to the ●●teral strictness of the original . and that they thought the creation was wholly perfected before the seventh day ; is apparent from that liberty they took , in translating the beginning of the second verse of the same chapter ; which perhaps is more culpable . for whereas the hebrew says , god had ended his work , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the seventh day : departing , quite from the proper signification of the word , they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , on the sixth day . as if they feared they should offend ( by stretching the work of creation too far ) in case they had turned it , god had ended his work on the seventh day . here was more than abundans cautela , too much caution used . especially if aben ezra's maxime be authentic , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * the finishing of a work or consummation of it , is not the work it self . i have noted this the rather , as containing in it a full consent , with what has been said touching the creation's being perfected in six days . for it makes it evident that the lxx . interpreters were throughly perswaded of this truth . and not only so , but forward to assert , and resolved to maintain it , even to an over acted care and blameable scrupulosity . . and here it will not be amiss , to reflect a little upon one notion of the theory 's ; which countenances the late production of the earth , or its rising long after the world was made ( perhaps out of a sun or star , as the scheme in the english theory , before the title page , plainly insinuates ) and that is , the limiting of moses's story of the creation , to this lower world : to the earth , that is to say , and the aereal heavens , and such things as were formed out of the chaos . thus in one place it confines it . * first that must be noted , that moses did not describe the first production of matter , and the rise of the universal world , but the formation of our world , that is of our earth , and our heaven , out of their chaos . and presently after ; † but the subject of moses's genesis is the chaos , and that most confus'd and earthly ; and the things made out of this chaos , and related to it as a center ; those properly belong to the mosaic world. and by and by , * we may not surmise therefore that when we and our world was made , entire nature must needs be made at the same time . and then again , † certain it is — that moses's world does not comprehend all the regions of the vniverse , nor all the orders of things , but those parts of nature which could be made of the earthly chaos . but then ( to say nothing of light , or the vehicle of it , neither of which were made out of the chaos ) let me ask ; what did god mean , when he said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † let there be lights ? i do not ask , what those lights were , that 's evident enough . nor where they were placed : for they were far above the aiery heaven , and so in the sense of the theory , could not belong to the earthly world. but the question is , what almighty god intended by , let there be lights . the theory * hints the meaning and effect thereof to be no more , than that those heavenly parts of the universe , were then first made conspicuous , or began to illighten the earth : and declares it demonstrable , that moses is so to be understood , as he has limited him . but then i must continue the enquiry , what does , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let there be , signify in other places of the same chapter where it occurrs so often ? why , it infallibly implys the production . of those things , to which it does respectively relate . it imports god's commanding or willing their existence ; and their immediate emergency into being , in obedience to his powerful will or mandate . this is obvious even to slightest notice . thus , when god said , let there be light : it follows immediately , and there was light. when god said , let there be a firmament : it follows , and god made a firmament . when god said , let the waters be gathered together into one place ( that so there might be dry land , and seas : ) it follows , it was so . when god said , let the earth bring forth grass , &c. it follows , and the earth brought forth grass , &c. when god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly : it follows , the waters brought forth abundantly . when god said , let the earth bring forth the living creature after his king , and cattel , &c. it follows , and god made the beast of the earth after his kind , and cattel , &c. and when the divine and omnipotent fiat did all-along carry such energy with it , as thus to produce other things ; as in the series of the story : can it in reason be thought to do less , when god pronounced , let there be lights ? to make this one fiat , differ in sense from the rest ; would be to depart from the rules of a just exposition . yet unless we force such a difference into it , it must signify more than the bare appearance of lights upon the clearing up of the chaos and the sky : that is , it must signify those lights were just then created . and this is farther evident thus ; in that god takes notice , express notice of the use of these luminaries , and therein particularly provides for the conspicuity and radiancy of them . † let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven , to give light vpon the earth . so that when he said , let there be lights , if he did not mean more than their becoming conspic●ous and shining out upon the earth ; the two expressions must be perfectly tautological . and yet if he intended any thing else , what could it be but their creation at that time ? especially when it follows hereupon , and god made two * great lights , and the stars also . and therefore that the work of creation which moses treats of , reaches farther than what belongs to the earthly world , and resulted from the chaos ; is not to be doubted . for he does not only mention the making of the lights in the firmament ( things as different from the terrestrial world , as they are distant from the same ) but describes them as fully , in reation to their uses and ends ; and so seems to handle them as profes●edly , as any piece of the lower creation whatever . in case it be objected , that the stars give little light upon the earth , which is a thing moses ascribes to the luminaries in heaven ; i answer , if they served not so eminently to that use , yet to the other he mentions , they were very serviceable and indispensibly necessary . for how could time have been measured out and divided into years and months , ( as it was in the first world ) without their help ? especially if there were no moon . and so i demand in the second place ; what does moses mean , by the host of the heavens being finished ? thus † the heavens were finished , and all the host of them . if he meant only the host of the heavens belonging to the earth ; what was the host of those heavens ? as for the air , it helped to constitute them , to make the very heavens themselves . as for clouds , rain , hail , snow , and the like meteors ; there could be none , says the theory . as for the moon , it might not then be in the earth's neighbourhood . as for that watry exhalation which abounded in the aereal heaven , it was but one single thing ; and so answers not the import of the word , host , it being of a plural signification . and what other host should belong to these heavens , except the fowls ? but then though in scripture they be called , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and in the chaldee * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the septuagint and in the new testament , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fowls of heaven : yet i do not remember that they are any where called , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the host of heaven that phrase in holy writ , does usually ( i think ) continually referr , either to the angels , or else to the lights of heaven . and of the latter of those at least , it must here be understood . but then none of these luminaries being formed out of the chaos ; and all of them but one , placed in remote or superiour heavens : hence it is evident , that the story of the creation , is not to be restrained to the terrestrial world. for that moses did not only speak of them , but of their being created then ; is manifest from the words before us . the heavens and the earth were finished , and all the host of them . where , if by the earth and its host , being finished ; we are to understand their being created at that time , as we certainly must : then are we bound to understand , that the heavens and their host , were so too ; because the same thing is equally predicated of both . it may be worth the while also to remark that passage in the . psalm . where the inspired man desiring that god might be glorified by means of the celestial luminaries ; crys out , praise ye him , sun and moon : praise him all ye stars . — for he commanded , and they were created . whence it is evident , that when god commanded , let there be lights ; this was not a command whereby they appeared only , but whereby they were created : and the moon with the rest was then commanded into being . i might also make a third demand , what is meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * breath of life , which god breathed into man ? no less than his very soul. so says † buxtorf ( and * others ) the hebrews by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand the rational and immortal soul , and therefore they swear by it . and when god created man did he not create this soul of his ? and so did not the work of creation , which moses writes of , comprehend more than those parts of nature , which were made of the earthly chaos . it may be not , will platonists say ; at least this instance is no good proof of it . for god might not create the souls of adam and eve just then , but send them down from a state of preexistence . but then ( not to ingage in a new controversie ) i reply in short ; if the humane souls came into their bodies out of a state of preexistence ; then when they descended , they were either pure from sin ; or they were not . if they were not pure , then how did god create man in his own image ? gen. . . or how did he make adam u●right ? eccles. . . where the rectitude spoken of , must be of a moral nature ; because ( as the context shows ) it is opposed to moral obliquity or perverseness . if they were pure , how could the infinitely gracious being ( whose name ( and so his nature ) is † merciful ; who * delighteth in mercy , and whose † mercy is over all his works ) deal so unkindly with his own most dear and spotless creatures ; as to thrust them down , or suffer them to fall , out of a state of aethereal light and happiness , into a state of darkness and stupid silence , out of which ( according to platonism ) they must come , to be incarnate , and so slide into a condition more forlorn still ? truly if the goodness and wisdom of heaven , so decreed and ordered things , as that the protoplast's ( and so their childern's ) innocent and immaculate spirits must be betrayed or precipitated into that state of inactivity ( which might last for millions of years of ages ) and then out of that squalid condition , sink into a worse ; into one full of inexpressible imperfections , miseries , and dangers , where innumerable multitudes lie under almost an inevitable necessity of falling into the torments of everlasting destruction : if this , i say , be the result of havens wise councils and decrees , preexistence will give no satisfaction to understanding men ; and do as little honour to the glorious god. it will rather be a scandal , than a key to providence . now that the souls of the first pair of mankind did preexist , it being improbable ; and that they should be ex traduce , it being impossible : what remains , but that god created the souls , when he made the bodies of those persons ? and so the work of creation , of which moses treats , is so far from being limitable to the lower world , or indeed to the higher material one either ; that it stretches out it self beyond them both , even to the spiritual one . and the host of the heavens , just now done with , intimates as much , expositors conclude , while they make it refer , not only to the lights , but the angels above . and perhaps something of this truth , that angels and humane souls came into being at the same time that the earth did ; may be wrapt up in the doctrine of the mundane egg. so orpheus , that anci●nt and famous divine amongst the heathens , who , according to * at henagoras , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is believed to theologize more truly than the rest : tells how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a superimmense egg being brought forth by hercules , that is , i think , by the divine power ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by attrition it brake into two parts : of the upper part of which , was made heaven ; and of the lower part , the earth . and then affirms , that heaven being mingled with earth , it produced both women , men and gods. by which he might shadow out that the intellectual or spiritual world , took its beginning , with the terrestrial one . but if he meant that souls or spirits sprung up out of matter , this will make the ancient philosophy so very mean and gross , as not to be at all regarded . chap. v. . the form of the earth excepted against , from the want of rivers . . notwithstanding the way devised to raise them , there would have been none in due time . . whereupon two great inconveniences must have ensued . . no rivers could have been before the flood . . the a chief thing for life is water , said the son of sirach . it is necessary and useful upon numberless accounts . so that that hypothesis which implies the earth was without ●●rings and rivers for many hundreds of years , ma● justly be rejected . and for this reason the supposed form of the earth cannot be maintained . for according to that , the element of water was fast shut up within the exteriour orb of the earth ; and how could it issue forth from thence , through so thick and solid a terrestrial concretion ? for that being made after the manner abovesaid , there could be no gaping chasms , nor indeed little clefts or chinks in it ; whereat the imprison'd waters might get out . or if there had been never such plenty of lesser cracks or larger rists in it ; yet the water being settled in that place , which was proper to its nature , there it would have staid by the innate law or principle of its gravity . unless by elastie power , protrusion , rarefaction , or the like , it were forced thence ; there it would have made its perpetual aboad , had the earth been never so open o● pervious , by reason of fissures or holes in the same . . but therefore exhalation is here made use of , and as a proper engin is set to do this mighty work , of fetching up rivers from the inaccessible pit. the operation , in short , was performed thus , the heat of the sun raising plenty of vapours , chiefly about the middle parts of the earth , out of the subterraneous deep ; they finding most liberty and easiest progress , toward north and south , directed their motion towards the poles of the earth . where , being condensed by the cold of those regions into rain , they descended in constant and exuberant distillations . and these distillations were the fountains that supplied the first world with rivers , running continually from the polar to the 〈◊〉 parts of the earth . but according to this hydrography , i shall endeavour , first , to make it out that there could be no rivers in due time : and secondly , that there could be none at all . and as for springs , the hypothesis does not pretend to any . first , it would have kept rivers too long , out of being . for according to that philosophy we have now to do with , the new made earth was composed of nothing but dust and an oily liquor . and it being of such a composition , and of a vast thickness ; it must needs be a considerable time before the sun could penetrate into the abyis under it , and draw up vapours from thence ; if it could do it at all in so copious a manner . secondly , the air being at first quite empty of vapours , it would take a great quantity of them to make the atmosphere of the earth , or to fill up that . to which add that every part of the earth about its aequator , being turned from the sun , every four and twenty hours , as long as it was obverted to it ; many of those vapours which were lifted up by day , would fall down again by night in the same latitude where they arose , without being dispersed to the polar regions . and thus the production of rivers would have been something retarded again . thirdly , the surface of the earth being endued with a wonderful feracity it must immediately put forth in an inconceiveable plenty of all sorts of vegetables : which from luxuriant pullulations , would strangely advance by most speedy and prodigious growths . and this superfetation of the virginal soil , proceeding from that extraordinary fruitfulness wherewith it was originally impregnated ; must farther hinder the early rise of rivers . not so much by consuming the matter of them , as another way . for the earth being thick beset with the flourishing apparatus , or goodly furniture of its own bringing forth ( such perhaps for abundance and excellency , as never crowned the most fertil country , or fruitful season since ) though dews or rains fell without intermission ; yet the waters would have stuck or hung so much , amongst the rank and matted tufts of grass , herbs , shrubs , &c. as not to have been able in a short space of time , to have gotten into streams , and constituted rivers of such a length , as they must have been of . fourthly , in case these waters had met with no checks , but had fallen immediately into such bodies , as would have forced their passage along in holding currents : yet then they must ●ave digged their own chanels too , being sure to find none till they made them . but considering how slowly they must have crept , as having no kind of precipices or steeper downfals to quicken them ; and how glib they must have been , by gliding gently upon the fat and viscous glebe ; and what a thick and thrummy and close wrought mantle the earth then wore : for them to have furrowed out deep and winding passages in that earth , must have been a good whiles work again , if fecible at all without the help of art. for lastly , it seems improbable that any rivers , without the help of that , should have been produced . the reason is this , the rains descending at all times , and in all places alike , a round the poles ; and the whole surface of the earth being more level and even , than any plain in the world ; the waters instead of parting into streams , would have spread over all the earth at once , in a general diffusion ; as any one may find by pouring water upon a globe . by which overflow , the primigenial soil ( which was a light and soft mold ) being suppled into a perfect moor or quagmire ; must have continued drowned , till by reducing the water into artificial canels , it could have been laid dry . but when there would have been hands for this great work ( god making mankind but in one single pair ) let them that please consider . and they may think also , where paradise could have been ; and what shift poor fowls , and beasts , yea , men themselves should have made ; till the earth , like a fen , thus under water , could have been cut and drained . . now so slow and late a production of rivers , would have drawn two great inconveniences after it . it would have clashed with scripture ; and charged providence with preposterousness . first , it would have clashed with scripture . for no sooner was man created and placed in paradise , but presently we read , that a river went out of eden to water the garden , gen. . . but had all rivers come into being , as the theory teaches , one could never have been there so early . nor did it go out of eden , by running through it only , but it arose there , say some , and as much is signified , they would perswade us , by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes its going out ( they tell us ) as a child goes out of the womb : and so the river must be born in eden , or spring up originally there . but the word is too commonly used , in a larger sense , both in the sacred and rabbinical writings , to have any such stress laid upon it . though most certain it is , that a river there was in eden ; and in order of divine story ( and so why not in order of time ? ) very early : even before the fall of adam , or the formation of eve. and which is farther remarkable , it was a large river too ; for it was parted into several heads , and able to feed most considerable streams . one of which , namely , euphrates , is reckoned among the biggest rivers in the world , to this day . but had it come by derivation from the polar fountains , it could never have been made so soon ; much less could it have been so large . and then besides , we read at the sixth verse of the same chapter , that god had not caused to rain upon the earth as yet ; and so that river could not possibly proceed from rains , that fell about the ends or poles of it . though ( by the way ) how that expression should countenance an impluvious state before the flood , as * the latin theory would ●ake it , is not so clear and easie to be understood . for , if we consider , there was no water upon that earth , but what fell in rain . and in two regions of that earth , there were rains continually descending : and they seem to have been of little other use , than for those rains to come down in . and to say , that by the earth there , was meant only regiones cult● , or the inhabited countries of the earth ; would be an unwarranted restriction of the scriptures sense . for in the story of the creation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the earth , is still put ( as we may observe ) for the entire globe of the earth , or at least for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the whole face of the ground , as gen. . . nor may it be said to be spoken ad captum vulgi , as to the common peoples apprehension . for surely they were not such dull souls , in the first world , but ( had nature stood in that order as the theory sets it ) they would have traced their rivers to their heads , many hundreds of years before the deluge ; and have been generally and throughly acquainted , with those rains by which they were raised . they would then have known as well , that rivers came from rains at the ends of the earth ; as we do now , that gold comes from guinea , or the distant indies . yea , the want of room ( they multiplying exceedingly ) would have forced them to find out the rainy regions , while they must have spread their colonies to the borders of them . secondly , it would tax the providence of heaven with praeposterousness . that is , in reference to one sort of animals , the fishes . for then they must have been brought into being , before there were fit receptacles for them . i confess , god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life , gen. . . which may seem to take off the objected inconvenience . for if so be that the waters were to bring forth fishes , before they existed , they could not lack agreeable mansions upon their first emergency into being : inasmuch as the same element was to afford them habitation , from whence they derived their production . but grant that the waters were to be productive of fishes . yet they might not be so prima vice , at the very first . or if they did then help towards producing them ; it could be only by yielding a rude kind of matter , out of which they might be formed : such as adam's rib was for the making of eve. and therefore though god said , at the twentieth verse , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life ; yet in the next verse it is said , that god created every living creature that moveth , which the waters brought forth abundantly . where , if , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , created , does not denote god's making them out of pure nothing , ( according to the rigid school-notion of creation ) yet it signifies ( which is the lowest sense of the word ) that he made them ex materia prorsus inhabili , out of matter of it self ( till the creator chang'd and disposed it ) altogether unfit for such an use . so that albeit the waters brought forth fishes , yet they did not do it , by any vis plastica , formative power of their own solely ; but so far as they afforded general ( and naturally inept ) materials for their composition . and , in some sense , the waters ( we know ) have brought forth fishes ever since . that is , by cherishing their spermata , or spawn committed to them . for they receiving those young and tender rudiments of life ( upon their first ejection or exclusion ) into their liquid wombs ; do nurse up the naked and imperfect seminals , through the several stages of an incompleat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or birth ; till they arrive at animation and maturity . but then this implys that the first fishes came into being by an extraordinary way ; and could not be produced as they are now ; because there were none before them , none to propagate them , by casting forth such spermatic principles . the aboriginal ones ( as i may call them ) for this very reason , must be made by god's immediate hand . though whether he made them out of nothing , or out of watry materials ; is all one as to our purpose . for either way it was absolutely necessary , that rivers should be extant as well as they ; that so they might be in a readiness to receive them . but now according to the hypothesis under consideration , the fishes of the two , must exist first , if the creation ( as i hope we have proved ) were perfected in six days . for they were made upon the fifth day , says moses , and how could there be rivers so timely according to this new contrivance ? the sun it self was created but just the day before . and so what a work must here be done , to make rivers coetaneous with the fish we speak of ? the beams of the sun must have pierced into the earth , and that so deep as to have reached the abyss . and from thence plenty of vapours must have been exhal'd into the air. and these vapours being upon the wing must have taken their flight as far as the polar regions . and there they must have been condensed into rains. and these rains must have made bodies of waters . and these bodies of waters must have been so great , as to have slowed along , through or against all obstacles . and these floods must have been so violent , as to have hollow'd out chan●ls for themselves all the way they went. and all this in one days space . otherwise there must have been no fishes made . or they must not have been made , when god says they were . or when they were made , there must have been no sutable receptacles for them . for as for the waters of the abyss , they could by no means serve for this use , as will appear in the sequel of our discourse . . but we are to pursue this matter farther yet . there could be no rivers in due time ; that has been evidenced . it is next to be proved that there could be none at all before the flood . how rivers were first made , we have been instructed , by rains descending from above . but whereabouts were these to fall ? in the frigid zones , or towards the poles , we are told ; and * the scheme representing them , shows as much . but then , methinks , they should have been in great danger , yea , under inavoidable necessity of freezing . for the sun ( according to this hypothesis ) moving always in the aequinoctial , before the flood ; he would constantly have been as remote from those raining regions , as he is now from us in the depth of winter , when he runs through capricorn ; or which is all one , when the earth traverseth the opposite sign . and there being then , no such clouds as now ; nor yet any seas , by their foggy vapours to mitigate the keenness of the air ; nor any hills or valleys , to cause a warmth by confused and irregular reflections of the sun-beams : the frosts within the polar circles , must needs have been exceeding sharp and terrible . and so the fountains that should have fed the whole world with water , would have been fast sealed up . fig : pag : thus , if the circle c d e f be divided into eight parts , by the parallel lines : we shall find that the two arches a and b , forming the circle into a moderate oval ; will at the points a and b , include such spaces between themselves and the sides of the circle c , and e , as shall be equal in breadth , to any two spaces betwixt the equidistant parallels . according to which proportions allowing the earth to be . miles in diameter ( though the true measure of it makes it more ) and then adding a fourth part to it , to render it oval , viz. . mile thickness : the earth at each pole , must bear above fourteen degrees latitude , or near nine hundred miles extent , more than if it had been exactly round . and that hypothesis which removes its poles so much farther from the sun ; must also allow the cold thereabouts to be proportionably augmented . and though in the hundred and fourth degree of latitude ( as we must call it ) on each side of the aequator ; that is , at the very poles , there might have been perpetual day ; the beams of the sun reaching a and b , the two poles of the supposed oval earth ; and illightning them continually : yet his heat in those places , must needs have been exceeding languid ; forasmuch as his orb would always have been half above , and half under the horizon to them . this will be clear from the scheme , if we do but conceive the line i d f to be the aequator , and the sun ever moving directly in it . for then it must divide him into two semidiameters g and h , at all times conspicuous at the poles respectively . that is to say , the semidiameter g , at the pole a ; and the semidiameter , h , at the pole b. but then the sun 's being thus halved , must of necessity be a mighty diminution of his influence , especially at so extraordinary a distance . it would have rendred his warmth more faint , than it is with us in the winter solsti●e , when he is just a setting , or half set . but our business is rather to enquire what the temperature of the air would have been , nearer to the polar circles ; where these rains are conceived to have fallen . now if these regions were as remote from the sun , as we are when he is farthest from us ; the air must have been every whit as freezing there , as it is with us in the very dead of winter . and that they were some degrees farther from the sun , i think we need not question . for when the sun is gone farthest from us , he reaches but to twenty three degrees and an half of southern latitude : which added to our fifty two of northern , the whole amounts but to seventy five and an half . but granting the earth to have been stretcht out to that length , to which its oval fashion would have extended it ; and the supposed dripping countries in the first world , might easily have been farther from the sun ( and consequently colder ) by several degrees . in case it be opposed , that nights with us , when the sun is retired to his utmost point in capricorn , are some hours longer , than they could be in the prediluvial state ; and that this might so far strengthen the cold , as to make it superior to what it could be in the wet regions we speak of : i answer , though our nights be somewhat longer ; yet we now dwell among clouds and seas , which do very much bemist and thicken the air ; and so make it warmer than it could be in the primitive world , where neither of them were to be ●ound at the rate we have them . and truly the perpetual absence of them , must needs have made the air more severely nipping in the frigid zones then , than it is now . especially they being shot out so far from the sun , by virtue of the oblong figure of the first earth . for even as the earth is now of a globular make ; the rains might have fallen in the frigid zones for ten degrees latitude , or six hundred miles together , and yet ( on the one side have been five degrees distant from the poles themselves ; and on the other side ) have been seventy five degrees distant from the sun in the aequinox ; which is as far ( to half a degree ) as he is ever remov'd from us . but then if we add better than fourteen degrees more to each pole , upon accompt of the earth's o●iformity ; the rains must be removed a great way farther from the sun still ( perhaps the whole fourteen degrees ) into climates most horridly cold and freezing . and though there would have been constant day about the very poles ; yet in this oval earth , there would have been as much night in the presumed rainy regions ; as in any other part of it whatever . for so we may observe , that those rays of the sun , which fell upon that earth , suppose at k and l ( whereabouts according to the hydrographic * scheme in the theory , we may imagine the rainy regions were ) could not illighten the opposite side of it at m and n , till such time as those points were turned to him , which they could not be sooner than the point f ; where it must have been of the biggest circumference , measuring it in way of longitude . indeed it must be owned that it is not the sun's distance in winter , which does only or chiefly make our climate so cold ; but the oblique falling of his beams on the earth . so that instead of his retreating southward forty seven degrees ( the whole space between the tropics ) were he at the time of his entring into cancer ( when he is nearest to us ) but elevated directly as many degrees , or removed only perpendicularly from us : our winter ( if any ) would be very moderate , because his beams would be reflected in the same angles as before . but his recession from us being in way of latitude or declination ; ●is rays must fall the more obliquely upon the earth . from which kind of incidence it comes to pass , that they rebound in obtuse angles , and the heat which should be caused by more direct reverberations , is impaired . as also many of his beams are reflected by the atmosphaere , another way , and come not at us at all . but then the sun being farther distant from the rainy regions in the praediluvian earth ; his beams must have fallen more obliquely upon them still ; and so the cold must have been greater there , because his influence was less . and therefore what can be thought , but that the dewy rains ( if any could have been in those parts ) should either in falling have been turned into hails ; or if they fell in water , have been frozen into ice . and so instead of streaming along and refreshing the earth , they must have stood congeled into mountains . especially if we consider that extremely cold hanging mists must have always incircled those regions above ; and so have shut out that sorry kind of influence , which might have been derived from the so remote and feeble sun. it may a little inforce what has been said , that all who have held ( with the theorist ) the torrid zone was uninhabitable by reason of heat ; ever believed that the frigid ones were so , through extremity of cold : as aristotle , cicero , strabo , mela , pliny , and others . to which add , that several navigators , attempting to find out a nearer course to china , have been frozen to death . yet they failed nothing so far northward , as the rainy regions in the oval earth , must have lain . though without question they chose the most seasonable time for the enterprize ; i mean when the sun was on this side of the aequator : where now he may advance ( though he could not do so ( says the theory ) before the flood ) twenty three degrees and an half ; which on earth we reckon about fourteen hundred miles . nor is what mercator remembers touching nov● zembla , impertinent to the case . here the air is very sharp , and the cold most vehement and intolerable . and again ; their tents are covered with whales skins , the cold being continually very sharp in these parts . their drink ( the geographer goes on ) is warm blood of wild beasts , or else ice water ; there are no rivers or springs , because the violence of the cold does so shut up the earth , that springs of waters cannot break forth . and where rivers cannot flow out of the earth for forst ; surely they cannot fall down from heaven . yet this island is extended but form the seventieth to the seventy sixth degree of northern latitude , or thereabouts . speed also informs us , that the isles of shetland in the deucalidonian sea , are ever covered with ice and snow . yet ptolomy placeth them but in the sixty third degree of latitude ; which is a good way on this side of the arctic circle . heylin also says of island , that it is a damnable cold country . and blaeu reports of the frigid zones , * perpetuum istic horridumque est frigus , there is perpetual and horrid cold. lastly , the theorist himself so far agrees with us , as to own that the frigid zones in the first earth were uninhabitable ; and that by reason of † cold , as well as moisture . chap. vi. . another exception against the hypothesis ; it would have drowned the world , though man had not sinned : or though mankind had been never so penitent . . which would have reflected upon providence : and imboldened the atheist . . we are taught from above , that * god brought in the flood upon the world of the vngodly . that is , it was a judicial act of his , and a just revenge which he took upon the impious . they had grievously offended and provoked his majesty , by very great and epidemical sins . for as we read in the sixth of genesis , the wickedness of man was great , and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually ; and all flesh had corrupted his way before him . whereupon the holy ghost speaking of god 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , after the manner of men ; declares that he was grieved at the heart to see this . and such was the grief he conceived , that he repented he made man. and so vehemently did he repent of making him , that he resolved to destroy him again . and not only him , but most of his fellow creatures with him , made in good measure for his use and benefit . and not only them but the earth it self in some sense , which had been the scene of his vanity and unrighteousness . and at length he decrees and proclaims aloud , that the instrument of this fearful general destruction , should be a deluge of water , gen. . . so that nothing can be more clear , than that the flood was a punishment of man's sins , and was design'd and sent on purpose to be so . the consequence from which is , that if man had not transgressed ; the earth had never been so lamentably drowned . but here then the truth of the hypothesis we are upon will come into question : in that it would have let in the flood upon the world , though it had not been ungodly ; though men had been never so innocent or upright . for if the earth had been formed , as is above supposed ; it must have been of the same structure that is there phansied . it must have held the same situation to the sun , and the same motio● about it . and the sun must have had the same power over the earth , and the same effects upon it . it must have pierced it as deep , and parched it as much , and ripened it as fast for disruption as ever . the time of which being once come , down it must have plunged into the abyss below ; and all living upon it , must have sunk and drowned together with it self . no natural causes could have had the least regard to moral integrity : but on they would have driven in their appointed courses , till they had come to the tragical event we speak of . so that had all the sons and daughters of men , been as pure and bright , as they could possibly have dropt out of the mint of creation ; they must still have perisht without pity or remedy . and so what would have become of the first covenant with adam , in case he had stood ? for by such a fatality as this in nature ( not unlike to absolute decree in divinity ) his posterity must have died , though he had not sinned , nor they neither . which would have been a strange and unparallel'd severity , and such as did never issue form god. tophet indeed is prepared of old ; and there are endless and intolerable torments beyond this life . but none need suffer them unless they please . for still we must be authors of our own misery if any be●ides us . and if our happiness chance to be blown up at last , the train that does it , must be laid and fired by our selves . but by this hypothesis , the race of mankind must have been wofully undone , though they never deserv'd it . for the primitive earth had that in it , which we have ; frailty in its very nature or constitution : and in the ordinary setled course of things , must necessarily have been dissolv'd and delug'd . . and if purest innocence must have fared thus ill ; repentance for certain should have sped no better . that i add for this reason . noah , we know , was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a preacher of righteousness . and that not only in a vocal way ; but by his religious and exemplary life . yea , more than so , his building the ark was a mechanical sermon to the world ; and perhaps of an hundred and twenty years long . for in the same * chapter where god denounc'd the sentence of inundation , and commanded noah to prepare the ark ; he dete●min●d and declar'd , that the days of man ( that is , before the flood was to come ) shall be an hundred and twenty years . and such a way of preaching , and of such a continuance ; in reason should have wrought with that stubborn age , beyond the most elaborate and pathetic discourses . and god seems to have expected no less . for because it did not , his holy spirit has clapt a black brand upon them , and markt them out for incorrigible and ungracious wretches . who were disobedient in the days of noah , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , while the ark was a preparing . disobedience in that juncture , under such a warning against it , and motive to the contrary : was such a disobedience , as for circumstances of aggravation could hardly be parallell'd in that world. it deserv'd to be recorded as a standing testimony against them that were guilty of it , and as an eternal monument of their base unworthiness . for it was no other than the fruit of contumacious refractoriness , and bespeaks them arrived at the height of obstinacy , and a most consummate vi●iousness . but put case the sermons of this mighty preacher , had wrought so kindly and effectually , as to have turned mens disobedience into true repentance : would this have altered the state of nature , or put a stop to its fatal tendencies ? not in the least measure . still the world would have stood in its original frame ; and a change in the minds and manners of people , would have made none in the physical course of things . so that unless god had interpos'd and by his immediate hand , given a timely check to natures wheels ; they would have run directly into this watry ruine , and what should have kept the sincerest penitents out of it ? for to suppose that god ingaged so far , as to support the earth by strength of miracle , to secure it from the flood ; would be as great a flaw in the philosophy of this new hypothesis ; * as it is thought to be in the divinity of the old one , to hold the deluge was caused by creation of waters , and then dried up by annihilation of the same . . and yet if omnipotence had not miraculously upheld the earth , ) supposing its inhabitants righteous or penitent ) it would have fallen heavy upon god himself . so heavy , as to have crusht the reputation of his providence extremely . for it would have recoiled so rudely and violently upon its goodness ; and so shamefully eclipsed and blasted its justice : as to have brought its very being into question . and we may certainly conclude , that an hypothesis of this nature , which would weigh out the portion of men , with so inequal a ballance , as to make ruine the lot of a righteous or repenting world ; instead of gagging or silencing the pragmatical atheist , by a more clever explication of the deluge : would open his mouth wider , and but oil his virulent and sawcy tongue , to run more glibly and rantingly on , in his tremendous way of extravagance . for what can m●re encourage so wicked a person , than to disparage and lessen god's goodness and equity ? and how can those at●ributes be more disgraced and diminished ( in the judgment of an atheist ) than by supposing that in the works of his providence ( through the whole series of which he could look with a clear and easy prospect ; and so nothing of oversight could mingle with them ) he laid a cruel train of inavoidable death , for millions of his innocent or penitent creatures . how little this would have comported with those his illustrious and cardinal properties , and how much it would have blemisht and dishonored them ; we may guess from hence : in that when he was minded to overthrow sodom , and in his holy agents was come down from heaven on purpose to do it ; he would have spar'd it for the sake of ten righteous persons . and truly if he had destroyed the righteous with the wicked ; he must have done a thing ( in the sense of a●raham ) not at all agreeable , to the integrity of the judge of all the earth . ( especially in those ages , when spiritual encouragements to god's service , and recompences of it , being not so frequently dispensed ; and the eternal ones not so fully revealed : the divine favour was more commonly measured and expressed to men , by temporal and outward blessings and deliverances . ) and therefore that he abhorred such inequitable dealings , he was pleased to evidence by the contrary procedure . for when he consumed that accursed town , he saved just lot by the ministery of angels . nor could he endure that n●ah should perish , being righteous ; but took particular care for his wonderfull preservation , when the whole world , besides him , and his family , was drowned . but then so much less reason there is , to admit this hypothesis ; for that it makes the earth ( at first ) of such a form ; and puts nature into such a frame ; as would have involv'd mankind in most horrid destruction . and not only so , but moreover makes providence accessary to their perdition ; yea , the principal and sole contriver of it , by making the place of their habitation , a perfect trap to vast multitudes of them : whereby ( without a miracle ) they must certainly have been taken and quite undone , had they been never so pure , or never so penitent . should it be suggested , that god foresaw the impiety and incorrigibleness of men ; and so in way of just judgment , ordered nature , and timed the earth's dissolution accordingly : this would give little satisfaction to the atheist ( the silencing of whose cavils the theory seems to aim at . ) for he would take it at best , but for a smooth evasion , or a slim subterfuge ; or for a sorry kind of fetch to help the hypothesis at a dead lift . nor need we doubt but a lucian or an hobbs , would raise as considerable objections against this new way of explaining the flood , as against the old one . and would insist as tenaciously upon that particular now mentioned , and cavil as much , and as justly at it ; as at the difficulty or unsolvableness of any single phaenomenon , in the way of its usual explication . chap. vii . . saint peter's words alledged in favour of the hypothesis ; inapplicable to that purpose . . wherein the stress of them seems to lie . . seven other allegations out of scripture , of no force ; . as being figurative , and so not argumentative . . which tycho brache not minding , it gave occasion to his systeme . . to countenance the formation and structure of the earth aforesaid , the ingenious theorist has call'd in several divine authorities . and it being attempted to authenticate the hypothesis , by allegations of that nature ; it is but necessary that we take notice of them , and show their invalidity . the first is cited out of the second epistle of s. peter , and runs thus . * for this they are willingly ignorant of , that by the word of god , the heavens were of old , and the earth standing out of the water , and in the water ; whereby the world that then was , being over●lowed with water , perisht . but the heavens and the earth that are now , by the same word are kept in store , reserv'd unto fire against the day of judgment . where , it is thought , † the apostle doth plainly intimate some difference , that was between the old world , and our present world , in their form or constitution ; by reason of which difference that was subject to perish by a deluge , as this is subject to perish by con●lagration . to wind his words into a favourable compliance with this sense , some specious * offers are made . but instead of applying answers to each of them in particular ; we may shorten our work by obviating them with one general observation touching the paragraph , which is this : there is a clause in it , that will by no means suffer it to be interpreted the theorist's way . namely , this they are willingly ignorant of . and of what were they thus ignorant ? why , of the nature of the first heavens and earth , and of the alterations that befel them at the time of the flood . so we are assured . † the apostle tells them , that they are willingly ignorant of the first constitution of the heavens and the earth , and of that change and dissolution which happen'd to them in the deluge . but if st. peter meant these things , i dare boldly say , that his charge was too smart and heavy upon the men ; yea , false and unreasonable . for though ignorant of the things they might well be ; yet how could they be willingly ignorant of them ? must not that be hard to make out ? let us try , but as to one of the mentioned heads , the form of the earth . by what means should they have come to the knowledge of that , though they would never so fain have done it ? god had not reveled it , nor had man apprehended it . and how then could their ignorance in the case be wilfull ? in what books was this form of the earth recorded ? or what lively tokens or monuments were there of it ? whence should they have gathered it ? or where should they have met with intelligence concerning it ? to say that hills and valleys , and mountains and rocks ; that the clifts of the sea , and its deeps and chanels ; that the rugged and broken surface of the ground , or any thing of that nature , might have informed them of it : would be but wild and extravagant talk . for besides that these scoffers whom the apostle reproves , had no reason to believe , that the aforesaid phaenomenaes were marks or footsteps of a ruinated earth : so if by chance they had phansied them such , they might still have been far from a right idaea of its supposed primitive frame . a man may view and review an heap of rubbish , which was once an house , very long and often ; and yet be never the more able at last , to pronounce what model the fabric was of . in like manner , the most curious surveys and reiterated observations of things , in that confused posture wherein the earth presents them to the eye ; could never have led those the apostle disputes against , into a right apprehension of this its figure , which the theory makes it of before the flood . had there been fair indications of such a form , why did they not direct men into an earlier discovery thereof ? for touching it we find not one word in antiquity . yet mountains , and rocks , and the like deformities in nature ( as we are taught to think them ) were altogether as visible ever since the deluge , as they are now . and when none of the most searching prying minds ; none of the most busy , intelligent speculators ; were ever so quick-sighted as to decry this form of the earth ; from the aforesaid ( imagined ) irregularities , or any other hints or characters of it : it was certainly a thing too obscure , to fall under the notice of those heretical mockers , deservedly reprehended by the holy ghost . but then how could he rebuke them , for being wilfully ignorant of it , it being so very dark a mystery ? even by the theorist's own confession , this doctrine was always abstruse , and such as the wisest * philosophers did never hit upon . they never knew of a paradisiacal earth themselves , nor did they ever speak any thing of it to others . and when it was thus secret , and hidden from all learned men ; why should the holy spirit ( i say ) tax these scorners , with wilfull ignorance , for not understanding it ? who , however they might abound with conceited knowledge ( as the name , gnostics , which they arrogated to themselves , imports ) were but pi●iful sciolists . † the theory also affirms , that paradise and the vniversal flood , were by length of time , and the changed face of nature , so much obscured : that if holy story had not minded us of them , we should not only not have known them , but never have thought of them . and if the flood had been utterly buried out of mind , and might never have come into the thoughts of men , if scripture had not kept it in memory : then what hope of understanding , that it was occasioned by such a form or fabric of the earth , as the theory has invented ; unless the same scripture minds us of that also ? but because it does not , how could the persons whom s. peter reproves , be wilfully ignorant of the phaenomenon ? wilfull ignorance , is that which god blames , and which is really faulty upon our account : which we carelessly rest in when we might come out of . when men might have means of knowledge , but will not seek them ; or when they actually have them , but will not use them ; but in the midst of proper helps to science , sit down and chuse to acquiesce in ignorance ; this is wilfull and affected . but these were not the circumstances of those , whom we find to have been objects of the apostolical censure . they were so far from standing fair for acquaintance with this structure of the earth , or from being in a probable way to the knowledge of it ; that they were next door to an utter impossibility of ever attaining it , supposing it had been real . for their minds were set ( i may say ) with a contrary biass , and it was morally necessary that they should be drawn the other way . for the whole world was of that judgment , it is of now , and which these mockers were of then : and why should they differ from all people then alive , or that ever lived ? it hath been generally thought or presum'd ( says the * theory ) that the world before the flood , was of the same form or constitution with the present world. and how could they help swimming with the general stream ? yea , which is more , the opinion was as strong , as it was general ; and stood very firmly in mens apprehensions , they thinking it built upon scripture grounds . for that speaks of seas created in the beginning , and of mountains covered with water in the deluge . and all agreeing , that the seas mentioned by moses , were no other than those which are now extant ; and that the mountains so covered , were praeexistent to the flood : the present face of things , which is † presumed of good use to evince the earth was of another form once ; became a great argument to perswade these scorners , that it was always of the form which it now bears ; and a means to fix them in that perswasion . and when their condition was such , as to be destitute of the knowledge of the form of the earth ; and the most likely means they had to help them to it , would rather have run them upon the contrary belief , and rivetted them fast in it ; there could be no reason why they should be charged with wilfull ignorance of the thing . and if they could not upon just grounds be charged . with wilfull ignorance of the form of the earth ; then neither with the like ignorance of the constitution of the heavens , and of the change and dissolution that happened to either : they being things as much in the dark , and as far removed out of the way of their notice . let us but just point at each of them . the whole superficies of the terrestrial globe was entire and continued , smooth and even , regular and level . no lake nor sea , no rock nor island , no hill nor dale , was any where upon it . but as the earth was made of two distinct orbs ; so betwixt its outward orb of an oval figure , and that within ; was the great body of the waters lodg'd and shut up so close , as to hold no commerce with the open air. such in gross was the form and constitution of the first earth . the sun piercing through the outward orb of the earth , drew up ( chiefly about the middle parts of it ) great quantities of vapours , out of the abyss . which vapours directing their courses in the air , from the aequinoctial to the polar regions ; they were there condensed into rains , to furnish the world with rivers . but these streams of exhalations flowing continually through the aereal regions ; made them exceeding watry . and such in general was the form or constitution of the heavens . the sun moving always in the aequinoctial , the earth grew extremely dry about the aequator , and full of chaps ; which rendred it more weak and brittle in its exterior orb. which orb being fill'd with vapours within , raised by the penetrating heat of the sun , was still more apt to be blown up and broken . at length being able to hold no longer , it flew in pieces , and down it fell into the deep beneath , sinking till it rested on the orb below . such in short , was the earth's dissolution . by the fall of that into the waters under it , they were forced violently to fly up aloft ; and surging and raging in a tumultuous manner , the great and fatal deluge was caused . hence also seas and lakes arose , while the watry element abating of its fury , quietly retired into such hollownesses as were ready to receive it . and whereas the external orb of earth , was so much bigger than that within , as to contain the whole mass of water in its cavity ; and so could not possibly surround and sit close to the inward lesser one , in an orbicular fashion about it ; but several of its parts in several places , were fain to stand erect inclining , &c. these various prominencies of different sizes , shapes , and situations ; made mountains and rocks of all sorts . but the outward earth being thus dissolved , and fallen as low into the waters as it could ; it was no more liable to a general flood , but was certainly put past that danger for ever . and thus its form and constitution was altered . now the sun also running a new course about the earth , by reason she had changed her old position ; and the abyss being disordered by the disruption of the earth , and its falling into it : vapours could no longer be drawn out from thence as they used to be , nor fill the aereal channels with store of exhalations . and so they growing dry , the watry complexion of the heavens perish'd ; and their constitution was changed also . such in brief ( so far as we are concern'd to note at present ) was the form and constitution of the heavens and the earth ; and such the changes they both underwent , as the theory teaches . if therefore the parties s. peter reproves , were blamed for not knowing the first constitution of the heavens and the earth , and that change and dissolution which happened to them in the deluge ; their ignorance of those particulars rehearsed must be the summ of their charge . but then all those things being perfectly new ; such as neither pythagoras , nor plato , nor aristotle , nor zeno , nor any philosophers of any sect or age , did understand and declare : how can it be thought that silly gnostics or pseudo-christians could be acquainted with them ? and yet if they could not , then neither could they be condemned of wilfull ignorance of them ; nor can the text be applied to the theory's hypothesis . . but if this were not s. peter's drift ; if it were not his intent to rebuke them for their ignorance of these things ; what then could be the scope of his correption ? i answer . though he could not give them this gird for their being ignorant of the flood ; yet he might do it properly for their being ignorant of the chief cause of it . ignorant of the flood they could not be , it was a thing so well known , and so generally received in the church . that the heavens were of old , and the earth standing out of the water and in the water ; and that in their standing thus , the then world was overflowed with water , and perished : they could not be chargeable with ignorance of this . but the stress or emphasis of the apostles charge lies here , that they were ignorant of its being done by the word of god. the heavens were of old , says he , and the earth standing out of the water , and in the water , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the word of god. and then it follows , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by which ( that is , by which situation , and by which word of god causing it ) the world that then was being overflowed with water , perished . so that this seems to have been their fault , that they had not a true notion of the principal cause of the deluge . but through their own heedlesness , were much in the dark and mightily to seek as to that particular . they did not know , because they would not ; that god brought it in by the word of his power ; or in pursuance of that righteous decretory sentence , denounced by him , gen. . they were of opinion ( as others have been ) that the flood was a meer casual thing ; and that the hand of god was no otherwise in it , than in the purest contingent calamities . or else that it proceeded wholly from nature and second causes ; as from the conjunction and influence of watry planets . however they might think it was of larger extent , and longer duration ; they might ascribe it to no higher cause , than some do the flood of ogyges , that happened in arcadia ; or that of deucalion , which drowned thessaly . concerning the latter of which , lucan thus phansied . deucalioneos fudisset aquarius imbres . aquarius 't was that made those rains pour down , which in deucalion's time the earth did drown . he plainly imputed it to astral efficiency , or the force of the heavenly constellations . now if these men thought thus vainly of the general innundation ; and knew it not to be the effect of the special providence of god : they were grossly ignorant in the case , and this their ignorance was grievous wilfull , and deserved the holy reproof they met with . for had they but consulted the story of it , and considered what moses says concerning it ; they would soon have perceived , it was the direful issue of divine power and justice , and came not by the influence of the s●ars , but by the appointment of the deity . and that to condemn this very ignorance , was the real meaning of s. peter seems to be clear from its agreeableness to his aim or intention . which was to prove the world's conflagration upon perverse men who question'd the same , and disputed against it by this argument , that all things continued as they were from the beginning ( whereby they hardned themselves against the doctrine of the conflagration , in which the apostle threatned them with a dismal catastrophe . ) now how does the apostle answer and take off this ? why by fetching a compass about in his discourse , and by telling them ( though not in these words , ) to this purpose : that when the world was to be drowned , all things continued then as they were from the beginning ; and nature did not signify it beforehand , by any sensible observable changes , because the work was not to be naturally done , but by the word of god commanding and causing it : which to be ignorant of , was their great fault . and therefore that in their time , all things continued as they were from the beginning , ought to be no reason to them , that the world shall not be burned ; because it is not to be expected , that nature should foreshow it by any pr●vious alterations : inas much as this burning , is no more to be effected in a natural way , than the deluge was ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the same word which drowned the world , and by which the heavens and the earth which are now , are reserved unto fire . were it necessary in the least , after what has been said ; it might here be noted , that the words are very capable of , and might properly be expounded to another sense . this they are willingly ignorant of : that is , they are willingly mindless or forgetfull of it . for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may signify ( which in the case the apostle speaks to , must be an hainous fault , and worthy of reprehension ) and therefore a thing forgotten , is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and isocrates commending the actions of hercules and theseus ; says they were such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. as no time could bring into oblivion , or blot out of remembrance . tho' still there would be as little reason to charge these heretics , with wilfull forgetfulness of those things that the theory would make the text point at ; as there is to check them for wilfull ignorance of the same . . besides this of s. peter , * other places of scripture seem manifestly to describe this same ( new ) form of the abyss with the earth above it ; as we are told . but as all those places may as well or better be applied to the earth in its present form ; so they can hardly be interpreted in favour of this other , without some kind of violence or absurdity . the first occurrs psal. . . he hath founded it ( the earth ) upon the seas , and established it upon the floods . where , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred , upon , does as properly signify , by , and so , he founded it by the seas , and established it by the floods . which david might the rather note , because so much of palestine , ( where he lived ) lay along by the mediterranean . though when our learned translators turned the word upon ; they made it speak most true english. for where land lies by the sea , we commonly say , it lies upon it . but then on the other side , the earth , according to its first ( imagined ) form , could in strictness be founded neither upon the seas , nor yet by them ; because no seas were then in being , but only an abyss . should it be answered , that the abyss is here called seas , by a prolepsis ; i rejoin : those seas must then be called , floods , by another prole●sis . and so the advantage will be cast on our side . for in respect of the present form of the earth , the words may be expounded most naturally , without a figure : but in reference to the other form , they must not only be strained up to a figure , but that figure must be twice made use of . and which is very considerable , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred , floods ; does signify rivers ; and so the lxx , and vulgar do both render it . and though that sense falls in most properly with the present form of the earth , as it is every where extended by rivers ; yet it can by no means hold with its first form , supposing it established upon the abyss : for in that ( allowing there were floods ) there could be no rivers . as to the next place , psal. . . who stretched out the earth above the waters , we need say no more than has been said already . it may as well be read juxta aquas , by the waters , as , super aquas , above the waters . the third pla●e is , psal. . . he gathered the waters of the sea as in a bagg , he layeth up the abysses in storehouses . which , says the theory , * answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the abyss which it had before the deluge , inclosed within the vault of the earth , as in a bagg or in a store-house . but i say it sutes the present form of the earth as well as it does the first : only this difference . the bagg and st●re-houses , supposed to be in the first earth , were shut ; but in this , they are open . yea , it sutes it much better upon two accounts . for in the earth as it is now , there are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , many treasuries or storehouses of waters ( according to the text ) which has the word in the plural number . whereas in the first earth , there could be but one , before the disruption . and then the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rendred , as in a b●g , should be rendred , as on an heap , as it is in the english. the theory indeed faults that reddition , as not making a a true sense . but in all likelihood , our translators were in the right ; for , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly is an heap . and though , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a bag , yet ( as b buxtorf notes ) where it is written without aleph , it is not found in that signification ; but signifies an heap . and so says c fagius ; and the same says d masius . and therefore e schindler renders , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in this very place , tanquam ●umulum , as an heap . and so does f bithnor , adding , that whereas the targum , and lxx . render it , a bag , it was because they read it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( coming of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , motion ; and so being quasi rei motae in unum congregatio , the gathering of a thing moved into one ) he will have to signifie an heap . and whereas the theory alleges , that the vulgate , septuagint , &c. render the word g in a bag , or by terms equivalent ; yet granting that to be the only proper reddition , it would make nothing at all to the theorist's purpose ; another place of scripture plainly defeats it . for psal. . . we read in the septuagint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and in the vulgar , statuit aquas quasi in utre . he set the waters as in a bag. which not only makes the forecited clause of the . psalm , to be no manner of evidence of the seas being inclosed at first ; but moreover makes it a proof of the clean contrary . for it speaks of the red-sea , and says it was in a bag , as much as the fore-quoted text can possibly be made to say , that the abyss or proleptic sea was so : and yet at the same time it was not only open , ( as other seas are now ) but much more open than ever . for it speaks of it at that very time when israel passed through it , as the same verse testifies . and whereas the theorist notes , that the oriental versions and paraphrase , render the word ( as he does ) in a bag : i may affirm that the targum , syriac , arabic , &c. render it so in the place i have alleged . but how little their authorities will countenance his exposition of the psalmist's words which he cites ; and how little that exposition will help his hypothesis of the form of the earth ; may appear from the psalmist's words that i have cited . which if they had been considered , might have damped that thought , which concludes the paragraph belonging to that place of scripture we have now spoken to . the thought is thus expressed by the theory , * i think it cannot but be acknowledged , that those passages which we have instanced in , are more fairly and aptly understood of the ancient form of the sea , or the abyss , as it was enclosed within the earth ; than of the present form of it in an open chanel . but then that passage in psal. . . ( being parallel to psal. . . so far as we are concerned in it ) must be acknowledged to be most fairly and aptly understood , of the red seas being enclosed within the earth , when moses and the hebrews marched through it : and could that be ? the next place is iob . . he stretcheth out the north over the empty places , and hangeth the earth upon nothing . the same is as true of the south also ; but the good man living in this hemisphere , the north was the nearer and more obvious of the two . and what could be mor● agreeable to the present earth ? for it having no visible sensible thing under it or about it , to shoar it up or support it ; it may very well seem in common apprehension ; and be said in the vulgar way of speaking , to be stretcht out upon emptiness , and hanged upon nothing . and so the sun stood still upon gibeon , and the moon in the valley of ajalon : though the places were without the tropic . and however iob in this expression , might accommodate himself to the ordinary phancy and speech of men , while he represents the earth as extended and pendent over an immense vacuity ; yet ( to cry quit with the theory , which makes an illiterate apostle , a profound philosopher ; let me say ) in the truth of the notion he was a perfect platonist . for in this matter ( whensoever he lived ) he fully agrees with plato's doctrine . for he also conceived the earth to ●e hanged upon nothing , as having no other prop to sustain it , but it s own figure and equiponderancy ; by which it swims evenly in the element about it . in testimony of this ( and so of the mutual concent betwixt iob and him ) let this passage out of his phaedo speak . a i am perswaded that if the earth be but in the midst of the heavens , it needs not the air , nor any other help of the like nature , to keep it from falling . but that a general equality of the heaven in it self , and an even-poizedness of the earth , is sufficient . for an equilibrious thing placed in a sutable ( or similar ) medium , will not sway any way little or much ; but keeping it self evenly ( ballanced ) is free from inclination . but in this new hypothesis , io●'s notion can have no place . for to say , the earth , according to that , was stretcht out upon emptiness , and hanged upon nothing ; would be notoriously false . for the theory teaches that it * rise upon the face of the chaos ; † and could not have been formed unless by a concretion upon the face of the waters : and that it had the * mass of waters as a basis or foundation to rest upon . and so the antediluvian earth was no more stretcht out upon emptiness , and hang'd upon nothing ; than an arch is , when it is built upon its center . and it was but just now that the theory contended from that passage in the . psalm , that it was founded upon the seas , and established upon the floods . but how then could it be stretched out upon emptiness and hanged upon nothing ? or how can the two texts , in the theory's sense , be reconciled ? in case it be answered , that though the earth at the very first was not stretcht out upon emptiness , and hanged upon nothing ; yet in process of time it was so , when the abyss was sunk in some measure , by reason of the huge quantity of waters the sun had drawn out of it ; and so the earth sat hollow about it : i reply in short , iob for certain meant no other than this present earth : for in the very next verse , he speaks of thick clouds in which waters were bound up , and they not rent . and such clouds ( according to the the●ry ) there could never be , till the first earth was dissolved . a fifth place is iob . , , . where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth ? declare , if thou hast understanding . who hath laid the measures . thereof , if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon it ? whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner stone thereof ? this likewise answers as properly , and perhaps more fully , to the present real form of the earth ; than to the other fictitious one . for god is here said to have laid the foundations of it . which surely he may as properly be supposed to have done , in case he produced it by immediate creation ; as if there had been only matter and motion , and the power of gravity and levity in the architecture of it ; and so its formation had been meerly mechanical , as the ●heory makes it . and then the measures and the line that are here mentioned , do only imply that the earth was made with fitting acc●racy ; of necessary and convenient , of regular and comely dimensions and proportions . and may not this earth , in those regards be allowed to vie with that supposititious one und●r debate ? yea , does it not in some things excel it ? for though it has not the very same elegancies , which that ear●h had ; yet it has other imbellishments equal to them , if not beyond them . indeed it has not that smoothness and entireness , which is pretended to have been in the first earth . but then ( which is more considerable ) it has the raised work , of hills ; the embossings , of mountains ; the enamellings , of lesser seas ; the open-work , of vast oceans ; and the fret-work , of rocks . to say nothing of those stately curtains over-head ( wanting heretofore ) which are frequently drawn and ●lung open upon occasion ; and sometimes curiously wrought and most richly gilt , even to admiration ; far surpassing the goodliest landskips , that ever were or can be painted : i mean the clouds , which though they be things distinct from the earth , yet having their beginning from the earth ; and from this earth too ( according to the theory ) in opposition to the other ; are no improper instance of its out-vying it . but , not to run out into endless particulars , this earth may compare with , and be thought to out-go that imaginary one , in two general and chief things , comelin●ss , and vsefulness . first , in comeliness ; for irregularities many times make a sort of ornaments ; and those ruggednesses and inequalities that are void of all exactness and order , do often pass for beauties or a kind of prettiness . but then more especially may they do so in the earth , whose natural pulchritude is made up of such things as art would call rudenesses ; and consists in asymetries and a wild variety . and yet for an earth , it is most beautiful and comely still . thus an urchin may be handsom in his kind , though he has not the beauty of a dog ; and a dog , though he has not the beauty of an horse ; and an horse , though he has not the beauty of a man. and so is this earth , though it has not the beauty of ●iner things in it , but only that which is peculiar to it self . for as the beauty of the sun , lies in brightness and glory ; and the beauty of the sky , in clearness and serenity ; so the beauty of the earth , which is a different thing , does and must needs lie in very different instances , namely , in seas and lakes , and islands and continents ; in flats and prominencies , and plains and protuberancies , and hollownesses and convexities ; in smooth and spacious levels in some places , and hills and mountainous roughnesses in others . whose careless diversifications , and interchangeable mixtures , as they mutually set off one another ; so they all conspire to adorn the earth : insomuch that to suppose it of the prediluvian from , would be rather to detract from its measures , than improve them . yea , it would be in a manner to make it no earth , or at least not so perfect a one as it is . for as we can have no camels without bunches ; nor mules without hairs ; nor fowls without feathers ; or if we could , they would be but the more imperfect : so were the earth abstracted from its aforesaid appendages , however it might have the more uniformity in it , yet as an earth , it would have the less comeliness . somewhat to inforce this , were a man to contrive a prospect for himself , we may be sure he would not have it all of a piece , or alike throughout : but would have it cast into swamps and hillocks , bottoms and gibbosities , evennesses and asperities ; yea , into seas and ilets , and rocks , if it could be ; and so it would be an image , not of the primitive , but present earth . a petty argument to prove , that there is something of perfection , or at least of pleasingness , in this earth's disorder ( if we may call it so ) and that it is fitter to gratifie its principal inhabitants ( and so far ) better in it self , than if it had been regular and undiversified . and the truth is , several of those appearances , which we are apt to call rude , confused and uncouth ; and to count but blemishes , scars and deformities ; are commonly so well placed and suted to one another , as to become very taking in artificial draughts , and a kind of natural landskips . and however the theorist does sometimes disparage the mountainous parts of the earth at such a rate , as if they had been wholly unworthy of the care of nature , and she had scorned to put her hand to the work of their ●ormation ( and indeed his hypothesis makes them nothing but ruines : ) yet another while , when the ingenious man is pleased to turn the stream of his eloquence the contrary way ; he represents them ( though certainly the most horrid visible pieces of nature ) as exceeding a grateful to beholders . yea , he makes this very earth of ours , and that in the hideously amazing and gastly cragginess of its mountains , to afford more delights to contemplative minds , than ever the roman or grecian theaters did , or those sports wherewith they entertained spectators . so he expresseth himself in the latin theory ( pag. b , . ) and at the same time we find him transported as it were into a pleasing rapture or pang of admiration , through the singular content and satisfaction he found , from the prospect and consideration of what we speak of . and truly that roughness , brokenness , and multiform confusion in the surface of the earth ; which to the inadvertent may seem to be nothing but inelegancies or frightful disfigurements ; to thinking men , will appear to be as the tornings , and carvings , and ornamental sculptures ; that make up the lineaments and features of nature , not to say her braveries . nor need we wonder that the theorist should be so mightily pleased and raised , by the sight and contemplation of these things ; for though some would take them for flaws and botches , and the fag ends of nature ; yet in them , a quick and piercing eye can easily discern , not only her pretty dexterous mechanisms ; but the marvellous and adoreable skill of her maker , most rarely expressed . and therefore the inspired psalmist , meditating upon the earth in its present form ; and particularly revolving in his holy thoughts , the mountains , the high hills , the rocks , and the great and wide sea ; was so taken with them , that he could not but think they had god for the cause or author of them . and accordingly he declared and proclaimed the worst of them , not only to be produced by him ; but to be the product of his infinite wisdom . o lord in wisdom hast thou made them all , psal. . . and when the divine wisdom brought forth the earth and these pieces of it , and ordered them into their present places and postures ; and so admirably well , as that the psalmist , directed by the heavenly spirit , could not chuse but celebrate the production and disposition of them : has not this earth as much to shew for its being made by rul● and measure , as another of a pretended different form , could have had ? especially when it must all over have been but one vast plain . and then , in the second place , this form of the earth is most vseful likewise . it appears to be so in sundry respects , and very considerable ones . for now a great part of mankind live by the seas , either in way of traffick or navigation : not to say that all are some way or other the better for them . but in the first world , says the theory , there was no sea. mountains also now are most eminently serviceable ; that is to say , in bounding nations ; in dividing kingdoms ; in deriving rivers ; in yielding minerals ; and in breeding and harbouring innumerable wild creatures . i might also add , in contributing somewhat towards enlarging the earth , and inabling it , in some countries , to sustain its inhabitants . thus it is alledged as one reason why palestine could maintain so many of old : that the country was rising and falling into hills and vales , whereby ground was g●ined , and so the land was far roomthier , to use my * author's phrase . and indeed that there were store of hills in iudea , and very fruitful ones , is insinuated by the royal prophet , where he calls upon men to give praise to god , for † making grass to grow upon the mountains . but in the first earth there were no mountains neither . lastly , the earth in its present form and state , is attended with rains and seasonable showres . whereas in its other figure and capacity , it must have been all over cut into rills and aqueducts , for the watring of mens grounds ; and their trouble in doing it would have been endless and unspeakable , because it must generally have been done by hand . what tongue can express the toil they must have had , in a manual watring of fields , woods , groves , orchards , &c. and in slicing a great part of the earth in pieces , thus to moisten and cultivate the rest ? but now kind nature saves them that labour , while clouds do the work effectually for them . for they filling their buckets by the help of the sun , and then emptying the same to the best advantage ; excuse them from the drudgery , by taking it upon themselves . and that these rules whereby we measure the vsefulness of this earth , and shew it to be more excellent than that of the theory ; are the most true and proper rules : is manifest from god's making use of the same in a case not unlike : for he comparing egypt and palestine , prefers the latter before the former ; because in egypt the seed sown was watered with the foot as a garden of herbs ; but palestine was a land of hills and valleys , and drank water of the rain of heaven , deut. . , . so that if an earth most comely and decent in it self , and also most vseful and convenient for men ; may most properly be said , to be laid in measures , and to have had the line stretched upon it , or the rule applied to it ( as questionless it may ) than the present form of the earth , may challenge this text more justly to it self , than the other could do , had it ever been . and however the architecture of that , is presumed to surpass the architecture of this ; yet one thing may here be remarked concerning it , that the holy man's language does but indifferently sute it . for to talk of foundations , in such a circle ; or of a corner-stone , in such a spherical arch , as the primitive earth is conceived to be ; sounds but harshly . the sixth place consists of the , , , and th verses of the same chapter , where god continues his interrogatories thus , or who shut up the sea with doors , when it brake forth as if it had issued out of a womb ? when i made the cloud the garment thereof , and thick darkness a swadling band for it , and brake up for it my decreed plac● , and set bars and doors . and said , hitherto shalt thou come but no farther , and here shall thy proud waves be staied . which period the theory would have to be understood , of the breaking forth of the sea , at the opening of the abyss ; but the context allows it not . for that plainly signifies , that what the sea is here said to do , and what is said to be done to that , was transacted in the beginning ; when the foundations of the earth were fastened , and the corner-stone thereof was laid , and the morning stars sang , &c. and therefore when the theory would put a difference ( in respect of time ) betwixt the foregoing ( , , and th ) verses , and those last set down ; so as to make the questions in the former verses , proceed upon the form and construction o● the first earth ; and those in the latter , upon the demolition of that earth , the opening of the aby●s , and the present state of both : what it says , is gratis di●tum , and the distinction groundless . yea , it seems not only to be applied without grounds , but with force and violence ; for the context intimates no such matter , but rather the contrary . it runs on in a direct series of queries , without giving the least hint , that any of the particulars touching which they are made , were of later date than others . and that the first set of them , relate to things as ancient as the primitive earth's production , the theory owns ; and therefore why should not the other too ? to which add , when the sea brake forth at the time of the disruption , it could not be said to issue as out of a womb , so properly , as out of its house ( where it had dwelt above sixteen hundred years ; ) for a womb is the place where a thing is conceived and brought into being , which before was not . but these waters were preexistent to the inclosure of the abyss , the womb which held them ; yea against the order of nature , they were contributive to the being of it , as they were the basis whereon the first earth was built . so that the place of the abyss falls in but ill with the notion of a womb , in reference to these waters ; and consequently they could as ill be said to issue from thence as out of a womb. and then the darkness at the disruption was not so thick , nor so much a garment or swadling band to the sea , as darkness was at the creation . yea , the truth is , it could then be no garment or swadling band at all for the sea , but only for the flood . for by that time the tumultuary waters of the deluge , were quietly retired into the decreed place , and became a sea ; the sky was cleared up , and the darkness gone . nor could it so properly be said to be shut up with doors , and to have bars set upon it then , as to be infranchized or set at liberty . for those doors and bars which shut it up , and made it fast in a closer state before the disruption , were then all broken down and thrown open for ever , and it was put into a condition of far greater freedom than it formerly had ; its present settlement , being perfectly a state of enlargement to it . but now turn the words to the sense of the old hypothesis , and ( besides that they keep time exactly with the context ) how patly do they fall in with it ? for when on the first day , god ( together with the earth ) made the water of the sea ; as it brake forth into being , as if it had issued out of a womb indeed , because it just then gushed out of the womb of nothing , into existence : and as he then made the cloud the garment thereof , and thick darkness a swadling band for it in a fuller sense ; for darkness was then upon the face of the deep , gen. . . and that darkness for certain most thick , there being then neither sun nor light : so on the third day , when he brake up chanels for it , he might well call them his decreed place , and declare that he had beset it with bars and doors ; because by his command the waters were gathered off the surface of the earth , where was their first and natur●● situation , and shut up in such receptacles , and with such a confinement , as they would never have withdrawn into of themselves ; but would always have remained in their original diffusion over the whole terrestrial globe . and that this shutting up of the sea in its decreed place , was a thing done in the beginning , and not at the time of the flood ; is evident , prov. . . where god's giving his decree to the sea that it should not pass his commandment ; and his appointing the foundations of the earth : are made to be s●nchronals . but from the last verse of the quotation , hitherto shalt thou come and no farther , and here shall thy proud waves be stayed ; an objection is raised against the usual exposition of the place . for that sentence shews ( saith * the theory ) that it cannot be understood of the first disposi●ion of the waters as they were before the flood , for their proud waves broke those bounds whatsoever they were , when they over●lowed the earth in the deluge . i answer , if they did so , yet that argues not but the words may speak the disposition of the waters before the flood , according to the common interpretation of them ; for that inundation was by god's special appointment . and when he assigned to the waters the place of their abode , he did not intend to fortifie them in it against his own omnipotence , or to devest himself of his sovereign prerogative of calling them forth when he pleased . and when they passed the bounds he set them , so long as they did it not by any force of their own , but meerly by his powerful order or providential act ; this their eruption and spreading overflow , cannot be lookt upon as a breach of that law , or those limits he prescribed them . it was only the marvellous effect of an extraordinary cause ; and a particular exception of god's own making , to the general and standing rule of his providence . just as enoch's or elijah's translation was , to the universal and irrevocable sentence of death . that may be one answer in defence of the ancient hypothesis . but then , to the theorist , i may give in this for another : the proud waves of the sea did never pass their bounds to make the deluge . the great deep , or the fountains then broken up , had no relation to the sea ; i confess this implies that the flood is to be explained by a new hypothesis ; but if we can but bring in such a one , as may be as justifiable as the theory's is ( which we shall endeavour to do ) we need not concern our selves farther about it . the last place is prov. . , . when he prepared the heavens , i was there ; when he set a compass upon the face of the deep : when he established the clouds above , when he strengthned the fountains of the abyss . whence is inferred , * so there was in the beginning of the world , a sphere , orb , or arch , set round the abyss , which is presumed to be no other than the first habitable earth . but this is a sense far fetcht to serve the turn of an hypothesis , when there is a nearer at hand will do much better . for by the compass set upon the face of the depth , is meant no more than those bounds wherewith god encompassed ( not the theory's abyss , but ) the open waters . the holy ghost ( who is the best interpreter of his own writings ) expounds it so by a paralled text in iob , he hath compassed the waters with bounds , chap. . ver . . take it in the original , and it speaks out solomon's meaning to the full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , terminum ci●cinavit super faciem aquarum ; with a pair of compasses he set a boundary upon the face of the waters . not upon the face of the deep ; so it might have been catcht at , and construed an arch upon the inclosed abyss : but upon the face of the waters . and this compass was extant in that state of nature , where were thunders , and waters in thick clouds ( as the context shews ) neither of which phaenomena's could be contemporary with that arch or orb which the theory contends for . and then it was to last until day and night come to an end . so that if solomon's meaning be the same with iob's ; the compass he mentions as set upon the face of the deep , must be standing still . and so it cannot be that arch which the theory would perswade it was , because that was down long before iob's or solomon's time . and yet that these two great men ( both kings , as some think ) did intend the same thing , the theory * acknowledgeth . and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does here signifie a boundary , may well be inferred from what follows in the next verse , when he gave to the sea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his decree ; which the targum renders , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his boundary . or if the phrases used by solomon and iob sute not so exactly with the waters as encompassed with earthly bounds ; yet they are very applicable to them , as they are encompassed with the firmament of heaven . for that is set as a sphere or orb , as an arch or circle upon the face of the deep ; and shall continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the consumption of light with dar●ness , according to the holy man's expression . and this the old chaldee translation falls in with , while it says , god set the firmament upon the waters . and so does eugubinus , who affirms , that the place in iob , is to be understood de orbe coelesti , of an heavenly orb , † as the theory has noted to our hand ; though that he did it , ‖ parùm philosophicè , we have little reason to believe , when we read of , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the orb or circle , the sphere , or compass of heaven , job . . and then by god's strengthening the fountains of the deep , is meant his making the earth so compact and solid ; as that the springs and rivers derived from the sea , should not ordinarily wash it down , and so obstruct and dam up themselves . but how on the other side , an arch built over the mosaical abyss , should any way strengthen the fountains of that , when not so much as one spring , or river , or fountain in specie , did ever flow out of it during its inclosure ; is not so easie to apprehend . . such are the scripture-proofs of the aforesaid form of the antediluvian earth . to take them off , i might oppose them by many other texts : i mean such as are charged with counter-metaphors ; with such allegorical or allusive terms , as carry a sense in them , not only different from what is suggested in the forementioned allegations ; but inconsistent with it , and repugnant to it . i will instance but in one ; who shaketh the earth out of her place , and the pillars thereof tremble , job . . so that the earth , which is one while said to be founded upon the seas , and established upon the floods : and another while to be stretched over empty places , and hanged upon nothing : and anon ( according to the theory ) to be a sphere , or circle , or an independent orb or arch ; is said at last to be built upon pillars . whence it is manifest that the citations above , are but tropical or figurative schemes of speech ; and so wide and indeterminate , that nothing of strict and particular signification or certainty , is to be lookt for in them , or concluded from them . to do that ( though i will not say it is to trifle with scripture ) is to make it speak what it never meant . it is said of god , in the cited text , that he shaketh the earth out of her place . which had it been hit upon , and that way applied , would have been as notable an evidence for the earth's changing her situation in the time of the flood ( by some terrible concussion happening to her in her dissolution ) as any the theory has brought to other purposes . and yet we read in * the psalms that god founded the earth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon its basis , that it should not be removed for ever . though at the same time we are told again , the earth is dissolved . psal. . . quite down as it were , and all in ruines ( which might have been a proof of its dissolution at the deluge ) even then when it was impossible also that it should be so , because god upheld it ; for it follows immediately , i bear up the pillars of it . most plain demonstration how little of argument , as to the matter in hand , can be drawn from such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or tropological forms of speech as these , which frequently occur in the sacred volume , especially in the poetic books thereof . . had learned tycho but minded this , and rightly considered how the holy ghost does all-a-long deliver himself in figurative expressions touching the earth ; he needed not to have scrupled the coperni●an system of the world , and ( falling off from the old pythagori● . hypothesis ) have erected a new one of his own , more intricate and less tenable ; in tenderness to the sacred writings . for † gassendus gives that in , as one of brahe's objections against copernicus's way , ( and as one reason for his inventing and setting up his own ) quod sacris adversetur literis aliquoties ipsius terrae stabilitatem confirmantibus . chap. viii . . a continual aequinox before the flood , by virtue of the earth's position , improbable . . for then that position would have remained still , or the change thereof would have been more fully upon record . . scripture does not favour this aequinox , but rather discountenance it . . it would have kept one half of the earth unpeopled . . and have hindred the rains at the time of the flood . . the doctrine of the aequinox is against the judgment of the learned . . the authorities alledged for the right situation of the earth , upon which the aequinox depends , insufficient to prove it . . two queries propounded relating to the aequinox . . we are now ( from its form ) come to the first property of the antediluvian earth , namely , a perpetual aequinox by reason of its right situation to the sun. by which is meant that the axis of the earth was always kept in a parallelism to that of the ecliptic ( as now it is to that of the aequator . ) so that in her annual motion about the sun , she was carried directly under the aequinoctial , without any manner of obliquity in her site , or declination towards either of the tropics in her course ; and therefore could never cut the aequinoctial , by passing ( as now she is presumed to do ) from one tropic to the other . the effects of which her regular position and motion , during the continuance of the same ; were an even and unvaried temperature of the air ; a constant spring and unwearied fruitfulness in the earth ; and an uninterrupted tenour in the interchanging vicissitude of days and nights , they being ever of a length . but such a direct situation and course of the earth , is a thing very unlikely to have been . . one reason is this ; because then the same would have remained until now ; or else in the world there would have been found a more full account of the change thereof . for put case the earth did shift her posture , and also her circuit about the sun , in which she persisted till the deluge . is it not odd and monstrous strange , that we should have no more to shew for this ? and that no better footsteps of its remembrance should be seen ? whenever this change befell the earth , as to its site and yearly progress ; it must needs have been attended with a notable alteration in the tempestival ( to say nothing of the astronomical ) face of things . and when they who had escaped the common shipwrack , came forth of the ark ; and beheld how the days did lengthen and shorten ; and how the year ran through such variety of seasons : and withal felt their bodies so differently affected , being one while parched with summers heat , and another while pinched with winters cold ; contrary to what they had ever been before : they could not surely but relate this surprizing novelty to after-generations ( as a thing most wonderful ) and they tell it to others , and they again to others : and so some dark account of it at least , would somewhere have been met with , amongst the broken records and monuments of antiquity , more than now appears . not to add , that where providence does make so considerable changes , and of so near and important concern to men ; it does usually register them , and give fair notice thereof to posterity . thus in a national concern of the iews , there being but one day made longer than any had been , we find it distinctly recorded in * ioshua , and afterwards confirmed by the prophet † habakkuk ; and therefore had this alteration been real , methinks it should have been more fully recorded too ; especially when so fit an occasion of chronicling it was offered of old , when the story of the flood was committed to writing . there once happened a notable change in the planet venus ( the theory has remarkt it ) remembred by castor , and out of him by varro , and out of him by st. * austin . and this was said by adrastus cyzicenus , and dion neapolites , two noble mathematicians , to fall out in the reign of ogyges . by whom if they meant ogyges priscus , who was noah , the date of the catastrophe was about the time of the deluge . but then if a single change in one of the heavenly bodies was thus noted , and the notice of it so plainly transmitted to us at such a distance : then had a general change at the same time befallen the heavens , the whole aspectable heavens , and the earth at once ; certainly we should have heard something more concerning it than now we do , from the famo●s ancients . though when that planet did ( according to the historian ) change her colour , magnitude , figure , and course ; we need not impute this ( as the theory does ) to her then present dissolution : but rather to the disposition and temperament of the air , which perhaps will be able to solve all the phaenomena's . for grant but that to have been full of moist vapours , and of a constitution so watry , as it never was before nor since ( which it might very well be , and could scarce be otherwise about the time of the deluge ) venus , by unusual refraction of her beams would easily put on a different hue , and larger phase than she used to wear . the same air also might alter her shape , while the humid medium , performing the part of a telescope , truly represented her gibbous , corniculate , or the like . and then it might put her course into seeming disorder too . for the air above being unequally thick , and subject at times to uneven agitations ; as it chanced to be variously driven or moved , might ●ling the planet into unsteddiness as to appearance , or into a kind of fluctuating or salient motion in the eyes of spectators . and so it might seem to be ( as ma●cus varro terms it ) mirabile portentum , a wonderful monstrous thing . but that the whole mutation or disorder which happened to this planet , is no good argument of its being just then dissolved ; is evident from this passage in the story which speaks it to have been but temporary : quod factum it a neque ante● , neque postea fit , it was never so before nor after . and therefore still the more probable it is , that the air which was then so out of order too as it never was before or after , might be the cause of all . and why these effects should be visible only in this planet , there is more to be said than needs be here inserted . let me but hint , that if the moon were then in conjunction , or near it ; venus was the brightest luminary that shone by night , and so the fittest for these phaenomenas to shew forth themselves in ; especially she being subject to increase and decrease . but to return , though moses did not commemorate this mighty change , when he had so fair an occasion of doing it , in the story of the flood ; yet had it really happened to the world , it could not have slipt so perfectly out of memory , as it has done . for at the time it fell out , there wanted not one at least , who was very well able to remark it ; and to have given occasion ( by passing his observations concerning it to others ) to a lasting traditional remembrance of it ; i mean noa● . and that he was qualified for this , we need not doubt , if what * some report be true ; namely , that the famous atlas ( who for his skill in astrology is fabled to support the heavens with his shoulders ) was enoch . for if he were so eminent in that sort of learning , noah might be rarely versed in the same ; at least he must have been so competently instructed in it , as to have been capable of leaving a most clear account behind him of this marvellous alteration , if it had happened in his time . for books written by enoch , are reported to have been preserved in the ark. and origen affirms , that part of these books , containing the course of the stars , their names , &c. were found in arabia felix . and tertullian avers that he had seen and perused many pages of them . and sir walter raleigh ( no bad historian ) is so far from condemning or suspecting the thing , that he rather vindicates it . though it is not to be doubted , but into them at length many extravagancies might be inserted . now if these books treated of astronomy , as origen says they did ; noah could not chuse but derive good skill in that science , from them . and so ( by the way ) it will be easie to conceive how abraham came to such perfection in it , as to impart it to the chaldeans , aegyptians , &c. as by * iosephus he is said to have done . for he being near sixty years old when noah died , by living and conversing with him so long , he might gain so much knowledge in astronomical matters , as to be able to instruct those nations in them . especially if he addicted himself so much to the study of astronomy , as that that gave him his name abram ; as the knowledge of god caused alpha to be put into it , and turned it into abraham . for so a learned * man has given us to understand ; that he pursuing the high philosophy of things that happened in the air , and of those aloft that move in the heavens , was called abram , which is interpreted , sublime father . but afterwards — he takes alpha into it , the knowledg● of the one and only god , and is called abraham . indeed it is not to be doubted but a great deal of the ancient learning is lost , as † the theory concludes . and he that observes what a multitude of books are said by laertius to be written by xenocrates , theophrastus , democritus , and others ; of which so few are now to be found , will easily believe it . but yet this will not satisfie as to the deep silence of antiquity touching the aequinox asserted , or the change thereof . for other theorems or dogmaes ( even far more remote from notice , and of a nature every whit as obscure or inevident , though of late cleared up ) have been plainly delivered by some philosophers or other ; and sa●ely handed down to us , either in their , or in other men's writings . thus pythagoras , as laertius relates , taught the earth to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inhabited round about : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that there were antipodes , to whom , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things under us , were above to them . a doctrine heretofore as little approved , as believed ; and so ill thought of , that the asserting it has cost some men dear . to which add what plutarch in the life of num● remembers ; that the pythagoreans thought the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be neither immovable , nor placed in the midst of the vortex , or center of the turning region ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but to be hung up in a circle running about the fire , that is , the sun. ( the very hypothesis revived by copernicus , and improved by des-cartes . ) and to typifie the sun 's being seated in the center of that heaven in which he shines ; the same numa , says plutarch , built the temple of vesta in a circular form , and placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the fire never to go out , in the middle of it . leucippus also ( as we find in the aforesaid laertius ) affirmed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the earth was carried round , or rolled about upon its own axis . from whom likewise we learn , that anaxagoras was of opinion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that lightnings were caused by collision of clouds , as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the moon was habitable , and full of hills and deles . as if galileo's glass had been an old invention , and this philosopher had known as much of the moon above twenty centuries ago ; as ●e discovered of late , and has given the world an account of in his sidereus nuncius . heraclides also , as * plutarch reports , believed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that every star was a world , comprehending in a vast aethereal space , an earth , &c. and so thought orpheus . now when these and the like pieces of philosophic learning , were preserved in the midst of that shipwrack which it suffered ; it is strange that the dint of fate , should fall so heavily on this single notion of a perpetual aequinox , as to sink it down to the bottom of oblivion , and leave us not so much as one clear assertion of its existence or expiration . for however the latine theory tells us of * testimonia satis illustria , testimonies clear enough to evidence the right position of the earth , and consequently the aequinox depending upon it : yet when we come to examine them , we shall find they are but blind and cloudy things , and without all solid reason for their foundations . so that upon the whole matter , the assertions concerning the things aforesaid , which are supra nos , more out of the way ( except the antipodes ) and less subject to observation , than th● situation of the earth , and the aequinox attending it , and the change of both ; are more express and rational , than any of the testimonies concerning these : which is somewhat strange , i say , these being phaenomenas which of old fell under common notice in way of experience ; whereas the other were never so obvious and tried . and the more strange will it seem yet , if what was hinted before , be duly considered ; namely , that noah might be well qualified to observe so great and remarkable things , and to recommend the observations to his posterity . . as for scripture , it is so far from favouring this aequinox , that it does rather discountenance it . and those words , gen. . ult . while the earth remaineth , seed time and harvest , and cold and heat , and summer and winter , and night and day shall not cease : instead of any change in the frame of nature ( which the theory would infer from them ) intimate the contrary ; that things still continued in their former state ; and were not out of a more regular and uniform , then put into a new and less orderly course and posture , than they were in before . for , first , the words seem to look so directly the other way , that they can scarce be made to cast an eye on such a sense , without violent distortion of their natural aspect . noah was just now come out of the ark ▪ and having so dismal a prospect before him , so black and horrid and amazing a spectacle , as the utter destruction of all mankind , excepting himself and seven more : this might very well damp him extreamly , and fill him with melancholy and sad dejection . and then the dreadful apprehensions of what might yet be behind , or happen again afterwards of the like nature ; might startle him exceedingly , and fright him into farther consternation . now to support the good man under the weight of this double terror and solicitude , or to take off its heavy pressure ; god here passeth a solemn promise , that no such ●lood should ever drown the earth any more . and then in confirmation of this promise , adds , that the yearly seasons should never thenceforward be interrupted ; which they certainly must be , in case of such another universal deluge . that this was the occasion and full scope of these words , * iosephus attests with advantage on our side ; for he says , that noah ( upon his coming out of the ark ) fearing lest the earth should every year be overflowed , offered burnt sacrifice to god , beseeching him that hereafter he would entertain the ancient order , &c. to which request of his , what more gracious or satisfactory answer could be returned , than in the words recited ? where god condescends to give him assurance of what he desired , by ingaging , that while the earth remaineth , seed time and harvest , and cold and heat , and summer and winter , and night and day shall not cease . where summer and winter are mentioned , as things well known to the patriarch , and he makes no enquiry into the meaning of them , as having been familiarly acquainted with them . secondly , god here promiseth to noah , in behalf of mankind , that there should be day and night , as well as summer and winter ; yet day and night were certainly before the flood ; and if the promise of their continuance does not hinder but they were before ; so it argues not but that summer and winter were so too . yea , since summer and winter are here settled upon the new or recovering world , in conjunction with day and night , which had their alternate beings ever since the creation ; it is a good evidence that these seasons had the same . and the reason why both were now ensured , is , because both were intermitted ; the rule of day and night , having been broken for a while , by continual darkness ; as well as the regularity of the seasons ( for that fatal year ) by the prevailing waters . to which add , thirdly , that † the lights in the firmament of heaven , at the same time that they were appointed to divide the day from the night , were moreover appointed for the seasons of the year ; for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies . and therefore those birds that come in the spring and go away in the autumn ; and are in one place in the summer , and in another in the winter ; are said to know their appointed times , or the seasons of the year , ier. . . and the prophet expresseth them by the same * word that moses did . but , fourthly , there is annother thing , wherein scripture checks with this aequinox ; and that is the effect of the divine malediction denounced against the earth . upon man's rebellious defection or apostasie from god , he cursed the ground for his sake , gen. . . whereupon it became naturally barren of good things necessary to life ; and fruitful in useless and offensive products . but in case there were such an aequinox , it will be hard to conceive how this should be ; for that aequinox would have kept the heavens in a standing unvaried posture ; and the stability and unchanged influence of the heavens , would have continued the air in the same benign temperature . and the air being still , and warm , and balmy ; that rich and fat earth would have been flourishing and fruitful , pleasant and paradisiacal ( as the theory supposes it ) a long time after adam fell . so that where could be barrenness ? or how did the curse of god take place ? to say the earth grew dry and barren at last , for some ages before the flood , would be no answer , or at least no satisfactory one . for besides that the heavy curse was presently to fall as a punishment upon adam ; so late a barrenness would have been the effect of time and nature ; the unctuous juices of the primigenial soil , which made it a great while so vital and vegetative , being at length exhausted . and therefore this barrenness could not be imputed to the curse of god , because it would certainly have come on in the meer course of things , though man had persisted in his original purity , and had kept the crown of integrity always upon his head . lastly , there is a passage in the holy writings , which seems to evince , that the air in paradise , had an intemperature sent into it ( perhaps the fruit of the curse now mentioned ) about the time that our first parents sinned . and this again implys , that there was no such aequinox . the passage relates to our first parents , and occurs , gen. . . where it is said of them , that they ●ewed fig-leaves together ( or * fitted them together , as the syriac reads it ) and made themselves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things to gird about them . now why did they do this ? it is commonly said , that they might cover their nakedness , whereof they were ashamed . but this seems not to have been the reason , at least not the whole reason of the thing . for first , scripture says nothing of it expresly ; that does not declare that they did thus to hide their shame . secondly , what shame need there have been upon account of nakedness betwixt husband and wife , when there were no other people in the world ? thirdly , while they stood , it was said of them , that they were both naked , the man and his wife , and were not ashamed , gen. . ult . and surely when they were innocent , they should have been most modest ; and their modesty should have made them most ashamed of their nakedness then , had there been shame in it . and therefore it is probable that the perizomata , things to put about them , were made upon another score ; namely , to defend them from the intemperate air of the edenical regions . and this was as much as they at present could do for themselves . but then afterwards ( which helps to confirm our sense ) we find that the lord god made them coats of skins and cloathed them , gen. . . which were to be a better defence still against the aforesaid inconvenience . so lyra concludes , that they were cloathed with skins , a because they wanted a covering against the intemperature of the air. i confess he speaks of the air in that place ad quem erant ejiciendi , into which they were to be cast forth . but let it be so : still it will fight as much against this aequinox ; and imply or infer what certainly overthrows it ; that is , an air intemperate in the habitable regions of the first earth . and ( by the way ) let none wonder , that god , by his angels , should stoop to so mean a work , as the cloathing of adam and eve with skins . let us but seriously think what disparaging things our redeemer jesus the king of glory , has done and suffered in his adorable person , for us forlorn and most unworthy sinners ; and we shall cease to marvel at this lesser condescension of the infinite majesty , though it was exceeding great . yet had it not been more upon the account of warmth , than covering their nakedness ; such coats need not have been made them : their own fig-leaves would have been sufficient for that use . and thus scripture does plainly discountenance this aequinox , rather than favour it in the least measure . . but farther yet . if the earth always wheeled about the sun , in a right situation to him ; the terrestrial globe , in one hemisphere of it , must have been unpeopled ; because there could have been no easie passage , no way of possible access to it . for grant adam to have been planted on either side of the torrid zone ; how should he , or his , have gone through it to the other ? it would have been so terribly heated by the roasting sun , that no mortal could have travelled over it . consider but the breadth of this zone : according to the ancients ( who stretched it from one tropic , to the other ) it was about seven and forty degrees wide ; that is , near three thousand miles . but yield it to have been but half so broad , and what men could ever have marched over it ? for as under their feet there would have been vehemently hot and scalding sands : so the scorching fury of the glaring sun , would have beat intolerably upon their heads . and then what should have guided them through this burning tract , where was nothing of path , or way-mark to be seen ? suppose they had the direction of stars by night ; yet who , or what should have led their caravans by day ? and yet had they journied without sure conduct , whither might they have wandred ? and to what length might they have spun out their rangeing progress , at the shortest too long and tedious to be born ? especially if we consider , that in those their travels , they could have met with no manner of shelter or refreshment : no , not so much as with a grove , or a tree ; with a lake , or a river ; with one poor fountain or spring of water , or a single puff of fresh and cooling air. and say the driest burningest part of this zone , had not been above five hundred miles over ; yet who durst have thought of venturing through it , as not knowing its extent ? and who that had advanced a few furlongs into it , could have been able to have gone forward , or to return alive ? none will be surprized at this , that have a right notion of the nature of this region ; or of the excessive degree of its raging heat . the theory speaks it in these words , ( which , all circumstances weighed , carry no hyperbole in them ) * it was a wall of fire indeed , or a region of flame , which none could pass or subsist in , no more than in a furnace . now if adam were seated at first in the southern hemisphere of the earth , as the theory holds , then how could he , or any of his off-spring , have removed into this northern one ? there being such a fiery partition betwixt them . yet we are told of providence's † transplanting adam into this hemisphere , after he had laid the foundation of a world in the other . but that adam in any ordinary providential way ( and no extraordinary one is mentioned ) should cross a wall of fire or a region of flame ( we know not how many hundred miles broad ) which none could pass or subsist in , no more than in a furnace ; may justly be concluded a thing impossible . and then equally impossible it was , that this hemisphere of ours , should ever be peopled by adam or his progeny before the flood . to say that god led adam through this mediterranean fiery zone ( the * barrier betwixt the two hemispheres , which nothing could pass either way ) as soon as he had sinned ; and so very timely , that it was not as yet grown hot and burning ; might be a useful suggestion in the case , were it not perfectly forestalled and quite shut out , by what was said before ; namely , that adam was not transplanted into this hemisphere , till he had laid the foundation of a world in the other . which suppose to have been done in twenty years time ( as it could not well be done in less ) yet in that interval , the fire would have been so kindled in the torrid zone , as to have made it too hot a climate for him to have gone through . if in this our land we have no rain for eight or ten weeks together in a summer , we see how lamentably the ground is scorched , and how the surface of it is turned as it were into a meer turf : and yet all this while the sun is not perpendicular to us , by two or three thousand miles . but how inconceivably hot then must the middle circumference of the first earth have been , supposing it subject to his perpendicular beams , not only for ten weeks , but twenty years together : and no one cloud to have overshadowed it , and no drop of rain to have fallen upon it , all that while ? it is said to have been the opinion of athanasi●s , and ephrem syrus , that paradise , into which adam was put , lay beyond the ocean : and that he wading through it , made towards the country where he was formed ; and at length dying there , was buried in mount calvary . upon what good grounds this conceit was built , i know not : but by no means can it escape the censure of absurdity . yet the vast ocean it self might as well be ●ordable to the first father of mankind ; as this glowing zone , passable . and therefore the difficulty of getting through that ocean , was one thing that induced st. austin to follow lactantius , and the ancients generally , in denying antipodes . for in their judgment an immense ocean begirt the earth ( after the manner this zone is supposed to have done ) and parted our northern from the southern hemisphere . for which reason , the good father deeming it impossible , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or inhabitants of that side of the earth which is opposite to ours , should ever spring from the same stock with us , and be of adam's race ; he fairly concluded that there were no such . * it is too absurd to say that any men could out of this , get into that part of the earth , by sailing over the huge ocean : as also it would be to say , that mankind was founded there , of that first man , adam . and t●erefore , by the way , how could st. austin ( if consistent with himself ) place paradise in the anti-hemisphere , or continent opposite to ours ( as † the theory understands he did ) when he thus expresly declare● it to be his judgment , that mankind was not propagated there , and could not be transported from hence , thither ? . again , had the earth held such a right situation to the sun ; it would have put by the rains , which helpt to raise the flood . i confess it is granted , that at that time , * the rains fell , forty days and forty nights together , and that throughout the face of the whole earth . and this is but a certain truth , and so a necessary concession . but then it is more than the hypothesis can bear ; which makes rain impossible ( while the first earth stood ) in any other place but the frigid zones . and therefore to admit such general rains , is to desert or overthrow the hypothesis ; and to suppose the situation of the earth changed , before it was so . so incompatible were rains to the first order or constitution of nature , as fixed by the theory ; that a particular hydrography was calculated by it , to serve the prediluvian age with water . but then the same system or frame of nature , which rendred that world so impluvious all along , would have done so at the time of the flood likewise . yea , in that critical juncture , when rains were most useful ; it would have taken most place , and made them least plentiful . for then the earth it self would have been hottest and driest , and the subterraneous abyss most exhausted . nor can these general rains be pretended to come from the disruption of the abyss ; as if the fall of the earth had caused such extraordinary commotions in the air , or convulsions of its regions , as made them every where to pour down waters . for * the theory will have the rains to be antecedent to the disruption . i do not suppose the abyss broken open till after the forty days rain . but then this is most directly against scripture again ; for that plainly affirms the contrary ; that the fountains of the great deep , and the windows of heaven were both opened upon one ▪ day , gen. . . in the six hundredth year of noah's life , in the second month , the seventeenth day of the month , the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up , and the windows of heaven were opened . so that in the same year of noah's life , and in the same month of that year , and on the same day of that month ; the fountains below , and the windows above , were both set open ; that the waters issuing out of both might raise the deluge . . let me add , in the next place , that it is a known question , that has been moved by writers of all sorts , ancient and modern , iewish and christian , divines , historians , chronologers , &c. at what time of the year the flood came in . iosephus ( for instance ) will have it to happen in autumn ; others in the spring ; and they give their reasons for it . the question does manifestly proceed upon inadvertency ; their not minding that when it was spring in one part of the world , it was autumn in another . and the like question is put by writers , and bandied among them , touching the creation ; at what time of the year that great work was done . but somewhat more improperly , there being no seasons of the year , before the creation . now this being the general judgment of the learned ; that the year had tempestival changes , from the beginning , even the same that it has now ( as these questions import : ) from hence it may be inferted , that they never dreamt of this position of the earth , or a perpetual aequinox ; but were all of the contrary perswasion , or common opinion . . as for the authorities that are made use of to establish the doctrine we are upon ; if they be examined , they will hardly be found to speak home in the case . for though in the contents of the tenth chapter of the second book of the latin theory , it be thus declared ; * the last article concerning the right situation of the first earth , is establisht by the sentences of philosophers : yet if their sentences alledged in that chapter be well considered ; they will appear to be too weak and insufficient . i shall set them all down fully , to avoid suspicion of perverting or misrepresenting them . the first is taken out ( of plutarch , and delivered by him , as the joint opinion of two ancient philosophers . a diogenes and anaxagoras think , that after the world was constituted , and living creatures were brought forth out of th● earth , the world in a manner was inclined towards its southern part , of its own accord . and that this perchance was done by providence , that some parts of the world might be inhabited , and others not , by reason of cold , heat , and convenient temperature . but this will do the theory little service , it rather fights against it ; for the inclination here , is said to be made by providence , that some of the worlds parts might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , habitable by reason of a good temperature . which agrees not with the theory ; for that holds the world to have been of the best temperature , before the earth was inclined ; insomuch that it knew no season but spring and what then could mend its habitableness ? yet in order to that , the earth was inclined , as the citation intimates . and when in the judgment of these philosophers , the inclination of the earth was to conduce to or improve its habitableness ; and according to the tenor of the theory , it would rather have been an hindrance or disadvantage to the same : it is apparent that this allegation does rather cross , than confirm the hypothesis . in case it be argued , that this inclination might promote or mend the habitableness of the earth , as it quenched the flame in the torrid zone , and reduced its intolerable , to a gentle hea● : neither thus can the passage be drawn to favour the theory . for ( say the philosophers ) by vertue of this inclination , some parts of the earth were to be rendred , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , uninhabitable , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too , upon the account of vehement heat . whereas this very inclination , was of necessity to be a qualification , or corrective , or indeed a perfect extinction of all furious burning in the torrid zone ; as * the theory owns . so that the authority cited , is so far from establishing the theory's hypothesis of the earth's inclination ; that it will not be easily reconciled to it . nor can it excuse the matter with this pair of philosophers , to say that they were blinded here with the common error , and ran , for company , with those that believed there was a torrid zone , when there really was none . for allowing they were so sagacious as to discover this secret of the earth's inclination ; we must also grant that by the same quick-sightedness they would clearly have discerned , that the effect thereof could not have been , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a scorching , raging , insufferable heat , about the middle of the earth ; but a certain mitigation or quenching of the same . the second sentence is that of empedocles , which occurs in the same chapter of plutarch : * empedocles teacheth , that the air giving way to the force of the sun , the north inclined , the northern parts being elevated , and the southern ones depressed , and this happened by that means to the whole world. here is a mighty effect produced , without a cause assigned ; at least here is non causa , pro causa : the assignation of a cause altogether incompetent and not to be understood . for why should the air yield to the force of the sun , more towards the south , than towards the north , when his force was equal upon both the regions at once ? for he moving at all times exactly in the midst betwixt them , his influence must be exactly alike upon each : and therefore that it should cause the depression of one more than of the other , is a thing in the dark and unintelligible . but say the sun had had power to displace the earth , and by sinking one pole of it , through such a cession of the air , to have raised the other : yet then that this cession should not be in the air , nor consequently this dislocation of the earth till the flood happened ; is not to be thought . and therefore this sentence favours not the theory neither ; for that has positively determined the time of the deluge to have been the juncture of the earth's declension or * dislocation : whereas if the sun had been the cause thereof , by working a change in the air conducive thereunto ; it must have been accomplisht very long before . the next sentence is leucippus's , thus delivered by laerti●s , a that the sun and moon are subj●ct to eclipses long of the earth's inclining to the south . and that the northern regions are always snowy , frosty , and icy . but by plutarch thus , b leucippus was of the mind , that the earth verges towards the southern regions , because of the thinness or openness of them ; for while the northern parts are frozen with cold , the opposite are hot . to take off this , we need but reflect on what has been said already ; for how could the southern pole of the earth dip into the air , by reason the air at that pole was hotter and more rarified , than it was at the northern pole , when the sun cut his way most evenly betwixt both the poles ? or if it could have been so , yet then the earth must have lost its regular position , and the equinox have been turned out of being , many hundreds of years before the deluge came ; which is utterly inconsistent with the theory . democritus his judgment also is brought in , in these words ; a the southern part of the ambient air being the weaker , the bulky earth did therefore incline that way . for the northern regions being evenly , but the southern unevenly tempered ; thence it was , that accordingly it sagged down , where it abounded with fruits and increase . here is nothing new , save this , that the ●arth abounding most with fruits towards the south , the weight of those helped to bear it downward ; and so sway'd it out of its aequinoctial site ; which in truth is but a vain and unphilosophic phancy . for first , how could the earth be more fruitful at one pole than at the other , when the soil was alike ; and so , alike fertile ; and both the poles were equidistant from the sun ? secondly , if the earth had been most loaden with natural increments , about its south pole ; yet how could these have overset or poized it down , by making it the heavier ? for they all proceeding out of the bowels of the earth ; she must be as heavy before they grew up , as after . thirdly , if the earth could have been cast or settled towards the south , by those fruits we speak of ; yet still here would be violence done to the theory , by shutting its continual praediluvian aequinox quite out of doors . for the earth being most fruitful at first , and consequently its produ●● about the southern parts , most copious ; that pole , by their ponderous burthen , must have been overpowered in the beginning , and the earth sunk into that inclining posture in which now it stands . having thus taken account of these philosophers opinions , before we go farther , let us make a short stop here ; only so long as to remark these four particulars , already hinted . first , that they of them who are most express for the inclination of the earth , do not deny this inclination to have been from the beginning , or very soon after . secondly , that they do not only not deny this , but implicitly affirm it , by their assigning such causes of it . for though they be improper and such as never were ; yet had they been , and could they have produced the effect at all , they would certainly have done it in the beginning of the world. thirdly , that none of these philosophers , do make the least mention of a continual aequin●x antecedaneous to the earth's inclination . and in case it should be urged , that their very asserting the earth to be inclined does suppose it was once in such a position , as was attended with a fixed aequinox . in way of answer it is observable , fourthly , that there is one notion , which runs through most of their assertions , and sufficiently proves , that they could never think the earth held such a position , as to be capable of a constant and settled aequinox . for they intimate that the southern air was more thin , and weak , and yielding , than the northern ; as being more temperate or warm than that . but had they believed that the earth kept a right position to the sun ; and so had both its poles equidistant from him ; they must withal have believed the air about both , to have been of the like temperature and consistency . all which put together , makes it evident , that the cited testimonies are not satis illustria , clear enough to do the theory's business : and that the article of the right situation of the earth ( the cause of the supposed aequinox ) is not at all established , philosophorum sententiis , by the sayings of the aforesaid philosophers . but therefore we have not done yet . anaxagoras comes in with a second attestation , and witnesseth , that the stars † were moved tholiformly from the beginning , so as the pole always appeared about the top of the earth ; but afterwards it declined . so di●genes laertius delivers his mind . and this may seem to be somewhat a better evidence for the earth's changing her site . but in way of reply it might be noted , first , that ambrosius the monk ( a good philologer ) who translated laertius into latin ; instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so it signifies the stars to have moved unevenly from the beginning ; that is , as they do now . but let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be the true lection . yet then , secondly , aldobrandinus renders that , turbulentè , unsteddily . and so makes the philosopher speak the same sense that ambrosius does , in a different word . but we will go ●arther still , and suppose , thirdly , that anaxagoras meant , that the stars were carried about instar i holi , after the fashion of a cupulo ( of which kind of figure was the pantheon at rome , and therefore dio calls that temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tholiform ) yet then might he not mean withal , that they imitated this figure in their motion , only so far as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or pole of the earth , by being near to a direct situation under the pole of the world ( not of the ecliptic ) would permit it to be done : for the declination he here speaks of , we cannot understand so well with reference to the pole of the ecliptic ; because he calls it the pole simply , which denotes the pole of the aequator . and about this pole indeed several stars or constellations , as the two bears , the dragon , cepheus , cassiopoea , &c. do move tholiformly at all times : the pole still appearing about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or top of the earth ; that is to say , about the pole of it . and that these and other stars thereabouts , had declined since the beginning , he might well be of opinion ; inasmuch as the vertex , top , or pole of the earth , might in his time have suffered a considerable declination from the pole of the world. according to which declination , the fixt stars seem to advance in longitude . insomuch that aries hath passed into the dodecatemorium or place of taurus , in the zodiac : and taurus into that of gemini , and so on . but then this is such a declination , as does not at all imply , that the axis of the earth was ever in a parallelism with that of the ecliptic ; but only that it was once in a nearer parallelism to the axis of the aequator , than anaxagoras found it in his days . and so the declination he meant , might be quite different from that we contend about : which astronomy imputes to the wallowing of the earth , in its annual motion . if this will not satisfie , i have one thing more to offer . grant that anaxagoras should mean that very declination , which the theory would have him : yet this truly would contribute little towards the proof of the thing . for he was a man as like to be heterodox ; as like to broach and maintain false and groundless opinions , as any of the learned ancients . this perswasion concerning him , i build upon a wretched foundation of his own laying : i mean that abominably gross , and shamefully absurd assertion of his ; that an huge stone by the river aegos in thracia , fell down from the sun. an extravagance so childish , and ridiculously unreasonable , as might justly give a wound , and a very mortal one , to his philosophic reputation ; and make the world conclude , that as to skill in astronomy he did not exceed . laertius remembers this ; and tells how euripides his scholar did hereupon call the sun , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , golden glebe . plutarch also mentions it in the life of lysander : and assures us that as the stone was shown for a wonder ; so it was venerable and of high esteem . * pliny relates the matter more largely . but in case we should believe it , says he , ( that a stone could descend from the sun ) fare●ell the knowledge of natures works , and welcome confusion . a very proper reflection or inference . nor is this to be lookt upon as a meer ●lip in anaxagoras , or an unlucky error upon which he stumbled by chance . it must be his settled and approved judgment : and i make it out thus ; it is very agreeable to other notions of his , or to the strain or genius of his philosophy ; witness that strange way he invented , for generating the stars . for he thought that the * ambient aether being of a fiery nature , did by its rapid circumgyration snatch up stones from the earth , and by burning them turn them into stars . according to the rate of which philosophy , that stone of which the sun was delivered , might possibly be a star. and to this diogenes very gravely subscribes . for he roundly pronounces , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that it was a stony star which fell like fire at the river aegos . which whoever can think , will not stick to credit † plutarch's story of a lion , that in peloponnesus fell down from the moon : he being flung off thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by some violent agitation which she suffered . such was the philosophy of that age. this i have noted , not to disparage anaxagoras or diogenes ; but only to signifie , that where they stand alone , or are more positive than others in asserting any dark or doubtful opinion ; we have no reason presently to run over to them , and to lay the stress of our belief upon their authorities : especially when in so doing , we must walk contrary to the whole world of the learned at once . yet so it happens , that the most likely evidence which the theory brings in for the earth's declination , and so for its right position , and praediluvian aequinox ; is borrowed of these two men. fig. page the second query is this , granting there was such an aequinox in the first world , would not the natural day , towards the latter end of that world , have been longer than in the former periods of the same ? for while the outward shell or sphere of earth , was contiguous with the abyss ; it seems very likely that it was carried about with more celerity , than it could be afterwards , when that contiguity ceased , by reason the waters of the abyss were exhaled . and in case that external cortex , the then habitable earth , did abate of its diurnal motion , upon losing its contiguousness with the abyss it inclosed ; and the wider the distance grew betwixt them , the slower was its rotation ; which must follow , if the failure of the contiguity we speak of did at first retard its gyration : then the days just before the flood , must of necessity be longer than ever they were in the prediluvian world , supposing day and night be made by the earth's turning upon its own axis . especially if the moon came late into the earth's neighbourhood . for then she being to be carried about in the exterior part of the earth's vortex , would have slacked its motion ; as an heavy clogg hanged upon the rim of a wheel , makes it turn more slowly . yet that the days just before the flood were of no unusual length , is evident in the very story of the flood ; the duration of which we find computed , by months consisting of thirty days apiece . whereas had days been grown longer , fewer of them would have made a month. chap. ix . . the oval figure of the primitive earth excepted against , from the nature of that mass upon which it was founded . . and from its position in its annual motion . . as also from the roundness of the present earth . . which roundness could not accrue to the earth from its disruption , in regard that would have rendred it more oval still , in case it had been oval from the beginning . . ●r at least would not have made it less oval than it was . . among the several properties of the prediluvian earth , there was none more needful than its oviformity . but as needful as it was , it seems a thing improbable . the necessity of it , is apparent from its usefulness : and that was as great as can well be imagined : for it was to be as an aqueduct to the first world ; or a general instrument of deriving waters , into all the inhabited quarters of it . so that without it , according to the laws of this new hypothesis , the earth would have been outwardly but a lump of sand , and as miserably barren as any piece of wilderness the worst arabia has . and yet if we attend to the first earth's origination , how could it be of an oval shape ? for a liquid mass , having its center in it self , and being of a sub●tance equally yielding in all its parts , and likewise equally compressed by an ambient body : must of necessity be equally extended in all the lines of its circum●erence ; that is , it must be exactly round or spherical . for why any piece thereof should thrust up higher , or shoot out farther from the common center , than the rest ; there can be no reason given ; unless , according to the hylozoic philosophy , we should suppose there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a principle of life or self-movency in matter ; which indeed is to exalt it above its capacity , and to give it a property that destroys its nature . and were not these the very circumstances of that mass , whereon the primitive earth was founded ? for , first , it was self-centred ; and by vertue of its proper centre , so entirely coherent and united , that no parts of it had the least tendency towards jetting out , or flying off from the whole : but by the laws of gravity , were all impregnated with the contrary determination , a nitency inward or downward towards the central point . and then , secondly , it was liquid also ; and so of a yielding temper or consistency . ready to give way to the lightest pressures , and by a forward pliantness , to fall into that figure , into which the circum●luent air would fashion it . for that element alone ( or a thinner than that ) but by moving and gently gliding upon it , might easily smooth it into perfect evenness ; provided it did but encompass it around , and so was capable of slicking it by a general levigation . and therefore , thirdly , it swam in such a fluid element , as did so environ it , grasping it on all sides with a soft compression . so that during its fluitation in that surrounding and gently constringent medium , it could not but be of a truly globular form. which admitted ; the primitive earth must needs be so too , and not oval ; as being cast upon this globous mould . but to this it is opposed , that the liquid mass whereon the first earth was built , was not quiescent . so it might , yea , it must have been truly spherical : and the theory it self owns as much . a i nothing doubt — but amass of water will naturally make it self into a spherical figure , about its own centre ; if so be it rests immovable and quiet . but then it adds ; b but in case it be turned swiftly about its center , by that agitation it will necessarily make it self oblong , and become of a figure somewhat oval ; just as when waters are pusht forward in a vessel ; or in some part of a sea or lake , are driven by a wind toward the shores ; we see the waves stretch themselves out long-ways . in answer to which , let it be confessed , that the liquid mass , on which the earth was raised , was rolled about ; and that very swiftly upon its own centre . yet that by vertue of its gyration it should be shaped into an oval fashion ; was not at all necessary ; nor will the instances brought in , prove it was so , there being no parity or just proportion betwixt the several cases . for , for waters to be forced an end by the external violence of winds ( where the impression propelling them is superficial , and their motion progressive ; ) is a different thing from their circumrotation in one entire moles ; where they turn only with a natural and most even course , carrying the ambient body ( whereby they are ●ircumscribed and helpt to keep their figure ) round along with them . for thus we see , that notwithstanding the earth turns so swiftly , that every point in its circumference under the aequator , moves at the rate of fifteen degrees ( nine hundred miles ) an hour ; yet the finest sand upon the surface of the earth , or the lightest dust upon the tops of the mountains , is never dissipated or disturbed in the least , by this whisking circumvolution . whence we may gather ( the case being much the same ) that the whirling globe of water , was so far from a necessity of growing oblong , by its rotation ; that that very thing might contribute to preserving it in a globular for● . but therefore let us hear what the theory says further , and more distinctly yet , touching the cause of the oval figure of that mass of water , which was the basis of the primitive earth . it speaks it fully in these words , a nor is the reason of this figure obscure , in a globe of water which is moved circularly ; for the mass of water being much more agitated under the aequator , than the waters towards the poles , where it passed through lesser circles ; those parts which were most moved endeavouring to recede from the centre of their motion , when they could not quite spring up and fly away , because of the air which lay upon them on every side , nor yet could fall back again as being checked and resisted by that air : they were unable so free themselves any other way than by flowing down to the sides : for waters being pent , do flow that way where they find easiest passage ; and from that flowing down of the waters to the sides , and disburthening of the middle parts about the aequator , the globe of water might become somewhat oblong . so that the cause of the oval figure , in the chaotic waters , seems ( in short ) to be this . their discharging themselves , defluendo ad latera , by flowing down to the sides or poles of the globe ; upon their swelling or rising up ( by means of their rapid circular motion ) about the aequator . but granting the waters did swell and rise thereabouts ( which yet would admit of dispute ; ) against this piece of the theory's hypothesis , it may be thus excepted ; either the waters did flow down to the sides or poles of the globe , till it became oval ; or they did not . if they did not flow down so long , the hypothesis fails , and the watry mass could never be oval . if they did flow down so long , then they must flow down , till they flowed down , upwards . ( pardon the absurdity of the expression , the absurdity of the thing occasions it . ) for the polar parts of the watry mass , as it became oval , were the highest , being most distant from the centre . and yet from the aequator they did defluere ad latera , flow down to the sides or poles . which that they might do , it was absolutely necessary that the parts about the aequator should be highest : else the waters in flowing to the poles , would have been so far from flowing down , that contrary to their natures , they must have risen up above their source . and yet as absolutely necessary again it was , that the polar parts should be highest at last ; otherwise the watry mass could never have been made of an oval figure . and yet if it were made into that figure , by the waters flowing down ( as the theory says ) from about the aequator , to the sides , or polar parts ; then a third thing will be as necessary as either of the two mentioned ; namely , that the waters ( as was said before ) should flow down , upwards . so that it is as unlikely , that the mass of waters was ever of an oval form ; as it is unlikely that a contradiction should be true ; or that the element of water should , of it self , perform a motion , which is beyond its power , by being above or against its nature . i say , of it self ; for however there might be violence ( that of the circular motion ) in making it to swell about the aequator ; yet when once it was risen there , it was left to it self , as i may say ; all farther force was taken off it , and it might follow the duct of its own principles of gravity and fluidity . and accordingly it is said by the theory , se liberare , to free it self ( from that force which it suffered in receding from its center , or rising up under the aequator ) defluendo , by falling off or flowing down ; a proper expression of the true natural motion of water . but then if the place it fell or flowed to , was higher than that it fell or flowed from ( as in this case it must prove , before the watry globe , by defluxion of its water , could be made oval ) it is evident that the water by a natural motion , or of it self , did perform a course against its nature . for when it flowed down ( or is said to do so ) and according to its own nature ought to have done so ; in reality , and according to the reason of the thing , it flowed up . nor indeed could it possibly do otherwise , to produce the great effect pretended ; unless it were possible for an oval body to be highest in its middle parts . and then truly ( but upon no other terms ) the watry globe might become oblong , ex illo defluxu aquarum ad latera , & exoneratione partium mediarum ; from that flowing down of the waters to the sides ( which the theory mentions ) and the disburthening of the middle parts of it . now if the watry mass , upon which the ingenious theorist founds the first earth ; could not be made oval , in the way he has invented : then neither could that earth be of an oval figure , it being bound to put on the same shape which the water had . . very improbable it is also that the first earth should be oval , considering its position or direction in its annual motion . for that was such as could not well consist with its oval figure . in it , its poles are said to have pointed always to the poles of the ecliptic : and so it would have been directed not unlike to ships swimming side-ways . now put a ship , which is an oval body , into the smoothest stream imaginable , and lay it cross that stream ; and see how long it will keep in that position . will it always hold it ? no , nor for any considerable while : but by degrees will quickly wind and fall in to swim long-ways with it ; and continue mostly in that posture , as suiting best with its own shape and the course of the waters . and truly that an oviform earth should lie cross-ways in the a●thereal chanel , and be carried round the sun for sixteen hundred years together ; and not change its site in compliance with the tendency or stream of it ; seems very strange , if not impossible . especially when that earth was thin comparatively , and hollow like a shell ; and so more light , and ready to verge or be drawn aside from its supposed primitive situation . the present earth , though generally allowed to be of a spherical figure ; and also of a solid composure throughout ( unless at its centre ; ) and likewise ( according to the french philosophy ) to be held by a particular hand of nature , in its inclining posture ( which must be more easie to be kept by a round earth , in the medium which carries it ; than a right position , by an oblong one : ) is yet subject to wallowings in its annual motion . and how then can it be thought , that the first earth , which was oblong , and had not that hand to hold it steady ; could preserve its axis in a constant parallelism to the axis of the ecliptic , till the time of the flood ? it would rather have turned end-ways in the celestial stream , and have stood for the most part in that direction ; as best agreeing with its own form , and the vehicular current wherein it floated . and so ( its axis , by force of the aethereal matter , being wrought into a coincidence with the plain of the ecliptic ; and the ecliptic like a colure , passing through its poles ) while its poles would have lookt east and west , and its diurnal revolutions have gone north and south : it would have brought such a confusion into the heavens and earth at once , as is not easie to be expressed . . and that the first earth was not oval , methinks may , in some measure , be gathered from the roundness or sphericalness of the present earth . for this terraqueous body on which we dwell , is of a spherical fashion . so anaximander thought , and also pythagoras , parmenides , and others of old , as well as all of later days . and as much is fairly inferrible from several things . as , first , from its conical shadow . which figure , * zeno ( almost two thousand years since ) noted the shadow of the earth to be of . and a common argument for the proof of it , is fetcht from the moon . for in whatever place she has at any time entered into an eclipse , or emerged out of the same ; and whatever part of the earth , during any of her eclipses , has been turned to her , still it has been observed , that the shadow cast by the earth upon her discus , was always circular ; which argues the earth it self to be globular . and that it is so , may be inferred , secondly , from the place of the waters . for were it oval , they would not fail to retire out of the seas near the poles ; and running down towards the aequator of the earth ( which would be the lowest part of it ) settle themselves around it , in the middle regions thereof . but instead of this , we see the waters are so far from drawing off from the northern seas about the pole , that they abound most , and are deepest there ; nor do we know of any thing but vast and deep waters about the south-pole neither . whereas , i say , were the earth oval , and so the poles of it highest , the waters must necessarily have settled about the midst of the earth , there being the lowest place , and so the properest for their situation . and so the sea in figure would have resembled an hoop ; or as a liquid zone would have encompassed the earth , and divided it into two hemispheres , in the same manner that some worthy ancients conceived it did ; for want of better skill in geography . thirdly , if the earth were oval , navigation towards the poles , beyond such a latitude as bounds the sphericity of the earth , would be extreamly difficult , if not impossible . for then in such a course , ships must steer up hill , and climb , as it were , all the way they swim , as sailing in a perfect ascent . but where would be winds strong enough to heave them up such watry steepness ? or in case they had sufficient strength to do it ; yet would not the vessels rather pitch into , and run under the waters that bear against them , than drive up upon their rising surface ? and let but the blustring gales which push them upward , cease ; and would they not forthwith stop ? yea , immediately tack about , and ( being left to themselves ) settle down towards the aequator again . but we hearing of no such difficult sailing up the polar seas ; nor such retiring of ships down to the aequinoctial ones ; have still more reason to believe , that the earth and water make a true globe . and grant that these arguments will not perfectly demonstrate the earth to be spherical ; yet they being of more force to prove it is so , than any ever brought to prove it otherwise ; we have reason to acquiesce in the received opinion . . but to this it may be answered : in case the earth be round or spherical now , this is no good evidence that it was so at first . it might then be oval or oblong , and its present roundness may be owing to its disruption . i reply ; admit the earth was oblong before the disruption , and the falling in of its outward orb , could hardly reduce it into a spherical form ; but would rather have made it more oblong still . for the orb we speak of must ( in likelihood ) break and fall in first , about the aequator , or middle parts of it . for there it was most heated ; and there it was most cracked ; and there it was most hollow underneath ; the waters of the abyss being much exhaled . and these parts falling , those whereabouts the tropics are now , might fall soon after them . whereas the poles of this orb , being turned with a shorter or narrower arch , were much the stronger . and then being remote from the sun , and continually wet , were not disposed to break at all , through driness and brittleness , as the regions about the aequator were . so that the poles might remain whole , and keep those very places almost which they held before . for as for their sinking lower , and coming much nearer together , than they were , it was not likely ; because that huge circle of ground , which fell in about the aequator and tropics , would have intercepted and hindred them . for though the poles were hollow , they could not slip over the earth which fell in betwixt them , and clasp it in their cavities ; in regard they were not wide enough . for the orb being oval , was narrowest towards the poles . so that the falling in of the earth , must have rendred it rather more , than less oval ; while the poles of it would have continued at their usual distance almost , and the intermediate regions , by dropping into the abyss , would have been contracted into streighter dimensions of circumference . . or say the disruption of the earth , would not have made it more oval than it was ; yet surely it would not have made it less . for as the earth , in all probability , would have broke in first about the aequator ( for the reasons alledged ) so those fragments being nearer the inward earth , than the polar parts ; would sooner have reached it in their fall , than these could have done . especially considering these polar parts ( according to what was said before ) must have fallen entire in two vast caps as it were . for so they would have contained such abundance of air , as must have rendred their descent very slow ; much slower than that of the aequinoctial , and tropical fragments . which being of quite another fashion , that did not inclose the air so much , would have descended a great deal faster . insomuch that before the polar hemispheres ( let me call them ) could have got down to the interiour earth ; all the ground that fell in about the aequator and tropics , would have been settled there , and fit to receive those mighty hemispheres , when they should have come and whelmed themselves whole upon it . or grant they should have broke , by pitching upon that vast heap of earth , which fell down betwixt them ; yet there they must have laid in a confused posture where they flew in pieces , and so would have helped to make the earth oblong . in a word , suppose they did sink down as far proportionably towards the common centre , as the aequinoctial and tropical parts did ; yet if they sank no farther ( as indeed why should they , all circumstances considered ? ) the earth in case it were oval at first , must of necessity continue so . chap. x. . that there were mountains before the flood , proved in way of exception to the theory , out of scripture . . and that they could not be made by the falling in of the first earth , argued from the mountains in the moon . . and from the opinion of the talmudists , and others . . how mountains might arise in the very beginning . . there must be mountains in the first world , because there were metals in it . . two properties of the prediluvian earth we have done with ; its continual aequinox , and its oval figure . we must now proceed to its next property , or rather to the former branch of it : the exterior face of it was smooth and uniform , without mountains . but neither can this be asserted without some violence to the inspired writings . lord , thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another . before the mountains were brought forth , and the earth and the world were made , thou art god from everlasting . so we read , psal. . , . where the scope of the psalmist being to set forth god's eternity , and his early providence over his people ; he declares of him , that as he was always a shelter and protection to them from age to age ; so he existed before the creation : even before the mountains were brought forth , and the earth and the world were made . where his ranking the production of the mountains , with the formation of the earth and the world ; speaks them coaeval with the same . and ( which is not unworthy of remark ) moses ( says the title of it ) composed this psalm ; to whom the rise of all things , and the order of their rising into being , was better known , than to any man born . yet this moses , as he illustrates god's eternity à parte ante , by his preexistence to the universe ; so he measures his most timely care over his church , as much by the mo●ntains duration , as by the duration of the earth or world. thereby giving us to understand , that the one is as good a rule as the other ; as bearing the same date of existence , and issuing forth into being , not by a far distant succession , but all together , as fast as nature could permit . and however some mountains might be produced long after others ; yet that will make nothing against us , if we do but suppose the psalmist to speak of the earliest . this , by the way , does sufficiently confute the peripateti● error touching the worlds eternity . for if god was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , before the earth and habitable world ; 't is certain the world had a beginning , and could not be from everlasting , as h● was . and the same moses makes mention not only of lasting hills , but , of ancient mountains , deut. . . but had there been no mountains till the flood , he would scarce have given them that epithet , as being but few ages older than himself . i confess , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies , the east , as well as ancient . and the samaritan and syria● , pagnin , and montanus , render , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the mountains of the east . but not so well . for ephraim and half the tribe of manasseh , ioseph's posterity ( mentioned ver . . ) in whose land the blessings of these mountains are here prophesied of by moses , were planted in that division of palestine called samaria : which being on this side of iordan , and upon the mediterranean sea , lay towards the west ; and consequently its mountains could not be called mountains of the cast. and as for the other half of manasseh , though they were seated beyond iordan ; yet i do not find that the mountains in their allotment , were known by the name of mountains in the east . or if basan , and some of the hills of gilead , belonging to this half tribe , might be so denominated : yet the whole tribe of ephraim , and the other half of manasseh , had nothing to do with them ; and so they could not so well be the mountains here pointed at in the prediction . inasmuch as they were possessed but by the smaller part of ioseph's off-spring ; whereas in reason the prophecy should respect the major part of his seed , and so refer to those mountains on the west side of palestine , where the whole tribe of ephraim , and the other half of manasseh were settled . and therefore when the arabic , vulgar , iunius and tremelius , and others , render , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ancient ; they give it its most proper signification in this place , and such as makes the best or truest sense . for the mountains of gilead , and basan , as well as mount ephraim ( a ridge of hills crossing the country of that tribe ; several parts whereof were gerizzim , and ebal , and the hills tsuphim ; the hill of phineas , of gaash , of salmon , and of samron , whereon samaria stood ) were all of them , though not eastern , yet ancient mountains ; such as might take their beginning with the earth it self , or immediately after . and therefore the septuagint calls the mountains here , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mountains of the beginning . and that most fitly ; for , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies , beginning , as well as antiquity . and accordingly we read , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from or before the beginnings of the earth , prov. . . and so the ancient mountains in the prophecy , are such as were extant à primordiis seculi , from the beginning of the world , in contradistinction to such as were casually raised , or artificially made . solomon also , in the same chapter , speaks a remarkable word to our purpose . for declaring the antiquity , or eternity of the divine wisdom ; he there sets it out , by its existing before god's works of old , ver . . and then particularly , before the mountains were settled , ver . . a most clear evidence , that the settling of the mountains , was one of the earliest works that ever god did . else it could not have been sutable to sort it with those that are there recounted , nor would it have been proper to shew forth the antiquity of wisdom by it ; and to argue that it was in god's possession , in the beginning of his ways , because it was so , before the mountains were settled . for if the mountains were settled long after those other works of old , which solomon specifies , as long after , as the general flood was after the creation ; why should he place this work amongst them , and rank it with them , as one effected at the same time ? and if they were settled , at the time of the deluge , how could wisdom's existing before they were settled , be a proof or illustration of its being possessed by the lord in the beginning of his ways ? so that if we can but think , that scripture is to be understood like other writings ; that is , according to the common signification of its words , and the manifest drift or scope of its sense : and if we can but believe , that when god speaks with design to instruct us ; he does it with the same freeness and sincerity , as a rational and honest man , as a kind and open hearted friend would do , that means to discover his mind unto us ; we need not desire more pregnant proofs of the mountains just coaevity with the earth . . the same scriptures that prove mountains coaeval with the earth , are clear evidences that they could not arise from the disruption of the same . which opinion being so fairly encountred and overthrown by divine authorities ; to pursue it farther may seem unnecessary . but yet that nature may set its hand to the confutation of it , as well as scripture ; i will here put down one single argument which the moon affords us . that she hath her mountains as well as the earth , is very evident . and also that they are higher than the earth's mountains : i mean not only comparatively , in proportion to her bigness ; but they are so , simply and absolutely in themselves , if w● dar● credit galileo . yea , they are not only higher than the mountains of the earth , but better than four times as high , as he undertakes to * demonstrate . whence it must follow , either that the moon was not formed and dissolved , the same way that the earth was † ; both which the theorist owns her to have been ; or else that her abyss was deeper , and her outward orb thicker by far , than was the earth's ( to make such prodigiously lofty hills ) and so that she was very much larger than the earth : the contrary to which is most true and manifest . or , lastly , ( which is the case ) that her mountains were not the effects of her dissolution ( which she never suffered ; ) but her native features , and such as she has worn ever since her creation . but then why should it not be so with the earth likewise ? or how can it be otherwise ? for were it granted , that the mountains of both did at first arise ( as the theory would have them ) from the falling in of their respective exterior orbs ; it would be hard to assign reasons , why mountains in the moon , should be four times higher than any on the earth ; when the globe of the earth , is above forty times bigger than that of the moon . . and that mountains were in being before the flood , and so could not result from the falling in of the earth ; we may learn , in some measure , from the talmudists , even while they teach what is phanciful and extravagant . for they report , that many giants saved themselves from the flood upon mount sion . and iosephus intimates such another tradition out of nicolaus damascenus : a there is above minyada , a great mountain in armenia , called baris , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. to which many flying in the time of the flood , are said to have escaped . as for the first of these reports , it is wholly fabulous ; nor can it be otherwise as being repugnant to scripture and reason . the other , though certainly false in the gross , may yet have somewhat of truth in it , as being a broken account of the preservation of noah and his family , and the story of their deliverance mangled and disguised . for it being commonly believed , that the ark rested upon the mountains of armenia ; and that the old world being drowned , the new one was peopled by men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as lucian's word is ) of a second stock , that came down from thence : this might give occasion to that formal fiction of a multitude flying to baris , and of their being saved there . now though one of these traditions be absolutely false , and the other a truth perverted and misrepresented ; yet such things being talkt of in times of old , and at last put in writing , they do fairly witness what the thoughts of men were in former ages , as to this matter ; and that it was a current perswasion among them ( who lived much nearer to the first world ) that there were mountains before the deluge . and such another piece of confused forgery ( out of sacred story corrupted ) occurs in a clemens alexandrinus . he took it out of plato , and it speaks of a flood to come . but then again when the gods drown the earth , purging it with waters ; the herdmen and shepherds shall be saved on the mountains ; while they that are with us in cities , are carried by torrents into the sea. and that this was a fragment or lame kind of excerption out of the holy oracles ; the father himself signifies . for he presently indites the greek philosophers of pilfering , and draws up this smart charge against them ; that they were a pack of ingrateful thieves , who filched , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the chief of their opinions from moses and the prophets . and if this flood had not been greatly mistaken as to time , and so the story of it set with its face the wrong way , it would have looked directly upon what we are asserting , and given countenance to it . for then the flood here mentioned , must have been that of noah ; and the mountains of refuge for the herdmen and shepherds , must have been extant in the first world. it is well known also , that many of the learned ancients have taught , that paradise was situate upon high mountains . and according to that doctrine , there must be mountains at the very first . and however some eminent writers are of opinion , that the mountains were neither so many nor great before , as since the deluge ; yet none , i think , ever excluded them wholly , till then . and i durst appeal to the theorist himself , if ever he met with any , that held the earth was without an open sea. yet as many as suppose such a sea in nature , suppose mountains too ; and ●tis necessary they should as himself confesseth . the consequence of which will be , that no authority is to be brought , or heard , against the being of mountains before the flood ; but such as is express against open seas . and then i presume we may search long enough , before we find one . i will only add that traditional story which is told of adam ; namely , how that after his fall , and when he repented of his sin , he bewailed it for several hundreds of years , upon the mountains of india . another plain intimation that there were mountains in the beginning of the world. . nor is it hard to conceive how they should be made then , as well in-land ones , as others . and that in such a way ( to humour philosophy ) as nature might have a considerable stroke in the work. for though it be not for us exactly to understand the manner of god's proceedings in this case ( whose ways in forming the mountains , as well as in other things , are past finding out ; and for men to offer at a clear and certain explication of their rise , would be arrogant presumption ; as if the nut-shell of their phancy , could contain the ocean of the divine methods ) yet with humblest adoration of the almighty's infinite power and wisdom , and acknowledgment that he could , and 't is like , did produce them another way ; i will venture to guess he might do it thus . but i only hint , what it would require a large discourse , to make out and confirm in every particular . the earth , when it was first created , lay under water ( as the infallible word informs us ) till the third day ; and on that day , the waters were gathered into one place . the alveus , that is , or hollow of the sea being prepared , by god's pressing down the ground ( suppose ) lower there , than it was in other places ; the waters fell violently into that cavity . and as they were carried thither in a natural course , while by the force of their weight they rolled downward : so they were help'd by a power supernatural ; 't is like by the influence of that blessed spirit , who moved upon them when they were first brought forth . otherwise perhaps they could not have been so drained off the earth in one day , as that the dry land should have appeared . now the earth , by this collection of the waters into one place , being freed from the load and pressure of them , and laid open to the sun ; the moisture within it , by the heat of his beams , might quickly be turned into vapours . and these vapours being still increased by the continued rarefying warmth from above ; at length they wanted space wherein to expand or dilate themselves . and at last not enduring the con●inements they felt , by degrees heaved up the earth above ; somewhat after the manner that leaven does dough , when it is laid by a fire ; but much more forcibly and unevenly . and lifting it up thus in numberless places , and in several quantities , and into various figures ; mountains were made of all shapes and sizes . thus we may conceive the in-land ones were produced ; which in some countries were more , and in some fewer ; in some bigger , and in some lesser ; in some higher , and in some lower ; in some again earlier , and in some later : according as the nature of the soil , the vapours under it , and the sun above it , contributed and concurred to the raising of them . and how a ridge or chain of hills might be blown up at once , as well as one single one ; how mountains should be hollow at the roots , and in their higher parts , and full of caverns ; how in time they might be dried , hardened , and turned into stone in a great measure ; how some of them , through their weight and hollowness , might break and fall ; and in their hideous fragments and disorderly postures , represent the ruines of an earth sunk into an abyss : and others might be eaten and worn away by time and weather , especially by that weather in time of the flood ; and so become rough and craggy , and surprizingly horrid and frightful things will be obvious , or at least intelligible , to thinking and philosophic minds . and that mountains might be brought forth thus at first , or raised in the way we speak of , will seem more likely still , in case we consider how hills oftentimes have been thrown up by earthquakes : where though the causes were not the same , they were very like them , or analogous to them . the earth also at first , was most disposed or liable to these effects ; i mean , to have mountains made out of it . for then the soil ( being destin'd and prepar'd to be the common seminium , seed-plat and nursery ●f all sorts of vegetables , and of some living creatures ) was soft , and light , and unctuous ; and so of a very yielding nature . the pores of it also were then close shut up , as having never been opened by sun or winds . by which means the vapours imprisoned in it having no manner of vent ; when they became strong enough ( by their daily increase ) might easily cast up huge quantities of ground thereby to free themselves , and get loose from under them . nor need we wonder , that sometimes a valley betwixt two hills , should be lower than the common surface of the earth . for the matter of those hills being spewed up from under that tract between them ; the ground must there sink down in proportion , to ●ill up the emptied space beneath , and so fall lower down than the rest of the earth . and for the same reason , or others like it , many places in the sea may be exceeding deep , and seem to go down into a perfect abyss as it were , or a bottomless profundity . and we must note , that though but only part of the earth be mountainous , yet little or none of it is exactly level ; as being every where heaved up by the forementioned causes , more or less . and therefore the smoothest plains , that appear to the eye to be very even , are not really so . only this we may observe , concerning them , that when horse-men travel over them , the ground being struck with the feet of the beasts , yields a kind of sound . which shews that the earth in those plains , is much in that posture , into which the sun and vapours did at first raise it ; loose , that is , and porous , and somewhat hollow . whereas amongst hills and dales it yields no such noise , when beaten with such tramplings . and the reason is clear , because it being ●lung up , and fallen down , and altered and transposed by eructations and sinkings ; it has so been driven closer and made more compact . and then as to maritime hills , or those near the sea , when the ground was crushed down by the hand of omnipotence , to make a receptacle for the water ; it is easie to conceive how they should fly up at the sides of seas , or not far from them . as also how hills should be highest in those countries , about which seas are deepest . for the ground in the adjacent , or not far distant seas , being sunk very low , and forced to give way very much ; it might well crowd out and thrust up a great height , about the shores , or in the adjoyning regions . nor is it to be thought , that when so great a part of the surface of the earth was pressed down , that the ground should struggle out at the brinks of the ocean only , and in some considerable distance from the shores : much of it would recoil from under the compression in th● sea it self , and fly up irregularly in innumerable places , where it could best do it . and hence might come banks in the sea stretcht out ( as mountains are on the land ) to extraordinary lengths . as also rocks , and flats , and shelves without number . nor must this be omitted , that all the mountains of the earth , if raised according to this conjecture , will have no reason to hold proportion in bulk to the cavity of the ocean . a thing which the common hypothesis of their formation implys , and which lies as a main objection against it . for thus the in-land mountains would not be made out of the sea at all . nor would the whole quantity of earth , which at first filled up the cavity of the sea , be cast out into the maritime hills ; but most of it be squeezed and forced down deeper into the bowels of the earth . thus also islands might be made ( to take a short step out of the way we are in ; ) i mean such as are not of the largest size ; whether they be distant from all continents , as the canaries , azores , hesperides , and others in the atlantic ocean ; or such as lie in whole fries by the main-lands-side , as they do in several places of the world. though many of this latter sort , might be raised out of mud or dirt , descending in great plenty out of rivers . so were the echinades in the ionian sea , just before the mouth of the river achelous . or else they might be made by the flowing of the waters into the sea , when they were first drawn off the surface of the earth . for then they running furiously down into the pit , which providence had fitted and appointed for them , might wear away the ground about the verge thereof ; and eating into its superficies by the violence of their course , might divide it into a multitude of little apartments : which afterward when the sea was filled , might be petty islands about its coasts ; as the philippines , for instance , and others in the oriental seas , which stand in whole sholes , even thousands of them together against china and india . whirlepools also by the same means might be made in the sea ( as well as chanels for rivers underground by land ) for the earth being pressed down deep in some places , and thereby forced to ascend in others ; kind of arched vaults might so be formed . which leading out of one sea ( or one part of a sea ) into another ; the waters flowing through them , cause those voragines , or gulfs at the top where they enter their subterraneous pipes or passages . many of which gulfs are so strong , that they suck in and swallow up whatever comes into them . but to return , we need no more wonder at the greatness or number of mountains made ( in this method ) on the earth ; than at the gran●●losity or ruggedness in the rind of an orange . and as the mountains in truth bear no more proportion to the earth's dimensions , than those little pimples do to the fruit we speak of ; so they and in-land mountains both , may proceed from causes not altogether unlike . though now those causes as to the earth are so debilitated and wasted , that they are unable to produce the like effects . particularly that slatuous moisture , wherewith at first it did abound , and might be put into it on purpose to make it heave in general into necessary inequalities ; and in places to ascend into mighty hills ; is spent and gone . and we have no more reason to expect that the earth should ordinarily send forth mountains now ; than that a dead ripe orange pluckt off the tree , should break out into such wheals or wens , as we see upon some . . one argument for mountains in the first world , is yet behind , which shall end this chapter . there were metals in the world ; and these , as all know , are now found at the roots of mountains . and they being the places whence they are digged now , it is a shrewd presumption they ever lodg'd in the same . indeed the very generating them in the exterior region of the earth , does necessarily suppose cavities in it . and cavities under-ground , do as necessarily infer inequalities above it . and here * the theory will receive another wound ( perhaps an incurable one ) in its hypothesis . i mean where it makes the antediluvian earth * all smooth and even without mountains ; all solid ( to the abyss ) without caves or holes . but therefore to shun this great inconvenience , it fairly consents to the abolishing of metals out of the first state of nature . † some moreover add to what has been said , that in the first nature there were no minerals or metals : who according to our hypothesis , i think , want not their reasons . but this is out of the frying-pan , into the fire . for thus the fidelity of moses is assaulted , and another intolerable affront put upon the holy ghost . for do not both inform us , that the city enoch was built , and the ark prepared before the flood ? but how cloud either be done without iron tools ? some barbarous people , i have been told , do strange feats in way of architecture , by sharp stones : but the theory allows not so much as * greater loose stones , or rough p●bbles in the primitive earth . so that if they had not instruments of iron , the men of that age , could never have compassed the works aforesaid . yet all such instruments are positively excluded by the theory , in these words , † nor were there of old , instruments belonging to war or bvildings . nor need we wonder there should not , when there were no materials whereof they could be made . nor could there be such materials , when the world afforded neither mines nor metals . nor could the world afford either of them , when it was not possible the earth should yield them . and that it was not possible for the earth to yield them , the theory again does implicitly affirm where it says that the first world was * wholly artificial , and that the furniture or provision of things which it had , was not of such as were bred , but of such as were made . but the worst is still behind . tubal-cain , as heaven assures us , was an † instructer of every artificer in brass and iron , gen. . . yet the theorist professeth ( and that in the second publication of his hypothesis , after he had time to consider well ) * as for subterraneous things , metals and minerals , i believe they had none in the first earth : and the happier they ; no gold , nor silver , nor courser metalls . but then how tubal-cain could learn his trade himself , and teach it unto others ; must be a riddle too hard for oedipus to untie . or else , which is the very truth , this assertion of the theory must be notoriously false ; and not only ●latly , but loudly contradictory to the most express word of the infallible god. this alone ( should all that has been said besides fail ) is enough to blow up , and finally to explode this new hypothesis of the earth's formation : i mean , as it shews its great incongruity not only to scripture , but also to philosophy . for had the earth been originally framed , as that teacheth it was ; then grant there could have been a metallic region in that part of it under the water ; yet that metals , or matter for any one of them , should ever have ascended through the abyss , into the upper crust of the first earth ; would have been utterly impossible . and therefore that egregious philosopher des-cartes makes this the reason why metals are not found in all places of the earth ; quia per aquas evehi non possunt ; because they cannot be carried or drawn up through the subterraneous waters . princ. part . . § . . chap. xi . . that there were open seas before the flood , made evident from scripture . . such seas necessary then as receptacles for great fishes . . the abyss being no fit place for them . . a farther confirmation of open seas . . an objection against them , answered . . another objection answered . . a third answered . . he that from the clifts about it , or in sailing through it , beholds and contemplates the watry ocean : that views it ( so far as eyes and thoughts can reach ) in the stateliness of its depth and wide expansion : that considers what vast and numberless rivers it continually drinks up , and yet is never the fuller for all these accessions : how far it extends its ceruleous arms , and how much it disgorges at millions of mouths , and yet is never the emptier for all its profusions : that sees its incessant and unwearied motions , and how it ebbs and flows with haughty and incontrollable reciprocations : that observes how it surges with every wind , and surlily swells upon every storm ; and lifting up tumid scornful waves , foams as angry at its disturbance : that marks how it frets and rages in a tempest , and rolls it self up into liquid mountains , as if it thr●atned to mingle floods with the clouds , or in a pang of indignation to qu●nch the stars , or wash down those lights hanged out by heaven . he that gazeth on the spatious seas , or revolves such thoughts as these of it in his mind , would be amazed to think that so immense an element was once lockt up in a vault under ground , and wonder where the earth should have cellerage to hold it . he would scarce believe , that so proud , and strong , and furious a monster , could be kept in chains ; or was ever so tame as to be coop'd up contentedly in a subterraneous cave . he would hardly be perswaded , that it could be made to hide its head in an hole beneath ; and to lie quiet and still in a nightsom dungeon where for many ages it never saw the sun. but how odd and unco●th soever it may seem , yet thus it was , says this hypothesis . the same primary assertion of it , that says , the exterior face of the first earth , was smooth and uniform , without mountains ; says also , it was without a sea. all that prodigious mass of waters , which imagination ( as comprehensive as it is ) knows not well how to measure , was once shut up in an invisible cell ; and being clapt under hatches , lay incognito as long as the first world stood . not a drop of it appeared all that while , but what strained forth by evaporation ; or transpired through the pores of the thick skin'd earth , when by the heat of the sun it was put into a sweat . as for the main body of the waters , they lurked and hid themselves in a secret gro●●o ; nor could they be brought to quit their latent dwellings , or to look forth of their close and dark retirements ; till the roof of their lodgings f●ll in upon them , and justled them out of their mansions , to make room for it self . but against this , there lies the usual exception ; namely , that it fights with the holy scripture . for that informs us , that when god made adam , he gave him dominion over the fish of the sea. but according to this assertion of the theory , adam never saw the sea , nor one fish in it , all his life long , though it lasted well nigh a thousand years : and so , impossible it was , that he should have or exercise such a dominion . and it is farther considerable , that adam's dominion over the sea , was not only granted him by patent from heaven : but moreover was part of god's image which was stamped on him . whereinsoever the whole did consist , this , i say , seems to have been part of the impress . for god said , let us make man in our image , after our likeness , and let him have dominion ●ver the fish of the sea , gen. . . and so , to shut up the sea within the earth till the flood , is to deny to men a part of that empire , wherewith their maker was pleased to invest them ; and to deprive them of a piece of his glorious image which he put upon them . for none could share fully in the one or the other ; but they who lived after the general deluge . if it be said , that men at length were made lords of the seas ( as soon , that is , as they were open ) and had power over the fish therein ; and so the word spoken by their creator , was sufficiently verified ; and the prerogative promised , amply conferred : i answer , first , the divine word was never made good to adam , nor was that high prerogative bestowed on him . yet he being the head of mankind , had reason to be instated in all the privileges of humane nature , which god annexed to it , or settled upon it , as such . secondly , adam's off-spring ( as many as lived and died before the ●lood ) did no more partake of this priviledge , than he himself . thirdly , the rule or dominion over seas and fish , intended for adam and his posterity ; was immediately conveyed to them . even at the same time that dominion was given to them , over fowle , and cattle , and creeping things . and therefore we find it transferred by the same act , and in the very same form of donation . only dominion over the sea was first mentioned ; which is no sign that it was last to be attained . the royal charter , by which they claim and hold the prerogative , testifies as much : it runs as followeth , and god said , let us make man in our image , after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over the cattle , and over all the earth , and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth , gen. . . and again ver . . have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowl of the air , and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth . so that admit nothing of god's similitude imprinted upon man , did consist in this dominion ; yet let any judge , whether god did not intend hereby to pass unto men , as full a dominion over the fish ; as over other creatures . as also whether they were presently to have and exercise this dominion ; or to be suspended from it for above sixteen hundred years . that they had dominion over the fowl , and over the cattle , and over the creeping things ; from the beginning ; i dare say the theorist himself will not deny . and how then can he bar them from it over the fish till after the flood ? especially it being the first thing in order in the sacred grant. which clause , had they been kept from the benefit of it so long ; would not only have been quite eluded , but miserably inverted . for then ins●ead of mankind●s having dominion over the sea ; that would have had dominion , and a most tyrannical one too , over them . insomuch that the very first time they should have seen it , it would have drowned them all , even a whole world of them , save eight persons . . and that there should be open seas even from the creation ; seems very necessary upon the fishes account . for when god gave them the blessing of multiplication ( endued them , that is , with appetite of generation , and power of propagating their kinds respectively ) he commanded them to fill ( not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great deep , or abyss , but ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the waters in the seas . and therefore seas there must be in the beginning of things ; else fishes could not have replenish'd them with their breed . and indeed some kind of fishes there were , that could be no where conveniently , but in seas ; as being too big for rivers . for on the same day that other fishes were made , god created huge whales also ; passing the same benediction upon them , as he did upon those . i confess , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , does signifie other creatures , as well as whales : but the word , denoting them amongst the rest , that will be enough for our purpose . for animals they were of so vast dimensions , that where could they harbour but in spacious seas ? * aelian reckons up several sorts of them : as the leo , libella , pardalis , physalus , pristes , and maltha . which last he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a creature hard to be conquered . to which he adds the aries , most mischievous and dangerous to be seen . for when he appears a far off , he troubles the sea , and makes it tempestuous . but then he notes withal , that these fishes come not near to shores or shallows ; but keep constantly in the deeps . and the same * author remembers , that theocles speaks of whales 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bigger than galleys of three banks of oars on a side . and that onesicritus and orthagoras wrote of whales about india , half a furlong long , and of proportionable breadth ; and so very strong , that oftentimes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when they puffed with their snouts , they would spout up the water at such a rate ; that the unexperienced would take the seas to be tossed with whirl-winds . nor need we wonder at the excessive size of these whales , when pliny † gives account , that king iuba ( in books sent to claudius caesar , touching the history of arabia ) makes mention of some that were six hundred feet long , and three hundred and sixty , broad . and the same pliny speaks of balaenae in the indian ocean , as long as four acres of ground . mercator also in his description of island , besides other huge fishes , tells of the royder , and hundred and thirty ells long . and of a great kind of whale seldom seen , like an island , for magnitude , rather than a fish. as also of the stantus valur , which , when it shows it self , seems an island , for bigness , and overturns ships with its fins . now where could fishes of such prodigious greatness , move and multiply , but in vast and open seas ? * am i a sea , or a whale ? said iob. he put them together , as having special relation to one another . and truly if in the beginning , there were such monstrous whales , there must be seas answerable to them . and that the whales at first created , were as large as any , we need not question . for as it became the almighty to send forth them in their full perfection , as well as other creatures : so to convince us that he did so , he bestowed the epithet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , upon them , calling them , great whales , gen. . . so that could there have been rivers , or lakes in the first earth sutable to other fishes ; yet these mighty ones would have been too big for them . . what remains therefore , but that the only place of aboad which ( according to this new hypothesis ) can be allowed these bulky creatures ( though it does not allot it to them ) must be the subterraneous abyss ? and then the waters in that abyss ( how improperly soever ) must be the waters in the seas , wherein they were to live and multiply , according to the divine blessing and appointment . but that abyss ( though of a meet capaciousness ) could by no means have been a fit dwelling for them , upon several accounts . for , first , it would have been a place exceeding dark , full of perpetual and blackest midnight . neither sun , nor moon , nor stars , could ever have lookt into it ; or darted so much as one bright beam into the pitchy recesses of it . so that besides the loss they would have been at for p●ey , how could they have seen to direct their motions ? having no manner of light at any time to guide them ? so that upon occasion , they must have r●n at tilt upon one another ; and being inclosed between two earths , would have been in danger of stranding themselves both above and below . secondly , it would have been a place as close , as it was dark . and therefore what shift should they have made for air ? i think i may say for breath . for as for whales and other fishes that have lungs ; † pliny says , it is fully resolved by all writers , that they breathe . and his opinion it is , that all water-creatures do the same , after their manner . in proof of which , he offers several arguments not to be despised . as their panting , yawning , hearing , smelling , &c. to which add their dying upon being frozen up for any time . or if they be alive , their greedy flying to any little hole made in the ice , whereat the air enters . but in the abyss they could have had neither air nor breath ; and so for lack of the same , must all have been smothered . lastly , it would have been a place as cold , as it was dark and close . for the same cover of earth ( of unknown thickness ) that would have hindred light and air from piercing into the abyss ; must have kept out the suns cherishing and benign warmth too . so that could they have struggled with , and overcome the two first inconveniences ; yet here they would have met with a third , insuperable . could they have lived without light and breath ; yet they could not have multiplied without the influence of heaven . the want of that , would have chil'd and quench'd the desires of procreation in them , and rendered them impotent that way . thus , winter , we see , is no season for production of fishes ; as being destitute of that quickning power and encouragement , which the presence of the sun affords . . farther yet . that there were seas in the beginning , even on the third day ; we are taught , gen. . . god called the dry land , earth ; and the gathering together of the waters , called he , seas . and why should they not be such seas as we have now ? for we have no more grounds to think or say , that the waters there mentioned , were an invisible , potential , or proleptic sea ; than we have to imagine or affirm , that the dry land there spoken of , was an invisible , potential , or proleptic earth . and that there were open seas then , may be argued from the waters we read of under the firmament , gen. . , . and god said , let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters , and let it divide the waters from the waters . and god made the firmament , and divided the waters which were vnder the firmament , from the waters which were above the firmament . but had there been none but river-waters in the first world , and not such an open and huge collection of waters , as we now see : the firmament could not so properly have been said , to divide the waters from the waters . for then it must rather have been in the midst betwixt the earth and the waters ; and so must have divided the earth from the waters ; the earth which was under the firmament , from the waters above it . for as for the river-waters , they would have been too inconsiderable , to have had the partition made by the firmament , predicated of them in exclusion of the earth , or in preference to it . it would have been as if the king should have said , let a wall be built betwixt the thames and the conduits of london , to part them ; without taking any notice at all of the city , which is infinitely more remarkable than the conduits are . but therefore the theory presents us with a new notion of the firmament , and makes it to be quite another thing , than what it has always been said to be ; namely , that cortex or outward region of earth , spread and founded upon the abyss . and so the waters of the abyss under that earth , must be the waters under the firmament . i cite but two paragraphs to this purpose . a any one at the first view might be able to guess , that this exterior frame which god establisht upon the abyss , is to be understood by that firmament , which god is said to have establisht between the waters below and above , gen. . . & . and again , b as to the firmament between the waters , it was a remarkable phaenomenon of the first earth , or rather the first habitable orb it self , which every way encompassed and shut up the abyss ; and so divided the waters above , from those below . but this truly is so far from giving any satisfaction , that it will rather bring the whole hypothesis to confusion : i mean , while thus it runs against scripture again , and that most directly and shamefully . for the ( firmamentum interaqueum ) firmament that divided the waters ; was so far from being a frame or an orb of earth , or the first habitable earth , that ( as the divinest spirit tells us ) it was that wherein the fowls were to fly , which yet were to fly above the earth , gen. . . yea , in that very verse it is said to be the firmament of heaven . and by god himself is stiled , heaven ; god called the firmament , heaven , ver . . even that very firmament which divided the waters ; as we learn from the two foregoing verses . and therefore the waters under the firmament , in the seventh verse ; are said in the ninth verse , to be the waters , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , under the heavens . i confess , the theorist twits us for understanding by the firmament what we commonly do ; calling it an a vnphilosophic thing . but i forbear to retort . it is enough to shew that the advantage lies so much on our side , and that the ingenious philosopher is so utterly lost in his notion . and since to make the earth before the flood , to be this firmament , is so impossible ; as being manifestly repugnant to the truth of god : what remains but that it should be that diaphanous expansum stretched out betwixt us and the clouds ? which as it is constituted of air chiefly ; so it is the place wherein fowls do fly , according as providence was pleased to appoint . and to seal up this for a certain truth , it is known that the hebrews have no other word whereby to express , air , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heaven , or firmament . only whereas this aereous expansion extends from hence to the cloudy regions ( where are the wates above the firmament ; and therefore are called * waters , above the heavens ) we must note that there is another firmament mention'd by moses . i mean that expanse of indefinite vastness , wherein the celestial lights are fixed : for as we read , gen. . . god set them in the firmament of heaven . but then this aereous space we speak of , being the true firmament ; this proves there were open seas at first . else ( as was said before ) this firmament must have divided the waters from the earth ; whose surface ( bating a few rivulets ) would have been entire under it : but could not so properly have divided the waters above the firmament , from the waters under it ; because the waters under the firmament would have been in no united body , and of no join'd or continuous superficies ; but ( to grant what the theory supposeth ) dispersed in rivers running on the earth , which would have been one huge unbroken continent . yea , and in a considerable tract of ground around this earth , there would not have been so much as one rill of water neither ; even according to the theory it self , allowing its hydrography . . but here we meet with opposition upon several accounts . as first , if open seas were the waters under the firmament , in the primitive state of things ; then the clouds must be the waters above the firmament : but against this it is objected thus : * if nothing be understood by the celestial waters , or waters above the firmament , but the clouds and the middle region of the air as it is at present : methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing , as to deserve a particular commemoration by moses , in his six days work . to which i take leave to answer , that the clouds , how contemptible soever they may seem , are no whit unworthy to be specified or remembred by that famous writer in his cosmopoeia , or story of the worlds creation . and this will appear if we rightly consider but two things concerning them ; their dimensions , and their vsefulness . first , look to their dimensions . who can tell what vast and mighty things they are ? to what length and breadth do they stretch out themselves ? and how do they cover whole kingdoms at once with their shady canopies ? and then they are of answerable thickness too . so that interposing betwixt the sun and us , they oftentimes turn day into night almost , by intercepting his light . which in the holy philosophy , as an act of providence , is thus ascribed to god. with clouds he covereth the light , and commandeth it by that which cometh betwixt , iob . . sometimes they mount up and fly aloft , as if they forgat or disdain'd the meanness of their origin , and scorn'd to be thought of earthly extraction . sometimes again they sink and stoop so low , as if they repented of their former proud aspirings , and did remorseful humble penance for their high presumption . and though i may not say they weep to expiate their arrogance , or kiss the earth with bedewed cheeks in token of their penitence ; yet they often prostrate in the dust , and sweep the very lowest grounds of all , with their misty foggy trains . one while they are spread thin and single over us ; another while they are doubled , trebled , and strangely pil'd up or whelm'd one upon another : or else built with stories as it were , and made into several concamerations . and therefore they are said to be , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his ( that is god's ) chambers , psal. . , . now , they look like ridges of hills in our horizon : anon , like a row or chain of rocks : and by and by they hang like pendulous mountains , or swim like floating islands in the aiery ocean . here , they pour down abundance of rain ; and there , as much hail : in one place , they scatter sleet ; in another , deep snow , and that for many hundreds of leagues together . to say nothing of those glorious things the rain-bow , parelia's , paraselenes , &c. thunder also is from the clouds . and yet it is a thing so very considerable , that god himself calls it his voice , in the psalms ; yea , his mighty voice , and also his glorious or majestic voice . so much power , and glory , and majesty is there in it , that it strikes awe and terror into the hearts of the best , as well as of the greatest . and certainly ( the righteous being bold as a lion ) it was a greater sign of its dreadfulness , that a good man's heart should tremble and be moved out of its place , at this voice of god's excellency , iob . than that the roman emperor should run under his bed. thus the clouds appear to be strangely capacious vessels , or store-houses rather of meteor provisions . and yet ( which is admirable ) when they are never so large , and never so thick ; never so full , and never so heavy ; and ( as one would think ) should load the air with inconceivable gravitation : yet they do not fall down and crush us to pieces , or bury us alive under mountains of ice . no , they bear up as lightly , and drive on as swiftly through the yielding sky , as if they had no kind of weightiness in them . and to whatsoever philosophy may impute this ( as to their being always in motion ; their being turgid with vapours ; to the thickconsistency of the air under them , or the like ) the thing is really and greatly to be wondered at . and therefore pliny considering it , was struck with admiration , and cry'd out as in a pang of rapture or surprize ; * quid mirabilius aquis in coelo stantibus ? what is more wonderful than the waters standing in the air ? and well might he think it a marvellous phaenomenon , when the ballancings of the clouds are said by the almighty to be his own works ; and not only so , but the wondrous works of him , as he is perfect in knowledge , job . . in which regard , the etymology of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavens , is not unfitly fetcht from , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be astonish'd , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ waters . quòd stupendo modo aquae illic suspensae haereant : because waters hang there in an astonishing manner , says buxtorf . but why then should they be thought so despicable by the theorist , as to be unworthy of a particular commemoration by moses ? they cannot be so , if , in the second place , we consider their vsefulness . they are so far from being wholly superfluous , or purely ornamental things ; that they are highly beneficial or vseful , three ways . that is to say , for the earth , for mercy , and for correction . the distinction is * iob's ; and therefore so authentic , that we need not scruple to go upon it . first , they are vseful for the earth . as they contribute greatly to the preservation of it ; to preserving it in a good and verdant state. if the same great god whose powerful goodness brought the world into being , and fixt it in a regular and curious order ; did not by a wise and gracious manutenency ( exerted chiefly in a well contrived disposition and concatenation of things , linkt to one another by a continued chain of just connexion and dependence ) hold them fast together ; they would soon shatter and dissolve into saddest confusion . for though the machin of the universe , be as august , as it is immense ; yet were it not for the accurate symmetry of its parts , so skilfully fitted and connected amongst themselves and for the mutual support which one piece derives and affords to another , by means of that necessary and elegant contexture , which runs through the whole habit or compages thereof ; it would immediately fall asunder , and rush into an heap of irreparable ruines . its motions in some places would flag and faulter ; and in others grown as much too fierce and violent : and so through unhappy deficiencies and redundancies of motion ( that commonly change and destroy nature ) post into innumerable disorders and intanglements ; and so become a most lamentably hampered thing , eternally devoid of all beauty and harmony . and the very same would happen to the earth in its proportion . it is now a very goodly piece , and incomparably furnisht and adorned . there are few places in it but afford taking prospects , or present the eye with such pretty objects ; that if the beholders be not too incurious , they may well be affected with them . herbs , flowers , trees , fruits , springs , brooks , rivers , &c. with what variety , and in what abundance does it send forth ? but yet let the clouds we speak of , with-hold their moisture but a few years ; and what a rueful change would then appear ? the choicest grounds which now swell with plenty , and luxuriate with fatness and pleasing gayeties ; would be miserably exhausted , and their tempting amoenities turned into horridness . they would be quite devested of their florid attire , and of all their rich and gorgeous habiliments . yea , not only their wanton gawdy dresses , but even their coarsest and most ordinary cloaths would be ●indg'd off their backs : and being stript of their decent necessary garments , would have nothing le●t to cover their nakedness . we live in an island , where ( according to st. peter's phrase ) the earth stands in the waters and out of the waters , more than in other places . yet , as much water as we have about us , should the clouds be unkind , and deny us their effusio●s ; to what grievous straits should we soon be reduced ? we may justly conclude so , from what has happen'd by some short droughts amongst us ; the effects of which are found upon record in our english chronicles . and if a little dry weather be intolerable to us , who dwell so near the seas , and have neptune's territories round about us ; how extreamly pernicious must lasting droughts be , to higher or more in-land situations ? but therefore the first vse of the clouds , is to keep the earth in a flourishing condition . to temper the immoderate heat of the sun , and to asswage his scorching fury . to moisten the air , and keep it cool ; and to cool the earth by keeping it moist . that so once in a year at least it might put on its bravery , and be deckt and array'd in its prideless gallantry ; the image of its native finery , and those higher glories , wherewith at first it was better beautified and imbellisht . and therefore when god brings the clouds over it , to perform their work of natural distillation ; he is said to do it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for hiz earth ; in the quoted text. because the earth is his , and because it might continue to be like his ; that is , comely and graceful . whereas if clouds by their waters should not refresh it , in a short time it would scarce be fit to be owned for god's earth . it would be so fear and bare , and barren and desolate ; that it would hardly look like a piece of his workmanship . yea , so parched would it be , and so dry would it grow , and such heats would it conceive from the inflaming sun ; that it would be forced to anticipate its final destiny , by burning , in good measure , before the conflagration . secondly , the clouds are vseful for mercy . they do not keep the earth from desolation , and help to maintain it in a condition good and flourishing , upon its own account only , but upon ours also . that so we may be fed , and cloathed , and furnished , with its valuable products , and the fruits of its increase . the psalmist ( if we would read this in holy stile ) expresses it thus : † thou visitest the earth and blessest it , thou makest it very plenteous . thou waterest her furrows , thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof ; thou makest it soft with the drops of rain , and blessest the increase of it . thou crownest the year with thy goodness , and thy clouds drop fatness . they shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness , and the little hills shall rejoice on every side . the folds shall be full of sheep , the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn , that they shall laugh and sing . and in another place . * he watereth the hills from above , the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works . he bringeth forth grass for the cattle , and green herb for the service of man. that he may bring food out of the earth , and wine that maketh glad the heart of man , and oyl to make him a chearful countenance , and bread to strengthen man's heart . but this is not all the mercy which showrs down from the clouds . they drop an higher mercy on us still . i mean as they are an argument , and a mighty argument , against the black and cursed sin of atheism . for being notable instruments of divine providence , they so bear witness in a powerful manner to the existence of a god. and therefore when as great a disputant as ever entered the christian schools ( except the adorable master of them ) would have reasoned men into an acknowledgment of the true god ; he argued from this very topic , the clouds ; or ( which is all one ) from the rain they afforded . yea , he told them plainly , that god himself made use of it as an evidence , to prove and attest his own being . he left not himself without witness , in that he gave us rain , acts . . and truly he that shall consider all the phaenomena's of this meteor , and trace it along from its rise or generation , to its fall and profitable effects upon the earth ; will find it of singular force to evince a deity . as for the causes , nature , and qualities of rain ; the way of its production , the manner of its distillation , &c. the apostle urged them not : he knew those things were too high for the men of lystra . but then he pressed them with the thing another way , more suitable to their capacity ; namely , as rain was a means of the earth's being fruitful . he gave us rains and fruitful seasons . pursue it but on this part , and how powerful an argument or testimony will it be , of the existence of a god ? i mean , as it will appear to be a wonderful instrument , exactly sitted for its appointed work ; and as it manifests a strange providential contrivance , in adapting it , in point of congruity and ability , to be the excellent cause of such signal effects . for suppose the most understanding man , as to that concern , in the whole world ; had woods and nurseries , and orchards and gardens , and fields and pastures , to be watered : how would he chuse to have it done , so as it might be most for their , and consequently for his own advantage ? why , in the same way we shall find it done by the clouds , only better and indeed so much better , that it will be very hard , if not impossible , for art to match it by any invention . a certain indication , that a more than ordinary or humane wisdom , is interessed in the affair . that the clouds were made , that is , and also are managed by a god ; whose infinite wisdom indu'd them with that nature , and placed them in that order , and put them in that capacity of serving us as they do . so incomparably , that is , as no wit of man can mend their method . for let the skilfullest , i say , chuse at what rate he would have his grounds to be watered ; and then see if the clouds commonly come not up to his rules , and exceed them too in what is fit to be done . first , we may be sure he would appoint the best kind of water to be used . and what water so fit for all sorts of plants , as that which descends from the clouds above ? for considering how it is raised by the exhalative influence of the sun , it can have nothing of saltness , acrimony , or deadness in it ; nor yet of starving thinness nor coldness neither ; but must be as light , and unctuous and spirituous , as that element , when simple , can well be ; and by vertue of its sutable qualities and consistency , be most proper for invigorating the seminals of all things . and then being drawn up from all parts of the earth almost ; as simple as it seems to be , there must needs be very great mixture in it . i mean , though it be all water , yet it must be a compound of all waters as it were ; as being an extract of all sorts of moisture that the earth affords in its several regions . whence it follows , that all sorts of plants must find something in it ( it being originally in part derived perhaps from the countries in which they grow ) highly agreeable to themselves ; as consisting of particles fit to enter them , and easie to be turned into their substance . which being suckt up by them , and drained by exquisite percolation through their fine digestive pores ; immediately becomes sap ( which is the plantal chyle or blood ) for their nourishment and accretion . secondly , without question he would have these waterings seasonably performed . and here the clouds are most kind to vegetables again ; and by a regular method answer their necessities . for they yield both former and latter rains. such as may cherish them while they are young and make them grow ; and strengthen them as they grow , and carry them on to perfection . whereas if all these rains should fall at first , the tender springals would come to nothing ; as being surfeited with too much moisture , and the principle of their life irrecoverably chill'd , if not extinguisht . and if all should pour down upon them at last , the showres would be to no purpose . for coming too late , they would be in vain : especially as to all frugiferous things ; which being shrunk and stunted with immoderate exiccation , would be unable to yield their kindly products . thirdly , we need not doubt but he would have his grounds watered in a gentle manner . and this , i may say , the clouds do unimitably . sometimes with dewy mists ; sometimes with greater , sometimes with lesser , commonly with soft and moderate showres . whereas should they discharge themselves in extravagant quantities ; they would wash up the weaker , and beat down the stronger plants ; and by their too free and impetuous defluxions , be extreamly injurious , if not fatal to both . and can we think that what we have noted already , should be done by meer accident ? that the regions above , which need them not , but are rather clogged and cumbred with them ; should draw up such plenty of waters for us , who cannot possibly subsist without them : and then send them down again of so elaborate a nature , at so seasonable times , and in so sutable measures : and all by casual oeconomy , and the conduct of blind and incertain chance ? fourthly , we may ground upon it that he would have these waterings to be constant . not only for two or three months , or some few years ; but so long as he lives at least , to name no longer period . nor are the clouds deficient in this circumstance neither . for as they have watered the earth through all ages past , so they will do the same indefatigably for the future , even till the final consummation of all things . and though no one sett of clouds can ever be fixed or permanent , they being perpetually flitting and volant ; yet as some fly from us , others arise ; and so from new successions of them , we have supplys of fresh rain . and therefore albeit they are passant things , they leave very good and lasting effects of their transient fugitive presence with us . and here the hand of providence is visible again . for put case that things by a fortuitous hit , had fallen luckily at first into that convenient posture for rain , in which now they stand ( which would be most surprising to think ; ) yet that then they should persist of themselves , so long , and steddily , and inalterably in the same ; is not to be imagined . no , where the wheel of order runs on in so even , and withal in so laudable and holding a course ; 't is a plain case that its motions were derived from the impulse of heaven ; and are maintained by the help of a divine influence , or providential direction and concurrence . fifthly , we may reasonably conclude , that he would appoint things to be watered intermittingly . lest too much driness together , should injure them on the one side ; or too much moisture prejudice or bane them on the other . nor are the clouds faulty in this piece of service , but perform it as it were , with a great deal of care and seeming officiousness . for when they have poured out their kindness liberally on the earth , they usually stop up their bottles again ; and by suspending their effusions promote its fruitfulness ; as well as by sending them down upon it . for as rains that are new and fresh from above , are most nourishing to vegetables ; so their intermissive descents make them to be more nutritive still . for then having drunk up and digested those that are past ; they become more receptive of them that succeed . and so sucking in what is fit for their aliment with the more greediness ; they disperse and concoct it with the more ease and speed . and truly in the alternate vicissitudes of wet and dry weather , there is something , at times , most remarkably providential . for when we have had sore and tedious rains , for that very reason they should hold and increase ; because nature is prepared and inabled thereunto by abundance of vapours . and when we have had a long and excessive drought , for the same reason it should continue ; because nature is sitted to carry it on ; the parched ground affording fewer exhalations , and there being a scarcity of matter out of which rains should be made . yet ( as experience proves ) it happens not thus , but on the contrary . for when nature's disposition in the case , does sensibly stand one way ; she is turned about , and as it were against her seeming and set inclinations , led into another . which whispers and suggests to the thinking man , that she is certainly directed by an hand from above , and in these preterintentional and undesigned changes ( as we may call them ) is over-ruled by a power superior to her own ; and also joined with such wisdom , as orders her much better than she could do her self . lastly , we may presume that this person would certainly have all his grounds to be watered . that the one might be fruitful as well as the other , and all of them recompence the impartial care , with a general fructification . and here the clouds are not at all defective , but act their part in this necessary scene , most unexceptionably . for they spread out their melting dripping wings even far and near ; and oblige the whole earth where it needs , ( not to say where it has no want ) with their most free and universal disbursements . and truly were it not for their waters so copiously shed down on the earth , how miserable would the condition of mankind be ? but then when things are so well and happily ordered ; as that a blessing so needful , is made so general ; and is every where so common and easie to be had : what a bright beam of conviction , as to the being of a deity , darts forth and shines down from the blackest clouds ? for who but the great god could have stretcht out such fountains in the spatious skies ; and for the needs of men throughout the world , have invented so adequate and incomparable supplies ? nor indeed are they instruments of common mercy only ; but vehicles oft times of special secular blessing and prosperity , to some persons . so it appears by eliphaz's advertisement ; who tells us , that god giveth rain upon the earth , and s●ndeth waters upon the fields ; to set up on high those that be low , iob . , . thus we have seen how beneficial rain from the clouds is , as to the earth . in which respect when god pleases to send it , 't is said to come , for his earth ; as above noted . we have also seen how beneficial it is to men , in watering their possessions : and that in so singular a way , as the wisest could never have projected a better . in which regard it is said to come , for mercy . and so it does most signally , not only as it fills men with temporal good things for the use of their bodies : but moreover as it is , or may be , a means of spiritual mercy to their souls ; in ministring an universal argument to mankind , of the greatest truth , and most necessary to be believed , of any in the world. but then in the third place ( to pursue and fill up the holy man's distinction ) it is vseful , for correction . as god is infinitely good in himself ; so he alone is able to bring good out of evil . that 's an extract which none but the almighty by a most divine . chymistry peculiar to his majesty , is able to make . and this he frequently does for those , in whose pure affections he dwells and rules . all things work together for good to them that love god , rom. . . but then there is another piece of his character as true ; that * he will render recompence to his enemies , and † visit iniquities upon them that hate him . and as he has numberless ways of doing this ; so he often effects it by changing things that are of necessary use , into fatal influence . whereby he makes what is na●urally good for men ; to be unto them judicially an * occasion of falling . most evident is this in the instance of rain . so needful is it , that we cannot subsist without it . yet this very thing , god turns , when he pleases , into an heavy rod ; and by making it unseasonable or else excessive , chasteneth his people sorely with it . yea , he imploys it not only as a rod to chastise his servants ; but sometimes as a sword to cut off his adversaries ; and an instrument of vengeance to sweep away the ungodly in whole sholes or multitudes . this was never so tragically apparent , as in noah's flood ; when a great part of that generall destructive , but deserved blow , which fell upon mankind , was given by this weapon . for by the waters of rain in conjunction with other waters , a period was put to the first sinful world , by a very just , though lamentable catastrophe . and when the clouds and their rains , or the waters above the firmament , were so very considerable in themselves ; and withal so very useful in way of preservation to the earth ; and in way of mercy and iudgment , as reaching out god's favour and severity to the world : why should they not be worthy , and highly worthy , of moses's notice in his divine cosmology ? the holy psalmist ( who we are sure spake by the same spirit that moses did ) looks upon the clouds as mighty eminent and remarkable things . for as he makes them to be god's chariot , psal. . . so in another place , he makes them notable evidences of his magnificence and power ; † his worship and strength is in the clouds . . but against the existence of open seas at first , it is farther objected , thus , a nor are the waters gathered all into the same place ; for besides many salt lakes , and some gulfs of the sea perhaps heretofore impervious , the caspian sea , which is of the same origin and antiquity with the great ocean , is far separate from it . to take off which , i answer ; that moses does not say , let all the waters be gathered into one place . though if he had , the word all , in scripture , is usually taken in a restrained sense , to signifie but a major part : and so here it might have meant but the greater quantity of waters . to give proof of this out of the writings of moses . he tells us , * that all the servants of pharaoh went up with joseph to bury his father . yet we cannot think that the court was quite empty at that time , and the king left wholly without attendants . and therefore , all , there , must denote but a great many . so he delivered it as a law to israel ; † three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the lord thy god , in the place which he shall chuse . and yet we know that some of them at those times must be decrepit , and some sick , and some unclean ; and so unable to take such a journey , and unfit to make such an appearance . and therefore by , all , here , can be intended but , many , neither ; even as many as were capable of the performance , or qualified for it . and thus indeed all the waters were gathered into one place . that is , the great quantity or main body of them was so : as they were incorporate and united in the ocean . which whereever it diffuseth and insinuateth it self about the earth , is but one continued piece of water , and so fills one continued space with its huge moles . i speak of a partial , and sometimes a secret continuity ; for it is not always open , visible , and entire . and that the caspian sea is a part of the great sea , and holds a secret commerce with it under ground ( as the dead sea , or lake asphaltites , is presumed to do with the mediterranean ) is clear from hence ; that it receives such an abundance of waters into it self , and swells not with them . for though the stream of volga ( which is thought to afford waters enough in a years time to drown the whole earth ) continually discharges it self into the caspian sea ; it is never the fuller . and therefore the theory need not have instanced in that sea as a distinct and separate sea by it self . especially when it allows it to * have communication with the ocean by subterraneous passages ; whereby it is really , though not visibly joined to it , and in some sense , but one with it . and then as for other gulfs and lakes , that are distinct as to themselves , and divided from the ocean ; how inconsiderable are they in proportion to it ? but as so many buckets-full to a large pool . yet should the waters run out of some huge pool , and settle together elsewhere ; as it might truly be said of them then , that they are gathered together into one place , though many buckets-full should lodge in plashes by the way : so the waters in general , may rightly be affirmed by mases , to be gathered together into one place ; though a multitude of small receptacles , and the caspian , larger than the rest , remain apart . . but a third objection is yet to be removed ( for i am willing to encounter all that are material ) which is this . if the earth had open seas at first , dividing it into continents and islands , and interlacing and environing them , as now they do ; how could the several parts thereof , so separate , be peopled with men and stockt with beasts ? or to use the words of the theory , a the propagating or conveying of men and animals into so many separate worlds , would be difficult to explain . i answer , first , it is as difficult to make out how the earth should be peopled before the flood , though the surface of it had been entire . i mean upon account of that torrid zone which the theory supposeth to have been in it . secondly , islands at first might be nothing so numerous as they are since . but as many of them were founded , as i may say , after the earth ; so many of them may be of later date than the deluge . which factitious or upstart isles came into being three ways . some were produced of an abundance of filth , rolling down the streams of rivers , and running into the sea and settling there . so were the echinades , spoken of before . concerning whose production therefore , ovid makes the river out of which they came , to speak thus , — fluctus nosterque marisque continuam deduxit humum , pariterque revellit in totidem mediis ( quòd cernis ) echinadas , undis . others were thrust up in some seas , and appeared on a sudden . of this sort was rhodos in the carpathian sea , an hundred and twenty miles in compass ; one of the ancient academies of the roman monarchy . delos , in the archipelago , one of the fifty three cy●lades . remarkable for the temple of apollo ; for most excellent brass ; and for the fountain inopus , which ( as * pliny affirms ) rises and falls as the nile does , and at the same times with it . alone , hard by cyzicum , and betwen lebedus and teon , two cities of ionia . anaphe , one of the twelve sporades ( i think ) or at least not far off them , as lying near to melos , one of the chief of them . thera , called also calliste , where callimachus the poet was born , and whence they went who built cyrene . it appeared first , in the fourth year of the hundred and thirty fifth olympiad , as † pliny relates ; and from it was the ilet therasia broken off . hiera , the same with automate , which appeared about an hundred and thirty years after : even in our time ( says the same pliny ) upon the eighth day before the ides of july , when m. junius syllanus , and lucius balbus were consuls . other islands again have been made by disjunction from the main-land . as some have been joined to continents and become one with them ; as aethusa in the lybian sea , to mundus ; zephyria , to halicarnassus in caria ; narthecusa , to parthenius , a promontory of arcadla ; hybanda , to ionia , and the like : so some on the contrary have been ravished or rent away from the firm land. thus prochyta an island in the tuscan sea , was raised not far from p●●●oli : while a great mountain in inarime , falling by an earthquake , poured forth that abundance of earth of which it was composed . and so it carries the account of its original in its a name ; as b delos also above mentioned does . cyprus , a noted island in the mediterranean , was divided from syria , says pliny ; whence it is now distant at least an hundred miles . sicily , from italy . euboea , from boeotia . besbycus , from bithynia . and as some have thought , britain , from france . and truly if syria , and cyprus , which are now so remote from one another , were once united ; this makes it the more probable , that england and france might ( time out of mind ) have been joined by an isthmus or neck of land. thirdly , it may be answered , that as islands at first were not so numerous ; so the bigger of them might not lie so far off from continents as now they do : the earth being since much eaten away by waters , and so the distance betwixt them made much wider . or if they did lie so far from the main-land , yet the inhabitants of such lands , might advance into the distant isles , by the help of some rude kind of boats made of hollow trees , or the like . or if any were such out-liers , as that they did not designedly make towards them , or accidentally hit upon them ; we may without inconvenience , grant them never to have been inhabited . and so we read of that african island , st. thomas , in the a●lantic ocean , under the aequinoctial ; that at its first discovery ( though since the flood ) it was unpeopled , and had nothing in it but woods . lastly , i answer , as to the grand continents of the earth ; europe , africa , and asia ( which are three of them ) have known inlets by lands , into one another . and for ought we can tell , there may be inlets out of asia into america , in the northern parts of them . but however we are sure it is but a narrow strait , that separates the kingdom of anian from tartary . and who can say but that before the flood ( and perhaps for a good while after it ) the●● might be some neck of land coupling both together , and affording an easie passage out of the one into the other ; which may be since washt down or swallowed up ? for as the earth does sometimes gain strangely upon the water ( witness the city of antioch ( to say nothing of aegypt , the bay of ambrasia , the flats of teuthrania , and the now meadowy level where maeander runs , once belonging to neptune's empire ) which at first , says * pliny , stood upon the sea coast , but even in his time became an hundred and twenty five miles distant from it : ) so the sea otherwhiles prevailes as much against the land. thus , the atlantis , a vast continent , bigger than libya and all asia , ( says † plato ) by a terrible earthquake , lasting a day and a night , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sunk down into the sea and disappeared . and he that would see what the mediterranean has devoured , let him but read the short ninetieth chapter of the second book of pliny's natural history : where he gives a brief account of what incroachments it has made in acarnania , achaia , in the propontis , pontus , &c. and when the sea has been thus usurping upon the land , and has made violent breaches in several places ; why might it not make a passage for its waters between tartary and anian , though there was none at first ? or why might not the ground sink there by an earthquake , or the like ? but grant the streight we speak of , to have been ever the same that now it is : yet it will not be over difficult then neither , to conceive how america should come to be inhabited . as for quivira , which lies right against china , and joines to anian ; ●hat that was peopled out of tartary , is not to be doubted . the course of life which the americans were found to lead thereabouts , does fairly show it ; as being correspondent to that of the tartarian hordes , or scythian nomades . only the question will be , how the tartars could swim over this arm of the sea ▪ as having no shipping . for the resolving of which , we need but consider ; that when the spaniards grew acquainted with america , they found that the people upon the coasts thereof , used little boats made of the trunks of trees , hollowed ( not by iron instruments , because they had none ; but ) by fire . now grant but the tartars ( who dwelt upon the coasts opposite to anian ) to have used the like ; and how easily might they at times be accidentally hurried thither , in those sorry sciphs , before they were aware ? and so begin the plantation of the american world. and then do but yeild that the inhabitants of tartary before the flood , were but as ingenious at making these canoes , and as addicted to the use of them ; and it might then be peopled the same way . though what better conveniencies for transportation , the antediluvian tartars ( as i may call them ) might have ; we cannot say . nor can we hope ever certainly to understand , who were the aborigines , or first planters of the post-diluvian americans ; or how they came into that spatious tract of ground , that half of the world of unknown extent , called the west-indies . for the natives being strangers to learning , have no history amongst them , or records of their own antiquities , that can make any tollerable discovery of this nature . as for their coming to the place where they built mexico , under the conduct of vitzliliputzli their god , who went before them in an ark ( which account we have in the story of the mexican kingdom , related out of their memorials and traditions ) it is so general and obscure ; that no clear knowledge of their beginning can be gathered out of it . i will only note therefore that as to the peopling of america , torniellus is of our opinion . for he says , * america is a continent with our world , or not very much disjoined from it , to which there might be passages by sciphs or little boats. chap. xii . . the scripture's silence touching the rain-bow , before the flood , does not argue its non-appearance till after it . . it s appearance from the beginning , no hindrance or diminution of its federal significancy . . but matter of congruence to god's method of proceeding in other cases . . clouds were extant before the flood , and therefore the rain-bow was so . . the conclusion of this chapter , relating to the two foregoing ones also . . i should now have passed directly to the next vital or primary assertion of the theory . but there being no fitter place to do it in , i shall here bestow one short chapter upon the rain-bow . for that also is made use of collaterally , to support the hypothesis we dispute against . concerning it , god expresseth himself thus , * i do set my bow in the cloud , and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth . and it shall come to pass , when i bring a cloud over the earth , that the bow shall be seen in the cloud . and because we heard nothing of it till now , 't is presumed that it never appeared before . but by the same reason we may as well conclude , that a cloud was never seen before neither ; because here we find the first mention made of one . which must needs be false , inasmuch as the flood proceeded in great measure from violent rains. and to suppose rains without a cloud , is the same absurdity , as to suppose children without a mother . and therefore our hearing nothing of the rainbow , till the flood was past ; is no good argument that it was not , but that it was not significant , before . and it is most like that we had not heard of it at last in the sacred volume ( no more than we do of comets , eclipses , &c. ) i● it had not been turn'd into a pledge of mercy to us . and in this sense , as it was made a symbol of the merciful covenant ; god might say emphatically , i do set my bow in the cloud , when he struck this covenant with noah . it was in the cloud indeed before , but then it was only of nature's setting there ; and so it was but a meer cipher , or at least made no other figure , but that of a bare physical meteor . but afterward when by divine appointment , it became useful beyond its proper capacity , and never appeared without something in it more taking than its colours ; as being cloathed with a rare additional excellency , the new imposition of a preternatural signality : then , and ever since it might more justly and peculiarly be said , to be set in the cloud by god. for though it stands there still in a natural and ordinary way ; yet it serves to an extraordinary and supernatural end , and he it is that made it do so . . nor would this significancy which the almighty put upon it , be at all impeached by its existing from the beginning . for though it had ap●●●red as commonly before the deluge , as ever it did since ; it would not for that have been the less authentick or assuring token of god's covenant , or of his sidelity in keeping the same . for its force that way , depended not upon the nature of the thing ( applied to this symbolical use ) but upon heavens institution . so that if god had appointed the sun to that use , he would have signified the same thing that the bow does ; though as all must grant , the bow is the most fit emblem of the two ; and therefore it was chosen . for that never shows it self but in a cloud , and with a rain ; both which were instrumental to the great inundation : and so serve most properly to mind us of it , and from thence to pass our thoughts to god's promise , of securing the world from such another . were it yielded therefore , that there never was a rainbow , till that noah saw after the flood ; what considerable point would be gained as to god's design in exhibiting of it ? what clearer token would it have been of his covenant ? what stronger support of mens confidence in it ? the two principal ends whereunto it was appointed . why should we ( for instance ) that are now alive , be the more firmly perswaded of the truth of god's compact , or the more fully satisfied that he will surely stand to it ? indeed if it had been a new apparition ; by being so very fine and curious , it might have wrought prettily upon noah's phancy , and theirs who were with him . especially it coming with such a promise of mercy , and finding them in the midst of such ga●tly ruines . but bating but this , that its newness might sweetly affect its beholders , making delightful and somewhat surprizing impressions on their minds , and raising in them little transports and wondrings ; what great benefit could result from it ? as to the persons then in being , it would have been a most valid ratification of the divine covenant , without its novity : as being turned into a seal of an immutable promise of security against general floods to come , made by that god who had justly delivered them , and that most miraculously , from one lately past . and as to after generations , it must be all one to them , whether the celestial bow was first exhibited since the deluge , or before it . for as many as think aright concerning it , that it is an effect of natural causes ; and that the rorid cloud , the opposite sun , and the eye of the spectator , being rightly disposed , so as to make due refractions and reflections of the sun-beams at requisite angles , it must as necessarily appear as fire must burn : they cannot discern any shadow of reason , why it should not as well assure them the world should be drowned no more , had it been extant ever since the creation ; as if it had commenced its appearance at the drying up of the flood . to be short ; whenever it appears , it is because it cannot do otherwise : but when it does appear , it betokens the earth's preservation from drowning , meerly upon the account of god's ordinance , that so it should do . and therefore it might be as good a prognostic or token of the worlds indemnity from a second flood , though it had appeared in all ages before ; as if it had then shown it self first , when god was pleas'd to make it the sign of his covenant . . and indeed it is the way or method of providence both in its penal and propitious dispensations , to make known , and common , natural , and familiar things , marks of his displeasure , and significations and vehicles of its kindness and beneficence . thus , as to punishment , it was a piece of the serpet's curse , that he should go upon his belly . yet it does not appear that this malediction deprived him of legs , or that he and his species ever went erect . so it was made part of the womans sentence , that her husband should rule over her . yet her condition before , was a state of subjection to him , as intimated to proceed from the order of her * creation . so that what stands clearly imputed to her sin , and seems to be the plain consequent of her guilt , and the effect of her doom ; was antecedent to the same , and the lot of her innocence . only circumstances were altered , and what was sweet and easie as nature at first ; was unhappily changed into trouble and penance , in the issue of things . and the like is observable in the oeconomy of mercy . i mean , in the very conduct of religion it self , and that in the sublimest mysteries thereof . for the evangelical sacraments were instituted in water , bread , and wine , for sealing and ratifying a far nobler covenant , than that betwixt god and the patriarch noah , extending to his posterity , and all living creatures . and yet these were common elements , and of ordinary use at all times . only positive commands and divine institution improved them into means of christian proselytism , and communion with the deity . and this makes it the more probable , that the rainbow was an usual meteor . because then god in giving it to the world in confirmation of his promise or pact ; would have acted most consonantly to his other proceedings . yea , even to his proceedings in the highest and holiest solemnities of religion ; of nearest intercourse with his majesty , and so of greatest importance to mankind . for there he has made the most common things , to be signs and mystical deferents of himself , and his favours , to all worthy partakers of them . but all such instances , says the theory , fall short , and do not reach the case before us . * for a sign confirmatory of a promise , when there is something affirmed de futuro — must indispensably be something new. otherwise it cannot have the nature , vertue , and influence of a sign . and a little before , such signs — must be some new appearance , and must thereby induce us to believe the effect — otherwise the pretended sign is a meer cypher and superfluity . to which i answer , as to signs given by god , to confirm his promises ; he has taken a latitude to himself in chusing and appointing them . for , sometimes he has made things new and strange to be signs of this nature . thus , his own deafness and dumbness , was to be a sign to zachariah , of his promised son. the retrogradation of the shadow on ahaz's dial , was to be a sign to hezekiah , of his promised recovery . and the fleece expos'd to the dew , first wet , and then dry , was to be a sign to gideon , of his promised victory . but then , sometimes he has made things to be signs , that on the other side are common and usual . thus the fruit of a tree growing in paradise , was made a sign of man's immortality , if he continued obedient : and therefore it was called the tree of life , say many of the learned . and shooting with bow and arrows upon the ground ( than which nothing could be more ordinary ) was made a sign to ioash of his prevailing against the syrians . and therefore when he shot , the arrow was called the arrow of the lord's deliverance from syria , kings . . here was * sagitta significans & promittens salutem ; or , in the theory's words , a sign confirmatory of a promise , wherein there was something affirmed de futuro ; but it had nothing new or extraordinary in it ( the thing being most common and usual ) save only that god by his prophet , intimated its significancy that way . but had it not therefore the nature , vertue , and influence of a sign , whereby to induce the king to believe the effect ? was it a pretended sign only , and a meer cypher and superfluity ? the like may be said of the rainbow . it was no new appearance , but a common meteor usually seen in the first world. but being stamped by god with a signality that way ; it immediately put on the nature , virtue , and influence of a confirmatory sign ; and became able to induce noah and his posterity , to believe that the promise of the earth's preservation from future drowning , shall certainly be performed ; according to the significancy wherewith it was marked , to ratifie that promise . and no wonder that things extant and common in the world , should be made confirmatory signs of god's promises ; when things transient and actually past long before ( and so not to be taken cog●oscence of but by remembrance ) and things that never did or were to exist till long after his promises should be accomplisht ( and so as yet were no real things , and to be lookt at only with an eye of faith ) have been made such signs . of the first sort was * the sign of the prophet jonas . whose being vomited up of the whale , after three days continuance in its belly ; was made a sign of our saviour's rising from the dead , after his triduous abode in the holy sepulchre . though ionah was swallowed , and cast up by the fish , near a thousand years before our lord's interment and resurrection . of the latter sort was the miraculous conception and birth of the messiah , which was made a sign of safety promised to * ahaz , against rezin and pekah ; but was not brought to pass till above seven hundred and forty years after . other instances of the same kind occur , exod. . . isai. . . . but we have a farther proof yet of the existence of the rainbow before the flood . and though it be but indirect and consequential , yet it may not want its weight . it is the existence of clouds then . for if they were before the deluge , as they are now ; there were all causes needful for the production of the iris : which could not but frequently conspire or fall in with one another , so as to paint that beautiful thing in the heavens . and that there were clouds in the first world , has been proved already by the same arguments that evince there was a sea and mountains : for they imply and necessarily infer the being of clouds . the flood also was made of rains in a great measure ; and those rains must descend from clouds . and if nature could produce clouds then , she must be supposed to have done it long before ; as being in a better capacity to effect it . for the earth and air could never be more hot and dry , than when the deluge came . scripture also gives countenance to this , that clouds were extant from the beginning . when he prepared the heavens — when he established the clouds above , — when he appointed the foundations of the earth , prov. . , , . whence it appears , that god's establishing the clouds , was contemporary with his preparing the heavens , and appointing the foundations of the earth . indeed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , coming of , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a word of various significations . it may signifie aether , or air , or small dust. but then the heavens and the earth being both mentioned besides ; aether , air , and fine dust , must be comprized in them : which determines the word here to that sense in which it is rendred . and very properly ; for besides that clouds are said to be the dust of god's feet , nah. . . the word in many places of the holy volume , does denote , clouds ; and that so directly and inavoidably , as it can be applied to no other sense . nor may we forget that clear intimation , or evidence rather of the early existence of clouds , gen. . . where the waters above the firmament , must be waters in the clouds , as has been already shewed . even the theory it self allows them not to be supercelestial waters . for as they are inconsistent with that system of the world which it goes upon ; so it expresly disputes against them and * rejects them . and so what waters else could they be , save those in the clouds ? which grant them to have been , and how peculiarly were those clouds above established ( according to solomon's word ) by god himself ? when as yet there was no sun to exhale them from the earth . let this be cast in as an overplus ; the rabbies believed there were rains in paradise . ( though for some little time there might be none , gen. . . ) for when the lord god put adam into the garden to dress it ; they understand a kind of spiritual cultivation of it , as he occasioned it to flourish by his religious performances . particularly he presented , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , gifts or oblations for obtaining rain and a right influence of the heavens upon it . yet if there were clouds and rain , how necessarily must the glorious bow appear , when showres fell in a just position to the sun ? . to conclude this chapter . if any thing in it will prove there was a rainbow , or clouds from the beginning ; the same will prove mountains , and open seas . and if any thing in the two precedent chapters , will prove there were mountains from the beginning ; the same will prove seas and clouds . and if any thing will prove open seas from the beginning ; the same will prove clouds and mountains . for these three do mutually imply and depend on one another . and there being no good account of their later emergency into being , but much to the contrary ; they must in reason be thought to coexist from the first . and i remember , the learned and ingenious dr. more , setting down some odd conceits of philosophical enthusiasts , puts this amongst the rest ; that there were no rainbows before noah's flood . discourse of enthusiasm , § . . chap. xiii . . the doctrine of paradise , intelligible without the theory . . where that doctrine is best taught . . what it is , with a brief paraphrase upon it . . it is clear in it self , though obscured by writers . . long●evity before the flood , no property of paradise ; and might be the priviledge but of few . . it could not be common to all , according to the theory . . thus at length we come to paradise . a place of greatest fame , and of equal obscurity . for though touching it we hear very much , yet as to the site of it , we know but little . and to this paradise the next vital or primary assertion of the theory relates ; which runs thus , the doctrine thereof cannot be understood , but upon supposition of the aforesaid primitive earth and its properties . but against this assertion also we except ; and do not doubt , but upon enquiry into the doctrine of paradise , to make it out , that it is intelligible , without the help of the theory . at least as intelligible without its hypothesis , as it is with it ; and that will be sufficient to our purpose . . should any demand where the doctrine of paradise is best or most truly delivered ; and what writings contain the most authentic and credible account concerning it : whither could they be directed but to the sacred scriptures ? for what there occurs in reference to the paradisiacal state or regions ; may be firmly grounded upon as infallibly true . whereas what we meet with in some other books , may be incertain , as written by persons of suspected credit . poets , for instance , are by no means to be regarded in this matter . they are men of wit and licentious fiction ; and when they are struck with their proper oestrum or rage , and grow warm in the vein of romanceing ; their pens run on at a strange rate , rangeing as far as quaint phancy can carry them . but as to them , let thus much only be noted : that whereas the theorist applys what they write of the golden age , to the paradisiacal state before the flood ; as if what they say , were some dark and imperfect memoires of that : it might be disputed ( were it worth the while ) whether they set not that age just after the flood ; making noah to be saturn , and the principal characters of the golden age , to fall in with such things as happen'd in that period . several ( of no contemptible learning ) have been of that opinion , and bochart for one . as many as are dispos'd to read what he wrote of this nature , may find it in the first and second chapters of his phaleg . and if what poets have delivered of the golden age , refers to times and things of a postdiluvian date ; we have no manner of reason to regard them in the least , as giving any light either into the doctrine or state of paradise . nor truly are fathers ( those infinitely more excellent and solid men ) to be too much relied on in this case neither . i mean no farther than they are consonant to the oracles of heaven , and write fairly after that inspired copy , which came down from thence . for though they be free from light and poetic figments , they are full of allegories and high rhetorications ; and too hyperbolical ( erroneous some of them ) to be followed in all things . thus when ephrem syrus , moses bar cephas , bede , strabus , rabanus maurus and others , place paradise near the circle or orb of the moon ; and st. basil makes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a place above the whole creation ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , obscur'd with no darkness by reason of height ; and the hebrew masters in general , will have it made before the world : how can these things be tolerably reconciled to a terrestrial paradise ? and while some again ( supposing the ocean to incircle the earth ) place paradise on the other hemisphere ; and then to bring men into this after adam's fall , will have the ocean to be fordable , and people of that talness as to wade through it on foot : who can believe paradise had such a situation ? especially if we add , that other doctors yet ( of whom * bar cephas speaks ) upon account of the site of paradise beyond the ocean , held this continent of ours was quite unpeopled and a kind of desart till the flood . and which still intangles things more and more , they generally concluded that the four rivers of paradise , were tigris , euphrates , ganges , and nilus ; and that having their spring-heads on the other side of the sea , by a strange penetration or trajection , struck through the earth , and brake out on this side of the same . to follow the fathers here , can neither be safe nor easie . and better it would have been , if the theorist had not gone so far after them ; but instead of that , had kept to his word ; † we will never assert any thing upon the authority of the ancients , which is not first proved by reason , or warranted by scripture . and therefore while poets pursue the golden age in golden dreams , and set it off in fine and extravagant strains : and the fathers expatiate in too large and lofty encomiums of paradise , describing such rare and unaccountable excellencies and phaenomena's of it , as it never had , but in their mistaken idea's and allusions : let us wisely attend to the voice of god's spirit in his unerring word . so we shall learn what is fit and necessary concerning paradise ; and by keeping within the bounds of sober truth , shall never be cumbered with superfluous knowledge ; nor be put to the trouble , first , of inventing humorous notions , and then of defending them . . now as to the doctrine of paradise , it is fully comprized ( so far as we need to consider it ) in the following periods of scripture . it will not be amiss to bestow a short paraphrase on them . gen. . . and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden , and there he put the man whom he had formed . . no sooner had god the lord of all , brought man into being , but in special respect and kindness to him , he assigned him his dwelling in the sweetest country of the whole earth . in a place so ordered by the great care and wise contrivance of his providence , that it abounded with delights ; and for its exceeding pleasantness , was as the garden of the world : situate in that tract of ground which is called eden , and lies * eastward from hence . ver. . and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight , and good for food : the tree of life also in the midst of the garden , and the tree of knowledge of good and evil . . and this garden was most rarely furnisht . for besides floriferous and fruit-bearing plants , the products of which respectively , were grateful to the eye , and gustful to the palate , and useful for nourishment : there were two very extraordinary trees . one , the tree of life . so called , because its fruit ( if eaten ) would make a man live very long upon earth ; and that without sickness , pain , or decay : or at least was a symbol of eternal life , to be injoyed by him in a better state , upon condition of unsinning obedience in this . the other , was the tree of knowledge of good and evil . called by that name , because god had ordained that if adam tasted its fruit , he should presently know what evil was , by a quick and sad sense of it ; and the better know what good was , by the lamentable loss of it . both these trees grew within the garden . ver. . and a river went out of eden to water the garden , and from thence it was parted , and became into four heads . . and to the end that this garden thus flourishing and fruitful , might so continue ; a river was made to spring up in it , or to flow through it . which how far soever it might run in one single stream , and then divide into two or three ; at last it fell into four branches or chanels . which before they terminated or disburthen'd themselves ; as four several heads , were known by four distinct names , * after they had passed the garden in one current . ver. . the name of the first is pison : that is it which compasseth the whole land of havilah , where is gold . ver. . as for the first of these heads ( for its fruitfulness in fish , or the abundance of its waters ) it is called pison , and by * them that dwell near it , phasis , or pasitigris . which dividing it self from tigris ( whereof this is the most southern branch ) about apamia , runs along by the land of havilah : and parting that land from the country of susiana , it directs its course towards teredon , and thereabouts empties it self into the persian gulph . ver. . and the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium , and the onyx-stone . . of which land of havilah ( whither saul chased the amalekites , sam. . . ) it is memorable that there is gold in it , and that gold of an excellent sort . it has also ( the tree , or , gumm , or pearl , called ) bdellium , and the onyx-stone . ver. . and the name of the second river is gihon : the same is it that compasseth the whole land of aethiopia . . the second river or branch ( from its falling off or turning another way ) is denominated gihon . the very same that passing by * adiabene , the most northern province of assyria , compasseth the land of chush , or the country of the as●atic aethiopians ; that is , it glides along by it . ver. . and the name of the third river is hiddekel : that is it which goeth toward the east of assyria : and the fourth is euphrates . . the third arm or river ( from the sharpness of its waters , or the swiftness of its current ) is called tigris ; whose course lies to the east of assyria . and as for euphrates , the fourth head or stream ; it is so well known , that it need but be named . ver. . and the lord god took the man , and put him into the garden of eden , to dress it , and to keep it . . and god directed adam into the garden of eden , and placed him there ; appointing him ( as a piece of his recreation ) to cultivate and order it . ver. . and the lord god commanded the man , saying ▪ of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat . . and as to the choice fruits growing upon the several trees in the garden ; god grudged him none of them ; but gave him free leave and full power , to take when , and where , and as much as he pleased , even of the best of them . ver. . but of the tree of knowledg of good and evil , thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day thou eatest thereof , thou shalt surely die . . only he charged him very strictly , that he should not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge : assuring him that if he did , it would cost him dear ; for he should certainly lose his life thereby . this is the doctrine of paradise , so far as at present we are concerned to look into it . what occurs in the divine story besides , is rather of personal , and moral , than of local consideration . it relates to adam himself , rather than to the paradisiacal place of his residence . only what we find in the close of the third chapter , must be taken in ; which runs as followeth : ver. . and the lord god said , behold , the man is become like one of us , to know good and evil . and now lest he put forth his hand , and take also of the tree of life , and eat , and live for ever : . and now , my angels , that man has eaten of the forbidden fruit , ye see how wise he is grown thereby . he has throughly tried the truth of that promise the serpent made him ; and lo , how goodlily he has improved himself in god-like knowledge , which he aimed at , and thirsted after . since he has been thus egregiously foolish , 't is a thousand to one , if we let him alone , but he 'll fall into another piece of unreasonable and undoing folly . and if he can but get to the tree of life , and taste the fruit of that , will presently conclude that his life on earth shall last for ever ; and so neglect repentance and preparation for a better . ver. . therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden , to till the ground from whence he was taken . . to prevent this therefore , god immediately turned him out of the garden , into that place whereabouts he was created . and whereas in his paradisiacal condition , he might have subsisted deliciously of what nature yielded of it self ; now he was to live in a more painful manner , spending his strength in tilling the ground , that so it might afford wholsome sustenance for his body , which was formed out of it . ver. . so he drove out the man : and he placed at the east of the garden of eden , cherubim , and a flaming sword , which turned every way , to keep the way of the tree of life . . and being driven out of this pleasant garden ; to the intent he might never re-enter it more ; god , by the ministery of spirits , fired the earth whereabouts his way of return lay into it . which burning continually ( as it does this day in many places , and as it did in * babylon of old ) was as effectual a means to keep adam out ; as if providence had set a number of cherubim to guard the passage leading thither , by brandishing flaming swords . . now what is there in all this so difficult or abstruse , as not to be intelligible ? the doctrine of paradise indeed has been ill handled , as well as some others : and has received great injury from such as intended it nothing but kindness . even eminent writers , by exalting it too high , and inlargeing it too much ; have unhappily obscured it , and brought a wild confusion into it . preposterously striving to imbellish and improve it , they have mightily eclipsed and disparaged it . just as a true natural beauty is spoiled by the addition of artificial ; and a lovely visage , made worse by painting . but view it in its sacred pourtraicture , as scripture has drawn or represented it ; and so we shall have a fair description , a graphical or exact delineation of it . so it will appear in its genuine colours , and just proportions ; in its proper features and due complexion ; and without all manner of disgraceful blemishes , or monstrous disfigurements . for , first , here is nothing that turns the whole story into mystery or allegory . that makes paradise it self , to be the soul ; adam , the mind ; eve , the senses ; the serpent , pleasures ; the four rivers , four cardinal virtues , &c. which is the way that origen , philo , and st. ambrose go . nor , secondly , is there any thing that intimates , the garden of paradise was the whole earth . that the four rivers mentioned in the description of it , had the ocean for their fountain . and that two of them , viz. pison and gihon ; were ganges and nil●s : the one , running through india ; and the other , through egypt : according to the manichees , becanus , and noviomagus . nor yet , thirdly , does it mount paradise up above the tops of the hills , or assign it its situation near the moon , in an earth different from ours : where bar cephas , bede , and rabanus set it . these , we must confess , are things hard to be understood , and never to be made out . they contain in them unexplicable intricacies , and draw after them innumerable absurdities . such as quite overthrow the truth of moses's narrative , and so the veracity of god himself . but therefore , as we see , they are no parts of the doctrine of paradise . that 's entire without them , as scripture delivers it ; which makes them neither essentials , nor appendages of it . they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * the doctrines of men , according to the apostle . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fine and noisy words , according to epiphanius . and they that first spake them , being persons of fame , their reputation gave credit to what they said ; and their great authority drawing others after them , they were followed by many , though themselves went not in the right way . lastly , here is not the least touch , upon a perpetual aequinox , or a perpetual spring ; or the pullulation , or growing of animals out of the earth ; which the theory makes † properties of paradise . nor is there a syllable spoken , of adam's being formed at first on the other side of the world ( that is , in the southern hemisphere ) and then of his being transplanted hither . nor is there any intimation , that the flaming sword was the torrid zone ( as the theory * allows it to have been ) but rather something that suggests the contrary . for cherubim could no way be concerned in that ; nor could it well be said to be placed at the east of the garden of eden , when it was placed round the earth in way of longitude . nor do we hear a word , of rivers springing up on one side of the earth , and then shooting through it to the other side , by deep and unintelligible trajections or transmeations . thus a multitude of difficulties would be started ; and such , as before we could run them down , would lead us a weary , yea , an endless chase. but therefore these are no pieces of the true doctrine of paradise . that 's clear , and obvious , and easie to be understood : at least as easie as the theory's doctrine concerning it is . for say that two branches of the paradisiacal stream , be somewhat obscure ; yet we need not fear but they will as soon be set out to all mens satisfaction ; as the other two so well known , together with assyria , &c. shall be found in the southern hemisphere of the world , where , according to the theory , paradise was situate . especially when the upper orb or rim of the earth fell into the abyss ; and rivers and countries were all jumbled together in unspeakable confusion . . as for the longaevity of the antediluvians , that could be no property of adjunct of paradise neither ; inasmuch as the common parents of mankind , were soon thrown out of it : and so the length of their , or of their childrens lives , could not be owing to that state or place , because none of them lived and died therein . indeed the theory will have this longaevity to be a character of the first earth , as paradisiacal : and * holds it was common to good and bad , and lasted till the deluge , mens houses of clay standing eight or nine hundred years and upwards . and though i will not positively deny this , that the people of the first world did generally live to so wonderful an age ( it being a received opinion ) yet give me leave to ask ; upon what good authority does it stand ? the sacred historians will hardly support it . for though he tells of † ten men in a lineal descent that were long livers ; yet this will be no conclusive argument that all were so . for they were excellent persons , and admirably useful upon several accounts . besides founding and improving of learning and sciences ; they were to instruct the world in vertue and goodness ; to govern both in the civil ( it may be ) and ecclesiastical capacity ; to countenance and propagate , as well as to defend the true religion ; to take care of the worship , and promote the kingdom and interest of god ; and to shame the looseness , and reform or restrain the lewdness of men. and they being thus highly useful and needful ; no wonder they were continued so long upon earth . and thus we find noah ( it being requisite still in some measure upon the same accounts ) living † three hundred and fifty years after the flood , and reaching to nine hundred and fifty in all . and also * shem , arphaxad , salah , and eber , living ( for the same reasons ) much longer just after the flood ; than others did then , or have done since . though we may say , of their long life , as rabbi levi ( quoted by genebrard in the first of his chronology ) did of the longaevity of the antediluvian patriarchs , that it was opus providentiae , non naturae ; the work of providence , not of nature . of such a miraculous providence as superintended the hebrews in the wilderness , and caused that their cloaths by forty years wearing did not wax old . and then if we grant some of the prophane stock , ( of the impious race of cain ) to have lived as long ( as the ten patriarchs before the flood , and perhaps some few others not mentioned ) by the same kind of providence ; for that they were exceding eminent in their ways , for very laudable and necessary things : ( as cain himself , for husbandry and architecture ; iabal , for pasturage , and the ordering of cattle ; iubal , for musick ; tubal-cain , for mechanics , and the like : ) grant , i say , but some of the degenerate seed , of the worser sort of men , to have lived a great while for perfecting the lower and lesser arts : as some of the holy seed and better sort did , for carrying on things of an higher nature , and bigger concern : and possibly the prerogative of longaevity , will be stretcht as far , as by the sacred records , it can upon certain grounds , be extended . and though the theory makes the longaevity we speak of , common to all the antediluvians ; yet in the sequel of this chapter it will appear , that even according to the theory it self , it could not be a general thing . but ( in the mean time ) if divine story proves not such longaevity common to the antediluvians ; how shall other history do it ? the theorist cites iosephus as to this , and he brings in several authors . what he says of the long life of them before the deluge , i shall set down more fully than the theory does . * they being beloved of god , and newly created by him , using also a kind of nourishment agreeable to their nature , and proper to multiply their years ; it is no absurd thing to suppose that their years were of that continuance : considering that god gave them long life , to the end they should teach vertue , and should conveniently practise those things which they had invented in astronomy , and by geometry ; the demonstrations whereof they never had attained , except they had lived at least six hundred years . for the great year is accomplished by that number of years : whereof all they bear me witness , who ( either greeks or barbarians ) have written ancient histories . for both manethon ( who wrote the history of egypt ) and berosus ( who registred the acts and affairs of the chaldeans ) together with molus , hestiaeus , and hierom of egypt ( who give an account of the phoenician antiquities ) accord with me in that i have said . hesiodus also , heccataeus , hellanicus , and acusilaus , ephorus and nicholaus do declare , that they of the first world lived a thousand years . but let every man judge of these things as he best liketh . where ( to let pass other circumstances ) let it be noted , that iosephus attributes long life , only to such as were beloved of god. and that to such ends as were now specified ; that they might teach vertue , and use and improve astronomy and geometry , wherein they could have attained to no considerable skill , without long life . and then as to the rest of those authors he remembers ; how could they understand the thing better than himself ? for besides scripture ( which iosephus was much better acquainted with than they ) what else could give them information in the case ? and therefore their account , we know , is utterly false : for none of the first worlds ancients could ever reckon a thousand years compleat ▪ only some of them ( in the sacred register ) came pretty near it ; though most fell short of it by such a period of time , as very few lives comparatively now reach to . and that iosephus himself did not believe that all lived so long , as the writers cited by him do mention ; is plain from his shutting up the fore-quoted chapter , with an expression showing diffidence in himself , by allowing it to others . let every man judge of these things as he thinks best . which i desire may be noted the rather , because there are few that write for this longaevity of the prediluvians ; but they still quote this place in iosephus , and back what they say , with the authorities he brings . yet we see , he is so far from being positive , in the matter , that he leaves people wholly to their own judgments about it . and as for scripture , i say , he read and understood it as well as others ; and could he have found good proofs of the point there , he would doubtless have spoken more definitively of it . and the truth is , scripture says not one word of cain's , or his childrens living eight or nine hundred years . and therefore when we granted they might do so , it was no absolutely necessary concession . but this is observable , that the invention of manual arts , and such things as might be carried on to good degrees of perfection in a less of space of time ; fell to their care and management . whereas ( according to the iewish historian ) astronomy , and geometry , which could not be learnt but in longer periods , were studied by those virtuoso's , who are upon holy record for long-livers . which tacitly intimates that the reason of long life , and so long life it self , was not common to all . and though moses remembers a few by name that lived so very long ; yet this no more proves that all attained to the like age , before the flood ; than his saying * there were giants on the earth in those days , does imply the whole race of mankind were such . yea , as his telling the world , there were some giants then , does import that the rest were otherwise : so his mentioning some● so very long livers , may insinuate that the rest were not so . nor do we stand quite alone in this opinion ; for rabbi moses in his book de directione perplexorum , as burgensis cites him ( addit . . in gen. . apud lyr. ) was of the same mind . and as he attributes length of life before the flood , miraculo divino , to divine miracle ; so he says , diuturnitas fuit solùm in illis qui in sacra scriptura nominantur , scilicet adam , seth , enos , &c. non autem in aliis contemporaneis , qui non tam diuturnè vivebant ; sed sicut past diluvium . length of life was only in those , who are named in the holy scripture ; that is to say , adam , seth , enos , &c. but not in others their contemporaries ; who did not live so long ; but as men lived after the deluge . burgensis himself also ( first , a most learned iew of spain , and then a famous christian doctor ) seems to be of the same judgment with the rabbi , in this matter . but if at last it be urged , that the authors aforesaid are too many and considerable , to have their testimonies questioned or rejected ; and that what they delivered of the praediluvians longaevity , must be true of them in general , they receiving the thing by authentic tradition : let it be yielded . but then i must demand , and may be allowed to do so ; how comes it to pass that tradition is so partial , and not equally faithful as to other great concerns of the first world ? particularly , why does it not by the pen of the same , or of other writers , tell us explicitly of a constant aequinox , and a perpetual spring , as causes of that longaevity ? and not leave it to be imputed to nourishment and higher things ; whither iosephus , we see , ascribes it . why does it not tell us of a sky without clouds ; and an heaven without rains ; and an earth without seas , and mountains , &c. surely if tradition spake so loud in one case ; and was so dumb or deeply silent in the rest : this seems to evidence , that however there might be somewhat of truth in that one phaenomenon ; there was none in the other . . though truly that all the prediluvians were such long livers , cannot well be supposed for this reason . because then their multitudes would have everlaid the earth , and they would have wanted room wherein to subsist . for grant them to have multiplied but as mankind did just after the flood , or as the israelites did in the land of egypt , or even as people do now adays ; and where would there have been place convenient for them ? and yet that they did increase at such a rate , and faster too , is but reasonable to think ; in regard humane nature if ever it were stronger at any time than other , was so at first . to which add , that digamy was in use before the flood : and lamech ( one who was infamous for it ) is said by iosephus , to have had seventy seven children by his two wives . yea , perhaps men were not only for two , but many wives , genesis . . and polygamy must contribute greatly to the encrease of mankind . but there needs no farther prosecution of this . the theory yields as much as we contend for , or can desire in the case : though no more than what may be true , and so inavoidable . * 't is likely they were more fruitful in the first ages of the world , than after the flood ; and they lived six , seven , eight , nine hundred years apiece , getting sons and daughters . and again ; † if we allow the first couple at the end of one hundred years , or of the first century , to have left ten pair of breeders , which is an easie supposition , there would arise from these in fifteen hundred years , a greater number than the earth was capable of allowing every pair to multiply in the● same decuple proportion the first pair did . ; so that if a supposition ( which ( in the theorist's own judgment ) is easie , may be but admitted ( as why should it not ? ) either the longaevity of the antediluvians must not be universal , or the earth was incapable of the number of its inhabitants . nor could the primitive earth receive greater numbers of people than this . for grant it had no open seas in it ; yet the middle regions of it being uninhabitable in regard of heat ; and the polar ones upon account of wet and cold : both will be reduced to a pretty equal capaciousness . and should it be alleg'd , that the first earth was bigger in circumference , than this is ; that will be made good , by casting in on the present earth's side , the sinking hollownesses and declivities of valleys ; and the swelling protuberancies and gibbosities of mountains ; neither of which the first earth had . farther , if people before the flood , were generally so long-liv'd , and this their longaevity proceeded from a perpetual aequinox , and settled benign temperature of the air , as the theory holds ; then surely there would not have been that difference as to length of days amongst them , as we find there was . thus , lamech's age ( as appears in the * catalogue of long livers ) was short of mathuselah's , near two hundred years . whereas if the cause of long life had been so uniform and steddy a thing , and so generally and equally influential upon all , as the supposed aequinox ; the effect would have answered it : longaevity it self would have been more regular , and not have admitted of so much disparity . though the truth is , such an aequinox , and such an earth as we have heard of , would rather help to shorten life ( we may think ) than draw it out to such a length . for certain it is , that they must shut all winds and storms , and clouds and rains , and thunders and lightnings , out of the first world. and what are these but crises of nature , wherein those malignities and noxious qualities which are lodged in her , and would corrupt her ; suffer a solution and are discharged ? just as morbific humors in the body , first ferment , and then are thrown off by proper evacuations . but when there could be no storms or thunders , to put the air into motion , and to purge and clarifie it , that so it might continue pure and wholsome : it being always calm and too quiescent ( like stagnant water ) must needs putrifie , and contract such foulness as would make it unhealthy , and apt to cause grievous diseases and death . egypt is almost in the pretended state of the primitive earth . situate between the second and fifth climates ; its longest day not above thirteen hours and an half ; has seldom any rain , but is watered by a river . yet how subject is cairo to raging plagues , and where are greater or oftener mortalities than there ? i have only this to add here . if the aequinox spoken of , were the cause of a general longaevity in the prediluvian world ; then other animals would have lived as long proportionably , as men. that is to say lions , bears , wolves , dogs , &c. and these multiplying five or six times ( to say no more ) as fast as men ; might have soon over-powered and destroyed them . also rats , mice , fowls , &c. multiplying ( in that world ) all the year round , and in far greater numbers than the creatures aforesaid ; would have destroyed mankind another way : not by devouring them , but the fruits of the earth which they were to live upon . especially when men lived wholly on such fruits ( without eating flesh ) and had no such ways and instruments at first , of killing those vermin , as now they have . nor did the earth yield such plenty of corn of its own accord , as to satisfie all granivorous creatures , without preying upon mens corps . for upon man's sin , * the ground was cursed . and upon that malediction , it afforded not corn without tillage . for thence forward even adam himself was to eat of it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in sorrow ( or labour ) all the days of his life ; nor could he have bread , but● at the price of his † sweat. and if the first men had no bread-corn , but what their industry fetch'd out of the earth ; how could they defend it against the swarms of devouring creatures , increasing always upon them by numerous procreations ? even barely to name all the sorts of them , that would be hurtful upon the account we speak of , and would unspeakably abound in a world that knows no season but spring ; is so great a task , that i am willing to decline it . yet that other creatures did live proportionably as long as mankind , the theory owns ; * where it makes the longaevity of both at once , a third phaenomenon of paradise and the first ages . and which is ve●● considerable also , it makes the first earth the common mother of all sorts of animals , which naturally bred them and brought them forth . whence it must follow , that those terrigenous creatures strangely increasing by spontaneous births , would soon have filled the world , even this way alone ( though they had not propagated their respective kinds ) with such inconceiveable multitudes ; as would have easily spoiled the earth , and ruin'd mankind . who as they were made in the beginning but in one pair ; so they were capable comparatively but of a slow multiplication . and so beasts , fowls , creeping things , insects , and all manner of deadly and pernicious creatures , would have poured in upon them in vast numbers , and with incredible forces ; while they were unable to defend themselves against them . chap. xiv . . the flood could not be caused by the dissolution of the earth , and its falling into the abyss . . for it would have been inconsistent with the description of paradise . . it would have destroy'd the ark. . and have made the earth of a form different from what now it is of . . it would also have reduced it to a miserable barrenness . . and have overturned the buildings which outstood the deluge . . and have rendred the covenant which god made with noah , vain and insignificant . . let us now go on to the next vital or primary assertion of the theory , which is this . the disruption and fall of the earth into the abyss which lay under it , was that which made the vniversal deluge , and the destruction of the old world. for the vehement and piercing heat of the sun , having parched and chapped the exterior orb of earth , and so greatly weakned it : and also having raised great store of vapours out of the deep within this orb ; their force at length grew to be such , that the walls inclosing them being unable to hold them , the whole fabric brake , being torn in pieces as it were with an earthquake . at which time , the fragments of that orb of earth , of several sizes , plunging into the abyss in several postures ; by their weight , and greatness , and violent descent , caused such a rageing tumult in the waters , and put them into so fierce commotions and furious agitations , as made them boil and flow up above the tops of the new made mountains ; and so caused the general deluge . but against this we except also , and say that the flood could not be thus effected , for several reasons . . first , because it would be inconsistent with moses's description of paradise . what that description is , we have seen already ; and 't is done according to the proper rules of topography . for first , he marks it out by its quality ; a garden . then by its name ; eden . then by its situation ; eastward . then by its inhabitant ; man. then by its furniture ; every tree pleasant to the sight , and good for food . and lastly , by a river to water it , which ( rising in it , or running through , or by it ) did divide its stream into four heads or branches : all which , except one , are made to refer to some country or other . thus , pison is said to compass the land of havilah : gihon , the land of cush , or the asian aethiopia : hiddekel , to run towards the east of assyria . but had the earth been dissolved to make the flood ; how could these rivers , or how could these countries , or any of either of them , exist in moses's time ; as being all swallowed up and for ever perisht in the fall of the earth ? and yet if they were not in being then , how could he describe the terrestrial paradise by them , as he does ? and yet that they could have no being then , the theory acknowledges in these words . * 't is true , if you admit our hypothesis , concerning the fraction and disruption of the earth at the deluge , then we cannot expect to find rivers now as they were before — their chanels are all broke up . but then if the hypothesis of the theory were true , what meant moses to put these rivers , or any part of them , or any countries near them , into the topography of paradise ; when together with the earth , they were all broke up and dissolved so long before ? to make the argument as short as may be . in case these rivers were not in the first world , it was impossible paradise should be described by them . and if they were in that world , it was as impossible they should be in this . and so we have good evidence , that the general flood could not be the effect of the earth's dissolution . for if it were so , moses's description of paradise must be false . which , to affirm , would be horrid blasphemy , it being dictated by the holy ghost . nor will it mend the matter here , to fall to cabbalizing , or expounding things mystically . so we shall run upon the same rock , and put hideous affront upon the truth of god , by turning it into meer figure and falshood . two eminent fathers subscribe expressly to this . the first , epiphanius , whose words are these . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. * if paradise be not sensible , then there was no fountain ; if no fountain , no river ; if no river , no four heads , no pison , no gihon , no tigris , no euphrates ; no fruit , no fig-leaves , nor did eve eat of the tree , nor was there an adam , nor are there men ; but the truth is a fable , and all but allegories . the other father is st. ierome , who commenting on the fourth verse of the first chapter of daniel ; infers thus from it . † let their dotage be silent , who seeking for shadows and images in the truth , do overthrow the truth it self , while they conceit that rivers and trees , and paradise , ought to submitt themselves to the rules of allegory . and here it may not be amiss , to take notice how empty , and shallow , and extreamly trifling their reasons are , that argue against a local paradise , and turn the holy story of it into allegory . let the observation run but upon one writer ( who being as good as any that way , may serve instead of all the rest ) i mean philo iudaeus . a let no such impiety invade our reason , says he , as to suppose that god tills the ground or plants a paradise ; inasmuch as we might presently doubt why he should do it . for he could never thereby furnish himself with pleasant mansions , retirements , or delights ; nor could such a fabulosity ever enter into our mind . for the whole world could not be a worthy place or habitation for god ; who indeed is a place to himself , and is full of , and sufficient for himself . where the reason why there must be no material paradise , and why it is impious for us to think that god planted one ; is , because it would not be gratifying to him , and because the whole world is not a fit habitation for him . ( and therefore by the same reason there never was a world made neither . ) as if paradise had not been planted for man , but god. and * elsewhere we find him harping upon the same string , though it sounds but harshly . to take the paradise planted by god , for a garden of vines , and olives , apples , pomgranates , and the like trees , would be a gross and incurable folly . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. for one might say ; to what end was it ? for a pleasant dwelling place ? but then might not the whole world be thought the most contentful dwelling for god the vniversal king ? and a little after ; truly as god does not at all want other things , so neither ( fruits for ) nourishment . where the main reason against a local paradise again , is ( that which really is none ) its vselessness in reference to god. as if the design or end of a paradise , had been to supply the necessities or conveniencies of the deity : and because god did not need it , and could receive no benefit by it ; therefore it must be folly to think he planted it . but what was it that made so learned a man to argue thus ? . secondly , the dissolution of the earth could not be the cause of the general flood ; because it would have utterly destroyed noah's ark , and all that were in it . for then that great and heavy vessel , sinking with the ground whereon it stood ; must certainly have been staved all to pieces , if not overwhelm'd in the ruines of the earth . i know that in favour of this ark , and for its preservation ; it is supposed that the * abyss was not broken open till after the forty days rain ; and that those rain-waters might set it a-float , and so prevent its ruinous fall , by keeping it from that impetuous shock , which it would have had if it had stood upon dry land when the earth fell . but this supposition was noted above to be false , and must needs be so . for by the infallible records we are assured , that the fountains of the great deep were broke up , and the windows of heaven opened in the same day , gen. . . yea , according to the order of the holy words ( if there be any priority in those two causes of the deluge ) the disruption of the abyss should precede ; the breaking open of the fountains being first mention'd . and so the ark having no water to float on , must certainly have stood upon dry ground when the earth fell . and consequently the impetuous shock spoken of , could by no means have been avoided ; but must certainly have destroy'd the ark , and all creatures in it . . thirdly , had the deluge been caused by the earth's dissolution , the earth ( or dry land of this terraqueous globe ) would in likelihood have been of another figure than what now it bears . for under the ecliptic ( which in the primitive situation of the earth ( according to the theory ) was its aequinoctial ; and divided the globe into two hemispheres , as the aequator does now ) the dry ground is of most spatious extent and continuity . even from the south-west parts of africa , about guinea ; there is one entire tract of firm land , reaching as far as the persian gulf , and the arabian sea. that is , for the length of seventy five degrees , or between four and five thousand miles . and then eastward of that sea , runs the main land of india ; which from the western parts of it , to camboia . in the east , is extended between two and three thousand miles more . and yet it is all-a-long one continued tract of land , bating the sinus gangeticus , or gulf of bengala ; which north-wards thrusts up but a little beyond the ecliptic neither . and lastly , the same ecliptic runs obliquely over almost the widest part of america peruana ; another piece of ground three thousand miles in breadth . so that the earth seems to be too whole in its aequinoctial regions ( i mean those that were so before the flood ) to have been dissolved to make the deluge . for had it suffered such a dissolution ; the middle parts of it falling in first ( for some reasions * before suggested ) it seems probable that it should have been more broken and shattered thereabouts than any where else ; if not clean swallowed up : and so the earth must have been of quite another shape than now it is . but this i speak as a probable , rather than as a certain thing . where grounds are but presumptive and conjectural ; assertions built upon them , must not be positive and dogmatical . . fourthly , had the earth been dissolved to make the flood ; its dissolution would have brought it into a state of most lamentable barrenness . for then the inward parts of it being turned outward ; and the starven molds , and stony materials in its bowels , being made into its surface in a great measure : in all such places , it would not only have been destitute of such things , as should have afforded nourishment both to men and beasts ; but moreover indisposed to , and incapable of yielding them , for a long time . the husbandman when he plows a little deeper than ordinary , and fetches up the dead soil , as he terms it ; it proves a great hindrance to his crops . yet what is that soil , but part of what ( upon the exterior orb 's tumbling into the abyss ) must have been turned up by whole countries at once ? at least in the aequinoctial parts of the earth , as being extreamly dried , and having all the heart or fatness suck'd out of it , by the scorching sun. and where vast pieces of earth sank whole as they were , and the ground also was of a richer nature ( as retaining , we 'll suppose , some of its native oiliness ) yet there it must have been covered with an huge quantity of mud , which would have made it barren by choking such things as would have grown upon it . for the waters below , being by the falling in of the ground , expell'd from their aboad , and forced to fly up with unspeakable violence ; and then by reason of their plenty and gravity , descending with as much rage and force again ; and still as the earth suffered more fractures , and plung'd into the waters in more pieces , they feeling new commotions , and being huffed up and put into fresh estuations : by their rising and falling , and working and beating furiously and incessantly ; they must needs wash and wear off a mighty deal of earth from the fragments that dropped into the deep . which earth being carried into all places , by the tossing , rolling , turbulent waters , and spread pretty thick upon the face of the ground ; and also incorporate with much other filth ; it could not but be occasion of great barrenness to the earth . for then when the deluge settled and went off , that filth could not but harden into a crust or cap upon the earth's surface , very destructive to the earth's fruitfulness . especially if we consider , how long and dismally the ground was harrass'd by the flood , before it was incrusted . for , says the theory , * the tumult of the waters , and the extremity of the deluge lasted for some months . and the fluctuations of the waters being so boisterous , and withal so lasting , they could not but wash up , or kill most of the tenderer sort of plants , and many of the hardier and stronger ones too ; yea , and perhaps rinse off the top of the ground it self , leaving it generally bare , and covering it in many places with store of silty , sandy , or gravelly stuff . so that the earth being first made bare , and then overgrown with the crust aforesaid ( which with the sun and wind would be baked on to it , and wax pretty stiff and hard about it ) how could it at first have afforded sustenance to the living creatures ? and therefore we read concerning . † attica , that by reason of mud and slime which the waters lest upon the earth , it was uninhabited two hundred years after ogyges's flood . and that the whole earth should be in as bad a condition after the general flood ; as attica was after that inundation which happened to it ; we need not question , if the theory has hit upon the true cause of the deluge . so that however noah and his family might have made shift for food ( supporting themselves by eating some of those creatures kept alive in the ark , which god ( at their going out of the same ) gave them for meat , with a general licence to eat flesh , gen. . . ) yet other animals , for a time , would have been at a very great loss for nourishment . . again , had the earth been drowned , by its being dissolved and falling into the abyss ; all the buildings erected before the flood , would have been shaken down , or else overwhelmed . yet we read of some that outstood the flood , and were not demolisht . such were the pillars of seth , and the cities henochia , and ioppa . touching which ( to avoid quoting of several authors ) i shall only recite what i meet with in * one . and for a more direct proof , that the flood made no such destroying alteration , josephus avoweth that one of those pillars erected by seth , the third from adam , was to be seen in his days ; which pillars were set up above fourteen hundred twenty and six years before the fl●od , counting seth to be an hundred years old at the erection of them ; and josephus himself to have lived some forty or fifty years after christ : of whom although there b●●no cause to believe all that he wrote , yet that which he avoucheth of his own time , cannot ( without great derogation ) be called in question . and therefore possibly some foundation or ruine thereof might then be seen . now that such pillars were rear'd by seth , all antiquity hath avowed . it is also written in berosus ( to whom though i give little credit , yet i cannot condemn him in all ) that the city of enoch built by cain about the mountains of libanus , was not defaced by length of time ; yea , the ruines thereof annius ( who commented upon that fragment which was found ) saith , were to be seen in his days , who lived in the reign of ferdinand and isabella of castile . and if these his words be not true , then was he exceeding impudent ; f●r speaking of this city of enoch , he conludeth in this sort ; cujus maxima & ingentis molis fundamenta visuntur , & vocatur ab incolis regionis , civitas cain , ut nostri mercatores , & peregrini referunt . the large foundations of which huge mass are to be seen , and it is called by the inhabitants of the country , the city of cain , as our merchants and strangers do report . it is also avowed by pomponius mela ( to whom i give more credit in these things ) that the city of jopa was built before the flood , over which cephas was king : whose name , with his brother phineas , together with the grounds and principles of their religion , was found graven upon certain altars of stone . and it is not impossible that the ruines of the other city , called enoch , by annius , might be seen , though founded in the first age. solinus also witnesseth concerning joppa , that it was oppidum antiquissimum orbe toto , utpote ante inundationem terrarum conditum ; the most ancient town in the whole world , as being built before the flood upon the earth . now if things were thus ; that is to say , if a pillar of seth's erecting ( whereon was * ingraved the rules of science ) was standing after the flood , in the country of lycia : if the city enoch was so far from being ruined by the deluge , that it was not defaced : if ioppa was so far from being swallowed up or made an heap of rubbish , that the altars in it were plainly discernible , and standing in such order , that the inscriptions upon them were legible : then most certainly the earth's dissolution , and fall into the deep , could not cause the flood . for them , suppose that the ground had fallen but a mile , or a mile and a quarter downward ; which we must grant it did at least ( according to the heighth of the present mountains , set at ten furlongs , when carefully † measured by xenagoras of old ) and it would have given such a terrible jar or jounce , as would have shattered the abovesaid structures all down , and laid them flat upon the earth , if not sunk them into it . and that which would have made it more difficult for them to have continued standing , was their situation . for enoch is said to be built about the mountains of libanus . but then about the mountains the waters would have been most irresistably violent , had the flood proceeded from the earth's dissolution . so we are assured by the theory . * the pressure of a great mass of earth falling into the abyss — could not but impel the water with so much strength , as would carry it up to a great height in the air ; and to the top of any thing that lay in its way , any eminency or high fragment whatsoever : and then rowling back again , it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon , woods , buildings , living-creatures , and carry them all headlong into the great gulf. so that enoch being situate about the mountain libanus , the very force of the waters alone perhaps might have born it down . and then as to ioppa , i have some where read , that it is oppidum monte situm too , a town situate on an hill. or if it be not , for certain it stands just upon the brink of the mediterranean sea : and so could never have escaped being overturn'd . for besides that it must have been shaken with the general fall of the ground ; it was placed just where the mighty fragment , which dived into the mediterranean , or made the bottom of it , was riven off ; and so at the time of its hideous splitting off , the poor city must needs have suffered a very dismal concussion . and the like may be said , in a good measure , of the pillar of seth , it standing not far from the sea neither . i know the very being is questioned of seth's pillar , &c. but what some doubt , others believe : and having all antiquity ( as the cited historian says ) on our side ; we have ventured to put in this piece of exception among others . valeat quantum valere potest . . lastly , had the dissolution of the earth , been the cause of the deluge ; it would have made god's covenant with noah , a very vain and trifling thing . soon after the flood was dried up , it pleased the great god to make an explicit and gracious covenant with that patriarch himself , and his children ; and in behalf of all living creatures then in being , or afterward to exist ; that the world should be drown'd no more with such a general deluge . and this covenant he was pleased to ratifie with a remarkable sign , that of the rainbow ; which was to be a lasting token of remembrance to him , as well as a pledge of assurance to us . so we find gen. from the th verse , to the th . and god spake unto noah , and to his sons with him , saying , and i , behold , i establish my covenant with you , and with your seed after you : and with every living creature that is with you , of the fowl , of the cattle , and of every beast of the earth with you , from all that go out of the ark , to every beast of the earth . and i will establish my covenant with you , neither shall all flesh be cut off any more , by th● waters of a flood , neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth . and god said , this is the token of the covenant which i make between me and you , and every living creature which is with you , for perpetual generations . i do set my bow in the cloud , and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth . and it shall come to pass , when i bring a cloud over the earth , that the bow shall be seen in the cloud . and i will remember my covenant , which is between me and you , and every living creature of all flesh : and the water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh . and the bow shall be in the cloud ; and i will look upon it , that i may remember the evelasting covenant between god and every living creature , of all flesh that is upon the earth . and god said unto noah , this is the token of the covenant , which i have established between me and all flesh , that is upon the earth . now if the earth had been drowned the theory's way , what need of all this ? then it had been but god's telling noah , how the flood came ; and that would have made him , and all his posterity , both sensible and secure enough at once , that such another flood could never happen . yea , that scarce need to have been told him neither ; inasmuch as the thing would have been throughly apparent , to them that lived in both the worlds , from the great changes they must have observed : and so the covenant would have been vain and useless . yea , which is worse , it would have been perfect mockery and collusion ; because then the earth could not have been capable of , or liable to , such another deluge . so that god's covenanting not to drown it any more ; would have been as if he should have covenanted that a thing impossible should not be done : that the fire should not freeze , or the sun shine darkness . for as neither sun nor fire can do such things , so long as they continue what they are ; no more could the earth be drowned a second time , so long as it continued a dissolved earth . yet that it may be delug'd again , is clear from god's covenanting that it shall not , and from the terms of that covenant . for the bow in the cloud is said to be a token of the covenant . and that when that bow is seen , god will remember his covenant . and that he will look upon it , to that very end , that he may remember the everlasting covenant . plainly intimating , that if that covenant were not made ; or being made , if by god it were not remembred ; the earth might again be drowned , with as universal and fatal a flood as ever . but then if it may be so , from thence it will follow , that noah's flood could not be caused by the earth's dissolution . because then nature could no longer have been subject to a second deluge , and god need not have covenanted to prevent it ; his very doing it must have been a kind of imposing upon men , as being but an ingaging to save them from an impossible evil ; and to keep that sad calamity off them , which nothing but miracle or his own omnipotence was able to bring on . so that in fine , the case is come to this issue ; either that the glorious god has done mighty unworthily ( pardon the word ) in making a covenant , which has nothing but vanity and mockage in it ; or else that the theory determines falsely , in making the deluge to flow from the dissolution and falling in of the earth . chap. xv. . the flood explicable , another way , as well as by that in which the theory goes . . what the height of its waters might be , viz. fifteen cubits upon the surface of the earth . . the probability of the hypothesis argued from scripture . . what the fountains of the great deep were . . a second argument for the hypothesis , from the easie and sufficient supply of waters to raise the flood to such an height . . a third , from its agreeableness with st. peter's account of the deluge . . a fourth , from the habitableness of the earth , at the flood 's going off . . a fifth , from its consistency with geography . . we are now come to the last vital , or primary assertion of the theory , which is this , that neither noah's flood , nor the present form of the earth , can be explained in any other method that is rational , nor by any other causes that are intelligible . that is , besides those which the theory makes use of , or assigns . now as to the present form of the earth , we have spoken something to that already . so that could but such an explication of the flood be given in , as would solve it , and the several phaenomena's of it , as rationally and intelligibly as the theory does ; this assertion likewise would be sufficiently encountred in our way of excepting against it . let us therefore be allowed but some of that liberty which the theory takes ; that is , to make bold with scripture a little , as that has done a great deal ; and we 'll try what may be done of this nature . not that i will be bound to defend what i say , as real and true ; any more than to believe ( what i cannot well endure to speak ) that the church of god has ever gone on in an irrational way of explaining the deluge . which yet she must needs have done , if there be no other rational method of explaining it , and no other intelligible causes of it , than what the theory has proposed . . we are now therefore attempting or ●oving at a new explication of the flood . and if in any thing it seems strange , let none wonder or be offended at it . we are only trying whether we can hit upon somewhat , that may be as rational and intelligible as to the matter in hand , as what the theory offers ; though it be as extravagant as that is . so that where we speak never so positively , still what we deliver , is to be lookt upon , not as an absolute , but comparative hypothesis . and first let us sound the waters of the flood . i mean by a true and infallible plumb-line ; even the same which moses reaches out unto us , in the seventh of genesis . so we shall find there is a great mistake in the common hypothesis touching their depth . for whereas they have been supposed , to be fifteen cubits higher than the highest mountains ; they were indeed but fifteen cubits high in all , above the surface of the earth . not that the waters were no where higher than just fifteen cubits above the ground : they might in most places be thirty , forty , or fifty cubits high or higher . the reason is evident ; because the surface of the earth , were all its hills gone , would be still ●even , and some parts of it considerably higher than others . thus , * helvetia is reckoned the highest country in europe . and in proof of as much , it sends forth four great rivers into the four several quarters of the europian world. that is to say , the danube , eastward ; the rosne , westward ; the rhine , northward ; and the po , southward . for though the earth be a globe , yet it is not one so true and exact , but were the mountains taken off it , i say , it would still be rising or prominent in some places by the height of many cubits , over what it is in others . at which rate , when the flood ascended fifteen cubits above the earth where it is highest ( which was the true height of the flood ) most of the surface of the earth might be four or five times as deep under water . thus , when switzerland ( suppose ) was drowned to the height of fifteen cubits ; most of europe might be drowned many times as high . and indeed that the earth was uneven ( as we have said ) and much higher in some places than in others ; cannot be doubted : it being but a wise and most necessary piece of providence , that it should be so contrived . for otherwise spacious plain countries ( if habitable at all ) would have yielded but incommodious dwellings . i mean , because they must have been perfectly level , and so would have lacked devexities needful for water-courses . for rivers , we know , never flow but in way of decurse or running downward , off precipices , steepnesses , or declivities . . this therefore we lay down as the foundation of our hypothesis , that the highest parts of the earth , that is , of the common surface of it , were under water but fifteen cubits in depth : which would drown the rest of its superficies , very sadly and sufficiently . and this , i say , we learn from moses ; who knowing it himself by inspiration , to inform us of as much , has committed it to writing , in the seventh chapter of genesis . for there we read at the eighteenth verse , that the waters prevailed greatly upon the earth . and at the nineteenth verse , that the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth . and how greatly and exceedingly did they prevail upon the earth ? that we have specified in the twentieth ver . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail . what can be more clear or express ? they prevailed fifteen cubits and no more . fifteen cubits upward ; that is , upon the earth . upon which they are said to prevail greatly , and to prevail exceedingly ( in the two foregoing verses ) that is upon the highest parts of its common surface . and thus our supposition stands supported by divine authority , as being founded upon scripture . that tells us , as plainly as it can speak , that the waters prevailed but fifteen cubits upon the earth . ( the cited text , as a certain plumb-line , shows them to have been no deeper , where the earth bosoms out , and is most prominent . ) and so it puts an useful key into our hands , to help us to unlock the mystery of the deluge , and to free the doctrine of it from great difficulties and inconveniencies ; which have run men , it seems , upon irrational and unintelligible means and methods of explaining it . . before we lay down any other arguments in confirmation of the hypothesis ; let us try if the light of scripture , which shows the depth of the flood so plainly , will not also discover to us more clearly than yet has been done , what those fountains of the great deep were , which at the time of the flood were cleaved , or * broken up . and truly this it seems to do very notably ; giving us to understand , that they were but certain caverns . such caverns , i mean , as were contained in rocks and mountains . and so the breaking up of the fountains of tehom rabbah , or the great deep , ( which the theory insists so much upon ) was no more than the breaking up of such caverns . this is evident from psal. . . where it is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he clave the rocks ( the rock rephidim , and the rock in cadesh ) and gave them drink 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , † in abyssis magnis , in the great deeps . that is , he gave them that for drink , which was in those great deeps till he fetcht it out of them . and what great deeps could they be , but great deep caverns in the rocks ? and the better to evince , that the breaking open of the fountains of the great deep , gen. . . and the cleaving of those rocks in the wilderness , psal. . . were , in effect , but the same thing : the same hebrew * words are used in both places . but though these caverns be called deeps , we must not take them for profound places that went down into the earth below the common surface of it : on the contrary , they were situate above it . and therefore the waters issuing out of them , came running down . so we find in the next verse of the same psalm , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he caused them to run down . and wisd. . . the water is said to be given de petra altissima , from a most high rock . and gejerus upon that place in the th psalm , does not only observe , that god made the waters to descend , ex petra praeeminente , out of a very high rock ; but also notes the reason why he did so , ut origo aquarum omnibus pateret ; that the source of the waters might appear to all . we cannot but remember likewise , that this water is said , cor. . . to follow the israelites . which speaks it to have had a fall from an elevated situation . and indeed if it had not , it could not so well have run along with their camp perhaps to cadesh , where we next find them at a want for water . though if the rock in rephidim did supply them all-a-long in their intermediate marches and stages ; we must needs conclude there were extraordinary accessions of water into the great deeps , or caverns of it ; out of which it flowed with so very plentiful and lasting streams . the least that can be imagined , is , that they were so framed as to draw abundance of vapours into themselves ; which being dissolved in the vaults within , from thence gushed out in a continued torrent . not unlike to the waters in tenariff , which every day pour down from a most high mountain ; being generated ( i conceive ) of great store of vapours which gather in some large hollownesses of the same , and through secret passages ascend to its top. for on it there stands a certain tree , continually covered with a misty cloud ; which every day melting at noon , discharges it self so copiously as to serve the whole island ; on which there never yet fell a showre , save that one which was forty days long . i have set down the high situation of these caverns or fountains , as forestalling an objection , that might thus be made . if the great deeps , whose waters help'd to raise the flood ; were no other than caverns ; the waters they afforded would contribute nothing to that use : for as soon as they had come out , others would have run into their places immediately , and so they had as good have kept in still . but now these caverns being of an eminent or raised site , the waters they yielded towards the flood , might help to swell it to its due pitch , according as we have set it ; without any kind of danger , or indeed possibility , either of their own returning , or of others running into their room . in case it be urged that caverns , especially caverns so high situate , cannot properly be called great deeps : i answer , the holy ghost has been pleased to give them that name , and his authority is not to be disputed . so we find him styling the red sea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * the great deep ( as big a name as can be given to the vastest profoundest ocean now , and a bigger than was given to the whole mass of waters at first , it being called but , the deep , simply ) which yet , for a sea , was neither great , nor deep . though those caverns which were opened at the flood , might well be as deep , as they were great ; measuring their depths , from above , downward , towards the surface of the earth . and whereas the psalmist speaks of the great deeps , as of many ; and moses of the great deep , as but of one : this does not argue but the same thing might be meant by both . for as in scripture , a plural word , is sometimes but of a singular signification ; ( thus the ark is said to rest upon the mountains of ararat , when it could rest but upon one single mountain : ) so a singular word , does sometimes carry the force of a plural one with it ; ( thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the quail , is put for the numberless multitude of them , exod. . . ) and therefore the different numbers used by the holy writers in this case , need not set them at variance , or imply , that they intended different things . and then tho' moses speaks of the great deep , singularly , as but of , one ; yet he speaks of all the fountains of that deep , as of , many : which makes the expression somewhat more parallel to the psalmist's , great deeps . and then though the psalmist puts the substantive , deeps , in the plural number ; yet he puts , great , the adjective , in the singular : and so goes as far to meet moses ( as i may say ) as moses comes to meet him . and lastly , the septuagint and vulgar both , do render the psalmist's , deeps in the singular number , deep : as if it were no matter * whether number were used . should it be urged farther yet , that no such deeps or caverns are found in the earth now adays , and therefore it may be questioned , whether there ever were any or no : it might be answered . though there are many of them , yet they may be of no easie discovery ; as being inclosed with very thick walls , and shut up within vastest and highest mountains or rocks . and truly so closely and strongly were they immur'd , in the prediluvian state ; that had not almighty god broken them up by his own power ( as he did those in rephidim ) they might have continued entire and undiscerned to this very day . though when by omnipotence these mighty cisterns of nature were let go , and their waters run out in a great measure ; no wonder at all that the sides of many of them should cave in ; making the mountains or rocks whereunto they belonged , very rough , and craggy , and deformed things ; and scattering huge stones , and such heaps of rubbish whereabouts they fell , as might imitate the ruines of a dissolved world ; and show not only the scars of a broken-fac'd earth , but moreover ( as one would think ) the very entrails of it strangely burst out , and as it were , torn and mangled all to pieces . and as a little marvel it is again , that the crowns of several high rocks and hills , sinking right down into the caverns beneath them , and being not able to fill them up ; should leave huge pans on their tops respectively . while innumerable others yet , that were broached and well nigh drawn off at the flood ; have for many ages stood dry and gaping : and have been dens for wild beasts ; and sometimes refuges , and sometimes , it may be , habitations for men ; as being of very considerable capacities . of this sort , 't is like , was that cave in engedi , which was able to receive david and his six hundred men : and for ought we know , might have held as many more . for these are said to * remain in the sides of the cave , and were so well hidden ; that king saul , who was there at the same time , perceived not one of them . and that there were store of such caves in palestine , into which ( in time of invasion by enemies , &c. ) the inhabitants of the country used to retire , even by whole villages or towns at once ; is very well known . * iosephus makes mention of some of these caves in high rocks and mountains ; which being possessed by robbers , king herod was fain to let down armed souldiers an unspeakable depth into them , in chests with iron chains , to fight the wretches in those their fastnesses . † strabo likewise reports , that towards arabiae , and iturea , there are steep mountains famous for deep caves , one of which is able to receive four thousand men. nor is it to be doubted but that in all rocky and mountainous regions , there are plenty of most capacious caverns . a the theory it self allows them to be more common in such places , than elsewhere . should any go on to object , that the waters issuing out of these caverns , upon their disruption , would have made but a slender contribution towards raising the mighty universal deluge : i answer , first , they contributed as much to that purpose , as divine providence thought fit and necessary . secondly , they increased the waters which ran down the mountains at the time of the flood ; and so did service in hindring both men and other creatures from ascending those mountains ; which might be the chief work they were designed to do . thirdly , scripture it self lays the main of the flood upon the rain-waters , ascribing it mostly to them . for so god declares , gen. . . yet seven days , and i will cause it to rain upon the earth , forty days , and forty nights ; and every living substance that i have made , will i destroy from of the face of the earth . where the great deluge which was to destroy the then animal world ; is owned as proceeding from the forty days rain . intimating that the waters of it , were to rise mainly from them ; and as for those flowing out of the fountains of the deep , they were not to be of equal quantity or use . and indeed had they been so , they would have swelled the flood to too high a pitch . and therefore though they made but the least part of that fatal deluge ; yet so long as they did what was proper and needful , and what the great god intended they should do ; that was sufficient . if , lastly , it be objected ; how could waters come into these caverns ? i answer ; by a very natural and easie way ; even the same way that springs do now rise and flow out of rocks and mountains . for great mountains having great caverns in them , upon the account of their origination ( as being heaved up by the force of that flatuous fermentive moisture ( turn'd into vapours ) wherewith the earth at first abounded ) how easily would those caverns be filled with vapours , by the influence of the sun ; and then those vapours condensed into water , by the coldness of those caverns ? for what were the great mountainous caverns , but as it were the heads of vast stills , as much disposed by nature to condense vapours ; as the other are by art. yea , as cold water , or wet cloths , are applied to the heads of artificial stills , to help forward their work : so huge quantities of snow , which outwardly and continually cover the higher parts of some mountains ; might have the like effect on caverns within . now these vapours being thus changed into waters ; the particles of that would certainly be too gross , to sink down into the earth again through the little pores , by which they ascended or were drawn up out of it . so that unless it could find ways , whereby to run forth and discharge it self at places in the nature of springs ; there it was bound to stay till providence should release it from its close imprisonment ; which it did miraculously at the time of the flood , by breaking up the caverns , or great deeps that contain'd it , and suffering a very great deal of it to run out . so that still the great deep caverns of the mountains , may very well pass for the fountains of moses 's tehom rabbah . and that which helps to encourage ( not to say ) and confirm the notion ; is , that no one of the several things , which have been understood to be that great deep ; can fill up the character of it so fairly , and at the same time answer the ends and uses of it , in respect of the deluge , so fully ; as these caverns . not the open sea ; for as it could not properly be broke open , as being open already ; so the waters of that were by no means sufficient to make such a flood , as noah's has been all-a-long reputed . or in case they had been sufficient ; yet being drawn out of the sea , to drown the earth , what waters should have filled the sea again ? or if it stood empty , what should have hindred the same waters from running back into it ? not the waters in the bowels of the earth : for if they were there in such plenty ( as 't is confest there is room enough for them ) as to have been able to have made a much greater flood than noah's ; yet then against their nature they must have risen above their source ; and being so risen , they must have stood , so long as the flood lasted , in a miraculous opposition to their own nature , inclining them to retire from whence they came . not the supercelestial waters : for then the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep ; and the opening of the windows of heaven ; must be one and the same thing . whereas by moses they are very plainly and carefully distinguisht . not the inclosed abyss ; for then ( besides that the whole hypothesis , so improbable , must be allowed ) the forty days rain would have been utterly needless . because then the falling of the earth into the abyss , being the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep ; it must have fallen in , the very first day that noah went into the ark ; because on that very day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up , gen. . . and if by the earth's falling into the abyss , the world were drowned the first day that noah entered the ark ( as of necessity it must have been , if the earth were dissolved and fell that day ) to what purpose should it after that , rain for forty days together ? and whereas it is said , gen. . . that the fountains of the deep were stopped ; the earth broken down into the abyss was never made up again , nor the abyss it self covered ; but remains still as open as ever : to which particular heads , let me add but one more , which has a kind of general relation to them all . if either the open sea , or the waters within the earth , or the waters above the heavens , or the abyss under the earth , had been the great deep meant by mos●s ; none of them had any true or proper fountains in them . and so what will become of , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all the fountains of the great deep ? but now supposing that the caverns in the mountains were this great deep ; how surprizingly do all these things fall in with them ? for first , they are called great deeps by the holy ghost ( as has been noted ) psal. . secondly , they were capable of being cleaved or broke open ; as being fast shut up . thirdly , they were able to afford a competent quantity of water ; even as much as it was necessary they should yield . fourthly , the water that came forth of them , could never return into them more . fifthly , the breaking them up , must be quite another thing , than opening the windows of heaven . sixthly , they might all be broke up the same day that noah took into the ark. seventhly , the rain which fell in the forty days , would still have been as needful as ever . eighthly , they were stopped again , as strictly and literally , as they were broken up . lastly , they were as true and distinct fountains , as any in the world. so that if they were not the real fountains of the mosaic tehom rabbah ; one would think they might well have been so . . but let us now pass ( as it is time we should ) to a second ground upon which we build the probability of our hypothesis , above specified ; namely , that the flood was but fifteen cubits higher than the highest parts of the surface of the earth . and that ground is this : supposing that to have been the true height of the flood , it will not only be possible , but very easie to find water enough for it , without recourse to such inventions ; as have been , and justly may be disgustful , not only to nice and squeamish , but to the best and soundest philosophic judgments . for thus , in the first place , we need not call in the theory's assistance ; an hypothesis ( how ingenious soever in the contrivance and contexture of it ) guilty of unjustifiable absurdities . nor , secondly , need we fly to a new creation of water , to gain a sufficient quantity of it . an expedient that sounds harshly in the ears of many . and that not only because they are of opinion , that god finisht the work of creation in the first six days ; but because he has expresly declared , that the true and only causes of the deluge were these two ; the breaking up of all the fountains of the great deep , and the opening of the windows of heaven . to which may be added , that the creation of so vast a quantity of water , as should have surmounted the highest hills ; would certainly have inferred , either an enlargement of the whole universe to receive it ; and so a dislocation , and consequently a disorder of its parts respectively : or else a penetration of the dimensions of bodies ; while so much new matter should have sprung into being , more than ever existed ; and yet have been confined to the same space of aboad , that was before fill'd up in its whole capacity . nor need we , thirdly , to fetch waters from the supercelestial regions . where , if the heavens be fluid , how could they have kept from falling down , so long ? and if they be solid , how could they possibly have descended at last ? for in their descent they must have bored their way through several orbs as hard as crystal , and how thick , we know not . besides , these waters must have been lodg'd either below the stars , or above them . if below them , they would have hid them from our sight . the sun himself cannot be seen through a watry cloud ; how much less the stars through a watry ocean ? nor will it help , to say , the element of water above is more fine and transparent than the waters below . for were it as thin as an ordinary mist , still it would hide the sun's face from us , though it might transmit his light . in case they were plac'd above the stars , they must have been delug'd before the earth could have been so ; as intercepting them in their fall . nor could they have slid off the stars again , dropping down to the earth , unless that were the center of the universe , which is hard to prove ; yea , most absurd to think . nor will it be necessary , in the fourth place , to suppose the mass of air , or greatest part of it , was changed into water , to make the deluge . a change which some will by no means admit of , as being not hitherto proved by experiment . yet i cannot but own that the best philosophers have thought it fecible , and also believed it to be actually done . the * egyptians conceived ( manethus and hecataeus both attest ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that rains were made by the version of air. † plato was of the same opinion ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that air being thickned and condensed , made clouds and mists . and so was philo. for besides that he affirms * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it varies and runs through all manner of mutations : he says expresly in † another place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. that air , being condensed , turns to water . and again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that the air being condensed may be compressed into water . and then brings in heraclitus affirming , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the destruction of air , to be the generation of water . to this also the lord verulam consents , offering to make it good by sundry * experiments . though all of them , i think , come short of demonstration , or of a clear and satisfactory proof of the phaenomenon . ( and to name the two greatest philosophers next . ) aristotle asserts this transmutation , in his book de mundo . and des-cartes subscribes to it as possible and real . a when those globules move a little slower than ordinary , they may change water , into ice ; and the particles of air , into water . and the famous and honourable b mr. boyle ( in his . experiment ) leaves it undetermin'd , whether or no air be a primigenial body , that cannot now be generated and turned into water . and truly as clavius his glass of spring-water ( mentioned in that experiment ) hermetically sealed up for fifty years past , and reposited in the musaeum kercherianum ; does not prove that water can't be turn'd into air , because the water continu'd there so long without diminution : so neither will m. rohault's glass seal'd up the same way full of air , and kept in a vessel of water in a wine-cellar three whole years ; argue that air can't be turn'd into water , because none of that air at the three years end , was found to have suffered such a change ; there being not the least drop of water in the glass . we only learn from hence , that we have not yet attain'd to the right operation , of changing these elements into one another . we will grant therefore that by the power of nature , air may be turned into water . yet neither will that take off the whole difficulty in this case . for if most of the air incircling the earth , had been thus changed ( and all of it could not , because then respiration would have been impossible to mankind , and the surviving animals in the ark ) it could not have furnisht water enough for the flood ; a great deal of air going to make up a little quantity of water : ( which the proportion of gravity betwixt water and air , of equal bulk , it being ( found to be ) as of a thousand to one ; does sufficiently evince . ) but in case it could have yielded water enough , yet inconveniences would still have remained . particularly , it would have endangered sucking down the moon , as the theorist ‖ observes . the changing also of one great body into another , which after transmutation takes up so much less room than it did before ; does either suppose that the whole frame of the world must sink closer together ( which would occasion a strange discomposure in it ) to fill up the space that change would make empty : or that in nature there must be a vacuum . though ( by the way ) when our saviour multiplied bread upon earth , that need have no such influence on the world , either as to expansion or contraction of it ; as the new creation of waters above mentioned , or this production of them by transmutation , does imply . for besides that the matter changed was much less in quantity ; the change might be made in such a substance , as did take up just the same room in the world before its mutation , as after it . fig : pag : nor need we trouble our selves in the sixth place about sub-terrestrial waters . which ( if never so free passages had been opened for them ) could no more have flowed up out of the bowels of the earth ; than waters can do out of our deepest wells . yea , with much more difficulty they must have ascended , in regard they were far deeper in the ground ; and also must have boiled up against the weight and pressure of the incumbent flood , even then when perhaps it was a mile or two high . as for blood flowing out of a vein ( when prickt ) in a man's head ; it is nothing like a proof that water may rise and flow above its source . for there is a vital strength and motion forcing it out , and nature conspires as much to help the course of that blood , as she does to hinder this course of the waters we speak of . engines it may be in the heart of the earth , might be able to send up waters on to the surface of it ; as the heart in the midst of the body , sends blood to its extremities . but we hear of no engines made to raise the flood . nor need we , in the last place , to betake our selves to a topical or partial deluge . a thing which some have done , meerly to avoid the necessity of such a vast deal of water , as they knew not where to have for a general flood , according to the rate of the old hypothesis : or in case they could have had it , knew not how to get rid of it again . whereas let fifteen cubits above the earth , be the highest water-mark of the flood ; and then as the clouds and caverns would have yielded water enough to raise it : so when its work was done , the quantity of this water would not have been so excessive , but it might easily be dried up in that space of time , in which moses declares it was so . and this is that which in the second place , gives countenance to our hypothesis . it makes the flood to be such , as nature out of her store-houses could very well send on to the earth ; and when she had done , as conveniently take it off again . and so we are excused from running to those causes or methods , which seem unreasonable to some , and unintelligible to others , and unsatisfactory to most . . a third thing , which gives credit to our conjecture , and makes it look like truth ; is its agreeing so handsomely with st. peter's description of the deluge . the heavens were of old , and the earth standing out of the water and in the water , whereby the world that then was , being overflowed with water , perished , pet. . , . how exactly does this suite with the hypothesis proposed ? for according to it , the earth stood partly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the water ; the most of it being overflowed ; and in such a measure , as that the animal world thereby perished . and yet a great part of the earth ( as much as the upper parts of high mountains come to ) was standing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of the water , at the same time . yea , if a zeugma in the words , makes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , standing , relate to , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the heavens , as well as to , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the earth ; yet our explication of the deluge will fall in very fairly with that too . inasmuch as the heavens stood then in the water , and out of the water , as well as the earth . for their territories were then invaded in some measure ; the water rising , where it incroached least , fifteen ; in most places , it may be , thirty , forty , or fifty cubits into them . and therefore so high they were standing in the water ; as all above was standing out of the same . and which is something more , the heavens and the earth will thus be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , standing together out of the water and in the water ( as some will have the word signifie there ) both of them being in the like circumstances , at the same juncture of time . i will only add under this head , that taking the heavens here mention'd , for the lowest region of the air , or for the lower part of that region ; is but consonant to the sacred style . . a fourth advantage commending our hypothesis , is , that it puts the drowned earth , into a far more habitable condition at the flood 's going off , than otherwise it could have been in . that noah's flood was universal , is most clear from scripture . behold , i , even i do bring a flood of waters upon the earth , to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life , from under heaven , and every thing that is in the earth shall die , gen. . . so the almighty threatned ; and what he threatned he fully made good . and all flesh died that moved upon the earth , both of fowl , and of cattel , and of beast , and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth , and every man. all in whose nostrils was the breath of life , of all that was in the dry land , died . and every living substance was destroyed , which was upon the face of the ground , both man and cattel , and the creeping things , and the fowl of heaven ; they were destroyed from the earth ; and noah only remained alive , and they that were with him in the ark , gen. . , , . and if all flesh under heaven , and every thing in the earth , even every living substance upon the face of the ground , were destroyed and died ; and noah only remained alive , and the creatures in the ark : hence it will follow , that the whole earth was drowned , or else that mankind was not generally spread through all the regions of the same . but that the earth was generally inhabited before the deluge , we need not doubt , nor can we well deny . for the consequence would be , that the prediluvians begat fewer children , or lived shorter lives , than the postdiluvians ; which would not be phanciful only , but false . though truly if some countries had not been peopled , still they must have been drowned ; that so fowl and creeping things , &c. might be destroyed , according to the testimony of the holy ghost . yet admitting this , that the entire earth was overflowed ; and that to such an height , that the loftiest hills ( as is commonly believed ) had their tops fifteen cubits under water : and what a case must the earth have been in , upon drying up of the flood ? what abundance of mud , slime , and filthiness , must every where have covered the surface of it ? how thick must it have lain ? how close must it have stuck ? and how hard would it have been to have clear'd the ground of it ? attica , upon this account , ( as was observed before ) after a far less flood , was not peopled for the space of three hundred years . nor will the theory's explication of the deluge , help here ; unless it be to make things worse ▪ for had the flood been caused by so strange a fraction and falling in of the earth , as that supposeth ; this would have added very much to its ●oulness , and so to its barrenness for a time ( as above remembred ) and consequently to its unfitness for immediate habitation . but now according to the way that we go , the uppermost parts of mountains could never be drowned ; and so never clogg'd neither , or dawb'd over with the filth of the roiled waters . so that let but the floating ark , have stopped at last by the side of some very large hill ; and the earth would there have been ready to receive all that came out of it . and that after all its tossings , it did rest near to , or in some sense upon such a tall vast hill ( perhaps the biggest the earth has ) is rightly believed , as being taught from above . and indeed its doing so , seems to be no other than a signal providence , and a special effect of heavens particular care. that so those few creatures , which out-lived that grievous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or general destruction that fell so heavy on the animate world , might not be destitute of fit habitations and sustenance . and truely that mankind , upon quitting the ark , did inhabit mountains for a considerable time ; may be gathered ( as some think ) out of the tenth and eleventh chapters of genesis . for there it appears that they were grown numerous ( say they ) when they left the hills , and came down to settle in the plains of shinar . but then if they did chuse the hills for their seat , and stay there so long before they removed their quarters ; one reason might be the unfitness of the lower grounds to entertain them , as affording at first no commodious dwellings . and whereas they would have them to keep on the hills with design to secure themselves from future floods : such a design would have been utterly vain . for what security could they expect , by their abode in mountains , from floods to come ; when the highest mountains were over-top'd no less than fifteen cubits , by one so lately past ? . a fifth plea which may be taken up in favour of our hypothesis , is its coherence with geography . wherein it seems to be much more plausible than the old hypothesis , or that of the theory . it falls in with it , by a far more natural and justifiable compliance , than either of them do . as for the theory , it flatly denies that there were hills or valleys , or seas , or islands before the flood : which geography hitherto never dreamt of . the old hypothesis also makes the mountains of ararat or armenia , the highest in the earth : and this , geography again cannot down with . and indeed the chief reason why they have been reputed the highest , is , because the ark has always been presumed to rest on the top of them ; and in that regard it was requisite they should be the highest . but our hypothesis ties up none to the belief of this neither . nor indeed does it seem to be worthy of credit , as shall be noted by and by . chap. xvi . . objections must be answered . . our exposition of scripture not to be made an objection by the theorist , or any that hold with him . . the first objection from the hills being covered , answered . . the second , from the arks resting upon the mountains of ararat , answered . . the third , from the appearing of the tops of the mountains , upon the decrease of the waters , answered . . the fourth , from the possibility of mens being saved from the flood without the ark , answered . . the fifth , from the likelihood of other creatures escaping , answered . . the sixth , from the imaginary excess of water , answered . . the seventh , from the raven which noah sent out of the ark , answered . . the eighth , from danger of shipwrack which the ark would have been in . . a general answer to farther objections . . we have seen a new way of explaining the flood proposed : or a new hypothesis concerning it erected . we have seen how it is built ; upon what grounds it stands ; and with what reasons and considerations it is supported and establisht . but as things that are new and any whit strange , are commonly received with more than ordinary notice ; so new doctrines , and strange hypotheses , are usually entertain'd with disputes and objections . it will be necessary therefore to look out a little , and to see what objections are like to meet us in the way that we go : and so to apply answers to them respectively ; at least to the chief of them . . but first , i must premise , that we have no reason to take this for an objection ( i mean from the theorist , or others who take their measures from him ) that we expound a text or two of scripture so as none ever did ; and deserting the common received sense , put an unusual gloss upon them ( not to say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a private interpretation . ) this , i say , is not to be urged against us by the theorist , or by those that think fit to abide by his hypothesis . for himself exceeds us in the same thing . we only take a few steps , out of the beaten path of expositors ; and that with open and professed diffidence : whereas he has advanced , in as untroden a way , with a great deal of boldness . . the first objection may be raised , from the hills being covered . so we read gen. . . that all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered . and verse . fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail , and the mountains were covered . whence it has been concluded , that the waters of the flood prevailed to such an height , that they covered the tops of the highest hills under heaven fifteen cubits upward . but the holy text says no such thing . it tells us indeed , that the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upwards ; but this might be meant as to the earth only : upon which , it had told us just before , the waters prevailed 〈◊〉 , and prevailed exceedingly . and truly when they came to be fifteen cubits upward on the highest parts of the surface of the earth ; whereby they might be four or five times as high above its general superficies ( as we have observed ) this was really a great and exceeding prevalence . but where it speaks of the high hills and mountains , it says no more of them , than , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were covered . and so indeed they were , and fifteen cubits upward too , that is , on their sides . for the waters prevailing so high above the surface of the earth whereon they were founded , the bottoms of them must needs stand up so deep in those waters . but to affirm the tops of them did so , is perhaps to make the comment out-run the text , they being not said to be covered . and as the original may bear this interpretation ; so the septuagint seems not to disallow it . for that renders the hebrew thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the water was lifted up fifteen cubits upwards . but it does not in the least express , that it was lifted up so many cubits above the tops of the high hills and mountains . nor will the vulgar latin dissent from it , if rightly understood . it says , quindecim cubitis altior fuit aqua super montes quos operuerat . the water was fifteen cubits higher upon the mountains which it had covered . but then , altior super montes , may not signifie , that it was higher upon the tops ( as was said before ) but only upon or about the sid●s of the mountains . and so ( i remember ) when q. curtius would express peoples sitting about a table ; he says , they were super mensam . and when he would express their sitting about a banquet ; he says , they were super vinum & epulas . according to which , water fifteen cubits high super montes ; may be water so high about the mountains : and so high indeed it had covered them . and the truth is , the waters of the flood never were , nor could be fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains ; though we allow the assertors of the old hypothesis , to expound the story of the flood their own way . to make this out , we read , gen. . . that the ark rested upon the mountains of ararat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says the hebrew ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , say the lxx . it sat there . that is ( as the assertors of the old hypothesis will have it ) * the bulk of the ark pierced through the waters , and so the bottom of it stood upon the mountain under it . nor could it rest or sit there otherwise , because the tops of the mountains were not as yet above water , the flood being at its height . for when was it that the ark thus rested ? why , in the seventh month , on the seventeenth day of the month. and then was the deluge at the highest . for it is said ( chap. . . ) that the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days . that is ( according to the assertors of the old hypothesis ) they were increasing , or kept as high as ever for so long time . which ( as the iews used to reckon their months , making them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to consist of thirty days apiece ) will amount to five months precisely . so that count from the seventeenth day of the second month , when the flood began to come in ; to the sev●●teenth day of the seventh month , when the ark sat upon the mountains of ararat : and the hundred and fifty days will be expired just . but then if the ark rested upon those mountains at that time , and in that manner , as is said ; it is most certain that the tops of the highest hills , could never be covered by water , fifteen cubits upward . for then if the bottom of the ark had rested on the mountains , the whole body of it must have been quite under water , and we know not how deep . the reason is , because there are mountains in the world , very much higher than those of ararat . for by those mountains , the assertors of the common hypothesis , generally understand the mountains of armenia . and the vulgar says expresly , that the ark rested upon the mountains of armenia . and the septuagint sometime renders ararat , armenia . yea , the chaldee paraphrast uses the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as pointing at the cordiaean hills . but that there are mountains much higher than they , is evident enough from most considerable writers . † sir walter raleigh declares that the mountains of ararat , or any parts of them , are not of equal stature to many other mountains in the world. and again , that the mountains of gordiaei — are the highest of the world , the same is absolutely false . nor does he deliver this as his own judgment only , but presently adds , * that the best cosmographers , with others that have seen the mountains of armenia , find them far inferior and underset to divers other mountains even in that part of the world , and elsewhere . and then he instanceth in athos as one ●ar surmounting any mountain that ever hath been seen in armenia : and cites castaldus for it . and to that he adds mount olympus , 〈◊〉 to be of that height , as neither the winds , clouds , or rain overtop it . solinus , i confess , says as much , and his authority , i presume , has given credit to the thing . but ludovicus * vives seems to confute it ; and tells us of one , who going up the mountain to search out the truth of the report , found it to be false . though when sir w. raleigh preferred olympus , as to its height , before the armenian hills ; he was certainly in the right . he brings in antandrus also , averring that for height , to be of a far more admiration , than any in armenia . and also the famous mountains of atlas , so high that the eye of no mortal man can discern the top : for which he quotes herodotus . and lastly , he concludes the pike of teneriff , to be the highest mountain of the known world. and so do others as well as he , whereof varennius is one . yet some again take the american andes to surpass all . though caucasus alone might have done our business . for as that is a part of taurus , as the mountains of ararat are ; so it is known to all ( who know any thing of that nature ) to be much higher than they . now the mountains of ararat being certainly much lower than several others ; here is perfect demonstration ( to the assertors of the general standing hypothesis of the flood ) that the waters could not ( according to their hypothesis , and their own exposition of the story of the flood ) cover all the high hills under heaven fifteen cubits upward , i mean , the tops of them . for then the ark could not have rested on the lower ones of ararat , without being plunged under water , and wholly swallowed up ; the flood being at its highest pitch when it rested there . and since it is evident , yea , plainly demonstrated , that the tops of the highest hills could not be covered according to the tenor of the usual hypothesis ; it is absolutely necessary , not only in regard of our hypothesis , but in respect to the very story of the flood ; to interpret the mountains being covered , to some other sense than has been put upon it . and that will bring on a like necessity of setting up a new hypothesis for explaining the flood ; whether ours may be it or no. let us now therefore ( as it is necessary ) enquire after another sense of the mountains being covered . and first , there is a known figure that frequently occurs in the holy volume ( as might be proved by a large induction of instances ) whereby what is true of a thing but in part ; is notwithstanding affirmed of the whole . and in this sense all the high hills under heaven might be said to be covered ; because in part they were so , that is so far as the waters reach'd up the sides of them . or , secondly , if there be not a synecdoche in the case , there may be an hyperbole . the mountains may be said to be covered , to raise the representation of the flood , and make it more stately , by putting an air of excessive greatness into it . so we may observe , that there are few very grand and remarkable things in scripture ; but the mountains or hills are brought in , to bear a part in their character : to adorn and signalize , or set off their magnificence or excess . thus a great steadiness is express'd by the stability of mountains , psal. . . they that trust in the lord , shall be as mount zion , which cannot be removed . a great safeguard or protection ; by an inclosure or incompassment with mountains : as in the next verse . the mountains are round about ierusalem ; so the lord is round about his people . a great destruction ; by the trembling of mountains and removing of hills , jer. . . i beheld the mountains , and lo they trembled , and all the hills moved lightly . so a great fear is expressed by mens calling out to mountains to fall on them , and to hills to cover them , s. luk. . . a great change ; by the passing away or disappearing of mountains , rev. . . a great victory ; by threshing the mountains , and making the hills as chaff , isai. . . a great joy ; by the singing of mountains isai. , . . a great slaughter ; by blood reaching to the mountains . so god threatens to water the land of egypt with blood , even to the mountains , ezek. . . and that the mountains shall be melted with the blood of nations , isai. . . as if blood were not only to swim about the mountains , and to run over the tops of them , as noah's waters ( are presum'd to have done ) but even to dissolve them and wash them quite down . well might moses hyperbolize as he did , in describing the deluge of water ; when the prophet thus exceeds him in foretelling an inundation of blood. by no means , may some object : and you have hinted the reason of it . even because what isaiah spake was in way of prediction ; and such hyperboles though they be common in prophecies , are not used in history . i answer , such hyperbolical schemes of speech , are used in historical , as well as in prophetical matters . thus the psalmist referring to the majestic or great solemnity at the promulgation of the law ; says , the hills melted like wax , psal. . . and relating some circumstances of israels passing out of egypt , he says the mountains skipped like rams , and the little hills like lambs , psal. . . and if against this it be objected , that the psalms are poetical , and so these may be flights of phancy , allowable to poets only ; ( though to inspired ones , as well as to other : ) i answer , the like occurs in other books of scripture . isaiah , for instance , reflecting upon great and terrible things that god had done for his people ; sets them forth by this expression , the mountains flowed down at thy presence , isai. . . and habakkuk commemorating god 's miraculous proceedings in bringing the israelites into canaan ; says , the everlasting mountains were scattered , the perpetual hills did bow , hab. . . and at the tenth verse , the mountains saw thee , and they trembled . so that when moses described the deluge , in so superlative or transcendent a strain , as by its covering the mountains , and all the high hills under heaven ; it might be but to ingrandize or amplifie the thing . it might be but an high flying ornamental hyperbole , used to grace and greaten the flood in his description of it , and to render it the more stately . or , lastly , we must know ; that to cover a thing in holy style , is not always to surmount and overwhelm it : but very frequently to surround it only , or to be about it in great plenty or abundance . for so the holy ghost does commonly express the copiousness of one thing by its covering another . thus precious stones , are said to be a covering to the tyrians , ezek. . . because they wore them in great plenty about them . and the iews are said to cover the altar of the lord with tears and weeping , and with crying out , mal. . . because they shed their tears , and uttered their complaints very freely and plentifully thereabouts . so ( in the same sense ) some are said to be covered with shame ; and others , to be covered with confusion ; and others , to be covered with violence . whence it is evident , that it is a phrase whereby is expressed the plenty or exuberance of one thing above another . and so the mountains and high hills being covered with waters , will signifie no more , than that they were surrounded with vast quantities of them . but a more adequate and evictive instance of this , moses himself ( the fittest man that could be in the case ) has given us . who , setting down the story of the quails , exod. . . says , that at even the quail came up and covered the camp . and how did these quails cover the camp ? he informs us , numb . . . they fell by the camp as it were a days journey on this side , and a days journey on that side , round about the camp . but then as the camps being covered with the quails , was no more ( in moses's language ) than its being surrounded with a multitude of them ; so the mountains being covered with waters , was no more than their being surrounded with great plenty of them . and , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies , covered , gen. . , . and , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that signifies , covered , here , exod. . . do both spring from , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and are but one and the same word . as if by using the same word in both places , he would intimate , that he meant but the same thing in both stories . . a second objection , may be the arks resting upon the mountains of ararat , gen. . . for that implys that the waters of the flood did certainly swell up above the tops of those mountains ; else how could the ark have been carried up thither , and have rested there ? i answer , first , that , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is there rendred , upon ; does sometimes in scripture , signifie , by . as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the rivers of water , psal. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the camp , numb . . . and so here , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may signifie no more than , by the mountains of ararat . secondly , if we yield the ark to have rested upon the mountains of ararat ; yet then it might rest somewhere upon the foot or lowest part of those mountains : for it is no where said to rest upon the top of them . and so this passage in the divine story , will not infer the least necessity of that vast height of the flood , which it has usually been set at . and then as to civil story , which tells how the ark rested on the top of those mountains ; we take leave to observe , that it is all-a-long chargeable either with incertainty , or with incongruity . it is still either doubtful , as to the thing ; or inconsistent with it self . thus , for example , * iosephus gives account out of berosus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. that a part of the ship ( the ark ) is in armenia , on the mountain of the cordiaeans . but then this is ushered in with a , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is said ; which makes the thing doubtful . and then , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may as well be rendred , near the mountain , as on it . the same iosephus , in the same chapter also , thus certifies out of nicolaus damascenus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. above minias there is a great mountain in armenia called baris , on which many that fled thither were saved in time of the flood : and that a certain man brought in an ark , arrived at the top of the mountain , and that the reliques of the timber were kept there a long time . but then this is delivered incertainly again , with a , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is reported . and for a matter to be reported , is one thing ; and really to be so , is another . and indeed this report agrees not with truth . for it says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that many flying to this mountain were saved . whereas scripture on the contrary assures us that but few were saved : and that not one was saved by flight , but all by the ark alone . and then it is inconsistent with it self too . for how could the ark drive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , up the very tip-top of a mountain if there were no water upon it ; but so much dry ground , as that many might be saved there , living together , not only days , and weeks ; but several months , one after another . eusebius likewise and cyril do both recite out of abydenus the assyrian , how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ship ( ark ) in armenia , did out of its wood afford amulets to them that dwelt thereabouts . but then the other circumstances of the account are strangely odd and fabulous . namely , that saturn who reigned at that time , forewarned sisithrus ( noah ) that there should fall abundance of rain on the fifteenth of desius ; and commanded him to hide what learned writings he had , in heliopolis . which , sisithrus having done , he sailed directly into armenia , and there quickly found what the god had told him , to be true . but then on the third day after the tempest , sending out birds to try whether they could see any land that was not covered with sea ; they returned again , as not finding any place where they could rest . after them he sent forth others ; and when he had sent the third time , the gods took him away from amongst men. where the absurdities and incongruities of the story ( if brought home to the truth of things ) are so many , and gross , and obvious ; that time would be perfectly lost , should i spend any in noting them . i pass therefore to benjamin the iew , from whom i borrow the last citation of this nature . he says in his itinerary , that the ark of noah rested upon the hills of ararat ; and that one omar , of the materials of it , built a mahometan synagogue . but then he adds that the prince took it down , è cacumine duorum montium , from the top of two mountains . and that the ark should be divided into two parcels , and the remains of it lodg'd upon the tops of two hills at once ; is a passage that gives but small credit to the traveller's report ; but is enough , methinks , as to this particular , to call his fidelity into question . notwithstanding therefore what we meet with in history concerning it , we may lawfully conclude , that the ark might not rest upon the top of the armenian mountains . only one or two writers of note , mistaking moses , it may be , at first ; and telling the world with confidence , that the ark rested on the top of these mountains ( when he might mean no more than that it rested by them , or on some low ridge of them ) others might follow them , and others them again ; and so all might run on in a track of error , as smoothly as if they had been in the way of truth . thus , when st. chrysostom , epiphanius , isidore , and others , tell that the ark rested upon the top of these mountains ; and that certain , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , remnants of it were to be seen there in their days : they were probably over-rul'd by history or hearsay ; and so easily mis-led by such as went before them . and indeed that the thing was utterly false , we have great reason to conclude ; when if it were true , it must either impeach scripture , which ( in the sense of all men hitherto ) taught all-a-long that the flood was fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains ; and that in the height of this flood the ark rested on the top of ararat : or else clash with geography , which never allowed the hills of ararat to be ( by a great deal ) the highest : or else sink the ark quite under water , to make it rest upon those hills . . a third objection may be formed from the appearing of the tops of the mountains upon the decrease of the waters . so it is recorded , gen. . . that the waters decreased continually until the tenth month , and on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen . now if the mountains had not been quite under water , and so invisible for the time they were overwhelmed ; how could they be said to become visible again , or to be seen upon the floods going off ? in answer to this , we may consider , first , that by the tops of the mountains , in scripture , are not always meant the higher , but sometimes the inferior parts of them . thus it is prophesied , amos . . that the top of carmel shall wither . where by top , the sides or lower parts of that hill may be intended chiefly . for the withering of the meer top of it only , would not ( 't is like ) have either caused or signified such a scarcity of feed , as should have occasioned such affliction to shepherds , as is there foretold ; the principal part of an hill for pasture , being usually towards the bottom of it . so exod. . . it is said , that moses went up to the top of mount sinai . but that he did not go up to the very top of that mount we have great cause to believe , for two reasons . first , because the lord descended upon it in fire , ver . . in such a fire as was not only real , but raging ; for it made the mountain smoak as a furnace . yea , it is said , exod. . . to be like devouring fire on the top of the mount . and so devouring was it , that it seiz'd most terribly upon the mountain ; insomuch that it is said to have burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven , deut. . . but how then could moses go up to the top of this mountain ? nor , secondly , could he well do it , by reason of its height , and the great difficulty of its ascent . for iosephus assures us , that it is the highest hill beyond comparison of all that country , and long of its strange height , and its steep inaccessible craggy rocks , is not only unfrequented by men , but not to be lookt up to , it puts the eye to such pain . and yet if moses did not go up to the top of this hill in strictness , we know not how much below it he might present himself . and in case he stood on any lower ridge or part of that mount ; it is clear that by the tops of high hills in scripture , may be meant but the lower parts of the same . and therefore where we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , deut. . . from the top of the mountains ; the arabic reads it , from the roots of them . and so by the tops of the mountains being seen upon the drying up of the flood ; will be meant no more , than that some lower parts of them , not far from the bottoms , were made bare and expos'd to view again , which before were hidden under water . or , secondly , by the tops of the mountains , said to be seen on the first day of the tenth month ; may be meant , but the tops of some lower mountains , which were quite overwhelm'd with water , by its ascending fifteen cubits upward upon the highest parts of the plain of the earth . if these two considerations will not satisfie ; we must carry on the enquiry a little farther , and seek for a third . and truly some one or other must needs be found out . for certain it is , that the tops of the highest mountains could not be said to be seen , by reason of the waters sinking down below them ; because , as we have sufficiently proved , they could not possibly be above them . that is , according to the common measures men have taken of the flood , and the usual sense they have put upon the sacred story of it . thirdly , therefore ( in way of answer to the objection ) we consider ; that the tops of the mountains may be said to be seen , at the time mentioned , upon account of their emergency out of darkness , not out of the waters . nor let it seem strange , that at the time of the flood , there should be darkness over the whole face of the earth . for then there was a solution of the continuity of the atmosphaere : all the vapours almost contained in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or comprehension of it , turning into clouds , and resolving a great pace into rains. and as it is but reasonable , to think it was dark then ( considering the state of the atmosphaere ) so it was very requisite it should be so . for when the rains began to fall , and that at such a rate , as to threaten in good earnest to make that deluge which noah had foretold : this must needs startle and alarm men dreadfully . then , had there been light in the world , in any good degree ; what could have been expected , but that people who dwelt nearest to that place where the ark stood ; should have run directly to it , and rudely assaulting and invading it , have turned out noah , his friends , and all creatures ; and have taken immediate possession of it themselves , as the only probable means of their own preservation . and therefore that the earth was then wrapt up in nightsome darkness ( it being not only likely in respect of nature , but necessary in point of providence ) we need not fear to conclude . and as it was dark all the time that the flood was coming in and waxing ; so the air might well be very foggy and misty during the continuance and decrease of the same . for the atmosphaere being put into so great a disorder ( and even dissolution ) as it was ; it could not quickly resettle into its wonted clearness . and then we must heedfully attend to that account of the floods abatement and drying up , which the holy ghost has given us . the waters returned from off the earth continually , says he , gen. . . where , the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , returned , does often signifie in scripture , the returning of a thing into its principles . so psal. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , return ye sons of men . as much as to say , be resolved into dust and spirit , the primigenial parts , or constituent principles of your nature . and gen. . . it is used in the like sense ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to dust shalt thou return . and psal. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he returneth to his earth . according to which , where it is said , that the waters returned from off the earth continually ; we are to understand their continual version or return into that principle out of which they were made ; namely , vapours . and the same is to be understood concerning them , where it is said , gen. . . that the waters decreased continually . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were going and decreasing . and so the expression does not denote a violent motion or agitation of those waters ( as hath commonly been thought ) so much as a constant wasting or diminution of them , by going quite away . and indeed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies , it went away : and as * schindler notes , is spoken de rebus evanescentibus , of things that are vanishing . yea , the learned lexicographer brings in this very passage , as one instance of that its signification . which farther insinuates , that when the waters of the flood decreased , it was done by their vanishing or going away into their first natural principle : by their returning or being converted into vapours . now this being done at a great rate , or very fast ( as we may gather from so much water being dried up in so short a time ; and from the miraculous wind , gen. . . sent on purpose to hasten the work , by helping forward the attenuation of the liquid element ) it must ( in likelihood ) overcast and bemist the air ; and so conspissate and obscure it , as to render things invisible at a little distance from the beholder's eye . whence it will follow , that when the tops of the mountains were seen , this might come to pass , not by the waters sinking below those tops ( whither they never ascended ) but by the clearing up of the sky , and the wearing off of its unusual thickness and fogginess . and yet this their visibility or new appearance might properly be ascrib'd to the decrease of the waters too : inasmuch as till they were so diminisht , as not to afford vapours enough , to thicken and darken the air any longer , at the rate they had done ; the mountains tops could not be seen . should it here be objected , that according to this way of explaining their appearance , they could not have been seen so soon as in the tenth month ; because the waters were then upon the earth in great abundance : that objection might be thus taken off . though there were waters * upon the face of the whole earth then ; yea , and † forty days after that ( which was the reason why noah's dove could find no rest ) yet these waters were so far exhaled , drawn so low , and grown so gross and muddy ; that now they did not return or go away into vapours , half so fast as before . the atmosphaere also was now come pretty well to its old consistency again ; and so the attractive power of the sun was much damped and weakened , and he did not draw vapours so briskly and plentifully as he had done . and yet the lower regions of the air might be very thick and foggy still ; so that the mountains might not be seen by looking right on , but rather by looking upward . and so the highest parts of the mountains , that by thrusting up aloft did intercept the lightsomeness of the glimmering skie , and terminate the eye-sight ; might by that means be discerned . and therefore indeed only the tops of them were said to be seen . nor let it be thought a meer phancy , a whimsical groundless figment of ours , that the waters of the deluge did decrease in this manner . i mean by going or returning into vapours , and that at such a rate , as to fill the air , for a time , with constant mists , and make it very caliginous and dark . this is so far from being an empty fiction or conceit ; that i may venture to say , it was a necessary phaenomenon . for when the earth was so generally drown'd , the water being of a smooth superficies , if the air had been clear , yea , if it had not been more than ordinarily thick , it would certainly have been most exceeding cold . even as cold as it is now in its middle region , where icy meteors are continually floating . so that in the natural course of things , the waters of the flood would presently have been frozen extreamly hard . and if we can suppose they should ever have been melted again ( as by the force of meer nature they hardly could ) yet they could not have been so in that space of time , wherein the deluge went off , and the earth became dry . and that a vehement frost would have seiz'd the waters of the flood , as soon as they were come down ( if the air had not been strangely thick ) is but reasonable to conclude upon this account . because the atmosphaere was never so exhausted of vapours ; and so never so thin ; and so never so sharp and terribly cold , since the world began ; as it was at that time . and then lastly , that the closeness and thickness of the air was such , as to darken and benight the whole earth at once ; may fairly be inferred from gen. . ult . for there god promiseth that while the earth remaineth , there shall be day , as will as seed-time , and harvest . implying , that during the flood , there was as perfect an intermission of day upon earth , as there was of seed-time , and harvest . . a fourth objection may be framed from the possibility and easiness of mens escaping the flood . for if the waters prevailed but fifteen cubits upwards upon the plain of the earth ; and the tops of the spacious aspiring mountains stood bare ( excepting a little of the lower parts of them ) all the time of the deluge : how easily might men have run up those mountains , and so have been saved from the violence of the waters ? and then what need of an ark to preserve them . to this it may be answered . for people to ascend these high mountains , when the flood was coming in ; could be no such easie matter . for at what rate soever the rains descended in other places ; it is not to be doubted but they fell in great abundance about the lofty mountains . for the pitchy , swollen , loaden clouds , which then hung every where bagging in the air ; driving and crouding , and squeezing against those mountains , could not but empty themselves there ( like full spunges when pressed or nipped ) in prodigious showres , that would have run down in furious and mighty torrents . yea , 't is more than probable , that these squeezed clouds , would not only have discharged themselves in immoderate showres thereabouts ; but in kind of ecnephiae , or exhydyriae . ( such as sometimes fall in the pacific ocean ) very terrible tempests ; wherein rain pours down as it were out of spouts or buckets , and falls in whole sheets of water at once . so that the sides of the hills would have been full of cataracts , and the waters would have come roaring and gulling down them so forcibly , that no living creatures would have been able to stand , much less to climb up against them . and then the higher sort of mountains , as the alpes , and the like , being covered with huge quantities of snow ; that would have melted a great pace too , and contributed to the dreadful torrents we speak of . and then the waters of the great deep , being no other ( as we suppose ) than such as flowed out of the caverns of high rocks and mountains , when the power of heaven had broke them up : these also would have augmented the mighty de●luxions , and made them more violent and irresistable . and this was one main end of god's breaking up those fountains ; even to increase the downfals of water off the mountains , and to make them so copious and fierce , as that men might not be able to ascend the mountains . and truly for them to have fled to the mountains to be saved from the flood , down which such impetuous streams came rolling and roaring in most hedious sort : would have been like plunging themselves into the sea , to prevent drowning . and truly if any houses , towns , or cities , stood so high upon mountains , as to be above the water-mark of the flood : yet the aforesaid downfals of water , would have ruined them all . or if any could have supported themselves by their great strength , the inhabitants would still have been drowned in them . which might be one main reason , why god appointed noah to build an ark ( and not an house , or a castle upon any high mountains ) to save himself , and such other creatures as were to be preserved . . a fifth objection may be drawn from the likelihood of some other animals escaping the flood . that is , such as lived within the earth , in the upper and undrowned parts of the mountains . for however they could not get up on the hills , or if they had been upon them , could not have harboured there ; but must have been washed down into the common gulf that swallow'd all : yet having their aboad under ground , and perhaps a good depth under it too ; they might be secure in their subterraneous dwellings . for though the waters fell in great plenty , and with as great violence ; yet shedding off the mountains apace , and hasting downward swiftly ; they could not soak so far into the earth , as to incommode , much less destroy the creatures there lodg'd , and so well intrencht and fortified against them . the consequence would be no less , than that moses must faulter in what he relates ; that every living substance was destroyed , gen. . . i answer . where the historian tells this , that every living substance was destroyed ; he immediately puts a restriction or plain limitation upon it ; adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which was upon the face of the ground . so that if any creatures were so deep under ground , as to continue alive and safe , notwithstanding the deluge : this would be no contradiction or repugnancy to the inspired writer . for still every living substance might be destroyed which was upon the face of the ground : and that was as much as he affirmed . lest that answer should not satisfie , let me put in another . the waters falling so plentifully and violently on the mountains ; where they could not soak in , and drown the creatures earthed in them ; by their continued beating and running upon the ground for forty days together , they did either so settle it , that it squeezed them to death : or else so stop up the pores of it , that they were smothered . . a sixth objection may be taken from the quantity of waters as like to exceed very much ( some may imagine ) even so as to surmount our supposed limit . for they that issued from the fountains of the great deeps , joined with those that fell in the forty days ; must needs have raised a flood much higher than fifteen cubits above the plain of the earth . but the answer says , no. for besides the huge deal of water which the earth drank up ( especially in its sandy regions ) before its thirst could be quenched ; and the vast deal that sank into its invisible hollownesses , before they could be filled ; and the abundance that was absorpt by its numberless pits and capacious valleys , before they could be replenisht , and the water brought to a level : and besides how much it then took up , to raise the flood one cubit around the globe , as well upon the sea , as dry land ; and how much more to raise a second cubit , than the first ( the higher circumference being still the larger ; ) and how much more to raise a third cubit , than the second ; and so on till the fifteen cubits were full : besides all this , i say , the rains by which the deluge was chi●fly caused , might not descend at any extraordinary rate of violence . for however about the mountains , they might be monstrous and intolerable ; yet every where else they might be quite otherwise : and the immensity and destructiveness of the waters they raised , may be imputed to the generality and duration of them , rather than to their excessive greatness . we are told indeed , gen. . . that the cataracts or windows of heaven were opened . yet that might betoken nothing extraordinary in the rains , save their continuance . for mal. . . god promiseth his people ( as a signal mercy ) to open ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) the cataracts or windows of heaven for them . and what does the expression there import ? why , no more than that he would send such moderate rains , as should make their grounds fruitful . so says lyra ; god opened the cataracts of heaven , * by giving rains and dews convenient to make the ground fruitful . and if the opening of the cataracts of heaven , implys but an ordinary descent , or moderate downfal of gentle fructifying rains and dews : then notwithstanding these cataracts were opened at the flood , the rains might then in most places distill , with a wonted gentleness and moderation . which granted , there would be no danger of their swelling the flood above that height to which our supposition limits it . and though according to marsennus's account , forty days rain might raise the waters an hundred and fifty feet : yet who can tell whether the rains fell so fast in those forty days ; as they did at the time , and place , when , and where , he made his experiment and calculation ? others i am sure are of the mind ( and osiander for one ) that they were only sufficient to set the ark afloat . and they quote that passage for it , gen. . . the flood was forty days upon the earth : and the waters increased , and bare up the ark , and it was lifted up above the earth . . a seventh objection may be made from the raven which noah sent out of the ark , gen. . . it is there said , that that raven went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth . whence some conclude , that he was forced to return into the ark again and again , still as he went out , because by reason of the waters , there was no convenient place of abode for him abroad . and consequently they infer , that the waters which were so high then , could not but cover the tops of the mountains , when they were at their full height . to this it might be answered , first , that if the raven did return , this does not argue that the waters were then at such a mighty height ( and so that they had been higher than the loftiest hills ) because it is said , that he went to and fro ( that is , to and from the ark , as our objectors would have it ) until the waters were dried up . so that his returning was not occasioned by the excess of waters , not suffering him to remain at large ; nor does it prove them to have been so excessive as they would make them . for even when they were abated , and so abated that the tops of the mountains were seen ( ver . . ) where he might have had both rest and prey ; still ( according to the hebrew phrase ) he was going and returning from and to the ark. yea , he continued to do thus all-a-long , even untill the waters were dried up from off the earth . which makes it plain , that as the excess of the waters could not be the cause of his returning to the ark ; so his continual returning could not argue the waters to be so excessive : inasmuch as he never ceased returning , till the waters were quite dried up . but , secondly , i answer . the raven in likelihood returned not at all . and therefore the vulgar is positive in the case ; egrediebatur & non revertebatur ; he went out , and did not return . and so is the septuagint ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and bochart says , that if the negation be taken out of the original text , there will be no sense in it . and therefore he thinks that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ putting the future tense for the praeterperfect . and then the raven for certain did never return to noah . and the arabian proverb intimates as much , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he stays as long as noah 's crow . to which the latin one is near akin , corvus nuncius : or , corvum misimus . so that the objection against us , will at last be a piece of an argument for us . so far , that is , as the raven 's not coming home again , after he was sent out ; shows the waters were low : and that he had food enough to live upon , and room enough to fly up and down in from place to place ; which might be that going and returning of his , mentioned , ver . . indeed the dove which was sent out after , found no rest for the sole of her foot , and therefore she returned to noah into the ark , verse . and no wonder . for though the waters were much abated , yet still they were on the face of the whole earth , covering its superficies in most places . and the dove being a more nice and tender creature than the crow ; might want proper food and a warm roost , and for the sake of these , be glad to fly back to the ark where it had found both . and therefore the second time that it was sent forth , it returned not till the evening ; that is , till the coolness of the approaching night , made it sensible of the want of a convenient lodging . and for the same reasons ( especially it being a tamish bird ) it might perhaps have come back to noah , when he sent it out last : only the earth and air being now grown more dry , and warm , and pleasant ; probably it was tempted to fly so far from the ark , as not to be able to find the way to it again . yet it s not returning might be really to noah , what he took it to be ; a sign that the waters were dried up . . an eighth objection may be the danger the ark would have been in , of being stav'd or wrackt . for if during the flood , the tops of the great hills had been all above water ; how easily might the ark have run aground , and have been broken and shattered all to pieces ? it may be answered thus , the great deluge from the beginning to the end of it , was in great measure a miraculous work . yea , even where god was pleased to make nature his instrument ; he took her , as i may say , into his own hand , and wielded her by his own omnipotent arm ; and so inabled her to do , what in her own way , and by her own strength , she could never have effected . look into the inspired story , and what a great deal of miracle shall we see , in the very praelusories or preparatives to that mighty inundation ? thus , as god preacquainted the patriarch noah , with his design of bringing it in ; so he ordered him to build an ark against it came , to save himself and his family , from that fearful ruine which was to attend it . he directed him of what timber to make it , and of what dimensions ; how to frame it without , and to fashion it within : and the whole vessel seems to have been all of his wise contriving . such creatures also as were to be kept alive for future propagation , he appointed noah to admit into this ark ; inclining them at the same time , to come in their several species , and offer themselves to him . for as the father says ; * noah did not catch them and put them in , but when they came and went in , he suffered them to do so . and thus much he will have signified , gen. . . two of every sort shall come unto thee . non scilicet hominis actu , sed dei nutu . not by the diligence of man , that is to say , but by the disposition of god. and as he injoined noah to receive these animals into the ark , and harbour them there ; so likewise to provide sustenance for them , instructing him as to the quality and quantity of the same . so says the same father . a what wonder , if that wise and righteous man who also was divinely taught what was agre●able to every creature ; did procure and lay up sutable nourishment to every kind ? and to the end he might have all in a due readiness against the time , god gave him a weeks notice , just before the irruption of the fatal waters , gen. . . and lastly , when the good man and his relatives entred the ark ( whose cargo was such , as no single ship , nor the mightiest fleet could ever boast of , though the sea it navigated was as wonderful , as its lading ) the lord himself is said to shut them in , gen. . . that is , by the ministry of his holy angels . and when the almighty was thus miraculously ingag'd in ordering the preparatives to the flood ; we may be sure it was no less concern'd in bringing in the flood it self . and therefore god openly proclaims it to be his own fact , and challenges and appropriates it to himself alone , as peculiarly belonging to his providential efficience , gen. . . and . . and st. peter expresly declares , that god brought in the flood upon the world , pet. . . where ( upon view of the context ) it will appear , that the apostle makes the bringing in of the flood , to be as much god's work , as ever it was to cast the sinning angels down to hell , to save noah ; to burn sodom ; or to deliver lot : all which were undeniably immediate and miraculous acts of his . and truly that the windows of heaven should be opened ; and all the fountains of the great deep broke up : that they should be opened and broke up on the same day : that they should be so opened and broke up , as to yield such a quantity of water at that time , as they never did before , and never did since , and never shall do again : what could this be but a special and wonderful work of god ? i might farther observe the like miraculous workings of the deity , in shutting up those windows of heaven again ; and in stopping the aforesaid fountains of the deep ; and in drying up the waters of the deluge so fast , &c. but i wave that ( as i have done other things ) to avoid prolixity . now when the flood in all the periods of it , was thus disposed and govern'd by an omnipotent and miraculous hand ; that the same hand should at once defend and direct the ark ; and so guard and steer it , as to keep it from ship-wrack : is not at all to be wondred at . we may rather wonder , and wonder very much , if any should think otherwise . to which add , that a miraculous protection and care of the ark , would have been altogether as necessary , according to the theory , or the old hypothesis . for , according to the theory , the ark must have sunk as low as the falling earth ; and then have been thrown up higher than the highest mountains ; and have been toss'd with such terrible and hideous jactations , as that the worst which are suffered on the roughest seas , would scarce be shadows to them . so that unless a miraculous providence superintended it , how could it be safe ? and therefore indeed the theory represents it , with its guardian angels about it , in the extremity of the flood . and then according to the old way , the tops of the mountains must have been above water , all the time that the deluge was waxing . and so without such a providence again , the ark would have been as much imperill'd by those mountains ( if not more ) as if they had been drown'd no deeper than we suppose them . yea , in that very juncture when the flood ( according to the common account ) was at its highest ; the ark struck upon the mountains of ararat , and was stranded there . and to save it in such circumstances , a most miraculous providence was necessary indeed . but then the same may as lawfully be challenged by , and ought as readily to be allowed to , our hypothesis likewise . . which grant ; and then if in this memorable flood , any difficulties be started , that men are puzzled to make out : any phaenomena's arise , that are too big to proceed from nature alone ; and too intricate to be understood by reason : lo , here 's a general answer to them , if not solution of them . the flood was a miracle in good measure . or had so much miracle running through it , and interwoven with it ; that all passages in it , are not to be accounted for by reason and philosophy . and truly where nature was over-ruled by providence ; it is but fit that philosophy should give place to omnipotence : and faith sway out minds to assent to those things , which reason is unable to apprehend and explicate . chap. xvii . . the positiveness of the theory . . noted in the english edition of it . . it s authors intentions laudable . . the conclusion . . having gone over the several vital or primary assertions of the theory ; i shall now only desire leave , briefly to note the positiveness of it . it being indeed of an unusual strain , and such as is seldom found in a new hypothesis ; especially at its first setting up , and sallying out into the world. . this positiveness is very apparent , both in the latin , and english editions of the theory . but i shall observe it only in the latter ; that coming out after the other , and so with more deliberation and mature thoughts of things . it there discovers it self in such passages as these : i am willing to add here a chapter or two , to shew that what we have delivered is more than an idea , and that it was in this very way that noah's deluge came to pass , pag. . as we do not think it an unhappy discovery to have found out ( with a moral certainty ) the seat of the mosaical abyss , — so this gives us a great assurance , that the theory we have given of a general deluge , is not a meer idea , but is to be appropriated to the deluge of noah , as a true explication of it , pag. . that our description is a reality , both as to the antediluvian earth , and as to the deluge , we may farther be convinc'd from st. peter's discourse , pag. . we may safely conclude that this is no imaginary idea , but a true account of that ancient flood whereof moses hath left us the history , ibid. if they ( the ancient earth and abyss ) were in no other form , nor other state , than what they are under now , the expressions of the sacred writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable ; without any sufficient ground , or any just occasion for such uncouth representations . i fear there is something more than positiveness in this clause ; which occurs , pag. . we have proved our explication of the deluge to be more than an idea , or to be a true piece of natural history ; and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath been since the beginning of the world. we have shown it to be the real account of noah's flood , pag. . i confess , for my own part , when i observe how easily and naturally this hypothesis doth apply it self to all the particularities of this earth , hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of its parts , i cannot , without violence , bear off my mind from fully assenting to it , pag. . to speak the truth , this theory is something more than a bare hypothesis , pag. . it will never be beaten out of my head , but that st. peter hath made the same distinction ( we make of the antediluvian earth and heavens from the postdiluvian ) sixteen hundred years since , and to the very same purpose ; so that we have sure footing here again , and the theory riseth above the character of a bare hypothesis . — we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this theory , pag. . i think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings , the custom of thinking otherwise , and the uneasiness of entring into a new sett of thoughts , that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception , pag. . the theory carries its own light and proof with it , pag. . these are the vitals of the theory , and the primary assertions whereof i do freely profess my full belief , pag. . now i confess , i should have been much at a loss , whither to impute such extraordinary positive confidence , as shows it self ( by these excerptions ) in a man so ingenious , touching things so precarious ; had he not told me in this maxim of his own : a strong inclination , with a little evidence , is equivalent to a strong evidence , pag. . which considered ; we need not wonder that strong perswasions should sometimes be built upon weak grounds . or to speak it in the theorists next words ; we are not to be surprised , if we find men confident in their opinions many times far beyond the degree of their evidence . . yet that his intentions , in conposing and publishing his book , were good and laudable ; we have no reason to doubt . his own declaration speaks them so . i have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance , and wherein the world hath hitherto had so little satisfaction , pag. . a noble aim ; but he that would cleverly hit the mark , must beware of shooting through s●ripture , and wounding it at the rate the theorist has done . . to conclude . if so be , sincere and upright intentions will justifie the failures of a pen , and in any measure serve to extenuate or excuse them ; i can take up that plea in behalf of mine . and whereas in the new explication of the deluge , i may seem to have run out into a kind of lax interpretation of one or two texts of holy scripture ; i have sufficiently apologiz'd for that excursion already , by owning that ( besides it is necessary to expound those scriptures a new way , upon the account of the old hypothesis of the flood ) it was made but to vie with the theory ; and to try if we could hit upon another way of explaining the deluge that might pass for rational and intelligible . and therefore i only add this , which i do most heartily , i had rather , much rather my papers should be burnt to ashes , and my self with them ; than that i should knowingly and wilfully write any thing , in way of opposition to , depravation of , or derogation from , any divine truth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . finis . books lately printed for richard chiswell . doctor towerson's explication of the creed , lords ●rayer , ten commandments and sacraments , in four volumes , fol. the parable of the pilgrim : by symon patrick , d. d. now lord bishop of chichester . dr. wake 's tracts in . volumes , o. — his . sermons in o. popery not founded in scripture , or the texts which papists ci●e out of the bible for the proof of the points of their religion . examined in . tracts , with a table : by several london divines . in ● . vol. o. cardinal bellarmine's notes of the church , examined and confuted , in . tracts , and a table . by several london divines . o. the judgment of god upon the roman catholick church , from its first rigid laws for universal conformity to it , unto its last end. with a prospect of these near approaching revolutions , viz. the revival of the protestant profession in an eminent kingdom , where it was totally suppressed . the last end of all turkish hostilities . the general mortification of the power of the roman church in all parts of its dominions . by dr●e cressener , d. d. jacobi usserii armachani archiep. historia dogmatica controversiae inter orthodoxos & pontisicios de scripturis & sacris vernaculis , nunc primum ●dita . accesserunt ejusdem dissertationes de pseudo-dionysii scriptis , & de epistola ad laodicenos antehac ineditae . descripsit , digessit & notis atque an●tuario completavit henricus wharton , a. m. revere●dissimo archiep. ca●●uari●nsi à sacris domesticis . scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria à c●risto nato usque ad saeculum xiv . facili methodo digesta . qua de vita illorum a● rebus gestis , de secta , dogmatibus , elogio , stylo ; de scriptis genuinis , dubiis , supposititiis , ineditis , deperditis , fragmentis ; deque variis operum editionibus perspicu● agitur . accedunt scriptores gentiles , christianae religionis oppugnatores ; & cujusvis saeculi breviarium . inseruntur suis locis veterum aliquot opuscula & fragmenta , tum graeca , tum lalina hactenus inedita . prae●issa denique prolegomena , quibus plurima ad antiquitatis ecclesi●sticae studium spectantia traduntur . opus indicibus necessariis instructum . autore gvilielmo cave , ss . theol. profes . canonico windesoriensi . accedit ab aiia manu appendix ab in●unte saeculo xiv . ad annum usque mdxvii . fol. . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * hanc theoriam sacram appello , cùm telluris physiologiam communem non respiciat ; sed majores mundi nostri vicissitudines , quarum meminit sacra scriptura . praefat ▪ ad lectorem . * in the preface to the eng. theory . † liv. hist. dec. . lib. . * read the th chapter of this discourse . * in the preface to the eng. theory . notes for div a -e † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in epict. ench. cap. . * voluptas quam percipimus ex intuitu rerum quas o●●li cernunt , minime aequi paranda est cum illa quam adsert notitia illarum quas philosophando invenimus . des cartes in praefat. ad princip . a corpus hoc , animi pondus ac poena est : premente illo urgetur : in vinculis est , nisi accessit philosophia : & illum respirare rerum naturae spectaculo jussit , & à terrenis dimisit ad divina . haec libertas ejus est , haec evagatio ; subducit interim se custodiae qua tenetur , & coelo resicitur . sen. ep. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . clem. alex. strom. lib. . c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . strom. lib. . d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . strom. lib. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de placit . philos. lib. . cap. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. a lib. de ●und . incor●upt . * tim , . . * cor. . . * phil. . . * tertul. lib. de resur . * vide quàm in solatium nostri , resurrectionem sutur am omnis natura meditetur . sol demergit , & nascitur ; astra labuntur , & redeunt . flores occidunt , & revi●iscunt ; post senium , arbusta frandescunt ; semina , non nisi corrupta , revirescunt : ita corpus in seculo [ sepulchro ] ut arbo es in hyberno , occultant virorem ariditate mentitâ . quid festinas , ut crudâ adhuc hyeme reviviscat & red●at ? expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est . in octav. pag. . a athenagoras , de 〈◊〉 mort . p. , . the 〈◊〉 treatise is very well 〈◊〉 any scholar's serious ●eading . a in ancor . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , legat. pro christ. sub fine . c lib. . de repub. d strom. l. . p. . e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . f mors , quam pertimescimus & recasamus , intermittit vitam , non cripit . veniet iterum qui nos in lucem repon●t dies . — aequo animo debet rediturus exire . ep. . g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cont. cels. lib. . h in prooem . pag. . i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strom. lib . pag. . a aquin. sam. theol. sap . quest. . ar. , . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . clem. alex. strom. lib. ● . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . var. histor. lib. . cap. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. strom. lib. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . strom. lib. . b pag. . c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . orig. cont . celsum , lib. . d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in amator . * in amator . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . apol. socr. * gen. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. de mund. opif. † act. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cont. cels. lib. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . philo in vit . mos. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . orig. cont . cel. lib. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . id . ib. a theory , pag. . * lib. . chap. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aelian . var. hist. lib. . cap. . b ecclus. . c gen . , . a quinimo etiam , ad res naturales melius explicandas , earum causas altius repetam , quàm ipsas unquam extitisse existimem . non enim dubium est , quin mundus ab initio fuerit creatus cum omni perfectione suâ , ita ut in eo & sol , & terra , & luna , & stellae extiterint . des cart , princip . par . . sect . . b quodque fortè paradoxum multis videbit●r , haec omnia ita se haberent in materia coelsli , etiamsi nulla planè esset vis in sole , aliove astro circa quod gyratur ; adeo ut , si corpus solis nihil aliud esset quàm spatium vacuum , nibilominus ejus lumen , non quidem tam forte , sed quantum ad reliqua non aliter quam nunc c●rneremus , saltem in circ● o secundum quem materia ●oeli movetur . id. ib. sect . . a st. mat. . . why it should be read , over all the land , that is , palestine , as if the darkness had extended no farther , may well be made a question ; when it is known that it reached into other countries . dionysius ( to give one instance ) observed it in egypt , being then an heathen . and is said by suidas ( upon his observation of it ) thus to express himself ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * atlas chin. part . pag. . † reuchlin . de a●t . cabbal . p. , &c. * de rep. heb. * nisi quis apud eos ●etat●● sacerdotalis ministerii , i. e. tri●●simum annum impleverit , nec principium geneseos — legere permittit●r . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. philo in lib. de mund. opif. vid. nicomach . gerasen . arithmet . theolog. lib. . me●rs . d●●●r . pythag. * orig. cont . c●ls . lib. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . leg. allegor . lib. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de mund. opif. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ib. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. * epist. ad mich. bulg . princip . * mor. nevoch . a ex illo de●lux● aquarum ad la tera , & exoneratione partium mediarum circa aequatorem , globus aque●s deveniret aliquantulum oblongus . theor. pag. . a theor. pag. . b ibid. a ego quidem in eâ sum sententiâ , si in harum rerum , de quibus agitur , cognitionem , aut aliarum quarumc●nq●e , quae momenti sunt , visum suerit deo vel naturae ut pateret hominibus ratio perveniendi , ●atio illa certa est , & in aliquâ clarâ & in●ictâ evidentia âundatâ : non conjecturalis , varia , & dubia , &c. lat. theor. pag. . * theor. pag. . † theor. pag. . * theor. pag. . † theor. pag. . ‖ page . * gen. . . † theor. pag. . * jer. . . a the schemes of the ch●os show it terrestrial throughout . theor. pag. , , , . the e●rth also formed out of it , is represented without fire at the cen●er , pag. . * chap. . § . † princip . part . . art. . a attendendo enim ad immensam dei potentiam , non possumus exisiimare illum unquam quicquam fecisse , quod non omnibus suis numeris fuerit absolutum . ubi supra . b ac etiam in terr● non tantum ●uerint semina plantarum , sed ipse plantae ; nec adam & eva nati sint infantes , sed facti sint homines adulti . ibid. * princip . part . . art. . † dr. m●re epist. ad v. c. * heb. . . † ma● . . . * ad exod. cap. . v. . * illud prim● notandum est , no● id agere mosen , ut primam materi●e productionem , atque vniversi mundi ortum describeret , sed mundi nostri , scilicet telluris nostrae , & coeli nostri è suo chao sormationem . theor. lib. . cap. . † subjectum autem genese●s mosaicae est chaos , & con●usi●●imum & terres●re ; & qu●e ex hoc chao eductasunt , & ad illud tanquam centrum referuntur , ●a propriè spectant ad mundum mosaicum . ib. * ne putemas itaque nobis nascentibus & mundo nostro , necesse esse ut tota natura eodem tempore nas●●retur . ib. † pro certo & explorato habeatur — mundum mosaicum non omnes v●iversi regiones , neque omnes rerum ordines complecti , s●d illas naturae partes quaeè chao terrestri educi potuerunt . ib. † gen. . . * di●i possunt tum nasci & oriri e●e partes coelestes vniversi , cùm primum conspicue●rant , ●tque diss●patâ caligine ch●os & nigri aeris , eminusse ostentabant terris , paulatim emicantes è tenebris , quasi ab iisdem & eodem chao , enatae ●uissent . neque aliter cosmogoniam mosaicam intelligendam esse , si opus esset , m● demonstrare posse existimo . lib. . cap . † gen. . . * the moon is really a great light to the earth , though the light she transmits thither , be borrowed of the sun. † gen . . * dan. . . * gen. . . † lexic . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * vsurpatur de homine tantùm , & animam h●jus ratione praeditam denotat . schind . lexic . pentag . pag. . dicitur propriè de anima hominis immortali , quam deus in illum insufflavit . prophet . in psal. . v. . † exod. . . * mic. . . † psal. . . * leg at . pro chris●ian . a ecclus. . . * page . * theor. pa● . . * page . . * instit. astron . de 〈◊〉 glob . c. . § . † pag. . * pet. . . * gen. . * read th , th , and th , pages of the theory . * chap. . ●erses , , . † theor. p●g . . * read the l. bishop of here●ord's a●ima● . sect. . almost throughout . † theor. p. , . * nullus enim philosophorum , sive veterum , siv● recentiorum , cujuscunque sectae , unquam ani●advertit , aut ●x causarum contemplatione invenit primam telluris ●aciem ●uisse paradisiacam . theor. p. . † — quibus temporis longinquitas , & mutata naturae facies ; tantum obscuritatis attulisset , ut nisi excitati ab historia , sa●ra de iis forsan nunquam cogitassemus . pag. ● . * page . † it will be found , it may be upon a stricter enquiry , that in the present ●orm a●d constitution of the earth , there are certain marks or indications of its first state. theor. p. . * theor. p. . * page . . a i●id . b sin● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro utre non reperitur . vind. ver . heb. c vter est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in exod. . . translat . v. t. colla● . d ver●m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utrem significat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . acer●um . in iosh. . . e lexic . pent. in vocab . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . f lyr. prophet . in loc . g page . . * page . josh. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * page . † page . * ibid. a et quanquam reverà s●mper horreant loca montana , & tesqua , ●t jam diximus ; non deest tamen in tanta varietate , quod recreet animum : atque saepè loci ipsius insolentia & spectaculorum novita● delectat magis , quam venustas in rebus notis & communibus . iu●undum est ex pro●undâ valle prominentia montium s●percilia , & impendentes moles suspicere , &c. b si quod v●rò natura nobis d●dit spectaculum in hâc tellure , vtrè gratum , & philosopho dignum , id semel mihi contigi●●e arbitror , &c. hoc theatrum ●go facilè praetulerim romanis cunctis , graeci●ve , atque id quod natura hic spectandum exhibet , scenicis ludis omnibus , aut amphitheatri cert●minibus . * fuller's holy war , l. . c. . † psal. . . * page . * theor. p. . * idem velle hae● duo loca solomonis & jobi , indubium est , p. . † pag. . lat. ‖ ibid. * psal. . . † iust. a●tron . lib. . cap. . * chap. . ver. , . † chap. . ver. . * d● civit. d●i , l. . c. . * euseb ▪ alex. poly●ist . * a●tiq . lib. . cap. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clem. al. strom. l. . p. . † book . chap. . * d● placit . phil. lib. . cap. . * pag. . * a●tiq . l. . c. . † gen. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies , ioh . . and ezek. . . for who ever sewed sackcloth to his own skin ? or to other mens arm-holes ? a quòd indigebant tegum●nto contra intemp●riem a●ris . * pag. . † pag. . * theor. pag. . * nimis absurdum est , ut dicatur aliquos homines ex hac in illam partem oceani immensitate trajectâ navigare , ac perven●re potuisse . civi● . l. . cap. . † pag. . * theor. pag. . * ibid. * articulus ●ltimus de situ recto telluris prim●e — philosophorum s●ntentiis — stabili●●r . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. theor. lat. pag. . * terrâ autem d●ssolut● , & exinde mutato ipsiu● situ facieque una defiere zon●e torridae ●ntolerabiles aestus & 〈◊〉 . ibid. pag. , . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. theor. lat. pag. , . * pag. , . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. theor. lat. pag. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ ibid. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. theor. lat. pag. . * n●t . hist. ● . . c. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ita res●ert plutarch . de placit . phil. l. . c. . † de ●ac . in orb . lun . a nihil du●ito — massam aquae se naturaliter conformaturam in figuram sphaericam circa suum centrum ; scilicet si ill● massa seu gl●b●s aqueus immobilis & qui●t●s hereat . p●g . . b si v●ro volvatur rapidé circa suum centrum , se oblongabit necessario ex agitatione illa , & defluet in sig●ram praeter-propter ovalem ; ut cùm aquae in vase propelluntur , aut in aliquâ plagâ maris aut lacûs vento agit antur versùs littora , fl●ctus in longum se extendere videmus . ibid. a nequ● ratio hujus ●ig●r●e in globo aqueo circulariter moto , obscura est : cum enim m●les aquae sub aequat●re multo magis agitaretur , quàm aqua v●rsus polos , ●bi minor●s circulos perageret ; partes ill●e maximè agitat●e , à c●ntro sui mo● t is recedere co●antes , cùm prorsus exilire & avol●re non potu●ri●t propter incumbentem undique a●rem , neque multùm re●luere si●e ejusdem a●●is re●ixu & resistentia , non aliter se liber●re valerent , quàm deflut●do ad latera : aqu●e enim impeditae quocunque reperiunt aditum & faciliorem motam , ●o f●●unt ; & ex illo 〈◊〉 aqu●rum ad l●tera ▪ & exoneratione partium midiar●m circa aequa●orem , globus ●que●s deveniret aliqu●●●tul 〈◊〉 oblongus . ibid. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . diog. laert. in vit . * astronom . nun. pag. , , . † vid. lat. theor. pag. . and also the english one , p. , , . a antiq. lib. . cap. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . strom. lib. . * totam l●evem & aequalem si●e montibus ; totam solidam ( usque ad abyss●m ) sine cavernis . pag. . * totam l●evem & aequalem si●e montibus ; totam solidam ( usque ad abyss●m ) sine cavernis . pag. . † dictis praetereà superaddunt non-n●lli , in primâ naturâ nulla ●uisse — mineralia aut metalla ; quibus non deesse s●as rationes existimo secundum hypothesia nostram . pag. . * eng. p. . † neque essent olim qu●e adbellum spectant — instrumenta — neque quae ad aedificia . in prasfat . ad lib. . * totus ille mundus artificialis , & apparatus rerum non natarum sed factarum . lb. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , acuens , i. e. acutè ●rudiens . * pag. . * de ani●al . l. . c. . * ibid. l. . c. . † nat. hist , l. . c. . * job . ● . † nat. hist. l. . c. . a primo intuitu facilè quis suspicari posset , hanc compagem exteriorem , quam deus stabilivit super faciem abyssi , intelligendam esse per illud firmamentum , quod deus dicitur stabiliisse inter aquas inferiores & superiores , gen. . . & . theor. p. . b et quoad firmamentum interaqueum insigne erat phaenomenon telluris primigeniae , ve● potius ipse orbis primus habitabilis , qui gyravit undique & conclusit — abyssum ; atque ita aquas superiores ab inferioribus sejunxit . ibid. pag. . a ausim enim dicere quantum rerum natura innotescit adhuc , firmamentum mosaicum prout vulgo intelligitur esse prorsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. * psal. . . * theor. pag. . * nat. hist. l. . c. . * chap. . . . † psal. . , , , , . * psal. . , , . * isai. . . † exod. . . * psal. . . † psal. . . a nec aquae congregantur omnes in eundem locum ; nam praeter multos lacus salsos , & aliquos forsan sinus maris olim impervios , mare caspium quod ejusdem est originis & antiquitatis cum magno oceano , ab eodem longe disjunctum est . theor. pag. . * gen. . . † deut. . . * per ductus subterraneos cum ocea●● communic ●ar 〈◊〉 . pag. . a propagatio & traductio hominum & animalium , in tot mundos separatos , difficilis esset explicatu . ibid. pag. . * nat. hist. lib. . cap. . † ibid. l. . cap. . l. . c. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * nat. hist. l. . c. . † in timaeo . * america vel nostro orbi contineus est , aut ab eo non valde disjuncta , ad quam scaphis aut parvis ●avig●●s trajici possit . anno mund. . n. . * gen. . , . * tim. . . * pag. . read also pag. . * piscat . in loc . * ● . mat. . , . * isai. . . * pag. . * de parad. cap. . † pag. . * where m●ses wrote t●e description of it . * recte igitur lambertus danaeus in antiquitatibus ait , quatuor illa flumina fuisse unius & ejusdem aquae sive fluvii ex edene nascentis divortia seu brachia . et addit , fontem istum & fluvium ex eo emanantem in edene regione , antequam se in divortia illa quatuor diducerct , hortum illum terrestrem irrigasse , & quidem totum adbuc & non divisum ; postquam autem totum hortum irrigaver●t , tunc se infra hortum in ista quatuor flumina divisisse . alsted , encyclop . l. . histor. c. . * pasitigrin incolae vocant . curtius . * see mr. carver's discourse of the terrest . paradise . * campus e●t in babylonia interdiu flagrans . plin. nat. hist. l. . c. . * colos. . . † pag. . * pag. . * pag. . † gen. . † gen. . , . * gen. . * antiq. l. . c. . * gen. . . * pag. . † pag. . * gen. . * gen. . . † gen. . . * sup●rest tertium paradisi , & primorum seculolorum phaenomenon , longaevitas hominum , & , ut par est credere , caterorum animalium . pag. . read the sixth chapter of the first book of the english theory . * pag. ● . * ancor . sect. . † eorum d●liramenta conticescant , qui umbras & imagines in veritate quaerentes , ipsam conantur evertere veritatem , at flumina , & arbores , & paradisum putent allegoriae legibus se debere subruere . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. lib. leg . allegor . * lib. de plant. no. * theor. pag. . * chap. . parag. . * pag. . † see sir w. raleigh's hist. book . c. . §. . † . * sir w. raleigh's hist. of the world , l. . c. . § . * vid. joseph . ant. l. . c. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. paul. aemil. * pag. . * some think italy the highest ; because the ascent up the alpes is very great on the french and german side ; but the descent on the italian side , inconsiderable . * gen. . . † so schindler , buxtor● , bithnor , &c. read the word : tho in a copy by me , it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is moses's word : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the psalmist's . so , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are moses's words : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the psalmist's . * isai. . . * so , the red sea , which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep , esai . . . is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , deeps , exod. . . yea , isaiah , who in . of his prophecy , calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the singular number ; in . chap. . calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the plural . * sam. . . * antiq. l. . c. . † lib. . a saepius enim in consiniis vel in ipsis visceribus montium , quàm alibi , capacissimae cavernae reperiumeur . pag. . * vid. diog. laert. pro●em . † in timaeo . * lib. de somn. † lib. de mund. incorrupt . * nat. hist. cent. . exper . , , , , &c. a cùm isti globuli paulo minus solito agunt , aquam in glaciem mutent , & particulas aeris in aquam . princip . part. . artic. . b exper. physico-mechan . ‖ english theor. p. . * arcae moles aquas penetravit . à lapide in gen. . . † hist. of the world , l. . c. . §. . † x. * † xi . * co● d. aug. civit. l. . c. . * antiq. l. . c. . * ad vocabulum in lexic . * gen. . . † ver. . * dando plu●ias & rores ad foecunditatem terrae convenientes . in loc . * non ea noe capta intromitt●bat , sed venientia & intrantia permittebat . aug. de civit. l. . c. . a quid mirum si vir ille sapiens & justus , etiam divinitus admonitus , quid cuique congrueret ; aptam cuiqu● generi alimoniam praeparavil & recondidit ? ibid. the wisdom of god manifested in the works of the creation being the substance of some common places delivered in the chappel of trinity-college, in cambridge / by john ray ... ray, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the wisdom of god manifested in the works of the creation being the substance of some common places delivered in the chappel of trinity-college, in cambridge / by john ray ... ray, john, - . [ ], p. printed for samuel smith ..., london : . reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng natural theology -- early works to . science -- early works to . creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the wisdom of god manifested in the works of the creation . being the substance of some common places delivered in the chappel of trinity-college , in cambridge . by john ray , m. a. sometimes fellow of that , and now of the royal society . london : printed for samuel smith , at the princes arms in s. pauls church-yard . . to the much honoured and truly religious lady , the lady letice wendy of wendy in cambridgeshire . madam , two or three reasons induce me to present this discourse to your ladyship , and to make choice of you for its patroness : first , because i owe it to the liberality of your honoured brother , that i have this leisure to write any thing . secondly , because also your many and signal favors , seeing i am not in a capacity to requite them , seem to exact from me at least a publick acknowledgment , which such a dedication gives me an opportunity to make . thirdly , because of such kind of writings i know not where to chuse a more able judge , or more candid reader . i am sensible that you do so much abhor any thing that looks like flattery , that out of an excess of modesty you cannot patiently bear the hearing of your own just commendations , and therefore should i enlarge upon that subject , i know i should have but little thanks for my pains . indeed you have much better motives to do well , than the praise of men , the favor of god , peace of conscience , the hope and expectation of a future reward of eternal happiness ; and therefore i had rather write of you to others , to provoke them to imitate so excellent an example , than to your self , to encourage you in your christian course , and to fortifie you in your athletick conflicts with the greatest of temporal evils , bodily pain and anguish ; though i do not know why you should reject any consideration that may conduce to support you under so heavy pressures , and of so long continuance ; of which to ingenuous natures true honor , that is the concurrent testimony and approbation of good men , is not the meanest . no less man than s. augustine was doubtful whether the extremity of bodily pain , were not the greatest evil that humane nature was capable of suffering : nay ( saith he ) i was sometimes compelled to consent to cornelius celsus , that it was so , neither did his reason seem to me absurd ; we being compounded of two parts , soul and body , of which the first is the better , the latter the worser , the greatest good must be the best thing belonging to the better part , that is wisdom , and the greatest evil the worst thing incident to the worser part ( the body ) that is pain . now though i know not whether this reason be firm and conclusive , yet i am of accord with him , that of all the evils we are sensible of in this world it is the sorest ; the most resolute patience being baffled and prostrated by a fierce and lasting paroxysm of the gout or stone , or colick , and compelled to yield to its furious insults , and confess itself vanquished , the soul being unable to divert , or to do any thing else but pore upon the pain . and therefore those stoical vaunts of their wise mans being happy in perillus his bull , i utterly reject and explode , as vain rhodomontades and chimerical figments , for that there never was such a wise man among them , nor indeed could be ; yet do i not say , that the patience of a good man can be so far conquered by the sharpest and severest torments as to be compelled to deny or blaspheme god or his religion , yea or so much as to complain of his injustice , though perchance he may be brought with job to curse his day , yet not to curse his god , as his wife tempted him to do . now that the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the most just judg and rewarder would be pleas'd so to qualifie and mitigate your sufferings as not to exceed the measure of your strength and patience , or else arm you with such an high degree of christian fortitude , as to be able to grapple with the most extreme , and when you have finished your course in this world , grant you a placid and easie passage out of it , and dignifie you as one of his victors , with a crown of eternal glory and felicity , is the prayer of , madam , your ladyships most devoted in all service , john ray. the preface . in all ages wherein learning hath flourished , complaint hath been made of the itch of writing , and the multitude of worthless books , wherewith importunate scriblers have pestered the world , scribimus indocti doctique : and — tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes . i am sensible that this tractate may likely incur the censure of a superfluous piece , and my self the blame of giving the reader unnecessary trouble , there having been so much , so well written of this subject by the most learned men of our time ; dr. more , dr. cudworth , dr. stillingfleet now bishop of worcester , dr. párker , late of oxon , and to name no more the honourable robert boyl , esquire , so that it will need some apology . first therefore , in excuse of it i plead , that there are in it some considerations new and untoucht by others : wherein if i be mistaken , i alledge secondly , that the manner of delivery and expression may be more suitable to some mens apprehension , and facile to their understandings . if that will not hold , i pretend thirdly , that all the particulars contained in this book , cannot be found in any one piece known to me , but lye scattered and dispersed in many , and so this may serve to relieve those fastidious readers , that are not willing to take the pains to search them out : and possibly , there may be some whose ability ( whatever their industry might be ) will not serve them to purchase , nor their opportunity to borrow those books , who yet may spare money enough to buy so inconsiderable a trifle . if none of these excuses suffice to acquit me of blame , and remove all prejudice , i have two further reasons to offer , which i think will reach home , and justify this undertaking . first , that all men who presume to write , at least whose writings the printers will venture to publish , are of some note in the world , and where they do or have lived and conversed , have some sphere of friends and acquaintants , that know and esteem them , who it's likely will buy any book they shall write , for the authors sake , who otherwise , would have read none of that subject , though ten times better ; and so the book , however inferiour to what have been already published , may happen to do much good . secondly , by vertue of my function , i suspect my self to be obliged to write something in divinity , having written so much on other subjects : for being not permitted to serve the church with my tongue in preaching , i know not but it may be my duty to serve it with my hand by writing . and i have made choice of this subject as thinking my self best qualified to treat of it . if what i have now written shall find so favourable acceptance , as to ●ncourage me to proceed , god granting life and health , the reader may expect more : if otherwise , i must be content to be laid aside as useless , and satisfie my self in having made this experiment . as for this discourse , it is the substance of some common places ( so in the university of cambridge , they call their morning divinity exercises ) delivered in trinity-college chappel , when i was fellow of that society ; which i have enlarged with the addition of some collections out of what hath been since written by the forementioned authors upon my subject . i have been careful to admit nothing for matter of fact or experiment but what is undoubtedly true , lest i should build upon a sandy and ruinous foundation ; and by the admixture of what is false , render that which is true , suspicious . i might have added many more particulars , nay , my text warrants me to run over all the visible works of god in particular , and to trace the footsteps of his wisdom in the composition , order , harmony , and uses of every one of them , as well as of those that i have selected . but first , this would be a task far transcending my skill and abilities ; nay , the joynt skill and endeavours of all men now living , or that shall live after a thousand ages , should the world last so long . for no man can find out the work that god maketh from the beginning to the end . eccles. . . secondly , i was willing to consult the infirmity of the reader , or indeed of mankind in general , which after a short confinement to one sort of dish , is apt to loath it , though never so wholesome , and which at first was most pleasant and acceptable : and so to moderate my discourse , as to make an end of writing before he should be quite tired with reading . i shall now add a word or two concerning the usefulness of the argument or matter of this discourse , and the reason i had to make choice of it , besides what i have already mentioned . first , the belief of a deity being the foundation of all religion ; ( religion being nothing but a devout worshipping of god , or an inclination of mind to serve and worship him ; ) for he that cometh to god , must believe that he is : it is a matter of the highest concernment to be firmly settled and established in a full perswasion of this main point : now this must be demonstrated by arguments drawn from the light of nature , and works of the creation . for as all other sciences , so divinity proves not , but supposes its subject , taking it for granted , that by natural light , men are sufficiently convinced of the being of a deity . there are indeed supernatural demonstrations of this fundamental truth , but not common to all persons or times , and so liable to cavil and exception by atheistical persons , as inward illuminations of mind , a spirit of prophecy and fore telling future contingents , illustrious miracles and the like . but these proofs taken from effects and operations , exposed to every mans view , not to be denied or questioned by any , are most effectual to convince all that deny or doubt of it . neither are they only convictive of the greatest and subtlest adversaries , but intelligible also to the meanest capacities . for you may hear illiterate persons of the lowest rank of the commonolty affirming , that they need no proof of the being of a god , for that every pile of grass , or ear of corn , sufficiently proves that . for , say they , all the men of the world cannot make such a thing as one of these ; and if they cannot do it , who can , or did make it but god ? to tell them that it made it self , or sprung up by chance , would be as ridiculous as to tell the greatest philosopher so . secondly , the particulars of this discourse , serve not only to demonstrate the being of a deity , but also to illustrate some of his principal attributes , as namely his infinite power and wisdom . the vast multitude of creatures , and those not only small but immensely great : the sun and moon , and all the heavenly host , are effects and proofs of his almighty power . the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy work , psal. . . the admirable contrivance of all and each of them , the adapting all the parts of animals to their several uses : the provision that is made for their sustenance , which is often taken notice of in scripture , psal. . , . the eyes of all wait upon thee , thou givest them their meat in due season . thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing . matth. . . behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not , neither do they reap , nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly father feedeth them . psalm . . . he giveth to the beast his food , and to the young ravens when they cry : and lastly , their mutual subserviency to each other , and unanimous conspiring to promote and carry on the publick good , are evident demonstrations of his sovereign wisdom . lastly , they serve to stir up and increase in us the affections and habits of admiration , humility and gratitude . psalm . . when i considered the heavens the work of thy fingers , the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou are mindful of him , or the son of man that thou visitest him ? and to these purposes the holy psalmist is very frequent in the enumeration and consideration of these works , which may warrant me in doing the like , and justifie the denominating such a discourse as this , rather theological than philosophical . the contents . of the coelestial bodies pag. , , . . to . of terrestrial bodies p. . . the number of animals , vegetables , and fossils ; guess'd at p. , , , , , , . the aristotelian hypothesis p. , . the epicurean hypothesis p. . to . the cartesian hypothesis p. . to . all these considered and censur'd , from p. . to . a plastick principle above matter and motion , yet not god himself p. . to . the differences of natural and artificial things p. . the natures and divisions of bodies p. , , . the several textures , ends ; and uses of them p. . as of the sun p. , . of the moon and other planets p. , . the advantage of eclipses in chronology , and geography p. . of the fixt stars p. . . of fire p. . . of air p. to . the respiration of the foetus in the womb explained p. . to . of water p. to . of earth p. , . of meteors p. . of rain p. . of winds p. . of stones p. . . transparent , colour'd , opaque , variously figur'd like parts of animals . load-stone , &c. ibid. of metals p. . to . of vegetation , and plants , their different parts , and uses : of their roots , fibres , bark , wood , vessels , leaves , claspers , prickles , gems , flowers , fruits , seeds , &c. from p. to . of sensitive or brute animals , quadrupeds , birds , fishes , insects , their regular and peculiar methods , their actions , their various parts and uses from p. . to p. . . . from whence the uses of things p. . the study of nature recommended p. . . , . prefer'd to other studies to . of the terraqueous globe , its figure and use ; its motion , posture , situation , constitution and consistency p. . to . of the body of man , its external and internal mechanism , the textures , situations , proportions , actions , and uses of the several parts ; many anaiomical , physical , and theological observations thereupon from p. . to . more particularly upon the head p. . the eye and vision p. . to . the suspensory or seventh muscle , and the membrana nictitans common to many beasts , yet wanting in man p. , . the ear p. . to . the teeth p. . . the tongue p. . . the windpipe p. . the heart p. . to . the hand and the analogous parts in other creatures p. . to . generation and formation explain'd , from p. . to . observations on the propagations of several animals and plants ibid. many divine reflections and conclusions from p. . to the end . psalm . . how manifold are thy works o lord ? in wisdom hast thou made them all . in these words are two clauses , in the first whereof the psalmist admires the multitude of god's works , how manifold are thy works o lord ? in the second he celebrates his wisdom in the creation of them ; in wisdom hast thou made them all . of the first of these i shall say little , only briefly run over the works of this visible world , and give some guess at the number of them . whence it will appear , that upon this account they well deserve admiration , the number of them being uninvestigable by us ; and so affording us a demonstrative proof of the unlimited extent of the creators skill , and the foecundity of his wisdom and power . that the number of corporeal creatures is unmeasurably great , and known only to the creator himself , may thus probably be collected : first of all , the number of fixt stars is on all hands acknowledged to be next to infinite ; secondly , every fixt star in the now received hypothesis is a sun or sunlike body , and in like manner encircled with a chorus of planets moving about it ; thirdly , each of these planets is in all likelihood furnished with as great variety of corporeal creatures animate and inanimate as the earth is , and all as different in nature as they are in place from the terrestrial , and from each other . whence it will follow that these must be much more infinite than the stars ; i do not mean absolutely according to the philosophick exactness infinite , but only infinite or innumerable as to us , or their number prodigiously great . that the fixt stars are innumerable may thus be made out : those visible to the naked eye are by the least account acknowledged to be above a thousand , excluding those towards the south pole which are not visible in our horizon : besides these , there have been incomparably more detected and brought to light by the telescope ; the milky way being found to be ( as was formerly conjectured ) nothing but great companies or swarms of minute stars singly invisible , but by reason of their proximity mingling and confounding their lights and appearing like lucid clouds . and it 's likely that , had we more perfect telescopes , many thousands more might be discovered ; and yet after all an incredible multitude remain , by reason of their immense distance beyond all ken by the best telescopes that could possibly be invented or polished by the wit and hand of an angel. for if the world be , as des cartes would have it , indefinitely extended ; that is , so far as no human intellect can fancy any bounds of it , then what we see or can come to see must be the least part of what is undiscoverable by us ; the whole universe extending a thousand times farther beyond the utmost stars we can possibly descry , than those be distant from the earth we live upon . this hypothesis of the fixt stars being so many suns , &c. seems more agreeable to the divine greatness and magnificence : but that which induces me much to doubt of the magnitude of the universe and immense distance of the fixed stars , is the stupendious phaenomena of comets , their sudden accension or appearance in full magnitude , the length of their tails and swiftness of their motion , and gradual diminution of bulk and motion , till at last they disappear : neither do i think the universe indefinitely extended , as des cartes upon a false ground [ that the formal ratio of a body was nothing but extension into length , breadth and profundity , or having partes extra partes , and that body and space were synonimous terms ] assert ed : for it may as well be limited this way as in the old hypothesis ; which places the fixt stars in the same spherical superficies ; according to which ( old hypothesis ) they may also be demonstrated by the same mediums to be innumerable , only instead of their distance substituting their smalness for the reason of their invisibility . but leaving the celestial bodies , i come now to the terrestrial ; which are either inanimate or animate . the inanimate are the elements , meteors and fossils of all sorts , at the number of which last i cannot give any probable guess ; bur if the rule , which some considerate philosophers deliver , holds good ; viz. how much more imperfect any genus or order of beings is , so much more numerous are the species contained under it ; as for example : birds being a more perfect kind of animals than fishes , there are more of these than of those , and for the like reason more birds than quadrupeds , and more insects than of any of the rest ; and so more plants than animals : nature being more sparing in her more excellent productions . if this rule i say holds good ; then should there be more species of fossils or generally of inanimate bodies than of vegetables ; of which there is some reason to doubt . unless we will admit all sorts of formed stones to be distinct species . animate bodies are divided into four great genera or orders , beasts , birds , fishes and insects . the species of beasts , including also serpents , are not very numerous : of such as are certainly known and described i dare say not above . and yet i believe not many , that are of any considerable bigness , in the known regions of the world , have escaped the cognizance of the curious . [ i reckon all dogs to be of one species they mingling together in generation , and the breed of such mixtures being prolifick . ] the number of birds known and described may be near ; and the number of fishes , secluding shelfish as many ; but if the shelfish be taken in , more than double the number . how many of each genus remain yet undiscovered one cannot certainly nor very nearly conjecture , but we may suppose the whole sum of beasts and birds to exceed by a third part , and fishes by one half , those known . the insects , if we take in the exanguious both terrestrial and aquatick , may in derogation to the precedent rule for number vie even with plants themselves . for the exanguious alone , by what that learned and critical naturalist my honoured friend dr. martin lister hath already observed and delineated , i conjecture , cannot be fewer than or species , perhaps many more . the butterflies and beetles are such numerous tribes , that i believe in our own native country alone the species of each kind may amount to or more . and if we should make the caterpillers and hexapods from whence these come to be distinct species , as most naturalists have done , the number will be doubled , and these two genera will afford us species . but if those be admitted for distinct species , i see no reason but their aureliae also may pretend to a specifick difference from the caterpillers and butterflies ; and so we shall have species more , therefore we exclude both these from the degree of species , making them to be the same insect under a different larva or habit. the fly-kind , if under that name we comprehend all other flying insects , as well such as have four as such as have but two wings , of both which kinds there are many subordinate genera , will be found in multitude of species to equal if not exceed both the forementioned kinds . the creeping insects that never come to be winged , though for number they may fall short of the flying or winged , yet are they also very numerous ; as by running over the several kinds i could easily demonstrate : supposing then , there be a thousand several sorts of insects in this island and the sea near it : if the same proportion holds between the insects native of england , and those of the rest of the world , as doth between plants domestick and exotick , ( that is , as i guess , near a decuple ) the species of insects in the whole earth ( land and water ) will amount to , and i do believe they rather exceed than fall short of that sum . the number of plants contained in c. bauhin's pinax is about , which are all that had been described by the authors that wrote before him , or observed by himself ; in which work , besides mistakes and repetitions incident to the most wary and knowing men in such a work as that ; there are a great many , i might say some hundreds put down for different species , which in my opinion are but accidental varieties : which i do not say to detract from the excellent pains and performance of that learned , judicious and laborious herbarist , or to defraud him of his deserved honour , but only to shew , that he was too much sway'd by the opinions then generally current among herbarists , that different colour or multiplicity of leaves in the flower and the like accidents were sufficient to constitute a specifick difference . but supposing there had been then known and described ; i cannot think but that there are in the world more then double that number ; there being in the vast continent of america as great a variety of species as with us , and yet but few common to europe , or perhaps asrick and asia , and if , on the other side the equator , there be much land still remaining undiscovered as probably there may , we must suppose the number of plants to be far greater . what can we infer from all this ? if the number of creatures be so exceeding great , how great nay immense must needs be the power and wisdom of him who form'd them all ! for ( that i may borrow the words of a noble and excellent author ) as it argues and manifests more skill by far in an artificer to be able to frame both clocks and watches , and pumps , and mills , and granadoes and rockets , then he could display in making but one of those sorts of engines ; so the almighty discovers more of his wisdom in forming such a vast multitude of different sorts of creatures , and all with admirable and irreproveable art , than if he had created but a few : for this declares the greatness and unbounded capacity of his understanding . again , the same superiority of knowledg would be displaid by contriving engines of the same kind or for the same purposes after different fashions , as the moving of clocks or other engines by springs instead of weights : so the infinitely wise creator hath shewn in many instances , that he is not confin'd to one only instrument for the working one effect , but can perform the same thing by divers means . so though feathers seem necessary for flying , yet hath he enabled several creatures to fly without them , as two sorts of fishes , and the bat , not to mention the numerous tribes of flying insects . in like manner though the air-bladder in fishes seems necessary for swimming , yet some are so form'd as to swim without it ; viz. first , the cartilagineous kind , which by what artifice they poise themselves , ascend and descend at pleasure , and continue in what depth of water they list , is as yet unknown to us . secondly , the cetaceous kind , or sea-beasts differing in nothing almost from quadrupeds but the want of feet . the air which in respiration these receive into their lungs may serve to render their bodies equiponderant to the water ; and the constriction or dilatation of it , by the help of the diaphragm and muscles of respiration , may probably assist them to ascend or descend in the water , by a light impulse thereof with their fins . again , though the water being a cold element , the most wise god hath so attempered the blood and bodies of fishes in general , that a small degree of heat is sufficient to preserve their due consistency and motion and to maintain life ; yet to shew that he can preserve a creature in the sea , and in the coldest part of the sea too , that may have as great a degree of heat as quadrupeds themselves ; he hath created great variety of these cetaceous fishes , which converse chiefly in the northern seas , whose whole body being encompassed round with a copious fat or blubber ( which , by reflecting and redoubling the internal heat , and keeping off the external cold , doth the same thing to them that cloths do to us ) is enabled to abide the greatest cold of the sea-water . the reason why these fishes delight to frequent chiefly the northern-seas is i conceive not only for the quiet which they enjoy there , but because the northern air , which they breath being more fully charged with nitrous particles , is fittest to maintain the vital heat in that activity as is sufficient to move such an unwieldy bulk , as their bodies are with due celerity and to bear up against and repell the ambient cold ; and may likewise enable them to continue longer under water than a warmer and thinner air could . i come now to the second part of the words ; in wisdom hast thou made them all . in discoursing wherof i shall endeavour to make out in particulars what the psalmist here asserts in general concerning the works of god , that they are all very wisely contrived and adapted to ends both particular and general . but before i enter upon this task , i shall , by way of preface or introduction , say something concerning those systems which undertake to give an account of the formation of the universe by mechanical hypotheses of matter moved either uncertainly , or according to some catholick laws , without the intervention and assistance of any superior immaterial agent . there is no greater , at least no more palpable and convincing argument of the existence of a deity than the admirable art and wisdom that discovers itself in the make and constitution , the order and disposition , the ends and uses of all the parts and members of this stately fabrick of heaven and earth . for if in the works of art , as for example ; a curious edifice or machine , counsel , design , and direction to an end appearing in the whole frame and in all the several pieces of it , do necessarily infer the being and operation of some intelligent architect or engineer , why shall not also in the works of nature , that grandeur and magnificence , that excellent contrivance for beauty , order , use , &c. which is observable in them , wherein they do as much transcend the effects of human art as infinite power and wisdom exceeds finite , infer the existence and efficiency of an omnipotent and all-wise creator ? to evade the force of this argument , and to give some account of the original of the world , atheistical persons have set up two hypotheses . the first is that of aristotle , that the world was from eternity , in the same condition that now it is , having run through the successions of infinite generations ; to which they add , self-existent and unproduced . for aristotle doth not deny god to be the efficient cause of the world. but only asserts , that he created it from eternity making him a necessary cause thereof ; it proceeding from him by way of emanation , as light from the sun. this hypothesis which hath some shew of reason , for something must necessarily exist of it self ; and if something , why may not all things ? this hypothesis , i say , is so clearly and fully confuted by the reverend and learned dr. tillotson now dean of s. pauls london , in his first printed sermon , and the r. reverend father in god john late lord bishop of chester in book i. chap. v. of his treatise of the principles of natural religion , that nothing material can by me be added ; to whom therefore i refer the reader . the epicurean hypothesis rejected . the second hypothesis is that of the epicureans , who held that there were two principles self existent : first , space or vacuity ; secondly , matter or body ; both of infinite duration and extension . in this infinite space or vacuity , which hath neither beginning nor end , nor middle , no limits or extremes , innumerable minute bodies into which the matter was divided called atomes , because by reason of their perfect solidity they were really indivisible ( for they hold no body capable of division , but what hath vacuities intersperst with matter ) of various but a determinate number of figures , and equally ponderous do perpendicularly descend , and by their fortuitous concourse make compound bodies , and at last the world it self . but now , because if all these atomes should descend plum down with equal velocity , as according to their doctrine they ought to do , ( being as we said ) all perfectly solid and imporous , and the vacuum not resisting their motion , they would never the one overtake the other , but like the drops of a shower would always keep the same distances , and so there could be no concourse or cohaesion of them , and consequently nothing created ; partly to avoid this destructive consequence , and partly to give some account of the freedom of will ( which they did assert contrary to the democritick fate ) they did absurdly feign a declination of some of these principles , without any shadow or pretence of reason . the former of these motives you have set down by * lucretius in these words : corpora cum deorsum rectum per inane feruntur ponderibus propriis , incerto tempore fortè , incertisque locis , spatio discedere paulùm ; tantum quod momen mutatum dicere possis . and again ; quòd nisi declinare solerent , omnia deorsum imbris uti guttae caderent per inane profundum , nec foret offensus natus , nec plaga creata principiis , ita nil unquam natura creâsset . the second motive they had to introduce this gratuitous declination of atomes , the same poet gives us in these verses , lib. . — si semper motus connectitur omnis , et vetere exoritur semper novus ordine certo ; nec declinando faciunt primordia motûs principium quoddam quod fati foedera rumpat , ex infinito ne causam causa sequatur ; libera per terras unde haec animantibus extat , unde haec est , inquam , fatis avolsa voluntas ? the folly and unreasonableness of this ridiculous and ungrounded figment , i cannot better display and reprove than in the words of cicero , in the beginning of his first book de finibus bonornm & malorum . this declination ( saith he ) is altogether childishly feigned , and yet neither doth it at all solve the difficulty , or effect what they desire . for first they say the atomes decline , and yet assign no reason why . now nothing is more shameful and unworthy a natural philosopher [ turpius physico ] than to assert any thing to be done without a cause , or to give no reason of it . besides this is contrary to their own hypothesis taken from sence , that all weights do naturally move perpendicularly downward . secondly , again supposing this were true , and that there were such a declination of atomes , yet will it not effect what they intend . for either they do all decline , and so there will be no more concourse than if they did perpendicularly descend ; or some decline , and some fall plum down , which is ridiculously to assign distinct offices and tasks to the atomes , which are all of the same nature and solidity . again , in his book de fato he smartly derides this fond conceit thus ; what cause is there in nature which turns the atomes aside ? or do they cast lots among themselves which shall decline , which not ? or why do they decline the least interval that may be , and not a greater ? why not two or three minima as well as one ? optare hoc quidem est non disputare , for neither is the atome by any extrinsecal impulse diverted from its natural course ; neither can there be any cause imagined in the vacuity through which it is carried why it should not move directly ; neither is there any change made in the atome it self , that it should not retain the motion natural to it , by force of its weight or gravity . as for the whole atomical hypothesis , either epicurean or democritick , i shall not , nor need i spend time to confute it ; this having been already solidly and sufficiently done by many learned men , but especially dr. cudworth in his intellectual system of the universe , and the present bishop of worcester dr. stillinfleet in his origines sacrae . only i cannot omit the ciceronian confutation thereof , which i find in the place first quoted , and in his first and second books de naturâ deorum , because it may serve as a general introduction to the following particulars . such a turbulent concourse of atomes could never ( saith he ) hunc mundi ornatum efficere , compose so well ordered and beautiful a structure as the world is ; which therefore both in greek and latine hath from thence [ ab ornatu & munditie ] obtain'd its name . and again most fully and appositely in his second de nat. deorum . if the works of nature are better , more exact and perfect than the works of art , and art effects nothing without reason ; neither can the works of nature be thought to be effected without reason . for is it not absurd and incongruous ? that when thou beholdest a statue or curious picture , thou shouldest acknowledg that art was used to the making of it ; or when thou seest the course of a ship upon the waters , thou shouldest not doubt but the motion of it is regulated and directed by reason and art ; or when thou considerest a sun-dial or clock , thou shouldst understand presently , that the hours are shewn by art and not by chance ; and yet imagine or believe , that the world which comprehends all these arts and artificers was made without counsel or reason . if one should carry into scythia or britain such a sphere as our friend posidonius lately made , each of whose conversions did the same thing in the sun and moon and other five planets , which we see effected every night and day in the heavens , who among those barbarians would doubt that that sphere was composed by reason and art ? a wonder then it must needs be , that there should be any man found so stupid and forsaken of reason as to persuade himself , that this most beautiful and adorned world was or could be produced by the fortuitous concourse of atomes . he that can prevail with himself to believe this , i do not see why he may not as well admit , that if there were made innumerable figures of the letters in gold , suppose , or any other metal , and these well shaken and mixt together , and thrown down from some high place to the ground , they when they lighted upon the earth would be so disposed and ranked , that a man might see and read in them ennius's annals ; whereas it were a great chance if he should find one verse thereof among them all . for if this concourse of atomes could make a whole world , why may it not sometimes make , and why hath it not somewhere or other in the earth made a temple , or a gallery , or a portico , or a house , or a city ? which yet it is so far from doing , and every man so far from believing ; that should any one of us be cast , suppose , upon a desolate island , and find there a magnificent palace artificially contrived according to the exactest rules of architecture , and curiously adorned and furnished ; it would never once enter into his head , that this was done by an earthquake , or the fortuitous shuffling together of its component materials ; or that it had stood there ever since the construction of the world , or first cohaesion of atomes : but would presently conclude that there had been some intelligent architect there , the effect of whose art and skill it was . or should he find there but upon one single sheet of parchment or paper an epistle or oration written , full of profound sense , expressed in proper and significant words , illustrated and adorned with elegant phrase ; it were beyond the possibility of the wit of man to perswade him that this was done by the temerarious dashes of an unguided pen , or by the rude scattering of ink upon the paper , or by the lucky projection of so many letters at all adventures ; but he would be convinced by the evidence of the thing at first fight , that there had been not only some man , but some scholar there . the cartesian hypothesis considered and censured . having rejected this atheistick hypothesis of epicurus and democritus , i should now proceed to give particular instances of the art and wisdom clearly appearing in the several parts and members of the universe ; from which we may justly infer this general conclusion of the psalmist , in wisdom hast thou made them all : but that there is a sort of professed theists , i mean mons. des cartes and his followers , who endeavour to disarm us of this decretory weapon ; to evacuate and exterminate this argument which hath been so successful in all ages to demonstrate the existence , and enforce the belief of a deity ; and to convince and silence all atheistick gainsayers . and this they doe , first , by excluding and banishing all consideration of final causes from natural philosophy ; upon pretence , that they are all and every one in particular undiscoverable by us ; and that it is rashness and arrogance in us to think we can find out god's ends and be partakers of his counsels . atque ob hanc unicam rationem totum illud causarum genus quod à fine peti solet , in rebus physicis nullum usum habere existimo ; non enim absque temeritate me puto investigare posse fines dei. medit. metaph. and again in his principles of philosophy , nullas unquam rationes circa res naturales à fine quem deus aut natura in iis faciendis sibi proposuit admittimus , quia non tantum nobis debemus arrogare ut ejus consiliorum participes esse possimus . and more expresly in his fourth answer , viz. to gassendus's objections ; nec fingi potest , aliquos dei fines magis quàm alios in propatulo esse : omnes enim in imperscrutabili ejus sapientiae abysso sunt eodem modo reconditi ; that is , neither can or ought we to feign or imagine , that some of god's ends are more manifest than others ; for all lie in like manner or equally hidden in the unsearchable abyss of his wisdom . this confident assertion of des cartes is fully examined and reproved by that honourable and excellent person mr. boyl , in his disquisition about the final causes of natural things , sect. . from pag. . to the end : and therefore i shall not need say much to it ; only in brief this , that it seems to me false and of evil consequence , as being derogatory from the glory of god , and destructive of the acknowledgment and belief of a deity : for first , seeing , for instance , that the eye is employed by man and all animals for the use of vision , which , as they are framed , is so necessary for them , that they could not live without it ; and god almighty knew that it would be so ; and seeing it is so admirably fitted and adapted to this use , that all the wit and art of men and angels could not have contrived it better , if so well ; it must needs be highly absurd and unreasonable to affirm , either that it was not designed at all for this use , or that it is impossible for man to know whether it was or not . secondly , how can man give thanks and praise to god for the use of his limbs and senses and those his good creatures which serve for his sustenance ; when he cannot be sure they were made in any respect for him ; nay , when 't is as likely they were not , and that he doth but abuse them to serve ends for which they never intended . thirdly , this opinion , as i hinted before , supersedes and cassates the best medium we have to demonstrate the being of a deity ; leaving us no other demonstrative proof but that taken from the innate idea ; which , if it be a demonstration , is but an obscure one , not satisfying many of the learned themselves , and being too subtle and metaphysical ro be apprehended by vulgar capacities , and consequently of no force to persuade and convince them . secondly , they endeavour to evacuate and disanul our great argument , by pretending to solve all the phaenomena of nature , and to give an account of the production and efformation of the universe , and all the corporeal beings therein , both celestial and terrestrial as well animate as inanimate , not excluding animals themselves by a sleight hypothesis of matter so and so divided and moved . the hypothesis you have in des cartes's principles of philosophy , part. . all the matter of this visible world is by him supposed to have been at first divided by god into parts nearly equal to each other , of a mean size , viz. about the bigness of those whereof the heavenly bodies are now compounded ; all together having as much motion as is now found in the world ; and these to have been equally moved severally every one by itself about its own center , and among one another , so as to compose a fluid body ; and also many of them jointly or in company , about several other points so far distant from one another , and in the same manner disposed as the centres of the fixt stars now are . so that god had no more to do than to create the matter , divide it into parts , and put it into motion according to some few laws , and that would of itself produce the world and all creatures therein . for a confutation of this hypothesis , i might refer the reader to dr. cudworth's system p. . . but for his ease i will transcribe the words : — god in the mean time standing by as an idle spectator of this lusus atomorum , this sportfull dance of atoms , and of the various results thereof . nay these mechanick theists have here quite outstripped and outdone the atomick atheists themselves , they being much more extravagant then ever those were . for the professed atheists durst never venture to affirm , that this regular systeme of things resulted from the fortuitous motions of atoms at the very first , before they had for a long time together produced many other inept combinations , or aggregate forms of particular things and nonsensical systems of the whole , and they supposedalso that the regularity of things here in this world would not always continue such neither , but that some time or other confusion and disorder will break in again . moreover that besides this world of ours , there are at this very instant innumerable other worlds irregular , and that there is but one of a thousand or ten thousand among the infinite worlds that have such regularity in them , the reason of all which is , because it was generally taken for granted , and lookt upon as a common notion , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as aristotle expresseth it ; none of those things which are from fortune or chance come to pass always alike . but our mechanick theists will have their atoms never so much as once to have fumbled in these their motions , nor to have produced any inept system , or incongruous forms at all , but from the very first all along to have taken up their places and ranged themselves so orderly , methodically and directly ; as that they could not possibly have done it better , had they been directed by the most perfect wisdom . wherefore these atomick theists utterly evacuate that grand argument for a god taken from the phaenomenon of the artificial frame of things , which hath been so much insisted upon in all ages , and which commonly makes the strongest impression of any other upon the minds of men &c. the atheists in the mean time laughing in their sleeves , and not a little triumphing to see the cause of theism thus betrayed by its professed friends and assertors , and the grand argument for the same totally slurred by them and so their work done , as it were , to their hands . now as this argues the greatest insensibility of mind , or sottishness and stupidity in pretended theists not to take the least notice of the regular and artificial frame of things , or of the signatures of the divine art and wisdom in them , nor to look upon the world and things of nature with any other eyes than oxen and horses do . so are there many phaenomena in nature , which being partly above the force of these mechanick powers , and partly contrary to the same , can therefore never be salved by them , nor without final causes and some vital principle : as for example , that of gravity or the tendency of bodies downward , the motion of the diaphragm in respiration , the systole and diastole of the heart , which is nothing but a muscular constriction and relaxation , and therefore not mechanical but vital . we might also add among many others the intersection of the plains of the equator and ecliptick , or the earth's diurnal motion upon an axis not parallel to that of the ecliptick , nor perpendicular to the plain thereof . for though des cartes would needs imagine this earth of ours once to have been a sun , and so itself the centre of a lesser vortex , whose axis was then directed after this manner , and which therefore still kept the same site or posture by reason of the striate particles finding no fit pores or traces for their passages through it , but only in this direction ; yet does he himself confess , that because these two motions of the earth , the annual and diurnal , would be much more conveniently made upon parallel axes , therefore , according to the laws of mechanism , they should be perpetually brought nearer andnearer together , till at length the equator and ecliptick come to have their axes parallel , which as it has not yet come to pass , so neither hath there been for these last two thousand years ( according to the best observations and judgments of astronomers ) any nearer approach made of them one to another . wherefore the continuation of these two motions of the earth the annual and diurnal upon axes not parallel is resolvable into nothing but a final and mental cause , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because it was best it should be so , the variety of the seasons of the year depending thereupon . but the greatest of all the particular phaenomena is the formation and organization of the bodies of animals , consisting of such variety and curiosity ; that these mechanick philosophers being no way able to give an account thereof from the necessary motion of matter , unguided by mind for ends , prudently therefore break off their system there , when they should come to animals , and so leave it altogether untoucht . we acknowledg indeed there is a posthumous piece extant , imputed to cartes , and entituled , de la formation du foetus , wherein there is some pretence made to salve all this by fortuitous mechanism . but as the theory thereof is built wholly upon a false supposition , sufficiently confuted by our harvey in his book of generation , that the seed doth materially enter into the composition of the egg : so is it all along precarious and exceptionable ; nor doth it extend at all to the differences that are in several animals , nor offer the least reason why an animal of one species might not be formed out of the seed of another . thus far the doctor , with whom for the main i do consent . i shall only add , that natural philosophers , when they endeavor to give an account of any of the works of nature by preconceived principles of their own , are for the most part grosly mistaken and confuted by experience ; as des cartes in a matter that lay before him , obvious to sense and infinitly more easie to find out the cause of , than to give an account of the formation of the world ; that is the pulse of the heart , which he attributes to an ebullition and sudden expansion of the blood in the ventricles , after the manner of milk , which being heated to such a degree doth suddenly and as it were all at once flush up and run over the vessel . whether this ebullition be caused by a nitro-sulphureous ferment lodged especially in the left ventricle of the heart , which mingling with the blood excites such an ebullition , as we see made by the mixture of some chymical liquors , viz. oil of vitriol , and deliquated salt of tartar ; or by the vital flame warming and boyling the blood. but this conceit of his is contrary both to reason and experience , for first , it is altogether unreasonable to imagine and affirm that the cool venal blood should be heated to so high a degree in so short a time as the interval of two pulses , which is less than the sixth part of a minute . secondly , in cold animals , as for example eels , the heart will beat for many hours after it is taken out of the body , yea tho the ventricle be opened and all the blood squeezed out . thirdly , the process of the fibres which compound the sides of the ventricles running in spiral lines from the tip to the base of the heart , some one way and some the contrary , do clearly shew that the systole of the heart is nothing but a muscular constriction , as a purse is shut by drawing the strings contrary ways : which is also confirm'd by experience ; for if the vertex of the heart be cut off , and a finger thrust up into one of the ventricles , in every systole the finger will be sensibly and manifestly pincht by the sides of the ventricle . but for a full confutation of this fancy , i refer the reader to dr. lower's treatise de corde , chap. . and his rules concerning the transferring of motion from one body in motion to another are the most of them by experience found to be false , as they affirm which have made trial of them . this pulse of the heart dr. cudworth would have to be no mechanical but a vital motion , which to me seems probable , because it is not under the command of the will , nor are we conscious of any power to cause or to restrain it , but it is carried on and continued without our knowledge or notice ; neither can it be caused by the impulse of any external movent , unless it be heat . but how can the spirits agitated by heat , unguided by a vital principle produce such a regular reciprocal motion ? if that site which the heart and its fibres have in the diastole be most natural to them , ( as it seems to be ) why doth it again contract itself , and not rest in that posture ? if it be once contracted in a systole by the influx of the spirits , why , the spirits continually flowing in without let , doth it not always remain so ? [ for the systole seems to resemble the forcible bending of a spring , and the diastole its flying out again to its natural site . ] what is the spring and principal efficient of this reciprocation ? what directs and moderates the motions of the spirits ? they being but stupid and senseless matter , cannot of themselves continue any regular and constant motion , without the guidance and regulation of some intelligent being . you will say , what agent is it which you would have to effect this ? the sensitive soul it cannot be , because that is indivisible , but the heart , when separated wholly from the body in some animals ; continues still to pulse for a considerable time ; nay when it hath quite ceased , it may be brought to beat anew by the application of warm spittle , or by pricking it gently with a pin or needle . i answer , it may be in these instances , the scattering spirits remaining in the heart , may for a time being agitated by heat , cause these faint pulsations ; though i should rather attribute them to a plastick nature or vital principle , as the vegetation of plants must also be . but to proceed , neither can i wholly acquiesce in the hypothesis of that honourable and deservedly famous author i formerly had occasion to mention ; which i find in his free enquiry into the vulgar notion of nature , p. , . delivered in these words , i think it probable , that the great and wise author of things did , when he first formed the universal and undistinguished matter into the world , put its parts into various motions , whereby they were necessarily divided into numberless portions of differing bulks , figures and situations in respect of each other . and that by his infinite wisdom and power he did so guide and over-rule the motions of these parts , at the beginning of things , as that ( whether in a shorter or a longer time reason cannot determine ) they were finally disposed into that beautiful and orderly frame that we call the world ; among whose parts some were so curiously contrived , as to be fit to become the seeds or feminal principles of plants and animals . and i further conceive , that he setled such laws or rules of local motion , among the parts of the universal matter , that by his ordinary and preserving concurse the several parts of the universe thus once completed , should be able to maintain the great construction or system and oeconomy of the mundane bodies , and propagate the species of living creatures . the same hypothesis he repeats again , pag. , . of the same treatise . this hypothesis , i say , i cannot fully acquiesce in , because an intelligent being seems to me requisite to execute the laws of motion . for first motion being a fluent thing , and one part of its duration being absolutely independent upon another : it doth not follow that because any thing moves this moment , it must necessarily continue to do so the next ; but it stands in as much need of an efficient to preserve and continue its motion as it did at first to produce it . secondly , let matter be divided into the subtilest parts imaginable , and these be moved as swiftly as you will ; it is but a sensless and stupid being still , and makes no nearer approach to sense , perception , or vital energy than it had before ; and do but only stop the internal motion of its parts and reduce them to rest , the finest and most subtile body that is may become as gross , and heavy , and stiff as steel or stone . and as for any external laws or established rules of motion , the stupid matter is not capable of observing or taking any notice of them ; neither can those laws execute themselves : therefore there must besides matter and law be some efficient ; and that either a quality or power inherent in the matter itself , which is hard to conceive , or some external intelligent agent , either god himself immediately , or some plastick nature . this latter i incline to , for the reasons alledged by dr. cudworth in his system , pag. . which are ; first , because the former , according to vulgar apprehension , would render the divine providence operose , solicitous and distractious : and thereby make the belief of it entertained with greater difficulty , and give advantage to atheists . secondly , it is not so decorous in respect of god , that he should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set his own hand as it were to every work , and immediately do all the meanest and triflingst things himself drudgingly , without making use of any inferiour or subordinate ministers . these two reasons are plausible , but not cogent , the two following are of greater force . thirdly , the slow and gradual process that is in the generation of things , which would seem to be a vain and idle pomp or trifling formality , if the agent were omnipotent . fourthly , those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as aristotle calls them , those errors and bungles which are committed when the matter is inept or contumacious , as in monsters , &c. which argue the agent not to be irresistible ; and that nature is such a thing as is not altogether uncapable , as well as human art , of being sometimes frustrated and disappointed by the indisposition of the matter : whereas an omnipotent agent would always do its work infallibly and irresistibly , no ineptitude or stubbornness of the matter being ever able to hinder such an one , or make him bungle or fumble in any thing . so far the doctor . for my part , i should make no scruple to attribute the formation of plants , their growth and nutrition to the vegetative soul in them ; and likewise the formation of animals to the vegetative power of their souls ; but that the segments and cuttings of some plants , nay the very chips and smallest fragments of their body , branches , or roots , will grow and become perfect plants themselves , and so the vegetative soul , if that were the architect , would be divisible , and consequently no spiritual or intelligent being ; which the plastick principle must be , as we have shewn . for that must preside over the whole oeconomy of the plant , and be one single agent , which takes care of the bulk and figure of the whole , and the situation , figure , texture of all the parts , root , stalk , branches , leaves , flowers , fruit , and all their vessels and juices . i therefore incline to dr. cudworth's opinion , that god uses for these effects the subordinate ministry of some inferiour plastick nature ; as in his works of providence he doth of angels . for the description whereof i refer the reader to his system . secondly , in particular i am difficult to believe , that the bodies of animals can be formed by matter divided and moved by what laws you will or can imagine , without the immediate presidency , direction and regulation of some intelligent being . in the generation or first formation of , suppose the human body , out of ( though not an homogeneous liquor , yet ) a fluid substance , the only material agent or mover is a moderate heat . now how this , by producing an intestine motion in the particles of the matter , which can be conceived to differ in nothing else but figure , magnitude and gravity , should by virtue thereof , not only separate the heterogeneous parts , but assemble the homogeneous into masses or systems , and that not each kind into one mass , but into many and disjoyned ones , as it were so many troups ; and that in each troup the particular particles should take their places , and cast themselves into such a figure ; as for example , the bones being about are formed of various sizes and shapes , so situate and connected , as to be subservient to many hundred intentions and uses , and many of them conspire to one and the same action , this , i say , i cannot by any means conceive . i might instance in all the homogeneous parts of the body , their sites and figures ; and ask by what imaginable laws of motion their bulk , figure , situation and connexion can be made out ? what account can be given of the valves , of the veins and arteries of the heart , and of the veins elsewhere , and of their situation ; of the figure and consistency of all the humours and membranes of the eye , all conspiring and exactly fitted to the use of seeing ; but i have touched upon that already , and shall discourse of it largely afterward . you will ask me who or what is the operator in the formation of the bodies of man and other animals ? i answer , the sensitive soul itself , if it be a spiritual and immaterial substance , as i am inclineable to believe : but if it be material , and consequently the whole animal but a mere machine or automaton , as i can hardly admit , then must we have recourse to a plastick nature . that the soul of brutes is material , and the whole animal , soul and body , but a mere machine is the opinion publickly owned and declared , of des cartes , gassendus , dr. willis and others ; the same is also necessarily consequent upon the doctrine of the peripateticks , viz. that the sensitive soul is educed out of the power of the matter . for nothing can be educed out of the matter , but what was there before , which must be either matter or some modification of it . and therefore they cannot grant it to be a spiritual substance , unless they will assert it to be educed out of nothing . this opinion , i say , i can hardly digest . i should rather think animals to be endued with a lower degree of reason , than that they are mere machines . i could instance in many actions of brutes that are hardly to be accounted for without reason and argumentation ; as that commonly noted of dogs , that running before their masters they will stop at a divarication of the way , till they see which hand their masters will take ; and that when they have gotten a prey , which they fear their masters will take from them , they will run away and hide it , and afterwards return to it ; and many the like actions , which i shall not spend time to relate . should this be true , that beasts were automata or machines , they could have no sense or perception of pleasure or pain , and consequently no cruelty could be exercised towards them ; which is contrary to the doleful significations they make when beaten or tormented , and contrary to the common sense of mankind , all men naturally pitying them as apprehending them to have such a sense and feeling of pain and misery as themselves have ; whereas no man is troubled to see a plant torn , or cut , or stampt , or mangled how you please . besides , having the same members and organs of sense as we have , it is very probable they have the same sensations and perceptions with us . to this des cartes answers or indeed saith , he hath nothing to answer ; but that if they think as well as we , they have an immortal soul as well as we : which is not at all likely , because there is no reason to believe it of some animals without believing it of all , whereas there are many too too imperfect to believe it of them , such as are oysters and sponges and the like . to which i answer that there is no necessity they should be immortal , because it is possible they may be destroyed or annihilated . but i shall not wade further into this controversie , because it is beside my scope , and there hath been as much written of it already as i have to say , by dr. more , dr. cudworth , des cartes , dr. willis and others , pro and con. of the visible works of god and their division . i come now to take a view of the works of the creation , and to observe something of the wisdom of god discernable in the formation of them , in their order and harmony , and in their ends and uses . and first i shall run them over slightly , remarking chiefly what is obvious and exposed to the eyes and notice of the more careless and incurious observer . secondly , i shall select one or two particular pieces , and take a more exact survey of them ; though even in these more will escape our notice than can be discovered by the most diligent scrutiny : for our eyes and senses , however armed or assisted , are too gross to discern the curiosity of the workmanship of nature , or those minute parts by which it acts , and of which bodies are composed ; and our understanding too dark and infirm to discover and comprehend all the ends and uses to which the infinitely wise creator did design them . but before i proceed , being put in mind thereof by the mention of the assistance of our eyes , i cannot omit one general observation concerning the curiosity of the works of nature in comparison of the works of art , which i shall propose in the late bishop of chesters words . the observations which have been made in these latter times by the help of the microscrope , since we had the use and improvement of it , discover a vast difference between natural and artificial things . whatever is natural beheld through that appears exquisitely formed , and adorned with all imaginable elegancy and beauty . there are such inimitable gildings in the smallest seeds of plants , but especially in the parts of animals , in the head or eye of a small fly ; such accuracy , order , and symmetry in the frame of the most minute creatures , a louse , for example , or a mite , as no man were able to conceive without seeing of them . whereas the most curious works of art , the sharpest and finest needle doth appear as a blunt rough bar of iron , coming from the furnace or the forge : the most accurate engravings or embossments seem such rude , bungling and deformed work , as if they had been done with a mattock or a trowel , so vast a difference is there betwixt the skill of nature , and the rudeness and imperfection of art. i might add , that the works of nature the better lights and glasses you use , the more cleaver and exactly formed they appear ; whereas the effects of human art the more curiously they are viewed and examined , the more of deformity they discover . this being premised ; for our more clear and distinct proceeding in our cursory view of the creation , i shall rank the parts of this material and visible world under several heads . bodies are either inanimate or animate . inanimate bodies are either celestial or terrestrial . celestial as the sun , moon and stars : terrestrial are either simple as the four elements , fire , water , earth and air ; or mixt , either imperfectly as the meteors , or more perfectly , as stones , metals , minerals and the like . animate bodies are either such as are endued with a vegetative soul , as plants ; or a sensitive soul , as the bodies of animals , birds , beasts , fishes and insects ; or a rational soul , as the body of man and the vehicles of angels , if any such there be . i make use of this division to comply with the common and received opinion , and for easier comprehension and memory ; though i do not think it agreeable to philosophick verity and accuracy ; but do rather incline to the atomick hypothesis . for these bodies we call elements are not the only ingredients of mixt bodies ; neither are they absolutely simple themselves , as they do exist in the world , the sea-water containing a copious salt manifest to sense ; and both sea and fresh-water sufficing to nourish many species of fish , and consequently containing the various parts of which their bodies are compounded . and i believe there are many species of bodies which the peripateticks call mixt , which are as simple as the elements themselves , as metals , salts , and some sorts of stones . i should therefore with dr. grew and others , rather attribute the various species of inanimate bodies to the divers figures of the minute particles of which they are made up : and the reason why there is a set and constant number of them in the world , none destroyed , nor any new ones produced , i take to be , because the sum of the figures of those minute bodies into which matter was at first divided , is determinate and fixt . . because those minute parts are indivisible , not absolutely , but by any natural force ; so that there neither is nor can be more or fewer of them : for were they divisible into small and diversly figured parts by fire or any other natural agent , the species of nature must be confounded , some might be lost and destroyed , but new ones would certainly be produced ; unless we could suppose , these new diminutive particles should again assemble and marshal themselves into corpuscles of such figures as they compounded before ; which i see no possibility for them to do , without some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to direct them : not that i think these inanimate bodies to consist wholly of one sort of atoms , but that their bulk consists mainly or chiefly of one sort . but whereas it may be objected that metals , ( which of all others seem to be most simple ) may be transmuted one into another , and so the species doth not depend upon the being compounded of atoms of one figure . i answer , i am not fully satisfied of the matter of fact : but if any such transmutation be , possibly all metals may be of one species , and the diversity may proceed from the admixture of different bodies with the principles of the metal . if it be asked , why may not atoms of different species concur to the composition of bodies ? and so though there be but a few sorts of original principles may there not be produced infinite species of compound bodies , as by the various dispositions and combinations of twenty four letters innumerable words may be made up ? i answer because the heterogeneous atoms or principles are not naturally apt to cohere and stick together when they are mingled in the same liquor , as the homogeneous readily do . i do not believe that the species of principles or indivisible particles are exceeding numerous : but possibly the immediate component particles of the bodies of plants and animals may be themselves compounded . of the heavenly bodies . first , for the celestial or heavenly bodies , the equability and constancy of their motions , the certainty of their periods and revolutions , the conveniency of their order and situations argue them to be ordained and governed by wisdom and understanding ; yea so much wisdom as man cannot easily fathom or comprehend . for we see by how much the hypotheses of astronomers are more simple and conformable to reason , by so much do they give a better account of the heavenly motions . it is reported of alphonsus king of aragon , i know not whether truly , that when he saw and considered the many eccentricks , epicycles , epicycles upon epicycles , librations , and contrariety of motions , which were requisite in the old hypothesis to give an account of the celestial phaenomena , he should presume blasphemously to say , that the universe was a bungling piece ; and that if he had been of god's counsel , he could have directed him to have made it better . a speech as rash and ignorant , as daring and prophane . for it was nothing but ignorance of the true process of nature that induced the contrivers of that hypothesis to invent such absurd suppositions , and him to accept them for true , and attribute them to the great author of the heavenly motions . for in the new hypothesis of the modern astronomers , we see most of those absurdities and irregularities rectified and removed , and i doubt not but they would all vanish , could we certainly discover the true method and process of nature in those revolutions . for seeing in those works of nature which we converse with , we constantly find those axioms true , natura non facit circuitus , nature doth not fetch a compass when it may proceed in a streight line ; and natura nec abundat in superfluis , nec deficit in necessariis , nature abounds not in what is superfluous , neither is deficient in what is necessary : we may also rationally conclude concerning the heavenly bodies , seeing there is so much exactness observed in the time of their motions , that they punctually come about in the same periods to the hundredth part of a minute , as may beyond exception be demonstrated by comparing their revolutions , surely there is also used the most simple , facile , and convenient way for the performance of them . among these heavenly bodies ; first , the sun , a vast globe of fire , esteemed by the ancienter and most modest computation above times bigger than the earth , the very life of this inferiour world , without whose salutary and vivifick beams all motion both animal , vital and natural would speedily cease , and nothing be left here below but darkness and death : all plants and animals must needs in a very short time be not only mortified , but together with the surface of land and water frozen as hard as flint or adamant : so that of all the creatures of the world the ancient heathen had most reason to worship him as a god , though no true reason ; because he was but a creature , and not god : and we christians to think that the service of the animals that live upon the earth , and principally man , was one end of his creation ; seeing without him there could no such things have been . this sun , i say , according to the old hypothesis whirled round about the earth daily with incredible celerity , making night and day by his rising and setting ; winter and summer by his access to the several tropicks , creating such a grateful variety of seasons , enlightening all parts of the earth by his beams , and cherishing them by his heat , situate and moved so in respect of this sublunary world , ( and it 's likely also in respect of all the planets about him ) that art and counsel could not have designed either to have placed him better , or moved him more conveniently for the service thereof ; as i could easily make appear by the inconveniences that would follow upon the supposition of any other situation and motion , shews forth the great wisdom of him who so disposed and moved him . secondly , the moon , a body in all probability somewhat like the earth we live upon , by its constant and regular motion helps us to divide our time , reflects the sun beams to us , and so by illuminating the air , takes away in some measure the disconsolate darkness of our winter nights , procures or at least regulates the fluxes and refluxes of the sea , whereby the water is kept in constant motion , and preserved from putrefaction , and so rendred more salutary for the maintenance of its breed , and useful and serviceable for man's conveniencies of fishing and navigation ; not to mention the great influence it is supposed to have upon all moist bodies , and the growth and increase of vegetables and animals : men generally observing the age of the moon in the planting of all kind of trees , sowing of grain , grafting and inoculating , and pruning of fruit-trees , gathering of fruit , cutting of corn or grass ; and thence also making prognosticks of weather , because such observations seem to me uncertain . did this luminary serve to no other ends and uses , as i am perswaded it doth many , especially , to maintain the creatures which in all likelihood breed and inhabit there , yet these were enough to evince it to be the effect and product of divine wisdom and power . thirdly , as for the rest of the planets ; besides their particular uses , which are to us unknown , or merely conjectural , their courses and revolutions , their stations and retrogradations , observed constantly so many ages together in most certain and determinate periods of time , do sufficiently demonstrate that their motions are instituted and governed by counsel , wisdom and understanding . fourthly , the like may be said of the fixt stars whose motions are regular , equal and constant . so that we see nothing in the heavens which argues chance , vanity , or error ; but on the contrary , rule , order and constancy ; the effects and arguments of wisdom : wherefore as cicero excellently concludes , coelestem ergo admirabilem ordinem , incredibilemque constantiam , ex qua conservatio & salus omnium omnis oritur , qui vacare mente putat , noe ipse mentis expers habendus est . : wherefore whosoever thinketh that the admirable order and incredible constancy of the heavenly bodies and their motions , whereupon the preservation and welfare of all things doth depend , is not governed by mind and understanding , he himself is to be accounted void thereof . and again , shall we ( saith he ) when we see an artificial engine , as a sphere , or dial , or the like , at first sight acknowledg , that it is a work of reason and art : cùm autem impetum coeli , admirabili cum celeritate moveri vertique videamus , constantissimè conficientem vicissitudines anniversarias , cum summâ salute & conservatione rerum omnium , dubitare quin ea non solùm ratione fiant , sed excellenti quâdam divinâque ratione : and can we when we see the force of the heavens moved and whirled about with admirable celerity , most constantly finishing its anniversary vicissitudes , to the eminent welfare and preservation of all things , doubt at all that these things are performed not only by reason , but by a certain excellent and divine reason . to these things i shall add an observation , which i must confess my self to have borrowed of the honourable person more than once mentioned already , that even the eclipses of the sun and moon , though they be frightful things to the superstitious vulgar , and of ill influence on mankind , if we may believe the no less superstitious astrologers , yet to knowing men , that can skilfully apply them , they are of great use , and such as common heads could never have imagined : since not only they may on divers occasions help to settle chronology , and rectifie the mistakes of historians that writ many ages ago ; but which is , though a less wonder , yet of greater utility , they are ( as things yet stand ) necessary to define with competent certainty , the longitude of places or points on the terraqueous globe , which is a thing of very great moment not only to geography , but to the most useful and important art of navigation . to which may be added , which i shall hereafter mention , that they serve to demonstrate the spherical roundness of the earth . so that i may well conclude with the psalmist , psalm . . the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy work. of terrestrial inanimate simple bodies . i come now to consider the terrestrial bodies ; i shall say nothing of the whole body of the earth in general , because i reserve that as one of the particulars i shall more carefully and curiously examine . terrestrial bodies according to our method before propounded are either inanimate or animate , and the inanimate either simple or mixt : simple , as the four elements , fire , water , earth , and air ; i call these elements in compliance ( as i said before ) with the vulgarly received opinion ; not that i think them to be the principles or component ingredients of all other sublunary bodies : i might call them the four great aggregates of bodies of the same species , or four sorts of bodies of which there are great aggregates . these notwithstanding they are endued with contrary qualities , and are continually encroaching one upon another , yet they are so balanced and kept in such an aequilibrium , that neither prevaileth over other , but what one gets in one place it loseth in another . first , fire cherisheth and reviveth by its heat , without which all things would be torpid and without motion , nay without fire no life ; it being the vital flame residing in the blood that keeps the bodily machine in motion , and renders it a fit organ for the soul to work by . the uses of fire ( i do not here speak of the peripateticks elementary fire in the concave of the moon , which is but a mere figment , but our ordinary culinary ) are in a manner infinite for dressing and preparing of victuals baked , boyled and roast ; for melting and refining of metals and minerals ; for the fusion of glass , a material whose uses are so many that it is not easie to enumerate them , it serving us to make windows for our houses , drinking vessels , vessels to contain and preserve all sorts of fermented liquors , destilled waters , spirits , oils , extracts , and other chymical preparations , as also vessels to destil and prepare them in ; for looking glasses , spectacles , microscopes and telescopes , whereby our sight is not only relieved , but wonderfully assisted to make rare discoveries : for making all sorts of instruments for husbandry , mechanick arts and trades , all sorts of arms or weapons of war defensive and offensive ; for fulminating engines ; for burning of lime , baking of bricks , tiles , and all sorts of potters vessels or earthen ware ; for casting and forging metalline vessels and utensils ; for destillations , and all chymical operations hinted before in the use of glass . for affording us light for any work or exercise in winter nights ; for digging in mines and dark carvens : and finally by its comfortable warmth securing us from the injuries of cold , or relieving when we have been bitten and benummed with it . a subject or utensil of so various and inexplicable use , who could have invented and formed , but an infinitely wise and powerful efficient ? secondly , the air serves us and all animals to breath in , containing the fewel of that vital flame we spake of , without which it would speedily languish and go out . so necessary is it for us and other land-animals , that without the use of it we could live but very few minutes : nay fishes and other water-animals cannot abide without the use of it : for if you put fish into a vessel of a narrow mouth full of water , they will live and swim there not only days and months but even years . but if with your hand or any other cover you stop the vessel so as wholly to exclude the air , or interrupt its communication with the water , they will suddenly be suffocated ; as rondeletius affirms he often experimented : if you fill not the vessel up to the top , but leave some space empty for the air to take up , and then clap your hand upon the mouth of the vessel ; the fishes will presently contend which shall get uppermost in the water , that so they may enjoy the open air ; which i have also observed them to do in a pool of water that hath been almost dry in the summer-time because the air that insinuated itself into the water did not suffice them for respiration . neither is it less necessary for insects than it is for other animals but rather more , these having more air-vessels for their bulk by far than they , there being many orifices on each side their bodies for the admission of air , which if you stop with oil or hony , the insect presently dies , and revives no more . this was an observation of the ancients , though the reason of it they did not understand ( oleo illito insecta omnia exanimantur . plin. ) which was nothing but the intercluding of the air ; for though you put oil upon them , if you put it not upon or obstruct those orifices therewith whereby they draw the air , they suffer nothing : if you obstruct only some and not others , the parts which are near and supplied with air from thence are by and by convulsed and shortly relaxed and deprived of motion , the rest that were untoucht still retaining it . nay more than all this , plants themselves have a kind of respiration , being furnished with plenty of vessels for the derivation of air to all their parts , as hath been observed , nay first discovered by that great and curious naturalist malpighius . another use of the air is to sustain the flight of birds and insects . moreover by its gravity it raises the water in pumps , siphons and other engines , and performs all those feats which former philosophers through ignorance of the efficient cause attributed to a final , namely natures abhorrence of a vacuity or empty space . the elastick or expansive faculty of the air , whereby it dilates itself , when compressed ( indeed this lower region of it by reason of the weight of the superincumbent is always in a compressed state ) hath been made use of in the common weather-glasses , in wind guns , and in several ingenious water-works , and doubtless hath a great interest in many natural effects and operations . against what we have said of the necessity of the air for the maintenance of the vital flame , it may be objected , that the foetus in the womb lives ; its heart pulsses ; and its blood circulates ; and yet it draws in no air , neither hath the air any access to it . to which i answer , that it doth receive air so much as is sufficient for it in its present state from the maternal blood by the placenta uterina , or the cotyledones . this opinion generally propounded , viz. that the respiration of the dam , did serve the foetus also ; or supply sufficient air to it , i have met with in books , but the explicit notion of it i owe to my learned and worthy friend dr. edward hulse , which comparing with mine own anatomical observations , i found so consonant to reason , and highly probable , that i could not but yield a firm assent to it . i say then , that the chief use of the circulation of the blood through the cotyledones of a calf in the womb , ( which i have often dissected ) and by analogy through the placenta uterina in an humane foetus , seems to be the impregnation of the blood with air ; for the feeding of the vital flame . for if it were only for nutrition , what need of two such great arteries to convey the blood thither ? it would ( one might rationally think ) be more likely , that as in the abdomen of every animal , so here there should have been some lacteal veins formed , beginning from the placenta , or cotyledons , which concurring in one common ductus , should at last empty themselves into the vena cava . secondly , i have observed in a calf , the umbilical vessels to terminate in certain bodies divided into a multitude of carneous papillae , as i may so call them , which are received into so many sockets of the cotyledons growing on the womb ; which carneous papillae may without force or laceration be drawn out of those sockets . now these papillae do well resemble the aristae or radii of a fishes gills , and very probably have the same use to take in the air. so that the maternal blood which flows to the cotyledons , and encircles these papillae , communicates by them to the blood of the foetus , the air wherewith it self is impregnate ; as the water flowing about the carneous radii of the fishes gills doth the air that is lodged therein to them . thirdly , that the maternal blood flows most copiously to the placenta uterina in women , is manifest from the great hemorrhagy that succeeds the separation thereof at the birth . fourthly , after the stomach and intestines are formed , the foetus seems to take in its whole nourishment by the mouth ; there being always found in the stomach of a calf , plenty of the liquor contained in the amnios wherein he swims , and faeces in his intestines , and abundance of urine in the allantoides . so that the foetus in the womb doth live as it were the life of a fish. lastly , why else should there be such an instant necessity of respiration so soon as ever the foetus is fallen off from the womb ? this way we may give a facile and very probable account of it , to wit , because receiving no more communications of air from its dam or mother , it must needs have a speedy supply from without , or else extinguish and die for want of it : being not able to live longer without air at its first birth , than it can do afterward . and here methinks appears a necessity of bringing in the agency of some superintendent intelligent being , be it a plastick nature , or what you will. for what else should put the diaphragm , and all the muscles serving to respiration in motion all of a sudden so soon as ever the foetus is brought forth ? why could they not have rested as well as they did in the womb ? what aileth them that they must needs bestir themselves to get in air to maintain the creatures life ? why could they not patiently suffer it to die ? that the air of it self could not rush in is clear ; for that on the contrary there is required a great force to remove the incumbent air , and make room for the external to enter . you will say the spirits do at this time flow to the organs of respiration ; the diaphragm and other muscles which concur to that action , and move them . but what rouses the spirits which were quiescent during the continuance of the foetus in the womb ? here is no appearing impellent but the external air , the body suffering no change but of place , out of its close and warm prison into the open and cool air. but how or why that should have such influence upon the spirits , as to drive them into those muscles electively , i am not subtil enough to discern . thirdly , water is one part , and that not the least of our sustenance , and that affords the greatest share of matter in all productions ; containing in it the principles or minute component particles of all bodies . to speak nothing of those inferiour uses of washing and bathing , dressing and preparing of victuals . but if we shall consider the great conceptacula and congregations of water , and the distribution of it all over the dry land in springs and rivers ; there will occur abundant arguments of wisdom and understanding . the sea , what infinite variety of fishes doth it nourish ? psalm . . in the verse next to my text. the earth is full of thy riches . so is this great and wide sea , wherein are things creeping innumerable , both small and great beasts , &c. how doth it exactly compose itself to a level or equal superficies , and with the earth make up one spherical roundness ? how doth it constantly observe its ebbs and flows , its spring and nepe-tides , and still retain its saltness so convenient for the maintenance of its inhabitants ? serving also the uses of man for navigation , and the convenience of carriage . that it should be defined by shores and strands and limits , i mean at first , when it was natural to it to overflow and stand above the earth . all these particulars declare abundance of wisdom in their primitive constitution . this last the psalmist takes notice of in the th , th , th , and th verses of this psalm . speaking of the earth at the first creation , he saith , thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment , the waters stood above the mountains . at thy rebuke they fled , at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . ( the mountains ascend , the valleys descend ) unto the place thou hast prepared for them . thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over : that they turn not again to cover the earth . again , the great use and convenience , the beauty and variety of so many springs and fountains , so many brooks and rivers , so many lakes and standing pools of water , and these so scattered and dispersed all the earth over ; that no great part of it is destitute of them , without which it must without a supply other ways be desolate and void of inhabitants ; afford abundant arguments of wisdom and counsel . that springs should break forth on the sides of mountains most remote from the sea. that there should way be made for rivers through straits and rocks , and subterraneous vaults , so that one would think that nature had cut a way on purpose to derive the water , which else would overflow and drown whole countries . that the water passing through the veins of the earth , should be rendred fresh and potable , which it cannot be by any percolations we can make , but the saline particles will pass through a tenfold filtre . that in some places there should spring forth metallick and mineral waters , and hot baths , and these so constant and permanent for many ages ; so convenient for divers medicinal intentions and uses , the causes of which things , or the means and methods by which they are performed , have not been as yet certainly discovered ; how can we reasonably deny that they are the products and effects of profound counsel and understanding ? lastly , the earth , which is the basis and support of all animals and plants , and affords them the hard and solid part of their bodies , yielding us food and sustenance and partly also cloathing . how variously is the surface of it distinguished into hills , and valleys , and plains , and high mountains affording pleasant prospects ? how curiously cloathed and adorned with the grateful verdure of herbs and stately trees , either dispersed and scattered singly , or as it were assembled in woods and groves , and all these beautified and illustrated with elegant flowers and fruits , quorum omnium incredibilis multitudo , insatiabili varietate distinguitur , as tully saith . this also shews forth to them that consider it both the power and wisdom of god : so that we may conclude with solomon prov. , . the lord by wisdom hath founded the earth , by understanding hath he established the heavens . but now , if we pass from simple to mixt bodies , we shall still find more matter of admiration and argument of wisdom . of these we shall first consider those they call imperfectly mixt , or meteors . of meteors . as first of all rain , which is nothing else but water by the heat of the sun divided into very small invisible parts , ascending in the air , till encountring the cold , it be by degrees condensed into clouds and descends in drops ; this though it be exhaled from the salt sea , yet by this natural destillation is rendred fresh and potable , which our artificial destillations have hitherto been hardly able to effect ; notwithstanding the eminent use it would be of to navigators , and the rewards promised to those that should resolve that problem of destilling fresh water out of salt. that the clouds should be so carried about by the winds , as to be almost equally dispersed and distributed , no part of the earth wanting convenient showers , unless when it pleaseth god for the punishment of a nation to withhold rain by a special interposition of his providence ; or if any land wants rain , they have a supply some other way , as the land of egypt , though there seldom falls any rain there , yet hath abundant recompence made it by the annual overflowing of the river . this distribution of the clouds and rain is to me ( i say ) a great argument of providence and divine disposition ; for else i do not see but why there might be in some lands continual successive droughts for many years , till they were quite depopulated ; in others as lasting rains , till they were overflown and drowned ; and these , if the clouds moved casually , often happening ; whereas since the ancientest records of history we do not read or hear of any such droughts or inundations , unless perhaps that of cyprus , wherein there fell no rain there for thirty six years , till the island was almost quite deserted , in the reign of constantine . again , if we consider the manner of the rains descent , destilling down gradually and by drops , which is most convenient for the watering of the earth , whereas if it should fall down in a continued stream like a river , it would gall the ground , wash away plants by the roots , overthrow houses , and greatly incommode , if not suffocate animals ; if , i say , we consider these things and many more that might be added , we might in this respect also cry out with the apostle , o the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of god! secondly , another meteor is the wind ; which how many uses it doth serve to is not easie to enumerate , but many it doth : viz. to ventilate and break the air , and dissipate noysom and contagious vapors , which otherwise stagnating might occasion many diseases in animals ; and therefore it is an observation concerning our native country , anglia ventosa , si non ventosa venenosa : to transfer the clouds from place to place , for the more commodious watering of the earth . to temper the excesses of the heat , as they find , who in brasil , new spain , the neighbouring islands , and other the like countries near the equator reap the benefit of the breezes . to fill the sails of ships , and carry them on their voyages to remote countries ; which of what eminent advantage it is to mankind , for the procuring and continuing of trade and mutual commerce between the most distant nations , the illustrating every corner of the earth , and the perfecting geography and natural history , is apparent to every man. to this may be added the driving about of windmills for grinding of corn , making of oyl , draining of pools , &c. that it should seldom or never be so violent and boisterous , as to overturn houses ; yea whole cities ; to tear up trees by the roots , and prostrate woods ; to drive the sea over the lower countries ; as were it the effect of chance , or meer natural causes not moderated by a superiour power , it would in all likelihood often do . all these things declare the wisdom and goodness of him who bringeth the winds out of his treasures . of inanimate mixt bodies . i proceed now to such inanimate bodies as are called perfectè mixta , perfectly mixt , improperly enough , they being many of them ( for ought i know ) as simple as those they call elements . these are stones , metals , minerals and salts , in stones , which one would think were a neglected genus , what variety ? what beauty and elegancy ? what constancy in their temper and consistency , in their figures and colours ? i shall speak of first some notable qualities wherewith some of them are endued . secondly , the remarkable uses they are of to us . the qualities i shall instance in are first colour , which in some of them is most lively , sparkling , and beautiful ; the carbuncle or rubine shining with red , the sapphire with blue , the emerauld with green , the topaz or chrysolite of the ancients with a yellow or gold colour , the amethyst as it were tinctured with wine , the opal varying its colours like changeable taffaty , as it is diversly exposed to the light. secondly , hardness , wherein some stones exceed all other bodies , and among them the adamant all other stones , being exalted to that degree thereof , that art in vain endeavors to counterfeit it , the factitious stones of chymists in imitation being easily detected by any ordinary lapidist . thirdly , figure , many of them shoot into regular figures , as crystal and bastard diamonds into hexagonal ; others into those that are more elegant and compounded , as those formed in imitation of the shels of testaceous fishes of all sorts , sharks teeth and vertebres , &c. if these be originally stones , or primary productions of nature in imitation of shels and fishes bones , and not the shels and bones themselves petrified , as we have somtimes thought . some have a kind of vegetation and resemblance of plants , as corals , pori and fungites , which grow upon the rocks like shrubs : to which i might add our ordinary star-stones and trochites , which i look upon as a sort of rock-plants . secondly , for the uses ; some serve for building and many sorts of vessels and utensils ; for pillars and statues and other carved works in relieve , for the temples , ornament of palaces , portico's , piazzas , conduits , &c. as freestone and marble ; some to burn into lime as chalk and limestone : some with the mixture of beriglia or kelp to make glass , as that the venetians call cuogolo , and common flints which serve also to strike fire ; some to cover houses as slates ; some for marking as morochthus , and the forementioned chalk , which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , serving moreover for manuring land , and some medicinal uses ; some to make vessels of which will endure the fire ; as that found in the country of chiavenna near plurs . to these useful stones i might add the warming-stone , digged in cornwal , which being once well heated at the fire retains its warmth a great while , and hath been found to give ease and relief in several pains and diseases , particularly that of the internal haemorrhoids . i might also take notice that some stones are endued with an electrical or attractive virtue . i might spend much time in the discoursing of the most strange and unaccountable nature and powers of the loadstone , a subject which hath exercised the wits and pens of the most acute and ingenious philosophers ; and yet the hypotheses which they have invented to give an account of its admirable phoenomena seem to me lame and unsatisfactory . what can we say of the subtlety , activity , and penetrancy of its effluvia , which no obstacle can stop or repel , but they will make their way through all sorts of bodies , firm and fluid , dense and rare , heavy and light , pellucid and opake : nay they will pass through a vacuity or empty space , at least devoid of air and any other sensible body . it s attractive power of iron was known to the ancients , its verticity and direction to the poles of the earth is of later invention : which of how infinite advantage it hath been to these two or three last ages , the great improvement of navigation and advancement of trade and commerce by rendring the remotest countries easily accessible , the noble discovery of a vast continent or new world , besides a multitude of unknown kingdoms and islands , the resolving experimentally those ancient problems of the spherical roundness of the earth ; of the being of antipodes , of the habitableness of the torrid zone , and the rendring the whole terraqueous globe circumnavigable , do abundantly demonstrate ; whereas formerly they were wont to coast it , and creep along the shores , scarce daring to venture out of the ken of land , when they did having no other guide but the cynosura or pole-star and those near it , and in cloudy weather none at all . as for metals , they are so many ways useful to mankind , and those uses so well known to all , that it would be lost labor to say any thing of them : only it is remarkable , that those which are of most frequent and necessary use , as iron , brass and lead , are the most common and plentiful : others that are more rare , may better be spared , yet are they thereby qualified to be made the common measure and standard of the value of all other commodities , and so to serve for coin or money , to which use they have been employed by all civil nations in all ages . of these gold is remarkable for its admirable ductility and ponderosity , wherein it excels all other bodies hitherto known . i shall only add concerning metals , that they do pertinaciously resist all transmutation ; and though one would sometimes think they were turned into a different substance , yet do they but as it were lurk under a larva or vizzard , and may be reduced again into their natural form and complexions , in despight of all the tortures of vulcan or corrosive waters . note , that this was written above thirty years since , when i thought i had reason to distrust what ever had then been reported or written to affirm the transmutation of metals one into another . i shall omit the consideration of other minerals , and of salts and earths , because i have nothing to say of their uses , but only such as refer to man , which i cannot affirm to have been the sole or primary end of the formation of them . indeed to speak in general of these terrestrial inanimate bodies , they having no such organization of parts as the bodies of animals , nor any so intricate variety of texture , but that their production may plausibly be accounted for by an hypothesis of matter divided into minute particles or atoms naturally indivisible , of various but a determinate number of figures , and perhaps also differing in magnitude , and these moved , and continually kept in motion according to certain established laws or rules ; we cannot so clearly discover the uses for which they were created , but may probably conclude that among other ends they were made for those for which they serve us and other animals . it is here to be noted , that according to our hypothesis , the number of the atomes of each several kind that is of the same figure and magnitude is not nearly equal ; but there be infinitely more of some species than of others , as of those that compound those vast aggregates of air , water , and earth , more abundantly than of such as make up metals and minerals : the reason whereof may probably be , because those are necessary to the life and being of man and all other animals , and therefore must be always at hand ; these only useful to man , and serving rather his conveniences than necessities . the reason why i affirm the minute component particles of bodies to be naturally indivisible by any agent we can employ , even fire it self ( which is the only catholick dissolvent , other menstruums being rather instruments than efficients in all solutions , apt by reason of the figure and smalness of their parts to cut and divide other bodies , ( as wedges cleave wood ) when actuated by fire or its heat , which else would have no efficacy at all ; as wedges have not unless driven by a beetle : ) the reason , i say , i have already given ; i shall now instance in a body whose minute parts appear to be indissoluble by the force of fire , and that is common water , which destill , boil , circulate , work upon how you will by fire , you can only dissolve it into vapour , which when the motion ceases easily returns into water again ; vapour being nothing else but the minute parts thereof by heat agitated and separated one from another . for another instance , some of the most learned and experienced chymists do affirm quicksilver to be intransmutable , and therefore call it liquor aeternus . and i am of opinion that the same holds of all simple bodies , that their component particles are indissoluble , by any natural agent . of vegetables or plants . i have now done with inanimate bodies both simple and mixt. the animate are first , such as are endued only with a vegetative soul , and therefore commonly called vegetables or plants ; of which if we consider either their stature and shape , or their age and duration , we shall find it wonderful . for why should some plants rise up to a great height , others creep upon the ground , which perhaps may have equal seeds , nay the lesser plant many times the greater seed ? why should each particular so observe its kind , as constantly to produce the same leaf for consistency , figure , division , and edging ; and bring forth the same kind of flower , and fruit , and seed , and that though you translate it into a soil which naturally puts forth no such kind of plant , so that it is some * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth effect this or rather some intelligent plastick nature , as we have before intimated . for what account can be given of the determination of the growth and magnitude of plants from mechanical principles , of matter moved without the presidency and guidance of some superiour agent ? why may not trees grow up as high as the clouds or vapours ascend , or if you say the cold of the superiour air checks them , why may they not spread and extend their lateral branches so far till their distance from the center of gravity depress them to the earth , be the tree never so high ? how comes it to pass that though by culture and manure they may be highly improved , and augmented to a double , treble , nay some a much greater proportion in magnitude of all their parts ; yet is this advance restrained within certain limits ? there is a maximum quod sic which they cannot exceed . you can by no culture or art extend a fennel stalk to the stature and bigness of an oak . then why should some be very long lived , others only annual or biennial ? how can we imagine that any laws of motion can determine the situation of the leaves , to come forth by pairs , or alternately , or circling the stalk ; the flowers to grow singly , or in company and tusts , to come forth the bosoms of the leaves and branches , or on the tops of branches and stalks ; the figure of the leaves , that they should be divided into so many jags or escallops and curiously indented round the edges , as also of the flower-leaves , their number and site , the figure and number of the stamina and their apices , the figure of the style and seed-vessel , and the number of cels into which it is divided . that all this be done , and all these parts duly proportioned one to another , there seems to be necessary some intelligent plastick nature , which may understand and regulate the whole oeconomy of the plant : for this cannot be the vegetative soul , because that is material and divisible together with the body : which appears in that a branch cut off of a plant will take root and grow and become a perfect plant it self , as we have already observed . i had almost forgotten the complication of the seed-leaves of some plants in the seed , which is so strange that one cannot believe it to be done by matter however moved by any laws or rules imaginable . some of them being so close plaited , and straitly folded up and thrust together within the membranes of the seed , that it would puzzle a man to imitate it , and yet none of the folds sticking or growing together ; so that they may easily be taken out of their cases , and spread and extended even with ones fingers . secondly , if we consider each particular part of a plant , we shall find it not without its end or use : the roots for its stability and drawing nourishment from the earth . the fibres to contain and convey the sap. besides which there is a large sort of vessels to contain the proper and specific juice of the plant : and others to carry air for such a kind of respiration as it needeth ; of which we have already spoken . the outer and inner bark in trees serve to defend the trunk and boughs from the excesses of heat and cold and drought , and to convey the sap for the annual augmentation of the tree . for in truth every tree may in some sence be said to be an annual plant , both leaf , flower and fruit proceeding from the coat that was superinduced over the wood the last year , which coat also never beareth any more , but together with the old wood serves as a form or block to sustain the succeeding annual coat . the leaves before the gemma or bud be explicated to embrace and defend , the flower and fruit , which is even then perfectly formed ; afterwards to preserve the branches , flowers and fruit from the injuries of the summer sun , which would too much parch and dry them , if they lay open and exposed to its beams without any shelter ; the leaves i say qualifie and contemper the heat , and serve also to hinder the too hasty evaporation of the moisture about the root ; not to mention the pleasant and delectable , cooling and refreshing shade they afford in the summer time ; which was very much esteemed by the inhabitants of hot countries , who always took great delight and pleasure to sit in the open air under shady trees : hence that expression so often repeated in scripture , of every mans sitting under his own vine , and under his own fig-tree , where also they used to eat ; as appears by abrahams entertaining the angels under a tree , and standing by them when they did eat . gen. . . moreover the leaves of plants are very beautiful and ornamental . that there is great pulchritude and comliness of proportion in the leaves , flowers and fruits of plants , is attested by the general verdict of mankind , as dr. more and others well observe . the adorning and beautifying of temples and buildings in all ages , is an evident and undeniable testimony of this . for what is more ordinary with architects than the taking in leaves and flowers and fruitage for the garnishing of their work ; as the roman the leaves of acanthus sat . and the jewish of palm . trees and pomegranates ; and these more frequently than any of the five regular solids , as being more comly and pleasant to behold . if any man shall object , that comliness of proportion and beauty is but a meer conceit , and that all things are alike handsom to some men who have as good eyes as others ; and that this appears by the variation of fashions , which doth so alter mens fancies , that what erewhile seemed very handsom and comly , when it is once worn out of fashion appears very absurd , uncouth and ridiculous . to this i answer , that custom and use doth much in those things where little of proportion and symmetry shew themselves , or which are alike comly and beautiful , to disparage the one , and commend the other . but there are degrees of things ; for ( that i may use * dr. mores words ) i dare appeal to any man that is not sunk into so forlorn a pitch of degeneracy that he is as stupid to these things as the basest of beasts , whether , for example , a rightly cut tetraedrum , cube or icosaedrum have no more pulchritude in them than any rude broken stone , lying in the field or high-ways ; or to name other solid figures , which though they be not regular properly so called , yet have a settled idea and nature , as a cone , sphere , or cylinder , whether the sight of those do not more gratifie the minds of men , and pretend to more elegancy of shape than those rude cuttings or chippings of freestone that fall from the masons hands , and serve for nothing but to fill up the middle of the wall , as fit to be hid from the eyes of men for their ugliness . and therefore it is obvable , that if nature shape any thing but near to this geometrical accuracy , that we take notice of it with much content and pleasure , and greedily gather and treasure it up . as if it be but exactly round , as those spherical stones found in cuba , and some also in our own land , or have but its sides parallel , as those rhomboideal selenites found near st. ives in huntington shire , and many other places in england . whereas ordinary stones of rude and uncertain figures we pass by , and take no notice of at all . but though the figures of these bodies be pleasing and agreable to our minds , yet ( as we have already observed ) those of the leaves , flowers and fruits of trees , more . and it is remarkable , that in the circumscription and complication of many leaves , flowers , fruits , and seeds nature affects a regular figure . of a pentagonal or quincuncial disposition sir tho. brown of norwich produces several examples in his discourse about the quincunx . and doubtless instances might be given in other regular figures , were men but observant . the flowers serve to cherish and defend the first and tender rudiments of the fruit : i might also add the masculine or prolifick seed contained in the chives or apices of the stamina . these beside the elegancy of their figures are many of them endued with splendid and lovely colours , and likewise most grateful and fragrant odours . indeed such is the beauty and lustre of some flowers , that our saviour saith of the lilies of the field ( which some not without reason fuppose to have been tulips ) that solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these . and it is observed by * spigelius , that the art of the most skilful painter cannot so mingle and temper his colours , as exactly to imitate or counterfeit the native ones of the flowers of vegetables . as for the seeds of plants , * dr. more esteems it an evident sign of divine providence , that every kind hath its seed . for it being no necessary result of the motion of the matter ( as the whole contrivance of the plant indeed is not ) and it being of so great consequence that they have seed for the continuance and propagation of their own species , and also for the gratifying mans art , industry and necessities ( for much of husbandry and gardening lies in this ) it cannot but be an act of counsel to furnish the several kinds of plants with their seeds . now the seed being so necessary for the maintenance and increase of the several species , it is worthy the observation , what care is taken to secure and preserve it , being in some doubly and trebly defended . as for instance , in the walnut , almond and plums of all sorts , we have first a thick pulpy covering , then a hard shell , within which is the seed enclosed in a double membrane . in the nutmeg another tegument is added besides all these , viz. the mace within the hard shell immediately inveloping the kernel . neither yet doth the exterior pulp of the fruit or pericarpium serve only for the defence and security of the seed , whilst it hangs upon the plant : but after it is mature and faln upon the earth , for the stercoration of the soil , and promotion of the growth , though not the first germination of the seminal plant. hence ( as * petrus de crescentiis tells us ) husbandmen to make their vines bear , manure them with vine-leaves , or the husks of expressed grapes , and that they observe those to be most fruitful , which are so manured with their own : which observation holds true also in all other trees and herbs . but besides this use of the pulp or pericarpium for the guard and benefit of the seed , it serves also by a secondary intention of nature in many fruits for the food and sustenance of man and other animals . another thing worthy the nothing in seeds , and argumentative of providence and design , is that pappose plumage growing upon the tops of some of them , whereby they are capable of being wafted with the wind , and by that means scattered and disseminated far and wide . furthermore most seeds having in them a seminal plant perfectly formed , as the young is in the womb of animals , the elegant complication thereof in some species is a very pleasant and admirable spectacle ; so that no man that hath a soul in him can imagine or believe it was so formed and folded up without wisdom and providence . but of this i have spoken already . lastly , the immense smalness of some seeds , not to be seen by the naked eye , so that the number of seeds produced at once in some one plant may amount to a million , is a convincing argument of the infinite understanding and art of the former of them . and it is remarkable that such mosses as grow upon walls , the roofs of houses and other high places , have seeds so excessively small , that when shaken out of their vessels they appear like vapor or smoak , so that they may either ascend of themselves , or by an easie impulse of the wind be raised up to the tops of houses , walls or rocks : and we need not wonder how the mosses got thither , or imagine they sprung up spontaneously there . i might also take notice of many other particulars concerning vegetables , as , first , that because they are designed for the food of animals , therefore nature hath taken more extraordinary care and made more abundant provision for their propagation and increase ; so that they are multiplied and propagated not only by the seed , but many also by the root , producing off sets or creeping under ground , many by strings or wires running above ground , as strawberry and the like , some by slips or cuttings , and some by several of these ways . secondly , that some sorts of plants , as vines , all sorts of pulse , hops , briony , all promiferous herbs , pumpions , melons , gourds . cucumbers , and divers other species , that are weak and unable to raise or support themselves , are either endued with a faculty of twining about others that are near , or else furnished with claspers and tendrels , whereby as it were with hands they catch hold of them and so ramping upon trees , shrubs , hedges or poles , they mount up to a great height , and secure themselves and their fruit. thirdly , that others are armed with prickles and thorns , to secure them from the browsing of beasts , as also to shelter others that grow under them . moreover they are hereby rendred very useful to man , as if designed by nature to make both quick and dead hedges and fences , the great naturalist pliny , hath given an ingenious account of the providence and design of nature in thus arming and fencing them in these words . inde ( speaking of nature ) excogitavit aliquas aspectu hispidas , tactu truces , ut tantùm non vocem ipsius naturae fingentis illas , rationémque reddentis exaudire videamur , ne se depascat avida quadrupes , ne procaces manus rapiant , ne neglecta vestigia obterant , ne insidens ales infringat ; his muniendo aculeis telisque armando , remediis ut salva ac tuta sint . ità hoc quoque quod in iis odimus hominum causâ excogitatum est . as for the signatures of plants , or the notes impressed upon them as indices of their virtues , though * some lay great stress upon them , accounting them , strong arguments to prove that some understanding principle is the highest original of the works of nature ; as indeed they were , could it certainly be made appear that there were such marks designedly set upon them ; because all that i find mentioned and collected by authors , seem to me to be rather fancied by men , than designed by nature to signifie or point out any such vertues or qualities as they would make us believe , i have elsewhere , i think upon good grounds , rejected them ; and finding no reason as yet to alter my opinion , i shall not further insist on them . of bodies endued with a sensitive soul , or animals . i proceed now to the consideration of animate bodies indued with a sensitive soul , called animals . of these i shall only make some general observations , not curiously consider the parts of each particular species , save only as they serve for instances or examples . first of all , because it is the great design of providence to maintain and continue every species , i shall take notice of the great care and abundant provision that is made for the securing this end. quanta ad eam rem vis , ut in suo quaeque genere permaneat ? cic. why can we imagine all creatures should be made male and female but to this purpose ? why should there be implanted in each sex such a vehement and inexpugnable appetite of copulation ? why in viviparous animals , in the time of gestation should the nourishment be carried to the embryon in the womb , which at other times goeth not that way ? when the young is brought forth , how comes all the nourishment then to be transferred from the womb to the breasts or paps , leaving its former channel , the dam at such time being for the most part lean and ilfavoured ? here i cannot omit one very remarkable observation i find in cicero . atque ut intelligamus ( saith he ) nihil horum esse fortuitum , sed haec omnia providae solertisque naturae , quae multiplices foetus procreant , ut sues , ut canes , his mammarum data est multitudo , quas easdem paucas habent eae bestiae quae pauca gignunt . that we may understand that none of these things ( he had been speaking of ) is fortuitous , but that all are the effects of provident and sagacious nature , multiparous quadrupeds , as dogs , as swine , are furnished with a multitude of paps : whereas those beasts which bring forth few have but a few . that flying creatures of the greater sort , that is birds should all lay eggs , and none bring forth live young , is a manifest argument of divine providence , designing thereby their preservation and security ; that there might be the more plenty of them ; and that neither the birds of prey , the serpent , nor the fowler should straiten their generations too much . for if they had been viviparous , the burthen of their womb , if they had brought forth any competent number at a time , had been so great and heavy , that their wings would have failed them , and they became an easie prey to their enemies : or if they had brought but one or two at a time , they would have been troubled all the year long with feeding their young , or bearing them in their womb. * dr. more . this mention of feeding their young puts me in mind of two or three considerable observations referring thereto . first , seeing it would be for many reasons inconvenient for birds to give suck , and yet no less inconvenient if not destructive to the chicken upon exclusion all of a sudden to make so great a change in its diet , as to pass from liquid to hard food , before the stomach be gradually consolidated and by use strengthened and habituated to grind and concoct it , and its tender and pappy flesh , fitted to be nourished by such strong and solid diet ; and before the bird be by little and little accustomed to use its bill , and gather it up , which at first it doth but very slowly and imperfectly ; therefore nature hath provided a large yolk in every egg ; a great part whereof remaineth after the chicken is hatch'd , and is taken up and enclosed in its belly , and by a channel made on purpose received by degrees into the guts , and serves instead of milk to nourish the chick for a considerable time ; which nevertheless mean while feeds it self by the mouth a little at a time , and gradually more and more , as it gets a perfecter ability and habit of gathering up its meat , and its stomach is strengthen'd to macerate and concoct it , and its flesh hardened and fitted to be nourished by it . secondly , that birds which feed their young in the nest , though in all likelyhood they have no ability of counting the number of them , should yet , ( though they bring but one morsel of meat at a time , and have not fewer ( it may be ) than seven or eight young in the nest together , which at the return of their dams , do all at once with equal greediness , hold up their heads and gape , ) not omit or forget one of them , but feed them all ; which , unless they did carefully observe , and retain in memory which they had fed , which not , were impossible to be done ; this i say , seems to me most strange and admirable , and beyond the possibility of a meer machine to perform . thirdly , the marvellous speedy growth of birds that are hatched in nests , and fed by the old ones there , till they be fledg'd and come almost to their full bigness ; at which perfection they arrive within the short term of about one fortnight , seems to me an argument of providence designing thereby their preservation , that they might not lie long in a condition exposed to the ravine of any vermine that may find them , being utterly unable to escape or shift for themselves . another and no less effectual argument may be taken from the care and providence used for the hatching and rearing their young and first , they search our a secret and quiet place , where they may be secure and undisturbed in their incubation : then they make themselves nests , every one after his kind , that so their eggs and young may lie soft and warm , and their exclusion and growth be promoted . these nests some of them so elegant and artificial , that it is hard for man to imitate them and make the like . i have seen nests of an indian bird so artificially composed of the fibres , i think , of some roots , so curiously interwoven and platted together as is admirable to behold : which nests they hang on the ends of the twigs of trees over the water , to secure their eggs and young from the ravage of apes and monkeys , and other beasts that might else prey upon them . after they have laid their eggs , how diligently and patiently do they sit upon them till they be hatched , scarce affording themselves time to go off to get them meat ? nay with such an ardent and impetuous desire of sitting are they inspired , that if you takeaway all their eggs , they will sit upon an empty nest : and yet one would think that sitting were none of the most pleasant works . after their young are hatcht for some time they do almost constantly brood them under their wings , lest the cold , and sometimes perhaps the heat , should harm them . all this while also they labor hard to get them food , sparing it out of their own bellies , and pining themselves almost to death rather than they should want . moreover it is admirable to observe with what courage they are at that time inspired , that they will even venture their own lives in defence of them . the most timorous , as hens and geese , become then so couragious as to dare to fly in the face of a man that shall molest or disquiet their young , which would never do so much in their own defence . these things being contrary to any motions of sense , or instinct of self-preservation , and so eminent pieces of self-denial , must needs be the work of providence for the continuation of the species and upholding of the world. especially if we consider that all this pains is bestowed upon a thing which takes no notice of it , will render them no thanks for it , nor make them any requital or amends ; and also , that after the young is come to some growth , and able to shift for it self , the old one retains no such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it , takes no further care of it , but will fall upon it , and beat it indifferently with others . to these i shall add one observation more , relating to this head , borrowed of dr. cudworth , system , pag. . one thing necessary to the conservation of the species of animals ; that is , the keeping up constantly in the world a due numerical proportion between the sexes of male and female , doth necessarily infer a superintending providence . for did this depend only upon mechanism , it cannot well be conceived , but that in some ages or other , there should happen to be all males , or all females ; and so the species fail . nay , it cannot well be thought otherwise , but that there is in this a providence , superiour to that of the plastick or spermatick nature , which hath not so much of knowledge and discretion allowed to it , as whereby to be able alone to govern this affair . secondly , i shall take notice of the various strange instincts of animals ; which will necessarily demonstrate , that they are directed to ends unknown to them , by a wise superintendent . as . that all creatures should know how to defend themselves , and offend their enemies ; where their natural weapons are situate , and how to make use of them . a calf will so manage his head as though he would push with his horns even before they shoot . a boar knows the use of his tushes ; a dog of his teeth ; a horse of his hoofs ; a cock of his spurs ; a bee of her sting ; a ram will but with his head , yea though he be brought up tame , and never saw that manner of fighting . now , why another animal which hath no horns should not make a shew of pushing , or no spurs of striking with his legs and the like , i know not , but that every kind is providentially directed to the use of its proper and natural weapons . . that those animals that are weak , and have neither weapons nor courage to fight , are for the most part created swift of foot or wing , and so being naturally timorous , are both willing and able to save themselves by flight . . that poultrey , partridge and other birds should at the first sight know birds of prey , and make sign of it by a peculiar note of their voice to their young , who presently thereupon hide themselves : that the lamb should acknowledge the wolf its enemy , though it had never seen one before , as is taken for granted by most naturalists , and may for ought i know be true , argues the providence of nature , or more truly the god of nature , who for their preservation hath put such an instinct into them . . that young animals , so soon as they are brought forth , should know their food . as for example , such as are nourished with milk , presently find their way to the paps , and suck at them , whereas none of those that are not designed for that nourishment ever offer to suck , or to seek out any such food . again , . that such creatures as are whole-footed or fin-toed , viz. some birds and some quadrupeds , are naturally directed to go into the water and swim there , as we see ducklings , though hatch'd and led by a hen , if she brings them to the brink of a river or pond of water , they presently leave her , and in they go , though they never saw any such thing done before ; and though the hen clocks and calls , and doth what she can to keep them out : so that we see every part in animals is fitted to its use , and the knowledge of this use put into them . for neither do any sort of web-footed fowls live constantly upon the land , or fear to enter the water , nor any land-fowl so much as attempt to swim there . . birds of the same kind make their nests of the same materials , laid in the same order , and exactly of the same figure , so that by the sight of the nest one may certainly know what bird it belongs to . and this they do , though living in distant countries , and though they never saw , nor could see any nest made , that is , though taken out of the nest , and brought up by hand ; neither were any of the same kind ever observed to make a different nest either for matter or fashion . this together with the curious and artificial contexture of such nests , and their fitness and convenience for the reception , hatching and cherishing the eggs and young of their respective builders ( which we have before taken notice of ) is a great argument of a superiour author of their and others natures , who hath indu'd them with these instincts , whereby they are as it were , acted and driven to bring about ends which themselves aim not at ( so far as we can discern ) but are directed to ; for ( as aristotle observes ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they act not by any art , neither do they enquire , neither do they deliberate about what they do . and therefore , as dr. cudworth saith well , they are not masters of that wisdom according to which they act , but only passive to the instincts and impresses thereof upon them . and indeed to affirm that brute animals do all these things by a knowledge of their own , and which themselves are masters of , and that without deliberation and consultation , were to make them to be endued with a most perfect intellect , far transcending that of human reason : whereas it is plain enough , that brutes are not above consultation but below it ; and that these instincts of nature in them , are nothing but a kind of fate upon them . . the bee , a creature of the lowest form of animals , so that no man can suspect it to have any considerable measure of understanding , or to have knowledge of , much less to aim at any end , yet makes her combs and cells with that geometrical accuracy , that she must needs be acted by an instinct implanted in her by the wise author of nature . for first , she plants them in a perpendicular posture , and so close together as with conveniency they may , beginning at the top , and working downwards , that so no room may be lost in the hive , and that she may have easie access to all the combs and cells . besides , the combs being wrought double , that is , with cells on each side , a common bottom or partition-wall could not in any other site have so conveniently , if at all , received or contained the honey . then she makes the particular cells most geometrically and artificially , as the famous mathematician pappus demonstrates in the preface to his third book of mathematical collections . first of all ( saith he , speaking of the cells , ) it is convenient that they be of such figures as may cohere one to another , and have common sides , else there would be empty spaces left between them to no use , but to the weakening and spoiling of the work , if any thing should get in there . and therefore though a round figure be most capacious for the honey , and most convenient for the bee to creep into , yet did she not make choice of that , because then there must have been triangular spaces left void . now there are only three rectilineous and ordinate figures which can serve to this purpose ; and inordinate or unlike ones must have been not only less elegant and beautiful but unequal . [ ordinate figures are such as have all their sides and all their angles equal . ] the three ordinate figures , are triangles , squares , and hexagons . for the space about any point may be filled up either by six equilateral triangles , or four squares , or three hexagons ; whereas three pentagons are too little and three heptagons too much . of these three the bee makes use of the hexagon , both because it is more capacious than either of the other , provided they be of equal compass , and so equal matter spent in the construction of each : and secondly , because it is most commodious for the bee to creep into : and lastly , because in the other figures more angles and sides must have met together at the same point , and so the work could not have been so firm and strong . moreover , the combs being double , the cells on each side the partition are so ordered , that the angles on one side , insist upon the centers of the bottoms of the cells on the other side , and not angle upon , or against angle ; which also must needs contribute to the strength and firmness of the work . another sort of bee i have observed , it may be called the tree-bee , whose industry is admirable in making provision for her young . first , she digs round vaults or burrows [ cuniculos ] in a rotten or decayed tree , of a great length , in them she builds or forms her cylindrical nests or cases , resembling cartrages , or a very narrow thimble , only in proportion longer , of pieces of rose or other leaves which she shares off with her mouth , and plats and joyns close together by some glutinous substance . these cases she fills with a red pap , of a thinner consistence than an electuary , of no pleasant taste , which where she gathers , i know not : on the top of the pap , she lays one egg , and then closes up the vessel with a cover of leaves . the enclosed egg soon becomes an eula or maggor , which feeding upon the pap till it comes to its full growth changes to a nympha , and after comes out a bee. another insect noted for her seeming prudence , in making provision for the winter , proposed by solomon to the sluggard for his imitation , is the ant , which ( as all naturalists agree ) hoards up grains of corn against the winter for her sustenance : and is reported by some to * bite off the germen of them , lest they should sprout by the moisture of the earth , which i look upon as a mere fiction ; neither should i be forward to credit the former relation , were it not for the authority of the scripture , because i could never observe any such storing up of grain by our country-ants . yet is there a quadruped taken notice of even by the vulgar for laying up in store provision for the winter , that is , the squirrel , whose hoards of nuts are frequently found and pillaged by them . the beaver is by credible persons eye-witnesses affirmed to build him houses for shelter and security in winter-time : see mr. boyl of final causes . besides these i have mentioned , an hundred others may be found in books relating especially to physick ; as that dogs when they are sick should vomit themselves by eating grass : that swine should refuse meat so soon as they feel themselves ill , and so recover by abstinence : that the bird ibis should teach men the way of administring clysters . plin. lib. . cap. . the wild goats of dictamnus for drawing out of darts , and healing wounds : the swallow the use of celandine for repairing the sight , &c. ibid. of the truth of which because i am not fully satisfied , i shall make no inference from them . thirdly , i shall remark the care that is taken for the preservation of the weak and such as are exposed to injuries , and preventing the encrease of such as are noisom and hurtful : for as it is a demonstration of the divine power and magnificence to create such variety of animals , not only great but small , not only strong and couragious , but also weak and timerous ; so is it no less argument of his wisdom to give to these means , and the power and skill of using them , to preserve themselves from the violence and injuries of those . that of the weak some should dig vaults and holes in the earth , as rabbets , to secure themselves and their young ; others should be armed with hard shels ; others with prickles , the rest that have no such armature should be endued with great swiftness or pernicity : and not only so , but some also have their eyes stand so prominent , as the hare , that they can see as well behind as before them , that so they may have their enemy always in their eye ; and long , hollow , moveable ears , to receive and convey the least sound , or that which comes from far , that they be not suddenly surprised or taken ( as they say ) napping . as for sheep , which have no natural weapons or means to defend or secure themselves , neither heels to run nor claws to dig ; they are delivered into the hand , and committed to the care and tuition of man , and serving him for divers uses , are nourished and protected by him ; and so enjoying their beings for a time , by this means propagate and continue their species : so that there are none destitute of some means to preserve themselves and their kind ; and these means so effectual , that notwithstanding all the endeavors and contrivances of man and beast to destroy them , there is not to this day one species lost of such as are mentioned in histories , and consequently and undoubtedly neither of such as were at first created . then for birds of prey and rapacious animals , it is remarkable what aristotle observes , that they are all solitary , and go not in flocks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . no birds of prey are gregarious . again , that such creatures do not greatly multiply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they for the most part breeding and bringing forth but one or two , or at least a few young ones at once : whereas they that are feeble and timorous are generally multiparous ; or if they bring forth but few at once , as pigeons , they compensate that by their often breeding , viz. every month but two throughout the year ; by this means providing for the continuation of their kind . fourthly , i shall note the exact fitness of the parts of the bodies of animals to every ones nature and manner of living . of this dr. * more produces an eminent instance in a poor contemptible quadruped , the mole . first of all ( saith he ) her dwelling being under ground , where nothing is to be seen , nature hath so obscurely fitted her with eyes , that naturalists can scarcely agree , whether she hath any sight at all or no [ in our observation , moles have perfect eyes , and holes for them through the skin , so that they are outwardly to be seen by any that shall diligently search for them ; though indeed they are exceeding small , not much bigger than a great pins head . ] but for amends , what she is capable of for her defence and warning of danger , she has very eminently conferred upon her ; for she is very quick of hearing [ doubtless her subterraneous vaults are like trunks to convey any sound a great way . ] and then her short tail , and short legs , but broad fore-feet armed with sharp claws , we see by the event to what purpose they are , she so swiftly working her self under ground , and making her way so fast in the earth , as they that behold it cannot but admire it . her legs therefore are short that she need dig no more than will serve the mere thickness of her body : and her fore-feet are broad , that she may scoup away much earth at a time : and she has little or no tail , because she courses it not on the ground like a rat or mouse , but lives under the earth , and is fain to dig her self a dwelling there ; and she making her way through so thick an element , which will not easily yield as the water and air do ; it had been dangerous to draw so long a train behind her ; for her enemy might fall upon her rear , and fetch her out before she had perfected and got full possession of her works : which being so , what more palpable argument of providence than she ? another instance in quadrupeds might be the tamandua or ant bear , described by marcgrave and piso , who saith of them , that they are night walkers , and seek their food by night . being kept tame they are fed with flesh , but it must be minced small , because they have not only a slender and sharp head and snout , but also a narrow and toothless mouth ; their tongue is like a great lute string ( as big as a goose-quill ) round , and in the greater kind ( for there are two species ) more than two foot long , and therefore lies doubled in a channel between the lower parts of the cheeks . this when hungry they thrust forth , being well moistened , and lay upon the trunks of trees , and when it is covered with ants suddenly draw it back into their mouths ; if the ants lie so deep that they cannot come at them , they dig up the earth with their long and strong claws , wherewith for that purpose their fore-feet are armed . so we see how their parts are fitted for this kind of diet , and no other ; for the catching of it and for the eating of it , it requiring no comminution by the teeth , as appears also in the chamaeleon , which is another quadruped that imitates the tamandua in this property of darting out the tongue to a great length , with wonderful celerity , and for the same purpose too of catching of insects . besides these quadrupeds , there are a whole genus of birds , called pici martii or woodpeckers , that in like manner have a tongue which they can shoot forth to a very great length , ending in a sharp stiff bony tip , dented on each side ; and at pleasure thrust it deep into the holes , clefts and crannies of trees , to stab and draw out cossi or any other insects lurking there , as also into anthills , to strike and fetch out the ants and their eggs. moreover they have short but very strong legs , and their toes stand two forwards two backwards , which disposition ( as aldrovandus well notes ) nature , or rather the wisdom of the creator , hath granted to woodpeckers , because it is very convenient for the climbing of trees , to which also conduces the stiffness of the feathers of their tails and there bending downward , whereby they are fitted to serve as a prop for them to lean upon and bear up their bodies . as for the chamaeleon he imitates the woodspite , not only in the make , motion and use of his tongue for striking ants , flies , and other insects ; but also in the site of his toes , whereby he is wonderfully qualified to run upon trees , which he doth with that swiftness , that one would think he flew , whereas upon the ground he walks very clumfily and ridiculously . a full description of the outward and inward parts of this animal , may be seen at the end of panarolus's observat. it is to be noted , that the chamelion , though he hath teeth , uses them not for chewing his prey , but swallows it immediately . ii. in birds all the members are most exactly fitted for the use of flying . first , the muscles which serve to move the wings are the greatest and strongest , because much force is required to the agitation of them ; the underside of them is also made concave , and the upper convex , that they may be easily lifted up , and more strongly beat the air , which by this means doth more resist the descent of their body downward . then the trunk of their body doth somewhat resemble the hull of a ship ; the head the prow , which is for the most part small , that it may the more easily cut the air , and make way for their bodies ; the train serves to steer , govern and direct their flight , and however it may be held erect in their standing or walking , yet is directed to lye almost in the same plain with their backs , or rather a little inclining , when they fly . that the train serves to sleer and direct their flight , and turn their bodies like the rudder of a ship is evident in the kite , who by a light turning of his train , moves his body which way he pleases . iidem videntur artem gubernandi docuisse caudae flexibus , in caelo monstrante natura quod opus esset in profundo . plin. lib. . cap. . they seem to have taught men the art of steering a ship by the flexures of their tails ; nature shewing in the air what was needful to be done in the deep . and it 's notable that aristotle truly observes , that whole-footed birds , and those that have long legs , have for the most part short tails ; and therefore whilest they fly , do not as others draw them up to their bellies , but stretch them at length backwards , that they may serve to steer and guide them instead of tails . neither doth the tail serve only to direct and govern . the flight , but also partly to support the body and keep it even , wherefore when spread , it lies parallel to the horizon , and stands not perpendicular to it , as fishes do . hence birds that have no tails , as some sorts of colymbi or douckers fly very inconveniently with their bodies almost erect . iii. as for fishes their bodies are long and slender , or else thin for the most part , for their more easie swimming and dividing the water . the wind-bladder , wherewith most of them are furnished , serves to poise their bodies , and keep them equiponderant to the water , which else would sink to the bottom , and lie grovelling there , as hath by breaking the bladder been experimentally found . by the contraction and dilatation of this bladder , they are able to raise or sink themselves at pleasure , and continue in what depth of water they list . the fins made of gristly spokes or rays connected by membranes , so that they may be contracted or extended like womens fans , and furnished with muscles for motion , serve partly for progression , but chiefly to hold the body upright ; which appears in that when they are cut off , it wavers to and fro , and so soon as the fish dies , the belly turns upward . the great strength by which fishes dart themselves forward with incredible celerity , like an arrow out of a bow , lies in their tails , their fins mean time , lest they should retard their motion , being held close to their bodies . and therefore almost the whole musculous flesh of the body is bestowed upon the tail and back , and serves for the vibration of the tail , the heaviness and corpulency of the water , requiring a great force to divide it . i might here take notice of those amphibious creatures , which we may call aquatic quadrupeds ( though one of them there is that hath but two feet , viz. the manati or sea-cow ) the beaver , the otter , the phoca or sea calf , the water-rat , and the frog , the toes of whose feet are joyned by membranes , as in water-fowls for swimming ; and who have very small ears , and ear-holes , as the cetaceous fishes have for hearing in the water . to this head belongs the adapting of the parts that minister to generation in the sexes one to another ; and in creatures that nourish their young with milk , the nipples of the breast to the mouth and organs of suction ; which he must needs be wilfully blind and void of sence , that either discerns not , or denies to be intended and made one for the other . that the nipples should be made spungy , and with such perforations , as to admit passage to the milk when drawn , otherwise to retain it ; and the teeth of the young either not spungy , or so soft and tender , as not to hurt the nipples of the dam , are effects and arguments of providence and design . to this head of the fitness of the parts of the body to the creatures nature and manner of living , belongs that observation of aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . such birds as have crooked beaks and talons , are all carnivorous ; and so of quadrupeds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnivora omnia . all that have serrate teeth , are carnivorous . this observation holds true concerning all european birds , but i know not but that parrots may be an exception to it . yet it is remarkable , that such birds as are carnivorous have no gizzard , or musculous , but a membranous stomach ; that kind of food needing no such grinding or comminution as seeds do , but being torn into strings , or small flakes by the beak , may be easily concocted by a membranous stomach . to the fitness of all the parts and members of animals to their respective uses may also be referred another observation of the same aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . all animals have even feet , not more on one side than another ; which if they had , would either hinder their walking , or hang by not only useless , but also burthensome . for though a creature might make limping shift to hop , suppose with three feet , yet nothing so conveniently or steddily to walk , or run , or indeed to stand . so that we see , nature hath made choice of what is most fit , proper and useful . they have also not only an even number of feet , answering by pairs one to another , which is as well decent as convenient ; but those too of an equal length , i mean the several pairs ; whereas were those on one side longer than they on the other , it would have caused an inconvenient halting or limping in their going . i shall mention but one more observation of aristotle , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there is no creature only volatile , or no flying animal but hath feet as well as wings , a power of walking or creeping upon the earth ; because there is no food , or at least not sufficient food for them to be had always in the air ; or if in hot countries we may suppose there is , the air being never without store of insects flying about in it , yet could such birds take no rest , for having no feet , they could not perch upon trees , and if they should alight upon the ground , they could by no means raise themselves any more , as we see those birds which have but short feet , as the swift and martinet , with difficulty do . besides , they would want means of breeding , having no where to lay their eggs , to sit , hatch or brood their young. as for the story of the manucodiata or bird of paradise , which in the former age was generally received and accepted for true , even by the learned , it is now discovered to be a fable , and rejected and exploded by all men : those birds being well known to have legs and feet , as well as others , and those not short , small not feeble ones , but sufficiently great and strong and armed with crooked talons , as being the members of birds of prey . but against the uses of several bodies i have instanced in that refer to man it may be objected , that these uses were not designed by nature in the formation of the things ; but that the things were by the wit of man accommodated to those uses . to which i answer with dr. more in the appendix to his antidote against atheism . that the several useful dependencies of this kind , ( viz. of stones , timber , and metals for building of houses or ships , the magnet for navigation , &c. fire for melting of metals and forging of instruments for the purposes mentioned ) we only find , not make them . for whether we think of it or no , it is , for example , manifest , that fuel is good to continue fire , and fire to melt metals , and metals to make instruments to build ships and houses , and so on . wherefore it being true , that there is such a subordinate usefulness in the things themselves that are made to our hand , it is but reason in us to impute it to such a cause as was aware of the usefulness and serviceableness of its own works . to which i shall add , that since we find materials so fit to serve all the necessities and conveniences , and to exercise and employ the wit and industry of an intelligent and active being , and since there is such an one created that is endued with skill and ability to use them , and which by their help is enabled to rule over and subdue all inferiour creatures , but without them had been left necessitous , helpless and obnoxious to injuries above any other ; and since the omniscient creator could not but know all the uses , to which they might and would be employed by man , to them that acknowledge the being of a deity , it is little less than a demonstration , that they were created intentionally , i do not say only , for those uses . methinks by all this provision for the use and service of man , the almighty interpretatively speaks to him in this manner , i have placed thee in a spacious and well furnished world. i have endued thee with an ability of understanding what is beautiful and proportionable , and have made that which is so agreeable and delightful to thee ; i have provided thee with materials whereon to exercise and employ thy art and strength ; i have given thee an excellent instrument , the hand , accommodated to make use of them all ; i have distinguished the earth into hills , and valleys , and plains , and meadows , and woods ; all these parts capable of culture and improvement by thy industry ; i have committed to thee for thy assistance in thy labors of plowing , and carrying , and drawing , and travel ; the laborious ox , the patient ass , and the strong and serviceable horse ; i have created a multitude of seeds for thee to make choice out of them , of what is most pleasant to thy tast , and of most wholsom and pleasant nourishment ; i have also made great variety of trees , bearing fruit both for food and physick , those too capable of being meliorated and improved by transplantation , stercoration , insition , pruning , watering , and other arts and devices . till and manure thy fields , sow them with thy seeds , extirpate noxious and unprofitable herbs , guard them from the invasions and spoil of beasts , clear and fence in thy meadows and pastures ; dress and prune thy vines , and so rank and dispose them as is most sutable to the climate ; plant thee orchards , with all sorts of fruit-trees in such order as may be most beautiful to the eye , and most comprehensive of plants ; gardens for culinary herbs , and all kinds of salletting ; for delectable flowers , to gratifie the eye with their agreeable colors and figures , and thy scent with their fragrant odors ; for odoriferous and ever-green shrubs and suffrutices ; for exotick and medicinal plants of all sorts , and dispose them in that comly order , as may be both pleasant to behold , and commodious for access . i have furnished thee with all materials for building , as stone , and timber , and slate , and lime , and clay , and earth whereof to make bricks and tiles . deck and bespangle the country with houses and villages convenient for thy habitation , provided with out-houses and stables for the harbouring and shelter of thy cattle , with barns and granaries for the reception , and custody , and storing up thy corn and fruits . i have made thee a sociable creature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the improvement of thy understanding by conference , and communication of observations and experiments ; for mutual help , assistance and defence ; build thee large towns and cities with streight and well paved streets , and elegant rows of houses , adorned with magnificent temples for my honour and worship , with beautiful palaces for thy princes and grandees , with stately halls for publick meetings of the citizens and their several companies , and the sessions of the courts of judicature , besides publick portico's and aquaeducts . i have implanted in thy nature a desire of seeing strange and foreign and finding out unknown countries , for the improvement and advancement of thy knowledge in geography , by observing the bays , and creeks , and havens , and promontories , the outlets of rivers , the situations of the maritime towns and cities , the longitude and latitude , &c. of those places : in politicks , by noting their government , their manners , laws and customs , their diet and medicine , their trades and manufactures , their houses and buildings , their exercises and sports &c. in physiology or natural history , by searching out their natural rarities , the productions both of land and water , what species of animals , plants and minerals , of fruits and drogues are to be found there , what commodities for bartering and permutation , whereby thou maist be enabled to make large additions to natural history , to advance those other sciences , and to benefit and enrich thy country by encrease of its trade and merchandise : i have given thee timber and iron to build thee huls of ships , tall trees for masts , flax and hemp for sails , cables , and cordage for rigging . i have armed thee with courage and hardiness to attempt the seas , and traverse the spacious plains of that liquid element ; i have assisted thee with a compass , to direct thy course when thou shalt be out of all ken of land , and have nothing in view but sky and water . go thither for the purposes before mentioned , and bring home what may be useful and beneficial to thy country in general , or thy self in particular . i perswade my self , that the bountiful and gracious author of mans being and faculties , and all things else , delights in the beauty of his creation , and is well pleased with the industry of man in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles , with pleasant villages and country houses , with regular gardens and orchards and plantations of all sorts of shrubs , and herbs , and fruits , for meat , medicine or moderate delight , with shady woods and groves , and walks set with rows of elegant trees ; with pastures clothed with flocks , and valleys covered over with corn , and meadows burthened with grass , and whatever else differenceth a civil and well cultivated region from a barren and desolate wilderness . if a country thus planted and adorned , thus polished and civilized , thus improved to the height by all manner of culture for the support and sustenance , and convenient entertainment of innumerable multitudes of people , be not to be preferred before a barbarous and inhospitable scythia , without houses , without plantations , without corn-fields or vineyards , where the roving hords of the savage and truculent inhabitants , transfer themselves from place to place in wagons , as they can find pasture and forage for their cattle , and live upon milk and flesh roasted in the sun at the pomels of their saddles ; or a rude and unpolished america , peopled with slothful and naked indians , instead of well-built houses , living in pitiful hutts and cabans , made of poles set end-ways ; then surely the brute beasts condition and manner of living , to which , what we have mention'd doth nearly approach , is to be esteemed better than mans , and wit and reason was in vain bestowed on him . lastly , i might draw an argument of the admirable art and skill of the creator and composer of them from the incredible smalness of some of those natural and enlivened machines , the bodies of animals . any work of art of extraordinary fineness and subtlety , be it but a small engine or movement , or a curious carved or turned work of ivory or metals , such as those cups turned of ivory by oswaldus nerlinger of suevia , mentioned by joan. faber in his expositions of recchus his mexican animals , which all had the perfect form of cups , and were gilt with a golden border about the brim , of that wonderful smalness , that faber himself put a thousand of them into an excavated pepper corn , and when he was weary of the work , and yet had not filled the vessel , his friend john carolus schad , that shewed them him , put in four hundred more . any such work , i say , is beheld with much admiration , and purchased at a great rate , and treasured up as a singular rarity in the museums and cabinets of the curious , and as such is one of the first things shew'd to travellers and strangers but what are these for their fineness and parvity ( for which alone and their figure they are considerable ) to those minute machines endued with life and motion , i mean the bodies of those animalcula not long since discovered in pepper water by mr. lewenhoek of delft in holland , ( whose observations were confirmed and improved by our learned and worthy country-man mr. robert hook , ) who tells us , that some of his friends ( whose testimonials he desired ) did affirm , that they had seen , others , others little living creatures in a quantity of water no bigger than a grain of millet . and yet he made it his request to them , that they would only justifie ( that they might be within compass ) half the number that they believed each of them saw in the water . from the greatest of these numbers he infers , that there will be of these living creatures seen in one drop of water ; which number ( saith he ) i can with truth affirm i have discerned . this ( proceeds he ) doth exceed belief . but i do affirm , if a larger grain of sand were broken into , of equal parts , one of these would not exceed the bigness of one of those creatures . mr. hook tells us , that after he had discovered vast multitudes of those exceeding small creatures which mr. lewenhoeck had described , upon making use of other lights and glasses , he not only magnified those he had discovered to a very great bigness , but discovered many other sorts very much smaller than them he first saw , and some of them so exceeding small , that millions of millions might be contained in one drop of water . if pliny , considering such insects as were known to him , and those were none but what were visible to the naked eye , was moved to cry out , that the artifice of nature was no where more conspicuous than in these ; and again , in his tam parvis atque tam nullis quae ratio , quanta vis , quàm inextricabilis perfectio ? and again , rerum natura nusquam magis quàm in minimis tota est . hist. nat. l. . c. . what would he have said if he had seen animals of so stupendous smalness as i have mentioned ? how would he have been rapt into an extasie of astonishment and admiration ? again , if considering the body of a gnat , ( which by his own confession is none of the least of insects ) he could make so many admiring queries , where hath nature disposed so many senses in a gnat ? ubi visum praetendit ? ubi gustatum applicavit ? ubi odoratum inseruit ? ubi verò truculentam illam & portione maximam vocem ingeneravit ? quâ subtilitate pennas adnexuit ? praelongavit pedum crura ? disposuit jejunam caveam uti alvum ? avidam sanguinis & potissimum humani sitim accendit ? telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio ? atque ut in capaci , cùm cerni non possit exilitas , ità reciproca geminavit arte , ut fodiendo acuminatum pariter sorbendoque fistulosum esset . which words should i translate would lose of their emphasis and elegancy . if , i say , he could make such queries about the members of a gnat. what may we make ? and what would he in all likelyhood have made had he seen these incredible small living creatures ? how would he have admired the immense subtilty ( as he phrases it ) of their parts ? for to use mr. hook's words in his microscopium p. . if these creatures be so exceeding small , what must we think of their muscles and other parts ? certain it is that the mechanism by which nature performs the muscular motion is exceedingly small and curious ; and to the performance of every muscular motion , in greater animals at least , there are not fewer distinct parts concerned than many millions of millions , and these visible through a microscope . let us then consider the works of god , and observe the operations of his hands : let us take notice of and admire his infinite wisdom and goodness in the formation of them : no creature in this sublunary world is capable of so doing beside man ; and yet we are deficient herein : we content our selves with the knowledge of the tongues , and a little skill in philology , or history perhaps and antiquity , and neglect that which to me seems more material , i mean natural history and the works of the creation : i do not discommend or derogate from those other studies : i should betray mine own ignorance and weakness should i do so ; i only wish they might not altogether justle out and exclude this . i wish that this might be brought in fashion among us ; i wish men would be so equal and civil , as not to disparage , deride and vilifie those studies which themselves skill not of , or are not conversant in ; no knowledge can be more pleasant than this , none that doth so satisfie and feed the soul ; in comparison whereto that of words and phrases seems to me insipid and jejune . that learning ( saith a wise and observant prelate ) which consists only in the form and pedagogy of arts , or the critical notions upon words and phrases , hath in it this intrinsical imperfection , that it is only so far to be esteemed as it conduceth to the knowledg of things , being in it self but a kind of pedantry , apt to infect a man with such odd humors of pride , and affectation , and curiosity , as will render him unfit for any great employment . words being but the images of matter , to be wholly given up to the study of these . what is it but pygmalions phrenzy , to fall in love with a picture or image . as for oratory which is the best skill about words , that hath by some wise men been esteemed but a voluptuary art , like to cookery , which spoils wholsome meats and helps unwholsome , by the variety of sawces serving more to the pleasure of tast , than the health of the body . it may be ( for ought i know , and as some divines have thought ) part of our business and employment in eternity to contemplate the works of god , and give him the glory of his wisdom , power and goodness manifested in the creation of them . i am sure it is part of the business of a sabbath-day , and the sabbath is a type of that eternal rest ; for the sabbath seems to have been first instituted for a commemoration of the works of the creation , from which god is said to have rested upon the seventh day . let it not suffice us to be book-learned , to read what others have written , and to take upon trust more falshood than truth : but let us our selves examine things as we have opportunity , and converse with nature as well as books . let us endeavour to promote and increase this knowledge , and make new discoveries , not so much distrusting our own parts , or despairing of our own abilities , as to think that our industry can add nothing to the inventions of our ancestors , or correct any of their mistakes . let us not think that the bounds of science are fixed like hercules his pillars , and inscribed with a ne plus ultra . let us not think we have done when we have learnt what they have delivered to us . the treasures of nature are inexhaustible . here is employment enough for the vastest parts , the most indefatigable industries , the fairest opportunities , the most prolix and undisturbed vacancies . much might be done would we but endeavour , and nothing is insuperable to pains and patience . i know that a new study at first , seems very vast , intricate and difficult ; but after a little resolution and progress , after a man becomes a little acquainted , as i may so say , with it , his understanding is wonderfully cleared up and enlarged , the difficulties vanish , and the thing grows easie and familiar . and for our encouragement in this study , observe what the psalmist saith , psal. . . the works of the lord are great , sought out of all them that have pleasure therein . which though it be principally spoken of the works of providence , yet may as well be verified of the works of creation . i am sorry to see so little account made of real experimental philosophy in this university , and that those ingenious sciences of the mathematicks , are so much neglected by us : and therefore do earnestly exhort those that are young , especially gentlemen , to set upon these studies , and take some pains in them . they may possibly invent something of eminent use and advantage to the world ; and one such discovery would abundantly compensate the expence and travel of one mans whole life . however , it is enough to maintain and continue what is already invented : neither do i see what more ingenious and manly employment they can pursue , tending more to the satisfaction of their own minds , and the illustration of the glory of god. for he is wonderful in all his works . but i would not have any man cross his natural genius or inclinations , or undertake such methods of study , as his parts are not fitted to , or not serve those ends to which his friends upon mature deliberation have designed him ; but those who do abound with leisure , or who have a natural propension and genius inclining them thereto , or those who by reason of the strength and greatness of their parts , are able to compass and comprehend the whole latitude of learning . neither yet need those who are designed to divinity it self , fear to look into these studies , or think they will engross their whole time , and that no considerable progress can be made therein , unless men lay aside and neglect their ordinary callings , and necessary employments . no such matter . our life is long enough , and we might find time enough , did we husband it well : vitam non accepimus brevem sed fecimus , nec inopes ejus , sed prodigi sumus , as seneca saith . and did but young men fill up that time with these studies , which lies upon their hands , which they are incumbred with , and troubled how to pass away , much might be done even so . i do not see but the study of true physiology , may be justly accounted a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or preparative to divinity . but to leave that , it is a generally received opinion , that all this visible world was created for man ; that man is the end of the creation , as if there were no other end of any creature , but some way or other to be serviceable to man. this opinion is as old as tully , for saith he , in his second book , de nat. deorum . principio ipse mundus deorum hominumque causâ factus est ; quaeque in eo sunt omnia ea parata ad fructum hominum & inventa sunt . but though this be vulgarly received , yet wise men now adays think otherwise . dr. * more affirms , that creatures are made to enjoy themselves , as well as to serve us , and that it 's a gross piece of ignorance and rusticity to think otherwise . and in another place , this comes only out of pride and ignorance or a haughty presumption , because we are encouraged to believe , that in some sence , all things are made for man , therefore to think that they are not at all made for themselves . but he that pronounceth this , is ignorant of the nature of man , and the knowledge of things . for if a good man be merciful to his beast , then surely , a good god is bountiful and benign , and takes pleasure that all his creatures enjoy themselves that have life and sense , and are capable of enjoyment . for my part , i cannot believe that all the things in the world were so made for man , that they have no other use . for it is highly absurd and unreasonable , to think that bodies of such vast magnitude as the fixt stars , were only made to twinkle to us ; nay , a multitude of them there are , that do not so much as twinkle , being either by reason of their distance or of their smalness , altogether invisible to the naked eye , and only discoverable by a telescope , and it is likely perfecter telescopes than we yet have , may bring to light many more ; and who knows , how many may lie out of the ken of the best telescope that can possibly be made . and i believe there are many species in nature , which were never yet taken notice of by man , and consequently of no use to him , which yet we are not to think were created in vain ; but it 's likely ( as the doctor saith ) to partake of the overflowing goodness of the creator , and enjoy their own beings . but though in this sence it be not true , that all things were made for man ; yet thus far it is , that all the creatures in the world may be some way or other useful to us , at least to exercise our wits and understandings , in considering and contemplating of them , and so afford us subject of admiring and glorifying their and our maker . seeing then , we do believe and assert that all things were in some sence made for us , we are thereby obliged to make use of them for those purposes for which they serve us , else we frustrate this end of their creation . now some of them serve only to exercise our minds : many others there be , which might probably serve us to good purpose , whose uses are not discovered , nor are they ever like to be , without pains and industry . true it is , many of the greatest inventions have been accidentally stumbled upon , but not by men supine and careless , but busie and inquisitive . some reproach methinks it is to learned men , that there should be so many animals still in the world , whose outward shape is not yet taken notice of , or described , much less their way of generation , food , manners , uses , observed . if man ought to reflect upon his creator the glory of all his works , then ought he to take notice of them all , and not to think any thing unworthy of his cognizance . and truly the wisdom , art and power of almighty god , shines forth as visibly in the structure of the body of the minutest insect , as in that of a horse or elephant : therefore god is said to be , maximus in minimis . we men , esteeming it a more difficult matter , and of greater art and curiosity to frame a small watch , than a large clock : and no man blames him who spent his whole time in the consideration of the nature and works of a bee , or thinks his subject was too narrow . let us not then esteem any thing contemptible or inconsiderable , or below our notice taking ; for this is to derogate from the wisdom and art of the creator , and to confess our selves unworthy of those endowments of knowledge and understanding which he hath bestowed on us . do we praise daedalus , and architas , and hero , and callicrates , and albertus magnus , and many others which i might mention , for their cunning in inventing , and dexterity in framing and composing a few dead engines or movements : and shall we not admire and magnifie the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , former of the world , who hath made so many , yea i may say innumerable , rare pieces , and those too not dead ones , such as cease presently to move so soon as the spring is down , but all living , and themselves performing their own motions , and those so intricate , and various , and requiring such a multitude of parts and subordinate machins , that it is incomprehensible , what art , and skill , and industry , must be employed in the framing of one of them . but it may be objected , that god almighty was not so selfish and desirous of glory , as to make the world and all the creatures therein , only for his own honour , and to be praised by man. to assert this , were in des cartes his opinion , an absurd and childish thing , and a resembling of god to proud man. it is more worthy the deity to attribute the creation of the world to the exundation and overflowing of his transcendent and infinite goodness , which is of its own nature and in the very notion of it most free , diffusive , and communicative . to this i shall answer in two words . first , the testimony of scripture makes god in all his actions to intend and design his own glory mainly . prov. . . god made all things for himself . how , for himself ? he had no need of them : he hath no use of them . no , he made them for the manifestation of his power , wisdom , and goodness , and that he might receive from the creatures that were able to take notice thereof his tribute of praise . psal. . . offer unto god thanksgiving . and in the next verse , i will deliver thee , and thou shalt glorifie me . and again in the last verse , whoso offereth praise glorifieth me . so praise is called a sacrifice , and the calves of the lips , hosea . . esay . . i am the lord , that is my name , and my glory will i not give to another . esay . . and i will not give my glory to another . and to me it seems , that where the heavens and earth , and sun , and moon , and stars , and all other creatures are called upon to praise the lord ; the meaning and intention is , to invite and stir up man to take notice of all those creatures , and to admire and praise the power , wisdom and goodness of god manifested in the creation and designations of them . secondly , it is most reasonable that god almighty should intend his own glory . for he being infinite in all excellencies and perfections , and independent upon any other being ; nothing can be said or thought of him too great , and which he may not justly challenge as his due ; nay , he cannot think too highly of himself , his other attributes being adequate to his understanding ; so that , though his understanding be infinite , yet he understands no more than his power can effect , because that is infinite also . and therefore it is fit and reasonable , that he should own and accept the creatures acknowledgments and celebrations of those vertues and perfections , which he hath not received of any other , but possesseth eternally and originally of himself . and indeed , ( with reverence be it spoken , ) what else can we imagine the ever blessed deity to delight and take complacency in for ever , but his own infinite excellencies and perfections , and the manifestations and effects of them , the works of the creation , and the sacrifices of praise and thanks offered up by such of his creatures as are capable of considering those works , and discerning the traces and footsteps of his power and wisdom appearing in the formation of them , and moreover , whose bounden duty it is so to do . the reason why man ought not to admire himself , or seek his own glory , is , because he is a dependent creature , and hath nothing but what he hath received , and not only dependent , but imperfect ; yea , weak and impotent . and yet do i not take humility in man to consist in disowning or denying any gift or ability that is in him , but in a just valuation of such gifts and endowments , yet rather thinking too meanly than too highly of them ; because humane nature is so apt to err in running into the other extreme , to flatter it self , and to accept those praises that are not due to it ; pride being an elation of spirit upon false grounds , or a desire or acceptance of undue honour . otherwise , i do not see why a man may not admit and accept the testimonies of others concerning any perfection , accomplishment or skill that he is really possessed of : yet can he not think himself to deserve any great praise or honour for it , because both the power and the habit are the gift of god : and considering that one vertue is counter-balanced by many vices ; and one skill or perfection , with much ignorance and infirmity . i proceed now to select some particular pieces of the creation , and to consider them more distinctly . they shall be only two . . the whole body of the earth . . the body of man. first the body of the earth , and therein i shall take notice of . it s figure . . it s motion . . the constitution of its parts . by earth i here understand not the dry land , or the earth contradistinguished to water , or the earth considered as an element : but the whole terraqueous globe composed of earth and water . . for the figure , i could easily demonstrate it to be spherical . that the water , which by reason of its fluidity should , one would think , compose it self to a level , yet doth not so , but hath a gibbose superficies , may to the eye be demonstrated upon the sea. for when two ships sailing contrary ways lose the sight one of another : first the keel and hull disappear , afterward the sails , and if when upon deck you have perfectly lost sight of all , you get up the top of the main-mast you may descry it again . now what should take away the sight of these ships from each other but the gibbosity of the interjacent water ? the roundness of the earth from north to south is demonstrated from the appearance of northern stars above the horizon , and loss of the southern to them that travel northward ; and on the contrary the loss of the northern and appearance of the southern to them that travel southward . for were the earth a plain we should see exactly the fame stars wherever we were placed on that plain . the roundness from east to west is demonstrated from eclipses of either of the great luminaries . for why the same eclipse , suppose of the sun , which is seen to them that live more easterly , when the sun is elevated degrees above the horizon , should be seen to them that live one degree more westernly when the sun is but five degrees above the horizon , and so lower and lower proportionably to them that live more and more westernly , till at last it appear not at all , no accompt can be given but the globosity of the earth . for were the earth a perfect plain , the sun would appear eclipsed to all that live upon that plain , if not exactly in the same elevation , yet pretty near it ; but to be sure it would never appear to some , the sun being elevated high above the horizon ; and not at all to others . it being clear then that the figure of the earth is spherical , let us consider the conveniences of this figure . . no figure is so capacious as this , and consequently whose parts are so well compacted and united , and lie so near one to another for mutual strength . now the earth , which is the basis of all animals , and as some think of the whole creation , ought to be firm , and stable , and solid , and as much as is possible secured from all ruins and concussions . . this figure is most consonant and agreeable to the natural natus or tendency of all heavy bodies . now the earth being such a one , and all its parts having an equal propension or connivency to the center , they must needs be in greatest rest , and most immoveable when they are all equidistant from it . whereas were it an angular body , all the angles would be vast and steep mountains , bearing a considerable proportion to the whole bulk , and therefore those parts being extremely more remote from the center , than those about the middle of the plains , would consequently press very strongly thitherward ; and unless the earth were made of adamant or marble , in time the other parts would give way , till all were levelled . . were the earth an angular body and not round , all the whole earth would be nothing else but vast mountains , and so incommodious for animals to live upon . for the middle point of every side would be nearer the center than any other , and consequently from that point which way soever one travelled would be up hill , the tendency of all heavy bodies being perpendicularly to the center . besides how much this would obstruct commerce is easily seen . for not only the declivity of all places would render them very difficult to be travelled over , but likewise the midst of every side being lowest and nearest the center , if there were any rain or any rivers , must needs be filled with a lake of water , there being no way to discharge it , and possibly the water would rise so high as to overflow the whole latus . but surely there would be much more danger of the inundation of whole countries than now there is : all the waters falling upon the earth , by reason of its declivity every way , easily descending down to the common receptacle the sea. and these lakes of water being far distant one from another , there could be no commerce between far remote countries but by land. . a spherical figure is most commodious for dinetical motion or revolution upon its own axis . for in that neither oan the medium at all resist the motion of the body , because it stands not in its way , no part coming into any space but what the precedent left , neither doth one part of the superficies move faster than another : whereas were it angular , the parts about the angles would find strong resistance from the air , and those parts also about the angles would move much faster than those about the middle of the plains , being remoter from the center than they . it remains therefore that this figure is the most commodious for motion . here i cannot but take notice of the folly and stupidity of the epicureans , who fancied the earth to be flat and contiguous to the heavens on all sides , and that it descended a great way with long roots ; and that the sun was new made every morning , and not much bigger than it seems to the eye , and of a flat figure , and many other such gross absurdities as children among us would be ashamed of . secondly , i come now to speak of the motion of the earth . that the earth ( speaking according to philosophical accurateness ) doth move both upon its own poles , and in the ecliptick , is now the received opinion of the most learned and skilful mathematicians . to prove the diurnal motion of it upon its poles , i need produce no other arguments than , first , the vast disproportion in respect of magnitude that is between the earth and the heavens , and the great unlikelyhood , that such an infinite number of vast bodies should move about so inconsiderable a spot as the earth , which in comparison with them by the concurrent suffrages of mathematicians of both perswasions , is a mere point , that is , next to nothing . secondly , the immense and incredible celerity of the motion of the heavenly bodies in the ancient hypothesis ; of its annual motion in the ecliptick , the stations and retrogradations of the superior planets are a convincing argument , there being a clear and facile account thereof to be given from the mere motion of the earth in the ecliptick ; whereas in the old hypothesis no account can be given thereof , but by the unreasonable . fiction of epicycles and contrary motions ; add hereto the great unlikelyhood of such an enormous epicycle as venus must describe about the sun , not under the sun as the old astronomers fancied ; so that whosoever doth clearly understand both hypotheses , cannot , i perswade my self , adhere to the old and reject the new , without doing some violence to his faculties . against this opinion lie two objections , first , that it is contrary to sense , and the common opinion and belief of mankind . secondly , that it seemeth contrary to some expressions in scripture . to the first i answer , that our senses are sometimes mistaken , and what appears to them is not always in reality so as it appears . for example , the sun or moon appear no bigger at most , than a cart-wheel , and of a flat figure . the earth seems to be plain ; the heavens to cover it like a canopy , and to be contiguous to it round about : a fire-brand nimbly moved round , appears like a circle of fire ; and to give a parallel instance , a boat lying still at anchor in a river to him that sails or rows by it , seems to move apace : and when the clouds pass nimbly under the moon , the moon it self seems to move the contrary way . and there have been whole books written in confutation of vulgar errours . secondly , as to the scripture , when speaking of these things it accommodates it self to the common and received opinions , and employs the usual phrases and forms of speech , ( as all wise men also do , though in strictness , they be of a different or contrary opinion , ) without intention of delivering any thing doctrinally concerning these points , or confuting the contrary : and yet by those that maintain the opinion of the earths motion there might a convenient interpretation be given of such places as seem to contradict it . howbeit , because some pious persons may be offended at such an opinion , as savouring of novelty , thinking it inconsistent with divine revelation , i shall not positively assert it , only propose it as an hypothesis not altogether improbable . supposing then , that the earth doth move , both upon its own poles , and in the ecliptick about the sun , i shall shew how admirably its situation and motion are contrived for the conveniency of man and other animals : which i cannot do more fully and clearly than dr. more hath already done in his antidote against atheism , whose words therefore i shall borrow . first , speaking of the parallelism of the axis of the earth he saith , i demand whether it be better to have the axis of the earth steady and perpetually parallel to it self , or to have it carelesly tumble this way and that way as it happens , or at least very variously and intricately : and you cannot but answer me , it is better to have it steady and parallel . for in this lies the necessary foundation of the art of navigation and dialling . for that steady stream of particles , which is supposed to keep the axis of the earth parallel to its self , affords the mariner both his cynosura and his compass . the load-stone and the load-star depend both upon this . the load-stone as i could demonstrate , were it not too great a digression ; and the load-star , because that which keeps the axis parallel to its self , makes each of the poles constantly respect such a point in the heavens ; as for example , the north-pole to point almost directly to that which we call the pole-star . and besides , dialling could not be at all without this steadiness of the axis . but both these arts are pleasant , and one especially of mighty importance to mankind . for thus there is an orderly measuring of our time for affairs at home , and an opportunity of traffick abroad with the most remote nations of the world , and so there is a mutual supply of the several commodities of all countries , besides the enlarging our understandings by so ample experience we get both of men and things . wherefore if we were rationally to consult , whether the axis of the earth were better be held steady and parallel to it self , or left at random , we would conclude it ought to be steady , and so we find it de facto , though the earth move floating in the liquid heavens . so that appealing to our own faculties we are to affirm , that the constant direction of the axis of the earth was established by a principle of wisdom and counsel . again , there being several postures of this steady direction of the axis of the earth . viz. either perpendicular to a plain , going through the center of the sun , or coincident , or inclining , i demand which of all these reason and knowledge would make choice of . not of a perpendicular posture . for so both the pleasant variety and great convenience of summer and winter , spring and autumn would be lost , and for want of accession of the sun , these parts of the earth , which now bring forth fruits , and are habitable , would be in an incapacity of ever bringing forth any , and consequently could entertain no inhabitants , and those parts that the full heat of the sun could reach , he plying them always alike without any annual recession or intermission , would at last grow tired or exhausted , or be wholly dried up and want moisture , the sun dissipating and casting off the clouds northwards and southwards . besides , we observe that an orderly vicissitude of things , doth much more gratifie the contemplative property in man. and now in the second place , neither would reason make choice of a coincident position . for if the axis thus lay in a plain that goeth through the center of the sun , the ecliptick would like a colure or one of the meridians , pass through the poles of the earth , which would put the inhabitants of the world , into a pitiful condition . for they that escape best in the temperate zone would be accloyed with long nights very tedious , no less than forty days , and those that now never have their night above twenty four hours , as friesland island , the furthest parts of russia and norway would be deprived of the sun , above a hundred and thirty days together . our selves in england and the rest of the same clime would be closed up in darkness no less than a hundred or eighty days : and so proportionably of the rest both in and out of the temperate zones . and as for summer and winter , though those vicissitudes would be , yet it could not but cause raging diseases , to have the sun stay so long , describing his little circles so near the poles , and lying so hot on the inhabitants , that had been in so long extremity of darkness and cold before . it remains therefore , that the posture of the axis of the earth be inclining not perpendicular nor coincident to the fore-mentioned plain . and verily , it is not only inclining , but in so fit a proportion , that there can be no fitter imagined to make it to the utmost capacity as well pleasant as habitable . for though the course of the sun be curbed between the tropicks , yet are not those parts directly subject to his perpendicular beams , either unhabitable or extremely hot , as the ancients fansied : by the testimony of travellers , and particularly sir walter ralegh , the parts under and near the line , being as fruitful and pleasant , and fit to make a paradise of , as any in the world. and that they are as suitable to the nature of man , and as convenient to live in , appears from the longaevity of the natives ; as for instance , the aethiopes called by the ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but especially the brasilians in america , the ordinary term of whose life is a hundred years , as is set down by piso a learned physitian of holland , who travelled thither on purpose to augment natural knowledge , but especially what related to physick . and reasonable it is , that this should be so , for neither doth the sun lie long upon them , their day being but twelve hours , and their night as long , to cool and refresh them ; and besides , they have frequent showers , and constant breezes or fresh gales of wind from the east . seeing then , this best posture which our reason could make choice of , we see really established in nature , we cannot but acknowledge it to be the issue of wisdom , counsel and providence . moreover , a further argument to evince this is , that though it cannot but be acknowledged , that if the axis of the earth were perpendicular to the plain of the ecliptick , her motion would be more easie and natural , yet notwithstanding for the conveniencies forementioned , we see it is made in an inclining posture . if any man shall object and say , it would be more convenient for the inhabitants of the earth , if the tropicks stood at a greater distance , and the sun moved further northward and southward , for so the north and south parts would be relieved , and not exposed to so extreme cold , and thereby rendred unhabitable as now they are . to this i answer , that this would be more inconvenient to the inhabitants of the earth in general , and yet would afford the north and south parts but little more comfort . for then as much as the distances between the tropicks were enlarg'd , so much would also the artick and antartick circles be enlarg'd too ; and so we here in england , and so on northerly should not have that grateful and useful succession of day and night , but proportionably to the suns coming towards us , so would our days be of more than twenty four hours length , and according to his recess in winter our nights proportionable ; which how great an inconvenience it would be , is easily seen . whereas now the whole latitude of earth , which hath at any time above twenty four hours day , and twenty four hours night , is little and inconsiderable in comparison of the whole bulk , as lying near the poles . and yet neither is that part altogether unuseful , for in the waters there live fishes , which otherwhere are not obvious , so we know the chief whale-fishing is in greenland : and on the land , bears , and foxes , and deer , in the most northerly country , that was ever yet touched , and doubtless if we shall discover further to the very north-pole , we shall find all that tract not to be vain , useless or unoccupied . thirdly , the third and last thing i proposed , was the constitution and consistency of the parts of the earth . and first , admirable it is that the waters should be gathered together into such great conceptacula , and the dry land appear , and though we had not been assured thereof by divine revelation , we could not in reason , but have thought such a division and separation , to have been the work of omnipotency and infinite wisdom and goodness . for in this condition the water nourishes and maintains innumerable multitudes of various kinds of fishes : and the dry land supports and feeds as great varieties of plants and animals , which have there firm footing and habitation . whereas had all been earth , all the species of fishes had been lost , and all those commodities which the water affords us ; or all water , there had been no living for plants or terrestrial animals , or man himself , and all the beauty , glory , and variety of this inferiour world had been gone , nothing being to be seen , but one uniform dark body of water : or had all been mixt and made up of water and earth into one body of mud or mire , as one would think , should be most natural : for why such a separation as at present we find should be made , no account can be given , but providence . i say , had all this globe been mire or mud , then could there have been no possibility for any animals at all to have lived , excepting some few , and those very dull and inferiour ones too . that therefore the earth should be made thus , and not only so , but with so great variety of parts , as mountains , plains , vallies , sand , gravel , lime , stone , clay , marble , argilla , &c. which are so delectable and pleasant , and likewise so useful and convenient for the breeding and living of various plants and animals ; some affecting mountains , some plains , some vallies , some watery places , some shade , some sun , some clay , some sand , some gravel , &c. that the earth should be so figured as to have mountains in the mid-land parts , abounding with springs of water pouring down streams and rivers for the necessities and conveniencies of the inhabitants of the lower countries ; and that the levels and plains should be formed with so easie a declivity as to cast off the water , and yet not render travelling or tillage very difficult or laborious . these things i say , must needs be the result of counsel , wisdom , and design . especially when ( as i said before ) not that way which seems more facile and obvious to chance is chosen , but that which is more difficult and hard to be traced , when it is most convenient and proper for those nobler ends and designs , which were intended by its wise creator and governor . add to all this , that the whole dry land is for the most part , covered over with a lovely carpet of green grass and other herbs , of a colour , not only most grateful and agreeable , but most useful and salutary to the eye : and this also decked and adorned with great variety of flowers of beautiful colours and figures , and of most pleasant and fragrant odours for the refreshment of our spirits and our innocent delight . a second particular i have made choice of , more exactly to survey and consider , is the body of man : wherein i shall endeavour to discover something of the wisdom and goodness of god. first , by making some general observations concerning the body . secondly , by running over and discoursing upon its principal parts and members . . then in general i say , the wisdom and goodness of god appears in the erect posture of the body of man , which is a priviledge and advantage given to man , above other animals . but though this be so , yet i would not have you think , that all the particulars i shall mention , are proper only to the body of man , divers of them agreeing to many other creatures . it is not my business to consider only the prerogatives of man above other animals , but the endowments and perfections which nature hath conferred on his body though common to them with him . of this erection of the body of man , the ancients have taken notice as a particular gift and favour of god. ovid. metam . . pronáque cùm spectent animalia caetera terrā , os hominum sublime dedit , coelúmque tueri jussit , & erectos ad sydera tollere vultus . and before him , tully in his second book de nat. deorum . ad hanc providentiam naturae tam diligentem támque solertem adjungi multa possunt , è quibus intelligatur quantae res hominibus à deo , quámque eximiae tributae sunt , qui primùm eos humo excitatos , celsos & erectos constituit , ut deorum cognitionem coelum intuentes capere possent . sunt enim è terra homines , non ut incolae atque habitatores , sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque coelestium , quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet . man being the only creature in this sublunary world , made to contemplate heaven , it was convenient that he should have such a figure or situs of the parts of his body , that he might conveniently look upwards . but to say the truth in this respect of contemplating the heavens or looking upwards , i do not see what advantage a man hath by this erection above other animals , the faces of most of them being more supine than ours , which are only perpendicular to the horizon , whereas some of theirs stand reclining . but yet two or three other advantages we have of this erection , which i shall here mention . first , it is more commodious for the sustaining of the head , which being full of brains and very heavy ( the brain in man being far larger in proportion to the bulk of his body , than in any other animal ) would have been very painful and wearisome to carry , if the neck had lain parallel or inclining to the horizon . secondly , this figure is most convenient for prospect and looking about one . a man may see further before him , which is no small advantage for avoiding dangers , and discovering whatever he searches after . thirdly , the conveniency of this site of our bodies will more clearly appear , if we consider what a pitiful condition we had been in , if we had been constantly necessitated to stand and walk upon all four , man being by the make of his body , of all quadrupeds ( for now i must compare him with them ) the most unfit for that kind of incessus , as i shall shew anon . and besides that we should have wanted , at least in a great measure , the use of our hand , that unvaluable instrument , without which we had wanted most of those advantages we enjoy as reasonable creatures , as i shall more particularly demonstrate afterwards . but it may be perchance objected by some , that nature did not intend this erection of the body , but that it is superinduced and artificial ; for that children at first creep on all four , according to that of the poet. mox quadrupes , ritúque tulit sua membra ferarum . ovid. to which i answer , that there is so great an inequality in the length of our legs and arms , as would make it extremely inconvenient , if not impossible , for us to walk upon all four , and set us almost upon our heads ; and therefore we see that children do not creep upon their hands and feet , but upon their hands and knees ; so that it is plain that nature intended us to walk as we do , and not upon all four. . i argue from the situs or position of our faces ; for had we been to walk upon all four we had been the most prone of all animals , our faces being parallel to the horizon and looking directly downwards . . the greatness and strength of the muscles of the thighs and legs above those of the arms , is a clear indication , that they were by nature intended for a more difficult and laborious action , even the moving and transferring the whole body , and that motion to be sometimes continued for a great while together . as for that argument taken from the contrary flexure of the joynts of our arms and legs to that of quadrupeds ; as that our knees bend forward , whereas the same joynt of their hind legs bends backward ; and that our arms bend backward , whereas the knees of their fore legs bend forward . although the observation be as old as aristotle , because i think there is a mistake in it , in not comparing the same joynts ( for the first or uppermost joynt in a quadrupeds hind legs bends forward as well as a mans knees , which answer to it being the uppermost joynt of our legs ; and the like mutatis mutandis may be said of the arms ) i shall not insist upon it . ii. the body of man may thence be proved to be the effect of wisdom , because there is nothing in it deficient , nothing superfluous , nothing but hath its end and use ; so true are those maximes we have already made use of , natura nihil facit frustra , and natura non abundat in superfluis , nec deficit in necessariis , no part that we can well spare . the eye cannot say to the hand i have no need of thee , nor the head to the feet i have no need of you . . cor. . . that i may usurp the apostles similitude . the belly cannot quarrel with the members , nor they with the belly for her seeming sloth ; as they provide meat for her , so she concocts and distributes it to them . only it may be doubted to what use the paps in men should serve . i answer partly for ornament , partly for a kind of conformity between the sexes , and partly to defend and cherish the heart ; in some they contain milk , as in a danish family we read of in bartholines anatomical observations . however it follows not that they or any other parts of the body are useless because we are ignorant . had we been born with a large wen upon our faces , or a bavarian poke under our chins , or a great bunch upon our backs like camels , or any the like superfluous excrescency , which should be not only useless but troublesome , not only stand us in no stead but also be ill favoured to behold , and burthensom to carry about , then we might have had some pretence to doubt whether an intelligent and bountiful creator had been our architect ; for had the body been made by chance it must in all likelyhood have had many of these superfluous and unnecessary parts . but now seeing there is none of our members but hath its place and use , none that we could spare or conveniently live without , were it but those we account excrements , the hair of our heads , or the nails on our fingers ends ; we must needs be mad or sottish if we can conceive any other than that an infinitely good and wise god was our author and former . iii. we may fetch an argument of the wisdom and providence of god from the convenient situation and disposition of the parts and members of our bodies : they are seated most conveniently for use , for ornament , and for mutual assistance . first , for use ; so we see the senses of such eminent use for our well-being , situate in the head , as sentinels in a watch-tower , to receive and conveigh to the soul the impressions of external objects . sensus autem interpretes ac nuntii rerum in capite tanquam in arce mirificè ad usus necessarios & facti & collati sunt . cic. de nat. deorum . the eye can more easily see things at a distance , the ear receive sounds from afar : how could the eye have been better placed either for beauty and ornament , or for the guidance and direction of the whole body . as cicero proceeds well , nam oculi tanquam speculatores altissimum locum obtinent , ex quo plurima conspicientes funguntur suo munere : et aures quoe sonum recipere debent , qui naturâ in sublime fertur , rectè in altis corporum partibus collocatae sunt ; itemque nares , eò quò omnis odor ad superiora fertur , rectè sursum sunt . for the eyes like sentinels occupy the highest place , from whence seeing many things they perform their functions : and the ears , which are made for the reception of sounds , which naturally are carried upwards , are rightly placed in the uppermost parts of the body ; also the nostrils , because all odors ascend , are fitly situate in the superior parts . i might instance in the other members . how could the hands have been more conveniently placed for all sorts of exercises and works , and for the guard and security of the head and principal parts ? the heart to dispense life and heat to the whole body , viz. near the center , and yet because it is harder for the blood to ascend than descend , somewhat nearer the head. it is also observable that the sinks of the body are removed as far from the nose and eyes as may be ; which cicero takes notice of in the forementioned place . ut in aedificiis architecti avertunt ab oculis & naribus dominorum ea quae profluentia necessariò essent tetri aliquid habitura , sic natura res similes procul amandavit à sensibus . secondly , for ornament . what could have been better contrived than that those members which are pairs , should stand by one another in equal altitude , and answer on each side one to another . and thirdly , for mutual assistance . we have before shewed how the eye stands most conveniently for guiding the hand , and the hand for defending the eye ; and the like might be said of the other parts , they are so situaté as to afford direction and help one to another . this will appear more clearly if we imagine any of the members situate in contrary places or positions : had a mans arms been fitted only to bend backwards behind him , or his legs only to move backwards ; what direction could his eyes then have afforded him in working or walking ? or how could he then have fed himself ? nay had one arm been made to bend forward and the other directly backward , we had then lost half the use of them , sith they could not have assisted one the other in any action . take the eyes or any other of the organs of sense , and see if you can find any so convenient a seat for them in the whole body as that they now possess . fourthly , from the ample provision that is made for the defence and security of the principal parts : those are , . the heart ; which is the fountain of life and vegetation , officina spirituum vitalium , principium & fons caloris nativi , lucerna humidi radicalis , and that i may speak with the chymists , ipse sol microcosmi , the very sun of the microcosme or little world , in which is contained that vital flame or heavenly fire , which prometheus is fabled to have stole from jupiter : or as aristotle phrases it , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , divinum quid respondens elemento stellarum . this for more security is situate in the center of the trunk of the body , covered first with its own membrane called pericardium , lodged within the soft bed of the lungs , encompassed round with a double fence , ( . ) of firm bones or ribs to bear off blows . ( . ) of thick muscles and skin , besides the arms conveniently placed to fence off any violence at a distance , before it can approach to hurt it . . the brain , which is the principle of all sense and motion , the fountain of the animal spirits , the chief seat and palace royal of the soul ; upon whose security depends whatever privilege belongs to us as sensitive or rational creatures . this , i say , being the prime and immediate organ of the soul , from the right constitution whereof proceeds the quickness of apprehension , acuteness of wit , solidity of judgment , method and order of invention , strength and power of memory ; which if once weakened and disordered , there follows nothing but confusion and disturbance in our apprehensions , thoughts and judgments , is environed round about with such a potent defence , that it must be amighty force indeed that is able to injure it . first , a skull so hard , thick , and tough , that it is almost as easie to split a helmet of iron as to make a fracture in it . . this covered with skin and hair , which serve to keep it warm being naturally a very cold part , and also to quench and dissipate the force of any stroke that shall be dealt it , and retund the edge of any weapon . . and yet more than all this there is still a thick and tough membrane which hangs looser about it , and doth not so closely embrace it ( that they call dura mater ) and in case the skull happens to be broken doth often preserve it from injury and diminution : and lastly , a thin and fine membrane strait and closely adhering to keep it from quashing and shaking . i might instance ( . ) in the lungs , which are so useful to us as to life and sense , that the vulgar think our breath is our very life , and that we breath out our souls from thence . suteable to which notion both anima and spiritus in latine , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek are derived from words that signifie breath and wind : and efflare or exhalare animam signifies to die. and the old romans used to apply mouth to mouth , and receive the last gasps of their dying friends , as if their souls had come out that way . from hence perhaps might first spring that opinion of the vehicles of spirits ; the vulgar , as i hinted before , conceiving that the breath was , if not the soul itself , yet that wherein it was wafted and carried away . these lungs , i say , are for their bettter security and defence shut up in the same cavity with the heart . fourthly , in the abundant provision that is made against evil accidents and inconveniencies . and the liberality of nature as to this particular appears . in that she hath given many members , which are of eminent use by pairs , as two eyes , two ears , two nostrils , two hands , two feet , two breasts , [ mammae ] two reins : that so if by any cross or unhappy accident one should be disabled or rendred useless , the other might serve us tolerably well , whereas had a man but one hand , or one eye , &c. if that were gone , all were gone , and we left in evil case . see then and acknowledg the benignity of the deity , who hath bestowed upon us two hands , and two eyes , and other the like parts not only for our necessity but conveniency , so long as we enjoy them : and for our security in case any mischance deprive us of one of them . . in that all the vessels of the body have many ramifications : which particular branches , though they serve mainly for one member or muscle , yet send forth some twigs to the neighbouring muscles ; and so interchangeably the branches that serve these , send to them : so that if one branch chance to be cut off or obstructed , its defect may in some measure be supplied by the twigs that come from the neighbouring vessels . . in that she hath provided so many ways to evacuate what might be hurtful to us or breed diseases in our bodies . if any thing oppress the head it hath a power to free itself by sneezing : if any thing fall into the lungs , or if any humor be discharged upon them , they have a faculty of clearing themselves and casting it up by coughing : if any thing clog or burden the stomach , it hath an ability of contracting itself and throwing it up by vomit . besides these ways of evacuation there are siege , urine , sweating haemorrhagies from the nose and haemorrhoidal veins , fluxes of rheum . now the reason why nature hath provided so many ways of evacuation is because of the different humors that are to be avoided or cast out . when therefore there is a secretion made of any noxious humor , it is carried off by that emunctory whose pores are fitted to receive and transmit the minute parts of it ; if at least this separation be made by percolation , as we will now suppose , but not assert . yet i doubt not but the same humor may be cast off by divers emunctories , as is clear in urine and sweat which are for the main the same humor carried off several ways . fifthly , from the constancy that is observed in the number , figure , place , and make of all the principal parts ; and from the variety in the less . man is always mending and altering his works : but nature observes the same tenour , because her works are so perfect that there is no place for amendments ; nothing that can be reprehended . the sagacious men in so many ages have not been able to find any flaw in these divinely contrived and formed machins , no blot or errour in this great volume of the world , as if any thing had been an imperfect essay at the first , to use the bishop of chesters words : nothing that can be altered for the better ; nothing but if it were altered would be marred . this could not have been , had mans body been the work of chance and not counsel and providence . why should there be constantly the same parts ? why should they retain constantly the same places ? why should they be endued with the same shape and figure ? nothing so contrary as constancy and chance . should i see a man throw the same number a thousand times together upon but three dice , could you perswade me that this were accidental and that there was no necessary cause of it ? how much more incredible then is it that constancy in such a variety , such a multiplicity of parts should be the result of chance ? neither yet can these works be the effects of necessity or fate , for then there would be the same constancy observed in the smaller as well as the larger parts and vessels ; whereas there we see nature doth ludere , as it were , sport itself , the minute ramifications of all the vessels , veins , arteries , and nerves infinitely varying in individuals of the same species , so that they are not in any two alike . sixthly , the great wisdom of the divine creator appears in that there is pleasure annexed to those actions that are necessary for the support and preservation of the individuum , and the continuation and propagation of the species ; and not only so , but pain to the neglect or forbearance of them . for the support of the person it hath annexed pleasure to eating and drinking : which else out of laziness or multiplicity of business a man would be apt to neglect , or sometime forget . indeed to be obliged to chew and swallow meat daily for two hours space , and to find no relish nor pleasure in it , would be one of the most burthensome and ungrateful tasks of a mans whole life . but because this action is absolutely necessary , for abundant security nature hath inserted in us a painful sense of hunger to put us in mind of it , and to reward our performance hath adjoined pleasure to it . and as for the continuation of kind , i need not tell you that the enjoyments which attend those actions are the highest gratifications of sense . seventhly , the wonderful art and providence of the contriver and former of our bodies appears in the multitude of intentions he must have in the formation of the several parts , or the qualifications they require to fit them for their several uses . * galen in his book de formatione faetus , takes notice that there are in a humane body above . several muscles , and there are at least ten several intentions or due qualifications to be observed in each of these ; proper figure , just magnitude , right disposition of its several ends , upper and lower , position of the whole , the insertion of its proper nerves , veins , and arteries , which are each of them to be duly placed ; so that about the muscles alone no less than several ends or aims are to be attended to . the bones are reckoned to be . the distinct scopes or intentions in each of these are above , in all about . and thus is it in some proportion with all the other parts , the skin , ligaments , vessels , glandules , humors : but more especially with the several members of the body , which do in regard of the great variety and multitude of those several intentions required to them , very much exceed the homogeneous parts . and the failing in any one of these would cause irregularity in the body , and in many of them such as would be very notorious . now to imagine that such a machine composed of so many parts , to the right form , order and motion whereof such an infinite number of intentions are required , could be made without the contrivance of some wise agent , must needs be irrational in the highest degree . eighthly , some fetch an argument of providence from the variety of lineaments in the faces of men , which is such , that there are not two faces in the world absolutely alike ; which is somewhat strange , since all the parts are in specie the same . were nature a blind architect , i see not but the faces of some men might be as like as eggs laid by the same hen , or bullets cast in the same mould , or drops of water out of the same bucket . this particular i find taken notice of by pliny in his . book , cap. . in these words , jam in facie vultuque nostro , cum sint decem aut paulò plura membra , nullas duas in tot millibus hominum indiscretas effigies existere , quod ars nulla in paucis numero praestet affectando ; to which among other things he thus prefaces , naturae verò rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fide caret . though this at first may seem to be a matter of small moment , yet if duly considered , it will appear to be of mighty importance in all human affairs : for should there be an undiscernable similitude between divers men , what confusion and disturbance would necessarily follow ? what uncertainty in all sales and conveyances , in all bargains and contracts ? what frauds and cheats and suborning of witnesses ? what a subversion of all trade and commerce ? what hazard in all judicial proceedings ? in all assaults and batteries , in all murthers and assassinations , in thefts and robberies , what security would there be to malefactors ? who could swear that such and such were the persons that committed the facts , though they saw them never so clearly ? many other inconveniences might be instanced in : so that we see this is no contemptible argument of the wisdom and goodness of god. i have done with my general observations . i proceed now more accurately and minutely to consider some particular parts or members of the body ; and first the head , because it was to contain a large brain made of the most capacious figure , as near as could be to a spherical ; upon this grows the hair , which though it be esteemed an excrement , is of great use ( as i shewed before ) to cherish and keep warm the brain , and to quench the force of any stroke that might otherwise endanger the skull . it serves also to disburthen the brain of a great deal of superfluous moisture , wherewith it abounds ; and for a graceful ornament to the face . secondly , another member which i shall more particularly treat of , is the eye , a part so artificially composed , and commodiously situate , as nothing can be contrived better for use , ornament or security ; nothing to advantage added thereto or altered therein . of the beauty of the eye i shall say little , leaving that to poets and orators ; that it is a very pleasant and lovely object to behold , if we consider the figure , colors and splendor of it , is the least that i can say . the soul as it is more immediately and strongly moved and affected by this part than any other ; so doth it manifest all its passions and perturbations by this . as the eyes are the windows to let in the species of all exterior objects into the dark cels of the brain , for the information of the soul ; so are they flaming torches to reveal to those abroad how the soul within is moved or affected . these repre sentations made by the impressions of external objects upon the eye are the most clear , lively and distinct of any others . now to this use and purpose of informing us what is abroad round about us in this aspectable world , we shall find the structure and mechanism of the eye , and every part thereof so well fitted and adapted , as not the least curiosity can be added . for first of all , all the humors and tunicles are purely transparent , to let in the light and colors unfolded and unsophisticated by any inward tincture . it is usually said by the peripateticks , that the crystalline humor of the eye ( which they ineptly fansied to be the immediate organ of vision wherein all the species of external objects were terminated ) is without all color , because its office was to discern all colors , or at least to receive the species of several colors , and convey them to the common sense . now if itself had been coloured , it would have transmitted all visible objects tinctured with the same color ; as we see whatever is beheld through a coloured glass appears of the same color with the glass , and to those that have the jaundice or the like suffusion of eyes , objects appear of that same color wherewith their eyes are infected . this they say is in a great measure true , although they are much mistaken about the organ and manner of vision , and the uses of the humors and membranes of the eye . two reasons therefore may be assigned why all the membranes and humors of the eye are perfectly pellucid and void of color . first , for the clearness . secondly , for the distinctness of vision . i. the clearness . for had the tunicles and humors of the eye , all or any of them been colorate , many of the rays proceeding from the visible object would have been stopt and suffocated before they could come to the bottom of the eye , where the formal organ of vision is situate . for it is a most certain rule , how much any body hath of colour , so much hath it of opacity , and by so much the more unfit is it to transmit the species . . for the distinctness of vision . for , as i said before and the peripateticks observe well , were the humours of the eye tinctured with any colour , they would refund that colour upon the object , and so it would not be represented to the soul as in itself it is . so we see that through a coloured glass things appear as well more dim and obscure , as tinctured with the colour thereof . secondly , the parts of the eye are made convex , and especially the crystalline humour , which is of a lenticular figure , convex on both sides , that by the refractions there made there might be a direction of many rays coming from one point in the object , viz. as many as the pupil can receive , to one point answerable in the bottom of the eye ; without which the sense would be very obscure and also confused . there would be as much difference in the clearness and distinction of vision , where the outward surface of the tunica cornea plain , and the crystalline humor removed ; as between the picture received on a white paper in a dark room through an open or empty hole , and the same received through a hole furnished with an exactly polished lenticular crystal ; which how great it is any one that hath but seen this experiment made , knows well enough . indeed this experiment doth very much explain the manner of vision ; the hole answering to the pupil of the eye , the crystalline humour to the lenticular glass , the dark room to the cavity containing the vitreous humour , and the white paper to the tunica retina . thirdly , the uveous coat or iris of the eye hath a musculous power , and can dilate and contract that round hole in it , called the pupil or sight of the eye . it contracts it for the excluding superfluous light , and preserving the eye from being injured by too vehement and lucid an object , and again dilate it for the apprehending objects more remote , or placed in a fainter light ; tam miro artificio ( saith scheiner ) quàm munifica naturae largitate . if any one desires to make experiment of these particulars , he may , following scheiner and des cartes their directions , take a child , and setting a candle before him bid him look upon it : and he shall observe his pupil to contract itself very much , to exclude the light , with the brightness whereof it would otherwise be dazled and offended ; as we are when after we have been some time in the dark a bright light is suddenly brought in and set before us , till the pupils of our eyes have gradually contracted themselves : let the candle be withdrawn , or removed aside , he shall observe the childs pupil by degrees to dilate itself . or let him take a bead or the like object , and holding it near the eye , command the child to look at it , the pupil will contract much when the object is near ; but let it be withdrawn to a greater distance in the same light , and he shall observe the pupil to be much enlarged . fourthly , the uveous coat , and also the inside of the choroides are blackened like the walls of a tennis court , that the rays may be there suffocated and suppressed , and not reflected backwards to confound the sight : and if any be by the retiform coat reflected , they are soon choaked in the black inside of the uvea . whereas were they reflected to and fro , there could be no distinct vision ; as we see the light admited into the dark room we even now spake of , obliterates the species which before were seen upon the white cloth or paper . fifthly , because the rays from a nearer and from a more remote object do not meet just in the same distance behind the crystalline humour ( as may easily be observed in lenticular glasses , where the point of concourse of the rays from a nearer object is at a greater distance behind the glass , and from a further at a lesser ) therefore the ciliary processes , or rather the ligaments observed in the inside of the sclerotick tunicle of the eye , by a late ingenious anatomist , do serve instead of a muscle , by their contraction to alter the figure of the eye , and make it broader , and consequently draw the retine nearer to the crystalline humour , and by their relaxation suffer it to return to its natural distance according to the exigency of the object , in respect of distance or propinquity : and besides possibly the ciliary processes may by their constriction or relaxation , render the crystalline itself more gibbose or plain ; and with the help of the muscles a little alter the figure of the whole eye , for the same reason . to what i have said might be added , that the retiform tunicle is whitish , for the better and more true reception of the species of things . that there being a distance necessarily required for the collection of the rays received by the pupil , viz. those that proceed from one point of the object to one point again in the bottom of the eye , the retine must needs be set at a distance from the crystalline humour : and therefore nature hath provided a large room , and filled it with the pellucid vitreous humour most fit for that purpose . i must not omit a notable observation concerning the place of the insertion of the optick nerve into the bulb of the eye , and the reason of it ; which i owe to that learned mathematician peter herigon , nervus opticus ( saith he in his optica ) ad latus ponitur , ne pars imaginis in ejus foramen incidens picturâ careat . the optick nerve is not situate directly behind the eye , but on one side , lest that part of the image that falls upon the hole of the optick nerve , should want its picture . this i do not conceive to be the true reason of this situation ; for even now as it is situate , that part of the object whose rays fall upon the center or hole of the optick nerve , wants its picture , as we find by experience ; that part not being seen by us , though we heed it not . but the reason is , because if the optick axis should fall upon this center ( as it would do were the nerve seated just behind the eye ) this great inconvenience would follow , that the middle point of every object we viewed would be invisible , or there would a dark spot appear in the midst of it . thus we see the admirable wisdom of nature in thus placing the optick nerve in respect of the eye ; which he that did not consider or understand would be apt to think more inconveniently situate for vision , than if it had been right behind . another thing also concerning vision is most remarkable , that though there be a decussation of the rays in the pupil of the eye , and so the image of the object in the retina or bottom of the eye be inverted , yet doth not the object appear inverted , but in its right or natural posture : the reason whereof is because the visual rays coming in streight lines , by those points of the sensory or retina which they touch , affect the common sense or soul according to their direction ; that is , signifie to it that those several parts of the object from whence they proceed lie in streight lines ( point for point ) drawn through the pupil to the several points of the sensory where they terminate , and which they press upon . whereupon the soul must needs conceive the object , not in an inverted but a right posture . and that the nerves are naturally made not only to inform the soul of external objects which press upon them , but also of the situation of such objects , is clear , because if the eyes be distorted , the object , will we nill we , will appear double . so if the fore and middle fingers be cross'd , and a round body put between them and moved , it will seem to be two ; the reason is , because in that posture of the fingers the body touches the outsides of them , which in their natural site are distant one from another , and their nerves made to signifie to the soul bodies separate and distant in like manner , two fingers lying between them . and though our reason by the help of our sight corrects this errour , yet cannot we but fansie it to be so . neither is the aqueous humor , as some may supinely imagine , altogether useless or unprofitable as to vision , because by its help the uvea tunica is sustained , which else would fall flat upon the crystalline humor ; and fluid it must be , to give way to the contraction and dilatation of the uveous : and because the outermost coat of the eye might chance to be wounded or pricked , and this humor being fluid let out , therefore nature hath made provision speedily to repair it again in such a case . moreover it is remarkable that the cornea tunica , [ horny or pellucid coat of the eye ] doth not lie in the same superficies with the white of the eye , but riseth up as it were a hillock above its convexity , and is of an hyperbolical or parabolical figure : so that though the eye seems to be perfectly round , in reality it is not so , but the iris thereof is protuberant above the white ; and the reason is because that if the cornea tunica or crystalline humor had been concentrical to the sclerodes , the eye could not have admitted a whole hemisphere at one view , & sic animalis incolumitati in multis rebus minùs cautum esset , as scheiner well . in many things there had not been sufficient caution or care taken for the animals safety . and now ( that i may use the words of a late * author of our own ) the eye is already so perfect , that i believe the reason of a man would easily have rested here , and admired at his own contrivance . for he being able to move his whole body upward and downward and on every side , might have unawares thought himself sufficiently well provided for ; but nature hath added muscles also to the eyes , that no perfection might be wanting : for we have often occasson to move our eyes , our head being unmoved , as in reading and viewing more particularly any object set before us , by transferring the axes of our eyes all over it : and that this may be done with the more ease and accuracy , she hath furnished this organ with no less than six muscles , to move it upward , downward , to the right and left , obliquely and round about . i shall now consider what provision is made for the defence and security of this most excellent and useful part. first the eyes are sunk in a convenient valley , latent utiliter , and are encompassed round with eminent parts , as with a rampart , & excelsis undique partibus sepiuntur , * cic. so are defended from the strokes of any flat or broad bodies . above stand the eye-brows to keep off any thing from running down upon them , as drops of sweat from the forehead , or dust , or the like . superiora superciliis obducta sudorem à capite & fronte defluentem repellunt . cic. then follow the eye-lids , which fence them from any sudden and lesser stripes . these also round the edges are fortified with stiff bristles , as it were pallisadoes , against the incursions of importunate animals , serving partly as a fan to strike away flyes or gnats , or any other troublesome insect ; and partly to keep off superfluous light , munitaeque sunt palpebrae tanquam vallo pilorum , quibus & apertis oculis siquid incideret repelleretur . idem ibid. and because it was necessary that man and other animals should sleep , which could not be so well done if the light came in by the windows of the eyes , therefore hath nature provided these curtains to be then drawn to keep it out . and because the outward coat of the eye ought to be pellucid to transmit the light , which if the eyes should always stand open , would be apt to grow dry and shrink , and lose their diaphaneity , therefore are the eylids so contrived as often to wink , that so they may as it were glaze and varnish them over with the moisture they contain , and withal wipe off whatever dust or filth may stick to them : and this , lest they should hinder the sight , they do with the greatest celerity . cicero hath taken notice that they are made very soft , lest they should hurt the sight . mollissimae tactu nè laederent aciem , aptissimè factae & ad claudendas pupillas ne quid incideret , & ad aperiendas , idque providit ut identidem fieri posset maxima cum celeritate . secondly , if we consider the bulb or ball of the eye , the exteriour membrane or coat thereof is made thick , tough , and strong , that it is a very hard matter to make a rupture in it , and besides so slippery that it eludes the force of any stroke , to which also its globular figure gives it a very great advantage . lastly , because for the guidance and direction of the body in walking and any exercise , it is necessary the eye should be uncovered , and exposed to the air at all times and in all weathers , therefore the most wise author of nature hath provided for it a hot bed of fat which fills up the interstices of the muscles ; and besides made it more patient and less sensible of cold than our other parts ; and though i cannot say with cicero absolutely free from danger or harm by that enemy , yet least obnoxious to the injuries thereof of any part , and not at all , unless it be immoderate and extreme . to all this i might add the convenience of the situation of the eye in respect of its proximity to the brain , the seat of apprehension and common sense : whereas had they been further removed , the optic nerves had been liable to many more dangers and inconveniencies than now they are . seeing then the eye is composed of so great variety of parts all conspiring to the use of vision , whereof some are absolutely necessary , others very useful and convenient , none idle or superfluous , and which is remarkable , many of them of a different figure and consistency from any others in the body besides , as being transparent , which it was absolutely necessary they should be , to transmit the rays of light ; who can but believe that this organ was designed and made purposely for the use for which it serves ? neither is it to be esteemed any defect or imperfection in the eyes of man that they want the seventh muscle , or the nictating membrane , which the eyes of many other animals are furnished withal ; for though they be very useful , and in a manner necessary to them , considering their manner of living , yet are they not so to man. to such beasts as feed upon grass and other herbs , and therefore are forced to hold their eyes long in a hanging posture , and to look downwards for the chusing and gathering of their food , the seventh or suspensory muscle is very useful , to enable them to do so without much pain or weariness ; yet to man , who doth not , nor hath any occasion , indeed cannot hold his head or look long downwards , it would be useless and superfluous . as for the nictating membrane or periophthalmium , which all birds , and i think most quadrupeds are furnished with , i have been long in doubt what the use of it might be ; and have sometimes thought it was for the more abundant defence and security of the eye ; but then i was puzzled to give any tolerable account why nature should be more solicitous for the preservation of the eyes of brutes than men , and in this respect also be a stepmother to the most noble creature . but the hon ble author formerly mentioned , gives a probable account why frogs and birds are furnished with such a membrane . frogs , because being amphibious animals , designed to pass their lives in watery places , which for the most part abound with sedges , and other plants endowed with sharp edges or points ; and the progressive motion of this animal being to be made not by walking , but by leaping , if his eyes were not provided of such a sheath , he must either shut them , and so leap blindly and by consequence dangerously , or by leaving them open run a venture to have the cornea cut , prickt , or otherwise offended by the edges or points of the plants , or what may fall from them upon the animals eye : whereas this membrane ( being something transparent as well as strong ) is like a kind of spectacle that covers the eye without taking away the sight . birds are likewise furnished with it , because being destinated to fly among the branches of trees and bushes , their prickles , twigs , leaves or other parts would be apt otherwise to wound or offend their eyes . but yet still we are to seek why it is given to other quadrupeds , whose eyes are in no such danger . thirdly , the ear another organ of sence , how admirably is it contrived for the receiving and conveying of sounds ? first , there is the outward ear or auricula , made hollow and contracted by degrees to draw the sound inward , to take in as much as may be of it , as we use a funnel to pour liquor into any vessel . and therefore if the auricula be cut clear off , the hearing is much impaired , and almost quite marred , as hath been by experience found . from the auricula is extended a small long , round hole inward into the head , to intend the motion and so augment the force of the sound , as we see in a shooting trunk , the longer it is to a certain limit , the swifter and more forcibly the air passes in it , and drives the pellet . at the end of this hole is a membrane , fastned to a round bony limb , and stretched like the head of a drum , and therefore by anatomists called also tympanum , to receive the impulse of the sound , and to vibrate or quaver according to its reciprocal motions or vibrations ; the small ear-bones being at the end fastned to the tympanum , and furnished with a muscle serve for the tension of that membrane , or the relaxation of it according to the exigency of the animal , it being stretch'd to the utmost when it would hearken diligently to a lower or more distant sound . behind the drum are several vaults and anfractuose cavities in the ear-bone , filled only with what naturalists call the implanted air ; so to intend the least sound imaginable , that the sense might be affected with it ; as we see in subterraneous caves and vaults how the sound is redoubled , and what a great report it makes however moderate it be : and because it was for the behoof of the animal , that upon any sudden accident it might be awakened out of its sleep , therefore were there no shuts or stopples made for the ears , that so any loud or sharp noise might awaken it , as also a soft and gentle voice or murmur provoke it to sleep . now the ears for the benefit and conveniences of the animal , being always to stand open , because there was some danger that insects might creep in thereat , and eating their way through the tympanum harbour in the cavities behind it ; therefore hath nature loricated or plaistered over the sides of the forementioned hole with ear-wax , to stop and entangle any insects that should attempt to creep in there . but i must confess my self not sufficiently to understand the nature of sounds to give a full and satisfactory account of the structure and uses of all the parts of the ear. fourthly , the next part i shall take notice of shall be the teeth , concerning which i find seven observations in the honorable mr. boyls treatise of final causes , which i shall briefly recapitulate , and add one or two more . i. that the teeth alone among the bones continue to grow in length during a mans whole life , as appears by the unsightly length of one tooth when its opposite happens to fall or be pulled out ; which was most providently design'd to repair the wast that is daily made of them by the frequent attritions in mastication . here by the by i might advise men to be careful how they attempt to cure this blemish by filing or cutting off the head of such an overgrown tooth , lest that befal them which happened to a certain nun in padua , who upon cutting off a tooth in that manner was presently convulsed and fell into an epilepssie , as bartholine in his anatomy reports . ii. that that part of the teeth which is extant above the gums is naked and not invested with that sensible membrane called periosteum , wherewith the other bones are covered . iii. that the teeth are of a closer and harder substance than the rest of the bones , for the more easie breaking and comminution of the more solid aliments , and that they might be more durable and not so soon worn down by grinding the food . iv. that for the nourishing and cherishing these so necessary bones , the all wise author of things has admirably contrived an unseen cavity in each side of the jaw-bone , in which greater channel are lodged an artery , a vein and a nerve , which through lesser cavities , as it were through gutters , send their twigs to each particular tooth . v. because infants were for a considerable time to feed upon milk , which needs no chewing , and lest teeth should hurt the tender nipples of the nurse , nature hath deferred the production of them for many months in a humane foetus , whereas those of divers other animals , which are reduced to seek betimes food that needs mastication , are born with them . vi. the different figure and shape of the teeth is remarkable , that the foreteeth should be formed broad and with a thin and sharp edge like chizzels , to cut off and take away a morsel from any solid food , called therefore incisores . the next , one on each side stronger and deeper rooted , and more pointed , called therefore canini , in english eye-teeth , to tear the more tough and resisting sort of aliments . the rest called jaw teeth or grinders , in latin molares , are made flat and broad atop and withal somwhat uneven and rugged , that by their knobs and little cavities they may the better retain , grind and commix the aliments . vii . because the operations to be performed by the teeth oftentimes require a considerable firmness and strength , partly in the teeth themselves , partly in the instruments which move the lower jaw , which alone is moveable , nature hath provided this with strong muscles , to make it bear forcibly against the upper jaw . and thus not only placed each tooth in a distinct cavity of the jaw-bone , as it were in a close , strong and deep socket , but has furnished the several sorts of teeth with hold-fasts suitable to the stress that by reason of their different offices they are to be put to . and therefore whereas the cutters and eye-teeth have usually but one root ; ( which in these last named is wont to be very long ) the grinders that are employed to crack nuts , stones of fruit , bones , or other hard bodies , are furnished with three roots , and in the upper jaw often with four , because these are pendulous , and the substance of the jaw somewhat softer . viii . the situation of the teeth is most convenient , viz. the molares or grinders behind , nearest the center of motion , because there is a greater strength or force required to chew the meat , than to bite a piece ; and the cutters before , that they may be ready to cut off a morsel from any solid food , to be transmitted to the grinders . ix . it is remarkable that the jaw in men and such animals as are furnished with grinders , hath an oblique or transverse motion , which is necessary for chewing and comminution of the meat ; which it is observed not to have in those animals that want the molares . now if ( as gallen saith ) he that shall marshal a company but of men in due order , is commended for a skilful and industrious person , shall we not admire nature which hath so skilfully ranked and disposed this quire of our teeth ? fifthly , the tongue is no less admirable for the contexture and manifold uses of it . first , it is the organ of tasting ; for being of a spungy substance the small particles of our meat and drink being mingled with the saliva , easily insinuate themselves into the pores of it , and so do either gratefully affect it , or harshly grate upon it , accordingly as they are figured and moved ; and hereby we discern what is convenient or inconvenient for our nourishment . it helps us likewise in the chewing and swallowing of our meat : and lastly , it is the main instrument of speaking , a quality so peculiar to man , that no beast could ever attain to it . and although birds have been taught to form some words , yet they have been but a few , and those learn'd with great difficulty ; but what is the chief , the birds understand not the meaning of them , nor use them as signs of things or their own conceptions of them ; though they may use them as expressions of their passions : as parrots having been used to be fed at the prolation of certain words , may afterwards when they are hungry pronounce the same . for this des cartes makes his main argument to prove that brutes have no cogitation , because the highest of them could never be brought to signifie their thoughts or conceptions by any artificial signs , either words , or gestures , ( which , if they had any , they would in all likelyhood be forward enough to do ) whereas all men , both fools and mutes , make use of words or other signs to express their thoughts , about any subjects that present themselves ; which signs also have no reference to any of their passions . whereas the signs that brute animals may be taught to use are no other than such as are the motions of some of their passions , fear , hope , joy , &c. hence some of the jewish rabbins did not so absurdly define a man animal loquens , a speaking creature . having had occasion just now to mention the saliva or spittle , i am put in mind of the eminent use of this humor , which is commonly taken for an excrement . because a great part of our food is dry ; therefore nature hath provided several glandules to separate this juice from the blood , and no less than four channels to convey it into the mouth , which are of late invention and called by anatomists ▪ ductus salivales , through which the saliva destilling continually , serves well to macerate and temper our meat , and make it fit to be chewed and swallowed . if a copious moisture did not by these conduit-pipes incessantly flow down into the mouths of horses and kine , how were it possible they should for a long time together grind and swallow such dry meat as hay and straw ? moreover it may be useful not only in the mouth but in the stomach too , to promote concoction . sixthly , to the mouth succeeds the wind-pipe , no less wonderful in its conformation . for because continual respiration is necessary for the support of our lives , it is made with annulary cartilages to keep it constantly open , and that the sides of it may not flag and fall together . and lest when we swallow , our meat or drink should fall in there and obstruct it , it hath a strong shut or valve called epiglottis , to cover it close , and stop it when we swallow : and for the more convenient bending of our necks , it is not made of one entire continued cartilage , but of many annular ones joined together by strong membranes , which membranes are muscular , compounded of streight and circular fibres for the more effectual contraction of the windpipe in any strong or violent expiration or coughing . and lest the asperity or hardness of these cartilages should hurt the oesophagus or gullet , which is tender and of a skinny substance , or hinder the swallowing of our meat , therefore these annulary gristles are not made round , or entire circles , but where the gullet touches the windpipe , there to fill up the circle is only a soft membrane , which may easily give way to the dilatation of the gullet . and to demonstrate that this was designedly done for this end and use , so soon as the windpipe enters the lungs , its cartilages are no longer deficient , but perfect circles or rings , because there was no necessity they should be so , but it was more convenient they should be entire . l●●●ly , for the various modulation of the voice , the upper end of the wind-pipe is endued with several cartilages and muscles , to contract or dilate it as we would have our voice flat or sharp ; and moreover the whole is continually moistened with a glutinous humor issuing out of the small glandules that are upon its inner coat , to fence it against the sharp air received in , or breath forced out ; yet is it of quick and tender sense , that it may be easily provoked to cast out by coughing , whatever may fall into it from without , or be discharged into it from within . seventhly , the heart which hath been always esteemed , and really is , one of the principal parts of the body , the primum vivens , & ultimum moriens , by its uncessant motion distributing the blood , the vehicle of life , and with it the vital heat and spirits , throughout the whole body , whereby it doth continually irrigate , nourish and keep hot and supple all the members . is it not admirable that from this fountain of life and heat there should be channels and conduit-pipes , to every , even the least and most remote part of the body ; just as if from one waterhouse there should be pipes conveying the water to every house in a town , and to every room in each house ; or from one fountain in a garden there should be little channels or dikes cut to every bed , and every plant growing therein , as we have seen more than once done beyond the seas . i confess the heart seems not to be designed to so noble an use as is generally believed , that is to be the fountain or conservatory of the vital flame , and to inspire the blood therewith ; ( for the lungs serve rather for the accension or maintaining that flame , the blood receiving there from the air those particles which are one part of the pabulum or fewel thereof , and so impregnated running back to the heart ) but to serve as a machine to receive the blood from the veins , and to force it out by the arteries through the whole body , as a syringe doth any liquor , though not by the same artifice : and yet this is no ignoble use , the continuance of the circulation of the blood being indispensibly necessary for the quickening and enlivening of all the members of the body , and supplying of matter to the brain , for the preparation of the animal spirits , the instruments of all sense and motion . now for this use of receiving and pumping out of the blood , the heart is admirably contrived . for first being a muscular part , the sides of it are composed of two orders of fibres running circularly or spirally from base to tip , contrarily one to the other , and so being drawn or contracted contrary ways do violently constringe and straiten the ventricles , and strongly force out the blood , as we have formerly intimated . then the vessels we call arteries , which carry from the heart to the several parts , have valves which open outwards like trap-doors , and give the blood a free passage out of the heart , but will not suffer it to return back again thither , and the veins , which bring it back from the several members to the heart , have valves or trap-doors which open inwards , so as to give way to the blood to run into the heart , but prevent it from running back again that way . besides the arteries consist of a quandruple coat , the third of which is made up of annular or orbicular carneous fibres to a good thickness and is of a muscular nature , after every pulse of the heart serving to contract the vessel successively with incredible celerity , so by a kind of peristaltick motion impelling the blood onwards to the capillary extremities , and through the muscles , with great force and swiftness . so the pulse of the arteries is not only caused by the pulsation of the heart , driving the blood through them in manner of a wave or flush , as des cartes and others would have it ; but by the coats of the arteries themselves , which the experiments of a certain * lovain physitian , ( the first whereof is galens , ) do in my opinion make good against him . first , saith he , if you slit the artery and thrust into it a pipe , so big as to fill the cavity of it , and cast a strait ligature upon that part of the artery containing the pipe , and so bind it fast to the pipe ; notwithstanding the blood hath free passage through the pipe , yet will not the artery beat below the ligature ; but do but take off the ligature , it will commence again to beat immediately . but because one might be ready to reply to this experiment , that the reason why when bound it did not beat , was because the current of the blood being straitned by the pipe , when beneath the pipe it came to have more liberty , was not sufficient to stretch the coats of the artery , and so cause a pulse , but when the ligature was taken off , it might flow between the enclosed tube and the coat of the artery ; therefore he adds another , which clearly evinces that this could not be the reason , but that it is something flowing down the coats of the artery that causes the pulse , that is , if you straiten the artery never so much , provided the sides of it do not quite meet , and stop all passage of the blood , the vessel will notwithstanding continue still to beat below or beyond the coarctation . so we see some physitians both ancient ( as galen , ) and modern were of opinion that the pulse of the arteries was owing to their coats ; though the first that i know of who observed the third coat of an artery to be a muscular body , composed of annulary fibres , was dr. willis . the mention of the peristaltick motion puts me in mind of an ocular demonstration of it in the gullet of kine when they chew the cud , which i have often beheld with pleasure . for after they have swallowed one morsel , if you look stedfastly upon their throat , you will soon see another ascend , and run pretty swiftly all along the throat up to the mouth , which it could not do unless it were impelled by the successive contraction or peristaltick motion of the gullet , continually following it . and it is remarkable that these ruminant creatures have a power by the imperium of their wills of directing this peristaltick motion upwards or downwards . i shall add no more concerning the heart , but that it and the brain do mutuas operas tradere , enable one another to work ; for first the brain cannot itself live , unless it receive continual supplies of blood from the heart , much less can it perform its functions of preparing and distributing the animal spirits ; nor the heart pulse , unless it receives spirits or something else that descends from the brain by the nerves . for do but cut asunder the nerves that go from the brain to the heart , the motion thereof in more perfect and hot creatures ceaseth immediately . which part began this round is the question . eighthly , the next part i shall treat of shall be the hand , this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superlative instrument , which serves us for such a multitude of uses , as it is not easie to enumerate ; whereto if we consider the make and structure of it , we shall find it wonderfully adapted . first , it is divided into four fingers bending forward , and one opposite to them bending backwards , and of greater strength than any of them singly , which we call the thumb , to joyn with them severally or united ; whereby it is fitted to lay hold of objects of any size or quantity . the least things , as any small single seed , are taken up by the thumb and forefinger ; those a little greater , by the thumb and two fingers , which also we chiefly employ to manage the needle in sewing , and the pen in writing : when we would take up a greater quantity of any thing we make use of the thumb and all the fingers . sometimes we use one finger only , as in póinting at any thing , picking things out of holes or long and narrow vessels , sometimes all severally at one time , as in stopping the strings when we play upon any musical instrument . . the fingers are strengthened with several bones , jointed together for motion , and furnished with several muscles and tendons like so many pullies to bend them circularly forward ; which is most convenient for the firm holding and griping of any object : which of how great , constant , and necessary use it is in pulling or drawing , but especially in taking up and retaining any sort of tool or instrument to work withal in husbandry and all mechanick arts , is so obvious to every mans observation , that i need not spend time to instance in particulars : moreover the several fingers are furnished with several muscles to extend and open the hand , and to move them to the right and left : and so this division and motion of the fingers doth not hinder but that the whole hand may be employed , as if it were all of a piece , as we see it is , either expanded as in striking out , smoothing and folding up of cloths and some mechanick uses ; or contracted , as in fighting , kneading of dough and the like . it is also notable and indeed wonderful , that the tendons bending the middle joint of the fingers , should be perforated to give passage to the tendons of the muscles which draw the uppermost joynts , and all bound down close to the bone with strong fillets , lest they should start up and hinder the hand in its work , standing like so many bowstrings . . the fingers ends are strengthened with nails , as we fortifie the ends of our staves or forks with iron hoops or ferules , which nails serve not only for defence but for ornament , and many uses . the skin upon our fingers ends , is thin and of most exquisite sense , to help us to judg of any thing we handle . if now i should go about to reckon up the several uses of this instrument , time would sooner fail me then matter . by the help of this we do all our works , we build our selves houses to dwell in ; we make our selves garments to wear ; we plow and sow our grounds with corn , dress and cultivate our vineyards , gardens , and orchards , gather and lay up our grain , and fruits ; we prepare and make ready our victuals . spinning , weaving , painting , carving , engraving , and that divinely invented art of writing , whereby we transmit our own thoughts to posterity , and converse with and participate the observations and inventions of them that are long ago dead , all performed by this . this is the only instrument for all arts whatsoever ; no improvement to be made of any experimental knowledg without it . hence ( as aristotle saith well ) they do amiss that complain , that man is worse dealt with by nature than other creatures ; whereas they have some hair , some shels , some wool , some feathers , some scales , to defend themselves from the injuries of the weather , man alone is born naked and without all covering . whereas they have natural weapons to defend themselves and offend their enemies , some horns , some hoofs , some teeth , some talons , some claws , some spurs and beaks ; man hath none of all these , but is weak , and feeble , and unarmed sent into the world. why , a hand with reason to use it , supplies the uses of all these , that 's both a horn , and a hoof , and a talon and a tusk , &c. because it enables us to use weapons of these and other fashions , as swords and spears and guns . besides this advantage a man hath of them , that whereas they cannot at pleasure change their coverings , or lay aside their weapons , or make use of others as occasion serves , but must abide winter and summer , night and day with the same cloathing on their backs , and sleep with their weapons upon them ; a man can alter his cloathing according to the exigency of the weather , go warm in winter , and cool in summer , cover up himself hot in the night , and lay aside his cloaths in the day , and put on or off more or fewer according as his work and exercise is : and can as occasion requires , make use of divers sorts of weapons , and choice of such at all turns as are most proper and convenient ; whereby we are enabled to subdue and rule over all other creatures ; and use for our own behoof those qualities wherein they excel , as the strength of the ox , the valor and swiftness of the horse , the sagacity and vigilancy of the dog , and so make them as it were our own . had we wanted this member in our bodies , we must have lived the life of brutes , without house or shelter but what the woods and rocks would have afforded ; without cloths or covering ; without corn , or wine , or oil , or any other drink but water ; without the warmth and comfort , or other uses of fire , and so without any artificial bak'd , boil'd or roast meats ; but must have scrambled with the wild beasts for crabs , and nuts , and akhorns , and sallets , and such other things as the earth puts forth of her own accord . we had lain open and exposed to injuries , and had been unable to resist or defend our selves against almost the weakest creature . the remaining parts i shall but briefly run over . that the back-bone should be divided into so many vertebres for commodious bending , and not be one entire rigid bone , which being of that length would have been often in danger of snapping in sunder . that the several vertebres should be so elegantly and artificially compacted and joined together , that they are as strong and firm as if they were but one bone. that they should be all perforated in the middle with a large hole for the spinal marrow or pith to pass along ; and each particular have a hole on each side to transmit the nerves to the muscles of the body , to convey both sense and motion . that whereas the breast is encompassed with ribs , the belly is left free ; that it might give way to the motion of the midriff in respiration ; and to the necessary reception of meat and drink ; as also for the convenient bending of the body ; and in females for that extraordinary extension that is requisite in the time of their pregnancy . that the stomach should be membranous , and capable of dilatation and contraction , according to the quantity of meat conteined in it ; that it should be situate under the liver , which by its heat might cherish it , and contribute to concoction : that it should be endued with an acid ferment , or some corruptive quality for so speedy a dissolution of the meat , and preparation of chyle ; that after concoction it should have an ability of contracting itself and turning out the meat . that the bladder should be made of a membranous substance , and so extremely dilatable for receiving and containing the urine , till opportunity of emptying it ; that it should have shuts for the ends of the ureters so artificially contrived as to give the urine free entrance , but to stop all passage backward , so that they will not transmit the wind , though it be strongly blown and forced in . that the liver should continually separate the choler from the blood , and empty it into the intestines , where there is good use for it , not only to provoke dejection , but also to attenuate the chyle and render it so subtile and fluid as to enter in at the orifices of the lacteous veins . finally , that all the bones , and all the muscles , and all the vessels of the body should be so admirably contrived , and adapted , and compacted together for their several motions and uses , and that most geometrically , according to the strictest rules of mechanicks , that if in the whole body you change the figure , situation , and conjunction but of one part , if you diminish or encrease the bulk and magnitude , in fine if you endeavor any innovation or alteration , you marr and spoil instead of mending . how can all these things put together but beget wonder and astonishment ? that under one skin there should be such infinite variety of parts , variously mingled , hard with soft , fluid with fixt , solid with hollow , those in rest with those in motion , some with cavities as mortesses to receive , others with tenons to fit those cavities ; all these so pact and thrust so close together that there is no unnecessary vacuity in the whole body , and yet so far from clashing or interfering one with another , or hindring each others motions , that they do all friendly conspire , all help and assist mutually one the other , all concur in one general end and design , the good and preservation of the whole , are certainly arguments and effects of infinite wisdom and counsel ; so that he must needs be worse than mad that can find in his heart to imagine all these to be casual and fortuitous , or not provided and designed by a most wise and intelligent cause . i should now proceed to treat of the generation and formation of the foetus in the womb ; but that is a subject too difficult for me to handle ; the body of man and other animals being formed in the dark recesses of the matrix , or as the psalmist phrases it , psal. . . made in secret , and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth . this work is so admirable and unaccountable that neither the atheists nor mechanick philosophers have attempted to declare the manner and process of it ; but have ( as i noted before ) very cautiously and prudently broke off their systems of natural philosophy here , and left this point untoucht ; and those accounts which some of them have attempted to give of the formation of a few of the parts , are so excessively absurd and ridiculous , that they need no other consutation than ha ha he . and i have already further shewn , that it seems to me impossible , that matter divided into as minute and subtle parts as you will or can imagine , and those moved according to what catholick laws soever can be devised , should without the presidency and direction of some intelligent agent , by the mere agitation of a gentle heat , run itself into such a curious machine as the body of man is . yet must it be confest , that the seed of animals is admirably qualified to be fashioned and formed by the plastick nature into an organical body , conteining the principles or component particles of all the several homogeneous parts thereof ; for indeed every part of the body seems to club and contribute to the seed , else why should parents that are born blind or deaf , or that want a finger or any other part , or have one superfluous , sometimes generate children that have the same defects or imperfections ; and yet ( which is wonderful ) nothing of the body or grosser matter of the seed comes near the first principle of the foetus , or in some so much as enters the womb , but only some contagious vapor or subtle effluviums thereof . but to what shall we attribute the foetus its likeness to the parents , or omitting them to the precedent progenitors , as i have observed some parents that have been both black hair'd to have generated most red hair'd children , because their ancestors hair have been of that color , or why are twins so often extremely alike ; whether is this owing to the efficient , or to the matter ? these effluvia we spake of of the male seed , as subtile as they are , yet have they a great , if not the greatest stroke in generation , as is clearly demonstrable in a mule , which doth more resemble the male parent , that is the ass , than the female or horse . but now why such different species should not only mingle together , but also generate an animal , and yet that that hybridous production should not again generate , and so a new race be carried on ; but nature should stop here and proceed no further , is to me a mystery and unaccountable . one thing relating to generation i cannot omit , that is , the construction of a set of temporary parts , ( like scaffolds in a building ) to serve a present end , which are afterwards laid aside , afford a strong argument of counsel and design . now for the use of the young during its enclosure in the womb there are several parts formed , as the membranes inveloping it , called the secundines , the umbilical vessels , one vein and two arteries , the urachus , to convey the urine out of the bladder , and the placenta uterina ; part whereof fall away at the birth , as the secundines and placenta , others degenerate into ligaments , as the urachus , and part of the umbilical vein : besides which , because the foetus during its abode in the womb hath no use of respiration by the lungs , the blood doth not all , i may say not the greatest part of it , flow through them , but there are two passages or channels contrived , one called the foramen ovale , by which part of the blood brought by the vena cava passeth immediately into the left ventricle of the heart , without entring the right at all ; the other is a large arterial channel passing from the pulmonary artery immediately into the aorta , or great artery , which likewise derives part of the blood thither , without running at all into the lungs : these two are closed up soon after the child is born , when it breaths no more ( as i may so say ) by the placenta uterina , but respiration by the lungs is needful for it . it is here to be noted , that though the lungs be formed so soon as the other parts , yet during the abode of the foetus in the womb , they lie by as useless . in like manner i have observed that in ruminating creatures the three formost stomachs , not only during the continuance of the young in the womb , but so long as it is fed with milk are unemployed and useless , the milk passing immediately into the fourth . another observation i shall add concerning generation , which is of some moment , because it takes away some concessions of naturalists , that give countenance to the atheists fictitious and ridiculous account of the first production of mankind and other animals ; viz. that all sorts of insects , yea and some quadrupeds too , as frogs and mice , are produced spontaneously . my observation and affirmation is , that there is no such thing in nature , as aequivocal or spontaneous generation , but that all animals , as well small as great , not excluding the vilest and most contemptible insect , are generated by animal parents of the same species with themselves ; that noble italian vertuoso , francesco redi having experimented that no putrified flesh ( which one would think were the most likely of any thing ) will of itself , if all insects be carefully kept from it , produce any : the same experiment i remember doctor wilkins late bishop of chester told me had been made by some of the royal society . no instance against this opinion doth so much puzzle me , as worms bred in the intestines of man and other animals . but seeing the round worms do manifestly generate , and probably the other kinds too ; it 's likely they come originally from seed , which how it was brought into the guts , may afterwards possibly be discovered . moreover i am inclinable to believe that all plants too , that themselves produce seed , ( which are all but some very imperfect ones , which scarce deserve the name of plants ) come of seeds themselves . for that great naturalist malpighius , to make experiment whether earth would of its self put forth plants , took some purposely digged out of a deep place , and put it into a glass vessel , the top whereof he covered with silk many times doubled and strained over it , which would admit the water and air to pass through , but exclude the least seed that might be wafted by the wind ; the event was that no plant at all sprang up in it ; nor need we wonder how in a ditch , bank or grass-plat newly dig'd , or in the fenbanks in the isle of ely mustard should abundantly spring up , where in the memory of man none had been known to grow , for it might come of seed which had lain there more than a mans age. some of the ancients mentioning some seeds that retain their fecundity forty years : as for the mustard that sprung up in the isle of ely , though there never had been any in that country , yet might it have been brought down in the channels by the floods , and so being thrown up the banks together with the earth , might germinate and grow there . from this discourse concerning the body of man i shall make three practical inferences . first , let us give thanks to almighty god for the perfection and integrity of our bodies . it would not be amiss to put it into the eucharistical parr of our daily devotions : we praise thee o god for the due number , shape and use of our limbs and senses , and in general of all the parts of our bodies ; we bless thee for the sound and healthful constitution of them ; it is thou that hast made us and not we our selves ; in thy book were all our members written . the mother that bears the child in her womb is not conscious to any thing that is done there ; she understands no more how the infant is formed than itself doth . but if god hath bestowed upon us any peculiar gift or endowment , wherein we excel others , as strength , or beauty or activity , we ought to give him special thanks for it , but not to think the better of our selves therefore , or despise them that want it . now because these bodily perfections , being common blessings , we are apt not at all to consider them , or not to set a just value on them ; and because the worth of things is best discerned by their want ; it would be useful sometimes to imagine or suppose our selves by some accident to be depriv'd of one of our limbs or senses , as a hand , or a foot , or an eye , for then we cannot but be sensible , that we should be in worse condition than now we are , and that we should soon find a difference between two hands and one hand , two eyes and one eye , and that two excel one as much in worth as they do in number ; and yet if we could spare the use of the lost part , the deformity and unsightlyness of such a defect in the body , would alone be very grievous to us . again , which is less , suppose we only , that our bodies want of their just magnitude , or that they or any of our members are crooked or distorted , or disproportionate to the rest either in excess or defect ; nay , which is least of all , that the due motion of any one part be perverted , as but of the eyes in squinting , the eye-lids in twinkling , the tongue in stammering , these things are such blemishes and offences to us , by making us gazing-stocks to others , and objects of their scorn and derision , that we could be content to part with a good part of our estates to repair such defects , or heal such infirmities . these things considered and duly weighed , would surely be a great and effectual motive to excite in us gratitude for this integrity of our bodies , and to esteem it no small blessing , i say a blessing and favor of god to us ; for some there be that want it , and why might not we have been of that number ? god was no way obliged to bestow it upon us . and as we are to give thanks for the integrity of our body , so are we likewise for the health of it , and the sound temper and constitution of all its parts and humors ; health being the principal blessing of this life , without which we cannot enjoy or take comfort in any thing besides . neither are we to give thanks alone for the first collation of these benefits , but also for their preservation and continuance . god preserves our souls in life , and defends us from dangers and sad accidents , which do so beset us on every side , that the greatest circumspection in the world could not secure us , did not his good providence continually watch over us . we may be said to walk and converse in the midst of snares ; besides , did we but duly consider the make and frame of our bodies , what a multitude of minute parts and vessels there are in them , and how an obstruction in one redounds to the prejudice of the whole , we could not but wonder how so curious an engine as mans body , could be kept in tune one hour , as we use it , much less hold out so many years : how it were possible it should endure such hardship , such blows , so many shocks and concussions , nay such violences and outrages as are offered it by our frequent excesses , and not be disordered and rendred useless ; and acknowledg the transcendent art and skill of him who so put it together , as to render it thus firm and durable . secondly , did god make the body , let him have the service of it . rom. . . i beseech you , brethren , by the mercies of god , that you present your bodies a living sacrifice , holy , acceptable unto god , which is your reasonable service . cor. . . glorifie god in your body , or with your body , and in your spirits , which are gods , and that not by redemption only , of which the apostle there speaks , but by creation also . rom. . . neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin , but as instruments of righteousness unto god. and again ver. . even so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness . i shall instance in two members , which are especially to be guarded and restrained from evil , and employed in the service of god. first , the eye . we must turn away our eyes from beholding vanity , as david pray'd , god would his , psal. . . we must make a covenant with our eyes , as job did , job . . these are the windows that let in exteriour objects to the soul : by these the heart is affected : this way sin entred first into the world. our first parents saw that the tree and its fruit was pleasant to the eyes , and so was invited to take and eat it . there are four sins especially for which the eye is noted , as either discovering themselves in the eyes , or whose temptations enter in by , and so give denomination to the eye . . there is a proud eye . prov. . . there is a generation , o how lofty are their eyes , and their eye lids are lifted up . chap. . . a proud look is reckoned the first of those six things that god hates , psal. . . god ( the psalmist saith ) will bring down proud or high looks . psalm . . him that hath a high look and a proud heart ( saith david , ) i will not suffer . and in psal. . . he saith of himself , that his heart is not haughty nor his eyes lofty . by which places it appeareth that pride sheweth forth it self in the eyes especially , and that they are as it were the seat or throne of it . . there is a wanton eye , which the prophet isaiah speaks of in his third chapter , at the th verse , because the daughters of jerusalem walk with stretched out necks , and wanton eyes . the apostle peter in his second epistle , . . mentions eyes full of adultery . for by these casements enter in such objects as may provoke and stir up adulterous thoughts in the mind , as they did in david's , and likewise impure thoughts conceived in the heart may discover themselves by the motions of the eye . and therefore in this respect we should do well with holy job , to make a covenant with our eyes ; not to gaze upon any object which may tempt us to any inordinate appetite or desire . for our saviour tells us , it were better to pluck out our right eye , than that it should be an offence to us : which i suppose refers to this matter , because it immediately follows those words , he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart . . there is a covetous eye . by covetousness i understand not only a desiring what is another mans , which is forbidden in the tenth commandment , but also an inordinate desire of riches , which the apostle john seems to understand in his first epistle , . . by the lust of the eye . and covetousness may well be called the lust of the eye , because . the temptation or tempting object enters by the eye . so the seeing the wedg of gold and babylonish garment stirred up the covetous desire in achan . . because all the fruit a man reaps of riches more than will furnish his necessities and conveniencies , is the feeding of his eye , or the pleasure he takes in the beholding of them . eccles. . . when goods encrease , &c. what good is there to the owners thereof , saving the beholding them with their eyes ? fourthly , there is an envious eye , which by our saviour is called an evil eye . mat. . : is thine eye evil because i am good . that is , enviest thou thy brother because i am kind to him . and . . one of those evil things which proceed out of the heart and defile a man is an evil eye . envy is a repining at the prosperity or good of another , or anger and displeasure at any good of another which we want , or any advantage another hath above us : as in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard , those that came in first envied the last , not because they received more than they , but because they received equal wages for less time . those that are subject to this vice cannot endure to see another man thrive ; and are apt to think his condition better than theirs when indeed it is not . let us then so govern our eyes , that we discover by them none of these vices . let the humility and purity of our minds appear even in our outward looks . let neither pride nor lust manifest themselves in the posture or motions of our eyes . let us have a care that these members be neither the inlets , nor outlets of any of the fore mentioned vices ; that they neither give admission to the temptation , nor be expressive of the conception of them . let us employ them in reading the word of god , and other good books , for the encrease of our knowledg , and direction of our practice : in diligently viewing and contemplating the works of the creation , that we may discern and admire the footsteps of the divine wisdom easily to be traced in the formation , disposition , and designations of them . let us take notice of any extraordinary events and effects of gods providence towards our selves or others , personal or national : that as they are the issues of his mercy or justice , they may stir up sutable affections in us , of thankfulness or fear . let those sad and miserable objects , that present themselves to our sight move us to pity and commiseration : and let our eyes sometimes be exercised in weeping for the miseries and calamities of others , but especially for our own and their sins . secondly , another member i shall mention is the tongue , which as it is the chief instrument of speech , so may it be well or ill employed in the exercise of that action , and therefore stands in need of direction and restraint . i remember i once heard from an ingenious anatomist of padua this observation , that there are but two members in the body that have a natural bridle , both which do very much need it ; the tongue , and another i shall not name . the signification whereof may be , that they are not to be let loose , but diligently curbed and held in . for the better government of the tongue , i shall note some vices of speech , which must carefully be avoided . first of all loquacity or garrulity . this the contrivance of our mouths suggests to us . our tongues are fenced and guarded with a double wall or mound of lips and teeth , that our words might not rashly and unadvisedly slip out . then nature hath furnished us with two ears , and but one tongue , to intimate that we must hear twice so much as we speak . why loquacity is to be avoided , the wise man gives us a sufficient reason , prov. . . in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin . and eccles. . . in many words there are divers vanities . to which we may add another , of great force with most men , viz. that it hath been always esteemed an effect and argument of folly. eccles , . . a fools voice is known by multitude of words . and on the contrary , to be of few words is a sign of wisdom : and he that is wise enough to be silent , though a fool , may pass undiscovered . besides all this , a talkative person must needs be impertinent , and speak many idle words , and so render himself burthensom and odious to company : and may perchance run himself upon great incoveniences , by blabbing out his own or others secrets ; for a word once uttered , fugit irrevocabile , whatever the consequence of it be . great need therefore have we to set a watch over our mouths , and to keep the door of our lips ; and not suffer our tongues * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; as isocrates phraseth it . secondly , lying or false speaking . there is difference between mentiri and mendacium dicere , that is lying , and speaking of an untruth , or thing that is false . mentiri is contra mentem ire , which though it be no good etymology of the word , is a good notion of the thing ; that is , to go again stones mind , or speak what one does not think . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as homer expresseth it , to conceal one thing in the mind , and speak another with the tongue . hence a man may speak an untruth , and yet not lye , when , he thinks he speaks the truth ; and on the contrary , may speak what is materially true , and yet lye , when he speaks what he thinks not to be true . the tongue was made to be the index of the mind , speech the interpreter of thought ; therefore there ought to be a perfect harmony and agreement between these two . so that lying is a great abuse of speech , and a perverting the very end of it , which was to communicate our thoughts one to another . it hath also an ill principle for the most part , proceeding either from baseness of spirit or cowardise , as in them that have committed a fault , and deny it , for fear of punishment or rebuke : or from covetousness , as in tradesmen who falsly commend their commodities , that they may vend them for a greater price ; or from vanity and vain glory , in them who falsly boast of any quality or action of their own . it is odious both to god and man. to god , prov. . . a lying tongue is one of those six or seven things that are an abomination to him . to men , as homer witnesseth in the verse preceding the fore-quoted . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. he that tells lies is as hateful to me as the gates of hell or death . — the practice of lying is a diabolical exercise , and they that use it are the devils children , as our saviour tells us . john . . ye are of your father the devil , &c. for he is a lyar , and the father of it . and lastly , it is a sin that excludes out of heaven , and depresses the soul into hell. revel . , . all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone , which is the second death . thirdly , another vice or abuse of speech , or vicious action to which the tongue is instrumental is slandering ; that is raising a false report of any man tending to his defamation . this might have been comprehended under the former head , being but a kind of lying proceeding from enmity or ill will. it is a very great injury to our neighbour , mens reputation being as dear to them as life itself ; so that it is grown to be a proverb among the vulgar , take away my good name and take away my life . and that which enhances this injury is that it is irreparable . we cannot by any contrary declaration so clear the innocency of our neighbour as wholly to extirpate the preconceived opinion , out of the minds of those to whom our confession comes ; and many will remain whom the calumny hath reacht , to whom the vindication probably will not extend ; the pravity of mans nature being more apt to spread and divulge an ill report than to stop and silence it . i might instance in flattering of others , and boasting of our selves for two abuses of speech , but they may both be referred to lying , the one to please others , and puff them up with self-conceit , and a false opinion that they have some excellent quality or endowment which they want , or have not in such a degree , or that they are better thought of by others than indeed they are , and more honored : the other to gain more honor than is due to them . fourthly , obscene and impure words are another vicious effect of the tongue . those are principally the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rotten speeches the apostle speaks of eph. . . such as chast ears abhor , which tend only to the depraving and corrupting the hearers : and are to be studiously and carefully avoided by all that pretend to christianity . ephes. , . but fornication and all uncleanness let it not be once named among you . fifthly , cursing , and railing or reviling words are also a great abuse of speech , and outragious effects and expressions of malice and wickedness . psalm . . . the psalmist makes it part of the character of a wicked man , that his mouth is full of cursing . which passage we have quoted by the apostle rom. . . whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness . sixthly , swearing and irreverent using the name of god in common discourse and converse , is another abuse of the tongue ; to which i might add vehement asseverations upon sleight and trivial occasions . i do not deny , but in a matter of weight and moment , which will bear out such attestation , and where belief will not be obtained without them , and yet it may much import the hearer or speaker that his words be believed , or where the hearer would not otherwise think the matter so momentous or important as indeed it is , protestations and asseverations , yea oaths may lawfully be used . but to call god to witness to an untruth or a lye perhaps , or to appeal to him on every trivial occasion , in common discourse , customarily , without any consideration of what we say , is one of the highest indignities and affronts that can be offered him , being a sin to which there is no temptation : for it is so far from gaining belief ( which is the only thing that can with any shew of reason be pleaded for it ) that it rather creates diffidence and distrust . for as mult a fidem promiss a levant , so mult a juramenta too , it being become a proverb he that will swear will lie. and good reason there is for it ; for he that scruples not the breach of one of gods commands , is not likely to make conscience of the violation of another . lastly , for i will name no more , scurrilous words , scoffing and jeering , flouting and taunting , are to be censured as vicious abuses of speech . this scoffing and derision proceeds from contempt , and that of all injuries men do most impatiently bear ; nothing offends more , or wounds deeper ; and therefore what greater violation of that general rule of christian practice , to do to others as we would they should do unto us ? this injury of being derided the psalmist himself complains of , psalm . , . i became a proverb to them . they that sit in the gate speak against me , and i was the song of the drunkards . and psalm . , according to the church translation , the very abjects came together against me unawares , making mows at me , and ceased not . and the prophet jeremy , jer. . . i am in derision daily , every one mocketh me . and though there may be some wit shewn in scoffing and jesting upon others , yet is it a practice inconsistent with true wisdom . the scorner and the wise man are frequently posed in scripture . prov. . . and chap. . , &c. it is a proverbial saying , the greatest clerks are not always the wisest men . i think the saying might as often be verified of the greatest wits . scorning in that gradation in the first psalm is set down as the highest step of wickedness . and solomon tells us that judgments are prepared for the scorners . you will say to me , how then must our tongues be employed ? i answer , in praises and thanksgiving unto god. psalm . . and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praises all the day long . parallel whereto is vers. . of psalm . indeed the book of psalms is in a great measure but an exercise of , or exhortation to this duty . . we must exercise our tongues in talking of all his wondrous works . psalm . , . i will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty , and of thy wondrous works . . in prayer to god. . in confession of him and of his religion , and publickly owning it before men , whatever the hazard be . . in teaching , instructing and counselling of others . . in exhorting them . . in comforting them that need it . . in reproving them . all which particulars i might enlarge upon ; but because they come in here only as they refer to the tongue , it may suffice to have mention'd them summarily . thirdly , let us hence duly learn to prize and value our souls ; is the body such a rare piece , what then is the soul ? the body is but the husk or shell , the soul is the kernel ; the body is but the cask , the soul the precious liquor contained in it ; the body is but the cabinet , the soul the jewel ; the body is but the ship or vessel , the soul the pilot ; the body is but the tabernacle , and a poor clay tabernacle or cottage , the soul the inhabitant ; the body is but the machine or engine , the soul that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that actuates and quickens it ; the body is but the dark lanthorn , the soul or spirit is the candle of the lord that burns in it : and seeing there is such difference between the soul and the body in respect of excellency , surely our better part challenges our greatest care and diligence to make provision for it . bodily provision is but half provision , it is but for one part of a man , and that the meaner and more ignoble too , if we consider only the time of this life ; but if we consider a future estate of endless duration after this life , then bodily provision will appear to be , i do not say quarter provision , but no provision at all in comparison , there being no proportion between so short a period of time , and the infinite ages of eternity . let us not then be so foolish as to employ all our thoughts and bestow all our time and pains about cherishing , accommodating and gratifying our bodies , in making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof , as the apostle phraseth it ; and suffer our souls to lie by neglected , in a miserable , and poor , and blind , and naked condition . some philosophers will not allow the body to be an essential part of man , but only the vessel or vehicle of the soul ; anima cujusque est quisque . though i would not be so unequal to it , yet i must needs acknowledg it to be but an inferior part : it is therefore so to be treated , so dieted and provided as to render it most calm and compliant with the soul , most tractable and obsequious to the dictates of reason ; not so pampered and indulged , as to encourage it to cast its rider , and to take the reins into its own hand , and usurp dominion over the better part , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to sink and depress it into a sordid compliance with its own lusts , atque affigere humi divinae particulam aurae . this is our duty , but alas what is our practice ? our great partiality towards our bodies , and neglect of our souls , shews clearly which part we prefer . we are careful enough of wounding or maiming our bodies , but we make bold to lash and wound our souls daily ; for every sin we commit , being contrary to its nature , is a real stripe yea a mortal wound to the soul , and we shall find it to be so , if our consciences be once awakened to feel the sting and smart of it . we are industrious enough to preserve our bodies from slavery and thraldom , but we make nothing of suffering our souls to be slaves and drudges to our lusts , and to live in the vilest bondage to the most degenerate of creatures , the devil : we are thrifty and provident enough not to part with any thing that may be serviceable to our bodies under a good consideration , and we so esteem them , as that we will part with all we have for the life of them ; but we make little account of what is most beneficial to our souls , the means of grace and salvation , the word of god and duties of his worship and service , nay we can be content to sell our souls themselves for a trifle , for a thing of nothing , yea for what is worse than nothing , the satisfying of an inordinate and unreasonable appetite or passion . we highly esteem and stand much upon our nobility , our birth and breeding , though we derive nothing from our ancestors but our bodies and corporeal qualities ; and it is useful so far to value and improve this advantage , as to provoke us to imitate the good examples of our progenitors , not to degenerate from them , nor to do any thing unworthy of our breeding ; and yet the divine original of our souls , which are beams from the father of lights , and the immediate offspring of god himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hath little influence upon us to engage us to walk worthily of our extraction , and to do nothing that is base or ignoble , and unsutable to the dignity of our birth . you will say , how shall we manifest our care of our souls ? what shall we do for them ? i answer , the same we do for our bodies . . we feed our bodies , our souls are also to be fed : the food of the soul is knowledg , especially knowledg in the things of god , and the things that concern its eternal peace and happiness ; the doctrine of christianity , the word of god read and preached , . pet. . . as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby . heb. . . the apostle speaks both of milk and of strong meat . milk he there calls the principles of the doctrine of christ , and again , . cor. . . i have fed you with milk and not with meat , for hitherto ye were not able to bear it . so we see in the apostles phrase , feeding of the flock is teaching and instructing of them . knowledg is the foundation of practice ; it is impossible to do gods will before we know it ; the word must be received into an honest and good heart and understood , before any fruit can be brought forth . secondly , we heal and cure our bodies , when they are inwardly sick , or outwardly harmed ; sin is the sickness of the soul , matth. . . they that be whole need not a physitian , but they that be sick , saith our saviour , by way of similitude , which he explains in the next verse , i am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance . for the cure of this disease an humble , serious , hearty repentance is the only physick ; not to expiate the guilt of it , but to qualifie us to partake of the benefit of that atonement which our saviour christ hath made , by the sacrifice of himself , and restore us to the favor of god , which we had forfeited , it being as much as in us lies an undoing again what we have done . thirdly , we cloth and adorn our bodies , our souls also are to be clothed with holy and vertuous habits , and adorned with good works . . pet. . . be ye clothed with humility ; and in the same epistle , chap. . . he exhorts women to adorn themselves , not with that outward adorning of plaiting the hair , and of wearing gold , &c. but with the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit , which is in the sight of god of great price . and in revel . . . the righteousness of the saints is called fine linnen . and the saints are said to be clothed in white raiment . matt. . . works of righteousness , and a conversation becoming the gospel is called a wedding garment . coloss. . . put on the new man. and again , put on therefore as the elect of god bowels of mercy , meekness , &c. on the contrary vicious habits and sinful actions are compared to filthy garments . so zechar. . . joshua the high-priest is said to be clothed with filthy garments ; which in the next verse are interpreted his iniquities either personal or of the people , whom he represented , i have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee , and will cloth thee with change of raiment . fourthly , we arm and defend our bodies . and our souls have as much need of armour as they : for the life of a christian is a continual warfare ; and we have potent and vigilant enemies to encounter withal ; the devil , the world and this corrupt flesh we carry about with us . we had need therefore to take to us the christian panoply , to put on the whole armour of god , that we may withstand in the evil day , and having done all may stand ; having our loyns girt with truth , and having the breast plate of righteousness , and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace . above all taking the shield of faith , and for an helmet the hope of salvation , and the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god. ephes. . , , &c. he that with his christian armour manfully fights against and repels the temptations and assaults of his spiritual enemies . he that keeps his garments pure , and his conscience void of offence towards god and towards man , shall enjoy perfect peace here , and assurance for ever . tacitus saith of the finni , a northern people , that they were securi adversus homines , securi adversus deos. they need not fear what god or man could do to them , because they were in as bad a condition as could consist with living in the world : they could not be banished into a worse country , nor put into worse circumstances than they were in already . i might say of the man that keeps a good conscience , that he is secure against god and man ; not in that sense the finni were ; but secure of any evil befalling him , from either . god can do him no harm , not for want of power , but for want of will , which is regulated by his truth and justice . he is also secure in respect of men , because he is under the protection of the almighty : and if any there be that would do him harm , they shall either be restrained by the divine providence , or if they be permitted to injure him , it shall tend only to the exercise and improvement of his faith and patience , and enhancing his future reward at that great day , when the almighty shall dispense aureolae to those champions who have signalized their valour and fidelity by heroick actions , or patient sufferings of unworthy things for his sake . . a good conscience not only secures a man from god and men , but from himself too . there is no peace to the wicked , saith my god , no inward peace . such a man is at odds with himself . for the commandments of god being agreeable to the nature of man , and perfectly conformable to the dictates of right reason ; mans judgment gives sentence with the divine law , and condemns him when he violates any of them ; and so the sinner becomes an heautontimorumenos , a tormenter of himself . prima est haec ultio , quod se judice nemo nocens absolvitur . no guilty person is absolved at his own tribunal , himself being judge . neither let any profligate person , who hath bidden defiance to his conscience , and is at war with himself , think to take sanctuary in atheism , and because it imports him highly there should be no god , stoutly deny that there is any . for first , supposing that the existence of a deity were not demonstrably or infallibly proved , ( as it most certainly is ) yet he cannot be sure of the contrary , that there is none . for no man can be sure of a pure negative , namely that such a thing is not , unless he will either pretend to have a certain knowledg of all things that are or may be , than which nothing can be more monstrously and ridiculously arrogant ; or else unless he be sure that the being of what he denies doth imply a contradiction ; for which there is not the least colour in this case . the true notion of god consisting in this , that he is a being of all possible perfection . that i may borrow my lord bishop of chesters words in his discourse of natural religion , pag. . now if he be not sure there is no deity , he cannot be without some suspicion and fear that there may be one . secondly , if there should be a deity , so holy and just and powerful as is supposed , what vengeance and indignation may such vile miscreants and rebels expect , who have made it their business to banish him out of the world who is the great creatour and governour of it , to undermine his being , and eradicate all notions of him out of their own and other mens minds ; to provoke his creatures and vassals to a contempt of him , a sleighting of his fear and worship , as being but such imaginary chimaera's , as are fit only to keep fools in awe . certainly as this is the highest provocation that any man can be guilty of , so shall it be punished with the sorest vengeance . now a slender suspicion of the existence of a being , the denial whereof is of so sad consequence , must needs disturb the atheists thoughts , and fill him with fears , and qualifie and allay all his pleasures and enjoyments , and render him miserable even in this life . but on the other side , he that believes and owns a god ; if there should be none , is in no danger of any bad consequent . for all the inconvenience of this belief will be , that he may be hereby occasioned to tye himself up to some needless restraints during this short time of his life , wherein notwithstanding there is , as to the present , much peace , quiet , and safety ; and , as to the future , his errour shall die with him , there being none to call him to an account for his mistake . thus far the bishop . to which i shall add , that he not only suffers no damage , but reaps a considerable benefit from this mistake ; for during this life he enjoys a pleasant dream or fancy of a future blessed estate , with the thoughts and expectation whereof he solaces himself , and agreeably entertains his time ; and is in no danger of being ever awakened out of it , and convinced of his errour and folly , death making a full end of him . finis . books printed for and sold by samuel smith . jo. rais historia plantarum . vol. fol. . — synopsis methodica stirpium britannicarum , cum indice & virium epit. newton philosophia naturalis principia mathemat . . r. morton . exercitationes de phthisii . o. . g. harris de morbis acutis infantum . o. . pharmacopeia bateana , cum arcanis goddardianis , &c. . shipton pharmacopeia-col . reg. londini remedia omnia . o. . plukenetii stripium illustr . & minus cognitarum icones . fol. . haver's new observation of the bones , and marrow , of rheumatisms and gout , &c. . practical christianity , or such holiness as the gospel enjoyns o. an enquiry after happiness by the author of pract. christianity o. human life ; being a . part of enquiry after happiness . o. . the duty of servants towards god , their masters , &c. by the same author . a sermon preached at mr. t. lamb's funeral , by the same author . a sermon about frequent communion , by dr. tho. smith . o. a practical discourse of the causes , and remedies of the differences about religion ; which distract the peace of christendom . o. the history of the persecutions of the protestants , by the french king , in the principality of orange . o. the state of the church of rome , when the reformation began . o. visions of pasquin , or a character of the roman court , religion and practices ; with a curious description of purgatory , and hell. o. the school of the eucharist , or the miraculous acknowledgments which birds , beasts and insects have rendred to the holy sacrament of the altar . o. art of divine converse , by d. abercromby . the life of st. mary magdalen of pazzi , a carmelite nun ; with the nature , causes and consequences of extasie and rapture , &c. o. r. boyle's veneration man's intellect ows to god. o. — hydrostaticks applyed to the materia medicam . o. — effects of languid local motion ; and the causes of the insalubrity and salubrity of the air. o. — natural and experimental history of mineral waters . o. — vertues of specifick medicines , and the use of simple medicines o. — of the porousness of animal and solid bodies . o. — experimental history of cold. o. — sceptical chymist . o. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * de nat. rerum . l. . treat . of nat. religion . lib. . c. . * seminal form or vertue . * antidote against athism l. . c. . * isag. ad rem herbariam . * antidote against atheism . l. . c. . * agric. l. . c. . * d. more antid . l. . c. . antid . atheism . l. . c. . * plin. l. . c. . * antidote against atheism l. . c. . object . use. * antid . atheism . l. . c. . * bishop of chesters nat. rel. lib. . c. . dr. more antidote against atheism . * de natur . rerum l. . * boyl of fin. causes p. , . * cartes epist. vol. . ep. . & seq . infer . . psal. . infer . . * runs before the understanding or wit. conjectura cabbalistica or, a conjectural essay of interpreting the minde of moses, according to a threefold cabbala: viz. literal, philosophical, mystical, or, divinely moral. by henry more fellow of christs college in cambridge. more, henry, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing m thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) conjectura cabbalistica or, a conjectural essay of interpreting the minde of moses, according to a threefold cabbala: viz. literal, philosophical, mystical, or, divinely moral. by henry more fellow of christs college in cambridge. more, henry, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by james flesher, and are to be sold by william morden bookseller in cambridge, london : . the words "literal, .. moral." are bracketed together on title page. "the defence of the threefold cabbala" has separate dated title page; pagination and register are continuous. with eight final contents leaves. annotation on thomason copy: "nou. ". reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -- o.t. -- genesis i-iii -- commentaries -- early works to . creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion conjectura cabbalistica . or , a conjectural essay of interpreting the minde of moses , according to a threefold cabbala : viz. literal , philosophical , mystical , or , divinely moral . by henry more fellow of christs college in cambridge . exod. . and when aaron and all the people of israel saw moses , behold , the skin of his face shones and they were afraid to come nigh him . wherefore moses while he spake unto them , put a veil on his face . matth . . there is nothing covered , that shall not be revealed ; and hid , that shall not be known . what i tell you in darknesse , speak you in light ; and what you hear in the ear , that preach you on the house-tops . london , printed by james flesher , and are to be sold by william morden bookseller in cambridge . . to his eminently learned , and truly religious friend , dr cudworth , master of clare hall , and hebrew professor in the university of cambridge . sir , concerning the choice of the subject matter of my present pains , i have , i think , spoke enough in the insuing preface . concerning the choice of my patron , i shall say no more , then that the sole inducement thereto , was his singular learning and piety . the former of which , is so conspicuous to the world , that it is universally acknowledged of all ; and for the latter , there is none that can be ignorant thereof , who has ever had the happiness , though but in a smaller measure , of his more free and intimate converse . as for my own part , i cannot but publickly profess , i never met with any yet so truly and becomingly religious , where the right knowledge of god and christ bears the inlightned minde so even , that it is as far removed from superstition as irreligion it self . and my present labours cannot finde better welcome or more judicious acceptance with any , then with such as these . for such free and unprejudiced spirits will neither antiquate truth for the oldnesse of the notion , nor slight her for looking young , or bearing the face of novelty . besides , there are none that can be better assured of the sincerity and efficacy of my present designe . for as many as are born of the spirit , and are not meer sons of the letter , know very well how much the more inward and mysterious meaning of the text makes for the reverence of the holy scripture , and advantage of godlinesse , when as the urging of the bare literal sense , has either made or confirmed many an atheist . and assuredly those men see very little in the affairs of religion , that do not plainly discover , that it is the atheists highest interest , to have it taken for granted , that there is no spiritual meaning , either in scripture or sacrament , that extends further then the meer grammatical sense in the one , or the sensible , grosse , external performance in the other . as for example , that to be regenerated , and become a true and real christian , is nothing else , but to receive the outward baptisme of visible water : and , that the mosaical philosophy concerning god , and the nature of things , is none other , then that which most obviously offers it self in the meer letter of moses . which if the atheist could have fully granted to him on all sides , and get but this in also to the bargain , that there is no knowledge of god , but what moses his text set on foot in the world , or what is traditional , he cannot but think , that religion in this dresse , is so empty , exceptionable , and contemptible , that it is but just with as many as are not meer fools , to look upon it as some melancholick conceit , or cunning fiction brought into the world , to awe the simpler sort , but behinde the hangings to be freely laughed at , and derided by those that are more wise ; and that it were an easie thing in a short time to raze the memory of it out of the mindes of men , it having so little root in the humane faculties . which for my own part i think as hopeful , as that posterity will be born without eyes and ears , and lose the use of speech . for i think the knowledge of god , and a sense of religion is as natural and essential to mankinde , as any other property in them whatsoever : and that the generations of men shall as soon become utterly irrational , as plainly irreligious . which , i think , my late treatise against atheisme wil make good to any one , that with care and judgement will peruse it . nor does it at all follow , because a truth is delivered by way of tradition , that it is unconcludable by reason . for i do not know any one theorem in all natural philosophy , that has more sufficient reasons for it , then the motion of the earth , which notwithstanding is part of the philosophick cabbala or tradition of moses , as i shall plainly shew in its due place . so likewise for the prae-existency of the soul , which seems to have been part of the same tradition , it is abundantly consentaneous to reason : and as we can give a genuine account of all those seeming irregularities of motion in the planets , supposing , they & the earth move round about the sun : so we may open the causes of all those astonishing paradoxes of providence , from this other hypothesis , and show that there is nothing here unsutable to the precious attributes of god , if we could place the eye of our understanding in that center of all free motions , that steady eternal good , & were not our selves carried aloof off from him , amongst other wandring planets , ( as s. jude calls them ) that at several distances play about him , & yet all of them in some measure or other , not onely pretending to him , but whether they pretend or not , really receiving something from him . for of this first , is all , both wisdome , pleasure , and power . but it is enough to have but hinted these things briefly and enigmatically , the wrath and ignorance of all ages receiving the most generous truths , with the greatest offence . but for my own part , i know no reason but that all wel-willers to truth & godliness , should heartily thank me for my present cabbalistical enterprise , i having so plainly therein vindicated the holy mystery of the trinity from being ( as a very bold sect would have it ) a meer pagan invention . for it is plainly shown here , that it is from moses originally , not from pythagoras , or plato . and seeing that christ is nothing but moses unveiled , i think it was a special act of providence that this hidden cabbala came so seasonably to the knowledge of the gentiles , that it might afore-hand fit them for the easier entertainment of the whole mystery of christianity , when in the fulness of time it should be more clearly revealed unto the world . besides this , we have also shown , that according to moses his philosophy , the soul is secure both from death , and from sleep after death , which those drowsie nodders over the letter of the scripture have very oscitantly collected , and yet as boldly afterwards maintained , pretending that the contrary , is more platonical , then christian , or scriptural . wherefore my designe being so pious as it proves , i could do nothing more fit then to make choice of so true a lover of piety as your self for a patron of my present labours . especially you being so well able to do the most proper office of a patron ; to defend the truth that is presented to you in them , & to make up out of your rich treasury of learning , what our penury could not reach to , or inadvertency may have omitted . and truly , if i may not hope this from you , i know not whence to expect it . for i do not know where to meet with any so universally and fully accomplished in all parts of learning as your self , as well in the oriental tongues and history , as in all the choicest kindes of philosophy ; any one of which acquisitions is enough to fill , if not swell , an ordinary man with great conceit and pride , when as it is your sole privilege , to have them all , and yet not to take upon you , nor to be any thing more imperious , or censorious of others , then they ought to be that know the least . these were the true considerations that directed me in the dedication of this book ; which if you accordingly please to take into your favourable patronage , and accept as a monument or remembrance of our mutual friendship , you shall much oblige your affectionate friend and servant h. more . the preface to the reader . what is meant by the tearm cabbala , and how warrantably the literal exposition of the text may be so called . that dispensable speculations are best propounded in a sceptical manner . a clear description of the nature and dignity of reason , and what the divine logos is . the general probabilities of the truth of this present cabbala . the design of the author in publishing of it . reader , i present thee here with a triple interpretation of the three first chapters of genesis , which in my title page i have tearmed a threefold cabbala ; concerning which , for thy better direction and satisfaction , i hold it not amisse to speak some few things by way of preface , such as thou thy self in all likelihood wouldst be forward to ask of me . as ; why , for example , i call this interpretation of mine a cabbala , and from whom i received it ; what may be the prohabilities of the truth of it ; and what my purpose is in publishing of it . to the first i answer ; that the jewish cabbala is conceived to be a traditional doctrine or exposition of the pentateuch which moses received from the mouth of god , while he was on the mount with him . and this sense or interpretation of the law or pentateuch , as it is a doctrine received by moses first , and then from him by joshua , and from joshua by the seventy elders , and so on , it was called cabbala from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kibbel to receive : but as it was delivered as well as received , it was also called massora , which signifies a tradition ; though this latter more properly respects that critical and grammatical skill of the learned among the jews , and therefore was profitable for the explaining the literal sense as well as that more mysterious meaning of the text where it was intended . whence without any boldnesse or abuse of the word i may call the literal interpretation which i have light upon cabbala , as well as the philosophical or moral ; the literal sense it self being not so plain and determinate , but that it may seem to require some traditional doctrine or exposition to settle it , as well as those other senses that are more mystical . and therefore i thought fit to call this threefold interpretation that i have hit upon , cabbala's , as if i had indeed light upon the true cabbala of moses in all the three senses of the text , such as might have become his own mouth to have uttered for the instruction of a willing and well prepared disciple . and therefore for the greater comelinesse and solemnity of the matter , i bring in moses speaking his own minde in all the three several expositions . and yet i call the whole interpretation but a conjecture , having no desire to seem more definitively wise then others can bear or approve of . for though in such things as are necessary and essential to the happinesse of a man , as the belief that there is a god , and the like ; it is not sufficient for a man only to bring undeniable reasons for what he would prove , but also to professe plainly and dogmatically , that himself gives full assent to the conclusion he hath demonstrated : so that those that do not so well understand the power of reason , may notwithstanding thereby be encouraged to be of the same faith with them that do , it being of so great consequence to them to believe the thing propounded : yet i conceive that speculative and dispensable truths a man not onely may , but ought rather to propound them sceptically to the world , there being more prudence and modesty in offering the strongest arguments he can without dogmatizing at all , or seeming to dote upon the conclusion , or more earnestly to affect the winning of proselytes to his own opinion . for where the force of the arguments is perceived , assent will naturally follow according to the proportion of the discovery of the force of the arguments . and an assent to opinions meerly speculative , without the reasons of them , is neither any pleasure nor accomplishment of a rational creature . to your second demand , i answer ; that though i call this interpretation of mine cabbala , yet i must confesse i received it neither from man nor angel. nor came it to me by divine inspiration , unlesse you will be so wise as to call the seasonable suggestions of that divine life and sense that vigorously resides in the rational spirit of free and well meaning christians , by the name of inspiration . but such inspiration as this is no distracter from , but an accomplisher and an enlarger of humane faculties . and i may adde , that this is the great mystery of christianity , that we are called to partake of , viz. the perfecting of the humane nature by participation of the divine . which cannot be understood so properly of this grosse flesh and external senses , as of the inward humanity , viz. our intellect , reason , and fancie . but to exclude the use of reason in the search of divine truth , is no dictate of the spirit ▪ but of headstrong melancholy and blinde enthusiasme , that religious frensie men run into , by lying passive for the reception of such impresses as have no proportion with their faculties . which mistake and irregularity , if they can once away with , they put themselves in a posture of promiscuously admitting any thing , and so in due time of growing either moped or mad , and under pretence of being highly christians , ( the right mystery whereof they understand not ) of working themselves lower then the lowest of men . but for mine own part , reason seems to me to be so far from being any contemptible principle in man , that it must be acknowledged in some sort to be in god himself . for what is the divine wisdome , but that steady comprehension of the ideas of all things , with their mutual respects one to another , congruities and incongruities , dependences and independences ; which respects do necessarily arise from the natures of the ideas themselves , both which the divine intellect looks through at once , discerning thus the order and coherence of all things . and what is this but ratio stabilis , a kinde of steady and immovable reason discovering the connexion of all things at once ? but that in us is ratio mobilis , or reason in evolution , we being able to apprehend things onely in a successive manner one after another . but so many as we can comprehend at a time , while we plainly perceive and carefully view their ideas , we know how well they fit , or how much they disagree one with another , and so prove or disprove one thing by another ; which is really a participation of that divine reason in god , and is a true and faithful principle in man , when it is perfected and polished by the holy spirit . but before , very earthly and obscure , especially in spiritual things . but now seeing the logos or steady comprehensive wisdom of god , in which all ideas and their respects are contained , is but universal stable reason , how can there be any pretence of being so highly inspired as to be blown above reason it self , unlesse men will fancie themselves wiser then god , or their understandings above the natures and reasons of things themselves . wherefore to frame a brief answer to your second demand ; i say , this threefold cabbala you enquire after , is the dictate of the free reason of my minde ▪ heedfully considering the written text of moses , and carefully canvasing the expositions of such interpreters as are ordinarily to be had upon him . and i know nothing to the contrary , but that i have been so successeful as to have light upon the old true cabbala indeed . of which in the third place i will set down some general probabilities , referring you for the rest to the defence of the cabbala's themselves , and the introduction thereunto . and first that the literal cabbala is true , it is no contemptible argument , in that it is carried on so evenly and consistently one part with another , every thing also being represented so accommodately to the capacity of the people , and so advantageously for the keeping of their mindes in the fear of god , and obedience to his law , as shall be particularly shown in the defence of that cabbala . so that according to the sense of this literal cabbala , moses is discovered to be a man of the highest political accomplishments , and true and warrantable prudence that may be . nor is he to fall short in philosophy ; and therefore the philosophical cabbala contains the noblest truths , as well theological as natural , that the minde of man can entertain her self with ; insomuch that moses seems to have been aforehand , and prevented the subtilest and abstrusest inventions of the choicest philosophers that ever appeared after him to this very day . and further presumption of the truth of this philosophical cabbala is ; that the grand mysteries therein contained are most-what the same that those two eximious philosophers pythagoras and plato brought out of egypt , and the parts of asia into europe . and it is generally acknowledged by christians , that they both had their philosophy from moses . and numenius the platonist speaks out plainly concerning his master ; what is plato but moses atticus ? and for pythagoras it is a thing incredible that he and his followers should make such a deal of doe with the mystery of numbers , had he not been favoured with a sight of moses his creation of the world in six days , and had the philosophick cabbala thereof communicated to him , which mainly consists in numbers , as i shall in the defence of this cabbala more particularly declare . and the pythagoreans oath swearing by him that taught them the mystery of the tetractys , or the number four , what a ridiculous thing had it been if it had been in reference meerly to dry numbers ? but it is exceeding probable that under that mystery of four , pythagoras was first himself taught the meaning of the fourth days work in the creation , and after delivered it to his disciples . in which cabbala of the fourth day pythagoras was instructed , amongst other things , that the earth was a planet , and moved about the sun ; and it is notoriously well known , that this was ever the opinion of the pythagoreans , and so in all likelihood a part of the philosophick cabbala of moses . which you will more fully understand in my defence thereof . in brief , all those conclusions that are comprised in the philosophick cabbala , they being such as may best become that sublime and comprehensive understanding of moses , and being also so plainly answerable to the phaenomena of nature and attributes of god , as wel as continuedly agreeable without any force or distortion to the historical text ; this i conceive is no small probability that this cabbala is true : for what can be the properties of the true philosophick cabbala of moses , if these be not which i have named ? now for the moral cabbala it bears its own evidence with it all the way , representing moses as well experienced in all godlinesse and honesty , as he was skilful in politicks and philosophy . and the edifying usefulnesse of this mystical or moral cabbala , to answer to your last demand , was no small invitation amongst the rest to publish this present exposition . for moral and spiritual truth that so neerly concerns us being so strangely and unexpectedly , and yet so fitly and appositely represented in this history of moses , it will in all likelihood make the more forcible impresse upon the minde , and more powerfully carry away our affections toward what is good and warrantable , pre-instructing us with delight concerning the true way to virtue and godlinesse . nor are the philosophick nor literal cabbala's destitute of their honest uses . for in the former to the amazement of the meer naturalist ( who commonly conceits that pious men and patrons of religion have no ornaments of minde but scrupulosities about virtue , and melancholy fancies concerning a deity ) moses is found to have been master of the most sublime and generous speculations that are in all natural philosophy : besides that he places the soul of man many degrees out of the reach of fate and mortality . and by the latter there is a very charitable provision made for them that are so prone to expect rigid precepts of philosophy in moses his outward text. for this literal cabbala will steer them off from that toil of endevouring to make the bare letter speak consonantly to the true frame of nature : which while they attempt with more zeal then knowledge , they both disgrace themselves and wrong moses . for there are unalterable and indeleble idea's and notions in the minde of man , into which when we are awakened and apply to the known course and order of nature , we can no more forsake the use of them then we can the use of our own eyes , nor misbelieve their dictates no more , nor so much , as we may those of our outward senses . wherefore to men recovered into a due command of their reason , and well-skill'd in the contemplation and experience of the nature of things , to propound to them such kinde of mosaical philosophy , as the boldnesse and superstition of some has adventured to do for want of a right literal cabbala to guide them , is as much as in them lies , to hazard the making not only of moses , but of religion it self contemptible and ridiculous . whence it is apparent enough , i think , to what good purpose it is thus carefully to distinguish betwixt the literal and philosophick cabbala , and so plainly and fully to set out the sense of either , apart by themselves , that there may hereafter be no confusion or mistake . for beside that the discovering of these weighty truths , and high , but irrefutable paradoxes , in moses his text , does assert religion , and vindicate her from that vile imputation of ignorance in philosophy and the knowledge of things , so does it also justifie those more noble results of free reason and philosophy from that vulgar suspicion of impiety and irreligion . the literal cabbala . chap. i. the earth at first a deep miry abysse , covered over with waters , over which was a fierce wind , and through all darknesse . day made at first without a sun. the earth a floor , the heavens a transparent canopy , or strong tent over it , to keep off the upper waters or blew conspicuous sea from drowning the world . why this tent or canopy was not said to be good . the lower waters commanded into one place . herbs , flowers , and fruits of trees , before either sun or seasons of the year to ripen them . the sun created and added to the day , as a peculiar ornament thereof , as the moon and stars to the night . the creation of fish and fowl . the creation of beasts & creeping things . man created in the very shape and figure of god , but yet so , that there were made females as well as males . how man came to be lord over the rest of living creatures . how it came to passe that man feeds on the better sort of the fruits of the earth , and the beasts on the worse . wee are to recount to you in this book the generations and genealogies of the patriarchs from adam to noah , from noah to abraham , from abraham to joseph , and to continue the history to our own times . but it will not be amisse first to inform you concerning the creation of the world , and the original and beginning of things ; how god made heaven and earth , and all the garnishings of them , before he made man. but the earth at first was but a rude and desolate heap , devoid of herbs , flowers , and trees , and all living creatures , being nothing but a deep miry abysse , covered all over with waters , and there was a very fierce and strong wind that blew upon the waters ; and what made it still more horrid and comfortless , there was as yet no light , but all was inveloped with thick darknesse , and bore the face of a pitchy black and wet tempestuous night . but god let not his work lie long in this sad condition , but commanded light to appear , and the morning brake out upon the face of the abyss , and wheel'd about from east to west , being clearest in the middle of its course about noon , and then abating of its brightnesse towards the west , at last quite dis-appear'd , after such sort as you may often observe the day-light to break forth in the east , and ripen to greater clearnesse , but at last to leave the skie in the west , no sun appearing all the while . . and god saw the light , ( for it is a thing very visible ) that it was good , and so separated the darknesse from the light , that they could not both of them be upon the face of the earth together , but had their vicissitudes , and took their turns one after another . and he called the return of the light day , and the return of darkness he called night ; and the evening and the morning made up the first natural day . . now after god had made this basis or floor of this greater edifice of the world , the earth , he sets upon the higher parts of the fabrick . he commands therefore that there should be a hollow expansion , firm and transparent , which by its strength should bear up against the waters which are above , and keep them from falling upon the earth in excess . . and so it became a partition betwixt the upper & the lower waters ; so that by virtue of this hollow firmament , man might live safe from the violence of such destructive inundations , as one sheltred in a well-pitch'd tent from storm of rain : for the danger of these waters is apparent to the eye , this ceruleous or blew-coloured sea , that over-spreads the diaphanous firmament , being easily discern'd through the body thereof ; and there are very frequent and copious showers of rain descend from above , when as there is no water espyed ascending up thither ; wherefore it must all come from that upper sea , if we do but appeal to our outward sense . now therefore this diaphanous canopy or firmly stretched tent over the whole pavement of the earth , though i cannot say properly that god saw it was good , it being indeed of a nature invisible , yet the use of it shows it to be exceeding good and necessary . and god called the whole capacity of this hollow firmament , heaven . and the evening and the morning made up the second natural day . and now so sure a defence being made against the inundation of the upper waters , that they might not fall upon the earth , god betook himself the next day to order the lower waters , that as yet were spread over the whole face thereof ; at his command therefore the waters fled into one place , and the dry land did appear . and god called the dry land earth ; and the gathering together of the waters he called sea : and i may now properly say , that god saw that it was good , for the sea and the land are things visible enough , and fit objects of our sight . and forthwith before he made either sun , moon ▪ or stars , did god command the earth to bring forth grasse , herbs and flowers , in their full beauty , and fruit-trees , yeilding delicious fruit , though there had as yet been no vicissitude of spring , summer , or autumn , nor any approach of the sun to ripen and concoct the fruit of those trees . whence you may easily discern the foolishnesse of the idolatrous nations , that dote so much on second causes , as that they forget the first , ascribing that to the sun and moon , that was caus'd at first by the immediate command of god. for at his command it was , before there was either sun or moon in the firmament , that the earth brought forth grasse , and herb yeilding seed after his kind , and the tree yeilding fruit , whose seed was in it self , after his kinde ; so that the several sorts of plants might by this means be conserv'd upon the earth . and god saw that it was good . and the evening and the morning made up the third natural day . there have three days past without a sun , as well as three nights without either moon or stars , as you your selves may happily have observ'd some number of moonless and starlesse nights , as well as of sunlesse days , to have succeeded one another : and so it might have been always , had not god said , let there be lights within the firmament of heaven , to make a difference betwixt day and night , and to be peculiar garnishings of either . let them be also for signes of weather ▪ for seasons of the year , and also for periods of days , months , and years . moreover , let them be as lights hung up within the hollow roof or firmament of heaven , to give light to men walking upon the pavement of the earth : and it was so . and god made two great lights ; the greater one , the most glorious & princely object we can see by day , to be as it were the governor and monarch of the day ; the lesser , the most resplendent and illustrious sight we can cast our eyes on by night , to be governesse and queen of the night . and he made , though for their smalnesse they be not so considerable , the stars also . and he placed them all in the firmament of heaven , to give light upon the earth . and to shew their preheminence for external lustre , above what ever else appears by either day or night , and to be peculiar garnishings or ornaments to make a notable difference betwixt the light and the darknesse , the superaddition of the sun to adorn the day , and to invigorate the light thereof , the moon and the stars to garnish the night , and to mitigate the dulnesse and darknesse thereof . and god saw that it was good . and the evening and the morning was the fourth natural day . after this , god commanded the waters to bring forth fish and fowl , which they did in abundance , and the fowl flew above the earth in the open firmament of heaven . and god created great whales also as well as other fishes , that move in the waters ; and god saw that it was good . and god blessed them , saying , be fruitful and multiply , and fill the waters in the seas , and let the fowl multiply on the earth . and the evening and the morning made up the fifth natural day . then god commanded the earth to bring forth all creeping things , and four footed beasts , as before he commanded the waters to send forth fish and fowl ; and it was so . and when god had made the beast of the earth after his kinde , and cattel , and every creeping thing after his kinde , he saw that it was good . and coming at last to his highest master-piece , man , he encouraged himself , saying , go to , let us now make man , and i will make him after the same image and shape that i bear my self ; and he shall have dominion over the fish of the sea , and over the fowls of the air , and over the cattel , and over all the earth , and over every creeping thing , that creepeth upon the earth . so god created man in his own shape and figure , with an upright stature , with legs , hands , arms , with a face and mouth , to speak , and command , as god himself hath : i say , in the image of god did he thus create him . but mistake me not , whereas you conceive of god as masculine , and more perfect , yet you must not understand me , as if god made mankinde so exactly after his own image , that he made none but males ; for i tell you , he made females as well as males , as you shall hear more particularly hereafter . and having made them thus male and female , he bad them make use of the distinction of sexes that he had given them ; and blessing them , god said unto them , be fruitful and multiply , and fill the earth with your off-spring , and be lords thereof , and have dominion also over the fish of the sea , and over the fowls of the air , as well as over beasts and cattel , and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth . and god said , behold , i give you every frugiferous herb which is upon the face of the earth , such as the straw-berry , the several sorts of corn , as rye , wheat , and rice , as also the delicious fruits of trees , to you they shall be for meat . but for the beasts of the earth , and the fowls of the air , and for every living thing that creepeth upon the earth , the worser kind of herbs , and ordinary grasse , i have assign'd for them : and so it came to passe that mankinde are made lords and possessors of the choicest fruits of the earth , and the beasts of the field are to be contented with baser herbage , and the common grasse . and god viewed all the works that he had made , and behold , they were exceeding good ; and the evening and the morning was the sixt natural day . chap. ii. the original of the jewish sabbaths , from gods resting himself from his six days labours . herbs and plants before either rain , gardning or husbandry , and the reason why it was so . adam made of the dust of the ground , and his soul breathed in at his nostrils . the planting of paradise . a wonderful tree there , that would continue youth , and make a man immortal upon earth : another strange tree , viz. the tree of knowledge of good and evil . the rivers of paradise , phasis , gihon , tigris , euphrates . the high commendation of matrimony . adam gives names to all kinde of creatures , except fishes . woman is made of a rib of adam , a deep sleep falling upon him , his minde then also being in a trance . the first institution of marriage . thus the heavens and the earth were finisht , and all the creatures , wherewith they were garnisht and replenisht . and god having within six days perfected all his work , on the seventh day he rested himself . and so made the seventh day an holy day , a festival of rest , because himself then first rested from his works . whence you plainly see the reason and original of your sabbaths . these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth , which i have so compendiously recounted to you , as they were created in the days that the lord made heaven and earth , and the several garnishings of them . but there are some things that i would a little more fully touch upon , and give you notice of , to the praise of god , and the manifesting of his power unto you . as that the herbs and plants of the field did not come up of their own accords out of the earth , before god made them , but that god created them before there were any seeds of any such thing in the earth , and before there was any rain , or men to use gardning or husbandry , for the procuring their growth : so that hereafter you may have the more firm faith in god , for the blessings and fruits of the earth , when the ordinary course of nature shall threaten dearth and scarcity for want of rain and seasonable showers . for there had been no showers when god caused the plants , and herbs of the field to spring up out of the earth ; onely as i told you at the first of all , there was a mighty torrent of water , that rose every where above the earth , and cover'd the universal face of the ground , which yet , god afterward by his almighty power , commanded so into certain bounds , that the residue of the earth was meer dry land . and that you farther may understand how the power of god is exalted above the course of natural causes , god taking of the the dust of his dry ground , wrought it with his hands into such a temper , that it was matter fit to make the body of a man : which when he first had fram'd , was as yet but like a senslesse statue , till coming near unto it with his mouth , he breath'd into the nostrils thereof the breath of life ; as you may observe to this day , that men breath through their nostrils , though their mouths be clos'd . and thus man became a living creature , and his name was called adam , because he was made of the earth . but i should have told you first more at large , how the lord god planted a garden eastward of judea in the countrey of eden , about mesopotamia , where afterwards he put the man adam , whom he after this wise had form'd . and the description of this garden is this : out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight , and good for food . but amongst these several sorts of trees , there were two of singular notice , that stood planted in the midst of the garden ; the one of which had fruit of that wonderful virtue , as to continue youth and strength , and to make a man immortal upon earth , wherefore it was call'd the tree of life . there was also another tree planted there , of whose fruit if a man ate , it had this strange effect , that it would make a man know the difference betwixt good and evil ; for the lord god had so ordain'd , that if adam touched the forbidden fruit thereof , he should by his disobedience feel the sense of evil as well as good ; wherefore by way of anticipation it was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil . and there was a river went out of eden to water the garden , and from thence it was parted , and became into four heads . the name of the first was phasis , or phasi-tigris , which compasses the whole land of the chaulateans , where there is gold. and the gold of that land is excellent ; there is also found bdellium and the onyx-stone . and the name of the second river is gihon , the same is it that compasseth the whole land of the arabian-aethiopia . and the name of the third river is tigris , that is that which goeth towards the east of assyria , and the fourth river is euphrates . and the lord god took the man adam by the hand , and led him into the garden of eden , and laid commands upon him to dresse it , and look to it , and to keep things handsome and in order in it , and that it should not be any wise spoil'd or misus'd by incursions or careless ramblings of the heedlesse beasts . and the lord god recommended unto adam all the trees of the garden for very wholesome and delightful food , bidding him freely eat thereof . only he excepted the tree of knowledge of good and evil , which he strictly charg'd him to forbear , for if he ever tasted thereof , he should assuredly die . but to the high commendation of matrimony be it spoken , though god had placed adam in so delightful a paradise , yet his happinesse was but maimed and imperfect , till he had the society of a woman : for the lord god said , it is not good that man should be alone , i will make him an help meet for him . now out of the ground the lord god had form'd every beast of the field , and every fowl of the air , and these brought he unto adam , to see what he would call them , and whatsoever adam called every living creature , that was the name thereof . and adam gave names to all cattel , and to the fowls of the air , and to every beast of the field , but he could not so kindly take acquaintance with any of these , or so fully enjoy their society , but there was still some considerable matter wanting to make up adams full felicity , and there was a meet help to be found out for him . wherefore the lord god caus'd a deep sleep to fall upon adam ; & lo , as he slept upon the ground , he fell into a dream , how god had put his hand into his side , and pulled out one of his ribs , closing up the flesh in stead thereof : and how the rib , which the lord god had taken from him , was made into a woman , and how god when he had thus made her , took her by the hand , and brought her unto him . and he had no sooner awakened , but he found his dream to be true , for god stood by him with the woman in his hand which he had brought . wherefore adam being pre-advertised by the vision , was presently able to pronounce , this is now bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh : what are the rest of the creatures to this ? and he bestowed upon her also a fitting name , calling her woman , because she was taken out of man. and the lord god said , thou hast spoken well , adam : and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother , and shall cleave unto his wife , and they two shall be one flesh : so strict and sacred a tie is the band of wedlock . and they were both naked , adam and his wife , and were not ashamed ; but how the shame of being seen naked came into the world , i shall declare unto you hereafter . chap. iii. a subtile serpent in paradise , indued with both reason , and the power of speech , deceives the woman . the dialogue betwixt the woman and the serpent . how the shame of nakednesse came into the world . god walks in the garden ; and calls to adam . the dialogue betwixt adam and god. the reasons why serpents want feet , and creep upon the ground . the reason of the antipathy betwixt men and serpents . as also of womens pangs in child-bearing , and of their being bound in subjection to their husbands . also of the barrennesse of the earth , and of mans toil and drudgery . god teacheth adam and eve the use of leathern clothing . paradise haunted with apparitions : adam frighted from daring to taste of the tree of life , whence his posterity became mortal to this very day . and truly it cannot but be very obvious for you to consider often with your selves , not onely how this shame of nakedness came into the world , but the toil and drudgery of tillage and husbandry ; the grievous pangs of childe-bearing ; and lastly , what is most terrible of all , death it self : of all which , as of some other things also , i shall give you such plain and intelligible reasons , that your own hearts could not wish more plain and more intelligible . to what an happy condition adam was created , you have already heard ; how he was placed by god in a garden of delight , where all his senses were gratified with the most pleasing objects imaginable ; his eyes with the beautie of trees and flowers , and various delightsome forms of living creatures , his ears with the sweet musical accents of the canorous birds , his smell with the fragrant odours of aromatick herbs , his taste with variety of delicious fruit , and his touch with the soft breathings of the air in the flowry alleys of this ever-springing paradise . adde unto all this , that pleasure of pleasures , the delectable conversation of his beautiful bride , the enjoyments of whose love neither created care to himself , nor pangs of childe-bearing to her : for all the functions of life were performed with ease and delight ; and there had been no need for man to sweat for the provision of his family , for in this garden of eden there was a perpetual spring , and the vigour of the soil prevented mans industry ; and youth and jollity had never left the bodies of adam and his posterity , because old age and death were perpetually to be kept off by that soveraign virtue of the tree of life . and i know , as you heartily could wish , this state might have ever continued to adam and his seed , so you eagerly expect to hear the reason why he was depriv'd of it ; and in short it is this , his disobedience to a commandement which god had given him ; the circumstances whereof i shall declare unto you , as followeth . amongst those several living creatures which were in paradise , there was the serpent also , whom you know to this very day to be full of subtilty , & therefore you will lesse wonder , if when he was in his perfection , he had not onely the use of reason , but the power of speech . it was therefore this serpent that was the first occasion of all this mischief to adam and his posterity ; for he cunningly came unto the woman , and said unto her , is it so indeed , that god has commanded you that you shall not eat of any of the trees of the garden ? and the woman answered unto the serpent , you are mistaken , god hath not forbid us to eat of all the fruit of the trees of the garden . but indeed of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden , god hath strictly charged us , ye shall not eat of it , neither shall ye touch it , lest ye die . but the serpent said unto the woman , tush , i warrant you , this is only but to terrifie you , and abridge you of that liberty and happinesse you are capable of , you shall not so certainly die . but god knows the virtue of that tree full well , that so soon as you eat thereof , your eyes shall be opened , and you shall become as gods , knowing good and evil . and when the woman saw , that the tree was good for food , and that it was pleasant to the eye , and a tree to be desired to make one wise , she took of the fruit and did eat , and gave also to her husband with her , and he did eat . and the eyes of them both were opened , and they knew they were naked , and were ashamed , and therefore they sewed fig-leaves together , and made themselves aprons to cover their parts of shame . and the lord god came into the garden toward the cool of the evening , and walking in the garden , call'd for adam ; but adam had no sooner heard his voice , but he and his wife ran away into the thickest of the trees of the garden , to hide themselves from his presence . but the lord god called unto adam the second time , and said unto him , adam where art thou ? then adam was forc't to make answer , and said , i heard thy voice in the garden , and i was afraid , because i was naked , and so i hid my self . then god said unto him , who hath made thee so wise , that thou shouldst know that thou art naked , or wantest any covering ? hast thou eaten of the forbidden fruit ? and adam excus'd himself , saying , the woman whom thou recommendedst to me for a meet help , she gave me of the fruit , and i did eat . and the lord god said unto the woman , what is this that thou hast done ? and the woman excus'd her self , saying , the serpent beguiled me , and i did eat . then the lord god gave sentence upon all three ; and to the serpent he said , because thou hast done this , thou art cursed above all cattel , and above every beast of the field ; and whereas hitherto thou hast been able to bear thy body aloft , and go upright , thou shalt henceforth creep upon thy belly , like a worm , and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life . and there shall be a perpetual antipathy betwixt not only the woman and thee , but betwixt her seed and thy seed : for universal mankind shall abhorre thee , and hate all the cursed generations that come of thee . they indeed shall busily lie in wait to sting mens feet , which their skill in herbs however shall be able to cure ; but they shall knock all serpents on the head , and kill them without pity or remorse , deservedly using thy seed as their deadly enemy . and the doom of the woman was , her sorrow and pangs in childe-bearing , and her subjection to her husband . which law of subjection is generally observed in the nations of the world unto this very day . and the doom of adam was , the toil of husbandry upon barren ground . for the earth was cursed for his sake , which is the reason that it brings forth thorns , and thistles , and other weeds , that husbandmen could wish would not cumber the ground , upon which they bestow their toilsome labor . thus in the sweat of his face was adam to eat his bread , till he return to the dust out of which he was taken . and adam called his wife eve , because she was the mother of all men that ever were born into the world , and lived upon the face of the earth . and the generations of men were clothed at first with the skins of wilde beasts , the use of which god taught adam and eve in paradise . and when they were thus accoutred for their journey , and armed for greater hardship , god turns them both out : and the lord god said concerning adam , deriding him for his disobedience , behold , adam is become as one of us , to know good and evil : let us look to him now , lest he put his hand to the tree of life , and so make himself immortal . therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden , to till the ground , from whence he was taken . so he drove out adam , and his wife was forced to follow him : for there was no longer staying in paradise , because the place was terribly haunted with spirits , and fearful apparitions appeared at the entrance thereof , winged men with fiery flaming swords in their hands , brandished every way , so that adam durst never adventure to go back to taste of the fruit of the tree of life : whence it is that mankinde hath continued mortal to this very day . the philosophick cabbala . chap. i. the world of life or forms , and the potentiality of the visible vniverse created by the tri-une god , and referr'd to a monad or unite . the vniversal immense matter of the visible world created out of nothing , and referr'd to the number two. why it was not said of this matter that it was good . the ordering of an earth or planet for making it conveniently habitable , referr'd to the number three . the immense aethereal matter , or heaven , contriv'd into suns or planets , as well primary as secondary , viz. as well earths as moons , and referr'd to the number four. the replenishing of an earth with fish and fowl , referr'd to the number five . the creation of beasts and cattel , but more chiefly of man himself , referr'd to the number six . our designe being to set out the more conspicuous parts of the external creation , before we descend to the genealogies and successions of mankinde ; there are two notable objects present themselves to our understanding , which we must first take notice of , as having an universal influence upon all that follows : and these i do symbolically decypher , the one by the name of heaven and light ; for i mean the same thing by both these tearms ; the other by the name of earth . by heaven or light , you are to understand the whole comprehension of intellectual spirits , souls of men and beasts , and the seminal forms of all things which you may call , if you please , the world of life . by earth , you are to understand the potentiality , or capability of the existence of the outward creation : this possibility being exhibited to our mindes as the result of the omnipotence of god , without whom nothing would be , and is indeed the utmost shadow and darkest projection thereof . the tri-une god therefore by his eternall wisdome first created this symbolical heaven and earth . and this earth was nothing but solitude and emptinesse , and it was a deep bottomless capacity of being what ever god thought good to make out of it , that implyed no contradiction to be made . and there being a possibility of creating things after sundry and manifold manners , nothing was yet determined , but this vast capability of things was unsettled , fluid , and of it self undeterminable as water : but the spirit of god , who was the vehicle of the eternal wisdome , and of the super-essential goodnesse , by a swift forecast of counsel and discourse of reason truly divine , such as at once strikes through all things , and discerns what is best to be done , having hover'd a while over all the capacities of this fluid possibilitie , forthwith settled upon what was the most perfect and exact . wherefore the intire deity by an inward word , which is nothing but wisdome and power , edg'd with actual will , with more ease then we can present any notion or idea to our own mindes , exhibited really to their own view the whole creation of spiritual substances , such as angels are in their inward natures , the souls of men , and other animals , and the seminal forms of all things , so that all those , as many as ever were to be of them , did really and actually exist without any dependency on corporeall matter . and god approved of , and pleased himself in all this as good ; but yet though in designe there was a settlement of the fluid darknesse or obscure possibility of the outward creation , yet it remained as yet but a dark possibility : and a notorious distinction indeed there was betwixt this actual spiritual creation , and the dimme possibility of the material or outward world . . insomuch that the one might very well be called day , and the other night : because the night does deface and obliterate all the distinct figures and colours of things ; but the day exhibits them all orderly and clearly to our sight . thus therefore was the immateriall creature perfectly finisht , being an inexhaustible treasury of light and form , for the garnishing and consummating the material world , to afford a morning or active principle to every passive one , in the future parts of the corporeal creation . but in this first days work , as we will call it , the morning and evening are purely metaphysical ; for the active and passive principles here are not two distinct substances , the one material , the other spiritual . but the passive principle is matter meerly metaphysical , and indeed no real or actual entity ; and , as hath been already said , is quite divided from the light or spiritual substance , not belonging to it , but to the outward world , whose shadowy possibility it is . but be they how they will , this passive and active principle are the first days work : a monad or unite being so fit a symbole of the immaterial nature . and god thought again , and invigorating his thought with his will and power , created an immense deal of reall and corporeall matter , a substance which you must conceive to lie betwixt the foresaid fluid possibility of natural things , and the region of seminall forms ; not that these things are distinguisht locally , but according to a more intellectual order . and the thought of god arm'd with his omnipotent will took effect , and this immensely diffused matter was made . but he was not very forward to say it was good , or to please himself much in it , because he foresaw what mischief straying souls , if they were not very cautious , might bring to themselves , by sinking themselves too deep therein . besides it was little worth , till greater polishings were bestowed upon it , and his wisdome had contrived it to fitting uses , being nothing as yet , but a boundlesse ocean of rude invisible matter . wherefore this matter was actuated and agitated forthwith by some universal spirit , yet part of the world of life , whence it became very subtile and ethereal ; so that this matter was rightly called heaven , and the union of the passive and active principle in the creation of this material heaven , is the second days work , and the binarie denotes the nature thereof . i shall also declare unto you , how god orders a reall materiall earth , when once it is made , to make it pleasant and delightful for both man and beast . but for the very making of the earth , it is to be referred to the following day . for the stars and planets belong to that number ; and as a primary planet in respect of its reflexion of light is rightly called a planet , so in respect of its habitablenesse , it is as rightly tearmed an earth . these earths therefore god orders in such sort , that they neither want water to lie upon them , nor be covered over with water , though they be invironed round with the fluid air . but he makes it partly dry land , and partly sea , rivers , and springs , whose convenience is obvious for every one to conceive . he adorns the ground also with grasse , herbs , and flowers , and hath made a wise provision of seed , that they bring forth , for the perpetuation of such useful commodities upon the face of the earth . for indeed these things are very good and necessary both for man and beast . therefore god prepared the matter of the earth so , as that there was a vital congruity of the parts thereof , with sundry sorts of seminall forms of trees , herbs , and choicest kinds of flowers ; and so the body of the earth drew in sundry principles of plantall life , from the world of life , that is at hand every where ; and the passive and active principle thus put together , made up the third days work , and the ternary denotes the nature thereof . the ternary had allotted to it , the garnishing of an earth with trees , flowers , and herbs , after the distinction of land and sea : as the quinary hath allotted to it , the replenishing of an earth with fish and fowl ; the senary with man and beast . but this fourth day comprehends the garnishing of the body of the whole world , viz. that vast and immense ethereal matter , which is called the fluid heaven , with infinite numbers of sundry sorts of lights , which gods wisdome and power , by union of fit and active principles drawn from the world of life , made of this ethereal matter , whose usefulnesse is plain in nature , that they are for prognostick signes , and seasons , and days , and years . as also for administring of light to all the inhabitants of the world ; that the planets may receive light from their fountains of light , and reflect light one to another . and there are two sorts of these lights that all the inhabitants of the world must acknowledge great every where , consulting with the outward sight , from their proper stations . and the dominion of the greater of these kinde of lights is conspicuous by day ; the dominion of the lesser by night : the former we ordinarily call a sun , the other a moon ; which moon is truly a planet and opake , but reflecting light very plentifully to the beholders sight , and yet is but a secondary or lesser kind of planet ; but he made the primary and more eminent planets also , and such an one is this earth we live upon . and god placed all these sorts of lights in the thin and liquid heaven , that they might reflect their rayes one upon another , and shine upon the inhabitants of the world . and that their beauty and resplendency might be conspicuous to the beholders of them , whether by day or by night , which is mainly to be understood of the suns , that supply also the place of stars at a far distance , but whose chiefe office it is to make vicissitudes of day and night : and the universal dark aether being thus adorn'd with the goodly and glorious furniture of those several kindes of lights , god approved of it as good . and the union of the passive and active principle was the fourth days work , and the number denotes the nature thereof . and now you have heard of a verdant earth , and a bounded sea , and lights to shine through the air and water , and to gratifie the eyes of all living creatures , whereby they may see one another , and be able to seek their food , you may seasonably expect the mention of sundry animals proper to their elements . wherefore god by his inward word and power , prepared the matter in the waters , and near the waters with several vital congruities , so that it drew in sundry souls from the world of life , which actuating the parts of the matter , caus'd great plenty of fish to swim in the waters , and fowls to flye above the earth in the open air . and after this manner he created great whales also , as well as the lesser kindes of fishes , and he approved of them all as good . and the blessing of his inward word or wisdome was upon them for their multiplication ; for according to the preparation of the matter , the plastical power of the souls that descend from the world of life , did faithfully and effectually work those wise contrivances of male and female , they being once rightly united with the matter , so that by this means the fish filled the waters in the seas , and the fowls multiplyed upon the earth . and the union of the passive and active principle was the fift days work , and the quinary denotes the nature thereof . and god persisted farther in the creation of living creatures , and by espousing new souls from the world of life to the more mediterraneous parts of the matter , created land-serpents , cattel , and the beasts of the field . and when he had thus made them , he approved of them for good . then god reflecting upon his own nature , and viewing himself , consulting with the super-essential goodnesse , the eternal intellect , and unextinguishable love-flame of his omnipotent spirit , concluded to make a far higher kinde of living creature , then was as yet brought into the world ; he made therefore man in his own image , after his own likenesse . for after he had prepared the matter fit for so noble a guest as an humane soul , the world of life was forced to let go what the rightly prepared matter so justly called for . and man appeared upon the stage of the earth , lord of all living creatures . for it was just that he that bears the image of the invisible god , should be supreme monarch of this visible world . and what can be more like god then the soul of man , that is so free , so rational , and so intellectual as it is ? and he is not the lesse like him now he is united to the terrestrial body , his soul or spirit possessing and striking through a compendious collection of all kinde of corporeal matter , and managing it , with his understanding free to think of other things , even as god vivificates and actuates the whole world , being yet wholly free to contemplate himself . wherefore god gave man dominion over the fowls of the air , the fish of the sea , and the beasts of the earth : for it is reasonable the worser should be in subserviency to the better . thus god created man in his own image , he consisting of an intellectual soul , & a terrestrial body actuated thereby . wherefore mankinde became male and female , as other terrestrial animals are . and the benediction of the divine wisdome for the propagation of their kinde , was manifest in the contrivance of the parts that were framed for that purpose : and as they grew in multitudes , they lorded it over the earth , and over-mastered by their power and policy the beasts of the field ; and fed themselves with fish and fowl , and what else pleased them , and made for their content , for all was given to them by right of their creation . and that nothing might be wanting to their delight , behold also divine providence hath prepared for their palate all precious and pleasant herbs for sallads , and made them banquets of the most delicate fruit of the fruit-bearing trees . but for the courser grasse , and worser kinde of herbs , they are intended for the worser and baser kinde of creatures : wherefore it is free for man to seek out his own , and make use of it . and god considering every thing that he had made , approved of it as very good ; and the union of the passive and active principle was the sixt days work : and the senary denotes the nature thereof . chap. ii. gods full and absolute rest from creating any thing of anew , adumbrated by the number seven . suns and planets not only the furniture , but effects of the ethereal matter or heaven . the manner of man and other animals rising out of the earth by the power of god in nature . how it was with adam before he descended into flesh , and became a terrestrial animal . that the four cardinall virtues were in adam in his ethereal or paradisiacal condition . adam in paradise forbidden to taste or relish his own will under pain of descending into the region of death . the masculine and feminine faculties in adam . the great pleasure and solace of the feminine faculties . the masculine faculties laid asleep , the feminine appear and act , viz. the grateful sense of the life of the vehicle . that this sense and joy of the life of the vehicle is in it self without either blame or shame . thus the heavens and the earth were finisht , and all the garnishings of them , such as are trees , flowers , and herbs ; suns , moons , and stars ; fishes , fowls , and beasts of the field , and the chiefest of all , man himself . wherfore god having thus compleated his work in the senary , comprehending the whole creation in six orders of things , he ceased from ever creating any thing more , either in this outward material world , or in the world of life : but his creative power retiring into himself , he enjoyed his own eternal rest , which is his immutable and indefatigable nature , that with ease oversees all the whole compasse of beings , and continues essence , life , and activity to them ; and the better rectifies the worse , and all are guided by his eternal word and spirit ; but no new substance hath been ever created since the six days production of things , nor shall ever be hereafter . for this seventh day god hath made an eternal holy day , or festival of rest to himself , wherein he will only please himself , to behold the exquisite order , and motion , and right nature of things , his wisdome , justice , and mercy unavoidably insinuating themselves , according to the set frame of the world , into all the parts of the creation , he having ministers of his goodnesse and wrath prepared every where : so that himself need but to look on , and see the effects of that nemesis that is necessarily interwoven in the nature of the things themselves which he hath made . this therefore is that sabbath or festival of rest which god himself is said to celebrate in the seventh day , and indeed the number declares the nature thereof . and now to open my minde more fully and plainly unto you , i must tell you that those things which before i tearm'd the garnishings of the heaven and of the earth , they are not only so , but the generations of them : i say , plants and animals were the generations , effects , and productions of the earth , the seminal forms and souls of animals insinuating themselves into the prepared matter thereof , and suns , planets , or earths were the generations or productions of the heavens , vigour and motion being imparted from the world of life to the immense body of the universe , so that what i before called meer garnishings , are indeed the productions or generations of the heavens and of the earth so soon as they were made ; though i do not take upon me to define the time wherein god made the heavens and the earth : for he might do it at once by his absolute omnipotency , or he might , when he had created all substance as well material as immaterial , let them act one upon the other , so , and in such periods of time , as the nature of the production of the things themselves requir'd . but it was for pious purposes that i cast the creation into that order of six dayes , and for the more firmly rooting in the hearts of the people this grand and useful truth , that the omnipotency of god is such , that he can act above and contrary to natural causes , that i mention'd herbs and plants of the field , before i take notice of either rain or man to exercise gardning and husbandry : for indeed according to my former narration there had been no such kinde of rain , as ordinarily nowadays waters the labours of the husbandman . but yet there went up a moist vapour from the earth , which being matur'd and concocted by the spirit of the world , which is very active in the heavens or air , became a precious balmy liquour , and fit vehicle of life , which descending down in some sort like dewy showers upon the face of the earth , moistned the ground , so that the warmth of the sun gently playing upon the surface thereof , prepared matter variously for sundry sorts , not only of seminal forms of plants , but souls of animals also . and man himself rose out of the earth after this manner ; the dust thereof being rightly prepar'd and attemper'd by these unctuous showers and balmy droppings of heaven . for god had so contriv'd by his infinite wisdome , that matter thus or thus prepar'd , should by a vital congruity attract proportional forms from the world of life , which is every where nigh at hand , and does very throngly inequitate the moist and unctuous air . wherefore after this manner was the aereal or ethereal adam conveyed into an earthly body , having his most conspicuous residence in the head or brain : and thus adam became the soul of a terrestrial living creature . but how it is with adam before he descends into this lower condition of life , i shall declare unto you in the aenigmatical narration that follows , which is this ; that the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden , where he had put the man , which afterward he formed into a terrestrial animal : for adam was first wholly ethereal , and placed in paradise , that is , in an happy and joyful condition of the spirit ; for he was placed under the invigorating beams of the divine intellect , and the sun of righteousnesse then shone fairly upon him . and his soul was as the ground which god hath blest , & so brought forth every pleasant tree , and every goodly plant of her heavenly fathers own planting ; for the holy spirit of life had inriched the soil , that it brought forth all manner of pleasant and profitable fruits : and the tree of life was in the midst of this garden of mans soul , to wit , the essential will of god , which is the true root of regeneration ; but to so high a pitch adam as yet had not reacht unto , and the fruit of this tree in this ethereal state of the soul , had been immortality or life everlasting : and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was there also , viz. his own will. and there was a very pleasant river that water'd this garden , distinguishable into four streams , which are the four cardinal virtues , which are in several degrees in the soul , according to the several degrees of the purity of her vehicle . and the name of the first is pison , which is prudence and experience in things that are comely to be done : for the soul of man is never idle , neither in this world , nor in any state else , but hath some province to make good , and is to promote his interest whose she is : for what greater gratification can there be of a good soul , then to be a dispenser of some portion of that universal good , that god lets out upon the world ? and there can be no external conversation nor society of persons , be they terrestrial , aereab , or ethereal , but forthwith it implies an use of prudence : wherefore prudence is an inseparable accomplishment of the soul : so that pison is rightly deemed one of the rivers even of that celestial paradise . and this is that wisdome which god himself doth shew to the soul by communication of the divine light ; for it is said to compasse the land of havilah . . where also idle and uselesse speculations are not regarded , as is plainly declared by the pure and approved gold , bdellium , and onyx , the commodities thereof . and the name of the second river is gihon , which is justice , as is intimated from the fame of the aethiopians , whose land it is said to compasse , as also from the notation of the name thereof . and the name of the third river is hiddekel , which is fortitude , that like a rapid stream bears all down before it , and stoutly resists all the powers of darknesse , running forcibly against assyria , which is situated westward of it . and the fourth river is perath , which is temperance , the nourisher and cherisher of all the plants of paradise ; whereas intemperance , or too much addicting the minde to the pleasure of the vehicle , or life of the matter , be it in what state soever , drowns and choaks those sacret vegetables . as the earth you know , was not at all fruitfull till the waters were removed into one place , and the dry land appeared , when as before it was drowned and slocken with overmuch moisture . in this paradise thus described , had the lord god placed man to dresse it , and to keep it in such good order as he found it . and the divine word or light in man charged him , saying , of every tree of paradise thou mayest freely eat . for all things here are wholesome as well as pleasant , if thou hast a right care of thy self , and beest obedient to my commands . but of the luscious and poisonous fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil , that is , of thine own will , thou shalt not by any means eat : for at what time thou eatest thereof , thy soul shall contract that languor , debility , and unsettlednesse , that in processe of time thou shalt slide into the earth , and be buried in humane flesh , and become an inhabitant of the region of mortality and death . hitherto i have not taken much notice in the ethereal adam of any other faculties , but such as carried him upwards towards virtue and the holy intellect ; and indeed this is the more perfect and masculine adam , which consists in pure subtile intellectual knowledge : but we will now inform you of another faculty of the soul of man , which though it seem inferiour , yet is far from being contemptible , it being both good for himself , and convenient for the terrestrial world ; for this makes him in a capacity of being the head of all the living creatures in the earth , as that faculty indeed is the mother of all mankinde . those higher and more intellectual accomplishments i must confesse , made adam very wise , and of a quick perception . for he knew very well the natures of the beasts of the field , and fowls of the air : i mean not only of the visible and terrestrial creatures , but also of the fallen and unfallen angels , or good and bad genii , and was able to judge aright of them , according to the principles they consisted of , and the properties they had . and his reason and understanding was not mistaken , but he pronounced aright in all . but however , he could take no such pleasure in the external creation of god , and his various works , without having some principle of life , congruously joyning with , and joyfully actuating the like matter themselves consisted of : wherefore god indued the soul of man with a faculty of being united with vital joy and complacency to the matter , as well as of aspiring to an union with god himself , whose divine essence is too highly disproportioned to our poor substances . but the divine life is communicable in some sort to both soul and body , whether it be ethereal , or of grosser consistence : and those wonderful grateful pleasures that we feel , are nothing but the kindely motions of the souls vehicle ; from whence divine joys themselves are by a kinde of reflexion strengthned and advanced . of so great consequence is that vital principle that joyns the soul to the matter of the universe . wherefore god to gratifie adam , made him not indefatigable in his aspirings towards intellectual things , but lassitude of contemplation , & of affectation of immateriality , ( he being not able to receive those things as they are , but according to his poor capacity , which is very small in respect of the object it is exercis'd about ) brought upon himself remisnesse and drowsinesse to such like exercises , till by degrees he fell into a more profound sleep ; at what time divine providence having laid the plot aforehand , that lower vivificative principle of his soul did grow so strong , and did so vigorously and with such exultant sympathy and joy actuate his vehicle , that in virtue of his integrity which he yet retain'd , this became more dear to him , and of greater contentment , then any thing he yet had experience of . i say , when divine providence had so lively and warmly stirr'd up this new sense of his vehicle in him , he straightway acknowledg'd that all the sense and knowledge of any thing he had hitherto , was more lifelesse and evanid , and seemed lesse congruous and grateful unto him , and more estranged from his nature : but this was so agreeable & consentaneous to his soul , that he looked upon it as a necessary part of himself , and called it after his own name . and he thought thus within himself , for this cause will any one leave his over-tedious aspires to unite with the eternal intellect , and universal soul of the world , the immensenesse of whose excellencies are too highly rais'd for us to continue long in their embracements , and will cleave to the joyous and chearful life of his vehicle , and account this living vehicle and his soul one person . thus adam with his new-wedded joy stood naked before god , but was not as yet at all ashamed , by reason of his innocency and simplicity ; for adam neither in his reason nor affection as yet had transgressed in any thing . chap. iii. satan tempts adam , taking advantage upon the invigoration of the life of his vehicle . the dialogue betwixt adam and satan . the masculine faculties in adam , swayed by the feminine ; assent to sin against god. adam excuses the use of that wilde liberty he gave himself , discerning the plastick power somewhat awakened in him . a dispute betwixt adam and the divine light , arraigning him at the tribunal of his own conscience . satan strucken down into the lower regions of the air. a prophecy of the incarnation of the soul of the messias , and of his triumph over the head and highest powers of the rebellious angels . a decree of god to sowre and disturb all the pleasures and contentments of the terrestrial life . adam again excuses his fall , from the usefulnesse of his presence and government upon earth . adam is fully incorporated into flesh , and appears in the true shape of a terrestrial animal . that immortality is incompetible to the earthly adam , nor can his soul reach it , till she return into her ethereal vehicle . now the life of the vehicle being so highly invigorated in adam , by the remission of exercise in his more subtile and immaterial faculties , he was fit with all alacrity and chearfulnesse to pursue any game set before him ; and wanted nothing but fair external opportunity to call him out into action . which one of the evil genii or faln angels observing , which had no small skill in doing mischief , having in all likelihood practised the same villany upon some of his own orders , and was the very ring leader of rebellion against god , and the divine light ; for he was more perversely subtile then all the rest of the evil genii or beasts of the field , which god had mad● angels ; but their beastiality they contract●● by their own rebellion . for every thing 〈◊〉 hath sense and understanding , and wants the divine life in it , in the judgement of all wise and good men is truly a beast . this old serpent therefore the subtilest of all the beasts of the field , cunningly assaulted adam with such conference as would surely please his feminine part , which was now so invigorated with life , that the best news to her would be the tidings of a commission to do any thing : wherefore the serpent said to the feminized adam , why are you so demure , and what makes you so bound up in spirit ? is it so indeed that god has confined you , taken away your liberty , and forbidden you all things that you may take pleasure in ? and adam answered him , saying , no ; we are not forbidden any thing that the divine life in us approves as good and pleasant . we are only forbidden to feed on our own will , and to seek pleasures apart and without out the approbation of the will of god. for if our own will get head in us , we shall assuredly descend into the region of mortality , and be cast into a state of death . but the serpent said unto adam , tush , this is but a panick fear in you , adam , you shall not so surely die as you conceit . the only matter is this ; god indeed ●●ves to keep his creatures in awe , and to hold them in from ranging too farre , and reaching too high ; but he knows very well , that if you take but your liberty with us , and satiate your selves freely with your own will , your eyes will be wonderfully opened , and you will meet with a world of variety of experiments in things , so that you will grow abundantly wise , and like gods know all things whatsoever , whether good or evil . now the feminine part in adam was so tickled with this doctrine of the old deceiver , that the concupiscible began to be so immoderate , as to resolve to do any thing that may promote pleasure and experience in things , & snatcht away with it adams will and reason by his heedlesnesse and inadvertency . so that adam was wholly set upon doing things at randome ; according as the various toyings and titillations of the lascivient life of the vehicle suggested to him , no longer consulting with the voice of god , or taking any farther aim by the inlet of the divine light. and when he had tired himself with a rabble of toyes , and unfruitful or unsatisfactory devices , rising from the multifarious workings of the particles of his vehicle , at last the eyes of his faculties were opened , and they perceived how naked they were ; he having as yet neither the covering of the heavenly nature , nor the terrestrial body . only they sewed fig-leaves together , and made some pretences of excuse , from the vigour of the plantal life that now in a thinner maner might manifest it self in adam , and predispose him for a more perfect exercise of his plastick power , when the prepared matter of the earth shall drink him in . in the mean time the voice of god , or the divine wisdome spake to them in the cool of the day , when the hurry of this mad carreer had well slaked . but adam now with his wife was grown so out of order , and so much estranged from the life of god , that they hid themselves at the sensible approach thereof , as wilde beasts run away into the wood at the sight of a man. but the divine light in the conscience of adam pursued him , and upbraided unto him the case he was in . and adam acknowledged within himself how naked he was , having no power , nor ornaments , nor abilities of his own , and yet that he had left his obedience and dependence upon god : wherefore he was ashamed , and hid himself at the approach of the divine light manifesting it self unto him to the reprehension and rebuke of him . and the divine light charg'd all this misery and confusion that had thus overtaken him , upon the eating of the forbidden fruit , the luscious dictates of his own will. but adam again excus'd himself within himself , that it was the vigour and impetuosity of that life in the vehicle which god himself implanted in it , whereby he miscarried : the woman that god had given him . and the divine light spake in adam concerning the woman ; what work hath she made here ? but the woman in adam excused her self ; for she was beguiled by that grand deceiver the serpent . in this confusion of mind was adam by forsaking the divine light , and letting his own will get head against it . for it so changed the nature of his vehicle , that ( whereas he might have continued in an angelical and ethereal condition , and his feminine part been brought into perfect obedience to the divine light , and had joyes multiplyed upon the whole man beyond all expression and imagination for ever ) he now sunk more and more towards a mortal and terrestrial estate , himself not being unsensible thereof , as you shall hear , when i have told you the doom of the eternal god concerning the serpent and him . things therefore having been carried on in this wise , the eternal lord god decreed thus with himself concerning the serpent and adam : that this old serpent , the prince of the rebellious angels , should be more accursed then all the rest ; and , ( whereas he lorded it aloft in the higher parts of the air , and could glide in the very ethereal region , amongst the innocent and unflan souls of men , and the good angels before ) that he should now sweep the dust with his belly , being cast lower towards the surface of the earth . and that there should be a general enmity and abhorrency betwixt this old serpent , as also all of his fellow-rebels , and betwixt mankinde . and that in processe of time the ever faithful and obedient soul of the messias should take a body , and should trample over the power of the devil , very notoriously here upon earth , and after his death should be constituted prince of all the angelical orders whatever in heaven . and concerning adam , the eternal lord god decreed that he should descend down to be an inhabitant of the earth , and that he should not there indulge to himself the pleasures of the body , without the concomitants of pain and sorrow , and that his feminine part , his affections should be under the chastisement and correction of his reason . that he should have a wearisome and toilsome travail in this world , the earth bringing forth thorns and thistles , though he must subsist by the corn of the field . wherefore in the sweat of his browes he should eat his bread , till he returned unto the ground , of which his terrestrial body is made . this was the counsel of god concerning adam and the serpent . now , as i was a telling you , adam though he was sinking apace into those lower functions of life , yet his minde was not as yet grown so fully stupid , but he had the knowledge of his own condition , and added to all his former apologies , that the feminine part in him , though it had seduced him , yet there was some use of this mis-carriage , for the earth would hence be inhabited by intellectual animals : wherefore he call'd the life of his vehicle , eve , because she is indeed the mother of all the generations of men that live upon the earth . at last the plastick power being fully awakened , adams soul descended into the prepared matter of the earth , and in due processe of time adam appear'd cloth'd in the skin of beasts ; that is , he became a down-right terrestrial animal , and a mortal creature upon earth . for the eternal god had so decreed , and his wisdome , mercy , and justice did but , if i may so speak , play and sport together in the businesse . and the rather , because adam had but precipitated himself into that condition , which in due time might have faln to his share by course ; for it is fitting there should be some such head among the living creatures of the earth , as a terrestrial adam , but to live always here were his disadvantage . wherefore when god remov'd him from that higher condition , he made sure he should not be immortal , nor is he in any capacity of reaching unto the tree of life , without passing through his fiery vehicle , and becoming a pure and defecate ethereal spirit : then he may be admitted to taste the fruit of the tree of life and immortality , and so live for ever . the moral cabbala . chap. i. man a microcosme or little world , in whom there are two principles , spirit and flesh . the earthly or fleshly nature appears first . the light of conscience unlistned to . the spirit of savory and affectionate discernment betwixt good and evil . the inordinate desires of the flesh driven aside and limited . hereupon the plants of righteousnesse bear fruit and flourish . the hearty and sincere love of god , and a mans neighbour , is as the sun in the soul of man. notionality and opinions the weak and faint light of the dispersed stars . those that walk in sincere love , walk in the day : they that are guided by notionality , travel in the night . the natural concupiscible brings forth by the command of god , and is corrected by devotion . the irascible also brings forth . christ the image of god is created , being a perfect ruler over all the motions of the irascible and concupiscible . the food of the divine life . the food of the animal life . the divine wisdome approves of whatsoever is simply natural , as good . wee shall set before you in this history of genesis , several eminent examples of good and perfect men , such as abel , seth , enoch , abraham , and the like : wherefore we thought fit , though aenigmatically , and in a dark parable , to shadow out in general the manner of progresse to this divine perfection ; looking upon man as a microcosm or a little world , who if he hold out the whole progresse of the spiritual creation , the processe thereof will be figuratively understood as follows wherefore first of all , i say , that by the will of god every man living on the face of the earth hath these two principles in him , heaven and earth , divinity and animality , spirit and flesh . but that which is animal or natural operates first , the spiritual or heavenly life lying for a while closed up at rest in its own principle . during which time , and indeed some while afterwards too , the animal or fleshly life domineers in darknesse and deformity ; the mighty tempestuous passions of the flesh contending and strugling over that abysse of unsatiable desire which has no bottome , and which in this case carries the minde to nothing but emptinesse and unprofitablenesse . but by the will of god it is , that afterwards the day-light appears , though not in so vigorous measure , out of the heavenly or spiritual principle . and conscience being thus enlightned , offers her self a guide to a better condition ; and god has fram'd the nature of man so , that he cannot but say , that this light is good , and distinguish betwixt the dark tumultuous motions of the flesh and it : and say , that there is as true a difference , as betwixt the natural day and night . and thus ignorance and enquiry was the first days progresse . but though there be this principle of light set up in the conscience of man , and he cannot say any thing against it , but that it is good and true , yet has he not presently so lively and savoury a relish in his distinction betwixt the evil and the good : for the evil as yet wholly holds his affections , though his fancy and reason be toucht a little with the theoretical apprehensions of what is good ; wherefore by the will of god the heavenly principle in due time becomes a spirit of savoury and affectionate discernment betwixt the evil and the good ; betwixt the pure waters that flow from the holy spirit , and the muddy and tumultuous suggestions of the flesh . and thus is man enabled in a living manner to distinguish betwixt the earthly and heavenly life . for the heavenly principle is now made to him a spirit of savoury discernment , and being taught by god after this manner , he will not fail to pronounce , that this principle , whereby he has so quick and lively a sense of what is good and evil , is heavenly indeed : and thus ignorance and enquiry is made the second days progresse . now the sweetnesse of the upper waters being so well relisht by man , he has a great nauseating against the lower feculent waters of the unbounded desires of the flesh ; so that god adding power to his will , the inordinate desires of the flesh are driven within set limits , and he has a command over himself to become more stayed and steady . and this steadinesse and command he gets over himself , he is taught by the divine principle in him to compare to the earth or dry land for safenesse and stability ; but the desires of the flesh , he looks upon as a dangerous and turbulent sea : wherefore the bounding of them thus , and arriving to a state of command over a mans self , and freedome from such colluctations and collisions as are found in the working seas , the divine nature in him could not but approve as good . for so it comes to passe by the will of god , and according to the nature of things , that this state of sobriety in man , ( he being in so good a measure rid of the boisterousnesse of evil concupiscence ) gives him leisure so to cultivate his minde with principles of virtue and honesty , that he is as a fruitful field whom the lord hath blessed , sending forth out of himself sundry sorts of fruit-bearing trees , herbs , and flowers ; that is , various kindes of good works , to the praise of god , and the help of his neighbour ; and god and his own conscience witnesse to him , that this is good . and thus ignorance and inquiry is made the third days progresse . now when god has proceeded so far in the spiritual creation , as to raise the heavenly principle in man to that power and efficacy that it takes hold on his affections , and brings forth laudable works of righteousnesse , he thereupon adds a very eminent accession of light and strength , setting before his eyes sundry sorts of luminaries in the heavenly or intellectual nature , whereby he may be able more notoriously to distinguish betwixt the day and the night ; that is , betwixt the condition of a truly illuminated soul , and one that is as yet much benighted in ignorance , and estranged from the true knowledge of god. for according to the difference of these lights , it is signified to a man in what condition himself or others are in , whether it be indeed day or night with them , summer or winter , spring time or harvest , or what period or progresse they have made in the divine life . and though there be so great a difference betwixt these lights , yet the meanest are better then meer darknesse , and serve in some measure or other to give light to the earthly man. but among these many lights which god makes to appear to man , there are two more eminent by far then the rest . the greater of which two has his dominion by day , and is a faithful guide to those which walk in the day ; that is , that work the works of righteousnesse . and this greater light is but one , but does being added , mightily invigorate the former day-light man walked by , and it is a more full appearance of the sun of righteousnesse , which is an hearty and sincere love of god , and a mans neighbour . the lesser of these two great lights has dominion by night , and is a rule to those whose inward mindes are held as yet too strongly in the works of darknesse : and it is a principle weak , and variable as the moon , and is called inconstancy of life and knowledge . there are alsoan abundance of other little lights thickly dispersed over the whole understanding of man , as the stars in the firmament , which you may call notionality or multiplicity of ineffectual opinions . but the worst of all these are better then down-right sensuality and brutishnesse , and therefore god may well be said to set them up in the heavenly part of man , his understanding , to give what light they are able to his earthly parts , his corrupt and inordinate affections . and as the sun of righteousnesse , that is , the hearty and sincere love of god , and a mans neighbour , by his single light and warmth with chearfulnesse and safety guides them that are in the day : so that more uneven and changeable principle , and the numerous light of notionality , may conduct them , as well as they are able , that are benighted in darknesse : and what is most of all considerable , a man by the wide difference of these latter lights from that of the day , may discern , when himself or another is benighted in the state of unrighteousnesse . for multifarious notionality and inconstancy of life and knowledge , are certain signs that a man is in the night : but the sticking to this one , single , but vigorous and effectual light , of the hearty and sincere love of god , and a mans neighbour , is a signe that a man walks in the day . and he that is arrived to this condition , plainly discerns in the light of god , that all this is very good . and thus ignorance and inquiry is made the fourth days progresse . and now so noble , so warm , and so vigorous a principle or light as the sun of righteousnesse , being set up in the heavenly part of the soul of man , the unskilful may unwarily expect that the next news will be , that even the seas themselves are dried up with the heat thereof , that is , that the concupiscible in man is quite destroyed : but god doth appoint far otherwise ; for the waters bring forth abundance of fish as well as fowl innumerable . thoughts therefore of natural delights do swim to and fro in the concupiscible of man , and the fervent love he bears to god causes not a many faint ineffectual notions , but an abundance of holy affectionate meditations , and winged ejaculations that fly up heaven-ward , which returning back again , and falling upon the numerous fry of natural concupiscence , help to lessen their numbers , as those fowls that frequent the waters devour the fish thereof . and god and good men do see nothing but good in all this . wherefore god multiplies the thoughts of natural delight in the lower concupiscible , as well as he does those heavenly thoughts and holy meditations , that the entire humanity might be filled with all the degrees of good it is capable of ; and that the divine life might have something to order and overcome . and thus ignorance and inquiry made the fift days progresse . nor does god only cause the waters to bring forth , but the dry land also , several living creatures after their kinde , and makes the irascible fruitful , as well as the concupiscible . for god saw that they were both good , and that they were a fit subject for the heavenly man to exercise his rule and dominion over . for god multiplies strength as well as occasions to employ it upon . and the divine life that hath been under the several degrees of the advancement thereof , so variously represented in the five fore-going progresses , god at last works up to the height , and being compleat in all things , styles it by the name of his own image ; the divine life arrived to this pitch being the right image of him indeed . thus it is therefore , that at last god in our nature fully manifests the true and perfect man , whereby we our selves become good and perfect , who does not only see and affect what is good , but has full power to effect it in all things : for he has full dominion over the fish of the sea , can rule and guide the fowls of the air , and with ease command the beasts of the field , and what ever moveth upon the earth . thus god creates man in his own image , making him as powerful a commander in his little world , over all the thoughts and motions of the concupiscible and irascible , as himself is over the natural frame of the universe or greater world. and this image is male and female , consisting of a clear and free understanding , and divine affection , which are now arrived to that height , that no lower life is able to rebel against them , and to bring them under . for god blesses them and makes them fruitful , and multiplies their noble off-spring in so great and wonderful a measure that they replenish the cultivated nature of man with such an abundance of real truth and equity , that there is no living figure , imagination , or motion of the irascible or concupiscible , no extravagant or ignorant irregularity in religious meditations and devotions , but they are presently moderated and rectified . for the whole territories of the humane nature is every where so well peopled with the several beautiful shapes or idea's of truth and goodnesse , the glorious off-spring of the heavenly adam , christ , that no animal figure can offer to move or wagge amisse , but it meets with a proper corrector and re-composer of its motions . and the divine life in man being thus perfected , he is therewith instructed by god , what is his food , as divine , and what is the food of the animal life in him , viz. the most virtuous , most truly pious , and divine actions he has given to the heavenly adam to feed upon , fulfilling the will of god in all things , which is more pleasant then the choicest sallads , or most delicate fruit the taste can relish . nor is the animal life quite to be starved and pin'd , but regulated and kept in subjection , and therefore they are to have their worser sort of herbs to feed on ; that is , natural actions consentaneous to the principle from whence they flow ; that that principle may also enjoy it self in the liberty of prosecuting what its nature prompts it unto . and thus the sundry modifications of the irascible and concupiscible , as also the various figurations of religious melancholy , and natural devotions , ( which are the fishes , beasts , and fowls in the animal nature of man ) are permitted to feed and refresh themselves in those lower kindes of operations they incline us to ; provided all be approved and rightly regulated by the heavenly adam . for the divine wisdome in man sees and approves all things which god hath created in us , to be very good in their kinde . and thus ignorance and inquiry was the sixt days progresse . chap. ii. the true sabbatisme of the sons of god. a description of men taught by god. the mysterie of that adam that comes by water and the spirit . obedience the tree of life : disobedience the tree of the knowledg of good & evil . the rivers of paradise ; the four cardinal virtues in the soul of man. the life of righteousnesse lost by disobedience . the meer contemplative and spiritual man sees the motions of the animal life , and rigidly enough censures them . that it is incompetible to man perpetually to dwell in spiritual contemplations . that upon the slaking of those , the kindly joy of the life of the body springs out , which is our eve. that this kindly joy of the body is more grateful to man in innocency , then any thing else whatsoever . nor is man mistaken in his judgement thereof . thus the heavenly and earthly nature in man were finisht , and fully replenisht with all the garnishings belonging to them . so the divine wisdome in the humane nature celebrated her sabbath , having now wrought through the toil of all the six days travel . and the divine wisdome looked upon this seventh day as blessed and sacred ; a day of righteousnesse , rest and joy in the holy ghost . these were the generations or pullulations of the heavenly and earthly nature , of the divine and animal life in man , when god created them . i mean those fruitful plants , and pleasant and useful herbs which he himself planted : for i have describ'd unto you the condition of a man taught of god , and instructed and cherisht up by his inward light , where there is no external doctrine to distil as the rain , nor outward gardener to intermeddle in gods husbandry . only there is a fountain of water , which is repentance from dead works , and bubbles up in the earthly adam , so as universally to wash all the ground . and thus the nature of man being prepar'd for further accomplishments , god shapes him into his own image , which is righteousnesse and true holinesse , and breathes into him the spirit of life : and this is that adam which is born of water and the spirit . hitherto i have shewed unto you how mankinde is raised up from one degree of spiritual light and righteousnesse unto another , till we come at last to that full command and perfection in the divine life , that a man may be said in some sort thus to have attain'd to the kingdome of heaven , or found a paradise upon earth . the narration that follows shall instruct you and forewarn you of those evil courses , whereby man loses that measure of paradisiacal happinesse god estates him in , even while he is in this world . i say therefore , that the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden , and there he put the man whom he had made ; that is , man living under the intellectual rayes of the spirit , and being guided by the morning light of the sun of righteousnesse , is led into a very pleasant and sweet contentment of minde , and the testimony of a good conscience is his great delight . and that the sundry germinations and springings up of the works of righteousnesse in him is a delectable paradise to him , pleasing both the sight and taste of that measure of divine life that is manifested in him : but of all the plants that grow in him , there is none of so soveraign virtue , as that in the midst of this garden ; to wit , the tree of life , which is , a sincere obedience to the will of god : nor any that bears so lethiferous and poisonous fruit , as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , which is , disobedience to the will of god , as it is manifested in man. for the pleasure of the soul consists in conforming her self faithfully to what she is perswaded in her own conscience is the will of god , what ever others would insinuate to the contrary . and all the fruit-bearing trees of righteousnesse are watered by these four rivers , which winde along this garden of pleasure , which indeed are the four cardinal virtues . the name of the first is pison , which is prudence , not the suggestions of fleshly craft and over-reaching subtilty , but the indications of the spirit or divine intellect , what is fit and profitable and decorous to be done . here is well tryed and certain approved experience , healthful industry , and alacrity to honest labour . and the name of the second river is gihon , which is justice . and the name of the third river is hiddekel , which is fortitude ; and the fourth river is euphrates , which is temperance . this is the paradise where the lord god had placed the man , that he might further cultivate it and improve it . and the divine light manifested in the man , encourag'd the man to eat of the fruits of paradise freely , and to delight himself in all manner of holy understanding and righteousnesse . but withall he bade him have a speciall care how he relisht his own will or power in any thing , but that he should be obedient to the manifest will of god in things great and small , or else assuredly he would lose the life he now lived , and become dead to all righteousnesse and truth . so the man had a special care , and his soul wrought wholly towards heavenly and divine things , and heeded nothing but these , his more noble and masculine faculties being after a manner solely set on work , but the natural life ( in which notwithstanding , if it were rightly guided , there is no sin ) being almost quite forgot and dis-regarded . but the wisdome of god saw that it was not good for the soul of man , that the masculine powers thereof should thus operate alone , but that all the faculties of life should be set a float , that the whole humane nature might be accomplisht with the divine . now the powers of the soul working so wholly upwards towards divine things , the several modifications or figurations of the animal life ( which god acting in the frame of the humane nature , represented to the man , whence he had occasion to view them and judge of them ) by the quick understanding of man was indeed easily discern'd what they were , and he had a determinate apprehension of every particular figuration of the animall life , and did censure them , or pronounce of them , though truly , yet rigidly enough and severely ; but as yet was not in a capacity of taking any delight in them , there was not any of them fit for his turn to please himself in . wherefore divine providence brought it so to passe , for the good of the man , and that he might more vigorously and fully be enrich'd with delight , that the operations of the masculine faculties of the soul were for a while well slaked and consopited ; during which time the faculties themselves were something lessened or weakned , yet in such a due measure and proportion , that considering the future advantage that was expected , that was not miss'd that was taken away , but all as handsome and compleat as before . for what was thus abated in the masculine faculties , was compensated abundantly in exhibiting to the man the grateful sense of the feminine ; for there was no way but this to create the woman , which is to elicite that kindly flowring joy or harmlesse delight of the natural life , and health of the body ; which once exhibited and joyned with simplicity and innocency of spirit , it is the greatest part of that paradise a man is capable of upon earth . and the actuating of the matter being the most proper and essential operation of a soul , man presently acknowledg'd this kindly flowring joy of the body , of nearer cognation and affinity with himself then any thing else he ever had yet experience of , and he loved it as his own life . and the man was so mightily taken with his new spouse , which is , the kindly joy of the life of the body , that he concluded with himself , that any one may with a safe conscience forgoe those more earnest attempts towards the knowledge of the eternal god that created him , as also the performance of those more scrupulous injunctious of his mother the church , so far forth as they are incompetible with the health and ioy of the life of his natural body , and might in such a case rather cleave to his spouse , and become one with her ; provided he still lived in obedience to the indispensable precepts of that superiour light and power that begot him . nor had adam's reason or affection transgressed at all in this ; concluding nothing but what the divine wisdome and equity would approve as true . wherefore adam and his wife as yet sought no corners , nor covering places to shelter them from the divine light ; but having done nothing amisse , appeared naked in the presence of it without any shame or blushing . chap. iii. adam is tempted by inordinate pleasure from the springing up of the joy of the invigorated life of his body . a dialogue or dispute in the minde of adam betwixt the inordinate desire of pleasure , and the natural joy of the body . the will of adam is drawn away to assent to inordinate pleasure . adam having transgressed , is impatient of the presence of the divine light. a long conflict of conscience , or dispute betwixt adams earthly minde , and the divine light , examining him , and setting before him both his present and future condition , if he persisted in rebellion . he adheres to the joy of his body , without reason or measure , notwithstanding all the castigations and monitions of the divine light. the divine light takes leave of adam therefore for the present , with deserved scorn and reproach . the doom of the eternal god concerning laps'd man , that will not suffer them to settle in wickednesse , according to their own depraved wills and desires . but so it came to passe that the life of the body being thus invigorated in man , straightway the slyest and subtilest of all the animal figurations , the serpent , which is the inordinate desire of pleasure , craftily insinuated it self into the feminine part of adam , viz. the kindely joy of the body ; and thus assaulting man , whisper'd such suggestions as these unto him . what a rigid and severe thing is this businesse of religion , and the law of god , as they call it , that deprives a man of all manner of pleasure , and cuts him short of all the contentments of life ? but the womanish part in adam ; to wit , the natural and kindly joy of the body , could witnesse against this , and answered , we may delight our selves with the operations of all the faculties both of soul and body , which god and nature hath bestow'd upon us . . only we are to take heed of disobedience , and of promiscuously following our own will ; but we are ever to consult with the will of god , and the divine light manifested in our understandings , and so doe all things orderly and measurably : for if we transgresse against this , we shall die the death , and lose the life of virtue and righteousness , which now is awake in us . but the serpent , which is the inordinate desire of pleasure , befooled adam , through the frailty of his womanish faculties , and made him believe he should not die ; but with safety might serve the free dictates of pleasure or his own will and the will of god , that flesh and spirit might both rule in him , and be no such prejudice the one to the other : but that his skill and experience in things will be more enlarg'd , and so come nearer to divine perfection indeed , and imitate that fulnesse of wisdome which is in god , who knows all things whatsoever , whether good or evil . this crafty suggestion so insinuated it self into adams feminine faculties , that his fleshly concupiscence began to be so strong , that it carried the assent of his will away with it , and the whole man became a lawlesse and unruly creature : for it seem'd a very pleasant thing at first sight to put in execution what ever our own lusts suggest unto us without controll ; and very desirable to try all conclusions to gain experience and knowledge of things . but this brought in nothing but the wisdome of the flesh , and made adam earthly minded . but he had not rambled very far in these dissolute courses , but his eyes were opened , and he saw the difference , how naked now he was , and bare of all strength and power to divine and holy things ; and began to meditate with himself some slight pretences for his notorious folly and disobedience . for the voice of the divine light had come unto him in the cool of the day , when the fury and heat of his inordinate passions was something slaked : but adam could not endure the presence of it , but hid himself from it , meditating what he should answer by way of apology or excuse . but the divine light persisted , and came up closer to him , and upbraided unto him , that he was grown so wilde and estranged from her self , demanding of him in what condition he was , and wherefore he fled . then adam ingenuously confessed that he found himself in such a pitiful poor naked condition , that he was ashamed to appear in the presence of the divine light ; and that was the reason he hid himself from it , because it would so manifestly upbraid to him his nakednesse and deformity . and the divine light farther examined him , how he fell into this sensible beggerly nakednesse he was in , charging the sad event upon his disobedience , that he had fed upon , and taken a surfeit of the fruit of his own will. but adam excused his rational faculties , and said , they did but follow the natural dictate of the joy of the body , the woman that god himself bestowed upon him for an help and delight . but the divine light again blamed adam , that he kept his feminine faculties in no better order nor subjection , that they should so boldly and overcomingly dictate to him such things as are not fit . to which he had nothing to say , but that the subtile serpent , the inordinate desire of pleasure , had beguiled both his faculties , as well masculine as feminine , his will and affection was quite carried away therewith . then the divine light began to chastise the serpent , in the hearing of adam , pronouncing of it , that it was more accursed , then all the animal figurations beside ; and that it crept basely upon the belly , tempting to riot and venery , and relishing nothing but earth and dirt . this will always be the guise of it , so long as it lives in a man. but might i once descend so far into the man , as to take possession of his feminine faculties , i would set the natural joy of the body at defiance with the serpent ; and though the subtilty of the serpent may a little wound and disorder the woman for a while , yet her warrantable and free operations , she being actuated by divine vigour , should afterward quite destroy and extinguish the seed of the serpent ; to wit , the operations of the inordinate desire of pleasure . and she added farther in the hearing of adam concerning the woman , as she thus stood dis-joyn'd from the heavenly life , and was not obedient to right reason , that by a divine nemesis , she should conceive with sorrow , and bring forth vanity ; and that her husband , the earthly minded adam , should tyrannize over her , and weary her out , and foil her ; so that the kindly joy of the health and life of the body , should be much depraved , or made faint and languid , by the unbridled humours , and impetuous luxury and intemperance of the earthly minded adam . and to adam he said , who had become so earthly minded , by listening to the voice of his deceived woman , and so acting disobediently to the will of god ; that his flesh or earth was accursed for his sake , with labour and toil should he reap the fruits thereof all the while he continued in this earthly mindednesse . cares also and anxieties shall it bring forth unto him , and his thoughts shall be as base as those of the beasts in the field ; he shall ruminate of nothing but what is earthly and sensual . with sweat and anguish should he labour to satisfie his hunger and insatiablenesse , till he returned to the principle out of which he was taken ; for the earthly mindednesse came from this animated earth , the body ; and is to shrinke up againe into its owne principle , and to perish . after all these castigations and premonitions of the divine light , adam was not sufficiently awakened to the sense of what was good , but his minde was straightway taken up againe with the delights of the flesh , and dearly embracing the joy of his body , for all she was grown so inordinate , called her my life , professing she was the noursing mother and chiefe comfort of all men living , and none could subsist without her . then the divine wisdome put hairy coates made of the skins of wilde beasts upon adam and his wife , and deservedly reproached them , saying , now get you gone for a couple of brutes . and adam would have very gladly escaped so , if he might , and set up his rest for ever in the beastiall nature . but the eternall god of heaven , whose providence reaches to all things , and whose mercy is over all his workes , looking upon adam , perceived in what a pitifull ridiculous case he was ; who seeking to be like unto god for knowledge and freedome , made himselfe no better then a beast , and could willingly have lived for ever in that baser kinde of nature ; wherefore the eternall lord god , in compassion to adam , designed the contrary , and deriding his boldnesse and curiosity that made him transgresse , behold , sayes he , adam is become like one of us , knowing good and evill : and can of himselfe enlarge his pleasure , and create new paradises of his owne , which forsooth must have also their tree of life or immortality : and adam would for ever live in this foolish state he hath plac'd himselfe in . but the eternall lord god would not suffer adam to take up his rest in the beastial delight , which he had chosen , but drove him out of this false paradise , which he would have made to himself , and set him to cultivate his fleshly members , out of which his earthly mindednesse was taken . i say , he forcibly drove out adam from this paradise of luxury ; nor could he settle perpetually in the brutish life , because the cherubim with the flaming sword that turned every way , beat him off ; that is , the manly faculties of reason and conscience met him ever and anon in his brutish purposes , and convinced him so of his folly , that he could not set up his rest for ever in this bestial condition . the defence of the threefold cabbala . philo jud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , that the whole law of moses is like to a living creature , whose body is the literal sense ; but the soul the more inward and hidden meaning , covered under the sense of the letter . r. moses aegypt . non omnia secundum literam intelligenda & accipienda esse quae dicuntur in opere bereschith seu creationis , sicut vulgus hominum existimat . sensum enim illorum literales vel gignunt pravas opiniones de natura dei opt. max. vel certè fundamenta legis evertunt , heresínque aliquam introducunt . london , printed by james flesher . . the preface to the reader . reader . the cabbala's thou hast read being in all likelihood so strange and unexpected , especially the philosophical , that the defence it self , which should cure and cese thy amazement , may not occasion in any passage thereof , any further scruple or offence , i thought fit a while to interrupt thee , that whatever i conjecture may lesse satisfie , may afore-hand be strengthned by this short preface . and for my own part i cannot presage what may be in any shew of reason alledged by any man , unlesse it be , the unusual mysterie of numbers ; the using of the authority of the heathen in explication of scripture ; the adding also of miracles done by them for the further confirming their authority ; and lastly , the strangeness of the philosophical conclusions themselves . now for the mysterie of numbers , that this ancient philosophy of moses should be wrapped up in it , will not seem improbable , if we consider that the cabbala of the creation was conserved in the hands of abraham , and his family , who was famous for mathematicks , ( of which arithmetick is a necessary part ) first amongst the chaldeans , and that after he taught the aegyptians the same arts , as historians write . besides prophetical and aenigmatical writings , that it is usual with them to hide their secrets , as under the allusions of names and etymologies , so also under the adumbrations of numbers , it is so notoriously known , and that in the very scriptures themselves , that it needs no proof ; i will instance but in that one eminent example of the number of the beast . as for citing the heathen writers so frequently ; you are to consider that they are the wisest and the most virtuous of them , and either such as the fathers say , had their philosophy from moses and the prophets , as pythagoras and plato , or else the disciples or friends of these philosophers . and therefore i thought it very proper to use their testimony in a thing that they seem'd to be so fit witnesses of for the main , as having receiv'd the cabbala from the ancient prophets ; though i will not deny , but they have mingled their own fooleries with it , either out of the wantonnesse of their fancy , or mistake of judgement ; such as are the transmigration of humane souls into brutes ; an utter abstinence from flesh ; too severe reproaches against the pleasures of the body ; vilification of marriage , and the like ; which is no more argument against the main drift of the cabbala , then unwarrantable superstitious opinions , and practises of some deceived churches are against the solid grounds of christianity . again , i do not alledge philosophers alone , but as occasion requires , fathers , and which i conceive as valid in this case , the jewish rabbins , who in things where prejudice need not blinde them , i should think as fit as any , to confirm a cabbalistical sense , especially if there be a general consent of them , and that they do not write their private fancy , but the minde of their whole church . now if any shall take offence at pythagoras his scholars , swearing as is conceived by their master that taught them the mystery of the tetractys , ( as you shall understand more at large in the explication of the fourth days work ) i must profess that i my self am not a little offended with it . but that high reverence they bore to pythagoras , as it is a sign of vanity , and some kind of superstition in them ; so is it also no lesse an argument of a stupendious measure of knowledge and sanctity in pythagoras himself , that he should extort from them so great honour , and that his memory should be so sacred to them . which profound knowledge and sanctity he having got by conversing with the jewish prophets , it ultimately tends to the renown of that church , and consequently to the christian , which inherits those holy oracles which were first peculiar to the jews . but what the followers of pythagoras transgressed in , is no more to be imputed to him , then the superstitions exhibited to the virgin mary can be laid to her charge . besides it may be a question whether in that pythagorick oath , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. they did not swear by god the first author of the cabbala , and that mysterious explication of the tetrctys , that is indeed , of all knowledge divine and natural , who first gave it to adam , and then revived or confirmed it again to moses . or if it must be understood of pythagoras , why may it not be look'd upon as a civill oath , or asseveration , such as joseph's swearing by the life of pharaoh , and noblemen by their honours ? neither of which notwithstanding for my own part i can allow or assure my self that they are meerly civill , but touch upon religion , or rather idolatrous superstition . as for the miracles pythagoras did , though i do not believe all that are recorded of him are true , yet those that i have recited i hold probable enough , they being not unbecoming the worth of the person : but those that suppose the transmigration of humane souls into the bodies of beasts , i look upon as fables , and his whispering into the ear of an oxe to forbear to eat beans , as a loudly . but it seems very consonant unto divine providence , that pythagoras having got the knowledge of the holy cabbala , which god imparted to adam and moses , that he should countenance it before the nations by enabling him to do miracles . for so those noble and ancient truths were more firmly radicated amongst the philosophers of greece , and happily preserved to this very day . nor can his being carried in the air make him suspected to be a meer magician or conjurer , sith the holy prophets and apostles themselves have been transported after that manner , as habakkuk from jewry to babylon , and philip after he had baptiz'd the eunuch to azotus . but for my own part , i think working of miracles is one of the least perfections of a man , and is nothing at all to the happinesse of him that does them , or rather seems to do them : for if they be miracles , he does them not , but some other power or person distinct from him . and yet here magicians and witches are greatly delighted in that this power is in some sort attributed to themselves , and that they are admired of the people , as is manifest in simon magus . but thus to lord it and domineer in the attribute of power with the prince of the air , what is it but meer pride , the most irrational and provoking vice that is ? and with what grosse folly is it here conjoin'd , they priding and pleasing themselves in that they sometimes do that , or rather suffer that , which herns and wlde geese , and every ordinary fowl can do of it self ; that is , mount aloft and glide through the fleeting air ? but holy and good men know that the greatest sweet and perfection of a virtuous soul , is the kindly accomplishment of her own nature in true wisdom and divine love. and if any thing miraculous happen to them , or be done by them , it is , that that worth & knowledg that is in them may be taken notice of , and that god thereby may be glorified , whose witnesses they are . but no other accession of happinesse accrues to them from this , but that hereby they may be in a better capacity of making others happy , which i confesse i conceive here pythagoras his case . and that men may not indulge too much to their own melancholy and fancy , which they ordinarily call inspiration , if they be so great lights to the world as they pretend , and so high that they will not condescend to the examination of humane reason , it were desirable that such persons would keep in their heat to concoct the crudities of their own conceptions , till the warrant of a miracle call them out ; and so they might more rightfully challenge an attention from the people , as being authorised from above to tell us something we knew not before , nor can so well know , as believe , the main argument being not reason but miracle . lastly , for the strangeness of the philosophical conclusions themselves , it were the strangest thing of all , if at first sight they did not seem very paradoxical and strange ; else why should they be hid and conceal'd from the vulgar , but that they did transcend their capacity , and were overmuch disproportioned to their belief ? but in the behalf of these cabbalistical conclusions , i will only note thus much , that they are such that supposing them true ( which i shall no longer assert , then till such time as some able philosopher or theologer shall convince me of their falshood ) there is nothing of any grand consideration in theology or nature , that will not easily be extricated by this hypothesis , an eminent part whereof is the motion of the earth , and the prae-existency of souls . the evidence of the former of which truths is such , that it has wonne the assent of the most famous mathematicians of our later ages ; and the reasonablenesse of the latter is no lesse : there having never been any philosopher that held the soul of man immortal , but he held that it did also prae-exist . but religion not being curious to expose the full view of truth to the people , but only what was most necessary to keep them in the fear of a deity and obedience to the law , contented her self with what meerly concerned the state of the soul after the dissolution of the body , concealing what ever was conceivable concerning her condition before . now i say , it is a pretty priviledge of falshood , ( if this hypothesis be false ) and very remarkable , that it should better sute with the attributes of god , the visible events of providence , the phaenomena of nature , the reason of man , and the holy text it self , where men acknowledge a mysterious cabbala , then that which by all means must be accounted true , viz. that there is no such motion of the earth about the sun , nor any prae-existency of humane souls . reader , i have done what lies on my part , that thou maist peruse this defence of mine without any rub or stumbling ; let me now request but one thing which thou art bound to grant , which is , that thou read my defence without prejudice , and that all along as thou goest , thou make not thy recourse to the customary conceits of thy fancy , but consult with thy free reason , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as aristotle somewhere speaks in his metaphysicks . for custome is another nature ; and therefore those conceits that are accustomary and familiar , we unawares appeal to , as if they were indeed the natural light of the minde , and her first common notions . and he gives an instance not altogether unsutable to our present purpose . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the philosopher may be as bold as he pleases with the ritual laws and religious stories of the heathens , but i do not know that he ever was acquainted with the law of moses . but i think i may speak it not without due reverence , that there is something of aristotles saying analogically true in the very history of the creation , and that the first impressions of the literal text , which is so plainly accommodated to the capacity of meer children and idiots , by reason of custome have so strongly rooted themselves in the minds of some , that they take that sense to be more true , then the true meaning of the text indeed . which is plain in no meaner a person then one of the fathers ; namely , lactantius ; who looking upon the world as a tent according to the description in the literal cabbala , did very stoutly and confidently deny antipodes ; so much did a customary fancy prevail over the free use of his reason . thus much for better caution i thought fit to preface . the rest the introduction to the defence , and the very frame and nature of the defence it self , i hope will make good to the judicious and ingenuous reader . the introduction to the defence . diodorus his mistake concerning moses , and other law-givers that have professed themselves to have received their laws from either god or some good angel. reasons why moses began his history with the creation of the world . the sun and moon the same with the aegyptians osiris and isis , and how they came to be worshipped for gods. the apotheosis of mortal men , such as bacchus and ceres , how it first came into the world . that the letter of the scripture speaks ordinarily in philosophical things according to the sense and imagination of the vulgar . that there is a philosophical sense that lies hid in the letter of the three first chapters of genesis . that there is a moral or mystical sense not only in these three chapters , but in several other places of the scripture . not to stay you with too tedious a prologue to the matter in hand concerning the author of this book of genesis , to wit , moses ; i shall look upon him mainly in reference to that publick induement , in which at the very first sight he will appear admirable , viz. as a politician or a law-giver . in which his skill was so great , that even in the judgement of heathen writers he had the preheminence above all the rest . diodorus has placed him in the head of his catalogue of the most famous law-givers under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if iustin martin be not mistaken , or if he be , at least he bears them company that are reputed the best , reserv'd for the last and most notable instance of those that entituled their laws divine , and made themselves spokesmen betwixt god and the people . this mneves is said to receive his laws from mercury , as minos from iupiter , lycurgus from apollo , zathraustes from his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his good genius , zamolxis from vesta , and moses from iao ; that is , iehovah . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but he speaks like a meer historian in the business . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which he boldly abuses to the diminution of all their authorities promiscuously . for he says they feigned they received laws from these deities ; and addes the reason of it too , but like an errant statesman , or an incredulous philosopher , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . whether it be , sayes he , that they judged it an admirable and plainly divine project that redounded unto the profit of a multitude , or whether they conceived that hereby the people looking upon the greatnesse , and supereminence of their law-givers , would be more obedient to their laws . that saying in the schools is not so trivial as true . quicquid recipitur , recipitur ad modum recipientis , every thing is as it is taken , or at least appears to be so . the tincture of our own natures stains the appearance of all objects . so that i wonder not that diodorus siculus , a man of a meer political spirit , ( as it is very plain how neer history and policy are akin ) should count the receiving of laws from some deity rather a piece of prudential fraud and political forgery , then reality and truth . but to leave diodorus to his ethnicisme and incredulity ; as for us that ought to believe scripture , if we will not gain-say the authority of the greek text , we shall not only be fully perswaded of moses his receiving of laws from gods own mouth , but have some hints to believe that something analogical to it may have come to passe in other law-givers , deut. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. when the most high divided the nations , when he separated the sons of adam , he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of god , but jacob was the portion of iehovah , that is , iao , &c. so that it is not improbable but that as the great angel of the covenant , ( he whom philo calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the eldest of the angels , the archangel , the word , the beginning , the name of god , which is iehovah ) i say , that as he gave laws to his charge , so the tutelar angels of other nations might be the instructers of those that they rais'd up to be law-givers to their charge ; though in processe of time the nations that were at first under the government of good angels , by their lewdnesse and disobedience might make themselves obnoxious to the power and delusion of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as they are called , deceitful and tyrannical devils . but this is but a digression ; that which i would briefly have intimated is this , that moses the great law-giver of the jews , was a man instructed of god himself to prudence and true policy . and therefore i make account if we will but with diligence search , we may surely finde the foot-steps of unsophisticate policy in all the passages of the whole pentateuch . and here in the very entrance it will offer it self unto our view : where moses shews himself such as that noble spirit of plato desires all governors of commonwealths should be , who has in his epistle to dion and his friends foretold , that mankinde will never cease to be miserable , till such time as either true and right philosophers rule in the commonwealth , or those that do rule , apply themselves to true and sound philosophy . and what is moses his bereshith , but a fair invitation thereto , it comprehending at least the whole fabrick of nature and conspicuous furniture of the visible world ? as if he dare appeal unto the whole assembly of gods creation , to the voice of the great universe , if what he propounds to his people over whom god hath set him , be not righteous and true ; and that by acting according to his precepts , they would but approve themselves cosmopolitas , true citizens of the world , and loyal subjects to god and nature . it is philo's interpretation upon the place , which how true it is in moses vailed , i will not here dispute : that it is most true in moses unvailed , christ our lord , is true without all dispute and controversie . and whosoever followes him , follows a law justified by god and the whole creature , they speaking in several dialects the minde of their maker . it is a truth and life that is the safety of all nations , and the earnest expectation of the ends of the earth ; christ the same yesterday , to day , and for ever , whose dominion and law neither time nor place doth exclude . but to return to moses . another reason no lesse considerable , why that holy and wise law-giver moses , should begin with the creation of the world , is this : the laws and ordinances which he gave to the israelites , were given by him as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as statutes received from god. and therefore the great argument and incitement to obedience should lie in this first and highest law-giver , god himself , the great jehovah , whose wisdome , power , and goodnesse could not better be set out then by ascribing the creation of the whole visible world unto him . so that for his power he might be feared , admired for his wisdome , and finally , for his goodnesse be loved , adored , and deified : that as he was truly in himself the most high god , so he should be acknowledged of the people to be so . for certainly there is nothing that doth so win away , nay , ravish or carry captive the mindes of poor mankinde , as bounty and munificence . all men loving themselves most affectionately , and most of all the meanest and basest spirits , whose souls are so far from being a little rais'd and releas'd from themselves , that they do impotently and impetuously cleave and cling to their dear carkases . hence have they out of the strong relish , and favour of the pleasures and conveniencies thereof made no scruple of honouring them for gods , who have by their industry , or by good luck produced any thing that might conduce for the improvement of the happinesse and comfort of the body . from hence it is that the sun and moon have been accounted for the two prime deities by idolatrous antiquity , viz. from that sensible good they conferred upon hungry mankinde . the one watering as it were the earth by her humid influence ; the other ripening the fruit of the ground by his warm rayes , and opening dayly all the hid treasures of the visible world by his glorious approach , pleasing the sight with the variety of natures objects , & chearing the whole body by his comfortable heat . to these as to the most conspicuous benefactors to mankinde , was the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because they observed that these conceived deities were in perpetual motion . these two are the aegyptians osiris and isis , and five more are added to them as very sensible benefactors , but subordinate to these two , and dependents of them . and in plain speech they are these . fire , spirit , humidity , siccity , and air , but in their divine titles vulcan , jupiter , oceanus , ceres , and minerva . these are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as diodorus speaks . but after these mortal men were canonized for immortal deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for their prudence and benefaction ; as you may see at large in diodorus siculus . i will name but two for instance , bacchus and ceres , the one the inventor of corn , the other of wine and beer : so that all may be resolved into that brutish aphorisme , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that which could please or pleasure degenerate mankinde in the body , ( they having lost the image of god in their souls , and become meer brutes after a manner ) that must be their god. wherefore it was necessary for moses having to deal with such terrestrial spirits , sons of sense and corporeity , to propose to them jehovah as maker of this sensible and corporeal world , that whatever sweet they suck out of the varieties thereof , they may attribute to him , as the first fountain and author , without whom neither they nor any thing else had been , that thereby they might be stirred up to praise his name , and accomplish his will revealed by his servant moses unto them . and this was true and sound prudence , aiming at nothing but the glory of god , and the good of the poor ignorant people . and from the same head springs the manner of his delivering of the creation ; that is , accommodately to the apprehension of the meanest : not speaking of things according to their very essence and real nature , but according to their appearances to us . not starting of high and intricate questions , and concluding them by subtile arguments , but familiarly and condescendingly setting out the creation , according to the most easie and obvious conceits they themselves had of those things they saw in the world ; omitting even those grosser things that lay hid in the bowels of the earth , as metals , and minerals , and the like , as well as those things that fall not at all under sense , as those immaterial substances , angels , or intelligences . thus fitly has the wisdome and goodnesse of god accommodated the outward cortex of the scripture , to the most narrow and slow apprehension of the vulgar . nor doth it therefore follow that the narration must not be true , because it is according to the appearance of things to sense and obvious fancie ; for there is also a truth of appearance , according to which scripture most what speaks in philosophical matters . and this position is the main key , as i conceive , and i hope shall hereafter plainly prove , whereby moses his bereshith may according to the outward and literal sense be understood without any difficulty or clashing one part against another . and my task at this time will be very easie , for it is but transcribing what i have already elsewhere occasionally published , and recovering of it into its proper place . first therefore i say , that it is a thing confessed by the learned hebrews , who make it a rule for the understanding of many places of scripture , loquitur lex juxta linguam humanam , that the law speaks according to the language of the sons of men . and secondly , which will come more home to the purpose , i shall instance in some places that of necessity are to be thus understood . gen. . . the sun was risen upon the earth when lot entred into zoar ; which implies that it was before under the earth , which is true onely according to sense and vulgar phancy . deuteronom . . v. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , implies that the earth is bounded at certain places , as if there were truly an hercules pillar , or non plus ultra : as it is manifest to them that understand but the natural signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for those words plainly import the earth bounded by the blew heavens , and the heavens bounded by the horizon of the earth , they touching one another mutually ; which is true only to sense and in appearance , as any man that is not a meer idiot , will confesse . ecclesiastic . . v. . the discourse of a godly man is always with wisdome , but a fool changeth as the moon . that is to be understood according to sense and appearance : for if a fool changeth no more then the moon doth really , he is a wise and excellently accomplished man ; semper idem , though to the sight of the vulgar different . for at least an hemisphere of the moon is always enlightned , and even then most when she least appears unto us . hitherto may be referred also that , chron. . . also he made a molten sea ten cubits from brim to brim , round in compasse , and five cubits the height thereof , and a line of thirty cubits did compasse it round about . a thing plainly impossible that the diameter should be ten cubits , and the circumference but thirty . but it pleaseth the spirit of god here to speak according to the common use and opinion of men , and not according to the subtilty of archimedes his demonstration . again psalm . in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sunne , which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber , and rejoyceth as a strong man to run his race . this , as mr. john calvin observes , is spoken according to the rude apprehension of the vulgar , whom david should in vain have endevoured to teach the mysteries of astronomy . and therefore he makes no mention of the course of the sunne in the nocturnal hemisphere . i 'le adde but one instance more , joshua . v. . sunn● stand thou still upon gibeon , and thou moon in the valley of ajalon ; where it is manifest that ioshua speaks not according to the astronomical truth of the thing , but according to sense and appearance . for suppose the sun placed , and the moon , at the best advantage you can , so that they leave not their natural course , they were so far from being one over ajalon , and the other over gibeon , that they were in very truth many hundreds of miles distant from them . and if the sun and moon were on the other side of the aequator , the distance might amount to thousands . i might adjoyn to these proofs the suffrages of many fathers , and modern divines , as chrysostome , ambrose , augustine , bernard , aquinas , and the rest . but it is already manifest enough that the scripture speaks not according to the exact curiosity of truth , describing things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the very nature and essence of them ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to their appearance in sense and the vulgar opinion . the second rule that i would set down is ●his : that there is a various intertexture of theosophical and philosophical truths , many physical and metaphysical theorems hinted ●o us ever and anon , through those words that at first sight seem to bear but an ordinary grosse sense , i mean especially in these three first chapters of genesis . and a man will be the better assured of the truth of this position , if he do but consider , that the literal text of moses that sets out the creation of the world , and offers reasons of sundry notable phaenomena of nature , bears altogether a most palpable compliance with the meer rude and ignorant conceits of the vulgar . wherefore the argument of these three chapters being so philosophical as it is , it seems unworthy of that knowing spirit of moses , or of religion it self , that he should not contrive under the external contexture of this narration , some very singular and choice theorems of natural philosophy and metaphysicks ; which his pious and learned successors should be able by some secret traditionary doctrine or cabbala to apply to his outward text. for what an excellent provision is this ▪ for such of the people whose pregnancy of parts and wit might make them rest unsatisfied , as well in the moral allegory ( into which they are first to be initiated ) as in the outward letter it self ; and also their due obedience , humility , and integrity of life , make them fit to receive some more secret philosophick cabbala from the mouth of the knowing priest ; the strange unexpected richnesse of the sense whereof , and highnesse of notion suddenly shining forth , by removing aside of the vail , might strike the soul of the honest jew with unexpressible pleasure and amazement , and fill his heart with joy and thankfulnesse to god for the good tidings therein contained , and conciliate greater reverence then ever to moses and to religion . wherefore such a philosophick cabbala as this being so convenient and desirable , and men in all ages having professed their expectation of solid and severe philosophy in this story of the creation by their several attempts thereupon , it seems to me abundantly probable that moses and his successors were furnished with some such like cabbala ; which i am still the more easily induced to believe , from that credible fame that pythagoras and plato had their philosophy from moses his text , which it would not so easily have suggested unto them , had they had no assistance from either iewish or aegyptian prophet or priest to expound it . the third and last rule that i would lay down is this : that natural things , persons , motions , and actions , declared or spoken of in scripture , admit of also many times a mystical , moral , or allegorical sense . this is worth the proving it concerning our souls more nearly then the other . i know this spiritual sense is as great a fear to some faint and unbelieving hearts , as a spectre or night-spirit . but it is a thing acknowledged by the most wise , most pious , and most rational of the iewish doctors ; i will instance in one who is ad instar omnium , moses aegyptius , who compares the divine oracles to apples of gold in pictures of silver : for that the outward nitor is very comely as silver curiously cut thorough and wrought , but the inward spiritual or mystical sense is the gold more precious and more beautiful , that glisters through those cuttings and artificial carvings in the letter . i will endevour to prove this point by sundry passages in scripture , psalm . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the easie and genuine sense of these words is , the secret of the lord is for them that fear him , and his covenant is to make them know it , viz. his secret , which implies that the mysterie of god lies not bare to false and adulterous eyes , but is hid and wrapped up in decent coverings from the sight of vulgar and carnal men . that his secrets are , as aristotle answered to alexander concerning his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or acroamatical writings , that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , published and not published . and our saviour himself , though all goodnesse , was not so prodigal of his pearls as to cast them to swine . to them that were without he spake parables . and upon the same principles certainly it is not a whit unreasonable , to conceive moses to write types and allegories . and we have sufficient ground to think so from that of the apostle cor. ch . . where when he hath in short reckoned up some of the main passages that befell the israelites in their journey from egypt to canaan , ( which yet no man that hath any faith or the fear of god before his eyes , will deny to be a reall history ) he closes with this expression all these things being types befell them , but were written for our instruction , on whom the ends of the world are come . so galat. ch . . the history of abrahams having two sons ishmael and isaak , the one of the bond-woman , the other of the free , viz. agar and sara , the same apostle there speaks out , that they are an allegory , v. . i might adde many other passages to this purpose , but i will only raise one consideration concerning many histories of the old testament , and then conclude . if so be the spirit of god meant not something more by them then the meer history , i mean some useful and spiritual truth involved in them , they will be so far from stirring us up to piety , that they may prove ill precedents for falseness and injurious dealings . for what an easie thing is it for a man to fancy himself an israelite , and then to circumvent his honest neighbours under the notion of aegyptians ? but we will not confine our selves to this one solitary instance . what is jacob but a supplanter , a deceiver , and that of his own brother ? for taking advantage of his present necessity , he forced him to sell his birth-right for a m●sse of pottage . what a notorious piece of fraud is that of rebecca , that while industrious esau is ranging the woods and mountains to fulfill his fathers command , and please his aged appetite , she should substitute jacob with his both counterfeit hands and venison , to carry away the blessing intended by the good old man for his officious elder son esau ? jacobs rods of poplar , an ill example to servants to defraud their masters ; and rachels stealing labans t●●raphim ▪ and concealing them with a falshood , how warrantable an act it was , let her own husband give sentence ; with whomsoever thou findest thy gods , let him not live , gen. . . i might be infinite in this point ; i will only add one example of womans perfidious cruelty , as it will seem at first sight , and so conclude . sisera captain of jabins host being worsted by israel , fled on his feet to the tent of jael , the wife of heber the kenite , who was in league and confederacy with jabin : this jael was in shew so courteous as to meet sisera , and invite him into her tent , saying , turn in my lord , turn in to me , fear not . and when he had turned in unto her into the tent , she covered him with a mantle : and he said unto her , give me i pray thee a little water to drink ; and she opened a bottle of milk , and gave him drink , and covered him . in short , he trusted her with his life , and gave himself to her protection , and she suddenly so soon as he fell asleep drove a nail with an hammer into his temples , and betrayed his corps to the will of his enemies . an act certainly that the spirit of god would not have approved , much lesse applauded so much , but in reference to the mysterie that lies under it . my three rules for the interpreting of scripture , i have i hope by this time sufficiently established , by way of a more general preparation to the defence of my threefold cabbala . i shall now apply my self to a more particular clearing and confirming the several passages therein . the defence of the literal cabbala . chap. i. the genuine sense of in the beginning . the difference of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neglected by the seventy , who translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the ground of their mistake discovered , who conceive moses to intimate that the matter is uncreated . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then ventus magnus . that the first darkness was not properly night . why the seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firmamentum , and that it is in allusion to a firmly pitched tent. that the sensible effects of the sun invited the heathen to idolatry , and that their oracles taught them to call him by the name of jao . that the prophet jeremy divides the day from the sun , speaking according to the vulgar capacity . the reason why the stars appear on this side the upper caeruleous sea. the opinion of the anthropomorphites , and of what great consequence it is for the vulgar to imagine god in the shape of a man. aristophanes his story in plato of men and womens growing together at first , as if they made both but one animal . the first rule that i laid down in my introduction to the defence of my threefold cabbala , i need not here again repeat , but desire the reader only to carry it in minde , and it will warrant the easie and familiar sense that i shall settle upon moses his text in the literal meaning thereof . unto which , if i adde also reasons from the pious prudence of this holy law-giver , shewing how every passage makes for greater faith in god , and more affectionate obedience to his law , there will be nothing wanting i think ( though i shall sometimes cast in some notable advantages also from critical learning ) that may gain belief to the truth of the interpretation . vers . . in this first verse i put no other sense of in the beginning , then that it denotes to us the order of the history . which is also the opinion of maimonides , who deriving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the head , rightly observes the analogy ; that as the head is the forepart of a living creature , so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that which is placed first in any thing else . and that thus the creation of the world is the head or forepart of the history that moses intends to set down . wherefore moses having in his minde ( as is plain from the title of this book , genesis , as well as the matter therein contained ) to write an history and genealogy from the beginning of the world to his own time , it is very easie and obvious to conceive , that in reference to what he should after add , he said , in the beginning : as if the whole frame of his thoughts lay thus . first of all , god made the heavens , and the earth , with all that they contain , the sun , moon , and stars , the day and night , the plants , and living creatures that were in the air , water , and on the earth , and after all these he made adam , and adam begot cain and abel , and so on in the full continuance of the history and genealogies . and this sense i conceive is more easie and natural then that of austin , ambrose , and besil , who will have in the beginning , to signifie in the beginning of time , or in the beginning of the world . and yet i thought it not amiss to name also these , that the reader may take his choice . god made heaven and earth . maimonides and manasseh ben israel observe these three words used in scripture , when creation of the world is attributed to god , viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the production of things out of nothing , which is the schools notion of creation ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the making up a thing perfect and compleat , according to its own kinde and properties ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimates the dominion and right possession that god has of all things thus created or made . but though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the mind of the learned jews , signifies creation properly so called , yet the seventy observe no such criticisme , but translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is no more then made . and vulgar men are not at leisure to distinguish so subtilly . wherefore this latter sense i receive as the vulgar literal sense , the other as philosophical . and where i use the word creation in this literal cabbala , i understand but that common and general notion of making a thing , be it with what circumstances it will. neither do i translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number , the trinity ; because , as vatablus observes out of the hebrew doctors , that when the inferiour speaks of his superiour , he speaks of him in the plural number . so esay . . tradam aegyptum in manum dominorum duri . and exod. . . et accipiet domini ejus , for dominus . the text therefore necessarily requiring no such sense , and the mysterie being so abstruse , it is rightly left out in this literal cabbala . vers . . in the first verse there was a summary proposal of the whole creation in those two main parts of it , heaven and earth . now he begins the particular prosecution of each days work . but it is not needful for him here again to inculcate the making of the earth : for it is the last word he spake in his general proposal , and therefore it had been harsh or needless to have repeated it presently again . and that 's the reason why before the making of the earth , there is not prefixed , and the lord said , let there be an earth . which i conceive has imposed upon the ignorance and inconsiderateness of some , so as to make them believe that this confused muddy heap which is called the earth , was an eternal first matter , independent of god , and never created by him : which if a man appeal to his own faculties , is impossible , as i shall again intimate when i come to the philosophick cabbala . the sense therefore is , that the earth was made first , which was covered with water , and on the water was the wind , and in all this a thick darkness . and god was in this dark , windy and wet night . so that this globe of earth , and water , and wind , was but one dark tempest and sea-storm , a night of confusion and tumultuous agitation . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not in the letter any thing more then ventus ingens , a great and mighty wind . as the cedars of god , and mountains of god , are tall cedars , great mountains , and so in analogy , the wind of god , a great wind. vers . . but in the midst of this tempestuous darkness , god intending to fall to his work , doth as it were light his lamp , or set up himself a candle in this dark shop . and what ever hitherto hath been mentioned , are words that strike the fancy and sense strongly , and are of easie perception to the rude people , whom every dark and stormy night may well reminde of the sad face of things till god commanded the comfortable day to spring forth , the sole author of light , that so pleases the eyes , and chears the spirits of man. and that day-light is a thing independent of the sun , as well as the night of the stars , is a conceit wondrous sutable to the imaginations of the vulgar , as i have my self found out by conversing with them . they are also prone to think , unlesse there be a sensible wind stirring , that there is nothing betwixt the earth and the clouds , but that it is a meer vacuity . wherefore i have not translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the air , as maimonides somewhere does , but a mighty wind ; for that the rude people are sensible of , and making the first deformed face of things so dismal and tempestuous , it will cause them to remember the first morning light with more thankfulness and devotion . vers . . for it is a thing very visible . see what is said upon the eighth verse . vers . . by evening and morning , is meant the artificial day , and the artificial night , by a synecdoche , as castellio in his notes tells us . therefore this artificial day and night put together , make one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or natural day . and the evening is put before the morning , night before day , because darkness is before light. but that primitive darkness was not properly night : for night is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as aristotle describes it , one great shaddow cast from the earth , which implies light of one side thereof . and therefore night properly so called could not be before light. but the illiterate people trouble themselves with no such curiosities , nor easily conceive any such difference betwixt that determinate conical shaddow of the earth , which is night , and that infinite primitive darkness , that had no bounds before there was any light. and therefore that same darkness prefixed to an artificial day makes up one natural day to them . which hesiod also swallows down without chewing , whether following his own fancy , or this text of moses , i know not . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , but of the night both day and skie were born . vers . . this basis or floor . that the earth seems like a round floor , plain and running out so every way , as to join with the bottome of the heavens , i have in my introduction hinted to you already , and that it is look'd upon as such in the phrase of scripture , accommodating it self to our outward senses and vulgar conceit . upon this floor stands the hollow firmament , as a tent pitched upon the ground , which is the very expression of the prophet esay , describing the power of god ; that stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain , and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in . and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is usually rendred firmament , signifies diduction , expansion , or spreading out . but how the seventy come to interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firmamentum , fuller in his miscellanies gives a very ingenious reason , and such as makes very much to our purpose . nam coelum seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he , quandoquidem tentoxio saepissimè in sacris literis assimilatur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur , quatenus expanditur . sic enim expandi solent tent●ria , quum alligatis ad paxillos in terram depactos funibus distenduntur , atque hoc etiam pacto firmantur . itaque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immensum quoddam ut ita dicam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ideóque & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ineptè appelletur . the sense of which in brief is nothing but this : that the seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , firmamentum , because the heavens are spread out like a well-fastned and firmly pitched ten. and i add also , that they are so stiffely stretched , that they will strongly bear against the weight of the upper waters ; so that they are not able to break them down , and therewith to drown the world . which conceit as it is easie and agreeable with the fancy of the people , so it is so far from doing them any hurt , that it will make them more sensible of the divine power and providence , who thus by main force keeps off a sea of water that hangs over their heads , which they discern through the transparent firmament , ( for it looks blew as other seas do ) and would rush at once upon them and drown them , did not the power of god , and the strength of the firmament hold it off . vers . . see what hath been already said upon the sixt verse . i will only here add , that the nearness of these upper waters makes them still the more formidable , and so are greater spurs to devotion : for as they are brought so near as to touch the earth at the bottome , so outward sense still being judge , they are to be within a small distance of the clouds at the top . and that these upper waters are no higher then so , it is manifest from other passages in scripture , that place the habitation of god but amongst the clouds , who yet is called the most high. psalm . . deut. . . nahum . . psalm ● . . but of this i have treated so fully elsewhere , that i hold it needless to add any thing more . ver. . i cannot say properly that god saw it was good . in the whole story of the three first chapters , it is evident , that god is represented in the person of a man , speaking with a mouth , and seeing with eyes . hence it is that the firmament being of it self invisible , that moses omits the saying , that god saw it was good : for the nature of the eye is onely to see things visible . some say , god made hell the second day , and that that is the reason it was not recorded , that he saw it was good . but if he did not approve of it as good , why did he make it ? however that can be none of the literal sense , and so impertinent to this present cabbala . ver. . and i may now properly say , &c. see what hath been said already upon verse the eight . ver. . whence you may easily discern , &c. this observation is philo the jew 's , which you may read at large in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and it was very fit for moses who in his law , which he received from god , does so much insist upon temporal blessings , and eating of the good things of the land , as a reward of their obedience , to lay down such principles as should beget a firm belief of the absolute power of god over nature . that he could give them rain , and fruitful seasons , and a plentiful year when he pleased ; when as he could cause the earth to bring forth without rain , or any thing else to further her births , as he did at the first creation . the meditation whereof might well cause such an holy resolution as that in the prophet habakkuk , although the fig-tree shall not blossome , neither fruit be in the vines , the labour of the olive fail , and the fields yeeld no meat ; yet i will rejoyce in the lord , i will joy in the god of my salvation . but that prudent and pious caution of moses against idolatry , how requisite it was , is plain if we consider that the power of the sun is so manifest , and his operation so sensible upon the earth for the production of things below , especially of plants , that he hath generally drawn aside the rude and simple heathen to idolize him for a god : and their nimble oracles have snatched away the sacred name of the god of israel , the true god , to bestow upon him , calling him jao , which is jehovah , as is plain from that clarian oracle in macrobius : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . which i have translated thus in my poems : that heavenly power which jao hight , the highest of all the gods thou maist declare in spring nam'd zeus , in summer helios bright , in autumne called jao , aides in brumal night . these names do plainly denotate the sunne in spring call'd zeus from life or kindly heat ; in winter ' cause the day 's so quickly done , he aides hight , he is not long in sight ; in summer ' cause he strongly doth us smite with his hot darts , then helios we him name from eloim or eloah so hight ; in autumn jao , jehovan is the same , so is the word deprav'd by an uncertain fame . this oracle cornelius labeo interprets of bacchus , which is the same with the sun , who is the god of the vintage , and is here described according to the four quarters of the year . and so virgil , heathen-like attributes to the sun and moon under the name of bacchus and ceres , that great blessing of corn and grain . — vestro si numine tellus chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit aristâ . if by your providence the earth has born for course chaonian acorns , full-ear'd corn. but of this i have said so much in my introduction , that i need add nothing more . ver. . see ver . . ver. . see ver . . i have there shown how easily the fancie of the rude people admit of days without a sun. to whose capacities the prophet jeremy accommodating his speech , her sun , sayes he , is gone down while it was yet day . how can it be day when the sun is down , unless the day be independent of the sun , according to the fancie of the rude and illiterate ? which is wonderfully consonant to the outward letter of moses , that speaks not of the sun as the cause of the day , but as a badge of distinction from the night , though he does admit that it does increase the light thereof . ver. . in the hollow roof &c. though the caeruleous upper sea seems so neer us , as i have already signified , yet the lights of heaven seem something on this side it , as white will stand off drawn upon a darker colour , as you may see in the describing solid figures on a blew slate ; they will more easily rise to your eye then black upon white : so that the people may very well , consulting with their sight , imagine the firmament to be betwixt the lights of heaven , and the upper waters , or that blew sea they look upon , not on this side , nor properly betwixt the lights or stars . ver. . two great lights , &c. this is in counter-distinction to the stars , which indeed seem much less to our sight then the sun or moon , when as notwithstanding many stars according to astronomers computation , are bigger then the sun , all far bigger then the moon : so that it is plain the scripture speaks sometimes according to the appearance of things to our sight , not according to their absolute affections and properties . and he that will not here yeeld this for a truth , is , i think , justly to be suspected of more ignorance then religion , and of more superstition then reason . for their smalnesse , &c. the stars indeed seem very small to our sight , and therefore moses seems to cast them in but by the by , complying therein with the ignorance of the unlearned . but astronomers who have made it their business to understand their magnitudes , they that make the most frugal computation concerning the bigger stars , pronounce them no less then sixty eight times bigger then the earth , others much more . ver. . to be peculiar garnishings . see verse . ver. . fish and fowl. i suppose the mention of the fowl is made here with the fish by reason that the greatest and more eminent sorts of that kinde of creature , most of all frequent the waters , as swannes , geese , ducks , herons , and the like . ver. . in his own shape . it was the opinion of the anthropomorphites , that god had all the parts of a man , and that we are in this sense made according to his image : which though it be an opinion in it self , if not rightly understood , vain and ridiculous ; yet theirs seem little better to me , that imagine god a finite beeing , and take care to place him out of the stink of this terrestrial globe , that he may sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so confine him to heaven , as aristotle seems to do , if he be the author of that book de mundo : for it is a contradiction to the very idea of god to be finite , and consequently to have figure or parts . but it is so difficult a thing for the rude multitude to venture at a notion of a beeing immatorial and infinite , that it seems their advantage to conceive of god as of some all-powerful person , that can do what ever he pleaseth , can make heavens and earths , and bestow his blessings in what measure and manner he lists , and what is chief of all , if need be , can personally appear to them , can chide them , and rebuke them , and , if they be obstinate , doe horrible vengeance upon them . this i say , will more strongly strike the inward sense and imagination of the vulgar , then omnipotency placed in a thin , subtile , invisible , immaterial beeing , of which they can have no perception at all , nor any tolerable conceit . wherefore it being requisite for the ignorant , to be permitted to have some finite and figurate apprehension of god , what can be more fit then the shape of a man in the highest excellencies that it is capable of , for beauty , strength , and bignesse . and the prophet esay seems to speak of god after this notion , god sits upon the circle of the earth , and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers ; intimating that men to god bear as little proportion , as grashoppers to a man when he sits on the grasse amongst them . and now there being this necessity of permitting the people some such like apprehensions as this , concerning god , ( and it is true prudence , and pious policy to comply with their weakness for their good ) there was the most strict injunctions laid upon them against idolatry and worshipping of images that might be . but if any one will say this was the next way to bring them into idolatry , to let them entertain a conceit of god as in humane shape ; i say it is not any more , then by acknowledging man to be god , as our religion does , in christ . nay , i add moreover , that christ is the true deus figuratus : and for his sake was it the more easily permitted unto the jews to think of god in the shape of a man. and that there ought to be such a thing as christ , that is , god in humane shape , i think it most reasonable , that he may apparently visit the earth , and to their very outward senses confound the atheist and mis-believer at the last day . as he witnesseth of himself , the father judges none , but he hath given all judgement unto the son. and , that no man can see the father , but as he is united unto the son. for the eternal god is immaterial and invisible to our outward senses : but he hath thought good to treat with us both in mercy and judgement , by a mediator and vicegerent , that partakes of our nature as well as his own . wherefore it is not at all absurd for moses to suffer the jews to conceive of god as in a corporeall and humane shape , since all men shall be judged by god in that shape at the last day . he made females as well as males . that story in plato his symposion , how men and women grew together at first till god cut them asunder , is a very probable argument that the philosopher had seen or heard something of this mosaical history . but that it was his opinion it was so , i see no probability at all : for the story is told by that ridiculous comedian aristophanes , with whom i conceive he is in some sort quit , for abusing his good old friend and tutor socrates , whom he brought in upon the stage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , treading the air in a basket , to make him a laughing-stock to all athens . the text is indeed capable of such a sense , but there being no reason to put that sense upon it , neither being a thing so accommodate to the capacity and conceit of the vulgar , i thought it not fit to admit it , no not so much as into this literal cabbala . ver. . frugiferous . castellio translates it so , herbas frugiferas , which must be such like herbs as i have named , strawberries , wheat , rice , and the like . chap. ii. the notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to the breathing of adams soul into his nostrils . the exact situation of paradise . that gihon is part of euphrates ; pison , phasis , or phasi-tigris . that the madianites are called aethiopians . that paradise was seated about mesopotamia , argued by six reasons . that it was more particularly seated where now apamia stands in ptolemee's maps . the prudence of moses in the commendation of matrimony . why adam is not recorded to have given names to the fishes . abraham ben ezra's conceit of the names of adam and eve as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . moses his wise anthypophora concerning the naturall shame of nakednesse . in the four first verses all is so clear and plain , that there is no need of any further explication or defence , saving that you may take notice that in the second verse where i write within six days , the seventies translation will warrant it , who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , on the sixt day . ver. . see what hath been said on the eleventh verse of the first chapter . ver. . the dust . the hebrew word signifies so , and i make no mention of any moistning of it with water . for god is here set out acting according to his absolute power and omnipotency . and it is as easie to make men of dry dust , as hard stones . and yet god is able even of stones to raise up children unto abraham . blew into the nostrils . breathing is so palpable an effect of life , that the ancient rude greeks also gave the soul its name from that operation , calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to breathe or to blow . ver. . eastward of judea . for so interpreters expound eastward in scripture , in reference to judea . to prevent any further trouble in making good the sense i have put upon the following verses concerning paradise , i shall here at once set down what i finde most probable concerning the situation thereof , out of vatablus and cornelius à lapide , adding also somewhat out of dionysius the geographical poet. in general therefore we are led by the four rivers to the right situation of paradise . and gihon , saith vatablus ; is tractus inferior euphratis illabens in sinum persicum ; is a lower tract or stream of euphrates that slides into the persian gulph . pison is phasis or phasitigris , that runs through havilah , a region near persis ; so that pison is a branch of tigris , as gihon is of euphrates . thus vatablus . and that gihon may have his aethiopia , cornelius à lapide notes , that the madianites and others near the persian gulph , are called aethiopians ; and therefore he concludes first at large , that paradise was seated about mosopotamia and armenia , from these reasons following . first , because these regions are called eastern in scripture , ( which as i have said is to be understood always in reference to judea ) according to the rule of expositors . and the lord is said to have planted this garden of paradise eastward . secondly , because man being cast out of paradise these regions were inhabited first , both before the floud , ( for cain is said to inhabite eden , gen. . . ) and also after the floud , as being nearer paradise , and more fertile , gen. . . also . . thirdly , paradise was in eden , but eden was near haran ; ezek. . . haran , and caunuch , and eden : but haran was about mesopotamia , being a city of parthia where crassus was slain ; authors call it charra . fourthly , paradise is where euphrates and tigris are . and these are in mesopotamia and armenia . they denominate mesopotamia , it lying betwixt them . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , the land 'twixt tigris and euphrates streame , all this mesopotamia they name . fiftly , because these regions are most fruitful and pleasant . and that adam was made not far from thence , is not improbable from the excellency of that place , as well for the goodliness of the men that it breeds , as the fertility of the soil . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , so excellent is that soil for herbage green , for flowry meads , and such fair godly men , as if the off-spring of the gods th' had been . as the same geographer writes . sixtly , and lastly , there is yet a further probability alledged , that paradise was about mesopotamia , that countrey being not far distant from judea . for it is the tradition of the fathers , that adam when he was ejected out of paradise , having travelled over some parts of the world , that he came at last to judea , and there died , and was buried in a mount , which his posterity , because the head of the first man was laid there , called mount calvary , where christ was crucified for the expiation of the sin of adam , the first transgressor . if the story be not true , it is pity but it should be , it hath so venerable assertors , as cyprian , athanasius , basil , origen , and others of the fathers , as cornelius affirms . but now for the more exact situation of paradise , the same author ventures to place it at the very meeting of tigris and euphrates , where the city of apamia now stands in ptolemees maps , eighty degrees longitude , and some thirty four degrees and thirty scruples latitude . thus have we according to the letter found paradise which adam lost , but if we finde no better one in the philosophick and moral cabbala , we shall but have our labour for our travel . ver. . that stood planted in the midst of the garden . for in this verse the tree of life is planted in the midst of the garden , and in the third chapter the third verse , the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is placed there also . for the lord god bad so ordained . expositors seem not to suspect any hurt in the tree it self , but that the fruit thereof was naturally good , only god interdicted it to try the goodness of adam . so that this law that prohibited adam the eating of the fruit , was meerly thetical , or positive , not indispensable and natural . ver. . from thence it was parted . this is the cause that paradise is conceived to have been situated where apamia stands , as i have above intimated . ver. . phasis . see verse . chaulateans . the affinity of name is apparent betwixt havilah and chaulateans , whom strabo places in arabia near mesopotamia . ver. . arabian aethiopia . see verse . ver. . see verse . ver. . high commendations of matrimony . moses plainly recommends to the jews the use of matrimony , & does after a manner encourage them to that condition : which he does like a right law-giver and father of the people . for in the multitude of people is the kings honour , but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince , as solomon speaks , prov. . besides , there was no small policy in religiously commending that to them , that most would be carried fast enough too on their own accords . for those laws are best liked that sute with the pleasure of the people , and they will have a better conceit of the law-giver for it . ver. . these brought he unto adam . viz. the beasts and fowls ; but there is no mention of the fishes , they being not fitted to journey in the same element . it had been over harsh and affected to have either brought the fishes from the sea , or to have carried adam to the shore , to appoint names to all the fishes flocking thither to him . but after he might have opportunity to give them names , as they came occasionally to his view . ver. . see verse , ver. . fell into a dream . for the seventy have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , god cast adam into an extasie ; and in that extasie he might very well see what god did all the while he slept . ver. . see verse . & . ver. . so strict and sacred a tye , &c. that 's the scope of the story . to beget a very fast and indissoluble affection betwixt man and wife , that they should look upon one another as one and the same person . and in this has moses wisely provided for the happiness of his people in instilling such a principle into them , as is the root of all oeconomical order , delight , and contentment : while the husband looks upon his wife as on himself in the feminine gender , and she on her husband as on her self in the masculine . for grammarians can discern no other difference then so , betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vir and virissa . but r. abraham ben ezra has found a mysterie in these names more then grammatical . for in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes he , is the contracted name of jehovah contained , viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so long therefore as the married couple live in gods fear and mutual love , god is with them as well as in their names . but if they cast god off by disobedience , and make not good what they owe one to the other , then is their condition what their names denotate to them , the name of god being taken out , viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the fire of discord and contention here , and the eternal fire of hell hereafter . this is the conceit of that pious and witty rabbi . ver. . and were not ashamed . matrimony and the knowledge of women being so effectually recommended unto the jewes in the fore-going story , the wisdome of moses did foresee that it would be obvious for the people to think with themselves , how so good and commendable a thing should have so much shame and diffidency hovering about it . for there is a general bashfulness in men and women in these matters , and they ever desire to transact these affairs in secret out of the sight of others . wherefore moses to satisfie their curiosity , continues his history further , and gives the reason of this shame in the following chapter . chap. iii. how much it saves the credit of our first parents , that the serpent was found the prime author of the transgression . that according to s. basil all the living creatures of paradise could speak : undeniable reasons that the serpent could , according to the literal cabbala . the opinion of the anthropomorphites true , according to the literal cabbala . that the serpent went upright before the fall , was the opinion of s. basil . a story of the easie delivery of a certain poor woman of liguria . that the general calamities that lie upon mankinde , came by the transgression of a positive law , how well accommodate it is to the scope of moses . that paradise was not the whole earth . the apparitions in paradise called by theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in this third chapter , there are causes laid down , of some of the most notable , and most concerning accidents in nature . as of the hard travail and toil upon the sons of men , to get themselves a livelihood . of the antipathy betwixt men and serpents . of the incumbrance of the ground with troublesome weeds . of the shame of venery . of the pangs of childe-bearing ; and of death it self . of all these moses his wisdome held fit to give an account accommodately to the capacity of the people . for these fall into that grand question in philosophy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; whence sprung up evil ? which has exercised the wits of all ages to this very day . and every fool is able to make the question , but few men so wise , as to be either able to give , or fit to receive a sufficient answer to it , according to the depth of the matter it self . but it was very necessary for moses to hold on in his history , and to communicate to them those plain and intelligible causes of the evils that ever lay before their eyes ; he having so fully asserted god the creator of heaven and earth , and contriver of all things that we see : adding also that the laws that he propounded to them were delivered to him from god , and that all prosperity and happiness would accompany them , if they observed the same . that they should eat the good things of the land , and live a long and healthful age . now it was easie for the people , though they were but rude , and newly taken from making bricks for pharaoh in aegypt , to think thus with themselves ; if god made all things , how is it that they are no better then they are ? why do our wives bring forth their children with pain ? why are we obnoxious to be stung with serpents ? why may not god give us an endlesse life , as well as a long life ? and the like . to which moses in general answers , ( to the great advantage of the people , and for the faster binding them to the laws he delivered them from god ) that it was disobedience to his will , that brought all this mischief into the world ; which is most certainly true . but by what particular circumstances it is set out , you may here read in this third chapter . ver. . the serpent also . it had been too harsh and boistrous , and too grossely redounding to the dishonour of our first parents adam and eve , if they had immediately done violence to so express a command of god , and shown themselves professed rebels against him . and their posterity would have been scarce able to have remembred them without cursings and bitterness , for being so bold and apert authors of so much misery to them . but so it came to pass , that it was not of themselves , but by the subtilty of the serpent that they were deceived into disobedience , being overshort by his false suggestions . so that their mistake may be looked upon with pardon and pity , and our selves are fairly admonished to take heed that we forfeit not the rest . but the power of speech . i cannot be so large in my belief , as s. basil , who affirms , that all living creatures in paradise could speak , and understand one another . but according to the literal cabbala , i think it is manifest that the serpent could ; and that it was not the devil in the serpent , as some interpreters would have it . for , why should the serpent be cursed for the devils sake ? and beside , the whole business is attributed to the cunning and subtilty of the serpent , as doing it by the power of his own nature . therefore this were to confound two cabbala's into one , to talk thus of the serpent and the devil at once . not eat of any of the trees . so chrysostome , rupertus , and s. augustine ; as if the cunning serpent had made use of that damnable maxime , calumniare fortiter , aliquid adhaerebit : so at first he layes his charge high against god , as if he would debarre them of necessary food , and starve them , that at last he might gain so much , at least that he did unnecessarily abridge them of what made mightily for their pleasure and perfection . ver. . see verse . ver. . and the eyes of them both were opened . some gather from hence , that adam and eve were blinde till they tasted of the forbidden fruit . which is so foolish a glosse , that none but a blinde man could ever have stumbled upon it . for the greatest pleasure of paradise had been lost , if they had wanted their sight . therefore as grosse as it is , that can be no part of any literal cabbala , it having nothing at all of probability in it . it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ver. . god's walking in the garden , his calling after adam , his pronouncing the doom upon him , his wife , and the serpent , and sundry passages before , do again and again inculcate the opinion of the anthropomorphites , that god has an humane shape ; which i have already acknowledged to be the meaning of the literal cabbala . ver. . here the first original of mischief is resolved into the serpent , whereby adam and eves credits are something saved , and the root of misery to mankinde is plainly discovered . ver. . creep upon thy belly . it is plain according to the letter , that the serpent went upright , which is the opinion also of s. basil , else his doom signifies nothing , if he crept upon his belly before . ver. . perpetual antipathy . see verse . ver. . her sorrows and pangs in childe-bearing . see verse . but these pains are much increased to women by their luxury and rotten delicateness , that weakens nature , and enfeebles the spirits , so that they can endure nothing , when as those that are used to hardship and labor scape better . there is a notorious instance of it in a woman of liguria , who , as diodorus siculus writes , being hard at work in the field , was overtaken with that other labour . but she went but aside a while , and disburthening her self , with a quick dispatch , laid her childe as gainly as she could in some fresh leaves and grasse , and came immediately again to her task , and would not have desisted from her work , but that he that hired her , in commiseration to the infant paid her the whole days wages to be shut of her . as if providence had absolved her from the curse of eve , she voluntarily undergoing so much of adams , which was sweating in the field . ver. . see verse . ver. . observe the great wisdome of moses ; the statutes and ordinances which he delivered unto the people , they being most of them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not natural and intrinsecally good , but positive and dispensable in themselves ; here according to this history , all those grand evils of toil and labour upon a barren ground , of pains in child-bed , and of death it self , are imputed to the transgression of a law that was but meerly positive ; whereby the law-giver does handsomely engage the people with all care and diligence to observe all the ceremonies and ordinances he gave them from god ; the whole posterity of adam finding the mischief of the breaking but that one positive law in paradise , the eating of the fruit of such a tree that was forbidden . when as otherwise positive laws of themselves would have been very subject to be slighted and neglected . ver. . called his wife eve. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies life . ver. . the use of which god taught . the two great comforts and necessaries of life , are food and clothing . wherefore it was fit to record this passage also to indear the peoples mindes to god , and increase their devotion and thankfulness to him , who was so particularly and circumstantially the author of those great supports of life . ver. . forth from the garden of eden . that shews plainly that paradise was not the whole earth , as some would have it . for he was brought into paradise by god , and now he is driven out again ; but he was not driven out of the world . ver. . haunted with spirits . this phrase is very significant of the nature of the thing it is to express , and fitly sets out the condition of paradise , when adam was driven out of it , and could no more return thither by reason of those spirits that had visibly taken possession of the way thereunto , and of the place . nor am i alone in this exposition , theodoret and precopius bearing me company , who call these apparitions at the entrance of paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and spectra terribili formâ . and i think that this may very well go for the literal sense of this verse , the existence of spirits and apparitions being acknowledged in all nations , be they never so rude or slow-witted . the defence of the philosophick cabbala . chap. i. why heaven and light are both made symbols of the same thing , viz. the world of life . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimate a trinity . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of the eternal wisdome the son of god , who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well in philo as the new testament . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the holy ghost . the fit agreement of plato's triad with the trinity of the present cabbala . the pythagorick names or nature of a monad or unite applyed to the first days work . what are the upper waters : and that souls that descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are the naides or water nymphes in porphyrius . that matter of it self is unmoveable . r. bechai his notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very happily explained out of des cartes his philosophy . that vniversal matter is the second days creation , fully made good by the names and property of the number two. the nature of the third days work set off by the number three . that the most learned do agree that the creation was perfected at once . the notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangely agreeing with the most notorious conclusions of the cartesian philosophy . that the corporeal world was universally erected into form and motion on the fourth day , is most notably confirmed by the titles and propertie of the number four. the true meaning of the pythagorick oath , wherein they swore by him that taught them the mysterie of the tetractys . that the tetractys was a symbole of the whole philosophick cabbala , that lay couched under the text of moses . why fish and fowl created in the same day . why living creatures were said to be made in the fift and sixt days . and why the whole creation was comprehended within the number six . i have plainly and faithfully set forth the meaning of moses his text , according to the literal cabbala , and made his incomparable policy , and pious prudence manifest to all the world . for whether he had this history of adam and eve , and of the creation immediately from god on the mount , or whether it was a very ancient tradition long before in the eastern parts , as some rabbines will have it , but approved of by god in the mount ; moses certainly could not have begun his pentateuch with any thing more proper and more material to his scope and purpose then this . and it is nothing but the ignorance of the atheist that can make him look upon it as contemptible , it being in it self as highly removed above contempt , as true prudence and staidness is above madness and folly. and yet i confess , i think there is still a greater depth and richness of wisdome in it , then has been hitherto opened in this literal cabbala , and such as shall represent moses as profoundly seen in philosophy , and divine morality , as he is in politicks . and against which the atheist shall have nothing at all to alledge , unless ignorance and confidence furnish his brain with impertinent arguments . for he shall not hear moses in this philosophick cabbala either tasking god to his six days labour , or bounding the world at the clouds , or making the moon bigger then the stars , or numbring days without suns , or bringing in a serpent talking with a woman , or any such like passages , which the atheists misunderstanding and perversenesse makes them take offence at ; but they shall finde him more large and more free then any , and laying down such conclusions as the wisest naturalists , and theosophers in all ages have looked upon as the choicest and most precious . such , i say , are those in the philosophick cabbala you have read , and i am now come to defend it , and make it good , that it is indeed the meaning of moses his text. and one great key for the understanding of it in this first chapter , will be those pythagorical mysteries of numbers , as i have intimated already in my preface . ver. . i mean the same thing by both . and there is good reason there should be meant the same thing by both . for , besides that those actuall conspicuous lights are in heaven , viz. the sun , and stars , heaven or the aetherial matter has in it all over the principles of light ; which are the round particles , and that very fine and subtile matter that lies in the intervals of the round particles . he that is but a little acquainted with the french philosophy , understands the business plainly . and in the expounding of moses , i think i may lay down this for a safe principle , that there is no considerable truth in nature or divinity , that moses was ignorant of , and so if it be found agreeable to his text , i may very well attribute it to him . at least the divine wisdom wherewith moses was inspired , prevents all the inventions of men. but now that i understand this heaven and earth in the first verse , as things distinct from heaven and earth afterwards mentioned , the very text of moses favours it , emphatically calling this heaven and earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when as the heaven and earth in the second and third days creation he calls but plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i may adde also the authority of philo , who expounds not this heaven and earth of the visible and tangible heaven and earth which are mentioned in the second and third day , but of an heaven and earth quite different from them : as also the suffrage of s. augustine , who understands likewise by heaven and light , one and the same thing , to wit , the angels ; and by earth the first matter : which is something like the sense of this present cabbala , only for his physical matter , we set down a metaphysical one , that other belonging most properly to the second day ; and for angels we have the world of life , which comprehends not angels only , but all substantial forms and spirits whatever . and that heaven or light should be symboles of the world of life or form , it is no wonder : for you may finde a sufficient reason in the cabbala it self , at the fift verse of this present chapter , and plotinus assimilates form to light , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for form is light. and lastly , in the second verse of this same chapter , there be plain reasons also laid down , why the meer possibility of the outward creation is called the earth , according to the description of the earth in the second verse of the first chapter of moses his text : unto which you may further adde , that as the earth is looked upon as the basis of the world , so the possibility of the outward creation is in some sense the basis thereof . the tri-une godhead . the hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do handsomely intimate a plurality , and singularity , the noun being in the plural , the verb in the singular number . whence i conceive there may be very well here included the mysterie of the trinity and vnity of the godhead , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and vatablus himself , though he shuffles with his grammatical notions here , yet he does apertly acknowledge three persons in one god , at the twenty sixt verse of this chapter . and that this was the philosophick cabbala of moses and the learned and pious of the jews , it is no small argument , because the notion of the trinity is so much insisted upon by the platonists and pythagoreans , whom all acknowledge ( and i think i shall make it more plain then ever ) to have got their philosophy from moses . by his eternal wisdome . ambrose , basil , and origen interpret in principio , to be as much as in filio ; and colossians the first , there the apostle speaking of the son of god , he saith , that he is the first-born of every creature , and that by him were all things created that are in heaven , and that are in earth . and that he is before all things , and by him all things consist . this is the wisdome of god , or the idea according to which he framed all things . and therefore must be before all things the beginning of the creatures of god. and very answerable to this of the apostle are those two attributes philo gives to the same subject , calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the first-born word of god , or the first-born form of god ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning . he calls him also simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is , the word , form , reason , or wisdome . and one of the chaldee paraphrasts also interprets in principio , in sapientia . and this agrees exceedingly well with that of solomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lord possessed me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principium viae suae , that is , operum suorum , as vatablus expounds it , and the text makes it good . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oriens operum suorum ab antiquo , the sun-rise of his works of old . for there is no necessity of making of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adverbs , they are substantives . and here wisdome is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principle and morning of the works of god , not by way of diminution , but as supposing the east and the morning to be the womb of light , from whence springs all light and form , and form is light , as i told you before out of plotinus . and this notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sutes well with that passage in trismegist , where hermes speaks thus ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the divine intellect , the bright morning star , the wisdome of god : to which wisdome called in the eight of the proverbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning and morning of his works , is ascribed the creation of the world by solomon , as you may there see at large . i will only adde , that what the hebrew text here in genesis calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the chaldee calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the essential wisdome of god , not an habit or property , but a substance that is wisdome . for true wisdome is substance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is the same that plotinus speaks . whence he is called in the apocalyps , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is but a periphrasis of jehovah , essence , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains the future , present , and time past in it , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as zanchius observes : this is the second hypostasis in the holy trinity , the logos , which was in the beginning of the world with god. all things were made by him , and without him was nothing made that was made , john . first created this . i cannot impute it to any reason at all , but to the slownesse of fancie , and heavy unweildinesse of melancholy , or the load of bloud and flesh , that makes men imagine , that creation is incompetible even to god himselfe ; when as i think , i have no lesse then demonstrated in my antidote against atheism , that it is impossible but god should have the power of creation , or else he would not be god. but because our will and minde can create no substance distinct from our selves , we foolishly conceit , measuring the power of god by our own , that he cannot create any substance distinct from himself . which is but a weak conclusion fallen from our own dulnesse and inadvertency . ver. . solitude and emptinesse . the very word signifies so in the original , as vatablus will tell you . which being abstract tearms ( as the schools call them ) do very fittingly agree with the notion we have put upon this symbolical earth , affirming it no real actual subject , either spiritual or corporeal , that may be said to be void and empty ; but to be vacuity and emptiness it self , onely joined with a capacity of being something . it is , as i have often intimated , the ens potentiale of the whole outward creation . but the spirit of god. not a great wind , but the holy ghost . this is the interpretation general of the fathers . and it is a sign that it is according to the true mosaical cabbala , it being so consonant to plato's school , which school i suspect now has more of that cabbala , then the jews themselves have at this day . having hovered a while . the word in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies a hovering or brooding over a thing as a bird does over her nest , or on her young ones . hence it is not unlikely is aristophanes his egge . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to this sense , vnder the wind below in dark some shade , there the black-winged night her first egge laid . and this manner of brooding thus is an embleme of dearest affection ; and who knows but that from this text the poets took occasion of feigning that ancient cupid the father of all the gods , the creator of all things , and maker of mankinde ? for so he is described by hesiod and orpheus , and here in this place of aristophanes , from whence i took the forecited verse . simmias rhodius describes this ancient love in verses which represent a pair of wings . i will not say according to this conceit of aristophanes his egge , which they should brood and hatch . but the longest quill of one of them writes thus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to this sense : i am the king of the deep-bosom'd earth , my strength gave to the sea both bounds and birth . this spirit of god then , or the divine love which was from everlasting , will prove the third divine hypostasis . the first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies strength , and a word rather common to the whole trinity . but jehovah , as the rabbines observe , is a name of god as he is merciful and gracious , which may be answerable to plato his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but that name is also communicated to christ , as we have already acknowledged . the second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is wisdome , as has been prov'd out of the proverbs and answers to the platonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the third we have now light upon , which must be love , and it has a lucky coincidence also with the third hypostasis in the platonick triad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whom plotinus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the celestial venus . and to this after a more immediate manner is the creation of the world ascribed by that philosopher , as also by plato ; as here in moses the spirit of god is said to lie close brooding upon the humid matter for the actual production of this outward world . ver. . exist independently of corporeal matter . that which exists first it is plain is independent of what follows , and philo makes all immateriate beeings to be created in this first day : whence the souls of men are removed far from all fear of fate and mortality , which is the grand tenent of plato's school . ver. . matter meerly metaphysical . see hyle in my interpretation general at the end of my poems ; where you shall find that i have settled the same notion i make use of here , though i had no design then of expounding moses . monad or vnite . the fitnesse of the number to the nature of every days work , you shall observe to be wonderful . whence we may well conclude , that it was ordered so on purpose , and that in all probability pythagoras was acquainted with this cabbala ; and that that was the reason the pythagoreans made such a deal of doe with numbers , putting other conceits upon them , then any other arithmeticians do ; and that therefore if such theorems as the pythagoreans held , be found sutable and compliable with moses his text , it is a shrewd presumption that that is the right philosophick cabbala thereof . philo makes this first day spent in the creation of immateral and spiritual beeings , of the intellectual world , taking it in a large sense , or the mundus vitae , as ficinus calls it , the world of life and forms . and the pythagoreans call an unite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , form , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , life . they call it also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the tower of jupiter , giving also the same name to a point or center , by which they understand the vital formative center of things , the rationes seminales : and they call an unite also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is seminal form. but a very short and sufficient account of philo's pronouncing that spiritual substances are the first days work , is , that as an vnite is indivisible in numbers , so is the nature of spirits indivisible ; you cannot make two of one of them , as you may make of one piece of corporeal matter two , by actuall division or severing them one piece from another . wherefore what was truly and properly created the first day ; was immaterial , indivisible , and independent of the matter , from the highest angel , to the meanest seminal form. and for the potentiality of the outward creation , sith it is not so properly any real beeing , it can breed no difficulty , but whatever it is , it is referrable fitly enough to incorporeal things , it being no object of sense , but of intellect , and being also impassible and undiminishable , and so in a sort indivisible . for the power of god being undiminishable , the possibility of the creature must be also undiminishable , it being an adaequate consequence of his power . wherefore this potentiality being ever one , it is rightly referred to the first day . and in respect of this the pythagoreans call an vnite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as well as the binary , as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which names plainly glance at the dark potentiality of things , set out by moses in the first days creation . ver. . created an immense deal , &c. he creates now corporeal matter , ( as before the world of life ) out of nothing . which universal matter may well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for extension is very proper to corporeal matter . castellio translates it liquidum , and this universal matter is most what fluid still , all over the world , but at first it was fluid universally . betwixt the aforesaid fluid possibility , &c. but here it may be you 'll enquire , how this corporeal matter shall be conceived to be betwixt the waters above , and these underneath . for what can be the waters above , maimonides requires no such continued analogy in the hidden sense of scripture , as you may see in his preface to his moreh nevochim . but i need not fly to that general refuge . for me thinks that the seminal forms that descend through the matter , and so reach the possibility of the parts of the outward creation , and make them spring up into act , are not unlike the drops of rain that descend through the heaven or air , and make the earth fruitful . besides , the seminal forms of things lie round , as i may so speak , and contracted at first , but spread when they bring any part of the possibility of the outward creation into act , as drops of rain spread when they are fallen to the ground . so that the analogy is palpable enough , though it may seem too elaborate and curious . we may adde to all this concerning the naides or water nymphs , that the ancients understood by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all manner of souls that descend into the matter and generation . wherefore the watry powers ( as porphyrius also calls these nymphs ) it is not at all harsh to conceive , that they may be here indigitated by the name of the vpper waters . see porphyrius in his de antro nympharum . ver. . what mischief straying souls . the frequent complaints that that noble spirit in pythagoreans and platonists makes against the incumbrances and disadvantages of the body , makes this cabbala very probable . and it is something like our divines fancying hell to be created this day . ver. . actuated and agitated . this is consonant to plato's school , who makes the matter unmovable of it self , which is most reasonable . for if it were of its own nature movable , nothing for a moment would hold together , but dissolve it self into infinitely little particles ; whence it is manifest , that there must be something besides the matter , either to binde it or to move it ; so that the creation of immaterial beeings , is in that respect also necessary . rightly called heaven . i mean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for this agitation of the matter brought it to des cartes his second principle , which is the true aether , or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for it is liquid as water , and yet has in it the fierce principle of fire , which is the first element and most subtile of all . the thing is at first sight understood by cartesians , who will easily admit of that notation of the rabbines in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as being from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fire , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 water . for so r. bechai , the heavens , sayes he , were created from the beginning , and are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fire and water ; which no philosophy makes good so well as the cartesian . for the round particles , like water , ( though they be not of the same figure ) flake the fierceness of the first principle , which is the purest fire . and yet this fire in some measure alway lies within the triangular intervals of the round particles , as that philosophy declares at large . and the binary . how fitly again doth the number agree with the nature of the work of this day , which is the creation of corporeal matter and the pythagoreans call the number two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 matter . simplicius upon aristotles physicks , speaking of the pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they might well , sayes he , call one , form , as defining and terminating to certain shape and property whatever it takes holds of . and two they might well call matter , it being undeterminate , and the cause of bigness and divisibility . and they have very copiously heaped upon the number two , such appellations as are most proper to corporeal matter . as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vnfigured , vndeterminated , vnlimited . for such is matter of it self till form take hold of it . it is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the fluidity of the matter . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because it affords substance to the heavens and starres . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , contention , fate , and death , for these are the consequencies of the souls being joined with corporeal matter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , motion , generation , and division , which are properties plainly appertaining to bodies . they call this number also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the subject that endures and undergoes all the changes and alterations , the active forms put upon it . wherefore it is plain that the pythagoreans understood corporeal matter by the number two ▪ which no man can deny but that it is a very fit symbole of division , that eminent property of matter . but we might cast in a further reason of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being created the second day : for the celestial matter does consist of two plainly distinguishable parts , to wit , the first element , and the second ; or the materia subtilissima , and the round particles , as i have already intimated out of des cartes his philosophy . ver. . it is referred to the following day . you are to understand that these six numbers , or days , do not signifié any order of time , but the nature of the things that were said to be made in them . but for any thing in moses his philosophick cabbala , all might be made at once , or in such periods of time , as is most sutable to the nature of the things themselves . what is said upon this ninth verse , will be better understood , and with more full satisfaction , when we come to the fourth days work . ver. . and the ternary denotes . in this third day was the waters commanded into one place , the earth adorned with all manner of plants , paradise , and all the pleasure and plenty of it created , wherein the serpent beguiled eve , and so forth . what can therefore be more likely , then that the pythagoreans use their numbers as certain remembrancers of the particular passages of this history of the creation ; when as they call the number three , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. triton and lord of the sea ; which is in reference to gods commanding the water into one place , and making thereof a sea. they call also the ternary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the former intimates the plenty of paradise , the latter relates to the serpent there . but now besides this we shall find the ternary very significant of the nature of this days work . for first , the earth consists of the third element in the cartesian philosophy , ( for the truth of that philosophy will force it self in whether i will or no ) and then again there are three grand parts of this third element necessary to make an earth habitable , the dry land , the sea , ( whence are springs and rivers and the air ; and lastly , there are in vegetables , which is the main work of this day , three eminent properties , according to aristotle , viz. nutrition , accretion , generation ; and also , if you consider their duration , there be these three cardinal points of it , ortus , acme , interitus . you may cast in also that minerals which belong to this day as well as plants , that both plants and they , and in general , all terrestrial bodies have the three chymical principles in them , sal , sulphur , and mercury . ver. . such as is the earth we live upon . as the matter of the universe came out in the second day , so the contriving of this matter into sunnes and planets , is contained in this fourth day , the earth her self not excepted , though according to the letter she is made in the first day , and as she is the nurse of plants , said to be uncovered in the third , yet as she is a receptacle of light , and shines with borrowed raies like the moon and other plants , she may well be referred to this fourth days creation . nor will this at all seem bold or harsh , if we consider that the most learned have already agreed that all the whole creation was made at once . as for example , the most rational of all the jewish doctors , r. moses aegyptius , philo judeus , procopius gazeus , cardinal cajetan● , s. augustine , and the schools of hillel and samai , as manasseh ben israel writes . so that that leisurely order of days is thus quite taken away , and all the scruples that may rise from that hypothesis . wherefore i say , the earth as one of the primary planets was created this fourth day . and i translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primary planets . primary , because of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatical , and planets , because the very notation of their name implies their nature ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vstio , or burning , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extinction , nouns made from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to unexceptionable analogy . and the earth , as also the rest of the planets , their nature is such , as if they had once been burning and shining suns , but their light and heat being extinguished , they afterwards became opake planets . this conclusion seems here plainly to be contained in moses , but is at large demonstrated in des cartes his philosophy . nor is this notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enervated by alledging that the word is ordinarily used to signifie the fixed stars , as well as the planets . for i do not deny but that in a vulgar notion it may be competible to them also . for the fixed stars according to the imagination of the rude people , may be said to be lighted up , and extinguished , so often as they appear and disappear ; for they measure all by obvious sense and fancie , and may well look upon them as so many candles set up by divine providence in the night , but by day frugally put out , for wasting : and i remember theodoret in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , has so glibly swallowed down the notion , that he uses it as a special argument of providence , that they can burn thus with their heads downwards , and not presently sweal out and be extinguished , as our ordinary candles are . wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may very well be attributed to all the stars as well fixed , as planets , but to the fixed only upon vulgar seeming grounds , to the planets upon true and natural . and we may be sure that that is that which moses would aim at , and lay stresse upon in his philosophick cabbala . wherefore in brief , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatical in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains a double emphasis , intimating those true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or planets , and then the most eminent amongst those truly so tearmed . nor is it at all strange , that so abstruse conclusion of philosophy should be lodged in this mosaical text. for , as i have elsewhere intimated , moses has been aforehand with cartesius . the ancient patriarchs having had wit , and by reason of their long lives leisure enough to invent as curious and subtile theorems in philosophy , as ever any of their posterity could hit upon , besides what they might have had by tradition from adam . and if we finde the earth a planet , it must be acknowledged forthwith that it runs about the sun , which is pure pythagorisme again , and a shrewd presumption that he was taught that mysterie by this mosaical cabbala . but that the earth is a planet , besides the notation we have already insisted upon , the necessity of being created in this fourth day amongst the other planets , is a further argument . for there is no mention of its creation in any day else , according to this philosophick cabbala . ver. . inhabitants of the world . the hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and i have made bold to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not of this one individual earth , but of the whole species ; and therefore i render it the world at large . as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the twenty seventh of this chapter , is not an individual man , but mankinde in general . and so ver . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are interpreted after the same manner , rendring them the greater sort of lights , and the lesser sort of lights . so that no grammatical violence is done to the text of moses all this time . ver. . and the number denotes . this fourth days creation is the contrivance of matter into suns and planets , or into suns , moons , and earths . for the aethereal vortices were then set a going , and the corporeal world had got into an useful order and shape . and the ordering and framing of the corporeal world , may very well be said to be transacted in the number four ; four being the first body in numbers an aequilateral pyramid , which figure also is a right symbole of light , the raies entring the eye in a pyramidal form . and lights now are set up in all the vast region of the aethereal matter , which is heaven . the pythagoreans also call this number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , body , and the world , intimating the creation of the corporeal world therein . and further , signifying in what excellent proportion and harmony the world was made , they call this number four : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . harmony , vrania , and the stirrer up of divine fury and extasie ; insinuating that all things are so sweetly and fittingly ordered in the world , that the several motions thereof are as a comely dance , or ravishing musick , and are able to carry away a contemplative soul into rapture and extasie upon a clear view , and attentive animadversion of the order and oeconomy of the universe . and philo , who does much pythagorize in his exposition of moses , observes , that this number four contains the most perfect proportions in musical symphonies , viz. diatessaron , diapente , diapason , and disdiapason , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. for the proportion of diatessaron is as four to three , of diapente as three to two , of diapason as two to one , or four to two , of disdiapason as four to one. we might cast in also the consideration of that divine nemesis , which god has placed in the frame and nature of the universal creation , as he is a distributer to every one according to his works . from whence himself is also called nemesis , by aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because he every where distributes what is due to every one . this is in ordinary language justice , and both philo and plotinus out of the pythagoreans , affirms , that the number four is a symbole of justice . all which , makes towards what i drive at , that the whole creation is concerned in this number four , which is called the fourth day . and for further eviction , we may yet adde , that as all numbers are contained in four virtually , ( by all numbers is meant ten , for when we come to ten , we go back again ) so the root and foundation of all the corporeal creation is laid in this fourth days work , wherein suns , earths , and moons are made , and the ever whirling vortices . for as philo observes , pythagorean-like , ten ( which they call also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the world , heaven , and all-perfectnesse ) is made by the scattering of the parts of four : thus , , , , . put these together now and they are ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the vniverse . and this was such a secret amongst pythagoras his disciples , that it was a solemn oath with them to swear by him that delivered to them the mysterie of the tetractys , tetrad or number four. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . by him that did to us disclose the tetrads mysterie , where natures fount that ever flowes , and hidden root doth lie . thus they swore by pythagoras as is conceived , who taught them this mysterious tradition . and had it not been a right worshipful mysterie think you indeed , and worthy of the solemnity of religion and of an oath , to understand that , , , . make ten. and that ten is all , which rude mankinde told first upon their fingers , and arithmeticians discover it by calling them digits at this very day . there is no likelihood that so wise a man as pythagoras was , should lay any stress upon such trifles , or that his scholars should be such fools as to be taken with them . but it is well known that the pythagoreans held the motion of the earth about the sun , which is plainly implied according to the philosophick cabbala of this fourth days work . so much of his secrets got out to common knowledge and fame . but it is very highly probable , that he had the whole philosophick cabbala of the creation opened to him by some knowing priest or philosopher ( as we now call them ) in the oriental parts , that under this mysterie of numbers set out to him the choicest and most precious conclusions in natural philosophy , interpreting as i conceive , the text of moses in some such way as i have light upon , and making all those generous and ample conclusions good by demonstration and reason . and so pythagoras being well furnished with the knowledge of things , was willing to impart them to those whose piety and capacity was fit to receive them ; not laying aside that outward form of numbers , which they were first conveied to himself in . but such arithmetical nugacities as are ordinarily recorded for his , in dry numbers , to have been the riches of the wisdome of so famous a philosopher , is a thing beyond all credit or probability . wherefore i conceive , that the choicest and most precious treasures of knowledge , being laid open in the cabbala of the fourth day ; from thence it was that so much solemnity and religion was put upon that number , which he called his tetractys , which seems to have been of two kindes , the one , the single number four , the other thirty six , made of the four first masculine numbers , and the four first feminine , viz. of , , , . and of , , , . wherein you see that the former and more simple tetractys is still included and made use of ; for four here takes place again in the assignment of the masculine and feminine numbers . whence i further conceive , that under the number of this more complex tetrad which contains also the other in it , he taught his disciples the mysterie of the whole creation , opening to them the nature of all things as well spiritual as corporeal . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a certain author writes ; for an even number carries along with it divisibility , and passibility . but an odde number , indivisibility , impassibility , and activity , wherefore that is called feminine , this masculine . wherefore the putting together of the four first masculine numbers to the four first feminine , is the joining of the active and passive principles together , matching the parts of the matter , with congruous forms from the world of life . so that i conceive the tetractys was a a symbole of the whole systeme of pythagoras his philosophy , which we may very justly suspect to be the same with the mosaical cabbala . and the root of this tetractys is six , which again hits upon moses ▪ and remindes us of the six days work of the creation . ver. . fish and fowl are made in the same day . and here moses does plainly play the philosopher in joining them together ; for there is more affinity betwixt them then is easily discerned by the heedlesse vulgar : for besides that fowls frequent the waters very much , many kindes of them i mean , these elements themselves of air and water , for their thinnesse and liquidity , are very like one another . besides , the sinnes of fishes and the wings of birds , the feathers of one and the scales of the other , are very analogical . they are both also destitute of vreters , dugges , and milk , and are oviparous . further , their motions are mainly alike , the fishes as it were flying in the water , and the fowls swimming in the air , according to that of the poet concerning daedalus , when he had made himself wings ; insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad arctos . cast in this also , that as some fowls dive and swim under water , so some fishes fly above the water in the air , for a considerable space till their finnes begin to be something stiffe and dry . ver. . and the quinary denotes . philo does not here omit that obvious consideration of the five senses in animals . but it is a strange coincidence , if it was not intended that living creatures should be said to be made in the fift and sixt day , those numbers according to the pythagorical mysterie being so fitly significant of the nature of them . for five is acknowledged by them to be male and female , consisting of three and two , the two first masculine and feminine numbers . it is also an emblem of generation , for the number five drawn into five brings about five again , as you see in five times five , which is twenty five . so an eagle ingendring with an eagle , brings forth an eagle ; and a dolphin ingendring with a dolphin , a dolphin ; and so in the rest . whence the pythagoreans call this number five cytherea , that is , venus , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , marriage ; and in birds it is evident that they choose their mates . concerning the number six , i shall speak in its proper place . ver. . that it is so free , so rational . that the image of god consists in this rather then in the dominion over the creature , i take to be the right sense , and more philosophical , the other more political ; and philo interprets it after that manner we have made choice of , which is also more sutable to platonisme and pythagorisme , the best cabbala that i know of moses his text. ver. . male and female . it is a wonder , sayes grotius , to see how the explications of the rabbines upon this place , and those passages in plato's symposion agree one with another , which notwithstanding from whatsoever they proceeded , i make no question , sayes he , but they are false and vain . and i must confesse i am fully of the same opinion . but this strange agreement betwixt aristophanes his narration , in the forenamed symposion , and the comments of the rabbines upon this text , is no small argument that plato had some knowledge of moses , which may well adde the greater authority and credit to this our cabbala . but it was the wisdome of plato to own the true cabbala himself , but such unwarrantable fancies as might rise from the text , to cast upon such a ridiculous shallow companion as aristophanes , it was good enough for him to utter in that clubbe of wits , that philosophick symposion of plato . ver. . they lorded it . the seventy have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is to domineer with an high hand , matth. . ver. . and the senary denotes . the senary or the number six has a double reference , the one to this particular days work , the other to the whole creation . for the particular days work , it is the creation of sundry sorts of land animals , divided into male and female . and the number six is made up of male and female . for two into three is six . the conceit is philo's ; and hence the pythagoreans called this number , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , matrimony , as clemens also observes , adding moreover that they did it in reference to the creation of the world , set down by moses . this number also in the same sort that the number five , is a fit embleme of procreation . for six drawn into six , makes thirty six . the conceit is plutarchs in his de ei apud delphos , though he speak it of an inferiour kinde of generation : but me thinks it is most proper to animals . here is something also that respects man , particularly the choicest result of this sixt days labour . the number of the brutish nature was five , according to philo ; but here is an unite superadded in man , reason reaching out to the knowledge of a god. and this unite added to the former five , makes six . but now for the reference that six bears to the whole creation , that the pythagoreans did conceive it was significant thereof , appears by the titles they have given it . for they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the articulate and compleat efformation of the vniverse , the anvill , and the world. i suppose they call it the anvill from that indefatigable shaping out of new forms and figures upon the matter of the universe , by virtue of the active principle that ever busies it self every where . but how the senary should emblematize the world , you shall understand thus : the world is self-compleat , filled and perfected by its own parts ; so is the senarius , which has no denominated part but a sixt , third , and second , viz. , , . which put together make six , and euclide defines a perfect number from this property , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a perfect number is that which is equall to its parts . wherefore this number sets out the perfection of the world , and you know god in the close of all , saw that all that he made was very good . then again the world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mas & foemina , that is , it consists of an active and passive principle , the one brought down into the other from the world of life ; and the senary is made by the drawing of the first masculine number into the first feminine , for three into two is six . thus you see continuedly , that the property of the number sets off the nature of the work of every day , according to those mysteries that the pythagoreans have observed in them ; and besides this , that the numbers have ordinarily got names answerable to each days work ; which , as i have often intimated , is a very high probability , that the pythagoreans had a cabbala referring to moses his text , and the history of the creation . and philo , though not in so punctual a way , has offered at the opening of the minde of moses by this key . but i hope i have made it so plain , that it will not hereafter be scrupled , but that this is the genuine way of interpreting the philosophick meaning of the mosaical text in this first chapter of genesis . chap. ii. the number seven a fit symbole of the sabbath , or rest of god. of adams rising out of the ground , as other creatures did . that pison is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and denotes prudence . the mystical meaning of havilah . that gihon is the same that nilus , sihor , or siris , and that pison is ganges . the justice of the aethiopians . that gihon is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and denotes that virtue . as hiddekel , fortitude . that those expressions of the souls sleep , and death in the body , so frequent amongst the platonists , were borrowed from the mosaical cabbala . . fallen angels assimilated to the beasts of the field . the meaning of those platonical phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the like . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in platonisme is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in moses , that signifies angels as well as god. that there are three principles in man , according to plato's schoole ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that this last is eve. in this second chapter moses having spoke of the sabbath , returns to a more particular declaration of the creation of adam , which is referrable to the sixt days work . then he falls upon that mysterious story of paradise , which runs out into the next chapter . ver. . and the number declares the nature . the hebdomad or septenary is a fit symbole of god , as he is considered having finished these six days creation . for then , as this cabbala intimates , he creates nothing further . and therefore his condition is then very fitly set out by the number seven . all numbers within the decad , are cast into three ranks , as philo observes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . some beget , but are not begotten ; others are begotten , but do not beget ; the last both beget , and are begotten . the number seven is only excepted , that is neither begotten , nor begets any number , which is a perfect embleme of god celebrating this sabbath . for he now creates nothing of anew , as himself is uncreatable . so that the creating and infusing of souls as occasion should offer , is quite contrary to this mosaical cabbala . but the cabbala is very consonant to it self , which declares that all souls were created at once in the first day , and will in these following chapters declare also the manner of their falling into the body . ver. . productions of the heavens . the original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . here the suns and planets are plainly said to be generated by the heavens , or aethereal matter , which is again wonderfully consonant to the cartesian philosophy , but after what manner planets and stars are thus generated , you may see there at large . it cannot but be acknowledged ; that there was a faddome-lesse depth of wisdome in moses , whose skill in philosophy thus plainly prevents the subtilest and most capacious reaches of all the wits of the world that ever wrote after him . take upon me to define . that no set time is understood by the six days creation , hath been witnessed already out of approved authors , and the present cabbala plainly confirms it , shewing that the mysterie of numbers is meant , not the order or succession of days . ver. . like dewy showers of rain . vatablus plainly interprets the place of rain . but i conceive it better interpreted of something analogical to the common rain , that now descends upon the earth , which is lesse oily a great deal , and not so full of vitall vigour and principles of life . ver. . and man himself rose out of the earth . that god should shape earth with his own hands like a statuary , into the figure of a man , and then blow breath into the nostrils of it , and so make it become alive , is not likely to be the philosophick cabbala , it being more palpably accommodated to vulgar concern . but mention of rain immediately before the making of man , may very well insinuate such preparations of the ground , to have some causal concourse for his production . and if it be at all credible , that other living creatures rose out of the earth in this manner , it is as likely that man did so likewise ; for the same words are used concerning them both : for the text of moses , ver . . sayes , that out of the ground god formed every beast of the field , and every fowl of the air , as it sayes in the seventh verse , that he formed man of the dust of the ground . whence euripides the tragedian ( one that socrates lov'd and respected much for his great knowledge and virtue , and would of his own accord be a spectator of his tragedies , when as they could scarce force him to see other playes , as aelian writes ) this euripides , i say , pronouncing of the first generation of men , and the rest of living creatures , affirmed that they were born all after the same manner , and that they rose out of the earth . and that euripides was tinctured with the same doctrines that were in pythagoras , and plato's school , both the friendship betwixt him and socrates , as also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or moral and philosophick sentences in his tragedies are no inconsiderable arguments . and as i have already intimated , the best philosophick cabbala of moses that is , i suspect to be in their philosophy , i mean of plato and pythagoras . ver. . where he had put the man. for there is no praeterpluperfect tense in the hebrew , and therefore as vatablus observes , if the sense require , the praeterperfect tense stands for it . wholly aethereal . for that 's the pure heavenly and undefiled vehicle of the soul , according to platonisme . beams of the divine intellect . i have already more at large shewed how the son of god or the divine intellect is set out by the similitude of the sun-rising , or east , which i may again here further confirm out of philo ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so that the placing of paradise under the sun-rise , signifies the condition of a soul irrigated by the rayes of the divine intellect , which she is most capable of in her aethereal vehicle . but that the souls of men were from the beginning of the world , is the general opinion of the learned jewes , as well as of the pythagoreans and platonists , and therefore a very warrantable hypothesis in the philosophick cabbala . ver. . the essential will of god. by the essential will of god , is understood the will of god becoming life and essence to the soul of man ; whereby is signified a more thorough union betwixt the divine and humane nature , such as is in them that are firmly regenerated and radicated in what is good . philo makes the tree of life to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , piety or religion , but the best religion and piety is to be of one will with god : see john . . ver. . the four cardinal virtues . it is philo's exposition upon the place ; and then the river it self to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that general goodnesse distinguishable into these four heads of virtue . ver. . is pison . from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spread and diffuse it self , to multiply and abound . this is wisdome or prudence , called pison , partly because it diffuses it self into all our actions , and regulates the exercise of the other three virtues , and partly because wisdome and truth , fills and encreases , and spreads out every day more then other . for truth is very fruitful , and there are ever new occasions that adde experience of things . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . according to our english proverb , the older the wiser . in the land of havilah . from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , deus indicavit , god hath shown it . ver. . pure gold , &c. an easie embleme of tried experience , the mother of true wisdome and prudence . and the virtue of bdellium is not unproper for diseases that arise from phlegmatick lazinesse ; and the very name and nature of the onyx stone also points out the signification of it , though there be no necessity , as i have told you already out of maimonides , to give an account in this manner of every particular passage in an allegory or parable . wherefore if any man think me too curious , they may omit these expositions , and let them go for nought . ver. . river is gihon . according to the history or letter we have made pison , phasis , and gihon a branch of euphrates . but the ancient fathers , epiphanius , augustine , ambrose , hieronymus , theodoret , damascen , and several others make pison , ganges , and gihon , nilus . and they have no contemptible arguments for it . for first , jerem. . . sihor , is a river of aegypt , which is not questioned to be any other then nilus , and its etymon seems to bewray the truth of it , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denigrari , from the muddy blacknesse of the river . and nilus is notorious for this quality , and therefore has its denomination thence in the greek , quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , acording to which is that of dionysius . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , for there 's no river can compare with nile , for casting mud , and fattening the soile . but now to recite the very words of the prophet , what hast thou to do with the way of egypt , to drink the waters of sihor ? the latine has it , ut bibas aquam turbidam . this is nilu● , but the seventy translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to drink the water of gihon ; which is the name of this very river of paradise : and the abyssines also even to this day call nilus by the name of guion . adde unto this , that gihon runs in aethiopia , so does nilus , and is siris , as it runs through aethiopia , which is from sihor it is likely , and then the greek termination makes it sioris , after by contraction siris . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , the aethiopian him siris calls , syene , nilus , when by her he crawls . as the same author writes in his geographical poems . and that pison is ganges , has also its probabilities . ganges being in india a countrey famous for gold and precious stones . besides , the notation of the name agrees with the nature of the river . pison being from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplicare . and there is no lesse a number then ten , and those great rivers that exonerate themselves into ganges : as there must be a conflux of multifarious experience to fill up and compleat that virtue of wisdome or prudence . so that we shall see that the four rivers of paradise have got such names , as are most advantageous and favourable to the mysterious sense of the story . wherefore regardlesse here of all geographical scrupulosities , we will say that gihon is nilus or siris , the river of the aethiopians , that is , of the just , and the virtue is here determinately set off from the subject wherein it doth reside : for by the fame of the justice and innocency of the aethiopians , we are assured which of the cardinal virtues is meant by gihon . and the ancient fame of their honesty and uprightnesse was such , that homer has made it their epithet , calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the blamelesse aethiopians ; adding further , that jupiter used to banquet with them , he being so much taken with the integrity of their conversation . and dionysius calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the divine , or deiforme aethiopians : and they were so styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by reason of their justice , as eustathius comments upon the place . herodotus also speaking of them says , they are very goodly men , and much civilized , and of a very long life , which is the reward of righteousnesse . so that by the place where gihon runs , it is plainly signified to us , what cardinal virtue is to be understood thereby . notation of the name thereof . the name gihon as you have seen , fairly incites us to acknowledge it a river of aethiopia . the notation thereof does very sutably agree with the nature of justice , for it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erumpere . and justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bonum alienum , as the philosopher notes , not confined within a mans self , but breaks out rather upon others , bestowing upon every one what is their due . ver. . is hiddekell . the word is compounded , says vatablus , from two words that signifie velox & rapidum , and this virtue like a swift and rapid stream , bears down all before it , as you have it in the cabbala . and stoutly resists . philo uses here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to resist , which he takes occasion from the seventies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which he interprets against the assyrians . the hebrew has it , eastward of assyria , and therefore assyria is situated westward of it . now the west is that quarter of the world where the sun bidding us adieu , leaves us to darkness , whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the west wind , in eustathius , has its name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the wind that blows from the dark quarter . assyria therefore is that false state of seeming happiness , and power of wickednesse , which is called the kingdome of darknesse . and this is the most noble object of fortitude , to destroy the power of this kingdome within our selves . perath . from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fructificavit . ver. . in processe of time , &c. this is according to the minde of the pythagoreans and origen . and that pythagoras had the favour of having the mosaical cabbala communicated to him by some knowing priest of the jewes , or some holy man or other , i think i have continuedly in the former chapter made it exceeding probable . the region of mortality and death . nothing is more frequent with the platonists , then the calling of the body a sepulchre , and this life we live here upon earth , either sleep or death . which expressions are so sutable with this cabbala , and the cabbala with the text of moses , that mentions the death and sleep of adam , that it is a shrewd presumption that these phrases and notions came first from thence . and philo acknowledges that heraclitus , that mysterious and abstruse philosopher , ( whom porphyrius also has cited to the same purpose , in his de antro nympharum ) has even hit upon the very meaning that moses intends in this death of adam , in that famous saying of his , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . we live their death , ( to wit , of the souls out of the body ) but we are dead to their life . and euripides that friend of socrates , and fellow-traveller of plato's , in his tragedies speaks much to the same purpose . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; who knows whether to live , be not to die , and to die , to live ? so that the philosophick sense concerning adams death , must be this , that he shall be dead to the aethereal life he lived before , while he is restrained to the terrestrial , and that when as he might have lived for ever in the aethereal life , he shall in a shorter time assuredly die to the terrestrial : that the sons of men cannot escape either the certainty or speed of death . ver. . both good for himself , &c. for the words of the text doe not confine it to adams conveniency alone , but speaks at large without any restraint , in this present verse . wherefore there being a double convenience , it was more explicite to mention both in the cabbala . ver. . fallen and unfallen angels . the fallen angels are here assimilated to the beasts of the field , the unfallen to the fowls of the air. how fitly the fallen spirits are reckoned amongst the beasts of the field , you shall understand more fully in the following chapter . in the mean time you may take notice that the platonists , indeed plato himself , in his phaedrus , makes the soul of man before it falls into this terrestrial region , a winged creature . and that such phrases as these , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the like , are proper expressions of that school . and plato does very plainly define what he means by these wings of the soul , ( and there is the same reason of all other spirits whatsoever ) after this manner , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that the nature of the wing of the soul is such , as to be able to carry upward , that which otherwise would slugge downwards , and to bear it aloft and place it there , where we may have more sensible communion with god , and his holy angels . for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number , is most sutably translated in such passages as these , and most congruously to the thing it self , and the truth of christianity . and it may well seem the lesse strange , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie angels in the greek philosophers , especially such as have been acquainted with moses , when as with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so too , viz. angels as well as god. wherefore to conclude , the losse of that principle that keeps us in this divine condition , is the losing of our wings , which fallen angels have done , and therefore they may be very well assimilated to terrestrial beasts . ver. . a faculty of being united , &c. this vital aptitude in the soul of being united with corporeal matter , being so essential to her and proper , the invigorating the exercise of that faculty , cannot but be very grateful and acceptable to her , and a very considerable share of her happinesse . else what means the resurrection of the dead , or bodies in the other world ? which yet is an article of the christian faith. ver. . this new sense of his vehicle . there be three principles in man according to the platonists , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the first is intellect , spirit , or divine light ; the second the soul her self , which is adam the man , animus cujusque is est quisque , the soul of every man that is the man ; the third is the image of the soul , which is her vital energie upon the body , wherewith she does enliven it , and if that life be in good tune , and due vigour , it is a very grateful sense to the soul , whether in this body , or in a more thin vehicle . this ficinus makes our eve. this is the feminine faculty in the soul of man , which awakes then easiliest into act , when the soul to intellectuals falls asleep . ver. . over-tedious aspires . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is a solemn monition of aristotle somewhere in his ethicks . and it is a great point of wisdome indeed , and mainly necessary , to know the true laws and bounds of humane happinesse , that the heat of melancholy drive not men up beyond what is competible to humane nature , and the reach of all the faculties thereof : nor the too savoury relish of the pleasures of the flesh , or animal life , keep them down many thousand degrees below what they are capable of . but the man that truly fears god , will be delivered from them both . what i have spoken is directed more properly to the soul in the flesh , but may analogically be understood of a soul in any vehicle , for they are peccable in them all . ver. . stood naked before god. adam was as truly clothed in corporeity now as ever after ; for the aether is as true a body as the earth : but the meaning is , adam had a sense of the divine presence , very feelingly assured in his own minde , that his whole beeing lay naked and bare before god , and that nothing could be hid from his sight , which pierced also to the very thoughts , and inward frame of his spirit . but yet though adam stood thus naked before him , notwithstanding he found no want of any covering to hide himself from that presentifick sense of him , nor indeed felt himself as naked in that notion of nakednesse . for that sense of nakednesse , and want of further covering and sheltring from the divine presence , arose from his disobedience and rebellion against the commands of god , which as yet he had not faln into . not at all ashamed . shame is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the fear of just reprehension ▪ as gellius out of the philosophers defines it . but adam having not acted any thing yet at randome , after the swing of his own will , he had done nothing that the divine light would reprehend him for . he had not yet become obnoxious to any sentence from his own condemning conscience ; for he kept himself hitherto within the bounds of that divine law written in his soul , and had attempted nothing against the will of god. so that there being no sin , there could not as yet be any shame in adam . chap. iii. the serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in pherecydes syrus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of spirits haunting fields and desolate places . the right notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that satan upon his tempting adam , was cast down lower towards the earth , with all his accomplices . plato's prophecie of christ . the reasonablenesse of divine providence in exalting christ above the highest angels . that adams descension into his terrestrial body , was a kind of death . how incongruous it is to the divine goodnesse , sarcastically to insult over frait man fallen into tragical misery . that it is a great mercy of god that we are not immortal upon earth . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one . a summary representation of the strength of the whole philosophick cabbala . pythagoras deemed the son of apollo , that he was acquainted with the cabbala of moses : that he did miracles ; as also abaris , empedocles , and epimenides , being instructed by him . plato also deemed the son of apollo . socrates his dream concerning him . that he was learned in the mosaical cabbala . the miraculous power of plotinus his soul. cartesius compared with bezaliel and aholiab , and whether he was inspired or no. the cabbalists apology . the first verse . this old serpent therefore . in pherecydes syrus , pythagoras his master , there is mention of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , princeps mali , as grotius cites him on this place , which is a further argument of pythagoras his being acquainted with this mosaical philosophy . and that according to the philosophick cabbala , it was an evil spirit , not a natural serpent , that supplanted adam , and brought such mischief upon mankind . the beasts of the field . but now that these evil spirits should be reckoned as beasts of the field , besides what reason is given in the cabbala it self , we may adde further , that the haunt of these unclean spirits is in solitudes , and waste fields , and desolate places , as is evident in the prophet esay his description of the desolation of babylon , where he saith it shall be a place for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the fauni and sylvani , as castellis translates it , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the seventy : and these onocentauri in hesychius are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a kinde of spirit that frequents the woods , and is of a dark colour . there is mention made also by the prophet ( in the same description ) of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all which expositors interpret of spirits . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are interpreted by the seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by castellio satyri , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 castellio renders fauni , the seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clamores , strepitus , grotius suspects they wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . out of both you may guesse , that they were such a kinde of spirit , as causes a noise and a stir in those desolate places , according to that of lucretius : haec loca capripedes satyros , nymphásque tenere finitimi fingunt , & faunos esse loquuntur ; quorum noctivago strepitu ludóque jocanti affirmant vulgo taciturna silentia rumpi . to this sense : these are the places where the nymphs do wonne , the fawns and satyres with their cloven feet , whose noise , and shouts , and laughters loud do runne through the still air , and wake the silent night . but the poet puts it off with this conceit , that it is only the shepheards that are merry with their lasses . but no man can glosse upon this text after that manner : for the prophet says , no shepheard shall pitch his fold there , nor shall any man passe through it for ever . the last strange creature in these direful solitudes , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which interpreters ordinarily translate lamia , a witch ; and for mine own part , i give so much credit to sundry stories , that i have read and heard , that i should rather interpret those noises in the night , which luoretius speaks of , to be the conventicles of witches and devils ▪ then the merriment of shepheards and their shepheardesses . but the jewes understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a she devil , an enemy to women in childe-bed ; whence it is , that they write on the walls of the room where the woman lies in , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adam , eve , out of doors lilith . and what i have alledged already , i conceive is authority enough to countenance the sense of the cabbala , that supposes evil spirits to be reckoned among , or to be analogical to the beasts of the field . but something may be added yet further , matth. . . there our saviour christ plainly allows of this doctrine , that evil spirits have their haunts in the wide fields and deserts , which grotius observes to be the opinion of the jewes , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , daemones , have their name for that reason , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ager ▪ the field ; for if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it would be rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , shiddim , then shedhim , as grammatical analogy requires . ver. . and adam answered him . though the serpent here be look'd upon as a distant person from adam , and externally accosting him , yet it is not at all incongruous to make eve meerly an internal faculty of him . for as she is said to proceed fromhim , so she is said still to be one with him , which is wonderfully agreeable with the faculties of the soul ; for though they be from the soul , yet they are really one with her , as they that understand any thing in philosophy will easily admit . ver. . know all things . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . all men have a natural desire of knowledge . it is an aphorisme in aristotle ; and this desire is most strong in those , whose spirits are most thin and subtile . and therefore this bait could not but be much taking with adam in his thinner vehicle . but what ever is natural to the soul , unlesse it be regulated and bounded with the divine light , will prove her mischief and bane , whether in this lower state , or in what state soever the soul is placed in . ver. . neither the covering of the heavenly nature . for adam by the indulging to every carelesse suggestion , at last destroyed and spoiled the pure frame of his aethereal or heavenly vehicle , and wrought himself into a dislike of the sordid ruines and distempered reliques of it , and in some measure awakening that lower plantal life , which yet had not come near enough the terrestrial matter , and with which he was as yet unclothed , found himself naked of what he presaged would very fitly sute with him , and ease the trouble of his present condition : see cor. ch . . v. , , , . ver. . that they hid themselves . they hate the light , because their deeds are evil . this is true of all rebellious spirits , be they in what vehicle they will. ver. . pursued him . praestantiorem animae facultatem esse ducem hominis atque daemonem . it is ficinus his out of timaeus , viz. that the best faculty that the soul is any thing awaked to , is her guide and good genius . but if we be rebellious to it , it is our daemon in the worse sense , and we are afraid of it , and cannot endure the sight of it . ver. . no power nor ornaments . for he found that though he could spoil and disorder his vehicle , it was not in his power so easily to bring it in order again . ver. . it was the vigour and impetuosity . there is some kinde of offer towards a reall excuse in adam , but it is manifest that he cannot clear himself from sin , because it was in his power to have regulated the motions of the life of his vehicle , according to the rule of the divine light in him . ver. . what work has she made here . adam touched in some sort with the conviction of the divine light , bemoans that sad catastrophe , which the vigorous life of the vehicle had occasioned ; but then he again excuses himself from the deceivablenesse of that facultie , especially it being wrought upon , by so cunning and powerful an assailant as the old serpent the devil . imagination for ever . that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the eternal god. it being a thing acknowledged , that god both speaks in a man , as in other intellectual creatures , by his divine light residing there , and that he also speaks in himself , concerning things or persons ; which speeches are nothing else but his decrees : it is not at all harsh , in the reading of moses , to understand the speakings of god , according as the circumstances of the matter naturally imply , nor to bring god in as a third person , in corporeal and visible shape , unlesse there were an exigency that did extort it from us . for his inward word , whereby he either creates or decrees any thing that shall come to passe , as also that divine light whereby he does instruct those souls that receive him , philosophy will easilier admit of these for the speakings of god , then any audible articulate voice pronounced by him in humane shape , unlesse it were by christ himself , for otherwise in all likelihood it is but a message by some angel. ver. . the prince of the rebellious angels . for the mighty shall be mightily tormented ; and the nature of the thing also implies it , because disgrace , adversity , and being trampled on , is far more painful and vexatious to those that have been in great place , then to those of a more inferiour rank . from whence naturally this chieftain of the devils , as mr. mede calls him , will be struck more deeply with the curse , then any of the rest of his accomplices . in the higher parts of the air , &c. this is very consonant to the opinion of the ancient fathers , whether you understand it of satan himself , or of the whole kingdome of those rebellious spirits . and it is no more absurd , that for a time the bad went amongst the good in the aethereal region , then it is now that there are good spirits amongst the bad in this lower air. but after that villany satan committed upon adam , he was commanded down lower , and the fear of the lord of hosts so changed his vehicle , and slaked his fire , that he sunk towards the earth , and at last was fain to lick the dust of the ground , see mr. mede in his discourse upon pet. . . ver. . messias should take a body . that the soul of the messias ▪ and all souls else did pre-exist , is the opinion of the jewes , and that admitted , there is no difficulty in the cabbala . plato , whether from this passage alone , or whether it was that he was instructed out of other places also of the holy writ , ( if what ficinus writes is true ) seems to have had some knowledge and presage of the coming of christ , in that being asked , how long men should attend to his writings ; he answered , till some more holy and divine person appear in the world , whom all should follow . notoriously here upon earth . as it came to passe in his casting out devils , and silencing oracles , or making them cry out . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — christ bruises the head of satan by destroying his kingdome and soveraignty , and by being so highly exalted above all powers whatsoever . and it is a very great and precious mysterie ; that dear compassion of our fellow-creatures , and faithful and fast obedience to the will of god , ( which were so eminently and transcendently in christ ) should be lifted above all power and knowledge whatsoever , in those higher orders of angels . for none of them that were , as they should be , would take offence at it , but be glad of it . but those that were proud , or valued power and knowledge before goodnesse and obedience , it was but a just affront to them , and a fit rebuke of their pride . but now how does satan bruise the heel of christ ? thus : he falls upon the rear , the lowest part of those that professe christianity , hypocrites , and ignorant souls , such as he often makes witches of ; but the church triumphant is secure , and the sincere part of the church militant . so mr. mede upon the place . ver. . the concomitance of pain and sorrow . and it is the common complaint of all mortals , that they that speed the best , have the experience of a vicissitude of sorrow as well as joy . and the very frame of our bodies as well as the accidents of fortune , are such , that to indulge to pleasure , is but to lay the seed of sorrow or sadnesse by diseases , satiety , or melancholy ▪ besides many spinosities and cutting passages that often happen unawares in the conversation of those from whom we expect the greatest solace and contents . to say nothing of the assaults of a mans own minde , and pricking of conscience , which ordinarily disturb those that follow after the pleasures of the body . lucretius , though an atheist , will fully witnesse to the truth of all this in his fourth book , de rerum naturâ , where you may read upon this subject at large . ver. . thorns and thistles . moses instances in one kinde of life , husbandry , but there is the same reason in all . — nil sine magno vita laebore dedit mortalibus — life nothing gratis unto men doth give ; but with great labour and sad toil we live . ver ▪ . euripides the friend of socrates , and a favourer of the pythagorean philosophy , writes somewhere in his tragedies , as i have already told you , to this sense ; who knows , says he , whether to live , be to die ; and whether again , to die , be not to live ? which question is very agreeable to this present cabbala : for adam is here as it were dying to that better world and condition of life he was in , and like as one here upon earth on his death-bed , prophec●es many times , and professes what he presages concerning his own state to come , that he shall be with god , that he shall be in heaven amongst the holy angels , and the saints departed , and the like : so adam here utters his apologetical prophecie , that this change of his , and departure from this present state , though it may prove ill enough for himself , yet it has its use and convenience , and that it is better for the vniverse ; for he shall live upon earth , and be a ruler there amongst the terrestrial creatures , and help to order and govern that part of the world . the life of his vehicle eve. for eve signifies life , that life which the soul derives to what vehicle or body soever she actuates and possesses . ver. . skin of beasts . this origen understands of adams being incorporated and clothed with humane flesh and skin . ridiculum enim est dicere , saith he , quòd deus fuerit adami coriarius & pellium sutor . and no man will much wonder at the confidence of this pious and learned father , if he do but consider , that the pre-existency of souls before they come into the body , is generally held by all the learned of the jews , and so in all likelihood was a part of this philosophick cabbala . and how fitly things fall in together , and agree with the very text of moses , let any man judge . ver. . but play and sport . this i conceive a far better decorum , then to make god sarcastically to jeer at adam , and triumph over him in so great and universal a mischief , as some make it ; and destitute of any concomitant convenience ; especially there being a principle in adam , that was so easily deceivable , which surely has something of the nature of an excuse in it . but to jeer at a man that through his own weakness , & the over-reaching subtilty of his adversary , has fallen into some dreadful and tragical evil and misery , is a thing so far from becoming god , that it utterly misbeseems any good man. ver. . he made sure he should not be immortal . for it is our advantage , as rupertus upon the place hath observed out of plotinus . misericordiae dei fuisse , quòd hominem ficerit mortalem , nè perpetuis cruciaretur hujus vitae aerumnis . that it is the mercy of god that he made man mortal , that he might not always be tormented with the miseries and sorrows of this present life . passing through his fiery vehicle . the following words explain the meaning of the cabbala ; it is according to the sense of that plato amongst the poets , ( as severus called him ) virgil , in the sixt book of his aeneids : donec longa diês perfecto temporis orbe concretam exemit labem , purúmque reliquit aethereum sensum , atque aurai simplicis ignem . to this sense : till that long day at last be come about , that wasted has all filth and foul desire ; and leaves the soul aethereal throughout , bathing her senses in pure liquid fire . which we shall yet back very fittingly with the two last golden verses , as they are called of the pythagoreans , who adde immortality to this aethereal condition : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . rid of this body , if the aether free you reach , henceforth immortal you shall bee . the greek has it , you shall be an immortal god which hierocles interprets , you shall imitate the deity in this , in becoming immortal . and plutarch in his defect of oracles , drives on this apotheosis , according to the order of the elements , earth refined to water , water to air , air to fire : so man to become of a terrestrial animal one of the heroes , of an heros a daemon , or good genius , of a genius a god , which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to partake of divinity , which is no more then to become one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or immortal angels , who are instar flammae , as maimonides writes , they are according to their vehicles , a versatile fire , turning themselves proteus-like into any shape . they are the very words of the forenamed rabbi upon the place . and philo judaeus , pag. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for there is , saith he , in the air , a most holy company of unbodied souls ; and presently he adjoins , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and these souls the holy writ uses to call angels . and in another place pag. . he speaking of the more pure souls , calls them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. the officers of the generalissimo of the world , that are as the eyes and ears of the great king , seeing and hearing all things ; and then he addes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . these , other philosophers call the genii , but the scripture angels . and in another place he says , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that a soul , genius , and angel , are three words that signifie both one and the same thing . as xenocrates also made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one , adding that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , happy , that had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a virtuous soul. wherefore not to weary my reader , nor my self with overmuch philogy , we conclude , that the meaning of moses in this last verse , is this : that adam is here condemned to a mortal , flitting , and impermanent state , till he reach his aethereal or pure fiery vehicle , and become , as our saviour christ speaks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as one of the angels . this , i say , is the condition of mankinde , according to the philosophick cabbala of moses . let us now take a general view of this whole cabbala , and more summarily consider the strength thereof ; which we may refer to these two heads , viz. the nature of the truths herein contained , and the dignity of those persons that have owned them in foregoing ages . and as for the truths themselves , first , they are such as may well become so holy and worthy a person as moses , if he would philosophize ; they being very precious and choice truths , and very highly removed above the conceit of the vulgar , and so the more likely to have been delivered to him , or to adam first by god for a special mysterie . secondly , they are such , that the more they are examined , the more irrefutable they will be found , no hypothesis that was ever yet propounded to men , so exquisitely well agreeing with the phaenomena of nature , the attributes of god , the passages of providence , and the rational faculties of our own minds . thirdly , there is a continued sutablenesse and applicability to the text of moses all along , without any force or violence done to grammar or criticisme . fourthly and lastly , there is a great usefulnesse , if not necessity , at least of some of them , they being such substantial props of religion , and so great encouragements , to a sedulous purification of our mindes , and study of true piety . now for the dignity of the persons , such as were pythagoras , plato , and plotinus , it will be argued from the constant fame of that high degree of virtue and righteousnesse , and devout love of the deity that is every where acknowledged in them , besides whatsoever miraculous has happened to them , or been performed by them . and as for pythagoras , if you consult his life in iamblichus , he was held in so great admiration by those in his time , that he was thought by some to be the son of apollo , whom he begot of parthenis his known mother ; and of this opinion was epimenides , eudoxus , and xenocrates , which conceit iamblichus does soberly and earnestly reject , but afterwards acknowledges , that his looks and speeches did so wonderfully carry away the minds of all that conversed with him , that they could not withhold from affirming , that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the off-spring of god. which is not to be taken in our strict theological sense , but according to the mode of the ancient greeks , who looked upon men heroically , and eminently good and virtuous , to be divine souls , and of a celestial extract . and aristotle takes notice particularly of the lacedemonians , that they tearmed such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , very good , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , divine men . according to which sense , he interprets that verse in homer concerning hector . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but to return to him of whom we were speaking before . this eminency of his acknowledged amongst the heathen , will seem more credible , if we but consider the advantage of his conversation with the wisest men then upon earth ; to wit , the jewish priests and prophets , who had their knowledge from god , as pythagoras had from them . from whence i conceive that of iamblichus to be true , which he writes concerning pythagoras his philosophy : that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that it is a philosophy that at first was delivered by god , or his holy angels . but that pythagoras was acquainted with the mosaical or jewish philosophy , there is ample testimony of it in writers ; as of aristobulus an aegyptian jew , in clemens alexandrinus , and josephus against appion . s. ambrose addes , that he was a jew himself . clemens calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the hebrew philosopher . i might cast hither the suffrages of justine , johannes philoponus , theodoret , hermippus in origen against celsus , porphyrius , and clemens again , who writes , that it was a common fame that pythagoras was a disciple of the prophet ezekiel . and though he gives no belief to the report , yet that learned antiquary mr. selden seems inclinable enough to think it true , in his first book de jure naturali juxta hebraos , where you may peruse more fully the citations of the forenamed authors . besides all these , iamblichus also affirms , that he lived at sidon , his native countrey , where he fell acquainted with the prophets , and successors of one mochus , the physiologer , or natural philosopher . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . which , as mr. selden judiciously conjectures , is to be read , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the prophets that succeeded moses the philosopher . wherefore it is very plain , that pythagoras had his philosophy from moses . and that philosophy which to this very day is acknowledged to be his , we seeing that it is so fitly applicable to the text all the way , what greater argument can there be desired to prove that it is the true philosophick cabbala thereof ? but there is yet another argument to prove further the likelihood of his conversing with the prophets , which will also further set out the dignity of his person ; and that is the miracles that are recorded of him . for it should seem pythagoras was not only initiated into the mosaical theory , but had arrived also to the power of working miracles , as moses and the succeeding prophets did , and very strange facts are recorded both in porphyrius and iamblichus : as that pythagoras when he was going over a river with several of his companions , ( iamblichus calls the river nessus , porphyrius caucasus ) that he speaking to the river , the river answered him again with an audible and clear voice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , salve pythagora . that he shewed his thigh to abaris the priest , and that he affirmed that it glistered like gold , and thence pronounced that he was apollo . that he was known to converse with his friends at metapontium , and tauromenium ( the one a town in italy , the other in sicily , and many days journey distant ) in one and the same day . to these and many others which i willingly omit , i shall only adde his predictions of earthquakes , or rather , because that may seem more natural , his present slaking of plagues in cities , his silencing of violent winds , and tempests ; his calming the rage of seas , and rivers , and the like . which skill empedocles , epimenides , and abaris having got from him , they grew so famous , that empedocles was surnamed alexanemus , epimenides , cathartes , and abaris , aethrobates , from the power they had in suppressing of storms and winds , in freeing of cities from the plague , and in walking aloft in the air : which skill enabled pythagoras to visit his friends after that manner at metapontium , and tauromenium in one and the same day . and now i have said thus much of pythagoras , ( and might say a great deal more ) there will be lesse need to insist upon plato and plotinus , their philosophy being the same that pythagoras his was , and so alike applicable to moses his text. plato's exemplarity of life and virtue , together with his high knowledge in the more sacred mysteries of god , and the state of the soul of man in this world , and that other , deservedly got to himself the title of divine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but as for miracles , i know none he did , though something highly miraculous happened , if that fame at athens was true , that speusippus , clearchus , and anaxilides report to have been , concerning his birth , which is , that aristo his reputed father , when he would forcibly have had to do with perictione , she being indeed exceeding fair and beautiful , fell short of his purpose , and surceasing from his attempt , that he saw apollo in a vision , and so abstained from medling with his wife till she brought forth her son aristocles , who after was called plato but that is far more credible which is reported , concerning the commending of him to his tutor socrates , who the day before he came , dreamed that he had a young swan in his lap , which putting forth feathers a pace , of a sudden flew up into the air , and sung very sweetly . wherefore the next day when plato was brought to him by his father , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he presently said , this is the bird , and so willingly received him for his pupil . but for his acquaintance with the mosaical learning , as it is more credible in it self , so i have also better proof ; as aristobulus the jew in clemens alexandrinus ▪ s. ambrose , hermippus in josephus against appion ; and lastly , numenius the platonist , who ingenuously confesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what is plato , but moses in greek ? as i have else where alledged . as for plotinus , that which porphyrius records of him , falls little short of a miracle , as being able by the majesty of his own minde , as his enemy olympius confessed , to retort that magick upon him which he practised against plotinus , and that sedately sitting amongst his friends , he would tell them ; now olympius his body it gathered like a purse , and his limbs beat one against another . and though he was not instructed by the jewish priests and prophets , yet he was a familiar friend of that hearty and devout christian and learned father of the church , origen ; whose authority i would also cast in , together with the whole consent of the learned amongst the jewes . for there is nothing strange in the metaphysical part of this cabbala , but what they have constantly affirmed to be true . but the unmannerly superstition of many is such that they will give more to an accustomed opinion , which they have either taken up of themselves ▪ or has been conveyed unto them by the confidence of some private theologer , then to the authority of either fathers , churches , workers of miracles , or what is best of all , the most solid reasons that can be propounded ; which if they were capable of , they could not take any offence at my admittance of the cartesian philosophy into this present cabbala . the principles , and the more notorious conclusions thereof , offering themselves so freely , and unaffectedly , and so aptly , and sittingly taking their place in the text , that i knew not how with judgement and conscience to keep them out . for i cannot but surmise , that he has happily and unexpectedly light upon that , which will prove a true restauration of that part of the mosaical philosophy , which is ordinarily called natural , and in which pythagoras may be justly deemed to have had no small insight . and that des cartes may bear up in some likely equipage with the forenamed noble and divine spirits though the unskilfulnesse in men commonly acknowledge more of supernatural assistance in hot unsettled fancies , and perplexed melancholy , then in the calm and distinct use of reason ; yet for mine own part , ( but not without submission to better judgements ) i should look upon des cartes as a man more truly inspired in the knowledge of nature , then any that have professed themselves so this six●een hundred years ; and being even ravished with admiration of his transcendent mechanical inventions , for the salving the phaenomena in the world , i should not stick to compare him with bezaliel and aholiab , those skilful and cunning workers of the tabernacle , who , as moses testifies , were filled with the spirit of god , and they were of an excellent understanding to finde out all manner of curious works . nor is it any more argument , that des cartes was not inspired , because he did not say he was , then that others are inspired , because they say they are ; which to me is no argument at all . but the suppression of what so happened , would argue much more sobriety and modesty , when as the profession of it with sober men would be suspected of some spice of melancholy and distraction , especially in natural philosophy , where the grand pleasure is the evidence and exercise of reason , not a bare belief , or an ineffable sense of life , in respect whereof there is no true christian but he is inspired . thus much in defence of my philosophick cabbala . it will not be unseasonable to subjoin something by way of apology for the cabbalist : for i finde my self liable to no lesse then three several imputations , viz. of trifling curiositie , of rashnesse , and of inconstancy of judgement . and as for the first , i know that men that are more severely philosophical and rational , will condemn me of too much curious pains in applying natural and metaphysical truths to an uncertain and lubricous text or letter , when as they are better known , and more fitly conveied by their proper proof and arguments , then by fancying they are aimed at in such obscure and aenigmatical writings . but i answer , ther is that fit and full congruity of the cabbala with the text , besides the backing of it with advantages from the history of the first rise of the pythagorical or platonical philosophy , that it ought not to be deemed a fancie , but a very high probability , that there is such a cabbala as this belonging to the mosaical letter , especially if you call but to minde how luckily the nature of numbers sets off the work of every day , according to the sense of the cabbala . and then again , for mine own part , i account no pains either curious or tedious , that tend to a common good : and i conceive no smaller a part of mankinde , concerned in my labours , then the whole nation of the jewes , and christendome ; to say nothing of the ingenious persian , nor to despair of the turk though he be for the present no friend to allegories . wherefore we have not placed our pains inconsiderately , having recommended so weighty and useful truths in so religious a manner to so great a part of the world . but for the imputation of rashnesse , in making it my businesse to divulge those secrets or mysteries that moses had so sedulously covered in his obscure text : i say , it is the privilege of christianity , the times now more then ever requiring it to pull off the vail from moses his face : and that though they be grand truths that i have discovered , yet they are as useful as sublime , and cannot but highly gratifie every good and holy man that can competently judge of them . lastly , for inconstancy of judgement , which men may suspect me of , having heretofore declared the scripture does not teach men philosophy : i say , the change of a mans judgement for the better , is no part of inconstancy , but a virtue , when as to persist in what we finde false , is nothing but perversenesse and pride . and it will prove no small argument for the truth of this present cabbala , in that the evidence thereof has fetch'd me out of my former opinion wherein i seemed engaged . but to say the truth , i am not at all inconsistent with my self , for i am still of opinion , that the letter of the scripture teaches not any precept of philosophy , concerning which there can be any controversie amongst men . and when you venture beyond the literal sense , you are not taught by the scripture , but what you have learned some other way , you apply thereto . and they ought to be no trash , nor trivial notions , nor confutable by reason , or more solid principles of philosophy , that a man should dare to cast upon so sacred a text , but such as one is well assured , will bear the strictest examination , and that lead to the more full knowledge of god , and do more clearly fit the phaenomena of nature , & external providence to his most precious attributes , and tend to the furthering of the holy life , which i do again professe is the sole end of the scripture . and he that ventures beyond the letter without that guide , will soon be bewilder'd , and lose himself in his own fancies . wherefore if this philosophick cabbala of mine , amongst those many other advantages i have recited , had not this also added unto it , the aim of advancing the divine life in the world , i should look upon it as both false and unprofitable , and should have rested satisfied with the moral cabbala . for the divine life is above all natural and metaphysical knowledge whatsoever . and that man is a perfect man that is truly righteous and prudent , whom i know i cannot but gratifie with my moral cabbala that follows . but if any more zealous pretender to prudence and righteousnesse , wanting either leisure or ability to examine my philosophick cabbala to the bottome , shall notwithstanding either condemn it or admire it , he has unbecomingly and indiscreetly ventured out of his own sphere , and i cannot acquit him of injustice , or folly. nor did i place my cabbala's in this order , out of more affection and esteem of philosophy , then of true holinesse , but have ranked them thus according to the order of nature : the holy and divine life being not at all , or else being easily lost in man , if it be not produc'd and conserv'd by a radicated acknowledgement of those grand truths in the philosophick cabbala , viz. the existence of the eternal god , and a certain expectation of more consummate happinesse upon the dissolution of this mortal body : for to pretend to virtue and holinesse , without reference to god , and a life to come , is but to fall into a more dull and flat kinde of stoicisme , or to be content to feed our cattel on this side of jordan in a more discreet and religious way of epicurisme , or at least of degenerate familisme . the defence of the moral cabbala . chap. i. what is meant by moral , explained out of philo. that the light in the first day improv'd to the height , is adam , in the sixt , christ , according to the spirit . in what sense we our selves may be said to doe what god does in us . why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are rendred ignorance and inquiry . . plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , applied to the fourth days progresse . that virtue is not an extirpation , but regulation of the passions , according to the minde of the pythagoreans . plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , applyed to the sixt days progresse . what the image of god is , plainly set down out of s. paul and plato . the divine principle in us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of plotinus the distinction of the heavenly and earthly man , out of philo. the imposture of still and fixed melancholy , and that it is not the true divine rest , and precious sabbath of the soul. a compendious rehearsal of the whole allegory of the six days creation . wee are now come to the moral cabbala , which i do not call moral in that low sense the generality of men understand morality . for the processe and growth , as likewise the failing and decay of the divine life , is very intelligibly set forth in this present cabbala . but i call it moral , in counter-distinction to philosophical or physical ; as philo also uses this tearm moral , in divine matters . as when he speaks of gods breathing into adam the breath of life , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith he , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , god breathes into adams face physically and morally . physically , by placing there the senses , viz. in the head . morally , by inspiring his intellect with divine knowledge , which is the highest faculty of the soul , as the head is the chief part of the body . wherefore by morality . i understand here divine morality , such as is ingendred in the soul by the operations of the holy spirit , that inward living principle of all godliness and honesty . i shall be the more brief in the defence of this cabbala , it being of it self so plain and sensible to any that has the experience of the life i describe ; but to them that have it not , nothing will make it plain , or any thing at all probable . ver. . a microcosme or little world. nothing is more ordinary or trivial , then to compare man to the universe , and make him a little compendious world of himself . wherefore it was not hard to premise that , which may be so easily understood . and the apostle supposes it , when he applies the creation of light here in this chapter , to the illumination of the soul as you shall hear hereafter . ver. . but that which is animal or natural operates first . according to that of the apostle , that which is spiritual is not first , but that which is animal or natural ; afterward that which is spiritual . the first man is of the earth , earthy ; the second man is the lord from heaven . but what this earthy condition is , is very lively set out by moses in this first days work . for here we have earth , water , and wind , or one tumultuous dark chaos , and confusion of dirt and water , blown on heaps and waves ; and unquiet night-storm , an unruly black tempest . and it is observable , that it is not here said of this deformed globe , let there be earth ; let there be water ; let there be wind ; but all this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the subject matter ; a thing ' made already , viz. the rude soul of man in this disorder that is described ; sad melancholy like the drown'd earth lies at the bottome , whence care , and grief , and discontent , torturous suspicion , and horrid fear , are washed up by the unquiet watry desire , or irregular suggestions of the concupiscible , wherein most eminently is seated base lust and sensuality ; and above these is boisterous wrath , and storming revengefulnesse , fool-hardy confidence , and indefatigable contention about vain objects . in short , whatever passion and distemper is in fallen man , it may be referred to these elements . but god leaves not his creature in this evil condition ; but that all this disorder may be discovered , and so quelled in us , and avoided by us , he saith , let there be light , as you read in the following verse . ver. . the day-light appears . to this alludes s. paul , when he says , god who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse , shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ . where the apostle seems to me to have struck through the whole six days of this spiritual creation at once . the highest manifestation of that light created in the first day , being the face of jesus christ , the heavenly adam , fully compleated in the sixt day . wherefore when it is said , let there be light , that light is understood that enlightens every man that comes into the world , which is the divine intellect as it is communicable to humane souls . and the first day is the first appearance thereof , as yet weaker and too much disjoin'd from our affections , but at last it amounts to the true and plain image and character of the lord from heaven , christ according to the spirit . ver. . and god hath framed the nature of man so , that he cannot but say , &c. god working in second causes , there is nothing more ordinary then to ascribe that to him that is done by men , even then when the actions seem lesse competible to the nature of god. wherefore it cannot seem harsh , if in this moral cabbala we admit that man does that by the power of god working in the soul , that the text says god does ; as the approving of the light as good , and the distinguishing betwixt light and darknesse , and the like ; which things in the mystical sense are competible both to god and man. and we speaking in a moral or mystical sense , of god acting in us , the nature of the thing requires that what he is said to do there , we should be understood also to do the same through his assistance . for the soul of man is not meerly passive as a piece of wood or stone , but is forthwith made active by being acted upon ; and therefore if god in us rules , we rule with him ; if he contend against sin in us , we also contend together with him against the same ; if he see in us what is good or evil , we , ipso facto , see by him ; in his light we see light : and so in the rest . wherefore the supposition is very easie in this moral cablala , to take the liberty , where either the sense or more compendious expression requires it , to attribute that to man , though not to man alone , which god alone does , when we recur to the literal meaning of the text. and this is but consonant to the apostle , i live , and yet not i. for if the life of god or christ was in him ; surely he did live , or else what did that life there ? only he did not proudly attribute that life to himself , as his own , but acknowledged it to be from god. ver. . as betwixt the natural day and night . it is very frequent with the apostles to set out by day and night , the spiritual and natural condition of man. as in such phrases as these ; the night is far spent , the day is at hand . walk as children of the light. and elsewhere , let us who are of the day ; and in the same place , you are all the sons of light , and sons of the day . we are not of the night , nor of darknesse . but this is too obvious to insist upon . and thus ignorance and inquiry . the soul of man is never quiet , but in perpetual search till she has found out her own happinesse , which is the heavenly adam , christ , the image of god , into which image and likenesse when we are throughly awakened , we are fully satisfied therewith ; till then we are in ignorance and confusion , as the hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does fitly signifie . this ignorance , confusion , and dissatisfaction ; puts us upon seeking , according to that measure of the morning light that hath already visited us . and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek , to consider , and inquire . this is the generation of those that seek thy face , o jacob , that is , the face of jesus christ , the result of the sixt days work , as i have intimated before . ver. . of savoury and affectionate discernment . wherefore he will not assent to solomons whore , who says , stoln water is sweet ; but will rather use the words of the samaritane woman to christ , when he had told her of those waters of the spirit , though she did not so perfectly reach his meaning ; sir , give me this water , that i thirst not , neither come hither to draw . for who would seek to satisfie himself with the toilsome pleasures of the world , when he may quench his desires with the delicious draughts of that true , and yet easie-flowing nectar of the spirit of god ? ver. . to compare to the earth . origen compares this condition to the earth for fruitfulnesse ; but i thought it not impertinent to take notice of the steadinesse of the earth also . but the condition of the ungodly is like the raging waves of the sea ; or as the prophet speaks , the wicked are as the troubled sea that cannot rest , whose waters cast up mire and dirt , esay . ver. . he is a fruitful field . this interpretation is origens , as i intimated before . ver. . according to the difference of these lights . what this difference is , you will understand out of the sixteenth and eighteenth verses . ver. . to this one single , but vigorous and effectual light. for indeed , a true and sincere sense of this one , comprehends all . for all the law is fulfilled in one word ; to wit , in this , thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart , and all thy soul , and thy neighbour as thy self ; and , to do so to others , as we our selves would be done to . wherefore for men to make nothing of this royal law of christ , and yet to pretend to be more accurate indagators into matters of religion , and more affectionate lovers of piety then ordinary , is either to be abominably hypocritical , or grossely ignorant in the most precious and necessary parts of christianity ; and they walk by star-light , and moon-light , not under the clear and warm enlivening raies of the sunne of righteousnesse . it is an excellent saying of plato's , in an epistle of his to dionysius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that truth lies in a little room : and assuredly that which is best and most precious does ; when as the folly of every man notwithstanding so mis-guides him , that his toil and study is but to adorn himself after the mode of the most ridiculous fellow in all the graecian army , thersites , of whom the poet gives this testimony , that he was — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he had a rabble of disordered notions , and fruitlesse observations ; but that neither he , nor any body else could make either head or foot of them , nor himself became either more wise or more honest by having them . that precept of the pythagoreans , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , simplifie your self , reduce your self to one , how wise , how holy , how true is it ? what a sure foundation is it of life , liberty , and easie sagacity in things belonging to virtue , religion , and justice ? i think no man is born naturally so stupid , but that if he will keep close to this single light of divine love , in due time , nay , in a short time , he will be no more to seek what is to be done in the carriage of his life to god or man , then an unblemished eye will be at a losse to distinguish colours . but if he forsake this one light , he will necessarily be benighted , and his minde distracted with a multitude of needlesse and uncomfortable scrupulosities , and faint and ineffectual notions ; and every body will be ready to take him up for a night-wanderer , and to chastise him for being out of his way ; and after , it may be , as friendly offer himself a guide to another path , that will prove as little to the purpose , unlesse he bring him into this via regia , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as saint james calls it , this royal law of the sincere love of god , and a mans neighbour . ver. . that is , that the concupiscible in man. that the waters are an emblem of this concupiscible , venus her being born of the sea does intimate ; which were not so much to the purpose , did not natural philosophy and experience certifie , that concupiscence is lodg'd in moisture . whence is that of heraclitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( in porphyrius his de antro nympharum ) i. e. anima sicca sapientissima . and without all question the inordinate use of the concupiscible , does mightily befor the soul , and makes her very uncapable of divine sense and knowledge . and yet to endevour after an utter insensibility of the pleasures of the body , is as groundlesse and unwarrantable . but concerning this i shall speak more fully on the . and . verses of this chapter . ver. . winged ejaculations . whether mental or vocal , they are not unfitly resembled to fowls , according to that of homer , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and if vocal words have wings , the inward desires of the soul may well be said to have wings also , they being the words of the minde , as the other are of the mouth , and fly further for the most part , and get sooner to heaven then the other . note also , that origen likewise makes a difference here betwixt the fish and the fowl , and makes the fowl to be good cogitations , the fish evil . but i account them rather both indifferent , and to be regulated , not extirpated by the mystical adam christ , the image of god in man. and these strong heats and ejaculations are the effects of melancholy , wherein the divine principle in man , when it actuates it , works very fiercely and sharply , and is a great waster of the delightful moisture of the concupiscible , and weakens much the pleasures of the body , to the great advantage of the minde , if it be done with discretion and due moderation , otherways if this passion be over-much indulged to , it may lead to hecticks , phrenzies and distractions . the contrivance of the text mentioning only such fowls as frequent the waters , naturally points to this sense we have given it ; but if our imagination strike out further to other winged creatures , as the fowls of the mountains , and sundry sorts of birds , they may also have their proper meanings , and are a part of those animal figurations , that are to be subdued and regulated by the mystical adam , the spirit of christ in us . ver. . might have something to order . but if you take away all the passions from the soul , the minde of man will be as a general without an army , or an army without an enemy . the pythagoreans define righteousnesse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the peace of the whole soul , the parts thereof being in good tune or harmony ; according to that other definition of theirs , describing righteousnesse to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it is the harmony or agreement of the irrational parts of the soul with the rational . but quite to take away all the passions of the minde in stead of composing them to the right rule of reason and the divine light , is as if a man should cut away all the strings of an instrument , in stead of tuning it . ver. . and makes the irascible fruitful . religious devotions help'd on by melancholy , dry the body very much , and heat it , and make it very subject to wrath ; which if it be placed upon holy matters , men call zeal ; but if it be inordinate and hypocritical , the apostle will teach us to call it bitter zeal . this more fierce and fiery affection in man is plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the lion-like nature in us , which if adam keep in subjection , there is no hurt in it , but good . and it is evident in the gospel , that our saviour christ was one while deeply impassionated with sorrow , another while very strongly carried away with zeal and anger , as you may observe in the stories of his raising up lazarus , and whipping the money-changers out of the temple . and this is no imperfection , but rather a perfection ; the divine life , when it has reached the passions and body of a man , becoming thereby more palpable , full and sensible . but all the danger is of being impotently passionate , and when as the body is carried away by its own distemper , or by the hypocrisie of the minde , notwithstanding to imagine or pretend , that it is the impulse of the divine spirit . this is too frequent a mistake god knows , but such as was impossible to happen in our saviour ; and therefore the passions of his minde were rather perfections then imperfections , as they are to all them that are close and sincere followers of him , especially when they have reach'd the sixt days progresse . ver. . by the name of his own image . what this image of god is , plato who was acquainted with these mosaical writings , as the holy fathers of the church so generally have told us , plainly expresses in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to be like unto god , is to be just , holy , and wise . like that of the apostle to the colossians , and have put on the new man , which is renewed in knowledge , after the image of him that created him : and that more full passage in the fourth of the ephesians ; and that you put on the new man , which after god is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse . there are all the three members of that divine image , knowledge , righteousnesse , and holinesse , which are mentioned in that foregoing description of plato's , as if plato had been pre-instructed by men of the same spirit with the apostle . the true and perfect man. plotinus calls that divine principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the true man. the rest is the brutish nature , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as i said before . but has full power . wherefore if this definition of the image or likenesse of god which plato has made , does not involve this power in it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the description of justice by the pythagoreans , above recited , ( which implies that the rational and divine part of the soul has the passions at its command ) i should adde to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this one word more , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the description may un thus ; to be like unto god , is to be holy and just , together with wisdome and power . but i rather think that this power is comprehended in holinesse and justice : for unlesse we have arrived to that power as to be able constantly to act according to these virtues , we are rather well-willers to holinesse and righteousnesse , then properly and formally righteous and holy . ver. . in his little world. they are the words of philo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that man is a little world , and that the world is one great man ; which analogy is supposed , as i said at first , in the moral cabbala of this present chapter , and origen upon this chapter calls man minorem mundum , a microcosme . ver. . the heavenly adam , christ . philo makes mention of the heavenly and earthly man , in these words ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . man is of two sorts , the one heavenly , the other earthly . and s. paul calls christ the heavenly adam , and philo's heavenly adam is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , created after the image of god , as saint paul in the forecited places to the colossians and ephesians also speaks concerning christ . ver. . the heavenly adam to feed upon , fulfilling the will of god. as christ professes of himself , it is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me . ver. . nor is the animal life quite to be starved . for a good man is merciful to his beast . see origen upon the place . ver. . approves all things which god hath created in us to be very good . not only the divine principle , but also the fishes , beasts , and birds ▪ vult enim deus ut insignis ista dei factura , homo , non solùm immaculatus sit ab his sed & dominetur eis : for it is the will of god , saith origen , not only that we should be free from any soil of these , ( which would be more certainly effected , if we were utterly rid of them , and they quite extirpated out of our nature ) but that we should rule over them without being any thing at all blemished , or discomposed by them . and for mine own part , i do not understand , how that the kingdome of heaven which is to be within us , can be any kingdome at all , if there be no subjects at all there to be ruled over , and to obey . wherefore the passions of the body are not to be quite extinguished , but regulated , that there may be the greater plenitude of life in the whole man. and those that endevour after so still , so silent , and demure condition of minde , that they would have the sense of nothing there but peace and rest , striving to make their whole nature desolate of all animal figurations whatsoever , what do they effect but a clear day , shining upon a barren heath , that feeds neither cow nor horse , neither sheep nor shepheard is to be seen there , but only a waste silent solitude , and one uniform parchednesse and vacuity . and yet while a man fancies himself thus wholly divine , he is not aware how he is even then held down by his animal nature ; and that it is nothing but the stilnesse and fixednesse of melancholy , that thus abuses him , and in stead of the true divine principle , would take the government to it self , and in this usurped tyranny cruelly destroy all the rest of the animal figurations ; but the true divine life would destroy nothing that is in nature , but only regulate things , and order them for the more full and sincere enjoyments of man , reproaching nothing but sinfulnesse and enormity , entituling sanguine and choler to as much virtue and religion as either phlegme or melancholy ▪ for the divine life as it is to take into it self the humane nature in general , so it is not abhorrent from any of the complexions thereof . but the squabbles in the world are ordinarily not about true piety and virtue , but which of the complexions , or what humour shall ascend the throne , and fit there in stead of christ himself . but i will not expatiate too much upon one theme ; i shall rather take a short view of the whole allegory of the chapter . in the first day there is earth , water and wind , over wh●ch , and through which , there is nothing but disconsolate darknesse , and tumultuous agitation ; the winds ruffling up the waters into mighty waves , the waves washing up the mire and dirt into the water ; all becoming but a rude heap of confusion and desolation . this is the state of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or earthly adam , as philo calls him , till god command the light to shine out of darknesse , offering him a guide to a better condition . in the second day , is the firmament created , dividing the upper and the lower waters , that it may feel the strong impulses , or taste the different relishes of either . thus is the will of man touch'd from above and beneath , and this is the day wherein is set before him life and death , good and evil , and he may put out his hand and take his choice . in the third day , is the earth uncovered of the waters , for the planting of fruit-bearing trees ; by their fruits you shall know them , saith our saviour , that is , by their works . in the fourth day , there appears a more full accession of divine light , and the sun of righteousnesse warms the soul with a sincere love both of god and man. in the fift day , that this light of righteousnesse , and bright eye of divine reason may not brandish its rayes in the empty field , where there is nothing either to subdue , or guide and order ; god sends out whole sholes of fishes in the waters , and numerous flights of fowls in the air , besides part of the sixt days work , wherein all kinde of beasts are created . in these are decyphered the sundry suggestions and cogitations of the minde , sprung from these lower elements of the humane nature , viz. earth and water , flesh and blood ; all these man beholds in the light of the sun of righteousnesse , discovers what they are , knows what to call them , can rule over them , and is not wrought to be over-ruled by them . this is adam , the master-piece of gods creation , and lord of all the creatures , framed after the image of god , christ according to the spirit , under whose feet is subdued the whole animal life , with its sundry motions , forms and shapes . he will call every thing by its proper name , and set every creature in its proper place ; the vile person shall be no longer called liberal , nor the churl bountiful . wo be unto them that call evil good , and good evil , that call the light darknesse , and the darknesse light . he will not call bitter passion , holy zeal ; nor plausible meretricious courtesie , friendship ; nor a false soft abhorrency from punishing the ill-deserving , pity ; nor cruelty , justice ; nor revenge , magnanimity ; nor unfaithfulnesse , policy ; nor verbosity , either wisdome or piety . but i have run my self into the second chapter before i am aware . in this first adam is said only to have dominion over all the living creatures , and to feed upon the fruit of the plants . and what is pride , but a mighty mountainous whale ; lust , a goat ; the lion , and bear , wilful dominion ; craft , a fox ; and worldly toil , an oxe ? over these and a thousand more is the rule of man ; i mean of adam , the image of god. but his meat and drink is to do the will of his maker ; this is the fruit he feeds upon . behold therefore , o man , what thou art , and whereunto thou art called , even to bee a mighty prince amongst the creatures of god , and to bear rule in that province he has assigned thee , to discern the motions of thine own heart , and to be lord over the suggestions of thine own natural spirit , not to listen to the counsel of the flesh , nor conspire with the serpent against thy creator . but to keep thy heart free and faithful to thy god ; so maist thou with innocency and unblameablenesse see all the motions of life , and bear rule with god over the whole creation committed to thee . this shall be thy paradise and harmlesse sport on earth , till god shall transplant thee to an higher condition of happinesse in heaven . chap. ii. the full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that keeps men from entring into the true sabbath . the great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of nature from the suggestions of sin. that the growth of a true christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the priest . the meaning of this is he that comes by water and blood. the meaning of repent , for the kingdome of heaven is at hand . the seventh thousand years , the great sabbatism of the church of god. that there will be then frequent converse betwixt men and angels . the tree of life , how fitly in the mystical sense , said to be in the midst of the garden . a twofold death contracted by adams disobedience . the masculine and feminine faculties in man what they are . actuating a body , an essential operation of the soul ; and the reason of that so joyful appearance of eve to the humane nature . to the fift verse there is nothing but a recapitulation of what went before in the first chapter ; and therefore wants no further proof then what has already been alledged out of s ▪ paul and origen , and other writers . only there is mention of a sabbath in the second verse of this chapter , of which there was no words before . and this is that sabbatisme or rest , that the author to the hebrews exhorts them to strive to enter into , through faith and obedience . for those that were faint-hearted , and unbelieving , and pretended that the children of anak , the off-spring of the giants , would be too hard for them ; they could not enter into the promised land wherein they were to set up their rest , under the conduct of j●shua , a type of jesus . and the same author in the same place makes mention of this very sabbath that ensued the accomplishment of the creation , concluding thus : there remaineth therefore a sabbatisme or rest to the people of god : for he that has entred into his rest , he also has ceased from his own works , as god did from his . let us labour therefore to enter into that rest , lest any man fall after that example , of disobedience and unbelief . for the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may well include both senses , viz , disobedience , or the not doing the will of god , according to that measure of power and knowledge he has already given us ; and vnbelief , that the divine life and spirit in us , is not able to subdue the whole creation of the little world under us , that is , all the animal motions and figurations , be they lions , bears , goats , whales , be they what they will be , as well as to cast out the children of anak before the israelites , as it is in that other type of christ , and of his kingdome in the souls of men. ver. . the generations of the animal life when god created them . for these are as truly the works of god , as the divine life it self , though they are nothing comparable unto it . nay , indeed they are but an heap of confusion without it . wherefore the great accomplishment is to have these in due order and subjection unto the spirit or heavenly life in us , which is christ ; and that you may have a more particular apprehension of these generations of the animal life , i shall give you a catalogue of some of them , though confusedly , so as they come first to my memory . such therefore are anger , zeal , indignation , sorrow , derision , mirth , gravity , open-heartednesse , reservednesse , stoutnesse , flexibility , boldness , fearfulness , mildeness , tartness , candour , suspicion , peremptoriness , despondency , triumph or gloriation . all the propensions to the exercise of strength , or activity of body ; as running , leaping , swimming , wrestling , justing , coursing , or the like : besides all the courtly preambles , necessary concomitants , and delightful consequences of marriage , which spring up from the love of women , and the pleasure of children . to say nothing of those enjoyments that arise from correspondent affections and meer natural friendship betwixt man and man , or fuller companies of acquaintance ; their friendly feastings , sportings , musick and dancings . all these and many more that i am not at leisure to reckon up , be but the genuine pullulations of the animal life , and in themselves they have neither good nor hurt in them . nay , indeed to speak more truly and impartially , they are good , according to the approbation of him that made them ; but they become bad only to them that are bad , and act either without measure , or for unwarrantable ends , or with undue circumstances ; otherwise they are very good in their kind , they being regulated and moderated by the divine principle in us . and i think it is of great moment for men to take notice of this truth for these three reasons : first , because the bounds of sin , and of the innocent motions of nature , being not plainly and apertly set out and defined , men counting the several animal figurations and natural motions for sins , they heap to themselves such a task , to wit , the quite extirpating that , which it were neither good , nor it may be possible utterly to extirpate , that they seem in truth hereby to insinuate that it is impossible to enter into that rest or sabbath of the people of god. wherefore promiscuously sheltring themselves under this confused cloud of sins , and infirmities , where they aggravate all , so as if every thing were in the same measure sinful ; if they be but zealous and punctual in some , they account it passing well , and an high testimony of their sanctimony . and their hypocrisie will be sure to pitch upon that which is least of all to the purpose ; that is , a man will spend his zeal in the behalf of some natural temper he himself is of , and against the opposite complexion . but for the indispensable dictates of the divine light , he will be sure to neglect them , as being more hard to perform , though of more concernment both for himself and the common good . but if it were more plainly defined what is sin , and what is not sin , a man might with more heart and courage fight against his enemy , he appearing not so numerous and formidable , and he would have the lesse opportunity for perverse excuses , and hypocritical tergiversations . the second reason is , that men may not think better of themselves then they are , for their abhorrency from those things that have no hurt in them , nor think worser of others then they deserve , when they do but such things as are approvable by god , and the divine light. and this is of very great moment for the maintaining of christian love , and union amongst men . the third and last is ; that they may observe the madness and hypocrisie of the world , whose religious contestations or secret censures are commonly but the conflict and antipathy of the opposite figurations of the animal life , who like the wilde beasts , without a master to keep good quarter amongst them , are very eagerly set to devour one another . but by this shall every man know , whether it be complexion or religion that reigns in him , if he love god with all his heart , and all his soul , and his neighbour as himself : and can give a sufficient reason for all his actions and opinions from that aeternal light , the love of god shed abroad in his heart ; if not , it is but a faction of the animal life , sed up and fostered by either natural temper or custome ; and he is far from being arrived to the kingdome of christ , and entring into that true rest of the people of god. ver. . where there is no external doctrine . pulpits , and preachings , and external ordinances , there is no such noise of them amongst the holy patriarchs , whose lives moses describes ; and therefore i conceive this sense i have here given the text more genuine and warrantable . but besides moses unvailed , being christianity it self , the manner of the growth of the true christian is here prefigured . that he is rather taught of god , then of men , he having the spirit of life in him , and needs no man to teach him : for he has the unction in himself , which will teach him all things necessary to life and godliness . ver. . which is repentance from dead works . in this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the philosophick cabbala , signified a vapour , but here i translate it a fountain of water , which i am warranted to do by the seventy , who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but that water is an embleme of repentance , it is so obvious that i need say nothing of it : john's baptizing with water to repentance , is frequently repeated in the gospels . ver. . and breathes into him the spirit of life . in allusion to this passage of moses in all likelihood is that of the psalmist ; thy hands have made me , and fashioned me , o give me understanding and i shall live ; as if like adam , he were but a statue of earth till god breathed into him the spirit of life and holiness . of the water and of the spirit . the water and the spirit are the two extremes ; the first and the last that makes up the creation of the spiritual adam , or christ , compleated in us , and includes the middle which is blood. first therefore is repentance from what we delighted in before . then the killing of that evil and corrupt life in us , which is resisting to blood , as the apostle speaks . and the epistle of john ch . . v. . what ever is born of god , overcomes the world ; who is he that overcomes the world , but he that believes that jesus christ ( the divine light and life in us ) is the son of god ? and therefore indued with power from on high to overcome all sin and wickednesse in us . this is he that comes by water and blood , by repentance and perseverance till the death of the body of sin , not by repentance only , and dislike of our former life , but by the mortification also of it . then the spirit of truth is awakened in us , and will bear witnesse of whatever is right and true . and according to this manner of testimony is it to be understood especially , that no man can say that jesus christ is the son of god , but by the spirit of god , as the apostle elsewhere affirms . this is the heavenly adam , which is true light and glory to all them that have attain'd to the resurrection of the dead , and into whom god hath breathed the breath of life , without which , we have no right knowledge nor sense of god at all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they are th● words of philo upon the place . for how should the soul of man , says he , know god , if he did not inspire her , and take hold of her by his power ? ver. . to the kingdome of heaven . and the end of the doctrine of john , which was repentance , was for this purpose , that men might arrive to that comfortable condition here described ; and therefore it was a motive for them to repent . for though sorrow endure for a night , yet joy will come in the morning . for the new jerusalem is to be built , and god is to pitch his tabernacle amongst men , and to rule by his spirit here upon earth ; which , if i would venture upon an historical cabbala of moses , i should presage would happen in the seventh thousand years , according to the chronology of scripture ; when the world shall be so spiritualized , that the work of salvation shall be finished , and the great sabbath and festival shall be then celebrated in the height : a thousand years are but as one day , saith the apostle peter , and therefore the seventh thousand years may well be the seventh day : wherefore in the end of the sixth thousand years , the kingdomes of the earth will be the second adams , the lord christs , as adam in the sixt day was created the lord of the world , and all the creatures therein ; and this conquest of his will bring in the seventh day of rest , and peace , and joy , upon the face of the whole earth . which presage will seem more credible , when i shall have unfolded unto you out of philo judaeus the mysterie of the number seven ; but before i fall upon that , let me a little prepare your belief , by shewing the truth of the same thing in another figure . adam , seth , enos , cainan , mahalaleel , jared , they died , not enjoying the richness of gods goodness in their bodies . but enoch who was the seventh from adam , he was taken up alive into heaven , and seems to enjoy that great blisse in the body . the world then in the seventh chiliad , will be assumed up into god , snatch'd up by his spirit , inacted by his power . the jerusalem that comes down from heaven , will then in a most glorious and eminent manner flourish upon earth . god will , as i said , pitch his tabernacle amongst men . and for god to be in us , and with us , is as much as for us to be lifted up into god. but to come now to the mysterie of the septenary , or number seven , it is of two kindes , the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the septenary within the decade is meerly seven unites ; the other is a seventh number , beginning at an vnite , and holding on in a continued geometrical proportion , till you have gone through seven proportional terms . for the seventh term there is this septenary of the second kinde , whose nature philo fully expresses in these words : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to this sense : for always beginning from an vnite , and holding on in double , or triple , or what proportion you will , the seventh number of this rank is both square and cube , comprehending both kindes as well the corporeal as incorporeal substanc●e ; the incorporeal , according to the superficies which the squares exhibite ; but the corporeal , according to the solid dimensions which are set out by the cubes . as for example ; . or . these are numbers that arise after this manner ; each of them are a seventh from an unite , the one arising from double proportion , the other from triple ; and if the proportion were quadruple , quintuple , or any else , there is the same reason , some other seventh number would arise , which would prove of the same nature with these , they would prove both cubes and squares , that is , corporeal and incorporeal : for such is sixty four , either made by multiplying eight into eight , and so it is a square , or else by multiplying four cubically . for four times four times four is again sixty four , but then it is a cube . and so seven hundred twenty nine , is made either by squaring of twenty seven , or cubically multiplying of nine , for either way will seven hundred twenty nine be made ; and so is both cube and square , corporeal and incorporeal . whereby is intimated , that the world shall not be reduced in the seventh day to a meer spiritual consistency , to an incorporeal condition , but that there shall be a co-habitation of the spirit with flesh , in a mystical or moral sense , and that god will pitch his tent amongst us . then shall be settled everlasting righteousnesse , and rooted in the earth , so long as mankind shall inhabite upon the face thereof . and this truth of the reign of righteousness in this seventh thousand years , is still more clearly set out to us in the septenary within ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as philo calls it , the naked number seven : for the parts it consists of are and , which put together make . and these parts be the sides of the first orthogonion in numbers , the very sides that include the right angle thereof . and the orthogonion what a foundation it is of trigonometry , and of measuring the altitudes , latitudes , and longitudes of things every body knows that knows any thing at all in mathematicks . and this prefigures the uprightness of that holy generation , who will stand and walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inclining neither this way , nor that way , but they will approve themselves of an upright and sincere heart . and by this spirit of righteousness will these saints be enabled to finde out the depth , and breadth , and height of the wisdom and goodness of god , as somewhere the apostle himself phras●th it . but then again in the second place , this three and four comprehend also the conjunction of the corporeal and incorporeal nature ; three being the first superficies , and four the first body : and in the seventh thousand years i do verily conceive , that there will be so great union betwixt god and man , that they shall not only partake of his spirit , but that the inhabitants of the aethereal region will openly converse with these of the terrestrial ; and such frequent conversation and ordinary visits of our cordial friends of that other world , will take away all the toil of life , and the fear of death amongst men , they being very chearful and pleasant here in the body , and being well assured they shall be better when they are out of it : for heaven and earth shall then shake hands together , or become as one house , and to die , shall be accounted but to ascend into an higher room . and though this dispensation for the present be but very sparingly set a foot , yet i suppose there may some few have a glimpse of it , concerning whom accomplish'd posterity may happily utter something answerable to that of our saviours concerning abraham , who tasted of christianity before christ himself was come in the flesh ; abraham saw my day , and rejoyced at it . and without all question , that plenitude of happiness that has been reserved for future times , the presage and presensation of it , has in all ages been a very great joy and triumph to all holy men and prophets . the morning light of the sun of righteousnesse . this is very sutable to the text , paradise being said to be placed eastward in eden , and our saviour christ to be the bright morning starre , and the light that lightens every one that comes into the world , though too many are disobedient to the dictates of this light , that so early visits them in their mindes and consciences , but they that follow it , it is their peace and happiness in the conclusion . ver. . which is a sincere obedience to the will of god. the tree of life is very rightly said to be in the midst of the garden , that is , in the midst of the soul of man , and this is the will or desire of man , which is the most inward of all the faculties of his soul , and is as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vital center of the rest , from whence they stream or grow . that therefore is the tree of life if it be touch'd truly with the divine life , and a man be heartily obedient to the will of god. for the whole image of divine perfection will grow from hence , and receives nourishment , strength , and continuance from it . but if this will and desire be broke off from god , and become actuated by the creature , or be a self-will , and a spirit of disobedience , it breeds most deadly fruit , which kills the divine life in us , and puts man into a necessity of dying to that disorder and corruption he has thus contracted . what ever others would insinuate to the contrary . for there is nothing so safe , if a man be heartily sincere , as not to be led by the nose by others ; for we see the sad event of it , in eves listening to the outward suggestions of the serpent . ver. . the four cardinal virtues . it is the exposition of philo. till verse . there is no need of adding any thing more then what has already been said in the defence of the philsophick cabbala . ver. . dead to all righteousnesse and truth . the mortality that adam contracted by his disobedience in the mortal or mystical sense is twofold ; the one a death to righteousness , and it is the sense of philo upon the place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the death of the soul is the extinction of virtue in her , and the resuscitation of vice ; and he adds , that this must be the death here meant , it being a real punishment indeed to forfeit the life of virtue . the other mortality is a necessity of dying to unrighteousness , if he ever would be happy . both those notions of death , are more frequent in s. pauls epistles , then that i need to give any instance . his more noble and masculine faculties . what the masculine part in man is ▪ philo plainly declares in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in us , saith he , the man is the intellect , the woman the sense of the body . whence you will easily understand , that the masculine faculties are those that are more spiritual and intellectual . ver. . that the whole humane nature may be accomplished with the divine . which is agreeable to that pious ejaculation of the apostle , thess . . and the god of peace sanctifie you wholly , or throughly ; and i pray god your whole spirit , soul and body , may be kept blamelesse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the presence or abode of jesus christ , the divine life or heavenly adam in you . this is the most easie and natural sense of that place of scripture , as it will appear to any man , whose minde is as much set on holiness , as hard theories . and it is very agreeable to the mystical sense of the second psalm , where the kingdome of christ reaches to the utmost ends of the earth ; that is , as far as soul and life can animate , so that our very flesh and body is brought under the scepter of christs kingdome . ver. . the figurations of the animal life . that the motions of the minde as they are suggested from the animal life of the body , are set forth by fishes , beasts and birds , i have already made good from the authority of origen . ver. . in a capacity of taking delight in them . for melancholy had so depraved the complexion of his body , that there was no grateful sense of any thing that belong'd to nature and the life of the vehicle . ver. . the greatest part of that paradise a man is capable of upon earth . this is a truth of sense and experience , and is no more to be proved by reason , then that white is white , or black is black. ver. . essential operation of the soul. the very nature of the soul , as it is a soul , is an aptitude of informing or actuating a body ; but that it should be always an organized body , it is but aristotles saying of it , he does not prove it . but for mine own part , i am very prone to think , that the soul is never destitute of some vehicle or other , though plotinus be of another minde , and conceives that the soul at the height is joined with god and nothing else , nakedly lodged in his arms . and i am the more bold to dissent from him in this exaltation of the soul , i being so secure in my own conceit of that other suspected extravagancy of his , in the debasement of them , that at last they become so drowsie and sensless , that they grow up out of the ground in that dull function of life , the efformation of trees and plants . and i am not alone in this liberty of dissenting from plotinus : for besides my own conceit this way , ( for i must confess i have no demonstrative reasons against his opinion ) i am emboldened by the example of ficinus , who is no small admirer of the forenamed author . that which i was about to say , is this ; the informing or actuating of a body being so indispensable and essential an act of the soul , the temper and condition of the body that it thus actuates , cannot but be of mighty consequence unto the soul that is conscious of the plight thereof , and reaps the joy of it or sorrow , by an universal touch and inward sense , springing up into her cognoscence and animadversion . and we may easily imagine of what moment the health and good plight of the body is to the minde that lodges there , if we do but consider the condition of plants , whose bodies we cannot but conceive in a more grateful temper , while they flourish and are sweet and pleasing to the eye , then when they are withered by age or drought , or born down to the earth by immoderate storms of rain . and so it is with the body of man , ( where there is a soul to take notice of its condition ) far better when it is in health by discretion and moderation in diet , and exercise , then when it is either parched up by superstitious melancholy , or slocken and drowned in sensuality and intemperance ; for they are both abaters of the joyes of life , and lessen that plenitude of happiness that man is capable of by his mystical eve , the woman that god has given every one to delight himself with . ver. . so far forth as they are incompetible with the health of the body . this is an undeniable truth , else how could that hold good that the apostle speaks , that godliness is profitable for all things , having the promise of this world , and that which is to come ; when as without the health of the body , there is nothing at all to be enjoyed in this present world ? and certainly god doth not tie us to the law of angels , or superiour creatures , but to precepts sutable to the nature of man. obedience to the precepts of that superiour light ▪ for if the life of the body grow upon us so , as to extinguish or hinder the sense of divine things , our dependence of god , and joyful hope of the life to come ; it is then become disorderly , and is to be castigated and kept down , that it pull not us down into an aversation from all piety , and sink us into an utter oblivion of god and the divine life . ver. . without any shame or blushing . see what has been said upon the philosophick cabbala . chap. iii. a story of a dispute betwixt a prelate and a black-smith , concerning adams eating of the apple . what is meant by the subtilty or deceit of the serpent . that religion wrought to its due height is a very chearful state ; and it is only the halting and hypocrisie of men that generally have put so soure and sad a vizard upon it . , that worldly wisdome , not philosophy , is perstringed in the mysterie of the tree of knowledge of good and evil . the meaning of adams flying after he had found himself naked . adam , the earthly-minded man , according to philo. what is meant by gods clothing adam and eve with hairy coats in the mystical sense . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the paradise of luxury . that history in scripture is wrote very concisely , and therefore admits of modest and judicious supplements for clearing the sense . what is meant by the cherubim and flaming sword. plato's definition of philosophy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a more large description of dying to sinne , and of the life of righteousness . that christian religion even as it referres to the external person of christ , is upon no pretence to be annull'd till the conflagration of the world . in this third chapter is the said catastrophe of the story , the fall of adam , and the original of all that misery and calamity that hath befallen mankind since the beginning of the world. of so horrid consequence was it , that our mother eve could no better suppress her longing , but upon the easie perswasion of the serpent , ate the forbidden fruit ; as a famous prelate in france , once very tragically insisted upon the point to his attentive auditory . but it should seem , a certain smith in the church , as bodinus relates , when he had heard from this venerable preacher , that universal mankinde , saving a small handful of christians , were irrevocably laps'd into eternal damnation by adams eating of an apple ; and he having the boldness to argue the matter with the prelate , and receiving no satisfaction from him in his managing the literal sense of the text , ( and his skill it should seem went no further ) the smith at last broke out into these words , tam multas rixas pro re tantilla ineptè excitari ; as if he should have said in plain english , what a deal of doe has there here been about the eating of an apple ? which blasphemous saying , as bodinus writes , had no sooner come to the ears of the court of france , but it became a proverb amongst the courtiers . so dangerous a thing is an ignorant and indiscreet preacher , and a bold , immodest auditour . bodinus in the same place does profess it is his judgement , that the unskilful insisting of our divines upon the literal sense of moses , has bred many hundred thousands of atheists . for which reason , i hope that men that are not very ignorant and humorous , but sincere lovers of god and the divine truth , will receive these my cabbala's with more favour and acceptance , especially this moral one , it being not of too big a sense to stop the mouth of any honest , free , inquisitive christian . but whatever it is , we shall further endevour to make it good in the several passages thereof . ver. . inordinate desire of pleasure . it is philo's , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the serpent is a symbole or representation of pleasure ; which he compares to that creature for three reasons ; first , because a serpent is an animal without feet , and crawls along on the earth upon his belly . secondly , because it is said to feed upon the dust of the earth . thirdly , because it has poisonous teeth that kill those that it bites . and so he assimilates pleasure to it , being a base affection , and bearing it self upon the belly , the seat of lust and intemperance , feeding on earthly things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but never nourishing her self with that heavenly food , which wisdome offers to the contemplative , by her precepts and discourses . it is much that philo should take no notice of that which is so particularly set down in the text , the subtilty of the serpent , which me thinks is notorious in pleasure , it looking so smoothly and innocently on 't , and insinuating it self very easily into the mindes of men upon that consideration , and so deceiving them ; when as other passions cannot so slily surprise us , they bidding more open warre to the quiet and happiness of mans life , as that judicious poet spencer has well observed in his legend of sir guyon or temperance , cant. . a harder lesson to learn continence in joyous pleasure , then in grievous pain : for sweetness doth allure the weaker sense , so strongly that uneathes it can refrain from that which feeble nature covets fain ; but grief and wrath that be our enemies , and foes of life , she better can restrain : yet virtue vaunts in both her victories , and guyon in them all shews goodly masteries . what a rigid and severe thing , &c. this is the conceit of such , as are either utter strangers to religion , or have not yet arrived to that comfortable result of it , that may be expected . for god takes no delight in the perpetual rack of those souls he came to redeem , but came to redeem us from that pain and torture which the love of our selves , and our untamed lusts , and pride of spirit , makes us obnoxious to ; which men being loth to part with , and not having the heart to let them be struck to the very quick , and pulled up by the roots , the work not accomplished according to the full minde and purpose of god , there are still the seeds of perpetual anxiety , sadness , and inevitable pain . for to be dead , is easement , but to be still dying , is pain ; and it is most ordinarily but the due punishment of halting and hypocrisie . and mens spirits being long sowred thus , and made sad , their profession and behaviour is such , that they fright all inexperienced young men from any tolerable compliance in matters of religion , thinking that when they are once engaged there , they are condemned ad fodinas for ever , and that they can never emerge out of this work and drudgery in those dark caverns , till they die there like the poor americans , inslaved and over-wrought by the merciless spaniard . but verily if we have but the patience to be laid low enough , the same hand that depressed us , will exalt us above all hope and expectation . for if we be sufficiently baptized into the death of christ , we shall assuredly be made partakers of his resurrection to life , and that glorious liberty of the sons of god , according as it is written , if the son make you free , then are you free indeed ; free from sin , and secure from the power of any temptation . but if mortification has not had its perfect work , too mature a return of the sweetness of the animal life , may prove like the countreymans cherishing the snake by the fire side , which he had as he thought taken up dead in the snow , it will move and hisse , and bite , and sting . the strong presages of the manifold corporeal delights , and satisfactions of the flesh , may grow so big and boisterous in the minde , that the soul may deem her self too straitly girt up , and begin to listen to such whispers of the serpent as this ; what a rigid and severe thing is this business of religion ? &c. and account her self if she be not free to every thing , that she is as good as free to nothing . ver. , . but the womanish part in adam . 't is but one and the same soul in man entertaining a dialogue with her self that is set out by these three parts : the serpent , adam , and the woman . and here the soul recollecting her self , cannot but confess , that religion denies her no honest , nor fitting pleasure that is not hazardous to her greater happiness , and bethinks her self in what peril she is of losing the divine life , and due sense of god , if she venture thus promiscuously to follow her own will , and not measure all her actions and purposes by the divine light that for the present is at hand to direct her . ver. . but the serpent , &c. the sense of this verse is , that the eager desire of pleasure had wrought it self so far into the sweetness of the animal life , that it clouded the mans judgement , and made him fondly hope that the being so freely alive to his own will was no prejudice to the will of the spirit , and the life of god which was in him , when as yet notwithstanding the apostle expresly writes , what fellowship is there betwixt righteousness & unrighteousness ? what communion betwixt light and darkness ? what agreement betwixt christ and belial ? and he elsewhere tells us , that christ gave himself for his church , that he might so throughly purge it and sanctifie it , that it should have neither spot nor wrinkle : but that it should be holy and unblameable , a true virgin bride clothed with his divine life and glory . and those men that are so willing to halt betwixt two , the flesh and the spirit , and have house-room enough to entertain them both , ( as if there could be any friendship and communion betwixt them ) let them seriously consider whether this opinion be not the same that deceived adam was of , and let them suspect the same sad event , and acknowledge it to arise from the self-same principle , the inordinate desire of pleasing their own wills , without the allowance of the divine light , and consulting with the will of god. ver. . skill and experience in things . and some men make it no sin , but warrantable knowledge to know the world , and account others fools that are ignorant of that wicked mysterie . for man would be no slave or idiot , but know his own liberty , and gain experience , as he pretends , by the making use of it . but that the accurate exercise of reason in the knowledge of gods marvellous works in nature , or those innocent delightful conclusions in geometry , and arithmetick , and the like ; that these parts of knowledge should be perstringed by moses in this history , it seems to me not to have the least probability in it : for there are so very few in the world , whose mindes are carried any thing seriously to such objects , that it had not been worth the taking notice of . and then again it is plain that the miscarriage is from the affectation of such kinde of knowledge , as the woman , the flowring life of the body , occasioned adam to transgresse in . wherefore it is the fulfilling of the various desires of the flesh , not an high aspire after intellectual contemplations ; for they respect the masculine faculties , not the feminine , that made way to the transgression . wherefore i say , the wisdome that the serpent here promised , was not natural philosophy , or mathematicks , or any of those innocuous and noble accomplishments of the understanding of man , but it was the knowledge of the world , and the wisdome of the flesh . for the life of the body is full of desires , and presages of satisfaction in the obtaining of this or the other external thing , whether it be in honour , riches , or pleasure ; and if they shake off the divine guide within them , they will have it by hook or by crook . and this worldly wisdome is so plausible in the world , and so sweetly relished by the meer natural man , that it were temptation enough for a novice , if it were but to be esteemed wise , to adventure upon such things as would initiate him therein . ver. . but the wisdome of the flesh . the apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . which wisdome of the flesh , he saith , is enmity with god. but the free and cautious use of reason , the knowledge of the fabrick of the world , and the course of natural causes , to understand the rudiments of geometry , and the principles of mechanicks , and the like ; what man that is not a fool , or a fanatick , will ever assert that god bears any enmity to these things ? for again , these kind of contemplations are not so properly the knowledg of good and evil , as of truth and falshood , the knowledge of good and evil referring to that experience we gather up in moral or political encounters . but those men that from this text of scripture would perstringe philosophy , and an honest and gerous enquiry into the true knowledge of god in nature , i suspect them partly of ignorance , and partly of a sly and partial kinde of countenancing of those pleasures that beasts have as well as men , and i think in as high a degree , especially baboons and satyres , and such like letcherous animals . and i fear there are no men so subject to such mis-interpretations of scripture , as the boldest religionists , and mock-prophets , who are very full of heat and spirits , and have their imagination too often infected with the fumes of those lower parts , the full sense and pleasure whereof they prefer before all the subtile delights of reason and generous contemplation . but leaving these sanguine-inspired seers , to the sweet deception and gullery of their own corrupted fancy , let us listen and keep close to him that can neither deceive nor be deceived , i mean christ , and his holy apostles ; and now in particular , let us consider that grave and pious monition of s. peter , beloved , i beseech you , as strangers and pilgrims , abstain from fleshly lusts that warre against the soul . wherein , this holy man instructed of god , plainly intimates that the soul in this world is as a traveller in a strange countrey , and that she is journeying on to a condition more sutable to her , then this in the body . whence it follows , that the tender patronizing of those pleasures that are mortal and die with the body , is a badg of a poor , base , degenerate minde , and unacquainted with her own nature and dignity . ver. . how naked now he was , and bare of all strength and power to divine and holy things . this was adams mistake , that he thought he could serve two masters , the will of god , and the dictates of the flesh . but thus he became estranged to the divine life and power , which will not dwell in a body that is subject unto sin ; for the holy spirit of discipline will fly deceit , and remove from thoughts that are without understanding , ( viz. such as are suggested and pursued at randome ) and will not abide when unrighteousnesse cometh in . ver. . could not endure the presence of it . for the divine light now was only a convincer of his miscarriages , but administred nothing of the divine love and power , as it does to them that are obedient and sincere followers of its precepts , and therefore adam could no more endure the presence of it , then sore eyes the sun or candle-light . ver. . persisted and came up closer to him . this divine light is god , as he is manifested in the conscience of man , but his love and power are not fit to be communicated to adam in this dissolute and disobedient condition he is in , but meerly conviction , to bring him to repentance . and after the hurry of his inordinate pleasures and passions , when he was for a time left in the suds , as they call it , this light of conscience did more strictly , and particularly sift and examine him , and he might well wonder with himself that he found himself so much afraid to commune with his own heart . ver. . ingenuously confessed . for he presently found out the reason why he was thus estranged from the divine light , because he found himself naked of that power and good affection he had in divine things before , having lost those by promiscuously following the wilde suggestions of his own inordinate will , as you see in the following verse . wherefore he had no minde to be convinced of any obligation to such things as he felt in himself no power left to perform , nor any inclination unto . ver. . the sad event upon his disobedience . adams conscience resolved all this confusion of minde into his disobedience and following his own will , without any rule or guidance from the will of god. ver. . his rational faculties , and said . like that in the comedian . homo sum , humani nihil à me alienum puto . and so commonly men reason themselves into an allowance of sin , by pretending humane infirmities or natural frailties . ver. . that he kept his feminine faculties in no better order . that 's the foolish and mischievous sophistry amongst men , whereby they impose upon themselves , that because such and such things may be done , and that they are but the suggestions of nature , which is the work of god in the world , that therefore they may do them , how , and in what measure they please ; but here the divine light does not chastise adam for the exercise of his feminine faculties , but that in the exercise of them they were not regulated by an higher and more holy rule , and that he kept them in no more subjection unto the masculine . to which he had nothing to say , but , &c. the meaning is , that adams temptations were very strong , and so accommodate to the vigorous life of the body , that , as he thought , he could not resist . but the will of man assisted by god , as adam's was , if it be sincere , what can it not doe ? ver. . then the divine light began to chastise the serpent . from this verse to the . there seems to be a description of the conscience of a man plainly convincing him of all the ugliness and inconveniencies of those sinful courses he is engaged in , with some hints also of the advantages of the better life , if he converted to it , which is like a present flame kindled in his minde for a time , but the true love of the divine life , and the power of grace being not also communicated unto his soul , and his body being unpurg'd of the filth it has contracted by former evil courses , this flame is presently extinct , and all those monitions and representations of what so nearly concerned him are drowned in oblivion , and he presently settles to his old ill ways again . that it crept basely upon the belly . see what has been said out of philo upon ver . . ver. . but might i once descend so far . this the divine light might be very well said to speak in adam . for his conscience might well re-minde him , how grateful a sense of the harmless joyes of the body he had in his state of obedience and sincerity ; and if the divine light had wrought it self into a more full and universal possession of all his faculties , the regulated joyes of the body , which had been the off-spring of the woman , had so far exceeded the tumultuous pleasures of inordinate desires , that they would like the sun-beams playing upon a fire , extinguish the heat thereof , as is already said in this fifteenth verse . ver. . so that the kindly joy of the health of the body shall be much depraved . the divine light in the conscience of adam might very well say all this , he having had already a good taste of it in all likelihood , having found himself after inordinate satiating his furious desires of pleasure in a dull , languid , nauseating condition , though new recruits spurred him up to new follies . for the moral cabbala does not suppose it was one single mistaken act that brought adam to this confusion of minde , but disobedience at large , and leading a life unguided by the light and law of god. earthly minded adam . philo calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the earthly minde , pag. . ver. , , . adams conscience was so awakened by the divine light and reason , and experience so instructed him for the present , that he could easily read his own doom , if he persisted in these courses of disobedience , that he should be prick'd and vex'd in his wilde rangings after inordinate pleasure all the while the earthly mind was his light & guide . but after all this conviction , what way adam would settle in , did not god visit him with an higher pitch of superadvenient grace that would conveigh faith , power , and affection unto him , you see in the verse immediately following . ver. . adam was not sufficiently . for meer conviction of light disjoin'd from faith , power , and affection , may indeed disturb the minde and confound it , but is not able of it self to compose it and settle it to good , in men that have contracted a custome of evil . called her , my life . so soon as this reproof and castigation of the divine light manifested in adams conscience was over , he forthwith falls into the same sense of things , and pursues the same resolutions that he had in designe before , and very feelingly concludes with himself , that be that as true as it will , that his conscience dictated unto him , yet nothing can be more true then this ; that the joy of his body was a necessary solace of life , and therefore he would set up his happiness in the improvement thereof . and so adhering in his affection to it , counted it his very life , and that there was no living at all without it . they are almost the words of philo , speaking of the sense of the body , in which was this corporeal joy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. which corporeal sense the earthly minde in man , properly therefore called adam , when he saw efformed , though it was really the death of the man , yet he called it his life . this is philo's exposition of this present verse . ver. . put hairy coats . the philosophick cabbala , and the text have a marvellous fit and easie congruency in this place . and this moral sense will not seem hard , if you consider such phrases as these in scripture ; but as for his enemies let them be clothed with shame ; and elsewhere , let them be clothed with rebuke and dishonour ; besides other places to that purpose . and to clothe men according to their conditions and quality , what is more ordinary , or more fit and natural ? as those that are fools they ordinarily clothe them in a fools coat . and so adams will and affection being carried so resolvedly to the brutish life , it is not incongruous to conceive that the divine light judging them very brutes , the reproach she gives them is set out in this passage of clothing them with the skins of beasts . the meaning therefore of this verse is , that the divine light in the conscience of adam had another bout with him , and that adam was convinced that he should grow a kinde of a brute , by the courses he meant to follow . and indeed he was content so to be , as a man may well conceive , the pleasure of sin having so weakned all the powers of that higher life in him , that there was little or nothing , especially for the present , able to carry him at all upwards towards heaven and holiness . and of a truth , vile epicurisme , and sensuality will make the soul of man so degenerate and blinde , that he will not only be content to slide into brutish immorality , but please himself in this very opinion that he is a real brute already , an ape , satyre , or baboon , and that the best of men are no better , saving that civilizing of them and industrious education has made them appear in a more refined shape , and long inculcate precepts have been mistaken for connate principles of honesty and natural knowledge , otherwise there be no indispensable grounds of religion and virtue , but what has hapned to be taken up by over-ruling custome . which things , i dare say , are as easily confutable , as any conclusion in mathematicks is demonstrable . but as many as are thus sottish , let them enjoy their own wildeness and ignorance , it is sufficient for a good man that he is conscious unto himself that he is more nobly descended , better bred and born , and more skilfully taught , by the purged faculties of his own minde . ver. . design'd the contrary . the mercy of the almighty is such to poor man , that his weak and dark spirit cannot be always so resolvedly wicked as he is contented to be ; wherefore it is a fond surmise of desperate men , that do all the violence they can to the remainders of that light and principle of religion , and honesty left in them , hoping thereby to come to rest and tranquillity of minde , by laying dead , or quite obliterating all the rules of godliness & morality out of their souls . for it is not in their power so to do , nor have they any reason to promise themselves they are hereby secure from the pangs of conscience . for some passages of providence or other may so awaken them , that they shall be forced to acknowledg their errour and rebellion with unexpressible bitterness and confusion of spirit . and the longer they have run wrong , the more tedious journey they have to return back . wherefore it is more safe to close with that life betime , that when it is attained to , neither deserves nor is obnoxious to any change or death ; i mean when we have arrived to the due measure of it . for this is the natural accomplishment of the soul , all else but rust and dirt that lies upon it . ver. . out of this paradise of luxury . the english translation takes no notice of any more paradises then one , calling it always the garden of eden . but the seventy more favourable to our moral cabbala , that which they call a garden in eden at first , they after name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which may signifie the garden of luxury . but whether there be any force at all in this or no , that supplement i have made in the foregoing verse will make good the sense of our cabbala . and in the very letter and history of the scripture , if a man take notice , he must of necessity make a supply of something or another to pass to what follows with due cohaesion and clearness of sense . so in the very next chapter , where god dooms cain to be a vagabond , and he cryes out that every man that meets him will kill him , according to the concise story of the text ; there was none but adam and eve in the world to meet him , and yet there is a mark set upon him by god as if there had been then several people in the world , into whose hands he might fall , and lose his life by them . and then again at ver . . cain had no sooner got into the land of nod , but he has a wife and a childe by her , and he is forthwith said to build a city , when as there is no mention of any but himself , his wife , and his childe to be the artificers ; but any ingenious reader will easily make to himself fitting supplements , ever supposing due distances of time and right preparations to all that is said to be acted . and so in the story of samson , where he is said to take three hundred foxes , it may be rationally supposed , that countrey was full of such creatures , that he had a competency of time , a sufficient number to help him , and the like . that the history of scripture is very concise , no body can deny ; and therefore where easie , natural , and agreeable supplements will clear the sense , i conceive it is very warrantable to suppose some such supplies , and for a paraphrast , judiciously to interweave them . but now that paradise at first should signifie a state of divine pleasure , and afterward of sensual voluptuousness , it is no more harsh then that adam one while is the spiritual or intellectual man , another while the earthly and carnal . for one and the same natural thing may be a symbole of contrary spiritual mysteries . so a lion and a serpent are figures of christ , as well as of the devil ; and therefore it is not so hard to admit that this garden of eden may emblematize , while adam is discours'd of as innocent and obedient to god , the delights of the spirit ; but after his forsaking god , the pleasures of the flesh ; and consequently , that the fruit of the tree of life in the one , may be perseverance and establishment in the divine life ; in the other , a settlement and fixedness in the brutish and sensual . ver. . the manly faculties of reason and conscience . these i conceive may be understood by the cherubim and flaming sword. for the cherubim bear the image of a man , and reason is a cutting , dividing thing like a sword , the stoicks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dividing and distinguishing reason . for reason is nothing but a distinct discernment of the idea's of things , whereby the minde is able to sever what will not sute , and lay together what will. but if any body will like better of philo's interpretation here , of the cherubim and flaming sword , who makes the cherubim to signifie the goodness and power of god ; the flaming sword , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the effectual and operative wisdome or word of god ; it does not at all clash with what we have already set down . for my self also suppose , that god by his son the eternal word works upon the reason and conscience of man : for that word is living and powerful , sharper then any two-edged sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit , and of the joints and marrow , and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart , neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight , but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do , heb. . that he could not set up his rest for ever . assuredly a mans heart is not so in his own hand , that he can do himself all the mischief he is contented to do . for we are more gods then our own , and his goodness and power has dominion over us . and therefore let not a man vainly fancy , that by violently running into all enormity of life , and extinguishing all the principles of piety and virtue in him , that he shall be able thus to hide himself from god , and never be re-minded of him again for ever . for though a man may happen thus to forget god for a time , yet he can never forget us , sith all things lie open to his sight . and the power of his ever-living word will easily cut through all that thickness and darkness , which we shrowd our selves in , and wound us so , as to make us look back with shame and sorrow at a time that we least thought of . but that our pain may be the lesse , and our happiness commence the sooner , it will be our wisdome to comply with the divine light betimes ; for the sooner we begin , the work is the easier , and will be the more timely dispatch'd through the power of god working in us . but this i must confess ( and i think my self bound , to bear witness to so true and useful a mysterie wrapt up in this mosaical covering ) that there is no other passage nor return into happiness then by death . whence plato also that had been acquainted with these holy writings , has defined philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the meditation of death , viz. the dying to the lust of the flesh and inordinate desires of the body ; which purgatory if we had once passed through , there would soon spring up that morning joy , the resurrection from the dead , and our arrival to everlasting life and glory . and there is no other way then this that is manifestable either by scripture , reason , or experience . but those that through the grace of god and a vehement thirst after the divine righteousness , have born the crosse till the perfect death of the body of sin , and make it their business to have no more sense nor relish of themselves , or their own particular persons , then if they were not at all , they being thus demolished as to themselves , and turned into a chaos or dark nothingness , as i may so speak , they become thereby fitted for the new creation . and this personal life being thus destroyed , god calls unto them in the dead of the night , when all things are silent about them , awakes them and raises them up , and breathes into them the breath of everlasting life , and ever after actuates them by his own spirit , and takes all the humane faculties unto himself , guiding or allowing all their operations , always holding up the spirit of man so , that he will never sink into sin ; and from henceforth death and sorrow is swallowed up for ever , for the sting of death is sin. but whatever liberty and joy men take to themselves that is not founded in this new life , is false and frivolous , and will end but in sadness , bitterness , and intolerable thraldome . for the corporeal life and sense will so deeply have sunk into the soul , that it will be beyond all measure hard and painfull to dis-intangle her . but as many as have passed the death , have arrived to that life that abides for ever and ever . and this life is pure and immaculate love , and this love is god , as he is communicable unto man , and is the sole life and essence of virtue truly so called ; or rather , as all colours are but the reflexion of the rayes of the sun so all virtue is but this one variously coloured and figured from the diversity of objects and circumstances . but when she playes with ease within her own pure and undisturbed light , she is most lovely and amiable ; and if she step out into zeal , satyrical rebuke , and contestation , it is a condescent and debasement for the present , but the design is , a more enlarged exaltation of her own nature , and the getting more universal foot-hold in other persons , by dislodging her deformed enemy . for the divine love is the love of the divine beauty , and that beauty is the divine life which would gladly insinuate it self , and become one with that particular principle of natural life , the soul of man. and whatever man she has taken hold upon , and won him to her self , she does so actuate and guide , as that whatever he has , she gets the use of , and improves it to her own interest , that is , the advancement of her self . but she observing that her progress and speed is not so fast as she could wish , ( that is , that mankind is not made so fully and so generally happy by her , as she could desire , and as they are capable of ) she raises in a man his anger & indignation against those things that are obstacles and impediments in her way , beating down by solid reason such things as pretend to reason , and such things as are neither the genuine off-spring of the humane faculties , nor the effects of her own union with them , discountenancing them , and deriding them as monsters and mongrel things , they being no accomplishment of the humane nature , nor any gift of the divine . she observing also that mankind is very giddily busie to improve their natural faculties without her , and promise themselves very rare effects of their art and industry , which if they could bring to passe , would be in the end but a scourge and plague to them , and make them more desperately bold , sensual , atheistical , and wicked , ( for no fire but that of gods spirit in a man can clear up the true knowledge of himself unto us ) she therefore taketh courage ( though she see her self slighted , or unknown ) and deservedly magnifies her self above all the effects of art and humane industry , and boldly tells the world , what petty and poor things they are if compared unto her . nor doth she at all stick to pour out her scorn and derision unto the full upon those garish effects of fanatical fancy , where melancholy dictates strange and uncouth dreams , out of a dark hole , like the whispers of the heathen oracles . for it is not only an injury to her self , that such antick phantasmes are preferred before the pure simplicity of her own beauty , but a great mischief to her darling the soul of man , that he should forsake those faculties she has a minde to sanctifie and take into her self , and should give himself up to meer inconsiderate imaginations , and casual impresses , chusing them for his guide , because they are strongest , not truest , and he will not so much as examine them . such like as these and several other occasions there are , that oftentimes figure the divine life in good men , and sharpen it into an high degree of zeal and anger . but whom in wrath she then wounds , she pities , as being an affectionate lover of universal mankind , though an unreconcileable disliker of their vices . i have now gone through my threefold cabbala , which i hope all sincere and judicious christians will entertain with unprejudic'd candour and kinde acceptance . for as i have lively set out the mysteries of the holy and precious life of a christian , even in the mosaical letter , so i have carefully and on purpose cleared and asserted the grand essential principles of christianity it self , as it is a particular religion , avoiding that rock of scandal , that some who are taken for no small lights in the christian world have cast before men , who attenuate all so into allegories , that they leave the very fundamentals of religion suspected , especially themselves not vouchsafing to take notice , that there is any such thing as the person of christ now existent , much lesse that he is a mediatour with god for us , or that he was a sacrifice for sin , when he hung at jerusalem upon the crosse , or that there shall be again any appearance of him in the heavens , as it was promised by the two angels to his apostles that saw him ascend ; or that there is any life to come , after the dissolution of the natural body , though our saviour christ says expresly , that after the resurrection they neither marry , nor are given in marriage , but are like the angels of god. but to be so spiritual as to interpret this of a mysterious resurrection of a man in this life , is in effect to be so truly carnal , as to insinuate there is no such thing at all as the life to come , and to adde to sadducisme , epicurisme also or worse , that is , a religious liberty of silling one anothers houses with brats of the adulterous bed , under pretence that they are now risen to that state that they may without blame commit that , which in other mortals is down-right adultery . such unlawful sporting with the letter as this , is to me no sign of a spiritual man , but of one at least indiscreet and light minded , more grosse in my conceit then hymeneus and philetas , who yet affirmed that the resurrection was past , and so allegorized away the faith of the people . for mine own part i cannot admire any mans fancies , but only his reason , modesty , discretion and miracles , the main thing being presupposed ( which yet is the birth-right of the meanest christian ) to be truly and sincerely pious . but if his imagination grow rampant , and he aspire to appear some strange thing in the world , such as was never yet heard of , that man seems to me thereby plainly to bewray his own carnality and ignorance . for there is no better truths then what are plainly set down in the scripture already , and the best , the plainest of all . so that if any one will step out to be so venerable an instructer of the world , that no man may appear to have said any thing like unto him either in his own age , or foregoing generations ; verily i am so blunt a fool as to make bold to pronounce , that i suspect the party not a little season'd with spiritual pride and melancholy : for god be thanked , the gospel is so plain a rule of life and belief to the sincere and obedient soul , that no man can adde any thing to it . but then for comparison of persons , what dotage is it for any man , because he can read the common alphabet of honesty and a pious life , in the history of the old and new testament , finely allegorizing , as is conceiv'd , those external transactions to a mysterious application of what concerns the inward man , to either place himself , or for others to place him in the same level with jesus christ the son of god , the saviour of men , and prince of the highest angelical orders , who rose out of the grave by the omnipotent hand of his father , and was seen to ascend into heaven , by his apostles that gazed upon him as he passed through the clouds , and whom all true christians expect visibly to appear there again and re-visit the world according to the promise . now it seems to me a very unreasonable and rash thing , if not impious and blasphemous , to acknowledge any man whatsoever comparable to so sacred a person as our saviour christ every way approved himself , and was approved by a voice from heaven , saying , this is my beloved son , hear him . if any man therefore having none of these testimonies from above , nor being able to do any thing more then other men , shall be so unmannerly as to place himself in the same order and rank with christ the son of god , because he has got some fine fancies and phrases , and special and peculiar interpretations of scripture , which he will have immediately suggested from the spirit ; i cannot forbear again to pronounce , that this man is overtaken with an high degree of either pride or madness , and if he can perswade any others to look upon him as so sacred a prophet , that it must be in them at least inadvertency or ignorance ; nay , i think i shall not say amisse if i attribute their mistake to a kinde of pride also . for pride affects nothing more then singularity ; and therefore undervaluing the plain simplicity of ordinary christianity , such as at first sight is held forth in the gospel of christ , they think it no small privilege to have a prophet of their own ; especially they getting this advantage thereby , that they can very presently , as they fancy , censure and discern the truth or falshood of all that venture to speak out of the rode of their own sect ; as if every body were bound to conne their lessons according to their book . and it is a fine thing to become so accurately wise at so cheap a rate , and discover who is spiritual , or who is the carnal , or meer moral man. this is indeed the folly of all sects , and there is no way better that i know , to be freed from such inveiglements , then by earnestly endevouring after that which they all pretend to , and to become truly more holy and sincere then other men ; for the throughly purified man is certainly delivered from all these follies . these things i could not forbear to speak in zeal to the honour of my saviour , and the good and safety of his church . for if men once get a trick to call the world christian , where the death of christ on the crosse at jerusalem is not acknowledged a sacrifice for sin , nor himself now in his humane person a mediatour with god the father , and the head of his church militant and triumphant ; nor that there is any eternal life nor resurrection , but that in the moral or mystical sense : assuredly this will prove the most dangerous way imaginable , quite to take away that in time , which is most properly called christian religion , out of the world , and to leave meerly the name thereof behinde . but a religion so manifestly established by god in a most miraculous manner , and being so perfect , that the wit of man cannot imagine any thing more compleat , and better fitted for winning souls to god : it can be nothing but giddiness or light-mindedness , to think that this religion can be ever superannuated in the world , but that it shall last till christs corporeal appearance in the clouds . for there is no reason at all that the holy ghost should be thought to come in the flesh of some particular man , no more then god the father did under the law. for what can he tell us more or better , then christ already has told us ; or what himself may tell us without any personal shape ? and there is no prophecie of any such thing , but onely of that which is better , that christ will procure for all those that are his faithful and obedient followers , the spirit of truth and righteousnesse , and indue them with the divine life , and that it shall so at length come to pass , that justice , peace , and equity shall more universally and fully flourish in the world , then ever yet they have done . and that faith in god , and of the life to come shall be more vigorously sealed upon the hearts of men ; and that there shall be a neerer union and conjunction betwixt the humane and divine nature in us , then ever , and more frequent and sensible commerce betwixt the inhabitants of the aethereal and terrestrial region , according as i have already declared concerning the seventh day in this defence of the moral cabbala . but in the mean time though that full sabbatisme be so far off , yet i doubt not but there have been and are very sweet and joyful praelibations of it , in sundry persons , which quickens their hopes and desires of the compleatment thereof , and divine providence is not idle , all things working towards this last catastraphe ; and the heads of sects themselves , though i never saw any yet that my light and judgement could pronounce infallible and perfect , ( as i think there never will be any till christ himself come again , who will appear in no sectarian way , for himself hath given us an intimation , that if any one say , loe here is christ , or there is christ , believe it not ) yet such is the grosse ignorance or hypocrisie of ordinary carnal churches ( as they call them ) that some heads of sects , i say , have spoken very true and weighty things against them , very lively setting them out & depainting them in their own colors , insomuch that they will be able , not only to turn from them the affections of all plain hearted men , that are fast friends to the eternal righteousness of god , and prefer that before the most specious devices of arbitrarious superstition , but also to raise their anger and indignation against them . but it does not presently follow , that because a man can truly discover the gross faults & falsities that are in another , that therefore he is utterly blameless himself , and not at all imposed upon by his natural complexion , nor speaks any thing that is false , nor omits any thing that is both true and necessary . but be these sects what they will be , the grand churches themselves are so naked and obnoxious , that unlesse they cast away from them their hypocrisie , pride , and covetousnesse , they will in all likelihood raise such storms in all christendome , that in processe of time , not onely ecclesiastical but civil power it self will be involved in those ruines , and christ alone will be exalted in that day . for before he deliver up the kingdome to his father , he is to put down all rule , and all authority and power ; for he must reign till he have put all his enemies under his feet ; the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death : which as i have already signified unto you , though he be now the king of terrours , will in that great festival and sabbatisme , by reason of so sensible and palpable union betwixt the heavenly and earthly nature , be but a pleasant passage into an higher room , or to use that more mysterious expression of the rabbins concerning moses , in whose writings this sabbatisme is adumbrated , god will draw up a mans soul to himself by an amorous kisse ; for such was the death of that holy man moses , who is said to have died in moab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the kisses and embracements of god. this shall be the condition of the church of christ for many hundred years ; till the wheel of providence driving on further , and the stage of things drawing on to their last period , men shall not onely be freed from the fear and pain of death , but there shall be no capacity of dying at all . for then shall the day of the lord come , wherein the heavens shall passe away with a noise , and the elements melt with fervent heat , and the earth with all the things in it shall be burnt up . thus christ having done vengeance upon the obstinately wicked and disobedient , and fully triumphed over all his enemies , he will give up his kingdome to his father , whose vicegerent hitherto he hath been in the affairs of both men and angels . but till then whosoever by pretending to be more spiritual and mystical then other men , would smother those essential principles of the christian religion , that have reference to the external person of christ , let him phrase it as well as he will , or speak as magnificently of himself as he can , we are never to let go the plain and warrantable faith of the word , for ungrounded fancies and fine sayings . wherefore let every man seek god apart , and search out the truth in the holy scripture , preparing himself for a right understanding thereof , by stedfastly and sincerely practising such things as are plainly and uncontrovertedly contained therein , and expect illumination according to the best communication thereof , that is , answerably to our own faculties , otherwise if we bid all reason , and history , and humane helps , and acquisitions quite adiew , the world will never be rid of religious lunacies and fancies . finis . an account of what is contained in the prefaces and chapters of this book . in the preface to the reader . what is meant by the tearm cabbala , and how warrantably the literal exposition of the text may be so called . that dispensable speculations are best propounded in a sceptical manner . a clear description of the nature and digniety of reason , and what the divine logos is . the general probabilities of the truth of this present cabbala . the designe of the author in publishing of it . the literal cabbala . chap. i. the earth at first a deep miry abysse , covered over with waters , over which was a fierce wind , and through all darknesse . day made at first without a sun. the earth a floor , the heavens a transparent canopy , or strong tent over it , to keep off the upper waters or blew conspicuous sea from drowning the world . why this tent or canopy was not said to be good . the lower waters commanded into one place . herbs , flowers , and fruits of trees , before either sun or seasons of the year to ripen them . the sun created to and added the day , as a peculiar ornament thereof , as the moon and stars to the night . the creation of fish and fowl. the creation of beasts and creeping things . man created in the very shape and figure of god , but yet so , that there were made females as well as males . how man came to be lord over the rest of living creatures . how it came to pass that man feeds on the better sort of the fruits of the earth , and the beasts on the worse . p. chap. ii. the original of the jewish sabbaths , from gods resting himself from his six days labours . herbs and plants before either rain , gardning , or husbandry , and the reason why it was so . adam made of the dust of the ground , and his soul breathed in at his nosthrils . the planting of paradise . a wonderful tree there , that would continue youth , and make a man immortal upon earth : another strange tree , viz. the tree of knowledge of good and evil . the rivers of paradise , phasis , gihon , tigris , euphrates . the high commendation of matrimony . adam gives names to all kinde of creatures , except fishes . woman is made of a rib of adam , a deep sleep falling upon him , his minde then also being in a trance . the first institution of marriage . chap. iii. a subtile serpent in paradise , indued with both reason , and the power of speech , deceives the woman . the dialogue betwixt the woman and the serpent . how the shame of nakednesse came into the world . god walks in the garden , and calls to adam . the dialogue betwixt adam and god. the reasons why serpents want feet , and creep upon the ground . the reason of the antipathy betwixt men and serpents . as also of womens pangs in childe-bearing , and of their being bound in subjection to their husbands . also of the barrennesse of the earth , and of mans toil and drudgery . god teacheth adam and eve the use of leathern clothing . paradise haunted with apparitions : adam frighted from daring to taste of the tree of life , whence his posterity became mortal to this very day . the philosophick cabbala . chap. i. the world of life or forms , and the potentiality of the visible vniverse created by the tri-une god , and referr'd to a monad or unite . the vniversal immense matter of the visible world created out of nothing , and referr'd to the number two. why it was not said of this matter that it was good . the ordering of an earth or planet for making it conveniently habitable , referr'd to the number three . the immense aethereal matter , or heaven , contriv'd into suns or planets , as well primary as secondary , viz. as well earths as moons , and referr'd to the number four. the replenishing of an earth with fish and fowl , referr'd to the number five . the creation of beasts and cattel , but more chiefly of man himself , referr'd to the number six . chap. ii. gods full and absolute rest from creating any thing of anew , adumbrated by the number seven . suns and planets not only the furniture , but effects of the ethereal matter or heaven . the manner of man and other animals rising out of the earth by the power of god in nature . how it was with adam before he descended into flesh , and became a terrestrial animal . that the four cardinal virtues were in adam in his ethereal or paradisiacal condition . adam in paradise forbidden to taste or relish his own will , under pain of descending into the region of death . the masculine and feminine faculties in adam . the great pleasure and solace of the feminine faculties . the masculine faculties laid asleep , the feminine appear and act , viz. the grateful sense of the life of the vehicle . that this sense and joy of the life of the vehicle is in it self without either blame or shame . pag. chap. iii. satan tempts adam , taking advantage upon the invigoration of the life of his vehicle . the dialogue betwixt adam and satan . the masculine faculties in adam swayed by the feminine ; assent to sin against god. adam excuses the use of that wilde liberty he gave himself , discerning the plastick power somewhat awakened in him . a dispute betwixt adam and the divine light , arraigning him at the tribunal of his own conscience . satan strucken down into the lower regions of the air. a prophecy of the incarnation of the soul of the messias , and of his triumph over the head and highest powers of the rebellious angels . a decree of god to sowre and disturb all the pleasures and contentments of the terrestrial life . adam again excuses his fall , from the usefulnesse of his presence and government upon earth . adam is fully incorporated into flesh , and appears in the true shape of a terrestrial animal . that immortality is incompetible to the earthly adam , nor can his soul reach it , till she return into her ethereal vehicle . the moral cabbala . chap. i. man a microcosme or little world , in whom there are two principles , spirit and flesh . the earthly or fleshly nature appears first . the light of conscience unlistned to . the spirit of savory and affectionate discernment betwixt good and evil . the inordinate desires of the flesh driven aside and limited . hereupon the plants of righteousnesse bear fruit and flourish . the hearty and sincere love of god , and a mans neighbor , is as the sun in the soul of man. notionality and opinions the weak and faint light of the dispersed stars . those that walk in sincere love , walk in the day : they that are guided by notionality , travel in the night . the natural concupiscible brings forth by the command of god , and is corrected by devotion . the irascible also brings forth . christ the image of god is created , being a perfect ruler over all the motions of the irascible and concupiscible . the food of the divine life . the food of the animal life . the divine wisdome approves of whatsoever is simply natural , as good . chap. ii. the true sabbatisme of the sons of god. a description of men taught by god. the mysterie of that adam that comes by water and the spirit . obedience the tree of life : disobedience the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . the rivers of paradise ; the four cardinal virtues in the soul of man. the life of righteousnesse lost by disobedience . the meer contemplative and spiritual man sees the motions of the animal life , and rigidly enough censures them . that it is incompetible to man perpetually to dwell in spiritual contemplations . that upon the slaking of those , the kindly joy of the life of the body springs out , which is our eve. that this kindly joy of the body is more grateful to man in innocency , then any thing else whatsoever . nor is man mistaken in his judgement thereof . chap. iii. adam is tempted by inordinate pleasure from the springing up of the joy of the invigorated life of his body . a dialogue or dispute in the mind of adam betwixt the inordinate desire of pleasure , and the natural joy of the body . the will of adam is drawn away to assent to inordinate pleasure . adam having transgressed , is impatient of the presence of the divine light. a long conflict of conscience , or dispute betwixt adams earthly minde , and the divine light , examining him , and setting before him both his present and future condition , if he persisted in rebellion . he adheres to the joy of his body , without reason or measure , notwithstanding all the castigations and monitions of the divine light. the divine light takes leave of adam therefore for the present , with deserved scorn and reproach . the doom of the eternal god concerning laps'd man , that will not suffer them to settle in wickednesse , according to their own depraved wills and desires . the contents of the defence of the threefold cabbala . in the introduction to the defence . diodorus his mistake concerning moses , and other law-givers , that have professed themselves to have received their laws from either god or some good angel . reasons why moses began his history with the creation of the world . the sun and moon the same with the aegyptians osiris and isis , and how they came to be worshipped for gods. the apotheosis of mortal men , such as bacchus and ceres , how it first came into the world . that the letter of the scripture speaks ordinarily in philosophical things according to the sense and imagination of the vulgar . that there is a philosophical sense that lies hid in the letter of the three first chapters of genesis . that there is a moral or mystical sense , not only in these three chapters , but in several other places of the scripture . the contents of the defence of the literal cabbala . chap. i. the genuine sense of in the beginning . the difference of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neglected by the seventy , who translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the ground of their mistake discovered , who conceive moses to intimate that the matter is uncreated . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then ventus magnus . that the first darknesse was not properly night . why the seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firmamentum , and that it is in allusion to a firmly pitched tent. that the sensible effects of the sun invited the heathen to idolatry , and that their oracles taught them to call him by the name of jao . that the prophet jeremy divides the day from the sun , speaking according to the vulgar capacity . the reason why the stars appear on this side the upper caeruleous sea. the opinion of the anthropomorphites , and of what great consequence it is for the vulgar to imagine god in the shape of a man. aristophanes his story in plato of men and womens growing together at first , as if they made both but one animal . chap. ii. the notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to the breathing of adams soul into his nosthrils . the exact situation of paradise . that gihon is part of euphrates ; pison , phasis , or phasi-tigris . that the madianites are called aethiopians . that paradise was seated about mesopotamia , argued by six reasons . that it was more particularly seated where now apamia stands in ptolemee's maps . the prudence of moses in the commendation of matrimony . why adam is not recorded to have given names to the fishes . abraham ben ezra's conceit of the names of adam and eve , as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . moses his wise anthypophora concerning the natural shame of nakednesse . chap. iii. how much it saves the credit of our first parents , that the serpent was found the prime author of the transgression . that according to s. basil all the living creatures of paradise could speak : undeniable reasons that the serpent could , according to the literal cabbala . the opinion of the anthropomorphites true , according to the literal cabbala . that the serpent went upright before the fall , was the opinion of s. basil . a story of the easie delivery of a certain poor woman of liguria . that the general calamities that lie upon mankinde , came by the transgression of a positive law , how well accommodate it is to the scope of moses . that paradise was not the whole earth . the apparitions in paradise called by theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the defence of the philosophick cabbala . chap. i. why heaven and light are both made symbols of the same thing , viz. the world of life . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimate a trinity . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of the eternal wisdome the son of god , who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well in philo as the new testament . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the holy ghost . the fit agreement of plato's triad with the trinity of the present cabbala . the pythagorick names or nature of a monad or unite applyed to the first days work . what are the upper waters : and that souls that descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are the naides or water nymphes in porphyrius . that matter of it self is unmoveable . r. bechai his notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very happily explained out of des cartes his philosophy . that vniversal matter is the second days creation , fully made good by the names and property of the number two. the nature of the third days work set off by the number three . that the most learned do agree that the creation was perfected at once . the notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangely agreeing with the most notorious conclusions of the cartesian philosophy . that the corporeal world was universally erected into form and motion on the fourth day , is most notably confirmed by the titles and propertie of the number four. the true meanning of the pythagorick oath , wherein they swore by him that taught them the mysterie of the tetractys . that the tetractys was a symbole of the whole philosophick cabbala , that lay couched under the text of moses . why fish and fowl created in the same day . why living creatures were said to be made in the fift and sixt days . and why the whole creation was comprehended within the number six . , chap. ii. the number seven a fit symbole of the sabbath , or rest of god. of adams rising out of the ground , as other creatures did . that pison is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and denotes prudence . the mystical meaning of havilah . that gihon is the same that nilus , sihor , or siris , and that pison is ganges . the justice of the aethiopians . that gihon is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and denotes that virtue . as hiddekel , fortitude . that those expressions of the souls sleep , and death in the body , so frequent amongst the platonists , were borrowed from the mosaical cabbala . fallen angels assimilated to the beasts of the field . the meaning of those platonical phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the like . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in platonisme is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in moses , that signifies angels as well as god. that there are three principles in man , according to plato's school ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that this last is eve. chap. iii. the serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in pherecydes syrus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of spirits haunting fields and and desolate places . the right notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that satan upon his tempting adam , was cast down lower towards the earth , with all his accomplices . plato's prophecie of christ . the reasonablenesse of divine providence in exalting christ above the highest angels . that adams descension into his terrestrial body , was a kind of death . how incongruous it is to the divine goodnesse , sarcastically to insult over frail man fallen into tragical misery . that it is a great mercy of god that we are not immortal upon earth . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one . a summary representation of the strength of the whole philosophick cabbala . pythagoras deemed the son of apollo , that he was acquainted with the cabbala of moses : that he did miracles ; as also abaris , empedocles , and epimenides , being instructed by him . plato also deemed the son of apollo . socrates his dream concerning him . that he was learned in the mosaical cabbala . the miraculous power of plotinus his soul. cartesius compared with bezaliel and aholiab , and whether he was inspired or no. the cabbalists apology . the defence of the moral cabbala . chap. i. what is meant by moral , explained out of philo. that the light in the first day improv'd to the height , is adam , in the sixt , christ , according to the spirit . in what sense we our selves may be said to do what god does in us . why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are rendred ignorance and inquiry . plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , applyed to the fourth days progresse . that virtue is not an extirpation , but regulation of the passions , according to the minde of the pythagoreans . plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , applyed to the sixt days progresse . what the image of god is , plainly set down out of s. paul and plato . the divine principle in us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of plotinus . the distinction of the heavenly and earthly man , out of philo. the imposture of still and fixed melancholy , and that it is not the true divine rest , and precious sabbath of the soul. a compendious rehearsal of the whole allegory of the six days creation . p. chap. ii. the full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that keeps men from entring into the true sabbath . the great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of nature from the suggestions of sin. that the growth of a true christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the priest . the meaning of this is he that comes by water and blood. the meaning of repent , for the kingdome of heaven is at hand . the seventh thousand years , the great sabbatism of the church of god. that there will be then frequent converse betwixt men and angels . the tree of life , how fitly in the mystical sense , said to be in the midst of the garden . a twofold death contracted by adams disobedience . the masculine and feminine faculties in man what they are . actuating a body , an essential operation of the soul ; and the reason of that so joyful appearance of eve to the humane nature . , chap. iii. a story of a dispute betwixt a prelate and a black-smith , concerning adams eating of the apple . what is meant by the subtilty or deceit of the serpent . that religion wrought to its due height is a very chearful state ; and it is only the halting and hypocrisie of men that generally have put so soure and sad a vizard upon it . , that worldly wisdome , not philosophy , is perstringed in the mysterie of the tree of knowledge of good and evil . the meaning of adams flying after he had found himself naked . adam , the earthly-minded man , according to philo. what is meant by gods clothing adam and eve with hairy coats in the mystical sense . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the paradise of luxury . that history in scripture is wrote very concisely , and therefore admits of modest and judicious supplements for clearing the sense . what is meant by the cherubim and flaming sword. plato's definition of philosophy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a more large description of dying to sinne , and of the life of righteousness . that christian religion even as it referres to the external person of christ , is upon no pretence to be annull'd till the conflagration of the world . errata . pag. . lin . . read sacred . p. ▪ l. . r. sensus . p. . l. . r. wilde . p. . l. . r. goodly . p. . l. . r. run . p. . l. . r. generous . finis . a review of the theory of the earth and of its proofs, especially in reference to scripture burnet, thomas, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : b) a review of the theory of the earth and of its proofs, especially in reference to scripture burnet, thomas, ?- . [ ], p. printed by r. norton for walter kettilby ..., london : . attributed to thomas burnet. cf. bm. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng burnet, thomas, ?- . -- telluris theoria sacra. creation -- early works to . philosophy, ancient. cosmology. earth. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a review of the theory of the earth , and of its proofs : especially in reference to scripture . london , printed by r. norton , for walter kettilby , at the bishop's-head in st. paul's church-yard . . a review of the theory of the earth . to take a review of this theory of the earth , which we have now finish'd , we must consider , first , the extent of it : and then the principal parts whereof it consists . it reaches , as you see , from one end of the world to the other : from the first chaos to the last day , and the consummation of all things . this , probably , will run the length of seven thousand years : which is a good competent space of time to exercise our thoughts upon , and to observe the several scenes which nature and providence bring into view within the compass of so many ages . the matter and principal parts of this theory , are such things as are recorded in scripture . we do not feign a subject , and then descant upon it , for diversion ; but endeavour to give an intelligible and rational account of such matters of fact , past or future , as are there specified and declar'd . what it hath seem'd good to the holy ghost to communicate to us , by history or prophecy , concerning the several states and general changes of this earth , makes the argument of our discourse . therefore the things themselves must be taken for granted , in one sence or other : seeing , besides all other proofs , they have the authority of a revelation ; and our business is only to give such an explication of them , as shall approve it self to the faculties of man , and be conformable to scripture . we will therefore first set down the things themselves , that make the subject matter of this theory : and remind you of our explication of them . then recollect the general proofs of that explication , from reason and nature : but more fully and particularly shew how it is grounded upon scripture . the primary phaenomena whereof we are to give an account , are these five or six . i. the original of the earth from a chaos . ii. the state of paradise , and the ante-diluvian world. iii. the universal deluge . iv. the universal conflagration . v. the renovation of the world , or the new heavens and new earth . vi. the consummation of all things . these are unquestionably in scripture : and these all relate , as you see , to the several forms , states , and revolutions of this earth . we are therefore oblig'd to give a clear and coherent account of these phaenomena , in that order and consecution wherein they stand to one another . there are also in scripture some other things , relating to the same subjects , that may be call'd the secondary ingredients of this theory , and are to be referr'd to their respective primary heads . such are , for instance , i. the longevity of the ante-diluvians . ii. the rupture of the great abyss , at the deluge . iii. the appearing of the rainbow after the deluge : as a sign that there never should be a second flood . these things scripture hath also left upon record : as directions and indications how to understand the ante-diluvian state , and the deluge it self . whosoever therefore shall undertake to write the theory of the earth , must think himself bound to give us a just explication of these secondary phaenomena , as well as of the primary ; and that in such a dependance and connexion , as to make them give and receive light from one another . this part of the task is concerning the world behind us , times and things pass'd , that are already come to light . the remainder is concerning the world before us , times and things to come : that lie yet in the bosome of providence , and in the seeds of nature . and these are chiefly the conflagration of the world , and the renovation of it . when these are over and expir'd , then comes the end , as s. paul says . then the heavens and the earth fly away , as s. john says . then is the consummation of all things , and the last period of this sublunary world , whatsoever it is . thus far the theorist must go , and pursue the motions of nature , till all things are brought to rest and silence . and in this latter part of the theory , there is also a collateral phaenomenon , the millennium , or thousand years reign of christ and his saints , upon earth , to be consider'd . for this , according as it is represented in scripture , does imply a change in the natural world , as well as in the moral : and therefore must be accounted for , in the theory of the earth . at least it must be there determin'd , whether that state of the world , which is singular and extraordinary , will be before or after the conflagration these are the principals and incidents of this theory of the earth , as to the matter and subject of it : which , you see , is both important , and wholly taken out of scripture . as to our explication of these points , that is sufficiently known , being set down at large in four books of this theory . therefore it remains only , having seen the matter of the theory , to examine the form of it , and the proofs of it : for from these two things it must receive its censure . as to the form , the characters of a regular theory seem to be these three ; few and easie postulatums : union of parts : and a fitness to answer , fully and clearly , all the phaenomena to which it is to be apply'd . we think our hypothesis does not want any of these characters . as to the first , we take but one single postulatum for the whole theory : and that an easie one , warranted both by scripture and antiquity : namely , that this earth rise , at first , from a chaos . as to the second , union of parts , the whole theory is but one series of causes and effects from that first chaos . besides , you can scarce admit any one part of it , first , last , or intermediate , but you must , in consequence of that , admit all the rest . grant me but that the deluge is truly explain'd , and i 'le desire no more for proof of all the theory . or , if you begin at the other end , and grant the new heavens and new earth after the conflagration , you will be led back again to the first heavens and first earth that were before the flood . for st. john says , that new earth was without a sea : apoc. . . and it was a renovation , or restitution to some former state of things : there was therefore some former earth without a sea ; which not being the present earth , it must be the ante-diluvian . besides , both st. john , and the prophet isaias , have represented the new heavens and new earth , as paradisiacal ; according as is prov'd , book the th . ch . . and having told us the form of the new-futureearth , that it will have no sea , it is a reasonable inference that there was no sea in the paradisiacal earth . however from the form of this future earth , which st. john represents to us , we may at least conclude , that an earth without a sea is no chimaera , or impossibility : but rather a fit seat and habitation for the just and the innocent . thus you see the parts of the theory link and hold fast one another : according to the second character . and as to the third , of being suited to the phaenomena , we must refer that to the next head , of proofs . it may be truly said , that bare coherence and union of parts is not a sufficient proof ; the parts of a fable or romance may hang aptly together , and yet have no truth in them . this is enough indeed to give the title of a just composition to any work , but not of a true one : till it appear that the conclusions and explications are grounded upon good natural evidence , or upon good divine authority . we must therefore proceed now to the third thing to be consider'd in a theory , what its proofs are : or the grounds upon which it stands , whether sacred or natural . according to natural evidence , things are proved from their causes or their effects . and we think we have this double order of proofs for the truth of our hypothesis . as to the method of causes , we proceed from what is more simple , to what is more compound : and build all upon one foundation . go but to the head of the theory , and you will see the causes lying in a train before you , from first to last . and tho' you did not know the natural history of the world , past or future , you might , by intuition , foretell it , as to the grand revolutions and successive faces of nature , through a long series of ages . if we have given a true account of the motions of the chaos , we have also truly form'd the first habitable earth . and if that be truly form'd , we have thereby given a true account of the state of paradise , and of all that depends upon it . and not of that onely , but also of the universal deluge . both these we have shewn in their causes : the one from the form of that earth , and the other from the fall of it into the abyss . and tho' we had not been made acquainted with these things by antiquity , we might , in contemplation of the causes , have truly conceiv'd them , as properties or incidents to the first earth . but as to the deluge , i do not say , that we might have calculated the time , manner , and other circumstances of it : these things were regulated by providence , in subordination to the moral world. but that there would be , at one time or other , a disruption of that earth , or of the great abyss : and in consequence of it , an universal deluge : so far , i think , the light of a theory might carry us . furthermore , in consequence of this disruption of the primeval earth , at the deluge , the present earth was made hollow and cavernous : and by that means , ( due preparations being used ) capable of combustion , or of perishing by an universal fire : yet , to speak ingenuously , this is as hard a step to be made , in vertue of natural causes , as any in the whole theory . but in recompence of that defect , the conflagration is so plainly and literally taught us in scripture , and avow'd by antiquity , that it can fall under no dispute , as to the thing it self . and as to a capacity or disposition to it in the present earth , that i think is sufficiently made out . then , the conflagration admitted , in that way it is explain'd in the d. book : the earth , you see , is , by that fire , reduc'd to a second chaos . a chaos truly so call'd . and from that , as from the first , arises another creation , or new heavens and a new earth ; by the same causes , and in the same form , with the paradisiacal . this is the renovation of the world : the restitution of all things : mentioned both by scripture and antiquity : and by the prophet isaiah , st. peter and st. john , call'd the new heavens and new earth . with this , as the last period , and most glorious scene of all humane affairs , our theory concludes , as to this method of causes , whereof we are now speaking . i say , here it ends as to the method of causes . for tho' we pursue the earth still further , even to its last dissolution : which is call'd the consummation of all things : yet all , that we have superadded upon that occasion , is but problematical : and may , without prejudice to the theory , be argued and disputed on either hand . i do not know , but that our conjectures there may be well grounded : but however , not springing so directly from the same root , or , at least , not by ways , so clear and visible , i leave that part undecided . especially seeing we pretend to write no more than the theory of the earth , and therefore as we begin no higher than the chaos , so we are not obliged to go any further than to the last state of a terrestrial consistency : which is that of the new heavens and the new earth . this is the first natural proof , from the order of causes . the second is from the consideration of effects . namely of such effects as are already in being . and therefore this proof can extend onely to that part of the theory , that explains the present and past form and phaenomena of the earth . what is future , must be left to a further trial , when the things come to pass , and present themselves to be examin'd and compar'd with the hypothesis . as to the present form of the earth , we call all nature to witness for us : the rocks and the mountains , the hills and the valleys , the deep and wide sea , and the caverns of the ground : let these speak , and tell their origine : how the body of the earth came to be thus torn and mangled : if this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine : and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole globe . but we have given such a full explication of this , in the first part of the theory , from chapt. the th . to the end of that treatise , that we dare stand to the judgment , of any that reads those four chapters , to determine if the hypothesis does not answer all those phaenomena , easily and adequately . the next phaenomenon to be consider'd , is the deluge , with its adjuncts . this also is fully explain'd by our hypothesis , in the d . d. and th . chapters of the first book . where it is shewn , that the mosaical deluge , that is , an universal inundation of the whole earth , above the tops of the highest mountains , made by a breaking open of the great abyss , ( for thus far moses leads us ) is fully explain'd by this hypothesis , and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method . there are no sources or stores of water sufficient for such an effect : that may be drawn upon the earth , and drawn off again , but by supposing such an abyss , and such a disruption of it , as the theory represents . lastly , as to the phaenomena of paradise and the ante-diluvian world , we have set them down in order in the d . book : and apply'd to each of them its proper explication , from the same hypothesis . we have also given an account of that character which antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the world , or the golden age , as they call'd it : namely , equality of seasons throughout the year , or a perpetual equinox . we have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these states , as they are mention'd in scripture . the longevity of the ante-diluvians , and the declension of their age by degrees , after the flood . as also that wonderful phaenomenon , the rainbow : which appear'd to noah for a sign , that the earth should never undergo a second deluge . and we have shewn , wherein the force and propriety of that sign consisted , for confirming noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity . thus far we have explain'd the past phaenomena of the natural world. the rest are futurities , which still lie hid in their causes ; and we cannot properly prove a theory from effects that are not yet in being . but so far as they are foretold in scripture , both as to substance and circumstance , in prosecution of the same principles we have ante-dated their birth , and shew'd how they will come to pass . we may therefore , i think , reasonably conclude , that this theory has performed its task and answer'd its title : having given an account of all the general changes of the natural world , as far as either sacred history looks backwards , or sacred prophecy looks forwards . so far as the one tells us what is past in nature , and the other what is to come . and if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth , 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd . so much for natural evidence , from the causes or effects . we now proceed to scripture , which will make the greatest part of this review . the sacred basis upon which the whole theory stands , is the doctrine of s. peter , deliver'd in his second epistle and third chapter , concerning the triple order and succession of the heavens and the earth . that comprehends the whole extent of our theory : which indeed is but a large commentary upon s. peter's text. the apostle sets out a threefold state of the heavens and earth : with some general properties of each : taken from their different constitution and different fate . the theory takes the same threefold state of the heavens and the earth : and explains more particularly , wherein their different constitution consists : and how , under the conduct of providence , their different fate depends upon it . let us set down the apostle's words , with the occasion of them : and their plain sence , according to the most easie and natural explication . ver. . knowing this first , that there shall come in the last days scoffers , walking after their own lusts . . and saying , where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . . for this they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of god , the heavens were of old , and the earth consisting of water and by water . . whereby the world that then was , being over flowed with water , perished . . but the heavens and the earth that are now , by the same word , are kept in store , reserved unto fire against the day of judgment , and perdition of ungodly men . — . the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night , in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up . . nevertheless we , according to his promise , look for new heavens and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . this is the whole discourse so far as relates to our subject . s. peter , you see , had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the world , and the coming of our saviour ; and they were men , it seems , that pretended to philosophy and argument ; and they use this argument for their opinion , seeing there hath been no change in nature , or in the world , from the beginning to this time , why should we think there will be any change for the future ? the apostle answers to this , that they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were heavens of old , and an earth , so and so constituted ; consisting of water and by water ; by reason whereof that world , or those heavens and that earth , perish'd in a deluge of water . but , saith he , the heavens and the earth that are now , are of another constitution , fitted and reserved to another fate , namely to perish by fire . and after these are perish'd , there will be new heavens and a new earth , according to god's promise . this is an easie paraphrase , and the plain and genuine sence of the apostle's discourse ; and no body , i think , would ever look after any other sence , if this did not draw them into paths they do not know , and to conclusions which they do not fancy . this sence , you see , hits the objection directly , or the cavil which these scoffers made ; and tells them , that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the world since the beginning , for there was one sort of heavens and earth before the flood , and another sort now ; the first having been destroyed at the deluge . so that the apostle's argument stands upon this foundation , that there is a diversity betwixt the present heavens and earth , and the ante-diluvian heavens and earth ; take away that , and you take away all the force of his answer . then as to his new heavens and new earth after the conflagration , they must be material and natural , in the same sence and signification with the former heavens and earth ; unless you will offer open violence to the text. so that this triplicity of the heavens and the earth , is the first , obvious , plain sence of the apostle's discourse : which every one would readily accept , if it did not draw after it a long train of consequences , and lead them into other worlds than they ever thought of before , or are willing to enter upon now . but we shall have occasion by and by to examine this text more fully in all its circumstances . give me leave in the mean time to observe , that s. paul also implyes that triple creation which s. peter expresses . s. paul , i say , in the th chap. to the romver . , . tell us of a creation that will be redeem'd from vanity : which are the new heavens and new earth to come . a creation in subjection to vanity : which is the present state of the world. and a creation that was subjected to vanity , in hopes of being restor'd : which was the first paradisiacal creation . and these are the three states of the natural world , which make the subject of our theory . to these two places of st. peter and st. paul , i might add that third in st. john , concerning the new heavens and new earth ; with that distinguishing character , that the earth was without a sea. as this distinguisheth it from the present earth , so , being a restitution or restauration , as we noted before , it must be the same with some former earth : and consequently , it implies that there was another precedent state of the natural world , to which this is a restitution . these three places i alledge , as comprehending and confirming the theory in its full extent . but we do not suppose them all of the same force and clearness . st. peter leads the way , and gives light and strength to the other two . when a point is prov'd by one clear text , we allow others , as auxiliaries , that are not of the same clearness ; but being open'd , receive light from the primary text , and reflect it upon the argument . so much for the theory in general . we will now take one or two principal heads of it , which vertually contain all the rest , and examine them more strictly and particularly , in reference to their agreement with scripture . the two heads we pitch upon , shall be , our explication of the deluge , and our explication of the new heavens and new earth . we told you before , these two were as the hinges , upon which all the theory moves , and which hold the parts of it in firm union one with another . as to the deluge , if i have explain'd that aright , by the disruption of the great abyss , and the dissolution of the earth that cover'd it , all the rest follows in such a chain of consequences , as cannot be broken . wherefore in order to the proof of that explication , and of all that depends upon it , i will make bold to lay down this proposition , that our hypothesis concerning the universal deluge , is not onely more agreeable to reason and philosophy than any other yet propos'd to the world , but is also more agreeable to scripture . namely , to such places of scripture , as reflect upon the deluge , the abyss , and the form of the first earth . and particularly , to the history of noah's flood , as recorded by moses . if i can make this good , it will , doubtless , give satisfaction to all intelligent persons . and i desire their patience , if i proceed slowly . we will divide our task into parts , and examine them separately : first , by scripture in general , and then by moses his history and description of the flood . our hypothesis of the deluge consists of three principal heads , or differs remarkably in three things from the common explication . first , in that we suppose the antediluvian earth to have been of another form and constitution from the present earth : with the abyss placed under it . secondly , in that we suppose the deluge to have been made , not by any inundation of the sea , or overflowing of fountains and rivers : nor ( principally ) by any excess of rains : but by a real dissolution of the exteriour earth , and disruption of the abyss which it cover'd . these are the two principal points , to which may be added , as a corollary , thirdly , that the deluge was not in the nature of a standing pool : the waters lying every where level , of an equal depth and with an uniform surface : but was made by a fluctuation and commotion of the abyss upon the disruption : which commotion being over , the waters retired into their chanels , and let the dry land appear . these are the most material and fundamental parts of our hypothesis : and these being prov'd consonant to scripture , there can be no doubt of the rest . we begin with the first : that the ante-diluvian earth was of another form and constitution from the present earth , with the abyss placed under it . this is confirm'd in scripture , both by such places as assert a diversity in general : and by other places that intimate to us , wherein that diversity consisted , and what was the form of the first earth . that discourse of st. peter's , which we have set before you , concerning the past , present , and future , heavens and earth , is so full a proof of this diversity in general , that you must either allow it , or make the apostle's argumentation of no effect . he speaks plainly of the natural world , the heavens and the earth : and he makes a plain distinction , or rather opposition , betwixt those before and after the flood : so that the least we can conclude from his words , is a diversity betwixt them ; in answer to that identity or immutability of nature , which the scoffers pretended to have been ever since the beginning . but tho' the apostle , to me , speaks plainly of the natural world , and distinguishes that which was before the flood , from the present : yet there are some that will allow neither of these to be contain'd in st. peter's words ; and by that means would make this whole discourse of little or no effect , as to our purpose . and seeing we , on the contrary , have made it the chief scripture-basis of the whole theory of the earth , we are oblig'd to free it from those false glosses or mis-interpretations , that lessen the force of its testimony , or make it wholly ineffectual . these interpreters say , that st. peter meant no more than to mind these scoffers , that the world was once destroy'd by a deluge of water : meaning the animate world , mankind and living creatures . and that it shall be destroy'd again by another element , namely by fire . so as there is no opposition or diversity betwixt the two natural worlds , taught or intended by the apostle ; but onely in reference to their different fate or manner of perishing , and not of their different nature or constitution . here are two main points , you see , wherein our interpretations of this discourse of the apostles , differ . first , in that they make the apostle ( in that sixth verse ) to understand onely the world animate , or men and brute creatures . that these were indeed destroy'd , but not the natural world , or the form and constitution of the then earth and heavens . secondly , that there is no diversity or opposition made by st. peter betwixt the ancient heavens and earth , and the present , as to their form and constitution . we pretend that these are mis-apprehensions , or mis-representations of the sence of the apostle in both respects , and offer these reasons to prove them to be so . for the first point ; that the apostle speaks here of the natural world , particularly in the th . verse ; and that it perish'd , as well as the animate , these considerations seem to prove . first , because the argument or ground these scoffers went upon , was taken from the natural world , its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning ; therefore if the apostle answers ad idem , and takes away their argument , he must understand the same natural world , and show that it hath been chang'd , or hath perish'd . you will say , it may be , the apostle doth not deny , nor take away the ground they went upon , but denies the consequence they made from it ; that therefore there would be no change , because there had been none . no , neither doth he do this , if by the world in the th . verse , he understands mankind onely ; for their ground was this , there hath been no change in the natural world ; their consequence , this , therefore there will be none , nor any conflagration . now the apostle's answer , according to you , is this , you forget that mankind hath been destroyed in a deluge . and what then ? what 's this to the natural world , whereof they were speaking ? this takes away neither antecedent nor consequent , neither ground nor inference ; nor any way toucheth their argument , which proceeded from the natural world to the natural world. therefore you must either suppose that the apostle takes away their ground , or he takes away nothing . secondly , what is it that the apostle tells these scoffers they were ignorant of ? that there was a deluge , that destroyed mankind ? they could not be ignorant of that , nor pretend to be so ; it was therefore the constitution of those old heavens and earth , and the change or destruction of them at the deluge , that they were ignorant of , or did not attend to ; and of this the apostle minds them . these scoffers appear to have been jews by the phrase they use , since the fathers fell asleep , which in both parts of it is a judaical expression ; and does st. peter tell the jews that had moses read to them every sabbath , that they were ignorant that mankind was once destroyed with a deluge in the days of noah ? or could they pretend to be ignorant of that without making themselves ridiculous both to jews and christians ? besides , these do not seem to have been of the vulgar amongst them , for they bring a philosophical argument for their opinion ; and also in their very argument they refer to the history of the old testament , in saying , since the fathers fell asleep , amongst which fathers , noah was one of the most remarkable . thirdly , the design of the apostle is to prove to them , or to dispose them to the belief of the conflagration , or future destruction of the world ; which i suppose you will not deny to be a destruction of the natural world ; therefore to prove or perswade this , he must use an argument taken from a precedent destruction of the natural world ; for to give an instance of the perishing of mankind onely , would not reach home to his purpose . and you are to observe here that the apostle does not proceed against them barely by authority ; for what would that have booted ? if these scoffers would have submitted to authority , they had already the authority of the prophets and apostles in this point : but he deals with them at their own weapon , and opposes reasons to reasons ; what hath been done may be done , and if the natural world hath been once destroyed , 't is not hard , nor unreasonable , to suppose those prophecies to be true , that say it shall be destroyed again . fourthly , unless we understand here the natural world , we make the apostle both redundant in his discourse , and also very obscure in an easie argument . if his design was onely to tell them that mankind was once destroy'd in a deluge , what 's that to the heavens and the earth ? the th . verse would be superfluous ; which yet he seems to make the foundation of his discourse . he might have told them how mankind had perish'd before with a deluge , and aggravated that destruction as much as he pleas'd , without telling them how the heavens and the earth were constituted then ; what was that to the purpose , if it had no dependance or connection with the other ? in the precedent chapter , verse th . when he speaks onely of the floods destroying mankind , he mentions nothing of the heavens or the earth : and if you make him to intend no more here , what he says more is superfluous . i also add , that you make the apostle very obscure and operose in a very easie argument . how easie had it been for him , without this apparatus , to have told them , as he did before , that god brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly ; and not given us so much difficulty to understand his sence , or such a suspicion and appearance , that he intended something more ; for that there is at least a great appearance and tendency to a further sence , i think none can deny ; and st. austin , didymus alex. bede , as we shall see hereafter , understood it plainly of the natural world : also modern expositors and criticks ; as cajetan , estius , drusius , heinsius , have extended it to the natural world , more or less ; tho' they had no theory to mislead them , nor so much as an hypothesis to support them ; but attended onely to the tenor of the apostle's discourse , which constrain'd them to that sence , in whole or in part . fifthly , the opposition carries it upon the natural world. the opposition lies betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heavens that were of old , and the earth , and the present heavens and earth , or the two natural worlds . and if they will not allow them to be oppos'd in their natures ( which yet we shall prove by and by ) at least they must be oppos'd in their date ; and as this is to perish by fire , so that perish'd by water ; and if it perish'd by water , it perish'd ; which is all we contend for at present . lastly , if we would be as easily govern'd in the exposition of this place , as we are of other places of scripture , it would be enough to suggest , that in reason and fairness of interpretation , the same world is destroy'd in the th verse , that was describ'd in the foregoing verse ; but it is the natural world that is describ'd there , the heavens and the earth , so and so constituted ; and therefore in fairness of interpretation they ought to be understood here ; that world being the subject that went immediately before , and there being nothing in the words that restrains them to the animate world or to mankind . in the d ch . ver . . the apostle does restrain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the world of the ungodly ; but here 't is not only illimited , but according to the context , both preceding and following , to be extended to the natural world. i say by the following context too , for so it answers to the world that is to perish by fire ; which will reach the frame of nature as well as mankind . for a conclusion of this first point , i will set down s. austin's judgment in this case ; who in several parts of his works hath interpreted this place of s. peter , of the natural world . as to the heavens , he hath these words in his exposition upon genesis , hos etiam aerios calos quondam periisse diluvio , in quâdam earum quae canonica appellantur , epistolâ legimus . we read in one of the epistles called canonical , meaning this of s. peter's , that the aerial heavens perish'd in the deluge . and he concerns himself there to let you know that it was not the starry heavens that were destroy'd ; the waters could not reach so high ; but the regions of our air . then afterwards he hath these words faciliùs eos ( coelos ) secundum illius epistolae authoritatem credimus periisse , & alios , sicut ibi scribitur , repositos . we do more easily believe , according to the authority of that epistle , those heavens to have perish'd ; and others , as it is there written , substituted in their place . in like manner , and to the same sence , he hath these words upon psal. . aerii utique coeli perierunt ut propinqui terris , secundum quod dicuntur volucres coeli ; sunt autem & coeli coelorum , superiores in firmamento , sed utrùm & ipfi perituri sint igni , an hi soli , qui etiam diluvio perierunt , disceptatio est aliquanto scrupulosior inter doctos . and in his book de civ . dei , he hath several passages to the same purpose , quemadmodum in apostolicâ illâ epistolâ à toto pars accipitur , quod diluvio periisse dictus est mandus , quamvis sola ejus cum suis coelis pars ima perierit . these being to the same effect with the first citation , i need not make them english ; and this last place refers to the earth as well as the heavens , as several other places in s. austin do , whereof we shall give you an account , when we come to shew his judgment concerning the second point , the diversity of the ante-diluvian and post-diluvian world. this being but a foretaste of his good will and inclinations towards this doctrine . these considerations alledg'd , so far as i can judge , are full and unanswerable proofs , that this discourse of the apostle's comprehends and refers to the natural world ; and consequently they warrant our interpretation in this particular , and destroy the contrary . we have but one step more to make good , that there was a change made in this natural world at the deluge , according to the apostle ; and this is to confute the second part of their interpretation , which supposeth that s. peter makes no distinction or opposition betwixt the antediluvian heavens and earth , and the present heavens and earth , in that respect . this second difference betwixt us , methinks , is still harsher than the first ; and contrary to the very form , as well as to the matter of the apostle's discourse . for there is a plain antithesis , or opposition made betwixt the heavens and the earth of old ( ver . the th ) and the heavens and the earth that are now ( verse the th ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the adversative particle , but , you see marks the opposition ; so that it is full and plain according to grammar and logick . and that the parts or members of this opposition differ in nature from one another , is certain from this , because otherwise the apostle's argument or discourse is of no effect , concludes nothing to the purpose ; he makes no answer to the objection , nor proves any thing against the scoffers , unless you admit that diversity . for they said , all things had been the same from the beginning in the natural world , and unless he say , as he manifestly does , that there hath been a change in nature , and that the heavens and earth that are now , are different from the ancient heavens and earth , which perish'd at the flood , he says nothing to destroy their argument , nor to confirm the prophetical doctrine of the future destruction of the natural world. this , i think , would be enough to satisfie any clear and free mind concerning the meaning of the apostle ; but because i desire to give as full a light to this place as i can , and to put the sence of it out of controversie , if possible , for the future , i will make some further remarks to confirm this exposition . and we may observe that several of those reasons which we have given to prove , that the natural world is understood by s. peter , are double reasons ; and do also prove the other point in question , a diversity betwixt the two natural worlds , the anti-diluvian and the present . as for instance , unless you admit this diversity betwixt the two natural worlds , you make the th verse in this chapter superfluous and useless : and you must suppose the apostle to make an inference here without premises . in the th verse he makes an inference , * whereby the world , that then was , perish'd in a deluge ; what does this whereby relate to ? by reason of what ? sure of the particular constitution of the heavens and the earth immediately before describ'd . neither would it have signified any thing to the scoffers , for the apostle to have told them how the ante-diluvian heavens and earth were constituted , if they were constituted just in the same manner as the present . besides , what is it , as i ask'd before , that the apostle tells these scoffers they were ignorant of ? does he not say formally and expresly ( ver . . ) that they were ignorant that the heavens and the earth were constituted so and so , before the flood ? but if they were constituted as these present heavens and earth are , they were not ignorant of their constitution ; nor did pretend to be ignorant , for their own ( mistaken ) argument supposeth it . but before we proceed any further , give me leave to note the impropriety of our translation , in the th . verse , or latter part of it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this we translate standing in the water , and out of the water , which is done manifestly in compliance with the present form of the earth , and the notions of the translators : and not according to the natural force and sence of the greek words . if one met with this sentence * in a greek author , who would ever render it standing in the water and out of the water ? nor do i know any latin translator that hath ventur'd to render them in that sence ; nor any latin father ; st. austin and st. jerome i 'me sure do not , but consistens ex aquâ , or de aquâ , & per aquam : for that later phrase also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not with so good propriety signifie to stand in the water , as to consist or subsist by water , or by the help of water , tanquam per causam sustinentem ; as st. austin and jerome render it . neither does that instance they give from pet. . . prove any thing to the contrary , for the ark was sustain'd by the waters , and the english does render it accordingly . the translation being thus rectified , you see the ante-diluvian heavens and earth consisted of water , and by water ; which makes way for a second observation to prove our sence of the text ; for if you admit no diversity betwixt those heavens and earth , and the present , shew us 'pray , how the present heavens and earth consist of water , and by water . what watery constitution have they ? the apostle implies rather , that the now heavens and earth have a fiery constitution . we have now meteors of all sorts in the air , winds , hail , snow , lightning , thunder , and all things engender'd of fiery exhalations , as well as we have rain ; but according to our theory , the ante-diluvian heavens , of all these meteors had none but dews and rain , or watery meteors onely ; and therefore might very aptly be said by the apostle to be constituted of water , or to have a watery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . then the earth was said to consist by water , because it was built upon it , and at first was sustain'd by it . and when such a key as this is put into our hands , that does so easily unlock this hard passage , and makes it intelligible , according to the just force of the words , why should we pertinaciously adhere to an interpretation , that neither agrees with the words , nor makes any sence that is considerable ? thirdly , if the apostle had made the ante-diluvian heavens and earth the same with the present , his apodosis in the th . verse , should not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. i say , it should not have been by way of antithesis , but of identity or continuation ; and the same heavens and earth are kept in store reserv'd unto fire , &c. accordingly we see the apostle speaks thus , as to the logos , or the word of god , verse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the same word of god ; where the thing is the same , he expresseth it as the , same ; and if it had been the same heavens and earth , as well as the same word of god , why should he use a mark of opposition for the one , and of identity for the other ? to this i do not see what can be fairly answer'd . fourthly , the ante-diluvian heavens and earth were different from the present , because , as the apostle intimates , they were such , and so constituted , as made them obnoxious to a deluge ; whereas ours are of such a form , as makes them incapable of a deluge , and obnoxious to a conflagration ; the just contrary fate . if you say there was nothing of natural tendency or disposition in either world to their respective fate , but the first might as well have perish'd by fire , as water , and this by water as by fire , you unhinge all nature and natural providence in that method , and contradict one main scope of the apostle in this discourse . his first scope is to assert , and mind them of that diversity there was betwixt the ancient heavens and earth , and the present ; and from that , to prove against those scoffers , that there had been a change and revolution in nature ; and his second scope seems to be this , to show that diversity to be such , as , under the divine conduct , leads to a different fate , and expos'd that world to a deluge ; for when he had describ'd the constitution of the first heavens and earth , he subjoyns , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . quià talis erat , saith grotius , qualem diximus , constitutio & terrae & coeli . w h e r e b y the then world perish'd in a flood of water . this whereby notes some kind of causal dependance , and must relate to some means or conditions precedent . it cannot relate to logos , or the word of god , grammar will not permit that ; therefore it must relate to the state of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth immediately premis'd . and to what purpose indeed should he premise the description of those heavens and earth , if it was not to lay a ground for this inference ? having given these reasons for the necessity of this interpretation ; in the last place , let 's consider st. austin's judgment , and his sence upon this place , as to the point in question . as also the reflections that some other of the ancients have made upon this doctrine of st. peter's . didymus alexandrinus , who was for some time st. jerome's master , made such a severe reflection upon it , that he said this epistle was corrupted , and should not be admitted into the canon , because it taught the doctrine of a triple or triform world in this third chapter . as you may see in his enarr . in epist. canonicas . now this threefold world is first that in the th . verse , the world that then was . in the th . verse , the heavens and the earth that are now . and in the th . verse , we expect new heavens and a new earth , according to his promise . this seems to be a fair account that st. peter taught the doctrine of a triple world ; and i quote this testimony , to show what st. peter's words do naturally import , even in the judgment of one that was not of his mind . and a man is not prone to make an exposition against his own opinion , unless he think the words very pregnant and express . but st. austin owns the authority of this epistle , and of this doctrine , as deriv'd from it , taking notice of this text of st. peter's in several parts of his works . we have noted three or four places already to this purpose , and we may further take notice of several passages in his treatise , de civ , dei , which confirm our exposition . in his th . book , ch . . he disputes against porphyry , who had the same principles with these aeternalists in the text ; or , if i may so call them , incorruptarians ; and thought the world never had , nor ever would undergo any change , especially as to the heavens . st. austin could not urge porphyry with the authority of st. peter , for he had no veneration for the christian oracles ; but it seems he had some for the jewish , and arguing against him , upon that text in the psalms , coeli peribunt , he shows upon occasion how he understands st. peter's destruction of the old world. legitur coelum & terra transibunt , mundus transit , sed puto quod proeterit , transit , transibunt aliquantò mitiùs dicta sunt quàm peribunt . in epistolà quoque petri apostoli , ubi aquâ inundatus , qui tum erat , periisse dictus est mundus , satis clarum est quae pars mundi à toto significata est , & quatenùs periisse dicta sit , & qui coeli repositi igni reservandi . this he explains more fully afterwards by subjoyning a caution ( which we cited before ) that we must not understand this passage of st. peter's , concerning the destruction of the ante diluvian world , to take in the whole universe , and the highest heavens , but onely the aerial heavens , and the sublunary world. in apostolicâ illâ epistolâ à toto pars accipitur , quod diluvio periisse dictus est mundus , quamvis sola ejus , cum suis coelis , pars ima perierit . in that apostolical epistle , a part is signified by the whole , when the world is said to have perish'd in the deluge , although the lower part of it onely , with the heavens belonging to it , perished : that is , the earth with the regions of the air that belong to it . and consonant to this , in his exposition of that hundred and first psalm , upon those words , the heavens are the work of thy hands , they shall perish , but thou shalt endure . this perishing of the heavens , he says , s. peter tells us , hath been once done already , namely , at the deluge ; apertè dixit hoc apostolus petrus , coeli erant olim & terra , de aquâ & per aquam constituti , dei verbo ; per quod qui factus est mundus , aquâ inundatus deperiit ; terra autem & coeli qui nunc sunt , igni reservantur . jam ergo dixit periisse coelos per diluvium . these places shew us that s. austin understood s. peter's discourse to aim at the natural world , and his periit or periisse ( verse . ) to be of the same force as peribunt in the psalms , when 't is said the heavens shall perish ; and consequently that the heavens and the earth , in this father's opinion , were as really chang'd and transform'd at the time of the flood , as they will be at the conflagration . but we must not expect from s. austin or any of the ancients a distinct account of this apostolical doctrine , as if they knew and acknowledg'd the theory of the first world ; that does not at all appear ; but what they said was either from broken tradition , or extorted from them by the force of the apostle's words and their own sincerity . there are yet other places in s. austin worthy our consideration upon this subject ; especially his exposition of this d chap. of s. peter , as we find it in that same treatise de civ . dei. there he compares again , the destruction of the world at the deluge , with that which shall be at the conflagration , and supposeth both the heavens and earth to have perish'd . apostolus commemorans factum ante diluvium , videtur admonuisse quodammodò quatenùs in fine hujus secult mundum istum periturum esse credamus . nam & illo tempore periisse dixit , qui tunc erat , mundum ; nec solum orbem terrae , verùm etiam coelos , then giving his usual caution , that the stars and starry heavens should not be comprehended in that mundane destruction , he goes on , atque hoc modo ( penè totus aer ) cum terra perierat ; cujus terrae utique prior facies ( nempe ante-diluviana ) fuerat deleta diluvio . qui autem nunc sunt coeli & terra eodem verbo repositi sunt igni reservandi ; proinde qui coeli & quae terra , id est , qui mundus , pro eo mundo qui diluvio periit , ex eâdem aquâ repositus est , ipse igni novissimo reservatur . here you see s. austin's sence upon the whole matter ; which is this , that the natural world , the earth with the heavens about it , was destroyed and chang'd at the deluge into the present heavens and earth ; which shall again in like manner be destroyed and chang'd by the last fire . accordingly in another place , to add no more , he saith the figure of the ( sublunary ) world shall be chang'd at the conflagration , as it was chang'd at the deluge . tunc figura hujus mundi , &c. cap. . thus you see , we have s. austin on our side , in both parts of our interpretation ; that s. peter's discourse is to be referr'd to the natural inanimate world , and that the present natural world is distinct and different from that which was before the deluge . and s. austin having applyed this expresly to s. peter's doctrine by way of commentary , it will free us from any crime or affectation of singularity in the exposition we have given of that place . venerable bede hath followed s. austin's footsteps in this doctrine ; for , interpreting s. peter's original world ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) pet. . . he refers both that and this ( chap. . . ) to the natural inanimate world , which he supposeth to have undergone a change at the deluge . his words are these , idem ipse mundus est ( nempe quoad materiam ) in quo nunc humanum genus habitat , quem inhabitaverunt hi qui ante diluvium fuerunt , sed tamen rectè originalis mundus , quasi alius , dicitur ; quia sicut in consequentibus hujus epistolae scriptum continetur , ille tunc mundus aquâ inundatus periit . coelis videlicet qui erant priùs , id est , cunctis aeris hujus turbulenti spaciis , aquarum accrescentium altitudine consumptis , ac terrâ in alteram faciem , excedentibus aquis , immutatâ . nam etsi montes aliqui atque convalles ab initio facti creduntur , non tamen tanti quanti nunc in orbe cernuntur universo . 't is the same world ( namely , as to the matter and substance of it ) which mankind lives in now , and did live in before the flood , but yet that is truly call'd the original world , being as it were another from the present . for 't is said in the sequel of this epistle that the world that was then , perish'd in the deluge ; namely , the regions of the air were consumed by the height and excess of the waters , and by the same waters the earth was chang'd into another form or face . for although some mountains and valleys are thought to have been made from the beginning , yet not such great ones as now we see throughout the whole earth . you see this author does not only own a change made at the deluge , but offers at a further explication wherein that change consisted , viz. that the mountains and inequalities of the earth were made greater than they were before the flood ; and so he makes the change or the difference betwixt the two worlds gradual , rather than specifical , if i may so term it . but we cannot wonder at that , if he had no principles to carry it further , or to make any other sort of change intelligible to him . bede also pursues the same sence and notion in his interpretation of that fountain , gen. . . that watered the face of the earth before the flood . and many other transcribers of antiquity have recorded this tradition concerning a difference , gradual or specifical , both in the ante-diluvian heavens ( gloss. ordin . gen. . de iride . lyran. ibid. hist. scholast . c. . rab. maurus & gloss. inter. gen. . , . alcuin . quaest. in gen. inter . . ) and in the ante-diluvian earth , as the same authors witness in other places . as hist. schol. c. . gloss. ord. in gen. . al. cuin . inter. , &c. not to instance in those that tell us the properties of the ante-diluvian world under the name and notion of paradise . thus much concerning this remarkable place in s. peter , and the true exposition of it ; which i have the more largely insisted upon , because i look upon this place as the chief repository of that great natural mystery , which in scripture is communicated to us , concerning the triple state or revolution of the world. and of those men that are so scrupulous to admit the theory we have propos'd , i would willingly know whether they believe the apostle in what he says concerning the new heavens and the new earth to come , ver . . and if they do , why they should not believe him as much concerning the old heavens and the old earth , past ; ver . , & . which he mentions as formally , and describes more distinctly than the other . but if they believe neither past nor to come , in a natural sence , but an unchangeable state of nature from the creation to its annihilation , i leave them then to their fellow eternalists in the text , and to the character or censure the apostle gives them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that go by their own private humour and passions , and prefer that to all other evidence . they deserve this censure , i am sure , if they do not only disbelieve , but also scoff , at this prophetick and apostolick doctrine concerning the vicissitudes of nature and a triple world ; the apostle in this discourse does formally distinguish three worlds ( for 't is well known that the hebrews have no word to signifie the natural world , but use that periphrasis , the heavens and the earth ) and upon each of them engraves a name and title , that bears a note of distinction in it ; he calls them the old heavens and earth , the present heavens and earth , and the new heavens and earth . 't is true , these three are one , as to matter and substance ; but they must differ as to form and properties ; otherwise what is the ground of this distinction and of these three different appellations ? suppose the jews had expected ezekiel's temple for the third , and last , and most perfect ; and that in the time of the second temple they had spoke of them with this distinction , or under these different names , the old temple , the present temple , and the new temple we expect : would any have understood those three of one and the same temple ; never demolish'd , never chang'd , never rebuilt ; always the same both as to materials and form ? no , doubtless , but of three several temples succeeding one another . and have we not the same reason to understand this temple of the world , whereof s. peter speaks , to be threefold in succession ? seeing he does as plainly distinguish it into the old heavens and earth , the present heavens and earth , and the new heavens and earth . and i do the more willingly use this comparison of the temple , because it hath been thought an emblem of the outward world. i know we are naturally averse to entertain any thing that is inconsistent with the general frame and texture of our own thoughts ; that 's to begin the world again ; and we often reject such things without examination . neither do i wonder that the generality of interpreters beat down the apostle's words and sence to their own notions ; they had no other grounds to go upon , and men are not willing , especially in natural and comprehensible things , to put such a meaning upon scripture , as is unintelligible to themselves ; they rather venture to offer a little violence to the words , that they may pitch the sence at such a convenient height , as their principles will reach to . and therefore though some of our modern interpreters , whom i mention'd before , have been sensible of the natural tendency of this discourse of st. peter's , and have much ado to bear off the force of the words , so as not to acknowledge that they import a real diversity betwixt the two worlds spoken of ; yet having no principles to guide or support them in following that tract , they are forc'd to stop or divert another way . 't is like entering into the mouth of a cave , we are not willing to venture further than the light goes . nor are they much to blame for this ; the fault is onely in those persons that continue wilfully in their darkness , and when they cannot otherwise resist the light , shut their eyes against it , or turn their head another way . — but i am afraid i have staid too long upon this argument : not for my own sake , but to satisfie others . you may please to remember that all that i have said hitherto , belongs onely to the first head : to prove a diversity in general betwixt the ante-diluvian heavens and earth , and the present : not expressing what their particular form was . and this general diversity may be argued also by observations taken from moses his history of the world , before and after the flood . from the longevity of the antediluvians : the rain-bow appearing after the deluge : and the breaking open an abyss capable to overflow the earth . the heavens that had no rainbow , and under whose benign and steddy influence , men liv'd seven , eight , nine hundred years and upwards , must have been of a different aspect and constitution from the present heavens . and that earth that had such an abyss , that the disruption of it made an universal deluge , must have been of another form than the present earth . and those that will not admit a diversity in the two worlds , are bound to give us an intelligible account of these phaenomena : how they could possibly be in heavens and earth , like the present . or if they were there once , why they do not continue so still , if nature be the same . we need say no more , as to the ante-diluvian heavens : but as to the earth , we must now , according to the second part of the first head ; enquire , if that particular form , which we have assign'd it before the flood , be agreeable to scripture . you know how we have describ'd the form and situation of that earth : namely , that it was built over the abyss , as a regular orb , covering and incompassing the waters round about : and founded , as it were , upon them . there are many passages of scripture that favour this description : some more expresly , others upon a due explication . to this purpose there are two express texts in the psalms : as psal. . , . the earth is the lords , and the fulness thereof : the habitable world , and they that dwell therein . for he has founded it upon * the seas , and establish'd it upon the floods . an earth founded upon the seas , and establish'd upon the waters , is not this the earth we have describ'd ? the first earth , as it came from the hands of its maker . where can we now find in nature , such an earth as has the seas and the water for its foundation ? neither is this text without a second , as a fellow-witness to confirm the same truth : for in the . psalm , ver . , , . we read to the same effect , in these words : to him , who alone does great wonders : to him that by wisdom made the heavens : to him that stretched out the earth above the waters . we can hardly express that form of the ante-diluvian earth , in words more determinate than these are ; let us then in the same simplicity of heart , follow the words of scripture ; seeing this literal sence is not repugnant to nature , but , on the contrary , agreeable to it upon the strictest examination . and we cannot , without some violence , turn the words to any other sence . what tolerable interpretation can these admit of , if we do not allow the earth once to have encompass'd and overspread the face of the waters ? to be founded upon the waters , to be establish'd upon the waters , to be extended upon the waters , what rational or satisfactory account can be given of these phrases and expressions from any thing we find in the present situation of the earth : or how can they be verified concerning it ? consult interpreters , ancient or modern , upon these two places : see if they answer your expectation , or answer the natural importance of the words , unless they acknowledge another form of the earth , than the present . because a rock hangs its nose over the sea , must the body of the earth be said to be stretched over the waters ? or because there are waters in some subterraneous cavities , is the earth therefore founded upon the seas ? yet such lame explications as these you will meet with ; and while we have no better light , we must content our selves with them ; but when an explication is offer'd , that answers the propriety , force , and extent of the words , to reject it , onely because it is not fitted to our former opinions , or because we did not first think of it , is to take an ill method in expounding scripture . this foundation or establishment of the earth upon the seas , this extension of it above the waters , relates plainly to the body , or whole circuit of the earth , not to parcels and particles of it ; as appears from the occasion , and its being joyn'd with the heavens , the other part of the world. besides , david is speaking of the origin of the world , and of the divine power and wisdom in the construction and situation of our earth , and these attributes do not appear from the holes of the earth , and broken rocks ; which have rather the face of a ruine , than of wisdom ; but in that wonderful libration and expansion of the first earth over the face of the waters , sustained by its own proportions , and the hand of his providence . these two places in the psalms being duly consider'd , we shall more easily understand a third place , to the same effect , in the proverbs ; delivered by wisdom , concerning the origin of the world , and the form of the first earth , in these words , chap. . . when he prepared the heavens i was there , when he set an orb or sphere upon the face of the abyss . we render it , when we set a compass upon the face of the abyss ; but if we have rightly interpreted the prophet david , 't is plain enough what compass is here to be understood ; not an imaginary circle , ( for why should that be thought one of the wonderful works of god ) but that exterior orb of the earth that was set upon the waters . that was the master-piece of the divine art in framing of the first earth , and therefore very fit to be taken notice of by wisdom . and upon this occasion , i desire you to reflect upon st. peter's expression , concerning the first earth , and to compare it with solomon's , to see if they do not answer one another . st. peter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an earth consisting , standing , or sustained by the waters . and solomon calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . an orb drawn upon the face of the abyss . and st. peter says , that was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the wisdom of god : which is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdom , that here declares her self , to have been present at this work . add now to these two places , the two foremention'd out of the psalmist ; an earth founded upon the seas , ( psal. . . ) and an earth stretched , out above the waters : ( psal. . . ) can any body doubt or question , but all these four texts refer to the same thing ? and seeing st. peter's description refers certainly to the ante-diluvian earth , they must all refer to it ; and do all as certainly and evidently agree with our theory concerning the form and situation of it . the pendulous form and posture of that first earth being prov'd from these four places , 't is more easie and emphatical to interpret in this sence that passage in job ch . . . he stretcheth out the north over the tohu , ( for so it is in the original ) and hangeth the earth upon nothing . and this strange foundation or no foundation of the exteriour earth seems to be the ground of those noble questions propos'd to job by god almighty , ch . . where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding . whereupon are the foundat●ons thereof fastned , and who laid the corner stone ? there was neither foundation , nor corner stone , in that piece of architecture ; and that was it which made the art and wonder of it . but i have spoken more largely to these places in the theory it self . and if the four texts before-mentioned be consider'd without prejudice , i think there are few matters of natural speculation that can be so well prov'd out of scripture , as the form which we have given to the ante-diluvian earth . but yet it may be thought a just , if not a necessary appendix to this discourse , concerning the form of the ante-diluvian earth , to give an account also of the ante-diluvian abyss , and the situation of it according to scripture ; for the relation which these two have to one another , will be a further means to discover if we have rightly determin'd the form of that earth . the abyss or tehom-rabbah is a scripture notion , and the word is not us'd , that i know of , in that distinct and peculiar sence in heathen authors . 't is plain that in scripture it is not always taken for the sea ( as gen. . . & . . & . . deut. . . job . . & . . ps. . . & . . & . . & . . apoc. . . . ) but for some other mass of waters , or subterraneous storehouse . and this being observ'd , we may easily discover the nature , and set down the history of the scripture-abyss . the mother-abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of genesis , ver . . which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it , or a thick caliginous air . the next news we hear of this abyss is at the deluge , ( gen. . . ) where 't is said to be broke open , and the waters of it to have drowned the world. it seems then this abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the creation and the deluge , and had got another cover than that of darkness . and if we will believe wisdom , ( prov. . . ) who was there present at the formation of the earth , an orb was set upon the face of the abyss at the beginning of the world. that these three places refer to the same abyss , i think , cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them . that of the deluge , moses calls there tehom-rabbah , the great abyss ; and can there be any greater than the forementioned mother-abvss ? and wisdome , in that place in the proverbs , useth the same phrase and words with moses , gen. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the face of the deep or of the abyss ; changing darkness for that orb of the exteriour earth which was made afterwards to inclose it . and in this vault it lay , and under this cover , when the psalmist speaks of it in these words ( ps. . . ) he gathereth the waters of the sea , as in a * bag ; he layeth up the abyss in storehouses . lastly , we may observe that 't was this mother-abyss whose womb was burst at the deluge , when the sea was born , and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb ; as god expresseth it to job , ch . . . in which place the chaldee paraphrase reads it , when it broke forth , coming out of the abyss . which disruption at the deluge seems also to be alluded to job . , , and more plainly , prov. . . by his knowledge the abysses are broken up . thus you have already a threefold state of the abyss , which makes a short history of it ; first , open , at the beginning ; then covered , till the deluge . then broke open again , as it is at present . and we pursue the history of it no further ; but we are told , apoc. . . that it shall be shut up again , and the great dragon in it , for a thousand years . in the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the ante-diluvian abyss , how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the ante-diluvian earth which s. peter and the psalmist had describ'd , sustain'd by the waters ; founded upon the waters ; stretcht above the waters ; for if it was the cover of this abyss ( and it had some cover that was broke at the deluge ) it was spread as a crust or ice upon the face of those waters , and so made an orbis terrarum , an habitable sphere of earth about the abyss . so much for the form of the ante-diluvian earth and abyss ; which as they aptly correspond to one another , so , you see , our theory answers and is adjusted to both ; and , i think , so fitly , that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it , according to scripture . we have dispatch'd the two main points in question , first , to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural worlds , or betwixt the heavens and the earth before and after the flood . secondly , to prove wherein this diversity consisted ; or that the particular form of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth was such according to scripture , as we have describ'd it in the theory . you 'l say , then the work is done , what needs more , all the rest follows of course ; for if the ante-diluvian earth had such a form as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had , there could be no deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame : and a deluge so made , would not be in the nature of a standing pool , but of a violent agitation and commotion of the waters . this is true ; these parts of the theory are so cemented , that you must grant all , if you grant any . however we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of scripture ; that is , if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the spirit of god , of such a fraction or dissolution of the earth at the deluge . and also such characters of the deluge it self , as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the waters . to proceed then ; that there was a fraction or dissolution of the earth at the deluge , the history of it by moses gives us the first account , seeing he tells us , as the principal cause of the flood , that the fountains of the great abyss were cloven or burst asunder ; and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the earth , as from the widen'd mouths of so many fountains . i do not take fountains there to signifie any more than sources or stores of water ; noting also this manner of their eruption from below , or out of the ground , as fountains do . accordingly in the proverbs , ( chap. . . ) 't is onely said , the abysses were broken open . i do not doubt but this refers to the deluge , as bede , and others understand it ; the very word being us'd here , both in the hebrew and septuagint , that express'd the disruption of the abyss at the deluge . and this breaking up of the earth at that time , is elegantly exprest in job , by the bursting of the womb of nature , when the sea was first brought to light ; when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body , nature was deliverd of a burthen which she had born in her womb sixteen hundred years . these three places i take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the earth , or of the abyss , at the universal deluge . and to these we may add more out of the prophets , job , and the psalms , by way of allusion ( commonly ) to the state of nature at that time . the prophet isaiah in describing the future destruction of the world , chap. . , . seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the deluge ; as appears by that leading expression , the windows from an high are open , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , taken manifestly from gen. . . then see how the description goes on , the windows from an high are open , and the foundations of the earth do shake . the earth is utterly broken down , the earth is quite dissolv'd , the earth is exceedingly moved . here are concussions , and fractions , and dissolutions , as there were in the mundane earth-quake and deluge ; which we had exprest before only by breaking open the abyss . by the foundations of the earth here and elsewhere , i perceive many understand the centre ; so by moving or shaking the foundations , or putting them out of course , must be understood a displacing of the centre ; which was really done at the deluge , as we have shewn in its proper place . if we therefore remember that there was both a dislocation , as i may so say ; and a fraction in the body of the earth , by that great fall ; a dislocation as to the centre , and a fraction as to the surface and exterior region , it will truly answer to all those expressions in the prophet , that seem so strange and extraordinary . 't is true , this place of the prophet respects also and foretells the future destruction of the world ; but that being by fire , when the elements shall melt with servent heat , and the earth with the works therein shall be burnt up , these expressions of fractions and concussions , seem to be taken originally from the manner of the world's first destruction , and to be transferr'd , by way of application , to represent and signifie the second destruction of it , though , it may be , not with the same exactness and propriety . there are several other places that refer to the dissolution and subversion of the earth at the deluge : amos . , . the lord of hosts is he that toucheth the earth , and it shall melt , or be dissolv'd . — and it shall rise up wholly like a flood , and shall be drowned as by the flood of aegypt . by this and by the next verse the prophet seems to allude to the deluge , and to the dissolution of the earth that was then . this in job seems to be call'd breaking down the earth , and overturning the earth , chap. . , . behold he breaketh down and it cannot be built again , he shutteth upon man , and there can be no opening . behold , he withholdeth the waters , and they dry up ; also he sendeth them out , and they overturn the earth : which place you may see paraphras'd . theor. book . p. , . we have already cited , and shall hereafter cite , other places out of job ; and as that ancient author ( who is thought to have liv'd before the judaical oeconomy , and nearer to noah than moses ) seems to have had the praecepta noachidarum , so also he seems to have had the dogmata noachidarum ; which were deliver'd by noah to his children and posterity , concerning the mysteries of natural providence , the origine and fate of the world , the deluge and ante-diluvian state , &c. and accordingly we find many strictures of these doctrines in the book of job . lastly , in the psalms there are texts that mention the shaking of the earth , and the foundations of the world , in reference to the flood , if we judge aright ; whereof we will speak under the next head , concerning the raging of the waters in the deluge . these places of scripture may be noted , as lest us to be remembrancers of that general ruine and disruption of the earth at the time of the deluge . but i know it will be said of them , that they are not strict proofs , but allusions onely . be it so ; yet what is the ground of those allusions ? something must be alluded to , and something that hath past in nature , and that is recorded in sacred history ; and what is that , unless it be the universal deluge , and that change and disturbance that was then in all nature . if others say , that these and such like places are to be understood morally and allegorically , i do not envy them their interpretation ; but when nature and reason will bear a literal sence , the rule is , that we should not recede from the letter . but i leave these things to every one's thoughts ; which the more calm they are , and the more impartial , the more easily they will feel the impressions of truth . in the mean time , i proceed to the last particular mention'd , the form of the deluge it self . this we suppose to have been not in the way of a standing pool , the waters making an equal surface , and an equal heighth every where ; but that the extreme heighth of the waters was made by the extreme agitation of them ; caus'd by the weight and force of great masses or regions of earth falling at once into the abyss ; by which means , as the waters in some places were prest out , and thrown at an excessive height into the air , so they would also in certain places gape , and lay bare even the bottom of the abyss ; which would look as an open grave ready to swallow up the earth , and all it bore . whilst the ark , in the mean time , falling and rising by these gulphs and precipices , sometimes above water , and sometimes under , was a true type of the state of the church in this world ; and to this time and state david alludes in the name of the church , psal. . . abyss calls unto abyss at the noise of thy cataracts or water-spouts ; all thy waves and billows have gone over me . and again , psal. . , . in the name of the church , therefore will not we fear , tho' the earth be removed , and tho' the mountains be carried into the midst of the seas . the waters thereof roar and are troubled , the mountains shake with the swelling thereof . but there is no description more remarkable or more eloquent , than of that scene of things represented , psal. . , , , &c. which still alludes , in my opinion , to the deluge-scene , and in the name of the church . we will ser down the words at large . ver. . in my distress i called upon the lord , and cried unto my god ; he heard my voice out of his temple , and my cry came before him into his ears . . then the earth sbook and trembled , the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken , because he was wroth . . there went up a smoke from his nostrils , and sire out of his mouth devoured ; coals were kindled by it . . he bowed the heavens also and came down , and darkness was under his feet . . and he rode upon a cherub and did flie , he did flie upon the wings of the wind . . he made darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skie . . at the brightness before him the thick clouds passed , bail and coals of fire . . the lord also thunder'd in the heavens , and the highest gave his voice , hail and coals of fire . . yea , he sent out his arrows , and scatter'd them : and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them . . then the chanels of waters were seen , and the foundations of the world were discovered ; at thy rebuke , o lord , at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils . he sent from above , he took me ; he drew me out of great waters . this i think is a rough * draught of the face of the heavens and the earth at the deluge , as the last verses do intimate ; and 't is apply'd to express the dangers and deliverances of the church : the expressions are far too high to be apply'd to david in his person , and to his deliverance from saul ; no such agonies or disorders of nature as are here instanc'd i● , were made in david's time , or upon his account ; but 't is a scheme of the church , and of her fate , particularly , as represented by the ark , in that dismal distress , when all nature was in confusion . and though there may be some things here intermixt to make up the scene , that are not so close to the subject as the rest , or that may be referr'd to the future destruction of the world : yet that is not unusual , nor amiss , in such descriptions , if the great strokes be fit and rightly plac'd . that there was smoke , and fire , and water , and thunder , and darkness , and winds , and earth-quakes at the deluge , we cannot doubt , if we consider the circumstances of it ; waters dash'd and broken make a smoke and darkness , and no hurricano could be so violent as the motions of the air at that time ; then the earth was torn in pieces , and its foundations shaken ; and as to thunder and lightning , the encounters and collisions of the mighty waves , and the cracks of a falling world , would make flashes and noises , far greater and more terrible , than any that can come from vapors and clouds . there was an universal tempest , a conflict and clashing of all the elements ; and david seems to have represented it so ; with god allmighty in the midst of it , ruling them all . but i am apt to think some will say , all this is poetical in the prophet , and these are hyperbolical and figurate expressions , from which we cannot make any inference , as to the deluge and the natural world. 't is true , those that have no idea of the deluge , that will answer to such a scene of things , as is here represented , must give such a slight account of this psalm . but on the other hand , if we have already an idea of the deluge that is rational , and also consonant to scripture upon other proofs , and the description here made by the prophet answer to that idea , whether then is it not more reasonable to think that it stands upon that ground , than to think it a meer fancy and poetical scene of things : this is the true state of the case , and that which we must judge of . methinks 't is very harsh to suppose all this a bare fiction , grounded upon no matter of fact , upon no sacred story , upon no appearance of god in nature . if you say it hath a moral signification , so let it have , we do not destroy that ; it hath reference , no doubt , to the dangers and deliverances of the church ; but the question is , whether the words and natural sence be a fancy onely , a bundle of randome hyperboles : or whether they relate to the history of the deluge , and the state of the ark there representing the church . this makes the sence doubly rich , historically and morally ; and grounds it upon scripture and reason , as well as upon fancy . that violent eruption of the sea out of the womb of the earth , which job speaks of , is , in my judgment , another description of the deluge ; 't is chap. . , , , . who shut up the sea with doors , when it broke forth , as if it had issued out of a womb ; when i made the cloud the garment thereof , and thick darkness a swadling band for it . and broke up for it my decreed place — hitherto shalt thou come , &c. here you see the birth and nativity of the sea , or of oceanus , describ'd * ‖ how he broke out of the womb , and what his first garment and swadling cloaths were ; namely clouds and thick darkness . this cannot refer to any thing that i know of , but to the face of nature at the deluge ; when the sea was born , and wrapt up in clouds and broken waves , and a dark impenetrable mist round the body of the earth . and this seems to be the very same that david had exprest in his description of the deluge , psal. . . he made darkness his secret place , his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies . for this was truly the face of the world in the time of the flood , tho' we little reflect upon it . and this dark confusion every where , above and below , arose from the violent and confus'd motion of the abyss ; which was dasht in pieces by the falling earth , and flew into the air in misty drops , as dust flies up in a great ruine . but i am afraid , we have stayed too long upon this particular , the form of the deluge ; seeing 'tis but a corollary from the precedent article about the dissolution of the earth . however time is not ill spent about any thing that relates to natural providence , whereof the two most signal instances in our sacred writings , are , the deluge and the conflagration . and seeing job and david do often reflect upon the works of god in the external creation , and upon the administrations of providence , it cannot be imagin'd that they should never reflect upon the deluge ; the most remarkable change of nature that ever hath been , and the most remarkable judgment upon mankind . and if they have reflected upon it any where , 't is , i think , in those places and those instances which i have noted ; and if those places do relate to the deluge , they are not capable , in my judgment , of any fairer or more natural interpretation than that which we have given them ; which , you see , how much it favours and confirms our theory . i have now finisht the heads i undertook to prove , that i might shew our theory to agree with scripture in these three principal points ; first , in that it supposeth a diversity and difference betwixt the ante-diluvian heavens and earth , and the present heavens and earth . secondly , in assigning the particular form of the ante-diluvian earth and abyss . thirdly , in explaining the deluge by a dissolution of that earth , and an eruption of the abyss . how far i have succeeded in this attempt , as to others , i cannot tell ; but i am sure i have convinc'd my self , and am satisfied that my thoughts , in that theory , have run in the same tract with the holy writings : with the true intent and spirit of them . there are some persons that are wilfully ignorant in certain things , and others that are willing to be ignorant as the apostle phraseth it ; speaking of those eternalists that denyed the doctrine of the change and revolutions of the natural world : and 't is not to be expected but there are many still of the same humour ; and therefore may be called willingly ignorant , that is , they will not use that pains and attention that is necessary for the examination of such a doctrine , nor impartiality in judging after examination ; they greedily lay hold on all evidence on one side , and willingly forget , or slightly pass over , all evidence for the other ; this i think is the character of those that are willingly ignorant ; for i do not take it to be so deep as a down-right wilful ignorance , where they are plainly conscious to themselves of that wilfulness ; but where an insensible mixture of humane passions inclines them one way , and makes them averse to the other ; and in that method draws on all the consequences of a willing ignorance . there remains still , as i remember , one proposition that i am bound to make good ; i said at first , that our hypothesis concerning the deluge was more agreeable not only to scripture in general , but also to the particular history of the flood left us by moses ; i say , more agreeable to it than any other hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd . this may be made good in a few words . for in moses's history of the deluge there are two principal points , the extent of the deluge , and the causes of it ; and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred author . as to the extent of it , he makes the deluge universal ; all the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd , fifteen cubits upwards ; we also make it universal , over the face of the whole earth ; and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest hills every where . as to the causes of it , moses makes them to be the disruption of the abyss , and the rains ; and no more ; and in this also we exactly agree with him ; we know no other causes , nor pretend to any other but those two . distinguishing therefore moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it , it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it , and that an hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two , differs from it more than ours ; which , at the worst , can but differ in matter of circumstance . now seeing the great difficulty about the deluge is the quantity of water required for it , there have been two explications proposed , besides ours , to remove or fatisfie this difficulty ; one whereof makes the deluge not to have been universal , or to have reacht only judea and some neighbouring countreys ; and therefore less water would suffice ; the other owning the deluge to be universal , supplies it self with water from the divine omnipotency , and says new waters were created then for the nonce , and again annihilated when the deluge was to cease . both these explications you see , ( and i know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions ) differ from moses in the substance , or in one of the two substantial points , and consequently more than ours doth . the first changeth the flood into a kind of national innundation , and the second assigns other causes of it than moses had assigned . and as they both differ apparently from the mosaical history , so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also , in the third chapter of the first book of the theory . this may be sufficient as to the history of the flood by moses . but possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from moses his six-days creation in the first chapter of genesis : where another sort of earth , than what we have form'd from the chaos , is represented to us ; namely , a terraqueous globe , such as our earth is at present . 't is indeed very apparent , that moses hath accommodated his six-days creation to the present form of the earth , or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ . but it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true physical account of the origine of the earth : or whether moses did either philosophize or astronomize in that description . the ancient fathers , when they answer the heathens , and the adversaries of christianity , do generally deny it ; as i am ready to make good upon another occafion . and the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the world. those that think otherwise , and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it , i desire them , without entring upon the strict merits of the cause , to determine these preliminaries . first , whether the whole universe rise from a terrestrial chaos . secondly , what systeme of the world this six-days creation proceeds upon : whether it supposes the earth , or the sun , for the center . thirdly , whether the sun and fixt stars are of a later date , and a later birth , than this globe of earth . and lastly , where is the region of the super-celestial waters . when they have determin'd these fundamentals , we will proceed to other observations upon the six-days work , which will further assure us , that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people , and not to the strict and physical nature of things . besides , we are to remember , that moses must be so interpreted in the first chapter of genesis , as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his history ; nor to interfere with s. peter , or the prophet david , or any other sacred authors , when they treat of the same matter . nor lastly , so , as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested science . for , in things that concern the natural world , that must always be consulted . with these precautions , let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the origine of the world , to physical truth ; so as to be consistent , both with nature , and with divine revelation every where . it is easily reconcileable to both , if we suppose it writ in a vulgar style , and to the conceptions of the people : and we cannot deny that a vulgar style is often made use of in the holy writings . how freely and unconcernedly does scripture speak of god allmighty , according to the opinions of the vulgar ? of his passions , local motions , parts and members of his body . which all are things that do not belong , or are not compatible with the divine nature , according to truth and science . and if this liberty be taken , as to god himself , much more may it be taken as to his works . and accordingly we see , what motion the scripture gives to the sun : what figure to the earth : what figure to the heavens : all according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity ; without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth . this vulgar style of scripture in describing the natures of things , hath been often mistaken for the real sence , and so become a stumbling block in the way of truth . thus the anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of god , from the letter of scripture ; and brought many express texts for their purpose : but sound reason , at length , got the upper hand of literal authority . then , several of the christian fathers contended , that there were no antipodes : and made that doctrine irreconcileable to scripture . but this also , after a while , went off , and yielded to reason and experience . then , the motion of the earth must by no means be allow'd , as being contrary to scripture : for so it is indeed , according to the letter and vulgar style . but all intelligent persons see thorough this argument , and depend upon it no more in this case , than in the former . lastly , the original of the earth from a chaos , drawn according to the rules of physiology , will not be admitted : because it does not agree with the scheme of the six-days creation . but why may not this be writ in a vulgar style , as well as the rest ? certainly there can be nothing more like a vulgar style , than to set god to work by the day , and in six-days to finish his task : as he is there represented . we may therefore probably hope that all these disguises of truth will at length fall off , and that we shall see god and his works in a pure and naked light. thus i have finish'd what i had to say in confirmation of this theory from scripture . i mean of the former part of it , which depends chiefly upon the deluge , and the antediluvian earth . when you have collated the places of scripture , on either side , and laid them in the balance , to be weigh'd one against another ; if you do but find them equal , or near to an equal poise , you know in whether scale the natural reasons are to be laid : and of what weight they ought to be in an argument of this kind . there is a great difference betwixt scripture with philosophy on its side , and scripture with philosophy against it : when the question is concerning the natural world. and this is our case : which i leave now to the consideration of the unprejudic'd reader : and proceed to the proof of the second part of the theory . the later part consists of the conflagration of the world , and the new heavens and new earth . and seeing there is no dispute concerning the former of these two , our task will now lie in a little compass . being onely this , to prove that there will be new heavens , and a new earth , after the conflagration . this , to my mind , is sufficiently done already , in the first , second and third chapters of the th . book , both from scripture and antiquity , whether sacred or prophane : and therefore , at present , we will onely make a short and easie review of scripture-testimonies , with design chiefly to obviate and disappoint the evasions of such , as would beat down solid texts into thin metaphors and allegories . the testimonies of scripture concerning the renovation of the world , are either express , or implicit . those i call express , that mention the new heavens and new earth : and those implicit , that signifie the same thing , but not in express terms . so when our saviour speaks of a palingenesia , or regeneration , ( matt. . , . ) or st. peter of an apocatastasis or restitution , ( act. . . ) these being words us'd by all authors , prophane or ecclesiastical , for the renovation of the world , ought , in reason , to be interpreted in the same sence in the holy writings . and in like manner , when st. paul speaks of his future earth , or an habitable world to come , hebr. . . or of a redemption or melioration of the present state of nature , rom. . , . these lead us again , in other terms , to the same renovation of the world. but there are also some places of scripture , that set the new heavens and new earth in such a full and open view , that we must shut our eyes not to see them . st. john says , he saw them , and observ'd the form of the new earth , apoc. . . the seer isaish spoke of them in express words , many hundred years before . and st. peter marks the time when they are to be introduc'd , namely after the conflagration , or after the dissolution of the present heavens and earth : pet. . , . these later texts of scripture , being so express , there is but one way left to elude the force of them ; and that is , by turning the renovation of the world into an allegory : and making the new heavens and new earth to be allegorical heavens and earth , not real and material , as ours are . this is a bold attempt of some modern authors , who chuse rather to strain the word of god , than their own notions . there are allegories , no doubt , in scripture , but we are not to allegorize scripture without some warrant : either from an apostolical interpretation , or from the necessity of the matter : and i do not know how they can pretend to either of these , in this case . however , that they may have all fair play , we will lay aside , at present , all the other texts of scripture , and confine our selves wholly to st. peter's words : to see and examine whether they are , or can be turn'd into an allegory , according to the best rules of interpretation . st. peter's words are these : seeing then all these things shall be dissolv'd , what manner of persons ought ye to be , in holy conversation and godliness ? looking for , and hasting the coming of the day of god : wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . nevertheless , we , according to his promise , look for new heavens and a new earth , wherein righteousness shall dwell . the question is concerning this last verse , whether the new heavens and earth here promis'd , are to be real and material heavens and earth , or onely figurative and allegorical . the words , you see , are clear : and the general rule of interpretation is this , that we are not to recede from the letter , or the literal sence , unless there be a necessity from the subject matter ; such a necessity , as makes a literal interpretation absurd . but where is that necessity in this case ? cannot god make new heavens and a new earth , as easily as he made the old ones ? is his strength decay'd since that time , or is matter grown more disobedient ? nay , does not nature offer her self voluntarily to raise a new world from the second chaos , as well as from the first : and , under the conduct of providence , to make it as convenient an habitation as the primaeval earth ? therefore no necessity can be pretended of leaving the literal sence , upon an incapacity of the subject matter . the second rule to determine an interpretation to be literal or allegorical , is , the use of the same words or phrase in the context , and the signification of them there . let 's then examine our cafe according to this rule . st. peter had us'd the same phrase of heavens and earth twice before in the same chapter . the old heavens and earth , ver . . the present heavens and earth , ver . . and now he uses it again , ver . . the new heavens and earth . have we not then reason to suppose , that he takes it here in the same sence , that he had done twice before , for real and material heavens and earth ? there is no mark set of a new signification , nor why we should alter the sence of the words . that he us'd them always before for the material heavens and earth , i think none will question : and therefore , unless they can give us a sufficient reason , why we should change the signification of the words , we are bound , by this second rule also , to understand them in a literal sence . lastly , the very form of the words , and the manner of their dependence upon the context , leads us to a literal sence , and to material heavens and earth . nevertheless , says the apostle , we expect new heavens , &c. why nevertheless ! that is , notwithstanding the dissolution of the present heavens and earth . the apostle foresaw , what he had said , might raise a doubt in their minds , whether all things would not be at an end : nothing more of heavens and earth , or of any habitable world , after the conflagration ; and to obviate this , he tells them , notwithstanding that wonderful desolation that i have describ'd , we do , according to god's promises , expect new heavens and a new earth , to be an habitation for the righteous . you see then the new heavens and new earth , which the apostle speaks of , are substituted in the place of those that were destroy'd at the conflagration ; and would you substitute allegorical heavens and earth in the place of material ? a shadow for a substance ? what an equivocation would it be in the apostle , when the doubt was about the material heavens and earth , to make an answer about allegorical . lastly , the timeing of the thing determines the sence . when shall this new world appear ? after the conflagration , the apostle says : therefore it cannot be understood of any moral renovation , to be made at , or in the times of the gospel , as these allegorists pretend . we must therefore , upon all accounts , conclude , that the apostle intended a literal sence : real and material heavens , to succeed these after the conflagration : which was the thing to be prov'd . and i know not what bars the spirit of god can set , to keep us within the compass of a literal sence , if these be not sufficient . thus much for the explication of st. peter's doctrine , concerning the new heavens and new earth : which secures the second part of our theory . for the theory stands upon two pillars , or two pedestals , the ante-diluvian earth and the future earth : or , in s. peter's phrase , the old heavens and earth , and the new heavens and earth : and it cannot be shaken , so long as these two continue firm and immoveable . we might now put an end to this review , but it may be expected possibly that we should say something concerning the millennium : which we have , contrary to the general sentiment of the modern millenaries , plac'd in the future earth . our opinion hath this advantage above others , that , all fanatical pretensions to power and empire in this world , are , by these means , blown away , as chaff before the wind . princes need not fear to be dethron'd , to make way to the saints : nor governments unhing'd , that they may rule the world with a rod of iron . these are the effects of a wild enthusiasm ; seeing the very state which they aim at , is not to be upon this earth . but that our sence may not be mistaken or misapprehended in this particular , as if we thought the christian church would never , upon this earth , be in a better and happier posture than it is in at present : we must distinguish betwixt a melioration of the world , if you will allow that word : and a millennium . we do not deny a reformation and improvement of the church , both as to peace , purity , and piety . that knowledge may increase , mens minds be enlarg'd , and christian religion better understood : that the power of antichrist shall be diminish'd , persecution cease , and a greater union and harmony establish'd amongst the reformed . all this may be , and i hope will be , ere long . but the apocalyptical millennium , or the new jerusalem , is still another matter . it differs not in degree only from the present state , but is a new order of things : both in the moral world and in the natural ; and that cannot be till we come into the new heavens and new earth . suppose what reformation you can in this world , there will still remain many things inconsistent with the true millennial state . antichrist , tho' weakned , will not be finally destroy'd till the coming of our saviour , nor satan bound . and there will be always poverty , wars , diseases , knaves and hypocrites , in this world : which are not consistent with the new jerusalem , as s. john describes it . apoc. . , , , &c. you see now what our notion is of the millennium , as we deny this earth to be the seat of it . 't is the state that succeeds the first resurrection , when satan is lockt up in the bottomless pit . the state when the martyrs are to return into life , and wherein they are to have the first lot and chief share . a state which is to last a thousand years . and blessed and holy is he , that hath a part in it : on such the second death hath no power , but they shall be priests of god and christ , and shall reign with him a thousand years . if you would see more particular reasons of our judgment in this case , why such a millennium is not to be expected in this world : they are set down in the th chap. of the th book , and we do not think it necessary that they should be here repeated . as to that dissertation that follows the millennium , and reaches to the consummation of all things , seeing it is but problematical , we leave it to stand or fall by the evidence already given . and should be very glad to see the conjectures of others , more lcarned , in speculations so abstruse and remote from common knowledge . they cannot surely be thought unworthy or unfit for our meditations , seeing they are suggested to us by scripture it self . and to what end were they propos'd to us there , if it was not intended that they should be understood , sooner or later ? i have done with this review : and shall only add one or two reflections upon the whole discourse , and so conclude . you have seen the state of the theory of the earth , as to the matter , form , and proofs of it : both natural and sacred . if any one will substitute a better in its place , i shall think my self more obliged to him , than if he had shew'd me the quadrature of the circle . but it is not enough to pick quarrels here and there : that may be done by any writing , especially when it is of so great extent and comprehension . they must build up , as well as pull down ; and give us another theory instead of this , fitted to the same natural history of the earth , according as it is set down in scripture : and then let the world take their choice . he that cuts down a tree , is bound in reason to plant two , because there is an hazard in their growth and thriving . then as to those that are such rigorous scripturists , as to require plainly demonstrative and irresistible texts for every thing they entertain or believe ; they would do well to reflect and consider , whether , for every article in the three creeds ( which have no support from natural reason ) they can bring such texts of scripture as they require of others : or a fairer and juster evidence , all things consider'd , than we have done for the substance of this theory . we have not indeed said all that might be said , as to antiquity : that making no part in this review , and being capable still of great additions . but as to scripture and reason i have no more to add . those that are not satisfied with the proofs already produc'd upon these two heads , are under a fate , good or bad , which is not in my power to overcome . finis . books printed for walter kettilby . h'enrici mori cantabrigiensis opera omnia , tum que latinè , tum que anglicè scripta sunt ; nunc vero latinitate donata instigatu & impensis generofissimi juvenis johannis cockshuti nobilis angli , . vol. fol. — 's exposition upon daniel . quart . — 's exposition upon the revelations . quart . — 's answer to several remarks upon his expositions upon daniel , and the revelations . quart . — 's notes upon daniel and the revelations . quart . — 's paralipomena prophetica , containing several supplements and defences of his expositions . quart . — 's confutation of judiciary astrology against butler . quart . — 's brief discourse of the real presence of the body and blood of christ , in the celebration of the holy eucharist . . stitcht . — 's reply to the answer to his antidote against idolatry . oct . — 's remarks upon judge hales of fluid bodies . oct . the theory of the earth , &c. the two first books , concerning the deluge , and concerning paradise . fol. telluris theoria sacra , &c. libri duo priores de diluvio & paradiso . quarto . libri duo posteriores de conflagratione mundi , & de futuro rerum statu . quart . dr. goodal's royal colledge of physicians . quart . sydenham opera universa medica . oct . ent. de circuitione sanguinis . oct . charleton de causis catameniorum & uteri rheumatismo . oct . mr. l'emery's course of chymistry . oct . an answer to harvey's conclave of physicians . dr. scott's christian life , in . vol. dr : falkner's libertas ecclesiastica . oct . — 's vindication of liturgies . oct . — 's christian loyalty . oct . dr. fowler 's libertas evangelica . oct . dr. kidder's christian sufferer . oct . mr. w. allen's twelve several tracts , in . vol. oct . lately printed . mr. w. allen's nature , series , and order of occurrences , as they are prophetically represented in the th . chapter of the revelations . oct . mr. raymond's pattern of pure and undefiled religion . oct . dr. worthington's great duty of self-resignation . oct . reprinted . a relation of the proceedings at charter-house , upon occasion of k. fames's presenting a papist to be admitted into that hospital , by vertue of his letters dispensatory . fol. stitcht . mr. mariott's sermon , on easter-day , before the lord mayor . — 's sermon at the election of the lord mayor . dr. pellings sermon before the k. and q. at white-hall . dec. . . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e . cor. apoc. . theor. book ch . , & theor. book . chap. . . pet. . there was a sect amongst the jews that held this perpetuity and immutability of nature ; and maimonides himself was of this principle , and gives the same reason for it with the scoffers here in the text , quod mundus retinet & sequitur consuetudinem suam . and as to those of the jews that were aristoteleans , it was very suitable to their principles to hold the incorruptibility of the world , as their master did . vid. med. in loc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , per quae . vulgat . quamobrem , beza , quâ de causâ , grot. nemo interpretum reddidit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per quas ; subint elligendo aquas . hoc enim argumentationem apoquod suppostolicam tolleret , supponeretque illusores illos ignorâsse quod olim fuerit diluvium ; ni non posse suprà ostendimus . * this phrase or manner of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not unusual in greek authors , and upon a like subject ; plato saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but he that should translate plato , the world stands out of fire , water , &c. would be thought neither graecian , nor philosopher . the same phrase is us'd in reciting heraclitus his opinion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and also in thales his , which is still nearer to the subject , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which cicero renders , ex aquâ , dixit , constare omnia . so that it is easie to know the true importance of this phrase , and how ill it is render'd in the english , standing out of the water . book . c. . p. . whether you refer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . separately , to the heavens and the earth , or both to the earth , or both to both , it will make no great difference as to our interpretation . theor. i book . c. . cap. . cap. : de . dier . creat . see theor. book . ch . . * i know some would make this place of no effect by rendering the hebrew particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta , by or near to ; so they would read it thus , he hath founded the earth by the sea-side , and establish'd it by the floods . what is there wonderful in this , that the shores should lie by the sea-side ; where could they lie else ? what reason or argument is this , why the earth should be the lord's ? the earth is the lord's , for he hath founded it near the seas , where is the confequence of this ? but if he founded it upon the seas , which could not be done by any other hand but his , it shows both the workman and the master . and accordingly in that other place , psal. . . if you render it , he stretched out the earth near the waters , how is that one of god's great wonders ? as it is there represented to be . because in some few places this particle is render'd otherwise , where the sense will bear it , must we therefore render it so when we please , and where the sence will not bear it ? this being the most usual signification of it , and there being no other word that signifies above more frequently or determinately than this does , why must it signifie otherwise in this place ? men will wriggle any way to get from under the force of a text , that does not suit to their own notions . book . p. . * this reading or translating is generally followed , ( theor. book . p. . ) though the english translation read on a heap , unsuitably to the matter and to the sence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. . theor. book . p. , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see philo iudaeus his description of the deluge , both as to the commotions of the heavens , and the fractions of the earth . in his first treatise de abrahamo , mihi pa. . * utì comparatio praecedens ‖ de ortu telluris , sumitur ab aedificio , ita haec altera de ortu maris , sumitur ù partu ; & exhibetur oceanus , primùm , ut foetus inclusus in utero , dein us erumpens & prodeuns , denique ut fasciis & primis suis pannis involutus . atque ex aperto terrae usero prorupit aquarum moles , ut proluvies illa , quam simul cum foetu profundere solet puerpera . ‖ ver. , , . see theor. book . p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 isa. . . pet. . , , . the divine cosmographer; or, a brief survey of the whole world delineated in a tractate on the viii psalme: by w.h. sometimes of s. peters colledge in cambridge. hodson, william, fl. - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text s in the english short title catalog (stc ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a stc estc s this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the divine cosmographer; or, a brief survey of the whole world delineated in a tractate on the viii psalme: by w.h. sometimes of s. peters colledge in cambridge. hodson, william, fl. - . marshall, william, fl. - , engraver. [ ], p. printed by roger daniel, printer to the universitie of cambridge, [cambridge] : . w.h. = william hodson, whose name appears in full in the preliminary verses. with an additional title page, engraved and signed "w.m. sculpsit" (i.e. william marshall), with imprint: printed for andrew crooke [london]. . the first five preliminary leaves include the engraved title page and a conjugate explanation, two leaves of verses, and an imprimatur leaf. copies lacking some or all of these may represent early states. reproduction of the original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. eng bible. -- o.t. -- psalms viii -- commentaries. creation -- biblical teaching -- early works to . a s (stc ). civilwar no the divine cosmographer; or, a brief survey of the whole world, delineated in a tractate on the viii psalme: by w.h. sometime of s. peters c hodson, william f the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the f category of texts with or more defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - scott lepisto sampled and proofread - scott lepisto text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion octob. . . imprimatur cantabrigiae per rogerum daniel . ra. brownrigg procan . samuel ward . tho. bainbrigg . jo. cosin . the mind of the frontispice . depiction of angel how firmely hangs this earths rich cabinet twix't fleeting air , on floting waters set ? by this one argument , fond atheist see , the earth thou tread'st on shew's a deitie . on such a liquid basis could it stand , if not supported by a pow'rfull hand ? but what 's the earth , or sea , or heav'n to mee without thee three-in-one , and one-in-three ? nec caelum sine t●terra . no● unda placet . depiction of man standing on a globe with a hand pointing down from a cloud the divine cosmographer by 〈…〉 quum te pendenti reputa●… insi●tere terrae nonne vel hinc clar● conspici●… 〈◊〉 ●●um ? printed for andrew crooke . . w●… sulp●it . to my much honoured friend , william hodgson esquire , on his elegant and learned descant on the eighth psalme . when i peruse with a delighted eye thy learned descant on a text so high , the choice of such a subject first i praise ; and then thy skill and genius , that could raise a style in prose so high as to expresse this holy panegyrick ; and no lesse the use , to view through this varietie of creatures the creatours majestie : and must condemn those vain cosmographers , who whilest they strive to search and to rehearse all creatures frame and beauty , while they toyl to find the various nature of each soil , the oceans depth , through whose vast bosome move 〈◊〉 many wonders , nay to skies above and higher spheres their contemplations raise , they loose the pith of all , the makers praise . thomas may . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . hodsonus ille , lector , ut vides , novâ illustrat arte flammei poli plagas , mundíque tractus ; ceu syracosius senex ingentis olim iuserat coeli vias , suúmque magno reddidit mundum jovi , humana divi dum stupent ars quid queat . sic sic aperti tramitem aeris secans , stagnantis olim transiit terrae vias columba , justi missa de manu senis , miro volatu remigans liquidum aethera . qualisve docti quae tarentini manu efficta veras arte lusit alites . hodsonus ille , lector , ut spatio brevi se continere non queat ampliùs vides . en ! ille mensor aeris , & liquidi poli percurrit orbem , tranat & quod aethera , pinnisque quicquid turbidum findit mare . accessus illi haud invius diespiter quà promit orbi syderis radios novi , vesperéque sero condit ubi lumen suum ; ali isque tentat coeli inaccessas domus . humero efficaci sic priùs coelumtulit , laturum erat quod se , vice atlantis , pue● tonantis olim , pondere haud pressus grav● linguâque doctâ sic & hodsonus potens stylóque docto jam viam adfectat polo ; terrásque notas linquit , & coelum petit , radiavit ipse quod priùs lumine suo . scrib . v. optimo & ami● guilielmus burtonus . kingstoniae ad thamesin apud regn● to my worthy & learned frien●w . h. esquire , upon his divine meditation and elegant explanation of the eighth psalme . mongst all the reverend rites the church dains , none melts the mind so much , so mildly reign● o're mans affections , warming our desire and ycie frozen zeal with heavenly fire , as th' hebrew siren's musick , jordans swan , gods darling david , that prophetick man : whose manna-dewing layes with charming strains and anthemes chanted from inspiring veins do mount our winged souls aloft , which flie ravish't to heaven in blessed theorie . this sacred hymn , the subject of thy quill , limn'd in such orient colours by thy skill , as a rich tablet shewes in lively features gods love to man , & mans rule o're the creatures , fowls of the air , and beasts on earth residing , the scaly frie in the vast ocean gliding , with all the numerous host of heaven past counting , in spangled order and bright beauty mounting ; these all by thee are taught to speak the story of the worlds fabrick , and their founders glory . nor hast thou marr'd the majestie of those mysteries sublim'd , dress'd statelier in thy prose : but rather clear'd those rubs and doubts which did ●n obscure knottie arguments lie hid ; and in this * wine-p●esse trode the grapes whose jnvce ●hall to weak fainting souls such heat infuse , ●s will not only cheat their hearts , but be thy glories truchman to posteritie . reuben bourn . to his ever honoured friend , william hodgson esquire , on his contemplations on the eighth psalme . sir , god hath blessed you with a lovely vine , and you have blessed your god in so divine soul-ravishing fansies , wherewith you are fill'd from the pure * wine-presse of this psalme distill'd i do conceive what pangs were in thee , when thou formd'st and brought'st forth with thy ski●full penne this perfect feature , whose alluring face smiles on the world with an attractive grace . when thou beholdest with a single eye the spangled heavens , the embroidered skie , that looks upon the earth with thousands , we confesse and know that thy divinitie doth much irradiate the celestiall tapers , bright in themselves , but brighter by thy papers curious contriver ! how dost thou enrobe the great and small ones of each massie globe in fine-weav'd ornaments ! such is thy skill , the persian needle comes not near thy quill . richly hast thou adorn'd the earth our mother , sea the earths sister , and the air their brother : and , which is most praise-worthy ; each i see , and all that 's in them , laud the deitie . william moffet , mr. of arts sydn . coll. camb. vic. of edmonton . the divine cosmographer ; or , a brief survey of the whole world , delineated in a tractate on the viii psalme : by w. h. sometime of s. peters colledge in cambridge . printed by roger daniel , printer to the universitie of cambridge . . psal. viii . to the chief musician upon gittith , a psalme of david . o lord our lord , how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! who hast set thy glory above the heavens . out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength , because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger . when i consider thy heavens , the work of thy fingers , the moon and the starres which thou hast ordained ; what is man , that thou art mindfull of him and the sonne of man that thou visitest him ? for thou hast made him a little lower then the angels , and hast crowned him with glory and honour . thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet . all sheep and oxen , yea , and the beasts of the field : the fowl of the aire , and the fish of the sea , and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas . o lord our lord , how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! the divine cosmographer ; or , a brief survey of the whole world , delineated in a tractate on the eighth psalme . sect. . a preface on the book of psalmes in generall . the holy ghost describing the genealogie of our saviour , from how many kings he was descended , vouchsafeth none of them the style and title of a king but david , and him twice in one verse , matth. . . and that for a literall and morall reason : partly , because he was the first king settling and establishing the kingdome of israel ; but principally , for that he was endowed with al princely qualities , as justice , wisdome , clemencie , courage , and devotion : a king as mighty in religion as valour ; who wrote more like an evangelist then a prophet . and therefore the fathers conclude him to be , homo in veteri , non de veteri testamento , a man that lived in the time , but not after the manner of the old law , more like a christian then a jew . as the fat was taken away from the peace-offering , so was david chosen out from among the children of israel ecclus . . that which was most excellent in every thing , the hebrews called the fat : as , adeps frumenti , the fat of the corn ; medulla tritici , the marrow of the wheat . the witty imitatour of solomon doth there make an allusion between the father of solomon and the fat of the peace-offering : all the peace-offering was the lords , yet all was not offered to him ; but part was given to the priest , and a part to the people : but the fat was fully burnt up to the lord : so the zeal of gods house burnt up david as the fat of the sacrifice . in this fire of zeal did he oft ascend , like the angel in the flame of manoah's altar , to the throne of god : and his tongue being touched by a coal from that altar , many a dainty song did he tune upon his harp ; which harp was no● more sweet then his song was holy . though moses the man of god was the first that by a speciall direction from god began and brought up this order , to make musick the conveyer of mens duties into their minds ; yet david the darling of god hath sithence continued it , as having a speciall grace and felicitie in this kind . one touch of the sonne of jesse , one murmure of this heavenly turtle , one michtam of davids jewel , his golden song , is farre above the buskind raptures , the garish phantasmes , the splendid vanities , the pageants and landskips of profaner wits . et hîc rhetoricantur patres : the fathers both greek and latine have robed his psalter with many rich encomiums . athanasius , and basil , and augustine , and hierome , and chrysostome , and almost all the new writers , stand so deeply affected to this book , that they hold it to be the souls anatomie , the lawes epito me , the gospels index omnis latitudo scripturarum , the breadth of the whole scripture ( as he sometimes spake of the creed , and the lord prayer ) may hither be reduced . and it is observeable out of luke . . that it is put for all the books of the old testament as they are differenced from the law of moses and the prophets . again , it appeareth in the gospel that christ and his disciples were very conversant in this book , because in their sayings and writings not fewer then sixty authorities are produced from above fourty of these psalmes . this book was and still is more usually both sung and read , not onely in the jewish synagogues but in christian assemblies , as well by the people as the minister , and that with more outward reverence , then any par● of holy writ . the jew● acknowledge the old testament , abhorre the new ; the turks disclam● both , yet swear as solemnly by the psalmes o● david as by the alcora● of mahomet . in all ages this boo● hath ever been esteeme● of the best & most learned men . yea , the greatest potentates , who with joseph have had manu● ad clavum & oculos ad calum , have without blushing stooped unto a verse it being the usuall recreation of king david , wh● was , as euthymius speaks primi regis & lingua , & cor , & calamus , the ●ongue , the pen , & heart of the king of heaven . thus , as we reade , our good king alfred translated the psalter himself into the saxon tongue . and our late most learned king james of happie memorie ( who as it is said of scevola , that he was jurisperitorum eloquentissimus , of all lawyers the most eloquent man ; so was he {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , of our nobles the most skilfull in divinitie ; and as sylverius said of caesar , he honoured learning with his own labours : a prince mighty both with his sceptre and his pen ; who besides his prose , it● ad carmen noverat , mad● such a verse when h● pleased , etiam sanissim● coloris , of a most daint and elaborate composit●on , as became buchanan best scholar ) among other things truly and exactly translated ou● church-psalmes , no● long before he was translated hence . the subject of thi● book is singular : fo● whereas the other prophesies were the ambassies from god to the people , or at least the abstracts thereof , these are for the most part holy colloquies , holy whisperings , and secret conferences with god . what a spirituall library of all manner of prayers , precepts , exhortations do i here find ! the psalter of this kingly prophet operateth that in the church which the sun doth in heaven ; it illumi●ateth , heateth , and ma●eth fruitfull all the good desires of christianitie . our prophet once desired to be a doorekeeper in the house of the lord ; and ●e was heard in that he ●rayed for : for , as hilarie ●aith , this whole book of ●salmes was but a bunch of eyes , opening severall ●oores to let the soul enter into all the treasures of devotion . this is the spouses garden : here be lily 〈◊〉 and roses ; here be apple● and pomegranates , an● sweet fruits ; here be the myrrhe , aloes , & cassi● and sweet spices ; here b● the fountains and well of living water ; hîc su●preces & vota , here a● prayers and consolation● and amulets of comfor● more pleasant then the pools of heshbon , mo● glorious then the towe● of libanon , more red● lent then the oyl of a●ron , more fructifyi● then the dew of hermo● prophets , apostles , h● martyrs , all the ancie● fathers have made use of ●is book that begins ●th blessednesse , and ●ntains nothing but ●essednesse ; blessednesse ●ing times repeated twenty ●en times in the con●ete in this one book : ●hich like the tree that ●areth fruit every ●neth , the church hath ●pointed shall bring ●th fruit every moneth 〈◊〉 due season . as the matter is ex●llent , so is it digested ●o an elegant form of ●ords : which fall not ●th the vulgar libertie 〈◊〉 speech , but run in ●mbers upon ordered ●et of divine poesie , composed and set to m●sicall tunes : in observ●tion of which the psa●mist is as criticall as the daintiest lyrick or h●roick , yet with a vast d●paritie , both for subs●mitie of matter and admirable expression . s● rightly did hierome pr●nounce of david to pa●linus , that he is our si●nides , pindarus , alce● catullus , and in stead all others . sundry reasons are ●ven why the lord wou● have the chief points religion included numbers by the sw● singer of israel . t● first is , that they mig● be transmitted pure and without depravation to ●osteritie : for they run ●o evenly and so harmo●ously upon feet , that if ●here want but a word or syllable the errour is de●rehended . secondly ; it is done ●or the help of memorie : ●or concinnitie of numbers is sooner learned ●nd longer reteined then ●rose . thirdly , it puts us in ●ind of the harmonie ●f our actions : in which holy and heavenly use of the harp the royall pro●het by his tunes of mu●ck teacheth men how to ●et themselves in tune , psal. . and not one● how to tune themselv● but to tune their ho● hold , psal. . fourthly , to leap ov● a large field at once , a● to speak a little more that of which we can ●ver speak enough , it s●veth for the comfort the godly who are mo● often cheared by psalmodie then by praye● in this last respect s. a●gustine thus describeth psalme , psalmus tranqu●litas animarum est er sig● fer pacis , a psalme is t● tranquillitie of the so● and standard-bearer peace . with which greeth that of s. a●●rose , psalmus est vox ec●esiae , et clamor jucundita●s . and this hath truly been verified in the expe●ence of the saints , that ●evout singing of ●salmes causeth teares of ●y to stand in the eyes ●f yet we may call them ●ares , or not rather the ●ew of heaven , with s. ●ernard ) which adde a ●rment to the torment● . o how often , saith ●ood s. augustine , have ●wept for joy , when the ●weet hym●es of thy ●raise , o lord , have ●unded in my eares . et ●liquebatur cor meum , my heart melted , and ●rops of heavenly passions distilled into my sou●suspirans tibi & respiran● sighing and longing afte● thee , i was overjoyed i● spirit , and wholy overcome with the frago● of thy sweet ointment● i will end this prefa● with a note already mad● unto my hand : athanasius in an epistle ad ma● cellinam de optima inte● pretatione psalmorum , reports , that coming to a● old man , and falling i● talk with him about the psalmes , he receive● from him a good direct●on : whereupon , as himself saith , he listened diligently : the note wa● this , that there is grea● odds between the psalms ●nd other scriptures : for ●f you set aside the mysti●all part of them , the ●orall is so penned that ●very man may think it ●peaks de se , in re sua , it 〈◊〉 penned for him , and ●tted for his case : which ●f other parts of scrip●ure cannot be so affirm●d . to this note of a●anasius i will adde ano●er of s. augustines , ●et us so reade psalmes ●ll our selves be turned ●to psalmes , till the ●nging of psalmes and ●ymns unto the lord ●vite the very angels of ●eaven to bear us com●any ; so shall we learn with a near approch t● joyn our souls as clo● to the eares of god 〈◊〉 philip joyned himself t● the chariot of the e●nuch . then sing ye me●rily unto the lord , o 〈◊〉 saints of his , for it well b●cometh you to be thankfull for you are the timbre of the holy ghost . but because concept●ons like hairs may mo● easily be filleted up the dissheveled , i will tie 〈◊〉 my loose thoughts certain knots : i w● single out one deer fro● the herd , and in particular fix my meditatio● on the eighth psalme . sect. . before i enter upon the parts of this psalme , must first clear the title , and shew what is imply●d in the very bark and find thereof . the in●cription , which s. au●ustine calles the key of ●very psalme , is , to him ●hat excelleth in gittith . ●o are the eighty first & the eighty ninth inscri●ed . some derive the word ●ittith from a musicall ●strument so called , be●ause either invented or ●ost used in gath : and ●us the chaldee para●hrast translateth it , to sing upon the harp tha● came from gath. so by gittith here may b● meant , either such instruments as were used by the posteritie of obed 〈◊〉 edom the gittite ; or tha● these psalmes were mad● upon occasion of transporting gods ark from the house of obed-edom , the historie whereof is in . sam. . and ▪ , , verses . others more probabl● think it respecteth the time when this and thos● songs used to be sung namely at the time hag●gittith , at the vintage which feast was solemnly celebrated by the i●raelites ; in which they especially praised the name of god for the great and manifold blessings conferred upon man : which ●s the whole bloud and ●uyce of this psalme . according to this the greek ●ranslateth it the wine-presses : & gath in hebrew signifies a winepresse ; torcular calcav● solus , i have troden the winepresse a●one , isaiah . . where by the way i could take along with me this observation ; in those words the prophet speaks not of himself ; for it is he that asketh the question , vers. ● . who is he , &c. proper indeed they are to christ , and so proper to him onely that we shall not reade them any-where applyed to any other . it is he that was in torculari , in a presse , yea , in a double winepresse ; in the former he was himself troden and pressed ; he was the grapes and clusters himself ; in the latter , he that was troden on gets up again , and doth tread upon , and tread down his enemies . the presse he was troden in was his crosse and passion ; never cluster lay so quiet and still to be bruised as did christ in that presse : but that which he came out of , where calcatus became calcator , was his descent , and glorious resurrection . upon this little piece of ground i could raise another fabrick , & inferre this collection from the title , to him that excelleth : as david entitleth these psalmes , so doth god for the most part bestow his graces , to him that excelleth ; and with a liberall hand doth he deal his favours to him that improves his talent to the best advantage . gods familie admitteth of no dwarfes , which are unthriving and stand at a stay ; but men of measure , who still labour to find somewhat added to the stature of their souls . the eagles embleme is sublimiùs , to flie higher , even to behold the sun , as plinie noteth ; the suns embleme is celeriùs , swifter , like a giant refreshed to run his course , as david speaketh , psal. . the wheat in the gospel hath its embleme , perfectiùs , riper ; first the blade , then the eare , then full corn , mark . . ezekiels embleme , profundiùs , deeper ; first to the ankle , then to the thigh , ezek. . . christs embleme was superiùs ; sit up higher , luke . . charles the fifth his embleme was vlteriùs , go on farther . the woman with childe hath here embleme , pleniùs , fuller , untill she bring forth . so ought every christian to mount higher with the eagle , to runne swifter with the sunne , to sit up higher with the guest , to passe on further with the emperour , to wax fuller with the woman , till they may bring forth good fruits of saving faith , and so come to a full growth to be perfect men in jesus christ . but it is not my intent to angle about the shore : i will now let down my net , and lanch into the deep . sect. . the ground upon which the psalmist sweetly runneth through the whole psalme , is a twofold rapture expressed in a sacred rapsodie , in an exstaticall question of suddain wonder ; a wonder at god , and a wonder at man . in his wonder at man , the parts be antitheta : first , of his vilenesse & debasement ; secondly , of his dignitie and exaltation . in the first each word hath its energie , what is man ? and then , what is the sonne of man ? paraphrastically thus , according to the chaldee , what is man ? not man , that rare creature endowed with wisdome & understanding ; not man , as he is cura divini ingenii , the almighties master-piece , the epitome of the greater world : but , what is enosh , or enosch , miserable , dolefull , wretched man ? or , what is the sonne of adam ; whose originall is adamah , earthie ? what is the sonne of calamitie or earth ? what is he ? nay , what is he not ? what not of calamity and earth ? and because the life of opposites is in comparing them , the prophet in a deep speculation looking over that great nightpiece , and turning over the vast volume of the world , seeth in that large folio among those huge capitall letters what a little insensible dagesh-point man is , and suddenly breaks forth into this amazed exclamation , lord ! what is man ? having considered in his thoughts the beauty of the celestiall host , the moon and the starres , he brings up man unto them ; not to rivall their perfection , but to question his ; and after some stand and pause , in stead of comparison makes this enquirie , what is man , or , the sonne of man ? secondly , we are here to take notice of mans dignitie . though the prophet abaseth himself with a what is man ? yet withall he addes , having an eye at gods favour and mercie towards man , thou takest knowledge of him ; thou makest account of him ; making him onely lower then the angels , but lord over the rest of the creatures . and this knowledge , this account o● god , doth more exa● man then his own vilenesse can depresse him . in his wonder towards god , as if gods glory were the circle of david● thoughts , he both begin● and ends the psalme with an elegant epanalepsis priùs incipit propheta mirari quàm loqui ; o lord our governour , how excellent is thy name in all the world ! vers. . and desinit loqui non mirari ; o● lord our governour , how excellent is thy name , &c. vers. . sicut incipit it● terminat ; & geminatio re● ejusdem intentionem habe● & animi ardorem , saith musculus on psal. . to which agreeth that of s. augustine upon this hymne , incipiendum cum deo , & desinendum cum ●o : to praise god is the first thing we must begin with , and the last we must conclude with . and it is easie to observe , how that the universall underlong of most of these ditties is , praised be the lord . davids gracious heart in a sweet sense of the great goodnesse of his god , every-where breathes out this doxologie or divine epipho●ema , praised be the lord . this is the resolution and logicall analysis o● the whole psalme . b● should i fold up so ri● a work in so small a compasse , i did but shew yo● the knotty outside of a arras-hanging : i wi● now open and draw o● at length , and present t● your eyes the pleasan● mixture of colours i● each piece thereof . an● least i should lose my se● in this zoan , in this fiel● of wonders , my meditations shall keep pace wit● the princely prophet● method , and among those magnalia jehovae mirifica domini , the wonderfull works of the lord , i will first conside● how that out of the ●outhes of babes and suck●ngs he ordaineth strength , 〈◊〉 still the enemie and the ●venger . sect. . saint hierome writeth of paula that no●le matrone , that she joy●d in nothing more then ●uòd paulam neptim audie●t in cunis balbutiente lin●uâ halleluja cantare , that ●e heard her niece paula ●ven in the cradle with a ●retty stammering tongue 〈◊〉 sing haleluiah unto ●e lord . o god , thou ●eedest no skilfull rhetorician to set forth the praise : ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores ; even new-born babe● and sucklings do sufficiently declare thy power wisdome , and goodnesse — qui matrum ex uber● pendent , elingues pueri ( dict● mirabile ! ) vires immensas numénque tuu● muto ore fatentur . thus did the blessed innocents , those primiti● martyrum , witnesse ou● saviours glory , non l● quendo sed moriendo , no● by speaking but by su●fering for him , so the god out of their mout● made perfect his praise . christ assuredly got praise ●n that hymn which the angels sung , glory be to god on high ; he got great praise by s. stephen his protomartyr , and by s. ●ohn whom he loved : but ●s praise was made per●ect by the mouth of those ●abes and innocents . marvel not that children ●ake up that train : for ●nto them and unto us ●en was born a child , as ●e prophet speaks , and ●ch an one as ever de●ghted in little ones , like ●s father . to him was ●ver sacrifice more ac●ptable of beasts , then ●mbes ; of birds , then pigeons : and that lamb● of god carried the sam● mind , suffer little children to come unto me , and fo●bid them not , for unto such belongeth the kingdome ● heaven . and if the kingdome of heaven belong to them , good reaso● they should belong un● the king . as great princes will have their se●vants to attend on hi● whom they honour , 〈◊〉 god commands the glorious angels in heave● to take charge of his lit● ones here on earth ; a● they are ever rea● pitching their te● round about them , a● do ever attend either 〈◊〉 their safegard or revenge . nay , they are no longer angels as s. gregorie well observes , then they are so employed : for ac●ording to s. augustine , angel is a name of office ●ot of nature . they are alwayes spirits , but not alwayes angels : for no ●onger messengers from god to man , no longer angels ; since to be an angel , implyes onely to be a messenger . it was a witty essay of ●im , who styled woman the second edition of the e●itome of the whole world , ●eing framed next unto ●an , who was the ab●ridgement of the whole creation ; and though a● infant be but man in 〈◊〉 small letter , yet ( saith another characterist ) he 〈◊〉 the best copie of adam b●fore he tasted of eve or the apple . — felix sine fraudib● aetas ! thrice happie infancie , in which no guile 〈◊〉 gall is to be found ! c●jus innocentia & ignosce●tia , saith culman , whos● humblenesse and harmlesnesse abundantly co●founds the enemie and the avenger : for a littl● child being injured takes not any revenge but onely makes complaint to its parents . i● this respect we should ●mitate little children ; and when any wrong us , not suddenly break into gods office , who saith , vengeance is mine ; whose prerogative royall it is , to ●epay it : but onely make complaint to god our father in heaven , or to the church our mother on earth . he that upon an ambi●uous word , to which he ●rames an interpretation against himself , upon ●ome chimera of spirit , ●oth instantly fall into ●rags , rotomontadoes , ●untilioes , steps as it were ●to his princes chair of state , yea gods own seat , dethroning both and so disturbs heave● and earth . and he the shall communicate wit● another , still reteining t● impure passion of malic● in which is steeped the venome of all other v●ces , doth put adonis i● the crib of bethlehem , 〈◊〉 heretofore the heathe● did . but from our saviou● crib i remove m● thoughts to moses h● cradle . when tyrann● call pharaoh sent out h● bloudie edict for the slaughter of all the mal● babes and sucklings 〈◊〉 israel , when the exec●tioners hand should ha● succeeded the midwives , then was the mercifull daughter of that cruel father moved to compassion with the beauty ●nd tears of a little infant , which with a smile seem'd to implore the aid and gentle pitie of that royall maid : which young and live●y oratorie so prevailed with her , that from the ●rk of bulrushes , where●n she found it forlorn ●nd floting among the waves , she brought it to the palace , and bred it ; ●ot as a child of alms , ●or whom it might have ●een favour enough to live , but as it had bee● her own sonne , in all the delicates and in all the learning of egypt . thu● many times god write● such presages of honou● and majestie in the fac● of children as are able t●confound the enemie an● the avenger . some have observed how aptly these words ex ore infantum , are her● inserted in the secon● verse of this psalme , between the first and the third , wherein the prophet magnifieth god● glory in consideration o● the heavens , & such lik● works of his and his ordaining ; as though the heavens too , the sun , the moon , the starres , and the rest , were to be rec●oned among those babes ●nd infants out of whose mouthes together with ●thers he hath appointed ●e predication and per●ct composition of his ●raises . and because parallel ●xts of scripture , like ●sses set one against another , cast a mutuall ●ght , it will not be a●isse to illustrate this by ●nferring and medita●g on some passages of ●e former part of the ●eteenth psalme , and the next place consider ●w the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth h● handy-work . sect. . though men onely were made to be the speech-sounding letter in the alphabet of the creation ; though the heavens , the day and the night be mute , yet hav● they a language whic● is universally understood : the continua● succession of day & nigh● doth notably set forth the wonderfull power & providence of god ; on● day telleth another , & on● night certifieth another , vers. . if the world be , as clemens alexandri●us saith , dei scriptura , the first bible that god made for the institution of man ; then may we ●ake those words to be ●art of the book of the world , where nights are as it were the black in●ie lines of learning , dayes the white lightsome spaces between the ●ines , where god hath ●mprinted a legible deli●eation of his glory . here with chryso●tome we may observe the goodly eutaxie of the howers , how like maydens dancing in a round , very handsomely and curiously the● succeed one another , and by little and little , and without any stirre in the world , the inmost convey themselves utter most , the formost , hindermost , and middlemost do all shift places one with another , and yet for all this , they never stand still , but do still stand in their just distances , — & positae spatiis aequalibus horae . where likewise i may assume that of the apostle , rom. . . how beautifull are the feet of those that bring glad tidings ? how beautifull 〈◊〉 {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , how howerlike ! and then they are fair and beautifull indeed . i will elevate this a point higher , and next consider the goodly and glorious vault of heaven , where are those worlds of light , much bigger then so many globes of earth , hanging and moving regularly in that bright and spacious contignation of the firmament . if there were no other , this were a sufficient errand for a mans being here below , to see and observe those goodly luminaries above our heads , their places , their quantities , their motions , to discern those glories that may answer to so rich a pavement . there is the sunne , the heart of the world , the eyes of the universe , the gemme of natures ring , the prince of life , monarch of dayes and yeares , the bridegroom , the husband of the earth which provides heat and sustenance for her and all the children that hang on her breasts . there is the moon , a weaker light for a necessarie use , mother of moneths , lady of seas & moystures , a secret worker upon bodily humours , whose vertue is not greater in her light then in her influence . there be those twinkling starres , as it were virgins with torches waiting on their mistres the queen of night : posuit etiam deus stellas , gen. . . some reade , dedit stellas , god gave the starres in way of dowrie or a joynture ; but others , posuit stellas , he set them in order : he hath not set them tanquā in centro , but tanquam in circulo , in excellent order . surely if these dark and low rooms are so well fitted , it is not like those fair and upde● rooms are void . this sidereall heaven ( i● contemplation of which in an holy trance i could gaze my self into wonder ) is not more richly decked with conspicuous candles perpetually burning , then the throne of god with celestiall lights . there are innumerable regiments , bands and royall armies of cherubims and seraphims , archangels and angels , saints and martyrs . there is nothing which a religious soul can covet but she hath it ; and to borrow a strain of the schools , for the closing up of this sweet note , hîc deum amamus amore desiderii ; at in coelo , amore amicitiae : here we desire to have god , there we have our full desire . to cast mine eyes back from whence i have a little digressed , by a retrogradation , i contemplate again the excellencie of man , together with the priviledges of his condition wherewith god hath ennobled him . in some creatures we have onely vestigium , the print of gods foot ; but in others imaginem , his image . the sunne , the moon , and the stars are glorious creatures , yet are they but the work of gods fingers : whereas man is the work of his hands ; thy hands have made me and fashioned me : i will praise thee , for i am fearfully and wonderfully made , &c. the word in the originall signifies such art and curiositie as is used in needlework or embroiderie . man is as it were gods scutcheon , wherein he hath pourtrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world . god having framed the world ( saith causinus in his holy court ) as a large clock , hath proportionably given to man the place . the first wheel of this great clock of the world , is the primum mobile : the continuall motion , the secret influences of antipathies and sympathies , which are , as it were , hidden in the bowels of nature : the hand thereof , is this goodly and beautifull embowed frettizing of the heavenly orbs which we behold with our eyes : the twelve signes are , as it were , the distinctions of the twelve howers of the day : the sunne exerciseth the office of the steel and gnomon , to point out time ; and in his absence , the moon : the starres contribute thereto their lustrous brightnesse : the flowrie carpet of the earth beneath us , the spangled canopie of the heavens above us , the wavie curtains of the aire about us , are so many emblemes to exercise the wisest in the knowledge of this great workman : the living creatures are the small chimes ▪ and man is the great clock , which is to strike the howers , and rende● thanks to the creatou● s. chrysostome saith that the angels are the morning-starres , whereo● mention is made in job who incessantly praise god ; and men are the evening-starres fashioned by the hand of god to do the same office . briefly , god hath made man the charge of angels , the sole surveyour of heaven , the commander of the earth , the lord of the creatures . and thus am i led by the hand to consider his regencie and dominion over them . sect. . when god had formed of the earth every beast of the field , and every fowl of the aire of their own fit matter , he brought them unto man , who was their lord , to acknowledge his sovereigntie , and to receive from him their names , gen. . . some have conceited adam sitting in some high and eminent place , his face shining farre brighter then ever the face of moses did , and every beast coming as he was called , and bowing the head as he passed by , being not able to behold his countenance . most probable it is , that either by the help of angels , or by that which the greeks call {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , a naturall and secret instinct from god , by which every creature perceiveth what is good & bad for them , they were gathered to adam . god brought them to man for diverse reasons : first , to let him see how much he did excell them , and how much the more he should be thankfull . god made other creatures in severall shapes , like to none but themselves ; man , after his own image : others with qualities fit for service ; man , for dominion . secondly , that he should give them their names , in token of his power over them . thirdly , that posteritie might see what admirable knowledge adam had in giving names to the creatures according to their kinds . all the arts were ingraven upon the creatures , yet none but man could see them : for he receives them both actively and passively ; and therefore by logick he understood their natures , and by grammar their names . if god had given their names , it had not been so great a praise of adams memorie to recall them , as it was then of his judgement at first sight to impose them . by his knowledge he fitted their names to their disposition : and even in this he shewed his dominion over them , in that he knew how to govern them and order them also . to witnesse their subjection they present themselves before him as their awfull king , to do their first homage , and to acknowledge their tenure . such was the wonderfull beautie of mans body , such a majestie resulting from his face , that it struck a reverence into them all . the image of god , as it were the lords coat of arms which he had put upon man , made the creatures afraid of him . though god made man paulò inferiorem angelis , little lower then the angels , yet he made him multò superiorem reliquis , farre above all the creatures : he that made man and all the rest , praeposuit , set man above all the rest . thus while man served his creatour , he was feared of every creature . but did he not lose this patent of dominion by his fall ? are not the beasts now become his enemies ? may we not now take up the complaint of job , chap. . . the wilde asse derideth the multitude of the citie , and heareth not the crie of the driver . the vnicorn will not serve , nor tarrie by the crib , . the hawk will not flie by our wisdome , neither doth the eagle mount up at our command , v. , . we cannot draw out leviathan with an hook , neither pierce his jaws with an angle . job . . , . how then is the fear of man upon the creatures ? though adam in the state of innocencie had this rule over them in a more excellent manner , for then they were subject by nature , of their own accord , without compulsion ; yet by his transgression man did not altogether lose this power and dominion : for it was one of the prerogatives which god gave to noah and his sonnes , gen. . . the fear of you shall be upon every beast of the earth , and upon every fowl of heaven , upon all that moveth on the earth , and upon all the fish of the sea : into your hands are they delivered : that is , saith the paraphrast , the outward priviledges of your first creation i do now , though imperfectly , renew unto you ; let the fear and dread of you be planted naturally in every beast of the earth , whether tame or wild , and in every fowl of the aire , and generally in all that treadeth on the earth , and in all the fishes of the sea : all these , my will is , shall be subject to your will and command , that as by you and for you they were preserved , so they accordingly serve to your use . when christ was in the wildernesse with the beasts fourty dayes and fourty nights , they hurt him not , mark . . so when the image of god is restored to man in holinesse , all the creatures begin willingly to serve him ; but they are enemies to the unregenerate . the dogs did eat the flesh of jezebel , . kings . . yet they licked the sores of lazarus , luke . . the ravens pick out the eyes of those that are disobedient to their parents , prov. . . yet they fed elias in the wildernesse . . kings . . the serpents stung the people of israel , num. . . yet the viper that leaped on pauls hand hurt him not , acts . . the lions that devoured daniels accusers , touched not him , dan. . , . and still there are some reliques of god left in man which make the beasts to stand in aw of him : for first , they cannot do that harm to man which they would , because god restrains their power . secondly , they do not offend man , but when he offends god . thirdly , the nature of every wild beast hath been tamed by the nature of man , james . . fourthly , the most salvage beasts stand in fear of him ; they flie his company ; they shunne his arts and snares ; they fear his voice and shadow . when man goeth to rest , the beasts come forth to hunt their prey , psal. . . fifthly , they serve man , and submit themselves to his will . the lion will crouch to his keeper : the elephant will be ruled and led about by a little dwarf : the horse yeelds his mouth to the bridle ; the ox his neck to the yoke ; the cow her dugs to our hands ; the sheep her wooll to the shearers . he can now stoop the hawk to his lure , send the dog on his errand , teach one fowl to fetch him another , one beast to purvey for his table in the spoil of others . i am fallen upon a subject not more large then pleasant ; & híc pinguescere potest oratio , my lines could here more easily swell into a volume then be contracted into a manual . for as aeneas sylvius noteth , that there is no book so weakly written but it conteines one thing or other which is profitable ; and as the elder plinie said to his nephew when he saw him walk out some howers without studying , poteras has horas non perdere , you might have chosen whether you would have lost this time : so if we would improve our most precious minutes to the best , and contemplate on this great school of the world , where men are the scholars , and the creatures the characters by which we spell , and put together that nomen majestativum , as s. bernard calls it , that great and excellent name of god , we should find that there is no creature so contemptible but may justly challenge our observation , and teach a good soul one step towards the creatour . there is not any so little a spider which coming into the world bringeth not with it its rule , its book , its light : it is presently instructed in what it should do . the swallow is busie in her masonrie : the bee toyleth all day in her innocent theft : the pismires , a people not strong , prepare their meat in summer , and labour like the bees : sed illae faciunt cibos , hae condunt , but these make , the others hoard up meat . as vulcan is commended in the poet for beating out chains and nets — quae lumina fallere possunt , — non illud opus tenuissima vincunt stamina , so thin that the eye could not see them , being smaller then the smallest thread : so the smaller the creature is , the more is the workmanship of god to be admired both in shaping & using thereof . our god is as cunning and artificiall in the organicall body of the smallest creature of the world as of the greatest : and what application we may make thereof , i shall have fair occasion given me again to treat of , when i come to consider the fowls of the aire , and the fish of the sea . in the mean time having selected this psalme for my meditations on mans lordship and sovereigntie over the creatures , i proceed according to the prophets method ; and from his omnia subjecisti , from some generalls , come to handle some particulars : and , as he hath ranked them in order , i will next declare how the lord hath put under his feet all sheep and oxen , and the beasts of the field . sect. . there be beasts ad esum . and ad usum . some of them are profitable alive not dead ; as the dog , & horse , serviceable while they live , once dead they are thrown out for carrion . some are profitable dead not alive ; as the hog that doth mischief while he lives , but is wholesome food dead . some are profitable both alive and dead ; as the ox that draws the plough , the cow that gives milk , while they live ; & when they are killed , nourish and feed us with their flesh : yet none of them is so profitable as that quiet , innocent , harmlesse creature , the sheep : whose every part is good for something ; the wooll for raiment , the skin for parchment , the flesh for meat , the guts for musick . in sacrifices no creature so frequently offered ; in the sinne-offering , peace-offering , burnt-offering , passeover , sabbath-offering ; and especially in the daily-offering they offered a lambe at morning , and a lambe at evening , num. . lorinus observeth out of the fathers , why a lambe was so continually offered ; namely , as a type of the offering of christ : who in eight and twenty severall places of the revelation is called the lambe of god . for the name of sheep ; notatissima est dicendi forma , saith bucer : in the . of ezekiel , the prophets are thirteen times called shepherds , and the people one and twentie times called sheep . in what honour the name , function and person of shepherds hath been , is every-where apparent through the sacred scriptures . a shepherd was the first tradesman , though the second sonne of all the children of adam . and after abel , many shepherds were in near attendance upon god . a shepherds life , saith philo , est praeludium ad regnum ; ideò reges olim dicti sunt {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} : of which phrase homer and other grecians have made use . the old testament hath none in more esteem then shepherds . moses , that kept jethro's sheep ; jacob , that kept labans sheep ; amos a prophet , taken from the herd ; moses a priest and a prophet , from the sheep ; elisha the lords seer ( and you know whose spirit elisha had ) yet taken from the cattel ; david the lords souldier , ( and who ever got such victories as david ? ) yet fetched from the fold , and by the choyce of god destined to the throne . when he had lien long enough close among his flocks in the field of bethlehem , god sees a time to send him to the pitched field of israel , where at his first appearance in the list with that insolent uncircumcised philistine , whose heart was as high as his head , he takes no other spear but his staff , no other brigandine but his shepherds scrip , no other sword but his sling , no other artillerie but what the brook affords , five smooth small peebles ; and yet by these guided by an invisible hand he overcame the giant . afterwards when the diademe empaled his temples , his thoughts still reflected on his hook and harp . all the state and magnificence of a kingdome could not put his mouth out of taste of a retired simplicitie . as a musician often toucheth upon the sweetest note in his song , pavin or galliard , so our kingly prophet in diverse psalmes , but especially in his three and twentieth , ( which we may call his bucolicon ) hath most daintily struck upon the same string , through the whole hymn : there have you shepherd , sheep , green fields , still waters , wayes , pathes , valleyes , shadows , yea the rod , and the crook . but more then all this ; god the father is called a shepherd , psal. . . god the sonne doth name himself a shepherd , john . . god the holy ghost is named a shepherd and bishop of our souls , . pet. . . these very terms of shepherd and sheep have led me farther than i thought besides the waters of comfort . the night hath now furled up her sails , and a clear thin cloud laden onely with a light dew besprinkleth with drops the whole earth , like pearls , which sparkle as little eyes in the faces of the flowers and plants . the glorious sun is now unlocking the doore of the morning to run his race . the winged choristers of heaven do now begin to prune and pick themselves , and in their circling turns mount and soar aloft , and caroll out their praises to god , as rendring their dutifull devotions and thanks unto him who hath thus reflected the beams of the sun upon them : whose sweet anthems and modulations invite mine eare to listen thereunto , and after some pause break off my thoughts from the beasts of the field , and direct my pen to write somewhat of the fowls of the aire . sect. . my meditations are now on wing : and i will make a short and speedy flight through the volarie of the open aire , to look on the numberlesse guests which it conteineth ; to see the severall fowls of all shapes , colours & notes , whom nature doth so willingly and bountifully furnish for the benefit of man , even to a mirrour of delicacie , braverie , use . first , if we consider profit , they are for meat . when the israelites in the desert murmured for meat , moses asked whether he should kill all the beeves and sheep , or gather together all the fish of the sea : he forgot the fowls of the aire . but god sent them such a drift of quails , in such abundance , that they were about two cubits above the earth . o the goodnesse and providence of that great house-keeper of this universe ! they desired meat , and received quails ; they desired bread , and had manna . god gave them the meat of kings , and the bread of angels . again , they are not onely food in their flesh , but in their egs also : and as their flesh is for our eating in the day , so are their feathers for our resting in the night . they are profitable both in warre and peace , in sagittis belli , & in calamis pacis : their feathers are for arrows in time of warre to fight with , and for quills in time of peace to write with . secondly , they are good if we consider pleasure . there is pleasure in the taking of them , by fowling to meaner persons , and by hawking to princes and the better sort . there is pleasure in them to the eye ; when the navie of tharshish brought unto solomon gold from ophir , there ●ame also besides apes , and parrats and popin-jayes , ( as some have probably conjectured ) and the starrie-trained peacocks , which are onely birds of pleasure ; whose daintie-coloured feathers being spread against the sunne , have a curious lustre , and look like gemms : the wings of the peacock are pleasant , and the feathers of the ostrich . so is the purpled pheasant with the speckled side . our prophet david was much taken with the colour of the dove ; pennae columbae deargentatae , her feathers are silver-white , psal. . . and three severall times in the canticles doth solomon set forth the beautie of the spouse , alluding ad oculos columbarum , eyes single and direct as a dove , not learing as a fox , and looking diverse wayes ; oculos columbinos , non vulpinos . there is pleasure in them to the eare . the harmonie of instruments is but devised by art , but the singing and chirping of birds is naturalis musica mundi , the fowls of the aire do sing upon the branches , psal. . . how doth it delight us to heare the pretty lyrick lark , the blackbird , the linnet , the severall kinds of finches , the mirthfull mavis , the wren , the thrush , & starling , & all the shrill-mouth'd quire , chant forth their dulcid polyphonian notes ! how doth the nightingale ( which the latines call philomela , a bird that loveth to sing ) charm our senses , when she maketh an organ of her throat , sometimes breaking her notes into warbles , sometimes stretching them out at length ! lastly , in these feathered creatures do i likewise find bonum honestum . many rare and admirable documents of instruction may we learn from them . the dove is an hieroglyphick of unspotted chastitie , of white innocencie ; and harmlesse simplicitie . nescit adulterii flammam intemerata columba . never was dove sick of a lustfull disease , but so loving and so true to her mate , that ( i will deliver it from a better pen ) she hath given life to a proverb by her propertie ; true as the turtle , is the highest language conjugall love can speak ●n . the nature of her is described in this distich , est sine felle , gemit , rostro non laedit , & ungues possidet innocuos , puráque grana leg it . she hath no malice to sowre her gall , to dissweeten her temper , she hurteth not with her bill , she hath harmlesse claws , and feedeth on pure grain . in the gospel ( saith that ingenious authour ) where our blessed saviour vouchsafeth to make the dove his own text , and our copie , he proposeth her in his sermon as a patern worthy the imitation of all christians ; be ye innocent as doves ; {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} : a word derived from the privative particle α and the verb {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} or {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , signifying simple , without mixture ; or from the same α and {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} an horn ; and then it implies as much as hurtlesse or harmlesse . who ever saw the rough foot of the dove armed with griping talons ? who ever saw the beak of the dove bloudie ? who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil , and tiring upon bones ? this qualitie is so eminent in the dove , that our saviour there singled it out for an hieroglyphick of simplicity . whence it was questionlesse , that god of all fowls chose out this for his sacrifice , sin ex aliqua volucri , &c. levit. . . and before the law abraham was appointed no other fowls but a turtle-dove and a young pigeon , gen. . . neither did the holy virgin offer any other at her purifying then this embleme of her self and her blessed babe . shortly , the holy ghost in scripture is resembled to a dove , and appeared in the shape thereof : the devil on the contrary is compared to serpent , and used it as his instrument . illa à primordio divinae pacis praeco ; the dove in the beginning brought an olive-branch , and preached peace unto the world : ille à primordio divinae imaginis praedo ; the serpent in the beginning played the thief , and robbed mankind of the image of god . we have an example of mercie in the pelican , which is a bird of mercie , and hath in the hebrew ( as the masters of that tongue observe ) the name of mercie , as a truly mercifull bird . she taketh her name pelican , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , from smiting or piercing , in regard that by piercing her breast she reviveth her young ones , after they have been killed by serpents , or by her own bill . the brave bird which the grecians call onocrotalus , is so well practiced to expect the hawk for to grapple with her , that even when sleep shutteth her eyes , she sleepeth with her bea● exalted , as if she would contend with her adversarie . hence may we have the quintessence of al● wisdome , to stand upon our guard , and daily expect death ; it being 〈◊〉 businesse we should learn all our life , to exercise i● once . when moses went up unto god , the lord called him out of the mountain , saying , thus shalt thou say to the house of jacob , and tell the children of israel ; ye have seen what i did unto the egyptians , and bow i bare you on eagles wings . by the eagles some there understand moses and aaron , the two guides that led the children of israel out of egypt ; & will have them compared thereunto propter acumen intelligentiae & altitudinem vitae , by reason of their piercing judgement and holy life . they indeed were , as chrysostome saith , mollissimae pennae misericordiae divinae , as it were the down-feathers of gods mercie , because they handled the people committed to their charge tenderly , in imitation of eagles : of whom some report , that whereas other birds carry their young ones in their talons or claws , which cannot be done without some griping , they lay them upon their wings , and so transport them without any grievance . which is a good embleme for magistrates , and teacheth them paternall affection towards their people . gorran in his exposition of saint lukes gospel , cap. . v. . saith , that the saints resemble the eagles in these five properties . first , calvitie peccatorum . for as the eagles moult off their feathers , and so become bald , so the saints pluck off their sick feathers from their soul ; they circumcise the old man with the lusts thereof , and weed out sinne by the roots . the prophet micah exhorting the people to repentance , bids them to inlarge their baldnesse like the eagle , micah . . mary magdalene did more then cast her feathers , when she converted her eyes , her hairs , her lips , feathers of wantonnesse , into pledges of repentance . she had been parched with sinne and the heat of concupiscence , as the wife of othniel complained of an hot countrey when she begged of caleb and joshua the springs above and the springs beneath ; this holy sinner at her conversion brought unto our saviour irriguum superius , springs of tears in her eyes above ; & irriguum inferius , springs of bloud ( if i may so speak ) in her heart beneath , even a bleeding , contrite and a wounded spirit . as plinie saith of the fleur de lis , or flower-de-luce , that it is begotten by its own tears ; in the same manner are the saints produced to beatitude by their proper afflictions . the second resemblance is in renovatione novi hominis , in their new birth : who reneweth thy youth like unto the eagle , psal. . . the eagle by casting her beak , and breaking her bill upon a stone , receives a new youthfulnesse in her age . this rock is christ , upon which the saints break their hearts by repentance . paul had cast his bill and his feathers when he said , now i live not , but it is christ that liveth in me , gal. . . extinctus fuit saevus persecutor , & vivere coepit pius praedicator , saith gregorie . the third resemblance is in volatûs elevatione , in their loftie flight . doth not the eagle mount up , and make her nest on high ? job . . so it is with the saints : as their conversation , so their contemplation is as high as heaven . such elevations had our prophet david , psal. . . & psal. . . such an eagle was saint paul , qui in terra positus , à terra extraneus : he lived here , yet a stranger while he lived here . of all fowls , saith munster , the eagle onely moves herself straight upward and downward perpendicularly without any collaterall declination . by her playing with thunderbolts , and confronting that part of heaven where lightnings , and storms , and tempests most reigne , she teacheth great and couragious spirits how to encounter all disasters . and by beating her wings on high , we are taught sursum corda , to ascend up in our thoughts where our saviour is . what the poets feign of the eagles laying her egs in jupiters lap fabulously , that doth the faithfull man by davids counsel truly , and with isaiahs eagle flying up to heaven casteth his whole burden upon the lord . the fourth is in visionis claritate , in the clearnesse of vision . saint augustine writeth of the eagle , that being aloft in the clouds she can discern sub frutice leporem , sub fluctibus piscem , under the shrub an hare , under the waves a fish : so the faithfull being eagle-eyed , can with moses in a bramble see the majestie of god ; with the three children in the furnace see the presence of christ ; with elizeus in the straitest siege see an army of angels to defend him ; with s. paul in the heap of afflictions behold a weight of glory provided for him . the last is in viae occultatione , in the secrecy of their way . one of those things which the wise man admired at , was the way of an eagle in the aire , prov. . . see them flie we may , but their wayes and subtle passages we cannot discern : so the saints good works are seen of men , but their intentions with what mind they do them are not discoverable . i have the longer insisted on this princely bird , the eagle , because among all other birds is ascribed to her maximus honos & maxima vis ; and in the scriptures are grounded many proverbs and similes upon the strength and length of her wing , upon her lofty flight , and sharp sight . it were infinite to follow the allegorists in moralizing her qualities : and to trace plinie or aelian for the varietie of eagles , were a course easie , but a discourse tedious . it would likwise in my poor conceit , something savour of his spice of pride that numbred his people , to reckon and heap up all that i have read on this argument . i have already shewed what excellent lessons the bee , the swallow , and diverse other birds do read unto us , and i must not per eandem lineam serram reciprocare , draw my saw the same way back again . i discharge this point : the next that attendeth our consideration is the other part of gods work , on the fifth day , which i may call his water-work : and so i take into my thoughts the fish of the sea , and whatsoever walketh through the paths thereof . sect. . when argus in the poet had the custodie of io , constiterat quocunque loco , spectabat ad io ; ante oculos io , quamvìs aversus , habebat . which way soere he stands he io spies : io behind him is , before his eyes : so may i say of them that go down into the sea in ships , on every side , which way soever they look , they see the works of the lord , and his wonders in the deep , psal. . . first , the element in it self is wonderfull : first , in regard of the depth , situation and termination of it . secondly , in regard of its motion , its afflux and reflux , its ebs and flowes , its fulls and wanes , its spring and neap-tides . thirdly , in regard of navigation , or the art of sayling , which now is so ordinarie and common , that we almost cease to bestow wonder on it . again , it is wonderfull in the numberlesse number of creatures which it containeth . this one word fiat hath made such infinite numbers of fishes , that their names may make a dictionarie , and yet we shall not know them all . first , for the profunditie of the sea , ( which is the distance between the bottom and superficies of the waters ) it is of that immensitie that in many places no line can touch it . the common received opinion that the depth of it being measured by a plummet seldome exceeds two or three miles , is not to be understood ( saith breerwood a worthy writer ) of the sea in generall , but onely of the depth of the straits or narrow seas , which were perhaps searched by the ancients , who dwelt far from the main ocean . for the site and bounds of it , it is excellent . the naturall place of the waters by the confession of all is above the earth : this at the first they enjoyed , and after repeated and recovered again in the overwhelming of the old world , when the lord for a time delivered them as it were from their bands , and gave them their voluntarie and naturall passage . and at this day there is no doubt , but the sea , which is the collection of waters , is higher then the land , as sea-faring men gather by sensible experiments . thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment , saith the psalme . as a vesture in the proper use of it is above the body that is clothed therewith , so is the sea above the land . and such a garment , saith one , would it have been unto the earth , but for the providence of god towards us , as the shirt that was made for the murdering of agamemnon , where he had no issue out . therefore the psalmist addeth immediatly , at thy rebuke they fled : at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . they go up by the mountains , they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them . thou hast set a bound that they may not passe over ; that they turn not again to cover the earth . though that fluid element is alwayes running and often roring as if it would swallow up the earth , though this untamed beast be unresistable by the power of man , yet is it ruled like a child by the power of god : the sea is his and he made it , psal. . . he stilleth the raging of the sea and the noise of the waves , psal. . . he hath shut up the sea with doores , job . . he hath established his commandment upon the sea , and said , hitherto shalt thou come and no further ; here will i stay thy proud waves , vers. . by many texts of scripture the earth is said to have the sea for its foundation , psal. . . and psal. . . yea , to be made out of the matter and to consist in it , . pet. . . god would have his servant job admire hereat , when he asked him , whereupon are the foundations set ? and who laid the corner-stone thereof ? job . . elsewhere it is said to have no foundation , job . . onely to hang in the midst of the world by the power of god immoveable , psal. . . psal. . . isaiah . . and . , &c and these which haply may seem most inept and weak pillars , are firm bases , psal. . . and mighty foundations mich. . . all which is an argument demonstrative of gods power and providence , who as he brought light out of darknesse , so hath he set the solid earth upon the liquid waters , and that for the convenience of mans habitation . secondly , it is wonderfull for its motion : why it moveth forward , why it retireth , is to us above all reason wonderfull . that such a motion there is , experience sheweth ; but the searching out of the cause of it , is one of the greatest difficulties in all naturall philosophie . aristotle was so much admired for his logicall wit , that by some he hath been charactered by three speciall epithets : first , that he was {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , a lover of universalities ; secondly , that he was {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , a lover of method ; lastly and chiefly , that he was {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , a subtile searcher out of causes : yet this genius and secretarie of nature , this acute philosopher , this prince of philosophers , is reported to have stood amazed at the flowing and ebbing of euripus , and despairing of finding out the cause thereof , cast himself into the river , and was comprised of that he could not comprehend . what aristotles opinion was concerning this matter is an uncertain conjecture , for as much as little or nothing can be gathered touching this out of any boo● which is certainly known to be aristotles ; for the tractate of the propriety of elements is judged to be none of his , but of some later authour . this is more at large most judiciously discussed by mr nathanael carpenter in his geographie , lib. . cap. . thirdly , it is wonderfull in the art of navigation on it . is it not strange that there should be a plough to delve a passage through the unwieldy ocean ? that the water should be of such fidelitie as firmly to bear up all vessels from the shallop to the ship , from the smallest carvel to the mightiest and greatest carack , and by the help of favourable and propitious winds convey them on their woven wings from climate to climate , to the benefit and commoditie of their farre-distant owners ? concerning the originall of shipping , i find it to be gods own invention . if god had not said to noah , fac tibi arcam ; and when he had said so , if he had not given him a designe , a module , a platform of the ark , we may doubt whether ever man would have thought of a means to passe from nation to nation , of a ship or any such way of trade and commerce . this ark resting afterwards on the mountain of ararat , gave a precedent to other nations neare-bordering how ships were to be framed . thus navigation first taught by almighty god , was afterwards seconded by the industrie of famous men in all ages . for the use and commodity of navigation may be produced many arguments . the first and principall is the promotion of religion ; how should the gospel have been divulged through the whole world , had not the apostles dispersed themselves , and passed the sea in ships , to convey their sacred message to divers nations and kingdomes ? again , sea-traffick and merchandizing is of that excellent use , that the state of the world cannot subsist without it . not the lyon and the unicorn , but the plough and the ship under god are the supporters of a crown . non omnis fert omnia tellus , no countrey yeeldeth all kind of commodities . there must be a path from egypt to asshur , and from asshur to egypt again , to make a supply of their mutuall wants . mesha the king of moab was a king of sheep ; hiram king of tyre had store of timber and workmen : ophir was famous for gold , chittim for ivorie , basan for oaks , lebanon for cedars , saba for frankincense . we have our gold from india , our spices from arabia , our silks from spain , our wines from france . and thus by the goodnesse and wisdome of god is one countrey the helper and mutuall supporter of anothers welfare . he maketh one the granarie , to furnish her neighbours with corn ; another the armourie , to furnish the rest with weapons ; another the piscarie , to furnish the rest with fish ; another the treasurie , to furnish the rest with gold . by this is the merchant the key of the land , the treasurer of the kingdome , the venter of his soils surplussage , the combiner of nations , and the adamantine chain of countreys . the sea and the earth , saith a learned prelate , are the great coffers of god ; the discoveries of navigation are the keys , which whosoever hath received may know that he is freely allowed to unlock these chests of nature without any need to pick the wards . here could i spread my meditations , and train on my reader with delight : but my principall aim is , to shew how wonderfull the sea is in the great varietie and abundance of creatures that live and move within this wombe of moisture . almighty god hath so richly sown the great and boisterous element of waters with the spawn of all sorts of fish which so innumerably multiply , and hath crowned the deeps with such abundance , that the sea contendeth with the earth for plentie , variety , and delicacy . the breed of it is yeelded to be full of wonder . as there is miraculum in nodo , a wonder in the knitting of those two elements of water and earth in one sphericall and round bodie ; so is there miraculum in modo , a miracle in the manner of the operation : for eodem modo producitur balaena quo rana ; totidémque syllabae ad creandum pisciculos quot ad creandum cete . small fishes are not the superfluitie of nature : there is as much admirablenesse in the little shrimp as in the great leviathan : both are miraculous . there are miracula magna & miracula parva ; & saepe parva sunt magnis majora , saith saint augustine : the basest fish , even that shelfish called murex , giveth our purples , the most sumptuous and delightfull colours : and margarites , the most precious pearls that beautifie princes robes , come from the sea . and this is first the bonum jucundum , the pleasure good , which we find in them . the tast of many fishes , in all manner of magnificence , is more delicate and exquisite then that of flesh . and fish hath ever had the priviledge which at this day it hath , that chief gentlemen are pleased and have skill to dresse it . nor is fishing it self lesse delightfull to them that use it then hunting and hawking are to others . they are indeed princely disports , & studium nobilium , the study , the exercise , the ordinary businesse of many great ones ; yet much riding , many dangers accompany them : hilares venandi labores , &c. whereas fishing , which is a kind of hunting by water , be it with nets , weels , bait , angling or otherwise , is still and quiet . and if so be the angler catch no fish , yet hath he a wholesome walk among the curled woods and painted meads through which a silver-serpent river leads to some cool courteous shade . — he whiffes the dainties of the fragrant fields ; he sucketh in the breath of fine fresh meadow-flowers , which ( like the warbling of musick ) is sweetest in the open aire where it cometh and goeth ; he heareth the melodious harmony of birds , a quire whereof each tree enterteineth at natures charge ; he sees the swans , herons , ducks , water-hens , coots , and many other fowl , with their brood ; which he thinketh better then the noise of hounds ▪ or blast of horns , or all the sport that they can make . this is true of those that use fishing for recreation : but what shall we say of the poore stipendiarie fishermen , qui cruribus ocreati , who booted up to the very groins , toil and take much pains for a little pay ? certainly god crowneth their labour with a sweet repose , and their diet is more wholesom & nourishing ; whereas surfets light frequently on the rich , and the gentle bloud groweth quickly foul : the bread of him that laboureth ( as solomon saith of his sleep ) is sweet and relishable , whether he eat little or much . this hath he prettily expressed in his sicelides ; happie , happie fisher-swains , if that you knew your happines your sports taste sweeter by your pains , sure hope your labour relishes : your net your living : whe● you eat , labour finds appetite and meat . when the seas and tempests rore , you either sleep , or pipe , or play , and dance along the golden shore , thus you spend the night & day : shrill wind 's a pipe , hoarse sea 's a taber , to fit your sports or ease your labour . moreover , by fishing and using themselves thereto men are enabled to do service for their countrey : when reuben abode among the sheep-folds to heare the bleating of the flocks , when gilead did stay beyond jordan , and issachar took his rest in his tents , then the people of zebulun did jeopard their lives unto death in the field against sisera . zebulun is a tribe of account , as well as judah , benjamin , and nepthali , psal. . . moses by a spirit of prophesie , ( as likewise remembring what old israel had prophesied of this sonne and his posteritie , zebulun shall dwell by the sea-side ; he shall be an haven for ships , gen. . . ) breathed but this propheticall patheticall dying farewell , they shall suck of the abundance of the seas , and of the treasures hid in the sands , deut. . . and here doth fall into our contemplation the bonum utile , the great benefit , commoditie and profit that we reap from the sea : which according to our english proverb , is a good neighbour , in that it yeelds such store of fish whereby the inhabitants may be nourished , and other creatures the better preserved . for abrahams servant to fetch a calf from the stalls , jacob to bring a kid from the fold , esau● to bring venison from the field , doth not so much expresse how god filleth us with plenteousnesse , as the unseen prey which the fisherman bringeth from the sea . who can number the sand of the sea ? saith the sonne of sirach , ecclus . . nay , what man is able to number the fish of the sea ? which are so many that the patriarch jacob prayed that josephs children might encrease like the fish , gen. . . beasts of the field and birds of the air bring forth but one or two young ones , if they be big ; or , if they be little , some three or foure , others five or six , few above ten , none usually above twenty : but fish , as experience teacheth , every day bring forth hundreds at one time : in the great and wide sea , saith our prophet , are things creeping innumerable , both small and great , psal. . . in the creation god said , let the waters bring forth in abundance every creeping thing that hath the soul of life , gen. . . howbeit in all that abundance , as it is observed , there is nothing specified but the whale , as being the prince of the rest , and , to use the phrase of job , king of all the children of pride . wherein the workmanship of the maker is most admirable : for it is said , then god created the whales ; and not singly , the whales , but with an additament , the great whales . so doth the poet term them immania cete , huge whales , as being the stateliest creatures that move in the waters . god made the whale , saith a father , to be vectem maris , the barre of the sea : he , like the serpent in the revelation , casteth out of his mouth water like a floud , — this monstrous whirle-about into the sea another sea doth spout . in creating of them creavit deus vastitates & stupores . for , as plinie writeth of them , when they swim and shew themselves above water , annare insulas putes , you would think that islands swam towards you , and that great hills did aspire to heaven it self with their tops . the greatnesse and strength of a whale in a most elegant narration is expressed by job , which for acutenes , vigour and majestie of style doth farre exceed what ever we can fetch from the schools of rhetoricians : he beginneth it at his first verse of his chap. and so to the end , where he leaveth it ●s an epilogue of gods great work . this emperour of the ocean , this unequald wonder of the deep , this balaena , the great whale ( for so tremellius translateth leviathan in that passage of job ) is very profitable to the merchant , for its oyl , bones , and ribs . in isleland , as munster writeth , of the ribs and bones of the biggest whale many make posts and sparres for the building of their houses . i will land this point with an observation of such fish as are for the food and sustentation of man . i never find that christ enterteined any guests but twice , and that was onely with loaves and fishes . i find him sometimes feasted by others more liberally : but his domestick fare , for the most part , except a● the passeover , was fish ▪ he that chose but twelve apostles out of the whole world , took foure of those twelve that were by profession fishermen ● as , simon peter , and andrew his brother ; and the two sonnes of zebedee , james and john . and the ancient fathers observe , that our saviour did expresse himself to the sea-tribe more than to any of the rest : for he was conceived at nazareth a citie in the portion of zebulun , and in that citie was he brought up , and began to preach first there ; and mount tabor , upon which he was transfigured , was in the tribe of zebulun also . with the hebrews the same word doth signifie a pond or a fish-pool which is used for a blessing . and surely it is a blessing to any countrey , among other commodities which enrich a kingdome , to have the benefits of fish-ponds and sluces ; in which commodious stews men may preserve the fishes which they take , and sell them for advantage and gain . the prophet isaiah foreseeing the destruction of egypt saith , the waters shall fail from the sea , and the river shall be wasted and dried up : and they shall turn the rivers farre away , and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up ; the reeds and flags shall wither . the fishes shall mourn , and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament , and they that spreade their net upon the waters shall b● weakned . and we find that among other plague● of egypt this was one , that their fish , the chief part of their sustenance , died with infection : and their nilus did not onely yeeld them a dead but a living annoyance ; it did never before so store them with fish , as it did then plague them with frogs . if it be such a curse to be deprived of so great a blessing , what a blessing it is not to know such a curse ! to descend to the particulars : among this scaly footlesse nation , i likewise find bonum honestum : for from them we may draw symbola virtutum quae imitemur , many exquisite emblemes for our instruction . as fishes when they are hurt , heal themselves again by touching the tench , finding the slime of his body to be as a sovereigne salve : so must we when we are wounded with sinne , repair to our saviour christ , cujus sanat fimbria , saith ambrose , whose garment is our plaister ; whom if we do but touch tactu fidei , by a true faith , we shall be whole . thus the woman in the gospel that twelve yeares long had laboured of an issue of bloud , to whom the art of the physician could neither give cure nor hope , at length by a touch of the verge of his garment was revived from the verge of death : she came trembling to our blessed saviour , and though her tongue were mute , yet her heart spake ; for she said within her self , if i may but touch the hemme of his garment , i shall be safe . that she supposed to find more sanctitie in the touch of the hemme then of the coat , i neither dispute , nor beleeve . but what said she ? if i may but touch , a weak action ; the hemme of his garment , the remotest part ; with a trembling hand , a feeble apprehension . here was the praise of this womans faith , that she promised her self remedy by the touch of the outmost hemme . in the old law those fish were onely reputed clean which had fins and scales . the fins of the fish are for steering of their motion ; the scales , for smoothnesse of passage , for safeguard , for ornament : so are those onely clean in the sight of god , qui squamas & loricam habent patientiae , & pinnulas hilaritatis , who have the scales and coat-armour of patience , and the sins of joy and cheerfulnesse to spring up to god-ward ; or as the paraphrast there saith , those men that have no knowledge and faith to guide them , no good dispositions to set them forward , no good works to set them forth , are not for your entire conversation . by the story of the dolphines assembled in sholes upon the sea-shore to celebrate the obsequies of ceraunus , who had before freed them from the snare of the fishermen , we learn , that good turns are golden nets which catch the swiftest gliding fish . the dolphines moving from the upper brimme of the water to the bottom when she sleepeth , condemneth those that streak themselves upon their beds of down , and snort so long — — indo mitum quod despumare falernum sufficiat , quintâ dum linea tangitur umbrâ ; as would suffice to sleep out a surfet till high noon , &c. i cannot set forth this king of fishes in more orient and better colours then he before hath done brave admiral of the broad briny regions , lover of ships , of men , of melodie , thou up and down through the moist world dost flie swift as a shast , whose salt thou lovest so , that lacking that , thy life thou dost forgo . seas of examples in this kind are infinite . sallust du bartas , a poet above the ordinary level of the world , for the choice of his subject most rare and excellent , is admirably copious on this theme . i will therefore forbear to write iliads after homer . and although for the most part it be true , that wit distilled in one language cannot be transfused into another without losse of spirits , yet who so is able judiciously to compare the translation with the originall , will confesse , to the immortall glory of our countrey-man , — that from the french more weak he bartas taught his six-dayes-work to speak in naturall english . and so — hath lighted from a flame devout as great a flame , that never shall go out . sect. . thus have i made a brief circuit over the whole earth , and a short cut over the vast sea : and now before i put my ship into the creek , before i conclude , i must draw these scattered branches home to their root again . the generall substance of them all together is this ; as it is a most pleasant kind of geographie , in this large mappe of the world , in the celestiall and terrestriall globe , to contemplate the creatour ; so there is nothing that obteineth more of god , then a thankfull agnition of the favours and benefits we daily receive at his bountifull hands . if we be not behind with him in this tribute of our lips , he will see that all creatures in heaven and earth shall pay their severall tributes unto us ; the sun his heat , the moon her light , the starres their influence , the clouds their moisture , the sea and rivers their fish , the land her fruits , the mine their treasures , and al● things living their homage and service . o● the contrary ; if the familiaritie of gods blessings draw them into neglect , he will have a● just quarrel against us for our unthankfulnesse ; and our ingratitude ( which is a monster in nature , a soloecisme in maners , a paradox in divinitie ) will prove a parching wind to damme up the fountain of his favours toward us . i will seal up all with a pretty note that hugo hath ; there is no book of nature unwritten on : and that which may not ●e a teacher to inform ●s , will be a witnesse to ●ondemn us . it is the ●oice of all the creatures ●nto man , accipe , redde , ●ave . accipe ; take us to thy ●se and service . i heaven ●m bid to give thee rain ; i sunne , to give thee light ; ● bread , to strengthen thy ●ody ; i wine , to chear thy heart ; we oxen leave our pastures , we lambes our mothers , to do thee service . redde ; remember to be thankfull . he that giveth all , commandeth thee to return him somewhat . it is hard if thou canst not thank the great housekeeper of the world for thy good chear : this is the easi● task and impositio● which the supreme lord of all layeth upon all the goods thou possessest & on all the blessings of this life : — minimo capitur thuri● honore deus . cave ; beware of abusing us . the beasts of the field do crie , do not kill us for wantonnesse ; the fowls of the aire , do not riot with us ; the wine , devoure not me to disable thy self : the howers , which ever had wings , will flie up to heaven to the authour of time , and carrie news of thy usage toward us . and now , manum è ●abula : i have finished my meditations on this psalme , wishing i could have had s. ambrose his facultie , qui in psalmis davidis explicandis ejus lyram & plectrum mutuatus , who in the expression of davids psalms is said to have borrowed davids own harp : so rightly did he expresse his meaning . but my fear is , that i have muddled and made this topaz but so much the darker by going about to polish it . to end as i began , with the commendation of the book of psalmes ; est certè non magnus , verùm aureolus , & ad verbum ediscendus libellus ; the psalter is not a great but a golden book and throughly to be learned . this method our prophet observeth in this excellent hymn ; the proposition and conclusion thereof are both the same ; carceres & meta , the head and the foot , as i● were the voice and the echo : the whole psalm being circular , annular ▪ serpentine , winding into i● self again , as it beginneth so it endeth , o lord our governour , how excellent is thy name in all the world ! finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- * tit psal. pro torcularibus . notes for div a e- * titulus psalmi , pro torcularibus . notes for div a e- judg. . . hier. b. king , lect. . on jonas . dr hakewell in his davids vow , pag. . k. james . psal . . cant. . . . revel. . prolog : in psalm . lib. de scalâ claustrali . aug. lib. confess . cap. ● the title of the eighth psalme explained . emblemes of perseverance . mans abasement . mans dignitie . virgil . beza . matth. . . the tender care of pharaohs daughter to the infant moses . the howers compared to young maidens . the sun . the moon . the starres . the empyreall heaven . psal. . the world compared to a large clock . job . adam the first nomencl●tor ; and why he gave the creatures their names . observ. answ. lib. de mundo universo . plin. lib . cap. . nascitur aranea cum lege , libro , & lucer●â . prov. . . mactabant agnum jugis nostri sacrificii typum , lorin. in act. apost. c. . shepherds in high esteem with god . b. hall . num. . job . cant. . cant. . cant. . the dove . matth. . . the pelican . the eagle exod. . , . homil. . in matth. the saints resembled to eagles . judg. . . lilium lacrymâ suâ seritur . ambr. in job . . exod. . . dan. . . kings . . rom. . . tertull. de corona militis , cap. . ovid . met. lib. . thus elegantly translated by mr george sandys . the sea wonderfull in many respects . whether the waters be higher then the earth ? psal. . . reciprocatio & aestus maris : the ebbing and flowing of the sea . aristotle . navigation . the benefit thereof . quò va●ts ? nec laborat deus in maximis , nec fastidit in minimis , ambros. aquarum est quod in regibu adoratur . mountaign in his essayes , lib. . cap. . eccle● . . judg. . boi● . apoc. . . plin. lib. . cap. . the tench the physician of fishes . b. hall . levit. . . deut. . . ●ern . serm. . in die s. andreae . the dolphine . aelian , lib. . c. . optick glasse of humour cap. . p. sylvester . mich. drayton . sam. daniel . hugo de s. vict. the theory of the earth containing an account of the original of the earth, and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo till the consummation of all things. burnet, thomas, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the theory of the earth containing an account of the original of the earth, and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo till the consummation of all things. burnet, thomas, ?- . the third edition review'd by the author. [ ], , [ ], p., [ ] leaf of plates : ill. printed by r.n. for walter kettilby, london : . half title: the sacred theory of the earth. "epistle dedicatory" signed: thomas burnet. in four books. each has special t.p., except for the first. the third and fourth books have separate, continuous pagination. reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. concerning the deluge, and the dissolution of the earth--concerning the primaeval earth, and concerning paradise--concerning the burning of the world, and concerning the new heavens and new earth--concerning the new heavens and new earth, and concerning the consummation of all things--a review of the theory of the earth and its proofs. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . cosmology. earth. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion g. kneller eques pinxit . r : white sculpsit . e●●ies auth●ris . the sacred theory of the earth . the theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth , and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone , or is to undergo till the consummation of all things . the two first books concerning the delvge , and concerning paradise . the third edition review'd by the author . london , printed by r. n. for walter kettilby , at the bishop's-head in s. paul's church-yard , . to the king's most excellent majesty . sir , new found lands and countreys accrew to the prince , whose subject makes the first discovery ; and having retriev'd a world that had been lost , for some thousands of years , out of the memory of man , and the records of time , i thought it my duty to lay it at your majesty's feet . 't will not enlarge your dominions , 't is past and gone ; nor dare i say it will enlarge your thoughts ; but i hope it may gratifie your princely curiosity to read the description of it , and see the fate that attended it . we have still the broken materials of that first world , and walk upon its ruines ; while it stood , there was the seat of paradise , and the scenes of the golden age ; when it fell , it made the deluge ; and this ●●shapen earth we now inhabit , is the form it was found in when the waters had retir'd , and the dry land appear'd . these things , sir , i propose and presume to prove in the following treatise , which i willingly submit to your majesty's iudgment and censure : being very well satisfied , that if i had sought a patron in all the list of kings , your contemporaries : or in the roll of your nobles of either order : i could not have found a more competent iudge in a speculatitn of this nature . your majesty's sagacity , and happy genius for natural history , for observations and remarks upon the earth , the heavens , and the sea , is a better preparation for inquiries of this kind , than all the dead learning of the schools . sir , this theory in the full extent of it , is to reach to the last period of the earth , and the end of all things ; but this first volume takes in only so much as is already past , from the origin of the earth ▪ to this present time and state of nature . to describe in like manner the changes and revolutions of nature that are to come , and see thorough all succeeding ages , will require a steddy and attentive eye , and a retreat from the noise of the world ; especially so to connect the parts , and present them all under one view , that we may see , as in a mirrour , the several faces of nature , from first to last , throughout all the circle of successions . your majesty having been pleas'd to give encouragement to this translation , i humbly present it to your gracious acceptance . and 't is our interest , as well as duty , in disquisitions of this nature , to address our selves to your majesty , as the defender of our philosophick liberties ; against those that would usurp upon the fundamental privilege and birth-right of mankind , the free use of reason . your majesty hath always appear'd the royal patron of learning and the sciences : and 't is suitable to the greatness of a princely spirit , to favour and promote whatsoever tends to the enlargement of humane knowledge , and the improvement of humane nature . to be good and gracious , and a lover of knowledge , are , methinks , two of the most amiable things in this world ; and that your majesty may always bear that character , in present and future ages , and after a long and prosperous reign , enjoy a blessed immortality , is the constant prayer of your majesty's most humble and most obedient subject , thomas bvrnet . preface to the reader . having given an account of this whole work in the first chapter , and of the method of either book , whereof this volume consists , in their proper places , there remains not much to be said here to the reader . this theory of the earth may be call'd sacred , because it is not the common physiology of the earth , or of the bodies that compose it , but respects only the great turns of fate , and the revolutions of our natural world : such as are taken notice of in the sacred writings , and are truly the hinges upon which the providence of this earth moves ; or whereby it opens and shuts the several successive scenes whereof it is made up . this english edition is the same in substance with the latin , though , i confess , 't is not so properly a translation , as a new composition upon the same ground , there being several additional chapters in it , and several new-moulded . as every science requires a peculiar genius , so likewise there is a genius peculiarly improper for every one ; and as to philosophy , which is the contemplation of the works of nature , and the providence that governs them , there is no temper or genius , in my mind , so improper for it , as that which we call a mean and narrow spirit ; and which the greeks call littleness of soul. this is a defect in the first make of some mens minds , which can scarce ever be corrected afterwards , either by learning or age. and as souls that are made little and incapacious cannot enlarge their thoughts to take in any great compass of times or things ; so what is beyond their compass , or above their reach , they are apt to look upon as fantastical , or at least would willingly have it pass for such in the world. now as there is nothing so great , so large , so immense , as the works of nature , and the methods of providence , men of this complexion must needs be very unfit for the contemplation of them . who would set a purblind man at the top of the mast to discover land ? or upon an high tower to draw a landskip of the country round about ? for the same reason , short-sighted minds are unfit to make philosophers , whose proper business it is to discover and describe in comprehensive theories the phaenomena of the world , and the causes of them . this original disease of the mind is seldom cur'd by learning which cures many others ; like a fault in the first stamina of the body , it cannot easily be rectified afterwards . 't is a great mistake to think that every sort of learning makes a man a competent judge of natural speculations ; we see unhappy examples to the contrary amongst the christian fathers , and particularly in s. austin , who was unquestionably a man of parts and learning , but interposing in a controversie where his talent did not lie , show'd his zeal against the antipodes to very ill purpose , though he drew his reasons partly from scripture . and if within a few years , or in the next generation , it should prove as certain and demonstrable , that the earth is mov'd , as it is now , that there are antipodes ; those that have been zealous against it , and ingag'd the scripture in the controversie , would have the same reason to repent of their forwardness , that s. austin would have now , if he was alive . 't is a dangerous thing to engage the authority of scripture in disputes about the natural world , in opposition to reason ; lest time , which brings all things to light , should discover that to be evidently false which we had made scripture to assert : and i remember s. austin in his exposition upon genesis , hath laid down a rule to this very purpose , though he had the unhappiness , it seems , not to follow it always himself . the reason also , which he gives there for his rule , is very good and substantial : for , saith he , if the vnbelievers or philosophers shall certainly know us to be mistaken , and to err in those things that concern the natural world , and see that we alledge our ( sacred ) books for such vain opinions , how shall they believe those same books when they tell them of the resvrrection of the dead , and the world to come , if they find them to be fallaciously writ in such things as lie within their certain knowledge ? we are not to suppose that any truth concerning the natural world can be an enemy to religion ; for truth cannot be an enemy to truth , god is not divided against himself ; and therefore we ought not upon that account to condemn or censure what we have not examin'd or cannot disprove ; as those that are of this narrow spirit we are speaking of , are very apt to do . let every thing be try'd and examin'd in the first place , whether it be true or false ; and if it be found false , 't is then to be consider'd , whether it be such a falsity as is prejudicial to religion or no. but for every new theory that is propos'd , to be alarm'd , as if all religion was falling about our ears , is to make the world suspect that we are very ill assur'd of the foundation it stands upon . besides , do not all men complain , even these as well as others , of the great ignorance of mankind ? how little we know , and how much is still unknown ? and can we ever know more , unless something new be discover'd ? it cannot be old when it comes first to light , when first invented , and first propos'd . if a prince should complain of the poorness of his exchequer , and the scarcity of money in his kingdom , would he be angry with his merchants , if they brought him home a cargo of good bullion , or a mass of gold out of a foreign countrey ? and give this reason only for it , he would have no new silver ; neither should any be currant in his dominions but what had his own stamp and image upon it : how should this prince or his people grow rich ? to complain of want , and yet refuse all offers of a supply , looks very sullen , or very fantastical . i might mention also upon this occasion another genius and disposition in men , which often makes them improper for philosophical contemplations ; not so much , it may be , from the narrowness of their spirit and understanding , as because they will not take time to extend them . i mean men of wit and parts , but of short thoughts , and little meditation , and that are apt to distrust every thing for a fancy or fiction that is not the dictate of sense , or made out immediately to their senses . men of this humour and character call such theories as these , philosophick romances , and think themselves witty in the expression ; they allow them to be pretty amusements of the mind , but without truth or reality . i am afraid if an angel should write the theory of the earth , they would pass the same judgment upon it ; where there is variety of parts in a due contexture , with something of surprizing aptness in the harmony and correspondency of them , this they call a romance ; but such romances must all theories of nature , and of providence be , and must have every part of that character with advantage , if they be well represented . there is in them , as i may so say , a plot or mystery pursued through the whole work , and certain grand issues or events upon which the rest depend , or to which they are subordinate ; but these things we do not make or contrive our selves , but find and discover them , being made already by the great author and governour of the universe : and when they are clearly discover'd , well digested , and well reason'd in every part , there is , methinks , more of beauty in such a theory , at least a more masculine beauty , than in any poem or romance ; and that solid truth that is at the bottom , gives a satisfaction to the mind , that it can never have from any fiction , how artificial soever it be . to enter no farther upon this matter , 't is enough to observe , that when we make judgments and censures upon general presumptions and prejudices , they are made rather from the temper and model of our own spirits , than from reason ; and therefore , if we would neither impose upon our selves , nor others , we must lay aside that lazy and fallacious method of censuring by the lump , and must bring things close to the test of true or false , to explicit proof and evidence ; and whosoever makes such objections against an hypothesis , hath a right to be heard , let his temper and genius be what it will. neither do we intend that any thing we have said here , should be understood in another sence . to conclude , this theory being writ with a sincere intention to justifie the doctrines of the vniversal deluge , and of a paradisiacal state , and protect them from the cavils of those that are no well-wishers to sacred history , upon that account it may reasonably expect fair usage and acceptance with all that are well-dispos'd ; and it will also be , i think , a great satisfaction to them to see those pieces of most ancient history , which have been chiefly preserv'd in scripture , confirm'd a-new , and by another light , that of nature and philosophy ; and also freed from those misconceptions or misrepresentations which made them sit uneasie upon the spirits even of the best men , that took time to think . lastly , in things purely speculative , as these are , and no ingredients of our faith , it is free to differ from one another in our opinions and sentiments ; and so i remember s. austin hath observ'd upon this very subject of paradise ; wherefore as we desire to give no offence our selves , so neither shall we take any at the difference of judgment in others ; provided this liberty be mutual , and that we all agree to study peace , truth and a good life . contents of the chapters . the first book . chap. i. the introduction ; an account of the whole work , of the extent and general order of it . chap. ii. a general account of noah's flood . a computation what quantity of water would be necessary for the making of it ; that the common opinion and explication of that flood is not intelligible . chap. iii. all evasions concerning the flood answer'd ; that there was no creation of waters at the deluge ; and that it was not particular or national , but extended throughout the whole earth . a prelude and preparation to the true account and explication of it . the method of the first book . chap. iv. that the earth and mankind had an original , and were not from eternity ; prov'd against aristotle . the first proposition of our theory laid down , viz. that the ante-diluvian earth was of a different form and construction from the present . this is prov'd from divine authority , and from the nature and form of the chaos , out of which the earth was made . chap. v. the second proposition is laid down , viz. that the face of the earth before the deluge was smooth , regular and uniform ; without mountains , and without a sea. the chaos out of which the world rise is fully examin'd , and all its motions observ'd , and by what steps it wrought it self into an habitable world. some things in antiquity relating to the first state of the earth are interpreted , and some things in the sacred writings . the divine art and geometry in the construction of the first earth is observ'd and celebrated . chap. vi. the dissolution of the first earth : the deluge ensuing thereupon . and the form of the present earth rising from the ruines of the first . chap. vii . that the explication we have given of an universal deluge is not an idea only , but an account of what really came to pass in the earth , and the true explication of noah's flood . an examination of tehom-rabba , or the great abyss , and that by it the sea cannot be understood , nor the subterraneous waters as they are at present ; what the true notion and form of it was , collected from moses and other sacred writers . observations on deucalion's deluge . chap. viii . the particular history of noah's flood is explain'd in all the material parts and circumstances of it , according to the preceding theory . any seeming difficulties remov'd , and the whole section concluded with a discourse how far the deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary providence , and how far of an extraordinary . chap. ix . the second part of this discourse , proving the same theory from the effects and the present form of the earth . first , by a general scheme of what is most remarkable in this globe , and then by a more particular induction ; beginning with an account of subterraneous cavities and subterraneous waters . chap. x. concerning the chanel of the sea , and the original of it ; the causes of its irregular from and unequal depths : as also of the original of islands , their situation , and other properties . chap. xi . concerning the mountains of the earth , their greatness and irregular form , their situation , causes and origin . chap. xii . a short review of what hath been already treated of , and in what manner . all methods , whether philosophical or theological , that have been offer'd by others for the explication of the form of the earth , are examin'd and refuted . a conjecture concerning the other planets , their natural form and state compar'd with ours ; especially concerning jupiter and saturn . the second book . chap. i. the introduction and contents of the second book . the general state of the primaeval earth , and of paradise . chap. ii. the great change of the world since the flood from what it was in the first ages . the earth under its present form could not be paradisiacal , nor any part of it . chap. iii. the original differences of the primitive earth from the present or post-diluvian . the three characters of paradise and the golden age found in the primitive earth . a particular explication of each character . chap. iv. a digression ; concerning the natural causes of longaevity . that the machine of an animal consists of springs , and which are the two principal . the age of the ante-diluvians to be computed by solar , not lunar years . chap. v. concerning the waters of the primitive earth : what the state of the regions of the air was then , and how all waters proceeded from them . how the rivers arose , what was their course , and how they ended . several things in sacred writ that confirm this hydrography of the first earth , especially the post-diluvian origin of the rain-bow . chap. vi. a recollection and review of what hath been said concerning the primitive earth , with a more full survey of the state of the first world , natural and civil , and the comparison of it with the present world. chap. vii . concerning the place of paradise ; it cannot be determin'd from the theory only , nor from scripture only ; what the sence of antiquity was concerning it , as to the iews and heathens , and especially as to the christian fathers , that they generally plac'd it out of this continent , in the southern hemisphere . chap. viii . the uses of this theory for the illustration of antiquity ; the chaos of the ancients explain'd ; the inhabitability of the torrid zone ; the change of the poles of the world ; the doctrine of the mundane egg ; how america was first peopled ; how paradise within the circle of the moon . chap. ix . a general objection against this theory , viz. that if there had been such a primitive earth , as we pretend , the fame of it would have sounded throughout all antiquity . the eastern and western learning consider'd , the most considerable records of both are lost ; what footsteps remain relating to this subject . the iewish and christian learning consider'd , how far lost as to this argument , and what notes or traditions remain . lastly , how far the sacred writings bear witness to it . the pr●vidential conduct of knowledge in the world. a recapitulation and state of the theory . chap. x. concerning the author of nature . chap. xi . concerning natural providence . several misrepresentations of it , and false methods of contemplation ; preparatives to the true method , and a true representation of the universe . the mundane idea , and the universal system of providence ; several subordinate systems , that of our earth and sublunary world ; the course and periods of it ; how much of this is already treated of , and what remains . conclusion . the theory of the earth . book i. concerning the deluge , and the dissolution of the earth . chap. i. the introdvction ; an account of the whole work ; of the extent and general order of it . since i was first inclin'd to the contemplation of nature , and took pleasure to trace out the causes of effects , and the dependance of one thing upon another in the visible creation , i had always , methought , a particular curiosity to look back into the sources and original of things ; and to view in my mind , so far as i was able , the beginning and progress of a rising world . and after some essays of this nature , and , as i thought , not unsuccessful , i carried on my enquiries further , to try whether this rising world , when form'd and finish'd , would continue always the same ; in the same form , structure , and consistency ; or what changes it would successively undergo , by the continued action of the same causes that first produc'd it ; and , lastly , what would be its final period and consummation . this whole series and compass of things taken together , i call'd a course of nature , or a system of natural providence ; and thought there was nothing belonging to the external world more fit or more worthy our study and meditation , nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the ways of divine providence , and to shew us the grounds of all true knowledge concerning nature . and therefore to clear up the several parts of this theory , i was wiling to lay ▪ aside a great many other speculations , and all those dry subtleties with which the schools , and the books of philosophers are usually fill'd . but when we speak of a rising world , and the contemplation of it , we do not mean this of the great universe ; for who can describe the original of that vast frame ? but we speak of the sublundry world , this earth and its dependencies , which rose out of a chaos about six thousand years ago ; and seeing it hath faln to our lot to act upon this stage , to have our present home and residence here , its seems most reasonable , and the place design'd by providence , where we should first imploy our thoughts to understand the works of god and nature . we have accordingly therefore design'd in this work to give an account of the original of the earth , and of all the great and general changes that it hath already undergone , or is hence forwards to undergo , till the consummation of all things . for if from those principles we have here taken , and that theory we have begun in these two first books , we can deduce with success and clearness the origin of the earth , and those states of it that are already past ; following the same thred , and by the conduct of the same theory , we will pursue its fate and history through future ages , and mark all the great changes and conversions that attend it while day and night shall last ; that is , so long as it continues an earth . by the states of the earth that are already past , we understand chiefly paradise and the deluge ; names well known and as little known in their nature . by the future states we und●rstand the conslagration , and what new order of nature may follow upon that , till the whole circle of time and providence be compleated . as to the first and past states of the earth , we shall have little help from the ancients , or from any of the philosophers , for the discovery or description of them ; we must often tread unbeaten paths , and make a way where we do not find one ; but it shall be always with a light in our hand , that we may see our steps , and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly . there is no sect of philosophers that i know of , that ever gave an account of the universal deluge , or discover'd , from the contemplation of the earth , that there had been such a thing already in nature . 't is true , they often talk of an alternation of deluges and conflagrations in this earth , but they speak of them as things to come ; at least they give no proof or argument of day that hath already destroyed the world. as to paradise , it seems to be represented to us by the golden age ; whereof the ancients tell many stories , sometimes very luxuriant ; and sometimes very defective : for they did not so well understand the difference betwixt the new-made earth and the present , as to see what were the just grounds of the golden age , or of paradise : tho' they had many broken notions concerning those things , as to the conslagration in particular , this hath always been reckon'd one amongst the opinions or dogmata of the stoicks , that the world was to be destroy'd by fire ; and their books are full of this notion ; but yet they do not tell us the causes of the conflagration , nor what preparations there are in nature , or will be , towards that great change. and we may generally observe this of the ancients , that their learning or philosophy consisted more in conclusions , than in demonstrations ; they had many truths among them , whereof they did not know themselves the premisses or the proofs : which is an argument to me , that the knowledge they had , was not a thing of their own invention , or which they came to by fair reasoning and observations upon nature , but was delivered to them from others by tradition and ancient fame , sometimes more publick , sometimes more secret : these conclusions they kept in mind , and communicated to those of their school , or sect , or posterity , without knowing , for the most part , the just grounds and reasons of them . 't is the sacred writings of scripture that are the best monuments of antiquity , and to those we are chiefly beholden for the history of the first ages , whether natural history or civil . 't is true , the poets , who were the most ancient writers amongst the greeks , and serv'd them both for historians , divines , and philosophers , have deliver'd some things concerning the first ages of the world , that have a fair resemblance of truth , and some affinity with those accounts that are given of the same things by sacred authors , and these may be of use in due time and place ; but yet , lest any thing fabulous should be mixt with them , as commonly there is , we will never depend wholly upon their credit , nor assert any thing upon the authority of the ancients which is not first prov'd by natural reason , or warranted by scripture . it seems to me very reasonable to believe , that besides the precepts of religion , which are the principal subject and design of the books of holy scripture , there may be providentially conserv'd in them the memory of things and times so remote , as could not be retriev'd , either by history , or by the light of nature ; and yet were of great importance to be known , both for their own excellency , and also to rectifie the knowledge of men in other things consequential to them : such points may be , our great epocha or the age of the earth , the origination of mankind , the first and paradisiacal state , the destruction of the old world by an universal deluge , the longevity of its inhabitants , the manner of their preservation , and of their peopling the second earth ; and lastly , the fate and changes it is to undergo . these i always lookt upon as the seeds of great knowledge , or heads of theories fixt on purpose to give us aim and direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them . but these heads , you see , are of a mixt order , and we propose to our selves in this work only such as belong to the natural world ; upon which i believe the trains of providence are generally laid ; and we must first consider how god hath order'd nature , and then how the oeconomy of the intellectual world is adapted to it ; for of these two parts consist the full system of providence . in the mean time , what subject can be more worthy the thoughts of any serious person , than to view and consider the rise and fall , and all the revolutions , not of a monarchy or an empire , of the grecian or roman state , but of an intire world. the obscurity of these things , and their remoteness from common knowledge will be made an argument by some , why we should not undertake them ; and by others , it may be , the very same thing will be made an argument why we should ; for my part i think there is nothing so secret that shall not be brought to light , within the compass of our world ; for we are not to understand that of the whole universe , nor of all eternity , our capacities do not extend so far ; but whatsoever concerns this sublunary world in the whole extent of its duration , from the chaos to the last period , this i believe providence hath made us capable to understand , and will in its due time make it known . all i say , betwixt the first chaos and the last completion of time and all things temporary , this was given to the disquisitions of men ; on either hand is eternity , before the world and after , which is without our reach : but that little spot of ground that lies betwixt those two great oceans , this we are to cultivate , this we are masters of , herein we are to exercise our thoughts , to understand and lay open the treasures of the divine wisdom and goodness hid in this part of nature and of providence . as for the difficult or obscurity of an argument , that does but add to the pleasure of contesting with it , when there are hopes of victory ; and success does more than recompence all the pains . for there is no sort of joy more greatful to the mind of man , than that which ariseth from the invention of truth ; especially when 't is hard to come by . every man hath a delight suited to his genius , and as there is pleasure in the right exercise of any faculty , so especially in that of right-reasoning ; which is still the greater , by how much the consequences are more clear , and the chains of them more long : there is no chase so pleasant , methinks , as to drive a thought , by good conduct , from one end of the world to the other ; and never to lose sight of it till it fall into eternity , where all things are lost as to our knowledge . this theory being chiefly philosophical , reason is to be our first guide ; and where that falls short , or any other just occasion offers it self , we may receive further light and confirmation from the sacred writings . both these are to be lookt upon as of divine original , god is the author of both ; he that made the scripture made also our faculties , and t were a reflection upon the divine veracity , for the one or the other to be false when rightly us'd . we must therefore be careful and tender of opposing these to one another , because that is , in effect , to oppose god to himself . as for antiquity and the testimonies of the ancients , we only make general reflections upon them , for illustration rather than proof of what we propose ; not thinking it proper for an english treatise to multiply citations out of greek or latin authors . i am very sensible it will be much our interest , that the reader of this theory should be of an ingenuous and unprejudic'd temper ; neither does it so much require book-learning and scholarship , as good natural sence to distinguish true and false , and to discern what is well prov'd , and what is not . it often happens that scholastick education , like a trade , does so fix a man in a particular way , that he is not fit to judge of any thing that lies out of that way ; and so his learning becomes a clog to his natural parts , and makes him more indocile , and more incapable of new thoughts and new improvements , than those that have only the talents of nature . as masters of exercise had rather take a scholar that never learn'd before , than one that hath had a bad master ; so generally one would rather chuse a reader without art , than one ill-instructed ; with learning , but opinionative and without judgment ; yet it is not necessary they should want either , and learning well plac'd strengthens all the powers of the mind . to conclude , just reasoning and a generous love of truth , whether with or without erudition , is that which makes us most competent judges what is true ; and further than this , in the perusal and examination of this work , as to the author as much candor as you please , but as to the theory we require nothing but attention and impartiality . chap. ii. a general account of noah's flood ; a computation what quantity of water would be necessary for the making of it ; that the common opinion and explication of that flood is not intelligible . 't is now more than five thousand years since our world was made , and though it would be a great pleasure to the mind , to recollect and view at this distance those first scenes of nature : what the face of the earth was when fresh and new , and how things differ'd from the state we now find them in , the speculation is so remote , that it seems to be hopeless , and beyond the reach of humane wit. we are almost the last posterity of the first men , and faln into the dying age of the world ; by what footsteds or by what guide , can we trace back our way to those first ages , and the first order of things ? and yet , methinks , it is reasonable to believe , that divine providence , which sees at once throughout all the ages and orders of the world , should not be willing to keep mankind finally and fatally ignorant of that part of nature and of the universe , which is properly their task and province to manage and understand . we are the inhabitants of the earth , the lords and masters of it ; and we are endow'd with reason and understanding ; doth it not then properly belong to us to examine and unfold the works of god in this part of the universe , which is faln to our lot , which is our heritage and habitation ? and it will be found , it may be , upon a stricter enquiry , that in the present form and constitution of the earth , there are certain marks and indications of its first state ; with which if we compare those things that are recorded in sacred history , concerning the first chaos , paradise , and an universal deluge , we may discover , by the help of those lights , what the earth was in its first original , and what changes have since succeded in it . and though we shall give a full account of the origin of the earth in this treatise , yet that which we have propos'd particularly for the title and subject of it , is to give an account of the primaeval paradise , and of the universal deluge , those being the two most important things that are explain'd by the theory we propose . and i must beg leave in treating of these two , to change the order , and treat first of the deluge , and then of paradise : for though the state of paradise doth precede that of the flood in sacred history , and in the nature of the thing , yet the explication of both will be more sensible , and more effectual , if we begin with the deluge ; there being more observations and effects , and those better known to us , that may be refer'd to this , than to the other ; and the deluge being once truly explain'd , we shall from thence know the form and quality of the ante-diluvian earth . let us then proceed to the explication of that great and fatal inundation , whose history is well known ; and according to moses , the best of historians , in a few words is this — sixteen hundred and odd years after the earth was made , and inhabited , it was over-flow'd , and destroy'd in a deluge of water . not a deluge that was national only , or over-run some particular country or region , as iudea or greece , or any other , but it overspread the face of the whole earth , from pole to pole , and from east to west , and that in such excess , that the floods over-reacht the tops of the highest mountains ; the rains descending after an unusual manner , and the fountains of the great deep being broke open ; so as a general destruction and devastation was brought upon the earth , and all things in it , mankind and other living creatures ; excepting only noah and his family , who by a special providence of god was preserv'd in a certain ark , or vessel made like a ship , and such kinds of living creatures as he took in to him . after these waters had rag'd for some time on the earth , they began to lessen and shrink , and the great waves and fluctuations of this deep or abysse , being quieted by degrees , the waters retir'd into their chanels and caverns within the earth ; and the mountains and fields began to appear , and the whole habitable earth in that form and shape wherein we now see it . then the world began again , and from that little remnant preserv'd in the ark , the present race of mankind , and of animals , in the known parts of the earth , were propagated . thus perish'd the old world , and the present arose from the ruines and remains of it . this is a short story of the greatest thing that every yet hapned in the world , the greatest revolution and the greatest change in nature ; and if we come to reflect seriously upon it , we shall find it extremely difficult , if not impossible , to give an account of the waters that compos'd this deluge , whence they came or whither they went. it it had been only the inundation of a country , or of a province , or of the greatest part of a continent , some proportionable causes perhaps might have been found out ; but a deluge overflowing the whole earth : the whole circuit and whole extent of it : burying all in water , even the greatest mountains : in any known parts of the universe , to find water sufficient for this effect , as it is generally explained and understood , i think is impossible . and that we may the better judge of the whole matter let us first compute how much water would be requisite for such a deluge : or to lay the earth , consider'd in its present form , and the highest mountains , under water . then let 's consider whether such a quantity of water can be had out of all the stores that we know in nature : and from these two we will take our ground and rise , and begin to reflect , whether the world hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common opinion and explication of the general deluge . to discover how much water would be requisite to make this deluge , we must first suppose enough to cover the plain surface of the earth , the fields and lower grounds ; then we must heap up so much more upon this , as will reach above the tops of the highest mountains ; so as drawing a circle over the tops of the highest mountains quite round the earth , suppose from pole to pole , and another to meet it round the middle of the earth , all that space or capacity contin'd within these circles is to be fill'd up with water . this i confess will make a prodigious mass of water , and it looks frightfully to the imagination ; 't is huge and great , but 't is extravagantly so , as a great monster : it doth not look like the work of god or nature : however let 's compute a little more particularly how much this will amount to , or how many oceans of water would be necessary to compose this great ocean rowling in the air , without bounds or banks . if all the mountains were par'd off the earth , and so the surface of it lay even , or in an equal convexity every where with the surface of the sea , from this surface of the sea , let us suppose that the height of the mountains may be a mile and a half ; or that we may not seem at all to favour our own opinion or calculation , let us take a mile only for the perpendicular height of the mountains . let us on the other side suppose the sea to cover half the earth , as 't is generally believ'd to do ; and the common depth of it , taking one place with another , to be about a quarter of a mile , or paces . i say , taking one place with another , for though the middle chanel of the great ocean be far deeper , we may observe , that there is commonly a descent or declivity from the shore to the middle part of the chanel , so that one comes by degrees into the depth of it ; and those shory parts are generally but some fathoms deep . besides , in arms of the sea , in straits , and among islands , there is commonly no great depth , and some places are plain shallows . so as upon a moderate computation , one place compar'd with another , we may take a quarter of a mile , or about an hundred fathoms , for the common measure of the depth of the sea , if we were cast into a chanel of an equal depth every where . this being suppos'd , there would need four oceans to lie upon this ocean , to raise it up to the top of the mountains , or so high as the waters of the deluge rise ; then four oceans more to lie upon the land , that the water there might swell to the same height ; which together make eight oceans for the proportion of the water requir'd in the deluge . 't is true , there would not be altogether so much water requir'd for the land as for the sea , to raise them to an equal height ; because mountains and hills would fill up part of that space upon the land , and so make less water requisite . but to compensate this , and confirm our computation , we must consider in the first place , that we have taken a much less height of the mountains than is requisite , if we respect the mediterraneous mountains , or those that are at a great distance from the sea ; for their height above the surface of the sea , computing the declivity of the land all along from the mountains to the sea-side ( and that there is such a declivity is manifest from the course and descent of the rivers ) is far greater than the proportion we have taken : the height of mountains is usually taken from the foot of them , or from the next plain , which if it be far from the sea , we may reasonably allow as much for the declension of the land from that place to the sea , as for the immediate height of the mountain ; so , for instance , the mountains of the moon in africa , whence the nile flows , and after a long course falls into the mediterranean sea by egypt , are so much higher than the surface of that sea , first , as the ascent of the land is from the sea to the foot of the mountains , and then as the height of the mountains is from the bottom to the top : for both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a mountain , or of a mountainous land , in respect of the sea : and the height of mountains to the sea being thus computed , there would be need of six or eight oceans to raise the sea alone as high as the highest in-land mountains ; and this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of water that would be requisite upon the land. besides , we must consider the regions of the air upwards to be more capacious than a region of the same thickness in or near the earth , so as if an ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry land , supposing it were all smooth , would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where ; the like quantity of water pour'd again at the height of the mountains , would not have altogether the same effect , or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher ; for the surfaces of a globe , the farther they are from their center , are the greater ; and so accordingly the regions that belong to them . and , lastly , we must consider that there are some countries or valleys very low , and also many caverns or cavities within the earth , all which in this case were to be first fill'd with water . these things being compar'd and estimated , we shall find that notwithstanding the room that hills and mountains take up on the dry land , there would be at least eight oceans requir'd , or a quantity of water eight times as great as the ocean , to bring an universal deluge upon the earth , as that deluge is ordinarily understood and explained . the proportion of water for the deluge being thus stated , the next thing to be done , is to enquire where this water is to be found ; if any part of the sublunary world will afford us so much : eight oceans floating in the air , make a great bulk of water , i do not know what possible sources to draw it from . there are the clouds above , and the deeps below and in the bowels of the earth ; and these are all the stores we have for water ; and moses directs us to no other for the causes of the deluge . the fountains ( he saith ) of the great abysse were broken up , or burst asunder , and the rain descended for forty days , the cataracts or floodgates of heaven being open'd . and in these two , no doubt , are contain'd the causes of the great deluge , as according to moses , so also according to reason and necessity ; for our . world affords no other treasures of water . let us therefore consider how much this rain of forty days might amount to , and how much might flow out of the abysse , that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the eight oceans which we want . as for the rains , they would not afford us one ocean , nor half an ocean , nor the tenth part of an ocean , if we may trust to the observations made by others concerning the quantity of water that falls in rain . mersennus gives us this account of it . it appears by our observations , that a cubical vessel of brass , whereof we made use , is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time ; but because that sucks up no●hing of the moisture as the earth doth , let us take an inch for half an hours rain ; whence it follows , that in the space of days and nights rain , the waters in the deluge would rise feet , if the rains were constant and equal to ours , and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole earth . but the rain of the deluge , saith he , should have been times greater than this , to cover , for instance , the mountains of armenia , or to reach cubits above them . so that according to his computation , the days rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the water requisite to make the deluge . 't is true , he makes the heighth of the mountains higher than we do ; but , however , if you temper the calculation on all sides as much as you please , the water that came by this rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a deluge . if it rain'd days and nights throughout the face of the whole earth , in the northern and southern hemisphere all at once , it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water , but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the mountains . whence another author upon the same occasion hath this passage . if the deluge had been made by rains only , there would not have needed days , but years rain to have brought it to pass . and if we should suppose the whole middle region condens'd into water , it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect , according to that proportion some make betwixt air and water ; for they say , air turn'd into water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before . the truth is , we may reasonably suppose , that all the vapours of the middle region were turn'd into water in this days and nights rain , if we admit , that this rain was throughout the whole earth at once , in either hemisphere , in every zone , in every climate , in every country , in every province , in every field ; and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to . having done then with these superiour regions , we are next to examine the inferiour , and the treasures of water that may be had there . moses tells us , that the fountains of the great abysse were broke open , or clove asunder , as the word there us'd doth , imply ; and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the deluge , as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd ; but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great abysse , in the common explication of the deluge ; and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the sea , or subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the earth : these , they say , broke forth and rais'd the waters , caus'd by the rain , to such an height , that together they overflowed the highest mountains . but whether or how this could be , deserves to be a little examin'd . and in the first place ; the sea is not higher than the land , as some have formerly imagin'd ; fansying the sea stood , as it were , upon a heap , higher than the shore ; and at the deluge a relaxation being made , it overflow'd the land. but this conceit is so gross , and so much against reason and experience , that none i think of late have ventur'd to make use of it . and yet on the other hand , if the sea lie in an equal convexity with the land , or lower generally than the shore , and much more than the midland , as it is certainly known to do , what could the sea contribute to the deluge ? it would keep its chanel , as it doth now ; and take up the same place . and so also the subterraneous waters would lie quiet in their cells ? whatsoever fountains or passages you suppose , these would not issue out upon the earth , for water doth not ascend , unless by force . but le ts imagine then that force us'd and appli'd , and the waters both of the sea and caverns under ground drawn out upon the surface of the earth , we shall not be any whit the nearer for this ; for if you take these waters out of their places , those places must be fill'd again with other waters in the deluge ; so as this turns to no account upon the whole . if you have two vessels to fill , and you empty one to fill the other , you gain nothing by that , there still remains one vessel empty , you cannot have these waters both in the sea and on the land , both above ground and under ; nor can you suppose the chanel of the sea would stand gaping without water , when all the earth was overflow'd , and the tops of the mountains cover'd . and so for subterraneous cavities , if you suppose the water pumpt out , they would suck it in again when the earth came to be laid under water ; so that upon the whole , if you thus understand the abysse or great deep , and the breaking open its fountains in this manner , it doth us no service as to the deluge , and where we expected the greatest supply , there we find none at all . what shall we do then ? whither shall we go to find more than seven oceans of water that we still want ? we have been above and below ; we have drain'd the whole middle region , and we have examin'd the deeps of the earth ; they must want for themselves , they say , if they give us any ; and , besides , if the earth should disgorge all the water that it hath in its bowels , it would not amount to above half an ocean , which would not at all answer our occasions . must we not then conclude , that the common explication of the deluge makes it impossible ? there being no such quantity of water in nature as they make requisite for an universal deluge . yet to give them all fair play , having examin'd the waters above the earth or in the air , the waters upon the earth , and the waters under the earth ; let us also consider if there be not waters above the heavens , and if those might not be drawn down for the deluge . moses speaks of waters above the firmament , which though it be generally understood of the middle region of the air , yet some have thought those to be waters plac'd above the highest heavens , or super-celestial waters : and have been willing to make use of them for a supply , when they could not find materials enough under the heavens to make up the great mass of the deluge . but the heavens above , where these waters lay , are either solid , or fluid ; if solid , as glass or crystal , how could the waters get through 'em to descend upon the earth ? if fluid , as the air or aether , how could the waters rest upon them ? for water is heavier than air or aether ; so that i am afraid those pure regions will prove no fit place for that element , upon any account . but supposing these waters there , how imaginary soever , and that they were brought down to drown the world in that vast quantity that would be necessary , what became of them , when the deluge ceas'd ; seven or eight oceans of water , with the earth wrapt up in the middle of them , how did it ever get quit of them ? how could they be dispos'd of when the earth was to be dri'd , and the world renew'd ? it would be a hard task to lift them up again among the spheres , and we have no room for them here below . the truth is , i mention this opinion of the heavenly waters , because i would omit none that had ever been made use of to make good the common explication of the deluge ; but otherwise , i think , since the system of the world hath been better known , and the nature of the heavens , there are none that would seriously assert these super-celestial waters , or , at least , make use of them so extravagantly , as to bring them down hither for causes of the deluge . we have now employ'd our last and utmost endeavours to find out waters for the vulgar deluge , or for the deluge as commonly understood ; and you see with how little success ; we have left no corner unsought , where there was any appearance or report of water to be found , and yet we have not been able to collect the eighth part of what was necessary upon a moderate account . may we not then with assurance conclude , that the world hath taken wrong measures hitherto in their notion and explication of the general deluge ? they make it impossible and unintelligible upon a double account , both in requiring more water than can be found , and more than can be dispos'd of , if it was found : or could any way be withdrawn from the earth when the deluge should cease . for if the earth was encompass'd with eight oceans of water heapt one upon another , how these should retire into any chanels , or be drain'd off , or the earth any way disengag'd from them , is not intelligible ; and that in so short a time as some months : for the violence of the deluge lasted but four or five months , and in as many months after the earth was dry and habitable . so as upon the whole enquiry , we can neither find source nor issue , beginning nor ending , for such an excessive mass of waters as the vulgar deluge requir'd ; neither where to have them , nor if we had them , how to get quit of them . and i think men cannot do a greater injury or injustice to sacred history , than to give such representations of things recorded there , as make them unintelligible and incredible ; and on the other hand , we cannot deserve better of religion and providence , than by giving such fair accounts of all things propos'd by them , or belonging to them , as may silence the cavils of atheists , satisfie the inquisitive , and recommend them to the belief and acceptance of all reasonable persons . chap. iii. all evasions answered ; that there was no new creation of waters at the deluge : and that it was not particular or national , but extended throughout the whole earth . a prelude and preparation to the true account and explication of it : the method of the first book . though in the preceding chapter we may seem to have given a fair trial to the common opinion concerning the state of the deluge , and might now proceed to sentence of condemnation : yet having heard of another plea , which some have us'd in its behalf , and another way found out by recourse to the supream power , to supply all defects , and to make the whole matter intelligible , we will proceed no further till that be consider'd ; being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offer'd , in that or any other way , for resolving that great difficulty which we have propos'd , concerning the quantity of water requisite for such a deluge . and to this they say in short , that god almighty created waters on purpose to make the deluge , and then annihilated them again when the deluge was to cease ; and this , in a few words , is the whole account of the business . this is to out the knot when we cannot loose it ; they shew us the naked arm of omnipotency ; such arguments as these come like lightning , one doth not know what armour to put on against them , for they pierce the more , the more they are resisted : we will not therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn , but by a soft answer deaden their force by degrees . and i desire to mind those persons in the first place of what s. austin hath said upon a like occasion , speaking concerning those that disprov'd the opinion of waters above the heavens ( which we mention'd before ) by natural reasons . we are not , saith he , to refute those persons , by saying , that according to the omnipotence of god , to whom all things are possible , we ought to believe there are waters there as heavy as we know and feel them here below ; for our business is now to enquire according to his scripture , how god hath constituted the nature of things , and not what he could do or work in these things , by a miracle of omnipotency . i desire them to apply this to the present argument for the first answer . secondly , let them consider , that moses hath assign'd causes of the deluge ; forty days rain , and the disruption of the abysse ; and speaks nothing of a new creation of water upon that occasion . those were causes in nature which providence had then dispos'd for this extraordinary effect , and those the divine historian refers us to , and not to any productions out of nothing . besides , moses makes the deluge increase by degrees with the rain , and accordingly makes it cease by degrees , and that the waters going and returning , as the waves and great commotions of the sea use to do , retir'd leisurely from the face of the earth , and settled at length in their chanels . now this manner of the beginning or ceasing of the deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous actions of creation and annihilation . thirdly , let them consider , that s. peter hath also assign'd causes of the deluge ; namely the particular constitution of the earth and heavens before the flood ; by reason whereof , he saith , the world that was then , perisht in a deluge of water . and not by reason of a new creation of water . his words are these , the heavens and the earth were of old , consisting of water , and by water ; whereby , or by reason whereof , the world that then was , being overflowed with water , perished . fourthly , they are to consider , that as we are not rashly to have recourse to the divine omnipotence upon any account , so especially not for new creations ; and least of all for the creation of new matter . the matter of the universe was created many ages before the flood , and the universe being full , if any more was created , then there must be as much annihilated at the same time to make room for it ; for bodies cannot penetrate one anothers dimensions , nor be two or more within one and the same space . then on the other hand , when the deluge ceas'd , and these waters were annihilated , so much other matter must be created again to take up their places : and methinks they make very bold with the deity , when they make him do and undo , go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions , as we do not willingly impute to the wisdom of god almighty . lastly , i shall not think my labour lost , if it be but acknowledg'd , that we have so far clear'd the way in this controversie , as to have brought it to this issue ; that either there must be new waters created on purpose to make a deluge , or there could be no deluge , as 't is vulgarly explain'd ; there not being water sufficient in nature to make a deluge of that kind . this , i say , is a great step , and , i think , will satisfie all parties , at least all that are considerable ; for those that have recourse to a new creation of waters , are of two sorts , either such as do it out of laziness and ignorance , or such as do it out of necessity , seeing they cannot be had otherwise ; as for the first , they are not to be valu'd or gratifi'd ; and as for the second , i shall do a thing very acceptable to them , if i free them and the argument from that necessity , and show a way of making the deluge fairly intelligible , and accountable without the creation of new waters ; which is the design of this treatise . for we do not tye this knot with an intention to puzzle and perplex the argument finally with it , but the harder it is ty'd , we shall feel the pleasure more sensibly when come to loose it . it may be when they are beaten from this new creation of water , they will say the element of air was chang'd into water , and that was the great store-house for the deluge . forty days rain we allow , as moses does , but if they suppose any other transelementation , it neither agrees with moses's philosophy , nor s. peter's ; for then the opening of the abysse was needless , and the form and constitution of the antediluvian heavens and earth , which s. peter refers the deluge to , bore no part in the work ; it might have been made , in that way , indifferently under any heavens or earth . besides they offend against s. austin's rule in this method too ; for i look upon it as no less a miracle to turn air into water , than to turn water into wine . air , i say , for vapours indeed are but water made volatile , but pure air is a body of another species , and cannot by any compression or condensation , so far as is yet known , be chang'd into water . and lastly , if the whole atmosphere was turn'd into water , 't is very probable it would make no more than foot or thereabouts ; for so much air or vapours as is of the same weight with any certain quantity of water , 't is likely , if it was chang'd into water , would also be of the same bulk with it , or not much more : now according to the doctrine of the gravitation of the atmosphere , 't is found that foot of water does counterbalance a proportionable cylinder of air reaching to the top of the atmosphere ; and consequently , if the whole atmosphere was converted into water , it would make no more than eleven or twelve yards water about the earth ; which the cavities of the earth would be able in a good measure to suck up , at least this is very inconsiderable as to our eight oceans . and if you would change the higher regions into water too , what must supply the place of that air which you transform into water , and bring down upon the earth ? there would be little left but fire and aether betwixt us and the moon , and i am afraid it would endanger to suck down the moon too after it . in a word , such an explication as this , is both , purely imaginary , and also very operose , and would affect a great part of the universe ; and after all , they would be as hard put to 't to get rid of this water , when the deluge was to cease , as they were at first to procure it . having now examin'd and answered all the pleas , from first to last , for the vulgar deluge , or the old way of explaining it , we should proceed immediately to propose another method , and another ground for an universal deluge , were it not that an opinion hath been started by some of late , that would in effect supplant both these methods , old and new , and take away in a great measure the subject of the question . some modern authors observing what straits they have been put to in all ages , to find out water enough for noah's flood , have ventur'd upon an expedient more brisk and bold , than any of the ancients durst venture upon : they say , noah's flood was not universal , but a national inundation , confin'd to iudaea , and those countries thereabouts ; and consequently , there would not be so much water necessary for the cause of it , as we have prov'd to be necessary for an universal deluge of that kind . their inference is very true , they have avoided that rock , but they run upon another no less dangerous ; to avoid an objection from reason they deny matter of fact , and such matter of fact as is well attested by history , both sacred and prophane . i believe the authors that set up this opinion , were not themselves satisfied with it : but seeing insuperable difficulties in the old way , they are the more excusable in chusing , as they thought , of two evils the less . but the choice methinks , is as bad on this hand , if all things be considered ; moses represents the flood of noah as an overthrow and destruction of the whole earth ; and who can imagine , that in sixteen or seventeen hundred years time ( taking the lower chronology ) that the earth had then stood , mankind should be propagated no further than iudae , or some neighbouring countries thereabouts . after the floo , when the world was renew'd again by eight persons , they had made a far greater progress in asia , europe and africa , within the same space of years , and yet 't is likely they were more fruitful in the first ages of the world , than after the flood ; and they liv'd six , seven , eight , nine hundred years a piece , getting sons and daughters . which longevity of the first inhabitants of the earth seems to have been providentially design'd for the quicker multiplication and propagation of mankind ; and mankind thereby would become so numerous within sixteen hundred years , that there seems to me to be a greater difficulty from the multitude of the people that would be b●fore the flood , than from the want of people . for if we a●low the first couple at the end of one hundred years , or of the first century , to have left ten pair of breeders , which is no hard supposition , there would arise from these , in fifteen hundred years , a greater number than the earth was capable of ; allowing every pair to multiply in the same decuple proportion the first pair did . but because this would rise far beyond the capacities of this earth , let us suppose them to increase , in the following centuries , in a quintuple proportion only , or , if you will , only in a quadruple ; and then the table of the multiplication of mankind from the creation to the flood , would stand thus ; century — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — this product is too excessive high , if compar'd with the present number of men upon the face of the earth , which i think is commonly estimated to be betwixt three and four hundred millions ; and yet this proportion of their increase seems to be low enough , if we take one proportion for all the centuries ; for , in reality , the same measure cannot run equally through all the ages , but we have taken this as moderate and reasonable betwixt the highest and the lowest ; but if we had taken only a triple proportion , it would have been sufficient ( all things consider'd ) for purpose . there are several other ways of computing this number , and some more particular and exact than this is , but which way soever you try , you shall find the product great enough for the extent of this earth ; and if you follow the septuagint chronology it will still be far higher . i have met with three or four different calculations , in several authors , of the number of mankind before the hood , and never met with any yet , but what exceeded the number of the people that are at present upon the face of the earth . so as it seems to me a very groundless and forc'd conceit to imagine , that iudaea only , and some parts about it in asia , were stor'd with people when the deluge was brought upon the old world. besides if the deluge was confin'd to those countries , i do not see but the borderers might have escap'd , shifting a little into the adjoyning places where the deluge did not reach . but especially what needed so much a-do to build an ark to save noah and his family , if he might have sav'd himself , and them , only by retiring into some neighbouring countrey ; as lot and his family sav'd themselves , by withdrawing from sodom when the city was to be destroyed ? had not this been a far easier thing ; and more compendious , than the great preparations he made of a large vessel , with rooms for the reception and accommodation of beasts and birds ? and now i mention birds , why could not they at least have flown into the next dry country ? they might have pearch'd upon the trees , and the tops of the mountains by the way to have rested themselves if they were weary , for the waters did not all of a sudden rise to the mountains tops . i cannot but look upon the deluge as a much more considerable thing than these authors would represent it , and as a kind of dissolution of nature . moses calls it a destroying of the earth , as well as of mankind , gen. . . and the bow was set in the cloud to seal the covenant , that he would destroy the earth no more , gen. . . or that there should be no more a flood to destroy the earth . and 't is said , verse . that the covenant was made between god and the earth , or this frame of nature , that it should perish no more by water . and the rain-bow , which was a token and pledge of this covenant , appears not only in iudaea , or some other asiatick provinces , but to all the regions of the earth , who had an equal share and concern in it . moses saith also the fountains of the grear abyss were burst asunder to make the deluge , and what means this abyss and the bursting of it , if restrain'd to iudaea , or some adjacent countries ? what appearance is there of this disruption there , more than in other places ? furthermore , s. peter plainly implies , that the antediluvian heavens and earth perish'd in the deluge ; and opposeth the present earth and heavens to them , as different and of another constitution : and saith , that these shall perish by fire , as the other perish'd by water . so he compares the conflagration with the deluge , as two general dissolutions of nature , and one may as well say , that the conflagration shall be only national , and but two or three countries burnt in that last fire , as to say that the deluge was so . i confess that discourse of s. peter , concerning the several states of the world , would sufficiently convince me , if there was nothing else , that the deluge was not a particular or national inundation , but a mundane change , that extended to the whole earth , and both to the ( lower ) heavens and earth . all antiquity , we know , hath spoke of these mundane revolutions or periods , that the world should be successively destroy'd by water and fire ; and i do not doubt but that this deluge of noah's , which moses describes , was the first and leading instance of this kind : and accordingly we see that after this period , and after the flood , the blessing for multiplication , and for replenishing the earth with inhabitants , was as solemnly pronounc'd by god almighty , as at the first creation of man , gen. . . with gen. . . these considerations , i think , might be sufficient to give us assurance from divine writ of the universality of the deluge , and yet moses affords us another argument as demonstrative as any , when in the history of the deluge , he saith , gen. . . the waters exceedingly prevailed upon the earth , and all the high hills that were under the whole heavens were covered . all the high hills , he saith , under the whole heavens , then quite round the earth ; and if the mountains were cover●d quite round the earth , sure the plains could not scape . but to argue with them upon their own grounds ; let us suppose only the asiatick and armenian mountains covered with these waters , this they cannot deny ; then unless there was a miracle to keep these waters upon heaps , they would flow throughout the earth ; for these mountains are high enough to make them fall every way , and make them joyn with our seas that environ the continent . we cannot imagine hills and mountains of water to have hung about iudaea , as if they were congeal'd , or mass of water to have stood upon the middle of the earth like one great drop , or a trembling jelly , and all the places about it dry and untouch'd . all liquid bodies are dissusive ; for their parts being in motion have no tye or connexion one with another , but glide and fall off any way , as gravity and the air presseth them ; so the surface of water doth always conform into a spherical convexity with the rest of the globe of the earth , aud every part of it falls as near to the center as it can ; wherefore when these waters began to rise at first , long before they could swell to the heighth of the mountains , they would diffuse themselves every way , and thereupon all the valleys and plains , and lower parts of the earth would be filled throughout the whole earth , before they could rise to the tops of the mountains in any part of it : and the sea would be all raised to a considerble heighth before the mountains could be covered . for let 's suppose , as they do , that this water fell not throughout the whole earth , but in some particular country , and there made first a great lake ; this lake when it begun to swell would every way discharge it self by any descents or declivities of the ground , and these issues and derivations being once made , and supplied with new waters pushing them forwards , would continue their course till they arriv'd at the sea ; just as other rivers do , for these would be but so many rivers rising out of this lake , and would not be considerably deeper and higher at the fountain than in their progress or at the sea. we may as well then expect that the leman-lake , for instance , out of which the rhone runs , should swell to the tops of the alpes on the one hand , aud the mountains of switzerland and burgundy on the other , and then stop , without overflowing the plainer countries that lie beyond them ; as to suppose that this diluvian lake should rise to the mountains tops in one place , and not diffuse it self equally into all countries about , and upon the surface of the sea : in proportion to its heighth and depth in the place where it first fell or stood . thus much for sacred history . the universality of the deluge is also attested by profane history ; for the fame of it is gone through the earth , and there are records or traditions concerning it , in all parts of this and the new-found world. the americans do acknowledge and speak of it in their continent , as acosta witnesseth , and laet in their histories of them . the chineses have the tradition of it , which is the farthest part of our continent ; and the nearer and western parts of asia is acknowledg'd the proper seat of it . not to mention deucallon's deluge in the european parts , which seems to be the same under a disguise : so as you may trace the deluge quite round the globe in profane history ; and which is remarkable , every one of these people have a tale to tell , some one way , some another , concerning the restauration of mankind ; which is an argument that they thought all mankind destroy'd by that deluge . in the old dispute between the scythians and the aegyptians for antiquity , which iustin mentions , they refer to a former destruction of the world by water or fire , and argue whether nation first rise again , and was original to the other . so the babylonians , assyrians , phoenicians and others , mention the deluge in their stories . and we cannot without offering violence to all records and authority , divine and humane , deny that there hath been an universal deluge upon the earth ; and if there was an universal deluge , no question it was that of noah's and that which moses describ'd , and that which we treat of at present . these considerations , i think , are abundantly sufficient to silence that opinion , concerning the limitation and restriction of the deluge to a particular country or countries . it ought rather to be lookt upon as an evasion indeed than opinion , seeing the authors do not offer any positive argument for the proof of it , but depend only upon that negative argument , that an universal deluge is a thing unintelligible . this stumbling-stone we hope to take away for the future , and that men shall not be put to that unhappy choice , either to deny matter of fact well attested , or admit an effect , whereof they cannot see any possible causes . and so having stated and propos'd the whole difficulty , and try'd all ways offer'd by others , and found them ineffectual , let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot . the excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty , and the removal of it afterwards . those eight oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts , and i cast about every way to find an expedient , or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less water , and in such a manner , that that water might afterwards conveniently be discharg'd . the first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion , was concerning the form of the earth , which i imagin'd might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present , and come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it , and so might the more easily be overflow'd , and the deluge perform'd with less water . this opinion concerning the plainness of the first earth , i also found in antiquity , mention'd and refer'd to by several interpreters in their commentaries upon genesis , either upon occasion of the deluge , or of that fountain which is said , gen. . . to have watered the face of the whole earth : and a late eminent person , the honour of his profession for integrity and learning , in his discourse concerning the origination of mankind , hath made a like judgment of the state of the earth before the deluge , that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now . but yet upon second thoughts , i easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the deluge , nor to give an account of the present from of the earth , unequal and mountainous as it is . 't is true this would give a great advantage to the waters , and the rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the earth , being plain and smooth ; but how would these waters be dispos'd of when the deluge ceas'd ? or how could it ever cease ? besides , what means the disruption of the great deep , or the great abysse , or what answers to it upon this supposition ? this was assuredly of no less consideration than the rains , nay , i believe , the rains were but preparatory in some measure , and that the violence and consummation of the deluge depended upon the disruption of the great abysse . therefore i saw it necessary , to my first thought , concerning the smoothness and plainness of the ante-diluvian earth , to add a second , concerning the disruption and dissolution of it ; for as it often happens in earthquakes , when the exteriour earth is burst asunder , and a great flood of waters issues out , according to the quantity and force of them , an inundation is made in those parts , more or less ; so i thought , if that abysse lay under ground and round the earth , and we should suppose the earth in this manner to be broken in several places at once , and as it were a general dissolution made , we might suppose that to make a general deluge , as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular . but i will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal deluge in the following chapters , only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes , it may be , that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fansie it . give me leave to add farther in this place , that it hath been observ'd by several , from the contemplation of mountains and rocks and precipices , of the chanel of the sea , and of islands , and of subterraneous caverns , that the surface of the earth , or the exteriour region which we inhabit , hath been broke , and the parts of it dislocated : and one might instance more particularly in several parcels of nature , that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine ; and by their present form and posture show , that they have been once in another state and situation one to another . we shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these phaenomena , from which several have rightly argu'd and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the earth . but this ruine , it is true , they have imagin'd and explain'd several ways , some thinking that it was made the third day after the foundation of the earth ; when they suppose the chanel of the sea to have been form'd , and mountains and caverns at the same time ; by a violent depression of some parts of the earth , and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room . others suppose it to have come not all at once , but by degrees , at several times , and in several ages , from particular and accidental causes , as the earth falling in upon fires under ground , or water eating away the lower parts , or vapours and exhalations breaking out , and tearing the earth . 't is true , i am not of their opinion in either of these explications ; and we shall show at large hereafter , when we have propos'd and stated our own theory , how incompetent such causes are to bring the earth into that form and condition we now find it in . but in the mean time , we may so far make use of these opinions in general , as not to be startled at this doctrine , concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour earth ; for in all ages the face of nature hath provok'd men to think of and observe such a thing . and who can do otherwise , to see the elements displac'd and disorder'd , as they seem to lie at present ; the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places , and the liquid and volatile kept below ; an huge mass of stone or rock rear'd into the air , and the water creeping at its feet ; whereas this is the more light and active body , and by the law of nature should take place of rocks and stones ? so we see , by the like disorder , the air thrown down into dungeons of the earth , and the earth got up among the clouds ; for there are the tops of the mountains , and under their roots in holes and caverns the air is often detain'd . by what regular action of nature can we suppose things first produc'd in this posture and form ? not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the earth is , which of it self is an uniform mass , close and compact : but in the condition we see it , it lies hollow in many places , with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it ; a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less , especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible . then what can have more the figure and meen of a ruine , than crags and rocks and cliffs , whether upon the sea shore , or upon the sides of mountains ; what can be more apparently broke , than they are ; and those lesser rocks , or great bulky stones that lie often scatter'd near the feet of the other , whether in the sea , or upon the land , are they not manifest fragments , and pieces of those greater masses ? besides , the posture of these rocks , which is often leaning or recumbent , or prostrate , shows to the eye , that they have had a fall , or some kind of dislocation from their natural site . and the same thing may be observed in the tracts and regions of the earth , which very seldom for ten miles together have any regular surface or continuity one with another , but lie high and low , and are variously inclin'd sometimes one way , sometimes another , without any rule or order . whereas i see no reason but the surface of the land should be as regular as that of the water , in the first production of it : and the strata or beds within lie as even . this i am sure of , that this disposition of the elements , and the parts of the earth , outward and inward , hath something irregular and unnatural in it , and manifestly shews us the marks or footsteps of some kind of ruine and dissolution ; which we shall shew you , in its due place , happen'd in such a way , that at the same time a general flood of waters would necessarily over-run the face of the whole earth . and by the same fatal blow , the earth fell out of that regular form , wherein it was produc'd at first , into all these irregularities which we see in its present form and composition ; so that we shall give thereby a double satisfaction to the mind , both to shew it a fair and intelligible account of the general deluge , how the waters came upon the earth , and how they return'd into their chanels again , and left the earth habitable ; and likewise to shew it how the mountains were brought forth , and the chanel of the sea discover'd : how all those inequalities came in the body or face of the earth , and those empty vaults and caverns in its bowels ; which things are no less matter of admiration than the flood it self . but i must beg leave to draw a curtain before the work for a while , and to keep your patience a little in suspence , till materials are prepar'd , and all things ready to represent and explain what we have propos'd . yet i hope in the mean time to entertain the mind with scenes no less pleasing , though of quite another face and order : for we must now return to the beginning of the world , and look upon the first rudiments of nature , and that dark but fruitful womb , out of which all things sprang , i mean the chaos : for this is the matter which we must next work upon , and it will be no unpleasing thing to observe , how that rude mass will shoot it self into several forms , one after another , till it comes at length to make an habitable world. the steddy hand of providence , which keeps all things in weight and measure , being the invisible guide of all its motions . these motions we must examine from first to last , to find out what was the form of the earth , and what was the place or situation of the ocean , or the great abyss , in that first state of nature : which two things being determin'd , we shall be able to make a certain judgment , what kind of dissolution that earth was capable of , and whether from that dissolution an universal deluge would follow , with all the consequences of it . in the mean time , for the ease and satisfaction of the reader , we will here mark the order and distribution of the first book , which we divide into three sections ; whereof the first is these three chapters past : in the second section we will shew , that the earth before the deluge was of a different frame and form from the present earth ; and particularly of such a form as made it subject to a dissolution : and to such a dissolution , as did necessarily expose it to an universal deluge . and in this place we shall apply our discourse particularly to the explication of noah's flood , and that under all its conditions , of the height of the waters , of their universality , of the destruction of the world by them , and of their retiring afterwards from the earth ; and this section will consist of the fourth , fifth , sixth , seventh and eighth chapters . in the third section we prove the same dissolution from the effects and consequences of it , or from the contemplation of the present face of the earth : and here an account is given of the origin of mountains , of subterraneous waters and caverns , of the great chanel of the sea , and of the first production of islands ; and those things are the contents of the ninth , tenth and eleventh chapters . then , in the last chapter , we make a general review of the whole work , and a general review of nature ; that , by comparing them together , their full agreement and correspondency may appear . here several collateral arguments are given for confirmation of the preceeding theory , and some reflections are made upon the state of the other planets compar'd with the earth . and lastly , what accounts soever have been given by others of the present form and irregularities of the earth , are examin'd and shew'd insufficient . and this seemeth to be all that is requisite upon this subject . chap. iv. that the earth and mankind had an original , and were not from eternity : prov'd against aristotle . the first proposition of our theory laid down , viz. that the antediluvian earth was of a different form and construction from the present . this is prov'd by divine authority , and from the nature and form of the chaos , out of which the earth was made . we are now to enquire into the original of the earth , and in what form it was built at first , that we may lay our foundation for the following theory , deep and sure . it hath been the general opinion and consent of the learned of all nations , that the earth arose from a chaos . this is attested by history , both sacred and profane ; only aristotle , whom so great a part of the christian world have made their oracle or idol , hath maintain'd the eternity of the earth , and the eternity of mankind ; that the earth and the world were from everlasting , and in that very form they are in now , with men and women and all living creatures , trees and fruit , metals and minerals , and whatsoever is of natural production . we say all these things arose and had their first existence or production not six thousand years ago ; he saith , they have subsisted thus for ever , through an infinite series of past generations , and shall continue as long , without first or last : and if so , there was neither chaos , nor any other beginning to the earth . this takes away the subject of our discourse , and therefore we must first remove this stone but of the way , and prove that the earth had an original , and that from a chaos , before we shew how it arose from a chaos , and what was the first habitable form that it setled into . we are assur'd by divine authority , that the earth and mankind had a beginning ; moses saith , in the beginning god made the heavens and the earth . speaking it as of a certain period or term from whence he counts the age of the world. and the same moses tells us , that adam was the first man , and eve the first woman , from whom sprung the race of mankind ; and this within the compass of six thousand years . we are also assured from the prophets , and our christian records , that the world shall have an end , and that by a general conflagration , when all mankind shall be destroy'd , with the form and all the furniture of the earth . and as this proves the second part of aristotle's doctrine to be false immediately , so doth it the first , by a true consequence ; for what hath an end had a beginning , what is not immortal , was not eternal ; that which exists by the strength of its own nature at first , the same nature will enable to exist for ever ; and indeed what exists of it self , exists necessarily ; and what exists necessarily , exists eternally . having this infallible assurance of the origin of the earth and of mankind , from scripture , we proceed to refute the same doctrine of aristotle's by natural reason . and we will first consider the form of the earth , and then mankind ; and shew from plain evidence and observation , neither of them to have been eternal . 't is natural to the mind of man to consider that which is compound , as having been once more simple ; whether that composition be a mixture of many ingredients , as most terrestrial bodies are , or whether it be organical ; but especially if it be organical : for a thing that consists of a multitude of pieces aptly joyn'd , we cannot but conceive to have had those pieces , at one time or another , put together . 't were hard to conceive an eternal watch , whose pieces were never separate one from another , nor ever in any other form than that of a watch. or an eternal house , whose materials were never asunder , but always in the form of an house . and 't is as hard to conceive an eternal earth , or an eternal world : these are made up of more various substances , more ingredients , and into a far greater composition ; and the living part of the world , plants and animals , have much more variety of parts and multifarious construction , than any house , or any other artificial thing : so that we are led as much by nature and necessity to conceive this great machine of the world , or of the earth , to have been once in a state of greater simplicity than now it is , as to conceive a watch , an house , or any other structure , to have been once in its first and simple materials . this i speak without reference to immediate creation , for aristotle did not own any such thing , and therefore the argument stands good against him , upon those grounds and notions that he goes , yet i guess what answer would be made by him or his followers to this argumentation ; they would say there is not the same reason for natural things , as for artificial , though equally compounded . artificial things could not be from eternity , because they suppose man , by whose art they were made , pre existent to them ; the work-man must be before the work , and whatsoever hath any thing before it , is not eternal . but may not the same thing be said of natural things ? do not most of them require the action of the sun , and the influence of the heavens for their production , and longer preparations than any artificial things do ? some years or ages would be necessary for the concoction and maturation of metals and minerals ; stones themselves , at least some sorts of them , were once liquors or fluid masses ; and all vegetable productions require the heat of the sun , to predispose and excite the earth , and the seeds . nay , according to aristotle , 't is not man by himself that begets a man , but the sun is his coadjutor . you see then 't was as necessary that the sun , that great workman of nature , should pre-exist to natural things , produc●d in or upon the earth , as that man should pre-exist to artificial . so that the earth under that form and constitution it now hath , could no more be eternal , than a statue or temple , or any work of art. besides , that form , which the earth is under at present , is in some sort preter-natural , like a statue made and broken again ; and so hath still the less appearance or pretence of being eternal . if the elements had lain in that order to one another , as aristotle hath dispos'd them , and as seems to be their first disposition ; the earth altogether in a mass in the middle , or towards the centre ; then the water in a spherical mass about that ; the air above the water , and then a sphere of fire , as he fansied , in the highest circle of the air : if they had lain , i say , in this posture , there might have been some pretence that they had been eternally so ; because that might seem to be their original posture , in which nature had first plac'd them . but the form and posture we find them in at present is very different , and according to his doctrine must be look'd upon as unnatural and violent ; and no violent state by his own maxim , can be perpetual , or can have been so . but there is still a more pressing consideration against this opinion . if this present state and form of the earth had been from eternity , it would have long ere this destroy'd it self , and chang'd it self : the mountains sinking by degrees into the vallies , and into the sea , and the waters rising above the earth ; which form it would certainly have come into sooner or later , and in it continu'd drown'd and uninhabitable , for all succeeding generations . for 't is certain , that the mountains and higher parts of the earth grow lesser and lesser from age to age ; and that from many causes , sometimes the roots of them are weaken'd and eaten by subterraneous fires , and sometimes they are torn and tumbled down by earthquakes , and fall into those caverns that are under them ; and though those violent causes are not constant , or universal , yet if the earth had stood from eternity , there is not a mountain would have escap'd this fate in one age or other . the course of these exhalations or fires would have reach'd them all sooner or later , if through infinite ages they had stood expos'd to them . but there are also other causes that consume them insensibly , and make them sink by degrees ; and those are chiefly the winds , rains , and storms , and heat of the sun without ; and within , the soaking of water and springs , with streams and currents in their veins and crannies . these two sorts of causes would certainly reduce all the mountains of the earth , in tract of time , to equality ; or rather lay them all under water : for whatsoever moulders or is washt away from them , is carried down into the lower grounds , and into the sea , and nothing is ever brought back again by any circulation : their losses are not repair'd , nor any proportionable recruits made from any other parts of nature . so as the higher parts of the earth being continually spending , and the lower continually gaining , they must of necessity at length come to an equality ; and the waters that lie in the lower parts and in the chanels , those chanels and valleys being fill'd up with earth , would be thrust out and rise every where upon the surface of the earth ; which new post when they had once seiz'd on , they would never quit it , nor would any thing be able to dispossess them ; for 't is their natural place and situation which they always tend to , and from which there is no progress nor regress in a course of nature . so that the earth would have been , both now , and from innumerable generations before this , all under water and uninhabitable ; if it had stood from everlasting , and this form of it had been its first original form . nor can he doubt of this argumentation , that considers the coherence of it , and will allow time enough for the effect . i do not say the earth would be reduc'd to this uninhabitable form in ten thousand years time , though i believe it would : but take twenty , if you please , take an hundred thousand , take a million , 't is all one , for you may take the one as easily as the other out of eternity ; and they make both equally against their supposition . nor is it any matter how little you suppose the mountains to decrease , 't is but taking more time , and the same effect still follows . let them but waste as much as a grain of mustardseed every day , or a foot in an age , this would be more than enough in ten thousand ages to consume the tallest mountain upon earth . the air alone , and the little drops of rain have defac'd the strongest and the proudest monuments of the greeks and romans ; and allow them but time enough , and they will of themselves beat down the rocks into the sea , and the hills into the valleys . but if we add to these all those other foremention'd causes that work with more violence , and the weight of the mountains themselves , which upon any occasion offer'd , is ready to sink them lower , we shall shorten the time , and make the effect more sure . we need add no more here in particular , against this aristotelian doctrine , that makes the present form of the earth to have been from eternity ; for the truth is , this whole book is one continued argument against that opinion ; shewing that it hath de facto chang'd its form ; both in that we have prov'd that it was not capable of an universal deluge in this form , and consequently was once under another ; and also in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the third and fourth sections , that it hath been broken and dissolv'd . we might also add one consideration more , that if it had stood always under this form , it would have been under fire , if it had not been under water ; and the conflagration , which it is to undergo , would have overtaken it long ere this . for s. peter saith , the heavens and the earth that are now , as oppos'd to the ante-diluvian , and considered in their present form and constitution , are fitted to be consum'd by fire . and whosoever understands the progress and revolutions of nature , will see that neither the present form of the earth , nor its first form , were permanent and immutable forms , but transient and temporary by their own frame and constitution ; which the author of nature , after certain periods of time , had design'd for change and for destruction . thus much for the body of the earth , that it could not have been from eternity , as aristotle pretended , in the form it hath . now let 's consider the origination of mankind ; and that we shall find could much less be eternal than the other ; for whatsoever destroy'd the form of the earth , would also destroy mankind ; and besid●s , there are many particular marks and arguments , that the generations of men have not been from everlasting . all history , and all monuments of antiquity of what kind soever , are but of a few thousand of years date ; we have still the memory of the golden age , of the first state of nature , and how mortals liv'd then in innocency and simplicity . the invention of arts , even those that are necessary or useful to humane life , hath been within the knowledge of men : how imperfect was the geography of the ancients , how imperfect their knowledge of the earth , how imperfect their navigation ? can we imagine , if there had been men from everlasting , a sea as now , and all materials for shipping as much as we have , that men could have been so ignorant , both of the land and of the sea , as 't is manifest they have been till of late ages ? they had very different fancies concerning the figure of the earth . they knew no land beyond our continent , and that very imperfectly too ; and the torrid zone they thought utterly uninhabitable . we think it strange , taking that short date of the world , which we give it , that men should not have made more progress in the knowledge of these things ; but how impossible is it then , if you suppose them to have been from everlasting ? they had the same wit and passions that we have , the same motives that we have , can we then imagine , that neither the ambition of princes , nor interest or gain in private persons , nor curiosity and the desire of knowledge , nor the glory of discoveries , nor any other passion or consideration could ever move them in that endless time , to try their fortunes upon the sea , and know something more of the world they inhabited ? though you should suppose them generally stupid , which there is no reason to do , yet in a course of infinite generations , there would be some great genio's , some extraordinary persons that would attempt things above the rest . we have done more within the compass of our little world , which we can but count ( as to this ) from the general deluge , than those eternal men had done in their innumerable ages foregoing . you will say it may be , they had not the advantages and opportunities for navigation as we have , and for discoveries ; because the use of the loadstone , and the mariners needle was not then known . but that 's the wonder , that either that invention , or any other should not be brought to light till t'other day , if the world had stood from eternity . i say this or any other practical invention ; for such things when they are once found out and known , are not easily lost again , because they are of daily use . and 't is in most other practical arts as in navigation , we generally know their original and history : who the inventors , and by what degrees improv'd , and how few of them brought to any perfection till of late ages . all the artificial and mechanical world is , in a manner , new ; and what you may call the civil world too is in a great measure so . what relates to government , and laws ; to wars and discipline ; we can trace these things to their origin , or very near it . the use of money and of coins , nay the use of the very elements ; for they tell us of the first invention of fire by prometh●us , and the imploying of wind or water to turn the mills and grind their corn was scarce known before the romans ; and that we may think nothing eternal here , they tell us the ages and genealogies of their very gods. the measures of time for the common uses of life , the dividing it into hours , with the instruments for those purposes , are not of an unknown date : even the arts for preparing food and clothing , medicines and medicaments , building , civil and military , letters and writing , which are the foundations of the world civil : these , with all their retinue of lesser arts and trades that belong to them , history and tradition tell us , when they had their beginning , or were very imperfect ; and how many of their inventors and inventresses were deifi'd . the world hath not stood so long but we can still run it up to those artless ages , when mortals liv'd by plain nature ; when there was but one trade in the world , one calling , to look to their flocks ; and afterwards to till the ground , when nature grew less liberal : and may we not reasonably think this the beginning of mankind , or very near it ? if man be a creature both naturally sagacious to find out its own conveniencies , and naturally sociable and inclin'd to live in a community , a little time would make them find out and furnish themselves with what was necessary in these two kinds , for the conveniencies of single life , and the conveniencies of societies ; they would not have liv'd infinite ages unprovided of them . if you say necessity is the mother of arts and inventions , and there was no necessity before , and therefore these things were so slowly invented . this is a good answer upon our suppo●tion , that the world began but some ages before these were found out , and was abundant with all things at first ; and men not very numerous , and therefore were not put so much to the use of their wits , to find out ways for living commodiously . but this is no answer upon their supposition ; for if the world was eternal and men too , there were no first ages , no new and fresh earth ; men were never less numerous , nor the earth more fruitful ; and consequently there was never less necessity at any time than is now . this also brings to mind another argument against this opinion ( viz. ) from the gradual increase of mankind . 't is certain the world was not so populous one or two thousand years since , as it is now , seeing 't is observ'd , in particular nations , that within the space of two or three hundred years , notwithstanding all casualties , the number of men doubles . if then the earth had stood from everlasting , it had been over-stockt long ere this , and would not have been capable to contain its inhabitants many ages and millions of ages ago . whereas we find the earth is not yet sufficiently inhabited , and there is still room for some millions . and we must not flie to universal deluges and conflagrations to destroy mankind ▪ for besides that the earth was not capable of a deluge in this present form , nor would have been in this form after a conflagration , aristotle doth not admit of these universal changes , nor any that hold the form of the earth to be eternal . but to return to our arts and inventions . we have spoken of practical arts and inventions useful in humane life ; then for theoretical learning and sciences , there is nothing yet finish'd or compleat in these ; and what is known hath been chiefly the production of latter ages . how little hath been discover'd till of late , either of our own bodies , or of the body of the earth , and of the functions or motions of nature in either ? what more obvious , one would think , than the circulation of the bloud ? what can more excite our curiosity than the flowing and ebbing of the sea ? than the nature of metals and minerals ? these are either yet unknown , or were so at least till this last age ; which seems to me to have made a greater progress than all ages before put together , since the beginning of the world. how unlikely is it then that these ages were eternal ? that the eternal studies of our forefathers could not effect so much as a few years have done of late ? and the whole mass of knowledge in this earth doth not seem to be so great , but that a few ages more , with two or three happy genius's in them , may bring to light all that we are capable to understand in this state of mortality . to these arguments concerning the novelty of the earth , and the origin of mankind , i know there are some shuffling excuses made , but they can have little effect upon those instances we have chosen . and i would ask those eternalists one fair question , what mark is there that they could expect or desire of the novelty of a world , that is not found in this ? or what mark is there of eternity that is found in this ? if then their opinion be without any positive argument , and against all appearances in nature , it may be justly rejected as unreasonable upon all accounts . 't is not the bold asserting of a thing that makes it true , or that makes it credible against evidence . if one should assert that such an one had liv'd from all eternity , and i could bring witnesses that knew him a sucking child , and others that remembred him a school-boy , i think it would be a fair proof , that the man was not eternal . so if there be evidence , either in reason or history , that it is not very many ages since nature was in her minority , as appears by all those instances we have given above ; some whereof trace her down to her very infancy : this , i think , may be taken for a good proof that she is not eternal . and i do not doubt , but if the history of the world was writ philosophically , giving an account of the several states of mankind in several ages , and by what steps or degrees they came from their first rudeness or simplicity to that order of things , both intellectual and civil , which the world is advanc'd to at present , that alone would be a full conviction , that the earth and mankind had a beginning . as the story of rome , how it rise from a mean original , by what degrees it increas'd , and how it chang'd its form and government till it came to its greatness , doth satisfie us very well , that the roman empire was not eternal . thus much concerning the temporal original of the earth . we are now to consider the manner of it , and to shew how it rise from a chaos . i do not remember that any of the ancients that acknowledge the earth to have had an original , did deny that original to have been from a chaos . we are assur'd of both from the authority of moses , who saith , that in the beginning the earth was tohu bohu , without form and void ; a fluid , dark , confus'd mass , without distinction of elements ; made up of all variety of parts , but without order , or any determinate form ; which is the true description of a chaos : and so it is understood by the general consent of interpreters , both hebrew and christian. we need not therefore spend any time here to prove , that the origin of the earth was from a chaos , seeing that is agreed on by all that give it any origin . but we will proceed immediately to examine into what form it first rise when it came out of that chaos ; or what was the primaeval form of the earth , that continued till the deluge , and how the deluge depended upon it , and upon its dissolution . and that we may proceed in this enquiry by such easie steps as any one may readily follow , we will divide it into three propositions , whereof the first is this in general ; that the form of the antediluvian earth , or of the earth that rise first from the chaos , was different from the form of the present earth . i say different in general , without specifying yet what its particular form was , which shall be exprest in the following proposition . this first proposition we have in effect prov'd in the second chapter : where we have shewn , that if the earth had been always in this form , it would not have been capable of a deluge ; seeing that could not have been effected without such an infinite mass of water as could neither be brought upon the earth , nor afterwards any way removed from it . but we will not content our selves with that proof only , but will prove it also from the nature of the chaos , and the manifest consequences of it . and because this is a leading proposition , we think it not improper to prove it also from divine authority , there being a pregnant passage to this purpose in the writings of s. peter . where treating of this very subject , the deluge , he manifestly puts a difference between the ante-diluvian earth and the present earth , as to their form and constitution . the discourse is in the second epistle of s. peter , the third chapter , where certain deists , as they seem to have been , laught at the prophecy of the day of judgment , and of the conflagration of the world , using this argument against it , that since the fathers fell asleep , all things have continued as they were from the beginning . all external nature hath continued the same without any remarkable change or alteration , and why should we believe ( say they ) there will be any ? what appearance or what foundation is there of such a revolution , that all nature will be dissolv'd , and the heavens and the earth consum'd with fire , as your prophecies pretend ? so from the permanency and immutability of nature hitherto , they argu'd its permanency and immutability for the future . to this the apostle answers , that they are willing to forget that the heavens and the earth of old had a particular form and constitution as to water , by reason whereof the world that then was , perisht by a deluge . and the heavens and the earth that are now , or since the deluge , have a particular constitution in reference to fire , by reason whereof they are expos'd to another sort of destruction or dissolution , namely by fire , or by an universal conflagration . the words of the apostle are these ; for this they are willingly ignorant of , that by the word of god the heavens were of old , and the earth , consisting of water , and by water ; or ( as we render it ) standing out of the water , and in the water : whereby the world that then was , being overslow'd with water , perisht . but the heavens and the earth that are now , by the same word are kept in store , reseru'd unto fire against the day of iudgment . we shall have occasion , it may be , hereafter to give a full illustration of these words ; but at present we shall only take notice of this in general , that the apostle here doth plainly intimate some difference that was between the old world and the present world , in their form and constitution ; or betwixt the ante-diluvian and the present earth , by reason of which difference , that was subject to perish by a deluge , as this is subject to perish by conflagration . and as this is the general air and importance of this discourse of he apostle's , which every one at first sight would discover ; so we may in several particular ways prove from it our first proposition , which now we must return to ; ( viz. ) that the form and constitution of the ante-diluvian earth was different from that of the present earth . this may be infer'd from the apostle's discourse , first , because he makes an opposition betwixt these two earths , or these two natural worlds ; and that not only in respect of their fate , the one perishing by water , as the other will perish by fire , but also in respect of their different disposition and constitution leading to this different fate ; for otherwise his fifth verse is superfluous , and his inference in the sixth ungrounded ; you see he premiseth in the fifth verse as the ground of his discourse , what the constitution of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth was , and then infers from it in the sixth verse , that they therefore perisht in a deluge of water . now if they had been the same with ours , there had neither been any ground for making an opposition betwixt them , nor any ground of making a contrary inference as to their fate . besides , in that he implies that the constitution of the ante-diluvian earth was such , as made it subject to a deluge ; he shews that it was different from the constitution of the present earth ; for the form of that is such , as makes it rather incapable of a deluge , as we have shewn in the second chapter . then we are to observe further , that when he saith ( verse . ) that the first world perish'd in a deluge , or was destroy'd by it ; this is not to be understood of the animate world only , men and living creatures , but of the natural world , and the frame of it ; for he had describ'd it before by the heavens and the earth , which make the natural world. and the objection of the atheists , or deists rather , which he was to answer , proceeded upon the natural world. and lastly , this perishing of the world in a deluge , is set against , or compar'd with the perishing of the world in the conflagration , when the frame of nature will be dissolv'd . we must therefore , according to the tenor of the apostle's arguing , suppose , that the natural world was destroy'd or perish'd in the deluge ; and seeing it did not perish as to matter and substance , it must be as to the form , frame , and composition of it , that it perish'd ; and consequently , the present earth is of another form and frame from what it had before the deluge ; which was the thing to be proved . lastly , let us consider what it is the apostle tells these scoffers that they were ignorant of : not that there was a deluge , they could not be ignorant of that ; nor doth he tell them that they were ; but he tells them that they were ignorant that the heavens and the earth of old were so and so constituted , after a different manner than they are now , and that the state of nature was chang'd at the deluge , it they had known or attended to this , they had made no such objection , nor us'd any such argument as they did against the future conflagration of the world. they pretended that there had been no change in nature since the beginning , and the apostle in answer tells them , that they are willingly ignorant of the first constitution of the heavens , and the earth , and of that change and dissolution that happen'd to them in the deluge ; and how the present heavens and earth have another constitution , whereby in like manner they are expos'd , in god's due time , to be consum'd or dissolv'd by fire . this is the plain , easie and natural import of the apostle's discourse ; thus all the parts of it are coherent , and the sence genuine and apposite , and this is a full confirmation of our first and general assertion , that the ante-diluvian earth was of another form from the present earth . this hath been observ'd formerly by some of the ancients from this text , but that it hath not been generally observ'd , was partly because they had no theory to back such an interpretation , and make it intelligible ; and partly because they did not observe , that the apostle's discourse here was an argumentation , and not a bare affirmation , or simple contradiction to those that rais'd the scruple ; 't is an answer upon a ground taken , he premiseth and then infers ; in the fifth and sixth verses , concerning the deluge ; and in the seventh , concerning the conflagration . and when i had discover'd in my thoughts from the consideration of the deluge , and other natural reasons , that the earth was certainly once in another form , it was a great assurance and confirmation to me , when i reflected on this place of s. peter's ; which seems to be so much directed and intended for the same purpose , or to teach us the same conclusion , that though i design'd chiefly a philosophical theory of these things , yet i should not have thought we had been just to providence , if we had neglected to take notice of this passage and sacred evidence ; which seems to have been left us on purpose , to excite our enquiries , and strengthen our reasonings , concerning the first state of things . thus much from divine authority : we proceed now to prove the same proposition from reason and philosophy , and the contemplation of the chaos , from whence the first earth arose . we need not upon this occasion make a particular description of the chaos , but only consider it as a fluid mass , or a mass of all sorts of little parts and particles of matter mixt together , and floating in confusion , one with another . 't is impossible that the surface of this mass should be of such a form and figure , as the surface of our present earth is . or that any concretion or consistent state which this mass could flow into immediately , or first settle in , could be of such a form and figure as our present earth . the first of these assertions is of easie proof ; for a fluid body , we know , whether it be water or any other liquor , always casts it self into a smooth and spherical surface ; and if any parts , by chance , or by some agitation , become higher than the rest , they do not continue so , but glide down again every way into the lower places , till they all come to make a surface of the same height , and of the same distance every where from the center of their gravity . a mountain of water is a thing impossible in nature , and where there are no mountains there are no valleys . so also a den or cave within the water that hath no walls but the liquid element , is a structure unknown to art or nature ; all things there must be full within , and even and level without , unless some external force keep them by violence in another posture . but is this the form of our earth , which is neither regularly made within nor without ? the surface and exteriour parts are broken into all sorts of inequalities , hills and dales , mountains and valleys ; and the plainer tracts of it lie generally inclin'd or bending one way or other , sometimes upon an easie descent , and other times with a more sensible and uneasie steepiness ; and though the great mountains of the earth were taken all away , the remaining parts would be more unequal than the roughest sea ; whereas the face of the earth should resemble the face of the calmest sea , if it was still in the form of its first mass . but what shall we say then to the huge mountains of the earth , which lie sometimes in lumps or clusters heapt up by one another , sometimes extended in long ridges or chains for many hundred miles in length ? and 't is remarkable , that in every continent , and in every ancient and original island , there is either such a cluster , or such a chain of mountains . and can there be any more palpable demonstrations than these are , that the surface of the earth is not in the same form that the surface of the chaos was , or that any fluid mass can stand or hold it self in ? then for the form of the earth within or under its surface , 't is no less impossible for the chaos to imitate that ; for 't is full of cavities and empty places , of dens and broken holes , whereof some are open to the air , and others cover'd and enclosed wholly within the ground . these are both of them unimitable in any liquid substance , whose parts will necessarily flow together into one continued mass , and cannot be divided into apartments and separate rooms , nor have vaults or caverns made within it ; the walls would sink , and the roof fall in : for liquid bodies have nothing to sustain their parts , nor any thing to cement them ; they are all loose and incoherent , and in a perpetual flux : even an heap of sand or fine powder will suffer no hollowness within them , though they be dry substances , and though the parts of them being rough , will hang together a little , and stand a little upon an heap ; but the parts of liquors being glib , and continually in motion , they fall off from one another , which way soever gravity inclines them , and can neither have any hills or eminencies on their surface , nor any hollowness within their substance . you will acknowledge , it may be , that this is true , and that a liquid mass or chaos , while it was liquid , was incapable of either the outward or inward form of the earth ; but when it came to a concretion , to a state of consistency and firmness , then it might go , you 'll say , into any form . no , not in its first concretion , nor in its first state of consistence ; for that would be of the same form that the surface of it was when it was liquid ; as water , when it congeals , the surface of the ice is smooth and level , as the surface of the water was before ; so metals , or any other substances melted , or liquors that of themselves grow stiff and harden , always settle into the same form which they had when they were last liquid , and are always solid within , and smooth without , unless they be cast in a mould , that hinders the motion and flux of the parts . so that the first concrete state or consistent surface of the chaos , must be of the same form or figure with the last liquid state it was in ; for that is the mould , as it were , upon which it is cast ; as the shell of an egg is of a like form with the surface of the liquor it lies upon . and therefore by analogy with all other liquors and concretions , the form of the chaos , whether liquid or concrete , could not be the same with that of the present earth , or like it : and consequently , that form of the first or primigenial earth which rise immediately out of the chaos , was not the same , nor like to that of the present earth . which was the first and preparatory proposition we laid down to be prov'd . and this being prov'd by the authority both of our reason and our religion , we will now proceed to the second which is more particular . chap. v. the second proposition is laid down , viz. that the face of the earth before the deluge was smooth , regular and uniform ; without mountains , and without a sea. the chaos out of which the world rise is fully examin'd , and all its motions observ'd , and by what steps it wrought it self into an habitable world. some things in antiquity relating to the first state of the earth are interpreted , and some things in the sacred writings . the divine art and geometry in the construction of the first earth is observ'd and celebrated . we have seen it prov'd , in the foregoing chapter , that the form of the first or ante-diluvian earth , was not the same , nor like the form of the present earth ; this is our first discovery at a distance , but 't is only general and negative , tells us what the form of that earth was not , but tells us not expresly what it was ; that must be our next enquiry , and advancing one step further in our theory , we lay down this second proposition ? that the face of the earth before the deluge , was smooth , regular and uniform ; without mountains , and without a sea. this is a bold step , and carries us into another world , which we have never seen , nor ever yet heard any relation of ; and a world , it seems , of very different scenes and prospects from ours , or from any thing we have yet known . an earth without a sea , and plain as the elysian fields ; if you travel it all over , you will not meet with a mountain or a rock , yet well provided of all reqnisite things for an habitable world ; and the same indeed with the earth we still inhabit , only under another form . and this is the great thing that now comes into debate , the great paradox which we offer to be examin'd , and which we affirm , that the earth in its first rise and formation from a chaos ; was of the form here describ'd , and so continu'd for many hundreds of years . to examine and prove this , we must return to the beginning of the world , and to that chaos out of which the earth and all sublunary things arose : 't is the motions and progress of this which we must now consider , and what form it setled into when it first became an habitable world. neither is it perhaps such an intricate thing as we imagine at first sight , to trace a chaos into an habitable world ; at least there is a particular pleasure to see things in their origin , and by what degrees and successive changes they rise into that order and state we see them in afterwards , when compleated . i am sure , if ever we would view the paths of divine wisdom , in the works and in the conduct of nature , we must not only consider how things are , but how they came to be so . 't is pleasant to look upon a tree in the summer , cover'd with its green leaves , deckt with blossoms , or laden with fruit , and casting a pleasing shade under its spreading boughs ; but to consider how this tree with all its furniture , sprang from a little seed ; how nature shap'd it , and fed it , in its infancy and growth ; added new parts , and still advanc'd it by little and little , till it came to this greatness and perfection , this , methinks , is another sort of pleasure , more rational , less common , and which is properly the contemplation of divine wisdom in the works of nature . so to view this earth , and this sublunary world , as it is now compleat , distinguisht into the several orders of bodies of which it consists , every one perfect and admirable in its kind ; this is truly delightful , and a very good entertainment of the mind ; but to see all these in their first seeds , as i may so say ; to take in pieces this frame of nature , and melt it down into its first principles ; and then to observe how the divine wisdom wrought all these things out of confusion into order , and out of simplicity into that beautiful composition we now see them in ; this , methinks , is another kind of joy , which pierceth the mind more deep , and is more satisfactory . and to give our selves and others this satisfaction , we will first make a short representation of the chaos , and then shew , how , according to laws establisht in nature by the divine power and wisdom , it was wrought by degrees from one from into another , till it setled at length into an habitable earth ; and that of such a frame and structure , as we have describ'd in this second proposition . by the chaos i understand the matter of the earth and heavens , without from or order ; reduc'd into a fluid mass , wherein are the materials and ingredients of all bodies , but mingled in confusion one with another . as if you should suppose all sorts of metals , gold , silver , lead , &c. melted down together in a common mass , and so mingled , that the parts of no one metal could be discern'd as distinct from the rest , this would be a little metallick chaos : suppose then the elements thus mingled , air , water and earth , which are the principles of all terrestrial bodies ; mingled , i say , without any order of higher or lower , heavier or lighter , solid or volatile , in such a kind of confus'd mass as is here represented in this first scheme . pag. fig. let this then represent to us the chaos ; in which the first change that we should imagine to happen would be this , that the heaviest and grossest parts would sink down towards the middle of it , ( for there we suppose the center of its gravity ) and the rest would float above . these grosser parts thus sunk down and compress'd more and more , would harden by degrees , and constitute the interiour parts of the earth . the rest of the mass , which swims above , would be also divided by the same principle of gravity into two orders of bodies , the one liquid like water , the other volatile like air. for the more fine and active parts disentangling themselves by degrees from the rest , would mount above them ; and having motion enough to keep them upon the wing , would play in those open place where they constitute that body we call air . the other parts being grosser than these , and having a more languid motion could not fly up separate from one another , as these did , but setled in a mass together , under the air , upon the body of the earth , composing not only water strictly so called , but the whole mass of liquors , or liquid bodies , belonging to the earth . and these first separations being thus made , the body of the chaos would stand in that form which it is here represented in by the second scheme . pag. fig : . the liquid mass which encircled the earth , was not , as i noted before , the mere element of water , but a collection of all liquors that belong to the earth . i mean of all that do originally belong to it . now seeing there are two chief kinds of terrestrial liquors , those that are fat , oily , and light ; and those that are lean and more earthy , like common water ; which two are generally found in compound liquors ; we cannot doubt but there were of both sorts in this common mass of liquids . and it being well known , that these two kinds mixt together , if left to themselves and the general action of nature , separate one from another when they come to settle , as in cream and thin milk , oil and water , and such like ; we cannot but conclude , that the same effect would follow here , and the more oily and light part of this mass would get above the other , and swim upon it . the whole mass being divided into two lesser masses , and so the globe would stand as we see it in this third figure . pag : . fig : . hitherto the changes of the chaos are easie and unquestionable , and would be dispatcht in a short time ; we must now look over again these two great masses of the air and water , and consider how their impurities or grosser parts would be dispos'd of ; for we cannot imagine but they were both at first very muddy and impure : and as the water would have its sediment , which we are not here concern'd to look after , so the great regions of the air would certainly have their sediment too ; for the air was as yet thick , gross , and dark ; there being an abundance of little terrestrial particles swimming in it still , after the grossest were sunk down ; which , by their heaviness and lumpish figure , made their way more easily and speedily . the lesser and lighter which remain'd , would sink too , but more slowly , and in a longer time : so as in their descent they would meet with that oily liquor upon the face of the deep , or upon the watery mass , which would entangle and stop them from passing any further ; whereupon mixing there with that unctious substance , they compos'd a certain slime , or fat , soft , and light earth , spread upon the face of the waters ; as 't is represented in this fourth figure . pag. . fig : . this thin and tender orb of earth increas'd still more and more , as the little earthy parts that were detain'd in the air could make their way to it . some having a long journey from the upper regions , and others being very light would float up and down a good while , before they could wholly disengage themselves and descend . but this was the general rendezvous , which sooner or later they all got to , and mingling more and more with that oily liquor , they suckt it all up at length , and were wholly incorporate together , and so began to grow more stiff and firm , making both but one substance , which was the first concretion , or firm and consistent substance that rise upon the face of the chaos . and the whole globe stood in this posture , as in figure the fifth . pag . fig. . it may be , you will say , we take our liberty , and our own time for the separation of these two liquors , the oily and the earthy , the lighter and the heavier ; and suppose that done before the air was clear'd of earthy particles , that so they might be catcht and stopt there in their descent . whereas if all these particles were fallen out of the air before that separation was made in the liquid mass , they would fall down through the water , as the first did , and so no concretion would be made , nor any earthy crust form'd upon the face of the waters , as we here suppose there was . 't is true , there could be no such orb of earth form'd there , if the air was wholly purg'd of all its earthy parts before the mass of liquids began to purifie it self , and to separate the oily parts from the more heavy : but this is an unreasonable and incredible supposition , if we consider , the mass of the air was many thousand times greater than the water , and would in proportion require a greater time to be purified ; the particles that were in the regions of the air having a long way to come before they reacht the watery mass , and far longer than the oily particles had to rise from any part of that mass to the surface of it . besides we may suppose a great many degrees of littleness and lightness in these earthy particles , so as many of them might float in the air a good while , like exhalations , before they fell down . and lastly , we do not suppose the separation of these two liquors wholly made and finisht before the purgation of the air began , though we represent them so for distinction sake ; let them begin to purifie at the same time , if you please , these parts rising upwards , and those falling downwards , they will meet in the middle , and unite and grow into one body , as we have describ'd . and this body or new concretion would be increas'd daily , being sed and supply'd both from above and below ; and having done growing , it would become more dry by degrees , and of a temper of greater consistency and firmness , so as truly to resemble and be fit to make an habitable earth , such as nature intended it for . but you will further object , it may be , that such an effect as this would indeed be necessary in some degree and proportion , but not in such a proportion , and in such quantity as would be sufficient to make this crust or concrete orb an habitable earth . this i confess appear'd to me at first a real difficulty , till i consider'd better the great disproportion there is betwixt the regions of the air and the circumference of the earth , or of that exteriour orb of the earth , we are now a making ; which being many thousand times less in depth and extent than the regions of the air , taken as high as the moon , though these earthy particles , we speak of , were very thinly dispers'd through those vast tracts of the air , when they came to be collected and amass'd together upon the surface of a far lesser sphere , they would constitute a body of a very considerable thickness and solidity . we see the earth sometimes covered with snow two or three feet deep , made up only of little flakes or pieces of ice , which falling from the middle region of the air , and meeting with the earth in their descent ; are there stopt and heapt up one upon another . but if we should suppose little particles of earth to shower down , not only from the middle region , but from the whole capacity and extent of those vast spaces that are betwixt us and the moon , we could not imagine but these would constitute an orb of earth some thousands of times deeper than the greatest snow ; which being increas'd and swoln by that oily liquor it fell into , and incorporated with , it would be thick , strong , and great enough in all respects to render it an habitable earth . we cannot doubt therefore but such a body as this would be form'd , and would be sufficient in quantity for an habitable earth . then for the quality of it , it will answer all the purposes of a rising world. what can be a more proper seminary for plants and animals , than a soil of this temper and composition ? a finer and lighter sort of earth , mixt with a benign juice , easie and obedient to the action of the sun , or of what other causes were employ'd by the author of nature , for the production of things in the new-made earth . what sort or disposition of matter could be more fit and ready to catch life from heaven , and to be drawn into all forms that the rudiments of life , or the bodies of living creatures would require ? what soil more proper for vegetation than this warm moisture , which could have no fault , unless it was too fertile and luxuriant ? and that is no fault neither at the beginning of a world. this i am sure of , that the learned amongst the ancients , both greeks , egyptians , phoenicians , and others , have describ'd the primigenial soil , or the temper of the earth , that was the first subject for the generation and origin of plants and animals after such a manner , as is truly express'd , and i think with advantage , by this draught of the primigenial earth . thus much concerning the matter of the first earth . let us reflect a little upon the form of it also , whether external or internal ; both whereof do manifestly shew themselves from the manner of its production or formation . as to the external form , you see it is according to the proposition we were to prove , smooth , regular and uniform , without mountains , and without a sea. and the proof we have given of it is very easie ; the globe of the earth could not possibly rise immediately from a chaos into the irregular form in which it is at present . the chaos being a fluid mass , which we know doth necessarily fall into a spherical surface , whose parts are equi-distant from the center , and consequently in an equal and even convexity one with another . and seeing upon the distinction of a chaos and separation into several elementary masses , the water would naturally have a superiour place to the earth , 't is manifest , that there could be no habitable earth form'd out of the chaos , unless by some concretion upon the face of the water . then lastly , seeing this concrete orb of earth upon the face of the water would be of the same form with the surface of the water it was spread upon , there being no causes , that we know of , to make any inequality in it , we must conclude it equal and uniform , and without mountains , as also without a sea ; for the sea and all the mass of waters was enclos'd within this exteriour earth , which had no other basis or foundation to rest upon . the contemplation of these things , and of this posture of the earth upon the waters , doth so strongly bring to mind certain passages of scripture , ( which will recur in another place ) that we cannot , without injury to truth pass them by here in silence . passages that have such a manifest resemblance and agreement to this form and situation of the earth , that they seem visibly to point at it : such are those expressions of the psalmist , god hath founded the earth upon the seas . and in another psalm , speaking of the wisdom and power of god in the creation , he saith , to him who alone doth great wonders ; to him that by wisdom made the heavens ; to him that extended or stretched out the earth above the waters . what can be more plain or proper to denote that form of the earth that we have describ'd , and to express particularly the inclosure of the waters within the earth , as we have represented them ? he saith in another place ; by the word of the lord were the heavens made ; he shut up the waters of the sea as in bags , ( for so the word is to be render'd , and is render'd by all , except the english ) and laid up the abysse as in store-houses . this , you see , is very conformable to that system of the earth and sea , which we have propos'd here . yet there is something more express than all this in that remarkable place in the proverbs of solomon , where wisdom declaring her antiquity and existence before the foundation of the earth , amongst other things , saith ; when he prepared the heavens , i was there : when he drew an orb over the surface of the abysse ; or when he set an orb upon the face of the abysse . we render it in the english a compass , or circle , but 't is more truly rendred an orb or sphere ; and what orb or spherical body was this , which at the formation of the earth was built and plac'd round about the abyss ; but that wonderful arch , whose form and production we have describ'd , encompassing the mass of waters , which in scripture is often call'd the abysse or deep ? lastly , this scheme of the first earth gives light to that place we mention'd before of s. peter's , where the first earth is said to consist of water and by water : and by reason thereof was obnoxious to a deluge . the first part of this character is plain from the description now given : and the second will appear in the following chapter . in the mean time , concerning these passages of scripture , which we have cited , we may truly and modestly say , that though they would not , it may be , without a theory premis'd , have been taken or interpreted in this sence , yet this theory being premis'd , i dare appeal to any unprejudic'd person , if they have not a fairer and easier , a more full and more emphatical sence , when apply'd to that form of the earth and sea , we are now speaking of , than to their present form , or to any other we can imagine . thus much concerning the external form of the first earth . let us now reflect a little upon the internal form of it , which consists of several regions , involving one another like orbs about the same center , or of the several elements cast circularly about each other ; as it appears in the fourth and fifth figure . and as we have noted the external form of this primae●al earth , to have been markt and celebrated in the sacred writings ; so likewise in the philosophy and learning of the ancients , there are several remains and indications of this internal form and composition of it . for 't is observable , that the ancients in treating of the chaos , and in raising the world out of it , rang'd it into several regions or masses , as we have done ; and in that order successively , rising one from another , as if it was a pedigree or genealogy . and those parts and regions of nature , into which the chaos was by degrees divided , they signified commonly by dark and obscure names , as the night , tartarus , oceanus , and such like , which we have express'd in their plain and proper terms . and whereas the chaos , when it was first set on work , ran all into divisions , and separations of one element from another , which afterwards were all in some measure united and associated in this primigenial earth ; the ancients accordingly made contention the principle that reign'd in the chaos at first , and then love : the one to express the divisions , and the other the union of all parties in this middle and common bond . these , and such like notions which we find in the writings of the ancients figuratively and darkly deliver'd , receive a clearer light , when compar'd with this theory of the chaos ; which representing every thing plainly , and in its natural colours , is a key to their thoughts , and an illustration of their obscurer philosophy , concerning the original of the world ; as we have shewn at large in the latin treatise . fig : . pag. . thus much concerning the first earth , its production and form ; and concerning our second proposition relating to it : which being prov'd by reason , the laws of nature , and the motions of the chaos ; then attested by antiquity , both as to the matter and form of it ; and confirm'd by sacred writers , we may take it now for a well establisht truth , and proceed upon this supposition , that the ante-diluvian earth was smooth and uniform , without mountains or sea , to the explication of the universal deluge . give me leave only before we proceed any further , to annex here a short advertisement , concerning the causes of this wonderful structure of the first earth . 't is true , we have propos'd the natural causes of it , and i do not know wherein our explication is false or defective ; but in things of this kind we may easily be too credulous . and this structure is so marvellous , that it ought rather to be consider'd as a particular effect of the divine art , than as the work of nature . the whole globe of the water vaulted over , and the exteriour earth hanging above the deep , sustain'd by nothing but its own measures and manner of construction : a building without foundation or corner-stone . this seems to be a piece of divine geometry or architecture ; and to this , i think , is to be refer'd that magnificent challenge which god almighty made to iob ; where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding ; who hath laid the measures thereof , if thou knowest ; or who hath stretched the line upon it ? whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned , or who laid the corner-stone thereof ? when the morning stars sang together , and all the sons of god shouted for joy . moses also when he had describ'd the chaos , saith , the spirit of god mov'd upon , or sat brooding upon , the face of the waters ; without all doubt to produce some effects there . and s. peter , when he speaks of the form of the ante-diluvian earth , how it stood in reference to the waters , adds , by the word of god , or by the wisdom of god it was made so . and this same wisdom of god , in the proverbs , as we observed before , takes notice of this very piece of work in the formation of the earth . when he set an orb over the face of the deep i was there . and lastly , the ancient philosophers , or at least the best of them , to give them their due , always brought in mens or amor , as a supernatural principle to unite and consociate the parts of the chaos ; which was first done in the composition of this wonderful arch of the earth . wherefore to the great architect , who made the boundless universe out of nothing , and form'd the earth out of a chaos , let the praise of the whole work , and particularly of this master-piece , for ever with all honour be given . chap. vi. the dissolution of the first earth : the deluge ensuing thereupon . and the form of the present earth rising from the ruines of the first . we have now brought to light the ante-diluvian earth out of the dark mass of the chaos ; and not only described the surface of it , but laid open the inward parts , to shew in what order its regions lay . let us now close it up , and represent the earth entire , and in large proportions , more like an habitable world ; as in this figure , where you see the smooth convex of the earth , and may imagine the great abysse spread under it * ; which two are to be the only subject of our further contemplation . booke j st . p. . in this smooth earth were the first scenes of the world , and the first generations of mankind ; it had the beauty of youth and blooming nature , fresh and fruitful , and not a wrinkle , scar or fracture in all its body ; no rocks nor mountains , no hollow caves , nor gaping chanels , but even and uniform all over . and the smoothness of the earth made the face of the heavens so too ; the air was calm and serene ; none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours , which the mountains and the winds cause in ours : 't was suited to a golden age , and to the first innocency of nature . all this you 'll say is well , we are got into a pleasant world indeed , but what 's this to the purpose ? what appearance of a deluge here , where there is not so much as a sea , nor half so much water as we have in this earth ? or what appearance of mountains ; or caverns , or other irregularities of the earth , where all is level and united : so that instead of loosing the knot , this ties it the harder . you pretend to shew us how the deluge was made , and you lock up all the waters within the womb of the earth , and set bars and doors , and a wall of impenetrable strength and thickness to keep them there . and you pretend to shew us the original of rocks and mountains , and caverns of the earth , and bring us to a wide and endless plain , smooth as the calm sea. this is all true , and yet we are not so far from the sight and discovery of those things as you imagine ; draw but the curtain and these scenes will appear , or something very like them . we must remember that s. peter told us , that the ante-diluvian earth perish'd , or was demolish'd ; and moses saith , the great abysse was broken open at the deluge . let us then suppose , that at a time appointed by divine providence , and from causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful world , that this abysse was open'd , or that the frame of the earth broke and fell down into the great abysse . at this one stroke all nature would be chang'd ; and this single action would have two great and visible effects . the one transient , and the other permanent . first an universal deluge would overflow all the parts and regions of the broken earth ; during the great commotion and agitation of the abysse , by the violent fall of the earth into it . this would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution , and all that world would be destroyed . then when the agitation of the abysse was asswag'd , and the waters by degrees were retir'd into their chanels , and the dry land appear'd , you would see the true image of the present earth in the ruines of the first . the surface of the globe would be divided into land and sea ; the land would consist of plains and valleys and mountains , according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd : upon the banks of the sea would stand the rocks , and near the shoar would be islands , or lesse fragments of earth compass'd round by water . then as to subterraneous waters , and all subterraneous caverns and hollownesses , upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise ; for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this , as in all other ruines : and seeing the earth fell into this abysse , the waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities ; and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid earth . and though these subterraneous vaults or holes , whether dry or full of water , would be more or less in all places , where the parts fell hollow ; yet they would be found especially about the roots of the mountains , and the higher parts of the earth ; for there the sides bearing up one against the other , they could not lie so close at the bottoms , but many vacuities would be intercepted . nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the earth ; whether in the surface of it , or interiour construction , whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready , fair , and intelligible account ; and doth at one view represent them all to us , with their causes , as in a glass : and whether that glass be true , and the image answer to the original , if you doubt of it , we will hereafter examine them piece by piece . but in the first place , we must consider the general deluge , how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it , and answers all the properties and conditions of it . i think it will be easily allow'd , that such a dissolution of the earth as we have propos'd , and fall of it into the abysse , would certainly make an universal deluge ; and effectually destroy the old world , which perish'd in it . but we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution , and in what manner the deluge follow'd upon it : and to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings , and upon our belief , as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances ; and therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in nature for this great dissolution , and after what manner it came to pass , and the deluge in consequence of it . we have noted before , that moses imputed the deluge to the disruption of the abyss ; and s. peter , to the particular constitution of that earth , which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in water , so , that our explication so far is justifi'd . but it was below the dignity of those sacred pen-men , or the spirit of god that directed them , to shew us the causes of this disruption , or of this absorption ; this is left to the enquiries of men . for it was never the design of providence , to give such particular explications of natural things , as should make us idle , or the use of reason unnecessary ; but on the contrary , by delivering great conclusions to us , to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods , by which such things were brought to pass : and it may be there is no greater trial or instance of natural wisdom , than to find out the chanel , in which these great revolutions of nature , which we treat on , flow and succeed one another . let us therefore resume that system of the ante-diluvian earth , which we have deduc'd from the chaos , and which we find to answer s. peter's description , and moses his account of the deluge . this earth could not be obnoxious to a deluge , as the apostle supposeth it to have been , but by a dissolution ; for the abysse was enclos'd within its bowels . and moses doth in effect tell us , there was such a dissolution ; when he saith , the fountains of the great abysse were borken open . for fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them ? we must therefore here inquire in what order , and from what causes the frame of this exteriour earth was dissolv'd , and then we shall soon see how , upon that dissolution , the deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it . i do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand , how many years , or how many ages ; but one would soon imagine , that this kind of structure would not be perpetual , nor last indeed many thousands of years , if one consider the effect that the heat of the sun would have upon it and the waters under it ; drying and parching the one , and raresying the other into vapours . for we must consider , that the course of the sun at that time , or the posture of the earth to the sun , was such , that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the year , as there is now ; by reason of which alternation , our earth is kept in an equality of temper , the contrary seasons balancing one another ; so as what moisture the heat of the summer sucks out of the earth , 't is repaid in the rains of the next winter ; and what chaps were made in it , are fill'd up again , and the earth reduc'd to its former constitution . but if we should imagine a continual summer , the earth would proceed in driness still more and more , and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it ; and such a continual summer there was , at least an equality of seasons in the ante-diluvian earth , as shall be prov'd in the follwing book , concerning paradise . in the mean time this being suppos'd , let us consider what effect it would have upon this arch of the exteriour earth , and the waters under it . we cannot believe , but that the heat of the sun , within the space of some hundreds of years , would have reduc'd this earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts ; and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the waters beneath it : and considering the structure of that globe , the exteriour crust , and the waters lying round under it , both expos'd to the sun , we may fitly compare it to an aeolipile , or an hollow sphere with water in it , which the heat of the fire rarefies and turns into vapours and wind. the sun here is as the fire , and the exteriour earth is as the shell of the aeolipile , and the abysse as the water within it ; now when the heat of the sun had pierced through the shell and reach'd the waters , it began to rarefie them , and raise them into vapours ; which rarefaction made them require more space and room than they needed before , while they lay close and quiet . and finding themselves pen'd in by the exteriour earth , they press'd with violence against that arch , to make it yield and give way to their dilatation and eruption . so we see all vapours and exhalations enclos'd within the earth , and agitated there , strive to break out , and often shake the ground with their attempts to get loose . and in the comparison we us'd of an aeolipile , if the mouth of it be stopt that gives the vent , the water raresi'd will burst the vessel with its force . and the resemblance of the earth to an egg , which we us'd before , holds also in this respect ; for when it heats before the fire , the moisture and air within being rarefi'd , makes it often burst the shell . and i do the more willingly mention this last comparison , because i observe that some of the ancients , when they speak of the doctrine of the mundane egg , say , that after a certain period of time it was broken . but there is yet another thing to be consider'd in this case ; for as the heat of the sun gave force to these vapours more and more , and made them more strong and violent ; so on the other hand , it also weaken'd more and more the arch of the earth , that was to resist them ; sucking out the moisture that was the cement of its parts , drying it immoderately , and chapping it in sundry places . and there being no winter then to close up and unite its parts , and restore the earth to its former strength and compactness , it grew more and more dispos'd to a dissolution . and at length , these preparations in nature being made on either side , the force of the vapours increas'd , and the walls weaken'd , which should have kept them in , when the appointed time was come , that all-wise providence had design'd for the punishment of a sinful world , the whole fabrick brake , and the frame of the earth was torn in pieces , as by an earthquake ; and those great portions or fragments , into which it was divided , fell down into the abysse , some in one posture , and some in another . this is a short and general account how we may conceive the dissolution of the first earth , and an universal deluge arising upon it . and this manner of dissolution hath so many examples in nature every age , that we need not insist farther upon the explication of it . the generality of earthquakes arise from like causes , and often end in a like effect , a partial deluge , or inundation of the place or country where they happen ; and of these we have seen some instances even in our own times : but whensoever it so happens that the vapours and exhalations shut up in the caverns of the earth , by rarefaction or compression come to be straitned , they strive every way to set themselves at liberty , and often break their prison , or the cover of the earth that kept them in ; which earth upon that disruption falls into the subterraneous caverns that lie under it : and if it so happens that those caverns are full of water , as generally they are , if they be great or deep , that city or tract of land is drown'd . and also the fall of such a mass of earth , with its weight and bulk , doth often force out the water so impetuously , as to throw it upon all the country round about . there are innumerable examples in history ( whereof we shall mention some hereafter ) of cities and countires thus swallow'd up , or overflow'd , by an earthquake , and an inundation arising upon it . and according to the manner of their fall or ruine , they either remain'd wholly under water , and perpetually drown'd , as sodom and plato's atlantis , bura and helice , and other cities and regions in greece and asia ; or they partly emerg'd , and became dry land again ; when ( their situation being pretty high ) the waters , after their violent agitation was abated , retir'd into the lower places , and into their chanels . now if we compare these partial dissolutions of the earth with an universal dissolution , we may as easily conceive an universal deluge from an universal dissolution , as a partial deluge from a partial . if we can conceive a city , a country , an island , a continent thus absorpt and overflown ; if we do but enlarge our thought and imagination a little , we may conceive it as well of the whole earth . and it seems strange to me , that none of the ancients should hit upon this way of explaining the universal deluge ; there being such frequent instances in all ages and countries of inundations made in this manner , and never of any great inundation made otherwise , unless in maritime countries , by the irruption of the sea into grounds that lie low . 't is true , they would not so easily imagine this dissolution , because they did not understand the true from of the ante-diluvian earth ; but , methinks , the examination of the deluge should have led them to the discovery of that : for observing the difficulty , or impossibility of an universal deluge , without the dissolution of the earth ; as also frequent instances of these dissolutions accompany'd with deluges , where the ground was hollow , and had subterraneous waters ; this , methinks , should have prompted them to imagine , that those subterraneous waters were universal at that time , or extended quite round the earth ; so as a dissolution of the exteriour earth could not be made any where but it would fall into waters , and be more or less overflow'd . and when they had once reacht this thought , they might conclude both what the form of the ante-diluvian earth was , and that the deluge came to pass by the dissolution of it . but we reason with ease about the finding out of things , when they are once found out ; and there is but a thin paper-wall sometimes between the great discoveries and a perfect ignorance of them . let us proceed now to consider , whether this supposition will answer all the conditions of an universal deluge , and supply all the defects which we found in other explications . the great difficulty propos'd , was to find water sufficient to make an universal deluge , reaching to the tops of the mountains ; and yet that this water should be transient , and after some time should so return into its chanels , that the dry land would appear , and the earth become again habitable . there was that double impossibility in the common opinion , that the quantity of water necessary for such a deluge was no where to be found , or could no way be brought upon the earth ; and then if it was brought , could no way be remov'd again . our explication quite takes off the edge of this objection ; for , performing the same effect with a far less quantity of water , 't is both easie to be found , and easily remov'd when the work is done . when the exteriour earth was broke , and fell into the abysse , a good part of it was cover'd with water by the meer depth of the abysse it fell into , and those parts of it that were higher than the abysse was deep , and consequently would stand above it in a calm water , were notwithstanding reacht and overtop'd by the waves , during the agitation and violent commotion of the abysse . for it is not imaginable what the commotion of the abysse would be upon this dissolution of the earth , nor to what height its waves would be thrown , when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it . suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the air a mile or two , and then let fall into the middle of the ocean , i do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression , would rise as high as a mountain . but suppose a mighty rock or heap of rocks to fall from that height , or a great island , or a continent ; these would expel the waters out of their places , with such a force and violence , as to fling them among the highest clouds . 't is incredible to what height sometimes great stones and cinders will be thrown , at the eruptions of fiery mountains ; and the pressure of a great mass of earth falling into the abysse , though it be a force of another kind , could not but impel the water with so much strength , as would carry it up to a great height in the air : and to the top of any thing that lay in its way , any eminency , high fragment , or new mountain : and then rowling back again , it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon , woods , building , living creatures , and carry them all headlong into the great gulph . sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest , and tost through the air like a flying river ; but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills , or inclin'd fragments ; and then return into the valleys and deeps again , with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming , ascending and descending , till the violence of them being spent by degrees , they setled at last in the places allotted for them ; where bounds are set that they cannot pass over , that they return not again to cover the earth . neither is it to be wonder'd , that the great tumult of the waters , and the extremity of the deluge lasted for some months ; for besides , that the first shock and commotion of the abysse was extremely violent , from the general fall of the earth , there were ever and anon some secondary ruines ; or some parts of the great ruine , that were not well setled , broke again , and made new commotions : and 't was a considerable time before the great fragments that fell , and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted , as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture : for the props and stays whereby they lean'd one upon another , or upon the bottom of the abysse , often fail'd , either by the incumbent weight , or the violent impulses of the water against them ; and so renew'd , or continu'd the disorder and confusion of the abysse . besides , we are to observe , that these great fragments falling hollow , they inclos'd and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of air ; and while the water compass'd these fragments , and overflow'd them , the air could not readily get out of those prisons , but by degrees , as the earth and water above would give way ; so as this would also hinder the settlement of the abysse , and the retiring of the water into those subterraneous chanels , for some time . but at length , when this air had found a vent , and left its place to the water , and the ruines , both primary and secondary , were setled and fix'd , then the waters of the abysse began to settle too , and the dry land to appear ; first the tops of the mountains , then the high grounds , then the plains and the rest of the earth . and this gradual subsidency of the abysse ( which moses also hath particularly noted ) and discovery of the several parts of the earth , would also take up a considerable time . thus a new world appear'd , or the earth put on its new form , and became divided into sea , and land ; and the abysse , which from several ages , even from the beginning of the world , had lain hid in the womb of the earth , was brought to light and discover'd ; the greatest part of it constituting our present ocean , and the rest filling the lower cavities of the earth : upon the land appear'd the mountains and the hills , and the islands in the sea , and the rocks upon the shore . and so the divine providence , having prepar'd nature for so great a change , at one stroke dissolv'd the frame of the old world , and made us a new one out of its ruines , which we now inhabit since the deluge . all which things being thus explain'd , deduc'd , and stated , we now add and pronounce our third and last proposition ; that the disruption of the abysse , or dissolution of the primaeval earth and its fall into the abysse , was the cause of the universal deluge , and of the destruction of the old world. chap. vii . that the explication we have given of an vniversal deluge is not an idea only , but an account of what really came to pass in this earth , and the true explication of noah's flood ; as is prov'd by argument and from history . an examination of tehom-rabba , or the great abysse , and that by it the sea cannot be understood , nor the subterraneous waters , as they are at present . what the true notion and form of it was , collected from moses and other sacred writers ; the frequent allusions in scripture to the opening and shutting the abysse , and the particular stile of scripture in its reflections on the origin , and the formation of the earth . observations on deucalion's deluge . we have now given an account of the first great revolution of nature , and of the universal deluge , in a way that is intelligible , and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect ; we have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd , both as to the first form of the earth , and as to the manner of its dissolution : and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general deluge ; which was that , which put a period to the old world , and the first state of things . and though all this hath been deduc'd in due order , and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another , so far as i know , which is the true evidence of a theory ; yet it may not be sufficient to command the assent and belief of some persons , who will allow , it may be , and acknowledge , that this is a fair idea of a possible deluge in general , and of the destruction of a world by it ; but this may be only an idea , they 'll say ; we desire it may be prov'd from some collateral arguments , taken either from sacred history , or from observation , that this hath really been exemplified upon the earth , and that noah's flood came to pass this way . and seeing we have design'd this first book chiefly for the explication of noah's deluge , i am willing to add here a chapter or two extraordinary upon this occasion ; to shew , that what we have deliver'd is more than an idea , and that it was in this very way that noah's deluge came to pass . but they who have not this doubt , and have a mind to see the issue of the theory , may skip these two chapters , if they please , and proceed to the following , where the order is continued . to satisfie then the doubtful in this particular , let us lay down in the first place that conclusion which they seem to admit , viz. that this is a possible and consistent explication of an universal deluge ; and let 's see how far this would go , if well consider'd , towards the proof of what they desire , or towards the demonstration of noah's deluge in particular . it is granted on both hands , that here hath been an universal deluge upon the earth , which was noah's deluge ; and it is also granted , that we have given a possible and consistent idea of an universal deluge ; now we have prov'd chap. ii. and iii. that all other ways hitherto assign'd for the explication of noah's flood are incongrous or impossible ; therefore it came to pass in that possible and competent way which we have propos'd . and if we have truly prov'd , in the foremention'd chapters , the impossibility or unintelligibility of it in all other ways , this argumentation is undeniable . besides , we may argue thus , as it is granted that there hath been an universal deluge upon the earth ; so i suppose it will be granted that there hath been but one : now the dissolution of the earth , whensoever it happen'd , would make one universal deluge , and therefore the only one , and the same with noah's . that such a dissolution as we have describ'd , would make an universal deluge , i think , cannot be question'd ; and that there hath been such a dissolution , besides what we have already alledg'd , shall be prov'd at large from natural observations upon the form and figure of the present earth , in the third section and last chap. of this book ; in the mean time we will proceed to history , both sacred and profane , and by comparing our explication with those , give further assurance of its truth and reality . in the first place , it agrees , which is most considerable , with moses's narration of the deluge ; both as to the matter and manner of it . the matter of the deluge moses makes to be the waters from above , and the waters from below ; or he distinguishes the causes of the deluge , as we do , into superiour and inferiour ; and the inferiour causes he makes to be the disruption of the abyss , which is the principal part , and the great hinge of our explication . then as to the manner of the deluge , the beginning and the ending , the increase and decrease , he saith it increas'd gradually , and decreas'd gradually , by going and coming ; that is after many repeated fluctuations and reciprocations of the waves , the waters of the abysse began to be more compos'd , and to retire into their chanels , whence they shall never return to cover the earth again . this agrees wholly with our theory ; we suppose the abysse to have been under an extream commotion and agitation by the fall of the earth into it , and this at first encreas'd more and more , till the whole earth was faln ; then continuing for some time at the height of its rage , overwhelming the greatest mountains , it afterwards decreas'd by the like degrees , leaving first the tops of the mountains , then the hills and the fields , till the waters came to be wholly drawn off the earth into their chanels . it was no doubt a great oversight in the ancients , to fansie the deluge like a great standing pool of water , reaching from the bottom of the valleys to the tops of the mountains , every where alike , with a level and uniform surface ; by reason of which mistaken notion of the deluge , they made more water necessary to it than was possible to be had , or being had , than it was possible to get quit of again ; for there are no chanels in the earth that could hold so much water , either to give it , or to receive it . and the psalmist speaking of the deluge , as it seems to me , notes this violent commotion of the abysse . the waters went up by the mountains , came down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them . i know some interpret that passage of the state of the waters in the beginning , when they cover'd the face of the whole earth , gen. . . but that cannot be , because of what follows in the next verse ; thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over ; that they turn not again to cover the earth . which is not true , if the preceding words be understood of the state of the waters at the beginning of the world ; for they did pass those bounds , and did return since that time to cover the earth , namely at the deluge : but if these words be refer'd to the time of the deluge , and the state of the waters then , 't is both a just description of the motion of the abysse , and certainly true , that the waters since that time are so setled in their chanels , that they shall never overflow the earth again . as we are assured by the promise made to noah , and that illustrious pledge and confirmation of it , the rainbow , that the heavens also shall never pour out so much waters again ; their state being chang'd as well as that of the earth , or sea , from what they were before the deluge . but before we leave moses's narration of the deluge , we must examine further , what is , or can be understood by his tehomrabba , or great abysse , which he saith was broken up at the deluge ; for this will help us to discover , whether our explication be the same with his , and of the same flood . and first we must consider , whether by the tehom-rabba , or mosaical abysse , can be understood the sea or ocean , under that form we see it in at present ; and 't is plain , methinks , that the sea cannot be understood by this great abysse , both because the sea is not capable upon any disruption to make such an universal deluge ; and because the narration of moses , and his expressions concerning this abysse , do not agree to the sea. some of the ancients indeed did imagine , that the waters of the sea were much higher than the land , and stood , as it were , on an heap ; so as when these waters were let loose , they overflow'd the earth , and made a deluge . but this is known to be a gross mistake ; the sea and the land make one globe , and the waters couch themselves , as close as may be , to the center of this globe in a spherical convexity ; so that if all the mountains and hills were scal'd , and the earth made even , the waters would not overflow its smooth surface ; much less could they overflow it in the form that it is now in , where the shores are higher than the sea , the inland parts than the shores , and the mountains still far above all : so as no disruption of the sea could make an universal deluge , by reason of its situation . but besides that , the quantity of water contain'd in the sea is no way sufficient to make a deluge in the present form of the earth ; for we have shewn before , chap. . that eight such oceans as ours would be little enough for that purpose . then as to the expressions of moses concerning this abysse , if he had meant the sea by it , and that the deluge was made by the disruption of the sea , why did he not say so ? there is no mention of the sea in all the history of the deluge : moses had mention'd the sea before , gen. . . and us'd a word that was common and known to signifie the sea ; and if he had a mind to express the same thing here , why should he not use the same word and the same term ? in an historical relation we use terms that are most proper and best known ; but instead of that he useth the same term here that he did , gen. . . when he saith , darkness was upon the face of the abysse , or of the deep , as we render it ; there the abysse was open , or cover'd with darkness only , namely before the exterior earth was form'd ; here the same abysse is mention'd again , but cover'd , by the formation of the earth upon it ; and the covering of this abysse was broken or cloven asunder , and the waters gusht out that made the deluge . this i am sure is the most natural interpretation or signification of this word , according as it is us'd in moses's writings . furthermore , we must observe what moses saith concerning this abysse , and whether that will agree with the sea or no ; he saith the fountains of the great abysse were broken open ; now if by the great abysse you understand the sea , how are its fountains broken open ? to break open a fountain , is to break open the ground that covers it , and what ground covers the sea ? so that upon all considerations , either of the word that moses here useth , tehom-rabba , or of the thing affirmed concerning it , breaking open its fountains ; or of the effect following the breaking open its fountains , drowning of the earth ; from all these heads it is manifest , that the sea cannot be understood by the great abysse , whose disruption was the cause of the deluge . and as the mosaical abysse cannot be the sea , so neither can it be those subterraneous waters that are disperst in the cells and caverns of the earth ; for as they are now lodg'd within the earth , they are not one abysse , but several cisterns and receptacles of water , in several places , especially under the roots of mountains and hills ; separate one from another , sometimes by whole regions and countries interpos'd . besides what fountains , if they were broken up , could let out this water , or bring it upon the face of the earth ? when we sink a mine , or dig a well , the waters , when uncover'd , do not leap out of their places , out of those cavities , or at least , do not flow upon the earth ; 't is not as if you open●d a vein , where the bloud spirts out , and riseth higher than its source ; but as when you take off the cover of a vessel , the water doth not fly out for that : so if we should imagine all the subterraneous caverns of the earth uncover'd , and the waters laid bare , there they would lie unmov'd in their beds , if the earth did not fall into them to force them up . furthermore , if these waters were any way extracted and laid upon the surface of the ground , nothing would be gain'd as to the deluge by that , for as much water would run into these holes again when the deluge begun to rise ; so that this would be but an useless labour , and turn to no account . and lastly , these waters are no way sufficient for quantity to answer to the mosaical abyss , or to be the principal cause of the deluge , as that was . now seeing neither the sea , as it is at present , nor the subterraneous waters , as they are at present , can answer to the mosaical abysse , we are sure there is nothing in this present earth that can answer to it . let us then on the other hand compare it with that subterraneous abyss , which we have found in the ante-diluvian earth , represented fig. . and examine their characters and correspondency : first , moses's abyss was cover'd , and subterraneous , for the fountains of it are said to have been cloven or burst open ; then it was vast and capacious ; and thirdly , it was so dispos'd , as to be capable of a disruption , that would cause an universal deluge to the earth . our ante-diluvian abyss answers truly to all these characters ; 't was in the womb of the earth ; the earth was founded upon those waters , as the psalmist saith ; or they were enclos'd within the earth as in a bag. then for the capacity of it , it contained both all the waters now in the ocean , and all those that are dispers'd in the caverns of the earth : and lastly , it is manifest its situation was such , that upon a disruption or dissolution of the earth which cover'd it , an universal deluge would arise . seeing then this answers the description , and all the properties of the mosaical abysse , and nothing else will , how can we in reason judge it otherwise than the same , and the very thing intended and propos'd in the history of noah's deluge under the name of tehom-rabba , or the great abyss , at whose disruption the world was over-flow'd . and as we do not think it an unhappy discovery to have found out ( with a moral certainty ) the feat of the mosaical abyss , which hath been almost as much sought for , and as much in vain , as the seat of paradise ; so this gives us a great assurance , that the theory we have given of a general deluge , is not a meer idea , but is to be appropriated to the deluge of noah , as a true explication of it . and to proceed now from moses to other divine writers ; that our description is a reality , both as to the ante-diluvian earth , and as to the deluge , we may further be convinc'd from s. peter's discourse concerning those two things . s. peter saith , that the constitution of the ante-diluvian earth was such , in reference to the waters , that by reason of that it was obnoxious to a deluge ; we say these waters were the great abysse it stood upon , by reason whereof that world was really expos'd to a deluge , and overwhelm'd in it upon the disruption of , this abyss , as moses witnesses . 't is true , s. peter doth not specifie what those waters were , nor mention either the sea , or the abyss ; but seeing moses tells us , that it was by the waters of the abyss that the earth was overwhelm'd , s. peter's waters must be understood of the same abyss , because he supposeth them the cause of the same deluge . and , i think , the apostle's discourse there cannot receive a better illustration , than from moses's history of the deluge . moses distinguishes the causes of the flood into those that belong to the heavens , and those that belong to the earth ; the rains and the abyss : s. peter also distinguisheth the causes of the deluge into the constitution of the heavens , in reference to its waters ; and the constitution of the earth , in reference to its waters ; and no doubt they both aim at the same causes , as they refer to the same effect ; only moses mentions the immediate causes , the rains and the waters of the abyss ; and s. peter mentions the more remote and fundamental causes , that constitution of the heavens , and that constitution of the earth , in reference to their respective waters , which made that world obnoxious to a deluge : and these two speaking of noah's deluge , and agreeing thus with one another , and both with us , or with the theory which we have given of a general deluge , we may safely conclude , that it is no imaginary idea , but a true account of that ancient flood , whereof moses hath left us the history . and seeing the right understanding of the mosaical abysse is sufficient alone to prove all we have deliver'd concerning the deluge , as also concerning the frame of the ante-diluvian earth , give me leave to take notice here of some other places of scripture , which we mention'd before , that seem manifestly to describe this fame form of the abyss with the earth above it , psal. . . he founded the earth upon the seas , and establish'd it upon the floods ; and psal. . . he stretched out the earth above the waters . now this foundation of the earth upon the waters , or extension of it above the waters , doth most aptly agree to that structure and situation of the abyss and the ante-diluvian earth , which we have assign'd them , and which we have before describ'd ; but very improperly and forc'dly to the present form of the earth and the waters . in that second place of the psalmist , the word may be render'd either , he stretch'd , as we read it , or he fixt and consolidated the earth above the waters , as the vulgate and septuagint translate it : for 't is from the same word with that which is used for the firmament , gen. . so that as the firmament was extended over and around the earth , so was the earth extended over and about the waters , in that first constitution of things ; and i remember some of the ancients use this very comparison of the firmament and earth , to express the situation of the paradisiacal earth in reference to the sea or abysse . there is another remarkable place in the psalms , to shew the disposition of the waters in the first earth ; psal. . . he gathereth the waters of the sea as in a bag , he layeth up the abysses in store-houses . this answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the abysse which it had before the deluge , inclos'd within the vault of the earth , as in a bag or in a store house . i know very well what i render here in a bag , is render'd in the english , as an heap ; but that translation of the word seems to be grounded on the old error , that the sea is higher than the land , and so doth not make a true sence . neither are the two parts of the verse so well suited and consequent one to another , if the first express an high situation of the waters , and the second a low one . and accordingly , the vulgate , septuagint , and oriental versions and paraphrase , as also symmachus , st. ierome , and basil , render it as we do here , in a bag , or by terms equivalent . to these passages of the psalmist , concerning the form of the abysse and the first earth , give me leave to add this general remark , that they are commonly ushered in , or followed , with something of admiration in the prophet . we observ'd before , that the formation of the first earth , after such a wonderful manner , being a piece of divine architecture , when it was spoken of in scripture , it was usually ascrib'd to a particular providence , and accordingly we see in these places now mention'd , that it is still made the object of praise and admiration : in that psalm 't is reckon'd among the wonders of god , vers. , , , give praise to him who alone doth great wonders ; to him that by wisdom made the heavens : to him that stretched out the earth above the waters . and in like manner , in that psalm , 't is joyn'd with the forming of the heavens , and made the subject of the divine power and wisdom : vers. , , , . by the word of the lord were the heavens made , and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth ; he gathereth the waters of the sea together , as in a bag , he layeth up the abysse in store-houses . let all the earth fear the lord ; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him ; for he spake , and it was ; he commanded , and it stood fast . namely , all things stood in that wonderful posture in which the word of his power and wisdom had establisht them . david often made the works of nature , and the external world , the matter of his meditations , and of his praises and philosophical devotions ; reflecting sometimes upon the present form of the world , and sometimes upon the primitive form of it : and though poetical expressions , as the psalms are , seldom are so determinate and distinct , but that they may be interpreted more than one way , yet , i think , it cannot but be acknowledg'd that those expressions and passages that we have instanc'd in , are more fairly and aptly understood of the ancient form of the sea , or the abysse , as it was enclos'd within the earth , than of the present form of it in an open chanel . there are also in the book of iob many noble reflections upon the works of nature , and upon the formation of the earth and the abysse ; whereof that in chap. . . he stretcheth out the north over the empty places , and hangeth the earth upon nothing , seems to parallel the expression of david ; he stretched out the earth upon the waters ; for the word we render the empty place is tohu , which is appli'd to the chaos and the first abysse , gen. . . and the hanging the earth upon nothing is much more wonderful , if it be understood of the first habitable earth , that hung over the waters , sustain'd by nothing but its own peculiar form , and the libration of its parts , than if it be understood of the present earth , and the whole body of it ; for if it be in its center or proper place , whither should it sink further , or whither should it go ? but this passage , together with the foregoing and following verses , requires a more critical examination than this discourse will easily bear . there is another remarkable discourse in iob , that contains many things to our present purpose , 't is chap. . where god reproaches iob with his ignorance of what pass'd at the beginning of the world , and the formation of the earth , vers. , , . where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding : who hath laid the measures thereof , if thou knowest ; or who hath stretched the line upon it ? whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned , or who laid the corner-stone ? all these questions have far more force and emphasis , more propriety and elegacy , if they be understood of the first and ante-diluvian form of the earth , than if they be understood of the present ; for in the present form of the earth there is no architecture , no structure , no more than in a ruine ; or at least none comparatively to what was in the first form of it . and that the exterior and superficial part of the earth is here spoken of , appears by the rule and line appli'd to it ; but what rule or regularity is there in the surface of the present earth ? what line was us'd to level its parts ? but in its original construction when ●it lay smooth and regular in its surface , as if it had been drawn by rule and line in every part ; and when it hung pois'd upon the deep , without pillar or foundation stone , then just proportions were taken , and every thing plac'd by weight and measure : and this , i doubt not , was that artificial structure here alluded to , and when this work was finisht , then the morning stars sang together , and all the sons of god shouted for joy . thus far the questions proceed upon the form and construction of the first earth ; in the following verses ( , , , . ) they proceed upon the demolition of that earth , the opening the abysse , and the present state of both . or who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth , as if it had issu'd out of a womb ? who can doubt but this was at the breaking open of the fountains of the abysse , gen. . . when the waters gusht out , as out of the great womb of nature ; and by reason of that confusion and perturbation of air and water that rise upon it , a thick mist and darkness was round the earth , and all things as in a second chaos , when i made the cloud the garment thereof , and thick darkness a swadling band for it , and brake up for it my decreed place , and made bars and doors . namely , ( taking the words as thus usually render'd ) the present chanel of the sea was made when the abysse was broke up , and at the same time were made the shory rocks and mountains which are the bars and boundaries of the sea. and said hitherto shalt thou come , and no further , and here shall thy proud waves be stay'd . which last sentence shows , that this cannot be understood of the first disposition of the waters as they were before the flood , for their proud waves broke those bounds , whatsoever they were , when they overflow'd the earth in the deluge . and that the womb which they broke out of was the great abyss , the chaldee paraphrase in this place doth expresly mention ; and what can be understood by the womb of the farth , but that subterraneous capacity in which the abyss lay ? then that which followeth , is a description or representation of the great deluge that ensu'd , and of that disorder in nature , that was then , and how the waters were setled and bounded afterwards . not unlike the description in the psalm , vers . , , , . and thus much for these places in the book of iob. there remains a remarkable discourse in the proverbs of solomon , relating to the mosaical abysse , and not only to that , but to the origin of the earth in general ; where wisdom declares her antiquity and pre-existence to all the works of this earth , chap. . ver . . , , , , . i was set up from everlasting , from the beginning , ere the earth was . when there were no deeps or abysses , i was brought forth ; when no fountains abounding with water . then in the . verse , when he prepared the heavens , i was there ; when he set a compass upon the face of the deep or abysse . when he established the clouds above , when he strengthned the fountains of the abysse . here is mention made of the abysse , and of the fountains of the abysse , and who can question , but that the fountains of the abyss here , are the same with the fountains of the abyss which moses mentions , and were broken open , as he tells us , at the deluge ? let us observe therefore what form wisdom gives to this abyss , and consequently to the mosaical : and here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it , vers . . he strengthned the fountains of the abysse , that is , the cover of those fountains , for the fountains could be strengthned no other way than by making a strong cover or arch over them . and that arch is exprest more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse , when he prepar'd the heavens , i was there ; when he set a compass on the face of the abysse ; we render it compass , the word signifies a circle or circumference , or an orb or sphere . so there was in the beginning of the world a sphere orb or arch set round the abyss , according to the restimony of wisdom , who was then present . and this shews us both the form of the mosaical abyss , which was included within this vault : and the form of the habitable earth , which was the outward surface of this vault , or the cover of the abyss that was broke up at the deluge . and thus much , i think , is sufficient to have noted out of scripture , concerning the mosaical abyss , to discover the form , place and situation of it ; which i have done the more largely , because that being determin'd , it will draw in easily all the rest of our theory concerning the deluge . i will now only add one or two general observations , and so conclude this discourse ; the first observation is concerning the abyss ; namely , that the opening and shutting of the abysse , is the great hinge upon which nature turns in this earth : this brings another face of things , other scenes and a new world upon the stage : and accordingly it is a thing often mention'd and alluded to in scripture , sometimes in a natural , sometimes in a moral or theological sence ; and in both sences , our saviour shuts and opens it as he pleaseth . our saviour , who is both lord of nature and of grace , whose dominion is both in heaven and in earth , hath a double key ; that of the abyss , whereby death and hell are in his power , and all the revolutions of nature are under his conduct and providence ; and the key of david , whereby he admits or excludes from the city of god , and the kingdom of heaven whom he pleaseth . of those places that refer to the shutting and opening the abyss in a natural sence , i cannot but particularly take notice of that in iob , chap. . ver . , . god breaketh down , and it cannot be built again : he shutteth up man , and there can be no opening : behold , he withholdeth the waters , and they dry up ; also he sendeth them out , and they overturn the earth . though these things be true of god in lesser and common instances , yet to me it is plain , that they principally refer to the deluge , the opening and shutting the abyss , with the dissolu●ion or subversion of the earth thereupon ; and accordingly they are made the great effects of the divine power and wisdom in the foregoing verse , with god is wisdom and strength , he hath counsel and understanding ; behold , he breaketh down , &c. and also in the conclusion 't is repeated again , with him is strength and wisdom ; which solemnity would scarce have been us'd for common instances of his power . when god is said to build or pull down , and no body can build again , 't is not to be understood of an house or a town , god builds and unbuilds worlds ; and who shall build up that arch that was broke down at the deluge ? where shall they lay the foundation , or how shall the mountains be rear'd up again to make part of the roof ? this is the fabrick , which when god breaketh down , none can build up again . he withholdeth the waters and they dry up : as we shew'd the earth to have been immoderately chapt and parcht before its dissolution . he sendeth them forth and they overturn the earth . what can more properly express the breaking out of the waters at the disruption of the abyss ? and the subversion or dissolution of the earth in consequence of it ? 't is true this last passage may be applied to the breaking out of waters in an ordinary earthquake , and the subversion of some part of the earth , which often follows upon it ; but it must be acknowledg'd , that the sence is more weighty , if it be refer'd to the great deluge ; and the great earthquake which laid the world in ruines and in water . and philosophical descriptions in sacred writings , like prophecies , have often a lesser and a greater accomplishment and interpretation . i could not pass by this place without giving this short explication of it . we proceed now to the second observation , which is concerning the stile of scripture , in most of those places we have cited , and others upon the same subject . the reflections that are made in several parts of the divine writings , upon the origin of the world , and the formation of the earth , seem to me to be writ in a stile-something approaching to the nature of a prophetical stile , and to have more of a divine enthusiasm and elocution in them , than the ordinary text of scripture ; the expressions are lofty , and sometimes abrupt , and often figurative and disguis'd , as may be observ'd in most of those places we have made use of , and particularly in that speech of wisdom , prov. . where the . verse is so obscure , that no two versions that i have yet met with , whether ancient or modern , agree in the translation of that verse . and therefore though i fully believe that the construction of the first earth is really intended in those words , yet seeing it could not be made out clear without a long and critical discussion of them , i did not think that proper to be insisted upon here . we may also observe , that whereas there is a double form or composition of the earth , that which it had at first , or till the deluge , and that which it hath since ; sometimes the one , and sometimes the other may be glanc'd upon in these scripture phrases and descriptions ; and so there may be in the same discourse an intermixture of both . and it commonly happens so in an enthusiastick or prophetick stile , that by reason of the eagerness and trembling of the fancy , it doth not always regularly follow the same even thread of discourse , but strikes many times upon some other thing that hath relation to it , or lies under or near the same view . of this we have frequent examples in the apocalypse , and in that prophecy of our saviour's , matth. . concerning the destruction of ierusalem , and of the world. but notwithstanding any such unevenness or indistinctness in the stile of those places which we have cited concerning the origin and form of the earth , we may at least make this remark , that if there never was any other form of the earth but the present , nor any other state of the abysse , than what it is in now , 't is not imaginable , what should give occasion to all those expressions and passages that we have cited ; which being so strange in themselves and paradoxical , should yet so much favour , and so fairly comply with our suppositions . what i have observ'd in another place , in treating of paradise , that the expressions of the ancient fathers were very extravagant , if paradise was nothing but a little plot of ground in mesopotamia , as many of late have fansied ; may in like manner be observ'd concerning the ancient earth and abysse , if they were in no other form , nor other state than what they are under now , the expressions of the sacred writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable , without any sufficient ground , that we know , or any just occasion for such uncouth representations . if there was nothing intended or refer'd to in those descriptions , but the present form and state of the earth , that is so well known , that in describing of it there would be nothing dark or mysterious , nor any occasion for obscurity in the stile or expression , whereof we find so much in those . so as , all things consider'd , what might otherwise be made an exception to some of these texts alledg'd by us , viz. that they are too obscure , becomes an argument for us : as implying that there is something more intended by them , than the present and known form of the earth . and we having propos'd another form and structure of the earth , to which those characters suit and answer more easily , as this opens and gives light to those difficult places , so it may be reasonably concluded to be the very sence and notion intended by the holy writers . and thus much , i think , is sufficient to have observ'd out of scripture , to verifie our explication of the deluge , and our application of it to noah's flood , both according to the mosaical history of the flood , and according to many occasional reflections and discourses dispers'd in other places of scripture , concerning the same flood , or concerning the abysse and the first form of the earth . and though there may be some other passages of a different aspect , they will be of no force to disprove our conclusions , because they respect the present form of the earth and sea ; and also because expressions that deviate more from the common opinion , are more remarkable and more proving ; in that there is nothing could give occasion to such , but an intention to express the very truth . so , for instance , if there was one place of scripture that said the earth was mov'd , and several that seem'd to imply , that the sun was mov'd , we should have more regard to that one place for the motion of the earth , than to all the other that made against it ; because those others might be spoken and understood according to common opinion and common belief , but that which affirm'd the motion of the earth , could not be spoke upon any other ground , but only for truth and instruction sake . i leave this to be appli'd to the present subject . thus much for the sacred writings . as to the history of the ancient heathens , we cannot expect an account or narration of noah's flood , under that name and notion ; but it may be of use to observe two things out of that history . first , that the inundations recorded there came generally to pass in the manner we have describ'd the universal deluge ; namely , by earthquakes and an eruption of subterraneous waters , the earth being broken and falling in : and of this we shall else-where give a full account out of their authors . secondly , that deucalion's deluge in particular , which is suppos'd by most of the ancient fathers to represent noah's flood , is said to have been accompained with a gaping or disruption of the earth ; apollodorus saith , that the mountains of thessaly were divided asunder , or separate one from another at that time : and lucian ( de deâ syriâ ) tells a very remarkable story to this purpose , concerning deucalion's deluge , and a ceremony observ'd in the temple of hieropolis , in commemoration of it ; which ceremony seems to have been of that nature , as impli'd that there was an opening of the earth at the time of the deluge , and that the waters subsided into that again when the deluge ceas'd . he saith , that this temple at hieropolis was built upon a kind of abysse , or had a bottomless pit , or gaping of the earth in one part of it , and the people of arabia and syria , and the countries the eabouts twice a year repair'd to this temple , and brought with them every one a vessel of water , which they pour'd out upon the floor of the temple , and made a kind of an inundation there in memory of deucalion's deluge ; and this water sunk by degrees into a chasm or opening of a rock , which the temple stood upon , and so left the floor dry again . and this was a rite solemnly and religiously perform'd both by the priests and by the people . if moses had left such a religious rite among the iews , i should not have doubted to have interpreted it concerning his abysse , and the retiring of the waters into it ; but the actual disruption of the abysse could not well be represented by any ceremony . and thus much concerning the present question , and the true application of our theory to noah's flood . chap. viii . the particular history of noah's flood is explain'd in all the material parts and circumstances of it , according to the preceding theory . any seeming difficulties removed , and the whole section concluded , with a discourse how far the deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary providence , and how far of an extraordinary . we have now proved our explication of the deluge to be more than an idea , or to be a true piece of natural history ; and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the world. we have shown it to be the real account of noah's flood , according to authority both divine and humane ; and i would willingly proceed one step further , and declare my thoughts concerning the manner and order wherein noah's flood came to pass ; in what method all those things happen'd and succeeded one another , that make up the history of it , as causes or effects , or other parts or circumstances : as how the ark was born upon the waters , what effect the rains had , at what time the earth broke , and the abysse was open'd ; and what the condition of the earth was upon the ending of the flood , and such like . but i desire to propose my thoughts concerning these things only as conjectures , which i will ground as near as i can upon scripture and reason , and am very willing they should be rectifi'd where they happen to be amiss . i know how subject we are to mistakes in these great and remote things , when we descend to particulars ; but i am willing to expose the theory to a full trial , and to shew the way for any to examine it , provided they do it with equity and sincerity . i have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance , and wherein the world hath hitherto had so little satisfaction : and he that in an obscure argument proposeth an hypothesis that reacheth from end to end , though it be not exact in every particular , 't is not without a good effect ; for it gives aim to others to take their measures better , and opens their invention in a matter which otherwise , it may be , would have been impenetrable to them : as he that makes the first way through a thick forest , though it be not the streightest and shortest , deserves better , and hath done more , than he that makes it streighter and smoother afterwards . providence that ruleth all things and all ages , after the earth had stood above sixteen hundred years , thought fit to put a period to that world ; and accordingly , it was reveal'd to noah , that for the wickedness and degeneracy of men , god would destroy mankind with the earth ( gen. . . ) in a deluge of water ; whereupon he was commanded , in order to the preserving of himself and family , as a stock for the new world , to build a great vessel or ark , to float upon the waters , and had instructions given him for the building of it both as to the matter and as to the form . noah believed the word of god , though against his senses , and all external appearances , and set himself to work to build an ark , according to the directions given , which after many years labour was finish'd ; whilst the incredulous world , secure enough , as they thought against a deluge , continu'd still in their excesses and insolencies , and laught at the admonition of noah , and at the folly of his design of building an extravagant machine , a floating house , to save himself from an imaginary inundation ; for they thought it no less , seeing it was to be in an earth where there was no sea , nor any rain neither in those parts , according to the ordinary course of nature , as shall be shown in the second book of this treatise . but when the appointed time was come , the heavens began to melt , and the rains to fall , and these were the first surprizing causes and preparatives to the deluge ; they fell , we suppose , ( tho we do not know how that could proceed from natural causes ) throughout the face of the whole earth ; which could not but have a considerable effect on that earth , being even and smooth , without hills and eminencies , and might lay it all under water to some depth ; so as the ark , if it could not float upon those rain-waters , at least taking the advantage of a river , or a dock or cistern made to receive them , it might be a float before the abysse was broken open . for i do not suppose the abysse broken open before any rain fell ; and when the opening of the abysse and of the flood-gates of heaven are mention'd together , i am apt to think those flood-gates were distinct from the common rain , and were something more violent and impetuous . so that there might be preparatory rains before the disruption of the abysse : and i do not know but those rains , so covering up and enclosing the earth on every side , might providentially contribute to the disruption of it ; not only by softning and weakning the arch of the earth in the bottom of those cracks and chasms which were made by the sun , and which the rain would first run into , but especially by stopping on a sudden all the pores of the earth , and all evaporation , which would make the vapors within struggle more violently , as we get a fever by a cold ; and it may be in that struggle , the doors and the bars were broke , and the great abysse gusht out , as out of a womb . however , when the rains were faln , we may suppose the face of the earth cover'd over with water ; and whether it was these waters that s. peter refers to , or that of the abysse afterwards , i cannot tell , when he saith in his first epistle , chap. . . noah and his family were sav'd by water ; so as the water which destroy'd the rest of the world , was an instrument of their conservation , in as much as it bore up the ark , and kept it from that impetuous shock , which it would have had , if either it had stood upon dry land when the earth fell , or if the earth had been dissolv'd without any water on it or under it . however , things being thus prepar'd , let us suppose the great frame of the exteriour earth to have broke at this time , or the fountains of the great abyss , as moses saith , to have been then open'd , from thence would issue , upon the fall of the earth , with an unspeakable violence , such a flood of waters as would over-run and overwhelm for a time all those fragments which the earth broke into , and bury in one common grave all mankind , and all the inhabitants of the earth . besides , if the flood-gates of heaven were any thing distinct from the forty days rain , their effusion , 't is likely , was at this same time when the abyss was broken open ; for the sinking of the earth would make an extraordinary convulsion of the regions of the air , and that crack and noise that must be in the falling world , and in the collision of the earth and the abyss , would make a great and universal concussion above , which things together , must needs so shake , or so squeeze the atmosphere , as to bring down all the remaining vapours ; but the force of these motions not being equal throughout the whole air , but drawing or pressing more in some places than in other , where the center of the convulsion was , there would be the chiefest collection , and there would fall , not showers of rain , or single drops , but great spouts or caskades of water ; and this is that which moses seems to call , not improperly , the gataracts of heaven , or the windows of heaven being set open . thus the flood came to its height ; and 't is not easie to represent to our selves this strange scene of things , when the deluge was in its fury and extremity ; when the earth was broken and swallow'd up in the abyss , whose raging waters rise higher than the mountains , and fill'd the air with broken waves , with an universal mist , and with thick darkness , so as nature seem'd to be in a second chaos ; and upon this chaos rid the distrest ark , that bore the small remains of mankind . no sea was ever so tumultuous , as this , nor is there any thing in present nature to be compar'd with the disorder of these waters ; all the poetry , and all the hyperboles that are us'd in the description of storms and raging seas , were literally true in this , if not beneath it . the ark was really carry'd to the tops of the highest mountains , and into the places of the clouds , and thrown down again into the deepest gulfs ; and to this very state of the deluge and of the ark , which was a type of the church in this world , david seems to have alluded in the name of the church , psal. . . abysse calls upon abysse at the noise of thy cataracts or water-spouts ; all thy waves and billows have gone over me . it was no doubt an extraordinary and miraculous providence , that could make a vessel , so ill man'd , live upon such a sea ; that kept it from being dasht against the hills , or overwhelm'd in the deeps . that abyss which had devour'd and swallow'd up whole forests of woods , cities , and provinces , nay the whole earth , when it had conquer'd all , and triumph'd over all , could not destroy this single ship. i remember in the story of the argonauticks , when iason set out to fetch the golden fleece , the poet saith , all the gods that day look'd down from heaven to view the ship ; and the nymphs stood upon the mountain-tops to see the noble youth of thessaly pulling at the oars ; we may with more reason suppose the good angels to have look'd down upon this ship of noah's ; and that not out of couriosity , as idle spectators , but with a passionate concern for its safety and deliverance . a ship whose cargo was no less than a whole world ; that carry'd the fortune and hopes of all posterity , and if this had perish'd , the earth for any thing we know , had been nothing but a desart , a great ruine , a dead heap of rubbish , from the deluge to the conflagration . but death and hell , the grave , and destruction have their bounds . we may entertain our selves with the consideration of the face of the deluge , and of the broken and drown'd earth , in this scheme with the floating ark , and the guardian angels . pag. . thus much for the beginning and progress of the deluge . it now remains only that we consider it in its decrease , and the state of the earth , after the waters were retir'd into their chanels , which makes the present state of it . moses saith , god brought a wind upon the waters , and the tops of the hills became bare , and then the lower grounds and plains by degrees ; the waters being sunk into the chanels of the sea , and the hollowness of the earth , and the whole globe appearing in the form it is now under . there needs nothing be added for explication of this , 't is the genuine consequence of the theory we have given of the deluge ; and whether this wind was a descending wind to depress and keep down the swellings and inequalities of the abyss , or whether it was only to dry the land as fast as it appear'd , or might have both effects , i do not know ; but as nothing can be perpetual this is violent , so this commotion of the abyss abated after a certain time , and the great force that impell'd the waters , decreasing , their natural gravity began to take effect , and to reduce them into the lowest places , at an equal height , and in an even surface , and level one part with another : that is , in short , the abyss became our sea , fixt within its chanel , and bounded by rocks and mountains : then was the decreed place establisht for it , and bars and doors were set ; then was it said , hitherto shalt thou come , and no further , and here shall thy proud waves be stopt . and the deluge being thus ended , and the waters setled in their chanels , the earth took such a broken figure as is represented in those larger schemes , p. . and this will be the form and state of it till its great change comes in the conflagration , when we expect a new heaven and a new earth . but to pursue this prospect of things a little further ; we may easily imagine , that for many years after the deluge ceast ; the face of the earth was very different from what it is now , and the sea had other bounds than it hath at present . i do not doubt but the sea reacht much further in-land , and climb'd higher upon the sides of the mountains ; and i have observ'd in many places , a ridge of mountains some distance from the sea , and a plain from their roots to the shore ; which plain no doubt was formerly cover'd by the sea , bounded against those hills as its first and natural ramparts , or as the ledges or lips of its vessel . and it seems probable , that the sea doth still grow narrower from age to age , and sinks more within its chanel and the bowels of the earth , according as it can make its way into all those subterraneous cavities , and crowd the air out of them . we see whole countries of land gain'd from it , and by several indications , as ancient sea-ports left dry and useless , old sea-marks far within the land , pieces of ships , anchors , &c. left at a great distance from the present shores ; from these signs , and such like , we may conclude that the sea reach'd many places formerly that now are dry land , and at first i believe was generally bound in on either side with a chain of mountains . so i should easily imagine the mediterranean sea , for instance , to have been bounded by the continuation of the alps through dauphiné and languedock to the pyreneans , and at the other end by the darmatick mountains almost to the black sea. then atlas major which runs along with the mediterranean from aegypt to the atlantick ocean , and now parts barbary and numidia may possibly have been the ancient barriere on the africk side . and in our own island i could easily figure to my self , in many parts of it , other sea-bounds than what it hath at present ; and the like may be observ'd in other countries . and as the sea had much larger bounds for some time after the deluge , so the land had a different face in many respects to what it hath now ; for we suppose the valleys and lower grounds , where the descent and derivation of the water was not so easie , to have been full of lakes and pools for a long time ; and those were often converted into fens and bogs , where the ground being spongy , suckt up the water , and the loosen'd earth swell'd into a soft and pappy substance ; which would still continue so , if there was any course of water sensible or insensible , above or within the ground , that fed this moist place : but if the water stood in a more firm basin , or on a soil which for its heaviness or any other reason would not mix with it , it made a lake or clear pool . and we may easily imagine there were innumerable such lakes , and bogs and fastnesses for many years after the deluge , till the world begun to be pretty well stockt with people , and humane industry cleans'd and drain'd those unfruitful and unhabitable places . and those countries that have been later cultivated , or by a lazier people , retain still , in proportion to their situation and soil , a greater number of them . neither is it at all incongruous or inconvenient to suppose , that the face of the earth stood in this manner for many years after the deluge ; for while mankind was small and few , they needed but a little ground for their seats or sustenance ; and as they grew more numerous , the earth proportionably grew more dry , and more parts of it fit for habitation . i easily believe that plato's observation or tradition is true , that men at first , after the flood , liv'd in the up-lands and sides of the mountains , and by degrees sunk into the plains and lower countries , when nature had prepar'd them for their use , and their numbers requir'd more room . the history of moses tells us , that sometime after the deluge , noah and his posterity , his sons and his grand-children , chang'd their quarters , and fell down into the plains of shiner , from the sides of the hills where the ark had rested ; and in this plain was the last general rendezvous of mankind ; so long they seem to have kept in a body , and from thence they were divided and broken into companies , and disperst , first , into the neighbouring countries , and then by degrees throughout the whole earth ; the several successive generations , like the waves of the sea when it flows , over-reaching one another , and striking out further and further , upon the face of the land. not that the whole earth was peopled by an uniform propagation of mankind every way , from one place , as a common center : like the swelling of a lake upon a plain : for sometimes they shot out in length , like rivers : and sometimes they shew into remote countreys in colonies , like swarms from the hive , and setled there , leaving many places uninhabited betwixt them and their first home . sea-shores and islands were generally the last places inhabited : for while the memory or story of the deluge was fresh amongst them , they did not care for coming so near their late enemy : or , at least , to be enclos'd and surrounded by his forces . and this may be sufficient to have discours'd concerning all the parts of the deluge , and the restitution of the earth to an habitable form , for the further union of our theory with the history of moses ; there rests only one thing in that history to be taken notice of , which may be thought possibly not to agree so well with our account of the deluge ; namely , that moses seems to shut up the abysse again at the end of the deluge , which our explication supposeth to continue open . but besides that half the abysse is still really cover'd , moses saith the same thing of the windows of heaven , that they were shut up too ; and he seemeth in both to express only the cessation of the effect which proceeded from their opening : for as moses had ascrib'd the deluge to the opening of these two , so when it was to cease , he saith , these two were shut up ; as they were really put into such a condition , both of them , that they could not continue the deluge any longer , nor over be the occasion of a second ; and therefore in that sence , and as to that effect were for ever shut up . some may possibly make that also an objection against us , that moses mentions and supposes the mountains at the deluge , for he saith , the waters reached fifteen cubits above the tops of them ; whereas we suppose the ante-diluvian earth to have had a plain and uniform surface , without any inequality of hills and valleys . but this is easily answer'd , 't was in the height of the deluge that moses mention'd the mountains , and we suppose them to have risen then or more towards the beginning of it , when the earth was broke ; and these mountains continuing still upon the face of the earth , moses might very well take them for a standard to measure and express to posterity the height of the waters , though they were not upon the earth when the deluge begun . neither is there any mention made , as is observ'd by some , of mountains in scripture , or of rain , till the time of the deluge . we have now finisht our account of noah's flood , both generally and particularly ; and i have not wittingly omitted or conceal'd any difficulty that occur'd to me , either from the history , or from abstract reason : our theory , so far as i know , hath the consent and authority of both : and how far it agrees and is demonstrable from natural observation , or from the form and phaenomena of this earth , as it lies at present , shall be the subject of the remaining part of this first book . in the mean time i do not know any thing more to be added in this part , unless it be to conclude with an advertisement to prevent any mistake or misconstruction , as if this theory , by explaining the deluge in a natural way , in a great measure , or , by natural causes , did detract from the power of god , by which that great judgment was brought upon the world in a providential and miraculous manner . to satisfie all reasonable and intelligent persons in this particular , i answer and declare , first , that we are far from excluding divine providence , either ordinary or extraordinary , from the causes and conduct of the deluge . i know a sparrow doth not fall to the ground without the will of our heavenly father , much less doth the great world fall in pieces without his good pleasure and superintendency . in him all things live , move , and have their being ; things that have life and thought have it from him , he is the fountain of both : things that have motion only , without thought , have it also from him : and what hath only naked being , without thought or motion , owe still that being to him . and these are not only deriv'd from god at first , but every moment continued and conserv'd by him . so intimate and universal is the dependance of all things upon the divine will and power . in the second place , they are guilty , in my judgment , of a great error or indiscretion , that oppose the course of nature to providence . st. paul says ( act. . . ) god hath not left us without witness , in that he gives us rain from heaven ; yet rains proceed from natural causes , and fall upon the sea as well as upon the land. in like manner , our saviour makes those things instances of divine providence , which yet come to pass in an ordinary course of nature ; in that part of his excellent sermon upon the mount , that concerns providence . he bids them consider the lilies how they grow , they toil not , neither do they spin , and yet solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these ; he bids them also consider the ravens , they neither sow nor reap , neither have they store-house nor barn , and god feedeth them . the lilies grow , and the ravens are fed according to the ordinary course of nature , and yet they are justly made arguments of providence by our saviour ; nor are these things less providential , because constant and regular ; on the contrary , such a disposition or establishment of second causes , as will in the best order , and for a long succession , produce the most regular effects , assisted only with the ordinary concourse of the first cause , is a greater argument of wisdom and contrivance , than such a disposition of causes as will not in so good an order , or for so long a time produce regular effects , without an extraordinary concourse and interposition of the first cause . this , i think , is clear to every man's judgment . we think him a better artist that makes a clock that strikes regularly at every hour from the springs and wheels which he puts in the work , than he that hath so made his clock that he must put his finger to it every hour to make it strike : and if one should contrive a piece of clock-work so that it should beat all the hours , and make all its motions regularly for such a time , and that time being come , upon a signal given , or a spring toucht , it should of its own accord fall all to pieces ; would not this be look'd upon as a piece of greater art , than if the workman came at that time prefixt , and with a great hammer beat it into pieces ? i use these comparisons to convince us , that it is no detraction from divine providence , that the course of nature is exact and regular , and that even in its greatest changes and revolutions it should still conspire and be prepar'd to answer the ends and purposes of the divine will in reference to the moral world. this seems to me to ●e the great art of divine providence , so to adjust the two worlds , humane and natural , material and intellectual , as seeing thorough the possibilities and futuritions of each , according to the first state and circumstances he puts them under , they should all along correspond and fit one another , and especially in their great crises and periods . thirdly , besides the ordinary providence of god in the ordinary course of nature , there is doubtless an extraordinary providence that doth attend the greater scenes and the greater revolutions of nature . this methinks , besides all other proof from the effects , is very rational and necessary in it self ; for it would be a limitation of the divine power and will so to be bound up to second causes , as never to use , upon occasion , an extraordinary influence or direction : and 't is manifest , taking any systeme of natural causes , if the best possible , that there may be more and greater things done , if to this , upon certain occasions you joyn an extraordinary conduct . and as we have taken notice before , that there was an extraordinary providence in the formation or composition of the first earth , so i believe there was also in the dissolution of it ; and i think it had been impossible for the ark to have liv'd upon the raging abyss , or for noah and his family to have been preserv'd , if there had not been a miraculous hand of providence to take care of them . but 't is hard to separate and distinguish an ordinary and extraordinary providence in all cases , and to mark just how far one goes , and where the other begins . and writing a theory of the deluge here , as we do , we were to exhibit a series of causes whereby it might be made intelligible , or to shew the proximate natural causes of it ; wherein we follow the example both of moses and s. peter ; and with the same veneration of the divine power and wisdom in the government of nature , by a constant ordinary providence , and an occasional extraordinary . so much for the theory of the deluge , and the second section of this discourse . chap. ix . the second part of this discourse , proving the same theory from the effects and present form of the earth . first , by a general scheme of what is most remarkable in this globe , and then by a more particular induction ; beginning with an account of subterraneous cavities and subterraneous waters . we have now finisht our explication of the universal deluge , and given an account , not only of the possibility of it , but ( so far as our knowledge can reach ) of its causes ; and of that form and structure of the earth , whereby the old world was subject to that sort of fate . we have not beg'd any principles or suppositions for the proof of this , but taking that common ground , which both moses and all antiquity presents to us , viz. that this earth rose from a chaos ; we have from that deduc'd , by an easie train of consequences , what the first form of it would be ; and from that form , as from a nearer ground , we have by a second train of consequences made it appear , that at some time or other that first earth would be subject to a dissolution , and by that dissolution to a deluge . and thus far we have proceeded only by the intuition of causes , as is most proper to a theory ; but for the satisfaction of those that require more sensible arguments , and to compleat our proofs on either hand , we will now argue from the effects ; and from the present state of nature , and the present form of the earth , prove that it hath been broken , and undergone such a dissolution as we have already describ'd , and made the immediate occasion of the deluge . and that we may do this more perspicuously and distinctly , we will lay down this proposition to be prov'd , viz. that the present form and structure of the earth , both as to the surface and as to the interiour parts of it , so far as they are known and accessible to us , doth exactly answer to our theory concerning the form and dissolution of the first earth , and cannot be explain'd upon any other hypothesis yet known . oratours and philosophers treat nature after a very different manner ; those represent her with all her graces and ornaments , and if there be any thing that is not capable of that , they dissemble it , or pass it over slightly . but philosophers view nature with a more impartial eye , and without favour or prejudice give a just and free account , how they find all the parts of the universe , some more , some less perfect . and as to this earth in particular , if i was to describe it as an oratour , i would suppose it a beautiful and regular globe , and not only so , but that the whole universe was made for its sake ; that it was the darling and favourite of heaven , that the sun shin'd only to give it light , to ripen its fruit , and make fresh its flowers ; and that the great concave of the firmament , and all the stars in their several orbs , were design'd only for a spangled cabinet to keep this jewel in . this idea i would give of it as an oratour ; but a philosopher that overheard me , would either think me in jest , or very injudicious , if i took the earth for a body so regular in it self , or so considerable , if compar'd with the rest of the universe . this , he would say , is to make the great world like one of the heathen temples , a beautiful and magnificent structure , and of the richest materials , yet built only for a little brute idol , a dog , or a crocodile , or some deformed creature , plac'd in a corner of it . we must therefore be impartial where the truth requires it , and describe the earth as it is really in it self ; and though it be handsome and regular enough to the eye in certain parts of it , single tracts and single regions ; yet if we consider the whole surface of it , or the whole exteriour region , 't is as a broken and confus'd heap of bodies , plac'd in no order to one another , nor with any correspondency or regularity of parts : and such a body as the moon appears to us , when 't is look'd upon with a good glass , rude and ragged ; as it is also represented in the modern maps of the moon ; such a thing would the earth appear if it was seen from the moon . they are both in my judgment the image or picture of a great ruine , and have the true aspect of a world lying in its rubbish . our earth is first divided into sea and land , without any regularity in the portions , either of the one or the other ; in the sea lie the islands , scatter'd like limbs torn from the rest of the body ; great rocks stand rear'd up in the waters ; the promontories and capes shoot into the sea , and the sinus's and creeks on the other hand run as much into the land ; and these without any order or uniformity . upon the other part of our globe stand great heaps of earth or stone , which we call mountains ; and if these were all plac'd together , they would take up a very considerable part of the dry land ; in the rest of it are lesser hills , valleys , plains , lakes , and marishes , sands and desarts , &c. and these also without any regular disposition . then the inside of the earth , or inward parts of it , are generally broken or hollow , especially about the mountains and high lands , as also towards the shores of the sea , and among the rocks . how many holes and caverns , and strange subterraneous passages do we see in many countries ; and how many more may we easily imagine , that are unknown and unaccessible to us ? this is the pourtraicture of our earth , drawn without flattery ; and as oddly as it looks , it will not be at all surprising to one that hath consider'd the foregoing theory ; for 't is manifest enough , that upon the dissolution of the first earth , and its fall into the abyss , this very face and posture of things , which we have now describ'd , or something extremely like it , would immediately result . the sea would be open'd , and the face of the globe would be divided into land and water : and according as the fragments fell , some would make islands or rocks in the sea , others would make mountains or plains upon the land ; and the earth would generally be full of caverns and hollownesse , especially in the mountainous parts of it . and we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines , when a mountain sinks and falls into subterraneous water ; or which is more obvious , when the arch of a bridge is broken , and falls into the water , if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts , you may see there the image of all these things in little continents , and islands , and rocks under water : and in the parts that stand above the water , you see mountains , and precipices , and plains and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the earth . what need we then seek any further for the explication of these things ? let us suppose this arch of the bridge , as the great arch of the earth , which once it had , and the water under it as the abyss , and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the earth ; there will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater , the same things appearing in both . but we have naturally that weakness or prejudice , that we think great things are not to be explain'd from easie and familiar instances ; we think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them , or else we are not satisfied ; whether it is that we are asham'd to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless , or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication , and the greatness of the thing explain'd ; but that is a very false judgment , for let things be never so great , if they be simple , their explication must be simple and easie ; and on the contrary , some things that are mean , common , and ordinary , may depend upon causes very difficult to find out ; for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness , but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes . and the effects and phaenomena we are here to explain , though great , yet depending upon causes very simple , you must not wonder if the explication , when found out ; be familiar and very intelligible . and this is so intelligible , and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes , that a man born blind or brought up all his life in a cave , that had never seen the face of the earth , nor ever heard any description of it , more than that it was a great globe , having this theory propos'd to him , or being instructed what the form of the first earth was , how it stood over the waters , and then how it was broke and fell into them , he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution ; and what the new form of the earth would be . as in the first place he would tell you , that this second earth would be distinguish'd and checker'd into land and water ; for the orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon , all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drown'd under water ; and those that stood above , would make the dry land or habitable part of the earth . then in the second place , he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry land , could not lie all plain and smooth and equal , but some would be higher and some lower , some in one posture and some in another , and consequently would make mountains , hills , valleys , and plains , and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the earth . and lastly , a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it , a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish , as i may so say ; for this we see happens in all ruines more or less ; and where the fragments are great and hard , 't is not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall , but that they would lie hollow in many places , and many unfill'd spaces would be intercepted amongst them ; some gaping in the surface of the earth , and others hid within ; so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the earth , or within its body . and these cavities , that i may add that in the last place , would be often fill'd with subterraneous waters , at least at such a depth ; for the foundations of the earth standing now within the waters , so high as those waters reach'd they would more or less propagate themselves every way . thus far our blind man could tell us what the new world would be , or the form of the earth upon the great dissolution ; and we find his reasonings and inferences very true , these are the chief lineaments and features of our earth ; which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves , but if we look upon them through this theory , we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them . there are different genius's of men , and different conceptions , and every one is to be allow'd their liberty as to things of this nature ; i confess , for my own part , when i observe how easily and naturally this hypothesis doth apply it self to the general face of this earth , hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of i●s parts , i cannot , without violence , bear off my mind from fully assenting to it : and the more odd and extravagant , as i may so say , and the more diversify'd the effects and appearances are , to which an hypothesis is to be apply'd , if it answers them all and with exactness , it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility . as a lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship , many wards , and many odd pieces and contrivances , if you find a key that answers to them all , and opens it readily , 't is a thousand to one that 't is the true key , and was made for that purpose . an eminent philosopher of this age , monsteur des cartes , hath made use of the like hypothesis to explain the irregular form of the present earth ; though he never dream'd of the deluge , nor thought that first orb built over the abyss , to have been any more than a transient crust , and not a real habitable world that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years , as we suppose it to have been . and though he hath , in my opinion , in the formation of that first orb , and upon the dissolution of it , committed some great oversights , whereof we have given an account in the latin treatise ; however he saw a necessity of such a thing , and of the disruption of it , to bring the earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it . thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the earth , and the easie account it gives of the causes of it . and though i believe to ingenuous persons that are not prejudic'd by the forms and opinions of the schools against every thing that looks like a novelty or invention , thus much might be sufficient ; yet for the satisfaction of all , we will , as a farther proof of our theory , or that part of it which concerns the dissolution of the earth , descend to particular explication of three or four of the most considerable and remarkable things that occur in the fabrick of this present earth ; namely , the great chanel of the ocean ; subterraneous cavities and subterraneous waters ; and lastly , mountains and rocks . these are the wonders of the earth as to the visible frame of it ; and who would not be pleas'd to see a rational account of these ? of their origin , and of their properties ; or who would not approve of an hypothesis , when they see that nature in her greatest and strangest works may easily be understood by it , and is in no other way , that we know of , intelligible . we will speak first of subterraneous cavities and waters , because they will be of easier dispatch , and an introduction to the rest . that the inside of the earth is hollow and broken in many places , and is not one firm and united mass , we have both the testimony of sence and of easie observations to prove : how many caves and dens and hollow passages into the ground do we see in many countries , especially amongst mountains and rocks ; and some of them endless and bottomless so far as can be discover'd . we have many of these in our own island , in derbishire , somersetshire , wales , and other counties , and in every continent or island they abound more or less . these hollownesses of the earth the ancients made prisons , or storehouses for the winds , and set a god over them to confine them , or let them loose at his pleasure . for some ages after the flood , as all antiquity tells us , these were the first houses men had , at least in some parts of the earth ; here rude mortals shelter'd themselves , as well as they could , from the injuries of the air , till they were beaten out by wild beasts that took possession of them . the ancient oracles also us'd to be given out of these vaults and recesses under ground , the sibyls had their caves , and the delphick oracle , and their temples sometimes were built upon an hollow rock . places that are strange and solemn strike an awe into us , and incline us to a kind of superstitious timidity and veneration , and therefore they thought them fit for the seats and residences of their deities . they fansied also that steams rise sometimes , or a sort of vapour in those hollow places , that gave a kind of divine fury or inspiration . but all these uses and employments are now in a great measure worn out , we know no use of them but to make the places talkt on where they are , to be the wonders of the countrey , to please our curiosity to gaze upon and admire ; but we know not how they came , nor to what purpose they were made at first . it would be very pleasant to read good descriptions of these subterraneous places , and of all the strange works of nature there ; how she furnisheth these dark neglected grottoes ; they have often a little brook runs murmuring through them , and the roof is commonly a kind of petrefied earth or icy fret-work ; proper enough for such rooms . but i should be pleas'd especially to view the sea-caves , or those hollow rocks that lie upon the sea , where the waves roll in a great way under ground , and wear the hard rock into as many odd shapes and figures as we see in the clouds . 't is pleasant also to see a river in the middle of its course throw itself into the mouth of a cave , or an opening of the earth , and run under ground sometimes many miles ; still pursuing its way through the dark pipes of the earth , till at last it find an out-let . there are many of these rivers taken notice of in history in the several parts of the earth , as the rhone in france , guadiana in spain , and several in greece , alpheus , lycus , and erasinus ; then niger in africa , tigris in asia , &c. and i believe if we could turn derwent , or any other river into one of the holes of the peak , it would groap its way till it found an issue , it may be in some other country . these subterraneous rivers that emerge again , shew us that the holes of the earth are longer and reach farther than we imagine , and if we could see into the ground , as we ride or walk , we should be affrighted to see so often waters or caverns under us . but to return to our dry caves ; these commonly stand high , and are sometimes of a prodigious greatness : strabo mentions some in the mountains towards arabia , that are capable to receive four thousand men at once . the cave of engedi hid david and six hundred men , so as saul , when he was in the mouth of it , did not perceive them . in the mountains of the traconites there are many of these vast dens and recesses , and the people of that country defended themselves a long time in those strong holds against herod and his army ; they are plac'd among such craggy rocks and precipices , that , as iosephus tells us , herod was forc'd to make a sort of open chests , and in those by chains of iron he let down his souldiers from the top of the mountains to go fight them in their dens . i need add no more instances of this kind ; in the natural history of all countries , or the geographical descriptions of them , you find such places taken notice of , more or less ; yet if there was a good collection made of the chief of them in several parts , it might be of use , and would make us more sensible how broken and torn the body of the earth is . there are subterraneous cavities of another nature , and more remarkable , which they call volcano's , or fiery mountains ; that belch out flames and smoke and ashes , and sometimes great stones and broken rocks , and lumps of earth , or some metallick mixture ; and throw them to an incredible distance by the force of the eruption . these argue great vacuities in the bowels of the earth , and magazines of combustible matter treasur'd up in them . and as the exhalations within these places must be copious , so they must lie in long mines or trains to do so great execution , and to last so long . 't is scarce credible what is reported concerning some eruptions of vesuvius and aetna . the eruptions of vesuvius seem to be more frequent and less violent of late ; the flame and smoke break out at the top of the mountain , where they have eaten away the ground and made a great hollow , so as it looks at the top , when you stand upon the brimes of it , like an amphitheater , or like a great caldron , about a mile in circumference , and the burning furnace lies under it . the outsides of the mountain is all spread with ashes , but the inside much more ; for you wade up to the mid-leg in ashes to go down to the bottom of the cavity , and 't is extremely heavy and troublesome to get up again . the inside lies sloping , and one may safely go down if it be not in a raging fit ; but the middle part of it or center , which is a little rais'd like the bottom of a platter , is not to be ventur'd upon , the ground there lies false and hollow , there it always smoaks , and there the funnel is suppos'd to be ; yet there is no visible hole or gaping any where when it doth not rage . naples stands below in fear of this fiery mountain , which hath often cover'd its streets and palaces with its ashes ; and in sight of the sea ( which lies by the side of them both ) and as it were in defiance to it , threatens at one time or another , to burn that fair city . history tells us , that some eruptions of vesuvius have carry'd cinders and ashes as far as constantinople ; this is attested both by greek and latin authors ; particularly , that they were so affrighted with these ashes and darkness , that the emperor left the city , and there was a day observ'd yearly for a memorial of this calamity or prodigy . aetna is of greater same than vesuvius , and of greater fury , all antiquity speaks of it ; not only the greeks and romans , but as far as history reacheth , either real or fabulous , there is something recorded of the fires of aetna . the figure of the mountain is inconstant , by reason of the great consumptions and ruines it is subject to ; the fires and aestuations of it are excellently describ'd by virgil , upon occasion of aeneas his passing by those coasts . — horrificis juxta tonat aetna ruinis ; interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem , turbine fumantem piceo & candente favillâ ; attollítque globos flammarum & sydera lambit ; interdum scopulos , avolsáque viscera montis erigit eructans , liquefactáque saxa sub auras cum gemitu glomerat , fundóque exaesluat into . fama est enceladi semustum fulmine corpus urgeri mole hâc , ingentémque insuper aetnam impositam , ruptis flammam expirare caminis . et fessum quoties mutet latus , intremere omnem murmure trinacriam & coelum subtexere fumo . — aetna , whose ruines make a thunder ; sometimes black clouds of smoak , that rowl about mingled with flakes of fire , it belches out . and sometimes balls of flame it darts on high , or its torn bowels flings into the sky . within deep cells under the earth , a store of fire-materials , molten stones , and ore , i● gathers ; then spews out , and gathers more . emceladus when thunder-struck by jove , was buri'd here , and aetna thrown above ; and when , to change his wearied side , he turns , the island trembles and the mountain burns . not far from aetna lies str●mbolo , and other adjacent islands , where there are also such magazines of fire ; and throughout all regions and countries in the west-indies and in the east , in the northern and southern parts of the earth , there are some of these volcano's , which are sensible evidences that the earth is incompact and full of caverns ; besides the roarings , and bellowings that use to be heard before an eruption of these volcano's , argue some dreadful hollowness in the belly or under the roots of the mountain , where the exhalations struggle before they can break their prison . the subterraneous cavities that we have spoke of hitherto , are such as are visible in the surface of the earth , and break the skin by some gaping orifice ; but the miners and those that work under ground meet with many more in the bowels of the earth , that never reach to the top of it ; burrows , and chanels , and clefts , and caverns ; that never had the comfort of one beam of light since the great fall of the earth . and where we think the ground is firm and solid , as upon heaths and downs , it often betrays its hollowness , by sounding under the horses feet and the chariot-wheels that pass over it . we do not know when and where we stand upon good ground , if it was examin'd deep enough ; and to make us further sensible of this , we will instance in two things that argue the unsoundness and hollowness of the earth in the inward recesses of it , though the surface be intire and unbroken ; these are earthquakes and the communication of subterraneous waters and seas : of which two we will speak a little more particularly . earthquakes are too evident demonstrations of the hollowness of the earth , being the dreadful effects or consequences of it ; for if the body of the earth was sound and compact , there would be no such thing in nature as an earthquake . they are commonly accompanied with an heavy dead found , like a dull thunder which ariseth from the vapours that are striving in the womb of nature when her throes are coming upon her . and that these caverns where the vapours lie are very large and capacious , we are taught sometimes by sad experience ; for whole cities and countries have been swallow'd up into them , as sodom and gomorrha , and the region of pentapolis , and several cities in greece , and in asia , and other parts . whole islands also have been thus absort in an earthquake ; the pillars and props they stood upon being broken , they have sunk and faln in as an house blown up . i am also of opinion that those islands that are made by divulsion from a continent , as sicily was broken off from italy , and great britain , as some think , from france , have been made the same way ; that is , the isthmus or necks of land that joyn'd these islands with their continents before , have been hollow , and being either worn by the water , or shak'd by an earthquake , have sunk down , and so made way for the sea to overflow them , and of a promontory to make an island . for it is not at all likely that the neck of land continu'd standing , and the sea overflow'd it , and so made an island ; for then all those passages between such islands , and their respective continents would be extremely shallow and unnavigable , which we do not find them to be . nor is it any more wonder if such a neck of land should fall , than that a mountain should sink , or any other tract of land , and a lake rise in its place , which hath often happen'd , plato supposeth his atlantis to have been greater than asia and africa together , and yet to have sunk all into the sea ; whether that be true or no , i do not think it impossible that some arms of the sea or sinus's might have had such an original as that ; and i am very apt to think , that for some years after the deluge , till the fragments were well setled and adjusted , great alterations would happen as to the face of the sea and the land ; many of the fragments would change their posture , and many would sink into the water that stood out before , the props failing that bore them up , or the joynts and corners whereby they lean'd upon one another : and thereupon a new face of things would arise , and a new deluge for that part of the earth . such removes and interchanges , i believe , would often happen in the first ages after the flood ; as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first , till the parts be so well pois'd and setled , that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more . but to return to our earthquakes , and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence : pliny mentions one in the reign of tiberius caesar that struck down twelve cities of asia in one night . and fournier gives us an account of one in peru , that reacht three hundred leagues along the sea-shore , and seventy leagues inland ; and level'd the mountains all along as it went , threw down the cities , turn'd the rivers out of their chanels , and made an universal havock and confusion ; and all this , he saith , was done within the space of seven or eight minutes . there must be dreadful vaults and mines under that continent , that gave passage to the vapours , and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length , and above two hundred in breadth . asia also hath been very subject to these desolations by earthquakes ; and many parts in europe , as greece , italy , and others . the truth is , our cities are built upon ruines , and our fields and countries stand upon broken arches and vaults , and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the earth , and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken ; there being quantities of exhalations within these mines , or cavernous passages , that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation ; and , upon such occasions , requiring more room , they shake or break the ground that covers them . and thus much concerning earthquakes . a second observation that argues the hollowness of the earth , is the communication of the seas and lakes under ground . the caspian and mediterranean seas , and several lakes , receive into them great rivers , and yet have no visible out let : these must have subterraneous out-lets , by which they empty themselves , otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their vessel . the mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind , because 't is observ'd that at one end the great ocean flows into it through the straits of gibralter , with a sensible current , and towards the other end about constantinople the pontus flows down into it with a stream so strong , that vessels have much ado to stem it ; and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let , nor over-flows its banks . and besides that it is thus fed at either end , it is sed by the navel too , as i may so say ; it sucks in , by their chanels , several rivers into its belly , whereof the nile is one very great and considerable . these things have made it a great problem , what becomes of the water of the mediterranean sea ? and for my part , i think , the solution is very easie , namely , that it is discharg'd by subterraneous passages , or convey'd by chanels under the ground into the ocean . and this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the mediterranean , but is common to it with the caspian sea , and other seas and lakes , that receive great rivers into them , and have no visible issue . i know there have been propos'd several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the e●flux or consumption of the waters of the mediterranean ; some have suppos'd a double current in the strait of gibralter , one that carry'd the water in , and another that brought it out ; like the arteries and veins in our body , the one exporting our bloud from the heart , and the other re-importing it : so they suppos'd one current upon the surface , which carry'd the water into the mediterranean , and under it at a certain depth a counter-current , which brought the water back into the ocean . but this hath neither proof nor foundation ; for unless it was included in pipes , as our bloud is , or consisted of liquors very different , these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another . others are of opinion , that all the water that flows into the mediterranean , or a quantity equal to it , is consum'd in exhalations every day : this seems to be a bolder supposition than the other , for if so much be consum'd in vapours and exhalations every day as flows into this sea , what if this sea had an out-let , and discharg'd by that , every day , as much as it receiv'd ; in a few days the vapours would have consum'd all the rest ; and yet we see many lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let , and are not consum'd , or sensibly diminisht by the vapours . besides , this reason is a summer-reason , and would pass very ill in winter , when the heat of the sun is much less powerful : at least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in summer and winter , if so much was consum'd every day as this explication supposeth . and the truth is , this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the mediterranean sea , as we noted before , but is also in other seas and great lakes , some lying in one climate and some in another , where there is no reason to suppose such excessive exhalations ; and though 't is true some rivers in africk , and in others parts of the earth , are thus exhal'd and dry'd up , without ever flowing into the sea ( as were all the rivers in the first earth ) yet this is where the sands and parch'd ground suck up a great part of them ; the heat of the climate being excessively strong , and the chanel of the river growing shallower by degrees , and , it may be , divided into lesser branches and rivulets ; which are causes that take no place here . and therefore we must return to our first reason , which is universal , for all seasons of the year and all climates ; and seeing we are assur'd that there are subterraneous chanels and passages , for rivers often fall into the ground , and sometimes rise again , and sometimes never return ; why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause ? nay , i believe the very ocean doth evacuate it self by subterraneous out-lets ; for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the rivers of the earth , it must have out-lets proportionable ; and those syrtes or great whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or sinus's of the sea , as upon the coast of norway and of italy , arise probably from subterraneous out-lets in those places , whereby the water sinks , and turns , and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass ; and if there was no issue at the bottom , though it might by contrary currents turn things round within in its sphere , yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom . neither does it seem improbable , that the currents of the sea are from these in-draughts , and that there is always a submarine in-let in some part of them , to make a circulation of the waters . but thus much for the subterraneous communication of seas and lakes . and thus much in general concerning subterraneous cavities , and concerning the hollow and broken frame of the earth . if i had now magick enough to show you at one view all the inside of the earth , which we have imperfectly describ'd ; if we could go under the roots of the mountains , and into the sides of the broken rocks ; or could dive into the earth with one of those rivers that sink under ground , and follow its course and all its windings till it rise again , or led us to the sea , we should have a much stronger and more effectual idea of the broken form of the earth , than any we can excite by these faint descriptions collected from reason . the ancients i remember us'd to represent these hollow caves and subterraneous regions in the nature of a world under-ground , and suppos'd it inhabited by the nymphs especially the nymphs of the waters and the sea-goddesses ; so orpheus sung of old ; and in imitation of him virgil hath made a description of those regions ; feigning the nymph cyrene to send for her son to come down to her , and make her a visit in those shades where mortals were not admitted . duc age , duc ad nos , fas illi limina divûm tangere , ait : simul alta jubet discedere latè flumina , quà juvenis gressus inferret , at illum curvata in montis faciem circumstitit unda , accepítque sinu vasto , misítque sub amnem . iámque domum ●mirans genetricis & humida regna , speluncisque lacos clausos , lucósque sonantes , ibat , & ingenti motu stup●factus aquarum omnia sub magnâ labentia slumina terrâ spectabat diversa locis ; phasímque licúmque , &c. et thalami matris pendentia pumice tecta , &c. come lead the youth below , bring him to me , the gods are pleas'd our mansions he should see ; streight she commands the floods to make him way , they open their wide bosom and obey ; soft is the path , and easie is his tread , a watry arch hends o'er his dewy head ; and as he goes he wonders , and looks round , to see this new-found kingdom under ground . the silent lakes in hollow caves he sees , and on their banks an echoing grove of trees ; the fall of waters 'mongst the rocks below he hears , and sees the rivers how they flow : all the great rivers of the earth are there , prepar'd , as in a womb , by nature's care . last , to his mother's bed-chamber he 's brought , where the high roof with pumice-stone is wrought , &c. if we now could open the earth as this nymph did the water , and go down into the bosom of it : see all the dark chambers and apartments there , how ill contriv'd , and how ill kept : so many holes and corners , some fill'd with smoak and fire , some with water , and some with vapours and mouldy air ; how like a ruine it lies gaping and torn in the parts of it ? we should not easily believe that god created it into this form immediately out of nothing ; it would have cost no more to have made things in better order ; nay , it had been more easie and more simple ; and accordingly we are assured that all things were made at first in beauty and proportion . and if we consider nature and the manner of the first formation of the earth , 't is evident that there could be no such holes and caverns , nor broken pieces , made then in the body of it ; for the grosser parts of the chaos falling down towards the center , they would there compose a mass of earth uniform and compact , the water swimming above it ; and this first mass under the water could have no caverns or vacuities in it ; for if it had had any , the earthy parts , while the mass was liquid or semi-liquid , would have sunk into them and fill'd them up , expelling the air or water that was there ; and when afterwards there came to be a crust or new earth form'd upon the face of the waters , there could be no cavities , no dens , no fragments in it , no more than in the other ; and for the same general reason , that is , passing from a liquid form into a concrete or solid , leasurely and by degrees , it would flow and settle together in an entire mass ; there being nothing broken , nor any thing hard , to bear the parts off from one another , or to intercept any empty spaces between them . 't is manifest then that the earth could not be in this cavernous form originally , by any work of nature ; nor by any immediate action of god , seeing there is neither use nor beauty in this kind of construction ; do we not then , as reasonably , as aptly , ascribe it to that desolation that was brought upon the earth in the general deluge ? when its outward frame was dissolv'd and fell into the great abyss : how easily doth this answer all that we have observ'd concerning the subterraneous regions ? that hollow and broken posture of things under ground , all those caves and holes , and blind recesses , that are otherwise so inaccountable , say but that they are a ruine , and you have in one word explain'd them all . for there is no sort of cavities , interior or exterior , great or little , open or shut , wet or dry , of what form or fashion soever , but we might reasonably expect them in a ruine of that nature . and as for the subterraneous waters , seeing the earth fell into the abyss . the pillars and foundations of the present ( exteriour ) earth must stand immers'd in water , and therefore at such a depth from the surface every where , there must be water found , if the soil be of a nature to admit it . 't is true , all subterraneous waters do not proceed from this original , for many of them are the effects of rains and melted snows sunk into the earth ; but that in digging any where you constantly come to water at length , even in the most solid ground , this cannot proceed from these rains or snows , but must come from below , and from a cause as general as the effect is ; which can be no other in my judgment than this , that the roots of the exteriour earth stand within the old abyss , whereof , as a great part lies open in the sea , so the rest lies hid and cover'd among the fragments of the earth ; sometimes dispers'd and only moistning the parts , as our bloud lies in the flesh , and in the habit of the body ; sometimes in greater or lesser masses , as the bloud in our vessels . and this i take to be the true account of subterraneous waters as distinguish'd from fountains and rivers , and from the matter and causes of them . thus much we have spoke to give a general idea of the inward parts of the earth , and an easie explication of them by our hypothesis ; which whether it be true or no , if you compare it impartially with nature , you will confess at least , that all these things are just in such a form and posture as if it was true . chap. x. concerning the chanel of the sea , and the original of it ; the causes of its irregular form and unequal depths : as also of the original of islands , their situation , and other properties . we have hitherto given an account of the subterraneous regions , and of their general form ; we now come above ground to view the surface of the globe , which we find terraqueous , or divided into sea and land : these we must survey , and what is remarkable in them as to their frame and structure , we must give an account of from our hypothesis , and shew to be inaccountable from any other yet known . as for the ocean , there are two things considerable in it , the water and the chanel that contains it . the water no doubt is as ancient as the earth and cotemporary with it , and we suppose it to be part of the great abyss wherein the world was drown'd ; the rest lying cover'd under the hollow fragments of continents and islands . but that is not so much the subject of our present discourse as the chanel of the ocean , that vast and prodigious cavity that runs quite round the globe , and reacheth , for ought we know , from pole to pole , and in many places is unsearchably deep : when i present this great gulf to my imagination , emptied of all its waters , naked and gaping at the sun , stretching its jaws from one end of the earth to another , it appears to me the most ghastly thing in nature . what hands or instruments could work a trench in the body of the earth of this vastness , and lay mountains and rocks on the side of it , as ramparts to enclose it ? but as we justly admire its greatness , so we cannot at all admire its beauty or elegancy , for 't is as deform'd and irregular as it is great . and there appearing nothing of order or any regular design in its parts , it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the work of nature , according to her first intention , or according to the first model that was drawn in measure and proportion , by the line and by the plummet , but a secondary work , and the best that could be made of broken materials . and upon this supposition 't is easie to imagine , how upon the dissolution of the primaeval earth the chanel of the sea was made , or that huge cavity that lies between the several continents of the earth ; which shall be more particularly explain'd after we have view'd a little better the form of it , and the islands that lie scatter'd by its shores . there is no cavity in the earth , whether open or subterraneous ; that is comparably so great as that of the ocean , nor would any appear of that deformity if we could see it empty . the inside of a cave is rough and unsightly ; the beds of great rivers and great lakes when they are laid dry , look very raw and rude ; the valleys of the earth , if they were naked , without trees and without grass , nothing but bare ground and bare stones , from the tops of their mountains would have a ghastly aspect ; but the sea-chanel is the complex of all these ; here caves , empty lakes , naked valleys are represented as in their original , or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their irregularities ; for the cavity of the ocean is universally irregular , both as to the shores and borders of it ; as to the uncertain breadth and the uncertain depth of its several parts , and as to its ground and bottom and the whole mould : if the sea had been drawn round the earth in regular figures and borders , it might have been a great beauty to our globe , and we should reasonably have concluded it a work of the first creation , or of nature's first production ; but finding on the contrary all the marks of disorder and disproportion in it , we may as reasonably conclude , that it did not belong to the first order of things , but was something succedaneous , when the degeneracy of mankind , and the judgments of god had destroy'd the first world , and subjected the creation of some kind of vanity . nor can it easily be imagin'd , if the sea had been always , and the earth , in this terraqueous form , broke into continents and islands , how mankind could have been propagated at first through the face of the earth , all from one head and from one place . for navigation was not then known , at least as to the grand ocean , or to pass from continent to continent ; and , i believe , noah's ark was the first ship , or vessel of bulk , that ever was built in the world ; how could then the posterity of adam overflow the earth , and stock the several parts of the world , if they had been distant or separate then , as they are now , by the interposal of the great ocean ? but this consideration we will insist upon more largely in another place ; let us reflect upon the irregularities of the sea-chanel again , and the possible causes of it . if we could imagine the chanel of the sea to have been made as we may imagine the chanel of rivers to have been , by long and insensible attrition : the water wearing by degrees the ground under it , by the ●orce it hath from its descent and course , we should not wonder at its irregular form ; but 't is not possible this chanel should have had any such original ; whence should its water have descended , from what mountains , or from what clouds ? where is the spring-head of the sea ? what force could eat away half the surface of the earth , and wear it hollow to an immeasurable depth ? this must not be from feeble and lingring causes , such as the attrition of waters , but from some great violence offer'd to nature , such as we suppose to have been in the general deluge , when the frame of the earth was broken . and after we have a little survey'd the sea-coast , and so far as we can , the form of the sea-chanel , we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other original than what we assign . the shores and coasts of the sea are no way equal or uniform , but go in a line uncertainly crooked and broke ; indented and jag'd as a thing torn , as you may see in the maps of the coasts and the sea-charts ; and yet there are innumerable more inequalities than are taken notice of in those draughts ; for they only mark the greater promontories and bays ; but there are besides those a multitude of creeks and out-lets , necks of land and angles , which break the evenness of the shore in all manner of ways . then the height and level of the shore is as uncertain as the line of it ; 't is sometimes high and sometimes low , sometimes spread in sandy plains , as smooth as the sea it self , and of such an equal height with it , that the waves seem to have no bounds but the meer figure and convexity of the globe ; in other places 't is rais'd into banks and ramparts of earth , and in others 't is wall'd in with rocks ; and all this without any order that we can observe , or any other reason than that this is what might be expected in a ruine . as to the depths and soundings of the sea , they are under no rule nor equality any more than the figures of the shores ; shallows in some places , and gulphs in others ; beds of sands sometimes , and sometimes rocks under water ; as navigators have learn'd by a long and dangerous experience : and though we that are upon dry land , are not much concern'd how the rocks and the shelves lie in the sea , yet a poor shipwreckt mariner , when he hath run his vessel upon a rock in the middle of the chanel , expostulates bitterly with nature , who it was that plac'd that rock there , and to what purpose ? was there not room enough , saith he , upon the land , or the shore , to lay your great stones , but they must be thrown into the middle of the sea , as it were in spite to navigation ? the best apology that can be made for nature in this case , so far as i know , is to confess that the whole business of the sea-chanel is but a ruine , and in a ruine things tumble uncertainly , and commonly lie in confusion : though to speak the truth , it seldom happens , unless in narrow seas , that rocks or banks or islands lie in the middle of them , or very far from the shores. having view'd the more visible parts of the chanel of the sea , we must now descend to the bottom of it , and see the form and contrivance of that ; but who shall guide us in our journey , while we walk , as iob saith , in the search of the deep ? or who can make a description of that which none hath seen ? it is reasonable to believe , that the bottom of the sea is much more rugged , broken and irregular than the face of the land ; there are mountains , and valleys , and rocks , and ridges of rocks , and all the common inequalities we see upon land ; besides these , 't is very likely there are caves under water , and hollow passages into the bowels of the earth , by which the seas circulate and communicate one with another , and with subterraneous waters ; those great eddees and infamous syrtes and whirlpools that are in some seas , as the baltick and the mediterranean , that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach , show that there is something below that sucks from them in proportion , and that drinks up the sea as the sea drinks up the rivers . we ought also to imagine the shores within the water to go inclin'd and sloping , but with great inequality ; there are many shelves in the way , and chambers , and sharp angles ; and many broken rocks and great stones lie rolled down to the bottom . 't is true these things affect us little , because they are not expos'd to our senses ; and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from reason what the form of the invisible and inaccessible parts of the earth is ; or if we do sometimes , those idea's are faint and weak , and make no lasting impression upon our imagination and passions ; but if we should suppose the ocean dry , and that we lookt down from the top of some high cloud upon the empty shell , how horridly and barbarously would it look ? and with what amazement should we see it under us like an open hell , or a wide bottomless pit ? so deep , and hollow , and vast ; so broken and confus'd , so every way deform'd and monstrous . this would effectually waken our imagination , and make us enquire and wonder how such a thing came in nature ; from what causes , by what force or engines could the earth be torn in this prodigious manner ? did they dig the sea with spades , and carry out the molds in hand-baskets ? where are the entrails laid ? and how did they cleave the rocks asunder ? if as many pioneers as the army of xerxes , had been at work ever since the beginning of the world , they could not have made a ditch of this greatness . nor is it the greatness only , but that wild and multifarious confusion which we see in the parts and fashion of it , that makes it strange and inaccountable ; 't is another chaos in its kind , who can paint the scenes of it ? gulfs , and precipices , and cataracts ; pits within pits , and rocks under rocks , broken mountains and ragged islands ▪ that look as if they had been countries pull'd up by the roots , and planted in the sea. if we could make true and full representations of these things to our selves , i think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate product of divine omnipotence ; being destitute of all appearance of art or counsel . the first orders of things are more perfect and regular : and this decorum seems to be observ'd , that nature doth not fall into disorder till mankind be first degenerate and leads the way . monsters have been often made an argument against providence ; if a calf have two heads , or five legs , streight there must not be a god in heaven , or at least not upon earth ; and yet this is but a chance that happens once in many years , and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the world : but if we make the standing frame of nature monstrous , or deform'd and disproportion'd , and to have been so not by corruption and degeneracy , but immediately by divine creation or formation , it would not be so easie to answer that objection against providence . let us therefore prevent this imputation , and supposing , according to our theory , that these things were not originally thus , let us now explain more distinctly how they came to pass at the deluge , or upon the dissolution of the first earth . and we will not content our selves with a general answer to these observations concerning the sea-chanel , as if it was a sufficient account of them to say they were the effects of a ruine ; there are other things to be consider'd and explain'd besides this irregularity , as the vast hollowness of this cavity , bigger incomparably than any other belonging to the earth ; and also the declivity of the sides of it , which lie shelving from top to bottom ; for notwithstanding all the inequalities we have taken notice of in the chanel of the sea , it hath one general form , which may , though under many differences , be observ'd throughout , and that is , that the shores and sides within the water lie inclin'd , and you descend by degrees to the deepest part , which is towards the middle . this , i know , admits of many exceptions , for sometimes upon a rocky shore , or among rocky islands the sea is very deep close to the rocks , and the deeper commonly the higher and sleeper the rocks are . also where the descent is more leisurely , 't is often after a different manner , in some coasts more equal and uniform , in others more broken and interrupted , but still there is a descent to the chanel or deepest part , and this in the deep ocean is fathomless ; and such a deep ocean , and such a deep chanel there is always between continents . this , i think , is a property as determinate as any we can pitch upon in the chanel of the sea , and with those other two mention'd , its vast cavity and universal irregularity , is all one can desire an account of as to the form of it ; we will therefore from this ground take our rise and first measures for the explication of the sea-chanel . let us suppose then in the dissolution of the earth when it began to fall , that it was divided only into three or four fragments , according to the number of our continents ; but those fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full breadth and expansion , or at least could not descend so fast in the middle as towards the extremities ; because the air about the edges would yield and give place easily , not having far to go to get out of the way ; but the air that was under the middle of the fragment could not without a very swift motion get from under the concave of it , and consequently its descent there would be more resisted and suspended ; but the sides in the mean time would continually descend , bending the fragment with their weight , and so making it of a lesser compass and expansion than it was before : and by this means there would be an interval and distance made between the two falling fragments , and a good part of the abyss , after their descent , would lie uncover'd in the middle betwixt them ; as may be seen in this figure , where the fragments a. b. bending downwards in their extremities ▪ separate as they go , and after they are faln leave a good space in the abyss betwixt them , altogether uncover'd ; this space is the main chanel of the great ocean , lying betwixt two continents ; and the inclining sides shew the declivity of the shores. this we have represented here only in a ring or circle of the earth , in the first figure ; but it may be better represented in a broader surface , as in the second figure , where the two fragments a. b. that are to make the two opposite continents , fall in like double doors opening downwards , the hinges being towards the land on either side , so as at the bottom they leave in the middle betwixt them a deep chanel of water , a. a. a. such as is betwixt all continents ; and the water reaching a good height upon the land on either side , makes sea there too , but shallower , and by degrees you descend into the deepest chanel . fig. . page . fig. . fig. . we must in the first place distinguish between original islands and factitious islands ; those i call factitious , that are not of the same date and antiquity with the sea , but have been made some at one time , some at another , by accidental causes , as the aggestion of sands and sand-beds , or the sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high , and yet flowing about the lower skirts of them ; these make sandy and plain islands , that have no high land in them , and are but mock-islands in effect . others are made by divulsion from some continent , when an isthmus or the neck of a promontory running into the sea , sinks or falls in , by an earthquake or otherwise , and the sea entring in at the gap passeth through , and makes that promontory or country become an island . thus the island sicily is suppos'd to have been made , and all africa might be an island , if the isthmus between the mediterranean and the red sea should sink down . and these islands may have rocks and mountains in them , if the land had so before . lastly , there are islands that have been said to rise from the bottom of the sea ; history mentions such in both the archipelago's , aegaean and indian ; and this seems to argue that there are great fragments or tracts of earth that lie loose at the bottom of the sea , or that are not incorporated with the ground ; which agrees very well with our explication of the sea-chanel . but besides these islands and the several sorts of them , there are others which i call original ; because they could not be produc'd in any of the forementioned ways , but are of the same origin and antiquity with the chanel of the sea ; and such are the generality of our islands ; they were not made of heaps of sands , nor torn from any continent , but are as ancient as the continents themselves , namely , ever since the deluge , the common parent of them both . nor is there any difficulty to understand how islands were made at the dissolution of the earth , any more than how continents were made ; for islands are but lesser continents , or continents greater islands ; and according as continents were made of greater masses of earth or greater fragments standing above the water , so islands were made of less , but so big always , and in such a posture , as to bear their tops above the water . yet though they agree thus far , there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their origin ; for the continents were made of those three or four primary masses into which the falling orb of the earth was divided , but the islands were made of the fractures of these , and broken off by the fall from the skirts and extremities of the continents ; we noted before , that when those great masses and primary fragments came to dash upon the abyss in their fall , the sudden stop of the motion , and the weighty bulk of the descending fragment broke off all the edges and extremities of it , which edges and extemities broken off made the islands ; and accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter'd along the sides of the continents , and are but splinters , as it were , of those greater bodies . 't is ture , besides these , there were an infinite number of other pieces broke off that do not appear , some making rocks under water , some shallows and banks in the sea ; but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another , or in such a posture as to prop up one another , their heads and higher parts would stand out of the water and make islands . thus i conceive the islands of the sea were at first produc'd ; we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous , or far more numerous than the continents ; these are the parents , and those are the children ; nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the continents several islands or sets of islands , sown , as it were , by handfuls , or laid in trains ; for the manner of their generation would lead us to think they would be so plac'd . so the american islands lie scatter'd upon the coast of that continent ; the maldivian and philippine upon the east-indian shore , and the hesperides upon the africk ; and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the ocean , though , by an accident , that also might come to pass . lastly , it suits very well with our explication , that there should be mountains and rocks , sometimes in clusters , sometimes in long chains , in all islands ; ( as we find there are in all that are true and original ) for 't is that makes them high enough to appear above the water , and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high situation . and thus much may suffice for a summary explication of the causes of the sea-chanel and islands , according to our hypothesis . chap. xi . concerning the mountains of the earth , their greatness and irregular form , their situation , causes , and origin . we have been in the hollows of the earth , and the chambers of the deep , amongst the damps and steams of those lower regions ; let us now go air our selves on the tops of the mountains , where we shall have a more free and large horizon , and quite another face of things will present it self to our observation . the greatest objects of nature are , methinks , the most pleasing to behold ; and next to the great concave of the heavens , and those boundless regions where the stars inhabit , there is nothing that i look upon with more plaesure than the wide sea and the mountains of the earth . there is something august and stately in the air of these things , that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions ; we do naturally , upon such occasions , think of god and his greatness : and whatsoever hath but the shadow and appearance of infinite , as all things have that are too big for our comprehension , they fill and over-bear the mind with their excess , and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration . and yet these mountains we are speaking of , to confess the truth , are nothing but great ruines ; but such as show a certain magnificence in nature ; as from old temples and broken amphitheaters of the romans we collect the greatness of that people . but the grandeur of a nation is less sensible to those that never see the remains and monuments they have left , and those who never see the mountainous parts of the earth , scarce ever reflect upon the causes of them , or what power in nature could be sufficient to produce them . the truth is , the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things , or concerning the original of them . you may tell them that mountains grow out of the earth like fuzz-balls , or that there are monsters under ground that throw up mountains as moles do mole-hills ; they will scarce raise one objection against your doctrine ; or if you would appear more learned , tell them that the earth is a great animal and these are wens that grow upon its body . this would pass current for philosophy ; so much is the world drown'd in stupidity and sensual pleasures , and so little inquisitive into the works of god and nature . there is nothing doth more awaken our thoughts or excite our minds to enquire into the causes of such things , than the actual view of them ; as i have had experience my self when it was my fortune to cross the alps and appennine mountains ; for the sight of those wild , vast and indigested heaps of stones and earth , did so deeply strike my fancy , that i was not easie till i could give my self some tolerable account how that confusion came in nature . 't is true , the height of mountains compar'd with the diameter of the earth is not considerable , but the extent of them and the ground they stand upon , bears a considerable proportion to the surface of the earth ; and if from europe we may take our measures for the rest , i easily believe , that the mountains do at least take up the tenth part of the dry land. the geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their charts , the multitude or situation of mountains ; they mark the bounds of countries , the site of cities and towns , and the course of rivers , because these are things of chief use to civil affairs and commerce , and that they design to serve , and not philosophy or natural history . but cluverius in his description of ancient germany , switzerland and italy , hath given maps of those countries more approaching to the natural face of them , and we have drawn ( at the end of this chapter ) such a map of either hemisphere , without marking countries or towns , or any such artificial things ; distinguishing only land and sea , islands and continents , mountains and not mountains ; and 't is very useful to imagine the earth in this manner , and to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us nature undrest , for then we are best able to judge what her true shapes and proportions are . 't is certain that we naturally imagine the surface of the earth much more regular than it is ; for unless we be in some mountainous parts , there seldom occur any great inequalities within so much compass of ground as we can , at once , reach with our eye ; and to conceive the rest , we multiply the same iden , and extend it to those parts of the earth that we do not see ; and so fansie the whole globe much more smooth and uniform than it is . but suppose a man was carri'd asleep out of a plain country amongst the alps , and left there upon the top of one of the highest mountains , when he wak'd and look'd about him , he would think himself in an inchanted country , or carri'd into another world ; every thing would appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagin'd before . to see on every hand of him a multitude of vast bodies thrown together in confusion , as those mountains are ; rocks standing naked round about him ; and the hollow valleys gaping under him ; and at his feet it may be , an heap of frozen snow in the midst of summer . he would hear the thunder come from below , and see the black clouds hanging beneath him ; upon such a prospect , it would not be easie to him to perswade himself that he was still upon the same earth ; but if he did , he would be convinc'd , at least , that there are some regions of it strangely rude , and ruine-like , and very different from what he had ever thought of before . but the inhabitants of these wild places are even with us ; for those that live amongst the alps and the great mountains , think that all the rest of the earth is like their country , all broken into mountains , and valleys , and precipices ; they never see other , and most people think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or another . these alps we are speaking of are the greatest range of mountains in europe ; and 't is prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these heaps of stones and rubbish are ; one way they overspread savoy and dauphiné , and reach through france to the pyrenean mountains , and so to the ocean . the other way they run along the skirts of germany , through stiria , pannonia , and dalmatia , as far as thrace and the black sea. then backwards they cover switzerland and the parts adjacent ; and that branch of them which we call the appennines , strikes through italy , and is , as it were , the back-bone of that country . this must needs be a large space of ground which they stand upon ; yet 't is not this part of europe only that is laden with mountains , the northern part is as rough and rude in the face of the country , as in the manners of the people ; bohemia , silesia , denmark , norway , sweedland , lapland , and iseland , and all the coasts of the baltick sea , are full of clifts , and rocks , and crags of mountains : besides the riphean mountains in muscovy , which the inhabitants there use to call the stone-girdle , and believe that it girds the earth round about . nor are the other parts of our continent more free from mountains than europe , nor other parts of the earth than our continent : they are in the new world as well as the old ; and if they could discover two or three new worlds or continents more , they would still find them there . neither is there any original island upon the earth , but is either all a rock , or hath rocks and mountains in it . and all the dry land , and every continent , is but a kind of mountain : though that mountain hath a multitude of lesser ones , and valleys , and plains , and lakes , and marshes , and all variety of grounds . in america , the andes , or a ridge of mountains so call'd , are reported to be higher than any we have , reaching above a thousand leagues in length , and twenty in breadth , where they are the narrowest . in africk the mountain atlas , that for its height was said to bear the heavens on its back , runs all along from the western sea to the borders of aegypt , parallel with the mediterranean . there also are the mountains or the moon , and many more whereof we have but an imperfect account , as neither indeed of that country in the remote and inner parts of it . asia is better known , and the mountains thereof better describ'd : taurus , which is the principal was adjudg'd by the ancient geographers the greatest in the world. it divides asia into two parts , which have their denomination from it : and there is an anti-taurus the greater and the less , which accordingly divide armenia into greater and less . then the cruciform mountains of imaus , the famous càucasus , the long chains of tartary and china , and the rocky and mountainous arabia . if one could at once have a prospect of all these together , one would be easily satisfied , that the globe of the earth is a more rude and indigested body than 't is commonly imagin'd ; if one could see , i say , all the kingdoms and regions of the earth at one view , how they lie in broken heaps ; the sea hath overwhelm'd one half of them , and what remains are but the taller parts of a ruine . look upon those great ranges of mountains in europe or in asia whereof we have given a short survey , in what confusion do they lie ? they have neither form nor beauty , nor shape , nor order , no more than the clouds in the air. then how barren , how desolate , how naked are they ? how they stand neglected by nature ? neither the rains can soften them , nor the dews from heaven make them fruitful . i have given this short account of the mountains of the earth , to help to remove that prejudice we are apt to have , or that conceit , that the present earth is regularly form'd . and to this purpose i do not doubt but that it would be of very good use to have natural maps of the earth , as we noted before , as well as civil ; and done with the same care and judgment . our common maps i call civil , which note the distinction of countries and of cities , and represent the artificial earth as inhabited and cultivated : but natural maps leave out all that , and represent the earth as it would be if there was not an inhabitant upon it , nor evor had been ; the skeleton of the earth , as i may so say , with the site of all its parts . methinks also every prince should have such a draught of his own country and dominions , to see how the ground lies in the several parts of them , which highest , which lowest ; what respect they have to one another , and to the sea ; how the rivers flow , and why ; how the mountains stand , how the heaths , and how the marches are plac'd . such a map or survey would be useful both in time of war and peace , and many good observations might be made by it , not only as to natural history and philosophy , but also in order to the perfect improvement of a country . but to return to our mountains . as this view of the multitude and greatness of them may help to rectifie our mistakes about the form of the earth , so before we proceed to examine their causes it will be good to observe farther , that these mountains are plac'd in no order on with another , that can either respect use or beauty ; and if you consider them singly , they do not consist of any proportion of parts that is referable to any design , or that hath the least footsteps of art or counsel . there is nothing in nature more shapeless and ill-figur'd than an old rock or a mountain , and all that variety that is among them , is but the various modes of irregularity ; so as you cannot make a better character of them , in short , than to say they are of all forms and figures , except regular . then if you would go within these mountains , ( for they are generally hollow , ) you would find all things there more rude , if possible , than without : and lastly , if you look upon an heap of them together , or a mountainous country , they are the greatest examples of confusion that we know in nature ; no tempest or earthquake puts things into more disorder . 't is true , they cannot look so ill now as they did at first ; a ruine that is fresh looks much worse than afterwards , when the earth grows discolour'd and skin'd over . but i fancy if we had seen the mountains when they were new born and raw , when the earth was fresh-broken , and the waters of the deluge newly retir'd , the fractions and confusions of them would have appear'd very gastly and frightful . after this general survey of the mountains of the earth and their properties , let us now re●lect upon the causes of them . there is a double pleasure in philosophy , first that of admiration , whilst we contemplate things that are great and wonderful , and do not yet understand their causes ; for though admiration proceed from ignorance , yet there is a certain charm and sweetness in that passion . then the second pleasure is greater and more intellectual , which is that of distinct knowledge and comprehension , when we come to have the key that unlocks those secrets , and see the methods wherein those things come to pass that we admir'd before ; the reasons why the world is so or so , and from what causes nature , or any part of nature , came into such a state ; and this we are now to enquire after as to the mountains of the earth , what their original was , how and when the earth came into this strange frame and structure ? in the beginning of our world , when the earth rise from a chaos , 't was impossible it should come immediately into this mountainous form ; because a mass that is fluid , as a chaos is , cannot li● in any other figure than what is regular ; for the constant laws of nature do certainly bring all liquors into that form ▪ and a chaos is not call'd so from any confusion or brokenness in the form of it , but from a confusion and mixture of all sorts of ingredients in the composition of it . so we have already produc'd , in the precedent chapters a double argument that the earth was not originally in this form , both because it rise from a ch●os , which could not of it self , or by any immediate concretion , settle into a form of this nature , as hath been shown in the fourth and fifth chapters ; as also because if it had been originally made thus , it could never have undergone a deluge , as hath been prov●d in the second and third chapters . if this be then a secondary and succedaneous form , the great question is from what causes it arises . some have thought that mountains , and all other irregularities in the earth , have rise from earthquakes , and such like causes ; others have thought that they came from the universal deluge ; yet not from any dissolution of the earth that was then , but only from the great agitation of the waters , which broke the ground into this rude and unequal form . both these causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient . earthquakes seldom make mountains , they often take them away , and sink them down into the caverns that lie under them ; besides , earthquakes are not in all countries and climates as mountains are ; for , as we have observ'd more than once , there is neither island that is original , nor continent any where in the earth , in what latitude soever , but hath mountains and rocks in it . and lastly , what probability is there , or how is it credible , that those vast tracts of land which we see fill'd with mountains both in europe , asia and africa , were rais'd by earthquakes , or any eruptions from below . in what age of the world was this done , and why not continu'd ? as for the deluge , which they alledge as another cause , i doubt not but mountains were made in the time of the general deluge , that great change and transformation of the earth happen'd then , but not from such causes as are pretended , that is , the bare rolling and agitation of the waters ; for if the earth was smooth and plain before the flood , as they seem to suppose as well as we do , the waters could have little or no power over a smooth surface to tear it any way in pieces , no more than they do a meadow or low ground when they lie upon it ; for that which makes torrents and land-floods violent , is their fall from the mountains and high lands , which our earth is now full of , but if the rain fell upon even and level ground , it would only sadden and compress it ; there is no possibility how it should raise mountains in it . and if we could imagine an universal deluge as the earth is now constituted , it would rather throw down the hills and mountains than raise new ones ; or by beating down their tops and loose parts , help to fill the valleys , and bring the earth nearer to evenness and plainness . seeing then there are no hopes of explaining the origin of mountains , either from particular earthquakes , or from the general deluge , according to the common notion and explication of it ; these not being causes answerable to such vast effects ; let us try our hypothesis again ; which hath made us a chanel large enough for the sea , and room for all subterraneous cavities , and i think will find us materials enough to raise all the mountains of the earth . we suppose the great arch or circumference of the first earth to have fallen into the abyss at the deluge , and seeing that was large than the surface it fell upon , 't is absolutely certain , that it could not all fall flat , or lie under the water ; now as all those parts that stood above the water made dry land , or the present habitable earth , so such parts of the dry land as stood higher than the rest , made hills and mountains ; and this is the first and general account of them , and of all the inequalities of the earth . but to consider these things a little more particularly ; there is a double cause and necessity of mountains , first this now mention'd , because the exteriour orb of the earth was greater than the interiour which it fell upon , and therefore it could not all fall flat ; and secondly , because this exteriour orb did not fall so flat and large as it might , or did not cover all the bottom of the abyss , as it was very capable to do ; but as we shewed before in explaining the chanel of the ocean , it left a gaping in the middle , or an abyss-chanel , as i should call it ; and the broader this abyss-chanel was , the more mountains there would be upon the dry land ; for there would be more earth , or more of the falling orb left , and less room to place it in , and therefore it must stand more in heaps . in what parts of the earth these heaps would lie , and in what particular manner , it cannot be expected that we should tell ; but all that we have hitherto observ'd concerning mountains , how strange soever and otherwise unaccountable , may easily be explain'd , and deduc'd from this original ; we shall not wonder at their greatness and vastness , seeing they are the ruines of a broken world ; and they would take up more or less of the dry land , according as the ocean took up more or less space of our globe : then as to their figure and form , whether external or internal , 't is just such as answers our expectation , and no more than what the hypothesis leads us to ; for you would easily believe that these heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways , whether consider'd apart , or in their situation to one another . and they would lie commonly in clusters and in ridges , for those are two of the most general postures of the parts of a ruine , when they fall inwards . lastly , we cannot wonder that mountains should be generally hollow ; for great bodies falling together in confusion , or bearing and leaning against one another , must needs make a great many hollownesses in them , and by their unequal applications empty spaces will be intercepted . we see also from the same reason , why mountainous countries are subject to earthquakes ; and why mountains often sink and fall down into the caverns that lie under them ; their joynts and props being decayed and worn , they become unable to bear their weight . and all these properties you see hang upon one and the same string , and are just consequences from our supposition concerning the dissolution of the first earth . and there is no surer mark of a good hypothesis , than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two particulars , but answers all that it is to be apply'd to , and is adequate to nature in her whole extent . but to speak the truth , this theory is something more than a bare hypothesis ; because we are assur'd that the general ground that we go upon is true , namely , that the earth rise at first from a chaos ; for besides reason and antiquity , scripture it self doth assure us of that ; and that one point being granted , we have deduc'd from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences , which i think cannot be broken easily in any part or link of it . besides , the great hinge of this theory upon which all the rest turns , is the distinction we make of the ante diluvian earth and heavens from the post-diluvian , as to their form and constitution . and it will never be beaten out of my head , but that s. peter hath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since , and to the very same purpose ; so that we have sure footing here again , and the theory riseth above the character of a bare hypothesis . and whereas an hypothesis that is clear and proportion'd to nature in every respect , is accounted morally certain , we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this theory . but i mean this only as to the general parts of it ; for as to particularities . i look upon them only as problematical , and accordingly i affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation , and a liberty to change my opinion when i shall be better inform'd . neither do i know any author that hath treated a matter new , remote , and consisting of a multitude of particulars , who would not have had occasion , if he had liv'd to have seen his hypothesis fully examin'd , to have chang'd his mind and manner of explaining things , in many material instances . to conclude both this chapter and this section , we have here added a map or draught of the earth , according to the natural face of it , as it would appear from the moon , if we were a little nearer to her ; or as it was at first after the deluge , before cities were built , distinctions of countries made , or any alte●ations by humane industry . 't is chiefly to expose more to view the mountains of the earth , and the proportions of sea and land , to shew it as it lies in it self , and as a naturalist ought to conceive and consider it . 't is true , there are far more mountains upon the earth than what are here represented , for more could not conveniently be plac'd in this narrow scheme ; but the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the earth as it is by nature , would be , not in plain tables , but by a rough globe , expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the earth . the smooth globes that we use , do but nourish in us the conceit of the earth's regularity , and though they may be convenient enough for geographical purposes , they are not so proper for natural science ; nothing would be more useful , in this respect , than a rough globe of the largest dimensions , wherein the chanel of the sea should be really hollow , as it is in nature , with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings , and the shores exprest both according to matter and form , little rocks standing where there are rocks , and sands and beaches in the places where they are found ; and all the islands planted in the sea-chanel in a due form , and in their solid dimensions . then upon the land should stand all the ranges of mountains , in the same order or disorder that nature hath set them there ; and the in-land seas , and great lakes , or rather the beds they lie in , should be duly represented ; as also the vast desarts of sand as they lie upon the earth . and this being done with care and due art , would be a true epitome or true model of our earth . where we should see , besides other instructions , what a rude lump our world is , which we are so apt to dote upon . chap. xii . a short review of what hath been already treated of , and in what manner . the several faces and schemes under which the earth would appear to a stranger , that should view it first at a distance , and then more closely , and the application of them to our subject . all methods , whether philosophical or theological , that have been offer'd by others for the explication of the form of the earth , are examin'd and disprov'd . a conjecture concerning the other planets , their natural form and state compared with ours . we have finish'd the three sections of this book , and in this last chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of , and add some further confirmations of it . the explication of the universal deluge was the first proposal and design of this discourse , to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of man : and the full explication of this drew in the whole theory of the earth : whose original we have deduc'd from its first source , and shew'd both what was its primaeval form , and how it came into its present form. the summ of our hypothesis concerning the universal deluge was this ; that it came not to pass , as was vulgarly believ'd , by any excess of rains , or any inundation of the sea , nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of waters ; unless we suppose some dissolution of the earth at the same time , namely when the great abyss was broken open . and accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution , or if the earth had been always in the same form it is in now , no mass of water , any where to be found in the world ▪ could have equall'd the height of the mountains , or made such an universal deluge . secondly , we shewed that the form of the earth at first , and till the deluge , was such as made it capable and subject to a dissolution : and thirdly , that such a dissolution being suppos'd , the doctrine of the universal deluge is very reasonable and intelligible ; and not only the doctrine of the deluge , but the same supposition is a key to all nature besides , shewing us how our globe became terraqueous , what was the original of mountains , of the sea-chanel , of islands , of subterraneous cavities ; things , which without this supposition , are as unintelligible as the universal flood it self . and these things reciprocally confirming one another , our hypothesis of the deluge is arm'd both breast and back , by the causes and by the effects . it remains now , that , as to confirm our explication of the deluge , we shew'd all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible , so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the earth , and concerning the original of mountains , seas , and all inequalities upon it , or within it , we must examine what causes have been assign'd by others , or what accounts given of these things : that seeing their defectiveness , we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method . and in order to this , let us observe first the general forms under which the earth may be consider'd , or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely ; and the first of these and the most general is that of a terraqueous globe . if a philosopher should come out of another world out of curiosity to see our earth , the first discovery or observation he would make would be this , that it was a terraqueous globe ; thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our world. this we discern in the moon and most of the planets , that they are divided into sea and land , and how this division came , would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our earth ; and how also those subdivisions of islands , or little earths which lie in the water , how these were form'd , and that great chanel that contains them both . the second form that the earth appears under , is that of an uneven and mountainous globe . when our traveller had got below tho circle of the moon , he would discern the bald tops of our mountains , and the long ranges of them upon our continents . we cannot from the earth discern mountains and valleys in the moon , directly , but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there , we easily collect that there are such inequalities : and accordingly we suppose that our mountains would appear at a great distance , and the shady valleys lying under them ; and that this curious person that came to view our earth , would make that his second enquiry , how those mountains were form'd ? and how our globe came to be so rude and irregular ? for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into nature , seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular , and whatsoever is not so is but secondary , and the consequence of some degeneracy , or of some decay . the third visible form of our earth is that of a broken globe ; and broken throughout , but in the outward parts and regions of it . this , it may be , you will say , is not a visible form ; it doth not appear to the eye , without reasoning , that the surface of the earth is so broken . suppose our new visitant had now pass'd the middle region of the air , and was alighted upon the top of pick teneriffe for his first resting place , and that sitting there he took a view of the great rocks , the wide sea , and of the shores of africk and europe ; for we 'll suppose his piercing eye to reach so far ; i will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this globe was broken , unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other planet like to it ; but the broken form and figure of many parts of the rocks , and the posture in which they lay , or great portions of them , some inclin'd , some prostrate , some erected , would naturally lead him to that thought , that they were a ruine ; he would see also the islands tore from the continents , and both the shores of the continents and their inland parts in the same disorder and irregular situation . besides , he had this great advantage in viewing the earth at a distance , that he could see a whole hemisphere together , which , as he made his approaches through the air , would have much what the same aspect and countenance as 't is represented with in the great scheme ; and if any man should accidentally hit upon that scheme , not knowing or thinking that it was the earth , i believe his first thought of it would be , that it was some great broken body , or ruin'd frame of matter ; and the original , i am sure , is more manifestly so . but we 'll leave our strange philosopher to his own observations , and wish him good guides and interpreters in his survey of the earth , and that he would make a favourable report at his return home , of our little dirty planet . in the mean time , let us pursue , in our own way , this third idea of the earth a little further , as it is a broken globe , nature i know hath dissembled and cover'd this form as much as may be , and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches , or fill them up ; besides , the changes that have been made by art and humane industry , by agriculture , planting , and building towns , hath made the face of the earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness . as mankind is much alter'd from its pristine state , from what it was four thousand years ago , or towards the first ages after the flood , when the nations liv'd in simplicity or barbarousness ; so is the earth too , and both so disguis'd and transform'd , that if one of those primitive fathers should rise from the dead , he would scarce know this to be the same world which he liv'd in before . but to discern the true form of the earth , whether intire or broken , regular or disorder'd , we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by art or nature , and view the bare carcass of the earth , as it hath nothing on it but rocks and mountains , desarts and fields , and hollow valleys , and a wide sea. then secondly , we must in our imagination empty this chanel of the sea , take out all the waters that hinder the sight of it , and look upon the dry ditch , measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind , and observe the manner of its construction , and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie ; according as it hath been formerly represented . and lastly , we must take off the cover of all subterraneous places and deep caverns , to see the inside of the earth ; and lay bare the roots of mountains , to look into those holes and vaults that are under them , fill'd sometimes with fire , sometimes with water , and sometimes with thick air and vapours . the object being thus prepar'd , we are then to look fix'dly upon it , and to pronounce what we think of this disfigur'd mass , whether this exteriour frame doth not seem to be shatter'd ; and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made world , or the ruines of one broken . i confess when this idea of the earth is present to my thoughts , i can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produc'd , than if i had seen the temple of ierusalem in its ruines , when defac'd and sack'd by the babylonians , i could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture , and that solomon had given orders for building it so . so much for the form of the earth : it remains now that we examine what causes have been assign'd by others of these irregularities in the form of the earth , which we explain by the dissolution of it ; what accounts any of the ancients have given or attempted to give , how the earth swell'd into mountains in certain places , and in others was depress'd into low valleys , how the body of it was so broken , and how the chanel of the sea was made . the elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another , and now we find them mixt , confounded and transpos'd , how comes this disturbance and disordination in nature ? the explications of these things that have been given by others , may be reduc'd to two general sorts , philosophical or theological , and we will try them both for our satisfaction . of philosophers none was more concern'd to give an account of such things than epicurus , both because he acknowledged the origin of the earth to have been from a chaos , and also admitted no causes to act in nature but matter and motion : yet all the account we have from the epicureans of the form of the earth , and the great inequalities that are in it , is so slight and trivial , that methinks it doth not deserve the name of a philosophical explication . they say that the earth and water were mix'd at first , or rather the earth was above the water , and as the earth was condens'd by the heat of the sun , and the winds , the water was squeez'd out in certain places , which either it found hollow or made so ; and so was the chanel of the sea made . then as for mountains , while some parts of the earth shrunk and sunk in this manner , others would not sink , and these standing still while the others fell lower , made the mountains . how the subterraneous cavities were made according to them , i do not find . this is all the account that monsieur gassendi ( who seems to have made it his business , as well as his pleasure , to embellish that philosophy ) can help us to out of the epicurean authors , how the earth came into this form ; and he that can content himself with this , is , in my mind , of an humour very easie to be pleas'd . do the sun and the wind use to squeaze pools of water out of the earth , and that in such a quantity as to make an ocean ? they dry the earth , and the waters too , and rarifie them into vapours , but i never knew them to be the causes of pressing water out of the earth by condensation . could they compress the earth any otherwise , than by drying it and making it hard ? and in proportion , as it was more dry , would it not the more imbibe and suck up the water ? and how were the great mountains of the earth made , in the north and in the south , where the influence of the sun is not great ? what sunk the earth there , and made the flesh start from the bones ? but 't is no wonder that epicurus should give such a mean account of the origin of the earth , and the form of its parts , who did not so much as understand the general figure of the body of it , that it was in some manner spherical , or that the heavens encompast it round . one must have a blind love for that philosophy , and for the conclusions it drives at , not to see its lameness and defects in those first and fundamental parts . aristotle , though he was not concern'd to give an account how the earth came into this present form , as he suppos'd it , eternal ; yet upon another consideration he seems oblig'd to give some reason how the elements came into this disorder ; seeing he supposeth , that , according to the order of nature , the water should lie above the earth in a sphere , as the air doth above the water , and his fire above the air. this he toucheth upon in his meteors , but so gently and fearfully , as if he was handling hot coals . he saith the sea is to be consider'd as the element , or body of waters that belongs to this earth , and that these waters change places , and the sea is some ages in one part of the globe , and some ages in another ; but that this is at such great distances of time that there can be no memory or record of it . and he seems willing to suppose that the water was once all over the earth , but that it drid up in certain places , and continuing in others , it there made the sea. what a miserable account is this ? as to his change or removal of the sea-chanel in several ages , as it is without all proof or probability , if he mean it of the chanel of the great ocean , so 't is nothing to the purpose here ; for the question is not why the chanel of the sea is in such a part of the earth , rather than in another , but why there is any such prodigious cavity in or upon the earth any where . and if we take his supposition , that the element of water was once higher than the earth , and lay in a sphere about it , then let him tell us in plain terms how the earth got above , or how the cavity of the ocean was made , and how the the mountains rise ; for this elementary earth which lay under the water , was , i suppose , equal and smooth when it lay there ; and what reason was there , that the waters should be dri'd in one part of it , more than another , if they were every where of an equal depth , and the ground equal under them ? it was not the climates made any distinction , for there is sea towards the poles , as well as under the aequator ; but suppose they were dri'd up in certain places , that would make no mountains , no more than there are mountains in our dri'd marches : and the places where they were not dri'd , would not therefore become as deep and hollow as the sea chanel , and tear the earth and rocks in pieces . if you should say that this very elementary earth , as it lay under the waters , was unequal , and was so originally , form'd into mountains and valleys , and great cavities ; besides , that the supposition is altogether irrational in it self , you must suppose a prodigious mass of water to cover such an earth ; as much as we found requisite for the vulgar deluge , namely , eight oceans ; and what then is become of the other seven ? upon the whole i do not see that either in epicurus's way , who seems to suppose that the waters were at first within the earth ; nor in aristotle's way , who seems to suppose them upon the earth , any rational or tolerable account can be given of the present form of the earth . wherefore some modern authors , dissatisfied , as very well they might be , with these explications given us by the ancients concerning the form of the earth , have pitch'd upon other causes , more true indeed in their kind , and in their degree , but that ●all as much short of those effects to which they would apply them . they say that all the irregularities of the body of the earth have risen from earthquakes in particular places , and from torrents and inundations , and from eruptions of fire , or such like causes , whereof we see some instances more or less every age ; and these have made that havock upon the face of the earth , and turn'd things up-side down , raising the earth in some places , and making great cavities or chasms in others , so as to have brought it at length into that torn , broken , and disorderly form in which we now see it . these authors do so far agree with us , as to acknowledge that the present irregular form of the earth must have proceeded from ruines and dissolutions of one sort or other , but these ruines they make to have been partial only , in this or in that country , by piece-meal , and in several ages , and from no other causes but such as still continue to act in nature , namely , accidental earthquakes and eruptions of fires and waters . these causes we acknowledge as readily as they do , but not as capable to produce so great effects as they would ascribe to them ; the surface of the earth may be a little changed by such accidents as these , but for the most part they rather sink the mountains than raise new ones : as when houses are blown up by mines of powder , they are not set higher , but generally fall lower and flatter : or suppose they do sometimes raise an hill , or a little mount , what 's that to the great mountains of our world , to those long and vast piles of rocks and stones , which the earth can scarce bear ? what 's that to strong-backt taurus or atlas , to the american andes , or to a mountain that reacheth from the pyreneans to the euxine sea ? there 's as much difference between these and those factitious mountains they speak of , as betwixt them and mole-hills . and to answer more distinctly to this opinion , as before in speaking of islands we distinguish'd betwixt factitious and original islands , so , if you please , we may distinguish here betwixt factitious and original mountains ; and allowing some few , and those of the fifth or sixth magnitude , to have risen from such accidental causes , we enquire concerning the rest and the greatest , what was their original ? if we should suppose that the seven hills upon which rome stands , came from ruines or eruptions , or any such causes , it doth not follow that the alps were made so too . and as for mountains , so for the cavities of the earth , i suppose there may be disruptions sometimes made by earthquakes , and holes worn by subterraneous fires and waters ; but what 's that to the chanel of the atlantick ocean , or of the pacifick ocean , which is extended an hundred and fifty degrees under the aequator , and towards the poles still further . he that should derive such mighty things from no greater causes , i should think him a very credulous philosopher . and we are too subject indeed to that fault of credulity in matter of philosophizing ; many when they have found out causes that are proper for certain effects within such a compass , they cannot keep them there , but they will make them do every thing for them ; and extend them often to other effects of a superiour nature or degree , which their activity can by no means reach to . aetna hath been a burning mountain ever since and above the memory of man , yet it hath not destroy'd that island , nor made any new chanel to the sea , though it stands so near it . neither is vesuvius above two or three miles distant from the sea-side , to the best of my remembrance , and yet in so many ages it hath made no passage to it , neither open nor subterraneous . 't is true some isthmus's have been thrown down by earthquakes , and some lakes have been made in that manner , but what 's this to a ditch nine thousand miles broad ? such an one we have upon the earth , and of a depth that is not measurable ; what proportion have these causes to such an instance ? and how many thousand ages must be allow'd to them to do their work , more than the chronology of our earth will bear ? besides , when were these great earthquakes and disruptions , that did such great execution upon the body of the earth ? was this before the flood or since ? if before , then the old difficulty returns , how could there be a flood , if the earth was in this mountainous form before that time ? this , i think , is demonstrated impossible in the second and third chapters . if since the flood , where were the waters of the earth before these earthquakes made a chanel for them ? besides , where is the history or tradition that speaks of these strange things , and of this great change of the earth ? hath any writ of the origins of the alps ? in what year of rome , or what olympiad they were born ? or how they grew from little ones ? how the earth groan'd when it brought them forth , when its bowels were torn by the ragged rocks ? do the chronicles of the nations mention these things , or ancient fame , or ancient fables ? were they made all at once , or in successive ages ? these causes continue still in nature , we have still earthquakes and subterraneous fires and waters , why should they not still operate and have the same effects ? we often hear of cities thrown down by earthquakes ; or countries swallow'd up , but whoever heard of a new chain of mountains made upon the earth , or a new chanel made for the ocean ? we do not read that there hath been so much as a new sinus of the sea ever since the memory of man ▪ which is far more feasible than what they pretend . and things of this nature being both strange and sensible , excite admiration and great attention when they come to pass , and would certainly have been remembred or propagated in some way or other , if they had ever happen'd since the deluge . they have recorded the foundation of cities and monarchies , the appearance of blazing stars , the eruptions of fiery mountains , the most remarkable earthquakes and inundations , the great eclipses or obscurations of the sun , and any thing that look'd strange or prodigy-like , whether in the heavens or on earth : and these which would have been the greatest prodigles and greatest changes that ever happen'd in nature , would these have escap'd all observation and memory of men ? that 's as incredible as the things themselves are . lastly , to comprehend all these opinions together , both of the ancient and modern authors , they seem all to agree with us in this , that the earth was once under another form ; otherwise why do they go about to shew the causes how it came into this form . i desire then to know what form they suppose the earth to have been under before the mountains were made , the chanel of the sea , or subterraneous cavities . either they must take that form which we have assign'd it before th● deluge , or else they must suppose it cover'd with water , till the sea-chanels were made , and the mountains brought forth ; as in that fig. pag. . and no doubt it was once in this form , both reason and the authority of moses assures us of it ; and this is the test which every opinion must be brought to , how the earth-emerg'd out of that watery form ? and in particular , as to that opinion which we are now examining , the question is , how by earthquakes , and fiery eruptions , subterraneous waters , and such like causes , the body of the earth could be wrought from that form to this present form ? and the thing is impossible at first sight ; for such causes as these could not take place in such an earth . as for subterraneous waters , there could be none at that time , for they were all above ground ; and as for subterraneous exhalations , whether fiery or aery , there was no place for them neither , for the earth when it lay under the water was a solid uniform mass , compact and close united in its parts , as we have shewn before upon several occasions ; no mines or hollow vaults for the vapours to be lodg'd in , no store-houses of fire ▪ nothing that could make earthquakes , nor any sort of ruines or eruptions : these are engines that cannot play but in an earth already broken , hollow , and cavernous . therefore the authors of this opinion do in effect beg the question ; they assign such causes of the present form of the earth , as could not take place , nor have any activity until the earth was in this form : these causes may contribute something to increase the rudeness and inequalities of the earth in certain places , but they could not be the original causes of it : and that not only because of their disproportion to such effects , but also because of their incapacity , or non-existence at that time when these effects were to be wrought . thus much concerning the philosophical opinions , or the natural causes that have been assign'd for the irregular form of this present earth . let us now consider the theological opinions , how mountains were made at first , and the wonderful chanel of the sea : and these authors say , god almighty made them immediately when he made the world ; and so dispatcht the business in a few words . this is a short account indeed , but we must take heed that we do not derogate from the perfection of god , by ascribing all things promiscuously to his immediate action . i have often suggested that the first order of things is regular and simple , according as the divine nature is ; and continues so till there is some degeneracy in the moral world ; i have also noted upon several occasions , especially in the lat. treat . cap. ii. the deformity and incommodiousness of the present earth ; and from these two considerations we may reasonably infer , that the present state of the earth was not original , but is a state of subjection to vanity , wherein it must continue till the redemption and restitution of all things . but besides this general consideration , there are many others , both natural and theological against this opinion , which the authors of it , i believe , will find unanswerable . as first , s. peter's distinction betwixt the present earth and the ante-diluvian ; and that in opposition to certain profane persons , who seem to have been of the same opinion with these authors , namely , that the heavens and the earth were the same now that they had been from the beginning , and that there had been no change in nature , either of late , or in former ages ; these s. peter confutes and upbraids them with ignorance or forgetfulness of the change that was brought upon nature at the deluge , or that the ante-diluvian heavens and earth were of a different form and constitution from the present , whereby that world was obnoxious to a deluge of water , as the present is to a deluge of fire . let these authors put themselves in the place of those objectors , and see what answer they can make to the apostle , whom i leave to dispute the case with them . i hope they will not treat this epistle of s. peter's so rudely as didymus alexandrinus did , an ancient christian , and one of s. ierom's masters , he was of the same opinion with these theological authors , and so fierce in it , that seeing s. peter's doctrine here to be contrary , he said this epistle of s. peter's was corrupted , and was not to be receiv'd into the canon . and all this because it taught that the heavens and the earth had chang'd their form , and would do so again at the conflagration ; so as the same world would be t●iform in success of time . we acknowledge his exposition of s. peter's words to be very true , but what he makes an argument of the corruption of this epistle , is rather , in my mind , a peculiar argument of its divine inspiration . in the second place , these writers dash upon the old rock , the impossibility of explaining the deluge , if there were mountains from the beginning , and the earth then in the same form as it is in now . thirdly , they make the state of paradise as unintelligible as that of the deluge ; for those properties that are assign'd to paradise by the ancients , are inconsistent with the present form of the earth : as will appear in the second book . lastly , they must answer , and give an account of all those marks which we have observ'd in nature ( both in this chapter , and the ninth , tenth , and eleventh , ) of fractions , ruines , and dissolutions that have been on the earth , and which we have shown to be inexplicable , unless we admit that the earth was once in another form . these arguments being premis'd , let us now bring their opinion close to the test , and see in what manner these mountains must have been made according to them , and how the chanel of the sea , and all other cavities of the earth . let us to this purpose consider the earth again in that transient incompleat form which it had when the abyss encompast the whole body of it ; we both agree that the earth was once in this state , and they say that it came immediately out of this state into its present form , there being made by a supernatural power a great chanel or ditch in one part of it , which drew off the waters from the rest , and the earth which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this ditch , made the mountains . so there is the chanel of the sea made , and the mountains of the earth ; how the subterraneous cavities were made according to these authors , i do not well know . this i confess seems to me a very gross thought , and a way of working very un-god-like ; but however let 's have patience to examine it . and in the first place , if the mountains were taken out of the chanel of the sea , then they are equal to it , and would fill it up if they were thrown in again . but these proportions upon examination will not agree ; for though the mountains of the earth be very great , yet they do not equal by much the great ocean . the ocean extends to half the surface of the earth ; and if you suppose the greatest depth of the ocean to answer the height of the greatest mountains , and the middle depth to the middle sort of mountains , the mountains ought to cover all the dry land to make them answer to all the capacity of the ocean ; whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry land ; and consequently , neither they , nor the sea-chanel , could have been produc'd in this manner , because of their great disproportion to one another . and the same thing appears , if we compare the mountains with the abyss , which cover'd the earth before this chanel was made ; for this chanel being made great enough to contain all the abyss , the mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the abyss , but the aggregate of the mountains will not answer this by many degrees ; for suppose the abyss was but half as deep as the deep ocean , to make this calculus answer , all the dry land ought to be cover'd with mountains , and with mountains as high as the ocean is deep , or doubly high to the depth of the abyss , because they are but upon one half of the globe . and this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of mountains and the sea , their incongruency or disproportion . secondly , we are to consider that a great many mountains of the earth are far distant from any seas , as the great in-land mountains of asia and of africk , and the sarmatick mountains , and others in europe , how were these great bodies slung thorow the air from their respective seas , whence they were taken , to those places where they stand ? what appearance is there in common reason , or credibility , that these huge masses of earth and stone that stand in the middle of continents , were dug out of any seas ▪ we think it strange , and very deservedly , that a little chapel should be transported from palestine to italy over land and sea , much more the transportation of mount atlas or taurus thorow the air , or of a range of mountains two or three thousand miles long , would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible : besides , neither the hollow form of mountains , nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist , agrees with that supposition , that they were prest or taken out of the chanel of the sea. lastly , we are to consider that the mountains are not barely laid upon the earth , as a tomb-stone upon a grave , nor stand as statues do upon a pedestal , as this opinion seems to suppose ; but they are one continued substance with the body of the earth , and their roots reach into the abyss ; as the rocks by the sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the sea in one continu'd mass : and 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine the earth first a plain surface , then all the mountains set upon it , as hay-cocks in a field , standing upon their flat bottoms . there is no such common surface in nature , nor consequently any such super-additions : 't is all one frame or mass , only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it . to conclude , 't is not only the mountains that make the inequalities of the earth , or the irregularity of its surface , every country , every province , every field hath an unequal and different situation , higher or lower , inclin'd more or less , and sometimes one way , sometimes another , you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform ; and can you imagine that there were moulds or stones brought from the sea-chanel to make all those inequalities ? or that earthquakes have been in every county , and in every field ? the inner veins and lares , the beds or strata of the earth are also broken as well as the surface . these must proceed from universal causes , and all those that have been alledg'd , whether from philosophy or theology , are but particular or topical . i am fully satisfied , in contemplation of these things , and so i think every unprejudic'd person may be , that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction , as we see every where in the parts of the earth , nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation , in the nature of a general ruine . we have now finisht this first part of our theory , and all that concerns the deluge or dissolution of the earth ; and we have not only establisht our own hypothesis by positive arguments , but also produc'd and examin'd all suppositions that have been offer'd by others , whether philosophical or theological , for the explication of the same things ; so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject . for a conclusion of all , we will consider , if you please , the rest of the earths , or of the planets within our heavens , that appertain to the same common sun ; to see , so far as we can go by rational conjectures , if they be not of the same fabrick , and have undergone the like fate , and forms with our earth . it is now acknowledg'd by the generality of learned men , that the planets are opake bodies , and particularly our next neighbour , the moon , is known to be a terraqueous globe , consisting of mountains and valleys , as our earth does ; and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution , or from like causes as our earth did . mercury is so near the sun , that we cannot well discern his face , whether spotted or no , nor make a judgment of it . but as for venus and mars , if the spots that be observed in them be their waters or their sea , as they are in the moon , 't is likely ▪ they are also terraqueous globes , and in much what a like form with the moon and the earth , and , for ought we know , from like causes . particularly as to venus , 't is a remarkable passage that s. austin hath preserv'd out of varro , he saith , that about the time of the great deluge there was a wonderful alteration or catastrophe happen'd to the planet venus , and that she chang'd her colour , form , figure , and magnitude . this is a great presumption that she suffer'd her dissolution about the same time that our earth did . i do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other planets , but the body of mars looks very rugged , broken , and much disorder'd . saturn and iupiter deserve a distinct consideration , as having something particular and different from the rest of the planets . saturn is remarkable for his hoop or ring , which seems to stand off , or higher than his body , and would strongly induce one to believe , that the exteriour earth of that planet , at its dissolution , did not all fall in , but the polar parts sinking into the abyss , the middle or aequinoctial parts still subsisted , and bore themselves up in the nature of an arch about the planet , or of a bridge , as it were , built over the sea of saturn . and as some have observ'd concerning the figure of iupiter , that it is not wholly sphaerical , but a sphaeroid , protuberant in the aequator , and deprest towards the poles : so i should suspect saturn to have been much more so , before his disruption : namely , that the body of that planet in its first state , was more flat and low towards the poles , and also weaker and thinner : and about the aequator higher , fuller and stronger built : by reason of which figure and construction the polar parts did more easily fall in , or were suckt in ( as cupping-glasses draw in the flesh ) when the abyss below grew more empty . whereas the middle parts about the aequator , being a more just arch and strongly built , would not yield or sink , but stood firm and unbroken , and continues still in its first posture . planets break in different ways , according to the quality of their matter , the manner of their construction , and the nature of the causes that act upon them . their dissolutions are sometimes total , as in our earth , sometimes partial : and both of these may be under great variety . in partial dissolutions , the middle parts sometimes stand , and the polar are broke ▪ or the polar stand and the middle are broke . or one hemisphere , or part of an hemisphere may be sunk , the rest standing . there may be causes and occasions for all these varieties and many more , in diversifying the phaenomena of an immense universe . but to return to saturn . that this present uncouth form of saturn was not its original form , i am very well satisfied , if that planet rise from a chaos , as ours did . and if this be an adventitious form , i know no account can be given of it with more probability , than by supposing it the effect of some fraction or disruption in the polar parts . neither do i know any phaenomenon hitherto observ'd concerning saturn , that does disprove this hypothesis or conjecture . as to iupiter , that planet without doubt is also turned about its axis , otherwise how shou'd its four moons be carried round him ? and this is also collected from the motion of that permanent spot ( if it be found to be so ) that is upon its body . which spot i take to be either a lake , or a chasm and hiatus into the abyss of the planet : that is , part of the abyss open or uncover'd , like the aperture we made in the seventh figure . and this might either have been left so by providence , at first , for some reasons and causes fitting that earth : or it may have fallen in afterwards , as plato's atlantis , or as so●●m and gomorrha , for some judgment upon part of that world. to conclude , seeing all the planets that are plac'd in this heaven , and are the foster-children of this sun , seem to have some affinity one with another , and have much-what the same countenance , and the same general phaenomena ; it seems probable that they rise much-what the same way , and after the like manner as our earth , each one from its respective chaos ; and that they had the same elementary regions at first , and an exteriour orb ●orm'd over their abyss : and lastly , that every one of them hath suffer'd , or is to suffer its deluge , as our earth hath done . these , i say , are probable conjectures according to the analogy of reason and nature , so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible . and these things being thus , and our theory of the deluge , and the dissolution which brought it , having such a general agreement both with our heavens and our earth , i think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings , the custom of thinking otherwise , and the uneasiness of entring into a new set of thoughts , that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception . but it may be improv'd , i doubt not , in many respects , and in some particularities rectified . the first attempts in great things are seldom or never perfect : such is the weakness of our understandings , and the want of a full natural history . and in assigning causes of such great effects , fair conjectures are to be allow'd , till they be displac'd by others more evident and more certain . accordingly i readily submit to these terms , and leave this , and all other parts of the theory , to further examination and enquiries . finis . the theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth , and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone or is to undergo throughout the whole course of its duration . the second book concerning the primaeval earth , and concerning paradise . london , printed by r. n. for walter kettilby , at the bishop's-head in s. paul's church-yard , . the theory of the earth . book ii. concerning the primaeval earth , and concerning paradise . chap. i. the introduction and contents of the second book . the general state of the primaeval earth , and of paradise . we have already seen a world begin and perish ; an earth rais'd from the rudiments of a chaos , and dissolv'd and destroy'd in an universal deluge . we have given also an imperfect description of that primaeval earth , so far as was necessary to shew the causes and manner of its dissolution . but we must not content our selves with this ; seeing that earth was the first theater upon which mortals appear'd and acted , and continued so for above sixteen hundred years ; and that with scenes , as both reason and history tell us , very extraordinary and very different from these of our present earth , 't is reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it ; especially seeing paradise was there ; that seat of pleasure which our first parents lost , and which all their posterity have much ado to find again . in the first book we so far describ'd this new-found world , as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present earth ; there was no sea there , no mountains , nor rocks , nor broken caves , 't was all one continued and regular mass , smooth , simple and compleat , as the first works of nature use to be . but to know thus much only , doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it ; what were the other properties of this world ? how were the heavens , how the elements ? what accommodation for humane life ? why was it more proper to be the seat of paradise than the present earth ? unless we know these things , you will say , it will seem but an aëry idea to us ; and 't is certain that the more properties and particular●ties that we know concerning any thing , the more real it appears to be . as it was our chief design therefore in the precedent book , to give an account of the universal deluge , by way of a theory ; so we propose to our selves chiefly in this book , from the same theory to give an account of paradise ; and in performing of this , we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first earth , and of its qualities . and if we be so happy , as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method , to give as fair an account , and as intelligible of the state of paradise in that original earth , as we have done of the deluge by the dissolution of it , and of the form of this earth which succeeded , one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon , all this while , are wholly false or ●ictitious . a foundation which will bear the weight of two worlds without sinking , must surely stand upon a firm rock . and i am apt to promise my self that this theory of the earth will find acceptance and credit , more or less , with all but those , that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments , to say it is a novelty . but to proceed in our disquisition concerning paradise , we may note , in the first place , two opinions to be avoided , being both extreams ; one that placeth paradise in the extra-mundane regions , or in the air , or in the moon , and the other that makes it so inconsiderable , as to be confin'd to a little spot of ground in mesopotamia , or some other country of asia , the earth being now as it was then . this offends as much in the defect , as the other in the excess . for it is not any single region of the earth that can be paradisiacal , unless all nature conspire , and a certain order of things proper and peculiar for that state . nor is it of less importance to find out this peculiar order of things , than to find out the particular , seat of paradise , but rather pre-requisite to it : we will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both , so far as a theory can go , beginning with that which is more general . 't is certain there were some qualities and conditions of paradise that were not meerly topical , but common to all the rest of the earth at that time ; and these we must consider in the first place , examine what they were , and upon what they depended . history , both sacred and profane , must tell us what they were , and our theory must shew us upon what causes they depended . i had once , i confess , propos'd to my self another method , independent upon history or effects ; i thought to have continued the description of the primitive or ante-diluvian earth from the contemplation of its causes only , and then left it to the judgment of others to determine , whether that was not the earth where the golden age was past , and where paradise stood . for i had observ'd three conditions or characters of it , which i thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first state of things , viz. the regularity of its surface ; the situation or posture of its body to the sun ; and the figure of it : from these three general causes , i thought might be deduc●d all the chief differences of that earth from the present , and particularly those that made it more capable of being paradisiacal . but upon second thoughts i judg'd it more useful and expedient to lay aside the causes at present , and begin with the effects , that we might have some sensible matter to work upon . bare idea's of things are lookt upon as romantick till effects be propos'd , whereof they are to give an account ; 't is that makes us value the causes when necessity puts us upon enquiry after them ; and the reasons of things are very acceptable , when they ease the mind , anxious , and at a loss , how to understand nature without their help . we will therefore , without more ado , premise those things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first ages of the world , and to paradise , and which neither do , nor can , obtain in the present earth ; whereof the first is a perpetual spring or equinox ; the second , the long aevity of animals , and the third their production out of the earth , and the great fertility of the soil in all other things . these difficulties guard the way to paradise like the flaming sword , and must be remov'd before we can enter ; these are general preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular place of this garden of pleasure . the ancients have taken notice of all these in the first ages of the world , or in their golden age , as they call it ; and i do not doubt but what they ascrib'd to the golden age , was more remarkably true of paradise ; yet was not so peculiar to it , but that it did in a good measure extend to other parts of the earth at that time . and 't is manifest that their golden age was contemporary with our paradise ; for they make it begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the earth ( which they , as well as moses , raise from the chaos ) and to degenerate by degrees till the deluge ; when the world ended and begun again . that this parallel may the better appear , we may observe , that as we say that the whole earth was , in some sence , paradisiacal in the first ages of the world , and that there was besides , one region or portion of it that was peculiarly so , and bore the denomination of paradise ; so the ancients besides their golden age ; which was common to all the earth , noted some parts of it that were more golden , if i may so say , than the rest , and which did more particularly answer to paradise ; as their elysian fields , fortunate islands , gardens of hesperides , alcinous , &c. these had a double portion of pleasantness , and besides the advantages which they had common with the rest of the earth at that time , had something proper and singular , which gave them a distinct consideration and character from the rest . having made this observation , let us proceed , and see what antiquity saith concerning that first and paradisiacal state of things , upon those three heads forementioned ; first , that there was a perpetual spring , and constant serenity of the air ; this is often repeated by the ancient poets , in their description of the golden age : non alios primâ crescentis origine mundi illuxisse dies , aliumve habuisse tenorem , crediderim : ver illud erat , ver magnus agebat orbis , & hybernis parcebant flatibus euri. such days the new-born earth enjoy'd of old , and the calm heavens in this same tenour rowl'd : all the great world had then one constant spring , no cold east-winds , such as our winters bring . for i interpret this in the same sence with ovid's verses of the golden age : ver erat aeternum : placidíque tepentibus auris mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores . the spring was constant , and soft winds that blew , rais'd , without seed , flow'rs always sweet and new . and then upon the expiration of the golden age , he says , iupiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris , &c. when jove begun to reign he chang'd the year , and for one spring four seasons made appear . the ancients suppos'd , that in the reign of saturn , who was an ante-diluvian god , as i may so call him , time flow'd with a more even motion , and there was no diversity of seasons in the year ; but iupiter , they say , first introduc'd that , when he came to manage affairs . this is exprest after their way , who seldom give any severe and philosophical accounts of the changes of nature . and as they suppos'd this perpetual spring in the golden age , so they did also in their particular elysiums ; as i could shew largely from their authors , if it would not multiply citations too much . 't is true , their elysiums respected the new heavens , and new earth to come , rather than the past , but they are both fram'd upon the same model , and have common properties . the christian authors have no less celebrated the perpetual spring and serenity of the heavens in paradise ; such expressions or descriptions you will find in iustin martyr , s. basil , damascen , isidore hispalensis , and others ; insomuch that bellarmine , i remember , reflecting upon those characters of paradise , which many of the fathers have given in these respects , saith , such things could not be , unless the sun had then another course from what he hath now ; or which is more easie , the earth another situation . which conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well-grounded . in the mean time , let us see the christian poetry upon this subject , as we have seen the roman upon the other . alcimus avitus hath thus describ'd paradise in his notes upon genesis : non hîc alterni succedit temporis unquam bruma , nec aestivi redeunt post frigora soles ; hîc ver assiduum coeli clementia servat . turbidus auster abest , sempérque sub aere sudo nubila diffugiunt , jugi cessura sereno . nec poscit natura loci , quos non habet , imbres , sed contenta suo dotantur germina rore . perpetuò viret omne solum , terraeque benignae blanda nitet facies : stant semper collibus herbae , arboribúsque comae , &c. no change of seasons or excess was there , no winter chill'd , nor summer scorch'd the air , but , with a constant spring , nature was fresh and fair . rough winds or rains that region never knew , water'd with rivers and the morning dew ; the heav'ns still clear , the fields still green and gay , no clouds above , nor on the earth decay ; trees kept their leaves and verdure all the year , and fruits were never out of season there . and as the christian authors , so likewise the iewish have spoken of paradise in the same manner ; they tell us also that the days there were always of the same length throughout the whole year ; and that made them fancy paradise to lie under the aequinoctial ; as we shall see in its due place . 't is true , we do not find these things mention'd expresly in the sacred writings , but the effects that flow'd from them are recorded there , and we may reasonably suppose providence to have foreseen , that when those effects came to be scan'd and narrowly lookt into , they would lead us to a di●covery of the causes , and particularly of this great and general cause , that perpetual aequinox and unity of seasons in the year , till the deluge . the longaevity of the ante-diluvians cannot be explain'd upon any other supposition , as we shall have occasion to show hereafter ; and that you know is recorded carefully in scripture : as also that there was no rainbow before the flood ; which goes upon the same ground , that there was no variety of seasons , nor any rain : and this by many is thought to be understood by moses his words , gen. . , . which he speaks of the first and paradisiacal earth . lastly , seeing the earth then brought forth the principles of life and all living creatures ( man excepted ) according to moses , gen. . . we must suppose that the state of the heavens was such as favour'd these conceptions and births , which could not possibly be brought to perfection , as the seasons of the year are at present . the first time that we have mention made in scripture of summer and winter , and the differences of seasons , is at the ending of the deluge . gen. . . hence forward all the days of the earth , seed-time and harvest , heat and cold , summer and winter , day and night shall not cease . 't is true these words are so lax , that they may be understood either of a new course of nature then instituted , or of an old one restor'd ; but seeing it doth appear from other arguments and considerations , that there was at that time a new course of nature constituted , it is more reasonable to interpret the words in that sence ; which , as it is agreeable to truth , according to reason and antiquity ; so it renders that remark of moses of far greater importance , if it be understood as an indication of a new order then setled in nature , which should continue thenceforwards so long as the earth endur'd . nor do i at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declar'd in scripture , for natural mysteries in the holy writings , as well as prophetical , are many times , on set purpose , incompleatly deliver'd , so as to awaken and excite our thoughts rather than fully resolve them : this being often more suitable to the designs of providence in the government of the world. but thus much for this first common or general character of the golden age , and of paradise , a perpetual serenity and perpetual aequinox . the second character is the longaevity of men , and , as is probable , of all other animals in proportion . this , methinks , is as strange and surprising as the other ; and i know no difference betwixt the ante-diluvian world and the present , so apt to affect us , if we reflect upon it , as this wonderful disproportion in the ages of men ; our fore-fathers and their posterity ; they liv'd seven , eight , nine hundred years and upwards , and 't is a wonder now if a man live to one hundred . our oakes do not last so long as their bodies did ; stone and iron would scarce out-wear them . and this property of the first ages , or their inhabitants , how strange soever , is well attested , and beyond all exception , having the joynt consent of sacred and profane history . the scripture sets down the precise age of a s●ries of ante diluvian patriarchs , and by that measures the time from the beginning of the world to the deluge ; so as all sacred chronology stand upon that bottom . yet i know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a thing , that to save the credit of moses and the sacred history , they interpret these years of lunar years or months ; and so the ages of these patriarchs are reduc'd to much what the same measure with the common life of man at this time . it may be observ'd in this , as in many other instances , that for want of a theory to make things credible and intelligibile , men of wit and parts have often deprest the sence of scripture ; and that not out of any ill will to scripture or religion , but because they could not otherwise , upon the stock of their notions , give themselves a rational account of things recorded there . but i hope when we come to explain the causes of this longaevity , we shall shew that it is altogeth●r us strange a thing that men should have such short lives as they have now , as that they had such long lives in the first ages of the world. in the mean time , there are a great many collateral reasons to assure us that lunar years cannot be here understood by moses , for all antiquity gives the same account of those first ages of the world , and of the first men , that they were extremely long-liv'd . we meet with it generally in the description of the golden age ; and not only so , but in their topical paradises also they always suppos'd a great vivacity or longaevity in those that enjoy'd them . and iosephus speaking upon this subject , saith , the authors of all the learned nations , greeks or barbarians , bear witness to moses's doctrine in this particular . and in the mosaical history it self , there are several circumstances and marks that discover plainly , that the years of the patriarchs cannot be understood of lunar years ; as we shall have occasion to show in another place . we proceed in the mean time to the third and last character , the extraordinary fertility of the soil , and the production of animals out of the new-made earth . the first part of this character is unquestionable ; all antiquity speaks of the plenty of the golden age , and of their paradises , whether christian or heathen . the fruits of the earth at first were spontaneous , and the ground without being torn and tormented , satisfied the wants or desires of man. when nature was fresh and full , all things flow'd from her more easily and more pure , like the first running of the grape , or the hony-comb ; but now she must be prest and squeez'd , and her productions taste more of the earth and of bitterness . the ancient poets have often pleas'd themselves in making descriptions of this happy state , and in admiring the riches and liberality of nature at that time , but we need not transcribe their poetry here , seeing this point is not , i think , contested by any . the second part of this character , concerning the spontaneous origin of living creatures out of that first earth , is not so unquestionable , and as to man , moses plainly implies that there was a particular action or ministery of providence in the formation of his body , but as to other animals he seems to suppose that the earth brought them forth as it did herbs and plants . ( gen. . . compar'd with the . vers. ) and the truth is , there is no such great difference betwixt vegetable and animal eggs , or betwixt the seeds out of which plants rise , and the eggs out of which all animals rise , but that we may conceive , the one as well as the other , in the first earth : and as some warmth and influence from the sun is requir'd for the vegetation of seeds , so that influence or impregnation which is necessary to make animal eggs fruitful , was imputed by the ancients to the aether , or to an active and pure element which had the same effect upon our great mother the earth , as the irradiation of the male hath upon the females eggs. tum pater omnipotens foecundis imbribus aether conjugis in gremium laetae descendit . in fruitful show'rs of aether jove did glide into the bosom of his joyful bride . 't is true , this opinion of the spontaneous origin of animals in the first earth , hath lain under some odium , because it was commonly reckon'd to be epicuru●'s opinion peculiarly ; and he extended it not only to all brute creatures , but to mankind also , whom he suppos'd to grow out of the earth in great numbers , in several parts and countries , like other animals ; which is a notion contrary to the sacred writings ; for they declare , that all mankind , though diffus'd now through the several parts and regions of the earth , rise at first from one head or single man and woman ; which is a conclusion of great importance , and that could not , i think , by the light of nature , have ever been discover'd . and this makes the epicurean opinion the more improbable , for why should two rise only , if they sprung from the earth ? or how could they rise in their full growth and perfection , as adam and eve did ? but as for the opinion of animals rising out of the earth at first , that was not at all peculiar to epicurus ; the stoicks were of the same mind , and the pythagoreans , and the aegyptians , and , i think , all that suppos'd the earth to rise from a chaos . neither do i know any harm in that opinion , if duly limited and stated ; for what inconvenience is it , or what diminution of providence , that there should be the principles of life , as well as the principles of vegetation , in the new earth ? and unless you suppose all the first animals , as well as the first man , to have been made at one stroke , in their full growth and perfection , which we have neither reason nor authority sufficient to believe ; if they were made young , little and weak , as they come now into the world , there seems to be no way for their production more proper , and decorous , than that they should spring from their great mother the earth . lastly , considering the innumerable little creatures that are upon the earth , insects and creeping things : and that these were not created out of nothing , but form'd out of the ground : i think that an office most proper for nature , that can set so many hands to work at once ; and that hath hands fit for all those little operations or manufactures , how small soever , that would less become the dignity of superiour agents . thus much for the preliminaries , or three general characters of paradise , which were common to it with the rest of the primaeval earth ; and were the chief ingredients of the golden age , so much celebrated by the ancients . i know there were several other differences betwixt that earth and this , but these are the original ; and such as are not necessary to be premis'd for the general explication of paradise , we reserve for another place . we may , in the mean time observe , how preposterously they go to work , that set themselves immediately to find out some pleasant place of the earth to six paradise in , before they have consider'd , or laid any grounds , to explain the general conditions of it , wheresoever it was . these must be first known and determin'd , and we must take our aim and directions from these , how to proceed further in our enquiries after it ; otherwise we fail without a compass , or seek a port and know not which way it lies . and as we should think him a very unskilful pilot that sought a place in the new world , or america , that really was in the old ; so they commit no less an error , that seek paradise in the present earth , as now constituted , which could only belong to the former , and to the state of the first world : as will appear more plainly in the following chapter . chap. ii. the great change of the world since the flood , from what it was in the first ages . the earth under its present form could not be paradisiacal , nor any part of it . the scheme of this world passeth away , saith an holy author : the mode and form , both of the natural and civil world , changeth continually more or less , but most remarkably at certain periods , when all nature puts on another face ; as it will do at the conflagration , and hath done already from the time of the deluge . we may imagine how different a prospect the first world would make from what we see now in the present state of things , if we consider only those generals by which we have describ'd it in the foregoing chapter , and what their influence would be upon mankind and the rest of nature . for every new state of nature doth introduce a new civil order , and a new face and oeconomy of humane affairs : and i am apt to think that some two planets , that are under the same state or period , do not so much differ from one another , as the same planet doth from it self , in different periods of its duration . we do not seem to inhabit the same world that our first fore-fathers did , nor scarce to be the same race of men. our life now is so short and vain , as if we came into the world only to see it and leave it ; by that time we begin to understand our selves a little , and to know where we are , and how to act our part , we must leave the stage , and give place to others as meer novices as we were our selves at our first entrance . and this short life is imploy'd , in a great measure , to preserve our selves from necessity , or diseases , or injuries of the air , or other inconveniencies ; to make one man easie , ten must work and do drudgery ; the body takes up so much time , we have little leisure for contemplation , or to cultivate the mind . the earth doth not yield us food , but with much labour and industry , and what was her free-will offering before , or an easie liberality can scarce now be extorted from her . neither are the heavens more favourable , sometimes in one extreme , sometimes in another ; the air often impure or infectious , and , for a great part of the year , nature her self seems to be sick or dead . to this vanity the external creation is made subject as well as mankind , and so must continue till the restitution of all things . can we imagine , in those happy times and places we are treating of , that things stood in this same posture ? are these the fruits of the golden age and of paradise , or consistent with their happiness ? and the remedies of these evils must be so universal , you cannot give them to one place or region of the earth , but all must participate : for these are things that flow from the course of the heavens , or such general causes as extend at once to all nature . if there was a perpetual spring and perpetual aequinox in paradise , there was at the same time a perpetual aequinox all the earth over ; unless you place paradise in the middle of the torrid zone . so also the long-lives of the ante-diluvians was an universal effect , and must have had an universal cause . 't is true , in some single parts or regions of the present earth , the inhabitants live generally longer than in others , but do not approach in any measure the age of their ante-diluvian fore-fathers ; and that degree of longaevity which they have above the rest , they owe to the calmness and tranquility of their heavens and air ; which is but an imperfect participation of that cause which was once universal , and had its effect throughout the whole earth . and as to the fertility of this earth , though in some spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others , and more delicious , yet that of the first earth was a fertility of another kind , being spontaneous , and extending to the production of animals , which cannot be without a favourable concourse from the heavens also . thus much in general ; we will now go over those three forementioned characters more distinctly , to show by their unsuitableness to the present state of nature , that neither the whole earth , as it is now , nor any part of it , could be paradisiacal . the perpetual spring , which belong'd to the golden age , and to paradise , is an happiness this present earth cannot pretend to , nor is capable of , unless we could transfer the sun from the ecliptick to the aequator , or , which is as easie , perswade the earth to change its posture to the sun. if archimedes had found a place to plant his machines in for removing of the earth , all that i should have desir'd of him , would have been only to have given it an heave at one end , and set it a little to rights again with the sun , that we might have enjoy'd the comfort of a perpetual spring , which we have lost by its dislocation ever since the deluge . and there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a paradisiacal state than this unity and equality of seasons , where that cannot be , 't is in vain to seek for the rest of paradise . the spontaneous fruitfulness of the ground was a thing peculiar to the primigenial soil , which was so temper'd , as made it more luxuriant at that time than it could ever be afterwards ; and as that rich temperament was spent , so by degrees it grew less fertile . the origin or production of animals out of the earth , depended not only upon this vital constitution of the soil at first , but also upon such a posture and aspect of the heavens , as favour'd , or at least permitted , nature , to make her best works out of this prepar'd matter , and better than could be made in that manner , after the flood . noah , we see , had orders given him to preserve the races of living creatures in his ark , when the old world was destroy'd ; which is an argument to me , that providence foresaw that the earth would not be capable to produce them under its new form ; and that , not only for want of fitness in the soil , but because of the diversity of seasons , which were then to take place , whereby nature would be disturb'd in her work , and the subject to be wrought upon would not continue long enough in the same due temper . but this part of the second character concerning the original of animals , deserves to be further examin'd and explain'd . the first principles of life must be tender and ductile , that they may yield to all the motions and gentle touches of nature ; otherwise it is not possible that they should be wrought with that curiosity , and drawn into all those little fine threds and textures , that we see and admire in some parts of the bodies of animals ▪ and as the matter must be so constituted at first , so it must be kept in a due temper till the work be finisht , without any excess of heat or cold ; and accordingly we see that nature hath made provision in all sorts of creatures , whether oviparous or viviparous , that the first rudiments of life should be preserv'd from all injuries of the air , and kept in a moderate warmth . eggs are enclos'd in a shell , or film , and must be cherish'd with an equal gentle heat , to begin formation and continue it , otherwise the work miscarries : and in viviparous creatures , the materials of life are safely lodg'd in the females womb , and conserv'd in a fit temperature 'twixt heat and cold , while the causes that providence hath imploy'd , are busie at work , fashioning and placing and joyning the parts , in that due order which so wonderful a fabrick requires . let us now compare these things with the birth of animals in the new-made world , when they first rose out of the earth , to see what provision could be made there for their safety ▪ and nourishment , while they were a making , and when newly made ; and though we take all advantages we can , and suppose both the heavens and the earth favourable , a fit soil and a warm and constant temper of the air , all will be little enough to make this way of production feasible or probable . but if we suppose there was then the same inconstancy of the heavens that is now , the same vicissitude of seasons , and the same inequality of heat and cold , i do not think it at all possible that they could be so form'd , or being new-form'd , preserv'd and nourish'd . 't is true , some little creatures that are of short dispatch in their formation , and find nourishment enough wheresoever they are br●d , might be produc'd and brought to perfection in this way , notwithstanding any inequality of seasons ; because they are made all at a heat , as i may so say , begun and ended within the compass of one season ; but the great question is concerning the more perfect kinds of animals , that require a long stay in the womb , to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the world. such animals being big and strong , must have a pretty hardness in their bones , and force and firmness in their muscles and joynts , before they can bear their own weight , and exercise the common motions of their body : and accordingly we see nature hath ordain'd for these a longer time of gestation , that their limbs and members might have time to acquire strength and solidity . besides the young ones of these animals have commonly the milk of the dam to nourish them after they are brought forth , which is a very proper nourishment , and like to that which they had before in the womb ; and by this means their stomachs are prepar'd by degrees for courser food : whereas our terrigenous animals must have been wean'd as soon as they were born , or as soon as they were separated from their mother the earth , and therefore must be allow'd a longer time of continuing there . these things being consider'd , we cannot in reason but suppose , that these terrigenous animals were as long , or longer , a perfecting , than our viviparous , and were not separated from the body of the earth for ten , twelve , eighteen or more months , according as their nature was ; and seeing in this space of time they must have suffer●d , upon the common hypothesis , all vicissitudes and variety of seasons , and great excesses of heat and cold , which are things incompatible with the tender principles of life and the formation of living creatures , as we have shown before ; we may reasonably and safely conclude , that nature had not , when the world began , the same course she hath now , or that the earth was not then in its present posture and constitution : seeing , i say , these first spontaneous births , which both the holy writ , reason , and antiquity seem to allow , could not be finish'd and brought to maturity , nor afterwards preserv'd and nourisht , upon any other supposition . longaevi●y is the last character to be consider'd , and as inconsistent with the present state of the earth as any other . there are many things in the story of the first ages that seem strange , but nothing so prodigy-like as the long lives of those men ; that their houses of clay should stand eight or nine hundred years and upwards , and those we build of the hardest stone or marble will not now last so long . this hath excited the curiosity of ingenious and learned men in all ages to enquire after the possible causes of that longaveity ; and if it had been always in conjunction with innocency of life and manners , and expir'd when that expir'd , we might have thought it some peculiar blessing or reward attending that ; but 't was common to good and bad , and lasted till the deluge , whereas mankind was degenerate long before . amongst natural causes , some have imputed it to the sobriety and simplicity of their diet and manner of living in those days , that they eat no flesh , and had not all those provocations to gluttony which wit and vice have since invented . this might have some effect , but not possibly to that degree and measure that we speak of . there are many monastical persons now that live abstemiously all their lives , and yet they think an hundred years a very great age amongst them . others have imputed it to the excellency of their fruits and some unknown vertue in their herbs and plants in those days ; but they may as well say nothing , as say that which can neither be prov'd nor understood . it could not be either the quantity or quality of their food that was the cause of their long lives , for the earth was said to be curst long before the deluge , and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless ( for the generality ) than ours is now ; yet we do not see that their longaevity decreast at all , from the beginning of the world to the flood . methusalah was noah's grandfather , but one intire remove from the deluge , and he liv'd longer than any of his fore-fathers . that food that will nourish the parts and keep us in health , is also capable to keep us in long life , if there be no impediments otherwise ; for to continue health is to continue life ; as that fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a flame , will preserve it as long as you please , if you add fresh fewel , and no external causes hinder : neither do we observe that in those parts of the present earth where people live longer than in others , that there is any thing extraordinary in their food , but that the difference is chiefly from the air and the temperateness of the heavens ; and if the ante-diluvians had not enjoy'd that advantage in a peculiar manner , and differently from what any parts of the earth do now , they would never have seen , seven , eight , or nine hundred years go over their heads , though they had been nourish'd with nectar and ambrosia . others have thought that the long lives of those men of the old world proceeded from the strength of their stamina , or first principles of their bodies ; which if they were now as strong in us ; they think we should still live as long as they did . this could not be the sole and adaequate cause of their longaevity , as will appear both from history and reason . shem , who was born before the flood , and had in his body all the vertue of the ante-diluvian stamina and constitution , fell three hundred years short of the age of his fore-fathers , because the greatest part of his life was past after the flood . that their stamina were stronger than ours are , i am very ready to believe , and that their bodies were greater ; and any race of strong men , living long in health , would have children of a proportionably strong constitution with themselves ; but then the question is , how was this interrupted ? we that are their posterity , why do not we inherit their long lives ? how was this constitution broken at the deluge , and how did the stamina fail so fast when that came ? why was there so great a crisis then and turn of life , or why was that the period of their strength ? we see this longaevity sunk half in half immediately after the flood , and after that it sunk by gentler degrees , but was still in motion and declension till it was ●ixt at length , before david's time , in that which hath been the common standard of man's age ever since : as when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse climate and soil , it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that air and soil , and then it stands . that the age of man did not fall all on a sudden from the antediluvian measure to the present , i impute it to the remaining stamina of those first ages , and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees . we see the blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another climate , but their posterity changeth by little and little , and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the country where they are . thus by the change of nature that happened at the flood , the unhappy influence of the air and unequal seasons weaken'd by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of their parts , which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years , if the heavens had continued their course as formerly , or the earth its position . to conclude this particular , if any think that the ante-diluvian longaevity proceeded only from the stamina , or the meer strength of their bodies , and would have been so under any constitution of the heavens , let them resolve themselves these questions ; first , why these stamina , or this strength of constitution fail'd ? secondly , why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the deluge ? thirdly , why in such proportions as it hath done since the deluge ? and lastly , why it hath stood so long immovable , and without any further diminution ? within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety ; and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years , or scarce any thing at all . who considers the reasons of these things , and the true resolution of these questions , will be satisfi'd , that to understand the causes of that longaevity something more must be consider'd than the make and strength of their bodies ; which , though they had been made as strong as the behemoth or leviathan , could not have lasted so many ages , if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes , such as the present state of nature doth not admit of . by this short review of the three general characters of paradise and the golden age , we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present from and order of the earth . who can pretend to assign any place or region in this terraqueous globe , island or continent , that is capable of these conditions , or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient heathens of their paradise , or by the christian fathers of scripture paradise . but where then , will you say , must we look for it , if not upon this earth ? this puts us more into despair of finding it than ever ; 't is not above nor below , in the air or in the subterraneous regions : no , doubtless 't was upon the surface of the earth , but of the primitive earth , whose form and properties as they were different from this , so they were such as made it capable of being truly paradisiacal , both according to the forementioned characters , and all other qualities and privileges reasonably ascrib'd to paradise . chap. iii. the original differences of the primitive earth from the present or post-diluvian . the three characters of paradise and the golden age found in the primitive earth . a particular explication of each character . we have hitherto only perplext the argument and our selves , by showing how inexplicable the state of paradise is according to the present order of things , and the present condition of the earth . we must now therefore bring into view that original and ante-diluvian earth where we pretend its seat was , and show it capable of all those privileges which we have deny'd to the present ; in vertue of which privileges , and of the order of nature establisht there , that primitive earth might be truly paradisiacal , as in the golden age ; and some region of it might be peculiarly so , according to the receiv'd idea of paradise . and this , i think , is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect , or that providence hath allow'd us in this argument . the primigenial earth , which in the first book ( chap. . ) we rais'd from a chaos , and set up in an habitable form , we must now survey again with more care , to observe its principal differences from the present earth , and what influence they will have upon the question in hand . these differences , as we have said before , were chiefly three ; the form of it , which was smooth , even and regular . the posture and situation of it to the sun , which was direct , and not , as it is at present , inclin'd and oblique ; and the figure of it , which was more apparently and regularly oval than it is now . from these three differences flow'd a great many more , inferiour and subordinate ; and which had a considerable influence upon the moral world at that time , as well as the natural . but we will only observe here their more immediate effects , and that in reference to those general characters or properties of the golden age and of paradise , which we have instanc'd in , and whereof we are bound to give an account by our hypothesis . and in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mention'd , was , that of the right posture and situation of the earth to the sun ; for from this immediately follow'd a perpetual aequinox all the earth over , or , if you will , a perpetual spring : and that was the great thing we found a wanting in the present earth to make it paradisiacal , or capable of being so . wherefore this being now found and establisht in the primitive earth , the other two properties , of longaevity and of spontaneous and vital fertility , will be of more easie explication . in the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first earth . the truth is , one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the earth had then , for that was most simple and natural ; as of the irregular situation it hath now , standing oblique and inclin'd to the sun or the ecliptick : whereby the course of the year is become unequal , and we are cast into a great diversity of seasons . but however , stating the first aright with its circumstances , we shall have a better prospect upon the second , and see from what causes , and in what manner , it came to pass . let us therefore suppose the earth , with the rest of its fellow planets , to be carried about the sun in the ecliptick by the motion of the liquid heavens ; and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular , having the same center of its magnitude and gravity , it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its axis parallel to the axis of the same ecliptick , both its poles being equally inclin'd to the sun. and this posture i call a right situation , as oppos'd to oblique or inclin'd : or a parallel situation , if you please . now this is a thing that needs no proof besides its own evidence ; for 't is the immediate result and common effect of gravity or libration , that a body freely left to it self in a fluid medium , should settle in such a posture as best answers to its gravitation ; and this first earth whereof we speak , being uniform and every way equally balanc'd , there was no reason why it should incline at one end , more than at the other , towards the sun. as if you should suppose a ship to stand north and south under the aequator , if it was equally built and equally ballasted , it would not incline to one pole or other , but keep its axis parallel to the axis of the earth ; but if the ballast lay more at one end , it would dip towards that pole , and rise proportionably higher towards the other . so those great ships that fail about the sun once a year , or once in so many years , whilst they are uniformly built and equally pois'd , they keep steddy and even with the axis of their orbit ; but if they lose that equality , and the center of their gravity change , the heavier end will incline more towards the common center of their motion , and the other end will recede from it . so particularly the earth , which makes one in that aëry fleet , when it scap'd so narrowly from being shipwrackt in the great deluge , was however so broken and disorder'd , that it lost its equal poise , and thereupon the center of its gravity changing , one pole became more inclin'd towards the sun , and the other more remov'd from it , and so its right and parallel situation which it had before to the axis of the ecliptick , was chang'd into an oblique ; in which skew posture it hath stood ever since , and is likely so to do for some ages to come . i instance in this , as the most obvious cause of the change of the situation of the earth , tho' it may be , upon this , followed a change in its magnetism , and that might also contribute to the same effect . however , this change and obliquity of the earth's posture had a long train of consequences depending upon it ; whereof that was the most immediate , that it alter'd the form of the year , and brought in that inequality of seasons which hath since obtain'd : as , on the contrary , while the earth was in its first and natural posture , in a more easie and regular disposition to the sun , that had also another respective train of consequences , whereof one of the first , and that which we are most concern'd in at present , was , that it made a perpetual aequinox or spring to all the world , all the parts of the year had one and the same tenour , face and temper ; there was no winter or summer , seed-time or harvest , but a continual temperature of the air and verdure of the earth . and this fully answers the first and fundamental character of the golden age and of paradise ; and what antiquity , whether heathen or christian , hath spoken concerning that perpetual serenity and constant spring that reign'd there , which in the one was accounted fabulous , and in the other hyperbolical , we see to have been really and philosophically true . nor is there any wonder in the thing , the wonder is rather on our side , that the earth should stand and continue in that forc'd posture wherein it is now , spinning yearly about an axis , i mean that of the aequator , that doth not belong to the orbit of its motion ; this , i say , is more strange than that it once stood in a posture that was streight and regular ; as we more justly admire the tower at pisa , that stands crook'd , than twenty other streight towers that are much higher . having got this foundation to stand upon , the rest of our work will go on more easily ; and the two other characters which we mention'd , will not be of very difficult explication . the spontaneous fertility of the earth , and its production of animals at that time , we have in some measure explain'd before ; supposing it to proceed partly from the richness of the primigenial soil , and partly from this constant spring and benignity of the heavens , which we have now establisht ; these were always ready to excite nature , and put her upon action , and never to interrupt her in any of her motions or attempts . we have show'd in the fifth chapter of the first book , how this primigenial soil was made , and of what ingredients ; which were such as compose the richest and fattest soil , being a light earth mixt with unctuous juices , and then afterwards refresh'd and diluted with the dews of heaven all the year long , and cherisht with a continual warmth from the sun. what more hopeful beginning of a world than this ? you will grant , i believe , that whatsoever degree or whatsoever kind of fruitfulness could be expected from a soil and a sun , might be reasonably expected there . we see great woods and forests of trees rise spontaneously , and that since the flood ( for who can imagine that the ancient forests , whereof some were so vastly great were planted by the hand of man ? ) why should we not then believe that fruit-trees and corn rose as spontaneously in that first earth ? that which makes husbandry and humane arts so necessary now for the fruits and productions of the earth , is partly indeed the decay of the soil , but chiefly the diversity of seasons , whereby they perish , if care be not taken of them ; but when there was neither heat nor cold , winter nor summer , every season was a seed-time to nature , and every season an● harvest . this , it may be you will allow as to the fruits of the earth , but that the same earth should produce animals also will not be thought so intelligible . since it hath been discover'd , that the first materials of all animals are eggs , as seeds are of plants , it doth not seem so hard to conceive that these eggs might be in the first earth , as well as those seeds ; for there is a great analogy and similitude betwixt them ; especially if you compare these seeds first with the eggs of insects or fishes , and then with the eggs of viviparous animals . and as for those juices which the eggs of viviparous animals imbibe thorough their coats from the womb , they might as well imbibe them , or something analogous to them , from a conveniently temper'd earth , as plant-eggs do ; and these things being admitted , the progress is much-what the same in seeds as eggs , and in one sort of eggs as in another . 't is true , animal-eggs do not seem to be fruitful of themselves , without the influence of the male ; and this is not necessary in plant-eggs or vegetable seeds . but neither doth it seem necessary in all animal eggs , if there be any animals sponte orta , as they call them , or bred without copulation . and , as we observ'd before , according to the best knowledge that we have of this male influence , it is reasonable to believe , that it may be supplied by the heavens or aether . the ancients , both the stoicks and aristotle , have suppos'd that there was something of an aethereal element in the male-geniture , from whence the vertue of it chiefly proceeded ; and if so , why may we not suppose , at that time , some general impression or irradiation of that purer element to fructifie the new-made earth ? moses saith there was an incubation of the spirit of god upon the mass ; and without all doubt that was either to form or fructifie it , and by the mediation of this active principle ; but the ancients speak more plainly with express mention of this aether , and of the impregnation of the earth by it , as betwixt male and female . as in the place before-cited ; tum pater omnipotens faecundis imbribus aether conjugis in gremium laetae descendit ; & omnes magnus alit magno commixtus corpore , foetus . which notion , i remember , s. austin saith , virgil did not take from the fictions of the poets , but out of the books of the philosophers . some of the gravest authors amongst the romans have reported that this vertue hath been convey'd into the wombs of some animals by the winds or the zephyri ; and as i easily believe that the first fresh air was more impregnated with this aethereal principle than ours is , so i see no reason but those balmy dews that fell every night in the primitive earth , might be the vehicle of it as well as the male-geniture is now ; and from them the teeming earth and those vital seeds which it contain'd , were actuated , and receiv'd their first fruitfulness . now ▪ this principle , howsoever convey'd to those rudiments of life which we call eggs , is that which gives the first stroke towards animation ; and this seems to be by exciting a ferment in those little masses whereby the parts are loosen'd , and dispos'd for that formation which is to follow afterwards . and i see nothing that hinders but that we may reasonably suppose that these animal productions might proceed thus far in the primigenial earth ; and as to their progress and the formation of the body , by what agents or principles soever that great work is carried on in the womb of the female , it might by the same be carried on there . neither would there be any danger of miscarrying by excess of heat or cold , for the air was always of an equal temper and moderate warmth ; and all other impediments were remov'd , and all principles ready , whether active or passive ; so as we may justly conclude , that as eve was the mother of all living as to mankind , so was the earth the great mother of all living creatures besides . the third character to be explain'd , and the most extraordinary in appearance , is that of longaevity . this sprung from the same root , in my opinion , with the other ; though the connexion , it may be , is not so visible . we show'd in the foregoing chapter , that no advantage of diet , or of strong constitutions , could have carried their lives , before the flood , to that wonderful length , if they had been expos'd to the same changes of air and of seasons that our bodies are : but taking a perpetual aequinox , and fixing the heavens , you fix the life of man too ; which was not then in such a rapid flux as it is now , but seem'd to stand still , as the sun did once , without declension . there is no question but every thing upon earth , and especially the animate world , would be much more permanent , if the general course of nature was more steddy and uniform ; a stabi●ity in the heavens makes a stability in all things below ; and that change and contrariety of qualities that we have in these regions , is the fountain of corruption , and suffers nothing to be long in quiet : either by intestine motions and fermentations excited within , or by outward impressions , bodies are no sooner well constituted , but they are tending again to dissolution . the aether in their little pores and chinks is unequally agitated , and differently mov'd at different times , and so is the air in their greater , and the vapours and atmosphere round about them : all these shake and unsettle both the texture and continuity of bodies . whereas in a fixt state of nature , where these principles have always the same constant and uniform motion , when they are once suited to the forms and compositions of bodies , they give them no further disturbance ; they enjoy a long and lasting peace without any commotions or violence , within or without . we find our selves , sensible changes in our bodies upon the turn of the year , and the change of seasons ; new fermentations in the bloud and resolutions of the humours ; which if they do not amount to diseases , at least they disturb nature , and have a bad effect not only upon the fluid parts , but also upon the more solid ; upon the springs and fibres in the organs of the body ; to weaken them and unfit them by degrees for their respective functions . for though the change is not sensible immediately in these parts , yet after many repeated impressions every year , by unequal heat and cold , driness and moisture , contracting and relaxing the fibres , their tone at length is in a great measure destroy'd , and brought to a manifest debility ; and the great springs failing , the lesser that depend upon them , fall in proportion , and all the symptoms of decay and old age follow . we see by daily experience , that bodies are kept better in the same medium , as we call it , than if they often change their medium , as sometimes in air , sometimes in water , moisten'd and dry'd , heated and cool'd ; these different states weaken the contexture of the parts : but our bodies , in the present state of nature , are put into an hundred different mediums in the course of a year ; sometimes we are steept in water , or in a misty foggy air for several days together , sometimes we are almost frozen with cold , then fainting with heat at another time of the year ; and the winds are of a different nature , and the air of a different weight and pressure , according to the weather and the seasons : these things would wear our bodies , though they were built of oak , and that in a very short time in comparison of what they would last , if they were always incompast with one and the same medium , under one and the same temper , as it was in the primitive earth . the ancients seem to have been sensible of this , and of the true causes of those long periods of life ; for wheresoever they assign'd a great longaevity , as they did not only to their golden age , but also to their particular and topical paradises , they also assign'd there a constant serenity and equality of the heavens , and sometimes expresly a constant aequinox ; as might be made appear from their authors . and some of our christian authors have gone farther , and connected these two together , as cause and effect ; for they say that the longaevity of the ante-diluvian patriarchs proceeded from a favourable aspect and influence of the heavens at that time ; which aspect of the heavens being rightly interpreted , is the same thing that we call the position of the heavens , or the right situation of the sun and the earth , from whence came a perpetual aequinox . and if we consider the present earth , i know no place where they live longer than in that little island of the bermudas , where , according to the proportion of time they hold out there , after they are arriv'd from other parts , one may reasonably suppose , that the natives would live two hundred years . and there 's nothing appears in that island that should give long life above other places , but the extraordinary steddiness of the weather , and of the temper of the air throughout the whole year , so as there is scarce any considerable difference of seasons . but because it would take up too much time to show in this place the full and just reasons why , and how these long periods of life depend upon the stability of the heavens : and how on the contrary , from their inconstancy and mutability these periods are shorten'd , as in the present order of nature ; we will set apart the next chapter to treat upon that subject ; yet by way of digression only , so as those that have a mind may pass to the following , where the thred of this discourse is continued . in the mean time , you see , we have prepar'd an earth for paradise , and given a fair and intelligible account of those three general characters , which , according to the rules of method , must be determin'd before any further progress can be made in this argument . for in the doctrine of paradise there are two things to be consider'd , the state of it , and the place of it ; and as it is first in order of nature , so it is much more material , to find out the state of it , than the region where it stood . we need not follow the windings of rivers , and the interpretation of hard names , to discover this , we take more faithful guides , the unanimous reports of antiquity , sacred and profane , supported by a regular theory . upon these grounds we go , and have thus far proceeded on our way ; which we hope will grow more easie and pleasant , the nearer we come to our journeys end . chap. iv. a digression , concerning the natural causes of longaevity . that the machine of an animal consists of springs , and which are the two principal . the age of the ante-diluvians to be computed by solar not lunar years . to confirm our opinion concerning the reasons of longaevity in the first inhabitants of the world , it will not be amiss to deduce more at large the natural causes of long or short periods of life . and when we speak of long or short periods of life , we do not mean those little differences of ten , twenty or forty years which we see amongst men now adays , according as they are of stronger or weaker constitutions , and govern themselves better or worse , but those grand and famous differences of several hundreds of years , which we have examples of in the different ages of the world , and particularly in those that liv'd before and since the flood . neither do we think it peculiar to this earth to have such an inequality in the lives of men , but the other planets , if they be inhabited , have the same property , and the same difference in their different periods ; all planets that are in their ante-diluvian state , and in their first and regular situation to the sun , have long-liv'd inhabitants ; and those that are in an oblique situation , have short-liv'd ; unless there be some counter-causes that hinder this general rule of nature from taking place . we are now so us'd to a short life , and to drop away after threescore or fourscore years , that when we compare our lives with those of the ante-diluvians , we think the wonder lies wholly on their side , why they liv'd so long ; and so it doth , popularly speaking ; but if we speak philosophically , the wonder lies rather on our side , why we live so little , or so short a time : for seeing our bodies are such machines as have a faculty of nourishing themselves , that is , of repairing their lost or decay'd parts , so long as they have good nourishment to make use of , why should they not continue in good plight , and always the same ? as a flame does , so long as it is supplied with fewel ? and that we may the better see on whether side the wonder lies , and from what causes it proceeds , we will propose this problem to be examin'd , why the frame or machine of an humane body , or of another animal , having that construction of parts and those faculties which it hath , lasts so short a time ? and though it fall into no disease , nor have any unnatural accident , within the space of eighty years , more or less , fatally and inevitably decays , dies and perisheth ? that the state and difficulty of this question may the better appear , let us consider a man in the prime and vigour of his life , at the age of twenty or twenty four years , of an healthful constitution , and all his vitals sound ; let him be nourish'd with good food , use due exercise , and govern himself with moderation in all other things ; the question is , why this body should not continue in the same plight , and in the same strength , for some ages ? or at least why it should decay so soon , and so fast as we see it does ? we do not wonder at things that happen daily , though the causes of them be never so hard to find out ; we contract a certain famil●arity with common events , and fancy we know as much of them as can be known , though in reality we know nothing of them but matter of fact ; which the vulgar knows as well as the wise or the learned . we see daily instances of the shortness of man's life , how soon his race is run , and we do not wonder at it , because 't is common , yet if we examine the composition of the body , it will be very hard to find any good reasons why the frame of it should decay so soon . i know 't is easie to give general and superficial answers and accounts of these things , but they are such , as being strictly examin'd , give no satisfaction to an inquisitive mind : you would say , it may be , that the interiour parts and organs of the body wear and decay by degrees , so as not performing so well their several offices and functions , for the digestion and distribution of the food and its juices , all the other parts suffer by it , and draws on insensibly a decay upon the whole frame of the body . this is all true ; but why , and how comes this to pass ? from what causes ? where is the first failure , and what are the consequences of it ? the inward parts do not destroy themselves , and we suppose that there is no want of good food , nor any disease , and we take the body in its full strength and vigour , why doth it not continue thus , as a lamp does , if you supply it with oil ? the causes being the same , why doth not the same effect still follow ? why should not the flame of life , as well as any other flame , if you give it fewel , continue in its force without languishing or decay ▪ you will say , it may be , the case is not the same in a simple body , such as a lamp or a fire , and in an organical body ; which being variously compounded of multiplicity of parts , and all those parts put in connexion and dependance one upon another , if any one fail , it will disorder the whole frame ; and therefore it must needs be more difficult for such a body to continue long in the same state , than for a simple body that hath no variety of parts or operations . i acknowledge such a body is much more subject to diseases and accidents than a more simple , but barring all diseases and accidents , as we do , it might be of as long a duration as any other , if it was suppli'd with nourishment adequately to all its parts : as this lamp we speak of , if it consisted of twenty branches , and each of these branches was to be fed with a different oil , and these oils could be all mix'd together in some common cistern , whence they were to be distributed into the several branches , either according to their different degrees of lightness , one rising higher than another ; or according to the capacity and figure of the little pipes they were to pass thorough ; such a compounded lamp , made up of such artifices , would indeed be more subject to accidents , and to be out of order , by the obstruction of some of the little pipes , or some unfit qualities in the oils , but all these casualties and disorders excepted , as they are in our case , if it was suppli'd with convenient liquors , it would burn as long as any other , though more plain and simple . to instance yet , for more plainness , in another sort of machine , supppose a mill , where the water may represent the nourishment and humours in our body , and the frame of wood and stone , the solid parts ; if we could suppose this mill to have a power of nourishing it self by the water it receiv'd , and of repairing all the parts that were worn away , whether of the wood work or of the stone , feed it but with a constant stream , and it would subsist and grind for ever . and 't is the same thing for all other artificial machines of this nature , if they had a faculty of nourishig themselves , and repairing their parts . and seeing those natural machines we are speaking of , the body of man , and of other animals , have and enjoy this faculty , why should they not be able to preserve themselves beyond that short period of time which is now the measure of their life ? thus much we have said to shew the difficulty propos'd and inforce it ; we must now consider the true answer and resolution of it ; and to that purpose bring into view again those causes which we have assign'd , both of the long periods of life before the flood , and of the short ones since . that there was a perpetual aequinox and stability of the heavens before the flood , we have show'd both from history and reason ; neither was there then any thing of clouds , rains , winds , storms or unequal weather , as will appear in the following chapter ; and to this steddiness of nature and universal calmness of the external world , we have imputed those long periods of life which men enjoy'd at that time : as on the contrary ▪ when that great change and revolution happen'd to nature at the deluge , and the heavens and the earth were cast in another mould , then was brought in , besides many other new scenes , that shortness and vanity in the life of man , and a general instability in all sublunary things , but especially in the animate world. it is not necessary to show , more than we have done already , how that primitive state of nature contributed to long life ; neither is it requir'd that it should actively contribute , but only be permissive , and suffer our bodies to act their parts ; for if they be not disturb'd , nor any harm done them by external nature , they are built with art and strength enough to last many hundreds of years . and as we observ'd before concerning the posture of the earth , that that which it had at first , being simple and regular , was not so much to be accounted for , as its present posture , which is irregular ; so likewise for the life of man , the difficulty is not why they liv'd so long in the old world ; that was their due and proper course ; but why our bodies being made after the same manner , should endure so short a time now . this is it therefore which we must now make our business to give an account of , namely , how that vicissitude of seasons , inconstancy of the air , and unequal course of nature which came in at the deluge , do shorten life ; and indeed hasten the dissolution of all bodies , animate or inanimate ▪ in our bodies we may consider three several qualities on dispositions , and according to each whereof they suffer decay ; first , their continuity ; secondly , that disposition whereby the are capable of receiving nourishment , which we may call nutribility ; and thirdly , the tone or tonick disposition of the organs whereby they perform their several functions . in all these three respects they would decay in any state of nature , but far sooner , and faster in the present state than in the primaeval . as for their continuity , we have noted before that all consistent bodies must be less durable now , than under that first order of the world , because of the unequal and contrary motions of the elements , or of the air and aether that penetrato and pervade them ; and 't is part of that vanity which all things now are subject to , to be more perishable than in their first constitution . if we should consider our bodies only as breathing statues , consisting of those parts they do , and of that tenderness , the air which we breath , and wherewith we are continually incompast , changing so often 'twixt moist and dry , hot and cold , a slew and eager motion , these different actions and restless changes would sooner weaken and destroy the union of the parts , than if they were always in a calm and quiet medium . but it is not the gross and visible continuity of the parts of our body that frist dacays , there are finer textures that are spoil'd insensibly , and draw on the decay of the rest ; such are those other two we mention'd , that disposition and temper of the parts whereby they are fit to receive their full nourishment ; and especially that construction and texture of the organs that are preparatory to this nutrition . the nutribility of the body depends upon a certain temperament in the parts , soft and yielding , which makes them open to the blood and juices in their circulation and passage through them , and mixing intimately , and universally , hold fast and retain many of their particles ; as muddy earth doth the parts of the water that runs into it and mixeth with it : and when these nutritious particles retain'd are more than the body spends , that body is in its growth ; as when they are fewer , 't is in its decay . and as we compar'd the flesh and tender parts when they are young and in a growing disposition , to a muddy soil , that opens to the water , swells and incorporates with it ? so when they become hard and dry , they are like a sandy earth , that suffers the water to glide through it , without incorporating or retaining many of its parts ; and the sooner they come to this temper , the sooner follows their decay : for the same causes that set limits to our growth , set also limits to our life ; and he that can resolve that question , why the time of our growth is so short , will also be able to resolve the other in a good measure , why the time of our life is so short . in both cases , that which stops our progress is external nature , whose course , while it was even and steddy , and the ambient air mild and balmy , preserv'd the body much longer in a fresh and fit temper to receive its full nourishment , and consequently gave larger bounds both to our growth and life . but the third thing we mention'd is the most considerable , the decay of the organick parts ; and especially of the organs preparatory to nutrition . this is the point chiefly to be examin'd and explain'd , and therefore we will endeavour to state it fully and distinctly . there are several functions in the body of an animal , and several organs for the conduct of them ; and i am of opinion , that all the organs of the body are in the nature of springs , and that their action is tonical . the action of the muscles is apparently so , and so is that of the heart and the stomach ; and as for those parts that make secretions only , as the glandules and parenchymata , if they be any more than merely passive , as strainers , 't is the tone of the parts , when distended , that performs the separation : and accordingly in all other active organs , the action proceeds from a tone in the parts . and this seems to be easily prov'd , both as to our bodies and all other bodies : for no matter that is not fluid ▪ hath any motion or action in it , but in vertue of some tone ; if matter be fluid , its parts are actually in motion , and consequently may impel or give motion to other bodies ; but if it be solid or consistent , the parts are not separate or separately mov'd from one another , and therefore cannot impel or give motion to any other , but in vertue of their tone ; they having no other motion themselves . accordingly we see in artificial machines there are but two general sorts , those that move by some fluid or volatile matter , as water , wind , air , or some active spirit ; and those which move by springs , or by the tonick disposition of some part that gives motion to the rest : for as for such machines as act by weights , 't is not the weight that is the active principle , but the air or aether that impels it . 't is true , the body of an animal is a kind of mixt machine , and those organs that are the primary parts of it , partake of both these principles ; for there are spirits and liquors that do assist in the motions of the muscles , of the heart and of the stomach ; but we have no occasion to consider them at present , but only the tone of the solid organs . this being observ'd in the first place , wherein the force of our organs consists , we might here immediately subjoyn , how this force is weaken'd and destroy'd by the unequal course of nature which now obtains , and consequently our life shorten'd ; for the whole state and oeconomy of the body depends upon the force and action of these organs . but to understand the business more distinctly , it will be worth our time to examine , upon which of the organs of the body life depends more immediately , and the prolongation of it ; that so reducing our inquiries into a narrower compass , we may manage them with more ease and more certainty . in the body of man there are several compages , or setts of parts ; some whereof need not be consider'd in this question ; there is that systeme that serves for sence and local-motion , which is commonly call'd the animal compages ; and that which serves for generation , which is call'd the genital . these have no influence upon long life , being parts nourished , not nourishing , and that are fed from others as rivers from their fountain : wherefore having laid these aside , there remain two compages more , the natural and vital , which consist of the heart and stomach , with their appendages . these are the sources of life , and these are all that is absolutely necessary to the constitution of a living creature ; what parts we find more , few or many , of one sort or other , according to the several kinds of creatures , is accidental to our purpose ; the form of an animal , as we are to consider it here , lies in this little compass , and what is superadded is for some new purposes , besides that of meer life , as for sense , motion , generation , and such like . as in a watch , besides the movement , which is made to tell you the hour of the day , which constitutes a watch , you may have a fancy to have an alarum added , or a minute-motion , or that it should tell you the day of the month ; and this sometimes will require a new spring , sometimes only new wheels ; however if you would examine the nature of a watch , and upon what its motion , or , if i may so say , its life depends , you must lay aside those secondary movements , and observe the main spring , and the wheels that immediately depend upon that , for all the ret is accidental . so for the life of an animal , which is a piece of nature's clockwork , if we would examine upon what the duration of it depends , we must lay aside those additional parts or systems of parts , which are for other purposes , and consider only the first principles and fountains of life , and the causes of their natural and necessary decay . having thus reduc'd our inquiries to these two organs , the stomach and the heart , as the two master-springs in the mechanism of an animal , upon which all the rest depend , let us now see what their action is , and how it will be more or less durable and constant , according to the different states of external nature . we determin'd before , that the force and action of all organs in the body was tonical , and of none more remarkably than of these two , the heart and stomach ; for though it be not clearly determin'd what the particular structure of these organs , or of their fibres is , that makes them tonical , yet 't is manifest by their actions that they are so . in the stomach , besides a peculiar ferment that opens and dissolves the parts of the meat , and melts them into a fluor or pulp , the coats of it , or fibres whereof they consist , have a motion proper to them , proceeding from their tone , whereby they close the stomach , and compress the meat when it is receiv'd , and when turn'd into chyle , press it forwards , and squeeze it into the intestines ; and the intestines also partaking of the same motion , push and work it still forwards into those little veins that convey it towards the heart . the heart hath the same general motions with the stomach , of opening and shutting , and hath also a peculiar ferment which rarifies the bloud that enters into it ; and that bloud by the spring of the heart , and the particular texture of its fibres , is thrown out again to make its circulation through the body . this is , in short , the action of both these organs ; and indeed the mystery of the body of an animal , and of its operations and oeconomy , consists chiefly in springs and ferments ; the one for the solid parts , the other in the fluid . but to apply this fabrick of the organick parts to our purpose , we may observe and conclude , that whatsoever weakens the tone or spring of these two organs , which are the bases of all vitality , weaken the principle of life , and shorten the natural duration of it ; and if of two orders or courses of nature , the one be favourable and easie to these tonick principles in the body , and the other uneasie and prejudicial , that course of nature will be attended with long periods of life , and this with short . and we have shewn , that in the primitive earth the course of nature was even , steddy and unchangeable , without either different qualities of the air , or unequal seasons of the year , which must needs be more easie to these principles we speak of , and permit them to continue longer in their strength and vigour , than they can possibly do under all those changes of the air , of the atmosphere , and of the heavens , which we now suffer yearly , monthly , and daily . and though sacred history had not acquainted us with the longaevity of the ante-diluvian patriarchs , nor profane history with those of the golden age , i should have concluded , from the theory alone , and the contemplation of that state of nature , that the forms of all things were much more permanent in that world than in ours , and that the lives of men and all other animals had longer periods . i confess , i am of opinion , that 't is this that makes not only these living springs or tonick organs of the body , but all artificial springs also , though made of the hardest metal , decay so fast . the different pressure of the atmosphere , sometimes heavier , sometimes lighter , more rare or more dense , moist or dry , and agitated with different degrees of motion , and in different manners ; this must needs operate upon that nicer contexture of bodies , which makes them tonical or elastick ; altering the figure or minuteness of the pores , and the strength and order of the fibres upon which that propriety depends : bending and unbending , closing and opening the parts . there is a subtle and aethereal element that traverseth the pores of all bodies , and when 't is straiten'd and pent up there , or stopt in its usual course and passage , its motion is more quick and eager , as a current of water , when 't is obstructed or runs through a narrower chanel ; and that strife and those attempts which these little active particles make to get free , and follow the same tracts they did before ▪ do still press upon the parts of the body that are chang'd , to redress and reduce them to their first and natural posture , and in this consists the force of a spring . accordingly we may observe , that there is no body that is or will be tonical or elastick , if it be left to it self , and to that posture it would take naturally ; for then all the parts are at ease , and the subtle matter moves freely and uninterruptedly within its pores ; but if by distention , or by compression , or by flexion , or any other way , the situation of the parts and pores be so alter'd , that the air sometimes , but for the most part that subtiler element , is uneasie and comprest too much , it causeth that renitency or tendency to restitution , which we call the tone or spring of a body . now as this disposition of bodies doth far more easily perish than their continuity , so i think there is nothing that contributes more to its perishing ( whether in natural or artificial springs ) than the unequal action and different qualities of the aether , air , and atmosphere . it will be objected to us , it may be , that in the beginning of the chapter we instanc'd in artificial things , that would continue for ever , if they had but the power of nourishing themselves , as lamps , mills , and such like ; why then may not natural machines that have that power , last for ever ? the case is not the same as to the bodies of animals , and the things there instanc'd in , for those were springless machines , that act only by some external cause , and not in vertue of any tone or interiour temper of the parts , as our bodies do ; and when that tone or temper is destroy'd , no nourishment can repair it . there is something , i say , irreparable in the tonical disposition of matter , which when wholly lost , cannot be restor'd by nutrition ; nutrition may answer to a bare consumption of parts , but where the parts are to be preserv'd in such a temperament , or in such a degree of humidity and driness , warmth , rarity or density , to make them capable of that nourishment , as well as of their other operations , as organs , ( which is the case of our bodies ) there the heavens , the air , and external causes will change the qualities of the matter in spite of all nutrition ; and the qualities of the matter being chang'd ( in a course of nature , where the cause cannot be taken away ) that is a fault incorrigible , and irreparable by the nourishment that follows , being hinder'd of its effect by the indisposition or incapacity of the recipient . and as they say , a fault in the first concoction cannot be corrected in the second ; so neither can a fault in the prerequisites to all the concoctions be corrected by any of them . i know the ancients made the decay and term of life to depend rather upon the humours of the body , than the solid parts , and suppos'd an humidum radicale and a calidum innatum , as they call them , a radical moisture and congenit heat to be in every body from its birth and first formation ; and as these decay'd , life decay'd . but who 's wiser for this account , what doth this instruct us in ? we know there is heat and moisture in the body , and you may call the one radical , and the other innate if you please ; this is but a sort of cant , for we know no more of the real physical causes of that effect we enquir'd into , than we did before . what makes this heat and moisture fail , if the nourishment be good , and all the organs in their due strength and temper ? the first and original failure is not in the fluid , but in the solid parts , which if they continued the same , the humours would do so too . besides , what befel this radical moisture and heat at the deluge , that it should decay so fast afterwards , and last so long before ? there is a certain temper , no doubt , of the juices and humours of the body , which is more fit than any other to conserve the parts from driness and decay ; but the cause of that driness and decay , or other inhability in the solid parts , whence is that , if not from external nature ? 't is thither we must come at length in our search of the reasons of the natural decay of our bodies , we follow the fate and laws of that : and , i think , by those causes , and in that order , that we have already describ'd and explain'd . to conclude this discourse , we may collect from it what judgment is to be made of those projectors of immortality , or undertakers to make men live to the age of methusalah , if they will use their methods and medicines ; there is but one method for this , to put the sun into his old course , or the earth into its first posture ; there is no other secret to prolong life ; our bodies will sympathize with the general course of nature , nothing can guard us from it , no elixir , no specifick , no philosopher's-stone . but there are enthusiasts in philosophy , as well as in religion ; men that go by no principles , but their own conceit and fancy , and by a light within , which shines very uncertainly , and , for the most part , leads them out of the way of truth . and so much for this disquisition , concerning the causes of longaevity , or of the long and short periods of life in the different periods of the world. that the age of the ante-diluvian patriarchs is to be computed by solar or common years , not by lunar or months . having made this discourse of the unequal periods of life , only in reference to the ante diluvians and their fam'd longaevity , lest we should seem to have proceeded upon an ill-grounded and mistaken supposition , we are bound to take notice of , and confute , that opinion which makes the years of the ante-diluvian patriarchs to have been lunar , not solar , and so would bear us in hand , that they liv'd only so many months , as scripture saith they liv'd years . seeing there is nothing could drive men to this bold interpretation , but the incredibility of the thing , as they fansied ; they having no notions or hypothesis whereby it could appear intelligible or possible to them ; and seeing we have taken away that stumbling-stone , and shew'd it not only possible but necessary , according to the constitution of that world , that the periods of life should be far longer than in this ; by removing the ground or occasion of their misinterpretation , we hope we have undeceiv'd them , and let them see that there is no need of that subterfuge , either to prevent an incongruity , or save the credit of the sacred historian . but as this opinion is inconsistent with nature truly understood , so is it also with common history ; for besides what i have already mention'd in the first chapter of this book , iosephus tells us , that the historians of all nations , both greeks and barbarians , give the same account of the first inhabitants of the earth ; manetho , who writ the story of the aegyptians , berosus , who writ the chaldaean history , and those authors that have given us an account of the phoenician antiquities ; besides molus and hestiaeus , and hieronymus the aegyptian ; and amongst the greeks hesiodus , hecateus , hellanicus , acusilaus , ephorus and nicolaus : we have the suffrages of all these , and their common consent , that in the first ages of the world men liv'd a thousand years . now we cannot well suppose , that all these historians meant lunar years , or that they all conspir'd together to make and propagate a fable . lastly , as nature and profane history do disown and confute this opinion , so much more doth sacred history ; not indeed in profess'd terms , for moses doth not say that he useth solar years , but by several marks and observations , or collateral arguments , it may be clearly collected , that he doth not use lunar . as first , because he distinguisheth months and years in the history of the deluge , and of the life of noah ; for gen. . . he saith in the six hundredth year of noah's life , in the second month , &c. it cannot be imagin'd that in the same verse and sentence these two terms of year and month should be so confounded as to signifie the same thing ; and therefore noah's years were not the same with months , nor consequently those of the other patriarchs , for we have no reason to make any difference . besides , what ground was there , or how was it proper or pertinent to reckon , as moses does there , first , second , third month , as so many going to a year , if every one of them was a year ? and seeing the deluge begun in the six hundredth year of noah's life , and in the second month , and ended in the six hundredth and first year ( chap. . . ) the first or second month , all that was betwixt these two terms , or all the duration of the deluge , made but one year in noah's life , or it may be not so much ; and we know moses reckons a great many months in the duration of the deluge ; so as this is a demonstration that noah's years are not to be understood of lunar . and to imagine that his years are to be understood one way , and those of his fellow-patriarchs another , would be an inaccountable fiction . this argument therefore extends to all the ante-diluvians ; and noah's life will take in the post-diluvians too , for you see part of it runs amongst them , and ties together the two worlds : so that if we exclude lunar years from his life , we exclude them from all , those of his fathers , and those of his children . secondly , if lunar years were understood in the ages of the ante-diluvian patriarchs , the interval betwixt the creation and the deluge would be too short , and in many respects incongruous . there would be but months from the beginning of the world to the flood ; which converted into common years , make but years , and five months , for that interval . this perverts all chronology , and besides , makes the number of people so small and inconsiderable at the time of the deluge , that destroying of the world then was not so much as destroying of a country town would be now : for from one couple you cannot well imagine there could arise above five hundred persons in so short a time ; but if there was a thousa●d , 't is not so many as we have sometimes in a good country village . and were the flood-gates of heaven open'd , and the great abyss broken up to destroy such an handful of people ? and the waters rais'd fifteen cubits above the highest mountains throughout the face of the earth , to drown a parish or two ? is not this more incredible than our age of the patriarchs ? besides , this short interval doth not leave room for ten generations , which we find from adam to the flood , nor allows the patriarchs age enough at the time when they are said to have got children . one hundred twenty seven years for ten generations is very strait ; and of these you must take off forty six years for one generation only , or for noah , for he liv'd six hundred years before the flood , and if they were lunar , they would come however to forty six of our years ; so that for the other nine generations you would have but eighty one years , that is , nine years a-piece ; at which age they must all be suppos'd to have begun to get children ; which you cannot but think a very absurd supposition . thus it would be , if you divide the whole time equally amongst the nine . generations , but if you consider some single instances , as they are set down by moses , 't is still worse ; for mahaleel and his grandchild enoch are said to have got children at sixty five years of age , which if you suppose months , they were but five years old at that time ; now i appeal to any one , whether it is more incredible that men should live to the age of nine hundred years , or that they should beget children at the age of five years . you will say , it may be , 't is true these inconveniences follow , if our hebrew copies of the old testament be authentick ; but if the greek translation by the septuagint be of better authority , as some would have it to be , that gives a little relief in this case ; for the septuagint make the distance from the creation to the flood six hundred years more than the hebrew text does , and so give us a little more room for our ten generations : and not only so , but they have so conveniently dispos'd those additional years , as to salve the other inconvenience too , of the patriarchs having children so young ; for what patriarchs are found to have got children sooner than the rest , and so soon , that upon a computation by lunar years , they would be but meer children themselves at that time , to these , more years are added and plac'd opportunely , before the time of their getting children ; so as one can scarce forbear to think that it was done on purpose to cure that inconvenience , and to favour and protect the computation by lunar years . the thing looks so like an artifice , and as done to serve a turn , that one cannot but have a less opinion of that chronology for it . but not to enter upon that dispute at present , methinks they have not wrought the cure effectually enough ; for with these six hundred lunar years added , the summ will be only one hundred seventy three common years and odd months ; and from these deducting , as we did before , for noah , forty six years , and for adam , or the first generation , about eighteen , ( for he was two hundred and thirty years old , according to the septuagint , when he begot seth ) there will remain but one hundred and nine years for eight generations ; which will be thirteen years a-piece and odd months ; a low age to get children in , and to hold for eight generations together . neither is the other inconvenience we mention'd , well cur'd by the septuagint account , namely , the small number of people that would be in the world at the deluge ; for the septuagint account , if understood of lunar years , adds but forty six common years to the hebrew account , and to the age of the world at the deluge , in which time there could be but a very small accession to the number of mankind . so as both these incongruities continue , though not in the same degree , and stand good in either account , if it be understood of lunar years . thirdly , 't is manifest from other texts of scripture , and from other considerations , that our first fathers liv'd very long , and considerably longer than men have done since ; whereas if their years be interpreted lunar , there is not one of them that liv'd to the age that men do now ; methusalah himself did not reach threescore and fifteen years , upon that interpretation ; which doth depress them not only below those that liv'd next to the flood , but below all following generations to this day ; and those first ages of the world , which were always celebrated for strength and vivacity , are made as weak and feeble as the last dregs of nature . we may observe , that after the flood for some time , till the pristine crasis of the body was broken by the new course of nature , they liv'd five , four , three , two hundred years , and the life of men shortn'd by degrees ; but before the flood , when they liv'd longer , there was no such decrease or gradual declension in their lives . for noah , who was the last , liv'd longer than adam ; and methusalah who was last but two , liv'd the longest of all : so that it was not simply their distance from the beginning of the world that made them live a shorter time , but some change which happen'd in nature after such a period of time ; namely at the deluge , when the declension begun . let 's set down the table of both states . a table of the ages of the ante-diluvian fathers .   years . adam seth enos cainan mahaleel iared enoch methusalah lamech noah a table of the ages of the post-diluvian fathers , from shem to joseph .   years . shem arphaxad salah eber peleg reu serug nahor terah abraham isaac iacob ioseph from these tables we see that mens lives were much longer before the flood , and next after it , than they are now ; which also is confirm'd undeniably by iacob's complaint of the shortness of his life , in comparison of his fore-fathers , when he had liv'd one hundred and thirty years , gen. . . the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been , and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers . there was then , 't is certain , long-liv'd men in the world before iacob's time ; when were they , before the flood or after ? we say both , according as the tables shew it ? but if you count by lunar years , there never were any , either before or after , and iacob's complaint was unjust and false ; for he was the oldest man in the world himself , or at least there was none of his fore-fathers that liv'd so long as he . the patrons of this opinion must needs find themselves at a loss , how or where to break off the account of lunar years in sacred history , if they once admit it . if they say , that way of counting must only be extended to the flood , then they make the post-diluvian fathers longer liv'd than the ante-diluvian ; did the flood bring in longaevity ? how could that be the cause of such an effect ? besides , if they allow the post-diluvians to have liv'd six hundred ( common ) years , that being clearly beyond the standard of our lives , i should never stick at two or three hundred years more for the first ages of the world. if they extend their lunar account to the post-diluvians too , they will still be intangled in worse absurdities ; for they must make their lives miserably short , and their age of getting children altogether incongruous and impossible . nahor , for example , when he was but two years and three months old must have begot abraham's father : and all the rest betwixt him and shem must have had children before they were three years old : a pretty race of pigmies . then their lives were proportionably short , for this nahor liv'd but eleven years and six months at this rate ; and his grandchild abraham , who is said to have died in a good old age , and full of years , ( gen. . . ) was not fourteen years old . what a ridiculous account this gives of scripture-chronology and genealogies ? but you 'll say , it may be , these lunar years are not to be carried so far as abraham neither ; tell us then where you 'll stop , and why you stop in such a place rather than another . if you once take in lunar years , what ground is there in the text , or in the history , that you should change your way of computing , at such a time , or in such a place ? all our ancient chronology is founded upon the books of moses , where the terms and periods of times are exprest by years , and often by genealogies , and the lives of men ; now if these years are sometimes to be interpreted lunar , and sometimes solar , without any distinction made in the text , what light or certain rule have we to go by ? let these authors name to us the parts and places where , and only where , the lunar years are to be understood , and i dare undertake to show , that their method is not only arbitrary , but absurd and incoherent . to conclude this discourse , we cannot but repeat what we have partly observ'd before , how necessary it is to understand nature , if we would rightly understand those things in holy writ that relate to the natural world. for without this knowledge , as we are apt to think some things consistent and credible that are really impossible in nature ; so on the other hand , we are apt to look upon other things as incredible and impossible that are really founded in nature . and seeing every one is willing so to expound scripture , as it may be to them good sence , and consistent with their notions in other things , they are forc'd many times to go against the easie and natural importance of the words , and to invent other interpretations more compliant with their principles , and , as they think , with the nature of things . we have , i say , a great instance of this before us in the scripture-history of the long lives of the ante-diluvians , where without any ground or shadow of ground in the narration , only to comply with a mistaken philosophy , and their ignorance of the primitive world , many men would beat down the scripture account of years into months , and sink the lives of those first fathers below the rate of the worst of ages . whereby that great monument , which providence hath left us of the first world , and of its difference from the second , would not only be defac'd , but wholly demolish'd . and all this sprung only from the seeming incredibility of the thing ; for they cannot show in any part of scripture , new or old , that these lunar years are made use of , or that any computation , literal or prophetical , proceeds upon them : nor that there is any thing in the text or context of that place , that argues or intimates any such account . we have endeavour'd , upon this occasion , effectually to prevent this misconstruction of sacred history , for the future ; both by showing the incongruities that follow upon it , and also that there is no necessity from nature of any such shift or evasion , as that is : but rather on the contrary , that we have just and necessary reasons to conclude , that as the forms of all things would be far more permanent and lasting in that primitive state of the heavens and the earth ; so particularly the lives of men , and of other animals . chap. v. concerning the waters of the primitive earth : what the state of the regions of the air was then , and how all waters proceeded from them ; how the rivers arose , what was their course , and how they ended . some things in sacred writ that confirm this hydrography of the first earth ; especially the origin of the rainbow . having thus far clear'd our way to paradise , and given a rational account of its general properties ; before we proceed to discourse of the place of it , there is one affair of moment , concerning this primitive earth , that must first be stated and explain'd ; and that is , how it was water'd ; from what causes , and in what manner . how could fountains rise , or rivers flow in an earth of that form and nature ? we have shut up the sea with thick walls on every side , and taken away all communication that could be 'twixt it and the external earth ; and we have remov'd all the hills and the mountains where the springs use to rise , and whence the rivers descend to water the face of the ground : and lastly , we have left no issue for these rivers , no ocean to receive them , nor any other place to disburthen themselves into : so that our new-found world is like to be a dry and barren wilderness , and so far from being paradisiacal , that it would scarce be habitable . i confess there was nothing in this whole theory that gave such a stop to my thoughts , as this part of it , concerning the rivers of the first earth ; how they rise , how they flow'd , and how they ended : it seem●d at first , that we had wip'd away at once the notion and whole doctrine of rivers , we had turn'd the earth so smooth , that there was not an hill or rising for the head of a spring , nor any fall or descent for the course of a river : besides , i had suckt in the common opinion of philosophers , that all rivers rise from the sea , and return to it again ; and both those passages , i see , were stopt up in that earth . this gave me occasion to reflect upon the modern and more solid opinion , concerning the origin of fountains and rivers , that they rise chiefly from rains and melted snows , and not from the sea alone ; and as soon as i had demurr'd in that particular , i see it was necessary to consider , and examine , how the rains fell in that first earth , to understand what the state of their waters and rivers would be . and i had no sooner appli'd my self to that inquiry , but i easily discover'd , that the order of nature in the regions of the air , would be then very different from what it is now , and the meteorology of that world was of another sort from that of the present . the air was always calm and equal , there could be no violent meteors there , nor any that proceeded from extremity of cold ; as ice , snow or hail ; nor thunder neither ; for the clouds could not be of a quality and consistency fit for such an effect , either by falling one upon another , or by their disruption . and as for winds , they could not be either impetuous or irregular in that earth ; seeing there were neither mountains nor any other inequalities to obstruct the course of the vapours ; nor any unequal seasons , or unequal action of the sun , nor any contrary and strugling motions of the air : nature was then a stranger to all those disorders . but as for watery meteors , or those that rise from watery vapours more immediately , as dews , and rains , there could not but be plenty of these , in some part or other of that earth ; for the action of the sun in raising vapours , was very strong and very constant , and the earth was at first moist and soft , and according as it grew more dry , the rays of the sun would pierce more deep into it , and reach at length the great abyss which lay underneath , and was an unexhausted storehouse of new vapours . but , 't is true , the same heat which extracted these vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into clouds or rain , in the warmer parts of the earth ; and there being no mountains at that time , nor contrary winds , nor any such causes to stop them or compress them , we must consider which way they would tend , and what their course would be , and whether they would any where meet with causes capable to change or condense them ; for upon this , 't is manifest , would depend the meteors of that air , and the waters of that earth . and as the heat of the sun was chiefly towards the middle parts of the earth , so the copious vapours rais'd there were most rarified and agitated ; and being once in the open air , their course would be that way , where they found least resistance to their motion ; and that would certainly be towards the poles , and the colder regions of the earth . for east and west they would meet with as warm an air , and vapours as much agitated as themselves , which therefore would not yield to their progress that way ; but towards the north and the south , they would find a more easie passage , the cold of those parts attracting them , as we call it , that is , making way to their motion and dilatation without much resistance , as mountains and cold places usually draw vapours from the warmer . so as the regular and constant course of the vapours of that earth , which were rais'd chiefly about the aequinoctial and middle parts of it , would be towards the extream parts of it , or towards the poles . and in consequence of this , when these vapours were arriv'd in those cooler climats , and cooler parts of the air , they would be condens'd into rain ; for wanting there the cause of their agitation , namely , the heat of the sun , their motion would soon begin to languish , and they would fall closer to one another in the form of water . for the difference betwixt vapours and water is only gradual , and consists in this , that vapours are in a flying motion , separate and distant each from another ; but the parts of water are in a creeping motion , close to one another ; like a swarm of bees , when they are setled ; as vapours resemble the same bees in the air before they settle together . now there is nothing puts these vapours upon the wing , or keeps them so , but a strong agitation by heat ; and when that fails , as it must do in all colder places and regions , they necessarily return to water again . accordingly therefore we must suppose they would soon , after they reacht these cold regions , be condens'd , and fall down in a continual rain or dew upon those parts of the earth . i say a continual rain ; for seeing the action of the sun , which rais'd the vapours , was ( at that time ) always the same , and the state of the air always alike , nor any cross winds , nor any thing else that could hinder the course of the vapours towards the poles , nor their condensation when arriv'd there ; 't is manifest there would be a constant source or store-house of waters in those parts of the air , and in those parts of the earth . and this , i think , was the establisht order of nature in that world , this was the state of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth ; all their waters came from above , and that with a constant supply and circulation ; for when the croud of vapours , rais'd about the middle parts of the earth , found vent and issue this way towards the poles , the passage being once open'd , and the chanel made , the current would be still continued without intermission ; and as they were dissolv'd and spent there , they would suck in more and more of those which followed , and came in fresh streams from the hotter climates . aristotle , i remember , in his meteors , speaking of the course of the vapours , saith , there is a river in the air , constantly slowing betwixt the heavens and the earth , made by the ascending and descending vapours ; this was more remarkably true in the primitive earth , where the state of nature was more constant and regular ; there was indeed an uninterrupted flood of vapours rising in one region of the earth , and flowing to another , and there continually distilling in dews and rain , which made this aereal river . as may be easily apprehended from this scheme of the earth and air. book . d. fig. st . p. . thus we have found a source for waters in the first earth , which had no communication with the sea ; and a source that would never fail , neither diminish or overflow , but feed the earth with an equal supply throughout all the parts of the year . but there is a second difficulty that appears at the end of this , how these waters would flow upon the even surface of the earth , or form themselves into rivers ; there being no descent or declivity for their course . there were no hills , nor mountains , not high lands in the first earth , and if these rains fell in the frigid zones , or towards the poles , there they would stand , in lakes and pools , having no descent one way more than another ; and so the rest of the earth would be no better for them . this , i confess , appear'd as great a difficulty as the former , and would be unanswerable , for ought i know , if that first earth was not water'd by dews only ( as i believe some worlds are ) or had been exactly spherical ; but we noted before , that it was oval or oblong ; and in such a figure , 't is manifest , the polar parts are higher than the aequinoctial , that is , more remote from the center , as appears to the eye in this scheme . this affords us a present remedy , and sets us free of the second difficulty ; for by this means the waters which fell about the extreme parts of the earth , would have a continual descent towards the middle parts of it ; this figure gives them motion and distribution ; and many rivers and rivulets would flow from those mother-lakes to refresh the face of the earth , bending their course still towards the middle parts of it . booke d. fig. d. p. . 't is true , these derivations of the waters at first would be very irregular and diffuse , till the chanels were a little worn and hollowed ; and though that earth was smooth and uniform , yet 't is impossible , upon an inclining surface , but that waters should find a way of creeping downwards , as we see upon a smooth table , or a flagg'd pavement , if there be the least inclination , water will flow from the higher to the lower parts of it , either directly , or winding to and fro : so the smoothness of that earth would be no hindrance to the course of the rivers , provided there was a general declivity in the site and libration of it , as 't is plain there was from the poles towards the aequator . the current indeed would be easie and gentle all along , and if it chanc'd in some places to rest or be stopt , it would spread it self into a pleasant lake , till by fresh supplies it had rais'd its waters so high , as to overflow and break loose again ; then it would pursue its way , with many other rivers its companions , through all the temperate climates , as far as the torrid zone . but you 'll say , when they were got thither , what would become of them then ? how would they end or finish their course ? this is the third difficulty , concerning the ending of the rivers in that earth ; what issue could they have when they were come to the middle parts of it , whether it seems , they all tended . there was no sea to lose themselves in , as our rivers do ; nor any subterraneous passages to throw themselves into ; how would they die , what would be their fate at last ? i answer , the greater rivers , when they were come towards those parts of the earth , would be divided into many branches , or a multitude of rivulets ; and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the sun , and partly drunk up by the dry and sandy earth . but how and in what manner this came to pass , requires a little further explication . we must therefore observe in the first place , that those rivers as they drew nearer to the aequinoctial parts , would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course ; that is evident from the oval figure of the earth , for near the middle parts of an oval , the semidiameters , as i may call them , are very little shorter one than another ; and for this reason the rivers , when they were advanc'd towards the middle parts of the earth , would begin to flow more slowly , and by that weakness of their current , suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and rivulets ; or else , having no force to wear a chanel , would lie shallow upon the ground like a plash of water ; and in both cases their waters would be much more expos'd to the action of the sun , than if they had kept together in a deeper chanel , as they were before . secondly , we must observe , that seeing these waters could not reach to the middle of the torrid zone , for want of descent ; that part of the earth having the sun always perpendicular over it , and being refresht by no rivers , would become extremely dry and parch'd , and be converted at length into a kind of sandy desart ; so as all the waters that were carried thus far , and were not exhal'd and consum'd by the sun , would be suckt up ▪ as in a spunge ▪ by these sands of the torrid zone . this was the common grave wherein the rivers of the first earth were buried ; and this is nothing but what happens still in several parts of the present earth , especially in africk , where many rivers never flow into the sea , but expire after the same manner as these did , drunk up by the sun and the sands . and one arm of euphrates dies , as i remember , amongst the sands of arabia , after the manner of the rivers of the first earth . thus we have conquer'd the greatest difficulty , in my apprehension , in this whole theory , to find out the state of the rivers in the primitive and ante-diluvian earth , their origin , course , and period . we have been forc'd to win our ground by inches , and have divided the difficulty into parts , that we might encounter them single with more ease . the rivers of that earth , you see , were in most respects different , and in some contrary to ours ; and if you could turn our rivers backwards , to run from the sea towards their fountain-heads , they would more resemble the course of those ante-diluvian rivers ; for they were greatest at their first setting out , and the current afterwards , when it was more weak , and the chanel more shallow , was divided into many branches , and little rivers ; like the arteries in our body , that carry the blood , they are greatest at first , and the further they go from the heart , their source , the less they grow and divide into a multitude of little branches , which lose themselves insensibly in the habit of the flesh , as these little floods did in the sands of the earth . book . d. fig. . p. . because it pleaseth more , and makes a greater impression upon us , to see things represented to the eye , than to read their description in words , we have ventur'd to give a model of the primaeval earth , with its zones or greater climates , and the general order and tracts of its rivers : not that we believe things to have been in the very same form as here exhibited , but this may serve as a general idea of that earth , which may be wrought into more exactness , according as we are able to enlarge or correct our thoughts hereafter . and as the zones here represented resemble the belts or eusciae of iupiter , so we suppose them to proceed from like causes , if that planet be in an ante-diluvian state , as the earth we here represent . as for the polar parts in that first earth , i can say very little of them , they would make a scene by themselves , and a very particular one ; the sun would be perpetually in their horizon , which makes me think the rains would not fall so much there as in the other parts of the frigid zones , where accordingly we have made their chief seat and receptacle . that they flow'd from thence in such a like manner as is hero represented , we have already prov'd ; and sometimes in their passage swelling into lakes , and towards the end of their course parting into several streams and branches , they would water those parts of the earth like a garden . we have before compar'd the branchings of these rivers towards the end of their course to the ramifications of the arteries in the body , when they are far from the heart near the extream parts ; and some , it may be , looking upon this scheme , would carry the comparison further , and suppose , that as in the body the bloud is not lost in the habit of the flesh , but strain'd thorough it , and taken up again by the little branches of the veins ; so in that earth the waters were not lost in those sands of the torrid zone , but strain'd or percolated thorough them , and receiv'd into the chanels of the other hemisphere . this indeed would in some measure answer the notion which several of the ancient fathers make use of , that the rivers of paradise were trajected out of the other hemisphere into this , by subterraneous passages . but , i confess , i could never see it possible , how such a trajection could be made , nor how they could have any motion , being arriv'd in another hemisphere ; and therefore i am apt to believe , that doctrine amongst the ancients arose from an intanglement in their principles ; they suppos'd generally , that paradise was in the other hemisphere , as we shall have occasion to show hereafter ; and yet they believ'd that tigris , euphrates , nile , and gunges were the rivers of paradise , or came out of it ; and these two opinions they could not reconcile , or make out , but by supposing that these four rivers had their fountain-heads in the other hemisphere , and by some wonderful trajection broke out again here . this was the expedient they found out to make their opinions consistent one with another ; but this is a method to me altogether unconceivable ; and , for my part , i do not love to be led our of my depth , leaning only upon antiquity . how there could be any such communication , either above ground , or under-ground ; betwixt the two hemispheres does not appear , and therefore we must still suppose the torrid zone to have been the barrier betwixt them , which nothing could pass either way . we have now examin'd and determin'd the state of the air , and of the waters in the primitive earth , by the light and consequences of reason ; and we must not wonder to find them different from the present order of nature ; what things are said of them , or relating to them in holy writ do testifie or imply as much ; and it will be worth our time to make some reflection upon those passages for our further confirmation . moses tells us , that the rainbow was set in the clouds after the deluge ; those heavens then that never had a rain-bow before , were certainly of a constitution very different from ours . and s. peter doth formally and expresly tell us , that the old heavens , or the ante-diluvian heavens had a different constitution from ours , and particularly , that they were compos'd or constituted of water ; which philosophy of the apostle's may be easily understood , if we attend to two things , first , that the heavens he speaks of , were not the starry heavens , but the aereal heavens , or the regions of our air , where the meteors are ; secondly , that there were no meteors in those regions , or in those heavens , till the deluge , but watery meteors , and therefore , he says , they consisted of water . and this shows the foundation upon which that description is made , how coherently the apostle argues , and answers the objection there propos'd : how justly also he distinguisheth the first heavens from the present heavens , or rather opposeth them one to another ; because as those were constituted of water and watery meteors only , so the present heavens , he saith , have treasures of fire , fiery exhalations and meteors , and a disposition to become the executioners of the divine wrath and decrees in the final conflagration of the earth . this minds me also of the celestial waters , or the waters above the firmaments , which scripture sometimes mentions , and which , methinks , cannot be explain'd so fitly and emphatically upon any supposition as this of ours . those who place them above the starry heavens , seem neither to understand astronomy nor philosophy ; and , on the other hand , if nothing be understood by them , but the clouds and the middle region of the air , as it is at present , methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing , as to deserve a particular commemoration by moses in his six days work ; but if we understand them , not as they are now , but as they were then , the only source of waters , or the only source of waters upon that earth , ( for they had not one drop of water but what was celestial , ) this gives it a new force and emphasis : besides , the whole middle region having no other sort of meteors but them , that made it still the greater singularity , and more worthy commemoration . as for the rivers of paradise , there is nothing said concerning their source , or their issue , that is either contrary to this , or that is not agreeable to the general account we have given of the waters and rivers of the first earth . they are not said to rise from any mountain , but from a great river , or a kind of lake in eden , according to the custom of the rivers of that earth : and as for their end and issue , moses doth not say , that they disburthen'd themselves into this or that sea , as they usually do in the description of great rivers , but rather implies that they spent themselves in compassing and watering certain countries , which falls in again very easily with our hypothesis . but i say this rather to comply with the opinions of others than of my own judgment . for i think that suggestion about the supercoelestial waters made by moses , was not so much according to the strict nature and speciality of causes , as for the ease and profit of the people , in their belief and acknowledgment of providence for so great a benefit , by what causes soever it was brought to pass . but to return to the rainbow , which we mention'd before , and is not to be past over so slightly . this we say , is a creature of the modern world , and was not seen nor known before the flood . moses ( gen. . , . ) plainly intimates as much , or rather directly affirms it ; for he says . the bow was set in the clouds after the deluge , as a confirmation of the promise or covenant which god made with noah , that he would drown the world no more with water . and how could it be a sign of this , or given as a pledge and confirmation of such a promise , if it was in the clouds before , and with no regard to this promise ? and stood there , it may be , when the world was going to be drown'd . this would have been but cold comfort to noah , to have had such a pledge of the divine veracity . you 'll say , it may be , that it was not a sign or pledge that signified naturally , but voluntarily only , and by divine institution ; i am of opinion , i confess , that it signifi'd naturally , and by connexion with the effect , importing thus much , that the state of nature was chang'd from what it was before , and so chang'd , that the earth was no more in a condition to perish by water . but however , let us grant that it signified only by institution ; to make it significant in this sence , it must be something new , otherwise it could not signifie any new thing , or be the confirmation of a new promise . if god almighty had said to noah , i make a promise to you , and to all living creatures , that the world shall never be destroy'd by water again , and for confirmation of this , behold , i set the sun in the firmament : would this have been any strengthning of noah's faith , or any satisfaction to his mind ? why , says noah , the sun was in the firmament when the deluge came , and was a spectator of that sad tragedy ; why may it not be so again ? what sign or assurance is this against a second deluge ? when god gives a sign in the heavens , or on the earth , of any prophecy or promise to be fulfill'd , it must be by something new , or by some change wrought in nature ; whereby god doth testifie to us , that he is able and willing to stand to his promise . god says to ahaz , ask a sign of the lord ; ask it either in the depth , or in the height above : and when ahaz would ask no sign , god gives one unaskt , behold , a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. so when zachary was promis'd a son , he asketh for a sign , whereby shall i know this ? for i am old , and my wife well stricken in years ; and the sign given him was , that he became dumb , and continued so till the promise was fulfill'd . accordingly , when abraham askt a sign whereby he might be assur'd of god's promise that his seed shou'd inherit the land of canaan , gen. . . 't is said ( ver . . ) when the sun went down and it was dark , behold a smoaking furnace and a burning lamp passed betwixt the pieces of the beasts that he had cut asunder . so in other instances of signs given in external nature , as the sign given to king hezekiah for his recovery , and to gideon for his victory ; to confirm the promise made to hezekiah , the shadow went back ten degrees in ahaz . dial : and for gideon , his fleece was wet , and all the ground about it dry ; and then to change the trial , it was dry and all the ground about it wet . these were all signs very proper , significant , and satisfactory , having something surprising and extraordinary , yet these were signs by institution only ; and to be such they must have something new and strange , as a mark of the hand of god , otherwise they can have no force or significancy . accordingly we see moses himself in another place speaks this very sence , when in the mutiny or rebellion of corah and dathan , he speaks thus to the people , if these men die the common death of men , then the lord hath not sent me . but if the lord make a new thing , and the earth open her moath and swallow them up , &c. then you shall understand that these men have provoked the lord , nunr . . , . so in the case of noah , if god created a new creature ( when are moses's words in the forecited place ) the sign ws effectual . but where every thing continues to be as it was before , and the face of nature , in all its parts , the very same , it cannot signifie any thing new , nor any new intention in the author of nature ; and consequently , cannot be a sign or pledge , a token or assurance of the accomplishment of any new covenant or promise made by him . this , methinks , is plain to common sense , and to every man's reason ; but because it is a thing of importance , to prove that there was no rainbow before the flood , and will confirm a considerable part of this theory , by discovering what the state of the air was in the old world , give me leave to argue it a little further , and to remove some prejudices that may keep others from assenting to clear reason . i know t is usually said , that signs , like words , signifie any thing by institution , or may be appl●●d to any thing by the will of the imposer ; as hanging out a white flag is calling for mercy , a bush at the door , a sign of wine to be fold , and such like . but these are instances nothing to our purpose , these are signs of something present , and that signifie only by use and repeated experience ; we are speaking of signs of another nature , given in confirmation of a promise , or threatning , or prophecy , and given with design to cure our unbelief , or to excite and beget in us faith in god , in the prophet , or in the promiser , such signs , i say , when they are wrought in external nature , must be some new appearance , and must thereby induce us to believe the effect , or more to believe it , than if there had been no sign , but only the affirmation of the promiser ; for otherwise the pretended sign is a meer cypher and superfluity . but a thing that obtain'd before , and in the same manner ( even when that came to pass , which we are now promis'd shall not come to pass again ) signifies no more , than if there had been no sign at all : it can neither signifie another course in nature , nor another purpose in god ; and therefore is perfectly insignificant . some instance in the sacraments , jewish or christian , and make them signs in such a sence as the rainbow is : but those are rather symbolical representations or commemorations ; and some of them , marks of distinction and consecration of our selves to god in such a religion ; they were also new , and very particular when first instituted ; but all such instances fall short and do not reach the case before us ; we are speaking of signs confirmatory of a promise ; when there is something affirm'd de futuro , and to give us a further argument of the certainty of it , and of the power and veracity of the promiser , a sign is given : this we say , must indispensably be something new , otherwise it cannot have the nature , vertue , and influence of a sign . we have seen how incongruous it would be to admit that the rainbow appear'd before the deluge , and how dead a sign that would make it , how forc●d , fruitless and ineffectual , as to the promise it was to confirm ; let us now on the other hand suppose , that it first appear'd to the inhabitants of the earth after the deluge , how proper , and how apposite a sign would this be for providence to pitch upon , to confirm the promise made to noah and his posterity , that the world should be no more destroy'd by water ? it had a secret connexion with the effect it self , and was so far a natural sign ; but however appearing first after the deluge , and in a watery cloud , there was , methinks , a great easiness , and propriety of application for such a purpose . and if we suppose , that while god almighty was declaring his promise to noah , and the sign of it , there appear'd at the same time in the clouds a fair rainbow , that marvellous and beautiful meteor , which noah had never seen before ; it could not but make a most lively impression upon him , quickning his faith , and giving him comfort and assurance , that god would be stedfast to his promise . nor ought we to wonder , that interpreters have commonly gone the other way , and suppos'd that the rainbow was before the flood ; this , i say , was no wonder in them , for they had no hypothesis that could answer to any other interpretation ; and in the interpretation of the texts of scripture that concern natural things , they commonly bring them down to their own philosophy and notions : as we have a great instance in that discourse of s. peter's , concerning the deluge , and the ante-diluvian heavens , and earth , which , for want of a theory , they have been scarce able to make sence of ; for they have forc'dly appli'd to the present earth , or the present form of the earth , what plainly respected another . a like instance we have in the mosaical abyss , or tehom-rabba , by whose disruption the deluge was made ; this they knew not well what to make of , and so have generally interpreted it of the sea , or of our subterraneous waters ; without any propriety , either as to the word , or as to the sence . a third instance is this of the rainbow , where their philosophy hath misguided them again ; for to give them their due , they do not alledge , nor pretend to alledge , any thing from the text , that should make them interpret thus , or think the rainbow was before the flood ; but they pretend to go by certain reasons , as that the clouds were before the flood , therefore the rainbow ; and if the rainbow was not before the flood , then all things were not made within the six days creation : to whom these reasons are convictive , they must be led into the same belief with them , but not by any thing in the text , nor in the true theory , at least if ours be so ; for by that you see that the vapours were never condens'd into drops , nor into rain in the temperate and inhabited climates of that earth , and consequently there could never be the production or appearance of this bow in the clouds . thus much concerning the rainbow . to recollect our selves , and conclude this chapter , and the whole disquisition concerning the waters of the primitive earth ; we seem to have so well satisfied the difficulties propos'd in the beginning of the chapter , that they have rather given us an advantage ; a better discovery , and such a new prospect of that earth , as makes it not only habitable , but more fit to be paradisical . the pleasantness of the site of paradise is made to consist chiefly in two things , its waters , and its trees , ( gen. . and chap. . . ezek. . . ) and considering the richness of that first soil in the primitive earth , it could not but abound in trees , as it did in rivers and rivulets ; and be wooded like a grove , uss it was water'd like a garden , in the temperate climates of it ; so as it would not be , methinks , so difficult to find one paradise there , as not to find more than one . chap. vi. a recollection and review of what hath been said concerning the primitive earth ; with a more full survey of the state of the first world , natural and civil , and the comparison of it with the present world. we have now , in a good measure , finish'd our description of the first and ante-diluvian earth ; and as travellers , when they see strange countries , make it part of their pleasure and improvement , to compare them with their own , to observe the differences , and wherein they excel , or come short of one another : so it will not be unpleasant , nor unuseful , it may be , having made a discovery , not of a new countrey , but of a new world , and travell'd it over in our thoughts and fancy , now to sit down and compare it with our own : and 't will be no hard task , from the general differences which we have taken notice of already , to observe what lesser would arise , and what the whole face of nature would be . 't is also one fruit of travelling , that by seeing variety of places and people , of humours , fashions , and forms of living , it frees us , by degrees , from that pedantry and littleness of spirit , whereby we are apt to censure every thing for absurd and ridiculous , that is not according to our own way , and the mode of our own country ; but if instead of crossing the seas , we could waft our selves over to our neighbouring planets , we should meet with such varieties there , both in nature and mankind , as would very much enlarge our thoughts and souls , and help to cure those diseases of little minds , that make them troublesome to others , as well as uneasie to themselves . but seeing our heavy bodies are not made for such voyages , the best and greatest thing we can do in this kind , is to make a survey and reflection upon the ante-diluvian earth , which in some sence was another world from this , and it may be , as different as some two planets are from one another . we have declar'd already the general grounds upon which we must proceed , and must now trace the consequences of them , and drive them down into particulars , which will shew us in most things , wherein that earth , or that world , differ'd from the present . the form of that earth , and its situation to the sun , were two of its most fundamental differences from ours ; as to the form of it , 't was all one smooth continent , one continued surface of earth , without any sea , any mountains , or rocks ; any holes , dens or caverns : and the situation of it to the sun was such as made a perpetual aequinox . these two joyn'd together , lay the foundation of a new astronomy , meteorology , hydrography and geography ; such as were proper and peculiar to that world. the earth by this means having its axis parallel to the axis of the ecliptick , the heavens would appear in another posture : and their diurnal motion , which is imputed to the primum mobile , and suppos'd to be upon the poles of the aequator , would then be upon the same poles with the second and periodical motions of the orbs and planets ; namely , upon the poles of the ecliptick ; by which means the phaenomena of the heavens would be more simple and regular , and much of that intangledness and perplexity , which we find now in astronomy , would be taken away . whether the sun and moon would suffer any eclipses then , cannot well be determin'd , unless one knew what the course of the moon was at that time , or whether she was then come into our neighbourhood : her presence seems to have been less needful when there were no long winter-nights , nor the great pool of the sea to move or govern . as for the regions of the air and the meteors , we have in the preceding chapter set down what the state of them would be , and in how much a better order , and more peaceable , that kingdom was , till the earth was broken and displac'd , and the course of nature chang'd : nothing violent , nothing frightful , nothing troublesome or incommodious to mankind , came from above , but the countenance of the heavens was always smooth and serene . i have often thought it a very desirable piece of power , if a man could but command a fair day , when he had occasion for it , for himself , or for his friends ; 't is more than the greatest prince or potentate upon earth can do ; yet they never wanted one in that world , nor ever see a foul one . besides , they had constant breezes from the motion of the earth , and the course of the vapours , which cool'd the open plains , and made the weather temperate , as well as fair . but we have spoken enough in other places upon this subject of the air and the heavens , let us now descend to the earth . the earth was divided into two hemispheres , separated by the torrid zone , which at that time was uninhabitable , and utterly unpassable ; so as the two hemispheres made two distinct worlds , which , so far as we can judge , had no manner of commerce or communication one with another . the southern hemisphere the ancients call'd antichthon , the opposite earth , or the other world. and this name and notion remain'd long after the reason of it had c●ast . just as the torrid zone was generally accounted uninhabitable by the ancients , even in their time , because it really had been so once , and the tradition remain'd uncorrected , when the causes were taken away ; namely , when the earth had chang'd its posture to the sun after the deluge . this may be lookt upon as the first division of that primaval earth , into two hemispheres , naturally sever'd and disunited : but it was also divided into five zones , two frigid , two temperate , and the torrid betwixt them . and this distinction of the globe into ●●ve zones , i think , did properly belong to that original earth , and primitive geography , and improperly , and by translation only , to the present . for all the zones of our earth are habitable , and their distinctions are in a manner but imaginary , not fixt by nature ; whereas in that earth where the rivers fail'd , and the regions became uninhabitable , by reason of driness and heat , there begun the torrid zone ; and where the regions became uninhabitable by reason of cold and moisture , there begun the frigid zone ; and these being determin'd , they became bounds on either side to the temperate . but all this was alter'd when the posture of the earth was chang'd ; and chang'd for that very purpose , as some of the ancients have said , that the uninhabitable parts of the earth might become habitable . yet though there was so much of the first earth uninhabitable , there remain'd as much to be inhabited as we have now ; for the sea , since the breaking up of the abyss , hath taken away half of the earth from us , a great part whereof was to them good land. besides , we are not to suppose , that the torrid zone was of that extent we make it now , twenty three degrees and more on either side of the aequator ; these bounds are set only by the tropicks , and the tropicks by the obliquity of the course of the sun , or of the posture of the earth , which was not in that world. where the rivers stopt , there the torrid zone would begin , but the sun was directly perpendicular to no part of it but the middle . how the rivers flow'd in the first earth we have before explain'd sufficiently , and what parts the rivers did not reach , were turn'd into sands and desarts by the heat of the sun ; for i cannot easily imagine , that the sandy desarts of the earth were made so at first , immediately and from the beginning of the world ; from what causes should that be , and to what purpose in that age ? but in those tracts of the earth that were not refresht with rivers and moisture , which cement the parts , the ground would moulder and crumble into little pieces , and then those pieces by the heat of the sun were bak'd into stone . and this would come to pass chiefly in the hot and scorch'd regions of the earth , though it might happen sometimes where there was not that extremity of heat , if by any chance a place wanted rivers and water to keep the earth in due temper ; but those sands would not be so early or ancient as the other . as for greater loose stones , and rough pebbles , there were none in that earth ; deucalion and pyrrha when the deluge was over , found new made stones to cast behind their backs ; the bones of their mother earth , which then were broken in pieces , in that great ruine . as for plants and trees , we cannot imagine but that they must needs abound in the primitive earth , seeing it was so well water'd , and had a soil so fruitful ; a new unlabour'd soil , replenistht with the seeds of all vegetables ; and a warm sun that would call upon nature early for her first-fruits , to be offer'd up at the beginning of her course . nature 〈◊〉 a wild luxuriancy at first , which humane industry by degrees gave form and order to ; the waters flow'd with a constant and gentle current ▪ and were easily led which way the inhabitants had a mind , for their use , or for their pleasure ; and shady trees , which grow best in most and warm countries , grac'd the banks of their rivers or canals . but that which was the beauty and crown of all , was their perpetual spring ▪ the fields always green , the flowers always fresh , and the trees always cover'd , with leaves and fruit : but we have occasionally spoken of these things in several places , and may do again hereafter , and therefore need not inlarge upon them here . as for subterraneous things , metals and minerals , i believe they had none in the first earth ; and the happier they ; no gold , nor silver , nor courser metals . the use of these is either imaginary , or in such works , as , by the constitution of their world , they had little occasion for . and minerals are either for medicine ▪ which they had no need of further than herbs ; or for materials to certain arts , which were not then in use , or were suppli'd by other ways . these subterraneous things , metals and metallick minerals , are factitious , not original bodies , coaeval with the earth , but are made in process of time , after long preparations and concoctions , by the action of the sun within the bowels of the earth . and if the stamina or principles of them ris●e from the lower regions that lie under the abyss , as i am apt to think they do , 〈◊〉 doth not seem probable , that they could be drawn through such a mass of waters , or that the heat of the sun could on a sudden penetrate so deep , and be able to loosen them , and raise them into the exteriour earth . and as the first age of the world was call'd golden , though it knew not what gold was ; so the following ages had their names from several metals , which lay then asleep in the dark and deep womb of nature , and see not the sun till many years and ages afterwards . having run through the several regions of nature , from top to bottom , from the heavens to the lower parts of the earth , and made some observations upon their order in the ante-diluvian world ; let us now look upon man and other living creatures , that make the superiour and animate part of nature . we have observ'd , and sufficiently spoken to that difference betwixt the men of the old world , and those of the present , in point of longaevity , and given the reasons of it ; but we must not imagine , that this long life was peculiar to man , all other animals had their share of it , and were in their proportion longer-liv'd than they are now . nay , not only animals , but also vegetables , and the forms of all living things were far more permanent ; the trees of the field and of the forest , in all probability , out-lasted the lives of men ; and i do not know but the first groves of pines and cedars that grew out of the earth , or that were planted in the garden of god , might be standing when the deluge came , and see , from first to last , the entire course and period of a world. we might add here , with s. austin , another observation , both concerning men and other living creatures in the first world , that they were greater , as well as longer-liv'd , than they are at present . this seems to be a very reasonable conjecture , for the state of every thing that hath life , is divided into the time of its growth , its consistency , and its decay ; and when the whole duration is longer , every one of these parts , though not always in like proportions , will be longer . we must suppose then , that the growth both in men and other animals lasted longer in that world than it doth now , and consequently carried their bodies both to a greater height and bulk . and in like manner , their trees would be both taller , and every way bigger than ours ; neither were they in any danger there to be blown down by winds and storms , or struck with thunder , though they had been as high as the ae●yptian pyramids ; and whatsoever their height was , if they had roots and trunks proportionable , and were streight and well pois'd , they would stand firm and with a greater majesty . the fowls of heaven making their nests in their boughs , and under their shadow the beasts of the field bringing forth their young. when things are fairly possible in their causes , and possible in several degrees , higher or lower , 't is weakness of spirit in us , to think there is nothing in nature , but in that one way , or in that one degree , that we are us'd to . and whosoever believes those accounts given us , both by the ancients * and moderns ‖ , of the indian trees , will not think it strange that those of the first earth , should much exceed any that we now see in this world. ●that allegorical description of the glory of assyria in ezekiel chap. . by allusion to trees , and particularly to the trees of paradise , was chiefly for the greatness and stateliness of them ; and there is all fairness of reason to believe , that in that first earth , both the birds of the air , and the beasts of the field , and the trees and their fruit , were all , in their several kinds more large and goodly than nature produces any now . so much in short concerning the natural world , inanimate or animate ; we should now take a prospect of the moral world of that time , or of the civil and artificial world ; what the order and oeconomy of these was , what the manner of living , and how the scenes of humane life were different from ours at present . the ancients , especially the poets , in their description of the golden age , exhibit to us an order of things , and a form of life , very remote from any thing we see in our days ; but they are not to be trusted in all particulars , many times they exaggerate matters on purpose , that they may seem more strange , or more great , and by that means move and please us more . a moral or philosophick history of the world well writ , would certainly be a very useful work , to observe and relate how the scenes of humane life have chang'd in several ages , the modes and forms of living , in what simplicity men begun at first , and by what degrees they came out of that way , by luxury , ambition , improvement , or changes in nature ; then what new forms and modifications were superadded by the invention of arts , what by religion , what by superstition . this would be a view of things more instructive , and more satisfactory , factory , than to know what kings reign'd in such an age , and what battles were fought ; which common history teacheth ▪ and teacheth little more . such affairs are but the little under plots in the tragi comedy of the world ; the main design is of another nature , and of far greater extent and consequence . but to return to the subject . as the animate world depends upon the inanimate , so the civil world depends upon them both , and takes its measures from them ▪ nature is the foundation still , and the affairs of mankind are a superstructure that will be always proportion'd to it . therefore we must look back upon the model or picture of their natural world , which we have drawn before , to make our conjectures or judgment of the civil and artificial that were to accompany it . we observ'd from their perpetual aequinox , and the smoothness of the earth , that the air would be always calm , and the heavens fair , no cold or violent winds , rains , or storms , no extremity of weather in any kind , and therefore they would need little protection from the iniuries of the air in that state ; whereas now one great part of the affairs of life , is to preserve our selves from those inconveniences , by building and cloathing . how many hands , and how many trades are imploy'd about these two things , which then were in a manner needless , or at least in such plainness and simplicity , that every man might be his own workman . tents and bowers would keep them from all incommodities of the air and weather , better than stone-walls , and strong roofs defend ●s now ; and men are apt to take the easiest ways of living , till necessity or vice put them upon others that are more laborious , and more artificial . we also observ'd and prov'd , that they had no sea in the primitive and ante-diluvian world , which makes a vast difference 'twixt us and them ; this takes up half of our globe , and a good part of mankind is busied with sea-affairs and navigation . they had little need of merchandizing then . nature suppli'd them at home with all necessaries , which were few , and they were not so greedy of superfluities as we are . we may add to these what concern'd their food and diet ; antiquity doth generally suppose that men were not carnivo●us in those ages of the world , or did not feed upon flesh , but only upon fruit and herbs . and this seems to be plainly confirm'd by scripture ; for after the deluge god almighty gives noah and his posterity a licence to eat flesh , ( gen. . , . ) every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you . whereas before in the new-made earth god had prescrib'd them herbs and fruit for their diet , gen. . . behold , i have given you every herb bearing seed , which is upon the face of all the earth ; and every tree , in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed , to you it shall be for meat . and of this natural diet they would be provided to their hands , without further preparation , as the birds and the beasts are . upon these general grounds we may infer and conclude , that the civil world then , as well as the natural , had a very different face and aspect from what it hath now ; for of these heads , food and cloathing . building and traffick , with that train of arts , trades and manufactures that attend them , the civil order of things is in a great measure constituted and compounded : these make the business of life , the several occupations of men , the noise and hurry of the world ; these fill our cities , and our fairs , and our havens and ports ; yet all these fine things are but the effects of indigency and necessitousness , and were , for the most part , needless and unknown in that first state of nature . the ancients have told us the same things in effect , but telling us them without their grounds , which they themselves did not know , they lookt like poetical stories , and pleasant fictions , and with most men past for no better . we have shewn them in another light , with their reasons and causes , deduc'd from the state of the natural world , which is the basis upon which they stand ; and this doth not only give them a just and full credibility , but also lays a foundation for after-thoughts , and further deductions , when they meet with minds dispos'd to pursue speculations of this nature . as for laws , government , natural religion , military and judicial affai●● , with all their equipage , which make an higher order of things in the civil and moral world , to calculate these upon the grounds given , would be more difficult , and more uncertain ; neither do they at all belong to the present theory . but from what we have already observ'd , we may be able to make a better judgment of those traditional accounts which the ancients have left us concerning these things , in the early ages of the world , and the primitive state of nature . no doubt in these , as in all other particulars , there was a great easiness and simplicity in comparison of what is now , we are in a more pompous , forc'd , and artificial method , which partly the change of nature , and partly the vices and vanities of men have introduc'd and establisht . but these things , with many more , ought to be the subject of a philosophick history of the world , which we mention'd before . this is a short and general scheme of the primaeval world , compar'd with the modern ; yet these things did not equally run through all the parts and ages of it , there was a declension and degeneracy , both natural and moral , by degrees , and especially towards the latter end , but the principal form of nature remaining till the deluge and the dissolution of that heavens and earth , till then also this civil frame of things would stand in a great measure ▪ and though such a state of nature , and of mankind , when 't is propos'd crudely , and without its grounds , appear fabulous or imaginary , yet 't is really in it self a state , not only possible , but more easie and natural , than what the world is in at present . and if one of the old ante-diluvian patriarchs should rise from the dead , he would be more surpris'd to see our world in that posture it is , than we can be by the story and description of his . as an indian hath more reason to wonder at the european modes , than we have to wonder at their plain manner of living . 't is we that have left the tract of nature , that are wrought and screw'd up into artifices , that have disguis'd our selves ; and 't is in our world that the scenes are chang'd , and become more strange and fantastical . i will conclude this discourse with an easie remark , and without any particular application of it . 't is a strange power that custom hath upon weak and little spirits ; whose thoughts reach no further than their senses ; and what they have seen and been us'd to , they make the standard and measure of nature , of reason , and of all decorum . neither are there any sort of men more positive and tenacicus of their petty opinions , than they are ; nor more censorious , even to bitterness and malice . and 't is generally so , that those that have the least evidence for the truth of their beloved opinions , are most peevish and impatient in the defence of them . this sort of men are the last that will be made wise men , if ever they be ; for they have the worst of diseases that accompany ignorance , and do not so much as know themselves to be sick . chap. vii . the place of paradise cannot be determin'd from the theory only , nor from scripture only . what the sence of antiquity was concerning it , both as to the iews and heathens , and especially as to the christian fathers . that they generally plac'd it out of this continent , in the southern hemisphere . we have now prepar'd our work for the last finishing stroaks ; describ'd the first earth , and compar'd it with the present ; and not only the two earths , but in a good measure the whole state and oeconomy of those two worlds . it remains only to determine the place of paradise in that primaeval earth ; i say , in that primaeval earth , for we have driven the point so far already , that the seat of it could not be in the present earth , whose form , site , and air are so dispos'd , as could not consist with the first and most indispensable properties of paradise : and accordingly , we see with what ill success our modern authors have rang'd over the earth , to find a fit spot of ground to plant paradise in ; some would set it on the top of an high mountain , that it might have good air and fair weather , as being above the clouds , and the middle region ; but then they were at a loss for water , which made a great part of the pleasure and beauty of that place . others therefore would seat it in a plain , or in a river-island , that they might have water enough , but then it would be subject to the injuries of the air , and foul weather at the seasons of the year , from which , both reason and all authority have exempted paradise . 't is like seeking a perfect beauty in a mortal body , there are so many things requir'd to it , as to complexion , features , proportions and air , that they never meet all together in one person ; neither can all the properties of a terrestrial paradise ever meet together in one place , though never so well chosen , in this present earth . but in the primaeval earth , which we have describ'd , 't is easie to find a seat that had all those beauties and conveniences . we have every where through the temperate climates , a clear and constant air , a fruitful soil , pleasant waters , and all the general characters of paradise ; so that the trouble will be rather in that competition , what part of region to pitch upon in particular . but to come as near it as we can , we must remember in the first place , how that earth was divided into two hemispheres , distant and separated from one another , not by an imaginary line , but by a real boundary that could not be past ; so as the first inquiry will be , in whether of these hemispheres was the seat of paradise . to answer this only according to our theory , i confess , i see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one hemisphere more than in another ; i see no ground of difference or pre-eminence , that one had above the other ; and i am apt to think , that depended rather upon the will of god , and the series of providence that was to follow in this earth , than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two regions more than in the other , for planting in it the garden of god. neither doth scripture determine , with any certainty , either hemisphere for the place of it ; for when 't is said to be in eden , or to be the garden of eden , 't is no more than the garden of pleasure or delight , as the word signifies : and even the septuagint , who render this word eden , as a proper name twice , ( gen. . ver . , & . ) do in the same story render it twice as a common name , signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pleasure , ( chap. . . and chap. . . ) and so they do accordingly render it in ezekiel ( chap. . . , . ) where this garden of eden is spoken of again . some have thought that the word mekiddim ( gen. . . ) was to be render'd in the east , or eastward , as we read it , and therefore determin'd the site of paradise ; but 't is only the septuagint translate it so , all the other greek versions , and s. ierome , the vulgate , the chaldee paraphrase , and the syriack render it from the beginning , or in the beginning , or to that effect . and we that do not believe the septuagint to have been infallible , or inspir'd , have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest . some also think the place of paradise may be determin'd by the four rivers that are named as belonging to it , and the countries they ran thorough ; but the names of those rivers are to me uncertain , and two of them altogether unintelligible . where are there four rivers in our continent that come from one head , as these are said to have done , either at the entrance or issue of the garden ? 't is true , if you admit our hypothesis , concerning the fraction and disruption of the earth at the deluge , then we cannot expect to find rivers now as they were before , the general source is chang'd , and their chanels are all broke up ; but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the earth , but suppose the deluge to have been only like a standing pool , after it had once cover'd the surface of the earth , i do not see why it should make any great haveck or confusion in it ; and they that go that way , are therefore the more oblig'd to show us still the rivers of paradise . several of the ancients , as we shall show hereafter , suppos'd these four rivers to have their heads in the other hemisphere , and if so , the seat of paradise might be there too . but let them first agree amongst themselves , concerning these rivers , and the countries they run thorough , and we will undertake to show , that there cannot be any such in this continent . seeing then neither the theory doth determine , nor scripture , where the place of paradise was , nor in whether hemisphere , we must appeal to antiquity , or the opinions of the ancients ; for i know no other guide , but one of these three , scripture , reason , and ancient tradition ; and where the two former are silent , it seems very reasonable to consult the third . and that our inquiries may be comprehensive enough , we will consider what the iews , what the heathens , and what the christian fathers have said or determin'd concerning the seat of paradise . the iews and hebrew doctors place it in neither hemisphere , but betwixt both , under the aequinoctial , as you may see plainly in abravanel , manasses ben-israel , maimonides , aben ezra , and others but the reason why they carried it no further than the line , is because they suppos'd it certain , as aben ezra tells us , that the days and nights were always equal in paradise , and they did not know how that could be , unless it stood under the aequinoctial . but we have shown another method , wherein that perpetual aequinox came to pass , and how it was common to all the parts and climates of that earth , which if they had been aware of , and that the torrid zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable , having remov'd their paradise thus far from home , they would probably have remov'd it a little further , into the temperate climates of the other hemisphere . the ancient heathens , poets and philosophers , had the notion of paradise , or rather of several paradises in the earth ; and 't is remarkable , that they plac'd them generally , if not all of them , out of this continent ; in the ocean , or beyond it , or in another orb or hemisphere . the garden of the hesperides , the fortunate islands , the elysian fields , ogygia and toprabane , as it is describ'd by diodorus siculus , with others such like ; which as they were all characteriz'd like so many paradises , so they were all feared out of our continent by their geography and descriptions of them . thus far antiquity seems to incline to the other hemisphere , or to some place beyond the bounds of our continent for the seat of paradise : but that which we are most to depend upon in this affair , is christian antiquity , the judgment and tradition of the fathers upon this argument . and we may safely say in the first place , negatively , that none of the christian fathers , latin or greek , ever plac'd paradise in mesopotamia ; that is a conceit and invention of some modern authors , which hath been much encouraged of late , because it gave men ease and rest as to further inquiries , in an argument they could not well manage . secondly , we may affirm , that none of the christian fathers have plac'd paradise in any determinate region of our continent , asia , africk or europe . i have read of one or two authors , i think , that fansied paradise to have been at ierusalem , but 't was a meer fansie , that no body regarded or pursu'd . the controversie amongst the fathers concerning paradise , was quite another thing from what it is now of late : they disputed and controverted , whether paradise was corporeal or intellectual only , and allegorical ; this was the grand point amongst them . then of those that thought it corporeal , some plac'd it high in the air , some inaccessible by desarts or mountains , and many beyond the ocean , or in another world ; and in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them ; nor do we find that they nam'd any particular place or country in the known parts of the earth for the seat of paradise , or that one contested for one spot of ground , and another for another , which is the vain temerity of modern authors ; as if they could tell to an acre of land where paradise stood , or could set their foot upon the centre of the garden . these have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our paradise , just as some modern poets have the notion of the elysian fields , which homer and the ancients plac'd remote on the extremities of the earth , and these would make a little green meadow in campania felix to be the fam'd elysium . thus much concerning the fathers , negatively ; but to discover as far as we can , what their positive assertions were in this argument , we may observe , that though their opinions be differently exprest , they generally concenter in this , that the southern hemisphere was the seat of paradise . this , i say , seems manifestly to be the sence of christian antiquity and tradition , so far as there is any thing definitive in the remains we have upon that subject . some of the fathers did not believe paradise to be corporeal and local , and those are to be laid aside in the first place , as to this point ; others that thought it local , did not determine any thing ( as most of them indeed did not ) concerning the particular place of it ; but the rest that did , though they have exprest themselves in various ways , and under various forms , yet , upon a due interpretation , they all meet in one common and general conclusion , that paradise was seated beyond the aequinoctial , or in the other hemisphere . and to understand this aright , we must reflect , in the first place , upon the form of the primaeval earth , and of the two hemispheres of which it consisted , altogether incommunicable one with another , by reason of the torrid zone betwixt them ; so as those two hemispheres were then as two distinct worlds , or distinct earths , that had no commerce with one another . and this notion or tradition we find among heathen authors , as well as christian , this opposite earth being call'd by them antichthon , and its inhabitants antichthones : for those words comprehend both the antipodes and antoeci , or all beyond the line , as is manifest from their best authors , as achilles tatius , and caesar germanicus upon aratus , probus grammaticus , censorinus , pomponius mela , and pliny . and these were call'd another world , and lookt upon as another stock and race of mankind , as appears from cicero and macrobius : but as the latter part was their mistake , so the former is acknowledg'd by christian authors , as well as others ; and particularly s. clement , in his epistle to the corinthians , mentions a world , or worlds beyond the ocean , subject to divine providence , and the great lord of nature , as well as ours . this passage of s. clement is also cited by s. ierom , in his commentary upon ephes. . . and by origen periarchon , where the inhabitants of that other world are call'd antichthones . i make this remark in the first place , that we may understand the true sence and importance of those phrases and expressions amongst the ancients , when they say paradise was in another world. which are not to be so understood , as if they thought paradise was in the moon , or in iupiter , or hung above like a cloud or a meteor , they were not so extravagant ; but that paradise was in another hemisphere , which was call'd antichthon , another earth , or another world from ours ; and justly reputed so , because of an impossibility of commerce or intercourse betwixt their respective inhabitants . and this remark being premis'd , we will now distribute the christian authors and fathers that have deliver'd their opinion concerning the place of paradise , into three or four ranks or orders ; and though they express themselves differently , you will see , when duly examin'd and expounded , they all conspire and concur in the forementioned conclusion , that the seat of paradise was in the other hemisphere . in the first rank then we will place and reckon those that have set paradise in another world , or in another earth ; seeing , according to the foregoing explication , that is the same thing , as to affirm it seated beyond the torrid zone in the other hemisphere . in this number are ephrem syrus , moses bar cepha , tatianus , and of later date iacobus de valentia . to these are to be added again such authors as say , that adam , when he was turn'd out of paradise , was brought into our earth , or into our region of the earth ; for this is tantamount with the former ; and this seems to be the sence of s. ierom in several places against iovinian , as also of constantine , in his oration in eusebius , and is positively asserted by sulpitius severus . and lastly , those authors that represent paradise as remote from our world , and inaccessible , so s. austin , procopius gazeus , beda , strabus fuldensis , historia scholiastica , and others , these i say , pursue the same notion of antiquity ; for what is remote from our world ( that is , from our continent , as we before explain'd it ) is to be understood to be that antichthon , or anti-hemisphere which the ancients oppos'd to ours . another sett of authors that interpret the flaming sword that guarded paradise to be the torrid zone , do plainly intimate , that paradise in their opinion lay beyond the torrid zone , or in the antihemisphere ; and thus tertullian interprets the flaming sword , and in such words as fully confirm our sence : paradise , he says , by the torrid zone , as by a wall of fire , was sever'd from the communication and knowledge of our world. it lay then on the other side of this zone . and s. cyprian , or the ancient author that passeth under his name , in his comment upon genesis , expresseth himself to the same effect ; so also s. austin and isidore hispalensis are thought to interpret it : and aquinas who makes paradise inaccessible , gives this reason for it , propter vehementiam aestûs in locis intermediis ex propinquitate solis , & hoc significatur per flammeum gladium : because of that vehement heat in the parts betwixt us and that , arising from the nearness of the sun , and this is signified by the flaming sword. and this interpretation of the flaming sword receives a remarkable force and emphasis from our theory and description of the primaeval earth , for there the torrid zone was as a wall of fire indeed , or a region of flame which none could pass or subsist in , no more than in a furnace . there is another form of expression amongst the ancients concerning paradise , which , if decyphered , is of the same force and signification with this we have already instanc'd in ; they say sometimes paradise was beyond the ocean , or that the rivers of paradise came from beyond the ocean . this is of the same import with the former head , and points still at the other hemisphere ; for , as we noted before , some of them fixt their antichthon and antichth●nes beyond the ocean ; that is , since there was an ocean , since the form of the earth was chang'd , and the torrid zone become habitable , and cosequently could not be a boundary or separation betwixt the two worlds . wherefore , as some run still upon the old division by the torrid zone , others took the new division by the ocean . which ocean they suppos'd to lie from east to west betwixt the tropicks ; as may be seen in ancient authors , geminus , herodotus , cicero de republicâ , and clemens romanus , whom we cited before . s. austin also speaks upon the same supposition , when he would confute the doctrine of the antipodes , or antichth●nes ; and macrobius , i remember , makes it an argument of providence , that the sun and the planets , in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two tropicks , have still the ocean under them , that they may be cool'd and nourisht by its moisture . they thought the sea like a girdle , went round the earth , and the temperate zones on either side were the habitable regions , whereof this was call'd the oicouméne , and the other antichthon . this being observ'd , 't is not material , whether their notion was true or false , it shews us what their meaning was , and what part of the earth they design'd , when they spoke of any thing beyond the ocean ; namely , that they meant beyond the line , in the other hemisphere , or in the antichthon ; and accordingly , when they say paradise , or the fountains of its rivers were beyond the ocean , they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those authors we have cited . in moses bar cepha above mention'd , we find a chapter upon this subject , qucmodo trajecerint mortales inde ex paradisi terrâ in hanc terram ? how mankind past out of that earth or co●tinent where paradise was , into that where we are ? namely , how they past the ocean , that lay betwixt them , as the answer there given explains it . and so ephrem syrus is cited often in that treatise , placing paradise beyond the ocean . the essenes also , who were the most philosophick sect of the iews , plac'd paradise , according to iosephus , beyond the ocean , under a perfect temperature of air. and that passage in eusebius , in the oration of constantine , being corrected and restor'd to the true reading , represents paradise , in like manner , as in another continent , from whence adam was brought , after his transgression , into this . and lastly , there are some authors , whose testimony and authority may deserve to be consider'd , not for their own antiquity , but because they are profess'dly transcribers of antiquity and traditions , such as strabus , comestor , and the like , who are known to give this account or report of paradise from the ancients , that it was interposito oceano ab orbe nostro vel à zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus , separated from our orb or hemisphere by the interposition of the ocean . it is also observable , that many of the ancients that took tigris , euphrates , nile and ganges for the rivers of paradise , said that those heads or fountains of them which we have in our continent , are but their capita secunda , their second sources , and that their first sources were in another orb where paradise was ; and thus hugo de sancto victore says , sanctos communiter sensisse , that the holy men of old were generally of that opinion . to this sence also moses bar cepha often expresseth himself ; as also epiphanius , procopius gazaeus , and severianus in catenâ . which notion amongst the ancients , concerning the trajection or passage of the paradisiacal rivers under-ground , or under-sea , from one continent into another , is to me , i confess , unintelligible , either in the first or second earth ; but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the seat of paradise , that it was not to be sought for in asia or in africk , where those rivers rise to us , but in some remoter parts of the world , where they suppos'd their first sources to be . this is a short account of what the christian fathers have left us , concerning the seat of paradise ; and the truth is , 't is but a short and broken account ; yet 't is no wonder it should be so , if we consider , as we noted before , that several of them did not believe paradise to be local and corporeal ; others that did believe it so , yet did not offer to determine the place of it , but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided ; and the rest that did speak to that point , did it commonly both in general terms , and in expressions that were disguis'd , and needed interpretation ; but all these differences and obscurities of expression , you see , when duly stated and expounded , may signifie one and the same thing , and terminate all in this common conclusion , that paradise was without our continent , accord●ng to the general opinion and tradition of antiquity . and i do not doubt but the tradition would have been both more express and more universal , if the ancients had understood geography better ; for those of the ancients that did not admit or believe , that there were antipodes or antichthones , as lactantius , s. austin , and some others , these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of paradise , because they thought there was no land , nor any thing habitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or besides this continent . and yet s. austin was so cautious , that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false idea of the earth , that he could not joyn with antiquity as to the place of paradise ; so on the other hand he had that respect for it , that he would not say any thing to the contrary ; therefore being to give his opinion , he says only , terrestrem esse paradisum , & locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum : that it is somewhere upon the earth , but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of men. and as their ignorance of the globe of the earth was one reason , why , the doctrine of paradise was so broken and obscure , so another reason why it is much more so at present is , because the chief ancient books writ upon that subiect , are lost ; ephrem syrus , who liv'd in the fourth century , writ a commentary in genesin five de ortu rerum , concerning the origin of the earth ; and by those remains that are cited from it , we have reason to believe , that it contain'd many things remarkable concerning the first earth , and concerning paradise . tertullian also writ a book de paradiso , which is wholly lost ; and we see to what effect it would have been , by his making the torrid zone to be the flaming sword , and the partition betwixt this earth and paradise ; which two earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another . the most ancient author that i know upon this subject , at least of those that writ of it literally , is moses bar cepha , a syrian bishop , who liv'd about seven hundred years since , and his book is translated into latin , by that learned and judicious man , andreas masius . bar cepha writes upon the same views of paradise that we have here presented , that it was beyond the ocean , in another tract of land , or another continent from that which we inhabit : as appears from the very titles of his eighth , tenth , and fourteenth chapters . but we must allow him for his mistaken notions about the form of the earth ; for he seems to have sansied the earth plain , ( not only as oppos'd to rough and mountainous , for so it was plain ; but as oppos'd to spherical ) and the ocean to have divided it in two parts , an interiour , and an exteriour , and in that exteriour part was paradise . such allowances must often be made for geographical mistakes , in examining and understanding the writings of the ancients . the rest of the syrian fathers , as well as ephrem and bar cepha , incline to the same doctrine of paradise , and seem to have retain'd more of the ancient notions concerning it , than the greek and latin fathers have ; and yet there is in all some fragments of this doctrine , and but fragments in the best . we might add in the last place , that as the most ancient treatises concerning paradise are lost , so also the ancient glosses and catenae upon scripture , where we might have found the traditions and opinions of the ancients upon this subject , are many of them either lost or unpublisht ; and upon this consideration we did not think it improper to cite some authors of small antiquity , but such as have transcrib'd several things out of ancient manuscript-glosses into their commentaries . they living however before printing was invented , or learning well restor'd , and before the reformation . i add that also before the reformation , for since that time the protestant authors having lessen'd the authority of traditions , the pontificial doctors content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful or necessary , lest by multiplying others that were but matter of curiosity , they should bring the first into question , and render the whole doctrine of traditions more dubious and exceptionable ; and upon this account , there are some authors that writ an age or two before the reformation , that have with more freedom told us the tenets and traditions of the ancients in these speculations , that are but collateral to religion , than any have done since . and i must confess , i am apt to think that what remains concerning the doctrine of paradise , and the primaeval earth , is in a good measure traditional ; for one may observe , that those that treat upon these subjects , quote the true opinions , and tell you some of the ancients held so and so , as that paradise was in another earth , or higher than this earth , that there were no mountains before the flood , nor any rain , and such like : yet they do not name those ancient authors that held these opinions ; which makes me apt to believe , either that they were convey'd by a traditional communication from one to another , or that there were other books extant upon those subjects , or other glosses , than what are now known . finally , to conclude this discourse concerning the seat of paradise , we must mind you again upon what basis it stands . we declar'd freely , that we could not by our theory alone determine the particular place of it , only by that we are assur'd that it was in the primaeval earth , and not in the present ; but in what region , or in whether hemisphere of that earth it was seated , we cannot define from speculation only . 't is true , if we hold fast to that scripture-conclusion , that all mankind rise from one head , and from one and the same stock and lineage , ( which doth not seem to be according to the sentiments of the heathens ) we must suppose they were born in one hemisphere , and after some time translated into the other , or a colony of them : but this still doth not determine , in whether of the two they begun , and were first seated before their translation ; and i am apt to think that depended rather , as we noted before , upon the divine pleasure , and the train of affairs that was to succeed , than upon natural causes and differences . some of the ancients , i know , made both the soil and the stars more noble in the southern hemisphere , than in ours , but i do not see any proof or warrant for it ; wherefore laying aside all natural topicks , we are willing , in this particular , to refer our selves wholly to the report and majority of votes amongst the ancients ; who yet do not seem to me to lay much stress upon the notion of a particular and topical paradise , and therefore use general and remote expressions concerning it . and finding no place for it in this continent , they are willing to quit their hands of it , by placing it in a region some-where far off , and inaccessible . this , together with the old tradition , that paradise was in another earth , seems to me to give an account of most of their opinions concerning the seat of paradise : and that they were generally very uncertain where to fix it . chap. viii . the uses of this theory for the illustration of antiquity ; the ancient chaos explain'd ; the inhabitability of the torrid zone ; the change of the poles of the world ; the doctrine of the mundane egg ; how america was first peopled ; how paradise within the circle of the moon . we have now dispatch'd the theory of the primaeval earth , and reviv'd a forgotten world. 't is pity the first and fairest works of nature should be lost out of the memory of man , and that we should so much dote upon the ruines , as never to think upon the original structure . as the modern artists from some broken pieces of an ancient statue , make out all the other parts and proportions ; so from the broken and scatter'd limbs of the first world we have shown you how to raise the whole fabrick again ; and renew the prospect of those pleasant scenes that first see the light , and first entertain'd man , when he came to act upon this new-erected stage . we have drawn this theory chiefly to give an account of the universal deluge , and of paradise ; but as when one lights a candle to look for one or two things which they want , the light will not confine it self to those two objects , but shows all the other in the room ; so , methinks , we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all antiquity , in seeking after these two things , or in retrieving the notion and doctrine of the primaeval earth , upon which they depended . for in ancient learning there are many discourses , and many conclusions deliver'd to us , that are so obscure and confus'd , and so remote from the present state of things , that one cannot well distinguish , whether they are fictions or realities : and there is no way to distinguish with certainty , but by a clear theory upon the same subjects ; which showing us the truth directly , and independently upon them , shows us also by reflection , how far they are true or false , and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood . and the present theory being of great extent , we shall find it serviceable in many things , for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in antiquity . to begin with their ancient chaos , what a dark story have they made of it , both their philosophers and poets ; and how fabulous in appearance ? 't is deliver'd as confus'dly as the mass it self could be , and hath not been reduc'd to order , nor indeed made intelligible by any . they tell us of moral principles in the chaos instead of natural , of strife , and discord , and division on the one hand , and love , friendship , and venus on the other ; and , after a long contest , love got the better of discord , and united the disagreeing principles : this is one part of their story . then they make the forming of the world out of the chaos a kind of genealogie or pedigree ; chaos was the common parent of all , and from chaos sprung , first , night , and tartarus , or oceanus ; night was a teeming mother , and of her were born aether and the earth ; the earth conceiv'd by the influences of aether , and brought forth man and all animals . this seems to be a poetical fiction rather than philosophy ; yet when 't is set in a true light , and compar'd with our theory of the chaos , 't will appear a pretty regular account , how the world was form'd at first , or how the chaos divided it self successively into several regions , rising one after another , and propagated one from another , as children and posterity from a common parent . we show'd in the first book , chap. . how the chaos , from an uniform mass , wrought it self into several regions or elements ; the grossest part sinking to the center , upon this lay the mass of water , and over the water was a region of dark , impure , caliginous air ; this impure , caliginous air is that which the ancients call night , and the mass of water oceanus or tartarus , for those two terms with them are often of the like force , tartarus being oceanus inclos'd and lock'd up : thus we have the first off-spring of the chaos , or its first-born twins , nox and oceanus . now this turbid air purifying it self by degrees , as the more subtle parts flew upwards , and compos'd the aether ; so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the water , or the liquid mass ; and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface , these two incorporate there , and by their mixture and union compose a body of earth quite round the mass of waters : and this was the first habitable earth , which as it was , you see , the daughter of nox and oceanus , so it was the mother of all other things , and all living creatures , which at the beginning of the world sprung out of its fruitful womb . this doctrine of the chaos , for the greater pomp of the business , the ancients call'd their theogonia , or the genealogy of the gods ; for they gave their gods , at least their terrestrial gods , an original and beginning ; and all the elements and greater portions of nature they made gods and goddesses , or their deities presided over them in such a manner , that the names were us'd promiscuously for one another . we also mention'd before some moral principles , which they plac'd in the chaos , eris and eros ; strife , discord , and disaffection which prevail'd at first , and afterward love , kindness and union got the upper hand , and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gather'd together the separated elements , and united them into an habitable world. this is all easily understood , if we do but look upon the schemes of the rising world , as we have set them down in that fifth chapter ; for in the first commotion of the chaos , after an intestine struggle of all the parts , the elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses ; and in this state and posture things continued a good while , which the ancients , after their poetick or moral way , call'd the reign of eris or contention , of hatred , flight and disaffection ; and if things had always continued in that system , we should never have had an habitable world. but love and good nature conquer'd at length , venus rise out of the sea , and receiv'd into her bosom , and intangled into her imbraces the falling aether , viz. the parts of lighter earth , which were mixt with the air in that first separation , and gave it the name of night ; these , i say , fell down upon the oily parts of the sea-mass , which lay floating upon the surface of it , and by that union and conjunction , a new body , and a new world was produc'd , which was the first habitable earth . this is the interpretation of their mystical philosophy of the chaos , and the resolution of it into plain natural history : which you may see more fully discuss'd in the latin treatise . in consequence of this , we have already explain'd , in several places the golden age of the ancients , and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real , and what poetical , in the reports and characters that antiquity hath given of those first ages of the world. and if there be any thing amongst the ancients that refers to another earth , as plato's atlantis , which he says , was absorpt by an earthquake , and an inundation , as the primaeval earth was ; or his aethereal earth mention'd in his phaedo , which he opposeth to this broken hollow earth ; makes it to have long-liv'd inhabitants , and to be without rains and storms , as that first earth was also ; or the pendulous gardens of alcinous , or such like , to which nothing answers in present nature , by reflecting upon the state of the first earth , we find an easie explication of them . we have also explain'd what the antichthon and antichthones of the ancients were , and what the true ground of that distinction was . but nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the torrid zone , if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the ancients , and yet in the present form of the earth we find no such thing , nor any foundation for it . i cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption only , because it lay under the course of the sun , if the sun had then the same latitude from the aequator in his course and motion that he hath now , and made the same variety of seasons ; whereby even the hottest parts of the earth have a winter , or something equivalent to it . but if we apply this to the primaeval earth , whose posture was direct to the sun , standing always fixt in its equinoctial , we shall easily believe that the torrid zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat , there being no difference of seasons , nor any change of weather , the sun hanging always over head at the same distance , and in the same direction . besides this , the descent of the rivers in that first earth was such , that they could never reach the equinoctial parts , as we have shown before ; by which means , and the want of rain , that region must necessarily be turn'd into a dry desart . now this being really the state of the first earth , the fame and general belief that the torrid zone was uninhabitable had this true original , and continued still with posterity after the deluge , though the causes then were taken away ; for they being ignorant of the change that was made in nature at that time , kept up still the same tradition and opinion currant , till observation and experience taught later ages to correct it . as the true miracles that were in the christian church at first , occasion'd a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast . this gives an easie account , and , i think , the true cause , of that opinion , amongst the ancients generally receiv'd , that the torrid zone was uninhabitable . i say , generally receiv'd , for not only the poets , both greek and latin , but their philosophers , astsonomers and geographers , had the same notion , and deliver'd the same doctrine ; as aristotle , cleomedes , achilles tatius , ptolomy , cicero , strabo , mela , pliny , macrobius , &c. and to speak truth , the whole doctrine of the zones is calculated more properly for the first earth , than for the present ; for the divisions and bounds of them now , are but arbitrary , being habitable all over , and having no visible distinction ; whereas they were then determin'd by nature , and the globe of the earth was really divided into so many regions of a very different aspect and quality ; which would have appear'd at a distance , if they had been lookt upon from the clouds , or from the moon , as iupiter's belts , or as so many girdles or swathing-bands about the body of the earth : and so the word imports , and so the ancients use to call them cinguli and fasciae . but in the present form of the earth , if it was seen at a distance , no such distinction would appear in the parts of it , nor scarce any other but that of land and water , and of mountains and valleys , which are nothing to the purpose of zones . and to add this note further , when the earth lay in this regular form , divided into regions or walks , if i may so call them , as this gave occasion of its distinction , by zones , so if we might consider all that earth as a paradise , and paradise as a garden ; ( for it is always call'd so in scripture , and in iewish authors ) and as this torrid zone , bare of grass and trees , made a kind of gravel-walk in the middle : so there was a green walk on either hand of it , made by the temperate zones ; and beyond those lay a canal , which water'd the garden from either side . but to return to antiquity ; we may add under this head another observation or doctrine amongst the ancients , strange enough in appearance , which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding theory ; they say , the poles of the world did once change their situation , and were at first in another posture from what they are in now , till that inclination happen'd ; this the ancient philosophers often make mention of , as anaxagoras , empedocles , diogenes , leucippus , democritus ; as may be seen in laertius , and in plutarch ; and the stars , they say , at first were carried about the earth in a more uniform manner . this is no more than what we have observ'd and told you in other words , namely , that the earth chang'd its posture at the deluge , and thereby made these seeming changes in the heavens ; its poles before pointed to the poles of the ecliptick , which now point to the poles of the aequator , and its axis is become parallel with that axis ; and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms ; this makes the different aspect of the heavens , and of its poles : and i am apt to think , that those changes in the course of the stars , which the ancients sometimes speak of , and especially the aegyptians , if they did not proceed from defects in their calendar , had no other physical account than this . and as they say the poles of the world were in another situation at first , so at first they say , there was no variety of seasons in the year , as in their golden age. which is very coherent with all the rest , and still runs along with the theory . and you may observe , that all these things we have instanc'd in hitherto , are but links of the same chain , in connexion and dependance upon one another . when the primaeval earth was made out of the chaos , its form and posture was such , as , of course , brought on all those scenes which antiquity hath kept the remembrance of : though now in another state of nature they seem very strange ; especially being disguis'd , as some of them are , by their odd manner of representing them . that the poles of the world stood once in another posture ; that the year had no diversity of seasons ; that the torrid zone was uninhabitable ; that the two hemispheres had no possibility of intercourse , and such like ; these all hang upon the same string ; or lean one upon another as stones in the same building ; whereof we have , by this theory , laid the very foundation bare , that you may see what they all stand upon , and in what order . there is still one remarkable notion or doctrine amongst the ancients which we have not spoken to ; 't is partly symbolical , and the propriety of the symbol , or of the application of it , hath been little understood ; 't is their doctrine of the mundane egg , or their comparing the world to an egg , and especially in the original composition of it . this seems to be a mean comparison , the world and an egg , what proportion , or what resemblance betwixt these two things ? and yet i do not know any symbolical doctrine , or conclusion , that hath been so universally entertain'd by the mystae , or wise and learned , of all nations ; as hath been noted before in the fifth chapter of the first book , and at large in the latin treatise . 't is certain , that by the world in this similitude , they do not mean the great universe , for that hath neither figure , nor any determinate form of composition , and it would be a great vanity and rashness in any one to compare this to an egg ; the works of god are immense , as his rature is infinite , and we cannot make any image or resemblance of either of them ; but this comparison is to be understood of the sublunary world , or of the earth ; and for a general key to antiquity upon this argument , we may lay this down as a maxim or canon , that what the ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the world , or concerning the original of it from a chaos , or about its periods and dissolution are never to be understood of the great universe , but of our earth , or of this sublunary and terr●strial world. and this observation being made , do but reflect upon our theory of the earth , the manner of its composition at first , and the figure of it , being compleated , and you will need no other interpreter to understand this mystery . we have show'd there , that the figure of it , when finisht , was oval , and the inward form of it was a frame of four regions encompassing one another , where that of fire lay in the middle like the yolk ▪ and a shell of earth inclos'd them all . this gives a solution so easie and natural , and shows such an aptness and elegancy in the representation , that one cannot doubt , upon a view and compare of circumstances , but that we have truly found out the riddle of the mundane egg. amongst other difficulties arising from the form of this present earth , that is one , how america could be peopled : or any other continent , or island remote from all continents the sea interposing . this difficulty does not hold in our theory of the first earth , where there was no sea. and after the flood , when the earth was broken and the s●a laid open , the same race of men might continue there , if setled there before . for i do not see any necessity of deducing all mankind from noah after the flood : if america was peopled before , it might continue so ; not but that the flood was universal . but when the great frame of the earth broke at the deluge , providence fore-saw into how many continents it would be divided after the ceasing of the flood , and accordingly , as we may reasonably suppose , made provision to save a remnant in every continent , that the race of mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them . what provision he made in our continent we know from sacred history , but as that takes notice of no other continent but ours , so neither could it take notice of any method that was us'd there for saving of a remnant of men ; but 't were great presumption , methinks , to imagine that providence had a care of none but us , or could not find out ways of preservation in other places , as well as in that where our habitations were to be . asia , africk and europe were repeopled by the sons of noah , shem , ham , and iaphet , but we read nothing of their going over into america , or sending any colonies thither ; and that world which is near as big as ours , must have stood long without people , or any thing of humane race in it , after the flood , if it stood so till this was full , or till men navigated the ocean , and by chance discover'd it : it seems more reasonable to suppose , that there was a stock providentially reserv'd there , as well as here , out of which they sprung again ▪ but we do not pretend in an argument of this nature to define or determine any thing positively . to conclude , as this is but a secondary difficulty , and of no great force , so neither is it any thing peculiar to us , or to our hypothesis , but alike common to both ; and if they can propose any reasonable way , whereby the sons of noah might be transplanted into america , with all my heart ; but all the ways that i have met with hitherto , have seem'd to me meer fictions , or meer presumptions . besides , finding birds and beasts there , which are no where upon our continent , nor would live in our countries if brought hither , 't is a fair conjecture that they were not carried from us , but originally bred and preserv'd there . thus much for the illustration of antiquity in some points of humane literature , by our theory of the primaeval earth ; there is also in christian antiquity a tradition or doctrine , that appears as obscure and as much a paradox as any of these , and better deserves an illustration , because it relates more closely and expresly to our present subject : 't is that notion or opinion amongst the ancients concerning paradise , that it was seated as high as the sphere of the moon , or within the lunar circle . this looks very strange , and indeed extravagantly , at first sight , but the wonder will cease , if we understand this not of paradise taken apart from the rest of the earth , but of the whole primaeval earth , wherein the seat of paradise was ; that was really seated much higher than the present earth , and may be reasonably suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of ou● mountains are now . and that phrase of reaching to the sphere of the moon , signifies no more than those other expressions of reaching to heaven , or reaching above the clouds , which are phrases commonly us'd to express the height of buildings , or of mountains , and such like things : so the builders of babel said , they would make a tower should reach to heaven ; olympus and parnassus are said by the poets to reach to heaven , or to rise above the clouds ; and pliny and solinus use this very expression of the lunar circle , when they describe the height of mount atlas , eductus in viciniam lunaris circuli . the ancients , i believe , aim'd particularly by this phrase , to express an height above the middle region , or above our atmosphere , that paradise might be serene ; and where our atmosphere ended , they reckon'd the sphere of the moon begun , and therefore said it reacht to the sphere of the moon . many of the christian fathers exprest their opinion concerning the high situation of paradise in plain and formal terms , as s. basil , damascen , moses bar cepha , &c. but this phrase of reaching to the lunar circle is repeated by several of them , and said to be of great antiquity . aquinas , albertus , and others , ascribe it to bede , but many to s. austin ; and therefore ambrosius catharinus is angry with their great schoolman , that he should derive it from bede , seeing s. austin writing to orosius , deliver'd this doctrine , which surely , says he , s. austin neither feign'd nor dream'd only ▪ but had receiv'd it from antiquity : and from so great antiquity , that it was no less than apostolical , if we credit albertus magnus , and the ancient books he appeals to ; for he says this tradition was deriv'd as high as from s. thomas the apostle . his words are these , after he had deliver'd his own opinion , hoc tamen di●o , &c. but this i say , without prejudice to the better opinion , for i have found it in some most ancient books , that thomas the apostle was the author of that opinion , which is usually attributed to bede and strabus , namely , that paradise was so high as to reach to the lunar circle . but this much concerning this opinion , and concerning antiquity . to conclude all , we see this theory , which was drawn only by a thred of reason , and the laws of nature , abstractly from all antiquity , notwithstanding casts a light upon many passages there , which were otherwise accounted fictions , or unintelligible truths ; and though we do not alledge these as proofs of the theory , for it carries its own light and proof with it , yet whether we will or no , they do mutually confirm , as well as illustrate , one another ; and 't is a pleasure also , when one hath wrought out truth by meer dint of thinking , and examination of causes , and propos'd it plainly and openly , to meet with it again amongst the ancients , disguis'd , and in an old fashion'd dress : scarce to be known or discover'd , but by those that before-hand knew it very well . and it would be a further pleasure and satisfaction , to have render'd those doctrines and notions , for the future , intelligible and useful to others , as well as delightful to our selves . chap. ix . a general objection against this theory , viz. that if there had been such a primitive earth , as we pretend , the fame of it would have sounded throughout all antiquity . the eastern and western learning consider'd . the most considerable records of both are lost . what footsteps remain relating to this subject . the jewish and christian learning consider'd ; how far lost as to this argument , and what notes or traditions remain . lastly , how far the sacred writings bear witness to it . the providential conduct of knowledge in the world. a recapitulation and state of the theory . having gone through the two first parts , and the two first books of this theory , that concern the primitive world , the universal deluge , and the state of paradise , we have leisure now to reflect a little , and consider what may probably be objected against a theory of this nature . i do not mean single objections against single parts , for those may be many , and such as i cannot fore-see ; but what may be said against the body and substance of the theory , and the credibility of it , appearing new and surprising , and yet of great extent and importance . this , i fancy , will induce many to say , surely this cannot be a reality ; for if there had been such a primitive earth , and such a primitive world as is here represented , and so remarkably different from the present , it could not have been so utterly forgotten , or lain hid for so many ages ; all antiquity would have rung of it ; the memory of it would have been kept fresh by books or traditions . can we imagine , that it should lie buried for some thousands of years in deep silence and oblivion ? and now only when the second world is drawing to an end , we begin to discover that there was a first , and that of another make and order from this . to satisfie this obiection , or surmise rather , it will be convenient to take a good large scope and compass in our discourse ; we must not suppose , that this primitive world hath been wholly lost out of the memory of man , or out of history , for we have some history and chronology of it preserv'd by moses , and likewise in the monuments of the ancients , more or less ; for they all suppos'd a world before the deluge . but 't is the philosophy of this primitive world that hath been lost in a great measure ; what the state of nature was then , and wherein it differ'd from the present or postdiluvian order of things . this , i confess , hath been little taken notice of ; it hath been generally thought or presum'd , that the world before the flood was of the same form and constitution with the present world : this we do not deny , but rather think it design'd and providential , that there should not remain a clear and full knowledge of that first state of things ; and we may easily suppose how it might decay and perish , if we consider how little of the remote antiquities of the world have ever been brought down to our knowledge . the greeks and romans divided the ages of the world into three periods or intervals , whereof they call'd the first the obscure period , the second the fabulous , and the third historical . the dark and obscure period was from the beginning of the world to the deluge ; what pass'd then , either in nature or amongst men , they have no records , no account , by their own confession ; all that space of time was cover'd with darkness and oblivion ; so that we ought rather to wonder at those remains they have , and those broken notions of the golden age , and the conditions of it , how they were sav'd out of the common shipwrack , than to expect from them the philosophy of that world , and all its differences from the present . and as for the other nations that pretend to greater antiquities , to more ancient history and chronology , from what is left of their monuments , many will allow only this difference , that their fabulous age begun more high , or that they had more ancient fables . but besides that our expectations cannot be great from the learning of the gentiles , we have not the means or opportunity to inform our selves well what notions they did leave us concerning the primitive world ; for their books and monuments are generally lost , or lie hid unknown to us . the learning of the world may be divided into the eastern learning and the western ; and i look upon the eastern as far more considerable for philosophical antiquities , and philosophical conclusions ; i say conclusions , for i do not believe either of them had any considerable theory , or contexture of principles and conclusions together : but 't is certain , that in the east , from what source soever it came , humane or divine , they had some extraordinary doctrines and notions disperst amongst them . now as by the western learning we understand that of the greeks and romans ; so by the eastern , that which was amongst the aegyptians , phoenicians , chaldaeans , assyrians , indians , aethiopians , and persians ; and of the learning of these nations , how little have we now left ? except some fragments and citations in greek authors , what do we know of them ? the modern bracmans , and the persees or pagan persians , have some broken remains of traditions relating to the origin and changes of the world : but if we had , not only those books intire , whereof we have now the gleanings and reversions only , but all that have perisht besides , especially in that famous library at alexandria ; if these , i say , were all restor'd to the world again , we might promise our selves the satisfaction of seeing more of the antiquities , and natural history of the first world , than we have now left , or can reasonably expect . that library we speak of , at alexandria , was a collection , besides greek books , of aegyptian , chaldaean , and all the ●astern learning ; and cedrenus makes it to consist of an hundred thousand volumes : but iosephus saith , when the translation of the bible by the septuagint was to be added to it , demetrius phalerius ( who was keeper or governour of it ) told the king then , that he had already two hundred thousand volumes , and that he hop'd to make them five hundred thousand ; and he was better than his word , or his successors for him , for ammianus marcellinus , and other authors , report them to have increas'd to seven hundred thousand . this li●brary was unfortunately burnt in the sacking of alexandria by caesar , and considering that all these were ancient books , and generally of the eastern wisdom , 't was an inestimable and irreparable loss to the commonwealth of learning . in like manner we are told of a vast library of books of all arts and sciences , in china , burnt by the command or caprice of one of their kings . wherein , the chineses , according to their vanity , were us'd to say , greater riches were lost , than will be in the last conflagration . we are told also of the abyssine or aethiopick library as something very extraordinary . 't was formerly in great reputation , but is now , i suppose , embezil'd and lost . but i was extremely surpriz'd by a treatise brought to me some few months since , wherein are mention'd some aethiopick antiquities relating to the primaeval earth and the deluge : to both which they give such characters and properties , as are in effect the very same with those assign'd them in this theory . they say the first earth was much greater than the present , higher and more advanc'd into the air : that it was smooth and regular in its surface , without mountains or valleys , but hollow within : and was spontaneously fruitful , without plowing or sowing . this was its first state , but when mankind became degenerate and outragious with pride and violence , the angry gods , as they say , by earthquakes and concussions broke the habitable orb of the earth , and thereupon the subterraneous waters gushing out , drown'd it in a deluge , and destroy'd mankind . upon this fraction , it came into another form , with a sea , lakes and rivers , as we now have . and those parts of the broken earth , that stood above the waters , became mountains , rocks , islands , and so much of the land as we now inhabit . this account is given us by barnardinus ramazzinus , ( in his treatise de fontium mutinensium seaturigine * . ) taken from a book writ by francisco patricio , to whom this wonderful tradition was deliver'd by persons of credit , from an aethiopian philosopher then in spain . i have not yet had the good fortune to see that book of francisco patricio , 't is writ in italian ▪ with this title , della retorica degli antichi : printed at venice , . this story indeed , deserves to be enquired after , for we do not any where , amongst the ancients , meet with such a full and explicit narration of the state of the first and second earth . that which comes nearest to it are those accounts we find in plato , from the aegyptian antiquities , in his timaeus , politicus , and phoedo , of another earth and another state of nature and mankind . but none of them are so full and distinct as this aethiopian doctrine . as for the western learning , we may remember what the aegyptian priest says to solon in plato's timaeus , you greeks are always children , and know nothing of antiquity ; and if the greeks were so , much more the romans , who came after them in time , and for so great a people , and so much civiliz'd , never any had less philosophy , and less of the sciences amongst them than the romans had ; they studied only the art of speaking , of governing , and of fighting : and left the rest to the greeks and eastern nations , as unprofitable . yet we have reason to believe , that the best philosophical antiquities that the romans had , perisht with the books of varro , of numa pompilius , and of the ancient sibyls . varro writ , as s. austin tells us a multitude of volumes , and of various sorts , and i had rather retrieve his works , than the works of any other roman author ; not his etymologies and criticisms , where we see nothing admirable , but his theologia physica , and his antiquitates ; which in all probability would have given us more light into remote times , and the natural history of the past world , than all the latin authors besides have done . he has left the foremention'd distinction of three periods of time ; he had the doctrine of the mundane egg , as we see in probus grammaticus ; and he gave us that observation of the star venus , concerning the great change she suffer'd about the time of our deluge . numa pompilius was doubtless a contemplative man , and 't is thought that he understood the true system of the world , and represented the sun by his vestal fire ; though , methinks , vesta does not so properly refer to the sun , as to the earth , which hath a sacred fire too , that is not to be extinguisht . he order'd his books to be buried with him , which were found in a stone chest by him , four hundred years after his death ; they were in all twenty-four , whereof twelve contain'd sacred rites and ceremonies , and the other twelve the philosophy and wisdom of the greeks ; the romans gave them to the praetor petilius to peruse ; and to make his report to the senate , whether they were fit to be publisht or no : the praetor made a wise politick report , that the contents of them might be of dangerous consequence to the establisht laws and religion ; and thereupon they were condemn'd to be burnt , and posterity was depriv'd of that ancient treasure , whatsoever it was . what the nine books of the sibyl contain'd , that were offer'd to king tarquin , we little know ; she valued them high , and the higher still , the more they seem'd to slight or neglect them ; which is a piece of very natural indignation or contempt , when one is satisfied of the worth of what they offer . 't is likely they respected , besides the fate of rome , the fate and several periods of the world , both past and to come , and the most mystical passages of them . and in these authors and monuments are lost the greatest hopes of natural and philosophick antiquities , that we could have had from the romans . and as to the greeks , their best and sacred learning was not originally their own ; they enricht themselves with the spoils of the east , and the remains we have of that eastern learning , is what we pick out of the greeks ; whose works , i believe , if they were intirely extant , we should not need to go any further for witnesses to confirm all the principal parts of this theory . with what regret does one read in laertius , suidas , and others , the promising titles of books writ by the greek philosophers , hundreds or thousands , whereof there is not one now extant ; and those that are extant are generally but fragments : those authors also that have writ their lives , or collected their opinions , have done it confus'dly and injudiciously . i should hope for as much light and instruction , as to the original of the world , from orpheus alone , if his works had been preserv'd , as from all that is extant now of the other greek philosophers . we may see from what remains of him , that he understood in a good measure , how the earth rise from a chaos , what was its external figure , and what the form of its inward structure ; the opinion of the oval figure of the earth is ascrib'd to orpheus and his disciples ; and the doctrine of the mundane egg is so peculiarly his , that 't is call'd by proclus , the orphick egg ; not that he was the first author of that doctrine , but the first that brought it into greece . thus much concerning the heathen learning , eastern and western , and the small remains of it in things philosophical ; 't is no wonder then if the account we have left us from them of the primitive earth ; and the antiquities of the natural world be very imperfect . and yet we have trac'd ( in the precedent chapter , and more largely in our latin treatise ) the foot-steps of several parts of this theory amongst the writings and traditions of the ancients : and even of those parts that seem the most strange and singular , and that are the basis upon which the rest stand . we have shown there , that their account of the chaos , though it seem'd to many but a poetical rhapsody , contain'd the true mystery of the formation of the primitive earth . we have also shown upon the same occasion , that both the external figure and internal form of that earth was compriz'd and signified in their ancient doctrine of the mundane egg , which hath been propagated through all the learned nations . and lastly , as to the situation of that earth , and the change of its posture since , that the memory of that has been kept up , we have brought several testimonies and indications from the greek philosophers . and these were the three great and fundamental properties of the primitive earth , upon which all the other depend , and all its differences from the present order of nature . you see then , though providence hath suffer'd the ancient heathen learning and their monuments , in a great part , to perish , yet we are not left wholly without witnesses amongst them , in a speculation of this great importance . you will say , it may be , though this account , as to the books and learning of the heathen , may be lookt upon as reasonable , yet we might expect however , from the iewish and christian authors , a more full and satisfactory account of that primitive earth , and of the old world. first , as to the iews , 't is well known that they have no ancient learning , unless by way of tradition , amongst them . there is not a book extant in their language , excepting the canon of the old testament , that hath not been writ since our saviour's time . they are very bad masters of antiquity , and they may in some measure be excus'd , because of their several captivities , dispersions , and desolations . in the babylonish captivity their temple was ransack'd , and they did not preserve , as is thought , so much as the autograph or original manuscript of the law , nor the books of those of their prophets that were then extant , and kept in the temple ; and at their return from the captivity after seventy years , they seem to have had forgot their native language so much , that the law was to be interpreted to them in chaldee , after it was read in hebrew ; for so i understand that interpretation in neh●miah . 't was a great providence , methinks , that they should any way preserve their law , and other books of scripture , in the captivity , for so long a time ; for 't is likely they had not the liberty of using them in any publick worship , seeing they return'd so ignorant of their own language , and , as 't is thought , of their alphabet and character too . and if their sacred books were hardly preserv'd , we may easily believe all others perisht in that publick desolation . yet there was another destruction of that nation , and their temple , greater than this , by the romans ; and if there were any remains of learning preserv'd in the former ruine , or any recruits made since that time , this second desolation would sweep them all away . and accordingly we see they have nothing left in their tongue , besides the bible , so ancient as the destruction of ierusalem . these , and other publick calamities of the iewish nation , may reasonably be thought to have wasted their records of ancient learning , if they had any ; for , to speak truth , the iews are a people of little curiosity , as to sciences and philosophical enquiries : they were very tenacious of their own customs , and careful of those traditions that did respect them , but were not remarkable , that i know of , or thought great proficients in any other sort of learning . there has been a great fame , 't is true , of the iewish gabala , and of great mysteries contain'd in it ; and , i believe , there was once a traditional doctrine amongst some of them , that had extraordinary notions and conclusions : but where is this now to be found ? the essenes were the likeliest sect , one would think , to retain such doctrines , but 't is probable they are now so mixt with things fabulous and fantastical , that what one should alledge from thence would be of little or no authority . one head in this cabala was the doctrine of the sephiroth , and though the explication of them be uncertain , the inferiour sephiroth in the corporeal world cannot so well be appli'd to any thing , as to those several orbs and regions , infolding one another , whereof the primigenial earth was compos'd . yet such conjectures and applications , i know , are of no validity , but in consort with better arguments . i have often thought also , that their first and second temple represented the first and second earth or world ; and that of ezekiel's , which is the third , is still to be erected , the most beautiful of all , when this second temple of the world shall be burnt down . if the prophecies of enoch had been preserv'd , and taken into the canon by e●ra , after their return from babylon , when the collection of their sacred books is suppos'd to have been made , we might probably have had a considerable account there , both of times past and to come , of antiquities and futuritions ; for those prophecies are generally suppos●d to have contain●d both the first and second fate of this earth , and all the periods of it . but as this book is lost to us , so i look upon all others that pretend to be ante-mosaical or patriarchal , as spurious and fabulous . thus much concerning the iews . as for christian authors , their knowledge must be from some of these foremention'd , iews or heathens ; or else by apostolical tradition : for the christian fathers were not very speculative , so as to raise a theory from their own thoughts and contemplations , concerning the origin of the earth . we have instanc'd , in the last chapter , in a christian tradition concerning paradise , and the high situation of it , which is fully consonant to the site of the primitive earth , where paradise stood , and doth seem plainly to refer to it , being unintelligible upon any other supposition . and 't was , i believe , this elevation of paradise , and the pensile structure of that paradisiacal earth , that gave occasion to celsus , as we see by origen's answer , to say , that the christian paradise was taken from the pensile gardens of alcinous : but we may see now what was the ground of such expressions or traditions amongst the ancients , which providence left to keep mens minds awake ; not fully to instruct them , but to confirm them in the truth , when it should come to be made known in other methods . we have noted also above , that the ancient books and authors amongst the christians , that were most likely to inform us in this argument , have perisht , and are lost out of the world , such as ephrem syrus de ortu rerum , and tertul●ian de paradiso ; and that piece which is extant , of cepha's upon this subject , receives more light from our hypothesis , than from any other i know ; for , correcting some mistakes about the figure of the earth , which the ancients were often guilty of , the obscurity or confusion of that discourse in other things , may be easily rectifi'd , if compar'd with this theory . of this nature also is that tradition that is common both to iews and christians , and which we have often mention'd before , that there was a perpetual serenity , and perpetual equinox in paradise ; which cannot be upon this earth , not so much as under the equinoctial ; for they have a sort of winter and summer there , a course of rains at certain times of the year , and great inequalities of the air , as to heat and cold , moisture and drought . they had also traditions amongst them , that there was no rain from the beginning of the world till the deluge , and that there were no mountains till the flood , and such like ; these , you see , point directly at such an earth , as we have describ'd . and i call these traditions , because we cannot find the original authors of them ; the ancient ordinary gloss ( upon genesis ) which some make eight hundred years old , mentions both these opinions ; so does historia scholastica , alcuinus , rabanus , maurus , lyranus , and such collectors of antiquity . bede also relates that of the plainness or smoothness of the antediluvian earth . yet these are reported traditionally , as it were , naming no authors or books from whence they were taken ; nor can it be imagin'd that they feign'd them themselves ; to what end or purpose ? it serv'd no interest ; or upon what ground ? seeing they had no theory that could lead them to such notions as these , or that could be strengthen'd and confirm'd by them . those opinions also of the fathers which we recited in the seventh chapter , placing paradise beyond the torrid zone , and making it therefore inaccessible , suit very well to the form , qualities , and bipartition of the primaeval earth , and seem to be grounded upon them . thus much may serve for a short survey of the ancient learning , to give us a reasonable account , why the memory and knowledge of the primitive earth should be so much lost out of the world ; and what we retain of it still ; which would be far more , i do not doubt , if all manuscripts were brought to light , that are yet extant in publick or private libraries . the truth is , one cannot judge with certainty , neither what things have been recorded and preserv'd in the monuments of learning , nor what are still ; not what have been , because so many of those monuments are lost : the alexandrian library , which we spoke of before , seems to have been the greatest collection that ever was made before christianity , and the constantinopolitan ( begun by constantine , and destroy'd in the fifth century , when it was rais'd to the number , as is said , of one hundred twenty thousand volumes ) the most valuable that was ever since , and both these have been permitted by providence to perish in the merciless flames . besides those devastations of books and libraries that have been made in christendom , by the northern barbarous nations overflowing europe , and the saracens and turks great parts of asia and africk . it is hard therefore to pronounce what knowledge hath been in the world , or what accounts of antiquity ; neither can we well judge what remain , or of what things the memory may be still latently conserv'd ; for besides those manuscripts that are yet unexamin'd in these parts of christendom , there are many , doubtless , of good value in other parts ; besides those that lie hid in the unchristianiz'd dominions . the library of fez is said to contain thirty two thousand volumes in arabick ; and though the arabick learning was mostwhat western , and therefore of less account , yet they did deal in eastern learning too ; for avicenna writ a book with that title , philosophia orientalis . there may be also in the east thousands of manuscripts unknown to us , of greater value than most books we have : and as to those subjects we are treating of , i should promise my self more light and confirmation from the syriack authors than from any others . these things being consider'd , we can make but a very imperfect estimate , what evidences are left us , and what accounts of the primitive earth , and if these deductions and defalcations be made , both for what books are wholly lost , and for what lie asleep or dead in libraries , we have reason to be satisfied in a theory of this nature ▪ to ●nd so good attestations as we have produc'd for the several parts of it ; which we purpose to enlarge upon considerably at another time and occasion . but to carry this objection as far as may be , let us suppose it to be urg●d still in the last place , that though these humane writings have perisht , or be imperfect , yet in the divine writings at least , we might expect , that the memory of the old world , and of the primitive earth should have been preserv'd . to this i answer in short , that we could not expect in the scriptures any natural theory of that earth , nor any account of it , but what was general ; and this we have , both by the tehom-rabba of moses , and the description of the same abyss in other places of scripture , as we have shown at large in the first book , chap. . and also by the description which s. peter hath given of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth , and their different constitution from the present : which is also prov'd by the rainbow , not seen in the first world. you will say , it may be , that that place of s. peter is capable of another interpretation ; so are most places of scripture , if you speak of a bare capacity ; they are capable of more than one interpretation ; but that which is most natural , proper and congruous , and suitable to the words , suitable to the argument , and suitable to the context , wherein is nothing superfluous or impertinent , that we prefer and accept of as the most reasonable interpretation . besides , in such texts as relate to the natural world , if of two interpretations propos'd , one agrees better with the theory of nature than the other , caeteris paribus , that ought to be prefer'd . and by these two rules we are willing to be try'd , in the exposition of that remarkable discourse of s. peter's , and to stand to that sence which is found most agreeable to them . give me leave to conclude the whole discourse with this general consideration ; 't is reasonable to suppose , that there is a providence in the conduct of knowledge , as well as of other affairs on the earth ; and that it was not design'd that all the mysteries of nature and providence should be plainly and clearly understood throughout all the ages of the world ; but that there is an order establisht for this , as for other things , and certain periods and seasons ; and what was made known to the ancients only by broken conclusions and traditions , will be known ( in the latter ages of the world ) in a more perfect way , by principles and theories . the increase of knowledge being that which changeth so much the face of the world , and the state of humane affairs , i do not doubt but there is a particular care and superintendency for the conduct of it ; by what steps and degrees it should come to light , at what seasons and in what ages ; what evidence should be left , either in scripture , reason , or tradition , for the grounds of it ; how clear or obscure , how disperst or united ; all these things were weigh'd and consider'd , and such measures taken as best suit the designs of providence , and the general project and method propos'd in the government of the world. and i make no question but the state both of the old world , and of that which is to come , is exhibited to us in scripture in such a measure and proportion , as is fit for this fore-mentioned purpose ; not as the articles of our faith , or the precepts of a good life , which he that runs may read : but to the attentive and reflexive , to those that are unprejudic'd , and to those that are inquisitive , and have their minds open and prepar'd for the discernment of mysteries of such a nature . thus much in answer to that general objection which might be made against this theory , that it is not founded in antiquity . i do not doubt but there may be many particular objections against parts and sections of it , and the exposing it thus in our own tongue may excite some or other , it may be , to make them ; but if any be so minded , i desire ( if they be scholars ) that it may rather be in latin , as being more proper for a subject of this nature ; and also that they would keep themselves close to the substance of the theory , and wound that as much as they can ; but to make excursions upon things accidental or collateral , that do not destory the hypothesis , is but to trouble the world with impertinencies . now the substance of the theory is this , that there was a primitive earth of another form from the present , and inhabited by mankind till the deluge ; that it had those properties and conditions that we have ascrib'd to it , namely , a perpetual equinox or spring , by reason of its right situation to the sun ; was of an oval figure , and the exteriour face of it smooth and uniform , without mountains or a sea. that in this earth stood paradise ; the doctrine whereof cannot be understood but upon supposition of this primitive earth , and its properties . then that the disruption and fall of this earth into the abyss , which lay under it , was that which made the universal deluge , and the destruction of the old world ; and that neither noah's flood , nor the present form of the earth can be explain'd in any other method that is rational , nor by any other causes that are intelligible : at least that have been hitherto propos'd to the world. these are the vitals of the theory , and the primary assertions , whereof i do freely profess my full belief : and whosoever by solid reasons will show me in an errour , and undeceive me , i shall be very much oblig'd to him . there are other lesser conclusions which flow from these , and may be call'd secondary , as that the longaevity of the ante-diluvians depended upon their perpetual equinox , and the perpetual equality and serenity of the air ; that the torrid zone in the primitive earth was uninhabitable ; and that all their rivers flow'd from the extreme parts of the earth towards the equinoctial ; there being neither rain , nor rainbow , in the temperate and habitable regions of it ; and lastly , that the place of paradise , according to the opinion of antiquity , ( for i determine no place by the theory ) was in the southern hemisphere . these , i think , are all truly deduc'd and prov'd in their several ways , though they be not such essential parts of the theory , as the former . there are also besides , many particular explications that are to be consider'd with more liberty and latitude , and may be perhaps upon better thoughts , or better observations , corrected , without any prejudice to the general theory . those places of scripture , which we have cited , i think , are all truly apply'd ; and i have not mention'd moses's c●smopoeia , because i thought it deliver'd by him as a lawgiver , not as a philosopher ; which i intend to show at large in another treatise , not thinking that discussion proper for the vulgar tongue . upon the whole , we are to remember , that some allowances are to be made for every hypothesis that is new propos'd and untry'd : and that we ought not out of levity of wit , or any private design , discountenance free and fair essays : nor from any other motive , but the only love and concern of truth . chap. x. concerning the author of nature . seeing the theory which we have propos'd in this work is of that extent and comprehension , that it begins with the first foundation of this world , and is to reach to the last period of it , in one continued series or chain of nature ; it will not be improper , before we conclude , to make some reflections and remarks what nature is , and upon what superiour causes she depends in all her motions and operations : and this will lead us to the discovery of the author of nature , and to the true notion and state of natural providence , which seems to have been hitherto very much neglected , or little understood in the world. and 't is the more reasonable and fitting , that we should explain these notions before we shut up this treatise , lest those natural explications which we have given of the deluge , and other things , should be mistaken or misapply'd ; seeing some are apt to run away with pieces of a discourse , which they think applicable to their purpose , or which they can maliciously represent , without attending to the scope or just limitations of what is spoken . by nature in general is understood all the powers of finite beings , with the laws establisht for their action and conduct according to the ordinary course of things . and this extends both to intellectual beings and corporeal ; but seeing 't is only the material world that hath been the subject of our discourse , nature , as to that , may be defin'd , the powers of matter , with the laws establisht for their action and conduct . seeing also matter hath no action , whether from it self , or imprest upon it , but motion , as to the corporeal world nature is no more than the powers and capacities of matter , with the laws that govern the motions of it . and this definition is so plain and easie , that , i believe , all parties will agree in it ; there will also be no great controversie what these laws are , as that one part of matter cannot penetrate another , nor be in several places at once ; that the greater body overcomes the less , and the swifter the flower ; that all motion is in a right line , till something obstruct it or divert it ; which are points little disputed as to the matter of fact ; but the points concerning which the controversie ariseth , and which are to lead us to the author of nature , are these , who or what is the author of these laws ? of this motion ) and even of matter it self ; and of all those modes and forms of it which we see in nature ? the question useth chiefly to be put concerning motion , how it came into the world ; what the first source of it is , or how matter came at first to be mov'd ? for the simple notion of matter , not divided into parts , nor diversified , doth not imply motion , but extension only ; 't is true , from extension there necessarily follows mobility , or a capacity of being mov'd by an external power , but not actual or necessary motion springing from it self . for dimensions , or length , breadth , and depth , which is the idea of matter , or of a body , do no way include local motion , or translation of parts ; on the contrary , we do more easily and naturally conceive simple extension as a thing steddy and fixt , and if we conceive motion in it , or in its parts , we must superadd something to our first thought , and something that does not flow from extension . as when we conceive a figure , a triangle , square , or any other , we naturally conceive it fixt or quiescent , and if afterwards we imagine it in motion , that is purely accidental to the figure ; in like manner it is accidental to matter , that there should be motion in it , it hath no inward principle from whence that can flow , and its nature is compleat without it ; wherefore if we find motion and action in matter , which is of it self a dead in-active mass , this should lead us immediately to the author of nature , or to some external power distinct from matter , which is the cause of all motion in the world. in single bodies , and single parts of matter , we readily believe and conclude , that they do not move , unless something move them , and why should we not conclude the same thing of the whole mass ? if a rock or mountain cannot move it self , nor divide it self , either into great gobbets , or into small powder , why should it not be as impossible for the whole mass of matter to do so ? 't is true , matter is capable both of motion and rest , yet to conceive it undivided , undiversified and unmov'd , is certainly a more simple notion , than to conceive it divided and mov'd ; and this being first in order of nature , and an adequate conception too , we ought to enquire and give our selves an account how it came out of this state , and by what causes , or , as we said before , how motion came first into the world. in the second place , that diversity which we see in nature , both as to the qualities of matter , and the compositions of it , being one step further than bare motion , ought also to be a further indication of the author of nature , and to put us upon enquiry into the causes of this diversity . there is nothing more uniform than simple extension , nothing more the same throughout , all of a piece , and all of a sort , similar , and like to it self every where , yet we find the matter of the universe diversified a thousand ways , into heavens and earth , air and water , stars , meteors , light , darkness , stones , wood , animals , and all terrestrial bodies ; these diversifications are still further removes from the natural unity and identity of matter , and a further argument of some external and superiour power that hath given these different forms ●o the several portions of matter by the intervention of motion . for if you exclude the author of nature , and suppose nothing but matter in the world , take whether hypothesis you will , either that matter is without motion of it self , or that it is of it self in motion , there could not arise this diversity , and these compositions in it . if it was without motion , then the case is plain , for it would be nothing but an hard inflexible lump of impenetrable extension , without any diversity at all . and if you suppose it mov'd of it self , or to have an innate motion , that would certainly hinder all sort of natural concretions and compositions , and in effect destroy all continuity . for motion , if it be essential to matter , it is essential to every atome of it , and equally diffus'd throughout all its parts ; and all those parts or atomes would be equal to one another , and as little as possible ; for if matter was divided into parts by its own innate motion , that would melt it down into parts as little as possible , and consequently all equal to one another , there being no reason why you should stop those divisions , or the effect of this innate impetus in any one part sooner than in another , or in any part indeed till it was divided as much as was possible ; wherefore upon this principle , or in this method , all the matter of the universe would be one liquid or volatile mass , smaller than pin dust , nay , than air or aether : and there would be no diversity of forms , only another sort of identity from the former , when we suppos'd it wholly without motion . and so , upon the whole , you see , that matter , whether we allow it motion , or no motion , could not come into that variety of tempers and compositions in which we find it in the world , without the influence and direction of a superiour external cause , which we call the author of nature . but there is still a further and stronger argument from this head , if we consider not only the diversity of bodies , that the mass of matter is cut into , but also that that diversity is regular , and in some parts of it admirably artful and ingenious . this will not only lead us to an author of nature , but to such an author as hath wisdom as well as power . matter is a brute being , stupid and senseless , and though we should suppose it to have a force to move it self , yet that it should be able to meditate and consult , and take its measures how to frame a world , a regular and beautiful structure , consisting of such and such parts and regions , and adapted to such and such purposes , this would be too extravagant to imagine ; to allow it not only motion from it self , but wit and judgment too ; and that before it came into any organical or animate composition . you 'll say , it may be , the frame of the world was not the result of counsel and consultation , but of necessity ; matter being once in motion under the conduct of those laws that are essential to it , it wrought it self by degrees from one state into another , till at length it came into the present form which we call the world. these are words thrown out at random , without any pretence of ground , only to see if they can be confuted ; and so they may easily be , for we have shown already , that if matter had innate motion , it would be so far from running into the orderly and well dispos'd frame of the world , that it would run into no frame at all , into no forms , or compositions , or diversity of bodies ; but would either be all fluid , or all solid ; either every single particle in a separate motion , or all in one continued mass with an universal tremor , or inclination to move without actual separation ; and either of these two states is far from the form of a world. secondly , as to the laws of motion , as some of them are essential to matter , so others are not demonstrable , but upon supposition of an author of nature . and thirdly , though all the laws of motion be admitted , they cannot bring matter into the form of a world , unless some measures be taken at first by an intelligent being ; i say some measures be taken to determine the primary motions upon which the rest depend , and to put them in a way that leads to the formation of a world. the mass must be divided into regions , and centers fixt , and motions appropriated to them ; and it must be consider'd of what magnitude the first bodies , or the first divisions of matter should be , and how mov'd : besides , there must be a determinate proportion , and certain degree of motion imprest upon the universal matter , to qualifie it for the production of a world ; if the dose was either too strong or too weak , the work would miscarry ; and nothing but infinite wisdom could see thorough the effects of every proportion , or every new degree of motion , and discern which was best for the beginning , progress , and perfection of a world. so you see the author of nature is no way excluded , or made useless by the laws of motion ; nor if matter was promiscuously mov'd would these be sufficient causes of themselves to produce a world , or that regular diversity of bodies that compose it . but 't is hard to satisfie men against their inclinations , or their interest : and as the regularity of the universe was always a great stumbling-stone to the epicuraeans ; so they have endeavour'd to make shifts of all sorts to give an account and answer to it , without recourse to an intelligent principle ; and for their last refuge , they say , that chance might bring that to pass , which nature and necessity could not do ; the atoms might hit upon a lucky sett of motions , which though it were casual and fortuitous , might happily lead them to the forming of a world. a lucky hit indeed , for chance to frame a world : but this is a meer shuffle and collusion ; for if there was nothing in nature but matter , there could be no such thing as chance , all would be pure mechanical necessity ; and so this answer , though it seem very different , is the same in effect with the former , and epicurus with his atomists are oblig'd to give a just mechanical account , how all the parts of nature , the most compound and elaborate parts not excepted , rise from their atoms by pure necessity : there could be no accidental concourse or coalition of them , every step , every motion , every composition was fatal and necessary , and therefore 't is nonsence for an epicuraean to talk of chance , as chance is oppos'd to necessity ; and if they oppose it to counsel and wisdom , 't is little better than non-sence , to say the world and all its furniture rise by chance , in that notion of it . but it will deserve our patience a little to give a more full and distinct answer to this , seeing it reacheth all their pleas and evasions at once . what proof or demonstration of wisdom and counsel can be given , or can be desir'd , that is not found in some part of the world , animate or inanimate ? we know but a little portion of the universe , a meer point in comparison , and a broken point too , and yet in this broken point , or some small parcels of it , there is more of art , counsel and wisdom shown , than in all the works of men taken together , or than in all our artificial world. in the construction of the body of an animal , there is more of thought and contrivance , more of exquisite invention , and fit disposition of parts , than is in all the temples , palaces , ships , theaters , or any other pieces of architecture the world ever yet see : and not architecture only , but all other mechanism whatsoever , engines , clock-work , or any other , is not comparable to the body of a living creature . seeing then we acknowledge these artificial works , wheresoever we meet with them , to be the effects of wit , understanding and reason , is it not manifest partiality , or stupidity rather , to deny the works of nature , which excel these in all degrees , to proceed from an intelligent principle ? let them take any piece of humane art , or any machine fram'd by the wit of man , and compare it with the body of an animal , either for diversity and multiplicity of workmanship , or curiosity in the minute parts , or just connexion and dependance of one thing upon another , or fit subserviency to the ends propos'd , of life , motion , use and ornament to the creature , and if in all these respects they find it superiour to any work of humane production , ( as they certainly must do , ) why should it be thought to proceed from inferiour and senceless causes ; ought we not in this , as well as in other things , to proportion the causes to the effect ? and to speak truth , and bring in an honest verdict for nature as well as art ? in the composition of a perfect animal , there are four several frames or compages joyn'd together , the natural , vital , animal , and genital ; let them examine any one of these apart , and try if they can find any thing defective or superfluous , or any way inept , for matter or form . let them view the whole compages of the bones , and especially the admirable construction , texture , and disposition of the muscles , which are joyn'd with them for moving the body , or its parts . let them take an account of the little pipes and conduits for the juices and the liquors , of their form and distribution ; or let them take any single organ to examine , as the eye , or the ear , the hand or the heart ; in each of these they may discover such arguments of wisdom , and of art , as will either convince them , or confound them ; though still they must leave greater undiscover'd . we know little the insensible form and contexture of the parts of the body , nor the just method of their action ; we know not yet the manner , order and causes of the motion of the heart , which is the chief spring of the whole machine : and with how little exactness do we understand the brain , and the parts belonging to it ? why of that temper and of that form ? how motions are propagated there , and how conserv'd ? how they answer the several operations of the mind ? why such little discomposures of it disturb our senses , and upon what little differences in this the great differences of wits and genius's depend . yet seeing in all these organs , whose make and manner of action we cannot discover , we see however by the effects , that they are truly fitted for those offices to which nature hath design'd them , we ought in reason to admire that art which we cannot penetrate . at least we cannot but judge it a thing absurd , that what we have not wit enough to find out or comprehend , we should not allow to be an argument of wit and understanding in the author , or inventor of it . this would be against all logick , common sense , and common decorum . neither do i think it possible to the mind of man , while we attend to evidence , to believe that these , and such like works of nature came by chance , as they call it , or without providence , forecast and wisdom , either in the first causes , or in the proximate ; in the design , or in the execution ; in the preparation to them , or in the finishing of them . wherefore , in my judgment , if any be of this perswasion , it cannot be so much the effect of their understanding , as of their disposition and inclination ; and in moral things , mens opinions do as often spring from the one , as from the other . for my part , i do generally distinguish of two sorts of opinions in all men , inclination-opinions , and reason'd-opinions ; opinions that grow upon mens complexions , and opinions that are the results of their reason ; and i meet with very few that are of a temperament so equal , or a constitution so even pois'd , but that they incline to one sett of opinions rather than another , antecedently to all proofs of reason : and when they have espous'd their opinions from that secret sympathy , then they find out as good reasons as they can to maintain them , and say , nay think sometimes , that 't was for the sake of those reasons that they first imbrac'd them . we may commonly distinguish these inclination-opinions from the rational , because we find them accompanied with more heat than light , a great deal of eagerness and impatience in defending of them , and but slender arguments . one might give instances of this , both in sects of religion and philosophy , in platonists , stoicks , and epicureans , that are so by their temper more than their reason , but to our purpose it will be sufficient to instance in one hearty epicurean , lucretius , who is manifestly such , more from his inclination , and the bent of his spirit , than from the force of argument . for though his suppositions be very precarious , and his reasonings all along very slight , he will many times strut and triumph , as if he had wrested the thunder out of iove's right hand ; and a mathematician is not more confident of his demonstration , than he seems to be of the truth of his shallow philosophy . from such a principle of natural complexion as this , i allow a man may be atheistical , but never from the calm dictate of his reason ; yet he may be as confident , and as tenacious of his conclusion , as if he had a clear and distinct evidence for it . for i take it to be a true maxim in humane nature , that a strong inclination , with a little evidence is equivalent to a strong evidence . and therefore we are not to be surpris●d if we find men confident in their opinions many times far beyond the degree of their evidence , seeing there are other things , besides evidence , that incline the will to one conclusion rather than another . and as i have instanc'd in natural complexion , so interest hath the same effect upon humane nature , because it always begets an inclination to those opinions that favour our interest , and a disinclination to the contrary ; and this principle may be another ingredient , and secret perswasive to atheism ; for when men have run themselves so deep into vice and immorality , that they expect no benefit from a god , 't is in a manner necessary to their quiet , and the ease of their mind , that they should fansie there is none ; for they are afraid , if there be a god , that he will not stand neuter , and let them alone in another world. this , i say , is necessary to the quiet of their mind , unless they can attain that great art , which many labour after , of non-reflection , or an unthinking faculty , as to god and a world to come , but to return to our argument , after this short digression — and as that regular diversity which we see in the forms of nature , and especially in the bodies of animals , could not be from any blind principle , either of necessity or of chance ; so , in the last place , that subordination which we see in the parts of nature , and subserviency to one another , the less noble to the more noble , the inanimate to the animate , and all things upon earth unto man , must needs have been the effect of some being higher than matter ; that did wisely dispose all things so at first , and doth still conserve them in the same order . if man had been born into the world , and a numerous host of creatures , without any provision or accommodation made for their subsistence and conveniences , we might have suspected that they had come by chance , and therefore were so ill provided for : but which of them can complain ? through their various kinds and orders , what is there awanting ? they are all fitted to their several elements , and their ways of living , birds , beasts , and fishes , both by the form and shape of their bodies the manner of their covering , and the quality of their food . besides , they are instructed in little arts and instincts for their conservation ; and not only for their proper conservation , but also to find a way to make and bring up young ones , and leave behind them a posterity ; and all this in so fit a method , and by such a pretty train of actions , as is really admirable . man is the master of all , and of him a double care is taken ; that he should neither want what nature can afford , nor what art can supply . he could not be provided of all conveniences by nature only , especially to secure him against the in●uries of the air ; but in recompence , nature hath provided materials for all those arts which she see would be needful in humane life , as building , cloathing , navigation , agriculture , &c. that so mankind might have both wherewithal to answer their occasions , and also to imploy their time , and exercise their ingenuity . this oeconomy of nature , as i may call it , or well ordering of the great family of living creatures , is an argument both of goodness and of wisdom , and is every way far above the powers of brute matter . all regular administration we ascribe to conduct and judgment ; if an army of men be well provided for in things necessary both for food , cloaths , arms , lodging , security and defence , so as nothing is awanting in so great a multitude , we suppose it the effect of care and forecast in those persons that had the charge of it ; they took their measures at first , computed and proportion'd one thing to another , made good regulations , and gave orders for convenient supplies . and can we suppose the great army of creatures upon earth manag'd and provided for with less fore-thought and providence , nay , with none at all , by meer chance ? this is to recede from all rules and analogy of reason , only to serve a turn , and gratifie an unreasonable humour . to conclude this argument ; there are two general heads of things , if i recollect aright , which we make the marks and characters of wisdom and reason , works of art , and the conduct of affairs or direction of means to an end ; and wheresoever we meet , either with regular material works , or a regular ordination of affairs , we think we have a good title and warrant to derive them from an intelligent author ; now these two being found in the natural world , and that in an eminent degree , the one in the frame of it , and the other in the oeconomy of it , we have all the evidence and ground that can be in arguing from things visible to things invisible , that there is an author of nature , superiour both to humane power and humane wisdom . before we proceed to give any further proofs or discoveries of the author of nature , let us reflect a little upon those we have already insisted upon ; which have been taken wholly from the material world , and from the common course of nature . the very existence of matter is a proof of a deity , for the idea of it hath no connexion with existence , as we shall show hereafter ; however we will take leave now to set it down with the rest , in order as they follow one another . . the existence of matter . . the motion of matter . . the just quantity and degree of that motion . . the first form of the universe upon motion imprest ; both as to the divisions of matter , and the leading motions . . the laws for communication and regulation of that motion . . the regular effects of it , especially in the animate world. . the oeconomy of nature , and fit subordination of one part of the world to another . the five first of these heads are prerequisites , and preparatives to the formation of a world , and the two last are as the image and character of its maker , of his power , goodness and wisdom , imprest upon it . every one of them might well deserve a chapter to it self , if the subject was to be treated on at large ; but this is only an occasional dissertation , to state the powers of matter , lest they should be thought boundless , and the author of nature unnecessary , as the epicuraeans pretend ; but notwithstanding their vain confidence and credulity , i defie them , or any man else , to make sence of the material world , without placing a god at the center of it . to these considerations taken wholly from the corporeal world , give me leave to add one of a mixt nature , concerning the union of our soul and body . this strange effect , if rightly understood , doth as truly discover the author of nature , as many effects that are accounted more supernatural . the incarnation , as i may so say , of a spiritual substance , is to me a kind of standing miracle ; that there should be such an union and connexion reciprocally betwixt the motions of the body , and the actions and passions of the soul : betwixt a substance intellectual , and a parcel of organiz'd matter : can be no effect of either of those substances ; being wholly distinct in themselves , and remote in their natures from one another . for instance , when my finger is cut , or when 't is burnt , that my soul thereupon should feel such a smart and violent pain , is no consequence of nature , or does not follow from any connexion there is betwixt the motion or division of that piece of matter , i call my finger , and the passion of that spirit i call my soul ; for these are two distinct essences , and in themselves independent upon one another , as much as the sun and my body are independent ; and there is no more reason in strict nature , or in the essential chain of causes and effects , that my soul should suffer , or be affected with this motion in the finger , than that the sun should be affected with it ; nay , there is less reason , if less can be , for the sun being corporeal , as the finger is , there is some remote possibility that there might be communication of motion betwixt them ; but motion cannot beget a thought , or a passion , by its own force ; motion can beget nothing but motion , and if it should produce a thought , the effect would be more noble than the cause . wherefore this union is not by any necessity of nature , but only from a positive institution , or decree establisht by the author of nature , that there should be such a communication betwixt these two substances for a time , viz. during the vitality of the body . 't is true indeed , if thought , apprehension , and reason , was nothing but corporeal motion , this argument would be of no force ; but to suppose this , is to admit an absurdity to cure a difficulty ; to make a thought out of a local motion ; is like making a god out of a stock , or a stone ; for these two are as remote in their nature , and have as different idea's in the mind , as any two disparate things we can propose or conceive ; number and colour , a triangle and vertue , free-will and a pyramid are not more unlike , more distant , or of more different forms , than thought and local motion . motion is nothing but a bodies changing its place and situation amongst other bodies , and what affinity or resemblance hath that to a thought ? how is that like to pain , or to a doubt of the mind ? to hope or to desire ? to the idea of god ? to any act of the will or understanding , as judging , consenting , reasoning , remembring , or any other ? these are things of several orders that have no similitude , nor any mixture of one another . and as this is the nature of motion , so , on the other hand , in a thought there are two things , consciousness , and a ●epresentation ; consciousness is in all thoughts indifferently , whether distinct or confus'd , for no man thinks but he is conscious that he thinks , nor perceives any thing but he is conscious that he perceives it ; there is also in a thought , especially if it be distinct , a representation ; 't is the image of that we think upon , and makes its object present to the mind . now what hath local motion to do with either of these two , consciousness , or representativeness ? how doth it include either of them , or hold them any way affixt to its nature ? i think one may with as good sence and reason ask of what colour a thought is , green or scarlet , as what sort of motion it is ; for motion of what sort soever , can never be conscious , not represent things as our thoughts do . i have noted thus much in general , only to show the different nature of motion and cogitation , that we may be the more sensible that they have no mutual connexion in us , nor in any other creature , from their essence or essential properties , but by a supervenient power from the author of nature , who hath thus united the soul and the body in their operations . we have hitherto only consider'd the ordinary course of nature , and what indications and proofs of its author , that affords us ; there is another remarkable head of arguments from effects extraordinary and supernatural , such as miracles , prophecies , inspirations , prodigies , apparitions , witchcraft , sorceries , &c. these , at one step , lead us to something above nature , and this is the shortest way , and the most popular ; several arguments are suited to several tempers , and god hath not left himself without a proper witness to every temper that is not wilfully blind . of these witnesses we now speak of , the most considerable are miracles , and the most considerable records of them are the books of scripture ; which if we consider only as an history , and as having nothing sacred in them more than other good histories , that is , truth in matter of fact , we cannot doubt but there have been miracles in the world ; that moses and the prophets , our saviour and his apostles , wrought miracles , i can no more question , than that caesar and alexander fought battles , and took cities . so also that there were true prophecies and inspirations , we know from scripture , only consider'd as a true history . but as for other supernatural effects that are not recorded there , we have reason to examine them more strictly before we receive them , at least as to particular instances ; for i am apt to think they are like lotteries , where there are ten or twenty blanks for one prize ; but yet if there were no prizes at all , the lottery would not have credit to subsist , and would be cry'd down as a perfect cheat ; so if amongst those many stories of prodigies , apparitions , and witchcrafts , there were not some true , the very fame and thought of them would die from amongst men , and the first broachers of them would be hooted at as cheats . as a false religion that hath nothing true and solid mixt with it , can scarce be fixt upon mankind ; but where there is a mixture of true and false , the strength of the one supports the weakness of the other . as for sorcery , the instances and examples of it are undeniable ; not so much those few scatter'd instances that happen now and then amongst us , but such as are more constant , and in a manner national , in some countries , and amongst barbarous people . besides , the oracles , and the magick that was so frequent amongst the ancients , show us that there have been always some powers more than humane tampering with the affairs of mankind . but this topick from effects extraordinary and supernatural , being in a great measure historical , and respecting evil spirits as well as the author of nature , is not so proper for this place . there is a third sett or head of arguments , that to some tempers are more cogent and convictive than any of these , namely , arguments abstract and metaphysical ; and these do not only lead us to an author of nature in general , but show us more of his properties and perfections ; represent him to us as a supream deity , infinitely perfect , the fountain of all being , and the steddy center of all things . but reasons of this order , being of a finer thred , require more attention , and some preparation of mind to make us discern them well , and be duly sensible of them . when a man hath withdrawn himself from the noise of this busie world , lock'd up his senses and his passions , and every thing that would unite him with it : commanded a general silence in the soul , and suffers not a thought to stir , but what looks inwards ; let him then reflect seriously , and ask himself , what am i , and how came i into being ? if i was author and original to my self , surely i ought to feel that mighty power , and enjoy the pleasure of it ; but , alas , i am conscious of no such force or vertue , nor of any thing in my nature , that should give me necessary existence ; it hath no connexion with any part of me , nor any faculty in me , that i can discern . and now that i do exist , from what causes soever , can i secure my self in being ? now that i am in possession , am i sure to keep it ? am i certain that three minutes hence i shall still exist ? i may or i may not , for ought i see ; either seems possible in it self , and either is contingent as to me ; i find nothing in my nature that can warrant my subsistence for one day , for one hour , for one moment longer . i am nothing but thoughts , fleeting thoughts , that chase and extinguish one another ; and my being , for ought i know , is successive , and as dying as they are , and renew'd to me every moment . this i am sure of , that so far as i know my self , and am conscious what i am , there is no principle of immutability , or of necessary and indefectible existence in my nature ; and therefore i ought in reason to believe , that i stand or fall at the mercy of other causes , and not by my own will , or my own sufficiency . besides , i am very sensible and in this i cannot be mistaken , that my nature is in several respects , weak and imperfect ; both as to will and understanding . i will many things in vain , and without effect , and i wish often what i have no ability to execute or obtain . and as to my understanding , how defective is it ? how little or nothing do i know in comparison of what i am ignorant of ? almost all the intellectual world is shut up to me , and the far greatest part of the corporeal ; and in those things that fall under my cognizance , how often am i mistaken ? i am confin'd to a narrow sphere , and yet within that sphere i often erre ; my conceptions of things are obscure and confus'd , my reason short-sighted ; i am forc'd often to correct my self , to acknowledge that i have judg'd false , and consented to an errour . in summ , all my powers i find are limited , and i can easily conceive the same kind of perfections in higher degrees than i possess them , and consequently there are beings , or may be , greater and more excellent than my self , and more able to subsist by their own power . why should i not therefore believe that my original is from those beings rather than from my self ? for every nature , the more great and perfect it is , the nearer it approacheth to necessity of existence , and to a power of producing other things . yet , the truth is , it must be acknowledg'd , that so long as the perfections of those other beings are limited and finite , though they be far superiour to us , there is no necessity ariseth from their nature that they should exist ; and the same arguments that we have us'd against our selves , they may , in proportion , use against themselves ; and therefore we must still advance higher to find a self originated being , whose existence must fl●w immediately from his essence , or have a necessary connextion with it . and indeed all these different degrees of higher and higher perfections lead us directly to an highest , or supream degree , which is infinite and unlimited perfection . as subordinate causes lead to the first , so natures more perfect one than another lead us to a nature infinitely perfect , which is the fountain of them all . thither we must go , if we will follow the course of reason , which cannot stop at one more than another , till it arrive there ; and being arriv'd there , at that soveraign and original perfection , it finds a firm and immoveable ground to stand upon ; the steddy center of all being , wherein the mind rests and is satisfied . all the scruples or objections that we mov'd against our selves , or other creatures , take no place here ; this being is conscious of an all-sufficiency in it self , and of immutability as to any thing else , including in it all the causes of existence , or , to speak more properly , all necessity of existence . besides , that we exist our selves , notwithstanding the imperfection and insufficiency of our nature , is a just , collateral proof of the existence of this supream being ; for such an effect as this cannot be without its cause , and it can have no other competent cause but that we mention . and as this being is its own origin , so it must needs be capable of producing all creatures ; for whatsoever is possible , must be possible to it ; and that creatures or finite beings are possible , we both see by experience , and may also discern by reason ; for those several degrees of perfection , or limitations of it , which we mention'd before , are all consistent notions , and consequently make consistent natures , and such as may exist ; but contingently indeed , and in dependance upon the first cause . thus we are come at length to a fair resolution of that great question , whence we are , and how we continue in being ? and this hath led us by an easie ascent to the supreme author of nature , and the ●irst cause of all things ; and presents us also with such a scheme and draught of the universe , as is clear and rational ; every thing in its order , and in its place , according to the dignity of its nature , and the strength of its principles . when the mind hath rais'd it self into this view of a being infinitely perfect , 't is in a region of light , hath a free prospect every way , and sees all things from top to bottom , as pervious and transparent . whereas without god and a first cause , there is nothing but darkness and confusion in the mind , and in nature ; broken views of things , short interrupted glimpses of light , nothing certain or demonstrative , no basis of truth , no extent of thought , no science , no contemplation . you will say , it may be , 't is true , something must be eternal , and of necessary existence , but why may not matter be this eternal necessary being ? then our souls and all other intellectual things must be parts and parcels of matter ; and what pretensions can matter have to those properties and perfections that we find in our souls , how limited soever ? much less to necessary existence , and those perfections that are the foundation of it ? what exists eternally , and from it self , its existence must flow immediately from its essence , as its cause , reason or ground ; for as existence hath always something antecedent to it in order of nature , so that which is antecedent to it must infer it by a necessary connexion , and so may be call'd the cause , ground , or reason of it . and nothing can be such a ground , but what is a perfection ; nor every perfection neither , it must be sovereign and infinite perfection ; for from what else can necessary existence flow , or be inferr'd ? besides , if that being was not infinitely perfect , there might be another being more powerful than it , and consequently able to oppose and hinder its existence ; and what may be hinder'd is contingent and arbitrary . now matter is so far from being a nature infinitely perfect , that it hath no perfection at all , but that of bare substance ; neither life , sense , will or understanding ; nor so much as motion , from it self ; as we have show'd before . and therefore this brute inactive mass , which is but , as it were , the drudge of nature , can have no right or title to that sovereign prerogative of self existence . we noted before , as a thing agreed upon , that something or other must needs be eternal . for if ever there was a time or state , when there was no being , there never could be any . seeing nothing could not produce something . therefore 't is undeniably true on all hands , that there was some being from eternity . now , according to our understandings , truth is eternal : therefore , say we , some intellect or intelligent being . so also the reasons of goodness and iustice appear to us eternal , and therefore some good and just being is eternal . thus much is plain , that these perfections which bear the signatures of eternity upon them , are things that have no relation to matter , but relate immediately to an intellectual being : therefore some such being , to whom they originally belong , must be that eternal . besides , we cannot possibly but judge such a being more perfect than matter ; now every nature , the more perfect it is , the more remote it is from nothing : and the more remote it is from nothing , the more it approaches to necessity of existence , and consequently to eternal existence . thus we have made a short survey , so far as the bounds of a chapter would permit , of those evidences and assurances which we have , from abstract reason , and the external world , that there is an author of nature ; and that , a being infinitely perfect , which we call god. we may add to these , in the last place , that universal consent of mankind , or natural instinct of religion , which we see , more or less , throughout all nations , barbarous or civil . for though this argument , 't is true , be more disputable than the rest , yet having set down just grounds already from whence this natural judgment or perswasion might spring , we have more reason to impute it to some of those , and their insensible influence upon the mind , than to the artifices of men , or to make it a weakness , prejudice , or errour of our nature . that there is such a propension in humane nature , seems to be very plain ; at least so far as to move us to implore , and have recourse to invisible powers in our extremities . prayer is natural in certain cases , and we do at the meer motion of our natural spirit , and indeliberately , invoke god and heaven , either in case of extreme danger , to help and assist us ; or in case of injustice and oppression , to relieve or avenge us ; or in case of false accusation , to vindicate our innocency ; and generally in all cases desperate and remediless as to humane power , we seem to appeal , and address our selves to something higher . and this we do by a sudden impulse of nature , without reflexion or deliberation . besides , as witnesses of our faith and veracity , we use to invoke the gods , or superiour powers , by way of imprecation upon our selves , if we be false and perjur'd ; and this hath been us'd in most nations and ages , if not in all . these things also argue , that there is a natural conscience in man , and a distinction of moral good and evil ; and that we look upon those invisible powers as the guardians of vertue and honesty . there are also few or no people upon the earth but have something of external religion , true or false ; and either of them is an argument of this natural anticipation , or that they have an opinion that there is something above them , and above visible nature ; though what that something was , they seldom were able to make a good judgment . but to pursue this argument particularly , would require an historical deduction of times and places , which is not suitable to our present design . to conclude this chapter and this subject ; if we set religion apart , and consider the deist and atheist only as two sects in philosophy , or their doctrine as two different hypotheses propos'd for the explication of nature , and in competition with one another , whether should give the more rational account of the universe , of its origin and phaenomena ; i say , if we consider them only thus , and make an impartial estimate , whether system is more reasonable , more clear , and more satisfactory , to me there seems to be no more comparison , than betwixt light and darkness . the hypothesis of the deist reacheth from top to bottom , both thorough the intellectual and material world , with a clear and distinct light every where , is genuine , comprehensive , and satisfactory ; hath nothing forc'd , nothing confus'd , nothing precarious ; whereas the hypothesis of the atheist is strain'd and broken , dark and uneasie to the mind , commonly precarious , often incongruous and irrational , and sometimes plainly ridiculous . and this judgment i should make of them abstractly from the interest of religion , considering them only as matter of reason and philosophy ; and i dare affirm with assurance , if the faculties of our souls be true , that no man can have a system of thoughts reaching thorough nature , coherent and consistent in every part , without a deity for the basis of it . chap. xi . concerning natural providence . several incroachments upon natural providence , or misrepresentations of it , and false methods of contemplation ; a true method propos'd , and a true representation of the vniverse . the mundane idea , and the vniversal system of providence ; several subordinate systems , that of our earth and sublunary world ; the course and periods of it ; how much of this is already treated of , and what remains . the conclusion . we have set bounds to nature in the foregoing chapter , and plac'd her author and governour upon his throne , to give laws to her motions , and to direct and limit her power in such ways and methods as are most for his honour . let us now consider nature under the conduct of providence , or consider natural providence , and the extent of it ; and as we were cautious before not to give too much power or greatness to nature , consider'd apart from providence , so we must be careful now , under this second consideration , not to contract her bounds too much ; lest we should by too mean and narrow thoughts of the creation , eclipse the glory of its author , whom we have so lately own'd as a being infinitely perfect . and to use no further introduction , in the first place , we must not by any means admit or imagine , that all nature , and this great universe , was made only for the sake of man , the meanest of all intelligent creatures that we know of ; nor that this little planet where we sojourn for a few days , is the only habitable part of the universe ; these are thoughts so groundless and unreasonable in themselves , and also so derogatory to the infinite power , wisdom , and goodness of the first cause , that as they are absurd in reason , so they deserve far better to be mark'd and censur'd for heresies in religion , than many opinions that have been censur'd for such , in former ages . how is it possible that it should enter into the thoughts of vain man , to believe himself the principal part of god's creation : or that all the rest was ordain'd for him , for his service or pleasure ? man , whose follies we laugh at every day , or else complain of them ; whose pleasures are vanity , and his passions stronger than his reason ; who sees himself every way weak and impotent , hath no power over external nature , little over himself ; cannot execute so much as his own good resolutions ; mutable , irregular , prone to evil . surely , if we made the least reflection upon our selves with impartiality , we should be asham'd of such an arrogant thought . how few of these sons of men , for whom , they say , all things were made , are the sons of wisdom ? how few find the paths of life ? they spend a few days in folly and sin , and then go down to the regions of death and misery . and is it possible to believe , that all nature , and all providence , are only , or principally for their sake ? is it not a more reasonable character or conclusion which the prophet hath made , surely every man is vanity ? man that comes into the world at the pleasure of another , and goes out by an hundred accidents ; his birth and education generally determine his fate here , and neither of those are in his own power ; his wit also is as uncertain as his fortune ; he hath not the moulding of his own brain , however a knock on the head makes him a fool , stupid as the beasts of the field ; and a little excess of passion or melancholy makes him worse , mad and frantick . in his best senses , he is shallow , and of little understanding : and in nothing more blind and ignorant than in things sacred and divine ; he falls down before a stock or a stone , and says , thou art my god ; he can believe non-sence and contradictions , and make it his religion to do so . and is this the great creature which god hath made by the might of his power , and for the honour of his majesty ? upon whom all things must wait , to whom all things must be subservient ? methinks we have noted weaknesses and sollies enough in the nature of man , this need not be added as the top and accomplishment , that with all these he is so vain , as to think that all the rest of the world was made for his sake . and as due humility and the consideration of our own meanness , ought to secure us from any such vain opinion of our selves , so the perfection of other beings ought to give us more respect and honour for them . with what face can we pretend , that creatures far superiour to us , and more excellent both in nature and condition , should be made for our sake and service ? how preposterous would it be to ascribe such a thing to our maker , and how intolerable a vanity in us to affect it ? we that are next to the brutes that perish by a sacrilegious attempt , would make our selves more considerable than the highest dignities . it is thought to have been the crime of lucifer , who was thrown down from heaven to hell , that he affected an equality with the almighty ; and to affect to be next to the almighty is a crime next to that . we have no reason to believe , but that there are , at least , as many orders of beings above us , as there are ranks of creatures below us ; there is a greater distance sure betwixt us and god almighty , than there is betwixt us and the meanest worm : and yet we should take it very ill , if the worms of the earth should pretend that we were made for them . but to pass from the invisible world to the visible and corporeal , — was that made only for our sake ? king david was more wise , and more just both to god and man , in his th psalm ; where he says , he wonders , when he considers the heavens , that the maker of them could think on man. he truly supposes the celestial bodies and the inhabitants of them , much more considerable than we are , and reckons up only terrestrial things as put in subjection to man. can we then be so fond as to imagine all the corporeal universe made for our use ? 't is not the millioneth part of it that is known to us , much less useful ; we can neither reach with our eye , nor our imagination , those armies of stars that lie far and deep in the boundless heavens . if we take a good glass , we discover innumerably more stars in the firmament than we can with our single eye ; and yet if you take a second glass , better than the first , that carries the sight to a greater distance , you see more still lying beyond the other ; and a third glass that pierceth further , still makes new discoveries of stars ; and so forwards , indefinitely and inexhaustedly for any thing we know , according to the immensity of the divine nature and power . who can reckon up the stars of the galaxy , or direct us in the use of them ? and can we believe that those and all the rest were made for us ? of those few stars that we enjoy , or that are visible to the eye , there is not a tenth part that is really useful to man ; and no doubt if the principal end of them had been our pleasure or conveniency , they would have been put in some better order in respect of the earth ? they lie carelesly scatter'd , as if they had been sown in the heaven , like seed , by handfuls ; and not by a skilful hand neither . what a beautiful hemisphere they would have made , if they had been plac'd in rank and order , if they had been all dispos'd into regular figures and the little ones set with due regard to the greater , then all finisht and made up into one fair piece or great composition ; according to the rules of art and symmetry . what a surprizing beauty this would have been to the inhabitants of the earth ? what a lovely roof to our little world ? this indeed might have given one some temptation to have thought that they had been all made for us ; but lest any such vain imagination should now enter into our thoughts , providence ( besides more important reasons ) seems on purpose to have left them under that negligence or disorder which they appear in to us . the second part of this opinion supposeth this planet , where we live , to be the only habitable part of the universe ; and this is a natural consequence of the former ; if all things were made to serve us , why should any more be made than what is useful to us . but 't is only our ignorance of the system of the world , and of the grandeur of the works of god , that betrays us to such narrow thoughts . if we do but consider what this earth is , both for littleness and deformity , and what its inhabitants are , we shall not be apt to think that this miserable atome hath ingross'd and exhausted all the divine favours , and all the riches of his goodness , and of his providence . but we will not inlarge upon this part of the opinion , lest it should carry us too far from the subject , and it will fall , of its own accord , with the former . upon the whole we may conclude , that it was only the sublunary world that was made for the sake of man , and not the great creation , either material or intellectual ; and we cannot admit or affirm any more , without manifest injury , depression , and misrepresentation of providence , as we may be easily convinc'd from these four heads ; the meanness of man and of this earth , the excellency of other beings , the immensity of the universe , and the infinite perfection of the first cause . which i leave to your further meditation , and pass on to the second rule , concerning natural providence . in the second place then , if we would have a fair view and right apprehensions of natural providence , we must not cut the chains of it too short , by having recourse , without necessity , either to the first cause , in explaining the origins of things : or to miracles , in explaining particular effects . this , i say , breaks the chains of natural providence , when it is done without necessity , that is , when things are otherwise ntelligible from second causes . neither is any thing gain'd by it to god almighty ; for 't is but , as the proverb says , to rob peter to pay paul , to take so much from his ordinary providence , and place it to his extraordinary . when a new religion is brought into the world , 't is very reasonable and decorous that it should be usher'd in with miracles , as both the iewish and christian were ; but afterwards things return into their chanel , and do not change or overflow again , but upon extraordinary occasions or revolutions . the power extraordinary of god is to be accounted very sacred , not to be touch'd or expos'd for our pleasure or conveniency ; but i am afraid we often make use of it only to conceal our own ignorance , or to save us the trouble of inquiring into natural causes . men are generally unwilling to appear ignorant , especially those that make profession of knowledge , and when they have not skill enough to explain some particular effect in a way of reason , they throw it upon the first cause , as able to bear all ; and so placing it to that account , they excuse themselves , and save their credit ; for all men are equally wise , if you take away second causes ; as we are all of the same colour , if you take away the light. but to state this matter , and see the ground of this rule more distinctly , we must observe and consider , that the course of nature is truly the will of god ; and , as i may so say , his first will ; from which we are not to recede , but upon clear evidence and necessity . and as in matter of religion , we are to follow the known reveal'd will of god , and not to trust to every impulse or motion of enthusiasm , as coming from the divine spirit , unless there be evident marks that it is supernatural , and cannot come from our own ; so neither are we , without necessity , to quit the known and ordinary will and power of god establisht in the course of nature , and fly to supernatural causes , or his extraordinary will ; for this is a kind of enthusiasm or fanaticism , as well as the other : and no doubt that great prodigality and waste of miracles which some make , is no way to the honour of god or religion . 't is true , the other extream is worse than this , for to deny all miracles , is in effect to deny all reveal'd religion ; therefore due measures are to be taken betwixt these two , so as neither to make the divine power too mean and cheap , nor the power of nature illimited and all-sufficient . in the third place , to make the scenes of natural providence considerable , and the knowledge of them satisfactory to the mind ; we must take a true philosophy , or the true principles that govern nature , which are geometrical and mechanical . by these you discover the footsteps of the divine art and wisdom , and trace the progress of nature step by step , as distinctly as in artificial things , where we see how the motions depend upon one another , in what order and by what necessity . god made all things in number , wei●ht and measure , which are geometrical and mechanical principles ; he is not said to have made things by forms and qualities , or any combination of qualities , but by these three principles , which may be conceiv'd to express the subject of three mathematical sciences , number , of arithmetick ; weight , of staticks ; and measure and proportion , of geometry ; if then all things were made according to these principles , to understand the manner of their construction and composition , we must proceed in the search of them by the same principles , and resolve them into these again . besides , the nature of the subject does direct us sufficiently ; for when we contemplate or treat of bodies , and the material world , we must proceed by the modes of bodies , and their real properties , such as can be represented , either to sense or imagination , for these faculties are made for corporeal things ; but logical notions , when appli'd to particular bodies , are meer shadows of them , without light or substance . no man can raise a theory upon such grounds , nor calculate any revolutions of nature ; nor render any service , or invent any thing useful in humane life : and accordingly we see , that for these many ages , that this dry philosophy hath govern'd christendom , it hath brought forth no fruit , produc'd nothing good , to god or man , to religion or humane society . to these true principles of philosophy , we must joyn also the true system of the world. that gives scope to our thoughts , and rational grounds to work upon ; but the vulgar system , or that which aristotle and others have propos'd , affords no matter of contemplation . all above the moon , according to him , is firm as adamant , and as immutable ; no change or variation in the universe , but in those little removes that happen here below , one quality or form shifting into another ; there would therefore be no great exercise of reason or meditation in such a world ; no long series's of providence ; the regions above being made of a kind of immutable matter , they would always remain in the same form , structure , and qualities : so as we might lock up that part of the universe as to any further inquiries , and we should find it ten thousand years hence in the same form and state wherein we left it . then in this sublunary world there would be but very small doings neither , things would lie in a narrow compass , no great revolution of nature , no new form of the earth , but a few anniversary corruptions and generations , and that would be the short and the long of nature , and of providence , according to aristotle . but if we consider the earth , as one of those many planets that move about the sun , and the sun as one of those innumerable fixt stars that adorn the universe , and are the centers of its greatest motions ; and all this subject to fate and change , to corruptions and renovations ; this opens a large field for our thoughts ; and gives a large subject for the exercise and expansion of the divine wisdom and power , and for the glory of his providence . in the last place , having thus prepar'd your mind , and the subject , for the contemplation of natural providence , do not content your self to consider only the present face of nature , but look back into the first sources of things , into their more simple and original states ; and observe the progress of nature from one form to another , through various modes and compositions . for there is no single effect , nor any single state of nature , how perfect soever , that can be such an argument and demonstration of providence , as a period of nature , or a revolution of several states consequential to one another ; and in such an order and dependance , that as they flow and succeed , they shall still be adjusted to the periods of the moral world ; so as to be ready always to be ministers of the divine justice or beneficence to mankind . this shows the manifold riches of the wisdom and power of god in nature . and this may give us just occasion to reflect again upon aristotle's system and method , which destroys natural providence in this respect also ; for he takes the world as it is now , both for matter and form , and supposeth it to have been in this posture from all eternity , and that it will continue to eternity in the same ; so as all the great turns of nature , and the principal scenes of providence in the natural world are quite struck out ; and we have but this one scene for all , and a pitiful one too , if compar'd with the infinite wisdom of god , and the depths of providence . we must take things in their full extent , and from their origins , to comprehend them well , and to discover the mysteries of providence , both in the causes and in the conduct of them . that method which david followed in the contemplation of the little world , or in the body of man , we should also follow in the great ; take it in its first mass , in its tender principles and rudiments , and observe the progress of it to a compleat form ; in these first stroaks of nature are the secrets of her art ; the eye must be plac'd in this point to have a right prospect , and see her works in a true light . david admires the wisdom of god in the origin and formation of his body ; my body , says he , was not hid from thee , when i was made in secret , curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth ; thine eyes did see my substance being yet unperfect , and in thy book all my members were written ; which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there was none of them , or being at first in no form . how precious are thy thoughts to me , o god , &c. this was the subject of david's meditations , how his body was wrought from a shapeless mass into that marvellous composition which it had when fully fram'd ; and this , he says , was under the eye of god all along , and the model of it , as it were , was design'd and delineated in the book of providence , according to which it was by degrees fashion'd and wrought to perfection . thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect , in thy book all my members were drawn , &c. iob also hath aptly exprest those first rudiments of the body , or that little chaos out of which it riseth , hast thou not poured me out as milk , and crudled me like cheese ? thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh , and fenced me with bones and sinews . where he notes the first matter and the last form of his body , its compleat and most incompleat state . according to those examples we must likewise consider the greater bodies of nature , the earth and the sublunary world ; we must go to the origin of them , the seminal mass , the chaos out of which they rise ; look upon the world first as an embryo world , without form or shape , and then consider how its members were fashion'd , how by degrees it was brought into that diversity of parts and regions , which it consists of , with all their furniture , and with all their ornaments . the idea of all which was before hand , according to david's expression , written in the divine mind ; and we partake of that wisdom , according to our capacity , in seeing and admiring the methods of it . these seem to be necessary preparatives or directions to those that would contemplate , with profit , natural providence , and the great works of god in the visible creation . we consider'd nature in the precedent chapter abstractly , and in her self , and now we consider her under the conduct of providence , which we therefore call natural providence ; and as we have endeavour'd to remove those false notions and suppositions that lay as clouds upon her face , so we must now endeavour to represent her in a better light , and in a fuller beauty . by natural providence therefore we understand , the form or course of universal nature , as actuated by the divine power : with all the changes , periods , and vicissitudes that attend it , according to the method and establishment made at first , by the author of it . i said of universal nature , through all the orders of beings in the intellectual world , and all the regions and systems of matter in the corporeal . for , having prov'd in the foregoing chapter , that there is an author of nature , a being infinitely perfect , by whose power and influence alone all finite natures exist and act , we have an assured ground to conclude , that nothing can come to pass , throughout the whole creation , without the prescience and permission of its author ; and as it is necessary to suppose that there is an idea in the divine understanding of all the mass of beings produc'd or created , according to the several ranks and orders wherein they stand ; so there is also an idea there , according to which this great frame moves , and all the parts of it , in beauty and harmony . and these two things , the essences of all beings , and the series of their motions , compose the mundane idea , as i may so call it ; or that great all-comprehensive thought in the divine understanding , which contains the system of universal providence , and the state of all things , past , present , or to come . this glorious idea is the express image of the whole creation , of all the works of god , and the disposition of them ; here lie the mysteries of providence , as in their original ; the successive forms of all nature ; and herein as in a glass , may be view'd all the scenes of time or eternity . this is an abyss of sacred wisdom , the inexhausted treasure of all science , the root of truth , and fountain of intellectual light ; and in the clear and full contemplation of this is perfect happiness , and a truly beatifick vision . but what concerns the intellectual world in this idea , and the orders or natures that compose it , is not our present business to pursue ; we are to speak of the corporeal universe , whereof we will make now a short and general survey , as it lies under providence . the corporeal universe , how immense soever it be , and divided into innumerable regions , may be consider'd all as one system , made up of several subordinate systems . and there is also one immense design of providence co-extended with it , that contains all the fate , and all the revolutions of this great mass. this , i say , is made up of several subordinate systems , involving one another , and comprehending one another , in greater and greater orbs and compositions ; and the aggregate of all these is that which we call the universe . but what the form of these compositions is , and what the design of providence that runs thorough them all , and comprehends them all , this is unsearchable , not only to humane understanding , but even to angels and archangels . wherefore leaving those greater systems and compositions of the universe , as matter of our admiration , rather than of our knowledge , there are two or three kinds of lesser systems that are visible to us , and bring us nearer to our subject , and nearer home . that of a fixt star , single ; that of a fixt star with its planets , and that of a single planet , primary or secondary . these three systems we see and enjoy more or less . no doubt there are fixt stars single , or that have no planets about them , as our sun hath ; nay , 't is probable , that at first the whole universe consisted only of such ; globes of liquid fire , with spheres about them of pure light and aether : earths are but the dirt and skum of the creation , and all things were pure as they came at first out of the hands of god. but because we have nothing particular taught us , either by the light of nature or revelation , concerning the providence that governs these single stars , of what use they are to intellectual beings , how animated by them , what diversity there is amongst those aethereal worlds , what periods they have , what changes or vicissitudes they are capable to undergo ; because such inquiries would seem too remote , and carry us too far from our subject , we leave these heavenly systems to the enjoyment and contemplation of higher and more noble creatures . the sun , with all the planets that move about him , and depend upon him , make a good sort of system ; not considerable indeed , if compar'd with the whole universe , or some of the greater compositions in it , but in respect of us , the system of the sun is of vast extent ; we cannot measure the greatness of his kingdom , and his dominion is without end . the distance from the highest planet to the nearest fixt star in the firmament is unmeasurable , and all this belongs to the empire of the sun ; besides the several planets and their orbs , which cast themselves closer about his body , that they may receive a warmer and stronger influence from him ; for by him they may be said to live and move . but those vast spaces that lie beyond these opake bodies , are regions of perpetual light ; one planet may eclipse the sun to another , and one hemisphere of a planet to the other hemisphere makes night and darkness , but nothing can eclipse the sun , or intercept the course of his light to these remote aethereal regions ; they are always luminous , and always pure and serene . and if the worst and planetary parts of his dominions be replenisht with inhabitants , we cannot suppose the better to lie as desarts , uninjoy'd and uninhabited ; his subjects then must be numerous , as well as his dominions large ; and in both respects , this system of a fixt star , with its planets ( of which kind we may imagine innumerable in the universe , besides this of the sun , which is near and visible to us ) is of a noble character and order , being the habitation of angels and glorified spirits , as well as of mortal men. a planetary system is the last and lowest ; and of these , no doubt , there is great variety , and great differences ; not only of primary and secondary , or of the principal planet , and its moons or attendants , but also amongst planets of the same rank ; for they may differ both in their original constitution , and according to the from and state they are under at present ; of which sort of differences we have noted * some amongst our planets , though they seem to be all of much-what the same original constitution . besides , according to external circumstances , their distance , manner of motion , and posture to the sun , which is the heart of the whole system , they become different in many things . and we may observe , that those leading differences , though they seem little , draw after them innumerable others , and so make a distinct face of nature , and a distinct world ; which still shows the riches and fecundity of divine providence , and gives new matter of contemplation to those that take pleasure in studying the works and ways of god. but leaving all other planets or planetary systems to our meditations only , we must particularly consider our own . having therefore made this general survey of the great universe , run thorough the boundless regions of it , and with much ado found our way home to that little planet where our concerns lie , this earth or sublunary world , we must rest here as at the end of our course . and having undertaken to give the general theory of this earth , to conclude the present treatise , we 'll reflect upon the whole work , and observe what progress we have hitherto made in this theory , and what remains to be treated of hereafter . this earth , though it be a small part or particle of the universe , hath a distinct system of providence belonging to it , or an order establisht by the author of nature for all its phaenomena ( natural or moral ) throughout the whole period of its duration , and every interval of it ; for as there is nothing so great as to be above the divine care , so neither is there any thing so little as to be below it . all the changes of our world are fixt , how , or how often to be destroy'd , and how renew'd ; what different faces of nature , and what of mankind , in every part of its course ; what new scenes to adorn the stage , and what new parts to be acted ; what the entrance , and what the consummation of all . neither is there any sort of knowledge more proper , or of more importance to us that are the inhabitants of this earth , than to understand this its natural and sacred history , as i may so call it , both as to what is past , and what is to come . and as those greater volumes and compositions of the universe are proportion'd to the understanding of angels and superiour beings , so these little systems are compendium's of the divine wisdom , more fitted to our capacity and comprehension . the providence of the earth , as of all other systems consists of two parts , natural , and sacred or theological . i call that sacred or theological that respects religion , and the dispensations of it ; the government of the rational world , or of mankind whether under the light of nature only , or of a revelation ; the method and terms of their happiness and unhappiness in a future life ; the state , oeconomy , and conduct of this , with all the mysteries contain'd in it , we call theological providence ; in the head whereof stands the soul of the blessed messiah , who is lord of both worlds , intellectual and material . when we call the other part of providence natural , we use that word in a restrain'd sence , as respecting only the material world ; and accordingly this part of providence others and superintends the state of the earth , the great vicissitudes and mutations of it ; for we must not imagine , but that these are under the eye of providence , as well as humane affairs , or any revolutions of states and empires . now seeing both in the intellectual and corporeal world there are certain periods , fulnesses of time , and fixt seasons , either for some great catastrophe , or some great instauration , 't is providence that makes a due harmony or synchronism betwixt these two , and measures out the concurrent fates of both worlds , so as nature may be always a faithful minister of the divine pleasure , whether for rewards or punishments , according as the state of mankind may require . but theological providence not being the subject of this work , we shall only observe , as we said before , what account we have hitherto given of the natural state of the earth , and what remains to be handled in another treatise , and so conclude . i did not think it necessary to carry the story and original of the earth , higher than the chaos , as zoroaster and orpheus seem to have done ; but taking that for our foundation , which antiquity sacred and profane doth suppose , and natural reason approve and confirm , we have form'd the earth from it . but when we say the earth rise from a fluid mass , it is not to be so crudely understood , as if a rock of marble , suppose , was fluid immediately before it became marble ; no , things had a gradual progression from one form to another , and came at length to those more permanent forms they are now setled in : stone was once earth , and earth was once mud , and mud was once sluid . and so other things may have another kind of progression from fluidity ; but all was once fluid , at least all the exteriour regions of this earth . and even those stones and rocks of marble which we speak of , seem to confess they were once soft or liquid , by those mixtures we find in them of heterogeneous bodies , and those spots and veins disperst thorough their substance ; for these things could not happen to them after they were hard and impenetrable , in the form of stone or marble . and if we can soften rocks and stones , and run them down into their first liquors , as these observations seem to do , we may easily believe that other bodies also that compose the earth , were once in a fluid mass , which is that we call a chaos . we therefore watch'd the motions of that chaos , and the several transformations of it , while it continued fluid ; and we found at length what its first concretion would be , and how it setled into the form of an habitable earth . but that form was very different from the present form of the earth , which is not immediately deducible from a chaos , by any known laws of nature , or by any wit of man ; as every one , that will have patience to examine it , may easily be satisfied . that first earth was of a smooth regular surface , as the concretions of liquors are , before they are disturb'd or broken ; under that surface lay the great abyss , which was ready to swallow up the world that hung over it , and about it , whensoever god should give the command , and the vault should break ; and this constitution of the primaeval earth gave occasion to the first catastrophe of this world , when it perisht in a deluge of water . for that vault did break , as we have shown at large , and by the dissolution and fall of it , the great deep was thrown out of its bed , forc'd upwards into the air , and overflow'd , in that impetuous commotion , the highest tops of the fragments of the ruin'd earth , which now we call its mountains . and as this was the first great and fatal period of nature ; so upon the issue of this , and the return of the waters into their chanels , the second face of nature appear'd , or the present broken form of the earth , as it is terraqueous , mountainous , and cavernous . these things we have explain'd fully in the first book , and have thereby setled two great points , given a rational account of the universal deluge , and shown the causes of the irregular form of the present or post-diluvian earth . this being done , we have apply'd our selves , in the second book , to the description of the primaeval earth , and the examination of its properties ; and this hath led us by an easie tract to the discovery of paradise , and of the true notion and mystery of it ; which is not so much a spot of ground where a fine garden stood , as a course of nature , or a peculiar state of the earth ; paradisiacal in many parts , but especially in one region of it ; which place or region we have also endeavour'd to determine , though not so much from the theory , as from the suffrages of antiquity , if you will take their judgment . thus much is finisht , and this contains the natural theory of the earth till this present time ; for since the deluge all things have continued in the same state , or without any remarkable change . we are next to enter upon new matter and new thoughts , and not only so , but upon a series of things and times to come , which is to make the second part of this theory . dividing the duration of the world into two parts , past and future , we have dispatch'd the first and far greater part , and come better half of our way ; and if we make a stand here , and look both ways , backwards to the chaos , and the beginning of the world , and forwards to the end and consummation of all things , though the first be a longer prospect , yet there are as many general changes and revolutions of nature in the remaining part as have already happen'd ; and in the evening of this long day the scenes will change faster , and be more bright and illustrious . from the creation to this age the earth hath undergone but one catastrophe , and nature hath had two different faces . the next catastrophe is the conflagration , to which a new face of nature will accordingly succeed , new heavens and a new earth , paradise renew'd , and so it is call'd the restitution of things , or regeneration of the world. and that period of nature and providence being expir'd , then follows the consummation of all things , or the general apotheosts ; when death and hell shall be swallowed up in victory ; when the great circle of time and fate is run ; or according to the language of scripture , when the heavens and the earth shall pass away , and time shall be no more . may we , in the mean time , by a true love of god above all things , and a contempt of this vain world which passeth away ; by a careful use of the gifts of god and nature , the light of reason and revelation , prepare our selves , and the state of things , for the great coming of our saviour . to whom be praise and honour for evermore . finis . the theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth , and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone , or is to undergo till the consummation of all things . the two last books , concerning the burning of the world , and concerning the new heavens and new earth . london , printed by r. n. for walter kettilby , at the bishop's-head in s. paul's church-yard , . to the queen's most excellent majesty . madam , having had the honour to present the first part of this theory to your royal uncle , i presume to offer the second to your majesty . this part of the subject , i hope , will be no less acceptable , for certainly 't is of no less importance . they both indeed agree in this , that there is a world made and destroy'd in either treatise . but we are more concern'd in what is to come , than what is past . and as the former books represented to us the rise and fall of the first world ; so these give an account of the present frame of nature labouring under the last flames , and of the resurrection of it in the new heavens and new earth : which , according to the divine promises , we are to expect . cities that are burnt , are commonly rebuilt more beautiful and regular than they were before . and when this world is demolish'd by the last fire , he that undertakes to rear it up again , will supply the defects , if there were any , of the former fabrick . this theory supposes the present earth to be little better than an heap of ruines : where yet there is room enough for sea and land , for islands and continents , for several countries and dominions : but when these are all melted down , and refin'd in the general fire , they will be cast into a better mould , and the form and qualities of the earth will become paradisi●cal ▪ but , i fear , it may be thought no very proper address , to shew your majesty a world laid in ashes , where you have so great an interest your self , and such fair dominions ; and then , to recompence the loss by giving a reversion in a future earth . but if that future earth be a second paradise , to be enjoyed for a thousand years ; with peace , innocency , and constant health : an inheritance there will be an happy exchange for the best crown in this world. i confess , i could never perswade my self that the kingdom of christ and of his saints , which the scripture speaks of so frequently , was design'd to be upon this present earth . but however , upon all suppositions , they that have done some eminent good in this life , will be sharers in the happiness of that state. to humble the oppressors , and rescue the oppressed , is a work of generosity and charity that cannot want its reward ; yet , madam , they are the greatest benefactors to mankind , that dispose the world to become vertuous : and by their example , influence , and authority , retrieve that truth and justice , that have been lost , amongst men , for many ages . the school-divines tell us , those that act or suffer great things for the publick good , are distinguish'd in heaven by a circle of gold about their heads . one would not willingly vouch for that : but one may safely for what the prophet says , which is far greater : namely , that they shall shine like stars in the firmament , that turn many to righteousness . which is not to be understood , so much , of the conversion of single souls , as of the turning of nations and people , the turning of the world to righteousness . they that lead on that great and happy work , shall be distinguish'd in glory from the rest of mankind . we are sensible , madam , from your great example , that piety and vertue seated upon a throne , draw many to imitation , whom ill principles , or the course of the world , might have led another way . these are the best , as well as easiest victories , that are gain'd without contest . and as princes are the vicegerents of god upon earth , so when their majesty is in conjunction with goodness , it hath a double character of divinity upon it : and we owe them a double tribute , of fear and love. which , with constant prayers for your majesties present and future happiness , shall be always dutifully paid , by your majesty's most humble and most obedient subject , t. bvrnet . preface to the reader . i have not much to say to the reader in this preface to the third part of the theory : seeing it treats upon a subject own'd by all , and out of dispute : the conflagration of the world. the question will be only about the bounds and limits of the conflagration , the causes and the manner of it . these i have fix'd according to the truest measures i could take from scripture , and from nature . i differ , i believe from the common sentiment in this , that , in following s. peter's philosophy , i suppose , that the burning of the earth will be a true liquefaction or dissolution of it , as to the exteriour region . and that this lays a foundation for new heavens and a new earth ; which seems to me as plain a doctrine in christian religion , as the conflagration it self . i have endeavour'd to propose an intelligible way , whereby the earth may be consum'd by fire . but if any one can propose another , more probable and more consistent , i will be the first man that shall give him thanks for his discovery . he that loves truth for its own sake , is willing to receive it from any hand : as he that truly loves his country , is glad of a victory over the enemy , whether himself , or any other , has the glory of it . i need not repeat here , what i have already said upon several occasions , that 't is the substance of this theory , whether in this part or in other parts , that i mainly regard and depend upon . being willing to suppose that many single explications and particularities may be rectified , upon further thoughts and clearer light . i know our best writings , in this life , are but essays , which we leave to posterity to review and correct . as to the style , i always endeavour to express my self , in a plain and perspicuous manner : that the reader may not lose time , nor wait too long , to know my meaning . to give an attendant quick dispatch , is a civility , whether you do his business or no. i would not willingly give any one the trouble of reading a period twice over , to know the sence of it : lest when he comes to know it , he should not think it a recompence for his pains . whereas , on the contrary , if you are easie to your reader , he will certainly make you an allowance for it , in his censure . you must not think it strange however , that the author sometimes , in meditating upon this subject is warm in his thoughts and expressions . for to see a world perishing in flames , rocks melting , the earth trembling , and an host of angels in the clouds , one must be very much a stoick , to be a cold and unconcerned spectator of all this . and when we are mov'd our selves , our words will have a tincture of those passions which we feel . besides , in moral reflections which are design'd for use , there must be some heat , as well as dry reason , to inspire this cold clod of clay , this dull body of earth , which we carry about with us ; and you must soften and pierce that crust , before you can come at the soul. but especially when things future are to be represented , you cannot use too strong colours , if you would give them life , and make them appear present to the mind . farewel . contents of the chapters . the third book . chap. i. the introduction ; with the contents and order of this treatise . chap. ii. the true state of the question is propos'd . 't is the general doctrine of the ancients , that the present world , or the present frame of nature , is mutable and perishable : to which the sacred books agree : and natural reason can alledge nothing against it . chap. iii. that the world will be destroy'd by fire , is the doctrine of the ancients , especially if the stoicks . that the same doctrine is more ancient than the greeks , and deriv'd from the barbarick philosophy , and that probably from noah , the father of all traditionary learning . the same doctrine expresly authoriz'd by revelation , and inroll'd into the sacred canon . chap. iv. concerning the time of the conflagration , and the end of the world. what the astronomers say upon this subject , and upon what they ground their calculations . the true notion of the great year , or of the platonick year , stated and explain'd . chap. v. concerning prophecies that determine the end of the world ; of what order soever , prophane or sacred : iewish or christian. that no certain judgment can be made from any of them , at what distance we are from the conflagration . chap. vi. concerning the causes of the conflagration . the difficulty of conceiving how this earth can be set on fire . with a general answer to that difficulty . two suppos'd causes of the conflagration , by the sun 's drawing nearer to the earth , or the earth's throwing out the central fire , examin'd and rejected . chap. vii . the true bounds of the last fire , and how far it is fatal . the natural causes and materials of it , cast into three ranks . first , such as are exteriour and visible upon earth . where the volcano's of this earth , and their effects are consider'd . secondly , such materials as are within the earth . thirdly , such as are in the air. chap. viii . some new dispositions towards the conflagration , as to the matter , form , and situation of the earth . concerning miraculous causes , and how far the ministry of angels may be engag'd in this work . chap. ix . how the sea will be diminish'd and consum'd . how the rocks and mountains will be thrown down and melted , and the whole exteriour frame of the earth dissolv'd into a deluge of fire . chap. x. concerning the beginning and progress of the conflagration , what part of the earth will first be burnt . the manner of the future destruction of rome , according to the prophetical indications . the last state and consummation of the general fire . chap. xi . an account of these extraordinary phaenomena and wonders in nature , that , according to scripture , will precede the coming of christ , and the conflagration of the world. chap. xii . an imperfect description of the coming of our savi●ur , and of the world on fire . the conclusion . the fourth book . chap. i. the introduction : that the world will not be annihilated in the last fire . that we are to expect , according to scripture , and the christian doctrine , new heavens and a new earth , when these are dissolv'd or burnt up . chap. ii. the birth of the new heavens and the new earth , from the second chaos , or the remains of the old world. the form , order and qualities of the new earth , according to reason and scripture . chap. iii. concerning the inhabitants of the new earth . that natural reason cannot determine this point . that , according to scripture , the sons of the first resurrection , or the heirs of the millennium , are to be the inhabitants of the new earth , the testimony of the philosophers , and of the christian fathers , for the renovation of the world. the first proposition laid down . chap. iv. the proof of a millennium , or of a blessed age to come , from scripture . a view of the apocalypse , and of the prophecies of daniel , in reference to this kingdom of christ , and of his saints . chap. v. a view of other places of scripture , concerning the millennium , or future kingdom of christ. in what sence all the prophets have born testimony concerning it . chap. vi. the sence and testimony of the primitive church , concerning the millennium , or future kingdom of christ : from the times of the apostles to the nicene council . the second proposition laid down . when , by what means , and for what reasons , that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd . chap. vii . the true state of the millennium , according to characters taken from scripture . some mistakes concerning it rectified . chap. viii . the third proposition laid down , concerning the time and place of the millennium . several arguments us'd to prove , that it cannot be till after the conflagration : and that the new heavens and new earth are the true seat of the blessed millennium . chap. ix . the chief employment of the millennium devotion and contemplation . chap. x. objections against the millenni●m , answer'd . with some conjectures concerning the state of things after the millennium : and what will be the final consummation of this world. the review of the whole theory . the theory of the earth . book iii. concerning the conflagration . chap. i. the introduction ; with the contents and order of this work. seeing providence hath planted in all men a natural desire and curiosity of knowing things to come ; and such things especially as concern our particular happiness , or the general fate of mankind : this treatise may , in both respects , hope for a favourable reception amongst inquisitive persons ; seeing the design of it is , to give an account of the greatest revolutions of nature that are expected in future ages : and in the first place , of the conflagration of the world. in which universal calamity , when all nature suffers , every man 's particular concern must needs be involv'd . we see with what eagerness men pry into the stars , to see if they can read there the death of a king , or the fall of an empire : 't is not the fate of any single prince or potentate , that we calculate , but of all mankind : nor of this or that particular kingdom or empire , but of the whole earth . our enquiries must reach to that great period of nature , when all things are to be dissolv'd : both humane affairs , and the stage whereon they are acted . when the heavens and the earth will pass away , and the elements melt with fervent heat . we desire , if possible , to know what will be the face of that day , that great and terrible day , when the regions of the air will be nothing but mingled flame and smoak , and the habitable earth turn'd into a sea of molten fire . but we must not leave the world in this disorder and confusion , without examining what will be the issue and consequences of it . whether this will be the end of all things , and nature by a sad fate , lie eternally dissolv'd and desolate in this manner : or whether we may hope for a restauration : new heavens and a new earth , which the holy writings make mention of , more pure and perfect than the former . as if this was but as a refiner's fire , to purge out the dross and courser parts , and then cast the mass again into a new and better mould . these things , with god's assistance , shall be matt●r of our pre●ent enquiry ; these make the gen●ral ●●bject of thi● treatise , and of the remaining parts of this theory of ●he earth . which now , you see , begins to be a kind of prophecy , or prognostication of things to come : as it hath been hitherto an history of things pass'd ; of such states and changes as nature hath already undergone . and if that account which we have given of the origin of the earth , its first and paradisiacal form , and the dissolution of it at the universal deluge , appear fair and reasonable : the second dissolution by fire , and the renovation of it out of a second chaos , i hope will be deduc'd from as clear grounds and suppositions . and scripture it self will be a more visible guide to us in these following parts of the theory , than it was in the former . in the mean time , i take occasion to declare here again , as i have done heretofore , that neither this , nor any other great revolutions of nature , are brought to pass , by causes purely natural , without the conduct of a particular providence . and 't is the sacred books of scripture that are the records of this providence , both as to times past , and times to come : as to all the signal changes either of the natural world , or of mankind , and the different oeconomies of religion . in which respects , these books , tho' they did not contain a moral law , would notwithstanding be , as the most mystical , so also the most valuable books in the world. this treatise , you see , will consist of two parts : the former whereof is to give an account of the conflagration ; and the latter , of the new heavens and new earth following upon it ; together with the state of mankind in those new habitations . as to the conflagration , we first enquire , what the antients thought concerning the present frame of this world ; whether it was to perish or no : whether to be destroyed , or to stand eternally in this posture . then in what manner they thought it would be destroy'd ; by what force or violence ; whether by fire or other ways . and with these opinions of the antients we will compare the doctrine of the prophets and apostles , to discover and confirm the truth of them . in the second place , we will examine what calculations or conjectures have been made concerning the time of this great catastrophe , or of the end of this world. whether that period be defineable or no : and whether by natural arguments , or by prophecies . thirdly , we will consider the signs of the approaching conflagration : whether such as will be in nature , or in the state of humane affairs ; but especially such as are taken notice of and recorded in scripture . fourthly , which is the principal point , and yet that wherein the ancients have been most silent , what causes there are in nature , what preparations , for this conflagration : where are the seeds of this universal fire , or fewel sufficient for the nourishing of it ? lastly , in what order and by what degrees the conflagration will proceed : in what manner the frame of the earth will be dissolv'd : and what will be the dreadful countenance of a burning world. these heads are set down more fully in the argument of each chapter ; and seem to be sufficient for the explication of this whole matter : taking in some additional discourses , which , in pursuing these heads , enter of their own accord , and make the work more even and entire . in the second part , we restore the world that we had destroy'd : build new heavens and a new earth , wherein righteousness shall dwell . establish that new order of things , which is so often celebrated by the prophets : a kingdom of peace and of justice , where the enemy of mankind shall be bound , and the prince of peace shall rule . a paradise without a serpent , and a tree of knowledge , not to wound , but to heal the nations . where will be neither curse , nor pain , nor death , nor disease . where all things are new , all things are more perfect , both the world it self , and its inhabitants . where the first-born from the dead , have the first-fruits of glory . we dote upon this present world , and the enjoyments of it : and 't is not without pain , and fear , and reluctancy , that we are torn from them : as if our hopes lay all within the compass of this life . yet , i know not by what good fate , my thoughts have been always fixt upon things to come , more than upon things present . these i know , by certain experience , to be but trifles ; and if there be nothing more considerable to come , the whole being of man is no better than a trifle . but there is room enough before us in that we call eternity , for great and noble scenes : and the mind of man feels it self lessen'd and straiten'd in this low and narrow state : wishes and waits to see something greater . and if it could discern another world a coming , on this side eternal life ; a beginning glory , the best that earth can bear , it would be a kind of immortality to en●oy that prospect before-hand ; to see , when this theater is dissolv'd , where we shall act next , and what parts . what saints and hero's , if i may so say , will appear upon that stage ; and with what luster and excellency . how easie would it be , under a view of these futurities , to despise the little pomps and honours , and the momentany pleasures of a mortal life . but i proceed to our sub●ect . chap. ii. the true state of the question is propos'd . 't is the general doctrine of the ancients , that the present world , or the present frame of nature , is mutable and perishable : to which the sacred books agree : and natural reason can alledge nothing against it . when we speak of the end or destruction of the world , whether by fire or otherwise ▪ ●tis not to be imagin'd that we understand this of the great universe ; sun , moon , and stars , and the highest heavens : as if these were to perish or be destroy'd some few years hence , whether by fire or any other way . this question is only to be understood of the sublunary world , of this earth and its furniture ; which had its original about six thousand years ago , according to the history of moses ; and hath once already been destroy'd , when the exteriour region of it broke , and the abyss issuing forth , as out of a womb , overflow'd all the habitable earth . the next deluge is that of fire ; which will have the same bounds , and overflow the surface of the earth much●what in the same manner . but the celestial regions , where the stars and angels inhabit , are not concern'd in this fate : those are not made of combustible matter , nor , if they were , cou'd our flames reach them . possibly those bodies may have changes and revolutions peculiar to themselves , but in ways unknown to us , and after long and unknown periods of time . therefore when we speak of ●he conflagration of the world , these have no concern in the question ; nor any other part of the universe , than the earth and its dependances . as will evidently appear when we come to explain the manner and causes of the conflagration . and as this conflagration can extend no further than to the earth and its elements , so neither can it destroy the matter of the earth ; but only the form and fashion of it , as it is an habitable world. neither fire , nor any other natural agent can destroy matter , that is , reduce it to nothing : it may alter the modes and qualities of it , but the substance will always remain . and accordingly the apostle , when he speaks of the mutability of this world , says only , the figure or fashion of this world passes away . this structure of the earth and disposition of the elements : and all the works of the earth , as s. peter says ; all its natural productions , and all the works of art or humane industry ; these will perish , melted or torn in pieces by the fire ; but without an annihilation of the matter , any more than in the former deluge . and this will be further prov'd and illustrated in the beginning of the following book . the question being thus stated , we are next to consider the sense of antiquity upon these two points : first , whether this sublunary world is mutable and perishable . secondly , by the force and action of what causes , and in what manner it will perish ▪ whether by fire or otherwise . aristotle is very irregular in his sentiments about the state of the world ; he allows it neither beginning not ending ▪ rise nor fall , but wou'd have it eternal and immu●able . and this he understand not only of the great universe ▪ but of this sublunary world , this earth which we inhabit : wherein he will not admit there ever have been or over will be either general deluges or conflagrations . and as if he was ambitious to be thought ▪ singular in his opinion about the eternity of the world , he says , all the ancients before him ▪ gave some beginning or origin to the world : but were not indeed so unanimous as ●o its 〈◊〉 fate : some believing it immutable , or as the philosophers call it , incorruptible ; others , that it had its fatal times and periods , as lesser bodies have ; and a term of age prefixt to it , by providence ▪ but before we examine this point any further , it will be necessary to reflect upon that which we noted before , an ambiguity in the use of the word world , which gives frequent occasion of mistakes in reading the ancients : when that which they speak of the great universe , we apply to the sublunary world : or on the contrary , what they speak of this earth , we extend to the whole universe . and if some of them , besides aristotle , made the world incorruptible , they might mean that of the great universe , which they thought would never be dissolv'd or perish as to its mass and bulk : but single parts and points of it ( and our earth is no more ) may be variously transform'd , and made habitable and unhabitable , according to certain periods of time , without any pr●●udi●d to their philosophy . so plato , for instance , thinks this world will have no dissolution : for , being a work so beautiful and noble , the goodness of god , he says , will always preserve it . it is most reasonable to understand this of the great universe ; for , in our earth , plato himself admits such dissolutions , as are made by general delug●s and conflagrations ; and we contend for no other . so likewise in other authors , if they speak of the immortality of the world , you must observe what world they apply it to : and whether to the matter or the form of it : and if you remember that our discourse proceeds only upon the sublunary world , and the dissolution of its form , you will find little in antiquity contrary to this doctrine . i always except aristotle , ( who allow'd of no providence in this inferiour world ) and some pythagoreans falsly so call'd , being either fictitious authors , or apostates from the doctrine of their master . these being excepted , upon a view of the rest , you will find very few dissenters from this general doctrine . plato's argument against the dissolution of the world , from the goodness and wisdom of god , wou'd not be altogether unreasonable , tho' apply'd to this earth , if it was so to be dissolv'd , as never to be restor'd again . but we expect new heavens and a new earth upon the dissolution of these : better in all respects more commodious and more beautiful . and the several perfections of the divine nature , wisdom , power , goodness , justice , sanctity , cannot be so well display'd and exemplifi'd in any one single state of nature , as in a succession of states : fitted to receive one another according to the dispositions of the moral world , and the order of divine providence . wherefore plato's argument from the divine attributes , all things consider'd , doth rather prove a succession of worlds , than that one single world should remain the same throughout all ages , without change or variation . next to the platonists , the stoicks were most considerable in matters relating to morality and providence . and their opinion , in this case , is well known ; they being lookt upon by the moderns , as the principal authors of the doctrine of the conflagration . nor is it less known that the school of democra●us and epicurus made all their worlds subject to dissolution ; and by a new concourse of atomes restor'd them again . lastly , the ionick philosophers , who had thales for their master , and were the first naturalists amongst the greeks , taught the same doctrine . we have indeed but an imperfect account left us of this sect , and 't is great pity ; for as it was one of the most ancient , so it seems to have been one of the most considerable amongst the greeks for natural philosophy . in those remains which diogenes laertius hath preserv'd , of anaxagoras , anaximenes , archelaus , &c. all great men in their time , we find that they treated much of the origin of the world , and had many extraordinary notions about it , which come lame and defective to us . the doctrine of their founder , thales , which made all things to consist of water , seems to have a great resemblance to the doctrine of moses and s. peter , about the constitution of the first heavens and earth . but there is little in laertius what their opinion was about the dissolution of the world. other authors inform us more of that . stobaeus joyns them with leucippus and the epicureans : simplicius with heraclitus and the stoicks , in this doctrine about the corruptibility of the world. so that all the schools of the greek philosophers , as we noted before , were unanimous in this point , excepting the peripa●eticks ; whose master , aristotle , had neither modesty enough to follow the doctrine of his predecessors , nor wit enough to invent any thing better . besides these sects of philosophers , there were theologers amongst the greeks , more ancient than these sects , and more mystical . aristotle often distinguisheth the naturalists and the theologues . such were orpheus and his followers , who had more of the ancient oriental learning than the succeeding philosophers . but they writ their philosophy , or theology rather , mythologically and poetitically , in parables and allegories , that needed an interpretation . all these theologers supposed the earth to rise from a chaos : and as they said that love was the principle at first , that united the loose and severed elements , and formed them into an habitable world : so they supposed that if strife or contention prevail'd , that would again dissolve and disunite them , and reduce things into a chaos : such as the earth will be in , upon the conflagration . and it further appears , that both these orders of the learned in greece suppos'd this present frame of nature might perish , by their doctrine of periodical revolutions , or of the renovation of the world after certain periods of time : which was a doctrine common amongst the learned greeks , and received by them from the ancient barbarick nations . as will appear more at large in the following book , ch. . in the mean time we may observe that origen in answering celsus , about the point of the resurrection , tells him , that doctrine ought not to appear so strange or ridiculous to him , seeing their own authors did believe and teach the renovation of the world , after certain ages or periods . and the truth is , this renovation of the world , rightly stated , is the same thing with the first resurrection of the christians . and as to the second and general resurrection , when the righteous shall have celestial bodies ; 't is well known that the platonists and pythagoreans cloath'd the soul with a celestial body , or , in their language , an ethereal vehicle , as her last beatitude or glorification . so that origen might very justly tell his adversary , he had no reason to ridicule the christian doctrine of the resurrection , seeing their own authors had the main strokes of it in their traditionary learning . i will only add one remark more , before we leave this subject , to prevent a mistake in the word immortal or immortality , when applyed to the world. as i told you before , the equivocation that was in that term world , it being us'd sometimes for the whole universe , sometimes for this inferiour part of it where we live ; so likewise we must observe , that when this inferiour world is said to be immortal , by the philosophers , as sometimes it is , that commonly is not meant of any single state of nature , or any single world , but of a succession of worlds , consequent one upon another . as a family may be said immortal , not in any single person , but in a succession of heirs . so as , many times , when the ancients mention the immortality of the world , they do not thereby exclude the dissolution or renovation of it : but suppose a vicissitude , or series of world succeeding one another . this observation is not mine , but was long since made by simplicius , stobaeus , and others , who tell us in what sense some of those philosophers who allowed the world to be perishable , did yet affirm it to be immortal : namely , by successive renovations . thus much is sufficient to shew the sence and judgment of antiquity , as to the chargeableness or perpetuity of the world. but ancient learning is like ancient medals , more esteemed for their rarity , than their real use ; unless the authority of a prince make them currant . so neither will these testimonies be of any great effect , unless they be made good and valuable by the authority of scripture . we must therefore add the testimonies of the prophets and apostles to these of the greeks and barbarians , that the evidence may be full and undeniable . that the heavens and the earth will perish or be chang'd into another form , is , sometimes , plainly exprest , sometimes suppos'd and alluded to in scripture . the prophet david's testimony is express , both for the beginning and ending of the world : in the . psalm , of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth , and the heavens are the work of thy hands . they shall perish , but thou shalt endure : yea , all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed . but thou art the same , and thy years shall have no end . the prophet esay's testimony is no less express , to the same purpose . lift up your eyes to the heavens , and look upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke , and the earth shall was old like a garment , and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner . these texts are plain and explicite ; and in allusion to this day of the lord , and this destruction of the world , the same prophet often useth phrases that relate to it . as the concussion of the heavens and the earth . the shaking of the foundations of the world. the dissolution of the host of heaven . and our sacred writers have expressions of the like force , and relating to the same effect . as the hills melting like wax , at the presence of the lord : psal. . . shattering once more all the parts of the creation : hagg. . . overturning the mountains , and making the pillars of the earth to tremble : job . , . if you reflect upon the explication given of the deluge in the first part of this theory , and attend to the manner of the conflagration , as it will be explain'd in the sequel of this discourse , you will see the justness and fitness of these expressions : that they are not poetical hyperboles , or random expressions , of great and terrible things in general , but a true account of what hath been , or will be , at that great day of the lord. 't is true , the prophets sometimes use such-like expressions figuratively , for commotions in states and kingdoms , but that is only by way of metaphor and accommodation ; the true basis they stand upon , is that ruine , overthrow , and dissolution of the natural world , which was once at the deluge , and will be again , after another manner , at the general conflagration . as to the new testament , our saviour says , heaven and earth shall pass away , but his words shall not pass away , matth. . . s. paul says , the scheme of this world ; the fashion , form , and composition of it , passeth away , cor. . . and when mention is made of new heavens and a new earth , which both the prophet isaiah , and the apostles s. peter and s. iohn , mention , 't is plainly imply'd that the old ones will be dissolv'd . the same thing is also imply'd , when our saviour speaks of a renascency or regeneration , matt. . . and s. peter , of a restitution of all things , act. . . for what is now , must be abolish'd , before any former order of things can be restor'd or reduc'd . in a word , if there was nothing in scripture concerning this subject , but that discourse of s. peter's , in his d . epistle and d. chapter , concerning the triple order and succession of the heavens and the earth ; past , present , and to come ; that alone wou'd be a conviction and demonstration to me , that this present world will be dissolv'd . you will say , it may be , in the last place , we want still the testimony of natural reason and philosophy to make the evidence compleat . i answer , 't is enough , if they be silent , and have nothing to say to the contrary . here are witnesses , humane and divine , and if none appear against them , we have no reason to refuse their testimony , or to distrust it . philosophy will very readily yield to this doctrine , that all material compositions are dissolvable : and she will not wonder to see that die , which she had seen born ; i mean , this terrestrial world. she stood upon the chaos , and see it row● it self , with difficulty and after many struglings , into the form of an habitable earth : and that form she see broken down again at the deluge ; and can as little hope or expect now , as then , that it should be everlasting and immutable . there would be nothing great or considerable in this inferiour world , if there were not such revolutions of nature . the seasons of the year , and the fresh productions of the spring , are pretty in their way ; but when the great year comes about , with a new order of all things , in the heavens and on the earth , and a new dress of nature throughout all her regions , far more goodly and beautiful than the fairest spring ; this gives a new life to the creation , and shows the greatness of its author . besides , these fatal catastrophes are always a punishment to degenerate mankind , that are overwhelm'd in the ruines of these perishing worlds . and to make nature her self execute the divine vengeance against rebellious creatures , argues both the power and wisdom of that providence that governs all things here below . these things reason and philosophy approve of ; but if you further require that they should shew a necessity of this future destruction of the world , from natural causes , with the time and all other circumstances of this effect ; your demands are unreasonable , seeing these things do not depend solely upon nature . but if you will content your self to know what dispositions there are in nature towards such a change , how it may begin , proceed , and be consummate , under the conduct of providence , be pleased to read the following discourse for your further satisfaction . chap. iii. that the world will be destroy'd by fire , is the doctrine of the ancients , especially of the stoicks . that the same doctrine is more ancient than the greeks , and deriv'd from the barbarick philosophy , and that probably from noah ; the father of all traditionary learning . the same doctrine expresly authoriz'd by revelation , and inroll'd into the sacred canon . that the present world , or the present frame of nature , will be destroy'd , we have already shewn . in what manner this destruction will be , by what force or what kind of fate , must be our next enquiry . the philosophers have always spoken of fire and water , those two unruly elements , as the only causes that can destroy the world , and work our ruine ; and accordingly they say , all the great and fatal revolutions of nature , either past or to come , depend upon the violence of these two ; when they get the mastery , and overwhelm all the rest and the whole earth , in a deluge or conflagration . but as they make these two the destroying elements , so they also make them the purifying elements . and accordingly in their lustrations , or their rites and ceremonies for purging sin , fire and water were chiefly made use of , both amongst the romans , greeks and barbarians . and when these elements over run the world , it is not , they say , for a final destruction of it , but to purge mankind and nature from their impurities . as for purgation by fire and water , the stile of our sacred writings does very much accommodate it self to that sence ; and the holy ghost , who is the great purifier of souls , is compared in his operation upon us , and in our regeneration , to fire or water . and as for the external world , s. peter makes the flood to have been a kind of baptziing or renovation of the world. and s. paul and the prophet malachy make the last fire , to be a purging and re●ining ●ire . but to return to the ancients . the stoicks especially , of all other sects amongst the greeks , have preserved the doctrine of the conflagration , and made it a considerable part of their philosophy , and almost a character of their order . this is a thing so well known that i need not use any citations to prove it . but they cannot pretend to have been the first authors of it neither . for , besides that amongst the greeks themselves , heraclitus and empedocles , more ancient than zeno , the master of the stoicks , taught this doctrine , 't is plainly a branch of the barbarick philosophy , and taken from thence by the greeks . for it is well known that the most ancient and mystick learning amongst the greeks , was not originally their own , but borrowed of the more eastern nations , by orpheus , pythagoras , plato , and many more : who travel'd thither , and traded with the priests for knowledge and philosophy ; and when they got a competent stock , returned home , and set up a school , or a sect , to instruct their country-men . but before we pass to the eastern nations , let us , if you please , compare the roman philosophy upon this subject , with that of the greeks . the romans were a great people , that made a shew of learning , but had little in reality , more than words and rhetorick . their curiosity or emulation in philosophical studies was so little , that it did not make different sects and schools amongst them , as amongst the greeks . i remember no philosophers they had but such as tully , seneca , and some of their poets . and of these lucretius , lucan and ovid , have spoken openly of the conflagration . ovid's verses are well known , esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur , affore tempus , quo mare , quo tellus , correptaque regia coeli ardeat , & mundi moles operosa laboret . a time decreed by fate , at length will come , when heavens and earth and seas shall have their do●m ; a fiery do●m : and nature 's mighty frame shall break , and be dissolv'd into a flame . we see tully's sence upon this matter in scipio's dream . when the old man speaks to his nephew africanus , and shews him from the clouds , this spot of earth , where we live ; he tells him , tho' our actions should be great , and fortune favour them with success , yet there wou'd be no room for any lasting glory in this world ; for the world it self is transient and fugitive . and a deluge or a conflagration , which necessarily happen after certain periods of time , sweep away all records of humane actions . as for seneca , he being a profest stoick , we need not doubt of his opinion in this point . we may add here , if you please , the sibylline verses , which were kept with great religion , in the capitol at rome , and consulted with much ceremony upon solemn occasions . these sibyls were the prophetesses of the gentiles , and tho' their writings now have many spurious additions , yet none doubt but that the conflagration of the world was one of their original prophecies . let us now proceed to the eastern nations . as the romans receiev'd the small skill they had in the sciences , from the greeks ; so the greeks receiv'd their chief mystick learning from the barbarians : that is , from the aegyptians , persians , phoenicians , and other eastern nations : for 't is not only the western or northern people , that they called barbarians , but indeed all nations besides themselves . for that is commonly the vanity of great empires , to uncivilize in a manner all the rest of the world ; and to account all those people barbarous , that are not subject to their dominion . these however , whom they call'd so , were the most ancient people , and had the first learning that was ever heard of after the flood . and amongst these , the aegyptians were as famous as any : whose sentiment in this particular of the conflagration is well known . for plato , who liv'd amongst them several years , tell us in his timaeus , that it was the doctrine of their priests , that the fatal catastrophes of the world were by fire and water . in like manner the persians made their beloved god , fire , at length to consume all things that are capable of being consum'd . for that is said to have been the doctrine of hydaspes , one of their great magi or wise men. as to the phoenicians , i suspect very much that the stoicks had their philosophy from them , and amongst other things the conflagration . we shall take notice of that hereafter . but to comprehend the arabians also , and indians , give me leave to reflect a little upon the story of the phoenix . a story well known , and related by some ancient authors , and is in short this . the phoenix , they say , is a bird in arabia , india , and those eastern parts , single in her kind , never more than one at a time , and very long-liv'd : appearing only at the expiration of the great year , as they call it : and then she makes her self a nest of spices , which being set on fire by the sun , or some other secret power , she hovers upon it , and consumes her self in the flames . but , which is most wonderful , out of these ashes riseth a second phoenix ; so that it is not so much a death as a renovation . i do not doubt but the story is a fable , as to any such kind of bird , single in her species , living and dying , and reviving in that manner : but 't is an apologue , or a fable with an interpretation , and was intended as an emblem of the world : which , after a long age , will be consum'd in the last fire : and from its ashes or remains will arise another world , or a new-form'd heavens and earth . this , i think , is the true mystery of the phoenix , under which symbol the eastern nations preserv'd the doctrine of the conflagration and renovation of the world. they tell somewhat a like story of the eagle , soaring a-loft so near the sun , that by his warmth and enlivening rays , she renews her age and becomes young again . to this the psalmist is thought to allude , psal. . . thy youth shall be renew'd like the eagles : which the chaldee paraphrast renders , in mundo venturo renovabis , sicut aquilae , juventutem tuam . these things to me seem plainly to be symbolical , representing that world to come , which the paraphrast mentions , and the firing of this . and this is after the manner of the eastern wisdom ; which always lov'd to go fine , cleath'd in figures and fancies . and not only the eastern barbarians , but the northern and western also , had this doctrine of the conflagration amongst them . the scythians , in their dispute with the aegyptians about antiquity , argue upon both suppositions , of fire or water , destroying the last world , or beginning this. and in the west , the celts , the most ancient people there , had the same tradition ; for the druids , who were their priests and philosophers , deriv'd , not from the greeks , but of the old race of wise men , that had their learning traditionally , and , as it were , hereditary from the first ages : these , as strabo tells us , gave the world a kind of immortality by repeated renovations ; and the principle that destroy'd it , according to them , was always fire or water . i had forgot to mention in this list , the chaldeans : whose opinion we have from berosus in seneca . they did not only teach the conflagration , but also fixt it to a certain period of time , when there should happen a great conjunction of the planets in cancer . lastly , we may add , to close the account , the modern indian philosophers , the reliques of the old bragmans ; these , as maffeus tells us , declare , that the world will be renew'd , after an universal conflagration . you see of what extent and universality throughout all nations , this doctrine of the conflagration hath been . let us now consider what defects or excesses there are in these ancient opinions , concerning this fate of the world , and how they may be rectified : that we may admit them no further into our belief , than they are warranted by reason , or by the authority of christian religion . the first fault they seem to have committed about this point , is this , that they made these revolutions and renovations of nature , indefinite or endless : as if there would be such a succession of deluges and conflagrations to all eternity . this , the stoicks seem plainly to have asserted , as appears from numenius , philo , simplicius , and others , s. ierome imputes this opinion also to origen : but he does not always hit the ture sence of that father , or is not fair and just in the representation of it . whosoever held this opinion , 't is a manifest errour , and may be easily rectified by the christian revelation ; which teaches us plainly , that there is a final period and consummation of all things that belong to this sublunary or terrestrial world. when the kingdom shall be deliver'd up to the father : and time shall be no more . another errour they committed in this doctrine , is , the identity , or sameness , if i may so say , of the worlds succeeding one another . they are made indeed of the same lump of matter , but they suppos'd them to return also in the same form. and , which is worse , that there would be the same face of humane affairs ; the same persons and the same actions over again ; so as the second world would be but a bare repetition of the former , without any variety or diversity . such a revolution is commonly call'd the platonick year ▪ a period , when all things return to the same posture they had some thousands of years before ; as a play acted over again , upon the same stage , and to the same auditory . this is a groundless and injudicious supposition . for , whether we consider the nature of things , the earth after a dissolution , by fire or by water , could not return into the same form and fashion it had before ; or whether we consider providence , it would no ways suit with the divine wisdom and justice to bring upon the stage again those very scenes , and that very course of humane affairs , which it had so lately condemn'd and destroy'd . we may be assured therefore , that , upon the dissolution of a world , a new order of things , both as to nature and providence , always appears : and what that new order will be , in both respects , after the conflagration , i hope we shall , in the following book , give a satisfactory account . these are the opinions , true or false , of the ancients ; and chiefly of the stoicks , concerning the mystery of the conflagration . it will not be improper to enquire in the last place , how the stoicks came by this doctrine : whether it was their discovery and invention , or from whom they learned it . that it was not their own invention , we have given sufficient ground to believe , by shewing the antiquity of it beyond the times of the stoicks . besides , what a man invents himself , he can give the reasons and causes of it , as things upon which he founded his invention : but the stoicks do not this , but according to the ancient traditional way , deliver the conclusion without proof or premisses . we nam'd heraclitus and empedocles amongst the greeks to have taught this doctrine before the stoicks : and , according to plutarch , hesiod and hesiod and orpheus , authors of the highest antiquity , sung of this last fire , in their philosophick poetry . but i suspect the stoicks had this doctrine from the phoenicians ; for if we enquire into the original of that sect , we shall find that their founder zeno , was a barbarian or semi-barbarian , deriv'd from the phoenicians , as laertius and cicero give an account of him . and the phoenicians had a great share in the oriental knowledge , as we see by sanchoniathon's remains in eusebius . and by their mystical books which suidas mentions , from whence pherecydes , pythagoras his master , had his learning . we may therefore reasonably presume that it might be from his country-men , the phoenicians , that zeno had the doctrine of the conflagration . not that he brought it first into greece , but strongly reviv'd it , and made it almost peculiar to his sect. so much for the stoicks in particular , and the greeks in general . we have also , you see , trac'd these opinions higher , to the first barbarick philosophers : who were the first race of philosophers after the flood . but iosephus tells a formal story of pillars set up by seth , before the flood ; implying the foreknowledge of this fiery destruction of the world , even from the beginning of it . his words are to this effect , give what credit to them you think fit . seth and his fellow students having found out the knowledge of the caelestial bodies , and the order and disposition of the universe ; and having also receiv'd from adam a prophecy , that the world should have a double destruction , one by water , another by fire ; to preserve and transmit their knowledge , in either case , to posterity , they raised two pillars , one of brick , another of stone , and ingrav'd upon them their philosophy and inventions . and one of these pillars , the author says , was standing in syria , even to his time . i do not press the belief of this story ; there being nothing , that i know of , in antiquity sacred or prophane , that gives a joynt testimony with it . and those that set up these pillars , do not seem to me to have understood the nature of the deluge or conflagration ; if they thought a pillar , either of brick or stone , would be secure , in those great dissolutions of the earth . but we have pursued this doctrine high enough without the help of these ante-diluvian antiquities : namely , to the earliest people and the first appearances of wisdom after the flood . so that , i think , we may justly look upon it as the doctrine of noah , and of his immediate posterity . and as that is the highest source of learning to the present world ; so we should endeavour to carry our philosophical traditions to that original : for i cannot perswade my self but that they had amongst them , even in those early days , the main strokes or conclusions of the best philosophy : or , if i may so say , a form of sound doctrine concerning nature and providence . of which matter , if you will allow me a short digression , i will speak my thoughts in a few words . in those first ages of the world after the flood , when noah and his children peopled the earth again , as he gave them precepts of morality and piety for the conduct of their manners ; which are usually call'd praecepta noachidarum , the precepts of noah , frequently mention'd both by the jews and christians : so also he deliver'd to them , at least , if we judge aright , certain maxims or conclusions about providence , the state of nature , and the fate of the world : and these , in proportion , may be call'd dogmata noachidarum , the doctrines of noah , and his children . which made a system of philosophy or secret knowledge amongst them , deliver'd by tradition from father to son ; but especially preserv'd amongst their priests and sacred persons , or such others as were addicted to contemplation . this i take to be more ancient than moses himself , or the iewish nation . but it would lead me too far out of my way , to set down in this place , the reasons of my judgment . let it be sufficient to have pointed only at this fountain head of knowledge , and so return to our argument . we have heard , as it were , a cry of fire , throughout all antiquity , and throughout all the people of the earth . but those alarums are sometimes false , or make a greater noise than the thing deserves . for my part , i never trust antiquity barely upon its own account , but always require a second witness either from nature , or from scripture : what the voice of nature is , we shall hear all along in the following treatise : let us then examine at present , what testimony the prophets and apostles give to this ancient doctrine of the conflagration of the world. the prophets see the world a-fire at a distance and more imperfectly , as a brightness in the heavens , rather than a burning flame : but s. peter describes it , as if he had been standing by , and seen the heavens and earth in a red fire : heard the cracking flames and the tumbling mountains : pet. . . in the day of the lord , the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat : the earth also , and the works that are therein , shall be burnt up . then , after a pious ejaculation , he adds , ver. . looking for and hastening the coming of the day of god , wherein the heavens , being on fire , shall be dissolved ; and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . this is as lively , as a man could express it , if he had the dreadful spectacle before his eyes . s. peter had before taught the same doctrine ( ver . , , . ) but in a more philosophick way ; describing the double fate of the world , by water and fire , with relation to the nature and constitution of either world , past or present . the heavens and the earth were of old , consisting of water and by water : whereby , the world that then was , being overflow'd with water , perish'd . but the heavens and the earth which are now , by the same word are kept in store , reserved unto fire against the day of iudgment , and perdition of ungodly , or atheistical men . this testimony of s. peter being full , direct , and explicit , will give light and strength to several other passages of scripture , where the same thing is exprest obscurely or by allusion . as when s. paul says , the fire shall try every man's work in that day . and our saviour says , the tares shall be burnt in the fire , at the end of the world. accordingly it is said , both by the apostles and prophets , that god will come to judgment in fire . s. paul to the thessalonians , promiseth the persecuted righteous , rest and ease , when the lord shall be revealed from heaven , with his mighty angels , in flaming fire : taking vengeance on them that know not god , &c. and so to the hebrews s. paul says , that for wilful apostates there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin , but a certain fearful looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , which shall devour the adversaries , or enemies of god. and in the th . chapter , he alludes to the same thing , when after he had spoken of shaking the heavens and the earth once more , he exhorteth , as s. peter does upon the same occasion , to reverence and godly fear , for our god is a consuming fire . in like manner the prophets , when they speak of destroying the wicked , and the enemies of god and christ , at the end of the world , represent it as a destruction by fire . psalm the th . . upon the wicked the lord shall rain coals , fire , and brimstone , and a burning tempest : this shall be the portion of their cup. and psal. . . our god shall come , and will not be slow : a fire shall devour before him , and it shall be very tempestuous round about him . and in the beginning of those two triumphal psalms , the sixty-eighth , and ninety-seventh , we see plain allusions to this coming of the lord in fire . the other prophets speak in the same style , of a fiery indignation against the wicked , in the day of the lord : as in isaiah . . for behold the lord will come with fire , and with his chariots like a whirl-wind , to render his anger with fury , and his rebuke with flames of fire . and in daniel , ( c. . , . ) the ancient of days is plac'd upon his seat of judgment , cover'd in flames . i beheld till the thrones were set , and the ancient of days did sit , whose garment was white as snow , and the hair of his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame , his wheels as burning fire . a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him : thousand thousands ministred unto him , and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the judgment was set , and the books were opened . the prophet malachy ( c. . . ) describes the day of the lord to the same effect , and in like colours ; behold the day cometh , that shall burn as an oven : and all the proud , yea , and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble ; and the day that cometh shall burn them up , saith the lord of hosts , that it shall leave them neither root nor branch . and that nature her self , and the earth shall suffer in that fire , the prophet zephany tells us , ( c. . . ) all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie . lastly , this consumption of the earth by fire , even to the foundations of it , is exprest livelily by moses in his song , deut. . . a fire is kindled in my anger , and shall burn unto the lowest hell : and shall consume the earth with her increase , and set on fire the foundations of the mountains . if we reflect upon these witnesses ; and especially the first and last , moses and s. peter : at what a great distance of time they writ their prophecies , and yet how well they agree , we must needs conclude that they were acted by the same spirit : and a spirit that see thorough all the ages of the world , from the beginning to the end . these sacred writers were so remote in time from one another , that they could not confer together , nor conspire , either in a false testimony , or to make the same prediction . but being under one common influence and inspiration , which is always consistent with it self , they have dictated the same things , tho' at two thousand years distance sometimes from one another . this , besides many other considerations , makes their authority incontestable . and upon the whole account , you see , that the doctrine of the future conflagration of the world , having run through all ages and nations , is , by the joynt consent of the prophets and apostles , adopted into the christian faith. chap. iv. concerning the time of the conflagration , and the end of the world. what the astronomers say upon this subject , and upon what they ground their calculations ; the true notion of the great year , or of the platonick year , stated and explained . having , in this first section , laid a sure foundation as to the subject of our discourse ; the truth and certainty of the conflagration whereof we are to treat ; we will now proceed to enquire after the time , causes , and manner of it . we are naturally more inquisitive after the end of the world , and the time of that fatal revolution , than after the causes of it : for these , we know , are irresistible , whensoever they come , and therefore we are only sollicitous that they should not overtake us , or our near posterity . the romans thought they had the fates of their empire in the books of the sibyls , which were kept by the magistrates as a sacred treasure . we have also our prophetical books , more sacred and more infallible than theirs , which contain the fate of all the kingdoms of the earth , and of that glorious kingdom that is to succeed . and of all futurities , there is none can be of such importance to be enquired after , as this last scene and close of all humane affairs . if i thought it possible to determine the time of the conflagration from the bare intuition of natural causes , i would not treat of it in this place , but reserve it to the last ; after we had brought into view all those causes , weigh'd their force , and examin'd how and when they would concur to produce this great effect . but i am satisfied that the excitation and concourse of those causes does not depend upon nature only ; and tho' the causes may be sufficient when all united , yet the union of them at such a time , and in such a manner , i look upon as the effect of a particular providence : and therefore no foresight of ours , or inspection into nature can discover to us the time of this conjuncture . this method therefore of prediction from natural causes being laid aside as impracticable , all other methods may be treated of in this place , as being independent upon any thing that is to follow in the treatise ; and it will be an ease to the argument to discharge it of this part , and clear the way by degrees to the principal point , which is , the causes and manner of the conflagration . some have thought it a kind of impiety in a christian to enquire after the end of the world ; because of that check which our saviour gave his disciples , when , after his resurrection , enquiring of him about the time of his kingdom , he answer'd , it is not for you to know the times or the seasons , which the father hath put in his own power . and , before his death , when he was discoursing of the consummation of all things , he told them expresly , that tho' there should be such and such previous signs as he had mention'd , yet , of that day and hour knoweth no man. no , not the angels that are in heaven , but my father only . be it so , that the disciples deserv'd a reprimand , for desiring to know , by a particular revelation from our saviour , the state of future times ; when many other things were more necessary for their instruction , and for their ministery . be it also admitted , that the angels , at that distance of time , could not see thorow all events to the end of the world ; it does not at all follow from thence that they do not know it now ; when , in the course of sixteen hundred years , many things are come to pass , that may be marks and directions to them to make a judgment of what remains , and of the last period of all things . however there will be no danger in our enquiries about this matter , seeing they are not so much to discover the certainty , as the uncertainty of that period , as to humane knowledge . let us therefore consider what methods have been used , by those that have been curious and busie to measure the duration of the world. the stoicks tell us , when the sun and the stars have drunk up the sea , then the earth shall be burnt . a very fair prophecy : but how long will they be a drinking ? for unless we can determine that , we cannot determine when this combustion will begin . many of the ancients thought that the stars were nourish'd by the vapours of the ocean and of the moist earth : and when that nourishment was spent , being of a fiery nature , they would prey upon the body of the earth it self , and consume that , after they had consum'd the water . this is old-fashion'd philosophy , and now , that the nature of those bodies is better known , will scarce pass for currant . 't is true , we must expect some dispositions towards the combustion of the world , from a great drought and desiccation of the earth : but this helps us nothing on our way ; for the question still returns , when will this immoderate drought or dryness happen ? and that 's us ill to resolve as the former . therefore , as i said before , i have no hopes of deciding the question by physiology or natural causes ; let us then look up from the earth to the heavens , to the astronomers and the prophets ; these think they can define the age and duration of the world ; the one by their art , and the other by inspiration , we begin with the astronomers : whose calculations are founded either upon the aspects and configurations of the planets , or upon the revolutions of the fixt stars : or lastly , upon that which they call annus magnus , or the great year , whatsoever that notion proves to be when it is rightly interpreted . as to the planets , be●sus tells us , the chaldeans suppose deluges to proceed from a great conjunction of the planets in capricorn : and from a like coniunction in the opposite sign of cancer , the conflagration will ensue . so that if we compute by the astronomical tables how long it will be to such a conjunction , we find at the same time how long it will be to the conflagration . this doctrine of the chaldeans some christian authors have owned , and followed the same principles and method . if these authors would deal fairly with mankind , they should shew us some connexion betwixt these causes and the effects which they make consequent upon them . for 't is an unreasonable thing to require a man's assent to a proposition , where he sees no dependence or connexion of terms ; unless it come by revelation , or from an infallible authority . if you say , the conflagration will be at the first great conjunction of the planets in cancer , and i say it will be at the next eclipse of the moon , if you shew no more reason for your assertion than i for mine , and neither of us pretend to revelation or infallibility , we may justly expect to be equally credited . pray what reason can you give why the planets , when they meet , should plot together , to set on fire their fellow-planet , the earth , who never did them any harm ? but now there is a plausible reason for my opinion ; for the moon , when eclips'd may think herself affronted by the earth , interposing rudely betwixt her and the sun , and leaving her to grope her way in the dark ; she therefore may justly take her revenge as she can . but you 'll say , 't is not in the power of the moon to set the earth on fire , if she had malice enough to do it . no , nor , say i , is it in the power of the other planets , that are far more distant from the earth than the moon , and as stark dull lumps of earth , as she is . the plain truth is , the planets are so many earths ; and our earth is as much a planet as the brightest of them . 't is carried about the sun with the same common stream , and shines with as much lustre to them , as they do to us : neither can they do any more harm to it , than it can do to them . 't is now well known , that the planets are dark opake bodies , generally made up of earth and water , as our globe is ; and have no force or action , but that of reverberating the light which the sun casts upon them . this blind superstitious fear or reverence for the stars , had its original from the ancient idolaters ; they thought them gods , and that they had domination over humane affairs . we do not indeed worship them , as they did ; but some men retain still the same opinion of their vertues , of their rule and influence upon us and our affairs , which was the ground of their worship . 't is full time now to sweep away these cobwebs of superstition , these reliques of paganism . i do not see how we are any more concern'd in the postures of the planets , than in the postures of the clouds ; and you may as well build an art of prediction or divination upon the one as the other . they must not know much of the philosophy of the heavens , or little consider it , that think the fate , either of single persons , or of the whole earth , can depend upon the aspects or figur'd dances of those bodies . but you 'll say , it may be , tho' no reason can be given for such effects , yet experience does attest the truth of them . in the first place , i answer , no experience can be produc'd for this effect we are speaking of , the conflagration of the world. secondly , experience fallaciously recorded , or wholly in favour of one side , is no proof . if a publick register was kept of all astrological predictions , and of all the events that followed upon them , right or wrong , agreeing or disagreeing , i could willingly refer the cause to the determination of such a register , and such experience . but that which they call experience , is so stated , that if one prediction of ten , hits right or near right , it shall make more noise , and be more taken notice of , than all the nine that are false . just as in a lottery , where many blanks are drawn for one prize , yet these make all the noise , and those are forgotten . if any one be so lucky as to draw a good lot , then the trumpet sounds , and his name is register'd , and he tells his good fortune to every body he meets : whereas those that lose , go silently away with empty pockets , and are asham'd to tell their losses . such a thing is the register of astrological experiences ; they record what makes for their credit , but drop all blank instances , that would discover the vanity or cheat of their art. so much for the planets . they have also a pretended calculation of the end of the world from the fixt stars and the firmament . which in short is this : they suppose these bodies , besides the hurry of their diurnal motion from east to west , quite round the earth in four and twenty hours , to have another retrograde motion , from west to east ; which is more slow and leisurely ; and when they have finish'd the circle of this retrogradation , and come up again to the same place from whence they started at the beginning of the world , then this course of nature will be at an end ; and either the heavens will cease from all motion , or a new set of motions will be put a foot , and the world begin again . this is a bundle of fictions tied up in a pretty knot ▪ in the first place , there is no such thing as a solid firmament , in which the stars are fixt , as nails in a board . the heavens are as fluid as our air , and the higher we go , the more thin and subtle is the ethereal matter . then , the fixt stars are not all in one surface , as they seem to us , nor at an equal distance from the earth , but are plac'd in several orbs higher and higher ; there being infinite room in the great deep of the heavens , every way , for innumerable stars and spheres behind one another , to fill and beautify the immense spaces of the universe . lastly , the fixt stars have no motion common to them all , nor any motion singly , unless upon their own centres ; and therefore , never leaving their stations , they can never return to any common station , which they would suppose them to have had at the beginning of the world. so as this period they speak of , whereby they would measure the duration of the world , is meerly imaginary , and hath no foundation in the true nature or motion of the celestial bodies . but in the third place , they speak of an annus magnus , a great year ; a revolution so call'd , whatsoever it is , that is of the same extent with the length of the world. this notion , i confess , is more ancient and universal , and therefore i am the more apt to believe that it is not altogether groundless . but the difficulty is , to find out the true notion of this great year , what is to be understood by it , and then of what length it is . they all agree that it is a time of some grand ins●auration of all things , or a restitution of the heavens and the earth to their former state ; that is , to the state and posture they had at the beginning of the world ; such therefore as will reduce the golden age , and that happy state of nature wherein things were at first . if so , if these be the marks and properties of this revolution , which is call'd the great year , we need not go so far to find the true notion and interpretation of it . those that have read the first part of this theory , may remember that in the second book we gave an account what the posture of the earth was at the beginning of the world , and what were the consequences of that posture , a perpetual spring and equinox throughout all the earth : and if the earth was restor'd again to that posture and situation , all that is imputed to the great year , would immediately follow upon it , without ever disturbing or moving the fix'd stars , firmament , or planets ; and yet at the same time all these three would return or be restor'd to the same posture they had at the beginning of the world ; so as the whole character of the great year would be truly fulfill'd , tho' not in that way which they imagin'd ; but in another , more compendious , and of easier conception . my meaning is this , if the axis of the earth was rectified , and set parallel with the axis of the ecliptick , upon which the planets , firmament and fix'd stars are suppos'd to move , all things would be as they were at first ; a general harmony and conformity of all the motions of the universe would presently appear , such , as they say , was in the golden age , before any disorder came into the natural or moral world. as this is an easie , so i do not doubt , but it is a true account of that which was originally call'd the great year , or the great instauration ; which nature will bring to pass in this simple method , by rectifying the axis of the earth , without those operose revolutions , which some astronomers have fansied . but however , this account being admitted , how will it help us to define what the age and duration of the world will be ? 't is true , many have undertaken to tell us the length of this great year , and consequently of the world ; but , besides that their accounts are very different , and generally of an extravagant length , if we had the true account , it would not assure us when the world would end ; because we do not know when it did begin , or what progress we have already made in the line of time. for i am satisfied , the chronology of the world , whether sacred or prophane , is lost ; till providence shall please to retrieve it by some new discovery . as to prophane chronology , or that of the heathens , the greeks and the romans knew nothing above the olympiads ; which fell short many ages of the deluge , much more of the beginning of the world. and the eastern barbarous nations , as they disagreed amongst themselves , so generally they run the origin of the world to such a prodigious height , as is neither agreeable to faith , nor reason . as to sacred chronology , 't is well known , that the difference there is betwixt the greek , hebrew , and samaritan copies of the bible , makes the age of the world altogether undetermin'd : and there is no way yet found out , how we may certainly discover which of the three copies is most authentick , and consequently what the age of the world is , upon a true computation . seeing therefore we have no assurance how long the world hath stood already , neither could we be assur'd how long it hath to stand , though , by this annus magnus , or any other way , the total sum , or whole term of its duration was truly known . i am sorry to see the little success we have had in our first search after the end of the world , from astronomical calculations . but 't is an useful piece of knowledge to know the bounds of our knowledge ; that so we may not spend our time and thoughts about things that lie out of our reach . i have little or no hopes of resolving this point by the light of nature , and therefore it only remains now to enquire , whether providence hath made it known by any sort of prophecy or revelation . which shall be the subject of the following chapter . chap. v. concerning prophecies that determine the end of the world ; of what order soever , prophane or sacred ; iewish or christian. that no certain judgment can be made from any of them , at what distance we are now from the conflagration . the bounds of humane knowledge are so narrow , and the desire of knowing so vast and illimited , that it often puts mankind upon irregular methods of inlarging their knowledge . this hath made them find out arts of commerce with evil spirits , to be instructed by them in such events as they could not of themselves discover . we meddle not with those mysteries of iniquity : but what hath appear'd under the notion of divine prophecy , relating to the chronology of the world : giving either the whole extent of it , or certain marks of its expiration : these we purpose to examine in this place . how far any thing may , or may not , be concluded from them , as to the resolution of our problem , how long the world will last . amongst the heathens i do not remember any prophecies of this nature , except the sibylline oracles , as they are usually call'd . the ancient eastern philosophers have left us no account that i can call to mind , about the time of this fatality . they say when the phoenix returns we must expect the conflagration to follow ; but the age of the phoenix they make as various and uncertain , as they do the computation of their great year : which two things are indeed one and the same in effect . some of them , i confess , mention six thousand years for the whole age of the world : which being the famous prophecy of the iews , we shall speak to it largely hereafter : and reduce to that head what broken traditions remain amongst the heathens of the same thing . as to the sibyline oracles , which were so much in reputation amongst the greeks and romans , they have been tamper'd with so much , and chang'd so often , that they are become now of little authority . they seem to have divided the duration of the world into ten ages , and the last of these they make a golden age , a state of peace , righteousness and perfection : but seeing they have not determin'd , in any definite numbers , what the length of every age will be , nor given us the summ of all , we cannot draw any conclusion from this account as to the point in question before us . but must proceed to the jewish and christian oracles . the iews have a remarkable prophecy , which expresseth both the whole and the parts of the world's duration . the world , they say , will stand six thousand years : two thousand before the law , two thousand under the law , and two thousand under the messiah . this prophecy they derive from elias ; but there were two of the name , elias the thesbite , and elias the rabbin , or cabbalist : and 't is suppos'd to belong immediately to the latter of these . yet this does not hinder in my opinion , but that it might come originally from the former elias , and was preserv'd in the school of this elias the rabbin , and first made publick by him . or he added , it may be , that division of the time into three parts , and so got a title to the whole . i cannot easily imagine that a doctor that liv'd two hundred years or thereabouts , before christ , when prophecy had ceas'd for some ages amongst the iews , should take upon him to dictate a prophecy about the duration of the world , unless he had been supported by some antecedent cabbalistical tradition : which being kept more secret before , he took the liberty to make publick , and so was reputed the author of the prophecy . as many philosophers amongst the greeks , were the reputed authors of such doctrines as were much more ancient than themselves : but they were the publishers of them in their country , or the revivers of them after a long silence ; and so , by forgetful posterity , got the honour of the first invention . you will think , it may be , the time is too long and the distance too great betwixt elias the thesbite , and this elias the rabbin , for a tradition to subsist all the while , or be preserv'd with any competent integrity . but it appears from s. iude's epistle , that the prophecies of enoch , ( who liv'd before the floud ) relating to the day of judgment and the end of the world , were extant in his time , either in writing or by tradition : and the distance betwixt enoch and s. iude was vastly greater than betwixt the two elias's . nor was any fitter to be inspir'd with that knowledge , or to tell the first news of that fatal period , than the old prophet elias , who is to come again and bring the alarum of the approaching conflagration . but however this conjecture may prove as to the original author of this prophecy , the prophecy it self concerning the sexmillennial duration of the world , is very much insisted upon by the christian fathers . which yet i believe is not so much for the bare authority of the tradition , as because they thought it was founded in the history of the six days creation , and the sabbath succeeding : as also in some other typical precepts and usages in the law of moses . but before we speak of that , give me leave to name some of those fathers to you , that were of this judgment , and supposed the great sabbatism would succeed after the world had stood six thousand years . of this opinion was s. barnabas in his catholick epistle , ch . . where he argues that the creation will be ended in six thousand years , as it was finish'd in six days : every day according to the sacred and mystical account , being a thousand years . of the same judgment is s. irenaeus , both as to the conclusion and the reason of it . he saith , the history of the creation in six days , is a narration as to what is past , and a prophecy of what is to come . as the work was said to be consummated in six days , and the sabbath to be the seventh ; so the consummation of all things will be in six thousand years , and then the great sabbatism to come on in the blessed reign of christ. hippolitus martyr , disciple of irenaeus , is of the same judgment , as you may see in photius , ch . . lactantius in his divine institutions , l. . c. . gives the very same account of the state and continuance of the world , and the same proofs for it . and so does s. cyprian , in his exhortation to martyrdom , ch . . s ierome more than once declares himself of the same opinion ; and s. austin , tho' he wavers and was doubtful as to the millennium , or reign of christ upon earth , yet he receives this computation without hesitancy , and upon the foremention'd grounds . so iohannes damascenus de fide orthodoxâ , takes seven millennaries for the entire space of the world , from the creation to the general resurrection , the sabbatism being included . and that this was a received and approv'd opinion in early times , we may collect from the author of the questions and answers ad orthodoxos in iustin martyr . who giving an answer to that enquiry about the six thousand-years term of the world , says , we may conjecture from many places of scripture , that those are in the right , that say six thousand years is the time prefixt for the duration of this present frame of the world. these authors i have examin'd my self : but there are many others brought in confirmation of this opinion : as s. hilary , anastasius sinaita , sanctus gaudentius , q. iulius hilarion , iunilius africanus , isidorus hispalensis , cassiodorus , gregorius magnus , and others , which i leave to be examin'd by those that have curiosity and leisure to do it . in the mean time it must be confest that many of these fathers were under a mistake in one respect , in that they generally thought the world was near an end in their time . an errour , which we need not take pains to confute now ; seeing we , who live twelve hundred or fourteen hundred years after them , find the world still in being , and likely to continue so for some considerable time . but it is easie to discern whence their mistake proceeded : not from this prophecy alone , but because they reckon'd this prophecy according to the chronology of the septuagint : which setting back the beginning of the world many ages beyond the hebrew , these six thousand years were very near expir'd in the time of those fathers ; and that made them conclude that the world was very near an end . we will make no reflections , in this place , upon that chronology of the septuagint , lest it should too much interrupt the thred of our discourse . but it is necessary to shew how the fathers grounded this computation of six thousand years , upon scripture . 't was chiefly , as we suggested before , upon the hexameron , or the creation finish'd in six days , and the sabbath ensuing . the sabbath , they said , was a type of the sabbatism , that was to follow at the end of the world , according to s. paul to the hebrews ; and then by analogy and consequence , the six days preceding the sabbath , must note the space and duration of the world. if therefore 〈◊〉 could discover how much a day is reckon'd for , in this mystical computation , the sum of the six days would be easily found out . and they think , that according to the psalmist , ( psal. . . ) and s. peter , ( epist. . . ) a day may be estimated a thousand years ; and consequently six days must be counted six thousand years , for the duration of the world. this is their interpretation , and their inference : but it must be acknowledged , that there is an essential weakness in all typical and allegorical argumentations , in comparison of literal . and th●s being allow'd in diminution of the proof , we may be bold to say , that nothing yet appears , either in nature , or scripture , or humane affairs , repugnant to this supposition of six thousand years : which hath antiquity , and the authority of the fathers , on its side . we proceed now to the christian prophecies concerning the end of the world. i do not mention those in daniel , because i am not satisfied that any there ( excepting that of the fifth kingdom it self ) extend so far . but in the apocalypse of s. iohn , which is the last revelation we are to expect , there are several prophecies that reach to the consummation of this world , and the first resurrection . the seven seals , the seven trumpets , the seven vials , do all terminate upon that great period . but they are rather historical prophecies than chronological ; they tell us , in their language , the events , but do not measure or express the time wherein they come to pass . others there are that may be call'd chronological , as the treading under foot the holy city , forty and two months , apoc. . . the witnesses opposing antichrist , one thousand two hundred and sixty days , apoc. . . the flight of the woman into the wilderness , for the same number of days , or for a time , times , and half a time , apoc. . . & . and lastly , the war of the beast against the saints , forty two months , apoc. . . these all , you see , express a time for their completion ; and all the same time , if i be not mistaken : but they do not reach to the end of the world. or if some of them did reach so far , yet because we do not certainly know where to fix their beginning , we must still be at a loss , when , or in what year they will expire . as for instance , if the reign of the beast , or the preaching of the witnesses be years , as is reasonably suppos'd ; yet if we do not know certainly when this reign , or this preaching begun , neither can we tell when it will end . and the epocha's or beginnings of these prophecies are so differently calculated , and are things of so long debate , as makes the discussion of them altogether improper for this place . yet it must be confest , that the best conjectures that can be made concerning the approaching end of the world , must be taken from a judicious examination of these points : and according as we gather up the prophecies of the apocalypse , in a successive completion , we see how by degrees we draw nearer and nearer to the conclusion of all . but till some of these enlightning prophecies be accomplish'd , we are as a man that awakes in the night , all is dark about him , and he knows not how far the night is spent : but if he watch till the light appears , the first glimpses of that will resolve his doubts . we must have a little patience and , i think , but a little ; still eyeing those prophecies of the resurrection of the witnesses , and the depression of antichrist : till by their accomplishment , the day dawn , and the clouds begin to change their colour . then we shall be able to make a near guess , when the sun of righteousness will arise . so much for prophecies . there are also signs , which are look'd upon us forerunners of the coming of our saviour : and therefore may give us some direction how to judge of the distance or approach of that great day . thus many of the fathers thought the coming of antichrist would be a sign to give the world notice of its approaching end . but we may easily see , by what hath been noted before , what it was that led the fathers into that mistake . they thought their six thousand years were near an end , as they truly were , according to that chronology they followed : and therefore they concluded the reign of antichrist must be very short , whensoever he came , and that he could not come long before the end of the world. but we are very well assur'd from the revelation of saint iohn , that the reign of antichrist is not to be so short and transient ; and from the prospect and history of christendom , that he hath been already upon his throne many hundreds of years . therefore this sign wholly falls to the ground ; unless you will take it from the fall of antichrist , rather than from his first entrance . others expect the coming of elias to give warning of that day , and prepare the way of the lord. i am very willing to admit that elias will come , according to the sence of the prophet malachi , but he will not come with observation , no more than he did in the person of iohn the baptist ; he will not bear the name of elias , nor tell us he is the man that went to heaven in a fiery chariot , and is now come down again to give us warning of the last fire . but some divine person may appear before the second coming of our saviour , as there did before his first coming , and by giving a new light and life to the christian doctrine , may dissipate the mists of error , and abolish all those little controversies amongst good men , and the divisions and animosities that spring from them ; enlarging their spirits by greater discoveries , and uniting them all in the bonds of love and charity , and in the common study of truth and perfection . such an elias , the prophet seems to point at ; and may be come , and be the great peace-maker and preparer of the ways of the lord. but at present , we cannot from this sign make any judgment when the world will end . another sign preceeding the end of the world , is , the conversion of the iews ; and this is a wonderful sign indeed . s. paul seems expresly to affirm it , rom. . , . but it is differently understood , either of their conversion only , or of their restoration to their own countrey , liberties and dominion . the prophets bear hard upon this sence sometimes , as you may see in isaiah , ezekiel , hosea , amos. and to the same purpose the ancient promise of moses is interpreted , deut. . yet this seems to be a thing very unconceivable ; unless we suppose the ten tribes to be still in some hidden corner of the world , from whence they may be conducted again into their own countrey , as once out of egypt , by a miraculous providence , and establish'd there . which being known , will give the alarum to all the other iews in the world , and make an universal confluence to their old home . then our saviour by an extraordinary appearance to them , as once to s. paul : and by prophets rais'd up amongst them for that purpose , may convince them that he is the true messiah , and convert them to the christian faith ; which will be no more strange , than was the first conversion of the gentile world. but if we be content with a conversion of the iews , without their restoration ; and of those two tribes only which are now disperst throughout the christian world and other known parts of the earth : that these should be converted to the christian faith , and incorporated into the christian commonwealth , losing their national character and distinction . if this , i say , will satisfie the prophecies , it is not a thing very difficult to be conceived . for when the world is reduc'd to a better and purer state of christianity , and that idolatry in a great measure , remov'd , which gave the greatest scandal to the iews , they will begin to have better thoughts of our religion , and be dispos'd to a more ingenuous and unprejudic'd examination of their prophecies concerning the messiah : god raising up men amongst them of divine and enlarged spirits , lovers of truth more than of any particular sect or opinion ; with light to discern it , and courage to profess it . lastly , it will be a cogent argument upon them , to see the age of the world so far spent , and no appearance yet of their long expected messiah . so far spent , i say , that there is no room left , upon any computation whatsoever , for the oeconomy of a messiah yet to come . this will make them reflect more carefully and impartially upon him whom the christians propose , iesus of nazareth , whom their fathers crucified at ierusalem . upon the miracles he wrought , in his life and after his death : and upon the wonderful propagation of his doctrine throughout the world , after his ascension . and lastly , upon the desolation of ierusalem , upon their own scatter'd and forlorn condition , foretold by that prophet , as a judgment of god upon an ungrateful and wicked people . this i have said to state the case of the conversion of the iews , which will be a sign of the approaching reign of christ. but alas , what appearance is there of this conversion in our days , or what judgment can we make from a sign that is not yet come to pass ? 't is ineffectual as to us , but may be of use to posterity . yet even to them it will not determine at what distance they are from the end of the world , but be a mark only that they are not far from it . there will be signs also , in those last days , in the heavens , and in the earth , and in the sea , forerunners of the conflagration ; as the obscuration of the sun and moon , earth-quakes , roarings of the troubled sea , and such like disorders in the natural world. 't is true , but these are the very pangs of death , and the strugglings of nature just before her dissolution , and it will be too late then to be aware of our ruine when it is at the door . yet these being signs or prodigies taken notice of by scripture , we intend , god willing ▪ after we have explained the causes and manner of the conflagration , to give an account also whence these unnatural commotions will proceed , that are the beginnings or immediate introductions to the last fire . thus we have gone through the prophecies and signs that concern the last day and the last fate of the world. and how little have we learned from them as to the time of that great revolution ? prophecies rise sometimes with an even gradual light , as the day riseth upon the horizon : and sometimes break out suddenly like a fire , and we are not aware of their approach till we see them accomplish'd . those that concern the end of the world are of this latter sort to unobserving men ; but even to the most observing , there will still be a latitude ; we must not expect to calculate the coming of our saviour like an eclipse , to minutes and half-minutes . there are times and seasons which the father hath put in his own power . if it was designed to keep these things secret , we must not think to out-wit providence , and from the prophecies that are given us , pick out a discovery that was not intended we should ever make . it is determin'd in the councils of heaven just how far we shall know these events before hand , and with what degree of certainty : and with this we must be content whatsoever it is . the apocalypse of s. iohn is the last prophetical declaration of the will of god , and contains the fate of the christian religion to the end of the world , its purity , degeneracy , and reviviscency . the head of this degeneracy is call'd the beast , the false prophet , the whore of babylon , in prophetical terms : and in an ecclesiastical term is commonly call'd antichrist . those that bear testimony against this degeneracy , are call'd the witnesses : who , after they have been a long time , in a mean and persecuted condition , are to have their resurrection and ascension : that is , be advanc'd to power and authority . and this resurrection of the witnesses and depression of antichrist , is that which will make the great turn of the world to righteousness , and the great crisis whereby we may judge of its drawing to an end . 't is true , there are other marks , as the passing away of the second woe : which is commonly thought to be the ottoman empire : and the effusion of the vials . the first of these will be indeed a very conspicuous mark , if it follow upon the resurrection of the witnesses , as by the prophecy it seems to do . but as to the vials , tho' they do plainly reach in a series to the end of the world , i am not satisfied with any exposition i have yet met with , concerning their precise time on contents . in a word , ' tho the sum and general contents of a prophecy be very intelligible , yet the application of it to time and persons may be very lubricous . there must be obscurity in a prophecy , as well as shadow in a picture . all its lines must not stand in a full light . for if prophecies were open and bare-fac'd as to all their parts and circumstances , they would check and obstruct the course of humane affairs ; and hinder , if it was possible , their own accomplishment . modesty and sobriety are in all things commendable , but in nothing more than in the explication of these sacred mysteries ; and we have seen so many miscarry by a too close and particular application of them , that we ought to dread the rock about which we see so many shipwrecks . he that does not err above a century in calculation the last period of time , from what evidence we have at present , hath , in my opinion , cast up his accounts very well . but the scenes will change fast towards the evening of this long day , and when the sun is near setting , they will more easily compute how far he hath to run . chap. vi. concerning the causes of the conflagration . the difficulty of conceiving how this earth can be set on fire . with a general answer to that difficulty . two suppos'd causes of the conflagration , by the sun 's drawing nearer to the earth , or the earth's throwing out the central fire , examin'd and rejected . we have now made our way clear to the principal point , the causes of the conflagration : how the heavens and the earth will be set on fire , what materials are prepar'd , or what train of causes , for that purpose . the ancients , who have kept us company pretty well thus far , here quite desert us . they deal more in conclusions than causes , as is usual in all traditional learning . and the stoicks themselves , who inculcate so much the doctrine of the conflagration , and make the strength of it such as to dissolve the earth into a fiery chaos , are yet very short and superficial in their explications , how this shall come to pass . the latent seeds of fire , they say , shall every where be let loose , and the element will prevail over all the rest , and transform every thing into its own nature . but these are general things that give little satisfaction to inquisitive persons . neither do the modern authors that treat of the same subject , relieve us in this particular : they are willing to suppose the conflagration a superficial effect , that so they may excuse themselves the trouble of enquiring after causes . 't is , no doubt , in a sort , supernatural : and so the deluge was : yet moses sets down the causes of the deluge , the rains from above , and the disruption of the abyss . so there must be treasures of fire provided against that day , by whose eruption this second deluge will be brought upon the earth . to state the case fairly , we must first represent the difficulty of setting the earth on fire : tie the knot , before we loose it ; that so we may the better judge whether the causes that shall be brought into view , may be sufficient to overcome so great opposition . the difficulty , no doubt , will be chiefly from the great quantity of water that is about our globe ; whereby nature seems to have made provision against any invasion by fire , and secur'd us from that enemy more than any other . we see half of the surface of the earth cover'd with the seas : whose chanel is of a vast depth and capacity . besides innumerable rivers , great and small , that water the face of the dry land , and drench it with perpetual moisture . then within the bowels of the earth , there are store-houses of subterraneous waters : which are as a reserve , in case the ocean and the rivers should be overcome . neither is water our only security , for the hard rocks and stony mountains , which no fire can bite upon , are set in long ranges upon the continents and islands : and must needs give a stop to the progress of that furious enemy , in case he should attack us . lastly , the earth it self is not combustible in all its parts . 't is not every soyl that is fit fewel for the fire . clay , and mire , and such like soyls will rather choak and stifle it , than help it on its way . by these means one would think the body of the earth secur'd ; and tho' there may be partial fires , or inu●●lations of fire , here and there , in particular regions , yet there cannot be an universal fire throughout the earth . at least one would hope for a safe retreat towards the poles , where there is nothing but snow , and ice , and bitter cold . these regions sure are in no danger to be burnt , whatsoever becomes of the other climates of the earth . this being the state and condition of the present earth , one would not imagine by these preparations , 't was ever intended that it should perish by an universal fire . but such is often the method of providence , that the exteriour face of things looks one way , and the design lies another ; till at length , touching a spring , as it were , at a certain time , all those affairs change posture and aspect , and shew us which way providence inclines . we must therefore suppose , before the conflagration begins , there will be dispositions and preparatives suitable to so great a work : and all antiquity , sacred and prophane , does so far concur with us , as to admit and suppose that a great drought will precede , and an extraordinary heat and driness of the air , to usher in this fiery doom . and these being things which often happen in a course of nature , we cannot disallow such easie preparations , when providence intends so great a consequence . the heavens will be shut up , and the clouds yield no rain ; and by this , with an immoderate heat in the air , the springs of water will become dry , the earth chap'd and parch'd , and the woods and trees made ready fewel for the fire . we have instances in history that there have been droughts and heats of this nature , to that degree , that the woods and forests have taken fire , and the outward turf and surface of the earth , without any other cause than the driness of the season , and the vehemency of the sun. and which is more considerable , the springs , and fountains being dry'd up , the greater rivers have been sensibly lessen'd , and the lesser quite emptied and exhal'd . these things which happen frequently in particular countreys and climates , may at an appointed time , by the disposition of providence , be more universal throughout the earth ; and have the same effects every where , that we see by experience they have had in certain places . and by this means we may conceive it as feisible to set the whole earth on fire in some little space of time , as to burn up this or that countrey after a great drought . but i mean this , with exception still to the main body of the sea : which will indeed receive a greater diminution from these causes than we easily imagine , but the final consumption of it will depend upon other reasons , whereof we must give an account in the following chapters . as to the mountains and rocks , their lofty heads will sink when the earthquakes begin to roar , at the beginning of the conflagration : as we shall see hereafter . and as to the earth it self , 't is true there are several sorts of earth that are not proper fewel for fire ; but those soils that are not so immediately , as clayey soils , and such like , may by the strength of fire be converted into brick , or stone , or earthen metal , and so melted down and vitrified . for , in conclusion there is no terrestrial body that does not finally yield to the force of fire , and may either be converted into flame , incorporated fire , or into a liquor more ardent than either of them . lastly , as to the polar regions , which you think will be a safe retreat and inaccessible to the fire ; 't is true , unless providence hath laid subterraneous treasures of fire there unknown to us , those parts of the earth will be the last consum'd . but it is to be observ'd , that the cold of those regions proceeds from the length of their winter , and their distance from the sun when he is beyond the aequator ; and both these causes will be remov'd at the conflagration . for we suppose the earth will then return to its primitive situation , which we have explain'd in the d , book of this theory ; and will have the sun always in its aequator ; whereby the several climates of the earth will have a perpetual equinox , and those under the poles a perpetual day . and therefore all the excess of cold , and all the consequences of it , will soon be abated . however , the earth will not be burnt in one day , and those parts of the earth being uninhabited , there is no inconvenience that they should be more slowly consum'd than the rest . this is a general answer to the difficulty propos'd about the possibility of the conflagration ; and being general only , the parts of it must be more fully explain'd and confirm'd in the sequel of this discourse . we should now proceed directly to the causes of the conflagration , and show in what manner they do this great execution upon nature . but to be just and impartial in this enquiry , we ought first to separate the spurious and pretended causes from those that are real and genuine ; to make no false musters , nor any show of being stronger than we are ; and if we can do our work with less force , it will be more to our credit ; as a victory is more honourable that is gain'd with fewer men. there are two grand capital causes which some authors make use of , as the chief agents in this work , the sun , and the central fire . these two great incendiaries , they say , will be let loose upon us at the conflagration . the one drawing nearer to the earth , and the other breaking out of its bowels into these upper regions . these are potent causes indeed , more than enough to destroy this earth , if it was a thousand times ▪ bigger than it is . but for that very reason , i suspect they are not the true causes ; for god and nature do not use to employ unnecessary means to bring about their designs . disproportion and over-sufficiency is one sort of false measures , and 't is a sign we do not thoroughly understand our work , when we put more strength to it than the thing requires . men are forward to call in extraordinary powers , to rid their hands of a troublesome argument , and so make a short dispatch to save themselves the pains of further enquiries : but such methods , as they commonly have no proof , so they give little satisfaction to an inquisitive mind . this supposition of burning the earth , by the sun drawing nearer and nearer to it , seems to be made in imitation of the story of phaeton , who driving the chariot of the sun with an unsteddy hand , came so near the earth , that he set it on fire . but however we will not reject any pretensions without a fair trial ; let us examine therefore what grounds they can have for either of these suppositions , of the approximation of the sun to the earth , or the eruption of the central fire . as to the sun , i desire first to be satisfied in present matter of fact : whether by any instrument or observation it hath or can be discover'd , that the sun is nearer to the earth now , than he was in former ages ? or if by any reasoning or comparing calculations such a conclusion can be made ? if not , this is but an imaginary cause , and as easily deny'd as propos'd . astronomers do very little agree in their opinions about the distance of the sun , ptolomy , albategnius , copernious , ticho , kepler , and others more modern , differ all in their calculations ; but not in such a manner or proportion , as should make us believe that the sun comes nearer to the earth , but rather goes further from it . for the more modern of them make the distance greater than the more ancient do kepler says , the distance of the sun from the earth lies betwixt and semidiameters of the earth : but ricciolus makes it betwixt and . and gottefrid wendeline hath taken . semidiameters , for a middle proportion of the sun's distance ; to which kepler himself came very near in his later years . so that you see how groundless our fears are from the approaches of an enemy , that rather flies from us , if he change posture at all . and we have more reason to believe the report of the modern astronomers than of the ancient , in this matter ; both because the nature of the heavens and of the celestial bodies is now better known , and also because they have found out better instruments and better methods to make their observations . if the sun and earth were come nearer to one another , either the circle of the suns diurnal arch would be less , and so the day shorter : or the orbit of the earths annual course would be less , and so the year shor●er : neither of which we have any experience of . and those that suppose us in the centre of the world , need not be afraid till they see mercury and venus in a combustion , for they lie betwixt us and danger ; and the sun cannot come so readily at us with his fiery darts , as at them , who stand in his way . lastly , this languishing death by the gradual approaches of the sun , and that irreparable ruine of the earth which at last must follow from it , do neither of them agree with that idea of the conflagration , which the scripture hath given us ; for it is to come suddenly and unexpectedly , and take us off like a violent feaver , not as a lingring consumption . and the earth is also so to be destroyed by fire , as not to take away all hopes of a resurrection or renovation . for we are assur'd by scripture that there will be new heavens and a new earth after these are burnt up . but if the sun should come so near us as to make the heavens pass away with a noise , and melt the elements with fervent heat , and destroy the form and all the works of the earth , what hopes or possibility would there be of a renovation while the sun continued in this posture ? he would more and more consume and prey upon the carcass of the earth , and convert it at length either into an heap of ashes , or a lump of vitrified metal . so much for the sun. as to the central fire , i am very well satisfied it is no imaginary thing . all antiquity hath preserv'd some sacred monument of it . the vestal fire of the romans , which was so religiously attended : the prytoneia of the greeks were to the same purpose , and dedicated to vesta : and the pyretheia of the persians , where fire was kept continually by the magi. these all , in my opinion , had the same origine and the same signification . and tho' i do not know any particular observation , that does directly prove or demonstrate that there is such a mass of fire in the middle of the earth ; yet the best accounts we have of the generation of a planet , do suppose it ; and 't is agreeable to the whole oeconomy of nature ; as a fire in the heart , which gives life to her motions and productions . but however the question is not at present , about the existence of this fire , but the eruption of it , and the effect of that eruption : which cannot be , in my judgment , such a conflagration as is describ'd in scripture . this central fire must be enclos'd in a shell of great strength and firmness ; for being of it self the lightest and most active of all bodies , it would not be detained in that lowest prison without a strong guard upon it . 't is true , we can make no certain judgment of what thickness this shell is , but if we suppose this fire to have a twentieth part of the semidiameter of the earth , on either side the centre , for its sphere , which seems to be a fair allowance ; there would still remain nineteen parts , for our safeguard and security . and these nineteen parts of the semidiameter of the earth will make miles , for a partition-wall betwixt us and this central fire . who wou'd be afraid of an enemy lock'd up in so strong a prison ? but you 'l say , it may be , tho' the central fire , at the beginning of the world , might have no more room or space than what is mentioned : yet being of that activity that it is , and corrosive nature , it may , in the space of some thousands of years , have eaten deep into the sides of its prison ; and so come nearer to the surface of the earth , by some hundreds or thousands of miles than it was at first . this would be a material exception if it could be made out . but what phaenomenon is there in nature that proves this ? how does it appear by any observation that the central fire gains ground upon us ? or is increased in quantity , or come nearer to the surface of the earth ? i know nothing that can be offered in proof of this : and if there be no appearance of a change , nor any sensible effect of it , 't is an argument there is none , or none considerable . if the quantity of that fire was considerably increas'd , it must needs , besides other effects , have made the body of the earth considerably lighter . the earth having , by this conversion of its own substance into fire , lost so much of its heaviest matter , and got so much of the lightest and most active element in stead of it : and in both these respects its gravity would be manifestly lessen'd . which if it really was in any considerable degree , it would discover it self by some change , either as to the motion of the earth , or as to its place or station in the heavens . but there being no external change observable , in this or any other respect , 't is reasonable to presume that there is no considerable inward change , or no great consumption of its inward parts and substance : and consequently no great increase of the central fire . but if we should admit both an encrease and eruption of this fire , it would not have that effect which is pretended . it might cause some confusion and disorder in those parts of the earth where it broke out , but it would not make an universal conflagration , such as is represented to us in scripture . let us suppose the earth to be open or burst in any place , under the pole , for instance , or under the aequator : and let it gape as low as the central fire . at this chasm or rupture we suppose the fire would gush out ; and what then would be the consequence of this when it came to the surface of the earth ? it would either be dissipated and lost in the air , or fly still higher towards the heavens in a mass of flame . but what execution in the mean time would it do upon the body of the earth ? 't is but like a flash of lightning , or a flame issuing out of a pit , that dies presently . besides , this central fire is of that subtilty and tenuity that it is not able to inflame gross bodies : no morethan those meteors we call lambent fires , inflame the bodies to which they stick . lastly , in explaining the manner of the conflagration , we must have regard principally to scripture ; for the explications given there are more to the purpose , than all that the philosophers have said upon that subject . now , as we noted before , 't is manifest in scripture that after the conflagration there will be a restauration , new heavens and a new earth . 't is the express doctrine of s. peter , besides other prophets : we must therefore suppose the earth reduc'd to such a chaos by this last fire , as will lay the foundation of a new world. which can never be , if the inward frame of it be broke , the central fire exhausted , and the exterior region suck'd into those central vacuities . this must needs make it lose its former poise and libration , and it will thereupon be thrown into some other part of the universe , as the useless shell of a broken granado , or as a dead carkass and unprofitable matter . these reasons may be sufficient why we should not depend upon those pretended causes of the conflagration , the suns advance towards the earth , or such a rupture of the earth as will let out the central fire . these causes , i hope , will appear superfluous , when we shall have given an account of the conflagration without them . but young philosophers , like young soldiers , think they are never sufficiently armed ; and often take more weapons , than they can make use of , when they come to fight . not that we altogether reject the influence of the sun , or of the central fire ; especially the latter . for in that great estuation of nature , the body of the earth will be much open'd and relaxated ; and when the pores are enlarg'd , the steams of that fire will sweat out more plentifully into all its parts ; but still without any rupture in the vessels or in the skin . and whereas these authors suppose the very veins burst , and the vital blood to gush out , as at openflood gates , we only allow a more copious perspiration , and think that sufficient for all purposes in this case . chap. vii . the true bounds of the last fire , and how far it is fatal . the natural causes and materials of it , cast into three ranks : first , such as are exterior and visible upon the earth ; where the volcano's of the earth , and their effects , are consider'd . secondly , such materials as are within the earth . thirdly , such as are in the air. as we have , in the preceding chapter , laid aside those causes of the conflagration , which we thought too great and cumbersome ; so now we must , in like manner , examine the effect , and reduce that to its just measures and proportions ; that there may be nothing lest superfluous on either side : then , by comparing the real powers with the work they are to do , bo●h being stated within their due bounds ▪ we may the better judge how they are proportion'd to one another . we noted before , that the conflagration had nothing to do with the stars and superiour heavens , but was wholly confin'd to this sublunary world. and this deluge of fire will have much what the same bounds , that the deluge of water had formerly . this is according to st. peter's . doctrine , for he makes the same parts of the universe to be the subject of both : namely , the inferiour heavens and the earth . the heavens and the earth which were then , perish'd in a deluge of water : but the heavens and the earth that are now , are reserv'd to fire . the present heavens and earth are substituted in the place of those that perish'd at the deluge , and these are to be over-run and destroy'd by fire , as those were by water . so that the apostle takes the same regions , and the same space and compass for the one as for the other , and makes their fate different according to their different constitution , and the different order of providence . this is the sence st. austin gives us of the apostle's words , and these are the bounds he sets to the last fire ; whereof a modern commentator is so well assur'd , that he says , they neither understand divinity , nor philosophy , that would make the conflagration reach above the elementary heavens . let these be then its limits upwards , the clouds , air , and atmosphere of the earth . but the question seems more doubtful , how far it will extend downwards , into the bowels of the earth . i answer still , to the same depth that the waters of the deluge reach'd : to the lowest abysses and the deepest caverns within the ground . and seeing no caverns are deeper or lower , at least according to our theory , than the bottom of the great ocean , to that depth , i suppose , the rage of this fire will pene●rate , and devour all before it . and therefore we must not imagine , that only the outward turf and habitable surface of the earth will be put into a flame and laid wast ; the whole exteriour region of the earth , to the depth of the deepest part of the sea , will suffer in this fire ; and suffer to that degree , as to be melted down , and the frame of it dissolv'd . for we are not to conceive that the earth will be only scorcht or charkt in the last fire ▪ there will be a sort of liquefaction and dissolution ; it will become a molten sea mingled with fire , according to the expression of scripture . and this dissolution may reasonably be suppos'd to reach as low as the earth hath any hollownesses , or can give 〈◊〉 to smoke and flame . wherefore taking these for the bounds and limits of the last great fire , the next thing to be enquir'd into are the natural causes of it . how this strange fate will seize upon the sublunary world , and with an irresistible fury subdue all things to it self . but when i say natural causes , i would not be so understood , as if i thought the conflagration was a pure natural fatality , as the stoicks seem to do . no , 't is a mixt fatality ▪ the causes indeed are natural , but the administration of them is from an higher hand . fire is the instrument , or the executive power , and hath no more force given it , than what it hath naturally ; but the concurrence of these causes or of these fiery powers , at such a time , and in such a manner , and the conduct of them to carry on and compleat the whole work without cessation or interruption , that i look upon as more than what material nature could effect of it self , or than could be brought to pass by such a government of matter , as is the bare result of its own laws and determinations . when a ship fails gently before the wind , the mariners may stand idle ; but to guide her in a storm , all hands must be at work . there are rules and measures to be observ'd , even in these tumults and desolations of nature , in destroying a world , as well as in making one , and therefore in both it is reasonable to suppose a more than ordinary providence to superintend the work . let us not therefore be too positive or presumptuous in our conjectures about these things , for if there be an invisible hand , divine or angelical , that touches the springs and wheels ; it will not be easie for us to determine , with certainty , the order of their motions . however 't is our duty to search into the ways and works of god , as far as we can : and we may without offence look into the magazines of nature , see what provisions are made , and what preparations for this great day ; and in what method 't is most likely the design will be executed . but before we proceed to mark out materials for this fire , give me leave to observe one condition or property in the form of this present earth , that makes it capable of inflammation . 't is the manner of its construction , in an hollow eavernous form ; by reason whereof , containing much air in its cavities , and having many inlets and outlets , 't is in most places capable of ventilation , pervious and passable to the winds , and consequently to the fire . those that have read the former part of this theory , know how the earth came into this hollow and broken form , from what causes and at what time ; namely , at the universal deluge ; when there was a disruption of the exteriour earth that fell into the abyss , and so , for a time , was overflow'd with water . these ruines recover'd from the water , we inhabit , and these ruines only will be burnt up ; for being not only unequal in their surface , but also hollow , loose , and incompact within , as ruines use to be , they are made there● by capable of a second fate , by inflammation . thereby , i say , they are made combustible ; for if the exteriour regions of this earth were as close and compact in all their parts , as we have reason to believe the interiour regions of it to be , the fire could have little power over it , nor ever reduce it to such a state as is requir'd in a compleat conflagration , such as ours is to be . this being admitted , that the exteriour region of the earth stands hollow , as a well set fire , to receive air freely into its parts , and hath issues for smoke and flame : it remains to enquire what fewel or materials nature hath fitted to kindle this pile , and to continue it on fire till it be consum'd ; or , in plain words , what are the natural causes and preparatives for a conflagration . the first and most obvious preparations that we see in nature for this effect , are the burning mountains or volcano's of the earth . these are lesser essays or preludes to the general fire ; set on purpose by providence to keep us awake , and to mind us continually , and forewarn us of what we are to expect at last . the earth you see is already kindled , blow but the coal , and propagate the fire , and the work will go on . tophet is prepar'd of old , and when the day of doom is come , and the date of the world expir'd , the breath of the lord shall make it burn . but besides these burning mountains , there are lakes of pitch and brimstone and oily liquors disperst in several parts of the earth . these are in enrage the fire as it goes , and to fortifie it against any resistance or opposition . then all the vegetable productions upon the surface of the earth , as trees , shrubs , grass , corn , and such like ; every thing that grows out of the ground , is fewel for the fire ; and tho' they are now accommodated to our use and service , they will then turn all against us ; and with a mighty blaze , and rapid course , make a devastation of the outward fumrniture of the earth , whether natural or artificial . but these things deserve some further consideration , especially that strange phaenomenon of the voleano's or burning mountains , which we will now consider more particularly . there is nothing certainly more terrible in all nature than fiery mountains , to those that live within the view or noise of them ; but it is not easie for us , who never see them nor heard them , to represent them to our selves with such just and lively imaginations as shall excite in us the same passions , and the same horrour as they would excite , if present to our senses . the time of their eruption and of their raging , is , of all others , the most dreadful ; but , many times , before their eruption , the symptomes of an approaching fit are very frightful to the people . the mountain begins to roar and bellow in its hollow caverns ; cries out , as it were , in pain to be deliver'd of some burthen , too heavy to be born , and too big to be easily discharg'd . the earth shakes and trembles , in apprehension of the pangs and convulsions that are coming upon her ; and the sun often hides his head , or appears with a discolour'd face , pale , or dusky , or bloudy , as if all nature was to suffer in this agony . after these forerunners or symptomes of an eruption , the wide jaws of the mountain open : and first , clouds of smoke issue out , then flames of fire , and after that a mixture of all sorts of burning matter ; red hot stones , lumps of metal , half-dissolv'd minerals , with coals and fiery ashes . these fall in thick showres round about the mountain , and in all adjacent parts ; and not only so , but are carried , partly by the force of the expulsion , and partly by the winds , when they are aloft in the air , into far distant countries . as from italy to constantinople , and cross the mediterranean sea into africk ; as the best historians , procopius , ammianus marc●llinus , and dion cassius , have attested . these volcano's are planted in several regions of the earth , and in both continents , this of ours , and the other of america . for by report of those that have view'd that new-found world , there are many mountains in it that belch out smoke and fire ; some constantly , and others by fits and intervals . in our continent providence hath variously disperst them , without any rule known to us ; but they are generally in islands or near the sea. in the asiatick oriental islands they are in great abundance , and historians tell us of a mountain in the island iava , that in the year , . at one eruption kill'd ten thousand people in the neighbouring cities and country . but we do not know so well the history of those remote volcano's , as of such as are in europe and nearer home . in iseland , tho' it lie within the polar circle , and is scarce habitable by reason of the extremity of cold , and abundance of ice and snow , yet there are three burning mountains in that island ; whereof the chief and most remarkable is hecla . this hath its head always cover'd with snow , and its belly always fill'd with fire ; and these are both so strong in their kind , and equally powerful , that they cannot destroy one another . it is said to cast out , when it rages , besides earth , stones and ashes , a sort of flaming water . as if all contrarieties were to meet in this mountain to make it the more perfect resemblance of hell , as the credulous inhabitants fancy it to be . but there are no volcano's in my opinion , that deserve our observation so much , as those that are in and about the mediterranean sea ; there is a knot of them called the vulcanian islands , from their fiery eruptions , as if they were the forges of vulcan ; as strombolo , lipara , and others , which are not so remarkable now as they have been formerly . however , without dispute , there are none in the christian world to be compared with aetna and vesuvius ; one in the island of sicily ; and the other in campanid , overlooking the port and city of naples . these two , from all memory of man and the most ancient records of history , have been fam'd for their treasures of subterraneous fiers : which are not yet exhausted , nor diminish'd , so far as is perceivable ; for they rage still , upon occasions , with as much fierceness and violence , as they ever did in former ages ; as if they had a continual supply to answer their expences , and were to stand till the last fire , as a type and prefiguration of it , throughout all generations . let us therefore take these two volcano's as a pattern for the rest ; seeing they are well known , and stand in the heart of the christian world , where , 't is likely , the last fire will make its first assault . aetna , of the two , is more spoken of by the ancients , both poets and historians ; and we should scarce give credit to their relations concerning it , if some later eruptions did not equal or exceed the same of all that hath been reported from former ages . that it heated the waters of the sea , and cover'd them over with ashes ; crack'd or dissolv'd the neighbouring rocks ; darkened the sun and the air ; and cast out , not only mighty streams of flame , but a floud of melted ore and other materials ; these things we can now believe , having had experience of greater , or an account of them from such as have been eye-witnesses of these fires , or of the fresh ruines and sad effects of them . there are two things especially , in these eruptions of aetna , that are most prodigious in themselves and most remarkable for our purpose . the rivers of fiery matter that break out of its bowels , or are spew'd out of its mouth ; and the vast burning stones which it slings into the air , at a strange height and distance . as to these fiery rivers or torrents , and the matter whereof they are compounded , we have a full account of them by alphonsus borellus , a learned mathematician at pisa ; who , after the last great eruption in the year . went into sicily , while the fact was fresh , to view and survey what aetna had done or suffer'd . and he says the quantity of matter thrown out of the mountain at that time , upon survey amounted to ninety three millions , eight hundred thirty eight thousand , seven hundred and fifty cubical paces . so that if it had been extended in length upon the surface of the earth , at the breadth and depth of foot , it would have reacht further than ninety three millions of paces ▪ which is more than four times the circuit of the whole earth , taking a thousand paces to a mile . this is strange to our imagination and almost incredible , that one mountain should throw out so much fiery matter , besides all the ashes that were disperst through the air , far and near , and could be brought to no account . 't is true , all this matter was not actually inflam'd or liquid fire . but the rest that was sand , stone and gravel , might have run into glass or some melted liquor like to it , is it had not been thrown out before the heat fully reacht it . however , sixty million paces of this matter , as the same author computes , were liquid fire , or came out of the mouth of the pit in that form . this made a river of fire , sometimes two miles broad , according to his computation ; but according to the observation of others who also viewed it , the torrent of fire was six or seven miles broad , and sometimes ten or fifteen fathoms deep ; and forc'd its way into the sea near a mile , preserving it self alive in the midst of the waters . this is beyond all the infernal lakes and rivers , acheron , phlegeton , cocytus ▪ all that the poets have talkt of . their greatest fictions about he i have not come up to the reality of one of our burning mountains upon earth . imagin then all our volcano's raging at once in this manner . — but i will not pursue that supposition yet ; give me leave only to add here what i mentioned in the second place , the vast burning stones which this mountain , in the time of its rage and estuation , threw in●o the air with an incredible force . this same author tells us of a stone fifteen foot long , that was slung out of the mouth of the pit , to a miles distance . and when it fell , it came from such an height and with such a violence , that it buried it self in the ground eight foot deep . what trifles are our mortar-pieces and bombes , when compar'd with these engines of nature ? when she flings out of the wide throat of a volcano , a broken rock , and twirles it in the air like a little bullet ; then lets it fall to do execution here below , as providence shall point and direct it . it would be hard to give an account how so great an impulse can be given to a body so ponderous . but there 's no disputing against matter of fact ; and as the thoughts of god are not like our thoughts , so neither are his works like our works . thus much for aetna . let us now give an instance in vesuvius , another burning mountain upon the coast of the mediterranean , which hath as frequent eruptions , and some as terrible as those of aetna . dion cassius ( one of the best writers of the roman history ) hath given us an account of one that happened in the time of titus vespatian ; and tho' he hath not set down particulars , as the former author did , of the quantity of fiery matter thrown out at that time : yet supposing that proportionable to its fierceness in other respects , this seems to me as dreadful an eruption as any we read of ; and was accompanied with such prodigies and commotions in the heavens and the earth , as made it look like the beginning of the last conflagration . as a prelude to this tragedy , he says there were strange sights in the air , and after that followed an extraordinary drought , then the earth begun to tremble and quake , and the concussions were so great that the ground seem'd to rise and boyl up in some places , and in others the tops of the mountains sunk in or tumbled down . at the same time were great noises and sounds heard , some were subterraneous , like thunder within the earth ; others above ground , like groans or bellowings . the sea roar'd , the heavens ratled with a fearful noise , and then came a sudden and mighty crack , as if the frame of nature had broke , or all the mountains of the earth had faln down at once . at length vesuvius burst , and threw out of its womb , first , huge stones , then a vast quantity of fire and smoke , so as the air was ●all darkned , and the sun was hid , as if he had been under a great eclipse . the day was turn'd into night , and light into darkness ; and the frighted people thought the gyants were making war against heaven , and fansied they see the shapes and images of gyants in the smoak , and heard the sound of their trumpets . others thought the world was returning to its first chaos , or going to be all consum'd with fire . in this general confusion and consternation they knew not where to be safe , some run out of the fields into the houses , others out of the house into the fields ; those that were at sea hasten'd to land , and those that were at land endeavour'd to get to sea ; still thinking every place safer than that where they were . besides grosser lumps of matter , there was thrown out of the mountain such a prodigious quantity of ashes , as cover'd the land and sea , and fill'd the air , so as , besides other damages , the birds , beasts , and fishes , with men , women and children , were destroy'd , within such a compass ; and two entire cities , herculanium and pompeios , were overwhelm'd with a showre of ashes , as the people were sitting in the theater . nay , these ashes were carried by the winds over the mediterranean into africk , and into aegypt and syria . and at rome they choak'd the air on a sudden , so as to hid the face of the sun. whereupon the people , not knowing the cause , as not having yet got the news from campania of the eruption of vesuius , could not imagine what the reason should be ; but thought the heavens and the earth were coming together , the sun coming down , and the earth going to take its place above . thus far the historian . you see what disorders in nature , and what an alarum , the eruption of one fiery mountain is capable to make ; these things , no doubt , would have made strong impressions upon us , if we had been eye-witnesses of them ; but i know , representations made from dead history , and at a distance , though the testimony be never so credible , have a much less effect upon us than what we see our selves , and what our senses immediately inform us of . i have only given you an account of two volcano's , and of a single eruption in either of them ; these mountains are not very far distant from one another : let us suppose two such eruptions , as i have mention'd , to happen at the same time , and both these moutains to be raging at once , in this manner ; by that violence you have seen in each of them singly , you will easily imagine what a terrour and desolation they would carry round about , by a conjunction of their fury and all their effects , in the air and on the earth . then , if to these two , you should joyn two more , the sphere of their activity would still be enlarg'd , and the scenes become more dreadful . but , to compleat the supposition , let us imagine all the volcano's of the whole earth , to be prepar'd and set to a certain time ; which time being come , and a signal given by providence , all these mines begin to play at once ; i mean , all these fiery mountains burst out , and discharge themselves in flames of fire , tear up the roots of the earth , throw hot burning stones , send out streams of flowing metals and minerals , and all other sorts of ardent matter , which nature hath lodg'd in those treasuries . if all these engines , i say , were to play at once , the heavens and the earth would seem to be in a flame , and the world in an universal combustion . but we may reasonably presume , that against that great day of vengeance and execution , not only all these will be employ'd , but also new volcano's will be open'd , and new mountains in every region will break out into smoke and flame ; just as at the deluge , the abyss broke out from the womb of the earth , and from those hidden stores sent an immense quantity of water , which , it may be , the inhabitants of that world never thought of before . so we must expect new eruptions , and also new sulphureous lakes and fountains of oyl , to boyl out of the ground ; and these all united with that fewel that naturally grows upon the surface of the earth , will be sufficient to give the first onset , and to lay wast all the habitable world , and the furniture of it . but we suppose the conflagration will go lower , pierce under-ground , and dissolve the substance of the earth to some considerable depth ; therefore besides these outward and visible preparations , we must consider all the hidden invisible materials within the veins of the earth ; such are all minerals or mineral juices and concretions that are igniferous , or capable of inflammation ; and these cannot easily be reckon'd up or estimated . some of the most common are , sulphur , and all sulphureous bodies , and earths impregnated with sulphur , bitumen and bituminous concretions ; inflammable salts , coal and other fossiles that are ardent , with innumerable mixtures and compositions of these kinds , which being open'd by heat , are unctuous and inflammable ; or by attrition discover the latent seeds of fire . but besides consistent bodies , there is also much volatile fire within the earth , in fumes , steams , and exudations , which will all contribute to this effect . from these stores under-ground all plants and vegetables are fed and supply'd , as to their oily and sulphureous parts ; and all hot waters in baths or fountains , must have their original from some of these , some mixture or participation of them . and as to the british soyl , there is so much coal incorporated with it , that when the earth shall burn , we have reason to apprehend no small danger from that subterraneous enemy . these dispositions , and this fewel we find , in and upon the earth , towards the last fire . the third sort of provision is in the air ; all fiery meteors and exhalations engender'd and form'd in those regions above , and discharg'd upon the earth in several ways . i believe there were no fiery meteors in the ante-diluvian heavens ; which therefore st. peter says , were constituted of water ; had nothing in them but what was watery . but he says , the heavens that are now have treasures of fire , or are reserv'd for fire , as things laid up in a store house for that purpose . we have thunder and lightning , and fiery tempests , and there is nothing more vehement , impetuous , and irresistible , where their force is directed . it seems to me very remarkable , that the holy writers describe the coming of the lord , and the destruction of the wicked , in the nature of a tempest , or a storm of fire . upon the wicked the lord shall rain coals , fire and brimstone , and a burning tempest , this shall be the portion of their cup. and in the lofty song of david ( psal. . ) which , in my judgment , respects both the past deluge and the future conflagration , 't is said , the lord also thundred in the heavens , and the highest gave his voice , hailstones and coals of fire . yea , he sent forth his arrows and scattered them , and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them . then the chanels of waters were seen , and the foundations of the world were discover'd ; at thy rebuke , o lord , at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils . and a like fiery coming is describ'd in the ninety seventh psalm , as also by isaiah , daniel , and s. paul. and lastly , in the apocalypse , when the world draws to a conclusion , as in the seventh trumpet ( ch . . . ) and the seventh vial ( ch . . . ) we have still mention made of this fiery tempest of lightnings and thunderings . we may therefore reasonably suppose , that , before the conflagration , the air will be surcharg'd every where , ( by a precedent drought ) with hot and fiery exhalations ; and as against the deluge , those regions were burthened with water and moist vapours , which were pour'd upon the earth , not in gentle showres , but like rivers and cataracts from heaven ; so they will now be fill'd with hot fumes and sulphureous clouds , which will sometimes flow in streams and fiery impressions throgh the air , sometimes make thunder and lightnings , and sometimes fall down upon the earth in flouds of fire . in general , there is a great analogy to be observed betwixt the two deluges , of water and of fire ; not only as to the bounds of them , which were noted before ; but as to the general causes and sources upon which they depend , from above and from below . at the floud the windows of heaven were opened above , and the abyss was opened below ; and the waters of these two joyn'd together to overflow the world. in like manner , at the conflagration , god will rain down fire from heaven , as he did once upon sodom ; and at the same time the subterraneous store-houses of fire will be broken open , which answers to the disruption of the abyss : and these two meeting and mingling together , will involve all the heaven and earth in flames . this is a short account of the ordinary stores of nature , and the ordinary preparations for a general fire ; and in contemplation of these , pliny the naturalist , said boldly , it was one of the greatest wonders of the world , that the world was not every day set on fire . we will conclude this chapter with his words , in the second book of his natural history ; having given an account of some fiery mountains , and other parts of the earth that are the seats and sources of fire , he makes this reflection ; seeing this element is so fruitful that it brings forth it self , and multiplies and encreases from the least sparks , what are we to expect from so many fires already kindled on the earth ? how does nature feed and satisfie so devouring an element , and such a great voracity throughout all the world , without loss or diminution of her self ? add to these fires we have mentioned , the stars and the great sun , then all the fires made for humane uses ; fire in stones , in wood , in the clouds and in thunder ; it exceeds all miracles , in my opinion , that one day should pass without setting the world all on fire . chap. viii . some new dispositions towards the conflagration , as to the matter , form , and situation of the earth . concerning miraculous causes , and how far the ministery of angels may be engaged in this work. we have given an account , in the preceding chapter , of the ordinary preparatious of nature for a general fire ; we now are to give an account of the extraordinary , or of any new dispositions , which towards the end of the world , may be superadded to the ordinary state of nature . i do not , by these , mean things openly miraculous , and supernatural , but such a change wrought in nature as shall still have the face of natural causes , and yet have a greater tendency to the conflagration . as for example , suppose a great drought , as we noted before , to precede this fate , or a general heat and dryness of the air and of the earth ; because this happens sometimes in a course of nature , it will not be lookt upon as prodigious . 't is true , some of the ancients speak of a drought of forty years , that will be a forerunner of the conflagration , so that there will not be a watery cloud , nor a rainbow seen in the heavens , for so long time . and this they impute to elias , who , at his coming , will stop the rain and shut up the heavens to make way for the last fire . but these are excessive and ill-grounded suppositions , for half forty years drought will bring an universal sterility upon the earth , and thereupon an universal famine , with innumerable diseases ; so that all mankind would be destroyed before the conflagration could overtake them . but we will readily admit an extraordinary drought and desiccation of all bodies to usher in this great fatality . and therefore whatsoever we read in natural history , concerning former droughts , of their drying up fountains and rivers , parching the earth and making the outward turf take fire in several places ; filling the air with fiery impressions , making the woods and forests ready fewel , and sometimes to kindle by the heat of the sun or a flash of lightning : these and what other effects have come to pass in former droughts , may come to pass again ; and that in an higher measure , and so as to be of more general extent . and we must also allow , that by this means , a great degree of inflammability , or easiness to be set on fire , will be superinduc'd , both into the body of the earth , and of all things that grow upon it . the heat of the sun will pierce deeper into its bowels , when it gapes to receive his beams , and by chinks and widened pores makes way for their passage to its very heart . and , on the other hand , it is not improbable , but that upon this general relaxation and incalescency of the body of the earth , the general fire may have a freer efflux , and diffuse it self in greater abundance every way ; so as to affect even these exteriour regions of the earth , so far as to make them still more catching and more combustible . from this external and internal heat acting upon the body of the earth , all minerals that have the seeds of fire in them , will be open'd , and exhale their effluvium's more copiously : as spices , when warm'd , are more odoriferous , and fill the air with their perfumes ; so the particles of fire , that are shut up in several bodies , will easily flie abroad , when by a further degree of relaxation you shake off their chains , and open the prison-doors . we cannot doubt , but there are many sorts of minerals , and many sorts of fire-stones , and of trees and vegetables of this nature , which will sweat out their oily and sulphureous atomes , when by a general heat and driness their parts are loosen'd and agitated . we have no experience that will reach so far , as to give us a full account what the state of nature will be at that time ; i mean , after this drought , towards the end of the world ; but we may help our imagination , by comparing it with other seasons and temperaments of the air. as therefore in the spring the earth is fragrant , and the fields and gardens are fill'd with the sweet breathings of herbs and flowers ; especially after a gentle rain , when their bodies are softned , and the warmth of the sun makes them evaporate more freely ; so a greater degree of heat acting upon all the bodies of the earth , like a stronger fire in the alembick , will extract another sort of parts or particles , more deeply incorporated and more difficult to be disintangled ; i mean oily parts , and such undiscover'd parcels of fire , as lie fix'd and imprison'd in hard bodies . these , i imagine , will be in a great measure set a float , on drawn out into the air ; which will abound with hot and dry exhalations , more than with vapours and moisture in a wet season ; and by this means , all elements and elementary bodies will stand ready , and in a proximate disposition to be inflam'd . thus much concerning the last drought , and the general effects of it . in the next place , we must consider the earthquakes that will precede the conflagration , and the consequences of them . i noted before , that the cavernous and broken construction of the present earth , was that which made it obnoxious to be destroy'd by fire ; as its former construction over the abyss , made it obnoxious to be destroy'd with water . this hollowness of the earth is most sensible in mountainous and hilly countreys , which therefore i look upon as most subject to burning ; but the plain countreys may also be made hollow and hilly by earth-quakes , when the vapours not finding an easie vent ▪ raise the ground and make a forcible eruption , as at the springing of a mine . and tho' plain countreys are not so subject to earthquakes as mountainous , because they have not so many cavities and subterraneous vaults to lodge the vapours in ; yet every region hath more or less of them : and after this drought the vacuities of the earth being every where enlarg'd , the quantity of exhalations much encreas'd , and the motion of them more strong and violent , they will have their effects in many places where they never had any before . yet i do not suppose that this will raise new ridges of mountains , like the alpes or pyreneans , in those countreys that are now plain , but that they will break and loosen the ground , make greater inequalities in the surface , and greater cavities within , than what are at present in those places ; and by this means , the fire will creep under them , and find a passage thorow them , with more ease , than if they were compact , and every where continued and unbroken . but you will say , it may be , how does it appear , that there will be more frequent earth-quakes towards the end of the world ? if this precedent drought be admitted , 't is plain that fiery exhalations will abound every where within the earth , and will have a greater agitation than ordinary ; and these being the causes of earth-quakes , when they are rarified or inflam'd , 't is reasonable to suppose that in such a state of nature , they will more frequently happen , than at other times . besides , earth-quakes are taken notice of in scripture , as signs and forerunners of the last day , as they usually are of all great changes and calamities . the destruction of ierusalem was a type of the destruction of the world , and the evangelists always mention earth-quakes amongst the ominous prodigies that were to attend it . but these earth-quakes we are speaking of at present , are but the beginnings of sorrow , and not to be compar'd with those that will follow afterwards , when nature is convulst in her last agony , just as the flames are seizing on her . of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter . these changes will happen as to the matter and form of the earth , before it is attack'd by the last fire ; there will be also another change as to the situation of it ; for that will be rectified , and the earth restor'd to the posture it had at first , namely , of a right aspect and conversion to the sun. but because i cannot determine at what time this restitution will be , whether at the beginning , middle , or end of the conflagration , i will not presume to lay any stress upon it . plato seems to have imputed the conflagration to this only ; which is so far true , that the revolution call'd the great year , is this very revolution , or the return of the earth and the heavens to their first posture . but tho' this may be contemporary with the last fire , or some way concomitant ; yet it does not follow that it is the cause of it , much less the only cause . it may be an occasion of making the fire reach more easily towards the poles , when by this change of situation their long nights and long winters shall be taken away . these new dispositions in our earth which we expect before that great day , may be look'd upon as extraordinary , but not as miraculous , because they may proceed from natural causes . but now in the last place , we are to consider miraculous causes : what influence they may have , or what part they may bear , in this great revolution of nature . by miraculous causes we understand either god's immediate omnipotency , or the ministry of angels ; and what may be perform'd by the latter , is very improperly and undecently thrown upon the former . 't is a great step to omnipotency : and 't is hard to define what miracles , on this side creation , require an infinite power . we are sure that the angels are ministring spirits , and ten thousand times ten thousand stand about the throne of the almighty , to receive his commands and execute his judgments . that perfect knowledge they have of the powers of nature , and of conducting those powers to the best advantage , by adjusting causes in a fit subordination one to another , makes them capable of performing , not only things far above our force , but even above our imagination . besides , they have a radical inherent power , belonging to the excellency of their nature , of determining the motions of matter , within a far greater sphere than humane souls can pretend to . we can only command our spirits , and determine their motions within the compass of our own bodies ; but their activity and empire is of far greater extent , and the outward world is much more subject to their dominion than to ours . from these considerations it is reasonable to conclude , that the generality of miracles may be and are perform'd by angels ; it being less decorous to employ a sovereign power , where a subaltern is sufficient , and when we hastily cast things upon god , for quick dispatch , we consult our own ease more than the honouor of our maker . i take it for granted here , that what is done by an angelical hand , is truly providential , and of divine administration ; and also justly bears the character of a miracle . whatsoever may be done by pure material causes , or humane strength , we account natural ; and whatsoever is above these we call supernatural and miraculous . now what is supernatural and miraculous is either the effect of an angelical power , or of a sovereign and infinite power . and we ought not to confound these two , no more than natural and supernatural ; for there is a greater difference betwixt the highest angelical power and omnipotency , than betwixt an humane power and angelical . therefore as the first rule concerning miracles is this , that we must not flie to miracles , where man and nature are sufficient ; so the second rule is this , that we must not flie to a sovereign infinite power , where an angelical is sufficient . and the reason in both rules is the same , namely , because it argues a defect of wisdom in all oeconomiles to employ more and greater means than are sufficient . now to make application of this to our present purpose , i think it reasonable , and also sufficient , to admit the ministery of angels in the future conflagration of the world. if nature will not lay violent hands upon her self , or is not sufficient to work her own destruction , let us allow destroying angels to interest themselves in the work , as the executioners of the divine justice and vengeance upon a degenerate world. we have examples of this so frequently in sacred history , how the angels have executed god's judgments upon a nation or a people , that it cannot seem new or strange , that in this last judgment , which by all the prophets is represented as the great day of the lord , the day of his wrath and of his fury , the same angels should bear their parts , and conclude the last scene of that tragedy which they had acted in all along . we read of the destroying angel in aegypt ; of angels that presided at the destruction of sodom , which was a type of the future destrution of the world , ( iude . ) and of angels that will accompany our saviour when he comes in flames of fire : not , we suppose , to be spectators only , but actors and superintendants in this great catastrophe . this ministery of angels may be either in ordering and conducting such natural causes as we have already given an account of , or in adding new ones , if occasion be ; i mean , encreasing the quantity of fire , or of fiery materials , in and about the earth . so as that element , shall be more abundant and more predominant , and overbear all opposition that either water , or any other body , can make against it . it is not material whether of these two suppositions we follow , provided we allow that the conflagration is a work of providence , and not a pure natural fatality . if it be necessary that there should be an augmentation made of fiery matter , 't is not hard to conceive how that may be done , either from the heavens or from the earth . the prophets sometimes speak of multiplying or strengthning the light of the sun , and it may as easily be conceiv'd of his heat as of his light ; as if the vial that was to be pour'd upon it , and gave it a power to scorch men with fire , had something of a natural sence as well as moral . but there is another stream of ethereal matter that flows from the heavens , and recruits the central fire with continual supplies ; this may be encreas'd and strengthned , and its effects convey'd throughout the whole body of the earth . but if an augmentation is to be made of terrestrial fire , or of such terrestrial principles as contain it most , as sulphur , oyl , and such like , i am apt to believe , these will encrease of their own accord , upon a general drought and desiccation of the earth . for i am far from the opinion of some chymists , that think these principles immutable , and incapable of diminution or augmentation . i willingly admit that all such particles may be broken and disfigur'd , and thereby lose their proper and specifick virtue , and new ones may be generated to supply the places of the former . which supplies , or new productions being made in a less or greater measure , according to the general dispositions of nature ; when nature is heightned into a kind of feaver and ebullition of all her juices and humours , as she will be at that time , we must expect that more parts than ordinary , should be made inflammable , and those that are inflam'd should become more violent . under these circumstances , when all causes lean that way , a little help from a superior power will have a great effect , and make a great change in the state of the world. and as to the power of angels , i am of opinion that it is very great as to the changes and modifications of natural bodies ; that they can dissolve a marble as easily as we can crumble earth and moulds , or fix any liquor , in a moment , into a substance as hard as crystal . that they can either make flames more vehement and irresistible to all sorts of bodies ; or as harmless as lambent fires , and as soft as oyl . we see an instance of this last , in nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace , where the three children walk'd unconcern'd in the midst of the flames , under the charge and protection of an angel. and the same angel , if he had pleas'd , could have made the same furnace seven times hotter than the wrath of the tyrant had made it . we will therefore leave it to their ministery to manage this great furnace , when the heavens and the earth are on fire . to conserve , encrease , direct , or temper the flames , according to instructions given them , as they are to be tutelary or destroying . neither let any body think it a diminution of providence to put things into the hands of angels ; 't is the true rule and method of it ; for to employ an almighty power where it is not necessary ▪ is to debase 〈◊〉 and give it a task fit for lower beings . some think it devotion and piety to have recourse immediately to the arm of god to salve all things ; this may be done sometimes with a good intention , but commonly with little judgment . god is as jealous of the glory of his wisdom , as of his power ; and wisdom consists in the conduct and subordination of several causes to bring our purposes to effect ; but what is dispatched by an immediate supreme power , leaves no room for the exercise of wisdom . to conclude this point , which i have touch'd upon more than once , we must not be partial to any of god's attributes , and providence being a complexion of many , power , wisdom , justice , and goodness , when we give due place and honour to all these , then we most honour divine providence . chap. ix . how the sea will be diminish'd and consum'd . how the rocks and mountains will be thrown down and melted , and the whole exteriour frame of the earth dissolv'd into a deluge of fire . we have now taken a view of the causes of the conflagration , both ordinary and extraordinary : it remains to consider the manner of it ; how these causes will operate , and bring to pass an effect so great and so prodigious . we took notice before , that the grand obstruction would be from the sea , and from the mountains ; we must therefore take these to task in the first place ; and if we can remove them out of our way , or overcome what resistance and opposition they are capable to make , the rest of the work will not be uneasie to us . the ocean indeed is a vast body of waters ; and we must use all our art and skill to dry it up , or consume it in a good measure , before we can compass our design . i remember the advice a philosopher gave amasis king of egypt , when he had a command sent him from the king of aethiopia , that he should drink up the sea. amasis being very anxious and sollicitous what answer he should make to this strange command , the philosopher bias advis'd him to make this round answer to the king ; that he was ready to perform his command and to drink up the sea , provided he would stop the rivers from flowing into his cup while he was drinking . this answer baffled the king , for he could not stop the rivers ; but this we must do , or we shall never be able to drink up the sea , or burn up the earth . neither will this be so impossible as it seems at first sight , if we reflect upon those preparations we have made towards it , by a general drought all over the earth . this we suppose will precede ●he conflagration , and by drying up the fountains and rivers , which daily feed the sea , will by degrees starve that monster , or reduce it to such a degree of weakness , that it shall not be able to make any great resistance . more than half an ocean of water flows into the sea every day , from the rivers of the earth , if you take them all together . this i speak upon a moderate computation . aristotle says the rivers carry more water into the sea , in the space of a year ▪ th●n would equal in bulk the whole globe of the earth . nay , some have ventur'd to affirm this of one single river , the volga , that runs into the caspian sea. 't is a great river indeed , and hath seventy mouths ; and so it had need have , to disgorge a mass of water equal to the body of the earth , in a years time . but we need not take such high measures ; there are at least an hundred great rivers that flow into the sea , from several parts of the earth , islands and continents , besides several thousands of lesser ones ; let us suppose these , all together , to pour as much water into the sea-chanel , every day , as is equal to half the ocean . and we shall be easily convinc'd of the reasonableness of this supposition , if we do but examine the daily expence of one river , and by that make an estimate of the rest . this we find calculated to our hands in the river po in italy ; a river of much what the same bigness with our thames , and disburthens it self into the gulph of venice . baptista riccioli hath computed how much water this river discharges in an hour , viz. . cubical paces of water , and consequently . in a day ; which is scarce credible to those that do not distinctly compute it . suppose then an hundred rivers as great as this or greater , to fall into the sea from the land ; besides thousands of lesser , that pay their tribute at the same time into the great receit of the ocean ; these all taken together , are capable to renew the sea every twice four and twenty hours . vvhich suppositions being admitted , if by a great and lasting drought these rivers were dried up , or the fountains from whence they flow , what would then become of that vast ocean , that before was so formidable to us ? 't is likely you will say , these great rivers cannot be dry'd up , tho' the little ones may ; and therefore we must not suppose such an universal stop of waters , or that they will all fail , by any drought whatsoever . but great rivers being made up of little ones , if these fail , those must be diminish'd , if not quite drain'd and exhausted . it may be all fountains and springs do not proceed from the same causes , or the same original ; and some are much more copious than others ; for such differences we will allow what is due ; but still the driness of the air and of the earth continuing , and all the sources and supplies of moisture , both from above and from below , being lessen'd or wholly discontinued , a general decay of all fountains and rivers must necessarily follow , and consequently of the sea , and of its fulness that depends upon them . and that 's enough for our present purpose . the first step therefore towards the consumption of the ocean will be the diminution or suspension of the rivers that run into it . the next will be an evacuation by subterraneous passages ; and the last , by eruptions of fires in the very chanel of it , and in the midst of the waters . as for subterraneous evacutions , we cannot doubt but that the sea hath out-lets at the bottom of it ; whereby it discharges that vast quantity of water that flows into it every day , and that could not be discharg'd so fast as it comes from the wide mouths of the rivers , by percolation or straining thorough the sands . seas also communicate with one another by these internal passages ; as is manifest from those particular seas that have no external out-let or issue , tho' they receive into them many great rivers , and sometimes the influx of other seas . so the caspian sea receives not only volga , which we mention'd before , but several other rivers , and yet hath no visible issue for its waters . the mediterranean sea , besides all the rivers it receives , hath a current flowing into it , at either end , from other seas ; from the atlantick ocean at the streights of gibralter , and from the black sea , above constantinople : and yet there is no passage above-ground , or visible derivation of the mediterranean waters out of their chanel ; which seeing they do not overfil , nor overflow the banks , 't is certain they must have some secret conveyances into the bowels of the earth , or subterraneous communication with other seas . lastly , from the whirl-pools of the sea , that suck in bodies that come within their reach , it seems plainly to appear , by that attraction and absorption , that there is a descent of waters in those places . wherefore when the current of the rivers into the sea is stopt , or in a great measure diminish'd ; the sea continuing to empty it self by these subterraneous passages , and having little or none of those supplies that it us'd to have from the land , it must needs be sensibly lessen'd ; and both contract its chanel into a narrower compass , and also have less depth in the waters that remain . and in the last place , we must expect fiery eruptions in several parts of the sea-chanel , which will help to suck up or evaporate the remaining waters . in the present state of nature there have been several instances of such eruptions of fire from the bottom of the sea ; and in that last state of nature , when all things are in a tendency to inflammation , and when earth-quakes and eruptions will be more frequent every where , we must expect them also more frequently by sea , as well as by land. 't is true , neither earth-quakes nor eruptions can happen in the middle of the great ocean , or in the deepest abyss , because there are no cavities , or mines below it , for the vapours and exhalations to lodge in ; but 't is not much of the sea-chanel that is so deep , and in other parts , especially in streights and near islands , such eruptions , like sea-volcano's , have frequently happen'd , and new islands have been made by such fiery matter thrown up from the bottom of the sea. thus , they say , those islands in the mediterranean call'd the vulcanian islands , had their original ; being matter cast up from the bottom of the sea , by the force of fire ; as new mountains sometimes are rais'd upon the earth . another island in the archipelago had the same original , whereof strabo gives an account . the flames , he says , sprung up through the waters , four days togeth●r , so as the whole sea was hot and burning ; and they rais'd by degrees , as with engines , a mass of earth , which made a new island , twelve furlongs in compass . and in the same archipelago , flames and smoke have several times ( particularly in the year . ) rise out of the sea , and fill'd the air with sulphureous scents and vapours . in like manner , in the island of s. michel , one of the tercera's , there have been , of later years , such eructations of fire and flames ; so strong and violent , that , at the depth of an hundred and sixty fathoms , they forc'd their way through the midst of the waters , from the bottom of the sea into the open air. as has been related by those that were eye-witnesses . in these three ways i conceive , the great force of the sea will be broken , and the mighty ocean reduc'd to a standing pool of putrid waters , without vent and without recruits . but there will still remain in the midst of the chanel a great mass of troubled liquors , like dregs in the bottom of the vessel ; which will not be drunk up till the earth be all on fire , and torrents of melted and sulphureous matter flow from the land , and mingle with this dead sea. but let us now leave the sea in this humble posture , and go on to attack the rocks and mountains which stand next in our way . see how scornfully they look down upon us , and bid defiance to all the elements . they have born the thunder and lightning of heaven , and all the artillery of the skies , for innumerable ages ; and do not fear the crackling of thorns and of shrubs that burn at their feet . let the towns and cities of the earth , say they , be laid in ashes ; let the woods and forests blaze away ; and the fat soyl of the earth fry in its own greafe ; these things will not affect us ; we can stand naked in the midst of a sea of fire , with our roots as deep as the foundations of the earth , and our heads above the clouds of the air. thus they proudly defie nature ; and it must be confest , that these , being , as it were , the bones of the earth , when the body is burning , will be the last consum'd ; and i am apt to think , if they could keep in the same posture they stand in now , and preserve themselves from falling , the fire could never get an entire power over them . but mountains are generally hollow , and that makes them subject to a double casualty ; first , of earth-quakes , secondly , of having their roots eaten away by water or by fire ; but by fire especially in this case : for we suppose there will be innumerable subterraneous fires smothering under ground , before the general fire breaks out ; and these by corroding the bowels of the earth , will make it more hollow and more ruinous ; and when the earth is so far dissolv'd , that the cavities within the mountains are fill'd with lakes of fire , then the mountains will sink , and fall into those boyling caldrons ; which , in time , will dissolve them , tho' they were as hard as adamant . there is another engine that will tear the earth with great violence , and rend in pieces whatsoever is above or about those parts of it . and that is the element of water , so gentle in it self , when undisturb'd . but 't is found by experience , that when water falls into liquid metals , it flies about with an incredible impetuosity , and breaks or bears down every thing that wou'd stop its motion and expansion . this force i take to come from the sudden and strong rarefaction of its parts : which make a kind of explosion , when it is sudden and vehement : and this is one of the greatest forces we know in nature . accordingly i am apt to think , that the marvellous force of volcano's , when they throw out lumps of rocks , great fragments of earth , and other heavy bodies , to such a vast height and distance , that it is done by this way of explosion : and that explosion made by the sudden rarefaction of sea-waters , that fall into pans or receptacles of molten ore and ardent liquors within the cavities of the mountain : and thereupon follow the noises , roarings , and eruptions of those places . 't is observ'd that volcano's are in mountains , and generally , if not always , near the sea : and when its waters by subterraneous passages , are driven under the mountain , either by a particular wind , or by a great agitation of the waves , they meet there with metals and fiery minerals dissolv'd , and are immediately , according to our supposition , rarefied , and by way of explosion fly out at the mouth or funnel of the mountain , bearing before then whatsoever stands in their way . whether this be a true account or no , of the present volcano's and their eruptions , 't is manifest that such cases as we have mention'd , will happen in the conflagration of the earth , and that such eruptions or disruptions of the earth will follow thereupon : and that these will contribute very much to the sinking of mountains , the splitting of rocks , and the bringing of all strong holds of nature under the power of the general fire . to conclude this point , the mountains will all be brought low , in that state of nature , either by earthquakes or subterraneous fires ; every valley shall be exalted , and every mountain and hill shall be made low . which will be literally true at the second coming of our saviour , as it was figuratively apply'd to his first coming . now , being once level'd with the rest of the earth , the question will only be , how they shall be dissolv'd . but there is no terrestrial body indissolvable to fire , if it have a due strength and continuance ; and this last fire will have both , in the highest degrees ; so that it cannot but be capable of dissolving all elementary compositions , how hard or solid soever they be . 't is true , these mountains and rocks , as i said before , will have the priviledge to be the last destroy'd . these , with the deep parts of the sea , and the polar regions of the earth , will undergo a flower fate , and be consum'd more leisurely . the action of the last fire may be distinguish'd into two times , or two assaults ; the first assault will carry off all mankind , and all the works of the earth that are easily combustible ; and this will be done with a quick and sudden motion . but the second assault , being employ'd about the consumption of such bodies or such materials as are not so easily subjected to fire , will be of long continuance , and the work of some years . and 't is fit it should be so ; that this flaming world may be view'd and consider'd by the neighbouring worlds about it , as a dreadful spectacle , and monument of god's wrath against disloyal and disobedient creatures . that by this example , now before their eyes , they may think of their own fate , and what may befal them , as well as another planet of the same elements and composition . thus much for the rocks and mountains ; which , you see , according to our hypothesis , will be level'd , and the whole face of the earth reduc'd to plainness and equality ; nay , which is more , melted and dissolv'd into a sea of liquid fire . and because this may seem a paradox , being more than is usually supposed , or taken notice of , in the doctrine of the conflagration , it will not be improper in this place to give an account , wherein our idea of the conflagration and its effects , differs from the common opinion and the usual representation of it . 't is commonly suppos'd , that the conflagration of the world is like the burning of a city , where the walls and materials of the houses are not melted down , but scorch'd , inflam'd , demolish'd , and made unhabitable . so they think in the burning of the world , such bodies , or such parts of nature , as are sit fewel for the fire , will be inflam'd , and , it may be , consum'd , or reduc'd to smoke and ashes ; but other bodies that are not capable of inflammation , will only be scorch'd and defac'd , the beauty and furniture of the earth spoil'd , and by that means , say they , it will be laid wast and become unhabitable . this seems to me a very short and imperfect idea of the conflagration ; neither agreeable to scripture , nor to the deductions that may be made from scripture . we therefore suppose that this is but half the work , this destroying of the outward garniture of the earth is but the first onset , and that the conflagration will end in a dissolution and liquefaction of the elements and all the exteriour region of the earth : so as to become a true deluge of fire , or a sea of fire overspreading , the whole globe of the earth . this state of the conflagration , i think , may be plainly prov'd , partly by the expressions of scripture concerning it , and partly from the renovation of the earth that is to follow upon it . s. peter , who is our chief guide in the doctrine of the conflagration , says , the elements will be melted with fervent heat besides burning up the works of the earth . then adds , seeing all these things shall be dissolv'd , &c. these terms of liquefaction and dissolution cannot , without violence , be restrained to simple devastation and superficial scorching . such expressions carry the work a great deal further , even to that full sence which we propose . besides , the prophets often speak of the melting of the earth , or of the hills and mountains , at the presence of the lord , in the day of his wrath . and s. iohn ( apoc. . . ) tells us of a sea of glass , mingled with fire ; where the saints stood , singing the song of moses , and triumphing over their enemies , the spiritual pharaoh and his host , that were swallowed up in it . the sea of glass must be a sea of molten glass ; it must be fluid , not solid , if a sea ; neither can a solid substance be said to be mingled with fire , as this was . and to this answers the lake of fire and brimstone , which the beast and false prophet were thrown into alive , apoc. . . these all refer to the end of the world and the last fire , and also plainly imply , or express rather , that state of liquefaction which we suppose and assert . furthermore , the renovation of the world , or the new heaven● and new earth , which s. peter , out of the prophets , tells us shall spring out of these that are burnt and dissolved , do suppose this earth reduc'd into a fluid chaos , that it may lay a foundation for a second world. if you take such a skeleton of an earth , as your scorching fire would leave behind it ; where the flesh is ●orn from the bones , and the rocks and mountains stand naked and staring upon you ; the sea , half empty , gaping at the sun , and the cities all in ruines and in rubbish ▪ how would you raise a new world from this ? and a world fit to be an habitation for the righteous ; for so s. peter makes that to be , which is to succeed after the conflagration . and a vvorld also without a sea , so s. iohn describes the new earth he saw . as these characters do not agree to the present earth , so neither would they agree to your future one ; for if that dead lump could revive and become habitable again , it would however retain all the imperfections of the former earth , besides some scars and deformities of its own . vvherefore if you would cast the earth into a new and better mould , you must first melt it down ; and the last fire , being as a 〈◊〉 fire , will make an improvement in it , both as to matter and form . to conclude , it must be reduc'd into a fluid mass , in the nature of a chaos , as it was at first ; but this last will be a fiery chaos , as that was watery ; and from this state it will emerge again into a paradisiacal world. but this being the subject of the following book , we will discourse no more of it in this place . chap. x. concerning the beginning and progress of the conflagration , what part of the earth will first be burnt . the manner of the future destruction of rome , according to prophetical indications . the last state and consummation of the general fire . having remov'd the chief obstructions to our design , and show'd a method for weakning the strength of nature , by draining the trench , and beating down those bulwarks , wherein she seems to place her greatest confidence : we must now go to work ; making choice of the weakest part of nature for our first attack , where the fire may be the easiest admitted , and the best maintain'd and preserv'd . and for our better direction , it will be of use to consider what we noted before , viz. that the conflagration is not a pure natural fatality , but a mi●t fatality ; or a divine judgment supported by natural causes . and if we can find some part of the earth , or of the christian world , that hath more of these natural dispositions to inflammation than the rest ; and is also represented by scripture as a more peculiar object of god's judgments at the coming of our saviour , we may justly pitch upon that part of the world as first to be destroyed . nature and providence conspiring to make that the first sacrifice to this fiery vengeance . now as to natural dispositions , 〈◊〉 any country or region of the earth , to be set on fire , they seem to be chiefly these two , sulphureousness of the soil , and an hollow , mountainous construction of the ground . where these two dispositions meet in the same tract or territory , ( the one as to the quality of the matter , and the other as to the form ) it stands like a pile of fit materials , ready set to have the fire put to it . and as to divine indications where this general fire will 〈◊〉 , the scripture points to the seat of antichrist wheresoever that is , for the beginning of it . the scripture , i say , points at this , two ways , first , in telling us that our saviour at his coming in flames of fire shall consume the wicked one. the man of sin , the son of perdition , with the spirit of his mouth , and shall destroy him with the brightness of his presence . secondly , under the name of mystical babylon ; which is allowed by all to be the seat of antichrist , and by scripture always condemn'd to the fire . this we find in plain words asserted by s. iohn in the th chap. of his revelations , and in the th . ( ver . . ) under the name of the great whore ; which is the same city and the same seat , according to the interpretation of scripture it self . and the prophet daniel when he had set the ancient of days upon his fiery throne , says , the body of the beast was given to the burning flame . which i take to be the same thing with what s. iohn says afterwards , ( apoc. . . ) the beast and the false prophet were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone . by these places of scripture it seems manifest , that antichrist , and the seat of antichrist , will be consumed with fire , at the coming of our saviour . and 't is very reasonable and decorous , that the grand traitor and head of the apostasie should be made the first example of the divine vengeance . thus much being allow'd from scripture , let us now return to nature again ; to seek out that part of the christian world , that from its own constitution is most subject to burning ; by the sulphureousness of its soil , and its fiery mountains and caverns . this we shall easily find to be the roman territory , or the countrey of italy : which , by all accounts , ancient and modern , is a store-house of fire ; as if it was condemn'd to that fate by god and nature , and to be an incendiary , as it were , to the rest of the vvorld . and seeing mystical babylon , the seat of antichrist , is the same rome , and its territory ; as it is understood by most interpreters , of former and later ages ; you see both our lines meet in this point ; and that there is a fairness , on both hands , to conclude , that , at the glorious appearance of our saviour , the conflagration will begin at the city of rome and the roman territory . nature hath sav'd us the pains of kindling a fire in those parts of the earth , for , since the memory of man , there have always been subterraneous fires in italy . and the romans did not preserve their vestal fire with more constancy , than nature hath done her fiery mountains in some part or other of that territory . let us then suppose , when the fatal time draws near , all these burning mountains to be fill'd and replenish'd with fit materials for such a design ; and when our saviour appears in the clouds , with an host of angels , that they all begin to play , as fire-works at the triumphal entry of a prince . let vesuvius , aetna , strongyle , and all the vulcanian islands , break out into flames ; and by the earth-quakes , which then will rage , let us suppose new eruptions , or new mountains open'd , in the apennines , and near to rome ; and to vomit out fire in the same manner as the old volcano's . then let the sulphureous ground take fire ; and seeing the soil of that country , in several places , is so full of brimstone , that the steams and smoke of it visibly rise out of the earth ; we may reasonably suppose , that it will burn openly , and be inflam'd , at that time . lastly , the lightnings of the air , and the flaming streams of the melting skies , will mingle and joyn with these burnings of the earth . and these three causes meeting together , as they cannot but make a dreadful scene , so they will easily destroy and consume whatsoever lies within the compass of their fury . thus you may suppose the beginning of the general fire ; and it will be carried on by like causes , tho' in lesser degrees , in other parts of the earth . but as to rome , there is still , in my opinion , a more dreadful fate that will attend it ; namely , to be absorpt or swallowed up in a lake of fire and brimstone , after the manner of sodom and gomorrha . this , in my judgment , will be the fare and final conclusion of mystical babylon , to sink as a great milstone into the sea , and never to appear more . hear what the prophet says , a mighty angel took up a stone , like a great milstone , and cast it into the sea , saying , thus , with violence , shall that great city babylon be thrown down ; and shall be found no more at all . simply to be burnt , does not at all answer to this description of its perishing , by sinking like a milstone into the sea , and never appearing more , nor of , not having its place ever more found ; that is , leaving no remains or marks of it . a city that is only burnt , cannot be said to fall like a milstone into the sea ; or that it can never more be found : for after the burning of a city , the ruines stand , and its place is well known . wherefore , in both respects , besides this exteriour burning , there must be an absorption of this mystical babylon , the seat of the beast ; and thereupon a total disappearance of it . this also agrees with the suddenness of the judgment , which is a repeated character of it . chap. . , , , . now what kind of absorption this will be , into what , and in what manner , we may learn from what st. iohn says afterwards , ( ch . . . ) the beast and the false prophets were cast alive into a lake of fire and brimstone . you must not imagine that they were bound , hand and foot , and so thrown headlong into this lake , but they were swallowed up alive , they and theirs , as corah and his company . or , to use a plainer example , after the manner of sodom and gomorrha ; which perisht by fire , and at the same time sunk into a dead sea , or a lake of brimstone . this was a lively type of the fate of rome , or mystical babylon ; and 't is fit it should resemble sodom , as well in its punishment , as in its crimes . neither is it a hard thing to conceive how such an absorption may come to pass ; that being a thing so usual in earth-quakes , and earth-quakes being so frequent in that region . and lastly , that this should be after the manner of sodom , turn'd into a lake of fire , will not be at all strange , if we consider , that there will be many subterraneous lakes of fire at that time , when the bowels of the earth begin to melt , and the mountains spew out streams of liquid fire . the ground therefore being hollow and rotten in those parts , when it comes to be shaken with a mighty earth-quake , the foundations will sink , and the whole frame fall into an abyss of fire below , as a milstone into the sea. and this will give occasion to that cry , babylon the great is fallen , is fallen , and shall never more be found . this seems to be a probable account , according to scripture and reason , of the beginning of the general fire , and of the particular fate of rome . but it may be propos'd here as an objection against this hypothesis , that the mediterranean sea , lying all along the coast of italy , must needs be a sufficient guard to that country against the invasion of fire ; or at least must needs extinguish it , before it can do much mischief there , or propagate it self into other countreys . i thought we had in a good measure prevented this objection before , by showing how the ocean would be diminish'd before the conflagration , and especially the arms and sinus's of the ocean ; and of these none would be more subject to this diminution than the mediterranean ; for , receiving its supplies from the ocean and the black sea , if these came to sink in their chanels , they would not rise so high , as to be capable to flow into the mediterranean , at either end . and these supplies being cut off , it would soon empty it self so far , partly by evaporation , and partly by subterraneous passages , as to shrink from all its shores , and become only a standing pool of water in the middle of the chanel . nay , 't is possible , by flouds of fire descending from the many volcano's upon its shores , it might it self be converted into a lake of fire , and rather help than obstruct the progress of the conflagration . it may indeed be made a question , whether this fiery vengeance upon the seat of antichrist , will not precede the general conflagration , at some distance of time , as a fore-runner and forewarner to the world , that the rest of the people may have space to repent ; and particularly the iews , being spectators of this tragedy , and of the miraculous appearance of our saviour , may see the hand of god in it , and be convinc'd of the truth and divine authority of the christian religion . i say , this supposition would leave room for these and some other prophetick scenes , which we know not well where to place ; but seeing the day of the lord is represented in scripture as one entire thing , without interruption or discontinuation , and that it is to begin with the destruction of antichrist , we have warrant enough to pursue the rest of the conflagration from this beginning and introduction . let us then suppose the same preparations made in the other parts of the earth to continue the fire ; for the conflagration of the world being a work of providence , we may be sure such measures are taken , as will effectually carry it on , when once begun . the body of the earth will be loosen'd and broken by earth-quakes , the more solid parts impregnated with sulphur , and the cavities fill'd with unctuous fumes and exhalations ; so as the whole mass will be but as one great funeral pile , ready built , and wanting nothing but the hand of a destroying angel , to give it fire . i will not take upon me to determine which way this devouring enemy will steer his course from italy , or in what order he will advance and enter the several regions of our continent ; that would be an undertaking , as uncertain , as useless . but we cannot doubt of his success , which way soever he goes : unless where the chanel of the ocean may chance to stop him . but as to that , we allow , that different continents may have different fires ; not propagated from one another , but of distinct sources and originals ; and so likewise in remote islands ; and therefore no long passage or trajection will be requir'd from shore to shore . and even the ocean it self , will at length be as fiery as any part of the land ; but that , with its rocks , like death , will be the last thing subdued . as to the animate world , the fire will over-run it with a swift and rapid course , and all living creatures will be suffocated or consumed , at the first assault . and at the same time , the beauty of the fields and the external decorations of nature will be defac'd . then the cities and the towns , and all the works of man's hands , will burn like stubble before the wind . these will be soon dispatch'd ; but the great burthen of the work still remains ; which is that l●quefaction we mention'd before , or a melting fire , much more strong and vehement than these transient blazes , which do but sweep the surface of the earth . this liquefaction , i say , we prov'd before out of scripture , as the last state of the fiery deluge . and 't is this , which at length , will make the sea it self a lake of fire and brimstone . when instead of rivers of waters which used to flow into it from the land , there come streams and rivulets of sulphureous liquors , and purulent melted matter , which following the tract of their natural gravity will fall into this great drain of the earth . upon which mixture , the remaining parts of sweet water will soon evaporate , and the salt mingling with the sulphur will make a dead sea ▪ an asphaltites , a lake of sodom , a cup of the dregs of the wine of the fierceness of god's wrath. we noted before two remarkable effects of the burning mountains ; which would contribute to the conflagration of the world ; and gave instances of both in former eruptions of aetna and vesuvius . one was , of those balls or lumps of fire , which they throw about in the time of their rage ; and the other , of those torrents of liquid fire , which rowl down their sides to the next seas or valleys . in the first respect these mountains are as so many batteries , planted by providence in several parts of the earth , to fling those fiery bombs into such places , or such cities , as are marked out for destruction . and in the second respect , they are to dry up the waters , and the rivers , and the sea it self , when they fall into its chanel . t. fazellus , a sicilian , who writ the history of that island , tells us of such a river of fire ( upon an eruption of aetna ) near twenty eight miles long ; reaching from the mountain to port longina ; and might have been much longer if it had not been stopt by the sea. many such as these , and far greater , we ought in reason to imagin , when all the earth begins to melt , and to ripen towards a dissolution . it will then be full of these sulphureous juices , as grapes with wine ; and these will be squeez'd out of the earth into the sea , as out of a wine-press into the receiver ; to fill up that cup , as we said before , with the wine of the fierceness of god's wrath . if we may be allow'd to bring prophetical passages of scripture to a natural sence , as doubtless some of those must that respect the end of the world , these phrases which we have now suggested , of the wine-press of the wrath of god. drinking the fierceness of his wine , poured , without mixture , into the cup of his indignation , with expressions of the like nature that occur sometimes in the old prophets , but especially in the apocalypse ; these , i say , might receive a full and emphatical explication from this state of things which now lies before us . i would not exclude any other explication of less force , as that of alluding to the bitter cup or mixt potion that us'd to be given to malefactors : but that methinks , is a low sence when applyed to these places in the apocalypse . that these phrases signifie god's remarkable judgments , all allow , and here they plainly relate to the end of the world , to the last plagues , and the last of the last plagues , chap. . . besides , the angel that presided over this judgment , is said to be an angel that had power over fire ; and those who are to drink this potion , are said to be tormented with fire and brimstone , ch . . . this presiding angel seems to be our saviour himself ( ● . . . ) who when he comes to execute divine vengeance upon the earth , gives his orders in these words , gather the clusters of the vine of the earth , for her grapes are fully ripe . and thereupon the destroying angel thrust in his sickle into the earth , and gathered the vine of the earth , and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of god. and this made a potion compounded of several ingredients , but not diluted with water ; ( ch . . . ) and was indeed a potion of fire and brimstone and all burning materials mixt together . the similitudes of scripture are seldom nice and exact , but rather bold , noble and great ; and according to the circumstances which we have observ'd , this vineyard seems to be the earth , and this vintage the end of the world ; the pressing of the grapes into the cup or vessel that receives them , the distillation of burning liquors from all parts of the earth into the trough of the sea ; and that lake of red fire , the bloud of those grapes so flowing into it . 't is true , this judgment of the vintage and wine-press , and the effects of it , seem to aim more especially at some particular region of the earth , ●h . . . and i am not against that , provided the substance of the explication be still retained , and the universal sea of fire be that which follows in the next chapter , under the name of a sea of glass , mingled with fire ; this i think expresses the highest and compleat state of the conflagration ; when the mountains are fled away , and not only so , but the exterior region of the earth quite dissolv'd , like wax before the sun ; the chanel of the sea fill'd with a mass of fluid fire , and the same fire overflowing all the globe , and covering the whole earth , as the deluge , or the first abyss . then will the triumphal songs and hallelujah's be sung for the victories of the lamb over all his enemies and over nature it self . great and marvellous are thy works , lord god almighty : iust and true are thy ways , thou king of saints , who shall not fear thee , o lord , and glorisie thy name ? for thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest . chap. xi . an account of those extraordinary phaenomena and wonders in nature , that , according to scripture , will precede the coming of christ , and the conflagration of the world. if we reflect upon the history of burning mountains , we cannot but observe , that , before their eruptions , there are usually some changes in the earth or in the air , in the sea or in the sun it self ; as signs and forerunners of the ensuing storm . we may then easily conclude that when the last great storm is a coming , and all the volcano's of the earth ready to burst , and the frame of the world to be dissolv'd , there will be prevlous signs , in the heavens and on the earth , to introduce this tragical fate . nature cannot come to that extremity , without some symptomes of her illness , nor die silently , without pangs or complaint . but we are naturally heavy of belief as to futurities , and can scarce fancy any other scenes , or other state of nature , than what is present , and continually before our eyes ; we will therefore , to cure our unbelief , take scripture for our guide , and keep within the limits of its predictions . the scripture plainly tells us of signs or prodigies that will precede the coming of our saviour , and the end of the world ; both in the heavens and on the earth . the sun , moon , and stars , will be disturb'd in their motion or aspect ; the earth and the sea will roar and tremble , and the mountains fall at his presence . these things both the prophets and evangelists have told us ; but what we do not understand , we are flow to believe ; and therefore those that cannot apprehend how such changes should come to pass in the natural world , chuse rather to allegorize all these expressions of scripture , and to make them signifie no more than political changes of governments and empires , and the great confusions that will be amongst the people and princes of the earth towards the end of the world. so that darkning of the sun , shaking of the earth , and such like phrases of scripture , according to these interpreters , are to be understood only in a moral sence . and they think they have a warrant for this interpretation from the prophetick style of the old testament , where the destruction of cities , and empires , and great princes , is often describ'd by such figures , taken from the natural world. so much is true indeed as to the phrase of the old prophets in some places ; but i take the true reason and design of that , to be a typical adumbration of what was intended should literally come to pass in the great and universal destruction of the world ; whereof these partial destructions were only shadows and prefigurations . but to determine this case , let us take the known and approved rule for interpreting scripture , not to recede from the literal sence without necessity , or where the nature of the subject will admit of a literal interpretation . now as to those cases in the old testament , history and matter of fact do show that they did not come to pass literally , therefore must not be so understood ; but as for those that concern the end of the world , as they cannot be determin'd in that way , seeing they are yet future ; so neither is there any natural repugnancy or improbability that they should come literally to pass : on the contrary , from the intuition of that state of nature , one would rather conclude the probability or necessity of them ; that there may and must be such disorders in the external world before the general dissolution . besides , if we admit prodigies in any case , or providential indications of god's judgments to come , there can be no case suppos'd , wherein it will be more reasonable or proper to admit them , than when they are to be the messengers of an universal vengeance and destruction . let us therefore consider what signs scripture hath taken notice of , as destin'd to appear at that time , to publish , as it were , and proclaim the approaching end of the world ; and how far they will admit of a natural explication , according to those grounds we have already given , in explaining the causes and manner of the conflagration . these signs are chiefly , earth-quakes , and extraordinary commotions of the seas . then the darkness or bloudy colour of the sun and moon ; the shaking of the powers of heaven , the fulgurations of the air and the falling of stars . as to earth-quakes , we have upon several occasions shown , that these will necessarily be multiplied towards the end of the world ; when , by an excess of drought and heat , exhalations will more abound within the earth ; and , from the same causes , their inflammation also will be more frequent , than in the ordinary state of nature . and as all bodies , when dry'd , become more porous and full of vacuities ; so the body of the earth will be at that time : and the mines or cavities wherein the fumes and exhalations lodge , will accordingly be of greater extent , open into one another , and continued through long tracts and regions ; by which means , when an earth-quake comes , as the shock will be more strong and violent , so it may reach to a vast compass of ground , and whole islands or continents be shaken at once , when these trains have taken fire . the effects also of such concussions , will not only affect mankind , but all the elements and the inhabitants of them . i do not wonder therefore that frequent and great earth-quakes should be made a sign of an approaching conflagration ; and the highest expressions of the prophets concerning the day of the lord , may be understood in a literal sence , if they be finally referr'd to the general destruction of the world , and not terminated solely upon those particular countries or people , to whom they are at first directed . hear what ezekiel says upon this subject : for in my iealousy and in the fire of my wrath have i spoken ; surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of israel . so that the fishes of the sea , and the fowls of the heaven , and the beasts of the field , and all creeping things that creep upon the earth ; and all the men that are upon the face of the earth , shall shake at my presence ; and the mountains shall be thrown down , and the s●eep places shall fall , and every wall sha●l fall to the ground . — and i will rain an over-flowing rain , and great hail-stones , fire and brimstone . the prophet isaias describes these judgments in terms as high , and relating to the natural world : the windows from on high are open , and the foundations of the earth do shake . the earth is utterly broken down , the earth is clean dissolv'd , the earth is moved exceedingly . the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard , and shall be removed like a cottage , and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it , and it shall fall and not rise again . to restrain all these things to iudaea , as their adequate and final object , is to force both the words and the sence . here are manifest allusions and foot-steps of the destruction of the world , and the dissolution of the earth ; partly as it was in the deluge , and partly as it will be in its last ruine ; torn , broken , a●d shatter'd . but most men have fallen into that errour , to fancy both the destructions of the world , by water and by fire , quiet , noiseless things ; executed without any ruines or ruptures in nature ; that the deluge was but a great pool of still waters , made by the rains and inundation of the sea : and the conflagration will be only a superficial scorching of the earth , with a running fire . these are false idea's , and unsuitable to scripture : for as the deluge is there represented a disruption of the abyss , and consequently of the then habitable earth ; so the future combustion of it , according to the representations of scripture , is to be usher'd in and accompanied with all sorts of violent impressions upon nature ; and the chief instrument of these violences will be earth-quakes . these will tear the body of the earth , and shake its foundations ; rend the rocks , and pull down the tall mountains , sometimes overturn , and sometimes swallow up towns and cities ; disturb and disorder the elements , and make a general confusion in nature . next to earth-quakes , we may consider the roarings of a troubled sea. this is another sign of a dying world. s. luke hath set down a great many of them together ; let us hear his words : and there shall be signs in the sun , and in the moon , and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations , with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring . mens hearts failing them for fear , and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth : for the powers of heaven shall be shaken . and then shall they see the son of man coming in a cloud , with power and great glory , &c. as some would allegorize these signs , which we noted before ; so others would confine them to the destruction of ierusalem . but 't is plain , by this coming of the son of man in the clouds , and the redemption of the faithful , and at the same time , the sound of the last trumpet , which all relate to the end of the world , that something further is intended than the destruction of ierusalem . and though there were prodigies at the destruction of that city and state , yet not of this force , nor with these circumstances . 't is true , those partial destructions and calamities , as we observ'd before , of babylon , ierusalem , and the roman empire , being types of an universal and final destruction of all god●s enemies , have , in the pictures of them , some of the same strokes , to show they are all from the same hand ; decreed by the same wisdom , foretold by the same spirit ; and the same power and providence that have already wrought the one , will also work the other , in due time ; the former being still pledges , as well as prefigurations , of the latter . let us then proceed in our explication of this sign , the roaring of the sea , and the waves , applying it to the end of the world. i do not look upon this ominous noise of the sea , as the effect of a tempest , for then it would not strike such a terror into the inhabitants of the earth , nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the world , as this will do ; what proceeds from visible causes , and such as may happen in a common course of nature , does not so much amaze us , nor affright us . therefore 't is more likely these disturbances of the sea proceed from below , partly by sympathy and revulsions from the land ; by earth-quakes there , and exhausting the subterraneous cavities of waters , which will draw again from the seas what supplies they can : and partly by earth-quakes in the very sea it self ; with exhalations and fiery eruptions from the bottom of it . things indeed that happen at other times , more or less , but at this conjuncture , all causes conspiring , they will break out with more violence , and put the whole body of the waters into a tumultuary motion . i do not see any occasion , at this time , for high winds ; neither can think a superficial agitation of the waves would answer this phaenomenon ; but 't is rather from contorsions in the bowels of the ocean , which make it roar , as it were , for pain . some causes impelling the waters one way , and some another , make intestine struglings and contrary motions ; from whence proceed unusual noises , and such a troubled state of the waters , as does not only make the sea innavigable , but also strikes terror into all the maritime inhabitants , that live within the view or sound of it . so much for the earth and the sea. the face of the heavens also will be chang'd in divers respects . the sun and the moon darkned , or of a bloudy , or pale countenance ; the celestial powers shaken , and the stars unsetled in their orbs. as to the sun and moon , their obscuration or change of colour is no more than what happens commonly before the eruption of a fiery mountain ; dion cassius , you see , hath taken notice of it in that eruption of aetna which he describes ; and others upon the like occasions in vesuvius . and 't is a thing of easie explication ; for according as the atmosphere is more or less clear or turbid , the luminaries are more or less conspicuous ; and according to the nature of those fumes or exhalations that swim in the air , the face of the sun is discolour'd sometimes one way , sometimes another . you see , in an ordinary experiment , when we look upon one another through the fumes of sulphur , we appear pale like so many ghosts ; and in some foggy days the sun hangs in the firmament as a lump of bloud . and botl● the sun and moon at their rising , when their light comes to us through the thick vapours of the earth , are red and fiery . these are not changes wrought in the substance of the luminaries , but in the modifications of their light as it flows to us . for colours are but light in a sort of disguise ; as it passes through mediums of diff●rent qualities , it takes different forms ; but the matter is still the same , and returns to its simplicity when it comes again into a pure air . now the air may be changed and corrupted to a great degree , tho' there appear no visible change to our eye . this is manifest from infectious airs , and the changes of the air before storms and rains ; which we feel commonly sooner than we see , and some other creatures perceive much sooner than we do 't is no wonder then if before this mighty storm the dispositions of the air be quite alter'd ; especially if we consider , what we have so often noted before , that there will be a great abundance of fumes and exhalations through the whole atmosphere of the earth , before the last fire breaks out ; whereby the light of the sun may be tinctur'd in several ways . and lastly , it may be so order'd providentially , that the body of the sun may contract at that time some spots or maculae far greater than usual , and by that means be really darkened ; not to us only , but to all the neighbouring planets . and this will have a proportionable effect upon the moon too , for the diminution of her light . so that upon all suppositions these phaenomena are very intelligible , if not necessary forerunners of the conflagration . the next sign given us , is , that the powers of heaven will be shaken . by the heavens in this place is either understood the planetary heavens , or that of the fix'd stars ; but this latter being vastly distant from the earth , cannot be really affected by the conflagration . nor the powers of it , that is , its motions or the bodies contain'd in it , any way shaken or disorder'd . but in appearance these celestial bodies may seem to be shaken , and their motions disorder'd ; as in a tempest by night , when the ship is toss'd with contrary and uncertain motions , the heavens seem to fluctuate over our heads , and the stars to reel to and fro , when the motion is only in our own vessel . so possibly the uncertain motions of the atmosphere , and sometimes of the earth it self , may so vary the sight and aspect of this starry canopy , that it may seem to shake and tremble . but if we understand this of the planetary heavens , they may really be shaken . providence either ordering some great changes in the other planets previously to the conflagration of our planet ; as 't is probable there was a great change in venus , at the time of our deluge . or the great shakings and concussions of our globe at that time , affecting some of the neighbouring orbs , at least that of the moon , may cause anomalies and irregularities in their motions . but the sence that i should pitch upon chiefly for explaining this phrase of shaking the powers of heaven , comprehends , in a good measure , both these heavens , of the fix'd stars and of the planets ; 't is that change of situation in the axis of the earth , which we have formerly mention'd ; whereby the stars will seem to change their places , and the whole universe to take another posture . this is sufficiently known to those that know the different consequences of a strait or oblique posture of the earth . and as the heavens and the earth were , in this sence , once shaken before ; namely at the deluge , when they lost their first situation ; so now they will be shaken again , and thereby return to the posture they had before that first concussion . and this i take to be the true literal sence of the prophet haggai , repeated by s. paul , yet once more i shake not the earth only , but also heaven . the last sign we shall take notice of , is that of falling stars . and the stars shall fall from heaven , says our saviour , matt. . . we are sure , from the nature of the thing , that this cannot be understood either of fix'd stars or planets ; for if either of these should tumble from the skies , and reach the earth , they would break it all in pieces , or swallow it up , as the sea does a sinking ship ; and at the same time would put all the inferiour universe into confusion . it is necessary therefore by these stars to understand either ●iery meteors falling from the middle region of the air , or comets and blazing stars . no doubt there will be all sorts of fiery meteors at that time ; and amongst others , those that are call'd falling stars ; which , tho' they are not considerable singly , yet if they were multiplied in great numbers , falling , as the prophet says , as leafs from the vine , or figs from the fig-tree , they would make an astonishing fight . but i think this expression does chiefly refer to comets ; which are dead stars , and may truly be said to fall from heaven , when they leave their seats above , and those ethereal regions wherein they were fixt , and sink into this lower world ; where they wander about with a blaze in their tail , or a flame about their head , as if they came on purpose to be the messengers of some fiery vengeance . if numbers of these blazing stars should fall into our heaven together , they would make a dreadful and formidable appearance ; and i am apt to think that providence hath so contriv'd the periods of their motion , that there will be an unusual concourse of them at that time , within the view of the earth , to be a prelude to this last and most tragical scene of the sublunary world. i do not know any more in scripture relating to the last fire , that , upon the grounds laid down in this discourse , may not receive a satisfactory explication . it reaches , beyond the signs before mention'd , to the highest expressions of scripture , as lakes of fire and brimstone , a molten sea mingled with fire , the liquefaction of mountains , and of the earth it self . we need not now look upon these things as hyperbolical and poetical strains , but as barefac'd prophecies , and things that will literally come to pass as they are predicted . one thing more will be expected in a just hypothesis or theory of the conflagration , namely , that it should answer , not only all the conditions and characters belonging to the last fire , but should also make way and lay the foundation of another world to succeed this , or of new heavens and a new earth . for s. peter hath taught this doctrine of the renovation of the world , as positively and expresly as that of its conflagration . and therefore they that so explain the destruction of the present world , as to leave it afterwards in an eternal rubbish , without any hopes of restoration , do not answer the christian doctrine concerning it . but as to our hypothesis , we are willing to stand this far ther trial , and be accountable for the consequences of the conflagration , as well as the antecedents and manner of it . and we have accordingly in the following book , from the ashes of this , rais'd a new earth ; which we leave to the enjoyment of the readers . in the mean time , to close our discourse , we will bid farewel to the present world , in a short review of its last flames . chap. xii . an imperfect description of the coming of our saviour , and of the world on fire . certainly there is nothing in the whole course of nature , or of humane affairs , so great and so extraordinary , as the two last scenes of them , the coming of our saviour , and the burning of the world . if we could draw in our minds the pictures of these , in true and lively colours , we should scarce be able to attend to any thing else , or ever divert our imagination from these two objects . for what can more affect us than the greatest glory that ever was visible upon earth , and at the same time the greatest terror . a god descending in the head of an army of angels , and a burning world under his feet . these are things truly above expression ; and not only so , but so different and remote from our ordinary thoughts and conceptions , that he that comes nearest to a true description of them , shall be look'd upon as the most extravagant . 't is our unhappiness to be so much used to little trifling things in this life , that when any thing great is represented to us , it appears phantastical : an idea , made by some contemplative or melancholy person . i will not venture therefore , without premising some grounds out of scripture , to say any thing concerning this glorious appearance . as to the burning of the world , i think we have already laid a foundation sufficient to support the highest description that can be made of it ; but the coming of our saviour being wholly out of the way of natural causes , it is reasonable we should take all directions we can from scripture , that we may give a more fitting and just account of that sacred pomp. i need not mention those places of scripture that prove the second coming of our saviour in general , or his return to the earth again at the end of the world : no christian can doubt of this , 't is so often repeated in those sacred writings . but the manner and circumstances of this coming , or of this appearance , are the things we now enquire into . and in the first place , we may observe that scripture tells us our saviour will come in flaming fire , and with an host of mighty angels ; so says s. paul to the thessalonians , the lord iesus shall be revealed from heaven with mighty angels ; in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not god , and obey not the gospel of our lord iesus christ. in the second place , our saviour says himself , the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels . from which two places we may learn , first , that the appearance of our saviour will be with flames of fire . secondly , with an host of angels . thirdly , in the glory of his father . by which glory of the father i think is understood that throne of glory represented by daniel for the ancient of days . for our saviour speaks here to the iews , and probably in a way intelligible to them ; and the glory of the father which they were most likely to understand , would be either the glory wherein god appeared at mount sinai , upon the● giving of the law , whereof the apostle speaks largely to the hebrews ; or that which daniel represents him in at the day of judgment . and this latter being more proper to the subject of our saviour's discourse , 't is more likely this expression refers to it . give me leave therefore to set down that description of the glory of the father upon his throne , from the prophet daniel , ch . . . and i beheld 〈◊〉 the thrones were * set , and the ancient of days did sit , whose garment was white as snow , and the hair of his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame , and his wheels as burning fire . a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him , thousand thousands ministred unto him , and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him , with this throne of the glory of the father , let us if you please , compare the throne of the son of god , as it was seen by s. iohn in the apocalypse , ch . . , &c. and immediately i was in the spirit : and behold a throne was set in heaven , and one sat on the throne . and he that fat , was to look upon like a iasper , and a sardine stone : and there was a rain-bow round about the throne , in appearance like unto an emerald . and out of the throne proceeded lightnings , and thunderings , and voices , &c. and before the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal . in those representations you have some beams of the glory of the father and of the son ; which may be partly a direction to us , in conceiving the 〈◊〉 of our saviour's appearance . let us further observe , if you please , how external nature will be affected at the sight of god , or of this approaching glory . the scripture often takes notice of this , and in terms very high and eloquent . the psalmist seems to have lov'd that subject above others ; to set out the greatness of the day of the lord , and the consternation of all nature at that time . he throws about his thunder and lightning , makes the hills to melt like wax at the presence of the lord , and the very foundations of the earth to tremble , as you may see in the th . psalm , and the . and the . and several others , which are too long to be here inserted . so the prophet habakkuk , in his prophetick prayer , chap. d. hath many ejaculations to the like purpose . and the prophet nahum says , the mountains quake at him , and the hills melt , and the earth is burnt at his presence : yea , the world , and all that dwell therein . but more particularly , as to the face of nature just before the coming of our saviour , that may be best collected from the signs of his coming mention'd in the precedent chapter . those all meeting together , help to prepare and make ready a theater , fit for an angry god to come down upon . the countenance of the heavens will be dark and gloomy ; and a veil drawn over the face of the sun. the earth in a disposition every where to break into open flames . the tops of the mountains smoaking ; the rivers dry ; earthquakes in several places ; the sea sunk and retir'd into its deepest chanel , and roaring , as against some mighty storm . these things will make the day dead and melancholy , but the night-scenes will have more of horrour in them . when the blazing stars appear , like so many furies , with their lighted torches , threatning to set all on fire . for i do not doubt but the comets will bear a part in this tragedy , and have something extraordinary in them , at that time ; either as to number , or bigness , or nearness to the earth . besides , the air will be full of flaming meteors , of unusual forms and magnitudes ; balls of fire rowling in the skie , and pointed lightnings darted against the earth ; mixt with claps of thunder , and unusual noises from the clouds . the moon and the stars will be confus'd and irregular , both in their light and motions ; as if the whole frame of the heavens was out of order , and all the laws of nature were broken or expir'd . when all things are in this languishing or dying posture , and the inhabitants of the earth under the fears of their last end ; the heavens will open on a sudden , and the glory of god will appear . a glory surpassing the sun in its greatest radiancy ; which , tho' we cannot describe , we may suppose it will bear some resemblance or proportion with those representations that are made in scripture , of god upon his throne . this wonder in the heavens , whatsoever its form may be , will presently attract the eyes of all the christian world. nothing can more affect them than an object so unusual and so illustrious ; and that , ( probably ) brings along with it their last destiny , and will put a period to all humane affairs . some of the ancients have thought that this coming of our saviour would be in the dead of the night , and his first glorious appearance in the midst of darkness . god is often describ'd in scripture as light or fire , with darkness round about him . he bowed the heavens and came down , and darkness was under his feet . he made darkness his secret place : his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies . at the brightness that was before him , the thick clouds passed . and when god appear'd upon mount sinai , the mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven with darkness , clouds , and thick darkness : or , as the apostle expresses it , with blackness and darkness , and tempest . light is never more glorious than when surrounded with darkness ; and it may be the sun , at that time , will be so obscure , as to make little distinction of day and night . but however this divine light over-bears and distinguishes it self from common light , tho' it be at mid-day . 't was about noon that the light shin'd from heaven and surrounded st. panl . and 't was on the day-time that st. stephen saw the heavens opened ; saw the glory of god , and iesus standing at the right hand of god. this light , which flows from a more vital source , be it day or night , will always be predominant . that appearance of god upon mount sinai , which we mention'd , if we reflect upon it , will help us a little to form an idea of this last appearance . when god had declar'd , that he would come down in the sight of the people ; the text says , there were thunders and lightnings , and a thick cloud upon the mount , and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud ; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled . and mount sinai was altogether on a smoke , because the lord descended upon it in fire . and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace , and the whole mount quaked greatly . if we look upon this mount as an epitome of the earth , this appearance gives us an imperfect resemblance of that which is to come . here are the several parts or main strokes of it ; first , the heavens and the earth in smoke and fire , then the appearance of a divine glory , and the sound of a trumpet in the presence of angels . but as the second coming of our saviour is a triumph over his enemies , and an entrance into his kingdom , and is acted upon the theater of the whole earth ; so we are to suppose , in proportion , all the parts and circumstances of it , more great and magnificent . when therefore this mighty god returns again to that earth , where he had once been ill treated , not mount sinai only , but all the mountains of the earth , and all the inhabitants of the world , will tremble at his presence . at the first opening of the heavens , the brightness of his person will scatter the dark clouds , and shoot streams of light throughout all the air. but that first appearance , being far from the earth , will seem to be only a great mass of light , without any distinct form ; till , by nearer approaches , this bright body shows it self to be an army of angels , with this king of kings for their leader . then you may imagine how guilty mankind will tremble and be astonish'd ; and while they are gazing at this heavenly host , the voice of the archangel is heard , the shrill sound of the trumpet reaches their ears . and this gives the general alarum to all the world. for he cometh , for he cometh , they cry , to judge the earth . the crucified god is return'd in glory , to take vengeance upon his enemies : not only upon those that pierc'd his sacred body , with nails and with a spear , as ierusalem ; but those also that pierce him every day by their prophaneness and hard speeches , concerning his person and his religion . now they see that god whom they have mock'd , or blasphem'd , laugh't at his meanness , or at his vain threats ; they see him , and are confounded with shame and fear ; and in the bitterness of their anguish and despair call for the mountains to fall upon them . fly into the clefts of the rocks , and into the caves of the earth , for fear of the lord , and the glory of his majes●y , when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth . as it is not possible for us to express or conceive the dread and majesty of this appearance ; so neither can we , on the other hand , express the passions and consternation of the people that behold it . these things exceed the measures of humane affairs , and of humane thoughts ; we have neither words , nor comparisons , to make them known by . the greatest pomp and magnificence of the emperors of the east , in their armies , in their triumphs , in their inaugurations , is but like the sport and entertainment of children , if compar'd with this solemnity . when god condescends to an external glory , with a visible train and equipage : when , from all the provinces of his vast and boundless empire , he summons his nobles , as i may so say : the several orders of angels and arch-angels , to attend his person ; tho' we cannot tell the form or manner of this appearance , we know there is nothing in our experience , or in the whole history of this world , that can be a just representation of the least part of it . no armies so numerous as the host of heaven : and in the midst of those bright legions , in a flaming chariot , will sit the son of man , when he comes to be glorified in his saints , and triumph over his enemies . and instead of the wild noises of the rabble , which makes a great part of our worldly state : this blessed company will breath their halleluiahs into the open air ; and repeated acclamations of salvation to god , which sits upon the throne , and to the lamb. now is come salvation and strength , and the kingdom of our god , and the power of his christ. but i leave the rest to our silent devotion and admiration . only give me leave , whilst this object is before our eyes , to make a short reflection upon the wonderful history of our saviour ; and the different states , which that sacred person , within the compass of our knowledge , hath undergone . we now see him coming in the clouds in glory and triumph , surrounded with innumerable angels . this is the same person , who , so many hundred years ago , enter'd ierusalem , with another sort of equipage : mounted upon an ass's colt , while the little people and the multitude cry'd , hosanna to the son of david . nay , this is the same person , that , at his first comeing into this world , was laid in a manger instead of a cradle ; a naked babe dropt in a crib at bethlehem : his poor mother not having wherewithal to get her a better lodging , when she was to be deliver'd of this sacred burthen . this helpless infant , that often wanted a little milk to refresh it , and support its weakness : that hath often cry'd for the breast , with hunger and tears : now appears to be the lord of heaven and earth . if this divine person had faln from the clouds in a mortal body , cloath'd with flesh and bloud , and spent his life here amongst sinners ; that alone had been an infinite condescension . but as if it had not been enough to take upon him humane nature , he was content , for many months , to live the life of an animal , or of a plant , in the dark cell of a womans womb. this is the lord 's doing , it is marvellous in our eyes . neither is this all that is wonderful in the story of our saviour . if the manner of his death be compar'd with his present glory , we shall think , either the one , or the other , incredible . look up , first , into the heavens : see how they bow under him , and receive a new light from the glory of his presence . then look down upon the earth , and see a naked body hanging upon a cursed tree in golgotha ● crucified betwixt two thieves : wounded , spit upon , mock'd , abus'd . is it possible to believe that one and the same person can act or suffer such different parts ? that he , that is now lord and master of all nature : not only of death and hell , and the powers of darkness : but of all principalities in heavenly places : is the same infant jesus , the same crucified jesus , of whose life and death the christian records give us an account ? the history of this person is the wonder of this world ; and not of this world only , but of the angels above , that desire to look into it . let us now return to our subject . we left the earth in a languishing condition , ready to be made a burnt-offering , to appease the wrath of its offended lord. when sodom was to be destroy'd , abraham interceded with god that he would spare it for the righteous sake : and david interceded to save his guiltless people from god's judgments and the destroying angel. but here is no intercessor for mankind in this last extremity : none to interpose where the mediator of our peace is the party offended . shall then the righteous perish with the wicked ? shall not the iudge of all the earth do right ? or if the righteous be translated and delivered from this fire , what shall become of innocent children and infants ? must these all be given up to the merciless flames , as a sacrifice to moloch ? and their tender flesh , like burnt incense , send up fumes to feed the nostrils of evil spirits ? can the god of israel smell a sweet favour from such sacrifices ? the greater half of mankind is made up of infants and children : and if the wicked be destroyed , yet these lambs , what have they done ? are there no bowels of compassion for such an harmless multitude ? but we leave them to their guardian angels , and to that providence which watches over all things . it only remains therefore , to let fall that fire from heaven , which is to consume this holocaust . imagine all nature now standing in a silent expectation to receive its last doom : the tutelary and destroying angels to have their instructions : every thing to be ready for the fatal hour : and then , after a little silence , all the host of heaven to raise their voice and sing aloud , let god arise : let his enemies be scatter'd . as smoak is driven away , so drive them away , as wax melteth before the fire , so let the wicked perish at the presence of god. and upon this , as upon a signal given , all the sublunary world breaks into flames , and all the treasuries of fire are open'd , in heaven and in earth . thus the conflagration begins . if one should now go about to represent the world on fire , with all the confusions that necessarily must be , in nature and in mankind , upon that occasion , it would seem to most men a romantick scene . yet we are sure there must be such a scene . the heavens will pass away with a noise , and the elements will melt with fervent heat , and all the works of the earth will be burm up . and these things cannot come to pass without the greatest disorders imaginable , both in the minds of men and in external nature : and the ●addest spectacles that eye can behold . we think it a great matter to see a single person burnt alive : here are millions , shrieking in the flames at once . 't is frightful to us to look upon a great city in flames , and to see the distractions and misery of the people : here is an universal fire through all the cities of the earth , and an universal massacre of their inhabitants . whatsoever the prophets foretold of the desolations of iudea , ierusalem , or babylon , in the highest strains , is more than literally accomplinsn'd in this last and general calamity : and those only that are spectators of it , can make i●s history . the disorders in nature and the inanimate world will be no less , nor less strange and unaccountable , than those in mankind . every element , and every region , so far as the bounds of this fire extend , will be in a tumult and a fury , and the whole habitable world running into confusion . a world is sooner destroyed than made , and nature relapses hastily into that chaos-state , ou● of which she came by slow and leisurely motions . as an army advances into the field by just and regular marches , but when it is broken and routed , it flies with precipitation , and one cannot describe its posture . fire is a barbarous enemy , it gives no mercy ; there is nothing but fury , and rage , and ruine , and destruction , wheresoever it prevails . a storm or hurricano , tho' it be but the force of air , makes a strange havock where it comes ; but devouring ●lames , or exhalations set on fire , have still a far greater violence and carry more terror along with them ● thunder and earthquakes are the sons of fire : and we know nothing in all nature , more impetuous , or more irresistibly destructive than these two . and accordingly in this last war of the elements , we may be sure , they will bear the●● parts , and do great execution in the several regions of the world. earthquakes and subterraneous eruptions will tear the body and bowels of the earth ; and thunders and convulsive motions of the air , rend the skies . the waters of the sea will boyl and struggle with streams of sulphur that ●un into them ; which will make them fume , and smoak , and roar , beyond all storms and tempests . and these noises of the sea will be answered again from the land by falling rocks and mountains . this is a small part of the disorders of that day . but 't is not possible , from any station , to have a full prospect of this last scene of the earth : for 't is a mixture of fire and darkness . this new temple is fill'd with smoak , while it is consecrating , and none can enter into it . but i am apt to think , if we could look down upon this burning world from above the clouds , and have a full view of it , in all its parts , we should think it a lively representation of hell it self . for , fire and darkness are the two chief things by which that state , or that place , uses to be describ'd ▪ and they are both here mingled together : with all other ingredients that make that tophet that is prepar'd of old . here are lakes of fire and brimstone : rivers of melted glowing matter : ten thousand volcano's vomiting flames all at once . thick darkness , and pillars of smoak twisted about with wreaths of flame , like fiery snakes . mountains of earth thrown up into the air , and the heavens dropping down in lumps of fire . these things will all be literally true , concerning that day , and that state of the earth . and if we suppose beelzebub , and his apostate crew , in the midst of this fiery furnace : ( and i know not where they can be else . ) it will be hard to find any part of the universe , or any state of things , that answers to so many of the properties and characters of hell , as this which is now before us . but if we suppose the storm over , and that the fire hath got an entire victory over all other bodies , and subdued every thing to it self , the conflagration will end in a deluge of fire : or , in a sea of fire , covering the whole globe of the earth . for , when the exterior region of the earth is melted into a fluor , like molten glass , or running metal ▪ it will , according to the nature of other fluids , fill all vacuities and depressions , and fall into a regular surface , at an equal distance , every where , from its center . this sea of fire , like the first abyss , will cover the face of the whole earth : make a kind of second chaos : and leave a capacity for another world to rise from it . but that is not our present business . let us only , if you please to take leave of this subject ▪ reflect upon this occasion , on the transient and 〈◊〉 glory of all this habitable world. how , by the force of one element , breaking loose upon the rest , all the varieties of nature all the works of art , all the labours of men are reduc'd to nothing . all that we admir'd and ador'd before , as great and magnificent , is obliterated or vanish'd . and another form and face of things , plain , simple , and every where the same , overspreads the whole earth . where are now the great empires of the world , and their great imperial cities ? their pillars , trophe●s , and monuments of glory ? show me where they stood : read the inscription , tell me the victor●s name . what remains , what impressions , what difference or distinction do you see in this mass of fire ? rome it self , eternal rome , the great city , the empress of the world , whose domination and superstition , ancient and modern , make a great part of the history of this earth : what is become of her now ▪ she laid her foundations deep , and her palaces were strong and sumptuous : she glorified her self , and liv'd deliciously : and said in her heart , i sit a queen , and shall see no sorrow . but her hour is come , she is wip'd away from the face of the earth , and buried in perpetual oblivion . but 't is not cities only , and works of men's hands , but the everlasting hills , the mountains and rocks of the earth , are melted as wax before the sun ; and their place is no where found . here stood the alpes , a prodigious range of stone , the load of the earth ▪ that cover'd many countries , and reach'd their arms from the ocean to the black sea ; this huge mass of stone is soften'd and dissolv'd , as a tender cloud into rain . here stood the african mountains , and atlas with his top above the clouds . there was frozen caucasus , and taurus , and imaus , and the mountains of asia . and yonder towards the north stood the riphaean hills , cloath'd in ice and snow . all these are vanish'd , dropt away as the snow upon their heads : and swallowed up in a red sea of fire . great and marvellous are thy works , lord god almighty : iust and true are thy ways , thou king of saints . hallelujah . the conclvsion . if the conflagration of the world be a reality , as , both by scripture and antiquity , we are assur'd it is ; if we be fully perswaded and convinc'd of this : 't is a thing of that nature , that we cannot keep it long in our thoughts , without making some moral reflections upon it . 't is both great in it self , and of universal concern to all mankind . who can look upon such an object , a world in flames , without thinking with himself , whether shall i be in the midst of these ●lames , or no ? what is my security that i shall not fall under this fiery vengeance , which is the wrath of an angry god ? st. peter , when he had deliver'd the doctrine of the conflagration , makes this pious reflection upon it : seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd ▪ what manner of persons ought you to be , in holy conversation and godliness ? the strength of his argument depends chiefly upon what he had said before in the th . verse , where he told us , that the present heavens and earth were reserv'd unto fire , against the day of iudgment , and the perdition of irreligious men . we must avoid the crime then , if we would escape the punishment . but this expression of irreligious or ungodly men , is still very general ▪ st. paul ▪ when he speaks of this fiery indignation , and the persons it is to fall upon , is more distinct in their characters . he seems to mark out for this destruction , three sorts of men chiefly , the atheists , infidels , and the tribe of antichrist . these are his words : when the lord iesus shall be revealed from heaven , with his mighty angels , in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not god : and that obey not the gospel of our lord iesus christ. then as for antichrist and his adherents , he says , in the d . chapt. and th . verse , the lord shall consume that wicked one with the spirit of his mouth , and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming , or of his presence . these , you see , all refer to the same time with st. peter : namely , to the coming of our saviour , at the conflagration ; and three sorts of persons are characteriz'd as his enemies , and set out for destruction at that time . first , those that know not god : that is , that acknowledge not god , that will not own the deity . secondly , those that hearken not to the gospel ; that is , that reject the gospel and christian religion , when they are preach'd and made known to them . for you must not think that it is the poor barbarous and ignorant heathens , that scarce ever heard of god , or the gospel , that are threaten'd with this fiery vengeance . no , 't is the heathens , that live amongst christians ; those that are infidels , as to the existence of god , or the truth of christian religion , tho' they have had a full manifestation of both . these are properly the adversaries of god and christ. and such adversaries , st. paul says in another place , a fearful judgment , and fiery indignation shall devour : which still refers to the same time , and the same persons we are speaking of . then as to the third sort of men , antichrist and his followers , besides this text of st. paul to the thessalonians , 't is plain to me in the apocalypse , that mystical babylon is to be consum'd by fire : and the beast and false prophet to be thrown into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone : which lake is no where to be found till the conflagration . you see then for whom tophet is prepar'd of old . for atheists , isfidels , and antichristian persecutors . and they will have for their companions , the devil and his angels , the heads of the apostasie . these are all in open rebellion against god and christ , and at defiance , as it were , with heaven . excepting antichrist , who is rather in a secret conspiracy , than an open rebellion . for , under a pretended commission from jesus christ , he persecutes his servants , dishonours his person , corrupts his laws and his government , and makes war against his saints . and this is a greater affront and provocation , if possible , than a bare fac'd opposition would be . there are other men , besides these , that are unacceptable to god : all sorts of sinners and wicked persons : but they are not so properly the enemies of god , as these we have mention'd . an intemperate man is an enemy to himself , and an injust man is an enemy to his neighbour ▪ but those that deny god , or christ , or persecute their servants , are directly and immediately enemies to god. and therefore when the lord comes in flames of fire to triumph over his enemies : to take vengeance upon all that are rebels or conspirators against him and his christ , these monsters of men will be the first and most exemplary objects of the divine wrath and indignation . to under take to speak to these three orders of men , and convince them of their errour , and the danger of it , would be too much for the conclusion of a short treatise . and as for the third sort , the subjects of antichrist , none but the learned amongst them are allow'd to be inqulsitive , or to read such things as condemn their church , or the governours of it . therefore i do not expect that this english translation should fall into many of their hands . but those of them , that are pleas'd to look into the latin , will find , in the conclusion of it , a full and fair warning to come out of babylon : which is there prov'd to be the church of rome . then as to those that are atheistically inclin'd , which i am willing to believe are not many , i desire them to consider , how mean a thing it is , to have hopes only in this life : and how uneasie a thing , to have nothing but fears as to the future . those , sure , must be little narrow souls , that can make themselves a portion and a sufficiency out of what they enjoy here : that think of no more , that desire no more . for what is this life , but a circulation of little mean actions ? we lie down and rise again : dress and undress : feed and wax hungry : work , or play , and are weary : and then we lie down again , and the circle returns . we spend the day in trifles , and when the night comes , we throw our selves into the bed of folly , amongst dreams and broken thoughts and wild imaginations . our reason lies asleep by us ; and we are , for the time , as arrant brutes , as those that sleep in the stalls , or in the field . are not the capacities of man higher than these ? and ought not his ambition and expectations to be greater ? let us be adventurers for another world : 't is , at least , a fair and noble chance : and there is nothing in this , worth our thoughts or our passions . if we should be disappointed , we are still no worse than the rest of our fellow mortals : and if we succeed in our expectations , we are eternally happy . for my part , i cannot be perswaded , that any man of atheistical inclinations can have a great and generous soul. for there is nothing great in the world , if you take god out of it . therefore such a person can have no great thought , can have no great aims , or expectations , or designs ; for all must lie within the compass of this life , and of this dull body . neither can he have any great instincts or noble passions : for if he had , they would naturally excite in him greater idea , inspire him with higher notions , and open the scenes of the intellectual world. lastly , he cannot have any great sefice of order , wisdom , goodness , providence , or any of the divine perfections . and these are the greatest things that can enter into the thoughts of man , and that do most enlarge and ennoble his mind . and therefore i say again , that , he that is naturally inclined to atheism , being also naturally destitute of all these , must have a little and narrow soul. but you 'l say , it may be , this is to expostulate rather than to prove : or to upbraid us with our make and temper , rather than to convince us of an error in speculation . 't is an error it may be in practice , or in point of prudence ; but we seek truth , whether it make for us or against us ; convince us therefore by just reasoning and direct arguments , that there is a god , and then wee 'l endeavour to correct these defects in our natural complexion . you say well ; and therefore i have endeavour'd to do this before , in another part of this theory , in the second book , ch . . concerning the author of nature : where you may see , that the powers of nature , or of the material world , cannot answer all the phanomena of the universe , which are there represented . this you may consult at leisure . but , in the mean time , 't is a good perswasive why we should not easily give our selves up to such inclinations or opinions , as have neither generosity , nor prudence on their side . and it cannot be amiss , that these persons should often take into their thoughts , this last scene of things , the conflagration of the world. seeing if there be a god , they will certainly be found in the number of his enemies , and of those that will have their portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone . the third sort of persons that we are to speak to , are the incredulous , or such as do not believe the truth of christian religion , tho' they believe there is a god. these are commonly men of wit and pleasure , that have not patience enough to consider , coolely and in due order , the grounds upon which it appears , that christian religion is from heaven , and of divine authority . they ought , in the first place , to examine matter of fact , and the history of our saviour : that there was such a person , in the reigns of augustus and tiherius , that wrought such and such miracles in iudaea ; taught such a doctrine : was crucified at ierusalem : rise from the dead the third day , and visibly ascended into heaven . if these matters of fact be denied , then the controversie turns only to an historical question , whether the evangelical history be a fabulous , or true history : which it would not be proper to examine in this place . but if matter of fact recorded there ; and in the acts of the apostles , and the first ages of christianity , be acknowledged , as i suppose it is , then the question that remains is this , whether such matter of fact does not sufficiently prove the divine authority of jesus christ and of his doctrine . we suppose it possible , for a person to have such testimonials of divine authority , as may be sufficient to convince mankind , or the more reasonable part of mankind ; and if that be possible , what , pray , is a wanting in the testimonies of jesus christ ? the prophecies of the old testament bear witness to him : his birth was a miracle , and his life a train of miracles : not wrought out of levity and vain ostentation , but for useful and charitable purposes . his doctrine and morality not only blameless , but noble : designed to remove out of the world the imperfect religion of the iews , and the false religion of the gentiles : all idolatry and superstition : and thereby to improve mankind , under a better and more perfect dispensation . he gave an example of a spotless innocency in all his conversation , free from vice or any evil ; and liv'd in a neglect of all the pomp or pleasures of this life , referring his happiness wholly to another world. he prophesied concerning his own death , and his resurrection : and concerning the destruction of ierusalem : which all came to pass in a signal manner . he also prophesied of the success of his gospel : which , after his death , immediately took root , and spread it self every way throughout the world : maugre all opposition or persecution , from iews or heathens . it was not supported by any temporal power for above three hundred years : nor were any arts us'd , or measures taken , according to humane prudence , for the conservation of it . but , to omit other things , that grand article of his rising from the dead , ascending visibly into heaven , and pouring down the miraculous gifts of the holy ghost , ( according as he had promis'd ) upon his apostles and their followers : this alone is to me a demonstration of his divine authority . to conquer death : to mount , like an eagle , into the skies : and to inspire his followers with inimitable gifts and faculties , are things , without controversie , beyond all humane power : and may and ought be esteemed sure credentials of a person sent from heaven . from these matters of fact we have all possible assurance , that jesus christ was no impostor or deluded person : ( one of which two characters all unbelievers must fix upon him ) but commission'd by heaven to introduce a new religion : to reform the world , to remove judaism and idolatry ; the beloved son of god , the great prophet of the later ages , the true messiah that was to come . it may be , you will confess , that these are great arguments that the author of our religion was a divine person , and had supernatural powers : but withal , that there are so many difficulties in christian religion , and so many things unintelligible , that a rational man knows not how to believe it , tho' he be inclin'd to admire the person of jesus christ. i answer , if they be such difficulties as are made only by the schools and disputacious doctors , you are not to trouble your self about them , for they are of no authority . but if they be in the very words of scripture , then t is either in things practical , or in things meerly speculative . as to the rules of practice in christian religion , i do not know any thing in scripture , obscure or unintelligible . and as to speculations , great discretion and moderation is to be us'd in the conduct of them . if these matters of fact , which we have alledg'd , prove the divinity of the revelation , keep close to the words of that revelation , asserting no more than it asserts , and you cannot err . but if you will expatiate , and determine modes , and forms , and consequences ; you may easily be puzled by your own forwardness . for besides some things that are in their own nature , infinite and incomprehensible , there are many other things in christian religion that are incompleatly reveal'd ; the full knowledge whereof , it has pleased god to reserve to another life , and to give us only a summary account of them at present . we have so much deference for any government , as not to expect that all their councels and secrets should be made known to us , nor to censure every action whose reasons we do not fully comprehend ; much more in the providential administration of a world , we must be content to know so much of the councels of heaven and of supernatural truths , as god has thought fit to reveal to us . and if these truths be no otherwise than in a general manner , summarlly and incompleatly revealed in this life , as commonly they are , we must not therefore throw off the government , or reject the whole dispensation : of whose divine authority we have otherways full proof and satisfactory evidence . for this would be , to lose the substance in catching at a shadow . but men that live continually in the noise of the world , amidst business and pleasures , their time is commonly shar'd betwixt those two . so that little or nothing is left for meditation , at least , not enough for such meditations as require length , justness , and order . they should retire from the crowd for one month or two , to study the truth of christian religion , if they have any doubt of it . they retire sometimes to cure a gout , or other diseases , and diet themselves according to rule : but they will not be at that pains , to cure a disease of the mind , which is of far greater and more fatal consequence . if they perish by their own negligence or obstinacy , the physician is not to blame . burning is the last remedy in some distempers : and they would do well to remember , that the world will flame about their heads one of these days : and whether they be amongst the living , or amongst the dead , at that time , the apostle makes them a part of the fewel , which that fiery vengeance will prey upon . our saviour hath been true to his word hitherto : whether in his promises , or in his threatnings ; he promis'd the apostles to send down the holy ghost upon them after his ascension , and that was fully accomplish'd . he foretold and threaten'd the destruction of ierusalem : and that came to pass accordingly , soon after he had left the world. and he hath told us also , that he will come again in the clouds of heaven , with power and great glory ; and that will be to judge the world. when the son of man shall come in his glory , and all the holy angels with him , then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory . and before him shall be gather'd all nations , and he will separate the good from the bad ; and to the wicked and unbelievers he will say , depart from me ye cursed , into everlasting fire , prepared for the devil and his angels . this is the same coming , and the same fire , with that which we mention'd before out of s. paul. as you will plainly see , if you compare s. matthew's words with s. paul's , which are these , when the lord iesus shall be revealed from heaven , with his mighty angels : in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not god , and that hearken not to the gospel of our lord iesus christ. who shall be punished with everlasting destruction , from , or by the presence of the lord , and the glory of his power . this , me thinks , should be an awakening thought , that there is such a threatning upon record , ( by one who never yet fail'd in his word ) against those that do not believe his testimony . those that reject him now as a dupe , or an impostor , run a hazard of seeing him hereafter coming in the clouds to be their judge . and it will be too late then to correct their errour , when the bright armies of angels fill the air , and the earth begins to melt at the presence of the lord. thus much concerning those three ranks of men , whom the apostle s. paul seems to point at principally , and condemn to the flames . but , as i said before , the rest of sinners and vitious persons amongst the professors of christianity , tho' they are not so directly the enemies of god , as these are ; yet being transgressors of his law , they must expect to be brought to justice . in every well-govern'd state , not only traitors and rebels , that offend more immediately against the person of the prince , but all others , that notoriously violate the laws , are brought to condign punishment , according to the nature and degree of their crime . so in this case , the fire shall try every man's work , of what sort it is . 't is therefore the concern of every man to reflect often upon that day , and to consider what his fate and sentence is likely to be , at that last trial. the iews have a tradition that elias sits in heaven , and keeps a register of all mens actions , good or bad . he hath his under secretaries for the several nations of the world , that take minutes of all that passes : and so hath the history of every man's life before him , ready to be produc'd at the day of judgment . i will not vouch for the literal truth of this , but it is true in effect . every man's fate shall be determin'd that day , according to the history of his life : according to the works done in the flesh , whether good or bad . and therefore it ought to have as much influence upon us , as if every single action was formally register'd in heaven . if men would learn to contemn this world , it would cure a great many vices at once . and , methinks , s. peter's argument , from the approaching dissolution of all things , should put us out of conceit with such perishing vanities . lust and ambition are the two reigning vices of great men : and those little fires might be soon extinguish'd , if they would frequently and seriously meditate on this last and universal fire ; which will put an end to all passions and all contentions . as to ambition , the heathens themselves made use of this argument , to abate and repress the vain affectation of glory and greatness in this world. i told you before the lesson that was given to scipio africanus , by his uncle's ghost , upon this subject . and upon a like occasion and consideration , caesar hath a lesson given him by lucan , after the battle of pharsalia ; where pompey lost the day , and rome its liberty . the poet says , caesar took pleasure in looking upon the dead bodies , and would not suffer them to be buried , or , which was their manner of burying , to be burnt . whereupon he speaks to him in these words : hos , caesar , populos si nunc non usserit ignis , uret cum terris , uret cum gurgite ponti . communis mundo superest rogus , ossibus astra misturus . quocunque tuam fortuna vocabit , hae quoque eunt animae ; non altiùs ibis in auras , non meliore loco stygiâ sub nocte jacebis . libera fortuna mors est : capit omnia tellus quae genuit ; coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam . caesar , if now these bodies want their pile and urn , at last , with the whole globe , they 're sure to burn . the world expects one general fire : and thou must go where these poor sculs are wand'ring now . thou'l reach no higher , in th' ethereal plain , nor 'mongst the shades a better place obtain . death levels all : and he that has not room to make a grave , heaven's vault shall be his tomb. these are mortifying thoughts to ambitious spirits . and surely our own mortality , and the mortality of the world it self , may be enough to convince all considering men , that , vanity of vanities , all is vanity under the sun : any otherwise than as they relate to a better life . finis . the theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth , and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone , or is to undergo till the consummation of all things . the fourth book , concerning the new heavens and new earth , and concerning the consummation of all things . london , printed by r. n. for walter kettilby , at the bishop's-head in s. paul's church-yard , . preface to the reader . you see it is still my lot , to travel into new worlds : having never found any great satisfaction in this . as an active people leaves their habitations in a barren soil , to try if they can make their fortune better elsewhere . i first lookt backwards , and waded through the deluge , into the primaeval world : to see how they liv'd there , and how nature stood in that original constitution . now i am going forwards , to view the new heavens and new earth , that will be after the conflagration . but , gentle reader , let me not take you any further , if you be weary . i do not love a querulous companion . unless your genius therefore press you forwards , chuse rather to rest here , and be content with that part of the theory which you have seen already . is it not fair , to have followed nature so far as to have seen her twice in her ruins ? why should we still pursue her , even after death and dissolution , into dark and remote futurities ? to whom therefore such disquisitions seem needless , or over-curious , let them rest here ; and leave the remainder of this work , which is a kind of prophecy concerning the state of things after the conflagration , to those that are of a disposition suited to such studies and enquiries . not that any part of this theory requires much learning , art , or science , to be master of it ; but a love and thirst after truth , freedom of iudgment , and a resignation of our understanding to clear evidence , let it carry us which way it will. an honest english reader that looks only at the sence as it lies before him , and neither considers nor cares whether it be new or old , so it be true , may be a more competent iudge than a great scholar fall of his own notions , and puff'd up with the opinion of his mighty knowledge . for such men think they cannot in honour own any thing to be true , which they did not know before . to be taught any new knowledge , is to confess their former ignorance ; and that lessens them in their own opinion , and , as they think , in the opinion of the world ; which are both uneasie reflections to them . neither must we depend upon age only for soundness of iudgment . men in discovering and owning truth seldom change their opinions after threescore : especially if they be leading opinions . it is then too late , we think , to begin the world again ; and as we grow old , the heart contracts ; and cannot open wide enough to take in a great thought . the spheres of mens understandings are as different , as prospects upon the earth . some stand upon a rock or a mountain , and see far round about ; others are in an hollow , or in a cave , and have no prospect at all . some men consider nothing but what is present to their senses : others extend their thoughts both to what is past and what is future . and yet the fairest prospect in this life is not to be compar'd to the least we shall have in another . 〈◊〉 clearest day here , is ●●irty and hazy : we see not far , and what we do see is in a had light . but when we have got better bodies in the first resurrection , whereof we are going to treat ; better senses and a better understanding , a clearer light and an higher station , our horizon will be enlarg'd every way , both as to the natural world and as to the intellecual . two of the greatest speculations that we are capable of in this life , are , in my opinion , the revolution of worlds , and the revolution of souls ; one for the material world , and the other for the intellectual . toward the former of these our theory is an essay : and in this our planet , ( which i hope to conduct into a fix'd star , before i have done with it ) we give an instance of what may be in other planets . 't is true , we took our rise no higher than the chaos : because that was a known principle , and we were not willing to amuse the reader with too many strange stories : as that , i am sure , would have been thought one , to have brought this earth from a fix'd star , and then carried it up again into the same sphere . which yet i believe , is the true circle of natural providence . as to the revolution of souls , the footsteps of that speculation are more obscure than of the former . for tho' we are assur'd by scripture , that all good souls will at length have celestial bodies ; yet , that this is a returning to a primitive state , or to what they had at their first creation , that , scripture has not acquainted us with . it tells us indeed that angels fell from their primitive celestial glory ; and consequently we might be capable of a lapse as well as they , if we had been in that high condition with them . but that we ever were there , is not declared to us by any revelation . reason and morality would indeed suggest to us , that an innocent soul , fresh and pure from the hands of its maker , could not be immediately cast into prison , before it had , by any act of its own will , or any use of its own understanding , committed either error or sin . i call this body a prison , both because it is a confinement and restraint upon our best faculties and capacities , and is also the seat of diseases and loathsomness ; and ; as prisons use to do , commonly tends more to debauch mens natures , than to improve them . but tho' we cannot certainly tell under what circumstances humane souls were plac'd at first , yet all antiquity agrees , oriental and occidental , concerning their pre existence in general , in respect of these mortal bodies . and our saviour never reproaches or corrects the jews , when they speak upon that supposition , luk. . , . joh. . . besides , it seems to me beyond all controversie , that the soul of the messiah did exist before the incarnation , and voluntarily descended from heaven to take upon it a mortal body . and tho' it does not appear that all humane souls were at first plac'd in glory , yet , from the example of our saviour , we see something greater in them : namely , a capacity to be united to the godhead . and what is possible to one , is possible to more . but these thoughts are too high for us : while we find our selves united to nothing , but diseased bodies and houses of clay . the greatest fault we can commit in such speculations , is to be over-positive and dogmatical . to be inquisitive into the ways of providence and the works of god , is so far from being a fault , that it is our greatest perfection ; we cultivate the highest principles and best inclinations of our nature , while we are thus employ'd : and 't is littleness or secularity of spirit , that is the greatest enemy to contemplation . those that would have a true contempt of this world , must suffer the soul to be sometimes upon the wing , and to raise her self above the sight of this little dark point , which we now inhabit . give her a large and free prospect of the immensity of god's works , and of his inexhausted wisdom and goodness , if you would make her great and good. as the warm philosopher says , give me a soul so great , so high , let her dimensions stretch the skie : that comprehends within a thought , the whole extent 'twixt god and nought . and from the world's first birth and date , its life and death can calculate : with all th' adventures that shall pass , to ev'ry atome of the mass. but let her be as good as great , her highest throne a mercy-seat . soft and dissolving like a cloud , losing her self in doing good . a cloud that leaves its place above , rather than dry , and useless move : falls in a showre upon the earth , and gives ten thousand seeds a birth . hangs on the flow'rs , and infant plants , sucks not their sweets , but feeds their wants . so let this mighty mind diffuse all that 's her own to others use ; and free from private ends , retain nothing of self , but a bare name . the theory of the earth . book iv. concerning the new heavens and new earth , and concerning the consummation of all things . chap. i. the introdvction . that the world will not be annihilated in the last fire . that we are to expect , according to scripture and the christian doctrine , new heavens and a new earth , when these are dissolv'd or burnt up . we are now so far advanc'd in the theory of the earth , as to have seen the end of two worlds : one destroy'd by water , and another by fire . it remains only to consider , whether we be yet come to the final period of nature : the last scene of all things , and consequently the utmost bound of our enquiries . or , whether providence , which is inexhausted in wisdom and goodness , will raise up , from this dead mass , new heavens and a new earth . another habitable world , better and more perfect than that which was destroyed . that , as the first world began with a paradise , and a state of innocency , so the last may be a kind of renovation of that happy state ; whose inhabitants shall not die , but be translated to a blessed immortality . i know 't is the opinion of some , that this world will be annihilated , or reduc'd to nothing , at the conflagration : and that would put an end to all further enquiries . but whence do they learn this ? from scripture , or reason , or their own imagination ? what instance or example can they give us , of this they call annihilation ? or what place of scripture can they produce , that says the world , in the last fire , shall be reduc'd to nothing ? if they have neither instance , nor proof of what they affirm , 't is an empty imagination of their own : neither agreeable to philosophy , nor divinity . fire does not consume any substance : it changes the form and qualities of it , but the matter remains . and if the design had been annihilation , the employing of fire would have been of no use or effect . for smoak and ashes are at as great a distance from nothing , as the bodies themselves out of which they are made . but these authors seem to have but a small tincture of philosophy , and therefore it will be more proper to confute their opinion from the words of scripture ; which hath left us sufficient evidence , that another world will succeed after the conflagration of that we now inhabit . the prophets , both of the old and new testament , have left us their predictions concerning new heavens and a new earth . so says the prophet isaiah , ch . . . behold i create new heavens and a new earth , and the former shall not be remembred , or come into mind . as not worthy our thoughts , in comparison of those that will arise when these pass away . so the prophet s. iohn , in his apocalypse , when he was come to the end of this world , says , and i saw a new heaven and a new earth . for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away , and there was no more sea. where he does not only give us an account of a new heaven and a new earth , in general : but also gives a distinctive character of the new earth : that it shall have no sea. and in the th ver . he that sat upon the throne , says , behold i make all things new ; which , consider'd with the antecedents and consequents , cannot be otherwise understood than of a new world. but some men make evasions here as to the words of the prophets , and say they are to be understood in a figurate and allegorical sence : and to be applyed to the times of the gospel , either at first or towards the latter end of the world. so as this new heaven and new earth signifie only a great change in the moral world. but how can that be , seeing s. iohn places them after the end of the world. and the prophet isaiah connects such things with his new heavens and new earth , as are not competible to the present state of nature ? however to avoid all shuffling and tergiversation in this point , let us appeal to s. peter , who uses a plain literal style , and discourses down-right concerning the natural world. in his d . epist. and d. chap : when he had foretold and explain'd the future conflagration , he adds , but we expect new heavens and a new earth according to his promises . these promises were made by the prophets : and this gives us full authority to interpret their new heavens and new earth to be after the conflagration . s. peter , when he had describ'd the dissolution of the world in the last fire , in full and emphatical terms , as the passing away of the heavens with a noise : the melting of the elements , and burning up all the works of the earth : he subjoyns , nevertheless , notwithstanding this total dissolution of the present world , we , according to his promises , look for new heavens and a new earth : wherein dwelleth righteousness . as if the apostle should have said , notwithstanding this strange and violent dissolution of the present heavens and earth , which i have describ'd to you , we do not at all distrust god's promises concerning new heavens and a new earth , that are to succeed these , and to be the seat of the righteous . here 's no room for allegories or allegorical expositions : unless you will make the conflagration of the world an allegory . for , as heavens and earth were destroy'd , so heavens and earth are restored : and if in the first place you understand the natural material world , you must also understand it in the second place : they are both allegories , or neither . but to make the conflagration an allegory , is not only to contradict s. peter , but all antiquity , sacred or prophane . and i desire no more assurance that we shall have new heavens and a new earth , in a literal sence , than we have that the present heavens and earth shall be destroyed in a literal sence , and by material fire . let it therefore rest upon that issue as to this first evidence and argument from scripture . some will fancy , it may be , that we shall have new heavens and earth , and yet that these shall be annihilated ; they would have these first reduc'd to nothing , and then others created , spick and span new , out of nothing . but why so , pray , what 's the humour of that ? lest omnipotency should want employment , you would have it do , and undo , and do again . as if new-made matter , like new clothes , or new furniture , had a better gloss , and was more creditable . matter never wears : as fine gold , melt it down never so often , it loses nothing of its quantity . the substance of the world is the same , burnt or unburnt : and is of the same value and virtue , new or old : and we must not multiply the actions of omnipotency without necessity . god does not make , or unmake things , to try experiments : he knows before hand the utmost capacities of every thing , and does no vain or superfluous work . such imaginations as these proceed only from want of true philosophy , or the true knowledge of the nature of god and of his works ; which should always be carefully attended to , in such speculations as concern the natural world. but to proceed in our subject . if they suppose part of the world to be annihilated , and to continue so , they philosophize still worse and worse . how high shall this annihilation reach ? shall the sun , moon , and stars be reduc'd to nothing ? but what have they done , that they should undergo so hard a fate ? must they be turn'd out of being for our faults ? the whole material universe will not be annihilated at this bout , for we are to have bodies after the resurrection , and to live in heaven . how much of the universe then will you leave standing : or how shall it subsist with this great vacuum in the heart of it ? this shell of a world is but the fiction of an empty brain : for god and nature in their works , never admit of such gaping vacuities and emptinesses . if we consult scripture again , we shall find that that makes mention of a restitution and reviviscency of all things : at the end of the world , or at the coming of our saviour . s. peter , whose doctrine we have hitherto followed , in his sermon to the iews after our saviour's ascension , tells them that he will come again , and that there will be then a restitution of all things : such as was promised by the prophets . the heavens , says he , must receive him until the time of restitution of all things : which god hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets , since the world began . if we compare this passage of s. peter's , with that which we alledged before out of his second epistle , it can scarce be doubted but that he refers to the same promises in both places : and what he there calls a new heaven and a new earth , he calls here a restitution of all things . for the heavens and the earth comprehend all , and both these are but different phrases for the renovation of the world. this gives us also light how to understand what our saviour calls the regeneration or reviviscency , when he shall sit upon his throne of glory , and will reward his followers an hundred fold , for all their losses in this world : besides everlasting life as the crown of all . i know , in our english translation , we separate the regeneration from sitting upon his throne : but without any warrant from the original . and seeing our saviour speaks here of bodily goods , and seems to distinguish them from everlasting life , which is to be the final reward of his followers , this regeneration seems to belong to his second coming , when the world shall be renew'd or regenerated : and the righteous shall possess the earth . other places of scripture that foretel the fate of this material world , represent it always as a change , not as an annihilation . s. paul says , the figure of this world passes away : cor. . . the form , fashion and disposition of its parts : but the substance still remains . as a body that is melted down and dissolv'd , the form perishes , but the matter is not destroy'd . and the psalmist says , the heavens and the earth shall be chang'd : which answers to this transformation we speak of . the same apostle , in the eighth chapter to the romans , shows also that this change shall be , and shall be for the better : and calls it a deliverance of the creation from vanity and corruption : and a participation of the glorious liberty of the children of god. being a sort of redemption , as they have a redemption of their bodies . but , seeing , the renovation of the world is a doctrine generally receiv'd , both by ancient and modern authors , as we shall have occasion to show hereafter : we need add no more , in this place , for confirmation of it . some men are willing to throw all things into a state of nothing at the conflagration , and bury them there , that they may not be oblig'd to give an account of that state of things , that is to succeed it . those who think themselves bound in honour , to know every thing in theology that is knowable : and find it uneasie to answer such questions and speculations , as would arise upon their admitting a new world , think it more adviseable to stifle it in the birth , and so to bound all knowledge at the conflagration . but surely , so far as reason or scripture lead us , we may and ought to follow : otherwise we should be ungrateful to providence , that sent us those guides . provided , we be always duly sensible of our own weakness : and , according to the difficulty of the subject , and the measure of light that falls upon it , proceed with that modesty and ingenuity , that becomes such fallible enquirers after truth , as we are . and this rule i desire to prescribe to my self , as in all other writings , so especially in this : where , tho' i look upon the principal conclusions as fully prov'd , there are several particulars , that are rather propos'd to examination , than positively asserted . chap. ii. the birth of the new heavens and the new earth , from the second chaos , or the remains of the old world. the form , order , and qualities of the new earth , according to reason and scripture . having prov'd from scripture , that we are to expect new heavens , and a new earth , after the conflagration ; it would be some pleasure and satisfaction to see how this new frame will arise : and what foundation there is in nature for the accomplishment of these promises . for , tho' the divine power be not bound to all the laws of nature , but may dispence with them when there is a necessity ; yet it is an ease to us in our belief , when we see them both conspire in the same effect . and in order to this , we must consider in what posture we left the demolish'd world : what hopes there is of a restauration . and we are not to be discourag'd , because we see things at present wrapt up in a confus'd mass : for , according to the methods of nature and providence , in that dark womb usually are the seeds and rudiments of an embryo world. now as to the lower of these two regions , the region of melted matter , a. a. we shall have little occasion to take notice of it : seeing it will contribute nothing to the formation of the new world. but the upper region , or all above that orb of fire , is the true draught of a chaos : or a mixture and confusion of all the elements , without order or distinction . here are particles of earth , and of air , and of water , all promiscuously jumbled together , by the force and agitation of the fire . but when that force ceases , and every one is left to its own inclination , they will , according to their different degrees of gravity , separate and sort themselves after this manner . first , the heaviest and grossest parts of the earth will subside ; then the watery parts will follow ; then a lighter sort of earth ; which will stop and rest upon the surface of the water , and compose there a thin film or membrane ; this membrane or tender orb is the first rudiment or foundation of a new habitable earth . for according as terrestrial parts fall upon it , from all the regions and heighths of the atmosphere , or of the chaos , this orb will grow more firm , strong , and immoveable : able to support it self and inhabitants too . and having in it all the principles of a fruitful soil , whether for the production of plants or of animals , it will want no property or character of an habitable earth . and particularly , will become such an earth , and of such a form , as the first paradisiacal earth was . which hath been fully describ'd in the first and second books of this theory . there is no occasion of examining more accurately the formation of this second earth , seeing it is so much the same with that of the first ; which is set down fully and distinctly in the fifth chapter of the first book of this theory . nature here repeats the same work , and in the same method ; only the materials are now a little more refin'd and purg'd by the fire . they both rise out of a chaos , and that , in effect , the same in both cases ; for though in forming the first earth , i suppos'd the chaos or confus'd mass to reach down to the center , i did that only for the ease of our imagination ; that so the whole mass might appear more simple and uniform . but in reality , that chaos had a solid kernel of earth within , as this hath ; and that matter which fluctuated above in the regions of the air , was the true chaos , whose parts , when they came to a separation , made the several elements , and the form of an habitable earth betwixt the air and water . this chaos upon separation , will fall into the same form and elements : and so in like manner create or constitute a second paradisiacal world. i say a paradisiacal world : for it appears plainly , that this new-form'd earth must agree with that primigenial earth , in the two principal and fundamental properties . first , it is of an even , entire , uniform and regular surface , without mountains or sea. secondly . that it hath a straight and regular situation to the sun , and the axis of the ecliptick . from the manner of its formation , it appears manifestly , that it must be of an even and regular surface . for the orb of liquid fire , upon which the first descent was made , being smooth and uniform every where , the matter that fell upon it would take the same form and mould . and so the second or third region , that were superinduc'd , would still imitate the fashion of the first : there being no cause or occasion of any inequality . then as to the situation of its axis , this uniformity of figure would determine the center of its gravity to be exactly in the middle , and consequently there would be no inclination of one pole more than another to the general center of its motion ; but , upon a free libration in the liquid air , its axis would lie parallel with the axis of the ecliptick where it moves . but these things having been deduc'd more fully in the second book about paradise and the primigenial earth , they need no further explication in this place . if scripture had left us several distinct characters of the new heavens , and the new earth , we might , by compare with those , have made a full proof of our hypothesis . one indeed st. iohn hath left us in very express terms , there was no sea there , he says . his words are these : and i saw a new heaven , and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea. this character is very particular , and you see it exactly answers to our hypothesis : for in the new-form'd earth , the sea is cover'd and inconspicuous : being an abyss , not a sea ; and wholly lodg'd in the womb of the earth . and this one character , being inexplicable upon any other supposition , and very different from the present earth , makes it a strong presumption that we have hit upon the true model of the new heavens and new earth which s. iohn saw . to this sight of the new heavens and new earth , s. iohn immediately subjoyns the sight of the new ierusalem , ver . . as being contemporary , and in some respects the same thing . 't is true , the characters of the new ierusalem in these two last chapters of the apo●alypse , are very hard to be understood : some of them being incompetible to a terrestrial state , and some of them to a celestial ; so as it seems to me very reasonable to suppose , that the new ierusalem spoken of by s. iohn , is twofold : that which he saw himself , ver . . and that which the angel shewed him afterwards , ver . . for i do not see what need there was of an angel , and of taking him up into a great and high mountain , only to shew him that which he had seen before , at the foot of the mountain . but however that be , we are to consider in this place the terrestrial new ierusalem only , or that which is in the new heavens and new earth . and as st. iohn hath joyned these two together , so the prophet isaiah had done the same thing before ; when he had promised new heavens and a new earth , he calls them , under another name , ierusalem : and they both use the same character in effect , in the description of their ierusalem . isaiah says , and i will rejoyce in ierusalem , and joy in my people : and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her , nor the voice of crying . s. iohn says also in his jerusalem , god shall dwell with them , and they shall be his people : and he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes : and there shall be no more death , neither sorrow , nor crying , neither shall there be any more pain . now in both these prophets , when they treat upon this subject , we find they make frequent allusions to paradise and a paradisiacal state ; so as that may be justly taken as a scripture-character of the new heavens and the new earth . the prophet isaiah seems plainly to point at a paradisiacal state , throughout that chapter , by an universal innocency , and harmlesness of animals ; and peace , plenty , health , longaevity or immortality of the inhabitants . s. iohn also hath several allusions to paradise , in those two chapters where he describes the new jerusalem . and in his discourse to the seven churches , in one place ( ch . . . ) to him that overcometh is promised to eat of the tree of life , which is in the midst of the paradise of god. and in another place ( ch . . . ) to him that overcometh is promised , to have the name of the new ierusalem writ upon him . these i take to be the same thing , and the same reward of christian victors , the new ierusalem or the new heavens and new earth , and the paradise of god. now this being the general character of the new earth , that it is paradifiacals : and the particular character , that it hath no sea : and both these agreeing with our hypothesis , as apparently deducible from those principles and that manner of its formation which we have set down : we cannot but allow , that the holy scriptures and the natural theory agree in their testimony , as to the conditions and properties of the new heavens and new earth . from what hath been said in this and the precedent chapter , it will not be hard to interpret what s. paul meant by his habitable earth to come : which is to be subjected to our saviour , and not to the angels . in the second chapter to the hebrews , ver . . he says , for unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come : so we read it , but , according to the strictest and plainest translation , it should be the habitable earth to come . now what earth is this , where our saviour is absolute soveraign : and where the government is neither humane , nor angelical , but peculiarly theocratical ? in the first place , this cannot be the present world or the present earth , because the apostle calls it future , or the earth to come . nor can it be understood of the days of the gospel : seeing the apostle acknowledges , ver . . that this subjection , whereof he speaks , is not yet made . and seeing antichrist will not finally be destroy'd till the appearance of our saviour , ( thess. . . ) nor satan bound , while antichrist is in power : during the reign of these two , ( who are the rulers of the darkness of the world ) our saviour cannot properly be said to begin his reign here . 't is true , he exercises his providence over his church , and secures it from being destroy'd ▪ he can , by a power paramount , stop the rage either of satan or antichrist ; hitherto shall you go and no further . as sometimes when he was upon earth , he exerted a divine power , which yet did not destroy his state of humiliation ; so he interposes now when he thinks fit , but he does not finally take the power out of the hands of his enemies , nor out of the hands of the kings of the earth . the kingdom is not deliver'd up to him , and all dominion , and power ; that all tongues and nations should serve him . for s. paul can mean no less in this place than that kingdom in daniel : seeing he calls it putting all things in subjection under his feet , and says that it is not yet done . upon this account also , as well as others , our saviour might truly say to pilate ( ioh. : . ) my kingdom is not of this world. and to his disciples , the son of man came not to be ministred unto , but to minister , matt. . . when he comes to receive his kingdom , he comes in the clouds of heaven ( dan. . , . ) not in the womb of a virgin. he comes with the equipage of a king and conquer or ; with thousands and ten thousands of angels : not in the form of a servant , or of a weak infant ; as he did at his first coming . i allow the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or in the hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ the world to come , is sometimes us'd in a large sence , as comprehending all the days of the messiah , whether at his first or second coming , ( for these two comings are often undistinguish'd in scripture ) and respect the moral world as well as the natural . but the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , orbis habitabilis , which s. paul here uses , does primarily signifie the natural world , or the habitable earth , in the proper use of the word amongst the greeks , and frequently in scripture ▪ luke . . and . . rom. . . heb. . . apoc. . . neither do we here exclude the moral world , or the inhabitants of the earth , but rather necessarily include them . both the natural and moral world to come , will be the seat and subject of our saviour's kingdom and empire , in a peculiar manner . but when you understand nothing by this phrase but the present moral world , it neither answers the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the first or second part of the expression ; and tho such like phrases may be us'd for the dispensation of the messiah in opposition to that of the law , yet the height of that distinction or opposition , and the fulfilling of the expression , depends upon the second , coming of our saviour ; and upon the future earth or habitable world , where he shall reign , and which does peculiarly belong to him and his saints . neither can this world to come , or this earth to come , be understood of the kingdom of heaven . for the greek word will not bear that sence , nor is it ever us'd in scripture for heaven . besides , the kingdom of heaven , when spoken of as future , is not properly till the last resurrection and final judgment . whereas this world to come , which our saviour is to govern , must be before that time , and will then expire . for all his government , as to this world , expires at the day of judgment , and he will then deliver up the kingdom into the hands of his father : that he may be all in all . having reigned first himselfe , and put down all rule and all authority and power . so that s. paul , in these two places of his epistles , refers plainly to the same time and the same reign of christ : which must be in a future world , and before the last day of iudgment : and therefore according to our deductions , in the new heavens and the new earth . chap. iii. concerning the inhabitants of the new earth . that natural reason cannot determine this point . that according to scripture ; the sons of the first resurrection , or the heirs of the millennium , are to be the inhabitants of the new earth . the testimony of the philosophers , and of the christian fathers , for the renovation of the world. the first proposition laid down . thus we have setled the true notion , according to reason and scripture , of the new heavens and new earth . but where are the inhabitants , you 'l say ? you have taken the pains to make us a new world , and now that it is made , it must stand empty . when the first world was destroyed , there were eight persons preserv'd , with a set of living creatures of every kind , as a seminary or foundation of another world : but the fire , it seems , is more merciless than the water ; for in this destruction of the world , it does not appear that there is one living soul left , of any sort , upon the face of the earth . no hopes of posterity , nor of any continuation of mankind , in the usual way of propagation . and fire is a barren element , that breeds no living creatures in it , nor hath any nourishment proper for their food or sustenance . we are perfectly at a loss , therefore , so far as i see , for a new race of mankind , or how to people this new-form'd world. the inhabitants , if ever there be any , must either come from heaven , or spring from the earth : there are but these two ways . but natural reason can determine neither of these : sees no tract to follow in these unbeaten paths , nor can advance one step further . farewel then , dear friend , i must take another guide : and leave you here , as moses upon mount pisgah , only to look into that land , which you cannot enter . i acknowledge the good service you have done , and what a faithful companion you have been , in a long journey ; from the beginning of the world to this hour , in a tract of time of six thousand years . we have travel'd together through the dark regions of a first and second chaos : seen the world twice shipwrackt . neither water , nor fire , could separate us . but now you must give place to other guides . welcom , holy scriptures , the oracles of god , a light shining in darkness , a treasury of hidden knowledge , and , where humane faculties cannot reach , a seasonable help and supply to their defects . we are now come to the utmost bounds of their dominion : they have made us a new world , but , how it shall be inhabited , they cannot tell : know nothing of the history or affairs of it . this we must learn from other masters , inspir'd with the knowledge of things to come . and such masters we know none , but the holy prophets and apostles . we must therefore now put our selves wholly under their conduct and instruction , and from them only receive our information concerning the moral state of the future habitable earth . in the first place therefore , the prophet isaiah tells us , as a preparation to our further enquiries , the lord god created the heavens , god himselfe that formed the earth , he created it not in vain , he formed it to be inhabited . this is true , both of the present earth and the future , and of every habitable world whatsoever . for to what purpose is it made habitable , if not to be inhabited ? that would be , as if a man should manure , and plough , and every way prepare his ground for seed , but never sow it . we do not build houses that they should stand empty , but look out for tenants as fast as we can ; as soon as they are made ready , and become tenantable . but if man could do things in vain and without use or design , yet god and nature never do any thing in vain ; much less so great a work as the making of a world. which if it were in vain , would comprehend ten thousand vanities or useless preparations in it . we may therefore in the first place , safely conclude , that the new earth will be inhabited . but by whom will it be inhabited ? this makes the second enquiry . s. peter answers this question for us , and with a particular application to this very subject of the new heavens and new earth . they shall be inhabited , he says , by the iust or the righteous . his words , which we cited before , are these . when he had describ'd the conflagration of the world , he adds , but we expect new heavens and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . by righteousness here , it is generally agreed must be understood righteous persons . for righteousness cannot be without righteous persons : it cannot hang upon trees , or grow out of the ground ; 't is the endowment of reasonable creatures . and these righteous persons are eminently such , and therefore call'd righteousness in the abstract , or purely righteous without mixture of vice. so we have found inhabitants for the new earth : persons of an high and noble character . like those describ'd by s. peter , ( ep. . . ) a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people . as if into that world , as into s. iohn's new ierusalem , nothing impure or unrighteous was to be admitted . these being then the happy and holy inhabitants : the next enquiry is , whence do they come ? from what off-spring , or from what original ? we noted before , that there was no remnant of mankind left at the conflgration , as there was at the deluge : nor any hopes of a restauration that way . shall we then imagine that these new inhabitants are a colony wafted over from some neighbouring world : as from the moon , or mercury , or some of the higher planets . you may imagine what you please , but that seems to me not imaginary only but impracticable ; and that the inhabitants of those planets are persons of so great accomplishments , is more than i know : but i am sure they are not the persons here understood . for these must be such as inhabited this earth before . we look for new heavens and new earth , says the apostle : surely to have some share and interest in them ; otherwise there would be no comfort in that expectation . and the prophet isaiah said before , i create new heavens and a new earth , and the former shall come no more into remembrance : but be you glad and rejoyce for ever in that which i create . the truth is , none can have so good pretensions to this spot of ground we call the earth , as the sons of men , seeing they once possest it . and if it be restor'd again , 't is their propriety and inheritance . but 't is not mankind in general that must possess this new world , but the israel of god , according to the prophet isaiah ; or the iust , according to s. peter . and especially those that have suffer'd for the sake of their religion . for this is that palingenesia , as we noted before , that renovation , or regeneration of all things , where our saviour says , those , that suffer loss for his sake , shall be recompenced : matt. . , . but they must then be raised from the dead . for all mankind was destroy'd at the conflagration : and there is no resource for them any other way , than by a resurrection . 't is true : and s. iohn gives us a fair occasion to make this supposition , that there will be some raised from the dead , before the general day of judgment . for he plainly distinguisheth of a first and second resurrection , and makes the first to be a thousand years before the second , and before the general day of judgment . now , if there be truly and really a two-fold resurrection , as st. iohn tells us ; and at a thousand years distance from one another : it may be very rationally presum'd , that , those that are raised in the first resurrection , are those iust that will inhabit the new heavens and new earth . or whom our saviour promis'd to reward in the renovation of the world. for otherwise , who are those iust that shall inhabit the new earth , and whence do they come ? or when is that restauration which our saviour speaks of , wherein those that suffer'd for the sake of the gospel shall be rewarded ? st. iohn says , the martyrs , at this first resurrection , shall live again and reign with christ. which seems to be the reward promis'd by our saviour , to those that suffer'd for his sake : and the same persons in both places . and i saw the souls of them , says st. iohn , that were beheaded for the witness of iesus , and for the word of god : and which had not worshipped the beast , &c. and they lived and reigned with christ a thousand years . these , i say , seem to be the same persons to whom christ had before promis'd and appropriated a particular reward . and this rewa●d of theirs , or this reign of theirs , is upon earth : upon some earth , new or old : not in heaven . for , besides that we read nothing of their ascension into heaven after their resurrection : there are several marks that shew it must necessarily be understood of a state upon earth . for gog and magog came from the four quarters of the earth , and besieged the camp of the saints , and the beloved city . that camp and that city therefore were upon the earth . and fire came down from heaven and devoured them . if it came down from heaven , it came upon the earth . furthermore , those persons that are rais'd from the dead , are said to be priests of god and of christ , and to reign with him a thousand years . now these must be the same persons with the priests and kings , mention'd in the fifth chapter : which are there said expresly to reign upon earth , or that they should reign upon earth . it remains therefore only to determine , what earth this is , where the sons of the first resurrection will live and reign . it cannot be the present earth , in the same state , and under the same circumstances it is now . for what happiness or priviledge would that be , to be call'd back into a mortal life , under the necessities and inconveniences of sickly bodies , and an incommodious world ? such as the present state of mortality is , and must continue to be , till some change be made in nature . we may be sure therefore , that a change will be made in nature before that time , and that the state they are rais'd into , and the earth they are to inhabit , will be , at least , paradisiacal : and consequently can be no other than the new heavens and new earth , which we are to expect after the conflagration . from these considerations , there is a great fairness to conclude , both as to the characters of the perons , and of the place or state , that the sons of the first resurrection , will be inhabitants of the new earth , and reign there with christ a thousand years . but seeing this is one of the principal and peculiar conclusions of this discourse , and bears a great part in this last book of the theory of the earth , it will deserve a more full explication , and a more ample proof , to make it out . we must therefore take a greater compass in our discourse , and give a full account of that state which is usually call'd the millennium : the reign of the saints a thousand years , or the kingdom of christ upon earth . but before we enter upon this new subject , give me leave to close our present argument , about the renovation of the world , with some testimonies of the ancient philosophers , to that purpose . 't is plain to me , that there were amongst the ancients several traditions , or traditionary conclusions , which they did not raise themselves , by reason and observation , but receiv'd them from an unknown antiquity . an instance of this is the conflagration of the world : a doctrine , as ancient , for any thing i know , as the world it self . at least as ancient as we have any records . and yet none of those ancients that tell us of it , give any argument to prove it . neither is it any wonder , for they did not invent it themselves , but receiv'd it from others without proof , by the sole authority of tradition . in like manner the renovation of the world , which we are now speaking of , is an ancient doctrine : both amongst the greeks and eastern philosophers : but they shew us no method how the world may be renew'd , nor make any proof of its future renovation ; for it was not a discovery which they first made , but receiv'd it , with an implicite faith , from their masters and ancestors . and these traditionary doctrines were all fore-runners of that light that was to shine more clearly at the opening of the christian dispensation ; to give a more full account of the fate and revolutions of the natural world , as well as of the moral . the iews , 't is well known , held the renovation of the world , and a sabbath after six thousand years : according to the prophecy that was currant amongst them , whereof we have given a larger account in the precedent book , ch . . and that future state they call'd olam hava , or the world to come , which is the very same with st. paul's habitable earth to come , heb. . . neither can i easily believe , that those constitutions of moses that proceed so much upon a septenary , or the number seven , and have no ground or reason , in the nature of the thing , for that particular number : i cannot easily believe , i say , that they are either accidental or humoursome : without design or signification . but that they are typical , or representative of some septenary state , that does eminently deserve and bear that character . moses , in the history of the creation , makes six days work , and then a sabbath . then , after six years , he makes a sabbath-year : and after a sabbath of years a year of jubilee , levit. . all these lesser revolutions seem to me to point at the grand revolution , the great sabbath or iubilee , after six millenaries , which as it answers the type in point of time , so likewise in the nature and contents of it : being a state of rest from all labour and trouble and servitude : a state of joy and triumph : and a state of renovation , when things are to return to their first condition and pristine order . so much for the iews . the heathen philosophers , both greeks and barbarians , had the same doctrine of the renovation of the world , currant amongst them . and that under several names and phrases ; as of the great year , the restauration , the mundane periods , and such like . they suppos'd stated and fix'd periods of time , upon expiration whereof there would always follow some great , revolution of the world , and the face of nature would be renew'd . particularly after the conflagration , the stoicks always suppos'd a new world to succeed , or another frame of nature to be erected in the room of that which was destroy'd . and they use the same words and phrases upon this occasion that scripture useth ; chrysippus calls it apocatastalis , as st. peter does , act. . . marcus antoninus in his meditations ▪ several times calls it palingenesia , as our saviour does , mat. . . and numenius hath two scripture-words , resurrection and restitution , to express this renovation of the world. then as to the platonicks , that revolution of all things , hath commonly been call'd the platonick year , as if plato had been the first author of that opinion ; but that 's a great mistake ; he receiv'd it from the barbarick philosophers , and particularly from the aegyptian priests , amongst whom he liv'd several years , to be instructed in their learning . but i do not take plato neither to be the first that brought this doctrine into greece : for , besides that the sibylls , whose antiquity we do not well know , sung this song of o●d , as we see it copyed from them by virgil in his fourth eclogue ; pythagoras taught it before plato : and orpheus before them both . and that 's as high as the greek philosophy reaches . the barbarick philosophers were more ancient : namely the aegyptians , persians , chaldeans , indian brackmans , and other eastern nations . their monuments indeed are in a great measure lost , yet from the remains of them which the greeks have transcrib'd , and so preserv'd , in their writings , we see plainly they all had this doctrine of the future renovation . and to this day the posterity of the brackmans in the east indies , retain the same notion , that the world will be renewed after the last fire . you may see the citations , if you please , for all these nations , in the latin treatise , ch. . which i thought would be too dry and tedious to be render'd into english. to these testimonies of the philosophers of all ages , for the future renovation of the world , we might add the testimonies of the christian fathers : greek and latin , ancient and modern . i will only give you a bare list of them , and refer you to the latin treatise for the words or the places . amongst the greek fathers , iustin martyr , irenaeus , origen ; the fathers of the council of nice , eusebius , basil ; the two cyrils , of ierusalem and alexandria ; the two gregorys , nazianzen and nyssen ; s. chrysostom , zacharias mitylenensis ; and of later date , damascen , oecumenius , euthymius , and others . these have all set their hands and seals to this doctrine . of the latin fathers , tertullian , lactantius , s. hilary , s. ambrose , s. austin , s. ierome ; and many later ecclesiastical authors . these , with the philosophers before mentioned , i count good authority , sacred and prophane : which i place here as an out-guard upon scripture , where our principal force lies . and these three united and acting in conjunction , will be sufficient to secure this first post , and to prove our first proposition , which is this : that after the conflagration of this world , there will be new heavens and a new earth : and that earth will be inhabited . chap. iv. the proof of a millennium , or of a blessed age to come , from scripture . a view of the apocalypse , and of the prophecies of daniel , in reference to this kingdom of christ and of his saints . we have given fair presumptions , if not proofs , in the precedent chapter , that the sons of the first resurrection will be the persons that shall inhabit the new earth , or the world to come . but to make that proof compleat and unexceptionable , i told you it would be necessary to take a larger compass in our discourse , and to examine what is meant by that reign with christ a thousand years , which is promis'd to the sons of the first resurrection ; by st. iohn in the apocalypse ; and in other places of scripture is usually call'd the kingdom of christ , and the reign of the saints . and by ecclesiastical authors , in imitation of s. iohn , it is commonly styled the millennium . we shall indifferently use any of these words or phrases ; and examine , first , the truth of the notion and opinion ; whether in scripture there be such an happy state promised to the saints , under the conduct of christ. and then we will proceed to examine the nature , characters , place and time of it . and i am in hopes when these things are duly discuss'd and stated , you will be satisfied that we have found out the true inhabitants of the new heavens and new earth : and the true mystery of that state which is call'd the millennium , or the reign of christ and of his saints . we begin with s. iohn ; whose words , in the twentieth chapter of the apocalypse , are express , both as to the first resurrection , and as to the reign of those saints , that rise , with christ , for a thousand years . satan in the mean time being bound , or disabled from doing mischief and seducing mankind . the words of the prophet are these , and i saw an angel come down from heaven , having the key of the bottomless pit , and a great chain in his hand . and he laid hold on the dragon , that old serpent , which is the devil and satan ; and bound him a thousand years . and i saw thrones , and they sat upon them , and judgment was given unto them : and i saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of iesus , and for the word of god , and which had not worshipped the beast , neither his image , neither had received his mark upon their fore-heads , or in their hands ; and they lived and reigned with christ a thousand years . but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished . this is the first resurrection . blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection : on such the second death hath no power , but they shall be priests of god , and of christ , and shall reign with him a thousand years . these words do fully express a resurrection , and a reign with christ a thousand years . as for that particular space of time , of a thousand years , it is not much material to our present purpose : but the resurrection here spoken of , and the reign with christ , make the substance of the controversie , and in effect prove all that we enquire after at present . this resurrection , you see , is call'd the first resurrection , by way of distinction from the second and general resurrection ; which is to be plac'd a thousand years after the first . and both this first resurrection and the reign of christ , seem to be appropriated to the martyrs in this place . for the prophet says , the souls of those that were beheaded for the witness of iesus , &c. they lived and reigned with christ a thousand years . from which words , if you please , we will raise this doctrine : that , those that have suffered for the sake of christ and a good conscience , shall be raised from the dead a thousand years before the general resurrection , and reign with christ in an happy state . this proposition seems to be plainly included in the words of s. iohn , and to be the intended sence of this vision ; but you must have patience a little as to your enquiry into particulars , till , in the progress of our discourse , we have brought all the parts of this conclusion into a fuller light . in the mean time ▪ there is but one way , that i know of , to evade the force of these words , and of the conclusion drawn from them ; and that is by supposing that the first resurrection here mentioned , is not to be understood in a literal sense , but is allegorical and mystical ; signifying only a resurrection from sin to a spiritual life . as we are said to be dead in sin , and to be risen with christ , by faith and regeneration . this is a manner of speech which s. paul does sometimes use : as ephes. . . and . . and col. . . but how can this be applyed to the present case ? were the martyrs dead in sin ? 't is they that are here rais'd from the dead . or , after they were beheaded for the witness of jesus , naturally dead and laid in their graves , were they then regenerate by faith ? there is no congruitiy in allegories so applyed . besides , why should they be said to be regenerate a thousand years before the day of judgment : or , to reign with christ , after this spiritual resurrection , such a limited time , a thousand years ? why not to eternity ? for in this allegorical sence of rising and reigning , they will reign with him for everlasting . then , after a thousand years must all the wicked be regenerate , and rise into a spiritual life ? 't is said here , the rest of the dead lived not again , until the thousand years were finished . that implyes , that at the end of these thousand years , the rest of the dead did live again ; which , according to the allegory must be , that , after a thousand years , all the wicked will be regenerate , and rais'd into a spiritual life . these absurdities arise upon an allegorical exposition of this resurrection , if apply'd to single persons . but dr. hammond , a learned and worthy divine , ( but one that loves to contract and cramp the sence of prophecies ) making this first resurrection allegorical , applies it not to single persons , but to the state of the church in general ; the christian church , he says , shall have a resurrection for a thousand years : that is , shall rise out of persecution , be in a prosperous condition , and an undisturb'd profession of the true religion , for so long a time . but this agrees with the prophecy as little as the former ; if it be a state of the church in general , and of the church then in being , why is this resurrection apply'd to the martyrs ? why are they said to rise ? seeing the state they liv'd in , was a troublesome state of the church , and it would be no happiness to have that reviv'd again . then as to the time of this resurrection of the church , where will you fix it ? the prophet daniel places this reign of christ , at , or after the dissolution of the fourth monarchy and s. iohn places it a thousand years before the last day of judgment : how will you adjust the allegorical resurrection of the church to these limits ? or if , in point of time , you was free , as to prophecy ; yet how would you adjust it to history ? where will you take these thousand years of happiness and prosperity to the church ? these authors suppose them past , and therefore must begin them either from the first times of the gospel , or from the time of constantine . under the first ages of the gospel , were , you know , the great persecutions by the heathen emperours : could those be call'd the reign of christ and of his saints ? was sathan then bound ? or was this epocl●a but a thousand years before the day of judgment ? and if you begin this resurrection of the church from the days of constantine , when the empire became christian , how will you reckon a thousand years from that time , for the continuance of the church in peace and purity ? for the reign of christ and of his saints must necessarily imply both those characters . besides , who are the rest of the dead , that liv'd after the expiration of those thousand years , if they begun at constantine ? and why is not the second resurrection and the day of judgment yet come ? lastly , you ought to be tender of interpreting the first resurrection in an allegorical sence , left you expose the second resurrection to be made an allegory also . to conclude , the words of the text are plain and express for a literal resurrection , as to the first , as well as the second ; and there is no allegorical interpretation that i know of , that will hold through all the particulars of the text , consistently with it self and with history . and when we shall have prov'd this future kingdom of christ from other places of the apocalypse , and of holy writ , you will the more easily admit the literal sence of this place : which , you know , according to the receiv'd rule of interpreters , is never to be quitted or forsaken , without necessity . but when i speak of confirming this doctrine from other passages of scripture , i do not mean as to that definite time of a thousand years , for that is no where else mention'd in the apocalypse or in scripture , that i know of ; and seems to be mention'd here , in this close of all things , to mind us of that type that was propos'd in the beginning of all things , of six days and a sabbath . whereof each day comprehends a thousand years , and the sabbath , which is the millennial state , hath its thousand . according to the known prophecy of elias , which , as i told you before , was not only receiv'd amongst the iews , but also own'd by very many of the christian fathers . to proceed therefore to other parts of s. iohn ' s prophecies , that set forth this kingdom of christ. the vision of the seven trumpets is one of the most remarkable in the apocalypse ; and the seventh trumpet , which plainly reaches to the end of the world , and the resurrection of the dead , opens the scene to the millennium . hear the sound of it . the seventh angel sounded , and there were great voices in heaven , saying , the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our lord , and of his christ , and he shall reign for ever and ●ver . and the four and twenty elders , which sat before god on their seats , fell upon their faces , and worshipped god : saying , we give thee thanks , o lord god almighty , which art , and wast , and art to come ; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned . and the nations were angry , and thy wrath is come , and the time of the dead , that they should be judged , and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets , and to the saints , and them that fear thy name , small and great , and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth , &c. this is manifestly the kingdom of christ : and with this is joyn'd the resurrection of the dead , and the rewarding of the suffering prophets and saints ; as in the th . chapter . this is that mystery of god that was to be finish'd in the days of the voice of the seventh angel : as is said in the th . chap. ver . . as he hath declared to his servants the prophets . namely , the mystery of this kingdom , which was foretold by the prophets of the old testament : and more especially by daniel , as we shall see hereafter . the new ierusalem , ( as it is set down , apoc. . , , , , , . ) is another instance or image of this kingdom of christ. and the palm-bearing company , chap. . , &c. are some of the martyrs that shall enjoy it . they are plainly describ'd there as christian martyrs ; ( ver . . ) and their reward , or the state of happiness they are to enjoy , ( ver . , , . ) is the same with that of the inhabitants of the new ierusalem : ch. . , , , &c. as , upon comparing those two places , will easily appear . furthermore , at the opening of the seals , chap. . which is another principal vision , and reaches to the end of the world , there is a prospect given us of this kingdom of christ , and of that reward of his saints . for when they sing the new song to the lamb , ( ver . , . ) they say , thou art worthy to take the book , and to open the seals thereof : for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to god , by thy bloud . and hast made us unto our god kings and priests : and we shall reign on the earth . this must be the same state , and the same thousand-years-reign mention'd in the th . chapter . where 't is said , ( ver . . ) the partakers of it shall be priests of god , and of christ , and shall reign with him a thousand years . another completory vision , that extends it self to the end of the world , is that of the seven vials , ch. , & . and as at the opening of the seals , so at the pouring out of the vials , a triumphal song is sung , and 't is call'd the song of moses and of the lamb. 't is plainly a song of thanksgiving for a deliverance : but i do not look upon this deliverance as already wrought , before the pouring out of the vials , though it be plac'd before them : as often the grand design and issue of a vision is plac'd at the beginning . it is wrought by the vials themselves , and by their effusion , and therefore upon the pouring out of the last vial. the voice came out of the temple of heaven , from the throne , saying , consummatum est : it is done . now the deliverance is wrought , now the work is at an end : or , the mystery of god is finish'd , as the phrase was before , concerning the th . trumpet : ch. . . you see therefore this terminates upon the same time , and consequently upon the same state , of the millennium . and that they are the same persons that triumph here , and reign there , ch. . you may see by the same characters given to both of them . here , those that triumph , are said to have gotten the victory over the beast , and over his image , and over his mark , and over the number of his name . and there , those that reign with christ , are said to be those that had not worshipped the beast , neither his image , neither had received his mark upon their foreheads , or in their hands . these are the same persons therefore , triumphing over the same enemies , and enjoying the same reward . and you shall seldom find any doxology or hallelujah in the apocalypse , but 't is in prospect of the kingdom of christ , and the millennial state . that is still the burthen of the sacred song : the complement of every grand vision , and the life and strength of the whole systeme of prophecies in that book . even those halleluja's that are sung at the destruction of babylon , in the th . chapter , are rais'd upon the view of the succeeding state , the reign of christ. for the text says , and i heard as it were a voice of a great multitude , and as the voice of many waters , and as the voice of mighty thunders , saying , hallelujah . for the lord god omnipotent reigneth . let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him : for the marriage of the lamb is come , and his wife hath made her self ready . this appears plainly to be the new ierusalem , if you consult the th . ch . ver . . and i iohn saw the holy city , new ierusalem , coming down from god out of heaven , prepared as a bride adorned for her husband . 't is , no doubt , the same bride and bridegroom , in both places ; the same marriage or preparations for marriage ; which are compleated in the millennial bliss , in the kingdom of christ and of his saints . i must still beg your patience a little longer , in pursuing this argument throughout the apocalypse . as towards the latter end of s. iohn's revelation this kingdom of christ shines out in a more full glory , so there are the dawnings of it in the very beginning and entrance into his prophecies . as at the beginning of a poem , we have commonly in a few words the design of the work , in like manner s. iohn makes this preface to his prophecies , from iesus christ , who is the faithful witness , the first begotten of the dead , and the prince of the kings of the earth : unto him that loved us , and washed us from our sins in his own bloud : and hath made us kings and priests unto god and his father ; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever , amen . behold , he cometh in the clouds , &c. in this prologue the grand argument is pointed at , and that happy catastrophe and last scene which is to crown the work : the reign of christ and of his saints at his second coming . he hath made us kings and priests unto god : this is always the characteristick of those that are to enjoy the millennial happiness , as you may see at the opening of the seals , ch . . . and in the sons of the first resurrection , ch . . . and this being joyned to the coming of our saviour , puts it still more out of doubt . that expression also , of being washt from our sins in his bloud , is repeated again both at the opening of the seals , chap. . . and in the palm-bearing company , chap. . . both which places we have cited before as referring to the millennial state. give me leave to add further , that as in this general preface , so also in the introductory visions of the seven churches , there are , covertly or expresly , in the conclusion of each , glances upon the millennium . as in the first to ephesus , the prophet concludes , he that hath an ear , let him hear , what the spirit says to the churches : to him that overcometh will i give to fat of the tree of life , which is in the midst of the paradise of god. this is the millennial happiness which is promised to the conquerour ; as we noted before concerning that phrase . in like manner in the second to smyrna , he concludes : he that overcometh , shall not be hurt of the second death . this implyes , he shall be partaker of the first resurrection , for that 's the thing understood ; as you may see plainly by their being joyn'd in the th . ch. ver . . blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection : on such the second death hath no power : but they shall be priests of god and of christ , and shall reign with him a thousand years . in the d to pergamus , the promise is , to eat of the hidden manna , to have a white stone , and a new name written in it . but seeing the prophet adds , which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it , we will not presume to interpret that new state , whatsoever it is . in thyatira , the reward is , to have power over the nations , and to have the morning star. which is to reign with christ , who is the morning star , in his millennial empire : both these phrases being us'd in that sence in the close of this book . in sardis the promise is , to be clothed in white raiment , and not to be blotted out of the book of life . and you see afterwards the palm-bearing company are clothed in white robes ; and those that are admitted into the new ierusalem , are such as are written in the lamb's book of life , ch. . . then as to philadelphia , the reward promised there does openly mark the millennial state , by the city of god , new ierusalem which cometh down out of heaven from god : compar'd with chap. . . lastly , to the church of laodicea is said , to him that overcometh will i grant to sit with me in my throne . and that is the usual phrase to express the dignity of those that reign with christ , in his millennial kingdom : as you may see , apoc. . . mat. . . dan. . , , . so all these promises to the churches aim at one and the same thing , and terminate upon the same point ; 't is the same reward express'd in different ways ; and seeing 't is still fixt upon a victory , and appropriated to those that overcome , it does the more easily carry our thoughts to the millennium , which is the proper reward of victors , that is , of martyrs and confessors . thus you see how this notion and mystery of the millennial kingdom of christ , does both begin and end the apocalypse , and run thorough all its parts : as the soul of that body of prophecies : a spirit or ferment that actuates the whole mass . and if we could thoroughly understand that illustrious scene at the opening of this apocalyptical theatre in the th . and th . chap. i do not doubt but we should find it a representation of the majesty of our saviour in the glory of his future kingdom . but i dare not venture upon the explication of it , there are so many things of difficult and dubious interpretation , coucht under those schemes . wherefore having made these observations upon the prophecies of st. iohn , we will now add to them some reflections upon the prophecies of daniel . that by the agreement and concurrence of these two great witnesses , the conclusion we pretend to prove , may be fully established . in the prophecies of daniel there are two grand visions , that of the statue or image , chap. . and that of the four beats , chap. . and both these visions terminate upon the millennium , or the kingdom of christ. in the vision of the statue , representing to us the four great monarchies of the world successively , ( whereof , by the general consent of interpreters , the roman is the fourth and last ) after the dissolution of the last of them , a fifth monarchy , the kingdom of christ , is openly introduc'd , in these words : and in the days of these kingdoms , shall the god of heaven set up a kingdom , which shall never be destroy'd , and the kingdom shall be left to other people , but it shall break in pieces , and consume all those kingdoms , and it shall stand for ever . this may be verified , in some measure , by the first coming of our saviour in the days of the th . kingdom ; when his religion from small beginnings , in a short time overspread the greatest part of the known world. as the stone cut out without hands , became a great mountain and filled the whole earth . but the full and final accomplishment of this prophecy cannot be till the second coming of our saviour . for not till then , will he break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms ; and that in such a manner , that they shall become like the chaff of the summer threshing floor , carried away by the wind : so as no place shall be found for them . this , i say , will not be done , nor an everlasting kingdom erected in their place , over all the nations of the earth , till his second coming , and his millennial reign . but this reign is declared more expresly , in the vision of the four beasts , chap. . for after the destruction of the fourth beast , the prophet says , i saw in the night , visions , and behold one like the son of man , came with the clouds of heaven ▪ and came to the ancient of days , and they brought him near before him : and there was given him dominion , and glory , and a kingdom , that all people , nations , and languages should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion , which shall not pass away : and his kingdom that which shall not be destroy'd . accordingly he says , ver . , . the last beast and the little horn made war against the saints , until the ancient of days came , and judgment was given to the saints of the most high ; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom . and lastly , in pursuit still of the same argument , he concludes to the same effect in fuller words , ver . , . but the iudgment shall sit , and they shall take away his dominion , to consume and to destroy it unto the end . and the kingdom and dominion , and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven , shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high : whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom , and all dominions shall serve and obey him . here is the end of the matter : says the prophet . here is the upshot and result of all . here terminate both the prophecies of daniel and st. iohn : and all the affairs of the terrestrial world. daniel brings in this kingdom of christ , in the conclusion of two or three visions ; but st. iohn hath interwoven it every where with his prophecies , from first to last . and you may as well open a lock without a key , as interpret the apocalypse without the millennium . but after these two great witnesses , the one for the old testament , the other for the new , we must look into the rest of the sacred writers ; for tho' every single author there , is an oracle , yet the concurrence of oracles is still a further demonstration , and takes away all remains of doubt or incredulity . chap. v. a view of other places of scripture concerning the millennium or future kingdom of christ. in what sence all the prophets have born testimony concerning it . the wife of zebedee came to our saviour , and begg'd of him , like a fond mother , that her two sons might sit , one at his right hand , th' other at his left , when he came into his kingdom . our saviour does not deny the supposition , or general ground of her request , that he was to have a kingdom ; but tells her , the honours of that kingdom were not then in his disposal . he had not drunk his cup , nor been baptiz'd with his last baptism : which were conditions , both to him and others , of entring into that kingdom . yet , in another place , our saviour is so well assur'd of his interest and authority there , by the good will of his father , that he promises to his disciples and followers , that for the losses they should sustain here , upon his account , and for the sake of his gospel , they should receive there an hundred fold ; and sit upon thrones with him , judging the tribes of israel . the words are these : and iesus said unto them , verily i say unto you , that ye which have followed me , in the regeneration or renovation , when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory , ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones , judging the twelve tribes of israel . these thrones , in all reason , must be understood to be the same with those which we mention'd in the foregoing chapter , out of daniel and the apocalypse : and therefore mark the same time and the same state . and seeing , in those places , they plainly signified the millennial state , or the kingdom of christ and of his saints , they must here signifie the same , in this promise of our saviour to his suffering followers . and as to the word palingenesia , which is here translated regeneration , 't is very well known , that , both the greek philosophers , and greek fathers , use that very word for the renovation of the world. which is to be , as we shall hereafter make appear , at or before the millennial state . our saviour also , in his divine sermon upon the mount , makes this one of his beatitudes , blessed are the meek , for they shall inherit the earth . but how , i pray , or where , or when , do the meek inherit the earth ? neither at present , i am sure , nor in any past ages . 't is the great ones of the world , ambitious princes and tyrants , that slice the barth amongst them : and those that can flatter them best , or serve them in their interests or pleasures , have the next best shares . but a meek , modest , and humble spirit , is the most unqualified person that can be for a court , or a camp : to scramble for preferment , or plund●r . both he , and his self-denying notions , are ridicul'd , as things of no use , and proceeding from meanness and poorness of spirit . david , who was a person of an admirable devotion , but of an unequal spirit ; subject to great dejections , as well as elevations of mind ; was so much affected with the prosperity of the wicked in this world , that he could scarce forbear charging providence with injustice . you may see several touches of a repining spirit in his psalms : and in the seventy-third psalm , compos'd upon that subject , you have both the wound and the cure . now this bea●it●de pronounc'd here by our saviour , was spoken before by david , psal . . . the same david that was always so sensible of the hard usage of the just in this life . our saviour also , and his apostles , preach the doctrine of the cross every where , and foretell the sufferings that shall attend the righteous , in this world. therefore neither david , nor our saviour , could understand this inheritance of the earth , otherwise than of some future state , or of a state yet to come . but as it must be a future state , so it must be a terrestrial state ; for it could not be call'd the inheritance of the earth , if it was not so . and 't is to be a state of peace , as well as plenty , according to the words of the psalmist , but the meek shall inherit the earth , and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace . it follows therefore from these premisses , that , both our saviour , and david , must understand some future state of the earth , wherein the meek will enjoy both peace and plenty . and this will appear to be the future kingdom of christ , when , upon a fuller description , we shall have given you the marks and characters of it . in the mean time , why should we not suppose , this earth , which the meek are to inherit , to be that habitable earth to come , which st. paul mentions ( hebr. . . ) and represents as subject to our saviour in a pecuilar manner : at his disposal and under his government , as his kingdom : why should not that earth be the subject of this beatitude : the promis'd land , the lot of the righ●eous ? this i am sure of , that both this text and the former deserve our serious thoughts ; and tho' they do not expresly , and in terms , prove the future kingdom of our saviour , yet upon the fairest interpretations they imply such a state . and it will be very uneasie to give a satisfactory account , either of the regeneration or renovation , when our saviour and his disciples shall sit upon thrones : or of that earth which the meek shall inherit : or lastly , of that habitable world , which is peculiarly subject to the dominion of jesus christ , without supposing , on this side heaven , some other reign of christ and his saints , than what we see , or what they enjoy , at present . but to proceed in this argument . it will be necessary , as i told you , to set down some notes and characters of this reign of christ and of his saints , whereby it may be distinguish'd from the present state , and present kingdoms of the world. and these characters are chiefly three , iustice , peace , and divine presence or conduct , which uses to be called theocrasie . by these characters it is sufficiently distinguish'd from the kingdoms of this world ; which are generally unjust in their titles or exercise : stain'd with bloud : and so far from being under a particular divine conduct , that humane passions and humane vices ▪ are the springs that commonly give motion to their greatest designs . but more particularly and restrainedly , the government of christ , is opposed to the kingdom and government of antichrist , whose characters are diametrically opposite to these , being injustice , cruelty , and humane or diabolical artifices . upon this short view of the kingdom of christ , let us make enquiry after it amongst the prophets of the old testament . and we shall find , upon examination , that there is scarce any of them , greater or lesser , but take notice of this mystical kingdom ; either expresly , or under the types of israel , sion , ierusalem , and such like . and therefore i am apt to think , that , when s. peter in his sermon to the iews , act. . says , all the holy prophets spoke of the restitution of all things , he does not mean the renovation of the world separately from the kingdome of christ , but complexly , as it may imply both . for there are not many of the old prophets that have spoken of the renovation of the natural world ; but a great many have spoken of the renovation of the moral , in the kingdom of christ. these are s. peter's words : act. . , , . repent ye therefore and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the lord. and he shall send iesus christ which before was preached unto ye : whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things . the apostle here mentions three things , the times of refreshing , the second coming of our saviour , and the times of restitution of all things . and to the last of these he immediately subjoyns , which god hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets , since the world began . this restitution of all things , i say , must not be understood abstractly from the reign of christ , but as in conjunction with it ; and in that sence , and no other , it is the general subject of the prophets . to enter therefore into the schools of the prophets , and enquire their sence concerning this mystery , let us first address our selves to the prophet isaiah , and the royal prophet david ; who seem to have had many noble thoughts , or inspirations , upon this subject . isaiah in the th chap. from the th ver . to the end , treats upon this argument : and joyns together the renovation of the natural and moral world ; as s. peter , in the place forementioned , seems to do . and accordingly the prophet , having set down several natural characters of that state , as indolency and joy , longevity , ease , and plenty , from ver . . to the th . he there begins the moral characters , of divine favour , and such a particular protection , that they are heard and answer'd before they pray . and lastly , he represents it as a state of universal peace and innocency , ver . . the wolf and the lamb shall feed together , &c. this last character , which comprehends peace , iustice , and innocency , is more fully display'd by the same prophet , in the th . chap. where he treats also of the kingdom of christ. give me leave to set down his words , ver . , , , , , . but with righteousness shall he judge the poor , and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth : and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth , and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked . and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins , and faithfulness the girdle of his reins . the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb , and the leopard shall lye down with the kid : and the calf and the young lyon , and the fatling together , and a little child shall lead them . and the cow and the bear shall feed , their young ones shall lye down together : and the lyon shall eat straw like the ox. and the suckling ohbild shall play on the hole of the asp , and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice-den . they shall not hurt , nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the lord , as the waters cover the sea. thus far the prophet : now if we joyn this to what we noted before , from his th . chap. concerning the same state , 't will be impossible to understand it of any order of things , that is now , or hath been hitherto in the world. and consequently it must be the idea of some state to come , and particularly of that which we call the future kingdom of christ. the same pacifick temper , innocency and justice , are celebrated by this prophet when the mountain of the lord shall be established in the top of the mountains , chap. . , . and he shall judge amongst the nations , and shall rebuke many people ; and they shall heat their swords into plow-shares , and their spears into pruning-hooks . nation shall not lift up sword against nation , neither shall they learn war any more . and as to righteousness , he says in the . chap. behold a king shall reign in righteousness , and princes shall rule in judgment , &c. these places , i know , usually are applyed to the first coming of our saviour ; the peaceableness of his doctrine , and the propagation of it through all the world. i willingly allow this to be a true sence , so far as it will go . but 't is one thing to be a true sence , to such a degree ; and another thing to be the final sence and accomplishment of a prophecy . the affairs of the first and second coming of our saviour are often mingled together in the prophecies of the old testament ; but in that mixture there are some characters whereby you may distinguish what belongs to his first , and what to his second coming ; what to the time when he came to suffer , and what to the time when he shall come to reign . for instance , in these prophecies recited , though there are many things very applicable to his first coming , yet that regality which is often spoken of , and that universal peace and innocency that will accompany it , cannot be verified of his coming in the flesh . seeing it is plain , that in his state of humiliation he did not come as a king , to rule over the nations of the earth . and he says himself expresly , that his kingdom is not of this world , iohn . . and the prayer of salome , and of the good thief upon the cross , suppose it not then present , but to come . then as to the establishment of peace in his kingdom , it does not at all appear to me that there is more peace in the world now than there was before our saviour came into it ; or that the christian parts of the world are more peaceable than the unchristian . therefore these great promises of a pacifick kingdom , which are exprest in terms as high and emphatical as can be imagin'd , must belong to some other days , and some other ages , than what we have seen hitherto . you 'l say , it may be , 't is not the fault of the gospel that the world is not peaceable , but of those that profess it , and do not practise it . this is true , but it does not answer the prophecy ; for that makes no such exception . and by such a reserve as this , you may elude any prophecy . so the iews say , their messiah defers his coming beyond the time appointed by prophecy , because of their sins : but we do not allow this for a good reason . the israelites had their promised canaan , tho' they had render'd themselves unworthy of it ; and by this method of interpreting prophecies , all the happiness and glory promised in the millennial kingdom of christ may come to nothing , upon a pretended forfeiture . threatnings indeed may have a tacit condition ; god may be better than his word , and , upon repentance , divert his judgments ; but he cannot be worse than his word , or fail of performance , when , without any condition exprest , he promises or prophesies good things to come . this would destroy all assurance of hope or faith. lastly , this prophecy concerning pacifick times or a pacifick kingdom , is in the th . chap. subjoyn'd to the renovation of the heavens and the earth , and several marks of a change in the natural world ; which things we know did not come to pass at the first coming of our saviour : there was no change of nature then , nor has been ever since . and therefore this happy change , both in the natural and moral world , is yet to come . but , as we said before , we do not speak this exclusively of the first coming of our saviour , as to other parts of these prophecies ; for no doubt that was one great design of them . and in the prophecies of the old testament , there are often three gradations , or gradual accomplishments ; the first , in some king of israel , or some person or affair relating to israel , as national only . the second , in the messiah at his first coming . and the last , in the messiah , and his kingdom at his second coming . and that which we affirm and contend for , is , that the prophecies foremention'd have not a final and total accomplishment , either in the nation of the iews , or at the first coming of our saviour . and this we bide by . the next prophet that we mention'd as a witness of the future kingdom of christ , is david . who , in his psalms , seems to be pleas'd with this subject above all others ; and when he is most exalted in his thoughts and prophetical raptures , the spirit carries him into the kingdom of the messiah , to contemplate its glory , to sing praises to its king , and triumph over his enemies : psal. . let god arise , let his enemies be scattered : let them also that hate him flie before him . as smoke is driven away , so drive them away ; as wax melteth before the fire , so let the wicked perish at the presence of god. but let the righteous be glad , &c. the plain ground he goes upon in this psalm , is the deliverance out of aegypt , and bringing the israelites unto the land of canaan ; but when he is once upon the wing , he soars to an higher pitch : from the type to the antitype : to the days of the messiah , the ascension of our saviour ; and , at length , to his kingdom and dominion over all the earth . the th . psalm is an epithalamium to christ and the church , or to the lamb and his spouse . and when that will be , and in what state , we may learn from s. iohn , apoc. . , . and ch . . , . namely , after the destruction of babylon , in the new ierusalem glory . the words and matter of the two prophets answer to one another ; here , in this psalm , there is a fight and victory celebrated as well as a marriage : and so there is in that th . chapter of s. iohn . here , the prophet says , g●rd thy sword upon thy thigh , o most mighty , with thy glory and thy majesty . and in thy majesty ride prosperously , because of truth and meekness and righteousness : and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things . thy throne , o god , is for ever and ever ; the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter , &c. there s. iohn says , having describ'd a conquerour on a white horse , out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword , that with it he should smite the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron : and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty god. and he hath on his vesture , and on his thigh a name written king of kings , and lord of lords . this is the same glorious conqueror and bridegroom in both places : and this victory is not gain'd , nor these nuptials compleated till the second coming of our saviour . in many other psalms , there are reflections upon this happy kingdom , and the triumph of christ over his enemies : as psal. . psal. . psal. . and . and . and . and . and others . in these , and such like psalms , there are lineaments and colours of a fairer state , than any we have yet seen upon earth . not but that in their first instan●es and grounds they may sometimes respect the state of israel , or the evangelical state : but the eye of the prophet goes further , this does not terminate his sight : his divine enthusiasm reaches into another world : a world of peace and iustice , and holiness : of joy , and victory , and trumph over all the wicked : and consequently such a world , as neither we , nor our fathers , have yet seen . this is an account of two prophets , david and isaiah : and of what they have more openly declar'd concerning the future kingdom of christ. but to verifie s. peter's words , in that foremention'd place , act. . . viz. that all the holy prophets since the world began , have spoken of the restauration of all things at the second coming of christ. i say , to verifie this assertion of s. peter's , we must suppose , that , where the prophets speak of the restauration and future glory of iudah and ierusalem , they do , under those types , represent to us the glory and happiness of the church in the future kingdom of christ. and most of the prophets , in this sence , and under these forms , have spoken of this kingdom : in foretelling the restauration of ierusalem and sion ; and happy days , peace , plenty , and prosperity to the people of israel . most of the prophets , i say , from moses to malachy , have spoken of this restauration . moses in the th . of deut. ver . , , . david , in many of those psalms we have cited . isaiah , besides the places foremention'd , treats amply of this subject , chap. . and in several other places . * so likewise the prophet ezekiel , daniel , hosea , ioel , amos , obadiah , micab , zephany , haggai , zachary , malachy . all these have , either expresly , or under the types of ierusalem and sion , foretold happy days , and a glorious triumph to the church of god. and seeing in the new testament , and in the prophecies of st. iohn , the christian church is still represented , as under persecution and distress , till the fall of antichrist , and the millennial kingdom ; 't is then , and not till then , that we must expect the full accomplishment of these prophecies ; the restauration that st. peter says was spoken of , by all the prophets : and the mystery , which st. iohn says , ( apoc. . . ) was declared by his servants the prophets ▪ and would be finish'd under the seventh trumpet , which ushers in the kingdom of christ. it would be too long to examine all these places in the prophets , which you may consult at leisure . however it cannot seem strange that ierusalem should be us'd in a typical or allegorical sence , seeing we often find such applications of it in the new testament : as gal. . . heb. . . apoc. . . and 't is very natural that ierusalem restor'd , should signifie the same thing as new ierusalem ; and therefore that s. iohn , by his new ierusalem , intended the same thing , or the same state , that the ancient prophets did by their restauration of ierusalem . and if neither can be understood in a literal sence , which , i believe , you will not contend for ; they must both be interpreted of the future happiness and glory of the church in the kingdom of christ. but to conclude this point wholly as to scripture ; if we make reflection upon all the passages alledg'd in this and the foregoing chapter , whether out of the old or new testament , we must at least acknowledge thus much ; that there are happy days , at one time or other : days of peace and righteousness : of joy and triumph : of external prosperity and internal sanctity : when vertue and innocency shall be in the throne , and vice and vitious men out of power or credit . that there are such happy days prophesied of in scripture , and promised to the church of god. whether you call this the reign of christ and of his saints , or by any other name , it is not material at present to determine ; let the title be what you will , as to the substance it cannot be denied to be a general doctrine of prophetical scripture . and we must not imagine , that the prophets writ like the poets : feigned an idea of a romantick state , that never was , nor ever will be ; only to please their own fancies , or the credulous people . neither is it the state of heaven and eternal life that is here meant or intended : for , besides that they had little or no light concerning those notions , in the old testament ▪ the prophets generally in their description of this happiness , either express the earth , or at least give plain marks of a terrestrial state . wherefore the only question that remains , is this , whether these happy days are past already , or to come : whether this blessed state of the church is behind us , or before us : whether our predecessors have enjoy'd it , or our posterity is to expect it ? for we are very sure that it is not present ; the world is full of wars , and rumours of wars : of vice and knavery , of oppression and persecution : and these are things directly contrary to the genius and characters of the state which we look after . and if we look for it in times past , we can go no further back than the beginning of christianity . for s. iohn , the last of the apostles , prophesied of these times , as to come : and plac'd them at the end of his systeme of prophecies ; whereby one might conclude that they are not only within the compass of the christian ages , but far advanc'd into them . but however , not to insist upon that at present , where will you find a thousand years , from the birth of christianity to this present age , that deserves the name , or answers to the characters of this pure and pacifick state of the church . the first ages of christianity , as they were the most pure , so likewise were they the least peaceable . continually , more or less , under the persecution of the heathen emperours ; and so far from being the reign and empire of christ and his saints over the nations , that christians were then , every where , in subjection or slavery ; a poor , feeble , helpless people , thrust into prisons , or thrown to the lyons , at the pleasure of their princes or rulers . 't is true , when the empire became christian under constantine , in the fourth century , there was , for a time , peace and prosperity in the church , and a good degree of purity and piety . but that peace was soon disturb'd , and that piety soon corrupted . the growing pride and ambition of the ecclesiasticks , and their easiness to admit or introduce superstitious practices , destroy'd the purity of the church . and as to the peace of it , their contests about opinions and doctrines , tore the christians themselves into pieces ; and , soon after , an inundation of barbarous people fell into christendom , and put it all into flames and confusion . after this eruption of the northern nations , mahometanism rose in the east ; and swarms of saracens , like armies of locusts , invaded , conquer'd , and planted their religion in several parts of the roman empire , and of the christianiz'd world. and can we call such times the reign of christ , or the imprisonment of satan ? in the following ages , the turks over-run the eastern empire and the greek church , and still hold that miserable people in slavery . providence seems to have so order'd affairs , that the christian world should never be without a woe upon it , lest it should fansie it self already in those happy days of peace and prosperity , which are reserv'd for future times . lastly , whosoever is sensible of the corruptions and persecutions of the church of rome , since she came to her greatness ; whosoever allows her to be mystical babylon , which must fall before the kingdom of christ comes on ; will think that kingdom duly plac'd by s. iohn at the end of his prophecies , concerning the christian church : and that there still remains , according to the words of st. paul , ( hebr. . . ) a sabbatism to the people of god. chap. vi. the sence and testimony of the primitive church concerning the millennium , or future kingdom of christ : from the times of the apostles to the nicene council . the second proposition laid down . when , by what means , and for what reasons , that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd . you have heard the voice of the prophets and apostles , declaring the future kingdom of christ. next to these , the primitive fathers are accounted of good authority ; let us therefore now enquire into their sence concerning this doctrine , that we may give satisfaction to all parties ; and both those that are guided by scripture alone , and those that have a veneration for antiquity , may find proofs suitable ●o their inclinations and judgment . and to make few words of it , we will lay down this conclusion , that the millennial kingdom of christ was the general doctrine of the primitive church , from the times of the apostles to the nicene council ; inclusively . s. iohn out-liv'd all the rest of the apostles , and towards the latter end of his life , being banish'd into the isle of pathmos , he writ his apocalypse ; wherein he hath given us a more full and distinct account of the millennial kingdom of christ , than any of the prophets or apostles before him . papias , bishop of hierapolis , and martyr ; one of s. i●hn's audito●s , as irenaeus testifies ; taught the same doctrine after s. iohn . he was the familiar friend of polycarp , another of s. iohn's disciples ; and either from him , or immediately from s. iohn's mouth , he might receive this doctrine . that he taught it in the church , is agreed on by all hands ; both by those that are his followers , as irenaeus ; and those that are not well-wishers to this doctrine , as e●sebius and ierome . there is also another chanel wherein this doctrine is traditionally deriv'd from s. iohn , namely by the clergy of asia ; as irenaeus tells us in the same chapter . for , arguing the point , he shows that the blessing promis'd to iacob from his father isaac , was not made good to him in this life , and therefore he says , without doubt those words had a further aim and prospect upon the times of the kingdom : ( so they us'd to call the millennial state ) when the iust rising from the dead , shall reign : and when nature renew'd and set at liberty , shall yield plenty and abundance of all things ; being blest with the dew of heaven , and a great fertility of the earth . according as has been related by those ecclesiasticks or clergy , who sce. st. john , the disciple of christ ; and heard of him what our lord had taught concerning those times . this , you see , goes to the fountain-head . the christian clergy receive it from st. iohn , and st. iohn relates it from the mouth of our saviour . so much for the original authority of this doctrine , as a tradition : that it was from st. iohn , and by him from christ. and as to the propagation and prevailing of it in the primitive church , we can bring a witness beyond all exception , iustin martyr , contemporary with irenaeus , and his senior . he says , that himself , and all the orthodox christians of his time , did acknowledge the resurrection of the flesh ( suppose the first resurrection ) and a thousand years reign in ierusalem restor'd , or in the new jerusalem . according as the prophets , ezekiel , and isaiah , and others , attest with common consent . as st. peter had said before , act. . . that all the prophets had spoken of it . then he quotes the th . chapter of isaiah , which is a bulwark for this doctrine , that never can be broken . and to shew the iew , with whom he had this discourse , that it was the sence of our prophets , as well as of theirs , he tells him , that a certain man amongst us christians , by name iohn , one of the apostles of christ , in a revelation made to him did prophesie , that the faithful believers in christ should live a thousand years in the new ierusalem ; and after that should be the general resurrection and day of iudgment . thus you have the thoughts and sentiment of iustin martyr , as to himself : as to all the reputed orthodox of his time ; as to the sence of the prophets in the old testament , and as to the sence of st. iohn in the apocalypse . all conspiring in confirmation of the millenary doctrine . to these three witnesses , papias , irenaeus , and iustin martyr , we may add two more within the second age of the church : melito , bishop of sardis , and st. barnabas , or whosoever was the author of the epistle under his name . this melito , by some is thought to be the angel of the church of sardis , to whom st. iohn directs the epistle to that church : apoc. . . but i do not take him to be so ancient ; however he was bishop of that place , at least in the second century , and a person of great sanctity and learning . he writ many books , as you may see in st. ierome : and , as he notes out of tertullian , was by christians reputed a prophet . he was also a declar'd millenary , and is recorded as such , both by ierome and gennadius . as to the epistle of barnabas , which we mention'd , it must be very ancient , whosoever is the author of it , and before the third century ; seeing it is often cited by clemens alexandrinus , who was himself within the second century . the genius of it is very much millenarian , in the interpretation of the sabbath , the promis'd land , a day for a thousand years , and concerning the renovation of the world. in all which , he follows the foot-steps of the orthodox of those times : that is , of the millenarians . so much for the first and second centuries of the church . by which short account it appears , that the millenary doctrine was orthodox and catholick in those early days . for these authors do not set it down as a private opinion of their own , but as a christian doctrine , or an apostolical tradition . 't is remarkable what papias says of himself , and his way of learning , in his book call'd , the explanation of the words of the lord , as st. ierome gives us an account of it : he says in his preface , he did not follow various opinions , but had the apostles for his authors . and that he consider'd what andrew , what peter said ; what philip , what thomas , and other disciples of the lord. as also what aristion , and john the senior , disciples of the lord , what they spoke . and that he did not profit so much by reading books , as by the living voice of these persons which resounded from them to that day . this hath very much the air of truth and sincerity , and of a man , that , in good earnest , sought after the christian doctrine , from those that were the most authentick teachers of it . i know eusebius in his ecclesiastical history , gives a double character of this papias ; in one place , he calls him , a very eloquent man in all things , and skilful in scripture ; and in another , he makes him a man of a small understanding . but what reason there is to suspect eusebius of partiality in this point of the millennium ; we shall make appear hereafter . however , we do not depend upon the learning of papias , or the depth of his understanding : allow him but to be an honest man , and a fair witness , and 't is all we desire . and we have little reason to question his testimony in this point , seeing it is backt by others of good credit ; and also because there is no counter-evidence , nor any witness that appears against him . for there is not extant , either the writing , name , or memory , of any person , that contested this doctrine in the first or second century . i say , that call'd in question this millenary doctrine , propos'd after a christian manner ; unless such hereticks as deny'd the resurrection wholly : or such christians as deny'd the divine authority of the apocalypse . we proceed now to the third century . where you find tertullian , origen , victorinus , bishop and martyr : nepos aegyptius , cyprian , and , at the end of it , lactantius : all openly , prosessing , or implicitly favouring the millenary doctrine . we do not mention clemens alexandrinus , contemporary with tertullian , because he hath not any thing , that i know of , expresly either for , or against the millennium . but he takes notice that the seventh day hath been accounted sacred , both by the hebrews and greeks , because of the revolution of the world , and the renovation of all things . and giving this as a reason why they kept that day holy , seeing there is not a revolution of the world every seven days , it can be in no other sence than as the seventh day represents the seventh millenary , in which the renovation of the world and the kingdom of christ , is to be . as to tertullian , s. ierome reckons him , in the first place , amongst the latin millenaries . and tho' his book , about the hope of the faithful , as also that about paradise , which should have given us the greatest light in this affair , be both lost or suppress'd ; yet there are sufficient indications of his millenary opinion in his tracts against marcion , and against hermogenes . s. cyprian was tertullian's admirer , and inclines to the same opinion , so far as one can judge , in this particular ; for his period of six thousand years , and making the seventh millenary the consummation of all , is wholly according to the analogy of the millenary doctrine . as to the two bishops , victorinus and nepos , s. ierome vouches for them . the writings of the one are lost , and of the other so chang'd , that the sence of the author does not appear there now . but lactantius , whom we nam'd in the last place , does openly and profusely teach this doctrine , in his divine institutions : and with the same assurance that he does other parts of the christian doctrine . for he concludes thus , speaking of the millennium , this is the doctrine of the holy prophets , which we christians follow . this is our wisdom , &c. yet he acknowledges there that it was kept as a mystery or secret amongst the christians , lest the heathens should make any perverse or odious interpretation of it . and for the same or like reason , i believe , the book of the apocalypse was kept out of the hands of the vulgar for some time , and not read publickly , lest it should be found to have spoken too openly of the fate of the roman empire , or of this millennial state. so much for the first , second , and third century of the church . but , by our conclusion , we engag'd to make out this proof as far as the nicene council , inclusively , the nicene council was about the year of christ . and we may reasonably suppose , lactantius was then living ; at least he came within the time of constantine's empire . but however the fathers of that council are themselves our witnesses in this point . for , in their ecclesiastical forms or constitutions , in the chapter about the providence of god , and about the world , they speak thus ; the world was made meaner or less perfect , providentially ; for god foresee that man would sin . wherefore we expect new heavens and a new earth , according to the holy scriptures : at the appearance and kingdom of the great god , and our saviour iesus christ. and then , as daniel says ( ch . . . ) the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom . and the earth shall be pure , holy , the land of the living , not of the dead . which david foreseeing by the eye of faith , cryes out ( ps. . . ) i believe to see the good things of the lord , in the land of the living . our saviour says , happy are the meek , for they shall inherit the earth , matt. . . and the prophet isaiuh says , ( chap. . . ) the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it . so you see , according to the judgment of these fathers , there will be a kingdom of christ upon earth ; and moreover , that it will be in the new heavens and the new earth . and , in both these points , they cite the prophets and our saviour in confirmation of them . thus we have discharg'd our promise , and given you an account of the doctrine of the millennium , or future kingdom of christ , throughout the three first ages of the church , before any considerable corruptions were crept into the christian religion . and those authorities of single and successive fathers , we have seal'd up all together , with the declaration of the nicene fathers , in a body . those that think tradition a rule of faith , or a considerable motive to it , will find it hard to turn off the force of these testimonies . and those that do not go so far , but yet have a reverence for antiquity and the primitive church , will not easily produce better authorities , more early , more numerous , or more uncontradicted , for any article that is not fundamental . yet these are but seconds to the prophets and apostles , who are truly the principals in this cause . i will leave them altogether , to be examin'd and weigh'd by the impartial reader . and because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof , i will now at the foot of the account set down our second proposition , which is this , that there is a millennial state , or a future kingdom of christ and his saints , prophesied of and promised , in the old and new testament ; and receiv'd by the primitive church as a christian and catholick doctrine . having dispatch'd this main point . to conclude the chapter and this head of our discourse , it will be some satisfaction possibly to see , how a doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd , came to decay and almost wear out of the church , in following ages . the christian millenary doctrine was not call'd into question , so far as appears from history , before the middle of the third century ; when dionysius alexandrinus writ against nepos , an aegyptian bishop , who had declar'd himself upon that subject . but we do not find that this book had any great effect ; for the declaration or constitution of the nicene fathers was after : and in s. ierome's time , who writ towards the end of the fourth century , this doctrine had so much credit , that , he , who was its greatest adversary , yet durst not condemn it , as he says himself . quae licet non sequamur , tamen damnare non possumus ; quià multi ecclesiasticorum virorum & martyres ista dixerunt . which things , or doctrines , speaking of the millennium , tho' we do not follow , yet we cannot condemn . because many of our church-men , and martyrs , have affirmed these things . and when apollinarius replyed to that book of dionysius , s. ierome says , that , not only those of his own sect , but a great multitude of other christians did agree with apollinarius in that particular . ut praesagâ mente jam cernam , quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit . that i now foresee , how many will be enrag'd against me , for what i have spoken against the millenary doctrine . we may therefore conclude that in s. ierome's time the millenaries made the greater party in the church ; for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion . s. ierome was a rough and rugged saint , and an unfair adversary , that usually run down , with heat and violence , what stood in his way . as to his unfairness , he shews it sufficiently in this very cause , for he generally represents the millenary doctrine after a judaical rather than a christian manner . and in reckoning up the chief patrons of it , he always skips iustin martyr . who was not a man so obscure as to be over●look'd : and he was a man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point , for he says , both himself and all the orthodox of his time , were of that judgment , and applyes both the apocalypse of s. iohn , and the th chap. of isaiah , for the proof of it . as we noted before . as s. ierome was an open enemy to this doctrine , so eusebius was a back friend to it ; and represented every thing to its disadvantage , so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an historian . he gives a slight character of papias , without any authority for it ; and brings in one gaius that makes cerinthus to be the author of the apocalypse and of the millennium : and calls the visions there monstrous stories . he himself is willing to shuffle off that book from iohn the evangelist to another iohn a presbyter : and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it , he makes the new ierusalem in the th chap. to be constantine's ierusalem , when he turn'd the heathen temples there into christian. a wonderful invention . as s. ierome by his flouts , so eusebius by sinister insinuations , endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this doctrine ; and the art they both us'd , was , to misrepresent●●● as iudaical . but we must not cast off every doctrine which the jews believ'd , only for that reason ; for we have the same oracles which they had , and the same prophets : and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have , namely , that there will be an happy and pacifick state of the church , in future times . but as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much ; they suppose the mosaical law will be restor'd , with all its pomp , rites , and ceremonies : whereas we suppose the christian worship , or something more perfect , will then take place . yet s. ierome has the confidence , even there where he speaks of the many christian clergy , and martyrs that held this doctrine : has the confidence , i say , to represent it , as if they held that circumcision , sacrifices , and all the judaical rites , should then be restor'd . which seems to me to be a great slander , and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them , in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to disagrace . but as , we have reason to blame the partiality of those that opposed this doctrine , so , on the other hand , we cannot excuse the patrons of it from all indiscretions . i believe they might partly themselves make it obnoxious ; by mixing some things with it , from pretended traditions , or the books of the sibylls , or other private authorities , that had so sufficient warrant from scripture ; and things , sometimes , that nature would not easily bear . besides , in later ages , they seem to have dropt one half of the doctrine , namely , the renovation of nature , which irenaeus , iustin martyr , and the ancients , joyn inseparably with the millennium . and by this omission , the doctrine hath been made less intelligible , and one part of it inconsistent with another . and when their pretensions were to reign upon this present earth , and in this present state of nature , it gave a jealousie to temporal princes , and gave occasion likewise to many of eanatical spirits , under the notion of saints , to aspire to dominion , after a violent and tumultuary manner . this i reckon as one great cause that brought the doctrine into discredit . but i hope by reducing of it to the true state , we shall cure this and other abuses , for the future . lastly , it never pleas'd the church of rome ; and so far as the influence and authority of that would go , you may be sure it would be deprest and discountenanc'd . i never yet met with a popish doctor that held the millennium ; and baron us would have it pass for an heresie , and papias for the inventor of it ; whereas , if irenaeus may be credited , it was receiv'd from s. iohn , and by him from the mouth of our saviour . and neither s. ierome , nor his friend pope damasus , durst ever condemnoit for an heresie . it was always indeed uneasie , and gave offence , to the church of rome ▪ because it does not suit to that scheme of christianity , which they have drawn . they suppose christ reigns already , by his vicar , the pope : and treads upon the necks of emperors and kings . and if they could but suppress the northern heresie , as they call it , they do not know what a millennium would signifie , or how the church could be in an happier condition than she is . the apocalypse of st. iohn does suppose the true church under hardship and persecution , more or less , for the greatest part of the christian ages : namely for years , while the witnesses are in sack cloth . but the church of rome hath been in prosperity and greatness , and the commanding church in christendom , for so long or longer , and hath rul'd the nations with a rod of iron ; so as that mark of the true church ; does not favour her at all . and the millennium being properly a reward and triumph for those that come out of persecution , such as have liv'd always in pomp and prosperity can pretend to no share in it , or benefit by it . this has made the church of rome have always an ill eye upon this doctrine , because it seem'd to have an ill eye upon her . and as she grew in splendor and greatness , she eclips'd and obscur'd it more and more : so that it would have been lost out of the world as an obsolete errour , if it had not been reviv'd by some of the reformation . chap. vii . the true state of the millennium , according to characters taken from scripture ; some mistakes concerning it , examin'd . we have made sufficient proof of a millennial state , from scripture and antiquity ; and upon that firm basis have setled our second proposition . we should now determine the time and place of this future kingdom of christ : not whether it is to be in heaven , or upon earth : for that we suppose determin'd already ; but whether it is to be in the present earth , and under the present constitution of nature , or in the new heavens , and new earth , which are promis'd after the conflagration . this is to make our third proposition : and i should have proceeded immediately to the examination of it , but that i imagine it will give us some light in this affair , if we enquire further into the true state of the millennium , before we determine its time and place . we have already noted some moral characters of the millennial state ; and the great natural character of it , is this in general , that it will be paradisiacal . free from all inconveniences , either of external nature , or of our own bodies . for my part , i do not understand how there can be any considerable degree of happiness without indolency : nor how there can be indolency , while we have such bodies as we have now , and such an external constitution of nature . and as there must be indolency , where there is happiness ; so there must not be indigency , or want of any due comforts of life ▪ for where there is indigency , there is sollicitude , and distraction , and uneasiness , and fear : passions , that do as naturally disquiet the soul , as pain does the body . therefore indolency and plenty seem to be two essential ingredients of every happy state ; and these two in conjunction make that state we call paradisiacal . now the scripture seems plainly to exempt the sons of the new ierusalem , or of the millennium , from all pain or want , in those words , apoc. . . and god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes . and there shall be no more death , neither sorrow , nor crying : neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away . and the lord of that kingdom , he that sate upon the throne , said , behold i make all things new , ver . . this renovation is a restauration to some former state : and i hope not to that state of indigency , and misery , and diseasedness , which we languish under at present . but to that pristine paradisiacal state , which was the blessing of the first heavens and the first earth . as health and plenty are the blessings of nature , so , in civil affairs , peace is the greatest blessing . and this is inseparably annext to the millennium : an indelible character of the kingdom of christ. and by peace we understand , not onely freedom from persecution upon religious accounts , but that nation shall not rise up against nation , upon any account whatsoever . that bloody monster , war , that hath devour'd so many millions of the sons of adam , is now at length to be chain'd up : and the furies , that run throughout the earth , with their snakes and torches , shall be thrown into the abyss , to sting and prey upon one another . all evil and mischievous passions shall be extinguish'd : and that not in men onely , but even in brute creatures , according to the prophets . the lamb and the lyon shall lie down together , and the sucking child shall play with the basilisk . happy days , when not onely the temple of ianus shall be shut up for a thousand years , and the nations shall beat their swords into plow-shares : but all enmities and antipathies shall cease , all acts of hostility , throughout all nature . and this universal peace is a demonstration also of the former character , universal plenty : for where there is want and necessitousness , there will be quarrelling . fourthly , 't is a kingdom of righteousness , as well as of peace . these also must go together ; for unrighteous persons will not live long in peace , no more than indigent persons . the psalmist therefore joyns them together : and plenty also , as their necessary preservative : in his description of the kingdom of christ : psal. . , , . mercy and truth are met together : righteousness and peace have kissed each other . truth shall spring out of the earth , and righteousness shall look down from heaven . yea the lord shall give good , and our land shall yield her increase . this will not be a medley-state , as the present world is , good and bad mingled together ; but a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people . those that have a part in the first resurrection , the scripture pronounceth them holy and blessed : and says , the second death shall have no power over them . satan also is bound and shut up in the bottomless pit , and has no liberty of tempting or seducing this people , for a thousand years : but at the end of that time , he will meet with a degenerate crew , separate and aliens to the holy city , that will make war against it , and perish in the attempt . in a word , those that are to enjoy this state , are always distinguish'd from the multitude , as people redeem'd from the earth ; that have wash'd their robes , and made them white in the blood of the lamb ; and are represented as victors over the world ; with such other characters as are incompetible to any but the righteous . fifthly , this will be a state under a peculiar divine presence and conduct . it is not easie indeed to determine the manner of this presence , but the scripture plainly implies some extraordinary divine presence to enligh●en and enliven that state . when the new ierusalem was come down , st. iohn says , and i heard a great voice out of heaven , saying , behold the tabernacle of god is with men : and he will dwell with them , and they shall be his people : and god himself shall be with them and be their god. and the like is promis'd to the palm-bearing company , chap. . . where they are admitted to the priviledges of the new ierusalem . when our saviour was incarnate , and vouchsafed to dwell amongst the children of men , the same phrase is us'd by this same author , ioh. . . the word was made flesh , and tabernacled amongst us : and we beheld his glory , &c. we read it , he dwelt amongst us , but render'd more closely , it is , he set his tabernacle amongst us . and that which the hebrews call the shekinah , o● divine presence , comes from a word of the like signification and sound with the greek word here us'd . therefore there will be a shekinah in that kingdom of christ ; but as to the mode of it , i am very willing to confess my ignorance . the last character that belongs to this state , or rather to those that enjoy it , is , that they are kings and priests unto god. this is a character often repeated in scripture , and therefore the more to be regarded . it occurs thrice in the apocalypse in formal terms , ch. . . ch. . . ch. . . and as to the regal dignity apart , that is further exprest , either by the donation of a kingdom , as in daniel's phrase , chap. . , , . or by placing upon thrones , with a judicial power ; which is the new testament style , mat. . . luk. . , . revel . . . these two titles , no doubt , are intended to comprehend the highest honours that we are capable of : these being the highest dignities in every kingdom ; and such as were by the ancients , both in the east and in the west , commonly united in one and the same person . their kings being priests , like melchisedeck : or as the roman emperour was pontifex maximus . but as to the sacerdotal character , that seems chiefly to respect the temper of the mind ; to signife a people dedicated to god and his service : separate from the world , and from secular affairs : spending their time in devotion and contemplation , which will be the great employments of that happy state . for where there is ease , peace , and plenty of all things ; refin'd bodies , and purified minds , there will be more inclination to intellectual exercises and entertainments : which they may attend upon , without any distraction , having neither want , pain , nor worldly business . the title of king implies a confluence of all things that constitute temporal happiness . 't is the highest thing we can wish any in this world , to be a king. so as the regal dignity seems to comprehend all the goods of fortune , or external felicity : and the sacerdotal , the goods of the mind , or internal : both which concur in the constitution of true happiness . there is also a further force and emphasis in this notion , of the saints being made kings , if we consider it comparatively , with respect to what they were before in this world ; where they were not only mean and despicable , in subjection and servility , but often under persecution , abus'd and trampled upon , by the secular and ecclesiastical powers . but now the scene is chang'd , and you see the reverse of providence , according as abraham said to the rich man , son , remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things , and likewise lazarus evil things . but now he is comforted , and thou art tormented . now they are set upon thrones and tribunals , who were before arraigned as criminals , and brought before tyrannical judicatures . they are now laws and law-givers to themselves : in a true state of royal liberty , neither under the domination of evil men , nor of their own evil passions . some possibly may think , that this high character of being made priests and kings to god , is not general to all that enjoy the m●llennium , but a prerogative belonging to the apostles and some of the chief martyrs , who are eminently rewarded for their eminent services . but scripture , as far as i perceive , applyes it to all that inherit that kingdom . the redeemed out of every kindred , and tongue , and people , and nation , are made kings and priests to god , and shall reign on the earth , apoc. . , . and in the th chap. ver . . all the sons of the first resurrection are made priests of god and shall reign with him a thousand years . here is no distinction or discrimination thus far . not that we suppose an universal equality of conditions in the millennial state , but as to all these characters which we have given of it , i do not perceive that they are restrain'd or confin'd by scripture to single persons , but make the general happiness of that state , and are the portion of every one that is admitted into the new jerusalem . others possibly may think that this priviledge of the first resurrection is not common to all that enjoy the millennial state. for tho' s. iohn , who is the only person that hath made express mention of the first resurrection , and of the thousand years reign of christ , does joyn these two as the same thing , and common to the same persons ; yet i know there are some that would distinguish them as things of a different extent , and also of a different nature . they suppose the martyrs only will rise from the dead ; and will be immediately translated into heaven , and there pass their millennium in celestial glory . while the church is still here below , in her millennium , such as it is ; a state indeed bet●er than ordinary , and free from persecution : but obnoxious to all the inconveniences of our present mortal life , and a medly of good and bad people , without separation . this is such an idea of the millennium , as , to my eye , hath neither beauty in it , nor foundation in scripture . that the citizens of the new ierusalem are not a miscellaneous company , but a community of righteous persons , we have noted before : and that the state of nature will be better than it is at present . but , besides this , what warrant have they for this ascension of the martyrs into heaven at that time ? where do we read of that in scripture ? and in those things that are not matters of natural order , but of divine oeconomy , we ought to be very careful how we add to scripture . the scripture speaks only of the resurrection of the martyrs , apoc. . . but not a word concerning their ascension into heaven . will that be visible ? we read of our saviour's resurrection and ascension , and therefore we have reason to affirm them both . we read also of the resurrection and ascension of the witnesses , ( apoc. . ) in a figurate sence , and in that sence we may assert them upon good grounds . but as to the martyrs , we read of their resurrection only , without any thing exprest of imply'd about their ascension . by what authority then shall we add this new notion to the history or scheme of the millennium ? the scripture on the contrary , makes mention of the descent of the new ierusalem , apoc. . . making the earth the theatre of all that affair . and the camp of the saints is upon the earth , ver . . and these saints are the same persons , so far as can be collected from the text , that rise from the dead , and reign'd with christ , and were priests to god , ver . , , . neither is there any distinction made , that i find , by s. iohn , of two sorts of saints in the millennium , the one in heaven , and the other upon earth . lastly , the four and twenty elders , ch . . . tho' they were kings and priests unto god , were content to reign upon earth . now who can you suppose of a superiour order to these four and twenty elders : whether they represent the twelve patriarchs and twelve apostles , or whomsoever they represent , they are plac'd next to him that sits upon the throne , and they have crowns of gold upon their heads , ch . . . there can be no marks of honour and dignity greater than these are ; and therefore seeing these highest dignitaries in the millennium or future kingdom of christ , are to reign upon earth , there is no ground to suppose the assumption of any other into heaven upon that account , or upon that occasion . this is a short and general draught of the millennial state , or future reign of the saints , according to scripture . wherein i have endeavour'd to rectifie some mistakes or misconceptions about it : that viewing it in its true nature , we may be the better able to judge , when and where it will obtain . which is the next thing to be consider'd . chap. viii . the third proposition laid down , concerning the time and place of the millennium . several arguments us'd to prove that it cannot be till after the conflagration : and that the new heavens and the new earth are the true seat of the blessed millennium . we come now to the third and last head of our discourse : to determine the time and place of the millennium . and seeing it is indifferent whether the proofs lead or follow the conclusion , we will lay down the conclusion in the first place , that our business may be more in view ; and back it with proofs in the following part of the chapter . our third and last proposition therefore is this , that the blessed millennium , ( properly so called ) according as it is describ'd in scripture , cannot obtain in the present earth , nor under the present constitution of nature and providence ; but is to be celebrated in the new heavens and new earth , after the conflagration . this proposition , it may be , will seem a paradox or singularity to many , even of those that believe a millennium ; we will therefore make it the business of this chapter , to state it , and prove it ; by such arguments as are manifestly founded in scripture and in reason . and to prevent mistakes ▪ we must premise this in the first place ; that , tho the blessed millennium will not be in this earth , yet we allow that the state of the church here , will grow much better than it is at present . there will be a better idea of christianity , and according to the prophecies , a full resurrection of the witnesses , and an ascension into power , and the tenth part of the city will fall ; which things imply ease from persecution , the conversion of some part of the christian world to the reformed faith , and a considerable diminution of the power of antichrist . but this still comes short of the happiness and glory wherein the future kingdom of christ is represented . which cannot come to pass till the man of sin be destroy'd , with a total destruction . after the resurrection of the witnesses , there is a third woe yet to come : and how long that will last , does not appear . if it bear proportion with the preceding woes , it may last some hundreds of years . and we cannot imagine the millennium to begin till that woe be finish'd . as neither till the vials be poured out , in the th . chap. which cannot be all pour'd out till after the resurrection of the witnesses ; those vials being the last plagues that compleat the destruction of antichrist . wherefore allowing that the church , upon the resurrection and ascension of the witnesses , will be advanc'd into a better condition , yet that condition cannot be the millennial state ; where the beast is utterly destroy'd , and satan bound , and cast into the bottomless pit . this being premis'd , let us now examine what grounds there are for the translation of that blessed state into the new heavens and new earth : seeing that thought , it may be , to many persons , will appear new and extraordinary . in the first place , we suppose it out of dispute , that there will be new heavens and a new earth after the conflagration . this was our first proposition , and we depend upon it , as sufficiently prov'd both from scripture and antiquity . this being admitted , how will you stock this new earth ? what use will you put it to ? 't will be a much nobler earth , and better built than the present : and 't is pity it should only float about , empty and useless , in the wild air. if you will not make it the seat and habitation of the just in the blessed millennium , what will you make it ? how will it turn to account ? what hath providence design'd it for ? we must not suppose new worlds made without counsel or design . and as , on the one hand , you cannot tell what to do with this new creation , if it be not thus employ'd : so , on the other hand , it is every way fitted and suited to be an happy and paradisiacal habitation , and answers all the natural characters of the millennial state ; which is a great presumption that it is design'd for it . but to argue this more closely upon scripture-grounds . s. peter says , the righteous shall inhabit the new heavens and the new earth : . pet. . . nevertheless , according to his promise , we look for new heavens and new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness : that is , a righteous people , as we have shewn before . but who are these righteous people ? that 's the great question . if you compare s. peter's new heavens and new earth with s. iohn's apoc. . , . it will go far towards the resolution of this question : for s. iohn seems plainly to make the inhabitants of the new ierusalem to be in this new earth . i saw , says he , new heavens and a new earth : and the new ierusalem descending from god out of heaven ; therefore descending into this new earth , which he had mention'd immediately before . and there the tabernacle of god was with men , ver . . and there he that sat upon the throne , said , behold i make all things new. referring still to this new heavens and new earth , as the theatre where all these things are acted , or all these scenes exhibited : from the first verse to the eighth . now the new jerusalem state being the same with the millennial , if the one be in the new heavens and new earth , the other is there also . and this interpretation of s. iohn's word is confirm'd and fully assur'd to us by the prophet isaiah ; who also placeth the joy and rejoycing of the new ierusalem in the new heavens and new earth : chap. . , . for behold i create new heavens and a new earth : and the former shall not be remembred : but be you glad and rejoyce for ever in that which i create : for behold , i create ierusalem a rejoycing , and her people a joy . namely , in that new heavens and new earth . which answers to s. iohn's vision of the new ierusalem being let down upon the new earth . to these reasons , and deductions from scripture , we might add the testimony of several of the fathers ; i mean of those that were millenaries . for we are speaking now to such as believe the millennium , but place it in the present earth before the renovation ; whereas the ancient millenaries suppos'd the regeneration and renovation of the world before the kingdom of christ came . as you may see in * irenaeus , (a) iustin martyr , (b) tertullian , (c) lactantius , and (d) the author ad orthodoxos . and the neglect of this , i look upon as one reason , as we noted before , that brought that doctrine into discredit and decay . for when they plac'd the kingdom of the saints upon this earth , it bec●me more capable of being abus'd , by fanatical spirits , to the disturbance of the world , and the invasion of the rights of the magistrate , civil or ecclesiastical , under that notion of saints . and made them also dream of sensual pleasures , such as they see in this life : or at least gave an occasion and opportunity to those , that had a mind to make the doctrine odious , of charging it with these consequences . all these abuses are cut off , and these scandals prevented , by placing the millennium aright . namely , not in this present life , or on this present earth , but in the new creation , where peace and righteousness will dwell . and this is our first argument why we place the millennium in the new heavens and new earth : and 't is taken partly , you see , from the reason of the thing it self , the difficulty of assigning any other use of the new earth , and its fitness for this ; and partly from scripture-evidence , and partly from antiquity . the second argument for our opinion , is this ; the present constitution of nature will not bear that happiness , that is promis'd in the millennium , or is not consistent with it . the diseases of our bodies , the disorders of our passions , the incommodiousness of external nature ; indigency , servility , and the unpeaceableness of the world ; these are things inconsistent with the happiness that is promis'd in the kingdom of christ. but these are constant attendants upon this life , and inseparable from the present state of nature . suppose the millennium was to begin nine or ten years hence , as some pretend it will. how shall this world , all on a sudden , be metamorphos'd into that happy state ? no more sorrow , nor crying , nor pain , nor death , says s. iohn : all former things are past away . but how past away ? shall we not have the same bodies : and the same external nature : and the same corruptions of the air : and the same excesses and intemperature of seasons ? will there not be the same ba●●enness of the ground : the same number of people to be fed : and must they not get their living by the sweat of their brows , with servile labour and drudgery ? how then are all former evils past away ? and as to publick affairs , while there are the same necessities of humane life , and a distinction of nations , those nations sometimes will have contrary interests , will clash and interfere one with another : whence differences , and contests , and wars will arise , and the thousand years truce , i am afraid , will be often broken . we might add also , that if our bodies be not chang'd , we shall be subject to the same appetites , and the same passions : and upon those , vices will grow : as bad fruit upon a bad tree . to conclude , so long as our bodies are the same : external nature the same : the necessities of humane life the same : which things are the roots of evil ; you may call it a millennium , or what you please , but there will be still diseases , vices , wars , tears and cries , pain and sorrow in this millenuium ; and if so , 't is a millennium of your own making ; for that which the prophets describe is quite another thing . furthermore , if you suppose the millennium will be upon this earth , and begin , it may be , ten or twenty years hence , how will it be introduc'd ; how shall we know when we are in it , or when we enter upon it ? if we continue the same , and all nature continue the same , we shall not discern when we slip into the millennium . and as to the moral state of it , shall we all , on a sudden , become kings and priests to god ? wherein will that change consist , and how will it be wrought ? st. iohn makes the first resurrection introduce the millennium ; and that 's a conspicuous mark and boundary . but as to the modern or vulgar millennium , i know not how 't is usher'd in . whether they suppose a visible resurrection of the martyrs , and a visible ascension : and that to be a signal to all the world that the jubilee is beginning : or whether 't is gradual and creeps upon us insensibly : or the fall of the beast marks it . these things need both explication and proof ; for to me they seem either arbitrary , or unintelligible . but to pursue our design and subject . that which gives me the greatest scandal in this doctrine of the vulgar millennium , is , their joyning things together that are really inconsistent ; a natural world of one colour , and a moral world of another . they will make us happy in spight of nature : as the stoicks would make a man happy in phalaris his bull ; so must the saints be in full bliss in the millennium , tho' they be under a fit of the gout , or of the stone . for my part , i could never reconcile pain to happiness : it seems to me to destroy and drown all pleasure , as a loud noise does a still voice . it affects the nerves with violence , and over-bears all other motions . but if , according to this modern supposition , they have the same bodies , and breath the same air , in the millennium , as we do now , there will be both private and epidemical distempers , in the same manner as now ; suppose then a plague comes and sweeps away half an hundred thousand saints in the millennium , is this no prejudice or dishonour to the state ? or a war makes a nation desolate : or , in single persons , a lingring disease makes life a burthen : or a burning fever , or a violent colick tortures them to death . where such evils as these reign , christen the thing what you will , it can be no better than a mock-millennium . nor shall i ever be perswaded that such a state as our present life , where an akeing tooth , or an akeing head , does so discompose the soul , as to make her unfit for business , study , devotion , or any useful employment : and that all the powers of the mind , all its vertue , and all its wisdom , are not able to stop these little motions , or to support them with tranquillity : i can never perswade my self , i say , that such a state was designed by god or nature , for a state of happiness . our third argument is this : the future kingdom of christ will not take place , till the kingdom of antichrist be wholly destroy'd . but that will not be wholly destroy'd till the end of the world , and the appearing of our saviour . therefore the millennium will not be till then . christ and antichrist cannot reign upon earth together : their kingdoms are opposite , as light to darkness . besides , the kingdom of christ is universal , extends to all the nations , and leaves no room for other kingdoms at that time . thus it is describ'd in daniel●s in the place mention'd before , chap. . , . i saw in the night visions , and behold , one like the son of man , came with the clouds of heaven , and came to the ancient of days ; and there was given him dominion and glory , and a kingdom ; that all people , nations , and language , should serve him . and again , ver . . and the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven , shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high ; whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom , and all dominion shall serve and obey him . the same character● of universality is given to the kingdom of christ by david , isaih , and other prophets . but the most direct proof of this , is from the apocalypse where the beast and false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone , ( chap. . ) before the millennium comes on : ch . . this , being cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone , must needs signifie utter destruction . not a diminution of power only , but a total perdition and consumption . and that this was before the millennium , both the order of the narration shows , and its place in the prophecy ; and also because notice is taken , at the end of the millennium , of the beast and false prophet's being in the lake of fire , as of a thing past , and formerly transacted . for when satan , at length , is thrown into the same lake , 't is said , he is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone , where the beast and false prophet are : apoc. . ● . they were there before , it seems ; namely , at the beginning of the millennium ; land now at the conclusion of it , the devil is thrown in to them . besides , the ligation of satan proves this point effectually . for so long as antichrist reigns , satan cannot be said to be bound ; but he is bound at the beginning of the millennium , therefore antichrist's reign was then totally expir'd . lastly , the destruction of babylon , and the destruction of antichrist go together : but you see babylon utterly and finally destroy'd , ( apoc. . and . ) before the millennium comes on . i say utterly and finally destroy'd . for she is not only said to be made an utter desolation , but to be consum'd by fire : and absorpt as a milstone thrown into the sea : and that he shall be found no more at all , chap. . . nothing can express a total and universal destruction more effectually , or more emphatically . and this is before the millennium begins ; as you may see both by the order of the prophecies , and particularly , in that upon this destruction , the hallelujah's are sung , chap. . and concluded thus , ( ver . . . ) hallelujah , for the god omnipotent reigneth . let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him ; for the marriage of the lamb is come , and his wife hath made her self ready . this , i suppose , every one allows to be the millennial state , which now approaches , and is making ready , upon the destruction of babylon . thus much for the first part of our argument , that the kingdom of christ will not take place , till the kingdom of antichrist be wholly destroy'd . we are now to prove the second part : that the kingdom of antichrist will not be wholly destroy'd till end of the world , and the coming of our saviour . this , one would think , is sufficiently prov'd from st. paul's words alone , thess. . . the lord shall consume the man of sin , who is suppos'd the same with antichrist , with the spirit of his mouth , and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming . he will not then be destroy'd before the coming of our saviour : and that will not be till the end of the world. for st. peter says , act. . . the heaven must receive him , speaking of christ , until the times of restitution of all things : that is , the renovation of the world. and if we consider that our saviour's coming will be in flames of fire , as the same apostle st. paul tells us , thess. . , . 't is plain that his coming will not be till the conflagration : in which last flames antichrist will be universally destroy'd . this manner of destruction agrees also with the apocalypse , and with daniel , and the prophets of the old testament . as to the apocalypse , babylon , the seat of antichrist , is represented there as destroy'd by fire , chap. . , . chap. . . chap. . , . and in daniel , when the beast is destroy'd , chap. . . his body was given to the burning flame . then as to the other prophets , they do not , you know , speak of antichrist or the beast in terms : but under the types of babylon , tyre , and such like ; and these places or princes are represented by them as to be destroy'd by fire , isa. . . ier. . . ezek. . . so much for this third argument . the fourth argument is this : the future kingdom of christ will not be till the day of judgment and the resurrection . but that will not be till the end of the world. therefore neither the kingdom of christ. by the day of judgment here i do not mean the final and universal judgment : nor by the resurrection , the final and universal resurrection : for these will not be till after the millennium . but we understand here the first day of judgment and the first resurrection , which will be at the end of this present world ; according as s. iohn does distinguish them , in the th . chap. of the apocalypse . now that the millennium will not be till the day of judgment in this sence , we have both the testimonies of daniel and of s. iohn . daniel in the th . chap. supposes the beast to rule till judgment shall sit , and then they shall take away his dominion , and it shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high. s. iohn makes an explicite declaration of both these , in his th . chap. of the apocalypse , which is the great directory in this point of the millennium ; he says there were thrones set , as for a judicature . then there was a resurrection from the dead : and those that rise , reigned with christ a thousand years . here 's a judicial session , a resurrection , and the reign of christ joyned together . there is also another passage in s. iohn , that joyns the judgment of the dead with the kingdom of christ. 't is in the th . chap. under the seventh trumpet . the words are these , ver . . and the seventh angel sounded , and there were great voices in heaven , saying , the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ : and he shall reign for ever and ever . and the four and twenty elders , &c. and the nations were angry , and thy wrath is come , and the time of the dead , that they should be judged , and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets , and to the saints , and them that fear thy name . here are two things plainly express'd and link'd together , the judging of the dead , and the kingdom of christ ; wherein the prophets and saints are rewarded . now as the judging of the dead is not in this life , so neither is the reward of the prophets and saints in this life : as we are taught sufficiently in the gospel and by the apostles , mat. . . thess. . . tim. . . pet. . . and ch. . . ) therefore the reign and kingdom of christ which is joyned with these two , cannot be in this life , or before the end of the world . and as a further testimony and confirmation of this , we may observe that s. paul to timothy , hath joyn'd together these three things ; the appearance of christ , the reign of christ , and the judging of the dead . i charge thee therefore before god and the lord iesus christ , who shall judge the quick and the dead , at his appearing and his kingdom , tim. . . this might also be prov'd from the order , extent , and progress , of the prophecies of the apocalypse ; whereof some are such as reach to the end of the world , and yet must be accomplish'd before the millennium begin : as the vials . others are so far already advanc'd towards the end of the world , as to leave no room for a thousand years reign ; as the trumpets . but because every one hath his own interpretation of these prophecies , and it would be tedious here to prove any single hypothesis in contradistinction to all the rest , we will therefore leave this remark , to have more or less effect , according to the minds it falls upon . and proceed to our fifth argument . fifthly , the ierusalem-state is the same with the millennial state : but the new ierusalem state will not be till the end of the world , or till after the conflagration : therefore neither the millennium . that the ierusalem-state is the same with the millennium , is agreed upon , i think , by all millenaries , ancient and modern . iustin martyr , irenaeus , and tertullian , speak of it in that sence ; and so do the later authors , so far as i have observ'd . and st. iohn seems to give them good authority for it . in the th . chap. of the apocalypse , he says , the camp of the saints , and the beloved city were besieg'd by satan and his gigantick crew at the end of the millennium . that beloved city is the new ierusalem , and you see it is the same with the camp of the saints , or , at least , contemporary with it . besides , the marriage of the lamb was in , or at the appearance of the new jerusalem , for that was the spouse of the lamb , apoc. . . now this spouse was ready , and this marriage was said to be come , at the destruction of babylon : which was the beginning of the millennium , chap. . . therefore the new jerusalem run all along with the millennium , and was indeed the same thing under another name . lastly , what is this new jerusalem , if it be not the same with the millennial state ? it is promis'd as a reward to the sufferers for christ , apoc. . . and you see its wonderful priviledges , ch. . , . and yet it is not heaven and eternal life ; for it is said to come down from god out of heaven , ch. . . and ch. . . it can therefore be nothing but the glorious kingdom of christ upon earth , where the saints shall reign with him a thousand years . now as to the second part of our argument , that the new jerusalem will not come down from heaven till the end of the world : of this s. iohn seems to give us a plain proof or demonstration : for he places the new jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth ▪ which cannot be till after the conflagration . let us hear his words , apoc. . , . and i saw a new heaven and a new earth , for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away , and there was no more sea . and i iohn saw the holy city , new ierusalem , coming down from god out of heaven : prepared as a bride adorned for her husband . when the new earth was made , he sees the new jerusalem coming down upon it ; and this renovation of the earth not being till the conflagration , the new jerusalem could not be till then , neither . the prophet isaiah had long before said the same thing , though not in terms so express ; he first says , behold i create new heavens and a new earth , wherein you shall rejoyce . then subjoyns immediately , behold , i create ierusalem a rejoycing . this rejoycing is still in the same place ; in the new heavens and new earth , or in the new jerusalem . and s. iohn in a like method , first sets down the new earth , then the new jerusalem ; and expresses the mind of the prophet isaiah more distinctly . this leads me to a sixth argument to confirm our conclusion . the time of the restitution or restauration of all things , spoken of by s. peter and the prophets , is the same with the millennium : but that restauration will not be till the coming of christ , and the end of the world : therefore neither the millennium . that this restitution of all things will not be till the coming of our saviour , s. peter declares in his sermon , act. . . and that the coming of our saviour will not be till the end of the world , or till the conflagration , both s. paul and s. peter signifie to us , thess. . , . pet. . . therefore it remains only to prove , that this restitution of all things spoken of here by the apostle , is the same with the millennium . i know that which it does directly and immediately signifie , is the renovation of the world : but it must include the moral world as well as the natural : otherwise it cannot be truly said , as s. peter does there , that all the prophets have spoken of it . and what is the renovation of the natural and moral world , but the new jerusalem or the millennium . these arguments , taken together , have , to me , an irresistible evidence for the proof of our conclusion ; that the blessed millennium cannot obtain in the present earth , or before the conflagration ; but when nature is renew'd , and the saints and martyrs rais'd from the dead , then they shall reign together with christ , in the new heavens and new earth , or in the new jerusalem ; satan being bound for a thousand years . chap. ix . the chief employment of the millennium , devotion and contemplation . we have now done with the substance of our discourse ; which is comprehended in these three propositions : i. after the conflagration of this world , there will be new heavens and a new earth : and that earth will be inhabited . ii. that there is an happy millennial state ; or a future kingdom of christ and his saints , prophesied of and promis'd in the old and new testament : and receiv'd by the primitive church , as a christian and catholick doctrine . iii. that this blessed millennial state , according as it is describ'd in scripture , cannot take place in the present earth , nor under the present constitution of nature and providence : but is to be celebrated in the new heavens and new earth , after the conflagration . these three propositions support this work ; and if any of them be broken , i confess my design is broken , and this treatise is of no effect . but what remains to be spoken to in these last chapters , is more circumstantial or modal ; and an error or mistake in such things , does not wound any vital part of the argument . you must now therefore lay aside your severity , and rigorous censures ; we are very happy , if , in this life , we can attain to the substance of truth : and make rational conjectures concerning modes and circumstances ; where every one hath right to offer his sence , with modesty and submission . revelations made to us from heaven in this present state , are often incompleat , and do not tell us all : as if it was on purpose to set our thoughts a-work to supply the rest ; which we may lawfully do , provided it be according to the analogy of scripture and reason . to proceed therefore ; we suppose , as you see , the new heavens and the new earth to be the seat of the millennium : and that new creation to be paradisiacal . its inhabitants also to be righteous persons , the saints of the most high. and seeing the ordinary employments of our present life , will then be needless and superseded , as military affairs , sea-affairs , most trades and manufactures , law , physick , and the laborious part of agriculture : it may be wonder'd , how this happy people will bestow their time : what entertainment they will find in a state of so much ease , and so little action . to this one might answer in short , by another question , how would they have entertain'd themselves in paradise , if man had continued in innocency ? this is a revolution of the same state , and therefore they may pass their time as well now as they could have done then . but to answer more particularly , besides all innocent diversions , ingenuous conversations , and entertainments of friendship , the greatest part of their time will be spent in devotion and contemplation . o happy employment , and next to that of heaven it self . what do the saints above , but sing praises unto god , and contemplate his perfections . and how mean and despicable , for the most part , are the employments of this present life , if compar'd with those intellectual actions . if mankind was divided into ten parts , nine of those ten employ their time to get bread to their belly , and cloaths to their back ; and what impertinences are these to a reasonable soul , if she was free from the clog of a mortal body ; or if that could be provided for , without trouble or loss of time ? corporeal labour is from need and necessity , but intellectual exercises are matter of choice , that please and perfect at the same time . devotion warms and opens the soul , and disposes it to receive divine influences . it sometimes raises the mind into an heavenly ecstasie , and fills it with a joy that is not to be exprest . when it is pure , it leaves a strong impression upon the heart , of love to god ; and inspires us with a contempt of this ▪ world , having tasted the pleasures of the world to come . in the state which we speak of , seeing the tabernacle of god will be with men , we may reasonably suppose that there will be greater effusions and irradiations of the holy spirit , than we have or can expect in this region of darkness : and consequently , all the strength and comfort that can arise from private devotion . and as to their publick devotions , all beauties of holiness , all perfection of divine worship , will shine in their assemblies . whatsoever david says of sion and ierusalem , are but shadows of this new ierusalem , and of the glory that will be in those solemnities . imagine what a congregation will be there of patriarchs , prophets , apostles , christian martyrs , and saints of the first rank , throughout all ages . and these all known to one another by their names and history . this very meeting together of such persons , must needs create a joy unspeakable : but when they unite in their praises to god and to the lamb , with pure hearts full of divine love : when they sing their hallelujahs to him that sits upon the throne , that hath wash'd them in his blood , and redeem'd them out of every kingdom , and tongue and people , and nation . when , with their palms in their hands , they triumph over sin , and death , and hell , and all the powers of darkness : can there be any thing , on this side heaven , and a quire of angels , more glorious or more joyful ? but why did i except angels ? why may not they be thought to be present at these assemblies ? in a society of saints and purified spirits , why should we think their converse impossible ? in the golden age , the gods were always represented , as having freer intercourse with men ; and before the flood , we may reasonably believe it so . i cannot think , enoch was translated into heaven without any converse with its inhabitants before he went thither . and seeing the angels vouchsaf'd often , in former ages , to visit the patriarchs upon earth , we may with reason judge , that they will much more converse with the same patriarchs and holy prophets , now they are risen from the dead , and cleans'd from their sins , and seated in the new ierusalem . i cannot but call to mind upon this occasion , that representation which s. paul makes to us , of a glorious state and a glorious assembly , too high for this present earth : 't is hebr. . , &c. in these words : but you are come unto mount sion , and unto the city of the living god , the heavenly ierusalem , and to an innumerable company of angels ; to the general assembly and church of the first-born , which are written in heaven ; and to god the iudge of all , and to the spirits of just men made perfect . this , i know , several apply to the times and state of the gospel , in opposition to that of the law ; and it is introduc'd in that manner ; but here are several expressions too high for any present state of things ; they must respect a future state , either of heaven , or of the millennial kingdom of christ. and to the later of these the expressions agree , and have a peculiar fitness and applicability to it . and what follows in the context , ver . , , . about shaking the heavens and the earth once more : removing the former scenes , and bringing on a new kingdom that cannot be shaken : all this , i say , answers to the kingdom of christ , which is to be establish'd in the new heavens and new earth . but to proceed in their publick devotions ; suppose this august assembly , inflam'd with all divine passions , met together to celebrate the name of god ; with angels intermixt , to bear a part in this holy exercise . and let this concourse be , not in any temple made with hands , but under the great roof of heaven , ( the true temple of the most high , ) so as all the air may be fill'd with the chearful harmony of their hymns and hallelujahs . then , in the heighth of their devotion , as they sing praises to the lamb , and to him that sits upon the throne , suppose the heavens to open , and the son of god to appear in his glory , with thousands and ten thousands of angels round about him ; that their eyes may see him , who , for their sakes , was crucified upon earth , now encircled with light and majesty . this will raise them into as great transports as humane nature can bear : they will wish to be dissolv'd , they will strive to fly up to him in the clouds , or to breath out their souls in repeated doxologles of blessing , and honour , and glory , and power , to him that sits upon the throne , and to the lamb , for ever and ever . but we cannot live always in the flames of devotion . the weakness of our nature will not suffer us to continue long under such strong passions , and such intenseness of mind . the question is therefore , what will be the ordinary employment of that life ? how will they entertain their thoughts , or spend their time ? for we suppose they will not have that multiplicity of frivolous business that we have now : about our bodies , about our children : in trades and mechanicks : in traffick and navigation : or wars by sea or land. these things being swept away , wholly or in a great measure , what will come in their place ? how will they find work or entertainment for a long life ? if , we consider , who they are that will have a part in this first resurrection , and be inhabitants of that world that is to come , we may easily believe that the most constant employment of their life will be contemplation . not that i exclude any innocent diversions , as i said before : the entertainments of friendship , or ingenuous conversation , but the great business and design of that life is contemplation : as preparatory to heaven and eternal glory . ui paulatim assuescant capere deum , as irenaeus says : that they may , by degrees , enlarge their capacities , fit and accustom themselves to receive god. or , as he says in another place , that they may become capable of the glory of the father , that is , capable of bearing the glory and presence of god : capable of the highest enjoyment of him , which is usually call'd the beatifical vision ; and is the condition of the blessed in heaven . it cannot be deny'd , that in such a millennial state , where we shall be freed from all the incumbrances of this life , and provided of better bodies and greater light of mind : it cannot be doubted , i say , but that we shall then be in a disposition to make great proficiency in the knowledge of all things , divine and intellectual : and consequently of making happy preparations for our entring upon a further state of glory . for there is nothing certainly does more prepare the mind of man for the highest perfections , than contemplation : with that devotion which naturally flows from it , as heat follows light . and this contemplation hath always a greater or less effect upon the mind according to the perfection of its object . so as the contemplation of the divine nature , is , of all others , the most perfective in it self , and to us , according to our capacities and degree of abstraction . an immense being does strangely fill the soul : and omnipotency , omnisciency , and infinite goodness , do enlarge and dilate the spirit , while it fixtly looks upon them . they raise strong passions of love and admiration , which melt our nature , and transform it into the mould and image of that which we contemplate . what the scripture says of our transformation into the divine likeness : what s. iohn and the platonists say of our union with god. and whatever is not cant in the mystical theology , when they tell us of being deified ; all this must spring from these sources of devotion and contemplation . they will change and raise us from perfection to perfection , as from glory to glory : into a greater similitude and nearer station to the divine nature . the contemplation of god and his works , comprehends all things . for , the one makes the uncreated world , and the other the created . and as the divine essence and attributes are the greatest object that the mind of man can set before it self ; so next to that are the effects and emanations of the divinity , or the works of the divine goodness , wisdom , and power , in the created world. this hath a vast extent and variety , and would be sufficient to entertain their time , in that happy state , much longer than a thousand years . as you will easily grant , if you allow me but to point at the several heads of those speculations . the contemplation of the created world divides it self into three parts , that of the intellectual world : that of the corporal : and the government and administration of both , which is usually call'd providence . these three , drawn into one thought , with the reasons and proportions that result from them , compose that grand idea , which is the treasury and comprehension of all knowledge . whereof we have spoken more largely in the last chapter of the second book of this theory , under the name of the mundane idea . but at present we shall only mention such particulars , as may be thought proper subjects for the meditations and enquiries of those who shall enjoy that happy state which we now treat of . as to the intellectual world , excepting our own souls , we know little , in this region of darkness where we are at present , more than bare names . we hear of angels and archangels , of cherubins and seraphins , of principalities and powers and thrones and dominions . we hear the sound of these words with admiration , but we know little of their natures ; wherein their general notion , and wherein their distinction , consists : what peculiar excellencies they have , what offices and employments : of all this we are ignorant . only in general , we cannot but suppose that there are more orders and degrees of intellectual beings , betwixt us and the almighty , than there are kinds or species of living creatures upon the face of the earth : betwixt man , their lord and master , and the least worm that creeps upon the ground . nay , than there are stars in heaven , or sands upon the sea-shore . for there is an infinite distance and interval betwixt us and god almighty : and all that , is fill'd with created beings of different degrees of perfection , still approaching nearer and nearer to their maker . and when this invisible world shall be open'd to us : when the curtain is drawn , and the celestial hierarchy set in order before our eyes , we shall despise our selves , and all the petty glories of a mortal life , as the dirt under our feet . as to the corporeal universe , we have some share already in the contemplation and knowledge of that : tho' little in comparison of what will be then discover'd . the doctrine of the heavens , fix'd stars , planets and comets , both as to their matter , motion and form , will be then clearly demonstrated : and what are mysteries to us now , will become matter of ordinary conversation . we shall be better acquainted with our neighbouring worlds , and make new discoveries as to the state of their affairs . the sun especially , the great monarch of the planetary worlds : whose dominion reaches from pole to pole , and the greatness of his kingdom is under the whole heaven . who sends his bright messengers every day through all the regions of his vast empire ; throwing his beams of light round about him , swifter and further than a thought can follow . this noble creature , i say , will make a good part of their study in the succeeding world. eudoxus the philosopher , wish'd he might die like phaeton , in approaching too near to the sun ; provided he could fly so near it , and endure it so long , till he had discover'd its beauty and perfection . vvho can blame his curiosity : who would not venture far to see the court of so great a prince : who hath more vvorlds under his command than the emperors of the earth have provinces or principalities . neither does he make his subjects slaves to his pleasure , or tributaries to serve and supply his wants ; on the contrary , they live upon him , he nourishes and preserves them : gives them fruits every year , corn , and wine , and all the comforts of life . this glorious body , which now we can only gaze upon and admire , will be then better understood . a mass of light and flame , and ethereal matter , ten thousand times bigger than this earth : enlightning and enlivening an orb that exceeds the bulk of our globe , as much as that does the least sand upon the sea-shore , may reasonably be presum'd to have some great being at the centre of it . but what that is , we must leave to the enquiries of another life . the theory of the earth will be a common lession there : carried through all its vicissitudes and periods from first to last , till its entire revolution be accomplish'd . i told you in the preface , the revolution of world was one of the greatest speculations that we are capable of in this life : and this little world where we are , will be the first and easiest instance of it ; seeing we have records , historical or prophetical , that reach from the chaos to the end of the new heavens and new earth : which course of time makes up the greatest part of the circle or revolution . and as what was before the chaos , was but , in my opinion , the first remove from a fixt star , so what is after the thousand years renovation , is but the last step to it again . the theory of humane nature is also an useful and necessary speculation , and will be carried on to perfection in that state . having fixt the true distinction betwixt matter and spirit , betwixt the soul and the body , and the true nature and laws of their union : the original contract , and the terms ratified by providence at their first conjunction : it will not be hard to discover the springs of action and passion : how the thoughts of our mind , and the motions of our body act in dependance one upon another . what are the primary differences of genius's and complexions , and how our intellectuals or morals depend upon them . what is the root of fatality , and how far it extends . by these lights , they will see into their own and every man's breast , and trace the foot-steps of the divine wisdom in that strange composition of soul and body . this indeed is a mixt speculation , as most others are : and takes in something of both worlds , intellectual and corporeal : and may also belong in part to the third head we mention'd , providence . but there is no need of distinguishing these heads so nicely , provided we take in , under some or other of them , what may be thought best to deserve our knowledge , now , or in another world. as to providence , what we intend chiefly by it here , is the general oeconomy of our religion , and what is reveal'd to us in scripture , concerning god , angels , and mankind . these revelations , as most in sacred writ , are short and incompleat : as being design'd for practice more than for speculation , or to awaken and excite our thoughts , rather than to satisfie them . accordingly we read in scripture of a triune deity : of god made flesh , in the womb of a virgin : barbarously crucified by the iews : descending into hell : rising again from the dead : visibly ascending into heaven : and sitting at the right hand of god the father , above angels and arch-angels . these great things are imperfectly reveal'd to us in this life ; which we are to believe so far as they are reveal'd : in hopes these mysteries will be made more intelligible , in that happy state to come , where prophets , apostles , and angels , will meet in conversation together . in like manner , how little is it we understand concerning the holy ghost . that he descended like a dove upon our saviour : like cloven tongues of fire upon the apostles ; the place being fill'd with a rushing mighty wind : that he over-shadowed the blessed virgin , and begot the holy infant . that he made the apostles speak all sort of tongues and languages ex tempore , and pour'd out strange vertues and miraculous gifts upon the primitive christians . these things we know as bare matter of fact , but the method of these operations we do not at all understand . who can tell us now , what that is which we call inspiration ? vvhat change is wrought in the brain , and what in the soul : and how the effect follows ? vvho will give us the just definition of a miracle ? vvhat the proximate agent is above man , and whether they are all from the same power ? how the manner and process of those miraculous changes in matter , may be conceiv'd ? these things we see darkly , and hope they will be set in a clearer light , and the doctrines of our religion more fully expounded to us , in that future vvorld . for as several things obscurely exprest in the old testament , are more clearly reveal'd in the new ; so the same mysteries , in a succeeding state , may still receive a further explication . the history of the angels , good or bad , makes another part of this providential systeme . christian religion gives us some notices , of both kinds , but very imperfect ; vvhat interest the good angels have in the government of the vvorld , and in ordering the affairs of this earth and mankind : what subjection they have to our saviour , and what part in his ministry : whether they are guardians to particular persons , to kingdoms , to empires ; all that we know at present , concerning these things , is but conectural . and as to the bad angels , who will give us an account of their fall , and of their former condition ? i had rather know the history of lucifer , than of all the babylonian and persian kings ; nay , than of all the kings of the earth . what the birth-right was of that mighty prince : what his dominions : where his imperial court and residence ? how he was depos'd : for what crime , and by what power ? how he still wages war against heaven , in his exile : what confederates he hath : what is his power over mankind , and how limited ? what change or damage he suffer'd by the coming of christ , and how it alter'd the posture of his affairs . where he will be imprison'd in the millennium : and what will be his last fate and final doom : whether he may ever hope for a revolution or restauration ? these things lie hid in the secret records of providence , which then , i hope , will be open'd to us . with the revolution of worlds , we mention'd before the revolution of souls ; which is another great circle of providence , to be studied hereafter . we know little here , either of the pre-existence or post-existence of our souls . vve know not what they will be , till the loud trump awakes us , and calls us again into the corporeal vvorld . vvho knows how many turns he shall take upon this stage of the earth , and how many trials he shall have , before his doom will be finally concluded . who knows where , or what , is the state of hell : where the souls of the wicked are said to be for ever . what is the true state of heaven : what our celestial bodies : and what that sovereign happiness that is call'd the beatifical vision ? our knowledge and conceptions of these things , are , at present , very general and superficial ; but in the future kingdom of christ , which is introductory to heaven it self , these imperfections , in a great measure , will be done away ; and such preparations wrought , both in the will and understanding , as may fit us for the life of angels , and the enjoyment of god in eternal glory . thus you see in general , what will be the employment of the saints in the blessed millennium . and tho' they have few of the trifling businesses of this life , they will not want the best and noblest of diversions . 't is an happy thing when a man's pleasure is also his perfection : for most men's pleasures are such as debase their nature . we commonly gratifie our lower faculties , our passions , and our appetites : and these do not improve , but depress the mind . and besides , they are so gross , that the finest tempers are surfeited in a little time . there is no lasting pleasure , but contemplation . all others grow flat and insipid upon frequent use ; and when a man hath run thorow a sett of vanities , in the declension of his age , he knows not what to do with himself , if he cannot think . he saunters about , from one dull business to another , to wear out time : and hath no reason to value life , but because he 's afraid of death . but contemplation is a continual spring of fresh pleasures . truth is inexhausted , and when you are once in the right way , the further you go , the greater discoveries you make , and with the greater joy . we are sometimes highly pleas'd , and even transported , with little inventions in mathematicks , or mechanicks , or natural philosophy ; all these things will make part of their diversion and entertainment in that state ; all the doctrine of sounds and harmony : of light , colours , and perspective , will be known in perfection . but these i call diversions , in comparison of their higher and more serious speculations , which will be the business and happiness of that life . do but imagine , that they will have the scheme of all humane affairs lying before them : from the chaos to the last period . the universal history and order of times . the whole oeconomy of the christian religion , and of all religions in the world. the plan of the undertaking of the messiah : with all other parts and ingredients of the providence of this earth . do but imagine this , i say , and you will easily allow , that when they contemplate the beauty , wisdom , and goodness , of the whole design , it must needs raise great and noble passions , and a far richer joy than either the pleasures or speculations of this life can excite in us . and this being the last act and close of all humane affairs , it ought to be the more exquisite and elaborate : that it may crown the work , satisfie the spectators , and end in a general applause . the whole theatre resounding with the praises of the great dramatist , and the wonderful art and order of the composition . chap. x. objections against the millennium , answer'd . with some conjectures concerning the state of things after the millennium : and what will be the final consummation of this world. you see how nature and providence have conspir'd , to make the millennium as happy a state , as any terrestrial state can be . for , besides health and plenty : peace , truth , and righteousness will flourish there , and all the evils of this life stand excluded . there will be no ambitious princes , studying mischief one against another ; or contriving methods to bring their own subjects into slavery . no mercenary statesmen , to assist and intrigue with them . no oppression from the powerful , no snares or traps laid for the innocent . no treacherous friends , no malicious enemies . no knaves , cheats , hypocrites ; the vermin of this earth , that swarm every where . there will be nothing but truth , candor , sincerity , and ingenuity : as in a society or commonwealth of saints and philosophers . in a word , 't will be paradise restor'd : both as to innocency of temper , and the beauties of nature . i believe you will be apt to say , if this be not true , 't is pity but that it should be true. for 't is a very desirable state , where all good people would find themselves mightily at ease . what is it that hinders it then ? it must be some ill genius . for nature tends to such a renovation , as we suppose : and scripture speaks loudly of an happy state to be , some time or other , on this side heaven . and what is there , pray , in this present world , natural or moral , if i may ask with reverence , that could make it worth the while for god to create it , if it never was better , nor ever will be better ? is there not more misery than happiness : is there not more vice than virtue , in this world ? as if it had been made by a manichean god. the earth barren , the heavens inconstant : men wicked and god offended . this is the posture of our affairs : such hath our world been hitherto : with w●rs and bloudshed , sickness and diseases , poverty , servitude and perpetual drudgery for the necessaries of a mortal life . we may therefore reasonably hope , from a god infinitely good and powerful , for better times and a better state , before the last period and consummation of all things . but it will be objected , it may be , that , according to scripture , the vices and wickedness of men will continue to the end of the world ; and so there will be no room for such an happy state , as we hope for . our saviour says , when the son of man cometh , shall he find faith upon the earth ? they shall eat and drink and play , as before the destruction of the old world , or of sodom , ( luk. . , &c. ) and the wickedness of those men , you know , continued to the last . this objection may pinch those that suppose the millennium to be in the present earth , and a thousand years before the coming of our saviour : for his words seem to imply that the world will be in a state of wickedness even till his coming . accordingty antichrist or the man of sin , is not said to be destroy'd till the coming of our saviour , thess. . . and till he be destroy'd , we cannot hope for a millennium . lastly , the coming of our saviour is always represented in scripture as sudden , surprising and unexpected . as lightning breaking suddenly out of the clouds , ( luk. . . and ch . . , ) or as a thief in the night , thess. . , , . pet. . . apoc. . . but if there be such a forerunner of it as the millennial state , whose bounds we know , according as that expires and draws to an end , men will be certainly advertis'd of the approaching of our saviour . but this objection , as i told you , does not affect our hypothesis , for we suppose the millennium will not be till after the coming of our saviour , and the conflagration . and also that his coming will be sudden and surprising : and that antichrist will continue in being , tho' not in the same degree of power , till that time . so that they that place the millennium in the present earth , are chiefly concern'd to answer this first objection . but you will object , it may be , in the second place , that this millennium , wheresoever it is , would degenerate at length , into sensuality , and a mahometan paradise . for where there are earthly pleasures and earthly appetites , they will not be kept always in order without any excess or luxuriancy : especially as to the senses of touch and taste . i am apt to think this is true , if the soul have no more power over the body than she hath at present : and our senses , passions , and appetites be as strong as they are now . but according to our explication of the millennium , we have great reason to hope , that the soul will have a greater dominion over the resurrection-body , than she hath over this . and you know we suppose that none will truly inherit the millennium , but those that rise from the dead . nor do we admit any propagation there , nor the trouble or weakness of infants . but that all rise in a perfect age , and never die : being translated , at the final judgment , to meet our saviour in the clouds , and to be with him for ever . thus we easily avoid the force of this objection . but those that place the millennium in this life , and to be enjoy'd in these bodies , must find out some new preservatives against vice : otherwise they will be continually subject to degeneracy . another objection may be taken from the personal reign of christ upon earth : which is a thing incongruous , and yet asserted by many modern millenaries . that christ should leave that right hand of his father , to come and pass a thousand years here below : living upon earth in an heavenly body : this , i confess , is a thing i never could digest , and therefore i am not concern'd in this objection ; not thinking it necessary that christ should be personally present and resident upon earth in the millennium . i am apt to believe that there will be then a celestial presence or christ , or a shekinah , as we noted before : as the sun is present to the earth , yet never leaves its place in the firmament ; so christ may be visibly conspicuous in his heavenly throne , as he was to s. stephen : and yet never leave the right hand of his father . and this would be a more glorious and illustrious presence , than if he should descend , and converse amongst men in a personal shape . but these things not being distinctly reveal'd to us , we ought not to determine any thing concerning them , but with modesty and submission . we have thus far pretty well escap'd , and kept our selves out of the reach of the ordinary objections against the millennium . but there remains one , concerning a double resurrection , which must fall upon every hypothesis : and 't is this . the scripture , they say , speaks but of one resurrection : whereas the doctrine of the millennium supposes two ; one at the beginning of the millennium , for the martyrs , and those that enjoy that happy state , and the other at the end of it ; which is universal and final , in the last day of judgment . 't is true , scripture generally speaks of the resurrection in gross : without distinguishing first and second ; and so it speaks of the coming of our saviour , without distinction of first or second ; yet it does not follow from that , that there is but one coming of our saviour : so neither that there is but one resurrection . and seeing there is one place of scripture that speaks distinctly of two resurrections , namely , the th chap. of the apocalypse : that is to us a sufficient warrant for asserting two . as there are some things in one evangelist that are not in another , yet we think them authentick if they be but in one . there are also some things in daniel , concerning the messiah , and concerning the resurrection , that are not in the rest of the prophets : yet we look upon his single testimony , as good authority . s. iohn writ the last of all the apostles : and as the whole series of his prophecies is new , reaching through the later times to the consummation of all things ; so we cannot wonder if he had something more particular reveal'd to him concerning the resurrection ; that which was spoken of before in general , being distinguish'd now into first and second , or particular and universal , in this last prophet . some think s. paul means no less , when he makes an order in the resurrection : some rising sooner , some later : cor. . , . thess. . , , &c. but whether that be so or no , s. iohn might have a more distinct revelation concerning it , than s. paul had , or any one before him . after these objections , a great many queries and difficulties might be propos'd relating to the millennium . but that 's no more than what is found in all other matters , remote from our knowledge . who can answer all the queries that may be made concerning heaven , or hell , or paradise ? when we know a thing as to the substance , we are not to let go our hold , tho' there remain some difficulties unresolv'd : otherwise we should be eternally sceptical in most matters of knowledge . therefore , tho' we cannot , for example , give a full account of the distinction of habitations and inhabitants in the future earth : or , of the order of the first resurrection ; whether it be performed by degrees and successively , or all the inhabitants of the new jerusalem rise at once , and continue throughout the whole millennium . i say , tho' we cannot give a distinct account of these , or such like particulars , we ought not therefore to deny or doubt whether there will be a new earth , or a first resurrection . for the revelation goes clearly so far : and the obscurity is only in the consequences and dependances of it . which providence thought fit , without further light , to leave to our search and disquisition . scripture mentions one thing , at the end of the millennium , which is a common difficulty to all ; and every one must contribute their best thoughts and conjectures towards the solution of it . 't is the strange doctrine of gog and magog ; which are to rise up in rebellion against the saints , and besiege the holy city , and the holy camp. and this is to be upon the expiration of the thousand years , when satan is loosen'd . for no sooner will his chains be knock'd off , but he will put himself in the head of this army of gyants , or sons of the earth , and attack heaven , and the saints of the most high. but with ill success , for there will come down fire and lightning from heaven , and consume them . this , methinks , hath a great affinity with the history of the gyants , rebelling and assaulting heaven and struck down by thunder-bolts . but that of setting mountains upon mountains , or tossing them into the skie , that 's the poetical part , and we must not expect to find it in the prophecy . the poets told their fable , as of a thing past , and so it was a fable ; but the prophets speak of it , as of a thing to come , and so it will be a reality . but how and in what sence it is to be understood and explain'd , every one has the liberty to make the best judgment he can . ezekiel mentions gog and magog : which i take to be only types and shadows of these which we are now speaking of : and not yet exemplified , no more than his temple . and seeing this people is to be at the end of the millennium , and in the same earth with it , we must , according to our hypothesis , plant them in the future earth ; and therefore all former conjectures about the turks , or scythians , or other barbarians , are out of doors with us , seeing the scene of this action does not lie in the present earth . they are also represented by the prophet , as a people distinct and separate from the saints , not in their manners only , but also in their seats and habitations ; for they are said to come up from the four corners of the earth , upon the breadth of the earth : and there to besiege the camp of the saints and the beloved city : this makes it seem probable to me , that there will be a double race of mankind in that future earth : very different one from another , both as to their temper and disposition , and as to their origine . the one born from heaven , sons of god , and of the resurrection : who are the true saints and heirs of the millennium . the others born of the earth , sons of the earth , generated from the slime of the ground , and the heat of the sun , as brute creatures were at first . this second progeny or generation of men in the future earth , i understand to be signified by the prophet under these borrowed or feigned names of gog and magog . and this earth-born race , encreasing and multiplying after the manner of men , by carnal propagation , after a thousand years , grew numerous , as the sand by the sea ; and thereupon made an irruption or inundation upon the face of the earth , and upon the habitations of the saints ; as the barbarous nations did formerly upon christendom : or as the gyants are said to have made war against the gods. but they were soon confounded in their impious and sacrilegious design , being struck and consum'd by fire from heaven . some will think , it may be , that there was such a double race of mankind in the first vvorld also . the sons of adam , and the sons of god : because it is said , gen. . when men began to multiply upon the face of the earth , that the sons of god saw the daughters of men , that they were fair , and they took them wives of all that they lik'd . and it is added presently , ver . . there were gyants in the earth in those days ; and also after that , when the sons of god came in unto the daughters of men , and they bare children to them : the same became mighty men , which were of old men of renown . here seem to be two or three orders or races in this ante-diluvian vvorld . the sons of god : the sons and daughters of adam : and a third sort arising from the mixture and copulation of these , which are call'd mighty men of old , or hero's . besides , here are gyants mention'd , and to which they are to be reduc'd , it does not certainly appear . this mixture of these two races , whatsoever they were , gave , it seems , so great offence to god , that he destroy'd that world upon it , in a deluge of water . it hath been matter of great difficulty to determine , who these sons of god were , that fell in love with and married the daughters of men . there are two conjectures that prevail most : one , that they were angels : and another , that they were of the posterity of seth , and distinguish'd from the rest , by their piety , and the worship of the true god : so that it was a great crime for them to mingle with the rest of mankind , who are suppos'd to have been idolaters . neither of these opinions is to me satisfactory . for as to angels ; good angels neither marry , nor are given in marriage ; matt. . . and bad angels are not call'd the sons of god. besides , if angels were capable of those mean pleasures , we ought in reason to suppose , that there are female angels , as well as male ; for surely those capacities are not in vain through a whole species of beings . and if there be female angels , we cannot imagine , but that they must be of a far more charming beauty than the dowdy daughters of men . then as to the line of seth , it does not appear that there was any such distinction of idolaters and true ▪ worshippers before the flood , or that there was any such thing , as idolatry , at that time : nor for some ages after . besides , it is not said , that the sons of god fell in love with the daughters of cain , or of any degenerate race , but with the daughters of adam : which may be the daughters of seth , as well as of any other . these conjectures therefore seem to be shallow and ill-grounded . but what the distinction was of those two orders , remains yet very uncertain . st. paul to the galatians , ( chap. . , , &c. ) makes a distinction also of a double progeny : that of sarah , and that of hagar . one was born according to the flesh , after a natural manner : and the other by the divine power , or in vertue of the divine promise . this distinction of a natural and supernatural origine , and of a double progeny : the one born to servitude , the other to liberty : represents very well either the manner of our present birth , and of our future , at the resurrection : or that double progeny and double manner of birth , which we suppose in the future earth . 't is true , st. paul applies this to the law and the gospel ; but typical things , you know , have different aspects and completions : which are not exclusive of one another : and so it may be here . but however this double race of mankind in the future earth , to explain the doctrine of gog and magog , is but a conjecture : and does not pretend to be otherwise consider'd . the last thing that remains to be consider'd and accounted for , is the upshot and conclusion of all : namely , what will become of the earth after the thousand years expir'd ? or after the day of judgment past , and the saints translated into heaven , what will be the face of things here below ? there being nothing expresly reveal'd concerning this , we must not expect a positive resolution of it . and the difficulty is not peculiar to our hypothesis : for though the millennium , and the final judgment were concluded in the present earth , the quaere would still remain , what would become of this earth after the last day . so that all parties are equally concern'd , and equally free , to give their opinion , what will be the last state and consummation of this earth ▪ scripture , i told you , hath not defin'd this point : and the philosophers say very little concerning it . the stoicks indeed speak of the final resolution of all things into fire , or into aether : which is the purest and subtlest sort of fire . so that the whole globe or mass of the earth , and all particular bodies , will , according to them , be at last dissolv'd into a liquid flame . neither was this doctrine first invented by the stoicks : heraclitus taught it long before them : and i take it to be as ancient as orpheus himself : who was the first philosopher amongst the greeks . and he deriving his notions from the barbarick philosophers , or the sages of the east , that school of wisdom may be look'd upon as the true seminary of this doctrine : as it was of most other natural knowledge . but this dissolution of the earth into fire , may be understood two ways ; either that it will be dissolv'd into a loose name , and so dissipated and lost as lightning in the air , and vanish into nothing ; or that it will be dissolv'd into a fixt flame , such as the sun is , or a fixt star. and i am of opinion , that the earth after the last day of judgment , will be chang'd into the nature of a sun , or of a fixt star ; and shine like them in the firmament . being all melted down into a mass of aethereal matter , and enlightning a sphere or orb round about it . i have no direct and demonstrative proof of this , i confess ; but if planets were once fixt stars , as i believe they were ; their revolution to the same state again , in a great circle of time , seems to be according to the methods of providence ; which loves to recover what was lost or decay'd , after certain periods : and what was originally good and happy , to make it so again ; all nature , at last , being transform'd into a like glory with the sons of god. i will not tell you what foundation there is in nature , for this change or transformation ; from the interiour constitution of the earth , and the instances we have seen of new stars appearing in the heavens . i should lead the english reader too far out of his way , to discourse of these things . but if there be any passages or expressions in scripture , that countenance such a state of things after the day of judgment , it will not be improper to take notice of them . that radiant and illustrious ierusalem , describ'd by st. iohn , apoc. . ver . , , , &c. compos'd all of gemms and bright materials , clear and sparkling , as a star in the firmament : who can give an account what that is ? its foundations , walls , gates , streets , all the body of it , resplendent as light or fire . what is there in nature , or in this universe , that bears any resemblance with such a phaenomenon as this , unless it be a sun or a fixt star ? especially if we add and consider what follows , that the city had no need of the sun , non of the moon , to shine in it . and that there was no night there . this can be no terrestrial body ; it must be a substance luminous in it self , and a fountain of light , as a fixt star. and upon such a change of the earth , or transformation , as this , would be brought to pass the saying that is written , death is swallowed up in victory . which indeed s. paul seems to apply to our bodies in particular , cor. . . but in the eighth chapter to the romans he extends it to all nature . the creation it self also shall be deliver'd from the bondage of corruption , into the glorious liberty of the sons of god. and accordingly s. iohn , speaking of the same time with st. paul in that place to the corinthians , namely of the general resurrection and day of judgment , says , death and hades , which we render hell , were cast into the lake of fire . this is their being swallowed up in victory , which s. paul speaks of ; when death and hades , that is , all the region of mortality : the earth and all its dependances : are absorpt into a mass of fire ; and converted , by a glorious victory over the powers of darkness , into a luminous body and a region of light. this great issue and period of the earth , and of all humane affairs , tho' it seem to be founded in nature , and supported by several expressions of scripture ; yet we cannot , for want of full instruction , propose it otherwise than as a fair conjecture . the heavens and the earth shall flie away at the day of judgment , says the text : apoc. . . and their place shall not be found . this must be understood of our heavens and our earth . and their flying away must be their removing to some other part of the universe ; so as their place or residence shall not be found any more here below . this is the easie and natural sence of the words ; and this translation of the earth will not be without some change preceding , that makes it leave its place , and , with a lofty flight , take its seat amongst the stars . — there we leave it ; having conducted it for the space of seven thousand years , through various changes , from a dark chaos to a bright star. finis . a review of the theory of the earth , and of its proofs : especially in reference to scripture . london , printed by r. n. for walter kettilby , at the bishop's-head in s. paul's church-yard , . a review of the theory of the earth . to take a review of this theory of the earth , which we have now finish'd , we must consider , first , the extent of it : and then the principal parts whereof it consists . it reaches , as you see , from one end of the world to the other : from the first chaos to the last day , and the consummation of all things . this , probably , will run the length of seven thousand years : which is a good competent space of time to exercise our thoughts upon , and to observe the several scenes which nature and providence bring into view within the compass of so many ages . the matter and principal parts of this theory , are such things as are recorded in scripture . we do not feign a subject , and then descant upon it , for diversion ; but endeavour to give an intelligible and rational account of such matters of fact , past or future , as are there specifi'd and declar'd . what it hath seem'd good to the holy ghost to communicate to us , by history or prophecy , concerning the several states and general changes of this earth , makes the argument of our discourse . therefore the things themselves must be taken for granted , in one sence or other : seeing besides all other proofs , they have the authority of a revelation ; and our business is only to give such an explication of them , as shall approve it self to the faculties of man , and be conformable to scripture . we will therefore first set down the things themselves , that make the subject matter of this theory : and remind you of our explication of them . then recollect the general proofs of that explication , from reason and nature : but more fully and particularly shew how it is grounded upon scripture . the primary phaenomena whereof we are to give an account , are these five or six . i. the original of the earth from a chaos . ii. the state of paradise , and the ante-diluvian world. iii. the universal deluge . iv. the universal conflagration . v. the renovation of the world , or the new heavens and new earth . vi. the consummation of all things . these are unquestionably in scripture : and these all relate , as you see , to the several forms , s●●tes and revolutions of this earth ▪ we are therefore oblig'd to give a clear and coherent account of these phae●o●ena , in that or●er and consecution wherein t●ey stand to 〈◊〉 another . there are also in scripture some other things , relating to the same subjects , that may be call'd the secondary ingredients of this theory , and are to be referr'd to their respective primary heads . such are , for instance . i. the longevity of the ante-diluvians . ii. the rupture of the great abyss , at the deluge . iii. the appearing of the rainbow after the deluge : as a sign that there neve●●hould be a second flood . ●hese ●hings scrip●ure hath al●● left upon ●●cord : as directions and indications how to understand the ante-diluvian state , and the deluge it self . whosoever therefore shall undertake to write the theory of the earth , must think himself bound to give us a just explication of these secondary phaenomena , as well as of the primary ; and that in such a dependance and connexion , as to make them give and receive light from one another . the former part of the task is concerning the world behind us , times and things past , that are already come to light . the later is concerning the world before us , times and things to come : that lie yet in the bosom of providence , and in the ●eeds of nature . and these are chiefly the conflagration of the world , and the renovation of it . when these are over and expir'd , then comes the end , as s. paul says . then the heavens and the earth fly away , as s. iohn says ▪ then is the consummation of all things , and the last period of this sublunary world , whatsoever it is . thus ●ar the theorist must go , and pursue the motions of nature , till all things are brought to rest and silence . and in this latter part of the theory , there is also a collateral phaenomenon , the millennium , or thousand years reign of christ and his saints , upon earth , to be consider'd . for this according as it is represented in scripture , does imply a change in the natural world , as well as in the moral ▪ and therefore must be accounted for , in the theory of the earth . at least it must be there determin'd , whether that state of the world , which is singular and extraordinary , will be before or after the conf●agration . these are the principals and incidents of this theory of the earth , as to the matter and subject of it : which , you see , is both imp●rtant , and wholly taken out of scripture . as to our explication of these points , that is sufficiently known , being set down at large in four books of this theory . therefore it remains only , having seen the matter of the theory , to examine the form of it , and the proofs of it : for from these two things it must receive its censure . as to the form , the characters of a regular theory seem to be these three ; few and easie postulatums : union of parts : and a fitness to answer , fully and clearly , all the phaenomend to which it is to be apply'd . we think our hypothesis does not want any of these characters . as to the first , we take but one single postulatum for the whole theory ▪ and tha● an easie one , warranted both by scripture and antiquity ▪ namely , that this earth rise , at first , from a chaos . as to the second , union of parts , the whole theory is but one series of causes and effects from that first chaos . besides , you can scarce admit any one part of it , first , last , or intermediate , but you must , in consequence of that , admit all the rest . grant me but that the deluge is truly explain'd , and i 'le desire no more for proof of all the theory . or , if you begin at the other end , and grant the new heavens and new earth after the conflagration , you will be led back again to the first heavens and first earth that were before the flood . for st. iohn says , that new earth was without a sea : apoc. . . and it was a renovation ; or restitution to some former state of things : there was therefore some former earth without a sea ; which not being the present earth , it must be the ante diluvian . besides , both st. iohn , and the prophet isaias , have represented the new heavens and new earth , as paradisi●cal , according as is prov'd , book the th . chap. . and having told us the form of the new future earth , that it will have no sea , it is a reasonable inference that there was no sea in the paradisi●cal earth . however from the form of this future earth , which st. iohn represents to us , we may at least conclude , that an earth without a sea is no chimaera , or impossibility : but rather a fit seat and habitation for the just and the innocent . thus you see the parts of the theory link and hold fast one another : according to the second character . and as to the third , of being 〈◊〉 to the phaenomena , we must refer that to the next head , of proofs . it may be t●●ly said , that bare coherence and union of parts is not a sufficient proof ; the parts of a ●able or romance may hang aptly together , and yet have no truth in them . this is enough indeed to give the title of a just composition to any work , but not of a true one : till it appear that the conclusions and exp●tations are grounded upon ▪ good natural evidence , or upon good divine authority . we must therefore proceed now to the third thing to be consider'd in a theory , what its proofs are : or the grounds upon which it stands , whether sacred or natural . according to natural evidence , things are proved from their causes or their effects . and we think we have this double order of proofs for the truth of our hypothesis . as to the method of causes , we proceed from what is more simple , to what is more compound : and build all upon one foundation . go but to the head of the theory , and you will see the causes lying in a train before you , from first to last . and tho' you did not know the natural history of the world , past or future , you might , by intuition , foretell it , as to the grand revolutions and successive faces of nature , through a long series of ages . if we have given a true account of the motions of the chaos , we have also truly form'd the first habitable earth . and if that be truly form'd , we have thereby given a true account of the state of paradise , and of all that depends upon it . and not of that only , but also of the universal deluge . both these we have shewn in their causes : the one from the form of that earth , and the other from the fall of it into the abyss . and tho' we had not been made acquainted with these things by antiquity , we might , in contemplation of the causes , have truly conceiv'd them , as properties or incidents to the first earth . but as to the deluge , i do not say , that we might have calculated the time , manner , and other circumstances of it : these things were regulated by providence , in subordination to the moral world. but that there would be , at one time or o●her , a disruption of that earth , or of the great abyss : and in consequence of it , an universal deluge : so far , i think , the light of a theory might carry us . furthermore , in consequence of this disruption of the primeval earth , at the deluge , the present earth was made hollow and cavernous : and by that means , ( due preparations being used ) capable of combustion , or of perishing by an universal fire : yet , to speak ingenuously , this is as hard a step to be made , in vertue of natural causes , as any in the whole theory . but in recompence of that defect , the conflagration is so plainly and literally taught us in scripture , and avow'd by antiquity , that it can fall under no dispute , as to the thing it self . and as to a capacity or disposition to it in the present earth , that i think is sufficiently made out . then , the conflagration admitted , in that way it is explain'd in the third book : the earth , you see , is , by that fire , reduc'd to a second chaos . a chaos truly so call'd . and from that , as from the first , arises another creation , or new heavens and a new earth ; by the same causes , and in the same form , with the paradisiacal . this is the renovation of the world : the restitution of all things : mentioned both by scripture and antiquity : and by the prophet isaiah , st. peter and st. iohn , call'd the new heaven and new earth . with this , as the last period , and most glorious scene of all humane affairs , our theory concludes ; as to this method of causes , whereof we are now speaking . i say , here it ends as to the method of causes . for tho' we pursue the earth still further , even to its last dissolution : which is call'd the consummation of all things : yet all , that we have superadded upon that occasion , is but problematical : and may , without prejudice to the theory , be argued and disputed on either hand . i do not know , but that our conjectures there may be well grounded : but however , not springing so directly from the same root , or , at least , not by ways , so clear and visible , i leave that part undecided . especially seeing we pretend to write no more than the theory of the earth , and therefore as we begin no higher than the chaos , so we are not obliged to go any further than to the last state of a terrestrial consistency : which is that of the new heavens and the new earth . this is the first natural proof , from the order of causes . the second is f●om the consideration of effects . namely of such effects as are already in being . and therefore this proof can extend only to that part of the theory , that explains the present and past form and phaenomena of the earth . what is future , must be left to a further trial , when the things come to pass , and present themselves to be examin'd and compar'd with the hypothesis . as to the present form of the earth , we call all nature to witness for us : the rocks and the mountains , the hills and the valleys , the deep and wide sea , and the caverns of the ground : let these speak , and tell their origine : how the body of the earth came to be thus torn and mangled : if this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine : and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole globe . but we have given such a full explication of this , in the first part of the theory , from chapt. the th . to the end of that treatise , that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four chapters , to determine if the hypothesis does not answer all those phaenomena , easily and adequately . the next phaenomenon to be consider'd , is the deluge , with its adjuncts . this also is fully explain'd by our hypothesis , in the d . d. and th . chapters of the first book . where it is shewn , that the mosaical deluge , that is , an universal inundation of the whole earth , above the tops of the highest mountains , made by a breaking open of the great abyss , ( for thus far moses leads us ) is fully explain'd by this hypothesis , and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd ? there are no sources or stores of water sufficient for such an effect , that may be drawn upon the earth , and drawn off again , but by supposing such an abyss , and such a disruption of it , as the theory represents . lastly , as to the phaenomena of paradise and the ante-diluvian world , we have set them down in order in the d . book : and apply'd to each of them its proper explication , from the same hypothesis . we have also given an account of that character which antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the world , or the golden age , as they call'd it : namely , equality of seasons throughout the year , or a perpetual equinox . we have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these states , as they are mention'd in scripture . the longevity of the ante-diluvians , and the declension of their age by degrees , after the flood . as also that wonderful phaenomenon , the rainbow : which appear'd to noah for a sign , that the earth should never undergo a second deluge . and we have shewn , wherein the force and propriety of that sign consisted , for confirming noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity . thus far we have explain'd the past phaenomena of the natural world. the rest are futurities , which still lie hid in their causes ; and we cannot properly prove a theory from effects that are not yet in being . but so far as they are foretold in scripture , both as to substance and circumstance , in prosecution of the same principles we have ante dated their birth , and shew'd how they will come to pass . we may therefore , i think , reasonably conclude , that this theory has performed its task , and answer'd its title : having given an account of all the general changes of the natural world , as far as either sacred history looks backwards , or sacred prophecy looks forwards . so far as the one tells us what is past in nature , and the other what is to come . and if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth , 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd . so much for natural evidence , from the causes or effects . we now proceed to scripture , which will make the greatest part of this review . the sacred basis upon which the whole theory stands , is the doctrine of s. peter , deliver'd in his second epistle and third chapter , concerning the triple order and succession of the heavens and the earth . that comprehends the whole extent of our theory : which indeed is but a large commentary upon s. peter's text. the apostle sets out a threefold state of the heavens and earth : with some general properties of each : taken from their different constitution and different fate . the theory takes the same threefold state of the heavens and the earth : and explains more part●cularly , wherein their different constitution consists : and how , under the conduct of providence , their different fate depends upon it . let us set down the apostle's words , with the occasion of them : and their plain sence , according to the most easie and natural explication . ver. . knowing this first , that there shall come in the last days scoffers , walking after their own lusts . . and saying , where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . . for this they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of god , the heavens were of old , and the earth consisting of water and by water . . whereby the world that then was , being overflowed with water , perished . . but the heavens and the earth that are now , by the s●me word , are kept in store , reserved unto fire against the day of judgment , and perdition of ungodly men . — . the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night , in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up . . nevertheless we , according to his promise , look for new heavens and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . this is the whole discourse so far as relates to our subject . s peter , you see , had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the world , and the coming of our saviour ; and they were men , it seems , that pretended to philosophy and argument ; and they use this argument for their opinion , seeing there hath been no change in nature , or in the world , from the beginning to this time , why should we think there will be any change for the future ? the apostle answers to this , that they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were heavens of old , and an earth , so and so constituted ; consisting of water and by water ; by reason whereof that world , or those heavens and that earth , perish'd in a deluge of water . but , saith he , the heavens and the earth that are now , are of another constitution , fitted and reserved to another fate , namely , to perish by fire . and after these are perish'd , there will be new heavens and a new earth , according to god's promise . this is an easie paraphrase , and the plain and genuine sence of the apostle's discourse ; and no body , i think , would ever look after any other sence , if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy . this sence , you see ▪ hits the objections directly , or the cavil which these scoffers made ; and tells them , that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the world since the beginning , for there was one sort of heavens and earth before the flood , and another sort now ; the first having been destroy'd at the deluge . so that the apostle's argument stands upon this foundation , that there is a diversity betwixt the present heavens and earth , and the ante-diluvian heavens and earth ; take away that , and you take away all the force of his answer . then as to his new heavens and new earth after the conflagration , they must be material and natural , in the same sence and signification with the former heavens and earth ; unless you will offer open violence to the text. so that this triplicity of the heavens and the earth , is the first , obvious , plain sence of the apostle's discourse : which every one would readily accept , if it did not draw after it a long train of consequences , and lead them into other worlds than they ever thought of before , or are willing to enter upon now . but we shall have occasion by and by , to examine this text more fully in all its circumstances . give me leave in the mean time to observe , that s. paul also implyes that triple creation which s. peter expresses , s. paul , i say , in the th chap. to the rom. ver . , . tells us of a creation that will be redeem'd from vanity : which are the new heavens and new earth to come . a creation in subjection to vanity : which is the present state of the world , and a creation that was subjected to vanity , in hopes of being restor'd : which was the first paradisiacal creation . and these are the three states of the natural world , which make the subject of our theory . to these two places of s. peter and s. paul , i might add that third in s. iohn , concerning the new heavens and new earth ; with that distinguishing character , that the earth was without a sea. as this distinguisheth it from the present earth , so , being a restitution or restauration , as we noted before , it must be the same with some former earth : and consequently , it implies that there was another precedent state of the natural world , to which this is a restitution . these three places i alledge , as comprehending and confirming the theory in its full extent . but we do not suppose them all of the same force and clearness . s. peter leads the way , and gives light and strength to the other two . when a point is prov'd by one clear text , we allow others , as auxiliaries , that are not of the same clearness ; but being open'd , receive light from the primary text , and reflect it upon the argument . so much for the theory in general . we will now take one or two principal heads of it , which vertually contain all the rest , and examine them more strictly and particularly , in reference to their agreement with scripture . the two heads we pitch upon , shall be , our explication of the deluge , and our explication of the new heavens and new earth . we told you before , these two were as ●he hinges , upon which all the theory moves , and which hok● the parts of it in firm union one with another . as to the deluge , if i have explain'd that aright , by the disruption of the great abyss , and the dissolution of the earth that cover'd it , all the rest follows in such a chain of consequences , as cannot be broken . wherefore in order to the proof of that explication , and of all that depends upon it , i will make bold to lay down this proposition , that our hypothesis concerning the universal deluge , is not only more agreeable to reason and philosophy tha● any other yet propos'd to the world , but is also more agreeable to scripture . namely to such places of scripture , as reflect upon the deluge , the abyss , and the form of the first earth . and particularly , to the history of noah's flood , as recorded by moses . if i can make this good , it will , doubtless , give satisfaction to all that are free and intelligent . and i desire their patience , if i proceed slowly and by several steps . we will divide our task into parts , and examine them separately . first , by scripture in general , and then by moses his history and description of the flood . our hypothesis of the deluge consists of three principal heads , or differs remarkably in three things from the common explication . first , in that we suppose the ante diluvian earth to have been of another form and constitution from the present earth : with the abyss placed under it . secondly , in that we suppose the deluge to have been made , not by any inun●ation of the sea , or overflowing of fountains and rivers : nor ( principally ) by any excess of rains : but by a real dissolution of the exteriour earth , and disruption of the abyss which it cover'd . these are the two principal points , to which may be added , as a corollary , thirdly , that the deluge was not in the nature of a standing pool : the waters lying every where level , of an equal depth and with an uniform surface : but was made by a fluctuation and commotion of the abyss upon the disruption : which commotion being over , the waters retired into their chanels , and let the dry land appear . these are the most material and fundamental parts of our hypothesis : and these being prov'd consonant to scripture , there can be no doubt of the rest . we begin with the first : that the ante-diluvian earth was of another form and constitution from the present earth , with the abyss placed under it . this is confirm'd in scripture , both by such places as assert a diversity in general : and by other places that intimate to us , wherein that diversity consisted , and what was the form of the first earth . that discourse of s. peter's , which we have set before you concerning the past , present , and future , heavens and earth , is so full a proof of this diversity in general , that you must either allow it , or make the apostle's argumentation of no effect . he speaks plainly of the natural world , the heavens and the earth : and he makes a plain distinction , or rather opposition , betwixt those before and after the flood : so that the least we can conclude from his words , is a diversity betwixt them ; in answer to that identity or immutability of nature , which the scoffers pretended to have been ever since the beginning . but tho' the apostle , to me , speaks plainly of the natural world , and distinguishes that which was before the flood , from the present ▪ yet there are some that will allow neither of these to be contain'd in s. peter's words ; and by that means would make this whole discourse of little or no effect , as to our purpose . and seeing we , on the contrary , have made it the chief scripture-basis of the whole theory of the earth , we are oblig'd to free it from those false glosses or mis-interpretations , that lessen the force of its testimony , or make it wholly ineffectual . these interpreters say , that s. peter meant no more than to mind these scoffers , that the world was once destroy'd by a deluge of water : meaning the animate world , mankind and living creatures . and that it shall be destroy'd again by another element , namely by fire . so as there is no opposition or diversity betwixt the two natural worlds , taught or intended by the apostle ; but only in reference to their different fate or manner of perishing , and not of their different nature or constitution . here are two main points , you see , wherein our interpretations of this discourse of the apostles , differ . first , in that they make the apostle ( in that sixth verse ) to understand only the world animate , or men and brute creatures . that these were indeed destroy'd , but not the natural world , or the form and constitution of the then earth and heavens . secondly , that there is no diversity or opposition made by s. peter betwixt the ancient heavens and earth , and the present , as to their form and constitution . we pretend that these are mis-apprehensions , or mis-representations of the sence of the apostle in both respects , and offer these reasons to prove them to be so . for the first point ; that the apostle speaks here of the natural world , particularly in the th verse ; and that it perish'd , as well as the animate , these considerations seem to prove . first , because the argument or ground these scoffers went upon , was taken from the natural world , its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning ; therefore if the apostle answers ad idem , and takes away their argument , he must understand the same natural world , and show that it hath been chang'd , or hath perish'd . you will say , it may be , the apostle doth not deny , nor take away the ground they went upon , but denies the consequence they made from it ; that therefore there would be no change , because there had been none . no , neither doth he do this , if by the world in the th . ver . he understands mankind only ; for their ground was this , there hath been no change in the natural world ; their consequence , this , therefore there will be none , nor any conflagration . now the apostle's answer , according to you , is this , you forget that mankind hath been destroyed in a deluge . and what then ? what 's this to the natural world , whereof they were speaking ? this takes away neither antecedent nor consequent , neither ground nor inference ; nor any way toucheth their argument , which proceeded from the natural world to the natural world. therefore you must either suppose that the apostle takes away their ground , or he takes away nothing . secondly , what is it that the apostle tells these scoffers they were ignorant of ? that there was a deluge , that destroyed mankind ? they could not be ignorant of that , nor pretend to be so ; it was therefore the constitution of those old heavens and earth , and the change or destruction of them at the deluge , that they were ignorant of , or did not attend to ; and of this the apostle minds them . these scoffers appear to have been iews by the phrase they use , since the fathers fell asleep , which in both parts of it is a judaical expression ; and does s. peter tell the iews that had moses read to them every sabbath , that they were ignorant that mankind was once destroyed with a deluge in the days of noah ? or could they pretend to be ignorant of that without making themselves ridiculous both to iews and christians ? besides , these do not seem to have been of the vulgar amongst them , for they bring a philosophical argument for their opinion ; and also in their very argument they refer to the history of the old testament , in saying , since the fathers fell asleep , amongst which fathers , noah was one of the most remarkable . thirdly , the design of the apostle is to prove to them , or to dispose them to the belief of the conflagration , or future destruction of the world ; which i suppose you will not deny to be a destruction of the natural world ; therefore to prove or perswade this , he must use an argument taken from a precedent destruction of the natural world ; for to give an instance of the perishing of mankind only , would not reach home to his purpose . and you are to observe here that the apostle does not proceed against them barely by authority ; for what would that have booted ? if these scoffers would have submitted to authority , they had already the authority of the prophets and apostles in this point : but he deals with them at their own weapon , and opposes reasons to reasons ; what hath been done may be done , and if the natural world hath been once destroyed , 't is not hard , nor unreasonable , to suppose those prophecies to be true , that say it shall be destroyed again . fourthly , unless we understand here the natural world , we make the apostle both redundant in his discourse , and also very obscure in an easie argument . if his design was only to tell them that mankind was once destroy'd in a deluge , what 's that to the heavens and the earth ? the th verse would be superfluous ; which yet he seems to make the foundation of his discourse . he might have told them how mankind had perish'd before with a deluge , and aggravated that destruction as much as he pleas'd , without telling them how the heavens and the earth were constituted then ; what was that to the purpose , if it had no dependance or connection with the other ? in the precedent chapter , ver . . when he speaks only of the floods destroying mankind , he mentions nothing of the heavens or the earth : and if you make him to intend no more here , what he says more is superfluous . i also add , that you make the apostle very obscure and operose in a very easie argument . how easie had it been for him , without this apparatus , to have told them , as he did before , that god brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly ; and not given us so much difficulty to understand his sence , or such a suspicion and appearance , that he intended something more ; for that there is at least a great appearance and tendency to a further sence , i think none can deny ; and st. austin , didymus alex. bede , as we shall see hereafter , understood it plainly of the natural world : also modern expositors and criticks ; as cajetan , estius , drusius , heinfius , have extended it to the natural world , more or less ; tho' they had no theory to mislead them , nor so much as an hypothesis to support them ; but attended only to the tenor of the apostle's discourse , which constrain'd them to that sence , in whole or in part . fifthly , the opposition carries it upon the natural world. the opposition lies betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the heavens that were of old , and the earth , and the present heavens and earth , or the two natural worlds . and if they will not allow them to be oppos'd in their natures ( which yet we shall prove by and by ) at least they must be oppos'd in their fate ; and as this is to perish by fire , so that perish'd by water ; and if it perish'd by water , it perish'd ; which is all we contend for at present . lastly , if we would be as easily govern'd in the exposition of this place , as we are of other places of scripture , it would be enough to suggest , that in reason and fairness of interpretation , the same world is destroy'd in the th . verse , that was describ'd in the foregoing verse ; but it is the natural world that is describ'd there , the heavens and the earth , so and so constituted ; and therefore in fairness of interpretation they ought to be understood here ; that world being the subject that went immediately before , and there being nothing in the words that restrains them to the animate world or to mankind . in the d ch . ver . . the apostle does restrain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the world of the ungodly ; but here 't is not only illimited , but according to the context , both preceding and following , to be extended to the natural world. i say by the following context too , for so it answers to the world that is to perish by fire ; which will reach the frame of nature as well as mankind . for a conclusion of this first point , i will set down s. austin ' s judgment in this case ; who in several parts of his works hath interpreted this place of s. peter , of the natural world . as to the heavens , he hath these words in his exposition upon genesis , hos etiam aerios coelos quondam periisse diluvio , in quâdam earum quae canonica appellantur , epistolâ legimus . we read in one of the epistles called canonical , meaning this of s. peter ' s , that the aerila heavens perish'd in the deluge . and he concerns himself there to let you know that it was not the starry heavens that were destroy'd ; the waters could not reach so high ; but the regions of our air . then afterwards he hath these words , faciliùs eos ( coelos ) secundum illius epistolae authoritatem credimus periisse , & alios , sicut ibi scribitur , repositos . we do more easily believe , according to the authority of that epistle , those heavens to have perish'd ; and others , as it is there written , substituted in their pla●e . in like manner , and to the same sence , he hath these words upon psal. . aerii utique coeli perierunt ut propinqus terris , secundum quod dicuntur volucres coeli ; sunt autem & coeli coelorum , superiores in firmamento , sed utrùm & ipsi perituri sint igni , an hi soli , qui etiam diluvio perierunt , disceptatio est aliquanto scrupulosior inter doctos . and in his book de civ . dei , he hath several passages to the same purpose , quemadmodum in apostolicâ illâ epistolâ à toto pars a●cipitur , quod diluvio periisse dictus est mundus , quamvis sola ejus cum suis coelis pars ima perierit . these being to the same effect with the first c●tation , i need not make them english ; and this last place refers to the earth as well as the heavens , as several other places in s. austin do , whereof we shall give you an account , when we come to shew his judgment concerning the second point , the diversity of the ante-diluvian and post-diluvian world. this being but a foretaste of his good will and inclinations towards this doctrine . these considerations alledg'd , so far as i can judge , are full and unanswerable proofs , that this discourse of the apostle's comprehends and refers to the natural world ; and consequently they warrant our interpretation in this particular , and destroy the contrary . we have but one step more to make good , that there was a change made in this natural world at the deluge , according to the apostle ; and this is to confute the second part of their interpretation , which supposeth that s. peter makes no distinction or opposition betwixt the antediluvian heavens and earth , and the present heavens and earth , in that respect . this second difference betwixt us , methinks , is still harsher than the first ; and contrary to the very form , as well as to the matter of the apostle's discourse . for there is a plain antithesis , or opposition made betwixt the heavens and the earth of old ( ver . the th . ) and the heavens and the earth that are now ( ver . the th . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the adversative particle , but , you see marks the opposition ; so that it is full and plain according to grammar and logick . and that the parts or members of this opposition differ in nature from one another , is certain from this , because otherwise the apostle's argument or discourse is of no effect , concludes nothing to the purpose ; he makes no answer to the objection , nor proves any thing against the scoffers , unless you admit that diversity . for they said , all things had been the same from the beginning in the natural world , and unless he say , as he manifestly does , that there hath been a change in nature , and that the heavens and earth that are now , are different from the ancient heavens and earth , which perish'd at the flood , he says nothing to destroy their argument , nor to confirm the prophetical doctrine of the future destruction of the natural world. this , i think , would be enough to satisfie any clear and free mind concerning the meaning of the apostle ; but because i desire to give as full a light to this place as i can , and to put the sence of it out of controversie , if possible , for the future , i will make some further remarks to confirm this exposition . and we may observe that several of those reasons which we have given to prove , that the natural world is understood by s. peter , are double reasons ; and do also prove the other point in question , a diversity betwixt the two natural worlds , the ante diluvian and the present . as for instance , unless you admit this diversity betwixt the two natural worlds , you make the th . verse in this chapter superfluous and useless : and you must suppose the apostle to make an inference here without premises . in the th . verse he makes an inference , * whereby the world ; that then was , perish'd in a deluge ▪ what does this whereby relate to ? by reason of what ? sure of the particular constitution o● the heavens and the earth immediately be fore describ'd . neither would it have signified any thing to the scoffers , for the apostle to have told them how the ante diluvian heavens and earth were constituted , if they were constituted just in the same manner as the present . besides , what is it , as i ask'd before , that the apostle tells these scoffers they were ignorant of ? does he not say formally and expresly ( ver . . ) that they were ignornat that the heavens and the earth were constituted so and so , before the flood ? but if they were constituted as these present heavens and earth are , they were not ignorant of their constitution ; nor did pretend to be ignorant , for their own ( mistaken ) argument supposeth it . but before we proceed any further , give me leave to note the impropriety of our translation , in the th . verse , or latter part of it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this we translate standing in the water , and out of the water , which is done manifestly in compliance with the present form of the earth , and the notions of the translators : and not according to the natural force and sence of the greek words . if one met with this sentence * in a greek author , who would ever render it standing in the water and out of the water ? nor do i know any latin translator that hath ventur'd to render them in that sence ; nor any latin father ; st. austin and st. ierome i 'm sure do not , but consistens ex aquâ , or de aquâ , & per aquam : for that later phrase also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not with so good propriety signifie to stand in the water , as to consist or subsist by water , or by the help of water , tanquam per causam sustinentem ; as st. austin and ierome render it . neither does that instance they give from pet. . . prove any thing to the contrary , for the ark was sustain'd by the waters , and the english does render it accordingly . the translation being thus rectified , you see the ante diluvian heavens and earth consisted of water , and by water ; which makes way for a second observation to prove our sence of the text ; for if you admit no diversity betwixt those heavens and earth , and the present , shew us pray , how the present heavens and earth consist of water , and by water . what watery constitution have they ? the apostle implies rather , that the now heavens and earth have a fiery constitution . we have now meteors of all sorts in the air , winds , hail , snow , lightning , thunder , and all things engender'd of fiery exhalations , ●as well as we have rain ; but according to our theory , the antediluvian heavens , of all these meteors had none but dews and vapors , or watery meteors only ; and therefore might very aptly be said by the apostle to be constituted of water , or to have a watery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . then the earth was said to consist by water , because it was built upon it , and at first was sustain'd by it . and when such a key as this is put into our hands , that does so easily unlock this hard passage , and makes it intelligible , according to the just force of the words , why should we pertinaciously adhere to an interpretation , that neither agrees with the words , nor makes any sence that is considerable ? thirdly , if the apostle had made the ante-diluvian heavens and earth the same with the present , his apodosis in the th . verse , should not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. i say , it should not have been by way of antithesis , but of identity or continuation ; and the same heavens and earth are kept in store reserv'd unto fire , &c. accordingly we see the apostle speaks thus , as to the logos , or the word of god , verse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the same word of god ; where the thing is the same , he expresseth it as the same ; and if it had been the same heavens and earth , as well as the same word of god , why should he use a mark of opposition for the one , and of identity for the other ? to this i do not see what can be fairly answer'd . fourthly , the ante-diluvian heavens and earth were different from the present , because , as the apostle intimates , they were such , and so constituted , as made them obnoxious to a deluge ; whereas ours are of such a form , as makes them incapable of a deluge , and obnoxious to a conflagration ; the just contrary fate . if you say there was nothing of natural tendency or disposition in either world to their respective fate , but the first might as well have perish'd by fire , as water , and this by water as by fire , you unhinge all nature and natural providence in that method , and contradict one main scope of the apostle in this discourse . his first scope is to assert , and mind them of that diversity there was betwixt the ancient heavens and earth , and the present ; and from that , to prove against those scoffers , that there had been a change and revolution in nature ; and his second scope seems to be this , to show that diversity to be such , as , under the divine conduct , leads to a different fate , and expos'd that world to a deluge ; for when he had describ'd the constitution of the first heavens and earth , he subjoyns , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . quià talis erat , saith grotius , qualem diximus , constitutio & terrae & coeli . where by the then world perish'd in a flood of water . this whereby notes some kind of causal dependance , and must relate to some means or conditions precedent . it cannot relate to logos , or the word of god , grammar will not permit that ; therefore it must relate to the state of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth immediately premis'd . and to what purpose indeed should he premise the description of those heavens and earth , if it was not to lay a ground for this inference ? having given these reasons for the necessity of this interpretation ; in the last place , let 's consider s. austin's judgment , and his sence upon this place , as to the point in question . as also the reflections that some other of the ancients have made upon this doctrine of s. peter's . didymus alexandrinus , who was for some time s. ierome's master , made such a seve●e reflection upon it , that he said this epistle was corrupted , and should not be admitted into the canon , because it taught the doctrine of a triple or triform world in this third chapter . as you may see in his enarr . in epist. canonicas . now this threefold world is first that in the th ver . the world that then was . in the th ver . the heavens and the earth that are now . and in the th ver . we expect new heavens and a new earth , according to his promise . this seems to be a fair account that s. peter taught the doctrine of a triple world ; and i quote this testimony , to show what s. peter's words do naturally import , even in the judgment of one that was not of his mind . and a man is not prone to make an exposition against his own opinion , unless he think the words very pregnant and express . but s. austin owns the authority of this epistle , and of this doctrine , as deriv'd from it , taking notice of this text of s. peter's in several parts of his works . we have noted three or four places already to this purpose , and we may further take notice of several passages in his treatise , de civ . dei , which confirm our exposition . in his th . book , ch . . he disputes against porphyry , who had the same principles with these eternalists in the text ; or , if i may so call them , incorruptarians ; and thought the world never had , nor ever would undergo any change , especially as to the heavens . s. austin could not urge porphyry with the authority of s. peter , for he had no veneration for the christian oracles ; but it seems he had some for the iewish , and arguing against him , upon that text in the psalms , coeli peribunt , he shows upon occasion how he understands s. peter's destruction of the old world. legitur coelum & terra transibunt , mundus transit , sed puto quod praeterit , transit , transibunt aliquantò mitiùs dicta sunt quàm peribunt . in epistolâ quoque petri apostoli , ubi aquâ inundatus , qui tum erat , periisse dictus est mundus ; satis clarum est quae pars mundi à toto significata est , & quatenùs periisse dicta sit , & qui coeli repositi igni reservandi . this he explains more fully afterwards by subjoyning a caution ( which we cited before ) that we must not understand this passion of s. peter's , concerning the destruction of the ante diluvian world , to take in the whole universe , and the highest heavens , but only the aerial heavens , and the sublunary world. in apostolicâ illâ epistolâ à toto par● accipitur , quod diluvie periisse dictus est 〈◊〉 quamvis sol● ejus , cum su●s coelis , pars ima pe●ierit . in that apostolical epistle , a part is signified by the whole , when the world is said to have perish'd in the deluge , although the lower part of it only , with the heavens belonging to at , perished : that is , the earth with the regions of the air that belong to it . and consonant to this in his exposition of that hundred and first psalm , upon those words ▪ the heavens are the work of thy hands , they shall perish , but thou shalt endure . this perishing of the heavens , he says , s. peter tells us , hath been once done already , namely , at the deluge ; ape●●e dixit hoc apostolus petrus , coeli erant olim & terra , de aquâ & per ●quam constituti , dei verbo ; per quod qui factus est mundus aquâ 〈…〉 terra autem & coeli qui nunc sunt , 〈…〉 ergo dixit perisse coelos per dilavium . these places shew us that s. austin understood s. peter's discourse to aim at the natural world and his periit or periisse ( ver . . ) to be of the same force as 〈◊〉 in the psalms , when 't is said the heavens shalt perish● and consequently that the heavens and the earth , in this father's opinion , were as really chang'd and transform'd at the time of the flood , as they will be at the conflagration . but we must not expect from s. austin , or any of the ancients a distinct account of this apostolical doctrine , as if they knew and acknowledg'd the theory of the firs● world ; that does not at all appear ; but what they said was either from broken tradition , or extorted from them by the force of the apostle's words and their own sincerity . there are yet other places in s. austin worthy our consideration upon this subject ; especially his exposition of this d. chap. of s. peter , as we find it ●n that same treatise de civ . dei. there he compares again , the destruction of the world at the deluge , with that which shall be at the conf●agration , and supposeth both the heavens and earth to have perish'd . apostelus ●ominemorans factum ante diluvium , videtur admon●●sse quodaminodo quatenus in fi●e hujus secu●● mundum istum periturium esse credamus . nam & illo tempore periisse dixit , qui tunc erat , mundum ; nec solum otbem terrae , verùm etiam coelos . then giving his usual caution , that the stars and starry heavens should not be comprehended in that mundane destruction , he goes on , atque hoc modo ( pene totus aer ) cum terra periorat ; cujus terrae utíque prior facies ( nempe ante-diluviana ) fuerat deleta diluvio . qui autem nunc sunt coeli & terra eodem verbo rep●siti sunt igni reservandi ; proinde qui coeli & quae terra , id est , qui mundus , pro ●o mundo qui diluvio periit , ex eâdem aquâ repos●tus est , ipse igni novissimo reservatur . here you see s. austin's sence upon the whole matter ; which is this , that the natural world , the earth with the heavens about it , was destroyed and chang'd at the deluge into the present heavens and earth ; which shall again in like manner be destroyed and chang'd by the last fire . accordingly in another place , to add no more , he saith the figure of the ( sub●●nary ) world shall be chang'd at the conflagration , as it was chang'd at the deluge . tunc figura huius mundi , &c. cap. . thus you see , we have s. austin on our side , in both parts of our interpretation ; that s. peter's discourse is to be referr'd to the natural inanimate world , and that the present natural world is distinct and different from that which was before the deluge . and s. austin having applyed this expresly to s. peter's doctrine by way of commentary , it will free us from any crime or affectation of singularity in the exposition we have given of that place . venerable bede hath ●ollowed s. austin ' s footsteps in this doctrine ; for , interpreting s. peter ' s original world ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) peti . . . he refers both that ▪ and this ( chap. . . ) to the natural inanimate world , which he supposeth to have undergone a change at the deluge . his words are these , idem ipse mundus est ( nempe quoad materiam ▪ ) in quo nunc humanum genus habitat , quem inhabitaverunt hi qui ante diluvium fuerunt , fed tamen rectè originalis mundus , quasi alius dicitur ; quia sicut in consequentibus bujus epistolae ●●riptum continetur , ille tunc mundus aquâ inundatus peri●● . coelis videlicet qui eran● prius , id est , cunctis aeris hujus turbulent● spaciis , aquanum accrescentium altitudine consumptis , ac terrâ in alteram faciem , excedentibus aquis , immutatâ ▪ nam etsi montes aliqui atque convalles ab initio facti creduntur , non tament anti quanti nunc in orbe cernuntur universo . t is the same world ( namely , as to the matter and substance of it ) which mankind lives in now , and did live in before the flood , but yet that is truly call'd the original world , being as it were another from the present . for 't is said in the sequel of this epistle that the world that was then , perish'd in the deluge ; namely , the regions of the air were consumed by the height and excess of the waters , and by the same waters the earth was chang'd into another form or face . for although some mountains and valleys are thought to have been made from the beginning , yet not such great ones as now we see throughout the whole earth . you see this author does not only own a change made at the deluge , but offers at a further explication wherein that change consisted , viz. that the mountains and inequalities of the earth were made greater than they were before the flood ; and so he makes the change or the difference betwixt the two worlds gradual , rather than specifical , if i may so term it . but we cannot wonder at that , if he had no principles to carry it further , or to make any other sort of change intelligible to him . bede also pursues the same sence and notion in his interpretation of that fountain , gen. . . that watered the face of the earth before the flood . and many other transcribers of antiquity have recorded this tradition concerning a difference , gradual or specifical , both in the ante-diluvian heavens ( gloss. ordin . gen. . de iride . lyran. ibid. hist. scholast . c. . rab. maurus & gloss. inter. gen. . , . alcuin . quaest. in gen. inter . . ) and in the ante-diluvian earth , as the same authors witness in other places . as hist. schol. o. . gloss. ord. in gen. . al●uin . inter. , &c. not to instance in those that tell us the properties of the ante-diluvian world under the name and notion of paradise . thus much concerning this remarkable place in s. peter , and the true exposition of it ; which i have the more largely insisted upon , because i look upon this place as the chief repository of that great natural mystery , which in scripture is communicated to us concerning the triple state or revolution of the world. and of those men that are so scrupulous to admit the theory we have propos'd , i would willingly know whether they believe the apostle in what he says concerning the new heavens and the new earth to come , ver . . and if they do , why they should not believe him as much concerning the old heavens and the old earth , past ; ver . , & . which h● mentions as formally , and describes more distinctly than the other . but if they believe neither past nor to come , in a natural sence , but an unchangeable state of nature from the creation to its annihilation , i leave them then to their fellow eternalists in the text , and to the character or censure the apostle gives them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men that go by their own private humour and passions , and prefer that to all other evidence . they deserve this censure , i am sure , if they do not only disbelieve , but also scoff , at this prophetick and apostolick doctrine concerning the vicissitudes of nature and a triple world ; the apostle in this discourse does formally distinguish three worlds ( for 't is well known that the hebrows have no word to signifie the natural world , but use that periphrass , the heavens and the earth ) and upon each of them engraves a name and title that bears a note of distinction in it ; he calls them the old heavens and earth , the preseut heaven● and earth , and the new heavens and earth . 't is true , these three are one , as ●o matter and substance ; but they must differ as to form and properties ; otherwise what is the ground of this distinction and of these three different appe●lations ? suppose the iews had expected ezekiel's temple for the third , and last , and most perfect ; and that in the time of the second temple they had spoke of them with this distinction , or under these different names , the old temple , the present temple , and the new temple we expect : would any have understood those three of one and the same temple ; never demolish'd , never chang'd , never rebuilt ; always the same both as to materials and form ? no , doubtless , but of three several temples succeeding one another . and have we not the same reason to understand this temple of the world , whereof s. peter speaks , to be threefold in succession ; seeing he does as plainly distinguish it into the old heavens and earth , the present heavens and earth , and the new heavens and earth . and i do the more willingly use this comparison of the temple , because it hath been thought an emblem of the outward world. i know we are naturally averse to entertain any thing that is inconsistent with the general frame and texture of our own thoughts ; that 's to begin the world again ; and we often reject such things without examination . neither do i wonder that the generality of interpreters beat down the apostle's words and sence to their own notions ; they had no other grounds to go upon , and men are not willing , especially in natural and comprehensible things , to put such a meaning upon scripture , as is unintelligible to themselves ; they rather venture to offer a little violence to the words , that they may pitch the sence at such a convenient height , as their principles will reach to . and therefore though some of our modern interpreters , whom i mention'd before , have been sensible of the natural tendency of this discourse of s. peter's , and have much ado to bear of the force of the words , so as not to acknowledge that they import a real diversity betwixt the two worlds spoken of ; yet having no principles to guide or support them in following that tract , they are forc'd to stop or divert another way . 't is like entering into the mouth of a cave , we are not willing to venture further than the light goes . nor are they much to blame for this ; the fault is only in those persons that continue ▪ wilfully in their darkness , and when they cannot otherwise resist the light , shut their eyes against it , or turn their head another way . — but i am afraid i have staid too long upon this argument : not for my own sake , but to satisfie others . you may please to remember that all that i have said hitherto , belongs only to the first head : to prove a diversity in general betwixt the ante-diluvian heavens and earth , and the present : not expressing what their particular form was . and this general diversity may be argued also by observations taken from moses his history of the world , before and after the flood . from the longevity of the antediluvians : the rain-bowu appearing after the deluge : and the breaking open an abyss capable to overflow the earth . the heavens that had no rain-bow , and under whose benign and steddy influence , men liv'd seven , eight , nine hundred years and upwards , must have been of a different aspect and constitution from the present heavens . and that earth that had such an abyss , that the disruption of it made an universal deluge , must have been of another form than the present earth . and those that will not admit a diversity in the two worlds , are bound to give us an intelligible account of these phaenomena : how they could possibly be in heavens and earth , like the present . or if they were there once , why they do not continue so still , if nature be the same . we need say no more , as to the ante-diluvian heavens : but as to the earth , we must now , according to the second part of the first head ; enquire , if that particular form , which we have assign'd it before the flood , be agreeable to scripture . you know how we have describ'd the form and situation of that earth : namely , that it was built over the abyss , as a regular orb , covering and incompassing the waters round about : and founded , as it were , upon them . there are many passages of scripture that favour this description : some more expresly , others upon a due explication . to this purpose there are two express texts in the psalms : as psal. . , . the earth is the lords , and the fulness thereof : the habitable world , and they that dwell therein . for he has founded it upon * the sea , and establish'd it upon the floods . an earth founded upon the seas , and establish'd upon the waters , is not this the earth we have describ'd ? the first earth , as it came from the hands of its maker . where can we now find in nature , such an earth as has the seas and the water for its foundation ? neither is this text without a second , as a fellow-witness to confirm the same truth : for in the . psal. ver . , , . we read to the same effect , in these words : to him , who alone does great wonders : to him that by wisdom made the heavens's to him that stretchèd out the earth above the waters . we can hardly express that form of the ante-diluvian earth , in words more determinate than these are ; let us then in the same simplicity of heart , follow the words of scripture ; seeing this literal sence is not repugnant to nature , but , on the contrary , agreeable to it upon the strictest examination . and we cannot , without some violence , turn the words to any other sence . what tolerable interpretation can these admit of , if we do not allow the earth ones to have encompass'd and overspread the face of the waters ? to be founded upon the waters , to be establish'd upon the waters , to be extended upon the waters , what rational or satisfactory account can be given of these phrases and expressions from any thing we find in the present situation of the earth : or how can they be verified concerning it ? consult interpreters , ancient or modern , upon these two places : see if they answer your expectation , or answer the natural importance of the words , unless they acknowledge another form of the earth , than the present . because a rock hangs its ●ose over the sea , must the body of the earth be said to be stretched over the wàters ? or because there are waters in some subterraneous cavities , is the earth therefore founded upon the seas ? yet such lame explications as these you will meet with ; and while we have no better light , we must content our selves with them ; but when an explication is offer'd , that answers the propriety , force , and extent of the words , to reject it , onely because it is not fitted to our former opinions , or because we did not first think of it , is to take an ill method in expounding scripture . this foundation or establishment of the earth upon the seas , this extension of it above the waters , relates plainly to the body , or whole circuit of the earth , not to parcels and particles of it ; as appears from the occasion , and its being joyn'd with the heavens , the other part of the world. besides , david is speaking of the origin of the world , and of the divine power and wisdom in the construction and situation of our earth , and these attributes do not appear from the holes of the earth , and broken rocks ; which have rather the face of a ruin , than of wisdom ; but in that wonderful libration and expansion of the first earth over the face of the waters , sustained by its own proportions , and the hand of his providence . these two places in the psalms being duly consider'd , we shall more easily understand a third place , to the same effect , in the proverbs ; delivered by wisdom , concerning the origin of the world , and the form of the first earth , in these words , chap. . . when he prepared the heavens i was there , when he set an orb or sphere upon the face of the abyss . we render it , when we set a compass upon the face of the abyss ; but if we have rightly interpreted the prophet david , 't is plain enough what compass is here to be understood ; not an imaginary circle , ( for why should that be thought one of the wonderful works of god ) but that exterior orb of the earth that was set upon the waters . that was the master-piece of the divine art in framing of the first earth , and therefore very fit to be taken notice of by wisdom . and upon this occasion , i desire you to reflect upon st. peter's expression , concerning the first earth , and to compare it with solomon's , to see if they do not answer one another . st. peter calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an earth consisting , standing , or sustained by the waters . and solomon calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an orb drawn upon the face of the abyss . and st. peter says , that was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the wisdom of god : which is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdom , that here declares her self , to have been present at this work . add now to these two places , the two foremention'd out of the psalmist ; an earth founded upon the seas , ( psal. . . ) and an earth stretched out above the waters : ( psal. . . ) can any body doubt or question , but all these four texts refer to the same thing ? and seeing st. peter's description refers ●●rtainly to the ante-diluvian earth , they must all refer to it ; and do all as certainly and evidently agree with our theory concerning the form and situation of it . the pendulous form and posture of that first earth being prov'd from these four places , 't is more easie and emphatical to interpret in this sence that passage in iob ch . . . he stretcheth ●ut the north over the tohu , ( for so it is in the original ) and hangeth the earth upon nothing . and this strange foundation or no foundation of the exteriour earth seems to be the ground of those noble questions propos'd to iob by god almighty , ch. . where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding . whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned , and who laid the corner-stone ? there was neither foundation , nor corner-stone , in that piece of architecture ; and that was it which made the art and wonder of it . but i have spoken more largely to these places in the theory it self . and if the four texts before-mentioned be consider'd without prejudice , i think there are few matters of natural speculation that can be so well prov'd out of scripture , as the form which we have given to the ante-diluvian earth . but yet it may be thought a just , if not a necessary appendix to this discourse , concerning the form of the ante-diluvian earth , to give an account also of the ante-diluvian abyss , and the situation of it according to scripture ; for the relation which these two have to one another , will be a further means to discover if we have rightly determin'd the form of that earth . the abyss or tehom-rabbah is a scripture notion , and the word is not us'd , that i know of , in that distinct and peculiar sence in heathen authors . 't is plain that in scripture it is not always taken for the sea ( as gen. . . & . . & . . deut. . . iob . . & . . psal. . . & . & . . & . . apoc. . . . ) but for some other mass of waters , or subterraneous store-house . and this being observ'd , we may easily discover the nature , and set down the history of the scripture-abyss . the mother-abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of genesis , v. . which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it , or a thick caliginous air . the next news we hear of this abyss is at the deluge , ( gen. . . ) where 't is said to be broke open , and the waters of it to have drowned the world. it seems then this abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the creation and the deluge , and had got another cover than that of darkness . and if we will believe wisdom , ( prov. . . ) who was there present at the formation of the earth , an orb was set upon the face of the abyss at the beginning of the world. that these three places refer to the same abyss , i think , cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them . that of the deluge , moses calls there tehom-rabbah , the great abyss ; and can there be any greater than the forementioned mother-abyss ? and wisdome , in that place in the proverbs , useth the same phrase and words with moses , gen. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ upon the face of the deep or of the abyss ▪ chang●ng darkness for that orb of the exteriour earth which was made afterwards to inclose it . and in th●s vault it lay , and under this cover , when the psalmist speaks of it in these words ( psal. . . he gathereth the waters of the sea , as in a * bag ; he layeth up the abyss in store-houses . lastly , we may observe that 't was this mother-abyss whose womb was burst at the deluge , when the sea was born , and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb ; as god expresseth it to iob , ch . . . in which place the chaldee paraphrase reads it , when it broke forth , coming out of the abyss . which disruption at the deluge seems also to be alluded to iob . , . and more plainly , prov. . . by his knowledge the abysses are broken up . thus you have already a threefold state of the abyss , which makes a short history of it ; first , open , at the beginning ; then covered , till the deluge . then broke open again , as it is at present . and we pursue the history of it no further ; but we are told , apoc. . . that it shall be shut up again , and the great dragon in it , for a thousand years . in the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the ante diluvian abyss , how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the ante-diluvian earth which st. peter and the psalmist had describ'd , sustain'd by the waters ; founded upon the waters ; stretcht above the waters ; for if it was the cover of this abyss ( and it had some cover that was broke at the deluge ) it was spread as a crust or ice upon the face of those waters , and so made an orbis terrarum , an habitable sphere of earth about the abyss . so much for the form of the ante-diluvian earth and abyss ; which as they aptly correspond to one another , so , you see , our theory answers and is adjusted to both ; and , i think , so fitly , that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it , according to scripture . we have dispatch'd the two main points in question , first , to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural worlds , or betwixt the heavens and the earth before and after the flood . secondly , to prove wherein this diversity consisted ; or that the particular form of the ante-diluvian heavens and earth was such according to scripture , as we have describ'd it in the theory . you 'l say , then the work is done , what needs more , all the rest follows of course ; for if the antediluvian earth had such a ●orm as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had , there could be no deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame : and a deluge so made , would not be in the nature of a standing pool , but of a violent agitation and commotion of the waters . this is true ; these parts of the theory are so cemented , that you must grant all , if you grant any . however we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of scripture ; that is , if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the spirit of god , of such a fraction or dissolution of the earth at the deluge . and also such characters of the deluge it self , as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the waters . to proceed then ; that there was a fraction or dissolution of the earth at the deluge , the history of it by moses gives us the first account , seeing he tells us , as the principol cause of the flood , that the fountains of the great abyss were cloven or burst asunder ; and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the earth , as from the widen'd mouths of so many fountains . i do not take fountains there to signifie any more than sources or stores of water ; noting also this manner of their eruption from below , or out of the ground , as fountains do . accordingly in the proverbs , ( chap. . . ) 't is only said , the abysses were broken open . i do not doubt but this refers to the deluge , as bede , and others understand it ; the very word being us'd here , both in the hebrew and septuagint , that express'd the disruption of the abyss at the deluge . and this breaking up of the earth at that time , is elegantly exprest in iob , by the bursting of the womb of nature , when the sea was first brought to light ; when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body , nature was delivered of a burthen which she had born in her womb sixteen hundred years . these three places i take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the earth , or of the abyss , at the universal deluge . and to these we may add more out of the prophets , iob , and the psalms , by way of allusion ( commonly ) to the state of nature at that time . the prophet isaiah in describing the future destruction of the world , chap. . , . seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the deluge ; as appears by that leading expression , the windows from an high are open , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , taken manifestly from gen. . . then see how the description goes on , the windows from an high are open , and the foundations of the earth do shake . the earth is utterly broken down , the earth is quite dissolv'd , the earth is exceedingly moved . here are concussions , and fractions , and dissolutions , as there were in the mundane earth-quake and deluge ; which we had exprest before only by breaking open the abyss . by the foundations of the earth here and elsewhere , i perceive many understand the centre ; so by moving or shaking the foundations , or putting them out of course , must be understood a displacing of the centre ; which was really done at the deluge , as we have shewn in its proper place . if we therefore remember that there was both a dislocation , as i may so say ; and a fraction in the body of the earth , by that great fall ; a dislocation as to the centre , and a fraction as to the surface and exterior region , it will truly answer to all those expressions in the prophet , that seem so strange and extraordinary . t is true , this place of the prophet respects also and foretels the future destruction of the world ; but that being by fire , when the elements shall melt with fervent heat , and the earth with the works therein shall be burnt up , these expressions of fractions and concussions , seem to be taken originally from the manner of the world's first destruction , and to be transferr'd , by way of application , to represent and signifie the second destruction of it , though , it may be , not with the same exactness and propriety . there are several other places that refer to the dissolution and subversion of the earth at the deluge : amos . , . the lord of hosts is he that toucheth the earth , and it shall melt , or be dissolv'd — and it shall rise up wholly like a flood , and shall be drowned as by the flood of egypt . by this and by the next verse the prophet seems to allude to the deluge , and to the dissolution of the earth that was then . this in iob seems to be call'd breaking down the earth , and overturning the earth , chap. . , . behold he breaketh down and it cannot be built again , he sh●●teth upon man , and there can be no opening . behold , he witholdeth the waters , and they dry up ; also he ●endeth them out , and they overturn the earth : which place you may see paraphras'd , theor. book . p. , . we have already cited , and shall hereafter cite , other places out of iob ; and as that ancient author ( who is thought to have liv'd before the judaical oeconoray , and nearer to noah than moses ) seems to have had the praecept a noachidarum , so also he seems to have had the dogmata noachidarum ; which were deliver'd by noah to his children and posterity , concerning the mysteries of natural providence , the origine and fate of the world , the deluge and ante-diluvian state , &c. and accordingly we find many strictures of these doctrines in the book of iob. lastly , in the psalms there are texts that mention the shaking of the earth , and the foundations of the world , in reference to the flood , if we judge aright ; whereof we will speak under the next head , concerning the raging of the waters in the deluge . these places of scripture may be noted , as left us to be remembrancers of that general ruine and disruption of the earth at the time of the deluge . but i know it will be said of them , that they are not strict proofs , but allusions only . be it so ; yet what is the ground of those allusions ? something must be alluded to , and something that hath past in nature , and that is recorded in sacred history ; and what is that , unless it be the universal deluge , and that change and disturbance that was then in all nature . if others say , that these and such like places are to be understood morally and allegorically , i do not envy them their interpretations ; but when nature and reason will bear a literal sence , the rule is , that we should not recede from the letter . but i leave these things to every one's thoughts ; which the more calm they are , and the more impartial , the more easily they will feel the impressions of truth . in the mean time , i proceed to the last particular mention'd , the form of the deluge it self . this we suppose to have been not in the way of a standing pool , the waters making an equal surface , and an equal heighth every where ; but that the extreme heighth of the waters was made by the extreme agitation of them ; caus'd by the weight and force of great masses or regions of earth falling at once into the abyss ; by which means , as the waters in some places were prest out , and thrown at an excessive height into the air , so they would also in certain places gape , and lay bare even the bottom of the abyss ; which would look as an open grave ready to swallow up the earth , and all it bore . whilst the ark , in the mean time , falling and rising by these gulphs and precipices , sometimes above water , and sometimes under , was a true type of the state of the church in this world ; and to this time and state david alludes in the name of the church , psal. . . abyss calls unto abyss at the noise of thy cataracts or water-spouts ; all thy waves and billows have gone over me . and again , psal. . , . in the name of the church , therefore will not we fear , tho' the earth be removed , and tho' the mountains be carried into the midst of the seas . the waters thereof roar and are troubled , the mountains shake with the swelling thereof . but there is no description more remarkable or more eloquent , than of that scene of things represented , psal. . , , , &c. which still alludes , in my opinion , to the deluge-scene , and in the name of the church . we will set down the words at large . ver. . in my distress i called upon the lord , and cryed unto my god ; he heard my voice out of his temple , and my cry came before him into his ears . . then the earth shook and trembled , the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken , because he was wroth . . there went up a smoke from his nostrils , and fire out of his mouth devoured ; coals were kindled by it . . he bowed the heavens also and came down , and darkness was under his feet . . and he rode upon a cherub and did flie , he did flie upon the wings of the wind . . he made darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skie . . at the brightness before him the thick clouds passed , hail and coals of fire . . the lord also thunder'd in the heavens , and the highest gave his voice , hail and coals of fire . . yea , he sent out his arrows , and scatter'd them : and he shot out lightnings and discoinfited them . . then the chanels of waters were seen , and the foundations of the world were discovered ; at thy rebuke , o lord , at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils . he sent from above , he took me ; he drew me out of great waters . this i think is a rough* draught of the face of the heavens and the earth at the deluge , as the last verses do intimate ; and 't is apply'd to express the dangers and deliverances of the church : the expressions are far too high to be applyed to david in his person , and to his deliverance from saul ; no such agonies or disorders of nature as are here instanc'd in , were made in david ▪ s time , or upon his account ; but 't is a scheme of the church , and of her fate , particularly , as represented by the ark , in that dismal distress , when all nature was in confusion . and though there may be some things here intermixt to make up the scene , that are not so close to the subject as the rest , or that may be referr'd to the future destruction of the world : yet that is not unusual , nor amiss , in such descriptions , if the great strokes be fit and rightly plac'd . that there was smoke , and fire , and water , and thunder , and darkness , and winds , and earth-quakes at the deluge , we cannot doubt , if we consider the circumstances of it ; waters dash'd and broken make a smoke and darkness , and no hurricano could be so violent as the motions of the air at that time ; then the earth was torn in pieces , and its foundations shaken ; and as to thunder and lightning , the encounters and collisions of the mighty waves , and the cracks of a falling world , would make flashes and noises , far greater and more terrible , than any that can come from vapours and clouds . there was an universal tempest , a conflict and clashing of all the elements ; and david seems to have represented it so ; with god almighty in the midst of it , ruling them all . but i am apt to think some will say , all this is poetical in the prophet , and these are hyperbolical and figurate expressions , from which we cannot make any inference , as to the deluge and the natural world. 't is true , those that have no idea of the deluge , that will answer to such a scene of things , as is here represented , must give such a slight account of this psalm . but on the other hand , if we have already an idea of the deluge that is rational , and also consonant to scripture upon other proofs , and the description here made by the prophet answer to that idea , whether then is it not more reasonable to think that it stands upon that ground , than to think it a meer fancy and poetical scene of things : this is the true state of the case , and that which we must judge of . methinks 't is very harsh to suppose all this a bare fiction , grounded upon no matter of fact , upon no sacred story , upon no appearance of god in nature . if you say it hath a moral signification , so let it have , we do not destroy that ; it hath reference no doubt , to the dangers and deliverances of the church ; but the question is , whether the words and natural sence be a fancy only , a bundle of randome hyperboles : or whether they relate to the history of the deluge , and the state of the ark there representing the church . this makes the sence doubly rich , historically and morally ; and grounds it upon scripture and reason , as well as upon fancy . that violent eruption of the sea out of the womb of the earth , which iob speaks of , is , in my judgment , another description of the deluge ; 't is chap. . , , , . who shut up the sea with doors , when it broke forth , as if it had issued out of a womb ; when i made the eloud the garment thereof , and thick darkness a swadling band for it . and broke up for it my decreed place — hitherto shalt thou come , &c. here you see the birth and nativity of the sea , or of oceanus , describ'd * ; how he broke out of the womb , and what his first garment and swadling cloaths were ; namely clouds and thick darkness . this cannot refer to any thing , that i know of , but to the face of nature at the deluge ; when the sea was born , and wrapt up in clouds and broken waves , and a dark impenetrable mist round the body of the earth . and this seems to be the very same that david had exprest in his description of the deluge , psal. . . he made darkness his secret place his pavilion round about him were d●rk waters and thick clouds of the skies . for this was truly the face of the world in the time of the flood , tho' we little reflect upon it . and this dark confusion every where , above and below , arose from the violent and confus'd motion of the abyss ; which was dasht in pieces by the falling earth , and flew into the air in misty drops , as dust flies up in a great ruin . but i am afraid , we have stayed too long upon this particular , the form of the deluge ; seeing 'tis but a corollary from the precedent article about the dissolution of the earth . however time is not ill spent about any thing that relates to natural providence , whereof the two most signal instances in our sacred writings , are , the deluge and the conflagration . and seeing iob and david do often reflect upon the works of god in the external creation , and upon the administrations of providence , it cannot be imagin'd that they should never reflect upon the deluge ; the most remarkable change of nature that ever hath been , and the most remarkable judgment upon mankind . and if they have reflected upon it any where , 't is , i think , in those places and those instances which i have noted ; and if those places do relate to the deluge , they are not capable , in my judgment , of any fairer or more natural interpretation than that which we have given them ; which , you see , how much it favours and confirms our theory . i have now finisht the heads i undertook to prove , that i might shew our theory to agree with scripture in these three principal points ; first , in that it supposeth a diversity and difference betwixt the ante-diluvian heavens and earth , and the present heavens and earth . secondly , in assigning the particular form of the ante-diluvian earth and abyss . thirdly , in explaining the deluge by a dissolution of that earth , and an eruption of the abyss . how far i have succeeded in this attempt , as to others , i cannot tell ; but i am sure i have convinc'd my self , and am satisfied that my thoughts , in that theory , have run in the same tract with the holy writings : with the true intent and spirit of them . there are some persons that are wilfully ignorant in certain things , and others that are willing to be ignorant as the apostle phraseth it ; speaking of those eternalists that denied the doctrine of the change and revolutions of the natural world : and 't is not to be expected but there are many still of the same humour ; and therefore may be called willingly ignorant , that is , they will not use that pains and attention that is necessary for the examination of such a doctrine , nor impartiality in judging after examination ; they greedily lay hold on all evidence on one side , and willingly forget , or slightly pass over , all evidence for the other ; this i think is the character of those that are willingly ignorant ; for i do not take it to be so deep as a down-right wilful ignorance , where they are plainly conscious to themselves of that wilfulness ; but where an insensible mixture of humane passions inclines them one way , and makes them averse to the other ; and in that method draws on all the consequences of a willing ignorance . there remains still , as i remember , one proposition that i am bound to make good ; i said at first , that our hypothesis concerning the deluge was more agreeable not only to scripture in general , but also to the particular history of the flood left us by moses ; i say , more agreeable to it than any other hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd . this may be made good in a few words . for in moses's history of the deluge there are two principal points , the extent of the deluge , and the causes of it ; and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred author . as to the extent of it , he makes the deluge universal ; all the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd fifteen cubits upwards ; we also make it universal , over the face of the whole earth ; and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest hills every where . as to the canses of it , moses makes them to be the disruption of the abyss , and the rains ; and no more ; and in this also we exactly agree with him ; we know no other causes , nor pretend to any other but those two . distinguishing therefore moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it , it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it , and that an hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two , differs from it more than ours ; which , at the worst , can but differ in matter of circumstance . now seeing the great difficulty about the deluge is the quantity of water required for it , there have been two explications proposed , besides ours , to remove or satisfie this difficulty ; one whereof makes the deluge not to have been universal , or to have reacht only iudea and some neighbouring countries ; and therefore less water would suffice ; the other owning the deluge to be universal , supplies it self with water from the divine omnipotenty , and says new waters were created then for the nonce , and again annihilated when the deluge was to cease . both these explications you see , ( and i know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions ) differ from moses in the substance , or in one of the two substantial points , and consequently more than ours doth . the first changeth the flood into a kind of national inundation , and the second assigns other causes of it than moses had assigned . and as they both differ apparently from the mosaical history , so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also , in the third chapter of the first book of the theory . this may be sufficient as to the history of the flood by moses . but possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from moses his six-days creation in the first chapter of genesis : where another sort of earth , than what we have form'd from the chaos , is represented to us ; namely , a terraqueous globe , such as our earth is at present . 't is indeed very apparent , that moses hath accommodated his six days creation to the present form of the earth , or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ . but it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true physical account of the origine of the earth : or whether moses did either philosophize or astronomize in that description . the ancient fathers , when they answer the heathens , and the adversaries of christianity , do generally deny it ; as i am ready to make good upon another occasion . and the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the world. those that think otherwise , and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it , i desire them , without entring upon the strict merits of the cause , to determine these preliminaries . first , whether the whole universe rise from a terrestrial chaos . secondly , what systeme of the world this six-days creation proceeds upon : whether it supposes the earth , or the sun , for the center . thirdly , whether the sun and fixt stars are of a later date , and a later birth , than this globe of earth . and lastly , where is the region of the super-celestial waters . when they have determin'd these fundamentals , we will proceed to other observations upon the six-days work , which will further assure us , that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people , and not to the strict and physical nature of things . besides , we are to remember , that moses must be so interpreted in the first chapter of genesis , as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his history ; nor to interfere with s. peter , or the prophet david , or any other sacred authors , when they treat of the same matter . nor lastly , so , as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested science . for , in things that concern the natural world , that must always be consulted . with these precautions , let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the origine of the world , to physical truth ; so as to be consistent , both with nature , and with divine revelation every where . it is easily reconcileable to both , if we suppose it writ in a vulgar style , and to the conceptions of the people : and we cannot deny that a vulgar style is often made use of in the holy writings . how freely and unconcernedly does scripture speak of god almighty , according to the opinions of the vulgar ? of his passions , local motions , parts and members of his body . which all are things that do not belong , or are not compatible with the divine nature , according to truth and science . and if this liberty be taken , as to god himself , much more may it be taken as to his works . and accordingly we see , what motion the scripture gives to the sun : what figure to the earth : what figure to the heavens : all according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity ; without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth . this vulgar style of scripture in describing the natures of things , hath been often mistaken for the real sence , and so become a stumbling-block in the way of truth . thus the anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of god , from the letter of scripture ; and brought many express texts for their purpose : but sound reason at length , got the upper hand of literal authority . then , several of the christian fathers contended , that there were no antipodes : and made that doctrine irreconcileable to scripture . but this also , after a while , went off , and yielded to reason and experience . then , the motion of the earth must by no means be allow'd , as being contrary to scripture : for so it is indeed , according to the letter and vulgar style . but all intelligent persons see thorough this argument , and depend upon it no more in this case , than in the former . lastly , the original of the earth from a chaos , drawn according to the rules of physiology , will not be admitted : because it does not agree with the scheme of the six-days creation . but why may not this be writ in a vulgar style , as well as the rest ? certainly there can be nothing more like a vulgar style , than to set god to work by the day , and in six-days to finish his task : as he is there represented . we may therefore probably hope that all these disguises of truth will at length fall off , and that we shall see god and his works in a pure and naked light. thus i have finish'd what i had to say in confirmation of this theory from scripture . i mean of the former part of it , which depends chiefly upon the deluge , and the ante-diluvian earth . when you have collated the places of scripture , on either side , and laid them in the balance , to be weigh'd one against another ; if you do but find them equal , or near to an equal poise , you know in whether scale the natural reasons are to be laid : and of what weight they ought to be in an argument of this kind . there is a great difference betwixt scripture with philosophy on its side , and scripture with philosophy against it : when the question is concerning the natural world. and this is our case : which i leave now to the consideration of the unprejudic'd reader : and proceed to the proof of the second part of the theory . the later part consists of the conflagration of the world , and the new heavens and new earth . and seeing there is no dispute concerning the former of these two , our task will now lie in a little compass . being only this , to prove that there will be new heavens , and a new earth , after the conflagration . this , to my mind , is sufficiently done already , in the first , second and third chapters of the th . book , both from scripture and antiquity , whether sacred or prophane : and therefore , at present , we will only make a short and easie review of scripture-testimonies , with design chiefly to obviate and disappoint the evasions of such , as would beat down solid texts into thin metaphors and allegories . the testimonies scripture concerning the renovation of the world , are either express , ●implicit . those i call express , that mention the new heavens and ●ew earth : and those implicit that signifie the same thing , but r●● express terms . so when our saviour speaks of a palingenesia , 〈◊〉 regeneration , ( matt. . , . ) or s. peter of an apocatastas● or restitution , ( act. . . ) these being words us'd by all auth●rs , prophane or ecclesiastical , for the renovation of the world , ●●ght , in reason , to be interpreted in the same sence in the holy w●●tings . and in like manner , when s. paul speaks of his future ea●●h , or an habitable world to come , hebr. . . or of a redemption or ●●lioration of the present state of nature , rom. . , . these lead 〈◊〉 again , in other terms , to the same renovation of the world. ●●t there are also some places of scripture , that set the heavens●●d ●●d new earth in such a full and open view , that we must shut our●●yes not to see them . s. iohn says , he saw them , and observ'd the f●●m of the new earth , apoc. . . the seer isaiah spoke of then● in express words , many hundred years before . and s. peter mar●● the time when they are to be introduc'd , namely , after the co●●lagration , or after the dissolution of the present heavens and ea●●h : pet. . , . these lat●●r texts of scripture , being so express , there is but one way left to ●●lude the force of them ; and that is , by turning the renovation 〈◊〉 the world into an allegory : and making the new heavens and ●ew earth to be allegorical heavens and earth , not real and mate●●al , as ours are . this is a bold attempt of some modern authors , ●ho chuse rather to strain the word of god , than their own no●●ons . there are allegories , no doubt , in scripture , but we are not 〈◊〉 allegorize scripture without some warrant : either from an apo●olical interpretation , or from the necessity of the matter : and i d● not know how they can pretend to either of these , in this case . ●owever , that they may have all fair play , we will lay aside , at pres●nt , all the other texts of scripture , and confine our selves wholly to s. peter's words : to see and examine whether they are , or can ●e turn'd into an allegory , according to the best rules of interpre●ation . s. ●eter's words are these : seeing then all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought ye to be , in holy conversation and godli●●ss ? looking for , and hasting the coming of the day of god : wher●in the heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd , and the elements shall melt with servent heat . nevertheless , we , according 〈◊〉 his promise , look for new heavens and a new earth , wherein rig●●eousness shall dwell . the question is concerning this last verse , whe●her the new heavens and earth here promis'd , are to be real and ma●●rial heavens and earth , or only figurative and allegorical . the wo●ds , you see , are clear : and the general rule of interpretation is thi● , that we are not to recede from the letter , or the literal sence , un●ess there be a necessity from the subject matter ; such a necessity , as makes a literal interpretation absurd . but where is that necessity in this case ? cannot god make new heavens and a new earth , as ●easily as he made the old ones : is his strength decay'd since that time , or is matter grown more disobedient ? 〈◊〉 does not nature offer her self voluntarily to raise a new wor●● from the second chaos , as well as from the first : and , under th● conduct of providence , to make it as convenient an habitation as 〈◊〉 primaeval earth ? therefore no necessity can be pretended of leavin● the literal sence , upon an incapacity of the subject matter . the second rule to determine an interpretatio● to be literal or allegorical , is , the use of the same words or phra●● in the context , and the signification of them there . let 's then exa●ine our case according to this rule , s. peter had us'd the same p●ase of heavens and earth twice before in the same chapter . the 〈◊〉 heavens and earth , ver . . the present heavens and earth , ver . . and now he uses it again , ver . . the new heavens and earth . have we not then reason to suppose , that he takes it here in the s●me sence , that he had done twice before , for real and material hea●●ns and earth ? there is no mark set of a new signification , nor wh● we should alter the sence of the words . that he us'd them alw●ys before for the material heavens and earth , i think none will ●uestion ; and therefore , unless they can give us a sufficient reason , w●y we should change the signification of the words , we are bound , 〈◊〉 this second rule also , to understand them in a literal sence . lastly , the very form of the words , and the manne● of their dependance upon the context , leads us to a literal sence , ●nd to material heavens and earth . nevertheless , says ●he apostle , we expect new heavens , &c. why nevertheless ! that is , no●●ithstanding the dissolution of the present heavens and earth . t●e apostle foresaw , what he had said , might raise a doubt in their m●●ds , whether all things would not be at an end : nothing more o● heavens and earth , or of any habitable world , after the conf●●gration ; and to obviate this , he tells them , notwithstanding that w●nderful desolation that i have describ'd , we do , according to god's ●●mises , expect new heavens and a new earth , to be an habitatio● for the righteous . you see then the new heavens and new earth , which the ●postle speaks of are substituted in the place of those that were dest●●y'd at the conflagration ; and would you substitute allegorical h●avens and earth in the place of material ? a shadow for a subs●●nce ? what 〈◊〉 equivocation would it be in the apostle , when the ●oubt was about the material heavens and earth , to make an answer ●bout allegorical . lastly , the timeing of the thing determines the 〈◊〉 when shall this new world appear ? after the conflagration : the apostle says : therefore it cannot be understood of any moral r●novation , to be made at , or in the times of the gospel , as these ●●llegorists pretend . we must therefore , upon all accounts , con●●de , that the apostle intended a literal sence : real and material heav●ns , to succeed these after the conflagration ; which was the thing to be prov'd . and i know not what bars the spirit of god can set , to keep us within the compass of a literal sence , if these be not su●ficient . thus much for the explication of s. peter's doctrine , concerni●g the new heavens and new earth : which secures the second pa●t of our theory . for the theory stands upon two pillars , or two pedestals , the ante-diluvian earth and the future earth : or , in s. peter's phrase , the old heavens and earth , and the new heavens and earth : and it cannot be shaken , so long as these two continue firm and immoveable . we might now put an end to this review , but it may be expected possibly that we should say something concerning the millennium : which we have , contrary to the general sentiment of the modern millenaries , plac'd in the future earth . our opinion hath this advantage above others , that , all fanatical pretensions to power and empire in this world , are , by these means , blown away , as chaff before the wind . princes need not fear to be dethron'd , to make way to the saints : nor governments unhing'd , that they may rule the world with a rod of iron . these are the effects of a wild enthusiasm ; seeing the very state which they aim at , is not to be upon this earth . but that our sence may not be mistaken or misapprehended in this particular , as if we thought the christian church would never , upon this earth , be in a better and happier posture than it is in at present : we must distinguish betwixt a melioration of the world , if you will allow that word : and a millennium . we do not deny a reformation and improvement of the church , both as to peace , purity , and piety . that knowledge may increase , mens minds be enlarg'd , and christian religion better understood : that the power of antichrist shall be diminish'd , persecution cease , liberty of conscience allow'd , amongst the reformed : and a greater union and harmony establish'd . that princes will mind the publick good , more than they do now ; and be themselves better examples of vertue and true piety . all this may be , and i hope will be , e're long . but the apocalyptical millennium , or the new ierusalem , is still another matter . it differs not in degree only from the present state , but is a new order of things : both in the moral world and in the natural ; and that cannot be till we come into the new heavens and new earth . suppose what reformation you can in this world , there will still remain many things inconsistent with the true millennial state . antichrist , tho' weakned , will not be finally destroy'd till the coming of our saviour , nor satan bound . and there will be always poverty , wars , diseases , knaves and hypocrites , in this world : which are not consistent with the new ierusalem , as s. iohn describes it . apoc. . , , , &c. you see now what our notion is of the millennium , as we deny this earth to be the seat of it . 't is the state that succeeds the first resurrection , when satan is lockt up in the bottomless pit . the state when the martyrs are to return into life , and wherein they are to have the first lot and chief share . a state which is to last a thousand years . and blessed and holy is he , that hath a part in it : on such the second death hath no power , but they shall be priests of god and christ , and shall reign with him a thousand years . if you would see more particular reasons of our judgment in this case , why such a millennium is not to be expected in this world : they are set down in the th . chapt. of the th . book , and we do not think it necessary that they should be here repeated . as to that dissertation that follows the millennium , and reaches to the consummation of all things , seeing it is but problematical , we leave it to stand or fall by the evidence already given . and should be very glad to see the conjectures of others , more learned , in speculations so abstruse and remote from common knowledge . they cannot surely be thought unworthy or unfit for our meditations , seeing they are suggested to us by scripture it self . and to what end were they propos'd to us there , if it was not intended that they should be understood , sooner or later ? i have done with this review : and shall only add one or two reflections upon the whole discourse , and so conclude . you have seen the state of the theory of the earth , as to the matter , form , and proofs of it : both natural and sacred . if any one will substitute a better in its place , i shall think my self more obliged to him , than if he had shew'd me the quadrature of the circle . but it is not enough to pick quarrels here and there : that may be done by any writing , especially when it is of so great extent and comprehension . they must build up , as well as pull down ; and give us another theory instead of this , fitted to the same natural history of the earth , according as it is set down in scripture : and then let the world take their choice . he that cuts down a tree , is bound in reason to plant two , because there is an hazard in their growth and thriving . then as to those that are such rigorous scripturists , as to require plainly demonstrative and irresistible texts for every thing they entertain or believe ; they would do well to reflect and consider , whether , for every article in the three creeds ( which have no support from natural reason ) they can bring such texts of scripture as they require of others : or a fai●er and juster evidence , all things consider'd , than we have done for the substance of this theory . we have not indeed said all that might be said , as to antiquity : that making no part in this review , and being capable still of great additions . but as to scripture and reason i have no more to add . those that are not satisfied with the proofs already produc'd upon these two heads , are under a fate , good or bad , which is not in my power to overcome . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e gen. ad lit . lib. . c. . plerumque accidit ut aliquid de terrâ , de coelo , de caeteris hujus mundi elementis , &c. cùm enim quenquam christianorum in eâre quam optimè nôrunt , errare deprehenderint , & vanam sententiam suam ex nostris libris asserere , quo pacto illis libris creditur● sunt de resurrectione mortuorum , & spe vitae aternae regnóque coelorum , quando de hi● rebus quas jam experiri vel indubitatis numeris percipere potuerun● , fallaciter putaverint esse conscriptos ? notes for div a -e cog. phys. mech . p. . at. feet in hours . auct . cat . in gen. . . pet. . . epist. c. , . mart. mart. plin. l. . c. . chap. . ver . , , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . prov. . . vid. fig. . p. . this orb is represented by the circle , and the abysse by the region . lib. . iob . , , , , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. fig. . & . pag. . & . * as at the aperture a. a. psal. . , , , . gen. . . ver . , , , . cap. . , . vid. st. austin in loc . psal. . vers . , . gen. . . p. . epist. . . esdr. . . chap. . ver . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iob . , , . apoc. . . . , , . . . apoc. . . isa. . . & chap. . . verse . verse . tell. theor. lib. . c. . bibl. lib. . dion . argonaut . l. . v. . iob . , . de leg. li. . gen. . mat. . . luk. . . vid. fig. p. . c. . & lib. . c. . geo. l. . sam. . , . ant. iud. l. . ch . . virgil. 〈◊〉 . . . ep. chap. . , . pag. . chap. . fig. . p. . ● ep. chap. . , . fig. . p. . de civ . dei lib. . c. . chap. . p. . notes for div a -e virgil. de grat. prim . hom . book . ch. . iew. ant. chap. . ps. . . call'd a psalm of moses . de civ . d. lib. . c. . lib. . iew. ant. chap. . epist. chap. . . isa. . luke . isa. . iudg. . epist. c. . . 〈…〉 〈…〉 ezek. . . civ . dei lib● . c. . * plin. l. . c. . strab. l. . ‖ hort. malabor . vol. . somn. scip. lib. . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de civ . dei lib. . c. . cont. marc. lib. . c. . c. . lib. . c. . see fig. . c. . see the lat. treat . lib. . c. . lib. . c. . book . . c. . solin . c. . com. in gen. c. . sum. theol. par . . tract . . q. * pag. . franciscus patricius , vir eruditione sat clarus , in quodam libello suo de antiquorum rhetoricâ , italico idiomate conscripto , ac venetiis impresso per franciscum senensem , dialogo primo satis lepidam narrationem habet , quam refert iulium strozzam à comite balthasare castilioneo audivisse , illum verò à philosopho quodam abyssi●o in hispania accepisse . narrabat ergo sapiens ille abyssinus in antiquissimis aethiopia annalibus descriptam esse historiam perditionis humani generis & disr●●tionis totius terrae . in mundi scilicet primordiis fuisse terram multo ●●●pliovem qu●m nunc est , ac coelo proximio●em , perfect● rotundam , sine montibus , ac vallibus , totam tamen intus cavernosam ad instar sponglae , hominesquè in illâ habitantes , ac aethere purissimo gaudentes , iucundum avum duxisse , terr● inarot● optimas fruges , & fructus ferente , cùm autem post diuturnum sacculorum fluxum homines superbia etati à priscâ ill● bonitate descivissent , deos iratos terram adeo validè concussisse , ut major illius pars intra proprias cave●nas decideri , atque hot pacto aquam in ●itebrosis ▪ recessibus ante conclusam , expressam violenter fuisse , atque ita fontes , ●●mra , lacus & mare ipsum ortum duxisse . eam vero terrae portionem quae intra has cavernas non decidisset , sed reliquî elatior stetisset , montium formam exhibuisse . insulas porrò & scopulos in medio mari nil aliud esse nisi segmenta terrae cavernosae ab illo totius terrenae molis praecipiti casu superstitis . de civ . dei lib. . dion . halic . ant. rom. lib. . tell. theor. lib. . c. . ibid. cap. . ibid. c. . , . vid. men. ben isr. de creat . probl . . lat. treat . lib. . c. . pet. . , , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . arist. see the lat. treat . lib. . c. . p. , , &c. see book . c. . at the end . psal. . . . iob . , . * book . chap. last , p. , &c. 〈…〉 notes for div a -e gen. . . iob . . cor. . . epist. . gen. . . pet. . . ecl. phys. l. . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. . ver. , , . ch. . . isa. . . c. . , . c. . . isa. . & . . rev. . . . pet. . . annus magnus . ep. . . cor. . . mal. . , . iust. mar. apol. . l. . nat. quaest. . c. . l. . hist. ind. epist. . de defec . orac. l. . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cor. . , . matt. . , , . thess. . , . ch . . . ver . , , , . ●nd ch . . , , . act. . . matt. . . cicer. de nat. d. l. . sen. nat. qu. l. . c. . chap. . symbolum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , phoenix . hor. apol. l. . c. . l. . c. , , . c. d. l. . c. . ch. . ch. . , . ioh. . . apoc. . . mat. . . apoc. c. . apoc. c. . ch . . . ch. . pet. . , . pet. . . . ver. . estius in l●c . rev. . . ▪ pet. . . psal. . . book . ch . , ● isa. . . lib. ● . psal. . . ver . , , . isa. . . dan. . , . thess. . . ch . , . gen. . . gen. . . ● thess. . , . isa. . . rev. . . dan. . . lib. . isa. . ▪ luk. . . pet. . , . isa. . , . & . , . nah. . . ps. . . pet. . . apoc. . . thess. . . ch . . . v. . & ver . . ch . . . dan. . , , . apoc. . . ch . . annal. sic. dec . . l. . c. . apoc. . , . ch . . . ch . . . ch . . , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch . . . apoc. . , . ch. . , , . ch. . , , . ch. . , , . ver. . matt. . . ch. . . heb. . . isa. . . matt. . , . act. . . & . , . apoc. . . heb. . . ep. . . matt. . . ch . . , , , . * 't is ill render'd in the english , cast down . pet. . . psal. . , , . psal. . deut. . . hebr. . . act. . . act. . , . isa. . . rev. . , . apoc. . . & . . luke . . pet. . , . gen. . sam. . . matt. . . isa. . ier. . lament . isa. . revel . . . epist. . . thess. . , . heb. ▪ . ] matt. . . & . , &c. ver. . thess. . , , . notes for div a -e joh. . . & . . & . & . . notes for div a -e apoc. . . ch. . act. . ver . . matt. . , . psal. . . ver. , , , . ch. . , . ver. . apoc. . , . ch. . & ch . . t' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 isa. . . ephes. . . ch . . . , . hebr. . . cor. ● . , &c. isa. . . apoc . . ap●c . . apoc. . . ver. . ver. . ver. ● . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lact. l. . c. . euseb. prap . ev. l. . c. . chap. . propos. ● . ver. , , , , . ver . . ver . . book . ch . . ch. . , , , . ch . . . ch . . . ch . . . ch . . . ch . . , . ch . . , . ch. . . ch. . . ch. . . ch. . , . ch. . . ch. . , . ch. . . ch. . . ch. . v. . ver. , . ver. . ch. . . ch. . . ch. . . mat. . . mat. . . dan. . . apoc. . . mat● . . . luk. . . isa. . ver. . ver. , &c. ps. . , , . apoc. . , . * isaiah ch . . ch . . ch . . , &c. ch . . ezekiel , ch . . ch . . hos. ch . . & ch . . ioel . . amos , ch . . obad. ver . , &c. mich. ch . . ch . . zeph. . , &c. hag. ch . . zac. . , &c. & ch . . , &c. & ch . . mal. ch . . ch . . iren. lib. . c. . dial. with tryphon the iew. de script . eccles . dogm . eccl. c. . de script . eccles . vide hieron . epist. . ad lucinium . book . propos. . eccles. hist. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. . . de vit . constan. apoc. . , ch. . . ch. . , . ch. . . apoc. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maimon . mor. nev. par . . c. . ch . . ● . propos. . 〈…〉 * li. . ch . , &c. (a) dial. cum tryph. (b) contra marc. (c) li. . (d) quaest. & respon . . apoc. . . psal. . & psal. . isa. . . ver. , &c. ver. , &c. ver. . isa. . , . apoc. . . psal. . psal. . apoc. . . ch . . . l. . c. . mat. . . act. . matt. . . luk. . . luk. . . act. . , ● . see mr. mede . apoc. . , . ch. . & . apoc. . , r●● . . . ver. . ver. . ver. . apoc. . . notes for div a -e cor. . apoc. . 〈…〉 theor. book . ch . , & . theor. book . chap. . pet. . there was a sect amongst the iews that held this perpetuity and immutability of nature ; and maimonides himself was of this principle , and gives the same reason for it with the scoffers here in the text , quod mundus reti●et & sequitur consuetudinem suam . and as to those of the iews that were aristoteleans , it was very suitable to their principles to hold the incortuptibility of the world , as their master did . vid. med. in loc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per quae . vulgat . quamobrem . beza . quâ de caus● , grot. nems interpretum reddidit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per quas ; subintelligendo aquas . hoc enim argumentationem apostolicam tolleret , supponeretque illussores illos ignorâsse quod olim fuerit 〈…〉 supponi non posse suprà o●tendimus . * this phrase or manner of speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not unusual in greek authors , and upon a like subject ; plato saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he that should translate plato , the world stands out of fire , water , &c. would be thought neither graecian , nor philosopher . the same phrase is us'd in reciting heraclitus his opinion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and also in thales his , which is still nearer to the subject , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which cicero renders , ex aquâ , dixit , constare omnia . so that it is easie to know the true importance of this phrase , and how ill it is render'd in the english , standing out of the water . book . c. . p. . whether you refer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . separately , to the heavens and the earth , or both to the earth , or both to both , it will make no great difference as to our interpretation . the●r . . book . c. . cap. . cap. . de . dier . creat . see theor. book . ch . . * i know some would make this place of no effect by rendering the hebrew particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta , by or near to ; so they would read it thus , he hath founded the earth by the sea-side , and establish'd it by the floods . what is there wonderful in this , that the shores should lie by the sea-side ; where could they lie else ? what reason or argument is this , why the earth should be the lord's ? the earth is the lord's , for he hath founded it near the seas , where is the consequence of this ? but if he founded it upon the seas which could not be done by any other hand but his , it shows both the workman and the master . and accordingly in that other place , psal. . . if you render it , he stretched out the earth near the waters . how is that one of god's great wonders ? as it is there represented to be . because in some few places this particle is render'd otherwise , where the sense will bear it , must we therefore render it so when we please , and where the sence will not bear it ? this being the most usual signification of it , and there being no other word that signifies above more frequently or determinately than this does ▪ why must it signifie otherwise in this place ? men will 〈◊〉 any way to get from under the force of a text , that does not suit to their own notions . book . p. . * this reading or translating is generally followed , ( theor. book . p. . ) though the english translation read on a heap , unsuitably to the matter and to the sence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch . ● . theor. book . p. , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see philo iudaeus his description of the deluge , both as to the commotions of the heavens , and the fractions of the earth . in his first treatise de abrahamo , mihi , p. . * uti comparatio praecedens , ver. , , . de ortu telluris , simitur ab aedificio , ita haec altera de ortu maris , sumitur à partu● & exhibetur oceanus , primùm , ut foetus inclusus in utero , dein ut erumpens & prodeuns , denique ut fasciis & primis suis pannis involutus . atque ex aperto terrae utero prorupit aquarum moles , ut proluvies illae , quam simul cum foetu profundere so●et puerpera . see theor. book . p. . 〈…〉 isa. . . pet. . , , . a short consideration of mr. erasmus warren's defence of his exceptions against the theory of the earth in a letter to a friend. burnet, thomas, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a short consideration of mr. erasmus warren's defence of his exceptions against the theory of the earth in a letter to a friend. burnet, thomas, ?- . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed by r. norton for walter kettilby ..., london : . page misprinted . reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. includes bibliographical references. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng warren, erasmus. -- a defence of the discourse concerning the earth before the flood. creation -- early works to . bible and science. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jennifer kietzman sampled and proofread - jennifer kietzman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a short consideration of mr erasmvs warren's defence of his exceptions against the theory of the earth . sir , i have read over mr. warren's defence of his exceptions against the theory of the earth : which , it may be , few will do after me ; as not having curiosity or patience enough , to read such a long pamphlet , of private or little use . such altercations as these , are to you , i believe , as they are to me , a sort of folly ; but the aggressor must answer for that , who makes the trouble inavoidable to the defendant . and 't is an unpleasant exercise : a kind of wild-goose-chase ; where he that leads must be followed , through all his extravagances . the author of this defence must pardon me , if i have less apprehensions both of his judgment and temper , than i had before . for , as he is too verbose and long-winded ever to make a close reasoner : so it was unexpected to me to find his style so captious and angry , as it is in this last paper . and the same strain continuing to the end , i was sorry to see that his bloud had been kept upon the fret , for so many months together , as the pamphlet was a-making . he might have made his work much shorter , without any loss to the sence . if he had left out his popular enlargements , juvenile excursions , stories and strains of country-rhetorick , ( whereof we shall give you some instances hereafter ) his book would have been reduc'd to half the compass . and if from that reduc'd half ; you take away again trifling altercations and pedantick repartees , the remainder would fall into the compass of a few pages . for my part , i am always apt to suspect a man that makes me a long answer : for the precise point to be spoken to , in a multitude of words is easily lost : and words are often multiplied for that very purpose . however if his humour be verbose , it might have been , at least , more easie and inoffensive : there having been no provocation given him in that kind . but let us guess , if you please , as well as we can , what it was in the late answer , that so much discomposed the excepter and altered his style . either it must be the words and language of that answer : or the sence of it , without respect to the language . as to the words , 't is true , he gives some instances of expressions offensive to him ; yet they are but three or four , and those methinks , not very high : tho' he calls them 〈◊〉 of passion ; they are these indiscreet , rude , injudicious , and uncharitable . these characters , it seems , are applyed to the excepter , in some part of the answer , upon occasion offer'd . and whether those occasions were just or no , i dare appeal to your judgement . as to the word rude , which seems the most harsh , i had said indeed , that he was rude to anaxagoras : and so he was , not to allow him to be a competent witness in matter of fact , whom all antiquity , sacred and prophane , hath represented to us as one of the greatest men amongst the ancients . i had also said in another place , that , a rude , and injudicious defence of scripture by railing and ill language , is the true way to lessen and disparage it . this i still justifie as true , and if he apply it to himself , much good may it do him . i do not remember that it is any where said that he was rude to the theorist ; if it be , 't is possibly upon occasion of his charging him with blasphemy , horrid blasphemy against the holy ghost , for saying , the earth was dissolv'd at the deluge . and i appeal to any man , whether this is not an uncharitable , and a rude charge . if a man had cursed god , or call'd our saviour an impostor , what could he have been charg'd with more , than blasphemy , horrid blasphemy ? and if the same things be charg'd upon a man , for saying , the earth was dissolv'd at the deluge , either all crimes and errors must be equal , or the change must be rude . but however it must be rude in the opinion of the theorist , who thinks this neither crime nor error . what says the defence of the exceptions to this ? it makes use of distinctions for mitigation of the censure : and says , it will indirectly , consequentially , or reductively , be of blasphemous importance . here blasphemy is changed into blasphemous importance , and horrid blasphemy into consequential , &c. but taking all these mitigations , it seems however , according to his theology , all errors in religion are blasphemy , or of blasphemous importance . for all errors in religion must be against scripture one way or other : at least consequentially , indirectly , or reductively : and all that are so , according to the doctrine of this author , must be blasphemy or of blasphemous importance . this is crude divinity , and the answer had reason to subjoyn what we cited before , that , a rude and injudicious defence of scripture , is the true way to lessen and disparage it . thus much for rude and uncharitable : as for the other two words , indiscreet and injudicious , i cannot easily be induc'd to make any apology for them . on the contrary , i 'm afraid , i shall have occasion to repeat these characters again , especially the latter of them , in the perusal of this pamphlet . however they do not look like brats of passion , as he calls them : but rather as cool and quiet judgments , made upon reasons and premises . i had forgot one expression more . the answer , it seems , somewhere calls the excepter a dabbler in philosophy , which he takes ill . but that he is a dabbler , both in philosophy and astronomy , i believe will evidently appear upon this second examination of the same passages upon which that character was grounded . we will therefore leave that to the trial , when we come to those passages again , in the following discourse . these , sir , as far as i remember , are the words and expressions which he hath taken notice of , as offensive to him , and effects of passion . but , methinks , these cannot be of force sufficient to put him so much out of humour , and change his style so much , as we find it to be in this last pamphlet . and therefore i am inclinable to believe , that 't is the sence rather , than the words or language of the answer , that hath had this effect upon him : and that some unhappy passages , that have expos'd his mistakes , were the true causes of these resentments . such passages i will guess at , as well as i can , and note them to you as they occur to my memory . but give me leave first , upon this occasion of his new way of writing , to distinguish and mind you of three sorts of arguing , which you may call , reasoning , wrangling , and scolding . in fair reasoning , regard is had to truth only , not to victory : let it fall on whether side it will. but in wrangling and scolding , 't is victory that is pursued and aim'd at in the first place , with little regard to truth . and if the contention be manag'd in civil terms , 't is but wrangling : if in uncivil , 't is scolding . i will not so far anticipate your judgment as to rank this arguer in any of the three orders : if you have patience to read over his pamphlet , you will best see how and where to set him in his proper place . we now proceed to those passages in the answer , which probably have most exasperated the author of the exceptions and the defence . in his exceptions he had said , the moon being present , or in her present place in the firmament , at the time of the chaos , she would certainly trouble and discompose it , as she does now the waters of the sea : and , by that means , hinder the formation of the earth . to this we answer'd , that the moon that was made the th . day , could not hinder the formation of the earth , which was made the d. day . this was a plain intelligible answer : and at the same time discover'd such a manifest blunder in the objection , as could not but give an uneasie thought to him that made it . however we must not deny , but that he makes some attempt to shift it off in his reply : for he says , the earth formed the d. day , was moses's earth , which the excepter contends for : but the earth he disputes against , is the theorist's , which could not be formed the d. day . he should have added , and therefore would be hinder'd by the moon : otherwise this takes off nothing . and now the question comes to a clear state : for when the excepter says , the moon would have hinder'd the formation of the earth , either he speaks upon moses's hypothesis , or upon the theorist's hypothesis . not upon the theorist's hypothesis , for the theorist does not suppose the moon present then . and if he speaks upon moses's hypothesis , the moon that was made the th . day , must have hinder'd the formation of the earth the d. day . so that the objection is a blunder upon either hypothesis . furthermore , whereas he suggests that the answerer makes use of moses's hypothesis to confute his adversary , but does not follow it himself : 't is so far true , that the theorist never said that moses's six-days creation was to be understood literally , but however it is justly urg'd against those that understand it literally , and they must not contradict that interpretation which they own and defend . so much for the moon , and this first passage , which i suppose was troublesome to our author . but he makes the same blunder , in another place , as to the sun. both the luminaries , it seems , stood in his way . in the th . chapter of his exceptions , he gives us a new hypothesis about the origin of mountains : which , in short , is this , that they were drawn or suckt out of the earth by the influence and instrumentality of the sun. whereas the sun was not made , according to moses , till the th . day , and the earth was form'd the d. day . 't is an unhappy thing to split twice upon the same rock , and upon a rock so visible . he that can but reckon to four , can tell whether the d. day , or th . day , came sooner . to cure this hypothesis about the origin of mountains , he takes great pains in his defence , and attempts to do it chiefly by help of a distinction : dividing mountains into maritime and inland . now 't is true , says he , these maritime mountains , and such as were made with the hollow of the sea , must rise when that was sunk or deprest : namely , the d. day . yet inland ones , he says , might be raised some earlier , and some later : and by the influence of the sun. this is a weak and vain attempt to defend his notion ; for , besides that this distinction of maritime and inland mountains , as arising from different causes , and at different times , is without any ground , either in scripture or reason : if their different origin was admitted , the sun 's extracting these inland mountains out of the earth , would still be absurd and incongruous upon other accounts . scripture , i say , makes no such distinction of mountains , made at different times and from different causes . this is plain , seeing moses does not mention mountains at all in his six-days creation : nor any where else , till the deluge . what authority have we then to make this distinction : or to suppose that all the great mountains of the earth were not made together ? besides , what length of time would you require , for the production of these inland mountains ? were they not all made within the six-days creation ? hear what moses says at the end of the th . day . thus the heavens and the earth were finished , and all the host of them . and on the th . day , god ended his work which he had made . now if the excepter say , that the mountains were all made within these six-days , we will not stand with him for a day or two : for that would make little difference as to the action of the sun. but if he will not confine their production to moses's six days , how does he keep to the mosaical hypothesis ? or how shall we know where he will stop , in his own way ? for if they were not made within the six days , for any thing he knows , they might not be made till the deluge ; seeing scripture no where mentions mountains before the flood . and as scripture makes no distinction of maritime and inland mountains , so neither hath this distinction any foundation in nature or reason . for there is no apparent or discernible difference betwixt maritime and inland mountains , nor any reason why they should be thought to proceed from different causes , or to be rais'd at different times . the maritime mountains are as rocky , as ruderous , and as irregular and various in their shape and posture , as the inland mountains . they have no distinctive characters , nor any different properties , internal or external : in their matter , form , or composition : that can give us any ground to believe , that they came from a different original . so that this distinction is meerly precarious , neither founded in scripture nor reason : but made for the nonce to serve a turn . besides , what bounds will you give to these maritime mountains ? are they distinguisht from inland mountains barely by their distance from the sea , or by some other character ? if barely by distance , tell us then how far from the sea do the maritime mountains reach , and where do the inland begin , and how shall we know the terminalis lapis ? especially in a continued chain of mountains , that reach from the sea many hundreds of miles inland : as the alpes from the ocean to pontus euxinus , and taurus , as he says , fifteen hundred miles in length , from the chinese ocean to the sea of pamphylia . in such an uninterrupted ridge of mountains , where do the land-mountains end , and the sea-mountains begin ? or what mark is there , whereby we may know that they are not all of the same race , or do not all spring from the same original ? such obvious enquiries as these , shew sufficiently , that the distinction is meerly arbitrary and fictitious . but suppose this distinction was admitted , and the maritime mountains made the d. day , but inland mountains i know not when : the great difficulty still remains , how the sun rear'd up these inland mountains afterwards . or if his power be sufficient for such effects , why have we not mountains made still to this day ? seeing our mountain-maker the sun is still in the firmament , and seems to be as busie at work , as ever . the defender hath made some answer to this question , in these words , the question is put , why have we no mountains made now ? it might as well have been askt , says he , why does not the fire make a dough-bak'd loaf swell and ●uff up ? and , he says , this answer must be satisfactory to the question propounded . it must be , that is , for want of a better : for otherwise this dowe-comparison is unsatisfactory upon many accounts . first , there was no ferment in the earth , as in this dowe-cake : at least it is not prov'd , or made appear , that there was any . nay , in the exceptions , when this hypothesis was propos'd , there was no mention at all made of any ferment or leaven in the earth : but the effect was wholly imputed to vapors and the sun. but to supply their defects , he now ventures to add the word fermentive , as he calls it . a fermentive , flatulent principle , which heav'd up the earth , as leaven does dowe . but , besides , that this is a meer groundless and gross postulatum , to suppose any such leaven in the earth ; if there had been such a principle , it would have swoln the whole mass uniformly , heav'd up the exterior region of the earth every where , and so not made mountains , but a swoln bloated globe . this sir , is a d . passage , which i thought might make the defender uneasie . we proceed now to a d. and th . in his geography and astronomy . in the th . chapter of his exceptions , speaking of the change of the situation of the earth , from a right posture to an oblique , he says , according to the theory , the ecliptick in the primitive earth , was its equinoctical now . this , he is told by the answer , is a great mistake ; namely , to think that the earth , when it chang'd its situation , chang'd its poles and circles . what is now reply'd to this ? he speaks against a change , says the defence , in the poles and circles of the earth ; a needless trouble , and occasion'd by his own oversight . for had he but lookt into the errata's , he might have seen there , that these parentheses , upon which he grounded what he says , should have been left out . so this is acknowledg'd an erratum , it seems , but an erratum typographicum ; not in the sence , but only in the parentheses , which , he says , should have been left out . let us then lay aside the parentheses , and the sentence stands thus , for under the ecliptick , which in the primitive situation of the earth , according to the theory , was its equinoctial : and divided the globe into two hemispheres , as the equator does now . the dry ground , &c. how does this alter or mend the sence ? it is not still as plainly affirm'd , as before , that , according to the theory , the ecliptick in the primitive earth was its equinoctial ? and the same thing is suppos'd throughout all this paragraph . and if he will own the truth , and give things their proper name ▪ 't is down-right ignorance or a gross mistake in the doctrine of the sphere , which he would first father upon the theory , and then upon the parentheses . and this leads me to a th . passage , much-what of the same nature , where he would have the earth to have been translated out of the aequator into the ecliptick , and to have chang'd the line of its motion about the sun , when it chang'd its situation . his words are these , so that in her annual motion about the sun , she , namely , the earth before her change of situation , was carried directly under the equinoctial . this is his mistake . the earth mov'd in the ecliptick , both before and after her change of situation : for the change was not made in the circle of her motion about the sun , but in her posture or inclination in the same circle . whereas he supposes that the shifted both posture , and also her circuit about the sun , as his words are in the next paragraph . but we shall have occasion to reflect upon this again in its proper place . we proceed now to another astronomical mistake . a th . passage , which probably might disquiet him , is his false argumentation at the end of the th . chap. concerning days and months . he says there , if the natural days were longer towards the flood , than at first : ( which no body however affirms ) fewer than thirty would have made a month : whereas the duration of the flood is computed by months consisting of thirty days a-piece : therefore , says he , they were no longer than ordinary . this argumentation the answer told him , was a meer paralogism , or a meer blunder . for days are days , whether they are longer or shorter : and scripture does not determine the length of the days . there are several pages spent in the defence , to get off this blunder : let 's here how he begins : tho' scripture does not limit or account for the length of days expresly , yet it does it implicitly , and withal very plainly and intelligibly . this is deny'd , and if he make this out , that scripture does very plainly and intelligibly determine the length of days at the deluge , and makes them equal with ours at present , then , i acknowledge , he hath remov'd the blunder : otherwise it stands the same , unmov'd and unmended . now observe how he makes this out ; for , says he , scripture gives us to understand , that days before the flood were of the same length that they are of now , by informing vs , that months and years , which were of the same length then , that they are of at present , were made up of the same number of days . here the blunder is still continued , or , at best , it is but transferr'd from days to months , or from months to years . he says , scripture informs us that months and years were of the same length then , that they are of at present . if he mean by the same length , the same number of days , he relapses into the old blunder , and we still require the length of those days . but if scripture informs us that the months and years at the flood , were of the same length that they are of now , according to any absolute and known measure , distinct from the number of days , then the blunder is sav'd . let 's see therefore by whether of these two ways he proves it in the next words , which are these , for how could there be just months in the year , at the time of the deluge : and days in each of those months , if days then had not consisted , as they do now , of hours a piece . we allow a day might then consist of hours , if the distinction of hours was so ancient . but what then , the question returns concerning the length of those hours as it was before concerning the length of the days : and this is either idem per idem , or the same error in another instance . if you put but hours in the place of days , the words of the answer have still the same force : twenty four hours were to go to a day , whether the hours were longer or shorter : and scripture does not determine the length of the hours . this , you see , is still the same case , and the same paralogism hangs upon both instances . but he goes on still in this false tract , in these words : and as providence hath so ordered nature , that days ( that depend upon its diurnal motion ) should be measur'd by circumgyrations of the earth . — so it hath taken care that each of these circumrotations should be performed in hours : and consequently that every day should be just so long that of them ( in way of round reckoning ) might compleat a month . admit all this , that days compleat a month . still if scripture hath not determin'd the length of those days , nor the slowness or swiftness of the circumgyrations that make them , it hath not determin'd to us the length of those months , nor of the years that depend upon them . this one would take to be very intelligible : yet he goes on still in the same maze , thus , but now had the circumgyrations of the earth grown more slow towards the deluge ( by such causes as the excepter suggested ) so as every day had consisted of hours , &c. but how so , i pray ? this is a wild step : why hours ? where does scripture say so : or where does the theorist say so ? we say the day consisted then as now of hours , whether the hours were longer or shorter : and that scripture hath not determin'd the length of those hours , nor consequently of those days , nor consequently of those months , nor consequently of those years . so , after all this a-do , we are just where we were at first , namely , that scripture not having determin'd the absolute length of any one , you cannot by that determine the length of any other . and by his shifting and multiplying instances , he does but absurda absurdis accumulare , ne perpluant . we offer'd before , in our answer , to give the excepter some light into his mistake : by distinguishing in these things , what is absolute from what is relative : the former whereof , cannot , under these or any such like circumstances , be determin'd by the latter . for instance ; a man hath ten children , and he will not say absolutely and determinately what portion he will give with any one of them : but he says , i will give my eldest child a tenth part more than my d , and my second a th . part more than my d , and my third an th . part more than my th ; and so downwards in proportion , to the youngest . not telling you , in any absolute sum , what money he will give the youngest , or any other : you cannot by this tell what portion the man will give with any of his children . i leave you to apply this , and proceed to a nearer instance , by comparing the measures of time and longitude . if you know how many inches make a foot , how many feet a pace , how many paces a mile , &c. you cannot by these numbers determine the absolute quantity of any one of the foresaid measures , but only their relative quantity as to one another . so if scripture had determin'd , of how many hours a day consisted : of how many days a month : of how many months a year : you could not by this alone determine the absolute duration or quantity of any one of these , nor whether they were longer or shorter than our present hours , days , months , or years . and therefore , i say still , as i said at first , days are days , whether they are longer or shorter : and circumgyrations of the earth , are , whether they be slower or swifter . and that no scripture-proof can be made from this , either directly or consequentially , that the days before the flood , were or were not , longer than they are at present . but we have been too long upon this head . we proceed now from his astronomy to his philosophy . 't was observ'd in the answer , that the excepter in the beginning of the th . chap. suppos'd terrestrial bodies to have a nitency inwards , or downwards towards the center . this we noted as a false principle in philosophy : and to rectifie his mistake , he now replyes , that he understood that expression only of self-central and quiescent bodies . whereas in truth , the question he was speaking to , was about a fluid body turning upon its axis . but however let us admit his new sence , his principle , i 'm afraid , will still need rectification ; namely , he affirms now , that quiescent earthly bodies are impregnated with a nitency inward , or downward towards the center . i deny also this reform'd principle ; if bodies be turn'd round , they have a nitency upwards , or from the center of their motion . if they be not turn'd round , nor mov'd , but quiescent , they have no nitency at all , neither upwards nor downwards : but are indifferent to all lines of motion , according as an external impulse shall carry them , this way or that way . so that his impregnation with a nitency downwards , is an occult and fictitious quality , which is not in the nature of bodies , whether in motion or in rest . the truth is , the author of the exceptions makes a great flutter about the cartesian philosophy , and the copernican systeme , but the frequent mistakes he commits in both , give a just suspicion that he understands neither . lastly , we come to the grand discovery of a fifteen-cubit-deluge , which , it may be , was as uneasie to him upon second thoughts , as any of the rest : at least one would guess so , by the changes he hath made in his hypothesis . for he hath now , in this defence , reduc'd the deluge to a destruction of the world by famine , rather than by drowning . i do not remember in scripture any mention made of famine in that great judgment of water brought upon mankind , but he thinks he hath found out something that favours his opinion : namely , that a good part of mankind at the deluge , were not drown'd , but starv'd for want of victuals . and the argument is this , because in the story of the deluge , men are not said to be drown'd , but to perish , die or be destroy'd . but are they said any where in the story of the deluge , to have been famish'd ? and when god says to noah , i will bring a slood of waters upon the earth , to destroy all flesh , does it not plainly signifie , that that destruction should be by drowning ? but however let us hear our author : when he had been making use of this new hypothesis of starving , to take off some arguments urged against his fifteen-cubit deluge ( particularly , that it would not be sufficient to destroy all mankind ) he adds these words by way of proof . and methinks there is one thing which seems to insinuate , that a good part of the animal world might perhaps come to an end thus : by being driven to such streights by the over flowing waters , as to be famisht or starv'd to death . the thing is this , in the story of the deluge , it is no where said of men and living creatures , that they were drown'd , but they dyed , or were destroyed . those that are drown'd are destroy'd , i imagine , as well as those that are starv'd : so this proves nothing . but that the destruction here spoken of , was by drowning , seems plain enough , both from god's words to noah before the flood , and by his words after the flood , when he makes his covenant with noah ▪ in this manner : i will establish my covenant with you , neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood . now to be cut off , or destroy'd by the waters of a flood , is , methinks , to be drown'd . and i take all flesh to comprehend the animal world , or at least , all mankind . accordingly our saviour says , matt. . . in noah's time , the flood came , and took them all away : namely , all mankind . this is one expedient our author hath found out , to help to bear off the inconveniences that attend his fifteen-cubit deluge : namely , by converting a good part of it into a famine . but he hath another expedient to joyn to this , by increasing the waters : and that is done , by making the common surface of the earth , or the highest parts of it , as he calls them , to signifie ambiguously , or any height that pleases him ; and consequently fifteen cubits above that , signifies also what height he thinks fit . but in reality , there is no surface common to the earth , but either the exteriour surface , whether it be high or low : or the ordinary level of the earth , as it is a globe or convex body . if by his common surface he mean the exteriour surface , that takes in mountains as well as low-lands , or any other superficial parts of the earth . and therefore if the deluge was fifteen cubits above this common surface , it was fifteen cubits above the highest mountains , as we say it was . but if by the common surface he mean the common level of the earth , as it is a globular or convex body , then we gave it a right name when we call'd it the ordinary level of the earth : namely , that level or surface that lies in an equal convexity with the surface of the sea. and his fifteen cubits of water from that level , would never drown the world. lastly , if by the common surface of the earth , he understand a d. surface , different from both these , he must define it , and define the height of it : that we may know how far this fifteen-cubit deluge rise , from some known basis . one known basis is the surface of the sea , and that surface of the land that lies in an equal convexity with it : tell us then if the waters of the deluge were but fifteen cubits higher than the surface of the sea , that we may know their height by some certain and determinate measure , and upon that examine the hypothesis . but to tell us they were fifteen cubits above , not the mountains or the hills , but the highlands , or the highest parts of the common surface of the earth , and not to tell us the height of these highest parts from any known basis : nor how they are distinguisht from hills and mountains , which incur our sences , and are the measures given us by moses : this , i say , is but to cover his hypothesis with ambiguities , when he had made it without grounds : and to leave room to set his water-mark higher or lower , as he should see occasion or necessity . and of this indeed we have an instance in this land pamphlet , for he has rais'd his water-mark there , more than an hundred cubits higher than it was before . in his exceptions he said , not that the waters were no where higher than just fifteen cubits , above the ground , they might in most places be thirty , forty , or fifty cubits higher . but in his defence he says , the waters might be an hundred or two hundred cubits higher , than the general ordinary plain of the earth . now what security have we , but that in the next pamphlet , they may be or a cubits higher than the ordinary surface of the earth . this is his d . expedient , raising his water-mark indefinitely . but if these two methods be not sufficient to destroy mankind , and the animate world , he hath yet a third , which cannot fail : and that is , destroying them by evil angels . flectere si nequeo . this is his last refuge ; to which purpose he hath these words , when heaven was pleas'd to give satan leave , he caus'd the fire to consume job's sheep , and caused the wind to destroy his children . and how easily could these spirits , that are ministers of god's vengeance , have made the waters of the flood fatal to those creatures that might have escaped them , if any could have done it ? as suppose an eagle , or a faulcon : the devil and his crue catcht them all , and held their moses under water . however , methinks , this is not fair play , to deny the theorist the liberty to make use of the ministery of good angels , when he himself makes use of evil spirits . these , sir , and such like passages , where the notions of the excepter have been expos'd , were the causes , i imagine , of his angry reply . some creatures , you know , are more fierce after they are wounded : and some upon a gentle chase will fly from you , but if you press them and put them to extremities , they turn and fly in your face . i see by our author's example , how easily , in these personal altercations , reasoning degenerates into wrangling , and wrangling into scolding however , if i may judge from these two hypotheses which he hath made , about the rise of mountains , and a fifteen-cubit deluge , of all trades i should never advise him to turn hypothesis-maker . it does not seem at all to lie to his hand , and things never thrive that are undertaken , diis iratis , genioque sinistro . but as we have given you some account of this author 's philosophical notions , so it may be you will expect that we should entertain you with some pieces of his wit and eloquence . the truth is , he seems to delight and value himself upon a certain kind of country-wit and popular eloquence , and i will not grudge you the pleasure of enjoying them both , in such instances as i remember . speaking in contempt of the theory and the answer , ( which is one great subject of his wit ) he expresses himself thus : but if arguments be so weak , that they will fall with a fillip , why should greater force be used to beat them down ? to draw a rapier to stab a fly ; or to charge a pistol to kill a spider ; i think would be preposterous . i think so too , in this we 're agreed . in another place , being angry with the theorist , that he would not acknowledge his errours to him , he hath these words , 't is unlucky for one to run his head against a post : but when he hath done , if he will say he did not do it , and stand in and defend what he says : 't is a sign he is as senceless as he was unfortunate : and is fitter to be pitied than confuted . this wit , it may be , you 'll say , is downright clownery . the truth is , when i observ'd , in reading his pamphlet , the courseness of his repartees , and of that sort of wit wherein he deals most and pleases himself , it often rais'd in my mind , whether i would or no , the idea of a pedant : of one that had seen little of the world , and thought himself much wittier and wiser than others would take him to be . i will give you but one instance more of his rustical wit : telling the theorist of an itch of writing : methinks , says he , he might have laid that prurient humour , by scratching himself with the briars of a more innocent controversie : or by scrvbbing sovndly against something else than the holy scripture . he speaks very sensibly , as if he understood the disease , and the way of dealing with it . but i think holy scripture does not come in well upon that occasion . all this is nothing , sir , in comparison of his popular eloquence . see with what alacrity he runs it off hand , in a similitude betwixt adam and a lord lieutenant of a county . when the king makes a gentleman lord-lieutenant of a county , by virtue of his commission is he presently the strongest man that is in it ? does it enable him to encounter whole regiments of souldiers in his single person ? does it impower him to carry a cannon upon his neck ? or when the great gun is fir'd off , to catch the bullet as it flies , and put it up in his pocket ? so when god gave adam dominion over the fowls , did he mean that he should dive like a duck , or soar like a falcon ? that he should swim as naturally as the swan , and hunt the kite , or hobby , as boys do the wren ? did he mean that he should hang up ostritches in a cage , as people do linnets : or fetch down the eagles to feed with his pullen , and make them perch with his chickens in the henroost ? so much for the fowls , now for the fish. when god gave adam dominion over the sea , was he to be able to dwell at the bottom , or to walk on the top of it ? to drain it as a ditch , or to take all its fry at once in a dragnet ? was he to snare the shark , as we do young pickarels : or to bridle the sea-horse , and ride him for a pad ? or to put a slip upon the crocodile's neck , and play with him as with a dog ? &c. sir , i leave it to you , as a more competent judge , to set a just value upon his gifts and elocution . for my part , to speak freely , dull sence , in a phantastick style , is to me doubly nauseous . but least i should cloy you with these lushious harangues , i will give you but one more : and 't is a miscellany of several pieces of wit together . should twenty mariners , says he , confidently affirm , that they sail'd in a ship from dover to calis , by a brisk gale out of a pair of bellows : or if forty engineers should positively swear , that the powder-mill near london , was late blown up , by a mine then sprung at great waradin in hungary , must they not be grievously perjur'd persons ? — or if the historian that writes the peloponnesian war , had told that the soldiers who fell in it , fought only with sun beams , and single currants which grew thereabouts , and that hundreds and thousands were stabb'd with the one , and knock'd on the head with the other : who would believe that ever there were such weapons in that war ; that ever there was such a fatal war in that country ? even so , &c. these , sir , are flights and reaches of his pen , which i dare not censure , but leave them to your judgment . thus much is to give you a tast only of his wit and eloquence : and if you like it , you may find more of the same strain , here and there , in his writings . i have only one thing to mind him of , that he was desir'd by the theorist to write in latin ( if he was a scholar ) as being more proper for a subject of this nature . if he had own'd and followed that character , i 'm apt to think it would have prevented a great many impertinencies : his tongue probably would not have been so flippant in popular excursions and declamations , as we now find it . neither is this any great presumption or rashness of judgment , if we may guess at his skill in that language by his translations , here and there . cum plurimâ religione is render'd with the principles of their religion . and if he say he followed sir w. rawleigh in his translation , he that follows a bad translator without correction or notice , is suppos'd to know no better himself . and this will appear the more probable , if we consider another of his translations , in this present work . rei personam he translates the representation of the things : instead of the person of the guilty : or the person of him that is reus not actor . and in this , i dare say , he was seduc'd by no example . but least we should be thought to misrepresent him , take his own words , such as they are . yea , though it was spoken never so positively , it was but to set forth rei personam : to make the more full and lively representation of the supposed thing . here , you see , he hath made a double blunder , first , in jumbling together person and thing : then , if they could be jumbled together , rei persona would not signifie the full and lively representation of the thing , but rather a disguise or personated representation of the thing . however i am satisfied from these instances , that he had good reason , notwithstanding the caution or desire of the theorist to the contrary , to write his books in his mother's tongue . thus we have done with the first part : which was to mark out such passages , as we thought might probably have inflam'd the authors style in this reply . when men are resolv'd not to own their faults , you know there is nothing more uneasie and vexatious to them , than to see them plainly discover'd and expos'd . we must now give you some account of the contents of his chapters , so far as they relate to our subject . chap. st . nothing . chap. d . is against extraordinary providence : or that the theorist should not be permitted to have recourse to it upon any occasion . this recourse to extraordinary providence being frequently objected in other places , and of use to be distinctly understood : we will speak of it apart at the latter end of the letter . chap. . is about the moon 's hindering the formation of the earth before she was form'd her self , or in our neighbourhood ; as we have noted before . another thing in this chap. is his urging , oyly or oleagineous particles not to have been in the chaos , but made since . i 'll give a short answer to this : either there was or was not , oleagineous matter in the new-made earth , ( i mean in its superficial region . ) when it came first out of a chaos ? if there was , there was also in the chaos , out of which that earth was immediately made . and if there was no oleagineous matter in the new-made earth , how came the soil to be so fertile , so fat , so unctuous ? i say not only fertile , but particularly fat and unctuous : for he uses these very words frequently in the description of that soil . and all fat and unctuous liquors are oleagineous : and accordingly we have us'd those words promiscuously , in the description of that region : ( eng. theor. chap. . ) understanding only such unctuous liquors as are lighter than water and swim above it , and consequently would stop and entangle the terrestrial particles in their fall or descent . and seeing such unctuous and oleagineous particles were in the new-made earth , they must certainly have been in the matter out of which it was immediately form'd , namely , in the chaos . all the rest of this chapter we are willing to leave in its full force : apprehending the theory , or the answer , to be in no danger from such argumentations or reflections . the th . chap. is very short and hath nothing argumentative the th . chap. is concerning the cold in the circumpolar parts , which was spoken to in the answer sufficiently , and we stand to that . what is added about extraordinary providence , will be treated of in its proper place . the th . chap. is also short , against this particular , that it is not safe to argue upon suppositions actually false . and i think there needs no more to prove it , than what was said in the answer . chap. . is chiefly about texts of scripture , concerning which i see no occasion of saying any more than what is said in the review of the theory . he says ( p. . ) that the theorist catches himself in a trap , by allowing that ps. . . is to be understood of the ordinary posture of the waters , and yet applying it to their extraordinary posture under the vault of the earth . but that was not an extraordinary posture according to the theorist , but their natural posture in the first earth . yet i allow the expression might have been better thus , in a level or spherical convexity , as the earth . he interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( p. . ) which we render the garden of the lord , not to be paradise , but any pleasant garden ; yet gives us no authority , either of ancient commentator or version , for this novel and paradoxical interpretation . the septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the vulgate , paradisus domini : and all ancient versions that i have seen render it to the same sence . does he expect then that his single word and authority , should countervail all the ancient translators and interpreters ? to the last place alledged by the theorist , prov. . . he says the answerer charges him unjustly that he understands by that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more than the rotundity or spherical figure of the abyss . which , he says , is a point of nonsence . i did not think the charge had been so high however , seeing some interpreters understand it so . but if he understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the banks or shores of the sea , then he should have told us how those banks or shores are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super faciem abyssi , as it is in the text. pag. . he says the excepter does not misrepresent the theorist when he makes him to affirm the construction of the first earth to have been meerly mechanical ; and he cites to this purpose two places , which only prove , that the theorist made use of no other causes , nor see any defect in them , but never affirm'd that these were the only causes . you may see his words to this purpose expresly , engl. theor. p. . whereof the excepter was minded in the answer , p. . in the last paragraph of this chapter , if he affirms any thing , he will have the pillars of the earth to be understood literally . where then , pray , do these pillars stand that bear up the earth ? or if they bear up the earth , what bears them up ? what are their pedestals , or their foundations ? but he says hypotheses must not regulate scripture , though in natural things , but be regulated by it , and by the letter of it . i would gladly know then , how his hypothesis of the motion of the earth , is regulated by scripture , and by the letter of it . and he unhappily gives an instance just contrary to himself , namely , of the anthropomorphites : for they regulate natural reason and philosophy by the letter or literal sence of scripture , and therein fall into a gross errour . yet we must not call the author injudicious , for fear of giving offence . the th . chap. begins with the earths being carried directly under the equinoctial , before its change of situation : without any manner of obliquity in her site , or declination towards either of the tropicks in her covrse . here you see , when the earth chang'd its situation , it chang'd , according to his astronomy , two things : its site , and its course ; its site upon its axis , and its course in the heavens . and so he says again in the next paragraph , put the case the earth shift her posture , and also her circvit about the sun , in which she persisted till the deluge . here is plainly the same notion repeated : that the earth chang'd not only its site , but also its road or course about the sun. and in consequence of this he supposes its course formerly to have been under the equinoctial , and now under the ecliptick : it being translated out of the one into the other , at its change . yet he seems now to be sensible of the absurdity of this doctrine , and therefore will not own it to have been his sence : and as an argument that he meant otherwise , he alledges , that he declar'd before , that by the earths ritght situation to the sun , is meant that the axis of the earth was always kept in a parallelism to that of the ecliptick . but what 's this to the purpose ? this speaks only of the site of the earth , whereas his errour was in supposing its course or annual orbit about the sun , as well as its site upon its own axis , to have been different , and chang'd at the deluge : as his words already produc'd against him , plainly testifie . what follows in this chapter is concerning the perpetual equinox . and as to the reasoning part of what he says in defence of his exceptions , we do not grudge him the benefit of it , let it do him what service it can . and as to the historical part , he will not allow a witness to be a good witness as to matter of fact , if he did not assign true causes of that matter of fact . to which i only reply , tho' tiverton steeple was not the cause of goodwin sands , as the kentish men thought , yet their testimony was so far good , that there were such sands , and such a steeple . he also commits an errour as to the nature of tradition . when a tradition is to be made out , it is not expected that it should be made appear that none were ignorant of that tradition in former ages : or that all that mention'd it , understood the true grounds and extent of it : but 't is enough to shew the plain footsteps of it in antiquity , as a conclusion , tho' they did not know the reasons and premises upon which it depended . for instance , the conflagration of the world is a doctrine of antiquity , traditionally deliver'd from age to age : but the causes and manner of the conflagration , they either did not know , or have not deliver'd to us . in like manner , that the first age and state of the world was without change of seasons , or under a perpetual equinox , of this we see many footsteps in antiquity , amongst the jews , christians , heathens : poets , philosophers ; but the theory of this perpetual equinox , the causes and manner of it , we neither find , nor can reasonably expect , from the ancients . so much for the equinox . this chapter , as it begun with an errour , so it unhappily ends with a paralogism : namely , that , because days made a month at the deluge , therefore those days were neither longer nor shorter than ours are at present . tho' we have sufficiently expos'd this before yet one thing more may be added , in answer to his confident conclusion , in these words ; but to talk , as the answerer does , that the month should be lengthen'd by the days being so , is a fearful blunder indeed . for let the days ( by slackening the earth's diurnal motion ) have been never so long , yet ( its annual motion continuing the same ) the month must needs have kept its usual length : only fewer days would have made it up . 't is not usual for a man to persevere so confidently in the same errour ; as if the intervals of time , hours , days , months , years , could not be proportionably increast : so as to contain one another in the same proportion they did before , and yet be every one increast as to absolute duration . take a clock , for instance , that goes too slow : the circuit of the dial-plate is . hours , let these represent the ▪ signs in his zodiack : and the hand to be the earth that goes thorough them all : and consequently the whole circuit of the dial-plate represents the year ▪ suppose , as we said , this clock to go too slow , this will not hinder but still fifteen minutes make a quarter , in this clock : four quarters make an hour , and . hours the whole circuit of the dial-plate . but every one of these intervals will contain more time than it did before , according to absolute duration , or according to the measure of another clock that does not go too slow . this is the very case which he cannot or will not comprehend : but concludes thus in effect , that because the hour consists still of four quarters in this clock , therefore it is no longer than ordinary . the th . chapter also begins with a false notion ▪ that bodies quiescent ( as he hath now alter'd the case ) have a nitency downwards . which mistake we rectified before , if he please . then he proceeds to the oval figure of the earth . and many flourishes and harangues are made here to little purpose . for he goes upon a false supposition , that the waters of the chaos were made oval by the weight or gravitation of the air. a thing that never came into the words or thoughts of the theorist . yet upon this supposition he runs into the deserts of bilebulgerid , and the waters of mare del zur : words that make a great noise , but to no effect . if he had pleas'd he might have seen the theorist made no use of the weight of the air upon this occasion , by the instance he gave of the pressure of the moon , and the flux of the waters by that pressure . which is no more done by the gravitation of the air , than the banks are prest , in a swift current and narrow chanel , by the gravitation of the water . but he says rarefied air makes less resistance than gross air : and rarefied water in an aeolipile , it may be , he thinks presses with less force than unrarefied . air possibly may be rarefied to that degree as to lessen its resistance : but we speak of air moderately agitated , so as to be made only more brisk and active . moreover he says , the waters that lay under the poles must have risen perpendicularly , and why might they not , as well , have done so under the equator ? the waters that lay naturally and originally under the poles , did not rise at all : but the waters became more deep there , by those that were thrust thither from the middle parts of the globe . upon the whole i do not perceive that he hath weaken'd any one of the propositions upon which the formation of an oval earth depended . which were these , first , that the tendency of the waters from the center of their motion , would be greater and stronger in the equinoctial parts , than in the polar : or in those parts where they mov'd in greater circles and consequently swifter , than in those where they were mov'd in lesser circles and slower . secondly , agitated air hath more force to repel what presses against it , than stagnant air : and that the air was more agitated and rarefied under the equinoctial parts , than under the poles . thirdly , waters hinder'd and repell'd in their primary tendency , take the easiest way they can to free themselves from that force , so as to persevere in their motion . lastly , to flow laterally upon a plain , or to ascend upon an inclin'd plain , is easier than to rise perpendicularly . these are the propositions upon which that discourse depended , and i do not find that he hath disprov'd any one of them . and this , sir , is a short account of a long chapter , impertinencies omitted . chap. . is concerning the original and causes of mountains , which the excepter unhappily imputes to the heat and influence of the sun. whether his hypothesis be effectually confuted , or not , i am very willing to stand to the judgment of any unconcern'd person , that will have the patience to compare the exceptions and the answer , in this chapter . then as to his historical arguments , as he calls them , to prove there were mountains before the flood , from gyants that sav'd themselves from the flood upon mount sion : and adam's wandring several hundreds of years upon the mountains of india ; these , and such like , which he brought to prove that there were mountains before the flood , he now thinks fit to renounce , and says he had done so before by an anticipative sentence . but if they were condemn'd before by an anticipative sentence , as fables and forgeries , why were they stuft into his book , and us'd as traditional evidence against the theory ? lastly , he contends in this chapter for iron and iron-tools before the flood , and as early as the time of cain● because he built a city ; which , he says , could not be built without iron and iron-tools . to which it was answer'd , that , cain's , like paris or london , he had reason to believe that they had iron-tools to make it . but suppose it was a number of cottages , made of branches of trees , of osiers , and bulrushes : or , if you will , of mud-walls , and a roof of straw , with a fence about it to keep out beasts : there would be no such necessity o● iron-tools . consider , 'pray , how long the world was without knowing the use of iron , in several parts of it : as in the northern countries and america : and yet they had houses and cities , after their fashion . and to come nearer home , consider what towns and cities our ancestros , the britains , had in caesar's time : more than two thousand years after the time of cain . oppidum britanni vocant , cùm sylvam impeditam vallo atque follâ munierant : quò incursionis hostium vitandae causâ , convenire consueverunt : why might not cain's city , be such a city as this ? and as to the ark , which he also would make a proof that there were iron and iron-tools before the flood , 't was answer'd , that scripture does not mention iron or iron-tools in building of the ark : but only gopher wood and pitch . to which he replies , if scriptures silence concerning things be a ground of presumption that they were not , what then shall we think of an oval and unmountainous earth , an inclosed abyss , a paradisiacal world , and the like : which the scripture makes no mention of . i cannot easily forbear calling this an injudicious reflection , tho' i know he hath been angry with that word , and makes it a brat of passion . but i do assure him i call it so coolly and calmly . when a thing is deduc'd by natural arguments and reason , the silence of scripture is enough . if he can prove the motion of the earth by natural arguments , and that scripture is silent in that point , we desire no better proof . now in all those things which he mentions , an oval and unmountainous earth , an inclosed abyss , a paradisiacal world , scripture is at least silent : and therefore 't is natural arguments must determine these cases . and this ill-reasoning he is often guilty of , in making no distinction betwixt things that are , or that are not , prov'd by natural arguments , when he appeals to the interpretation of scripture . chap. . is to prove an open sea ( such as we have now ) before the flood . all his exceptions were answer'd before , and i am content to stand to that answer : reserving only what is to be said hereafter concerning the literal sence of scripture . however he is too lavish in some expressions here , as when he says , ( p. . ) that adam died before so much as one fish appear'd in the world . and a little before he had said , for fishes , if his hypothesis be believ'd , were never upon this earth , in adam's time . these expressions i say cannot be justified upon any hypothesis . for why might not the rivers of that earth have fish in them , as well as the rivers of this earth , or as our rivers now ? i 'am sure the theory , or the hypothesis he mentions , never said any thing to the contrary : but rather suppos'd the waters fruitful , as the ground was . but as to an open sea , whether side soever you take , that there was , or was not , any , before the flood : i believe however adam , to his dying day , never see either sea or sea-fish : nor ever exercis'd any dominion over either . chap. . is concerning the rainbow : and hath no new argument in it , nor reinforcement . but a question is mov'd , whether as well , necessarily signifies as much . the real question to be consider'd here , setting aside pedantry , is this , whether that thing ( sun , or rainbow , or any other ) could have any significancy as a sign , which signified no more than the bare promise would have done without a sign . this is more material to be consider'd and resolv'd , than whether as well and as much signifie the same . chap. . is concerning paradise , and to justifie or excuse himself why he baulkt all the difficulties , and said nothing new or instructive , upon that subject . but he would make the theorist inconsistent with himself , in that he had said , that neither scripture , nor reason , determine the place of paradise : and yet determines it by the judgment of the christian fathers . where 's the inconsistency of this ? the theory , as a theory , is not concern'd in a topical paradise ; and says moreover that neither scripture , nor reason , have determin'd the place of it ; but if we refer our selves to the judgment and tradition of the fathers , and stand to the majority of their votes , ( when scripture and reason are silent ) they have so far determin'd it , as to place it in the other hemisphere , rather than in this : and so exclude that shallow opinion of some moderns , that would place it in mesopotamia . and to baffle that opinion was the design of the theorist ; as this author also seems to take notice . after this and an undervaluing of the testimonies of the fathers , he undertakes to determine the place of paradise by scripture , and particularly that it was in mesopotamia , or some region thereabouts . and his argument is this , because in the last verse of the d. chap. of genesis , the cherubims and flaming sword are said to be place'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he says is , to the east of the garden of eden . but the septuagint ( upon whom he must chiefly depend for the interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place , ch . . . ) read it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and the vulgate renders it , ante paradisum voluptatis : and according to the samaritan pentateuch 't is rendered ex adverso . now what better authorities can he bring us for his translation ? i do not find that he gives any , as his usual way is , but his own authority . and as for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the d . chap. and th . ver . which is the principal place , 't is well known , that , except the septuagint , all the ancient versions , greek and latin , ( besides others ) render it to another sence . and there is a like uncertainty of translation in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we have noted elsewhere . lastly , the rivers of paradise , and the countreys they are said to run through or encompass , are differently understood by different authors , without any agreement or certain conclusion . but these are all beaten subjects , which you may find in every treatise of paradise , and therefore 't is not worth the time to pursue them here . then he proceeds to the longevity of the ante-diluvians : which , so far as i can understand him to affirm any thing , he says was not general : but the lives of some few were extraordinarily length'ned by a special blessing ; the elongation of them being a work of providence , not of nature . this is a cheap and vulgar account , ( and so are all the contents of this chap. ) prov'd neither by scripture , nor reason : and calculated for the humour and capacity of those , that love their case more than a diligent enquiry after truth . he hath indeed a bold assertion afterwards , that moses does distinguish , as much or more , betwixt two races of men before the floud : the one long-livers , and the other short-livers , as he hath distinguisht the gyants before the flood , from the common race of mankind . these are his words , is not his distinction equally plain in both cases ? speaking of this formentioned distinction . or , if there be any difference , does he not distinguish better betwixt long-livers and short-livers , than he does betwixt men of gigantick and of usual proportion ? let 's see the truth of this : moses plainly made mention of two races of mankind : the ordinary race , and those of a gigantick race , or gyants . now tell me where he plainly makes mention of short-livers before the flood . and if he no where make mention of short-livers , but of long-livers only , how does he distinguish as plainly of these two races , as he did of the other two ? for in the other he mention'd plainly and severally both the parts or members of the distinction , and here he mentions but one , and makes no distinction . then he comes to the testimonies cited by iosephus for the longevity of the ante-diluvians , or first inhabitants of the earth . and these he roundly pronounces to be utterly false . this gentleman does not seem , to be much skill'd in antiquity , either sacred or profane : and yet he boldly rejects these testimonies ( as he did those of the fathers before ) as utterly false : which iosephus had alledg'd in vindication of the history of moses . the only reason he gives , is , because these testimonies say , they liv'd a thousand years : whereas moses does not raise them altogether so high . but the question was not so much concerning the precise number of their years , as about the excess of them beyond the present lives of men : and a round number in such cases is often taken instead of a broken number . besides , seeing according to the account of moses , the greater part of them liv'd above nine hundred years , at least he should not have said these testimonies in iosephus were utterly false , but false in part , or not precisely true . now he comes to his reasons against the ante-diluvian longevity ; which have all had their answers before , and those we stand to . but i wonder he should think it reasonable , that mankind , throughout all ages , should increase in the same proportion as in the first age : and if a decuple proportion of increase was reasonable at first , the same should be continued all along : and the product of mankind , after sixteen hundred years , should be taken upon that supposition . i should not grudge to admit that the first pair of breeders might leave ten pair : but that every pair of these ten , should also leave ten pair , without any failure : and every pair in their children should again leave ten pair : and this to be continued , without diminution or interruption , for sixteen hundred years , is not only a hard supposition , but utterly incredible . for still the greater the number was , the more room there would be for accidents , of all sorts : and every failure towards the beginning , and proportionably in other parts , would cut off thousands in the last product . chap. . is against the dissolution of the earth , and the disruption of the abyss , at the deluge : such as the theory represents . here is nothing of new argument , but some stroaks of new railing wit , after his way . he had said in his exceptions that the dissolution of the earth was horrid blasphemy : now he makes it reductive blasphemy , as being indirectly , consequentially , or reductively , contrary to scripture . but this rule , we told him , all errors in religion would be blasphemy , and if he extend this to errors in philosophy also , 't is still more harsh and injudicious . i wonder how he thinks , the doctrine , which he owns , about the motion of the earth , should escape the charge of blasphemy : that being not only indirectly , but directly and plainly contrary to scripture . we thought that expression , the earth is dissolv'd , being a scripture expression , would thereby have been protected from the imputation of blasphemy : and we alledg'd to that purpose , ( besides , ps. . . ) isa. . . amos . . he would have done well to have prov'd these places in the prophets isaiah and amos , to have been figurative and tropological , as he call it : for we take them both to relate to the dissolution of the earth , which literally came to pass at the deluge . and he not having prov'd the contrary , we are in hopes still that the dissolution of the earth may not be horrid blasphemy , nor of blasphemous importance . then having quarrel'd with the guard of angels which the theorist had assign'd for the preservation of the ark , in the time of the deluge : he falls next into his blunder , that the equator and ecliptick of the earth were interchang'd , when the situation of the earth was chang'd . this error in the earth is cousin-germain to his former error in the heavens , viz. that the earth chang'd its tract about the sun , and leapt out of the equator into the ecliptick , when it chang'd its situation . the truth is , this copernican systeme seems to ly cross in his imagination . i think he would do better to let it alone . however , tho' at other times he is generally verbose and long-winded , he hath the sence to pass this by , in a few words : laying the blame upon certain parentheses or semicircles , whose innocency notwithstanding we have fully clear'd , and shew'd the poison to be spread throughout the whole paragraph , which is too great to be made an erratum typographicum . then after hermus , caister , menander and caicus : nile and its mud : piscenius niger , who contended with septimus severus for the empire , and reprimanded his souldiers for hankering after wine . du val , an ingenious french writer , and cleopatra and her admired antony : he concludes , that the waters of the deluge raged amongst the fragments , with lasting , incessant , and unimaginable turbulence . and so he comes to an argument against the dissolution of the earth . that , all the buildings erected before the flood , would have been shaken down at that time , or else overwhelmed . he instanc'd in his exceptions , in seth's pillars ▪ henochia , cain's city : and ioppa ; these he suppos'd such buildings as were made before , and stood after , the flood . but now seth's pillars and henochia being dismist , he insists upon ioppa only ; and says , this must have consisted of such materials , as could never be prepared , formed , and set up , without iron tools . tho' i do not much believe that ioppa was an antediluvian town , yet whatever they had in cain's time , they might , before the deluge , have mortar and brick ; which as they are the first stony materials , that we read of , for building : so the ruines of them might stand after the deluge . and that they had no other materials is the more probable , because , after the flood , at the building of babel , moses plainly intimates that they had no other materials than those . for the text says , they said one to another , go to , let us make brick , and burn them thoroughly ; and they made brick for stone , and slime had they had mortar . but now this argument , methinks , may be retorted upon the excepter with advantage . for , if there were no dissolutions , concussions , or absorptions , at the deluge , instead of the ruines of ioppa , methinks we might have had the ruines of an hundred antediluvian cities . especially , if , according to his hypothesis , they had good stone , and good iron , and all other materials , fit for strong and lasting building . and , which is also to be consider'd , that it was but a fifteen-cubit deluge , so that towns built upon eminences or high-lands , would be in little danger of being ruin'd : much less of being abolisht . his last argument ( p. . ) proves , if it prove any thing , that god's promise , that the world should not be drown'd again , was a vain and trifling thing , to us , who know it must be burnt . and consequently , if noah understood the conflagration of the world , he makes it a vain and trifling thing to noah also . if the excepter delight in such conclusions , let him enjoy them , but they are not at all to the mind of the theorist . chap. . now we come to his new hypothesis of fifteen-cubit deluge . and what shifts he hath made to destroy the world with such a diminutive flood , we have noted before : first , by raising his water-mark , and making it uncertain . then by converting the deluge , in a great measure , into famine . and lastly , by destroying mankind and other animals , with evil angels . we shall now take notice of some other incongruities in his hypothesis . when he made moses's deluge but fifteen cubits deep , we said that was an unmerciful paradox , and askt , whether he would have it receiv'd as a postulatum , or as a conclusion . all he answers to this is , that the same question may be askt concerning several parts of the theory : particularly , that the primitive earth had no open sea ▪ whether is that , says he , to be receiv'd as a postulatum , or as a conclusion ? the answer is ready , as a conclusion : deduc'd from premises , and a series of antecedent reasons . now can he make this answer for his fifteen-cubit deluge ? must not that still be a postulatum , and an unmerciful one ? as to the theory , there is but one postulatum in all , viz. that the earth rise from a chaos . all the other propositions are deduc'd from premises , and that one postulatum also is prov'd by scripture and antiquity . we had noted further in the answer , that the author had said in his exceptions , that he would not defend his hypothesis as true and real : and we demanded thereupon , why then did he trouble himself or the world with what he did not think true and real ? to this he replies , many have written ingenious and useful things , which they never believ'd to be true and real . romances suppose , and poetical fictions : will you have your fifteen-cubit deluge pass for such ? but then the mischief is , where there is neither truth of fact , nor ingenuity of invention , such a composition will hardly pass for a romance , or a good fiction . but there is still a greater difficulty behind : the excepter hath unhappily said , our supposition stands supported by divine authority : as being founded upon scripture : which tells us as plainly as it can speak , that the waters prevailed but fifteen cubits upon the earth . upon which words the answerer made this remark , if his hypothesis be founded upon scripture , and upon scripture as plainly as it can speak , why will not he defend it as trve and real ? for to be supported by scripture , and by plain scripture , is as much as we can alledge for the articles of our faith. to this he replies now , that he begg'd allowance at first , to make bold with scripture a little . this is a bold excuse : and he especially , one would think , should take heed how he makes bold with scripture : lest , according to his own notion , he fall into blasphemy or something of blasphemous importance ; indirectly , consequentially , or reductively , at least . however this excuse , if it was a good one , would take no place here : for to understand and apply scripture , in that sence that it speaks as plainly as it can speak , is not to make bold with it , but modestly to follow its dictates and plain sence . he feels this load to lie heavy upon him , and struggles again to shake it off , with a distinction . when he said his fifteen-cubit deluge was supported by divine authority , &c. this , he says , was spoken by him , in an hypothetick or suppositious way : and that it cannot possibly be understood otherwise by men of sence . here are two hard words , let us first understand what they signifie , and then we shall better judge how men of sence would understand his words . his hypothetick or suppositious way , so far as i understand it , is the same thing as by way of supposition ; then his meaning is , he supposes his fifteen-cubit deluge is supported by divine authority : and he supposes it is founded upon scripture as plainly as it can speak . but this is to suppose the question , and no man of sence would make or grant such supposition . so that i do not see what he gains by his hypothetick and suppositious way . but to draw him out of this mist of words , either he affirms this , that his hypothesis is supported by divine authority : and founded upon scripture as plainly as it can speak : or he denies it , or he doubts of it . if he affirm it , then all his excuses and diminutions are to no purpose , he must stand to his cause , and show us those plain texts of scripture . if he deny it , he gives up his cause , and all that divine authority he pretended to . if he doubt of it , then he should have exprest himself doubtfully ; as , scripture may admit of that sence , or may be thought to intimate such a thing ; but he says , with a plerophory , scripture speaks it as plainly as it can speak . and to mend the matter , he unluckily subjoyns in the following words , yea , tho' it was spoken never so positively , it was but to set forth reipersonam : to make a more full and lively representation of the supposed thing . he does well to tell us what he means by rei personam , for otherwise no man of sence , as his phrase is , would ever have made that translation of those words . but the truth is , he is so perfectly at a loss how to bring himself off , as to this particular , that in his confusion he neither makes good sence , nor good latin. now he comes to another inconsistency which was charg'd upon him by the answer : namely , that he rejects the church-hypothesis concerning the deluge , and yet had said before , i cannot believe ( which i cannot well endure to speak ) that the church hath ever gone on in an irrational way of explaining the deluge . that he does reject this church-hypothesis was plainly made out from his own words : because he rejects the common hypothesis : the general standing hypothesis : the usual hypothesis : the usual sence they put upon sacred story , &c. these citations he does not think fit to take notice of in his reply : but puts all upon this general issue , which the answerer concludes with : the church-way of explaining the deluge , is either rational or irrational . if he say it is rational , why does he desert it , and invent a new one . and if he say it is irrational , then that dreadful thing , which he cannot well endure to speak , that , the church of god hath ever gone on in an irrational way of explaining the deluge , falls flat upon himself . let 's hear his answer to this dilemma . we say , says he , that the church-way of explaining the deluge , ( by creating and annihilating waters for the nonce ) is very rational . then say i still , why do you desert it , or why do you trouble us with a new one ? either his hypothesis is more rational than the church-hypothesis , or less rational ? if less rational , why does he take us off from a better , to amuse us with a worse ? but if he say his hypothesis is more rational than that of the church's , then woe be to him , in his own words , that so black a blemish should be fasten'd upon the wisest and noblest society in the world , as to make himself more wise than they , and his hypothesis more rational than theirs . the truth is , this gentleman hath a mind to appear a virtuoso : for the new philosophy , and the copernican systeme : and yet would be a zealot for orthodoxy , and the church-way of explaining things . which two designs do not well agree , as to the natural world ; and so betwixt two stools he falls to the ground , and proves neither good church-man , nor good philosopher . but he will not still be convinc'd that he deserts the church-hypothesis , and continues to deny the desertion in these words , we say that we do not desert or reject the church way of explaining the deluge . now to discover , whether these words are true or false , let us observe , first , what he acknowledges to have said against the church-hypothesis : secondly , what he hath said more than what he acknowledges here . he acknowledges that he said the church-hypothesis might be disgustful to the best and soundest philosophick judgments . and this is not good character . yet this is not all , for he hath fairly dropt a principal word in the sentence , namely , justly . his words , in his exceptions , were these , such inventions ( which he applyes to the church-hypothesis ) as have been , and , ivstly may be disgustful , not only to nice and squeamish , but to the best and soundest philosophick judgments . now judge whether he cited this sentence before , truly and fairly : and whether in these words , truly cited , he does not disparage the church-hypothesis , and justifie , those that are disgusted at it . he furthermore acknowledges that the usual ways of explaining the deluge seem unreasonable to some , and unintelligible to others , and unsatisfactory to the most . but , it seems , he will neither be of these some , others or most . lastly , he acknowledges that he had said , the ordinary supposition , that the mountains were covered with waters in the deluge , brings on a necessity of setting up a new hypothesis for explaining the flood . if so , what was this ordinary supposition : was it not the supposition of the church ? and was that such , as made it necessary to set up a new hypothesis for explaining the flood ? then the old hypothesis was insufficient , or irrational . thus much he acknowledges : but he omits what we noted before , his rejecting or disapproving the common hypothesis , the general standing hypothesis , the usual sence they put upon the sacred story , &c. and do not all these phrases denote the church-hypothesis ? he further omits , that he confest , he had expounded a text or two of scripture , about the deluge , so as none ever did . and deserting the common receiv'd sence , puts an unusual gloss upon them . and is not that common receiv'd sence , the sence of the church ? and his unusual gloss contrary to it ? lastly , he says , by his hypothesis , we need not fly to a new creation of waters , and gives his reasons at large against that opinion , which you may see , except . p. . now those reasons he thought either to be good reasons , or bad reasons : if bad , why did he set them down , or why did he not confute them ? if good , they stand good against the hypothesis of the church : for he makes that new creation and annihilation of waters at the deluge , to be the hypothesis of the church . defen . p. . i fear i have spent too much time in shewing him utterly inconsistent with himself in this particular . and i wonder he should be so sollicitous to justifie the hypothesis of the church in this point , seeing he openly dissents from it in a greater : i mean in that of the systeme of the world. hear his words , if you please , to this purpose . and what does the famous aristotelian hypothesis seem to be now , but a mass of errours ? where such a systeme was contrived for the heavens , and such a situation assign'd to the earth , as neither reason can approve , nor nature allow . yet so prosperous and prevailing was this hypothesis , that it was generally receiv'd , and successfully propagated for many ages . this prosperous prevailing error , or mass of errors , was it not espoused and supported by the church ? and to break from the church in greater points , and scruple it in less , is not this to strain at gnats , and swallow camels ? so much for his inconsistency with himself . the rest of this chapter in the answer , shews his inconsistency with moses ; both as to the waters covering the tops of the mountains , which moses affirms and the excepter denyes ; and as to the decrease of the deluge , which moses makes to be , by the waters retiring into their chanels , after frequent reciprocations , going and coming . but the excepter says , the sun suck'd up the waters from the earth : just as he had before suck'd the mountains out of the earth . these things are so groundless , or so gross , that it would be tedious to insist longer upon them . and whereas it is not reasonable to expect , that any others should be idle enough , as we must be , to collate three or four tracts , to discern where the advantage lies in these small altercations : i desire only , if they be so dispos'd , that they would collate the exceptions , answer and defence , in this one chapter , which is our author's master-piece : and from this i am willing they should take their measures , and make a judgment , of his good or bad success in other parts . what shifts he hath us'd to make his fifteen-cubit deluge sufficient to destroy all mankind and all animals , we have noted before : and here 't is ( p. , . ) that he reduces them to famine . and after that , he comes to a long excursion of seven or eight pages , about the imperfection of shipping after the flood : a good argument for the theorist , that they had not an open sea , iron-tools , and materials for shipping , before the flood . for what should make them so inexpert in navigation for many years and ages after the flood , if they had the practice and experience of it , before the flood ? and what could hinder their having that practice and experience , if they had an open sea , and all iron and other materials , for that use and purpose ? lastly , he comes to his notion of the great deep , or tehom-rabbah . which he had made before , in express words , to be the holes and caverns in the rocks ; i say , in express words , such as these , now supposing that the caverns in the mountains were this great deep : speaking of moses's great deep , according to this new hypothesis . he says further ( p. . ) in case it be urg'd , that caverns , especially caverns so high situate , cannot properly be called the great deep . where you see , his own objection supposes that he made those caverns the great deep . and in the same page , speaking of the psalmists great deeps ( in his own sence of making them holes in rocks ) and moses's great deep , he says , the same thing might be meant by both . by all these expressions one would think it plain , that by his great deep he meant his caverns in rocks : yet now , upon objections urged against it , he seems desirous to fly off from that notion . but does not yet tell us plainly what must be meant by moses's great deep . if , upon second thoughts , he would have the sea to be understood by it , why does he not answer the objections that are made by the theorist against that interpretation ? nay , why does he not answer what he himself had objected before ( except p. . ) against that supposition ? he seems to unsay now , what he said before : and yet substitutes nothing in the place of it , to be understood by moses's t●hom-rabbah . chap. . is a few words concerning these expressions of shutting the windows of heaven and the fountains of the abyss , after the deluge . and these were both shut alike , and both of them no less than the caverns in the mountains . chap. . hath nothing of argumentation or philosophy : but runs on in a popular declamatory way , and ( if i may use that forbidden word ) injudicious . all amounts to this , whether we may not go contrary to the letter of scripture , in natural things , when that goes contrary to plain reason . this we affirm , and this every one must affirm that believes the motion of the earth , as our vertuoso pretends to do . then he concludes all with an harmonious close , that he follows the great example of a r. prelate , and militates under that episcopal banner . i am willing to believe that he writ at first , in hopes to curry favour with certain persons , by his great zeal for orthodoxy ; but he hath made such an hotch-potch of new philosophy and divinity , that i believe it will scarce please the party he would cajole : nor so much as his r. patron . i was so civil to him in the answer , as to make him a saint in comparison of that former animadverter : but , by the style and spirit of this last pamphlet , he hath forfeited with me all his saintship , both absolute and comparative . thus much for his chapters : and as to his reflections upon the review of the theory , they are so superficial and inconsiderable , that i believe he never expected that they should be regarded . i wonder however , that he should decline an examination of the d . part of the theory . it cannot be for want of good will to confute it : he hath shewn that to the height , whatsoever his power was . neither can it be for want of difference or disagreement in opinion , as to the contents of this later part : for he hath reckon'd the millennium amongst the errors of the ancient fathers , ( def. p. . ) and the renovation of the world he makes allegorical . ( p. . &c. ) it must therefore be for want of some third thing : which he best knows . but before we conclude , sir , we must remember that we promised to speak apart to two things , which are often objected to the theorist by this writer , and to little purpose ; namely , his flying to extraordinary providence , and his flying from the literal sence of scripture . as to extraordinary providence , is the theorist alone debarr'd from recourse to it , or would he have all men debarr'd , as well as the theorist ? if so , why doth he use it so much himself ? and if it be allow'd to others , there is no reason it should be deny'd the theorist , unless he have disown'd it , and so debarr'd himself that common priviledge . but the contrary is manifest , in a multitude of places , both of the first and second part of the theory ▪ for , besides a discourse on purpose upon that subject , in the th . chap. of the first book , in the last chapter and last words of the same book ( latin ) he does openly avow , both providence ( natural and moral ) and miracles : in these words , denique cùm certissimum sit , à divinâ providentiâ pendere res omnes , cujuscunque ordinis , & ab eâdem vera miracula edita esse , &c. and as to the second part of the theory , the ministery of angels is there acknowledg'd frequently , both as to natural and moral administrations . from all which instances it is manifest , that the theorist did not debar himself , by denying either miracles , angelical ministery , or extraordinary providence ; but if the excepter be so injudicious ( pardon me that bold word ) as to confound all extraordinary providence with the acts of omnipotency , he must blame himself for that , not the theorist . the creation and annihilation of waters is an act of pure omnipotency , this the theorist did not admit of at the deluge : and if this be his fault , as it is frequently objected to him ( def. p. . . , &c. ) he perseveres in it still , and in the reasons he gave for his opinion , which are no where confuted . but as for acts of angelical power , he does every where acknowledge them in the great revolutions , even of the natural world. if the excepter would make the divine omnipotency as cheap as the ministery of angels , and have recourse as freely and as frequently to that , as to this : if he would make all extraordinary providence the same , and all miracles , and set all at the pitch of infinite power , this may be an effect of his ignorance or inadvertency , but is no way imputable to the theorist . in the next place it may be observ'd that the theorist hath no where asserted , that moses's cosmopoeia ( which does not proceed according to ordinary providence ) is to be literally understood ; and therefore what is urg'd against him from the letter of that cosmopoeia , is improperly urg'd and without ground . there are as good reasons , and better authorities , that moses's six-days creation should not be literally understood , than there are , why those texts of scripture that speak about the motion of the sun , should not be literally understood . and as to the theorist , he had often intimated his sence of that cosmopoeia , that it was exprest more humano , & captum populi : as appears in several passages ; in the latin theory , speaking of the mosaical cosmogonia , he hath these words : constat haec cosmopoeia duabus partibus , quarum prima , massas generales atque rerum inconditarum statum exhibet : sequiturque eadem principia , & eundem ordinem , quem antiqui usque retinuerunt . atque in hoc nobiscum conveniunt omnes ferè interpretes christiani : nempe , tohu bohu mosaicum idem esse ac chaos antiquorum . tenebras mosaicas , &c. hucusque convenit mosi cum antiquis philosophis , — methodum autem illam philosophicam hic abrumpit , aliamque orditur , humanam , aut , si mavis , theologicam : quâ , motibus chaos , secundum leges naturae & divini amoris actionem , planè neglectis , & successivis ipsius mutationibus in varias regiones & elementa : his , inquam , post-habitis , popularem narrationem de ortu rerum hoc modo instituit . res omnes visibiles in sex classes , &c. this is a plain indication how the theorist understood that cosmopoeia . and accordingly in the english theory the author says , moses's cosmopoeia : because i thought it deliver'd by him as a law-giver , not as a philosopher . which i intend to show at large in another treatise : not thinking that discussion proper for the vulgar tongue . the excepter was also minded of this in the answer , p. . now , 't is much , that he , who hath searcht all the corners , both of the english and latin theory , to pick quarrels , should never observe such obvious passages as these . but still make objections from the letter of the mosaical cosmopoeia : which affect the theorist no more than those places of scripture that speak of the motion of the sun , or the pillars of the earth . in the last place , the theorist distinguisht two methods for explaining the natural world : that of an ordinary and that of an extraordinary providence . and those that take the second way , he said , might dispatch their task as soon as they pleas'd if they engag'd omnipotency in the work . but the other method would require time : it must proceed by distinct steps , and leisurely motions , such as nature can admit ; and , in that respect , it might not suit with the busie lives , or impatient studies , of most men. whom he left notwithstanding to their liberty to take what method they pleas'd : provided they were not troublesome in forcing their hasty thoughts upon all others . thus the theorist hath exprest himself at the end of the first book : interià , cùm non omnes à naturâ ità compositi simus , ut philosophiae studiis delectemur : neque etiant liceat multis , propter occupationes vitae , iisdem vacare , quibus per ingenium licuisset : iis jure permittendum est , compendiariò to sapere ; & relictis viis naturae & causarum secundarum , quae saepe longiusculae sunt , per causas superiores philosophari ; idque potissimùm , cùm ex piis affectibus hoc quandoque fieri possit : quibus velmalè fundatis , aliquid dandum esse existimo , modò non sint turbulenti . thus the theorist , you see , sets two ways before them , and 't is indifferent to him whether they take , if they will go on their way peaceably . and he does now moreover particularly declare , that he hath no ambition , either to make the excepter , or any other of the same dispositions of will , and the same elevation of understanding , proselytes to his theory . thus much for providence ; as to the literal sence of scripture , i find , if what was noted before in the answer , had been duly consider'd , there would be little need of additions upon that subject . the matter was stated freely and distinctly , and the remarks or reflections which the excepter hath made in his defence , upon this doctrine , are both shallow & partial . i say , partial : in perverting the sence , and separating such things as manifestly depend upon one another . thus the excepter falls upon that expression in the answer , let us remember that this contradicting scripture , here pretended , is only in natural things : where he should have added the other part of the sentence , and also observe how far the excepter himself , in such things , hath contradicted scripture . here he makes an odious declamation , as it the answerer had confest that he contradicted scripture in natural things : whereas the words are contradicting scripture , here pretended : and 't is plain by all the discourse , that 't is the literal sence of scripture that is here spoken of , which the excepter is also said to contradict . such an unmanly captiousness shews the temper and measure of that spirit , which rather than say nothing will misrepresent the plain sence of an author . in like manner , when he comes to those words in the answer , the case therefore is this , whether to go contrary to the letter of scripture in things that relate to the natural world , be destroying the foundation of religion , affronting scripture , and blaspheming the holy ghost . he says , this is not to state the case truly , for it is not , says he , going contrary to the letter of scripture that draws such evil consequences after it , but going contrary to the letter of scripture , where it is to be literally under stood . and this the theorist does , he says , and the excepter does not . but who says so besides himself ? this is fairly to beg the question , and can he suppose the theorist so easie as to grant this without proof ? it must be the subject matter that determines , what is , and what is not , to be literally understood . however he goes on , begging still the question in his own behalf , and says , those texts of scripture that speak of the motion and course of the sun , are not to be understood literally . but why not ? because the literal sence is not to his mind ? of four texts of scripture which the theorist alledg'd against him , for the motion of the sun , he answers but one , & that very superficially , to say no worse . 't is ps. . where the sun at his rising is said to be as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber , and to rejoyce as a strong man to run his race . and his going forth is from the end of the heaven , and his circuit to the ends of it . which he answers with this vain flourish : then the sun must be a man , and must be upon his marriage ; and must be drest in fine cloaths , as a bridegroom is . then he must come out of a chamber , and must give no more light , and cast no more heat than a bridegroom does &c. if a man should ridicule , at this rate , the discourse of our saviour concerning lazarus in abraham's bosom , and dives in hell , with a great gulf betwixt them , yet talking audibly to one another ; and that lazarus should be sent so far , as from heaven to hell , only to dip the tip of his finger in water , and cool dives his tongue . he that should go about thus to expose our saviours parable , would have a thankless office , and effect nothing : for the substance of it would stand good still : namely , that mens souls live after death , and that good souls are in a state of ease and comfort , and bad souls in a state of misery . in like manner , his ridiculing some circumstances in the comparison made by the psalmist , does not at all destroy the substance of that discourse : namely , that the sun moves in the firmament , with great swiftness and lustre , and hath the circuit of its motion round the earth . this is the substance of what the psalmist declares , and the rest is but a similitude which need not be literally just in all particulars . after this he would fain perswade the theorist , that he hath excused the excepter for his receding from the literal sence , as to the motion of the earth : because he hath granted , that , in certain cases , we may and must recede from the literal sence . but where , pray , hath he granted , that the motion of the earth was one of those cases ? yet suppose it be so , may not the theorist then enjoy this priviledge of receding from the literal sence upon occasion , as well as the excepter ? if he will give , as well as take , this liberty , let us mutually enjoy it . but he can have no pretence to deny it to others , and take it himself . it uses to be a rule in writing , that a man must not stultum fingere lectorem . you must suppose your reader to have common sence . but he that accuses another of blasphemy for receding from the literal sence of scripture in natural things , and does himself , at the same time , recede from the literal sence of scripture , in natural things : one would think , quoad hoc , either had not , or would not exercise , common sence : in a literal way . lastly , he comes to the common known rule , assign'd to direct us , when every one ought to follow , or leave , the literal sence : which is , not to leave the literal sence , when the subject matter will bear it , without absurdity or incongruity . this he repeats in the next page thus , the rule is , when no kind of absurdities or incongruities accrue to any texts , from the literal sence . if this be his rule , to what texts does there accrue any absurdity or incongruity , by supposing the sun to move ? for scripture always speaks upon that supposition , and not one word for the motion of the earth . thus he states the rule , but the answerer supposed , that the absurdity or incongruity might arise from the subject matter . and accordingly he still maintains , that there are as just reasons ( from the subject matter ) and better authorities , for receding from the literal sence , in the narrative of the six-days creation , than in those texts of scripture , that speak of the motions and course of the sun. and to affirm the earth to be mov'd , is as much blasphemy , and more contrary to scripture , than to affirm it to have been dissolv'd , as the theorist hath done . sir , i beg your excuse for this long letter , and leave it to you to judge whether the occasion was just or no. i know such jarrings as these , must needs make bad musick to your ears : 't is like hearing two instruments play that are not in tune and consort with one another . but you know self-defence , and to repel an assailant , is always allow'd : and he that begins the quarrel , must answer for the consequences . however , sir , to make amends for this trouble , i am ready to receive your commands upon more acceptable subjects . your most humble servant , &c. finis ▪ notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e p. . p. ● ▪ exe. p. . &c. def. p. . ex● . p. , . def. p. . lin . , . p. , , ▪ , ▪ gen. c. . def. p. ●●● . def. p. . ibid lin . . p. . ex● . p. , . ex● . p. , . ibid. p. . exc. p. . p. , , , . p. . def. p. . p. , . gen. . . def. p. . gen. . ●● def. . & . p. . p. . def. p. . def. p. . p. . p. . p. . 〈◊〉 def. p. ● . eng. theo. p. . excep . p. . def. p. , . exc. p. . def. p. , & p. . gen. . . p. . ibid. p. . def. p. ●● . def. p. ● . ans. p. , . com. li. . ibid. def. p. . answ. c. . p. . def. p. . p. . p. . p. . gen. . . p. . p. , . p. , . p. , . p. ● gen. . . p. . exc. p. . answ. p. . des. p. . ibid. p. ● , ● . exc. p. . see the citations in the answ. p. . def. p. . p. . 〈◊〉 . exc. p. . def. p. . exc. p. . def. p. . def. p. , , , &c. def. p. . exc. p. . ib. p. . engl. th. p. , &c. def. p. . eng. the. p. . &c. eng. the p. , . the. lat. p. . eng. p. , . theor. li. . c. . p. . c. . p. , . &c. def. p. . def. p. . p. . luk ▪ . def. p. . p. . three physico-theological discourses ... wherein are largely discussed the production and use of mountains, the original of fountains, of formed stones, and sea-fishes bones and shells found in the earth, the effects of particular floods and inundations of the sea, the eruptions of vulcano's, the nature and causes of earthquakes : with an historical account of those two late remarkable ones in jamaica and england ... / by john ray ... ray, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) three physico-theological discourses ... wherein are largely discussed the production and use of mountains, the original of fountains, of formed stones, and sea-fishes bones and shells found in the earth, the effects of particular floods and inundations of the sea, the eruptions of vulcano's, the nature and causes of earthquakes : with an historical account of those two late remarkable ones in jamaica and england ... / by john ray ... ray, john, - . the second edition corrected, very much enlarged, and illustrated with copper plates. [ ], , [ ] p., [ ] leaves of plates : ill. printed for sam. smith ..., london : . advertisement on p. [ ] at end. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. (from t.p.) i. the primitive chaos and creation of the world -- ii. the general deluge, its causes and effects -- iii. the dissolution of the world and future conflagration. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . natural history -- pre-linnean works. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion three physico-theological discourses , concerning i the primitive chaos , and creation of the world. ii. the general deluge , its causes and effects . iii. the dissolution of the world , and future conflagration . wherein are largely discussed the production and use of mountains ; the original of fountains , of formed stones , and sea-fishes bones and shells found in the earth ; the effects of particular floods and inundations of the sea ; the eruptions of vulcano's ; the nature and causes of earthquakes : with an historical account of those two late remarkable ones in iamaica and england . with practical inferences . by iohn ray , fellow of the royal society the second edition corrected , very much enlarged , and illustrated with copper-plates . london : printed for sam. smith , at the princes arms in st. paul's church-yard . . to the most reverend father in god , john , l d arch-bishop of canterbury , primate of all england , and metropolitan . my lord , it was no interest or expectation of mine , that induced me to dedicate this discourse to your grace . i am not so well conceited of my own performances , as to think it merits to be inscribed to so great a name , much less that i should oblige your lordship , or indeed a far meaner person by such inscription . my principal motive was , that it would give me opportunity of congratulating with the sober part of this nation , your advancement to the archiepiscopal dignity ; and of acknowledging his majesty's wisdom in making choice of so fit a person to fill that chair , endued with all qualifications requisite for so high a calling ; so able and skilful a pilot to govern the church , and so prudent and faithful a counsellor to serve himself . but i will not enlarge in your just praises , lest i should incur the unjust censure or suspicion of flattery : give me leave only to add , what i may without injury of truth , and i think without violation of modesty ; that your grace's election hath the concurrent approbation and applause of all good men that know you , or have had a true character of you ; which may serve to strengthen your hands in the management and administration of so difficult a province , though you need no such support , as being sufficiently involved and armed by your vertues , and protected by the almighty power and providence ▪ those that are good and wise are pleased and satisfied , when great men are preferred to great places ; and think it pity that persons of large and publick spirits should be confined to narrow spheres of action , and want field to exercise and employ those rich talents and abilities wherewith they are endowed , in doing all the good they are thereby qualified and inclined to do . my lord , i am sensible that the present i make you , is neither for bulk nor worth suitable to your person and greatness ; yet i hope you will favourably accept it , being the best i have to offer ; and my boldness may pretend some excuse from ancient acquaintance , and from my forwardness to embrace this opportunity of professing my name among those that honour you , and of publishing my self , my lord , your grace's most devoted servant , and humble orator , iohn ray . the preface . having altered the method of this treatise , and made considerable additions to it , it may justly be expected that i should give some account thereof to the reader . in the preface to the former edition , i acquainted him , that i had taken notice of five matters of ancient tradition . . that the world was formed out of a chaos , by the divine wisdom and power . . that there was an universal flood of waters , in which all mankind perished , excepting some few which were saved in an ark or ship. . that the world shall one day be destroyed by fire . . that there is a heaven and a hell , an elysium and a tartarus , the one to reward good men , and other to punish wicked , and both eternal . . that bloody sacrifices were to be offered for the expiation of sin. and that of four of them i had occasion to treat in this book ; of two , that is to say , of the dissolution of the world by fire , and the eternal state that was to succeed ( in reference to man ) either in heaven or hell , more directly : of the other two , viz. the primitive chaos and creation , and the general deluge , occasionally and by way of digression , at the request of some friends . but now this treatise coming to a second impression , i thought it more convenient to make these several discourses upon these particulars , substantial parts of my work , and to dispose them according to the priority and posteriority of their subjects , in order of time , beginning with the primitive chaos . concerning these traditions , it may be enquired what the original of them was , whether they were of divine revelation , or humane invention . in answer whereto , as to the second , that there was once a general deluge , whereby this whole sublunary world was drown'd , and all animals , both man and beast destroyed , excepting only such as were preserved in an ark ; it being matter of fact , and seen and felt by noah , and his sons , there can be no doubt of the original of that . the first , concerning the chaos and creation of the world , if it were not ancienter 〈…〉 scrip●●re , it is likely it had its orig●nal fr●m the first chapter of genesis , and the chaos from the second verse , and the earth was without form and void , and darkness was upon the face of the deep . but if it were more ancient , it must still in all likelihood be divinely revealed , because man being created last , and brought into a world already filled and furnished : and god being an omnipotent , and also a free agent , who could as well have created the world in a moment , or altogether , as successively , it was impossible for man by reason to determine , which way he made choice of . the third , concerning the future dissolution and destruction of the world by a general conflagration , there being nothing in nature that can demonstrate the necessity of it : and a second inundation and submersion by water , being in the course of nature an hundred times more probable , as i have shewn in the ensuing discourses : and therefore we see god almighty to secure man against the apprehension and dread of a second deluge , made a covenant with him , to give him a visible sign in confirmation of it , never to destroy the world so again : and the ancients who relate this tradition , deivering it as an oracle or decree of fate . ovid metamorph. . esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus , &c. was likewise probable of divine revelation . the fourth , that there shall be a future state , wherein men shall be punished or rewarded , accordingly as they have done ill or well in this life , and that state eternal : thô the first part may be demonstrated from the justice and goodness of god , because there being an unequal distribution of good and evil in this life , there must be a time to set things streight in another world ; yet it being so difficult to human reason , to reconcile the eternity of punishments , with the justice and goodness of god , this second part of the tradition had need be well back'd by divine authority to make it credible and current among men. as for the last , tho' i meddle not with it in this treatise , yet i will take leave to say so much concerning it , that i think those who held sacrificing to have been a positive command of god , and to have had its original from divine institution , have the better reason on their side . for that it is no eternal and indispensable law of nature , is clear , in that our saviour abolished it . and many of the ancient fathers look upon sacrificing as so unreasonable a service , that therefore they thought god commanded it not to the primitive patriarchs ; and though he did command it to the iews , yet he did it only in condescension to their weakness because they had been used to such services , and also the nations round about them , to restrain them from idolatry , and sacrificing to strange gods , origen . homil. , in numer . deus sicut per alium prophetam dicit non mandiscat carnes taurorum , nec sanguinem hircorum potat . et etiam , ut alibi scriptum est , quia non mundavi tibi de sacrificiis vel victimis in die qua deduxi te de terra aegypti . sed moyses hoec ad diuritiem cordis eorum , pro consuetudine pessima qua imbuti fuerant in aegypto , mandavit e●s , ut qui abstinere se non possent ab immolando , deo saltem & non daemoniis immolarent . other quotations to this purpose may be seen in dr ▪ outram de sacrificiis indeed it seems absurd to think or believe , that god should take any pleasure in the slaughter of innocent beasts , or in the fume and nido● of burnt flesh or fat : nor doth the reason these fathers alledge of the institution of sacrifices or injoyning them to the iews satisfie , whatever truth there may be in it : for it is clear , that the main end and design of god in institutiing of them , was for types and adumbrations of that great sacrifice of christ to be offered upon the cross for the expiation of sin : and consequently it is probable , that those also that were offered by the ancient patriarchs before the law , had their original from some divine command or revelation , and the like reason of their institution , in reference to christ. but to leave that , i have in this edition removed one subject of apology , and added another , so that there still remain as many things to be excused or pleaded for . they are , first , writing so much ; for which some perchance may censure me , i am not ignorant , that men as they are mutable , so they love change , and affect variety of authors as well as books . satiety even of the best things is apt to creep upon us . he that writes much , let him write never so well , shall experience , that has last books , though nothing inferiour to his first , will not find equal acceptance . but for 〈◊〉 own part , tho' in general i may be thought to have written too much , yet is it but little that i have wr●tten relating to divinity . it were a good rule to be observed both by writer and reader , not how much , but how well ▪ he that cannot write well , had better spa●e his 〈◊〉 and not write at all . neither●●s he to be thought to write well , who though h● hath some good things thin set and dispersed , yet ●n●●mbers and accloys the reader with a deal of useless and impertinent stuff . on the contrary , he that writes well , cannot 〈◊〉 too much . for as pliny the younge● saith well , vt aliae bonae res , it a bo●ms l●ber eò melior est quisque quo major : as other good things , so a good book , the bigger it is , the better is it : which holds as well of the number as magnitude of books . secondly , being too hasty in huddling up , and tumbling out of books : wherein , i confess , i cannot wholly acquit my self of blame . i know well , that the longer a book lies by me , the perfecter it becomes . something occurs every day in reading or thinking , either to add , or to correct and alter for the better . but should i defer the edition till the work were absolutely perfect , i might wait all my life-time , and leave it to be published by my executors . now my age minding me of the approach of death ; and posthumous pieces generally proving inferiour to those put out by the authors in their life-time , i need no other excuse for my hast in publishing what i write . yet i shall further add in extenuation of the fault , if it be one , that however hasty and precipitate i am in writing , my books are but small , so that if they be worthless , the purchase is not great , nor the expence of time wasted in the perusal of them very considerable . yet is not the worth of a book always answerable to its bulk . but on the contrary , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is usually esteemed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . thirdly , the last thing for which i had need to apologize , is the rendring the former edition of this treatise worthless by making large additions to this latter : in excuse whereof i have no more to say than i have already written in an advertisement to the reader , premised to my discourse concerning the wisdom of god , to which therefore i refer those who desire satisfaction in this particular . place this half-sheet next after p. before the plates . reflecting upon the length of this discourse concerning the original of these bodies , i am suspicious that the vulgar and inconsiderate reader will be ready to demand , what needs all this ado ? to what purpose so many words about so trivial a subject ? what reference hath the consideration of shells and bones of fishes petrified to divinity ? wherefore i shall in a few words shew the great importance of this disquisition concerning formed stones , and the determination of their original . for , st , if we adhere to their opinions who hold them to have been original productions of nature , in imitation only of the shells and bones of fishes : we put a weapon into the atheists hands , affording him a strong argument to prove that even animals themselves are casual productions , and not the effects of counsel or design . for to what end are these bodies curiously figured and adorned ? if for no other but to exhibit such a form , for the ornament of the vniverse , or to gratifie the curiosity of man ; these are but general ends , whereas the parts of every species of body are formed and fitted to the particular vses and conveniences of that body . and if nature would delineate or imprint figures upon bodies , only to be spectacles to man , one would think it should not have made choice of those of the shells and bones of fishes , but rather of such as were absolutely new and different from any frequently seen or belonging to animals ; which serve rather to amuse than delight him . but ly , we find in the earth not only stones formed in imitation of shells ; but real shells , teeth and bones of fishes , or bodies so like them , that they are not to be distinguished by figure , texture , colour , weight , or any other accident . now what greater argument can the atheist desire to prove , that the shells of fishes were never designed by any provident efficient for their defence , or their bones for the sustaining of their bodies , but that the fish and shell containing it , and the bones sustaining it , did casually concur ▪ than that there should be real shells produced without any fish in them , and that in dry places where no fish ever did or could breed , or indeed live , and real fish-bones , where there never was nor could be any fish. doth it not than concern a divine to be acquainted with this objection against the bodies of animals being the effects of counsel and design , and provided with an answer to it . for my part i must needs confess that this argument weighs so with me , whether from that innate prolepsis my self , and i think most other men have of the prudence of nature in all its operations , or from mine own observing that in all other things , it acts for ends , that it is alone sufficient to preponderate all the arguments against the contrary opinions , though i acknowledge them to be of great force and hard to be answered , and to incline or rather constrain me to allow that these bodies were either real bones and shells of fishes , or owe their figure to them . i cannot ( to use the words of f. columna ) prevail with my self to believe , that nature ever made teeth without a iaw , or shells without an animal inhabitant , or single bones , no not in their own proper element , much less in a strange one , who even of the vulgar beholding any considerable part of an animal which he sees not the use of , is not apt presently to ask what it serves for , as by that innate prolepsis i mentioned before , presuming it was ●ot made in vain , but for some end and use . suppose any of us should find in the earth the compleat skeleton of a man , he must be as credulous as the atheist , if he could believe that it grew there of it self , and never had relation to any man's body . why then should we tbink that the entire skeletons of fishes found sometimes in the earth , had no other original ? nor ever were any part of living fishes . ly , if we chuse and embrace the contrary opinion , viz. that these bodies were the real shells and bones of fishes , or owe their figures to them , we shall find that this also is urged with many and almost unsuperable difficulties , the principal of which i have already produced , and shall here omit , repeating only two that refer to divinity . . these bodies being found dispersed all over the earth , they of the contrary opinion demand how they come there ? if it be answered , that they were brought in by the general deluge ; in contradiction thereto , they argue thus . if these stones were found scattered singly and indifferently all the earth over , there might be indeed some reason to imagine that they were brought in by the floud ; but being found in some particular places only , either lying thick in great beds of sand and gravel , or amassed together in huge lumps , by a stony cement ▪ such beds must in all likelihood have been the effect of those animals breeding there for a considerable time , whereas the floud continued upon the earth but ten months , during half which time it 's not likely that the mountains were covered ; and yet there are found of these bodies upon very high mountains , not excepting the appenine and alps themselves . whence they conclude , that they were neither brought in by the floud , nor bred during the floud , b●t some other way produced . for if they were the shells of fishes , or their bones , the water must needs have covered the whole earth , even the mountains themselves for a ●uch longer time than is consistent with the scripture-history of the floud , and therefore we must seek some other original of these bodies . if we stick to the letter of the scripture-history of the creation , that the creation of fishes succeeded the separation of land and sea , and that the six days wherein the world was created , were six natural days and no more , it is very difficult to return a satisfactory answer to this objection : i shall therefore only add a conjecture of my own , and that is , that possibly at the first creation , the whole earth was not all at once uncovered , but only those parts whereabout adam and the other animals were created , and the rest gradually afterwards , perchance not in many years ; during which time these shell-fish might breed abundantly all the sea over , the bottom whereof being elevated and made dry land , the beds of shell-fish , must necessarily be raised together with it . . it will hence follow that many species of animals have been lost out of the world , which philosophers and divines are unwilling to admit , esteeming the destruction of any one species a dismembring of the vniverse , and rendring the world imperfect . whereas they think the divine providence is especially concerned and solicitous to secure and preserve the works of the creation . and truly so it is , as appears , in that it was so careful to lodge all land-animals in the ark at the time of the general deluge , and in that of all animals recorded in natural histories , we cannot say that there hath been any one species lost , no not of the most infirm and most exposed to injury and ravine . moreover it is likely , that as there neither is nor can be any new species of animal produced , all proceeding from seeds at first created ; so providence without which one individual sparrow falls not to the ground , doth in that manner watch over all that are created , that an entire species shall not be lost or destroyed by any accident . now i say , if these bodies were sometimes the shells and bones of fish , it will thence follow , that many species have been lost out of the world , as for example , those ophiomorphous ones , whose shells are now called cornua ammonis , of which there are many species , none whereof at this day , appear in our or other seas , so far as i have hitherto seen , heard or read . to which i have nothing to reply , but that there may be some of them remaining some where or other in the seas , though as yet they have not come to my knowledge . for though they may have perished or by some accident been destroyed out of our seas , yet the race of them may be preserved and continued still in others . so though wolves and bevers , which we are well assured were sometimes native of england , have been here utterly destroyed and extirpated out of this island , yet there remain plenty of them still in other countrys . by what hath been said concerning the nature and original of stones , i hope it may appear , that this is no idle and unnecessary discourse , but very momentous and important ; and this subject , as mean as it seems , worthy the most serious consideration of christian philosophers and divines ; concerning which , though i have spent many thoughts , yet can i not fully satisfie my self , much less then am i likely to satisfie others . but i promise my self and them more full satisfaction shortly from the labours of those who are more conversant and better acquainted with these bodies than i , who have been more industrious in searching them out , and happy in discovering them , who have been more curious and diligent in considering and comparing them , more critical and exact in observing and noting their nature , texture , figure , parts , places , differences , and other accidents , than my self , and particularly that learned and ingenious person before remembred . the following tables , containing some species of the most different genera of these bodies , viz. shark's teeth , wolf-fish's teeth , cockles or concha , periwinkles or turbens , cornua ammonis or serpent stones ▪ sea-urchins and their prickles , vertebres and other bones of fishes , entire fishes petrifi'd , and of those some singly , some represented as they lye in beds and quarries under ground , for the information of those who are less acquainted with such bodie , were thought fit to be added to this edition . tab . ii. pag. . fig . , . several fragments and lumps of petrify'd shells , as they lie in quarries and beds under ground ; on many of these petrifactions there still remain some laminae , or plates of the original shells , which prove them not to be stones primarily so figur'd . fig . the cornu ammonis lying in rocks with other petrify'd bodies . tab . iii. pag. . fig . , . two petrify'd fishes lying in stone , with their seales and bones . fig. . a sea-urchin petrify'd with its prickles broken off , which are a sort of lapis iudaicus , or iew-stones ; their insertions on the studs or protuberances of the shell are here shewn . see their history and manner of lying in stone and beds , in agostino scilla . . napoli . tab . iv. pag. . fig . , , , , , , , , , , , , , . several petrify'd teeth of dog-fishes , sharks , and other fishes . fig. , . the same lying in a tophaceous bed , and also in a jaw-bone . fig. . the petrify'd teeth of a wolf-fish , in a piece of the jaw ; the round ones , or grinders , are sold in maltha for petrify'd eyes of serpents ; and by our jewellers and goldsmiths for toad-stones , commonly put in rings . fig. , , . other petrify'd bones of fishes , especially joynts , or vertebra's of back-bones , one with two stony spines , issuing out , f. . see them more at large in the draughts of that curious sicilian painter , agostino scilla . place this before tab. ii. p. . the contents . discourse i. of the primitive chaos , and creation of the world . chap. i. testimonies of the ancient heathen writers , hesiod , ovid , aristophanes , lucan , euripides , concerning the chaos , and what they meant by it . chap. ii. that the creation of the world out of a chaos , is not repugnant to the holy scripture , if soberly understood , p , , , , . chap. iii. of the separating the land and water , and raising up the mountains , p. , &c. by what means the waters were gathered together into one place , and the dry land made to appear , p. . that subterraneous fires and flatus's , might be of power sufficient to produce such an effect , proved from the force and effects of gunpowder , and the raising up of new mountains , p. , , . the shaking of the whole known world by an earthquake , p. , . that the mountains , islands , and whole continents were probably at first raised up by subterraneous fires , proved by the authority of lydiate and strabo , p. , , . of subterraneous caverns passing under the bottom of the sea , p. , , , &c. a discourse concerning the equality of the sea and land , both as to the extent of each , and the height of one , to the depth of the other , taken from the shores , p. , , , , , . that the motion of the water levels the bottom of the sea , p. , , . a discourse concerning the use of the mountains , , , , &c. the sum of what hath been said of the division and disposition of the water and earth , p. . chap. iv. of the creation of animals : some questions concerning them resolved , p. . that god almighty did at first create either the seeds of all animate bodies , and dispersed them all the earth over : or else the first sett of animals themselves in their full state and perfection , giving each species a power by generation to propagate their like , p. , . whether god at first created a great number of each species , or only two , a male and a female , p. , . whether all individual animals which already have been , and hereafter shall be , were at first actually created by god , or only the first sett of each species , the rest proceeding from them by way of generation , and being a new produced , p. , , , &c. objections against the first part answered : . that it seems impossible , that the ovaries of the first animals should actually include the innumerable myriads of those that may proceed from them in so many generations as have been , and shall be to the end of the world : this shewn not to be so incredible from the multitude of parts , into which matter may be , and is divided , in many experiments , p. , , , . &c. . if all the members of animals already formed do pre exist in the egg , how can the imagination of the mother change the shape , and that so notoriously sometimes , as to produce a calve's-head , or dog's-face , or the like monstrous members . several answers to thus objection offered , p. , , ▪ discourse ii. of the general deluge , in the days of noah , its causes and effects . p. . chap. i. testimonies of ancient heathen writers , and some ancient coyns or medals , verifying the scripture-history of the deluge , p. , , , . that the ancient poets and mythologists , by deucalion understood noah , and by deucalion's flood the general deluge proved , , , , . chap. ii. of the causes of the general deluge , : . a miraculous transmutation of air into water rejected , , , . that noah's flood was not topical , . , & . the emotion of the center of the earth , or a violent depression of the surface of the ocean , the most probable partial causes of the deluge : but the immediate causes assigned by the scripture , are the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep ▪ and the opening of the windows of heaven , . that those causes are sufficient to produce a deluge , granting a change of the centre of the earth , to prevent the waters running off , , , . that all the vapours suspended in the air might contribute much towards a flood , ibid. concerning the expence of the sea by vapour , , , , &c. of the waters keeping its level : an objection concerning an under-current at the propon●is , the streights of gibralter , and the baltick sound , proposed and replied to , , , , . concerning the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep , and how the waters might be made to 〈◊〉 , , . the inferiour circulation , and perpetual motion of the water disapproved , , &c. that the continents and islands are so equally dispersed all the world over , as to counterballance one another , so that the centers of motion , gravity , and magnitude , concur in one , , . an occasional discourse concerning the original of fountains , , , &c. to . that the preponderancy of the earth , and the waters lying on an heap in the opposite hemisphere , cannot be the cause of the waters ascent in springs , proved , , . that rains and snow may suffice to feed the springs , and do feed the ordinary ones , proved , , . that the rain-water sinks down , and makes its way into the earth , more than ten , or twenty , or forty , or even an hundred foot , proved by many arguments and experiments . , , &c. mr. halley's opinion , that springs and rivers owe their original to vapours condensed on the sides of the mountains , and not unto rain , propounded and approved in great part as to hot countries , tho' rains even there not wholly excluded , p. , , &c. but disallowed as to the more temperate and cold ones , yet even there the vapours granted to have a good interest in their production , , , &c. to . observations communicated by dr. tancr . robinson , concerning the original of fountains , dropping trees , &c. in confirmation in part of mr. halley's opinion , . an experiment of mine own , in confirmation of the histories of dropping , or fountain-trees , . inferences upon the supposition of the rivers pouring into the sea half an ocean of water daily , , &c. the most probable causes of the deluge , viz. the emotion of the center of the earth , or an extraordinary depr●ssion of the superficies of the sea , , , . chap. iii. of the effects of the deluge in general , p. . . chap. iv. of formed stones , sea-shells , and other marine , or marine-like bodies found at great distance from the shores , supposed to have been brought in by the deluge , p. . wherein is treated at large concerning the nature and original of these bodies : and that great question , whether they were originally the real shells and bones of fishes , or stones cast in such molds ? or , whether they be primitive productions of nature , in imitation only of such shells and bones , not owing their figure to them ? largely discussed , the arguments on both sides produced and weighed , , , &c. to . chap. v. that there have been great changes made in the superficial part of the earth since the general deluge , and by what means , , &c. as for instance , the submersion of the great island of atlantis , . the breaking off sicily from italy : ceylon from india : sumatra from malacca , : of britain from france , proved out of verstegan , : of barbary from spain : of asia from thrace , , . the raising up of new islands , , . the atteration of the skirts of the sea , instances whereof are , . the dutch netherlands , proved out of verstegan , by sufficient arguments , to have been anciently covered by the sea. . the great level of the fens running through holland in lincolnshire , the isle of ely in cambridgeshire , and marshland in norfolk . . the craux in provence in france . . the whole land of aegypt . . probably all china : with many others briefly mentioned , , , &c. to . the submersion of the land by the irruptions and inundations of the sea : several instances thereof , , , . changes by the encroachments of the sea undermining the shores , and washing them away ; and again letting the earth so washed away , to settle not far from the shores , and so raise up islands , , . changes by the depression and sinking of the mountains , the earth being washed down by shots of rain , rivers , and subterraneous waters . these so great and considerable as to endanger in conclusion the submersion of the whole dry land , unless some stop be put , p. , , . changes made by earth-quakes : of which many instances out of strabo , pliny , and others are produced , , , &c. a particular narrative and account of the late terrible earthquake in jamaica , with remarks and observations natural and moral upon it , , , &c. to . an occasional discourse concerning the nature , causes , and differences of earthquakes , , , &c. to . a particular account of the late remarkable , and far-extended earthquake , which happened here with us in england , and in other parts of europe , upon septemb. . . , , &c. to . of extraordinary floods caused by long continuing showers , or violent storms and shots of rain , , , &c. of boisterous and violent winds and hurricans , what interest they have in the changes wrought in the earth , , , , . that the earth doth not proceed so fast towards ● general inundation and submersion by water , as the force and agency of all these causes seem to require , . discourse iii. of the future dissolution of the world , and the general conslagration . the introduction being a discourse concerning prophesie , , , &c. chap. i. the division of the words [ peter . . ] and the doctrine contained in them , with the heads of the following discourse , viz. i. testimonies concerning the dissolution . . of the holy scriptures . . of ancient christian writers . . of heathen philosophers and sages . ii. seven questions concerning the dissolution of the world proposed . chap. ii. the testimonies of scripture concerning the dissolution of the world. and dr. hammond's expositions , referring the most of them to the destruction of the city and temple of jerusalem , and the period of the jewish state and polity considered , and pleaded for , , , &c. to . chap. iii. testimonies of the ancient fathers and doctors of the church , concerning the dissolution of the world , , , &c. to . chap. iv. the testimonies of some heathen philosophers , and other writers , concerning the dissolution ; the epicureans ; the stoicks , &c. who held certain periods of in●●olation and conflagrations , . that this opinion of a 〈◊〉 conflagration was of far greater antiquity then that sect proved . chap. v. the first question concerning the world's dissolution ; whether there be any thing in nature that may probably cause or argue a future dissolution ? four probable means propounded and discussed . sect. . the first is the probability of the waters naturally returning to overflow and cover the earth . the old argument from the world's dissolution taken from us daily consenescency and decay rejected . the necessity of such a prevailing of the waters daily upon the dry land , till at last it proceed to a total submersion of it , in the course of nature , as things now stand , unless some stop be put , proved ▪ from the continual streightning of the sea , and l●wering the mountains and high grounds by rains , floods and rivers , washing away , and carrying down the earth , and from the seas encroaching upon the shares , to . a large qu●tation out of josephus blancanus , demonst●ating the same thing by many arguments . sect. . the second probable means or cause of the world's destruction in a natural way , viz. the extinction of the sun . sect. . the third possible cause of the world's destruction ▪ the eruption of the central fire . that the being of such a fire is no way repugnant either to scripture or reason , . sect. . the fourth possible cause of the world's dissolution , the earth's dryness and inflammability in the torrid z●ne , and the concurrent eruptions of v●l●ane●● . that the inclination of the ecliptick to the aequator doth not diminish . that tho' there were such a drying and parching of the earth in the torrid zone , it would not probably infer a conflagration , . that there hath not yet been , nor in the ordinary course of nature can be any such drying or parching of the earth in the torrid zone . the possibility of the desic●ation of the sea by natural means denied , . the fixedness and intransmutability of principles , secures the universe from dissolution , destruction of any present species , or by production of any new , . chap. vi. containing an answer to the second question , whether shall this dissolution be effected by natural , or extraordinary means , and what they shall be ? . chap. vii . the third question answered , whether shall the dissolution be gradual and successive , or momentanouns and sudden ? . chap. viii . the fourth question resolved , whether shall there be any signs or fore-runners of the dissolution of the world ? . chap. ix . the fifth question debated , at what period of time shall the world be dissolved ? and particularly , whether at the end of six thousand years ? . chap. x. how far shall this dissolution , or conflagration extend ? whether to the aetherial heavens , and all the host of them , sun , moon , and stars , or to the aerial only ? . chap. xi . the seventh and last question , whether shall the whole world be consumed and destroyed or annihilated , or only refined and purified . the restitution and continuance of the world proved by the testimonies of scripture and antiquity , and also by reason , . the arguments for the abolition and annihilation answer'd , , . chap. xii . the inference the apostle makes from the precedent doctrine : of future rewards and punishments . the eternity of future punishments proved from the authority of scripture and antiquity . how the eternity of punishments can consist with the iustice and goodness of god , from p. . to the end of the book . discourse i. of the primitive chaos and creation of the world. in the former edition of this treatise this discourse concerning the primitive chaos and creation of the world , and that other concerning the destruction thereof by the waters of the general deluge , in the days of noah , were brought in by way of digression ; because i designed not at first to treat of them , but only of the conflagration or dissolution of the world by fire ; but was afterwards , when i had made a considerable progress in the dissolution , at the instance of some friends , because of their relation to my subject , prevailed upon to say something of them . but now that i am at liberty so to do , i shall not handle them any more by the by , but make them substantial parts of my book , and dispose them , as is most natural , accordding to their priority and posteriority in order of time , beginning with the chaos and creation . chap. i. testimonies of the ancient heathen writers concerning the chaos , and what they meant by it . it was an ancient tradition among the heathen , that the world was created out of a chaos . first of all the ancient greek poet hesiod , who may contend for antiquity with homer himself , makes mention of it in his theogonia , not far from the beginning , in these words . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . first of all there was a chaos . and a few verses after , speaking of the immediate production or off-spring of the chaos , he saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . from chaos proceeded hell , and night [ or darkness ] which seems to have its foundation or occasion from the second verse of the first chapter of genesis ; and the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep . of this testimony of hesiod , lactantius takes notice , and censures it , in the first book of his institutions 〈…〉 hesiodus non à deo conditore , sumens exordium , sed à chao , quod est rudis inordinat á que materiae confusae congeries . hesiod not taking his beginning from god the creator of all things , but from the chaos , which is a rude and inordinate heap of confused matter . and so ovid describes it in the beginning of his metamorphosis ; quem dixere chaos , rudis indigestáque moles , nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestáque eôdem non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum . that is , one face had nature , which they chaos nam'd an undigested lump , a barren load , where jarring seeds of things ill joyn'd aboad . others of the ancients have also made mention of the chaos , as aristophanes in avibus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. and lucan in the beginning of his first book antiquum repetent iterum chaos omnia , &c. of the formation of all the parts of the world out of this chaos , ovid in the place fore-quoted , gives us a full and particular description : and euripides before him a brief one , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. the heaven and earth were at first of one form ; but after they were separated , the earth brought forth trees , birds , beasts , fishes and mankind . the like account also the ancient philosopher anaxagoras gives of the creation of the world , beginning his philosophy thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that is , all things ( at first ) were together , or mingled and confused , then mind supervening disposed them in a beautiful order . that which i chiefly dislike in this opinion of theirs is , that they make no mention of the creation of this chaos , but seem to look upon it as self-existent and improduced . chap. ii. that the creation of the world out of a chaos is not repugnant to the holy scripture . this opinion of a chaos , if soberly understood , not as self-existent and improduced , but in the first place created by god , and preceding other beings , which were made out of it , is not , so far as i can discern , any way repugnant to the holy scripture , but on the contrary rather consonant and agreeable thereto . for moses in the history and description of the creation in the first chapter of genesis , saith not that god created all things in an instant in their full state and perfection , but that he proceeded gradually and in order , from more imperfect to more perfect beings , first beginning with the earth , that is , the terraqueous globe , which was made tohu vabohu , without form and void , the waters covering the face of the land , which were afterwards separated from the land , and gathered together into one place . then he created out of the land and water first plants , and then animals , fishes , birds , beasts , in order , and last of all formed the body of man of the dust of the earth . and whereas there is no particular mention made of the creation of metals , minerass and other fossils , they must be comprehended in the word earth , as the water it self also is in the second verse of this first chapter . it seems therefore to me consonant to the scripture , that god almighty did at first create the earth or terraqueous globe , containing in its self the principles of all simple inanimate bodies , or the minute and naturally indivisible particles of which they were compounded , of various but a determinate number of figures , and perchance of different magnitudes ; and these variously and confusedly commixed , as though they had been carelesly shaken and shuffled together ; yet not so , but that there was order observed by the most wise creator in the disposition of them . and not only so , but that the same omnipotent deity did create also the seeds or seminal principles of all animate bodies , both vegetative and sensitive ; and disperst them , at least the vegetative , all over the superficial part of the earth and water . and the notion of such an earth as this is , the primitive patriarchs of the world delivered to their posterity , who , by degrees annexing something of sabulous to it , imposed upon it the name of chaos . the next work of the divine power and wisdom was the separation of the water from the dry land , and raising up of the mountains , of which i shall treat more particularly in the next chapter . to which follows the giving to both elements a power of hatching , as i may so say , or quickening and bringing to perfection the seeds they contained ; first the more imperfect , as herbs and trees ; then the more perfect , fish , fowl , four-footed beasts , and creeping things or infects . which may be the meaning of those commands of god , which were operative and effectual , communicating to the earth and water a power to produce what he commanded them , gen. . . let the earth bring forth grass , &c. and v. . let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life , and fowl that may fly above the earth , &c. and v. . let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind , cattel and creeping thing , and beast of the earth after his kind . so the earth was at first cloathed with all sorts of herbs and trees ; and both earth and water furnished with inhabitants . and this the ancients understood by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but whether out of prae-existing seeds , as i suppose , or not , certain it is that god at that time did give an extraordinary and miraculous power to the land and water of producing vegetables and animals : and after there were as many of every kind brought forth as there were seeds created at first ; or as many as it seemed good to the divine creator to produce without seed ; there remained no further ability in those elements to bring forth any more ; but all the succeeding owe their original to seed ; god having given to every species a power to generate or propagate its like . chap. iii. of the separating the land and water , and raising up the mountains . supposing that god almighty did at first create the terrestrial globe , partly of solid and more ponderous , partly of fluid and lighter parts ; the solid and ponderous must needs naturally subside , the fluid and lighter get above . now that there were such different parts created , is clear , and therefore it is reasonable to think that the waters at first should stand above and cover the earth : and that they did so , seems evident to me from the testimony of the scripture . for in the history of the creation in the first chapter of genesis , verse . it is said , that the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters , intimating that the waters were uppermost . and god said , verse . let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place , and let the dry land appear . whence , i think , it is manifest to any unprejudiced reader , that before that time the land was covered with water . especially if we add the testimony of the holy psalmist , psalm . vers . . & . which is as it were a comment upon this place of genesis , where speaking of the earth at the creation , he saith , thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment ; the waters stood above the mountains ... and ver . . that they turn not again to cover the earth . and that this gathering together of waters was not into any subterraneous abyss , seems likewise clear from the text. for it is said , that god called this collection of waters seas , as if it been on purpose to prevent such a mistake . whether this separation of the land and water , and gathering the waters together into one place , were done by the immediate application and agency of god's almighty power , or by the intervention and instrumentality of second causes , i cannot determine . it might possibly be effected by the same causes that earthquakes are , viz. subterraneous fires and flatuses . we see what incredible effects the accension of gunpowder hath : it rends rocks , and blows up the most ponderous and solid walls , towers and edifices , so that its force is almost irresistible . why then might not such a proportionable quantity of such materials set on fire together raise up the mountains themselves , how great and ponderous soever they be , yea the whole superficies of the dry land ( for it must all be elevated ) above the waters ? and truly to me the psalmist seems to intimate this cause , psalm . . for after he had said , the waters stood above the mountains ; he adds , at thy rebuke they fled , at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . now we know that an earthquake is but a subterraneous thunder , and then immediately follows , the mountains ascend , the valleys descend , &c. if there might be a high hill raised up near the city troezen , out of a plain field , by the force of a subterraneous fire or flatus , as ovid tells us . est prope pitthaeam tumulus troezena sine ullis arduus arboribus , quondam planissima campi area , nunc tumulus : nam ( res horrenda relatu ) vis fera ventorum , caecis inclusa cavernis , expirare aliqua cupiens , luctatáque frustra liberiore frui coelo , cum carcere rima nulla fuit toto , nec pervia flatibus esset , extentam tumefecit humum , ceu spiritus oris tendere vesicam solet , aut derepta bicornis terga capri ; tumor ille loci permansit & alti collis habet speciem , longóque induruit aevo . a hill by pitthaean traezen mounts uncrown'd with sylvan shades , which once was level ground , for furious winds ( a story to admire ) pent in blind caverns , strugling to expire ; and vainly seeking to enjoy th' extent of freer air , the prison wanting vent , puffs up the hollow earth extended so , as when with swelling breath we bladders blow . the tumour of the place remained still . in time grown solid , like a lofty hill. a parallel instance hereto we have of later date , of a hill not far from puzzuolo [ puteoli ] beside the gulph of baiae , which i my self have view'd and been upon . it is by the natives called monte di cenere , and was raised by an earthquake sept. . . of about one hundred foot perpendicular altitude ; though some make it much higher : according to stephanus pighius it is a mile ascent to the top , and four miles round at the foot : we indeed judged it not near so great . the people say it bears nothing ; nothing of any use or profit i suppose they mean : else i am sure there grows heath , myrtle , mastick-tree , and other shrubs upon it . it is a spungy kind of earth , and makes a great sound under a man's feet that stamps upon it . the same earthquake threw up so much earth . stones and ashes as quite filled up the lacus lucrinus , so that there is nothing left of it now , but a fenny meadow . if such hills , i say , as these may be , and have been elevated by subterraneous wild-fire , flatus or earthquakes , si parvis liceat componere magna , if we may compare great things with small , why might not the greatest and highest mountains in the world be raised up in like manner by a subterraneous flatus or wild-fire , of quantity and force sufficient to work such an effect , that is , that bears as great a proportion to the superincumbent weight and bulk to be elevated , as those under these smaller hills did to theirs ? but we cannot doubt this may be done , when we are well assured that the like hath been done . for the greatest and highest ridge of mountains in the world , the andes of peru , have been for some hundreds of leagues in length violently shaken , and many alterations made therein by an earthquake that happened in the year . mentioned by kircher in his arca noae , from the letters of the jesuits . and pliny tells us of his own knowledge , that the alps and appennine have often been shaken with earthquakes : exploratum est mihi alpes apenninumque saepius tremuisse , lib. . cap . nay more then all this , we read that in the time of the emperour valentinian the first , there was an earthquake that shook all the known world. whilst this innovator , [ that is procopius ] was yet alive ( saith amm. marcellinus lib. . cap. . ) horrendi tremores per omnem orbis ambitum grassati sunt subitò , quales nec fabulae , nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt . paulò enim post lucis exortum denfitate praevia fulgurum acriùs vibratorum tremefacta concutitur omnis terreni stabilitas ponderis , maréque dispulsum retrò fluctibus evolutis abscessit , ut retecta voragine profundodorum species natantium multiformes limo cernerentur haerentes , valliúmque vastitates & montium , ut opinari dabatur , suspicerent radios solis quos primigenia rerum sub immensis gurgitibus amandavit , &c. that is , horrid earthquakes suddenly raged all the world over , the like whereto neither fables nor true antiquities ever acquaint us with , or make mention of . for soon after break of day redoubled smart and violent flashes of lightning preceding , the stable and ponderous mass of the whole earth was shaken and made to tremble ; and the sea with revolved waves was driven backwards , and forced so far to recede , that the bottom of the great deeps and gulfs being discovered , multiform species of fishes forsaken by the water were seen lying on the mud : and those vast valleys and mountains which the primigenial nature had sunk deep and concealed under immense waters ( as we had reason to think ) saw the sun beams . wherefore many ships resting upon the dry ground , the mariners wandring carelesly up and down through the small reliques of the waters , that they might gather up fishes and other things with their hands ; the sea-waves , being as it were grieved with their repulse , rise up again , and making their way backward through the fervid shallows , violently dashing against the islands and extended shores of the continents , threw down and levelled numerable edifices in cities and where else they were found . where see more of the effects of it . of this earthquake we find mention also in zosimus and orosius . if this story be true , as certainly it is , we have no reason to doubt of the possibility of the dry land being thus raised at first by subterraneous fire . and with us agrees the learned thomas lydyat in his philosophical disquisition concerning the origine of fountains , &c. being of opinion not only that it might be so , but that it was so . i shall give you his own words , vbi aliud quoque summae admirationis plenum terrae motûs atque ignis subterranei effectum notandum venit , montium sci . generatio . and then having mentioned the raising up islands in the sea by subterraneous fires , he proceeds thus , quomodo etiam omnes montes qui uspiam sunt , unà cum ipsis terris continentibus ( quae nihil aliud sunt quàm sparsi in oceano majores montes sive insulae ) in mundi primordiis , ( quando nimirum ignis quo de loquimur , in terrae visceribus à potentissimo mundi conditore accensus est ) extitisse maximè fit verisimile , mari in cava loca recedente , & terrestribus animalibus ( ejusdem divini numinis sapientissimo consilio ) habitandi locum relinquente . that is , after which manner also all the mountains in the world , together with the continents themselves , ( which are nothing else but great mountains or islands scattered in the ocean ) in the beginning of the world , when the fire of which we speak was first kindled in the bowels of the earth by the almighty creator , were ( as it is most highly probable ) originally raised up : the sea receding into the cavities and depressed places , and by the most wise counsel of the supreme deity leaving room for terrestrial animals to inhabit . then which nothing can be said more consonant to what we have written : and i was highly pleased and satisfied to find such philosophy in so learned and judicious a writer . and in confirmation of this doctrine , strabo himself , though he had not , nor could have any knowledge at all of the prodigious effects of gunpowder , yet makes no difficulty to affirm the possibility of raising up as well the continents and mountains as the islands by earthquakes and subterraneous fires ; toward the latter end of the first book of his geography discoursing thus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a little after , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , for earthquakes and eruptions of flatus [ blasts ] or sudden tumors of the submarine earth , or bottom of the sea , may swell and elevate the sea ; so that not only small lumps or masses of matter , but even islands may be raised up in the midst of it . neither if small islands can be raised , may not great ones too ; neither may islands be heaved up , and not continents as well . and sicily may as well be thought to have been thrown up out of the deep by the force of the aetnaean fire , and sticking together to have continued above water , as to have been a piece broken off from italy . and the like may be said of the islands of lipara and pithecusae . of the possibity of doing it we need not doubt , when we have sufficient proof of the thing done in lesser islands thus heaved up in the midst of the sea , by submarine fires . strabo lib. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , between thera and therasia flames issuing out of the sea for four days , ( so that the whole sea boil'd and burned ) blew up by little and little , as if it had been raised by machines , and composed of great lumps or masses , an island of twelve furlongs circumference . and pliny tells us , that the island hiera near italy , in the time of the social war , together with the sea it self , did burn for several days . his words are , in medio mari hiera insula juxta italiam cum ipso mari arsit per aliquot dies . and strabo lib. . reports , that about methone in the bay of hermione , there was earth raised , and as it were blown up to the height of seven furlongs by a fiery breath or exhalation , which by day time was unaccessible by reason of heat and sulphureous slench , but smelling sweet by night , and shining so as to be seen asar off , likewise casting such a heat , as to cause the sea to boil for five furlongs , and to render it troubled for the space of twenty ; raising up therein a baich or bank of stones as big as towers . these instances i alledge principally because they seem to demonstrate a possibility of the accension of fire in the earth when it was wholly covered with water , and had no entercourse or communion with the superiour or external air : which is the main and most material objection against the elevation of the dry land at the beginning by subterraneous fires . you will say , if the mountains be thus heaved up by subterraneous fires , the earth must needs be hollow all underneath them , and there must be vast dens and caverns disperst throughout them . i answer , 't is true indeed , so there are ; as may undeniably be proved by instances . for the new mountain we mentioned at puteoli , that was thus raised , being of a mile steep ascent , and four miles round at the foot , a proportionable cavity must be left in the earth underneath : and the mountain aetna at the last eructation alone having disgorged out of its bowels so great a flood of melted materials , as if spread at the depth and breadth of three foot , might reach four times round the whole circuit of the terraqueous globe , there must likewise an answerable vault be left within . you will demand , how then comes it to pass , that they stand so firm , and do not founder and fall in after so many ages . i answer , that they may stand , appears by the foresaid new-raised mountain . for notwithstanding the cavity in and under it , it hath stood firm and staunch , without the least sinking or subsidency , for above an hundred and fifty years : neither is there any great sinking or falling in at aetna it self ; at least in no degree answerable to it s ejected matter . this assertion is confirmed by the unanimous vote and testimony of all writers , ancient and modern , who have handled this subject . but alphonsus borellus supposes them not to have duly considered the matter , and calculated the quantity of the ejected materials and the bulk of the mountain , and compared them together ; but to have been carried away by the prejudices and perswasions of the people , who looking upon the top of the mountain at a distance , think it but a small thing in comparison of the ejected sand and ashes that covered whole countries ; and those vast rivers of liquid stones and other ingredients , that ran down so many miles , whereas he by a moderate computation found out that the total of what the mountain disgorged at the last eruption amounted not ( as i remember ) to the fourteen thousandth part of the solidity of the whole mountain . the reason is the strength and firmness of their vaulture and pillars , sufficient to support the superincumbent weight . and yet in some places there are sinkings and fallings in , which have afterwards become valleys or pools of water . but as for the cavities that are lower than the superficies of the ocean , the water , where it could insinuate and make its way , hath filled them up to that height . i say where it could make its way , for that there are many empty cavities even under the sea it self , appears by the shaking and heating too of the very water of the sea in some places in earthquakes , and raising up the borders or skirts of it , so as to drive the water a great way back ; and the raising up new islands in the middle of the sea ; as delos and rhodes , and anaphe , and nea , and alone , and hiera , and thera mentioned by pliny , hist lib. . c. . and thia in his own time ; and therasia in the aegean in senaca's time , which was heaved up in the sight of many mariners then present and looking on . i am not ignorant , that the learned man i lately quoted , i mean alph. borellus , in his book de incendiis aetnae , is of opinion , that the middle part , or as he calls it , the kernel of that mountain is firm and solid , without any great caverns or vacuities , and that all those vaults and cavities in which the fire rages are near the superficial or cortical part : and derides those who fancy that aetna , the aeolian islands , lipara , strongyle , &c. and vesuvius do communicate by subterraneous channels and passages running under the bottom of the sea. but saving the respect due to him for his learning and ingenuity , there is good authority on their side ; and our ratiocinations against the possibility of such a thing must give place to the clear proof of matter of fact . iulius ethnicus an ancient writer , quoted by ludovicus vives in his annotations upon s. augustine , de civitate dei , gives us this relation , marco aemilio , lucio aurelio consulibus , aetna mons terrae motu ignes super verticem latè diffudit , & ad insulam liparam mare efferbuit , & quibusdam adustis navibus vapore plerósque navaleis exanimavit : piscium vim magnam exanimem dispersit , quos liparenses avidiùs epulis adpetenteis contaminatione ventris consumpti sunt , ita ut novâ pestilentià vast arentur insulae . that is , marcus aemilius and lucius aurelius being consuls , mount aetna being shaken by an earthquake , cast forth and scattered fire from its top far and wide . at which time the sea at the island of lipara was boyling hot , and some ships being burnt most of the seamen were stifled with the vapour : besides it dispersed abroad a power of dead fish , which the liparensians greedily ga●●ering up and eating , were consumed with a contagious disease in their bellies : so that the islands were wasted with a new sort of pestii●●ce . and father kircher the jesuite , in the preface to his mundus subterraneus giving a relation of an earthquake which shook a great part of calabria , and made notable devastations there , which himself saw , and was in , anno . clearly demonstrates that aetna , stromboli , and the mountains of calabria , do communicate by vaults and caverns passing under the bottom of the sea. i shall insert but one passage out of him , referring the reader to the fore-quoted preface for the rest . hisce calamitatibus ( saith he ) dum jactamur , ego curiosiùs intuitus strongylum , ferè milliarium intercapedine dissitum , illum insolito modo furere notavi , &c. i.e. while we were tost with these calamities , i beholding curiously the island stromboli about miles distant , observed it to rage after an unusual manner , for it appeared all filled with fire in such plenty , that it seemed to cast forth mountains of flame : a spectacle horrid to behold and formidable to the most undaunted spirit . in the mean time there was a certain sound perceived as it were of thunder , but by reason of the great distance from whence it came somewhat obscure , which by degrees , proceeding forward in the subterraneous conduits , grew greater and greater , till it came to the place just underneath us , [ they were at lopez by the sea ] where it shook the earth with such a roaring or murmure and fury , that being not able to stand any longer upon our legs , we were forced , to support our selves , to catch hold upon any shrub or twig that was near us , lest our limbs should be put out of joynt by too much shaking and concussion . at which time happened a thing worthy of immortal and eternal memory , viz. the subversion of the famous town of s. eusemia ; which he goes about to relate . as for vesuvius , if that be not hollow down to the very roots and foundations of it , how comes it to pass that at the times of its deflagrations it should vomit out such stoods of boiling waters ? as if we had not read of them in histories , and been told so by our guide when we ascended that mountain , we must needs have perceived our selves by the mighty guls and channels in the sides thereof , it being of it self near the top so spungy and dry , that it is more likely to imbibe then to cast off much rain in the winter time . and again , what causes the sea to recede at those times , and that to so great a distance , that the galleys have been laid dry in the very haven of naples ? howbeit , i cannot positively assert the mountains thus to have been raised . but yet whether without means , or by whatsoever means it were , a receptacle for the waters was prepared , and the dry land and mountains elevated , so as to cast off the waters , on the third day , and which is wonderful , the cavities made to receive the waters , and the whole terra firma , or dry land with its mountains were so proportioned one to the other , as that the one was as much depressed below the shores , as the other was elevated above them . and , as if the one had been taken out of the other , the sea with all its creeks , and bays , and inlets , and other appendants was made , and is very near equal to the whole dry land with its promontories and mountains , if not in superficies , yet in bulk or dimensions , though some think in both . which equality is still constantly maintained , notwithstanding all inundations of land , and atterations of sea ; because one of these doth always nearly ballance the other , according to the vulgar proverb we have before mention'd , what the sea loses in one place , it gains in another . if any shall demand , how the sea comes to be gradually depressed , and deepest about the middle part ; whereas the bottom of it was in all likelihood equal while the waters covered the whole earth ? i answer , the same cause that raised up the earth , whether a subterraneous fire or status , raised up also the skirts of the sea , the ascent gradually decreasing to the middle part , where , by reason of the solidity of the earth , or gravity of the incumbent water , the bottom was not elevated at all . for the enclosed fire in those parts where its first accension or greatest strength was , raised up the earth first , and cast off the waters , and thence spreading by degrees , still elevated the land , and drove the waters further and further ; till at length the weight of them was too great to be raised , and then the fire brake forth at the tops of the mountains , where it found least resistance , and disperst it self in the open air. the waters also , where they found the bottom sandy , or yielding , made their way into all those cavities the fire had made and left , filling them up as high as the level of the ocean . neither let any man imagine , that the earth under the water , was too soft and muddy to be in this manner raised by subterraneous fire ; for i have shewn before , that the bottom of the sea is so saddened and hardened by the weight of the incumbent water , that the high-ways , beaten continually by horses and carriages , are not more firm and solid . but omitting this ( which is only a conjecture ) i shall discourse a little more concerning the equality of sea and land. it hath been observed by some , that where there are high cliffs or downs along the shore , there the sea adjoyning is deep ; and where there are low and level grounds , it is shallow : the depth of the sea answering to the elevation of the earth above it : and as the earth from the shores is gradually higher and higher , to the middle and parts most remote from the sea , as is evident by the descents of the rivers , they requiring a constant declivity to carry them down ; so the sea likewise is proportionably deeper and deeper from the shores to the middle . so that the rising of the earth from the shores to the mid-land is answerable to the descent or declivity of the bottom of the sea from the same shores to the mid-sea . this rising of the earth from the shores gradually to the mid-land , is so considerable , that it is very likely the altitude of the earth in those mid-land parts above the superficies of the sea , is greater than that of the mountains above the leve of the adjacent lands . to the height of the hills above the common superficies of the earth do answer in brerewood's opinion the extraordinary dephts or whirl-pools that are found in the sea , descending beneath the ordinary bottom of the sea , as the hills ascend above the ordinary face of the land. but this is but a conjecture of his , and to me it seems not very probable , because it is not likely there should be in the sea extraordinary depths of that vast length and extension , as those huge ridges of mountains that run almost quite through the continents . and because i have observed the waters of rivers that slow gently , but especially of the sea to level the bottoms of their channels and receptacles , as may be seen in those parts of the sea whose bottoms are uncovered at low-water ; and in dry lands that have been deserted by the sea , as the fens in the isle of ely , and the craux in provence in france , &c. which appear to be a perfect level , as far as one can ken . though possibly the motion of the sea may not descend down so low as those depths , and so may not level the bottoms of them . but against what i have said concerning the levelling of the bottom of the sea , it may be objected , that mariners and divers find no such thing , but the quite contrary , viz. that the bottom of the sea is as unequal as the land , sometimes ten or twelve fathoms on one side of the ship , and one hundred on the other , as mr. boyl tells us in his relations about the bottom of the sea , consonant whereto are the accounts of divers . and i have ( saith my worthy friend dr. ta●c . robinson in one of his letters to me ) read in voyages , of vast rocks of salt observ'd in some places under the sea. to which i answer , that i should indeed have excepted such places as are rocky , which bear a very little proportion to the latitude and extent of the sea , and are for the most part not far off the land. i my self have seen so much of the bottom of the sea , round about the coasts of england , and a good part of the low-countreys , of italy and sicily , that i think i may boldly pronounce in general , that where the bottom of the sea is not rocky , but earth , owze or sand , ( and that is incomparably the greatest part of it ) it is by the motion of the waters , so far as the reciprocation of the sea extends to the bottom , brought to a level ; and if it should be now unequal , would in time be levelled again . by level i do not mean so as to have no declivity ( for the reciprocation preserves that , the floud hindring in good measure the constant carrying down of the bottom ) but only to have an equal , uniform and easie descent from the shores to the deeps . now all those reports of divers and navigators refer for the most part to rocky places . for mariners seldom sound but in such places , and in shallows ; and urinators have no reason to dive where the bottom is level and sandy . and that the motion of the waters descends to a good depth , i prove from those plants that grow deepest in the sea , because they all generally grow flat in manner of a fan , and not with branches on all sides like trees ; which is so contrived by the providence of nature , because the edges of them do in that posture with most ease cut the water flowing to and fro : and should the flat side be objected to the stream , it would be turned edgewise by the force of it ; because in that site it doth least resist the motion of the water : whereas did the branches of those plants grow round as in trees , they would be thrown down backward and forward every tide . nay not only the herbaceous and woody submarine plants , but even the lithophyta themselves affect this manner of growing , if they be any thing ramose and rise to a considerable height , as i have observed in various kinds of corals and pori . hence i suspect those relations of trees growing at the bottom of the sea , and bringing forth fruit there . as for the maldiva nut , till better information . i adhere to garcias his opinion , that the trees that bare those nuts were of old time , together with the land on which they grew , overwhelmed by the inundations of the sea , and there hardned in the earth , and afterwards cast up by the working of the sea again . which thing is very probable ; for to this day some of those maldiva islands are now and then drowned and swallowed up by the sea. further i do believe , that in the great depths of the sea there grow no plants at all , the bottom being too remote from the external air ; which though it may pierce the water so low , yet i doubt whether in quantity sufficient for the vegetation of plants . nay , we are told , that in those deep and bottomless seas there are no fish neither : yet not because there are no plants or insects to feed them ; for that they can live upon water alone , rondeletius his experiment about keeping them in a glass , doth undeniably prove ; but because their spawn would be lost in those seas , the bottom being too cold for it to quicken there . this answer and discourse , though it be inserted into another treatise , yet properly belongs to this place , to which i have therefore restored it , begging the readers excuse for this repetition . i now proceed . that it is consonant to the best observations of the height of the earth and its mountains above the superficies of the sea ; and of the depth of the sea ; that the one is answerable to the other . varenius in his geogr. witnesseth , p. . caeterùm ex observata hactenus in plerisque locis profunditate oceani manifestum est , eam fere aequalem altitudini sive elevationi montium & locorum mediterraneorum supra littora , nimirum quantum hoec elevantur & extant supra littorum horizontem , tantum alvei maris infra eum deprimuntur ; sive quantum assurgit terra à littoribus versùs mediterranea loca , tuntundem paulatim magis magìsque deprimitur usque ad medii oceani loca , ubi plerumque maxima est profunditas . that is , from the depth of the ocean , as far as hath been hitherto observed in most places , it is manifest that that [ profundity ] is near equal to the altitude or elevation of the mediterraneous places above the shores ; that is to say , as much as these are elevated , and stand up above the horizon of the shores ; so much are the channels of the seas depressed below it : or , as much as the earth riseth from the shores towards the mediterraneous places ; so much is it by little and little more and more depressed to the middle parts of the ocean , where the greatest depth for the most part is . and brerewood in his enquiries pertinently to our purpose , supposeth the depth of the sea to be a great deal more than the height of the hills above the common surface of the earth . — for that in making estimation of the depth of the sea , we are not to reckon and consider only the height of the hills above the common superficies of the earth , but the advantage or height of all the dry land above the superficies of the sea : because the whole mass of the earth , that now appeareth above the waters , being taken , as it were , out of the place which the waters now possess , must be equal to the place out of which it was taken ; and consequently it seemeth , that the height or elevation of the one should answer to the depth or descending of the other . and therefore , as i said , in estimating the deepness of the sea , we are not to consider only the erection of the hills above the ordinary land , but the advantage of all the dry land above the sea. which latter , i mean the height of the ordinary main land , is in my opinion more in large continents above the sea , than that of the hills is above the land. for that the plain and common face of the dry land , is not level or equally distant from the center , but hath great declivity and descent towards the sea , and acclivity or rising toward the mid-land part , although it appear not so to the common view of the eye , is to reason notwithstanding manifest . because , as it is found in that part of the earth which the sea covereth , that it descendeth lower and lower toward the midst of the sea ; ( for the sea which touching the upper face of it is known to be level by nature , and evenly distant from the center , is withal observed to wax deeper and deeper the further one saileth from the shore towards the main ) even so in that part which is uncovered the coursings and streamings of rivers on all sides from the mid-land parts towards the sea ( whose property we know is to slide from the higher to the lower ) evidently declare so much . * this author with damascen supposes , that the unevenness and irregularity , which is now seen in the superficies of the earth , was caused either by taking some parts out of the upper face of the earth in sundry places to make it more hollow , and laying them in other places to make it more convex : or else ( which in effect is equivalent to that ) by raising up some , and depressing others to make room and receipt for the sea : that mutation being wrought by the power of that word , let the waters be gathered into one place that the dry land may appear . this proportioning of the cavities appointed to receive the seas , to the protuberancy of the dry land above the common superficies of the ocean , is to me a sufficient argument , to prove , that the gathering together of the waters into one place , was a work of counsel and design ; and if not effected by the immediate finger of god , yet at least governed and directed by him . so the scripture affirms the place to receive the sea , to have been prepared by god , psalm . . now in things of this nature , to the giving an account whereof whatever hypothesis we can possibly invent , can be but meerly conjectural , those are to be most approved that come nearest to the letter of scripture , and those that 〈◊〉 with it to be rejected , how trim or consistent soever with themselves they may seem to be : this being as much , as when god tells us how he did make the world , for as to tell him how he should have made it . but here it may be objected , that the present earth looks like a heap of rubbish and ruines ; and that there are no greater examples of confusion in nature than mountains singly or jointly considered ; and that there appear not the least footsteps of any art or counsel either in the figure and shape , or order and disposition of mountains and rocks . wherefore it is not likely they came so out of god's hands ; who by the ancient philosophers is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to make all things in number , weight and measure . to which i answer , that the present face of the earth , with all its mountains and hills , its promontories and rocks , as rude and deformed as they appear , seems to me a very beautiful and pleasant object , and with all that variety of hills , and valleys , and inequalities far more grateful to behold , than a perfectly level country without any rising or protuberancy , to terminate the sight : as any one that hath on the one hand seen the isle of ely , or any the like countrey exactly level , and extending on all sides further then one can ken , or that hath been far out at sea , where nothing is to be seen but sky and water : and on the other , from the downs of sussex enjoyed that spatious and ravishing prospect of the countrey on one hand , and the sea on the other , comparing both objects , must necessarily confess . . they are useful to mankind in affording them convenient places for habitation , and situations of houses and villages ; serving as skreens to keep off the cold and nipping blasts of the northern and easterly winds , and reflecting the benign and cherishing sun-beams , and so rendring their habitations both more comfortable and chearly in winter ; and promoting the growth of herbs and fruit-trees , and the maturation of their fruits in summer . b●sides , casting off the waters they lay the gardens , yards and avenues to the houses dry and clean , and so as well more salutary as more elegant . whereas houses built in plains , unless shaded with trees , stand bleak and exposed to wind and weather ; and all winter are apt to be grievously annoyed with mire and dirt . . a land so distinguished into mountains , valleys and plains is also most convenient for the entertainment of the various sorts of animals , which god hath created , some whereof delight in cold , some in hot , some moist and watery , some in dry and upland places , and some of them could neither find nor gather their proper food in different regions . some beasts and birds we find live upon the highest tops of the alps , and that all the winter too , while they are constantly covered with snow , as the ibex , and rupicapra or chamois among quadrupeds , and lagopus among birds . . the mountains are most proper for the putting forth of plants ; yielding the greatest variety , and the most luxuriant sorts of vegetables , for the maintenance of the animals proper to those places , and for medicinal uses , partly also for the exercise and delight of such ingenious persons as are addicted to search out and collect those rarities , to contemplate and consider their forms and natures , and to admire and celebrate the wisdom of their creator . . all manner of metals , minerals and fossils if they could be generated in a level earth , of which there is some question , yet should they be dug or mined for , the delfs must necessarily be so flown with water , ( which to derive and rid away no adits or soughs could be made , and i much doubt whether gins would suffice ) that it would be extremely difficult and chargeable , if possible to work them at all . . neither are the very tops of the highest mountains barren of grass for the feeding and fattening of beasts . for on the ridges of the high mountains of iura and saleve near geneva , and tho●e of rhoetia or the grisons countrey , which are the highest of all the alps , excepting the vallesian and sabaudian , there are multitudes of kine fed in summer time , as i my self can witness , having in my simpling voyages on those of iura and saleve observed herds of cattel there , and many dairy-houses built , where i have been more than once refreshed by their milk and milk-meats . nay there are but very few , and those of the highest summits of the alps that keep snow all summer : and i was told by the inhabitants , that one time or other , in seven or eight years space , for the most part there came a summer that melted all the snow that lay on them too . . another great use and necessity of the mountains and hills is for the generation and maintenance of rivers and fountains , which ( in our hypothesis , that all proceed from rain-water ) could not be without them , or but rarely . so we should have only torrents , which would fail in summer time , or any dry season , and nothing to trust to , but stagnating water reserved in pools and cisterns . which how great an inconvenience it would be , i need not take pains to shew . i say that fountains and rivers would be but rare were there no mountains . for upon serious consideration i find that i was too hasty in * conclnding , because i had observed no fountains springing up in plains , therefore there were , or could be absolutely none ; and do now grant that there is reason to believe the relations made of such . for the whole dry land being but one continued mountain , and ascending all along from the sea to the mid-land , as is undeniably proved by the descent of rivers even in plain countries ; the water sinking into the earth , may run under ground , and according as the vein leads it , break out in the side of this mountain , though the place as to outward appearance be a plain . i shall now add , that though it be possible that without mountains there may be springs , if there should be rains , ( which it is somewhat questionable were there no mountains , whether there could be or no , at least in hot countreys ) yet is it probable , that most of those springs we find in plains or depressed places distant from mountains may come along in subterraneous channels from the next mountains , and there break out . monsieur blundel related to the parisian academy , what device the inhabitants of the lower austria , which is encompassed with the mountains of stiria , are wont to use to fill their wells with water ; they dig in the earth to the depth of twenty or five and twenty feet , till they come to an argilla [ clammy earth ] then they bore a hole in the midst of a stone about five or six inches broad , and through it bo●e the argilla so deep till the waters breaks forcibly out ; which water it 's probable comes from the neighbouring moun●ains in subterraneous channels . and cassinus observed , that in many places of the territory of modena and bologna in italy , they make themselves wells of springing water by the like artifice . they dig in the earth till they come to the water ( which stagnates in common wells ) which they draw quite out . then within this new digged well they make two cylindrical walls , concentrical one to another ; the space or interstice between them they fill and ramm close with well wrought argilla or clay , to keep out the ambient water ; which done , they sink the well deeper into the ground , and continue the inner wall so low till the earth underneath seems to swell by the force of the water rising up : and lastly , they bore this earth or soil with a long wimble ; whereupon the water breaks forth through the hole with a great force , so that it doth not only fill the well , but overflows and waters the neighbouring fields with a constant stream : by this means the same seigneur cassini made a fountain at the castle of vrbin , that cast up the water five foot high above the level of the ground . it is very probable that these waters descend by subterraneous passages from the appennine mountains , which are about ten miles distant . if such things may be done by art , why may they not also by nature ? nay , that the like are done we find by experience in the lacus lugeus , or zirchnitzer-sea in carniola , which after it is empty of water running out at holes or pits in the bottom , ( which it doth yearly in the summer time , in the months of may , iune , or iuly ) in the autumn when it rains moderately , the water spouts out of some of the forementioned pits two or three fathoms perpendicularly , but when it rains very hard and long together , especially with thunder , then the water breaks forth with great force , not only from the foresaid pits , but likewise at a thousand other caves and holes , spirting several fathoms high , from some perpendicularly , from others obliquely , so that there is not a pleasanter sight then this ; and in a short time fills the lake . a full description and an account of all the phoenomena of this admirable lake see in philosoph transact . numb . . p. . &c. so we see water may be brought down from the mountains and raised up naturally in strait channels with that force , and to that height , as to exceed all the artificial jets in the world , if not in the altitude of the spout , yet in the bigness of the stream abundantly . this end and use of mountains i find assigned by mr. halley in his discourse concerning the original of springs and rivers , in these words : this , if we may allow final causes ( and why may we not ? what needs this hesitancy and dubitation in a thing that is clear ? ) seems to be the design of the hills that their ridges being placed through the midst of the continents , might serve as it were alembicks to distil fresh water for the use of man and beast , and their heights to give a descent to those streams to run gently like so many veins of the macrocosm , to be the more beneficial to the creation . but some may say , granting there be some use and benefit of moderate hills and risings ; what necessity is there of such extended ridges of vast and towring mountains , hiding their heads among the clouds , and seeming for altitude to contend with the skies ? i answer there is very great use of them for repelling the vapours exhaled by the sun-beams in the hot regions , and hindring their evagations northward , as we have already shewn , and shall not repeat . i might add hereto , . those long series and chains of mountains are of great use for boundaries and limits to the territories of princes or commonwealths , to secure them on those parts from sudden incursions of enemies . as for the rudeness and confusion of mountains , their cragged and broken rocks and cliffs , and whatever other disorder there may be among them , it may be accounted for , from the manner of their first generation , and those other mutations they have been since obnoxious to , by earthquakes , eruptions of vulcano's , foundering and falling in of their props and foundations , and by time and weather too , by which not only the earth is washed away , or blown off from the stones , but the very stones and rocks themselves corroded and dissolved , as might easily be proved by instances , could i spare time to do it . to sum up all relating to the division and disposition of the water and earth in brief . . i say , the water being the lighter element doth naturally occupy the upper place , and stand above the earth , and so at first it did . but now we see it doth not so ; the earth being contrary to its nature forcibly elevated above it ; being ( as the psalmist phraseth it ) founded above the seas , and established above the floods : and this because it was best it should be so , as i shall clearly prove and deduce in particulars in another discourse . . the dry land is not elevated only upon one side of the globe ; for then had it had high mountains in the middle of it , with such vast empty cavities within , as must be equal to the whole bulk raised up , the center of magnitude must needs have been considerably distant from the center of gravity : which would have caused a very great and inconvenient inequality in the motion of the parts of the earth : but the continents and islands are so equally disperst all the globe over as to counterballance one another , so that the centers of magnitude and gravity concur in one . . the continents are not of exactly equal and level superficies or convexity . for then the parts subject to the course of the sun , called the torrid zone , would have been , as the ancients fancied them , unhabitable for heat and drought . but there are huge ridges and extended chains of lofty mountains , directed for the most part to run east and west ; by which means they give free admittance and passage to the vapours brought in by the winds from the atlantick and pacifick oceans ; but stop and inhibit their excursions to the north and south , either condensing them upon their sides into water , by a kind of external destillation ; or by streightening and constipating of them compelling them to gather into drops , and descend down in rain . these are great things , and worthy the care , direction , and disposal of the great and wise creator and governour of all things : and we see they are accordingly excellently ordered and provided by him . chap. iv. of the creation of animals ; some questions resolved . as to the first creation of animals i have already proposed two opinions , both consonant or reconcileable to the scriptures . . that god almighty did at first create the seeds of all animals , ( that is , the animals themselves in little ) and disperst them over the superficial part of the land and water , giving power to those elements to hatch and bring them forth ; which when they had done , and all the animals of these created seeds were produced and perfected , there remained no more ability in them to bring forth any more ; but all the succeeding owe their original to generation . . because some will not admit that god at first created any thing imperfect , we did propose that he might by his almighty power , out of the water and earth , make the first set of animals in their full state and perfection , ( as it is generally believed he did adam ) and give to each species a power by generation to propagate their like . for his commanding the waters and earth to produce such and such living creatures , signifies that he did himself efficaciously form them out of the earth and water ; as when he saith , let there be light , &c. the meaning is not that he did permit or command something else besides himself to produce light ; but that he did by his own almighty power effectually create it . indeed the scripture doth in this manner interpret it self : for whereas it is said verses . and . let the waters bring forth , &c. and let the earth bring forth the living creature , &c. in the next verses it follows , and god created great whales and every living creature that moveth , &c. and god made the beast of teh earth , &c. but now there may a further question or two be moved concerning the creation of animals . . whether god created at first a great number of every kind of animal all the earth over , in their proper places and climates ; or only two of each species , a male and a female , from which all the rest proceeded by generation ? this latter opinion i find embraced by some modern philosophers , and it may be made probable by several arguments . first from the analogy to mankind . there being at first only one man and one woman created , it is very likely , there were no more of any other creatures , two being sufficient in a short time to stock the world. secondly , because at the time of the general deluge there were only two of each kind ( of unclean beasts ) preserved in the ark ; and if two might then suffice , why not as well at the first creation ? and if there were no need of creating more , what likelyhood that there were more created ? but the first opinion , that there were many at first created , seems more consonant to scripture , which in the mention of the creation of aquatic creatures useth the word abundantly , gen. . . and god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life , and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven . and in the next verse it is said ▪ that the waters did bring them forth abundantly . so that at least of birds and fishes there were many individuals at first created . as for plants , certain it is that they were created dispersedly all the world over ; they having no locomotive power , but being fixt to a place , and the seeds of many of them being ponderous , and not portable by winds or any other means , and yet those of the same species to be found in far distant places , and on the tops of high mountains as remote from each other , as the helvetick and austrian alps. . concerning the creation of animals there may yet a further question be moved , viz. whether all animals that already have been , or hereafter shall be , were at first actually created by god ? or whether hath he given to each kind of animal such a power of generation , as to prepare matter and produce new individuals in their own bodies ? some are of opinion that god did himself at first actually create all the individual animals that ever were or ever shall be , and that there is no such thing as any production of new ones . for , say they , what were that but a creation of such individuals ? and what did god at the first creation more then , if this be true , we see every day done , that is , produce a new animal out of matter , which it self prepares : all the difference is the doing that in an instant which the creature must take time to do . for as for the preparation of matter , that must be made fit , be the agent never so omnipotent . besides , the animal-parent cannot be the agent or efficient in the generation or forming and nourishing of the foetus . because that is a work of art and reason , which brute creatures are not endued withal , nor indeed doth man himself understand any thing of the process of generation in himself , neither is conscious of what is done in the womb , so far is he from being the doer of it . again , it is most probable , if not certain , that most animals have in them from the beginning the seeds or eggs of all the young they shall afterward bring forth , which when they were spent and exhaust the creature becomes barren or e●●ete . so we see all the female foetus of viviparous quadrupeds are brought forth with their testes or ovaria in them , which are esteemed parts of their bodies ; and all birds have in them from their first formation their ovary or egg-cluster , containing the seeds of all the eggs they shall ever lay . now had the creature a power of producing new ones , what need was there that there should be so many at first formed in them ? and why might they not breed them as well afterwards , as at the beginning ? hereupon these philosophers argue thus : suppose we that god did at first create two animals , a male and a female : the female must be created with its ovaries or testes , which ( as we said ) contained so many seeds or eggs as the creature should ever bring forth young . so it is clear that not only the first pair , but the first generation of animals were actually created . again , this first generation from their first appearance had each of them ( the females i mean ) its ovaria or clusters of eggs , every one whereof had in like manner its animalcule in it ; so that this second generation was also created in the first . the same may be demonstrated of the third and fourth , and so on of all the generations that shall be as long as the world lasts . against this doctrine it may be objected , first , that it seems impossible that the ovaries of one female should actually include and contain the innumerable myriads of animals that may proceed from it in so many generations as have been and shall be during the continuance of the world. who can conceive such a small portion of matter to be capable of such division , and to contain such an infinity of parts ? but to this it may be answered , that our sight doth not give us the just magnitude of things , but only their proportion , and what appears to the eye as a point , may be magnified so , even by glasses , as to discover an incredible multitude of parts ; nay , some animals there are so small , that if a grain of sand were broken into of equal parts , one of these would not exceed the bigness of one of those creatures , as mr. lewenhoek affirms . and mr. hook proceeds further , and says , that he had discovered some so exceeding small , that millions of millions might be contained in one drop of water . if these whole creatures be so incredibly little , what shall we think of their parts containing and contained , their entrails and muscles , their ovaries and eggs ? but for a sensible demonstration of the unconceivable , i had almost said infinite , divisibility of matter , i might refer the reader to the honourable mr. boyl of famous memory his discourse concerning the strange subtlety of e●●luviums . i shall mention one or two experiments . he dissolved one grain of filed copper in spirit of salt-armoniack , and upon this solution he poured so much distilled water by degrees , as till the fair and deep blew colour grew somewhat pale without being too dilute to be manifest . and then carefully weighing the vessel and the water , and subducting the weight of that out of this , he found the weight of the liquor alone , when reduced to grains , to amount to , so that a grain of copper communicated a tincture to times its weight . now considering that the weight of copper to the weight of water of the same bulk is proximè as to , a grain-weight of copper is in bigness but the ninth part of as much water as weighs a grain ; and so the formerly mentioned number of grains of water must be multiplied by , to give us the proportion between the tinging body and tinged liquor ; whence it will follow , that a single grain of copper gave a blewness to above parts of limped water , each of them as big as it . and to prosecute this experiment further , he mixt together equal parts of distilled colourless water , and of the said tincted liquor , and found , that though the colour were very faint and dilute , yet an attentive eye could easily discern it to be blewish : whereby it appears that one grain of copper was able to impart a colour to double the quantity of water above-mentioned , that is to grains of water . other experiments there are in the same discourse made in odorate bodies : having , saith he , for curiosity sake suspended in a pair of exact scales , that would turn with a very small part of a grain , a piece of amber-greece bigger then a walnut , and weighing betwixt an hundred and sixscore grains , i cou●d not in three days and an half that i had opportunity to make the trial , discover even upon that balance , any decrement of weight in the amber-greece , though so rich a perfume lying in the open air was like in that time to have parted with good store of odoriferous steams . and a while after suspending a lump of asa●oetida days and a half , i found it not to have sustained any discernible loss of weight , though , in spite of the unfavourable cold weather it had about it a neighbouring atmosphere replenished with foetid exha●ations , &c. but what can be imagined more small and subtile then the minute parts of the s●eams of animals ? the same author in 〈…〉 tract tells us , that a good setting 〈…〉 way of ranging the fields , and 〈…〉 other motions especially of his head , would not only intimate the kinds of game , whose scent he chanced to light upon , but would discover where partridges had been ( though perhaps without staying in that place ) several hours before . he further tells us , that a very sober gentleman of his acquaintance , who had often occasion to employ blood-hounds , assured him , that if a man had but passed over the field , the s●ent would lye , so as to be perceptible enough to a good dog of that sort for several hours after . and an ingenious hunter likewise assured him , that he had observed , that the scent of a flying and hunted deer will sometimes continue upon the ground from one day to the next following . he proceeds further , and now we may consider these three things ; first , that the substance left upon the ground by the transient tread of a partridge , hare or other animal , that doth but pass along his way , does probably communicate to the grass or ground but some of those effluxions that transpire out of his feet , which being small enough to escape the eye , may probably not amount to one grain in weight , or perhaps not to the tenth part of it . next , that the parts of fluid bodies , as such , are perpetually in motion , and so are the invisible particles that swim in them , as may appear by the dissolution of salt or sugar in water , and the wandring of aqueous vapours through the air , even when the eye perceives them not . and thirdly , that though the atmosphere of one of these small parcels of the exhaling matter we are speaking of may oftentimes be exceeding vast in comparison of the emittent body , as may be guessed by the distance at which some setters or bloodhounds will find the scent of a partridge or deer ; yet in places exposed to the free air or wind , 't is very likely that these steams are assiduously carried away from their fountain to maintain the forementioned atmosphere for six , eight or more hours , that is as long as the scent hath been observed to lye , there will be requisite a continual recruit of steams succeeding one another . and that so very small a portion of matter , as that which we were saying the ●omes of these s●eams may be ●udged to be , being sens●bly to impregnate an atmosphere in comparably greater than its self , and supply it with almost continual recruits , we cannot but think , that the steams it parts with , must be of extreme and scarce conceivable minuteness . so far the author . to which i shall add , that by the steams , i suppose , he means the minute particles of which the steams are compounded . now these minute particles themselves must be compound bodies , because they affect the sence in a particular manner , so that a sagacious creature can distinguish by them , not only species but individuals ; as a good dog by the foot will find out his master , though not only several other creatures , but several men have passed that way . unless we will groundlesly affirm , that those particles are the minima naturalia , and that the creature discerns them by their figure , or their disserent manner of motion . a second objection of brunnerus ( as i find him quoted in peyerus his merycologia ) is this , si cuncta animalium membra jam formata existant in ovo , &c. if all the members of animals already formed do exist in the egg , though for their smalness they escape our sight ; i cannot conceive , how by the force of imagination alone in a pregnant woman , can be produced sometimes calves heads or feet , sometimes a dog's face , or other monstrous members ; these productions being a certain and experimental proof , that the parts and members of animals are formed and delineated originally in the womb or egg. to this peyerus replies , who then forms , who delineates such monsters ? shall we accuse god the creator ? but he is just , and doth not make enormous things : or will you blame nature ? that is the constant order and will of god , which never is deficient . will you lay the fault upon the plastick vertue or power residing in the womb or seed , and acting those things ? but that is a chimaera , it is nothing , it is an idol . there remain two things to which the cause may justly be imputed , the imagination of the mother , which may and doth oftentimes effect wonderful things in the body of the tender embryon ; and the devil . if you refuse to admit the former , you are obliged to accept the latter . and truly the devil may , god so permitting , many ways abuse men , and transfigure the young in the womb , to punish the wicked and nefarious actions of degenerate mankind indulging themselves in obscene imaginations , or preposterous and unnatural impurities and pollutions . but do these errours and enormities take away the order of nature ? by no means , for from what is rare and extraordinary and seldom happens , there is no consequence to be drawn . for though monsters are sometimes born , nothing hinders but that we may still think , that the idea's of the seveveral foetus may be prae-existent and latent in the eggs ; and the event may teach us , that those idea's or embryo's may by a violent cause be marred and deformed in the womb ; as wax , though it be already figured , while it is soft is easily altered , and capable of receiving new impressions . but against this answer we may thus plead in defence of brunnerus ; as to what is said of the devil , it seems to be but a shift or refuge to have recourse to when we are at a loss , and pinch't with an argument ; as in the ancient stage-plays , when they were put to a plunge , they were forced to bring in some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to help them out . and as for the imagination of the mother , strange it is , that that should have any influence at all upon the formation of the foetus ; the mother not knowing any thing that 's done in the womb ; nor being conscious to her self of any power to form or act any thing there ; the foetus being an external thing to her , and no more a part of her , then an egg is of the hen that sits upon it , affording nothing to it but warmth and nourishment . and we see eggs may be hatched by the artificial heat of an oven , without the incubation of a hen. but granting that the imagination of the mother may transform the foetus , why may it not as well originally form it out of prepared matter ; and then what need of an idea or minute animalcule in the seed ? but whatever may be said of men , how come monsters in brutes , which according to peyerus are meer machines , and have no imagination or perception at all ? but not to lead the reader into a maze or labyrinth , and leave him there , for my own part i must confess , that the argument for the praexistence of the faetus's , or their creation from the beginning , taken from the due number of eggs that are in every female from her first formation , and her being eff●te after they are spent , weighs very much with me , as i know not how to quit my self of it . and on the other hand , if those stories concerning dogs and serpents , &c. found in the wombs of women be true ( which are well attested ) i acknowledge it very difficult , to give an account how those animals came to 〈◊〉 or formed there . but i had 〈…〉 my ignorance of the manner 〈…〉 of such praeternatural and extraordinary things , then to permit it to have such influence upon me , as to remove me from so well-grounded an opinion concerning the ordinary production of animals in a natural way . the being of a plastick nature subordinate to god , notwithstanding peyerus makes an idol of it , and charges those with idolatry who do believe it , i am not afraid to admit : my reasons for which i have given in another * discourse , and shall not here repeat . the new opinion of mr. lewenhoek , that all animals proceed from an insect or animalcule in the male-sperm , among other reasons , i am less inclinable to , because of the necessary loss of a multitude , i might say infinity , of them , which seems not agreeable to the wisdom and providence of nature . for supposing every male hath in him all the animalcules that he shall or may eject ; they may , for ought i know , amount to millions of millions , and so the greatest part of them must needs be lost . nay , if we take but one coit , there must , in uniparous creatures at least , abundance be lost . but if we suppose the foetus to be originally in the egg , it is not so . for the eggs of all sorts of creatures are so proportioned to the nature of the animals , the time that they live , the time and number of their gestations , and the number they bring forth at all times , that they will much about suffice for the time the creatures are fit to breed and nourish their young : so that they may , if need be , be all brought forth and come to perfection . the end of the first discourse . discourse ii. of the general deluge in the days of noah , its causes and effects . i proceed now to say something concerning the general deluge in the days of noah ; which was also a matter of ancient tradition . i shall not enlarge much upon it , so as to take in all that might be said , but confine my self to three heads . . i shall confirm the truth of the history of the deluge recorded in the scripture , by the testimonies of some ancient heathen writers . . i shall consider the natural causes or means whereby it was effected . . i shall enquire concerning the consequences of it , what considerable effects it had upon the earth . chap. i. testimonies of ancient heathen writers concerning the deluge . first then , i shall produce some testimonies of ancient heathen writers concerning the deluge . the first shall be that of berosus , recorded by iosephus , in the fifth chapter of his first book of iewish antiquities , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. that is , berosus the chaldaean relating the story of the deluge writes thus . it is reported , that there is some part of the vessel [ the ark ] still remaining at the mountain of the gordyaeans ; and that certain persons scraping off the bitumen or pitch , carry it away ; and that men make use of it for amulets , to drive away diseases . a second testimony the same iosephus affords us in the same place , and that is , of nicolaus damascenus ; who , saith he , gives us the history of the [ ark and deluge ] in these words ; about minyas in armenia there is a great mountain called baris ; to which it is reported , that many flying in the time of the deluge were saved , and that a certain person was carried thither in an ark , which rested on the top of it ; the reliques of the timber whereof were preserved there a long time . besides these , iosephus tells us in the same place , that hieronymus the egyptian , who wrote the phoenician antiquities , and mnaseas , and many others , whose words he alledges not , make mention of the flood . eusebius superadds two testimonies more . the one of melon to this effect . there departed from armenia at the time of the deluge , a certain man , who together with his sons had been saved ; who being cast out of his house and possessions , was driven away by the natives . this man passing over the intermediate region , came into the mountainous part of syria , that was then desolate . this testimony makes the deluge topical , and not to have reached armenia . the other is of abydenus an ancient writer , set down by eusebius , praepar ▪ evangel . lib. . cap. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. after whom others reigned , and then si●ithrus , ( so he calls noah . ) to whom saturn foretold , that there should be a great flood of waters upon the fifteenth day of the month desius ; and commanded him to hide all writings [ or whatever was committed to writing ] in heliopolis of the sypparians . which so soon as sisithrus had performed , he presently sailed away to armenia , where what god had predicted to him , immediately came to pass [ or came upon him ] . the third day , after the waters ceased , he sent forth birds , that he might try whether they could espy any land uncovered of water . but they finding nothing but sea , and not knowing whither to betake themselves , returned back to sisithrus . in like manner , after some days he sent out others with like success . but being sent out the third time , they returned with their feet fouled with mud. then the gods caught up sisithrus from among men : but the ship remained in armenia , and its wood afforded the inhabitants am●lets to chase away many diseases . these histories accord with the scripture as to the main , of the being of a 〈…〉 noah escaping out of it ; only 〈…〉 the truth , by the admixture 〈…〉 ●abulous stuff . 〈…〉 first book against iulian , to 〈◊〉 deluge , alledges a passage out of alexander polyhistor ▪ plato himself ( saith he ) gives us an obscure intimation of the deluge , in his timaeus , bringing in a certain egyptian priest , who related to solon out of the sacred books of the egyptians , that before the particular deluges known and celebrated by the grecians , there was of old an exceeding great inundation of waters , and devastation of the earth ; which seems to be no other than noah's flood . plutarch in his book de solertia animalium ●tells us , that those who have written of deucalion's flood , report , that there was a dove sent out of the ark by deucalion , which returning again into the ark , was a sign of the continuance of the flood , but flying quite away , and not returning any more , was a sign of serenity , and that the earth was drained . indeed ovid and other mythologists make deucalion's flood to have been universal : and it 's clear , by the description ovid gives of it , that he ▪ meant the general deluge in the days of noah . and that by deucalion , the ancients together with ovid , understood noah ; kircher in his * arca noae doth well make out . first , for that the poet apollonius makes him the son of prometheus in his third book , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . where prometheus the son of iapetus begat the renowned deucalion . . berosus affirms noah to have been a scythian . and lucian in his book de dea syria tells us , that many make deucalion to have been so too . . the scripture testifies , that men were generally very corrupt and wicked in the days of noah . and andro teius a very ancient writer testifies , that in deucalion's time there was a great abundance of wicked men , which made it necessary for god to destroy mankind . . the scripture saith , that noah was a just man , and perfect in his generation . and ovid saith of deucalion , that non illo m●lior quisquam , nec amantior aequi vir fuit , aut illâ [ pyrrhâ uxore ejus ] reverentior ulla deorum . and a little after , innocuos ambos , cultores numinis ambos . . apollonius saith of deucalion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he first ruled over men. which may very well be attributed to noah the father and restorer of mankind , whose right the kingdom was . . the sending out of a dove , to try whether the waters were abated , and the flood gone off , is ( we have seen ) by plutarch attributed to deucalion . . lucian in his timon , and in his book de dea syria , sets forth the particulars of deucalion's , after the example of noah's flood . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. deucalion was the only man that was left for a second generation , for his prudence and piety sake : and he was saved in this manner . he made a great ark , and got aboard it , with his wife and children : and to him came swine , and horses , and lions , and serpents , and all other living creatures , which the earth maintains , according to their kinds by pairs ; and he received them all , and they hurt him not ; for there was by divine instinct a great friendship among them ; and they sailed together in the ark , so long as the waters prevailed . and in his timon he saith , that noah laid up in the ark plenty of all provisions for their sustenance . tab : i. pag : the two ancient apamian coyns taken out of octav. falconieri de nummo apamensi deucalionaei diluvij typum exhibente ●● . romae . by the greek inscriptions they were stamp under philippus marcus aurelius alexander and septimius severus howbeit i do not deny , that there was such a particular flood in thessaly , as they call deucalion's , which happened seven hundred and seventy years or thereabouts after the general deluge . i acknowiedge also a more ancient flood in attica in the time of ogyges , about two hundred and thirty years before deucalion's , by which the countrey was so marred , that it lay waste and uncultivated without inhabitants for almost two hundred years . chap. ii. of the causes of the deluge . what were the instrumental causes or means of the flood ? whether was it effected by natural or supernatural means only ? whether was god no further concerned in it , than in so ordering second causes at first , as of themselves necessarily to bring it in at such a time ? first , those that hold this deluge was altogether miraculous , and that god almighty created waters on purpose to serve this occasion , and when they had done their work destroyed them again , dispatcht the business , and loose or cut the knot in a few words . and yet this hypothesis is not so absurd and precarious , as at first sight it may seem to be . for the world being already full , there needed not , nor indeed could be any creation of water out of nothing , but only a transmutation of some other body into water . now if we grant all natural bodies , even the elements themselves , to be mutually transmutable , as few men doubt , and some think they can demonstrate ; why might not the divine power and providence bring together at that time such : natural agents , as might change the air or aether , or both together into water ; and so supply what was wanting in rains , and extraordinary eruptions of springs . to them that argue the improbability of such a change , from the great quantity of air requisite to the making of a little water ; it may be answered , that if air , and all bodies commixt with it , were together changed into water , they must needs make a bulk of water of equal quantity with themselves , unless we will grant a peripatetical condensation and rarefaction ; and hold that the same matter may have sometimes a greater , sometimes a lesser quantity or extension . this cause [ the conversion of air into water ] the learned jesuite athanasius kircher , in his book de arca noae , alledges as the undoubted instrumental cause or means of the deluge in these words , dico totum illud aereum spatium usque ad supremam regionem aeris , praepotentis dei virtute , in aquas , per inexplicabilem nubium coacervatarum multitudinem , quâ replebatur , conversam esse ; cujus ubertas tanta fuit , ut aer supremus cum inferiori in oceanum commutatus videri potuerit , non naturae viribus , sed illius cujus voluntati & imperio cuncta subsunt . that is , i affirm , that all that aereal space that reaches up to the supreme region of the air , was , by the power of the omnipolent god , and instrumentality of an inexplicable multitude of clouds amassed together , wherewith it was filled , changed into water , so that the upper and lower air might seem to be 〈◊〉 into an ocean , not by the strength of na●●●e , but of him to whose will and 〈◊〉 all things are subject . and he is so confident * that this deluge , in which the 〈…〉 raised fifteen cubits above the highest by mountains , was not , nor could be effected by natural causes ; but by the right hand of the most high god only ; that he saith , no man can deny it , but he who doth not penetrate how far the power of nature can extend , and where it is limited . to conclude , this hypothesis hath the suffrages of most learned men. but because the scripture assigning the causes or means of the inundation , makes no mention of any conversion of air into water , but only of the breaking up the fountains of the great deep , and the opening of the windows of heaven , i suppose those causes may be sufficient to work the effect , and that we need not have recourse to such an assistance . as for those that make the deluge topical , and restrain it to a narrow compass of land ; their opinion is , i think , sufficiently confuted by a late ingenious * author , to whom therefore i refer the reader . i shall not undertake the defence or confutation of those or any other hypothesis : only tell you which at present seems to me most probable , and that is theirs , who for a partial cause of the deluge , assign either a change of the center of the earth , or a violent depression of the surface of the ocean , and a forcing the waters up from the subterraneous abyss through the channels of the fountains that were then broken up and opened . first then , let us consider what causes the scripture assigns of the flood ; and they are two : . the breaking up the fountains of the great deep : . the opening of the windows of heaven . i shall first treat of this last . by the opening of the windows of heaven , is ( i suppose ) to be understood the causing of all the water that was suspended in the air to descend down in rain upon the earth ; the effect hereof here mentioned being a long continuing rain of forty days . and that these treasuries of the air will afford no small quantity of water , may be made appear , both by scripture and reason . . by scripture , which opposes the waters that are above the heavens or firmament , to those that are under them ; which if they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and in some measure equal , it would never do . gen. . . god is said to make a firmament in the midst of the waters , and to divide the waters which were under the firmament , from the waters which were above the firmament . and this was the work of a whole day , and consequently no inconsiderable thing . by the heavens or firmament in this place , is to be understood the inferiour region of the air , wherein the fowls fly : who gen. . . are said to fly above the earth , in the open firmament of heaven ; though elsewhere it be taken for the celestial regions , wherein the sun , and moon , and stars are placed . . the same may be made appear , by reason grounded upon experience . i my self have observed a thunder-cloud in passage , to have in less than two hours space powred down so much water upon the earth , as besides what sunk into the parched and thirsty ground , and filled all ditches and ponds , caused a considerable flood in the rivers , setting all the meadows on flote . [ and dr. wittie in his scarborough spaw tells us , of great spouts of rain that ordinarily fall every year some time or other in summer , that set the whole countrey in a flood . ] now had this cloud , which might for ought i know , have moved forty miles forward , stood still and emptied all its water upon the same spot of ground it first hung over , what a sudden and incredible deluge would it have made there ? and yet what depth or thickness of vapours might remain uncondensed in the air above this cloud , who knows ? now it is to be considered , that not only the air upon the dry land , but also all that covers the whole ocean , is charged with vapours , which are nothing else but diffused water : all which was brought together by winds , or what others means seem'd good to god , and caused to destil down in rain upon the earth . and you may easily guess that it was no small quantity of water that was supplyed this way , in that it sufficed for a rain that lasted forty natural days . and that no ordinary rain neither , but catarracts or spouts of water ; for so the septuagint interprets the words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the catarracts or spouts of heaven were opened . i return now to the first cause or means of the deluge assigned by the scripture , and that is the breaking up of all the fountains of the great deep . by the great deep in this place , i suppose , is to be understood the subterraneous waters , which do and must necessarily communicate with the sea. for we see that the caspian and some other seas , receive into themselves many great rivers , and yet have no visible outlets : and therefore by subterraneous passages , must needs discharge their waters into the abyss of waters under the earth , and by its intervention into the ocean again . that the mediterranean sea doth not ( as i sometimes thought ) communicate with the ocean by any subterraneous passages , nor thereby impart any water to it , or receive any from it , may be demonstrated , from that the superficies of it is lower than the superficies of the ocean , as appears from the waters running in at the streights of gibraltar ; for if there were any such communications , the water keeping its level , the mediterranean , being the lowest , must by those passages receive waters from the ocean ; and not the ocean , which is ( as we have proved ) the highest , from the mediterranean . but that it doth not receive any by subterraneous passages is most likely , because it receives so much above ground . hence it necessarily follows , that the mediterranean spends more in vapour than it receives from the rivers ; which is mr. halley's conclusion ; though in some of his premises or hypotheses he is , i think , mistaken , as . in that he numbers the tyber amongst his nine great rivers , each of which may yield ten times as much water as the thames ; whereas i question whether that yields once so much ; and whereas he passes by all the rest of the rivers as smaller than it ; there are two that i have seen in italy it self , whereof the one , viz. the arnus , on which florence and pisa stand , seemed to me not inferiour in bigness to the tiber ; and the other , viz. the athesis on which verona stands , i could not guess to be less than twice as big . . in that he thinks himself too liberal in allowing these nine rivers to carry down each of them ten times so much water as the thames doth . whereas one of those nine , and that none of the biggest neither , viz. the river po , if ricciolus his hypotheses and calculations be good , affords more water in an hour , than mr. halley supposes the thames to do in a day ; the hourly effusions of the po being rated at eighteen millions of cubical paces by ricciolus ; whereas the daily ones of the thames are computed to be no more than twenty five millions three hundred forty four thousand cubical yards of water by mr. halley : but a geometrical pace contains five feet , i. e. ●● of a yard . now if the po pours so much water hourly into the sea , what then must the danow and the nile do ? each of which cannot ( i guess ) be less than troble of the po. tanais , borysthenes and rhodanus may equal , if not exceed it . howbeit , i cannot approve ricciolus his hypotheses , judging them to be too excessive , but do believe that as to the whole mr. halley comes nearer the truth . sure enough it is , that in the mediterranean , the receipts from the rivers fall short of the expence in vapour : though in part of it , that is , the euxine , the receipts exceed , as appears from that there is a constant current sets outward from thence through the thracian bosphorus , and hellespont . but though the mediterranean doth indeed evaporate more than it receives from the rivers , yet i believe , the case is not the same with the caspian sea ; the superficies whereof seems to me not to bear any greater proportion to the waters of the rivers that run into it , than that of the euxine doth to its : which we have observed not to spend the whole receipt in vapour . you 'l say , why then do not great floods raise the seas ? i answer , as to the caspian , if it communicates with the ocean , whether the rivers bring down more or less , it s all one ; if more , then the water keeping its level , the caspian raiseth the ocean ; if less , then the ocean communicates to the caspian , and raises that . but as to the mediterranean , we may say , that when it receives more on the one side , it receives less on the other , the floods and ebbs of the nilus and the other rivers counterbalancing one another ; besides by reason of the snows lying upon the mountains all winter , the greatest floods of those great rivers in europe do not happen when the mediterranean evaporates leàst in the winter time ; but in the spring . you 'l demand further , if the mediterranean evaporates so much , what becomes of all this vapour ? i answer , it is cast off upon the mountains , and on their sides and tops is condensed into water , and so returned again by the rivers unto the sea. if you proceed to ask what becomes of the surplusage of the water , which the mediterranean receives from the ocean , and spends in vapour ; i answer , it seems to me that it must be cast further off over the tops of the mountains , and supply in part rain to these northern countries : for we know that the south-wind brings rain , with us and and all europe over . as to the great ocean , i do not believe that it evaporates so much as the mediterranean ; both . because the whole mediterranean , excepting the euxine , lies in a hot climate , and a great part of it as it were in a valley , ridges of high mountains , atlas on one side , and the alps and apennine , &c. on the other running along it . and . because the surface of the whole ocean bears a greater proportion to the waters it receives from the rivers of at least this continent , than that of the mediterranean doth to its . and therefore i think also that mr. halley exceeds in his estimate of the heat of the superficies of the sea-water . i cannot perswade my self , that were it all commixt , i mean the hotter part with the cooler all the surface over to such a thickness , it would equal the heat of our air in the hottest time of summer . but i leave that to further trial and enquiry . here give me leave to suggest , that we are not to think , that all the vapours that supply our rains and dews proceed from the sea ; no , a great part of them , viz. all that , when condensed , waters the earth , and serves for the nutrition of plants and animals , ( if not the same individual water , at least so much ) was exhaled out of the earth before , and returned again in showers and dews upon it . so that we receive no more from the sea , than what the rivers carry back , and pour into it again . but supposing mr. halley's hypotheses to be good , and that the ocean doth evaporate , and cast off to the dry land of an inch thickness daily , and this suffices for the supply of all the rivers ; how intolerably extravagant must their hypotheses be , who suppose the rivers of all the world together to yield half an ocean of water daily ? though i must confess my self to be at a loss as to those vast rivers of america of ninety miles broad ; for if they should run with any thing a swift current , it is indeed inestimable what a quantity of water they may pour forth . all therefore that i have to say of them is , that we want a true history and account of their phoenomena from their fountains to their out lets . but in contradiction to what i have said concerning the water keeping its level , and flowing in only at the straits mouth , i understand that it is the concurrent and unanimous vote and suffrage of mariners , voyagers and philosophers , that there is an under-current at the straits of gibraltar , the thracian bosphorus , and the baltick sound . particularly m. marsilly affirms , that the lower water in the channel of the thracian bosphorus is driven northward into the euxine sea , whilst the upper flows constantly from the euxine southward . and that that which flows from the south is salter and heavier ; which he found by letting down of a vessel close shut up , fitted with a valve to open at pleasure , and let in the lower water , which being brought up and weighed , was observed to be ten grains heavier than the upper . that the upper and lower flow contrary ways , he found by the fishermens nets , which being let down deep from vessels that were fixed , were always by the observation of the fishermen , by the force of the current driven towards the black sea : and by the letting down of a plummet ; for if it were stop't and detained at about five or six foot depth , it did always decline towards the marmora or propontis , but if it descended lower , it was driven to the contrary part , that is , the euxine . but i think these experiments are not sufficient to establish and demonstrate such an under-current , because possibly there might be some mistake in them : and mr. smith mentions no such thing as any under-current there . but yet the same mr. smith endeavours to prove an under-current by two experiments : the first is the running tide and half-tide in the offing between the north-foreland and south-foreland . now where it flows tide and half-tide , though the tide of flood runs aloft , yet the tide of ebb runs under-foot , that is , close by the ground . see philosophical transactions , numb . . p. . the second is , an experiment made in the baltick sound : in one of the king's fregats they went with their pinnace into the middle stream , and were carried violently by the current : soon after they sunk a bucket with a large cannon bullet to a certain depth of water , which gave check to the boats motion , and sinking it still lower and lower , the boat was driven a head to windward against the upper current , the current aloft being not above four or five fathom deep ; and the lower the bucket was let fall , they found the under-current the stronger . to all this i reply ; that i do not understand how waters can run backward and forward in the same channel at the same time . for there being but one declivity , this is as much to affirm , as that a heavy body should ascend . it is a crossing of proverbs , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , making rivers ascend to their fountains , affirming that to be done , which all the world hitherto hath look't upon as absurd and impossible . and therefore the matter of fact had need be well attested : which when to me it shall be , i must then manus dare , yield up the bucklers , and study some means to solve the phaenomenon . suppose we that the mediterranean empties it self into the ocean by an under-current , there must be a declivity to carry it down , and consequently the upper-superficies of this under-current must have its declivity too , and likewise the contiguous superficies of the upper-current , and so the upper current must needs ascend in its course inwards . if you say it 's forc'd in by the motion of the ocean , that seems unlikely , because it runs in constantly , as well ebb as flood . and therefore there seems to be no better account of it than the superficies of the ocean being higher than that of the mediterranean . by the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep , is i conceive meant , the making great issues and apertures for these subterraneous waters to rush out . you will say , how could that be , sith the water keeps its level , and cannot ascend to a greater height above the common center , than the superficies of the sea is , much less force its way , remove obstacles , and break open passages ? i answer , according to them that hold that all rivers come from the sea by subterraneous passages , it is no more than daily happens . for they must needs grant , that the water in the subterraneous channels , is raised as far above the level of the ocean , as are the heads and fountains of great rivers . which considering the height of their first springs up the mountains , the length of their courses , and the swiftness of their streams for a great part of the way , is very considerable , a constant declivity being necessary to their descent . and therefore i can by no means assent to the learned doctor plot , ( if i understand him aright ) * that the valleys are as much below the surface of the sea , as mountains are above it . for how then could rivers descend down to the sea through those valleys ; the sea would rather run into them , and make sinuses ; or else , if they were enclosed , the water would stagnate there , and make pools . if this be done by way of filtration ( which seems to be the most likely means of raising the water ) i do not see , but these filters may suck up the whole ocean ; and if apertures and outlets large enough were made , pour it out upon the earth in no long time . but i cannot be fully reconciled to this opinion , though it hath great advocates , especially the fore-mentioned very learned and ingenious person dr. robert plot. i acknowledge subterraneous waters : i grant a confluence and communication of seas by under-ground channels and passages : i believe that wherever one shall dig as deep as the level of the sea , he shall seldom fail of water ; the water making its way through sand and gravel and stones . in like manner as it is observed of the river seine , that in floud-times all the neighbouring wells and cellars are filled with water , and when the river decreases and sinks again , those waters also of the wells and cellars diminish , and by degrees fall back into the river , so that there are scarce any wells or fountains in the plains near the river , but their waters keep the level of the rivers , rising and falling with it . but this inferiour constant circulation and perpetual motion of water , seems to me not yet sufficiently proved and made out . i think that the patrons and abbettors of this opinion , have not satisfactorily demonstrated , how it is , or can be performed . to what is offered concerning the center of gravity being nearer to our continent , by reason of the preponderancy of the earth , and the waters lying as it were on an heap in the other hemisphere , i answer , . that in the present terraqueous globe , the new world which lyes between the two great seas , and almost opposite to our continent , doth in ●ome measure counterpoise the old , and take off a great part of the advantage , which by reason of its preponderancy , it might otherwise have . moreover , i am of mr. brierwood's opinion , that there may be , and is a vast continent toward the southern pole opposite to europe and asia , to counterpoise them on that side ; nay , i do verily believe , that the continents and islands are so proportionably scattered and disposed all the world over , as if not perfectly and exactly , yet very nearly to counter-ballance one another ; so that the globe cannot walter or reel towards any side : and that the center of the convex superficies of the sea , is the true center of the whole terrestrial sphere , both of motion and of gravity . i add also of magnitude : which is exceedingly convenient , as well for the facility as the equability of the earths diurnal motion . this hypothesis of the continents being disperst equally on all sides of the globe , makes these centers concur in one point , whatever cause we assign of the raising up the dry land at first . whereas if we should suppose the dry land to have been raised up by earth-quakes only on one side of the globe , and to have cast off the water to the other , and also that the water could find no way into the caverns that were left within ; then the watery side must needs preponderate the land-side , and bring the center of gravity nearer to its own superficies , and so raise the land still a great deal higher , and make a considerable distance between the centers of magnitude and of gravity . in our hypothesis of the equal dispersion of the continents and islands no such thing would happen : but each continent taking it with all its internal caverns , whether lighter or heavier than its bulk in water ; that is , whether the water did make its way into the caverns thereof , or did not , ( for in the first case it would be heavier , ( in the second lighter ) would have its counterpoise on the opposite side ; so that the centers would still concur . the case would be the same if the dry land were discovered , and the mountains raised by the immediate application of the divine power . . the sea being no where above a german mile deep ( for which we have good authority ) in most places not half so much , taking then as a middle term half a mile . suppose it every where half a mile deep , ( the earth below the sea , we have no reason to suppose of different gravity ) what proportion hath this half miles thickness of water to the whole terraqueous globe , whose semidiameter is by the account of mathematicians three thousand four hundred and forty italian miles . what little advantage then can it have of the earth opposite to it , in point of preponderancy ? . granting the center of gravity should be nearer our continent : the center being the lowest place , and the water a fluid body , unless stopped , ( which it might indeed be , if it were encompassed round with high shores , as high as the mountains , without any breaks or outlets in them ) where it found declivity , it would descend as near as it could to it , without any regard of the earths preponderancy . and though we should grant , that the driness of the shores might stop it , and cause it to lye on a heap , yet would it run up the channels of rivers , till it came as near as possible to the center of gravity . indeed the rivers themselves could not descend , but must run towards the middle of the continent . all this i think will follow from this hypothesis by as good consequence , as the waters being forced through the subterraneous channels out at the springs . again , i do not peremptorily affirm , that all fountains do proceed from rain ; only i contend , that rain may suffice to feed them , and that probably it doth feed ordinary springs . this the ingenious french author doth well demonstrate in the river seine , and i believe it is demonstrable in most other rivers . the little brook that runs near my dweling , and hath its head or source not above four or five miles off , where there is no extraordinary eruption of water , all along its course receives small rivulets on both sides ; which though they make a considerable stream at five miles distance from the fountain-head , yet singly are so small , that they may very well be conceived to drain down from the higher grounds that lye about them . and taking the whole together , it is a very considerable length and breadth of land , that contributes to the maintenance of this little river . so that it may easily be believed , that all its water owes its original to rain : especially if it be considered further , that in winter-time after the rains are fallen , the ground sated , and the ditches full , the stream of this river during the whole winter following , is for the most part , unless in frosts , double of what it was in summer . which excess can proceed from nothing but rain and mists ; at least it would be rashness to assign any other cause , when there is so obvious and manifest an one . moreover , that rain affords no small quantity of water , is clear also from great floods , wherein it might be proved , that in few days there descends more water than would supply the ordinary stream for a good part of summer . now to compare great things with small ; i have seen many of the biggest rivers in europe , the danow , rhine , rhosne and po ; and when i consider the length of their courses , the multitude of considerable rivers and brooks they receive ; and all these from their first rise , made up by degrees of little rivulets and gills , like my neighbouring brook ; the huge mountains and vast extent of higher grounds they drain . to me it seems ( and i have seen all their streams near their out-lets , except the danows , and it 's after four hundred miles descent ) that they do not bear any greater proportion to the rivers and rivulets they receive , and the immense tracts of land that ●eed them , than my brook doth to its small 's rills and compass of ground . but in this , i confess , i do not descend to the niceness of measuring and calculation , but satisfie my self with rude conjectures , taking my measures , as the cestrians say , by the scale of the eye . it will here be objected , that the rain never sinks above ten foot deep at most into the earth , and therefore cannot supply the springs . answ. this indeed , if it were true , would much enervate , nay , quite overthrow our opinion : and therefore we must fortifie this point , and effectually demonstrate beyond all possibility of denial or contradiction , that rain-water doth sink down , and make its way into the earth , i do not say ten , or twenty , nor forty , but an hundred , nay , two or three hundred foot or more . first then , in pool-hole in the peak of darbyshire , there are in some places constant droppings and destillations of water from the roof : under each of which ( to note that by the by ) rises up a stone pillar , the water precipitating some of those stony particles , which it had washed off the rocks in passing through their chinks . these droppings continue all the summer long . now it seems clear to me , that the rain-water making its way through the veins and chinks of the rocks above it , and yet but slowly , by reason of the thickness of the mountain , and straitness of the passages , supplies that dropping all the year round ; at least , this is much more rational than any different hypothesis . if the water distills down faster in winter time and wet weather , than it doth in summer ( which i forgot to ask ) the experiment would infallibly prove our assertion . in confirmation of this argument , albertus magnus ( as i find him quoted in dr. wittie's scarborough spaw ) tells us , that at the bottom of a solid rock one hundred and thirty fathoms deep , he saw drops of water distilling from it in a rainy season . secondly , it is well known , and attested to me by the people at buxton when i was there , that out of the mouth of the same pool hole , after great and long continuing rains , a great stream of water did usually issue forth . and i am sure it must make its way through a good thickness of earth or rocks , before it could come in there . thirdly , what becomes of all the water that falls on newmarket-heath and gogmagog hills , i presume also salisbury-plain , and the like spungy grounds all winter long , where we see very little run off any way ? it must needs sink into the ground more than ten foot deep . fourthly , many wells , whose springs lye at least twenty foot deep , we find by experience , do often fail in great droughts in summer time . fifthly , in coal delfs and other mines , in wet weather the miners are many times drown'd out , ( as they phrase it ) though no water runs down into the mouths of their pits or sha●ts . nay , dr. wittie tells us in his description of the vertues of the scarborow spaw , pag. . that after great inundations of rain , the miners find the water frequently distilling through the solid earth upon their heads ; whereas in summer or dry seasons , they find no interruption from thence at all . further , to confirm this particular , i wrote to my honoured friend sir thomas willughby baronet , desiring him to examine his colliers concerning it , and send me word what report they make ; and from him received this account . if there be springs lye before you come at the coal , they carry the water away ; but if there be none , it falls into the works in greater or less quantity according as the rains fall . which answer is so much the more considerable , in that it gives me a further clear proof , that springs are fed by rain water , and not by any communications from the sea ; their original being above the beds of coal , they receiving the rain-water into their veins , and deriving it all along to their fountains or eruptions , above the coals . i might add out of him , [ dr. witty ] fifthly , pag. . that the scarborow spaw , notwithstanding it breaks out of ground within three or four yards off the foot of the cliff , which is near forty yards high , and within a quarter of a mile there is another hill , that is more than as high again as the cliff , and a descent all the way to the cliff , so as the rain-water cannot lye long upon the ground , yet it is observable , that after a long rain , the water of the spaw is altered in its taste , and lessened in its operation ; whereas a rainy day or two will not sensibly hurt it . and now i am transcribing out of this author , give me leave to add an observation or two in confirmation of rains being the original of springs . the first is ( pag. ▪ ) this ; in england , in the years , . and . when our climate was drier than ever it had been mentioned to be in any stories , so as we had very little rain in summer , or snow in winter , most of our springs were dried up , such as in the memory of the eldest men living had never wanted water , but were of those springs we call fontes perennes , or at least were esteemed so . he instances also a parallel story out of heylin ' s geography , in the description of cyprus , where the author relates ; that in the days of constantine the great , there was an exceeding long drought there , so as in thirty six years they had no rain , insomuch as all the springs and torrents , or rivers , were dried up ; so that the inhabitants were forced to forsake the island , and to seek for new habitations for want of fresh water . the second is , p. . that in the wolds or downs of yorkshire they have many springs break out after great rains , which they call gypsies , which jet and spout up a great height . neither is this eruption of springs after long rains , proper and peculiar only to the wolds of yorkshire , but common to other countreys also , as dr. * childrey witnesseth in these words : sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden land-flood , out of certain stones , that are like rocks standing aloft in open fields , near the rising of the river kynet [ in kent ] which is reputed by the common people a fore-runner of dearth . that the sudden eruption of springs in places where they use not always to run , should be a sign of dearth is no wonder . for these unusual eruptions , ( which in kent we call nailbourns ) are caused by extream gluts of rain , or lasting wet weather , and never happen but in wet years ; witness the year . when there were many of them : — and to our purpose very remarkable it was , that in the year . several springs and rivulets were quite dried up , by reason of the precedent drought , which raged most in , , and . as the head of the stour , that rises near elham in kent , and runs through canterbury , was dry for some miles space : and the like happened to the stream that crosseth the road-way between sittingburn and canterbury at ospring near feversham , which at other times ran with a plentiful current , but then wholly failed . so we see that it is not infrequent for new springs to break out in wet years ; and for old ones to fail in great droughts . and strabo in his first book out of xanthus the lydian tells us , that in the time of artaxerxes there was so great a drought , that rivers , and lakes , and wells of water failed , and were dried up . i cannot here also forbear to add , the probable account he [ dr. witty ] gives of the supply of the spring-well on the castle-hill at scarborough ; at which , i confess , i was somewhat puzzled . this well , saith he , though it be upon the top of the rock , not many yards deep , and also upon the edge of the cliff , is doubtless supplied by secret channels within the ground , that convey the rain and showers into it , being placed on a dependent part of the rock , near unto which there are also cellars under an old ruinated chappel , which after a great rain are full of water , but are dried up in a long drought . as for what is said concerning the river volgas pouring out so much water into the caspian sea , as in a years time would make up a mass of water equal to the globe of the earth ; and of the hourly effusions of the river po in italy , which ricciolus hath computed to amount to cubical paces of water . whence a late learned writer hath probably inferred , that all the rivers in the world together , do daily discharge half an ocean of waters into the sea , i must confess my self to be unsatisfied therewith . i will not question their calculations , but i suspect they are out in their hypotheses . the opinion of mr. edmund halley , that springs and rivers owe their original to vapours condensed on the sides of mountains , rather than unto rains , i acknowledge to be very ingenious , grounded upon good observations , and worthy of its author ; and i will not deny it to be in part true in those hot countreys in the torrid zone , and near it ; where , by reason of the great heats , the vapours are more copiously exhaled out of the earth , and its likely carried up high in the ●●rm of vapours . the inferiour a●r at least is so charged with them , and by that means so very moist , that in some places their knives rust even in their pockets ; and in the night , so very fresh and cold , partly also by reason of the length of the nights ; that exposing the body to it , causes colds and catarrhs , and is very dangerous : whence also their dews are so great , as in good measure to recompence the want of rain , and serve for the nourishment of plants ; as they do even in spain it self . i shall first of all propose this opinion in the words of the author , and then discourse a little upon it . after he had enumerated many of the high ridges and tracts of mountains in the four quarters of the world , he thus proceeds : each of which far surpass the usual height to which the aqueous vapours of themselves ascend , and on the tops of which the air is so cold and rarified , as to retain but a small part of those vapours that shall be brought thither by the winds . those vapours therefore that are raised copiously in the sea , and by the winds are carried over the low lands to those ridges of mountains , are there compelled by the stream of the air to mount up with it to the tops of the mountains , where the water presently precipitates gleeting down by the crannies of the stone ; and part of the vapour entring into the cavities of the hills , the water thereof gathers , as in an alembick , into the basons of stone it finds ; which being once filled , all the overp●us of water that comes thither , runs over by the lowest place , and breaking out by the sides of the hills forms single springs . many of these running down by the valleys or guts between the ridges of the hills , and coming to unite , form little rivulets or brooks . many of these again meeting in one common valley , and gaining the plain ground , being grown less rapid , become a river : and many of these being united in one common channel , make such streams , as the rhine , the rhosne , and the danube , which latter one would hardly think the collection of water condensed out of vapour , unless we consider how vast a tract of ground that river drains , and that it is the sum of all those springs , which break out on the south side of the carpathian mountains , and on the north side of the immense ridge of the alps , which is one continued chain of mountains from switzerland to the black sea. and it may almost pass for a rule , that the magnitude of a river , or the quantity of water it evacuates , is proportionable to the length and height of the ridges , from whence its fountains arise . now this theory of springs is not a bare hypothesis , but founded on experience , which it was my luck to gain in my abode at st. helena ; where , in the night time on the tops of the hills , about eight hundred yards above the sea , there was so strange a condensation , or rather precipitation of the vapours , that it was a great impediment to my celestial observations ; for in the clear sky the dew would ●all ●o ●ait , as to cover each half quarter of an hour my glasses with little drops , so that i was necessitated to wipe them off so often ; and my paper , on which i wrote my observations , would immediately be so wet with the dew , that it would not bear ink : by which it may be supposed , how fast the water gathers in those mighty high ridges i but now named . — at last he concludes : and i doubt not but this hypothesis is more reasonable , than that of those who derive all springs from the rain waters , which yet are perpetual , and without diminution , even when no rain falls for a long space of time . this may , for ought i as yet see or know , be a good account of the original of springs in those fervid regions , though even there , i doubt , but partial ; but in europe , and the more temperate countries , i believe the vapours in this manner condensed , have but little interest in the production of them , though i will not wholly exclude them . for , first , the tops of the alps above the fountains of four of the greatest rivers in europe , the rhine , the rhosne , the danow , and the po , are for about six months in the year constantly covered with snow , to a great thickness ; so that there are no vapours all that while that can touch those mountains , and be by them condensed into water ; there falls nothing there but snow , and that continuing all that while on the ground without dissolution , hinders all access of vapours to the earth ; if any rose , or were by winds carried so high in that form , as i am confident there are not . and yet for all that , do not those springs fail , but continue to run all winter ; and it is likely too , without diminution ; which is a longer time than droughts usually last ; especially if we consider that this want of supply , is constant and annual ; whereas droughts are but rare and accidental . so that we need not wonder any more , that springs should continue to run , and without diminution too , in times of drought . true it is , that those rivers run low all winter , so far as the snow extends , and to a good distance from their heads ; but that is for want of their accidental supplies from showers . nay , i believe , that even in summer , the vapours are but rarely raised so high in a liquid form in the free air , remote from the mountains , but are frozen into snow , before they arrive at that height . for the middle region of the air , where the walk of the clouds is , at least the superiour part of it , is so cold as to freez the vapours that ascend so high , even in summer time . for we see that in the height and heat of summer , in great thunder storms , for the most part it hails : nay , in such tempests i have seen mighty showers of great hail-stones fall , some as big as nutmegs or pigeons eggs ; and in some places such heaps of them , as would load dung carts , and have not been dissolved in a day or two . at the same seasons i have observed , in some showers hail-stones fall of irregular figures , and throughout pellucid , like great pieces of ice , with several snags or ●angs issuing out of them : which how they could be supported in the air till they amounted to that bulk and weight , is a thing worthy to be more curiously considered . for either they must fall from an incredible height , the vapours , they encountred by the way , condensing and as it were crystallizing upon them into ice , and in time augmenting them to that bulk ; or else there must be some strange and unknown faculty in the air to sustain them . that the superiour air doth support heavy bodies better then the inferiour , the flight of birds seems to be a clear demonstration . for when they are mounted up on high , they fly with less fatigue , and move forward with greater facility , and are able to continue longer upon the wing without delassation then in the lower air they could possibly do . and therefore when they are to make great flights , they soar aloft in the air , at a great height above the earth . so have i often seen a a ●lock of wild-g●●se mounted so high , that though their flight be swift , they seemed to make but little way in a long time , and to proceed on their journey with ease and very leisurely by reason of their distance . and yet one would think this were contrary to ●●ason , that the l●ghter air , such as is the susperiour , should better support a weighty body than the heavier , that is , the inferiour . some imagine that this comes to pass by ●eason of the wind which is constantly moving in the upper air , which supports any body that moves contrary to it . so we see that those paper-kites which boys make , are 〈◊〉 in the air by running with them contrary to the wind : and when they are advanced ●o a great height , do but stick down 〈…〉 end of the line to which they are 〈◊〉 into the ground , they will be continued by 〈◊〉 wind at the same height they ●ere , so long as it lasts and abides in the 〈…〉 . in like manner the birds fly●●● contrary the wind , it supports and 〈◊〉 them up . but if this were the only season , methinks it should not be so easie , 〈…〉 very laborious for birds to fly 〈◊〉 the wind so as to make any considerable progress in the superiour air , as we see they do . and therefore possibly they may be nearer the right , who suppose that the gravity of bodies decreases proportionably to their distance from the earth : and that a body may be advanced so high as quite to lose its gravity and inclination or tendency to the center : of which i do not see how it is possible to make experiment : for to what is said by some to have been tried , that a bullet shot perpendicularly upward out of a great gun , never descended again , i give no credit at all . but to leave that , it is certain , that the vapours after they are mounted up to a considerable height in the air , are congealed and turned into the immediate component principles of snow , in which form i conceive they acquire a lightness , and are apt to ascend higher than they could do , should they retain the form of a humid vapour ; as , we see , ice is lighter than water , out of which it is frozen . but whether this be the reason of their ascent or not , i am sure of the matter of fact , that these snow-clouds do ascend far above the highest tops of the alps ; for passing over a mountain in the grisons country , on the very ridge , of them , in the beginning of the spring , it ●nowed very fast during my whole passage or six hours ; and yet the clouds seemed to be as far above my head , as they do here in england ; and a great height they must be , for the snow to gather into so great flakes , and to continue so long falling ; nay , it may be three times so long . moreover , we see , that the highest pikes and summits of those mountains are covered with snow . and i am assured , that all the winter long at intervals , it snows upon the tops of the alps. . in the spring time , when the snow dissolves , some of these rivers that flow down from the alpine mountains , run with a full stream , and overflow their banks , in clear sun-shine weather , though no rain falls , as i my self can witness ; and therefore i presume , that all the rest do so too , as the inabitants affirmed . but in the summer time after the snow hath been some time melted , their streams decay again , notwithstanding any vapours condensed upon them , proportionable to the droughts ; neither are there any floods , but upon falls of rain . . that the snow dissolved and soaking into the earth , is the original of the alpine springs ; a probable argument may be taken from the colour of the water of those rivers which descend from the alps , at least on this northern side , which i observed to be of a sea-green , even to a great distance from their heads ; which whence can it proceed , unless from the nitrous particles of the snow water , of which they consist ? another also from the bronchocele , or * gutturine tumour , an endemial disease of the natives of those parts , which physicians and naturalists attribute to the water they drink , not without good reason ; because , say they , it consists of melted snow , which gives it that malignant quality . † scaliger speaking of this disease , saith , id ab aqua fit è nivibus liquefactis , quae multum terrestris & crudi continet . but because iulius palmarius may possibly be in the right , who imputes this disease to the steams of the minerals , especially mercurial , wherewith these mountains abound , which insect the waters , and render them noxious to the nervous parts ; i shall not insist upon this particular . in confirmation of what i have said concerning the original of the alpine springs , i shall add the opinion of the learned alphonsus borellus concerning the fountains springing up or issuing out of the sides of mount aetna in sicily , they are probably ( saith he ) either generated , or at least encreased , from the melting of the snow , which doth perpetually occupy the top of the mountain . and this is manifest , in that they are not dimished nor decrease in summer , as alsewhere it happens , but often flow more plentifully . lib. de incendiis aetnae . what mr. halley saith of springs , that they are perpetual and without diminution , even when no rain falls for a long space of time . if he understands it generally of all springs , i add , that are accounted quick ones too , i deny his assertion : that some there may be of that nature , i grant : a reason whereof may be given , viz. that the out-let is too small to empty the water of all the veins and earth that lye above it in a long time . in our native country of england there are living and lasting springs rising at the feet of our small hills and hillocks , to which i am sure the vapours contribute very little ; which is so obvious to every man , that i think i need not spend time to prove it . yet must i not dissemble or deny , that in the summer time the vapours do ascend , or are carried up in that form by the sides of the mountains to their highest tops , and above them ; for there falls no snow there in the heat of summer ; and that which lies there , is for the most part dissolved . but that rain falls plentifully there , i my self can witness ; having been on the two highest tops of the mount iura , ( which keeps the snow all winter ) on the one called thuiri in a thunder shower ; and on the other , called la dolaz , in a smart and continuing rain : so that i will not deny , but in summer time the vapours may contribute somewhat to the springs ; as i have elsewhere intimated : clouds almost continually hanging upon the tops of the mountains , and the sun having there but little power . and now that i am discoursing of these things , give me leave to set down an observation i made in the last great frost , the sharpest that was ever known in the memory of man , which i had before met with in books , but did not give firm credit to , that is , that notwithstanding the violence of the frost , all the springs about us , brake out and ran more plentifully than usually they did at any other time : which i knew not what to impute to , unless perchance the close stopping the pores of the earth , and keeping in that part , which at other times was wont to vapour away ; which account , i neither then could , nor can yet fully acquiesce in . to this i will here add an abstract of a letter written by my honoured friend dr. tancred robinson . yov may peradventure meet with some opposition against your hypothesis of fountains , though indeed i am more and more confirm'd in your opinion of them , and the use of the mountains . father tachart in his second voyage to siam , says , when he went up to the top of the table mountain at the cape of good hope , the rocks and shrubs were perpetually dropping and feeding the springs and rills below , there being generally clouds hanging on the sides near the top . this constant distillation of vapours from the ocean on the many high ridges of that great promontory , may peradventure be one cause of the wonderful fertility and luxury of the soil which produces more rare plants and animals then any known spot of ground in the world ; the discovery whereof is owing to the curiosity and wisdom of the dutch. the same observation hath been frequently made by our english merchants in the madera and canary islands , ( the first of which is near in the same latitude on the north of the aequator , that the afore-mentioned cape is in on the south ) especially in their iourneys up to the pike of tenerist , in which , at such and such heights , they were always wet to the skin , by the droppings of the great stones , yet no rain over head ; the same i have felt in passing over some of the alps. the trees , which in the islands of ferro , st. thomas and in guiny , are said to furnish the inhabitants with most of their water , stand on the sides of vast mountains : vossius in his notes on pomponius mela , affirms them to be arborescent ferula's ; though indeed , according to paludanus his dry'd sample sent to the duke of wirtenberg they seem rather to be of the laurel kind ; perhaps there are many different sorts of them . i believe there is something in the many relations of travellers and voyagers concerning these trees ; but then i fancy they are all mistaken , when they say , the water issues out of the trees : the vapors stop't by the mountains condense and distil down by the boughs . there being no mountains in egypt , may be one reason why there is little or no rain in that country , and consequently no fresh springs ; therefore in their caravans they carry all their water with them in great borracio's , and they owe the inundation of their river nile to the stationary or periodical rains on the high parts of aethiopia . this may be the cause that the vast ridge and chain of mountains in peru , are continually water'd , when the great plains in that countrey are all dry'd up and parch't . this hypothesis concerning the original of springs from vapours , may hold better in those hot regions within and near the tropicks ( where the exhalations from the sea are most plentiful , most rarify'd , and rain scarce ) than in the temperate and frigid ones ( where it rains and snows generally on the vertices of the mountains ) yet even in our european climates i have often observ'd the firs , pines , and other vegetables near the summits of the alps and appennines , to drop and run with water , when it did not rain above ; some trees more than others , according to the density and smoothness of their leaves and superficies , whereby the stop and condense the vapours more or less . the beams of the sun having little force on the high parts of mountains , the interrupted vapours must continually moisten them , and ( as in the head of an alembick ) condense and trickle down ; so that we owe part of our rain , springs , rivers , and conveniencies of life , to the operation of distillation and circulation by the sun , the sea , and the hills , without even the last of which , the earth would scarce be habitable . this present year in kent they have had no rain since march last ; therefore most of their springs are dry at this very day , as i am assur'd from good hands . the high spouting of water even to three fathoms perpendicular out of innumerable holes on the lake zirknitz in carniola after rains on the adjacent hills , exceeds the spirting gips or natural jet d' eaus we have in england . nouemb. . . tancred robinson . since the receipt of this letter , an experiment ( give me leave so to call it ) occurred to me , which much confirmed me in the belief and perswasion of the truth of those histories and relations which writers and travellers have delivered to us concerning dropping trees in ferro , s. thome , guiny , &c. of which before i was somewhat diffident ; and likewise in the approbation of the hypothesis of my learned friend dr. tancred robinson for the solving of that phaenomenon . the same also induces me to believe , that vapours may have a greater interest in the production of springs even in temperate and cold regions , than i had before thought . the experiment or observation is this , about the beginning of december . there happened to be a mist , and that no very thick one , which continued all day : the vapour whereof , notwithstanding the trees were wholly devested of leaves , condensed so fast upon their naked branches and twigs , that they dropped all day at such a rate , that i believe the water distilling from a large tree in twenty four hours had it been all received and reserved in a vessel , might have amounted to a hogshead . what then may we rationally conjecture , would have dropped from such a tree ; had it been covered with leaves of a dense texture , and smooth superficies , apt to collect the particles of the vapour , and unite them into drops ? it is clear by this effect , that trees do distil water apace when clouds or mists hang about them ; which they are reported by benzo constantly to do about the fountain tree in ferro ; except when the sun shines hot upon it . and others tell us , that that tree grows upon a mountain too : so that it is no wonder , that it should drop abundance of water . what do i speak of that tree ? all the trees of that kind grow on the sides of vast mountains , as dr. robinson hath noted , yet he thinks that now and then many trees may run and distil in plains and valleys , when the weather has been fair , but then this phaenomenon happens very rarely ; whereas in the other 't is regular and constant . besides that in hot regions trees may in the night time distil water , though the air be clear , and there be no mist about them , seems necessarily to follow , from mr. halley's experiment . now if there be in mists thus much vapour condensed upon trees , doubtless also there is in proportion as much upon the surface of the earth and the grass : and consequently , upon the tops and ridges of high mountains , which are frequently covered with clouds or mists much more ; so much as must needs have a great interest in the production and supply of springs , even in temperate countries . but that invisible vapours , when the sky is clear , do at any time condense so fast upon the trees , as to make them drop ▪ i never observed in england or elsewhere , no not in the night season ; though i do not deny , but upon the appennine and southern side of the alps , and elsewhere in the hotter parts of europe in summer nights they may . however , considering the penetrancy of such vapours , that in moist weather they will insinuate themselves deeply into the pores of dry wood , so that doors will then hardly shut , and chinks and crannies in boards and floors be closed up , i know not but that they may likewise strike deep into the ground , and together with mists contribute to the seeding and maintenance of springs , in winter-time , when the sun exhales but little ; it being an observation of the learned * fromondus , quod hyeme nec nivah , nec imbrifera fontes tamen aquam largiùs quàm aejlate ( nisi valdè pluvia sit ) vomant . that in winters neither snowy nor rainy , yet fountains pour forth more water than in summer , unless it happen to be a very wet season . yet are their contributions inconsiderable , if compared with the supplies that are a●●orded by rains. and one reason why in winter fountains flow more plentifully , may be , because then the sun defrauds them not , nor exhales any thing out of the earth , as in summer time he doth . therefore whenever in this work i have assigned rain to be a sufficient or only cause of springs and rivers , i would not be understood to exclude , but to comprehend therein mists and vapours ; which i grant to have some interest in the production of them , even in temperate and cold regions ; and a very considerable one in hot. though i cannot be perswaded , that even there they are the sole cause of springs , for that there fall such plentiful and long continuing rains , both in the east and west-indies in the summer months : which must needs contribute something to their original . but to return from whence we digressed , that is , to the consideration of that hypothesis or opinion , that all the rivers of the earth discharge into the sea half an ocean of waters daily . i have read of some philosophers , who imagined the earth to be a great animal , and that the ebbing and flowing of the sea was the respiration of it . and now methinks , if this doctrine be true , we have a further argument to confirm their opinion : for this perpetual motion of the water answers very well to the circulation of the blood ; the water moving faster in proportion to its bulk through the veins of this round animal , then the blood doth through those of other living creatures . to which we may add further , that to maintain this constant circulation there is also probably about the center of the earth a perpetual fire , answering to the biolychnium in the heart : but if not about the center , yet certainly in profound caverns , and even under the very bottoms of the seas ; to which some , and no mean philosophers , have attributed the ebbing and flowing of its waters . let us then suppose that the rivers do daily carry down to the sea half an ocean of water , and that the rain supplies all that , as our opinion is , and see what we can infer from thence : i think it will be granted that ordinarily ( communibus annis ) the rain that falls in a whole year amounts not to above one quarters continual rain . now if this suffices for a daily e●●usion of half an ocean , 〈…〉 , that if it should rain without any 〈◊〉 all the year round , the rivers would 〈◊〉 out two oceans into the sea 〈◊〉 and so in forty days continual rain 〈◊〉 would distil down upon the earth 〈…〉 of water . a prodigious quantity 〈◊〉 and ●●arce credible , which if the 〈…〉 as fast as it comes on , 〈…〉 a quantity of water 〈…〉 twice in twenty four 〈…〉 then that so much water 〈…〉 upon the ●arth , i argue thus , 〈…〉 upon the earth must have 〈…〉 down to the sea , and according ●o the small declivity of the 〈…〉 the mountains pared off and 〈…〉 a considerable one too 〈…〉 it actually hath , so that the floods 〈…〉 some days after the 〈…〉 upon the higher grounds . and 〈…〉 the general deluge 〈…〉 down to the sea as fast 〈…〉 the earth would permit , 〈…〉 the fountains of the 〈…〉 clouds 〈…〉 could than they run down 〈…〉 the earth , it deserves 〈…〉 whether by the end of 〈…〉 mountains fifteen cubits high . and yet the scripture doth not in plain terms say , that ever the waters of the flood arose fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains , as mr. warren well observes . besides , we are further to consider , that this forty days rain at the time of the deluge , was no ordinary one , such as those that usually distil down leisurely and gently in winter time , but like our thunder-storms and violent showers , catarracts , and spouts , which pour forth more water in an hour then they do in four and twenty . so that in forty natural days the clouds would empty out upon the earth not eighty oceans of water , but above twenty times that quantity . if by the windows of heaven are meant catarracts , as the septuagint interpret the word . and so we need not be to seek for water for a floud ; for the rain alone falling at that rate we have mentioned , would if the opinion of those men ( who hold that the rivers discharge into the sea half an ocean daily ) were true , in the space of forty natural days afford water enough , supposing it run off no faster than usually it doth , to cover the earth , mountains and all . neither yet did the mountains help , but rather hinder the descent of the waters down to the sea , straitning it into channels , obstructing its passage , and forcing it to take circuits , till it got above the ridges and tops of them . as to this argumentation and inference the case is the same if we hold that the water circulates through the 〈◊〉 of the earth . for supposing the rivers pour 〈◊〉 half an ocean daily , and granting that in times of floods their streams are but double of their usual currents ( though i verily believe they are more than quadruple ) and that the e●fusions of the fountains be in like measure augmented , it will follow that the daily discharge of the rivers will amount to two oceans . now at the time of the general deluge both these causes concurred . for there being a constant rain of forty days , there must on that account be a continual flood , and the fountains of the great deep ●eing broken up , they must in all likelyhood afford as much water as the rain : which whether it would not suffice in forty natural days to produce a flood as big as that of noah , notwit●standing the continual descent and going off of the waters , i propose to the consideration of the ingenious . especially if we allow , as is not unreasonable 〈◊〉 suppose , that the divine providence 〈◊〉 at first cause a contrary wind to stop 〈◊〉 ●nhibit the descent of the waters , as afterwards he raised an assisting one to carry them off . i have but one thing more to add upon this subject , that is , that i do not see how their opinion can be true , who hold that some seas are lower than others ; as for example , the red sea than the mediterranean . for it being true that the water keeps its level , that is , holds its superficies every where equidistant from the center of gravity ; or if by accident one part be lower , the rest by reason of their fluidity will speedily reduce the superficies again to an equality . the waters of all seas communicating either above , or under ground , or both ways , one sea cannot be higher or lower than another : but supposing any accident should elevate or depress any , by reason of this confluence or communication it would soon be reduced to a level again , as might demonstratively be proved . but i return , to tell the reader what i think the most probable of all the causes i have heard assigned of the deluge , which is , the center of the earth being at that time changed , and set nearer to the center or middle of our continent , whereupon the atlantick and pacifick oceans must needs press upon the subterraneous abyss , and so by mediation thereof , force the water upward , and at last compel it to run out at those wide mouths and apertures made by the divine power breaking up the fountains of the great deep . and we may suppose this to have been only a gentle and gradual emotion , no faster than that the waters running out at the bottom of the sea , might accordingly lowre the superficies thereof sufficiently , so that none needed run over the shores. these waters thus poured out from the orifices of the fountains upon the earth , the declivity being changed by the removal of the center , could not flow down to the sea again , but must needs stagnate upon the earth , and overflow it ; and afterwards the earth returning to its old center , return also to their former receptacles . if any shall object against this hypothesis , because by it the flood will be render'd topical , and restrained only to the continent we live in : though i might plead the unnecessariness of drowning america , it being in all probability unpeopled at that time ; yet because the scripture useth general expressions concerning the extent of the flood , saying , gen. . . and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered ; and again , verse . all in whose nostrils was the breath of lìfe , of all that was in the dry land died . and because the americans also are said to have some ancient memorial tradition of a deluge ; and the ingenious author of the theory of the earth hath by a moderate computation , demonstrated , that there must be then more people upon the earth , than now : i will propose another way of solving this phaenomenon , and that is , by supposing that the divine power might at that time , by the instrumentality of some natural agent , to us at present unknown , so depress the surface of the ocean , as to force the waters of the abyss through the forementioned channels and apertures , and so make them a partial and concurrent cause of the deluge . that there are at some times in the course of nature extraordinary pressures upon the surface of the sea , which force the water outwards upon the shores to a great height is evident . we had upon our coasts the last year an extraordinary tide , wherein the water rose so high , as to overflow all the sea-banks , drown multitudes of cattel , and fill the lower rooms of the houses of many villages that stood near the sea , so that the inhabitants , to save themselves , were ●orced to get up into the upper rooms and garrets of their houses . now how this could be effected , but by an unusual pressure upon the superficies of the ocean , i cannot well conceive . in like manner that the divine providence might at the time of the deluge so order and dispose second causes , as to make so strong a pressure upon the face of the waters , as to force them up to a height sufficient to overflow the earth , is no way unreasonable to believe . these hypotheses i propose , as seeming to me at present most facile and consonant to scripture , without any concern for either of them ; and therefore am not solicitous to gather together , and heap up arguments to confirm them , or to answer objections that may be made against them , being as ready to relinquish them upon better information , as i was to admit and entertain them . chap. iii. of the effects of the deluge . i come now to the third particular proposed , that is , to enquire concerning the consequents of the deluge , what considerable effects it had upon the earth and and its inhabitants . it had doubtless very great , in changing the superficies of the dry land : in some places adding to the sea ; in some taking from it ; making islands of peninsulae , and joining others to the continent ; altering the beds of rivers , throwing up lesser hills , and washing away others , &c. the most remarkable effects it 's likely were in the skirts of the continents ; because the motion of the water was there most violent . athanasius kircher * gives us a map and description of the world after the flood , shewing what changes were made therein by it , or upon occasion of it afterward , as he fansies or conjectures . but because i do not love to trouble the reader with uncertain conjectures , i shall content my self to have said in general , that it may rationally be supposed , there were then great mutations and alterations made in the superficial part of the earth : but what they were , though we may guess , yet can we have no certain knowledge of : and for particulars , refer the curious to him . one malignant effect it had upon mankind , and probably upon other animals too , in shortning their age , or the duration of their lives ; which i have touched before , and shewn , that this diminution of age , is to be attributed either to the change of the temperature of the air , as to salubrity , or equality , ( sudden and frequent changes of weather having a very bad influence upon the age of man in abbreviating of it , as i could easily prove ) or else to the deteriority of the diet ; or to both these causes . but how the flood should induce or occasion such a change in the air and productions of the earth , i do not comprehend . chap. iv. of formed stones , sea-shells , and other marine-like bodies found at great distances from the shores , supposed to have been brought in by the deluge . another supposed effect of the flood , was a bringing up out of the sea , and scattering all the earth over an innumerable multitude of shells and shell-fish ; there being of these shell-like bodies , not only on lower grounds and hillocks , but upon the highest mountains , the appennine and alps themselves . a supposed effect , i say , because it is not yet agreed among the learned , whether these bodies , formerly called petrified shells , but now a-days passing by the name of formed stones , be original productions of nature , formed in imitation of the shells of fishes ; or the real shells themselves , either remaining still entire and uncorrupt , or petrified and turned into stone , or at least , stones cast in some animal mold . both parts have strong arguments and patrons . i shall not balance authorities , but only consider and weigh arguments . those for the latter part , wherewith i shall begin , are , first , because it seems contrary to that great wisdom of nature , which is observable in all its works and productions , to design every thing to a determinate end , and for the attaining that end , make use of such ways , as are most aggreeable to man's reason , that these prettily shaped bodies , should have all those curious figures and contrivances ( which many of them are formed and adorned with ) generated or wrought by a plastic vertue , for no higher end , than only to exhibite such a form . this is mr. hook's argumentation . to which dr. plot answers , that the end of such productions , is , to beautifie the world with those varieties ; and that this is no more repugnant to the prudence of nature , than is the production of most flowers , tulips , anemones , &c. of which we know as little use of , as of formed stones . but hereto we may reply , that flowers are for the ornament of a body , that hath some degree of life in it : a vegeta●ive soul , whereby it performs the actions of nutrition , auction and generation ; which it is reasonable should be so beautified . and , secondly , flowers serve to embrace and cherish the fruit , while it is yet tender ; and to desend it from the injuries of sun and weather ; especially for the protection and security of the apices , which are no idle or useless part , but contain the masculine sperm , and serve to give fecundity to the seed . thirdly , though formed stones may be useful to man in medicine , yet flowers afford us abundantly more uses , both in meat and medicine . yet i must not dissemble , that there is a phaenomenon in nature , which doth somewhat puzzle me to reconcile , with the prudence observable in all its works ; and seems strongly to prove , that nature doth sometimes ludere , and delineate figures , for no other end , but for the ornament of some stones , and to entertain and gratifie our curiosity , or exercise our wits . that is , those elegant impressions of the leaves of plants upon cole-state , the knowledge whereof , i must confess my self to owe to my learned and ingenious friend mr. edward lloyd of oxford , who observed of it in some cole-pits in the way from wychester in glocestershire to bristol ; and afterwards communicated to me a sample of it . that which he found , was marked with the leaves of two or three kinds of ferns and of harts-tongue . he told me also , that mr. woodward a londoner , shewed him very good draughts of the common female fern , naturally formed in cole , which himself found in mendip hills ; and added , that he had found in the same pits , draughts of the common cinquefoil , clover-grass and strawberries . but these figures are more diligently to be observed and considered . secondly , there are found in the earth at great distance from the sea , real shells unpetrified and uncorrupted , of the exact figure and consistency of the present natural sea-shells , and in all their parts like them , and that not only in the lower grounds and hillocks near the sea , but in mountains of a considerable height , and distant from the sea. christianus mentzelius in his discourse concerning the bononian phosphorus , gives us a relation of many beds of them found mingled with sand in the upper part of a high mountain not far from bologna in italy . his words are these , non procul monte paterno dicto , lapidis bononiensis patria , unico forte milliari italico distanti ( loci nomen excidit memoriâ ) ingens mons imminet praeruptus à violentia torrentium aquarum ▪ quas imbres frequentes ex vici●is montibus confluentes efficiunt , atque insignes terrarum moles ab isto monte prosternunt ac dejiciunt . in hac montis raina , superiore in parte visuntur multae strages seriésve , ex testis conchyliorum omnis generis , plurimâ arenâ interjectâ , instar strati super stratum ( ut chymicorum vulgus loquitur . ) est enim inter hasce testarum conchyliorum strages seriésve arena ad crassitiem ulnae & ultra interposita . erant autem testae variorum ●●●chyliorum , omnes ab invicem distinctae , nec 〈◊〉 lapidi impactae , adeò ut separatim 〈◊〉 manibus tractari & dignosci potuerint . 〈◊〉 hoc arena pura , nullo limo lutóve inter mix●a ▪ quae conc●hyli●rum testas conservaverat 〈◊〉 multa secula integras . interea verò diuturnitate temporis omn●s istae testae erant in albissim●m calcem facilè resolubiles . not far from the mountain called ●aterno , where the bononian sto●e is gotten , about an italian mile distant ( the name or the place is slipt out of my memory ) is a huge hanging mountain , broken by the violence of the torrents , caused by the confluence of waters descending from the neighbouring mountains after frequent showers , throwing down great heaps of earth from it . in the upper part of this broken mountain are seen many beds or floors of all kind of sea-shells , much sand interposing between bed and bed , after the manner of stratum super stratum , or layer upon layer , as the chymists phrase it . the beds of sand interceding between these rows of shells were a yard thick or more . these shells were all distinct or separate one from another , and not stuck in any one stone , or cemented together , so that they might be singly and separately viewed and handled with ones hands . the cause whereof was their being lodged in a pure sand not intermixt with any mud or clay , which kept the shells entire for many ages . yet were all these shells , by reason of the length of time they had lain there , easily resoluble into a purely white ▪ calx or ash. fabius columna also observes , that in the tophaceous hills and cliffs about andria in apulia , there are found various sorts of sea-shells , both broken and whole , uncorrupt , and that have undergone no change . and ovid in metam . lib. . et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae . i am also informed by my learned and worthy friend dr. tancred robinson , that signior settali shewed him in his museum at milan , many turbens , echini , pearl shells , ( one with a pearl in it ) pectunculi , and several other perfect shells , which he himself found in the mountains near genoa ; and afterwards my said friend took notice also of several beds of them himself , as he passed over mount cenis , above fifty leagues distant from the sea ; he assures me that many of the great stones about the buildings of london are full of shells , and pieces of them . moreover , my fore-mentioned friend mr. lloyd sent me perfect escallop and sea-urchin shells , exactly resembling the like sea-shells , both for figure , colour , weight and consistency ; which he himself gathered up near oxford . and hath lately sent me word , that he found at a place called rungewell-hill in surrey , at a village called hedley , three miles south of epsham , at least twenty miles distant from the sea , some fossil oysters , which by the confession of dr. lyster himself , were indeed true oyster-shells not petrified nor much decayed : nay , so like they were to oysters newly taken out of the sea , that a certain person seeing of them , mistook them for such , and opened one of them , expecting to find a living fish therein . now that nature should form real shells , without any design of covering an animal , is indeed so contrary to that innate prolepsis we have of the prudence of nature , ( that is , the author of nature ) that without doing some violence to our faculties , we can hardly prevail with our selves to believe it : and gives great countenance to the atheists assertion , that things were made or did exist by chance , without counsel or direction to any end . add hereto thirdly , that there are other bodies besides shells found in the earth , resembling the teeth and bones of some fishes , which are so manifestly the very things they are thought only to resemble , that it might be esteemed obstinacy in any man that hath viewed and considered them to deny it . such are the glossopetrae dag up in malta in such abundance , that you may buy them by measure , and not by tale : and also the vertebres of thornbacks and other cartilagineous fishes there found , and sold for stones among the glossopetrae , which have no greater dissimilitude to the teeth of a living shark , and vertebres of a thoruback , then lying so long in the earth , as they must needs have done , will necessarily induce . mr. doody has in his custody a petrify'd lump of fishes , on some of which the scales themselves still remain . and if the very inspection of these bodies , is not enough to convince any man , that they are no stones , but real teeth and bones , fabius columna proves it by several strong arguments . ● . those things which have a woody , bony or fleshy nature , by burning are changed first into a coal , before they go into a calx or ashes : but those which are of a tophaceous or stony substance , go not first into a coal , but burn immediately into a calx or lime , unless by some vitreous or metallick mixture they be melted . now these teeth being burnt , pass presently into a coal , but the tophous substance adhering to them , doth not so ; whence it is clear , that they are of an osseous , and no stony nature . next he shews , that they do not shoot into this form after the manner of salts or crystal , which i shall have occasion further to treat of by and by . then he proves it from the axiom , natura nihil facit frustra ; nature makes nothing in vain . but these teeth , were they thus formed in the earth , would be in vain ; for they could not have any use of teeth ; as neither the bones of supporting any animal . nature never made teeth without a jaw , nor shells without an animal inhabitant , nor single bones , no not in their own proper element , much less in a strange one . further he argues , from the difficulty or impossibility of the generation of glossopetrae in such places ; because , among tophi and stones in those dry places , there could not be found matter sit for to make them of . but granting that , he queries whether they were generated at first all of a sudden , or grew by little and little from small to great , as animals teeth , whose sorm they imitate , do . if the first be said , he demands , whether the tophus , out of which they were extracted , were generated before or after the teeth were p●riected ? if it be said before , he asks , whether there were a place in it of the figure and magnitude of the tooth , or did the tooth make it ●ell a place ? if the tophus were concrete before , and without a cavity , the vegetative power of the stone now in b●●th , could not by ●orce make it self a place in the hard and solid tophus ; or if it could and did , the tophus must needs be rent . against the production of these bodies in a compact earth or stone , nic. steno argues thus ; things that grow , expanding themselves l●isurely or slowly , may indeed lift up great weights , and dilate the ●hinks and veins of stones , as we see the roots of trees sometimes do ; but yet while they do thus make room for themselves , they cannot but be often hindred by the resistance of some hard obstacle they meet with , as it happens to the roots of plants , which in hard earth , being a thousand ways writhen and compressed , recede from the figure , which otherwise in soft land they are wont to retain : whereas these bo●ies , whereof we are new discoursing , are ●ll like one mother , whether they be dug out of soft earth , or cut out of stones , or pluckt off animals . wherefore they seem not to be at this day produced in those places where they are found , because ( as we have said ) those things which grow in compact places are found strangely mishapen and irregular , which these are not : nor was the earth compacted when they were there produced for the same reason . columna proceeds , if there were a place before ready made in the tophus , then was not that figure excavated in the tophus by the vegetative nature of the tooth it self ; but the tophus by its own nature and precedent cavity , gave the form to the tooth . if the latter part be chosen , and it be said , that the stone by its vegetative power grew by degrees ; it may be answered as before , that could not be ; because the hardness of the tophus could not have yielded to the vegetative force of the tooth , but would rather have been rent or divided by it ; or rather the tophus it self must have vegetated , containing a cavity or uterus of the shape of the tooth , into which an osseous humour , penetrating through the pores , and filling the cavity of the vterus , must there have co●gulated , and taken the form thereof , as is observed in stones that have their original from a fluor . that both tooth and case might vegetate together he denies , because in all the teeth which he had seen , the basis or root was found broken , and that not with an uniform fracture , but different in every one . which argument is not to be slighted , for that it shews or proves , that there was no vegetation in the case ; because in all other figured fossils it is observed , that they are never found mutilous , broken or imperfect . neither can it reasonably be said or believed , that these roots or teeth were by some chance broken within the tophi , but rather , that when they were casually overwhelmed and buried in that tophous earth , they were broken off from the jaws of the animal in those volutations , and so in that manner mutilated . against the generation of these and the like bodies in any hard earth or stone , n. steno argues thus , that they are not at present produced in hard earth , one may thence conjecture , that in all the parts of such earth or stone throughout , they are all found of the same consistence , and encompassed round on all sides with that hard matter . for if there were some of them produced anew at this present day , the containing or ambient bodies ought to give way to them while they are growing , which they cannot ; and the bodies themselves that are now produced , would without doubt discover something wherein they differed from those that were generated of old . another argument to prove them to be true teeth and no stones , he brings from their various parts and figures , which must else have been so wrought and formed in vain . the tooth being not one homogeneous body , but compounded of parts of a different constitution , there must in the formation of it be made a various election of humors , one for the root , one for the inner part , one for the superficies of it . then for the figures , magnitude , situation or posture , and sitting of them ; some are great , and broad , and almost triangular ; others narrower and smaller , others very small and narrow , of a pyramidal figure , some streight , some crooked , bending downwards , or toward the neither side ; some inclining toward the left , others toward the right side : some serrate with small teeth , others with great indentures ( which is observed in the lesser triangular ones ) some smooth without any teeth , as the narrow pyramidal ones . all which things are observed in shark's teeth , not only by the learned naturalists , but also by fisher-men and mariners . the first row of teeth in these animals hanging out of the mouth , bend forward and downward ; the second row are streight , especially toward the sides of the mouth , where they are triangular and broad , the other rows bend downward toward the inner part of the mouth . thus far * columna . fourthly , if these formed stones be indeed original productions of nature , in imitations of shells and bones , how comes it to pass , that there should be none found , that resemble any other natural body , but the shells and bones of fishes only ? why should not nature as well imitate the horns , hoofs , teeth , or bones of land animals , or the fruits , nuts , and seed of plants ? now my learned friend mr. edward lloyd above mentioned , who hath been most diligent in collecting , and curious in observing these bodies of any man i know , or ever heard of , tells me , that he never found himself , or had seen in any cabinet , or collection , any one stone that he could compare to any part of a land animal . as for such that do not resemble any part of a fish , they are either rock plants , as the astroites , asteriae trochites , &c. or do shoot into that form , after the manner of salts and fluors , as the belemnites and selenites . fifthly , those that deny these bodies to have been the shells and bones of fishes , have given us no satisfactory account of the manner of their production . for that they do not shoot into that form after the manner of salts , may be proved by many arguments . first , all salts that shoot , their crystals or concretions are of one uniform substance , and their figures are more simple , and may be owing to the figure of the principles whereof they are compounded . in other bodies that shoot , as the pyrites and belemnites , one may observe streight radii or fibres proceeding from one center . secondly , did those bodies shoot into these figures after the manner of salts , it seems strange to me , that two shells should be so adapted together at the heel , as to shoot out to the same extension round , and the upper and nether valve be of different figure , as in natural shells . thirdly , were these bodies produced in the manner of saline concretions , it 's strange there should be such varieties of them , and their shapes so regular , and exactly circumscribed : so great a diversity of figures , arguing a greater variety of salts , or of their modifications and mixtures , than are likely to be found in nature ; and the concretions of salts never , that i have yet seen , appearing in that regularity of figure and due circumscription , as in these bodies . this argument steno in his discourse concerning these bodies , improves and urges thus ; who can deny , that the hexaedrical figure of crystal , the cubes of marcasites , and the crystals of salts in chymical operations , and infinite other bodies coagulating and crystallizing in a fluid , have figures much more ordinate than are those of scallops , cockles , and other bivalves , and also periwinckles and turbens ? yet we see in these simple bodies sometimes the top of a solid angle cut off ; sometimes many of them without any order sticking one to another ; sometimes their planes differing among themselves in magnitude and situation ; and many other ways receding from their usual figure ? which being so , how much greater and more notable defects must there needs have been in bodies that have a far more compound figure , such as are those which unitate the forms of animals , if they were in like manner generated ? seeing therefore in these bodies , which are very much compounded , these defects do seldom occur , which in those other most simple bodies are very frequent ; seeing there are no defects observed in these compound bodies , the like whereto are not in like manner seen in the bodies of animals . and seeing that wheresoever they are found they are exceeding like both among themselves , and to the parts of animals , it is very unlikely they should shoot into those figures after the mannor of salts ; but on the contrary , highly probable that they were originally the parts of animals ; the similitude of conformation in their pores , striae , hinges , teeth , prominences , threds , &c. almost necessarily inferring a similitude of original : which is an argument of the government of some principle , superiour to matter figured and moved , in their formations . fourthly , were these bodies nothing but concretions of salts , or saline mixtures , it seems no less strange , that so many liquors impregnated with all sorts of salts and mineral juices , in all proportions , having been at one time or other industriously or accidentally exposed to crystallize , and let stand long in vessels , there should never have been found in them any such concretions . for if any had happened , we should doubtless have heard of them , and the observers would have improved such an experiment to the production of the like bodies at their pleasure . so i have finished what i have to alledge in defence of the latter part , that these formed stones were sometimes the real shells or bones of fishes , i mean the figured part of them . i proceed now to set down , what may be objected against this opinion , or offered in assertion of the contrary , viz. that these bodies are primitive productions of nature , in imitation of the shells and bones of fishes . against the former opinion we have been pleading for , it may be objected , that there follow such strange and seemingly absurd consequences from it , as are hardly reconcileable to scripture , or indeed to sober reason : as , first , that the waters must have covered the whole earth , even the highest mountains , and that for a long time , there being found of these shells , not only in the most mountainous parts of our country , but in the highest mountains in europe , the appennine and alps themselves , and that not only scattered , but amassed in great lumps , and lying thick in beds of sand , as we have before shewn . now this could hardly be the effect of a short deluge , which if it had carried any shell-fish so high , would in all likelyhood have scattered them very thin . these beds and lumps of them necessarily inferring , that they must have bred there , which is a work of time . now the general deluge lasted in the whole , but ten months ; and it 's not likely the tops of the mountains were covered half that time . neither is it less repugnant to reason than scripture ; for if the waters stood so high above the earth , for so long a time , they must by reason of their confluence , be raised as high above the sea too . but what is now become of this huge mass of waters , equal to six or seven oceans ? may not the stoicks here set in , and help us out at a dead lift ? the sun and moon , say they , might possibly sup it all up . yea , but we cannot allow time enough for that ; for according to the moderate draughts they take now a-days , one ocean would suffice to water them many ages , unless perchance when they were young and hot , they might need more drink . but to be serious , i have no way to answer this objection , but by denying , that there are any beds or great lumps and masses of these formed stones to be found near the tops of the alps , or other high mountains ; but yet there might be some particular shells scattered there by the general deluge . unless we should say , that those mountains where such shells are found were anciently depressed places , and afterward raised up by earthquakes . another thing there is as difficult to give an account of , as of the shells getting up to the tops of mountains : that is , of those several beds or floors of earth and sand , &c. one above another , which are observed in broken mountains . for one cannot easily imagine whence these floor or beds in the manner of strata super strata ( as the chymists speak ) should come , but from the sediments of great floods , which how or whence , they could bring so great a quantity of earth down , when there was but little land above the sea , i cannot see . and one would likewise be apt to think , that such a bed of sands , with plenty of cockle-shells intermixt , as we mentioned before in the mountain near bononia in italy , must have been sometimes the bottom of the sea. but before one can give a right judgment of these things , one must view the mountains where such layers and beds of earth and shells are ●ound : for perchance they may not be elevated so high above the present surface of the sea , as one would judge by the descriptions of them . 't is true ( says my worthy friend dr. tancred robinson ) that some shells might have been scatter'd up and down the earth by incampments of armies , by the inhabitants of cities and towns , whereof there are now no remains . mounsteur loubere , the late french envoy to siam , affirms that the monkeys and apes at the cape of good hope , are almost continually carrying shells and other marine bodies from the sea-side up to the mountains ; yet this will not solve the matter , nor give any satisfactory account , why these perfect shells are disperst up and down the earth , in all climates and regions , in the deep bowels of vast mountains where they lye as regularly in beds as they do at the bottom of the sea. secondly , it would hence follow , that many ●pecies of shell fis● are lost out of the world , 〈…〉 philosophers hitherto have been unwilling to admit , esteeming the destruction of any one species a dismembring of the universe , and rendring it imperfect : whereas they think the divine providence is especially concerned to secure and preserve the works of the creation : and that it is so , appears , in that it was so careful to lodge all land-animals in the ark at the time of the general deluge . the consequence is proved in that , among these petrified shells , there are many sorts observed , which are not at this day , that we know of , any where to be found . such are a whole gentis of cornua ammonis , which some have supposed to be nautili , though to me they do not seem so to be , but a different genus by themselves , of which there have not any been seen either cast ashore , or raked out of the sea , at any time , that ever i heard of . nay , my very learned and honoured friend dr. lister proceeds further , and saith , that when he particularly examined some of our english shores for shells , and also the fresh waters and the fields , that he did never meet with any one of those species of shells found at adderton in yorkshire , wansford-bridge in northamptonshire , and about gunthorp and beavoir castle , &c. any where else , but in their respective quarries . what can we say to this ? why it is possible that many sorts of shell-fish may be lodged so deep in the seas , or on rocks so remote from the shores , that they may never come to our sight . thirdly , it follows also , that there have been shell-fish in these cold northern seas of greater bulk and dimensions , than any now living ; i do not say in these , but in the most southernly and indian ; viz. cornua ammonis of two foot diameter , and of thickness answerable . to this i answer , that there are no petrified shells that do in bigness much exceed those of the natural shell-fish found in our seas , save the cornua ammonis only , which i suspect to have never been , nor had any relation to any shells of fishes : or to imitate or resemble them , at least some of them . against this assertion it may be objected , that there are found in england may pectinites bigger than any shell-fish of that kind which our seas now afford . and that there are no nautili , or other testaccous fishes with us , comparable in bigness to that nautilus-sto●e of twenty eight pound found by mr. waller at keinsham . to which i answer , that there may be shell-fish in our seas , that do not at all , or very seldom appear , greater than we are aware of . i my self , in company with mr. willughby , in the streight between the isle and calf of man , took up among the tall fuci growing thick upon the rocks there , two or three of those large echini marini or sea-vrchins , as big as a man's two fists , the shells whereof we never found cast up upon the shores of england , nor ever heard that any man else did . so that i question not but there are lodged among the rocks , and in the deeper places of the sea , remote from the shores , many different sorts of shell-fish , and excelling in magnitude those that are commonly found or known . and like enough it is , that after the flood there were many places deserted , and thrown up by the sea , and become dry land , which had been sea before ; which must needs be replete with these bodies . as for the nautili , they are much different from these cornua ammonis . for the nautili , at least all the species of them known to us , are ( as dr. plot well observes ) extravagantly broad at the mouth , and have not more than two other small turns at the most , whereas the turns of the ophiomorphites are proportionable one to another ; and in number many times four or five , and sometimes six , if we may believe aldrovand . and there are nautili lapidei , which do as nearly resemble the nautilus shells as any other cochlites do their respective prototypes , as mr. lloyd assures me he had observed many in museums . and the learned and ingenious mr. richard waller then secretary to the royal society , in a letter to me dated febr. . . w●●es , that he had been lately at keinsham in somerset shire , and making a search after the coruua ammonis , ●ound one of the true nautilus shape , covered in some places with a shelly incrustation with the diaphragms to be seen to the center of the volutae , and in each diaphragm , the hole by which they communicate one with another , by a string or gut in the fish. this was of a very hard stone and large size , weighing at least twenty eight pound , though some part was broken off . another argument that they have no relation to the common nautili , is , that they break into pieces somewhat resembling vertebres , as i was first advised by the fore-remembred mr. lloyd , and have since noted my self . i also received from that very ingenious and inquisitive gentleman , happy in making natural discoveries , mr. william cole of bristol , such an account of a sort or two of these ophiomorphous bodies , as is enough to stagger any man's belief , if not utterly to overthrow his opinion of their owing their original to any sea-shell ; which take in his words . among others of this kind of bodies which i have observed , i shall instance in one , which can be reduced to none but the ophiomorphites , which i found growing between the thin plates of a kind of brittle blew slate in large rocks , some a furlong within the full sea-mark , and in some where the water comes not at highest tides , only in great storms , when the waves break , it is dasht sometimes against them , being forced up by the winds ; which being broken with a convenient tool , will shiver all into very thin plates ; between which i have found in abundance of those stones , but as brittle as the slate in which they grew , and of the same consistence ; but so thin , that the broadest , being about four inches , are not so thick as a half-crown piece , some not half an inch broad , were as thin as a groat , and so proportionably up to the largest , covered with a superficies as thin , and exactly of the colour of silver foil : and where the sea-water washeth them , and they are exposed to the sun and wind when the tide is gone , they are tarnished , and appear of a gold , purple , blew and red ; as any thing on which silver foil is laid , being exposed a considerable time to the sun , wind and weather , will do . these have the same spiral figures , and as regular as the other serpent-stones , and being taken off with a knife , leave the same impressions on both sides of the slate . in some such rocks of slate , but much harder , i found some of those stones of another kind , thick in proportion to their breadth , from an inch to twenty eight inches broad ; the broadest one was at the great end ( on which some authors have fabulously reported the head to grow ) six inches thick : all of them covered over with a white scale , which will be taken off , one coat under another , as pearls or the shells of some fishes . i saw some impressions as big as the fore-wheel of a chariot , &c. what shall we say to this ? were there ever any shell-fish in ours , or other seas , as broad as a coach-wheel ? others as thin as a groat ? what is become of all this kind of ophiomorphite shell-fish ? and yet ( which is strange ) both these kinds by mr. cole 's description , seem to have been covered with shells . by what i have said concerning these ophiomorphous stones not to have been nautili , i would not be thought to reflect upon , o● detract from the veracity or exactness of the observations of mr. robert hook , whom for his learning and deep insight into the mysteries of nature , i deservedly honour . i question not , but he found in the keinsham ophiomorphites perfect diaphragms of a very distinct substance from that which filled the cavities , and exactly of that kind which covered the out-side , being for the most part whitish , or mother of pearl coloured . mr. waller fore-mentioned , attests the same , writing in his letter to me of febr. . . that in the ordinary snake stones there , the shelly diaphragms were very visible . in this respect they do resemble nautili ; though for their figure they are much different , and of a distinct genus . i never broke any of the keinsham stones ; but of those found about whitby in yorkshire many ; but could not observe in them any shell-like diaphragms , only they broke into such pieces as i mentioned before . and my dear and much honoured friend dr. tancred robinson writes me , that he had broken several cornua ammonis , but could never find any diaphragms or valves in them , though he confesseth mr. woodward shew'd him one with such in his curious collection of petrifactions . so that these diaphragms are not to be found in all the sorts of them . but if they be found in some , it is a strong presumption , that they were at first in all , however they came to disappear . in fine , these ophiomorphous stones do more puzzle and confound me , than any other of the formed stones whatsoever , because by mr. hook's description of those of keinsham , they seem to have been , or to owe their original to shells ; and yet there is nothing like them appears at this day in our or any other seas , as far as i have seen , heard , or read . thirdly , a second argument to prove these formed stones never to have been shells , dr. * plot affords us , because that even those shells , which so exactly represent some sorts of shell-fish , that there can be no exception upon the account of figure , but that they might formerly have been shells indeed , at some places are found only with one shell and not the other . thus in cowley common [ in oxfordshire ] we meet only with the gibbous , non the ●lat shell of the petrified oyster , and so of the escallop-stones in the quarries near shotover : which if they had once been the shells of oysters and escallops , had scarce been thus parted . to this i answer , that this argument is not necessarily conclusive ; because there may possibly be some reason of it , though we know it not , nor can easily imagine any . the like answer may be returned to his next argument . thirdly , because ( saith the doctor ) i can by no means satisfie my self , how it should come to pass , that in case these bodies had once been moulded in shells , some of the same kind should be found in beds , as the conchites at langley , charlton , adderbury ; and others scattered , as at glympton , and teynton , and so the ostracites at shotover and cowley . nor how it should fall out , that some of these bivalves should always be ●ound with their shells separate , as the ostracites and pectines : and others always closed together , as the conchites in all places i have yet seen . fourthly , because many of these formed stones seem now to be in fieri , ( which is the doctor 's next argument ) as the selenites at shotover and hampton-gay , the conchites of glympton and cornwell , many of which were of a perfect clay , and others of stone , &c. as for the selenites , i grant them to have been in fieri , because they are formed after the manner of salts by shooting or crystallization ; but concerning the clay cockles , i say with the civilians , ampliandum . since the publishing of this treatise , happening to read dr. nicol steno's discourse concerning these bodies , in his description of a sharkshead , i met with a very plausible solution of this argument or objection . first he gives us the history of these bodies , or his observations concerning them ; of which these following are two , . that in argilla , which some english potters earth , and we may render a fat clay , he had taken notice that there were plenty of them on the superficies of the earth , but within the earth but a few . . that in the same argilla the deeper you descend downward , the more tender those bodies are , so that some of them at any the least touch fall into powder : and they also that were on the superficies , almost all of them were without much ado reduced into a white powder . now ( saith he ) seeing in such kind of earth , by how much deeper those bodies lye , by so much the softer they are , and do less bear the touch , the earth is so far from producing them , that it doth rather destroy them . neither is there any reason to think , that they are therefore softer , because they are not yet arrived at their perfection , or come to maturity : for those things that are soft upon that account , while they are in generating , have their parts united to one another as it were by a kind of glue ( as is seen in the tender shels of pine-nuts and almonds ) but these bodies , being deprived and destitute of all glue , easily moulder to dust. nor is it any objection against our opinion , that on the surface of the earth their number seems to encrease , for that is owing to rains washing away the intermediate earth : but rather their consistence when they are on the superficies , being tender and easily crumbled into dust , doth demonstrate , that their destruction begun in the earth , was interrupted by the intervention of the rain . but to give these arguments their due , though they be not demonstrative proofs , yet they infer a great degree of probability , and shrewdly urge and shake the contrary opinion . the other arguments , the doctor alledges , admit a plausible solution , excepting such as we have already touched , and given as good an answer to , as either the matter will admit , or we were able to give . to the first , that there are found stones resembling shell-fish that stick to rocks : i answer , that many of them might by accident be rub'd off the rocks they stick to , or thrust off by birds insinuating their bills between the shell and rock , to feed upon their meat ; but by what means soever it be , that they are sometimes broken off , the matter of fact is certain ; for we find many patellae cast upon the shores by the working of the sea ; why then might they not be brought up by the flood ? to the second , why might not the bones of whales , sea-horses , all squamose fishes , the great shells of the buccina , murices , conchae veneris , and solenes , and almost ▪ all the crustaceous kind , as crabs and lobsters , &c. as well have been brought up and left behind by the flood , and afterward petrified , as any of the testaceous kind ? i answer , of the great buccina , murices and conchae veneris , there are very ●ew or none found in our seas : it may be there are of them in the mountains and quarries of the indies , were any man so curious as to search them out : though it's likely but few , because being great things , easie to be seen , and that part of the world having been fully peopled soon after the flood , their beauty might invite the inhabitants to search them out , and gather them up . but secondly , those other kinds may possibly be less durable , and more apt to be wrought upon , to moulder , decay , and be dissolved in time by the weather , rains and moisture of the earth , or were not so susceptive of petrifying juices . the third argument is already answered in the precedent discourse . to the fourth argument as to what concerns the selenites , astroites and belemnites , we have answered already . that the species of brontiae cannot be the petrified shells of echini spatagi the arguments the doctor alledges out of aristotle and rondeletius do not evin●e . for though in some seas they may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet in others are they plentiful enough . in our own seas at llandwyn in the isse of anglesey , we may reasonably conjecture , they are more plentiful than the common echini any where with us ; because we found more of their shells cast up there on the shore , than of the echini in any shore about england : nay , so common are they there , that even the vulgar have taken notice of them , and imposed a name upon them , calling them mermayds heads . and though their bristles or prickles were but small , yet were they not few or thin set , as rondeletius saith . how the snake-stones about huntly-nab and whithy in yorkshire came to be included in globular or lenticular stones , is not difficult to make out : for the cliffs thereabout being allum-stone or mine , wherein these snake-stones lye ; the sea in spring-tides and tempestuous weather undermines and throws down part of the shore or cliffs , which by the fall break in pieces , and the ophiomorphus stone being harder than the rest of the cli●● , is broken off from it by the fall , or its volutation in the sea afterward , with some part of the cliff or allum-stone slicking to each side of it where it is concave , and by reason of its figure and striae , cannot easily part from it . lastly , to dissemble nothing , i have my self observed some cockle-stones to have seemingly different impressions or striae upon the same superficies ; which phaenomenon it is very hard to give an account of . i have also observed a large stone almost as hard as marble , that was so marked every where throughout with the impressions of cockles and their striae , so crossing one another in every part of it , that if it were nothing but shells amassed together by a stony cement ; those shells must have before their concretion been broken into infinite small pieces or fragments , scarce any remaining entire ; which i do not see how any floods or working of the sea , could possibly effect . so i have finished what i had to say concerning this supposed effect of the deluge , the bringing in of shells , and scattering them all over the dry land. but yet i must not dismiss this particular , till i have said something to an objection that presently occurs to any one who considers this matter . the waters of the flood having been supplied partly by rains , partly by the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep , and not by an irruption or inundation of the sea , how could any sea-shells at all be brought in by it ? to this i answer , that the great deep communicates with the sea ; and the waters rising up out of the subterraneous abyss , the sea must needs succeed , else would there have been an empty space left in the middle of the earth ; so that the shell-fish might as well come in this way from the bottom of the sea , as by an inundation : in like manner as the fish in the lake of carniola , called the zirchnitzer sea , do descend annually under ground through many great holes in the bottom , and return again by the same holes . to all this i might add , that into the lands near the skirts of the sea , and lower hills , these shells might in part be brought by particular floods , of which many we read of , and more possibly than are recorded in any history may have happened since the general deluge . hence the chief champions of the opinion of mock-shells are not difficult to grant , that in some countries , and particularly along the shore of the mediterranean sea , there may all manner of shells be found promiscuously included in the rocks or earth , and at good distances too from the sea. which are the words of dr. lister , repeated and approved by dr. plot. but this will not serve their turn ; for we have before proved , that in the middle part , and near the center of our own country , at a great distance from the sea , viz. in oxfordshire , there are found not only shell-like stones , but real shells , or mock-shells ( as some esteem them ) for figure , colour , weight , consistency , or any other accident not to be distinguished from true shells ; and that not such as have been accidentally scattered there , but dig'd out of the ground in plenty , and of fishes that are rarely found in our seas : patterns whereof were sent me by my ingenious friend mr. lloyd , who , i hope , will ere long gratifie the curious , by publishing a general catalogue of all the formed stones found in england , and his remarks upon them . and i have likewise proved by good authority , that beyond the seas , in high mountains , and many leagues distant from the sea too , there have been beds of real shells . i might have added sharks-teeth or glossopetrae , as both goropius becanus and georgius agricola testifie ; if not in beds , yet plentifully disperst in the earth . there are several medical histories extant ( as dr. tancred robinson informs me ) of perfect shells found in animal bodies , in whose glands they were originally formed , which is a considerable objection , not easily to be removed . tab : ii. pag tab : iii pag. tab : iv pag chap. v. that there have been great charges made in the superficial part of the earth since the general deluge , and by what means . i shall now discourse a little concerning such changes as have been made in the superficial part of the earth since the universal deluge , and of their causes . that there have been such i think no sober and intelligent person can deny , there being so good authority and reason to prove it . plato in his timaeus tells us , that the egyptian priests related to solon the athenian law-giver , who lived about years before our saviour , that there was of old time without the straits of gibraltar a vast island , bigger then africa and asia together , called atlantis , which was afterward by a violent earthquake and mighty flood , and inundation of water , in one day and night wholly overwhelmed and drown'd in the sea. whence it may be conjectured , that the old and new world were at first continuous , or by the intervention of that island not very far remote from each other . that the island of sicily was of old broken off from italy by the irruption or insinuation of the sea is generally believed , and there is some memorial thereof retained in the very name of the city rhegium , standing upon the fretum that separates italy and sicily , which signifies breaking off . — * zancle quoque juncta fuisse dicitur italiae , donec confinia pontus abstulit , & mediâ tellurem reppulit undâ . in like manner the island called euboea now negroponte , was of old joyned to greece , and broken off by the working of the sea. moreover , the inhabitants of ceylon report that their island was anciently joyned to the main-land of india , and separated from it by the force of the sea. it is also thought , and there is good ground for it , that the island of sumatra was anciently continuous with malacca , and called the golden chersonese : for being beheld from afar , it seems to be united to malacca . and to come nearer home , verstegan affirms , and not without good reason , that our island of great britain , was anciently continent to gaule , and so no island but a peninsula , and to have been broken off from the continent , but by what means it is in his judgment altogether uncertain : whether by some great earthquake , whereby the sea first breaking through might afterward by little and little enlarge her passage ; or whether it were cut by the labour of man in regard of commodity by that passage : or whether the inhabitants of one side , or the other , by occasion of war did cut it , thereby to be sequestred and freed from their enemies . his arguments to prove that it was formerly united to france , are , . the cliffs on either side the sea , lying just opposite the one to the other , that is , those of dover to those lying between callice and bouloin , ( for from dover to callice is not the nearest land ) being both of one substance , that is , of chalk and flint . . the sides of both towards the sea plainly appearing to have been broken off from some more of the same stuff or matter , that it hath sometime by nature been fastned to . . the length of the said cliffs along the sea-shore being on one side answerable in effect to the length of the very like on the other side , that is , about six miles . and . the nearness of land between england and france in that place ; the distance between both , as some skilful sailers report . not exceeding . english miles . some of the ancients , as strato , quoted by strabo in the first book of his geography , say , that the fretum gaditanum or strait of gibraltar , was forcibly broken open by the sea. the same they affirm of the thracian bosphorus and hellespont , that the rivers filling up the euxine sea , forced a passage that way , where there was none before . and in confirmation hereof , diodorus siculus in his fifth book gives us an ancient story current among the samothracians , viz. that before any other floods recorded in histories , there was a very great deluge that overflowed a good part of the coast of asia , and the lower grounds of their island , when the euxine sea first brake open the thracian bosphorus and hellespont , and drowned all the adjacent countries . this traditional story i look upon as very considerable for its antiquity and probability , it seeming to contain something of truth . for it 's not unlikely that the euxine sea , being over-charged with waters by extraordinary floods , or driven with violent storms of wind , might make its way through the bosphorus and hellespent . but it will be objected , that the euxine sea doth empty it self continually by the bosphorus and hellespont into the mediterranean , and that if it had not this way of discharge ( the rivers bringing in more than is spent by vapour ) it would soon overflow all its shores , and drown the circumjacent countreys ; and so it must have done soon after the flood ; and therefore it is not probable that samothrace should have been inhabited before that irruption , if any such there were . to which i answer , . that monsieur marsilly thinks he hath demonstrated an under-current in the thracian bosphorus , by means of which the euxine may receive as much water from the mediterranean as it pours forth into it . but because i have already declared my self not to be satisfied of the being and possibility of these undercurrents , i answer , . the annual receipts from the rivers running into the euxine , not very much exceeding what is spent in vapour , who knows but that from the time of the general deluge till the irruption whereof we are discoursing , the euxine might yearly enlarge its bason , and encroach upon the neighbouring countreys ? natural historians give us an account of new islands raised up in the sea : plin. hist. nat. lib. . cap. . enumerates . delos and rhodes islands of note ; and of less account and later emersion anaphe beyond melos , and nea between lemnos and the hellespont : alone between lebedos and teos , and among the cyclades , thera and therasia , olymp. . an. . [ which last , or one of the same name , seneca saith was raised , himself beholding it , nobis spectantibus enata : ] among the same after years hiera , and two furlongs distant in his own time , when iunius syllanus and l. balbus were consuls , thia. but the most considerable and remarkable mutations that have been made in the earth have been on the sea-coasts , either by carrying on the land into the lea , and atterrating the bottom of the sea ; or by drowning the lands near the sea , by irruptions and inundations thereof , or undermining or washing away the shores . of the first sort of change by atterration , or making the sea dry land , we have an eminent instance in the dutch netherlands , which , i easily consent with verstegan , so far as they are even and plain without any hills , have undoutedly heretofore in time long past , been sea ; as appears . from the lowness of their situation , some of the more maritime parts of them , as zealand and holland , and part of flanders , being so low , that by breach or cutting of the sand banks or downs , which the sea by little and little hath cast up , and the labour of man here and there supplied , might easily be drowned and converted into sea again : and of the great harms that these parts have heretofore by the irruption of the sea sustained . but now not only those low places that adjoyn upon the sea , as holland and zealand , but the greater part of flanders and brabant , though they lye not so low as they , but of such height as no inundation of the sea can any whit annoy them , though the sand-banks and downs on the sea-side were never so much broken or cut through , yet are they as even and level as even holland and zealand themselves , which is a sufficient demonstration , that they were once covered with water . for that water will thus level ground , it often runs over , is clear from meadows , and from the bottom of the sea discovered at low-water ; and we have experience of no other cause that doth or can effect it . and therefore lewis guicciardine erroneously argues hubert thomas secretary to count frederick palatine of the rhine of a mistake , for saying in his description of the country of liege , that the sea hath come up even to tongres walls , now well nigh an hundred english miles from the sea : among other good reasons , alledging for the proof thereof , that the great iron-rings are there yet remaining , unto which the ships that there sometimes arrived were fastned . i say erroneously , seeing all the countreys between that and the sea are level , and of an equal superficies , without any hills or risings . . this appears not only from the great plainness and evenness of the ground , but in that the soil generally both in flanders and brabant is sandy ; whence it seems naturally to follow , that those countreys were anciently the flats , sands , or shores of the sea. . in that digging about two fathom more or less deep in the earth innumerable shells of sea-fish are found , and that commonly in all places both of field and town ; and in many places the great bones of fishes . further ( saith verstegan ) it is to be noted , that albeit digging deep in the earth in brabant and flanders , great abundance of shels and bones of fishes are to be found ; yet digging in the earth in holland and zealand , none at all are perceived ; howbeit on the sands on the sea-shore there are very many . the reason whereof may be because those parts have been in time long past part of the depth of the sea : and the parts aforesaid of brabant and flanders the flats or shore ; and on the flats , and not in the depths , such kind of shell-fish are naturally nourished . this is a very plausible account . but yet it hath been by experience found , that if you dig deep enough , even in holland it self , after many floors of several sorts of earth , you will at last come to beds of shells . for varenius tells us , that sinking a well in amsterdam , after many beds or layers of earth , sand , turf , &c. at an hundred foot depth they came to a bed of sea-sand mixt with cockle-shells of four foot thickness , which doubtless was of old time the bottom of the sea , and all the other beds above it were brought down partly by floods subsiding and settling there , partly by the working of the sea spreading beds of sand upon the layers of the earth , and so interchangeably . but from this experiment it doth appear , that however deep the sea were thereabouts , yet it was not too deep to breed or harbour shell-fish . another great instance of change made in the superficies of the earth by atterration is in our own country , the great level of the fens running through holland in lincolnshire , the isle of ely in cambridgeshire , and marshland in norfolk . which that it was sometime part of the sea , and atterrated by land brought down by floods from the upper grounds , seems to me evident , in that it is near the sea , and in that there is thereabout a concurrence of many great rivers which in flood-times by the abundance of mud and silt they bring down there subsiding , have by degrees raised it up : and thirdly in that the whole country is exactly level , like the bottom of the sea ; it being ( as i have already said ) the nature of the water flowing over the earth in time to level and bring to a plain all places that are soft and yielding , and not rocky , as is seen in meadows , and in the bottom of the sea discovered at low-water . a third instance is the craux in provence in france , anciently called campus lapideus , of which pliny saith it was herculis praeliorum memoria ; and strabo out of aeschylus gives us a poetical fable , that the stones were rained down by iupiter in favour of hercules when he wanted darts , that he might cast them at the ligurian army , and thereby break and scatter it . posidonius thinks it was once a lake , which by fluctuation dried up ; and so the stones came to be equally dispersed over the bottom of it . that it was a very ancient thing , is clear , having its original in the fabulous times before any memoirs of true history : it continues to this day such a kind of place as it was in strabo's time . it appears so evidently to any one who hath viewed and considered it , to have been once part of the sea , from its being exactly level , and strowed all over with stones , as i have observed the bottom of the sea in many places to be , that there is not the least reason to doubt of it . the river arnus in tuscany now falleth into the sea six miles below pisa : whereby it appeareth , ( saith dr. hakewil ) that the land hath gained much upon the sea in that coast , for that strabo in his time reporteth , it was but twenty furlongs ( that is , but two miles and an half ) distant from the sea. i might to these add many other instances of atterrations out of strabo in his first book ; as about the outlets of ister the places called stethe and the deserts of scythia : about those of phasis the sea-coast of colchis , which is sandy , and low and soft . about thermodon and iris all themiscyra , the plain of the amazons , and the most part of sidene . to omit the whole land of egypt , which probably was covered originally with the sea , and raised up by the mud and silt brought down by the nile in its annual floods subsiding there , as i shall have occasion to shew afterwards . moreover , varenius rationally conjectures that all china , or a great part of it , was originally thus raised up and atterrated , having been anciently covered with the sea : for that that great and impetuous river , called the yellow or saffron river , coming out of tartary , and very often , though not at anniversary seasons , overflowing the countrey of china , is said to contain in it so much earth and sand , as make up a third part of its waters . the evenness and level superficies of this whole country of china render this conjecture the more probable . in fine , the like atterrations appear to have been made about the mouths of indus and ganges in the east-indies , and the river de la plata in america : and the rhodanus in france ; and doubtless most other great rivers throughout the whole world. to all which if we add the spatious plains that are on each side most great rivers from their mouths many miles up their channels , as may be observed in the thames and trent in england , which probably were at first sinuses of the sea , landed up by earth brought down from the mountains and upper grounds in times of floods ; it will appear that in this respect there hath been a very great change made in the terraqueous globe , the dry land much enlarged , and the sea straitned and cut short . but you will say , hath there been no compensation made for all this : hath not the sea other-where gained as much as it hath lost about the mouths of the rivers ? if not , then the sea will in time be so far landed up , or straitned till it be compelled to return again , and overflow the whole earth . to which i answer , that where the shores are earthy or argillaceous , or gravelly , or made of any crumbling and friable matter , the sea doth undermine and subvert them , and gain upon the land ; which i could prove by many instances , some of which i shall afterward touch . but whether the sea doth in these places gain proportionably to what it loses in the fore-mentioned , according to the vulgar proverb , is to me some what questionable . to proceed now to discourse a little concerning the changes that have been made by the irruptions and inundations of the sea , or by its undermining and washing away the shores . that there have been of old great floods , and much land laid under water by inundations of the sea , is clear , many such being recorded in history . the most ancient of all , next to the general deluge in the days of noah , viz. that of ogyges king of boetia , or rather attica , seems to have been of this nature : so doth that of a great part of achaia in peloponnesus , wherein the cities of bura and helice were overwhelmed and laid under water . cambden out of gyraldus reports , that anciently a great part of pembrokeshire ran out in the form of a promontory towards ireland ; as appears by that speech of king william rufus , that he could easily with his ships make a bridge over the sea , so that he might pass on foot from thence to ireland . this tract of ground being all buried in deep sands during the reign of king henry the second , was by the violence of a mighty storm so far uncovered , that many stumps of great trees appeared fastned in the earth : ictúsque securium tanquam hesterni ( saith giraldus ) and the strokes of the axes in them , as if they had been cut but yesterday ; ut non littus jam , sed lucus esse videretur , mirandis rerum mutationibus ; so that now it made shew of a wood rather than of a strand ; such is the wonderful change of all things . in the time of king henry the first of england there happened a mighty inundation in flanders , whereby a great part of the country was irrecoverably lost , and many of the poor distressed people , being bereft of their habitation , came into england ; where the king in compassion of their condition , and also considering that they might be beneficial to his subjects , by instructing them in the art of clothing , first placed them about carlisle in the north , and after removed them into south-wales , where their posterity hath ever since remained . in the year . there perished people by the breaking in of the sea at dordrecht in holland , and thereabouts ; and about dullart in friesland , and in zealand , above were lost , and two or three hundred villages drowned , some of their steeples and towers , when the tide is out , still appearing above water . mr. carew of antony in his survey of cornwal , affirmeth , that the sea hath ravened from that shire the whole county of lioness . and that such a county there was he very sufficiently proves by many strong reasons . camden in his britannia reports out of ancient records , that upon the kentish coast , not far from thanet , is a sandy dangerous place , ( which the inhabitants call goodwyns sands ) where an island ( being the patrimony of earl goodwyn ) was swallowed up in the year . but the greatest change of this kind that ever was made ( if it be true ) was the submersion of the vast island o● atlantis , whereof we have already spoken . as for the changes that have been made by undermining and washing away the shores , they have been partly the diminishing of the land , and partly the raising up of several islands not far from the shores . so the baltick sea hath invaded the shores of pomerania , and destroyed a famous mart-town called vineta . so the ancient borough of donewich in suffolk is almost quite eaten away and ruined by the encroachments of the sea. and it is said that the ocean hath cut off twenty miles from the north part of the island of ceylan in india ; so that it is much less at this day than formerly it was . and many the like examples there are . and for the raising up of islands near the shore , very likely it is that the sea continually preying upon the shore , and washing away abundance of earth from thence , cannot carry it far to any great distance from the shores , but lets it fall by little and little in their neighbourhood : which subsiding or settling continually for some ages , at last the heaps ascend up to the very superficies of the water , and become islands . hence in the middle of the ocean , there are no islands , or but a very few , because those parts are too remote from the shores for any earth washed from thence to be carried thither ; and if it were , yet the sea thereabout is too deep to have any heap raised in it so high : besides , the motions of the water in those depths , were there earth enough , would overthrow any heap before it could be advanced any thing near the top . but all islands in general , a very few excepted , are about the shores , or not far from the shores of the great continents . which thing is especially to be remarked in all the great heaps or swarms of numerous islands , they being all near to the continents ; those of the aegean sea to europe and asia ; the hesperides to africa ; and the maldivae , ( which are thought to amount to eleven thousand ) to india : only the flandricae or azores seem to be situate in the middle of the ocean , between the old and new world. besides these changes about the sea-coasts , by the prevailing of the land upon the sea , in some places , and the sea upon the land in others , the whole continents seem to suffer a considerable mutation by the diminution , and depression or sinking of the mountains , as i shall have occasion to shew afterward in the third discourse . aelian in his eighth book , cap. . telleth us , that not only the mountain aetna , but parnassus and olympus did appear to be less and less to such as sailed at sea , the height thereof sinking . of this lowring and diminution of the mountains i shall not say much in this place , but taking it for granted at present ; only in brief intimate the causes of it , assigned by that learned mathematician iosephus bla●canus , which are partly rain-water , and partly rivers , which by continual fretting by little and little , wash away and ●at out both the tops and sides and feet of mountains , and fill up the lower places of the valleys , making the one to encrease , and the other to decrease ; whereby it appears ( saith dr. hakewil ) that what the mountain loseth the valley gains ; and consequently , that in the whole globe of the earth nothing is lost , but only removed from one place to another ; so that in process of time the highest mountains may be humbled into valleys : and again ( which yet i will not allow him ) the lowest valleys exa●●ed into mountains . he proceeds , anaxagoras ( as diogenes laertius reports in his life ) being demanded what he thought , whether the mountains called lapsaceni would in time be covered with sea ? answered yes , unless time it self fail ; which answer of his seems to confirm the opinion of blancanus de mundi fabrica , cap. . where he maintains , that if the world should last long enough , by reason of this continual decrease of the mountains , and the levelling of the valleys , the earth would again be overslown with waters , as at first it was . beside these more eminent and remarkable changes , which in process of time , after a long succession of many ages , threaten some great effect ; indeed no less then a reduction of the world to its primitive state before the separation of the land and water . there have been many other lesser mutations made either by earthquakes and eructations of burning mountains , or by great floods and shots of rain , or by violent or tempestuous winds and hurricans , some whereof are mentioned by naturalists and historians , strabo , pliny , seneca , ovid , and others . for earthquakes , posidonius , quoted by strabo , in his first book , writes , that there was a city in phoenicia , situate above sidon , swallowed up by an earthquake , and that almost two thirds of sidon it self fell therein , though not suddenly and all at once , so that there was no great destructiō or slaughter of men happened . the same extended almost over all syria , though not violently , and reached as far as some of the cyclades islands ; and euboea , where the fountains of arethusa in chalcis were stopped up by it , and after many days broke forth again at another source : neither did it cease to shake the island by parts , till the earth opening in the field lelantus vomited out of a river of fiery clay . the same strabo tells us , that democles mentions huge earthquakes of old in lydia and ionia , extending as far as troas , by which many villages were swallowed up , and sipylus overthrown when tantalus reigned , and great lakes made of fens . and that duris saith , that the rhagades islands by media were so called from the lands about the caspiae portae being torn and broken by earthquakes , so that many cities and villages were overthrown , and several rivers received alterations . and demetrius calatianus relating the earthquakes that happened throughout greece , writes , that a great part of the lichades islands and cenaeus had been drowned thereby ; and that the hot baths at aedepsus and in thermophylae , having been stopt for three days , slowed again , and those of aedepsus from new sources . that the wall of oreus on the sea-side , and seven hundred houses , were thrown down ; and a great part of echinus and heraclea trachinia ; but the whole building of phalarnus was overturned from the very soil or plain of it ; the like happened to the larians and lariss●aus ; and that scarphia was utterly demolished and subverted from the very foundations , and not fewer then persons over-whelmed and buried ; and more then half that number of the thronii . pliny in his first book , chap. . tell us , that in the reign of tiberius caesar , there happened an earthquake ( the greatest that ever was in the memory of man ) wherein twelve cities of asia were prostrated in one night . but what is that to what st. augustine writes [ lib. . de miraculis ss . cap. . ] if that book he his , in famoso quodam terroe motu centum libyae vrbes corruisse : that in a famous earthquake an hundred cities of libya were demolished . the city of antioch , where the disciples of christ were first called christians , with a great part of asia bordering upon it , was almost wholly subverted and swallowed up by an earthquake in trajan's time , as dion cassius writes ; trajan himself then wintering there . the same city of antioch , in the time of iustinian , in the year of our lord . was again shaken with a terrible earthquake , wherein were overwhelmed and buried in the ruins of the houses above of the ●itizens . and lastly , in the year after the last mentioned earthquake , being again shaken by a new one , it lost of its inhabitants : gregory the then bishop , being by the divine favour , and in a manner miraculously preserved , the house wherein he abode falling down presently after his going out of it . eusebius and spartianus make mention of an earthquake in the emperour adrian's time , wherein nicomedia and nicaea of bithynia , and nicopolis and caesarea , cities of palaestina were thrown down and ruined . in the year . when saladin set himself to overthrow the kingdom of ierusalem , there happened an earthquake , in which antiochia , laodicea , alapia , caesarea , emissa , tripolis , and other famous cities , were almost wholly thrown down and destroyed . to omit many that are recorded in ancient histories and to come near to our times ; aeneas sylvius , afterwards pope by the name of ●ius the second , in a letter of his to the emperour frederick , thus pitifully describes an earthquake that fell out in his time ; audies ex latore praesentium quàm mirabilia & incredibilia damna fecerit terraemotus in reguo apuliae , nam multa oppida funditus corruerunt , alia magna ex parte collapsa sunt . neapoli omnes fere ecclesiae & maxima palatia ceciderunt , plusquam triginta millia corpora oppressa ruinis traduntur , populus omnis habitat in tentoriis : i. e. you shall understand by the bearer of these presents , what wonderful and incredible losses an earthquake hath wrought in the kingdom of apulia ; for many towns are utterly ruined , others for the greatest part fall'n : in naples almost all their churches and sair palaces are overthrown ; more then persons are said to have been slain , all the inhabitants dwell in tents . this kingdom of naples , especially apulia and calabria , hath , i think , been oftner shaken , and suffered more by earthquakes than any other part of europe . for cluverius tells us , that in the year . there were dreadful earthquakes in apulia , by which men are said to have perished . and athanasius kircher the jesuite , in the preface to his mundus subterraneus , gives us a sad narrative of a dismal earthquake in calabria , in the year . wherein himself was , and out of which he hardly escaped with his life : nothing to be ●●en in the whole country he passed by for two hundred miles in length , but the carcasses of cities , and the horrible ruins of villages , the inhabitants wandring about in the open fields being half dead with fear and expectation of what might follow . but most remarkable was the subversion of the noted town of s. eufemia , which was quite lost out of their sight and absorpt , and instead thereof , nothing left but a stinking lake . but for a full account thereof i refer the reader to the said preface . not many years ago the famous city of ragusa was almost wholly subverted and destroyed by a terrible earthquake ; and smyrna has lately been demolished by one . from the west-indies we hear frequently of great damages done in our plantations by earthquakes . the printed transactions and journals are full of these great concussions and subversions . this present year . on the seventh day of iune there happened a dreadful earthquake in the island of iamaica which made great ruins and devastations throughout the whole country , but especially in the capital town of port royal , which was almost swallow'd up and overflow'd , by the sinking of the earth , and irruption of the sea : a full account whereof contained in two letters , sent from the minister of the place , the one dated iune the d , the other the th of the same month , . from aboard the granada in port-royal harbour , to a friend of his england , and published by authority , i shall give the reader , with some remarks . . he tells us in general , that this earthquake threw down almost all the houses , churches , sugar-works , mills and bridges throughout the whole island : that it tore the rocks and mountains [ others tell us , that it levelled some mountains , and reduced them to plains ] that it destroyed some whole plantations , and threw them into the sea ; but that port-royal had much the greatest share in this terrible judgment . . then he acquaints us , what for to save the reputation of the people , and to avoid the laying a perpetual blot upon them , i should rather suppress and conceal , but for the vindication of the divine providence and justice , and to deter others from the like enormities , i think necessary to publish , that the inhabitants of that place were a most ungodly and debauched people , and so desperately wicked , that he was even afraid to continue among them : for that very day this terrible earthquake was , as soon as night came on , a company of lewd rogues , whom they call privateers , fell to breaking open warehouses and houses deserted , to rob and ri●●e their neighbours , whilst the earth trembled under them , and some of the houses ●ell upon them in the act. [ the like robbers and plunderers we were told wandered up and down the country , even in the very smoke , during the last great ●urning and eruption of aetna in sicily . ] and those audacious whores that remained still upon the place , were as impudent and drunken as ever ; and that since the earthquake , when he was on shore to pray with the brui●ed and dying people , and to christen children , he met with too many drunk and swearing . and in his second letter , he saith positively , that there was not a more ●●godly people on the face of the earth . ● the account he gives of the motions and 〈◊〉 of the earthquake is as follow● 〈…〉 when this calamity be●el the 〈…〉 very clear , affording 〈…〉 evil . [ this 〈…〉 earthquakes , and 〈…〉 in england . the 〈…〉 being clear and calm . but 〈…〉 , about half in 〈…〉 morning , 〈…〉 town in all the english 〈…〉 might he call it so , 〈…〉 place of his letter , 〈…〉 the wharf were 〈…〉 those in 〈…〉 and mart or 〈…〉 in riches and abounding in all good things , was shaken and shattered to pieces , and covered for the greatest part by the sea. the wharf was entirely ●wallowed by the sea , and two whole streets beyond it . himself , with the president of the council , being in a house near where the merchants meet , hearing the church and tower fall , ran to save themselves : he having lost the president , made toward morgan's fort , because being a wide open place , he thought to be there ●ecurest from the falling houses , but as he was going he saw the earth open , and swallow up a multitude of people , and the sea mounting in upon them over the fortifications : moreover he tells us , that their large and famous burying place , called the pallisado's , was destroyed by the earthquake ; and that the sea washed away the carcasses of those that were buried out of their graves , their tombs being dashed to pieces by the motion and concussion . that the whole harbour , one of the fairest and goodliest that ever he saw , was covered with the dead bodies of people of all conditions floating up and down without burial . that in the opening of the earth , the houses and inhabitants sinking down together , some of these were driven up again by the sea which arose in those breaches , and wonderfully escaped : some were swallowed up to the neck , and then the earth shut upon them , and squeezed them to death ; and in that manner several were left buried with their heads above ground , only some heads the dogs have eaten , others are covered with dust and earth by the people which yet remain in the place , to avoid the stench . so that they conjecture , that by the falling of the houses , the opening of the earth , and the inundation of the waters , there are lost fifteen hundred persons , and many of good note , as attorney general musgrove , provost marshal reeves , lord secretary reeves , &c. further he tells us , that after he was escaped into a ship , he could not sleep all night for the returns of the earthquake almost every hour , which made all the guns in the ship to jar and rattle . and he supposes that the whole town of port-royal will in a short time be wholly swallowed by the sea : for few of those houses that yet stand are left whole , and that they heard them fall every day , and that the sea daily encroached upon them . that they had accounts from several parts of those islands of misch●e●s done by the earthquake . from st. anns they heard of above acres of woodland changed into sea , carrying with it whole plantations . and lastly , that he was told by some , that they still heard bellowings and noises in the mountains , which made them very apprehensive of an eruption of fire ; which if so , he feared might be more destructive then the earthquake . [ but i think causlesly , ( for i never heard or read of any great destruction of men made by any eruptions of fire , even out of burning mountains . ] . the account he gives of his own unexpected and strange preservation , take his own words : after i had been at church reading prayers , ( which i did every day since i was rector of the place , to keep up some shew of religion ) and was gone to a place hard by the church , where the merchants meet , and where the president of the council was ; who came into my company , and engaged me to take a glass of wormwood wine as a whet before dinner ; he being my very great friend , i staid with him ; upon which he lighted a pipe of tobacco , which he was pretty long in taking ; and not being willing to leave him before it was out , this detained me from going to dinner to one captain ruden's , whither i was invited ; whose house upon the first concussion sunk first into the earth , and then into the sea , with his wife and family , and some that were come to dine with him : had i been there i had been lost . but to return to the president , and his pipe of tobacco ; before that was out i found the ground rowling and moving under my feet , upon which i said to him , lord ! sir , what is this ? he replyed very composedly , being a very grave man , it is an earthquake , be not afraid , it will soon be over : but it increased , &c. then he relates how he went to his own lodging , and found all things in order there , nothing stirred out of its place , and going into his balcony to view the street , he saw never a house down there , nor the ground so much a crackt : and that after he had prayed 〈…〉 people at their earnest request , and 〈◊〉 them some serious exhortations to rep●ntance , in which exercises he spent near an hour and half , there came some merchants of the place to him , desiring him to go aboard some ship in the harbour and refresh himself , telling him that they had gotten a boat to carry him off . whom he accompan●ed , and passing over the tops of some houses , which lay levelled with the surface of the water , got first into a canoe , and then into a ●ong boat , which put him-on board a ship. . the last thing i shall take notice of in these letters , shall be the influence and effect this judgment had upon the remainder of the people , to bring them to a sence of their sins and repentance for them , and to resolve upon and begin a reformation and amendment of their lives . it is a true saying , vexatio dat intellectum : in their affliction they will seek me early . the pious inclination of the people appeared in that they were so glad to see their minister in the midst of this disaster , and so earnest with him to come down and pray with them when they saw him in the balcony before-mentioned ; and that when he came down into the street , every one laid hold on his cloaths and embraced him , so that with their fear and kindness he was almost stifled . and that not only at the instant of the distress , but afterwards when he went a-shore to bury the dead , and pray with the sick , and baptize the children , and preach among them , the people were over-joyed to see him , and wept bitterly when he preached to them . fear is a more powerful passion then love : and whatever creates terrour is a more effectual curb to restrain and rule men as well as children , then any favours or benefits the most powerful motives of love and affection : for though the bonds of love are called the cords of a man , and are indeed very strong ones to rational and ingenuous persons , yet the greatest part of mankind are so far degenerated , that they have broken these bonds , and cast these cords from them ; and upon trial , one shall find little of gratitude or ingenuity among them . i shall add one or two remarks upon the precedent paper . first , it is very remarkable that the day , when all this befel port-royal and the whole island of iamaica , was very clear , not affording the least suspicion of any evil : so that the inhabitants had no warning at all of it , but were surprised of a sudden , without time sufficient to escape and save themselves . for in the short space of three minutes the town was shaken and shattered to pieces , and sunk into , and covered for the greatest part by the sea. in which respect this judgment resembled those on the old world and on sodom , which , the scripture tells us , were to the people involved in them sudden and unexpected ; as also the second coming of christ , and future dissolution of the world by fire is predicted to be . that the cause of earthquakes is the same with that of thunder , i doubt not , and most learned men are agreed ; that is , exhalations or steams set on fire , the one in the clouds , the other in the caverns of the earth ; which is sufficiently proved from the great deflagrations and ●ruptions of vulcano's or burning mountains ; they being always either preceded or attended by earthquakes ; and earthquakes , even here in england , being , as far as i can understand , for the most part accompanied with a noise . but now of what nature this steam is that is thus inflamed , and what causes the accension , i must confess my self not to be yet fully satisfied . that it is at least partly sulphureous is certain , and well proved by dr. * lister from the sulphureous stink of waters smelt before , and of the very air it self after them : that it conceives fire of its self , and is not kindled after the manner of gunpowder by the touch of fire , is as clear , there being no fire praeexisting in the clouds ; but how it should kindle , unless by a colluctation of parts after the manner of fermentations , i cannot conceive . and if so , then the steam must be a dissimilar body composed of parts of different natures ; else would there be no colluctation , and consequently no accension , the parts friendly conspiring and agreeing in the same motion . i am not ignorant that water , either in the gross body , or in vapour , may and doth so far work upon some solid bodies , as for example , quicklime , hay in a mow , the pyrites or firestone , &c. as to cause an incalescency and even an accension ; but still this is by the discord or contrariety of the parts of water or vapour , and those of the forementioned bodies meeting and strugling together . so in tempests of thunder and lightning , the fume contain'd in the clouds , which my honoured friend dr. martin lyster supposes and proves to be no other then the breath of the pyrites , encountering with the vapour of water , there may very likely by the concourse and conflict of these two be produced first a great heat , and afterwards an actual fire . as for thunder , after the steams inclosed in the cloud are once inflamed , i conceive the fire goes not out till the end of the tempest , but when the inflamed matter is so much dilated that the cavity of the cloud cannot contain it , it rends the cloud and forces its way through where it is most yielding , so much of the fire escaping at the breach , till the cloud overcomes the resistance of the remainder , and closes it self again ; and continues shut , till there be so much of the sulphu●eous steam anew inflamed as to have strength enough to tear it , and break out the second time , which process is repeated , till the whole steam be burnt and consumed , and the fire go out ; or till the cloud be quite condensed and faln down in rain . that this vapour or steam in the clouds heats gradually before it comes to accension , i think probable , because before any considerable tempest the air beneath is ●ultry ( as we call it ) that is , suffocatingly hot . so likewise in the caverns of the earth it is not unlikely that the steams or damps that cause earthquakes before ignition , may be gradually heated by a colluctation of parts ; but their accension seems to be very sudden , and in manner of explosion , like that of gunpowder ; the succussion coming unexpectedly without any notice-giving , and being also very transient , and of short continuance . i mean earthquakes where there are no eructations of fire , such as ours in england are . there is a sort of damp which some call a fire-damp or fulminating-damp , of which i had the first notice from my honoured friend francis iessop esq an. . whereof i find a relation since communicated by him in a letter to dr. lister , published in the philosophical transactions , numb . . and a further account from him in answer to some queries proposed by the honourable mr. boyl in the philosophical transactions , numb . . wherein he writes , that this sort of damp presently takes fire at the touch of a lighted candle , or other flaming matter , and flies out of the mouth of the bink or shaft with a crack like a gun. he instances in three persons that had been hurt by it ; one in the coal-mines in hasleberg hills , who had his arms and legs broken , and his body strangely distorted by it . a second in those at wingersworth , who going into a bink , where this kind of damp was , to fetch some of his tools , with a candle in his hand , found himself on a sudden environ'd with flames , so that his face , hands , hair , and a great part of his clothes were very much burnt . he heard very little noise , but one who was working at the same time in another bink , and those that were above ground heard a very great one , like a clap of thunder , wherewith the earth shook ; which hearing , they ran in a great amazement to see what the matter was , with their candles in their hands , which were twice extinguished , but held upon the third lighting . they saw nothing , but met with an intolerable stench of brimstone , and an heat as scalding as an oven half-heated , which made them glad speedily to quit the place . a third at the same place met with the same accident : and he fore-mention'd person happening then to stand at the mouth of the fired bink , was shot forth about two or three yards , and had his head broken and boyd bruised against the further side ; the same also a third time incurred the like disaster . that it shot off the turn at the mouth of the pit to a considerable height . that they could perceive no smell before the fire , but afterwards a very strong one of brimstone . that the damp hung about the top of the bink , and therefore they were for●'d to go with their candles very low , else it would have taken fire . that the flame would continue in the vault two or three minutes , sometimes more after the crack . that he could never hear of any damps that kindled of themselves . that from the breaking of these fulminating-damps proceeded a black smoke of the smell and colour of that from gunpower fired . this sort of fire-damp mr. beaumont tells us , they have also in some coal-works bordering on mendip hills . see philosoph . collect . . and mr. george sinclair in a land called werdy , west of leith , which even in the day-time is sometimes seen in coal-works in little holes , shining like kindled sulphur . but the most strange fire-damp was that which happen'd at mostyn in flintshire at the same time with that at wingersworth [ . ] which as soon as the colliers were scanted of air appeared in the crevisses or slits of the coal , where water had been before , in a small blewish flame , flashing and darting like sword-blades from side to side of the pit : and being kindled , had the same and more violent effects than those of hasleberg or wingersworth , leaving a foul ill-sented smoke behind it . in the last there mention'd [ philosoph . 〈◊〉 numb . . ] firing of it by one who can indiscreetly with his candle over the eye of the damp pit , it flew to and fro over all the hollows of the work with a great wind and mighty roaring , tore the mens clothes from their backs , findging and 〈…〉 as also their hair and skins , 〈…〉 of them ● or yards from 〈…〉 , beating them against the 〈…〉 coal and the posts . as it drew 〈…〉 , it caught one that was 〈…〉 along with it , and up it comes 〈…〉 out of the mouth of the 〈…〉 a terrible crack , not unlike , but 〈…〉 then a cannon , so that it was 〈◊〉 fi●teen miles off . the man's body , 〈…〉 things from the pit , were seen in 〈…〉 above the tops of the highest trees 〈◊〉 grew on the ●row of the hill ( eighteen yards above the pit ) more then 〈◊〉 the barrel of an horse engine for 〈◊〉 up the rope of above pound weight , though fastned to the frame with locks and bolts of iron , together with the buckets and rope was thrown up , and carried a good way from the pit , and pieces torn off from it scattered about the woods . and lastly the whole frame of the engine moved out of its place . the whole relation deserves well to be read . that which seems to me most strange and romantick is the motion of the damp , that as if it had been a living thing , it should fly up with a long sharp flame to lighed candles set over the eye of the pit , and put them out : and yet mr. iessop also mentions a like motion in that of wingersworth ; for of , saith he , in the bink where it was , they held their candles any higher then ordinary , they could see the damp , which lay near the roof , to descend like a black mist , and catch bold of the flame , lengthning it to two or three handfuls . by these descriptions , this damp should seem to be but gunpowder in a vapour , and to partake the sulphur , nitre , and bitumen , as the learned dr. plot well proves in his natural history of staffordshire , c. . § . to which i refer the reader . but for the accension of it , whether it ever takes fire of it self , i am in some doubt . mr. iessop de●ies it of those of hasleberg and wingersworth ; and how far those relators that affirm it are to be credited , i know not . if in this particular i were satisfied , i should readily accord with the doctor , that our earthquakes in england , and any others that have but one single pulse , owe their original to the kindling and explosion of fire-damps . you will say , that fire is the cause of thunder we readily grant , because we see it plentifully discharged out of the clouds : but what reason have we to think so of this sort of earthquakes , where we see no lightning or eruption of fire at all ? what becomes of the inclosed flame ? in answer hereto , i demand , what becomes of it in the open air ? it diffuses it self through the caverns of the earth , till the deflagration be made , and is there dissipated and dissolved into fume and ashes . it breaks not forth , i conceive , because by reason of the depth of the caverns wherein it is lodged , it is not able to overcome the resistance of the incumbent earth , but is forced quà data porta ruere , to make its way where it finds easiest passage through the strait cuniculi of the earth : as in a gun the inflamed powder , though if it were at liberty , and found equal resistance on every side , it would spread equally every way ; yet by reason of the strength and firmness of the mettal , it cannot tear the barrel in pieces , and so break out ; but is compelled to fly out at the muzzel , where it finds an open , though strait passage . for the force of flame , though very great , is not infinite . it may be further objected , we hear not of any eruption of fire at port-royal , or elsewhere in this island , and yet the earth open'd , and the roofs of the caverns fell in , therefore fire could not be the cause of this earthquake ; for if it had , at those apertures and rifts of the ground , it must needs have issued forth and appeared abroad . to which i answer , that the vaults and cavities wherein the inflamed matter was imprisoned and the explosion made , lay deep in the earth , and were covered with a thick and impenetrable coat of hard stone , or other solid matter which the fire could not tear , but that above this coat there were other superficial hollows in a more loose and crumbling earth , which being not able to sustain the shock , and hold out against the impetuous agitations of the earthquake , the roofs might yield , open , and subside , as we hear they did , and give way to the sea to rush in and surmount them . you will reply , this may be a tolerable account of our english earthquakes , which are finished at one explosion , but what shall we say to those of iamaica , which like a tempest of thunder and lightning in the clouds , have ( as we learn by this relation ) several paroxysms or explosions , and yet no discharging of fire ? to which i answer , that i conceive the caverns of the earth wherein the inflamed damps are contained , are much larger there then ours in england ; and the force of the fire joyned with the elatery of the air being exceeding great , may of a sudden heave up the earth , yet not so far as to rend it in ●under , and make its way out , but is forced to seek passage where it finds least resistance through the lateral cuniculi . so the main cavern being in a great measure emptied , and the exteriour parts of the extended matter within cooling and shrinking , the earth may subside again , and reduce the cavern to its former dimensions . yet possibly there may not be a perfect defiagration and extinction of the fire , and so new damps ascending out of the earth , and by degrees filling the cavern , there may succeed a second inflamation and explosion , and so a third , and fourth , till the steams be quite burnt up and consumed . but in this , i confess , i do not satisfie my self . they who have a more comprehensive knowledge of all the phoenomena , may give a better account . but as for those earthquakes that are occasioned by the burnings of vulcano's , they are , i conceive , of a different nature . for in them the fire burns continually , and is never totally extinct , only after the great eruptions , in which , besides smoke and fire , there is an ejection of abundance of ashes , sand , earth , stones , and in some floods of melted materials , the raging is for a time qualified ; but the fire still continuing , and by degrees increasing in the combustible matter it finds in the hollows of the mountains , at last swells to that excess , that it melts down metals and minerals where it meets with them , causing them to boil with great fury , and extending it self beyond the dimensions of the cavities wherein it is contained , causes great succussions and tremblings of the earth , and huge eruptions of smoke , and casts out such quantities of ashes , sand and stones as we just now mentioned : and after much thunder and roaring by the allision and repercussion of the flame against and from the sides of the caverns , and the ebullition and volutation of the melted materials , it forces out that boiling matter either at the old mouths , or at new ones , which it opens where the incumbent earth is more thin and yielding . and if any water enters those caverns , it mightily encreaseth the raging of the mountain . for the fire suddenly dissolving the water into vapour , expands it to a vast dimension , and by the help thereof throws up earth , sand , st●nes , and whatever it meets with . how great the force of water converted into vapour is , i have sometimes experimented by inadvertently casting a bullet in a wet mold , the melted lead being no sooner poured in , but it was cast out again with violence by the particles of water adhering to the mold suddenly converted into vapour by the heat of the metal . secondly , the people of this plantation being generally so ungodly and debauched in their lives , this earthquake may well be esteemed by this gentleman , the minister of port-royal , a judgment of god upon them . for though it may be a servile complaint , and popular mistake , that the former imes were better than these , and that the world doth daily degenerate , and grow worse and worse . aet as parentum pejor avis tulit hos nequiores , mox daturos progeniem vitiosiorem . for had this been true , vice would long before this time have come to the height and greatest possible excess : and this complaint hath been made as well in the best as worst of times . though i say this be partly an errour , yet i do verily believe , that there are certain times when iniquity doth abound , and wickedness overflow in a nation or city ; and that long peace and prosperity , and great riches , are apt to create pride and luxury , and introduce a general corruption of manners : and that at such times god usually sends some sweeping judgment , either utterly destroying such a people who have filled up the measure of their iniquity , or at least grievously afflicts and diminishes them . so when in the old world the wickedness of man was great upon the earth , and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually , gen. . . and the earth was corrupt before god , and filled with violence , all flesh having corrupted their ways , vers . . & . god brought in the flood , and drowned them all . the like vengeance we find executed on the cities of sodom and gomorrha after such a monstrous height of wickedness as the inhabitants were generally arrived at . and we shall find it noted by historians , that before any great publick calamity or utter excision of a nation , the people were become universally vicious and corrupt in their manners , and without all fear of god or sence of goodness . for god doth not stand by as an idle and unconcerned spectator , and suffer things to run at random ; but his providence many times interposes , and stops the usual course and current of natural causes : nay , i believe and affirm , that in all great and notable revolutions and mutations he hath the greatest hand and interest ; himself ordering and governing them by his special superintendence and influence . so though the instruments and materials wherewith this devastation in iamaica was made , as a subterraneous fire and inflamable materials , were before in the earth , yet that they should at this time break forth and work , when there was such an inundation of wickedness there , and particularly and especially at port-royal , this we may confidently say , was the finger of god , and effected perchance by the ministery of an angel. moreover , this relator's being called aside , and stopped from going to a place , whither if he had then gone he had certainly perished , we have good reason to think an effect of providence , designing thereby his preservation ; as gregory the bishop of antioch his going out of the house wherein he abode immediately before it fell down , was rationally thought to be in respect of him . but to proceed ; i should now have done concerning earthquakes , it being my design only to take notice of such as have made considerable mutations in the superficial part of the earth , passing by those , which after a short trembling and succussion have left the earth as they found it , making no alteration at all therein . but at the very time this she●t of earthquakes was composing , there happening a notable one , though of this latter kind , in our own country , i was partly by the coincidence of it , with the composure before-mentioned , partly at the request of the bookseller , induced to make some mention of it , and add what i knew or could learn of its history ; which is indeed very little and inconsiderable , we having as yet but a very lame and imperfect account of the accidents of it . as for the time when it happened , it was the th of september . about minutes past two of the clock in the afternoon , as was observed at london ; hereabouts i can hear of no body that was so critical in noting the time , only they agree that it was about two of the clock . had we a punctual and exact notice of the very minute that it happened in far distant places , we might thence gather something concerning the motion and progress of it . however it is remarkable that it happened in the autumn , one of the seasons in which aristotle tells us such effects are most frequent , the other being the spring ; and likewise in the month of september ; in the which that about oxford in the year . fell out : and moreover in a wet season , as that also did ; though the forenoon of the day was clear and fair , yet in the afternoon , when the earthquake was past it rained hard till night , the whole precedent summer ( to this i mean ) having been cold and wet : which what influence it can have toward the production of an earthquake , unless by stopping the pores of the earth , and hindring the evaporation of those sulphureous steams , which are the efficients of it , i know not , the same night succeeded some strokes of thunder and flashes of lightning both here and at london , and since then we have had great storms of wind. i might have taken notice , that for some mornings before we had smart frosts for the time of the year . since this was written and sent away in order to printing , i am advis'd by letter from my honoured friend dr. tancred robinson , that this earthquake was not confin'd to some counties of england , as middlesex , essex , kent , sussex , hampshire , &c. but spread far into foreign parts ; an account whereof i shall give you in the doctor 's own words . the concussion or vibration of our late earthquake was felt in most parts of the dutch and spanish netherlands , as also in germany and france : it affected places most upon the sea-coasts , and near the great rivers as zealand , cologn , mentz , and the bridge of london . it went not beyond degrees and minutes of northern latitude ; how far it reach'd to the south and east , is not yet certainly known for want of good intelligence , we have already traced it beyond paris to the degree of n. latitude , and beyond the rhine on the east to francfort ; so that we know at present of miles square shaken by it . the motions of some machines were very sensibly stop't or retarded by the choc , especially pendulums ; and there were some alterations in the air ( as to its smell , spring , and gravity ) both before and after . the time of its happening here in england , and beyond the seas , seems to vary some minutes , but that may easily be accounted for by the difference of meridians . thus far the doctor . dat. septemb. . the duration or continuance of it ( as i am informed by some curious and attentive observers ) about london was about two minutes ; here not so long . the manner of the motion , as i am assured by my learned and ingenious friend and neighbour mr. allen , physitian in braintree , who had it from several intelligent and observant persons hereabouts , and that lived in distant places , was first a manifest heaving upwards , and after that a trembling , or vibration , or agitation to and fro . so that in the first respect , its motion seemed to resemble that of the blood in an artery stretching the channel as it passed . the motion of it was most considerable upon hills and in valleys . the effect it had upon those who were sensible of it was a swimming or dizziness in their heads , and this was general upon all . in some it affected their stomacks , and created a loathing and inclination to vomit : some of the tenderer sex found in themselves such a disposition as they have had before a swooning fit . all which must be the effects either of the heaving or tremulous motion , or both ; and yet no motion of boat or coach doth so suddenly affect and disturb the head or stomack . lastly , it was attended with a noise , as our earthquakes generally in england are , as is observed by mr. pigot in that of oxford in the year . and by my self when i lived in sutton ●●field , in 〈◊〉 that happen'd there in the winter time as i remember in the year and extended at least miles in length into worcestershire . the noise i heard seem'd to be in the air. this noise hereabouts was heard but in few places , and by few persons , but yet i am well assured by some , and those of the vulgar and ignorant sort , who reported it of themselves , having no reason to seign it , and who had never heard that any such thing accompanied earthquakes . from many of the fore-mentioned particulars it may be collected , that the caverns in which the inflamed damp causing this earthquake was contained , lye deep in the earth , else could it not have shook such a vast extent of ground , both hills and valleys , passing under the channels of great rivers , and even creeks of the sea , and not being stop't by them ; and if it had not lain deep , it would in all likelyhood some where or other have rent the earth , and broken forth . and yet notwithstanding the depth , it should seem it found so much vent as to affect the external air , and create a sound : for if the caverns wherein the damp was had been close shut up with such a thick coat of earth , i doubt whether the trembling and vibration of the soft earth alone would have produced such a noise abroad in the air ; and the vapour of it also made a shift to struggle through the pores of the earth into the open air , in such quantity as to affect the sence ; a sulphurous scent having been observed in the air both before and after the concussion . it is moreover very remarkable , that there were some particular spots which were not at all stirred in those countreys where the places not far distant round about were shaken ; as sturbridge-fair before remembred , and that where my dwelling is ; neither my self , nor any of my family , though they were above stairs , nor any of our near neighbours being sensible of the least motion or impression of it , and yet those living within less then half a mile had their houses considerably shaken by it . it is also worth the noting , that both this , and all other earthquakes i have heard or read of in england , have been very short , and finished at one explosion ; which is an argument that the cavities and cuniculi , wherein the enflamed matter is contained and moves , are very strait and of small dimensions . explosion i call it , because by the quickness of the motion it seems rather to resemble that of powder in a gun , then that of a squib running in a train of powder . though others i have read of whose motion was very slow ; as that observed by the honourable mr. boyl , and described in the philosophical transactions , numb . . had we certain knowledge where the greatest force of this earthquake was , we might thence learn where its first accension was , and which way it spread it self . but i have not time to enlarge further concerning it , or to give an account of all its phoenomena , lest i injure the printer by stopping the press : neither indeed would it be prudence to attempt it , till we have a more particular and perfect history of it . since this was written and sent away to the printer , intelligence is come from beyond the seas , that flanders and all holland , part of france and germany , were shaken by this earthquake , and consequently the interjacent provinces , which is a clear demonstration of our opinion , that the inflamed damp , which caused it , was lodged deep in the earth , the cuniculi or caverns which contained it passing under the very bottom of the sea. it is also a great confirmation of what we have delivered concerning the mountains of aetna , stromboli , and vesuvius communicating by submarine passages . add hereto , that gassendus in the life of peireskius reports , that at the mountain semo in aethiopia , there happened a burning at the same time with that of vesuvius in campania , viz. in the year . so that not only vesuvius communicates with aetna by subterraneous vaults , but also ( as he rationally infers ) aetna with the mountains of syria , the tunnels running under the depths of the mediterranean sea , and those with the arabian , and lastly the arabian with mount semo in aethiopia . that an inflamed damp or subterraneous fire is the cause of all earthquakes in general , and not only such as precede the eruptions of vulcano's , may be proved by an eminent instance of an earthquake happening may . . which shook the greatest part of france and switzerland , and reach't as far as collen in germany : an account whereof we have in the iournal des scavans set forth iune . . inserted in the weekly memorials printed for mr. faithorne , numb . . in which they write , that it was perceived in lionnois , ( which was wont 〈◊〉 pass for a place exempt from such accidents ) in p●phiny and beaujolois , though very 〈◊〉 , and without any ill consequence . that at mets in lorrain the watch-place of a bulwark was thrown down into the 〈◊〉 , with the soldier that stood sentinel 〈◊〉 that at tonnerre the houses and churches were so terribly shaken , as if several coaches with six horses had driven along full speed through the streets ; and that it threw down several rocks on the side of bourbirant . they tell also that it stop't a fountain at raviere hard by ( which at fifty paces from its head turns a mill ) for half an hour . that it was perceived in provence by the shaking of windows and beds , and opening of doors , and that it had two several motions or pulses , as ours also was by some observed to have : and that the domestick animals , as sheep , cows , horses , and poultry did discover their fear by unusual motions and cries . and the sheep at dijon in burgundy could not be stopt from getting into their stalls at four of the clock in the afternoon , which were not then wont to betake themselves thither till sun-set . that the cities of orleans , troyes , sens , chalons , ioinville , reims , soissons , laon , mascon , dole , strasbourg , &c. felt the effects of it . but at remiremont upon the moselle , where it exerted its greatest force , throwing down several houses , insomuch that the inhabitants were forced to betake themselves into the fields for six weeks time ; there was a noise heard like thunder , and flames frequently broke out of the earth of a noisome scent , but not sulphureous , and which burnt nothing , yet was there no rift or chap in the ground , save only in one place , the depth whereof was in vain search't , and which afterwards closed up . and before this earthquake also flames appeared for days upon a mountain near geneva . it is very strange and remarkable that the flames that issued out were of the nature of an ignis fatuus , and burnt nothing ; and that ( as monsieur colbert writes ) the earthquake raged every night , and never in the day-time . concerning earthquakes , i shall only add two observations . . that it is not likely that they spend all their strength upon cities , but do indifferently shake , break in sunder , and throw down mountains and rocks ; and seeing few cities there are but have been shaken , and many ruined and subverted by them , and levelled with the ground ; there is good reason to think , that few rocks or mountains have escaped their fury , but have suffered the like concussions and alterations . . that the changes that have hitherto happened in the earth by earthquakes have not been so considerable as to threaten a dissolution of the present system of the terraqueous globe , should there be a like succession of them to eternity . unless we will except that unparall'd universal one , which happened in the days of valentinian the first ( which we have already mention'd ) by which the whole known world , both land and sea , and it s like the then unknown too , were violently shaken ; which might seem to be a prelude to the future conslagration or destruction of the whole by such a confusion and dashing in pieces of all the parts of it one against another , as the stoicks speak of . of the effects of burning mountains or vulcanos , i have already said something , and shall afterwards , have occasion to say more . in brief , . they cast forth out of their mouths , and scatter all over the country , sometimes to a very great distance , abundance of sand and ashes . dion cassius reports , that in that noted deflagration of vesuvius in the time of titus the emperour , there was so much cinders and ashes vomited out of its flaming tunnel , and with that fury and violence , that they were transported over sea into africa , syria and egypt ; and on the other side were carried as far as rome , where they darkned the very air , and intercepted the sun-beams . at which time , by the fury of this burning and tempest , the whole mountain and earth thereabouts was so shaken , that two adjoyning cities herculanium and pompeii , were destroyed with the people sitting in the theater . and the famous natural historian pliny the elder , then admiral of the roman navy , out of a curiosity of searching out the causes and nature of the deflagration approaching too near the mountain , and staying too long there , was suffocated with the sulphureous smoke and stench thereof . of another eruption of the same vesuvius we read , in the time of leo the emperour , wherein the ashes thereof transported in the air obscured all europe , being carried as far as constantinople ; and that the constant inopolitans being wonderfully affrighted therewith ( insomuch as the emperour forsook the city ) in memory of the same , did yearly celebrate the twelfth of november . . they also pour out huge floods of melted minerals , stones , and other materials , running down like rivers for many miles together ; as did the mountain aetna in that last and most famous eructation , disgorging such mighty streams of fiery running matter , as flowed down to catana , above twenty miles distant , and advanced a considerable way into the very sea it self . secondly , the next thing i shall mention is the extraordinary floods caused by long continuing showers , or violent and tempestuous storms and shots of rain . the most ancient and memorable of this kind is that of deucalion , of which we have already discoursed sufficiently . s. hierome in the life of hilarion ( as i find him quoted by dr. hakewill ) speaks of a flood and inundation after the death of iulian , in which naves ad praerupta montium delatae pependerunt , the ships being landed upon the tops of the mountains , there stuck . which whether it proceeded from rain , or from an irruption of the sea , or from both causes together , he doth not say : but if it were literally true , and not hyperbolically exaggerated , then may some credit be given to what sabin in his commentaries upon ovid's metamorphosis , reports , ex annalium monumentis constat anno . in alpibus inventam esse navim cum anchoris in cu●iculo per quem metalla effodiuntur : it appears by the monuments of history , that in the year . in a mine of the alps was found a ship with its anchors ; in confirmation of what that poet writes , et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis . in the year of our redemption . in the month of october , gregory being then bishop of rome , there happened a marvellous overflowing in italy , and especially in the venetian territory and in liguria , accompanied with a most fearful storm of thunder and lightning , after which followed the great plague at rome , by reason of the many dead serpents cast up and left upon the land after the waters decreased and returned . strozius sigog in his magia omnifaria , telleth of an inundation in italy in the time of pope damasus , in which also many cities of sicily were swallowed : another in the time of alexander the sixth : also in the year . maximilian being emperour . he also remembers a perillous overflowing in polonia about cracovia , by which many people perished . likewise vignier a french historian , speaketh of a great flood in the south part of languedoc , which fell in the year of our lord . with so dreadful a tempest , that all the people attended therein the very end of the world and judgment-day ; saying , that by the violent descent of the waters about nismes , there were removed divers old heaps and mountures of ground , and many other places torn up and rent ; by which accident there was found both coin of silver and gold , and divers pieces of plate , and vessels of other metal , supposed to be hidden at such time as the goths invaded that province . these stories related in the three last paragraphs , i have borrowed of sir walter ralegh his history of the world. to which i shall add one of late date happening in sicily , a narrative whereof communicated in a letter from palermo , dated iune the th , . i met with in the london gazette , numb . . in the following words : we have an account from the town of tortorica , that on the sixth instant , about seven a clock in the evening , after so great a darkness that no object could be distinguished at the distance of four paces , there arose such a great storm of rain , lightning and thunder , which lasted six and thirty hours , that about one a clock the next morning , great torrents of water , caused by these rains , fell down from the neighbouring mountains with so great rapidity , that they carried with them trees of an extraordinary bigness , which threw down the walls and houses of the town they happened to beat against . the waters were so violent that they overthrew the church of st. nicholas ; and the arch-deacon of the town , who retired thither , perished there with many other persons : there remaining only one abby , and about fifty houses , and those so shattered , that they fell one after another . there were about six hundred of the inhabitants drown'd , the rest being abroad in the field gathering their silk , fled to the mountains , where they suffered very much for want of provisions . the goods , trees , stone , sand and other rubbish which the waters carried away , were in so great abundance , that they made a bank above the water two miles in length near the mouth of the river , where before the sea was very deep . this town is situate in that part of sicily called the valley of demona , on the side of the river tortorica , about five and twenty miles from the tuscan sea. the towns of randazzo and francaville , and several others , have likewise been destroyed by this great flood . it is added that mount aetna casts out such abundance of water , that all the neighbouring country is drowned . which if it be true , ( as i see no reason to doubt it ) this is a further proof , against borellius , that the caverns of aetna are more then superficial , and reach down to the very roots and foundations of that mountain , communicating with the subterraneous abyss , and the sea its self , from whence in all likelyhood these waters were derived , as is evident in those poured out by vesuvius . many other floods we read of in histories , whether caused by rains or inundations of the sea , is uncertain , and therefore i shall not spend time in setting them down . the effect of all which relating to the earth in general is , the wasting and washing away of mountains and high grounds , the raising of the valleys and bottoms , and consequently levelling of the earth , and landing up of the sea. thirdly , the last thing i shall mention , which hath effected considerable changes in the earth , is boisterous and outragious winds and hurricanes , of which i need not give instances , they every year almost happening . these i conceive have a great interest in the inundations of the sea we have before mentioned . these raise up those great hills or downs of sand we see all along the coasts of the low-countreys , and the western-shores of england , and the like places . these sometimes blow up so much sand , and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent countreys , and to mar whole fields , yea to bury towns and villages . they are also a concurrent cause of those huge banks and shelves of sand that are so dangerous to mariners , and bar up havens , and ruin port-towns ; of which many instances might be given . i find in dr. hakewil's apology , a story or two shewing the great force and strength of winds ; the one taken out of bellarmine's book de ascensu mentis in deum per scal . creat . grad . . vidi ego ( saith the cardinal ) quod nisi vidissem non crederem , à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem , eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altissima conspiceretur , unde terra eruta fuerat , & pagus totus coopertus , & quasi sepultus manserit , ad quem terra illa devenerat : i. e. i my self have seen , which if i had not seen , i should not have believed , a very great quantity of earth , digged out and taken up by the force of a strong wind , and carried up a village thereby , so that there remained to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted , and the village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it . the other out of stow , who reports , that in the year . during the reign of king william rufus , there happened in london an outragious wind , which bore down in that city alone six hundred houses , and blew off the roof of bow-church , with which the beams were born into the air a great height , six whereof being foot long , with their fall were driven foot deep into the ground , the streets of the city lying then unpaved . now then to sum up what we have said , the changes and alterations that have been made in the superficial part of the terraqueous globe have been effected chiefly by water , fire , and wind. those by water have been either by the motions of the sea , or by rains ; and both either ordinary or extraordinary : the ordinary tides and spring-tides of the sea do wash away the shores , and change sand-banks , and the like . the extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the sea , raised by raging and impetuous winds , subterraneous fires , or some other hidden causes , overwhelm islands , open fretum's , throw up huge beds and banks of sand , nay vast baiches of stone , extending some miles , and drown whole countreys . the ordinary rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the mountains , filling up of the valleys , and atterrating the skirts of the seas . the extraordinary rains causing great floods and deluges , have more visible and remarkable influences upon such mutations , doing that in a few days , which the ordinary weather could not effect , it may be , in an hundred years . in all these changes the winds have a great interest ; the motion of the clouds being wholly owing to them , and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundations of the sea. whatever changes have been wrought by earthquakes , thunders , and eruptions of vulcano's , are the effects of fire . all these causes co-operate toward the lowring of the mountains , levelling of the earth , straitning and landing up of the sea , and in fine compelling the waters to return upon the dry land , and cover the whole surface of it , as at the first . how to obviate this in a natural way , i know not , unless by a transmutation of the two elements of water and earth one into another , which i can by no means grant . 't is true indeed , the rocky parts of the mountains may be so hard and impenetrable , as to resist and hold out against all the assaults of the water , and utmost rage of the sea ; but then all the earth and sand being washed from them , nothing , but as it were their skeletons , will remain extant above the waters , and the earth be in effect drowned . but though i cannot imagine or think upon any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect , yet do i not deny that there may be some ; and i am the rather inclinable so to think , because the world doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this period , as the force and agency of all these causes together seem to require . for , as i said before , the oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of cilicia as far as cyprus by the earth and mud that the turbid river pyramus should bring down , and let fall in the interjacent strait , is so far from being filled up , that there hath not any considerable progress been made towards it , so far as i have heard or read , in these years . and we find by experience , that the longer the world lasts , the fewer concussions and mutations are made in the upper or superficial region of the earth ; the parts thereof seeming to tend to a greater quiet and settlement . besides the superficies of the sea , notwithstanding the overwhelming and submersion of islands , and the straitning of it about the outlets of rivers ; and the earth it washes from the shores subsiding , and elevating the bottom , seems not to be raised higher , nor spread further , or bear any greater proportion to that of the land then it did a thousand years ago . so have i finished my second discourse concerning the deluge and its effects ; and the mutations that have been since made in the earth , and their causes . discourse iii. of the dissolution of the world . the introduction to the third discourse . there is implanted in the nature of man a great desire and curiosity of fore-knowing future events , and what shall befal themselves , their relations and dependents in time to come ; the fates of kingdoms and commonwealths , especially the periodical mutations , and final catastrophe of the world. hence in ancient times , divination was made a science or mystery , and many nations had their colledges or societies of wise-men , magicians , astrologers and sooth-sayers ; as for example , the egyptians , babylonians and romans . hence the vulgar are very prone to consult diviners and fortune-tellers . to gratifie in some measure this curiosity , and that his people might not in any priviledge be inferiour to the nations about them , it pleased god , besides the standing oracle of vrim , not only upon special occasions to raise up among the iews extraordinary prophets , by immediate mission ; but also to settle a constant order and succession of them , for the maintenance and upholding whereof , there were colledges and seminaries instituted for the educating and fitting young men for the prophetick function . these were the sons of the prophets , of whom we find so frequent mention in scripture . moreover , it pleased god so far to condescend to the weakness of the iews , that in the infancy of their state , he permitted them to consult his prophets concerning ordinary accidents of life , and affairs of small moment : as we see saul did samuel about the loss of his fathers asses : which it 's not likely he would have done , had it not been usual and customary so to do . in the latter times of that state , we read of no consulting of prophets upon such occasions . at last also by their own confession , the spirit of prophecy was quite taken away , and nothing left them but a vocal oracle , which they called bath col , i. e. the daughter of a voice , or the daughter of thunder , a voice out of a voice . this dr. * light foot thinks to have been a meer fancy or imposture . quae de bath kol referunt iudaei , ignoscant illi mihi si ego partim pro fabulis habeam iuduicis , partim pro praestigis diabolicis . what the iews report concerning bath kol , i beg their pardon , if i esteem them no other then either jewish fables or diabolical illusions . it is a tradition among them , that after the death of the last prophets , haggai , zachary and malachy , the holy spirit departed from israel . but why , i beseech you , was prophecy withdrawn , if coelestial oracles were to be continued ? why was vrim and thummim taken away , or rather not restored , by their own confession , after the babylonish captivity ? it were strange indeed , that god taking away his ordinary oracles from a people should bestow upon them one more or equally noble ; and that after they were extremely degenerated and fallen into all manner of impiety , superstition and heresy , &c. and a little after , if i may freely speak what i think , those innumerable stories , which every where occur [ in the jewish writings ] concerning bath kol , are to be reduced to two heads : viz. . the most of them are meer fables , invented in honour of this or that rabbin , or to gain credit to some history . . the rest meer magical and diabolical illusions , &c. in the primitive churches of christians planted by the apostles , there was also an order of prophets , cor. . . god hath set some in the church , first apostles , secondarily prophets , &c. this spirit of prophecy was an extraordinary and temporary gift , as were the gifts of healing and speaking with tongues , continuing not long after the death of the apostles , and consignation of the canon of scripture . so that now we have no means left us of coming to the knowledge of future events , but the prophecies contained in the writings of the holy penmen of scripture , which , we must search diligently , consider attentively , and compare together , if we desire to understand any thing of what shall befal the christian church or state in time to come . this text which i have made choice of for my subject , is part of a prophecy concerning the greatest of all events , the dissolution of the world. peter iii. . seeing then all these things shall be dissolved , what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? chap. . the division of the words and doctrine contained in them , with the heads of the following discourse . these words contain in them two parts ; . an antecedent or doctrine , all these things shall be dissolved . . a consequent , or inference thereupon , what manner of persons ought we to be ? the doctrine , here only briefly hinted , or summarily proposed , is laid down more fully in the precedent verse ; but the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night , in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat , the earth also , and the works that are therein shall be burnt up . these words are by the generality of interpreters , ancient and modern , understood of the final destruction or dissolution of heaven and earth : in which sense i shall choose rather to accept them at present , than with the reverend and learned dr. hammond , and some few others , to stem the tide of expositors , and apply them to the destruction of ierusalem and the jewish polity . i say then , that this world , and all things therein contained , shall one day be dissolved and destroyed by fire . by world in this proposition we , and by heaven and earth in this place , the most rational interpreters of scripture , do understand only the whole compages of this sublunary world , and all the creatures that are in it ; all that was destroyed by the flood in the days of noah , and now secured from perishing so again , that i may borrow dr. hammond's words , in his annotations on this place . and again , the word heavens ( saith he ) being an equivocal word , is used either for the superiour heavens , whether empyreal or ethereal , or for the sublunary heavens , the air ( as the word world is either the whole compages of the superiour and inferiour world , as the author of the book de mundo , ascribed falsly to aristotle , defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the systeme or compages of heaven and earth , and the beings therein contained : or else only of the sublunary lower world ) we may here resolve , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , heaven and host , or elements thereof , are litterally the sublunary aereal heavens , and all that is therein , clouds and meteors , &c. fowls and flying creatures , and so , fit to joyn with the earth and works that are therein . in prosecution of this proposition , and in order to the proof and confirmation , and likewise the clearing and illustration of it , shall , ( . ) give you what i find concerning the dissolution of the world ; . in the holy scripture . . in ancient christian writers . . in the heathen philosophers and sages . ( . ) i shall endeavour to give some answer to these seven questions , which are obvious and usually made concerning it . . whether there be any thing in nature , which might prove and demonstrate ; or argue and infer a future dissolution of the world ? . whether shall this dissolution be brought about and effected by natural , or by extraordinary means and instruments ; and what those means and instruments shall be ? . whether shall the dissolution be gradual or sudden ? . whether shall there be any signs and fore-runners of it . . at what period of time shall the world be dissolved ? . how far shall this conflagration extend ? whether to the ethereal heavens , and all the host of them , sun , moon and stars , or to the aereal only . . whether shall the heavens and earth be wholly dissipated and destroyed , or only refined and purified ? chap. ii. the testimonies of scripture concerning the dissolution of the world. . then , let us consider what we find delivered in the holy scriptures , concerning the dissolution of the world. and first of all , this place , which i have made choice of for my text , is in my opinion the most clear and full , as to this particular , in the whole scripture ; and will give light for the solution of most of the proposed questions . vers. . the day of the lord shall come as a thief , &c. this answers the third question , whether the dissolution shall be gradual or sudden ? wherein the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat , the earth also , and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up . and again , vers. . wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . this answers the second question , what the means and instruments of this dissolution shall be ? vers. . nevertheless we according to his promise , look for a new heaven and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . this gives some light towards the anwering of the last question , whether shall the heavens and the earth be wholly burnt up and destroyed , or only renewed and purified ? these words as clearly as they seem to refer to the dissolution of the world , yet dr. hammond doubts not to be understood of the remarkable destruction of ierusalem and the iewish state , he thus paraphrasing them . verse . but the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night , in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat , and the earth also , and the works that are therein shall be burnt up . but this judgment of christ , so remarkable on the iews , shall now shortly come , and that very discernably ; and the temple shall suddenly be destroyed , the greater part of it burnt , and the city and people utterly consumed . verse . seeing then all these things shall be dissolved , what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness . seeing then this destruction shall thus involve all , and now approacheth so near , what an engagement doth this lay upon us to live the most pure strict lives that ever men lived ? verse . looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of god , wherein the heavens , being on fire , shall be dissolved , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . looking for the coming of christ , for our deliverance , and by our christian lives quickning and hastning god to delay it no longer ; that coming of his , i say , which as it signifies great mercy to us , so it signifies very sharp destruction to the whole iewish state. verse . nevertheless we according to his promise , look for new heavens and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . instead of which we look for a new christian state , wherein all provision is made by christ for righteousness to inhabit , according to the promise of christ concerning the purity that he should plant in the evangelical state. how he makes out and confirms this paraphrase , see in his annotations upon this place . so confident is he of the truth of this his interpretation , that he censures the usual one as a great mistake , in his annotation on verse . where he thus writes ; what is here thus expressed by s. peter , is ordinarily conceived to belong to the end of the world , and by others applies to the end of this world , and the beginning of the millennium , or thousand years . and so , as s. peter here saith , verse . many other places in s. paul's epistles , and in the gospel , especially matthew . are mistaken and wrested . that it doth not belong to either of those , but to this fatal day of the iews , sufficiently appears by the purport of this whole epistle , which is , to arm them with constancy and perseverance till that day come ; and particularly , in this chapter , to confute them who object against the truth of christ's predictions , and resolve it should not come at all : against whom he here opposes the certainty , the speediness , and the terribleness of its coming . that which hath given occasion to those other common mistakes , is especially the hideousness of those judgments which fell upon the people of the iews , beyond all that ever before are related to have fallen upon them , or indeed any other people , which made it necessary for the prophets , which were to describe it ( and who use tropes and figures , and not plain expressions , to set down their predictions ) to express it by these high phrases , of the passing away and dissolving of heaven and earth and elements , &c. which sounding very tragically , are mistaken for the great and final dissolution of the world. so far the doctor . two things there are in this chapter which seem to contradict this interpretation ; first , that the destruction here spoken of , is compared with noah's flood ; and the heaven and earth to be dissolved by this , made parallel , and of equal extent to the world destroyed by that . of this the doctor was well aware , and therefore grants that the seventh verse , but the heavens and the earth which are now , by the same word are kept in store , reserved unto fire against the day of judgment , and perdition of ungodly men , is to be understood of the general and final destruction of the world by fire , but the following verses to be an answer to the first part of the atheists objection , viz. where is the promise of his coming ? to me it seems , that all refer to the same matter . the second thing which seems to contradict the doctor 's interpretation , is , the apostles citing for the instruction and confirmation of the believers , and in answer to the atheists objection ( where is the promise of his coming ? ) that place of the psalmist , psal. . . that one day is with the lord as a thousand years , and a thousand years as one day . for the apostle seems to suppose , that the time of christ's coming , might possibly be a thousand years off ; and that they were not to think much , or distruct the promise , if it were so : for though it were predicted as a thing shortly to come , yet they were to consider , that a thousand years in god's sight is but a very short time ; so that it might be foretold as shortly to come , though it were a thousand years off . whereas it might seem improper to mention a thousand years to support them in expectation of an event that was not twenty years to come . another place where mention is made of christ's coming to judgment , and the dissolution of the world , is matth. . to which may be added as parallel mark . and luke . in which places you have considerable , . the suddenness of christ's coming , verse . as the lightning comes out of the east , and shineth even unto the west , so shall the coming of the son of man be . . the signs of his coming , verse . immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkned , and the moon shall not give her light , and the stars shall fall from heaven , and the powers of heaven shall be shaken . . the manner of his coming , verse . and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn , when they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory . and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet , and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds , from one end of heaven to the other . . the uncertainty of the time of his coming , and this dissolution as to us , but of that day and hour knoweth no man , no not the angels in heaven : and mark adds , neither the son , but the father only . all this prophecy dr. hammond understands of the destruction of the city and temple of ierusalem , and whole nation of the iews ; as may be seen in his paraphrase and annotations upon this place . and indeed our saviour himself seems to limit it to this , saying , verse . verily i say unto you , this generation shall not pass away , till all these things be fulfilled . for if these prophecies look further than the destruction of ierusalem , even to christ's coming to judgment , how could it be true , that that generation should not pass away till all those things were fulfilled ? whereas we see that that generation is long since passed away , and yet the end is not come ? and indeed , expositors that understand them of the end of the world , and christ's second coming to judgment , are hard put to it to answer this objection . s. chrysostom will have this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be understood not of the generation of men then living , but of the generation of the faithful , which should not fail till the end of the world. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. he denominates a generation not only from living together in the same time , but from having the same form and manner of religious worship and polity ; as in that place , this is the generation of them that seek thee , that seek thy face , o jacob. beza understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the present age , and will have it to be of the same valor with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hebrew , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to refer not to all particulars mentioned in this chapter , but only to those which are spoken of the destruction of the city and nation of the iews : but ( saith he ) if any one urgeth the universal particle , vertere licebit , fiant omnia , viz quae ultimam illam diem pra●cessura dixit . nam ab illo tempore coeperunt fieri , & adhuc perseverant ill signa , suo demum tempore filio hominis venturo . but on the other side , . some passages there are in this chapter , which are hardly applicable to the destruction of ierusalem , and the dissolution of the iewish common-wealth ; as the appearing of the sign of the son of man in heaven , and the tribes seeing the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven , with power and great glory . and his sending his angels with a great sound of a trumpet . . the coming of christ is in like manner described in places which undoubtedly speak of his coming to judgment at the end of the world. as in cor. . . mention is made of the trumpets sounding at the time of the christ's coming : and thess. . . it is said , the lord himself shall descend from heaven with the voice of the archangel , and with the trump of god : and verse . we that are alive shall be caught up together with them [ that are risen ] in the clouds to meet the lord in the air. all which places are perfectly parallel , and seem manifestly to allude to the fore-mentioned words matth. . , . i am apt to think that these prophecies may have a double respect ; one to the city , temple , and nation of the iews : another to the whole world at the great day of doom : and that the former is indeed typical of the latter : and so they have a double completion ; the first in the destruction of ierusalem and the iewish polity : in reference to which it is truly said , this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled . the second in the final dissolution of the world , which is yet to come . but to proceed ; another place which is usually understood of the dissolution of the world by fire , is thess. . , . when the lord iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire , &c. other parallel places may be seen , rev. . . , . rev. . . rev. . . and i saw a new heaven and a new earth , for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away , and there was no more sea , hebr. . , . these places speak more directly of the dissolution of the world , and the coming of christ to judgment . others there are that speak only concerning the time of it , pet. . . but the end of all things is at hand . james . . behold the iudge standeth before the door . john . . little children it is the last time ; or as some translate it , the last hour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hebr. . . yet a little while , and he that shall come will come , and will not tarry . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . luke . . i tell you he will avenge them speedily . all these places the forementioned dr. hammond still applies to that famous period of the destruction of the city , temple and polity of the iews ; only in his note upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that everlasting destruction mentioned thess. . . he hath some qualification , saying thus , mean while not excluding the eternal torments of hell-fire , which expect all impenitent sinners that thus fall , but looking particularly on the visible destruction and vengeance which seizeth on whole nations or multitudes at once in this life . and in conclusion hath left us but one place in the n. testament , to prove the general con●lagration of the world , viz. pet. . . now because some have been offended at these interpretations of his , others have spoken very slightingly of them : i shall briefly sum up what hath been alledged in defence of them by this great man. . that the prophets use to set down their predictions in tropes and figures , and not in plain expressions , ( their style being poetical . ) and therefore in describing those hideous judgments which fell upon that people of the iews , beyond all that ever before fell upon them , or indeed any other people , they ●ound it necessary to employ those high and tragical phrases of the passing away and dissolving heaven , and earth , and elements . and that this was the manner of the prophets , may be proved ; because we find the destruction of other places described in as high strains , as lofty and tragical expressions as this of ierusalem . for example , that of idumaea , isai. . . the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch , and the dust thereof into brimstone , and the land thereof shall become burning pitch . it shall not be quenched night nor day , the smoke thereof shall go up for ever . and in the fourth verse he seems but to preface to this destruction in these words , and all the host of heaven shall be dissolved , and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll : and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine , and as a falling fig from the fig-tree ; for my sword shall be bathed in heaven : behold it shall come down upon idumaea . and in the burden of babylon , chap. . , . we have these words , behold the day of the lord cometh , cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate : for the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light : the sun shall be darkened in his going forth , and the moon shall not cause her light to shine . . all the predictions in that famous place , matth. . to which all other places in the new testament relating to this matter are parallel , are by our saviour himself restrained to the destruction of ierusalem , and the full completion of them limited to the duration of that age : verse . verily i say unto you , this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled . what reason then can we have to extend them further . . in most of the places where this coming of christ is mentioned , it is spoken of as near , and at hand ; as in the places last cited . now , ( saith the learned doctor ) in his note upon luke . . i tell you he will avenge them speedily . all which , if ( when it is said to approach and to be at the door ) it belonged to the day of judgment ( now after so many hundred years not yet come ) what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were this ? what a delaying of his coming ? and consequently , what an objection against the truth of the christian religion ? as mahomet having promised after his death he would presently return to life , and having not performed his promise in a thousand years is by us justly condemned as an impostor . . that this place of s. peter , out of which i have taken my text , doth not belong to the end of the world , sufficiently appears ( saith he ) by the purport of this whole epistle , which is to arm them with constancy and perseverance till that day come , and particularly in this chapter to confute them who object against the truth of christ's predictions , and resolve it should not come at all ; against whom he here opposes the certainty , the speediness , and the terribleness of its coming . and for that other famous place , thess. . , . that it belongs to the same period ; see how he makes it out in his annotations . i shall now superadd some places out of the old testament , which seem to speak of the dissolution of the world , iob . . man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more . psal. . , . quoted hebr. . , . of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth , and the heavens are the works of thy hands . they shall perish , but thou remainest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment , and as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed , isai. . . and all the host of heaven shall be dissolved , and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll , and all their host shall fall down as a leaf falleth from the vine , &c. isai. . . the heavens shall vanish away like smoke , and the earth shall wax old like a garment , joel . . the sun shall be turned into darkness , and the moon into blood , before that great and terrible day of the lord comes . malachi . . behold the day cometh that shall burn like an oven , &c. deut. . . for a fire is kindled in my anger , and shall burn to the lowest hell , and shall consume the earth with her encrease , and set on fire the foundations of the mountains . i must confess that the prophetick books are full of figurative expressions , being written in a poetick style , and according to the strain of the oriental rhetorick , which is much different from the european , a●●ecting lofty and tumid metaphors and excessive hyperbola's and aggravations , which would either sound harsh to our ears , or import a great deal more to us than they did to them . this is obvious to any one that reads their books ; and may clearly be demonstrated from the ti●l●● that their kings assumed to themselves as well anciently as lately , viz. sons of the sun , brethren of the sun and moon ▪ partners of the stars , lions crowned in the throne of the world , endued with the strength of the whole heaven , and virtue of the firmament . now we cannot possibly imagine them so vain as to think themselves litterally to be such : no sure , all they meant by these expressions was that they were great , and honourable , and powerful . now the prophetick books of the old testament being written in a style somewhat conformable to the oratory of those countreys , are not ( i humbly conceive ) in every title to be so exactly scanned and litterally expounded , but so to be interpreted as a iew or an asiatick would then have understood them . and this i rather think , because there be divers passages in the prophets , which cannot be verified in a strict literal sense ; as in the place before quoted , isa. . . it is said of the streams of idumaea that they should be turned into pitch , and the dust thereof into brimstone ; and the land thereof should become burning pitch , and should not be quenched night nor day ; but the smoke thereof should go up for ever . and of the city of tyre it is said , ezek. . . it shall be built no more . and verse . when i shall make thee a desolate city , like the cities that are not inhabited , when i shall bring up the deep upon thee , and great waters shall cover thee . and verse . which is thrice repeated , i will make thee a terror , and thou shalt be no more : though thou be sought for , thou shalt never be found again , saith the lord god. and yet we see that the city of tyre , though it was indeed wholly dis-peopled at that time , the inhabitants transferring themselves into africa , when it was besieged by nebuchadnezzar ; yet was it afterward peopled again , and continues a city inhabited to this day . and of babylon ▪ it is said that there should none remain in it , neither man nor beast , but that it should be desolate for ever , jer. . . isai. . . and of the land of babylon , vers. . that it should be a desolation without an inhabitant . and though indeed this prophesy was , i think , as to the city , at last verified in the letter ; yet did babylon long continue a great city after this prophesy : and the land of babylon is now inhabited , there being at this day a great city not far from the place where babylon stood . so that these places import no more , then that there should be a very great destruction and devastation of those cities and countries . as for those places in the old and new testament , wherein mention is made of the last days and the last times , it is clear that they are to be understood of the age of the messiah , all the time from the exhibition of the messiah to the end of the world. isaiah . . and it shall come to pass in the last days , that the mountain of the lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains , and shall be exalted above the hills , and all nations shall flow to it ; which very words we have repeated michah . . so in that prophesie of ioel . . quoted acts . . and it shall come to pass in the last days , saith god , i will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh , &c. it is clear the last days are to be understood . the apostle peter interpreting the prophesie , ( verse . ) of the gift of tongues bestowed upon the disciples at that time . hence the last days have among the iews proverbially signified the days of the messiah , as doctor hammond in his annotations upon this place tells us ; who also notes , that in that place of ioel the last days do literally signifie the last days of the iews , immediately preceding their destruction , called there the great and terrible day of the lord. so hebr. . . by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in these last days is meant the days of the messias . so pet. . . pet. . . tim. . . tim. . . mention is made of the last days in this sense . in like manner the end of the world , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hebr. ● . . bu● now once in the end of the world ●●th he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ends of the wo●●d ▪ 〈◊〉 cor. . . vpon whom the ends of the world are come , signifie the age of the messias , though indeed the former seems more peculiarly to denote the shutting up of the jewish age or oeconomy . chap. iii. the testimonies of the ancient fathers and doctors of the church , concerning the dissolution of the world. . i proceed now to what the ancient fathers of the church and christian writers have delivered concerning the dissolution of the world. that there should be a dissolution of this world , and that it shall be by fire , is so certain and clear among them , that it would be superfluous to cite particulars to prove it : nay , so general and unanimous is the consent of all christians in this point , that , as origen observes in his third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the learned doctor hakewill after him , whereas there can hardly be named any article of our faith , which some hereticks have not presumed to impugne or call in question , yet not any to be met with who question this ; but herein all agree , being compelled ( saith origen ) by the authority of the scriptures . as for the time of this dissolution the ancient christians held it to be at hand , as might easily be proved by many testimonies , were it not granted on all hands . and here it may be worth the observing , that the longer the world stood , the further off generally have christians set the day of judgment , and end of it . many of the ancients did conceive , that the dissolution should be at the end of six thousand years . as for example , iustin martyr in quaest. & resp. ad orthodoxos , if he be the author of that piece , where this question ( when the end of the world should be ? ) being put , the answer is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. we may rationally conjecture and conclude from many scripture expression , that they are in the right who say that the world will last six thousand years . for in one place it saith , in these last days ; and in another , upon whom the ends of the world are come ; and in a third , when the fulness of time was come . now it is evident that these things were spoken in the sixth millenary . irenaeus adv . haeres . lib. . cap. ult . who gathers so much from the similitude of the six days creation , after which six days was the sabbath , that is , the day of rest ; hoc autem ( saith he ) est & praeteritorum narratio , & futurcrum prophetia . dies enim unus mille annos signi●icabat , sicut scriptura testatur ; * mille anni ante dominum sicut dies unus : ergo sicut consummatus fuit mundus in sui creatione intra sex dierum spatium , & poslea quies ; sic in sui fiue consummabitur intra spatium sex milli●m annorum , deinde vera & perpetua quies subsequetur . this is both a narration or history of what is past , and a prophesie of things to come . for one day signified a thousand years , as the scriptures testifie , a thousand years in the sight of god are but as one day . therefore as the world at the first c●eation was consummated in the space of six days , and afterwards followed the sabbath or rest ; so in the end its duration shall be consummated within the space of six thousand years ▪ and then shall follow the true and perpetual rest. to these i might add lactantius , in his ●eventh book of institur . cap. . who useth the same argument with iren●cus , ergo quoniam sex diebus cuncta dei opera perfecta sunt : per secula sex , id est , sex annorum millia manere in hac statu mundum necesse est . dies enim magnus dei mille annorum circulo terminatur , sicut indicat propheta , qui dicit , ante oculos tuos , domine , mille anni tanquam dies unus , &c. therefore because all the works of god were perfected or 〈◊〉 ) in six days , it is necessary ( or necessarily follows ) that the world shall continue in this state six ages , that is six thousand years . for the great day of god is terminated in a circle of six thousand years ; as the prophet intimates , who saith , a thousand years in thy sight , o lord , are but as one day . s. augustine l. . de civitate dei. s. hieronymus comment ●in mich. cap. most clear and full to this purpose is eustath . in his comment in hexa meron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. we reckon ( saith he ) that the creation shall continue till the end of the sixth chiliad , because god also consummated the vniverse in six days ; and i suppose that the deity doth account days of a thousand years long ; for that it is said , a thousand years are in the sight of the lord as one day . ho●beit the most of them did not propose this opinion as an undoubted truth , but only as a modest conj●cture . and s. austine is very angry with them , who would peremptordy conclude from so flight an argumentation . this conceit is already confuted , and the world hath long outlasted this 〈◊〉 , according to their computation who followed the septuagint or greek account , and reckoned that phaleg lived about the three thousandth year of the world , and had his name from his living in the division of time , there being to come after him three thousand years , that is , just so many as were past before him . as concerning the future condition of the world after the conflagration , i find it the general and received opinion of the ancient christians , that this world shall not be annihilated or destroyed , but only renewed and purified . so eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the world shall not be wholly destroyed , but renewed . divers other passages i 〈◊〉 produce out of him to the same purpose : cyril of ierusalem catech. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . he folds up the 〈◊〉 , not that he might destroy them , but that he might rear them up again more beautiful . again , cyril upon this place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. he acutely or ingeniously calls 〈◊〉 death of the elements their change into letter . so that this renovation in respect of the creation shall be such a kind of thing as the resurrection in reference to man's body . oecumenius upon this place , he saith , new heavens and a new earth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet not different in matter . and again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they shall not be destroyed or annihilated , but only renewed and purified . and upon revel . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . this he saith , not denoting the non-existence of the creation , but the renewing . in this manner he expounds psalm . , . and proceeding , saith , we may here take notice , that the apostle doth not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if the heaven and earth were annihilated and brought to nothing , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they passed away or removed , or changed state . saint hierome upon the psalms , psalm . saith , ex quo ostenditur perditionem coelorum non interitum sonare , sed mutationem in melius . from which words [ as a vesture shalt thou change them ] may be shewn and made out , that the dissolution of the heavens doth not signifie their utter destruction or annihilation , but only their change into a better state . i might add abundance more testimonies , but these i think may suffice . chap. iv. the opinions of the ancient heathen philosophers , and other writers concerning the dissolution . . it follows now that i give you an account what the ancient philosophers and sages among the heathens thought and delivered concerning this point . two of the four principal sects of philosophers held a future dissolution of the world , viz. the epicureans and stoicks . as for the epicureans , they held that as the world was at first composed by the fortuitous concourse of atomes , so it should at last fall in pieces again by their fortuitous separation , as lucretius hath it , lib. . principio maria ac terras coelúmque tuere , horum naturum triplicem , tria corpora , memmi , tres species tam dissimiles , tria talia texta vna dies dabit exitio , multósque per annos sustentata ruet moles & machina mundi . but now to prove all this ; first cast an eye , and look on all below , on all on high , the solid earth , the seas , and arched sky : one fatal hour must ruine all , this glorious frame , that stood so long , must fall . this opinion of theirs is consonant enough to their wild principles , save only in that point of its suddenness , vna dies dabit exitio , &c. one day shall destroy or make an end of it . the stoicks were also of opinion that the world must be dissolved , as we may learn from the seventh book of laertius in the life of zeno , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. they hold that the world is corruptible for these reasons ; . because it was generated , and had a beginning . . because that is corruptible in the whole , whose parts are corruptible : but the parts of the world are corruptible , being daily transmuted one into another . . that which is capable of mutation from better to worse is corruptible . but such is the world ; sometimes being afflicted with long heats and droughts , sometimes with continued showers and inundations . to those we may add . according to some of their opinions , because the sun and stars being fed with vapours exhaled from the earth , all the moisture will at length be drawn out , and the world fly on fire . they were afraid * nè humore omni consumpto totus mundus ignesceret . the poet lucan , who seems to be of the stoick sect , in the beginning of his first book , describing the dissolution of the world , makes it to be a falling in pieces of the whole frame of heaven and earth , and a jumbling and confounding of all their parts together . — sic cùm compage soluta secula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora ; antiquum repetent iterum chaos omnia ; mistis sydera syderibus concurrent ; ignea pontum astra petent , tellus extendere litora nolet , excutietque fretum ; fratri contraria phoeb● ibit , & obliquum bigas agitare per orbem indignata diem poscet sibi ; tot áque discors machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi . — so when the last hour shall so many ages end , and this disjointed , all to chaos back return : then all the stars shall be blended together , then those burning lights on high in sea shall drench , earth then her shores shall not extend , but to the waves give way , the moon her course shall bend cross to her brothers , and disdaining still to drive her chariot wheel athwart the heavenly o●b , shall strive to rule the day ; this frame to discord bent the worlds peace shall disturb , and all in sunder rent . this dissolution of the world they held should be by water and by fire alternately at certain periods , but especially by fire , which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . philo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the stoicks say that the cause of the destruction of the world is the irresistible force of fire that is in things , which in long periods of time consumes and dissolves all things into it self . euseb. praep. l. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the most ancient of that sect held , that at certain vast periods of time all things were rarified into air , being resolved into an ethereal fire . this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the stoicks we find mentioned by many , both christian and heathen writers , as besides the fore-quoted minutius felix , iustin martyr , clemens alexandrinus in . strom. plutarch , seneca , and others . the time of this conflagration seneca determines not , but saith only , it shall be when god pleases . quaest. nat . cap. . . cùm deo visum , vetera finire , ordiri meliora ; when it shall seem good to god to put an end to old things and to begin better . some there be who tell us of the annus platonicus or magnus , by which they understand such a period of time , as in which all the heavenly bodies shall be restored to the same site and distance they were once in , in respect of one another : as supposing that all the seven planets were at the moment of creation in the first degree of aries , till they come all to ●e in the same degree again , all that space of 〈◊〉 is called the great year , annus magnus : in this year they tell us that the height of summer is the conflagration , and the depth of winter the inundation ; and some astrologers have been so 〈◊〉 as to assign the time both of the inundation and conflagration , seneca quest. nat. cap. . berosus , qui belum interpretaius est , dicit , cursu ista syderum fieri , & adeo quidem assirmat , ut conflagrationi atque diluvio tempus as●ignet . arsura ●nim terrena contendit , quando omnia sydera in cancro convenerint : inundationem futuram , quando eadem syderum turba in capricorno convenerit . berosus , who interpreted belus , saith , that those things come to pass according to the course of the stars : and he so confidently affirms it , that he assigns the time both for the conflagration and inundation . for that all earthly bodies will be burnt up , when all the stars shall meet in cancer ; and the inundation will fall out , when the same shall be in conjunction in capricorn . concerning the manner of this conflagration , they held it should be sudden . senec. natura subitò ad ruinam , & toto impeturuit ; licet ad originem parcè utatur viribus , dispensetque se incrementis fallacibus . momento fit cinis , diu sylva , &c. nature doth suddenly and with all its force rush on to ruin , though to the rise and formation of things it useth its strength sparingly , dispensing its influence , and causing them to grow by insensible degrees ; a wood is long in growing up , but reduced to ashes almost in a moment . and some of them were so absurd as to think , that the stars should justle and be dashed one against another senec. lib. de consolatione ad marciam : cùm tempus advenerit : quo se mundus revo●aturus extinguat , viribus ista se suis caedent ; & syde●●●yderilus incurrent ; & omni flagrante materia , uno igne , quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit . when the time shall come that the world , again to restore and renew it self , shall perish , these things shall batter and mall themselves by their own strength , the stars shall run or fall foul upon one another , and all the matter flaming whatsoever now according to its settled order and disposition shines , shall then burn in one fire . here by the way we may with dr. more [ souls immortality , lib. . cap. . ] take notice how coursly , not to say ridiculously , the stoicks philosophize , when they are turned out of their road-way of moral sentences , and pretend to give an account of the nature of things . for what errours can be more gross than they entertain of god , of the soul , and of the stars ; they making the two former corporeal substances , and feeding the latter with the vapours of the earth , affirming that the sun sups the water of the great ocean to quench his thirst , but that the moon drinks off the lesser rivers and brooks , which is as true as that the ass drank up the moon . such conceits are more sit for anacreon in a drunken fit to stumble upon , who to invite his companions to tiple , composed that catch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the sea drinks up the vapours , and the sun the sea. then to be either found out or owned by a serious philosopher . and yet seneca mightily triumphs in this notion of foddering the stars with the thick fogs of the earth , and declares his opinion with no mean strains of eloquence , &c. as for the extent of this conflagration , they held that not only the heavens should be burnt , but that the gods themselves should not escape scot-free . so seneca , resoluto mundo , & diis in unum confusis . when the world shall be dissolved , and the gods confounded and blended together into one . and again , atque omnes pariter deos perdet nox aliqua & chaos . and in like manner a certain night and chaos shall destroy all the gods. is not this wise philosophy ? if their morality were no better than their physicks , their wise man they boast of might be so denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as they of gotham . but let us look a little further , and we shall find that the stoicks were not the first authors of this opinion of the conflagration ; but that it was of far greater antiquity than that sect. others of the more ancient philosophers having entertained it , viz. empedocles , as clemens alexandrinus testifies in his strom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that there shall sometime be a change of the world into the nature or substance of fire . . heraclitus , as the same clemens shews at large out of him in the same place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. and laertius in the life of heraclitus , he taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that there is but one world , and that it was generated out of fire , and again burnt up or turned into fire at certain periods alternately throughout all ages . i might add to these the ancient greek poets , sophocles and diphilus , as we find them quo●ed by iustin martyr and clemens alexandrinus . neither yet were these the first inventers and broachers of this opinion , but they received it by tradition from their forefathers , and look'd upon it as an oracle and decree of fate . ovid speaks of it as such in the first of his metamorphosis ; esse quoque in fati reminiscitur , affore tempus , quo mare , quo tellus , correptáque regia coeli ardeat , & mundi moles operosa laboret . — besides by doom of certain fate , he knew the time should come , when sea , earth , ravisht heaven , the curious frame of this worlds mass should shrink in purging flame . and lucan * ; hos caesar , populos si nunc non usserit ignis , vret cum terris , uret cum gurgite ponti : communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra misturus . — if now these bodies want their fire and urn , at last with the whole globe they 'll surely burn ; the world expects one general fire : and thou must go where these poor souls are wandring now . now though some are of opinion that by fata here are to be understood the sibylline oracles , and to that purpose do alledge some verses out of those extant under that title , as lactantius in his book de ir a dei , cap. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and it shall sometime be , that god not any more mitigating his anger , but aggravating it , shall destroy the whole race of mankind , consuming it by a conflagration . and in another place there is mention made , of a river of fire that shall descend from heaven , and burn up both earth and sea. tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto igneus , at que locos consumet funditus omnes , terrámque , oceanúmque ingentem , & caerula ponti , stagnáque , tum fluvios , fontes , ditémque severum , coelest●mque polum , coeli quoque lumina in unum haxa ruent , ●ormâ deletâ prorsus eorum , a●tra cadent , etenim de coelo cun●a revulsa . then shall a burning flood flow from the heavens on high , and with its fiery streams all places utterly destroy , earth , ocean , lakes , rivers , fountains , hell , and heavenly poles , the lights in firmament that dwell , losing their beauteous form shall be obscur'd , and all raught from their places , down from heaven to earth shall fall . now because the verses now extant under the name of sibylline oracles are all suspected to be false and pseudepigrapha ; and many of them may be demonstrated to be of no greater antiquity than the emperour antoninus pius his reign : and because it cannot be proved , that there was any such thing in the ancient genuine sibylline oracles ; i rather think , ( as i said before ) that it was a doctrine of ancient tradition , handed down from the first fathers and patriarchs of the world. iosephus in his antiquities runs it up as high as adam ; from whom seth his son received it ; his father , saith he , soretelling him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 there should be a destruction of the universe , once by the violence of fire , and again by the force and abundance of water ; in consequence whereof he erected two pillars , one of brick , which might endure the fire , and another of stone , which would resist the water ; and upon them engraved his astronomical observations , that so they might remain to posterity : and one of these pillars , he saith , continued in syria until his days . whether this relation be true or not , it may be thence collected , that this was an universal opinion , received by tradition , both among iews and gentiles . that the world should one day be consumed by fire . it may be proved by good authority , that the ancient gaules , chaldaeans and indians had this tradition among them : which they could not receive from the greek philosophers or poets , with whom they had no entercourse ; but it must in all probability be derived down to both from the same fountain and original ; that is , from the first restorers of mankind , noah and his sons . i now proceed to the third particular proposed in the beginning ; that is , to give answer to the several questions concerning the dissolution of the world. chap. v. the first question concerning the world's dissolution , whether there be any thing in nature that may probably cause or argue a future dissolution ? three probable means propounded and discussed . sect . i. the waters again naturally overflowing and covering the earth . the first question is , whether there be any thing in nature , which may prove and demonstrate , or probably argue and infer a future dissolution ? to which i answer , that i think there is nothing in nature which doth necessarily demonstrate a future dissolution : but that position of the peripatetick schools may , for ought i know , be true philosophy , posito ordinario dei concursu mundus posset durare in aeternum . supposing the ordinary concourse of god [ with second causes ] the world might endure for ever . but though a future dissolution by natural causes , be not demonstrable ; yet some possible , if not probable , accidents there are , which , if they should happen , might infer such a dissolution . those are four : the possibility of . the waters again overflowing and covering the earth . . the extinction of the sun. . the eruption of the central fire enclosed in the earth . . the driness and inflammability of the earth under the torrid zone , and the eruption of all the vulcano's at once . but before i treat of these , it will not be amiss , a little to consider the old argument for the worlds dissolution , and that is , its daily consenescence and decay : which , if it can be proved , will in process of time , necessarily infer a dissolution . for as the apostle saith in another case , that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away , hebr. . . that which continually wastes , will at last be quite consumed : that which daily grows weaker and weaker , will in time lose all its force . so the age , and stature and strength of man , and all other animals , every generation decreasing , they will in the end come to nothing . and that all these , and all other things do successively diminish and decay in all natural perfections and qualities , as well as moral , hath been the received opinion , not only of the vulgar , but even of philosophers themselves from antiquity down to our times . plin. nat. hist. l. . c. . in plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi minorem indies mensuram staturae propemodum observatur : rarosque patribus proceriores consumente ubertatem seminum exustione ; in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum . in sum ; it is observed that the measure of the stature of all mankind decreases and grows less daily : and that there are few taller then their parents ; the burning ( to which the age inclines ) consuming the luxury of the seeds . terra malos homines nunc educ a● que pusillos . juvenal . sat. the earth now breeds men bad and small . and gellius noct. att. lib. . c. . et nunc quasi jam mundo senescente rerum atque hominum decrementa sunt . and now , as if the world waxed old , there is a decrement or decay both of things and men ▪ i might accumulate places out of the ancients and moderns to this purpose , but that hath been already done by others . but this opinion , how general soever it was formerly , was inconsiderately and without sufficient ground , taken up at first ; and afterwards without due examination embraced and followed ; as appears by dr. hakewil's apology , wherein it is so fundamentally confuted ; that it hath since been rejected by all considerate persons . for that author hath at large demonstrated , that neither the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of motion , light , heat or influence ; or of any of the elements : neither the pretended decay of animals , and particularly and especially of mankind , in regard of age and duration , of strength and stature , of arts and wits , of manners and conversation , do necessarily infer any decay in the world , or any tendency to a dissolution . for though there be at times great changes of weather , as long continuing droughts , and no less lasting rains ; excessive floods and inundations of the sea ; prodigious tempests and storms of thunder , lightning and hail ; which seem to threaten the ruin of the world ; violent and raging winds , spouts and hurricanes , which turn up the sea to the very bottom , and spread it over the land ; formidable and destructive earthquakes , and furious eruptions of vulcano's or burning mountains , which waste the country far and wide , overwhelming or subverting great cities , and burying the inhabitants in their ruins , or as the scripture speaks , making of a city a heap , of a defenced city a ruin . though these and many other changes do frequently happen , at uncertain seasons as to us , yet are they so ordered by the wise providence of the almighty creatour and governour of the world , as nearly to balance one another , and to keep all things in an aequilibrium ; so that as it is said of the sea , that what it gains in one place , it loses in another , it may be said proportionably of the other elements and meteors ; that , for example , a long drought in one place is compensated probably at the same time by as long a rain in another ; and at another time , the scene being changed , by as durable a drought in this , as lasting a rain in that . the same may be said of violent and continuing heats and colds in several places , that they have the like vicissitudes and changes , whereby in the whole they so balance and counterpoise one another , that neither prevails over other , but continue and carry on the world as surely and steddily , as if there were no such contrarieties and fights , no such tumults and commotions among them . the only objection against this opinion , is the longaevity of the antediluvian patriarchs , and of some also ( i mean the first ) of the postdiluvian . for immediately after the flood the age of man did gradually decrease every generation in great proportions ? so that had it continued so to do at that rate , the life of man had soon came to nothing . why it should at last settle at threescore and ten years , as a mean term ; and there continue so many ages , without any further change and diminution , is , i confess , a mystery too hard for me to reveal : however , there must be a great and extraordinary change at the time of the flood , either in the temperature of the air , or quality of the food , or in the temper and constitution of the body of man , which induced this decrement of age. that the temper and constitution of the bodies of the antediluvians was more firm and durable than that of their posterity after the flood : and that this change of term of life was not wholly to be attributed to miracle , may both be demonstrated from the gradual decrease of the age of the postdiluvians . for had it been miraculous , why should not the age of the very first generation after the flood have been reduced to that term ? and what account can we give of their holding out for some generations against the inconveniencies of the air , or deteriority of diet , but the strength and firmness of their constitutions ? which yet was originally owing to the temperature of the air , or quality of their diet , or both ; seeing a change in these ( for there was no other visible cause ) did by degrees prevail against , and impair it . what influence the lying so long of the water upon the earth might have upon the air and earth , in ch●nging them for the worse , and rendring them more unfit for the maintenance and continuance of humane life , i will not now dispute . but whatever might be the cause of the longaevity of the antediluvians , and the contracting of the age of the postdiluvians , it is manifest , that the age of these did at the last settle , as i said , at or about the term of threescore and ten , and hath there continued for three thousand years without any diminution . i proceed now to the accidents which might possibly , in process of time , infer a dissolution of the world. . the possibility of the water in process of time again overflowing and covering of the earth . for , first of all , the rains continually washing down and carrying away earth from the mountains ▪ it is necessary , that as well the height as the bulk of them that are not wholly rocky , should answerably decrease ; and that they do so , is evident in experience . for , as i have elsewhere noted , i have been informed by a gentleman of good credit , that whereas the steeple of craich in the peak of derbyshire , in the memory of some old men then living [ . ] could not have been seen from a certain hill lying between hopton and wirksworth , now not only the steeple , but a great part of the body of the church may from thence be seen ; which comes to pass by the sinking of a hill between the church and the place of view : a parallel example whereto the learned dr. plot gives us , in a hill between sibbertoft and hasleby in northamptonshire , hist , nat. stafford p. . and thus will they continue to do so long as there falls any rains , and as they retain any declivity , that is , till they be levelled with the plains . in confirmation of this particular , i have received from my ingenious friend mr. edward lloyd , some notable observations of his own making concerning the mountains of wales ; which do demonstrate that not only the looser and the lighter parts of the mountains , as earth , sand , gravel , and small stones , may be washed down by the rains : but the most solid and bulky rocks themselves , by the violent descent of the waters down their chinks and precipices , be in time undermined and subverted . take them in his own words : vpon the reading of your discourse of the rains continually washing away , and carrying down earth from the mountains , i was put in mind of something pertinent thereto , which i have observed in the mountains of caernarvonshire , viz ▪ . first , that generally the higher the hills are the more steep are their precipices and declivities ( i except the sea-rocks ) thus moel●y wydhrha , y g●îb gôtch , and twenty others that might be named , reputed the highest hills in wales , have the steepest rocks of any mountains i have seen ; and that not only in their highest cliffs , but also in most of their other crags , till you descend to the lower valleys : this i can ascribe to nothing else but the rains and snow which fall on those high mountains , i think , in ten times the quantity they do on the lower hills and valleys . . i have observed a considerable quantity of the chips or parings ( if i may so call them ) of these cliffs to lye in vast heaps at the roots of them ; and these are of several sorts and materials : being in some places covered with grass , and in others as bare as the sea-shore : and those bare places do consist sometimes of gravel , and an innumerable number of rock-fragments from a pound weight to twenty , &c. and are sometimes composed of huge stones from an hundred pound weight to several tuns . . in the valleys of lhanberys and nant-phrankon , the people find it necessary to rid their grounds often of the stones which the mountain floods bring down ; and yet notwithstanding this care , they often lose considerable parcels of land. . i affirm , that by this means not only such mountains as consist of much earth and small stones , or of softer rocks , and such as are more easily dissoluble , are thus wasted , but also the hardest rocks in wales ; and they seem to be as weighty , and of as firm and close a texture as marble it self . it happen'd in the valley of nant-phrancon , anno . that part of a rock of one of the impendent cliffs , call'd 〈…〉 , became so undermined ( doubtless by the continual rains and subterraneous ●eins of water occasioned by them ) that losing its hold it fell down in several pieces , and in its passage down a sleep and craggy cliff , dislodged thousands of other stones , whereof many were intercepted e're they came down to the valley , but as much came down as ruin'd a small piece of ground ; and several stones were scatter'd at least yards asunder . in this accident one great stone , the biggest remaining piece of the broken rock , made such a trench in its descent , as the small mountain rills commonly run in ; and when it came down to the plain ground , it continued its passage through a small meadow , and a considerable brook , and lodged it self on the other side it . from hence i gather that all the other vast stones that lye in our mountainous valleys , have by such accidents as this fallen down . vnless perhaps we may do better to refer the greatest part of them to the vniversal deluge . for considering there are some thousands of them in these two valleys [ of lhanberys and nant-phran●on ] whereof ( for what i can learn ) there are but two or three that have fallen in the memory of any man now living ; in the ordinary course of nature we shall be compelled to allow the rest many thousands of years more then the age of the world. so far mr. lloyd . to this last particular , and for a further account of it , may be added , that sometimes there happen strange and violent storms and hurricanes , wherein the rain is driven with that sorce upon the tops and sides of the mountains by furious and tempestuous winds , as to do more execution upon them by breaking in pieces , tearing and throwing down rocks and stones , in a few days , then in the ordinary course of nature , by the usual weather is effected in many hundred years . . by reason of the abundance of earth thus washed off the mountains by shots of rain , and carried down with the floods to the sea ; about the out-lets of the rivers , where the violent motion of the water ceases , setling to the bottom , and raising it up by degrees above the surface of the water , the land continually gains upon , and drives back the sea : the egyptian pharos or light-house of old time stood in an island a good distance from land , which is now joyned to the continent , the interjacent fretum having been filled up by the silt brought down by the river nilus in the time of the flood subsiding there . indeed the ancient historians do truly make the whole land of egypt to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the gift of the river , and by this means gained from the sea. seneca in the sixth book of his nat. quest. chap. . gives this account , aegyptus ex limo tota concrevit . tantum enim ( si homero fides ) aberat à continenti pharos , quantum navis diurno cursu metiri plenis lata velis potest . sed continenti admota est . turbidus enim defluens nilus , multumque secum limum trahens , & eum subinde apponens prioribus terris , aegyptum annuo incremento semper ultra tulit . inde pinguis & limosi soli est , nec ulla intervalla in se habet ; sed crevit in solidum arescente limo , quo pressa erat & cedens structura , &c. that is , all egypt is but a concretion of mud. for ( if homer may be believed ) the pharos was as far distant from the continent , as a ship with full sail could run in a days time ; but now it is joyned to it . for nilus flowing with troubled waters brings down a great deal of mud and silt , and adding it to the old land , carries on egypt further and further still by an annual increase . hence it is of a fat and muddy soil , and hath no pores or cavities in it . and this reason he gives why it is not troubled with earthquakes . which also may be the reason why it hath no fresh springs and fountains : for though indeed dr. robinson doth very probably impute its want of rain and springs to the want of mountains ; yet because ( as we shall afterwards prove ) springs may be derived from mountains at a good distance , i know not whether all mountains are so far remote from egypt , as that there may be no subterraneous channels of that length as to derive the water even thither from them ; and therefore probably one reason of their wanting of springs may be the density and thickness of the soil , whereby it becomes impenetrable to the water ; and it may be , should they use the same artifices there , which the inhabitants of the lower austria , and of the territory of modena and bologna in italy do , that is , dig and bore quite through this coat of mud till they come to a sand or looser earth , they might in like manner procure themselves fountains of springing water . thus by reason of the great rivers , po , athesis , brenta , and others , which empty themselves into the lagune , or shallows about venice in italy , and in times of floods bring down thither great store of earth , those lagune are in danger to be in time atterrated , and with the city situate in the midst of of them , added to the firm land , they being already bare at every ebb , only channels maintain'd from all the neighbouring places to the city , not without considerable charge to the state in engines and labourers in some places to clear them of the mud , wherewith otherwise they would indanger to be obstructed and choaked up ; which engines they call cava-fango's . thus in the camarg , or isle that the river rhosne makes near arles in provence , there hath been so much lately gained from the sea , that the watch-tower had , in the memory of some men living . been removed forward three times , as we were there informed . and it seems to me probable , that the whole low-countreys were thus gained from the sea : for varenius in his geography tells us , that sinking a well at amsterdam , at near an hundred foot depth , they met with a bed or floor of sand and cockle-shells ; whence it is evident , one would think , that of old time the bottom of the sea lay so deep , and that that hundred foot thickness of earth above the sand , arose from the sediments of the waters of those great rivers , the rhine , scheld , maes , &c. which there abouts emptied themselves into the sea , and in times of floods brought down with them abundance of earth from the upper grounds : the same original doubtless had that great level of the fens , running through the isle of ely , holland in lincolnshire , and marshland in norfolk . that there hath been no small quantity of earth thus brought down , appears also in that along the channels of most great rivers , as for example , the thames and trent in england , especially near their mouths or out-lets , between the mountains and higher grounds on each side , there are large levels and plains , which seem to have been originally part of the sea , raised up , and atterrated by earth and silt brought down by those rivers in great floods . strabo in the first book of his geography 〈◊〉 much to this purpose ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and after a while , he adds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , for this landing up and a●●erration of the skirts of the sea , is for the most part about the mouths of rivers , as about the out-lets of ister the places called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the deserts of scyt●ia : about those of phasis the sea-coast of colchis , which is sandy , and low , and so●t : about thermod●n and iris all them●scyra , the plain of the amazons , and the most part of sidene . and the like may be said of other rivers . for all of them imitate the nile , adding to the continent or mainland the part lying before their mouths , some more , some less : those less , that bring not down much mud ; and those more , that run a great way over soft and lose ground , and receive many torrents : of which kind is the river pyramus , which hath added a great part of its land to cilicia . concerning which there is an oracle come abroad , importing , that there will a time come in future ages , when the river pyramus shall carry on the shore and land up the sea as far as cyprus — so it might in time happen that the whole sea should gradually be landed up , beginning from the shores , if the effusions of the rivers , that is , the earth and mud they bring down did spread so wide as to be continuous . thus far strabo . but the oracle he mentions , predicting the carrying on and continuation of cilicia as far as cyprus , and the joyning that island to the continent , proves false ; there having not been as yet , that we hear or read of , any considerable advance made towards it , in almost years . now the rain thus continually washing away , and carrying down earth from the mountains and higher grounds , and raising up the valleys near the sea , as long as there is any descent for the rivers , so long will they continue to run , carry forward the low ground , and streighten the sea ; which also by its working , by reason of the declivity , easily carries down the earth towards the lower and middle part of its channel [ alveus ] and by degrees may sill it up . monsieur loubere in his late voyage to siam , takes notice of the increase of the banks and sands in and near the mouths of the great rivers of the oriental kingdoms , occasion'd by the sediments brought down from the countries by the several streams ; so that , says he , the navigation into and up those rivers grows more and more difficult , and may in process of time be quite interrupted . the same observation , i believe , may be made in most of our great europaean rivers , wherein new beds are rais'd , and old ones enlarged . moreover , the clouds still pouring down rain upon the earth , it will descend as far as there is any declivity ; and where that fails it will stagnate , and joyning with sea , cover first the skirts of the earth , and so by degrees higher and higher , till the whole be covered . to this we may add , that some assistance toward the levelling of the mountains , may be contributed by the courses and catarracts of subterraneous rivers washing away the earth continually , and weakning their ●oundations , so by degrees causing them to founder , subside , and fall in . that the mountains do daily diminish , and many of them sink ; that the valleys are raised ; that the skirts of the sea are atterrated , no man can deny . that these things must needs in process of time have a very considerable and great effect , is as evident ; which what else can it be , then that we have mentioned ? moreover , towards this levelling of the mountains , and filling up of the sea , the fire also contributes its mite . for the burning mountains or vulcano's , as for example aetna and vesuvius , vomit at times out of their bowels such prodigious quantities of sand and ashes , and with that force , that they are by the winds carried and dispersed all over the country , nay transported over seas into foreign and remote regions ; but let fall so copiously in the circumjacent places , as to cover the earth to a considerable thickness ; and not only so , but they also pour forth floods of melted stones , minerals and other materials , that run down as low as the sea , and fill up the havens , as of old one near catana ; and make moles and promontories or points , as in the last eruptions both of aetna and vesuvius ; the tops of these mountains falling in and subsiding proportionably to the quantity of the ejected matter , as borellus proves . meeting with a quotation in dr. hakewil's apology out of iosephus blancanus his book de mundi fabrica , i earnestly desired to get a fight of that book , but could not procure it till the copy of this discourse was out of my hands and sent up to london in order to its printing , but then obtaining it , i found it so exactly consonant to my own thoughts , and to what i have here written concerning that subject ; and some particulars occurring therein by me omitted , that i could not forbear translating the whole discourse into english , and annexing it to this chapter , especially because the book is not commonly to be met with . the discourse is first set down in his book de locis mathematicis aristotelis more at large , and afterward repeated in his book de mundi fabrica more briefly . pergratum lectori fore existimavi , si rem s●itu dignissimam exposuero , &c. i thought it might be very acceptable to the reader , if i should discover to him a thing most worthy to be known ; which i have long ago , and for a long time observed , and am daily more confirmed in ; especially seeing no former writer that i know of hath published any thing concerning it . it is this , that the superficies of the whole earth , which is now rough and uneven by reason of mountains and valleys , and so only rudely sphaerical , is daily from the very beginning of the world reducing to a per●●●t roundness , in so much that it will necessarily come to pass in a natural way , that it be one day overflown by the sea , and rendred unhabitble . first then , that we may clearly apprehend the causes of this thing , we must lay down as a foundation from holy writ , that the terraqueous globe was in the beginning endued with a more perfect spherical figure , that is , without any inequalities of mountains and valleys : and that it was wholly covered with the sea , and so altogether unfit for terrestrial animals to inhabit : but it was then rendred habitable , when by the beck or command of its creator the greatest part of the land was translated from one place to another , whereupon here appeared the hollows of the seas , there the heights of the mountains : and all the waters which before covered the face of the whole earth receded , and flowing down filled those depressed and hollow places ; and this congregation of waters was called the sea. hence some grave authors doubt not to assert , that the mountains were made up of that very earth which before filled the cavities of the sea. whence it follows , that the earth as now it is , mountainous and elevated above the waters , hath not its natural figure , but is in a violent state : but nullum violentum est perpetuum . besides the earth being heavier then the water , none of its parts ought to be extant and appear above its superficies ; and yet we see that the earth is really higher than the sea , especially the mountainous parts of it : in which respect also both land and water are in a violent state . wherefore it is very convenient to the nature of both , that they should daily return towards their ancient and primigenial state and figure , and accordingly we affirm that they do so . moreover , we say that the waters , both of rains and rivers , are the cause of this restitution , as will appear by the following observations . first we see that rivers do daily fret and undermine the roots of the mountains , so that here and there from most mountains they cause great ruins and precipices , whence the mountains appear broken : and the earth so fallen from the mountains the rivers carry down to the lower places . from these corrosions of the rivers proceed these ●low , but great ruines , called , labinae à labendo ; in which some streets , and whole villages are precipitated into the rivers . . we daily see , that the rain-waters wash away the superficies of the mountains , and carry them down to the lower places . hence it comes to pass , that the higher mountains are also harder and more stony than the rest , by means whereof they better resist the water . hence also it comes to pass , that ancient buildings in mountains , their foundations being by degrees discovered , prove not very durable . for which reason the foundations of the roman capitol are now wholly extant above ground ; which of old , at its first erection , were sunk very deep into it . this same thing all the inhabitants of the mountains do confirm ; all saying , that this lowering of mountains was long since known to them ; for that formerly some intermediate mountains intercepted the sight of a castle , or tower , situate in a more remote mountain ; which after many years the intervenient mountain being depressed , came clearly into view . and george agricola is of opinion ( which i very much approve of ) that the rivers produced the mountains and hills in this manner . in the beginning of the world there were not so many particular divided mountains , but only perpetual eminent ridges of land , not dissected into so many valleys as we now see . so , for example , our appennine was at first one continued even eminent ridge of land , not divided into any particular mountains and hills by intervening valleys , as now it is : but that after the rivers began to flow down from the top of it , by little and little fretting and corroding the ground , they made valleys , and daily more and more ; and by this means the whole apennine came to be divided into many hills and mountains . . in plains we see the directly contrary happens : for the plains are daily more and more elevated , because the waters do let fall in the plain and hollow places the earth they brought down with them from the mountains . hence we see that ancient buildings in such places are almost wholly buried in the ground . so in rome , at the foot of the capitoline mountain , we see the triumphal arch of septimius almost wholly overwhelmed in the earth : and every-where in ancient cities many gates and doors of houses almost landed up , little thereof being extant above ground . from which it appears , that this sinking and demersion of buildings into the earth is a manifest sign of their antiquity , which is so much the greater , by how much the deeper they are sunk . so , for example , at bononia in italy , many of the ancient gates of the city , which the bolognese call torresotti , are very deeply sunk , which is a certain argument of their antiquity , and thence it appears to be true that histories relate , that they were built in the time of s. petronius , about years ago . but here it is to be noted , that other things agreeing , those are deeper depressed that are built in lower places than those in higher , for the reason above-said . so at bononia , that old port called , il torresotto di s. georgio , is deeplier buried , or landed up , than that which is called , il torresotto di stra castilione , because that is situated in a lower place , and therefore the earth is more easily raised up about it . . the same is affirmed by architects , who when they dig their foundations , do every-where in plain places first of all remove the earth which they call commota [ loose or shaken ] which is mixt with fragments of wood , iron , rubbish , coyns , ancient urns , and other things ; which when it is thrown out , they come to another sort of earth that hath never been stirred , but is solid , compact , and not mixt with any heterogeneous things , especially artificial . that moved [ commota ] and impure earth , is it which the waters have by little and little brought down from the higher to the more depressed places , which is not every-where of equal depth . but now because in the mountains there is no where found such moved or new earth , as is plain from the experience of architects , it is manifest that the mountains do by no means grow or encrease , as some dream . . our observation is proved from that art which is now much practised of elevating and landing up depressed places by the waters of rivers , and depressing the higher by running the water over them . the same things happen about the sea , for whereas the bottom of the sea is more depressed than the superficies of the earth ; and all the great rivers empty themselves into the sea , and bring in with them a great quantity of earth and sand , there must needs be great banks or floors of earth raised up about the sea-shores , near the mouths of rivers , whereby the shores must necessarily be much promoted and carried forward into the sea , and so gain upon it , and compel it to recede . this may be proved first by the authority of aristotle , lib. . meteor . cap. de permutatione terrae ac maris ; and that of the ancient geographers and historians . to omit that proof from egypt ; aristotle's second example of this landing up of the sea , is the region of ammonia , whose lower and maritime place ( saith he ) it 's clear , were by this landing up first made pools and fens , and in process of time these pools were dryed up , and raised to be firm land , by earth brought down . a third example is that of the maeotis palus , whose skirts are so grown up by what the rivers bring down , that the waters will not carry any thing so great ships , as they would have done sixty years ago . a fourth is the thracian bosphorus , which for brevity's sake may be seen in him . add hereto in the fifth place , the testimony of pliny , who tells us , that much new land hath been added to the earth , not only brought in by the rivers , but deserted by the sea. so the sea hath receded ten miles from the port of ambracia , and five from that of athens , and in several other places more or less . what he adds out of strabo , concerning the river pyramus is already entred . . neither are later and nearer experiments wanting . of old time ravenna stood upon the br●●k of the sea-shore , which is now by reason of the landing up the shallows ●ar distant from it . the sea washed the walls of pad●● , which is now twenty five miles remote therefrom . in fine , our rhene of bologn● , though it ●e but a small torrent , yet in a few years since it hath been by an artificial cut let into the po , it hath so filled it up , and obstructed its channel with sand and mud , that it hath much endamaged the neighboaring fields . seeing then by these various ●ggerations of sand and s●lt , the sea is da●●y cut short , and driven back , and its ba●in or r●ceptable straitned , and the bottom 〈…〉 , it will necessarily come to pass 〈…〉 that it will begin to overflow ; as 〈…〉 in many places , for example , 〈…〉 and holland sho●es , 〈…〉 ●orced to erect and 〈◊〉 lo●g and high banks and 〈…〉 of the sea. therefore 〈…〉 manner , that earth which no● malces 〈…〉 mountains , being by the water little by little brought down ●nto the 〈…〉 is the cause why the seu 〈…〉 ●●erflows the 〈…〉 globe of the earth by the affusion of the waters , will be again rendred unhabitable , as at first it was in the beginning of the world ; and the earth and water will return to their primitive state and figure , in which they ought naturally to rest . hence we may deduce some consectaries worthy to be known ; viz. that the world , or at least the earth , was not endued with that figure which we now see ; neither can the world endure for ever . for if this mountainous figure had been in it from eternity , all those protuberancies of the mountains had been long since eaten away and wasted or consumed by the waters . nor can this world be eternal ; because , as we have proved ▪ in process of time it will be reduce● to a per●ect rotundity , and be overflown by the sea ; whereupon it will become un●abitable , and mankind must necessarily perish . where●ore unless that deluge were prevented by the 〈◊〉 which the holy scriptures mention the world would 〈…〉 by water . long after i had committed these 〈…〉 writing . i met with phi●o iud●u● 〈◊〉 book de mundeo ▪ wherein 〈◊〉 ●ouches this matter but ob●cure● and in a very ●ew words ▪ thus far blancanus , whose sentiments and observations concerning this matter thus punctually concurring and according with mine , to my great wonder and satisfaction , i could not but think that the conclusion hath a high degree of probability . only he takes no notice , that in compensation of what the rivers gain from the sea about their outlets , the sea may gain from the land by undermining and washing away the shores that are not rocky , ( as we see it doth in our own country ) perhaps as much as it loses , according to the vulgar proverb before remembred . however , all contributes towards the filling up of the sea , and bringing on an inundation , as i shall afterwards shew . but it may be objected , that if the waters will thus naturally and necessarily in process of time again overflow and cover the earth , how can god's promise and covenant be made good , gen. . . that there should not any more be a flood to destroy the earth . to which i answer , . that though this would follow in a natural way , yet the power of god may interpose to prevent it , and so make good his promise . . though it might come to pass in the course of nature , yet would it be after so many ages , that it is not at all likely the world should last so long : but the conflagration or destruction of it by fire , predicted by the scriptures , will certainly prevent it . . possibly there may be something in nature which may obviate this event , though to us at present unknown , which i am the more inclinable to believe , because the earth doth not hasten so fast towards it as some of the ancients imagined , and as the activity of such causes might seem to require , as i have already intimated . varenius in his geography putting the question , whether the ocean may again come to cover all the earth , and make an universal deluge ; answers , that we may conceive a way how this may naturally come to pass . the manner thus ; supposing that the sea by its continual working doth undermine and wash away the shores and cliffs that are not rocky , and carry the earth thereof down towards the middle , or deepest parts of its channel , and so by degrees fill it up . by doing this perpetually , it may , in a long succession of time , carry all away , and it self cover the whole earth . that it doth thus subvert and wash away the shores in many places is in experience true . about dort in holland and dullart in friesland , and in zealand many villages , some say three hundred , have been drown'd by the encroachments of the sea , as some of their towers and steeples still extant above the waters do testifie . on the tuscan shore , kircher tells us , that not far from ligorn he himself had observed a whole city under water , that had been in former times drown'd by the inundation of the sea. and over against puteoli in the sinus of baia , he tells us , that in the bottom of the sea , there are not only houses , but the traces and footsteps of the streets of some city manifestly discernable . and in the county of suffolk , almost the whole town of donewich , with the adjacent lands , hath been undermined and devoured by the sea. this washing away of the shores is , i conceive , in great measure to be attributed to the forementioned streightning and cutting short of the sea , by the earth and si●t that in the times of floods are brought down into it by the rivers . for the vulgar have a proverbial tradition , that what the sea loses in one place , it gains in another . and both t●gether do very handsomly make out and expl●in , how the earth in a natural way , may be reduced to its primitive state in the creation , when the waters covered the land. but this according to the 〈◊〉 proceedings of nature , would not come to pass in many ages , i might say , in ages of ages : nay , some think , that those vast ridges and chains of mountains , which run through the middle of the continents , are by reason of their great height , weight and solidity , too great a morsel ever to be devoured by the jaws of the sea. but whether they be or not , i need not dispute , though i incline to the negative , because this is not the dissolution the apostle here speaks of , which must be by fire . but i must not here dissemble an objection i see may be made , and that is , that the superficies of the earth is so far from being depressed , that it is continually elevated . for in ancient buildings , we see the earth raised high above the foot of them . so the pantheon at rome , which was at first ascended up to by many [ eight ] steps , is now descended down to by as many . the basis and whole pedestal of trajan's pillar there was buried in the earth . dr. tancred robinson in the year . observ'd in some places , the walls of old rome , to lye thirty and forty foot under ground ; so that he thinks the greater part of the remains of that famous ancient city is still buried , and undiscovered ; the prodigious heaps of ruins and rubbish inclosed within the vineyards and gardens being not half dig'd up or search't , as they might be , the tops of pillars peeping up and down . and in our own country we find many ancient roman pavements at some depth under ground my learned and ingenious friend mr. edward loyd , not long since inform'd of one , that himself had seen buried deep in the church-yard at wychester in glocestershire . nay , the earth in time will grow over and bury the bodies of great timber trees , that have been ●allen , and lye long upon it ; which is made one great reas●n , that such great numbers ( even wh●● , woods ) of subterraneous trees are frequently met with , and dug up at vast depths in the spanish and dutch netherlands , as well as in many places of this island of great britain . to which i answer , as to buildings , . the ruins and rubbish of the cities wherein they stood , might be conceived to bury them as deep as they now lye under ground . and by this means it's likely the roman pavements we find , might come to be covered to that height we mentioned . for that the places where they occur , were anciently roman towns subverted and ruined , may easily be proved ; as particularly in this we mention'd , from the termination ches●er ; whatever town or village hath that addition to its name , having been anciently a roman town or camp : chester seeming to be nothing but castra . . it is to be consider'd , that weighty buildings do in time overcome the resistance of the foundation , unless it be a solid rock ; and sink into the ground . nay , the very soft water , lying long upon the bottoms of the sea or pools , doth so compress and sadden them by its weight , that the very roads that are continually beaten with horses and carriages , are not so firm and sad : and in the sea , the nearer you dig to the low water-mark ; still the sadder and firmer it is : and it 's probable still , the further the sadder ; which seems to be confirmed by the strong fixing of anchors . [ this firmness of the sand , by the weight of the incumbent water , the people inhabiting near the sea are so sensible of , that i have seen them boldly ride through the water cross a channel three miles broad , before the tide was out , when in some places it reacht to the horses belly . ] a semblance whereof , we have in ponds , which being newly digg'd , the water that runs into them , sinks soon into the earth , and they become dry again , till after some time , by often filling , the earth becomes so solid , through the weight of the water , that they leak no more , but hold water up to the brink . wittie scarborough spaw , p. . what force a gentle , if continual pressure hath , we may understand also by the roots of trees , which we see will sometimes pierce through the chinks of stone walls , and in time make great cracks and rifts in them ; nay , will get under their very foundations . the tender roots of herbs overcome the resistance of the ground , and make their way through clay or gravel . by the by , we may here take notice , that one reason why plowing , harrowing , si●ting , or any comminution of the earth , renders it more fruitful , is , because the roots of grass , corn , and other herbs can , with more facility , creep abroad , and multiply their fibres in the light and loose earth . that the rotting of grass , and other herbs upon the ground , may in some places raise the superficies of it , i will not deny ; that 〈◊〉 , ●n gardens and enclosures , where the ground is rank , and no cattel are admitted 〈◊〉 eat off the fog or long grass : but elsewhere , the raising of the superficies of the faith is very little and inconsiderable ; and none at all , unless in level grounds , which have but little declivity : for otherwise the soyl would by this time have come to be of a very great depth , which we find to be but shallow . nor do i think , that so much as the trunks of fall'n trees , are by this means covered ; but rather , that they sink by their own weight , in time overcoming the resistance of the earth , which without much difficulty yields , being soaked and softned by the rains insinuating into it , and keeping it continually most in winter-time . but if these buildings be situate in valleys , it is clear , that the earth brought down from the mountains by rain , may serve to land them up . again , the superficies of the earth may be raised near the sea coast , by the continual blowing up of sand by the winds . this happens often in norfolk , and in cornwall , where i observed a fair church , viz. that of the parish called lalant , which is the mother church to st. ives , and above two miles distant from the sea , almost covered with the sand ; little being extant above it , but the steeple and ridge of the roof . nay , a great part of st. ives itself lies bu●ied in the sand : and i was told there , that in one night there had been a whole street of houses so covered with sand , that in the morning they were fain to dig their way out of their houses through it . all along the western shoar of wales , there are great hills of sand thus blown up by the wind. we observed also upon the coast of flanders and holland , the like sandy hills , or downs , from which westerly winds drive the sand a great way into the country . but there are not many places liable to this accident , viz. where the bottom of the sea is sandy , and where the wind most frequently blows from off the sea ; where the wind sets from the land toward the sea this happens not ; where it is indifferent , it must in reason carry off as much as it brings on , unless other causes hinder . sect . ii. the second possible cause of the world's destruction in a natural way , the extinction of the sun. ii. the possibility of the sun's extinction . of which accident i shall give an account in dr. more 's words , in the last chapter of his treatise of the immortality of the soul. this ( saith he ) though it may seem a panick fear at first sight ; yet if the matter be throughly examined , there will appear no contemptible reasons that may induce men to suspect , that it may at last fall out , there having been at certain times such near offers in nature towards this sad accident already . pliny speaks of it as a thing not unfrequent , that there should be , prodigiosi & longiores solis defectus , qualis occiso dictatore caesare & antoniano bello , totius anni pollore continuo , hist. nat. lib. . cap. . prodigious and lasting defects of the sun , such as happened when caesar the dictator was slain ; and in the war with anthony , when it was continually pale and gloomy for a whole year . the like happened in iustinian's time , as cedrenus writes ; when for a whole year together the sun was of a very dim and duskish hue , as if he had been in a perpetual eclipse : and in the time of irene the empress , it was so dark for seventeen days together , that the ships lost their way in the sea , and were ready to run one against another , as theophanes reports . but the late accurate discovery of the spots of the sun by scheiner , and the appearing and disappearing of fixt stars and comets , and the excursions of these last , do argue it more than possible , that after some vast periods of time , the sun may be so inextricably inveloped by the maculae , that he may quite lose his light ; and then you may easily guess what would become of the inhabitants of the earth . for without his vivisick heat , neither could the earth put forth any vegetables for their sustenance ; neither if it could , would they be able to bear the extremity of the cold , which must needs be more rigorous , and that perpetually , than it is now under the poles in winter time . but this accident , tho' it would indeed extinguish all life , yet being quite contrary to a dissolution by fire , of which the apostle speaks , i shall pass it over without further consideration , and proceed to a third . sect . iii. the third possible cause of the world's destruction , the eruption of the central fire . iii. the possibility of the eruption of the central fire , if any such there be , inclosed in the earth . it is the hypothesis of monsieur des cartes , that the earth was originally a star , or great globe of fire , like the sun , or one of the fixt stars , situate in the center of a vortex continually whirling round with it . that by degrees it was covered over , or incrustated with maculae , arising on its surface , like the scum on a boyling pot , which still increasing and growing thicker and thicker , the star losing its light and activity , and consequently the motion of the celestial vortex about it growing more weak , languid , and unable to resist the vigorous incroaehments of the neighbouring vortex of the sun ; it was at last drawn in , and wholly absorpt by it , and forced to comply with its motion , and make one in the quire of the sun's satellites . this whole hypothesis i do utterly disallow and reject . neither did the author himself ( if we may believe him ) think it ture , that the earth was thus generated . for he saith , quinimo ad res naturales meliùs explicandas , earum causas altiùs hic repetam quàm ipsas unquam extitisse existimem . non enim dubium est , quin mundus ab initio fuerit creatus cum omni sua perfectione , ità ut in eo & sol , & terra , & luna , & stellae extiterint — hoc fides christiana nos docet ; hócque etiam ratio naturalis planè persuadet . attendendo enim ad immensam dei potentiam , non possumus existimare illum unquam quidquam fecisse , quod non omnibus suis numeris fuerit absolutum . that is , moreover , for the better explicating of natural things , i shall bring them from higher or more remote causes than i think they ever had . for there is no doubt , but the world was originally created in its full perfection , so that in it were contained both sun and moon , and earth and stars , &c. for this the christian faith teacheth us , and this also natural reason doth plainly persuade ; for attending to the immense power of god , we cannot think that he ever made any thing that was not complete in all points . but thô he did not believe that the earth was generated , or formed according to his hypothesis , yet surely he was of opinion , that it is at present such a body as he represented it after its perfect formation , viz. with a fire in the middle , and so many several crusts or coats inclosing it : else would he have given us a mere figment or romance instead of a body of philosophy . but tho' i do reject the hypothesis ; yet the being of a central fire in the earth is not , so far as i understand , any way repugnant to reason or scripture . for first of all , the scripture represents hell as a lake of fire , mark . , , &c. revel . . , , . and likewise as a low place beneath the earth . so pslam . . and deut. . . it is called the nethermost hell . prov. . . the way of life is above to the wise , that he may depart from hell beneath . . many of the ancients understand that article of the creed ; he descended into hell , of our saviour's descent into that local hell beneath the earth , where he trimphed over the devil , and all the powers of darkness . and particularly irenaeus interprets that saying of our saviour , that the son of man should be three days in the heart of the earth , of his being three days in the middle of the earth , which could not be meant ( saith he ) of the sepulchre , because that was hewen out of a rock in its superficies . . it is a received opinion among the divines of the church of rome , that hell is about the center of the earth : insomuch as some of them have been solicitous to demonstrate that there is room enough to receive all the damned , by giving us the dimensions thereof . neither is it repugnant to the history of the creation in genesis . for tho' indeed moses doth mention only water and earth , as the component parts of this body ; yet doth he not assert that the earth is a simple , uniform , homogeneous body ; as neither do we , when we say , vpon the face of the earth , or the like . for the earth , we see , is a mass made up of a multitude of different species of bodies , metals , minerals , stones , and other fossils , sand , clay , marle , chalk , &c. which do all agree in that they are consistent and solid more or less , and are in that respect contradistinguished to water ; and together compound one mass , which we call earth . whether the interior parts of the earth be made up of so great a variety of different bodies , is to us altogether unknown . for tho' it be observed by colliers , that the beds of coals lie one way , and do always dip towards the east , let them go never so deep ; so that , would it quit cost , and were it not for the water , they say , they might pursue the bed of coals to the very center of the earth , the coals never failing or coming to an end that way ; yet that is but a rash and ungrounded conjecture . for what is the depth of the profoundest mines , were they a mile deep , to the semidiameter of the earth ? not as one to four thousand . comparing this observation of dipping with my notes about other mines , i find that the veins or beds of all generally run east and west , and dip towards the east . of which what account or reason can we give , but the motion of the earth from west to east ? i know some say , that the veins , for example , of tin and silver , dip to the north , tho' they confess they run east and west , which is a thing i cannot understand , the veins of those metals being narrow things . sir tho. willoughby , in his fore-mentioned letter writes thus , — " i have talked with some of my colliers about the lying of the coal , and find , that generally the basset end ( as they call it ) lies west , and runs deeper toward the east , allowing about twenty yards in length to gain one in depth ; but sometimes they decline a little from this posture ; for mine lie almost south-west , and north-east . they always sink to the east more or less . there may therefore , for ought we know , be fire about the center of the earth , as well as any other body , if it can find a pabulum , or fuel there to maintain it . and why may it not ? since the fires in those subterraneous caverns of aetna , vesuvius , stromboli , hecla , and other burning mountains or vulcano's , have found wherewith to feed them for thousands of years . and as there are at some , tho' uncertain periods of time , violent eruptions of fire from the craters of those mountains , and mighty streams of melted materials poured forth from thence : so why may not this central fire in the earth , ( if any such there be ) receiving accidentally extraordinary supplies of convenient fuel , either from some inflammable matter within , or from without , rend the thick exterior cortex which imprisons it , or finding some vents and issues break forth and overflow the whole superficies of the earth , and burn up all things . this is not impossible , and we have seen some phaenomena in nature which bid fair towards a probability of it . for what should be the reason of new stars appearing and disappearing again ; as that noted one in cassiopeia , which at first shone with as great a lustre as venus , and then by degrees diminishing , after some two years vanish'd quite away ? but that by great supplies of combustible matter , the internal fire suddenly increasing in quantity and force , either found , or made its way through the cracks or vents of the maculae which inclosed it , and in an instant , as it were , overflowed the whole surface of the star , whence proceeded that illustrious light ; which afterwards again gradually decayed , its supply failing . whereas other newly appearing stars , which either have a constant supply of matter , or where the fire hath quite dissolved the maculae , and made them comply with its motion , have endured for a long time , as that which now shines in the neck of cygnus , which appears and disappears at certain intervals . but because it is not demonstrable that there is any such central fire in the earth , i propose the eruption thereof rather as a possible than probable means of a conflagration : and proceed to the last means whereby it may naturally be effected ; and that is : sect . iv. the fourth natural cause of the world's dissolution , the earth's dryness and inflammability . iv. the dryness and inflammability of the earth under the torrid zone , with the eruption of the vulcano's to set it on fire . those that hold the inclination of the equator to the ecliptick daily to diminish , so that after the revolutions of some ages they will jump and consent , tell us , that the sun-beams lying perpendicularly and constantly on the parts under the equator , the ground thereabout must needs be extremely parch'd and rendred apt for inflammation . but for my part i own no such decrement of inclination . and the best mathematicians of our age deny that there hath been any since the eldest observations that are come down to us . for tho' indeed ptolomy and hipparchus do make it more than we find it by above twenty minutes , yet that difference is not so considerable , but that it may well be imputed to the difference of instruments , or observations in point of exactness . so that not having decreased for eighteen hundred years past , there is not the least ground for conjecture , that it will alter in eighteen hundred years to come , should the world last so long . and yet if there were such a diminution , it would not conduce much ( so far as i can see ) to the bringing on of a conflagration . for tho' the earth would be extremely dried , and perchance thereby rendred more inflammable ; yet the air being by the same heat as much rarified , would contain but few nitrous particles , and so be inept to maintain the fire , which , we see , cannot live without them : it being much deaded by the sun shining upon it ; and burning very remisly in summer time , and hot weather : for this reason in southern countries , in extraordinary hot seasons , the air scarce sufficeth for respiration . to the clearing up of this , let us a little consider what fire is . it seems to consist of three different sorts of parts . . an extremely thin and subtil body , whose particles are in a very vehement and rapid motion . . ( a supposed ) nitrous pabulum or fewel , which it receives from the air. . a sulphureous or unctuous pabulum , which it acts and preys upon , passing generally by the name of fewel . this ' fore-mentioned subtil body agitating the ( supposed ) nitrous particles it receives from the air , doth by their help , as by wedges , to use that rude similitude , penetrate the unctuous bodies , upon which it acts , and divide them into their immediate component particles , and at length perchance into their first principles : which operation is called the chymical anatomy of mix'd bodies . so we see wood , for example , divided by fire into spirit , oyl , water , salt , and earth . that fire cannot live without those particles it receives from the air is manifest , in that if you preclude the access of all air , it is extinguished immediately : and in that , where and when the air is more charged with them . as in cold countries , and cold weather , the fire rages most : that likewise it cannot be continued without an unctuous pabulum or fewel , i appeal to the experience of all men. now then in the rarified air in the torrid zone , the nitrous particles being proportionably scattered and thin set , the fire that might be kindled there would burn but very languidly and remisly , as we said just now : and so the eruptions of vulcano's , if any such happened , would not be like to do half the execution there that they would do in cold countries . and yet i never read of any spreading conflagration caused by the eruptions of any vulcano's , either in hot countries , or in cold . they usually cast out abundance of thick smoak like clouds darkning the air : and likewise ashes and stones , sometimes of a vast bigness ; and some of them , as vesuvius , floods of water ; others , ( as aetna ) rivers of melted materials , running down many miles : as for the flames that issue out of their mouths at such times , they are but transient , and mounting upwards , seldom set any thing on fire . but not to insist upon this , i do affirm , that there hath not as yet been , nor for the future can be any such drying or parching of the earth under the torrid zone , as some may imagine . that there hath not yet been i appeal to experience , the countries lying under the course of the sun , being at this day as fertile as ever they were , and wanting no more moisture now than of old they did ; having as constant and plentiful rains in their seasons as they then had . that they shall for the future suffer any more drought than they have heretofore done , there is no reason to believe or imagine , the face of the earth being not altered , nor naturally alterable , as to the main , more at present than it was heretofore . i shall now add the reason , why i think there can be no such ex●iccation of the earth in those parts . it 's true indeed , were there nothing to hinder them , the vapours exhaled by the sun-beams in those hot regions , would be cast off to the north , and to the south , a great way , and not fall down in rain there , but toward the poles ; but the long and continued ridges or chains of exceeding high mountains are so disposed by the great and wise creator of the world , as , at least in our continent , to run east and west , as gassendus in the life of peireskius well observes , such are atlas , taurus , and the alps , to name no more : they are , i say , thus disposed as if it were on purpose to obviate and stop the evagation of the vapours northward , and reflect them back again , so that they must needs be condensed , and fall upon the countries out of which they were elevated . and on the south-side , being near the sea , it is likely that the wind , blowing for the most part from thence , hinders their excursion that way . this i speak by presumption , because in our country for at least three quarters of the year the wind blows from the great atlantick ocean : which was taken notice of by iulius caesar in the fifth of his commentaries , de bello gallico . corus ventus , qui magnam partem omnis temporis in his locis flare consuevit . as for any desiccation of the sea , i hold that by mere natural causes to be impossible , unless we could suppose a transmutation of principles or simple bodies , which for reasons alledged in a former discourse i cannot allow . i was then , and am still of opinion , that god almighty did at first create a certain and determinate number of principles , or variously figured corpuscles , intransmutable by the force of any natural agent , even fire itself , ( which can only separate the parts of heterogeneous bodies ) yet not an equal number of each kind of these principles , but of some abundantly more , as of water , earth , air , aether ; and of others fewer , as of oyl , salt , metals , minerals , &c. now that there may be some bodies indivisible by fire , is , i think , demonstrable . for how doth , or can fire be conceived to divide , one can hardly imagine any other way than by its small parts , by reason of their violent agitation insinuating themselves into compound bodies , and separating their parts ; which allowing , yet still there is a term of magnitude , below which it cannot divide , viz. it cannot divide a body into smaller parts than those whereof itself is compounded . for taking , suppose , one least part of fire , 't is clear that it cannot insinuate itself into a body as little or less than itself : and what is true of one is true of all : i say , we can imagine no other way than this , unless perchance by a violent stroke or shock , the parts of the body to be divided may be put into so impetuous a motion as to fall in sunder of themselves into lesser particles than those of the impellent body are , which i will not suppose at present . now it is possible , that the principles of some other simple bodies may be as small as the particles of fire . but however that be , it is enough , if the principles of simple bodies be by reason of their perfect solidity naturally indivisible . such a simple body , i suppose , water separated from all heterogeneous mixtures to be : and consequently the same quantity thereof that was at first created , doth still remain , and will continue always in despight of all natural agents , unless it pleases the omnipotent creator to dissolve it . and therefore there can be no desiccation of the seas , unless by turning all its water into vapour , and suspending it in the air , which to do , what an immense and long-continuing fire would be requisite ? to the maintenance whereof all the inflammable materials near the superficies of the earth would not afford fuel enough . the sun , we see , is so far from doing it , that it hath not made one step towards it these four thousand years , there being in all likelihood as great a quantity of water in the ocean now as was immediately after the flood : and consequently there would probably remain as much in it , should the world last four thousand years longer . this fixedness and intransmutability of principles secures the universe from dissolution by the prevailing of one element over another , and turning it into its own nature ; which otherwise it would be in continual danger of . it secures likewise the perpetuity of all the species in the world , many of which , if their principles were transmutable , might by such a change be quite lost : and lastly bars the production or creation of any new species , as in the forementioned treatise i have shewn . chap. iv. containing an answer to the second question , whether shall this dissolution be effected by natural or by extraordinary means , and what they shall be ? . as to the second question , whether shall this dissolution be brought about and effected by natural or by extraordinary means and instruments , and what those means and instruments shall be ? i answer in brief , that the instrumental efficient of this dissolution shall be natural . for it is clear both by scripture and tradition , and agreed on all hands , that it shall be that catholick dissolvent , fire . now to the being and maintenance of fire , there are four things requisite . i. the active principle or aether . . air , or a nitrous pabulum received from it : these two being commixt together , are every-where at hand . . fuel , which considering the abundance of combustible materials , which are to be found in all places upon or under the surface of the earth , can no where be wanting . . the accension and the sudden and equal diffusion of this fire all the world over . and this must be the work of god , extraordinary and miraculous . such a dissolution of the world might indeed be effected by that natural accident mentioned in the answer to the precedent question , viz. the eruption of the central fire . but because it is doubtful , whether there be any such fire in the middle of the earth or no : and if there ever were , it is hard to give an account , how it could be maintained in that infernal dungeon for want of air and fuel . and because , if it should break forth in the consistency of a thin flame , it would in all likelihood speedily like lightning mount up to heaven , and quite vanish away ; unless we could suppose floods , nay seas of melted materials , or liquid fire , enough to overflow the whole earth , to be poured forth of those caverns . for these reasons i reject that opinion , and do rather think that the conflagration shall be effected by a superficial fire . tho' i must confess we read in tacitus , annal. . at the end , of a sort of fire that was not so apt to disperse and vanish . " — the city of the inhonians in germany ( saith he ) confederate with us was afflicted with a sudden disaster : for fires issuing out of the earth , burned towns , fields , villages every-where , and spread even to the walls of a colony newly built , and could not be extinguished neither by rain , nor river-water , nor any other liquor that could be employed , until for want of remedy , or anger of such a distraction , certain peasants cast stones afar off into it ; then the flame somewhat slacking , drawing near , they put it out with blows of clubs , and other like , as if it had been a wild beast ; last of all , they threw in cloaths from their backs , which the more worn and fouler they were , the better they quenched the fire . i use dr. hakewil's translation . chap. vii . the third question answered . whether shall this dissolution be gradual and successive , or momentaneous and sudden ? . the third question is , whether shall this dissolution be gradual and successive , or momentaneous and sudden ? i answer , the scripture resolves for the latter , the day of the lord shall come as a thief in the night : a similitude we have often repeated in scripture , as in the tenth verse of this chapter , in thess. . . rev. . . and . . and the resurrection and change of things , it is said shall be in a moment , in the twinkling of an eye , cor. . . consonant whereto both the epicureans and stoicks held their dissolutions of the world should be sudden and brief , as lucretius and seneca in the place ' fore-mentioned tell us . and it is suitable to the nature of fire to make a quick dispatch of things , suddenly to consume and destroy . and as it shall be sudden , so also shall it be unexpected , being compared to the coming of the flood in the days of noah , mat. . , , . but as the days of noah were , so shall also the coming of the son of man be . for as in the days that were before the flood , they were eating and drinking , marrying and giving in marriage , until the day that noah entred into the ark : and knew not until the flood came and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the son of man be . and the raining of fire and brimstone upon sodom . luke . thessal . . . for when they shall say peace and safety , then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child . now if it shall be thus sudden and unexpected , it is not likely there should be in nature any manifest tendency to it , or remarkable signs and forerunners of it : for such must needs startle and awaken the world into an expectation and dread of it . that there is at present no such tendency to corruption , but that the world continues still in as good state and condition as it was two thousand years ago , without the least impairment or decay , hath been , as we before noted , without any possibility of contradiction clearly made out and demonstrated by dr. hakewill in his apology : and therefore , arguing from the past to the vangelist had told us , that there shall be signs in the sun , and in the moon , and in the stars — the sea and the waves roaring ; he adds , as a consequent thereof , verse . mens hearts failing them for fear , and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth . and indeed , how could any man possibly be buried in so profound a lethargy of senslessness and security , as by such stupendious prodigies not to be rowsed and awakened to an expectation of some dismal and tremendous event ? how could he sing a requiem to his soul , and say peace and safety , when the world so manifestly threatens ruin about his ears ? for the reconcil●ng of these expressions to this sudden coming of our saviour to judgment , it were most convenient to accept them in the figurative and metaphorical sense . for if we understand them of the ruin , and devastations of cities and countries , and changes of governments , the subversions of kingdoms and commonwealths , the falls and deposings of princes , nobles and great men ; these happening more or less in every age , though the serious and inquisitive christian , who searches and understands the scriptures , may discern them to be the signs of the world's catastrophe ; yet the careless and inconsiderate , the vicious and voluptuous are not like to be at all startled or moved at them , but may notwithstanding , looking upon them as ordinary and insignificant accidents , dormire in utramque aurem , sleep securely till the last trump awaken them . or it may be answered , that these prophecies do belong to the destruction of ierusalem only , and so we are not concerned to answer that objection . chap. ix . the fifth question answered ; at what period of time shall the world be dissolved ? . the fifth question is , at what period of time shall the world be dissolved ? i answer , this is absolutely uncertain and indeterminable . for since this dissolution shall be effected by the extraordinary interposition of providence ; it cannot be to any man known , unless extraordinarily revealed . and our saviour tells us , that of that day and hour knows no man , no not the angels of heaven , &c. matth. . . and again , acts . . it is not for us to know the times and the seasons , which the father hath placed in his own power . and this dr. hakewill brings as an argument that the world decays not , neither tends to corruption ; because if it did , the time of its actual dissolution might be collected and foretold ; which , saith he , the scripture denies . we may invert this argumentation , and infer ; because the world doth not decay , therefore the time of its dissolution cannot be known . but yet notwithstanding this , many have ventured to foretel the time of the end of the world , of whom some are already confuted , the term prefixt being past , and the world still standing . lactantius in his time said , institut . lib. . cap. . omnis expectatio non amplius quàm ducentorum videtur annorum ; the longest expectation extends not further than two hundred years . the continuance of the world more than a thousand years since convinces him of a gross mistake . paulus grebnerus a high pretender to a spirit of prophesie , sets it in the year . induced thereto by a fond conceit of the numeral letters in the latin word iudicium . other enthusiastical persons of our own countrey have placed it in the years . and . the event shews how ungroundedly and erroneously . others there are , whose term is not yet expired , and so they remain still to be confuted . as those who conceit that the end of the world shall be when the pole-star shall come to touch the pole of the equator , which ( say they ) ever since the time of hipparchus hath approached nearer and nearer to it . that it doth so i am not satisfied ; but if it doth , it is meerly accidental , and hath no connexion with the end of the world. but the most famous opinion , and which hath found most patrons and followers even amongst the learned and pious , is that of the worlds duration for six thousand years . for the strengthening of which conceit they tell us , that as the world was created in six days , and then followed the sabbath , so shall it remain six thousand years , and then shall succeed the eternal sabbath . hebr. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. there remains therefore a rest or sabbath to the people of god. here we see that the apostle institutes a comparison between the heavenly rest and the sabbath . therefore as god rested upon the seventh day , so shall all the world of the godly rest after the six thousandth year . for ●he that hath entred into his rest , ceaseth from all his , works as god did from his . of this opinion were many of the ancient fa●●ers , as i shewed before , grounding themselves upon this analogy between the six days of the creation and the sabbath ; and the six thousand years of the worlds duration , and the eternal rest : for , saith irenoeus in the place before quoted , hoc autem , ( that is , the history of the six days creation and succeeding sabbath ) est & proeteritorum narratio , & futurorum prophetia . dies enim unus mille annos significat , sicut scriptura testatur : pet. . . psal. . . the scriptures reckoning days of one thousand years long , as in verse . of this chapter , and in psal. . . this is likewise a received tradition of the iewish rabbins , registred in the talmud , in the treatise sanhedrim , delivered ( as they pretend ) by the prophet elias the tishbite to the son of the woman of sarepta , whom he raised from the dead , and by him handed down to posterity . i rather think with reuterus , that the author of it was some rabbi of that name . the tradition is , sex millia annorum erit mundus : & uno millenario vastatio , i. e. sabbathum dei : duo millia inane : duo millia lex : duo millia dies messioe . two thousand years vacuity : two thousand years of the law : two thousand years the days of the messiah . but they shoot far wide : for according to the least account , there passed a far greater number of years before the law was given , . saith reuterus , and on the contrary less time from the law to the exhibition of the messiah . all these proofs laid together , do scarce suffice to make up a probability . neither do those rabbinical collections from the six letters in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first word of genesis , or from the six alephs in the first verse of that book , each signifying a thousand years ; or from the six first patriarchs in the order of the genealogy to enoch , who was caught up to heaven , and found no more , add much weight to this opinion . s. austin very modestly concludes , after a discussion of this point concerning the worlds duration , ego tempora dinumerare non audeo : nec aliquem prophetam de hac re numerum annorum existimo praefinivisse . nos ergo quod scire nos dominus noluit libentèr nesciamus . i dare not calculate & determine times : neither do i think that concerning this matter , any prophet hath predicted and defined the number of years . what therefore the lord would not have us to know , let us willingly be ignorant of . but though none but presumptuous persons have undertaken peremptorily to determine that time , yet was it the common and received opinion and perswasion of the ancient christians , that that day was not far off ? and had they been to limit it , they would hardly have been induced to set the term so forward , and remote from their own age , as by experience we find it proves to be , but in their own times , or shortly after ; and many places of scripture seem to favour that opinion , so that some have presumed to say , that the apostles themselves were at first mistaken in this particular , till after further illumination they were better informed . but though this be too bold a conceit , yet that the churches , at least some of them , did at first mistake the apostles meaning in their sermons and epistles concerning this point , and so understand them , as to think that the end of the world and final judgment was at hand , appears from thess. . . i beseech you , brethren , that ye be not soon shaken in mind , or be troubled , neither by spirit , nor by word , nor by letter , as from us , as that the day of christ is at hand . we see the apostle labours to rectifie , and for the future to prevent this mistake : so likewise the apostle peter in the th and th verses of this chapter . and yet this opinion had taken such deep root in them , that it was not easie to be extirpated ; but continued for some ages in the church . indeed there are so many places in the new testament which speak of the coming of christ as very near , that if we should have lived in their time , and understood them all as they did , of his coming to judge the world , we could hardly have avoided being of the same opinion . but if we apply them ( as dr. hammond doth ) to his coming to take vengeance on his enemies , then they do not hinder , but that the day of judgment , i mean the general judgment , may be far enough off . so i leave this question unresolved , concluding that when that day will come god only knows . chap. x. how far this conflagration shall extend . . a sixth question is , how far shall this conflagration extend ? whether to the ethereal heavens , and all the host of them , sun , moon and stars , or to the aereal only ? i answer , if we follow ancient tradition not only the earth , but also the heavens and heavenly bodies will be involved in one common fate , as appears by those verses quoted out of lucretius , ovid , lucan , &c. of christians some exempt the ethereal region from this destruction : for the two following reasons , which i shall set down in reuterus 's words . . because in this chapter the conflagration is compared to the deluge in the time of noah . but the deluge extended not to the upper regions of the air , much less to the heavens , the waters arising only fifteen cubits above the tops of the mountains , if so much . therefore neither shall the conflagration transcend that term . so beza upon pet. . . tantum ascendet ille ignis quantum aqua altior supra omnes montes . that fire shall ascend as high as the waters stood above the mountains . this passage i do not find in the last edition of his notes . the ordinary gloss also upon these words , thess. . . in flaming fire rendring vengeance , saith christum venturum praecedet ignis in mundo , qui tantum ascendet quantum aqua in diluvio . there shall a fire go before christ when he comes , which shall reach as high as did the water in the deluge . and s. augustine de civit. dei lib. . cap. . petrus etiam commemorans factum ante diluvium , videtur admonuisse quodammodo , quatenus in fine hujus seculi istum mundum periturum esse credamus . peter also mentioning the ancient deluge , seems in a manner to have advised us how far at the consummation of time , we are to believe this world shall perish . but this argument is of no force , because it is not the apostle's design in that place to describe the limits of the conflagration , but only against scoffers , to shew , that the world should one day perish by fire , as it had of old been destroyed by water . . the second reason is , because the heavenly bodies are not subject to passion , alteration or corruption . they can contract no filth , and so need no expurgation by fire . to this we answer , not in the words of reuter , but our own , that it is an idle and ill grounded conceit of the peripateticks , that the heavenly bodies are of their own nature incorruptible and unalterable : for on the contrary it is demonstrable , that many of them are of the same nature with the earth we live upon , and the most pure , as the sun , and probably too the fixt stars , suffer alterations ; maculoe or opaque concretions being commonly generated and dissolved in them . and comets frequently , and sometimes new stars appear in the etherial regions . so that these arguments are insufficient to exempt the heavens from dissolution ; and on the other side many places there are in scripture which seem to subject them thereto : as psal. . , . recited hebr. . . which hath already often been quoted , the heavens are the works of thy hands ; they shall perish . matth. . . heaven and earth shall pass away . isa. . . & . . the heavens shall vanish away like smoke . yet am i not of opinion , that the last fire shall reach the heavens ; they are too far distant from us to suffer by it : nor indeed doth the scripture affirm it ; but where it mentions the dissolution of the heavens , it expresseth it by such phrases as seem rather to intimate , that it shall come to pass by a consenescency and decay , than be effected by any sudden and violent means . psal. . , . they all shall wax old as doth a garment , &c. though i confess nothing of certainty can be gathered from such expressions ; for we find the same used concerning the earth ; isa. . . the heavens shall vanish away like smoke , and the earth shall wax old as doth a garment . the heavenly bodies are none of them uncorruptible and eternal ; but may in like manner as the earth be consumed and destroyed , at what times and by what means , whether fire or some other element , the almighty hath decreed , and ordered . chap. xi . whether shall the whole world be consumed and annihilated , or only refined and purified ? there remains now only the seventh question to be resolved , whether shall the world be wholly consumed , burnt up and destroyed , or annihilated ; or only refined , purified , or renewed ? to this i answer , that the latter part seems to me more probable , viz. that it shall not be destroyed and annihilated , but only refined and purified . i know what potent adversaries i have in this case . i need name no more than gerard in his common places , and dr. hakewil ●n his apology and the defence of it , who contend earnestly for the abolition or annih●lation . but yet upon the whole matter , the renovation or restitution seems to me most probable , as being most consonant to scripture , reason , and antiquity . the scripture speaks of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or restitution , acts . . whom the heavens must contain until the time of the restitution of all things . speaking of our saviour : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or regeneration of the world , the very word the stoicks and pythagoreans use in this case , mat. . , . verily , i say unto you , that ye which have followed me , in the regeneration , when the son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory , ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones , &c. psal. . . as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed . which words are again taken up and repeated , heb. . . now it is one thing to be changed , another to be annihilated and destroyed . cor. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fashion of this world passeth away . as if he had said , it shall be transfigured , or its outward form changed , not its matter or substance destroyed . isa. . . behold i create new heavens and a new earth , and the former shall not be remembred , nor come into mind . isa. . . as the new heavens and new earth , which i shall make , shall remain before me . to which places the apostle peter seems to refer in those words , pet. . . nevertheless we , according to his promise , look for new heavens , and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . this new heaven and new earth we have also mentioned , rev. . . and i saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away , and there was no more sea. these places , i confess , may admit of an answer or solution by those who are of a contrary opinion , and are answered by doctor hakewil : yet all together , especially being back'd by ancient tradition , amount to a high degree of probability . i omit that place , rom. . , . the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of god : tho' it be accounted the strongest proof of our opinion , because of the obscurity and ambiguity thereof . . for antiquity , i have already given many testimonies of the ancient fathers and doctors of the church , and could , if need were , produce many more , the whole stream of them running this way . and tho' dr. hakewill saith , that if we look back to higher times before s. hierome , we shall not easily find any one who maintained the world's renovation : yet hath he but two testimonies to alledge for its abolition ; the one out of hilary upon the psalms , and the other out of clemens his recognitions . to this restitution of the world after the conflagration many also of the heathen philosophers bear witness ; whose testimonies mr. burnet hath exhibited in his theory of the earth , lib. . cap. . of the stoicks , chrysippus de providentia , speaking of the renovation of the world , saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . we after death , certain periods of time being come about , shall be restored to the form we now have . to chrysippus stobaeus adds zeno and cleanthes , and comprehends together with men all natural things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . zeno and cleanthes and chrysippus were of opinion , that the nature or substance of things changes into fire , as it were into a seed ; and out of this again ▪ such a world or frame of things is effected as was before . this revolution of nature ●ntoninus in his meditations often calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the periodical regeneration of all things . and * origen against celsus ●aith of the stoicks in general . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stoicks say , that at certain periods of time there is a conflagration of the vniverse ; and after that a restitution thereof having exactly the same disposition and furniture the former world had . more to the like purpose concerning the stoicks , we have in † eusebius out of numenius . nature , faith he , returns , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the resurrection which makes the great year , wherein there is again a restitution made from it self alone to it self . for returning according to the order wherein it began first to frame and dispose things , ( as reason would ) it again observes the same oeconomy or administration ; the like periods returning et●rnally without ceasing . he that desires more authorities of the heathen philosophers and poets in consirmation of the world's restitution after the conflagration , may consult the same mr. burnet in the place forequoted ; where he also shews , that this doctrine of the mundane periods was received by the grecians from the nations they call barbarous . pythagoras , saith porphyry , brought it first into greece : and origen witnesseth of the egyptian wise men that it was delivered by them . laertius out of theopompus relates , that the persian magi had the same tradition : and berosus saith , that the chaldeans also . in fine , among all the barbarous nations , who had among them any person or sect , and order of men , noted for wisdom or philosophy , this tradition was current . the reader may consult the book we refer to , where is a notable passage taken out of plutarch's tractate , di iside & osiride , concerning a war between oromazes , and arimanius , somewhat parallel to that mentioned in the revelation between michael and the dragon . . the restitution of the world seems more consonant to reason than its abolition . for if the world were to be annihilated , what needed a conflagration ? fire doth not destroy or bring things to nothing , but only separate their parts . the world cannot be abolished by it , and therefore had better been annihilated without it . wherefore the scripture mentioning no other dissolution than is to be effected by the instrumentality of fire , its clear , we are not to understand any utter abolition or annihilation of the world ▪ but only a mutation and renovation , by those phrases of perishing , passing away , dissolving , ●eing no more , &c. they are to be no more in that state and condition they are now in . . there must be a material heaven , and a material hell left . a place for the glorified bodies of the blessed to inhabit and converse in ; and a place for the bodies of the damned , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or prison for them to be shut up in . now if the place of the blessed be an empyreal heaven far above these visible heavens , as divines generally hold ; and the place of the damned be beneath , about the middle of the earth ; as is the opinion of the school-men , and the church of rome , and as the name inferi imports , and as the ancient heathen described their tartarus , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . then when all the intermediate bodies shall be annihilated , what a strange universe shall we have ? consisting of an immense ring of matter , having in the middle a vast vacuity , or space void of all body , save only one small point for an infernal dungeon . those that are of this opinion have too narrow and mean thoughts of the greatness , i had almost said immensity of the universe , the glorious and magnisick products of the creator's almighty power : and are too partial to themselves , to think the whole world was created for no other end but to be serviceable to mankind : but of this i have said somewhat in a former discourse , and therefore shall not at present enlarge upon it . but let us hear what they have to say for the abolition . their first and most weighty argument is taken from the end of the world's creation , which was partly and chie●ly the glory of the creater , and partly the use of man , the lord dep●ty , as it were , or viceroy thereof . now for the glory of the creator , it being by the admirable frame of the world manifested unto man , man being removed out of the world , and no creature being capable of such a manifestation besides him , we cannot imagine to what purpose the frame itself should be left , and restored to a more perfect estate . the other end , being for man's vse , either to supply his necessity in matter of diet , of physick , of building , of apparel ; or for his instruction , direction , recreation , comfort and delight ; or lastly , that therein , as in a looking-glass he might contemplate the wisdom , the goodness and power of god : when he shall attain that blessed estate , as he shall have no further use of any of these , enjoying perfect happiness and seeing god as he is , face to face , the second or subordinate end of the world 's being must needs be likewise frustrate . and what other end can be given or conceived for the remaining or restoring thereof ? &c. to this i answer , there may be an end of the restoring of the world , tho' we are not able to find out or determine what . we are too short-sighted to penetrate the ends of god. there may be a new race of rational animals brought forth to act their parts upon this stage , which may give the creator as much glory as man ever did or could . and yet if there should be no material and visible rational creature made to inhabit the earth , there are spiritual and intellectual beings , which may be as busie , and as much delighted in searching out , and contemplating the works of god in this new earth , and rendring him the praise of his wisdom and power as man could be . these things we may conjecture ; but we must leave it to the only wise god to determine what use shall be made of it . it seems to me to be too great presumption , and over-valuing our selves to think that all this world was so made for us , as to have no other end of its creation ; or that god could not be glorified but by us . this first and principal argument being answered , the second admits of an easie solution . they enquire whether the vegetables , and creatures endued with sense shall all be restored , or some only ? namely such as shall be found in being at the day of judgment . if all , where shall we find stowage for them ? surely we may in this case properly apply that which the evangelist in another useth figuratively , if they should all be restored , even the world itself could not contain the things which should be restored . if some only , then would i gladly know , why those some should be vouchsafed this great honour , and not all , or how those creatures without a miracle shall be restrain'd from propagating and multiplying , and that infinitely in their kinds by a perpetual generation . or lastly , how the several individuals of these kinds , shall contrary to their primitive natures , live and dure immortally ? to all this i answer , that not only all animals , but all vegetables too , yea , and their seeds also , will doubtless be mortified and destroyed by the violence of the conflagration ; but that the same should be restored , and endued with eternal life , i know no reason we have to believe ; but rather that there should be new ones produced , either of the same with the former , or of different kinds , at the will , and by the power of the almighty creator , and for those ends and uses for which he shall design them . this question being answered in this manner , all that follows concerning the earth remaining without any furniture or inhabitants , &c. falls to the ground . so i have dispatch'd these seven questions concerning the dissolution of the world , there remains now only the inference or use of the precedent doctrine . chap. ix . the apostle's inference from the precedent doctrine . i come now to the inference the apostle makes from the precedent doctrine , what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? one word here needs a little explication , and that is holy ; what is meant by a holy conversation . holiness is an equivocal term. it is attributed either to god , or to the creature . when it is attributed to god , it signifies either , . the unspotted purity of his nature , and the constant and immutable rectitude of his will. so it is taken , iohn . . and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure : and pet. . . as he which called you is holy , so be ye holy in all manner of conversation : because it is written , be ye holy for i am holy . psal. . . the lord is righteous in all his ways , and holy in all his works . . his sovereign majesty and greatness , appearing in his transcendent wisdom and power , in his supreme and absolute dominion over all things : in respect whereof , he is called the holy one of israel , and his name is said to be holy : that is , to be invoked with the greatest reverence . holy and reverend is his name . because of this his greatness and excellency he is to be worshipped and adored with the most submissive humility and veneration , with a transcendent and incommunicable worship and devotion . when holiness is attributed to creatures , it signifies either an inherent and inward , or a relative or outward , holiness . . inherent or inward holiness is a conformity of heart and life to the will of god : or as * others define it , an habitual frame of mind : whereby we are fitted for vertuous actions , but more especially for the duties of religion : indeed holiness doth always include a reference to god. . relative or outward holiness results from a separation and setting a-part any thing from a prophane and common , and applying it to a sacred or religious use. for the majesty of god , who at first created , and continually sustains and governs all things , being so great and inviolable , all persons , things , and times , and places , and ceremonies separated and appropriated to his service and worship , are by all nations esteemed sacred , and to have a character of holiness imprinted on them . by holiness in this place , is to be understood an inherent holiness , which is well defined by dr. outram , a conformity of heart and life to the will of god. i shall not discourse at large concerning a holy conversation , nor instance particulars wherein it consists . that would be to write a body of practical divinity : i shall therefore at present suppose the reader sufficiently instructed in that . my business shall be to shew the strength of the apostle's inference . it may be said , how doth this dissolution concern us , who may perchance be dead and rotten a thousand years before it comes ? what have we to do with it ? i answer , it concerns us , . because it 's possible it may happen in our times ; it may surprize us before we are aware . the precise time thereof is uncertain . and it shall be sudden and unexpected , coming as a thief in the night , as we have before shewn ; therefore we ought always to be upon our guard , to have our loyns girt about and our lights burning . this use the scripture in many places makes of the uncertainty , of the time of christ's coming , luke . . be ye therefore ready : for the son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not , luke . , . and take heed to your selves , lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness , and cares of this life , and so that day come upon you unawares . for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the whole earth . parallel whereto are matth. . . and mark . , . that it shall come is certain , when it shall come is uncertain , and it every day draws nearer and nearer , therefore it is not wisdom to remove the evil day far from us : and as in reference to the day of death , it is an usual and prudent advice , so to live every day , as if it were our last day ; or at least , as we would not be afraid to do should it be so : because we are sure , that one day will be our last , and for ought we know , the present may be it : so likewise it is rational counsel in respect of the end of the world , so to prepare our selves for it by a holy conversation , that we may get above the terror and dread which will otherwise attend the apprehension of the approach of it : and that we may be provided against the worst that may follow ; and be secure come what can come . secondly , it concerns us , should it be a thousand years to come . because then is the general resurrection both of the just and unjust , acts . . and the general judgment , when we must all appear before the dreadful tribunal of christ , that every one may receive the things done in his body , according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . . cor. . . which , rom. . . is called the revelation of the righteous judgment of god. who will render to every man according to his deeds , &c. upon this account , i say , it concerns us much how we have our conversation here . first , as we hope to be acquitted at that day , and to enter into those new heavens , in which dwells righteousness . holiness is a necessary condition and antecedent to happiness . necessary i say , . by god's appointment , heb. . . follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the lord. rom. . . have your fruit unto holiness , and the end eternal life . psal. . ult . to him that ordereth his conversation aright , will i shew the salvation of god. eternal life is the gift of god. he is not obliged to bestow it upon any man. he may make what condition he pleases for the obtaining of it . no man hath any right to it : no man can lay any claim to it , but from this donation , and from the performance of these conditions . rev. . . blessed are they that do his commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life , and may enter in through the gates into the city . for without are dogs and whoremongers , and sorcerers , &c. all the right they have depends upon god's promise , which is conditionate , and accrues to them by the performance of the condition , which is the doing of his commandments . necessary , not only by god's appointment , but in the very nature of the thing . holiness is the very quality and complexion of heaven . no man without it is qualified to be a subject of that kingdom : for thereinto nothing that is impure or unclean can enter . revel . . . and there shall in no wise enter into it [ the new jerusalem ] any thing that defileth , neither whatsoever worketh abomination . in this new heaven dwelleth righteousness . pet. . . therefore john . . every man that hath this hope in him , purifieth himself as he is pure . heaven would naturally spue out and eject a wicked person , as one heterogeneous to it . heaven and hell are not more distant in place , than they are in nature . there is not more antipathy between fire and water , between light and darkness , between streight and crooked , neither are they more incompatible , or do more naturally resist and expel one another , than holiness which is the quality of heaven , and wickedness which is the disposition and temper of hell. some do think heaven to be rather a state , than a place ; and that he that is partaker of the divine nature hath heaven within him . this is true , but this is not all . the whole notion of heaven comprehends both a state and a place . a man must be in a heavenly state , before the local heaven can receive him , or he brook it . heaven without him would be no heaven to the man who hath not heaven within him . a wicked person could find no business or employment in heaven ; nothing to satisfie his corrupt and depraved affections , inclinations , and appetites . he would there meet with no suitable company ; no persons whose conversation he could take any delight and complacency in , but rather hate and abhor . for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? or what communion hath light with darkness ? cor. . . like naturally loves like , and unites with it , and doth refuse , resist , and hate that which is unlike it . for every thing is made to love itself ; and consequently whatsoever resembles and comes near it , and is as it were a replication of it ; and to hate the contrary . as therefore we would be glad to be partakers of the blessedness of the local heaven , so let us endeavour to get into our minds and spirits the qualities and conditions of heaven ; that so we may be fit subjects for that kingdom , sit companions for that society . this is the time allotted us to purifie our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit , and to perfect holiness in the fear of god. there is no invention in the grave whither we are going , eccles. . . vpon this moment depends eternity . as the tree falls so it it lies , eccles. and as death leaves , so will judgment find us . quando isthinc excessum fuerit , nullus jam locus poenitentiae est . hîc vita aut amittitur , aut tenetur : hîc saluti aeternae cultu dei & fructu fidei providetur . cyprian serm. de immortal . after we shall depart hence there remains no more place for repentance . eternal life is here , either lost or won . here provision is made for everlasting salvation by the worship of god , and fruit of faith . we must work while it is day , the night [ of death ] cometh wherein no man can work , john . . and therefore the time our bodies shall rest in the grave , should it be a thousand years , will little avail us : for if the soul be mean while awake , the certain and dreadful expectation of the sentence of condemnation to an eternal hell at the day of judgment , will be little less afflictive than the torments thereof themselves . i might add by way of digression , that sin and wickedness is naturally productive of hell in the soul. a wicked man carries hell in his breast . sin necessarily infers misery : it is contrary to the nature of the soul , and whatsoever is so must needs be grievous . diversion and non-attention to his condition , is the wicked man's only security : i have heard it often from a * great divine in his sermons , that there is but a thought 's distance between a wicked man and hell. for do but fix and bind his thoughts to the consideration of his life and actions , and he will anticipate hell himself , he shall need no infernal furies to lash him , he will be his own tormentor : such a man's pressures will be heavy enough , should the divine nemesis superadd no more . the reason of this i have given in a former discourse , and therefore shall now omit what else might have been added on this particular . secondly , it much concerns us , upon account of the future judgment which shall be at the dissolution of the world , to have our conversation in all holiness , as we desire to avoid that shame and misery which will then otherwise certainly befal us . . as we desire to avoid that shame which will cover our faces at that day . if here shame and disgrace be more grievous and insupportable than death itself , what will it be then , when the soul shall be rendred more quick and apprehensive and sensible of such impressions ? there is nothing shameful but sin , nothing else hath any natural turpitude in it . shame follows sin as the shadow doth the body : he that will commit the one cannot avoid the other . therefore such wicked persons as have not quite renounced modesty , and lost all sence of shame , especially if guilty of secret crimes , the consideration of a future judgment would be a powerful curb to restrain them from sin for the future : because then god will produce and bring to light the hidden things of darkness , and disclose and make manifest the counsels of all hearts . cor. . . then he will judge the secrets of men by iesus christ , rom. . . then will he bring every work into judgment , with every secret thing , eccles. . . for would they but consider and ponder what confusion will overwhelm them when this shall be done in the face of the whole world , and before all that knew them , and they not able to make any denial , or excuse . this , i say , if any thing , would be a powerful curb to withhold them from those enormities to which this shame is appendant . it may be thou madest a great figure in the world for piety and religion , wouldst seem to be some-body in the eyes of men , when thou wert false and unsound , didst harbour and nourish some viper in thy bosom , introrsum turpis , speciosa pelle decorus : when thy secret faults shall be exposed before thy neighbours , and friends , and children , and the shame of thy nakedness shall be made to appear , revel . . . how wilt thou then be confounded and astonished , and unable to list up thy head ? what horrour will then seize thee , when thy confusion shall be continually before thee , and the shame of thy face shall cover thee ? psalm . . it concerns thee therefore to look about thee in time , and search thy conscience to the bottom to remove whatever grates , to cast out whatever offends , though never so customary , never so pleasing to flesh and blood : to apply thy self to the merits and satisfaction of christ iesus for the expiation of what is past ; and for the future to resolve and endeavour the amendment of whatsoever hath heretofore been amiss in thee ; and to beg the assistance of the divine grace to strengthen in thee every good purpose and resolution of heart , and to enable thee to bring it to issue and effect . and for thy security , i think it good advice , to resolve so to behave thy self in thy retirements , so to live in the secret of thy chamber and closet , as though the doors were thrown open upon thee , and all the eyes of the world beheld thee ; as though thou were 't in the arena of a publick theatre , exposed to the view of men and angels . i remember the ingenious writer of politick discourses , boccalini , doth often divert himself and his reader , with facetious reflections upon the contrivance of a window into the breast ; which , if i mistake not , be fathers upon lipsius . however he may deride it , i think it would be prudent counsel to give and take , for every christian. so to live and carry it in the secret of his heart , as if there were a window into his breast , that every one that passed by , might look in thereat , and see all the thoughts and imaginations that passed there , that found any entertainment or acceptance with him . for though indeed god searches the hearts and reins , and understandeth our thoughts afar off , psal. . . yet such is the hypocrisie of mankind , that they do for the most part more reverence the eyes of men , than of god : and will venture to do that in his presence , which they would be ashamed the eyes of man should see them doing . you will say , is it not better to be modest , than to be impudent ? is it not better to conceal , than to publish ones shame ? is it not better to reverence man , than neither god nor man ? doth not the scripture condemn a whore's fore-head ? is it not a true proverb , past shame , past grace ? was it not good advice of a cardinal ( as i remember ) si nou castè , tamen cautè ? he that hath devoured shame , what bridle is there left to restrain him from the worst of evils ? i answer , that it seems indeed to me , that publick sins of the same nature , are more heinous than s●cret ; and that impudence in sinning , is an aggravation of sin . for open sins dare god , and bid defiance to heaven , and leave the sinner unreclaimable , and are of more pernicious influence . i do not now speak of the hypocrisie of seigning holiness to serve our own ends , which is rightly esteemed duplex iniquitas , but that of concealing and hiding vicious actions , to avoid the shame of men. and yet there is a great obliquity in this too . because even this is a slighting and undervaluing of god , a preferring of man before him , setting a greater price and esteem upon the praise and commendation of men , than the praise and approbation of god , iohn . . god sees the secretest actions , yea , the most retired thoughts . they that believe this , and yet make bold to do in his presence , what the fear of man's eye would restrain them from , it is clear that they reverence man more than god , a poor frail , impotent creature like themselves , more than the most pure and ever blessed creator . nay , let the temptation to any sin be never so strong , and the natural inclination never so vehement , if the knowledge and conscience of men be a motive and consideration powerful enough to enable us to resist and repel them , had we but as firm a belief of the presence and inspection of god , and as great a reverence and dread of him , why should not these have the same influence and effect upon us ? let us then avoid the hypo●risie of desiring to be thought better than we are , by endeavouring to our utmost to be as good as we would be thought to be , and if possible , better . so shall we satisfie our selves that we seek the praise of god , more than the praise of men. here before i proceed , i cannot but admire the wisdom and goodness of almighty god , in implanting such a passion in the nature of man as shame , to no other use or purpose , that i can imagine , than to restrain him from vicious and shameful actions . a passion i call it , because the body , as in other passions , suffers from it , and that in a peculiar manner ; it causing a sudden motion of the blood to the outward parts , especially to the face , which is called blushing ; and a dejection of the eyes . if you ask me what shame is , i answer , it is an ungrateful and afflictive sence of soul proceeding from dishonour . now dishonour is nothing else but mens ill opinion of me , or dislike and condemnation of my actions , some way declared and manifested to me ; which why i should have such an abhorrence of , and why it should be so grievous and tormenting to me , there seems not to be a sufficient ground and foundation in the nature of the thing , supposing such as have this opinion , have neither power nor will to hurt my body : but only in the ordination of god , who hath so made our natures , to secure our innocency , and with hold us from the commission of what is disgraceful and ignominious , as all sinful actions , and none else are . and as for secret sins , i think shame may take place there too . it was a precept of the pythagoreans , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of all men reverence your self most : be ashamed to do that before your self , which before others you would abhor or blush to do ; otherwise you must suffer dishonour from your self , and condemn your own actions , which will in all reason be more grievous and afflictive than the ill opinion and word of other men. hence conscience of sin is esteemed a most painful and tormenting thing , by the generality of all mankind , tho no other man be privy to it . but to return from whence we digressed , though * shame and everlasting contempt shall at the general resurrection be the portion of them who persist and die in their sins , yet a serious and unfeigned repentance , attested by a holy conversation for the future , is an effectual means to deliver us from this shame , whatever our forepast sins have been . for they shall not be produced against us , they shall not be objected to us at that day ; they shall be buried in eternal silence and oblivion , and be as tho' they had not been . and this opinion i hold , . more agreeable to the scripture , which in this matter makes use of the terms of hiding , and covering , and blotting out , and forgetting , psalm . . blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven , and whose sin is covered , esay . . i , even i am he , that blotteth out thy transgressions , and will not remember thy sins . so psalm . . hide thy face from my sins , and blot out all mine iniquities . jerem. . . i will forgive their iniquity , and remember their sin no more . ezek. . . all his transgressions that he hath committed , they shall not he mentioned unto him , mich. . . thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. and as it is more consonant to the scripture , so is it , . more grateful and consolatory to the penitents . for the mere mentioning and reciting of their sins before such an assembly , must needs refresh their shame and sorrow , and so diminish their happiness and joy . to which i might add , that it is written , our saviour at the last judgment , in pron●uncing the sentence , shall enumerate the good works of the godly to their praise ; but not a word said of producing their sins . i say , i hold this opinion more probable upon these accounts , than theirs who affirm they shall then be published , for the magnifying and advancing , the declaring and illustrating the mercy and grace of god , in pardoning so great and heinous offences . and truly , i do not know , but that the sins of the blessed may be blotted out , even of their own memories . some philosophers who were of opinion , that souls prae-exist before their bodies , thought they were dipt in lethe , which is a fountain causing oblivion , by means whereof they forgat whatever they had done before . this i look upon as a dream , or fancy : but truly i am inclinable sometimes to imagine , that the soul of man can hardly be entirely happy , unless it be as it were thus dipt in lethe : for every sinful action having a natural turpitude in it , and being dishonourable , how can the memory and thought of it , but beget such an ungrateful passion as shame , even to eternity ? and what do divines mean by saying , that the action [ of sinning ] suddenly passes away , but the stain and blot of it remains ; but that a vicious action , even by them to whom it is pardoned , can never be thought of without grief and disturbance , it leaves an indelible scar in the soul , which can never be perfectly healed and obliterated . . it concerns us much to live in all holy conversation in this world , as we desire to avoid that pain and misery , which we shall otherwise most certainly be adjudged to at that day : that indignation and wrath , tribulation and anguish , which god shall render to them that do not obey the truth , but obey unrighteousness , rom. . . that worm that dieth not , and that fire that is not quenched , mark . . and , and . that outer darkness , where is weeping and wailing , and gnashing of teeth , matth. . . and . . and , , that furnace of fire , matth. . . . that lake of fire and brimstone , revel . . . or of fire burning with brimstone , revel . . . which places , tho' they be not literally to be expounded , yet do they import at least a very sad and deplorable estate , a high degree of torment and anguish : and all this eternal and without intermission night and day . these shall go into everlasting punishment , mat. . . the state of the damned is supposed to be a state of absolute and complete misery , made up of the loss of the greatest good , and a constant , fresh , and lively apprehension of it : which divines call poena damni . and , . excess of bodily pain and sufferings , and sad distress and trouble of mind , occasioned by all manner of frightful apprehensious , and vexatious perturbations and reflections , which they call poena sensus ; and this without any intermission or hope of deliverance eternally . iude . it is called the vengeance of eternal fire . revel . . . the smoke of their torment is said to ascend up for ever and ever . and revel . . . it is said of the beast and false prophet , that they shall be tormented night and day for ever and ever . if this be so , is 't not our greatest wisdom to use our utmost diligence and endeavour to avoid so deplorable a condition , and to secure to our selves an interest in a future estate of everlasting 〈◊〉 and happiness when this life shall be ended ? but here the epicureans , and sensual persons will be ready to object and argue , here are pleasures and delights in this world , which are very inviting and taking , and do highly gratifie my senses and appetites . i hear likewise of future rewards and punishments for those that deny or fulfil their carnal lusts and desires . these sensual pleasures i see and taste , and feel , and am sure of , the other i do but only hear of , and therefore they do not , they cannot so strongly affect me : were heaven and the happiness thereof set before my eyes , and did i see it as plainly and clearly as i do these things below , then indeed i should not need many motives to provoke me to endeavour the obtaining of it . but alas , that is far above , out of our sight , the joys of heaven are by the apostle termed things not seen . again , these outward , and temporal enjoyments are present and easily obtainable ; the other at a great distance , future , and besides , very hard to come by ; and i love my ease , vt est ingenium hominum à labore proclive ad libidinem . should i deny my self good in this life , and then perchance cease to be , and so have no reward for my pains ; nay , on the contrary expose my self to the hazard of many afflictions and sufferings , which are the portion of the godly in this life , how unnecessarily shall i make my self miserable ? miserable i say , because by the apostle's own confession christians , if in this life only they had hope , would be of all men the most miserable , cor. . had i not better make sure of what is before me ? why have i these appetites within me , and such objects about me , the one being so suitable to the other , is it not more natural and reasonable to fulfil , than deny them ? surely it cannot be wisdom to lose a certain good , for an uncertain hope ; and for an ungrounded fear of hell hereafter , to undergo a purgatory here . to this argumentation upon the false foundation of the uncertainty of a future estate of endless happiness or misery , accordingly as we have behaved our selves in this life , i answer , that for the futurity of such an estate , we have the best authority in the world , to wit , the holy scriptures , and universal tradition . . the holy scriptures , whose authority to be more than humane , hath been by many so clearly and convincingly demonstrated , that i shall take it for granted , and not waste time to prove it . the testimonies herein contained concerning eternal happiness and misery are so clear and full , that it seems to me impossible without manifest distortion to elude or evade the force of them . some we have already recited , and might produce many more , isa. . . who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? dan. . . and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake , some to everlasting life , and some to shame and everlasting contempt . . thess. . who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord , &c. speaking of them who know not god , and obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ. isa. . . for their worm shall not die , neither shall their fire be quenched . the origenists , and others , that cannot be reconciled to the catholick doct●ine of the eternity of the punishments of the damned , make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from which the latin aevum is derived , to signifie sometimes a determinate time , as might ( say they ) easily be proved by many examples , and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we translate for ever , signifies when applied to this matter , a long indeed , but yet a finite time ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we render for ever and ever , may likewise signifie not an eternal duration , but a time to which some term may be set by god , though to us unknown . in the same sense they accept the adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a long , but finite time . but i am of s. augustine's opinion , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in the new testament signifie the same with aeternus in latin , and is appropriated to things that have no end : and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for ever and ever , doth in like manner always denote eternal or endless duration . that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when applied to the state of the damned , doth signifie eternal . s. augustine well demonstrates from the antithesis in that place of matth. . . and these shall go away into everlasting punishment , but the righteous into life eternal . where it is in the same sense attributed to that life which is the reward of the righteous , and that fire which is the punishment of the damned ; there being no reason to believe that the same word in the same verse , when applied to opposites , should be taken in a different sense . but by the confent of all christians it is granted , that the life of the blessed shall be eternal , therefore so must the punishment of the damned be too . this acception of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for eternal or endless , when it refers to the state of those miserable persons , receives a further and strong confirmation from the second particular we proposed , that is , vniversal tradition : it being a received opinion among the heathen , which must needs descend down to them by tradition from the ancients , that eternal punishments awaited the wicked after death . what more common notion among the grecians and romans , than of an elysium , and tartarus ? the former to reward good men , the latter to punish wicked . and those too esteemed to be eternal states . of this the epicurean poet lucretius is a sufficient and unexceptionable witness : for he makes the fear of these punishments to be the cause of all the miseries of humane life , and the foundation of all religion , aeternas quoniam poenas in morte timendum . now , that he could derive this from no other source but tradition , is clear ; because he lived a good while before our saviour's time , and the divulgation of the scripture among the heathen . and because it may be objected , that aeternas may signifie only of long continuance , to put the matter out of all doubt , in another place he saith , — nam si nullum finem esse putarent , aerumnarum homines , nulla ratione valerent relligionibus atque minis obsistere vatum . — but if it once appear that after death there 's neither hope nor fear . then men might freely triumph , then disdain the poet's tales , and scorn their fancy'd pain . but now we must submit , since pains we fear eternal after death , we know not where . and that this opinion and belief generally prevailed among the people before epicurus his time , the same lucretius testifies in the beginning of his first book , humana ante oculos foedè cum vita jaceret in terris oppressa gravi sub relligione , &c. primùm graius homo , &c. long time men lay opprest with slavish fear , religion's tyranny did domineer , which being plac'd in heaven , look'd proudly down , and frighted abject spirits at her frown at last a mighty one of greece began t'assert the natural liberty of man , by senceless terrours , and vain fancy led to slavery , streight the conquer'd fantoms fled . for he makes ( as we saw before ) the fear of eternal pain and misery , to be the foundation of all religion . . now because these objectors do represent religion to themselves and others as a melancholick and disconsolate thing : and think and say , that those that enter into this state , must bid adieu to all the pleasures of sence , and tast no sweetness in any worldly object . i shall endeavour to remove this prejudice . i say therefore , that our gracious god doth not envy us any real good that the creatures can afford us , and therefore hath not denied us a moderate use and fruition of any of them . and seeing he hath annexed pleasure to those actions that are necessary for the support of life , and continuation of kind , as a bait to invite us to the performance of them , it seems to me highly absurd and contradictious to affirm , that he hath forbidden us to partake or taste those enjoyments which himself has appointed as effectual means for the security of those great ends ; and which are so necessary consequents of those actions , that we cannot but partake them . where the appetite is eager , god hath indulged , i might say , commanded a moderate and regular satisfaction . and we know , nay , the blindness of atheism cannot deny , that the greatest pleasure results from a moderate and well circumstantiated use of pleasures . voluptates commendat rarior usus . now a religious man enjoys all the pleasures of these worldly and sensible goods , without any of the pain , which is annexed to the excessive and irregular use , or indeed abuse of them : and besides , his pleasure is enhansed , in that he beholds and receives them as blessings of god , and tokens of his favour and affection ; and is without all fear of a future sad reckoning for his participation of them . howbeit a denial of our selves for god's sake and cause in any thing which we might otherwise lawfully enjoy , though it be not commanded , yet is accepted , and shall be rewarded by him . others there are who grant , that these words grammatically signifie as we contend , and that eternal punishments are indeed threatned to the wicked ; but say they , these threatnings are intended only , as terriculamenta , or bug-bears to children , to terrifie and keep people in awe , and to preserve the world in some tolerable condition of quietness . and origen himself , tho' he be of opinion , that these threatnings signifie only temporary pains ; yet he saith , that such mysteries are to be sealed up and concealed from the vulgar , left wicked men should rush into sin with all fury and licentiousness , if this bridle were taken off , who by the opinion and fear of eternal and endless punishments can scarce be deterred and restrained from it . to this i answer , . that it seems to me indecorous and unsuitable to the person and majesty of god , to make use of such sorry and weak means to bring about his ends , as grave men can hardly condescend to . . i do not see how it can consist with his veracity , in plain terms , absolutely to threaten and affirm what he never intends to do . indeed it is questionable , whether it be allowable in man : it being a best but an officious lye : for it is a speaking what we do not think , and that with an intention to deceive . secondly , i proceed now to a second objection against the eternity of the pains and sufferings of the damned , and that is , its inconsistency with the justice of god. what proportion can there be between a transient and temporary act , and an eternal punishment ? the most rigid justice can exact no more than a talio , to suffer as i have done . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . if i have hurt , or grieved , or injured any man , to be punished with the same , or an equivalent suffering : if i have taken any unreasonable pleasure , to compensate it with an answerable pain . indeed the enormities of my life cannot well deserve so much , if it be considered , that i have been strongly instigated and inclined , and as it were fatally driven upon all the evils which i have committed , by those affections and appetites , which i made not for my self , but found in my self ; and have been exposed to strong and almost inexpugnable temptations from without ; beset with snares , encompassed about with innumerable evils . to this i answer first , that every sin , injury , or offence is aggravated and enhansed by the dignity or merit of the person against whom it is committed . so parricide is esteemed a greater crime than ordinary murther , and by the laws of all nations avenged with a sorer punishment . the like may be said of laesa majestas , or treason . now god is an infinite person , and sin being an injury and affront to him , as being a violation of his law , an infinite punishment must be due to it . this answer dr. hammond in his practical catechism , lib. . sect . . accounts a nicety , and unsatisfactory , as also that other common answer , that if we should live infinitely , we would sin infinitely ; and therefore gives us another , which in his discourse of the reasonableness of christian religion , he thus briefly summs up . . that the choice being referred to us to take of the two which we best like , eternal death set before us on the one hand , to make eternal life the more infinitely reasonable for us to chuse on the other hand , and the eternal hell ( whensoever we fall into it ) being perfectly our own act , neither forced on us by any absolute decree of god , nor irresistible temptation of the devil , or our own flesh ; but as truly our wish and choice , and mad purchase ; nay , much more truly and properly , than eternal heaven is ( when our obedience is first wrought by god's grace , and yet after that so abundantly rewarded by the doner ) it is certain , if there be any thing irrational , it is in us unkind and perverse creatures ( so obstinate to chuse what god so passionately warns us to take heed of ; so wilfully to die , when god swears he wills not our death ) and not in him , who hath done all that is imaginable to be done to reasonable creatures ( here in their way or course ) to the rescuing or saving of us . but to this may be replied , if the thing itself be unjust , how can our chusing of it make it just ? how can it be just to annex such a penalty as eternal hell to a short and transient offence ? suppose a prince should make a law , that whosoever did not rise up and bow himself before an old man , should be put to death with torments ; and one of his subjects knowingly should transgress this law upon some great temptation ; would it not be accounted cruelty in the prince to execute this law upon him ? laws may be unjust upon account of disproportionate penalties . neither doth our choice much help the matter , for that is but an effect of our error or folly , or , if you will , madness , which doth as little deserve eternal death as the sin committed doth . if any man be dissatisfied with the precedent answers , all that i have to add further , is , that before this sentence adjudging to eternal death be pronounced against him , and executed upon him , there shall be such a revelation made , as shall convince and satisfie him of the righteousness thereof . and this the apostle seems to intimate , rom. . . when he calls the great day of doom , the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of god. then shall be made appear what now to our dim-sighted reason is not penetrable ; how the justice of god can consist with the eternal damnation of the wicked . as for man's being as it were fatally determined to evil by the strength of temptation , and the violence of unruly and head-strong passions and appetites : i answer , that there are motives and considerations sufficient to enable a man to resist and repel , to conquer and overcome the most alluring and fascinating temptations , the most urging and importunate appetites or affections ; such are certain shame and disgrace , and that not long to come , eternal infamy and dishonour ; present death , strong fear and dread of approaching death , or sad and intolerable pains or calamities . now the divine threatnings are of the greatest and most formidable evils and miseries that humane nature is capable of suffering ; and therefore were they but firmly beheved and apprehended , they would be of force sufficient to stir up in us such strong passions of fear and terror , as would easily chase away all temptations , and embitter all the baits of sensual pleasure . . there remains yet a third objection against an eternal hell , and that is , that it is inconsistent with the divine goodness . for the unbeliever will say , it 's contrary to all the notions and ideas i have of god , to conceive him to be so angry and furious a being . how can it stand with infinite goodness to make a creature that he fore knew would be eternally miserable ? we men account it a piece of goodness to pardon offences : and all punishments are intended either for the reformation and amendment of the offender , or if it be unreclaimable to prevent the mischief which he might otherwise do , or for an example to others to deter them from the like enormities : but i do not see for what such end any man can be eternally tormented . so that of such inflictions one may rationally demand , cui bono ? what good comes of them ? how then can they come from god , who by all mens confession is infinitely good ? to which i answer : first , that god is just as well as good . you will say , what is justice ? it is an equal weighing of actions , and rendring to every one his right or due . a setting streight again what was perverted by the sins and extravagancies of men. now that the breaking of order and equality in the world , this usurping and encroaching upon others rights is a great evil , and ought to be rectified , some may take an argument from the strong inclination and desire to revenge injuries , that is implanted in the nature of man , and of all creatures . you 'll say , all desire of revenge is absolutely sinful and unlawful . i answer , i am no patron of revenge . i know the very heathen by the light of nature condemned it . — infirmi est animi exigu●que voluptas vltio — revenge is the pleasure of a poor and weak spirit . yet let us hear what they have to say . . it is hard to affirm , that any innate appetite or desire is in itself simply and absolutely , and in all circumstances whatsoever unlawful , for this seems to reflect upon the author of nature . to which may be answered , that a well circumstantiated desire of revenge may not be in itself unlawful , yet for the evil consequents of it , it may be , and is prohibited by a positive law. . divine persons have prayed to god to avenge them , as david and the prophets . and s. paul himself , . tim. . . prays god , to reward alexander the coppersmith according to his works . to which may be answered , that those expressions are rather predictions of what should befal their enemies , than desires that they might . again , whereas it is said , revel . . , . that the souls of them under the altar that were slain for the word of god , and the testimony which they held , cried with a loud voice , saying , how long , o lord , holy and true , dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth : doctor hammond saith , it signifies no more , than that their blood cries to god for vengeance , as abel's is said to do . . the nature of forgiveness seems to imply the lawfulness of some desire of revenge . for what is forgiveness but a parting with , and as renouncing the right i have to be avenged , and therefore before i forgive i do retain at least some will to be revenged . and i am not obliged by our saviour to forgive absolutely , but upon condition of repentance . luke . , . if thy brother sin against thee rebuke him , and if he repent forgive him , &c. and in the lord's prayer one petition is , forgive us our trespasses , as we forgive them that trespass against us . but god forgives not without repentance . to which may be answered . that before repentance , i may retain a will of punishing an offender for his own good and reformation , but with no respect of avenging what is past . and if his repentance prevents his punishment , then i am to forgive him , that is , cease to desire his punishment . but all allow vengeance to be just in god , whose actions are not to be scanned by our measures . . if it be just with god to propose to us such a choice as heaven upon condition of our obedience to his law , or hell in case of disobedience ; as we see some wise men make no scruple to grant ; then it cannot be injustice in him to inflict the punishments of hell upon them that make it their choice . nay , i cannot see how it can consist with his veracity not to do it ; why then should any argument from his goodness move us to distrust his veracity ? to which i shall add , that the very being of sin and misery in the world is as great an argument against the goodness of god , as the eternal punishment of it ; sith we must needs grant , that god almighty , blessed for ever , could , if he had pleased , have prevented it . if any man shall say , this was not possible without changing the very nature of man , and taking away the liberty of his will. to him i reply , how then can he confirm the blessed , reserving their liberty ? or must we say with oriegn , that they are in a mutable state too , and that heaven will have an end as well as hell ? if any man remain still unsatisfied with what hath been said , i must refer him for full satisfaction to the revelation of the righteous judgment of god at that great day , of which mention hath been already made . i am as unwilling as any man to limit the mereies of god : but yet i must refer it to him , whether he will be more favourable than he hath threatned or no , whether he will remit something of the severity of his comminations . i am also willing to restrain and consine the sense of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as far as the context will permit . but let our opinions and hopes of the mercies of god , and a temporary hell be what they will : a temporary hell , i say , or rather a purgatory instead of hell : for the word hell , according to the usual acception of it , includes eternity . i shall propose two things to be considered . . that origen the first broacher of this opinion of the determination of the punishments of the damned , doth acknowledge that the contrary doctrine is very useful to restrain the common people from sin : and that this is to be held as a great secret , and studiously concealed from them . now if it be of such eminent use to them , why may it not also be to the learned and noble ; who , i fear me , may want such a bridle as well as they ? . since god hath threatned eternal punishments , whether he intends to execute them upon us or no , it is clear , i think , he would have them be believed by us , else they cannot have that end and effect he designed them to ; and therefore it must be unbelief and presumption in us to deny or distrust them , tho' upon supposition , that they are irreconcilable with his goodness ; with which yet perhaps they may accord well enough , tho' we cannot at present discern it . all divine revelations are to be believed and accepted by us , as well threatnings as promises ; and if we may distrust the veracity of god in them , i know not but we may as well do it in these : if we deny the eternity of the torments of hell , i do not see but that we may upon as good grounds , with origen , deny the eternity of the joys of heaven . let not then the presumption of a temporary hell encourage thee to go on in sin : for , i fear , such a persuasion may have an ill influence on the manners of men. eternity is the very sting of hell : take that out , and the sinner will think it tractable enough . the very thought of an eternal hell intervening ( and it will often intrude itself ) strikes a cold damp to his very heart in the midst of his jollities , and will much qualifie and allay all his pleasures and enjoyments . rid him of this fear , and he will be apt to despise hell and all its torments , be they never so grievous or lasting . take off this bridle , and , as we hinted before , he will rush into sin , as a horse rusheth into the battel . he will be ready thereupon thus to argue with himself , what need i take so much pains to strive against sin ? what need i swim against the stream , and resist the tide and eddy of my passions , my natural appetites and inclinations , and the solicitations of company ? what need i maintain such a constant watch and ward against my spiritual enemies , the devil , the world , and the flesh ? if i fall into hell at last , that is no eternal state , it lasteth but for a time , and will come to an end . i 'll venture it : i hope i shall make a shift to ru● through well enough . let me ask thee , but how if thou shouldest find thy self mistaken ? if the event frustrate thy hopes , and fall out contrary to thy expectation ? what a sad case wilt thou be in then ? how will the unexpectedness thereof double thy misery ? improvisa graviùs seriunt . how wilt thou be strucken as it were with a thunderbolt , when the almighty judge shall sulminate against thee a d●eadful indeed , but by thee formerly undreaded sentence , adjudging thee to endless punishments ? how walt thou damn thine own credulity , who by a groundless belief of a temporary hell , hast precipitated thy self into an eternal , which otherwise thou mightest possibly have avoided ? well , but suppose there be some shadow of hope of the determination of the punishments of the damned : it is by all acknowledged to be a great piece of folly to leave matters of the highest moment , and which most nearly concern us , at uncertainties : and a point of wisdom , to secure the main chance , and to be provided against the worst that can come . an eternal heaven or state of compleat happiness is the main chance , and is not to come into any competition , or so much as to be put into the ballance against a few short , transient , fordid , loathed , and for the most part upon their own account repented pleasures : to secure to our selves an interest in such a state is our greatest wisdom . and as for being provided against the worst that may or can come . what can be worse than an eternal hell ? which , there is i do not say a possibility , but the greatest probability imaginable , that it will be our portion ; if we persist in impenitency , and dye in our sins . but suppose the best should happen that we can hope or conceive , that hell should last only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for ages of ages , and at last determine : do we think this a small matter ? if we do , it is for want of consideration and experience of acute pains . should any of us be under the sense and suffering of a raging paroxysm of the stone , or gout , or colick , i doubt not but rather than endure it for ten thousand years , he would willingly part with all his expectation of a blessed estate after that term were expired , yea , and his being to boot . but what are any of these pains to the torments and perpessions of hell ? or the duration of ten thousand years to those ages of ages ? if thou makest light of all this , and nothing can restrain thee from sin , but the eternity of punishment , thou art bound to thank god , who hath used this only effectual means , threatning an eternal hell. and it ill becomes thee to complain of his rigour and severity , who wouldest have made so pernicious an use of his lenity and goodness . but thou who hast entertained such an opinion , and abusest it to encourage thy self to go on in thy sins , though others should escape with a temporary punishment , surely thou hast no reason to expect any milder doom , than to be sentenced to an eternal . finis . a catalogue of books sold by samuel smith , at the princes arms in st. paul's church-yard . . marci tullii ciceronis opera quae extant omnia , ex manuscriptis codicibus emendata studio atque industriâ jani gulielmii , & jani gruteri . additis earum notis integris : nunc denuo recognita ab jacobo gronovio cujus ubique adjectae sunt emendationes , petitae partim ex libris mss. partim ex animadversionibus virorum doctorum ; etiam orationibus illustratis accessione ascenii pediani , & doctissimi veteris scholiastae nunquam antea editi : apositis in marg●●e ad utentis commodum numeris , non tantum gruterianis , sed etiam apparatui latinae locutionis nicoliano respondentibus ; cum indicibus aliis correctis , aliis novis & accuratissimis . in . tom. in quarto . idem cum eisdem notis & additionibus , nitidissimae characteris in tomis in duodecimo . lugd. bat. . diogenis laertii de vitis , dogmatibus & apothegmatibus clarorum philosophorum , libri x. gr. & lat. cum subjunctis integris annotationibus f. casa●boni th. aldrobandira & mer. casauboni , latinam ambrosii versionem complevit , & emendavit marcus meibornius , excusas aeg. menagii in diogen●s observationes auctiores habet volumen ii. ut & ejusdem 〈◊〉 de muliebribus philosophis , & joachini kughnii ad 〈◊〉 notas . cum junibus . vol. o , . philippi limborch historia inqui●itionis , 〈…〉 liber sententiarum inquisitionis tholosanae ab an. 〈…〉 . ad an. mcccxxiii . in foli● , . musarum anglicanarum analect● : sive 〈◊〉 quaedam meli●ris notae , seu hactenus inedita , seu sparium 〈◊〉 , in en●m volumen congesta . oxon. . o boyle experimenta , observation●s , &c. circa mech●nicarum variarum particularium qualitatum originem five productionem , lond. ● . a new history of aethiopia : being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of abessin● , vulga●ly ( th● erroneously ) called , the empire of prester i●hn . 〈◊〉 with coppe●plates , the second edition . to which is added a pre●ace , shewing the usefulness of this history , and a map of the country . by iob ludo●fus , in folio , . the spiritual year : or , devout contemplations , digested into distinct arguments for every month in the year , and for every week in that month : containing most of the principal and fund●mental doctrines of christianity ; being very plain and useful for the instruction of families in all christian duties , and for the disposing , of them to a religious and spiritual conversation . london , in ● , . the meditations of mar●us aurelius anton●●●● , the roman emperour , concerning himself : of a natural m●ns 〈◊〉 wherein a 〈◊〉 and of 〈◊〉 means to attain unto it . 〈◊〉 , out of the original greek , with notes . by m●rie ▪ 〈◊〉 d. d. the fifth edition . to which is 〈◊〉 , the life of antoninus , with some select remarks upon the whole , by montieur and madam dacier . never before in english , in ● , ● . the wisdom of god , manifested in the works of the creation . in two parts , viz. the heavenly bodies , elements , meteors , fossils , vegetables , animals , ( beasts , birds , fishes , and insects ) more particularly in the body of the earth , its figure , motion , and consistency , and in the admirable structure of the bodies of man , and other animals , as also in their generation , &c. by iohn ray , fellow of the royal society . the second edition , very much enlarged . in ● , . a treatise of church-government , or a vindication of diocesan episcopacy , against the objections of the dissenters , in answer to some letters lately printed , concerning the same subject . by r. burscough , m. a. in ● , lond. . medicinal experiments : or a collection of choice and safe remedies , for the most part simple , and easily prepared ; useful in families , and being cheap , may be made very serviceable to poor country people . by the honourable robert boyle , esq fellow of the royal society . to which is added , a catalogue of all his theological and philosophical books and tracts . the second ed●tion , in ● , . price 〈◊〉 . an es●ay of the great effects of even , languid , and unheeded local motion . whereunto is annexed , an experimental discourse of some little observed causes of the insalubrity , and salubrity of the air , and its effects . by the honourable robert bayle , esq lond. ● , ●● . 〈…〉 : or , hydrostaticks applied to the 〈…〉 ; shewing , by the weight , that divers bodies us'd in physick have in water , one may discover whether they genuine or adulterate . by the honourable , robert boyl● , esropyui london , , 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 short memoirs for the natural and experim ●ntal history of mineral waters . lond. . 〈◊〉 . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ovid metamorph . lib. . * de fide orthod . l. . c. . * observat. physical , &c. * wisdom of god in the creation . notes for div a -e * l. . c. . * arcae noae l. . c. * dr. burnet . * hist. nat. stafford , p. . * britannia baconica . * swoln throats . † de subtilit . exerc. . sect. ● . * 〈…〉 . * de arc● noae . p. * dissert . de glossopetra . * hist. nat. oxs p. . * ovid. metam . lib. . * philosoph ▪ transact . n. ● . notes for div a -e * horae hebr . in matth. cap. . v. . doctr. * ● pet . * mlnut . fellx . * lib. . du 〈◊〉 . a●ud ●a●lant . l . c. . * lib. . † praep. evang. l. . hom. ii. hakewil's apol. l. . c. . sect . . * bishop wilkins's vnivers . charact. de sacris . l. . c. . * doctor witchcot . * daniel . . the abyssinian philosophy confuted, or, tellvris theoria neither sacred not agreeable to reason being for the most part a translation of petrus ramazzini, of the wonderful springs of modena : illustrated with many curious remarks and experiments by the author and translator : to which is added a new hypothesis deduced from scripture and the observation of nature : with an addition of some miscellany experiments / by robert st. clair ... defontium mutinènsium admiranda scaturgine tractatus physico-hydrostaticis. english ramazzini, bernardino, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the abyssinian philosophy confuted, or, tellvris theoria neither sacred not agreeable to reason being for the most part a translation of petrus ramazzini, of the wonderful springs of modena : illustrated with many curious remarks and experiments by the author and translator : to which is added a new hypothesis deduced from scripture and the observation of nature : with an addition of some miscellany experiments / by robert st. clair ... defontium mutinènsium admiranda scaturgine tractatus physico-hydrostaticis. english ramazzini, bernardino, - . st. clair, robert n. [ ], p. fold pl. printed for the author and sold by w. newton ..., london : . signatures a - and a - are tightly bound; a is torn with loss of text; a is missing in filmed copy. beginning-b and c -b photographed from bodleian library copy and inserted at end. reproduction of original in national library of scotland (advocates') created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng burnet, thomas, ?- . -- telluris theoria sacra. science -- early works to . springs -- italy -- modena. creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the abyssinian philosophy confuted : or , tellvris theoria neither sacred , nor agreeable to reason . being , for the most part , a translation of petrus ramazzini , of the wonderful springs of modena . illustrated with many curious remarks and experiments by the author and translator . to which is added , a new hypothesis deduced from scripture , and the observation of nature . with an addition of some miscellany experiments . by robert st. clair , m. d. non mihi , sed rationi , aut quae ratio esse videtur . milito securus quid mordicus hic tenet , dut hic . scaliger . london , printed for the author , and sold by w. newton , over against st. bartholomew-close-gate , in little-britain , . to the truly honourable sophronius philalethes . this treatise of the wonderful springs of modena , publisht in latin by bernard rammazzini physician of that town , & translated by me , tho● it has upon view had the approbation of the most knowing mr. beside the most eminent physicians of the colledge , and others , as the most admirable piece of natural history that hath yet seen day in our english world ▪ for therein are at once discovered the changes that nature hath not made but in some thousand of years ; yet i thought it not adviseable for me to expose this stranger , how ingenious , soever to the publick view , and consequently censure , without providing him a friend before-hand ; especially seeing he is to appear against an author , whose reputation for learning , and this his hypothesis is so far establisht , that he has already brought it to many impressions . among all that i have the honour to be acquainted with , worthy sir , i thought i could not address my s●lf , to a fitter patron than your self . whether the dignity of the subject , or the modesty and ingenuity with which the author sets it out , be considered , this treatise will merit your approbation . suffer therefore , worthy sir , amidst the croud of your other more important affairs , this curious searcher of nature , and stranger , under your patrociny , to do that service to the lovers of knowledge , that sir matthew hales makes the clock-maker to do to the philosophers ; for he supposes that in a country abounding with several sects of philosophers , yet unacquainted ●i●ll then , with the noble invention of watches and clocks , a curiously contriv'd clock were exp●s'd to publick view , yet so that they should have no access so look into the inside of it , the epicureans would likely attribute it to the fortuitous concourse of atoms , the p●rpate●ick to the contemperation of the four elements and the cartesian to his three principles , every one according to the fancies he was prepossest with , but the clock-maker , whom he supposes behind the curtain to hear all they say , steps out , and by opening the clock , shews how wide they a● all of the truth , by letting them see the spring , and the contrivance of the wheels , on which the motion of his engine depends , and that it was he who made it . in the same manner , nature her self , by the pen of this observing italian , seems modestly to give a check to the presumption of her pretended interpreters , who will pass a iudgment on her most hidden works , where they never could pretend to make the least observation , on which to found their iudgment . the respect the author shews to scripture authority , is the rather remarkable in him , that he is a roman catholick , who by us are charged with the contrary vice , which makes the fault of the theorist , a professed protestant , more black , that is so bold in contradicting it , and making it speak untruth to accommodate it self to the capacity of the vulgar , which tho' some p●ous divines have allowed in passages of scripture , where the phaenomena of nature are spoken of by the by , ( which yet i prove to be a mistake in the confutation of the theory ) yet to make the whole first chapter of genesis , wherein the spirit of god does è composito , give an account of the creation false , is a piece of presumption few have been guilty of besides our theorist . as for the confutation of the theory , tho' the performance may be short of what the subject requir'd , yet i hope the design will please you , which is to vindicate the truth of the scriptures , for which i know you have a great veneration , from the false glosses and perversions of some that seem to have studied divinity , for nothing else but to ridicule it , which they do the more remarkably , that almost in the same breath they pretend a great respect to it , in which i endeavour to prove , that the passages the theorist cavils at , are to be understood to speak according to the truth of the thing , and not according to the false opinion of the ignorant vulgar . if in this my small endeavour , i may find your patrocin , i shall not care for the displeasure of these men of ephesus , whose made it is to make shrines to this their diana of hypothetical philosophy , i mean who in their closets make systems of the world , prescribe laws to nature , without ever consulting her by observation and experience , who ( to use the noble lord verulams words ) like the spider , with great labour , spin a curious cob-web out of their brains , that is good fo● nothing but to be swept down , which tho' it has a great shew of reason , in effect , has no better right to that venerable title , than the fancies of those who are said to make wind-mills in their head. i have given the whole book the title of the abyssinian philosophy confuted , because as the preface is a confutation of the theory , so if you read rammazzini from page , at the end , to page . you will find that the theory is much the same with the abyssinian philosophy , if not taken from it , which being evident to be a mere fiction , is ground enough for the title , and confuta●●●n enough tho' i should say no more . i shall not farther incroach upon your time , but here make an end , after i have subcribed my self , worthy sir , your most affectionate , and devoted servant . ro● st. clair . to the reader . when this book came first to my hand , by the favour of a friend , who about a year and a half a go , brought it from italy , after once reading i was so taken with the principal matter of fact therein contained , and the ●●genious things with which the author illustrates it , that i would not part with it till i could send it abroad in an english dress , as being better than any other argument , to shew the vanity of these mens labours , that would describe to us a world of their own fancying instead of one of god's making , who when they have set it out to the best advantage , can discover to us at the best , but a bare conjecture , which leaves the mind uncertain , instead of satisfying it with solid reason , and is unprofitable either as to life or religion ; yet if that were the worst of it , might be born with as other luxuriances of humane wit , that oftenspends it self on superfluities , when it is not sufficient for things of real use . hoc habet ingenium humanum ut cum ad solida , non sufficit in superracua se effundat . verulum . but when they come to overturn the scripture , to establish their own prophane fancies , as our theorist has done , in favour of a spurious brat , of which he will needs be counted the father ; in this i think every one according to his ability ought to oppose it . yet what satisfactory account can we expect from such , of the old world , and its great change , so remote from us , that can give us so little account of the present world , and the things in it , which yet would be by far more useful to us . the theorist has indeed set out this fiction of his , with all the advantages of a smooth stile , which i believe hath procur'd it so good a reception with the generality , who are more taken with fine words , than plain , tho' solid reasons ; but if we may judge of the buyers inclination by the tendency of the book , i am yet willing to have the charity for the theorist , that 't was not the design of the author ; they are the same persons , who pretend they will not believe many things in scripture , because they cannot see a reason for them , and yet they do greedily entertain this theory , and the fictions of des cartes , which differ little from the abyssinian fiction or hypothesis , as will appear to any that compares both , with what is in this book translated from the italian , only they have new vamp'd it , and set it out in another dress to make it pass for their own . but after i had taken a nearer view of the author's opinion , and what he advances in favour of it , i found it so full of contradictions to scripture and reason , yet join'd with a very high conceit of his own fancies , ( a fault i find very common among the abyssinian philosophers ) that i had once thought of not meddling with it , as an endless labour , upon which account also , i have not meddled with a book printed at oxford , anno de antris laethiferis , especially seeing the learned and pious mr. warren has already done it so fully , that he has left little to be added to it ; but considering that the bigness of his book might obstruct the attaining of the end for which he design'd it , viz. to undeceive the generality of readers , who being the least considering , perhaps have not allowed themselves time to read so large a treatise , or at least so attentively as it deserves ; upon this consideration , ( i say ) i resum'd my former thoughts , with design to be as brief as possible , yet without omitting any thing material in the theory that deserv'd an answer . the author begins tell. theor. ch . iv. the form of the antediluvian earth , was different from the present form of it , which that he might not seem to dictate with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he promises to prove first from scripture , secondly by reasons , both a priori & posteriori . now that we may see if the performance answer to so great undertakings , we shall first examine his main arguments from scripture , and especially that of st. peter , . ch . . , . ver . for this they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of god the heavens were of old , and the earth standing out of the water and in the water . v. . whereby the world that then was , being over flowed with water , perished . vpon this rock ( says the theorist , prophanely alluding to our saviours words to st. peter ) do we chiefly build the theory as to scripture authority ; and we always thought this an unmoveable foundation , which yet we shall find upon a due search , to be unstable as water , and therefore cannot hold . the words of the text the theory explains thus , the apostle manifestly distinguishes between the old world and the new , and especially because of the different natural states , or their different shapes and qualities of mat●er . secondly , he intimates that the ●orm of the antediluvian world was ●he cause of the deluge . thirdly , he says expresly , the world perisht in ●he deluge . the authour himself ●ays , that the sacred ●riters , when they treat ●f natural things , do not thereby intend to instruct us in natural philosophy , but to infuse into our minds holy affections , and a veneration of the god of israel , whom they preach . may we not thence infer , that to have prosecuted this noble design , would have been fitter for a divine , than thus to abuse the scriptures to another end , than that for which they were written , when he founds a point of philosophy upon this text ; and farther , that seeing what he founds upon it , was contrary to the common opinion of the times that the apostle wrote in , the theorist has mist the meaning of the text. for whom among the writers of the apostles time , or before , can he produce that was of the opinion , that the earth did encompass the waters , as an egg-shell does the white and yolk ; surely , seeing he seems so conversant in antiquities , he might have thought it his interest to find at least one passage among them , to favour this paradox of this , that it might not be reproach'd with being the opinion of one dr. only . and further we may infer , that as the pen-men of the scripture , did not write to teach us philosophy , so neither does the apostle here reprove men for ignorance in a point of philophy , ( especially abyssinian ) but for atheistical principles , as first in denying god's providence , v. . there shall come in the last day scoffers , walking after their own lusts , and saying where is the promise of his coming , for since the fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . where the apostle reproves scoffers , who imagin'd that things went on by chance , and continued so in this first state from the creation , without god's direction , which he carries yet higher , that they disown the power of god in the creation , for this they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of god , &c. and as the charging of men with wilful ignorance in a point of philosophy , that there was no possibility of knowing , before this new found philosophy , would have been very unjust , so it would have been a coque à lasne , to have thus past from his subject and design of reproving atheists , to reprove ignorance in a point of natural philosophy , and that without giving any notice of it before hand , and such a reproof would have been no more suitableto the scope of the apostle , than to have reproved them for ignorance of such a place as america , which was discovered but of late . but farther , this text which the abyssinian makes his unmoveable foundation , if the scope be seriously considered , gives a strong foundation of an argument against him . the apostle ( as we have already proved ) reproves those who are willingly ignorant of the power of god , and who either denied it altogether , as the epicureans did , who were a famous sect at that time , and who disputed with st. paul at athens , acts . . or else such as pretended to give an account of the first formation of all things , without taking notice of the power of god in it , which was or among the greek philosophers in those times ; now this is the fault the theois guilty of in the account creation , all the six days works are in scripture said to be performed by the word or power of god , but in the theory all is said to be carried on by the laws of gravitation , without any mention made of the power of god , which is the very thing that is ●ere condemned by the apostle , and ●herefore what the theory thinks ●o make most for it , militates most against it . this charge is justify'd from the theories own words , tell. the. ch . . i have followed the most common laws of gravitation and levity , and by their guidance alone , we have seen the promogenial mass after one or two alterations , and an unconstant shape , to have come into that stable form of the earth built upon the waters , that was to continue for some ages . seeing therefore the theorist has willingly left out any mention of the power of god in his whole theory , contrary to the tenour of the scriptures , which ascribes all the works both of creation and providence , to the wisdom and power of god , he may be said to be willingly ignorant of both , and to have written rather like a disciple of orpheus , than a disciple of moses . and yet his laws of gravitation , if rightly considered , will not answer the phaenomena of the creation , for the world was then but a making , and might be then compar'd to the materials of a clock , before an ingenious artisicer , which could never point out the hours and strike , imitate the motions of the sun and moon , as some are made to do , till the artificer had first made the several wheels , &c. in due proportion , and fitted them together , and last of all put a spring or motion to them , which i judge to have been compleated about that time , when he said all was very good , which motion has been continued ever since , except when he hath been pleased by his finger , to put a stop to some of the wheels , as he did when the sun and moon stood still , or to make them run backward , as he did when the shadow went back on the dial of ahaz , or to accelerate their motions more than ordinary , among which may be reckon'd this of the deluge , of which , and the creation , 't is as easie for the theorist to give an account , as if he had been one god almighty's counsel at that time . one might think that the sense of our natural blindness , even in things that most concern our selves , and that we have daily in our hands , might give a check to this presumption , but vain man would be wise . beside this achillean argument and foundation of the theory , from which ●he author hopes never to be beat , he has others , which at the first view , ●nd as he is pleas'd to explain them , ●eem to favour his cause very much , yet after examination , will be found to make no more for him than the former . one is taken from psal. . . for he hath founded it upon the sea , and establisht it upon the floods , or upon the rivers . what could one think of , more favourable for the theory than this ? but if we compare this with other places of scripture , it will not be found to make for his purpose ; for example , psal. . ver . . and he shall be like a tree planted upon the rivers ; no body i believe , will make a philo●ophical argument of this , to prove that trees in david's time were planted upon the surface of rivers , but contenting himself with the scope of the psalmist , which is to hold forth by this simile , the flourishing condition of the righteous , will never once call it in question , if trees did grow on the surface of rivers , and take it for granted , that by upon , the psalmist meant upon the banks of rivers , in which sense we say , lands lye upon such seas as they are adjacent to , and houses or cities , seated upon the banks of rivers , to stand upon the rivers : for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original , imports this , and in this sense may be explain'd , prov. . . when he set a compass upon the face of the deep , of which the theorist says , if i rightly understand the matter , this is the place of the earth firmly encompassing the abyss , and what else can be understood by this girth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which god is said to have encompass'd the abyss , what is there in the present form of the earth that can answer it , or to the bounds or globe which he hath put about the sea. yes the theorist might have found another meaning in , iob . who hath shut up the sea with doors , &c. ver . . and set bars and doors , and said , hitherto shalt thou come , and no farther , and here shall the pride of thy waves be stay'd ; these bars or bounds are by all judged to be the sea shore , by which god hath limited the sea , that it shall no more return to overflow the earth as it did before , as in psal. , . thou hast set bounds that they pass not over , that they turn not again to cover the earth . and in the common way of speaking among our hydrographers , this bounds is called a girth , so they call the coast round about england , the girth of england . since the theorist contrary to his own position , will adduce scripture to prove his philosophical paradoxes , by the same liberty we from ver . . of this psalm , who hath laid the foundation of the earth , that it should not be removed for ever . infer that the theorists foundation is none of god's making , since it is suppos'd by him to have been removed , by falling under the abyss , whereas before it was above it . and may not we infer from god's challenge to iob , ch . . ver . . where wast thou when i laid the foundation of the earth ? declare if thou hast understanding , v. . whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened ? ( the very thing the theorist pretends to tell ) and to which iob ( whom without disparagement to the theorist , we may imagine both a better man and a philosopher than he ) answers , chap. . ver . . therefore have i utter'd that i understood not , things too wonderful for me , which i knew not ; may not we ( i say ) infer , that the theorist is very presumptuous in thus taking up the argument against god almighty ? and may not we without breach of respect say , theorice quid animum minorem aeternis consilijs fatigas ? this is the philosophy the apostle paul bids us beware of , col. . . beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceits , which will be very clear if we consider , that the hypothetical was at that time the philosophy in vogue among the grecians , to whom being puft up with a conceit of their own knowledge , the gospel appeared foolishness ; surely , the apostle does not hereby condemn him that studies to know the nature of things , with their causes , &c. vt varios usus meditando extunderet artes . which is natural philosophy ; for solomon the wisest of kings , is in the scripture commended for this , or him that studies the nature of , and way to manage his own spirit , and its thoughts , &c. which is metaphysicks and moral philosophy , both in their places very subservient to religion ; but he condemns the abyssinian philosophy , or the imposing of poetical fictions instead of solid truth , on the understandings of people . now that we have view'd the theorist's strongest holds , and i hope beat him out of them , i think it will not be worth while to seek him out any where else , as to his pretences to sacred authority ; we come next to view his philosophical holds , i hope though it be war time , we may view them without danger from canons or grenades , or at the worst they will be but paper ones , and will do no great hurt ; and this comes in course , for after the author has made the best he can of this place in st , peter he distrusts the strength of his own argument , for in the beginning he confesses , that the meaning of these words seems not to be so express and open , that the form of the anted●luvian earth may be thence concluded ; & therefore he has recourse to his abyssinian philosophy a very good second , as we shall find : dignum patellâ operculum . he supposes the chaos to have been made up of particles , different as to shape , bulk , weight , &c. and that the grossest solid particles by their weight falling downward , suddenly toward the center , formed the kernel of his primogenial earth , and that immediately there followed a new division of the remaining part into two , and no more , viz. fluid and volatile , or air and water , of which the thinnest and lightest part keeping uppermost , made the air , and the grosser the water , out of which were separated the oily parts , which being lighter floated above it ; and last of all he supposes another purgation of the air , from its earthy particles , which falling upon the oily particles , were by their viscidity entangled , and thus hindred from descending into the abyss , and these earthy particles he supposes by the heat of the sun , to have been burnt ●nto a hard crust , which made the shell of the primogenial earth . this is the substance of the hypothesis , from which as a corollary , tho' not heeded by the theorist , we may infer , a new sett of principles , viz. oil and earth , unknown to the learned world before this abyssinian philosophy . now may paracelsus keep to himself his three principles salt , sulphur and mercury , aristotle his four elements , des cartes his three principles of materia subtilis , globuli secundi elementi , & materia tertii elementi , and the most experienc'd van helmont , his axiom of water and seminal principles all things are made ; tho' experience taught him , and others since him , that not only oil , but also salt , earth , &c. are made of water , which is known à posteriori , or by the effect , or experiment ( the foundation of all the knowledge we have of nature . ) but as for the antediluvian world , since it doth not so much concern us now , i shall leave the consideration of its principles to the abyssinian philosophers , who demonstrate all things à priori . and yet in these separations , the theorist is not so philosophical as he pretends to be , for his division of the chaos , into fluid and volatile , water and air , this is purely abyssinian or fictitious , the air being own'd by all philosophers eluid as well as water , nay rather more . but the fifth and last separation of the earth from the air , is contradictory to common sense , as well as his own laws of gravitation ; for how could it come to pass that there remain'd so much earth in the air ( which is times lighter than water ) after the four separations mention'd , as to be sufficient to make up the crust of the antediluvian earth ? why was it not carried down toward the center , as fast as the water , or at least the oil ? the simile of snow and hail falling down from the air , will not answer the case in hand , for they rise into the middle region of the air in form of a vapour much rarify'd , by which ●●refaction the surface of every particle of water , being made larger , the body becomes lighter than so much air , and so ascends till it come to the middle region , where by its cold , 't is condens'd , and so falls down in rain , hail or snow , according to the different degrees of cold ; that i may not seem to say this gratis , i shall illustrate ●t with an experiment , that will quadrate better with what i have said , than the theorist's simile ; let us suppose a small carps bladder , with the air squeezed out , and the mouth close tyed , to be thrown into a wide mouth'd glass full of water , it will sink to the bottom , but if the vessel and all be put into the pneumatick engine or air-pump , and a receiver fitted to it , upon exhausting the air from the receiver , that little which remains inclosed in the bladder , will expand i● self very much , and so both togethe● will make an aggregate , lighter than water , upon whic● it will rise to the top , because it has more surface expos'd to its pressure , than it had before . now if the theorist can prove that his earthy particles were thus capable of expansion and dilation , this assertion of his , tho' but the opinion of one dr. shall have place among the probable ones , otherwise we will take it for no other than abyssinian , or fictitious . but suppose it to be true , we have no reason to think fabulous or strange pliny's and livy's stories of showers of flesh , stones , &c. seeing the whole earth , the mother of all did this shower down out of the air. and since our author is arbitrary in supposing , i think he might as well have suppos'd the abyss to have been shut up in a bag of raw hides , which would have supported the earth from falling into his abyss , till by being bak'd into a hard crust , it had been able to support it self ; and this will better fit his interpretation of ps. . . where the sea is by him said , to be gathered as in a bag , for the hard crust of the earth might be better compar'd to a bottle than to a bag. i would not have the theorist think i put a jest upon him , in mentioning this of the raw hides , because notable feats , past belief , in the laying of foundations have been perform'd by this means , a memorable instance of which is to be seen to this day in the english church at vtrecht , where is a great massy pillar that was thus founded ; the account i had of it when i was at vtrecht was this , when the bishop of vtrecht was building the church , as they digg'd to lay the foundation of this pillar , they came to a quick-sand that swallowed up every thing that was put upon it , so that the raising of it was look'd upon as unpracticable , till the bishop proposing a great reward to any that could bring the foundation to bear , a friezlander found out the way , and being overjoyed at the discovery , he told it to his wife , which his son hearing , told it to his play-fellows in the street , by this means it came to the bishop's ears , so that when the ingineer came to demand his reward , he refus'd to pay him , saying , he knew it already , which so incens'd the cruel friezelander , that he kill'd his child and wife for divulging his secret , and the bishop for defrauding him of his reward ; in memory of this there is a picture of an ox upon the pillar , with this inscription , accipe posteritas quod per tua saeculaa nerres , taurinis cutibus fundo solidata columna est . upon a pillar at the end of the church , are twenty or thirty hexameter verses , giving an account of the whole story . the theorist needs not object , that the heat of the sun , which is suppos'd to bake the earth into a hard crust , might burn the hides , for the water in the abyss will secure him from this fear , a confirmation of which may be seen in buchanan's history , where he gives an account of a way practis'd in these times for boiling of meat in raw hides , by which they became hard like iron , and were not burnt . but if we admit that the after-birth of the earthy particles , did ( in the order suppos'd by the theorist ) fall upon the oil , and there were by the heat of the sun , bak'd into a hard crust , how will this agree with the scripture ? gen. . let the dry land appear , and it was so ; ver . . and god called the dry land earth , &c. how was the earth hardened by the heat of the sun that was not yet made ? for the earth was made on the third , and the sun on the fourth , ver . . god made two great lights , the greater 〈◊〉 rule the day , and the lesser to rule the night . but suppose the sun could do this under the line , how came it to be so soon bak'd under the poles , ( where according to the theory's supposition of the poles , of the ecliptick and aequator coinciding ) the sun could never rise above the horizon ? seeing now tho' the sun shines half a year to these places , the air is always very cold , and the earth covered with snow . but let us suppose the earth to have been thus hardened by the heat of the sun and winds , then it must be granted , that it hardened sooner under the line , than towards the poles , and that before the crust was hard enough to support it self from falling into the abyss , it had acquired some considerable weight , by reason of which pressing on the surface of the abyss , it would , according to the nature of all fluids , give way , and rise towards the poles ; where by reason of the greater rawness of the crust , the water would meet with less resistance , and so break the continuity of the egg-shell ; for i do not see by any thing the theorist advances , how the water which in the natural ballance alters its place with the / of its weight , more on one side than on another , should in this case hold firm , except by the above mentioned supposition of the raw hides . methinks i see the oil'd cake or crust , thus falling in at the sides , and rising towards the poles , and so the whole fabrick of the egg-shell spoil'd : and therefore gentlemen i will by your leave take the liberty to entertain you with another hypothesis , while the theorist is making a surer and better foundation than water for his primogenial earth , or egg-shell , but first crave leave to make an end of this search . the theorist does not tell in what proportion the earth was mixt with the oil , for nature does all her work in proportion ; this the apothecaries know in making their plaisters , where according to the rule of art , there is of oil and wax each an ounce , and of powders half an ounce , for a soft plaister ; and for the hardest plaister there is one ounce of oil , two ounces of wax , and powders six drachms , which being cold makes a mass hard , almost like a stone ; but this , seeing it melts again with the heat , will not answer the end ; the good women know a certain proportion of butter and flower , which , tho' i am ignorant of , yet seeing it bakes into a very hard substance , might do here , were it not very brittle . the theorist may think this a ridiculous comparison , yet this i may be bold to say , and can make out if needful , that a good woman that makes butter'd cakes to sell them again , does more service to the publick , than the doctor has done by his theory . but he does very well to decline this , as being a thing impracticable , except he had been then on god almighty's council , or dispens'd out the ingredients ; for if he had been then present , and but a bare spectator , he could have done no more than now , i. e. to make a conjecture good for nothing . but farther , the oil must have been of some depth , to incorporate so great a quantity of earth ; now the theory does not tell where so great a quantity of earth did stop in the oil , whether near the surface , in the middle , or near the bottom , if they settled to the confines of the oil and water , the heat of the sun , even under the torrid zone could not reach so far as to bake it into a hard crust , except he be suppos'd to have been far more vigorous in his actions , in his own , and the world's infancy , than he is how in his old declining age ; for at sea , within the tropicks , we do not find now , that the sun-beams penetrate much below the surface of the water , this is known by the experience of the seamen , when ( under the line ) they let down their plumets ; for after they have been some time under water fathom deep , they bring them up so cold , that one cannot long hold his hand upon them , which observation the mariners have improved to the cooling of their liquors , better than we do here with ice and snow . it will be most convenient therefore , in my judgment , to suppose this forming of the crust , on or near the surface of the oil ; but by this means 't is very likely there would be a great quantity of oil under that never incorporated with the earth , or was never bak'd , so that when the egg-shell broke , the sea would be covered with it , like so much fat broth , which , there being no more earth to rain out of the air to incorporate with it , must have continued so to this day , except consum'd with the superfluous waters after the deluge . yet further the egg-shell or crust was made before the fishes and fowls were produc'd out of the water , which was on the fifth day , gen. . . and god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly , the living creature that hath life , and the fowls , &c. ver . . and the evening and the morning were the fifth day . now how can this be consistent with a crust of the earth encompassing the abyss , in which there must be no opening or hiatus ? or else how could the crust when it was first forming , be kept from falling in ? in which case this abyss must be a very improper place for fishes to live in , far more for their encreasing and multiplying ; for 't is observ'd now in fish-ponds , if the water be quite frozen , that the fish dye for want of air , and therefore in holland where they have a great many fish ponds about their houses , and great frosts , they break the ice from time to time , lest their fish should dye for want of air. 't is remarkable that the plants were produc'd the same day with the earth , before the sun and moon , but the living creatures , viz. the fishes and fowls were not made till after the fourth day , in which the luminaries were made , that they might have the benefit of the sun and moon to direct them by their light , in their removing to and fro to seek their food ; but the plants which receive their nourishment standing still in the ground , had not so great need of that light , and therefore were made before . from this we may infer , that the order kept in this short history ; is not only to comply with the weak capacities of the ignorant people , but to tell the matter of fact , and that there is no less reason for the order of all the other parts of the history , tho' the theorist has the confidence to ridicule it , as being fitted only to the capacities of ignorant slaves , newly come out of aegypt . but supposing fishes might live there for years as the faetus does in the mothers womb , shut up in darkness , from the air , and the prolifick heat of the sun ; how can our theorist give an account of the production of fowls out of the water , that is consistent with the scripture , for the earth was made the third day , and firm enough to produce plants , how , or at what ●ent got the fowls out into the open air ? suppose they could make their way through the egg-shell , in places nearer the poles , where 't was still but like mudd ; or was our oil'd cake not strong enough by this time to keep the birds from flying out ? if not , surely they would be so daub'd with oil or earth , that they would never be able to raise themselves out of the mudd , or when raised , to fly . but again , if the fishes were thus inclos'd within the crust , how could the blessing of god upon man take place ? ver. . viz. that he should have dominion over the fishes of the sea , seeing for hundred years they were so far remov'd from his habitation , likely some hundreds of miles , the whole crust of the earth being interpos'd between him and them . and expand it self with heat , which would be derogatory from the subtlety of the cartesian aether , upon which he and seignor spoletti the venetian ambassadour's physician , were pleas'd to honour me with a visit at my chamber ; the experiment was this , i had a glass pipe , such as they make the baroscopes of , blown into the shape of a round ball at the end , that was hermetically seal'd and bended into a syphon , whose legs were parallel ; but distant from another three inches , so that the leg on which the ball stood , was nine inches long , but the other two feet long ; the shorter leg , and the intermedial pipe i fill'd quite with water , to the lower end of the great leg , so that there was no air left in the space , then i put into it some filings of steel , about a drachm and an half , and after the filings were laid along in the intermedial pipe , i put to it oil of vitriol or drops , which mixing with the water ( for otherwise strong oil of vitriol does not work upon the filings ) did immediately corrode the iron , and sent up to the ball so great a quantity of this generated air as to fill it , and half the shorter leg in a very little space , in which it was remarkable , that applying my warm hand to the ball , it did expand it self in an instant , so much as to drive out the water at the longer pipe , but on with-drawing my hand , it contracted it self into half the ball , where it has stood ever since december last year , now it 's november ; another thing very remarkable in this is , a considerable heat that is to be observ'd ever since , on the top of the ball , such as is observed in the great end of fresh eggs , and this tho' the water , the other half , be very cold , and at the same time some of the vapours got out into the open air. at the first it had a saltish taste on the top of the ball , which i could not observe in the summer , but now in november i observe it very remarkable with the heat , and so it appeared to a young gentleman that was with me at that time . before i come to apply this to the subject in hand , it will be necessary to remark from scripture , gen. . . that there were then and still are , great cavities in the bowels of the earth , full of water , to which agree the testimonies of the authors mentioned in ramazzini . these cavities , seeing the scripture says nothing to the contrary , we may suppose to have been made from the beginning , not as deformities , but for noble and excellen● uses , and that by taking off the upper crust from some parts of the earth , and laying it on others , the everlasting mountains , and a bed for the ocean were fram'd at the same time , and thus a passage was open'd for the waters , that before encompass'd the earth , to run into these cavities : 't is not material for our purpose , whether this was all done in one day , as the theory objects , or whether the water could run so fast away from the inland places , as to leave them quite bare , it is enough , if in that day the dry land did appear , as doubtless a great part of it did . the theorist thinks this a very laborious work : as if it were a hard thing for the author of nature ( who tells his servants , that if they had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed , they might remove mountains into the sea ) to remove the mountains out of the sea. . that this abyss did communicate with the ocean , which is a consequence of the first , and supported by the testimonies of ram. p. , . . that in these cavities might be generated minerals and metals , ram. p. . and that by the colluctation of several contrary salts in the abyss , might be generated an air and sometimes so suddenly as to make explosions ; of which , and the first supposition , earthquakes , and the rocking of the earth seem to be a pregnant instance , vid. brit. bac. p. . where 't is related that the earth rose nine foot high , and was thrown some distance off , which sure was from an exhalation or wind pented in , and suddenly expanded . . we may allow also that there were mountains in the beginning , which seems to be plain by psal. . . in which the formation of the earth , and the mountains are mention'd as coaeval , and therefore are called everlasting mountains , gen. . . this may be by good consequence also inferr'd from the second chapter of gen. wherein 't is said , there were rivers , one of which , viz. euphrates is to this day known by the name that it had then : from whence we may safely conclude , that the same rivers had the same mountains , from which they descended , that they have now . now if we suppose , that at the time of the deluge there happen'd such a conflict of contrary salts , acid and alcali , as we have now mention'd in the bowels of the earth , there would be an air generated , which in many places being penned up , might cause earthquakes , and at the same time some of this exhalation might escape into the open air , from which might proceed the great rains of forty days continuance , accompanied likely with great thunder , lightning , &c. to strike the greater terror into the wicked , that in their fright they might not find the way to the ark they had formerly so much despis'd , and that if they had thought of such things , they might be hindred by the great rains ; by the air inclos'd in the ●owels of the earth we may ( as it happens in our experiment ) imagine , that the water of the abyss was dislodg'd , and so came out to overflow the earth : ( by which we may interpret the opening of the great depths ) and this at the passages by which the abyss and ocean did communicate , which so swell'd by degrees , till the top of the highest mountains were covered ; further we may infer , that the antediluvian air being infected with the mineral seams , and in a great measure compos'd of them , might occasion that shortning of man's life , which happen'd quickly after the deluge ; which tho' it did not so visibly affect the stronger constitutions of noah and his sons , might lay such a foundation of infirmities in their posterity , as might in moses days shorten their life to or years . we may suppose likewise that ( as in our experiment ) when the heat of the effervescence was over , the water fell in the greater pipe , and rose in the shorter , so when this ebullition was over in the bowels of the earth , the waters returned by degrees into the bowels of the earth , and so the ocean into the bounds set to it by god , as in psal. . . thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment : the waters stood above the mountains . ver . . at thy rebuke they fled , at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away , ver . . they go up by the mountains , they go down by the valleys , unto the place which thou hast founded for them , ver . . thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over , that they turn not again to cover the earth . one might represent the whole of this to the eye thus , let there be a round ball to represent the earth , ( with a hole at the end , standing for the north pole , at a , which kircher supposes the ocean to circulate thro' the earth ) of glass f f f , full of risings to represent the mountains b b b , let the ball be fill'd with water , and at the hole insert a pipe g g g , which cement to the neck , throw in by this pipe some filings of steel , after which some oil of vitriol , and keep the ball inclining , so that the steams arising may not get out at the hole , but being pented in may drive out the water at the pipe , which if the ball were the center of the earth , would over flow all the surface of the glass , and cover the mountains of it , but this being wanted , we may imagine another glass c c c divided in two as you see , so that they may be cemented together when the other glass ball is inclos'd , all the water that runs out at the mouth of g g g , will over-flow the hills b b b , &c. this is the substance of what i have to say of my hypothesis , which if furnish'd with a good library , with large indexes , it were easie to make swell into a volume big enough to deserve the title of a theory ; among which i might perhaps find , even in the relicts of the fidler orpheus himself , so much esteemed by our theorist , or at least among the other placita philosophorvm , enough to favour it . sed non equidem hoc stude o bullatis ut mihi nugis pagina turgescat , dare pondus idonea fumo . and with this i leave the theory at present , hastning to make an end . of perpetual lamps . there has been much written of perpetual lamps , said to be found in burying places of the old romans ▪ which at first seems past all belief ; for how can it be that a lamp should have fuel for some hundreds of years , to maintain it in life ? and if it had fuel how could it in those close vaults escape being suffocated in its own smoke ? i believe that the appearing of some light by the work-mens tools , hitting against some hard stone or brick in the dark , and so striking fire , might give rise to the first report , which fame ; that never loses by going , has increas'd almost to a miracle . for they say of them , that upon the air 's coming to them , they , contrary to all other fires , do presently die . or they might have met with such an ▪ observation as a noble lord told me he had communicated to him when at rome , by a gentleman of that place who made it ; and it was this , that searching roma subterranea for antiquities , he came to a brick-wall , which ordering to be digg'd thro' , he found to be the wall of a vault , or burying-place , in which before the light was brought in , he observ'd something like a candle burning , which he lost sight of as soon as the candle was brought in : and therefore removing it again , and directing himself by his hand kept between the light and his eye , he found it , and by the description i had of it from that noble person , it was of the nature of mr. boyl's glacial noctiluca , for it was solid , and in a fortnights time did run per deliquium . but whatever be of truth in it , the ingenious have made many conjectures about the salving of this wonderful phaenomenon . des cartes has attempted it by applying his principles to it , but seeing they are abyssinian , i. e. precarious , and the explication hardly intelligible , we pass it in silence . athanasius kircher , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has given us his conjecture , which seeing it depends upon a mechanical principle , is by far more intelligible than any we can expect out of the mint of a mere abyssinian . he supposes that these lamps are seated upon the opening of a vein of petrol●um ▪ running under ground , of which italy and other hot countries afford many ▪ and the wick to be made of linu● asbeston which never wastes in the fire ; so that nature constantly furnishing fresh fuel , and the wick never ●alling , the flame may continue forever . but how plausible so ever this conjecture be ▪ it will be of small use , because it cannot be had every where . therefore the ingenious dr. hooke has contriv'd , and imparted to the world several pre●●y ways , which are found to answer very well ; for by the poysing of his lamp ▪ he orders it so , that the oil may always be kept to the same height , upon the wick , and consequently the flame , and that therefore the wyck can never waste , because always in the flame , for it wastes not tho' in the midst of the flame , till it be expos'd to the open air ; of which one may see more at large in his treatise of lamps : but with submission i am of opinion , that the weight of the oil when the lamp is full , will make the lamp move heavily , and also make it wear out quickly . i have therefore a good while ago , thought these inconveniencies might be prevented by some hydrostatical contrivance , seeing the main thing sought for here , is to keep the flame at the same height on the wyck ; my way is this , let a vessel a a a , be shap'd after the fashion here mark'd , an inch or more deep , and as broad as you may think fitting for the quantity of oil you are to burn , let also a pipe b b b , coming from the bottom almost as high as the cistern , be filled first with water c c c , so high as to cover the hole of the pipe at the bottom , that the oil d d d poured in afterwards may not get out at the pipe b b b , and so be lost ; let the vessel being almost brimsul , have a cover'd pierc'd with as many holes as 't is design'd to have wycks , be fitted to the mouth of the vessel , when the wycks are lighted , if water falls in by drops at the pipe , it will keep the oil always to the same heighth , or very near ( the weight of water to that of oil , being as / to ) which in the depth of an inch or two , will make no great difference of height in the oil , if the water runs faster than the oil wastes ; it will only run over at the top of the pipe , what does not run over coming under the oil , will keep it to the same height , this it will do perpetually without any fear of rub or let , the cover will keep the soot of the lamp from falling in●● the oil , and keep it from thickening with it , the main use of such a contrivance is , where there is occasion for long digestions with a gentle heat . some thoughts about the way of making oil of sulphur per campanam . sulphur at all times has been counted a wonderful product of nature , and therefore by the greeks is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . several attempts have been hitherto made by chymists to analyse it , which they have hitherto done but in part ( that i know of ; ) yet by this they have discovered it to be a mineral oil , coagulated by a mineral acid , and also the same is made evident , by the composition of it ; for if you mix oil of sulphur with oil of turpentine , they will coagulate into a gummy substance which being sublim'd , give true brimstone . the main experiment insisted on is the making of oil of sulphur p. c. only two or three ounces of genuine oil , can be had this way out of a pound , and all the 〈◊〉 seems lost , which i believe mostly to proceed from a defect in the way of making it . it is about fifteen years ago since first reading le 〈◊〉 preparation of ol. sulph . p. c. i thought it might be improved to the catching of all , or most of that which flies away thus . suppose a ●at glass cup , b b b , to have two or more pipes coming in at the bottom , and rising pretty high in the glass a a a , suppose likewise another shap●d like a matrass , fitted to the mouth of b b b , with a ring at the bottom c c c , to keep it from falling into the cup , and that the same matrass is wide enough at top to admit of a crooked pipe e e e , to come into it , and to be luted to it , to which must be fastened adapters , with some water in them , that the acid spirit passing , may find in the way wherewith to embody it self : now if brimstone be put into a cup , and so put into the glass below , with the cautions usual in that case , and so kindled , and the matrass fitted to it , the air coming in by the pipes will keep the flame in life , and carry up the lighter fumes by the neck , into the adapters f f f , which with the water may condense into an acid spirit . this experiment might be varied , by inserting the neck into the wall of a very large room , made tight for the purpose , as they do for flower of br●mstone , to see what dry flowers it gives , and of what nature they are . of phosphorus . i have seen in the parisian memoirs , lent me by the curious dr. sloane , an experiment said to be made by one mr. homburg , about producing phosphorus out of quick-●●me and 〈◊〉 armoniack ; 't is that which i casual●y lighted on , when living with the honourable and never to be forgotten mr. boyle ; for after i had by the force of the fire melted these two together into an opack glass , and the pieces of it were still hot in my hand ( during which time they are very hard ) i had the curiosity to see what the pieces which were very hot would do , if strock against one another in the dark , and was su●priz'd to see it not only strike fire , but also to retain a glimmering light in the places where the pieces hit one another , which i judge to proceed only from the sea salt of the sal-armoniack remaining with the quick-lime , p●t in a violent motion by the collision , and perhaps deserves no more the name of a phosphorus , than the sea water that shines in the dark night , or refin'd sugar , when 't is scrap'd ; a proof of which seems to be the dark spots that appear in the shining parts , which is in all probability from the greater quantity of the quick-lime in the mixture , for of two 〈◊〉 there is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iv. of the glass , so that only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iv. of the sal-armoniack may be concluded to be there . this when cold ; runs p. d. which it continues for a long time ; and when set to evaporate , does retain its fluidity while upon fire a long time , but when removed , in an instant it coagulates into a hard mass , which upon the least heat melts again , and therefore by mr. boyle was called the fusible salt. i will not say that mr. hemburg had that from mr. boyle , or any of his friends ; for why might not he ●all on it by chance , as well as we , tho' this account was printed two years after the honourable mr. 〈◊〉 death ? but to pass this , this liquor is very remarkable for dissolving sublimate corrosive , in the cold of which it dissolves its own weight . 〈◊〉 makes a spirit of this solution thus , 〈◊〉 of this liquor , p. . dissolve in it sublim . 〈◊〉 p. . imbibe the solution with brown paper , and destill , it comes over in form of a brownish colour'd spirit , smelling like musk ( says my anthor ) some of the mercury is reviv'd in the receiver : three drops of this liquor taken in a convenient vehicle , do greatly purifie the blood , as he says ; as for the smell , 't is so far from having the smell of musk , that rather it stinks of an empyreuma ; and as for its use in physick , 't is so far from having the promis'd effects , that i have known it given from three to sixty drops , without any visible effect , and also that a woman , to whom an hundred drops were given in a venerial distemper , had such pricking pains all over the body following , as could hardly be removed again : yet this , with all its mistakes , has a famous plagiary in town , copied out in a book called the lond. dispens . this man it seems has no regard to what he writes , so he make a bulky book , i could instance many cases in which this rhapsodist has thus without any judgment play'd the plagiary , if time would permit ; it were to be wished that a severe censure were put upon such , who for a little lucre ; will thus set out a wild-fire to lead people into dangerous mistakes , instead of setting up beacons for them , by which they may be guided in so important a business as the practice of physick , at least an index expur gatorus , made by an impartial and judicious pen , might remedy the ill effects of such books , and prevent the multiplying of them for the time to come . errata . page . in the margin , tab. . f. p. . in the margin , tab. . f. . p. . l. . r. the water overflowing and falling . ibid. l. . or being , r. are . p. . l. . by hidden passages , and the sand it self . the abyssinian philosophy confuted : or , tellvris theoria neither sacred , nor agreeable to reason . being , for the most part , a translation of petrus ramazzini , of the wonderful springs of modena . illustrated with many curious remarks and experiments by the author and translator . to which is added , a new hypothesis deduced from scripture , and the observation of nature . with an addition of some miscellany experiments . by robert st. clair , m. d. non mihi , sed rationi , aut quae ratio esse videtur . milito securus quid mordicus hic tenet , aut hic . scaliger . london , printed for the author , and sold by w. newton , over against st. bartholomew-close-gate , in little-britain , . the author's preface . if the searchers after nature , of which this age has not a few , whose study is spent about things of greater concern , and therefore are deservedly admired ; if , i say , these found it as easie to search into the inner parts of the earth , as 't is to the anatomists to take an exact view of the bowels of a man , and other living creatures , the one needed not envy the other ; and we should have as full a knowledge of the earth , as we have now of living animals , by the industry of anatomists . we know now , yea to our own no small satisfaction , with our eyes we see , how the blood circulates , what is the motion of the chyle , the lympha ; and other fluids ; so that now to use hippocrates his own words , the fountains of humane nature , and the rivers with which the body is watered , seem to be open'd . but as for the earth , out of whose treasures we draw our nourishment , we can observe nothing but its outward side , and therefore we are ignorant of the more beautiful things that are hid ; and , which is to be grieved for , there is no way by which they may be known . for although the miners have gone down into the bowels of the earth many fathoms , yet they have never gone much deeper than half a mile , which by agricola is said to be the greatest depth of the mines . but what is that to the depth of the earth , whose seme . diameter is said to be mile . wherefore , to tell the truth , we know the body of the earth only superficially , and not within : yet 't is lawful to judge , that 't is neither a sluggish nor unshapely body , nor yet that all its dignity is plac'd in its outward surface , as in statues , but that its more beautiful parts are inward ; yea , we must think that 't is so shap'd and figur'd by the great creator , as to contain a specimen of the vital o economy , and that the wonderful functions thereof are perform'd in its bowels , by a law no less certain than unknown to us , especially the circular motion of the waters ; of which , though they cannot be demonstrated to the senses , yet by what appears outwardly , 't is evident that the matter is so ; neither has the wit of men stopt , till they had by all art searcht into the state and condition of the subterraneous regions , as far as could be . but seeing there is no other way by which we enter into the earth , but by such apertures , as either nature has made of her own accord , or by mines and wells , which the covetousness of men has digged for metals , or necessity has put them on , for finding veins of waters ; and seeing that in this city there is a frequent digging of wells to a notable depth , ( as much as can be in a very plain place , and remote from mountains ) from which a wonderful spring of water rises ; i thought good therefore to examine these secrets of nature , and to communicate to the professors of natural knowledge , what i have observed of them , and my thoughts threupon , seeing none has written of these things expresly . i am not ignorant that some idle men will speak ill of me , and others will not be wanting who will accuse me , as having spent may time about a thing of no moment : but that does little disquiet me , seeing i have the examples of the most learned , who have been taken up with the most minute things , of whom virgil says , in tenui labor , at tenuis non gloria — but i can answer such men with the words of seneca treating of natural philosophy , you will say , what profit is there in these things ? no greater can be ; to know nature . neither has the treating of this subject any thing more beautiful , seeing it contains many things that may be useful , than that its greatness takes up a man ; nor is it followed for profit , but for its wonderfulness . of the wonderful source of the springs of modena . chap. . the structure of these fountains is described , and the most curious things which appear in the digging of the wells , and when the water springs up , are remarked . but that i may not keep the reader longer in suspence , you must know for a certain truth , which many thousands of experiments have already confirmed , that in any place within , or without the city , for some miles round , one may open a spring which shall constantly send forth most pure water . and seeing every citizen may take out of this great stock , as much vvater for his private uses as he pleases , without fear of wronging the publick , or being fin'd for it : therefore when any will have a spring in his own house , he calls some vvorkmen , and having agreed for the price , which for the most part does not exceed the sum of forty crowns , he shews them the place which he thinks most fit , and they without further consideration dig a well in a place mark'd out for them ; and when they have come to the depth of about foot , they pierce the bottom with a great auger , which when it has been driven down foot deep , immediately the vvater gushes out with so great force , throwing up stones and sand , that almost in a moment all the vvell is filled to the top , and the vvater flows out thence constantly . moreover , that which in digging these wells gives the greatest trouble to the vvorkmen , is , the great abundance of vvaters flowing from the sides , by which they are sometimes much troubled , till they come to the depth of foot , where first the potters clay begins to appear : and therefore to keep off these vvaters which are none of the cleanest , when they first break earth , they make a vvell pretty large , drawing out the vvaters that flow together on every side , till they come to the bed of clay ; then they build upon it , as on a solid foudation , a vvall round about of lime and well-burnt bricks , made for the purpose , that so the vvell may be narrower ; and they carefully plaster the outer surface of it with clay , well wrought , pressing it with their feet ; and thus they continue to do till they come to the surface of the earth : for by this means they hinder the influx of vvaters from the sides , which being done , as if all were safe , and there were no more fear of the vvater coming from the sides , they carry on their digging to the lowermost place so successfully , that from the appearing of the clay , they observe no more water to drop ; yea , which is wonderful , they are forc'd sometimes to moisten the earth with vvater , that it may be more easily digged . 't is also no small disadvantage to the diggers , before they come to the beginning of the chalky or clayie ground , that the soft earth falls in upon them by the force of the side-vvaters ; which impediment is not overcome but with great labour : but when at length they come to the bed of clay , and from thence to the greatest depth● there is nothing to hinder them form getting by the usual boring the usual eruption of vvater . for no case is remembred in any place whatsoever within the city , or without the city , for some miles , in which upon opening a hole , and giving vent to the inclosed vvaters , they did not immediately spring up on high . for the diggers do with as great assurance and confidence fasten down their augers in the bottom of the vvells , as one being to draw vvine , would pierce a hogshead when 't is full . i was often present when this phlebotomy , if i may so call it , was practis'd ; and i always observed the vvater to break out almost with the same force , which at the first is muddy and full of sand , but the next day it appears clear enough . but when the vvater has broke out , and the borer is pulled out , sitting on the arms of the auger , immediately two or three vvorkmen that are about the mouth of the vvell draw out the vvater with all possible diligence ; for seeing at that time the force of the vvater drives out much sand and gravel , they say that by this means the course of the vvater is promoted , and the vvells are made to send forth vvater more plentifully ; neither can the stuff settling to the bottom stop the hole . the diggers of the vvells say , that some new-made fountains have thrown up sometimes so much vvater with the gravel and sand , that the ground giving way on every side , and threatning the ruine of the adjacent buildings , they have been forc'd to fill up the fountain again with earth and hewn stones . but the pebble stones , which are thrown up by the force of the vvater , differ not much from those which are seen in the adjacent rivers ; neither are they small , but some of them weigh or ounces : some of these are adorn'd with veins of gold , and pretty hard ; others are harder , and like the rudiments of pebble stones . in some places where the situation of the city is lower , the vvater arises above the plain , from whence it runs easily down , but in higher places it stops below the surface of the plain ; so that 't is necessary to make conduits under ground , thro' which it falls into the publick canals , which afterwards meet into one canal that is navigable , and by which they sail conveniently enough even to venice . for this canal falls into the scultenna , and the scultenna into the po. the number of these fountains is very great , so that now almost every house has one ; and their numbers being increas'd , the old fountains become fewer , as may be seen in the most illustrious family of the sadalets , now belonging to the castelvitrys , where the pipes that now send forth no more vvater , are higher than those that at present do . these fountains also are in the gardens about the town , and in the adjacent villages , some of which rise above the surface of the earth . moreover , the diggers of the vvells say , that they have on trial found them seven miles from the city , beyond scultenna : for having made an hole with an auger , they say the vvater did boil up freely enough , throwing up sand and gravel . vvherefore the limits of this hidden spring are not known enough ; yet 't is reasonable to think , that it is extended farther from east to vvest , than from north to south , seeing in this tract they are not found extended above four miles . this is remarkable , that when the hole is bor'd , and the vvater begins to break out , the next fountains cease from running for some time ; yet after a little time they run again . i have been told by a person of credit , that when a vvell was bor'd in the cloysters of the nuns of st. francis des sales , he saw in another vvell near it the vvater sunk in a moment , which afterward ascended , till both the vvells being in an equilibrium , the vvater settled in the same horizontal surface . i have often observed this decrease , but not with so great swiftness , in which the vvater did not sink so deep on a sudden , but rather by degrees ; and raising a few bubbles , i observed it to decrease ; but when the new well was filled , it ●ose again to its former height . having often understood by the diggers of the wells , that they heard a great noise of the water running under the bottom of the wells , and that when it first begins to be heard they take it as a sign , that 't is time to bore . to be assur'd of this , i went down into the bottom of a well in the beginning of february , holding a lighted candle in my hand , the well being built in a place of no great light ; having staid there a little , i perceived a manifest murmur and noise , yet not such as i expected . then i stampt on the ground with all my force , upon which the ground made a hideous noise , so that i thought i had to do with hell , and therefore quickly gave notice to those that were above , to pull me up with all possible speed , remembring that once the force of the water throwing up the earth prevented the boring . but though i did not stay long there , seeing nothing beside occurred to be observed but the oise of the water , yet i felt so great a heat there , that i did run down in sweat ; and it was no small pleasure to me to observe , when i was drawn up from that thermometer , in so small an interval of time , so many gradual changes of heat and cold. at another time i try'd what was the temper of these wells , in their greatest depth , by letting down a thermometer in the midst of winter , and i found that it differ'd little from the heat of the dog-days in our climate . the diggers perceive no less cold in the summer-time in these wells , and upon that account they refuse to undertake such a work in the middle of summer ; seeing , beside the great cold which oppresses them , such a difficulty of breathing also seises them , that they are almost suffocated ; a great quantity of smoke rises likewise at the same time , so as to put out the candles , which never happens in the winter , for then they breath easily enough , and the candle stands unmoved . the diggers complain much of a bad smell , when they dig in the wells in a hot season ; especially when they light on stumps of trees : for the rotten wood sends forth a most vile stink , which in the winter-time they do not experience , though at that time they perceive a great heat in these wells . but seldom are these wells digged , in which they do not meet with several sorts of trees , as oaks , walnut-trees , elm , ash , some of which stand upright , and some lie along . but it appears not by any mark , that they have been cut by men's hands ; and therefore we must think that these woods were only the habitations of wild beasts in former times . these trees when they are cut by the diggers are soft enough , but when they are exposed to the air , they grow hard like coral . when they were making such a well as this in the middle of april , i observed the rising of such a smoaky exhalation , that the digger could scarcely be observ'd in the bottom ; who also said he was very cold ; and that he could hardly breath ; and at the same time was troubled with a cough : but when the air on a sudden was changed to cold , immediately the said exhalation evanisht , and the digger could breath freely enough ; and he said , he felt a moderate heat . being to try what temper these wells were of in the months next to the summer , i went down into a well which a french jeweller was digging in his house about the end of may , before it was bor'd , and i found such degrees of cold , as are observ'd in this climate about the beginning of winter . during the time that i staid there my chest and my breast was so straitned , that my heart did pant very much . i did not perceive a great noise of waters in this as in others , yet the ground being beat , did give a frightful sound as before . while i was writing this , i thought fit to try the temper of the subterraneous air in a well that was then digging , by letting down into it at the same time a thermometer and barometer to several depths , and marking the difference that is between the open air , and that which is in the wells when they are a digging ▪ and especially in the summer months , in which the workmen seldom undertake such a business , by reason of the inconveniences afore-mentioned . wherefore i have set down the following table , that it may be better known what is the difference between the subterraneous and the open air ; which would be also very convenient and curious , if try'd in the vvinter time : but i do not doubt but the quite contrary things happen then which i will try with the first opportunity . the day of june . the day of june . the day of june . the day of july . the height of the liquor in the thermometer without the well , g. . the height of the liquor in the thermometer without the well , g. . the height of the liquor in the thermometer , g. . the height of the liquor in the thermometer without the well , g. . in the well to the depth of feet , g. . in the well to the depth of feet , g. . in the well to the depth of feet , g. . in the greatest depth of the well , g. . the height of the mercury in the barometer , g. . the height of the mercury in the barometer , without the well , g. . the height of the mercury in the barometer , without the well , g. . the height of the mercury in the barometer , without the well , g. . in the well to the depth of depth of feet , g. . in the well to the depth of feet , g. . in the well to the depth of feet , g. . in the greatest depth of the well , g. . 't is also fit to be known , that no force of man is able to drain such wells dry : for if the water should be drawn incessantly with great buckets , it were very much if the water should be depress'd or feet ; the more the water is drawn out , these fountains run more briskly : so that ● it happen at any time , that any of these flow something flowly they draw out the water as fast as they can ; and by this kind of remedy ( even as in men's bodies the blood is taken away , that it may move more quick through its passages ) the load being as 't were taken off , they easily drive away the sickness of these fountains which is their flowness of motion for the same end , they also either make a new hole , or open the old one with an instrument made of many wooden cylinders , which they let down into the wells with great auger fastned in the end of it . but these fountains are subject to no other fault ; they maintain the same purity of their waters uncorrupted ; and as in moist seasons they feel no increase , so in the greatest droughts ( such as we observ'd in these last years , in which the whole region on this and the other side of the po did exceedingly want water ) they suffe no decrease . moreover , these waters are very warm in winter , so that they send forth a smoak ; but in summer they are very cold . some days after the eruption is made , when the water has setled , they usually cover the well with a marble stone , and as it were seal it , and afterwards convey the water by earthen pipes from the same into vessels of marble , or of stone , from which afterwards the water is , by other conduits , continually bed of clay is about feet , and sometimes 't is full of cockle-shells ; it ends therefore about the depth of feet ; after that there appears another bed of marshy earth , about foot thick , compos'd of rushes , leaves of plants , and branches . this marshy bed being taken away by the diggers , another bed of clay of the same thickness with the former , presents it self , which terminates in the depth of about foot ; which being digg'd up , another bed of marshy ground , not unlike the former , is seen ; which being removed , another bed of clayie ground of the same nature with the former two , but not so thick , appears ; which lies upon another bed of marshy earth , which at last terminates on that last plain , in which the auger is fix'd , which is soft , and sandy , and mixt with much gravel , and sometimes full of sea-products . these several beds , with their intervals , are observ'd in all the wells , as well within the walls of the city , as in the suburbs , in a constant order . seeing in digging they often fall on stocks of trees , as i have frequently observed , which gives great trouble in the boring , to the undertakers , 't is a manifest proof that this ground was once expos'd to the air ; but i could never observe those stocks of trees in the beds of chalk , but in the marshy ones only , or in that space which lies between the foundation and the beginning of the clay . there have been also found in the greatest depths of these wells great bones , coals , flints , and pieces of iron . i do willingly pass by many things here , which the common people report , of extraneous things cast up by the violence of the waters at their first breaking forth , as leaves of oaks , chesnut , millet , bean-husks , and many other things ; contenting my self with telling those things only of which i have been an eye-witness , or have heard from persons worthy of credit . these are the things which belong to the history of the wells of modena , and which i have observ'd as i had occasion . chap. ii. that these are not standing , but running waters ; upon this occasion some things are brought in from the hydrostaticks . seing the nature and original of this hidden source deserves to be as much enquir'd into , as that of the nile did formerly , let us pass through these subterraneous vvaters with the sails of our reason , seeing we cannot do it otherwise . first , we may freely affirm , that these waters are not standing , as they are when shut up in a hogshead , but are in con●inual motion , and that pretty quick : for the noise of that wa●er which is heard before the per●oration in the bottom of the wells ●oes make it manifest enough . neither can any object , that even stagnant vvaters are subject to great commotions , as is known of the vulsinian lake , thrasumenus and benacus , of which the chief of the poets says , teque adeo assurgens aestu , benace , marino ! o benacus , which like the ocean roars ! for that is not constant ; yea , these lakes for the most part are very still : but the noise of the vvater before the terebration is constantly heard , which i always perceiv'd distinctly as oft as i descended into these wells ; and to this agree the undertakers of these wells who by the noise of the vvater guess that they have done with digging . but seeing the vvate rises so suddenly to the height 〈◊〉 feet , casting forth sand and stones with force , 't is most certain that these subterraneous vvaters descend from a high place , and are continually prest on by others that follow . neither do i think that such a sudden rising of the vvater can be attributed to the weight of the superincumbent earth , which drives the vvater upward by its pressure . i know indeed , that vvater may be elevated above its surface , when 't is driven up by some force lying upon it ; as scaliger , writing against cardan , demonstrates , by the example of a cylindrical vessel with pipes on both sides , and a plug fitted exactly to its capacity ; into which , being full of vvater , if you force down the plug , it will raise the vvater in the pipes , above the surface of the vvater that is in the vessel . but if , by the weight of the incumbent earth , these vvaters were elevated , the earth so superincumbent would be broke off from the rest , which is altogether improbable , there appearing no marks of it . beside , by what way could it come to pass , that these waters should be so excellent , as to surpass all others , if they were without motion , and kept as it were captive ? for every body knows , that standing waters do no less differ from those that are moved , than dead bodies differ from live ones , seeing we commonly call such as run , living waters . these waters therefore do move , and stand not still here , but run down constantly either to the sea , or are swallowed up in some gulph . but whilst i conclude these vvaters to be running , an objection of no small value does occur , and 't is this : if the vvaters run away so violently , there seems to be no reason why these wells being digged , they should rise upwards . but it may be demonstrated by a physical experiment , that the water cannot ascend in such as case . for let there be a vessel full of water , at whose side near the bottom , a pipe is inserted at right angles pierc't with many holes , efg ; and in the lower part let it have a slit , hi . if now you give the water free vent to run out , not only it will not ascend at the holes , but neither will it descend at the slit , but will all run out at the wide mouth of the pipe ; and it will be pleasant to see the water hang out at the slit , and not fall , ( till at the latter end ) the vessel being almost empty , the water will no more run out at the wide mouth , but will all run down through the slit. if therefore this experiment hold , the supposed running of the waters to places farther off , and their manifest ascent into these wells at the same time , seem not to agree with the laws of hydrostaticks : for if they flow freely , and without stopping , without doubt they cannot rise on high ; which is confirmed by what the most learned , scaliger says in his exercitations , who , enquiring whether vvaters may run under other waters , says , that near the river o●tus there is a well on a high hill , and that at the bottom a stream runs swiftly and with great noise . altho' all this seems to be true and obvious to the senses , yet the further progress of these waters may in our case consist with the rising in these wells ▪ which may be demonstrated in the same first figure . for if you put your finger to the mouth of the pipe d , yet so as not to stop it altogether , the water will leap out on high at the same time , by the holes e , f , g , and flow down by the slit h , and withal at the mouth of the pipe , the one action not hindring the other ; and so according as there is more or less of the orifice of the pipe stopt with your finger , more or less water will be raised by the said holes ; but it will never be rais'd to that height it would be , if the mouth were quite stopt . it does not therefore disagree with the laws of hydrostaticks , if these subterraneous waters are running and go further , that at the fame time they should be raised to the height of feet in the wells , yet so as not to exceed the height of the cistern from whence they come , because the passage at which they flow out is not large enough . 't is convenient that some account be given of these phaenomena , observ'd hither to by none that i know , seeing there is no part of philosophy more curious , yet less cultivated , than hydrostaticks . first therefore , 't is no wonder that the water ( while it has a free course and passage through the wide mouth of the pipe ) does not run also at the holes ; yea , of necessity it must be so : for the water has a free descent , neither does it meet with any obstacle to make it rise , as it does in pipes bended upwards ; so neither will it descend by the cleft , because of the pressure and the force it has acquir'd in descending , like a solid body , which suffer it not to turn from its course ; in the same manner as bodies thrown , are carricd in a horizontal line for some space , while the force continues . but the reason why the orifice of the pipe being straightned , the water presently leaps on high , and runs down through the slit , in my opinion is this : that when the lower parts of the water are pressed by the upper ( as the most famous mr. boyle has made evident in his hydrostatical paradoxes ) and are urged with violence to run out , the passage being straitned , by applying the finger to the mouth of the pipe ; some of the water when it cannot overcome the obstacle , seeks a passage to it self where it can : from whence it comes to pass , that the less the water runs out at the mouth of the pipe , with the greater force it runs out at these holes . but when the pressure is abated , and the vessel is almost empty , none runs out at the mouth of the pipe , but what remains , runs slowly through the slit , being the shorter way . from hence it appears , that the direct pressure must be estimated by the weight of the pillar of water , whose base is equal to the horizontal surface it rests on , and its height equal to the perpendicular depth of the water . for example : in a vessel constituted in a horizontal plain , any part of the bottom that can be assigned may be a base to a pillar of water of the same height with the whole water in the vessel . and in the foregoing figure , when it flows freely through the pipe c d , 't is prest by a pillar of water , which has the same base with the orifice of the pipe cd ; which pillar of water forces it self by a lateral pressure into the pipe , and so to run out ; by the force of which pressure it comes to pass , that all the water in the vessel runs out by this imaginary pillar . many things are said of this pressure of the water by hydrostatical vvriters , to wit , that the under parts are prest by the upper , and the upper parts are prest by those that are under . moreover , they are prest side ways by one another ; which diversity of pressures they endeavour to prove by several experiments ; and in effect , every one may experience this lateral pressure in himself , when he is in the watery up to the neck ; for he will feel a pressure on every side , and some difficulty of breathing , which yet is not to be thought to proceed only from the lateral pressure of the water , but another cause : for when the expansion of the chest is necessary to respiration , 't is not so easily perform'd in the water element , as in the air , by reason of its grossness : for as fishes need a greater force for swimming , than birds for flying , as borellus demonstrates , by reason of the grosser body of the water , which must be moved out of its place , and circulate into that left by the fish : so a man sunk in the water up to the neck , needs a greater force for opening his chest , than if he were in the air. and from hence it is , that inspiration in the water is more difficult than expiration . this happens only because the pressure is unequal ; for the pressure of the pillar of air and water on the chest without , exceeds the pressure of the pillar within the chest , that is only of air , so much as the weight of the pillar of water which covers the chest , exceeds the weight or pressure of the pillar of air within the lungs , and of the same height with the water about the chest ; for fluids press only according to the perpendicular heights , and not the grosness of their pillars , as is plain in syphons , in whose legs , tho' of different thickness , the liquor rises but to the same horizonal height . likewise all do agree , that not only the bottom , but also the sides of the vessel are prest ; which pressure some say is considerable , but others not . tho. cornelius thinks it to be equal to the perpendicular pressure : for supposing the water to press by inclin'd lines , and that a body sliding down by inclin'd lines , acquires as great a velocity as if it fell down by a perpendicular , equal to the height of the plain , he thinks the lateral pressure to be equal to the perpendicular . on the other hand , becher , in his physica subterranea , says , that the water presses directly on the bottom , but far less on the sides ; which conjecture he grounds on this , that the little ramparts of earth sustain the pressure of the ocean it self , that it overflows not the adjacent fields ; yea , he endeavours to make it out by a mechanical experiment , that the pressure of the water is only upward and downward . if mr. becher had considered that hydrostatical axiom , viz. that fluids press only according to their perpendicular altitudes , he would not have been frighted by the extent of the great sea at amsterdam , from owning so evident an hydrostatical truth as this is , that the lateral pressure of fluids is equal to the perpendicular : for suppose the banks there to be three fathom , or eightteen feet , above the harlem meer , and the adjacent lands , which they defend from the inundation of the sea , and that the weight of every cubical foot of water is lb. ℥ ½ , and gr . this multiplied by f. the perpendicular height will amount to ½ lb , ℥ . g. . which is the weight or lateral pressure that lies on a square foot at the bottom , which a rampart of earth , made strong for the purpose , and foot thick , may be well allowed able to support . 't is true , this computation is made for fresh water ; but the addition of salt in the sea-water , which is about lb of salt to lb of water , will not so much alter the reckning . for my part , as i do not believe the lateral pressure of the vvater to be equal to the perpendicular , so i do not think it despicable ; for it may be shown , that the lateral pressure is less than the perpendicular , by taking notice of this only , that there is a greater endeavour of the vvater to descend by a perpendicular line than an inclin'd one : but suppose that some parts in the sides of the vessel suffer a pressure , equal to the perpendicular pressure , as are these which be at the bottom , and in which those inclin'd ones would end , which have the same depth with the whole vvater ; yet in other parts the lateral pressure cannot be admitted so great . the author here seems like one groping in the dark for the truth , and yet when he has got it between his hands he lets it slip : for he supposes , that the pressure by inclin'd lines is , at the bottom , equal to the pressure by perpendicular lines ; yet he will not own the same in the intermedial parts . indeed the pressure by inclin'd lines in the intermedial parts is not equal to that perpendicular pressure which is at the bottom ; but 't is equal to that perpendicular pressure which is on the same horizontal surface , which may be made evident thus : take a glass tube , such as they use for baroscopes , but open at both ends , a b ; stop the upper end a with your finger , and so immerse it into the vessel e f g h , filled with water to m l , inclining , till it come to the horizontal surface i k , and then take your finger off , the water will rise by the pressure at the orifice b , till it has come to the surface m l , which is the same height it would have come to if the pipe had been perpendicular , as in c d. farther , suppose a pipe bended in the end at the right angles p q , immersed to the same surface i k , as before ; upon taking away your finger form p , it will rise up as high as before , to the surface m l : now 't is evident to any that considers the figure of the pipe , that the pressure at q is lateral , and as forcible as if it were perpendicular : this may be made more pleasant to the eye by putting oil into the pipe , as the honourable mr. boyle shews in his paradoxa hydrostatica , paradox . . and yet 't is not to be thought so little of as becherus says : for seeing the sides of vessel are no small hindrance to the fluid that it descends not , the force which the fluid exerces on the sides cannot be small . seeing then , as was before said , the parts of a fluid are crowded on one another , as if they were in a press , 't is not without reason that moderns from this do fetch a solution of that old , yet difficult , problem , which has wearied subtile vvits , vvhy a diver , in the bottom of the sea , is not opprest by the incumbent vvater . they commonly say that it happens , because the diver is lifted up by the water under him , and on the sides the parts of his body are prest with the same force ; neither can they be driven inward , seeing all is full ; so that there is no fear of the luxation of a member , or painful compression . yet the most ingenious mr. boyle thinks the difficulty is not answered enough ; for though by reason of the equal pressure of the ambient fluid , there follows no luxation , yet there appears no reason why there is no pain felt by the compression of the parts one against another . vvherefore the same author recurs to the strong texture of the animal , which can resist the pressure . it might be solv'd thus . there is an air lodged in the pores of all animal iuices , which two together keep distended and full the fibres , which are tubulous , as sir edmund king has very ingeniously discovered long ago ; and it is by the pressure of the ambient fluid ( which is equal on every side ) that this air being forc'd into less compass , the sides of the fibres come closer together , which causes no more pain to the fibres , than the bladder , ( which yet is a very sensible part ) suffers upon its being contracted , when the urine is expelled . if it were not rashness to think any thing can be added to the reasons of so many most famous men , i would say , that seeing the body of a living man is specifically lighter than vvater , tho' not much ; and therefore being more prest by the collateral vvater , according to the principle of archimedes , the syphon in which the diver is that is less prest ought to be lifted up , and therefore he ought to feel no pressure . but because the diver under water may be diversly considered , either as he descends by a perpendicular line , or ascends by it , or is moved by inclining lines , or as being fastned to the bottom , and sticking on a rock , he remains immovable ; in any of these cases he cannot be subject to a dolorous pressure . i have learned from a skilful diver , that when a swimmer will descend perpendicularly , and go to the bottom in a straight posture , he drives the water upward with his hands as with oars ; and when he will rise again , driving the water with his hands towards the bottom , he returns the same way . from whence it comes to pass , that such as are unskilful in swimming , when they strike the water contrary ways , are stifled . it is worth the while to enquire into the reason of these effects , having never seen them in any author , tho' there were need of a delian swimmer here , as they say . i think then , that when a swimmer drives the superincumbent water with his hand upward , he therefore descends ; because such a syphon being so smitten is less prest , and therefore is lifted up , the other being deprest in which the swimmer is ; just as in a scale suspended , and put in an aequilibrium , if one of the scales be hit below , that will be lifted up , and the other of necessity will descend . therefore the body of the swimmer being put in the pillar that is more prest , will of necessity descend ; but when at the same time he does this with both hands , he makes his descent more easie . but when he will rise perpendicularly , and in a straight posture from the bottom , by striking the water with his hands toward the bottom , he makes that syphon more prest ; and therefore the swimmer being plac'd in the other , must of necessity ascend : just as when the scale is put in an aequilibrium , if i hit the scale in the hollow part , that will be deprest , and the other lifted up . the same reason holds , when he ascends or descends by lines inclin'd to the horizon . therefore whether he ascend or descend , or whatever way he move , he ought to be under no dolorous pressure , how deep soever the water be . for seeing , according to the most ingenious borellus , bodies do not appear heavy but when they are in rest ; a● appears in an example given by him of two sacks of wool , one of which being put on the other , does not exerce its weight , or press it , but when 't is resting , and not when it descends . therefore the swimmer descending in the water perpendicularly , ought not to suffer any pressure in the vvater descending with the same swiftness . but when he is carry'd up by the same way , seeing by his body he thrusts upward the vvater lying upon him , which he does not by his own strength , but by the help of the collateral syphon , and therefore needs no help of his muscles to overcome the resistance of the superincumbent vvater ; neither ought he to have the sense of a dolorous pressure , to which the circulation of the ambient fluid coming in behind , does not a little contribute , by not suffering any part of the body to be mov'd out of its place . upon the same account he ought not to feel any dolorous pressure , if he ascend or descend by inclin'd lines , or stick without motion to the bottom : for the other collateral syphon being more prest , does always exerce its force , and the subjacent vvater lifts up the diver , that is specifically lighter than its self upward . the author here supposes the body to be specifically lighter than water , which i judge to proceed from the air inclosed in the chest ; for when that is out , the body sinks by its own weight ; and this gave perhaps the first rise to anatomists to discover whether a child was still-born , or not ; for if its lungs do swim in the water , 't was not still born , but has breathed the air ; but if they sink , then they conclude the child to have been still-born . as for the divers rising or falling by the motion of his hands , 't is the same case as in an oar , when the blade of it moves with greater force than the water , it makes resistance to the oar , which therefore not advancing , the boat of necessity must : so when a man presses the water quickly downward , it makes resistance to his hands ; and therefore the water not giving way fast enough , the body must be thrust upward ; just as in the air , if a man between two chairs did forcibly thrust them down with his two hands , he must be lifted up , because they do not give way . the author says , the pressure is not felt when the diver is ascending or descending , because the water being in motion , does not press upon the body : but it might be made manifest that it does ; and experience makes it beyond contradiction , that they feel no pressure when the water is at rest ; and the divers do own , that they feel a pressure rather in the going down in the diving-bell , than afterward ; as the honourable mr. boyle told me be had communicated to him by the laird of melgum , who practis'd this way of diving , in these words ; the compression of the air being such , as going down did hurt me ; but below , and staying there , was as familiar to me as that above . chap. iii. that these fountains cannot be derived from a subterraneous river . seing then that it is clear enough from what was said before , that the flowing of these vvaters toward the sea , may consist with their rising here , and in any place , it seems to follow , that there is a great subterraneous river under it , from which these fountains do spring : and truly this is the common opinion among us , which yet i cannot assent to . i am not ignorant , that there are some rivers that hide their head under ground , and after some time do rise again . some again there are that never rise above ground , as it happens in the veins of the body ; some do appear in the surface , and some do never . of this seneca speaks very well . nature governs the earth as it does our bodies , in which are veins and arteries ; and nature hath so formed it like our bodies , that our ancestors have call'd them veins . pliny says , that the nile is often swallowed up in gulphs , and after a long time is spew'd up again . they report the same of niger , a river of aethiopia , which rising out of the same lake that the nile does , and running towards the vvest , when it meets with a chain of mountains , it finds hidden ways ; and appearing again on the other side of the mountains , discharges it self into the atlantick ocean . in like manner , tigris in mesopotamia being stopt by the mountain cancasus , hides it self under ground , and is lost in a great cave ; but afterward breaking out near to babylon , is mixt with euphrates . to say nothing of alphaeus , a river in achaia , whom the poets feign to pass a great way not only under ground , but also under the sea it self , and to rise again in the fountain called arethusa : this is known by the offals of the sacrifice , which being thrown down the river , were , every fifth summer , at the time of the olympiack games , cast up by this fountain . and also the seas themselves are thought to communicate by occult passages , as the mediterranean with the red sea , and the caspian with the euxine , as the most learned kircher makes out by good conjectures . father avril a iesuit , in his travels into tartary , says , that 't is more probable that it discharges its self into the persian gulph , of which this is his main proof ; that they who inhabit about the persian gulph , do every year at the end of autumn observe a vast quantity of willow-leaves : now , in regard this sort of tree is altogether unknown in the southerin part of persia , which borders upon that sea ; and for that quite the contrary , the northern part , which is bounded by the sea of kilan , or the caspian-sea , has all the sea-coasts of it shaded with these trees ; we may assure our selves with probability enough , that these leaves are not carried from one end of the empire to the other , but only by the water that rowls them along thro' the caverns of the earth . so far father avril . who further , for establishing a circulation of vvaters from pole to pole , describes a great vvhirlpool under the north pole , of which also olaus magnus and helmont have written , by which a great quantity of vvaters is absonb'd , which falling into the bowels of the earth , is return'd by the south pole. some say that this changes its course once in half a year , going in at the south pole , and coming out again at the north. tho' all this be true , supposing also that within the bowels of this earth there is exercised something like an animal o economy ; and that one may , not without reason , imagine divers ebbings and flowings of vvaters , seeing , as seneca says , the whole earth is not folid , but hollow in a great many parts ; yet i cannot allow as some do , that this is a great broad river , from which these fountains break forth . this opinion of a great river has so firmly possest the minds of all men , that if a little earth quake happen , the inhabitants are in great foar lest the town , which otherwise is greatly shaken with earthquakes , should be swallow'd in a moment of time ; imagining it to be plac't on the arch'd roof of a great river . i confess the conjectures are not slight , on which may be grounded the opinion of such a subterraneous river , which gives water to these fountains ; especially the noise of the vvaters in the bottom of the well before the perforation , and the assurance men have , that in every place where a well is digg'd , water will boil up , casting up sand , pebbles , and many other things ; which seem to evidence its being some great river , or at least some great receptacle . but one reason , to wit , the super-exceeding greatness of this imaginary river , which must be admitted of necessity , is of so great weight , that it overturns all conjectures that would seem to confirm the opinion of so great a river running under this ground . for europe has no river so big as this subterraneous river must be , to which neither the po , nor the rhine , nor the danube , are to be compared . 't is known well enough by what we have before said , and all the inhabitants are convinced , that not only within the compass of the city , which is a mile in diameter , in any place , may be made a fountain , which will constantly send forth water ; but also without the town for some miles , without having any regard to the situation , such fountains may be made , but especially by the aemilian way ; as also beyond the river scultenna a great plenty of these springs and fountains is observ'd . therefore the breadth of this subterraneous river ( unless its course were along this way , in which case it would be extended miles ) should be extended or miles . but who can believe that under this plain , on which this city is plac'd , a river of so great extent should continually flow , with so great a weight lying upon it ! i will not deny , that from south to north the source is not so much extended , seeing these fountains are not observ'd above miles ; which , whether it be for want of experience , or that this is truly its bounds , i dare not affirm . but if we will suppose a subterraneous river , which hath a channel of miles , every one i think will doubt it : nor will he so easily give credit to this opinion , especially seeing this arch that must keep up so great a vveight feet deep , is not of flint or pumice-stone , but altogether made up of earth gathered by degrees . truly , if this prodigy of nature were situated in a mountainous region , i should not be much against admitting the greatest subterraneous width . for if we take notice of the caves and subterraneous recesses which are fam'd in geographers , we shall find them to be made amongst the rocky and steep caverns of the earth , seeing rocks and stones are the bones and strength of it . from whence ovid says , magna parens terra est , lapides in corpore terrae , ossa reor dici — the earth is our great mother , and the stones therein contain'd , i take to be her bones . vve find the corycaean cave in cilicia ( of which pliny , solinus , and others write , that being a very large promontory with a wide mouth , and full of woods within ; 't was miles broad , so as to be very light , and both a cave and a port ) to have been plac'd in the mountain corycus . the river tigris , which we have often mention'd , hides its head , and as often rises again , but only when he sees himself stopt with a chain of mountains . for disdaining that any stop should be put to his swiftness , from which he takes his name , he finds himself a way by the wide bowels of the mountains , and runs hid , till being swell'd with the accession of vvaters , he runs out into the open plain . the river timavus , famous enough among the old poets ( about whose true place , whether 't was near padoua , or tergeste in istria , there were so many contentions among the learned of the last age , as may be seen in leander ▪ albertus , bernardinus scardeomus , iohannes candidus ) though he seem to draw all his water from ●ine fountians , as breasts sticking out in the mountain timavus ▪ yet he borrows them from another place , viz. a subterraneous river , discharging it self by the cavernous vvindings of the mountains , into the sea ; for which he is so proud as to be called , the father and fountain of the sea. seeing we have made mention of timavus , and wonderful things are told of him by vvriters , viz. that he ebbs and flows according to the motion of the sea ; and that he increases so much , as to overflow the adjacent country ; but in the ebbing of the sea he runs gently enough , and carries with himself the sweetness of his vvaters even to the ocean , without mixture . ut doris amara suam non intermiceat undam . ecgl. . that doris mix not her salt wa●●es with thine . as the chief of the poets did formerly say of alphaeus : therefore i am willing to 〈◊〉 the contemplation of so curious things . the most learned kircher does very well explain the cause of this prodigious increase , and how the river keeps its vvaters free from saltness , even to its mouth . for he says , that a great abundance of vvater is cast out from the bowels of a mountain near a village called st. cantians , about miles distance from the nine fountains of timavus , and that there 't is swallowed up by a manifest gulph , nor does it appear more : he thinks therefore , that the vvater being swallow'd up by hidden channels , runs into the sea ; and that therefore in the flowing of the sea ; the salt vvater drives back the fresh that meets it with great violence , as being of less force ; and so this subterraneous river is stopt in its course , which not finding room to which it may retire , breaks violently out at the foremention'd fountains in the mountain timavus , communicating with the same subterraneous river . vnde per or a novem vasto cum murmure montis , it mare praeruptum , & pelago praemit arva sonanti . aen. i. . whence through nine mouths a sea from mountains raves , which the whole country drowns in foaming waves . by this means 't is not hard to understand , how according to the ebbing and flowing of the sea , there appears so proportionate a vicissitude of ebbing and flowing in timavus . and yet the waters remain fresh : for the sea does not beat back the waters of timavus , nor stop his course in the surface , but meeting the subterraneous river swallowed up in the foresaid valley , forces it to flow back , and throw out its waters by these nine mouths ; and from hence is the prodigious increase of the river timavus . but when the sea ebbs , and gives leave to that subterraneous river to run , timavus also at the same time , when that great regurgitation of the water ceases , runs quietly enough , and with all his sweetness , into the adriatick . neither kircher nor falloppius , determine what sea they suppose to flow into these cavities ; for the mediterranean does not rise high enough to answer the case , seeing it flows but a foot at the most , which is in the adriatick ; if they meant the atlantick , which in some places is observ'd to rise fathom , in many to / , to or ; yet perhaps that will not answer the case neither ; for it has a great way to come , before it can come to reach the place ; and when it has swelled to the height there , considering the nine mouths of timavus are in a mountanous countrey , which may be justly supposed elevated far above the sea when at the highest , this solution of the phenomen will not hold . it seems to me more rational to explain it thus : i suppose the water comes from st. cantians , to run under ground in a canale 〈◊〉 , which it fills quite ( so that there is no passage for the air that way ) till it come to the basin a b c , which it fills so , as to overflow into the sea below , and that this basin is not much lower than the mouth of timavus ; for thus the ascent of the water into these nine mouths will be more easily procured . i suppose likewise , that this basin a b c has another passage g h ▪ by which the outer air communicates with the water in this basin , and by which the water in the flux of the sea runs out at h ; then the water that overflow● and fall into the sea when it is at the ebb , because the air gets out at the holes below near the surface ; when the surface of the sea k k k is elevated by the waters flowing into this lower basin through subterraneous passages , and the holes near its surface ( by which the air got out before ) being now stopt , the air is crowded between the surface k k k below , and that in the basin , and thus ▪ acquires a greater elasticity than the air that presses the surface within the pipe g h ; and therefore , according to the laws of hydrostatisks , the water in that pipe must ascend : now if the sea flow two eathom below , it may raise the waters in the pipes g h near as much , so that it may run out at h. i think , the flowing of springs and lakes , such as the ingenious mr. vvalker told me is reported to be found in cornwall on the top of a hill , and in other places , may be explained very well after this manner . our countrey-man falloppius gives a reason of this surprizing phaenomenon of nature , not much differing from this , whose words i thought fit to add here : but you must note , that although the river th●n abo●nd with water , yet that water is fresh , as ●tis also when it decreases ; for 't is always fresh ; but from whence does that come ? you must understand , that in the country of carni there is a castle called st. cantians , from whence rises a great quantity of water , which when it has scarcely appear'd , is swallow'd up by the earth , and appears no more . now the village of st. cantians is miles distant from the river timavus . i believe therefore that the water flowing from the mountain in abundance , is the cause of the increase of timavus ; for i think that this water flows plentifully by these subterraneous passages , which meeteth with other secret passages , by which the sea runs into the mountain next to the river ; and that so there is a congress made , and dashing of the sea water against the other , which runs down from the mountain farther off ; and seeing the flowing of the sea is more forcible than the fresh water , ( for the salt water is more gross than the fresh ) it happens that the fresh water flowing from the high mountains , yields to the other when it meets with it ; from whence it comes , that when in cannot run to the sea , it recoils up to the top of the mountain ; and from hence 't is , that all the mountain abounds with water , and the timavus increases and decreases . such phaenomena of nature sporting it self , may be more easily observ'd in the mountainous countries than elsewhere , seeing the mountains , because of their solid texture , have empty spaces and kettles , which serve not only for cisterns of water , but also for receptacles of fire , as in sicily ; which therefore aristotle calls , full of caverns . so virgil , describing aristaeus going down into the secret places of paeneus , a river in thessaly , running between olympus and ossa , wrote these verses . iamque domum mirans genetricis & humida regna , speluncisque lacus clausos , lucosque sonantes ibat , & ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum , omnia sub magna labentia fl●mina terra spectabat diversa locis . — in english thus : he wandring goes thro' courts , and chrystal realms , loud groves and caves , which water overwhelms ; and with tumultuous waves ●stonisht found all the great river's running under ground . there are many of these subterraneous rivers in this and other countries : there is one very remarkable at bourdeaux in france , which runs under the church of st. sorine ; and it seems under or near a pillar of that church , in which there is made a hole large enough to put in ones head , which has another , hole at the bottom going down thro the pillar to the river , to which if you apply your ear , you may hear the noise of the water falling down , even at the time when the organs ( which make a great noise ) are playing : there is upon the right hand a broad pair of stairs , with a great arched gate , that take down to this subterraneous river , from which they force water into a marble cistern that stands in the church-yard covered with another great stone , yet open on the sides , at which the ignorant people take up water ; believing , by the insinuation of the crafty priests , that 't is by the gift of st. sorin an excellent collyrium for sore● eyes this water as they force into the cistern by the pipes laid under ground on the waxing of the moon , so they let it gradually out by other pipes on the wane of the moon ; which makes the people think that it depends on the course of the moon . populus vult decipi . let us hear seneca , speaking to the purpose ; there are also under the earth less known laws of nature , but as sure ; believe the same to be below , that is above : there are also great caves , there are great vaults and wide places formed by the mountains hanging over them . then although we must confess , that in some places rivers of great bigness flow under the earth , we must not therefore believe that in this great plain on this side the po , there is so great a subterraneous cavity , and that fields of so great a largeness could stand without ruine for so long time . i must add moreover , that the depth of this river , in respect to its breadth , ought not to be small , because nature builds all her caves and subterraneous passages archwise ; which all must have a depth proportionable to the breadth , otherwise they lose their force ; and commonly they are of a circular figure , or coming near to it , i. e. as deep as they are broad , which in this case must be at least mile . but this cavity is of no depth almost , yea , but a few feet , viz. as much as the auger had made in boring : for passing an iron rod throw the hole , the bottom is presently found , as i have often try'd with others that have been with me . moreover , seeing the diggers in the very terebration , often fall on stocks of trees , as my self have often observed ; we must confess therefore , that these trees have been before in open air : and seeing in the bottoms of these wells are often found bones , coals , and pieces of iron , we are likewise forc'd to believe , that people have formerly liv'd on that ground ; or we must think , that this great river at that time had a cover of or foot , and that this our plain did afterwards grow higher , by the daily descent of waters from the apennine , and the paring off of the upper ground . but the above mention'd difficulties do still occur . but let us suppose this great river runs this way , and that hitherto he has suffer'd a bridge ; from whence , i pray , comes so great a plenty of water to fill this great cavity , which we must always suppose to be full , to make the water rise up in the wells ? seeing to sustain the royal dignity of the po , scarcely so many rivers running into it from the apennine and the alps are sufficient ? and on the other hand , we may affirm that the po comes far short of this subterraneous river . lastly , if this river must be miles broad , i do not see why in all the extent of this source , the depth of the wells is always found the same ; for the wells which are digg'd near the sides of this great arch , would be deeper than those elsewhere : but there is almost no difference in the depth of these wells . we cannot therefore give way to the vulgar opinion of this subterraneous river , notwithstanding the conjectures mentioned , which we shall shortly answer . and far less must we believe , that there are many subterraneous streams flowing from the same cistern , and distinguish'd by intervals , which give water continually to these fountains . for how can it be , seeing there are so many thousands of fountains , and continually such wells are made both in the city and suburbs , that the undertakers never fell upon such interstices in the boring ? as i have often told ; and which one can never admire enough , there is no need of any caution here ; no need of diligence in choosing a place , seeing any place markt out either in the city or without , for many miles , is fit for the building of these wells ; and all the difficulty in digging these wells , is in keeping out the side-waters , which sometimes flow in in great quantity , so that they need a wall of bricks to keep it out : but when the vvorkmen have come to this last bottom , then as having got their wish , they begin their perforation with as great assurance of getting vvater by their auger , as if they had moses his rod. neither is the opinion of some to be entertain'd , who think that the subterraneous spaces from which these vvaters flow , were formerly the channels of scultenna and gabellus , between which two rivers modena is now plac'd ; which rivers , as they imagine , after they had descended from the apennine , did join their waters in this place ; and therefore , through length of time , the mountains decreasing and the fields rising , the water rises to this height in these wells when they are digg'd ; or in a hole made with sand wet with water , which is supply'd from these rivers by hidden passages ; and the sand it self , that they may give credit to so plausible a thought , they give an example ; for they say , that near a stream , a hole being made in the sand , tho' dry on the surface , the vvater appears ; which also by the observation of pliny the younger , is known to be done in the sea-shore . for after this author , with his accustomed elegancy in a letter to plin. gallus , described the pleasantness of his countrey-village by the sea-side , in the end of his epistle he makes this relation , as worthy to be taken notice of : it has wells , or rather fountains ; for the nature of all that shore is wonderful ; in whatever place you move the ground , you meet with water ; and that so fresh , as not to have the least saltness from the vicinity of the sea. by these words the most learned man seems to give some specimen of our fountains , seeing there also , in whatever place the ground is digg'd , there is moisture : yet 't is gather'd , by the same pliny's words , that the vvaters of these vvells did not spring up . i believe the same will happen in any sea-coast , except some bed of clay intervene , for the vvaters do easily follow the sand : therefore 't is no wonder , that in any place of pliny's countrey-house the vvater appears fresh , being strain'd through the sand from the nearest sea , and so depriv'd of its saltness . but 't is no way probable , that the case is so in our ground : for tho' i do not deny that these rivers did formerly run in deeper channels , yet that that they give vvater to this spring , i can no ways be induc'd to believe . for these springs are perpetual , neither do they know any increase or decrease ; when yet these rivers , not only in summer , but also sometimes in vvinter , have their sands dry , as we have seen of late years , by reason of the hot season ; seeing all the vvells except these , tho' digg'd deep , gave no vvater in the neighbouring countreys , to the great loss both of men and cattel . but the flowing of a most pure vvater from these fountains is so uniform and constant , that 't is improbable they should depend on the unconstant and unequal state and course of these rivers ; for the vvater decreasing in the deeper veins , the pressure would also decrease , and so these fountains would be diminished . moreover , seeing the countrey of rhegium , parma , and all on this side the po , is plac'd in the same plain ; and many rivers descending from the apennine , glide over these countries . i do not see , why they do not enjoy the same prerogative when vvells are digg'd deep in them . but no where that i know of are such fountains observ'd , so everlasting , and subject to no alteration . therefore we may lawfully judge the cistern that furnishes vvater at the same rate to this source , to be perpetual , never failing , and not temporary . chap. iv. of the ancient state and form of the countrey on this , and the other side of the river po. therefore having discuss'd the opinions which take most among our countrymen , of the nature of this hidden source , it may be thought fit that i should now tell my own : but before i do that , i think it worth while to enquire , and as far as conjecture will allow to discover , what was in those times the outward face of this countrey which we inhabit ; seeing by the digging of these vvells in the land of modena , 't is known enough , that the situation of this countrey , which is called gallia cispadana , and transpadana , was very low and deprest in old times , in comparison of what 't is now . plato , when he brings in critias speaking , writes , that there are two things which bring great and sudden changes in the earth , and totally abolish the monuments of the most ancient countreys . the vvorld felt the first calamity in the universal deluge , the other being reserved against the day of judgment , and the destruction of wicked m●n , as peter says , when a new heaven , and a new earth shall appear . 't is most certain , that the face of the whole earth was most notably changed , in that universal drowning and overturning of all things . but some think that such a change follow'd , that the state of the vvorld before the flood was quite different from what 't was afterwards , which yet i cannot assent to . there is lately come from england a book , whose title is , the sacred theory of the earth , by thomas b●●net . this learned man endeavours to demonstrate , that the earth before the deluge in its first original , had another form than now it appears to have ; so that there were neither seas nor isles , nor mountains nor valleys , nor rivers any where , but the whole body of the vvaters lodg'd in the caverns of the earth . now he feign'd such a face of the earth , to the end that it may be perceiv'd without the creation of new vvaters , from what store-house a quantity of vvater may be drawn sufficient to cover the face of the earth , tho' it had mountains , which we must imagine to have been higher by far than the present ones : so that , according to his reasoning , neither rains , how great soever , nor theo●● rabbah of moses , viz. abyss of vvaters hid in the caverns of the earth , could be sufficient for that universal deluge . but he thinks that the mountains , valleys , seas , isles and rocks , might have appeared in that great cleaving of the whole body of the earth , pieces of it being broke off here and there , and swallow'd up in the great gulph ; while those , which stood in their former state , made a shew of isles , mountains , and rocks ; but these which were wholly covered by the vvaters , had the name of sea and lakes ; and so the earth appeared after the deluge all broken , torn , and of a quite different aspect . this fancy , however it may be taken for new , yet certainly is not the fiction of our times , but more ancient by far . franciscus patritius , a man famous enough for learning , in a certain book of his , of the rhetorick of the ancients , written in italian , and printed at venice by franciscus senensis , anno . the first dialogue has a pleasant story , which he says iulius strozza had from count balthazzar castillon , and he had from a certain abyssine philosopher in spain . this wise abyssinian did say , that in the most ancient annals of aethiopia , there is a history of the destruction of mankind , and the breaking of the earth : that in the beginning of the world the earth was far bigger than now 't is , and nearer to heaven , perfectly round , without mountains and valleys , yet all cavernous within like a spunge , and that men dwelling in it , and enjoying a most pure aether , did lead a pleasant life ; and that the earth brought forth excellent corn and fruits without labour . but when , after a long flux of ages , men were puft up with pride , and so fell from their first goodness , the gods in anger did shake the earth , so that a great part of it fell within its own caverns ; and by this means the water , that before was shut up in dark holes , was violently squeez'd out , and so fountains , lakes , rivers , and the sea it self , took its original : but that portion of the earth , which did not fall into these caverns , but stood higher than the rest , made the mountains : that the isles and rocks in the midst of the sea , are nothing but segments of the earth remaining after the sudden fall of its mass. i am willing , for the satisfaction of the curious , to give the author 's own words , as more tending to our purpose . in the first ages , said the reverend old man , after the last renovation of the vvorld , the earth we dwell on was not of that form , nor so little as 't is at present , but far greater , and of a perfect roundness ; because then it did take up as much place , as it now takes up with the whole vvater and air together : so that between it and heaven there was not any thing interpos'd , but a most pure fire , which is called aether , being of a most pure and vital heat . the earth then was of so large an extent , and so near to heaven . but within , and in the surface , 't was very cavernous , within which were scattered the elements of air and vvater ; and towards the center was scattered a fire , to warm the places remotest from heaven , and therefore obscure and cold . because the other caverns nearer the surface of the earth were illuminated from heaven by the openings above , and by its vvarmth filled with life ; and all these caverns were inhabited by men , and other animals , for the use of which the vvater and air were scattered over the caverns . the earth then was like a spunge , and men dwelt within it ; their life was very happy , and without any evil , because there was not among men either war or sedition . nor did they live inclos'd in cities , as they do now , for fear of wild beasts and other men ; but they liv'd promiscuously , and the earth produc'd its fruits for their necessity , without any labour of theirs . further , the mildness of the air and aether were so great , that the seasons did not vary as they do now : and knowing then the truth and the vertues of all things , they found they were good ; they knew also the vertues of the stars , their senses being nourished in a most pure aether , from whence they had the knowledge of things celestial and elemental . 't is come to our knowledge , that in the most ancient annals of aethiopia , among many others , were found aegypt , aethiopia , persia , assyria , and thracia . now hearken , o count , says the aethiopian , attentively , what occasioned the fall of the earth , and the ruine of mankind . the men of assyria knowing all things , and by means of their vvisdom doing vvonders , were well pleased with it ; from this self conceit grew in them a great love of themselves ; by which the flower of their vvisdom being darkned by degrees , they waxed proud , and began to think themselves gods , and to compare themselves to saturn , that then had the government of the vvorld ; who , as he is slow to anger , and ripe in counsel , was not at all moved at the first : but when their pride increas'd , he in anger depriv'd them of the influxes of his mind ; from which privation there grew in them ignorance , from which flow pride and insolence ; and they began to seek how to get up into heaven , and dethrone him : which when saturn saw , being in his great vvisdom unwilling to defile his hands with humane blood , of himself resigned the government , and gave it into the hand of iupiter his son ; who , after he had taken on him the government of the vvorld , being born to action , made a league with his brother pluto , who reign'd in the roots of the vvorld toward the center : the one began to shake it terribly below , and the other to thunder upon it from above , with which terrible shaking and thundering , the earth open'd in many places , and broke , so that it fell into its own caverns , which by that were raised and filled up . from whence it came to pass , that it both became less , and infinitely further off from heaven , and was buryed in its self , with all the things contained in it . and the elements which stood highest , were , by its weight and restriction , squeez'd out , the lighter and purer did fly higher , and drew nigher to heaven ; but of them which were shut up in the ruins , and were before lodg'd in the caverns , part remain'd below , and part chang'd their place . and it came to pass , that where the great bulk of earth fell , and could not be swallowed up of the caverns , it remained on high , and afterwards being prest hard together by its own weight , and condens'd by the cold , because of its distance from heaven , became mountains and rocks ; and where in the fall great pieces of thick earth were swallowed up , the vvaters were by this discovered , from whence came seas and lakes , rivers and fountains , great and little isles , and rocks scattered up and down the wide sea. the gold , the silver , and other metals , which in the beginning had been most fair and precious trees , were covered in the ruins . but there are some remains of the seeds shak'd off at that time , which now are digg'd with so great labour , being neither so pure , nor of great vertue , as formerly : and the diamonds , carbuncles , rubies , emeralds and chrysoliths , saphires , topazes , and other jewels , which be now found , are the thickning of the rocks of the first age ; and they are , in memory of these first times , to this day had in great esteem , admir'd and reverenced as the most ancient things . the porphyres , the alabasters , serpentines , and other fair marbles of different colours , are no other than some particles of the virgin earth , which was nearest to heaven , and in the fall were thickned , and united , either by their own weight , or some other , or by cold : from whence 't is , that by the searchers after metals and marble , there have been found many both sea and land animals , turn'd into stone and volatils ; yea , many times mens bodies that have been all taken hence , inclos'd in their first shape in most solid stone , without any opening . and from hence 't is , that there are seen so many thousands of fishes , oysters , and cockles congealed , and figure of divers animals ; which some through ignorance of things pa● admir'd so much . these terrible things did at that time hap●pen on the earth ; but the animals and men that were foun● dwellers in the caves , remain'● all bury'd by the earth falling o● them ; and an infinite numbe● of those who dwelt in the oute● parts , by the terrible shaking be● neath , and the frightful nois● above , died of fear ; and amon● the others , all the assyrians . i● the other countries few remained alive , and these also conti●nued , either by the fall , or thro● fear , many days in a transe● and without pulse . but afte● they were recover'd , they con●tinued astonisht and full of grea● fear , that shortned their ow● life , which at the first was ve●ry long , and their childrens there was also among men a stupidity , which made them ignorant of all things , and was the effect of the first astonishment after the fall of their first fathers ; and yet if they seem'd to know any thing , they saw it through a thick cloud . moreover , since the fall , if a man had the truth revealed to him by chance , fear made him keep it secret ; for in all remain'd a memory , the knowledge of truth being the occasion of their parents pride , and that of their ruine . for if any had the boldness to discover it , he darkned it a thousand ways , for fear of being reproved , and severely punisht by another . for this reason the sciences have been taught in dark sayings , in fables , in figures and numbers , in sacred rites , and in a thousand other hidden ways . and from thence 't is belike , that princes and others , who would be powerful in the earth , have chosen to follow the opinion of the common people , and have persecuted with all rigour those that would tell the truth . fear therefore having possessed all men , by which they were disperst , such as remain'd began to join themselves together , and to beget children , to help them and defend them ; they encompast themselves with fences and ditches , in which time they reverenc'd and perform'd obedience to the aged . after this as the number of their posterity increas'd , and the ties of affinity decreas'd , they divided their goods that were hitherto common , and so parted friendship . after which all things went into confusion , every one robbing , cheating , and killing another , and inventing new tricks to defraud his neighbour : from this , as boldness grew in those that were of fiercer spirits , and more ingenious to hurt , others became more fearful ; which fear sharpned their wit , so that consulting together , they found out the name of peace and justice . afterward they contrived a long chain of words , with which tying justice and peace by the feet , by the arms , by the middle , and by the neck , in a thousand ways , they thought to keep her , that she should not depart from their state , committing the keeping of these chains , which they call'd laws , into the hands of wary men , and of their own temper , which they called judges and magistrates . by these artifices did the timorous secure their lives and goods from the injuries of the more powerful ; till at length one that was bolder than the rest , associating himself with the fearful and weak , became their patron . these also were thrust from their place . after this rate have the societies of men been managed hitherto , and so they are at present , and will be for the time to come . when the timorous join'd themselves together , there arose counsellors ; and when they were called into judgment , there arose judges . this now , noble sir , is the great history which the wise abyssinian told the count , worthy to be had in great veneration , and highly to be esteem'd . helmont seems to have entertain'd an opinion about the face of the earth before the deluge , not unlike to this ; his words are these : from whence i conceive the earth to have been in one piece , and undivided ; for asmuch as 't was be-water'd with one fountain ; and lastly , to have had no isles , but the whole globe was sea on one side , and earth on the other . this was the face of the world before the deluge , after which the earth did open into several shapes , and out of the abyss of these chinks did the waters break out . but let us leave the opinion , no less disagreeing with the interpretation of the sacred scriptures , than with nature it self . scaliger speaking of the asserters of that opinion , about the generation of the mountains , says , that they piously dote , who have told , that the earth was pulled out of , and sav'd from the deluge . yet 't is certain , that the earth in that universal deluge did not suffer an ordinary change , so that the fortune of things being changed , thetis and vesta chang'd their places ; from whence ovid says , quodque fuit campus , vallem decursus aquarum fecit , & eluvie mons est deductus in aequor , e'que paludosa siccis humus aret arenis . in english thus : torrents have made a valley of a plain , high hills by deluges born to the main ; steep standing lakes suckt dry by thirsty sand , and on late thirsty earth now lakes do stand . i believe it has not happened otherwise to this countrey of ours : for i conceive , that in the first beginning of the world , all this plain , than which italy has not a greater , and which the po does now divide into gallia cispadana , and transpadana , was once a sea , and a part of the adriatick . so in the universal deluge , the mountains being par'd off , and bar'd , so that they lookt like bodies extenuated by a disease , as plato wrote of the atlantick island ; we have reason to think that this bay of the sea was filled with sand , and so became a valley ; and afterwards , in process of time , by continual descent of waters from the apennine , and the alps , and other particular deluges , ( such as was that which happen'd anno . in gallia cisalpina , than which 't is thought there has not been a greater since the days of noah , as pa●●●vin●us says in his fifth book of the antiquities of verona ) this ground did grow up by degrees , and by many lays or beds , to the height we do now see it of . both ancient and modern writers judge the same of the most famous and greatest plains in the earth , as in egypt , &c. which aristottle says formerly was a part of the sea ; and herodot calls it , the gift of the nile ( seeing the etymology of nile is derived from limus , slime ) which he likewise says of the countreys about ilium , teuthrania , and ephesus , to wit , that they were sometime a part of the sea : yea , the same herodot hath left it in writing , that if the nile turn'd its course into the arabick gulph , it would at length cover it all with slime . polybius says , that the lake maeotis and the euxine sea are constantly fill'd with plenty of sand , which great rivers do continually bring into it , and that the time would be when they should be made even with the continent ; taking an argument from the taste of the water , viz. that as maeotis is sweeter than the pontick , so the pontick is sweeter than the euxine . modern writers think no less of the great and plain countreys , among whom is the most learned kircher , who in his mundus subterraneus , says , from the arabick antiquities , and other observations , that the great plain , which lies between the arabick and persian gulph , before the common deluge , was covered with sea-waters . and he also thinks , that the sandy desarts of tartary were formerly the place of waters , and all one with the caspian sea , and afterwards in length of time to have been rais'd to a greater height , and turned into great fields . neither need we to go so far off for examples . we understand by history , that ravenna , as well as venice , was plac'd in the sea ; but seeing now 't is miles from the sea , no body knows how much land has accrew'd to it by the retiring of the sea ; a prodigy truly worthy of wonder , that where ships did sail before , now there are groves of pine-trees . upon the same account may we call the land of ferrara , the gift of eridanus , by reason of the slimy water which this royal river did by many mouths discharge into the adriatick for some ages ; by which it came to pass , that a colony of fishes was by a true metamorphosis chang'd into an habitation of men ; for which ovid says , — vidi factas ex aequore terras , et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae . i 've seen the seas oft turned to a plain , and lands were tilled where was before the main . tho' i dare not absolutely say , that all the countrey which lies between the apennine and the alps , was a sea formerly ; yet by what is observ'd in the digging of the wells , oyster-shells , and other sea products being found in their greatest depth , it may be not without ground conjectured , that the adriatick did at least come thus far , or that the bays communicating with the sea , did stagnate here . yet 't is without doubt from the writings of the ancients , that between the ● aemilian way ( in the middle of which is seated modena ) and the po , there was a lake reaching from the adriatick even to placentia , which , from the neighbourhood of the po , they called padusa , into which many rivers descending from the apennine , discharg'd a great quantity of waters . virgil makes mention of this lake in these verses : — piscosove amne padusae dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia cygni . or murmuring swans that sound their fanning wings padusa's fishy banks upon , or ecchoing springs . but iohn baptista aleottus , in his most learned book against caesar mengolus of ravenna , shews , by strong reasons and authorities , that no river from splacentia to the coast of the adriatick sea , did come into the channel of the po , but that they all discharged themselves into this padusa ; for which he brings the authority of strabo , who writes , that this lake was a great hindrance to hannibal , when he would have pass'd his army into etruria ; which lake being not long after , by the diligence of m. scaurus the surveyor , dried up , was turned into most fruitful fields , many rivers being brought within their own banks to enter into the po , as tarus , parma , entia , gabellus , scultenna , the rheine , and other rivers of no small note . upon this account we may reasonably think , that the po was not so famous of old , nor had the name of royal , till by the accession of so many rivers he had enlarg'd his power . and therefore herodot , a most ancient writer , deny'd that there was any river found , called eridanus ; which was no small matter of admiration to pliny , that when herodot wrote his history at thurium in italy , he knew no river by the name of eridanus . but seeing herodot , as pliny relates , made his history years after the founding of rome , we may thence conjecture , that the po did at that time run with less glory , and in a straiter channel ; or that the historian spoke of another river . there is distinct enough mention made of this lake in the forecited iohan. de argenta , and especially in leander albertus in his description of italy , who measures the length of this lake from lamon by ravenna , even to scultenna , and tells all the rivers which within this space descended from the mountains into this lake , and there ended their course ; and that hercules , the first duke of ferrara , suffered the bononians to bring the rheine within his banks , that so he might enter into the po ; by which it came to pass , that many valleys of ferrara , and also bononia , were turned into most fruitful lands . but when afterward the rheine had broke over his banks in the time of hercules the second , when the fields were again turn'd into water , and many contentions arose among the bononians and ferrarians ; at length the same prince granted , that the rheine might be again brought into the po. therefore we must observe , that the situation of this countrey , in which modena is now plac'd , was very low , seeing this countrey border'd upon padusa , into which so many rivers did run ; of the lowness of which rushes , coals , bones , stocks of trees , found in the depths of feet , are most sure proofs ; all which make it evident , that this ground was sometime exposed to the air , and that it had no other aspect than now the valleys of como have . therefore 't is not without cause , that cluverius , in his description of italy , thinks a certain place o● pliny deserves amendment . for pliny , when he had described certain islands floating in several places , like the cyclades , as in the caecuban lands , the reatine , the lake of vadimon , writes , that the same is observ'd in the land of modena . but cluverius for matiensis plac'd mutinensis ; forasmuch as one may see such floating islands made of slime and reeds in the valleys of como . yet 't is out of all question , that the situation of this town , together with the adjacent lands , in the space of years , has grown foot ; for in this depth causways of flint , and shops of artificers are found by digging , which certainly then was the plain of the town , when the colony of the romans was brought hither : further , when i was writing this , there was found a piece of adrian the emperours coin , of corinthian brass , in the depth of feet . history testifies , that mantuae at that time was not far from the marshes ; for appianus alexandrinus tells us , that marcus antonius and pansa , in the siege of mutina , did fight amongst the fenns , and in grounds overgrown with reeds ; and afterwards near mutina , in a little isle of the river labinius , ( when at that time the land of modena was extended so far ) the triumviri met , and establisht that horrible banishment of their countrymen ; when yet in this our age there are no vestigies either of fenns or islands , only most pleasant fields are to be seen . so that with the prince of poets we may cry out , tantum aevi long inqua valet mutare vetustas . such wondrous changes great length of time does bring . yet this growing up of the ground , which is observ'd by the great depth of these wells , ( i do not speak of the deeper parts , whether humane industry cannot reach ) was but slowly made , and by slices , as it were , through length of time , as the several lays of earth do witness , which are observed in all wells constantly in an equal order and distances when they are digged ; so that this growing up of the ground so well distinguish'd , and so remarkable in the digging of all wells , ought to be thought rather the product of so many ages , than the tumultuary and confus'd work of the common deluge . this doubtless then was the face of the countrey on this and the other side of the po , which being formerly covered with waters , and not habitable , now is remarkable for its largeness , and the fertility of its fields , and has in it many towns and cities : for if we turn over old authors , we shall find no mention made of towns or cities below brixillus and cremona , near the po , even to the adriatick ; but as many as were , and yet are in the region on this side the po , were built either near the roots of the apennine , or not far from them , as bononia , modena , regium , parma , &c. but we may infer , both from what was said before , and also from the little that this sandy bed , through which these subterraneous waters do run , wants of being in the same level with the sea , that the sea did cover this countrey in the beginning of the world. for if , according to the observation of aleottus de argenta , a most diligent hydrographer , whom we before cited , the rheine , from the foot of the hills near bononia to the po , into which it does now no more run , has a declivity of feet , inches ; and the po from thence to the sea has a descent of foot inches ; and therefore the whole declivity of the rheine , and perpendicular height to the sea-shore , will be foot , omitting the smaller measures , the plain out of which these fountains spring , and that mutina stands on ( which is distant about mile from the roots of the mountains ) will differ no more than or foot from the level of the sea , as one may conjecture , seeing i have not leisure to examine these matters exactly , nor is it any great matter : but if we might dig further down , other beds would doubtless appear , till we meet at last with the plain , which was formerly the bottom of the sea. but 't is better to search into other things , and to get out of these profound abysses , if we can go no further . chap. v. what is the nature and condition of this hidden spring . as in the works of art , 't is not so safe from the similitude of effects which fall under our eye , nor without fear of a mistake , to infer the same artifice of mechanical parts ; as may be seen by the example of two vvatches , which tho' they have the same outward form , and exactly perform the same operations as to time , yet may have the inward structure quite different ; so 't is less safe to make the same judgments of the curious vvorks of nature , and to determine what instruments it uses , and what is its ways of working : vvherefore 't is much , as aristotle says , if things obscure and hid to our senses be explained by possibilities . seeing i am come so far , that i must at length tell what i think of the nature of this admirable spring , i believe i have done the part of a good guesser , if by sounding this ford , i can tell things probable and agreeable to the laws of nature , instead of things certain . vve may therefore conjecture , that the sea in this our countrey had secret commerce with the appennine , to which it was adjacent in the beginning of the world , and that it still has ; and that it laid a foundation by several subterraneous passages in its bowels for several storehouses of waters , of which this may be believed to be one , from whence these fountains derive their original , and that the water is expanded over all this vein of sand , in which such a spring is discovered : but when the stop is taken away , and the flood-gates are opened , it rises on high as in aqueducts . and this thought of mine , as it does not contradict nature , so it shuns those difficulties , which the foremention'd opinion of an immense space , through which a subterraneous river flows , does incur . that a great abundance of vvaters may secretly flow a long way , through sand , is neither against reason nor experience , seeing 't is the property of sand easily to drink up vvater , and therefore has the name of sinking sand. pliny and solinus say , that the nile , the greatest of rivers , being swallowed up in the sands , runs hid a great way , tho' nothing of that is known in our times . seneca also testifies , that some rivers fall into caves , some are by degrees consumed , and never appear again . the most learned kircher says , that in westphalia , near the village altembechem , there is a certain sandy plain , in which every day the water breaks out with great violence , so as to overflow the whole countrey , and afterwards sinking into the sand , disappears , the surface of the sand remaining dry . the river guadiana in spain , as some relate who have observ'd it , when it has come to a certain plain , is gradually swallowed up , and without noise of the earth ; which is a most certain proof , that this river does not fall into a gulph , but runs away by these beds of sand. in like manner i do believe , that the vvater descends by secret passages from a cistern in the roots of the adjacent mountains , that communicates with the sea , till it come into this deep sandy plain , mixt with much gravel ; so that there is no need to conceive any plain of great width and depth , by which these subterraneous waters may constantly run down , but a few intersperst spaces may suffice , because of the mixture of sand and gravel . helmont says , that sand is original earth , and the seat of the vvaters , but that the rest of the earth is the fruit of this original earth , and that not without reason , seeing the reducing of this sand into vvater is more difficult than of any other body . this same author makes this sand the last bounds of digging , beyond which to proceed were lost labour , because of the continual conflux of sand and vvater . but he thinks that this sand is extended from the shell of the earth to the center , and abundance of water lodges in it ; so that the water which is kept in it is a thousand times bigger than what is in the whole ocean . all seas , rivers and fountains , even in the top of the mountains , owe their original to this invisible ocean , so that the water does every where follow the vital sand. telesus seems to have been of the same judgment , who said , the bottom of the sea was a fountain of that interiour ocean , which agrees with that opinion of plato concerning the gulph , from whose bosom all waters go out , and into which they all fall back again . whatever be of truth in this opinion , of an invisible ocean lurking in the sand , which helmont conceiv'd ingeniously , and upon probable enough arguments ; yet i think none will deny , but water may run a long way through beds of sand ; and when some passage is open , may be rais'd again , especially if it be urg'd by water descending from a higher ground . and i think that 't is probable the matter is so in our fountains , to wit , the water flows out of some cistern plac'd in the neighbouring mountains , by subterraneous passages , where the earth is firm and hard ; but when it has come into the plain , it expatiates far over the sand , and in the way is lifted up to this height when a hole is made with an auger , according to the laws of hydrostaticks . and i think this is a more expeditious and easie way of explicating the nature of this never-enough-admired spring , than to imagine a great vault , ( of which there are no marks ) and a town with a whole countrey hanging over it . to give some specimen how ●his flowing of the water may be according to my explication : suppose , as in fig. . that there is a cistern in the bowels of the apennine , drawing water from the sea , and that the water is carry'd by subterraneous pipes from the same cistern , and spread over this deep and sandy plain a b c , mixt with much gravel ; which sandy plain being brought into much lesser bounds , the water is forc'd to run down by a more narrow space than it had in the beginning , and to follow its course till it come into the sea , or some great gulph . therefore wells efgh being digg'd , without any choice in all the tract lying upon this spring , and a hole being made by the auger , the water of necessity must be lifted up on high , being forc't by another , which descending from a higher ground , presses on that which goes before , and drives it up . by this means these waters receive a plentiful supply from their father apennine , as does the well of waters which flows from lebanon , of which there is mention in the sacred history . but 't is , by far , more probable , that the water is sent from the sea into such a cistern , than from showers , or melted snows , seeing rain and snow-waters run away for the most part by rivers above ground ; neither can they enter into the ground so deep ; as seneca also testifies , that there is no rain so great , which wets the ground above ten foot : for as he says , when the earth is glutted , if any more fall , it shuts it out . and truly , how could it come to pass , that they should flow at the same rate as well in moist as in dry seasons , if the rain-water came hither , and they did not rather get their vvaters from the sea , which being strained through the sand , and deprived of all salt , they return to the sea again with interest . truly , i could never yet understand , how that secret cistern , from which vvaters are sent to these fountains , should not be unconstant , if they received moisture for a time from the rains and snows ; and sometimes increase , sometimes decrease ; and therefore , according to the increase and decrease of the pressure , some alteration should appear in these fountains . but the beds of clay , which divide the impure from the most pure vvaters , as most strong fences , do hinder the rain vvaters from being mix'd with these subterraneous vvaters . and plato thought , that a clayie ground was the last bounds of digging in the search of vvell-waters , obliging every one to dig to the chalk ; and if there was no vvater found in that depth , he suffer'd as much to be taken from the neighbours as they had need of , to which pliny subscribes , saying , that when potters clay appears , there is no more hopes of getting water , nor need men dig longer ; which yet agrees not with what is observed here . as i have deduc'd the original of this vvater from the sea , so i do not deny , that many fountains owe their originals to rains and melted snow ; yet with this difference , that the fountains which have their spring from the sea by hidden passages continue perpetual , but those which rise from showers and temporary springs at some time of the year , are diminished , and quite dry up ; as happens in great droughts ; such as baccius mentions to have been anno . in which not only all the fountains , but also great rivers dried up . the countrey on this and the other side of the po did experience such a season almost for two years together , viz. in . and in which time the lands were unpleasant because of the drought , and vvells were digg'd in other places , but to no purpose ; yet little alteration was to be observed in these our fountains , nor yet in the moistest season of all ; which made the year . fatal for dearness of provision , and epidemick diseases ; so that these our fountains seem to be of the same nature with that fountain in tyanus , consecrated to iupiter , of which philostratus says , that it suffer'd neither increase nor decrease ; and therefore by the natives is called vnquenchable . or like the vvell of aesculapius , which as aelius aristides , a most famous orator , relates , was a vvell of pergamus a city of asia , of such a nature , that it was always full to the brim ; and how much soever was drawn from it , it never decreas'd . neither have we reason only to think , that many fountains take their original from the sea , but also many lakes communicate with it . the lake of the vulsinians , whose depth is not yet found out , for discovering of which i have seen between narthana and bisentina ropes let down for some hundreds of fathoms , but in vain . this lake , i say , both summer and vvinter , discharges it self by the river martha perpetnally into the tyrrhenian sea , neither does it receive any rivers , and the mountains which encompass it are never white with snow . beside , in the same lake , when the air was very calm , and the surface of the vvater was smooth , i observed often intestine motions like currents in the ocean , which was known by the fishermens nets , which being sunk under water , were snatcht violently from their hands ; an evident proof of some hidden commerce with the sea. iulius obsequens , in his book of prodigies , relates , that the lake albinus , in the consulate of valerius and m. valerius , was suddenly raised up , when no rain fell from heaven , neither could there be known any cause of so sudden a swelling . i cannot be ignorant that the original of fountains and rivers from the sea is called in question . gaspar bartholinus , who follows the glorious footsteps of his ancestors , printed a treatise at hafnia , wherein he endeavours to prove that opinion to be absurd , which deduces the original of fountains and rivers from the sea ; so that all fountains , as well temporary as perpetual , according to him , owe their original to rain . suppose , as he ingeniously endeavours to prove , that for maintaining the perpetuity of the fountains in a dry season , a collection of the water of the precedent rains in some receptacle within the cavity of the mountains is sufficient . but truly , i cannot see how in some fountains their regularity and equal flowing can hold out for so long a time , as is observ'd in ours for so many ages ; seeing in whatever season , either dry or moist , there appears no sign of increase or decrease . but scaliger answers to those things which use to be objected against the opinion of the original of the fountains and rivers from the sea , in opposition to cardan , saying , there is no reason why the sea-water , before it come to the mountains , does not break out every where , in these words : but , o cardan , he whom in the d of genesis , the divine man says to have finisht all things , was so good an architect , so wise a water-bailif , that julius frontinus is nothing to him : he therefore did so skilfully join the pipes of his aqueducts , and fit them for bearing the burthen , as to free you from this fear . but truly , this difficulty which is objected about the sufficient strength of the subterraneous passages , gives no less trouble ( excepting the greater distance ) to the asserters of the other opinion , who attribute the original of fountains and rivers to rains. but how water is furnisht to the fountains from the sea , which being heavy of its own nature , must flow back into the sea from whence it came , making as it were a circle , is not agreed upon among those , who admit the original of fountains to be from the sea , as may be seen in gaspar schottus , who rehearses many opinions of the ancients and moderns , and examines them . so true is it what aristotle says , that 't was an old doubt , why seeing so great a quantity of water runs to the sea , it does not thereupon become bigger . some think that the sea-water ascends above its own original by the attractive force of the earth , some by shaking and the sea-tide , some by force of the inclosed spirit , which drives up the water to the top of the highest mountains ; others do attribute it to the pressure of the air , which by perpetually breaking down the surface , lifts the vvater up on high ; some recur to the divine providence : there are others who say , that the sea-water flows with a natural motion , whether from the bottom of the sea , or the sides , to the springs of fountains plac'd in the most high mountains , because the sea is higher than the earth , as the same schottus thinks . but i like better the opinion of des cartes , of which was also our countrey-man falloppius , who thinks that the sea-water , by reason of the subterraneous heat , is raised in form of a vapor to the highest mountains ; and there , by reason of the ambient rocks condens'd into water , as is usual in chymical distillations , so that the mountains are like heads of the alembicks , by the cold of which the exalted vapors are condensed into water , which afterwards breaks out into springs . iulius caesar recupitus tells , in his history of the burning of vesuvius , that at the same time it did send forth two streams , one of fire towards the shoar , another of water on the other side that looks to the plain of nola , the fire not only keeping time with the waters , but also producing them : for 't is to be thought that by force of the violent heat diffus'd over the mountains , so great a quantity of waters was exhaled from some cistern that held the sea-water , that it was sufficient for making a torrent . perhaps it might be as convenientby deduc'd from the rarefaction of the air inclos'd within the bowels of the mountains , pressing down the surface of the water , and so forcing it out another way . neither do the beds of stone and chalk , which bartholine objects , withstand the lifting of the vapors upward : for supposing the mountains are , as all confess them to be , cavernous within , such beds as these might afford this use , to stop the vapors lifted upward by force of the heat , and let them fall down by various chinks as veins , to which these beds , especially such as are gravelly and stony , are passable ; from whence the fountains arise , which are called mouths of the veins . therefore 't is a more ready way , and more agreeable to the laws of nature , to draw the original of fountains , which are perpetual , and subject to no alteration from the sea , by the continual ascent of vapors in the great receptacles of nature . and 't is reasonable to think it so in our case , both from the old state of the countrey on this side the po , and also the perpetual fires that the neighbouring mountains maintain , which at their wide mouths sometimes throw up much fire and ashes , with stones , with so great a noise and crashing , that it is heard sometimes miles off ; which truly is not new , seeing pliny mentions this , who writes , that in the land of modena the fire comes out on set days ; and tells it as a prodigy , that two mountains met together , smoke and fire coming out ; and that in the day time a great multitude of roman horsemen and travellers were looking on . but that is especially seen in mount gibbius , where there are many fountains , from which petroleum flows . an account of some very remarkable ones i had from my brother who saw them , and was confirmed to me by seignior spoletti , physician to the late ambassadors from venice , and professor of physick at padoua , when he was at my chamber . they be seen on a side of one of the apennine mountains , half way betwixt bologna and florence , near a place called petra mala , about five miles from fierenzola ; 't is in a spot of ground of three or four yards diameter , which incessantly sends up a flame rising very high , with no noise , smoak , or smell , but gives a very great heat , and has been observed to be thus in all times , except of great rains which put it out for a while ; but when that is over , it burns with greater violence than before ; the sand about it when turn'd up sends forth a flame , but within or yards round about it there are corn fields . the people that live near to it , believe that there is a deep hole there ; but he found it to be firm ground . there are or more of those near , but they do not burn so vehement by as this . when i was thinking on a more exact history of these fountains of petroleum , than is in writers . i understood by letters from malliabecchius , ( to whom , as prince of the learned ) whatever happens new in learning is presently brought ) that the most learned d. olinger , the kings professor at copenhagen , had lately published a book , which he found among some manuscripts , under the name of franciscus areostus , of the oil of mount zibinius , or the petroleum of modena , which book that most renowned author dedicated to the same malliabecehius , with a preface to the reader : a great reproach of our floth , who stay till some rise from the remotest countreys to illustrate our matters by our own writings . though i derive the original of our fountains from the sea first , then from some cistern of vvater plac'd in our mountains , into which the vapors , sent up by the inclos'd heat , are returned in form of vvaters . i would not thence infer , that this cistern is plac'd in the tops of the apennine mountains , but i believe rather that 't is plac'd in the foot of the mountain , than in the top ; for though , as i show'd before , 't is not always , necessary , that the vvaters , though inclos'd within pipes , should reach to the height of their cistern , which happens as often as their passage being stratinted , they have not free liberty to flow out , as in fig. . but if we should place this cistern in the tops of the apennine mountains , probably the vvaters might rise higher in them , when yet they do not rise to the surface of the ground . but i cannot certainly conjecture in what part , whether near the foot of the mountain , or in their inner parts , this cistern of vvaters is plac'd by the divine architect . i have spar'd no labour nor experiences to find out the head of this spring , and therefore i diligently viewed not only the plain towards the mountains , but the mountains themselves , and could find no marks of it . i observ'd indeed some small lakes , but such as dry up in the summer , and so become pasture for cattel ; of the number of which is the lake paulinus , miles distant from this . i thought best therefore to fetch the original of these waters from another source , viz. from some secret cistern of water plac'd in the inner parts of the apennine mountains . and it is certain , that the inner parts of the mountains are cavernous , and that there are in them cisterns of water , from whence fountains and rivers draw their original . lucan feign'd to himself a great cistern of water in the heart of the apennine , from which all the rivers of italy did flow , that run into both the seas . i am willing to bring in here his verses , seeing to reason in so abstruse matters with the philosophers , or to conjecture with the poets , is the same thing . fontibus his vastis immensos concipit amnes , fluminaque in gemini spargit divortia ponti . in laevum cecidere latus veloxque metaurus , crustuminumque rapax , & junctus sapis isauro , quoque magis nullum tellus se solvit in amnem , erldanus fract as deducit in aequora silvas ; dexterior a petens montis declivia tybrim vnda facit — hence from vast fountains do great rivers flow , and into double seas divorce do slide in several channels , down on the left side metaurus swift and strong crustumium flow . isapis join'd to isaurus , sonna too , and aufidus the adriatick beats . eridanus , than which no river gets more ground , whole forests rowls into the sea o'return'd . but seeing 't is known enough by what we have related in the history of these fountains , that this spring is not so old as the world , seeing the last plain in which the auger was fastned was formerly in the open air , as the trees in it make evident . if in the beginning of the world these waters had flown as they do now , the force of the water would easily have thrown off that weight , as it happens sometime when the boring is delay'd . then one will say , when , and how had this admirable source its original ? to this i may answer , that there are no monuments of this , nor can it be absolutely known when these waters began to flow ; yet 't is certain , that this accumulation of the ground hath not happen'd but after great land-floods , they leaving a great deal of mud here ; otherwise , as i was saying , the force of the water would have thrown off the weight . therefore i am inclin'd to believe , that after the plain was thus rais'd , some new ways were open'd by a great earthquake , so that the waters might flow from the cistern placed in the adjacent mountains , which receives them by a continal evaporation from the sea , and so might flow from that sandy ground , and so to have kept their course for many ages , before the wit of man reach'd hither , and open'd the veins of the earth with the auger as with a launce . and 't is known by many observations , that some fountains die by earthquakes , and some rise ; as ovid says , lib. . met. hic fontes natura novos emisit , & illic clausit , & antiquis tam multa tremoribus orbis flumina prosiliunt , aut excaecata residunt . in english thus : here nature , in her changes manifold , sends forth new fountains , there shuts up the old ; streams , with impetuous earthquakes , heretofore have broken forth , and sunk , or run no more chap. vi. the progress and end of these waters is enquired into , and a reason is given of those things which are observ'd in the digging of the wells . 't is worth the enquiry , what is the progress of these our waters that flow under ground , and whether they go ? but here i stick , and there is no place but for conjecture . i have often enquir'd of the undertakers , whether they felt the auger to be carried by violence to any side ; but i could understand nothing certain of them . but seeing the length of this source is far greater than its breadth , i think it more agreeable to truth , that these waters flow from east to vvest , according to the lenghth of the aemilian way , which tract of ground is six mile long , and but four broad , as far as i have had occasion to observe ; but when it has pass'd the way , we may judge that either 't is sunk into these wells of the earth , or by secret turnings and windings falls into the sea , according to the laws by which the water circulates in the body of the earth , which we read described by ecclesiastes in these words , all rivers enter into the sea , yet it does not overflow ; the rivers return to the place from whence they came , thither they return again . and the heathen poets , as lucretius , in these verses , lib. . debet ut in mare de terris venit humor aquai . in terr as itidem manare ex aequore salso . as rivers run from earth , and fill the main , so some through secret pores retur● again . but also is proved by the most grave and modern vvriters , with many reasons , as arias montanus , varenius , vossius , becher , and many others , whom the most famous lanzon , physician of ferrara , cites in his animadversions , full of variety . it may be doubted , and that not without reason , whether the course of these waters must be for ever . and truly , seeing from the times of the roman common-wealth , even to this age , there hath been so great an accumulation of the earth , as well in the city as in the adjacent lands , and in the channels of rivers , there is no place left of doubting , but the course of these fountains will at length cease , the causes continuing the same , to wit , while the next rivers take away with them the spoil of the mountains , and therewith cover the plains that lie under . therefore , as these fountains for a far better use did rise many feet above the surface of the earth , but now rarely reaches its surface ; so we must think , that the time will come in which these waters must stand in their vvells , having no descent by which to run down : and these changes , which succeed in great length of time , and without a vvitness , if we consider the present state of things , hardly deserve credit ; yet the thing it self speaks that they have truly happened , and will still follow : but because ( to use aristotile's words ) the things are done in great length of time in respect of our life , they are hid from us , and the ruine of all nations does happen before the change of these things , is told from the beginning to the end . but this is the common fate of cities that are plac'd in the plains , that after many ages they are almost half buried ; or , ( as the egyptian priest in plato says of the cities of greece ) are carried by the force of the rivers into the sea ; though on the other hand , towns which are plac'd on the tops of the mountains , their foundations being par'd , do tell the injuries of time : a sure proof , that there is nothing constant and firm in this world , but that we must look for the city that is on high , and is to continue for ever . but why these fountains , seeing they are supposed to take their original from the sea , have no ebbing or flowing , as some fountains , of which writers take notice ; as is that which pliny the younger mentions in the land of como , which ebbs and flows three times in a day . i think this to happen , because water is furnisht to these fountains from the sea , by the ascent of vapors ; which evaporation , though it be not always equal , because of the subterraneous fires sometimes weaker , sometimes stronger , yet 't is enough if it be such as is sufficient to keep the cistern full always to the same height , on which depends the equality of flux of these our fountains for so many ages , whatever come of the water that sometimes overflows , and is dispersed another way . but why some fountains at certain times flow , and at other times ebb , many causes are brought , of which ( i mean those which draw their source from the sea ) the cause is the ebbing and flowing of the sea , by force of which it comes to pass , that as the sea ebbs and flows , these fountains are sometimes observed full , and sometimes empty . we said , that in the winter-time a great heat was perceiv'd in these fountains , and in the summer time a great cold ; as appears also by the the● mometer let down to several depths , and the table before marked shews : which observations seem not a little to favour the defenders of an antiperistasis ; and so much the rather , that these observations were not made in a mountanous , but in a champion countrey . for i do not think it safe to try it in mines , and the caverns of the mountains ▪ because of the metallick exhalations , and divers salts and kinds of marcasites , with which they are pregnant ; for when such substances are sprinkled with water , they grow hot like quick lime , and raise divers exhalations , which the mineral waters do testifie that break out hot ; to which you may add , there are many store houses of fire , which may not a little alter the subterraneous region , which happens not in great plains , as is the countrey on this and the other side of the po. indeed , the most learn'd mr. boyle has gathered many things of the temper of the air under ground ; all which yet he says he had from such as made observations on many mines ; where he also relates , that in the same places , and at the same times of the year , there is found a different temper of the subterraneous regions , because of the different nature of salts . and he says , that from some mines are felt hot effluvia in the summer-time . and 't is observed , that not only out of the caverns of the mountains , hot exhalations breath in the summer-time , but also frequently a most cold air. in etruria , near the lake of the vulsinenses , near the town martha , is a little cave at the foot of a most high mountain , which is not above or feet deep ; but in the side of the cave at a little chink the wind blows so cold that it may be compar'd to the coldness of the north winds . the fathers of the order of the mimims of st. francis de paula , who have a church with a monastery near it , use this cave as a vault for their wine ; and in the summer-time draw their wine from thence as cold , as if it had been in snow ; yea , if they keep their summer fruits there sometime , they draw them out sprinkled with a cold dew , as i have observed , during my stay with them , in the dog days . but in the great plains where all the earth is solid , and does not keep so many kinds of salts or fires inclos'd , if we might go down deeper by digging , a greater certitude might be had of this subterraneous temperature . but in these vvells of ours i perceived this reciprocation of heat and cold sensible enough , as often as i descended into them at different times ; but that there might happen no deception by the senses being preposses'd with heat or cold , i observed it manifestly by a thermometer exactly sealed . but whatever is the nature of cold or heat , ( for 't is not proper in this place to enquire whether they are bare qualities or corpuscles causing such a sensation in us . ) antiperastis , as i think , ought not to be banish'd out of the schools ; for it may be explained right enough both ways . whether therefore , according to the diversity of climates and countreys , there be a different temper of the air under ground , yet 't is certain that the thermometer being let down , does speak with distinct notes , that there is at least in the first region of the earth , ( whatever be of the deeper and central parts of the earth ) this reciprocation of heat and cold , according to the different changes of the year ; and always in a quality opposite to that which the external air , in which we live , hath : so that here may be used that sentence of the noble hippocrates , lux orco tenebrae iovi ; lux iovi tenebrae orco . but before we come out of these vvells , it will be fit to give the reasons of some phaenomena that are observ'd in the digging of them . it was said before , that there is a great rest in the air in the vvinter-time , so that the candles continue burning ; there is no smoaky exhalation , and they easily draw their breath ; but in the summer-time there is raised a thick cloud , the lights are put out , and the diggers are almost kill'd . but from whence this ? vvhen rather in the winter-time , because of the heat , more intense at that time , and equal to the summers heat , it might seem consonant to reason , that in a moist place a smoaky exhalation should be rais'd , which should trouble the air , and put out the lights ; but in the summer , by reason of the cold which lodges in these vvells , not much unlike the cold in the vvinter , it would seem reasonable that the air should be more pure , nor so intangled with gross vapours , as to be unfit for respiration ! vvhether 't is that the heat , which in the vvinter-time is in these wells by reason of an antiperistasis , being greater , hath force to dissipate these vapors ; but in the summer-time , by reason of the cold , they cannot be dissolved ! or rather , that the exhalations in the winter , that are raised by the heat in these vvells , are lighter than the external and thicker air , and so do ascend more easily , but in the summer are heavier than the external air ; and therefore stagnating there , cause a difficulty of breathing , and put out the lights when kindled . but here i cannot but wonder , why in the mines , though of great depth , as are those in hungary , the miners continue any time of the year with their candles lighted , and that in any season ; nor do they feel so great an inconvenience in breathing : but in our wells that are in the open air , and communicate with the open air , not by turnings , but in a streight line , the vvorkmen in the summer-time are almost suffocated , and their lights put out ; so that in the dog-days there is no hiring of them to work . perhaps this falls out , because the mines in the mountains and dry places have not so gross an air , but such as is sufficient for respiration ; but these being digg'd in a champion countrey , and moist ground , send forth streams more plentifully ; so the air being filled with them is unfit for respiration . i deny not but in the mines the miners are sometimes troubled with shortness of breath , partly by reason of their own breaths , and partly because of the metallick exhalations ; yea , are sometimes killed ; so that to prevent the danger of being stifled , they use air-pumps , for taking up the fowl air , and letting in fresh ; a description of which you may see in agricola . beside , they dig a pit some distance from the mine , tending downwards , from which a mine is extended to the place where the diggers work , which serves for a wind pipe ; and by bringing in fresh air , and driving the old to the mouth of the pit , does much refresh the vvorkmen , and frees them from the danger of being stifled ; but that is only done in the deeper mines , as agricola and mr. boyle relate . the lights therefore are put out in the summer-time in these vvells , and the diggers are seiz'd with a great difficulty of breathing , because the air in it is fill'd with gross vapours ; which thick and ponderous vapors cannot ascend in the hotter and lighter air , but are to lodge there by reason of their weight . but the vital light requires of necessity a thinness , and empty spaces in the air , in which it may lay down its fulginous effluvia , and needs fresh air for its food , otherwise it quickly dies . it was observed before , in rehearsing the curious things that occur in the digging of these vvells , that there are three beds of clay two of foot , another below it of less thickness , with marshy beds between them of two feet thick . i have often times studied to find out the generation of these-beds , examining with my self how they are distinguish'd in this order of time thro' the whole tract . i know there have been amongst our countreymen some who think , that these beds of clay are the product of the universal deluge . but this author , whose name i now pass in silence , lest i should seem to contend with the ghosts , ( for he died this year ) tho' he was born in this countrey , yet having liv'd always abroad , was surely never present at the digging of those wells , but hath had from others all that he says of them : for if he had seen the structure of these fountains , he would never have written , that the clay in these vvells was feet deep , and the marshy ground as thick : for there are three beds of clay , two of foot apiece , and one less , with their beds of marshy ground between of two foot a piece . therefore this conjecture for the truth of the universal deluge , taken from the thickness of the clay , is of no weight . i am perswaded therefore , that after the universal deluge , whose vestigies are perhaps deeper , these beds of clay were produc'd by three particular floods , yet great and most ancient ; so that from one flood to another much time interceded , in which the stagnation of the water , and the ground putrifying together with the leaves and roots of reeds , gave original to these intermedial marshy beds . i can easily believe , that this bulk of clay was made of the earth drawn down from the mountains , by the hasty descent of the waters into these valleys ; seeing for gathering of clay for the potters , 't is usual with us to convey the vvater into pits made by art , out of the rivers scultenna and gabellus , by which means the water being exhaled by the heat of the summer , there settles much clay in them , which the potters afterwards use for making their vessels . and pliny testifies , that the potters art excelled in this city of old , because of the excellency of the clay , and its toughness , saying , that modena was famous in italy for potters work ; when at that time , as he says , luxury had come to that height , that potters work cost more than porcelline . and we have reason to think , that this diversity of beds , which is seen in great plains , has been made by several inundations and accumulations of the ground : but from whence that diversity of beds comes , which is also found in the mountains , is not so easie to determine . agricola says , there were sixteen beds of different colours in the mines of the mountain melibochus , and of different heights ; but if one could dig deeper , doubtless a great many others would appear . if we would stick to the opinion of our faloppius , 't will not be a hard matter to understand the generation of these beds , and their diversity in the mountains ● for he thinks , that the mountains were made by a dry exhalation shut up in the bowels of the earth , which he gathers from their pyramidical figure ; yea , he thinks they are nourished by such an exhalation , and grow by peace-meal ; from whence it comes to pass , that , as in sublimation of antimony , flowers of different sorts are gathered according to the diversity of the pots , so he thinks the same to happen in the caverns of the mountains , according to the different generation of metals and fossils . but when in the creation , mountains were built by the great artificer , 't is fit to own they were made in their whole perfection ( as being the first former of all things ) and with so many beds for various uses . bartholine , in the discourse before cited , shews ingeniously the use which these beds give , especially those of clay , for the generation of fountains , whether they be made of rains , as the temporary ones ; or of sea-water , as the perpetual or regular ones : for these beds are of special use for the collection of waters into one receptacle , and likewise for their running a long way , otherwise they should be lost ; neither would there be any reason , why they should break forth in one place more than another ; which use , without doubt , these beds of clay perform in these fountains ; for while these waters run through the sandy plain , 't is reasonable to think , that there is another bed of clay lying under ; so that being shut up above and below , they follow their course as it were thro' a pipe , except when they break out into the air , a way being open'd to them by these wells . therefore supposing the hidden expansion of these waters over the sandy and gravelly plain , 't is no wonder if a noise be perceiv'd in the bottom of these wells , while the water runs through the gravel , ( which gravel 't is more probable to be there made of the sand , than to fall from the mountains , ( seeing a great part of it is so soft , that by the only rubbing of your fingers it is broke ) and if the water be rais'd in all the wells to the same height , seeing there is the same cause which drives it on high , to wit , the pressure of the water descending from an higher place , and from the same receptacle . and lastly , if they be equally pure and wholsom , seeing they are of the same disposition . for the same reason the same waters are the more lively , the more is drawn from them , and their slowness is corrected when it happens ; because by the sand thrown up , and sinking to the bottom , the hole made with the auger is sometimes stopt ; a sure proof that these vvaters run through a sandy plain , but not at all through an immense wide space ; which may be further known by the depression and failing of the ground , that is observed sometimes to happen when too much water and sand has run out . chap. vii . the proportious inquir'd into , that the elevation of water in a streight pipe , inserted into a horizontal one , has to the height of its cistern . the nature of fluid bodies is so abstruse and intricate , that it could never be enough explained by the most solid wits . among the ancients archimedes has left us a few theorems , but of great moment , in a book which he has written , de insidentibus humido , of things that float ; which book , that i may use tully's own words of crantor's books , is not great , but golden . among the moderns , the honourable mr. boyle , galilaeus , sterinus , borellus ; and lastly , d. guilielminus , a noble mathematician of bononia , have chiefly cultivated this most noble part of philosophy ; who though they all , by many observations and hydrostatical experiments have dived far into the wonderful properties of fluids , yet have left room for a further enquiry : for if in any case seneca's words are of value , 't is in this the greatest and most intricate of all , in which even when much is done , the age following will find something more to do . seeing then , according to our hypothesis , the waters of this hidden source are movable and running , and withal ascend on high ; because , as was said before , the passage by which they go out , and fall into a gulph , is straitned ; and seeing the ascent into these wells is constant and perpetual , nor can be done without some proportion to the height of their cistern ; because this cistern is supposed by us to be in the foot of the nearest apennine mountains , and higher by far than the elevation of these waters from the bottom of the wells to the top ; therefore i thought it would not be unprosftable nor unpleasant , if i endeavoured to shadow out , if not exactly to describe , such a proportion . suppose then there be a vessel abc full of water , to which a pipe de is fastned in a horizontal line , and whose orifice is half shut , so that the water does not flow with a full stream : let there be likewise in the middle of the pipe d f another glass pipe hi inserted perpendicularly ; therefore granting a free passage to the water , i say , that the water will be lifted in the middle pipe hi to such a height , that if the height of the water contain'd in the vessel be of eight parts , the elevation of the water in the streight pipe hi shall be of six parts ; and such a proportion will answer to any division of the mouth of the pipe d f. for if the orifice of the pipe d f be wholly shut , so that no water runs down , none is ignorant that the water in the pipe hi of its own nature must place its self in the same horizontal line with the water contain'd in the vessel , to which effect two things doubtless concur with equal force , to wit , the pressure of the water contain'd in the vessel , and the resistance of the obstacle that wholly obstructs the hole in the pipe , which stop is eqvivalent to a power pressing with equal force against the water stagnating in the vessel ; if then the elevation of the water in such a case is a produce arising from two causes equally working , to wit , the pressure of the water , and the resistance of the stop , it will follow , that when the orifice of the same pipe d f shall only be stopt in part , the ascent of the water in the intermedial pipe h i , whatever it be , will be a product of the same pressure , as in the first case , and the virtual pressure of the stop , but working unequally ; from hence it comes to pass , that when the pressure of the superincumbent water in the vessel that presses it to flow out , is in the same degree and energy as before ; and on the other hand , the force of the stop is removed , the water cannot be lifted up so high in the pipe erected perpendicularly , as to reach the height of the water contain'd in the vessel , but must of necessity be under it ; so that if the height of the water were in supposition eight foot , and operated with such a pressure as were equal to that height , but the stop should not act but half , i. e. as four ; these two working together , and making the ascent of the water , there cannot but happen an effect , which is between these two agents , as is between and , i. e. in an arithmetical proportion ; and therefore in the supposed case the water will be only raised in the streight pipe h i to parts , which elevation is half the aggregate of the height of the water contain'd in the vessel , and the power of the stop. this was my reasoning before i try'd whether the thing agreed to it ; which i did , by inserting a wooden and square pipe into the side of the vessel , as in fig. . and fitting a glass pipe divided into parts , and erected perpendicularly to the same pipe ; then putting a stop to the pipe , which might only obstruct the half of it , i let the water run out , and observed that the water did rise in the glass pipe in the same proportion , to wit , as to : yet i must confess , that the ascent of the water did not so exactly answer to the greater or lesser obstacles put to the hole of the pipe , because perhaps of the difficulty of fitting divers doors to the orifice , and because of the undulation of the water produc'd in the glass pipe from the impetus , where 't is observed to go out . having therefore communicated these my observations to the most famous bocchabadatus , mathematician to the great duke , and my intimate friend from our childhood , ( for i always thought it the part of an ingenuous man , that i may use pliny's words , to confess by whom i have profited ) he prompted me with a method by which i might obtain my desire . when therefore he thought that the diversity of stops might be supplied , if to the hole of the pipe , from whence the water should come out , another streight pipe of the same bigness were set , but with a proportion to the height of the cistern . i made trial , and the thing succeeded according to my desire . so in fig. . supposing the altitude of the water in the vessel to be of parts , and the pipe mn to be only of parts , by which means 't is equivalent to an obstacle that takes up half the breadth of the aperture , letting the water run out , and the vessel always remaining full , the water in the pipe hg appear'd suspended in e , to wit , in the height of parts , which is half the sum of and , the height of the water and the resistence of the obex . in like manner in fig. . when the pipe is of the height of parts , the water in the glass pipe e f was seen to rise to s , to wit , to parts the same was observed ( as in fig. . ) when the pipe e h pouring forth the water , was of ● parts , i. e. equivalent to an obstacle stopping the fourth part of the orifice ; for in the glass pipe the water stood in t , i. e. in part . and that as exactly as physical experiments will admit , as every one may easily try . i do not doubt but the same will happen in any other case ; therefore reason and experience do sufficiently prove , that the water is raised in a middle arithmetical proportion between the force of the obstacle , and the height of the water in the cistern . while on this occasion i diverted my self in making various hydrostatical experiments in the dog-days , i happened to make a very curious observation , to wit. that though the height of the water be the same in the vessel , and the same horizontal pipe be inserted into it ; yet in the perpendicular pipes , according to the difference of their situation , there is a notable difference of the altitude of the water in one and the other , as in fig. . let the vessel a b c d be full of water , the pipe d h be inserted into it , and shut in the extremity , and let f g h i be the glass pipes erected perpendicularly , but m the pipe pouring out water . therefore in the pipe f g , according to what was said before , the water will rise to o , i. e. to parts . for the height of the pipe m pouring out the water is suppos'd . and the height of the water contain'd in the vessel is as . but if the pipe f g be transferred to h i ( the orifice where it was fastned being stopt ) the water will be raised higher , i. e. to n , to almost degrees ; which would likewise happen , if at the same time two glass pipes f g h i stood upright , and the pipe m should pour out water , the vessel being always full ; for this different height of waters is perceiv'd well enough in every case . one may try the same , not only when the pipe that pour'd out the water is longer or shorter , but also when many pipes of different lengths , and with proportion to the height of the water contain'd in the vessel , send forth water at the same time , and many glass pipes are interjected , seeing many cases may be fain'd according to every ones fancy . but seeing there is no small undulation in the glass pipes , because the water running out at m , falls back upon its self ; this inconveniency will in some measure be shunned , if the pipe f h be something bended , that so both the glass pipes , and the pipes sending forth the water be inclin'd to one side ; for in this case there will happen less undulation , and the different heights of the water may be more easily viewed . the reason of this phaenomenon i judge to be , that the impetus of the water running from the cistern out at m , withdraws some of the water from the pipe f g , so that it cannot rise so high ; and the same impetus coming to h i , finding now no vent , makes it rise higher , even to n. this new observation i communicated to the same boccabadatus , who , as he did not a little wonder at the novelty of the thing , so being a most ingenious and exact searcher into natural things , he did not cease to enquire into the cause of it ; yea , afterwards he told me he had the demonstration of it , which he said he would insert into his work which he is to publish , about mechanick force . i thought fit to propose this phaenomenon to the lovers of hydrostaticks , thinking it worthy of the consideration of the more acute vvits , to the end it may be discovered from whence this diversity of pressures proceeds . chap. viii . about the goodness and excellency of the wells of modena . therefore having sail'd over these subterraneous waters , according to the best of my understanding , as far as i could in a dark navigation , in which neither the stars nor the needle did guide me , it remains that i furl my sails , and hasten to the land. georg. . but that i may not pass over with a dry foot the nature of these fountains , so far as they are useful to men ; and lest , as the custom is of those that are thirsty , i drink quietly . i shall touch only at some things relating to this subject , though it seem to be beyond my purpose . 't is an old dispute , what in the class of simple waters is most wholsom ? seeing some prefer rain-waters , others prefer fountain-waters ; in some places river-waters are most preferred , in others well-waters . hippocrates seem'd to prefer rain-waters to all others ▪ for these he called the sweetest ▪ the thinnest , and the clearest of all ; seeing what is thinnest and lightest of the water is exalted and drawn up by the sun : yet 't is certain hippocrates spoke of rain waters in the summer-time , which they call horaiae , i. e. early , seeing among waters that want art , he commends these , which in the summer time ▪ fall down from the sky when it thunders ; but these that fall in storms he pronounces bad . celsus , galen , avicenna , paulus , and others , following hippocrates , judge the same . on the other hand , pliny does greatly discommend rain-waters ; yea , he is so angry , that he thinks the o pinion which commends them , to endanger men's lives ; neither does he think it an argument of levity that they have been raised to heaven , seeing stones also have been rais'd to heaven ; and further , vvaters , when they fall from the clouds , may be infected by the exhalations of the earth , so that fountain-water to him seems preferable to them , when plenty of them may be had . but if the thing be duly considered , there will be no place left to dispute ; for all rain-waters , as also fountain-waters being not of the same goodness , seeing every countrey has not the same atmosphere , nor the same ground thro' which the water passes , seeing also ; according to theophrastus , such as the earth is , such is the water ) it often happens , as co●taeus adverts , that in some places for the purity of the air , the rain-waters are better , but in other places the fountain or river-waters are the best ; as the water of the river nile , whose much wish'd-for inundation keeps all egypt every year solicitous . but 't is no wonder that the water of the nile excels in goodness all others , seeing running a long way over a countrey burnt with the heat of the sun , 't is concocted , and is tossed by sudden falls from the highest mountains , and attenuated . hence athenaeus testifies , that when philadelphus king of egypt betroth'd his daughter berenice to antiochus king of assyria , he willed her to take with her the water of the nile . yet when other things do not agree , it seems the fountain-waters ought to be preferred to rain-waters , and all others ; for rain-waters are drawn from all sorts of filth , dung and dead bodies themselves ; and though hippocrates judged them best , yet he adds , that they have need of being boil'd and strain'd . wherefore 't is not without reason , that some do disprove making of syrup of poppeys with rain-water ; and they think that hippocrates spoke according to reason , and not experience . so among the moderns , the most experienc'd etmuller says , that rain-water kept always something earthy behind it , though distilled a hundred times . but so will any water do as well as rain water . but well-waters , seeing they have no motion but when they are stirred , and in the bottom have much slime , and rain-waters being gathered of snow and rains , and running over divers kinds o● earths , and are therefore by hippocrates call'd disagreeing , cannot have that purity and simplicity which the fountain-waters have , which are concocted by the heat pent up in the bowels of the earth , and are strain'd through the same earth . therefore our most pure fountain-waters , as they have the first place in the rank of plain waters , so they yield to none of the most famous fountains of our times ; for as much as the marks , by which the most sincere waters , and fittest for humane use , are commended , do appear in these in a most eminent manner . the chief quality that is wanted in water , and which contains the rest , by way of excellency , is , that it partake most of the nature of the air. so pliny hath written , that wholsom water ought to be most like to the air. on which account cassiodorus commended the virgin water , so famous then at rome , that running most purely it resambled the air. for water ought to be pure , like the air , light and clear , free of smell and taste , thin , and susceptible of heat and cold. but the waters of these fountains are such ; for they are clear like the air , free of smell and taste , do most quickly receive any other quality , and being weigh'd are lighter than any others . though physicians do not seem to value much the argument taken from the lightness ; and the divine master calls these light , which are soon hot and soon cold . and pliny writes , that 't is in vain to examine by the balance the goodness of the waters ; seeing it seldom happens that one is lighter than the other ; which brasavolus try'd in several kinds of waters , before hercules the second duke of ferrara : yet seeing there are not wanting more subtile ways of knowing even the least difference of weight in waters , according to the doctrine of archimedes , levity is not altogether to be neglected , for levity signifies the absence of the terrestrial parts , and is a sure proof of greater simplicity . truly 't is without doubt , that if there were two vessels of the same capacity , and full of the same water , and in one of these , divers kinds of salts were dissolved in a certain quantity , though the water did not grow in bulk , yet the one will be of greater weight than the other , and will be filled with strange qualities ; wherefore gravity and ▪ levity are not to be slighted . i will not deny , that some waters naturally light , are worse than others that are heavier , because of the evil qualities of the soil through which they pass . athenaeus says , that the waters of amphiaraus and e●treria being compar'd together , do not differ in weight , yet the one is wholsom and the other not . so tit●aresius , a river of which homer speaks , running into penaeus , is not mixt with it , but swims over it like oil : yet pliny says , his waters are deadly . and he says , that penaeus refuses to suffer his silver-colour'd waters to be mix'd with the others deadly waters . if we infuse a whole glass of antimony in water , otherwise light , no weight will be added to it to judge of ; but none is ignorant what disorders it raises in the body . and it is necessary to confess these things to be true of the lightness of the water considered alone , but if with other marks of goodness there be lightness join'd , it will be no small accession to its goodness . herodotus describes a fountain of aethiopia , the water of which he says was of such lightness , that nothing could swim in it , no , not a stick , nor what was lighter than a stick ; and such as used those waters were called macrobii , i. e. long-liv'd . gelen himself commends the lightness of the water for a probable conjecture of its goodness . but if the lightness be alone , says he , 't will not be a sufficient mark of good water : which one may also say of all the other signs , seeing none of it self , and separately is a sufficient mark of its goodness . but a surer mark of the goodness of water is , if it be not heavy in the bowels ; for this is truly the lightest , and this kind of lightness is more to be esteemed than that which may be try'd with the scale . for we must not presently , because 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. deprived of all quality , so as to be pure , clear , void of smell and taste , give sentence , and pronounce it innocent ; but we must bring another proof , viz. how they affect the bowels ; for it may be that it has all external marks of goodness , yet has a more secret noxiousness , which cannot be found out by the external sense . this therefore will be the true and safer judgment of waters , which is brought from experience it self : and truly that water is to be thought light by the effect , which makes not the bowels feel any weight in passing ; for which kind of lightness the waters of modena are very commendable , as not weighting the stomach when one drinks a full draught of them , but easily pass through the whole body , and are voided by sweat and urine . but above all these , hippocrates chiefly commends these fountains , whose waters come forth of deep springs , which are cold in summer , and warm in winter ; but all these things are observed in these fountains , seeing they rise foot high ; and in summer are very cold , but in winter are warm , yea , exhale some small vapors . neither must we refer the heat which is found in these waters in the winter-time to metallick exhalations , or a mixture of salts with an acid mineral , seeing that is perceiv'd only in the winter-time by an antiperistasis . all know that there are as many differences of waters as of places ; for fountain and well-waters do easily drink up the different qualities of the ground , through which they pass , which are innumerable ; yet those waters are thought more wholsom , that run through thick sand and gravel , because they carry nothing from such a matter upward , which cannot be said of that which runs through clay and soft sand. but the waters of these fountains flow a long way through sand , which is called male , a proof of which is a great abundance of dross , sand , and gravel , which these fountains use to throw up at their first coming forth . moreover , these waters , according to my observation , and of many others , continue without corruption for a long time . for it is found by experiment in long navigations , that the water of neuceria did stink , but ours continued pure . i am not ignorant , 't is a question among physicians no less curious than worthy to be known , whether the sudden corruption of the water be a mark of its goodness or badness ? perhaps hippocrates himself gave cause of doubting , who , after he had commended rain water , says , they soon putrifie , except they be boil'd and strained again . galen , paulus , avicenna , and some of the ancients ; amongst the moderns , ioubertus , salius , augenius , bruvierinus , and many others , take the waters readiness to putrifie for a sign of goodness , providing other notes agree . for the chief property of water is , say they , that they be quickly altered by any external cause ; and from thence they think its inclinableness to putrefaction to arise : but these which continue long free of corruption , say they , partake of an aluminous nature : such are the waters of tyber , which are kept in earthen vessels for months and years , under ground , without corruption . on the other hand , there are some who think an inclinableness to putrefaction among the faults of water ; among whom is costaeus , who says , that it is a mark of the best water , that they do not so easily corrupt : and is deservedly oppos'd to avicenna , who thought that rain-waters were soon corrupted , because they were thinner : for rather from thinness of the substance one might argue , that their substances are less subject to corruption , as is known of distilled waters , and spirits of vvine , which truly is thinner than vvine , and not only does not putrifie it self , but also preserves other bodies free from corruption . seeing then experience it self makes it plain , that those which are most simple do less putrifie , but those which have a greater heterogenity , because of the disagreement of the internal parts , and a continual fermentation , are more easily corrupted . therefore i am easily induc'd to believe , that the curruption of the water is rather to be attributed to its pravity , than goodness . but the reason why the rain waters sooner putrifie , may be this , that when by the heat of the sun the water is rais'd from the earth , all sorts of filth are raised with it , and a great quantity of volatile salts is mixed with it : which made becher say , that all rain-waters being putrified and distilled , did give an ardent spirit . but if promptitude to putrefaction were a sign of goodness , why may we not say the same of eatables , which naturally do soon putrifie ; such as are fleshes , fishes , vvorts , early ripe fruits , and the like , viz. that these aliments are better than those which do not so soon putrifie , seeing they are sooner alter'd by the concocting faculty . weaker foods have a shorter life . hippocrates , as valesius interprets , says , they make men's lives shorter ; and such as cat these meats are infirm and weak , and cannot live so long . so bread of wheat well fermented , and well bak'd , gives a most excellent nourishment , and long life , to sound bodies ; and bread of all food does least putrefie . upon which account 't is , that levinus lemnius commendeth it . for ( says he ) bread long kept does indeed grow mouldy , and grows dry , but does not putrefie . therefore 't is not a little to the praise of our fountains , that they do not corrupt ; so that having other marks of goodness , they are to be reckon'd the best of waters . 't is an old commendation of waters , if pulse be quickly boil'd in them , as pliny , athenaeus , vitruvius , galeus , paulus ; and among the modern physicians , langius , costaeus , bruvierinus , and others , do testifie . but 't is known , that this also is common to unwholsom waters ; for the difficulty of boiling some pulse is not always by the fault of the waters , but very often of the grains themselves , as they have grown in this or the other ground , as theophrastus testifies , when he said , that there are many places which always bring forth pulse that are easily boil'd , others there are which bring forth grains hard to be boil'd yea , plutarch says , that of two furrows join'd together , one brings forth a hard crop , the other not . the women themselves know that well enough , who if they have pulse that are not easily boil'd , use to macerate them a night in water with a sack full of ashes , by which means the close texture of the grain is open'd by the force of the salt in the ashes . and i think none will look upon the water , so made lixivial , as simple ; or will commend it for daily drinking in whole bodies . yet i cannot deny , that salt and crude waters , very far distant from the best , may be for some sickly natures ; or in a neutral state of health , instead of medicine , which hippocrates hath taught expresly in these words : but whatever are salt and crude , are not fit for all to drink of ; yet there are some natures to whom such waters are convenient to be drunk . whatever were hard to be boiled , the greek call'd ateramnia , transferring likewise the same word to a stubborn and inflexible mind . so grains hard to be boil'd were call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as are those which theophrastus says , grow in a thick tough earth , and as it were clayie ; as at philippi , when the pulse which egypt bears , both by reason of the nitrous soil , and the heat , are easily boil'd . likewise water , in which grains were hardly boil'd , was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which word hippocrates us'd to signifie the crudity of water in many occasions , of which erotianus hath in his onomasticon made a collection . therefore , as the difficulty of the pulses being boil'd is not always the fault of the waters , so their being easily boil'd is not a mark of their goodness ; which sometimes is proper to the seeds , sometimes to the vvaters ; yea , more effectual in some waters that are not of the best ; seeing in nitrous and lixivious water pulse , roots , and worts are sooner boil'd . upon this account in rain-waters , as being full of saline particles , all kind of grains are sooner boil'd than in fountain-water , which is more pure and defecated . upon this account horatius augenius , preferring rain-water to others for making of ptisan , when he had taken notice that barley did sooner boil in this , than in spring-water , of his own accord confesses , that the rain-vvaters are not sincere ; which made him go into this opinion as a paradox , that the purer the water is , and less mixt , the less 't is fit for the use of life . but in our fountain-waters , pulse of all sorts is easily enough boil'd , and any other kind of aliments , which , as i dare not discommend in them , so i think is no way to be taken for a mark of the best . but certainly that is a greater criterion for judging of the goodness of plain vvaters , which , as vitruvius says , is taken from the habit of men's bodies that live about those waters ; to wit , if they be robust , clear complexions , sound , and not blear-ey'd . now 't is known enough , that both citizens , and such as live in the suburbs here , are of a good habit of body , and subject to none of these distempers ; and the good health which those of modena enjoy beyond other towns on this side the po , is not so much to be ascribed to the wholsomness of the air , as to the goodness of the waters ; as in egypt , where their long life , according to alpinus , is attributed to the water of the nile . seeing therefore in the most strict censure , the waters of these fountains are not only innocent , but wholsom , truly this city has nothing in which it may envy any other as to this point ; yea , seeing its waters are carried to the neighbouring places in the summer-time , the nucerian water is now out of use , to the great benefit of the sick . so in the summer-time they run to these fountains in all kinds of fevers , ( for the use of water , that i may not say the abuse , is grown so frequent , that it seems the only febrifuge ) and chiefly to the fountain which is called abyssus , as to the vvell of esculapius , of which we spoke before . vvherefore i need not fear to make use of what claudian says of aponus , that they are at least amongst our countrey-folks . — commune medentum auxilium , praesens numen inempta salus . physicians common aid , a present help , a powerful deity , and an unpurchas'd health . and so much may suffice concerning the nature and properties of the vvells of modena ; and if i have said something like probable , 't is well ; but if not , then both for the dignity and the difficulty of the matter , volutatum est dolium in cranio . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e theor. l. . p. . tell. th. l. . c. . tell. th. c. . p. , , . ☞ ram. p. , . notes for div a -e fig. . exer. . de motu anim . p. . prop. . notes for div a -e ☜ ☜ notes for div a -e ep. . lib. . notes for div a -e lib. . hist. nat. c. . c. . lib. quaest. nat. c. . cant. . l. . quae. nat. c. . de leg. dial. . notes for div a -e lib. . de re metallica . notes for div a -e in lucul . notes for div a -e aph. . lib. . n. . c. . one may rather say saline . in thal. de bonit . aq . c. . the beauty and order of the creation together with natural and allegorical meditations on the six dayes works of the creation : with the addition of two compendious discourses : i. of the creation of man after the image of god, ii. of the creation of angels, with a description of their several properties / by ... mr. john maynard ... ; published by william gearing ... maynard, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing m estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the beauty and order of the creation together with natural and allegorical meditations on the six dayes works of the creation : with the addition of two compendious discourses : i. of the creation of man after the image of god, ii. of the creation of angels, with a description of their several properties / by ... mr. john maynard ... ; published by william gearing ... maynard, john, - . gearing, william. [ ], p. printed by t.m. for henry eversden ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the beauty and order of the creation . together with natural and allegorical meditations on the six dayes works of the creation . with the addition of two compendious discourses . i. of the creation of man after the image of god. ii. of the creation of angels , with a description of their several properties . by that eminent and learned divine mr. iohn maynard , late of mayfield in sussex . published by william gearing minister of the word . mundi creatio est dei scriptura , cujus ●●ia sunt folia ; coelum , terra , mare . clem. alexandr . cum nequeat cerni deus ab universa creatura , imaginis loco posuit hominem , ut omnes creaturae dum inserviunt homini , sic colant supremum numen , hujus universi scil . opific●m . procopius gazeus in gen. c. . london , printed by t. m. for henry eversden , under the crown tavern in vvest-smithfield , . to the right worshipfull sir iohn stapley of patcham , in the county of sussex , baronet ; and to the vertuous ladies , the lady springet of the broyle in sussex , and to the lady stapley of patcham . all things in the world be the creatures of god : the efficient cause of creation is god ; essentially , not personally taken : as for the order of working , divines thus say ; the father is causa movens , the son operans , by whom all things were made : the holy ghost pe●ficiens ; it is sa●d , genes . . he moved upon the face of the waters . yet are we not to think , as if there were three efficient causes of creation , but only one ▪ the father , son , and holy ghost being one and the same essence , is but one and the same cause of creation . indeed creation is principally attributed to god the father , both in respect of order , and because he is principium operationum ; the son is of the father , so are all divine actions . god is the only creator of all things : not natur● ; not angels ; not chance and fortune , as many blasphemous hereticks , and some philosophers have conceited . that the world was created , and not eternal , as the same philosophers affirmed , faith principally assures us of it . hebr. . . by faith we understand the worlds were created . in genes . . moses sets down fully the history of the creation . but the creation may be proved . . from the originals of all nations ; we may plainly know the first beginning of all people inhabiting the whole world , as genes . . moreover . when arts were first invented , is clear and manifest ; as the invention of musick , of instruments of iron and brass , &c. and by whom : it is unlikely , if the world had been eternal , so many generations of men had lived without them . . it appeareth from the order of causes ▪ there must needs be a first cause , otherwise there should be processus in infinitum , which is impossible ; now if a first cause ▪ then that which is the efficient of all other is god ; therefore all things were created . i will let pass the curious questions of the schools , as what god did before the world was created , in what time of the year , upon what day it was created : why god did not create the world sooner , &c. 't is knowledge enough to know , that god did create the world. now god hath drawn and framed all things out of nothing ; for that is properly to create , viz. to make something of nothing . the school-men observe this difference , inter genita , facta , & creata , between things begotten , things made , and things created : things are begotten of their own matter ; they be made of another matter ; they be created of no matter . we and all things are said to have been created by god , because he made us of nothing , that is , of no pre-existent matter , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of things that were not before , giving beeing to that which had not beeing : now when i say , god made all things of nothing ; nothing is to be taken negative , nor privative , that is , god created all things out of pure nothing . the philosophers have a maxim indeed ▪ that ex nihilo nihil fit : but ( as one well distinguisheth ) that is to be understood , de generatione physica , non creatione divina ; of natural generation , not of divine creation . nature must have something wherewith to work , something whereon to work ; god had neither of both when he created the first matter , out of which afterwards he created other things , called by moses , tohu vabohu ; by philosophers , chaos : he had neither instrument to work with , nor matter to work upon ; he commanded only , as david saith , and all was made ; spake the word only , and all was created . god said , let there be light , &c. which supposeth no matter to work upon but god by the power of his word created it : omnipotency can effect things without matter , creation is an act of omnipotency . angels , and the souls of men were created of nothing , without matter , because immaterial ; god therefore can as well create , other things . if god created the world from some matter , then that matter had being from it self , or from another : if from another , then that was created of nothing ; if from it self , then should it be the same with god , because only god is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a being from himself ; to affirm that , were blasphemy . now god only can , and did create , because god only is omnipotent , and omnipotency is an incommunicable attribute : there is an infinite distance between ens & non ens . besides , every thing that is created is good only by participation ; therefore it is necessary all things receive their goodness from that which is essentially good , which is god ▪ moreover , if god created some , and not all creatures , but left the creation of inferiour creatures to any else , then it was either because god was weary , or because god takes no care of smaller creatures ; but it is neither ; god being omnipotent , did by a word create ; what more easie ? and he takes care of all inferiour things . as for the form , it is double . . in respect of god who created the world. . in respect of the creatures themselves . the form , in respect of god in gene●al , is the manner of gods creation of all created things ; which manner appeareth in these following things . . that god made all things by his word ; let the earth bring forth , &c. by ( word ) we are not to understand , as if god did speak words and syllables ; but by it we are to understand gods powerfull willing of things to be . . he made all things without any wearisome toil or labour ; but with great facility and ease were all things made by him ; god willed things to be done , and they were done . . without any change : a workman may ( as occasion serveth ) change his plot intended by him , but god doth not so . . without succession ; his works were made in a moment , even in an instant . the form of the created things is twofold . general . particular . the generall form is gods wise and ordered disposition of all the parts of the world . although in themselves they are of diverse matter , diverse vertues and operations ; yet all sweetly conspire together , and make one exact harmony : as in an instrument , though the strings be of divers sounds , yet they make but one harmony together . . their particular form is the power , force or efficacy of nature , stampt upon all creatures after their kinds , according to their particular beings and their conditions , by which all creatures are enabled to their proper operations . from this ariseth the goodnesse of the creatures , . generall , of all creatures , which is the entire perfection of all naturall power according to their natures : . speciall , which is the reasonable creature endued with supernaturall gifts , heavenly wisdom , righteousnesse and true holinesse ; we may hence admire the wisdome of god in making things after such an excellent form ; and cry out with david , o lord , how wonderfull are thy works ! in wisdome hast thou made them all . god's ultimate end in the creation , is his own glory . ( . ) for the shewing forth his glory , god doth unfold himself in the creature . five things are revealed in the creation about god. . that there is a god , rom. . . the prophet isaiah bringeth many proofs from the creation , to shew that there is a god , and to difference the true god from idols and false gods. isai. . . and chap. . . . the eternity of god is revealed by the creation . he that made all things , and time it self , the measure of things , must needs be eternal . thy years are throughout all generations : of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth , and the heavens are the work of thy hands , &c. psal. . , . . the wisdome of god in creating innumerable and divers things is revealed ; as also in the orderly disposing of innumerable things , and in giving to all their natural perfections . . the goodness of god is revealed : being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet would he communicate his goodness to the creature of whom he had no need at all . . the power of god , in making all things of nothing . rom. . . ( . ) that the creatures ( especially man and angels ) might give him the glory due to his name , by acknowledging him to be such a god ; the creatures in their kind do glorifie god their creator : and men , by taking notice what the creatures declare of him : and wh●re they make the creatures as spectacles to see god in them . the creatures are doctores theologici ; yea , they are like jacob's ladder , wherein we may ascend from earth to heaven . light was the first creature which god made : and agreeably , the adorning of the world began with the light , from whence other things which were to be created , should be seen : very probable it is , that the light first appea●ed there , where the sun being carryed about in his daily course , appeareth . god in the creation proceeded . . a negatione ad habitum , when he had created the world. . a totali privatione ad habitum , when he brought forth light out of darkness . . a partiali privatione ad habi●um , when he made the day to succeed the night . quest. . in the second days work it may be demanded , why god did not bless the work of that day in approving it , when to every other days work an approbation is added ; and god saw that it was good ? answ. there is no express mention made of an immediate approbation of this days work . . because this work of distinguishing and setling the waters in their place , was then imperfect , but was compleated on the third day . . because on this day ( as some think ) hell was created , which simply in it self is not pleasing to god ; or because the angels fell on this day , and became devils by their apostacy , as others imagine . it is also observable , that in the creation , the lights that were dispersed for three days , were on the fourth day all found in the sun. quest. . it may in the next place be demanded ▪ why god , between the creation of the plants , and of animals , did interpose the creation of the stars ? answ. i answer , that he might shew , although ordinarily the sun and other stars do concur to the generation of plants as well as of animals ; yet the generation of things is not simply to be referred to the sun and stars , but to god ; who before the stars were created , commanded the earth to bring forth herbs and plants yielding seed , and the fruit-tree to yield fruit after his kind . gen. . . before the creation of animals , he would create the light , because for the most part they have need of the light in a special manner . moreover , ye may take notice , that when god made the fishes of the sea , and the fowls of heaven , he blessed them , saying , be fruitfull and multiply , and fill the waters in the sea , and let fowl multiply in the earth , &c. vers. . but when he made the brute beasts of the earth , we do not read that he gave any such blessing at all to them ; intimating to us , that he that will get that blessing which god giveth unto good men , he mu●t not delight in ea●thly pleasu●es , like brute beasts , but minde heavenly things ; for unto those who wallow in temporal delights , god will not at all give his benediction , but his malediction . it is also remarkable , that when god made the light , the sun , moon , and stars , and the earth , and all other creatures , he saw that they were all good : but when he created man , he doth not so particularly pronounce this of him , as he doth of other creatures ; he doth not say , that he was good or bad ; yet are not these creatures better than man , but inferiour to man , being all made for the use of man : the reason is , because god would leave him to his choice to choose good or evil to him self , and accordingly he should have his denomination , as stella noteth . quest. . it may further be demanded , why earthly animals were created on the sixt day ? answ. i answer , because they were differing in kinde from the other creatures that were made before them , and because they were to dwell with man ▪ and were more like unto man both in their ●ody and genius , than either the ●irds or fishes ; and also because many of them were to be helpfull and serviceable unto man ; therefore were they brought forth on the same day wherein man was created ▪ man was the last work of god in the creation for divers reasons . . that god might shew unto us his own order , in proceeding from more imperfect things , to things more perfect . . that man might be a little world , in whom all things should be summarily contained ; called of the hebrews , olam hakaton , and of the greeks , microcosmos , a little world : for he hath in him the beauty of things inanimate , even the chiefest , as of the sun , moon , and stars , &c. gen. . , . ezek. . , . he hath growth as plants , genes . . . & . . sense and sensible properties with ●easts , sam. . . reason and wisdome with angels , sam. . . . that god might bring forth every creature for man's use and refreshment , before man himself should be created : it behoveth , that first there be an house , and all things necessary ; then that an inhabitant be brought into it . . ●ecause god would communicate himself to man , and acquiesce in him . when god created heaven & earth , he rested not in heaven , nor in any heavenly thing ; neither in the earth , nor any earthly thing , but only in man ; because he is an heavenly thing for his soul ; earthly in regard of his body . . if god had first of all made man before any other of his creatures , then man might have had some colourable excuse to have spent his time in idleness : but god created man after he had made his other ●reatures , that man might forthwith be employed in the works of his creator . zanchy of late , and some of the antients are of opinion , that when god created adam , ●hrist did then assume an humane body , and made adam's body after the pattern of that . munster doth well observe on genes . . . that the word in the original , which signifieth [ formed ] is written with a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; when it is said , he formed the beasts , it is written with a single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; noting out to us , that man was partly from the dust of the ground , in regard of his body , partly from heaven in regard of his soul , but the beasts were only created of the dust of the ground . the antients called the fabrick of man's body , librum dei , the book of god , because much knowledge is taught to man out of man. and man's being created after the image of god , is to put him in remembrance , that he should continually work after that original copy which god gave him from heaven . i shall discourse no farther upon these things , because this ensuing treatise of our reverend author will furnish you with variety of most excellent meditations upon the whole story of the creation . much honoured in the lord ! i do not here present you with any thing that is altogether new : i know , among men the newness of the matter doth chiefly commend the books ; being like the indian elephants , which at their first sight in asia , were so admired , that antiochus having but two , named the one ajax , the other patroclus ; but afterwards growing common in every consuls tryumph , they were called in contempt lucanian oxen : so it is with books ; they are now little regarded , because of the commonness of them . i confess , many books now adays are like mythridate's sword , whose scabbard was more costly than the blade , and so their swelling titles do make more shew than all the book affordeth sub●tance : and in prefixing great titles to babling books , men do but deceive the buyer ; like unto some vintners that hang out new ioy●bushes , when they have nothing within but old musly wine , as seneca speaketh . but the substance of this treatise doth correspond with the title ; and as it is stuffed with many choice notions , both natural and allegorical , together with many practical and usefull inferences , so it is also written in a pleasant style , and so the more delightfull to the pious and ingenious reader . good words are the garment of truth , and although truth is so glorious within , that it needeth no outward decking , yet if she doth appear in a rayment of needle-work , 't is but for a more excellent comeliness , not gaud● gayness . the worthy author in this treatise dealeth with you like nurses , who feed their babes with milk fir●t concocted within them . that voice that august . heard from heaven , is my humble advice to you , ●olle et lege , tolle et lege . take up and read , take up and read. so say i to you , take up this book , take up this book and read it , and do therein as an antient knight spake of his reading good books , viz. the first time to read ▪ both to see and like ; the second time , to note and observe the matter and method ; and the third time to carry away , and make use thereof . thus not doubting but this treatise will finde acceptance at your hands , and receive protection under your shadow , i humbly take my leave , and am yours in all gospel-services to be commanded , william gearing . cransden in sussex . august . . books printed for henry eversden , and are to be sold at his shop under the crown-tavern in west-smithfield . . the sphere of gentry , deduced from the principles of nature , an historical and genealogical work of armes and blazon : by sylvanus morgan ▪ in folio . . the history of the late civil wars of england . in folio . . riverius his universal body of physick in five books , &c. in folio . . the language of arms by the colours and metals , in quarto , by sylvanus morgan . . scepsis scientifica , or confest ignorance the way to science , &c. by ioseph glanvil , fellow of the royal society . . the gospel-physitian , in quarto . . the mistery of rhetorique unveil'd , eminently delightfull , and profitable for young scholars , and others of all sorts , enabling them to discern and imitate the elegancy in any other author they read , &c. by iohn smith ; gent. . a crew of kinde london gossips , all met to be merry : to which is added ingenious poems , or wit and drollery , in octavo , at s. bound . . the natural rarities of england , scotland , and wales , according as they are to be found in every shire , very usefull for all ingenious men of what profession or quality soever , by i. childrey , in octavo . . pearls of eloquence , or the school of complements , very usefull for all young ladies , gentlewomen , and scholars , who are desirous to adorn their speech with gentile ceremonies , complemental , amorous , and high expressions , of speaking or writing , at s. bound . . hodges directions for true writing , in octavo . . theodulia , or a just defence of hearing the sermons and other teaching of the present ministers of england , &c. by iohn tombes , b. d. . speculum patrum , a looking-glass of the fathers , wherein you may see each of them drawn , characteriz'd , and displa●'d in their colours ; to which are added the characters of some of the chief phylosophers , historians , grammarians , orators , and poets , by edward larkyn fellow of kings colledge in cambridge , in octavo . . wisdome justified by her children , being the substance of two sermons preached by will. gearing , in octavo . . a cluster of sweetest grapes for saints , brought from the heavenly canaan , or the saints assurance gotten , and to be had in this life , by the several means specified in this tract , upon pet. . . &c. by christopher ielinger , m. a. in octavo . in the press . . a cap of gray haires for a green head , being advice to a son an apprentice in london . . a serious examination of the independants catechisme , lately printed in large octavo , by benj. camfield , price s. d. the beauty and order of the creation . chap. i. genesis . . in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . being about to speak of the works of creation , i have chosen the first words of holy scripture as a ground of my discourse , which in brief containeth in it the story of the creation . in the words we may take occasion to consider : . when all things were made ] in the beginning of time . . who made them ? ] god. . the matter whereof they were made ] nothing . . the forme or order of the creation ] a comely and orderly disposing of the creatures ; the heaven being placed above the earth in the highes● rank , the earth being seat●d under it . . the end for which god did create them . . the effect or thing● created . i. when ] viz. in the beginning of time ; god is eternal , before all 〈◊〉 , wi●hout all beginning , enjoying himself in infinite all-sufficiency of blessedness and perfection . now before the creation there could be no time , there being nothing but god himself , the eternal iehovah , who is not subject to the measure of time : but time began with the creation , it being the duration or continuance of the creature ; so that the beginning of the creation was the beginning of time. now as we may consider the creation conf●s●●ly , before there was a distinction of creatures so also may we consider time it s●lf . it is said verse . the ea●th was with●ut form , and ●●id , and darkness was upon the face of the deep , &c. so that ●i●st there was created one huge deep confused mass , as a common mat●er , out of which all things ( at least all b●dily substances ) were afterwards distinctly created : so also in the beginning of this confused lump of creatures , there was a beginning of time , but so that time was in a sort confused too , like th●t which was created , to which it was coexistent but as the distinction of creatures began , so did the distinction of time : so the light being the fi●st distinct creature , made the first distinct day , or measure of time. god said , let there be light , &c. verse , . and presently it is said , verse . the evening and the morning were the first day : so that in both respects it may be said , that the creation was in the beginning of tim● — in the beginning of time confused , and not distinctly measured , was the creation of that confused mass , and lump of things not distinctly ordered : in the beginning of time distinctly measured , viz. on the first day of time , was the beginning of the distinct and orderly creation of things ; the light which was the first distinct creature , and the first day of time beginning together . so we have it , hebr. . . thou lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth . ii. who made all things ? ] the text saith , god. here two things are to be considered . , the persons in the god-head which did create . . the manner of working . . for the fi●st , we must note that all the persons in the holy trinity did create : there is no doubt of the father , who as he is the first person in order of subsisting , so is he always the first in order of working . the second person is plainly mentioned . ioh. . . in the begi●ning was the word , &c. by him all things were made , and without him nothing was made that was made , verse . of the holy ghost moses speaketh in the second verse of this first chapter of genesis . and the spirit of god moved upon the waters ; or hovered and sate upon them ▪ as a bird upon her egges ; by his divine vertue , framing the several distinct creatures out of the common mass , as she by her natural warmth bringeth forth her young ones after her kind , with all the distinct parts of their bodies , out of the shapeless lump of matter in the egge ; according to this sense do the best expositors take that metaphor : so saith the psalmist , in psal. . . thou sendest forth thy spirit , they are created . so that the father createth by the son , through the vertue of the holy ghost . and therefore , albeit we use to call god the father the maker of heaven and earth , as is expressed in our creed ▪ yet must we not exclude the son and the holy ghost , although the father be first in order of working . thus you see that god made all things ▪ as solomon saith , proverbs . . . now we must consider in what manner all things were thus wrought by him . . voluntarily , of his own free will. . without the help or use of any instruments . the psalmist saith , whatsoever the lord pleased , that did he in heaven and in earth , in the seas , and all deep places . psal. . now we see , the more excellent any creature is , the more free in its works . the trees and plants grow up without all liberty , by a natural necessity , having no sense of that which they do , and without any freedome of choice or voluntary manner of doing . the sensible creatures , beasts , birds ▪ &c. as they are of a more excellent nature than the former ; so they have some shadow of liberty , doing that which is pleasing to them , and refusing things distastfull : yet this is no true and perfect liberty , because they have not the light of reason to guide them to liberty or freedome of will in choosing things , or refusing . but man at his creation , and the blessed angels that kep● their first estate , have a perfect liberty in their kinds , though subordinate to him that gave it , yet vo●untarily choosing or refusing , according to the light of their understandings ▪ now then it must needs f●llow , that god who is infinite perfection , is perfectly and absolutely free in all his works , and so in this work of creation : he cannot be imagined to have any to command him , he being the supream commander , and absolute soveraign over all : he cannot be conceived to have any need of any thing created , and by it to be compelled to make them , ( as some are constrained to work for need ▪ who otherwise would be idle ) sith he is infinitely and absolutely all-sufficient , to whose eternal happiness and perfection nothing can be added , no not by ten thousand worlds . and as he made all things voluntarily ; so likewise without the use or help of any instruments : only by his immediate word . so you see all ●long in this chapter ; he said , let there be light , and there was light , &c. so psalm . . , he commanded , and they mere created . so that by his spirit , the eternal word , he made the world , without the use or help of any instrumen●s . iii. of what matter they were made ] of nothing . in all the artificial works of men , we look to the stuff or matter , out of which they were made : but here was none ; god made all things meerly of nothing ; there was no matter preceding his work . it is true ! there was a common , rude , unwrought lump of things , before the distinct and orderly creation of things , out of which distinct and several creatures were framed : but this also was created by god ; so that originally all things were created of nothing . iob. . . all things were made by ●im . and therefore that thing , out of which all other things were made , was made of nothing by him : for it is impossible that any thing can be of it self , but god who is the beeing of beeings , and the fountain of all things else . iv the form or order of the creation is seen in the orderly placing of all things created ; the heaven in the highest place , as the roof of this glorious building , decked with the sun , moon , and stars : under these ( as some say ) an element of fire [ we are sure ] an element of ayr , being of a pure invisible substance , coming n●erer the nature of heaven , than th●se grosser bodies which are placed below : next that are the waters more gross than the ayr , yet more pure and light than the earth , being naturally above the earth , containing it on every side , and that is the proper place of the waters : but the almighty creator did shut it up in narrower limits , commanding the waters which covered the whole earth , to gather themselves together into one place of the earth , for this purpose , that the dry land might appear for the use of men and beasts , &c. which he had appointed to live upon the earth , genes . . . yet so , that he giveth it leave now to overlook the earth , ( as it were ) in lieu of that right which it hath to stand above by its creation ; as you may see , if you look on the sea where the shore is level , and not mountainous : yet hath the lord by his decree ( as it were ) barred and bolted it up , iob . , . saying , hitherto shall you come , but no farther ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed . psal. . . he gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap , he layeth up the depth in store ▪ hous●s ; kept as it were under lock and key : so the apostle saith , pet. . . the earth was standing out of the water , and in the water . in the lowest place , is the earth by the mighty hand of god fixed unmoveably in the midst of the great creation , resting upon no foundation , but the almighty arm of its creator , having the heavens round about it . the more particular survey of the comeliness of several creatures , we may consider of afterwards : thus briefly of the main frame . v. the end why god created all , could not be his own encrease of happiness and contentment ; for he was all-sufficient of himself ; and sith the creatures were mee●ly nothing , having no beeing at all without him ; they could give nothing to him , which he had not without them in himself ; for all that they are , or have , is wholly of him and from him : and therefore the ends we conceive the lord to aim at , are two : viz. to communicate his goodness . to manifest his glory . . he did it to communicate his goodness ▪ he made all things , that he might give unto them beeing , and perfection of beeing , according to their kinds ; himself being the beeing of beeings , infinitely perfect ; not to receive from them who are nothing without him. . the second and main end , is the manifestation of his glory ; which doth not add any thing to him , but sheweth what is in ●im , though incomparably short of ●hat he is : so by the creation he sheweth forth the glory of his eternity , in that bringing fo●th the world , in the beginning of time he is manifested to be before all time : the glory of his infinite presence , in that he hath raised and supported this huge f●ame of heaven and earth : the glory of his infinite wisdome , in the most excellent composition of this goodly building : the glory of his all-mighty power , in bringing so great a work out of nothing : the glory of his infinite goodness , in communicating beeing unto that which was nothing : of his holiness , in making all things good , not one spot defacing any part of his work : of his infinite mercy , in delivering the creatures out of misery , which had not been manifested without a creation : of his infinite justice , in punishing the rebellion of his creatures , which had not been evidenced but by a creation : of his perfect tr●th in his dealings wi●h the creatures ; which , how had it been made known , had there not been creatures made ? of his glorious providence , in governing and disposing things created . vi. t●e effect is the last thing to be considered , which is the whole creation , the whole body and frame of the creatures ; which may be generally considered in the whole , as the lord looked upon all together , and saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good ; which you must understand is meant , . of a natural goodness or perfection in every creature , whereby every one was made perfect and compleat in its kinde , without all natural defects . . of a special goodness or holiness in the reasonable creatures , angels and men. thus of the creation in general ; of the several kinds of creatures in special , i shall speak more hereafter . chap. ii. use . this condemneth the atheism of all those , who deny , or doubt of this truth , and imagine that the world was not created of god ; but that it was without beginning : which senseless conceit , the world it self con●u●eth ; for , who but a fool cannot see , that no creature could make it self ? for then it should be before it self ; then it should be and no● be at the same time : neither can the m●st excellent creature make the least or vilest out of nothing , it being a work of him alone , who is the fountain of be●ing ; yea the change● and alterations of the world , and the things thereof ; the fadings , decays and imperf●ctions of it , do all prove it had a beginning , and that it enclineth to an end ; for that which is witho●t beginning is also without alteration . now sith the world must have a beginning , it must needs have it from one of infinite excellency and perfection , which is god alone ; none else could frame so great , so glorious a building . . if god made the world , and all things in it ; then let every part of the world , and every creature in the world , put thee in mind of god that made it : let every thing that hath beeing , serve as a stream to lead back thy thoughts to god , who is the spring and fountain of all beeing : when thou seest the sun to shine , the moon and stars to give some light , borrowed from the sun , look thou to the father of lights ; and let that created light and brightness which is in these creatures , enable thee to see him that is invisible , from whom the creature receiveth all its excellency . every creature which thou seest , is a part of his workmanship , and putteth thee in mind of its maker ; but these , viz. the sun , moon , and stars , heaven and earth , are the same immediate works , which the lord made at the fi●st : thou seest that sun , that moon , those stars , that earth , which god did immediately bring forth by his all-mighty word· the t●ees , the beasts , the bird● , a●e all his creatur●s ; all b●o●ght out of the mass and common 〈◊〉 wh●ch 〈◊〉 ●he first was without fo●m and 〈◊〉 : and all th●s● in pa●ticular , are brought ●●rth f●om time to ●●me by his mighty p●wer ▪ who 〈…〉 day worketh all ●●ings acc●●di●g ●o the c●●ns●l o● his own will ▪ 〈◊〉 yet th●●e are many in●tr●●●nt● used to bring f●rth these : the old to b●i●g ●o●th the young , &c. and t●ough ●he kinds of creatures rema●n ▪ which god him●●lf made ; yet the p●●ticular males and females ●●de ▪ 〈◊〉 beginning are l●ng since ex●ing 〈◊〉 an●●thers by many succ●ssions are 〈…〉 many ages in their st●ad . but th●se 〈◊〉 are the very same wit●ou● succ●ssi●n & t●●●efore the heav●ns in sp●cial man 〈◊〉 do s●t 〈◊〉 the glory of god : the sun and the moon which god hath ordained , are in a special manner to be h●●ded , that we may s●riously c●nsider of the lord , whose immediate workm●nship they are . if you c●n once learn to see god in his creatures , as ●he apostle direc●eth us , rom , . . ( where he saith , the invisible things of god , from the c●●ation of the world , are cleerly seen , &c. ) thou maist then see him dayly round about thee : thou canst not set thy foot upon the ground , but thou maist remember that thou treadest upon the lords workmanship , and that thou couldest not stir a foot , but that he hath made this ground to bear thee , and given thee leave to walk upon it . when thou seest the beautiful face of the earth , and the fruits and plants which it yieldeth ▪ thou seest abundant variety of the lords creatures , and art taught ( if thou wilt learn ) to remember him by whom all of them were created . thou must think thou hearest him in the noise of strong and mighty winds , in hideous claps of thunder ; that thou discernest him in the clouds , in the showers ●f rain , in the hail , snow ▪ ice ▪ and hoar-frost ; in the spring , summer , harvest , winter ; in all th● seasons of the yea● ; yea in t●e very day and night ; for day unto day , and night unto night , teach knowl●dge ; time it self , and the continuance of it , are his wo●k . look upon thy self ; every part , ●very memb●r of thee ; thy br●ath in thy nostrils ▪ the spiritual substance of thy soul , with all its excellent faculti●s ; thy reason when thou usest it ; thy memory which preserveth unto thee the knowledge of things gone and past ; thine eyes , thine eares &c. which let in things like windows , into ●hy mind : these and multitudes of o●her things which thou bea●est every day about thee , should make thee th●nk with much admiration of thy god that made thee , and all that is within thee . how canst thou look away from god ? how canst thou turn off the eyes of thy mind f●om b●holding him , if thou dost indeed discern him in his works ? canst thou see any thing that is , and not see ( as it we●e ) the pri●t of his h●nd upon it ? we should not be so fo●getfull of god , if we did make use of this point , that he is the creator of all things . ye look upon the creature , and no farth●r , as if it had m●de it self , and had no c●ea●or to frame it : nay so strange is our earthliness and s●ns●ality , that we fo●get god , by looking so much upon the creatures ; our plenty of the creatures maketh us to forget him : our dealings about the creatu●es , do put the creator out of our thoughts , whereas there is never a creature in the world , but it doth in its kind effectually call upon us , to remember it and our creator : yea the minding of our selves so much ; inordinate self-love , and too much carnal respect had to our selves , maketh us to forget our maker ; whereas our selves , ( as i have said ) should in special manner make us mindfull of him that made us : consider th●s ▪ ye that fo●get god , and either remember him ●ff●ctually by his works ; or else be sure , his creatures shall bear witness against thee , and condemn thee for thy forgetfulness . chap. iii. use . as the creatures should make us remember god , s● should they make us admire and glorify him. this wonderful work , viz. the whole world , and all the creatures in it , should move us to esteem him wonderfull ▪ even beyond astonishment . we cannot be sufficiently amazed at his excellent greatness , manifested in his wonderful works . kings . , . when the q●een of s●●ha had seen all solomon's wisdome ▪ and th● house that he had built , and the meat of his table , and the sitting of his servants ▪ and the attendance of his min●sters , and their appar●l , and his cup-bearers ▪ and his ascent by wh●ch he went up into the house of the lord ; t●ere was no mo●e spirit in her. these things in this variety laid together did aston●sh her for a time , and she was as one amazed , as if she had been left without a soul. but alas ! what was all solomon's glory unto the excellency of god , his glory and greatness shining in t●e creation ? not so much as a glo●-worm is to the sun. our saviour hath p●●ferred ▪ he beauty of a lilly ( one of the least of gods creatures ) b fore the ri●h●st r●bes that ever solomon wore in his gr●atest glo●y . if solomon's wisdome were so admirable unto her , how wonderful should the infinite wisdome of god appear to be unto us ▪ as it shineth in the excellent composition of the whole creation ? if solomon's house did so dazle her eyes with its stateliness , greatness , and magnificence : how should we with much admiration look upon this goodly frame of heaven and earth , which the lord by his meer word brought out of nothing , to which the house of solomon was no more than a poor cottage ? if the consideration of divers things together , orderly disposed , and fitted , did thus overcome her spirit ; how should the exact order , and plasing of numberless creatures of divers kinds , their several natures , tempers , qualities , vertues , enclinations some of them great , some lesser , ra●ish us ▪ some of them giving support unto the ●est , some contained within the rest ; some moving about with restless motion , as the h●aven● , and in them the sun , moon and stars , tu●ning ab●out with ●hem the wheel of time c●rrying ab●u● with them days ▪ weeks moneths , yea●s , ages ; altering times and seasons ; raising the earth to life again in the spring , and renewing its face with you●h and beauty ; ripening the fruits of the ea●●h in summer , scorching our bodies wi●h heat , and even making us forget the cold breath of winter ; then stri●ping the world of thi● h●lf years clothing at the f●ll of the leaf or autumn , and soon af●er leaving it for dead in the benummed winter , until it obtain another r●surrection ( as it were ) at the spring . this is the course of the h●●vens , and these their eff●ct . 〈◊〉 ●g●in● look on the earth holding 〈…〉 , ●nd not st●●ri●g from its place , eve● 〈◊〉 it c●eation : see some 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 big●●ss yet neithe● sti●ring nor growing , as rocks 〈◊〉 m●untains : some g●owing , but not moving from their ●laces , as t●●es and other plants of ●he earth : some growing and stir●ing to and fro ; some creeping , others going and running , s●me swimming , othe●s ●l●ing ; some of wonderful strength and swiftness , some weaker , ●nd slow in their motions ▪ consider t●e unspeakab●e multitude of them even b●yond all im●gination no man on earth being able to number all the several kinds of creatu●es , mu●h l●ss the particulars of those kinds : and then , if there were not m●ch dulness in our spirits and want of appreh●nsi●n , there would be ( as it were ) no spirit in u● ; the powers of our souls would even b● swallowed up with admiration , and we should with feeling hearts express our astonished thoughts and cry out with the psalmist , o lord our god , how wonderfull is thy name in all the wo●ld ! psal. . . in some one of the least creatures the lord is to be seen in admirable workmanship , how much more in the whole ●reat●on , especially considering , how it is brought out of nothing ? in which respect the least worm is a witness of his omnipotency beyond exception ; and therefore we must take time for meditation on the creatures , that we may set forth the praise and glory of the creator , and ( as the psalmist saith ) may talk of all his wondrous works . that the heavens may move us to declare the glory of god , and the firmament may provoke us ▪ and prevail with us to set forth his handywo●k . chap. iv. use . as we should admire and bless the lord for the whole creation ▪ so in special for any creatu●es by which we receive any benefit . remember , whatsoever hath any beeing in the world , whereby thou receiv●st any comfort in any kind , it is part of his creation ; it is one of those things which he brought out of nothing . a due consideration of this would be an excellent means to lead our minds unto thankfulness and to make ●s both love and praise the lord , at whose hand we receive it ▪ if we could but deal seriously , there is not the least thing that s●rveth to cover our nak●dn●ss , or to keep off the cold in winter , not the least refr●shment to a drop of d●ink , or a cru● of bread ▪ which we take into our bo●ies , not one draught of the ayr which we suck in at any time ▪ not fire or wa●er ▪ which are so us●ful to us , but that every on● at any time , wh●n we partake of the benefit of them should be a motive unto thankfulness . once this and that was meerly nothing , but god gave it beeing , and these and these qualities , whereby it might do me good : yea , the lord , to whom his works are all known in all eternity , did shew his almighty power , in bringing these things out of nothing , for this ve●y pu●pose , that it might do me good , and supply my wants . in special● the light which is ●o common a blessing , how excellent is it in its nature , how needfull and useful unto us ? how should we glorify the lord for the use of this mercy every day , that when the earth was without form and void , and darkness was upon the face of the deep , the lord by his almighty word did bring forth this glorious creature , whereby we have the use of that most excellent sense of seeing , which otherwise could not be useful to us ; yea , whereby the lord in a notable manner sheweth forth his glory : so that he that is not blind , may from this creature especially , learn to see him that is invisible . yea , god himself hath pleased to c●ll himself by the name of this creature ; god is light : so brightly doth his glory shine in this work of wonder . what plentiful matter of thanksgiving doth all the world offer us , if we could take it ; yea we cannot look about us , but we see that which should enlarge our hearts and open our mouths for the praises of the almighty maker of heaven and earth , all our lives should be a course of thankfulness ; and as all the lords works do give us occasion of thankf●lness ; so all our actions should be works ▪ wherein our thankfulness should be expressed for the works of god. chap. v. use . this should keep us from abusing the least of the creatures , as we fear to become guilty ▪ of defacing the lords own workmanship ; and in this regard , we should not dare to shew our selves cruel to our very beasts , which we use in our service , either to carry our bodies , or to do our work . the righteous is merciful to his beast , but their mercies are cruel , who carry merciless hearts towar● the poor creatures . we must always remember , that the lord who made them , hath more right unto them than we can have ; our right being wholly derived from him ; and therefore we must usurp no farther upon them than he alloweth us ; which is moderately and mercifully to use them , not cruelly without mercy to abuse them . and therefore the withholding of due and necessary food from the beast , or over-burdening it beyond measure , is a dishonour offered to its creator . and as these beasts of service must not be abused , b●cause they are the creatures of god ; so neither may we in sport torment the poor creature that crawleth upon the earth . if i should name some practices among us of this nature , perhaps some would think them too mean to be mentioned here . but christians must walk exactly , and keep gods commandments diligently , or exceedingly , as the hebrew word , in ●sal . ▪ . noteth unto us : and the poorest creature that is , is a part of g●ds workmanship , and god may be dishonoured in it : yea , to abuse in sport ( ●hough it be as mean a creature as a fl●● &c. ) is to take the name of god in vain ; sith these works of his , are such things , by which , as by a name , he hath made himself known unto us ; the least flie being an evidence of his almighty power . so for those creatures which we use for cloathing , nourishment , or other use , we must take heed of all excessive abuse , and so of taking the name of the lord in vain . still remember , that this is created of god , and i must use it as a creature of his. the apostle against the sin of fornication , useth this speech , s●all i take the members of christ , and make them the members of an harlot ? god forbid . cor. . . so may i say of the creatures , shall i take meat and drink , the very creatures and workmanship of gods own hand , and make them instruments of satan and sin , of gluttony , of drunkenness , means whereby to dishonour god , and fight against him that made them ? shall i take money and cloaths ( gods creatures ) to shew forth my pride , and my heart lifted up against god , that made these , and made me a poor naked creature , allowing me a ●ob●r use of them to cover my shame , not an excessive or fantastical abuse of them to satisfy , and shew forth my pride and vanity ? god forbid . so for time , which god made at the first in the beginning of the creation , we should especially take ●eed of abusing it , and account it as a precious thing fl●wing o●t of gods eternity , too precious to be was●fully mispent and abused . if the ancient of days hath ou● of his eternity bro●ght forth time , and giv●n us time , continuing it to us out of his long-suffering and patience , even from the beginning of the world hitherto , let us not by idleness , immoderate eating and drinking , unprofitable or unseemly wanton exercises , immoderate sports , excessive ●ar●i●g , &c. ( taking up more of ou● t●me tha● re●igious duties ) let us not by these and the like exercises embezle away those 〈◊〉 hours , which when we have once lost , we shall never see them more . chap. vi. use . for as much as god made all things of nothing : this should make us to trust in god in all straits and necessities : great is the sin of distrust and infidelity , when we distrust god for want of means ; it is in effect to deny him to be god , and to make no difference between the creator and the creature . do we doubt of gods all-sufficiency , because we see no outward means ? what difference do we then put between him and man ? man can help and supply us , if he h●th means ; but god the creator is infinitely above the creature , and can help wi●hout all means . if thou hadst meat , drink , & money eno●gh , thou wouldest fear no want , but the l●ck ●f these maketh thee di●trustfull : alas ! whe●c● c●me all th●se ? did not the lord bring them all out ●f nothing ? and can he not now as ●asily help thee many ways u●known , and not thought of by thee , if thou trust in hi● ▪ as then he could bring the whole world out of nothing . it is atheism , and a denyal of the god-head , to doubt whether god could make the world of nothing ; and all infidelity in these cases s●v●u●eth of athiesm , and a ●●ni●l of the god-head ▪ when we doubt whether god can help us , when we see nothing but wants . i● it not easier to h●lp ●s than to make a world ? so in any dangers , when we are s●rai●ly be●●t , and 〈…〉 to , and s●e no means of deliverance and escape : let u● th●n lea●n to depend upon the lords all-suf●iciency ; if we had a strong gua●d of s●uld●ers at 〈…〉 ▪ we wo●ld ●ot 〈◊〉 b●t that we should break through our enemies . alas ! did not god m●ke those souldiers and all the world out of nothing ? and doth he need their help to deliver ●s ? i● he please to del●ver us , the want ●f ●h●ir aid shall not ●i●d●r it : if not twelve legions should not be able to pr●cure our safety . use . if god , that needeth no ●eans to do us good wi●hall , but could h●ve sup●lied all o●r wan●s c●n●inu●lly ●ut ●f no●hi●g ▪ were y●t pleased ●o 〈…〉 of creatures to be means of g●od unto us ; thi● sho●ld 〈◊〉 us not to 〈…〉 neglect of the 〈◊〉 w●ich 〈…〉 cre●●ed for our goo● , 〈…〉 not god can 〈…〉 , therefore i ca●e not 〈…〉 ●ay ▪ god by giving 〈…〉 pleasur●●o help 〈◊〉 ●y ●h●m , therefore i will take them as h●lps with thankfuln●ss f●om the h●nd of god. us● this should make us fear the great god , who had made all things of nothing , and not ●●ar any crea●ure of his mo●e than the c●●ator . see our ●olly and vanity of mind he●ein ; we ●●ar man so much , t●●t for f●ar of him , we sin a●ainst he lo●d without fear ●r c●●e . vain man ! 〈…〉 that the creat●●e w●ich w●s n●●hing 〈◊〉 and which god made o● nothing c●n 〈◊〉 ●hee 〈◊〉 th●n the creator ▪ who by his almighty power made this crea●●●● of nothing ; and gave it all the power which it 〈◊〉 , eith●● to h●lp ●r hur● ? thi● 〈◊〉 ●f o●r f●olish minds is no be●●e● th●n 〈◊〉 , ●f it be ●●ghtly consider●d : th● lo●d g●ve ●s wi●e and unde●standing h●a●t● . fear him that c●n raise ●erro●s and troubles unto the●●ut o● nothing , th●t can set thine own ass●●gh●ed 〈◊〉 against thee , a●d make t●ee a●●ntoll●r●ble b●rd●n to thy s●lf , that c●n bri●g mo●e misery to thee out of thy own boso●e , than ●ll the wo●ld can wo●k ag●i●st th●e . it is more dangerous beyond c●●parison to 〈◊〉 god against th●e , th●n all the m●n and 〈◊〉 c●eatures in the world , which were ma●● of nothing by him , chap. vii . use . this should also move us highly to ●steem , and lo●e the lord , who is the maker of heaven and earth , above heaven and earth , and all things in the same . he●e is a c●se ●hich doth wonde●f●lly discover the naughti●ess and pervers●ess of our hearts , tha● m●ny of us esteem and a●●●ct s●●e one poo● silly creature above the creator of all ●hings . alas ! before the world was , he was as pe●f●ct , as b●●ss●d ●s excellent as now he is , sith hence the creat●on of all things , but the world was nothing before he made it . these things of the world , which now seem such pea●ls in thine eye , were nothing , had no excellency in them , but what he gave them : and therefore if there be any goodness in them , that should not withd●aw thy heart f●om god to th●m , but cause thee t●e mor● to admire and love the lord , who out of his infinite goodness gave them all , that which seemeth so good in them , unto thee , when of themselves they had neither goodness nor beeing . the pleasantness that is in meat and drink , did it not wholly come from gods infinite sweetness and goodness ? do not then l●ssen thine aff●ction to god out of a bru●●●sh appetite toward them , but rather use them in ch●istian sobriety , wi●h an heart lif●ed up unto god , and admire his infinite goodness and sweetn●ss , whereof thou ●astest some drop , in these creatures . are worldly riches things to be desir●d in thine opinion ? all the ●iches in the wo●ld came out of the infinite 〈◊〉 and sto ●●house of his all-●●fficie●cy or s●lf-s●fficiency . therefore if thou wilt be rich , covet him and long and labour to p●ss●ss and enjoy him for thy po●tion , and so thy riches shall be more than all the golden mines in the world can pu●chase . kn●w this , that as these riches are nothing without him , so they are as good as nothing if you have them without him ; and that how rich so ever you seem to be in these ●utwa●d things , yet you are poor and miserable , except you be rich in god : if thou hast not him , thou hast nothing , for all things are nothing without him ; learn to esteem of god above all riches , children , f●i●nds , and to account all things as nothing in comparison of him , as the psalmist did . whom have i in heaven but thee , and there is none upon earth that i desire in comparison of thee . psal. . . it is good for me to d●aw neer to god , he is my portion for ever . let thy love to other things be cold , in comparison of thine affection unto him ; let thy soul be carried with winged d●sires after him : oh that i might enjoy him more fully , who brought all things out of nothing ▪ who is the fulness of all sweetn●ss and happiness ! oh that i could enjoy him , and that he would be mine , and i might be his , that i might live in his bosome , and walk in the light of his count●nance . for as god did bring all things out of nothing immediately , & the things so brought forth were most pure and good , and excellent , according to their kinds ; but those that were brought forth since by the creatures , as his instruments , have degenerated , and lost much of their first excellency : so the swee●ness and comfort that is to be had immediately from god , in a spiritual communion with him , and in beholding by faith his loving countenance th●ough jesus christ ▪ is incomparably beyond all the sweetness , which is instrumentally conveyed to us by the creatures . therefore let our souls long and labour to drink immediatly out of the fountain , to tast and see rather how good the creator is , than to glut our selves with a sensual sweetness of the creature . oh the pure waters of the sanctuary , which flow immediately from the presence of god into the souls of the faithful ! the spouse in the canti●les saith , the name of christ is like a precious oyntment poured forth , full of fragrant swee●ness , and therefore she begins her song of love thus : let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth . she desireth immediate communion with him . a love-letter wi●l not satisfy her ▪ but his mouth to her mouth , himself by his blessed spirit imparted and communicated to her : so tell a faithfull soul longing after immediate communion with god , here is weal●h , honours , pleasures , &c. his answer will be ▪ what talk yee of this dross and dung , of these shadows ? away with these muddy trifles , give me god himself , and take from me all the world : it is the creator whom i love ; it is this all-sufficient god , with whom the whole world is not worthy once to be compared : give me him , and take from me what you will. chap. viii . use . seeing god made all things of nothing , when being nothing , they could deserve nothing at his hands ; and being made , they could not help or profit him in any kind , this should move us in imi●ation of his free goodness , to do for those that cannot deserve any thing from us , who are not likely to be able either to help or hurt us , or to make us any requital . the lo●d did this , when no law bound him to his creature : but we are bound to do for our fellow creatures , by the l●w and will of our soveraign creator . it is great shame for us to grudge at this , and hang back saying , it is but cast away , i shall have nothing for it . god gave beeing to that which was nothing , and which could add nothing unto him : but the most unable man may possibly do us some good in some case or other ; and though he should be unable yet god is able and ●eady abundantly to r●wa●d u● ; whereas none could ●ecompense his wo●k which he did , in giving beeing to the creatu●es which were nothing : yea all men a●e of one and the s●me blood with our selves ; our bone and flesh ; of our kinred , issuing out of o●e stock , as branches of one ro●t : all the blood that runneth in the v●ins of all fl●sh , it st●e●med down from one fountain ▪ even adam ●ur common father , and therefore there is 〈◊〉 reason that we should one do for ano●he● ▪ but what kin was the infinite iehovah unto meer nothing to emptiness it self ? what neerness was there between him and it , that he should bestow so much upon it , even the whole world ? none at all ; but rather an infinite distance between an infinite beeing and meer nothing : yet thus did the lord give beeing to nothing , and made that to be which was nothing . how then should we blush at our unnatural churlishness in this behalf ! and learn of god to do for them , that cannot do for us , ●or recompense that which we do for them , that we may be like our great creator , and our father which is in heaven . chap. i. colos. . . for by him were all things created , that are in heaven , and that are in earth , visible and invisible , &c. sect . . having spoken of the creation in general i come now to the creatures in special ; which are ( as learned zanch divideth them ) of three sorts . . visible . . invisible . . partly visible , partly invisible . of the two former sorts the text in hand speaketh , and under them both , includeth the third also , which partaketh of both the other kinds ; but i have chosen his text purposely for the first and second kinds , intending upon a more peculiar text to speak more largely of the third . by the creatures visible , i mean all substances meet bodily , though some of them cannot be seen ▪ as the ayr and spirits in sensible creatures : yet under [ visible ] these i comprehend by a synecdoche , because sensible , and such as may be discerned by some sense or other . by invisible , i understand all creatures meerly spiritual ▪ f●●e from all bodily substance , as the angels . by those partly visible , partly invisible , i understand man-kind consisting of his body , which is a gross material substance , and his soul which is of an intellectual and spiritual nature . of the first , moses writeth at large in the first chapter of genesis . and therefore in the first place , observing that god made all bodily creatures , i will fetch the explication of this point out of the holy story , the most ancient that ever was penned ; the original diary of the world , and chronicle of the universe ; where first , you have the creation of the whole in the first day , and therein two things : . passive . . a●●ve . the passive substance was the huge unwrought mass of things , without any distinct form or shape , not yet distinguished and dig●sted into several kinds of creatures , not qualified with those several perfections of natural goodness , which afterward the all 〈◊〉 creator b●stowed upon its se●eral parts . moses , tells us , it was without form ] without any special or distinct form or shape : and void ] like a ruinous , confused heap ; void of beauty , void of perfection , void of such qualifications , as should make it very good . again , it was dark . [ and darkness was . ] this confused lump lay wrapped up in the thickest mantle of utter darkness , without any the least glimpse of light , that can be imagined , most dreadfull and hideous , but that there was no creature then made to be aff●ighted by it . this darkness was upon the ●ace of it , or the superficies ; it was not only a dark mass within , but the very surface or out-side of it was void of all glimpse of light shining on it . again , it was deep . ] an ●●ge mass of wonderfull and extraordinary bigness , which yielded stuff and materials for the framing all bodily substances afterwards , except the heavens , ( if at least they are to be excepted , as for my part , i think they are ) and ( as i conceive ) the text makes it cleer . for in the beginning , it is said , that god made the heaven and the earth . and the next words are ; and the earth was without form , &c. so that by the earth before , i understand the rude mass of things , out of which was brought earth ▪ waters , and other creatures compounded of these ▪ and this earth was distinguished from heaven ▪ and as this earth was without fo●m , so the heaven was without light at the first : so that this ( i conceive ) at the first , was made that huge o●b or sphear of heaven , without sun , moon , or stars , and together with it , the common matter of all inferiour bodies : for first he saith , the heaven and earth were made ; but he doth not say that the heaven , but the earth only was without form and void ; and the spirit of god moved upon the waters . ] or hovered over this mixed mass of earth & waters , as the bird over her egge , by its divine vertue framing and sha●●ng distinct and several sorts of creatures , out of this common lump . on this first day was the light created , as an active instrument to distinguish time , and as i conceive , so also to be used in bringing forth distinct and special creatures , by vertue of a quickning operative heat accompanying this light. this light you see was before the sun , which was not created until the fourth day . and in probability , this light was f●xed and radicated in the heavens , and so shined here upon this confused heap of the earth and waters : for had it been without a subject scattered abroad throughout the vast and void empty spaces between heaven and earth on every side ; where had the distinction been between day and night ? and therefore i conceive , that this excellent creature being seated in heaven by the father of lights , did shine upon half the earth at once , as now the sun doth , and so was ca●ried about with the motion of the heavens , and made day where it shone , and left the night there whence it removed : so that whiles the earth continued without form , and had its face cove●ed with darkness , there was the first evening ; and when the light was made and shown upon the earth out of darkness , there was the first morning ; and this evening and morning were the first day . sect . . in the second place is to be considered the distinction and division between the greatest parts of the earth and waters . . the division of the upper parts of the waters from the lower parts of the same , which was by the firmament , or body of the ayr , which god made between the upper and lower parts of the water , which i apprehend thus : that although the earth and waters lay confused together in one heap , yet the thinner parts of this lump coming neerer the nature of water , was raised to the upper part ; and that these muddy waters lying in an huge heap above the gr●sser and more earthy part , the spirit of god did penetra●e into them , and b● his vertue rarily the middle part of this wate●y matter , turning it into an huge , spacious , but much purer and thinner body of the ayr , which is called an expansion , or out-spread covering , wher●by a separation was made between the w●terish matter , compassing and hiding under it the whole earth on every side , and the upper parts of the water , which in clo●ds and exh●lations were drawn and raised up ; some higher , some lower , above some parts of this ayr or covering . and this firmament is called heaven ; even the same spoken of elsewhere in scripture : the heavens sh●ll hear the earth , hos. . that is , the ayr shall showre down fatt●ning showres upon the earth , and so we ●ead of the fowles of heaven , that is , of the ayr : as s. paul also calleth the heaven of the bl●ssed saints and angels , the third heaven ; a●d ●o prop●rtionably , that which is the place of the sun and stars , is the second , and this of the ayr here mentioned is the first heaven ; and this evening and morning wherein this was do●e , was the second day , though yet without a sun. . as there was a distinction of the upper and lower parts of the waters ; so now of the waters from the earth ; the waters ●hat encompassed & wholly overwhelmed the earth before , being by the word of god g●●h●red toget●er , a●d shut up in one pl●ce , and called seas ; so that the d●y l●nd , wh●●h was al●ogether hidden before , did now appea● : the wisdome of god thus provid ng for those creatures , which he pu●po●ed to place upon the earth . next to this was ●he furnishing the earth with pl●nts , trees ▪ herbs , grass &c. which were the first creatures that had life , and that the first degree of life , v●z . vegetation , without sen●e or motion from place to place , yet end●ed with a seminal vertue , enabling them to propagate their kinde , and to bring forth an encrease . and this was the work of the third day , when as yet the sun was not created . sect . . now follow the ornaments of the chi●f part of this glorious building . . of the heaven on the fourth day . . of the ayr and waters on the fi●th day . of the earth on the sixth day . now the lord having without sun , moon or stars , given light to the world three days together , doth by his all-mighty word create lights in the heaven , viz. the great light of the sun , which should now henceforth become a fountain of lig●t both to other stars , and to the rest of the wo●ld , by which the day should be ruled : and then a l●sser light , though in appeara●ce great to us at a neerer distance than other st●rs , even the moon to rule the night ; so that now there should be some light in the night , and not me●r da●kness , as in the three former nights : but either the moon should shine with greater b●ightness on the earth , or ( a● least ) the stars sh●uld give some lesser light in the absence of the moon , and even in the most cloudy night should give some little abatement of utter darkness . but this was not all ; these glorious bodies were to serve for s●gnes and for seasons , and for days and years ▪ wherein , i. i embrace the opinion of par●●s , who acknowledgeth the stars to have a th●●e-fold kind of signification ; natural . civil . divine . . natural : as they signify and fore-shew rain and drought , cold , heat , famine , plenty eclipses , &c by their rising , setting , opposi●ion conju●ction , &c. . civil : as they shew unto divers sorts of men , when is fit time for several employments viz. pilots , fishermen , husbandmen , physicians , &c. divine : so they many times foreshew the judgments of god ●o come , as wars , pestilences , con●lag●a●ions , and fearfull alterations of states and kingdomes . ii. as they are for sig●es , so likewise for seasons . the s n by his va●iety ●f motion , making the ●pring , sum●er , aut●mn , and winter , and the mo●n making n●w mon●t●s by her changes and revolutions . iii. they are likewise for days and y●ars : the light carried about b●fore , made the day , but now the s●n should meas●re the day from this fourth day to the last day , the day of judgment , by enc●mpassing the earth in twenty and four hours , making a na●ural day compleat ; and by a full revolution to the same point where it begun , making a full year . iv. to give light to the earth : without which all the creatures would be in darkness , and with that light to impart a c●erishi●g heat and warmth , without which the natural hea , and living creatures would ●●on be extinguished . and this evening and morning was 〈◊〉 fourth day viz. with those ●hree that were before the sun ; but the first day wherein there was a sun to give light. th● n●x● day , the ayr and wa●ers were furnished ▪ where it seemeth that god brought both fowles and fishes out of the waters : so it seemeth the fowles were brought forth out of the waters above the fi●mament , and now are appointed ●o fly in the fi●mament or ayr ; and the fishes we●e brought forth out of t●e waters b●low , where yet they abide and swim ; this was on the fi●●● day . on the sixth day was the earth furnished with beasts , and creeping things of every kinde . and last of all was created a lord of the rest , even man upon the same day ; of which more hereafter . thus much for these bodily creatures , concerning which something may be profitab●y spoken by way of application , and some●hing also by way of allusion . chap. ii. use . in that god did choose to make the world in this space of time , who could as easily have made it , as well in one moment , as in six days ; this should teach us to take time for meditation on his works . he that could in one instant , at one word have brought forth heaven full of stars , the ayr full of fowls , the water full of fishes , the earth full of beasts , creeping things , trees , &c. was pleased to make several days works of this wonderful creation , and to proceed distinctly and orderly in his work : teaching us by the manner of his working only by his word without instruments , that he could have done all at once , which now he did at several times : it being as easie for him at one word to say let there be a perfect world ▪ as at one word to say , let there be light ; and on the other side , by this stay and pause in working teaching us to stay in our thoughts , and to cause our minds to dwell upon his glorious works ; our minds ( i say ) which are of narrow capaci●y , and can but take in things by peece-meale into their consideration . the eyes of our souls are but narrow , and it is not enough for them at one glance to view the whole frame of this glorious building : but rather by setled meditation to fix themselves up●n it , and leisurely to pass from one part and point thereof to another , and in every part to admire the infinite and all-sufficient perfection of the worker . it is that which may make us ashamed , and tremble also 〈◊〉 god should call our consciences to account , few of us could say ▪ that of ●ll the time we have spent , ever sith-hence we had the use of ou● understandings , in a serious meditation on gods works , to this end that we might glorify the maker , would not make up one week , not one six days , not so long as the lord was in bringing them forth . is not this a shame for man , who was made of purpose to glorify god in his works , that he should not in all his life spend so much time in meditating on the works of god , notwithstanding his dulness and sloth of apprehension , as the lord was pleased to take in making of them ▪ notwithstanding his omnipotency , which could have made them all in less than one minute , as easily as in a thousand years ! th●s therefore should cause us to humble our selves for ou● failing in this regard , whereof we are guilty in an high degree ; and move us to spend more hours in studying this great book of nature , which the lord hath spread open before us , therein describing unto us those invisible things of his eternal power and god-head in such plain and legible characters , that he which runneth m●y read them : every main part being ( as it were ) a several volume , the heaven , the aire the earth and waters , every creature in th●se being a several leaf or page : every part of each creature ; every natural property , quality or created vertue in each , being a several li●e , or ( at least ) word or syllable , deserving a studious and attentive reader ; that is , one that will seriously take into his thoughts the admirable incomprehensible excellency and perfection of the maker . and as our saviour speaking of daniel's prophesie , concerning the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place , saith , let him that readeth consider : so say i of these great works of gods creation , which we may call the books of nature , written with the finger of god , let him that readeth them consider : let him that looketh upon them , not do it with a careless eye , but with attentive thoughts , and most effectual meditations : yee may not herein be like idle readers , that only lo●k at the beginning of a book , to see the name , and then throw it away again . and what if i should say , it were expedient herein to follow the same order in considering of the lords works , as the lord himself did in their creation ; that is , to bind our selves to do the work of the day in its day , namely on the same day wherein each work was done , to meditate on the work of that day ? i will not say , that he sinneth , who doth not follow this order , i know no such warrant . but this i say , considering our weakness , who must have time to make a distinct consideration of things , considering how apt we are to be carried away with idle , impertinent and unprofitable musings , and so to look away f●om those things whereupon our thoughts should especially be fixed : considering the great and admirable variety of creatures , and of natural qualities and perfections in those creatures , all issuing from that one single , but all-sufficient perfection of an infinite god ; especially considering that the lord hath been pleased , not only to let us know , how many days he spent in the creation of all the whole , but also particularly and distinctly to acquaint us with his several days works ; telling us what he did the first day , what he did the second day , &c. ● dare boldly say , it is expedient even to tye our selves to set apart some time in those several days , for a more special view of those several works . the work it self is necessary , and a more natural and convenient order to be used in performing it , i cannot think of , than this which i now propose . chap. iii. meditations on the first days work. sect . . let us now consider what was the first days work , and that upon the first day , which now we call the lords day , and therein first consider what was done in the evening of that day , and then what was done in the morning . . what was done in the evening : it seemeth that in the evening or n●g●t , was ma●e the heaven without light , the earth wi●hout form , darkness c●vering the face of the de●p . and the spirit of god moving upon the surface of the waters . and here is plentiful ma●ter for thy thoughts to work upon , on this first day of the week . . then admire and magnify the wonderful power and wisdome of the lord , in stretching out the huge and far-spreading body of the heavens , encompassing all the rest of the creatures , after-mentioned . and let the wonderful circuit of this creature make thee with much holy admiration to look upon that infinite iehovah , by whom it was created : and if the heavens be so great , that they exceed thine imagination ; how great is he of whom it is truly said , that neither the heaven , nor the heaven of heavens can contain him ! if the heavens be so glorious , how unspeakable is his glory and majesty , who hath the whole heaven for his throne and treade●h upon the ear●h as his foot-stool ? yea consider , that if gods wisdome , power , greatness ▪ &c. be so notably manifested in these earthly creatures which we see , it is much more gloriously apparent in the wonderful frame of the heavens , which we can scarcely see by reason of their distance , not doubting , but that the heaven doth as far excell these lower creatures in the excellent perfections of its nature , as it is above them in height of scituation . . again , let this make thee wonder at the goodness of god with a thankfull heart , who hath not only given man a pleasant dwelling here on earth , plentifully furnished , and a lordship over other creatures , b●ought out of the same common mass with himself , but also offereth him a place in the highest heaven , that he may dwell for ever in his glorious presence ; yea , that he may sit down with him in his throne , as it is said in the revelations ▪ so that man who is but dust and ashes , even a very piece of this lower earth , shall be exalted above the rest of the creatures , and made to dwell for ever before the face of god : seeing then the lord hath made heaven for man to possess , let not the earth then so steal away thy heart , o christian , as if there were no better thing than the earth for thee to enjoy : let the heaven be of greater force to raise and lift up thy heart toward it , than the earth to sink it down-ward : see thine own folly , and bewail it , that thou hast spent more precious hours , employed more serious thoughts upon some few spans of the earth , or in gathering some few pieces of white and red earth , than in seeking an ass●●ed title of an inheritance in those glorious and spacious heavens . think with thy self , that no pains can be too much ; no service too hard , no endeavours too constant , no affection too eager in seeking gods kingdome , and its righteousness . when god would comfort abraham in hope of the promised inheritance , and so make it a motive to him , that he might be stirred unto obedience , and strengthened in the faith ; look ( saith the lord ) east-ward and west-ward , north-ward and south-ward , for all the land which thou se●●t , to thee will i give it , and to thy seed for ever , genes . . . so wouldest thou have encouragements for obedience , wouldest thou know why thou shouldest do these and these duties , and shun these and these sins ; then look up to heaven , ha●e an eye to the glorious inheritance , which god hath provided for thee . wouldest thou fain be above the reach of malicious tongues , or other injuries , look up to heaven ; they shall not touch thee there . wouldst thou learn contentedness with thy portion , look up to heaven ! thou ar● apt to think thou hast not enough here , but when once thou shalt take hold of that heavenly kingdome , thou shalt say , i have enough . look up to heaven , and remember , that christ is there , in the same nature of man , wherein now thou walkest up and down , making intercession for thee , and that thou hast a sure friend , a sure●y and advocate , a spokesman , one that is thine head , and to whom thou art united as a member , now in the highest part of the whole c●eation . consider the dignity and priviledge of a christian , whose happiness is as far above that of the worldling , as the heaven is above the earth . . consider the restless motions of the heavens , never at a stop , never abating in any degree the swiftness of their motion ; and learn both the perfection of god , whose providence is in a continual course , by which as well the heavens , as the lowest creatures , are carried about , all in him moving and having their beeing : and on the other side take notice of thy duty , and learn to go on in a restless course of godliness , as one carryed about by the power of the spirit ; as the first mover in all the ways and works of god ; whereby the heart ( as the first wheel ) is stirred , and the whole outward man carried about by that motion , from which proceedeth both to will and to do , according to his good pleasure . in the second place , to the first nights work belongeth the creation of that first confused lump and mass of things , here called earth ; but having in it ( as it were ) the stuff and materials of all these lower bodies , . consider what a rude mishapen lump this was at the first , and in thy thoughts strip the earth of all its glory ; consider it bare and naked , without grass , trees , herbs , men , beasts , light , or any thing that belongeth to its comeliness ▪ furniture , or perfection : and then remember ▪ that as it had beeing , so all its excellency and beauty was from the lord ; and therefore suffer not any thing belonging to the earth ▪ not any thing that partaketh of it , or is of kin unto it to draw away thy heart from him ▪ who gave it all that it hath : let not that which is wholly god's , d●aw thee from god , but rather lead thee to him . take the earth as it was of it self , and it was nothing : take it as it was in the beginning of its beeing , and it was as good as nothing : it had not any excellency of beeing to draw thine heart after it , if then thou hadst been created : and then conclude it were a madness to conceive it thus to be decked and dressed up by the lord himself for this purpose , that it might draw thy heart from him , and move thee to prefer it above him . . learn here to see a picture of thy state of unregeneration : thy body of sin , what is it b●t a very chaos , a rude confused lump of disordered lusts , earthly affections , and muddy distempered passions ? is it not without its proper form ? doubtless the soul hath lost that beautiful shape and image of its maker , consisting in wisdome , righteousness and true holiness ; darkness is upon the face of it . what a misty night shadoweth the understanding of every natural man , so that h● can●ot di●cern the things of god ? alas ! he hath no light , the day is not dawned , neither is the day-star ris●n upon his soul : he speaketh , readeth , heareth of god of his love in christ , b●t hath no cleer sanctified a●●re●ension of any heavenly mystery : he looketh blindly upon his sins , upon his afflicti●ns , upon his crosses , upon his comfor●s , upon all or many of these , that which the faithful soul sees , whose eyes have been enlightened ●y the father of lights : learn hence ●o see what thy condition is ▪ and so loath thy 〈◊〉 in poverty of spirit . and as this senseless lump of things 〈◊〉 , until the spiri● of god moved upon 〈◊〉 ●aters : so c●nsid●r what a pi●ce of dead 〈…〉 w●st thy ●elf , and how ●hou didst 〈…〉 block , without all 〈…〉 , life , un●il the blessed quickning spiri● o● g●d began to 〈◊〉 thine heart ; and learn to 〈◊〉 all proud c●nceits of thine own from ●n hu●ble heart acknowledging , that by the grace of god , and through the work of his spi●it , thou art what thou art . by this evening of utter darkness which was before the first day , learn to consider that dark and dismal night , wherein the church of god was , after the death , and before the resurrection of our saviour , who rose to life upon this first day of the week . what sad thoughts possessed the souls of those faithful wo●en , who this night were coming with their odours , to do honour to his dead body , whose life was so precious to them ? when the forme● hopes of his disciples were clouded with such dark distrustful conceits as this . we had hoped that it had been he , who should have saved israel . surely , heaviness endured with them this night , but joy came in the mo●ning : the sun of righteousness arose out of the grave , as here the light 〈◊〉 commanded to shine out of da●kness : and 〈◊〉 it was verified , which our saviour spake unto them : yee shall have sorrow , but the world shall rejoyce , and your sorrow shall be turned into joy . sect . . let us now consider what was done on the morning of the first day : here turn thy thoughts to consider of ●hat excellent creature [ the ligh● ] which the lord called for in the midst of da●kness , ●nd which immediately came at his call ; when darkness was upon the face of the deep ▪ god said , let there be light , and there was light : admire this wonderful change which the lord made upon this day , when suddenly the light brake forth there , where was nothing but da●kness : the glory of god is notably seen by this light , inasmuch as without the help of sun , moon , or other stars , he created a bright shining light to drive away that darknes● , whe●ewith those beginnings of the creation were enwrapped . we should think it strange to see at mid-night a perfect light suddenly breaking fo●th without any dawning , or such other degrees of preparation ; the ayr in one instant becoming as light at mid-night , as at noon in the cleer●st day : yet this was more , inasmuch as it was the first appearance of the light that ever was in the world , there being no beginnings , no glimpse or degrees of it before . and here consider : . as the light was created upon this day ▪ so christ ( the light of the world ) did this day arise out of the grave of death and darkness ; and by his resurrection the light of his god-head did shine abroad into the world , which before was over-shadowed with miserable blindness and darkness ; so the apostle saith , he was declared to be the son of god with power , according to the s●irit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead , rom. . ● . his time of suffering was the hour of darkness , and a kind of n●ght : his ignominious death , burial , and ab●de in the grave , was so da●k a night , that in it the quickest eyes , even the faith of his own disciples could hardly disce●n him to be the son of god , and saviour of the world. but being risen , he made it manifest that he was the son of god , as the sun doth shew it self by the brightness of his own beames ; and now he cast abroad the light of his heavenly truth in the ministery of his apostles by whom was preached christ jesus dead for our sins , and risen again to make us righteous . . consider , that as on this day the light was created , and this day christ the light of the world did arise , so the lord hath ordained , that on this day the light of the holy gospel should shine brigh●ly and plentifully in his church , through the preaching of the word ; and therefore consider seriously with thy self , that on this day thou must set thy self with an open and fixed eye of thy soul to receive the light ; that is , wi●h a willing teachable and a●tentive mind to recei●e the word of god , which is a beam of light issuing from him , who is the father and fountain of lights . sad is the practice of many , who like owles and bats , and such other night-bi●d , shun the light , and come not abroad in such times when the sun shineth ; namely such as purposely keep home on this day , and are off●nded at the light ▪ causelesly ab●●nting themselves from it , or wilfully refusing to entertain it ; such as would like the world better , if it were over-shadowed with a night of ignorance ; and like those churches best , that have but dark lanthorns ; or such candles , as after a little time of blazing , go out with an unsavoury snuff . oh think it a special mercy of god , that he holdeth forth the light unto thee on this day , and do thou with all readiness both look toward it , and walk by it . . again . consider , that as light was the first thing which was made , when the earth was without form and void ; so when any souls in the state of natural corruption , are without christ formed in them , void of grace , full of pollutions ; the first thing wrought in us is a light of sanctified knowledge , sound illumination , before we can bring forth any duty pleasing to god. and therefore be not deceived , like those , who think that ignorance is the mother of devotion : ignorance is as great an enemy to the soul , and its salvation , as utter darkness was to the world , and to the creatures in it : and that spiritual light is as needful for the former , as this other light was for the latter . they therefore that are in their natural blindness , are as far from the new creation , as the earth was from its natural perfection , while darkness was upon the face of the deep . . as god alone by his call did bring forth light ; so think you , that all the knowledge which thou hast ( especially in heavenly things ) is wholly from god , without which nothing was in thee but utter darkness ; and therefore thou hast no more cause to be proud of thy knowledge , than that muddy heap of earth in the beginning had to brag of the light which shined upon it by the command of god ; whereas of it self it was altogether dark and covered with darkness . . consider the benefits which thou receivest by this creature ; it giveth thee the use of thine eyes , it delighteth that sense : it freeth thee from many fears , which darkness doth naturally suggest unto thee : it sheweth thee things in their right colours ; it helpeth thee in avoiding many dangers , in ob●aining many comforts : it is a guide unto thee in thy travel : it is comfort in thy labours ; it is a means , whereby thou maist conve●se with others : it is not to be imagined how many wants and inconveniencies the loss of this creature would bring upon thee : for among other things , it hath a cherishing warmth and lively heat accompanying it , whereby it giveth life , and preserveth life , motion , and natural heat in men , and other creatures ; and therefore conclude , oh lord , our god! how wonderfull are thy works ; and especially this first-born creature , the light which upon this first day thou diddest cause to shine out of utter darkness ! and when thy heart is covered wi●h a dark night of sad uncomfortable thoughts , then look up to him who can cause the light to shine out of darkness , and joy and comfort to arise out of sorrow and heaviness . chap. iv. meditations on the second days work. from the fi●st , come we to the second day , which we ord●narily call monday . here you are to consider the wisdome and wonderfull power of god , in making a division between the huge heap of the waters , spreading the firmament of the ayr between its parts ; raising the clouds above , and there making treasuries for rain hail , snow , and other m●teors : oh consider the goodness of god in giving thee this admirable creature of the ayr , wh●ch feedeth thee with breath continually , whereof the poorest beggar hath as large a portion , as the greatest monarch . consider that the least draught of this ayr is more than thou canst deserve at the hands of god , who yet art apt to repine and murmur , when thou hast not fulness of bread ▪ and art abridged in some small degree of the plenty which thou hadst at other times . . consider , that as without this ayr the natural man cannot live , so neither can the spiritual man , without the blessed spirit , which giveth an heavenly breathing to the soul regenerated , as the ayr doth to the body . and as the ayr doth pass unseen into the body , but then is breathed out again in a visible manner , so the spirit of god worketh and conveyeth his heavenly influence in an hidden invisible manner into the minds of the faithfull ; but is visibly breathed forth again ( as it were ) in regard of its fruits , in holy speeches , and heavenly actions , that men may see the good works which he bringeth forth in the godly , and glorify their father who is in heaven . wonderfull are the effects of the ayr , and according to it our bodies are usually enclined and disposed ; yea , and our souls too in some respect , by reason of the neer neighbourhood between the soul and the body , and the special affinity between the ayr and the spirits in the body , which are the immediate instruments of the soul. we of this kingdome have special cause to bless god for one of the sweetest and most temperate ayres in the world , se●ving much for delight , for health , for our furtherance even in the best things , if we were car●full to make the best use of such a blessing ; a quick and kindly ayr being no small help to the spirits , even in the service of god. . we may further consider , that as such stoppings as hinder the ayr from passing too and fro , do endanger the natural life : so those sins that stop the lively working , moving and breathing of the sanctifying spirit , do endanger the spiritual life . the wind ( which is the ayr stirred and moved ) and is ( as it were ) the same in the ayr , which the waves are in the sea , is of wonderful force and strength : it beareth down trees , buildings , and things of wonderfull strength and bigness ; it tosseth the seas , and rouleth in the waves , and worketh wonders in the deep ; hereby magnifying the almighty power of its creator ; w●o ( as the psalmist saith ) rideth upon the wings of the wind. and yet you must remember , that the winds and seas obey him , who sent a calm , when ionas was cast out of the ship ; and at another time , when christ came into the ship : so when sin is cast out of the soul , and christ received and embraced , then the tempest of an accusing conscience is calmed , and a swe●● peace followeth upon it , which passeth all understanding . . as the ayr is sometimes more , sometimes less stir●ed by the winds ; so the blessed spirit of god , blowing when , where , and how he listeth , doth sometimes ( as it were ) breath more st●ongly , and sometimes impart a l●ss measure of h●s heavenly vertue . in the second chapter of the acts , at the feast of pentecost , he cam● down like a mighty rushing wind upon the apostles , who were gathered together , and so they were carried mightily in the power of the spirit , to spread the gospel of christ throughout the world. but ordinarily , the blasts of the spirit are not so strong , and to our pace is but ●low in the ways of god : and therefore should we pray with the spouse in that song of songs . arise o north-wind , and come o south , and blow upon my garden , that the s●ic●s thereof may fl●w forth . . but in this days work , we are especially to consider the clouds above , which are those waters above the firmament , and in these admire those store-houses of sweet refreshing showres , which water the earth with a fa●tening dew and fruitfull moisture , that it may yield encrease for the use of man and beast , which should make us to admire his goodness : and on the other side , to tremble at his displeasure , who once did open the flood-gates of heaven , so as to overwhelm the world of the ungodly destroying all that breathed , those only excepted which were contained within ●he compass of one ark : where also we are ●o admire his patience , who thus long forbeareth sinners , being continually provoked ; al●hough he hath not only flood-gates of rain and water but also store-houses of hail-shot , mortal thunder-bolts , treasuries of fire and ●●imstone ▪ &c. whereby he could in a moment many thousand ways avenge himself of his enemies . . consider , that as that ground is neer unto cursing , which drinketh of the dew of heaven , and receiveth the rain , and yet 〈◊〉 forth no encrease : so that case is dreadfull , when the heavenly dew of the word falleth continually upon the heart , and yet it remaineth altogether bar●en and fruitless to●a●d god. . consider also how the lord giveth snow like wool , c●ste●h forth his ice like morsels , ●●●●ereth the ●oar● first like ashes . in this ayr are to be admired the hideous claps of ●●under , the dreadfull flashes of lightening , whereby the lord sheweth his almighty power and majesty : and as he made shew of these terrible things in the delivery of his law ; so even common sense may teach us , that he will be much more dreadfull , when he calleth to account the impenitent transgressors of his law ; yea , we should consider , that the same reverence is to be yielded to him , when he speaketh in the soft still voice of the gospel , which was due unto his voice , when it was attended with thunder and lightning . . learn to acknowledge him in the different change of weather , be it seasonable or unseasonable , and to call upon him , and give him thanks , as the cause requireth . . let the ayr , filling all empty corners in the world , in a wonderfull manner , leaving no creek nor crany in any degree not filled , put thee in mind of the infinite presence of god , who filleth all in all , and through all : and thus m●ch for the second day . chap. v. meditations on the third days work . sect . i. i proceed to the third day , which with us is usually called tuesday , wherein the waters were gathered together in one place , and called seas , and the earth was dried and clothed . . on this day then , thou hast special occasion to admire and magni●y the wisdome of god , in foreseeing what was fit for the use of the creatures ; his goodness in ●ffecting it , and his power in crossing and controuling the first order of nature for this purpose . consider this day , how all was water ; no sign of earth , no mountain , no dry land appearing : and then on a sudden , by the word of god , the waters rouling together into one place , called seas , and there abiding . and here consider what wonders are in this deep , what numberless swarms of fishes swimming and floating up and down : of which af●erwards on the fif●h day . . consider , how admirable is the power of god seen in bridling the waves of the seas , and by his invisible , but most mighty hand , holding them , in that they shall pass no farther . and thus also doth the lord restrain the enemies of his church , both devils and wicked men , who otherwise would soon bring down a deluge of misery upon the people of god , and swallow up his little flock : and therefore , as when thou seest the waves beat furiously against the shore , as if they would return to their old place again ; thou dost not fear it , because the hand of god keeps them in : so when thou seest the rage of the enemies against the church at the highest , yet remember , that the covenant which god hath made with his own people , is as a strong bar against their might and malice . . wonderfull is the lords majesty set fo●th by the greatness of the seas , bordering upon so many nations , and compassing the e●rth about , yielding by means of navigation a speedy intercourse between those countries which are far distant from each other . . wonderfull it is in the secret passages wh●ch it hath , whereby it sendeth forth waters into the cranies of the earth , which in divers places break out again in sweet and fresh springs , losing the saltness which they brought from the sea ; and then by the conjunction of many springs , making rivers , and emptying themselves again in the sea , eccles. . . so also we , who receive all from god , should return all to him again . it were a monstrous thing in nature , for a stream to wheel about , and come home , and sink into its own spring again , not emptying it self into the sea from whence it came . no less monstrous is it , but much more common , for us to run thus in a circle , and to reflect wholly upon our selves , to aim at our selves , our ease , our credit , carnal contentment , and not seriously and effectually to bend our hearts and thoughts , to direct our aimes , to employ our gifts and talents of several kinds , for the honour and glory of the giver . a sin that will fall most heavy at the last day , if not repented of , and forsaken . how can we cross and oppose the lord more ( who made us for himself alone ) than when we make our selves only to aim at our selves ? these rivers run into the sea , yet is not the sea indebted to them , nor over-filled by them : when we have done all that we can for god , yet are we unprofitable servants ; we cannot give him a recompence answerable to that which we have received ; much less deserve any thing at his hands . . the pe●pe●ual course of these streams and rivers fed by a living spring , should put us in mind of that well of living waters , even the fountain of sanctifying grace , which christ by his spirit shall cause to arise in the hearts of the faithfull ▪ never to be dried up again : and such must our graces be , not like a little rain-water , filling the cistern , and soon dried up , or drawn out , but like a spring that giveth a continual supply . and as many waters , which now glide along , and shew themselves in the vallies , had their first rising in the hills ; as it is said , that the r●ine , the rhene , and the poe , three great rivers of germany , france , and italy , have their springs in those mountains called the alpes ; so those streams of grace , which are to be seen in the low vallies , even the conversations of humble christians , had their beginnings in that mountain of holiness , and came down from the father of lights . sect . . now then , the dry land , the huge massy body of the earth appeareth , the waters being put up in one place ; and here , . you may think of huge mountains , deep vallies ; in the bowels of it , veins of gold , silver , brass lead , iron ; and consider , that these things which the world esteemeth most precious , and for wh●ch m●ny thousands cast away their precious souls , are laid up by god in the lowest and basest part of the creation , buried under ground . and therefore , though in these we should admire the wisdome , goodness , riches of their maker , yet at the other side , we must take special care , that we do n●t let ●hem steal away our hea●●s from him , who made both them and us . that brazen serpent which moses made by the lords appointment , was a sacrament unto the is●aelites , who had f●lt the fiery venome of those serpents in the wilderness ; but the pe●ples sin in after-times made it a danger●us id●l , and so a neh●shtan or contemptible piece of brass , as hezekiah called it : so god hath created these mettals , &c. and hath given them their natures , beauty , qualities , for ou● use and his glory ; but if we give that affection to them which we owe to him , we make them idols , and are to remember , that they are but a brighter kind of de●d earth , and that the meanest soul in the world is of more worth , than a mountain of gold : and therefore it is a notorious indignity to the father of spirits , and maker of all things , if we prefer one of his meanest works above himself . again , it is reported , that those grounds which abound with gold and silver , are barren in bringing forth living plants ; as trees , herbs , grass , &c. so the heart that hath a golden mine , or a vein of silver running through it , is barren in bringing forth any lively fruits of holy obedience . . but the earth is without all ornament and clothing , now that the waters are removed ; neither did it bring forth one poor grass or herb , or any other thing , until the working and all-mighty word of god laid a new commandment upon it . let the earth , &c. and therefore do not think , that the earth hath this vertue to bring forth of it self a yearly encrease , but that it would have layen like a dead unprofitable lump , without any thing growing upon it in the most seasonable time of the year , had not the lord bidden it ; and in bidding it , enabled it to bring forth . consider then with thy self , that every years encrease , every crop of corn , every tree , every grain every seed , or fruit of any tree ; every grass and herb , which the earth beare●h at any time , i● came undoubtedly out of the earth , by vertue of this soveraign command of god : yea , as well the propagation and succession of these , as the first creation , cometh from his word : for so he said ; let the earth bring forth the tree bearing fruit after its kind , and the herb bearing seed after its kind , and it was so . and therefore give all the glory to him for these things , from whom all things are received : by whom the earth is made fruitfull , and yielde●h an encrease . let us lament the unthankfulness , the pride and blindness that is among us . do we not murmur ( many of u● ) if we have not as much as formerly we had , as if now we could plead custome with god , and challenge it as a due , because we have had it so long , as if we could accuse him of with-holding our right , when after many years of abundance , we are a little stinted , and have now somewhat less . is not this great blindness ? do we not know that by our fall in adam we forfeited all our ●ight to these things , and that the lord m●ght justly have fed us no otherwise than some condemned wretches , with a poor p●●tance only to prese●ve life , that our mise●y might be the greater . all our right to these things was but by his free grant , this grant was but conditional , the condition of this grant we brake , where then i● our plea ? are we better than iacob ? o lord , i am less than the least of all thy mercies , saith he . is not this great pride , that men should think themselves not well used ( as it were ) at the hands of god ; and that they deserve better dealing . if thou haddest thy desert ( whosoever thou art ) thou haddest felt more misery long agone , than any ever felt upon the earth : and this every one may seemingly acknowledge , whose heart god hath touched : is it not great unthankfulness thus to requite the lord ? because thou hast enjoyed so much plenty heretofore , thou shouldest now much the rather with patience endure some scarcity : because thou hast received good , thou shouldest with more s●bmission bear some evil , or want of that measure of good , as iob reasoned with his wife . nay , if many were put to it , i am perswaded , they could not say in their consciences , that ●ver they did pray for this blessing feelingly and effectually : and is it not a shame for thee to murmur against the lord , for not giving that which thou never didst effectually ask ? nay , if we should consider the ho●rible abuse of gods creatures by all sorts ; rich and poor , we may justly wonder that the heavens are not long since hardened into brass , and the earth into iron against us . . among these plants observe ▪ how weeds and other hurtfull things do grow of themselves : but the best and most usefull must be carefully planted : so sin and corruption springeth naturally out of the evil soyl of our hea●ts , but grace and holiness are of the holy ghost his plantation . again , barren trees are cut down by the provident husbandman , that they may not cumber the ground as you see in the gospel , which should move us by bearing fruits unto god , to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling . the leaves of an outward profession are not sufficient , but to them must be joyned the fruit of a sanctified conversation . the tree , and every branch and twig thereof , receiveth sap ▪ life , nourishment from the root . every true believer receiveth heavenly life and grace from christ jesus . so long as the branch is joyned to the tree , and so to the root , it receiveth benefit and refreshment from the dew and rain ; but if it be cut off from the tree , the sweetest showers cannot preserve it from being withered . he that is truly united to christ ▪ as a branch to the root , by the spirit and faith , he receiveth benefit , growth , and spiritual refreshment from the outward meanes of grace , the ministery of the word and sacraments . but if he be not truly united to him , the sweetest dew that ever fell from heaven , cannot keep spiritual life within him : on the other side , though the branch doth receive life and nourishment from the root , yet it wanteth refreshment from the showers of heaven : so those fanatical dreamers are to be condemned , who pretend an union with christ , and partaking of his spirit , and therefore brag they have no need of the word preached , or any outward means . again , let the renewing of the face of the earth by these creatures every spring , put thee in mind of the wonderfull efficacy of god his word , which from the beginning unto this present time hath made the earth thus fruitfull : and let it teach thee to rely upon his truth and promise in other things , as well as this . chap. vi. meditations on the fourth days work. sect . . from the third ▪ i come to the fourth day , which we usually call wednesday , which was the first day that had a sun to give it light , to which were added the moon to rule the n●gh● , and the stars to attend her ; which glorious work of a most glorious god should raise our thoughts to some holy meditation . . now consider on this day , how that as the waters , which were before dispersed all abroad upon and about the earth , were on the third day gathered into one store-house , called seas ; so the light , which was before diffused , through the huge spaces of the creation , was now ( as it were ) drawn together into one body of the sun , as a full and common treasury . consider here , that the lord , who is in himself infinitely more bright than the light it self , needed no light in respect of himself : and therefore it was for us , that he made the light : and we should bless him for it : so in regard of himself , he needed no word , nor revelations of heavenly mysteries , being infinite in all knowledge and wisdome ; and therefore it was for us , that he gave his word to be a light , and caused by his spirit the bright beams of holy truths to be cast abroad into the dark world : therefore we may conceive , how shamefull our sin and unthankfulness is , that we must be entreated to turn our eyes toward this light , and to come to church to hear the word , whereas ( if need were ) we should beg a place in the house of god upon our knees , rather than go without this light . . consider , that although the lord was pleased to give light to the world , yet there needed no sun whereby to do it : witness the light of the three first days , wherein no sun shined : so when it pleased the lord to give the light of heavenly knowledge to his church , yet he needed no books , no written word to do it by : witness those two thousand years , and more from the beginning of the world till moses wrote the holy text , by inspiration of the holy ghost : and then consider , that as after the third day , the sun was made to give light to the world , which before was illightened without a sun ; so after many hundred years , the lord placed the books of moses , and then other holy writings , as a sun in the firmament of his church , to give light unto the same : and , as after the sun was made , men had no want of that light , which was given without a sun in the former three days : so you may consider , that now the books of scripture are written , and the light of gods truth plentifully shining in them , there is no need of unwritten traditions to give light unto us in any way or work of god : and therefore conclude , that the dotage of the papists , in pleading for unwritten traditions ( now we have the written word ) is as gross , as if a m●n should complain for want of that wandering light of the three first days , now when ●he ligh● is fully seated , and firmly fixed in the body of the sun. . consider , that as one sun giveth light to the whole world : so one word to the whole church scattered throughout the world. and here see the absurdity of some unsound ones among us , who being more than half papists , are not ashamed to condemn the study of those worthy writings of many forreign divines , upon this poor pretence , because they lived in other kingdomes and common-wealths ; and so their doctrine doth not so well suit with our state and kingdome . as if the same sun could not serve all nations with light ; but that we must have one in england , and they another in france , &c. so if the sun of holy truth do shine in the writings of these holy men , why cannot we see and walk by this light , as well as out-landish men ? . consider , that the light is still like it self ; that light which was before the sun , is of the same nature with that which now is in the sun : so the truth and word of god is still the same , not contrary to it self . the light of holy truth , which was before the word ▪ written , and this which shineth in the holy scriptures , is the same : and therefore the papists , are yet more shameless , when under pretence of the unwritten word , they thrust upon the church such idle forgeries , as are contrary to the word written , as if light could be contrary to light ; or darkness might be called light . if the light of the written word doth shew us , that marriage is honourable among all men , and therefore not only among the laity ; then know it is no beam of this heavenly light , which makes men think they see much sin and shame in it , when it is used by the ministers of the word , but that it is even a dark vapour of the bottomless pit ; and so s. paul saith , it is a doctrine of devils . if the word written , by its light do shew the worship performed to images to be gross , and shamefull idolatry , then that doctrine which commendeth this as a special point of devotion , and condemneth to the fire those that refuse it , cannot be any beam of light issuing from the word of god unwritten , but rather a dark shadow , caused by the prince of darkness : so you may think of many other popish fopperies . the seas , the trees , grass , herbs , &c. which were on the third day , appeared to be of the same colour , by that light which then was , without a sun , as th●● did afterwards by the sun-light : so those thin●● which by the word written are now 〈◊〉 to be white or black , lawfull o●●●lawfull , did appear so also by the light o●●he word , before it was written . . consider also , that as the lord could have given light without a sun ▪ and yet being pleased to make a sun , doth also require , that we should see by this sun : so the lord , who could have given us knowledge without a word preached , and have taught us immediately by his spirit being pleased to set up the ministry of the word , and to teach us by it , doth req●ire that we should learn and profit by it . and therefore we must not think that we may neglect the word ▪ because god can teach us without it : we must be taught as god will teach us ; and not as he can , but will not . god spake immediately to saul from heaven , condemning his cruelty against the church ; but yet sent him to a man to learn what he should do . the lord striketh down a sinner with the apprehension of his wrath for sin , but sendeth him to men , even to the preachers of his word , to learn what he ought to do . and therefore they , who in regard of knowledge despise the preaching of the word , and think it needless , may as well despise the sun in regard of outward light for the eye of the body , and think it may well be spared . . again consider , that as the sun in his circuit , passeth from east to west ; so the light of the word issuing by the special providence of god from the east , hath come toward the west . it is probably thought that adam was created in the eastern parts of the world , to whom the word was at first delivered . however ! it is certain , that ierusalem is eastward , whence the law did issue , and the gospel proceed unto these western parts : and now toward the end of this great day of the world , this light is bending towards those poor western barbarians of america . . again ▪ as the rising sun is most looked at , being especially welcome after the dark night , and not so much regarded at noon , though then it shineth brighter : so the word preached is most affected ordinarily by a people at its first coming ; but afterward● through their great corruption and unthankfulness , it seemeth stale unto them , although there be an encrease of gifts in the preacher , and the truth shining brighter to them in his ministery than at the first . if you finde this in your selves , let your hearts smite you for it , and be earnest with god to renew your affections to his word , that you may gather an appeti●e by feeding upon this heavenly manna , and not like the carnal israelites , begin to loath it , and to lust for grosser food , because this hath been so common . consider , that as any man well in his wits , accounteth it a blessing to have the sun once in . hours , so should any one who is wise unto salvation , and taught of god , account it a blessing to have the word twice in a week , although it be the less regarded by earthly spirits , because it is ordinary . . moreover , think with thy self , that as he that is stark blind cannot see the light when the sun shineth most brightly : so he that is in natural blindness , cannot rightly see the divine vertue , and saving excellency of the word ; therefore call upon god with the psalmist . teach me o lord , open mine eyes , &c. and make no great account of the judgment of such in spi●i●u●l things ▪ who are worldly wise , or learned , but unsa●ctified : think rather , that as no spectacles can make that eye to see that is altog●ther blind ▪ so no help of humane lea●ning , natural sharpness of wit , &c. can make that man that is spiritually blind , rightly and savingly to discern spiritual things . if there be some light in the eye , tho●gh but dim , it may be helped and furthered by such outward means : so if there be some light of the enlightening sanctifying spirit ▪ and ●he mind , then th●se outward helps of secular lea●●ing , arts , tongues , natural quickness of wit , &c. may be of great and excellent use , and must not be despised . . again consider , that as there is great difference in the cleerness of the light , between such a day , when the sun-beams are intercepted by a thick mist or dark cloud , and then when it shineth brightly through a cleer ayr : so when the light of heavenly truths was dimmed by a thick mist of iewish ceremonies , when a cloud was in the most holy place , even before the oracle and ark of gods presence , when the vail was whole , and not rent asunder , the means of grace were not so cleer , the mysteries of grace not so plainly unfolded by many degrees , as now since our saviours coming , when there are no impediments ; and this should stir thee up to thankfulness ; every sun-shiny day should make thee lift up a thankfull heart with feeling affections to the father of lights for that cleer light of the gospel which now shineth unto thee in the church . and as there is a g●eat difference between the sun in an eclipse ▪ and the sun free from such eclipse in his full glory ; so shouldest thou think there is a great difference between the gospel now cleerly preached since the reformation , and the gospel much darkned by popish mists , by humane doctrines , yea doctrines of devils in the time of popery . and when-ever thou seest the sun eclipsed , lament the miseries of those times : and when thou seest i● freed from the eclipse again , bless god for the happiness o● these last hundred years . and as the sun is not in a moment freed from the eclipse , but by degrees ; so was it in the reformation , by the ministery of walaus , and his followers , of w●ckliff and his fol●owers , then of iohn huss , of hierom of pragu● , of luther , and calvin , &c. and therefore think how vain the popish objection is ; luther and calvin did not agree , therefore both were hereticks : the sun was not so folly freed from its eclipse , than in lut●e●'s beginnings , as afterwards ; and the difference was no more than between the sun in some degree freed from the eclipse , and the sun more cleered and fre●d . again consider , that the sun is eclipsed by the body of the moon , coming between it and our sight : so the light of gods word is eclpsed many times to many of us in particular , by reason of the world , and the things of the world , which are changeable like the moon coming between it and our affections : so that our hear●s embracing & cl●aving to earthly things , have the earth standing in their light , and eclipsing he light of the word . therefore if you will see cleerly by the light of the word , you must remove the world out of the way , put ●he earth out of your heart . and as zacheus f●und himself too low , when he stood upon the ground , and therefore went up into a tree , and stood above the earth , that he might take a view of christ : so that you may cleerly see christ jesus , you must not stand , much l●ss crawl and grovel upon the ground with an earthly heart , cleaving to the dust , and glewed to the earth , but must get up above the earth , in the height of an heavenly spirit , seeing the earth below thee , and accounting it but as an heap of dung which thou treadest under thy feet ; and refusest to lay in the bosome of thine affections , or to set it before the eye of thy soul. . consider , as the light of the sun is offensive and displeasing to sore eyes , which rather delight in a dim ayr , so consider that the reason , why the light of gods word preached , is so displeasing unto many , is because of the carnal distemper of their hearts , whereas to a sound heart it is most delightfull . and consider , though the light of the sun be pleasing to a g●od eye , yet the sharpest sight may be dazeled by its brightness : so the light of heavenly mysteries in the word : is of that surpassing excellency , as to overcome the cleerest apprehension of any sanctified christ a● . . consider , as the light of the sun is accompanied with a cherishing heat and warmth , whereby the creatures on earth are refreshed , and made to grow ; yea , whereby life is ingenerated and preserved : ●o the light of the word is attended with a divine operative warmth and vertue of the blessed spirit , whereby the new life is ingenerated and preserved in the hearts of the elect . again , as the sun by its coming in the spring , renueth the face of the earth , and maketh such a difference in the world , as if it were a new world : so when the gospel was preached abroad in in the world by the apostles , it made a wonderfull alteration in the world , even as if it had been a new world : insomuch , that the heathens themselves , and enemies observed it , as demetrius told his fellow smiths ( speaking of paul and his fellow apostles ) these be the men that have turned the world upside down . ah wonderful change ! when those idol gods should be hated as wicked devils , and lying spirits , which before were thought worthy of all reverence , when demetrius his diana shall be set at nought ▪ and his wa●● out of request , which before were so highly set by : when the name of one god shall be glorified throughout the world , whereas before many gods were worshipped even in all parts of the world . . when the sun is up men do both arise and perform the business and works of the day : so when the gospel is preached , as it hath been with us a long time , we must think it time to rouze up our selves from the beds of security , and awake by repentance out of the sleep of sin and impenitency , and to being forth fruits answerable to the gospel , and the means of grace . consider how unseemly it is in this day-time to go naked without putting on christ , to come abroad in the light with the loathsome rags of our natural pollutions , to be still in bed , to be busied in our night-works of darkness ; to behave our selves no otherwise than those who never saw the light . oh detest those courses of idleness , swearing , whoring and drunkeness , &c. as most unseemly in the day , most unfi● for the light ; put away the works of darkness , and put on the armour of light . . consider also , that as the sun at the same time and in the same place hardeneth one thing , and softeneth another : so the word is a means to soften some hearts , and an occasion ( though not a cause ) of greater hardeness to others : as the sun killed ▪ some things by its scorching heat , and quickneth other things ; so the word is to some the savour of life unto life , and to others the savour of death unto death . many other meditations may you gather by comparing this excellent creature of god with that more excellent word of god. sect . . now let us compare the sun with christ himself : he is called the sun of righteousness , of whom it was said , that he should arise with hea●ing in his wings , malach. . . the coming of the sun gladdeth the world : oh how joyfull was that news , when the sun of righteousness was reported to be risen upon the earth , when the angels said to the shepherds ; behold i bring you glad tidings of great joy , which shall be to all people , luk. . . oh how happy is the soul of a christian , when after a night of natural blindness , after a stormy night of errours in the conscience , this blessed sun riseth upon the soul , shineth upon the heart , dr●veth away clouds , darkeness , guilty fears , di●●rustfull th●ughts ! . as the sun is sometimes hidden , so sometimes christ doth withdraw the sence of his gracious presence from his beloved . the spouse in the song of songs sought long ere she could find him , when once he stepped aside . as the s●n returning maketh the earth which was benummed in winter , to spring and bring forth fruit again : so when christ is effectually present and united to the soul , he causeth a spring of grace and fruits of the spirit to arise in that soul. let the meditation hereof move thee to lament thy barrenness , and cry with that blessed martyr at the stake ; son of god shine upon me , shine upon my soul ; heal it , quicken it , make it fruitfull to thy glory . it is an argument that they are far from christ , who bring forth no fruits pleasing unto god , but yet remain in a carnal estate . . consider also that those fruits are most sweet and pleasant commonly which grow toward the sun-rising , and have the morning sun to ripen and bring them to perfection : so the zeal and obedience of the christians , who lived presently after our saviours resurrection in the primitive church , and in the times of the apostles , was most excellent : and so the graces and obedience of such as remember their creatour in the days of their youth , and consecrate the first f●uits of their time unto god , are exceeding pleasing and acceptable unto him . . when the sun setteth at night , and leaveth us in the dark , we doubt not but that he will return again : so when christ seemeth to withdraw himself from a faithful soul on which he hath cast the sweetest beams of comfort and refreshment : let such a one know for his comfort , that he will rise again : this night will not always last , though it be a long winters night , a tedious time of desertion , yet a dawning ; yea a perfect day will follow it , when the face of christ shall shine again upon it . again , as the sun never so setteth , as not to shine at all , but when it setteth to one part of the world , it ariseth to another : so christ never withdraweth his light from the whole world , but although he removeth from one nation , yet he shineth upon another ; he hath a church in all ages . . again , as among those fruits which grow in the earth , such as grow most toward the sun , are sweetest ; such as are most in the shade , are sowrest : so among those christians which are united unto christ , those who have more free and constant communion with him , partaking most of his spirit , keeping more close to him than others , they bring forth most sweet and savoury fruits of obedience , their services have a more pleasing and heavenly relish of the spirit in them , than theirs ; who though they partake of some life and warmth from christ , yet have it in aless degree , and are less careful to remove such things out of the sun as hide the face of christ from them . therefore this should move us to draw neer unto him , to dwell wi●h him , to walk i● the light of his countenance , then should we esteem his love to be better than life ; so should we delight more in him , and both we and our services would be more pleasing to him . ephesus was charged with the decay of first-love ; surely this decay of heat had never been , but that she had withdrawn her self from the sun ; she did not keep so close to christ as before : perha●s the world did get between christ and her heart , and kept off the heat , and thereupon she cooled . and as you shall see some ag●d person , whose blood is cold , to stand in the sun for warmth ; so let us close with christ iesus , come home to h●m , that we may receive heat from him ; and let us be more watchful that we step not aside from him in time to come . . as the sun is able more effectually to thaw and melt the frozen ice , than many thousand men with axes and bettles : so the presence of christ , and his love manifested to the soul , and shed into it , is more effectual in melting an hard frozen heart into sound godly sorrow , than a thousand threats or terrours of the law . therefore let not an afflicted soul put back the hand of god tendering unto it the offers of grace in christ-i●sus , because it is not yet sufficiently humbled ; but so long as its conscience beareth witness , that it seeketh not mercy for a cloak of sin , but for a motive to obedience , let it with confidence apply the promises , knowing that the apprehension of the love of christ shining upon the soul , is of all other the most ready and the most excellent means kindly and sweetly to melt and soft●n the heart , and to conform it to the will of god : this will make it yeeld , and fit it to receive any stamp of grace , that now it will be like wax before the fire , that will be moulded as it shall please the hand of god. therefore do not stand back from christ , because thou art sensible of too much hardeness in thy heart , but rather come to him ; that this hardeness may be removed , and thy heart may melt at his love . . let the glory and excellency of the sun make thee to admire the infinite glory and excellency of its maker : if the sun cannot long be look●d on with a steady-eye , oh then how doth god dwell in that light which cannot be approached unto , who can stand before him ? 〈◊〉 angels may well hide their faces at his presence ; where then shall man appear in the rags of his pollutions ? oh learn to contemn all the glory of the earth in comparison of his infinite excellency , who made the sun it self of nothing , which is more worth than the whole earth , and all its golden mines . learn to humble thy self before him , whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun , who knoweth many more faults in us than we can see in our selves , be we never so watchful , who is greater than our hearts , and knoweth all things . let it not seem incredible unto thee , that god should be every where present , and see all things in all places , seeing the sun , which is one of his creatures , and but apart of his fourth day's work , doth at once shine many hundred thousand miles , if you reckon how his light reacheth downward from heaven to earth , and that northward , southward , eastward , westward ; yea from heaven to heaven : for , when it is on the other side of the earth , it shineth on the moon on this side the earth , and causeth it to shine ; yea it shineth upon every tree , upon every little grass , and doth ( as it were ) in its kind , look upon the smallest thing . is it then to be doubted , that god , who can make a thousand suns as excellent as this , with a word , should be in all places at once , and see all things at one view ? even reason may teach us , that it is more strange , that the sun being a creature , should shine so far , and on so many creatures at once , than that the infinite god should be thus every where present , and see all things . yea , thou maist assure thy self , that as the sun is not polluted with the loathsome puddles and dunghils on which it shineth ; so neither is the lord by filling all places , even there where are the greatest pollutions . he is no farther from happiness in hell than in heaven ; for himself is hi● perfection and excellency , from whom no degree of happiness can be taken . . consider also the swiftness of the sun , which is beyond the thought of man : wonderful is the work of god in this regard , if we consider what an huge compass the earth hath , and then how the heavens are above the earth , so that the sun in twenty four houres doth not onely go round about the earth , but also round that huge compass between heaven and earth . i cannot conceive , but that it must needs go many hundred thousand miles in one hour . now , is it not easier for god to be every where at once , ●han for the sun to make such a speedy course ? yet notwithstanding , the time of thy life goeth as fast as the sun it self ; for it carrieth about , thy time , thy days , thy years , thine age with it . oh consider every time thou seest the sun in his race , my life runs along , and keepeth pace with this sun , a thousand times faster than any eagle can fly in the ayr ; i sit still , but my life runneth post ; i am idle , but my time is every moment in a speedy course ; nay , i go backward when my time runneth forward : woe is me , that i grow less careful in hastening on in my journey ; that i linger that i go out of the way , when my days are carried away upon the wings of the sun : oh call to god for quickening grace , that the spirit of god may lift thee up , and carry thee on in a farr more speedy course of holy obedience . when thou thy self lackest means to pass away the time , or hearest others complain in this regard , look up to the sun , and think with they self , doth not the sun go fast enough ? surely time goeth along with it , and never laggeth one inch behind it ; is it not a madness then to call for more help to drive it forward ? is there not much more cause to labour by all means to make hast after our time which we have already lost , which hath long since out-run us ? let us take time to bewail our loss of time , and be ashamed any more to complain of it , as if it were too slow-paced . . consider , that as the sun is not the authour , nor cause of darkness , when he taketh away his beams from us , but the darkness followeth upon his removal ; so god is not the authour of sin or blindness , when he most justly denieth his light and graces to the unworthy sons of adam , but that sin followeth thereupon : glorify his perfect purity , and do not conceive one thought against him , so as to enwrap him with thy self in guiltiness ; but say with the psalmist ; the lord is righteous in all his ways , and holy in all his works . thus much for the sun. sect . . now follow the moon and stars . the moon , which is appoin●ed to rule the night , is a creature where we may behold the glory of god , though more dimly shining than in the sun. . here see god's wisedome and goodness in mitigating the darkness of the night , that when the sun is out of sight , yet we should have a moon to give us some , though not so great a light ; and if both be sometimes absen● , yet then we have the stars to make some abatement of utter darkness . how wonderful was the lord in his works , who was pleased not onely to give us so great a light by day but also to set up candles for us in the heavens in the night time ? even so should we think also how the lord dealeth with his servants , if he take away the sun-shine of comforts from them , even fulness of joy , yet even then he leaveth some moon-light or star-light at the least ; some glimmerings whereby they conceive some hope , and are ( though not much cheered , yet ) supported . be thankful for the least degree ▪ and wait patiently for a greater measure ▪ seek to him , stand not in thine own light , let not thy soul refuse comfort : or if there be no moon or stars to be seen , by reason of the clouds , yet i am perswaded , that in the darkest night there is some little degree of light , though not scarcely to be discerned by us ; yet i do not think it is ever so dark as in those three nights before the sun was made : so in the greatest decay of grace , the greatest darkness of spiritual desertion , when there is scarce any degree of spiritual life , grace or comfort to be discerned ; yet in every true christian , who once was made a new creature , there is some degree ; and it is not with him , as it was before the sun of righteousness was risen upon him ; there is not that utter darkness that was upon his soul , while it was in that more confused chaos and heap of unregeneration . . the moon in respect of the sun , is as the church in respect of christ ; the moon borroweth her l●ght of the sun : so doth the church her graces , righteousness , and all her happiness of christ ▪ the sun of righteousness . what a poor creature is the moon ! how dark is it when the earth cometh between the sun and her ! how empty would the church be of all light , grace , comfort , if christ should be hidden from her ! when the moon is most enlightened by the sun , yet there are some dark spots to be disce●ned in her : so when the church is most replenished with the beams of this sun of righteousness , viz. the graces of christ-iesus , yet she hath her spots in this life , which shall never wholly be done away until the life to come , when she shall be presented by christ to the father ▪ not having spot or wrinckle , or any such thing : and therefore , to imagine a church on earth free from all blemishes , is , to fancy a moon without spots . . as the moon having received light from the sun , giveth light to others , so that they see by the light of the sun shining in the moon , and then reflecting from the moon upon the creatures here below : so the church , and every true member of it , having received the light of heavenly knowledge and sanctification from the sun , must cause this light to shine before men , that they may see his good works , and so be moved to glorify his father which is in heaven ; yea , to glorify christ-iesus , who is the sun from whom the light which shineth in their hearts , is derived and received . and to be wholly dark , and voyd of the fruits of holiness , is an argument that we have no communion with christ-iesus : you must therefore shine to others by an holy example , that they which will not see by the sun-shine of the word , may yet see by the moon-light of their lives derived from this sun. . again , as thou seest the moon to shine in a very dark night ; as it cannot chuse but shine having received light from the sun ; so in the midst of a most crooked generation in evil times , in places that abound with children of darkness , and works of darkness , a christian must not forbear to shine in holiness , having received light from iesus-christ . . the moon careth not , though thee vish persons hate her light , because it discovereth their works of darkness ; ●either doth she cease to shine because the dogs bark at her : so a christian having received light from christ , must not care though the wicked are offended at that light which shineth in his life , whereby their contrary practises are discovered the more clearly to be hateful works of darkness : neither must he cease to shew forth this light , because the doggish tongues of wicked railers and scoffers be moved against him : keep on in thy course , as the moon doth all this while , and let thy light shine before men , that even the night-walkers and children of darkness may be converted and convinced by it . . as the moon by being eclipsed , doth shew that the light it hath , is not its own , but is received from the sun , in as much as the body of the earth coming between the sun and it , is seen to take away her light ; which if she had of her self , she needed not to look toward another for it : so also the eclipses and intermissions of the acts of grace and motions of the spirit in a christian , do oftentimes make it manifest to himself , and sometimes to others too , that the light which he hath is not of himself , but received from christ , at whose pleasure it is either imparted or denied . therefore learn thou to work this good out of that evil , even by thy failings to see thy emptiness , and to give glory to him by whose free grace thou art what thou art . . again , as the moon is unconstant , and full of changes , and yet still receiveth some light ; so the church hath been in an unconstant unsetled condition , is full of changes , yet never without some light : she is sometime waxing , somtimes waning ; somtimes flourishing in grace , and in the purity and plenty of the word preached , like the full moon ; and then again declining , then again renewing ; so that though the moon be always visible , yet is she at somtimes but darkly visible ; so the church is always visible unto them who have eyes to see her , but at somtimes she maketh a dimmer appearance than at other . . moreover , as the moon when she is in conjunction with the sun , doth then shine less unto us , than when she is in opposition , one half space of heaven distant from it ; for when she is joined with the sun , she is at the change ; but when there is this diametrical opposition , she is at the full : so when christ was here in the flesh conversing with the church , it was then but in a mean condition , even in the change from judaism to christianism ; so that now presently it became a new moon , changed from a jewish synagogue to a christian church : but in short time after his ascension , through his spirit abundantly poured down upon it , when there was a diametrical opposition between him and it , then it was at the full ; and therefore he told them aforehand , that it was expedient he should go away from them , and then he would send the comforter , even his blessed spirit , whereby they should be made to shine more brightly in knowledg and graces than before whilst he was with them . sect . . the stars also , those glistering pearls of the orb of heaven , are notable and bright evidences of an infinite and most glorious creatour ; every one doth set forth his praise , even as if the heavens had as many tongues as stars to proclaim his excellency to the earth . . admire him therefore in the numberless multitude of the stars ; admire him in their constant and orderly motions : admire him that telleth the number of the stars , and calleth them all by their names . think of the star that guided the wise men unto christ , and pray that the day star may rise in thine heart . . consider how bright the stars shine in a cold night , and think how thy soul should shine in grace in time of adversity . . consider that neither moon nor stars do carry any special brightness in the presence of the sun ; and though the moon be seen . yet she shineth but dimmely , or not at all ; but the stars are not apparent : so the church in general hath no excellency in comparison of the excellency of christ : and as for the particular members , they are like stars after sun rising ; their beauty is scarce to be discerned . . remember our saviours comparison , who calleth the ministers of the church , stars which he holdeth in his right hand . rev. . and therefore think , that as the stars are the ornaments of the heaven , so are faithful ministers the ornaments of the church , and not esteemed by christ , as they are by the world , the off-scouring of all things . . consider those comets or blazing-stars ; though they make a greater blaze than the true stars of heaven , yet were they never fixed in the heavens , and therefore are soon extinguished : so those hypocrites , that make but a blaze for a time , they were but meteors wandring in the air of unstable affections , not fixed in the church , nor engraffed into christ. . as the stars are numblerless ; so are the heirs of glory , though far short of the reprobates : let the hope of a glorious condition like that of the stars , make thee heavenly-minded , and teach thee to comfort thy self in god , who hath provided such great things for thee . chap vii . meditations on the fifth days work. sect . . come we now to the fifth day , which with us is usually called thursday ; the story of which days work we have laid down in gen. . , , , . wherein the waters were furnished with fishes , and other creatures that live there ; and the air with fouls , and such creatures as live in it . . here consider , that after those four days , when the heavens were furnished with lights ▪ and the earth beautified with plants springing out of it by vertue of the word of god ; yet all this while there was not one creature throughout the whole creation , that had sense , or power to move from place to place ; not one fly , or the least thing moving in the air ; not one fish swimming throughout the seas , rivers , or other waters ; not one worm creeping on the earth ▪ here then admire the wonderful power and wisdom of god , who on the fifth day by his all-commanding word filled the air with multitudes of creatures flying there , the waters with abundant of fish●s swimming there : this was done even in a moment . consider what numberless swarms there were both of fouls and fishes brought forth on the fifth day ; whereas the very day before , there was not one of any kind to be found in any part of the creation . and as the wisdom of god joined these two sorts of creatures together , so he made in many respects a special affinity between them ; as the fouls are covered with feathers , so the fishes with scales : as the fouls move in the air , so do the fishes in that element which cometh nearest the nature of the air : as the fouls have wings to fly withall , so the fishes have ●innes whereby they swimme ; and that is a motion very like to that of flying : yea some of either kind do communicate with each other in their element for , as we have water-fouls , so there have been flying-fish in great abundance : so that here you may magnifie the wisdome of god , who in the day that these creatures were made , did imprint upon them such properties and qualities , as should be evidences to the end of the world in some sort , that they were but the work of one and the same day . . consider here , that as the lord hath appointed the fouls to fly in the air , and the fishes to swimme in the sea , confining each to his own element for the general , though some few particulars be suffered to live in both ; this should teach us to walk within the compass of our callings , and not to think we shall mend our selves in a different element , or another kind of course , without some special cause . some few may have some special warrant to change their callings , as amos to leave his flock , and teach the people ; and peter to leave his nets , and fish for men . these had an immediate call from god ; and so i dare not deny , but that in case of great necessity , when the church is destitute of able ministers , some well-studied in the scriptures , and experienced in the mysteries of grace , may take upon them the office of the ministry , being lawfully separated unto that function : yet this will prove no more that every one may at his pleasure run from the shop to the pulpit , than it will follow , that all the fishes in the sea may fly up into the air , because some few do so . and this should especially ●each christians , who are called unto holiness , to take heed how they leave their element . they are bidden to walk in the spirit , even as birds fly in the air , and in this element they must keep : for as the air giveth breath unto the fouls that fly in it , so the sanctifying spirit giveth the new life unto those that walk in him ; the waters would choak and drown the fouls if they should fall into them : so sin is that which endangereth the spiritual life , when a christian falleth into it . the air giveth a speedy flight and motion to the birds , whereas the waters would wet their wings , and cause them to move but slowly if they fall into it : so the spirit , when a christian walketh in it , carrieth him along with winged-affections , and setteth his heart in a speedy motion upon the things of god , making him ready unto every good work ; but if he fall into sin , which is like the waters of the dead sea , that lake of sodom , his heart is like a bird drenched in water , his affections are deaded , his heart moveth but slowly ; yea many times he lieth for dead , and there is scarce any motion of the spirit to be discerned in him . and as in such cases , a foul had need of more than ordinary means to help , as to be held over a warm fire , &c. so a christian , that he may recover his wings again , and have his heart spiritually affected , and enlarged toward god , had need of special humiliation , special meditation , p●aier , and other warming and quickening means to raise him up . . as the air giveth breath and motion , so also it giveth support to the birds , and it carrieth them even as the earth doth the beasts , which go up and down upon it : so doth the spirit also give support unto all that are born of the spirit . they are kept by the mighty power of god through faith unto salvation . if it were not ordinary , it might seem strange , that the air which none can see , being so thin a substance , should carry so many millions of souls as there are in it flying up and down ; wonderful is the power of the blessed invisible spirit , who supporteth so many thousand christians by his sanctifying vertue against all the powers of darkness . . as these birds do now live in the air , so were the fouls created in the air at the first : so whosoever walketh in the spirit , was also born of the spirit ; he had his begining in this element . . consider , that as the birds , although they live and move in the air , yet they come down to receive some refreshment from the earth : so the lord alloweth his children to receive some nourishment from the earth , and to partake of its refreshments ; yet so , as they must not delight in the earth as in their element , nor in the things of the earth as their chiefest contentment : but like the birds of heaven , having supplied their necessities , must be ready to soar aloft again , and not in their affections be still groveling here below . . you see how sparingly the birds take of the water ; a bird doth not drink like a beast , it rather sippeth : so should a christian sparingly use the pleasures of this life ; rather sipping like the bird , than swilling like the swine . as for those that give themselves to drink down iniquity like water , and to commit sin with greediness , they are none of those who have their conversation in heaven ; nay , those that glut themselves with earthly pleasures , knowing no better contentments than in such things as please the senses ; the appetite ▪ the eyes , ears , tast , &c. they are none of those that are born up by the spirit of god above the earth . consider how little contenteth one of these creatures , and then learn to be ashamed that thine appetite is so much beyond thy necessity , and practise mortification . as far as we can guess , the birds take more delight in flying and singing , than they do in feeding , and therefore they have soon done with this : so should a christian be more delighted in conversing with god , in walking in the spirit , in running the ways of his commandments , than in serving the necessities of nature : yea , it should be his meat and drink to do the will of god , as it is a delight to the bird to sing and soar aloft . again , as the bird useth not these things , so as to make her unfit to fly ; so a christian must not abuse meat and drink , so as to clogg and dull his spirits , and make him more dull and dead in the service of god ; but so to refresh himself , that he may be the more chearful and lively in his heavenly flight . . as the bird not sowing nor gathering into barnes ( as our saviour telleth us ) yet is fed by our heavenly father ; so should a child of god depend upon his providence without distrustful eares against the providence of god , though not without moderate and christian cares , which serve the providence of god. . as the bird having found somwhat to satisfie its hunger , by its chirping , calleth others to partake with it : so should christians chearfully invite others to partake with them of those things that god hath given them , and not like the hog , grunt and wrangle at any that feedeth near them . . as the bird doth not so much as light upon the ground without the all-guiding providence of god , mat. . so should a christian learn to depend upon the providence and protection of god , who is of far greater price in the esteem of his heavenly father , than many sparrows : know certainly , that thy hairs are numbred , and that none of them can fall to the ground without thy heavenly father . . consider , that as when the bird flyeth highest , it taketh least notice of earthly things , and is least moved with them , and affected toward them ; so when a christian is most raised in spiritual affections to the greatest height of heavenly-mindedness , keeping nearest heaven , then is the earth farthest out of sight , and he is least moved with the things here below , and best able to contemn earthly vanities : he is too far above these to be much affected toward them . therefore this should make us think of the exhortation of the apostle , mind the things which are above : and this should teach us to help our selves against earthly affections and fleshly lusts . think with thy self , what is the reason that i am so earthly-minded , that my affections are so engaged to this or that in the world , yet i cannot come off , nor free my self , that i can scarce perswade my own heart to be without these and these things ; it is this , because my heart is not carried aloft ; it draweth too near the ground , it withdraweth too much from god : if i should keep up my heart closer to god , these things would be out of sight ; the earth would seldome be in my thoughts , at least not so as to work much upon my affections . on the other side , you see that those birds which use so much upon the ground , they fly but softly , as may be seen by those that use about our houses : so also those christians , that are much taken up with the dealings and business of the world , they fly but softly , have but slow affections , and sluggish motions to the things of god ; they go but coldly about good duties : and therefore we should pray for a greater measure of the spirit to bear us upward . . consider also , that as the bird can mount up into the air , and yet light upon the earth too , and receive some refreshment there ; whereas the beast cannot mount up and live in the air : so a christian can , and may partake of the natural comforts and refreshments of this life , though in a moderate manner and measure , as well as the natural man. but the natural man cannot mount up to heaven , cannot live in the air , cannot live by the spirit , he hath no relish of spiritual things . the spiritual man judgeth all things ▪ he can discern what is in nature , but himself is judged of no man , his excellency cannot be discerned by the eye of nature . . again , as the birds live in a stormy element , and feel much alteration of weather , heat cold , winds , &c. as the air is the most unsetled of all other parts of the creation : so christians do live in a condition subject to manifold alterations , subject to many stormes of persecution , and temptation . and as the birds are then especially in danger by snares and ginnes , when they are upon the earth ; to which they are not subject , when they are aloft in the air ; so a christian is then in danger to be ensnared and entangled when he dealeth with earthly things , and is most affected to the things below : when he is most heavenly-minded , then is he most out of danger of these snares . . the birds in the air meet with birds of prey there also , which are ready to seize upon them , and destroy them : so the devil , who is called the prince that ruleth in the air , doth especially chuse to assault those that walk in the spirit , even then when they are most spiritual , endeavouring to pull down those that are highest in the favour of god , as david , &c. therefore special watchfulness must be used by such . . as the birds are of all other living creatures , the most chearful : as they are highest above the earth , and nearest heaven : so should a christian labour of all other men to be most chea●ful , & replenished with heavenly joys , as he is nearer heaven , and farther from the earth than others : god is infinite in all goodness and happiness ; and the nearer to god , the more happy , and the greater cause of chearfulness . as the birds are most chearful in a clear sun-shiny day : so is a christian , when the light of gods countenance shineth on him . as the birds sing most chearfully after a sweet refreshing showr ; so should a christian go away most cheared from the word of god , when it hath distilled upon him as the dew of heaven . as the birds are merry in the spring ; so a christian is , when there is a spring and encrease of grace in his soul , and a nearer approach of the sun of righteousness , and a special warmth of gods love is shed abroad into his heart . as the birds by chirping do set others on singing , and many join together in consort : so one christian should draw another by example to yeild up sweet songs of praise to god , and many should join together with one spirit to glorifie the lord. as the birds sing , although they know not where to have their next supply of food : so should a christian labour , out of the providence , love , and promise of god , to gather matter of chearfulness and contentedness , even then when he seeth no special means for supply in outward things . moreover , as the bird singeth although she be in the cage ; so a christian must rejoice in his afflictions , and like paul and silas , sing in fetters : as it is reported of the nightingale , that she setteth her breast against a thorn to keep her waking , that she may not through sleep cease to sing : so a christian must even enforce himself to spiritual watchfulness , and use special means to keep his heart awake , that he may shew forth , and sing out the praises of god , even in the night ; that is , at such times when others sleep in sin , and care not to honour the lord. finally , as a bird preferreth her liberty in the wood or hedge , before a dwelling in a princes pallace , where she hath her meat continually brought unto her : so a christian preferreth that spiritual liberty , whereby his heart is freed from the fetters of sinful lusts , above the greatest earthly estate in the world , with thraldome under sin , and want of an enlarged spirit . sect . we might also speak of many particulars among the birds . . the stork may teach children their duty toward their parents ; of which it is said , that as the old nourisheth her young , so the young nourish the old again ; a lesson which many children have not yet learned , though this unreasonable creature teach it . so the turtle may teach conjugal love between husband and wife , these ( as it is reported ) being so so constant and entire unto each other . the pellican may teach special love of parents toward their children , who is said to feed her young wi●h her own blood ; especially , it may make us with all thankfulness and holy admiration to bless christ jesus for his unspeakable love to us , who gave his body to be meat indeed , and shed his blood to be drink indeed , whereby we might be fed , and live for ever . the ostrich , in leaving her eggs in the sand , and not considering that the foot may crush them , is an image of careless unnatural parents , who use no christian providence in behalf of their children . . as those birds of prey , and ravenous fouls , make use of that advantage which they have in height and strength , to seize upon divers things here below ; so many oppressours , and greedy worldlings abuse that advantage which they have in wealth and power , to seize upon the estates of others that are below them , and not able to make resistance . and as those ravenous birds are of all other the most hateful ; so these greedy and over-bearing oppressours do carry the curse and de●estation of the country with them . again , as some birds hate the light ; so some men , in love to the works of darkness , cannot endure the light that shineth in the ministry of the word , or in the conversations of the godly . . consider also , that as the fouls do gather and cherish their young ones under their wings ; so the lord doth shrowd his children under the wings of his protection : and as the little ones are thereby safe against the ravenous birds ; so the godly are thus sheltered against cruel enemies and manifold dangers . as the young ones are cherished and refreshed by this means with a kindly warmth ; so the godly are wonderfully refreshed in the bosome of gods love , with a lively and most comfortable warmth from the presence and favour of god. and as the young ones , after a storm , are apt to stray abroad , and play about in the sun again , untill the kite be ready to seize upon them : so the children of god , in time of prosperity , are apt to withdraw themselves from that near communion with god , untill that prince of the air flying all about , and seeking his prey , do fall upon them with some dangerous temptation . . as the birds are affrighted and driven away from the corn when one of them is killed , and hanged up there for terror to the rest . so should men learn by others punishments to abstain from things forbidden . gods judgments upon many swearers , drunkards , oppressours , adulterers , scoffers at godliness , railers , persecuters , unnatural children , &c. should skare away others from those sins which have proved so deadly and dangerous to the former . when herods carkass was eaten up with worms , it was a fair warning to all the enemies of gods word and ministers , such as herod was . and he that not long since hanged himself in this parish , after he had continued long in a course of railing against the minister that then was , may justly be thought to be hanged up by the special providence of god , as a dreadful skare-crow to all other tongues set on fire of hell in the like kind . . again , we may here think of solomons comparison ; as a bird , when it is in hand , may soon make an escape , and never be seen again : so riches get themselves wings ; saith he , riches vanish away many times like a bird in the air , and the owner can never catch them nor come near them again : if the father hold fast , the son lets them fly ; or if the son be as sure of his hand as the father , yet the next heir letteth go his hold ; or the lord himself by some special judgment or other cutteth the string , and they are gone ; especially when men get wealth as ●oulers catch birds with snares , nets or ginns , by unlawful means , or too much niggardly sparing . this should teach us not to make much account of these things , much less to purchase them with the loss of everlasting life . . in a word ! we may here consider the wonderful wisdom and excellency of the lord , in the abundant variety of these winged creatures , in the beauty of many of them , in the swiftness of many and most of them ; the variety of kinds , of colours , of quantity , of quality . and to those we must refer those lesser sorts of creatures , viz. bees , flies , wasps , hornets , locusts , caterpillers ; yea , the least gnats , or whatsoever flieth in the air ; all which might yeild us much matter of meditation and admiration . gloriously doth the wisdom and goodness of god appear in the little bees , which are said to have their king whom they follow and obey , which out of many flowers suck that which they digest into honey , and set it into such a frame of the comb , as no wit of man can make the like . this honey , as sweet as it is ! yet every child of god must get such a spiritual relish , that like david , he may find the word of god more sweet than it . and as the honey is both pleasant and nourishing , 〈◊〉 is the word to that soul which hath a spiritual appetite . but in one respect the bee may put thee in mind of the nature of sin , which carrieth honey in the mouth , but a sting in the tail : therefore we should hereby learn not to be deceived with the seeming sweetness which sin bringeth at the first , but to beware and tremble at that venemous and smarting sting which it leaveth behind . again , as flies are most busie in the sun , so are temptations in prosperity : and as the flies are apt to light upon that part of the body where there is a fore ; so is satan wont to assault the soul where it is weakest , and to take advantage of those corruptions that do most prevail in in the heart . and as when flies are beaten away , they come again very speedily ; so when satans temptations are resisted , and put back , another swarm of flies is at hand , other temptations are ready to assault : and of this especially , christians have experience when they are pestered with blasphemous thoughts cast into their minds by satan : against which they must take comfort , in that by the power of the spirit they are enabled to renew their resistance , even as the assaults are renewed . sect . . the other sort of creatures made this day were the fishes , wherewith the sea and rivers were wonderfully stored : admirable were these works of the lord , and his wonders in the deep ; and it is thought , that of all sensible creatures in the world , there is the greatest numbers of fishes ; yea , and some kinds of them of the greatest bulk and bigness of any other creature that liveth and moveth ; their abundance appeareth in the story of the creation , gen. . . and god said , let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life ; and ver . . it is said , the waters brought forth abundantly . and again ▪ v. . be fruitful , and multiply , and fill the waters in the seas . he saith of the fouls , let them multiply ; but he doth not say , let them fill the air , as he biddeth the fishes to fill the waters . and as the lord gave this extraordinary power of multiplication to the fishes of the sea , so they enjoy this grant of his unto this day ; and as may be seen by the rowes of fishes , they bring forth thousands at once , insomuch that it hath been used as a phrase of speech , to encrease as the fish , imploying an extraordinary encrease . here admire the wonderfull goodness of god , in providing so abundantly for us ; not only by these creatures , which we daily see walking in the fields , or flying in the air , but also by an innumerable multititudes of fishes covered under water ▪ abounding in the seas and rivers . sect . . . the greatness of some fishes is as admirable as the multitude . pliny in his natural history reporteth , that about arabia have whales been found six hundred foot in length , and three hundred and sixty foot in breadth ; so , that if his report be true , the length should seem to be above the sixth part of a mile , six hundred foot making two hundred paces , and a thousand paces making a mile . howsoever ! the greatness of these fishes is admirable , as the experience sheweth of our merchants daily trafficking toward greenland to take them ; and they are far greater than any other living creature in the world , which should make us to magnifie the admirable power and infinite greatness of him that made them . oh lord our god , how wonderful are thy works in all the world ! and the holy text it self takes notice in special of this creatures greatness , gen. . . god created great whales . admirable it is in these fishes , that whereas the beasts and birds cannot live , if they be kept any long time under water : these on the other side , cannot live unless they be under water . so whereas a christian liveth by the spirit , and it is the life of his life , and the joy of his heart to partake of the spirit , and to be conversant in the ordinances of god : on the other side , it is even death to a carnal heart to be exercised this way , and he thinketh not himself a free man , untill he is let loose from these . the fish , though it live , yet it is not lively , but lieth almost for dead when it is in the open air out of the waters : and the natural man , though he be alive , not yet dead , yet is he not lively , but like one as good as dead when he is taken out of his element , and restrained by any means from his beloved sins , and tyed to holy duties in publick or in private : he hath no life in these things , his heart is dead toward them . . and as the fish living in the salt waters remaineth fresh , so a carnal man living in the church , and in the middest of the means of grace , remaineth in his unsavoury natural condition , not having the salt of mortification , whereby to eat out his corruptions and dead flesh , and make him an acceptable sacrifice unto god ( as it is said , every sacrifice must be salted with salt ) though he live under the word , yet he carrieth no relish of the word in his heart and life . therefore we must not onely look what means we have , but how these means do work upon us , whether we be transformed into the word : for a man to imagine ▪ that he is therefore a christian , because he heareth christ preached , is as idle as to say , the fish must needs be salt , because it liveth in the salt waters . . again , in that the lord feedeth such innumerable multitudes of fishes in the waters , by what means we cannot imagine : so should we be confident that he will provide for us , though the means as yet seem to be hidden from us : for , though some of the greater fishes do feed upon the lesser , yet it cannot be imagined , how such an admirable number of them should be continually supplied ; but the lord al-sufficient openeth his hand of bounty , and filleth them with good things . . wonderful is the work of god in the strange variety of kinds , in the strange shapes of these creatures : insomuch that it is thought there be few beasts on earth , but that there be fishes in the sea which resemble them : so they speak of sea-calves , sea-horses , &c. wonderful strange are the properties of some fishes , which the al-mighty creator hath given them . pliny speaketh of a little fish like a great snail , which by cleaving to a ship under sail , and driven with strong winds , will stay it , that it shall not be able to go forward ; and that even about his own time , the gally of the emperour caligula was held fast by one of these against the uttermost endeavour of four hundred mariners with their oars . it were strange , that a man of his dignity and place in the common-wealth , should expose himself as a laughing-stock to the common people in reporting so notorious a lie concerning a thing done in his own time , and his own countrey : therefore for my part , i conceive it to be true , and being supposed to be true , how wonderfully doth it set forth the admirable power and wisdom of god! and in this particular example it is to be thought , that the great god did purposely befool the madness of this arrogant emperour , who would take upon him to be god , and required ( among other people ) the jews also to yeild him divine honour : here now let this wretched man take notice of his own godhead , that cannot stir against a poor fish like a snail , with the help of the winds , and four hundred oars , when the true and living god shall appoint it to stop his course . wonderful also is that property given to the fish called torpedo , which , if it be taken with a net , so soon as the fisher takes hold of the net wherein this fish is , though he doth not touch the fish it self , yet presently , it is said , his hand will be benumed , and he shall lose the use of it for the present , as if it were taken with a dead palsey . this is not only reported by pliny in the place fore-cited , but zabarel ( as i remember ) also discourseth of that point in natural phylosophy , shewing how natural agents do agere per contactum , and bringeth in this by way of objection . the wisdome of the creator is notably seen in this , and we may consider of it , that those who with nets of fraud , and indirect means , do fish for things of this life , their wealth proveth to them like this fish ; it worketh a kind of dead palsie in their consciences , which in such men usually become seared and past feeling ; it worketh a kind of dead palsie also in their hands , which do not freely open to receive the necessities of others ; for , commonly they who are unjust getters , are also niggardly keepers ; this tropedo in the net , taketh away that charitable use to which their hands should be put ; they come hardly by that which they have , viz. with the loss and forfeiture of their own souls , and therefore are loath to part with it to supply others . . the unseemliness appearing in some fishes going backwards , should make us consider , how shameful and unseemly it is for a christian to go backward in the ways of god , cooling in zeal , slackning his pace begun : the lord saith , if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him , heb. . . we must therefore stir up our selves with st. paul , to reach and press forward toward the mark , and prize of the high calling that i● in christ iesus , phil. . , . . you see the fish by catching at the bait , swalloweth down the hook , and so by the greediness in getting it , loseth it self : this should put us in mind of our carnal folly , who by catching at such things which satan offeret , h pleasing to our corrupt affections , are caught our selves , and take a ready course to lose our souls by satisfying our lusts : let us not then so much set our eyes upon the bait , but especially have our thoughts upon the hook which lyeth under it . chap. viii . meditations on the sixth days work. i proceed to the sixth and last day of the creation , with us usually called fryday , wherein the lord made those creatures that furnish the earth , namely the beasts and creeping things , and then man in the last place , as the lord of the rest . first of the former , those unreasonable creatures ; for of man i purpose to speak afterwards more at large ▪ and in these creatures brought forth out of the earth , the admirable power , wisdom and goodness of god is manifested . . consider with astonishment , how in a moment , at the word of the lord , out of the dead womb of the earth issued multitudes of beasts , great and small , and creeping things : lions , bears , tygers , unicornes , horses , all sorts of cattle , &c. and that of a just size , every way in their several kinds for strength , stature , and other properties . and here consider , that the least creature that crawleth upon the earth , is a part of gods own work ; even every creeping thing , as the text saith . and in these the lords omnipotency appeareth , the least worm being a work of an al-mighty power ; yea doubt not , but as the least are the works of his hands , so the least are within the compass of his al-guiding providence . and if the least creeping thing be within the lords care , and receive its maintenance from him , wherefore are ye doubtful o ye of little faith ? will god feed the worms , and let his children starve ? . wonderful is the strength , wonderfull is the swiftness of many beasts ; wonderful is their variety in kind , bigness ▪ quality , voice , &c. consider the wonderful strength and courage of the lion ; and then consider the excellency of that glorious lion of the tribe of iudah , christ jesus , who ( as the prophet saith ) travelleth in the greatness of his strengtb , and is mighty to save , isa. . . he is as a lion unto his enemies to destroy them ; therefore kiss the son , left he be angry ; submit to christ , lest he tear you in pieces as a lion , and there be none to deliver : he is as a lion to defend his people against their enemies ; this lion is too strong for that old red-dragon , and will crush his head , and tread him under his feet . and as sampson , having killed the lion , found sweet refreshment in the dead carkass of the same , which occasioned his riddle wherewith he posed the philistines : sweetness came out of the strong one , and meat out of the e●ter ▪ iudg. . . so our saviour , this lion of the tribe of iudah , being slain for the sins of the world , yeilded sweet nourishment and refreshment to those who feed on him by faith ; so that out of this strong one cometh sweetest meat for hungry souls : yea , as the lion yeilded pleasant nourishment to him that slew him ; so doth christ to the faithful , who slew him by their sins : yea , many of those , who in a more special manner did join in sheding his blood , did feed on him by faith , as appeareth by the fruit of st. peters sermon , act. . again , the lords voice in the ministry of the word , is compared to the roaring of a lion. when the lion roareth , who doth not tremble ? when the lord speaketh , who will not prophesie ? amos . . this voice of the lord should rouze up sleepy sinners from their pillows of deep security , and make them tremble at the word of the lord with an holy fear , and not trample it under foot , nor cast it behind their backs with an hellish scorn . miserable is their folly , who are more afraid of the barking of dogs , than of the roaring of this lion ; more afraid to do those duties , which the wicked scoffe and rail at , than to do those sins which the lord in his word forbiddeth and condemneth upon pain of everlasting destruction . read at large , how the lord in the book of iob , setteth forth the excellency of the elephant , or behemoth of the unicorn , of the warlike horse , and that of purpose to over-awe iob with an apprehension of his infinite majesty , by a due consideration of the excellency of these creatures . these things were not spoken to him alone , but to us also . . consider what multitudes there be of cruel savage beasts in the world , which the lord so restraineth , that they do not over-run man-kind ; which should make us admire his infinite power in curbing them , his infinite-goodness in preserving us . . consider of what use many of these creatures are to us ; especially those which are most common among us . what supply of milk do the kine afford us ? what fleeces of wool do the sheep yeild us ? what store of strong , wholesome , and pleasant nourishment do their bodies yeild us ? and what labour is bestowed about these ? when we have eaten of these and are full ; when we are cloathed by these and are warm , then should we take heed lest we forget god , of whom we have received all . . among other things , we should observe the lords goodness in giving us divers of these creatures to do our work , to carry our burthens , to bear our selves . what benefits do we daily receive by the labour of the oxe , plowing our ground , and doing us necessary services many ways ? how serviceable is the horse unto us , both for speed and ease ; carrying us from place to place ? wonderful is the goodness of god in making these creatures , far stronger than our selves , to yeild to us ; not using their strength to resist us , but to do us service . therefore we should not at any time use any of these creatures ▪ but that we should be moved to lift up thankful hearts to god for this mercy , which we would think worthy of much admiration , if they were not so common among us ; but on the other side , we should think , the more we have of them , the more thankfulness we owe to god for them . . consider , that as a man hath in him the senses of a beast , and somthing more excellent , as reason and understanding ; so a christian hath nature in him , and somthing above nature , even the spirit of regeneration . and as some beasts have some things in them wherein they excel man , as the lion in strength , the horse in swiftness , &c. yet the meanest man is naturally more excellent than the most excellent among the beasts : so , though the children of this world do in some thi●gs outstrip the children of light ; as many times in beauty , strength , wit , outward carriage , policy , civil deportment , &c. yet the meanest true christian is more excellent than his best carnal neighbour , in regard of the image of god restored to him . . again , seeing the beasts have those pleasures whereof the senses are capable , this should perswade us , that these are not the most excellent delights , but that there are purer , higher , more heavenly delights , which suit better with an intellectual immortal soul : and this should teach us to bewail our brutish affections , which carry us so strongly after sensual delights of the eye , the ear , the taste , &c. as if we had no better souls than the beasts . solomon saith , the spirit of a beast goeth downward , and the spirit of a man goeth ●pward , eccles. . . so it should be in our affections , our souls should go upward , reaching toward the things above , and not go down-ward , enthralling themselves to these sensual things here below , like the spirits of the beasts . . as the beasts do bear our burthens , so should we willingly bear those burthens , and do those services which god requireth . how wouldest thou rage , if thy beast should continually fling and cast thee , and those things which thou layest upon it ! and are not we herein worse than beasts that perish , when with froward spirits we fling and kick at the lords commandements , and do not willingly and obediently submit unto them ? of the creation of man. chap. i. gen. . . so god created man in his own image , in the image of god created he him , male and female created he them . sect . the rest of the creatures being made , the supream lord of heaven and earth was pleased to make man after his own image , to be his deputy here on earth , and under him a lord of the other creatures , which being a principal work requiring special attention , the holy ghost setteth down the consultation of the trinity about it , and sheweth us how it was accordingly performed in these words , where you may take notice of three things , which you may take as so many several points of doctrine : i. that god created man , ii. that god created both sexes , man and woman , male and female . iii. that god made man in his own image . for the first , that god created man : this is that kind of creature ( as we have said ) partly visible , partly invisible ; and so his creation is to be considered according to his several parts : first then , consider the creation of mans body , and then of his soul. the creation of mans body is but briefly laid down , gen. . . and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground ; that is , his body : where , though the dust of the ground be mentioned , yet i conceive that the matter of mans body was tempered with the other elements , although the earth was that which bare the greatest bulk , and made up the greatest part of the substance in the body . now to set forth the excellency of the creatour , it may not be amiss briefly to consider of the notable workmanship of mans body , whereof the psalmist speaketh , psal. . ▪ , &c. and in it may be considered , the general frame , the particular parts . . in the general frame , is to be observed a notable and excellent temper of body , consistin●●f divers humours admirably composed and mixed together , and fitted so , as to be a serviceable instrument of the soul ; this was in full perfection when god made it , for we mus● not judge of it according to those distempers , whereunto the body now is subject ; yet now in some tempers above others there is some degree of evenness , which giveth us a shadow of that exactness that was at the first . but in that state of ●reation , there was not the least defect nor disorder in the temper of the body , nothing which a man could have wished to have been otherwise than it was ; the constitution and complexion of the body , and so the colour and appearance of it was perfect and exact : for as every thing w●s good in its kind , so man especially had his due natural perfection every way . . as there was this perfect temper , and so an excellent constitution , so there was a just and due proportion : the whole body had its just stature , and every part its due measure : it was exactly shaped and framed ; nothing wanting ; nothing exceeding ; nothing beyond ; nothing short of the due size . and this exactness both of temper and proportion , made up the perfect beauty and comliness , which god gave to the body of man in his creation . . in the general frame also , we may consider the upright and erected posture of mans body , in which regard he was permitted to look up to heaven ; and an excellent majesty was given him , as a lord and ruler over the other creatures , who were made to bow down their back in subjection unto him ; and by the very stooping of their body to do him homage , and acknowledge his dominion over them : and thus much for the general frame . sect . . now come we to the particular parts , and therein let us consider , i. those that are contained in the rest , namely the blood and spirits . . for the blood , you know it is an excellent part of the body , and of absolute necessity , insomuch that the blood is said to be the life of the body , which must not be understood directly , as the words seem to imply , as if the life of a man were nothing but his blood , for that is not possible : if that were so , then nothing could live which hath no blood : but this is certain , that bees , and many other like creatures have no blood , and yet have life : it would also follow , that so many drops of a mans blood as he loseth , so much he loseth of his life ; whereas many times the evacuation of blood is the preservation of life . and ( that which is most absurd ) it would follow , that a mans life might be severed from him , and yet remain for a time after such separation : for so you see , that the blood of men , and of other creatures , may be kept a long time in vessels after it is severed from the body . and besides all this ; the angels , who have neither blood , nor other bodily parts , have life in greater perfection than a man. thus then we understand these places that speak of the the blood , that it is a special instrument of the soul , whereby life is convayed to the several parts of the body by reason of the spirits , which are a kind of airy invisible substance ( yet bodily ) arising like vapours ●rom the purest part of the blood : for although it be said , the life is in the blood , yet this is because the blood is a thing which is more obvious to the senses than the spirits ; and again , because it is the nursery , and as it were the fuel of the spirits , whereby ( as by a precious oyl ) the lamp and flame of life is cherished and maintained : so that life is more immediately in the spirits than in the blood . again , life is lost by the shedding of the blood , because the spirits ( the immediate instruments of the soul whereby it communicateth life to the body ) are extinguished by the shedding of the blood , even as the flame goeth out when the wood is qui●e taken away ; and so in this respect also the blood is said to be the life of the creature . moreover , consider the spirits , whereof somewhat hath already been spoken by the way . these are called spirits , not , but that they are bodily substances ▪ but , because they have the least grossness in them of all other parts of the body , and come nearest to a spiritual nature . and these are indeed the immediate instruments of the soul , and being as it were of a middle nature between the soul and body , they are a common tye or bond between them both , uniting both together . these are of most excellent use in the body throughout the parts , they convay life , sence , and motion to them all : they are in special manner employed in the more retired and spiritual actions of the soul , in the exercise of reason and understanding , in the serious thoughts and meditations of the heart : by it the pain or delight of one part of the body is convayed and imparted to the rest , and a sympathy or fellow feeling is derived from one to the other ; and in these the singular wisdome of the creator is notably manifested . sect . . the parts containing these , are in the next place to be considered ; where first , the head is that which is set in the highest place , and is full of most curious workmanship : it is the seat both of the outward and inward senses ; and as all the outward senses are placed there , so none of the five are to be found in any other part of the body , except that of the touch or feeling , which is the lowest and grossest of the rest . there is the eye , of a singular and most curious making , which is the instrument of seeing ; the very window of this house , that letteth in light to the soul , which otherwise would dwell in a dark dungeon . it is an admirable thing to consider , how by the wonderful power and wisdome of god , all colours have his property to caff sorth a resemblance and image of themselves , whic● by the air is convayed into the eye : if this were well considered and understood , it would be found one of the most wonderful works of the creation , setting forth the creators glory . but ye may conceive it thus : when a looking-glass is held before the face , instantly there is an image of the face in the glass : now the glass cannot frame such an image in it self , for then it should be there as well when the face is turned away : wherefore it must be of necessity , that the face doth at all times in the light cast forth an image of it self : and the glass doth only hold it by reason of the lead at the backside , whereby this image is stayed , and not suffered to pass through , and vanish . and so doth every thing that hath colour , cast forth an image of it self at all times , which being received into the eye , presently the thing is seen , and perceived by the eye : which is an admirable thing to consider , that all things that are ; trees , plants , men , beasts , &c. whatsoever can be seen , do every way cast forth images of themselves into the air , and that these are severally and distinctly conveyed to the eye , and discerned by it . there are the ears , whereby we hear , which take in sounds and noises in a wonderful manner : wherein also the admirable power and wisdome of god appeareth , in that one voice issuing out of one mouth should enter in at many hundred ears : for this must needs be granted , that we cannot hear any voice or noise , unless it truly enter into our ears ; for if the noise could be heard without such an entrance , then were those open passages needless , which are in the ears : but these open passages are as needful to let in sounds , as a door is to let a man into an house : now one man cannot enter in at many doors at once ; and so one voice remaining one , cannot enter in at many hundred ears at the same moment ; and therefore it must needs be multiplied in the air ; and so that which is but one in the mouth of the speaker , is manifold in the air , and is taken in by many ears . there is also the nose , which is the instrument of smelling , another part of the body , which serveth us both for necessity and delight : it is a means to prove the wholsomness or unwholsomness of many things which are good , and which are hurtful to us , and yeildeth delight and refreshment in presenting us with many pleasing and fragrant smells . there is also the tongue and palate , the instruments of tast , but especially the palate or upper part of the mouth , the tongue having another and more proper use . this is a sense of greatest use for the nourishment of the body , and so for the preservation of life ; and this also yeildeth abundant matter of delight and refreshment . iob saith , doth not the ear try words , and the mouth or palate tast his meat ? iob . . that is , doth it not by tasting , try it ? for god hath given this ability to the creatures , to try what is agreeable to their bodies , and what is displeasing . in the last place , the touch , or feeling , is may rise again an incorruptible , immortal , spiritual glorious body ; like the body of christ , at his comming , through his mighty working , whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself . sect . . iv. even this earthly frame of the body proveth it an hard thing to put off earthly affections , and therefore care and striving should be used in it . the body being made of dust , it will return to dust again , not onely in the final dissolution , but also in the present inclination ; it now leaneth to the earth , and resteth on the earth ; man is deeply in love with his own element , and strongly tyed to it in his affections . it is said of one , that being one of three , who demanded of the orracle which should be chief , and hearing that he should be the man that first should kiss his mother , he fell down and kissed the earth , as accounting it the common mother of all ; men are so in love with the earth , that they embrace it , and as it were , kiss it in their affections as a mother , out of whose womb they had their beginning , although the oracles of gods word condemn this folly , and teach them , that thus doing , they shall be least in the kingdom of god , and that this doting love of the world is enmity with god. therefore we should pray earnestly to god , that he would change this earthly temper of our souls into heavenly affections . how needful is it for us to practise that of our saviour , even to forsake our selves ; our selves being earth , we must renounce our earthly selves , and deny our selves ; for though we could restrain our selves somwhat from outward earthly courses , yet so long as we keep our earthly affections , our hearts will cleave to the earth . special cause we have to study that book of the wise man throughout , which teacheth us the vanity and vexation of spirit that is in earthly things , and to see and admire the treasures and riches of gods kingdome ; that apprehending better things , we may make better account of these . sect . . v. in as much as god made our bodies , we must yeild up our bodies to his service ; for god made all things for himself , saith the scripture . he made not the body for the devil , nor for the world , nor for lust , nor for drunkenness , but for himself ; let us well consider this , and learn to give god his due . the idolater will bow with his body to idols , and say , that he keepeth his heart to god ; but he must know , that god made the body as well as the soul ; and if he made all things for himself , then the body as well as any other thing . the prophane person , that abuseth his tongue to swearing , wanton , wicked discourses , to railing , scoffing , &c. the adulterer , which sinneth against the whole body , as the apostle sheweth the drunkard , who abuseth his body to excess of swilling and drinking ; the wanton that abuseth his eye to careless wandring , and openeth his ear to vanity ; he that pleaseth his palate ▪ and loveth his pleasures more than god ; he that thinketh his body given him for no other purpose , but either to drudge about earthly things , or to ●ast of earthly delights ; even such a one is apt to say , he hath a good heart toward god. but be not deceived ; god made this body for himself ; and therefore we must not abuse any part of the body to his dishonour , nor make any member of it an instrument of unrighteousness , but to give up the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto holiness : let us not think a little pains of the body too much to bestow in the service of god , in hearing the word , in prayer , in humiliation , &c. but let us glorifie god ( as in our souls especially , so ) in our bodies also ▪ for they are gods as well as our souls . sect . . vi. in that god made the body , care must be used to preserve , and not to destroy thine own body , or thy brothers : we must not pull down this tabernacle which god himself hath pitched , but must leave it to his disposing , using all lawful means to keep it up , and to preserve it strong , untill he please to dissolve it : shun intemperancy and excess in things that please the appetite in meats and drinks , &c. use those means which god hath given thee to repair this house , which god himself hath builded for thy soul to dwell in . let the life and body of another be precious in thy sight , and do thy endeavour to preserve it . and let us know that in some case not to save life , is to destroy , viz. when there is special means , calling and opportunity to do it ; in times of necessity some means must be used to prevent the famishing of many , therefore at such times we should freely give without grudging , to the relief of others . remember that it is for the preservation of those bodies which god hath made . and let this keep thee from laying violent hands on thine own body : it is a loud crying sin to destroy anothers body , because god hath made it ; but most horrible to destroy thine own , sith god hath made it , and hath given thee a special charge to keep it . moreover , sith god hath made the body , let us rely upon him for the maintenance of the body : he hath made it , and he will keep it : he hath given a mouth , and he will give meat ; he hath given a back , and he will cloath it : thus may a christian , that hath recovered his forfeiture in christ , reason from the love and promise of god. and therefore in hard times our wants should be special motives to drive us home to god through christ , that being in him we might assure our selves of all needful supply for the body from his hand that made it : there is not the poorest among us , but if they would effectually turn to god , and depend upon him , they should find they have no cause to despair in regard of bodily helps ; they should find him supplying or supporting ▪ and one way or other providing for them . sect . . vii . hath god made thy body upright , and looking up toward heaven ? this should teach thee to mind the things that are above , to be heavenly-minded . it is a great shame that the body should look upward , and the soul and affections bend downward to the things of the earth . there is many times an upright body , and curva interras anima , a crook-backed soul leaning toward the earth : so that whereas the soul should raise the body , and make it the better because of its union with an immortal spirit , it rather pulleth it down , and makes it the worse , the more earthly and fleshly . an earthly mind maketh the very posture of the body raised toward heaven , to become hypocritical and counterfeit : sith god hath given thee the body of a man looking upward towards heaven , do not take to thy self the spirit of a beast , grovelling on the earth here below . viii . seeing god at the first gave man perfect beauty , in regard both of temper and proportion : then let all defects or deformities which thou seest in any , not move thee to contemn their persons ; but rather to lament the common misery of mans nature fallen into sin ; the fruits whereof do rather appear in some particular persons in this kind , than they do in some others . and think with thy self , that by the law of creation , he that is most deformed , was to be as beautiful as any that excelleth most ; and he that is most beautiful by the fall was as subject to deformity as any other . chap iii. sect . . moreover , from the particular parts divers meditations may be raised . i. as the head is to the body , so christ is to his church . ephes. . . . . as the head is the guid to the whole body , so is christ to the church : every member followeth the direction of the head : christ is the wisdom of the father ; and he , as he is made unto us an head , so also is he our wisdome , our guide and directtour : he is the great prophet , he by his spirit revealeth the mysteries of grace , and sheweth the way of life unto his members , and all must . neither doth any member despise or scorn another , the eye doth not scorn the lowest member in the body ; neither should any one whom god hath raised highest in gifts , calling , place , dignity , wealth , or any other way , scorn the poorest and meanest in any respect ; but rather seek their good , as being members of the same body . . as the principal parts of the body have need of the meanest , so the greatest in the church have need of meaner christians in many respects : if the whole body were eye , where were hearing ? thus much for the first part of the first point , viz. the creation of mans body . chap. . of the creation of mans soul. i now come to speak of the creation of mans soul ; the story whereof is briefly laid down in gen. . . and breathed into his nostrills the breath of life , and man became a living soul. where you must not conceive , that the lord did breath like a man ; but the intent of the holy ghost ( i conceive ) is to shew , that man had another kind of soul than the beasts or birds : they were brought forth out of the material elements , but man , though his body were drawn out of the dust , yet his soul was in a peculier manner given him of god , and not composed of any earthly , waterish ▪ or aiery substance , but that it was a spiritual substance immediately created of god : and further , this breathing in of the soul implieth ( as may seem ) that the soul was not first created without the body , and then put into the body , but that at once it was both created and infused into the body . sect . . now let us here speak a little of the nature of the soul , and then of its powers and faculties . . for the nature of the soul , it is a spirit , and herein most like unto the angels of any other creature ; and though the wise man doth communicate this name to the life of a beast , yet he sheweth a great difference between these two sorts of spirits , saying , the spirit of a man , that goeth upward ; and the spirit of a beast , that goeth downward . the spirit of a beast ( or that which giveth it life ) vanisheth , and dyeth with the body , being a principle that riseth out of material or bodily substances tempered and composed together : but the spirit of a man being of an higher nature than any of these gross material bodies , and not rising out of them , but being created immediately of god the father of spirits , it goeth upward : it is presented before the lord in judgment after its departure from the body . . it is such a spirit as can subsist alone of it self out of the body : so the apostle maketh mention of the spirits of just men made perfect , heb. . the spirits of the saints now in heaven , whose bodies rest in the dust ; and this sheweth the excellent matter of mans spirit , far above the life of the beast , or any unreasonable creature , that it can subsist , when it is severed from the body . this sheweth that it doth not depend upon the body , nor was extracted out of it , but rather that the perfection of the body dependeth on it : it can live without the body , but the body without it , rotteth , putrifieth and mouldereth away into dust . dust returneth to dust as it was , saith the wise man ; and the spirit returneth to him that gave it , eccles. . . it is an immortal spirit : so this very place sheweth , that when dust returneth to dust ; when the body dissolveth , then the spirit liveth , and yieldeth up it self into the hands of god. and so the scripture sheweth both in the case of the godly , and of the wicked ; the one shall go into life eternal , and the other into everlasting punishment . sect . . in the next place let us speak of the powers and faculties of the soul ; here i shall speak first of those which are common to it with other creatures , viz. those which they call vegetative and sensitive , which are found in the beasts and birds . these i call faculties of the soul , although for mine own part i concieve them not to be properly inherent in the reasonable soul , but rather in the temper of the body : for the intellectual soul being a spirit , i cannot see how these brutish affections ( such as many of these are ) can be inherent in it ; especially because many of them , as the faculties of attraction , retention , expulsion , augmentation , &c. are ordinarily exercised , not only without the command , but also without the knowledg of the reasonable soul , which i know not how it could be , if they were inherent in it immediately , it being a single , spiritual and intellectual being . now these faculties are many which the lord hath given , and shewed his admirable wisdom in them . of the vegetative part . there is a nutritive or nourishing property ; to which diverse others are serviceable , as that of hunger and thirst , ( which is properly a branch of the sensitive ) yet insensible creatures , are a servant to the vegetative : for by these the appetite is provoked to seek for nourishment . there is a digesting faculty to concoct that nourishment that is received first in the stomach , then in the liver turning it into blood , then in each several part turning it into substance in particular . to these also belongeth these three inferiour faculties . attractive , retentive , expulsive . . attractive : whereby every part hath a power to draw nourishment unto it self ▪ so the head and upper parts of the body have a power to draw blood from the liver , which is far below them , as well as the lower parts ▪ and in this the wonderful wisdom of god is clearly manifested . . there is a retentive faculty , or a power of keeping that nourishment a convenient time till it may be so wrought upon , and perfected , as to turn into one substance with the body , and to refresh its parts . but l●st nature should suck poison insteed of nourishment , or digest that into its substance , which is hurtfull , . the lord hath added for its farther security and benefit , an expulsive faculty , or a power of casting out such matter as is superfluous and burdensome , and not fit for nourishment ; whence come many fluxes from the head , and sweats over the whole body ; besides those gross excrements whereof nature is daily ●ased . in these also the admirable wisdome of god is manifested , and when we enjoy the use of any faculty of the soul , we should glorifie him that made them . moreover , there is also a generative faculty or power of propagation , which god gave to trees , plants , beasts , birds , fishes , men ; blessing them , and bidding them to encrease and multiply . sect . . of the sensitive part . there are both the senses and the affections : the senses outward and inward : of the outward senses somewhat was briefly spoken , when we spake of those parts of the body that are instruments of those senses . the inward senses are conceived to be three : the common sense , the fancy , the memory . . the common sense , which is said to receive the objects of all the outward senses , and to be seated in the former part of the brain . . the fancy or imagination , which worketh upon those things that are received into the former , and is thought to be placed in the middle part of the brain . . the memory , which keepeth those things that are received in by the other , and layeth them up as in a treasury , and the seat of this is in the hindermost part of the brain . and in this , most admirable is the wisdom and power of god , that certain images of things long sithens seen or heard , should be laid up in a corner of the brain , and there preserved many years , and called to mind , though they be the resemblances of many thousand several things . some memories are far worse than other , yet even the meanest ordinary memory is wonderful , if we did rightly consider , that in so narrow a compass , the shapes and likenesses of so many several things should be preserved : yea , even this is notable , that the images of so many mens faces as one man can remember , should be there ingraven in so small a table , as is the memory . sect . . of the affections . as for the affections , they are seated in the heart , and these are many , as . love , which is an affection of the soul , uniting it self to some thing apprehended as good : for so whatsoever is beloved , either is good , or seemeth to have some good in it to him that loveth it ; contrary to which is a second affection , sc. hatred : and that is an affection of the heart shuning and separating it self from that which is so hated , as supposed hurtful : for though good things are often hated , yet there is an apprehension of evil in them ; and if we speak of the affections as created of god , then nothing was beloved but that which was truly good ; nor hated , but that which was truly evil . but of the integrity of the affections we may speak , when we come to speak of the image of god in man. desire , is an affection of the heart reaching after some good thing which is absent : contrary to which is detestation , or abhorring of that which may hereafter happen , being conceived to be evil . these two may be expressed by hunger and thirst on the one side , and on the other , a loathing of meat in the stomach , when the heart riseth with dislike at some thing which as yet is absent , but is tendered to it , or may hereafter be presented to it . when our saviour told peter that he would fall into that fearful sin of denying his lord and master , his heart rose against it , and he detested it : this was not only a simple and meer hatred of it as a thing evil , which is directly contrary to love : but also a detestation of it , as an evil that might happen , or was foretold should happen to him , though now he were free from it , which is an affection contrary to desire . in the next place is ioy , which is an affection of the heart , pleasing and resting it self in some good thing enjoyed . in this affection there must be some good , [ true , or seeming ] in possession , which doth so affect the heart , as to rest it self with some contentment in it : opposite to this , is sorrow , which is an affection of the heart , distasting some evil already felt . now i cannot see , how this affection should be exercised in the state of innocense , because man had no cause of sorrow , unless it may be supposed , that he knew of the angels fall and rebellion against the lord , which is not likely . howsoever ! the faculty no doubt was then given unto man by the lord , who foresaw a world of woe and sorrow which man would fall into ; who knew that of all affections , this of sorrow could not want work , nor be idle for want of matter to work upon . there is also hope , which is an affection of the heart , looking for some good , or the avoiding some evil that is to come : for that which a man hath already , why doth he yet hope for ? contrary to which is fear , which is an affection of the heart , trembling at some evil to come , or at the loss or missing of some good . then there is courage , which is as it were a degree beyond hope , and is a more assured expectation of some good , or of the overcoming of some evil : contrary whereunto is desperation , a sinking of the heart under the expectation of some evil to come . anger seemeth to be an affection mixed of sorrow and hatred , which by tragedians is somtime called dolor . these i call faculties of the soul , because of their near union with the spirit of a man , and because the soul hath some government over them . chap. v. sect . . but the most proper and peculiar qualities and faculties of the soul , are the understanding and the will , and such as are seated in these , or compounded of these . the understanding is the prime faculty of the soul , that guideth the whole man , and giveth light to all hi● actions , . in it there is an act of discerning , whereby it seeth into the nature and qualities of things , knowing both those things more perfectly than the senses , which the senses discern ; and other things also which they cannot reach . and this is that faculty whereby man is become acq●ainted with god his maker , whom no unreasonable creature can discern . god is a spirit , and cannot be discerned by any bodily senses , but by this spiritual faculty of the soul. by this the lord hath made man able to search into the hidden causes of things , and to see him in his works . by this he hath enabled him to get the knowledg of arts and sciences , of trades and dealings , &c. . there is an act of i●vention , by the working of the understanding , finding out many particulars belonging to some general , and finding out , one by another like unto it . so in matter of trades , god hath given this power of invention to the understanding , whereby trades are perfected , and new additions of skil and art are added to them ; and so in the learned sciences . . there is iudgment , whereby the understanding passeth its sentence , and giveth its determination upon things concerning their nature , truth and goodness . , there is a power of discourse , proving one thing by another ; this is so ; therefore it is so : the sun is up , therefore it is day : the days are lengthened , therefore the sun is past the winter solstice , &c. none of these are to be found in any unreasonable creatures . sect . . the will is another principal faculty of the soul , chusing or refusing freely good or evil . and as the understanding is ( as it were ) the eye ; so the will is ( as it were ) the heart of the soul. for although the understanding see never so clearly what is good , yet unless the will agree , and give its consent , it is not followed . the understanding is like one that giveth good counsel , but if the will be obstinate , it is not followed ▪ he that knoweth his masters will , and doth it not , to him it is sin ; so that you see , a man may know , and not do . now in such a case , a mans understanding agreeth with gods will ; for he both knoweth what god will have done , and knoweth it to be good. but his will crosseth both the will of god and his own understanding ; which is the aggravation of sin , and encreaseth the stripes . now the acts of the will are in general two : to will , or to chuse . to nill , or to refuse . now in these two faculties , there are two others seated , as free-will and conscience . free-will is a faculty of the mind , whereby the will without constraint doth willingly chuse or refuse what the understanding discovereth to be good or evil ; for all the power of man cannot compell the will to embrace or refuse what it will not refuse or imbrace . the outward man may be forced against the will , the tongue may be forced , the hand may be forced , but no tyrant in the world can force the will. and hence cometh that unmoveable resolution of gods children in the profession of the gospel , even from the invincible freedome of the will , sanctified by the spirit of god ; it is true ! it is the spirit of god is the cause , but the spirit is pleased to make this use of mans will , and of that liberty which he himself gave man at his creation : again , on the other side , the will of man may be brought to cover its own inclination , and outwardly be brought to conform to the constraining powers of others ; but the inward bent of it none can force a contrary way . again , the will , by perswasions , by reasons discovered unto it , by better informations may be inclined to alter ▪ but never violently turned by compulsion : when it is altered , though the preparatives and motives of its alterations come from others , yet the alteration it self must come from it self . i speak not now of god's act in renewing it by his spirit , who being the maker of the will , hath that power over it , which no creature can possibly have : yet the lord will not compell the will ( for that were to destroy it and make it no will ) but by sanctifying and new-making it , he makes it willingly embrace that which it shunned before , and resolutely to reject what it embraced before . now although the fall of adam did actually take away mans spiritual life consisting in the image of god , and the holiness of his nature ; yet it did but forfeit for the present , and not actually bereave him of his natural life , nor the natural powers of his soul , by which he lived ; so then there is no question but man in the state of sin hath free will. but the question is , wherein ? i answer , in things natural and moral , not in things supernatural and spiritual . in natural things a man in his natural estate hath free-will to chuse or to refuse ; in eating , and drinking ; in eating or not eating ; in walking or not walking , &c. so in moral actions , a man in his natural estate may do many good moral acts , and hath liberty of will to do them ; as to use abstinence , to exercise temperance , to shun drunkenness , &c. yet with exception , that many particulars through custome and company ▪ &c , may be so enthralled to some lusts , that the exercise of this freedom of will is even wholly smothered in them , and cannot shew it self , but is strongly clogged and kept down : but yet that which their will chuseth , it freely chuseth still . but now on the other side , it hath not liberty unto spiritual and supernatural things . it may freely entertain the use of outward means and ordinances , but it hath not free power to believe aright , to change it self , to purge it self from the stains of nature ; to repent , &c. all these must come from above : none but god can make his image in man , when man and satan hath defaced it . but if the son shall make you free , then are you free indeed . if the son of god shall by his spirit of liberty infused into us , deliver us from the thraldome of sin and satan , and renew the image of god in us , then are we free indeed . this which is , spoken of free-will , doth not cross the soveraignty of gods will , nor the certainty of his decrees , sith mans will is brought about freely and willingly to embrace what god hath certainly purposed ; whose purpose being eternal , he did not in the beginning of time make such a creature as should disappoint him of his eternal purpose . sect . . of conscience . in the next place followeth conscience , about which it seemeth , that both the understanding and the will are exercised . this is an application of general rules unto particular cases , and points of practice ; and this it performeth both by the understanding and the will ; and that both concerning things not yet done , and concerning things already done . conscience by vertue of the understanding judgeth such and such particular actions to be good , and such as it ought to practise , because it seeth them agreeable to those general rules of duty and of goodness , which it hath already conceived . our saviour knew that he must fulfill all righteousness ; therefore when iohn was unwilling to baptize him , he applieth that general to this particular , he must fulfill all , therefore this part of righteousness . st. peter had laid up this general direction that our saviour gave him ; feed my sheep ; and so his sanctified conscience made application of it on all particular occasions . therefore when a multitude were gathered together wondring at the miraculous gifts of tongues bestowed on the disciples ; his conscience tells him , now thou must practise what thy master hath commanded ; and so at that time he gathered some three thousand lost sheep into the fold of christ. in the second place , conscience by vertue of the will , stirreth up the faculties of the soul to practise this particular duty , which is thus found agreeable to the general rules of duty and goodness . now in that these things are not practised , this commeth from that disorder which sin hath made in the soul , and that preposterous confusion of the affections leading conscience in a slavish captivity under the power of lust : so on the other side , it is for evils not yet done : the world promiseth a fair reward many times , if men will use foul means to obtain it : if riches begin to trade with the world about the matter , covetousness ( like iudas ) saith to the world , what wilt thou give me , and i will betray my masters honour , profane his day , defraud my neighbour , oppress my poor brother , & c ? but now conscience cometh in , and laboureth to ma● the bargain ; and having laid up this general rule , that it shall not profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul , it applieth this to the case in hand ; therefore it will be a most miserable bargain for me to gain this which is now proposed with the hazard of my soul. this doth conscience by vertue of the understanding , and then calleth up the powers of the will to help , which withdraweth from the thing as unlawful and dangerous , and riseth against it , and disliketh it with reluctancy . so ioseph had laid up this in his heart , that adultery must not be committed , no not in secret , because it is a sin against the all-seeing eye of god ; therefore , when his mistriss tempteth him , he applieth this general to the particular occasion , and by the force of a sanctified conscience biddeth defiance to her temptations . how shall i do this great wickedness , and so sin against god ? so david having laid up in his heart that precept in general , honour thy father and thy mother , and knowing that under this title of father , was comprehended the king , and other magistrates : and then again , thou shalt do no murther : now he happeneth to come into a cave , and there meeteth with saul , and hath him at advantage : saul sought to murther him , pursuing him without cause against his own conscience , who was to succeed him in his kingdome , and one that was annointed by the special appointment of the king of kings ; yet david will not touch him , nor suffer abishai to fall upon him , who was ready to have slain him , had david given way to it ; for against all these provocations , conscience cries out , god forbid that i should lay my hand upon the lords annointed ; and so prevaileth notably against all these motives . so david stayed his servants with these words , not suffering them to rise against saul . sam. . . it is in the original , he clave his men asunder ; it seemeth his followers began to run together , desiring every one to lend his helping-hand to dispatch the mortal enemy of their master david , but david by the force of an upright conscience , brake through them all , and put them aside , not suffering them to accomplish their bloody intendment but another time ye shall see when nabal had dealt currishly with davids messengers , the news of this base abuse came ( it seemeth ) somwhat unseasonably to david , and found his conscience not well awakened ; and so while conscience slumbereth , and mindeth not what is in hand , passion condemneth nabal , and all his family to present death . and whiles anger maketh an hasty march for blood , and whetteth it self , as it goeth , abigail meeteth it upon the way , and with a well-tempered voice , not so loud and violent as to enrage fury more than already it was , yet loud enough to awake conscience ; she sheweth him his errour , and presently conscience being awakened , soundeth a retreat ; maketh all lay down arms , thanketh the instrument by whom it was shaken out of slumber , and kept from wallowing in innocent blood , or encroaching on gods office by self-revenge . but with wicked men conscience many times prevaileth not in such cases , she cannot be heard ; or being heard , is not regarded ; satan , the flesh , the world stop her mouth . now besides all this , conscience hath its employment also about the things already past : if good , it excuseth and acquitteth the party , cheareth , comforteth , and is peaceable , unless mis-informed : so in performing good actions , and so in overcomming sinfull temptations ; so abigail telleth david , that when he should be king , he should have no trouble of conscience for not shedding blood , if according to her petition he would spare nabals family , conscience should never accuse him for it , but should hold him guiltless . so you see psal. . when he was falsly accused by a benjamite for an evil he never committed , how boldly conscience pleadeth his cause before the lord , and proclaimeth him innocent . again , for evils done , or good duties omitted , conscience accuseth , yea somtimes wonderfully rageth and terrifieth : it accused david , psal. . i have sinned , &c. yea it breaketh his bones ( as it were ) and grievously afflicteth his soul. but when it meeteth wi●h iudas , a son of perdition ; oh , how it tormenteth him , it driveth him out of his meditations , wherein he might please himself in the price of blood lately gained ; it chaseth him cut of the company of his fellows , who had been his assistants in apprehending our saviour ; i● driveth him into the presence of the priests , it forceth him to accuse himself , to throw down his money and to hang himself ; never ceasing to pursue him till it had driven him quite out of the world ! now besides this , it recordeth and keepeth a register and day-book of mens actions and omissions ; which , though now adays men will not read over by self examination , yet at the last day god shall open it be-before the eyes of men and angels . thus much for the faculties of the soul. chap vi. sect . . use . here by way of application , we may in the first place take notice of the soul of man in a special manner , as of one of the principal works of god ▪ wherein his glory is no●ably manifested . he is the father of spirits , who of himself immediately did bring forth the spirit and soul of man , an excellent creature which no sence can discern ; the eye cannot see it , nor the ear hear it , &c. and as it is said , no man hath seen god at any time ; yet god , whom none in the world can see ; gave being to the whole world , and now governeth it : so the soul , whom no sense of the body can discern , giveth life to the whole body , and governeth the body . an excellent creature it is ; endowed with notable faculties , and we should learn to bless god for every faculty of our souls : we are too unthankful for all sorts of mercies , but yet more apt to give thanks ( at least outwardly ) for things without us , than for those more excellent things within us ▪ thus many a one saith ▪ i thank god for health , for meat and drink , &c. that never ( not so much as in words ) doth give him thanks for his soul , and the several faculties of it . how seldome hath god any praise for our understandings , our judgments , our memories , our reason , wills and affections ? how lame would our souls be without the will and affections ? how blind without reason , memory or understanding ? yet how unthankful are we to him that made them ? we should r●ckon these among the chiefest of gods blessings , next to the sanctifying graces of gods spirit , and accordingly shew our thankfulness for them to his glory . sect . . ii. in as much as the soul is more excellent by its creation than the body ; this sheweth that our care should be greater for the soul than for the body . nature it self might teach even a natural man to be more careful of the natural good of the soul , than of the body , which yet is contrary to the practice of man. you will say the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit , neither can he discern them , because they are spiritually discerned . but i speak now of such natural good things , as tend to the enriching and perfecting of the soul and mind of man ; namely , such knowledg in arts and sciences , as concerneth the things of this life . how many do preferre the things of the body above these ? but the principal thing is that which concerneth the spiritual happiness & heavenly perfection of the soul. these things which are the most excellent endowments of the most excellent part of man , are less regarded and sought for , than those that are the meanest appurtenances of the body , which is the meanest part . the least saving grace , being a thing belonging to the perfection of the soul , is worth more than the whole body ; which without the soul , is but a dead lump of earth . can a maid forget her ornament , o● a bride her attire ; yet my people have forgotten me days without number , saith the lord ? ier. . . what a shameful indignity is this to the majesty of god , when ornaments of the body , toyes , head-tyres , or the like , serving to dress up an earthly carkass , shal● be better remembred than god himself ; yea , shall be remembred when he is forgotten . thus every thing belonging to the body is thought of , but the soul is forgotten : the eye must be pleased , the ear must be tickled , the palate must be delighted ; great ado must be made for back and belly , but where is the care for the soul ? we can starve that , yet never feel any hunger ; we can let it pine away , yet never complain of weakness ; we can suffer mortal diseases , most dangerous corruptions to grow upon our souls and never see our need of spiritual physick . how many a soul is swollen with pride , and over-grown with vile affections , and yet no care is taken of it , but it is let alone , as if all were well : yea what deadly wounds do men daily give to their consciences , by swearing , lying ▪ drunkenness by unjust and indirect dealings with others ; yet all this is esteemed as nothing , no care is used to have it cured : nay , he that shall desire to cure it , or perswade them from these desperate courses tending to the destruction of their souls , shall be hated as an enemy . our very creation should make us ashamed of this folly , that all the care is taken for the body framed out of the dust , and the soul is utterly neglected , which the lord himself breathed into the body . f●ar not them ( saith our saviour , mat. . . ) which after they have killed the body , can do no more ; but fear bim , which can cast the body and soul into hell-fire . yet he that shall follow our saviours counsel in this , shall be thought to be a fool by many men ; he that will rather suffer harm in his body , or loss in his goods , and such things as concern the body , than hazard his soul upon any sin which is death to the soul , is thought to do it in simplicity for want of wit ▪ whereas even reason might teach us , that the soul is a thousand times better than the body , and the misery of the soul incomparably beyond the punishments that can befall the body in this life . let us then labour to prevent the everlasting destruction of the soul , and fear it more than a thousand deaths of the body , if it could possibly endure so many . think that a precious thing that weigheth more than the whole earth in the ballance of the sanctuary , and the judgment of christ. what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world ; and lose his own soul ? oh learn to prize thy soul , a precious creature , and immortal spirit ; and make it appear thou makest more reckoning of it than of thy body ? thy body is but a small piece of earth , but the whole earth is not able to bring forth , or yeild matter for one soul which is of an higher nature . sect . . iii. this should teach us also that the greatest good which one man can do for another , is that which is done for his soul. the feeding , cloathing and refreshing of anothers body , is a good work if rightly performed ; but the good which is done to the soul is a better work , as the soul is better than the body . this therefore should reform a gross folly among us , whereby it is conceived , that there is no good work in a manner besides that which is done to the body . it is true ! that he who hath this worlds good , and yet doth no good in this kind , doth not truly perform any other good work ; but yet this on the otherside is a gross errour to conceive , that the best thing that a man can do , is to help the outward man ; and that the doing of this is enough to excuse him from doing good to the souls of others . this is a gross carnal conceit ; it is as much as to affirm , that the body is better than the soul ; earth than heaven ; mortality more excellent than immortality ; and a lump of flesh more worth than a spiritual being . now men are so far from esteeming that best which is done for the good of the soul , that they account those admonitions and reproofs , which are tendered to them for this purpose , the greatest signs of ill-will , that any man can shew to others : no man is accounted a worse neighbour than he that will seek to pluck mens souls as brands out of the fire of gods wrath by shewing them the danger of their sins . if men want for the body ▪ what outcrys are there made against the hardness of others hearts ? men are so hard-hearted now a days , that they will not give a poor man a bit of bread , they will see him starve first ; and somtimes that is true which is said , though often false . but on the other side ; one is ignorant , he hath a blind soul ; another hath a graceless , profane , and unsanctified soul , laden with many sins , in great danger to perish for ever : but when shall ye hear such a one complain of his neighbours for hard-heartedness toward his soul , in not pittying his spiritual misery , in not instructing him in his ignorance . when shall ye hear one of these complain , oh , i have a neighbour that hath knowledg , he knoweth that i am ignorant of god ; but alas he is hard-hearted , he doth not pitty my soul ! he will sooner see me damned in my ignorance , than once open his mouth to instruct me in any matter of salvation . or when shall we hear one that goeth on in sin , cry out of another in this respect ! i have a neighbour seeth my soul in a fearful case , he perceiveth me to go on in the stubbornness of my heart , and he knoweth that the wrath of god will one day smoak against me for it , and yet his heart is hard , he hath no pitty upon me ; he did never once open his lips to bring me into the right way , to reprove me for my sin . nay , if any in zeal to gods glory , and love to the souls of such , shall labour to do them good , what is their answer ? meddle with your own business , i shall answer for my self , you shall not answer for my sin . i pray mark what sensles speeches these be : it is as if a man should see another fallen into a dangerous pit , where he could not live without help ▪ and should go to help him out ; or to direct one that is going in some dangerous place in in the dark , where he is like to break his neck ; or to succour one that is in need , and like to starve , and should have such an answer from him as this ? why do ye trouble me ? look to your self , if i perish , i perish , you shall not perish with me : why do ye feed my body , if i starve , it is nothing to you , you shall not be famished by it : no verily , this help is for the body , and therefore it is welcome at all times ; but the other that is for the soul , that is distasted as unseasonable and troublesome . sect . . iv. this sheweth us also the greatest harm which a man can do to another , is that which is done to the soul : men may receive wrong many ways ; but the greatest injury and mischief that one man can do another , is that which falleth upon the soul , the best part . is not a blow in the eye worse than one upon the arm ? he that woundeth thy soul , doth he not worse than if he smote thy body ? and yet what deadly malice doth one bear to another for a box of the ear , or some such wrong done to the body , whereas they account them their best friends that work the greatest mischief to their souls . he that will drink to them when they have drunk too much already ; he that will flatter and humour them in their sins ; he that will entice them unto sin , he is the only friend and good fellow : whereas indeed such a one is a most dangerous enemy . he that threatneth to be revenged of thee , that saith he wil have thy blood , that raileth at thee & slandereth thee , doth not hurt thee so much as such a one who seeketh to draw thee into that , or by joyning with thee to encourage thee in that which tendeth to the destruction of thy soul ; such a one endangereth thine everlasting life , and taketh a course to wound thee , so that thou mayst die for ever . therefore when thou hearest , that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdome of god , and one pu●leth thee by the sleeve , and another enticeth thee , &c. answer him thus ; i perceive you are none of my friends ; what ! are ye loth to have me go to heaven ? would ye have my soul perish ? would ye seek my destruction ? you seek to draw me into such a sin as will shut me out of heaven . if thou wouldest answer them so now and then , thou wouldest be well rid of such companions , and not be so much pestered with these troublesome flies . but most lamentable is the sin of such in this case , whose care is onely for the bodies of their children , but care not how they betray their souls ; how they leave them in their sins which they see to grow upon them , and use no means to cure them of these deadly evils . oh do not deal with thy child as with thy beast , as if it had onely a body to be fed and clothed , and not a soul to be saved . sect . v. sith god did create our souls , let us conceive that he made them for himself ; therefore let every faculty be given up to his service . . as for thine imagination , let it be dedicated to the service of god ; let thy thoughts and meditations be directed unto god and his word and kingdome . the fancy of a man is a working , stirring thing , always medling with something or other ; now let it be turned toward god and his word ; and when thou findest it busie with other things , call it home and think with thy self , i must go about my fathers business : this faculty of my soul must mind him that made it . so for thy memory ; it is god's treasury , he made it , and therefore you must lay up the riches and treasures of his kingdome in it , and not the trash of the world : you must store it with holy instructions and meditations , promises , precepts , &c. out of his word , and not stuff it with idle tales , wa●ton songs , or meer earthly vanities , and nothings else : this cabinet of the soul was not made for such base uses . when thou comest to hear the word , thou must not think it enough to take it in with thine ear , that is not the onely part which god made ; but labour to lay it up in thy memory , that thou maist be rich in all saving knowledge of the word . a man may have a great deal of money come through his hands , yet be never the richer , if he spend it idlely as fast as it cometh , and lay up none . a man may have many a sermon entring in at his outward ears , and yet never prove rich in knowledge , if he suffer all to be lost again , and treasure up none in his memory . thy understanding , that most excellent faculty of the soul , how carefully should it be improved , that the lord may be honoured by it ; let him have the best that made the whole . it is strange to think that men should be excused by ignorance : what is that but to rob god of the principal endowment of thy soul , even thine understanding ? it is a miserable folly , when men labour for skill in earthly things , and would be wise every way except in heavenly things , and in the mean time least of all regard to know the lord ; as if the top of the soul , the head of the inward man , were made to be a vassall to the earth , and not a servant to the lord. learn thou to know him that made thee , and never think thine understanding so well employed about any other things as when it is busied in studying the word of god : frequent those exercises wherein the word of god is taught , and thine understanding is to be pre●ected . the eye loveth the light , and is delighted with the sun-shine ; let thine understanding , the eye of thy soul , love the light that shineth from heaven in the ministery of the word , and do not turn from it , or neglect it ; let thy delight be in the law of the lord , and meditate therein day and night : magnifie god who hath given thee this faculty of thy soul , whereby thou mightest come to be acquainted with him thy maker , and think there is none so worthy of thy knowledge , as he that made thee ; this knowledg shall be everlasting : the knowledg of earthly things , worldly policy , skill in dealings , laws of men , &c. shall perish , but the knowledg of god is everlasting and immortal , as the soul it self is ; yea it shall be perfected , when other knowledg shall perish . . thy w●ll , wherein the strength of thy soul lyeth , must be wholly for god ; it must be firmly bent to obey god , and strongly resolved against all disobedience , flashes , motions , and good moods and fits , now and then arising in the heart toward god ; either in affliction , or when we see some spectacles 〈◊〉 mortality , or hear the word pressed upon us , are but slight and weak of themselves , and soon vanish , if there be nothing else but these . but the strength of the soul lies in the will when it is sanctified , and firmely resolved to obey its maker in all things . when barnabas saw the good affections of the new converts at antioch , be exhorted them all , that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the lord , act. . . so david , i have sworn , and i will perform it , that i will keep thy righteous judgments , psal. . . there was a resolute spirit , and such should be the bent of every sanctified will. the affections may be stirred , and yet may be no more but as a few loose sticks , which satan will soon break again , and bring to nothing ; but the will , when it is throughly bent and confirmed indeed , it is as a common bond to tye up all the affections , and to strengthen all : let us therefore pray to the lord , that he would give us both the will and the deed. . the will being thus for god ▪ then labour to stir up the affections , which are as it were the wings of the soul. . love is strong as death , jealousie is hot as fire ; thou shouldest love god with passionate and strong affections . oh how i love thy law ! it is my meditation all the day , saith david , psal. . . tell him that i am sick of love , saith the church of christ. cant. . . that is an happy soul , that is sick of this heavenly love . it is not enough to wish well to god and his glory , and coldly to desire that things might be amended ; but the heart must be carried after him in strong and stirring passions of love ; that as the heart of a fond lover is passionately carried , and overcome with the love of the person beloved ; so should a christian soul not content it self with an ordinary cold temper of love , but should labour to have it self possessed with fervent affections , yea to be overcome . the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts , saith the apostle ; now that ( i hope ) will work an affectionate love to god , when his love is poured abundantly into the heart ; this will make a man love out of a pure heart fervently . . this will draw desire after it , which is another affection ; oh how the soul will pant , long , hunger and thrist for god , if once it fall in love with him , and be truly joyned unto him , having , tasted of his excellency , and found how good the lord is : i have lifted up mine eyes to the hills , saith the psalmist . travellers , at the foot of the hill look up to the top ; and now oh that i were there with a wish ! so a christian , in the valley of humiliation , and in the sence of his own wants , locketh up to god , and his holy mount : and now , oh that i were with the lord ! oh that i were neer to him , and could more fully enjoy him ! oh that i had more of his spirit , more of his fulness , more of his graces ; my soul thirsteth for the lord , even for the living god. and when once thou comest to this ▪ how canst thou chuse but from thy heart loath all sin tendered or suggested to thee by satan , the world , or the flesh ; if once thou thus lovest god , thou wilt not make league with any enemy of his. . then thou wilt rejoice in the lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory : then the worlds joys will seem poor , heartless , unsavoury flashes ; and now a world for my part in that blessed feast of fat things , of wine upon the lees , of wine upon the lees well refined . no delicates so sweet as the paschal lamb , christ jesus ; no feast so excellent , as that which the soul maketh on him by faith. now i can relish christs sweetness in the word , in the sacraments , in private meditations . . and now also must thy sorrow be sanctified , and nothing be so grievous to thee as that which is displeasing to thy god : thy heart should ake when his spirit is grieved ; all should be godly sorrow , that bringeth repentance : give not way to that sorrow for which thou must sorrow again , but to those tears after which thou shalt reap in joy . . as for hope , where shouldest thou cast anchor , but upon the rock ? there is the only sure hold that will abide a storm ; fasten there , lean not upon the arm of flesh , cast not anchor in the sand. . and whom shouldest thou fear , but him that hath all power in his hand , all creatures that can help or hurt at his command , e●ther to let them loose , or to tye them up ? fear him for his goodness and mercy , as well as for his justice ; that it is too good to be abused , and to be made a patronage to thy sins . . labour to be couragiously confident in the lords goodness toward thee , and bear up thy soul upon the multitude of his mercies , and his truth that never faileth , above the gulf of desperation . . and for thine anger , let it not be a strange fire of inordinate and distempered passion , but an holy fire of zeal for the glory of god : oh let it burn inwardly to consume the dross and corruptions of thy own soul , and to burn up the stubble vanity of thy corrupt affections , and then let it flame out in the eyes of the world ; that those that hate it , may yet see its light : and then whatsoever the world speaks or thinks of thee , thou maist with a glad heart say in the presence o● god ; praise the lord o my soul , and all that is within me praise his holy name ; bless the lord o my soul , and forget not all his benefits , as david doth , psal. . , . chap. . of the creation of both sexes . i come now to the second point , and that is , that god made both sexes ; male and female , man and woman ; which is here laid down in general , but more particularly set forth afterwards in the second chapter from the eighteenth verse to the end . so that first you see , as was shewed before , that the mans body was framed out of the dust , and the breath of life was breathed into him , as hath been shewed . now in the next place we may observe , . the necessity of the creation of woman after that man was made . . the manner of it . . the conjunction of both together . . a special consequent of the image of god in both ; and that was , that their nakedness was without shame , being without sin . the first of these is laid down , chap. . verse . & . and therein two things are to be noted . . that man was alone . . that it was not good for him to be alone , and therefore the lord would make him an help meet for him . . he was alone ; therfore it was noted , that when all the other living creatures were brought before him , there was not among them all , when they were in that best estate of their creation , any one that was an help meet for him ; or fit to be joined in neerest society with him : there was not any among all the creatures to which he gave names , that did bear the image of god , and so no fit match for him . . it was not good for him to be thus alone . object . but it may be objected , that then all that was made was not very good . resp. it was very good when it was perfected , but not whilest it was in hand , before it was finished : an house is not very good for habitation before the roof is laid , &c. when it is but an imperfect frame : so mans estate was not yet perfected , till the lord had made him an help meet for him ; and that was all done upon the sixth day , and then the lord said of all that he had made , that it was very good . but to the point ; it was not good that man should be alone . . because it was needful that mankind should be encreased for the glory of god ; that as the other creatures did encrease ▪ so men should multiply also , and bear rule over them . therefore gen. . . god said to them in the state of holiness and innocency , be fruitful and multiply , and replenish the earth , and subdue it . many other reasons there are now sithens the fall , for which it is needful that the woman should be made , which had no force in the state of innocency . but yet , . a second may be , that as god needing no creatures , yet did make creatures to which he might communicate his goodness ; so he might be pleased to make such a creature , as should be sutable unto adam , to whom he might communicate his love , and with whom he might take such an holy , undefiled , mutual contentmen● , as did become the estate of innocency . . in the second place followeth the manner of the creation of the woman ; and therein , . the preparative , which was a deep sleep falling upon the man to take away the present u●e of his sences , that he might not feel any pain in taking away the rib out of his side ; which shewed the lords tender care over man when he continued upright , that he would not put him to any pain , no not in such a case as tended to his special good , that he might have an help meet for him . . he took a rib out of his body , and left no breach nor wound in the body , but closed up the flesh again , and left it whole . and of this bone he made a woman , which should be joined unto him as an help meet for him . . the third thing is the institution of marriage ; wherein we have the lords act in joining them together , and his enacting that holy law of matrimony , gen. . . . the lord bringeth the woman to the man , where ye see , that god is the great match-maker , and he is the author of marriage . god brought all the creatures before adam , but among them all he found none that was an help meet for him , and therefore he brought the woman to another end ; and in bringing her , did join her to him in marriage : and adam on the other side , with a glad and thankful heart ▪ accepteth her at the hands of god ; giveth her a name answerable to her beginning , which he alleadgeth as a reason of the name , and of the near affinity between him and her . this is now bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called woman , because she was taken out of man. . the law of marriage was enacted , vers . ▪ where is shewed : . that the conjunction between man and wife should be most near . . that it should not be dissolved . . that it should be between one man and one woman . . it should be most near : for it should be nearer than that between the child and his father and mother , which is nearer than any other besides this of marriage . therefore in marriage , the father is said to give his child ; so that now the husband is the wifes , and the wife is the husbands . they must be near in cohabitation , or in dwelling together ; most near in affection , near in a mutual communion of bodies and goods ; so near , that they must be one : even as the woman was a part of the man being taken out of him , so it must be conceived , that each man must judge himself one with his wife , and not esteem her as a person divided from himself ; not take her for another , but account her a part of himself . . it must not be dissolved , because they are become one : for a man to fo●sake his wife , is as if he should pluck an arm from his body , or pull a rib out of his side ; they being by the ordinance of god made one , even as all the members of a mans body make up one body . therefore our saviour giveth not way to any divorce , except it be for adultery , for then the party that committeth adultery doth rent it self from that union wherein they were knit together ; every adulterous act being a division of the marriage-bond . . it must be between one man and one woman ; and not between one , and more than on● . so it is plain ; . by the creation it self when the lord made but one woman for one man , which is the argument used by the prophet , malach. . . and if ever it had been expedient to have had many wives , it had been then fittest that the earth might have been more speedily replenished . . you see it is said , that a man shall cleave to his wife , and not unto his wives ; and that they two , and not more than two ▪ should be one flesh . . the last thing is a consequent of gods image in both ; which was , that their nakedness was without shame ; the cause whereof , was , because they were free from sin . thus much for the opening of these things ▪ i now proceed to application . chap viii . use . this condemneth the folly of those that use to say , that women have no souls ; which though it be a most sottish speech , yet no opinion is so sottish , which hath not some to embrace it . howsoever ! though men think not so , but speak it many times in an idle jesting humour , yet is it worthy of reproof in publique ; both because it is to be reckoned among those idle words for which the speaker must give account at the day of judgment , and also because it is a notorious lie and falshood , which no christian tongue should utter in jest or earnest . and that which the apostle speaks in another case , may be applied to this , that evil words corrupt good manners . but if it were worthy of a confutation , it were easily shewed , that the blessed virgin began her song of praise thus ; my soul doth magnifie the lord , &c. it is said , that lydia ( another woman ) had her heart or soul opened to attend to the word of god. it is said , that the woman whose daughter had a devil , had a great faith , which is always seated in the soul. it is said , that the woman who washed our saviours feet with tears , had many sins forgiven her ; but without a soul she could not have sinned , nor have received forgiveness of sins . but some that will take upon them to carp at sermons or catechisms , though themselves have need to be catechized , will say , it is an idle thing to speak of this : let their wisedomes know then , that in mine own experience i have found such as could not tell whether christ were god or man , or an angel &c. therefore there is need that the plainest things should be taught , and that they which know them should also know some arguments whereby to stop profane cavilling mouths ; but moses tells us , that both male and female were made after the image of god , and therefore both the one and the other had an immortal soul ; both were made rulers over the creatures . . this sheweth god's tender care over man , he would not suffer him to want that which was good for him : thus tender is his love when sin maketh no breach . this should therefore teach thee , o man , to lament thy sins , and the sins of the land , when any evil befalleth thee or the land . hadst not thou wronged him by thy sins , as adam then had not , he would have been as tender over thee as over him. had it not been for sin , the lord would have said , it is not good for man to be punished with famine and scarcity , i will provide him food convenient for him . it is not good for man to be sick , i will continue health unto him . it is not good for him to be made a slave , or a prisoner , whom i have made lord of the other creatures , i will give him liberty . it is not good to bring him under any affliction , i will keep him free from sorrow . it is not good that he should die , i will give him immortality . thus would the lord have dealt with man ▪ had not sin confounded that happy peace between god and man complain not then so much of thy affliction as it is a cross to thee , as of thy sin which is a cross to god , and which hath moved him to bring the cross of affliction upon thee . . in that woman was made to be an help meet for man at her creation , and at the first appointment of marriage , this sheweth , that , so far as she is an hinderance to him , or neglecteth to help him , so far she erreth from the right end of marriage . as she is an hinderance to him in spiritual things , and a means either to draw him from god , or to cool his zeal for gods glory ▪ to lessen his care for his service , or to make him more backward in good du●ies , or to discourage him from a sincere constant course of obedience ; so far doth she grievously cross the very rules , the true end and original institution of marriage . again , so far as she helpeth him forward in these things , as she provoke●h him to grow in grace , and to be more and more fruitful in good works , so far she sheweth her self to be a wife , even a wife of gods making , an help meet for man ; for indeed she is no farther a wife then she is an helper . again ▪ so far as by her wilfulness , negligence , or wastful riot she impaireth his estate , so far she faileth of those accomplishments that should go to the making up of a wife ▪ and , so far as by moderate care , diligence and discretion she furthereth him this way , so far she approveth her self to be a true wife , that is , an help meet for him ; so it is in regard of his true comfort and contentment every way , sc. of his credit &c. therefore wives should labour to be wives , that is , helps in every respect : for although infirmities sithence the fall wil not permit them to be perfectly helpful in the highest degree , yet should they labour to do their best in every several kind , wherein they ought to be helpful . . the neerness of the marriage-bond which is shewed by the original of the woman taken out of man , and the law of marriage enacted by god , whereby they are become one flesh , should move them both to knit their hearts in most intire and mutual love , accounting each other , and affecting each other , as a part of him or her self . . this condemneth the pride of the whore of babylon ▪ which accounteth the state of marriage polluted and thinketh her shavelings too good and holy to enter into that order , which yet the lord thought a fit and helpful estate for adam in his first estate , when the image of god shined b●ightly and perfectly in his soul without all spot of lust , or stain of corruption . . in that nakedness it self was not shameful , until naked man and woman became sinfull ; this should make us not so much ashamed of any thing as of sin ; no meanness of condition , no defects or deformities , no reproaches , of lving and idle tongues should make us so ashamed as any sin against god ; for shame is as proper unto sin as the shadow to the body , and we may call shame the shadow of sin . for as there is no shadow without some light , yet the shadow cometh not from the light but from the body ; so shame doth not follow sin without some light to discover it , yet the shame cometh not from the light but from sin ; there must be either the light of the word , or of conscience , or nature &c : to discover sin before the shame of it ( which is its shadow ) will appear : and therefore men that are wholly in darkness and blindness , and come not to the light , they go on without sense of the shame of sin . and that is the reason why men hate the light and those that hold it forth , because it maketh their sin cast shadow , it maketh the shame of their sin to appear , which was hidden before in the dark . chap. . of the creation of man after the image of god. sect . . thus much of the second point . sc. gods creation of both sexes : i now proceed to the third , viz. that god made man in his own image , which cleerly appeareth , both in the story of the consultation between the glorious persons of the blessed trinity , and also in the relation of the execution of his consultation here in my text. now for the opening this point , two things are to be considered . . what is an image in general . . wherein this image of god in man consisteth . an image is such a likeness of a thing , as doth bear a special relation to the thing resembled by it , either as flowing from its beeing , or framed according to it : so that every image of a thing is like unto the thing whose image it is ; but every thing that is like another , is not an image of it . any thing that is of the same colour wi●h another thing may be said to be like unto it , but not an image of it . but in an image , besides likeness , there is required one of these two things ; either that it be expressed by the essence of that whose image it is , or els that it be purposely fashioned according to it . in the former sense , none but the eternal son of god is the true image of god the father , as he is called the brightness of his glory , and the express image of his person . and so a son may be said to be the image of his father , as adam is said , after his fall to have begotten a son in his own likeness , after his image . in the other sense , an image is that which is made like to another , framed of purpose to resemble it : so is a picture or a statue made by art to represent some person : and such was the image of god in man , for the lord did purposely , as you see by the consultation , make man like himself , to resemble him , and to bear his image sect . . in the second place i come to shew , wherein this image of god in man consisteth , and what it is . this was in general , that perfection which god gave unto man in his first creation , for god is a most perfect beeing , infinite in all divine perfection : therefore that perfection which man had above all other creatures here below , was the image of god in man. now this perfection was two-fold . principal . less principal . principal in the soul : this is fully laid down unto us in these two places . colos. . yee have put off the old man , and have put on the new man , which is renewed in knowledge , after the image of him that created him : and that ephes. . . that yee put on the new man , which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness : where we see the several powers of the soul had their several perfections ; and there is no faculty of the soul which may not be made perfect by these , so that in these did the image of god consist . object . but it may be said , that in those two places . st paul speaks of regeneration , or the new birth , and not of that old and first creation in the beginning . sol. it is true ! and this maketh for our purpose ; for the apostle sheweth here , that the image of god consisteth in these perfections ; now the image of god restored by regeneration , is the same which was given by creation at the first , and that building which adam pulled down by his sin , our saviour built up again by his obedience and mediation . as in adam all die , even so by christ shall all be made alive . cor. . . that is , christ shall make up that which was undone by adam : there cannot be any thing named for matter of substance that adam lost , but christ restored it , and therefore he is called the second adam , and in the comparison between them and the first adam , it is said , the first man adam was made a living soul , and the second adam was made a quickning spirit , ver . . that is , the first adam was made a living soul , by creation , living the life of nature , by the substance and faculties of his soul united to his body , and a supernatural life too , by the image of god in his soul : and , had he continued in that estate , he should have conveyed the same life , both natural and supernatural to his posterity : but losing that supernatural life , consisting in the image of god , he remained a meer living soul , and no better , one that had but only the life of nature left him , arising out of the essence and natural powers of the soul and so could only convey this natural life to his posterity , whose souls were dead in sin , to whom he could not impart any quickening vertue , to raise them unto that supernatural life in holiness and righteousness . but christ was a quickening spirit , not only having this supernatural life in himself , but also quickening those with a new principle of supernatural life , to whom he is joyned by the spirit : and so he is called a second adam , as being the founder of a new generation of men ; for as all men by nature do spring of the first adam , so all christians by grace do come of the second adam , and receive that spiritual life from him again , which the first adam received , but lost . now if the first adam had continued in his first estate , and kept the image of god , there had been no need of the second adam ; for all men by their natural birth should have received from him that supernatural life , together with the natural . but this first adam having lost the image of god , was now but the author of an imperfect generation of men , naturally alive , but spiritually dead ; and therefore there was need of a second adam , who should be the author of a new birth , and should give a new , a second , a spiritual life and beeing to those who were naturally dead in trespasses and sins : so that by this it is plain , that that new beeing and spiritual life , which christ by his spirit restoreth to his members , is that very image of god , which god made in man at the first ; and this you see , doth principally consist in knowledge holiness , and righteousness ; which are the perfections of the understanding judgment , conscience , will and affections . chap. . sect . . . for his understanding : he had all knowledge needfull for a perfect man , both concerning the creator and the creatures : his creator he knew perfectly ; perfectly i say , not in regard of the object , or person known , who is infinite , but in regard of the subject , or person knowing : mans understanding was not infinite , and therefore could not have such a knowledge of god , as was a full declaration , and apprehension of an infinite god ; but it was perfect in its kind , and therefore he had so much knowledge of his excellency , as was sufficient to make him admire him , love him , magnify him above all things ▪ and so much as was sufficient cleerly to direct him in any duty , which by the first covenant and law of his creation he owed unto him : so that as god knew himself , so man had a cleer knowledge of god , and therein did bear his image . then had he also a perfect knowledge of the creatures , sc. of himself and others . himself he knew both soul and body , and well understood the nature and vertue of each faculty in the one , and the temper and use of each member , or parts in the other . and this appeareth by the knowledge which he had of the woman at the first sight ; this is bone of my bone , and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called woman , because she was taken out of man. he had a perfect knowledge of all the other creatures here below , he knew the trees of the gardens , the herbs , grass , and all sorts of plants , and the natural vertues and properties that were in them : he knew the beasts of the field , the fowls of the ayr , and fishes of the sea ; and so adam gave fit and proper names to all birds and beasts : so i doubt not , but he knew the nature , and several kinds of all minerals , mettals , precious stones , &c. together with the course and motions of the heavens , sun , moon , and s●ars . thus did the understanding which is the eye of mans soul , represent the infinite knowledg of god , and bear its image . and those things which we call now hidden qualities in the creatures , were not hidden from him , and are now covered from us , not in regard of their own natures , but in respect of our blindness , contrary to that light which was natural to us in the creation . but all this while , man had no knowledge of evil ; he knew not what ignorance or error meant ; he knew not what a stubborn will , an hard heart , a polluted conscience was : he had no knowledge of the nature of diseases nor of their remedies ; no nor of the cure of sin , nor of the washing away of its guilt and pollution : therefore the promise of this new kind of knowledge , made by sathan , caused the womans ear to itch , and her heart to long , as imagining her self capable of some higher perfection , which god had not given her ; for this knowledge concerned not that estate of man , or did it make for his happiness . sect . . ii. his will was perfectly bent to obey , and cleave unto his creator , whom he knew to be infinitely more excellent than all the creatures , and from whom he saw he had received all the good and happiness which he enjoyed ; he was fully resolved never to forsake him , knowing there was none in heaven , or earth to be regarded in comparison of him : in every affection of his heart and soul , he did carry a lively image of his maker . he loved god most intirely , whom he saw to be the greatest good beyond comparison ; and he loved whatsoever was agreeable unto god ; and herein he did resemble god , who loveth himself with a most perfect love ▪ and loveth whatsoever is agreeable to himself : he perfectly hated whatsoever was contrary to god , all manner of sin and transgression , as the lord also hateth it . if he had any actual desire , it was most holy : but i see not what he could actually desire in that estate , unless it were the continuance of that happiness which he had , and that neer communion with his god ; for he was full already , and had as much joy , holiness , and happiness , as he was capable of : so that his desire of good , was not , to have it increased , but only to have it continued to him : but he had not the least desire of any evil ; his ioy was wholly in god , who was his happiness , and in whom he found most sweet and full contentment . he had no matter of grief within , or without him , nothing that should lessen his joy , or imbitter his comfort : sin , which is the fountain of sorrow , was not then found in the world. as for sorrow , he had none actually stirring in him , though an ability he had , which afterward he had much cause to employ . his trust and confidence was in god , and he believed that which he revealed to him . so long as he stood firm ▪ he believed that threatning ; in the day that thou eatest thereof , thou shalt die the death . and when sathan by his lying suggestion brought him from his stedfast belief of this truth , then his feet were more than almost gone , his steps had more than well-nigh slipped . but while he remained in his state of creation , he believed without doubting ; yet had he not actually faith in christ , as a redeemer , which is that grace whereby the elect in this new covenant of the gospel are saved ; for being free from sin , he needed not a redeemer to satisfy for his guilt by his death : yet i doubt not , but that he had an ability to believe whatsoever god should reveal unto him , and so to have believed this truth , if it had been revealed . a● for fear ! he was free from all slavish fears of vengeance or misery , perfect love casting out all such kind of fear . yet i am perswaded , that he could not want an holy humble reverence and submissive respect unto his maker . courage he had in perfection , not fearing all the world , whiles he knew that god was with him . as for desperation , it was far from the height of his happiness , who was not subject to the least distrust . an holy anger , a divine flame of zeal for his beloved creators glory , i cannot think was wanting in him , inasmuch as the very angels are called seraphims , or fiery spirits . thus brightly did the image of god shine in the face of mans soul at his first creation , and though he were infinitely unequal to him , he had not any spot of sin or impurity in him , to make him u●like or contrary to him that made him . god made man upright , saith the wise man , eccles. . . and so he made him like himself ▪ sect . . . but besides these excellencies , he did also otherwise resemble his creator ; and that is the second thing , the inferiour part of gods image in man , and that in two sorts of things . . in things belonging to the body it self . . in things without his body . . of the things belonging to the body , you have heard before , when i spake of the creation of the body , sc. the beauty and excellent temper of the body : for though the lord hath no body , being an infinite , and most glorious beeing ; yet these things , as they were excellencies , and things that made somewhat for the happiness of man , they were in some sort resemblances of the divine glory and excellency of god : to these i may add also immortality ; for the body also was by the goodness of its maker free from death , had not sin made a forfeiture of his life and breath : and that upright posture of his body was a fit resemblance of the majesty of god that made it . . now , without the body there were these two things . . the sweet and happy habitation , which adam had in the garden of eden , such as now no place with the greatest cost and art in the world can possibly afford ; hereby resembling god , who hath the glorious heavens for his dwelling place , wherein he doth especially manifest his divine and glorious presence . . his dominion over the earth , ayr , and waters , with all the creatures in them , whereby as an under-officer , or deputy , he did represent the person of god , who is the supream lord of all . chap. ix . use . learn here then to admire this wonderfull work of god , and to magnify him for that admirable perfection which he gave to man , within him and without him ; in soul , body , habitation and dignity , having made him a little lower than the angels , and crowned him with glory and honour . what an excellent creature was man , when he came newly out of the hands of god , until sathan ●●rred him with his foul hands . a body without any blemish , a soul without the least defect , without all impurity ; an understanding and wit without all dimness , or dulness ; a judgment without error , a memo●y free from leaks o● failing , an heart without the least distemper , always carryed even , not swayed or stirred out of place on the one side o● the other . . learn here not to think god the author of any sinfull disposition in thee : remember how he made thee ; and condemn thy self , justifying his purity and holiness , by whom thou wast made upright ▪ . learn to lament thine own misery , who art so far from that perfection which god gave to man at the first ; look upon thy defects every way , within and without , and see the fruits of sin in thy self , and give no rest to thy self , till thou seest thy self new-made again , until thou art become a new creature , and hast the image of god restored unto thee : so far as we come short of adam's perfection , so far we come short of that which we should be , of that which we must continually seek for . but you will say , all in the world come short of adam's perfection : true and therefore all must strive to grow in grace more and more , and none must condemn another that goeth beyond himself : but yet there is a great difference in this case , for some are not sensible of their failings ; at least , not so , as to be carefull to reform them , but rather dislike those that give them the best examples , and keep themselves most close to the rule of the word . these have not the image of god at all restored to them , they have no part of that spiritual life which adam had . but others there be whom the lord hath new-molded , and once again by his spirit hath breathed into them the breath of spiritual life , who see themselves to come short of that perfection which adam had ; and mourn , and strive , and pray , and use all holy means and helps to this purpose , who are willing to be shewed , wherein they come short of this image of god in adam , wherein they are unlike unto it , willing to be reproved by the word ; these have some degrees of his image renewed in them , and these strive after farther perfection . but now compare thy self with this image of god in adam before his fall , and see what thou hast to do , how much is amiss in thee , and must be amended . when a man hath lost a great estate , and by some means beginneth to recover again , he will scarce think he hath enough , until he hath gotten as much as he had before ; he would fain be as rich as ever he was : men are too greedy of these things ; but as the apostle saith , so say i , covet yee the best things . thou wast rich in adam , our first parent had abundance of riches to leave us ; but he committed treason , and so all was forfeited into the hands of the lord. now we should never think our selves well , until we have recovered the same degree of excellency which we lost . thou that thinkest thou knowest enough , consider how far thou comest short of adam , who knew the lord perfectly ; but thou art ignorant of many things in the word of god , and those things which thou dost know , thou knowest it very imperfectly . how far art thou from that full purpose of heart in obeying god , and cleaving to him that was in adam ? how far from that uprightness , that perfection of holiness , those heavenly affections , that strong love to god , that ravishing constant joy in him , which adam had ? how unsetled are thy affections ? how dead is thy heart ? how little art thou affected toward heavenly things ? how far in love with the earth , and earthly things ? therefore think with thy self , in these and these things i am unlike to god , i bear not his image , i am contrary to his purity , and so resolve upon present reformation : and beware thou art not of the number of those , who instead of the image of god , do bear the very visage of sathan : oh let all the children of god labour to be more and more conformed to the image of their heavenly father ; and to become holy , as he is holy , that they may for ever be happy as he is happy . chap. . of the creation of angels , and of their properties . colos. . . for by him were all things created that are in heaven , and that are in earth , visible and invisible , &c. thus much of visible or corporeal creatures : now let us speak something of the invisible or spiritual ; where observe , from the text , that god created all invisible substances . these are called spirits , or angels , and all of them ( i conceive ) have the same natural essence or beeing , though in regard of their present moral enclinations to good or evil , there be a wonderfull difference between them . . for their nature , they are called spirits : so the good angels are called , he hath made his angels spirits , psal. . so the evil angels are often called unclean spirits in the holy story of the evangelists ; and in that story of ahab , king. ult . there is mention made of a lying spirit . now in that they have appeared in a bodily shape , this is no proof that their nature is not spiritual : but this they might do , sometimes by the lords command , sometime by his sufferance for special ends ; for if some excellent artificers can amaze the minds of others with strange inventions , and artificial performances , how easie is it for these excellent creatures , even of any matter , ayr , or water , &c. to frame shapes for any purpose ? . for their original , here you see they were created , as the text maketh it manifest , but not as many other creatures , so as to propagate others of their own kind ; but all those that now are , we suppose were at first created , and their number shall not be encreased to the end of the world : for the day when they were created , it is uncertain : some think it was the first day with the light , and that is not unlikely ; but we must not speak peremptorily where the scripture is silent : howsoever , both scripture and reason do prove that they were made , though the time of their creation , as well as many other things concerning them be hidden from us , because not necessary for us to know . chap. . their knowledge is either natural , given them at the first creation , or supernatural by revelation from god , or acquired , and gotten by experience : that they had excellent knowledge at their creation , there is no question , being made more excellent than man , who yet at the first had an admirable measure of knowledge given unto him . the knowledge which they have of god , and of his works , is admirable from their very creation , though yet it is not infinite : it doth not reach to things to come , unless it be indirectly by a consideration of some things present , thereby collecting what will follow , or by seeing things in their causes : otherwise they have no certain natural knowledge of things meerly future ; for that is the prerogative of god denyed to the creatures . but besides this , they have a supernatural knowledge revealed of god unto them , and thus they come acquainted with many things to come , when the lord is pleased to give them knowledge of them : so the angel gabriel knew that christ should be conceived in the womb of the virgin mary , because the lord had revealed this to him , and sent him to acquaint her with it : so on the contrary , the lying spirit knew that ahab should fall at ramoth-gilead , because the lord had revealed so much to him . besides this , there is no doubt , but that they have wonderfully encreased their knowledge these many years , which have passed since their first creation . consider this , that being spirits , and not having their understandings dimmed by any gross vapours arising from the body , nor interrupted in their speculations by any bodily pains or sickness , nor being subject to weariness , nor in any sort hindered or disabled by old age , nor distracted by seeking necessary supplies for the body ( all which are impediments incident to bodily substances ; ) and besides all these , have had many thousand yeares , wherein to increase their knowledge ; it is beyond our imagination to think to what an height they are grown by this means . the apostle sheweth that the holy angels did encrease their knowledge in the gospel , by the preaching of the apostles . eph. . . unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given , that i should preach among the gentiles , the unsearchable riches of christ ; that men might learn , as he saith , vers. . but this was not all ; there were scholars also of an higher forme in the school of christ , sc. the angels themselves . to the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places , might be known by the church the manifold wisdome of god. vers. . this may seem strange , that angels should learn of men ; but this we must know , that it was not paul , nor any mortal man , that of himself could teach these immortal spirits any knowledge which they had not : but it was the holy ghost himself ▪ who is infinitely above men and angels , that spake by the apostles to the angels , and out of the mouths of men , did teach these glorious spirits . but there is a great difference in the end of this knowledge , in angels and men : for men must learn the mysteries of grace , both that they may believe and be saved , and also that they may admire , and magnify the riches of gods grace in the work of redemption . but the angels do not learn this , for their own redemption , who never fell into sin , and therefore need no pardon , but that they may glorify god , and rejoyce in the salvation of the elect. and as god the son did choose to unite to himself , not the nature of angels , but of man : so god the holy ghost did choose rather to speak by men to the angels in this mystery , concerning god the son , ( being god and man ) than by the angels to men. now there is no doubt , but the evil angels also do learn the gospel-mysteries , which they also believe , and tremble : they are constant hearers ; and it may well be thought , that there is never a sermon which is likely to bring any danger to their kingdome , but that some of them are present , though for no good intent : yea , when they hinder others from learning , yet they learn themselves , though they never mean to practise . and as the angels , good and evil , have increased their knowledge in the mystery of christ ; so ( i doubt not , but ) they have done the like in other things by their long experience . now yee must not think there is an essential or natural difference between the good and evil angels , though they differ exceedingly in regard of moral good or evil , no more than there is between good and evil men. peter and iudas were both men , though the difference were great in their ends , and in their dispositions . chap. . now i come to speak briefly of both these sorts apart : and first of the good angels ( such as all were at the first ; ) for , as for the evil angels , they are not so by their creation ; and therefore as they are evil , they are not to be reckoned among the creatures : we may safely say , that god made no devils ; for though he made those creatures which now are wicked devils , yet he made them not devils , but holy angels , excellent and glorious spirits ; but i shall not speak of them here . now for the good angels . . consider their perfection , which is both of nature , and of grace . the lord at the first gave them an excellent perfection of nature , whereby he made them good , perfect , and compleat according to their kind , so that they wanted no excellency , which belonged to created spirits , and perfect intellectual natures : so doubtless they had naturally admirable power and strength given them , as appeareth , psal. . . bless the lord yee his angels , mighty in strength . one angel invadeth a whole camp of souldiers , and in one night slayeth men : their agility , speed and quickness is extraordinary ; how swiftly doth the wind fly through the ayr , but these spirits are far more quick and active ; and therefore the cherubins are described with wings , and so the seraphims also ; yea , they are called a flame of fire , in regard of their inflamed love to god. no doubt , they had a fulness of all perfection answerable to their natures , power , knowledge , quickness , perfect holiness , love to god , joy in him unspeakable and glorious ; and especially a most happy habitation in the glorious presence of god , and kingdome of heaven . to this natural perfection which all angels had at first , and which the good angels still have , we suppose must be added a perfection of free grace , whereby the lord was pleased to confirm some of them in their first estate , leaving some to themselves , as he might justly have done all : for although the lord did give natural perfection unto all , yet he was not bound in justice to add his grace of confirmation unto all or any ; for that which is of grace , cannot be a due . this i doubt not ▪ was done in and through the son , though not through his incarnation ; not through him as made man : for as god the father made all things through his son ; so he doth all his works through him , and especially this work of confirming the blessed angels in their happiness ; and therefore in this respect he is the head of the angels also . ii. the number of the angels is exceeding great : the scriptures makes mention of many thousands , and there are multitudes employed for the good of the church in all parts of the world. howsoever ! the number of these stars of the third heaven ( the blessed angels ) is as uncertain to us , as the number of those stars which are in the second heaven : we must therefore leave it to god , as one of his concealed secrets , who telleth as well the number of the angels , as of the stars , and calleth them all by their proper names . iii. as for the office and employment of angels , it is : . to attend on the lord , and give him praise : i am gabriel that stand in the presence of the lord , said the angel , luke . so in the vision of isaiah , the angels stood with their wings , covering their faces , and singing before the lord , holy , holy , holy , lord god of hosts , all the earth is full of his glory . isai. . so in luke . the angels joyn together in praising the lord , and in many places of the revelations . . to go at the command of god : and so they are called angels , that is , messengers : and the angels both in the hebrew and greek are called messengers : so angels were sent to abraham , to lot , to the blessed virgin , to zachary , to our saviour : they are ready at a b●ck ; as soon as the lords pleasure is known unto them , they flie at a word . . to defend the church : he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways . psal. . , . they shall bear thee up in their hands , lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone : so the angels defended elisha , against the host of the syrians ; and there were more with him than against him . doubtless , the church of god , and particular members of it , do receive great assistance , and protection from the holy angels : and that ( as i conceive ) not only in regard of outward ▪ but also in respect of spiritual enemies . for i cannot conceive , but that the good angels should as well suggest good thoughts , as the evil angels do evil thoughts : and as a man hath his own corruption , and the temptations of the evil spirits on the one side to draw him into sin , so i am verily perswaded , that he hath the graces of the holy ghost , and the assistance of the holy angels , to help him against sin , and to stir him up to obedience . and as sathan prevaileth not in tempting us to sin , unless our corruptions joyn with him : so i conceive , these holy angels prevail not usually in provoking us to good , unless the grace of the spirit shall make their perswasions effectual ; these things we may conceive by analogy , considering the practices of evil angels . and it may be thought , that those restraining thoughts , which many times do bridle the rage of the wicked , so that it breaketh not out against the godly , even then when they have intended , and begun to attempt mischief against them , are cast into their minds by the angels . — as for the godly , i am perswaded , they are many times directed strongly , by the secret suggestions of the angels , for the avoiding of dangers , and the obtaining of good : but whether every particular christian hath one particular angel , i cannot so well resolve you , though i know some there are , that understand that place of our saviour , mat. . . to imply so much ; where christ speaking of young children , saith ; i say unto you , that in heaven there angels do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven . and here , by the way , you may observe a special charge which the angels have of children , helping those which are most helpless : and for my part , i am resolved , that the angels do especially guard young children against a multitude of dangers , that they are apt to fall into ; yea , that they stand about our beds , and keep us sleeping ; then especially defending us when we are most subject to danger . . their office also is to execute god's judgments : so did an holy angel on senacherib's army : so did two holy angels on sodom and gomorrah . chap. . use . here meditate upon this excellent work of the all-sufficient creator , who being an eternal infinite beeing , made these immortal , but finite spirits , most like to himself of all the creatures that he made ; therefore he rather chooseth to call himself by the name of these creatures [ a spirit ] than by any other ; although indeed he is more properly called iehovah , a beeing in general , than by the name of any creature in special . . admire him who hath so many glorious angels to attend him , whereof the least is far more excellent than the greatest earthly monarch : admire his majesty , ●ho hath so many thousand glorious ministring spirits . admire his goodness , who notwithstanding the multitude of these , is yet pleased to take poor men into his service ; yea into the number of his children , to partake of his inheritance for ever . think then , if god call me to his service , it is for my good , he needeth me not . he that hath thousands of angels ready to do his meanest service , needeth not a worm of the earth to do his work . . in that these angels are spirits , and without bodies , you may be assured , that the spiritual delights and contentments are of all other the most excellent : for the angels have sweeter delights than all the earth can afford ; and yet no delights of eyes , of ears , of tast , feeling , smelling , &c. nothing whereof the flesh is sensible ; yet these have most abundant fulness of joy . labour therefore to get above these dull , earthly , sensual delights , and to feast thy soul with those sweetest , purest , highest contentments of the holy angels , in enjoying god , and walking with him , so shalt thou have thy conversation in heaven . . moreover , let the perfections of the angels teach thee humility of spirit : let their knowledge keep thee from being proud of thine ; let their holiness make thee bewail thy pollutions ; their speed and readiness make thee to lament thy backwardness : and as thou prayest , so endeavour to do the will of god on earth , as these holy angels do it in heaven : do it readily and willingly , as they do with winged affections : do it heartily and sincerely , as they : do it universally in all things , and do it spiritually in the power of the spirit , as these blessed spirits , who have no flesh at all to dull them in the work of the lord. . let the hope of their society in that glorious kingdome stir thee up to seek this kingdome ; oh that blessed day , when i shall for ever keep company with so many glorious spirits : let me despise all fleshly companions in comparison of them . . again , being creatures , they are not to be worshipped ; see thou do it not , saith the angel to st. iohn : yet must they be reverenced , as the most excellent servants of god , full of admirable graces ; and especially we must reverence them in carrying our selves at all times publickly and secretly , as becometh such as will keep company with the holy angels : so saith st. paul ; the woman must not carry her self in unseemly manner , contrary to modesty , not come with her head uncovered into the congregation , because of the angels , for they are present in the church-assemblies . . we must take heed ( as not to grieve the blessed spirit of god ) so not to grieve these his ministring spirits , who as they rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner , so they abhor the obstinacy of a sinner going on in his sins . doest thou not do those things among thy sinfull companions which thou wouldest be ashamed to do in the sight of some grave and sober persons ? how darest thou then do them before the angels ? nay , why art thou not ashamed to do them before the very face , and in the presence of god ? . be thankfull for that protection which the lord giveth thee by these ; and with a thankfull heart , bless him for this guard in thy journeys , upon the way , in thy bed when thou sleepest , in many sudden dangers ; and believe assuredly , that thou receivest much good by their means , which thou dost not take particular notice of , that thou escapest many dangers by their help , which thou never fearedst . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e aristotle affirmed the wo●ld was from eternity : plato said , it wa● c●eated out of a co-e●e●nal matter : the angels did create , us the iews falsely affirm : the epicureans blasphemously ascribe it to chance . jussit & gessit . august . stella de contempt . mundi . ainswor . annot. in gen. . zinch . de operib . dei. vocabulum homo , est duarum substantiarum sibula . yertul . senec. ad lucil . epist. . god never made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as some phylosophers would have it , but every thing for a double use ; one natu●al , the other spi●itual . notes for div a -e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 zanch. de operibus dei. gen●s . . . parai comm●nt in genes . cant. . . kings . . the beasts find no support in the air , but sink to the earth . plin. nat. hist. lib. . cap. . plin. nat. histor. zabarel . notes for div a -e love. hatred . desire . detestation . ioy. sorrow . hope fear . courage , desperation . anger . the understanding . invention . iudgment . discourse . the will. conscience . an image what it is . hebr. . . of the image of god in general . n. b. considerations on a book, entituled the theory of the earth, publisht some years since by the dr. burnet beaumont, john, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) considerations on a book, entituled the theory of the earth, publisht some years since by the dr. burnet beaumont, john, d. . [ ], p. printed for the author, and are to be sold by randal taylor ..., london : . reproduction of original in bodleian library. attributed to john beaumont. cf. nuc pre- . errata, advertisement: p. [ ] created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng burnet, thomas, ?- . -- telluris theoria sacra. creation -- early works to . deluge. earth -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion considerations on a book , entituled the theory of the earth . publisht some years since by the learned dr. burnet . dedit omnibus deus , pro virili portione sapientiam , ut & inaudita investigare possent , & audita perpendere . lactan. de orig. error . c. . london , printed for the author , and are to be sold by randal taylor near stationers-hall . . imprimatur , edmund bohun . decemb. . . to his honour'd friend , dr. robert hooke , fellow of the royal society , &c. sir , well knowing that among that variety of learning , in which your genius has always exercised itself , you have been particularly delighted in considering this terrestrial globe we inhabit ; i have been free to inscribe these few considerations , thereunto relating , to your name ; being lately written by me on a book , entituled , the theory of the earth , offer'd to the publick by a learned person . this undertaking was very casual to me ; for you know , a few years since i was upon another design , first recommended to me by your self , which would have taken up my thoughts for some years ; but i had no sooner printed a draught of it , when an ill juncture of times hapning , it caus'd me to lay it by . to such providencial disappointments all men must submit , nor has it been any way uneasie to me to have been baulkt in writing the natural history of a county , the considerations here in hand being as far more noble than that other , as they are of a more general extent ; and i would i had been as able to perform well in them , as i am conscious to my self , how incompetent the narrowness of my thoughts may be for solving the great aenigma of the world , as to the rise , tendency , and periods of it , points consider'd in this work. indeed , when first initiated in religion , we have a doctrine deliver'd us concerning them , which by faith we receive , and in which ( as in duty bound ) we acquiesce . and nevertheless , as we grow in years , the mind of man , urg'd on by strong and luxuriant instincts , falls naturally a considering how far they may be resolvable by humane reason . and though , perhaps , how great soever a mans instincts may be , we may not arrive at a full satisfaction in these matters , but by an enlighten'd and prophetick spirit , which god vouchsafes not to all men ; yet , at least , as far as reason will bear , men may be aiding to each other by an intercommunication of thoughts , while we stand waiting at the gates of truth , till god is pleas'd to open to us ; and , as for what i have offer'd in this kind , i freely submit it to your censure , being , sir , your most obliged and humble servant , john beaumont , jun. to the learned dr. burnet , author of the theory of the earth . sir , your theory of the earth , tho extant long since , fell not under my perusal till of later years ; when conversing with a person of eminent learning , who gave your work its due applause , it hast'ned me in the reading of it , which i had often design'd before , tho still diverted by some concerns i had in hand . and i must own that the worthiness of the matters there treated , and the learned handling of them , were not a little charming with me : and nevertheless ( as it commonly falls out with men in philosophical subjects ) many objections occur'd to me as i read it , and some of them seemingly so strong , that they have hitherto withheld me from yielding assent to your hypothesis propos'd . such as they are , i here lay them before , having gathered them together to no other end , but that either being solv'd by you , your hypothesis may stand confirm'd , or if haply , they will not bear a solution , that men may be put upon new thoughts for finding such an hypothesis , as will stand all trials , being sir , your very humble servant , john beaumont , jun. to the reader . that the author of the book , entituled , the theory of the earth , has shewn much learning , ingenuity , and the command of a style more than common in his work , i conceive to be the sense of most persons that have perus'd it . what i pretend to consider in it , is , whether the hypothesis he there proposes can hold good , and am of opinion there is a failure and inconsistency in it . the method i use in my considerations on the said theory is thus : i proceed generally upon each chapter , as the author has writ them in his english copy ; first stating the contents with as much clearness and conciseness as i may , and then offering what i have to say upon them . i well know , that the late right reverend father in god , herbert lord bishop of hereford , has already publish'd some animadversions on this theory ; as likewise some other persons : but whereas his lordship in his animadversions has pleas'd , for the most part , to keep himself to his province of divinity , by expounding some scripture passages relating to it , i proceed generally in a philosophical way , arguing from the nature of the thing ; though no man can treat of these matters , without a scripture ground . and since the other animadverters , beside what they have urg'd from the scriptures , argue generally in a way differing from me , i thought this small mite of mine , toward the elucidation of these abstruse matters , might not be unacceptable among the learned . and whereas the author of the theory wishes , that whoever shall offer any thing against it , keep himself to the substance of it ; so i have done as to the main : tho since collateral matters are for illustrating and strengthning the hypothesis , or some way inducing to a reception of it , i have thought it proper for me now and then , as occasion presented , to take notice of them , at least in a transient way , and to shew their insufficiency for such ends . errata . besides literal faults , the reader is desir'd to correct the following mistakes of the press . pag. . line . blot out , chiefly . ib. l. . and . read , it little concerned , p. . l. . r. for a metaphysical , p. . l. . r. ad captum , p. . l. . r. sediment , p. . l. . after this , make a full point . p. . l. . veil , r. vale , p. . l. . r. harmonical , p. . l. . r. intimate , p. . l. . r. religions , p. . l. . blot out in , p. . l. . r. concerning it , p. . l. . vtque r. atque . advertisement . there is now again published weekly , by randal taylor near stationers hall , the collection for improvement of husbandry and trade , with prices of corn , &c. by john houghton f. r. s. at the same place may be had the three former volumes , and six-penny sheet of acres , houses , proportional tax , &c. of each county in england and wales , by the same author . considerations on the theory of the earth . the first book . concerning the deluge and the dissolution of the earth . chap. i. the author here gives an account of the whole work , of the extent and general order of it ; so that this chapter being only introductory , i note only the following passage . page . he says thus : there is no sect of philosophers , that i know of , that ever gave an account of the universal deluge , or discovered from the contemplation of the earth , that there had been such a thing already in nature . 't is true , they often talk of an alternation , of deluges and conflagrations in this earth , but they speak of them as things to come ; at least they give no proof or argument of any that have already destroy'd the world. and beneath . as to the conflagration in particular , this has always been reckon'd among the opinions or dogmata of the stoicks , that the world was to be destroyed by fire , and their books are full of this notion : but yet they do not tell us the causes of the conflagration , nor what preparations there are in nature , or will be , toward that great change. and we may generally observe this of the ancients , that their learning or philosophy consisted more in conclusions than in demonstrations ; they had many truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the premises or proofs ; which is an argument with me , that the knowledg they had was not a thing of their own invention , or which they came to by fair reasoning and observation upon nature , but was deliver'd to them from others by tradition and ancient fame , sometimes more publick , sometimes more secret : these conclusions they kept in mind , and communicated to those of their school , or sect , or posterity , without knowing , for the most part , the just grounds and reasons of them . on this passage i have the following particulars to offer . . we have no reason to expect that the greeks or latins should have given any account of the deluge in noah's time , unless we will allow the deluge of the ancient ogyges ( which is said to have lasted nine months ) to have been the same with that of noah . for they pretend not to have any records farther than that ogyges : wherefore all things among the greeks , which antiquity had worn out of date , were call'd ogygia . and if , haply , they had any thing of times before , it came very obscurely to them , whence they call'd the ante-ogygian age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and was only what they had by hearsay of the egyptians ; or other nations . those who have made any mention of the universal deluge under noah , are , the sibyl in lactantius , de ira dei , c. . xenophon , de equivocis . fabius pictor , de aureo seculo . cato , de originibus . archilochus the greek , who introduces also the testimony of moses , in his book , de temporibus . josephus in his jewish antiquities , from mnaseas . hierom of egypt , and berosus the chaldean . alexander polyhistor , and abydenus in cyril's first book against julian . plato in his timaeus . ovid and others of the poets confound the deluge of noah with that of deucalion , describing this as general ; which , in regard they must have known to have been particular , i judg the scope of their discourse chiefly tended to a moral or divine institution , the historical narratson in itself being not true . and servius tells us , that by a deluge and emphytheosis the ancients understood a change , and a melioration of times , and we know deluges were still introduc'd in the iron age , after a total corruption of manners . . as to alterations by deluges and conflagrations which the author intimates the ancients to have held only by tradition , without finding by the earth that any such things had been , and without considering any causes and preparations in nature for them : i find it to be otherwise . first , i think it plain enough among the ancient philosophers ( tho unobserv'd by the author ) that they discover'd from the contemplation of the earth there had been already such a thing as a general deluge , at least successively ; so as the waters of the sea had some time or other cover'd the whole face of the earth . thus ovid introduces pythagoras , saying , vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus esse fretum , vidi factas ex aequore terras . et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae , et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis : quodque fuit campus , vallum decursus aquarum fecit : & eluvie mons est deductus in aequor , &c. i 've seen what was most solid earth before become a sea , the sea become a shore ; far from the sea sea-cocles often lie , and anchors old are found on mountains high : land-floods have made a valley of a plain , and brought a mountain with them to the main . and there you may read much more to the same purpose : and all ancient histories , as well as modern , tell us of such marine bodies found on mountains ; some urging them as arguments for such changes : as there are learned men now living , who think they can demonstrate from such bodies , found on mountains at all distances from the sea , that there is no part of the land now appearing , but has sometime been cover'd by the sea. i could produce much matter on this argument , were it not that i am unwilling to anticipate here what i have thoughts of setting forth in a particular tract . again , as for causes of those changes , we find that seneca , a master among the stoicks , describing an universal deluge , assigns causes for them . the sum of his reasoning is thus : he examines whether an universal deluge will be caus'd by the overflowing of the sea , or by continual rains , or by the eruption of new fountains , and concludes it will be by all three joyn'd together , and that nothing is difficult to nature when she hastens to her end : in the rise of things she uses a gentle effort , and carries them on towards their perfection by unperceivable degrees ; but when the time of their dissolution comes , it 's done all on a sudden ; as he exemplifies in animals : and so he says cities are long building , and woods long growing , but reduc'd to ashes in a few hours . therefore when that fatal day shall come , many causes will act together : there will be a general concussion of the earth , opening new sources of waters ; continued and violent rains , whence , at length , the snows heap'd up on mountains for many ages will be dissolv'd ; whereby the rivers greatly swelling , and forc'd by tempests , will overflow their channels , and by their rapid course , carry all before them , and many times their courses to the sea being damn'd up , they will return back and drown whole countries : mean while the immoderate rains continuing , the winter season encroaching on the summer , and the seas being mightily increas'd by the vast discharges of the overflowing rivers , and being infested with violent tempests , they will find their channel too narrow for them , and overflow the land , forcing the rivers back , in a tempestuous manner towards their sources , and so at length bury the whole earth in waters : unless , happily for a time , some of the mountains may here and there stand as scatter'd islands , but at last there being a general effort in the waters , as at spring-tides , the whole will be overflown . he farther tells us , that as fires and waters bear sway o'er earthly things , their rise and ruine being from and by them , it was the opinion of berosus , that deluges and conflagrations will happen , thro the courses of the planets : and that a conflagration shall happen when all the planets , which now keep different courses , shall meet in cancer , being so plac'd , that it shall pass in a direct line through them all ; and that a deluge shall happen , when the said planets shall so meet in capricorn ; the one making the summer solstice , and the other the winter ; signs of great power , being the points for the changes of the year . and seneca receives these causes also ; one cause being too little for so great a ruin. he adds , whether the world be an animal , or a body , nature governing it , as trees and standing corn : from its beginning there was included in it , whatsoever it ought to act , and to undergo to its end ; as in the seed is comprehended the whole state of the future man ; so that the child , yet unborn , has the law of a beard and grey hairs , the lineaments of the whole body , and of the succeding age being there , in little , and conceal'd . so he says the origine of the world contain'd as well the sun and moon , and courses of the planets , and the rise of animals , as those things with which earthly things are chang'd . in these was an inundation , which happens by the law of the world , no otherwise than summer and winter . and he says all things will help nature for the performance of her constitutions ; but the earth it self will afford it the greatest cause to drown it ; which will be resolv'd into moisture , and flow by a continued consumption , the tainted parts , as in bodies ulcerated , by degrees , bringing the rest to a general colliquation . here we plainly see what the grounds of the stoicks and others were , for admitting deluges and conflagrations . they having observed , that particular bodies on the earth had a beginning and decay , and were again renewed by their seeds , thence by analogy concluded , that the same order must pass , as to the whole world : and again , having consider'd that fires and waters bore the sway o'er earthly things , and that the one prevail'd in the summer , the other in the winter : they thence imagin'd , that besides ordinary summers and winters , whereby the ordinary changes are wrought on the earth , there would happen some great periodical revolutions in the heavens , causing so great a predominancy of fires and waters here below , that they would cause general changes over the whole face of the earth at once . bede , speaking of these changes , says , it was the opinion of all the philosophers , that earthly things received their periods sometimes by a deluge , and sometimes by a conflagration ; because the waters being plac'd under the fountain of heat , it happens , that the moisture encreases by degrees , and overpowers the heat , till being detain'd by no bounds , it diffuses it self over the earth , and drowns it ; which moisture , at length , being dry'd by the heat of the sun , and drought of the earth , the heat encreases in its turn , and over-powers the moisture , till being diffus'd over the earth , it burns it . he adds , there are some that say these things happen through the general elevation and depression of the planets ; for if all the planets are elevated together , being remov'd from the earth more than they ought , they consume less of the moisture ; whence the moisture encreasing , it diffuses it self o'er the earth , and causes a deluge . if but one , two , or three of them are elevated , without the others , the moisture thereby does not abound ; for what increases by their remoteness , is dry'd by the nearness of the others : but if all are depress'd together , they burn the earth , and cause a conflagration , doing too much by their nearness , as by their remoteness they did too little . many others who write of these mundane changes , word themselves much after the same manner : whence we find the antients did not barely rely on tradition for these changes , but had such grounds as they conceiv'd rational for admitting them . now if it shall be said , that the causes they have assign'd , are not competent for such changes ; possibly it may be , because they sought for causes which were not in nature to be found : for those antients , either supposing the deluge of the antient ogyges , to have been general , or having heard that some other deluge had been affirmed so to have been , and finding by marine bodies dug in mountains , that the waters of the sea had been there , they attempted to assign causes for an universal change at one effort ; whereas those causes , upon examination , were found , either to have been assign'd gratis , without any solid ground , or to answer only partial changes . hence aristotle , and the soundest reasoners , well seeing the slight presumptions on which this opinion was grounded , derided the stoicks , epicureans , and others , who maintain'd it . for first , aristotle knew they had no sound records for making out that any such change had happen'd in nature : and , secondly , he having well weighed the rotation of the elements , and what past in particular bodies , found that what flow'd from the later , receded from them , which must cause a decay ; but whatever flowing there were in the elements , it still return'd into them , so that nothing was lost or decay'd , as to the whole , nor so much to any chief part , as to cause a total dissolution . and since no man , that i know of , has hitherto assign'd a cause able to work a general change in the earth at once , i should be inclin'd , according to natural principles , to follow his opinion , a general change being to be ascribed to miracle , for ought i know , till some prophet shall come to help us out . as for what has been said by the sibylls and antient magi among the gentiles , concerning these changes ( i speak not of what has been prophetically deliver'd of them in sacred writ , which i judg refers to a miraculous hand ) we know they were persons chiefly concern'd in the politick government of their times ; and being greatly skill'd in adept philosophy ( as some of our prophets also transcendently were ) they knew how to adapt the great phaenomena of the earth to the microcosm , and moral world , and there is a mystery in what they intimate , as to these changes , which i think not fit here to explain ; but may note , that those who are seen in the promethean arcanum astrologicum , and have heard the seven-reed pipe of pan , know on what grounds the above-mention'd astrological causes for deluges and conflagrations were originally introduc'd , and whither they tend . the antient druids of our nation , who were the most famous for adept philosophy of any men of these parts of the world ( nay , and as pliny says , the persian magi may seem to have had their rise from them ) and who govern'd all here ; in their sacrifices , which they thought most acceptable to their gods , were wont to make a wicker image in the form of a man of a vast proportion ; whose inward cavities they filled with live men , who were commonly murtherers , thieves , robbers , and other criminals , but for want of these , often innocents , and then to set fire to it , and consume them to ashes . now , i think mr. sammes , in his britannia , comes short in his guess , concerning the grounds of this festival solemnity : he conceives the britains and gauls , by this solemn act , in burning these vast images , with men in them , express'd their detestation of the phoenicians ; who , he says , were men of a vast stature , and who for a long time had subdu'd them , and kept them in slavery , from which they were now got free . this interpretation , i say , seems not to me to answer the grandeur of the act ; it being much more probable , that by it , they would present a solemn type of the general conflagration ( it being a point of their doctrine that such a thing was to be ) especially , as it related to mankind , and the moral world : tho as boemus tells us , they were wont also to make such great images of rowls of hay , and therein to inclose beasts as well as men , and to set all on fire in like manner : which , nevertheless , may also refer to mankind ; for that in man there are certain fomites and affects of brutes , which , after they have been a long time habituated in him , man seems to have pass'd into their nature , the pythagorean transmigration , according to the sense of all the learned platonicks , except plotinus , importing no more : which transmigration was a doctrine so antiently taught by the druids , that lipsius says , he knows not whether they learnt it of pythagoras , or he of them . . concerning the learning of the ancients , whether it were in conclusions , and traditional only , as the author has intimated , or from a contemplation of causes , we may consider what plutarch says in the case , which is as follows : all generation proceeding from two causes , the first and most antient divines and poets kept themselves , in a manner , wholly to the first and most excellent cause ; but as for necessary and natural causes , they meddle not with them : whereas , on the contrary , the modern philosophers leaving that excellent and divine principle , ascribe all to bodies and affects of bodies , and i know not what juttings against each other , changes and temperatures : so that both are in a fault ; the latter because they either ignore , or omit to tell us by whom ; the former after what manner , and by what means each thing is effected . again , as to the antient philosophy , we know , that not long before the times of plato and aristotle , and the other philosophers , all the dogmata of philosophy were not deliver'd openly , but after an obscure and aenigmatical manner , under certain veils : which occult way of philosophizing , being learnt by the greeks from the egyptians , they brought it into their country , and continu'd the same for a time ; being unwilling openly to publish , among the vulgar , that admirable learning , which being ill understood by them , might make them fall from religion and uprightness of life ; till at length , in succeeding ages , the whole came to be unravell'd , and men came to open reasoning . hence it may be said , that as our corpuscularians or other philosophers at present , will not own themselves ignorant of the first cause , tho they mention him not in explaining natural effects : so the antients knew well enough particular causes , it being wholly inconsistent with a philosopher to rely barely on tradition , antient fame , or a general cause , as may be imagin'd , tho they thought not fit generally to insist on any but the first cause in their writings , more than what was done in a fabulous and aenigmatical way , according to the stately humour of those most antient times . a prophet indeed may say , lingua mea tanquam calamus scribae ; but for a philosopher , who pretends to know things , not by divine instinct , or traditional say-so's , but by their adaequate causes , it 's nonsense so to do . men of sense , as those antients must be allow'd to have been , have naturally an enquiring and restless genius , which will not permit them to sit still , till they have either found that a point is inscrutable in its nature , or have given themselves some tolerable account from reason of it . and any man that considers how many things in the books of the old testament , or only in the books of job and moses ( the two most antient authentick writings , perhaps , of any extant ) are said , according to a deep knowledge in physiology ; and that moses had his learning from the egyptians , cannot think the antients so ignorant in that kind , as some may otherwise imagin them to have been . indeed , it does not appear that the greeks receiv'd that philosophy which is demonstrated by reasons from the egyptians ; what they chiefly receiv'd from them being chiefly what belongs to ceremonies and the mathematicks , the grand theorem amongst them , which they most valu'd , relating thereunto ; and hence when it 's treated of the mathematicks and mysteries , we find the chaldean and egyptian opinions quoted ; but for reasoning in philosophy , they are not mention'd by aristotle and plato : and nevertheless we may conclude , that from what the egyptians set forth under veils in their aenigmatical way , us'd chiefly by them for the sake of their grand mystery , which never was nor will be made common ; the greeks , by solving it , compos'd their philosophy : the egyptians not caring that any man should be made acquainted in the knowledg of natural causes , who was not initiated in the foresaid mystery , the knowledg of nature being subservient thereunto . and tho it does not fully appear by any thing we have remaining , that the antient chaldeans and egyptians were so well seen in physical things , that they well understood what an universal cause differ'd from particular causes , or what was the office of that and these ; or what might be the sign of a thing whereof it was not the cause ; yet when we consider the great insight they had in the properties of natural things , it may be a rational inducement for us to believe , that they had likewise well consider'd the particular causes whence they flow'd ; and if they did not make them publick , nor the properties themselves ; it was only on that ground mention'd by aristotle to alexander , saying , he is a transgressor of the divine law , who discovers the hidden secrets of nature , and the properties of things : because some men desire , as much as in them lies , to overthrow the divine law by those properties that god has plac'd in animals , plants , and stones : whence to keep the divine law in its full vigour , the antients made it their business , alway to keep the people minding the prime cause , and no others , which , indeed , it concerned them to mind . and it 's observ'd , even to this day , in some countries , that youth piously educated , with a strong sense and zeal of religion ; when they come to pass a course of philosophy , and consider second causes , often remit of that earnest devotion which they us'd before . that saying of the lord bacon , in reference to this , being true , viz. that a narrow and slight inspection into nature , inclines men of weak heads to atheism ; tho a more thorow insight into the causes of things , makes them more evidently see the necessary dependance of things on the great and wise creator of them . chap. ii. and iii. in the second chapter the author gives a general account of noah's flood : proposing also an estimate of what quantity of waters would be necessary for making it ; and endeavours to shew , that the common opinion and explication of that flood is not intelligible . in the third chapter he endeavours to answer any evasions , and to shew that there was no new creation of waters at the deluge : also , that it was not particular and national , but extended throughout the whole earth ; and concludes with a short prelude to the account and explication he intends to give of it . now , as the first chapter was only introductory to the work , so we find these two chapters are only preparatory to his hypothesis , by setting forth the inconsistency of other opinions concerning the deluge : and in regard it does not concern my undertaking , to consider how validly he has refuted the opinions of others , but how firmly he has establish'd his own ; i shall pass by these two chapters , to proceed to the theory he proposes ; tho i may have occasion now and then , in what will ensue , to bring some part of their contents under consideration . chap. iv. and v. the author coming now to establish his hypothesis , undertakes to make out two things ; first , how the earth , from the beginning , rose from a chaos , and in what form it continu'd , till the time of the deluge ; and secondly , how a deluge , at length , happen'd ; his fourth and fifth chapters , which are now to be consider'd , are for making out the composition of his earth , or how it rose at first from a chaos , and what its antediluvian state was : as for the dissolution of it , at the time of the deluge , he treats of that afterwards . in the beginning therefore of his fourth chapter , before he lays down his theory , he thinks fit , in the first place , to remove an opinion concerning the eternity of the world ; which , he says , takes away a chaos , and any beginning to the earth , and consequently the subject of his discourse , whereupon he writes thus . it has been the general opinion and consent of the learned of all nations , that the earth arose from a chaos . this is attested by history both sacred and profane ; only aristotle , whom so great a part of the christian world have made their oracle or idol , both maintain'd the eternity of the earth and the eternity of mankind , that the earth and the world were from everlasting , and in that very form they are in now , with men and women , and all living creatures , trees and fruits , metals and minerals , and whatsoever is of natural production : we say all these things arose , and had their first existence and production not six thousand years ago ; he says , they have subsisted thus for ever , through an infinite series of past generations , and shall continue as long without first or last ; and if so , there was neither chaos , nor any other beginning to the earth , &c. having thus stated this opinion , he urges first the scriptures against it , and then many arguments from natural reason , which would be too tedious here to set down : but however , this point of beginnings being very nice , and variously disputed amongst the ancients , and the foundation on which the author proposes to build his theory , i must say a little of what i have consider'd on it . i find then that aristotle was not the first introducer of this opinion of the worlds eternity , as the author intimates him to have been ; and that those who in their accounts of beginnings describe a chaos , are not thence forc'd to deny the same eternity . aristotle is so far from being the first that held this opinion , that ev'n his master plato , according to the sense of most of his expositors , as crantor , plotinus , porphyrius , jamblicus , proclus , macrobius , censorinus , that excellent christian philosopher boethius , and many others , who generally maintain'd the same , is concluded to have held that the world was always , and always was from god , and flowed from him ; for they say , god always is , but that the world is always a making and flows ; and if it be consider'd as to a beginning of time , the world may be said not to have had any birth ; but if as flowing perpetually from god , it s continually brought forth . nor may the world be said less to depend of god , if it always has depended , and ever shall depend of him , than if at some instant of time it began to depend , and may cease from it : as the light would no less draw its origine from the sun , and depend of it , if it had always flow'd from it , and should always so do , than if it began at some instant of time to slow thence . those therefore , who maintain this opinion , will say that god did not at any time bring forth the matter new , but from eternity , and that likewise with its ornament ; altho it be conceiv'd without its ornament before than with it : for nature wants its order , which it expects from another ; and since each thing is conceiv'd first according to what it is , than according to what it receives ; it may properly be conceiv'd first without order , being void of it in itself . so that when these men talk of a chaos and changes it underwent before it came to be an habitable world , they understand it only as to the natural order of things , according to our way of conceiving . amongst the schoolmen , the thomists , who generally take upon them to defend aristotle , say , it cannot be convinc'd by any natural efficacious reason , that the world was not made from eternity , but in time , because the thing not implying contradiction , it depended meerly on the will of god : and that when aristotle said the world was from eternity , he said it only , as opining , because nothing certain can be had in this matter , but by the sole light of revelation and faith , according to what the apostle says , by faith we understand that the worlds were fram'd by the word of god. tho others say , aristotle affirm'd that god , as being a necessary agent , made the world from eternity . others , that where he endeavours to prove the eternity of the world , he keeps himself within the principles of the science he was treating of , viz. physiology , and thought himself not there accountable for metaphysical birth . however this may be , i think it manifest that the opinion was much more ancient than aristotle . xenophanes , before him asserted the word to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . philolaus likewise , that famous pythagorean , whose books plato is said to have bought for a great price , of his relations , and to have compos'd his timaeus out of them , maintain'd the same . slobaeus recording out of him , that this world was from eternity and will remain to eternity . and again , that the world may truly be call'd , the eternal energy or effect of god , and of successive generation . epicharmus also , a disciple of pythagoras , held it , and o●ellus lucanus , according to philo. neither need i to mention any that have maintain'd it since aristotle ( the author being free to own that he has had followers ) as pliny , dicaearchus , simplicius , averrhoes , salustius , apuleius , taurus , alcinous , and indeed most of the platonicks and peripateticks after christianity : i say , i may pass by these , the opinion being much more ancient than any of those persons i have nam'd , and indeed so ancient , that its hard to retrieve the original : for boemus tells us , collecting i conceive from diodorus ; it was a constant tradition amongst the chaldean priests that the world had never any beginning , nor should ●ever have an end : which tradition possibly , with other corrupt doctrines , might have been deriv'd to them from times before the deluge . and how indeed could they hold any other opinion ? when , as philo tells us , they held the world itself , or the universal soul within it to be god , which they consecrated under the name of fate and necessity ; persuading themselves that there was no other cause of things , but what is seen ; and that both goods and evils were dispenc'd by the courses of the sun , moon , and stars ; conformably to which lucan introduces cato , saying , aestque dei sedes nisi terra , & pontus , & aer , et coelum , & virtus , superos quid quaerimus ultra ? jupiter est quodcunque vides , quocunque moveris . what seat has god , but th' earth , the air , the seas , the heavens , and vertue ? seek no gods but these , it s jove whate'er you see , move where you please . so again psellus , in his exposition of the dogmata of the assyrians and chaldeans , says , that both of them held the world eternal . i may add that the ancient druids held this opinion of the worlds eternity , their philosophy being that of pythagoras and plato , which is concluded to have been generally the same ( i say not in this particular ) with that of moses ; and pythagoras himself is said to have held it by censorinus . natalis comes also tells us , that all the ancient sages were divided into two parties , one of them held the world eternal , the others that it had sometime a beginning ; on the one hand were the most excellent wits of the most famous men , on the other were divine persons , and men divinely instructed . and even the ancient cabalists among the jews , who think themselves the only persons deep seen in scripture-knowledge , and to whom origen seem'd inclin'd , held an eternity of worlds , tho indeed they suppos'd renovations of them from chaos's at certain periods ; concerning which i shall say more in the next book . i have deliver'd this account of the opinions of men concerning the worlds eternity , not but i wholly acquiesce in the opinion commonly receiv'd among christians , of the worlds late beginning , but only to give the point its due latitude , which i judg'd too much limited by the author of the theory . and upon the whole , when we consider what is urg'd on both sides ; as the author has brought arguments of strength , to prove the world's late beginning ; so i conceive there are as weighty reasons to be brought on the other part , and that many will still say with scaliger , solâ religione mihi persuadetur mundum coepisse , & finem incendio habiturum ; and with melancthon , necessaria est diligentia in omnibus doctrinis videre , quae certò adseverari possint , quae non possint , & de quibus rebus humana ratio certam & immobilem doctrinam habeat , de quibus verò arcanis , positis extra conspectum hominum , erudiat nos vox coelestis . neutrum humana ratio invenire per sese potèst , videlicet , fuisse mundum inde , usque ab infinita eternitate , aut conditum esse recens , ante annos . and beneath . brevitas temporum mundi à mose tradita physicis ridicula zidetur . not a man among the gentiles having dreamt of so late a beginning of the world , as moses seems to intimate . and hence the learned father simon judges it probable , that the greek doctors in the septuagint translation , believing that the world was more ancient than appears from the hebrew text , have took the liberty of etching out the time ; especially upon the belief they had , that when the body of the canonick scripture , which we have , was publisht , the people had only given them what was thought necessary for them . so those , who will not allow plato to have held the world eternal , must at least grant , he suppos'd it to have existed for a vast and unaccountable succession of ages . and so we find what simplicius reply'd to grammaticus , who urg'd against him a first generation and a beginning of time according to moses , viz. that moses's relation was but a fabulous tradition , wholly drawn from egyptian fables . aquinas also seems to me to give an home hint to those who from humane reason will pretend to assign a time for the worlds beginning , saying , mundum incepisse est credibile , non autem demonstrabile , aut scibile ; & hoc utile est ut consideretur , ne fortè aliquis quod fieri est , demonstrare praesumens , rationes non necessarias inducat quae praebeant materiam irridendi infidelibus , existimantibus nos propter hujusmodi rationes credere quae fidei sunt . so again , picolomini . quoniam principium originis mundi , longè abest à nobis ; & ejus creatio superat naturae vires , per cujus opera elevantur philosophi ad inventionem causarum , ideo mirum non est , si philosophi , humanâ ducti ratione , facilè in hanc sententiam labuntur , quòd mundus omni ex parte sit aeternus : reverâ enim per naturam , nec principio , nec fine valet esse praeditus . moreover , as to all those learned amongst the gentils , whose opinions concerning the worlds beginning , the author applauds before aristotle's ; it s manifest they were more absurd than him in what they held ; for generally grounding themselves on this principle , ex nihilo nihil fit , they either suppos'd corpuscles from eternity , rowling without order in an immense space ; or that the said bodies lay lurking in a confus'd chaos from eternity . now wherein do these men excel aristotle ? is it , in that they have made a deform'd world from eternity , which came in time to be adorn'd ? is there less absurdity and repugnancy in an infinite multitude of disorderly motions , than of such as succeed in order ? and in the eternity of a deform'd body , than of a beautiful ? certainly it was better aristotle's way ; who not having foreseen any impossibility of eternal motions and bodies , had rather have the face of the world beautiful from eternity , than at some time to have emerg'd from an eternal deformity . again , whereas the author , in his second book , where he treats of the cosmogonia mosaica , will have it , that the creation , according to the six days works , set forth , gen. . is deliver'd only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad capum usumque populi ; and judges that some of the antients have deliver'd the generation of the world more philosophically . i must confess , if any tergiversation were to be allow'd from the text of moses , i should be more enclin'd to think , that either the world being eternal , as the fore-mention'd-philosophers held ; or , at least , that the time of its rise or creation , being indefinite , and wholly inscrutable by man ( as all the gentiles , who held it not eternal , must have suppos'd it , not a man of them , as far as i know , having assign'd or substituted any determinate time for its beginning ) , moses , as a divine legislator , substituted a time for its creation or rise , and the modus of it ( whereas the gentiles substituted only the modus according to their corrupt divinity ) thereby to carry on a doctrine for the good and salvation of man ; and that his chronology , according to the lives of the patriarchs , may possibly be resolvable by arithmantical divinity , according to certain symbolical mysteries contain'd in numbers : or i should more readily follow the opinion of austin , than any of those philosophers ; he holding that god created all things in an instant , without any succession of time ; which opinion might as well have been consider'd by the author , as that of the world's eternity , this equally taking away those gradual changes , which he represents in the chaos ; setting the world immediately in the state it is . and truly it seems much more rational to me , that all things were set in their perfect state at first , whether it be taken as the text of moses literally imports , by a properated maturation ; or instantaneously , after the opinion of austin ; than to suppose an earth gradually qualifi'd ( as those philosophers do ) for the production of plants , and animals , &c. so that their earth , as it rose from a chaos , must have been a long time in a quagmire condition , and not affording a tolerable habitation for an irish bog-trotter ; till the sun , i know not after what revolution of ages , had made it tenantable ; which appears but a meagre and unsatisfactory story , of which i may say more elsewhere . of austin's opinion also were the most rational amongst the jewish doctors , rabbi moses aegyptius , philo judaeus , abraham judaeus , and the schools of hillel , and schammai , as manasseh ben israel writes . procopius gazaeus also , and cajetan held the same . i may add , that hermodorus the platonick , says that linus writ the generation of the world , the courses of the sun and moon , and the generation of fruits and animals ; and that in the first verse of his work , he affirms all things to have rose together . and so much for this point , which some , perhaps , may think more than need to have been . i shall now proceed to state the author's theory , for the composition of his earth , or how it rose from a chaos ; which runs thus : first , he supposes that all those that allow the earth an origine , agree that it rose from a chaos ( tho i have shewn before , that austin , and those that are for instantaneous creation , could not agree to it , farther than to help out our way of conceiving ; because no real successive changes could then have pass'd in the suppos'd chaos , in order to the earth's formation , ) and then he lays down two propositions to be made out by him . the first is , that the form of the antediluvian earth , or of the earth that rose from a chaos , was different from the form of the present earth . the second is , that the face of the earth before the deluge , was smooth , regular , and uniform , without mountains , and without a sea. he proves his first proposition ; first , because , he says , he has shewn in his second chapter , that if the earth had been always of the present form , it would not have been capable of a deluge . secondly , he proves it from a passage in the second epistle of s. peter , chapter the third . thirdly , he proves it from reason , and the contemplation of the chaos , from whence the earth first arose . to the first proof , i answer , that as i have intimated before , it does not concern me here to shew how a deluge was possible , according to the present form of the earth , which may still rely on miracle , till more valid , natural reasons are assign'd for it , than any , perhaps , have hitherto been ; and all i undertake , is , to shew that the deluge could not have happen'd according to the hypothesis laid down by the author , which i conceive i shall make out in its due place . as to his second proof from s. peter , first i have intimated in my advertisement to the reader , prefixt to this book , that a right reverend divine has already given some explanation of the passages of scripture , contain'd in the theory ; and in this regard i shall not intermeddle with them , farther than necessity of argument shall enforce me thereunto . secondly , as to scripture passages , i have this to offer in general , that since the end of the scriptures is of an higher nature , than to instruct us in natural history , and in sciences grounded on second causes , to which god has left them , as useless to the salvation of men ; i think they ought not to be apply'd but in those holy things , of faith , and morals , for which they were dictated : and possibly it was on these accounts , that those of the antients , who are suppos'd to have read the books of moses , did not quote them in their writings . again , since the author is pleas'd to set by the first chapter of genesis , as not philosophically written , ( tho certainly this , if any part of the scriptures is design'd for our instruction , as to the original state of the world , and the beginnings of things ) i know not why he should much insist on any part else , unless it be so self-evident , that it is not liable to various expositions , as those passages he quotes , are by him allow'd to be . neither to me do they seem cogent ; tho i may allow some of them to bear a fair exposition enough his way , as others seem more natural in another sense : but this i observe generally of quotations ; that , farther than they carry a fair stress of reasoning with them ; what by various explications , and comparing of passages , they breed endless cavillations , which rather nauseate , than satisfie a judicious reader . and even that passage of s. peter , so much insisted on by the author , tho it seems to intimate to us some other state of the heavens and earth before the flood , than they have since ; we find the thing is not so clearly hinted , that any man since could thence divine what that state should have been : and i shall shew in the sequel , by arguments drawn from the nature of the thing , that the attempt the author has made for explaining it , has been unsuccessful : and so for his tehom rabba , or the great abysse of moses , which he has also much urg'd ; and for any other passages he has quoted . to come to the author's third proof , which is from reason and the contemplation of the chaos , whence the earth rose : this proof , in effect , is not only for making out , that the earth , as it rose from a chaos , in its first state , was of a different form from the present earth , according to the authors first proposition ; but , withall , is partly for shewing that the face of the first earth was smooth , regular , and uniform , without mountains and a sea , as he has set forth in his second proposition ; wherefore the scope of it being connected with the motions , progress , and separations , which he supposes to have pass'd in the chaos , for forming the first earth , i shall briefly state them both together , as he has represented them . he supposes then the chaos as a fluid masse , or a masse of all sorts of little parts or particles of the matter of which the world was made , mixt together , and floating in confusion , one with another : hence he says , there follows an impossibility that this masse should be of such a form and figure , as the surface of our present earth is : or that any concretion , or consistent state , which this mass could flow into immediately , or first settle in , could be of the said figure . he proves the first of these assertions , because a fluid mass always casts it self into a smooth and spherical surface : he proves the second assertion ; because , when any fluid body comes to settle in a consistent and firm state , that concretion , in its first state of consistence , must be of the same form , that the surface was when it was liquid ; as when water congeals , the surface of the ice is smooth , and level , as the water was before : and hence , when he has consider'd the broken condition of the present earth , both as to its surface and inward parts , he concludes , that the form of it now cannot be the same , with that it had originally ; which must have been smooth , regular , and uniform , according to his second proposition . and to make this clear , he sets forth the motions and progress which he supposes must have pass'd in the chaos , and how it settled it self in the said form , when it became an habitable world. . first therefore , he presents us with a scheme , which represents the chaos , as is before express'd , viz. as a spherical and fluid masse , containing the particles of all the matter of which the world is compos'd , mixt together , and floating in confusion in it . . the first change which he conceives must happen in this masse , must be , that the heaviest and grossest parts would subside towards the middle of it , and there harden by degrees , and constitute the interior parts of the earth ; while the rest of the masse , swimming above , would be also divided by the same principles of gravity , into two orders of bodies , the one like water , the other volatile like air ; and that the watery part would settle in a masse together under the air , upon the body of the earth , composing not only a water , strictly so call'd , but the whole masse of liquors , or liquid bodies , belonging to the earth , and these separations in the body of the chaos are represented to us in a second scheme . . the liquid masse , he says , incircling the earth being not the mere element of water , but a collection of all liquors belonging to the earth ; some of them must be fat , oily , and light ; others lean and more earthy , like common water . now these two kinds mixt together , and left to themselves , and the general action of nature , separate one from another , when they come to settle ( which these must be concluded to have done ) the more oily and thin parts of the masse getting above the other , and swimming there , as he represents in a third figure . . next , he considers , that the masses of the air and waters were both , at first , very muddy and impure , so that they must both have their sediments ; and there being abundance of little terrestrial particles in the air , after the grossest were sunk down ; these lesser also , and lighter remaining , would sink too , tho more slowly , and in a longer time ; so as in their descent , they would meet with that oily liquor on the watery masse , which would entangle and stop them from passing farther , whence mixing there with the unctious substance , they compos'd a certain slime , or fat , soft and light earth , spread on the face of the waters , as he shews in a fourth figure . . he says that when the air was fully purg'd of its little earthy particles ; upon their general descent , they became wholly incorporate with the oily liquor , making both one substance , which was the first concretion , or firm , and consistent substance , which rose upon the face of the chaos ; and fit to be made , and really constituted an habitable earth ; which he sets before us in a fifth figure , and which i have also subjoyn'd ; where a is the first sediment of the chaos ; b the orb of water , or the orb of the abysse ; c the orb which made the first habitable earth . . having thus represented the rise of the earth from the chaos , he adds , that whereas the antients generally resemble the earth to an egg , he thinks the analogy holds as to those inward envolvings represented in the figure of the earth , and that the outward figure of the first earth was likewise oval , it being a little extended toward the poles , which he represents to us in a sixth figure , and which i also here insert ; where , as the two inmost regions a b represent the yolk , and the membrane that lies next above it ; so the exterior region of the earth ( d ) is as the shell of the egg , and the abysse c under it , as the white that lies under the shell . this is the author's theory of the earth , in reference to the composition of it , as it settled from the chaos , in its first state ; which he says he has all along set forth according to the laws of gravity : and this must now be consider'd by me . first then , if i should allow that the first earth was form'd from a chaos , according to those separations the author has represented , it would no way answer his chief end , for which he gave it this construction , viz. the capacity of causing a deluge , as i shall make appear in my considerations on the next chapter . but tho i might be free to allow it , as for any deluge to be thence caus'd ; yet in other respects , i must not do it , because i take upon me to maintain , that the world , from its first existence , had mountains , a sea , and the like , as it has now . and both in reference to the author's argument from reason , viz. that all fluid bodies , and any first concretion on them , must keep to a sperical figure ; whence he concludes , the earth , on its first concretion from the chaos , to have taken it ; and so as to the separations he supposes to have pass'd in the chaos , i have many things to say . not to stand therefore with the author for allowing a chaos , and that it was a fluid masse , and of a circular figure ( tho i know no reason why a man should admit a postulatum , which if the authority of moses may be set by , as the author does , i see no ground for , unless it be to serve a turn , for trying whether a natural explication may be given of a deluge , which i judg miraculous ) and to reason with those , who seem to have held gradual successive changes to have pass'd in the chaos , in order to the forming of the world ; the main error , as i conceive , on which the author has grounded his whole theory for the composition of his earth , as it rose from a chaos , is , that he has here consider'd the chaos , not as a strongly fermented masse , which it must necessarily have been from the infinite variety of seminal principles of a contrary nature therein contained ( as all antiquity has represented it ) and from this fundamental error has concluded , that in the separations and settlements of the chaos , all things pass'd according to the common laws of gravity , observ'd in the subsiding of unfermented bodies ; no respect being had to those effects , which must necessarily have been produc'd by the said ferments . can any man cast his eye on the contrariety of natures which appears betwixt superiors and inferiors , and what we find in the animal , vegitable , and mineral kingdoms , which every where occur to us , and not presently thence conclude from the consideration of a chaos , where all these are suppos'd to have been confusedly mixt , that the same contrariety must have been there , and that turbulent and violent commotions were thence rais'd in it ? to go no further than ovid , who has represented the nature of a chaos , as well as any of the antients : where he speaks of it , he says , — congestáque eodem non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum . — and mingled there the jarring seeds of ill-joyn'd beings were . and beneath , — quia corpore in uno frigida pugnabant calidis , humentia siccis mollia cum duris , sine pondere habentia pondus . — ' cause in one masse the cold things fought with hot , the moist with dry , the soft with hard , the light with contrary . indeed as he affirms , the world to have risen from the chaos , he immediately subjoyns , hane deus , & melior litem natura diremit . god and prevailing good broke off this strife . but how far this jarring discord was taken away , according to what we may reason from second causes , and what effects must have been produc'd by them upon the framing of a world , must be consider'd by us . it must not then be thought , that when the chaos came to be separated in order to the framing of a world , all the homogenious bodies , or pure elements , were rang'd by themselves ; a pure element being a pure chimaera , no such thing in nature . indeed if such a separation had been made ; whereas there was a mutiny before in the chaos , this would have establish'd a peace , but such a peace , that no habitable world , nor any animal , vegitable , or mineral productions could then have been . the elements then , upon the separation of the chaos , must have been mixt and blended together , according to such proportions as to be able to produce such effects , as the prime author design'd them for ; therefore when we consider his design was a world should be produc'd , qualifi'd for the production , support , and propagation of those varieties of species we find in nature , and withal reflect what the quantities and qualities of those elements were , and are , which chiefly concern us in this discourse , viz. the earth and waters , we shall soon find how this habitable earth and the sea thence arose . all the water which the author does account for in nature ( as i shall have occasion to set forth in the sequel ) does not amount to enough to make an orb of water , to cover the earth , as it lies in an even convexity with the sea , a quarter of a mile deep ; and what is this to the vast body of the other element the earth ? not comparably so much as a sheet of the thinnest paper laid on a globe of three foot diameter , adds in thickness to that globe . indeed , notwithstanding this disproportion , if the earth , when it first settled from the chaos , had been an homogenious body , without any principle of motion in it , arising from ferments , through the contrariety of natures therein contein'd , the waters must have cover'd it , as moses seems to intimate it did ; gen. . but when those ferments , quickned by the ordinary concourse of the first cause ( not to insist here on a miraculous fiat ) came to exert their force , can we think that less effects could be wrought , than the production of mountains , and a sea channel , such inconsiderable nothings to the body which produces them ? the greatest mountains on the earth being no more in proportion to the earth , than the slightest dust on a globe of three foot diameter , is in proportion to that globe ; as the ingenious french author of a late book entituled , de l'origine des fountaines , has well made appear ; where he has likewise shewn , that the little protuberances on an orange , which are usually compar'd to the mountains of the earth , are each of them a thousand times greater in proportion to that fruit , than any mountain on the earth is in proportion to that globe . we find that many very small vegetable seeds contain a protrusive principle in them , able to raise bodies by degrees , containing many tuns weight , and can we doubt but the primigenial earth , fermented with the seeds of all things in it , had a force able to produce the effects mention'd ? and tho the author seems to smile at those , who have held that mountains have been cast up as mole-hills , or produc'd as wens on the body of man ; i know not whether it may be so easie to shew a disparity , and why the one is not as possible , and as probable as the other ; for if the vastness of the body will afford it , and there be a proportional mover , neither of which , i think , any man has reason to question in the earth , i know not why the earth may not be judg'd better able to produce the one , than the mole , or man's body the others . i well know , that all antiquity ( i mean it of those who held the world had a gradual beginning from a chaos ) abets this theory , as i have stated it ; and the feign'd story of the gyant typhoëus ( if it contains any natural deduction ) relates here : typhoëus being that enormontick spirit ( if i may so call it ) or that protrusive impetus , still reigning in the chaos , through ferments , winds and inflamations , and causing the present unevenesses in the earth , and the retiring of the waters into a sea-channel , till at length all things being set in their apt state ; jupiter , or a meet temperies of the world , compos'd these turbulent commotions , and put a stop to their exorbitant efforts . and this seems to me a more apt explication of the original formation of the world , than that the author would introduce . i may farther here note , that tho i think the original formation of the world may be accounted for this way ; yet i am of opinion there is no mountain on the earth now , that is an original mountain , or that existed when the world first rose , and conclude with aristotle , that the sea and land have chang'd places , and continue so to do ; and i think it not possible for any man fairly to solve the phaenomenon of marine bodies , found in mountains , by any other principle ; especially by a deluge caus'd as the author has propos'd . but it being not my business here to set for t a theory of the earth , but only to shew the inconsistency of the author's hypothesis , i shall not enlarge at present in making out these things ; but refer them to a particular tract , i design to publish with what convenient speed i may ; the demonstrations whereof will refer to certain cuts , taken from a collection of fossil's , i have by me ; where i hope to satisfie the author in some tolerable way concerning the rise of mountains , islands , &c. and to solve all the objections he has made against their rise any other way , but what he has propos'd . chap. vi. we are now come to the main drift of the author 's undertaking , viz. how the deluge was caus'd : and in this chapter he proposes to shew , that it happen'd upon the dissolution of the first earth , and that the form of the present earth , then rose from the ruins of the first . first then , he here presents us with a figure of the earth all smooth on the convex part ( as he conceivs it must necessarily have been as it rose from a chaos ) the great abysse suppos'd to be spread under it . and next he supposes , that at a time appointed by providence , this great abysse was open'd ; or that the frame of the earth broke , and it fell down into it : and this , he says , would first cause an universal deluge , by the great commotion and agitation of the abysse , on the violent fall of the earth into it : then after the agitation of the abysse was asswag'd , and the waters , by degrees , were retir'd into their channels , and the dry land appear'd , we should see the true image of the present earth in the ruins of the first . the surface of the globe , he says , would be thence divided into sea and land ; the land would consist of plains , valleys , mountains , with caverns containing subterraneous waters , &c. the sea would have islands in it , and banks , and shelfy rocks on its shoar , &c. and these things , in the following parts of his work , he examins piece-meal : but first here he considers the general deluge , and how aptly this supposition represents it . supposing therefore it will be easily allow'd , that such a dissolution of the earth would make an universal deluge , he enquires in what order , and from what causes the frame of this exterior earth was dissolv'd . the great cause he assigns for producing this great effect , is , the continued heat of the sun , which he supposes in the antidiluvian world , to have always mov'd in the equinox , there being then no colds nor rains , nor change of seasons ; so that what by its ▪ parching heat , sucking out the moisture of the earth , which was the cement of its parts ; and so drying it immoderately , and causing it to cleave in sundry places ; and what by rarifying the waters under the earth into vapours , which would thence force a way for their dilatation and eruption , he concludes the dissolution followed . he exemplifies his doctrine first , by an aeolipile , or an hollow sphere with water in it ; which , if the mouth of it be stopt , which gives the vent , the water when rarified by the heat of the fire , will burst the vessel with its force . secondly in an egg , which being heated before the fire , the moisture and air within being rarified , will burst the shell : and he is the more free to instance this comparison , because he says , when the ancients speak of the doctrine of the mundane egg ; they say that after a certain period of time , it was broken . thirdly , in earthquakes , which generally he says arise from the like causes , and often end in a like effect : viz. a partial deluge , or innundation of the place or country , where they happen , which may naturally lead us to conceive that a general one has so come to pass . lastly , he says the main difficulty propos'd , was , to find waters sufficient to make an universal deluge , and that after sometime it should so return into its channels , that the earth should become again habitable : for according to the common opinion , he says , it was impossible , that such a quantity of waters should be any where found or be brought upon the earth ; and then if it were brought , that it should be again removed : whereas this explication performs the same effect , with a far less quantity of water ; which is easie to be found , and easily remov'd when the work is done ; for he says , when the earth broke and fell into the abyss , a good part of it was cover'd by the meer depth of it : and those parts of it that were higher than the abyss was deep , and consequently would stand above it in a calm water , were reacht and overtopt by the waves , during the agitation and violent commotions of the abyss ; and to represent this commotion to us , he supposes a stone of ten thousand weight , taken up into the air a mile or two , and then let fall into the middle of the ocean ; and believes that the dashing of the water upon that impression , would rise as high as a mountain . but if a mighty rock , or heap of rocks , a great island , or a continent fall from that height , the dashing must rise even to the highest clouds ; and he thinks it is not to be wondred that the great tumult of the waters , and the extremity of the deluge lasted for some months : because , besides that the first shock and commotion of the abyss was extremely violent , here were ever and anon some secondary ruins , which made new commotions lasting the time suppos'd , till the waters by degrees were retreated ; the greatest part of them constituting our present ocean , and the rest filling the lower cavities of the earth . and from things thus explain'd , he concludes , that this third and last proposition is made out , viz. that the disruption of the abyss or dissolution of the primeval earth , and its fall into the abyss , was the cause of the universal deluge , and of the destruction of the old world. i have been the more particular in stating this part of the theory , because the main point under debate is here contain'd ; which i must now examine . the causes assign'd by the author for such a dissolution of the earth as is mention'd , do not seem to me so competent as would be expected for such a work. the sun doubtless , supposing ( as the author does ) that in the antedilunian world , it always kept in the aequinox , there being no rains , cold , nor changes of seasons ; would heat , dry and cleave the earth in some parts , especially in the torrid zone considerably : but withal it must be consider'd how far the action of the sun could penetrate for producing the effect propos'd : it s known that if a wall be heated red hot on one side , it still continues cold on the other : it s also a known experiment , that a good thermometer , plac'd in a subterraneous grotto of an ordinary depth , scarce varies perceivably in the hottest day of summer and the coldest day of winter : how then shall the sun penetrate three miles and three quarters deep into the earth ( for so deep the author seems to suppose his orb of earth to have been , as i shall by and by shew ) and heat an abyss of waters lying under it , so as to rarifie it into vapours , qui queat hic subter tam crasso corpore terram percoquere , humorem & calido sociare vapori ? praesertim cùm vix possit per septa domorum insinnare suum radiis ardentibus aestum . and indeed , heat being not essentially in the sun , but an effect of the light by whose beams its imparted to us ; where light is excluded , heat also must of course . the grotto , where no operation of the suns heat is found , has an open passage into it , for the suns operation , if it could there exert it ; whereas the author supposes the antediluvian earth to have been one continued substance without so much as a cavern in it . again , we must consider of what nature the torrid zone must have been : and the author , in his second book , concludes it a sandy desart : if so , sand is not inclinable to cleave , but soon fills up any cleft made in it ; as i believe may be observ'd in all the sandy desarts now extant : and if rocks are suppos'd under the sands ; certainly horizondal beds of rocks , as all must have then have been , are not liable to the suns penetration , at least by any perceivable heat : and indeed let the nature of it be what it might , it comes much to the same thing , and every man who has us'd himself underground knows how little the sun has to do with its heat there . now tho the continued equinox heat , then suppos'd , may seem to aggravate the matter , there must have been , at least , a vicissitude of days and nights , and those still of equal length , so that the earth would be always cool'd in the night , as well as heated in the day . moreover , tho the author supposes his antediluvian rivers to terminate as they came to the parts , on each side the torrid zone , being partly exhal'd by the sun , and partly absorpt in the sands ; yet their waters must necessarily have pass'd in the sands under ground , through the parts of the torrid zone , which would soon fill up any clefts there made by the sun. i say the waters must have pass'd so , because his antediluvian earth must have been porous , to percolate waters to all parts , otherwise its impossible the inhabitants in the temperate zones should have been supply'd with waters to serve their necessary uses , by wells ; for no man can indulge fancy so far as to think the antediluvian rivers could have been so thick , and near enough each other , to afford a convenient supply for the inhabitants of all the parts of the habitable earth . men think it now very burthensom to fetch water a mile or two , as in some places they are forc'd to do by their situation remote from waters , and i hope it will not be said that the rivers were then within a mile , or two , or ten , or hundreds sometimes of each other . as to the comparisons brought in by the author of the aeolipile , and the egg , which are broken , when the moisture within them is rarified , and turn'd into vapours by the heat of the fire . i answer , that when it shall appear to us , that the sun could cause an heat in the waters of the abyss , proportional to what the others have when broken , we may consider more of it ; mean while , such an effect is so far from falling within my conception , that i look upon it in nature impossible . and as to the doctrine of the ancients concerning the mundane egg 's breaking , i shall consider it in the second book ; tho i may so far take notice of it here , that whereas the author here intimates as tho the ancients by mentioning the mundane egg 's breaking , referr'd to a deluge , its being caus'd that way ; the contrary is manifest to us ; for we know it was a general opinion amongst the ancients , that the world had been renewed by many deluges and conflagrations , whereas if one deluge had been caus'd by such a disruption of the earth , any second , or third deluge had been impossible . but , what is most urg'd , is , that the generality of earthquakes arise from like causes , and often end in a like effect ; viz. a partial deluge or inundation of the place or country where they happen . to this i answer , that tho some philosophers assign the causes of earthquakes after this manner , viz. that the strugling of vapours rais'd and rarify'd by the sun , in the earth , sometimes cause a disruption , the earth thereupon subsiding into caverns , whence waters flow forth , &c. yet it would be hard to expect that men should generally so far acquiesce in this cause , as to allow it a fair ground to build an hypothesis of this weighl upon : when as a great , if not the greatest , part of philosophers , assign other causes for earthquakes , and those , perhaps , more probable . some will have earthquakes to be caus'd only by certain conjunctions of the planets , some by the motion of comets near the earth , others by subterraneous fires or ferments ; which truly produce heats and vapors within the earth ; the sun having nothing to do in it , more than by a remote and general causality ; others will have them produc'd by the motion of subterraneous waters , others again by certain moulderings or founderings in certain caverns of the earth , and other causes are assign'd for them . lastly , when the author comes to the main difficulty , ( as he calls it ) viz. the finding of waters sufficient to make an universal deluge , which after some time should so return into its channels , that the earth should become again habitable ; both which , he says , are as easily effected , according to his explication ( set down before by me ) as they are impossible any other way : i confess , i greatly admire at this his assertion , and the explanation he gives for those effects . the first thing we should have expected from the author in reference to this point , is , that he should have signified to us , of what depth he supposes his abysse to have been , and what thickness he allows to his orb of earth ; for unless we will reason by rote , it must be upon a due consideration of these things , that we must conclude of what effects could follow , upon the suppos'd disruption , in reference to a deluge , and the forming of the present earth ( as he will have it ) thence : and indeed , if any person proposes a theory , or an hypothesis , and the propositions he advances to build his doctrine upon , be not either self-evident , or demonstrated by him ; the first thing he ought to do , is to lay down his postulata , that a man may clearly see how he adjusts his reasonings upon them . but to talk of a body to be drown'd , and not to give us the dimensions of the body , and of the water to effect it , seems to me to have neither top nor bottom in it ; and no more than to say , such a thing must be done , but god almighty knows how . we find the author has been diligent enough , in shewing what quantities of waters would be required to make a deluge , where he writes against the opinions of others : and it seems but justice , that he should have been as careful in setting down what quantities would be requisit , according to his own : he saw there was no proper way to refute their opinion , but by a particular examination of what quantities of waters would be requisite to make a deluge , according as they fancy'd it ; and then to shew , that if such a quantity of waters were once brought on the earth , it would be impossible for the earth to get rid of them again , so as to make an habitable world : and if he would help us to conceive how a deluge should happen , and the present phoenomena of the earth be solv'd consequentially to it , i see not why he should be backward to assign us some possible proportions of his orbs of earth and waters in order to it ; unless ( which i cannot think ) he had rather involve men in erroneous thoughts , by offering only unlimited generals , and make them fancy a possibility where there is none . it 's the business of philosophy to possess us with clear and explicit notions of things ; and not to imbroil us in such as are confus'd and obscure . i may allow what the author says in his answer to mr. warren , that when the nature of a thing admits a latitude , the original quantity is left to be determin'd by the effects ; and the hypothesis stands good , if neither any thing antecedent , nor any present phoenomena can be alledg'd against it : but i cannot see that the nature of this thing admits of a latitude , so that the present phoenomena of the earth may not be alledg'd against it : and i believe , if cartes had suppos'd a deluge to have been caus'd ( as the author does ) on the disruption of his earth ( whereas he supposes only the rise of mountains , a sea , and the like by it , the conceptions of which may admit of a latitude in some more tolerable way ) but all men would have justly expected he should have assign'd proportions to his orbs ; and i am so far from thinking that any latitude assignable to proportions of such orbs can be here admitted , that i am of opinion , when any man shall assign any proportion whatsoever to an abysse orb for causing a deluge ( as the author proposes ) i shall always be ready to shew him , either his abysse orb to be so shallow , that the hypothesis cannot swim in it , or so deep , that it must drown in it . now tho the author has not assign'd particular proportions to his orbs , as it might have been wisht , yet he has offer'd some suggestions , by which we may guess what he would be at concerning them . what therefore i have gather'd from him , in disperst notions , in his work , in reference to those proportions , is as follows . first , he tells us in his first book , p. . and p. . and again , p. . that all the waters , which were contained in the great abysse , are now contained in the sea channel , and the caverns of the earth . secondly , in this same book , p. . he computes the sea to cover half the globe of the earth , and that taking one part of the sea with another , it makes a quarter of a mile depth throughout . thirdly , in this same book , p. . he says , that if the earth should disgorge all the waters it has in its bowels , it would not amount to above half an ocean . from these three assertions we find , that the great abysse , which he supposes for causing a deluge , must have contain'd only an orb of waters , not a quarter of a mile depth , as it was couch'd on the face of the first ediment of the chaos ; which is suppos'd by him to be of a ponderous compact substance , and not containing waters within it . and so much for the proportion of his abysse . as to the thickness he allows to his orb of earth , i gather it from him as follows . first , in his second book , p. . he says , that the whole primaeval earth , in which the seat of paradise was , was really seated much higher than the present earth , and may be reasonably suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of our mountains are now . secondly , he has suppos'd in this first book , p. . that some of the mediterranean mountains , taken with the general acclivity of the earth , from the level of the sea , make two miles in height above the said level : or , at least he does not there except against this computation , as he has occasion to mention it ( tho for his satisfaction , i shall state also other proportions to his earth beneath , to see what will follow upon it ) , and i believe all learned men will allow this proportion . to this i must add , that tho he has not nam'd what depth he allows to the sea , i must conclude that he allows it two miles deep , as learned men generally judg it to be ; where he supposes his abysse to end ; part of the first sediment of the chaos , receiving the waters of the sea upon it . and thus we find from the top of the highest mountains , to the bottom of the suppos'd abysse , in the deepest parts of the sea , we have four miles ( as we may say ) in view ; or , at least , agreed to by our author , and all learned men , and that whereas he allows near a quarter of a mile to the depth of his abysse ( as i have shewn before ) so his orb of earth must have been at least three miles and three quarters in thickness . all these things being thus establish'd , let us now consider how a deluge could be hence made , according to the description of moses . if i should but present a scheme here , according to those proportions , allowing a quarter of a mile to the abysse orb , and three miles and three quarters to the orb of earth ; i believe any man , at first looking on it ( as to any deluge to be thence caus'd ) must cry out , impossibility ! the abysse orb being but the twelfth part of the other , without counting what must additionally accrue to the orb of earth from its much larger circumference , as being the upper orb. the author ascribes the cause of the deluge to the violence of the commotion of the abysse , upon the fall of the earth into it ; and to represent to us what this commotion must be , he supposes a stone of a vast weight , carried up a mile or two in the air , and let fall ; and tells us to what a vast height waters must then be conceiv'd to fly . but i cannot allow this instance to be fairly brought in : if a painter be to draw a ceiling-piece in a room of an high roof , we may allow him to draw the picture ( of a man there , suppose ) much bigger than the natural , that it might deceive our eye , to its advantage , when viewing it at that distance , it takes it in a proportion to the life . but to suppose a rock , an island , or a continent ( as he says ) two miles high , in the air , and to conceive how high waters would be thrown , upon their fall into the sea ; why shall this be done , to deceive our reason ? when the antediluvian earth is suppos'd before , not to have been suspended in the air , but couch'd close on the face of the abysse , as is represented by him in his scheme of the disruption of the earth , fig. i. p. . it being quite a different thing for a body , couch'd on the face of waters , to subside in them , and for it to fall into them from an height . again , when part of the orb of earth subsided into the abysse , there was no room for the waters of the abysse to diverge ; whereas when any weight is thrown into a river , or the open sea , the waters may fly off every way . and , indeed , i think it manifest enough , that upon the subsiding of any part , of such an orb of earth , in a manner all the waters , that could rise thereupon , upon , must have been contain'd either in the chasms , or hollow places of its broken parts ; and that never any could come to make a deluge on the higher parts of the earth . besides , it 's absolutely contrary to moses's narration , to make a deluge by such flights of water in the air ; moses telling us how the waters rose and fell gradually , and that they exceeded the highest mountains fifteen cubits ; the author's explication of it being so forc'd and unnatural , that , perhaps , in so plain a text , it was not fit to be put upon so great a prophet . but to put the matter beyond dispute , supposing the proportions before laid down , to the orbs of the abysse , and the earth ; we find a mile and three quarters of the orb of earth missing ; for if the sea be allow'd but two miles in depth , as learned men generally judg it to be ; and that the abysse there ends on the first sediment of the chaos ( as the author supposes ) we have then in nature but as much earth as will make an orb of two miles in thickness , as i shall shew beneath : and what then is become of the other mile and three quarters earth ? the next thing we have to consider , is this notwithstanding all the suppositions of the author , before set down ; when we come to view the schemes he has given in his book ; we find that contrary to his said suppositions , in all of them , he has represented his abysse-orb , thicker than his orb of earth , so that counting the more large extent of the orb of earth , as being the upper orb , and the thickness of the abysse orb , which lies under it , we may judg them to be of equal contents in their dimensions , as you may see in the scheme before given you . and i believe , a reader , who should peruse his book cursorily , not finding the proportions of his two orbs clearly stated ; and perhaps , not minding the suppositions , before set down ; which the author was forct , by the necessity of the argument ; to make on several occasions ; when he came to view this scheme of his or the others ; would have concluded that the author really suppos'd his two orbs of the proportions he here represents ; as indeed it is but a blind put upon our eye , as well as our reason , if he did not . now , tho i must declare , i cannot comprehend how this can stand with the author's suppositions ( as i conceive they are ) before set down , i am content to suppose , as all his schemes seem to import ; that the orbs of the earth , and of the abysse , were , in their contents of equal dimensions ; and we shall examin what thereupon could follow , in order to a deluge . i suppose then , that the antediluvian earth contain'd an orb of two miles deep , or as much as would make two miles deep if it were coucht on the bottom of the abysse , as it then was on the surface of it : and that the orb of the abysse , contain'd two miles in depth likewise ; for i suppose here , with the author , as before , that the two orbs together made four miles in height . this being suppos'd ; when the earth broke , and made a deluge , i ask what became of the two miles water ? the author tells us that the sea contains a quarter of a mile depth in water , over half the globe of the earth : and says , that if the earth should disgorge all the waters it has besides in its bowels , it would not make half an ocean : and he tells us again and again , that all the waters of the abysse are contain'd in the sea , and in the caverns of the earth : what then is become of the other mile and three quaters water ? having thus demonstratively refuted ( as i conceive ) the author's whole hypothesis , both according to the proportions he seems to have given to his orbs , in his schemes ; or to have otherwise intimated them to have been in his work ; i shall urge the matter a little farther , and plainly shew it impossible , either for the author , or any man else to assign any proportions whatsoever to such orbs ; that a deluge , and the form of the present earth should be thence caus'd ; supposing only ( as the learned generally do ) that the sea is two miles deep in its deepest part ; where the author will have his abysse to end , on the first sediment of the chaos . for then , i say ; first , i conceive , men will generally agree with what the author has before laid down , viz. that there is in nature but water enough to make an orb of a quarter of a mile depth , on the first sediment of the chaos . and secondly , as to the proportion , which must be allow'd to the orb of earth , it 's manifest to us , that since it 's two miles from the level of the sea to the deepest part of it , and since it 's all earth , in all parts of the globe to that depth , except what the waters in the sea , and in the caverns of the earth do amount to ; which is but enough to make an orb but of a quarter of a mile depth , round the earth ; a good part of which orb will also be countervail'd by that part of the earth , which is above the level of the sea ; it must follow , that no proportion can be assign'd to an orb of earth , but about two miles in depth . now , we find , according to these proportions ; which are the only proportions assignable to the two orbs ; that the abysse-orb is but a ninth part of the other ; a proportion no way answering such an effect , as a deluge , and the forming of the present earth , which could not possibly thence ensue . thus i have been forc't to apply arguments several ways , and to make a large discourse on a point ; which , if the hypothesis had been clearly stated , i might have answered in a few lines . and now i think , no more need be said , the whole contents of the book falling of course ; only as the author has said in some part of his work , that he conceives what he has advanc'd may , at least , serve to open the inventions of some other men ; so , possibly , some part of what i shall deliver in the sequel , may conduce to the same end . if the author does suppose , that at the time of the disruption of his orb of earth , there was an orb of air , or vapours betwixt it , and his abysse-orb ; rais'd there by the constant action of the sun on the abysse in the later ages of the antediluvian world , as in some places of his works he seems to intimate : i think he ought to have represented such an air-orb , in his scheme of the disruption of his orb of earth , p. . which he has not done : and therefore my preceding arguments have not related to any such air-orb . but if he pleases to be plain in the matter , and fairly tells us ( if he supposes any such air-orb ) how thick he supposes it , and what thickness he allows to his other orbs ; i do here assure him i shall always be ready , either to shew him the impossibility of a deluge its being caus'd that way , so that the earth should be afterwards habitable ; or freely to own that he has represented the possibility of a thing to me , which upon long thinking hitherto , i cannot conceive so to have been . chap. vii . and viii . in the seventh chapter the author endeavours to make out by argument , and from history , and particularly by some passages in the scriptures , that the explication he has given of an universal deluge , is not an idea only : but an account of what really came to pass in this earth , and the true explication of noah's flood . and in the th chapter , he endeavours particularly to explain noah's flood , in the material parts and circumstances of it , according to his preceding theory : and concludes this chapter with a discourse , how far the deluge may be look'd upon as an effect of an ordinary providence , and how far of an extraordinary . i think it plain enough , by what i have set forth in the foregoing chapter , that nothing contain'd in these chapters , can be of any force ; wherefore i shall pass them by ; only taking notice of what the author says concerning an ordinary or extraordinary providence in reference to the deluge ; for performing which , he will not have the waters to have been created , or otherwise miraculously brought on the earth : but allows , as there was an extraordinary providence in the formation , or composition of the first earth , so there was also in the dissolution of it : and thinks it had been impossible for the ark to have subsisted on the raging abyss , for the preservation of noah and his family , without a miraculous hand of providence to take care of them . and concludes , that writing a theory of the deluge , as he does ; he is to exhibit a series of causes , whereby it may be made intelligible , or to shew the proxim natural causes of it . now as for any natural causes to be found for the deluge , the learned johannes picus , falling foul with astrologers , says thus : astrologers ascribe noah's flood , as well as all other miracles , mention'd in the scriptures , to their constellations ; in which thing doubtless they are madder than those , who deny any such things to have been ; because they believe them , as they are related , and nevertheless effected by natural causes ; when no greater madness can be imagin'd , than to think that any thing is done by natures power , above nature it self ; this being demonstrably so ; because nothing is more repugnant to nature , than that it should attempt its own destruction : wherefore it would never bring that injury on its self , that it could not free it self from by its power . and if it could not be according to the course of nature , that the waters exceeding the mountains tops fifteen cubits , noah with his cargo in the ark should be free from shipwrack twelve months ; so it was not natures purpose to drown the whole earth with an inundation of waters , to the destruction of all living creatures . he adds also particularly against astrologers ( who will have the stars to be signs , at least , if not the causes of such effects ) as follows . the course of natural things is so limited by god , according to the order he has establisht ; and so disjoyn'd from those things which are preternaturally done , by the divine power and will ; that if all these were taken away , there would be nothing wanting nor nothing abounding in nature . wherefore as by the order establisht by god , natural things are signified by natural signs , and miraculous things by antecedent miracles ; so noah , being divinely inspir'd , and to be preserv'd by the divine power , signified to the world that an universal deluge was to come by a miracle of the divine justice , and he exemplifies the usual proceedings of providence in other instances of the same kind . and indeed , we have reason to think , that if there had been any natural causes for the deluge , some of the learned persons then in being , at least upon noah's warning , would have perceiv'd some growing dispositions in the heavens and earth toward such an effect , and not have suffer'd themselves to have been all surpriz'd when it came , as the scriptures represent to us they were . again , since the ten plagues of egypt were miraculous ; which were to teach only one obdurate king that there was a god , who commanded all things : certainly when that god pleas'd to execute his vengeance on a world consummate in sin ; he would do it in an extraordinary and supernatural manner ; that posterity should have no tergiversation , but be forc'd to own that divine controling power , being certified of this act , surpassing all natural causes whatsoever . and whereas the author says , that he writing a theory of the deluge , is to shew the proxim natural causes of it : it will be answered , that when an effect is thus miraculously wrought , by an arbitrary determination of the most remote cause , we must not look after proxim causes in nature for it ; effects being only accountable from any second or proxim natural causes , when things are left to gods ordinary concourse . not but god often uses second causes in working miracles , but then he raises that natural power , otherwise belonging to them to an height far transcending nature ; so that the common laws of motion and gravity , by which the author pretends to establish his hypothesis , have no place here . i may add , that it 's the general opinion of divines , that nothing of those things which god has made by himself , and without the concurrence of any other cause , will ever have an end , or total dissolution ( as the author intimates this dissolution of the earth to be ) for want of principles in them sufficient for their eternal support ; tho god , by his meer will may put an end to them , or dissolve them as he pleases ; and therefore as the earth and other elements were made by god in the beginning ; so according to their natures they will remain for ever without any destruction or dissolution , as to the whole , tho they may undergo some partial changes . and in reference to this , the learned vallesius , on that passage of esdras , considera ergo & tu , quoniam minori staturâ estis , prae his , qui ante vos , & qui post vos minori quam vos , quasi jam senescentes creaturae , & fortitudinem juventutis praetereuntes . says , but neither is that fourth book of esdras receiv'd by divines , nor could that opinion ever down with me : for the world has ages according to divine ordinations , and the account of times which god has with himself , but not according to nature ; since neither its rise was from nature , nor will its destruction so happen . indeed , it may be that this or that little part of the earth , drain'd by long culture and sowing may decay , but not the whole earth ; neither does any little part of it ever so decay , as things which really grow old ; so that it can never after resume its strength , and , as it were , wax young again ; but all things pass away and return in a certain circle , according to all and each of their parts , according to all , by vicissitudes , some being decay'd , others render'd more fertile ; according to each , each of them being alternately decay'd and restor'd . and indeed , the learned dr. hakewill , in his apology , has so well clear'd the point against a general decay in the world , that i think it past time of day now to have it brought in question : so that such a dissolution in the earth , tending to its general decay , as the author intimates , may not be admitted . i shall conclude this chapter by observing , that besides the miraculous providence , which the author allows in the saving of the ark , his hypothesis forces him to introduce two or three miracles more ; as i shall shew in the second book : whence we shall find , that what he has endeavour'd to save in one great miracle , he has been forc't to make out in little ones . chap. ix . now the author comes to prove his theory from the effects , and present form of the earth ; and in this ninth chapter , after having observ'd that the most considerable and remarkable things , that occur in the fabrick of this present earth , are ; first , subterraneous cavities , and subterraneous waters : secondly , the channel of the great ocean : thirdly , mountains and rocks . he proceeds to give an account of these according to his hypothesis : beginning with subterraneous cavities and waters : saying that those cavities were made , upon the general dissolution of the earth , according as the broken fragments variously fell into hollow and broken postures : and that the subterraneous waters are parts of the abysse , the pillars and foundations of the present earth standing immerst in it . now , i have shewn before , that such an orb of earth , and dissolution of it on the face of the abysse , for causing noah's deluge ( as the author has suppos'd ) was impossible , and consequently his explanation here of subterraneous cavities and waters cannot hold . i might add some things here for shewing the necessity of subterraneous caverns in the antediluvian earth , which the author denies to have been : but because in the following chapters , i shall shew the necessity of a sea and mountains , in those times ; the uses of which may be more conspicuous ; i shall pass by the cavities at present . chap. x. here the author treats concerning the sea-channel , and the original of it , the causes of its irregular form and unequal depths : as also of the original of islands , their situation and properties . he exaggerates much in the description of the sea-chanel ; where amongst other things he says thus , p. . when i present this great gulph to my imagination , emptied of all its waters , naked , and gaping at the sun , stretching its jaws from one end of the earth to another , it appears to me the most ghastly thing in nature . and again , p. . if we should suppose the ocean dry , and if we look't down from the top of some high cloud , upon the empty shell ; how horridly and barbarously would it look ? and with what amazement should we see it under us , like an open hell , or a wide bottomless pit : so deep and hollow and vast ; so broken and confus'd , so every way deform'd and monstrous , &c. to this i must say , as far as i can conceive of the sea-channel , if it were empty , and had a sword upon it , and trees , as the land has ; i can fancy no other prospect could be there , than what the earth now affords us : we have mountains now that appear as high to us , as perhaps any would , if we then stood in any part of the sea-channel ; and so for any other suppos'd unevennesses . indeed to look upon many places of it naked , without a sword on them , might not seem so well ; so draw off the skin from the most beautious creature on the earth , and see how it will look : as for other ghastliness , i fancy none ; for when all is said , it is but a veil spread over half the earth , allow'd to afford a quarter of a mile depth to the sea , taking one place with another thorowout , and not being above two miles deep at the deepest part ; and what is this in a philosophical consideration , when compar'd with the vast body it lies upon ? it 's a place fit to receive such a poor lake as the sea , otherwise not worth naming , being not comparably so much to the body of the earth , as the thickness of a leaf of the thinnest paper , drawn from one half part of a globe of three feet diameter , takes from the bulk of that globe . next the author tells us , there are three things particularly to be consider'd concerning the sea-channel , viz. it s general irregularity , the vast hollowness of its cavity , and the declivity of its sides , which lie shelving , tho with some unevenness , from top to bottom . and these he thinks may be aptly explain'd according to his hypothesis , by the fall of the earth , and are not explainable any other way ; and he gives us two figures , for representing the fall of the earth to effect these things : the like he says for the rise of original islands ; which he counter-distinguishes from such as are factitious ; these being made either by the aggestion of sands , or the sea 's leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high , or by a divulsion from some continent , or a protrusion from the bottom of the sea. and he gives us also one figure to represent the rise of those original islands , according to his said hypothesis . to this i answer , that the causes he has given for these phaenomena relating to the sea channel , are well assign'd consequentially to his hypothesis : but , as i have already shewn a failure in his hypothesis , those causes cannot be true , neither shall i be more particular on them . but as the author has excluded a sea from his antediluvian earth . i shall set down a few reasons , to shew the necessity of a sea from the beginning of the world. first then , we find a necessity of admitting a sea , from the beginning , for the support of sea-animals and vegetables ; which we cannot judg but to have been from the beginning : for , supposing that the authority of moses , who tells us of a sea , and great whales , &c. from the beginning should be evaded : i would ask whether all sea-animals and vegetables were created de novo after the deluge , or whether they were kept in the antediluvian rivers , or in the abysse ? first to say they were then created de novo , or that their seeds had been preserv'd in the antediluvian world , till they exerted their powers at the deluge , it would no way be admitted : for this were in effect to exclude , in a manner , half the creation , in reference to plants and animals from the antediluvian earth ; the sea being the most fertile of all the parts of the world , the generative faculty being no where so luxuriant , as there . secondly , they could not live in the suppos'd antediluvian rivers , which in all probability must have been all fresh , and without any saltness in them , as i shall shew in the next chapter : and again , when we consider the various genius's of fishes , we find it inconsistent for them to have liv'd in those rivers : for , as philo says , all marine animals receive not their being in all places ; some love a moorish and shallow sea , some ditches and ports , neither passing up into the land , nor swimming far from the sea shoar ; some living in the deep seas , shun islands , rocks , and promontories , running out into the sea ; and others are delighted in calm and quiet seas , others in tempestuous , so that being exercis'd with continual tossings , and striving against the surges , they become stronger and fatter , &c. now how all these dispositions and a multitude of others could be answer'd in the antediluvian rivers , or the abysse , i see not . the like may be said of all birds living always on the sea coasts , and feeding on sea animals ; and the like of vegetables , which grow no where , but in , or by the sea. thirdly , as to the abysse , certainly the birds could not be preserv'd there ; if it be said that the fishes or sea-plants could , i desire one instance in natural history , where any animal or vegetable , has been found living twenty fathoms deep in the earth , where there has not been a communication to the day : i well know there are some fishes ( i cannot say vegetables ) living in some subterraneous rivers and lakes , which have such a communication , a i speak of , but none otherwise . to conclude , the author , in his answer to mr. warren , finding himself urg'd , against the living of fishes in the abysse , through its closeness ; instances that a child can live many months , shut up in the mothers belly , where , he says , there is closeness and darkness in the highest degree ; and thinks it likely that the fishes were less active and agile in the abysse than they are now ; and that their life was more sluggish then , and their motions more slow , as being still in the womb of nature , that was broke up at the deluge ; and that they had air enough for their imperfect way of breathing in that state ; and that possibly they might have some passages in their bodies open'd , at the disruption of the abysse , when they were born into the free air , which were not open'd before , &c. to this i reply , that it 's one thing what a man is forc't to say consequentially to an hypothesis , which he proposes to introduce ; and another , what reason dictates to him , upon free thought : and i believe , if the author's hypothesis would permit him to be open and candid , he must own that such an abysse could be no probable , nor possible habitation for fishes . as for the instance of the child in the mothers belly ; where the author says there is closeness and darkness in the highest degree ; we know it to be otherwise ; the mother being a living and breathing animal , and having a body freely perspirable ; the envelopings also with which the infant is encompast , being very thin ; nor can the child subsist if the mother dies . now what analogy with this has an orb of dead earth a mile or two thick , with which the abysse is suppos'd to be invested , where the fishes are said to live ? again , how unnatural is it for the author to make the fishes , in the antediluvian paradisiacal times , to be in an embrionate imperfect state ; so that the whale could not sport himself , by spouting up waters , nor the nautili sayl before the wind , nor any fishes divert themselves , according to their genius , and what they enjoy in this pitiful degenerate world : so that at a time , when all things on the earth are suppos'd to have flourisht in a degree far transcending the present ; the poor fishes ( which least deserv'd it ) lay under a double curse ; being wholly pent up in a dark dungeon , impervious to the light and air , as great blessings , as the world affords ; and having no food , but by preying on each other ; whereas now , besides vegetables , growing in the seas , they have good supplies by what the rivers bring them , besides other good contingencies from the shoars . i must confess that i know nothing forct and unnatural in an hypothesis , if this be not so . next , we must consider the necessity of a sea in reference to its use , as to the earth ; and to pass by its use for navigation , which is generally suppos'd not to have been practis'd in the antediluvian times ; we find that the antients unanimously plac'd the sea all along the torrid zone ; many of them saying that the body of the sun , and other planets and stars were refresht and nourisht by the moisture thence drawn : but however we may look upon this opinion , we must still say with the poet , sed rapidus titan ponto sua lumina pascens . and that one of the chiefest actions of the sun's rayes on this inferior globe , is , to raise waters from the seas , to be pass'd thence by the winds on all the parts of the earth , to qualifie the air , for the promotion , refreshment , and support of vegetable and animal productions : and hence as plutarch says , homer , in the battle , opposes neptune to apollo ; and hence juno is said to have been born and brought up in the island samos , and to have been educated by oceanus and tethys , or by the oceanine nymphs ; the air being chiefly fed by the sea-waters rarify'd . and indeed it seems much more natural to me , that the great magazine of waters , for supplying all the parts of the earth , should , in good measure , be plac't on that part of it , where the strongest action of the sun is ; than to make it near the poles , where its rays have little or no effect ; or in places remote from the said part . it 's true , the author may say , the waters are brought round again , from the poles to the parts near the torrid zone , by the rivers ; and that the rivers terminating there , these parts were all plashy and moorish ; whence the sun might as well raise waters to supply the earth , as from the sea. but still i say it 's unnatural not to place waters where the strongest action of the sun is ; and again , i cannot think those other waters would serve the turn , they being all fresh , whereby ( notwithstanding their flowing ) a general corruption must have follow'd in them , as also in regard they were not refresht by rains , and frequent , fountains passing into them , at certain distances , as now : neither do i conceive they could have aptly maintain'd a vegetation and propagation of species in plants and animals . and i make no doubt , but if the uses of the sea were duly inspected and stated , its waters , as now qualifi'd with an highly fermented brackishness , would be found of as necessary use in carrying on the oeconomy of the macrocosm ; as the bilous , pancreatick , splenetick , and other juyces are for performing the like office in the body of man ; or indeed , as the learned palaeopolitanus says , to take the sea from the earth , were the same as to drein an animal of his heart blood. to this we may add , that if the concurrent vote of all the men of sense of antiquity signifies any thing , they are unanimous in the assertion of a sea from the beginning ; so as a commentator on aristotle has truly observ'd , that all those who have held the world eternal , held the sea so too ; and all those that held the world to have had a beginning , held the sea to have existed together with it . and we know that neptune was always held an antediluvian god ; and so we know the famous division of the world betwixt the three brothers : jupiter commanding the air , neptune the sea , and dis or pluto the inward regions of the earth . and indeed , we find the ancients so fond of a sea , that scarce any of them describe a terrestrial paradise , but mention the sea with it . chap. xi . this chapter treats concerning the mountains of the earth , their greatness and irregular form ; their situation , causes and origine . first then , the author here gives us an eloge on mountains , expressing himself thus : the greatest objects of nature are , methinks , the most pleasing to behold ; and next to the great concave of the heav'ns , and those boundless regions where the stars inhabit , there is nothing that i look upon with more pleasure than the wide sea , and the mountains of the earth . there is something august and stately in the air of these things , that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions . we do naturally upon such occasions , think of god and his greatness , and whatsoever has but the shadow and appearance of infinite , as all things have , that are too big for our comprehension , they fill and overbear the mind with their excess , and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration . but at last he concludes , that these mountains , so specious as they seem , are nought but great ruins ; and then expatiates much in setting forth their greatness , irregular form and situation , and lastly , assigns their causes and origine . now , as to the causes and origine of mountains , and the accidents belonging to them ; since i have already shewn that the account which the author has rendred of them , upon the breaking of the earth at the deluge , is erroneous ; i shall not here say more to them : especially having intimated already in the fifth chapter , how i conceive mountains , a sea , &c. may be accounted for more rationally another way ; but shall offer some things concerning the necessity , and use of mountains from the beginning of the world , as i have already shewn the necessity of a sea. when a man considers the fair encomium the author has made on mountains , tho at last , concluding them to be but a ruin , and excluding them his antediluvian earth ; he would be apt to say , it 's pity that earth suppos'd far to exceed the present , should be without such noble ruins , and ev'n paradise it self : and indeed as the ancients ( according to what i have intimated before ) scarce ever describ'd a paradise without mentioning a sea , so they seldom did it without naming mountains . i know not how all mankind may stand affected ; but i know a great part will agree with me , that a level country can never be so pleasant , as a country diversified in site and ornament , with mountains , valleys , chases , plains , woods , cataractical falls , and serpentine courses of rivers , with a prospect of the sea , &c. what is a dull level to this ? where the sight is terminated at the next hedge ; and if you raise towers to overlook it , it can never equal , or come near the charming variety of the other . nor does the authors instance , in his answer to mr. warren , c. . seem to me to clear the point , where he says , we are pleas'd with the looking upon the ruins of a roman amphitheater , or a triumphal arch , tho time has defac'd its beauty . for the question will still lie , whether a roman amphitheater , or triumphal arch , in its glory , were not more beautiful and pleasing to behold , than the ruins of them : and i shall still be of opinion , that the present earth , on the accounts before exprest , has a more delightful and charming prospect , than its antediluvian state , as by the author represented , could have afforded , but let us consider the use of mountains . we find the ancients call'd the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our mother earth ; for as plato says , the earth does not imitate a woman , but a woman the earth : and they compar'd the mountains on the earth , to the breasts of a woman : and indeed if the thing be duly consider'd , we shall find that the mountains are no less ornamental , and of necessary use to the earth , for affording continual streams of fresh waters to suckle all her productions ; than the protuberant breasts of a woman are , both for beautifying her person , and yielding sweet streams of milk for the nourishment of her children . hence also they call'd nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , multimamma , and ador'd it by that name , under the figure of an hermaphrodite ; this hermaphroditical figure of nature was to denote its double power ; because the ancients , and among others of them , orpheus , trismegistus and soranus said , nature was both male and female , and hence with the greeks it 's said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and orpheus stil'd nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , deum naturam ; and the ancient latins us'd naturus as well as natura , they gave it therefore an hermaphroditical figure , but still with many breasts , the types of mountains . secondly , the very learned joannes reuchlin tells us , that the whole ornament of nature , is from the admirable variety of things found in it . and d. hakewill tells us , he ever conceiv'd that variety and disparity in that variety , serving for ornament , use and delight , might thereby serve to set forth the wisdom , power and goodness of the creator , no less than his greatest and most glorious works . we shall therefore consider of what use mountains are for promoting that variety : of which we are sufficiently put in mind by the learned d. brown , in his judicious account of his travels , p. . where he says thus : tho austria be more northern than stiria , or carinthia , the heats are there much greater ; for there may be as much difference , as to the temperature of air , and as to heat and cold , in one mile , as in ten degrees of latititude ; and he that would cool and refresh himself in the summer , had better go up to the top of the next hill , than remove into a far more northern country . and beneath . in the hot country of arabia travellers complain much of the cold they suffer in passing the hills . the mountains of italy and spain are cover'd with snow and ice all the summer , so is mount atlas ; when in great britain there is no such thing . hence it 's easie to find of what importance the elevations of mountains are for diversifying effects on the earth : for it 's manifest that the sun , that father of generation , joining with the central or seminal mover in the earth ; does not only diversifie effects here , by his gradual approaches , according to the rectitude of his rayes , on either side the aequator : but does it rather in a greater measure , according to the various reflexions of his rayes , through the various sites and elevations of the earth ; whence the atmosphere must be greatly varied in deep valleys , on the tops of mountains , and in their various acctivities , according as they regard several faces of the heavens , earth , and seas . and since in respect of elevations ( as i have quoted from dr. brown ) there may be as much difference , as to the temperature of the air , in one mile of height , as in ten degrees of latitude ; i wonder the antediluvian earth is suppos'd without this advantage : the beauty of nature consisting in diversify'd effects , and it being evident , that nothing can diversifie so much , as such varieties of elevations . is it that the suppos'd richness of the antediluvian soil could have supply'd all this ? we answer , that such a rich and fertile soil is no way proper for many of nature's productions , which delight rather in such soils as are generally most barren . the learned poet knew this when he said , nec verò terrae serre omnes omnia possunt , fluminibus salices , crassisque paludibus alni nascuntur , steriles saxosis montibus orni , littora myrthetis laetissima , denique apertos bacchus amat colles , aquilonem & frigora taxi , &c. all soils produce not all things here below , willows delight in rivers , alders grow in muddy marshes , and the wild ash stands on rocky mountains , myrtles on the sands , beside the sea , the vine loves open hills , the yew , the cold north-wind , and winter chills . we know that many herbs , set in a fat and moist soil , lose their nature and vertue ; because they love drought . and hippocrates tells us , that mountain plants are of a more smart and vehement operation than others : and here a learned botanist has a large field to expatiate , in setting forth the variety of plants , according to the various sites and elevations of the earth . the like may be said of animals ; how many species of them are there , which seem to be made for mountains , and mountains for them ? of which a man might say , as virgil does of his goats , pascuntur verò sylvas , & summa lycaei , horrentes rubos , & amantes ardua dumos . goats , and such other animals delighting in such course food , which unless eaten by them , would fall to nothing . and as dr. hakewill tells us , it 's observ'd that the inhabitants of mountains , by reason of the clearness of the air , the dryness of the soil , and a more temperate dyet thereby occasion'd , are , for the most part , stronger of limb , healthier of body , quicker of sense , longer of life , stouter of courage , and of wit sharper than the inhabitants of the valley : and mountains seem appointed by providence to guard the lower countries from the violence of blasting and fierce winds , to bridle the fury of the enrag'd sea , to mark out the bounds and borders of nations , to stop the sudden invasions of enemies , and to preserve hay , corn , cattel , houses , and men from the danger of land floods , which overflow the plains by the rising of rivers . and hence , as alexander ab alexandro acquaints us , many of the antients paid a veneration to mountains , extended on the sea-coast , as to a deity , the sea being thereby kept from over-flowing the land. again , the author having excluded mountains from his antediluvian earth , he excludes metals and minerals of course ; for no mountains , no mines nor minerals : and it will be hard to give an instance in natural history , of any mines in level countries , unless some fragments of metalline ores are carry'd thither by a torrent from some adjacent mountain . for metalline-ores lie not in horizontal beds , as they are all in level countries ; but in beds either standing perpendicular to , or some degree rais'd above , the horizon ; the reasons of which i may set forth in some other tract . the author speaking of these mineral productions , in the sixth chapter of his second book , says thus , as for subterraneous things , metals and minerals , i believe the antediluvians had none , and the happier they ; no gold , nor silver , nor courser mettals ; the use of these is either imaginary , or in such works , as by the constitution of their world , they had little occasion for : and minerals are either for medicine , which they had no need of farther than herbs , or for materials to certain arts , which were not then in use , or were supply'd by other ways . these subterraneous things , metals , and metalick minerals are factitious , not original bodies , coaeval with the earth , but are made in process of time , after long operations and concoctions by the action of the sun within the bowels of the earth . and if the stamina or principles of them rose from the lower regions that lye under the abysse , as i am apt to think they do , it does not seem probable , that they could be drawn through such a masse of waters , or that the heat of the sun could on a sudden , penetrate so deep , and be able to loosen , and raise them into the exterior earth . i have intimated before , that the author , upon his exclusion of mountains , was forc't to exclude minerals from his antediluvian earth ; tho it be with this hard circumstance , that there is a plain text of the scriptures against him , gen. . where tubalcain is said to have wrought in brass and iron , long before the flood , which seems to me unanswerable . so again , gen. . it 's said that the river pison encompass'd the land of havilah , where there was gold. and if we give credit to the book of henoch , quoted by tertullian l. de idololat . tubalcain wrought also in the other metals , as gold , silver , &c. of which afterwards idols were made . moreover the author allowing the hebrew chronology , that supposes but years from the flood to abraham : now as ralegh says , in abraham's time aegypt had many magnificent cities , and so had palestine , and all the bordering countries ; yea all that part of the world besides as far as india ; and those not built with sticks , but with hewn stones , and defended with walls and rampires ; and how all these cities should be built with hewn stones without iron , is not so easily imaginable : and to say that the invention of it was after the flood , and all these things done with it in so short a time , will not pass easily with me , whatever it may with others . and that gold and silver were plenty in the time of abraham , it 's evident , gen. . where abraham is said to have been very rich in gold and silver ; and again , ch. . abimelech says to sarah , behold , i have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver : and ch. . abraham says to ephron , i will give thee money for thy field : ephron answers , the field is worth four hundred sheckles of silver : which when abraham had heard , he weighed to him the sum he had nam'd , in current money . again , it 's recorded in history , that the first man that stamp't money in italy , was janus ; whom berosus will have to be the patriarch noah : which opinion also the author abets , both in his theory , and in his answer to mr. warren . i could add many other instances relating hereunto , but i think these sufficient . now , it 's true the author , in his answer to mr. warren , chap. , as to the passage of tubalcain , replies , that he does not believe iron or brass to be once mention'd in all his theory : neither do i observe that they are there particularly nam'd ; but , i believe , if any man please to read that paragraph of the authors , before set down , and duly weighs it , he will soon find ( the whole context of it consider'd ) what it naturally imports ; and that there is a difference betwixt an evasion , and a satisfactory answer . however i think it reason , that every man should be allow'd to be his own expositor . and if the author does take upon him to maintain , that brass and iron were before the flood , but no other metals ; i conceive what i have urg'd for the others coexistence with them , carries some weight ; and if this will not be allow'd : i would ask what should hinder the generation of the other metals , if those were then generated : for the main difficulty still returns , no mountains , no mines ; and i would gladly see an instance or two , in natural history ( if there are any ) where metals are generated without mountains ; and have some colourable reasons assign'd , why , if any of the metals were generated before the flood , others should not ; since it 's generally observ'd , that in the same tracts of lands , where one sort of metal is generated , several others accompany it . the author in the later part of the said paragraph , intimates himself of cartes's opinion , viz. that the stamina , or principles of metals rose from the lower regions , that lye under the abysse ; and thinks it probable , that they could not be drawn through such a masse of waters : now , tho this be a good argument against him , ad hominem , to shew that he excludes all metals before the flood ; yet i shall not insist upon it ; because i could never acquiesce in cartes's hypothesis ; and were he still living , i should be free to shew him the ground of my dislike . cartes consequentially to his hypothesis , supposes metals to be altogether generated at the feet of mountains ; whereas , by experience , we find them as often , if not oftner , in plains and valleys on the tops of mountains ; and those of a very considerable height , as in the sides and at the feet of them . but this is no place to refute cartes's hypothesis . to conclude , whoever goes about to exclude metals from the antediluvian earth , i believe that the passage of tubatcain will never admit of a fair solution ; for if any passages , in the scriptures , are so self-evident , that they will not bear various interpretations , i look upon that to be one ; and it not seeming to contain mystery , which may require to be allegorically resolv'd : and again , as for the nature of the thing , i believe no man will be able thence to draw any argument to convince us of their non-existence before the flood : nor have we reason to admit of any precarious hypothesis tending thereunto . moreover , when the author excludes minerals from his antediluvian earth , we should know how far the word extends ; for among other minerals , salt is one ; and indeed the sea and mountains being excluded , which are the two magazines for salt , i know not how the world could have been well supply'd : it 's true , men being generally suppos'd then to have eaten no flesh , it would be the less wanted : but whatever they eat , salt is still a good seasoner ; besides the uses it has in the world for maintaining vegetation , and other ways , especially in marine plants ; which cannot be supported by the ordinary saltness , drawn from the earth . whereas the author says that metals and metalick minerals are factitious , not original bodies , coaeval with the earth , &c. i cannot allow this to be so , at least as to their non-existence before the flood ; for if he supposes those rocks , which are found on mountains , with metalline ores betwixt them , to have been primaeval , and to have fallen at the deluge , those ores must have been so too ; for it 's evident to him that views rocks containing ores betwixt them , that the rocks and ores were form'd together , as i may demonstrate in some other work. and the author allows the rocks in mountains to have been antediluvian , and to have fallen at the flood ; being free to own , that the great naked rocks he saw in the alpes , were some of the chief motives , which prompted him to this hypothesis . chap. xii . in this chapter the author gives a review of what has been already treated ; he sets forth the several faces and schemes , under which the earth would appear to a stranger that should view it ; first at a distance , and then more closely : he examines and endeavours to refute all methods offer'd by others for the explanation of the earth's form : and lastly adds a conjecture concerning the other planets , their natural form and state compared with ours . there being little new in this chapter , i have the less to consider in it ; neither will it concern me here to mind whether others have duly explain'd the form of the earth , or not . i shall therefore only take notice of one passage here , because it relates to what i have elsewhere urg'd , where the author argues against some divines ; who say that god almighty made the mountains and sea-channel immediately when he made the world ; which point he states as follows . let us consider the earth in that transient in complete form , which it had when the abysse encompass'd the whole body of it : we both agree that the earth was once in this state ; and they say it came immediately out of this state into its present form ; there being made by a supernatural power , a great channel or ditch in one part of it , which drew off the waters from the rest , and the soil which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this ditch , made the mountains : against this he urges as follows . if the mountains were taken out of the channel of the sea , then they are equal to it , and would fill it up , if they were thrown in again : but these proportions , upon examination will not agree : for tho the mountains of the earth are very great , yet they do not equal by much the great ocean : the ocean extends to half the surface of the earth ; and if you suppose the greatest depth of the ocean to answer the height of the greatest mountains , and the middle depth to the middle sort of mountains , the mountains ought to cover all the dry land , to make them answer to all the capacity of the ocean : whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable computation , to cover but the tenth part of the dry land ; and consequently , neither they nor the sea-channel could have been produc'd in this manner , because of their great disproportion to one another : and the same thing appears if we compare the mountains with the abysse , which cover'd the earth before this channel was made ; for this channel being made great enough to contain all the abysse , the mountains taken out of it , must also be equal to all the abysse ; but the aggregate of the mountains will not answer this by many degrees ; for suppose the abysse was but half as deep as the ocean , to make this calculus answer , all the dry land ought to be cover'd with mountains , and with mountains as high as the ocean is deep , or doubly high to the depth of the abysse , because they are but upon one half of the globe . now , whatever may be said of that opinion of the divines ; which i do not take upon me here to maintain : the reasoning which the author here urges against them is no way conclusive , but contrary to his own assertions and suppositions ; if he will be just to the divines in allowing the whole acclivity of the earth , with the mountains to have been then taken out of the sea channel , and plac'd where they are . for then , i say , he has suppos'd that the sea covers half the globe of the earth , and allows it , as i conceive , two miles deep in the deepest part ( as it is esteem'd in the computation of the most judicious ) and that there is a general declivity from all shoars to the bottom of the sea , in all its parts , tho that declivity be not every where even , but sometimes interrupted , and the depth of the bottom of it be various . so again , he has suppos'd in the second chapter , that the whole earth being , as it were a mountain above the sea ; there is a general acclivity in it , from the sea-shores to its mediterranean mountains , and that this general acclivity makes a mile in height to the foot of the said mountains , and that some of those mountains are raised a mile or more from the foot of them to their summit : which makes an height proportional to the deepest parts of the sea. hence , i say , according to the authors own suppositions ; if all the rise of the earth above the level of the sea , taking both the general acclivity of it with the mountains were par'd off , and turn'd upside down into the sea-channel , they must of necessity fill it : the highest mountains answering to the deepest parts of the sea , and the general acclivity of the earth with the other mountains , to the general declivity , and other deeper parts of it . or it may be represented briefly thus : the author supposes the sea to cover half the globe , and that taking one part with another of it , it makes a quarter of a mile depth throughout : now i believe the author and all men will agree , that if all the mountains , taken with the general acclivity of the earth , were cast into a level , they would make an area over the other half part of the globe , a quarter of a mile in height above the level of the sea ; and consequently according to his own hypothesis , it must be able to fill the channel of the sea , if empty . for a conclusion to this book the author considers the other planets , which he conceives to be of the same fabrick , and to have undergone the like fate and forms with our earth . particularly as to venus , he says , 't is a remarkable passage that st. austin has preserv'd out of varro , which is as follows : that about the time of the great deluge , there was a wonderful alteration or catastrophe happen'd to the planet venus , and that she chang'd her colour , form , figure and magnitude . this the author says is a great presumption , that she suffer'd her dissolution about the same time that our earth did . now , first , the author seems not to have quoted austin's passage right , saying that the planet venus chang'd her colour , form , figure and magnitude ; austin's words being , ut mutaret colorem , magnitudinem , figuram & cursum . secondly , this passage , i conceive has been answer'd aptly enough long since by ralegh , tho no great philosopher ; where he says , it is not improbable that the flood of ogyges , being so great as histories have reported it , was accompany'd with much alteration of the air , sensibly discover'd in those parts , and some unusual face of the skies . varro , in his book de gente populi romani ( as cited by st. austin ) reports out of castor , that so great a miracle happen'd in the star of venus , as never was seen before , nor in after times : for the colour , the greatness , the figure , and the course of it , were chang'd : this fell out as adrastus cyzicenus , and dion neapolites , famous mathematicians , affirm'd , in the time of ogyges . now , concerning the course of that , or any other planet , i do not remember that i have any where read of so good astrologers flourishing among the greeks , or elsewhere in those days , as were likely to make any calculation of the revolutions of the planets so exact , that it should need no reformation . of the colour and magnitude i see no reason why the difference found in the star of venus , should be held miraculous ; considering that lesser mists and fogs , than those which cover'd greece with so long darkness , do familiarly present our senses with as great alterations in the sun and moon . that the figure should vary , questionless was very strange ; yet i cannot hold it any prodigy ; for it stands well with good reason , that the side of venus which the sun beholds , being enlightn'd by him , the opposite half should remain shadowed ; whereby that planet would unto our eyes , descrying only that part whereon the light falls , appear to be horn'd , as the moon seems , if distance ( as in other things ) did not hinder the apprehension of our senses . a worthy astrologer , now living , who by the help of perspectives has found in the stars many things unknown to the ancients , affirms so much to have been discover'd in venus , by his late observations ; whether some watery disposition of the air might present as much to them that liv'd with ogyges , as galilaeus has seen with his instrument , i cannot tell : sure i am that the discovery of a truth formerly unknown , rather convinces men of ignorance than nature of errour . so far ralegh . neither shall i add more here concerning the other planets , being willing first to see whether we can establish any thing certain concerning this planet we inhabit ; concerning which we have much more hopes to arrive at some solid knowledge , than of bodies so remote from us ; and i little pleasing my self in opining concerning things undeterminable by man. i shall conclude this book by considering one thing , which the author greatly insists on in several parts of it : viz. that the first order of things is regular and simple ; and that the deformity of this present earth , as it appears all broken , and its incommodiousness shew , that the present state of it was not original , nor dispos'd according to the laws and order of gravity ; and he intimates , that in the primigenious mass , the earth must have held the lower place , and the other elements their proper seats , according to the said order , and as he represents in his hypothesis . now , the true doctrine ( as i conceive ) of the site and figure of the earth , and other elements runs thus . altho the earth be a terminated body , and seems to have a certain figure ; yet the elements have no proper and natural figure , as aristotle has truly said ; because if they had a natural form they would be corrupted if they lost it . but beside this reason of aristotle , there is another : viz. that to each similar body any figure agrees , it having none proper to it ; nor does this hold only in the four elements , but in all similar bodies ; and it therefore agrees to the elements , because they are similar ; and the reason why similar bodies have no proper figure , is , because a figure was not necessary to them ; a figure being constituted by nature for actions ; as an arm has such a figure , because by the benefit of that figure the arm exercises its actions : and by this figure the arm is an arm , and such a figure being lost , it is no longer an arm : so in artificial things , an hatchet is therefore an hatchet , because it has such a figure , which being lost , the hatchet is no longer an hatchet , but only iron and matter ; because the action of the hatchet flows from the figure , which is to cut . a figure is therefore necessary in compounded things , but not in similar ; because the use of similars is not any operation , but only this , that they be the matter of others . now tho the elements have not a proper figure , yet of necessity their place must be circular , and of a spherical figure , as aristotle says , by reason of the extreme evenness of all their parts ; so that an element , being all ev'n , it has not whereby angles should be made . and this must be understood of pure elements , or such as continue fluid : but our earth , of which mountains are made , is not pure elementary earth , or a simple body , but is a certain compound and aggregate of many bodies : and when a man considers the infinite variety of soils and fossils , of which it consists , and their differing degrees of gravity , he cannot imagine that an even surface could be thence made , ev'n in that respect , without considering any protrusive force of an inward mover . and whatsoever even rotundity the earth were to have , according to its natural constitution ; since it agrees most to the advantage of things , that certain parts of the earth should be high rais'd , others lying lower ; it was fit they should have such a site , that so through the differing complexion of divers parts of the earth , the diversities of minerals , plants and animals might arise . and since things were first instituted by god , not only for having a being in themselves , but that they might be the principles of others , therefore they were produc'd in a perfect state , in which they might be the principles of others : and therefore , as philo says , the world was created in its perfection , and not left crude , and all plants in their first rise were laden with their fruits , otherwise than now ; for now all things are generated in their seasons , and not all together . so macrobius says , if we grant particular things to have had a beginning , nature first form'd all animals perfect , and then gave them a perpetual law , that they should continue a sucession by propagation . and so plutarch says , it s probable that the first generation was entire , and accomplisht from the earth by the vertue and perfection of the maker , without having need of those instruments and vessels , which nature has since invented and made in females , which bear and ingender , by reason of its impotence and imbecility . if we consider animals , in which nature is much more polite than in forming this compost of the earth ; we see how little the common laws of gravity and even'ness in figure are observ'd in them . what mountain seems so enormous in the body of the earth , as the bunch on a camels back in that quadrupede , or the bill of a bill bird , in that bird , or the head of a rana piscatrioc in that fish ? if it be said that these are organical bodies , and that those parts are form'd so for certain uses : i think it as easie to shew analagous uses in the various site and parts of the earth . and so , as to gravity in animals , why is the upper jaw plac'd above the lower ? or , why in man are the heart , liver and spleen plac'd above the pancreas , reins and bladder ? is it that they are lighter ? and why is the soul it self in the body ? the globe of the earth therefore , as well as the particular bodies in it , have been set in order by an understanding principle , and have every where a rational distribution of parts for their proper uses : for otherwise , as plutarch says , if each thing were left to itself , all would return into a chaodical confusion . and i think gassendus , as he reflects on d. flud , has aptly enough exprest himself to his friend mersennus , in reference to those , who take upon them to correct the order observ'd in nature , saying ; why , think you , are there men that fancy plants in mountains , and the stars in heav'n might have been set in a far better order than they are , but because they judge no order apt , but that which the mind of man so discerns ? these are men , who , if humane sagacity has excogitated certain artificial contextures , which seem pleasing , presently , by a narrowness of mind , strive to transfer them to the nature of things , and think natures works must then aptly consist , when they are according to an imitation of art ; as tho besides the mind of man , there were not another mind , to whom other harmoniacal laws may be more pleasing . and beneath he adds , if hypotheses are propos'd as learned inventions , which may exercise the wit of man by their subtlety , and by a certain shadowy analogy to things themselves seem not ungrateful , i freely allow them as so : but for men to urge them , as tho the nature of things must consist as they have fancy'd , i see no reason we have so to receive them . considerations on the theory of the earth . the second book . concerning the primaeval earth , and concerning paradise . chap. i. and ii. the first chapter is an introduction , setting forth the contents of the second book . the general state of the primaeval earth , and of paradise . and it s thus : in the first book , he says , he shew'd the primaeval earth to have been without a sea , mountains , rocks , or broken caves ; and that it was one continued and regular masse , smooth , simple , and complete , as the first works of nature use to be ; but here he must shew the other properties of it ; how the heavens were , how the elements , what accommodation for humane life , why more proper to be the seat of paradise than the present earth . concerning paradise , he notes first two opinions to be avoided , as two extreams : one placing paradise in the extra-mundane regions , as in the air , or in the moon ; the other confining it to a little spot of ground in mesopotamia , or some other country of asia , the earth being now as it was then . for , he says , it is not any single region of the earth , that can be paradisiacal , unless all nature conspire , and a certain order of things proper and peculiar to that state ; so that both must be found out , viz. the peculiar order of things , and the particular seat of paradise . as to the peculiar order of things ; he says , it 's certain there were some qualities and conditions of paradise , that were not meerly topical , but common to all the rest of the earth at that time ; and that the things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first ages of the world , and to paradise ; and which neither do , nor can obtain on the present earth , were first a perpetual spring and equinox . secondly , the longaevity of animals . thirdly , their production out of the earth , and the great fertility of the soil in all other things . the ancients , he says , have taken notice of all these in the first ages of the world ; or in their golden age ; and what they have ascrib'd to to this age , was more remarkably true of paradise : tho not so peculiar to it , but that it did , in a good measure , extend to other parts of the earth at that time . and he says , 't is manifest , their golden age was contemporary with our paradise , they making it to begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the earth ( which they , as well as moses , raise from the chaos ) and to degenerate by degrees till the deluge . and as the author avers the whole earth to have been in some sense paradisiacal in the first ages of the world , and that there was besides some portion of it that was peculiarly so , and bore the denomination of paradise ; so the ancients besides their golden age , which was common to all the earth , noted some parts of it , which did more particularly answer to paradise ; as the elysian fields , fortunate islands , gardens of hesperides , alcinous , &c , the first character then of antiquity , concerning the first and paradisiacal state of things , was a perpetual spring , and constant serenity of the air : for this he quotes virgil , ovid , and other poets of the gentils , and christian authors for the same : and adds , that jewish authors have spoken of paradise in the same manner ; saying , that the days there were always of the same length thorowout the whole year , which made them fancy paradise to lie under the equinoxial . the second character was the longaevity of men ( and he thinks it probable of all other animals in proportion ) and this he says is well attested , and beyond all exception ; having the joynt consent of sacred and prophane history . the third character was the fertility of the soil , and the production of animals out of the new made earth : hence also he says , all antiquity speaks of the plenty of the golden age , and of their paradises , whether christian or heathen ; and so of the spontaneous origine of living creatures out of the first earth . now , as to the time of duration : he says , it is to be noted , that these three phoenomena of the first world did not last alike . the longaevrity of men and the temper of the heav'ns lasted to the deluge : but that fertility of the soil , and the simple and inoffensive way of living fail'd by degrees from the first ages . in the second chapter , the author , upon a more distinct consideration of the three characters before mention'd , represents the great change ( as he supposes ) of the world since the flood ; intimating it as well in the civil world , as the natural ; and endeavours to shew that the earth , under its present form , could not be paradisiacal , nor any part of it . i thought it necessary to state the contents of these two chapters here ; that the reader might clearly possess himself of the authors doctrine introductory to this book ; tho i shall offer nothing against them at present , but refer what i have to say thereon to my considerations on the next , and some following chapters , where the contents of these two will come more properly under examination . chap. iii. here the author sets forth th' original differences of the first earth from the present , or post-diluvian . he proposes to find the characters of paradise , and the golden age in the primitive earth , and gives a particular explication of each character . the differences of the primaeval earth from the present , he says , were chiefly three , viz. the regularity of its surface , it being smooth and even : the situation or posture of its body to the sun , which he affirms to have been direct , and not as it is at present , inclin'd , and oblique ; and the figure of it , which was more apparently and regularly oval than it is now . from these differences , he says , flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate , and which had a considerable influence on the moral world at that time , as well as the natural ; but he takes upon him to observe only here their more immediate effects ; and that in reference to those three general characters , or properties of the golden age , and of paradise , before exprest . the most fundamental of the three differences mention'd , he says , was that of the right situation and posture of the earth to the sun ; for from this immediately followed a perpetual equinox , all the earth over , or , if you will , a perpetual spring ; and that was the great thing that made it paradisiacal , or capable of being so : the other two properties , of longaevity , and of spontaneous and vital fertility , being thence also easily explain'd . now the right situation of the first earth to the sun , he says , needs no proof besides its own evidence ; it being th' immediate result , and common effect of gravity or libration , that a body freely left to itself in a fluid medium , should settle in such a posture as best answers to its gravitation ; and this earth whereof we speak , being uniform , and every way equally ballanc'd , there was no reason why it should incline at one end more than at the other toward the sun. wherefore , he says , the earth at the deluge was so broken and disorder'd , that it lost its equal poise , and thereupon the center of its gravity changing , one pole became more inclin'd toward the sun , and the other more remov'd from it , and so its right and parallel situation , which it had before to the axis of the ecliptick was chang'd into an oblique , in which skue posture it has stood ever since , and is likely so to do for some ages . and from this change and obliquity of the earth's posture , he intimates the change of the form of the year to have happened , it bringing in the inequality of seasons . the right situation of the first earth to the sun being therefore suppos'd by the author , making a perpetual equinox , or spring to all the world , answering to the first and fundamental character of the golden age and paradise ; which character , he says , had hitherto been accounted fabulous , as it was given them by the ancient gentils , and hyperbolical as by the ancient christians ; he comes to explain the other two characters , viz. the spontaneous fertility of the earth , and its production of animals at that time ; which he will have to proceed partly from the richness of the primigenial soil , as he has set it forth in his first book , and partly from this constant spring , and the benignity of the heav'ns ; and concludes , that what makes husbandry and humane arts so necessary now for the fruits and productions of the earth , is , partly the decay of the soil , but chiefly the diversity of the seasons , whereby they perish if care be not taken of them . and for animals , he supposes their eggs , as well as the seeds of plants ( there being a great analogy between them ) to have been in the first earth , and made fruitful equally with them , by the heav'ns or aether , supplying the influence of the male , and imbibing nourishable juices from the well temper'd earth , for carrying on their growth to perfection . the third character , viz. longaevity , he says , sprung from the same root with the other , because taking a perpetual equinox and fixing the heavens , we fix also the life of man ; the course of nature being then more steady and uniform , whence followed a stability in all things here below . the change and the contrariety of qualities we have now , being the fountain of corruption , suffering nothing to be much in quiet , either by intestine motions and fermentations excited within , or outward impressions . this is the substance of what the author has deliver'd in this third chapter , against which i shall now proceed in order ; considering first the three differences he assigns to his primaeval earth from the present ; and then the three characters or properties he ascribes to it , as rising from them . the first difference of the primaeval earth from the present , assign'd by the author , is , the regularity of its surface , it being all smooth and even , without mountains , a sea , &c. now , as for this difference , i have refuted it in my first book , there shewing his hypothesis , as to the rise of mountains , a sea , &c. to be erroneous and null ; and having propos'd a way more probable , ( as i conceive ) for their production from the beginning of the world. the second difference he has assign'd , is , the situation or posture of the earth's body to the sun ; which , he affirms to have been direct , and not , as it is at present , inclin'd and oblique ; and subjoyns the reason which i have before set down for it , viz. that the first earth being uniform and every way equally ballanc'd , there was no reason why it should incline at one end , more than at the other toward the sun , till at the deluge , being broken , it lost its equal poise . to this i answer first , as is intimated just before , i have shewn in my first book , that the author has fail'd in making out by his hypothesis the antediluvian earth to have been more uniform , or otherwise equally ballanc'd , than it is now ; and consequently his reason here has no place . i have also shewn in the said book , that common gravitation rules not all in the distribution of the parts of the world ( as he supposes it does ) but rather , that there is a rational distribution of them in order to certain uses : and when a man considers the present posture of the earth to the sun , where one body so successively enlight'ns the whole , that in an annual revolution , one time consider'd with another , it ballances light and darkness in every part of it ; and whereby the earth in all its parts is rendred as habitable as it may be , can this be lookt upon as a forc'd , unnatural , contingent , or unprovidential situation of it , as the author intimates it to be , happening only upon a ruin. and if the world in its present posture carries the face of eternity : and there has been no decay in it from the beginning , nor will ever be , according to the ordinary course of nature , as i think dr. hakewill has learnedly made out , it looks odd to me that this posture should be call'd forc't and vnnatural ; since nothing is more contrary to reason , than that bodies should be held in an eternal violent state ; nothing being more certain with philosophers than that nothing violent can be eternal . and indeed dr. hakewill's apology of the power and providence of god in the government of the world , is one continued argument against th' author's hypothesis ; which had he perus'd with attention , i believe it might have caus'd him to have sav'd his pains in composing it . again , the author seems to have greatly fail'd here , in not considering the vastness of the earth's globe , and that no conceivable , or possible change , happening upon any dissolution of such a pitiful epidermical covering of it , as he intimates his orb of earth to have been , could have made it change from a direct to an oblique or inclin'd posture , through a fancy'd loss of its equal poise ; and this , whether the frame of the earth be suppos'd ( as vulgarly ) to consist by an equilibration of parts to the center of gravity ; or ( according to the soundest philosophy ) by a magnetick vigour strongly binding its parts together . for suppose his orb of earth , a mile or two thick , as he says it was in his book of the conflagration ; this can be no more to the whole globe of the earth , than the thickness of a sheet or two of paper is to a globe of three foot dameter , as i have set forth in my first book : now suppose a globe of three foot diameter , suspended as the earth is by libration , or magnetism ; what conceivable alteration , in as much on the surface of it as comes to about the thickness of a sheet or two of paper , could cause any change in its libration ? or what alteration in such a proportion of a magnetick terrella three foot diameter , could make it decline from its wonted points of bearing ? when the author pleases to explain these things to me , i may think more of it ; mean while , i must conclude the bare proproposal of this matter to be a plain refutation of his hypothesis . nay , let him suppose his orb of earth , ten miles thick if he pleases , or more , i desire him to shew us some possible way , how upon its disruption , such a proportion of either hemisphere should be brought on the other , as to be able to make it change the position it had before . besides , if any such disruption of an orb of earth , as the author supposes , caus'd the earth to change its posture ; it must have inclin'd to the north , and not to the south , as he says it did ; because from what appears to us on the globe of the earth , it 's manifest that we have much more earth in the northern hemisphere , than there is in south ; and consequently its inclination must have been this way . but because the author lays a great force on this site of the first earth to the sun , insisting on it , as the most fundamental of the three differences in the first earth from the present , and establishing it as the ground for making out the three great characters , properties , or phaenomena of the golden age of the ancients , and of paradise ; i shall be a little mone full in this point , and set down a few reasons against this doctrine , leaving it to philosophical heads to consider how far it can bear . neither has it been unconsider'd by many learned men already , what the consequences must be , if the sun should constantly hold this equinox root , or the earth had always a right posture to the sun ; which makes me somewhat the more admire how this doctrine should now be offer'd at . we read of a king of arragon , who was wont to say , that if he had been with th' almighty when he made the world : he would have given him councels , as to heats , colds , and other particulars , as to the frame of it , that it should have been in a better state than it now is : and this may pass among the extravagant fancies of an inconsiderate man. but when we come philosophically to assert a thing , it would require a more than ordinary consideration , before we go about to unhinge a frame of providence , as thinking to put it in a better state , than an infinite wisdom has done . and so distinct is the relation , and so artificial the habitude of this inferiour globe to the superiour , and ev'n of one thing in each unto the other , that the more we consider them , the more we may admire them , and i think , the more despair of ever contriving them in a better , or more advantageous site than they are in . and tho all the advantages of the suns present course , or of the earths situation to it , may not be known by man ; yet i believe whoever shall go about to alter it , let him frame his hypothesis as finely as he please , he shall never be able to involve humane reason so far , but it may ever be made appear to him from what is known , that he has been guilty of no less a mistake than that of phaëton , in not carrying an ev'n hand as to heats , colds , light and darkness , &c. and that it cannot consist with the general benefit of the earth . and hence theodoret , in his first sermon concerning providence , sharply taxes those who would be finding fault with the seasons : sed exurget fortasse ingratus quispiam , qui ea quoque quae bene & pulchre facta sunt , simulque sapienter & commodè administrantur , reprehendere vel culpare volens , dicat : cur sodes istae anni conversiones fiunt ? & quaenam ex hisce anni partium successionibus ad nos utilitas redit ? &c. and tho according to the scantling of our reason , we might fansie some posture of the heav'ns more commodious to the earth than the present , yet thence presently to conclude that such a thing must really have been ; we having no solid historical ground for it ; i cannot see but it renders us liable to that reprehension of austin ; tam stulti sunt homines ut apud artificem hominem non audeant vituperare quae ignorant , sed cum ea viderint credunt esse necessaria , ut propter usus aliquos instituta ; in hoc autem mundo , cujus conditor & administrator praedicatur deus , audent multa reprehendere , quorum causas non vident , & in operibus atque instrumentis omnipotentis artificis volunt se videri scire quod nesciunt , l. . de gen. contra manich. c. . but to proceed in reasoning . first then , the author making the sun in the antediluvian times to hold constantly the equinox root , or giving the earth a right posture to it , burns the middle zone , making it wholly uninhabitable , and unpassible ( as he owns himself ) so that in the antediluvian earth there was no possible communication , betwixt the men , or other animals inhabiting the two temperate zones ; which is followed with these absurdities ( especally with the author , who seems very thrifty of miracles ) that , first , when god turn'd adam out of paradise ( which he supposes to have been in the south temperate zone , and the torrid zone to be the flaming sword ) he must have wrought a miracle to have thence convey'd him and eve into this temperate zone . secondly , after adam had got children here , the author owning the other temperate zone to have been inhabited before the flood , god must have wrought another miracle , to have convey'd some of adam's children thither to people it . thirdly , at the time of the deluge , he must have wrought a third miracle , to have brought of every species of animals in the other temperate zone , into this , to have been receiv'd into the ark ; unless the author will say , that the earth here produc'd all the same species of animals , that were in the other zone ; which a philosopher , considering that diffus'd variety nature delights in , may be content to smile at , but will never allow ; or unless he can make out some other way the conservation of those species besides the ark , which will be consider'd by us in the sequel . secondly , by this doctrine the author drowns the two polar zones , supposing it to have then rain'd continually there ; and that all the rivers that supply'd the earth , thence arose ; no rains falling in the torrid , or either of the temperate zones . but in reference to the state of the two polar zones , in case the sun always kept the aequinox root , we must consider what the learned dr. browne says in his vulgar errors , where he has a digression concerning the wisdom of god in the site and motion of the sun : it is as follows ; if the sun mov'd in the aequator , unto a parallel sphere , or to such as have the pole for their zenith , it would have made neither perfect day , nor perfect night : for being in the aequator , it would intersect their horizon , and be half above , and half beneath : or rather , it would have made perpetual night to both ; for tho in regard of the rational horizon , which bissects the globe into equal parts , the sun in the aequator would intersect the horizon , yet in respect of the sensible horizon ( which is defin'd by the eye ) the sun would be visible unto neither : for if , as ocular witnesses report , and some also do write , by reason of the convexity of the earth , the eye of man , under the aequator , cannot discover both the poles , neither would the eye , under the poles , discover the sun in the aequator . hence we find , that contrary to what the author has urg'd in his answer to mr. warren , if the sun mov'd in the aequator , there would be a total absence , or in a manner as good , of the sun in the polar parts ; whence vehement and continual frosts must be there caus'd , which would render them impossible sources for his suppos'd rivers . thirdly , we may consider whether the sun , keeping always in the aequator , so as to make a continual spring , without a variety of seasons , would make better , for the rise , support , and propagation of the earth's productions , even in the temperate zones , than by its present course . bede , considering it , says , that if the sun kept it self always at an equal distance from us in the aequator , this great evil would thence ensue , that the earth would never conceive within , which it does in the winter , nor would fruits , if any then grew , come to a maturity , without which animals cannot live . and indeed , how the sun , always keeping in the aequator , and making still equal days and nights in all parts of the temperate zones , should carry on vegetation in the remote parts of them , is not to me intelligible : for now , when the sun is in the aequinox , we find its heats but faint to us , and were it not that we are holpen out , by its approach to us toward the tropick , and thereby rendring our days much longer than the nights , we have reason to doubt how our fruits would be brought to a maturity ; much more those who live in the more northerly parts , where the vegetation wholly depends , on their continued days , in the summer , with little or no intermission of night . and hence the diversity of seasons has been always lookt upon as necessary , of which cicero says , in autumn the earth is opened to conceive fruits ; in the winter it 's comprest to digest them ; in the spring it 's open'd to bring them forth ; in the summer , being brought to a maturity , they are either mellow'd or dry'd . in the summer the bodies and branches of vegetables are increast ; in winter the roots are strengthned , and what is rais'd in the summer is consolidated . we see generally in plants and animals how nature pleases it self in moving by interchangeable starts , they require a time of rest as well as a time of labour : one while , upon the sun's access , they bring forth their fruits , another while , upon its retreat they resume their strengths : some fruit-trees , indeed , in some parts , bear all the year , but to conclude thence that all may do so every where , is more than their natures will bear ; a vicissitude of seasons being necessary for them : which vicissitude seems to me plainly intimated in the scriptures to have been from the beginning : for when at the cessation of the deluge god says to noah , that he will no more curse the earth for the sake of man , and that thence forward all the days of the earth , seed-time and harvest , heat and cold , summer and winter , day and night shall not cease . this plainly denotes that such things had past before , which having been interrupted during the deluge , should now return in their common course ; for otherwise those words summer and winter , seed time and harvest , had not been intelligible to noah , as never having seen or heard of such seasons before . and pererius , on the foresaid passage , says , it plainly appears to be fabulous , and full of vanity and ignorance , what ovid had said , met. . that this inequality of seasons was not in the golden-age of saturn , but that then there was a constant spring , and that afterward the age degenerating , this alternate succession by changes was brought on the world. so again , when it 's said , gen. . let lights be made in the firmament of heaven , and let them divide day and night , and let them be for signs and seasons , and days and years : all expound those seasons for the four seasons of the year . and here i may add , that by this altering the sun's course , and making but one season , it subverts all antient astronomy , which , if any learning , is concluded to have been derived to us from times before the deluge . and this argument alone is convincing with me , i cannot say it will with all men , that since all agree , clavem magiae naturalis esse clavem astrologicam , and since the former science has certainly been convey'd down to us from antediluvian times , the clavis to it must of course ; now that clavis is known to be according to the present disposition of the heavens to the earth ; whence i absolutely conclude that the same has ever been . and we know , that among the priestly ornaments of aaron , which carried the types of the whole universe , the brest-plate was one of the chief , in which the twelve pretious stones , among other significations , typifi'd the twelve signs of the zodiack , and their being rang'd in four ternaries , denoted the four seasons of the year ; which i believe had never been , unless those seasons had been according to the most perfect state of the world. and that the antediluvian patriarchs , as well as the postdiluvian , were in their respective times , the most absolute masters of the foresaid science , of any men on the earth , and that from them , it has been convey'd down in its pureness to us , is what i know not how to disbelieve . fourthly , the diversity of nature's productions being consider'd , the diversity of seasons will be found absolutely necessary for them . for tho the sun , keeping always in the aequator , there would be a diversity of climates , according to the different latitudes from it : yet no man can think that this alone would so much diversifie effects , as withal the sun's access and recess , according to the latitude of the zodiack , in the ecliptick ; the sun being the chief universal cause in nature's productions ; and tho general causes do not specifie alone , yet particular , or proxim causes cannot exert their power , without these gradual approachments and retirements of the sun. aristotle is plain in this matter , viz. that the sun , by its oblique motion , and not by its direct , diversifies effects : because the sun being in an unequal distance , its motion must be unequal , when the variety of effects is caus'd . or we may say thus , if the sun causes things by its heat and motion , and gives a differing impulse by its motion , according to the rectitude of its rayes , it cannot but diversifie upon such gradual accesses and recesses . to conclude , the four seasons of the year seem so natural , as nothing more , if we consider their analogy with the four elements , the four humors in man's body , the four quarters of the world , the ages , the parts of the days and nights , &c. and every season is tempered or season'd by another , and all fruits receive their temperament in the seasons from heat , cold , rain , &c. so that they are call'd seasons from their seasoning , and have a mutual connexion and dependence on each other for the general benefit of the earth : and as the learned dr. more says , consulting with our own faculties , we observe that an orderly vicissitude of things is most pleasant to us , and much more gratifies the contemplative property in man ; so that on all accounts i must conclude the four seasons to have been from all ages . and hence the learned vives says , non semper est idem habitus coeli & soli , quum nihil ordinatius cogitari possit , aut descriptius , mutantur enim rerum perpetuarum & immutabilium actiones , prout expedit iis ad quae referuntur . and i believe that all men considering the state of nature as it is , will say with maximus tyrius , natura est perfectissima harmonia . now , if the reasons which i have given against the suppos'd site of the sun , or earth to it , before the flood , have any weight ; as some of them seem to me to carry a demonstrative force , in shewing the nullity of the author's hypothesis in this point ; then the three general characters or properties , which he ascribes to the golden age and to paradise , viz. the perpetual spring , ( against which i have also particularly urg'd some reasons ) the spontaneous fertility of the earth , and the longaevity of animals and vegetables ; all being chiefly grounded by him on the suppos'd site of the sun , or earth to it , must fall of course , unless other reasons are assign'd for them , than this he has urg'd . there still remains the third difference , which he assigns to the primaeval earth from the present , viz. that the figure of it was more apparently and regularly oval , than it is now ; which difference i shall refute in my considerations on the fifth chapter of this book , where he treats particularly of this oval figure of the earth . now , as to the longaevity before mention'd , besides what the author has said of it in this chapter , he has added another chapter particularly concerning it , the contents of which i shall first set down , and then offer what i have to say upon it . chap. iv. here the author , by way of digression , treats concerning the natural causes of longaevity : he sets forth that the machine of an animal consists of springs , and which are the two principal ; and endeavours to make out , that the age of the antediluvians is to be computed by solar , not lunar years . he says therefore that in our bodies , we may consider three several qualities or dispositions , according to each whereof they suffer decay . first their continuity : secondly , that disposition whereby they are capable of receiving nourishment , which we call nutribility : and thirdly the tone or tonical disposition of the organs , whereby they perform their several functions . in all these respects they would decay in any state of nature , but far sooner and faster in the present state , than in the primaeval . as for their continuity , he says all consistent bodies must be less durable now , than under the first order of the world , because of the unequal and contrary motions of the elements , or of the air , and aether that penetrate , and pervade them . but it is not the gross and visible continuity of the parts of our body that first decays , there are finer textures that are spoyl'd insensibly , and draw on the decay of the rest , such as are ; secondly that disposition and temper of the parts , whereby they are fit to receive their full nourishment ; and especially that construction , and texture of the organs , that are preparatory to this nutrition . these being also wrought upon by external nature , whose course , while it was even and steady , and the ambient air mild and balmy preserved the body much longer in a fresh and fit temper to receive its full nourishment , and consequently gave longer bounds both to our growth and life . but the third thing , he says is the most considerable ; the decay of the organick parts , and especially of the organs preparatory to nutrition . to explain this point , he says , that all the organs of the body are in the nature of springs , and that their action is tonical , for that no matter that is not fluid , has any motion or action in it , but in vertue of some tone : if matter be fluid , its parts are actually in motion , and consequently may impel , or give motion to other bodies : but if it be solid , or consistent , the parts are not separated , or separately mov'd from one another ; and therefore cannot impel , or give motion to any other , but in virtue of this tone , they having no other motion of themselves . this being observ'd , he considers upon which of the organs of the body life depends more immediately , and the prolongation of it : he says then , that in the body of man there being several setts of parts , the animal and genital system have no influence upon long life , being parts nourished , not nourishing : wherefore laying these aside , there remain two compages more , the natural and vital , which consist of the heart and stomach , with their appendances . these are the sources of life , and all that is necessary to the constitution of a living creature . wherefore we consider only these first principles and fountains of life , and the causes of their natural and necessary decay . now , he says , whatsoever weakens the tone or spring of these two organs , shortens the natural duration of life ; and therefore in the primitive earth , the course of nature being even , steady , and unchangeable , without different seasons , it must have permitted bodies to have continued longer in their strength and vigour , than they can possibly do , under these changes of the air. for a conclusion to this chapter , he argues against those who say , the age of the antediluvian patriarchs is to be computed by lunar years , or months , and not by solar or common years , and he refutes that opinion . now , it appears from what i have urg'd against the last chapter , that the sun could not be suppos'd with any ground , to have still mov'd in the aequinox in the antediluvian world : so that tho the reasons the author here gives for longaevity , may be plausible enough , if apply'd and consider'd according to the order of things we now find establisht in the world , and which we have reason to conclude , must have been so from the beginning ; we must not go about to alter the frame of the world to gratifie them . yet since he urges that the antediluvian long life ought to be ascrib'd to the aequinox course of the sun , making always one season ; we shall consider , first , whether one even and continu'd season , such as that course must cause , would make most for the prolongation of life , or such a change of seasons as we have now ; and secondly , what other plausible reasons may be assign'd for the antediluvian longaevity , besides this course of the sun , which the author urges for . the learned weindrichius , in his problems , treats this for one ; whether it were not better that nature had instituted only one constitution of the year , as that of the spring , or to change it into four different seasons , and why necessarily there have been four . and concludes , it was far better that nature has constituted these notable changes of the air , than otherwise it would be . the effect of his reasoning runs thus : if any man shall say , that an even season , which holds a mean , is more proper for those bodies which are duly tempered , as being apt to preserve them in that temper , which a change by exceeding qualities would be apt to corrupt : we also confess that those corpora quadrata , such as describ'd by galen , require such a conservation ; but because it 's extreamly rare that such compleatly sound bodies are to be found , as galen says ; therefore bodies could not be preserv'd in that temper , which they had not . for almost all bodies exceed in some quality , which must also have held in the antediluvians , tho we may allow them to have been generally of a sounder constitution than bodies are at present ) and if at any time there be a body of an exact temper , it 's so , only for an instant : and therefore since bodies could not be conserv'd by one season always alike , nature foresaw , that if there were one season , in which cold and moisture reign'd , as the winter , then old people , and all those who were of a cold and moist temperament would die , because the distemper would be more encreast : wherefore it made a notable change , in which an exceeding heat should sway , which season is call'd summer : during which that notable moisture remits , and is diminisht , and by this means such as are moist become temperate , th'errour committed in the winter and spring , by reason of their humidity being thereby corrected . again , young people , and those that have hot and dry bodies must necessarily die if it were alway summer , because they would be wholly dryed by its heat ; therefore nature to prevent this made a winter , cold and moist , to correct the errour committed in the summer . and in fine , since all bodies have some excess of quality , there ought to be different seasons , that some may live more commodiously in this season , others in another . for by this means , all bodies succeed in life , and so th' order of th' universe is conserv'd . weindrichius adds . but what shall we say to the authority of hippocrates , saying , the changes of seasons bring forth diseases . for instance an hot season , as the spring , stirs up store of matter which is gathered together in bodies in the winter , by its cold constitution , which being stirr'd and mov'd it brings forth diseases , whence many diseases in the spring are engendred . but hippocrates says , this is not done through the fault of the spring it self , that it generates diseases ; of it self , it being the healthiest part of the year ; but by reason of a multitude of ill humours gather'd together in the winter : whence we see that those who are free from ill humours , live very healthy in the spring . this season therefore is said to generate diseases , because the humours lurking in the body before , and which were not mov'd , are stirr'd now , and being thus agitated , stir up diseases : for hippocrates says , they bring forth , because they do not make , but stir up the humours which afterwards are the cause of diseases : nay , the changes of seasons are so far from ingendring diseases , that they solve them , as galen also says , and this we see very often done : for if a quartan , rising in autumn , be not solv'd in the winter , it 's solv'd as the spring comes on , as galen likewise says , and if it be not solv'd in the spring , it 's afterwards solv'd in the approaching summer . wherefore it 's better that nature has distinguisht the year by these four changes : because tho perhaps one individuum might enjoy its health more in one season than in another , because it would more agree with it : yet since nature has not made seasons in respect of this or that individuum , but of all together , or of a whole species and species's : therefore that the order of the universe might be preserv'd by a certain heavenly and divine distributive justice , whereby it has form'd different bodies as to their temperatures , it would also distinguish the seasons of the year , and make them different , and not of one kind , that these should live well in the summer , those in the winter ; and that the diseases engendred in preceding seasons should be solv'd in the following . and we conclude that those seasons then especially agree with living creatures , when they keep in their proper nature , as the summer hot , the winter cold , &c. so far weindrichius , concerning this point . as for causes assign'd by authors , or that may be assign'd for the antediluvian longaevity , beside that of the suns still moving in the equinox , urg'd by the author , i divide them into three kinds : they are either divine , coelestial , or sublunary . by divine , i mean such as are from a particular providence , as austin , rabbi , leui and others say , those antediluvian fathers had long life granted them by a particular providence , that the first world , by a few , might be peopled in a short time , it being not to last long ; and that they might more conveniently learn things by a long experience . so josephus tells us , that god gave long life to those fathers that they might teach vertue , and practise with conveniency those things which they had invented in astronomy and geometry : the demonstrations whereof they had never attain'd , unless they had liv'd at least six hundred years , the great year being accomplisht by that revolution . as for coelestial causes , the boldest assertor i find , is petrus apponensis , who says , we must by no means envy those of the first age for having liv'd a longer series of years than us ; the disposition of the heav'ns being by nature more benign and propitious to them : for then there were two animal circles together co-operating , one in the ninth sphere , and the other in the eighth , where the firmament is ; being so dispos'd that aries answered diametrically to aries , taurus to taurus , gemini to gemini , &c. they so fortifying the celestial influences , that herbs , roots , standing corn and fruits grew then much more wholesom than since , that society through a long motion being dissolv'd ; whence the whole inferiour world began to grow diseas'd and decay . for sublunary causes , first we may allow , as the author does , that the stamina , or principles of life of the antediluvians were much stronger than men have at present , by which they had a more vigorous natural constitution . secondly we may allow them to have been better circumstantiated and regulated , as to the six non-natural things : as first , that their atmosphere being throwly impregnated with balsamick particles , arising from that pure primigenial soil , the celestial influences had a more kindly co-operation with them , forming an air far transcending ours now in the healthiest part of the earth , for prolonging life ; and in this the author is free to expatiate as he pleases . secondly , as to their dyet , it 's conceiv'd that the antediluvian soil being excellently temper'd , brought forth better and more wholsome fruits than are since the deluge , that it has been tainted with the saltness of the sea ; and that the fountain waters were also then more wholsom , and that those fathers were endued with a greater knowledg to discern what was good and bad for them , and observ'd a greater temperance than is now us'd . thirdly , it 's conceiv'd , that if man had not so many extrinsical causes ; as pleasures : domestick and publick cares , and other troubles to discompose him , he might live a much longer age ; in which it 's thought the antients were not so much concern'd , leading a more sedate and calm life . and so , as to the other non-natural things , they may be conceiv'd to have govern'd themselves better in them than men do now . and upon the whole it may be said , that tho we may not ascribe the antediluvian longaevity to any one of these sublunary causes singly , yet taken altogether , they may be lookt upon as competent causes for it : but to go about to alter the sun's course , or the earth's posture to it to make it out , i believe it 's what will never pass among learned men. having assign'd such causes , as , perhaps , by some , may be thought tolerably plausible for the antediluvian longaevity : in the last place i shall give my opinion of the matter , which is , that i look upon the long lives of the patriarchs to have been from a particular providence . i cannot say it was for the reason assign'd by austin , that the first world , by a few , might be peopl'd in a short time ; for on that account long life seems as necessary to others , as to the patriarchs ; besides that , each of the patriarchs , as far as we find by scripture , spent many years , as adam above an hundred , others above an hundred and eighty before they got children , whereas before that time they might have got children enough to have peopled many countries : tho , as rabbi gedalia says , according to the opinion of many jewish doctors , the patriarchs did not live so long before they had children , as the scripture speaks of , but that it makes mention of those only from whom they receiv'd the tradition , not taking notice of many others , whom there was no necessity of medling withal . but i am of the opinion of that adept philosopher , who in his late answer to the learned dr. dickinson , affirms long life to have been granted the patriarchs from a particular providence , that they might the better learn and propagate arts and sciences , and convey down with more certainty the tradition of the creation , the fall of man , god's judgment upon him , and the hope of his redemption , &c. and i know not why we should make a difficulty of admitting a particular providence , when such particular designs of providence are to be carried on by it . i reject therefore lunar years with the author , tho as to the testimony he quotes from josephus , saying , that the historians of all nations , both greeks and barbarians , ascribe longaevity to the first inhabitants of the earth ; many of the authors , whom he names , averring them to have liv'd a thousand years : i value it not ; and much doubt whether the author himself gives credit to those histories : for either they relate to antediluvian or postdiluvian times ; if to the former , i know no colour of reason we have for relying on any thing as authentick , deliver'd by greeks or barbarians concerning those times : if to the latter , i cannot think the author believes any man to have liv'd a thousand years since the deluge . so we find that pliny considering what many of the greeks and others had writ concerning the length of some mens lives , plainly says , they have writ fables instead of true histories , through their ignorance of the various acceptation of years and ages ; an age signifying with some , thirty years , with others only one year , and with others an hundred years . and the space of a year being determin'd by some , by one revolution of the moon , by others it 's made trimestrial , and by others to consist of six months . and father simon tells us , it 's certain that even the antient jews , not finding in their histories genealogies enough to fill up the time , made one single person to live many ages , whence there is nothing more common in their histories than these long liv'd men : so that we ought not over easily to give belief to jewish histories , which make their doctors survive , till such a time as they can find another to joyn him . nay , a great many of the jewish doctors , who have so great a veneration for the scriptures , are so far from acquiescing in what josephus urges from the greek and barbarian tradition , that they have affirm'd , as father simon tells us , the patriarchs to have liv'd no longer than other men , and that the holy scripture makes only mention of the head of a family , to whom it immediately joyns the last of the same family , without taking notice of those who have been betwixt both ; those doctors believing that when any head of a family had ordain'd certain laws , and methods of living to the family , he was made to live till the last of the family , who had observ'd those laws were dead ; so that he is suppos'd to have liv'd all this while in his family . and i doubt that all men who are not content to have recourse to a particular providence , for upholding the ante and postdiluvian longaevity , will be forc'd to relapse here , for any thing that can be made out from authentick history or reason in the case : not but we have several instances of late date , of persons , who have liv'd two or three hundred years and upwards : but this has not been successively , as in the patriarchs ; and there is odds betwixt three or four hundred years , and near a thousand . and whereas the author urges for a general longaevity among the antediluvians , as well as for some time after the flood , we do not find it authoriz'd by scripture . and that it was granted only to the patriarchs and some few others by a particular providence , and this through the means of a certain panacaea , well known to the mystae , i am satisfi'd , according to what is written of it , by the foremention'd adept philosopher : but leest instead of open reasoning , i seem to obtrude mystery on the world , which by some may be interpreted vain ostentation : i refer the reader to the book it self , where he may read , at least , what is written , and if hapily he does not fully apprehend what is said , he may believe or reject what he thinks good . chap. v. in this chapter the author treats concerning the waters of the primitive earth : what the state of the regions of the air was then , and how all waters proceeded from them . how the rivers arose , what was their course , and how they ended : he applies also several places in sacred writ to confirm this hydrography of the earth , especially the origin of the rainbow . he says then , that the air being always calm and equal before the flood , there could be no violent meteors there , nor any that proceeded from extremity of cold , as ice , snow and hail ; nor thunder neither : nor could the winds be either impetuous or irregular in that smooth earth , there being one ev'n season , and no unequal action of the sun : but as for watery meteors , or those that rise from watery vapours more immediately , as dews and rains ; there could not but be plenty of those in some parts or other of the earth ; the action of the sun being strong and constant in raising them , and the earth being at first moist and soft ; and according as it grew more dry the rays of the sun would pierce more deep into it , and reach at length the great abysse , which lay under the earth , and was an unexhausted storehouse of new vapours . he adds , but the same heat which extracted these vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into clouds or rains in the warmer parts of the earth ; and there being no mountains at that time , nor contrary winds , nor any such causes to stay them , or compress them , we must consider how they would be dispos'd off . to this , he says , as the heat of the sun was chiefly towards the middle part of the earth , so the copious vapours rais'd there , being once in the open air , their course would be that way where they found least resistance to their motion , which would be towards the poles and the colder regions of the earth : for east and west they would meet with as warm an air , and vapours as much agitated as themselves , which therefore would not yield to their progress that way . so that the regular and constant course of the vapours of the earth would be towards the extreme parts of it ; which when arriv'd in those cooler climates , would be there condenst into dews or rains continually . this difficulty , he says , for finding a source for the waters in the primaeval earth , was the greatest he met with in the theory ; which being thus clear'd , he finds a second difficulty , viz. how those waters should flow upon the even surface of the earth , or form themselves into rivers ; there being no descent or declivity for their course . and he has no way to explain this , but by giving an oval figure to that earth , in which the polar parts , he says , must have been higher than the aequinoctial , that is more remote from the center ; by which means , the waters that fell about the extreme parts of the earth would have a continual descent toward the middle parts of it : and by vertue of this descent , would by degrees form channels , for rivers to pass in through the temperate climates , as far as the torrid zone . and here he meets a third difficulty , viz. what issue the rivers could have , when they were come thither ? to this , says he , when they were come towards those parts of the earth , they would be divided into many branches , or a multitude of rivulets : and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the sun , and partly drunk up by the dry sandy earth . for he concludes , as those rivers drew nearer to the equinoctal parts , they would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course : for that in his suppos'd oval figure of the earth , near the middle part of it , the semidiameters , he says , are much shorter one than another ; and for this reason the rivers when they came thither , would begin to flow more slowly , and by that weakness of their current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and rivulets ; or else having no force to wear a channel , would lie shallow on the ground , like a plash of water . as for the polar parts of the earth , he says , they would make a particular scene by themselves : the sun would be perpetually in their horizon ; which makes him think the rains would not fall so much there , as in other parts of the frigid zones , where he makes their chief seat and receptacle : whence sometimes as they flowed , they would swell into lakes , and toward the end of their course , parting into several streams and branches , they would water those parts of the earth like a garden . having examin'd and determin'd of the state of the air and waters in the primitive earth , he considers some passages in holy writ , which he conceives represent them of a different form from the present order of nature , and agreeing with what he has set forth . first he tells us , that the rainbow , mention'd by moses to have been set in the clouds after the deluge , makes out that those heavens were of a different constitution from ours : and secondly , that st. peter says , the antediluvian heav'ns had a different constitution from ours , and that they were compos'd or constituted of waters , &c. he urges concerning the rainbow , that it was set in the clouds after the deluge as a confirmation of the promise or covenant , which god made with noah , that he would drown the world no more : that it could not be a sign of this , or given as a pledge or confirmation of such a promise , if it were in the clouds before , and with no relation to this promise : he adds much more concerning the nature of signs , giv'n by god , mention'd in the scriptures , which i think too tedious and needless here to insert . now concerning the first difficulty , which the author has endeavoured here to explain , in reference to the source and origine of the antediluvian waters , i have this to offer . he supposes that copious vapours were continually rais'd from the torrid zone , and the parts of the temperate zones next it , and that they were hindred by the heat of the sun from condensing into clouds or rains , there being then no mountains or other cause to stay and compress them , till having past through the temperate zones , they came towards the extreme parts of the earth , or the poles , where they were continually condenst into clouds , rains , and dews . now this , i conceive , is what no meteorologist can allow : for first , though i should grant there were no mountains before the deluge ( for the existence of which from the beginning , i have already argued ) at least there must have been other causes no less powerful to stop and compress the vapours then arising , notwithstanding the author either has not taken notice of them , or has here forgot them . certainly there were woods before the flood , and those in a great plenty , which ( to use the common expression ) are known to attract vapours as freely as mountains ; and the author allows the trees then to have been of an imcomparably more vast and lofty growth than now ; the largest of our trees being but shrubs to the trees then : and would not these attract vapours in a plentiful measure , whence clouds and rains would be produc'd to serve all the parts of the earth ? it 's known that in several parts of the west-indies , wont to be much infested with rains and tempests , after the woods were there cut down , those effects ceast . georg. agricola tells us of a valley in a mountainous tract in germany , which in autumn and winter was wont to be continually invested with thick fogs , hindring the sight of the sun ; but at length , the woods being there cut down , and some adits driven in mines for the waters to pass , those fogs ceast . i know also some woods in england standing much on a level , which always cast forth a great smoak , and have a cloud over them against rain , the country people thence taking their prediction of it ; we know that in the isle of ferro , there being not fountains to supply the inhabitants with fresh water , there grows a tree , over which a cloud settles itself every morning , and resolves into water , which streams down from the branches , and is receiv'd in vessels underneath for use . and can we think but some of those stately antediluvian trees , in case there had been no rains , would have perform'd this good natur'd office to man ? as indeed they had been bound to do it to beasts : for men possibly might have then been supply'd with fresh water in all the parts of the earth by the means of wells , but how should the beasts be supply'd , remote from rivers . these instances from natural history , i think , are sufficient to shew that woods , as well as mountains attract vapours , and cause rains , and must have done it in the antediluvian earth . secondly , to pass by mountains and woods , and to consider the quality of the primaeval earth , which the author supposes to have been at first soft and boggy ; can it be imagin'd that vapours rais'd from it in the torrid zone , and in the parts of the temperate zones next it , should be convey'd to the polar zones for a series of ages , without being condens'd into clouds and rains by the way ; when at the same time the days and nights are suppos'd to have been constantly of an equal length ; and when the weakness of the sun's action , arising from the obliqueness of its rayes in a good part of the intermediate distance , is duly consider'd . now , this plainly shews , that the vapours rais'd by the sun in the torrid and temperate zones , could never reach near the poles , before they were condens'd into clouds and rains , even tho the earth were all smooth , and the sun always kept the aequinox root , as the author supposes the state of things then was . thirdly , how should vegetation have been maintain'd for sixteen hundred years , without rains to refresh the plants ? it 's true , there are some parts now which have little rain , but either they lye near the seas , where they are plentifully supply'd with vapours , or have some annual inundations , as aegypt , &c. which could not have held in the antediluvian earth . indeed the earth being suppos'd soft at first , it might possibly have supply'd moisture for some ages ; but after five hundred or a thousand years , what moisture could that earth have afforded ? and to talk of the sun 's pumping up waters from the abysse , lying two or three miles deep in the earth , to supply waters for the rivers to run , when the other moisture was spent , it seems to me too inconsistent to deserve naming . again , it 's known that rains are no less necessary now and then , for purging the air , than a dose of physick may be for the body of man : and tho it may be said that the air then could not have been infested with evil vapours , as now , the quality of that soil not affording them : yet , as purges are sometimes prescrib'd , not only to evacuate the body of evil humours , but in cases of mere plenitude , when the humours are not peccant : so the atmosphere then could not but be sometimes troubled with an hazyness and stagnation , through the great plenty of particles rais'd by the sun 's constant action : and unless it were now and then purg'd by rains , winds , and fiery meteors , which are all deny'd , it could not have been duly qualifi'd for the support of animals and vegetables : to which i may add , that were it not for rains many times , all the fruits of countries would be destroy'd by insects devouring them in their first tender growth . lastly , whereas the author says , that when the vapours were arriv'd in the frigid zones , they would continually be there condens'd into clouds , rains , and dews ; i reply , if that holds true , which i have suggested from dr. brown , that the sun keeping in the aequator , it would be always night or twilight in a more considerable part of the frigid zones , the sun never rising above the horizon : and since the author supposes those zones to have been continually invested with clouds , which at least , must have caus'd a cimmerian darkness there , whether we can conceive any thing but continu'd frosts and snows to have been there , which must have made them incapable of being sources for those waters he has suppos'd . as to the second difficulty the author meets with here , viz. for making the waters flow on the even surface of the antediluvian earth , to explain which he has suppos'd that earth to have been of an oval figure , in which the polar parts were higher than the aequinoctial , to afford a descent to the waters , to form channels to the extreme parts of the temperate zones , next the torrid ; there are many things here to oppose . first , the author 's main reason for the oval figure of the earth , seems not to me to hold good , where he says , in his latin copy , since the bulk of waters in the first formation of the earth , when it was yet an aqueous globe , was much more agitated under the aequator , than the water towards the poles , where it made less circles , those parts , so greatly agitated , endeavouring to recede from the centre of their motion , since they could not wholly spring up and fly away , by reason of the air every where pressing on them ; nor much flow back , without the resistance of the said air , they could not otherwise disingage themselves , than by flowing off to the sides , and so making the aqueous globe somewhat oval . this , i say , is contrary to experiment ; for the more rapid any course of waters is , the more it draws all neighbouring waters to joyn with them in their course , and forces them not to recede from them into calmer parts , where the rapidness of their course is check'd by a slower motion ; and if this should be done to some distance , can it be imagin'd but their native gravity , when rais'd considerably above their level , long ere they reacht the polar parts , would make them fall back again to the lower aequinoctial current : and the native nitency of the waters in both hemispheres , on each side the torrid zone , would much more strongly repel any waters there rais'd above their level , than the rapidness of the aequinoctial current could force them off . again , since the earth , consider'd as a spherical body , is allow'd to be above miles diameter ; and since to enlarge a circle into a moderate oval figure , its area must be made a quarter as big again at least , one way of its diameter , as it was before ( as mr. warren has demonstrated ) it follows that the antediluvian earth , at each pole , must have been near miles extent in the suppos'd oval state , more than if it had been exactly round . and since this earth inclos'd an orb of waters within it ; i desire to know how many miles depth of the miles the author allows to his orb of waters ; he must allow it miles enough to make an oval orb , for so his water was suppos'd to be , before the orb of earth was form'd upon it : and consequentially to what is said , he cannot allow his orb of waters to be less than miles deep at each pole , to make any thing of an oval . now , to say that any detrusion of waters toward the poles , by the resistence of of the superambient air , could form a mountain of waters , at each of the said poles , about miles in height , above their spherical convexity , seems to me a strange and unaccountable paradox in hydrography , especially the orb under the abysse being suppos'd spherical , as the author has represented it in all his schemes , so that there was nothing to bear on the detrusion of the waters . it 's true , as the author says in his answer to mr. warren , we see the waters flowing towards and upon the shoars by the pressure of the air under the moon , tho it be an ascent both upon the land and into the rivers ; but i answer , this flowing is only to the height of some few fathoms , and besides , it 's maintain'd by a bulk of waters then swoln in the sea , near as high , as any protruded on the land , and carrying a pondus able to support them : but what force shall be able to support a body of waters in a violent state , carried miles in height , above their natural tendency , as they all are when past the spherical convexity . for the author owns the demonstration of archimedes , concerning the spherical figure of water to be true ; and says that a fluid body , be it water or any other liquor , always casts it self into a smooth and spherical surface , and if any parts by chance , or by some agitation become higher than the rest , they do not continue so long , but glide down every way into the lower places , till they all come to make a surface of the same height , and of the same distance every where from the center . by what agitation or resistence then of the superambient air can waters be driven on and held together for miles ascent in the open air , so as not to diverge , and fall off by their natural tendency . besides , if according to what i have said before , the author allows his abyss orb to be miles deep at the poles , he must allow it of a depth proportional to its oval figure in its other parts , and so for his orb of earth , and how this can stand with the proportion he seems to assign to his orbs , according to what i have set forth l. . c. . and how a deluge according to these proportions could be caus'd , and the waters go off , so as to make an habitable world , may require his consideration . again , since the sun , according to the authors hypothesis moving always in the aequinox , before the flood , would constantly have held as remote , if not more , from the suppos'd rainy region , than it is now from us in the depth of winter ; and since we find the mountains now , which are of any considerable height , even in the temperate zones , are so cold that they are generally cover'd with snows , notwithstanding the sun shines more on them than on the countries lying beneath them , and that , even in the summer , when the sun is nearest to them , and the days are much longer than the nights ; it follows that the two polar mountains , in all respects , must always have had colds in the greatest excess , both in regard of their great distance from the sun , and of their being mountains , and of their having little or no day ; nay if it were constant day at the poles themselves , and there were as much day as night in the suppos'd rainy regions , as the author can pretend to no more there ; this could not protect them against continual frosts and snows , as appears by what i have said of the mountains in the temperate zones . i may add that , ( as mr. warren has observ'd ) several navigators attempting to find out a nearer course to china , have been frozen to death , tho they sail'd not so far north , as the suppos'd rainy regions in the oval earth , and chose the most seasonable time for their enterprize , viz. when the sun was on this side the equator , and the days then in those regions were much longer than the nights , if they had any night at all : besides what experience all other saylers have had , of the great colds , and continued frosts and snows in those countries , notwithstanding the vapours of the sea , or any nearness of the sun , and length of days , which might help to remit them . lastly , whereas the author conceivs the present earth to be also of an oval figure , we know the general sense of men , according to all experience and observation to be contrary , and that whether the constitution of the earth be consider'd according to gravity or magnetism . aristotle , who consider'd it according to the former , says , that all the particles of the earth have a natural gravity , which carries them towards the midst or center , whence a spherical figure of it must be caus'd , as he explains at large , and concludes that the figure of the earth must therefore be spherical , or naturally spherical ; and that every thing must be said to be such as it uses to be , or is by nature , and not what it may be by force or preternaturally , and in a violent state . the same may be said of the earth's figure , if it be consider'd according to magnetism ; the experiment of the terrella , according to the various inclinations of the needle to it , shewing the earth to be spherical . and whereas the author says , that circumnavigation , the appearing and occultation of mountains and towers to saylors , as also the stars , and the like , prove indeed the earth not to be plain , but convex , but does not plainly prove what that convexity is , whether spherical or oval : we find that clavius was of a contrary opinion , he thinking to have well prov'd the spherical figure of the earth , if measur'd either from east to west , or from north to south , by shewing that if a man keeping the same meridian , passes from north to south , there is that proportion still observ'd in the decrease of the elevation of the pole , which can only agree to a spherical figure : and so if any man travels from east to west , betwixt two parallels , he may still observe that to a city fifteen degrees more easterly than another , the sun always rises and sets an hour sooner or later , than to the other ; which anticipation of the rising and setting of the sun could not keep the said proportion , unless we give the earth a spherical figure . as to the third difficulty that the author finds , and the explanation he endeavours to give of it , viz. what issue the rivers would have when they were come to the parts near the torrid zone , to which he says , that then they would be divided into many branches or a multitude of rivulets , and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the sun , and partly drank up by the dry sandy earth : this seems not to me fairly to account for the rivers issue . it 's true , we have now accounts of some rivers absorpt in the sands ; but the waters so absorpt , or which any where pass into the earth , have their issue again at some other place , either passing into the sea , or emerging again on the land : but what became of those antediluvian waters , ( which must have been in vast quantities ) absorpt in the sands ? did the circumgyration of the earth carry them back again , under ground , upon an ascent , toward the poles ? or did they sink into the abysse ? this must have been full before for many ages , till the sun had cloven the earth , and drawn out great quantities of the abysse waters ; and the other way of their issue seems not to me conceivable . but i shall insist no farther on this matter . the author , in the last place , urges that the rainbow set in the clouds after the deluge , makes out that the antediluvian heav'ns were of a different constitution from ours , the rainbow having not been seen in the clouds before . now , concerning the rainbow mention'd gen. . many have said many things , but the most natural interpretation of it seems to me to be thus . we find in the foregoing chapter when noah and his family , by gods command were come forth of the ark , and that noah had rais'd an altar , and sacrific'd to god ; god accepting his sacrifice , assur'd him that he would no more destroy every living soul as he had done , but that seed-time and harvest , cold and heat , summer and winter , night and day should not cease , or should continue . they having been interrupted for a years time before . and in the th chapter , after having bless'd noah , and his sons , he made a covenant with them against any future deluge , and to comfort them , gave them the rainbow , as a present sign of the air 's setling in its wonted way , the seasons which he had mention'd before to noah being to succeed in course . and the rainbow thus appearing after the deluge , carried somewhat new in it , as the author says a sign ought to have done , because it had not been seen for a year before ; and in its nature appearing after rains , it betokens fair weather , as appearing after fair weather , it betokens rains. whereas the author says , he does not look upon the rainbow as a voluntary sign , and by divine institution , but that it signified naturally and by connection with the effect , importing that the state of nature was chang'd from what it was before ; and so chang'd that the earth was no more in a condition to perish by water ; this seems to me without any ground . i agree with him so far , that the rainbow signified naturally , and by connection with the effect , because appearing after rains , it betokens a remission of the moisture , and consequently fair weather ; and this with gods promise to noah , and his seeing the waters retir'd from the earth , i think was sufficient for noahs satisfaction , he having had experience that god was master of his word before , when he had reveal'd to him that he would bring a deluge on the earth . but to say that the appearance of the rainbow imported the state of nature to be so chang'd , that the earth was no more in a condition to perish by water , this will not be allow'd ; for if the deluge was miraculously caus'd ( as i conceive it to have been ) what natural sign could foreshew its coming , or no return of it ? wherefore in this respect , i look upon it to be only a voluntary sign and by divine institution : and we know some have been so far from thinking the rainbow to denote a change of air towards a conflagration , that they plainly say it denotes a dominion of moisture in the air , and that on this account it will not appear forty years before the conflagration happens . neither do i believe that noah , or perhaps any man since him , besides the author , could find by any natural signality in the rainbow , that a deluge should ne'r return . indeed ( as the author says ) if noah had never seen a rainbow before , on its first appearance , it could not but have made a lively impression upon him , for his assurance : for its probable it would have rais'd a stupor in him , and he would have lookt upon it as a miracle wrought by god for his satisfaction : whereas the rules of providence are otherwise , god never giving a miraculous sign , but of a miraculous effect , which the preservation of the earth from a second deluge was not to be , but only the earth left to itself , with those second causes that attend it , for its own preservation . and those instances of signs which the author has quoted from the scriptures are miraculous signs of miraculous effects , and therefore of another nature from this here under consideration . again , it s well known , that many institutions in the law of moses were made directly in opposition to certain customs among the gentils : now whereas iris , among the gentils , was made generally the messenger of discord , whence it was call'd iris quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , why may it not be thought , that in opposition to this , which might have been deriv'd down from the corrupt antediluvian times , god would have the rainbow to be his sign of love and concord , it signifying in its nature indifferently rains and fair weather , as pliny says . as to the existence of the rainbow before the flood , certainly all the gentils were of that opinion ; juno must have been an antediluvian goddess , who was never without her nymph iris , she being the most diligent attendant she had , alway standing ready at her elbow , and more officiously serviceable to her than the other thirteen nymphs that belong'd to her : among other services , she is said to have made juno's bed , and was represented with wings , and a robe of divers colours , half tuckt up , to shew her readiness to obey the commands of her mistris on all occasions . the two predominant colours of her robes were blew and red , denoting the two great destructions of the world , the blew that which happen'd by the waters at the deluge , and the red the general conflagration to succeed by fire ; so that the rainbow carries a mixt signality . and indeed the antient philosophers might properly enough make her the messenger of discord , she carrying the types of those two contrary elements , fire and water ; and god might make her his messenger of peace , he controuling and directing all natural powers , and re-establishing a concord betwixt those two contrary elements , whereof she carries the types in those colours she bears . i may note in the last place , that father simon censures luther of ignorance in the style and symbolical sense of the scriptures , for saying , that there was no rainbow before the deluge , and that god created it for those very reasons set down gen. . but though there may be a known symbolical sense contain'd under the rainbow , which may far more require our attention than the symbol it self : yet i shall not here take upon me to determine how far luther may stand affected by that censure . as for what the author urges from the passage of st. peter , viz. that the antediluvian heav'ns had a different constitution from ours ; containing only watery meteors : i do not find he makes out that there were more of those watry meteors in the air then , than there are now , so that a deluge should be thence particularly caus'd ; on which account st. peter intimates that different disposition to have been : and when the author has said all he can of it , he plainly concludes in his latin copy , that he cannot find , or discover by reason , whence that glut of waters rose at that time , or wherefore after fifteen ages after the world was made , that immense glut of waters , gather'd together in the air , discharg'd itself on the earth , it might have been , he says , from supernatural causes . and in his answer to mr. warren , he says , the rains that made the flood , were extraordinary , and out of the course of nature . and what is this in effect , but to own that the deluge is not explicable by humane reason , and that miracles are to be allow'd in it ; but they must be the authors own way , and not as others have said ; which perhaps by many may be interpreted to carry more of humour than reason . chap. vi. this chapter contains only a review of what the author has said concerning the primitive earth , with a more full survey of the state of the first world natural and civil , and the comparison of it with the present world ; so that here is little new : wherefore i shall note only the following passage , where the author says , i cannot easily imagine , that the sandy desarts of the earth were made so at first immediately from the beginning of the world. to this we may reply , that if the sense of one man may be oppos'd against that of another , lucan seems of a contrary opinion , where he says , syrtes , vel primam mundo natura figuram quum daret , in medio pelagi terraeque reliquit . when nature fram'd the world , at its first birth , it left the quicksands 'twixt the sea and earth . chap. vii . here the author comes to the main point to be consider'd in this book , viz. the seat of paradise ; and says , that its place cannot be determin'd by the theory only , nor from scripture only ; and then gives us the sense of antiquity concerning it as to the jews , the heathens , and especially the christian fathers , shewing , that they generally place it out of this continent in the southern hemisphere . he declares that considering the two hemispheres according to his theory , he sees no natural reason or occasion to place it in one hemisphere more than in the other ; and that it must rather have depended on the will of god , and the series of providence that was to follow in this earth , than on any natural incapacity in one of those regions more than in another , for planting in it that garden . neither do the scriptures determine where the place was . as to antiquity , he says , the jews and hebrew doctors place it in neither hemisphere , but under the equinoctial ; because they suppos'd the days and nights to have been always equal in paradise . among the ancient heathens , poets and philosophers , he finds they had several paradises on the earth , which they generally , if not all of them , place without , or beyond this continent , in the ocean , or beyond it , or in another orb or hemisphere , as the gardens of the hesperides , the fortunate islands , the elysian fields , ogygia , toprabane , as it is describ'd by diodorus siculus , and the like . as to christian antiquity , or the judgment or tradition of the fathers in this argument ; he tells us , that the grand point disputed amongst them was , whether paradise were corporeal ; or intellectual only , and allegorical . then of those that thought it corporeal , some plac'd it high in the air , some inaccessible by desarts and mountains , and many beyond the ocean , or in another world , but nam'd no particular place , or country in the known parts of the earth for the seat of it : and upon the whole he brings it to this conclusion , that tho their opinions are differently exprest , they generally concenter in this , that the southern hemisphere , beyond the aequinoctial , was the seat of paradise . and this notion of another world or earth beyond the torrid zone , he says , he finds among heathen authors , as well as christian , and that those who say paradise was beyond the ocean , mean the same , for that they suppos'd the ocean to lie from east to west betwixt the tropicks : the sun and planets being there cool'd and nourisht by its moisture . and having quoted many of the fathers and others in reference to the seat of paradise in the other hemisphere , he concludes , that in this particular he is willing to refer himself wholly to the report and majority of votes among the ancients , whether christians or others , who seem generally to incline to the south , or south-east land. after so large an apparatus for making out the place of paradise , and a new world made for it , a man would have expected that some circumstances at least , should have been brought , for pointing it forth , and not barely to sit down , by saying , i wholly refer my self to the major vote of antiquity , especially having promis'd us in the first chapter of this book a just account of it . since then there is nothing brought from scripture or reason for proving the place of paradise ; i shall only consider the authority of antiquity for it , as the author has done ; but withal i must first declare , it is not without a sacred dread that i commit pen to paper on this subject , well knowing of what weight it is , and what dispositions could be requir'd in a person to treat of it according to its dignity : a man ought to have had a due institution amongst the mystae ( by such , i mean those excellent genii , whose better stars have so dispos'd their understandings , that they have penetrated the allegories and aenigma's of the ancient sages ; and are able readily to run through the whole systeme of nature , every where adapting superiours to inferiours according to those scales of numbers which a learned adeptist has set forth ) and to have us'd great diligence in study , undisturb'd by worldly circumstances ; both which i well know to have been wanting in me . a man ought to be thorowly seen in the analogies betwixt the intellectual , coelestial , and sublunary worlds , and of the microcosm to them all ; for otherwise he shall never be able to discern what is deliver'd literally , what figuratively by the ancients : and for want of persons being thus qualified , those infinite tautological volumes have been written by school-men and others , on this and other parts of the scriptures . we know how difficult it is sometimes to discern , even in heathen writers , whether they write literally or figuratively ; as in plato's timaeus , the relation of the war betwixt the athenians and the atlantiques , is said by crantor , plato's first interpreter , to be a plain historical relation ; others say it to be a meer allegory ; and others again will have it to be a true historical narration , but withal to carry on an allegory . certainly the sense of the scriptures in many places , and perhaps in this of paradise , is more difficult to be understood than any part of plato's works is : and therefore i should rather have been content to have kept my self within the bounds of natural history , in all my considerations on this theory . but since the occasion offers , that i say somewhat concerning the seat of paradise , i shall lay down what i conceive the sence of the ancients to have been in it , humbly standing the correction of meet judges . first then , ( to pass by what the author allows , viz. that the jews and hebrew doctors plac'd paradise under the aequinoctial , and not in the southern hemisphere ; where he , at last concludes it to have been . ) as for the several paradises of the antient heathen poets and philosophers , which he will have us particularly observe to have been generally plac'd by them without , or beyond this continent , as pointing at the other hemisphere , i have this to offer concerning them : that i truly look upon it as trifling in any man to think that any of those poets or philosophers judg'd any place on the earth really paradisiacal ; or meant any place so , describ'd by them . it seems to me plain enough from them that they alway meant paradise coelestial , or intellectual , as the allegorical fathers did . it 's true , many of them took some place on the earth , noted for salubrity and pleasantness , for a ground of their allegory : it being usual with the antient mystae , when they had any doctrine figuratively to set forth , to take some historical ground , whether natural or civil ; and those were lookt upon the most ingenious , who in the delivery of such figurative doctrine could make the historical truth quadrate without addition : but when any important doctrine was to be deliver'd , where the historical truth could not hold , then they either wholly feign'd some historical narration , by analogy to which that truth they design'd might be set forth , or to some true historical ground they took , they added what flourishes they thought fit , for making it serve to carry on their allegory , as in the case of paradise they have proceeded both ways . to consider particularly the paradisiacal places they describe , what have the fortunate islands , the gardens of the hesperides , alcinous , &c. ( being places known to us in this hemisphere , as literally understood ) to do with the other hemisphere ? some authors , as virgil and others , to shew themselves openly allegorical , plac'd the elysian fields in the subterraneous regions , where they thought no man in his wits would seek for them : and i think it plain enough to any thing but wilful blindness , that those who plac'd paradise beyond the ocean , in the air , &c. did it on the same account ; as we may judge by the pure aetherial earth describ'd by plato . the author intimates more than once , that the pensile gardens of alcinous must be expounded by the pensile structure of his paradisiacal earth , as it hung over the abysse , before the deluge : whereas it 's well known what these gardens were : they were that pensile vault hanging over our heads . alcinous solem , lunam , stellasque micantes , et coelum aeternum credidit esse patrem . where should his gardens of pleasure , or his paradise be , but where his gods were , in the society of whom he drank nectar and ambrosia ; or , to express it according to christian divinity , in the love , and contemplation of whom he was ravisht with delights ? mythology tells us , that the gardens of the hesperides , said to be seated in the west , were no others ; the golden fruits being those golden globous bodies , with which the heavens are adorn'd , and the watchful dragon being that dragon at the north pole ( or the zodiack circle , according to others ) said to be always watchful , because it never sets to this part of the world , which was the only part known to the antients . it was said to be seated in the west , because as the sun sets in the west the stars appear , the light of the sun hiding them in the day-time . the gardens of adonis are the same ; adonis being the sun , that glorious leader of the coelestial host . and these are the three paradisiacal gardens , which ( as pliny tells us ) were most celebrated by antiquity ; tho even these must refer higher , i mean to the intellectual and archetypal worlds , till which the mind of man can never rest . those delightful gardens of adonis are said , by some , to have been taken by the gentils , from the eden of moses , that word with the hebrews signifying pleasures and delights , as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does with the greeks , and as the word pardeis does with the chaldeans and persians , whence the greeks took the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the latins paradisus . these are the gardens where the never-ceasing nightingale sings . — — vbi suavis cantat aëdon . ( apollo being famous for his charms ) he foments his eggs in his brest , and solaces the waking labour of the tedious nights with the sweetness of his songs ; retiring in the winter-time from these parts of the earth to others then more pleasant . concerning the elysian fields , the author takes an occasion to intimate as tho they were in the other continent , as he reflects on those , who he conceives have misrepresented paradise , saying , these have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our paradise , just as some modern poets have the notion of the elysian fields , which homer and the antients plac'd in the extremity of the earth , and these would make a little green meadow in campania foelix to be the fam'd elysium . considering homer and others of the antient gentils , i see not why they must be interpreted to have plac'd those fields in the other hemisphere ; as for that speech of proteus to menelaus in homer , sed te quà terrae postremus terminus extat elysium in in campum coelestia numina ducunt . strabo interprets this of the fortunate islands , or the canaries , famous for a salubrity of the air , and gentle zephires peculiar to that region lying in the west . plutarch tells us , that by those extreme parts of the earth is meant the moon ; where the shadow of the earth , and these sublunary regions terminate . macrobius tells us , that according to antiquity , those extreme parts of the earth , where the elysian fields are , is the sphaera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , where the purest minds reside . but to pass by these interpretations , it 's well known to the mystae , what homer would be at by his extreme parts of the earth ; it implying only a passing from the flesh into the spirit , where the earth truly ends , and where st. paul found a real paradise : and there is a torrid zone to pass e're we come to it , and passable only by those qui solis meridiantis fulgidissimum jubar ferre possunt , it being hardcoming near those coestial fires without being melted by their heat . but i shall say more beneath concerning what some of the ancient gentils meant by seeming to place their paradises in the other hemisphere . virgil , ( as i have intimated before ) represents the elysian fields , as well as the place where the wicked are tormented , in the bowels of the earth . and servius tells that those fields are at the center , abounding with all delights , and that — solemque suum sua sydera norunt . hither it was the sibyl carried aenaeas , an enterprize she had not undertaken , but that she knew him of the heroes , and some way qualified to attend her in it : for it 's an incredible labour , and indeed in a manner insupportable , to wade through those subterraneous regions ; nor can the difficulty of it sink into the mind of man without trial . the poet calls it insanus labor , and it is so , a divine fury attends it ; during the transaction the soul is stimulated , to exert its noblest instincts , and the understanding is consummated , as far as it 's capable of so being . hence plato says , that humane wisdom , if compar'd with that which is had from oracles , and a divine fury , is as nothing : and hence virgil thought not aeneas duly qualified for being founder of the roman empire , till with his other endowments , he had this divine institution of the sibyl . and i make no doubt but there are sibyls still in the world , who on certain occasions can and do perform the like pious office to man , though the outward typical part of caves and tripods be left off ; the caves only denoting a deep mental recess ; the tripod the three successions of time , all known to apollo . virgil , not only in his sixth aenead , but elsewhere , sufficiently intimates the dreadful labour which attends this transaction , where he disswades augustus , though a great emperour , and a man of noble endowments of mind , from ever wishing himself a party concern'd in it , saying , quicquid eris ( nam te nec sperent tartara regem , nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido ; quamvis elysios miretur graecia campos , nec repetita sequi curet proserpina matrem ) da facilem cursum — whate'er you 'll be ( for hell ne'r hopes you king , nor so seek rule , to wish so direful thing , tho greece admires th' elysian fields , nor was proserpine fond with ceres thence to pass , ) vouchsafe the favour — and perhaps , it might be in view of this difficulty that christ said , regnum coelorum vim patitur , & violenti rapiunt illud , mat. . and . and again , that it was as hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven , as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle . if we consider what the sibyl requir'd of aenaeas to perform before he could accompany her in this great undertaking , it may not be difficult for us to conceive what those regions are into which he pass'd : the golden branch must be gotten , and carried with him to gain his admittance into them , and a dead man , a friend of his , slain by triton , a sea god , whom he had provok'd , must be buried ; the old man , the animal man , must be slain and buried , without which sacred necromantick practise , christ cannot be form'd nor reign within us , nor can we enter the kingdom of bliss . the poet makes this man a trumpeter , the animal-man being nought but clamour and noise ; his funeral-pile must be made of that ancient over-grown forest , that den of wild beasts with which the golden bow is all invested . gold , for that its a pure and incorruptible metal , and the most ductile and extendible of all bodies , and in its colour resembles the glorious lights of heaven , it terminating also the desires of man , was made by the ancients the sacred type of the deity , or of that divine nature diffus'd thorow the world ; and hence by divines the whole intellectual world is call'd the cataena aurea ; and hence also are those famous stories of the golden fleece at colchos , and of the golden fruits in the gardens of the hesperides , and the golden age refers here , and this is that aurum ignitum which st. john says , will make a man rich. now the sibyl truly tells aenaeas there is no coming at this golden branch , that divine spirit , which must be his passeport to the elysian fields , till he has cut down the wild forest with which it is surrounded , and made a funeral-pile of it , to burn the dead body of his friend misenus , that animal man : the forest being nought but that confusion of vice , in which humane life is involv'd ; and till this be cut down and burnt , igne sacro , igne conscientiae , igne coelesti , absumente sacrificium domini , quo & totus mundus uno die periturus est , the divine nature cannot be manifested within us , nor can we enter those pure aetherial regions , undisturb'd by corporeal passions and affects . we need not therefore go far to find where that region lies ; all may be resolv'd by that inscription in the delphick temple , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for though it was the great wisdom of the ancients , or rather , of god himself to bring men round in types by a circular fetch of external nature , they well knew where all must terminate ; i say not in us as men , but in that god within us , in whom we live , move , and are , and who sometimes is pleas'd to manifest himself to man. and this i aver , that whatsoever knowledge of god may accrue to man from a contemplation of external nature , he shall never have that sensible feeling of him that way , as when being rais'd in the spirit , baptismo flaminis , he comes to find him within himself . the poet tells us of two sorts of persons , both diis geniti , not born of flesh and blood , but of god , who may have a free intercourse to those aethereal regions ; they must be , either quos aequus amavit jupiter , such , as by a priviledge of nature , or a genethliacal favour of the heav'ns are gifted for it , that is according to christian divinity , such as god is pleas'd to save by his particular grace ; as it may be said of st. john , who in one slumber on the brest of christ drew far deeper mysteries than all the schools in the world could teach him ; and of st. paul , who by an over-ruling summons from god was rapt on a sudden to the third heavens , where a fulness of knowledge was communicated to him . or secondly , quos ardens evexit ad aethera virtus , such as having apply'd the powers of their soul to the knowledge of that divine nature which governs the world , are , at length initiated by a certain divine institution , disposing to the supernatural act , which god has been pleased to reveal to man , by which also a regeneration is truly wrought , and paradise is open'd to us ; though many times the effect of it may prove but transient , through the instability and frailty of man's nature , he soon relapsing into sin , without a particular providence to uphold him ; as ( if i am not mistaken in mythology ) it 's plainly set forth in the expedition for the golden fleece , where , according to some , medaea in favour of jason , by her enchantments , cast the dragon which guarded it , into a profound sleep only ; and did not kill him outright , whilst jason executed his enterprize , or she for him , the dragon haply afterward awaking again . and servius well observes , that proteus receiv'd divinity only for a time , otherwise he might have known aristaeus lying in wait for him . and thus solomon is known to have receiv'd the spirit ; and as well known it is how notoriously he fell from the rectitude of it . nor was david himself , so great a prophet as he was , without great lapses , the like may be held of gedeon and others . this is that institution , by which , as the areopagite says , socrates ▪ being stirr'd up , and rais'd in his understanding , sang forth divine mysteries , he owning himself before ignorant of coelestial and sublunary things . i know not how far i may have here incurr'd the censure of some criticks , for having seem'd to imitate , as though some mysteries of christianity had been known among the gentils : but to pass by the testimonies of many of the fathers , by which the knowledge of christ is allow'd to many of them before his appearing in the flesh ; we know that virgil , in what he applies to the son of pollio in his fourth eclogue , is judg'd to have prophesied of christ ; and i know not why it may not be thought with as much reason , that being mov'd with the same spirit in his sixth aenead , he has prophesied of the kingdom of christ in the soul of man. and indeed , i look upon it as a truth , that to sincere souls , living according to the light they had , at all times , and in all nations , god has pleas'd in some extraordinary way to communicate the knowledg of christ , and that the vertue and efficacy of his death and passion , has been apply'd to them , tho they knew nothing of the history thereof ; and that the doctors of the gentils have mysteriously deliver'd many things concerning christ , though not with that soundness of divinity which christianity teaches . that true prophets were not only given by god to his people , but likewise to the gentils to announce the coming of his son , and teach them many other things ; it appears from the sibyls , who were given to the greeks and romans ; and from balaam , who was given to the oriental people . he that desires to see more concerning what the ancients thought of a paradise being without our continent , or in another hemisphere , may read what bishop vsher has learnedly set forth concerning it in his tract of limbus patrum , where in the end he plainly makes out both by sacred and profane writers , that though some of the ancients would personate a scene of ades , for the reception of souls in the other hemisphere , beyond the ocean , ( which they suppos'd then uninhabited ) to gratifie vulgar fancy ; yet that the translation of souls thither , in reality signify'd only their translation from that which is visible , to that which is invisible , no topical paradise being ever there dreamt of : and if i should grant that some of the ancient gentils fancied the elysian fields , as some pleasant place of habitation in the other hemisphere , i see not how this could relate to adam's paradise , the seat of which was to be made out by the author , according to the opinions of the ancients : for these fields were for the reception of the soul separate from the body , and might answer to the coelestial paradise , and the state of the church triumphant , but not to any terrestrial habitation , and the state of the church militant , and i know nothing but the golden age of the ancients that could answer to adams paradise ; concerning which i shall say somewhat beneath : but so much at present concerning the paradises of the gentils . now , in the second place , when a man considers the fathers on this point of paradise , he may be apt to say what cicero said on a greater occasion . truly so great a dissention of the most learned men , in so weighty a matter , may make even those doubt , who think they have somewhat certain . for some of the greatest writers amongst them are so invectively opposite , in their assertions concerning paradise , that philo and origen , pursuers of the allegory , and follow'd by others , censure those as mad men or idiots , who go about to establish a corporeal paradise ; they concluding that the scriptures , in what is deliver'd in them concerning paradise , so manifestly present us an occasion to adhere to the allegory , that we cannot but embrace it : whereas on the contrary , hierom and others censure those as triflers and dreamers , who so addict themselves to the allegory , that they will not withal allow a plain historical sense in that narration ; they grounding themselves on this , that unless an historical truth be held in those things , which are deliver'd in the scriptures , by way of an historical narration , nothing would be certain in them . whereas the author says we may observe , that tho the fathers opinions be differently express'd , they generally concenter in this , that the southern hemisphere was the seat of paradise , and that this seems manifestly to be the sense of christian antiquity and tradition , so far as there is any thing definitive , in the remains we have upon that subject ; i find not that this is made out by him ; for doing which , he distributes the christian authors and fathers that have deliver'd their opinion concerning the place of paradise into three or four ranks or orders , and endeavours to shew , that tho they express'd themselves differently , yet duly examin'd , that all conspire and concur in the foremention'd conclusion , in the first place he reckons those who have set paradise in another world , or in another earth , which he concludes must have been beyond the torrid zone , in the other hemisphere . in this number he places ephrem syrus , moses barcephas , tatianus , and of later date , jacobus de valentia . to these he adds , such as say , that adam , when he was turn'd out of paradise , was brought into our earth , or into our region of the earth ; for this he says , is tantamount with the former , and this seems to be the sense of s. hierom , and of constantine in his oration in eusebius , and is positively asserted by sulpitius severus . and again , those authors that represent paradise , as remote from our world , and inaccessible , as s. austin , procopius gazaeus , beda , strabus fuldensis , historia scholastica ; for what is remote from our world , he says is to be understood to be that anticthon , or antihemisphere , which the antients oppos'd to ours . i must confess , i have not many of the authors here quoted by me , my poor country study not affording them : but on a consideration of what the author has quoted from them , and what i find quoted from them by others , we may discern how far they concur in that doctrine , which he here ascribes to them : and to proceed in order as the author has set them down , i find the opinion of ephrem quoted by ralegh from barcephus thus : ephrem dicit paradisum ambire terram , atque ultra oceanum ita positum esse , ut totum terrarum orbem ab omni circumdet regione , non aliter atque lunae orbis lunam cingit . now he that can make sense of this may ; unless he will expound it according to plato's fable of his aethereal earth . the author , in his latin copy , quotes also this passage , tho exprest in somewhat different terms , and explains it thus , that in the paradisiacal earth , the ocean compass'd about the body of the earth , and the paradisiacal earth compass'd about the whole ocean , as the orb of the moon does the moon ; so that he judges that form of the earth to be here intimated , which he has before given it ; where the abysse compass'd about the body of the earth , and the paradisiacal earth the abysse , or the ocean . now if this were so , it 's manifest that ephrem , in that passage , could not relate to one hemisphere more than to the other , which was the only thing the author had to make out . but , to be more plain in this matter , the book which barcephas ascribes to ephrem ( and that falsly , as i conceive ) and whence he quotes his opinion , is call'd parva genesis , or de ortu rerum ; the foregoing passage well suiting with others , quoted from a book of that title , which i guess to be the same ; and if so , i should have the worse opinion of barcephas , for quoting so frivolous , and i think i may say , so impious a pamphlet . ralegh derides that parva genesis , for the miserable stuff , thence often quoted by cedrenus ; and a man may be as well satisfi'd of it , by what we find thence quoted in glycas , who in the first part of his annals says , but that little book , de ortu rerum , tells us , that adam took of the tree of knowledg , and eat , without circumspection , no way urg'd thereto by the words of eve , but that he found a certain disquiet in his mind from tiredness and hunger . but it 's best to bury these things in silence , since they deserve an eternal silence : and there he cites several other ridiculous passages from him , and concludes , that every man that understands the scriptures , looks upon them as so . and again , he quotes this parva genesis in the third part of his annals , and rejects it in like manner , saying , that he knows not who was the author of it : whereas , when on occasion he quotes ephrem , he does it with much reverence . i have given a character of this book , because the author instances it in several places , lamenting its loss ; and seems chiefly to rely on it , in the point under debate . barcephas indeed , in one passage which the author quotes from him , intimates paradise to have been in the other hemisphere : but withal he says , that it was beyond the ocean , and intimates it to be still in being , so that unless the author will receive these traditions from him , i know not why he should urge the other . but i shall say more of barcephas beneath . as for tatianus , tho he distinguishes the earth of paradise from ours , saying that to be of a more excellent make , unless he had been more particular in pointing forth the place where it lay , i know not why it should be concluded that he thought it in the other hemisphere . when jacobus de valentia places paradise in the other hemisphere , he says , it 's because it lies under more noble stars than ours : now we know this ground to be notoriously false , for that all astronomers hold the stars of this hemisphere more noble than those in the other : and as mr. gregory observes in his learned notes on some scripture passages , our hemisphere is the principal , and far more excellent than the other : we have more earth , more men , more stars , more day , and which is more than all this , the north pole is more magnetical than the south , according to what the learned ridley says he observ'd , viz. that the pole of the magnet , which seats it self north , is always the most vigorous and strong pole to all intents and purposes . if hierom opposes paradise to our earth , i know not why it should imply more than some excellency of that soil more than of ours : neither do the passages of sulpitius severus , or constantine seem to me to have any force . as for austin , and others that held paradise remote from our world ; we know their opinion relates to a suppos'd high elevated situation of paradise , and not to any other hemisphere . austin , and hierom , and the antient fathers , generally holding that there was no other continent but this we inhabit . and tho the author refers the consideration of this opinion of the high elevated situation of paradise , to another chapter , i think fit to examin it here . we find then that several of the authors before-mention'd , as barcephas , strabus fuldenses , historia scholastica , beda , austin , besides many others not nam'd before , as damascene , rupertus , basil , alchimus avitus , tostate , and many more gave paradise a very highly elevated situation ; some saying it to have been seated as high as the sphere of the moon , or within the lunar circle . which opinion seems to me to have been taken from the theology of the gentils , their divines , as servius tells us , placing elysium about the lunar circle . but this opinion the author says , looks very strange and extravagant at first sight , but the wonder will cease if we understand this , not of paradise taken a part from the rest of the earth , but of the whole primaeval earth , wherein the seat of paradise was : that was really seated much higher than the present earth , and may be reasonably suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of our mountains are now : and that phrase of reaching to the sphere of the moon , signifies no more than these other expressions , of reaching to heaven , or reaching above the clouds : and he believes the antients aim'd by this phrase to express an height above the middle region , or above our atmosphere , that paradise might be serene : and he tells us the tradition of reaching to the lunar circle is deriv'd by albertus magnus as high as from s. thomas the apostle , &c. i know some reply to this opinion , that if paradise had been as high elevated as those authors represent it , the basis or foundation of it must have taken up , in a manner , the whole earth , for it to have afforded an easie and gentle ascent to men , if the state of innocency had continued : whence they say , that when those fathers said that paradise reacht to the lunar circle , or near heaven , they said it hyperbolically , to shew the excellency of it by its hyperbolical height , or to set forth the continual even temper of the air there , it resembling in this the coelestial bodies , which are without contrariety . but to pass by this answer , the ground on which these authors went to give paradise this high elevated situation , which the author intimates to have been only for a sereneness of the air ; i find by a learned school-divine to have been three-fold : first , for affording a descent to the four rivers , which are said to have issu'd from paradise to water the whole earth : secondly , for a serene and wholsom air , whence they would place it above the winds and vapors of the earth : thirdly , that it might be preserv'd at the time of the deluge , as they all suppos'd it was , being much higher than all the mountains , said then to have been overflown . we find therefore on what ground barcephas gave paradise an high elevated situation , viz. for the course of the four rivers , which he plainly signifies thus , asserimus eam terrum , in quâ est paradisus , altiorem multò , sublimioremque existere hâc quam nos colimus : id enim ita se habere indicio sunt quatuor illa grandia flumina , quae orta in paradisi terrâ , per hanc nostram ab illâ diversam feruntur . ralegh also quotes the following passage from him to this effect . deinde hoc quoque responsum volumus , paradisum multò sublimiore positum esse regione , atque haec nostra extet terra , eóque fieri , ut illinc per praecipitium delabantur fluvii tantò cum impetu , quantum verbis exprimere non possis ; eóque impetu impulsi , pressique , sub oceani vado rapiantur , unde rursus prosiliant , ebulliantque in hoc à nostro culto orbe . so again , on the other ground , viz. the preservation of paradise at the flood , it was given an high situation : and as for its continuance since the flood , irenaeus says it was an apostolical tradition , that henoch and elias now remain in paradise , and tells us he learnt it from priests , who were disciples of the apostles . the same is taught by justin martyr , athanasius , austin , hierom , aquinas , theophilus bishop of antioch , malvenda , and many others . malvenda says that no divine till peter lombard , nor none after him till eugubinus , said that paradise was not still in being , or that it perisht by the deluge . hence we see , if christian tradition shall be stood to , and it be the general tradition of the fathers , that paradise is still in being , then must the author's hypothesis , concerning the fall of the earth at the flood be void . now , whereas the author says , that the high situation ascrib'd to paradise , must not be understood of paradise taken a part from the rest of the earth , but of the whole primaeval earth wherein the seat of paradise was ; which may reasonably be suppos'd to have been as high elevated as the tops of our mountains are now : we find that tho the suppos'd elevated situation which the author gives to the primaeval earth , and the course he gives to the sun in the antediluvian world , might possibly have afforded a paradisiacal sereneness of the air , as he intimates , yet his frame of the primaeval earth , would manifestly subvert the other two grounds the fathers went upon , viz. the course of the four rivers , and the preservation of paradise at the deluge ; and consequently he cannot pretend the least colour of strength given to his hypothesis , as being backt by the authority of those fathers and authors , who have given paradise an high situation . next , the author mentions another set of authors , that interpret the flaming sword that guarded paradise , to be the torrid zone ; whereby he says , they plainly intimate that paradise , in their opinion , lay beyond the torrid zone , or in the antihemisphere ; and for this opinion he quotes tertullian , cyprian , austin , isidore hispalensis and aquinas : and in his latin copy he much urges for the torrid zone's being signified by the flaming sword. to this i answer , that if any of those authors suppos'd paradise beyond the torrid zone , and not in it ( as tertullian at least held the later ) it's manifest that they never suppos'd any other hemisphere inhabitbited there , ( tho possibly they might suppose an island there ) for what then should have hindred all those inhabitants from entring into paradise , they being past the flaming sword. and it seems strange that the author should urge for the torrid zone's being signified by the flaming sword , he having suppos'd that the other hemisphere was inhabited before the flood ; whence consequently all the men there must have had free access to paradise . these are such inconsistencies that there is no man but must see them . another form of expression is instanc'd by the author , as us'd amongst the ancients concerning paradise , viz. that it was beyond the ocean , this being of the same import with the former head , pointing still at the other hemisphere . to which it may be answer'd as before , that tho they said paradise was beyond the ocean , it 's no consequence that they held another hemisphere inhabited there ; though possibly some may have fansied paradise an island there , or in the torrid zone itself . as to the passage of josephus quoted by the author concerning the esseens , a sect among the jews , relating to this opinion , josephus explains the meaning of it well enough , saying thus , the esseens say , as the greeks , that the souls of good men live beyond the ocean , in a place of pleasure , where they are never molested with rains , nor heat , but have always a sweet and pleasant air coming out of the ocean : but the wicked souls they say go into a place very tempestuous , where there is alway , as it were , winter weather , &c. whence it 's plain enough they took their opinion from the allegorical fictions of the greeks ; some of whom said , that tartarus was a place under the poles , by reason of the sharpness of the cold , and lasting darkness . after all , the author concludes that what account we have of the christian fathers concerning paradise , is but a short and broken account ; but their obscure expressions terminate all in this common conclusion , that paradise was without our continent , according to the general opinion and tradition of antiquity . as to its being a short and broken account , i think it must be so lookt upon by all men ; and as for their seeming to place it without our continent , i shall see forth beneath what seems to me most probable in the case : but at present upon the whole foregoing matter , i have only this to offer : ralegh , as a civil historian with reason says , that he toyld himself in making out the seat of the terrestrial paradise , and the place where the ark , rested , because the true understanding of those places do only and truly teach the worlds plantation , and the beginning of nations before and after the flood ; and all story , as well general , as particular thereby may be the better understood . and though his performance in that kind , nor no mans else has been such as to obtain a general reception ; yet since our guides in divine matters , in whose authority we ought to acquiesce , conclude that there was a corporeal paradise , we must be govern'd by them in it , and may well conceive that the qualities of the primigenial soil , air and waters far exceeding ours , there might have been some particular part in it , though not known , answering to moses's description . and for what flourishes , the fathers or any other christian or jewish authors have added to it ; since they have not particulary made out the place ; i think we are free to judge as we please of them . and as for heathen authors both greeks and latins , who had their learning of the aegyptians ; they are all known to have deriv'd their learning with the egyptians from moses , and the postdiluvian patriarchs before him , though their streams since have happen'd to have been miserably corrupted : but in their paradises they seem to me still to have kept to the intellectual , as the allegorical fathers did , their topical paradises being only feign'd . and as to the passages of the poets , as that of virgil concerning the perpetual spring ascrib'd to the golden age , and urg'd by the author : non alios primâ nascentis origine mundi illuxisse dies , aliúmve habuisse tenorem crediderim : ver illud erat , ver magnus agebat orbis , & hybernis parcebant flatibus euri , &c. servisn tells us that this is said only according to a poetical freedom , not that a real truth could be meant in it . the same must be said of ovid's verses of the golden age , urg'd also by the author . ver erat aeternum , placidíque tepentibus annis mulcaebant zephyri natos sine semine flores . whosoever takes this as a real truth , i think with as good reason may take the following verses , as so likewise , flumina jam lactis , jam flumina nectaris ibant , flaváque de viridi stillabant ilice mella . the streams with milk , the streams with nectar flow , and green oaks drop sweet hony as we go . for the one seems as philosophical to me as the other . and when the fathers , to whom we owe a greater reverence , expatiate themselves , as they often do , after the like manner , we give them no other interpretation : for when they go about to describe a paradise , which certainly was greatly adorn'd in itself , their business is to present us under one view , with all that is most specious and excellent in nature : so that they say it had in it whatsoever was best and most pleasant in every season of the year , the sweetness of the spring , the plenty of the summer , the chearfulness of autumn , the rest and ease of winter . and fancy is content to indulge all this , as it is set before it , without reflecting on those inconsistencies which strict reasoning would soon stumble at . and all those great wits , who have writ so floridly of the golden age , could not but know other things , as they consider'd what according to natural and civil history the world could afford in all ages from the beginning . from the view of which another face of things must be presented , and we must say with bodin , aetas illa quam auream vocant , si ad hanc nostram conferatur , ferrea videri possit : and we shall find , as boemus says , how politely and happily men live now , and how rudely and crudely the first mortals liv'd from the creation to the deluge , and many ages after thorowout the earth . how could men be conceiv'd to have liv'd in those times , but as they have lately been found to do in the west-indies ? vita cruda , sedes incerta , libido promiscua . so cicero tells us , fuit quoddam tempus cum in agris homines passim hostiarun more vagabantur , & sibi victu ferino vitam propagabant , nec ratione animi quicquam , sed pleraque viribus corporis administrabant . nondum divinae religionis , non humani officii ratio colebatur , nemo legitimas viderat nuptiaes , non certos quisquam inspexerat liberos , non jus aequabile quid utilitatis haberet , acceperant . ralegh says , the world would be a dull thing without navigation ; and plutarch aggravating the matter , says , that man would be the most vile , most necessitous , and least regarded animal in the world without it : and we have no account of any such thing us'd in the antediluvian times , nor in many succeeding ages to any purpose , whereas men have now so cultivated , and imbellish'd things both by land and sea , that the present earth compar'd to its ancient wild , and incult state , must be concluded another thing from what then it could have been . so tacitus tells us , that germany formerly was all woods and moors , barren of fruit-trees and unimprovable by any husbandry , that there were cattle in it , but dwarfish ; no gold nor silver in it , and therefore despis'd by all men ; whereas it 's now as pleasant a counrry almost in all respects as france , spain , or italy . indeed , in refetence to the civil or moral world , it might be said , that by the golden age is meant the ancient simplicity , which the poets or others would represent in our forefathers , as leading a quiet and calm life , free from all treachery , voluptuousness , and other burthensome circumstances to humane nature ; as we find some of the ancients formerly had so great a hatred and detestation of pleasures , superfluities and voluptuousness , that in the temple of the town of thebes , there was a famous square pillar erected , on which were engraven curses and execrations against king menis , who was the first that withdrew the egyptians from a simple and sober life without mony and riches . but it cannot be thought that ever this humour was general in the world , though it might happen sometimes in one place , and sometimes in another , according to the vicissitude of humane affairs . or we may say with natalis comes , what is the golden age but a common liberty of all men in a city well govern'd by laws , where wild beasts live freely with domestick animals , dogs with hares , lambs with wolves , and the like . for in a time of peace good men live safe under the protection of the laws among cut-throats and thieves . some by the golden age understand the time when men were govern'd by the law of nature written in their hearts , before the written law was in being . and others by the four ages , will have four sorts of men to be signified . but to pass from the moral world to the natural ; though as to the place which god appointed for paradise , it must be allow'd to have been adorn'd with all advantages and delights from the beginning ; yet as to the rest of the earth , i know not what warrant we have from the scriptures or other history . or what may be suggested from reason for any advantagious furniture it had for supplying men with necessaries or pleasures . indeed , the scriptures tell us of the longaevity of the antediluvian patriarchs , and we have suggested conjectures already of what it may be imputed too ; but as to the great fertility ascrib'd to the primigenial soil , that of necessity must have added to the inconvenience of habitation by an overgrowth , without persons to cultivate it ; and it seems likely to me that adam , as soon as he was turn'd out of paradise , was hardly put to his shifts : plutarch also sufficiently tells us what conveniencies for the support of humane life a recent world could afford ; so that a golden age in any such respect , seems to me to have been represented rather for gratifying the fancy than the judgment . and all i can bring it to , is this , that as the ancients by the golden age , in the moral world would represent an ideal state of pure nature and of innocency ; so by all their flourishes on the then course of external nature , they would personate an idaeal state of it correspondent to the other . having thus far shewn how little the author's hypothesis is backt by the sentiments of the ancients concerning paradise : i shall now briefly set forth , what , as far as my reading has gone , seems to me most probable in this matter . the learned mr. gregory , on that passage of zach. c. . . behold the man whose name is east ; whom he makes out to be christ , lays down this as a ground , that the special presence of god , as he superintends this world , ever was and is in that part of the heav'n , or heav'ns , which answers to the aequinoctial east of the holy land. to make this good , he says , the ancients always attributed to the gods the eastern parts , as porphyry says , and those parts are called by varro and festus , the seats of the gods , &c. he proves it also from reason , according to aristotle , thus , the first mover , viz. god must of necessity be present either to the center or circumference of his orb , and since motions are most rapid in the nearest distance to the impression , and since that part of the sphere is most rapidly mov'd , which is most remote from the poles , therefore the movers place is about the middle line : and this he thinks is the reason why the aequinoxes are believ'd to be of so sacred an import and signification in astrology ; for by them ( as ptolomy says ) it 's judg'd concerning things divine , and the service belonging to the house of god. now the philosophers meaning is not as if the mover presented himself alike unto the whole circumference , but assisting especially to that part from whence the motion does begin , viz. the east , whence averrhoes rightly says , some religious worship god that way . since therefore the aequinoctial east passes through the whole circle , of necessity 't is to be meant of some certain position , nor is it possible to mean it but of the horizontal segment of the then habitable world ; the uttermost bounds whereof from sun to sun , they absolutely term'd east and west . in the philosophers time the circle of this horizon past through the pillars of hercules in the west , calpe and abyla ; and the altars of alexander in the east . and at the pillars of hercules the arabians fixt their great meridian . now , this meridian passes through the tenth degree of longitude from that of ptolomy : and the river hyphasis , on the furthest banks of which alexanders altars were rais'd , as being the place where his journeys ended , is plac'd by ptolomy in . . the difference of longitude is about degrees ; the second part of which is . and because the meridian of jerusalem is degrees from that of ptolomy , that is from the arabian , the holy city was , as it was anciently term'd , vmbilicus terrae , being precisely plac'd betwixt the east and west of the habitable world. therefore the aequinoctial east of jerusalem , is the aequinoctial east of the whole , and answering to the first movers receipt , which therefore was said to be in oriente aequinoctiali . now , the notion of paradise in the christian acceptation , was that part of the heaven where the throne of god and the lamb is , it being , as zoroaster terms it , in the chaldean oracles , the all enlightned recess of souls . and irenaeus says , as he heard from disciples of the apostles , the receipt of just and perfect men is a certain paradise in the eastern part of the third heaven ; and many others of the fathers agree with him herein . and pa● . . . . david says , according to the arabick translation , sing unto god ye kingdoms of the earth , o sing praises to the lord , selah , to him that rides upon the heaven of heavens in the eastern part . gen. . . it 's said , and the lord planted a garden eastward , or toward the east . in the apostolical constitutions it 's said , and turning toward the east let them pray unto god , who sits upon the heaven of heavens in the eastern part . mr. gregory having thus establisht his ground , says , that this is the reason why god planted a garden in eden eastward ; and that though some say with mercerus , that nothing hinders but we may take it generally that paradise was planted in the eastern part of the world towards the rising sun , yet damascen , and barcephas say , that at the beginning of march the sun alway rises directly over paradise ; meaning that the garden of eden was planted toward the aequinoctial east of the holy land ; and the meaning of this is that , the sanctum sanctorum of this mother church pointed towards that part of heaven where the sun rises in the month nisan . for the sanctuary of paradise was the recess of the garden , which was distinguisht and made so by the presence of the tree of life : now this tree , according as we commonly translate it , was planted in the midst of the garden ; but in truth it stood in the eastern part of the place . and that not only adam , but the whole world also worshipt towards the east till abraham's time , maimoni in his more , and s. ephrem , and others in the arabick catena testifie . and it depends from this very same ground , that the most solemn piece of all the jewish service , i mean that great attonement , but once a year to be made , by the highest and most holy man , and in the most holy place , was perform'd towards the east , contrary to all other manner of addressments in their devotion . for lev . , . it 's commanded , that the high priest shall do with the blood of the goat , as with the blood of the bullock , and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward . now it s known that the sprinkling of blood , especially this , was the figure of him who by his own blood entred into the holy place , and obtain'd eternal redemption , heb. . . and hence isychius hierosolom , says , this was done to represent the man , cui oriens nomen ejus : and there are many passages in the scriptures which signifie to us , that christ came down to us from the east . and this is one reason why our saviour is said to be the man whose name is the east : in reference to whom the christians by some have been called orientales , and the blessed virgin is call'd orientalis porta . the other reason is according to what was intimated before , viz. that from adam till abraham's time the whole world worshipt towards the east . now this original , principal , and ( as it ought to have been everlasting ) ceremony , by an errour of the persian and chaldean worshippers degenerating into an idolatry of the sun ; abraham , ( says the learned maimoni ) by divine inspiration , appointed the west to his hebrews : therefore the tabernacle and temple were set towards that side of heaven . so that they did , and they did not worshipt towards the west . 't is true , all the sacrifices were offer'd up that way , but all this while they worshipt no more towards the west than towards the north. they worship towards the ark , or towards the place of that , and do so still , and are so to do , because the sun of righteousness was to set upon their horizon , and to them the man whose name is th' east , is not yet brought forth . it 's known also that christs star appear'd in the east , and the wise-men came thence , and christ ascended up into the eastern part of heaven , as the psalmist says , qui ascendit super coelum coeli ad orientem . and s. jo. damascen delivers as from the apostles that he shall come again in like manner , as he was seen to go hence , answerable to what he himself said ; for as the lightning comes out of the east , and shines even unto the west , so shall also the coming of the son of man be . we worship him therefore toward the east , as expecting him from thence . mr. gregory concludes with an ancient profession of the eastern church , who say , we pray toward the east , for that our lord christ when he ascended into heaven , went up that way , and there fits in the heaven of heavens above the east , according to david , praise the lord who sits in the heaven of heavens in the east : and in truth , we make no doubt but that our lord christ , as respecting his humane nature , has his seat in the eastern part of the heav'n of heav'ns , and sits with his face towards this world. to pray therefore , or to worship toward the east , is to pray and worship toward our saviour . and that all this is to be meant of the aequinoctial east ; it is made out by moses barcephas in his discourse of paradise : he says there , that the place toward which they prayed is that over which the sun rises in the month nisan , which is the vernal aequinox . this is what i have briefly collected from mr. gregory , from which i may draw what follows as a corollary . it appears from what is said that the ancient jews and christians plac'd their terrestrial and coelestial paradises ; with reference to the states of the churches militant and triumphant , the one under the sun on the earth , the other over it , in the third heavens , as the sun was plac'd in the aequinoctial east of hierusalem , and consequently of the whole habitable world ; and how possibly could the ancient mystae , who took upon them to bring all things to time and place , more aptly personate a particular presence of the divine logos in heav'n and earth than there ? since as he enlightens every man coming into this world , so the sun being in that aequinoctial east point , equally diffus'd its light over the whole habitable earth , and hence we direct our divine worship that way , and may conclude the seat of the terrestrial paradise there , though perhaps it was miraculously founded , or at least for many ages , has not been known to man. and as the foremention'd mr. gregory has observ'd , according to the sense of the most knowing . the year of the world began , the sun being in that vernal aequinox point , its revolutions beginning and ending there , nor can any other good reason be given why the astronomers should deduce all their calculations from the head of aries . if the pains i have bestow'd in composing this long chapter , may help somewhat to ease the mind of any man that peruses it concerning the seat of paradise , i shall think it well bestow'd : at least , beside my labour for my pains , it seems to give a little ease to my own . chap. viii . here the author sets forth the uses of his theory , for the illustration of antiquity , and endeavours to explain the ancients chaos , the uninhabitableness of the torrid zone , the changes of the poles of the world , the doctrine of the mundane egg , and endeavours to shew how america was first peopled , &c. first then concerning the ancients chaos ; he says , they have made a dark , confus'd and unintelligible story of it , telling us of moral principles in it instead of natural ; of strife , discord and division on the one hand , and love and friendship on the other : and that after a long contest , love got the better of discord , and united the disagreeing principles . then they make the forming of the world out of the chaos a kind of genealogy or pedigree ; chaos was the common parent of all , and from chaos sprung first night , and tartarus or oceanus ; of night were born aether and the earth , the earth conceiv'd by the influences of aether , and brought forth man and all animals . this , he says , seems a poetical fiction rather than philosophy , yet compar'd with his theory of the chaos , will appear a pretty regular account , how in the formation of the world the chaos divided it self successively into several regions rising from one another , as he has set forth in his first book , how the chaos from an uniform mass wrought in it self successively into several regions or elements . the grossest parts sank to the center , on this lay the mass of waters , and over the waters , was a dark , impure caliginous air , which the ancients call'd night , as they call'd the mass of waters oceanus or tartarus , which two terms he finds with them often of the like force . now this turbid air , he says , purifying itself by degrees , as the more subtle parts flew upwards , and compos'd th' aether , so the earthy parts dropt down on the surface of the water , and that mass , on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface , these two incorporate there , and compos'd this habitable earth , so being the daughter of nox and oceanus , and the mother of all other things . this doctrine of the chaos , he says , the ancients call'd the genealogy of the gods , and thus from eris and eros , love and discord , the world arose : for in the first commotion of the chaos , after an intestine struggle of all the parts , the elements separated from one another into so many different bodies or masses ; and in this state and posture things continued a good while , which the ancients after their poetical or moral way call'd the reign of eris or contention , hatred , flight , and disaffection , till love and good nature conquer'd , venus rose out of the sea , &c. i shall here adjoyn also what the author says of the doctrine of the mundane egg ; because it particularly relates to the rising of the world from the chaos . he says then , that the ancients had a doctrine partly symbolical concerning the mundane egg ; or their comparing the world to an egg , and especially in th' original composition of it . now he tells us , 't is certain that by the world in that similitude , they did not mean the great universe , for that has neither figure , nor any determinate form of composition ; and it would be a great vanity and rashness to compare this to an egg : but this comparison is to be understood of the sublunary world , or of the earth : and for a general key to antiquity upon this argument , he lays down this as a maxim or canon , that what the ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the world , or concerning th' original of it from a chaos , or about the periods or dissolution of it , is never to be understood of the great universe , but of our earth , and of this sublunary and terrestrial world. he intimated somewhat to this purpose in his first book , saying , that when we speak of a rising world , and the contemplation of it , we do not mean this of the great universe , for who can describe the original of that , but we speak of the sublunary world , this earth , and its dependancies , which rose out of a chaos about years ago . now , he says , he has shewn , that the figure of the earth when finisht , was oval , and th' inner form of it was a frame of four regions encompassing one another , where that of the fire lay like the yolk , and a shell of earth inclos'd them all : and thus the riddle of the mundane egg is expounded . i think fit for clearness-sake , to consider this part of the chapter , before i proceed to the rest . first then , as to strife , discord , or division , on one hand in the chaos , and love and friendship on the other : it 's known on what account these are brought in : for some of the ancient philosophers made two eternal and infinite principles on this ground ; that one natural thing might be derived from many causes ; and the ancient philosophers generally affirm the principles of nature to be contrary , and that one thing cannot be contrary to itself . and whereas the author calls these moral principles , it 's known to the mystae , that there is a microcosmical , as well as a macrocosmical chaos , and that the ancients often , under one tenour of discourse , carried on both moral and natural doctrines , and knew well how to open or unlock the microcosmical chaos , and to form thence a moral world. the doctrine of moses and the prophets are full of this mystery , and a consummation of them was in the person of our saviour christ : the doctrine also of the gentils , both philosophers and poets , who were the ancient divines , contain the same mysteries ; but their proceedings in several respects were in a very corrupt way , and are now expell'd the world upon the establishment of a greater light. those who are any way initiated in these mysteries , know how far they may be free to express themselves in them ; concerning which i have nothing more to offer , than to pray that love in the moral world , as well as in the natural , may still overpower the other perverse and refractory principle , and beseech god , in his mercy to enlighten every man in his appointed time . as to the chaos out of which the world rose , though the author thinks he has given a fair explanation of it according to the sence of the ancients , and of the changes it underwent , when it form'd a world , and all creatures rose from it ; yet i think i have shewn before the inconsistency of this explanation , beside what else may be said against it . and admitting th'application , he has made of his doctrine , as to what changes he supposes to have past in the chaos , when the world was form'd , might quadrate in some tolerable way with what seems to be deliver'd by the ancients concerning it : yet since we are here gotten into fabulous philosophy , and since those terms of the ancients , night , tartarus , oceamus , aether , &c. have various significations according as they are variously expounded by several authors , all that any man can urge in the case can amount to no more than his say-so , unless the determinate sense of those words , as us'd by the ancients , were better ascertain'd to us than perhaps any man has yet done : concerning which i should have expected somewhat in a book , if extant , which the learned joan. picus , in his oration , and other parts of his works , says he had written , entituled theologia poetica , our common mythologists not reaching it ; mean while to avoid cavillations in this kind , i shall only set down briefly what i conceive to have been the sense of the ancients concerning the chaos , and the mundane egg ; and let it bear as far as it may : though withal , to lessen that reverence which some may have for the cosmogonia of the ancient gentils , i shall first set down the sense of eusebius concerning it ; who says , that though plato , out of a seeming compliance with the laws of his city , pretends to give credit to the poetick theogonia , which is the same with their cosmogonia , as a tradition deliver'd down from the sons of the gods ; who must not be suppos'd to have been ignorant of their parents ; yet all the while he does but slily jeer it , plainly intimating the fabulosity thereof , when he affirms it to have been introduc'd , not only without necessary demonstrations , but also without so much as probabilities . this being premis'd , i may set down what my own thoughts may be concerning it , as follows . the ancient philosophers who made it their business to search into the reasons of humane and divine things , could not rest in the examination , and setting forth of the causes of particular effects they found here on the earth , but attempted the consideration of the whole world , and how all things issued at first from their divine or metaphysical principle . now the world being anterior to mankind , after they had contemplated the proceeding of it from god , when they came to set it forth , they could not more plausibly do it , than by similitude , or analogy to those common generations we have before us ( whence came the doctrine of the mundane egg ) and by the references , which they conceiv'd were betwixt the operations of the ideas in the divine mind , and those they observ'd in the mind of man. they observ'd that nature and art proceeded from certain obscure and rough dilineations to a more exact form ; and concluding that as art imitates nature , so nature does the deity from whence it flowed , they thought that by observing that order which nature holds , was the only method to find out the way of the divine operation . but as i have intimated in my considerations on the first book , i know not how far we may look upon any of the most learned amongst the gentils to have held any real successive changes to have pass'd in the chaos , toward the formation of the world : their design in setting forth a chaos , and changes it underwent , seeming to have been only to help our way of conceiving , by reducing all things mentally to number and order , as issuing at first from one principle , according to the pythagorean philosophy , deriving all things à monade , or as rising ab ovo analogically ; which amounts to no more than what jamblicus says of the egyptians , viz. that they made mud and water floating ( the chaos being suppos'd such ) their hieroglyphick of material and corporeal things . and as austin says , when the ancients talk of a beginning of the world , intellerunt non esse hoc temporis sed substitutionis initium . de civ . dei , l. . c. . whereas the author will not allow moses's cosmopaeia to be philosophical ; it not passing from one rank of beings to another in a physical order and connection , according to the motions and transformations of the chaos : moses making all things to spring from the all-powerful word of god one after the other , in that order which was fittest for furnishing an habitable world according to a popular decorum : to this i say , first , that many men already pretend to have shewn , and among others the learned vallesius , a due physical order and connexion in moses's cosmopoeia , and that all things past in it according to a due priority of nature : and concerning this cosmopoeia , i could wish to have read a book writ by don isaac abravanel , a spanish jew ( mention'd in father simon 's catalogue of jewish authors , annext to his critical history ) entituled miphaboth elohim ( works of god ) where the said rabbin has learnedly treated of the creation of the world , and withal examin'd whence moses had what is writ in the book of genesis . secondly , that when the author shall shew us in a more philosophical way than moses has done ( let him take it from whom of the gentils he pleases ) how the world at first proceeded from god , we may hearken to him : mean while there is this to observe ; first , that the creation was a metaphysical act , and the order of it is incomprehensible to man farther than it has pleas'd god to reveal it to him by his prophets . secondly , that i have already validly refuted ( as i conceive ) those separations which the author has suppos'd to have past in the chaos at the formation of the world. thirdly , that if the author , or any man else shall attempt to explain what the ancients have said of a chaos , and any successive changes it underwent , when it form'd an habitable world ; before they expect us to acquiesce in their explanation , or to believe that the ancients meant more in what they said in that kind , than to render our thoughts easie , as to an apprehension of a beginning of things , by their setting it forth by a similitude to common generations from eggs , they ought to bring that ancient debated point to a clear determination , viz. whether the egg or chick were first ; for those who maintain a chaos , and real successive changes to have past in it , must make out the egg to have been before the chick ; whereas plutarch , macrobius , and others who have debated the point , seem more inclin'd to the other opinion , holding all things at first to have been set in their perfect state , through the perfection of the first cause . aristotle also tells us , that pherecydes syrus , the magi , and others of the sages , affirm'd that the first principle , whence all other things were generated , was the best ; or of an absolute perfect being : so that in the scale of nature things did not ascend upwards , from the most imperfect to the more perfect beings , ( as the ancient poets represent ) but on the contrary , descend downwards from the most perfect to the less perfect , of which opinion he also declares himself . whereas the author sets down this as a maxim that what the antients have said concerning the original of the world from a chaos , or about its periods or dissolution , is never to be understood of the great universe , but of our earth , or of this sublunary world ; and thinks he can demonstrate that moses's cosmogonia is so to be under stood ; i know not whether it may be so easily done ; finding the greatest part of writers to be of a contrary opinion . and those that maintain that opinion may do well to tell us ( if the heavens were for i know not what series of ages before this earth , and sublunary region ) what this place was before the time of the creation , set forth by moses ; whether it were a vacuum , or a spacium imaginarium , for it would seem an odd hole left by providence , after the rest of beings were completed . but as what moses has said of the creation , by most christian writers is understood of the whole system of beings , as well coelestial as terrestrial , so we find when the antient gentils speak of the rise of things from a chaos , they mean the same : hesiod , and ovid , and others that write of the chaos , are plain that the heavens rose from it as well as the earth : and we know the hermetick philosophers , who are lookt upon by some to be much more antient than moses , but certainly of great antiquity , tell us of a cohabitation there was of superiors and inferiors in the chaos : and that upon the separation of it , the superiors retir'd to their coelestial abode . aristophanes also , whom the author admires above the rest , plainly says in his cosmogonia , that the chaos was before the earth , the air , and the heavens . moreover when the author says the theogonia of the antients was the same with their cosmogonia , and their cosmogonia the same with their geogonia , it would be absurd to understand those genealogies of the terrestrial bodies , exclusively to the coelestial : for those gentils being infected with polytheism , and making the chief parts and portions of the world gods ; it 's manifest that they did not only make the chief parts of the earth so ; they being known to have ador'd the whole host of heaven . so again , as to the dissolution of the world by fire , we find the antients generally understood it of the heavens as well as of the earth . hierom , in his comment on the th . of isaiah , says , quae quidem & philosophorum mundi opinio est , omnia quae cernimus igni peritura . seneca , delivering the opinion of the stoicks , says , sydera syderibus incurrent , & omni flagrante materiâ , uno igne , quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet , ardebit . lucan says , communis mundo superest rogus , ossibus astra misturus — and he expresses himself to the same purpose elsewhere . ovid , from the oracles of the sibyls , says , esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus , quo mare , quo tellus , correptáque regia coeli ardeat , & mundi moles operosa laboret . the sybils verses are as follows , tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto igneus , atque locos consumet funditus omnes , terrámque , oceanúmque ingentem , & caerula ponti , stagnáque , tum fluvios , fontes , ditémque severum , caelestémque polum ; caeli quoque lumina in unum fluxa ruent , formâ deletâ prorsus eorum . then from high heaven vast streams of fire shall flow , those flames consuming all things here below ; the earth , the mighty ocean , the blue main , lakes , rivers , fountains , and what dis does claim , and heaven it self , whose lights shall flow in one , and stars shall fall , their form destroy'd and gone . so again , it 's a common opinion amongst christian divines , that the heavens will be destroy'd by fire as well as the earth . dr. hakewill , in his apology , says , it seems to him the most likely opinion , and most agreeable to scripture and reason , that the whole world , with all the parts thereof ( only men , angels , and devils , and the third heavens , the mansion house of the saints and angels , and the place and instruments appointed for the tormenting of the damn'd excepted ) shall be totally and finally dissolv'd and annihilated ; which he proves by many forcible arguments , refuting the contrary opinion , and mentioning many learned men of his ; thinking he has so far evinc'd it , that it is not solidly answerable ; to whose book , for brevity sake , i must remit the reader . so salmeron on that passage of s. peter . . says . loquitur ergo hoc in loco de veris coelis , de quibus david dixit : initio tu domine terram fundasti , & opera manuum tuarum sunt coeli ipsi peribunt ; ( nimirum per ignem ) ubi ostendit veros coelos , & veram terram verè peritura . and beneath . quòd autem quidam ex patribus interpretabantur non de supremis & veris coelis , sed de aereis & aqueis esse intelligendum ; ratione ipsius textus revincuntur : nam imprimis ostendimus , nunquam coelorum nomine in plurali numero aereos & elementares coelos accipi ; deinde post coelos nominatos subdit ( elementa verò calore solventur ; & infra , elementa ignis ardore tabescent : ) quod aerem , & aquam , & sphaeram ignis spectare videtur . non possunt ergo per coelos accipi illa tria elementa , cum bis coelos ab elementis contra distinguat . again esay . . it 's said , all the host of heaven shall be dissolv'd , and the heavens shall be roul'd together as a scrole ; and all their host shall fall down , as the leaf falls from the vine , and as a falling fig from a fig-tree : which words s. john apoc. . . seems to have borrowed from the prophet . and so i look upon the following verses of juvencus to be writ according to a prophetick truth . immortale nihil mundi compage tenetur : non orbis , non regna hominum , non aurea roma , non mare , non tellus , non ignea sydera coeli . nam statuit genitor rerum irrevocabile tempus , quo cunctum torrens rapiet flamma ultima mundum . i shall only add , that those , who by their insight in symbolical learning , reach the mystical sense of the prophets , well know that what is symboliz'd by the heavens will pass away in the day of the mystical conflagration , as well as what is symboliz'd by the earth ; whence unless the whole shall be symbolically evacuated , so that the conflagration shall not concern external nature , i shall ever believe that the one will be concern'd in it , as well as the other : homo cum dormierit , non resurget , dum non erunt coeli . and not to rest , in mystery where i may be plain , the mystical conflagration is known to be the baptism by fire and the spirit : ( whence , i conceive , some sects of christians almost from the first times of christianity , as the jacobites , aethiopians , copts , isini , &c. instead of baptizing with water , were wont to have their children burnt by their priests in the cheeks or foreheads with an iron , according to that , matth. . he will baptize you with the holy ghost and fire : ) now , when god is pleas'd to send that baptism , not only sense , symboliz'd by the earth , but reason also , symboliz'd by the heavens , passes away and is absorp'd in the spirit , and carryed above itself ; the spirit being as much exalted above reason , as reason is above sense ; and this is a truth own'd by all divines ; though none , i conceive , can apprehend how the thing is transacted , but those to whom god has vouchsafed that baptism , they being brought into that state of mind , which made s. paul say , omnia mihi in aenigmate facta sunt : nothing being able to perceive the ways of the spirit , but the spirit ; and hence we find after the apostles receiv'd it , they were censur'd by the people of being intoxicated with wine ; their discourse then being besides the common apprehension of men ; and hence s. paul also , in the like circumstance , was taxt by festus , of being grown mad through too much learning . in reference to this assertion of the author , viz. that the rise of the world from a chaos , and its periods , must be understood only of our sublunary world ; there is one opinion , which deserves particularly to be noted , viz. that of the antient cabalists . these ancient jewish rabins , as eleasar , moses aegyptius , simon , ismael , jodan , nachinan , and others , with whom origen seems to agree , would never yield precedence in depth of learning to the philosophers of the gentils : and therefore derided their opinions , who by astrology and philosophy pretended to know the methods taken by providence , in the rise and periods of the world ; and affirm'd themselves the only men , knowing in the mysteries of that immense aeternity ; as having drawn a consummate knowledge in reference thereunto , from a divine tradition , first communicated to moses by god himself in mount sinai , god saying , esdr . . c. . v. . that he had shewn him the secrets and end of times . these doctors say , that by the benefit of this cabala or tradition , the marrow of the law of moses , and the deepest secrets of god are reveal'd to them ; and that they thence know , that god has created infinite worlds in a continued succession , and destroy'd and demolish'd them again , viz. this sublunary region , every seven thousand years ; and the superior region every forty nine thousand years . they add , that in six of the seven thousand years the chaos generates and produces all new things , and those being ended , it gathers all things into itself again , and rests the seventh thousand year , and in that millenary of rest , it fits and prepares it self for a new germination ; and so a certain continued succession of worlds has been hitherto , and will be for the future ; and at length this inferior world being thus renewed , and as it were reborn seven times , and the course of forty nine thousand years expir'd ; in the fifty thousandth year the heavens will also be dissolv'd , and all things will return into their ancient chaos and first matter ; and then god taking all the blessed minds and spirits to himself , will give rest to the bulk of this universe ; and afterwards , all things being renewed by his immense wisdom and power , he will frame a world much more beautiful and pleasant ; and for this reason , no mention is made of the creation of angels in the scriptures , where the creation of the world is set forth , because they remain'd immortal in the creation of the precedent worlds ; and hence solomon in the book of wisdom , supposes a confus'd matter before the creation of this world , and says elsewhere , that there is nothing new under the sun. they endeavour to confirm their opinion from several other testimonies taken from the scriptures , which i shall not stand here to relate . this opinion , indeed , if it would bear , might have been a good salvo for those men , who in the council of nice objected to spiridio , and the other bishops there , that it seem'd very absurd , god in his infinite eternity should have fram'd this world , so short a time to continue , but about four or five thousand years ago ; they asking what he did before , or what he should do after this world ceas'd . but the general stream of divines is against this opinion , they holding that god framed only one world from the beginning . and when all is said of that opinion , the cabalists being a sort of mystical writers , i look upon the scope of what they have said concerning infinite renovations of worlds , to be directed in a different way from what the letter seems to import ; but in such cases every man being apt to please himself best with his own thoughts , i shall not take upon me here to be their expositor . let us now particularly consider the doctrine of the ancients concerning the mundane egg ; whence some farther light may be given to their doctrine of the chaos , and of the worlds form or figure . now concerning that doctrine ( as i have intimated before ) the author says it was partly symbolical , they comparing the world to an egg , and especially in the original composition of it ; and he adds , it 's certain that by the world in that similitude , they did not mean the great universe , but the sublunary world only , or the earth , the figure of which , when finish'd , he has shewn to have been oval ; and that th' inward form of it was a frame of four regions encompassing one another , as in an egg. i know not why th' author should be so positive in setting this down as a general rule for us to prevent error in reading th' ancients , that what they have writ about the form and figure of the world , as well as of its origine and dissolution , must be understood only of the earth ; when himself tells in his first book , in the latin copy , that some of th' antients by the egg represented the world , others the earth , and others the chaos . but he will have those who represented the world and the chaos by it , to have talkt by rote ; or through an ill understanding , or being byass'd by their private opinions to have wrested the signification of it , from what the wisest among th' ancients thought . this indeed would be an easie way of refuting th' ancients if it would pass , but when we particularly consider what they have said in this point , we shall not find a man of them that favours th' authors particular opinion ; and in my first book , i think , i have shewn it a notorious error if they had . there are three ways then of considering the doctrine of the ancients concerning the mundane egg ; first , how the egg is compar'd , particularly to the earth or sublunary region . secondly , how to the whole universe consisting of the heavens and the earth . thirdly , how to the chaos . in reference to the first , alexander aphrodiseus says , that an egg comprehends all the qualities of th' elements , and plainly shews those four first principles of things within itself ; the crusty shell resembles the earth , it being cold and dry , the white carries the nature of water , being cold and moist ; the spirit contained in the white is for air , being hot and moist ; and the yolk represents the fire , having most of heat , and less of drought , nor is it without the colour of fire : briefly he says , that the likeness of the whole universe , which we call the world , is shewn in an egg ; for it consists of four elements , and has a kind of sphaerical figure , and carries within it a principle of life . thus we see he makes the sublunary region an egg inverted , resembling the yolk to the aether , and the shell to the earth , contrary to the authors opinion . secondly , the egg is resembled to the whole universe by varro , the most learned among the romans , as probus on virgil's sixth eclogue acquaints us saying , that varro compar'd the heavens to the shell of an egg , and the earth to the yolk . achilles tatius also , quoted by the author , when he tells us , that the followers of orpheus affirm the world to be oval , as an egg , he says it of the whole universe , as varro does , which no way advantages the authors opinion , applied particularly to the earth ; and the inward envelopings he supposes it had . ptolomy also , in his compost , says , that the elements and all things compos'd of them , are inclos'd within the first heaven , or the heaven of the moon , as the yolk of an egg is within the white . but the main doctrine of the ancients concerning the egg ( as the author himself owns ) was by comparing it to the world in its origin , or as it rose from a chaos ; they setting forth , that as particular generations are from eggs , so the whole world rose from it . thus plutarch tells us , it was the opinion of orpheus and pythagoras , that the egg was the principle and ordinary source of generation ; and that orpheus held the egg not only more ancient than the hen , but to have the seniority of all things in the world. now though we have no ground to think that the ancients were as good egg philosophers , as the world has now , by the help of late anatomical researches , assisted by our opticks ; yet plutarch to exemplifie generations , and the rise of things from eggs , says thus . the world containing many differing species of animals , there is not one species of them , but passes by the generation of the egg ; for the egg produces volatiles , which are birds ; swimming creatures , which are fishes , in an infinite number ; terrestial animals , as lizards ; amphibious animals , which live both in the waters , and on the earth , as crocodiles ; such as have but two feet , as poultry ; such as have no feet as the serpent ; and those that have many as grashoppers : whence plutarch concludes , it is not therefore without great reason , that the egg is consecrated to the sacred ceremonies of bacchus , as a representation of the author of nature , who produces and comprehends in itself all things . macrobius also , who seems in a manner a transcriber from plutarch , says , those that are initiated in the sacred ceremonies of liber pater , pay a veneration to the egg in this respect ; that from its smooth , even , and almost spherical figure , shut up in every part , and including life within it , it may be call'd a type of the world , and the world by the consent of all men is the principle of the universe ; he says further , as the elements existed at first and then the other bodies were made of the mixture of them ; so the seminal reasons which are in an egg , are to be lookt upon as certain elements of the hen. thus we find the great doctrine of the mundane egg referr'd to the generation of all things from the chaos , concerning which the doctrin of the ancients runs thus , as i find it stated by a certain author . they say the chaos was before all things , and that in a long series of duration , it settled in itself a center and a circumference , gathered together in the form of a vast egg ; upon the breaking of which , a certain kind of person of a double form arose , being both male and female , and call'd phaneta : out of this came heaven and earth , out of heaven came six males , which they call titans ; oceanus , caeus , crius , hyperion , japetus , cronos or saturn ; from the earth six women ; thya , rhea , themis , mnemosyne , thetis , hebe ; of all these , he that was first born of heaven , took the first daughter of the earth to wife ; the second , the second , &c. saturn therefore took rhea , &c. from this doctrin , we as plainly see how fairly the analogy holds betwixt the generation of the world , upon the disruption of the chaodical egg , and the particular generations and rise of animals from their respective specifical eggs ; as we may see how forc'd and unnatural it would be to apply this doctrin only to the earth , and its disruption at the deluge ; for at the disruption of the mundane egg , upon the appearance of phaneta , which orpheus makes the same with eros , or love , the heavens and earth , with all their beauteous ornament arose ; as upon the disruption of particular eggs , the chick with all that admirable mechanism in the structure of its parts , and the advantage of animal life comes forth ; whereas if this doctrine shall be apply'd particularly to the antedilunian earth ( as represented by the author ) and it shall be said , that that earth after sixteen hundred years incubation of the sun , upon its disruption produc'd this present world , where is the analogy with particular generations from their respective eggs ? since upon the disruption of that earth , the miserable chick within ( according to the authors own hypothesis ) was found no way comparable to the shell it had before ; the antediluvian earth far transcending the present ; so that if that earth must have been an egg , it was but an addled one . the author therefore has given the earth an oval figure , only to serve his hypothesis , for the course of his rivers ( as i have intimated before ) and if the sectators of orpheus , or possibly any others of the ancients gave the earth itself an oval figure ; not a man of them gives the least intimation of any inward envelopings it had answering to those in an egg , as the author does ; who by over-straining the matter seems to leave a substance by pursuing a shadow ; thereby wholly perverting the analogy betwixt the egg and the world , which those ancients endeavour'd to set forth . and whatever formerly has been variously said concerning the figure of the earth , whether as oval or else , we know the opinion of its spherical figure has generally obtain'd , as lookt upon to be demonstrated . and again , if eggs are commonly of somewhat an oval form , there are particular reasons for it , the directer of natures mechanism giving them that figure , either for the greater ease in exclusion , according to the structure of the parts , through which they are then to pass ; or for the more convenient site of the animal to be form'd within ; besides that when eggs are form'd , the fluid matter is not free to run into that figure it would , to the film encompassing them being in some part connected to the ovarium , and they are also prest upon by other eggs ; whereas neither of these reasons , nor any others , i conceive , are to be found in the earth ; and that the ancients could not nicely insist upon an analogy , betwixt the world and an egg for its oval figure , it appears from hence , that eggs generally are only oblong and not properly oval , they being much larger at one end than at the other . the second point consider'd by the author in this chapter , is the uninhabitableness of the torrid zone , concerning which he says thus . but nothing seems more remarkable than the uninhabitability of the torrid zone , if we consider what a general fame and belief it had among the ancients ; and yet in the present form of the earth , we find no such thing , nor any foundation for it : i cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption , only because it lay under the course of the sun , if the sun had the same latitude from the equator in his course and motion that he has now , &c. he instances several of the ancient philosophers , astronomers , and geographers , who held that zone uninhabitable ; and adds , that some of the ancient philosophers whom he also names , held that the poles of the world did once change their situation , and were at first in another posture from what they are now , till that inclination happen'd , &c. and concludes that these opinions of the ancients , must refer to that state of things which he has represented in his antediluvian world. to this i answer , that it seems no wonder it should be the common receiv'd opinion among the ancients , that the torrid zone was uninhabitable ; for navigation being not come to its perfection , america undiscover'd , and no trading establish'd by land to those parts of africa , that lye under the torrid zone , and the great heats found in the neighbouring climates to it , might naturally induce such a belief in them , so that we may allow it to have past as a negative tradition among them , for that no man had attempted a discovery ; but to conclude that this was a positive tradition among them , deriv'd from antediluvian times , on a suppos'd differing position , which the heavens or earth then had ; it 's more than the thing will bear ; neither was that opinion of the uninhabitableness of the torrid zone so general in ancient times , but some patrons of the earth , merely upon a stress of reasoning , always said nay to it . thus plutarch tells us , that pythagoras ( as great a man as any among the greeks , and more ancient than any the author has nam'd for the contrary opinion ) held the torrid zone habitable , and a temperate region , as being in the midst betwixt that of the summer , and that of the winter ; and certainly pythagoras was as likely a man as any among the ancients to have known such a tradition , and to have faithfully convey'd it to posterity if there had been any ground for it , himself and orpheus being judg'd by many to have been knowing in the mosaick cabala , concerning the true system of the world. ptolomy also says , many contend , that the parts near the equinoctial are inhabited , as being the most temperate region ; because the sun neither stays in the vertical points , but makes swift recesses according to latitude from the equinoctial points ; whence the summer is rendred temperate ; neither in the solstices is it far from the vertex , wherefore the winters must be very mild . bede quotes this passage and adds , but what those habitations are , we cannot say with any likely ground ; for men have not pass'd thither even to this day ; wherefore what is said of it may be lookt upon rather as a conjecture , than a true history . tertullian also held the torrid zone a temperate region , and plac'd paradise in it , and so did nicephoras , according to the opinion of theophilus ; the like did bonaventure and durandus of later years ; and avicenna among the arabians held that region temperate . here also it may be noted that generally those that held the uninhabitableness of the torrid zone , held likewise the two polar zones uninhabitable through continual frosts there ; so that the tradition of the one ought to be held as well as that of the other , which would destroy the authors hypothesis , for the source of his waters , as i have intimated before . as to those philosophers , mention'd by the author to have held that the poles of the world once chang'd their situation , i know no reason we have to follow them in it , more than a multitude of other erroneous opinions , which we find amongst the ancient philosophers ; ignonorance in cosmography being an epidemical distemper amongst them ; so that plutarch tells us pythagoras was said to be the first who bethought him of the obliqueness of the zodiack , which invention some ascribe to oenopides of chius . the same tells us parmenides was the first , who limited the places inhabited on the earth ; to wit , those that are in the two habitable zones , to the tropick circles . what wonder then that the ancients should lie under great mistakes in things relating to that knowledge ? but the author urges in his answer to mr. warren , that diogenes , anaxagoras , empedocles , leucippus and democritus say , there was once a change of the poles , therefore it must be lookt upon as a tradition amongst the ancients , for which they are good testimonies : but i would ask the author whether either of those philosophers deliver their opinion as a tradition among the ancients ? plutarch , whence he quotes their opinions , entitles his book the opinions of the philosophers , and delivers this as their particular opinion , and not as a tradition , and assigns the several reasons they went upon , which are all found to be erroneous ; and to expect that we should receive their opinion as a tradition , and acquiesce in it without any farther ground , seems to me altogether as unreasonable as to say , that because diagoras , theodorus cyreneus , evemeras , euripides , mentioned also by plutarch , and others of the ancient philosophers , held there was no deity , therefore this must be lookt upon as a well-grounded tradition , and fit for us to receive , that there is no deity ; this is too hard putting upon our reason . well , but the author grants their reasons are false , but says , it would be as injudicious to exclude them from being witnesses , or fair testimonies of such a thing , because they do not philosophise well about that change ; as if we should deny that there was such a war as the peloponesian war , because the historian has not assign'd the true causes and reasons of it : or to deny that a comet appear'd in such a year , because a person that makes mention of it , has not given a good account of the generation of it , nor of the causes of its form and motion . i answer , that i do not exclude them from being witnesses meerly because of the false reasons they give for what they say ; but because that they neither own themselves as witnesses , neither does it any way appear that what they deliver , is as they are vvitnesses , but meerly from their own fancy ; as it may be said of diagoras and the rest that held a non-existence of a deity . and as to the instances of the peloponesian war and the comet , there is a vast disparity betwixt these and the other : for the peloponesian war and the comet are notorious facts convey'd down to us by every historian and astronomer nemine contradicente , as they receiv'd it from time to time from unquestionable hands . but what are those five philosophers to the whole body of the philosophers both before and after them , who mention no such thing . nor do those five affirm the change of the poles otherwise than their private opinion ; and the reasons they assign for it are so frivolous , that vallesius aptly calls them ineptiae infantilis illius philosophiae , and shews the erroneous ground they went upon . but because the author does not insist upon the validity of their reasons , i shall not examine them here , but refer the reader to vallesius . the author adds some other witnesses for this change of the posture of the earth and heavens , viz. plato , the poets , some christian fathers , and jewish doctors , who all justifie that in the first ages there was a constant spring , so that the heavens and earth must have chang'd their posture since . but i conceive i have sufficiently answer'd all this in my precedent and and some other chapters : and hope the author will not go about to put upon us allegorical fictions for historical truths . another thing the author endeavours to give an account of in this chapter is , how america came to be peopled , which he thinks is easily answered according to his hypothesis , viz. that the antediluvian earth being smooth , men could freely pass before the flood to all parts of this continent ; and if they could not then pass into the other hemisphere beyond the torrid zone ; he says , providence seems to have made provision for that , in transplanting adam into this hemisphere , after he had lain the foundation of a world in the other : and concludes , that god foreseeing how many continents the earth would be divided into after the ceasing of the flood , made provision to save a remnant in every continent , that the race of mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them . as to this assertion , i shall leave it to the judgment of divines how far we must be determin'd by the text of moses as to a destruction of all mankind , saving noah and his family in the deluge there describ'd , and shall only offer what follows from common reason . first , it will concern the author to consider how his assertion here can consist with what he has set forth concerning the universality of the deluge in the second chapter of his first book , where he reasons against those who have endeavoured to represent noah's flood , as a partial deluge , affecting only a particular countrey , and urges thus : i cannot but look upon the deluge as a much more considerable thing than these authors would represent it , and as a kind of dissolution of nature . moses calls it a destroying of the earth as well as of mankind . and beneath , he says , st. peter compares the conflagration with the deluge , as two general dissolutions of nature : and one may as well say , that the conflagration shall be only national , as to say that the deluge was so . and again , we see that after the flood the blessing for multiplication , and for replenishing the earth with inhabitants , was as solemnly pronounc'd by god almighty , as at the first creation of man , gen. . . and gen. . . these considerations , he says , he thinks might be sufficient to give us assurance from divine writ , of the universality of the deluge ; and yet that moses affords anonother argument as demonstrative as any , when in the history of the deluge he says , gen. . . the vvaters exceedingly prevailed upon the earth , and all the highest hills that were under the whole heavens were cover'd , all the high hills that were under the whole heavens , then quite round the earth . and in his latine copy , he says , moses's history adds particularly , the thing being as it were measur'd and accurately examin'd , that the waters overflowed the highest mountains fifteen cubits ; which mark , he judges to be added not without providence , that we might thence gather , by a testimony not to be gainsaid , that the deluge did not keep itself within the limits of any one region whatsoever . and much more the author urges both in his english and latin copies to the same purpose ; and how all this can consist with a preservation of some remnant of men in every continent , at the time of the deluge , i must leave it to him to consider . secondly , according to the authors own hypothesis , when he says , that the passages north and south being not free , men could not go out of one hemisphere into the other , but providence seems to have made a provision for that , in transporting adam into this hemisphere , after he had lain a foundation for a world in the other ; i hope he does not mean by this , that adam left any children in the other hemisphere to people it , and be a foundation of a world there . it being a common opinion that adam and eve were but a few hours in paradise before they were expulst , and that expulsion being suppos'd by the author to be into this hemisphere , there were no people to remain in the other . wherefore ( as i have intimated before ) if the author's hypothesis must stand , it must be with these absurdities : first , that upon the expulsion of adam and eve out of paradise , god must have miraculously convey'd them through the torrid zone ( which the author supposes as impassable as a burning furnace ) into this hemisphere . secondly , after adam had children god must have wrought another miracle , to have convey'd some of them into the other hemisphere to people it ; and it would have been a curiosity to know which of adam's children were convey'd thither , cain we find must have been one , because he is said , gen. . . to have dwelt on the east of eden , which could not be in this hemisphere , if paradise were in the other ; and it 's much that living so near paradise , and being past the flaming sword he should not get into it , as well as all descended from him to the flood , though his crime could hardly deserve that paradisiacal continent for his habitation . thirdly , god must have wrought a third miracle to have brought all animals there of differing species from those in this hemisphere , to the ark at the time of the deluge , unless another ark were built in the other hemisphere ; whereas the author says in his first book , that noah's ark was the the first ship , or vessel of bulk that ever was built in the world. and i would ask , whether the author thinks that a man may not give a rational account of the peopling of america , without being clog'd with so many absurdities ; i think it very easie and natural to imagine , supposing the first plantation in this hemisphere , and the vvorld always as it is , how without any miracle , some small vessels with people in them , might have been driven by some storm , on the continent of america from the more easterly coasts of the vvorld : such small vessels being a thing of common notion ; so that i think we may reasonably conclude them to have been almost as ancient as mankind . moreover , we know that many jewish customs were found among the americans , on their first discovery ; and ralegh tells us , that in mexico , when first discover'd , there were found written books after the manner of those hieroglyphicks , anciently us'd by the egyptians and ethiopians : but to require it to be particularly made out when , and by whom , america receiv'd its first inhabitants , would be an unreasonable expectation . chap. ix . here the author endeavours to obviate an objection against his theory , viz. that if there had been such a primitive earth as he pretends , the fame of of it would have sounded throughout all antiquity ; and he sets forth that the most considerable records of learning are lost , whence a confirmation of it might have been expected . this chapter containing little new , i shall have but little to say against it . the following particulars may be noted . . he here confesses , that it has been generally thought or presum'd that the world before the flood , was of the same form and constitution with the present vvorld . now this seems to make against him , but he will have this imputed to the loss of true records , which is but a gratis dictum . . speaking of the jews and christians , he says , they had traditions among them , that there was no rain from the beginning of the vvorld to the deluge , and that there were no mountains till the flood , and such like . the ancient ordinary gloss upon genesis , which some make years old , mentions both these opinions , so does historia scholastica , alcuinus , rabanus maurus , lyranus , and such collectors of antiquity , &c. to this i answer , that every trifling ungrounded opinion is not to be lookt upon as a tradition : neither have we reason to be govern'd by what those authors have said in this point , unless they had told us from what authors of credit they had it : or had urg'd it as a constant tradition to be relied on . perhaps they took their notion from the author , de mirabilibus scripturae ( by some suppos'd to be st. austin ) who says , that possibly the first age of the world was without rains and storms , and that the earth was fed with morning and evening dews : and let this go as far as it may . lastly , the author says , but to carry this objection as far as may be , let us suppose it to be urg'd still in the last place , that though these humane writings have perish'd , or are imperfect , yet in the divine writings at least , we might expect that the memory of the old world , and of the primitive earth , should have been preserv'd . now , i confess , i am of this opinion , notwithstanding any thing may be said by the author to the contrary ; for tho i agree with luther in his chronology , that the flood , as commonly understood , was the most horrible of all horrible things , excepting the crucifixion of the son of god , and what may be expected at the general conflagration : considering that not only a world of relations of all kinds , and friends of noah must have perish'd ; but that even the whole church of god , as well as that of cain and the serpent , were then utterly subverted , only eight souls being sav'd : yet with all this , if the earth upon the deluge had been altered from a general paradisiacal state , to a state so much inferior to it , as the author has represented ; i cannot believe but moses , who made it his business to set forth and exaggerate the judgments of god on sinners , would have plainly recorded this in his law ; for that it would have been a considerable aggravation to the judgment , and perhaps more affecting posterity than the other part of it had done ; and consequently ought to have been said , and inculcated to them , to deter them from a relapse into sin . th' author has two chapters more in this book , whereof the first treats concerning the author of nature ; which , besides , that the argument in its nature does not bear opposition , i must own to be well and foundly reason'd ; neither have i any thing to offer against it ; and so , as to the last chapter which treats concerning natural providence , i have nothing to say to it , unless it be to the latter part of it , where he summs up what he has said of the form of the primaeval earth , the disruption of it at the deluge , the seat of paradise , &c. of all which he says he professes his full belief , and against all which , i have already offer'd as much as at present i have thought fit . the conclusion . thus i have gathered together a few of those voluminous objections , which may be brought against this theory ; and i hope without any breach of decorum towards the learned author of it , to whom i heartily pay my share of thanks for the great pains he has taken in composing it ; it having given me an occasion to look into some things of antiquity with more attention , than perhaps otherwise i might have us'd . and indeed , when i first perus'd it , i could hardly think that this theory , how learnedly soever set off by the author could be his serious sense , in determining the truth of the points there consider'd ; but i conceiv'd that by this work carrying in it so much specious paradoxical novelty , he had a mind only to set men a thinking on those things , of which , perhaps , we are all too unmindful . but it would be uncivil now to question the authors full belief of his theory , since in his answer to mr. warren , he is pleased to repeat that he professes his full assent to the substance of it , and looks upon it as being more than a bare hypothesis , it being a reality , and carrying more than a moral certainty ; and consequently it must carry either a physical or metaphysical certainty . if the former it must be no less certain than that the sun will rise every day above our horizon , if the latter , it stands the test of omnipotence . we find that cartes dar'd not confide so much in the hypothesis he set up for solving the phaenomena of the earth ; tho , in my opinion , it be less lyable to objections than the authors is ; for he concludes only thus . nevertheless i would not infer from all these things , that this world was created after the manner that i have represented it ; for it 's much more likely that god made it such from the beginning as it was to continue . but the nature of things may be much more easily apprehended , when they are lookt upon so rising by degrees , than when they are consider'd only as compleated and perfect . but to proceed , the points which the author has here undertaken to determine by his hypothesis , seem to me of great weight and difficulty ; so that a man may here aptly say with maximus tyrius . it 's a thing of no small labour to arrive at truth and right reasoning ; for the greater vigour of understanding any man has , the greater streights he finds himself reduc'd to in judging . to bring things to a period , i shall be free to give my thoughts of these matters , as follows . i believe then ( with reverence be it said to those many learned persons who have attempted it ) it was beside the intent of the prophets that these magnalia dei , the creation , deluge and conflagration , the new heavens and new earth , &c. should ever be brought under a physiological consideration ; not that i any way doubt the reality of either ; but because i look upon them as works grounded on an extraordinary providence , and must own that as often as i have apply'd my understanding to the consideration of either , i have alway found my self absorpt in miracle . to be as plain as i may in this point , i must consider two sorts of writers among the ancients , whether jews , gentils , or christians ; either they were of the mystae , being acquainted in symbolical learning ; or they were literal men and mere physiologers : there is a vast difference in the procedure of these two sorts of men in what they write : and to consider it first among the gentils ; i think it too manifest to be brought in dispute , that many of them were initiated in prophetick mysteries ( the spirit of prophecy being inter dona gratis data ) as among the greek poets , orpheus , homer , hesiod , theocritus , and others ; and so among the latins , virgil , ovid , lucan , claudian , and many more ; to these we may add the sibyls , the ancient magi , and the druids , who were pythagoreans , and many of the platonists . now the main scope of these mens writings being a moral and divine institution , and quite differing from such as write merely as physiologers ; when they came to write of natural phaenomena , or to personate external nature , and to set forth civil facts , ( their writings being generally symbolical ) they matter'd not whether what they set forth did exactly quadrate with truth ; but the thing they chiefly attended to was so to set forth those phaenomena and civil facts , that they should carry a fair analogy with the thing they had a mind to symbolize . and , as hierom observes , the parabolical style has been much in esteem among the people of the levant ; and the learned father simon says thus of it : some have thought that ev'n the books of job , tobit , and judith were not so much histories , as works compos'd in this parabolical style , being holy fictions , which were profitable : this manner of parabolical writing he says , is ordinary enough with the authors of the new testament , who give so good circumstances sometimes to these parables , that one would be apt to imagine them to be true histories , if we were not advertiz'd that they are parables . this manner of instructing the people always pleas'd the pharisees , and their talmud , and most part of their ancient books are fill'd with these sorts of allegorical fictions , which ought not to be explain'd according to the letter , as though they were true histories . vallesius also observes , that in many places of the scriptures there occur moral fables or apologues , or parables , or whatever you please to call them , which say one thing in the letter , and allegorically intimate another ; and that there is no useful way of philosophizing , which has been excogitated by those who have endeavoured to compose manners , but may be found with more exactness in the scriptures . now whether the fact recorded in the scriptures , be an history , or a parable , or an history intermixt with a parable , it is not for all that less true or divine , or any way derogating from the dignity of sacred writ . but there are these great differences betwixt the scriptures , and the writings of the gentils ( tho both are in good part symbolical , and intending a moral and divine institution . ) first , the poets among the gentils often injudiciously and impiously ascribe to god things unbecoming him , as josephus rightly observes ; whereas in the scriptures , nothing is ascrib'd to him unbecoming his magnificence , but all things are set forth conformably to the universal nature ; from which ground it may be said , that as the rod of moses devour'd all the magicians rods , so the god of moses overpowered all the gods of the gentils . and secondly , that in the scriptures those great facts , the creation , deluge and conflagration , the new heavens and new earth , paradise , the raising of the dead , and many other strange things there mentioned , unaccountable from natural principles , were and will be realities beside their being symbols ; whereas , whatever is set forth by the gentils concerning any of those things , or any other strange facts , it 's merely symbolical , being excogitated and feigned by them only to carry on a divine law , and to set forth a certain doctrine analogically relating to the spirit . for as among all ancient nations , as , the chaldaeans , persians , egyptians , ethiopians , indians , celts , and indeed all nations , who were partakers of the grand theorem of the ancients , the same men were priests and philosophers , and those the only cultivators and keepers of all sciences , both in reference to natural and sacred knowledge : so their chief scope being a divine institution , they still so personated the great facts of external nature , as thereby covertly to carry on the other ; and so that the solemn outward story serv'd for training on the people , while the inward mystery was for the more solid institution of the learned . i may give an instance of this their proceeding in reference to the deluge set forth by them . a learned prelate in his origines sacrae , says , that one reason of the corruption of the ancient tradition concerning noah's flood , was , that the gentils attributed what was done by the great ancestors of mankind to some persons of their own nations . thus the thessalians make deucalion to be the person who escap'd the flood , and from whom the world was peopled after it : and whoever compares the relation of the flood of deucalion in apollodorus with that in the scripture , might easily render apollodorus his greek in the language of the scriptures , only changing greece into the whole earth , deucalion into noah , parnassus into ararat , and jupiter into jehova . on the same account the athenians attribute the flood to ogyges , not that the flood of ogyges and deucalion were particular and distinct deluges , which many have taken a great deal of needless pains to place in their several ages ; but as deucalion was of the eldest memory in thessaly , so was ogyges at athens ; and so the flood , as being a matter of remotest antiquity , was on the same account in both places attributed to both these ; because as mankind was suppos'd to begin again after the flood , so they had among them no memory extant of any elder than these two , from whom on that account they suppos'd mankind deriv'd . and on the same reason it may be suppos'd , that the assyrians attribute the flood to xisuthrus , whom they suppos'd to be a king of assyria ; but the circumstances of the story , as deliver'd by alexander polyhistor , and abydenus , are such as make it clear to be only a remainder of the universal flood , which hapn'd in the time of noah . so the thessalians make prometheus to be the protoplast ; the peloponesians phoroneus . so far this learned prelate concerning the corruption of the ancient tradition by the gentils , as they suppos'd all that was convey'd by it , to have been acted among themselves ; which he conceives may be imputed partly to their ignorance of the state of their ancient times , and partly to their pride , lest they should seem to come behind others in matters of antiquity . now to resolve this matter as far as my reason will bear , all that i can conceive of it is this . the ancient gentils , as they came acquainted with the ancient tradition of the jews , deriv'd from moses and the patriarchs , concerning a first man , from whom all mankind was descended ; and a reparation of mankind after a deluge ( tho whether they believ'd any such things really to have been , it does not appear to me ) and at length coming to be initiated and well instructed in the grand theorem of the egyptians , ( in the deep insight , and use of which , moses far transcended the egyptians themselves ) carrying in it the power of religion , and a consummation of wisdom , in order to the government and welfare of mankind ; they thereby knew that certain symbolical mysteries were contain'd under the foresaid doctrine ; and that it little imported man whether any such things really were , but greatly that they should be personated ; and therefore as they had a mind to propagate the same admirable learning among themselves , they introduc'd protoplasts , deluges , and reparations of mankind in their own country ; and from the same fountain proceeded the accounts their poets give of a chaos , the formation of the world , the elysian fields , &c. and this seems to me the most probable account , how the gentils came to celebrate in their writings those great facts , in their fabulous way . and withal it is to be observ'd , that some of the jews and christians have wholly allegoriz'd some of those great facts , as recorded in sacred writ : so we find that philo , being an helenist jew , and conversing with the greeks , contrary to the commonly receiv'd opinion among jews and christians , wholly allegoriz'd paradise , held the creation instantaneous , expounded the deluge in his allegorical way , &c. and he has had followers both amongst christians and jews . and this we may further note , that though those great facts , recorded in the scriptures ( according to the more generally receiv'd opinion of divines , to which we ought to submit ) are receiv'd as realities ; yet it seems it was not the design of providence , we should chiefly attend to those facts , but rather to the symbolical mysteries contain'd under them , which far more nearly concern us : wherefore we find god thought it not necessary for us that we should precisely know the time of the worlds beginning , there being that difference in the hebrew , samaritan , and septuagint texts concerning that in the opinion of learned persons , it 's impossible to come to a certainty in the point ; and the certainty of the time of the deluge depending on the certainty of the time of the creation , this being unknown the other cannot ; tho i shall not conceal , that i hear of a person now living skill'd in the cabbala sacra , who says he can plainly demonstrate from the hebrew letters of many words in the bible , numerically considered , that the time substituted by moses for the creation , is exactly agreeing with the hebrew chronology . so as to the seat of paradise , what have all those made of it , who have been in quest after it , but fallen into a babel confusion , as having attempted a thing too great , or rather impossible for them : i conclude nevertheless , that there was a terrestrial paradise , but miraculously founded , for had the jews ever known such a place , to be made out by typography , as they must have known it , if such a thing had been to be known ; i believe the tradition of it had been as impossible to be lost , as the tradition of the place where hierusalem is seated . again , as for the time appointed for the conflagration ; how many vain attempts have been made by men for pointing forth the year in which it shall happen ? whereas the time being elapst which they prefixt for it , it has shewn the vanity of their undertaking ; and we now hear of a foreigner , who has lately prefixt the time for it in the year . and i doubt not but many prophets will now start up , upon the expectation of the determination of this millenary , who will assign some other shortly ensuing years for the same period ; whereas father simon tells us , that the years , which with the jews in their talmud contain years of inanity , that is to say before the law , years of the law , and years from the messiah , are only a simple allegory , which these doctors have recounted in their treatises sanhedrim and aveda , and which have no appearance of truth . and again , it 's known that the greek church counts already above years past since the creation ; and whether they are in the right , of we , or either of us , i believe all the chronology extant cannot convincingly determine . it 's enough for us therefore to believe that a conflagration will happen ; but for us to attempt to find out the precise time , or any natural causes for it ; i believe the search transcends the wit of man , the effect being besides the ordinary course of providence ; as aquinas has truly said , illa mundi deflagratio , quae paulò ante universale judicium futura est , non ad aliquam naturae vim , sed ad divinam potentiam referri debet . indeed dr. alabaster seems of another mind , where he says , that the supputation of the coming of christ , and the worlds passing away , does not exceed the reach and diligent search of our understanding , and this for two reasons ; first , because the end prefixt to the world is a thing which belongs to the knowledge of nature ; for that the beginnings , middles , and ends , and causes , and the administration of the acts of created things , have their foundation in nature itself . and the wise man testifies that he knew the beginnings and the ends of times . secondly , because whatsoever things are to happen concerning the day of judgment , are covertly written in the scriptures ; so that if the veil of the letter being remov'd , we look throughly into the scriptures , we may thence draw no obscure testimonies of the truth . now , i look upon dr. alabaster , tho he had been a long student in mystical divinity , to have lain under a mistake in all this reasoning ; for first , to say that the end prefixt to the world , is a thing which belongs to the knowledge of nature ; and that the beginnings , middles , and ends , and causes , and administration of acts of created things , have their foundation in nature itself ; i conclude all this to be false , as i have set forth from vallesius , in my considerations on the first book of the theory . again , as to the wise man's testifying , that he knew the beginnings and the ends of times ; and to what he says , that whatsoever things are to happen concerning the day of judgment , are covertly written in the scriptures , so that if the veil of the letter being remov'd , we look throughly into them , we may thence draw no obscure testimonies of the truth . i reply to this first , that the wise man was inspir'd ; and as to removing the veil of the letter , i must tell him that no man can do that , till he has seen the rending of the veil of the temple , and has been brought into the sanctum sanctorum ; and then , at the coming of the lord , he may see with s. peter , in the spirit , the heavens pass away with a noise , and the elements melt with fervent heat , the earth also and the works therein to be burnt up . but what is all this to the search of humane reason ? this is plain revelation . and we find after the dr. had made this specious offer , for prefixing a time for the worlds period , when he comes to make out any thing upon it , it all dwindles into a cabalistical cant ; and i believe whoever shall attempt the like , or to assign natural causes for the conflagration , shall hardly find a better success in it . thus we find lactantius having prefixt a time for the worlds period , which became elapst without effect ; r. azarias the jew aptly reflects upon him saying : that god had not made haste to do according to his say so . imbre binah . c. . fol. . and those that will be medling in prefixing a time for the worlds period , may reflect a little on that saying of s. austin . to compute times for knowing when the world will have an end , seems to me but for us to have a mind to know , what christ says no man can know . ep. . it appears , i think from the foregoing discourse , that god never thought it worth while for us to know the time of the creation , deluge , or conflagration , or the seat of paradise , &c. as not being any way material to our salvation ; and that it 's in vain for us to attempt to make them out from natural causes . and if we always stick here , perhaps it may be said to us , as the learned boskhierus , in his sacred philipicks , says of the jews , who were always gaping after their terrestrial paradise . et quia judaei terraena semper somniant , cogendi sunt vel tandem non de terraenâ suâ hierosolymâ semper cogitare , in quam nulla spes redeundi adfulgeat , sed de coelesti , ad quam utrique invitamur . arcendi ab ubere lactisugi illi senes , & ad cibi solidioris usum fame & necessitate adducendi . a sacred famine pursuing a thoughtful mind , which will never permit it to be at rest , but still keeps it on the wing , till it has lighted on some branch of peace , and brought it home with it to the ark ; and this must be done by searching into the sacred symbolical sense , contained under the foresaid mysteries , in which the mind calmly reposes itself ; for otherwise , either with ixion , we shall embrace a cloud instead of a beauty , by adhering to a false reason instead of a true one ; or be carried down the stream with the croud , and be wholly kept at gaze at the incomprehensible wonder . thus , methinks , concerning the passing away of this world , and a new heavens and new earth , men may rest satisfied with the sense of socinus . vita haec animalis ac terrestris in die judicii cessare debet , & ejus loco spiritualis & coelestis substitui . quid ergo vero coelo & verâ terrâ in illâ nobis opus erit ? nonne & coelum & terram ; ut huic animali ac terrestri vitae inservirent , deus creavit ? quâ cessante propter quam utrumque conditum fuit , an non & ipsa cessare debent ? and beneath . num fortassis aliquo sole & lunâ , aliquibúsve stellis ad diei & noctis distinctionem , ad tempestatum vicissitudines , ad annos notandos , propter quae sydera omnia creata fuerunt , opus erit nobis qui in perpetuâ luce futuri sumus experturi , qui sempiternam vitam vivemus ? num luce hac creatâ & ipso sole ac lunâ ad locum illustrandum ubi erimus opus erit nobis , qui ipsam increatam lucem perpetuo praesentem habituri simus ; quibúsque deus ipse & claritas ejus , & dominus jesus agnus ille purissimus in aeternum lucebunt , ac vice solis et lunae erunt , &c. so again chassonius tells us . promissionem de coelis novis et terrâ novâ summam et perfectam ecclesiae instaurationem in regno dei patris allegorice , significare ; prout spiritualia et aeterna rebus corporeis et aspectabilibus saepius in scripturâ figurantur , &c. methinks i find my mind to rest it self here in a wonderful calm ; and i doubt that those who will be searching farther , will search beyond themselves , and never come at any bottom . having so far treated of symbolical writers both sacred and profane , and of the genius of its authors ; i shall now say a little of literal writers , and mere physiologers . these men among the gentils being unacquainted in the learning of the mystae , and reading in their writings a beginning of the world , deluges , and conflagrations , a golden age , &c. majestically set forth by them , and being sway'd by their authority , who lay too deep for them , ( they drawing all physicks to morals , and personating external nature by analogy to what passes in the mind of man , in all its humors , passions , and most pure and clear instincts ) apply'd themselves closely with all the industry they had to the making out of these things from natural causes ; and some of them being men of great natural parts , have excogitated such plausible grounds in nature for them , that they have found a reception more or less among men of their rank ; but of what real validity they are , the long thinking man , or the symbolical phylosopher may determine . many men also among the jews and christians of the same rank , have apply'd themselves to the making out of those things more or less from causes in nature ; tho perhaps the greatest part ascribe them to miracle , in which certainly they do well ; but on the other hand they do not withal consider any symbolical sense couch'd under these great facts , in which the great mystery belonging to mankind lyes ; and indeed it is hard to be done without a particular providence , as virgil says of getting the golden branch . — namque ipse volens facilísque sequetur si te fata vocant ; aliter non viribus illis vincere , nec duro poteris convellere ferro . to give an instance of the several ways these different sorts of men take in considering things , i may here set down the performances of medaea , according to the account she gives her self in ovid. — cum volui , ripis mirantibus , amnes in fontes rediêre suos , concussáque sisto , stantia concutio cantu sreta , nubila pello nubiláque induco , ventos abigóque vocóque : vipereas fauces verbis et carmine frango . viváque saxa sua , convulsáque robora terrâ et sylvas moveo , jubeóque tremiscere montes , et mugire solum , manésque exire sepulchris , te quoque luna traho — at list ( the banks admiring what is done ) i make the streams back to their sources run , by charms i calm and raise tempestuous seas , the winds and clouds attend to what i please . by words and spells i tear the vipers jaws , the rocks and oaks obey those mighty laws . i woods remove , shake mountains , make th' earth groan , call ghosts from out their graves , and thee , o moon ! from heaven i draw — what shall we say to the poets sense in all this ; is there nothing in 't ? a person initiated in symbolical learning will tell you , that there is a real truth contain'd in it , and that he has seen all these things really transacted , in that symbolical sense the poet means it ; and though this be not literal , yet there is somewhat very surprizing and extraordinary , and beside the common course of nature in the transaction . when a mere physiologer reads this , being unacquainted in the other learning , and finding these things not solvable according to his principles , he shall tell you that this is only a fancy of the poet , writ to please the reader , by stirring admiration in him . and again , some literal tribunitial writers will tell you , that an old woman having the devil at command may do all these fine things as they are literally set down . now , there has been always a contention betwixt these two later atechnical writers , and the others , inter mystas et osores musarum , as erasmus calls them ; for these later being incomparably the greater number , and many of them men of great parts , and really exceeding many of the mystae in giving accounts of several phaenomena of nature , and in other parts of learning , think it derogating from their honour , that any men should pretend to understand some mystery in learning , which they do not , and therefore commonly brand them with ostentation , enthusiasm , or perhaps somewhat worse ; not considering that tho god gives great parts to some men , yet he commonly limits them to certain sciences , and does not extend them to all knowables ; and tho the others , in their defence sing with the poet , invidus annoso qui famam derogat aevo , qui vates ad vera vocat — yet they commonly sing to the deaf . some writers indeed keep a decorum in the matter , as it may be said of cartes ; who , though a man of unquestionable parts in an outward demonstrative way , yet finding himself at a loss in divine mysteries , says thus : i had a reverence for our divinity , and desir'd as much as no man more to be capacitated for eternal happiness ; but having certainly inform'd my self , that the way which leads to it lies open to the learned no more than to the unlearned ; and that the truths reveal'd from god exceed the reach of man's understanding , i fear'd i should incur the crime of rashness , if i brought them under the scrutiny of my weak reason ; and whoever have the hardiness to take knowledge of them and interpret them , seem'd to me to stand in need of a peculiar grace of god for this purpose , and ought to be plac'd in a rank above common man. i would not be so understood all this while , as though i pretended my self a master in symbolical learning ; for i think there is but one of a town and two of a tribe that so are ; yet i may pretend my self a scholar in such a classis of it , that i see a multitude of errours introduc'd into natural and civil history through the ignorance of it . how many relations , invented as meer symbols , have pliny , solinus and others ( polite writers indeed , but unacquainted in mystical learning ) recorded as plain historical truths ? they being collectors , and transcribing from the works of those they did not understand . and we find that pliny ridicul'd himself , by endeavouring to ridicule the magi for having the mole in great veneration , he little knowing what that subterraneous animal symboliz'd . to conclude concerning this mystical learning of the ancients , we find that pliny , though an opposer of it as vain , and of no effect , found himself oblig'd to own that the highest renown and glory of learning from all antiquity , and in all continued times was from that knowledge : and it 's certain that those of the ancients who were skill'd in it , could thereby perform things far transcending the ability and comprehension of others . they had an institution amongst them whereby they could bring the mind of man to its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and make it exert it self beyond the elements of this world ; as those who were initiated among the jews , and had seen the rending of the veil , which carried the types of the four elements ( as all the prophets had ) saw those elements pass away , and thereby became partakers of divine mysteries . the ars amatoria and obstetricia of socrates , ( in which it appears that virgil , theocritus and others , were egregiously skill'd ) contains this institution ; it being for courting and impregnating the mind , and at length for helping it to bring forth , ( for as to that illiterate and idle imputation of their abusive love of boys , boys may talk of it ) and as the learned dr. henry more has intimated in several parts of his works , a certain dispensation of this kind is made use of , now and then , though sparingly , amongst us , and i doubt not but himself was initiated thereby . and if i might here use freedom of speech , i must say , that let a mans parts be never so great otherwise , whoever shall undertake to write of the points consider'd by the author in his theory , without being well seen in this grand theorem of the ancients , i must look upon him in a like circumstance with a pilot who should undertake a voyage round the globe without his compass . in fine , if the learned author of the theory , who has occasion'd me to write this postscript relating to it , as well as my other considerations on it , proposes it as meerly symbolical , i think it might aptly enough serve that way , and that by a full consideration of it , we may be carried round in a fetch upon external nature , till a time of revelation comes , for which we must wait gods pleasure , keeping us in the mean time to the institutions of our spiritual guides : and indeed , methinks the very ingenious emblem which he has prefixt to his book , seems to intimate some such meaning in him . he there sets forth seven states of the world , with the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the messiah , setting one foot on the chaodical , the other on the astral state of it : now these seven states of the world aptly symbolize the seven states of mans life . at first , the mind of man is a chaos , an inform being , a tabula rasa , as is represented by the chaos in the first figure . as he proceeds towards youth , things go on pretty smoothly with him , as is typified by the smooth face of the earth in the second figure ; till he comes to the third state , when the passions growing strong nature is overflown with vice , represented by the deluge in the third figure ; upon which the troubles of life coming on , it causes unevenness in it , and a sea subject to tempests , as typified in the fourth figure . at length a conflagration happens , a baptism by fire and the spirit , symboliz'd in the fifth figure ; after which things go on smoothly again for a time , as is denoted by the smooth face of the earth in the sixth figure , and which may aptly make the symbolical millennium . till at last the mind of man comes to its seventh , sabbatical , astral , and glorious state , as typified in the seventh figure , on on which the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sets his right foot , and fixes his banner of triumph for eternity , having this divine inscription over his head , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the intellectual world of intelligences on either hand to attend him . i know not how these guesses , or what else i have set forth in this work may be receiv'd . the author observes in his preface to the conflagration that there are few that apply themselves to a contemplative life , and i think there are fewer by many who succeed in it ; as perhaps these undigested thoughts i have here heapt together may be one testimony of it , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haply , or other defects , having incapacitated me for reaching the depths of the things here treated : but however they are receiv'd , contemplations on god and nature in this kind carry in them their own reward , as cicero has long since set forth , whose oraculous expression i shall not go about to alter : haec tractanti animo , & noctes & dies cogitanti existit illa à deo delphis praecepta cognitio , ut ipsa se mens vitiis exutam cognoscat , conjunctámque cum mente divina se sentiat , ex quo insatiabili gaudio compleatur ; ipsa enim cogitatio de vi & naturâ deorum studium incendit illius aeternitatis imitandae , neque se in brevitate vitae collocata putat , cum rerum causas , alias ex aliis aptas & necessitate nexas videt : quibus ab aeterno tempore fluentibus in aeternum , ratio tamen , ménsque moderatur . haec ille intuens utque suspiciens , vel potius omnes partes orásque circumspiciens , quantâ rursus animi tranquillitate humana & citeriora considerat , hinc illa cognitio virtutis existit , efflorescunt genera , partésque virtutum : invenitur quid sit quod natura spectat extremum in bonis , quid in malis ultimum , quo referenda sint officia , quae degendae aetatis ratio deligenda . before i make an end , i think it may be proper for me to consider the motive which induc'd the author to write his theory , and in his preface , and second chapter of his first book , he tells us , his intent was to justifie the doctrines of the universal deluge and of paradise ; and to confirm them by a new light of nature and philosophy , and free them from those misconceptions , or misrepresentations , which made them sit uneasie on the spirits even of the best men , that took time to think . and he conceives as men cannot do a greater injury or injustice to sacred history than to give such representations of things there , as to make them unintelligible and incredible ; so we cannot deserve better of religion and providence , than by giving such fair accounts of all things propos'd by them , or belonging to them , as may silence the cavils of atheists , satisfie the inquisitive , and recommend them to the belief , and acceptance of all persons . now , i confess this to be a good and plausible way of proceeding with what we find generally recorded in sacred writ : but the question will still lie , how far we may comply with an atheist , or any man else , by endeavouring to make things , recorded in the scriptures , easie to their apprehensions ; for when we come to a particular hand of providence there set forth , whether it be as a judgment upon , or an act in favour of mankind ( as i take the deluge to be a particular judgment , than which nothing in the scriptures seems to me to carry more the face of a miracle ) i am so far from thinking that we ought to endeavour to smooth things to their reasons who will not receive the miracle , that i look upon it as a breach of decorum towards our divine law to attempt it . and herein i cannot excuse josephus ; who ( as the learned mr. gregory observs , in his discourse of the seventy interpreters ) in compliance with the gentils in that kind , often in his history destroys the miracle by lessening it , and makes it cease to be a wonder , while he strives to make it fit to be believ'd , by representing it equal to that which no body doubts of : and i find many other writers guilty in the same kind . and we may consider the unreasonableness of any man that would expect it from us : for i would ask what pretended divine law there is , but has as strange things contain'd in it as our scriptures ? are there not as strange things in the mahometan alcoran , in the jewish talmud , and in the fabulous divinity of the gentils ? or can there be any divine law but must set forth god as a most free agent , no way tied to the creatures or second causes , but may act at pleasure contrary to their tendency or change what he lists in the order of them , as when he is said to have commanded the sun to stand still and go back , and to have rendred a superannuated woman fruitful . nay , and the author owns that those of the gentils , who held deluges and conflagrations , were not able to account for them by any natural causes , and therefore he looks upon them meerly as traditional truths , which they had receiv'd from others : why then shall any man expect it from us . again , the author by his attempt for making the deluge conceivable according to humane reason , seems to me to have rendred the conception of it more intricate than , perhaps , it might have been thought by many before : for if he has validly refuted what others have propos'd for that end , as i cannot say but he has . and if i have refuted what himself has propos'd ; as ( though i lay not an equal stress on all i have deliver'd ) i truly believe upon the whole i have , then those who will be leaning on the weak reed of reason for solving the deluge , are like ( for ought i can see ) to fall to the ground , for any support they can thence have in it . and so concerning the place of paradise , methinks the author hath left us in as forlorn a condition as he found us , after all his pains . and again , after his great attempt for solving the deluge according to natural principles ; i believe whoever peruses this book , will find that he has been forc'd to introduce the hand of omnipotence to help him out in it , much oftner than those , who have plainly said , that the great glut of waters for causing it , was then created by god , and annihilated when the thing was done ; so that we find our selves , at least , as much drown'd in wonder his way , as those men own'd themselves to be . to conclude , as for what i have oppos'd to the author's theory , i declare i did it on no other account , but from my inward sense , ( according to those few considerations i have had on nature ) of its being contrary to the course providence has held , and may hold in carrying on the oeconomy of this world ; and as i freely submit what i have philosophically asserted to the judgment of those who apply their studies that way ; so i hope , if i have any where toucht upon divine matters , i have no way interfer'd with what christian divinity maintains . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e in virg. eccl. . me● . l . qu. nat . l. . c. . & seq . de elem. philos . de omn. gent. rit . l. . c. . l. de defect . orac. heb. . . ecl. phys . . . de omn. gent. rit . l. . c. . l. de migrat . abrahami . myth . l. . c. . exerc. ad card. . § . l. de mundo . hist . crit. c. . simpl. in arist . phys . l. . p. . art. . q. . l. de mundo . c. . de creatione . probl. : lucret. l. . cap. . l. . c. . lib. de mundi opif. cap. . div. dial. . l. . de verb. mirif . apol. l. . , geor. l. . geor. l. . apol. l. . gen. dier . l. . l. . de antiqu. biblioth . lib. . cap. . §. . de civ . dei. l. . c. . l. . c. . § . . de caelo . l. de mund . opif. saturn . l. . c. . flud . philos . examen . notes for div a -e c. . l. . c. . c. . l. de elem . philos . de rep. l. . gen. . . l. . de gen. & cor. text. . antid . against atheism , l. . c. . de verit. fid. l. . c. . l. . de sanit-tuend . in . aph. . in . apr. p. . l. de dieb . decret . antiq. iud. l. . lib. de quint. essentiâ philos . circa finem . hist . crit. l. . c. . ibid. ep. . c. . in bermanno . l. . c. . c. . c. . l. . de coelo . c. ult . in c. sphaerae de sacro . hosco . hist . crit. l. . c. . ep. . c. . . l. . c. . p. . phars . l. . in phaedone . l. . ae. . & . in phoedro . geor. . de nat. deor. l. . in phaedone . l. . c. . §. . cap. de desertore sive diabolo . c. . rid. of magnetick bodies and motions , c. . aen. . & . lib. de parad. c. . l. . c. . §. . l. . adv. heres . c. . de bell . jud. l. . c. . l. . c. . §. . meth. hist . c. . praef. in l. de omn. gent. rit . myth . l. . c. . l ▪ an vsus carn . sit licit . notes on scrip. pas . c . proph. l. de nymph . antr. phys . l. . text. . l. . text. . adv. haeres . l. . c. . l. . c. . barcep . de parad. l. . c. . in lev. c. . l. . c. . l. de aeris & epochis . c. . l : de praep . evang. l. de sacr . phil . c. . met. l. . c. . l. . orac . l. . c. . in hist . evangel . c. problem . l. . § . c. . sympas . l. . c. . saturn . l. . c. . de placit . phil. l. . c. . in almag . l. . c. . l. de nat. rerum . de plut. phil. l. . c. . ib. l. . c. . c. . de sacr . phil. c. . c. . c. . l. de methodo . serm. . de sacr. phil. c. . antiq. jud. c. . l. . c. . apollod . bibl. l. . p. . cyril . contr . julian . l. . hist . c●it . l. . c. . tubae pul● . c. . c. . & . . pet. o. . . phil. . c. . in resp . ad def . fr. puceii c. . loc. com. l. . c. . aen. . met. l. . hist . nat . l. . c. . ib. c. . tusc . quest . l. . the nevv-creation brought forth, in the holy order of life wherein the immortal birth is revealed, and the precious pearl, out of the mixture extracted ... / from ... william smith. smith, william, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the nevv-creation brought forth, in the holy order of life wherein the immortal birth is revealed, and the precious pearl, out of the mixture extracted ... / from ... william smith. smith, william, d. . [ ], - , [ ] p. printed for robert wilson ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. (from t.p.) i. the state of man in the creation -- ii. the state of man in the degeneration, and also the serpents working -- iii. the state of man in the separation, and also the serpents working -- iv. the way and works of man in the separation, and also the serpents working -- v. what it is that doth convince man of evil, and also the serpents working -- vi. how man stands in a convinced state, and also the serpents working -- vii. how man stands in a converted state, and also the serpents working -- viii. the new birth in the regeneration, and also the serpents working -- ix. the new creation in the holy order -- x. the way and work of man in the new creation. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . society of friends -- great britain -- doctrines. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the day of restoration's come ; the lamb , the life , the holy one , he is establishing his name : nations must bow unto the same . the heavens are old , the earth is dry , the glory of man must fall and dye ; his leaf decayes , his blossom fades away ; he withers in the night , and burns up in the day . the fire will try his root , and prove his fairest branch ; and root and branch must burn , and none shall stop or quench : the old must passe away , and vanish out of sight ; the new must he set up , and shine in glory bright . blessed is the day . the nevv-creation brought forth , in the holy order of life ; wherein the immortal birth is revealed , and the precious pearl , out of the mixture , extracted : declared in these following particulars , viz. . the state of man in the creation . . the state of man in the degeneration , and also the serpents working . . the state of man in the separation , and also the serpents working . . the way and works of man in the separation , and also the serpents working . . what it is that doth convince man of evil , and also the serpents working . . how man stands in a convinced state , and also the serpents working . . how man stands in a converted state , and also the serpents working . . the new birth in the regeneration , and also the serpents working . . the new creation in the holy order . . the way and work of man in the new creation . from one who dearly loveth the creation of god , and patiently waiteth to behold its perfect freedom , william smith . london , printed for robert wilson , at the sign of the black-spread-eagle and windmil , in martins le grand , . to the reader reader , whether thou art a friend unto truth , on an enemy ; or whether thou art a professor or prophane , a cedar or an oak , a flying bird , or a ranting spirit , this following truth , which in this book is declared , may be of service unto thee , if thou wilt but reade it ●eekly and soberly ; for it is given forth from that innocent life that the serpent did ever make war against ; and for the innocents sake it is sent abroad , that the harmless lambs may be preserved , and also delivered out of the net of the wicked fowler , and from the snares of his dark devices : therefore when thou entrest upon it , and undertakest to read it , do it in the dread and fear of the lord god , and sink into the lowness , and feel gods witness in thy own conscience , that thou mayest reade , and also understand ; for it is gods loving kindnesse unto thee , into whose hands it may be ordered to be read or heard , and from the tendernesse of love it is declared , and also sent abroad , that thou ( whoever thou art ) mayest reap some profit by it ; which thou wilt do , if thou readest it in that good spirit which is given unto thee to profit withall , and unto which the truth of it is made manifest , and keepest down that evil spirit , against which it testifieth ; and as thou keepest to the spirits manifestation in thy self , and in that readest it , thou wilt feel when thy condition is reached , and when it is spoken unto ; and as it openeth unto thy understanding , put it not away from thee , but keep quiet and be still , and let not anger nor envy arise in thy heart , which the serpent sometimes will provoke thee to ; and if thou givest way unto it , and sufferest it to arise , it will prevent thee for profiting , though thou mayest reade what is in this book contained ; but as thou readest it in the meeknesse , and receivest it in the love , from which it is declared , and for thy good truly intended , then thou wilt feel the weight of it , and reap advantage and profit by it : and a● thou readest , consider what thou canst witness of these things in thy self that therein is declared , and in so reading or hearing thou wilt profit , and gods witnesse in thy conscience will awaken thee , and truly prove unto thee what thy present state and condition is ; and though never a scripture-text be quoted for the proof of the testimony , yet thou shalt find a proof in thee , which if thou mindest it , will not deceive thee , but will open thy own condition to thee , which will be better for thee than many proofs without thee , and in that thou wilt feel how far thou art come to witness redemption by the power of christ , or where it is the serpent holdeth thee , and what thou art yet in bondage to ; and , as in the light thou seest it , then turn to the light , and deny it , that what-ever it is , it may be judged , and upon the crosse crucified , and in the fire consumed ; for through this gate thou must come , or out of paradise thou art excluded , and from the tree of life for ever fenced : and i having seen , and also observed how the world lyeth in wickedness , and also , how many there be that professe godliness , which when i consider and see how few are regenerated and born again , i am even filled with grief and sorrow ; therefore in true tenderness , and love , and bowels of pitty unto all , the precious truth is declared as it is in jesus ; and also the secret workings of the serpent , that hath alwayes been a deceiver : and thou mayest in this book behold things past , things present , and things to come , wherby thou maist understand the love that god hath unto thee ; and do thou yeeld unto the lord , that his work thou mayest know , who will judge thy lust , crucifie thy life , and destroy the body of sin , and so through death , bring forth a new life , in which thou wilt feel a perfect change wrought , from the earthly into the heavenly , where thou wilt enjoy the lord and his presence , his power and his goodnesse , and sit quietly in joy , and peace and blessing : given forth in worcester-county goal , where i am a present sufferer in bonds , for obedience to the command of jesus christ : in the first moneth , . for which i travel , who am a true lover of innocency , w. s. chap. i. the state of man in the creation . the lord god of life and power , who is from everlasting to everlasting , according to the good pleasure of his own will , and after the counsel of his own heart , he brought forth a pure creation in his wisdom , and by his eternal living word he divided and separated the mater , which in the chaos was in a heap of confusion , and what he commanded by his word , it came to passe , and as he said it should be , so it was done ; and in his wisdom a pure creation was finished , as he commanded ; and when he had stretched forth the heavens , and placed the lights in them ; and when he had laid the foundation of the earth , and brought forth the herbs and trees therein ; and when he divided the waters , and the fish multiplied in them ; when the fowls of the heavens had their flight in the air , and four-footed beasts , and creeping things , had their way upon the earth ; then did the eternal word in the wisdom , make man in his own image , and breathed into him the breath of life , and he became a living soul , and the lord god filled him with wisdom and understanding , and gave him dominion over all the works of his hands ; and man in the wisdom of god ruled over them all , he stood in the wisdom , and received counsel , and had his way in the holy life ; he walked in the paradise of pleasure , and fed upon the tree of life ; he lived in still communion with his god , and his living soul stood in his living virtue ; and the breath of life was alwayes reaching to it ; he was in the pure oneness with god that made him , and the image of the holy life was upon him , and he was in the power , wisdom and strength of god , and bare the image in righteousness and true holiness , without any mixture ; and all things stood clear in the separation as they were created , and there was no mixture to defile : then did the wisdom behold his work , and lo , it was very good in his sight , and he had great pleasure and delight therein , and his mercy , love , goodness and tenderness was to it , and his blessings and peace was upon it ; and man enjoyed the living presence of his maker , and did partake of his love , mercy , blessing and peace ; he had a free course unto the well-spring of life , and there was nothing stood in his way to let him ; so the breath of life was breathed , and in it the soul lived , and was in perfect unity with it ; and this came into man through the wisdom of the creator , according to his own pleasure , and as it seemed good in his own sight ; it was not a thing from without , but the pure operation of the power and wisdom within , after he had formed an earthly body , and brought forth a visible creation , that he might fill it with his heavenly treasure , and with his holy life , which in his wisdom he breathed into it , and brought forth the man in his own image , and there was no mixture in his life and being , which is the earthly bodies nature , and it is a compounded vessel , yet so prepared and formed in the wisdom , as to be a vessel for the incorruptible image of life , which had its course through it , and filled it with its heavenly being , and there was no mixture of the earthly in it : and this was the man that was made after god in righteousness and true holiness , and bare his image in perfect glory ; and the body was prepared to be a vessel fit for his own use who made it , that he might fill it with his pure holy life , which he breathed into it in his wisdom , whereby man became a living soul , and bare the heavenly image ; and here man stood in obedience to the father of spirits , who had made him a spiritual , holy , righteous man , and fed him with spiritual holy food ; and man had no will nor desire after any creature , but stood in the eternal will , and ruled over all the creatures , and his desire was to enjoy the holy life , in which he was generated and brought forth ; and what he desired to partake of in the life , it was ministred unto him according to the good pleasure of the creator , in whom he had his life and breath , and lived in the pure enjoyment of the eternal being , in which he was daily comforted , and continually satisfied : and in this state no sin or evil was committed by him , nor no curse reached him , nor no death was upon him , nor no grave did hold him , nor no wrath went forth against him , but in the mercy he liued , and mercy was his portion , and his delight was in his maker , and with him he walked day and night , and he had liberty in paradise without restraint , and the tree of life he had free course unto , and the cherubims and flaming sword were not set to fence it ; so was man created in righteousness , and served god in righteousness , and lived in the life of righteousness , and he was not in the mixture of any unrighteous thing , but was created in the wisdom of god , and bare the image of god , which drew its breath and life from the holy fountain of its generation , and stood in the eternal essence of the divine nature ; and so did the everlasting god of wisdom , power and strength bring forth his own work , in which his own name was glorified , and then he rested from ill the works that he had made . chap. ii. the state of man in the degeneration , and also the serpents working . vvhen the pure creation was finished in the eternal power and wisdom , it rested in the holy order of life , and was in the pure harmony and oneness with the creator , and there should have rested in the holy order , and not have moved ●●t in the power and wisdom of life ; but there was a part which did not keep its station , but moved out of the wisdom , and wake the order , and did aspire towards the equallity of the holy essence , for which cause it was cast down by the power , and driven into the lowest parts of the creation , and was there to have its place and habitation at the furthest distance from god ; and his anger kindled against it , and he drove it down in his anger , and his wrath abides upon it , and it is sealed down in the anger and wrath without recovery ; and this is the place of that part which kept not in the holy order of the pure creation , but aspired to have been equal with the power , and his name is serpent , the devil , and his place is hell , the bottomless pit , where the almighty god exerciseth his wrath , without ceasing ; because through the aspiring , the creation went out of its holy order , in which it was created good , and in which it should have rested with god , and have had its order in his power and wisdom ; and when this aspiring part was cast down into the lowest part , it became beastly , carthly , sensual and devilish , and was more subtil than any beast of the field ; and having now lost his place in the pure creation , and cast down in the separation , where the almighties wrath was exercised upon him , without ceasing , and he was alwayes in the torment of the anger and wrath , which sealed him down without recovery ; then did he labour with his subtilty to draw out of order , that which yet did keep its station and order , and to beget a motion out of the moving of the power ; and the lord god having given a command unto man in the day that he put him into paradise , and charged him , not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil , for in the day thou eatest thereof , thou shalt dye , saith the lord god ; which the serpent knowing , and having in his fall seen through the creation , he attempted the woman , because she was nearest unto man , being given as one meet to be an help unto him , and being also the weaker part of the creation , and in his subtilty he tempted her to eat of the fruit of the tree , that god had forbidden , and he said unto her , hath god said , ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? and the woman said unto the serpent , we may 〈◊〉 of the fruit of the trees of the garden , but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden , god hath said , ye shall not eat of it , neither shall ye touch it , lest ye dye . and the serpent said unto the woman , ye shall not surely dye ; for god doth know , that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened , and ye shall be as gods , knowing good and evil : and when the serpent had entred the woman with this temptation , and had drawn her mind to look at it ; then she saw that the tree was good for food , and also pleasant to the eye , and to be desired to make one wife , and she did take and eat , and did give also to her husband , and he did eat : so through the weaker part of the creation did the subtilty work , and thereby reached unto the strongest , and entred and prevailed with the strongest , that the creation moved out of the power , and contrary unto the power ; so the power was transgressed , in which all should have rested , and not have moved but in the power , and the creation went out of order ; then man fell from the power and wisdom of the creator , and hearkened to the voice of the deceiver , and transgressed against the god of his life , and so he became a degenerate plant , and lost his authority over the creation , and became subject to the serpents subtilty ; then was he driven out of paradise , and was driven into the earth , where he became corrupted and defiled amongst the mixtures of the earthly properties , and so lost the heavenly image in which he was created , and an earthly image came upon him in the generation of the serpents subtilty , and the world entered into his heart , and from the foundation of it the lamb was slain , and in the world the serpent seated himself , and exercised his power , and became a god of the world ; and then the tree of life was fenced with cherubims and a flaming sword , and what way soever man turned in the serpents subtilty to have come and tasted of the tree of life , the flaming sword turned and met him ; then the serpent wrought deceivably , and began to generate in the mixture of the earthly properties , into which man was driven , and in which the serpent had got dominion over him , and in a moment all the faculties and properties of man changed , and he was suddenly turned from the image of the heavenly , to the image of the earthly , and so he became an earthly man , with an earthly carnal mind , that was at enmity with god , and an earthly wisdom sensual and devillish , in which the serpent stood exalted , and had dominion over man , that brought the pure creation into bondage , where it groaned and travelled in pain ; and here was the pure creation lost , as it stood in the mercy and love of the creator , and it fell from the mercy and love , into the dark mixtures , where the wrath is exercised , and so became a subject of the wrath , where the curse came upon him , and death over-shadowed him , and hell inclosed him , where the torment , anguish and pain is . then the compassion of the eternal mercy moved , and the love opened , and the seed was promised , that should bruise the serpents head , that had so betrayed and deceived man , that man therein might again be recovered out of the dark mixtures , where the wrath is exercised , and be restored into the love and mercy which he did partake of , and was his portion in the pure creation ; and through the serpents subtil working , the first holy image was lost , and a defiled earthly image came up , which marred the beauty of the holy , and the mind that was gone into the earthly could see no beauty or comliness in it , that it should desire it , so could never love it , but hath ever appeared at enmity against it ; and the earthly image is most desirable to the earthly mind , and appeareth most beautiful ; and so the rejoycing standeth in its like , whether it be heavenly , or whether it be earthly , and man in the fall is in the mixture of the earthly part , where the serpent hath generated , and also brought forth an earthly image , which hath its nourishment from the old creation , and its vital parts have their course through the mixture of the earthly properties ; and in the old heavens and the old earth man hath his way , and the earth is become his habitation and his dwelling-place : and thus is man degenerated , and out of paradise driven , and from the tree of life fenced , and is become an earthly man , with an earthly image . chap. iii. the state of man in the separation , and also the serpents working . vvhen man had transgressed and sinned against the power and wisdom of god , and was driven out of paradise , and fenced from the tree of life , he became a servant to the subtilty , and followed his leadings downward , and turned a wanderer in the earth , where the serpent led him in dark corners , and in dry paths ; and man being joyned unto him , he became an enemy unto god , and full of cruelty in the serpents enmity unto every thing that was good ; and the treacherous enemy wrought deceivably to keep man under his dominion , into which he had drawn him with his enticing temptations ; and when any thing arises and breathes towards the lord , he standeth ready with his devouring mouth to swallow it up and destroy it ; and he having the dominion over man , he makes him bow at his will , and with his subtil working , keeps him in the earthly habitations , and earthly paths , into which he hath drawn him , and there holdeth him in the separation from god that made him , and leadeth him about in the dark imaginations of the earthly part , and there doth beget and generate the things that be evil and sinful ; so that man is become deformed , and hath lost that pure image in which he was created , and is turned into the serpents beastly nature , and is acted and ordered by his unclean spirit , that bringeth forth the deeds of darkness , and leadeth man to commit sin with greediness ; and man having lost the authority in which he ruled over the creatures , he is fallen under the power of darkness , and the serpent hath weakned him , and set the creatures over him , and then leads him to commit evil in the use of the creatures , and mans heart being run into them , and become subject to them , he is taken captive with them at the will of the serpent ; and hence it is that drunkennesse and gluttony , pride and covetousnesse is come to rule over man , and the devil hath him captive in them , and he neither knoweth what to eat , nor what to drink , nor what to put on , nor how much earthly substance to desire , the serpent hath so drawn his heart to lust after evil , and he is alwayes willing , but never satisfied , that when he hath received sufficiently of the creatures for his present need , yet he lusteth to receive more , and the lustful desire still presseth eagerly , not being contented with so much as is needfull ; so a man drinketh in his need and is refreshed , but the lust not being therewith satisfied , the devil provokes the will to presse after more , and when man gives way to the lust , and follows the lust , he follows the devil who is the father of it , and therein he serves the devil ; and being overcome with the lust , he is in bondage to it ; and when the will gets forth in the fleshly liberty , the devil puts it speedily forward into excess , and mans lust is not satisfied until he have received so much of the creatures , as deprives him of the right use of the natural faculties of the visible creation , and turns him wholly into the serpents beastly nature , who in that state rejoyceth over him : and here the devil hath his dominion , and hath brought man under him , and under the creatures , which he had dominion over in the pure creation ; so the heart lusteth after drinking until a man be drunk , and lusteth after eating until a man be glutted , and that he doth not know what to eat , and he is become a servant to obey the devil's movings , who leads him and acteth him in those things which he begetteth in him , and centring the mind downward he leadeth man in the lowest parts of the earth , and there generateth a lustful desire after earthly things ; so that man coveteth after the earth , and after the profits that arise from it ; and as it doth encrease , so the heart is more in love with it , and the lust eagerly pursues after more enjoyment of it ; and this is the covetous man in his way , the devil perswades him he hath not yet enough ; such a thing he wants , and when he hath obtained that , then the devil hath another ready to present unto him , and he thirsteth after that , and presseth eagerly to enjoy it , and there is no end of his lustful desire that runs in the covetousness ; and hence ariseth all deceit , fraud and guile , because the covetous desire in the lust watcheth to improve it self , and to get some advantage by it , so that one man defrauds another , and cheats and beguiles one another , because the lustfull desire in which the devil worketh , coveteth after unlawfull gain , thereby to be made rich , and come into esteem amongst men , and so to be set up in honour and dignity in the world ; and when he comes so to be preferred amongst men , yet he is not contented , but lusteth after greater honour , and still to be promoted and set up in higher dignity ; and here man comes into the honour below , but doth not understand the honour that is of god , and so is like the beast that perisheth ; and this honour puffeth up the man , and exalteth him in the pride of his heart ; and as the earthly substance encreaseth , so man is esteemed and honoured amongst men , and the rich are preferred , and the poor they are contemned and despised , and then the rich exercise lordship over the poor ; and the devil he works in the lustful desire , to seek after respect , and to be honoured amongst men , and in the 〈◊〉 of the people , and the heart it is puft up with it , and if it be not given as he expects it , then the devil provokes the l●st to anger ; and here came in the respect of persons , and ●…ing , and cringing , and scraping , and putting off the hat 〈◊〉 respect of the person , who hath made himself rich by dis●…st gain , and is set up to rule by his earthly substance , and 〈◊〉 by the power of god ; and this is the generation of the devil , as man is in the separation from god , for in the beginning it was not so ; and here man is willing , and lusting , and striving after riches and honour , and a worldly glory , and all seeking who should be greatest , and set up highest that they may rule over others ; and when they are set up , then they exercise lordship over others , and expect subjection from all men unto their power ; and when there is something that cannot bear that , there the devil worketh and provoketh to anger , and envy , and malice , and hatred , and evil-will , because one he would be ruler , and another he would not be ruled over ; then the devil worketh in the dark places of the earth , and there stirs up cruelty one towards ●other , and setteth one against another ; and neither he that ruleth , nor he that is ruled over , are contented with their places , but a strife there is who should be greatest ; thence comes wars and contentions , and destroying and killing one another , the devil having rule he provokes man to be angry and envious , and malicious , and generates in the lustful will that seeketh after revenge ; and this is the nurthering spirit , that hath its course through the dark places of the earth , that is full of cruelty , and hath drawn the mind of man after him , and hath begotten in him the many lusts , from which the many sins and evils do arise and are brought forth , that are contrary to the pure god , who in the beginning made all things good ; and the divil hath generated in man a kingdom of darkness , and there hath set up himself as a prince , and in his subtilty ruleth over man , and what he willeth in the lust that is performed , and under his power is man captivated , and the many evils committed ; and it is not so with man in that state as it was in the beginning , but the serpent hath deformed him , and hath begotten many lustfull desires in him , and he eagerly thirsteth after the visible part of the creation , whereby he hath lost his union with the pure power and wisdom of god , in which he was created good , and is gone into the corruptibles , and bringeth forth corruptible deeds , which presseth the pure creation , and keepeth it in bondage , and daily increaseth the weight upon it ; so that the creation groanes and is in sore travail and pain , and the devil and his work is come up over it ; so that covetousness , drunkenness , gluttony , pride , envy , malice , wrath , anger , evil-will , deceit , fraud , guile , truce-breakings , false-accusing , incontinency , headiness , high-mindedness , foolish jesting , idle talking , vain communication , sco●…ing , reproaching , reviling , time-serving , men-pleasing , delighting in sports and pleasures ; these are become the very life of man , and his delight is daily in them : which doth separate him from the enjoyment of the pure god that made him , who in his wisdom made all things good , and there was no such thing brought forth in his pure creation , but hath been begotten by the serpents generation , since mans degeneration , and are all come up since the beginning , through the devils subtil working , for he is the father of them all ; and whose life is in them , or whose delight is after them , they are his children , and are separated from god , and alienated from his life , and the good things they taste not , but the streams of gods pure refreshings are dammed up , that they cannot flow in their own course through the veins of the pure creation , to quicken the inner man , and raise it up , the old man with his deeds stops it , and there is adam in the way , which is truly the first , and is lifted up in the earthly part of the visible creation by the strength of the subtilty ; and stoppeth the flowings and course of the invisible love and life of the creator , in which man had his communion and satisfaction before transgression . chap. iv. the way and works of man in the separation , and also the serpents working . man having lost the power and wisdom in which he was created , and in which he ruled over the creatures , and being drawn downwards by the strength of the subtilty , he is degenerated from the way of holiness and the works of righteousness , and is led in the paths of darkness , and hath his course in the visible part of the creation , and in the defiled way of his own invention , which is broad and leads him to destruction ; and in it he wills and runs , and there the serpent hastens him , and putteth him forward speedily , that he may not at any time stand still , lest he should consider the evil of his way and turn from it , and here he leads man in the separation from god , and draweth him in the crooked path of his subtil devising , and then begetteth a delight to walk therein ; so that mans heart is variously affected with the divers objects and appearances that the serpent presents unto him and affects his heart withal , that his love and delight is wholly in them , so that he loveth his pleasures and profits more than god : and in what way the serpent leads him , he in his subtilty laboureth to make that seem right unto him , and drawe●h a deceitful cover over them , so that many are blinded and do not see the thing as it is in its filthiness ; hence the drunkard saith , my way is love to my friend : and the covetous man , my way is providence and carefulness ; and the proud man , my way is fashionable and comely ; and the deceiver , my way is wit and policy ; and the foolish jester , my way is mirth and gladness : so doth the devil lead man , and blinds his mind , that he cannot see wherein he is deceived , but walketh on and presseth forward , until he come to the end , where the pit is prepared : and this is the broad way in which man walketh , and where he satisfieth the flesh , with the affections and lusts ; and all the evil things proceed from the deceitful heart , where the serpent hath his generation , and so comes murder , adultery , covetousness , drunkenness , pride , envy , malice , with all the things that'are evil , which separates man from god , and keeps him afar off ; and in this state no man pleaseth god , nor none doth good , for all his works are brought forth from the strength and power of darkness , who hath his course through the fleshly part , and in the flesh he generates a lustful desire ; and when man joyneth unto the temptation which the serpent offereth unto the lust that he hath generated , then sin conceiveth , and when sin is conceived , it is brought forth , then death comes over man , and here sin entreth , and death by sin ; for the wages of sin is death ; and as man liveth after the flesh , he dies ; for all his works are corrupted and unclean , and the pure god hath no pleasure in them , but as man walketh in them he is under the condemnation , and the wrath and curse is upon him , and the hand of the lord is against him ; and whether it be prophanesse , or a profession of godliness that riseth from the darkness , and hath its course through the fleshly part of the creation , it is condemned and judged with the spirit , and he that walketh after the flesh , and satisfieth it in the lust which the serpent hath generated , whether it appear sinful , or have a shew of godliness , death comes over man in it , and he dies because his doings are fleshly and carnal ; and death is come over all men , forasmuch as all have sinned ; and whilst mans way is in the fleshly part , and his works brought forth in the lust of it , death is upon him , and he dies the same death as the first man in the transgression , and there is no respect of persons , but he that sinneth without law , he shall perish without law ; and he that sinneth under the law , shall be judged by the law ; so shall every mans way and work be proved , and he will be recompenced according to what he doth ; and he that soweth to the flesh , he shall of the flesh reap corruption , and in that state he cannot inherit incorruption ; so that the drunkard , the swearer , lyar , proud , covetous , boaster , envious , wrathful , foolish jester , vain talker , whoremonger , murderer , deceitful hypocritical professor of godliness out of the power of god , cannot inherit the kingdom of god , for they are in the unclean nature , and their way and works are in the flesh ; and he that liveth after the flesh shall die , and cannot inherit the kingdom , but is in the separation from god that made him , and in the uncleanness that cannot come to him , but must keep at a distance from him ; for righteousness and unrighteousness have no fellowship together , and with that polluted garment man cannot come into gods pure paradise , nor enjoy his pure presence , but is separated afar off from him , and there is plunged in woful misery , and groaning , and sighing in the lowest parts of the visible creation , where the serpent is prince , and ruleth over him ; and as man liveth and walketh in the flesh , and bringeth forth the works of it , he is a degenerated man , and is at a great distance from god , and the earthly part is over , and makes the separation , and burdeneth the pure creation , which is held in bondage , under the mixture of the fallen properties that are out of order ; and it is needful that every man consider his way and his works , and in time lay it to heart , seeing all have sinned , and none in sin can be saved , nor none in the flesh can please god , neither can flesh and blood inherite his kingdom ; and who live and walk in it , are separated and afar off from god , where his wrath is exercised , and his judgments executed , without respect of persons . chap. v. what it is that doth convince man of evil , and also the serpents working . man being drawn into disobedience through the subtil working of the prince of darkness , he became a transgressor of the pure power and wisdom of the creator , and so went out of the good , in which he was created , and went into the evil , by obeying the tempter , and then did eat of the mixture into which he fell , and the imaginations of his heart became evil continually ; and the evil wrought more and more to get dominion over the good ; and man being into the mixture fallen , the evil prevailed , and sin entred , and death by sin ; so as all have sinned , and are deprived of the glory , and alienated from the holy life ; yet did the seed retain its own pure holy quality and property , without any mixture , and it was not extinguished in the fall , but kept its purity , though man went from it , and did not abide in it , and the pure light in its own quality did shine in mans conscience , and was made manifest in the eternal love , to convince man of all his evil wayes and works which he was fallen into , and it did shine in darkness , and discovered the deeds of darkness , and convinced man of the evil of them ; so was adam convinced that he had transgressed , and he did himself : cain was convinced that he had murdered , and he cryed because of his punishment : saul was convinced of his cruelty , and he said to david , thou art more righteous than i : and the light of this holy seed of life shines forth in the love , and is made manifest in the conscience of fallen man , and is freely given of god unto him to seek him in his fallen estate , and it hath its course through the properties of the visible creation , and searcheth out mans life and treasure ; and whatsoever the subtilty hath drawn mans mind into , and begotten a life in it , the light searcheth to him , and convinceth and reproveth him in his own conscience , so that man cannot hide his secrets , but still he is found out with the searching light ; for it shines in darkness , though darknesse comprehend it not , and with its pure brightness it doth discover the deeds of darkness , and also the prince of darkness , and makes manifest his secret workings , and lets man see that he is a stranger unto god , and an alien from his pure life , and is serving that spirit that is at enmity with god ; and it lets him see the evil works that he commits , and in which he is an enemy unto god : so hath the love of god been made manifest in the light of the seed of life , which through all generations hath been the same , and with its pure quality it hath found out the enmity of mans deceitful heart , with all deceitful workings , and hath brought hidden things to light , whereby man hath come to see how his mind hath been exercised , and after what it hath enclined , and after what his heart hath lusted ; and as at any time the lust hath pressed unto evil , and to follow the things that are evil , the light hath been near to convince man of it , and to reprove him for it ; and with this pure light , which hath had its course in man through all generations , hath all evil deeds been made manifest , and with the light in mans conscience condemned , and all the good deeds have been ju●●●ed and approved ; and when man hath done well , he hath been accepted , but when he hath done evil he hath been judged ; ●nd though the subtilty , with his secret working , drew man ●m his rest in god , and disordered the pure creation , yet the ●●●ver and wisdom preserved it self , and retained its glori●●s quality and property without any mixture , which hath ●●s course through the mixture , to find out man again that 〈◊〉 gone from it , and is fallen into the mixture : so doth the ●●●d god wait that he may shew mercy , and through all generations his mercy hath been made manifest , that in mercy ●e might restore the creation into its holy order , and bring man ●●●m under the power of darkness , and set him free out of bondage , that no corruptible thing may abide upon him , into which he is fallen through disobedience , but that it may be taken ●●ay and removed , and the lamb quickned and raised , who ●●●n the foundation of the world was slain , and that he may ●ome into his pure dominion without any spot or blemish ; for he 〈◊〉 more pure than to mix with any corruptible thing , but the cor●●ptible thing presseth his tender life , and the weight of it he ●●areth , and in much patience he suffereth under it , the just 〈◊〉 the unjust , that he may again bring man unto god , and re●●●e the creation into its pure order where it rested with god , 〈◊〉 had its motion in the power and wisdom of god ; and this 〈◊〉 christ the holy seed , with whom the covenant stands sure , ●●ed unto whom all the promises are made , and in him alone ●●●e yea and amen ; and the seed hath been ever revealed , to ●●ite the serpents head , and to destroy his work , and through 〈◊〉 generations it hath wrought through the fallen proper●ies of the visible creation , and hath found man in all his 〈◊〉 - goings , and in his secret walking in the paths of darkness ; and it hath ever made manifest the lustful desire , as it hath at ●ny time reached forth unto the thing that is evil , and it hath convinced man in his own conscience when he hath lusted after any evil thing ; this it hath done in generations past , and its pure property doth not alter , and man , through the convincement that reacheth to him in the light , is made a sensible man , and in his own conscience knoweth that he should not do evil , and he seeth the evil in himself before he commits it , and as the temptation prevails over him and drawes him , he sees that he approaches near unto the evil ; and so all men are left without excuse , forasmuch as evil is made manifest unto them , and they are in their own consciences convinced of it , and see it before they do commit it ; and who run into evil , or are found in the evil , either in thought , word , or deed , they transgress against the light , which from the holy seed of life shines forth in the love , to discover , and also to convince man in his own conscience of the thing that is evil ; and man is here in the fall , where all the properties of the whole creation are out of order , and his lustful heart eagerly pursueth those things that are evil , and yet where-ever he runs in the fall , or in what path soever the serpent leads him , the light doth discover it , and makes the evil manifest in his own conscience ; so that the drunkard is convinced 〈…〉 is evil , as he is in the uncleanness of it , and that wh●… 〈◊〉 ●…vince him , is the light in his own conscience , and the light which shews him evil , it is pure without any 〈◊〉 of evil : the deceitful man is convinced that he is no just , and that which doth convince him of it , is the light of christ in his own conscience ; and that which lets him see that he is unjust , is just and holy : the lyar is convinced that his deeds are evil , and he sees it in secret whilst he yet retaineth it in his breast ; and that which lets him see it in his own breast before it be spoken , and convinceth him of it , is the light of christ in his own conscience ; and that which lets man see a lye , and convinces and reproves him in his own conscience for it , that is true , and there is no deceit in it , and it is made manifest to destroy lyes , and the father of lyes ; and there is not any thing that the subtilty hath generated , or doth generate in his deceitful working , but with the true light , that enlightens every man that cometh into the world , his deceitful work is discovered , and man thereof convinced that it is evil ; and the serpents deceitful working amongst the fallen properties , in which he begets every lustful desire , is with the light ●…ced , and the secret of his working made manifest ; for the ●●rpent hath seated himself in the mixture of the earthly cor●…ible part , amongst the fallen properties , and hath his course 〈◊〉 the darkness , and there generateth a deceitful heart , out of which proceedeth all manner of evil that defileth the man ; 〈◊〉 he hath gendered a body of sin , which in the corruptible ●…perties he hath begotten , and he hath wrought deceivably , 〈◊〉 hath drawn mans mind after sin , and hath also begotten is love and delight in it , and so provokes a lustful desire ea●…ly to pursue it , and yet it never can be satisfied in it ; but 〈◊〉 man runs in this path of the serpents devising , and follows 〈◊〉 in his leading , and lusteth after his temptation , he dra●…h a burden upon himself , and cometh into much trouble , 〈◊〉 something there is underneath that groans with the weight 〈◊〉 those lusts and sins which the serpent hath generated into ●…body ; and this is a contrary nature , and is not of the cor●…ible , but with the corruptibles is oppressed and burdened ; 〈◊〉 with those things that the serpent hath generated since the ●●ginning , and hath drawn mans life into , the whole creation 〈◊〉 put out of its holy order , and travelleth in pain , and the 〈◊〉 course of nature is set on fire , whereby man is depri●…d of that pure understanding in which he was created , and in ●…ich he discerned through the order of the whole creation , 〈◊〉 had knowledge of it as it stood in the power and wisdom 〈◊〉 god : and though man be thus far degenerated , and hath 〈◊〉 his understanding that he had in the manhood , and that the ●…pent hath drawn him into the fallen properties of the corrup●…le part of the creation , in which he is become as a beast ●…thout understanding , and doth not know the god of power 〈◊〉 wisdom , nor the order of his creation ; yet in this dege●…ed state in which man is thus separated and afar off from 〈◊〉 , there is a pure holy seed abides within him , which in its 〈◊〉 light and brightness reacheth unto mans deceitful heart , ●hich the serpent hath begotten in him , from which the lust ●…seth and the evil proceedeth ; and with its light and ●…ightness it truly discovereth all the evil that in the deceit●… heart is generated , and it doth truly convince him of the evil , whether thoughts , words , or deeds ; and when the deceitful heart lusteth to anger , and that anger is kindled in mans breast , with the light it is made manifest , and with the light man is convinced that he is exercised in the thing that is evil ; and whatsoever is of the serpents generation , and hath its conception in the deceitful heart , it is with the light found out , and there is nothing can stop its course from passing through the fallen properties to find out man , who is become an evil-worker , and to convince him of all his evil deeds ; and man cannot escape the light , though he walk in the midst of darkness , and have his way in the dark places of the earth , and tread in the serpents devised paths , and bring forth the works of his begetting ; yet doth the light find him out , and with it he is convinced , and it is in his own conscience placed , that all his evil deeds he may see , which from the corruptible part of the visible creation do arise , which separateth him from god , and keepeth him in the alienation from the holy life . chap. vi. how man standeth in a convinced state , and also the serpents working . vvhen man in the fall is overcome of evil , and that his deceitful heart brings forth a birth of the serpents begetting ; the pure light , which hath its course through the fallen properties , comes to him with a convincement , and lets him see that he is an evil-doer , and that he is not exercised in the thing that is good ; and when the light hath thus found him out , and convinced him , it doth also truly and plainly discover unto him , that his way is not right , neither is his doings approved of god ; and if he go on without repentance , he must perish : and in the light man sees his conscience defiled , that there is uncleanness upon him , and that his heart is not upright , but deceitful ; and man will acknowledge this in words , and say he hath a deceitful heart , and many evil things proceed out of it , and he is sensible of them ; and as they are conceived and generated in his heart ; they are made manifest unto him , and he in his conscience is convinced that they are exceeding sinful : many man in his wickedness will thus confess , though he be wholly in the fallen properties where the devil ruleth over him , and acteth and ordereth his mind at his will , yet the light reacheth to him , and so far convinceth him , as to confess he is an evil-doer , and a sinful man ; and this confession will the drunkard make , and the lyar and swearer : and whatever man is acted in by the serpents subtilty , the light doth convince him of it , and brings him at some time to confess his wickedness ; so that every man is left without excuse before the pure god , in that he sees his evil with the true light of christ , the seed of god , which passeth through all the properties of the visible creation , and doth make the way of darkness manifest : and this light hath been within man ever since the breath of life was breathed into him ; and though the fall came upon man in the subtilty , and that he fell into the mixture of the properties of the visible creation , yet the light which was breathed in the life , whereby man became a living soul , it was not extinguished by the fall , neither was its property changed by going into the mixture , but it did retain its pure holy nature , though man was enticed from it into the mixture , where he entred into the evil ; and this pure light of life hath thorow all generations been the same , and with its searching quality it hath found out all the evil that man hath or doth commit , and hath and doth convince him of it ; and what it was in the beginning , it hath never been changed in its property and quality , but hath continued pure , holy , righteous and meek , as it is at this day ; and what is come into man since the beginning , that is not of its nature , but is contrary to it , that it convinceth man of , and testifieth against ; and all the devils works which he hath begotten in man since the beginning , with the light which was in the beginning they are made manifest ; and the light was before sin entred , and with it is all sin and evil , which is the devils work in man , discovered and reproved ; and as the serpent hath got dominion over man , and begets his evil deeds in him ; even so doth the light discover them , and lets man in his own conscience see them , and the light is in his own conscience made manifest to bruise the serpents head , and to destroy his work : and this testimony is sure , though the subtilty cannot receive it ; and all that ever came to be acquainted with the holy seed of life , they never testified of another thing , nor ever preached another gospel ; so that the same gospel that was preached unto abraham , hath been and is the same through all generations ; and this pure quality of the holy seed doth not cease from searching after man , who into the mixture of the properties is fallen , and there it doth strive with him , by convincing and reproving , that he might not there abide , but that he might arise and follow it , and come to inherit the life in which he was created good ; and this is the love of god , which was , and is , and is to come ; who would not have any to perish , but rather that they would turn and live ; and though his love be so freely made manifest , and hath an universal course through all the fallen properties , to find out man who is there in the disorder , and walking in his disorderly and unruly affections , which the devil hath begotten and exerciseth him in ; yet doth not man receive his love in the tender of it , neither turns at the reproof of the light which from the love is made manifest ; but he loveth his evil deeds more than he loveth the light ; so doth not come to the life , but is held with the serpents subtilty in the mixture of the fallen properties , and there his delight is in evil more than good , for which the light condemns him , & the evil-doer cannot escape the convincement of the light for his evil deeds , but what-ever it is that he lusteth after , and hath a life in , with the light he is found out ; and if it be never so secret , he cannot hide it from the light ; and though the serpent do beget and generate many evil things , and provokes unto evil concupiscence , and exerciseth mans mind therein , yet the light doth not cease to bear testimony against man in the evil , and to convince him of his evil deeds : hence it is that man stands in the acknowledgement of his sin and evil , but not turning to the light when he is convinced by it , and doth see his evil in it , he still abides in the evil , which he sees to be evil , and is convinced of it ; and the serpent having do●…on over him , worketh a perswasion in him , that the light which convinceth him is not sufficient to save him , and thereby generates unbelief , and draws away mans mind for ●…ding to the movings of the light , or for waiting to know the operation of its power ; and man regarding the serpents counsel , he is drawn away from the light , and can●●t believe that it is sufficient to save him ; and so man doth ●●t turn to the light when he is convinced by it , because disbelief hath entered him , as to the sufficiency of it to do him good , and the serpent still holding man under his power , ●e perswades him that the light is but some part of the named property , and so calleth it a natural light , or a na●…al conscience , or the most tender part of a natural man ; and that it is not any thing of god , neither can save or give eternal life though it should be obeyed ; and it is but a deceived way , in which many poor deluded people do run rashly ; and it is not the redeemer , nor mediator , nor intercessor ; for that is proper to the man christ , that dyed at jerusalem ; and man must place his faith in that very thing done , for life and salvation , or he cannot be saved ; and if he do but so believe , his sin shall not be imputed , though he live in it and do commit it : this is the fair shew of the serpents likeness , by which he hath deceived many people , in begetting unbelief to the light of christ in their own conscience , that shews them sin , and convinceth them of it , and begetting an imaginary faith , to be saved by the man christ that dyed at jerusalem , though in sin they abide : and hence it is that sin is shewed , but not destroyed , which man seeing , the serpent perswades him that it cannot be otherwayes whilst he beareth the natural body ; for nature is prone to sin , and none can be free from it until that body be laid in the earth : thus the serpent worketh unbelief to the light of christ in man , and begets a false faith to believe in christ without him , and not in any wayes within him , for that is delusion , saith the serpent ; and in the serpents false faith which he begets , man believes that though here in this world he sin out his time , yet hereafter in the world to come he shall be saved : so the serpents faith puts the day of salvation afar off , and draws mans mind into disobedience and unbelief to the pure light of christ in his own conscience , which is salvation to the ends of the earth , unto all that believe in it ; and it doth search after man , and convince him of his evil , that he might turn and live ; but man not obeying , he comes not to know the life and vertue that is in it , neither to partake of the benefit of it , so knows not the man christ that dyed at jerusalem , nor his life and salvation , his mediation and intercession , but abides in the mixture of the fallen properties , where he is a corruptible earthly man , without any change wrought in him by the power of christ , whose pure light is incorruptible : and here man stands convinced with the light , and sees the things that are evil ; but not believing in the light , which makes evil manifest , he still abides in the evil , and is not converted . chap. vii . how man stands in a converted state , and also the serpents working . the pure creation being in sore travel and pain , through the disorder of the fallen properties , where the serpent hath seated himself over all that is called god , whereby he keepeth man in the alienation from the life of god , where death's shadow is over him , and sore grief and pain upon him , which doth heavily oppress him , and make him go mourning day by day , so that man comes into a consideration of his state and condition ; and as he pondereth in his mind , a pure light shines forth in his conscience , that doth discover to him , at what a distance he is from the pure god , and how he is alienated from his life , and what a great body of corruption there is within him , that causeth his separation from god ; and when this is made manifest unto him , he is stricken down in the sence of his misery , and is brought into waiting , to see if he can meet with any thing ●…elp him and relieve him , something he feels that cryes after god , which , with the body of sin , is separated from 〈◊〉 ; and there is an enquiry made which way to come un●… him , and how to be freed from those things that separate from him ? and whilst the earnest goeth unto the lord , the ●ight shines forth more and more , and discoveries are made , and man in the light beginneth to appear unto himself to be ●…eding sinful , and beginneth to call in question many ●…ngs that he hath lived in ; and the light discovers them 〈◊〉 be of the unclean nature , and man begins to dislike them , 〈◊〉 he cannot so delight in them as he hath done in times 〈◊〉 , but begins to be serious , and to wait in the light which ●oth discover them , to see if he may be preserved from ●…em ; for he sees them to be evil , and that they do defile 〈◊〉 , and are an heavy burden unto him , and a sore weight ●pon him ; and by attending to the light , and obeying the light which makes them manifest , he receives some power against them , and begins to get some victory over them ; and ●…ough man in this state have little acquaintance with the light , yet there is a true turning to it , according to the ●●nifestation of it , and the knowledge that is then given by it ; and so far a true conversion is wrought , as man turns ●●om the evil , unto the light which makes the evil manifest , and man hath forsaken much evil in obedience to the light ; and hath ceased from much vanity that sometimes ●e hath lived in , and departs out of the unclean path of com●…on prophanesse ; and those things that once was lovely to 〈◊〉 , are now become loathsom ; and he ceaseth from drun●…ness , and superfluities in meats and drinks , which he hath been accustomed to , and from lying and swearing , and ●…gious apparrel , in which he sometimes hath lived with ●elighting ; and that which worketh this change , and begets a man some moderation , it is the pure light of the holy seed , which never had pleasure in man , as he is exercised in the things that are evil ; so hath it ever found man out to convince him ; and as he obeys it , there is a cord of love ●ast about him , to draw him and convert him ; and here the lord worketh the conversion , and man is converted : and into this state have many come , who with the light have be●… convinced , and also from many evil and prophane things converted , and yet from the bands of death have never perfectly been loosed , but have been still kept in the house of bondage , and the serpent hath wrought deceivably to betray man into another thing , and bath laboured to lead him forth into some profession , where he walketh like a sober man , and a moderate man , to what he hath been in times past , and he comes into a fairer shew than when he first lived in the common prophaneness ; and when the serpent hath drawn his mind hither , and hath brought him into some fair shew of godliness , and man sees that he is much reformed in his evil wayes and courses that sometimes he walked in , he begins to neglect the light in his own conscience , and to follow his profession that the serpent hath drawn his mind unto , and hath set up without him , and man draws his contentment from what he professeth , and with this false conception that the serpent hath generated in the imagination he hath deceived many , and caused them to erre from the right way ; and man hath gone from the light after he hath been convinced with it , and also turned from many evil things by it , and hath become the greatest enemy to it ; for it is the hardest to renew such a man , who hath been once enlightned , and for a time hath had some enclination towards it , and hath known something done by it , and then turns from it , he becomes the hardest and turns most against it , and quenches and stops the power of it , that he comes not to be a regenerated man , nor to know the new birth born , in which the holy order of the pure creation stands ; but the serpent hath brought form his many births and likenesses , whose deformity and impurity hath marred the true births beauty , so as little comliness hath appeared in him that he should be desired ; and here the many wayes and many religions are come up , and many things that are prophane they are denied , and the scriptures they are professed , and with this fair shew are many satisfied ; yet doth the light of christ in mans conscience search after him in ●his professing-state , and though now it do not appear against him as a drunkard , or a swearer , yet it appears against him as a will-worshipper , and a time-server , and a man-pleaser , and against his double-mindedness , unstableness , and hypocrisie , and with its pure quallity finds it all out , and searches through the fallen properties , in which the serpent generates his profession , and brings forth the birth of it ; and though there be a seeming difference betwixt prophaness and such a shew of godliness , their generation is in the womb , and they receive their nourishment out of the mixture of the fallen properties , which are in a chaos of confusion , and is mother , mystery babylon , in which there is no true order ; so that the prophaness and the profession of godliness are both defiled , and with the light that is pure they ●●e both condemned : this is truly the state of many , and thus far have many come , and never could get further , who have taken up their rest in the formal profession , where there is neither relief nor satisfaction , and have not endured the ●●ght of affliction after they have been enlightned , but have gone from the gate that is called strait , which is near to the pool of healing , and have not patiently waited until he hath come to bid them take up their bed and walk ; they could not lie and 〈◊〉 , but have strugled away , though lame and impotent , and have gone from the gate , called strait , and have stragled into the way that is broad , and there are got over the crosse , and have healed themselves in a false liberty , which stands in a seeming shew of godliness ; and in this state there is yet a travel in a strange land , and something breatheth after i● native country , where no corruptible mixture is ; and with the light man in this state is searched , and his deceitful heart discovered , out of which proceedeth both the prophaness and profession of godliness ; and with the light his heart opens , and he comes to see that his heart is not upright before the lord , neither is his heart the same with his profession , but feigned humility and hypocrisie lodgeth in it , and the light smites him and corrects him , both for his profession and for his prophaness ; then man comes to see himself miserable , and to behold both his own righteousness and filthiness , to rise out of the mixtures of the fallen properties , and sees himself in the weakness of the corruptible being , and there he is sensible of the correcting hand of the lord , though he hath denyed much prophaness , and be turned into a profession of godliness , and man comes to see that he is sucking a fruitless fountain , and a dry breast , and so comes to minde the light and wait in it , and it ariseth and pulleth down his strong holds , and layeth his fenced cities waste , and brings to nought the glory of his fair shews , and stains the pride of them ; and he comes to see that those things which he is observing without him cannot bring contentment to him , but still the light searches him , and pursues him , and layes many sore and heavy stripes upon him , and also sets his sins in order before him , and lets him see what a great body they are gendered in , which makes him cry in his misery , who shall deliver me ? and he comes to be sensible of his own insufficiency , and to know that without christ he is miserable for ever , and that without christ he can do nothing ; and so sees that all without him are miserable comforters , and that there is no help to be found in them when there is need ; and then he something more enclines to the light within him , and is diligent unto it , and begins to hearken and obey , and to turn to it and minde it , and to wait to feel its motion ; and as it doth convince him of evil , he hath regard unto it , and yeelds himself to obey , and to deny that which it doth convince him of , and then comes to feel that it leads him out of it , and also destroyes it , and takes it away ; and hereby man comes to be satisfied that it is the truth of god , and the way wherein he ought to walk , and he waits to feel its drawing , and it turns his face towards it , and begets a willingness to give up to follow it ; and so man is not now only convinced , but also converted and turned , both from common prophaness , and also from his seeming shew of godliness ; and he becomes a follower of the light , and to deny himself in many things that the light makes manifest to be evil ; and in the leadings of the light he is kept in the cross to his corruptible will , and walketh in the strait gate and narrow way , and feels something of the power to crucifie and remove many fleshly lusts , that have made war against his soul , whereby he comes to feel that he is somewhat eased , and much weight taken off and removed , which had been upon him , and a sore burden unto him ; and something begins to spring in the deliverance that cryed for it ; and when the light hath thus found man , and man is turned unto it , and that he cannot abide any longer , either in prophaness , or seeming shew of godliness ; but presseth in the light to come wholly out of the mixtures of the fallen properties , to come into the holy order of the pure creation ; then doth the serpent strive in his subtilty to hold man in some part of the mixture , that so he may in something yet keep dominion over him , and that he may not be set wholly free , but may serve him still in something , though he have truly denyed many things : and hence it is that many stick in the birth , who are convinced what is truth , and also in many things converted , and yet feel not true freedom wrought , but are sensible of a travel that cryes after a day of deliverance ; and here hath the serpent deceived many , who have been convinced , and have had true openings and clear discoveries in the manifestation of the light , and not being watchful , the serpent hath stepped in , and with his deceitful working he hath beguiled man , as he beguiled eve , and with the same fruit hath tempted , and over many hath prevailed , and hath drawn many minds in the openings to reach forth in the eagerness to satisfie his lustful desire in the knowledge of gods truth ; and this hath shut the womb upon the babe that tryes for deliverance , and so the judgment hath been fled , and the crosse hath been denyed , and a false liberty out of the fear hath got up , and it hath gendered unto sore bondage ; and though the truth be confessed unto , and professed in practice , yet doth the seed lye in bondage under the puffed-up mind , that the serpent hath filled with knowledge , in which he hath generated a body , and brought forth a false birth , whose neck is stiff , and the heart hard , and will not bow unto the lord , nor be subject to his power , but in knowledge stands exalted , under which the true birth is oppressed , and the beauty of it marred by the false generation of the serpents begetting , which rises out of the mixture and receives its body from the earthly part of the fallen properties ; and man having seen the truth in the openings , and the vain mind being filled with the knowledge of it , he takes root in the earthly , and in the earthly he begins to grow and spread forth his branches with a fair and flourishing shew ; and this earthly body that is thus conceived and generated , and likewise nourished in the mixture of the fallen properties , gets a tincture of truth upon it in the openings , as lead may be covered or tinn'd with pure gold ; and this body beareth a fair shew , and appears exceeding glorious , but is not the glory of the only begotten ; and when this is brought forth through the deceitful working of the old serpent , then he labours to nourish it that it may grow in strength , and be a tall man , and a strong man , and be renownable ; and this being desirable , it hath been eagerly pursued , and knowledge hath encreased , and a great growth there hath been in it ; and man hath waxed into a high stature of it , and hath sprung up in height like a cedar in labanan , and hath grown in the body of knowledge like an oak in bashan ; and under this high and mighty growth of knowledge , hath the little breathing innocency been strangled , and sore burdened and oppressed , and hath still been striving underneath in the meckness and humbleness , and hath oft reached the tall cedar to bring it down , and to the strong oak , to make it bend ; but the cedar would not lose its glory , nor the oak part with its strength , but stoutly have stood , yea , and stubbornly resisted the tender innocency , and have cast off the word of its reproof ; and the tall cedar hath been lifted up , and hath said , who shall rule over me ? and the oak it hath been stubborn , and hath said , who shall cause me to bow ? and so they have trampled over innocency , as a thing of no esteem ; and the gold hath been kept in the mixture , and the clean separation hath not been made , but the subtilty hath wrought over it , and hath kept the dross and tinn above it , and man hath not liked the furnace , neither hath been willing to abide the day of his coming in that manifestation , but hath saved his life in the mixture , in which the serpents dominion standeth , who in his subtility hath ever wrought secretly against the seed of life , which is made manifest to bruise his head , and destroy his work ; and though man may be convinced , and in many things converted , and may have followed the light in the self-denial and daily crosse , to many of the worlds fashions , customs , and traditions , yet may the seed be still closed in the womb of the earthly mixtures , and travel in sore pain for want of deliverance ; and as the power hath risen in man , and hath begun to work in the furnace , and to divide and separate betwixt the precious and the vile , and the furnace hath been truly set to have refined , and the fire hath begun to take hold to have consumed , that the seed out of the mixture might have been redeemed , and an holy birth regenerated ; then hath the serpent violently stirred , seeing his kingdom so near to be destroyed , and he in great danger to be cast out and dis-possessed ; and he hath suddenly drawn man from the power , and out of the furnace that should have refined and brought forth the gold without mixture , and he instantly hath begotten man into a false liberty , and hath exalted him over the crosse and judgment , that the life in the earthly could not abide , and there hath the enemy wrought in his subtilty , and hath drawn mans mind into a fleshly liberty , so as man unto the world returns again , and unto the worlds fashions and customs is a man conformable , and then dare say in the stoutness of his heart , that he liveth with god in the inner man ; and having seen much , and also tasted something of the word and power , but not in the furnace abiding , to know a clean separation made , and a perfect regeneration wrought , he becomes a very subtil worker , and a great enemy to the pure innocency , being fled into the fallen properties to save his life ; and from this ground a monstrous birth is generated , and by the strength of the subtilty brought forth , and it is not in any wayes like the true birth , born in the regeneration , which from the holy womb proceeds , and in the furnace is brought forth , without any mixture of the earthly part ; and where it is truly born , it changeth the whole man throughout , and perfectly redeems him out of the world , with the pashions , customs and traditions , and it hath its nourishment from the breast of the holy life , and grows in the pure holy nature of it , and is strong in its power , in which it makes war and overcomes the serpent and his power : let the tall cedars and strong oaks consider , and stoop and bow , for they must fall and be broken , and the innocency must reign because it is pure , and there is no mixture in it ; and also let such consider , who have had a taste of the true power , and have known something of its work , and are again returned unto folly , and are flown up into the air , and plead their fleshly liberty as a thing that is natural to the visible creation , and dare say , that though such things appear , they do not desile the inner man , neither do they see ! any reproof for their fleshly and carnal doings , but stand justified before the lord in their inner man ; let such know as from the lord , that they are birds of the air , and took their flight in winter , and the hand of the lord will bring them down ; and let the proud and arrogant consider , who dare to say that all their works , whether they be good or evil , are wrought in god , and what they do , it is his doings , though it be drunkenness , or any other evil , and so are in the devilish spirit , ranting and making merry over the pure innocent life ; let such sink down , and hereby know , yea , as from the lord , that their life is for death , and their works for judgment ; for the holy seed is risen that bruiseth the serpents head , and he cannot save it with all his twisting , nor keep his deceitful works from judgement ; but all his building must be defaced , and all his works destroyed . chap. viii . the new birth in the regeneration , and also the serpents working . man being degenerated from the holy order of the pure creation , and being fallen under the serpents power , who is a subtil and deceitful worker , all the faculties and properties of man are in disorder , and are become a chaos of confusion , and without being regenerated and born again he cannot come into his place in which he stood in the pure creation , and enjoyed the presence of the pure god ; neither an he come to the tree of life , but is shut out and fenced with the flaming sword ; for the unclean cannot enter into the pure , neither can come to feed upon the holy life , but must with the sword be cut down , and with the flame be consumed ; and man through the fiery furnace must passe before he can inherit the kingdom , or possess eternal life , which in the pure creation was its rest and portion ; and with this pure light is man in all his wayes found out , that he might return and come again to inherit and possess the life from which he is degenerated and fallen ; and with the light he is in his own conscience convinced of the things that are evil , that he might not abide in them , but that he might forsake them , and deny them , and follow the light out of them ; and as man comes into the obedience , be comes to know that the light of christ in his conscience , which doth shew him sin , and convinces him of sin , that it is sufficient to save him from sin , and redeem him out of sin , and destroy the body of sin , and thereby restore him again into the holy order of the pure creation , where he enjoyed the presence of god , and was good in the sight of god ; and this is that which seeks lost man , and is made manifest to save and redeem him out of his lost estate ; and all that have believed in it through ages and generations , have known the effectual working of its power , by which they have been redeemed out of the earth , and from the vain conversation of the world , and walked as pilgrims and strangers in the world ; and this pure light was with abel , and in it he sacrificed , and his sacrifice was accepted ; it was with seth , and in it he called upon the name of the lord ; it was with noah , and in it he was preserved , when the flood came upon the world of the ungodly ; it was with abraham , and in it he believed , and it was counted unto him for righteousness ; it was with isaac , and in it he was the heir of promise ; it was with jacob , and in it he went over esau's mount , and out of his loyns came the twelve tribes , whom god chose for his own inheritance : it was with moses , and in it he led forth the inheritance of god out of egypt : it was with david , and in it his horn was exalted : it was with job , and in it he was redeemed , and knew his redeemer lived : it was with isaiah , and in it he saw a child born , and a son given : it was with malachy , and in it he saw the separation , and the fewel out of the mixture : it was with john , and in it he saw the lamb of god , and did behold the glory of the only begotten of the father . and this pure light of the holy seed of life , hath had its course through all generations , and hath been made manifest through the several dispensations and administrations , as it hath pleased the father of spirits , and they that did believe in it , did not abide in darkness , nor did not continue satisfying the lustful desire of the fleshly part , but were regenerated through the effectual working of the power whereby they became dead to sin , and alive to god , and were born of the holy seed , which made them holy men , and with it they were filled and divinely inspired , and then they testified of its power , and it was the same thing unto them all , and neither changed its quality nor property , though diversly it manifested it self ; and all the holy men of god , that gave forth the scriptures , they had the name in the nature of the holy seed , and were born of it through the regeneration ; and this was a work that was wrought before scriptures were written , and was the same work in them that writ the scriptures , and it hath been the same in generations since the scriptures were written ; and it is the work of christ , the holy seed , and it is proper unto him alone , to regenerate and make a new man ; and no man can add to the work of regeneration , for it is an inward work , wrought by an invisible power , that no mortal eye can behold : and this work at this day is witnessed amongst a remnant , whom he hath chosen to be his own peculiar people ; and as man turns to the light of christ in his own conscience , it will open his own condition to him , and make manifest every secret thing , that the serpent hath begotten and drawn his life into ; and it will clearly discover unto a mans understanding that they are evil and sinful : and as he mindeth the light , and obeyeth it , it will lead him out of the evil that it maketh manifest unto him ; and thus far man is convinced , and also converted : then the serpent begins to make war , and lahours to hold man in those things which he hath begotten in him ; but as man joyns to the light he will receive strength to stand against him , and also to overcome him ; for after a man is convinced , and also converted and turned to the light , then he enters into a great fight of afflictions , and hath a sore conflict to passe thorow , as he abides faithful , before he get the serpent under his feet ; and after conversion the serpent besets man sore , and laboureth with all his might to stop him in his travel , so that man is sometimes kept by the subtil working of the serpent , and cannot readily get on , nor clearly cast off those things which be is turning from , in obedience to the light , but is still ●ept by the serpent , who labours to save his head from bru●ing ; and the way that he hath to do it , is to draw man into the reasoning , and there to consult how it will be with him , if he wholly give up and deny those things that he is convinced of , and also turning from , and what will be the end if he part with them ; and here have many felt the dragons war against the innocent lamb , that hath been travelling for freedom from under the corruptible things , which have oppressed his innocent life ; and man hearkning to the serpent , and entering into reasoning and consulting , the serpeut keeps the vail over him , and then shews what great losse it will be unto him if he go on to deny all those things , that he is convinced of to be evil , and is turning from ; and also perswades him , that if he should follow the light unto the end , and part with all for it , yet it is not sufficient to save him : and under this vail many stumble at the light , and draw back and follow no further , though for a time they have in some things been obedient ; and this is the man that loves something more than christ , and cannot part with his own life , for the gain of life eternal : and thus doth the old serpent work for the safety of his kingdom ; but through his strong holds have many broken , and from his bonds they are loosed in the power of the light , which being minded and obeyed , it doth convert mans mind from the thing that is evil , and ariseth in its power to judge it and condemn it , and upon the crosse to crucisie it ; so that man dyeth unto it , and it dyeth in man ; and as a drunkard mindeth the light , and obeyeth the light , when it doth convince him that drunkenness is sin , it will lead him out of drunkenness , and destroy that work of darkness , and take away mans life in it ; and this is the work of christ , who is made manifest to destroy the work of the devil , and to burn it up with unquenchable fire , that he thereby may set man free from under the burden of all corruptible things ; and whatever it is that the serpent hath generated in man since the beginning , and drawn mans heart to lust after , the light which was in the beginning , in which is no sin , but pure and undefiled , it doth appear against it , and also every lustful desire that hath its rejoycing in it , and it brings it down with a stroak of severe judgment ; and as man in the light believeth , even so doth it work , and appear in its power , to destroy every lust in which the serpent hath dominion over man , and in which he makes war against the soul ; and as man denies himself , and takes up the crosse , and follows the light faithfully , he becomes a dying man , and the power separateth between the precious and the vile ; and then he will be felt , whose fan is in his hand , and the fire will be known which burns up the chaff ; and as man abides this day , and keeps in the righteous judgment , the old man will be crucisied , and all his deeds consumed , and neither prophaness , nor seeming shew of godliness , shall stand in the judgment , but the tallest must come down , and the strongest must bow ; for the fire will not spare , but through the earth will passe ; and that which is of the earth must burn , and none can quench ; and man abiding this day , and keeping in the patience , judgement will be brought forth unto victory , and man will come forth dead to himself , and alive in christ , and so will come to know that christ worketh that work which no other can do , and that the light doth not only shew him his sin , and convince him of it , but if he turn , obey , and believe in it , so it will take the sin away , and purge his conscience from the dead works , and redeem him out of all the lusts which the serpent hath generated in him , and hath begotten his life into ; and he will know his redeemer liveth , and salvation he will feel in the light , which doth condemn his sin in the flesh : and here drunkard is redeemed out of drunkenness , a swearer from swearing , a lyar from lying , a covetous man from covetousness , an angry man from anger ; and so out of all vain pleasures , sports , jesting , headiness , wildness , customs , fashions and traditions that are in the world through lust ; with the light man is redeemed through its righteous judgment , for with its pure searching quality it finds out every secret thing of the old lustful nature , and proceeds against it in judgment ; so that the serpent cannot escape the light , but with all his subtilty he is found out ; and as man believes in the light , so doth the judgment fall upon the serpents head ; and though it be long before man can give up himself truly , to deny all things that he is convinced of to be evil , or before he can get clearly thorow , or to the end of much that he is turning from ; or before he can witness a perfect regeneration through the fire of cleansing ; yet , as man in the light believes and follows it , the work is going on and prospering , and the lusts and evil deeds are dying , and the serpent he is weakning , and doth not come upon man so furiously and forcibly as formerly , but his temptations are weaker , and man in the light he is stronger , and stands with courage to resist him ; and as man feels at any time dominion over the serpent , and that he is able , as he abides in the light , to resist him ; so doth his strength and courage encrease , and he stands boldly in the battel , and yeelds not when temptations come , but brings them under , and treads them down ; and as the serpent comes upon man , and appears to tempt him into that lust which man is making war against ; man stands prepared unto battel , and is strong and of a good courage , and goes forth against him in his first appearance , and in the power of the light placeth true judgment upon his head , and bruiseth him , and so man is preserved from him , and abstains from evil in the appearance of it ; and this is the serpents great design to keep man alive to himself , and to delight in his hearts lusts , whereby he ruleth over him , and takes him captive at his will , and he is not willing to let him go if all his subtilty can hold him ; therefore many temptations come upon man after he is convinced and comes to own the truth of god ; and as he converts and turns unto the lord , he is many times sorely beset in his way , and often ready to be driven quite back again : and hence it is that man finds such a strong warfare in his spiritual travel , and finds it such a hard work to come into the regenerated state , because there he must deny himself , and forsake all his hearts lusts , and lay down his life in the judgment , and abide the fire of refinement ; and as man in the light begins to approach near unto this great work , then the serpent strives in his subtilty to withhold him and keep him back , and so the two in their contrary natures are felt in the strife ; and this gate is strait , and few there be that find it ; and as man stands faithful and abides in the light , he will feel strength to support him when the enemy thus violently pursues him , and he will stand a conqueror over those lusts that have had dominion over him ; and when the serpent finds that he cannor keep man in the inordinate affection , and lead him forth to satisfie his lust to the full , as he had wont to do ; then in his subtilty he abates his temptation , and perswades man that he may use things moderately , and keep out of excess , for it is the excess that makes it to become evil , and so to be condemned ; but if he cease from excess , the moderate use will not bring condemnation : so he tells the drunkard , if he keep himself from being drunk , he may moderately keep his friend company , and he may be merry with him : and he tells the proud in heart , if they use not excess in their apparrel , they may go decently according to their quality ; and the like temptations for other lusts he hath ; and he tells man , the moderate use of them will not bring condemnation : but here some have found him a lyar , as he is , who came to abstain and restrain from the excess of many things , which once they were serving their lusts in , and caine down to that which the devil called moderation , but found it was in the hearts lusts still , and with the light was still condemned and judged , and no rest nor peace could be found , until the devil was wholly denied , and the hearts lusts given up to the crosse , and there crucified , and thereby redemption perfectly wrought in the power of christ , and then comes the right use to be made of ill things in their place with true moderation ; and in the use of them in the redeemed state there is no condemnation , for they are received and used in the fear of the lord , and what is useful and no more ; and there is no lust abiding that reacheth forth beyond the present need , and there is the blessing felt ; but man that hearkens to the serpent , and takes that for moderation that he calls so , he is deceived ; and though he lessen the use of that which the light reproves him for in the inordinate affection , yet will the light still condemn him , and judge him in his own conscience , until he come to the power , and there have his lust truly crucified : so the serpent tells the drunkard , he may drink moderately , and be merry with his friend : he tells the proud , he may put on such garments as are suitable to his quality amongst men , so that he keep within the bounds of moderation : and many have here denied common drunkenness , and yet satisfying the old lust in the excess : and many that cannot wear so many ribbands , nor great cuffs , as sometimes they could , yet they must have some bunches of ribbands , and little cuffs ; then saith the devil , thou art now in the moderation , and dost no more , or hardly so much as becomes thy quality . and now to give one true and faithful experience , though many in these things might be truly demonstrated : i know a man who once was alive to himself , and served his lusts , and loved pleasures more than god , and in one thing the serpent had sealed his life more than in many others , and his delight was chiefly in it ; and after he came to obey the light of christ in his conscience , it was clearly discovered unto him to be exceeding evil ; and though he minded the light , and stood in the crosse to his lustful desire , yet the devil did not cease to provoke eagerly , still to satisfie the lust , though he could not do the thing as he had done in the use of it , the terror of the lord was upon him , and his righteous judgment reached unto him , and many sore stripes he bore : then saith the serpent , lessen thy inordinate affection , and it will not be so with thee : then he came from the use of much , to the use of lesse ; but the judgment still pursued him , and the terror encreased upon him , and though the use of it was in the end so much lessened , as it was hardly used at all ; yet when it was used , the judgment ceased not , but plagues were forthwith poured , and it was just with the holy god so to do , and he could find no peace , until he gave up his life in the lust , and stood upon his watch , and whenever the serpent approached with that temptation , he placed judgment upon his head , and so walked in the daily crosse , until he was crucified unto the lust , and the lust crucified unto him , which now is as dead as if it had never been . unto him be glory for evermore ; who undertook the cause , and perfected his own work. now man that comes not to know the lust crucified in the ground , he is betrayed into a false moderation , and as he there standeth , he looketh at himself to be above many others , who yet abide in the inordinate affection ; and so the serpent worketh deceivably , to keep man out of the furnace , and to lead him afar off from judgment ; and though the inordinate affection may be abated , yet the lust is not crucified , but the life in it is saved , and man here flies for his life , that when he should deny himself and take up the crosse , he denies the crosse and saves himself , and slies the judgment , and cannot abide that day ; but as man keeps to the light , this way will be made easie , and he will be able to tread thorow it , and come to the end of it , and conquer the serpent who works against him ; and as man follows the light faithfully , it brings him to the judgment and keeps him in the judgment , and there he waits and abides until judgment be brought forth unto victory ; and he , as a willing man , walks in the daily cross , and chearfully gives up all his hearts lusts to be crucified , and then he feels the enmity slain , that hath begotten and nourished the lust ; and so man comes truly through the furnace , and abides the fire of refinement , in which the separation is made , and the corruptible is burned and destroyed ; then the holy seed of life appears without any mixture , and the creation is delivered out of travel and pain , and in this fiery furnace is man regenerated , where the old man is destroyed , his hearts lusts crucified , the body of sin consumed , the dross and tin purged , the gold clearly separated , and brought forth in its own pure property and quality ; and through this living eternal operation is man recovered out of the fall , and the pure creation is again restored into its holy order , in which it was very good , and man is then redeemed out of the fallen properties , where he hath been lusting after evil , and comes again into the paradise of pleasure , and hath his course unto the tree of life , and the flaming sword doth not now fence it from him ; and this is the regeneration which man must come to know in the fire of refinement , where he must part with all that is his own , whether filthiness or right cousness , and come thorow without any unclean thing ; or he cannot enter into the kingdom of god ; and man must put off the corruptible part of the earthly , where he is in the degeneration , before he can be brought into the holy order of the pure creation ; and as the old he puts off in the fire of refinement , and abides in the work of regeneration , he comes to the new , and receives the new , and it is born in him , and thereby his , change is wrought , and he is redeemed out of the fallen properties into the holy order of life , and he is now no more his own , neither can he satisfie lust any longer , but is truly dead unto it , and his life is renewed in the birth of the holy seed , of which he is born , and in which he is a new man , and so puts off drunkenness , and dyes to that lust , and puts on sobriety , and lives in that vertue ; he puts off anger , and dyes to that lust , he puts on ●eekness , and lives in that vertue ; he puts off envie , and dyes to that lust , he puts on love , and lives in that vertue : and so in all things that the serpent hath begotten through his deceitful working , that stands in the old lustful nature , the light judgeth it , the power crucisieth it , the fire burneth and consumeth it , and so cleanseth man from his defilements , and cleareth the way for the holy birth to spring , and for the ●●mb that from the foundation of the world hath been slain , to come into dignity and dominion to reign : so to die is gain ; and blessed is the man that dies in the lord , he comes to inherit life and immortallity , and to possess durable riches , and a life without end ; and is an heir of god , and a joynt-heir with christ , in whom he is made a new man , and boars a heavenly image , in which the father is glorified , who is over all , blessed for ever . chap. ix . the new creation in the holy order . the lord god of eternal glory , searches after man in his fallen and degenerated state , and with his pure light he finds him afar of , with his feet walking in dark paths , and his way in the land of desolation , and there doth he visit him in his poor and low degree ; for man is fallen from god , and departed from his maker , the serpent hath deceived him , and with his subtilty hath drawn him out of the holy order , and hath enticed his mind into the fallen properties of the visible part of the earthly , where he is a servant to the subtil worker , and satisfies his own hearts lusts that is fleshly , and is a sinner against the holy god , and in the disorder of the unruly affections , where the pure creation is in bondage , and travelleth in sore pain , and the old heavens , and the old earth moves over it , and heavily oppresses it ; and man in the fallen estate is never at rest , nor his heart satisfied with lusting ; and in this separation from the god of mercy , is man plunging in the depth of misery ; a sinner he is , and death reigns over him , and wrath is upon him , and in the disorder of the unruly affections , his life is driven about and tossed , and there is no stedfastness in him ; and in this troubled state , there is a cry unto the lord , and a breathing goes forth that would be in rest , and the lord hath respect , and hears , and in bowels of pitty he arises to help , he stretcheth forth his arm , and brings the mountains down ; he comes forth in power and makes the hills to melt ; he utters his voyce , and the earth trembles , he kindles a fire and consumes it into ashes ; he brings man into the nothingness , and dissolves the old birth into its dust ; he causes the old heavens to pass away with a noise , and he melts the elements with fervent heat ; and man no longer lives therein , but his life is taken away , and he lies slain and dead , and there is no motion in him , until the spirit of life from god come into him , and create him new into the holy order of life , and so gives him breath and being as in the beginning ; and he is made and fashioned with the hand of god , and is the workmanship of god , in whom he now receives his life , and out of whose bowels he draws his breath , whereby he is perfectly renewed in the spirit of his nind , and hath no old thing upon him , nor earthly part abiding in him ; but through the fire of refinement he is made dean , and out of the virgins womb he springs , and sucks the beast which giveth life , whereby he grows in strength , and in wisdom increases , and comes into the stature of the fulness of christ , and partakes of his divine nature ; all old things being put off , and all done away in the fire of refinement , he comes forth of the furnace a naked child , and a new creation springs , and a new creature man is made , and rises with the lamb in his nature , and the pearl's glory he is cloathed withal , and into the holy order of life he is restored , and hath his way in the pleasant paradise , and his food from the tree of life , and his motion stands in the power and wisdom of the seed , which is come into dominion , and reigns in its pure quality and property , without any mixture , and there is no corruptible thing abides upon it , but in the refining fire is purged and consumed ; and as man abides the fire , and waits 〈◊〉 the judgment , he puts off the old in which he hath lived , and he puts on the new and is translated ; and here man truly ●…kes to himself , and receives christ the seed of life , and putteth him on , whereby he feeleth christ made unto him wisdom , righteousness , sanctification , and redemption ; and in his power and wisdom , he brings forth a new creation in the holy order of his pure life , in which the six dayes works are passed thorow , and the separation and consumption is wrought in the furnace , where the fire cleanseth , and the seventh ●…y is come unto , which is holy unto the lord , in which man ●…osts from all his own works , as god did from his , and sits down in the power and wisdom of the holy seed , and rests in the stilness of its divine nature , of which he truly is made a partaker ; and in it he is transformed , and stands in the holy order of the new creation , in which he is perfectly made a new creature , and hath his motion in the new heavens , and new forth , wherein dwels righteousness ; and with righteousness he is covered as with a robe , and holiness is become his vesture ; and he bears the heavenly image in the life , and is lovely and amiable to behold , and is in the sight of the holy god , very good . thus is the new creation finished with all the host of it , and is brought forth in the holy order , through the effectual working of the holy power ; and man is changed and renewed in the holy birth of the immortal seed , and again is placed in the paradise of pleasure , and is not senced from the tree of life , but hath access unto it , and it is his dayly food , and he lives by it , and rests in the comfort and consolation of it , which is life without end . chap. x. the way and works of man in the new creation . as man believes in the light , which from the life shines forth , and in his own conscience is made manifest , he comes to the righteous judgment of god , who passeth sentence against him , and condemns him to death , where upon the cross he is crucified , and there he dies unto himself , with all his hearts lust , both in thought , word , and deed ; then doth the fire take hold , and burns and consumes , and through its operation wholly dissolves the old man , and destroyes all his deeds ; and through destruction unto the corruption , there springs a holy pure generation , which hath its conception in the matrix of eternity , and is brought forth in the holy order of life , and in this holy generation is man restored into his first order , and is truly the off-spring of god , and hath his motion in the power and wisdom of god ; and in this restoration man is changed , and becomes a new man in christ , and his way and all his works are new , and he becomes a well-doer , and is accepted of god in christ the beloved ; and here man finds the new and living way , which makes him a new and living man , and leads him unto the living god ; and this is the way of holiness in which the clean feet walk , and man that is in it ordered , he is in the way of peace , and is led into the green pastures of everlasting refreshings , and he walketh continually by the pleasant streams , and hath his course by the river that makes glad the whole city ; and in the holy life of the immortal seed is his life bound up , and he is ordered in the motion of it , and he doth not stir but in the holy order of it , and it is the strength of his reins , and the girdle of his loyns , and keeps man in close communion with it , whereby he is strengthened to run the way of every command , and there is no feebleness upon his loyns , but perfect strength in the motion of the holy seed , which carries him as upon eagles wings ; and he runs and is not weary , he walks and is not faint , and his way is holy , and his works holy unto the lord , and he is created in christ jesus that he should walk in them , and is no more his own , but in the lords disposing , and truly serves the lord in righteousness and true holiness ; and he no more thinks his own thoughts , nor speaks his own words , nor works his own works , but is moved and acted in the power and wisdom of the holy seed , of which he is born and made a new creature ; and his works are works of holiness , proceeding from the life of christ , and man is holy as he is holy ; for unto good works he is craated in christ , and his delight in the new creation is in the thing that is good , and in a new and living way he walks , and brings forth new and living works , in the living power and wisdom of the holy seed ; and thus man is changed , and is made a holy man , a righteous man , a godly man , sober , chast , gentle , meek , patient , loving , kind , good , lowly , tender-hearted , forbearing , and long-suffering , and in all things he walks as becomes the order of the holy life , into which he is born , and in which he lives and moves , and he becomes a lamb in the lambs nature , and beautiful in the brightness and holiness of the pearl's glory ; and thus i● man translated and changed , through the effectual working of gods mighty power ; and with a new heart he glorifies his maker , and is sincere and upright in his heart before god , and the lord. god takes pleasure in him , and approves his way and his work , and justifies him therein , and there is no condemnation upon him , nor any wrath or curse goes forth against him , or falls upon him , but in the eternal love he dwels , and the love dwels in him , and the image of it he bears , and it is clear from defilement , spot , or blemish ; then doth the glory shine in the precious pearl , and the scepter of the lamb doth bear its sway , and upon his throne he is exalted , and with pure righteousness he cloathes his saints , and crowns of pure gold upon their heads he sets , and in the holy land with him they rest , and in the holy order of his life they move , and they learn the songs of holiness , and sing his praise within the gates ; for he fills them with joy and gladness , and with a new heart and a new spirit they sound his name , and cease not to give glory , and honour , and thanksgiving , and praise , and dominion , and hallilujahs unto him that sits upon the throne , and to the lamb for evermore . . oh ! mortal man , thy way and works consider ; sleep not in death , lest thou there die for ever . awake , and stand upright , that thou restor'd may'st be both from thy sins and evils great , with all iniquitie . . thou wast created good , and stoodst in great renown , a noble plant thou wast , but soon thou wert cast down : the serpent thee deceiv'd , and drew thee into evil , and thou by him art led astray , according to his will. . from god thou art driv'n out , and from his dwelling place , the earth thy habitation is , and there thou run'st thy race . thou neither stay'st nor stop'st , but run'st and hastens on , until thou fall'st into the pit , where bonds of death are strong . . oh! hearken , and be still , the lord is seeking thee , and with his light of life , he cryes , return to me . this in thy conscience he hath plac'd , thy evil deeds to shew , that thou may'st to repentance come , & know the thing that 's true . the light of christ is true , and shines forth in all men : and every evil deed it brings up to be seen . and thou in it may'st know thy thoughts and works each one ; and in thy self thou may'st behold , whatever thou hast done . . if thou unto the light dost turn , and in it dost believe , it will not leave thee in thy sins , but certainly relieve : and unto thee it strength will be , against thy deadly foes , and from thy sins will set thee free , in which thou daily grows . . oh! turn to it with speed , thy danger 's very great ; thou art in the broad way , and not in the strait gate : 〈◊〉 liv'st in flesh , and serv'st thy lust , which causes wrath to fall , that unto thee , in fury , doth come like to bitter gall. . thou hast no pleasure in its tast , because it doth torment ; why then dost thou abide in sin , and dost not soon repent ? the light doth shew , and also call , and makes known unto thee thy sins and thy transgressions great , with all iniquity . . and as the light thou mind'st , and yeeld'st for to obey , it will not only shew thee sin , but take it quite away . 〈◊〉 that end it is manifest , the serpent's head to bruise , and all his works for to destroy , if thou dost not refuse . . it s quality is pure , and searcheth through thy heart ; it will convince thee in thy self , and tell thee what thou art . 〈◊〉 will not thee deceive , but will deal plain with thee ; and if thou dost in it believe , a convert thou wilt be . . and when thou art converted , keep watchful to the light ; for then the enemy will stir , and thou wilt find a fight . 〈◊〉 life will be requir'd , and thou must lay it down , and from the crosse do not thou flie , until the work be done . . so in the furnace thou wilt know , a new birth brought to light , as in the judgment thou abid'st , and stand'st by faith to fight . the serpent thou wilt overcome , and all his deeds destroy , which have depriv'd thee of thy peace , and of thy rest and joy. . now hear , all ye professors , with all that be prophane ; you cedars tall , and oaks so strong , who have a glorious fame . ●…u flying birds , and ranting strains , who are soar'd up on high , the fire is kindled at your root ; come down before you dye . . lye low , and be you still , the judgment you must pass , the true birth is in bondage sore ; your life above it is : which from you must be taken , before the life you know , that from on high , is come to try , in what you stand and grow . . your births are all defil'd , corrupted and unclean , the fire hath not consum'd , nor purg'd away your tin. you yet lye in the mixture , and are not separate , that make the seed to groan , under the earthly part . . come forth all ye unclean , whose bed is so desil'd , come down unto the pure , and know the little child , which in the womb doth travel , and would delivered be , that you may be regenerate , and from all burdens free . the heavenly harmony in the eternal unity . . thou pure simple birth , of the immortal seed , thy love is sweet and free , thou giv'st to all that need : thou' rt pleasant to the tast , thy pasture's fresh and green , the glory of thy countenance is now beheld and seen . . thou holy lamb of life , who com'st down from on high ; thou art the shepherd of thy flock , thy sword 's upon thy thigh ; stretch forth thy arm , and smite thy foes , that would not have thee raig●… that praise to thee in unitie , may sound abroad thy fame . . thou precious beauteous pearl , that is refined clear , thy lustre shines in nature pure ; no mixture dost thou bear : thy countenance is full of love , thy riches is the treasure ; thee to possess , is life endless : to whom be praise for ever . . the birth , the lamb , the pearl are one , the only true begotton son , who sits in glory on his throne ; to whom be hallelujahs sung . even so , amen , even so , amen : praises to thee , thou holy one. w. s. the end . a philosophical treatise of the original and production of things writ in america in a time of solitudes by r. franck. franck, richard, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a philosophical treatise of the original and production of things writ in america in a time of solitudes by r. franck. franck, richard, ?- . [ ], p. printed by john gain, and are to be sold by s. tiamirsh ... and s. smith ..., london : . caption title: rabbi moses. "epistle to the reader" and preface signed: philanthropus. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jennifer kietzman sampled and proofread - jennifer kietzman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a philosophical treatise of the original and production of things ▪ writ in america in a time of solitudes . by r. franck . london , printed by iohn gain , and are to be sold by s. tidm●rsh at the king's head in corn-hill : and s. smith at the prince's arms in s t. paul's church-yard . . whereas several literal errors have passed the pr●ss : the reader is d●sire● either to correct , or put a favourable censure upon them . to the sedulous sons of science . gentlemen , this epistle directs you a prospect of the original , and production of things ; where , if in any thing i dev●at from the truth of philosophy , natures progeny , and scriptural a●thority ; i stand at the bar of every mans censure : but if otherwise , as i 'm conscious i have offered no violence ; let me hope and expect a generous approbation . h'●● true , the sublimest speculations i can raise , are but faint , uncultivated , and unpr●fitable endeavours , when presenting them to the shrines of clearer judgments . for as ridling of water through a serce or sieve , makes no decisional separation of the recrements , and impurities , nor the holding up a taper at the sun's meridian , add any lustre to his luminous brightness ; such peradventure some will interpret these ●y suggestions upon th●s admirable subj●ct , when so slenderly to approach , and attempt a survey upon such sublime , and divine discoveries : and because not raising my scenes high enough ; they 'l doom me to encounter their uncharitable opinions , when modestly , and piously , i come to present th●m with my notion● , and speculations of this imbellished creation . h●aven is gods throne , and the earth h●s foot-stool ; from whence i conclude , that the property and quality of every individual devolves in him that gave it a being : otherwise , how could the benignity and bounty of the donor so splendidly shine in the fabrick of the creature ? and because to contribute a ray of his essence-royal , adam was dignified vice-roy of the creation . let no man therefore oppose himself to the divinest by sacriligious oblat●ons , and impious adorations ; le●t he prophane the altar , and make void the offring , when to send up his orisons to an unknown god. hermes in his book of the divine pimander , has pointed out unto us a prospect of heaven . so rabbi moses in the desarts of arabia , by divine inspiration , had a vision of the creation . nor was job ignorant of seraphick intelligence , when to range himself sublimly above the most sedulous mathematicians ; who with an angelick stile left unto us such lectures , whereby to read in the frontispiece of h●aven . the jews also , so did the talmudists by m●saical ord●nation , find the tracts to jerusalem ; whiles divine paul , and the primitive christians by spiritual revelation , became illuminated with t●e go●pel . but nature all this while by h●avens permission went on in operation , and the sophi as amazed stood gazing upon her , till the divinest in his son discovered himself , which struck amazement , and astonishment amongst them ; because when to shine on them the majesty of himself in the glorious mystery of the blessed incarnation ; the sublime divinity assuming humanity : which in parallel lines directs us to inspect this visible world so miraculously drest up , the beautiful outside of a more glorious inside . this invited me to contemplate , and seriously consider , how that every creature , and created being by a fermental law radicated in nature , makes progress to the act of germination , and vegetation . nor can the law of necessity ( i speak of the creation ) impose any other doctrine upon the classes of individuals , till the final exit , and the periods of time. this great world 't is true represents unto us a large and copious volumn of intelligences , sprung up in the beginning from the divine fiat . and because the divinest divin●ly 〈…〉 with such admirable varieties as the orbs , and elements ; those beauteous , shining , luminous bodies ; for such are the stars stuck round to adorn it : it denotes unto us every c●eature god has made , as animals , and ●nan●mates to replenish the earth ; was made to explain the excellency of hims●lf , that so divinely dr●st up this stupendious creation . thus moses our prophetick oracle , in the first chapter of gene●●● , makes obvious unto us the creation in general ; when in this philosophical treatise , if sedulously examined , you 'l find it parce●●'d out into many particulars ; yet not so as to prophane , or diminish holy writ , whereby to expose it to sale , or sacriledge ; but rather to elucidate , and illustrate to every man the more glorious mysteries , and seraphick discoveries of the sacred scriptures ; pointed out unto us by the patriarchs , and the prophets ; and imprest on us by a divine impression , to legitimize us heirs of the glorious eternity , by the mys●●cal vnion betwixt christ and his church ; and the admirable effects of his invincible love , when to lay down his life for an vnregenerate generation . to contemplate therefore this imbellished creation , is to study the tracts and the high way to heaven : and led on by such eminent and convincing authority as moses , the patriarchs , the prophets and apostles ; confirms it beyond dispute our christian duty devoutly to implore , and seriously admire the creators bounty and goodness in creating ; his infinite and superlative wisdom in preserving : but above all his works , his unparalell'd love to inspire life and vertue into the humane race of degenerate mankind ; because when to restore him to a more regal ●'state than adam our protoplast enjoyed in paradice . from whence i conclude all visible beings that are made obvious , and perceptible to us , were designed also by the maker intelligeable ; however the envious and malicious misinterpret , and would every way if possible mascarade the truth , thinking thereby to make things less discoverable , than they really and trully are in themselves . for were it as some sciolists fictitiously imagine , what benefit could any man expect from his studies , more than the knowledge of insects , and animals ; when omitting the superiour dignity of celestials . such with their admirers only gaze upon them as the ignorant , and the arrogant too frequently do , that amuze themselves only with foreign curiosities . nor do i strain my charity when to assert such men think the ornaments of the creation an unprofitable study : who by their arguments endeavour an arrest of judgment , since reputing them dull , and insipid contemplations ; endeavouring thereby to disswade the more ingenious simply to consider them as impoverish'd effects . but god that made them , and still maintains them ; because willing that man above all created beings should read daily lectures in their glorious frontispiece , inspired him to contemplate their internal purity ; which indubitably points some of them signa●●y out as guides , and land-marks to light us up to his more sublime , and superlative habitation . to consider things therefore as they are in themselv●s , what matters it if any man oppose my ass●rtions , and call them it may be imaginary presumptions ; if wh●n because to dive into the mysteries of the creation : surely such men have not well considered that what god in his wisdom has made legible to us , that thing by his clemency was intented intelligible . the superscription of a monarch any man may read , but none except of councel dare examine the contents . so god assignes it our duty to study the creation , since discovering things to us by invisible mediu●●s ; but not that we by a foreign faith pay our orisons and our adorations unto them : no , rather as christians , we must learn god in them , and in knowing him admire his operations . but our prophet moses seems to some ambiguous , when undressing the hoil of this admirable creation , wherefore some spare not with their proselytes prophanely to decry him , and such others as himself studious in the creation ; who resolving among them elves nev●r to labour due m●asures of knowledge whereby to convince their own incredulities , makes them uncapable , and altogether unserviceable , when attempting to enform the vnderstanding of others . so that such sciolists as these do but darken the lustre of the history of god in this stupendious creation , yet propound to themselves to know the divine mysteries of the holy jesus in the miraculous incarnation , glorious crucifixion , and divine ascension : which to mortal astonishment is the te●esm of wisdom , and miracle of this world , lockt up in the bosom of god , and eternity . so that should this generation level arguments against me , it will little avail ; for the standard of truth will defend it self , and the authority of scripture vindicate my assertions . if therefore you but priviledge me farther to proceed , i assume to intitle this imbellished creation the almighty's common place-book , wherein we may read h●s divine operations ; and si●ce he himself has made things visible , as also leg●ble , and ●ntelligible to our capac●ties ; his s●cred sanctions , and divines oracles , ought always to be our daily contemplation . i also consider that angels as mess●ngers are m●de ministring spirits , to administer to us the revelation , and manifestati●n of the vision of truth : that the sun , moon , and stars are the or●inanc●s of heaven ; that elements and prin●●pl●s are marg●nal notes ; and the glorious prospect of this ●ivie 〈◊〉 : that the con●onants and vowels of this blessed creation are the particular indiv●duals contained therein . otherwise how were it p●ssible such a p●rpetual harmony should con●inue betwixt the great , and the ●●sser world ; were th●re not a contiguity , and continuity of par●s , whereby to c●ntract a correspondency betwixt them . for invisible things when clothed with matter , become obvious , and perceptible to every one ; consequently visible . every thing therefore is most certainly governed by the divine wisdom of him that made it ; who made nature a so by his praeordinate counc●l , and adapted her substitute to operate in the vniverse . but to adam only , and his humane race were committed the distinct classes , and families of the creatures ; as also the dignity of a vniversal monarch . this none will deny , yet perhaps some will say my suggestions are invaluable , and confusedly mixt ; so was the chaos if to consult the b●g●nning . it may also be alledged that im no grammarian , however from my youth i venerated learning ; yet the scriptures i always prefer'd before grammar : but i 'll struggle no longer about grammatical preference , since so learnedly controverted by men in most ages . give me leave therefore to conclude my epistle , and in the conclusion assert , and affirm , that without for●●l hypocrisy , or a foreign faith ; i am , and have been since truly to know vertue , devoted to subscribe my name , philanthropus . the preface to the reader . forasmuch as wisdom , and divine knowledg ( preexisting time ) had its original from god the father of light , and immaculate fountain of all pure beings ; resplendent from the glorious ray of himself , that holds the po●ze and ballance of the periods of life , and death , by a soveraignty of right to govern the world. it becomes us therefore , and the rather as christians , to sollicite this admirable corona of wisdom , since woven in the web of the eternity of life ; and by how much it concerns us to acquire this secretum naturae , by so much the rather ought we to hope , and expect it , that offer up our orisons with the pious adepti that expose their charity in this modorn age. since many such are , and i doubt not were in former generations , as in this of ours ; tho modestly to conceal themselves , under a pleasant taciturnity . whose generous protection of hermetick philosophy has amuz'd , and astonish'd most part of the world ; since to breath forth in this , as in former ages , mysterium magnum . rabbi moses was a student in this blessed science ; and so was his sister , the fair mirian : medea and experience tutilaged them both . and moses we read was morally educated in all the skill and knowledg of the egyptians ; thank hermes for that , formerly king of egypt , and intituled by the magi , prince of philosophers . who also laid the rudiments , and foundation of science , several generations before moses was born , and yet notwithstanding the antiquity of hermes , moses was inspired by a divine permission , to talk with god in the holy mount horeb. job also that famous , and most accurate mathematician ; whose library was the firmament , and every star an author , whereby he mentally inspected the orbs ; consequently the constellations , and machine of the creation . and who personally discoursed his creator , as did moses ; but confused , and astonished , as appears by his writings . so paul , that devout , and divine apostle , taught only of god , and bred up by gamaliel ; he exceeded in rhetorical learning and knowledg : who also had a glance and a vision of heaven , as appears by those elegant , and most excellent epistles , exhortatory to the romans ; when to the corinthians , most profoundly philosophical . and such were the lives of the holy men of god ; which piously to trace , what is it other than a heavenly progress . and the soul that inhabits in this mortal tabernacle , any other than the correspondent god himself converseth ; which in clarity displays such a beautious brightness , from the soveraign beams of the son of god , that divinely shining in the inward parts , influenceth the altar , and beautifies the temple . the soul therefore , could she but content her self with divine speculation of ideas only , what need she travel beyond the map ? but as excellent patterns commend their own mines , nature because so fair and beautiful in the type , could not dispence with sluttishness in the anagliph : and who , whiles more strictly she examines the symetry ; models and forms it into various figures ; whose descent to describe , promulges her original : but the frailty of matter , and because hovering about her ( and impendent on the elements ) is excluded eternity . ignorance therefore to delude the vnwary , intitles this release by the sirname of death ; which more properly to describe is the magna charta of life ; that has several ways to break up house , but her best , if duely considered , is without a disease ; and , who when she takes air at this avenue or port-hole , is much without detriment or prejudice to her tenement . nor does she only exerc●se her royalty at the eye , as having some blind iurisdiction in the pores : for this were to measure magical positions by the superficial strictures of common philosophy . whose assertors , too confident of the principles of tradition , labour not to understand what others speak ; but to make others speak what they themselves understand . for it is in nature as appears in religion ; some are still hammering and fashioning of old elements , but seek not the eutopia that lies beyond them . this body therefore let 's consider it the temple , and the soul that 's within it the sanctum sanctorum , for the majesty to dwell in . which if so , this earth must be rarified , to make a pure heaven ; and heaven must be purified , before the divinest will inhabit within it . great and iust therefore is the original good , whose incomprehensible beauty and divine majesty , neither the heavens , nor the earth , nor the orbs , nor the ocean , nor the expatiated abyss , can any ways contain him : which certainly to know , is speculum sapientiae , scraw'd out in the fair frontespiece of the beautiful creation ; as also in that divine manuscript of holy writ , where the patriarchs and the prophets are marginal notes ; and the holy men of god , with our pious ancestors , the lively records and divine remembrancers of the sacred oracles of the majesty of truth . thus far the ark of the covenant travelled , and thus far the talmudists transported themselves ; but some of the cabalists went some degrees farther , when they met with christ and his twelve apostles ; yet could they not see the great messiah . but gabriel the angel salutes the blessed virgin with hail mary , full of grace ; blessed art thou among the daughters of women : for the holy of holies shall overshadow thee with beauty , and thou shalt conceive , and bear a child , and he shall be called the son of god. john baptist also he confirms the miracle ; who , when jesus with him coming forth of the water , the heavens themselves most gloriously opened , and the holy ghost divinely descending ( like a dove ) rested the glory of the majesty upon him ; and then was there a voice heard from the divinest , this is my son , my beloved son ; let the nations hear him . now to the jews this became a stumbling-block , as to some of the rabbies a rock of offence : but to the gentiles that sat in the suburbs of darkness , and , the scriptures tell us , in the shadow of death , the most glorious mystery of the revelation of god , and the everlasting gospel was preached unto them . so that from these two eminent and most sacred primordials , the one of the law , and the other of the gospel , religion , or something like it , took its native original : yet so strangely masqueraded , disfigured , and disguised , that were not a man well assured what it was , it would be found difficult to resolve what to call it . and thus the sun , heavens major luminary , when because at once falling upon several angles , represents the light in various forms : so christianity , though a familiar appellation , yet admits it of such variety in its progress , and peregrination , because when to mingle it self with all sorts of professions , that professors themselves have been puzled how to rate it ; whiles the noble berean searches the scriptures , and as the scriptures manifestly testifie of christ , so christ himself saith , they testifie of him . the great oracle therefore , and the miracle of faith , is christ himself ; and christ is god : from whence the mystery of our eternal salvation , the blessed regeneration , and the spiritual birth , that internally breaths in every pious believer , is , christ in us , the hope of glory ; the sovereign revealer of the wisdom of god , whose light is the beauty of the majesty of light , that enlightneth every one coming into the world ; and is our saving and our sanctifying light , before time had a being , god blessed for ever . thus in brief i present you with a sacred summary of my pious conceptions of the scriptures of truth , divulg'd to the world as a treasure of mysteries , calculated for the assiduous , and only such whose integrity and fidelity internally shine forth , as their faces externally in a glass respond , and answer a due and exact proportion . from whence i conclude this philosophical axiom , as are the writings of moses the standard of truth , that god the creator has by a royal law imposed upon nature eternally to operate , the vniversal spirit therefore is but one in all her operations , ( viz. ) in the fire , to influence ; in the air , to impregnate ; in the water , to germinate ; and in the earth , to vegetate . where note , the elements , consequently the principles were divinely preordained by the sovereign power of him that 's supream , who constituted nature to conserve the creation ; or solemnly i declare , i understand it not . nor would i be thought either rash or unreasonable , to reassume a priviledge in what i distribute : but as words are my own whiles yet in my mouth , and every bodies else when unconfined ; so let them be , and have a charitable reception , when to run their risque in the worlds great lottery ; because , when to fall under various conceptions , yet , if so happy to meet with the ingenious in science , meaning such as dread and honour their creator , and imitate nature in her solitary operations ; which every expert artist , and experienced , will do , provided his inquisitions be after the truth ; to such , and such only i dedicate my labors , together with my endeavours to wisdoms elaborate shrine , that with vertuous inclinations they may seek after discoveries , and the abstruse tracts of their friend , philanthropus . rabbi moses . in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth . which directs me to contemplate this world is a great machine , or an engine-royal , adapted for motion by the power of him that created the creation ; that not so much as an atom can move or stir , save only by a derivative vertue from him that thro wisdom and providence gave a being to the whole ; who knows all the parts and particles of his work. how can he then be thought ignorant of its motion , or in any thing be deficient ? when he that made the world , knows how to influence the hidden springs and parts thereof ; he knows for what end and duration he design'd its motion , and the time when all things shall pass away : so that when the divinest withdraws the springs of life , ( viz. ) his supporting providence , from any creature in the creation , or from the elements , or the whole world it self , it must sink into a state of inactivity , consequently become a meer annihilation . now , that heaven and earth are corelates , who doubts it ? that they sprung spontaneously from one principium , who disputes it ? and that they had in themselves ( by divine ordination ) ends and beginnings most properly adapted and insinuated into them , who so impious and atheistical to suspect it ? that the world had a beginning , is manifest . that eternity preceded time , is most manifest . and that every end terminates in its own proper beginnings , nothing more manifest . every end therefore , separable from its native principium , is subject to mortality : but death is the destruction of all elemental compounded mixts : all compounds therefore are subject to mortality ; which nature endeavours with all her might to preserve , if possible , from the periods of death , and whose champions to purchase this heroick victory , fire and water are instituted and appointed the most proper and immediate agents and instruments ; the last to discharge by immersive calcination , all exteriour and superfluous adustion , whiles the first by sublimation claims a superiority , because when to separate by the intense action of fire whatever recrements and impurities adhere to the center . these , and no other , are the lineal tracts that nature has trod in since the nonage of the universe ; whose seeds , void of form , and confusedly mix'd in a hoil or chaos , were dissolved in water , but rarified and sublimed by pure argument of fire . calcination and sublimation therefore were purposely invented to purge and separate the pure from the impure ; as is solution and distillation the more terrestrial dregs that stiffly adhere to the parts extraneous . now whatever remains without any beginning , that subject is altogether uncapable of end : but all beginnings sprung up from eternity , as is eternity the ray of the majesty . eternity therefore is the parent of time , from whence generation lineally descended ; and generation , because the infant and the child of time , has its periods lock'd up in the prisons of death : and doom'd and predestinated by the law of sin : the apostle tells us , is death in the abstract ; yet improperly the end of any thing save elements , whereby to remonstrate their true beginnings but now to bud , and to blossom forth , because directing towards an eternal state ; which i call the new breathings from a state of corruption , precedent to putrefaction ; the immature offspring and imperfect birth of infirm ancestors and elementary principles . for the body no sooner dismantles it self of the exteriour form , and elementary faetor , when the indivisibility of the more purer parts begin at once to display themselves : for the treasures of life are most strictly lock'd up , and which also begins to perspire and breath forth by the glorious ray of god's soveraign power ; whose refulgent beam illuminates the world , and stirs up the hidden life therein , which before seem'd to sleep passively perdue in the silent sepulcher of divine contemplation . if therefore debasing our selves by sin , be argument of death , and god's eternal displeasure ; a regenerate state implies the sanctity of renovation , which is a clear demonstration of a real conversion . otherwise , how comes it to pass , that the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband ? now if husband and wife are constipated one flesh by the conjugal celebration and law of matrimony ; why not heaven and earth under the like divine ordinance , since by a supream law from the sovereign legislator ( whose powerful edicts are for ever irrevocable ) made and established synonima regalia . thus th● celestial sun in the clarified firmament influenceth and impregnates this embellish'd creation ; as do's the supercelestial son of the majesty of god most illustriously shine in every believers soul , and is the true light that illuminates the universe , and every man that cometh into the world. so that in this short and compendious paragraph you may read the divine progeny of the whole creation ; the exaltation and dignity of the micro , as the macrocosm ; the great end why the world and man was made ; the reason also why the divinest made man , and drest up so beautifully this stupendious creation : all which was only but to see himself and sovereign majesty by way of reflection ; wherefore he built up a tabernacle in man for his divine residence , and man's redemption . now adam was made this supream monarch , whom his maker dignified with such eminent qualifications , as not only to see , because having the faculty of sense ; but to inspeculate and admire the majesty of his maker that hung up aloft in the firmament of heaven , so many luminous and beautious bodies , impregnating every one with the blessings of vegetation : but moral reason ( and barren apprehension ) because uncapable to exalt it self to these eminent , sublime , and superlative elevations , of necessity sinks under them . and here moses tells you , that in the beginning , the divinest created both the heavens and the earth : now creating or making , what implies it more than manifesting invisibles by visibles ; or discovering such things as lay hid in the chaos , occultly concealed from occular view ; which in time appeared , but not until such time as the waters , by the fiat , were separated from the waters , and then the purer matter ascended upwards , because disintangled from its impure fecula ; which celestial , clarified , and pure crystalline body , is by the scriptures interpreted the firmament ? and hermes tells you in his smaragdine table , that the likeness of that which is placed above , is also beneath , coinhabiting below , to work the myracle of one single thing . there must therefore of necessity be some assimilation in earth , soveraignly qualified with the same existence of celestials ; otherwise , pray tell me , where 's the harmony betwixt them ? and why should god select the little world , called man , for his divine and glorious reception , rejecting , as i may so say , the more copious or great one , as the more commaculate and impure habitation ; had not he divinely dignified the less by soveraign wisdom for his royal entertainment ? there is therefore not only the likeness of superiours ; but the same vertue , beauty , and excellency also in inferiours : christ in you the hope of glory . this is that magnet of vertue and swavity , whose illustrious ray attracts the soul to those transcendent mansions of beatitude and immortallity ; for the kings daughter is all glorious within , because made glorious by the king of heaven ; where note , by way of digression , when to admit of a faint comparison ; the anima , or sulphur of sols beauteous inside , when duely examined by a sedulous adept , a celestial corporiety displays it self , whose glorious appearance gratifies the solicitous with wisdom's oracle , and the treasures of art , by every one acquirable , and by most admired . but the hoil or chaos presents unto us a subject matter as yet indigested , when macerated , mingled , or jumbled together ; and such we are to consider it in the act of fermentation ; when nothing but darkness had its region in the deep , nor did any thing appear upon the face of the waters , until darkness by the divinest was utterly separated by the glorious beam of the majesty of light ; for till then the stars roll'd not in their orbs , nor did the fluctuating ocean move its vital pulse , till actuated by the law of its soveraign maker , which daily remonstrates the flux of the ocean . nor till then did the earth , nor the barren mountains know any thing of the law of life , and vegetation . nor was there any prolifick vertue , or propagating quality hitherto as yet incorporated into them ; when at once the fountains of the great deeps broke up , out of whose exuberant and miraculous womb , not only those innumerable and inexhaustible treasures , as the principles , and elements , but also whatever besides them was made visible , was by wisdom drawn forth out of this immense deep : and to whatever had sense by life and motion , nature by ordination gave it a beginning ; but light and life she had not power to give ; for that sprung spontaneously from the divine fiat ; which great work with the great creator took up but seven days , tho seven times seven is adjudged too little ; nay , had i said months , are supposed little enough , if when attempting to compleat a philosophick operation . so that now the darkness because disappearing , the glorious and beautiful ray of light suddenly and at once invades all the universe ; for after separation by divine ordination , every individual as to vertue and purity in its innate quality arose up from obscurity : and because relinquishing its earthy fecula , elevated it self according to dignity , correspondent also with the purity of matter . the sun therefore with the moon , and the stars exalted themselves ; and surmounting the aether , were supreamly ranged in a divine order . the elements also they separated themselves into four divisions , or distinct classes , whereby to illustrate this imbellish'd creation ; and the principles because lock'd up in every individual , whereby to make permanent by the law of perfection , began to ferment , which the vulgar understand not ; for should they be separated , purified , and reconjoyned , a new creation would inevitably ensue in the microcosm , or the little world ; as by divine appointment it never ceases daily to influence and operate in the macrocosm . from whence all celestials appear immortal ; most fiery , luminous , subtile and bright ; and by the divinest made distant , and remote , were separated from all impure and immund dregs : and because excavated into rotundity , they elevated themselves , and flew up at once ; for which cause also nature of her self desires a round form for things eternal , as being most perfect , permanent , and indeficient . on the contrary , it follows , that terrestial things are subject to corruption , mutation and death ; because contrarieties are joyned in their elementary composition ; and wherewith the dreggs , and impurities of matter were mixed , as at first with what was impure ; otherwise the produce that had proceeded from them , would have been beyond dispute subjects immortal . nor could there ever have been any generation ; for without contrariety of qualities in elements , there had never been alteration , nor mutation of form ; and all would have had but one face without distinction , remaining equally in purity and subtilty : and tho cloathed with its own ornament of beauty and swavity ; yet wanting matter whereon to impress formation , would become deficient , indigent , and destitute of creation . it was necessary therefore to mix subtilty of substance with the gross and impure faecula of matter ; for where nothing but clarity and purity remains , there of necessity can be no action ; and where no action is , there can be no patient , seeing what is pure wants act of power over that also which is as pure ; and this end and operation is natures work of separation for preservation of its essence , and vital encrease ; for if the earth and her fruits were as pure as the heavens , all animals would live as long as celestial incholasts . but nature by the divinest has ordained a law , that whatever partakes of matter , or corporiety , should dwell about that which is also corporial ; and that which is most corruptible and inquinate , about that which is also likest unto it : but the earth , as subordinate , is the most precipitant of bodies ; consequently most gross , and of all things most corruptible : nothing therefore can proceed , or be deducible from it , but what is naturally most agreeable unto it ; wherefore its corruption , sordities and impurities must also be rarified by progress of separation . when therefore it s more pure substance is extracted , and exalted by a true and magnetick philosophical medium ; nature of necessity begins there all her actions , and in separation all is found . and the spirit of god moving upon the face of the waters , was by incubation ( or supream act of power ) by the determinate wisdom and counsel of god , the immediate and proper cause of separation ; for here you may read , that the spirit of god divinely moved upon the face of the waters : and here also you may consider , and deliberately understand , that the spirit of god inspired them with vegetation ; otherwise of themselves how could they bring forth ? for the chaos had a passive , but no active spirit in it , till god by wisdom roused up the ferch , or the hidden life therein concealed ; and illuminating or kindling the commassated matter , by the ray and majesty of his divine spirit that separated the pure from that that 's impure , which could be no otherwise , since no impure thing can enter , nor center where the whole is pure . and thus the angel gabriel salutes the blessed virgin with hail mary , full of grace , god is with thee , the glory of females . now this virgin was a native and true israelite , and had not hitherto known her husband ; which virgin conceives by the holy ghost , and was a miraculous and a spiritual birth ; so that we may consider , there 's nothing impossible with god the creator that made the world ; when in love to incarnate himself to redeem it . and moses he tells you , that when god had breathed into adam , our protoplast , the breath of life , he then became a living soul ; not that adam was destitute of a natural soul , but of a divine and spiritual life , which also implies a supernatural state ; in which excellent state our protoplast stood , when god had transformed his earth into heaven ; and in which pure state he for ever had stood , had he stood in simplicity , and the will of his maker ; for what we sow , that shall we reap ; and nothing is quickned except it die . mortification therefore precedes regeneration ; we must all die to sin , to live to righteousness . but the spirit of god moved upon the waters ; which act of power was no sooner performed , but the waters of themselves incessantly brought forth ; and every created thing that god had made by a divine and soveraign act of power , began to operate , vegetate , and fructuate ; who surrounded the constellations with a crystalline firmament ; and cloathing the principles which stood naked before him , with a body suitable to their necessity , gave laws and ordinances to nature , as substitute , immediately to let loose the universal spirit , whereby to vegetate , encrease , and multiply ; to form also , to animate , and impregnate bodies ; but nature of her self , because bounded with periods , admits death inevitably to invade all compounds ; for were it otherwise , there needed no separation ; and nature , preadventure , would become sloathful , and idle : consequently the fabrick of the whole creation would again redact , and result in a chaos . separation therefore is of absolute necessity , whereby to distinguish the pure from the impure ; the fair and immaculate from the most pollute and unclean ; which after purgation to rectify and conjoyn , and then advance , if it could be , to a plusquam perfection , whereby to imitate nature , as she by president imitates the creator ; what admirable thing would the operator bring forth ? wherefore the apostle he bids you be perfect , as your heavenly father is also perfect : and what can advance to a state of perfection , but that which separates from sin and impurity ? thus the heavens are pure , and infinitely clarified ; yet much more pure is he that created them ; which state to know , is never to know death . wherefore as by imitation some bodies are made always to live in the phylosophick world , which the adeptest intitles and superscribes transmutation ; but the theologist in the super-celestial , that of regeneration . and as one is the period of principles and elements ; such also is the other of corporification , leading death into captivity , and transforming every impure being into a celestial clarity and purity ; and the souls of righteous men into endless glory ; but this operation is performable only by the heavenly arcanum , or medicament of life : which sacred , soveraign , and divine elixir , is the christ of god , the wisdom of the father : to whom devoutly be everlasting praises . and as christ is called the light of the world , &c. light may properly therefore be asserted the manifestation of god , and the oracle of his truth ; for if what visible light is , or appears unto the bodily eye ; the same , but infinitely more glorious , is the invisible light that illuminates the understanding in the eye of the mind : the want of light , it 's true , makes man deplorable ; so is ignorance of the mind to be lamented : and as generation that sprang out from corruption of those things which were esteemed the best , so the light that shines in man when it becomes eclipst by the shades of sin , how dreadful and dismal is that darkness ? as light therefore of all things is accounted most desirable , the want of it to the mind makes the man most miserable : so of all ignorance , that ignorance is the worst which hath reference to the most noble and sublimest object , and by how much the subject of knowledge is better , by so much is the deprivation of that knowledge intollerable : as any one therefore , by putting out a mans eyes , whereby to intercept him the injoyment of light , is reputed cruel ; so he that prevents the means of knowledge , is no less , if not infinitely more ( by a scriptural authority ) adjudged condemnable . light therefore , because exalted above all created beings , it confirms it the standard of wonder and admiration , whose beauteous beam displays it self , the uncreated being before the creation , consequently superexcelling all the rest in dignity ; but the created luminous ray of the sun , that strikes the poles from east to west , nay farther its possible , could we apprehend it ; is sacredly held forth as the almighties taper , whereby to illustrate the visible world , as do's the light of his sovereign , all-glorious son invisibly shine in the souls of saints , to convince the world of sin and unbelief : and tho laban usher leah unto iacob's bed , by introducing her instead of his beautiful rachel ; so every designing imaginarist do's , when describing only exteriour things , but states nothing essentially . such i may say dwell meerly in the face , or at the best , on the superficial parts of the body ; never aspiring after the fulness of beatitude , which philosophy in my opinion looks like to a church that 's drest up with discipline , when wanting sound doctrine . so that if when to consider the exteriour form of complicated mixts shall melt away , probably we arrive at the fiery principium , whose elevations lead on to a state immortal , co-uniting us to that invisible nature , that admits not of any thing save purity intense , by the continued ardency of a pious devotion . as in operation it 's evident , and egregiously true , that the elements themselves assume all colours before the beauty of those colours egrede ; wherefore they begin with blackness first , because the antecessour and parent of putrefaction ; after it passes thro other middle colours , till at length it arrives at a celestial whiteness , which then is air , from whence it ascends to a fiery complexion , in which the power of art , and dominion of fire , when to speak aenigmatically , is compleatly terminated , and beyond which , in my opinion , there 's no natural progress . and god no sooner divinely said , let there be light ; but immediately there was light , so that his commands were in a moment answered ; for how soon did the light spontaneously spring up , and amounting aloft , fill the universe with splendor ? so that now the creation became altogether visible , and every concealed treasure that lay hid therein , exposed it self unto occular view ; whereby to discover the chaos commaserated , and water and earth by previous digestion ( without contention , or strong ebullitions ) began of themselves distinctly to separate ; and the earth as rejected to precipitate downwards , by reason of its gravity , and solid ponderosity ; so that these two elements were only made visible , but the fire and the air , they fled our sight , which by reason of purity became also invisible ; whose sublime bodies by the creators will , elevated themselves to influence the earth , whereby to impregnate it with prolifick vertue . this was , and is that beautiful order , wherein the divinest so divinely placed things , when the earth as an embrio lay hid , and concealed in the exuberant womb of the unweildy waters : and this is that great and stupendious work of separation , which act or operation was fit only for god , who separated the light from the mists of darkness ; which glorious operation the prophet moses points at , as a thing principally to be minded and considered , if provided any one would imitate the creator , when in the beginning he created the universe ; but the end of the creation stands still in the ternary , of which , more at large in its proper place . christ therefore is our soveraign and our saving light , that comprehends the darkness , yet the darkness knows him not , whose beauteous brightness illuminates the world , and is that glory and majesty of light that was from god , that never had beginning , which incomprehensible light shined before the beginning to illuminate the throne of the majesty of god , and is the true essential word of god , and the word is god , the wisdom of the father , as is manifested to us by moses and the prophets . but the created luminaries , as sun , moon , and stars , these are but elementary , subject therefore to corruption , when god shall please to extinguish their light , by withdrawing the beauteous ray of himself ; and as the light of the sun is the beauty of the creation , how much more beautiful is the son of god , the all-glorious beauty of the majesty of god ? the created world therefore was made to discover visible objects , and things corporeal ; but the increated and most sovereign being , to make obvious to us things invisible ; the natural , to inspect both elements and principles ; but the supernatural , to reveal the glory of the father , in the face and fulness of jesus christ. and god saw the light , and behold it was good ; the consequence follows , for god he made it , and god divided the light from the darkness , as by his wisdom the day from the night : separation therefore from adust impurity , makes it sublime , immaculate , and pure : so divine out of a moral , and a celestial out of a terrestrial state , is a transmutation by the grace of god ; for if nothing that 's impure can subsist in his presence , whatever comes there must be spiritually pure : and such are invisibles separated from elements , the waters above the firmament of a pure nature , existent with life , but the waters beneath , elementary and fluctuating : the universal spirit therefore inspiring life and motion , the whole creation began to breath , and bud forth . and god after separation of the light from the darkness , of the pure and sublime from that that 's inquinate , of heaven from earth , of the waters from the waters , of the translucid and diaphanous bodies from corruptible recrements , and sordid impurities : then was there a noble and divine separation , because when to raise an immortal seed out of the principles and rudiments of elements . and such also is the regenerate state in man , when born of the royal seed from heaven ; for flesh and blood , because transient and elementary , are inconsistent with the eternity of god , uncapable therefore to inherit the kingdom : this is that divine and heavenly transmutation , by which christ jesus , the wisdom of the father , with one regal grain transmutes our nature , and our mortal bodies , into an immortal state ; and is that elixir of life and vertue that defends it for ever from torture and destruction , and eternally delivers it from the periods of death . but some will object , what body is this ? and paul solves the doubt by a scriptural explanation , telling us , it s a body increate and incorruptible , consequently uncapable of any mutation , and because impregnated , and animated with life , is under protection , divinely blessed , absolved , and acquitted the assaults of death . what body then , some will say , must it be ? and he tells you , it 's a body as it pleaseth god. but this you 'll object is also insufficient . to speak more plainly then , it 's a regenerate body , born from the spirit , and not from elements , but of a pure and immaculate nature , that never knew nor consented to sin : such a birth will triumph over death , because it can never be made to die , nor subject it self to the periods of death , since bound up in the volume of the infinite eternity . but darkness is the vmbra , or promiscuous shadow of the beautiful and amiable glory of light : and because separated from the beam of light , and gathered to its self , is the representation of death . where note , we may call it the mantle or covering of some solid substance , or some material thing ; and such is the night by earth's interposition , retirements of light , or the suns bright absence : corpulences also are stellat ecclipses , because from globical bodies intermediating ; for night is only the suns bright absence , when deprived the beautiful beam of his light ; and the day ( as i may so say ) the infant of light , because it sprung up from light original . the created light therefore pray tell me what is it , if not the beautiful aurora of eternity , as is eternity the ray of the majesty ? thus the light , as appears , shines still in darkness , and yet the darkness comprehends it not . now what is this darkness but the shades of death ? and what is death but a separation from life , and life it self the amiable infant , that sprung from eternity , as generation from time ? but darkness abhors the lustre of light , lest peradventure fearing the light should inspire it . gold therefore , like the salamander , lives eternally in fire , without detriment , destruction , or diminution of parts ; whiles imperfect metals , when examined by the test , evaporate and vanish , so become imperceptible which displays some impurity in their natural composition ; for were they of a regal stamp and condition , no force of fire would be argument strong enough to make in them the least separation ; so darkness , when made pure by the beam of light , it then becomes a natural brightness ; and mortality , transchanged by the grace of god , becomes immortal by divine transmutation . the day therefore sprung natively from light , as a legitimate heir from the loins of his parents ; nor could it do otherwise , because by the divinest destinated and determinated to such an end by the counsel of god. and thus the beam , or ray of the sun , as its integer light , can be no otherwise , because the proper effect from that efficient cause ; for the celestial sun , if sedately to consider it , was kindled by a virtual spark of invisible light : and this invisible light , the son of god , is the essence , wisdom , and the beauty of the father , and is that soveraign and saving light of the divinity and majesty of god himself . as pure religion therefore is such in it self as it pleads precedency long before error ; consequently it 's a bright and most illustrious taper that directs to the standard of divine truth , in whose frontispiece devotion displays christianity , and which truly is the most eminent , and divine encomium that ever was attributed to men , as mortals , and is in a scriptural sense the new way of conquering , because through christ we are more than conquerours , and fight in this field without carnal weapons ; for no gladiators arm here to combat , nor is there any banner but the cross of christ , and whose enemies are abaddon , and the hierarchy of hell ; and whose engins are sin , and the toils of death , endeavouring therewith to obstruct our passage , when attempting the triumphant joys of heaven . but a nominal christian ( with grief i speak it ) which signifies no more than a formal professor , if when wanting the vital power of the living act of faith , such a profession makes no man a christian any more than reading the alcharon compleats a saint ; nor is every professor a true minister of god , except of god ordain'd to preach : for the gospel is free , and the love of god free , and it was the free act of christ to give himself freely for the sins of the world. christs redemption therefore was a free act of grace , to blot out sin , and usher in repentance ; and all that 's required for so great a suffering , is only conformity to a holy life , and sanctified obedience to that living power , in whom the fulness of the godhead dwells : he therefore that prays , and pays not his orisons to this great oracle the wisdom of the father , stands still indebted for his life and freedom , and proclaims himself an alien to the court of sion , as also a stranger to the new ierusalem . now in opposition to light stands this formidable darkness , a figure of a creature that was found folded up after the divine act and force of separation ; not improper therefore to intitle it darkness , since separabel from the beauteous beam of light : and such is sin , and such also is death , since by adam's transgression , who consenting to sin , violated gods divine and regal command , so wounded himself with his own sting . death and sin therefore , van helmont calls accidents , or some impious malignity that lurk'd about the matter , whereby to lessen light , and abscond or ecclipse its beautiful lustre ; which when removed by the divine grace of god , the body then seems to appear celestial : nor can it be otherwise , since if when to consider there 's no difference , nor distinction betwixt heaven and earth , save clarity of the one , and impurity of the other : and this is a state we daily discourse of , nay , we hourly wish for 't , and long to enjoy it ; yet so great is our zeal to these ambiguous uncertainties , that we dare not trust our selves to entertain it . and because so adhering to the world , and its allurements ( kind answering kind ) whose luscious breast seems sweet and pleasant , and whose surprizing charms luxuriously satiating , we gulp down avarice , and drink down oppression : so like diana with the ephesians , cry , gain is sweet ; thus tainting our selves , become infectious to others ; for a stinking breath , tho loathsome to the company , yet is it to it self a natural perfume ; so sin and impiety in its habitual dress , tho ugly , seems amiable ; and tho faetid , smells fragrant , and knows no impediment . thus paul by faith fought with beasts at ephesus ; and philanthropus with monsters in the desarts of america . 't is true , and as true as the sun 's the great luminary , whose luminous body illustrates the creation ; yet is not the sun that soveraign light that adorned the throne before the creation , when the divinest said , let there be light , and immediately the light of it self sprung up ; which light by his wisdom he called day , and dignified it also with the title of good ; nor could it be otherwise than good in the abstract , since the divinest had called it good , and because proceeding from the fountain of good , its original can be no less than god. now the day had its original , as has the sun its aurora ; and the sun , tho the major luminary of the universe , whose refulgent ray illustrates the creation , by rapidity circulating and patrolling about it ; yet is it by wisdom and the guidance of god another aurora of the increated light , which never ceaseth invisibly to shine , when the sun withdraws from our occular view , as imaginarily supposed towards the western fountains , whiles this pure light never ceaseth to shine in the heart of man , and the throne of the majesty , tho to the world and ignorant it appear invisible : and because too sublime for the weak vision of sight , whereby a dimness seems to overshadow it , as gazing too much at the natural sun , in some measure astonisheth the purlue of sight ; so the soveraignty of the glory of the son of god , whose excessive brightness seems to cause a blindness , when as indeed it 's the purity and soveraignty of light , we are therefore to reduce it under this consideration , that nothing that 's impure can behold what 's pure , nor carnality partake of what is spirituous . there is therefore this difference betwixt natural and supernatural ; as also betwixt celestial and terrestrial things ; that all spirituous bodies can pass the purgatory of fire without any detriment , or diminution of parts ; when as corporeals , if but to touch the flames , are at once in a moment destroy'd and consumed . purification of bodies must therefore necessarily precede , whereby to dignifie and make them celestial . natural things therefore are in one distinct state , but spiritual things are found in another : and by how much our nature is made more spirituous , by so much are we nearer to the nature of god. and as the sun shines naturally more bright and distinctly , more pure than our culinary fires ; how infinitely brighter , and much more pure is the majesty of that light that invisibly shines from the son of god : but our new philosophers ( or erra paters ) are much of the cast with figure-flingers , that presume to step into the prerogative of prophets , and antedate events in configurations , which is a consequence i perswade my self of as much reason , and for ought i know , to as great satisfaction , as to see the auxiliaries draw out and exercise , and the spectators to read their designs by their postures . but i proceed to discourse the firmament of heaven , the fluctuating ocean also , and the waters in the creation , which presents to our consideration matter of admiration , consequently a suitable subject for every philosopher , if sedately to contemplate their admirable separation , when god divided the waters from the waters , and the firmament of heaven stood stationary between them ; which denotes those rarified and invisible waters moses points at above us , are an act of faith , because of invisibility , whilst these below us are demonstrable to us : which argument as formerly confirms our philosophy , that the likeness of that which is remotely above , is also beneath , co-inhabiting below , to work the miracle of one single thing , so that the same act of power and providence that made them separable , made them also invisible , as by the law of demonstration these are made visible to us . but what are these waters , these invisible waters , that surmounting the aether , and because above us perpetually fly our sight , what are they , and what were they in the fiat of the creation , more than the pure and spirituous part , separated from impurity and all aquosity , whiles the pinguous moist faecula , and indigested vapours stifly adhere to the visible form , which by reason of inconcocted crudities and indigestions , when celebrated to warmth , lie fermenting in themselves , and are the daily cause of natural production , animating and exerting the earth to vegetation . these invisible waters therefore above the firmament , must of necessity be a rarefaction of air ; and the firmament , because intermediating betwixt them , remonstrates it celestial , and a clarified earth . for if to consult the creation and created beings , we are to consider them in a two fold capacity ; the visibility of the one , and the invisibility of the other ; elementary bodies , and bodies celestial ; where note , sublunar things are influenced by celestials , as are celestials governed by super celestials . as the sun in his progress , because ruling the day , is by divine appointment the parent of vegetation . so has the moon her nocturnal government , whereby she also operates the ocean , influencing fluidity and the female sex : nor are the stars and constellations deficient or destitute , whereby not to effect and influence inferiors ; so that a perpetual motion is continually maintained , and a constant rotation perpetually continued , otherwise the compound would admit of decay , and a defect in any one part of the creation would inevitably draw on an inconveniency upon the whole . thus the great frame and fabrick of the creation was ranged into a most excellent and beautiful order , which the creator foresaw in the idea or prospect ; nor rested he there until the final complement of his divine counsel and determinate purpose : and then it was that adam was made , which the divinest created no less than a monarch , and intrusted by the creator with the creatures in the creation , inraged lucifer , that infernal prince to emulate the dignity of this new favorite , who reflecti●g on his ambitions that so lately dethron'd him , which obliged him to forfeit his regal possession , he therefore undermines to blow up this favourite , who tainting our protoplast , infects his posterity . and thus the bright and beautiful morning is sometimes sullied with a louring sky : for did not the sun 's early blazing smiles shine upon sodom , and her accurst inhabitants that soon after ended in a fatal tragedy : what must we call this if not a dismal eclipse ? nay , altogether a deprivation of life , save only to lot , and his preserved family , on purpose kept alive by the meanes of miracle , when all the rest were made most miserable morts . whiles therefore we live here in this natural state , we only reap supplies of aliment from elements : but when we shall be discharged the manicles of sin , and releast from the horrour and amazements of death ; we shall then appear under a more spirituous form , and where we shall see things as they really are in themselves ; by which we may know till then we knew nothing : nor are these moral beings , or natural apprehensions any other than signitures or the deliniated figure of that super-excellent beauty we shall see hereafter . and god by wisdom divided the waters from the waters , the celestial from the terrestrial , heaven from earth , the invisible from visible things , and so disposed them by the law of providence , appointing to every one dominion and operation , in order to bring about his determinated creation . and who knows but that these elevated and invisible waters , are the waters moses speaks of that bathe the banks of the new ierusalem ; and that the spangled firmament is the pavement of heaven , or the solid part thereof , if not improper to say so ; nor is 't impertinent to think so , when invisibles are pointed at by visible objects , otherwise i understand not the design in the text , which supposing i do , i am unwilling to be refuted , if when only to hear another mans contradiction . but that there was , and still is a division or an interposition betwixt superiours and inferiours is past dispute ; moses asserts it , and the text affirms it ; where note as a christian it concerns me to enquire , and as a philosopher as gladly desire to be advised , and informed the nature and the quality of these divisional waters ; the vertue and the office of that that 's elementary , as the dignity and operation of that that 's invisible : the first , because elementary we daily converse with , and frequently apply it unto servile uses ; but the latter , since invisible we assign that to moses , except otherwise the divinest by oracle from heaven be pleased to inspireus as the prophet was inspired . faith therefore is the evidence of things invisible , as is demonstration of visible things . the waters above the firmament we have supposed them celestial , because of sublimity , purity , and rarification , which in the great and admirable work of this stupendious separation , the chaos no sooner felt the examen of heat , but water began immediately to operate , and presently became convertible into air , and this i call aetherial rarification , by reason it s not only separated from aquasity , but apparently becomes to the world invisible . why not then by the same argument all the fountains and aquoducts ( nay the ocean it self by the law of necessity evaporate into air , since minutely it operates without intermission , ( this is obvious to every one ) but the sours of the sea you 'll object is so deep ; her springs and supplies so manifestly numerous , that it 's almost impossible to exhaust her treasures , whereby to render her barren or impoverish'd ; to that i answer , god has placed such a magnet in the very bowel and center of the waters , of that attractive and magnetick vertue , that were not the waters bounded by the law of limitation , the earth peradventure would soften and melt ; consequently become convertible into water , and for ought i know , resolve at last into a moist , and a soft thin air. but god the creator has placed such a bar betwixt the visible and invisible waters : he , i say , it is , that by wisdom and providence hung up a spangled vail or covering betwixt them , and calls it the firmament , which intersects , or divides betwixt celestials and terrestials ; yet so , that a sympathy and continued harmony is by the divinest correspondent betwixt them ; and the text tells us , that heaven it self forbears not to sigh , if at any time the sinner be sadned to mourn ; but is filled with alacrity and heavenly joy , even at the conversion of one single penitent : nay so great is the triumph among the saints and angels when a sinner becomes victor over sin and impenitency ; that all our faculties as if divinely exirted , muster up themselves in open hostility , to oppose the invador of our everlasting tranquility : but i intend not to common place upon this divine subject , otherwise than to elucidate the mysteries of the creation : and where rabbi moses has drawn the curtain , i shall modestly by permission endeavour to withdraw it ( provided it be thought neither sacriledge nor impiety ) since to confider behind this mystical interposition the magi have concealed the sanctum sanctorum , nor prophane i , when to say , the beauty of holiness . so that we may read , and begin to understand the firmament by interpretation is called heaven , which certainly is the basis and celestial superstructure of this most admirable and stupendindious creation ; tho to us and our ancestors seemingly invisible : wherefore let us resort to heavens great school , where christ himself is dictator and pilate to conduct us , and chief rabbi to instruct us , for the divinest himself will become our interpreter ; so that god in due time will certainly manage us to that seraphick society of saints and angels , where we shall daily be divinely taught , and by jesus christ the son of god made so prophetical and evangellically intelligeable , that the alphabet of heaven will be the christ-cross-row , whiles about these sublunar orbs , our modern didacticks and learned academicks are hourly so impinged that they sore no higher than custom , and president of profest arts ; and if without offence i may freely speak it , rather of litteral than liberal science . where note , some anti-scripturist's have been lately so prophane as to imagine god like to a country mechanick that builds up with stone , and finishes with timber , without any infusion of life and motion ; as if the whole creation was a creature inanimate , when the voluminous world which is gods great library , is filled full of life , activity , and motion , which life is spirit , and the cause of multiplication , and the natural production of all created things , that by copulation are engendred , or otherwise by putrefaction have received a new state through fermentation ; all which productions are manifest arguments of life and spirit , as also of vegetation . the texture therefore of this great world clearly discovers , and demonstrates its animation ; where the visibility of earth manifestly represents the impure , gross , and natural basis ; and the elemental waters because circulating about it , assimilates also the venal blood , actuating and fermenting in every body , where the vital pulse also operates as is seen in the admirable flux and reflux of the ocean ; and the air of necessity the vehickle for spirits , wherein this vast creature ( meaning the creation ) breath's invisibly ; tho peradventure not altogether , nor in any part insensibly , and the interstellar skies , and aetherial waters , the vital parts ; whiles the sun , moon , and stars are the animating spirits , and supersensual fires that warm the creation . but this kind of philosophy will puzle the putationer , as the primitive truth of the apostles confounded the romans . so moses's philosophy in the rudiments of the creation , will be as little understood as the tracts of hermes , the t●●mudist's , cabalist's , caldeans , egyptians , aud arabians , if when to consider the possibility of nature , which is impossible without supernatural discoveries ; and should we otherwise conclude than by divine authority , we lick up the froth of every sottish generation , so usher to posterity that atheistical opinion calculated by imaginarist's , that the creator slept whiles the chaos of it self without divine direction fell into this beautiful order , as we now behold it ; which , if but to think so is a sin of impiety , and an error so enormous never enough to be lamented . but all such inquietudes we remit them to their destiny , since to carry such , and so many furies in their own bosoms whereby to hurry and torment themselves ; whose unwholsome principles , because nautious to themselves would stamp their impression on those that suck them in ; so that one would think such souls mingled with clay , and because in the limit and circumstance of time are i● some measure confin'd to earth's sublunar mixts , and by the world so severely intangled , that like birds in limetwigs , the more they flutter the faster they find themselves intangled ; in such a state i perswade my self there 's no divine speculation , nor visional faith whereby to see the invisible state of things as they stand nakedly , simply , and purely in themselves , of which these visible objects are but natural representatives . this perswasion directs to me an unregenerate state , because when not to partake of a supernatural birth : the soul therefore that 's immerged with sin , darkness conducts it to a dismal destiny , deeply shadowed under the decays of elements , and impossible without a miracle to make a flight above the world , since by innate inherency its partaker of the world. but the stars if when to consider them the almighty's library , where every star is the volumn of a world , and every world a sumptuous globe , divinely held in the hand of its maker , for such they were , and such they are ; not that these sublime and eminent elevations were only made for mortals confusedly to gaze at ; no , i 'me perswaded rather to excite and stir up admiration , whereby to elevate and quicken our devotion above our selves , when to behold such majesty fixt in the creation ; for are not these luminous and illustrious bodies ( which we behold hung up in that great vortrice of heaven ) celestial lamps , to illuminate the universe ; and not only to illuminate , but animate and vegetate , so in conclusion , influence and impregnate the creation . 't is true , that heaven is a paradise for souls , and a divine reception for the divinity it self ; but not that i prophane to term it a habitation , when alluding that heaven contains the divinest , since heaven is every where where ever god is , whose holy presence institutes it immutable , immeasurable , and eternal like himself : whose nature transmutes it into his own likeness , and puts it into such a divine capacity , that for ever its uncapable of the periods of death . heaven therefore is the divine habitation of god , and the light of heaven the divinity of god ; the blessed society there , saints and angels ; and there it is that the prophets and prophetesses , with apostles and evangelists daily prophesie ; for there every day is a daily sabboth , and elohim betwixt the cherubs is the lord iehovah . but the evening and the morning were the second day , so that twenty four hours , nor more nor less , do but compleat a natural day ; when as the whole tract of time in its natural progress , appears to me but one day super-natural , of which our ancestors , as also our selves from sacred authority had these divine speculations : so that if to consider that two days natural could operate such a change in the great creation ; we may rationally conclude , and as modestly determine the residue an argument to evince the generations : for could i but seriously point out to the creature the blessed creators mystical operation ( which is altogether impossible ) i might then peradventure prove an instrument to some whereby to moderate and disintangle passion , pursuant only after perishing objects , and for ought i know , blot out the prejudice and animosity of others , meaning such as seditiously sow discention among the brethren , endeavouring thereby to reap the fruits of their own conjectural imaginations ; which to do , but undoes one another , by violating the sacred laws of god , as that also of nature , and of true religion , since the scriptures by a divine authority require that every one examine himself , and seriously and sedately study a reformation . then were the waters beneath the heaven by divine appointment gathered together ; and those invisible waters above the heavens rallied themselves , and separated apart ; which admirable and wonderful act or operation occasioned a trepidation all over the chaos ; for till then the waters intermingled with the waters , and the elements as inmates spread themselves among them , till god in his wisdom stirred up the magnet , and then the waters immediately attracted , so by collision broke the bond of unity ; for when so great a change happned in the whole , of necessity every individual separated apart . in which admirable progress every one had its station , yet was it by appointment , and the providence of god ; so that the more sublime the matter was , by so much the higher it ranged it self , removing more remotely from its own faecula : when on the contrary , to admiration , the more gravity it had , by so much the closer it adhered to its recrement ; and in this operation the fire claim'd the precedency ; but next the fire the air pleaded succession ; so that these two elements become as it were invisible , and which also by reason of a spirituallity , administred only to the vital parts : but water and earth , when to consider their corporiety , their gravity , their unity , and more consubstantial parts ; and because also synonimous with the creature , it cloathed and fed it with prolifick vertue : for whatever any thing is of it self , of the same likeness it naturally produceth ; and such as are the constitution of elements and principles , such also are our native and corporial constitutions . to consider things therefore as they are in themselves , we need not to borrow spectacles from others : for if when to consider the sun universally shines , notwithstanding the blind man he seeth it not : and so of eclipses , tho some have seen them ; what then , their natural reason and understanding can't reach them , however credit go's a great way in the case . the blind-man perhaps he swallows a fly , and if he do and feel it not , what prejudice is there in it , when a fly in the glass to him that hath eyes , is not only disturb'd , but in some measure terrified , because fearing to surfeit if not to suffocate . circumspection therefore , and the vertue of temperance circumscribe to us the mediums for long life , when excess of any thing overthrows the whole , and would even do so to this stupendious creation , should it in any thing exceed with intemperance . the vertue therefore , and the office of water is to cleanse , to moisten , to mollific , and dissolve ; to wash also and purific the the outside . and this peradventure was iohn baptists ordinance , when only to blot out the character of circumcision , which indeed was then prevalent among the iews till the baptism of jesus , of more energy and vertue took place to purge out sin by internal purification , and which also is that baptism of the holy ghost which iohn proclain'd was the baptism of fire ; so that these two ordinances and divine operations were vastly different , and distinct from one another , for the one only washes , but the other purifies ; the first to brush off the outward defilements ; but the latter to blot out internal pollution . consider it therefore , you christian professors , and live not by profession , but the life of christianity . and the divinest said , let the dry land appear ; which was no sooner said but it immediately appeared . now dry land which is the solid and fix'd part of the creation : all interpreters agree that its literally earth ; and properly is such , and generally so received , as is by expositors and others concluded . and this dry earth i have also considered was that only which was left after separation of the elements : to which also was added the dignity of an element ; and because ranged and superscribed in the fourth clasis of the macrocosm , is confirm'd the most solid , and most fix'd part of the whole , concentring it self upon its own proper basis , and impending on nothing by a divine ordination , but it s own equal poize and the will of god ; so that neither upwards nor downwards , extension nor demension can any ways remove , displace , or unlodge it ; because god through wisdom has inspired into it the magnet of fixation , gravity , and station which confirms it a central and fixt residence , and the waters to rowl perpetually about it . the air also to incircle and surround it ; and the fire above all to surmount above it , yet every of them is restricted by providence , within the circular globe or firmament of heaven . but where are we now , got above the elements ? no probably , but as far as our eyes will carry us ; no mortal sees farther . our basis i perceive then will be understood the earth , and earth and water compleat but one globe ; so that of the whole , and visible appearance , here seems to remain but one moity left : and the rather to confirm it , it 's obvious to every one , that the firmament of heaven intersects betwixt them ; for the elements of fire and air disappearing , they become invisible ; so that what remains now save only earth and water , which are subjects most solid and visible to us : not that i impose this doctrine upon any man , nor do i offer it as a noval of my own : since therefore of it self it is so demonstrable , let it carry its evidence in the frontispiece of time. earth therefore and water are constipated corelates , as hitherto we have observed them visible elements ; and the difference betwixt them is easily reconcileable , when to consider the gravity of the one and fluidity of the other ; yet both impregnated with vital faculties , and to each is super added a prolifick vertue : and because daily influenced by stars and planets , are by the divinest inspired with life and vegetation . but earth is the nurse and supply of elements , as is water the sister and the mother of earth : and because both filled with vertual production , they fail not to send forth their daily encrease ; whose prolifick breasts minutely sprung up , naturally replenished to supply the universe . but i must caution my self what i say now , least peradventure there are some will decry any hypothesis ; and what if they do , i matter not much , since to leave behind me proselites enough after my death to assert and maintain , that the world had a beginning , this is undeniable . that time sprung from eternity , this is also indisputable . that generation succeeded time , this is beyond all dispute unquestionable . and that generation terminates in death , is altogether infallible . that the elements and principles were lodg'd in the great mass of the chaos , is true . that fire because of its dignity superceeded the rest , is most true . and that air because of its purity climb'd up after the fire , is certainly as true : leaving the waters rolling too and fro , fluctuating , incircling , and inspiring the earth ; and the earth as central to all the rest , by wisdom and providence was concentrate on its basis. now tell me ( if you please ) what false doctrine's here ? and i 'll tell you , that our modern philosophers will allow it orthodox , as the precedent generations and philosophers before them , so govern'd themselves as to assert and vindicate it . so that as i design no captivity by my discourse , nor intend i any conquest or triumph over others ; only the exercise of every man's reason , compelling no man to the dictates of my conclusions : give me leave therefore , such to advise as converse with scripture , or correspond with reason , and the possibility of nature ; such i mean as profligate those fictious notions of heathens , and infidels , and atheistical antiseripturists , whose suggestions are only of an imaginary being of that superlative being , whose real essence is existent in himself , pre-existing time , and is the god of nature . god blessed for ever . and the earth brought forth grass ; here 's natural production , and this natural product spreading it self abroad , in a very short progress run into multiplication ; and because the creator destinated it to the creatures use , it became nutritious and salubrious to them ; consequently agreeable and convertible to their nature . but the apostle tells us , that all flesh is grass ; and as the grass fadeth and withereth away , so flesh and blood , our daily morts , prognosticate them also in a state of corruption ; and in process of time to admit of solution : every thing therefore that is in a capacity of being dissolved , that thing most certainly becomes invisible ; and such a posture stands the whole creation in , since daily to admit of transmutation . and the herb yielded seed , and the fruit-tree his seed , and the roots and fruits also , after their kind , which are radicated and impregnated in every individual ; nor are they found in another specie . and sandivogius tells us before the separation of elements , that every individual had then in it self vertuality but one single primordial seed , yet denies not that this primordial seed had the specimen vertue of all the rest , vertually and primarily radicated in it . however there be some that will oppose this doctrine , and lead by a perverse biass , would gladly refute it ; but blessed is he that receives and believes it ; for it is a secret , and the gift of god sealed up from ignorant and obstinate men ; not only in this , but in every generation . nor can any man , i perswade my self , know god in the abstract , except otherwise by the work of god in the creation ; which commissions me also to say in the creature as paul says , christ in you the hope of glory . if therefore another man's knowledge profit me nothing except he enforms me the measures he knows ; he but exposes my faith to a rambling search , to find out the truth by a dubious examine : how miserable therefore , and much to be lamented is that implicit putationer , whose zeal truckles under every form of religion , and bows his knee to every new model of conformity . let us therefore but examine this stupendious creation , wherein god has made himself obvious to the creature , and which ought to be the study of every enquirer , when because to read lectures in the stars and elements : the copious volumns , and visible folio's of god the creator , that gave then a being , and are his oracles , that by divine interpretation are made visible , conspicuous , and intelligible to us : for here we may read , that generation it self presents unto us the marginal notes ; and genus and species , the vowels and consonants , the magi of old learnt us to spell by ; so that the letters and syllables of this blessed alphabet , points out unto us the manuscript of the universe ; over which great school , god himself is chief rabbi ; whose students and prosolites are nature and religion ; and their daily lectures , and solemn declamations , the visibility and invisibility of this voluminous creation , wherein god makes manifest himself in the creature , which teacheth us to live by the vertual act of faith , whereby we may hope , what at present we cannot enjoy ; so labour to find out the hidden mystery of truth , and the unfrequented tracts of wisdom and experience ; which is , or ought to be the study of every man born into the world ; more especially to christians : for truly to know god is to know life eternal ; for he that knows him but as he is told , i can hardly perswade my self he knows him at all . search well within therefore , peradventure thou wilt find him ; and if thou look without , there is he also to be found . so that in every thing , and in every place , is his mercy , or his justice : where his power is also , and the majesty of his presence ; for nothing is , nor can subsist without him . is not this enough to enamour the creature , whose dependance is wholly upon the creator ; for if when to inspect heaven by divine speculation , with confidence we may assure our selves , his habitation is there : and if we dive into the center of the earth ; there also is his instrument , by which nature operates . the superficial parts also , and the soil of earth ; visibly , and manifestly declare his vegetation : and the celestial incholists , as planets , and constellations , do not they influence this blessed creation . so that the whole , and every part thereof declare him admirable ; therefore to be admired , till led by admiration to the corona of beatitude , which to the religious seems a pleasant short stage ; since the life of man is measured but a span. earth therefore must to earth , and elements to elements ; and all compounded mixts submit themselves to solution ; which properly terminates in the periods of death ; but eternity , stands for ever in the presence of god ; and is therefore most permanent , durable , and everlasting . but the earth budded forth , because fill'd with vegetation ; and every tree , from the cedar , to the shrub ; so the oak , the asp , the poplar , and the ash , had its seed radicated , and inated in its self ; plants and herbs also in due time producted , and variously multiplied to adorn the creation and not so only to the praise of him that made them ; but to sustain , refresh , and gratifie the creature : the mighty god , the lord iehovah , his mighty arm has wrought this creation ; and who shall compensate for so divine a work , if when to consider that we are but earth , and our earthy ornament but the blossom of vegetation ; and vegetation it self , what is it more , than the antecessor , or forerunner of mortification ; and mortification what is it but the prospect of putrefuction , which leads on directly to the prisons of death . every thing therefore that is naturally produced ; results , and terminates in its native beginnings : for whatever thing is elemental , or had inicience from thence ; falls under the same predicament , and destinated to die ; whose ends because fliding into the periods of inactivity , partake of the common destiny of all compounded mixts . for such are the elements , and all elementary beings , ever since they had a being , and birth in the creation : but here to philosophize , when duely separated , and afterwards co-united , and re-conjoyned again ; it represents the invisibility visible to us ; which then resulting in an astrum , or quintessentia , is in a capacity to dignifie other bodies , and make them glorious , as it self is transcedent . but who has considered this great conservator , besides him that reads daily lectures in the orbs , and makes it his business to consult the creation : that makes the host of heaven his daily common-place-book , and he that made heaven , his hourly contemplation : which priviledges me to say , he that made man , made not man for himself , but to admire his maker : till then we shall never be truely devoted , nor know what god is , nor what is his truth , notwithstanding so often by others reminded : but like to the world , and pratling parots , talk to others those things we understand not our selves . in this kind of zeal i was morally educated , and suckt my religion in with my learning , too copious theams to be taught in one academy , when the universe it self is too compendious for a university . i grant its true , that the press made a noise , but you must grant me the pulpit made a greater , till to me there seem'd a defect in both : the first because i found in a great measure impractible ; and the latter peradventure as unexperiental . this conducted me to search after the wisdome of him that alone is the divine miracle of wonder ; and my daily speculations were animated with discovery , when every signature unfolded it self ; and every classis brought forth a clavis , wherewith to unlock the meanders of nature . diana in this vision seem'd almost unvailed ; and every thing naked , in its native simplicity : this represents somewhat an admical state , but unsatisfied in mind as to these discoveries , i was led to contemplate the mysteries of the incarnation ; how the divinity when cloathed with humanity , took not only our nature , but our infirmities upon him ; and was a bright and shining light , illuminating the world , and every thing therein , and is that light which saveth the world ; that shines in darkness , yet the darkness knows it not : a light of that beauty that illustrates eternity , and regenerates us plants in the paradice of god , to legitimize us heirs of the new ierusalem : which if duely considered , here 's a prospect of life ; when at a distance stands hovering the issues of death : so that good , and evil seem to stand in a poiz ' till earth be found lite by the counterpoiz of heaven ; and here it was also i see my self naked , waiting for a change , for god is all . this leads me on to a farther consisideration , if when to contemplate what 's more visible than earth ; and earth , and water to compleat but one globe ; whilst the air is drest up with the blessings of vegetation , whereby to inrich and impregnate the earth : as may be seen in the very front and surface of the soil , since dekt , and adorn'd with such beautiful greens ; as ornaments of superiours , illustrating inferiours : so that the earth was spread with prolifick vertue , and production from thence immediately ensued , by discovering the prodigious plenty of grass ; a word large enough to express it universal , had not some laboured tho' to little purpose , because when to shroud it under the denomination of herbage . grass therefore admits of a large extension , when because to comprehend both animals and vegetables : and is peradventure the original word , notwithstanding the various interpretation of expositors , because directing it self to the level paul speaks of , as two intersecting angles direct to the centre of one and the same single gnomen . so that we need not to cavil about the word grass , where the property of the thing is so well understood . herbage therefore is grass , and paul tells us , flesh is grass : and grass by interpretation is the most universal vegetable . trees and plants also are of the same linage , save only from a larger size of more maturated grass . stones , and concressions also what must we call them , if not coagulated , and petrefied grass . so that grass in one respect is every thing that earth vegetates , tho modified after various formations , and figures ; differently drest up by the hand of nature . and because haveing respect to time , and place ; by supplement of air , and moist soveraign vapours , causeth it to grow , and spreading it self on the superficies of earth , spires out into grass . which when otherwise concealed in subterranean cavities , grows up into metals , and the race of minerals . as for example , have not all trees their roots in the earth , when their loaden boughs hang burdned with fruit. and are not all metalline roots radicated in the air , when the centre of the earth is burdened with their fruits ; what 's more intelligible . now there is but one universal spirit in nature , from whence things originally have all their supplies ; and the three clauses also of animals , vegetables , and minerals ; are they not so many marks , sigels , and characters , which the creator has imprinted , and stampt upon them , whereby the creature might read , and know them . but man above all , because lord of the creation , is made most intelligible , whereby to understand them : wherefore he calls them by names , for distinction ; when as the rest of the creatures know them only by instinct . and this vegetating spirit has its seed in its self , and the air is plentifully replenished with it ; which seeds scatter'd , and spread about the vniverse , furnisheth the creatures in all parts of the creation . the americans can tell you that trees grew naturally where the native indians never had a being ; and were it not for europes agriculture , and industry ; her florid fields , and flourishing pastures , would soon feel the fatal stroke of disorder ; so become forrests , and barren desarts , fit only for beastial , and salvage inhabitants . for god never made nor sent any thing into the world that was either indigent , defective , or imperfect ; every creature , nay , the plants themselves were furnished with prolifick , and seminal qualifications ; sterility was a thing utterly unknown , till disobedience disinherited our royal protoplast ; which had for ever so remained to the periods of time , had not the cross obliterated the curse . our ancestours oft laboured to strike out the eyesore , which the succeeding generations have thought no impediment , because to study new modes of sinning , whereby to improve impiety by consent ; which has rarely ceased to follow every generation , as naturally ( in my opinion ) as rust attends copper ; fretting , and corroding the natural body , till time , and other comodes blot out its character ; so permits the compound to slide into atomes , and yield it self captive to the prisons of death ; waiting from the artist a resurrection . but such bodies as these we call imperfect , because of a leprosie impendent on them ; when as indeed there are other dignified bodies , that fear not to die , because uncapable of death : whose peluced anima like stars in the firmament , make glad the adepti , and solicitous in art. in the next place , i purpose to speak something of light ; and since light by the text is the oracle of god , it was by his wisdome apparently made manifest , when undressing the hoil of this beauteous creation ; which light also leapt out of the bosome of eternity into the vision , and perspective of time ; and because expatiating it self in the chaos was the cause of this admirable separation of the waters , when by divine ordination they divided themselves ; and then it was that dry land appeared : nor could it be otherwise because then the purer parts immediately began to feel the force of separation , so let the recrements subside to the bottome , because of their feculent and impure centre , and thus by the fiat were all impurities separated , from that which of it self was altogether pure ; and this act of separation we attribute to god , who substituted nature daily to operate : for should there happen but the least cessation , the whole compound would annihilate , so become invisible . but every separation of separable things creates the unity , and perpetuates the harmony ; since the life of one element is dependent on another ; nor lives the one without the breathings of the other . the waters perpepetually moistening the earth , whiles the earth inspires , and ferments the water ; but the soft sweetnings , and breathings of air impregnates both ; as do the stars in their station , and celestial rotation , actually influence , and penetrate the whole . from whence we morrally and rationally conclude that earth made dissoluble converts into water ; and water by heat is ra●ified into air. air consequently by circulation is convertible into fire , and this i call motion , and the perpetual rotation of this admirable and imbellished creation , notwithstanding copernicus asserts the contrary , when to tell us that the earth of it self has a motion : however , i know none , except that of vegatation . and now the great creator that made the light commands that lights appear in the 〈◊〉 number ; and divinely ranging them in the frontispiece of heaven , it denot●s unto us the aforesaid separation of that which is pure from that that 's im●ure . fo● 〈◊〉 firmament at once 〈…〉 with 〈◊〉 whose bodies were innumerable , 〈◊〉 , and luminous , and 〈◊〉 made to shine all over the universe●●hey also illuminate and impregnate the creation ▪ and that to admiration , he hung the●●●word in his sublime sanctuary , to discrim● 〈◊〉 day from the obscurities of 〈◊〉 and to mark out the winter 〈◊〉 summer season : for they 〈◊〉 made signs , and expositors of seasons to remonstrate days , 〈◊〉 ●imes to prognosticate : thus we ●●ad , and as constantly we observe the heavens adorned with these beautiful bodies , so that their operations we feel , and sometimes their effects ; but their ends as hitherto are not generally understood , tho frequently th●●ght 〈◊〉 and descanted by putatio●●rs ; who fancy it sacriligious when to mediate on them , or if but to enqui●● into the order of the creation ; supposing the creator like thems●●ves but nigardly , when to conceal such an excellent and admirable 〈…〉 ; least peradventure every 〈◊〉 should p●● into the model , so 〈…〉 maker by the mediums of art● but gods divin● oracles surpasseth mans reason , 〈◊〉 wisdome instructs us the ●●●●ods of the creation ; nor was 〈◊〉 ignorant of these celestial 〈◊〉 who pointed out to us the divin● 〈◊〉 of stars , how some of them 〈◊〉 , and how some move themselves : who cites to us the motion of 〈…〉 constellations ; the forms , and ●●nfigurations also of the signs of the zodiack ; with the blazing . meteo●s , and formidable apparitions ; the beauty of orion , and the splend●ur of the pliades : the lustre of bootes ●ubulus , or arctophylax : the celerity of mercury , and the rotation of ursa major , incircling ursa minor , in opposition to the crosiers , directors to artick , and the antartick poles . but what edifies all this to an illiterate person , any more than a clerum at the commencement in cambridge : ignorance i must confess is an o'rgrown infant , and the greatest enemy and opposer of art , which ought to be shun'd as a monster in nature ; and above all things abhor'd as some mortal contagion ; or thing worse , could worse be supposed : for ignorance , and impudence they poison our faith , and of future hope would have us to suspect the enjoyment of the excellency of those divine things whereof now we know little more than part . for to read in the beautiful face of the firmament , we discover the invisibillity of things made visible , which manifests to us the end of the creation : so that i prophane not , nor would i be thought erronious , when if only to assert that the stars made visible are angels only explicated ( and the saints shall shine as the stars in glory ) consequently that angels are stars complicated ; and as the star hesper is the suns aurora , so the day star of regeneration is the son of god , to light us up to his glorious habitation : it is true , that as the night is opposite to the day , so sin interposeth betwixt god , and the creature ; we must carry the cross to purchase the crown , and divide the day from obscurities of the night : which without a metaphor is the light from darkness , sin from sanctity , death from life ; and which indeed are sublime operations , fit only for him that divinely operates . the frontispiece therefore or visibility of the firmament , god noted out to us for signs , and for seasons ; so for days , and for years ; whereby to prophesie of those fatal events , frequently impendent ore impenitent people : but the seasons declaratively make demonstrative of heat , so do they of cold ; as at other times of rain , and ●lso of fair weather ; because visibly read in the face of the stars , exhalations , corruscations , and embodied clouds . the days also numerate the date of the creation , and the nights direct us to read lectures in the heavens . thus we see that we see nothing , except we see and understand by the wisdome of god , the excellency and beauty of those sublime things , pointed out to us in the mysteries of the creation , viz. how the ray of light profligates darkness ; and the glory of the majesty mortifies death ; the consideration whereof sweeteens all difficulties ; but the blessed fruition ravishes the soul , and makes it infinitely more pleasant and dilectable , than temporal sweets affect the sence . and god the creator made two great lights , the sun and the moon ; whose different progress directs unto us a different appointment : the sun as abovesaid , to rule the day , but the moon by reflection to govern the night . so that the sun by divine ordination , and the providence of god superceeds the moon ; but the moon by a peculiar virtue influenceth the ocean , and adorns the universe : the majesty of the sun is admired by the persians , so is that of the moon adored by the indians . now the suns warm body moderates the earth , and would peradventure in some measure callifie it , did not the moist air generously intermediate . and the moon perhaps would frigidate the ocean , did not the suns soveraign warm beams mildly , and sweetly by influence nourish it . what illuminates the orbs , and what inspires the ocean , if not sun , and moon by the providence of god ▪ that vegetates , and impregnates the creatures in creation . so that if when to consider the majesty of the sun , that incessantly moves without intermission , in the central orbs , and every angle of the universe ; whose defused ray spreads upwards , and downwards ; and every way to influence with heat and motion : and because enricht , and adorned with such eminent qualifications , as the majesty of light , and the excellency of beauty ; it might probably invite sandivogius the philosopher to superscribe him the vehic●lum , or tabernacle for god : which hypothesis is refuted by basil valentine , and contradicted by scriptural authority . for i will build my tabernacle , and dwell among men ; and the saints they shall shine as the stars in glory . but the sun beyond dispute is the most glorious creature that god has created in this stupendious creation , because of its purity , and superlative clarity ; since totally separated from all its dregs : whose inside and outside we made synonimous , formd out of pure principles of life and heat ; whose rapid motion gives action to the orbs , and cloaths all the stars with his lustre , and splendour ; making them shew beauteous by the lustre of his brightness : and because by the divinest deckt , and adorn'd with glory ; he lives without compeer , nor has he any corival ; where note he 's a monarch , and the parent of vegetation . and such is the moon , tho a faint flattering ray ( if when compared with the sun ) yet she illustrates unto us from the same original : and because adapted from adequate primordials , in her occidental cressant she naturally displays a lunar clarity ; when in her oriental purity an incomparable brightness : and tho' by reason of distance she wants a natural warmth , yet in her progress she spreads forth of splendour , whereby she sends beauty to the ends of the ocean . the tides themselves also are a lunar flux , and such is the frail imbicility of females : for the moon has a monarchy within her self , yet directs she by the generous beam of her soveraign , who by wisdome and providence of the supreamest good that governs the whole , and also the parts ; is made to nourish , and refresh the creation : so that to make things plain , by explaining my self , peradventure , may bring my discourse into suspition , were the vulgar my judges ; who , i fancy by this have already doomed , and brought me under the calamity of a lunatick . the residue of the stars , the divinest also he placed them in order by particular classes , and gave to every one by a grant from heaven , a peculiar vertue , and different operation : one to dignifie earth into the purest gold , another to make silver shine in the mines : a third to scatter iron stone , underneath the surface ; a fourth to discover quick●silver fluid ; a fift lays open the mines of tin : and a sixth the beauteous mettalline copper : but the seventh creates the earth into oar , which by smelting at the mills , is convertible into lead : but there are other , and various coagulations , besides these seaven ; as allowed by philosophers , the product and progeny of erratick stars : and such is cat-silver , mine oars , and minerals ; mixt metals also , with various complications . then their 's talk , and realgar ; with zink , bismuth , and cobolt ; and the regal cements of hal , and malk , besides markasites , and pierites ; with innumerable concressions of opacous bodies , enough to astonish the reader , if to name them . precious stones also are of the same progeny , and legitimate heirs of stars and constellations : and tho' some coagulations out-lustre one another , as the cristal , because having a polite and shining face ; so has the crisolite a diaphinous-body : but the saphir , the hiacinth , the smaragdine and emerald , together with the amethist , diamond , ruby , and the carbuncle , are all gloriously tinged with a mettalline tincture : but there are other , and opacous bodies , directing to the topax , beside the turchas ; and such is the onix , and admired granat ; with the cornelian , needless to nominate , in regard by the mobile so generally understood . all which have their officine , and shops in the earth , where illiastes , and archeus , are rector , and operator ; the one to find stuff and the other labour : but demogorgan assists both by the help of vulcan . thus in brief i have given you a short view of celestials , and how they are adapted parents of terrestials . now these glorious and luminous lamps , the stars , were kindled by the divinest to illuminate the world : and god lifted them up , and set them in the firmament as oracles , and ornaments to adorn the universe : whose signature and impressions are perpetually imprest upon earths soft table , to influence and impregnate it with prolifick vertue : for the sun and moon , shews us heaven and earth in a lesser character than most men dream of : and because having a magnetick vertue , and principle in themselves ; the first fills the world with heat , and activity , but the latter because immerg'd with passive qualifications , influenceth fluidity , and the race of females . the sun therefore we superscribe him masculine , but the moon every one intitles feminine : where note , as these luminaries are made to move , consequently so moves the wheels of generation and corruption , which mutually dissolves all compounded bodies . but the moon most properly is the organ of transmutation , as is the sun the parent of generation : and these two luminaries multiply and fructifie every individual as to generation , and multiplication ; for what compound ever was , or is there to be found in whole nature that holds not in it self some proportion of the sun , and so of the moon , whereby to confirm it with life , and motion ; so that what offices soever are performable by these two luminaries , either for preservation of the whole , or conservation of part ; as is the performance for one , such also and after the same manner is the like office for all . since therefore such vertue shines from celestials , what may be expected from super-celestials is not christ the wisdome , the beauty , and the glory of the majesty , whose admirable amazi●g and astonishing brightness shines in the tracts to the new ierusalem . the holy men of god in former ages read daily lectures in this divine manuscript ; and the same starry folio since the beginning of the creation , has lain unfolded to this very generation : so that wanting solomons wisdome , and iobs inspection ; very few , or none do read in it now . surely our rabbies have lost the clavis . hermes its true , and the egyptians before him understood , and stiled god , minos solitaria ; but our great prophet moses ; iehovah , and elohim ; so the cabalists intitled him aleph tenebrosum , from whence some conjecture the delphians in their inscriptions direct their orisons to the unknown god. but the arabs — their orisons : but the arabs and the caldeans marks him out aleph lucidum . so that doubtingly the key of knowledge in some measure may be lost , otherwise the alphabet would not seem so unintelligeable ; unless we have made new heavens of our own , so study them only , and forget the old one . but the creation of harmony who can forget , and not forget him that adorns the universe : so fill up his lamp with foetid oyl , whose stinking empyruma instead of aroma's , infects the altar , and offends the omnipotent . but man by the divinest was created twofold , visible , and invisible : corporeal , and celestial : his elementary body , or visible part of a pure fixt earth ; or a deep red clay : but his soul or invisibility of an essence royal , not to be found in the texture of the great world , more intellectual therefore , and more supernatural ; from whence montanus that great pantheologist , calls man a small or little incarnation , in which work god was pleased to multiply himself . nor was man the primitive work in this blessed creation , but the great world was , out of which man was made : whose principles , and practice ought to be well examined ; should we resolve to take part for the whole ; so guess at the frame by a regular proportion . and as man was taken out of this copious world , so was the woman also taken out of man. for god in his eternal idea foresaw that whereof as yet there was no material copy . the goodness and beauty of which invited him to create man like unto himself ; and beholding that divine and lively image of his own , inwardly to shine in the tabernacle of man ; he became therewith enamoured with divine ardency ; and so loved the creature , that when sin had defaced it ; he again restored it by the suffering of that power by which man at first was made and created . but the sun and the moon were made to operate , and man in a sence was made to imitate ; whose masterpice is invention , and whose study should be that to repair which nature because interrupted left somewhat imperfect : but not that nature cannot perfect her operations ; rather we are to consider all scientifical artists but dull operators , and imitaters of nature , who works by her own copy , slighting all artifice , and artificial presidents ; since such seem useless , and altogether improper to her , that of her self , can perfect the whole . health craves no method for phisick , nor diet ; 't is disease only that claims the priviledge of medicine : then why so preposterous to seek sickness in health , and daily enquire the state of new worlds , when the old one by providence is still so good , and upheld by his power can never die . the wise creator has put therein such a renovating faculty , that of it self by attraction and repercussion , it receives what 's suitable , and agreeable to its nature , rejecting whatever is unagreeable to its resentments , as a thing that 's loathed by a disdainful appetite : let every student therefore study the knowledge of that which god in his wisdome has already made ; since man with all his art can make nothing like it . and now since the stars are commissioned to rule , saturn as superiour , and lord of the universe , assumes the precedency : and who because of his ancient and paternal dignity , claims a prerogative above all the planets ; exalting himself in the supreamest orb : whose wife by allusion of poetical fixion was surnamed ops , the daughter of caelas ; of whom is begot the fair androginas , as also the beautiful and the florid vesta : to whom the votaries , and the vestal nimphs in the days of numa pompilius , offered up their orisons . of metals , therefore saturn is lead ; of minerals antimony , but of stones the granate . next unto saturn's superiour orb , benevolent iupiter assumes the throne ; who sways the scepter in a peaceable dominion , and himself as his government is also peaceable : a monarch that 's surrounded with senators and statesmen ; made happy in his choice when celebrated to iuno , had not his royal consort been wounded with jealousie . now this fair goddess as the poets have conceived sprung from the loins of saturn , and ops : whose metallick progeny was only tin : and of minerals zink , but of stones the iacinth . now trinus magnus or valorous mars , he mounts the chariot ; who by poetical fixion is the son of iuno . this great martialist and champion of the gods , ascends his triumphant throne next unto iupiter , and rules by the sword : whose law as is asserted , is the force of arms : however the poets have prescribed him no wife , but inamoured with venus , some suppose her his paramour : rich in no child but iron , and vitriol , save only the soveraign and medicianal heliatrope : whose markasite is bismuth , and whose minera is the magnet . most illustriously adorned , sol himself advanceth : whose dazling ray ●ills all the world with lustre : but his consort is known by the name of lune , whose fair beauty some say equalizeth his brightness ; yet no child he had but gold , and the carbuncle ; excepting the ruby , and lapis luzuli , with some minerals , and markasites tinged with his lustre : otherwise of themselves they could never shine . but venus succeeds , and because the queen of heaven , she 's reputed the speculation of all the philosophers . who was thought as by fiction the fair daughter of caelus but her mother the ancients have prescribed the ocean : if so , this fair goddess she sprung from the sea , and was the supposed wife of vulcan , master of the cyclops : she had no child indeed excepting copper , yet is she rich to excess in vitriol , wherein lies her treasure : whose nativity of stones is the beautiful emerald ; but her markasite is cobolt . mercury next to venus he ranges himself , and among the planets is stiled intelligencer : a universal lover of metals , and minerals ; principally all those of a regal condition ; we read of no wife that ever he had , because an hemaphrodite , and compleat in both sexes ; whose progeny is quick-silver , and the sparkling diamond . next to mercury the empress of the orbs lune's silver horns they polish the sky . but we have told you already whose wife she is , tho' some among the philosophers superscribe her masculine : whose native child is the burnisht silver , and the beautiful saphir : but her artificial , as hinted by basil valentine ; is the first born daughter of all the philosophers . but the stars , i have considered , ought not to be thus discourst , nor ought we to discipher them after this manner ; nor was it indeed my primitive intention ; however since so bluntly to blab it out : let it serve only therefore to commode the ingenious , and direct the sons of science into the tracts of philosophy ; making the elements natures common-place-book ; in whose legible index if well examined , you may there find all that ever she did , or for the future intends to do . and in this thin tiffeny she wraps up her principles before she embark them into coagulation : and which also retains the species of things , and is the immediate receptacle of spirits after solution of their natural bodies : from whence , and through which the good ones pass to a superiour limbus , or emperoeal heaven ; where all pure essences have their eternal residence . and thus we have determined by a philosophical liberty to liken nature to a beautiful lady , shaded sometimes under a cyprus vail ; metaphorically interpreted a thick mettallick mantle : or rather a complication of elements , and principles : which when it shall please the divinest to unvail , and draw it off from before the creation ; we shall not only see nature really naked ; but the very beauty of things themselves , whereof these we now behold are but representatives : when on the contrary should ignorance invade us ; how an outward dimness , and an inward darkness would presently ensue : from which we pray , libera nos domine . but all complicated bodies are elemental , and spiritual ; which by medium of celestials become magnettically united : and is the true , and the only cause of production , and also vegetation : natures fundamentals , and the philosophers speculation . and the evening and the morning were the fourth day , but every day since the beginning of time is gods day only , and properly his ; and so will remain the whole progress of time ; and will be so when time is no more . but the divine harmony of things in the creation were manifest in time , in which all ends and beginnings have their natural period . the beginning therefore was in creating ; and creating was an act of making things manifest . the periods also , or results of which , are manifestly discovered , by solution of parts . thus the world and all therein had a beginning in time , when the divinest undrest the hoil or chaos ; and then invisible things were made visible to us : which by reason of an elementary composition , are in time lockt up in the periods of death . this is all the philosophy hitherto i have known ; or it may be shall ever be known by another . in the next place we discourse the element of water , imagined by some a solution of earth , or a moist coagulum of ambient air , made fluid only by an internal flux ; which surrounding the earth compleats but one globe : and which aquous fluidity separates only the impurities from the more extraneous and superficial parts ; but cannot reach to the core , or centre , whereby to examine the internal impurities ; which an intence fire naturally purgeth forth , by reason of its ardent activity ( and not improper to say its vulcanick nature ) where the waters of themselves can never reach . two elements therefore are destinated to putrification ; and as the matter to be purified is visible , or invisible ; consequently such are the agents for purification . since the fire therefore is an invisible agent , and that other of water most obvious and visible ; the visible and invisible parts of things are therefore so mended , and cleansed by subtile operation ; whereby they seseparate the more inquinate impurity , that stifly adheres to the immaculate nature , and prestine state of virgin purity . but as the soul within the body is not bett'red by the corporiety of all , or any of the natural composition ( or impendent matter hovering about it ) but is rather stained , poluted , and infected with noxious sapors arising thence from : so you are to consider that the vessel has its honour from the dignity of the arcanum ( or glory of the subject matter ) therein contained . and as the scripture instructs us , that gods surprizing light illuminates every pious act of the creature ; it obligeth us to consider that the goodness of god is as great to forgive ; as by his clemency and bounty he is just to pardon . where note we observe god made things proportionable , and in all respects , suitable to himself . the great world he made therefore to contain the less , but the lesser world he made to contain himself that contains the greater . and thus you have the mystery of the creation , the majesty of reason , the divinity of scripture , and authority of philosophy . but the waters brought forth every moving creature , because in them was the spirit of life : for the spirit of life by divine incubation made ingress into them , filling them with a prolifick vertue : and the first form'd creature that the waters brought forth , was the great and unweildy body of earth ; most recluse , and solitary , because inwardly concealed ; which till then never felt the operative fo●ce of fire . nor did the luminous ray of the sun , nor the vertual influence of stars , nor the divine order of constellations , nor the treasures of hail and rain , of lightning and thunder ; nor the seasons of heat and cold , frost and snow ( besides innumerable living creatures to whom heavens plentiful breast daily administred ) till then none of them knew the potency of life , nor the force and energy of the universal spirit which god by wisdome inspired into them . but some will object , and peradventure say , how , and after what manner does the earth vegetate . shew us also the rationallity and probability whereby the earth and the water become living creatures : to which i readily and briefly answer ; the soul of the divine world is god himself ; but that of the created the universal spirit of nature : and this soul lives by vertue of the divine world , but acts by imagination only in the created , whereby the earth conceives , vegetates , and buds up ; so does the waters protrude , and bring forth even to the period and perfection of its predestinated end . nor can they otherwise do ; because the law of providence and necessity is by divine ordination imposed upon them . and that which enriches them are the sublime treasures of elements , and principles . for wanted they those active , and ingressive instruments , they were of all things in nature most imper●ect ; and would be altogether void , and unprofitable ; so become as it were a meer annihilation ; and not improper should i call it , a caput mortuum . for it were impossible that any created being , if when wanting the vital faculty of life , could be any ways at any time in a capacity to live ; consequently to move , vegetate , and protrude . but the great and the lesser world is fill'd with animation , whereby it daily and hourly buds forth : all which are signal and demonstrable tokens of the spirit of life that animates , and actuates in every creature . life therefore is that active and universal spirit of nature wherewith she infusseth , the whole creation , impregnating every individual therewith ; whereby the character of life is no sooner stampt , infus'd or imprest upon any material subject , but it inwardly lives , as does the invisible world ; which no sooner appears to move forward into act , but the model and frame of the subject matter at once admits of exteriour motion . life therefore as it is the radix of every thing , so it acts demonstratively in every body . the motion of the sun we daily observe is necessarily occasioned by this active spirit of life . and such is the vital pulse in man , as also that large and greater pulse of the ocean . earth vegetates only from this operating spirit , and the air is replenished , and fill'd full of it : every thing that is , lives not without it ; nor can any thing subsist deficient of it . o wonderful nature the miracle of the creator , how intelligeable art thou in all thy operations ; and tho' so simple , naked and demonstratively plain , yet how difficult is it for the artist to find out . so that were we minded to imitate nature in her solitary operations , and fermentation of elements ; we ought first to consider in order to what nature in her daily progress points out unto us , whereby to manidge and introduct us : whose mediums because primarily separation , and solution of parts ; therefore from thence begins manual operation . let solution therefore be the first step , since in separation all is found . then proceed to filtration , evaporation , congealation , cristalization , distillation , digestion , putrefaction , ceration , albification , rubification , and fixation . then will diana appear from under her vail , which none but the eyes of a true philosopher , since the beginning ever yet saw . but now i suspect i 'me beyond the paraphrase of the text , when only designed to discourse the creation ; so of elements and principles , natures own rudiments . how that elements subsist not without previous fermentation of their complicated com●xture of invisible parts ; so that a compleat separation is no where found whereby to unlock , and disintangle the unity of bodies , without a philosophical clavis to display their principles ; which otherwise are limited , and by nature confined to submit to the law of coagulation . of all which i cease farther to disclose ; lest peradventure this secret be already too manifest , when because to devulge it to the root of ingratitudes : so we leave that subject to discourse the leviathan . and , god made great whales , &c. iob calls him leviathan , who after his creation by the permission of god , rolls to● and fro the fluctuating ocean : whose unctuous scales pollish the sea , that ●o amaz●ment it shines like a pot of oyntment ; and whose magnitude amazes his fellow creatures . whose empire is the spacious and bottomless ocean , but himself a monarch over all in the deeps , whose subjects are the several clases of natatiles , that pay tribute to him with the loss of their lives . so that what to say of this prodigious creature , i know not ; nor is any pen capable to discourse his concealments , or fathom the unfathomed depths that conceal him . is not he one of the wonderful mysteries of the ways of god ? whose shining paths discover his ways , and whose motion terrifies the eyes of his beholders ; ● creature he is that lives void of fear , and is as iob says , a king over all the children of pride . leviathan therefore if thought requisite to describe him , i shall rally him under three several distinctions ; and the rather because to make him yet more obvious , give me leave to rumidge the ocean , and dress up my method whereby to illustrate him in the following order . first , then by tradition we entitle him grampus , when because to consider him in his prestine minority ; but successively in his peregrination he assumes to himself that dignity and magnitude , that some call him iubartas . when in process of time , and becoming yet more formidable , some are pleased to superscribe him the whale or leviathan ; whose motion upon the slippery tracts of the ocean , represents him as it were a floating island . and whose excessive bulk , and incredible bigness is enough to astonish every beholder : when otherwise to consider him on the silty owse , his own weight peradventure hazards to sink him ; whereby he becomes a prey to the merchant , or otherwise must lie till death release him . but of this admirable and eminent subject , there are some so precipitant to preconjecture iob too copious ; whiles othersome of a contrary opinion have determined him too brief , and altogether concise , when because as to their apprehension not to enlarge enough upon him : wherefore to reconcile them which is not without difficulty ; the ignorant and unlearned think he has said too much , when by reason of their ignorance they cannot understand him : but to the wise and more judicious he has said too little , and the rather in regard they 'r desirous of knowledge ; for wisdome is always known of her children . but iob that humane oracle of learning and eloquence ; and as learnned as any man in the study of astronomy , has given such eminent and convincing encomiums , with such solid arguments of this admirable creature ; that every description save that of his own strikes a discord in the readers ear : whose mute i confess my self to be , and am unwilling therefore to attempt to encounter what neither my language nor experience can boast of , otherwise , than that i have seen this formidable creature sporting himself in the vast wide ocean ; yet this wont priviledge , but rather precaution me ( with reverend submission ) to a sedate taciturnity , and to affix no more arguments upon this invincible subject : but rather with my author lay my hand on my mouth , and remembring the battle , do so no more . since therefore to consult him without any compeer , and a monarch of such a magnitude , and vast dominions ; should we rumidge all the elements for a mate to match him , none but his own is found to contain him . wherefore we represent him the majesty of mortals , whose search we relinquish to correspond with inferiours ; such are the porpus , the bottle-nose , and the shark , the selk , boneto , and the albicore , the moura or sea serpent , with the conger , bass , remora torpedo , and the american snite . there is also the turbet , scate , dolphin , grooper , and cavalla ; besides the sturgeon , salmon , trout , lucit , mullet , umbar , barble , tenche , &c. and thousands more in salts and freshes . moreover there are shell-fish , as the turtle or tortoise , conct , lobsters , oysters , crabs cockles , mussels , craw-fish , prawns , and shrimps ; but these are arm'd all over . another brigade are alegators , crocadiles , guianas , bevers , otters , and manitees , with many other , but such are amphibious , whom i care not to converse with . living creatures therefore , and such as move , and have their motion by the mediums of water , are our subject matter . and that god created every invidual , made it to live , and gave it motion , is the strength of my assertion ; and that the waters were the cause of their life and motion , is the argument of the text : but that god gave life and motion to the waters that gave life and motion to the creatures therein , is my positive and final conclusion . life then as naturally attends the creation as the ray of light follows the sun. nor can any life issue but what flows from light , as light it self flows from the divine fiat ; which immaculate light sprung up from eternity , as eternity it self shines from the majesty . but since the determinate and original end of water was not generally understood , its nature and office but imperfectly considered , its wonderful vertue and operation intelligeable only to such whom wisdome and nature have duly educated in god's great school , where nothing is taught without wonder and astonishment ; so that all i can offer relating to this admirable subject , is little more than to say nothing , since if i speak any thing , i say too much ; and silence peradventure would better become me , rather than so publickly declame , and devulge to the world these my notions , and it may be by some thought barren apprehensions , that like a chase in arra's figurates only the design , but wants real power of life to prompt forward into motion . which implies , such phaenonima's discover nothing where the genuine truth of any thing admits of a doubt ; and who will be so presumptous to determine possitives by his own own hesitant and imperfect conclusions . but the sea as one great and copious body is acted only by the spirit of life , that in the beginning inspired the creation : and all the rivers and rivulets that fluctuate in islands , consequently all those that spread themselves on the continent , what are they but such and so many meanders running up and down in every angle , representing the arms , boughs , and branches of this prodigious and miraculous creation ; whose trunck or bole is the ocean it self : whose radix or root in the nonage of time lay conceal'd among the admirable mysteries of the creator . so that after what manner the fountains and the rivers , with the springs and rivulets became incipid , whiles the ocean it self is impregnated with salt ; is another mystery , till serioussy to consider the quellem or sand , and the multiform variety of soils in the earth , as also to examine the bottles of heaven , the burdned and impregnated clouds that fall , and daily distil to replenish the earth , with aerial spirits , and prolifick vertue . these also were once one saline substance ; when in the great mass or volumn of the ocean ; whose texture was alienated in the act of separation because rarified and purified by mediums of air ; which more properly admits of an explanation , directing to a ra●efaction and transposition of elements : whiles we direct our intention to the progress of multiplication , by divine grant and praeordinate council . and now the heavens shine a blessing upon the creation , as also upon all elementary constitutions ; for god himself looked down upon the ocean , not only to bless it , but all her inhabitants . thus were they blest , and all that was in them were also blest , when god bid them fructifie , grow up , and encrease . now how can they otherwise than propagate and multiply , since his divine word has already commanded it . we therefore conclude the creation blest , and the creatures in the creation , because being blest , become a blessing to every partaker . for the bounty of the creator can know no limit , tho' the creation it self is bounded with limitation . he therefore that made it had power to confine it , but being himself eternally unmade , neither art , nor power , nor can any thing confine him . where 's peters objection now to raise a scruple , because when to eat what 's common or unclean , since what god has cleansed is undoubtedly clean : but this was a trope or type of religion , whereby to denote god no respecter of persons ; nor relates it to any thing if i calculate right than variety and distinction of judgements and opinion : for probably peter thought none but the iews were worthy the dignity and honour of christianity , when god thought otherwise ; because having chosen the gentiles as a people approved more worthy than the iews ; who not only betrayed the lord of life , but barbarously and inhumanly they murdered their messiah . be fruitful , says the word , encrease , and multiply ; here 's a commission large and great enough , sealed and signed under heavens great charter : so that now the rivers , the lakes , and the rivulets , nay the ocean it self is fill'd with variety . and every classis strives to exile sterility , and obliterate if possible the fate of barrenness . can any element in the creation excepting the ocean proclaim such multitudes as there are of fish , which surpasseth the art of arithmetick to number them . for who has not seen that the belly of one female was enough of it self to accommodate a river , and has not also considered that if every individual had the ray of life shine in it , and common providence attend it for its natural preservation ; to admiration so great would be the encrease , that the waters themselves would even suffocate . but as there is a magnetick quality , and a sympathetick harmony in the creation ; so is there a natural antipathy in the ocean , as there is the like in other elements . the falcon in the air , the shark in the ocean , and the angler to bait with a fish , when design'd to catch a fish ( but such we call troling ) so some sets fellons to ●rapan thieves . it s usual for the great ones to prey upon the little ones , as the grampus upon the surai , the shark upon the boneto , the sturgeon upon the shad , the porpus upon the salmon , the pike upon the dace , and the pearch upon the minue , &c. this i call antipathy ; but simpathy if i mistake not is the mutual concordance , and harmony among the creatures . i have read in helmont of a prodigious pike , that lived as he says to an amazing bigness , and not then to have died a natural death ; when if to consider the whole progress of life , what tribute would such a smelter ( supposing this to be such ) bring to the waters . but lest i fall into a piscatorian error ( which vanity since my youth i can hardly withstand ) let me therefore commend you to my contemplative angler , where at large you may read the historical part of angling . for in the high sea there 's no soundings , what art then must be used to catch fish ? and so profound is this subject that i plough but the surface , whiles others more mathematical measure out the circumference , and dive into natures more hidden mysteries by a secret and pious profound speculation , the eye of faith and reason introducting . but we shall put ashore now , to tread on terra firma . and god said let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind ; cattle , and creeping things ; and the beast of the earth after his kind . then the earth brought forth in great abundance , since by the divine grant of wisdome and providence it had now in it self the three distinct clases of vegetables , and minerals ; besides innumerable and various forms of insects , and animals , surpassing the art of numeration . every cave now was fill'd with concressions , and the surface of the soil was covered with herbage . the florid meadows also were perform'd with odorates , and the flourishing fields were scattered with corn. the banks also that bounded the murmuring streams , were strewed with arbories . the mountains with mines , the valleys with herds , the plains with flocks , and the pastures with cattle ; but the moist and more boggy swamps in vallies , were crouded and covered with amphibious creatures : besides innumerable fowl of all sorts , and kinds hovering in the air , under the canopy of heaven . fish also they floated in the brinish streams , whiles some others contented themselves with freshes ; so that every place , and every thing was fill'd with plenty whereby to enrich this stupendious creation . nor was any part of earth , as well as the ocean , exempt or denied those primary blessings from her great benefactor that had blessed every thing : who not only made her , but such provision for her , that to the periods of time she can know no want : who commissioned nature also by an eternal decree , as a supream governess not only to govern ; but also to labour the elements accommodation . the lion and the lioness roar'd then in the desart ; and the ass with the mule bray'd in the common ; but the hart with the hind bellowed in the forrest : and the leopard with the panther , besides the wolf and the tigre were heard to howl in the barren wilderness . but the grey or badger he yelpt in the earth , whiles the subtle fox in his obscure den lay barking conceal'd in cavities under ground : the horse he neighed in the open field , and the cattle lay lowing in the florid meadows : but the sheep and the lambs , true patterns of innocency ( poor animals ) they lay bleating in every pasture . chantecleer in those times he rose with the day , and the early lark took wing with the morning ; who admiring the beauty of the rising sun , mounts the fair welkin to partake of his splendour ; whiles the black-bird and thrush , with the winters intelligencer ( little robin-red-breast ) mannage the consort till almost evening ; and then pritty philomel or the summer oracle , closes up day with sweet epithalamiums . thus the creation in a perpetual harmony melted the air with melodious consorts of unterrified quires of innocent birds , that as well as they could , exprest their gratitude , for the bounty and generosity of their great benefactor ; who gave them a being , and the blessings of accommodation ; the earth to nourish , and gave them food ; but the windows of heaven were set open , to refresh and gratifie their thirsty appetite . and thus the creation was unacquainted with fear , whiles our ancestor stood in a state of innocency ; and had for ever so remain'd without contradiction ( by authority of the text ) had not sin struck out the character of simplicity . the timerous hare fled not then for fear , nor did the cunney shelter her self in the burrough . the hind calv'd naturally without corruscations ; claps of thunder were then no help to disburden her . nor did the bear lick her cubs into shape or form , for in the beginning was no deformity . the pellican in those days i perswade my self pickt not those wounds in her tender breast infeebling her self to relieve her young ones . nor did the ostridge conceal her eggs , dreading or fearing the crush of the elephant . nor can i hardly perswade my self in these halcion days that the swan as now sang a lacrimy to her funeral ; nor the phenix fire her vrn to generate her species . aligators surely in the minority of time were not so ravenous as to prey upon passengers . nor did the crocadile dissemble his tears to moisten the funerals of his fellow creature . the plover i discover flew then with the tassel ; and the pheasant i fancy kept flight with the falcon. nor did the partridge know engin , nor noosie-thread ; nor dreaded nor feared he the flight of the goshawk . nor can i think otherwise than to say in those days the lark was any time dared with the hobby surely nature in those days was divinely exercised to preserve in unity , and unite in harmony the creatures god had blest , in this blessed creation ; because then to know no other law but that of sympathy , which is naturally of kind : but so alienated now , and in a sense so degenerated as if no other law was ever established . now the generations past , and our worthy ancestors ; as the vertuous in this age will labour to abolish this unnatural antipathy , if when mutually to strengthen one another in the doctrine of christianity , which ought to be the standard among the pious in profession ; lest peradventure we relinquish our soveraign health , so draw on our heads the curse of disease : for to fly from sanity to seek a cure in sickness ; is to run head-long into the water to preserve our selves from drowning . in the beginnings of time ( as it was of old ) no noise of oppression allarm'd the land , nor dreaded any man the sence of invasion . then it was that priviledges were as sacred as life , and the whole creation seem'd all in common . ianus i fancy liv'd not in those days when the inside was made legible and intelligible by the outside . modesty and innocency were then alamode , and simplicity with piety the newest dress . for heaven was pleas'd then to dwell upon earth , but earth must now be rarified into heaven . god then immediately converst the creature , as by mediation christ interceeds the father . and were it not that christ is our saviour and advocate , we should be left without a plea , and sentence denounc'd beyond dispute against us . but christ is risen , in whom we hope to rise ; and lost adam is restor'd by the redeemer of the world : so that what adam lost on the one hand in paradise : christ our mediator has redeemed on the other . thus was the beast and the cattle made ; and thus every creature made after its kind , knew no other law than the law of kind : for instinct of kind was naturally inated and ingrafted into all , as into one : and if so , it were impossible for the creature to degenerate , where a command as hitherto was never violated . then it was that the divinity of the majesty of god most splended and gloriously shin'd on the creation ; for how could it be otherwise when the beauty of the creator like a new risen star reflected on the creature in edens fair field no brambles grew , nor was sterility known in her borders : the trees then lookt big because burd'ned with fruit , and their blushing heads bowed down themselves to the courteous hand that endeavoured to reach them . the earth knew nothing but fulness and plenty , since every thing was supplied with prolifick vertue ; and nourish'd in it self by the primar cause , nature directs the ends of germination . no cankers nor caterpillars bred out of putrefaction , nor were northern blasts injurious to any thing ; nor was there any fatal stroke of diseas , for every thing stood in its primitive purity ; and death was out-lawed , and sin an exile , or at leastwise a rerrour unknown , or unthought of ; nor do i err when to say at that time uncreated . o blessed creation , because god had blest it from the beauteous ray and beam of himself . whose radient morning could scarce raise a blush before titan was ready to unvail his face . whose pleasures were boundless because then unlimited , for excess and intemperance were strangers in her courts . and whose garden full frought with flowers and aroma's , flourish'd with encrease since hitherto the serpent had not tainted the fruit. and the earth of it self brought forth in abundance , whose womb was the storehouse , and factory of treasures . gold grew in ophir as naturally in those days , as lead is drawn up in the peek of derby-shire . and cattle by kind were raised and encreased , as putrefactive excrements convert into insects . but i cease not to wonder since thy works are so wonderful and to admire thy ways because so miraculous . thus heaven and earth were seemingly united ; and the creation bended no knee to any government , save that of its soveraign lord and maker . nor was any thing made that knew any lord , excepting the lord of heaven and earth . nor had the creator as yet made man a king or vice-roy of the creatures in the creation . all the world all this while was but one common-weal , and the tree of life in the midst of the garden : and nothing as hitherto that god had created , had tasted the bitter effects of death . oblessed and sacred government upon earth , when governed by the royal law of heaven ; which certainly had remained in that blessed state , had not sin by consent eclips't and defac'd it , almost to extinguish this beautiful aurora . but let 's tack about now , and begin to examine the genuine nature and complication of animals ; together with the natural composition of man , whom we find at this day complicated of elements ; of all which he consists if when to consider his material parts . and as adam was abstracted from the womb of the great world ; so was woman her self an abstract from him : whose soul as an astrum , or an essence royal is no where to be found in the texture of the universe . wherefore we have considered adam super-natural , whose creation to me seems a small incarnation ( as montanus says ) as if god in this work had multiplied himself . and tho' adams original keep not time with the creation ; however we are children of adams generation . but the world because daily fill'd with revolution ever since the fatal act of sinning ; and that every man because subject to sin , and the slavish law of his lustful appetite , becomes captivated by the man of sin ; so yields himself captive to the prisons of death : whose outward progression is actually moved by irregular motion of the desires inward . but the heavens we see , and the celestial incolists , how they never since the creation consented to sin : and as they were , so are they still carried about with a rapid motion . the reason whereof must necessarily spring from an internal cause , and intrinsick principle ( since intelligences are so ambigious ) and what is this principle if not the soul of the world ; or the universal spirit god has put into nature , whereby as a magnet it retains the matter ; which labouring to re-assume its former liberty , frames to her self a habitation in the centre : and branching into the several members of the body makes more room to act , and bestir her faculties . no wonder therefore that natures are compounded , since nothing but the almighty is without composition . nor is it the great or the lesser world that which transmutes nutrition into blood ; but the active spirit of life , and transmutation is that which is indeed the life of the body . since material principles therefore are only passive , and can neither alter , nor purifie the parts ; we find them in a state to be altered , and purified ; tho not to communicate or dispose themselves to another substance beyond their native intention . wherefore we have considered them altogether finite , and therefore have concluded them also determinate . now if this be a secret , you may call it so ; but , as truth needs no voucher it s a substantial truth . wherefore to conclude this philosophick hypothesis ; let us throw away if possible those two celebrated crutches of pretended modern sanctity , and the solemnity of ceremony : and what results but primitive purity , which since the creation has known no deformity . and god said ( in the text ) let us now make man ; in our own image let us make him , and after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish in the sea , the fowl in the air , ( over the cattle also ) and over all the earth ; and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth . by this the creation seem'd to want a head , and less than a prince is too little to govern it . adam must therefore be a universal monarch , and sway the throne , and the regal scepter . and adam must not only wear heavens livery ; but personate the king of heaven himself . here the divinest seems to summons a councel , and god said in himself let us now make man , not like to any thing already made ; but let us make him in likeness like our self : in our own similitude and likeness let us make him ; and enlarge his empire by giving him dominion over all the fish that swim in the sea , and over all the fowl that fly in the air , over the cattle also that move on the earth , and over every living creature that creepeth and moveth ; the wisdome of god so divinely ordered . this was a large and copious commission that god intrusted a single subject withal ; yet such was the good opinion the creator had of the creature , that god intrusts adam with the stock of the creation , and all the creatures , and every complicated being that was made , comprehended , and contained in it . and adam drew all his supplies from above , since enricht with the stock and the treasures of heaven ; nor converst he with any inferiour subject , nor any thing in any respect unsuitable to himself ; whereby he might indignifie or diminish his authority . in the cool of the evening he walked with god , and in the heat of the day the aquaducts refresht him . aurora sent him summons of approach of day : but the night , nor was darkness dreadful to him . the celestial sun was his daily tapour , and the catalogue of stars his hourly contemplation ; but the son of god his perpetual lamp. so that his outside was bettered by his inside , and because richly adorned and divinely beautified , he saw no darkness , nor the shadow of death ; whiles he stood in this innocent state of perfection . for god in the idea beholding a shape , or as i may so say a representation of himself , became therewith inamour'd ; and extreamly loving it , would cohabit with it : when immediately upon the resolution the operation ensued ; and then was this great image the beautiful world ( or rather the representative of his maker ) brought forth , and created . and god said to himself ( or the holy word ) increase in increasing , and multiply in multitudes . but to man only because lord of the creation , i have endowed him with mind , and made him immortal . so that if he die , the cause of death must necessarily proceed from excess of the body , and inequallity of elements ; and pray tell me what death is ? if not a cold icy touch , or a dismal darkness of the compounded moist nature , adhering only to the sensible world. let no man wonder therefore that the light of god which illuminates the world is unlike the beam or ray of the sun , that by reason of its fiery , and excessive brightness , immediately and at once strikes the eye with blindness : but rather to the contrary , heavens brighter glory never at any time dazles the mind , since the mind is the souls ingressive eye , that soars up aloft to those elevated mansions , where that light shines that enlightneth every man , already come , or to come into the world : and is the beauty and glory of light , and our saving health , that influenceth , illuminates , and beautifieth the creation ; and every creature , and created being . but man above all , because made a monarch ; and capable to receive this blessed influence proceeding from god , the majesty of light , and superexcellent brightness , that diefies the soul whiles yet in the body : it s he that 's only blest to contemplate this divine beauty ; and live up to the vertue of piety , and holiness . so that adam in a state of innocency represents ( as montanus says ) a mortal god ; and our heavenly redeemer an immortal man , if when to consider the blessed incarnation . and thus the things that are , were made manifest in time ; but the things that are , and not yet made manifest ; lie hid , and conceal'd in the divinest himself ; who is all things in all , yet subsists without them : manifest only in the mind of man , but invisible to the world , and the visible eye , except in the act of creating only . and as the eminency of all appearing beauties are in the essence much more pure ; so great and greater is the disproportion of beauty betwixt this of earth and the beauty of heaven . all things therefore subject to the eye , represent to us only things subject to sence ! or more fully to explain it , visible operation ; whiles the fabrick of the body needs and requires those similar things that it cannot with conveniency live well without them . but the beauty , and majesty of invisible beings , are inspected only by intellectual converse : since the angles of god are made ministring spirits ; and the spirit of god the divine comforter that leads us spiritually into the vision of glory . and adam was the favourite god only converst with , in whom the divinity divinely shin'd , when our protoplast stood in a state of innocency ; then it was that no impure thing could approach unto him , because then in the favour , and presence of the majesty , our progenitor , in paradise was admitted to stand . for adam was constituted with a divine soul , like to the likeness of him that infus'd it ; which was the likeness of god himself , whose glorious aspect shin'd then on the creature ; otherwise the creatures had never contributed so great humility , and veneration to adam ; when flocking about him as some sacred thing , whereby to honour and give them protection : so that to what place adam was pleased to direct , his life-guard of the creatures continually went with him . but adam too remiss in this great concern , becomes negligent and careless to examine his affair , notwithstanding emulation follows at the heels of prosperity ; for can favourites be without the peoples frowns , tho' under the umbrage of their princes smiles ? no surely , the hierarchy of relapsed angels had an ambitious emulation against his present state ; that if not counterploted by the wisdome of his maker , they 'l conspire his ruine , and perpetual overthrow . for revenge against the will of god carries a kind of sweetness with it ( solamen miseris ) and thus sorrows seem to extenuate sorrow , when others as our selves are in a suffering state . it is true that adam was adorned with more inward lustre than the outward beauty of the whole creation . for in his temple the bodily fabrick , the holy of holies inhabited therein . for it is the residence of the divinest himself , in whom alone dwells the beauty of holiness . let us stand in this station , we shall see our salvation : for he that made us , knows how to deliver us . then shall we find a holy guide to direct us the tracts to the paradice of god. the soul therefore whiles yet in the body , represents a candle conceal'd in a lanthorn ; or a glance of fire in a manner stifled , when because wanting the benefit of air. who in extremity strugles with her elemental chains , yet spans the world with a single thought ; and enjoys that inwardly she 's dismist of outwardly : that in a moment flies to the uttermost parts of the earth , and what ever is absent she at once makes present ; and dead things by imagination she restores to life : nothing can conceal or hide any thing from her , who in an instant surmounts the stars . thus adam by his maker was made a monarch , and one of the creators holy senators ; who read lectures in the heavens , the almighties common-place-book ; and conducted the creatures created in the creation : to whom god gave voice , and the ornament of speech , but above all the glorious intellect of mind ; which angellical state our protoplast stood in so long as he stood in opposition to sin : which gift was ungiven to the rest of the creation ; yet none of them denied the benefit of sence , lapt up only in this thin tiffeny web of mortality ; for sin is but a bulk of emptiness , and impiety ; that like a pageant does nothing it self , but hinders others from doing good ; seducing by the lust and pleasures of the body , whiles the soul is meerly starv'd with penury . innocency was then the best guard of our ancestor , when he stood in the presence of his god in simplicity ; for the more pure that any thing is , the more sublime is that thing also . wherefore we consider adam in an angelical state , when cloathed with piety , and adorned with purity ; then he stood his ground like a heavenly champion , for god had made his earth celestial . this answers something to the doctrine of hermes , that god inhabits in the mind of man ; the mind in the soul , and the soul in the body : and that he is all things in all , both act and power ; for he is god. from the matter therefore the subtilest part is air ; of the air the soul ; of the soul mind ; of the mind god. and the soul of eternity is god himself ; but the soul of the world is eternity ; and heaven as he saith is the soul of the earth : so that nothing , nor part is deficient of soul ; nor is the soul deficient of god. thus in innocency and simplicity o● protoplast stood , in this divine posture without sensual guards , when his maker selected him a representative at the great assembly of the blessed creation ; where all the creatures were convocated together . then it was that adam like a magestrate ; and a legislator ( for such then he was ) gave forth his edicts unto all the creatures his natural subjects . the golden rule was kept then amongst them , when every one did justice by kind ; and not that the dread of punishment compell'd them . for the ray of justice was so generally distributed , that it naturally shined in every individual . the earth in those days was unburdned with tillage , nor do we read it was wounded with culture : the creatures in the creation liv'd purely by instinct ; not making their bodies sepulchres to bury dead carcasses in . there was no temple in those days to prophane ; but now we have temples , nor want we prophaners . wherefore let 's consider the glorious work of the creation , that by the hand of god was no sooner made , but by the will of man was endeavoured to be unmade . creation is not therefore generation , nor have we considered generation is life , but by way of allusion it may be called sence . nor is change death , though commonly so asserted ; but rather a forgetfulness , or obliteration of elements . generation therefore is improperly called a creation ; but rather a production of things only to sence , in time made manifest : nor is change death , but an occultation or hiding of that , that in it self seemed once to live . here methinks i see both sexes in our ancestor shine through the lustre and beauty of adam ; for male and female god created them , so that both sexes liv'd under one species ; and adam in appearance was then hermaphrodite , because having both natures and similitudes in himself . and whatever adam listed should then be done , was accomplished before the desire could grow into act : in so great subjection was every thing to him , that obedience was held more sacred than sacrifice . all the beasts in the field came to him for names , so did the fish , and the fowl of heaven ; and whatever he called them , that was their name . god gave him wisdome , and he wisely improv'd it ; till the tempter by a temptation leudly deprav'd him : so that whiles he steer'd both sexes in one bottome , his success in every thing was more than miraculous ; but to pilot the helm of two distinct vessels , and both at once in a storm under sail ; surpasses the skill and methods of navigation . and god blessed them with blessings in bidding them be fruitful ; which blessing was doubled by multiplication : this was a token of love to the creation , when god daily renewed his blessings upon the creature . for the blessing upon adam was by divine appointment transferred to succession upon adam's generation : which afterwards in time perverted through corruption , by a passive neglect in adams posterity . now as every good thing is the gift of god , and since whatever god gives is certainly good ; the fruit of paradice could be no otherwise than good , because the gift of god that gave it : and the fish in the sea , and the fowl in the air which god gave unto adam , were supreamly good . so that every thing in the creation , and created being , had the tincture and sweetness proceeding from god ; who through wisdome ordain'd it , and by providence maintains it ; the consequence therefore must needs be good . yet above all the blessings that ever god gave us , was in giving unto us himself in his son ; the glorious mystery , and revelation of god ; which gift of god was greater than the world , and was the gift of him that gave himself for the world. to all the creatures in the creation , god bid them be fruitful , and in multiplying multiply , and replenish the earth . but in adam peculiarly as in a divine garden-plot , god sowed there the seed of everlasting life ; from whence by cultivation , and the goodness of god , he might expect to reap an ever-living crop ; for the seed was the seed of eternal life , and not the effects of sin , and dead works . no brambles grew up in this heavenly vintage , whereof god himself was the vine-roon . this is the new and the holy ierusalem , wherein paul may plant , and apollo water ; yet if the sons of adam be barren sciens , how can they produce this soveraign fruit , without the heavenly dews of the son of god. adam may multiply , and replenish the earth ; yet if wanting the blessing of god his benefactor , what profits it . to be good therefore is to be like unto god , and likeness in every thing creats love ; since every thing naturally loves its like : and this love in man is the abstract of god , in as much as god is love original . whatever goodness therefore shines in man , is really a derivative from god himself . so that should we trace the dimensions of adam with the extent of his monarchy ; how large his commission runs , over the earth and the ocean ; it would be endless ; for his limitation was boundless : the fowl of heaven knew no lord but adam ; and the fish in the sea no soveraign but himself : and every created thing that had breath , and moved ; and every moving thing that breathed , and was created ; had no supream , nor superintendent but adam . for adam as a star shin'd then upon earth , and made great by him that 's all goodness , and greatness ; was blest in his posterity , and glorious nativity , or heavenly birth ; since two divine natures shin'd splendidly in him : for god had implanted both himself , and his son , to make adam beautiful , as himself is glorious : the nature of the one was to live and never die ; but the nature of the other was to die to live . this seems a paradox , i 'll therefore explain it . that power that lives and never dies , is the divinity of the majesty of god ; when the almighty before the creation divinely calculated the nativity of life ; for god said in himself , let us now make man , like unto our self ; in our similitude let us make him : which likeness or similitude was uncapable of death , consequently of diminution , or division of parts ; because the similitude of god himself ; for god breathed into adam the breath of life , and he became a living soul : who therefore so vain , precipitant , and idle as to imagine the breath of god can extinguish . time shall wear out , and gerations walk off , and death it self become an exile ; and all things terminate , and drop into decay : but the breath of god which is that illuminating light that enlightens the world , and the soul of man ; when that glorious light shall co-unite with darkness , which is altogether improbable , and utterly impossible : then shall that hidden life god breathed into adam be capable of death , and not before . so that two lives liv'd at once in our ancestor ; a created life , and a life regenerate : a created life , as from a heavenly birth ; which sprung originally from the womb of eternity ; and because made like to the likeness of his maker , it gave him victory to triumph over sin ; putting into his custody the secrets of life , and placing in his hands the keys of death : so that he knew nothing but absolute freedome ; and unprohibited the use of the whole creation , one tree only by the divinest excepted ; in which god had placed a peculiar property , fit only for himself in wisdome to know : god therefore imposed his commands upon adam , not to taste thereof , lest peradventure he die . the other life was that of regeneration , which is christ incarnate , god in the creature ; this life liv'd invisibly before the creation , and is that hidden life in christ ( manifest by the apostle ) christ in you the hope of glory . which remains a mystery to this very day , as in former ages a secret to our ancestors : which life is the power of god to salvation ; and was in the beginning with god himself : and it was god , and was made flesh , and by the will of god dwelt among men . this is that word that spake in the beginning , and moved in the patriarchs our ancestors to speak ; that liv'd immaculately in the blessed virgin , that was made flesh , and dwelt among men ; that bore our infirmities , and was crucified at ierusalem ; that in spight of death took captivity captive , and in despite of hell captivated death : and which also is that eternal word that now is , ever was , and for ever shall be to convince the world of sin , impenitency , incredulity , and ingratitude ; which monster of a sin is worse than witchcraft : and tho' a witch be superscrib'd a rebel in physicks ; yet reversing the point , a rebel is a witch in politicks . the one because acting against the law of nature ; but the other because striving against order , and government . but god gave unto adam a charter royal , that was sign'd and seal'd with those glorious characters of sun , moon , and stars ; and all the host of heaven to witness to it . this was that great and superlative grant that god gave unto adam when he placed him in paradice : and wherewith to refresh him , he gave him every herb , and of every tree that was burd'ned with fruit ; whereof he might eat , and live before him . these royal priviledges god gave unto adam , and heavens benefactor confirm'd them unto him . now adam may freely eat and live , or he may eat , and assuredly die ; for life and death stand as it were in a poiz ; and because to our protoplast seemingly mingled , they seemingly presented one single existence , as if property and quality were intirely one : 't is true one mantle overshadowed both , till god out of compassion made more visible discoveries . and as light shin'd forth by reason of purity , unmasking or unveiling the scenes of darkness , that lay hudled up in the hoil of obscurity ; light as a thing strangely surprized , seem'd suddenly to startle , because then not to know such a horrid deformity , as this we call darkness , was in the beginning co-inhabitant with it ; or conceal'd beneath it : for the light of it self was most pure and immaculate , in as much as it never entred into unity , nor into any association with obscurity or darkness . but darkness represents the solitary shadow of some elementary thing , or something substantial ; wherefore we shall want some solid substance whereby to form our darkness out of ; and what is more solid than the fixity of earth , or more copious than the bulk of the great creation ; when as yet in the hoil or confused chaos , it lay intermingled , and blended together . light must necessarily therefore appear a most glorious creature , which by divine act operated in the separation : for god no sooner said let there be light , and obedient to the command it immediatly sprung up ; which by reason of its purity , and sublime clarity , exalted it self , and fill'd all the universe ; so made visible discovery of things that lay conceal'd in the commassated mixture , or mass of elements . and this miraculous work was accomplisht for man that he might admire the excellency of his maker , and raise his speculations to such a divine pitch , that by visibles he might conclude since such ornaments of beauty and swavity hung about them , that greater excellencies , and diviner curiosities of necessity must adorn the more invisible part ; by reason what 's circumferated and made visible to us , is only the shadow of that more glorious invisibility ▪ visible only to seraphins , and cherubims ; arch-angels and angels ; together with the saints , and the sons of god. farther yet to comfirm these royal priviledges , adams prerogative seems infinitely enlarged ; for all the beasts on the earth , with the fowl of the air , and the fish in the sea , were given him for food , by a royal grant from heaven , to eat of ; but not to riot , so dishonour his creator : and every vegetable , besides the race of animals , were not only allotted him ; but given for nutrition . so that in effect the whole creation , consequently every individual production , by commission from the divinest , was given him for sustentation . and so great a favourite was adam in paradise , and such great kindness had his creator for him , that he made him lord over all the creation ; and every thing that was , was made serviceable to him ; nay in such veneration he stood with the creatures , that all the creation doubled their obedience . here i fancy the innocent lamb ( because then not knowing the terrours of death ) proffered his throat to the shrines of the altar ; and the fatted calf was so far from fear , that he dreaded not the formidable stroke of separation : the kids with the flock sported then with the wolf , and ran about the bear sometimes for diversion . thus the creatures made sport and pastime with danger , as if death and destruction were sanctuary to them ; so naturally was innocency implanted in eden ( or the suburbs of heaven ) that nothing knew its enemy , because no enemy to know . unity and harmony were inseparable companions ; and every individual knew no argument but love ; whose law was alike forcible to others , as the law of harmony was united in it self . the mallard in those days soar'd with the falcon , and the timerous hare lay down with the hound : the leopard , and the tigre sported with the herds ; and the herren with the shad swam without dread of the porpus : the dove and the lark took flight with the tassel , nor was any thing of emulation known then in the creation : innocency shin'd naturally in every thing , and its excellency in the beginning knew no limitation : for nothing could sorrow , nor any thing grieve ; in as much as there was no real cause of suffering : nor could any thing languish , nor be sensible of smart ; because as hitherto pain was uncreated . fear was a thing altogether unexperimented , and death and the grave such eminent strangers , as never to be apprehended . what a pure state the creation then stood in , worthy our contemplation , and the admiration of all men. but adam too niggardly he consults the elements ; and elements because having periods of their own ( by praedestinated ordination ) are lockt up in death . adam therefore mixing simplicity with impurity , which of it self stood in the limit of disobedience , cojoyned himself with finite adherences , so drew down upon himself the shortness of life , and on the succeeding generations the issues of death ; which in time diminished , so by degrees extinguished the beauteous and luminous ray of life , that shined gloriously within him , and was sanctuary without him ; and would ever have gloriously shined in his posterity , had not ●e remisly by one single consent , complyed with his consort so vainly to extinguish it . now when god had made a survey of the creation , the workmanship of his hands , and divinely blessed it ; he placed therein the likeness of himself , the single identity of his divine goodness ; which could not go forth , because the everlasting arms of the majesty of god so sacredly limited , and so sweetly confined it ; that in this divine , and cristalline coagulum , the majesty of heaven beheld himself : who viewing the several classes of the creatures , which by wisdome he divinely had foreseen in the idea ; it so greatly renewed the ardency of his love , which continued and augmented the blessing upon them : for love has that singularity to shine in it self , and in its operation always to renovate . thus god so loved the world he had made , that he gave us himself in giving us his son ; that whosoever believed and persevered in him , should never die , but have life everlasting . thus god made the world to protrude , and vegetate ; and because it should conceive , and daily bring forth ; he placed an appetite , and an immortal soul therein ; and fill'd it as hermes says , with divine imagination ; so that the sun , and celestials fell in love with the harmony ; and because it was beautiful , they married with it : and this great solemnity was celebrated at first , when god laid his ordinance of multiplication upon it . which divine institution has been punctually observed , and kept inviolable ever since the beginning ; and will undoubtedly so long remain , and so long continue , till generation and time shall be no more . and now the deeps began to break up , when the rivers and rivulets with murmuring streams silently invaded the florid plains . the mountains , and the hills also look'd big with flocks , whiles the valleys and savannas , with the fragrant meadows were abundantly crowded with herds of cattle . all the birds in the air now turn'd serenades ; and every flower , and flourishing blossom perfum'd the air with delicious aroma's . the lofty cedar then lifted up his head , and the martial - oak , and the ash stood by him ; so did the poplar , and the spreading elme ; but the trembling asp shak'd his palsie head. the vine in those days embraced the olive , and the eglantine intangled himself with the rose . thus every thing whilst naturally inamoured with its like , the woodbine or hony succle tied knots about the hedges . the bee return'd home with loaden thighs , and the flocks of sheep laid down their fleece . the oestridge deplum'd his feathery crest , and the stork retaliated kindness with gratitude . the horse in those days spurn'd not at this rider , nor did the lion know the tyranny of invasion . alegators in the beginning were not devourers ; no● were there known any birds of prey . the vulture , and the tigre liv'd not then upon vermine , for morts were altogether unknown ; nor was any thing infectious that might nautiate the elements : every thing god had made stood in the beauty of harmony : and whatever was made , and by wisdome created ; that thing beyond dispute was most certainly good . adam was invited to this great solemnity , which was then of it self but one single family : nor had he any compeer , nor was there any to controul him except the divinest , that great oracle of heaven that breath'd life into him . and every act that adam made , was registred by the creatures in this blessed creation ; and most sacredly and inviolably kept in paradice , till sin , and impiety spoil'd his principallity : and then it was this great parliament broke up , and the members discontented began to withdraw ; so by degrees refused his protection : and adam considering himself neglected , and uncapable any longer to maintain his prerogative ; folicits new favourites , but they forsook him , or rahter adam forsook himself , but did not know it ; for sin had so strangely disfigured and disguised him , that none of his subjects could remember to know him , or think , or believe him their natural prince ; suspecting him rather some forreign invader , previously insinuated to divest them of community ; and supplant them of those supernatant priviledges , granted them in the beginning from their soveraign donor . so that the creatures at once desert him , and not him only , but his government also ; which look'd but little now , when formerly so great , that all the creatures in the creation paid servillity unto him . thus adam amaz'd to find himself forsaken , makes a league with the elements to reinforce his authority ; but they when examin'd could not cement the breach , nor in whole nor in part re-establish , enthrone , and eternize his grandure ; because having ends , and periods of their own : he therefore complies to walk the shades of death ; and deaths frigid zone , and cold icy touch no sooner approaches , but invades the elements , so lets the compound crumble into dust ; which is the ultimate period of all elementary mixts that ever was , that at present is , or ever shall be in the progress of time . thus the heaven and the earth were finished , and all the host of them ; and on the seventh day god ended his work , the work which he had made ; and rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made ; and blessed , and sanctified it . so that now the great work of the great creator , was by the word fiat determined , and finished ; when the beauteous earth most sumptuously adorned with celestial ornaments , like the queen of honour came splendidly forth with virgin purity to celebrate her espousals ; whose bride-maids were nature , and the celestial incholists : but the spectators , and relations were the various sorts of animals ; together with the multiform generation of individuals , that with general applause , and unanimous consent , gave an approbation suitable to the present occasion . here might be seen all the beasts in the forrest , hand in hand as it were coupled together ( if not improper to say so ) and ranging themselves into an excellent order , came forth to illustrate this great solemnity . and here also all the fish that swam in the ocean , embodied themselves as if they were but one fin ; and with the fowl of the air , so exactly moved ; and with such a reserv'dness so equal was their order ; as if all of them had but one single wing to accilerate , and celeritate their admirable motion . in this excellent posture all the creation stood , when attending the approach of this admirable union . at length the sun appears , her amiable beloved ; who came cloathed with lustre , and excessive beauty ; and all the host of heaven his illustrious convoy : whose harmony was the spheres ; and every thing that had life exirted it self to move by measure ; as if all the creation by gradual motion , with a reserv'd gravity mov'd the orbs at once . thus the creation was compleatly finished ; and heaven and earth became husband and wife ; and god himself divinely blessing them , bid them go forth , encrease and multiply . and on the seventh day when god had ended his work ; he constituted a sabbaoth , or a day of rest , exempt from labour , and other servilities : but upon the elements were no such imposition , nor were they under any breach of command , as legibly construed by this divine injunction . read rabbi moses in sacred writ , and you 'l find it extends to man , and beast only ; if when to consider the minority of time , with the earths inhabitants that knew no servility ; but agriculture , and grazing . wherefore to look back on the nativity of affairs , you 'l meet cain , and abel intrencht in this toil ; when as the residue of the creation knew no limitation : but stood intirely as hitherto unconcern'd ; as if all days were but one day , or the almigty's great holy-day ; wherein every creature , nay all the creation with humility rejoyced , and with elevated praises exprest their thankfulness to the great creator . it was then by proclamation , and a royal command from heaven , that man and beast only should rest from labour . for did not the sun continue his course , and all the stars move in their proper station . did not the orbs , the elements , and the heavens turn round with a rapid motion then as now ; and were they not then , as they now are in a perpetual , and circular rotation . did the tides seem to stop their natural flux , or the sullen waves lay down their brinish heads . had the fountains no issue , did the winds cease to hover in the ambient air , and grow remiss in transporting embodied clouds . did the pulse of the great world neglect to beat , sea-monsters to roar , hurecanes to invade , earth , hail , and rain , thunder and lightning , did they associate together , and proclame a sabbaoth , or a universal cessation . none of these things we read of hapned since the creation ; and what 's the reason ? god in his wisdom governs the creation , but unreasonable man was to pilot the creature . we therefore consider that this most sacred ordinance relates more peculiarly to man , and beast ▪ and that the residue of the creatures in this stupendious creation stand intirely exempted , and acquitted from it . and god blessed the seventh day as a day of sanctity , who through wisdome and providence divinely hallowed it ; which to consider , is a manifest proof to confirm the excellency of a sabbaoth unto us . for god by ordination appointed six days for labour ; but the seventh he set apart for man and beast to rest in . the mind and the body therefore seem under different exercises , by which i conclude ought to have different entertainments ; the last if we consider solicites temporals , but the first if well observed she contemplates eternals : where note the one relates to our present state , but the other if i mistake not to our future felicity : wherever therefore the treasure is , the desire of the soul will also be there . but heaven contents it self with a small allowance : is one day in seven such a great exaction ? what a slender service is required of us mortals for so great kindness from so good a god ; how shall , or dare we detract from our selves , whereby to violate the commands of him that so sweetly by his wisdome puts a divine force upon us : and because unwilling to do our selves good , the divinest is pleased to do good unto us . it 's true at the best we are but formal penitents , that slash our own sides to raise a pity in others ; so wounding our selves make the spectators cry . o where 's the vision of piety , and the mediums of charity ; when to run and embrace a veneal polution , as if so sweet and luscious were the sence of sin , that we 'l choose to die , rather than live without it : so sacrifice our selves to the fury of flames , fancying thereby we burn the world , when as indeed , we but scorch our selves in the fiery trial of a self-will devotion . and god rested from his work of finishing the creation , which he made , and adorn'd for the good of the creature ; which points out to us the alpha and omega , the beginnings of time , and the end of the creature . for when to say the creator rested , it implies that nature began then to opeperate ; after the divinest had put bounds and periods to every creature , and created being . to the stars , and constellations ; so to elements , and principles ; the sea exceeds not her natural course , nor does her swelling flux prevail . nor the luminous sun tho' incircling the heaven with a rapid motion , what does he more than illustrate , vegetate , and illuminate the universe : and the stars which by wisdome he made to shine , what do they but inspire , and influence the earth ? and did not he also impregnate the air , with the conceal'd treasures of rain , and hail ? whereby the earth as the air is fill'd with life , consequently the ocean , as the earth with vegetation . what can i say more ? nor indeed offer less ; where-ever therefore god is said to be , of necessity heaven must also be there : and the apostle tells us , god is all in all , and the fulness of all dwells abundantly in him ; to whom for ever be everlasting praises . amen . finis .